Today on Thursday 23 I'm making the last preparations for my graduation day. I spent two years programming here in Sweden and this subject is the very last I ever expected myself to choose. I'm seriously not good at anything that involves math or logic thinking. If I knew these two years would involve so much work I would've never signed up, but that is one of my mistakes I won't regret The cherry on top of this is that I will move back to the Åland Islands, this requires a stupid amount of time and work as well. I'll move there on Sunday 26 by car and ferry!

For those of you who watch me and enjoy my art I'll continue to submit deviations next week. I would love to get things done faster but I simply can't, school and moving away from my apartment is something I have to get done. Next week will also be cluttered by celebrations regarding my sister's graduation but I'll manage. So while I'm putting my furniture and technology in boxes, stay artsy!

Is it just me or do everything I submit have their thumbnails screwed up by DA? I also noticed that editing previously submitted deviations cause them to loose their thumbnails if I hit the "update" button. This is rather silly... I hope we get our thumnails back or we all end up reuploading, as well as loosing the stats.

EDIT As soon as I submitted this blog entry I'm now able to see some thumbnails again. What's going on here? >:[

After that I don't have to study and be poor anymore. Time to get a job or something after 14 years of studies. And sign up for another neck operation because cutting tendons take time. This last month is going to be a hell of programming, which I hate dearly. I hope there's time for being artsy...

I recently noticed that my profile page looks rather dull and many add-ons have been removed. This was caused by a database accident at DeviantArt which made people loose their premium status. I hope they fix that soon... Besides that I'm going to visit my family tomorrow and stay there an entire week. I haven't seen them in months.

Not much else to say, going to throw some stuff in my bag and prepare for tomorrow's shitty 12 hour trip which includes trains, busses, ferries and what not that gives you a giantic headache and disorientetion.

EDIT: Seems like they fixed the premium member status.

Some of you may remember one of my recent journals about the game Warfame. The beta has been closed for months and obtaining a key wasn't too easy. Luckily they're arranging an "Open Beta Weekend" on February 15 - 19. And the best part, YOU STAY within the game after that. That's right, you're not restricted to play on weekends only. By trying Warframe this weekend you will be able to continue playing the beta as much as you want. I love every aspect about this game so far, why haven't people thought about this before?

Link to Warframe Open Beta Weekend
Link to Warframe FAQ
Link to Warframe YouTube channel
Llink to my previous Warframe journal entry



Become a sci-fi space ninja slashing humans while doing barrel rolls! (seriously you can do that in-game)

I usually don't give a damn about featuring single deviations but this deviant created the perfect word for an extremely common problem among today's artists, namely HORSEFACE. Oh and get rid of that same-face-syndrome while you're at it.

All of you, make use of this wonderful deviation.

For those of you who like to play futuristic games for free I would like to recommend Firefall and Warframe.

Both games are built in different ways. Firefall focuses on huge Open World PvE, resource gathering and some crafting. PvP exists but takes place on small maps, it's like a team deathmatch. Warframe on the other hand takes the PvE to small and fast paced maps. You travel between worlds simply by using a menu, I sometimes enjoy doing this rather than jetpack 3km over a jungle landscape to reach my team in Firefall Both games are in beta-state and it's not a walk in the park to get your hands on a key... Also, don't get your hopes up if you're the owner of a crappy laptop. These games chew a lot of hardware power as it looks right now.

Obtain a Firefall Beta key:
The best way to get a beta key for Firefall is to sign up and stay active within the forums (they count activity and give invites). You can also beg your friends to give a key (if they have any). The Firefall devs also arrange Beta weekends which means everyone are welcome to join during the weekend. This idea works as a server stresstest and let new people join as well. If you wish to get an instant beta key as well as extra game content, and support the makers of Firefall, you can buy different variants of the "founder package".

Obtain a Warframe Beta key:
To get your hands on a Warframe key you need to keep your eyes open. The official Warframe website usually throw away a few thousand invites on random occasions. If you can't wait you can buy founder packages just like Firefall. The last resort to get a beta key is to ask people who bought one of the more expensive founder packages, they have extra beta invites to give away.

Just wanted to spread the word, I really love both of them <3

I'm spending my christmas holidays at my parents somewhere in Finland. I frankly don't care about the religious stuff behind this tradition, the majority celebrate it only because it somehow got stuck... Just like Easter, Halloween, Midsummer etc. Anyway, I'll enjoy eating some tasty food and spend these days with my family. A break from school and work is always good. So God Jul everyone, like we say in Sweden.

As the founder of the Castle Series group I recently set up an art competition for all members of the group. If you feel artistic, like the Castle Series and would like a premium membership then give it a shot

Click here to read more!


EDIT: Competition is over! You can find the result here: [link]

I went to Stockholm last week and picked up my Intuos 5. I've been using an old "Wacom Wireless Pen Tablet" for about 4 years and it has certainly seen better days... Feels good to have a new tablet, before I was like: hey ho let's draw with a piece of soap on the bathroom floor! That tablet was the king of slipperity, is that even a word?

Intuos 5 works perfectly fine with GIMP and Paint Tool SAI which are my favourite software. So go for it if you're looking for a new tablet, Bamboo Pen/Fun works pretty good as well.

It appears that Deviantart offered a 24-month premium membership for 50% of the normal price. So I gave the deal a chance, I had PayPal anyway. I've been leeching their bandwidth and server space for years so I may as well give something back ahe I'll keep my eyes open for any potential christmas deals as well, was thinking of applying a super group deal on "Castle Series" but 50 € is a little overkill for my poor student economy...

Well off to play around with CSS then.

