Salami

I was going through my yearbook from my last year in high school and I remembered this episode, which I thought was pretty funny.

I'd fallen on asphalt while chasing a friend (mature, I know) and gashed my knee sometime toward the end of the year. I was dating J at the time (who actually also tried to beat up the guy I was chasing after for some reason and had to be stopped) who, I eventually realized, was kind of an ass. Anyway, my knee looked a lot worse than it actually was--orange-red-yellow-brown and salami-esque. I was enjoying grossing my friends out, but prom was approaching and I guess J figured that taking a salami-knee date would be kind of uncool:

He also made some comment in passing on graduation day about how it's nice that I "won't have to study that hard anymore in university" because I was going to study art history.

All pretty funny anecdotes in retrospect, but really! It makes you question your sanity and self-esteem at the time.

Shitty day, hence double update

The last 24 hours has been pretty shitty. Hence the double updates today. (I know, it makes no sense.)

Anyway, this is the other cartoon I made for my portfolio to tie together with the other octopus drawings I made. Sorry again for the poor photo quality...but you get the idea! (And look! no stick figures this time!)

So yes. I've become well-acquainted with octopuses (octopi) in the last few weeks. Makes me kind of want to get one as a pet. Cute little baby octopus tentacles! Squeee!

Rock, Paper, Scissors

Seriously?!

Something Exciting

It was actually a sausage stand.

Bicycles are hard to draw. Blargh.

Leap

I saw a slightly crazy Asian guy in Prenzlauerberg yesterday.

Well, I thought he was just slightly eccentrically dressed until he started to leap across the zebra crossing with toilet paper in his hand. Totally made my day.

Wolkenbruch

It's hay fever season, and I'm kind of itchy and sneezy. I hope that the freak downpours this afternoon have somewhat helped whatever allergens from flying in the air, but we'll see.

Today was a long day of running errand after errand, but at least they're pretty much done now. My Mac is out for repair now, too. I can't wait to get it back. Oof.

I also got my Aufgabe theme from the UdK today. I have three weeks to create something and hand it in (along with my portfolio):

So yes. I may be slightly MIA until May 19 (although not from Bonsai!), but things should be a little bit less hectic after that (aside from practicing life and perspective drawing just in case I get called back for the exam).

But yes. Huff huff. Here we go.

Multi-tasking

Sorry for the lack of updates! My parents just got back from Japan and I was spending all of Easter Sunday with G's family, so there was a lot going on. Excuses, excuses. Anyway. I have a week off from German classes, so I should have more time for comics and updates. In theory, that is.

Anyway, G can't multi-task:

Frohe Ostern!

Park Couples

Back to proper comics.

I don't know what's happened, but we've been having really great weather in Berlin these past few weeks. I've been spending more time outside and enjoying the sun.

I've also noticed that gross-park-couples are in season as well.

To be fair, most couples in Berlin (in comparison to Paris, at least) are pretty decent in public, but there's the odd funnily-positioned one that I can't stop staring at. Does this make me prude?

Otherwise, naked children abound. Apparently this is normal in Germany.

Oh yes, and Happy Easter weekend!

Mollusk

Ach! Sorry for the lack of comics. I've been out and about today and haven't had a chance to draw/upload comics, but here's a preview of my hipstoctopus comic that I'm working on at the moment (in colour!).

The weather in Berlin has been (and apparently is going to stay) gorgeous. 20 degrees and sunny. I couldn't possibly ask for better weather anywhere else in the world. Oh man.

