Wednesday, August 31, 2011

new glasses :D

Yesterday I finally got new glasses :). Waited for about a week and now I can finally SEE. No more excuses for miscutting paper :P

They are a bit bigger than my last ones, and they are "gun metal" silver (yup, that's their name - gun metal XD)

Anyways, now that my sight is a lot better, I am in the process of making the preparations for a new poster...as that is one thing I didn't do much. These days I'll be concentrated on that and working in the office with Madis.

And last but not least, the news is that I'll probably go with Madis and Lemmit to Tampere, Finland to get new huge scissors for the printing museum:)...that, if it will happen, would be one of my biggest dreams come true...to visit Finland :))

Cheers until next time :)

Sunday, August 28, 2011

visiting Johan Liiv house museum and Alatskivi castle

Today we went on a trip to visit this museum of a famous Estonian writer - Johan Liiv

 an old well
this was the sign for the exhibition house/museum

This place had very nice countryside...but the most interesting part of the trip was definately the castle:

 and I look forward to visiting it again...maybe buy some souveniers :)
 the Alatskivi castle
 entrance

 and there's a park outdoors


 the lighting was quite bad, but I managed to take a few snapshots of the interior :)
 the royal stairs - you actually feel kinda royal while stepping on them :)
 an old clock
 view from the back balcony - an aimshot garden :D 
 a marmor caffee table
 a field in front of the castle
 me in front of a mirror
 the music room
 and a contrabass

 the servant's outfit, I guess :)

 me on the stairs, but with bad lighting
 the view of the entire castle
 some rock XD
 rear side of the castle
 balcony - right
 balcony - left

All in all, the place was astonishing...such grandeur :)
After the castle we planned to go to the lake Peipsi - the biggest lake in Estonia, but the bushes kept us from seing it -.-
Well, never mind...I will visit it, sooner or later :)

Friday, August 26, 2011

easy

I'm just helping around these days - cleaning, cutting paper, binding notebooks, helping the girls with what they need...well, just one of the random days; nothing special happening...it's just an easy atmosphere and a perfect day to listen to music and contemplate :)

Btw. my friends got the letters and they like the print I made for them...I was very happy to hear that and I was really relieved that the paper wasn't bent :).
So, everything went well  :D

Cheers!

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Review #3

Whoa! Almost three months (or 85 days, to be precise) have already passed...quite quickly.
As I promised, I will be honest and I will do my best to analyize all the aspects of being far away from my country, in a country to the north - Estonia.
I already have plenty of experiences - starting from living abroad to discovering the good (and the bad side) of the Estonian mentality.
Well, basically, when it comes to my stay here and daily stuff - like going to the store, working in the museum, keeping the working atmosphere sane, etc. everything is really good.
Of course, there are days when someone is in the bad mood (including myself), but you can't be bursting with energy every possible day, right?
The constant barrier, of course, is the language which keeps me from having special and/or more complicated requests at the store/post office.

As I changed the restaurant where I eat every day, I now eat at a Chinese place and I like the food very much there. The reason for changing the restaurant is that at Sodiaak (where I was eating before) they always served some sweet salad which I didn't like at all and the owner couldn't speak English, so...now it's perfect, everyone at the Chinese place speak English.

My social life is quite good - I have plenty of friends with which I often go out, or better say - I did go out before, and now I'm not because I don't feel like it.
Currently, I am concentrated on working, playing games, listening to music and watching movies...guess you can call it a "lone-wolf phase" cause I'm enjoying myself and I don't need anything else for the time being.

Friends I have here are all wonderful individuals...they respect me, treat me as a friend (and some of them really care about speaking English when I'm around)...and vice-versa, of course.

The Estonian Printing Museum - my volunteering/working place is a quite unique establishment :)...I can't really say Lemmit's exact area of intest...so I will call it a place of various creative industries: starting from making notebook covers with "whatever-interesting-thing-we-find-in-the-museum" guideline, to making your own ideas into reality and "play-with-paint-until-you-fuck-up-all-your-jeans" experience.
Sometimes it can be boring, but that's not that common...I'm generally enjoying working here.

