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Hello old friends. I kinda never thought I'd be the one to do this type of post, since I didn't really count on being away from here that long. But here I am, having been away for quite some time. The last post in this place was basically about what on earth to do with myself; if I should stay in Norway and study, move to the carribbean as a hermit or move to San Francisco, CA to study.

Well. More than a year has passed since then. To make a long story short, I basically went for San Francisco and it was the best decision I ever made (so far). I am currently working on my BFA in game design which will hopefully turn out for the better. The studies are awesome, the city is beautiful and the girls even moreso. I am already learning and doing classical art stuff that I never thought I'd be able to do, and I definitely feel I've evolved so much more towards a stable, grown-up human being, not to mention artist..

I'm honestly not really sure why I'm posting this here, now, but I've always seen you guys almost as a second family. And although there are obviously a bunch of new people here since I left, it's good to see the good ol' gang is mostly still around, although you might not really remember me as I didn't actually contribute with any games or much productivity Hopefully I'll get myself to start this adventure game making business once again..!

Well, yes. I don't know what more to say exept: I'm back! Expect to see me around a bit more than I've been the last year.

Some pictures of my doings this last year:

Me 2.0:


Abstract water painting which I'm pretty pleased with:


Charcoal drawing I still can't really comprehend I did:


And drunk moments with friends:


Well, this kinda turned out to long-overdue post pictures here thread, but yes... I'm back.

[longed]

Hey folks. Life situation discussion time...

I am a native born norwegian living in Norway. Last year or something equal, I made the choice to go to the states and study animation. More precicely, I wanted to go to california and study animation. I planted the idea in my parents heads at an early stage, and it grew on them to the extent they said they could pay for the first year as my goddamn dumb fucking goverment don't give any form of financial aid (no loans, no scholarships) for the freshman year. I have yet to find a reason for this, but it's a fact so fuck them.

I introduced the idea of going overseas to study for my best friends and they digged it. The though grew on them as well and they passed the seed of thought on to their parents who eventually agreed on the same thing as mine. As time passes we talk more and more about doing this, and I'm at this point pretty much certain I'm going. Once in a while my parents talk with me and encourage me. These processes keep their natural flow for about a year or so. Until last week.

Now I'm eating dinner alone with my mom as my dad were in some foreign country doing stuff needed to be done. Anyways, we're talking about everyday stuff when conversation suddenly swerves and lays itself in the serious lane. Suddenly, my mom starts talking about economics and how we are pretty economical stable but not extremely wealthy and stuff like this. I'm at this point pretty surprised and generally stunned as I didn't know where the serious tone and topic came from, but I think "okay, I'll let her do her thing" and listen. So she starts to talk about how my brother has applied to this fucking circus school in London, and how she needs to talk to him about wether or not this really is a good choice of school. Blah, blah, blah, conversation/monologue continues and now I'm involved. "Is San Francisco really the best place for you? This school in Volda is supposedly really good, and it's supported by the goverment!" Suddenly, rage mixed with confusion and a slowly growing understanding about what's going on here slowly starts to build up inside me. The conversation goes more and more onto this point. Within ten minutes she has more or less concluded that they can't really afford me going to the states. Fuck. Dreams swirl into a dark vortex of shit.

Ever since I was a little kid, I've been wanting to get the hell out of the, both social and political backwash I've seen Norway as. Even though I live in the capital, it has become far too small for me and I have always longed for other countries and cultures like for example Japan or the USA. I don't blame my parents for this. Sure, they should probably have checked better up on living and tuition costs up to their own economy before letting me apply and getting accepted (yes, sorry, forgot to mention this. I already applied, paid an application fee of 500 united states dollars and recieved a letter telling me I'm accepted) but so should moreso I have done as well. I have to emphasize that my mom has worked a whole lot to stabilize our family's economical situation for a very long time now, with my dad setting up a taekwondo institute nine years ago that took about 4 years to actually not loose any money on. There is also little to do about it now, and I see not much reason to hold any grudge against them. But what the fuck do I do?

Now I need to get out of this country. Even this part of the world! What do I do? I've been thinking of moving to the Carribean for a while, trying my luck there. Having worked exclusively with customers and guests in an amusement park earlier in my life and working in a hotel these days I have a lot of experience with tourists and customer-treatment in general which should leave me in some state to get a temporary job in some sort of resort or hotel or whatever. Where I get work is not the point, but the fact that I have some work experience to get me started. I could take up the writing that I've been wanting to try out for a long time over there and try my luck with that and see where this takes me. Again this is not really important, but I'm just making the point that I have thoughts and plans for how this could go.

What do you think of all of this rambling of an anxiety ridden 18 year old norwegian kid? Am I a fool to want to escape from what I do? What should/could/can I do? What would you do in my situation? I'm sorry for the wall of text, but if you skipped it all and read this, please take at least a minute to get the highlights and give me a though for I am in desperate need of one!

