Ok, it's time to get into the "back to work" -mood. Tomorrow we have teachers' planning day and on Tuesday school begins for the students also.
Having taken relaxation very seriously last night with Tytti I suppose I'm ready. Sure, it'd be nice to have another two and a half months of peaceful research time, without work related worries, but that'd be called unemployment (or being filthy rich) and as such is not an option at the moment.
So I've spent the day sorting out my papers (should've naturally done that earlier, eh) and doing very light planning work. I guess I'll be ok, once again. And at least I have one thing going for me tomorrow - I still have my brother's cool car (I'm most generously being allowed to borrow it for the time being), because he hasn't been able to sell it yet. So I can drive to work myself! Yay! I feel a bit ashamed to say it, but I hope it takes him a while to sell it, so I can use it for a little while longer...
Ah, better get back to work, then. I have to get most of these papers sorted out by tonight's episode of Bones...
Hmm, when's the next vacation again? :)
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Reflections and ramblings
Recently some of my friends have had to do some reflecting on their lives and priorities. How much of personal resources can be used to hobbies, such as being active in various societies, how can one guarantee that there is enough quality time with spouse / family, what kind of requirements does work set, how to manage with limited income and so on. The serious, real life stuff, you know.
These reflections are necessary in life every once and a while, if not for anything else, then for the simple reason that it's not possible to reflect without standing still for a moment. And stillness is a rare luxury in today's world. People dash around looking busy, feeling stressed out and probably achieving less than they could, because they have too many things they're trying to do at one time.
I think I'm very much in the middle of a situation like that. Granted, I don't have a family (meaning a husband and kids of my own) to worry about, but I definitely recognise the feeling of (false) inadequacy, which is the result of having too much to do almost at any given moment. False inadequacy, because I know these things aren't in any way impossible for me to do. But seems they are impossible to do simultaneously, eh. Like reading thesis related books, exam books and planning upcoming lessons at the same time. There's the tiny little limit of not having three sets of eyes, hands and brains to deal with everything at once.
Sure, these are just questions of organising one's time a little better. In this case it may mean I'll skip the exam, because I just haven't had time to study for it (I very nearly broke down in frustrated tears today, trying to understand the damnable economics stuff) and concentrate on doing lesson plans. And since school starts next Monday, the thesis stuff will be limited mostly to weekends from now on, anyway. So, in theory, problem solved - only that if I skip the exam, I'm probably moving the date of my graduation once again further down into the future. Argh. (But if I do go to the exam not having read enough, I won't pass anyway and I end up in the same situation after having "wasted" several hours to trying to scramble through the materials, whereas I could've used the hours for working on the lessons... Sheesh.)
And school then, oh my. It's really quite ridiculous that I'm getting nervous about it again. I should know by now that it's work I'm fully capable of doing (and I'm not too bad at it, either - if I may say so myself), and yet the feelings of doubt and insecurity are back. I wonder how many years of teaching will it take to get rid of this...
I suppose it'll get easier when I've taught all the courses through at least once. Now I have 8th grade history and 9th grade social studies that are completely new to me. I've taught bits and pieces of them, but never the full year. And even the start of the 7th grade history is foreign territory to me, since I didn't teach it last year. In other words, come next Tuesday I'll have three completely new courses beginning, which means quite a lot of work in the evenings for me. Yikes.
Ok, so if I now had to list my current priorities in life, the list could be made very short and simple. (It could also be made a long, rambling list of many things, but I'll keep it simple for now.)
1. Graduating asap, no excuses
2. Doing my best at work, trying to motivate the students and be a good teacher (preferably without sky high stress levels, or 14 hour work days, pretty please?)
3. Maintaining meaningful friendships, because friends keep me sane (and since I don't have a boyfriend to spend quality time with, my friends are my quality time)
4. Family (I have to make time for grandma&grandpa, since grandpa is not going to be around for long anymore)
5. Hobbies (dividing time between rehearsing for one more dance recital to be held in October, editing a fanzine and so on...).
In other words, at this moment my work and my research go before everything. I expect I'll have to seriously cut down my responsibilities elsewhere. For example I'm pretty sure I won't be editing Spin next year anymore. I just don't have the time, sorry to say it.
And that's one heck of an important lesson to learn. To learn to recognise the limits of one's resources. I know I'm having a hard time with it, and some of my friends struggle (or have struggled) with similar problems. The core of the problem is (at least for me) that it's fun to participate and be active, but if there aren't enough people who share that attitude, the workload soon becomes too heavy to handle.
But on the other hand, a simple, stressless life would be awfully boring, right?
After all this seriousness, I'm off to watch Gerard Butler as Attila the Hunn. Heh. That'll keep my thoughts off anything too serious for a while.
These reflections are necessary in life every once and a while, if not for anything else, then for the simple reason that it's not possible to reflect without standing still for a moment. And stillness is a rare luxury in today's world. People dash around looking busy, feeling stressed out and probably achieving less than they could, because they have too many things they're trying to do at one time.
I think I'm very much in the middle of a situation like that. Granted, I don't have a family (meaning a husband and kids of my own) to worry about, but I definitely recognise the feeling of (false) inadequacy, which is the result of having too much to do almost at any given moment. False inadequacy, because I know these things aren't in any way impossible for me to do. But seems they are impossible to do simultaneously, eh. Like reading thesis related books, exam books and planning upcoming lessons at the same time. There's the tiny little limit of not having three sets of eyes, hands and brains to deal with everything at once.
Sure, these are just questions of organising one's time a little better. In this case it may mean I'll skip the exam, because I just haven't had time to study for it (I very nearly broke down in frustrated tears today, trying to understand the damnable economics stuff) and concentrate on doing lesson plans. And since school starts next Monday, the thesis stuff will be limited mostly to weekends from now on, anyway. So, in theory, problem solved - only that if I skip the exam, I'm probably moving the date of my graduation once again further down into the future. Argh. (But if I do go to the exam not having read enough, I won't pass anyway and I end up in the same situation after having "wasted" several hours to trying to scramble through the materials, whereas I could've used the hours for working on the lessons... Sheesh.)
And school then, oh my. It's really quite ridiculous that I'm getting nervous about it again. I should know by now that it's work I'm fully capable of doing (and I'm not too bad at it, either - if I may say so myself), and yet the feelings of doubt and insecurity are back. I wonder how many years of teaching will it take to get rid of this...
I suppose it'll get easier when I've taught all the courses through at least once. Now I have 8th grade history and 9th grade social studies that are completely new to me. I've taught bits and pieces of them, but never the full year. And even the start of the 7th grade history is foreign territory to me, since I didn't teach it last year. In other words, come next Tuesday I'll have three completely new courses beginning, which means quite a lot of work in the evenings for me. Yikes.
Ok, so if I now had to list my current priorities in life, the list could be made very short and simple. (It could also be made a long, rambling list of many things, but I'll keep it simple for now.)
1. Graduating asap, no excuses
2. Doing my best at work, trying to motivate the students and be a good teacher (preferably without sky high stress levels, or 14 hour work days, pretty please?)
3. Maintaining meaningful friendships, because friends keep me sane (and since I don't have a boyfriend to spend quality time with, my friends are my quality time)
4. Family (I have to make time for grandma&grandpa, since grandpa is not going to be around for long anymore)
5. Hobbies (dividing time between rehearsing for one more dance recital to be held in October, editing a fanzine and so on...).
In other words, at this moment my work and my research go before everything. I expect I'll have to seriously cut down my responsibilities elsewhere. For example I'm pretty sure I won't be editing Spin next year anymore. I just don't have the time, sorry to say it.
And that's one heck of an important lesson to learn. To learn to recognise the limits of one's resources. I know I'm having a hard time with it, and some of my friends struggle (or have struggled) with similar problems. The core of the problem is (at least for me) that it's fun to participate and be active, but if there aren't enough people who share that attitude, the workload soon becomes too heavy to handle.
But on the other hand, a simple, stressless life would be awfully boring, right?
After all this seriousness, I'm off to watch Gerard Butler as Attila the Hunn. Heh. That'll keep my thoughts off anything too serious for a while.
Monday, August 07, 2006
Fantastic times
Last weekend was the Fantasy Feast weekend. FF is a tradition of the Turku SF society and this was the seventh time the Feast was organised.
Basically, it's a weekend spent in Sauvo, where the City of Turku has a youth camp center by the sea. People come (dressed in medievalish / fantasy outfits) to relax, participate in different kinds of games and activities, sing, dance, eat and generally have a good time.
This was the second time I was involved in organising the Feast and it was a nice experience, once again - even though the fewer organisers meant a whole lot of working hours per person and ridiculously sore feet for most of us. (I still walk a bit stiffly...) But what's a little pain, if the people who paid to visit the Feast were happy? It seemed that especially the kids who were present had had a brilliant time. I bet they'll have some fun memories.
The most of my Saturday was spent on the beach, under a truly scorching sun. First there was the Tournament and then I supervised a couple of hours of archery practice. No shade anywhere and it must've been closer to 35 Celsius (maybe even more?) , which is a little bit too much for me, too. I generally don't mind heat, but in this weather I'd rather stay in the shade, not under direct sunlight.
Anyway, nobody got hurt while trying out the longbow and the crossbow and I was able to try out my own bow & arrows properly. Seems that I have managed to make arrows that fly pretty swiftly without any wobbling and the bow is beginning to feel, well, mine. Yay me! Too bad I only just realised I should've asked someone to take a few photos of me with my archery gear... Oh well, maybe next time.
For a fantasy fan and a silly romantic like me the FF weekend is a perfect escape from the routines of everyday life. I simply love to see what kind of outfits people have, for example. This time we had as visitors a Shaman, a very impressive Black Wizard with his lady, a group of renaissance style Highwaymen, a few Tudor style noblemen, a Fool, a Wood Nymph, A Barbarian, several beautiful elven and human ladies and so on. It's so nice to see that many people clearly put time and serious effort into their costumes.
On Saturday night, after we had closed the Jumping Dragon Inn at midnight, I wandered to the dark beach wrapped in my cloak, just to watch the stars. If there are moments that are magical, that was certainly one of them. The starry sky (with an occasional shooting star!), the sea, the splashes of fish in the shallow water, the solitary cries of birds... It wasn't all quiet this time, since the Black Wizard was further down the beach playing his tin whistle, which suited the atmosphere just fine. So there I was, wrapped in several metres of purple velvet, under the stars... Very meditative and relaxing - a definite highlight of my weekend. And honestly, if a hobby can offer me moments like these, I can happily remain a romantic and a wannabe elf. :)
Here are a few photos from the Feast. Not very many of them, since I really didn't have time to take that many pics, since I was busy with my duties as an organiser.
This is me wearing the medieval(ish) outfit I made myself. I'm standing in front of the Jumping Dragon Inn.
Wizard Pyroforius was kind enough to perform a spell to light the fire. And a powerful spell it was, too. The blast of flames was huge. This pic, however, is taken a few moments after the biggest burst.
Visitors hanging out at the main square.
A view from the beach, at dusk.
Yours truly, once again. (Did I mention I love that cloak?)
A lady and a courtier.
Like father, like daughter. I was told later that she thought the FF Saturday had been the best day of the summer. How sweet is that?
See how these little wizards are having the time of their lives!
And here are the organisers on Sunday. Tired, but happy.
I don't have any pics from any of the actual events, such as the Tournament, but if you'd like to see more of the Feast, you can visit Tero's Fantasy Feast pic gallery or Pasi's Fantasy Feast pic gallery.
I'm probably completely nutters for saying this, but I'm looking forward to the next time. My thanks go out to everyone who came to the Feast and had a good time and of course to my fellow organisers. I hope to see you all again in, umm, perhaps 2008? ;)
Basically, it's a weekend spent in Sauvo, where the City of Turku has a youth camp center by the sea. People come (dressed in medievalish / fantasy outfits) to relax, participate in different kinds of games and activities, sing, dance, eat and generally have a good time.
This was the second time I was involved in organising the Feast and it was a nice experience, once again - even though the fewer organisers meant a whole lot of working hours per person and ridiculously sore feet for most of us. (I still walk a bit stiffly...) But what's a little pain, if the people who paid to visit the Feast were happy? It seemed that especially the kids who were present had had a brilliant time. I bet they'll have some fun memories.
The most of my Saturday was spent on the beach, under a truly scorching sun. First there was the Tournament and then I supervised a couple of hours of archery practice. No shade anywhere and it must've been closer to 35 Celsius (maybe even more?) , which is a little bit too much for me, too. I generally don't mind heat, but in this weather I'd rather stay in the shade, not under direct sunlight.
Anyway, nobody got hurt while trying out the longbow and the crossbow and I was able to try out my own bow & arrows properly. Seems that I have managed to make arrows that fly pretty swiftly without any wobbling and the bow is beginning to feel, well, mine. Yay me! Too bad I only just realised I should've asked someone to take a few photos of me with my archery gear... Oh well, maybe next time.
For a fantasy fan and a silly romantic like me the FF weekend is a perfect escape from the routines of everyday life. I simply love to see what kind of outfits people have, for example. This time we had as visitors a Shaman, a very impressive Black Wizard with his lady, a group of renaissance style Highwaymen, a few Tudor style noblemen, a Fool, a Wood Nymph, A Barbarian, several beautiful elven and human ladies and so on. It's so nice to see that many people clearly put time and serious effort into their costumes.
On Saturday night, after we had closed the Jumping Dragon Inn at midnight, I wandered to the dark beach wrapped in my cloak, just to watch the stars. If there are moments that are magical, that was certainly one of them. The starry sky (with an occasional shooting star!), the sea, the splashes of fish in the shallow water, the solitary cries of birds... It wasn't all quiet this time, since the Black Wizard was further down the beach playing his tin whistle, which suited the atmosphere just fine. So there I was, wrapped in several metres of purple velvet, under the stars... Very meditative and relaxing - a definite highlight of my weekend. And honestly, if a hobby can offer me moments like these, I can happily remain a romantic and a wannabe elf. :)
Here are a few photos from the Feast. Not very many of them, since I really didn't have time to take that many pics, since I was busy with my duties as an organiser.
This is me wearing the medieval(ish) outfit I made myself. I'm standing in front of the Jumping Dragon Inn.
Wizard Pyroforius was kind enough to perform a spell to light the fire. And a powerful spell it was, too. The blast of flames was huge. This pic, however, is taken a few moments after the biggest burst.
Visitors hanging out at the main square.
A view from the beach, at dusk.
Yours truly, once again. (Did I mention I love that cloak?)
A lady and a courtier.
Like father, like daughter. I was told later that she thought the FF Saturday had been the best day of the summer. How sweet is that?
See how these little wizards are having the time of their lives!
And here are the organisers on Sunday. Tired, but happy.
I don't have any pics from any of the actual events, such as the Tournament, but if you'd like to see more of the Feast, you can visit Tero's Fantasy Feast pic gallery or Pasi's Fantasy Feast pic gallery.