I've been stuck with the same desktop since 2008 and it's definitely time for an upgrade (ALTHOUGH I CANNO'T AFFORD AN UPGRADE :3 ) I do have a lappy but that poor bastard has no graphics card, making it useless for a gamer. But it does come in handy for running heavy applications. Anyway, to the point -

• This is what I have in mind:
• OS: Windows 7 64-bit
• Case: Fractal Design Define R4 (black, no window)
• Mobo: Asus P8Z77-V
• SSD: Samsung Basic 830-Series (SATA 6,0 Gbit/s 256GB)
• HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black (SATA 6,0 Gbit/s 7200rpm 500GB)
• CPU: Intel Core i5 3570K 3,4Ghz (quad core Ivy Bridge)
• CPU cooler: Scytche Samurai ZZ Rev.B
• GPU: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 2GB VRAM OC
• RAM: Corsair Vengance CL9 Low Profile (16GB 1600Mhz)
• PSU: Fractal Design Newton R2 (800W 80+ modular)
• And loads of 140mm 3-pin fans and some extra adapters for that.

The purpose of my new computer will be mostly gaming but some heavy digital artwork/movie editing as well.

For those of you who wonder why I submit art at such slow speeds you may want to take a look at my Scrapbook folder That's usually where my unfinished and "work in progress" art end up. You can watch scraps just like normal deviations by managing your friends in the top right corner. Here's some stuff I put together recently:

Ice dragon: [link]
Armour colour test: [link]

My last journal entry was about neck tendon surgery, which was quite painfull. It's been more than two months and I feel like a normal human being again. Neck movememnts are close to normal and my head is no longer slanting to the right side. Can't believe I lived with that for more than 20 years... I'll see my doctor on monday and update this journal :]

On a side note, I used that TF2 ubersaw avatar for 3 years or something. I decided it was time for a change, have this cursed feline! [link]

EDIT So my doctor said everything's looking fine. Still need to do gymnastics to strenghten my neck muscles but that's not a problem

Just making this little journal to inform you about my surgery tomorrow (tuesday). I may be lucky and return the same day, or things go to hell and I stay there for days. My neck has been screwed up since birth so I need to get some tendons cut. See you whenever I get back.

Thursday EDIT I'm back after three days of suffering, the good kind of suffering, I think... They had to flood my bloodstream with pain-killing liquids in order to make me sleep. The surgery itself was done over just 1 hour but the consequences for me have been very painfull so far. I fail to list all drugs they've given me and my arms have plenty of shiny red holes after numerous needles and drip. I spent three days at the hospital and I'm happy to be back home, altough the most basic every-day tasks are killing my neck. I also have this awesome plastic thingy stuck around my neck to prevent my head from slanting : D

6 more weeks to go...

Your computer is packed with sensors of all kinds but how many of you have actually seen the information they deliver? Today's operative systems (e.g Windows, Mac, Linux) fail to display hardware data in proper ways, causing the majority of you to be completely unaware of what's going on inside that shell. I recently stumbled across simple but incredibly useful software that monitors vital parts of your system. The hard drive (HDD), processor (CPU) and graphics card (GPU). ^{(I'm not going into details when it comes to motherboards, cooling devices and optic devices.)}

• Real Temp (CPU)
  This program keeps an eye on your Intel processor's temperature. Launch a game or use heavy software and you'll notice how the numbers keep changing. Real Temp displays the temperature for each core, so if you have an Intel Dual Core you'll see two columns with information. Intel Quad core gives you four columns and so on...


• Crystal Disk Info (HDD)
  Hard drives don't last forever just like any hardware, but if your HDD (or SSD) is about to fail you need to know when it's going to happen! All your files are stored there and you want to save them. Thankfully this doesn't happen too often and Crystal Disk Info can be used for other purposes than detecting hard drive failures. Crystal Disk displays a lot of useful info about your HDD just like Real Temp.


• GPU-Z (GPU)
  Gamer's best friend. GPU-Z detects all information about your graphics card and displays real time data. GPUs are known for generating crazy amounts of heat and that's something we want to prevent. With GPU-Z you can keep track on temperatures, voltage and many other stats.
  
  NOTE for laptop users: Your computer may not have a GPU and runs all grahics on the CPU instead. Launch windows dxdiag if you don't know what hardware you're using.

I personally use the above mentioned software and many other. I love to keep a watching eye on the computers I put together and more people should do this. Don't want to end up the same way as your technical grandparents!

For those of you who didn't notice, there's a new version of GIMP on www.gimp.org. GIMP 2.8 has new features and better stability than previous versions. On the bad side, I just finished a huge GIMP 2.6 tutorial and realised there was new software available... Damn.

Besides that I got my old gaming computer running again. It's pretty old, from 2008 or something, so it won't run the newest games on high settings but it's faaar better than the shitty laptop I was stuck with. It has taken me 2 days to clean all hardware, put them back together, reinstall windows 7 64-bit and all find drivers. I'm satisfied with the result and will be able to draw bigger artwork thanks to a decent CPU and RAM.

I received a letter from the local hospital last week, I will undergo surgery in June. The reason behind this is my slightly deformed neck tendon. This deformity is called torticollis and caused my right neck tendon to grow shorter and thicker than my left (normal) tendon. The doctors back in the early 90's decided to make some cuts to increase the length of my tendon when I was a baby, this worked but it wasn't enough.

You can barely notice my slanting head but the constant neck pain is quite annoying, so I better get this fixed before I get too old I guess. Oh and some bonus content for you, my doctor looks exactly like Josh Brolin from Planet Terror: [link] How awesome ain't that?

Hey all!

This newly created group is based on the animated Castle Series by Oscar Johansson. You can watch the series on DeletionQuality.net It's tricky to explain the entire story and show the smooth animations so I strongly recommend you to take a look

Lovely music
Amazing maps
Great computer specs
Special Effects
and Minecraft

This what you get: [link]