Wednesday, December 28, 2005

What have I done this year?

So, as the year is about to roll over to give space for the new one, I thought I'd have a bit of a think, see what I've been up to this year.

January - Came back from Perth, as had spent xmas-time there. Leaving was a bit messy, people and issues and all. Perhaps I did not divide my time equally between folks. But all's good now, issues resolved and left behind. Though I do still cherish the email I received from a furious mother, as I had not spent enough time with my dear friend, her twentysomething daughter.
But enough about that.
The rest of January, nothing much. 'Studying' and the like.

February - The start, nothing much. Generic uni-stoodent life. Toward the end my dear Spongegirltastic sister and de-facto came to Finland for a couple of weeks, hooray! =). Twas good seeing her again. *subtle hint* Come back already!

March - Sister still around, till buggered off to Paris. Rest of March nothing much. Stoodious life.

April - The start, nothing much. Bout halfway through headed off to Dublin, Ireland for a 5wk teaching practice. Twas fun, drank a lot of Guinness.

May - Still in Dublin. Came back to Finland near the end of the month. Went home, no studies for a few months. Hooray for summer!

June - Start of the month, nothing. Nothing nothing nothing, not even pretending to study, though I could've done that aswell. Toward the end of the month my dear HLP (- hetero life-partner for those not in the know) came to visit from Perth. Twas a jolly good time we had, and I miss her insanely.

July - HLP still around, and we went to Prague, Check Republic for 3 days I think it was. A smashing time we had, and teamed up with two retired biochemists for a day, who gave us a tour of Prague. Around half way through the month my dearest HLP had to head off, aiming for Japan this time. For me the rest of July was nothing much, got a bit older.
Oh, and I was beginning to panic, as uni would be on again in September, and I lacked a place to live in Freezerville (home and Freezerville are about 600kms apart). But I figured that things would work out somehow, as they tend to do. And they did. We had a bbq party near Freezerville, with a bunch of Freezervillian friends there. Turns out that one had a spare room in his apartment. Done and done.

August - start of the month did some studious things, like writing and essay. Surprised myself that I actually managed to do it, usually I'm hopeless with getting anything done by due dates. Last minute panics were made for me. Toward the end of the month it was time to move to the new place, and though I do indeed love being home, it was nice to get away again.

September - Studying. Somehow managed to understand our phonetics and structures of English courses without huge troubles. Hooray. Roommate life going fine, though I'd never lived with anyone (other than family and a hamster) before. A dear friend came back to Freezerville, after spending the summer in Norway, stayed with us a couple of days. She used to date my roommate, but that was about half a year ago, and she broke it off, so it would be fine.

Yeah, right.

October - Uni, roommateness-turned-into-something-moreness, telling my friend I'm now dating the guy of her dreams. Her breakdown. GuiltGuiltGuiltGuiltGuiltGuiltGuiltGuiltGuiltGuiltGuiltGuiltGuiltGuiltGuiltGuiltGuilt.
Roadtrip to Malmö, Sweden, with a day-stop in Copenhagen, Denmark. Twas fun.

November - Meeting his parents for the first time. Was shit scared. But it was ok. Me and dear friend trying to figure things out between us, she's trying not to be angry with me, but hard not to, and she's damn well allowed to. GuiltGuiltGuiltGuiltGuiltGuiltGuiltGuiltGuiltGuiltGuiltGuiltGuiltGuiltGuiltGuiltGuiltGuilt.
Our first date. (We seriously did this whole thing the wrong way around, first we move in together, then start dating, then go on a holiday together [roadtrip, though there were others too], then we meet the parents, and then go on our first date).

December - Another roadtrip, though this time only to the south of Finland. Him meeting my parents. He was shit scared. But it was ok. Xmas time creeping closer. He and his family go for a sunny xmas. Me and dear friend try to work things out, slowly. Still laden with guilt. She still cries at the sight/mention of him. My theme song is the southparkian 'Kyle's mom is a bitch', but with my name there.
Might not see dear friend untill February next year when we go on exchange to Barcelona together.
I start this blog.
Coming home for xmas time, am Santa for the first time. Twas fun.
He came back to Finland yesterday, and will be here today. Have been smiling like an idiot.
Oh, and it's dear friend's birthday today. Happy Birthday, sweetie =).


And that about wraps it up so far. Not sure anything of interest will happen within the remaining days of the year. So during the year I was in Australia, Ireland, Check Republic, Denmark, and Sweden. As you may have noticed, I did not work last year at all, so my financial situation is somehting any economist would describe as 'crap'.
As for next year, as I mentioned I will be going on exchange to Barcelona, Spain, with my dear friend. Desperately hoping that things will be better.
I have a feeling I won't have a summerjob again, as I won't be back from my exchange untill June. So lack of funds for next year aswell, hooray! =)
But, things tend to work out somehow.

Wow. That's a long post.

Saturday, December 24, 2005

Merry Xmas

From all of us to all of you, Merry Christmas. Or if you find that too religious, then just Happy Holidays and Season's Greetings. Crazy amercans.
Yes, amercans.

