Drawing diary: May

If I keep up this pace, I'll be catching up on my drawing diaries forever! I really should try to get them out more quickly. What's putting it off is that the scanning is a lot of work. But I enjoy sharing my drawings and adventures with you guys, so that's no excuse. Here is my entry for May!

I spent plenty of hours painting in May, especially when I was in Sweden with my family for two weeks. However, the month started out on a sad note.

Rav's Review of the Year 2016

A lot of bloggers have been writing about their past year and their new gaming goals and I love reading those posts! I wanted to join in the fun and do something similar, but I'm not one for gaming goals: planning how to have fun makes my hobby feel like a job. But then I read Kay's post Bye-bye, 2016 and discovered the Review of the year tag by Princess Deia (how could I have missed a blog with such a title?!). I liked it so much that I decided to do my own version! So here is my year reviewed in her nine categories. Warning: there is little gaming involved; this is mostly an off-topic personal reflection of 2016. There are plenty of geeky and nerdy elements, but you're safe from the mushrooms. Promise.

Alright, here we go.

Drawing diary: October

I'm over due for another drawing diary: November is almost over already! So let's see what I've been up to in October. In this blog post I'll be talking about hula hooping birches, my slacking health and a brief visit to lovely autumny Sweden - pictures included.

Pokémon Go's Halloween event

Although I haven't written about Pokémon Go recently (I haven't been able to write as much as I'd have liked overall), I have been catching pokémon whenever I could. I know the hype has died down a bit, but that's no reason for me to throw in the towel. Catching "wild pokémon" just doesn't get old for me. Despite my relative immobility, I have even managed to catch up to most of my friends - who became less fanatic over time - by sheer obsessing determination.

So when I heard there was going to be a Pokémon Go Halloween event, I was pretty excited... that is, until I realized I would be abroad in Sweden without mobile internet for the full duration of the event.

Drawing diary: June

In the early spring, my brother gave me his set of professional markers that he didn't use anymore. I had told him I had started drawing again and he was curious to see what I'd do with them. Frankly, I was, too. I had not used markers since I was a child and back then I hated the ugly lines they created when colouring something in. But these were professional markers, and I've seen a lot of fan artists do cool things with them.

For marker users this probably sounds stupid, but I just didn't know where to start! I'm so used to sketching things with pencil. So I went to "marker camp" (this is like boot camp, but in an Scandinavian forest, and you're only allowed to draw with markers for fun). The less cool-sounding version is: I went on holiday to Sweden and Denmark with family. So this will be a report kind of thing with drawings and pictures, and naturally I'll be fangirling about Sweden as well, because that's what I do.

Anyway, the boot camp result was way better than I'd dared to hope, so I can't wait to hear what you think!

Winter in Sweden

After the enthusiastic responses on my Autumn in Sweden post, it's time for the sequel: Winter in Sweden! It actually feels odd to be writing this, as I barely spent any time in Sweden in the winter. I returned to the Netherlands prematurely at the start of December because of my father's bad health. So it was halfway January when my brother, Conrad and I rode back to Lund to pick up our stuff and hand in the keys of out apartment. Although it wasn't exactly like a vacation (we had four days), I was happy I had to chance to say goodbye to the town one last time after having had to leave it in such a rush.

Autumn in Sweden

Now the first day of winter has passed, I feel the sudden urge to reflect upon my autumn time here in Lund, Sweden (since I'm identifying with a sage, I might as well act as zen as one). I should probably include a disclaimer here.

In this post you will be confronted by what some whisperingly refer to as Real Life. You know, what those filthy casuals in your guild talk about when they think you are not listening (while you're AFK getting another Mountain Dew). So yeah, Real Life. Breaking news: I have one!

If you are the type that gets an allergic reaction from falling leaves, groans at picturesque towns and can't stand images that do not contain polygons, this would be a good time to alt + tab back into your game.

The quest for a home: the Lund edition - part 2

Last week I wrote about my epic quest for a home in Lund, Sweden. The objective: to find a place to rent for five months; challenge mode: to find a place where Conrad can live as well. Handicaps due to the difficulty setting are "student city with huge housing shortage" and "chronic illness". Thus far I managed to acquire spot number 1 on the university's housing waiting list during a lottery and had a look at a cellar apartment in Stångby, a small town north of Lund, with positive hosts.

If I don't find a place within 14 days I'll have to get drunk and let Patrick the Policeman pick me up from the streets for a free stay at the police station. Hey, don't say I'm dramatizing things, this is serious business!

And now for the conclusion...

The quest for a home: the Lund edition - part 1

Huh, Lund? What game is that? Surprise: it's not a game (although we can pretend it is), but a real town in the physical land of Sweden (gasp). I moved there some weeks ago to study archaeology for a semester. As some people have asked what I've been up to, I thought it might be fun to report on this blog every now and then. I briefly considered making a separate blog for my Sweden adventures, but that's a lot of work and I'm pretty sure one would suffer over the other.

So if you only want to read about gaming on this blog, move on to the next post. If you're curious at my "real life exploration" adventures in Sweden, though, do read further! I apologize in advance for any obscure gaming references I might make that are probably lost on the non-gamers.