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Media Diary: Gävle goat

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I was thinking about making a last media diary post about my Christmas media habits. Like what kind of movies or music I like to consume during this holiday. But, I don't think I have almost any anymore. Except maybe this one news-related thing, Gävlebocken , the Gävle goat. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%A4vle_goat You may know about this tradition in Gävle, Sweden, where every year on the first Advent day they erect a Swedish Yule Goat made of straw. Yule goats are a Scandinavian thing, probably originating from pagan traditions of honoring gods of fertility and harvest. Or that Yule goat was a spirit that would appear near Christmas to see that all preparations were done right. And ever since the first Gävlebocken in 1966, there has been this weird tradition of people trying to burn it down. And most of the time it succeeds. The goat is guarded by fences, cameras, guards and taxis to prevent the attempts. The Wikipedia page  documents all the failures an...
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Media Diary: 2019

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This year is almost over. So here's small a list of things what I'm (maybe) looking forward to next year. Also I'm having problems with embedding the trailers in this post for some reason, so the links contain those if you're interested. Games https://www.humblebundle.com/store/grim-fandango-remastered To be honest, this year I only ended up playing a couple of the games I bought. So I'll be starting off with playing some on that list. And the first one will be the classic from 1998, Grim Fandango . In the story you follow Manny Calavera, a travel agent in the Land of the Dead. It mixes Mexican traditions, the Aztec's mythology about the afterlife and the film noir style. https://www.amazon.fr/Ori-Blind-Forest-Original-Soundtrack/dp/B00TSVHTPQ Also Ori and the Blind Forest is getting a sequel. That's one of the few games I might buy right when they release. The shiny art style, music and the whole atmosphere was great in the first game....
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Media Diary: A couple of my favorite scifi game aesthetics

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I've been noticing for a while now that there's a few things that I really enjoy in a scifi game design style. It's this mix of organic and inorganic elements. And not only straight up mixing it in this H.R. Giger Xenomorph-like style, but also actually having pure organic materials mixed in with science-y things. Here's a few examples. WARFRAME, made by Digital Extremes, which is one of my dearest games. This is the one I go absolutely insane for for about a month at a time until I have a break. It's free to play, full of relaxing grinding and farming (I'm not even being sarcastic, those things in this game are really enjoyable for me). In short, there is this huge collection of these Warframe "suits" of armor that you can utilize to do different kinds of missions together with 3 other players. They all have a different theme and abilities like elements, animals, stealth, time, death, conviction based, etc. For me it contains a lot of character ...
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Media Diary: My current favourite artists, old and new

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Well, at least a couple of them. But let's say these are the artists I keep going back to and a few I just recently discovered. Tobias Kwan He is an illustrator and a concept artist. His painting have this very otherworldly, dream-like and haunting feeling. They have a lot of qualities of traditional art and a lot of painterly layers on top of each other. Eva Eskelinen I have followed her ever since she was playing in this same text based RPG online, like over 10 years ago. Her style is one of my all time favourites and it has been nice to see it grow and evolve. It's gone for this sharp colorful illustration style, but it still retains this painterly texture. Tove Jansson Maybe a bit cliché, but I grew up basically next to the Moomin Museum. I visited the museum more than once a year for a long time and got really captivated by the style. The best for me are the old moomins with the long snouts and small eyes. Also probably my favourite illustr...
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Reality TV

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So I missed the day when we were supposed to come up with a reality TV show in groups. The results were pretty funny and imaginative. But I had to come up with my own show. What is it called? Back to Art School The contestants are given an existing artwork to copy. It can be basically anything. Then they are given some money and 30 minutes to go through a huge flea market to find supplies to do the "replica". Only those items can be used and then some basic tools like glue and scissors and tape. Artists can work with different techniques like painting, sculpting, textile art etc. To apply for the show you don't have to have a degree in art, but a portfolio is enough. The artists have one day to complete the artwork. Then there are judges, or an "critique" with also a visiting Real Artist (tm) to judge the works. They don't have to be accurate as possible copies, the originality and material use is judged too. Also sometimes people just go full abst...
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Media Diary: Tamagotchis

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 I recently did a webpage about Tamagotchis for the Introduction to Web Tools course (as an excuse to just make a pink site). I only had one briefly when I was a kid and knew that they used to be a big thing. But still didn't know much about them. I just stumbled upon some ad for a Tamagotchi and Pokémon collaboration and remembered these devices after all these years. I had really missed how huge it actually had been. https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/new-pokemon-tamagotchi-collaboration-launched So if you're not familiar with them... Usually it’s a small egg shaped computer with three or more buttons. In the game you have simple characters that look like objects or some sort of animals. The story behind the critters is that the Tamagotchi is an alien that’s sent to Earth as an egg to see how the place is like. You have to raise the creature. The better you take care of it, the happier and smarter it will become. The pet will hatch fro...
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My final task

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So, I approached the final task as an opportunity to learn something new. I chose movies for the theme, since I don't much discuss them with other. And I often even purposefully keep them as this light entertainment for myself. So I took it as a challenge to learn something about them. I chose sci-fi for the theme because it's my perhaps favorite genre and I was also interested in learning more about that topic too. In general I'm better at mixing and matching ideas rather than creating purely my own. So I thought about Inktober. It adds a purpose and some starting point for the thought process. I pretty soon scrapped the idea of inking, it didn't feel relevant and was too tedious. I ended up just taking (sorry inktoberians) the word list because I didn't feel like adding some sort of time or producing more challenge to it. The prompt word refers to a scene or overall theme. I drew it and it worked as a method for thinking about the theme. In my mind I e...
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