Did you notice how subtly I twined in that I have, since last written confessional, gotten a job? A real job. A job which pays my bills, and more! It’s pretty amazing. I started a few weeks ago and, let me tell you, it’s fucking awesome. Sure, mornings are pretty much bollocks. But the amount of lack of suck in getting a salary more than makes up for the unnatural sleep cycles. It also helps to have very relaxed sliding hours, as long as I try to be present between 10 AM and 3 PM…ish. Yeah. No doubt I will eventually get sick of being in the rat race but, for now, I’m enjoying the hell out of it.

Shall I tell you about my job? I’m a game artist at RAY, which is an acronym for something which translates to Slot Machine Association. Slot machines are slowly becoming a thing of the past, although we still design for the mechanical machines, too – the really interesting part is getting to make new games for the touch-screen machines. So far, the collection is pretty much around the traditional multiliners and card games and such, but I have great hopes for getting to work on something new at some point. The job itself is lovely – I pretty much get to draw and (3D-)model all day. Lately, I’ve been sketching ideas on a couple of different themes for a mechanical game, while finishing up a transition of an existing poker-game from one screen to a double screen version.

I’m working among a complete assortment of nerds, which means I’m feeling kind of at home. It means most people are shy, socially awkward and smell funny; people tend to congregate around video games in the afternoons, and pretty much speak the same lingo (mumble). Happily, I have some ex-classmates among my colleagues, and there are two of us mythical girl-creatures here. The atmosphere is very relaxed. I like it!

Lots of other things have been happening as well, but I might need topics for later. Meanwhile, if you happen to be in Finland, and if you have a chance to go to Lappeenranta, there’s a tiny exhibition by someone you might know:

It looks like I’m getting extended display time, so even if you can’t make it before March 3rd, it might be worth it to check in anyway.

In any other case, here’s an Oddunout pin-up:

In Finland, we get punished by pea soup and sledding on Sledding Tuesday.

Also, here’s a short animation:

That’s right. I’m supposed to work on my thesis, graduate, get a job and find a new flat, and I want to write a novel. Like, right now. My therapist has some very interesting, if unsurprising, things to say about this. Sooooooo anyway, I kind of wanted to do this thing for several years now — pretty much ever since I first heard about it. I thought it was crazy – a whole book in just thirty days? I like crazy! A friend of mine on Facebook mentioned NaNoWriMo sometime in October (I’d probably have missed it otherwise. So if I don’t graduate, it’s all your fault, Weiying!) at around the same time I was snooping around my old “stories” folder. I found a piece of text (two pieces, really, but that’s beside the point) which 1) was actually pretty interesting, 2) I couldn’t remember writing and 3) have no idea where it was supposed to go, 4) using some words I didn’t even know the meaning to. I know, right?

So obviously I patched the text up a bit, set up an account at NaNoWriMo, and now I’m at almost 7000 words! I’m way behind — I should have about 23,000 — but I’ve produced about 4000 words in the past couple of days. I mean, it’s likely I won’t make the target, but it’s nice to think I might actually one day be able to write a whole story, complete with beginning, middle part and end. That would be pretty cool, right?

So, uh… thesis tomorrow, then?

PS: Mad baking experiences to be shared next! With photos! And stuff! Yay!

PS2: I just realised I already mentioned about the NaNoWriMo earlier. I guess this post is pretty pointless, huh?