HEJA CHARLOTTE PERRELLI!!!!

Huge day! Huge week! Tonight is finally Eurovision! And I’m more excited this year than ever before. Probably because I watched Melodifestivalen all the way through, which I posted about 2 months ago. And also because it’s going to be quite a competition this year! And for the first time Since I’ve lived here, Sweden’s entry is AWESOME!

This week has been Eurovision week. The rules were changed a bit this year, and I think it worked out for the best. It used to be that, in addition to the 4 countries who are automatically allowed to participate (because they sponsor most of it: UK, Germany, France and Spain), the top 10 winners from the year before were in, and then there was a semi final to choose the other 10. this year only the four main countries and last year’s winning country are automatically in. Everyone else had to enter a semi final. 38 countries! And those semi finals were held on Tuesday and Thursday this week.

I was only half interested in the first semi final because Sweden was not in it, and we weren’t allowed to vote for that one. And I was so happy that Ireland’s entry never made it. I mean, come on, sending a TURKEY PUPPET to sing a song about how Eurovision sucks? Why would you insult us Eurovision fans like that? Did you actually think anyone would vote for you when you were practically flipping the bird (pun intended) to all of us? I know you were trying to be clever, but you failed. I particularly enjoyed how everyone boo-ed you afterwards.

But the second semi-final was pure EXCITEMENT! First of all, it’s obvious that the countries stepped it up this year. I think the quality of the show was way up. A lot of the Eastern European countries didn’t do their typical thing. Especially Turkey! The entered one of their biggest Rock Bands. And it was real rock! Really great!

Anyway, of course Sweden made it through to the final! People really do seem to love the Swedish entry! And so do I!

HEJA CHARLOTTE PERRELLI!!!! Video –> here.

So we’re all set for tonight! I’ve bought nachos and all sorts of dip which will go well with our Coronas and lime. I’ve made sure my mobile is charged so I can vote. I haven’t decided who I’m going to vote for yet. You’re not allowed to vote for your own country, so unfortunately I’ll only be voting for Charlotte in my heart. I really love Norway and Iceland’s entries. I like Ukraine’s entry, even though she did STEAL Charlotte’s dress. I also like Turkey’s entry, the rock band. But I’m really leaning towards the UK. Usually, they really send in awful stuff. But this year I really like their song.

In any case it’s going to be a tough competition! I’m just so excited! I’m going to be so sad when it’s over! But hopefully Charlotte will win, Eurovision will come to Sweden next year, and I’ll definitely go to that!

Btw, if this interests you at all, and you’re not in Europe, you can watch the show live here.

This weekend I was more bored than I think I’ve ever been. The result of trying to repair a damaged savings account (due to unexpected expenses the past few months), and terrible weather. I spent the entire weekend climbing the walls. Other than my illo friday submission, I was completely unproductive. Ecen my hubby got out of the house both days to do things and be with people, while I stayed in like some sort of hermit. Oh yeah, I cleaned out some drawers. Yay. But as a last resort to not feel completely and utterly worthless, I created the above illo. But, apparently, not even swirls and stars can get me out of this funk.

So, after years since the last time I made them, I FINALLY opened up my that dusty old PSD file and created my “Smiley Blobs” in an additional 4 colors. If you don’t know what smiley blobs are then I’ll give you a little preview…

They are my own smileys that I created a few years back. And I wanted to do something a little different so you can see that they are more “blobs” than spherical. I originally created them in 4 colors. I always meant to make more colors, and green was next on my list. But I never got around to it. So what was it that lit the fire under my butt? Cindy wanted to use them, but she wanted them in green. She had actually already recolored them herself. But once she found out where they were from, she immediately emailed me and asked if it was OK. Normally I would not allow this, but she did everything as right as she could, and she is crediting me as I wish. So for her (and ONLY for her!) it was OK.

But it got me to thinking maybe I should get to providing a few more colors. So now they are available in:

If you want to use them on your site, you can find them on my freebies page.