I'm probably completely nutters for saying this, but I'm looking forward to the next time. My thanks go out to everyone who came to the Feast and had a good time and of course to my fellow organisers. I hope to see you all again in, umm, perhaps 2008? ;)
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Just me, my laptop and this mellow Sunday
I have achieved nothing today. Absolutely nothing, at least if only stuff that I should be doing is counted. I did finish reading a good book and knitted some (I'm making a poncho for Satu this time). Other than that, I've just slept, eaten, watched television and listened to the construction workers build the scaffolding outside our building. I feel sort of bad for so completely slacking all day, but darned if I can be bothered to do anything anymore. Too late, heh. I'll have to make up for the lost time tomorrow, then. Monday's are good days for getting back to work, right?
Last time I wrote, I was on my way to get me some sea legs on a nice boat trip to the archipelago. And what a wonderful trip it was! Unfortunately I had only my old camera with me, so no pics this time.
Heli's parents boat was very nice. Huge. I'm not exactly sure how long it really was, but I figured it must've been at least some 20 metres long and completely equipped for seafaring also over longer distances, to Denmark and so on (that's where Heli's parents went with the boat earlier this summer). The five of us (me, Satu, Heli and her parents) were quite comfortably accommodated and I'm sure at least another five people would've fit in still reasonably well. We didn't, however, get to try out the in-boat-sauna, since it would've heated up the cabin in the aft, where Satu and I slept.
But a couple days at sea and I felt like I had been away from home for at least a couple of weeks. In a good way, too. There was something unbelievably relaxing in the low growl of the engines, the waves hitting the boat and the shores... We girls spent most of our time basking in the sunlight on deck, reading, talking or napping. (And I've got the sunburns slowly turning into a tan to prove it.) I'm more than willing to say that it was the highlight of my summer. I loved every minute of the trip. I so love to be at sea and it's too bad I don't have the means to do it more often. (Perhaps I have to add a boat to the list of requirements of that Special Someone, hah.)
To make the trip even better, we spent the second night at Heli's family's summer cottage in the archipelago. A truly stunning place. A beautiful (and big) summerhouse (can't really call it a cottage) built high up on a rocky hill, facing the open sea. My god, I could've stared into the distance from the balcony for hours. But the sauna beckoned us, and I finally got rid of my "winter coat" as the saying goes. The water wasn't very warm, but it was still nice to swim in the sea. Relaxation extraordinaire, I tell you!
On Saturday evening I had a garden party to go to. Hobbiton's garden party had been long awaited and turned out it had been worth waiting for. Tytti and her hubby do throw very nice parties. We drank a ridiculous amount of fresh strawberry margaritas, ate well and had a good time. What wonderful friends I have.
A week ago on Monday I got to try something completely new to me. I took a short course on making wire jewelry! Heli has been doing wire jewelry for a while already (and she's advanced into silver wire) and she urged me to come and try it, too. And surely enough, after some five hours of twisting, sawing and fumbling about with tiny loops of wire I had managed to make a nice ankle bracelet out of brass wire and decorated it with glass beads. Go me!
I'm discovering all new handicrafty sides to my life - within a year I've made myself a longbow, a Harry Potter scarf, a poncho (and a half) and an ankle bracelet. In other words I've tried woodworking, knitting and metal work and managed to not mess everything up or get injured myself. Yay.
Well, perhaps I shouldn't consider changing professions quite yet, but new hobbies can be a nice way to break the routines.
One old hobby definitely remains, though. Reading. I just finished reading Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife today. A piece of maintstream literature, which was pure fantasy or science fiction. I suppose Niffenegger didn't intend to write an sf-novel, but that's what it was. Not too bad at it, either.
The story was that of Henry DeTamble and his wife, Clare. He has a strange genetic disorder that makes him travel in time. On these travels he meets Clare, his future wife, and visits her randomly when she grows up. The timeline of the story is, if I'm allowed an understatement, somewhat garbled as Henry travels from his present to his past and future, little by little revealing the whole love story between Clare and himself.
I found the book a reasonably entertaining read. However, I think many readers who haven't read any sf will find it more refreshing and new. For me the idea wasn't anything groundbreaking, to be honest. But as it was a well-written piece of literature, I enjoyed reading it. In other words, it was good literature, but not so good sf. But since it wasn't written as an sf-story, I probably shouldn't judge it as such. But you know, zebras can't get rid of their stripes and I'm pretty stuck with my sf-background when it comes to time travelling stories.
Oh, and another literature related piece of my mind. I just noticed the other day that they're making a movie version of The Other Boleyn Girl! I hadn't known about it before, but now - I can't wait! It'll have Eric Bana (!) as Henry VIII and Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman as Anne and Mary Boleyn. Sounds good to me! Something to look forward to, in addition to the third Pirates movie...
Last time I wrote, I was on my way to get me some sea legs on a nice boat trip to the archipelago. And what a wonderful trip it was! Unfortunately I had only my old camera with me, so no pics this time.
Heli's parents boat was very nice. Huge. I'm not exactly sure how long it really was, but I figured it must've been at least some 20 metres long and completely equipped for seafaring also over longer distances, to Denmark and so on (that's where Heli's parents went with the boat earlier this summer). The five of us (me, Satu, Heli and her parents) were quite comfortably accommodated and I'm sure at least another five people would've fit in still reasonably well. We didn't, however, get to try out the in-boat-sauna, since it would've heated up the cabin in the aft, where Satu and I slept.
But a couple days at sea and I felt like I had been away from home for at least a couple of weeks. In a good way, too. There was something unbelievably relaxing in the low growl of the engines, the waves hitting the boat and the shores... We girls spent most of our time basking in the sunlight on deck, reading, talking or napping. (And I've got the sunburns slowly turning into a tan to prove it.) I'm more than willing to say that it was the highlight of my summer. I loved every minute of the trip. I so love to be at sea and it's too bad I don't have the means to do it more often. (Perhaps I have to add a boat to the list of requirements of that Special Someone, hah.)
To make the trip even better, we spent the second night at Heli's family's summer cottage in the archipelago. A truly stunning place. A beautiful (and big) summerhouse (can't really call it a cottage) built high up on a rocky hill, facing the open sea. My god, I could've stared into the distance from the balcony for hours. But the sauna beckoned us, and I finally got rid of my "winter coat" as the saying goes. The water wasn't very warm, but it was still nice to swim in the sea. Relaxation extraordinaire, I tell you!
On Saturday evening I had a garden party to go to. Hobbiton's garden party had been long awaited and turned out it had been worth waiting for. Tytti and her hubby do throw very nice parties. We drank a ridiculous amount of fresh strawberry margaritas, ate well and had a good time. What wonderful friends I have.
A week ago on Monday I got to try something completely new to me. I took a short course on making wire jewelry! Heli has been doing wire jewelry for a while already (and she's advanced into silver wire) and she urged me to come and try it, too. And surely enough, after some five hours of twisting, sawing and fumbling about with tiny loops of wire I had managed to make a nice ankle bracelet out of brass wire and decorated it with glass beads. Go me!
I'm discovering all new handicrafty sides to my life - within a year I've made myself a longbow, a Harry Potter scarf, a poncho (and a half) and an ankle bracelet. In other words I've tried woodworking, knitting and metal work and managed to not mess everything up or get injured myself. Yay.
Well, perhaps I shouldn't consider changing professions quite yet, but new hobbies can be a nice way to break the routines.
One old hobby definitely remains, though. Reading. I just finished reading Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife today. A piece of maintstream literature, which was pure fantasy or science fiction. I suppose Niffenegger didn't intend to write an sf-novel, but that's what it was. Not too bad at it, either.
The story was that of Henry DeTamble and his wife, Clare. He has a strange genetic disorder that makes him travel in time. On these travels he meets Clare, his future wife, and visits her randomly when she grows up. The timeline of the story is, if I'm allowed an understatement, somewhat garbled as Henry travels from his present to his past and future, little by little revealing the whole love story between Clare and himself.
I found the book a reasonably entertaining read. However, I think many readers who haven't read any sf will find it more refreshing and new. For me the idea wasn't anything groundbreaking, to be honest. But as it was a well-written piece of literature, I enjoyed reading it. In other words, it was good literature, but not so good sf. But since it wasn't written as an sf-story, I probably shouldn't judge it as such. But you know, zebras can't get rid of their stripes and I'm pretty stuck with my sf-background when it comes to time travelling stories.
Oh, and another literature related piece of my mind. I just noticed the other day that they're making a movie version of The Other Boleyn Girl! I hadn't known about it before, but now - I can't wait! It'll have Eric Bana (!) as Henry VIII and Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman as Anne and Mary Boleyn. Sounds good to me! Something to look forward to, in addition to the third Pirates movie...
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me!
I'm so excited! I'll get to go sailing for a couple of days this week (from Thursday to Saturday)! Or technically, not sailing, since it's not a sailboat we'll be on, eh... I don't actually know what kind of a boat it is, exactly, but I do know it's supposed to be quite big. An old wooden motor boat of some sort, with sleeping places for over 10 people and a sauna on board. This is how it has been described to me and I'm already loving it.
It's been ages since I got to go out on sea. If the weather stays like this, we'll have a magnificent trip, I'm sure. The archipelago is beautiful, I love love love the sea and absolutely need to get swimming soon! I can't wait!
And it will all fit my sea-faring mood perfectly. I saw the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie today. I went to the press viewing with Tytti, even though we do both have tickets for tomorrow evening, too. It'll be fun to see it again, though, this time with a bunch of friends. I'll post a longer review later, but I'll say this much. I had a good time, even though I must admit I was slightly disappointed on the whole. But not in the least bit disappointed in the hotness of Orlando. Still there. Very muchly so. ;)
Anyway, I'll get back to all things marine probably on Sunday or something. It'll be all adventures of pirates of the Caribbean and of the Uusikaupunki archipelago then. Arrr!
(But why is the rum always gone? Yo ho, yo ho...)
It's been ages since I got to go out on sea. If the weather stays like this, we'll have a magnificent trip, I'm sure. The archipelago is beautiful, I love love love the sea and absolutely need to get swimming soon! I can't wait!
And it will all fit my sea-faring mood perfectly. I saw the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie today. I went to the press viewing with Tytti, even though we do both have tickets for tomorrow evening, too. It'll be fun to see it again, though, this time with a bunch of friends. I'll post a longer review later, but I'll say this much. I had a good time, even though I must admit I was slightly disappointed on the whole. But not in the least bit disappointed in the hotness of Orlando. Still there. Very muchly so. ;)
Anyway, I'll get back to all things marine probably on Sunday or something. It'll be all adventures of pirates of the Caribbean and of the Uusikaupunki archipelago then. Arrr!
(But why is the rum always gone? Yo ho, yo ho...)
Saturday, July 08, 2006
Jousting the night away
Last weekend saw Turku go back in time to the 15th century, as the medieval market lured some 100 000 people to see what life in town all those centuries ago might've looked like. I spent quite a while browsing through the stalls and enjoying the atmosphere, just like I do every year. It was fun, even though I was recovering from a cold and didn't even dress properly for the occasion (it would've been doubly as hot and uncomfortable wearing a velvet dress), but even dressed in a more modern fashion, I got some money spent...
But what was more interesting this year, was that there was a horse tournament for the first time. You know, knights on handsome horses, sporting against each other with lances and stuff. Well, naturally it was all done in somewhat smaller scale than I imagine tournaments for example in England would be , but nevertheless I had a good time cheering for the knights who were trying to show off their skills. I had mom's digicamera with me, and I took quite a few photos. And here are a few to show what the Finnish knights could do.
The Black Knight shows off his skills before kidnapping the King's daughter.
And so he rides away with the damsel, clearly in distress.
Is there a noble enough knight to save the King's daughter?
Will it be the Blue knight?
Or perhaps the Red one?
Or the Blue and Gold knight?
And in the meanwhile, the Black knight imprisons the lady.
The knights are given tasks to prove their might. Picking up the King's daughter's "petticoat" with a spear is one of them.
Picking up rings with a sword is another.
And one should not forget the slashing of the cabbages...
Mightiest of the knights on his mighty steed.
And they also rode against each other...
The Black knight approaches with no good intentions.
He sets fire around the two knights and they are forced to ride through the flames to safety.
And then there's a terrible skirmish, in which the Black knight is defeated. Or so it seems.
Having made a miraculous recovery, the Black knight returns. And in the end, love wins it all as the Black Knight and the King's daughter aren't too displeased with each other after all...
Not a very original storyframe, but entertaining, sure. Funnily enough the knights seemed to communicate mostly with grunts, growls and arrrr's, but luckily the Fool was articulate enough to elaborate on what they clearly were meaning to say.
The horses were very well trained for the job, they patiently galloped about with their respective knights trashing about with this and that weapon. Very admirable.
I'm hoping I'll get to try some of this "medieval riding" at the Rohan stables where the riders came from. It'd be great to have a try at it before travelling to England (next summer, if everything goes well) and hopefully seeing a tournament in slightly grander surroundings. Like at one of the shows of these people.
But what was more interesting this year, was that there was a horse tournament for the first time. You know, knights on handsome horses, sporting against each other with lances and stuff. Well, naturally it was all done in somewhat smaller scale than I imagine tournaments for example in England would be , but nevertheless I had a good time cheering for the knights who were trying to show off their skills. I had mom's digicamera with me, and I took quite a few photos. And here are a few to show what the Finnish knights could do.
The Black Knight shows off his skills before kidnapping the King's daughter.
And so he rides away with the damsel, clearly in distress.
Is there a noble enough knight to save the King's daughter?
Will it be the Blue knight?
Or perhaps the Red one?
Or the Blue and Gold knight?
And in the meanwhile, the Black knight imprisons the lady.
The knights are given tasks to prove their might. Picking up the King's daughter's "petticoat" with a spear is one of them.
Picking up rings with a sword is another.
And one should not forget the slashing of the cabbages...
Mightiest of the knights on his mighty steed.
And they also rode against each other...
The Black knight approaches with no good intentions.
He sets fire around the two knights and they are forced to ride through the flames to safety.
And then there's a terrible skirmish, in which the Black knight is defeated. Or so it seems.
Having made a miraculous recovery, the Black knight returns. And in the end, love wins it all as the Black Knight and the King's daughter aren't too displeased with each other after all...
Not a very original storyframe, but entertaining, sure. Funnily enough the knights seemed to communicate mostly with grunts, growls and arrrr's, but luckily the Fool was articulate enough to elaborate on what they clearly were meaning to say.
The horses were very well trained for the job, they patiently galloped about with their respective knights trashing about with this and that weapon. Very admirable.
I'm hoping I'll get to try some of this "medieval riding" at the Rohan stables where the riders came from. It'd be great to have a try at it before travelling to England (next summer, if everything goes well) and hopefully seeing a tournament in slightly grander surroundings. Like at one of the shows of these people.
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
My days in the Tudor court
Thanks to Tigerlily's indirect recommendation, I've just finished reading what is without a doubt the most entertaining and spellbinding book I've read in a while. I stayed up till 3 a.m. last night reading it, and didn't get up from bed in the morning before I had finally finished reading it. (My logic being that once I finished reading it, it wouldn't disturb my work anymore and therefore it'd be better to read the rest of it pretty quickly.)
