I didn't get "tagged", and I won't tag anyone. I just found this in my prowls of the Jaf Project archives and felt tempted.

Five things you were doing ten years ago:

Let's see ... I was 17, in 9th grade in Finland. [Sudden realisation, June 9th: NO, I WASN'T! I'm only 26 now, so I was sixteen! In 8th grade. But still in Finland, and everything else is also true.]
1. I was hating school and all the idiots there.
2. I was working on my great epic Driftwood that I had started drawing one year before.
3. I was walking with my baby Mitsu in the beautiful forests.
4. I was surviving my parents' divorce.
5. I was reading lots of great novels and comics.

Five things you were doing one year ago:

1. I was doing an internship at avant-verlag here in Berlin.
2. I was enjoying that work immensely.
3. I was contemplating when and how I should finally break up with my boyfriend at the time, as I had come to realise that he in many ways was, hrm, not so good for me. 
4. I was worrying about my princess baby Mitsu's health ...
5. I was working on my short comic The Compass Rose.

Five snacks you enjoy:

I just realised that I don't eat snacks. I usually eat three square meals a day, period. But sometimes it happens that I include in one of them, or substitute one of them for, something that can be called "snacks", so ...
1. The odd apple, plum or carrot.
2. A suspiciously cheap potato-based, pretty tasty kind of snacks called "Piratinos" or "Ocean Snack", in the snape of fish.
3. The likewise suspiciously cheap egg waffles from Lidl.
4. Deep fried pieces of dough dipped in soy sauce (my own innovation :op, though I found out people actually make somewhat similar stuff in Mongolia).
5. Russian pirogues.

Five songs to which you know all the lyrics:

Since I always listen to music while drawing comics and composing print matter, there are too many to count. Five random favourites:
1. Bella Ciao (in Swedish).
2. U2 - Red Hill Mining Town.
3. Bob Dylan - I Want You.
4. Nirvana - Serve the Servants.
5. Сплин - Иди через лес.

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire:

Assuming I'd have come in possession of them in a somewhat 'honourable' way (like the lottery) I would ...
1. Pay off my debts.
2. Keep spending as little as I do now (okay, maybe a *little* bit more, since I'm really on the margin right now, spending about 150 € on everything besides the rent each month).
3. Rely on those millions to be able to work less and draw (much) more comics.
4. Volunteer internationally with interesting projects now and then (such as this one about veterinary medicine and forestry in Romania).
5. Help mum and Ainur financially if need be, and finally be able to donate decent amounts of money to charities again.
Hmm, but if I'd *really* have a lot of millions, I'd also buy Köpi, and let the current tenants stay there.

Five things you like doing:

1. Drawing comics.
2. Even more, gazing at finished comics drawn by me.
3. Showering.
4. Hiding the sausage.
5. Being exposed to the elements and to furry animals.

Five things you would never wear again:

Hmm ... How difficult.
1. Extremely "girly" clothes.
2. Dental braces (I actually find crooked teeth interesting, anyways).
3. Male genital protection for martial arts (I tried that on once out of curiosity, but I don't really have any reason to do it again).
4. Extreme amounts of pastel and/or neon colours?
5. A bad haircut (if I can help it).

Five favorite toys:

To me they aren't really toys, but ...
1. Sergei Jr.
2. Severiina.
3. Serpieri.
4. Serilda.
5. Evil Mochi Dummy (in the making). 

I had so much fun yesterday evening. First, I went to see a flat in this fascinating building. Sometimes I check out available apartments on real estate websites, because the old, unrenovated ones fascinate me. I happened to see that there was a first showing for this one coming up. "It's the best flat in the house", the agent said ... I think the landlords weren't really interested in investing too much in it, because they arranged for a showing so soon, before repairing anything at all. See all the pictures.

Then, I went to the library (Amerika-Gedenkbibliothek, to be more precise). Now that I could finally register myself with the police, I could at last get a library card. Yay! I borrowed a big fat coffee table book on George Washington for work, and also a book on Stalinist architecture (with lots of pictures!) and Harry Skrdla's photobook on abandoned buildings in the USA.