On a completey different note…

Last night was Valborg. And as is tradition. It rained. It’s been sunny and warm and dry for weeks! And today it is sunny and warm and dry. But, as it has been every year since I moved here, it has rained on Valborg. So we went down across the water from city hall to see the same bonfire we always do, but we didn’t stay longer than 5 minutes. it was just TOO rainy. And everyone had umbrellas and made it difficult to see. So after shooting a quick faraway pic, we headed off to a nearby pub and stayed warm and dry drinking beer and eating nachos. Perfect way to spend the evening I think!

Just for kicks I decided to make another illo like the one in the below post, but an “after the storm” version…

While I do love the thunder, the a rainbow finale is always what I hope for most…

Sidenote: I’m just noticing that there is a bit of oddness in the archives - the link going back to the main blog page is hiding far down the sidebar. And also, some text colors I’ve found in some pages from the old layout. I’ll be fixing those during my long weekend this coming weekend

This is hands down my favorite time of year. About a week and a half ago the weather just changed. We were having snow for nearly two weeks and suddenly, as if someone snapped their fingers, spring came. The sweet smells of flowers started to fill the air, and soon enough I was arriving home after work stripping off layers as fast as possible and running around opening all the windows to let the fresh air in. Suddenly, being outside is pure pleasure and going to the gym doesn’t seem like such a hassle anymore.

I feel like I can breathe again.

Of course, the true sign of the season came yesterday while I was making dinner for my friends Heather and Måns who were on their way. I stood in the kitchen with the window open, singing along to Aerosmith while carefully laying lasagna noodles when I heard a distant yet prominent rolling thunder. I looked out and saw the ominous clouds I have been waiting for. For a moment I dropped everything while I was doing while my heart swelled with happiness and I ran around the apartment announcing that the seasons’ first thunderstorm had arrived. While that was the only thunder I heard for the rest of the evening, and we only had a few quick showers, it was lovely all the same. I do miss those window-shaking boomers we had in NJ, but I make do with what I can here. And I know that more are coming my way. Even if they are weak.

This coming week I have a 3-day week. WOO! Wednesday is Valborgsafton, where we all go to giant bonfires and celebrate the official coming of spring. Thursday is May 1st which is a holiday, and then Friday is a “squeeze day.” No holiday, but since I had Thursday off I might as well have Friday too! Sweden rocks…

So last week, Wednesday the 19th, my laptop flatlined. I didn’t see it coming. I’ve only had it for a year and a half. My husband still has my old laptop which is almost 4 years old, and it’s doing great. But not mine. Maybe I abused it. Maybe it couldn’t take the constant work. The drawing, simming, drawing, chatting, drawing, drawing drawing. Maybe it was all too much. Whatever it was, it checked out on Wednesday night never to revive again.

After much research, all signs pointed to a motherboard issue. Fortunately, I was able to remove the hard drive and back up everything since the hard drive was unscathed. But when I took it in for repairs 5 days later (because, as is decreed by Murphy’s Law, this all happened right before Easter vacation. ) I was told it would have to be sent to the manufacturer. And that could take weeks, at minimum. Ha. Not a chance. I’d already been without a computer for almost a week and I was starting to hallucinate and snap at anything within a 10 foot radius. There was no way I was going to wait that long to see if something could be fixed.

So the decision was made. I’d have to buy a new computer. And after a few days of research, a lot of advice and a crap-load of assvice*, I came to the conclusion that all was lost and I will never have a computer as fantastic as my Lappy ever again. Thing was that I wanted XP again. And you can’t get it anywhere on a computer now because it’s all blood-sucking Vista. So I settled for that I would buy one of these Vista machines and buy XP later if I found it absolutely necessary. Also? For some reason it seemed like every graphic card on these machines weren’t good enough for Sims 2 either (unless I was willing to shell out a lot of krona. Which I sure as hell was not.)

But then I found it. The dream machine. A machine that had BOTH Vista and XP on it, allowing me to downgrade or upgrade with ease. And cheap too, so I could buy an awesome graphic card and any other component I needed and put it all in myself (because I had decided to enter back into the world of desktops). So after a few days of assembling and setting up, here I am.** Back on track and with a monster computer that has everything I need and then some.