Philippa Gregory's novel The Other Boleyn Girl was a thoroughly enjoyable read. It tells the story of Mary Boleyn, the sister of Henry VIII's second wife, Anne Boleyn. Mary is the first Boleyn girl to catch the King's eye and she becomes a pawn in her family's game of politics and power in the Tudor court. She is already married to another man, but nevertheless she is ordered into the bed of Henry so that her family of Howards and Boleyns would get the King's favour.
The basic story is sadly familiar from history. Mary is cast aside as Henry's interests turn to the French-court-schooled sister of Mary, the dark and vivacious Anne. She wrappes the King around her little finger and marries him, after he has coldly removed his wife of two decades, Queen Katharine, from court and had his first marriage annulled.
From there on it is all just a question of breeding, really. Will the new Queen provide the nation with a strong male heir? Everything looks reasonably well, when the little princess Elizabeth, the future Queen of unrivalled magnificence, is born. But no son, no prince is born. In the tireless rumour mill that is the court of Henry, the Queen Anne is soon ground to pieces and her destiny is the sharp blade of the executioner's sword.
Although I was familiar with the history, the story still captured me. Gregory writes in a very simple and charming way. Compared to the excellent Lymond Chronichles (by Dorothy Dunnett) I've also been reading lately this was certainly an easier read to a non-native English speaker, if nothing else. I don't mind difficult language at all, it's part of the charm of Dunnett's work (and a challenge!), but Gregory's was the style of storytelling (and use of English language) I'd like to master myself.
In addition to the easy-flowing language, Gregory's choice of telling the story in the first person, in Mary's voice, is very effective. It enables the reader to relate to her, brings her character closer. And that, if anything, is a good sign in a historical novel - in any novel, really. I wouldn't want to read about a character I didn't care the least bit about.
Mary's life is a life of a courtier, and she isn't allowed to decide for herself, not until later in life. She struggles with her conscience as she beds the King while the Queen, whose lady-in-waiting Mary is, turns a blind eye to it all. She struggles to accept and obey her sister's every whim, as Anne replaces her as the favoured Boleyn girl. She cries bitter tears when Anne adopts her and Henry's bastard son, just so Anne could claim young Henry was a legal heir to the throne. But after it all, she is the Boleyn girl who wins it all, as she keeps her life when other Boleyn heads roll - literally. And of course, she also finds True Love. (And that courtship is described so endearingly, that it was nearly impossible to not feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Awww. Nice balance of "fade to black" and telling it all, also. - This is a comment that will probably best open up to the fanfic writers out there...)
All in all, I thought the novel described Mary and her life in the court very believably and entertainingly. Made me want to be able to travel back in time to Henry's court to see the grand masquerades and listen to the courtiers' poems myself. (Not to mention to see some of the gowns described, my gosh.) And besides, after reading a fictional description (even though admittedly quite well researched) of the court life, I'm once again pretty happy that I chose Henry's reign as my thesis topic. What a fascinating period in history it was.
On a tangent line of thought, I do have to say that writing a historical novel is, in a way, also a dream of mine. I've even toyed with an idea for one for a couple of years now. It'll probably never come to anything (I think I need a better idea, first of all), but it really would be a great way for me to express my enthusiasm about history and literature in the same package. I don' t know if I'd want to be a full-time professional researcher, but since I do like doing research and writing and telling stories about history, what better way to combine them than to write historical fiction? (Especially since I will, hopefully, have a steady income from teaching, heh.)
Ah, but I suppose I'd better get off this research break and get back to the non-fictional times of Henry VIII. Today's reading includes some 200 descriptions of different kinds of letters and papers from the year 1540. I've got to browse them through carefully enough to find any and all references to the Order. I've gone through some 800 documents already, and so far I've been able to find less than 20 documents... I hope that the personnel at the Order's archives in London will be able to point out more documents to me, as they said they could probably help me with my research. (And yes, this is just one part of the huge collection of documents from Henry's reign, so I expect I still have some thousands of descriptions to go through, yikes. Help would therefore be more than welcome...)
Philippa Gregory's novel The Other Boleyn Girl was a thoroughly enjoyable read. It tells the story of Mary Boleyn, the sister of Henry VIII's second wife, Anne Boleyn. Mary is the first Boleyn girl to catch the King's eye and she becomes a pawn in her family's game of politics and power in the Tudor court. She is already married to another man, but nevertheless she is ordered into the bed of Henry so that her family of Howards and Boleyns would get the King's favour.
The basic story is sadly familiar from history. Mary is cast aside as Henry's interests turn to the French-court-schooled sister of Mary, the dark and vivacious Anne. She wrappes the King around her little finger and marries him, after he has coldly removed his wife of two decades, Queen Katharine, from court and had his first marriage annulled.
From there on it is all just a question of breeding, really. Will the new Queen provide the nation with a strong male heir? Everything looks reasonably well, when the little princess Elizabeth, the future Queen of unrivalled magnificence, is born. But no son, no prince is born. In the tireless rumour mill that is the court of Henry, the Queen Anne is soon ground to pieces and her destiny is the sharp blade of the executioner's sword.
Although I was familiar with the history, the story still captured me. Gregory writes in a very simple and charming way. Compared to the excellent Lymond Chronichles (by Dorothy Dunnett) I've also been reading lately this was certainly an easier read to a non-native English speaker, if nothing else. I don't mind difficult language at all, it's part of the charm of Dunnett's work (and a challenge!), but Gregory's was the style of storytelling (and use of English language) I'd like to master myself.
In addition to the easy-flowing language, Gregory's choice of telling the story in the first person, in Mary's voice, is very effective. It enables the reader to relate to her, brings her character closer. And that, if anything, is a good sign in a historical novel - in any novel, really. I wouldn't want to read about a character I didn't care the least bit about.
Mary's life is a life of a courtier, and she isn't allowed to decide for herself, not until later in life. She struggles with her conscience as she beds the King while the Queen, whose lady-in-waiting Mary is, turns a blind eye to it all. She struggles to accept and obey her sister's every whim, as Anne replaces her as the favoured Boleyn girl. She cries bitter tears when Anne adopts her and Henry's bastard son, just so Anne could claim young Henry was a legal heir to the throne. But after it all, she is the Boleyn girl who wins it all, as she keeps her life when other Boleyn heads roll - literally. And of course, she also finds True Love. (And that courtship is described so endearingly, that it was nearly impossible to not feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Awww. Nice balance of "fade to black" and telling it all, also. - This is a comment that will probably best open up to the fanfic writers out there...)
All in all, I thought the novel described Mary and her life in the court very believably and entertainingly. Made me want to be able to travel back in time to Henry's court to see the grand masquerades and listen to the courtiers' poems myself. (Not to mention to see some of the gowns described, my gosh.) And besides, after reading a fictional description (even though admittedly quite well researched) of the court life, I'm once again pretty happy that I chose Henry's reign as my thesis topic. What a fascinating period in history it was.
On a tangent line of thought, I do have to say that writing a historical novel is, in a way, also a dream of mine. I've even toyed with an idea for one for a couple of years now. It'll probably never come to anything (I think I need a better idea, first of all), but it really would be a great way for me to express my enthusiasm about history and literature in the same package. I don' t know if I'd want to be a full-time professional researcher, but since I do like doing research and writing and telling stories about history, what better way to combine them than to write historical fiction? (Especially since I will, hopefully, have a steady income from teaching, heh.)
Ah, but I suppose I'd better get off this research break and get back to the non-fictional times of Henry VIII. Today's reading includes some 200 descriptions of different kinds of letters and papers from the year 1540. I've got to browse them through carefully enough to find any and all references to the Order. I've gone through some 800 documents already, and so far I've been able to find less than 20 documents... I hope that the personnel at the Order's archives in London will be able to point out more documents to me, as they said they could probably help me with my research. (And yes, this is just one part of the huge collection of documents from Henry's reign, so I expect I still have some thousands of descriptions to go through, yikes. Help would therefore be more than welcome...)
Monday, June 12, 2006
Feeling cheerful
Ah. A week of summer vacation gone (nine left, yay), various projects coming along fine and some seriously good summer shopping done and summery weather enjoyed muchly.
What else could a girl want? (Ok, I could list a few more things, eh...)
Funnily enough it took me about two days to fall into my daily "schedule" of vacations. Which means that I very rarely get to bed before 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. isn't exactly impossible either. Then I just allow myself to sleep in some. Not the best possible way to get everything done, but seems to work for me. You know, some people are morning people and some people, like me, just aren't. Although I do have to admit it'll be painful in August to try and get back to the work routine again, leaving for work little after 8 a.m. and getting to bed early enough... But I'll worry about that when the time comes closer. Now I can enjoy my quiet hours of the night, by the computer, reading a book or knitting. Isn't vacation fun?
In a completely unrelated matter, I have something to confess. I just love Indiska and I think I'm somewhat addicted to it. Ok, so anyone who knows me around here, knew this already, but I just had to say it out loud. :) You know, "Hi, my name is N.N. and I'm an Indiska-shopaholic." Luckily I don't usually have the money to shop too much anywhere, so my Indiska addiction has been pretty well under control. But sometimes, ah well, the body is weak.
My latest purchases include a surprising item - a lime green piece of clothing. I never, ever thought I could wear anything lime green, but turned out it suits me just fine. I bought a Indian style longer tunic of the colour and I'm already guessing it'll be my favourite piece of summer wear this year. With matching jewelry. :)
How shallow can a person be? I feel utterly ridiculous being so happy about something I bought. But well, I had to buy myself some summer clothes anyway and wouldn't it be awful if I didn't like what I purchased? I suppose it all comes down to the simple joys of life again. I'm easily pleased and not particularly afraid to confess I'm a materialist, at least to some extent. Now if I could only find some nice (and sort of cheap) summer shoes to match... ;)
But so that everyone will see that I haven't become a total airhead, there are also some more serious matters I've been pondering lately. Reading my thesis related books and listing the documents I'll be needing has lead me to wonder whether it'd actually be cheaper for me to fly RyanAir to London for a couple of days to go to the archives myself.
Ordering copies of all the relevant documents is going to be awfully expensive, I'm afraid. First there's a £10 fee for an official estimate of how many copies I will be needing from the National Archives where most of the letters and documents of Henry VIII's reign are kept. Then every batch of copies (I do still have to find out what kind of number of copies is included in a batch, or series) costs another £10 and so on. So let's say I need to order some five or six sets of copies (which to me sounds like an underestimation of huge proportions), the sum would be some £70. Quickly calculated that makes a bit over 100€. Then I can consider the RyanAir flights, around 30€ one way to London. Naturally I would have to spend at least one night in England, if I'm really, really optimistic about the amount of quick copying I can get done in a day (provided everything goes nicely in the archives of the Order and the National Archives), and that will naturally be more than 40€, even in the best case scenario. But still, if I need more copies than six batches, it all suddenly becomes more reasonable to consider going "on location". Besides, if I go to the archives myself, I can avoid copying irrelevant stuff, which isn't the case when ordering copies based on a short description of the document.
This really is bothering me quite a bit. In any case I'm probably going to have to rely on mom&dad's help to pay for the stuff (and I'm not even thinking about the printing costs of the actual thesis later on) and it bugs me that I have to begin to count my cents to finish my studies. And to think that some people get paid to do a thesis... Ah, the injustices of the world. What is a poor historian to do, but to quietly empty her pockets to the altar of research, hoping in vain for some compensation for her troubles... (I just have to keep thinking about the better income from teaching after I graduate. Which helps a lot, in fact.)
And another point to ponder. One of the key studies I'm now almost done reading mentions the Order only once in a footnote and a name of a high ranking official of the Order is mentioned once, as well. Woohoo. A lot of good it does for me. Except for teaching me a valuable lesson in research semantics. The Order is not a religious order by the definition of this particular study, which in every other way is excellent and extensive.
In other words, my research really seems to be falling into a "research void", which of course is what every historian hopes. I just hope it doesn't prove to be too great an obstacle (/challenge) for my puny thesis to overcome. God, that'd be horrible if I couldn't actually write my thesis on this topic. That'd mean I'd have to switch topics basically "in flight" and then put it together in less than two months' time. Keep your fingers crossed that it won't come to that... Yikes.
Anyway, I'm feeling rather optimistic about everything (well, perhaps not about the business economics exam in August, heh) and plan on working accordingly. Hopefully I'll be able to have that graduation party around the 21st of October. Just don't hold your breath quite yet.
What else could a girl want? (Ok, I could list a few more things, eh...)
Funnily enough it took me about two days to fall into my daily "schedule" of vacations. Which means that I very rarely get to bed before 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. isn't exactly impossible either. Then I just allow myself to sleep in some. Not the best possible way to get everything done, but seems to work for me. You know, some people are morning people and some people, like me, just aren't. Although I do have to admit it'll be painful in August to try and get back to the work routine again, leaving for work little after 8 a.m. and getting to bed early enough... But I'll worry about that when the time comes closer. Now I can enjoy my quiet hours of the night, by the computer, reading a book or knitting. Isn't vacation fun?
In a completely unrelated matter, I have something to confess. I just love Indiska and I think I'm somewhat addicted to it. Ok, so anyone who knows me around here, knew this already, but I just had to say it out loud. :) You know, "Hi, my name is N.N. and I'm an Indiska-shopaholic." Luckily I don't usually have the money to shop too much anywhere, so my Indiska addiction has been pretty well under control. But sometimes, ah well, the body is weak.
My latest purchases include a surprising item - a lime green piece of clothing. I never, ever thought I could wear anything lime green, but turned out it suits me just fine. I bought a Indian style longer tunic of the colour and I'm already guessing it'll be my favourite piece of summer wear this year. With matching jewelry. :)
How shallow can a person be? I feel utterly ridiculous being so happy about something I bought. But well, I had to buy myself some summer clothes anyway and wouldn't it be awful if I didn't like what I purchased? I suppose it all comes down to the simple joys of life again. I'm easily pleased and not particularly afraid to confess I'm a materialist, at least to some extent. Now if I could only find some nice (and sort of cheap) summer shoes to match... ;)
But so that everyone will see that I haven't become a total airhead, there are also some more serious matters I've been pondering lately. Reading my thesis related books and listing the documents I'll be needing has lead me to wonder whether it'd actually be cheaper for me to fly RyanAir to London for a couple of days to go to the archives myself.
Ordering copies of all the relevant documents is going to be awfully expensive, I'm afraid. First there's a £10 fee for an official estimate of how many copies I will be needing from the National Archives where most of the letters and documents of Henry VIII's reign are kept. Then every batch of copies (I do still have to find out what kind of number of copies is included in a batch, or series) costs another £10 and so on. So let's say I need to order some five or six sets of copies (which to me sounds like an underestimation of huge proportions), the sum would be some £70. Quickly calculated that makes a bit over 100€. Then I can consider the RyanAir flights, around 30€ one way to London. Naturally I would have to spend at least one night in England, if I'm really, really optimistic about the amount of quick copying I can get done in a day (provided everything goes nicely in the archives of the Order and the National Archives), and that will naturally be more than 40€, even in the best case scenario. But still, if I need more copies than six batches, it all suddenly becomes more reasonable to consider going "on location". Besides, if I go to the archives myself, I can avoid copying irrelevant stuff, which isn't the case when ordering copies based on a short description of the document.