Anywho, yo ho ho and a bottle of merry christmas. And a happy new yarr. =)

Thursday, December 22, 2005

My hands are cold but the house smells like christmas.

And a definite smell of Christmas comes from a Christmas tree. Just came back from getting one with my dad, and tomorrow it shall be decorated. Now it'll spend the night in our bathroom so all the snow will melt off it.
Acquiring the tree is traditionally a job for the dad and kids (as mothers all around Finland are probably doing something in the kitchen).

This little bit of xmas tradition, Finnish style, brought to you by me.

Scientific fact for the week, the Christmas trees in Finland are Norwegian spruces, Picea Abies. That information brought to you by European Spruce Ranges.

Yarr.

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

My sis rocks!

With like huuge bricks.
She thoroughly kicks ass, and I salute her. She rules and is the definition of cool (look it up, in any dictionary next to cool there'll be a picture of my sister next to it.)

Here's to you, future Doc =).

Monday, December 19, 2005

Closing in on the season to be jolly

Yarr, am at home.
Food, sweet sweet food. And plenty of it.

Mom, I salute you.

Today my dear imagined reader you will not have to strain your eyes with endless paragraphs of drivel-in-text-form produced by me, as I can't think of anything else to say. I have nothing further to report, over and out.

Saturday, December 17, 2005

The Promised Land

Multiple posts per day, I don't seem like I'm killing time, do I?


Onto the topic. The Promised Land.
Thought I'd have a bit of a rant about my dear home country, Finland. No, we don't have polar bears, nor do we live in iglus. It does get warm in the summer, and we are allowed to feel cold, no matter where we are in the world. You don't know how many times some smartass has pointed out my nationality and claimed that I should be used to coldness, whilst somewhere out of Finland.
Screw you hippie, at least we build our houses properly so it won't get cold inside! Ever! Ha!

...

That's not the rant I was going to get on to. Let's try again, shall we?

What I intend to babble about is Finland being truly the promised land of televised sms-chats and mobile games. The most futile air-time fillers ever, but somehow endlessly fuelled by morons who pay good money to send messages to these shows, hoping that their message will be displayed on television and perhaps, just perhaps, the scantly clad hostess will comment something on their message.

Aside these inane chats, there are also televised mobile games. Send a message with a certain code in hopes of sinking a ship/getting a question right/getting a hole in one, and gather points. You can't actually win anything from these games, you just gather points, and at the end of the day they'll announce the idiot with the most points.
Each message costs around 1€, more or less.
And people send messages.

Sorta makes you feel sad for human kind, really.

Then again, people never cease to amaze me. I used to think people had short attention spans and get tired of fads quickly, but reality tv is still going strong (can't even be bothered to start a rant on that one), and televised sms-chats and mobile games flourish.

Hooray for people.

Peanut butter and jam sandwitches.

Yes, witches.

Well no, not really. Just the normal wich-kind.

Anywho.

In a couple of hours I should be heading towards a friend's place, spending the night there, and then the next morning the both of us heading toward our respective homes for xmas. So I need to have packed everything with me when heading off in a couple of hours, and I'm sure I'll forget something vital, and not realise till two minutes before the train leaves tomorrow.

Such is life.

Been wondering. Should I try and make this interesting to people in some way, or be brutally honest about my uneventful and boring life?

Or maybe I'm making this boring on purpose. Believe you me, reader (yet to get any actually, but I'll pretend you're there, makes my life easier), I've witnessed and been involved in such relationship dramas that could fuel the likes of Bold and the Beautiful, OC or any other such series for seasons to come.

But not only would I be revealing things other people might not want revealing, even if I'd change names, I've also gone through the people, events and issues so many times I doubt that typing them out once more would do anyone any good.

Unless I suddenly get billions of gossip-hungry readers dying to know the details of a complete stranger, I might budge something.

The future clouded is, yes.

With my sandwitch consumed I am left with a craving for tea. Lipton Yellow Label all the way, baby. No milk, no sugar. Let infuse for a while, I like it strong.

Ttfn my dear (imagined) reader, ttfn.

Friday, December 16, 2005

Crazy thought, an actual update on my life.

This is what these blog things are for, right?

So, xmas is creeping closer, and for the first time ever I'm well ahead of schedule concerning bribes, I mean gifts for people.

In a couple of days I'm heading off to spend yuletide with the parental units, and it shall be good. Ahh, to be in the presence of an automatically filling fridge.

Had my last exam yesterday, was supposed to read four books for it. For a change I actually managed to get my hands on the books well before the exam, but still somehow managed to skim read one (the one with the least pages), and looked at the indexes of the rest. Now that's how to study! But it shouldn't be too bad, I think. Hope. Twas only theology, and a 'voluntary' course at that.

If I were not so distracted by the call of noodles I would continue my pointless rambling, which probably interests no one, but what the hell.

Live long and prosper.

