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Ahhhh... I'm doing some research for a fic, and in doing so have ended up looking through a lot of the photos I took when I was in Tallinn. It really makes me want to visit again. The time we spent there was so short, just two days, and there are so many things that we didn't end up seeing. I was very overwhelmed, and there is a lot that I didn't absorb properly.

It's... possible? That I might visit again some day. I'm not going to rule it out, at any rate. But it's one of those "If I had an unlimited amount of time and money" things - even just getting over there to begin with is a time-consuming and expensive pain in the ass.

I keep finding myself thinking "Oh, we didn't go to this museum, or that other museum, why not? And I wish I had managed to get better pictures of such-and-such." ...(Mainly because better reference photos would have been helpful for this fic I'm working on, but also, you know. In general. Would have been nice.)

I remember there was street art everywhere. Very nice street art; I'd never seen anything like it. Everywhere you look there was some other small, clever thing. I'm not sure if it's still like that.

...Anyway. I should get back to things. This fic won't write itself (and I have to submit a summary for it by the end of the month, aughhhh)

On another note (related to Estonia and story research, but not to travel):

Folklore.ee is so very retro. Bless nerds and website design that hasn't changed much since the 90s. I keep running into this site when looking for stuff and then forgetting about it; there was one night when I spent way too much time poking through their Journal of Folklore. Note to self, this exists.

Came across this via discord, thought it was neat: Restored with love: Roses Farm

It's an article about architectural restoration/reconstruction work done on a medieval farm house in Kent. Going by the text, the work they had to do was extensive, but in the end it looks pretty good!

And now it's cozy and built to function like a house that can be lived in. And filled up with curios. ;) Lots of cool pictures - might be good for some art/writing ideas? (There are some characters that I can imagine living in a place like this....)

Note: I didn't notice the 'Read More' link at first, after the intro blurb - you'll need to click that to reveal the whole article.

☆ [Exchanges] Chocolate Box assignments are out. I'm excited about mine! Already starting to brainstorm ideas for it. Hopefully I'll be able to come up with something really cute for my recip. :) I hope all of you who are doing it are happy with your assignment.

☆ [FTH auction] Signups for the Fandom Trumps Hate charity auction open on the 13th. I'm definitely planning to participate again - I'll have three fic slots open. Anybody else? Imagine if we brought its 4-year running total up to 100k. IMAGINE. We would have to raise around 27k, which is a lot, but I think it's possible. I'll be posting more info and trying to promote it around once more details are up, because I really hope that people in my fandoms will participate. I like writing fic for this, but it's also nice when there are people offering things that I can bid on. ;)

☆ [Books] Continuing with Cherryh's Chanur saga. Still enjoying it. I like that this series has some very... alien... aliens. The methane-breathers (especially the knnn, but the others as well) are so interesting and weird! Though it's possible that it's just a novelty for me because I don't read much scifi.

☆ [Fanart] Haranonaka has a tumblr for her Vinland Saga art now: here. Lovely as always. Nidsk has also been posting some very neat things since the anime aired. Man, I need to catch up on the manga - I've only read a couple volumes of it, but it's so good. Unfortunately, the library doesn't have it, though I could ILL it. Or I could watch the anime, though I don't stream via Amazon, so that might be a bit more challenging. ...I've heard it's so good that in either format it'll probably be worth jumping through hoops for, though. Anyway, go check out those artists if you like that series, their stuff is great.

☆ [Photography] Nils Nordenswan - I came across this guy's tumblr for original photography recently, and man, I love it. He mainly posts b&w Finnish landscapes. Some of the ones he's put up recently are really minimalistic and beautiful, I'd even say abstract.

☆ [Charity] Short comic by Cat's Cafe about the wildfires in Australia. The author notes at the bottom have links to various charities to help people & wildlife affected by the wildfires. Probably the same link list that has been floating around and everybody has already seen, but maybe some haven't seen it yet.

Oh hey, there's a project to transcribe Anne Lister's diaries. The West Yorkshire Archive Service is looking for people to help transcribe (and in some cases decode) the entries. That's so cool!

Not something I'll be able to participate in, but maybe some of you will be interested. :D I really love projects like this - when people around the world can work together to get something done, amazing things can happen. :D

(And all of this reminds me that I should get around to watching Gentleman Jack at some point....)