This really is bothering me quite a bit. In any case I'm probably going to have to rely on mom&dad's help to pay for the stuff (and I'm not even thinking about the printing costs of the actual thesis later on) and it bugs me that I have to begin to count my cents to finish my studies. And to think that some people get paid to do a thesis... Ah, the injustices of the world. What is a poor historian to do, but to quietly empty her pockets to the altar of research, hoping in vain for some compensation for her troubles... (I just have to keep thinking about the better income from teaching after I graduate. Which helps a lot, in fact.)
And another point to ponder. One of the key studies I'm now almost done reading mentions the Order only once in a footnote and a name of a high ranking official of the Order is mentioned once, as well. Woohoo. A lot of good it does for me. Except for teaching me a valuable lesson in research semantics. The Order is not a religious order by the definition of this particular study, which in every other way is excellent and extensive.
In other words, my research really seems to be falling into a "research void", which of course is what every historian hopes. I just hope it doesn't prove to be too great an obstacle (/challenge) for my puny thesis to overcome. God, that'd be horrible if I couldn't actually write my thesis on this topic. That'd mean I'd have to switch topics basically "in flight" and then put it together in less than two months' time. Keep your fingers crossed that it won't come to that... Yikes.
Anyway, I'm feeling rather optimistic about everything (well, perhaps not about the business economics exam in August, heh) and plan on working accordingly. Hopefully I'll be able to have that graduation party around the 21st of October. Just don't hold your breath quite yet.
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Kinda like summer vacation
My first full academic year of teaching comes to an end this Saturday. I'm facing a 2 month unemployment period (aka the summer vacation I don't actually have) during which I'm employing myself by writing my thesis (which, sadly, doesn't pay me a cent).
However, I'm actually looking forward to digging into my research, because it means I don't have to teach anyone for two and a half months... Ah, no students of any age until mid-August! :) Just me and my laptop (got a brand new one last week, yay!) and my research stuff. The thought is very motivating and oddly relaxing, although I know it's going to be a lot of work. Especially since I have to take a few exams during the summer months, too. Keep your fingers crossed that I'll finally pass the accursed business economics exam and the exam on political sciences. I have no worries over the exam in Finnish history, but these other two... Urgh. But I simply have to pass this time, because I won't have time to retake them in the fall.
So, I'm eagerly looking forward to my summer vacation of sorts. At least I can plan my own schedules and don't have to grade any papers! And come next summer, I'll actually get a paycheck during the summer months too. The thought makes me very happy already a year in advance. Small joys of life. :)
However, I'm actually looking forward to digging into my research, because it means I don't have to teach anyone for two and a half months... Ah, no students of any age until mid-August! :) Just me and my laptop (got a brand new one last week, yay!) and my research stuff. The thought is very motivating and oddly relaxing, although I know it's going to be a lot of work. Especially since I have to take a few exams during the summer months, too. Keep your fingers crossed that I'll finally pass the accursed business economics exam and the exam on political sciences. I have no worries over the exam in Finnish history, but these other two... Urgh. But I simply have to pass this time, because I won't have time to retake them in the fall.
So, I'm eagerly looking forward to my summer vacation of sorts. At least I can plan my own schedules and don't have to grade any papers! And come next summer, I'll actually get a paycheck during the summer months too. The thought makes me very happy already a year in advance. Small joys of life. :)
Sunday, May 21, 2006
When hell froze over and other entertaining events
Finland is in turmoil. People are seriously questioning their mental health and the number of pinches given and received within the last 12 hours has, without a doubt, at least quadrupled. There are even people who think that it has now been proven that alternate realities do, in fact, exist.
What happened? Well. Finland won the friggin' Eurovision Song Contest with the monster rock number Hard Rock Hallelujah! by the awesome monstergroup Lordi. Yay to the millionth power!
I thought I'd never be able to write an entry like this. Ever. It wasn't supposed to be possible. It was supposed to be more likely for mankind to find life on Mars than Finland to win the ESC. We've participated some 40 times and up til last night, the record was pretty poor. Loads of zero points, awful performances (and I mean some truly dreadful ones) and last places on the score board.
But no more. Lordi rocked the whole continent (and then some) and did what nobody thought they could do. Took the price home and brought the Eurovision Song Contest to Helsinki for 2007.
I couldn't be happier for the band. Their appearance is such that there has been endless debates in the media about whether or not they are some sort of satanists or something. Well, to make things quite clear, they're NOT. And for them to win after having to face so much prejudice and ignorance - awesome!
So now as hell has frozen over (the other thing more likely to happen than Finland winning), it's time for the Finnish national broadcasting company to start thinking about the tiny little business of arranging the contest next year. I wonder what'll become of that. But for the first time in years I'll actually be interested in this carneval of camp humour that the ESC is. Go Lordi! You rrrrraaawwwwkkk!
Other entertaining events include an evening at the movies. Went to see the Da Vinci Code with Tytti and Jani. And I was entertained. Just as I wanted to be, when watching the movie version of the novel.
I think this movie is, once again, a prime example of people taking things too seriously. I can't understand what it is with people and their lack of understanding the concept of fiction. Sure, there are historical factoids (and even some real facts) included in the story, but fercrissakes, it's still mostly fiction and written with the aim to entertain (and obviously earn the writer a few bucks), just like any other lightweight novel.
What never seizes to amaze me, however, is the whole different set of standards people tend to apply to novels that deal with the church and its past. Or perhaps it's envy talking. Here's this mediochre author, who just happens to stumble over an old idea (and yes, that's what the story is) and manages to wrap it up in new covers and make a bazillion dollars out of it. So stop whining - the Templars, the Holy Grail, the Catholic church with its mysteries and the works of Da Vinci have been out there for centuries, up for grabs for any storyteller. If you didn't think of writing the novel yourself, get over it and find another idea.
And the ever powerful Catholic church should get over it, too. I mean, they really should be more worried about how the ban on birth control devices is spreading death and disease and creating misery for thousands and thousands of people around the worlds, instead of waving their fists at some piece of literature, in this case a.k.a. fiction. And if they're really so worried about people getting the wrong ideas about the church and/or abandoning their Catholic faith because of possible misconceptions about the role of Mary of Magdala in Jesus' life or such organisations as Opus Dei - once again, stop whining about it and start a facelift of sorts to attract the "lost lambs" back. And to be frank, if a simple fictional story about the holy grail can make the church feel so vulnerable, isn't there something wrong with the picture in the first place?
Anyhow, back from the land of rant... I thought the movie was a perfect way to spend a Saturday evening after a truly horrible week of work. Relaxing and amusing, with a hint of history and mystery and some action, too. Spot on for me in my state of mental awareness. :)
I actually liked the way they brought the past into the present of the movie by using "ghosts of the past" as a visual aid. And even though the characters had to solve some of the riddles a bit quicker than in the book, they still were awfully slow with the missing orb and Sir Isaac Newton's grave. :) And Paul Bettany's Silas. He was disturbing, just as he was supposed to be. I often quite like Bettany's work and this role was no exception.
Now it's time for me to get back to work. Tomorrow's the last prep course session before the rehearsal exam. Yay! Then it's only the exam and a review session a week from Tuesday. despite the course being loads of fun, I'm going to be so happy to be done with it. At least for a year. Phew.
What happened? Well. Finland won the friggin' Eurovision Song Contest with the monster rock number Hard Rock Hallelujah! by the awesome monstergroup Lordi. Yay to the millionth power!
I thought I'd never be able to write an entry like this. Ever. It wasn't supposed to be possible. It was supposed to be more likely for mankind to find life on Mars than Finland to win the ESC. We've participated some 40 times and up til last night, the record was pretty poor. Loads of zero points, awful performances (and I mean some truly dreadful ones) and last places on the score board.
But no more. Lordi rocked the whole continent (and then some) and did what nobody thought they could do. Took the price home and brought the Eurovision Song Contest to Helsinki for 2007.
I couldn't be happier for the band. Their appearance is such that there has been endless debates in the media about whether or not they are some sort of satanists or something. Well, to make things quite clear, they're NOT. And for them to win after having to face so much prejudice and ignorance - awesome!
So now as hell has frozen over (the other thing more likely to happen than Finland winning), it's time for the Finnish national broadcasting company to start thinking about the tiny little business of arranging the contest next year. I wonder what'll become of that. But for the first time in years I'll actually be interested in this carneval of camp humour that the ESC is. Go Lordi! You rrrrraaawwwwkkk!
Other entertaining events include an evening at the movies. Went to see the Da Vinci Code with Tytti and Jani. And I was entertained. Just as I wanted to be, when watching the movie version of the novel.
I think this movie is, once again, a prime example of people taking things too seriously. I can't understand what it is with people and their lack of understanding the concept of fiction. Sure, there are historical factoids (and even some real facts) included in the story, but fercrissakes, it's still mostly fiction and written with the aim to entertain (and obviously earn the writer a few bucks), just like any other lightweight novel.
What never seizes to amaze me, however, is the whole different set of standards people tend to apply to novels that deal with the church and its past. Or perhaps it's envy talking. Here's this mediochre author, who just happens to stumble over an old idea (and yes, that's what the story is) and manages to wrap it up in new covers and make a bazillion dollars out of it. So stop whining - the Templars, the Holy Grail, the Catholic church with its mysteries and the works of Da Vinci have been out there for centuries, up for grabs for any storyteller. If you didn't think of writing the novel yourself, get over it and find another idea.
And the ever powerful Catholic church should get over it, too. I mean, they really should be more worried about how the ban on birth control devices is spreading death and disease and creating misery for thousands and thousands of people around the worlds, instead of waving their fists at some piece of literature, in this case a.k.a. fiction. And if they're really so worried about people getting the wrong ideas about the church and/or abandoning their Catholic faith because of possible misconceptions about the role of Mary of Magdala in Jesus' life or such organisations as Opus Dei - once again, stop whining about it and start a facelift of sorts to attract the "lost lambs" back. And to be frank, if a simple fictional story about the holy grail can make the church feel so vulnerable, isn't there something wrong with the picture in the first place?
Anyhow, back from the land of rant... I thought the movie was a perfect way to spend a Saturday evening after a truly horrible week of work. Relaxing and amusing, with a hint of history and mystery and some action, too. Spot on for me in my state of mental awareness. :)
I actually liked the way they brought the past into the present of the movie by using "ghosts of the past" as a visual aid. And even though the characters had to solve some of the riddles a bit quicker than in the book, they still were awfully slow with the missing orb and Sir Isaac Newton's grave. :) And Paul Bettany's Silas. He was disturbing, just as he was supposed to be. I often quite like Bettany's work and this role was no exception.
Now it's time for me to get back to work. Tomorrow's the last prep course session before the rehearsal exam. Yay! Then it's only the exam and a review session a week from Tuesday. despite the course being loads of fun, I'm going to be so happy to be done with it. At least for a year. Phew.
Friday, May 12, 2006
Living la vida loca
Phew. I'm still alive. A cause for minor celebration, I'd say. Something like allowing myself to go and watch a little bit of Bride and Prejudice or something. Basically just kick back and relax for a short while. I think I've deserved it.
This May seems to be turning into a month of all work and no play, with the prep course going on (we're already two thirds done with it, as far as the materials go), the first week of the month having been a week of triple work (my lessons at school, my mom's lessons at school while she was in Paris and the prep course in the evenings) and now all the essays & 7th grader exams are piling up on my desk, just waiting to be graded. I could use some five extra hours in my days right about now. I'd probably use three of them for sleeping, mind you. But it'd be all for the best anyway, I'm sure. As it is (without the five extra hours), I'm feeling pretty battered. (And hug-deprived, but that's another matter entirely, heh.)
The prep course, no matter how exhausting, is solid good fun. Highly motivating for me, and challenging, too. This year's group is a bit livelier than the one I had last year, possibly at least partly because there are several students that are a bit older than this year's graduates from high school. They seem to have the nerve to interrupt me and ask tough questions, which is such a good sign. Although they do tend to stick to the more irrelevant questions, like the names of people in lower positions in all sorts of committees during the 1840's in Finland - which is so not the point of the book. There is still some historical thinking to be learned there. I keep telling them to think about the questions "why?" and "how?" so that they'd get the required depth to their essays, but it seems to be a tough nut to break, finding the relevant "chains" of cause and effect. But it's great to see how they start getting better results.
What is going to be interesting is to wait for the results of the entrance exam itself. At this point I think there are several students who have a very good chance of getting in, some that have a good chance if they keep working hard and a few who really need to work on their essays. But that's the way it was last year, and most of them got in just fine. I'm just going to be probably almost as nervous as the students will be, waiting for the day when the results come.
Having said all this, I must admit, once again, that I'll be sooo relieved when I'm done with the course. Which'll be on the 30th. I'll be so ready to not have to teach anything for a while. I can just concentrate on my own stuff, according to my own schedules (hmm, I think I may have to spend some time soon just planning that schedule). I'm actually quite looking forward to it. I just hope I'll get my research well on its way soon, meaning that I hope I'll be able to get all the materials I need without too many problems. If that happens, I can just sit down and write, write, write. (And read, read, read.)
But until then, I'll just try to keep my head above the waves, so to say. There are things that need to be done before June 3rd, and there can be no excuses. However, now it's time for some silly Bollywoodish entertainment or something, tomorrow is the day for the next ton of work.
This May seems to be turning into a month of all work and no play, with the prep course going on (we're already two thirds done with it, as far as the materials go), the first week of the month having been a week of triple work (my lessons at school, my mom's lessons at school while she was in Paris and the prep course in the evenings) and now all the essays & 7th grader exams are piling up on my desk, just waiting to be graded. I could use some five extra hours in my days right about now. I'd probably use three of them for sleeping, mind you. But it'd be all for the best anyway, I'm sure. As it is (without the five extra hours), I'm feeling pretty battered. (And hug-deprived, but that's another matter entirely, heh.)
The prep course, no matter how exhausting, is solid good fun. Highly motivating for me, and challenging, too. This year's group is a bit livelier than the one I had last year, possibly at least partly because there are several students that are a bit older than this year's graduates from high school. They seem to have the nerve to interrupt me and ask tough questions, which is such a good sign. Although they do tend to stick to the more irrelevant questions, like the names of people in lower positions in all sorts of committees during the 1840's in Finland - which is so not the point of the book. There is still some historical thinking to be learned there. I keep telling them to think about the questions "why?" and "how?" so that they'd get the required depth to their essays, but it seems to be a tough nut to break, finding the relevant "chains" of cause and effect. But it's great to see how they start getting better results.