Interesting email find

So there I was, killing time by cleaning out my inbox, and this little story popped up. I wrote it a couple of years ago, while working in an office lobby connecting calls. Not strictly autobiographical, I for example do not drink coffee.

In any case, I just want to fatten my blog up a bit.

Read it and weep.

**


She looked at her hands, and decided to take action. The sight was appalling,really.
Her nailpolish had been cracking for the last two days, but somehow she’d neglected to remove and replace it. While reaching for the drawer to retrieve a nailfile she was interrupted.

- Excuse me, is Mr. Johnson in?
-- Just a moment please, I’ll check… No, sorry, unfortunately he’s left for theday.
- Right, well, can you call him anyway?
- -Sure, just a moment please

She called the required gentleman, and informed him that he had a visitor.

Turns out that Mr. Johnson was actually still in, and came to see the man. Damn businessmen who can’t use the personnel registry machine. Engineers, pfft, right.

She kept on ranting to herself while smiling politely, untill the two men left.

I was doing someth… fuck that, I wasn’t, I was about to file my nails as I havenothing more constructive to do. Hooray for me.
She continued on the bitter line of thoughts as she contemplated thesurrounding office with a bored sigh. It was a nice job, she admitted that. Actually it was lucky that she had a jobat all, undergraduate students rarely got anything that payed something worthcalling a decent amount of money. Especially when she wasn’t even studying fora business related degree of any sort.

Thank god for relatives. She hadn’t gotten the job really as such a direct consequence of her genetic heritage, but it had gotten her the interview. She liked to think that it was due to personality that she was hired, and not blood ties.

But you never know.

10:26

Seems like the morning dragged on forever. Most people were on holidays, so there wasn’t that much to do for the whole following month. A phone call or a fax every now and then, but mostly just sitting and wondering how to pass time.
Who was she trying to fool, really. She actually enjoyed very much the leisurely pace of the job. Rushing and hurrying wasn’t her thing after all. Had her desk been situated elsewhere than the lobby, she would’ve considered bringing in a book to entertain her in the quiet times. But with the desk being where it was, people passed it quite often so discreet reading would’ve been difficult.
After all, she didn’t want to seem like she was doing nothing.
When you sit all day in a company office, and have a significant amount of time dedicated to doing nothing, one tends to think of topics of a wide range.

Wonder where she got that top? Looks nice on her, though I doubt it’d really suit me, not quite my style as such. Is it lunchtime yet? No, damn, yet an hourto go. Oh well. That’s a shame. The bastard still didn’t call. Not that I’d beexpecting a call, no, I had no reason to expect anything, as people are independent individuals and do not necessarily call each other if there is nothing to say.
Nothing to say.
Howbout that.

Yeah..

Dammit…
Wonder what Mr.Johnson does as he gets so many calls? Engineering of some sort, I’m sure. Or maybe it’s sales. Sales could be it. Sounds plausible.
Plausible.
Goddamn plausible excuses, isn’t that just the only thing I’ll ever hear, except that there was nothing to hear, nothing to want to hear, from anyone in particular at all.

I’ve really got to give up this line of thought. Denial is my friend. Can’t even sigh properly here, what if someone walks past and they hear it and think I’m tired and if I’m tired I’m not doing my job (what job, I only sit and connect a call every half an hour or so!) properly, and then that won’t seem good at all.

Seem.

It’s all about appearances, isn’t it?
Oh shut up, and stop it.

She glanced around quickly to make sure no one was around, and let out a very audible sigh. She felt a little better instantly. Before she could continue her rambling thoughts the phone rang, and saved her from herself. She stood up, waited if the phone would go off again.
As it didn’t, she headed for the coffee machine. She brought her mug back to her desk, and took a sip.

--Yeeegch, was her initial reaction to the bitter black liquid she tasted.

I know it would taste better if I’d have it with milk and sugar, but quite frankly, it’s just extra effort. Besides, then it’d taste more like watered down, sugary, lukewarm milk. With a bitter aftertaste.
Thus, she had her coffee black.

The effects caffeine had on her were rather interesting, especially after having a reasonably coffeeles weekend. First she found herself wanting to laugh outloud in the “I am so happy, life is so beautiful” –kind of way, that made people fall in love in movies. The instant follow up reaction is that every emotion becomes just too much, and she feels on the verge of tears, and might cry if anyone in the near vicinity expresses an emotion of any kind. All of this takes about 5 minutes altogether, and then her body adjusts to the caffeine intake properly. Luckily there’s usually no one to witness these reactions, or properly trigger them.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0 - Kickstart! No, wait..

Ahh my loyal fans, finally something to soothe your souls in those desperately lonely dark hours. Indeed, a blog by me.

And who am I?
Well that's a bit irrelevant, isn't it? All you need to know is that I am praiseworthy, and the mere knowledge of my existance is sufficient to make you feel better.

Any moment now I'll come up with something to say actually. In the mean time I'm a-go fiddle with the settings and such.

Yarr.