Oh yeah, and I did give Vista a shot. Really, I did. But after issue after issue of Vista not recognizing a simple little wireless card, I whipped out that downgrade disk and settled comfortably back into XP-land. A place I trust and love. Vista, you may be all looks, but XP is all substance. And let’s face it, basing something only on looks are only good for a short while before you just get bored.

*assvice is unwanted, useless and annoying advice.

** While I may make myself sound like I put this thing together, none of that is true. I refuse to actually go inside a computer and touch anything, because I’m convinced that the simple brush of my finger will send everything straight to hell. So I let my computer-minded hubby do all that mechanical stuff.

Of Song Contests…
So! Tonight is Melodifestivalen! For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, which is most of you, I’ll try to explain it as simply as possible.

For over 50 years the countries of Europe (started with some. now it’s most countries) have taken part in a song contest called the Eurovision Song Contest. Each country sends an artist or group of theirs to sing a song. It’s a big show that happens every year in May. People watch and vote for who they want to win (can’t vote for own country). The winning country gets to host the following year’s events. Lather Rinse Repeat.

Some countries see it all as a big joke. Some countries take it very seriously. Sweden is one of these countries. In order to choose who is going to represtn Sweden, we have Melodifestivalen, the contest to choose who will win. Melodifestivalen goes on for 6 Saturdays in Feb and March. Four weeks are spent choosing who will go to the final, and who will go to a “second chance” semi-final. The 5th week is the semi final. The sixth week is the final. And that final is TONIGHT. And it’s a huge thing!

Now, I enjoy Melodifestival and Eurovision because they are fun to watch. The music is mostly based on a style called “schlager.” It’s not really anything anyone living outside of Europe could imagine. But it’s just exciting to watch and I’m a HUGE Melodifestivalen/Eurovision fanatic.

Tonight I will be voting for who I want to represent Sweden. I’m voting for two out of the 10 finalists. BWO, who’ve I’ve drawn in the illustration above. From left to right, Marina Schiptjenko, Martin Rolinski, and Alexander Bard who’s holding a laptop (electro pop stuff). I’m also voting for Charlotte Perrelli. I really like both songs and wouldn’t mind if either won. But I’m leaning more towards BWO (video here) even though I think Perrelli (video here) will win. And then maybe, for once, I could be proud of what Sweden sends to Eurovision!

The only thing that sucks is that when tonight is over, it’s still 2 months until Eurovision. GAH!

UPDATE - This is a spoiler, Leslie: Charlotte Perrelli won!!! SHE WON!!!!! HURRAH! I really wanted BWO to win, but she was my 2nd choice! I REALLY hope Sweden will qualify for Eurovision now! We must! The song is GOOD!

Of Web Habits…

I’ve been reworking my web habits lately. When I started my comic, which is going really well I might add, I decided I needed to rethink my web-related hobbies and get my priorities straight. A lot of the things I was doing weren’t making me happy any more. And my web stuff is my hobby, and hobbies should make people happy. So I shut down a lot of my websites and basically only have this one left. I also stepped back from the web design. It’s a big part of me and it’s something I’ve worked for so many years on, but working with it at the school just burned me out. I need to shake all that off and start fresh, but not without taking a break.

So, the comic is going great and it makes me really happy. Really happy. Because of this, I’ve really decided to put as much energy as possible into it. Closing all my websites helped. Now I’m reanalyzing how I “waste my time” on the web. I use Facebook and am pretty into it. But I’m now allowing it to be my only time waster online. I’ve left some community sites and forums that do me absolutely no good. Today I left a big one which has been a bit of a crutch for me since moving to Sweden. It’s a bit sad to leave it but freeing at the same time.

So illoluv has become my main focus. And I’m excited about it. My comic is taking up a lot of my creativity, and I end up drawing only for that. I need to draw other things. But that’s the purpose of this blog. To illustrate every post in some way. Whether it be for Illustration Friday, or just to illustrate what I write.

It’s a new “me” on the web and I feel really good about it. Because if I don’t make myself be productive in some way often, I start to feel like a big ‘ole NOTHING.