What is going to be interesting is to wait for the results of the entrance exam itself. At this point I think there are several students who have a very good chance of getting in, some that have a good chance if they keep working hard and a few who really need to work on their essays. But that's the way it was last year, and most of them got in just fine. I'm just going to be probably almost as nervous as the students will be, waiting for the day when the results come.
Having said all this, I must admit, once again, that I'll be sooo relieved when I'm done with the course. Which'll be on the 30th. I'll be so ready to not have to teach anything for a while. I can just concentrate on my own stuff, according to my own schedules (hmm, I think I may have to spend some time soon just planning that schedule). I'm actually quite looking forward to it. I just hope I'll get my research well on its way soon, meaning that I hope I'll be able to get all the materials I need without too many problems. If that happens, I can just sit down and write, write, write. (And read, read, read.)
But until then, I'll just try to keep my head above the waves, so to say. There are things that need to be done before June 3rd, and there can be no excuses. However, now it's time for some silly Bollywoodish entertainment or something, tomorrow is the day for the next ton of work.
Thursday, April 20, 2006
It's that time of the year again
Could someone kindly tell me where did the whole of April go? It can't be this late in the month already - it was supposed to be a long while before this year's prep course begins, and now it's finally dawned on me that it starts next Wednesday. Sheesh.
This year's course has more students on it than I had last spring. Maybe it has helped that my course was mentioned in the company's brochure as a course with a record-high acceptance rate into the University. Apparently my 70% result was pretty good - and of course it was. I was stunned myself. Anyhow, now I have at least 16 eager wannabe-historians to coach, starting next week. The course will take the whole May, three evenings a week, so I foresee a lot of stress and scurrying to get everything done, but heck, the course will be so much fun to teach. And while at work I can now concentrate on the kiddies (7th graders' history is all I have in my schedule), who don't need to write dozens of essays, I may be able to survive everything. :)
Oh, and marvellous news on the "real" job front. It is now almost 100% certain I'll get the fulltime job for next year! Wheeee! It seems I beat a few PhD's to it - nobody else has the required subject combination of both history and Finnish. This is very good news, also in the sense that now I know there aren't that many people around with the same competence as I have. Hopefully it'll be an ace in my sleeve also in the future. And to be able to say I've got two full academic years' worth of experience teaching both subjects in both junior and senior high - it can't be bad. Yay!
All in all, a good day today. Got my tax papers: come December I'll be getting a considerable tax refund (well, considerable by the scale of my current budget) and then at work, the principal asked if I could take a few more extra lessons into my schedule next year, which definitely means I'm as good as hired. This is brilliant!
Oh, and I got my first postcrossing card yesterday. It came from the US.
Pretty, isn't it?
Now I'm just waiting to receive more cards - and a few of my cards to be delivered, so I can get a new batch of addresses.
This year's course has more students on it than I had last spring. Maybe it has helped that my course was mentioned in the company's brochure as a course with a record-high acceptance rate into the University. Apparently my 70% result was pretty good - and of course it was. I was stunned myself. Anyhow, now I have at least 16 eager wannabe-historians to coach, starting next week. The course will take the whole May, three evenings a week, so I foresee a lot of stress and scurrying to get everything done, but heck, the course will be so much fun to teach. And while at work I can now concentrate on the kiddies (7th graders' history is all I have in my schedule), who don't need to write dozens of essays, I may be able to survive everything. :)
Oh, and marvellous news on the "real" job front. It is now almost 100% certain I'll get the fulltime job for next year! Wheeee! It seems I beat a few PhD's to it - nobody else has the required subject combination of both history and Finnish. This is very good news, also in the sense that now I know there aren't that many people around with the same competence as I have. Hopefully it'll be an ace in my sleeve also in the future. And to be able to say I've got two full academic years' worth of experience teaching both subjects in both junior and senior high - it can't be bad. Yay!
All in all, a good day today. Got my tax papers: come December I'll be getting a considerable tax refund (well, considerable by the scale of my current budget) and then at work, the principal asked if I could take a few more extra lessons into my schedule next year, which definitely means I'm as good as hired. This is brilliant!
Oh, and I got my first postcrossing card yesterday. It came from the US.
Pretty, isn't it?
Now I'm just waiting to receive more cards - and a few of my cards to be delivered, so I can get a new batch of addresses.
Friday, April 07, 2006
The internet generation goes retro
Yay. I got a new hobby for myself. Postcrossing. I heard about it quite some time ago, managed to forget all about it until a couple of my friends began talking about it. And yesterday I finally registered.
So what's it all about, then? Well, simple as this. You register, you get an address where you'll send a postcard and in return you get a card from someone from somewhere in the world. Repeat as often as you want - as long as you keep the cards going, you'll be getting them too. I've now got five cards waiting to be sent tomorrow, to Canada, Austria, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy. Wonder where I'll get my first cards from?
It'll be so much fun getting old-fashioned mail. In this era of lightning fast communications and easily deleted emails, a real postcard or a letter is just wonderful. It's something you can touch, you can see the touch of the sender in it and it's an actual piece of that other culture sent to you.
I love communicating with even my most distant friends via my blog and lj, emails or icq / messenger, but the magic of mail has not vanished. I remember clearly how much fun it was to receive and write letters when I was younger - and when there was no internet. Many of my friends remember how they also had bought international penpal addresses, just like I did. I remember getting my first English language penpals around the age of 9 or 10 or so, through a special organisation. I was in elementary school, and had only studied English for a couple of years. I think my first longtime penpals were from Australia, England and Germany. I also remember writing to a girl in Canada for quite a while, to a girl in the US for a shorter while and only a couple of letters to a boy in Egypt. I think I may have to try and find those old letters one of these days.
I recall the absolute excitement of ordering those addressess - you could wish for penpals in specific countries, I think my "cool countries" were (already back then) Australia, New Zealand, Egypt and Great Britain - and then waiting for the first letters to arrive. And the same goes with the letters that would come from friends in Finland. For years and years I, for example, exchanged letters with my dad's second cousin, who shared my enthusiasm for horses. She later owned quite a few horses herself and the letters would be full of news of their life (in addition to the other regular topics, such as school and boys, heh). And getting them was always a thrill. Oh, the days when the treasure chest that was the mailbox had several letters to offer on a single day. That was loads better than for example any normal Wednesday, when the Donald Duck mag came (I had to negotiate with my brother who'd get to read it first...) - and the mag was the highlight of many a week.
The most recent experiences with proper letters I have are from my exchange year. No internet back then, not that I was aware of it, anyway. And to avoid skyrocketing phonebills on both sides of the Atlantic, letters were the best way of communicating. Imagine how happy I was to receive thick envelopes full of news from home from mom&dad or my friends. A tiny bit of home brought to me by the kind postman.
What is it that makes the old-fashioned mail so enchanting? I think it has to be the time and effort put into it. It's so easy to just quickly type a short email to a friend that the trouble of writing a letter is somehow overwhelming.
First of all, there's the language. Whether it be in Finnish or English, letters (at least in my opinion) demand a little bit more from the writer. I may be an uptight Finnish teacher, but I've always preferred letters that are written properly. I don't mind grammatical errors and such in netspeak nowadays (my own email language is horrid at times, and I'm more than willing to admit it), but letters, that's a whole different matter. Or at least so it feels to me.
Perhaps it's just the way I'm "built" around language. Words are so powerful and even more so on paper. It's the reason it's extremely easy to impress me with smooth writing (if there are no mistakes in the Finnish compound nouns or punctuation in the writing, I'll probably have a positive attitude towards the writer) and equally easy to disappoint me with simple mistakes. I'm quite certain that I'd fall for a guy who could write me an old-fashioned love letter, with no grammar mistakes in it, written in a skillfull and witty style, combined with original thoughts. (Right, I'm not asking for much, am I?)
And in addition to the language, it's a question of taking the time and concentrating on something - the other person. It really makes a letter (or even a postcard) so much more personal. Especially a handwritten letter. The writer has taken the time out of his/her schedule to sit down and scribble a letter to you - how wonderful is that? There's no "cut and paste" -option, but only the writer's skill to plan his writing.
With emails the conversing is quite often fast enough to be just that - a conversation. We sit by our computers all the time, and immediate replies are easy to send (at best it's almost like using a messenger or something). And the conversational aspect of it is enhanced with quotations from previous emails and so on. It's easy to remind the recipient of their own words, when you can just "quote it inline" and write your comments in between. What else is it, if not a written conversation, with its more direct reactions and immediate responses? But when writing a letter, you have a blank page in front of you and you have to form your message so that it will remind the other person of the original question or thought and yet mainly concentrate on what you want to say about the matter.
Now that I think of this, perhaps in this lies a small fraction of a reason why the results of the Finnish exams are getting worse by the year. I've already seen the level of writing skills of the average senior high student, and I must say, it's not very impressive for the most part (however, there are always brilliant exceptions, fortunately). And when the most important writing skills that are practiced in school are different kinds of essays, in which it is often necessary to be able to parafrase a source's ideas in your own text, in your own words - perhaps my generation got more practice in it just by writing letters? Probably a far-fetched idea, but an idea nevertheless. I think I'll discuss this with mom later this weekend...
So, to sum it all up. I love the idea of getting postcards from around the world and letters, well, they have the magic. :)
Another new thing in my life. A very good CD of wonderful music. I bought the CD Mi sangre by Juanes - you may know the guy, looks like Antonio Banderas and sings the song "La camisa negra". This is my spring CD. I've listened to it several times in a row now and it brings a smile on my face and makes me want to take a few dance steps every once and a while. Perfect!
Now that I have spring music, I'd like to have spring, too. It's been a ridiculously cold and snowy (!) April so far. It snowed today, and there have been huge rags of sleet in the air several times this past two weeks. Icky. Luckily most of it melts away pretty soon, but the mere sight of fresh snow on the ground is so depressing at this point of the year. I want sunshine, pretty flowers and days when I don't have to wear my warm winter coat and my hat or my thick scarf anymore!
Or perhaps it's just Mother Nature's way of telling me to quickly finish up my knitting - I've got about three more sets of stripes to go before I'm done. Hmm. I'd better get knitting then, if that's what all this snow is about.
So what's it all about, then? Well, simple as this. You register, you get an address where you'll send a postcard and in return you get a card from someone from somewhere in the world. Repeat as often as you want - as long as you keep the cards going, you'll be getting them too. I've now got five cards waiting to be sent tomorrow, to Canada, Austria, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy. Wonder where I'll get my first cards from?
It'll be so much fun getting old-fashioned mail. In this era of lightning fast communications and easily deleted emails, a real postcard or a letter is just wonderful. It's something you can touch, you can see the touch of the sender in it and it's an actual piece of that other culture sent to you.
I love communicating with even my most distant friends via my blog and lj, emails or icq / messenger, but the magic of mail has not vanished. I remember clearly how much fun it was to receive and write letters when I was younger - and when there was no internet. Many of my friends remember how they also had bought international penpal addresses, just like I did. I remember getting my first English language penpals around the age of 9 or 10 or so, through a special organisation. I was in elementary school, and had only studied English for a couple of years. I think my first longtime penpals were from Australia, England and Germany. I also remember writing to a girl in Canada for quite a while, to a girl in the US for a shorter while and only a couple of letters to a boy in Egypt. I think I may have to try and find those old letters one of these days.
I recall the absolute excitement of ordering those addressess - you could wish for penpals in specific countries, I think my "cool countries" were (already back then) Australia, New Zealand, Egypt and Great Britain - and then waiting for the first letters to arrive. And the same goes with the letters that would come from friends in Finland. For years and years I, for example, exchanged letters with my dad's second cousin, who shared my enthusiasm for horses. She later owned quite a few horses herself and the letters would be full of news of their life (in addition to the other regular topics, such as school and boys, heh). And getting them was always a thrill. Oh, the days when the treasure chest that was the mailbox had several letters to offer on a single day. That was loads better than for example any normal Wednesday, when the Donald Duck mag came (I had to negotiate with my brother who'd get to read it first...) - and the mag was the highlight of many a week.
The most recent experiences with proper letters I have are from my exchange year. No internet back then, not that I was aware of it, anyway. And to avoid skyrocketing phonebills on both sides of the Atlantic, letters were the best way of communicating. Imagine how happy I was to receive thick envelopes full of news from home from mom&dad or my friends. A tiny bit of home brought to me by the kind postman.
What is it that makes the old-fashioned mail so enchanting? I think it has to be the time and effort put into it. It's so easy to just quickly type a short email to a friend that the trouble of writing a letter is somehow overwhelming.
First of all, there's the language. Whether it be in Finnish or English, letters (at least in my opinion) demand a little bit more from the writer. I may be an uptight Finnish teacher, but I've always preferred letters that are written properly. I don't mind grammatical errors and such in netspeak nowadays (my own email language is horrid at times, and I'm more than willing to admit it), but letters, that's a whole different matter. Or at least so it feels to me.
Perhaps it's just the way I'm "built" around language. Words are so powerful and even more so on paper. It's the reason it's extremely easy to impress me with smooth writing (if there are no mistakes in the Finnish compound nouns or punctuation in the writing, I'll probably have a positive attitude towards the writer) and equally easy to disappoint me with simple mistakes. I'm quite certain that I'd fall for a guy who could write me an old-fashioned love letter, with no grammar mistakes in it, written in a skillfull and witty style, combined with original thoughts. (Right, I'm not asking for much, am I?)
And in addition to the language, it's a question of taking the time and concentrating on something - the other person. It really makes a letter (or even a postcard) so much more personal. Especially a handwritten letter. The writer has taken the time out of his/her schedule to sit down and scribble a letter to you - how wonderful is that? There's no "cut and paste" -option, but only the writer's skill to plan his writing.
With emails the conversing is quite often fast enough to be just that - a conversation. We sit by our computers all the time, and immediate replies are easy to send (at best it's almost like using a messenger or something). And the conversational aspect of it is enhanced with quotations from previous emails and so on. It's easy to remind the recipient of their own words, when you can just "quote it inline" and write your comments in between. What else is it, if not a written conversation, with its more direct reactions and immediate responses? But when writing a letter, you have a blank page in front of you and you have to form your message so that it will remind the other person of the original question or thought and yet mainly concentrate on what you want to say about the matter.
Now that I think of this, perhaps in this lies a small fraction of a reason why the results of the Finnish exams are getting worse by the year. I've already seen the level of writing skills of the average senior high student, and I must say, it's not very impressive for the most part (however, there are always brilliant exceptions, fortunately). And when the most important writing skills that are practiced in school are different kinds of essays, in which it is often necessary to be able to parafrase a source's ideas in your own text, in your own words - perhaps my generation got more practice in it just by writing letters? Probably a far-fetched idea, but an idea nevertheless. I think I'll discuss this with mom later this weekend...
So, to sum it all up. I love the idea of getting postcards from around the world and letters, well, they have the magic. :)
Another new thing in my life. A very good CD of wonderful music. I bought the CD Mi sangre by Juanes - you may know the guy, looks like Antonio Banderas and sings the song "La camisa negra". This is my spring CD. I've listened to it several times in a row now and it brings a smile on my face and makes me want to take a few dance steps every once and a while. Perfect!