Sooo, I find myself in the position of trying to find something interesting to work with! Through the last couple of years, I've had several "normal" jobs such as a theme park employee/doormat, storage-boy and salesman for a fashion store, but although I'm just 18, I'm so goddamned sick of doing work like this without getting any closer to what I really want to work with. I don't have an exact plan laid out, but I know I want to work in something with animation or other graphic work.

Thing is, I don't really know where to start other than with flash animation and stuff like that. I would, in all modesty, say that I have an above average understanding and "skill" with flash and general animation compared to most people I know. I'm on my second year of media studies, so I also have a general understanding of composition, colour theory etc. so I would say that I am more than capable to start some paid work within this.

Creating a portfolio should probably be my first consern, but as I don't have much work experience and seeing as my harddrive died last year without me taking backup, I have very little stuff to show, even from school...

But looking past the "portfolio" part, we get closer to my real question..! How do I actually get work? I've tried google, but most pages devoted to this tells me that I need a US work permit to get work from US-based people... Should I put myself out there? If so, how?

Thanks for any replies! I don't want to be stuck with nothing other than irrelevant work experience on my CV and no portfolio when I actually try to get some work in the future!

Hello there, fellow AGSians!

I am soon getting my driving lisence and I will, of course, need a car. My problem is though that I am on a limited budget, but I also want a car that actually look and drive good...
I have a huge thing for cabriolets and I've been thinking of the Fiat Barchetta which I have seen as low as 1250 euros, and the VW Golf cab which is neither expensive or hard to find.
But do you know of any other great cars that I might get without selling my family? My budget is around 3000 euros at the max and I love fast-looking and small cars.

I just found out that I haven't enough good movies that I really remember and that has made an impression on me.. Does anyone have any recommendations?

My all-time favs are "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and the Korean "Oldboy". Other favourites are "The usual suspects", "The Big Lebowski" and "Fight Club". I think what these movies have in common that makes them appealing to me is the fine mix of being humorous and being dead serious in how the movie acts out...

Does anyone have any recommendations on movies like this that I should watch? It can also be other kinds of movies that has just made an impression on you, be it because it's extremely funny or because it's so deep!

Well, there probably isn't an annual present thread, but then I'll take on the responsibility to make one every year from now on. That is a promise. Don't quote me on that.

Anywaaay... What did you get for christmas this year? This isn't some bragging thread or a competition on who got the most expensive present, but I'd like to hear if people got presents or anything that meant anything special to them.

Me? I got a pair of "Skullcandy Skullcrushers" with absolutely fantastic sound. And what meant the most for me was from my parents, being a small airplane "driving license". My dad has always wanted to learn to fly and then wanted me to join in on it.

What did you get?

Well, I've recently got this game into my head and now I'm kinda obsessed. I NEED to play this game! I miss it so much and, well.. It's just a perfect game that I have to play. The only problem is that I'm on a Macbook. I've tried to play with residual, but I'm basically stuck with it and it's not going anywhere.
Will it work with Bootcamp without major problems? I really, really need to play this game!

After a long and deep discussion with Tuomas about chocolate milk and hot chocolate, I decided to post this here to hear what you have to say on the subject.
Today, I recieved a parcel from the old ones with some sorely needed supplies from the old country including my favourite chips, my headset and, just that, chocolate milk powder. In my ecstacy I told Tuomas about my newly arrived late night pleasures, but he responded; "hot chocolate? they must have it, i've seen it on telly so many times ". That's what I reacted to.
Is hot chocolate powder thingy and chocolate milk powder thingy the same thing? They both carry the golden taste of chocolate and they both have the same powdery form.

Hokay.. So I come home from me and my girlfriends one-month anniversary, sit down on my bed and suddenly I feel this tenderness/pain coming from my armpit. I reach my hand in there to see if there is anything there, and I feel this little lump.
What the hell is this thing? It's about the size of a raisin or something, and pretty hard. It also stings when I touch it.

"The classic adventure "A Vampyre Story" is penned by Bill Tiller, who was involved in the creation of such milestones of the genre as "The Dig" and "The Curse of Monkey Island". Players use a point-and-click interface to direct Mona and Froderick through a richly detailed world consisting of more than 30 beautifully hand-painted locations that utilizes real time 'Multiplane' camera technology, that entice the viewer to examine and explore. On her puzzle-filled journey to Paris, Mona meets more than 20 3D-characters, ranging from the just plane silly to the very strange, in over 15 hours of brain-teasing fun"

What do you think of this..? Judging by the trailer and the people involved, I actually think that we could have a new Grim Fandango on our hands here..! It might not live up to the greatness of GF, but it looks humorous, and Bill Tiller... Yes!

Well... Not much to say, but he was a great rallydriver and he had an excellent carreer.
He died in a helicopter crash with his five year old son. The copter were totalled before the remains caught on fire..

[alot]

I've been thinking for some years now, that I really want a tattoo. But of course, I don't just want some random monkey or something. So after alot of  thinking I've concluded that small and fairly simple "V" is what's right for me.

