よ！久しぶりです、みんなさん。お元気でしたか。

Wow... My last journal entry was more than half a year ago. I guess it's painfully obvious that my activity on here really is quite minimal these days. Largely I have to blame flickr for that. As my main form of "art" is photography and that place is much more specialized for just that it only felt natural to make the jump. I'll try and upload some of my favourite shots here on DA as well from time to time. Not everything, mind you. Just some of the pictures that I feel are worth sharing twice. Who knows, maybe I'll get around to that this coming week... Or the one after that. さー...

So... That whole "life" thing is pretty tough. Isn't it? Lots of things have been happening and by lots I mean like... Two or three. First off, I'm back at the University. The Swedish job market is just a massive, rotting piece of crap these days so trying to find a new job when I lack any further education is pretty much a dead end. I'm currently studying English Culture and Literature (with some grammar strewn in here and there) for the spring semester. With a little bit of luck, that might help me net myself a few freelance jobs as a translator every once in a while for some extra cash. Once that's over I'll apply for the teacher's programme and work my way towards a degree. I know that it's a bit of a gamble as currently teachers are pretty much at the bottom of the career ladder, but I have faith in the union so with a little bit of luck they might have caused some sort of change once I'm all done.

I'm also contemplating making a longer trip once I'm completely done with my University studies. I probably won't have time to do so after I've actually started working, so I might as well get it all done and over with. You know, seeing the world and all that shiz. I'm swaying between Japan and the USA. Going to the later would probably give me more bang for my buck and I could take the opportunity to visit an old friend there, however, one does not simply dismiss the land of the mighty Rider Kick. Oh man... Just thinking about all the Kamen Rider merch I could bring back home makes me giddy like a schoolgirl! Anyway, that trip would still be at least four years away from now, so I have plenty of time to actually decide where I'd want to go.

Another thing that happened was the great big computer crash of 2012. I have no clue what happened, but my copy of Windows Vista suffered a massive error which apparently wasted the OS beyond recovery. "Well shit" I thought. "Better dig out that repair and recovery disc." Well, as it turned out, Asus can't into recovery discs. I was left with a completely broken OS, lacking several important drivers. "Fair enough. I'll just go onto the manufacturer's homepage and get the drivers from there. Easy as pie". Oh how wrong I was! Turns out some of the components, mainly the network adapter, are so obscure that the only way to get the drivers would be from some Czech fan site. Needless to say, I'm not taking the risk.
As a result I'm now using Ubuntu 12.4.1, which somehow worked flawlessly from the very start, even with my obscure as all hell network adapter. Funny that.
That was my very first experience with a Linux based OS and I'm still learning the key terminal commands. I'm slowly but surely getting the hang of it and if it weren't for the fact that I'm dependant on so many Windows applications which don't run smoothly via Wine I'd almost be tempted to stick to this even in the future. Oh well, at least I got Photoshop CS2 (thanks for the free download, Adobe!) to work and Valve porting Steam to Linux has made things a whole lot easier.

Oh, and since I mentioned Kamen Rider earlier. Over the past couple of years I have evolved into a full fledged fan of teh Henshins and teh Rider Kicks. I'm not ashamed to admit that a majority of my spare time is now dedicated to the franchise. I'm currently working my way through the older series from the current heisei era and man is it awesome! I've also taken my S.H.Figuarts collecting to the next level and I am proudly displaying a chronological line up of bugmen on the shelf above my desk. Amazon, Kabuto, Urataros, Den-O Sword Form, Decade, Cyclone Joker, TaToBa and Base States Fourze, with Super-1, Zeronos Altair and Wizard Flame Style on their way, Agito Ground form and the Ryuki & Dragredder set on pre-order. My wallet, it weeps.

Anyway, that's pretty much it for now. Now, time to count up your sins!