Now that I have spring music, I'd like to have spring, too. It's been a ridiculously cold and snowy (!) April so far. It snowed today, and there have been huge rags of sleet in the air several times this past two weeks. Icky. Luckily most of it melts away pretty soon, but the mere sight of fresh snow on the ground is so depressing at this point of the year. I want sunshine, pretty flowers and days when I don't have to wear my warm winter coat and my hat or my thick scarf anymore!
Or perhaps it's just Mother Nature's way of telling me to quickly finish up my knitting - I've got about three more sets of stripes to go before I'm done. Hmm. I'd better get knitting then, if that's what all this snow is about.
Monday, March 27, 2006
What I have been thinking about
I've been shamefully neglecting my blogging lately. It's not like I would've been exceptionally busy, just standard busy I think, but there have been a few reasons I haven't posted anything for a while. First of all, I haven't felt like I have anything to say. I've had a few things I've thought about quite a bit recently, but somehow I haven't felt like blogging about them. Secondly, my "therapeutic" writing has lately been silly fanfic-stuff - and that is a whole different world which will never see the daylight of a wider public. So, what this has resulted in is a lazily updated blog. Sorry about that.
To compensate, a post about all sorts of random things I've been pondering about since my last post.
About owning a car
Or to be more precise, not owning one. Getting to and from work is a combination of getting rides from coworkers who happen to have similar schedules and catching buses, that have even remotely reasonable schedules. The trip to Nousiainen, which takes me 20 minutes by car (one way), takes me at absolute worst almost an hour and a half.
Today, once again, as I was standing at the bus stop in Nousiainen, waiting for the bus which was some 7 minutes late, I amused myself by watching the cars that drove by. There were quite a few of my students, one driving a fancy Alfa Romeo, one driving a shabby Fiat, one very tall guy cramped in a tiny little car of some sort (perhaps an old VW Polo) and two students in a sporty car of some other sort. Most of them waved at me when they drove by. A nice gesture - an old teacher lady like myself always likes it when young and handsome men smile and wave from cars that drive by... Hah.
No, but seriously, I'm so itching to get a car. And while I can't have this before I win some serious lottery money, I would settle for something more compact, too. Just as long as it is an automatic, airconditioned, 4-wheel drive more compact something. With proper stereos and wheels and loads of chrome... Oh wait, what was my budget again? Doesn't exist? Ahem. Well. Anyway, I'm just saying I want wheels!
About the joys of having to be in the bus with other people
Oh, and today I wanted wheels more than in a while. The bus I took home picked up about half a dozen junior high school kids from Masku and among them was the rudest, most obnoxious little brat ever. He was clearly seriously lacking in braincells. He stomped in, rudely threw his ticket at the driver ("So it's ripped, I don't give a f***, it's your effin' problem, not mine, bitch..." etc.) and went to the back of the bus, followed by his giggling (almost equally obnoxious) court. He then began to (loudly) bitch about how he had been treated in the morning by the busdriver (not the same guy driving this particular bus) and without exaggerating one bit, at least every other of his words was a swearword.
My god, it was disgusting. I grinded my teeth - I didn't want to get involved, because I have my share of obnoxious junior high kids at work and I don't want to be educating someone else's students on my free time, but the driver just pulled over and shared a few thoughts with the kid. One of them being a suggestion the kid could take a hike right away. I warmly (but silently) seconded that thought, but unfortunately the kid chose to remain in the bus (and continued bitching only a little less loudly). A couple of bus stops later, when he and a couple of his friends were going to get off, one girl hissed at him to shut it up. But alas, to no effect. As his last words the incredibly stupid idiot of a git yelled to the driver something along the lines of "Thanks, fu**er for the f****ng ride, f****ng queer whore!" Can you imagine? I was just furious.
What is it with kids today? I mean a kid like that has to have some problems at home or something, but still. It just doesn't fit in my head that some thirteen-year-old little snotnose thinks that it's somehow cool to act like a brainless moron and be rude to adults. Does not compute. Makes me mad. Grr.
About applying for a proper job
I've been anxious about my job situation, too. This part time job I've had this past academic year is going to be a full time teaching job next year. Which would suit me better than fine, because well, a full time job would bring in about double the money (and god knows I could use it). If only things were so simple. They're not.
So, I was asked by both principals if I would be interested in continuing at both the schools next fall, with the remarkably welcome addition of some 10 courses of stuff to teach to the courses I currently have. Barely able to remain still and behave respectably as a sudden urge to hop around happily like a hyper-active bunny almost overcame me, I managed to simply reply "Of course I am interested!", smiling like a cracked pumpkin. Both of the principals were very pleased to hear I would be available, but as it is, their word isn't final in this matter. In other words, "my job" is now open for anyone to apply for and I'm having angst attacks about not getting it.
Why? Well. It all comes down to that one little book I have to write first. And with my current plans of working on it all summer, I'll graduate at the earliest in late September, early October. And if there is a person with the same qualifications I have (qualified to teach both history and Finnish), but with the small extra of being a MA when I'm only BA till October, I'm out of the game, no questions asked. Granted, I do have the weirdest combination of subjects I can teach (history and Finnish used to be a lot more common combination), but it still doesn't guarantee there isn't someone that will run over me in the race for the job. Agh.
Today I took my application directly to the person who will be handling it and now I have to sit on my bum and wait for a couple of weeks. Much nervousness will be experienced before the "results are in". Hngh. I'll keep you posted, though.
About what I'm going to do with the money if I get the job described above
Ah. First of all, if I get the job, I will go and buy a laptop in August. :)
Then I will begin saving up so that I can travel. No later than in the summer of 2007 I will leave this country for at least some time. Be it to Malta, London or a tour of Wales and Scotland, I don't care. I'm going. I'm so going. Whoever wants to come along, better start saving up, too. :)
Although I'm afraid all my plans can go miserably wrong in a million ways (the first of them being not getting the full time job), but I don't care. I want to plan a wonderful trip nevertheless. A girl has got to dream.
About Harry Potter and his chums
Yes, I've been thinking about Potter a lot lately. I've been rereading the whole lot (at the moment I'm in the middle of The Order of the Phoenix, on my way to finally read the Finnish translation of The Half-Blood Prince) and I'm enjoying myself more than on the previous readings. It's only the second time I read some of the books (in English, that is) and I'd forgotten quite a lot of details and even some major plotpoints, which one tends to forget if one only watches the movies and doesn't freshen up the reading experience in the middle.
In any case, in addition to reading (and writing) about the world of young Mr Potter, I've also been knitting (!) according to Potter-verse. My scarf is now about 160 cm long and I've still got some way to go. I haven't knitted in well over ten years before this, but I suppose when all sorts of madnesses hit me, I'm ready to do quite surprising things. Like knitting a (movie) GoF -styled scarf. My only regret is that I probably won't finish it before spring properly begins (even though it's very kindly delaying its progress for me), so I won't be able to use it before next fall... In any case, being over-the-top fannish is sometimes so liberating. :)
And on Wednesday - time for the Goblet of Fire DVD! Whee! I'm so buying it asap and I will watch all the scenes with Viktor Krum in them that same evening! *lol* Watch, rewatch and rewatch... Including all the possible extras... Ah, it's good to be a nutter. :)
Well, I suppose it's always good to stop writing, when one's true nature becomes too obvious. In order to try to preserve at least some of my credibility somewhere, I will shut up now. Hopefully to be back a little sooner than after a month.
To compensate, a post about all sorts of random things I've been pondering about since my last post.
About owning a car
Or to be more precise, not owning one. Getting to and from work is a combination of getting rides from coworkers who happen to have similar schedules and catching buses, that have even remotely reasonable schedules. The trip to Nousiainen, which takes me 20 minutes by car (one way), takes me at absolute worst almost an hour and a half.
Today, once again, as I was standing at the bus stop in Nousiainen, waiting for the bus which was some 7 minutes late, I amused myself by watching the cars that drove by. There were quite a few of my students, one driving a fancy Alfa Romeo, one driving a shabby Fiat, one very tall guy cramped in a tiny little car of some sort (perhaps an old VW Polo) and two students in a sporty car of some other sort. Most of them waved at me when they drove by. A nice gesture - an old teacher lady like myself always likes it when young and handsome men smile and wave from cars that drive by... Hah.
No, but seriously, I'm so itching to get a car. And while I can't have this before I win some serious lottery money, I would settle for something more compact, too. Just as long as it is an automatic, airconditioned, 4-wheel drive more compact something. With proper stereos and wheels and loads of chrome... Oh wait, what was my budget again? Doesn't exist? Ahem. Well. Anyway, I'm just saying I want wheels!
About the joys of having to be in the bus with other people
Oh, and today I wanted wheels more than in a while. The bus I took home picked up about half a dozen junior high school kids from Masku and among them was the rudest, most obnoxious little brat ever. He was clearly seriously lacking in braincells. He stomped in, rudely threw his ticket at the driver ("So it's ripped, I don't give a f***, it's your effin' problem, not mine, bitch..." etc.) and went to the back of the bus, followed by his giggling (almost equally obnoxious) court. He then began to (loudly) bitch about how he had been treated in the morning by the busdriver (not the same guy driving this particular bus) and without exaggerating one bit, at least every other of his words was a swearword.
My god, it was disgusting. I grinded my teeth - I didn't want to get involved, because I have my share of obnoxious junior high kids at work and I don't want to be educating someone else's students on my free time, but the driver just pulled over and shared a few thoughts with the kid. One of them being a suggestion the kid could take a hike right away. I warmly (but silently) seconded that thought, but unfortunately the kid chose to remain in the bus (and continued bitching only a little less loudly). A couple of bus stops later, when he and a couple of his friends were going to get off, one girl hissed at him to shut it up. But alas, to no effect. As his last words the incredibly stupid idiot of a git yelled to the driver something along the lines of "Thanks, fu**er for the f****ng ride, f****ng queer whore!" Can you imagine? I was just furious.
What is it with kids today? I mean a kid like that has to have some problems at home or something, but still. It just doesn't fit in my head that some thirteen-year-old little snotnose thinks that it's somehow cool to act like a brainless moron and be rude to adults. Does not compute. Makes me mad. Grr.
About applying for a proper job
I've been anxious about my job situation, too. This part time job I've had this past academic year is going to be a full time teaching job next year. Which would suit me better than fine, because well, a full time job would bring in about double the money (and god knows I could use it). If only things were so simple. They're not.
So, I was asked by both principals if I would be interested in continuing at both the schools next fall, with the remarkably welcome addition of some 10 courses of stuff to teach to the courses I currently have. Barely able to remain still and behave respectably as a sudden urge to hop around happily like a hyper-active bunny almost overcame me, I managed to simply reply "Of course I am interested!", smiling like a cracked pumpkin. Both of the principals were very pleased to hear I would be available, but as it is, their word isn't final in this matter. In other words, "my job" is now open for anyone to apply for and I'm having angst attacks about not getting it.
Why? Well. It all comes down to that one little book I have to write first. And with my current plans of working on it all summer, I'll graduate at the earliest in late September, early October. And if there is a person with the same qualifications I have (qualified to teach both history and Finnish), but with the small extra of being a MA when I'm only BA till October, I'm out of the game, no questions asked. Granted, I do have the weirdest combination of subjects I can teach (history and Finnish used to be a lot more common combination), but it still doesn't guarantee there isn't someone that will run over me in the race for the job. Agh.
Today I took my application directly to the person who will be handling it and now I have to sit on my bum and wait for a couple of weeks. Much nervousness will be experienced before the "results are in". Hngh. I'll keep you posted, though.
About what I'm going to do with the money if I get the job described above
Ah. First of all, if I get the job, I will go and buy a laptop in August. :)
Then I will begin saving up so that I can travel. No later than in the summer of 2007 I will leave this country for at least some time. Be it to Malta, London or a tour of Wales and Scotland, I don't care. I'm going. I'm so going. Whoever wants to come along, better start saving up, too. :)
Although I'm afraid all my plans can go miserably wrong in a million ways (the first of them being not getting the full time job), but I don't care. I want to plan a wonderful trip nevertheless. A girl has got to dream.
About Harry Potter and his chums
Yes, I've been thinking about Potter a lot lately. I've been rereading the whole lot (at the moment I'm in the middle of The Order of the Phoenix, on my way to finally read the Finnish translation of The Half-Blood Prince) and I'm enjoying myself more than on the previous readings. It's only the second time I read some of the books (in English, that is) and I'd forgotten quite a lot of details and even some major plotpoints, which one tends to forget if one only watches the movies and doesn't freshen up the reading experience in the middle.
In any case, in addition to reading (and writing) about the world of young Mr Potter, I've also been knitting (!) according to Potter-verse. My scarf is now about 160 cm long and I've still got some way to go. I haven't knitted in well over ten years before this, but I suppose when all sorts of madnesses hit me, I'm ready to do quite surprising things. Like knitting a (movie) GoF -styled scarf. My only regret is that I probably won't finish it before spring properly begins (even though it's very kindly delaying its progress for me), so I won't be able to use it before next fall... In any case, being over-the-top fannish is sometimes so liberating. :)
And on Wednesday - time for the Goblet of Fire DVD! Whee! I'm so buying it asap and I will watch all the scenes with Viktor Krum in them that same evening! *lol* Watch, rewatch and rewatch... Including all the possible extras... Ah, it's good to be a nutter. :)
Well, I suppose it's always good to stop writing, when one's true nature becomes too obvious. In order to try to preserve at least some of my credibility somewhere, I will shut up now. Hopefully to be back a little sooner than after a month.
Sunday, February 26, 2006
If it comes in pints, I'll have one (or two)
What a great evening I had yesterday. It pretty much made up for the less than great winter vacation I spent mostly fighting off a cold and other ailments and studying for a boring exam. (Which, if I'm extremely lucky with my guesses, might get a passing grade - I'm keeping my fingers crossed.)
First of all, I started my evening at the housewarming party of Kaisa and Tero. Loads of friends and excellent discussions, heaps of tasty snacks and plenty of beverages, of which I didn't drink that much at all, due to my plans for the rest of the evening. But during the couple of hours I stayed at the party I was once again convinced that K&T sure know how to throw a good party. A room full of likeminded people lively chatting about lj's, Harry Potter, fanfic, translating literature, thesis writing problems (problems I share with Anckyria), television series, cars - you name it, it was probably discussed during the evening.
In other words, I know I left an excellent party behind, when I headed out for my "Muggle Evening" with my darling friend Satu. We had a leisurely plan: a movie and a couple of beers in a local Irish pub.
We went to see the movie The New World by Terrence Malick, starring such names as Colin Farrell, Christian Bale, David Thewlis and Q'Orianka Kilcher. I didn't know what to expect from the film, since I unfortunately haven't seen the previous movies by Malick and I hadn't read that much about this particular movie, either. Only that it is now Oscar nominated and highly praised by at least some critics.
What we saw was a breathtakingly beautiful, quiet, yet powerful movie. The story is, of course, a retelling of the story of "Pocahontas" and John Smith, in early 17th century settlement of Jamestown in Virginia.