Then, I biked around a bit in Kreuzberg and took some pictures.



(More photos)

Finally, at 9 PM, I went to see Lady Snowblood at the cinema in Köpi. I had never been there before. Everyone was extremely nice and friendly, and the place was really cool. I should go there in daylight some time, while it still exists ...

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To return to the title "cheap thrills" - the only thing of all this that I paid anything for was my library card (10 € - because my student days are over). The guy at the bar in Köpi didn't even want to let me pay anything for the glass of water I had. :o(

Today is Victory Day, the official anniversary of the Soviet army's victory over the Fascists in WWII. Russians and others, including me, gathered at the Soviet war memorial to honour the fallen soldiers who did the dirty work in the great war.

(More photos)

...

From Wikipedia:

Sarkozy has said that having been abandoned by his father shaped much of who he is today. As a young boy and teenager, he felt inferior in relation to his wealthy classmates. He suffered from insecurities (his physical shortness of 1.65 m, or his family's lack of money, at least relatively to their [bourgeois] 17th Arrondissement or Neuilly neighbours), and is said to have harboured a considerable amount of resentment against his absent father. "What made me who I am now is the sum of all the humiliations suffered during childhood", he said later.

I.e. he's perfect, and very typical, politician material. Politicians, especially those that advance (or want to advance) to the highest levels, don't really become politicians because they want to help other people, but because they feel they have to "prove" something and "show everyone what they're worth".

Ségolène Royal's background is, not very surprisingly, somehow quite similar. But she would definitely have been "the lesser evil". Due to her "socialist" profile, she could have been pressured to put into action more socially beneficial policies.

I've had pretty much the same haircut since 8th grade, save for a brief, confused short-hair period, and that I started layering it a few years ago (it not only looks better, but it's easier that way when you cut it yourself). But lately, for some reason, I've been unhappy with the way it looked, and yesterday I decided to try out bangs ...

This is how they looked right after I cut them. It still startles me when I see myself in a mirror. At least Quentin didn't seem to think they were fugly, but then, I wouldn't complain about the silly suits he wears for his teaching jobs, either.
Anyway, if my bangs feel too nasty, after all, they can always grow out pretty quickly ...

Lausitzplatz, Kreuzberg.

Not pregnant.

There was a 'situation' a while ago, and after that I had some 'phantom' pregnancy symptoms, like nausea, vertigo, swollen breasts, etc, and my next period was kind of strange. But it turns out it was only because of the day after pill that I took.

Too bad, since it would have been one of those superlucky 'Golden Pig' children, born around next Christmas. Regardless of its gender, I would have called it Sergei Elmgren III, after my little Sergei Sr., who died this spring (this is Sergei Jr.), and I would have taught it all I know.

But actually, if I could choose, I'd much rather adopt a little orphaned animal, because human children are kind of scary. Too bad most animals don't live so long ...

Click to see it full size. And here is part 2.

I, like many others, like to sneak a peek at what will happen in Nana before the official translated volumes come out on the market. This is from the flash-forward in chapter 66 from vol. 18. Nana has long since gone missing, but they have received some photographs from an anonymous source that might have clues. And I couldn't help but feel that they are making it seem harder than it would have to be. I mean, FIRST GOOGLE, THEN ASK!

(The original dialogue is:
Hachi: But even if we only have this idea to go on, it's still a start.
Nobu: Even ...)

¤ ¤ ¤

Nana is a wonderful work (c) Ai Yazawa
Published in English by Shojo Beat/Viz Media (so far up to vol. 5)
In German by Egmont/Ehapa (so far up to vol. 14)

The principle of Google AdSense is to provide ads that are relevant to the content on a web page.

And it really works. See for yourself.

Bow Wow Wata is a cute comic for children about pets and pet problems, drawn by a vet.

(Uhh, and if you wonder about the other tabs, I'm just doing research to check the facts in a translation I'm working on ...)

Chibi Seme
Take Are you a Seme or an Uke? today!
Created with Rum and Monkey's Personality Test Generator.