Now, a few things I cannot overcome and the biggest turn-down in Estonia is the existence of this "russian mind-set", general "closed-to-outsiders" scheme and kicking you out of the conversation and ignoring you by speaking the Estonian language in front of you all the time. I believe this will change in generations...but still, the problem is current.
I came to know Estonians during my 3-month stay here and I can honesty say it's quite hard to meet new people by yourself because all you get from most "new" people is a 3-4 word answer...and you really need to give yourself into the "getting-to-know-someone" part, therefore, you are supposed to be the well of topics to talk about.
Sure, there are exceptions to this and most people I call friends here are open and talkative...but the general rule still applies.

Now, for the conclusion, I decided not to continue learning the Estonian language because I am not interested in it anymore due to the constant "pressure" of the 99.9% of people who rather speak Estonian in front of me because they don't care how I might feel about that. The other reason is that I am neglecting my own Croatian language too much (cause here I don't have anyone to speak it with) and I am speaking English all the time...so the 3rd language would be too much. I will just keep raising my level of English and everyone will understand me as they did until now. This is not giving up...it's merely stopping while I still have the chance (and we all know what happens when you force yourself to do something you don't want to, right?)

All in all, I am happy I chose Estonia for my EVS and I can hardly wait winter here so I can see this "Winter Wonderland" how some EX-EVSers call it :)

The end of my lengthy post.
Until next time...
Respect, Goran.

P.S. Best regards to all my friends and family in Croatia...I really miss them all :)

Monday, August 22, 2011

another huge machine and a shit load of typewriters XD

Yesterday, we were moving an another printing press which weighs about 2 tonns.
There were six of us in total and with the help of a truck we managed to bring it to it's new home :)
Here are some pics:
 starting from the Vilde caffe




 with a little help :)







and voila :)

This is what I was doing one part of Sunday...I'm happy that's done :D. 

And today I was taking pictures of our collection of typewriters which people brought (23 in total) and you can see the pics at Trükimuuseum's facebook page :)

Saturday, August 20, 2011

81st day

Great! Everything completed and now on their way they go :)
Hope the post handles them with care. I'm a bit sceptical about international post (XD) but I have no other option but to trust them...
OK...today I'll be resuming my current task - I'm cutting old book covers (yes, destroying the books :P) and making notebooks out of the covers. I made a few of them already and it's quite a good idea, cause they look nice.

And yeah, tomorrow, we're moving a huge machine again...so it will probably take all day and I'm not really looking forward to that XXD...
But you have to do what you have to do, right?

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

finito! :D

Finally, everything is done!
I completed 6 prints and now just need to write something to go with it and then send it on it's way :)

So, today I resumed with my usual work. A girl who wants to make 300 books came here to the museum and I've been helping her out with stuff.

On the other hand, I have an assignment in the office...I have to make a web page for the Artist in Residencies project for which I will dedicate some of my time these days :)

So, back to work now...I have plenty of research to do...and before everything - FOOD. XD

Cheers :)

Monday, August 15, 2011

task almost complete :)

Ok, tomorrow I make the final print and then I resume my normal assignments :)
I'm done for today and now I'm going to play my PSP a bit and then to sleep cause I'm tired ;)
After making this stuff I'll write a letter with each one and send them one of these days.
And the most important thing behind this that I mastered the Didot system of points, quadrats and ciceros...I can now feel which one I need just with looking at the empty slot and I have absolutely no problem in returning them back in place :D

Night :)

Saturday, August 13, 2011

halfaway done :)

Continuing working with my own ideas and I have to say they look really nice :)
I decided to use 4 different colors: blue, red, golden and silver and it was a jackpot! - they match beautifully :)

I think my friends will be positively surprised with this as it takes hell of a lot of time and a lot of effort. Let´s say that I decided to make 6 different prints for 6 people and I´ve been doing it for 2 days already and still have that much to go :)
But, it´s ok as long as I feel doing it (and it´s for my friends, so I won´t give up, no!)

ok, now back to work, I guess I can continue finish the 3rd one today, if the paint will dry quick :)

cheers!