In 1607 a small group of English settlers arrives in Virginia. Their aim is to build up a fort and lay down the foundations for a larger settlement. They don't arrive in empty lands, though. They encounter natives, of a tribe lead by a respected chief, Powhatan. His most beloved daughter, Pocahontas, eventually saves the life of an Englishman, John Smith. The incredients of one of the most famous love stories of all times are in place. Smith and young Pocahontas learn from each other and fall in love, only to be separated by life. Smith refuses to use the princess as a hostage and doesn't dare to think of a life with her. He returns to England by his king's command and asks that after two months time Pocahontas will be told he has died at sea. Pocahontas crumbles at the news and continues living in the settlement, subdued and hopeless, bound now by the standards (and corsets) of the English life style. In the end she accepts the proposal of John Rolfe and becomes his wife and the mother of his son. The life of the proud princess, now named Rebecca, ends in England, however, as the king and queen of England request her to present herself in court. Rebecca and her family travel to the land of her husband, where she is a success in court, but where she finally falls ill and dies far away from her native lands.
Terrence Malick is said to be a director who is obsessed with nature and quite possibly slightly too ambiguous in his storytelling to appeal to larger audiences. I think this is clearly visible in The New World. The movie is at times almost as a nature documentary, with the vibrant sceneries of Virginia in lead role. Combine this with stunning sunsets and sunrises, expert use of light, shade and camera angles in all the scenes and the sounds of nature all around, and you've got an aesthetically extremely pleasing film. This is only accentuated by the slow paced storytelling and the lingering close-ups of the characters. The whole movie is almost like a poem, and I felt very calm when leaving the theatre.
The casting of the movie is also excellent. Q'Orianka Kilcher is just about perfect as Pocahontas. She isn't overshadowed by her more experienced fellow actors (this was her big screen debut), but is able to build a believable and lovable character. Her Pocahontas is innocent, tragic, frail, strong, loving and human. And the camera seems to love her features.
I was also quite impressed by Colin Farrell - or at least by his eyes. He seemed to do most of the acting with his eyes in this one. There isn't that much dialogue to start with (most of the spoken words of the movie are voiced over thoughts of the characters, not in dialogue form), but Farrell is the sometimes confused, sometimes tough and sometimes very gentle man John Smith is depicted as in this story. Quite expressive eyes, he has. (And not bad hair, either...)
All in all I thought the movie was beautiful. It is not a wild adventure or a thrilling drama, but it's a thoughtful description of two cultures meeting and a touching love story. If you think you can handle a less direct way of storytelling and enjoy a quiet journey, I recommend you go see this one.
Satu and I continued our evening at The Castle, a new Irish pub quite close to the movie theatre. It turned out to be a place worth visiting and we were doubly delighted when we noticed it was actually an evening with live music there. So we got our drinks (a pint of Newcastle Brown Ale for me, thanks) and wandered to front row to listen to the band playing Irish music. At best it almost felt like we were in a real Irish pub in Ireland - even though we haven't been to Ireland. But it felt like it, alright. And we weren't approached by more than one drunkard, who amused us to no end claiming he was very cute when he's sober. Satu was all pins and needles and I almost spilled my beer trying not to laugh out loud when she calmly said to the guy that cuteness clearly was a feature which is accentuated by being sober. I could see the guy's brain try to work that out, hah. We're not an easy couple of gals to approach, if we don't want to be approached. Which usually is the case when someone has had a lot too much to drink.
We stayed till about 2.00 a.m. and headed home both feeling good and happy. A perfect evening. Must go back to The Castle soon. A nice pub, indeed.
What else could one want from a Saturday evening? Good friends, an excellent movie, couple of pints of good beer, jolly good music and everything. I think my annoyingly good mood will continue, even though it's back to work tomorrow.
First of all, I started my evening at the housewarming party of Kaisa and Tero. Loads of friends and excellent discussions, heaps of tasty snacks and plenty of beverages, of which I didn't drink that much at all, due to my plans for the rest of the evening. But during the couple of hours I stayed at the party I was once again convinced that K&T sure know how to throw a good party. A room full of likeminded people lively chatting about lj's, Harry Potter, fanfic, translating literature, thesis writing problems (problems I share with Anckyria), television series, cars - you name it, it was probably discussed during the evening.
In other words, I know I left an excellent party behind, when I headed out for my "Muggle Evening" with my darling friend Satu. We had a leisurely plan: a movie and a couple of beers in a local Irish pub.
We went to see the movie The New World by Terrence Malick, starring such names as Colin Farrell, Christian Bale, David Thewlis and Q'Orianka Kilcher. I didn't know what to expect from the film, since I unfortunately haven't seen the previous movies by Malick and I hadn't read that much about this particular movie, either. Only that it is now Oscar nominated and highly praised by at least some critics.
What we saw was a breathtakingly beautiful, quiet, yet powerful movie. The story is, of course, a retelling of the story of "Pocahontas" and John Smith, in early 17th century settlement of Jamestown in Virginia.
In 1607 a small group of English settlers arrives in Virginia. Their aim is to build up a fort and lay down the foundations for a larger settlement. They don't arrive in empty lands, though. They encounter natives, of a tribe lead by a respected chief, Powhatan. His most beloved daughter, Pocahontas, eventually saves the life of an Englishman, John Smith. The incredients of one of the most famous love stories of all times are in place. Smith and young Pocahontas learn from each other and fall in love, only to be separated by life. Smith refuses to use the princess as a hostage and doesn't dare to think of a life with her. He returns to England by his king's command and asks that after two months time Pocahontas will be told he has died at sea. Pocahontas crumbles at the news and continues living in the settlement, subdued and hopeless, bound now by the standards (and corsets) of the English life style. In the end she accepts the proposal of John Rolfe and becomes his wife and the mother of his son. The life of the proud princess, now named Rebecca, ends in England, however, as the king and queen of England request her to present herself in court. Rebecca and her family travel to the land of her husband, where she is a success in court, but where she finally falls ill and dies far away from her native lands.
Terrence Malick is said to be a director who is obsessed with nature and quite possibly slightly too ambiguous in his storytelling to appeal to larger audiences. I think this is clearly visible in The New World. The movie is at times almost as a nature documentary, with the vibrant sceneries of Virginia in lead role. Combine this with stunning sunsets and sunrises, expert use of light, shade and camera angles in all the scenes and the sounds of nature all around, and you've got an aesthetically extremely pleasing film. This is only accentuated by the slow paced storytelling and the lingering close-ups of the characters. The whole movie is almost like a poem, and I felt very calm when leaving the theatre.
The casting of the movie is also excellent. Q'Orianka Kilcher is just about perfect as Pocahontas. She isn't overshadowed by her more experienced fellow actors (this was her big screen debut), but is able to build a believable and lovable character. Her Pocahontas is innocent, tragic, frail, strong, loving and human. And the camera seems to love her features.
I was also quite impressed by Colin Farrell - or at least by his eyes. He seemed to do most of the acting with his eyes in this one. There isn't that much dialogue to start with (most of the spoken words of the movie are voiced over thoughts of the characters, not in dialogue form), but Farrell is the sometimes confused, sometimes tough and sometimes very gentle man John Smith is depicted as in this story. Quite expressive eyes, he has. (And not bad hair, either...)
All in all I thought the movie was beautiful. It is not a wild adventure or a thrilling drama, but it's a thoughtful description of two cultures meeting and a touching love story. If you think you can handle a less direct way of storytelling and enjoy a quiet journey, I recommend you go see this one.
Satu and I continued our evening at The Castle, a new Irish pub quite close to the movie theatre. It turned out to be a place worth visiting and we were doubly delighted when we noticed it was actually an evening with live music there. So we got our drinks (a pint of Newcastle Brown Ale for me, thanks) and wandered to front row to listen to the band playing Irish music. At best it almost felt like we were in a real Irish pub in Ireland - even though we haven't been to Ireland. But it felt like it, alright. And we weren't approached by more than one drunkard, who amused us to no end claiming he was very cute when he's sober. Satu was all pins and needles and I almost spilled my beer trying not to laugh out loud when she calmly said to the guy that cuteness clearly was a feature which is accentuated by being sober. I could see the guy's brain try to work that out, hah. We're not an easy couple of gals to approach, if we don't want to be approached. Which usually is the case when someone has had a lot too much to drink.
We stayed till about 2.00 a.m. and headed home both feeling good and happy. A perfect evening. Must go back to The Castle soon. A nice pub, indeed.
What else could one want from a Saturday evening? Good friends, an excellent movie, couple of pints of good beer, jolly good music and everything. I think my annoyingly good mood will continue, even though it's back to work tomorrow.
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Words in a cloud
My word cloud. Very appropriate, methinks.
You can make your own here. Thanks to Tigerlily for the idea. (Just what I needed to avoid studying for a couple more minutes, heh.)
Motivational problems
I have an exam tomorrow. It should be the last political sciences exam I ever have to take - if I pass it. I haven't got a hold of two of the four books I'm supposed to read for it and only the other one of the two that I've got is actually interesting. So things aren't looking too good, if I really think about it...
In other words, I'm suffering from extreme lack of motivation to study. Even though I know this could well be the last time I ever have to read about IGO's and INGO's (and even BINGO's, as I learned just a while ago) and it all takes me one step closer to graduating - I just feel utterly, completely and devastatingly BLAAAGH.
It could be also because this is not exactly my idea of a nice winter vacation. Here I am, sitting by the books, still suffering from the aftermath of a bad allergy attack and a cold, while it's gorgeous outside (only about -1 degrees or so, sun shines and everything is brilliantly wintery, with just the very slightest touch of spring in the air) and I have a million other things I'd rather be doing. Including walks outside (maybe I'll take a risk later today and despite my cold go for a short walk...), knitting, reading novels and short stories (the latter being work-related reading), writing silly fics or just about anything else. And yes, this entry is also a way to have a break from studying - just to keep me from falling asleep on top of the stupid book on international organizations.
I don't know what happened to my enthusiasm about studying somewhere along the line. I used to be a very motivated student (well, at least in high school) and I used to have no problems reading for exams. It can't all be because some of the minors I've been forced to take to qualify as a history teacher (economics and political sciences, that is) aren't my favorites. I should be able to concentrate nevertheless. I guess there's just too much going on in my head nowadays. I need a Pensieve, from the Harry Potter universe. A place where I could store all the extra thoughts while I need to study.
Ah, well. Enough ranting, back to the books. Blergh.
In other words, I'm suffering from extreme lack of motivation to study. Even though I know this could well be the last time I ever have to read about IGO's and INGO's (and even BINGO's, as I learned just a while ago) and it all takes me one step closer to graduating - I just feel utterly, completely and devastatingly BLAAAGH.
It could be also because this is not exactly my idea of a nice winter vacation. Here I am, sitting by the books, still suffering from the aftermath of a bad allergy attack and a cold, while it's gorgeous outside (only about -1 degrees or so, sun shines and everything is brilliantly wintery, with just the very slightest touch of spring in the air) and I have a million other things I'd rather be doing. Including walks outside (maybe I'll take a risk later today and despite my cold go for a short walk...), knitting, reading novels and short stories (the latter being work-related reading), writing silly fics or just about anything else. And yes, this entry is also a way to have a break from studying - just to keep me from falling asleep on top of the stupid book on international organizations.
I don't know what happened to my enthusiasm about studying somewhere along the line. I used to be a very motivated student (well, at least in high school) and I used to have no problems reading for exams. It can't all be because some of the minors I've been forced to take to qualify as a history teacher (economics and political sciences, that is) aren't my favorites. I should be able to concentrate nevertheless. I guess there's just too much going on in my head nowadays. I need a Pensieve, from the Harry Potter universe. A place where I could store all the extra thoughts while I need to study.
Ah, well. Enough ranting, back to the books. Blergh.
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
You are important to me
It's that one day of the year again when even the Finns, who are usually falsely considered grumpy and cold, tell their friends and loved ones they are important to them. Probably not in so many words, but little by little also our Northern nation is falling under the spell of the American candy-sugar-lovey-dovey Valentine's Day.
I went to town today and was genuinely happy to see so many people who had clearly bought flowers for their loved ones. Such a simple gesture, but effective nonetheless. I didn't get any flowers this year, since there is no one to buy them for me, but I did get to spend time with my friends (and Tytti even had bought me a chocolate heart - thanks, sweetie), which is always nice and even more so today.
I actually appreciate the fact that the whole Valentine's Day is known as "Friends' Day" in Finland, because otherwise it'd be so depressing to be single today. But since I have been feeling very cheerful lately (for no particular reason - I suspect there's a bit of spring in the air, who knows) , I refuse to be depressed by not getting any flowers from a Special person. Maybe I'll get some next year. :)
In other words, Happy Valentine's Day to everyone. You are important to me, even though I may not always remember to say it out loud.
***
Ja loppuun vielä muutama päivän teemaan sopiva sana Wendy Copelta, runokokoelmasta Vakavia asioita (Loki-Kirjat 1995).
Kirotut äijät
Kirotut äijät kuin kirotut bussit -
saa odottaa kuin nousevaa kuuta
ja kun yksi vihdoin lähestyy
tulee myös pari, kolme muuta.
Ne vilkuttelevat valojaan,
jos vaikka sanoisit: "Kiinnit veti!"
Siristelet nähdäksesi määränpäät,
mutta päätös on tehtävä heti.
Eikä takaisin voi enää palata.
Hyppäät pois, katsot kun muut
taksit ja rekat vilistävät ohi.
Ja tunnit, päivät, viikot, kuut.
Kukat
Ei se monille edes pälkähdä päähän.
Vaan sinulle se sentään juolahti mieleen.
Vakuutit, että ostit jo kukat
melkein - vain jokin oli mennyt pieleen.
Kauppa oli kiinni. Tai epäröit -
niin tyypillistä meille, eikö vaan?
Varmaan jotenkin kuvittelit,
etten sinun kukkiasi haluaisikaan.
Hymyilin ja halasin sinua silloin.
Nyt hymyilen enää kaihoisasti.
Mutta kukat jotka melkein ostit
ovat kestäneet tähän asti.
Niin makeaa
Me ollaan niin samanlaisia -
sukulaissielut, kuin peppu ja paita.
Hyvä on, me hymyillään tuolle.
Mutta juuri niin on asianlaita.
Tohtori sanoi suhteestamme:
Sen toisin analysoisin.
Nimittäköön sitä miten haluaa
se on sama sanottuna toisin.
Kaipaan sinua, ääntäsi, hani.
Narsistinen objektivalintani.
Ja taas onneton valinta
Olen pihkassa A.E. Housmaniin.
Tilanne on pahempi, vaikkei uusi.
Se ei koskaan kajonnut naisiin
ja kuoli vuonna kolkytkuusi.
Ystävänpäivänä
Sydämeni on tehnyt päätöksen.
Ja pelkään pahoin, se olet sinä.
Miten vain kaavailitkin sen
Sydämeni on tehnyt päätöksen.
Nyt jos sinua voi varata en
ensi vuosikin käy, sanon minä.