☆ I am giving myself permission to not write tonight. I am exhausted and grumpy and DONE with today and I'm ahead of the game as far as exchange schedule goes, so, yes. Not writing. ...Except for random journal nonsense, but that does not count.

☆ Winter is currently deceptively mild. I'm getting a little suspicious. It's too warm. Today I went out without a hat and wasn't even uncomfortable.

☆ I've been on a Les Miserables musical nostalgia kick recently. Don't even know why. Buuuut I keep listening to the songs and wanting to write sad stories (er, not Les Mis fic, to be clear, but just... melancholy stuff). Whups. To be honest, I kind of want to re-read the novel as well, but there are some things in it that I find very upsetting, so it might not be a great idea at this time. Anyway, it's... one of the few good things I remember about high school, actually; my real-life friends group was really active as far as "musical fandom" goes, and it was just... really nice. Not just Les Miserables, mind you, but also RENT and Phantom of the Opera... good times.

☆ There is a cat purr white noise generator on the internet. It's the most relaxing thing I've come across in a while. I'm so glad I live in a world where delightful little things like this exist. :D

☆ Quote of the day: "HELP ME DECIDE: Giant zombie snake monster, or ... Giant zombie snake monster on fire" ...Man, I love talking with other fic writers. :D Because you get situations like THIS and it's just amazing. <3

☆ To those of you who requested cards: Your card is in the mail. Aaaaand now I'm out of stamps... which is unfortunate because I have other stuff I need to get to. x.x (Ah, well, it will get done... it always gets done.)

So, one of the museums that I really wanted to go to in Amsterdam was the Vincent van Gogh museum, and I did indeed go there. It necessitated getting up bright and early in order to be in line before the door opened. I'd read that advice in a travel book and intended to follow it. Good thing, too, because there was already a line when I got there half an hour early, and after actually getting in it was super busy.

Totally worth it, though. I would go again - if I do go to Amsterdam again, I will go again. ... Though for now I can sift through the museum's online collection whenever I feel the need. :D Though there are a few that aren't listed in there, I think.

It was really interesting to see so many of his styles gathered together in one place. I mean, he had quite a range... There's a huge difference between something like Basket of Apples and The Bedroom and then we have stuff like Bridge in the Rain and Garden With Courting Couples and of course there's a hundred looks in between all that. (Sidenote - depending on screen size, using the zoom-out function on the museum site's display might be necessary).

Not that such a wide range isn't usual for artists, but I don't usually see something like that gathered all together in one building. The contrasts become really interesting and obvious then.

The museum also has work by some of van Gogh's contemporaries (IE Gaugin) and it was cool to look at those and contrast them to the looks that van Gogh was going for.

I'm a walking cliche; my favourite van Gogh painting is Starry Night. But that one isn't held in this museum, of course. So, of the ones that I did see (many of which were new to me)... It's hard to pick just one. I really liked the Portrait of Léonie Rose Charbuy-Davy; the colour details and the textures in the paint are really interesting when you see it in person and up-close. And then speaking of portraits, the Self Portrait With Grey Felt Hat. I have no idea what this technique is called, but I love it.

And I really, really love the way he drew/painted trees... Especially in stuff like The Kingfisher, that sort of stark and knotty look, it's really cool. He's even got that gnarled and knotty look in less bleak-looking stuff, like The White Orchard and Almond Blossom - and that latter one, I love it. I used to feel really "meh" about it, when I saw it in books it didn't really leave much of an impression. It's one of those paintings that is a lot more beautiful in person.

Another one that I really liked was Avenue of Poplars in Autumn. It's a little bit different from a lot of his other work, I think, just in terms of the composition - most of the stuff that I saw there wasn't so... vertical, at least not the landscapes.

OH and another cool thing - relating more to technique than anything - there was a display showing how he often used a perspective frame to get things right, even on subjects that wouldn't necessarily call for it (like some still-lifes), and how he'd actually draw the frame's guidelines onto the canvas - apparently doing that was a little bit unusual. Regardless, it was cool to see the imaging of the pencil underneath the paint, I can't quite remember what kind of technology they use to get that but man, is it ever cool.