I'm also determined that I want to design my own tattoo to a certain degree. So I've played with some shapes and such and this is my prototypes this far.



It's just going to be a small one on the "inner" part of the wrist. I want it to represent a combination of both firm/hardness and softness. What do you think of it?

Hi there,

I'm sitting here with my macbook and ye old copy of CMI and ScummVM for mac. I'm not sure how ScummVM works, but am I able to install CMI into ScummVM in any way? Because it obviously won't work installing it on the mac.

Thanks

vict0r

So I got myself a laptop today, but I can't seem to hook it up to the wi-fi. I have two other computers hooked up to the wi-fi, and one stationary that's physically connected to it with an ethernet cable.

I think I recall that we had similar problems when we got the two computers that aren't connected by wi-fi, but then my cousin who is now in England or something fixed it. I slightly recall him using the stationary to "accept" the computers that wanted to connect to the wireless network. Can this be right or what? The network is also secured by a WAP password, but this I know.

The new laptop is a macbook btw, if that matters.

I'm sorry if I'm missing out on something extremely basic here, but I'm a noob at this field.

[very]

Argh... I don't know what the hell has gone into me.. This girl and I have been seeing eachother and "been together" (although not officially together) for maybe a two-month period. It's gone quite well, and for a small period I thought I had fallen in love, which is something very special for me.
But suddenly, I feel extremely frightened! I don't know why or what I'm frightened of, but whenever she does anything "special" for me (draw me something, send me some cute text message, etc.) I've sorta freaked out lately! I feel stressed and sweaty and very confused. Something that'll probably lead me into cutting communications with her, like logging of msn and such, but without knowing why!

What the hell is wrong with me?! I post this here, because this forums is like a family or something for me... I just logged out from msn now, because she sent me a drawing of a heart... I wanted to fucking answer her or say something nice to her, but I got stressed and logged out... I think I'm slightly extra stressed today since my brother left for the army this morning..

Again, what the hell is wrong with me?

Hey!
I've taken a small break from my "moonlight painting" and made a new digital painting, this time in "desktop size" so I can use it as a desktop background. But I think it looks empty without knowing what to put there!



Resized for great justice!

I just got a new pen for my tablet yesterday after I broke it some months ago, and I've made a quick painting with it.

The thing is that there is something that is very out of place or wrong, I just can't put my finger on it.

Hello there!

Today, I decided I should learn to play the harmonica. I've been thinking of starting with guitar, but it's too big and clumsy for my taste. Especially since I'm moving to England in short time. So I wanted a small, but (potentially) good-sounding instrument and my choice naturally landed on the Harmonica. I've never heard much of harmonica, but it seems like a "cozy" little instrument that's easy to bring along.
I'm also pretty tired of all the people trying to learn the guitar lately, and I wanted to start my own little thingy. So, the first thing tomorrow I'm going to get me a 10-hole diatonic harmonica in the tone of "C"! 

Are there anyone else out there who plays the harmonica or who are fans of the instrument?

Rappelz (Old French: To Summon) is a free MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) made by Gala-Net Inc, the distributors of Flyff, Corum Online, Space Cowboy Online, Shot Online and soon UpShift Strike Racer. It is based in a fantasy world dominated by three races of separate alignments: The Deva, guardians of light, the Asura, servants of the dark, and the Gaia, the protectors of nature. The game can be compared to games such as Lineage II.

Like Gala-Net., Inc's other MMO titles, Rappelz is free of subscription charges; revenue is generated through the sale of special items via the "Cash Shop". Purchasing Cash Shop items is not compulsory, though the FAQ404 error implies that they may offer the player a distinct advantage in-game, however the majority of players do not use the service.

I just downloaded the game. Anyone else tried it?

[legal]

Okay... So I just bought an 80gb iPod after I lost my nano. I figured I could invest some more money into it and avoid the issue with space I had on my previous one.

The thing is, I don't know what more to put into it! I'm not downloading illegally, but I have an external HDD with 51000 legal songs on it, if you wondered where I would get the songs from. Now, as you might imagine, 51000 songs is too damn much to put on that thingy. Here is where I need your help.

Bands/artists I've already got on the iPod:

2Pac
50cent
Alice Cooper
Antonio Vivaldi
Aphex Twin
Basement Jaxx
Bomfunk MC's
Bryan Adams
Chris Isaak
Daft Punk
Datarock
Dimmu Borgir
Dire Straits
Don Henley
The Doors
Dream Theatre
The Eagles
Eric Clapton
G-Unit
Gorillaz
Gotan Project
Infected Mushroom
Jethro Tull
Korn
Metallica
Mike Oldfield
N.W.A
Pantera
Prince
Raúl García Zárate
Robbie Williams
Russell Allen
Symphony X
Trivium

and

Turbonegro


I'm not looking for anything in any particular genre, just bands you like and such!

Thanks for all suggestions!

-vict0r