Moi moi!

We're heading back to Berlin tomorrow. Thanks Helsinki for your friendliness! We had an awesome time! I'm sure we'll be back again . . .

Helsinki Day 2: City Centre

Another scribbly update from Helsinki!

Helsinki: First Impressions

Moi! We've finally got Internet connection at our place in Helsinki so here are some scribbles from my first impressions of the city yesterday. Hello from the sunny and beautiful design (and Moomin!) capital of the world! (I'm seriously going nuts from the adorableness and have to stop myself from buying everything. So Japanese, I know!)

Moomin

The Moomins are the characters in an awesome series of comics written/illustrated by Finnish artist Tove Jansson. At some point in the 80s (I think), a Japanese company made an animated series based on the Moomins, which led to their explosive popularity in Japan...so random! I also wrote a bit about them in this entry from nearly 3 years ago.

What social life?

I'm on a posting spree!

I just came back from a fun and inspiring talk about Tove Jansson--the author of the Moomin books. Did you know that Moomin achieved worldwide fame after the animated series aired in Japan? Unfortunately Jansson herself didn't have too much to do with it---by then (70s or so), she was kind of tired of the fame and demanding work schedule, so she'd let her brother take over. He ended up continuing the Moomin comic strips for 16 years---much longer than Jansson herself (7 years).

Anyway. For Jansson and other artists and writers, working from home is the best way to have a non-existent social life. This goes for us translators as well.

According to Alex Noriega, one of my favourite online comic artists, this is freelancing:

(http://stuffnoonetoldme.blogspot.com/)

Also check out Matthew Inman's (of the famous Oatmeal comics) comic on

(http://theoatmeal.com/comics/working_home)

It pretty much says it all.

In other words, I need to find a part-time job that gets me outside of the house.