Buscemeyes

Comic to come this evening, but just a quick update to share with you the AWESOMEST blog out there: http://chickswithstevebuscemeyes.tumblr.com/

I got this via some friends on Facebook, and the title pretty much says it all. It's a blog full of photos of chicks with Steve Buscemi eyes photoshopped on them. I don't know about you, but something about Steve Buscemi is magical. How can you look so creepy and so endearing (and even vaguely attractive) at the same time? I watched Con Air as a kid and the only thing I can tell you about the film is that that was my first contact with Steve Buscemi. (I just wiki'd it . . . how did I NOT know that Nick Cage, John Cusack, AND John Malkovich were in it? I mean, not that that makes it a good movie or anything.) Actually, I didn't know who he was then, but I recognized his superfreaky eyes (I was slightly traumatized from his role in Con Air) immediately when I saw him in other films, and kind of became a small-time fan. Honestly, though, how could you not love him in Paris je t'aime? Creepy but endearing.

And the blog is so awesome, it even gives you a DIY Steve Buscemeye-ifyer.

Wow. Who knew I had so much to say about Steve Buscemi? Anyway, comic coming up later, maybe after the Barcelona x Madrid game.

Ach, so

Another beautiful day in Berlin! I could get used to this.

I think Japanese speakers probably already know this, but the German "Ach, so" and the Japanese "あ、そう (a, sou)" are pretty much synonymous and sound exactly the same. It really startled me during my first few weeks in Germany because I thought I was hearing Japanese everywhere.

I've had a very productive morning of drawing octopus comics. Working on some translation and transcription in the afternoon.

Hipstoctopus

Wargh! Missed an update on Sunday.

I'm not even sure why I started drawing octopuses (apparently this is the more common plural form), but I think I'm in octopus hell. Now that's all I'm drawing in order to give my portfolio some kind of a . . . theme. Something that binds the works together.

So yes. No proper comic today, but instead you get a picture of a hipstoctopus.

Le tired. A little bit of German homework, and it's bedtime.

Steve Martin

You mean Steve Martin...like, The Jerk?

Who knew he was an art connoisseur.

Fold a Crane

It's Friday! Although that doesn't really mean much to me, since I work from home...

I found this awesome toilet paper origami website some time ago, which inspired me to draw this one. This actually wasn't my idea---I read this somewhere a long time ago and thought it was brilliant.

I fear for my children.

ps. Apparently the city of Saitama makes their own cider (Japanese cider = Sprite) and they call it . . . Boncider.

Not bonsai-flavoured, though.

Saitama, you are awesome.

Takoyaki

Too many octopuses in my head. 

The Inevitable

Another (barely) morning update.

I've been an uninspired bum these days so I decided that I should upload the big coloured pencil comic that I made about two weeks ago. Yes . . . the quality is crappy, but hopefully it's legible.

Hum hum. Translation or octopus, translation or octopus?

Bonkers

The weather in Berlin today is bonkers. It's raining one moment and sunny with dramatic Baroque-y clouds the next. And the wind! It's freaking me out, so I am staying in until I absolutely need to head out to class this evening.

But yes. It's cycling season once again. I look like a dork on my little red Brompton, but it's so nice to be biking outside.

I also got a new chunk of translation work that I have to finish this week. Boy, am I rusty. I need to work on my next piece for the portfolio, too. I knew my lazy weekend was going to bite me in the ass...and that's exactly what it did. Blargh.

Monday, Monday

It never fails! I always start to get hungry just as I get into bed. Mleh.

I've got a fair bit done today, but not much art-related stuff. ARGH. I'd better get inspired quick before I head off to class so I have something to show for.

Hum Hum

I do this a lot.

It's a beautiful day out, and it's off to the flea market!

Happy Sunday!

Windshield-wiper-glasses

Happy sunny Saturday!

Monday was not so sunny. There was a crazy downpour between 6:05 and 6:15 in the afternoon, which was exactly the time frame when I was walking from Alexanderplatz to my German class, lugging my portfolio (!) and a ton of other stuff. It was as if the gods of bad timing had ganged up on me. They lured me out of the station (where I otherwise would have stayed), making me think that it was just a few droplets that I could endure on my 10 minute walk to school. And then, of course, just as I got out in the open, vulnerable, with nothing to protect myself with or overhangs to duck under, they went and dumped a bucket (a la waterpark) on me. There was nothing I could do. I could only go forward. It was raining so much that it got to the point where I could actually see better (ie. identify obstacles) without my glasses. But there was nothing to do, so I trudged on. By the time I made it to school, I was completely drenched. Absolute misery.