It was also really interesting to see that van Gogh painting that was confirmed as genuine in 2013, Sunset at Montmajor... I couldn't find it on the website, but anyway. It's gorgeous in person; uses that kind of dotted/separated colours technique that I love. Fascinating that it took so long to confirm it as real; I wonder if there will be any more future "new" discoveries... I mean, this one is probably just lucky, but you never know, right?

I know, I know, I'm gushing. But... van Gogh is a painter that I've loved since I was a kid, and in some ways it meant a lot to me to be able to go and see his work in person. And it kind of made me want to take up art again. ... I remember back when I drew a lot, someone criticized the way I tended to use bright colours in my work. "Who do you think you are, Vincent van Gogh?" And I definitely wasn't trying to emulate his work or anything, but looking back at the kind of stuff I drew, and the kind of colours that he uses in his paintings, I think in some ways we had similar tastes when it comes to stuff like colour palettes.

Anyway. I'm... thinking of taking up art again. I'd like to paint, but I can't, because there is no way I can do that and hide it. Part of the reason I never really took to painting was because I have to do it outside my room, in the kitchen, because of the water and the mess. And I'd always get criticized for "wasting canvass" on bad paintings, as if you don't get better at art by doing it, you have to put everything away and wait for the day when you'll magically have the skill to paint something and have it look good. So. No. I can't do that. But I could draw, maybe. I have a lot of scrap paper and blank sketchbooks that I could use.

Probably wouldn't try drawing people. I find it's just an exercise in frustration. But still lifes and plants and things like that... that might be all right. But I'll have to see.

SO. Tomorrow evening, Sea and I will be on the boat to Finland again. 8) And then our travelling adventure begins! Since I need to be careful with packing I won't be bringing my netbook with me; only my itouch. So I probably won't be able to check in much. Just a heads up.

Anyway. Today I spent much of the day at the National Museum art gallery. IT'S PRETTY BADASS and I took about a zillion photos, though who knows how they turned out, really. I was pretty wow'd by the medieval/early renaissance stuff. And the Peredvizhniki exhibit was absolutely amazing *_* I've now fallen in love with painters that I previously hadn't even heard of.

But man, there was just so much to take in. Pretty amazing. I've never really been to an art gallery like that. Well, I mean, I've been to the one in Halifax, but only to see the Greek/Roman stuff during the Classics Society trips. Not the rest of it. And they wouldn't have had much like this, I expect. Well, anyway, it was good. ^q^

Ahhhh starting to get a little nervous about travelling. I'm not sure why. It'll all go fine, I'm sure. BUT STILL.

Now, on an indexing-related note. Because Delicious is being a dick, I got a Pinboard account. It's like Delicious used to be, but a bit simpler. Here. This is kind of a test-drive. If I like it for personal use, I'll consider moving the indexes there. This is more of a just-in-case thing. Maybe Delicious will fix everything properly, but maybe not. I know Diigo won't do the job I want it to do. So, Pinboard seemed the best choice. It's a very fandom-friendly site, anyway, and the site-owner is planning to make adjustments to improve its functionality. Hopefully they'll give an option to display numbers alongside the tags. I like numbers. Well, we'll see what happens.

July 15th: Argentina legalises same-sex marriage

Reading this after waking up this morning made me very happy. Even though there are bad things going on in the world, there is still positive change happening. It's good news. Hopefully more countries in Latin America (and the rest of the world) will follow suit.

On a less political note, this is neat:

18th-century ship found at Trade Centre site

It's so cool how things like that can pop up in unexpected places. I don't hear about it happening in America as much, so that's kind of different.

...As for myself, I have been doing absolutely nothing interesting lately. Well, that's not entirely true. I've been studying French a bit more. I'm still extremely bad at it, but at least I'm getting better at hearing spoken French and identifying what is being said. I can put together some simple sentences too... I mean it's all extremely basic, but considering for the most part my knowledge consists only of "Je ne parle pas francais", I think it's a little bit of an improvement. :|

Okay, I've been watching a lot of movies too, recently. Partly it's because I've decided I will use this method to relax myself, but it's also because mum sent me a bunch of dvds for my birthday, so I've been going through them. It's... nice. Nice to just sit and watch something and work on my knitting during that, and not be concerned about communicating with people. "Me" time. It's good. I should spend time unplugged more often, I think. Argh.