Sydämeni on tehnyt päätöksen.
Ja pelkään pahoin, se olet sinä.
Yhdeksänrivinen trioletti
No pakko on tätäkin koittaa:
Kulta! Sa oma niittykirvinen!
Jne. Pitää esteet voittaa.
No pakko on tätäkin koittaa,
kuin viululla ilman mitä soittaa.
Taiteen sääntöjä irvinen.
No pakko on tätäkin koittaa.
(Sääntöjä kuin ei jättää voi taa.)
Kulta! Sa oma niittykirvinen!
Siinä teille muikeita runoja päivän kunniaksi, ystävät armaat. Kokoelma on kerrassaan ilahduttava, suosittelen lukaisemaan läpi joskus. Saa vaikka lainaan minulta.
And to you, my friends less skilled in Finnish, I recommend trying to find the English original poems - in other words, poems by Wendy Cope, from her collection Serious Concerns (1986).
I went to town today and was genuinely happy to see so many people who had clearly bought flowers for their loved ones. Such a simple gesture, but effective nonetheless. I didn't get any flowers this year, since there is no one to buy them for me, but I did get to spend time with my friends (and Tytti even had bought me a chocolate heart - thanks, sweetie), which is always nice and even more so today.
I actually appreciate the fact that the whole Valentine's Day is known as "Friends' Day" in Finland, because otherwise it'd be so depressing to be single today. But since I have been feeling very cheerful lately (for no particular reason - I suspect there's a bit of spring in the air, who knows) , I refuse to be depressed by not getting any flowers from a Special person. Maybe I'll get some next year. :)
In other words, Happy Valentine's Day to everyone. You are important to me, even though I may not always remember to say it out loud.
***
Ja loppuun vielä muutama päivän teemaan sopiva sana Wendy Copelta, runokokoelmasta Vakavia asioita (Loki-Kirjat 1995).
Kirotut äijät
Kirotut äijät kuin kirotut bussit -
saa odottaa kuin nousevaa kuuta
ja kun yksi vihdoin lähestyy
tulee myös pari, kolme muuta.
Ne vilkuttelevat valojaan,
jos vaikka sanoisit: "Kiinnit veti!"
Siristelet nähdäksesi määränpäät,
mutta päätös on tehtävä heti.
Eikä takaisin voi enää palata.
Hyppäät pois, katsot kun muut
taksit ja rekat vilistävät ohi.
Ja tunnit, päivät, viikot, kuut.
Kukat
Ei se monille edes pälkähdä päähän.
Vaan sinulle se sentään juolahti mieleen.
Vakuutit, että ostit jo kukat
melkein - vain jokin oli mennyt pieleen.
Kauppa oli kiinni. Tai epäröit -
niin tyypillistä meille, eikö vaan?
Varmaan jotenkin kuvittelit,
etten sinun kukkiasi haluaisikaan.
Hymyilin ja halasin sinua silloin.
Nyt hymyilen enää kaihoisasti.
Mutta kukat jotka melkein ostit
ovat kestäneet tähän asti.
Niin makeaa
Me ollaan niin samanlaisia -
sukulaissielut, kuin peppu ja paita.
Hyvä on, me hymyillään tuolle.
Mutta juuri niin on asianlaita.
Tohtori sanoi suhteestamme:
Sen toisin analysoisin.
Nimittäköön sitä miten haluaa
se on sama sanottuna toisin.
Kaipaan sinua, ääntäsi, hani.
Narsistinen objektivalintani.
Ja taas onneton valinta
Olen pihkassa A.E. Housmaniin.
Tilanne on pahempi, vaikkei uusi.
Se ei koskaan kajonnut naisiin
ja kuoli vuonna kolkytkuusi.
Ystävänpäivänä
Sydämeni on tehnyt päätöksen.
Ja pelkään pahoin, se olet sinä.
Miten vain kaavailitkin sen
Sydämeni on tehnyt päätöksen.
Nyt jos sinua voi varata en
ensi vuosikin käy, sanon minä.
Sydämeni on tehnyt päätöksen.
Ja pelkään pahoin, se olet sinä.
Yhdeksänrivinen trioletti
No pakko on tätäkin koittaa:
Kulta! Sa oma niittykirvinen!
Jne. Pitää esteet voittaa.
No pakko on tätäkin koittaa,
kuin viululla ilman mitä soittaa.
Taiteen sääntöjä irvinen.
No pakko on tätäkin koittaa.
(Sääntöjä kuin ei jättää voi taa.)
Kulta! Sa oma niittykirvinen!
Siinä teille muikeita runoja päivän kunniaksi, ystävät armaat. Kokoelma on kerrassaan ilahduttava, suosittelen lukaisemaan läpi joskus. Saa vaikka lainaan minulta.
And to you, my friends less skilled in Finnish, I recommend trying to find the English original poems - in other words, poems by Wendy Cope, from her collection Serious Concerns (1986).
Sunday, January 29, 2006
Mrs. President, congratulations!
The results are in, Tarja Halonen will continue as the president of Finland for the next six years. Yay!
Friday, January 27, 2006
Love in the Brokeback Mountain
I have just seen the movie I would give all my votes to, if I had any to cast when the Oscar winners of the year are chosen.
Brokeback Mountain. Worth every good word I ever heard of it. Beautiful, touching, heartbreaking, breathtaking - simply an incredibly good movie.
If you are scared of plot spoilers, I warn you at this point. There will most likely be some in this post. If you don't want to be spoiled, go and see the movie first and come back to this post later. I want to get this out of my system right away, or at least the first impressions.
I heard about this movie quite some time ago. I think my first thought was "Heath Ledger? Jake Gyllenhaal? Gay cowboys? How's that ever going to work?", not because I would've doubted the story (I was in fact extremely interested of the story right from the beginning), but because I couldn't see those two actors in the roles. (Of which I knew basically nothing at that point, to be honest.) But as I saw teasers and finally a long trailer of the movie, I began to think I might have been wrong in my suspicions.
And so I was. I've never had anything against Jake Gyllenhaal as an actor and Heath Ledger - well, I just hadn't seen him in that many movies at all, but I didn't quite picture him as an actor to be taken seriously, for whatever reason. But in Brokeback Mountain they both did an amazing job. Subtle, yet complex, quiet but very expressive.
The story, naturally, is based on a short story by Annie Proulx. (I have to find it now and read it, that's for sure!) It tells the story of two young men, who are hired to look after a few hundred sheep during a summer pasture season in Brokeback Mountain. The other, Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger), is a quiet and reserved fellow, who is going to be married come November. Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) on the other hand is a rodeo rider, and the more outgoing of the two.
As the summer passes, the two men find themselves in a relationship that would never be understood, let alone accepted, in the society of 1963. They have fallen in love, maybe a bit reluctantly at first, but the end result is clear. They are in love. I suppose the song title "Truly, madly, deeply" would describe the situation pretty well.
The summer, however, doesn't last forever. Any possible plans of a future together don't stand a chance. Ennis is going to get married to his Alma and Jack is going to return to his odd jobs of being a ranch hand and a rodeo rider.
Four years later Ennis receives a card from Jack, who is going to come and visit Ennis. The reunion is like a rekindled flame, burning with a force of its own. Unfortunately Alma happens to witness the first passionate kisses between the long separated lovers. It's the beginning of a slow end for their marriage.
In between the "fishing trips" Ennis and Jack take in the mountains, the men have to fight to keep their "normal" lives within the accepted framework - in this case meaning supposedly happy marriages, with children, for both. It tears especially Jack apart, piece by piece. He suggests they start a farm of their own, but Ennis won't budge. He's bound up with his responsibilities and the struggle of getting money to pay the bills and eventually, after divorcing Alma, also the child support.
The situation frustrates both men and towards the end of the movie director Ang Lee has chosen to show more of the bitterness that shadows the relationship of the men. We know that Ennis and Jack have been in the mountains for a week, but only when they are packing their pick-up trucks, the desperate emotions surface. Each separation hurts them more and more, until both of them are very close to a breaking point.
How I wished the story of Ennis and Jack could've had a happy ending. How I wished, even though I knew it wouldn't be possible. In the end true love, wide open mountain views and a possible future together have diminished into a blood stained shirt, a postcard view of Brokeback Mountain and a tiny slice of a grassy plain seen out of the window of a lonely trailer home. The sheer sadness of it, of all the lost moments of happiness...my gosh. I sat with tears in my eyes while the end credits were rolling.
One of the best things about this movie was the fact that it was very easy to feel for all the characters of the movie, not just for Ennis and Jack. Ennis' wife Alma sees how her husband lies to her about his fishing trips, which are really just lovers' getaways; Ennis' daughter grows to have a close relationship with her father despite everything; Jack's mother's short appearance is enough to create a sense of a forgiving and understanding mother... Actually the only character that remains somewhat shallow is Jack's wife, who is basically portrayed as a number-crunching heiress who has a bossy father. Not that her character really would make much of a difference in the story, since she is always left behind when Jack drives from Texas to Wyoming to meet Ennis.
In short, combine all these concealed emotions and suppressed passion to excellent acting and characterisation, plus magnificent sceneries, you've got a movie I recommend you don't miss out on. Go see it. Honestly.
And an un-related note here at the end (I must go and ponder the movie more before I continue on that topic). I have to squee a bit. The new Battlestar Galactica seems to be getting very addictive and interesting. The second part of the prologue-type miniseries was on tonight and I'm captivated. Very exciting. (And woohoo for Jamie Bamber, aka Lee "Apollo" Adama! He's done some growing up since the Hornblower series, for sure. Mmm-mmm.)
This coming spring is probably going to be see me getting addicted to a number of tv shows. I've already fallen for the Italian Elisa di Rivombrosa, yesterday's first episode of Lost made me want to see more of that story, BSG will be a show to stay tuned to and I'll even give Deadwood the benefit of a doubt for at least a few more episodes. I'm not yet sure I like that one after seeing two episodes. I love quality tv entertainment!
But what I probably love even more is quality dreaming, some of which needs to be done asap. Tomorrow's going to be a fun & busy day, with the science fiction society's grand dinner and all - I need loads of beauty sleeping before that. :)
Brokeback Mountain. Worth every good word I ever heard of it. Beautiful, touching, heartbreaking, breathtaking - simply an incredibly good movie.
If you are scared of plot spoilers, I warn you at this point. There will most likely be some in this post. If you don't want to be spoiled, go and see the movie first and come back to this post later. I want to get this out of my system right away, or at least the first impressions.
I heard about this movie quite some time ago. I think my first thought was "Heath Ledger? Jake Gyllenhaal? Gay cowboys? How's that ever going to work?", not because I would've doubted the story (I was in fact extremely interested of the story right from the beginning), but because I couldn't see those two actors in the roles. (Of which I knew basically nothing at that point, to be honest.) But as I saw teasers and finally a long trailer of the movie, I began to think I might have been wrong in my suspicions.
And so I was. I've never had anything against Jake Gyllenhaal as an actor and Heath Ledger - well, I just hadn't seen him in that many movies at all, but I didn't quite picture him as an actor to be taken seriously, for whatever reason. But in Brokeback Mountain they both did an amazing job. Subtle, yet complex, quiet but very expressive.
The story, naturally, is based on a short story by Annie Proulx. (I have to find it now and read it, that's for sure!) It tells the story of two young men, who are hired to look after a few hundred sheep during a summer pasture season in Brokeback Mountain. The other, Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger), is a quiet and reserved fellow, who is going to be married come November. Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) on the other hand is a rodeo rider, and the more outgoing of the two.
As the summer passes, the two men find themselves in a relationship that would never be understood, let alone accepted, in the society of 1963. They have fallen in love, maybe a bit reluctantly at first, but the end result is clear. They are in love. I suppose the song title "Truly, madly, deeply" would describe the situation pretty well.
The summer, however, doesn't last forever. Any possible plans of a future together don't stand a chance. Ennis is going to get married to his Alma and Jack is going to return to his odd jobs of being a ranch hand and a rodeo rider.
Four years later Ennis receives a card from Jack, who is going to come and visit Ennis. The reunion is like a rekindled flame, burning with a force of its own. Unfortunately Alma happens to witness the first passionate kisses between the long separated lovers. It's the beginning of a slow end for their marriage.
In between the "fishing trips" Ennis and Jack take in the mountains, the men have to fight to keep their "normal" lives within the accepted framework - in this case meaning supposedly happy marriages, with children, for both. It tears especially Jack apart, piece by piece. He suggests they start a farm of their own, but Ennis won't budge. He's bound up with his responsibilities and the struggle of getting money to pay the bills and eventually, after divorcing Alma, also the child support.
The situation frustrates both men and towards the end of the movie director Ang Lee has chosen to show more of the bitterness that shadows the relationship of the men. We know that Ennis and Jack have been in the mountains for a week, but only when they are packing their pick-up trucks, the desperate emotions surface. Each separation hurts them more and more, until both of them are very close to a breaking point.
How I wished the story of Ennis and Jack could've had a happy ending. How I wished, even though I knew it wouldn't be possible. In the end true love, wide open mountain views and a possible future together have diminished into a blood stained shirt, a postcard view of Brokeback Mountain and a tiny slice of a grassy plain seen out of the window of a lonely trailer home. The sheer sadness of it, of all the lost moments of happiness...my gosh. I sat with tears in my eyes while the end credits were rolling.
One of the best things about this movie was the fact that it was very easy to feel for all the characters of the movie, not just for Ennis and Jack. Ennis' wife Alma sees how her husband lies to her about his fishing trips, which are really just lovers' getaways; Ennis' daughter grows to have a close relationship with her father despite everything; Jack's mother's short appearance is enough to create a sense of a forgiving and understanding mother... Actually the only character that remains somewhat shallow is Jack's wife, who is basically portrayed as a number-crunching heiress who has a bossy father. Not that her character really would make much of a difference in the story, since she is always left behind when Jack drives from Texas to Wyoming to meet Ennis.
In short, combine all these concealed emotions and suppressed passion to excellent acting and characterisation, plus magnificent sceneries, you've got a movie I recommend you don't miss out on. Go see it. Honestly.
And an un-related note here at the end (I must go and ponder the movie more before I continue on that topic). I have to squee a bit. The new Battlestar Galactica seems to be getting very addictive and interesting. The second part of the prologue-type miniseries was on tonight and I'm captivated. Very exciting. (And woohoo for Jamie Bamber, aka Lee "Apollo" Adama! He's done some growing up since the Hornblower series, for sure. Mmm-mmm.)
This coming spring is probably going to be see me getting addicted to a number of tv shows. I've already fallen for the Italian Elisa di Rivombrosa, yesterday's first episode of Lost made me want to see more of that story, BSG will be a show to stay tuned to and I'll even give Deadwood the benefit of a doubt for at least a few more episodes. I'm not yet sure I like that one after seeing two episodes. I love quality tv entertainment!
But what I probably love even more is quality dreaming, some of which needs to be done asap. Tomorrow's going to be a fun & busy day, with the science fiction society's grand dinner and all - I need loads of beauty sleeping before that. :)
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