I came into the classroom expecting to see other victims of the downpour, only to find none. Apparently everyone had gotten in the moment it started raining. And to top it all off, the rain let up literally 2 minutes after I got into the classroom. Ah. So is life.

Anyway, bitterness aside, these are times when I wish I had wipers on my glasses. I wonder if glasses-wipers even exist. I bet some nerdlinger's already made a pair...


...Ha!

I knew it! I found this photo on the blog of a vintage eyewear store in LA. And sure enough, the title of the entry was "Someone already did it." And a while ago, too, apparently.

But yes. Fortunately, my artwork didn't get wet thanks to my sturdy portfolio case. And aside from the temporary misery, all was in Ordnung.

All the weight I lost

I lost about 4 kilos in the past two months for no apparent reason...

So unfair! Well, not that I had much to start with, but still!

And oh! HAPPY 25th BIRTHDAY BRUNINHO! Beijos!

Soft

G's away in Poland this weekend.

I'm getting soft and pathetic.

Muscle Hangover

Morning update! (I'm procrastinating.)

"Muscle ache" in German literally translates to "muscle hangover." How appropriate is that? It totally makes sense. And this is why German is great . . . it makes sense. Usually.

And last night was great. G's family is supersweet. Aside from my brain overheating from using German, everything was lovely. :)

Off to make some calls and run some errands. And to colour my octopus drawing. mmm. Delicious octopus.

Meet and Greet

I'm telling you, Stuart Little is a little bit trippy.

Meet and greet with G's dad and sister today. eeeeeep. Actually, I wasn't worried all week, and then of course last-minute panic kicks in a few hours before I meet them.

gulp.

Delicious Diagrams

I've been learning French for ** years and I didn't even know that pie charts were called "camembert" en francais. How awesome is that?

Btw, in Japanese, it's just "circle graph." Bo-o-oring! They should've called it liked...okonomiyaki chart. Or something. Anything!

Feather Duster

A few weeks ago, my mom and I bought an ostrich feather duster at a market. I don't know what it is about them, but there's something just really cool about feather dusters. I remember wanting them a lot as a kid, but as far as I remember, this is our first feather duster ever. And it's so pretty! So pretty! So pretty that I don't even want to dust things with it. It's just sitting in a vase in our living room now, being pretty.

Overall a good Monday. Got my blood taken at the doctor's office just to make sure that I'm all better. Finished a few drawings and started on a new one. Showed my art teacher my comic, and he laughed and said he liked it. Got caught right in the 15-minute downpour on my way to German class. Enjoyed an unusually small class of five people. Talked to G. So yes. Overall a productive Monday!

Wedding to Mitte

Helped J and K move into their new apartment today. I will probably be achy tomorrow, but I had a wonderfully gorgeous sunny Sunday surrounded by good company!

Also, my mother doesn't know how to eat gum:

I still can't believe it's already April. Good god. I'm terrified of the thought of actually having to finish my portfolio, but somehow....it will have to happen. I never feel like I'm doing enough and it feels unhealthy being under this intense-and-yet-so-vague stress. Yeah. I don't know what that means either.

Early to bed tonight.

Stuart Little

I started teaching my mom English about a month or so ago. Rereading books I'd read as a kid has made me realize how subtly bizarre the stories actually are . . .

PS. to all the Canadians out there:

Oh man. I could totally go for some poutine right now.

Broke

I broke my computer yesterday. Hence the lack of update...but hopefully I'll get used to going back to using PCs again and editing my photos with MS Paint.

At least it gave me an idea for a comic strip, right? Right? Unngh.

Otherwise, everything is fine. G came with me to get my bicycle repaired on Wednesday, and I've been a happy spring cyclist since. And it's supposed to be 21C on Sunday! Spring is a-comin'.