Thursday, August 11, 2011

different than usual

Today has been (and still is) the longest working day so far...cause I´m writing this blog post while still in the museum (considering my working hours ended at 3 p.m. and now is 11 p.m. XD ). I wanted to finish something which prolonged itself for half a day more. But, I´m not sorry...I am a perfectionist after all :)

I am making something for my friends at home; in Croatia...It´s quite complicated and it takes a lot of time to make, but it will be done and that´s definite.

Your hear - my friends - soon you´ll get something hand-made by me and I know it won´t be perfect, but it´s the thought that counts :)
And don´t expect something extra special cause I´m a total beginner at this and I´m happy when something very simple comes out right :)

Well, back to work then; the paint should be dry by now :)


Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Lorem ipsum

An interesting task with some self-initiative can make a lot better result than usual :)

We took the "Lorem ipsum" quote, a famous paragraph which mostly serves as an example in graphic design, chose the font - I suggested the "Legend" font because it has a mysterious look and bingo! Perfect!

This is how it looked like when I finished setting everything and left it to dry. After that...
...put red color just for the one big "L" letter - the initial capital letter
 (to get an impression of old bookish type)
and cleaned everything again -.-
Well, something was missing so...after removing red I applied the silver paint
which was very rarely used (the cap was hard as a rock -.-)
after which I learned why was it so rarely used - 
it's a pain in the ass to remove silver paint, the same as white XD

The final outcome was this:
and I, as a perfectionist, am very happy with the result. It really is beautiful. Latin - an ancient language, the font is ancient and the frame made of decorations (leaves) is genius - especially in silver color.

All in all, this is the first thing that I'm absolutely proud of and have no negative comments. :D
Btw. This will be framed and put on a wall :) 

Sunday, August 7, 2011

clichey sample printing

These days I'll be doing the research work in the office and helping out a girl from the art college with printing the old clichey samples, so she can scan them and make a digital database.

Nothing has really changed...but the most important thing is that I am not bored and I like what I do :)

Pretty soon I'll be joining the Tartu anime club which I have shown interest in...and I'm really looking forward to that cause I want to use up my free time with things I like most.

Well...I'm gonna crash for today cause I'm very tired.

Cheers 'till the next post :)

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Tko će koga nego svoj svoga :)

Considering my current situation that so many people warned me about - not to forget my own language, I will, therefore, write today in my dear Croatian language...which, sadly, I have no opportunity to speak here at all.

Danas je na poslu bilo odlično - konačno nešto novo!
Počeo sam istraživati kulturne centre u Estoniji (na internetu, naravno) i moram reći da je taj aspekt posla veoma interesantan jer sam dobar u istraživanju :)
Te informacije će koristiti za statističku analizu kulturnih centara u Estoniji. Poprilično sam motiviran za nastavak rada u tom području :)

Još nešto novo - danas sam promjenio restoran u kojem jedem svaki dan...od sada ću najvjerojatnije jesti u kineskom restoranu (što ja smatram fantastičnim jer ima kinesku muziku i ambijent je predivan...i najbitnije - hrana je odlična XD)

I zadnja, ali također bitna stvar - jučer sam opet bio na Lemmit-ovom imanju. Proveli smo večer tamo i vratili se doma oko 11 navečer...ne mogu se začuditi kako je to mjesto predivno :)
Jedino što nisam iskusio je sauna jer to još ne dolazi u obzir...još uvijek sam skeptičan oko toga :P

Uglavnom, javit ću se opet sa nekim konkretnijim informacijama jer sad još nemam o čemu previše pričati.
P.S. Ne znam da li se ova izreka u naslovu može upotrijebiti u mom kontekstu, no baš me briga :P

And sorry to everyone who don't understand Croatian, but I have to keep my language alive :P
Pozz.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

museum again :)

Now I have finally resumed woking in the museum.
I started with some methodical work and sorting...but starting from tomorrow, I'll be active outside the printing museum too...I'll help my other coleague with his project.
So, finally something completely new.

See you in a few days with more concrete info abouth that (cause I don't really have anything to write about yet)

Cheers:)

P.S. I finally got my residency permit, so I'm not an outlaw alien anymore XD