Friday afternoon procrastination

Friday. Very tired today and having absolutely no motivation whatsoever. Still decided to stay around a bit longer and at least pretend to work.I find myself checking my twitter feed more than anything else. And looking through the contents on my memory stick marked "Karate". I notice now that surprisingly much of the material is unknown even to myself. And while some of it certainly very interesting, it's also definitely not what I should be doing right now. It's far too easy to be lazy when there's no one else around.Or, well, distracted might be a better word than lazy - I'm actively procrastinating after all...

My conscience isn't too bad, though. I've made progress with both theses and I don't have any impending deadline right this moment. That I know of.

Wow. This was a very necessary post.

Update from the Yellow House

Just realised I completely forgot to update last month. Lots of things going on, most of them relating to my studies. I'm glad to say I've finally got ahead with my thesis again. AND I found an actual interest in it again, so I rarely even have to force myself to work on it anymore. I'm not only working on my masters in Ethology, but at the same time also an essay in Art theory. The later one will, or so are the plans, later be included as a chapter in my masters, and the subject for it was chosen with this in mind - I'm analysing the architectural changes done to a representational building in the town I've already been studying for my Ethnology theses.

Beside the sheer inspiration, one more thing that helps me focus right now is I got myself a key to the so called "Yellow House", a building on campus reserved for students working on their masters theses. I don't really have my own room here - you are supposed to clear your table by the end of each day in case someone else needs it - but a locker for my stuff (so I don't need to carry it back and forth) and a table that's practically become mine.

There are many things I could also mention but I'll keep it short and try to return soon enough.

Before the summer

The weather is still warm and lovely, but I hardly have time to enjoy it. When this week is over, I have only one more week to finish everything  before the summer - as I will be working every five to six days a week, I can't expect to have much time to write during the summer months. What I am writing on right now is the probably least inspiring group of essays I've had to do in years... While the sun is shining outside. Do I even need to mention that the progress is excruciatingly slow?

Sunday is election day for the European Parliament.  I still can't believe the number of people who chose to show their dissatisfaction by not voting - no less considering how common it is to complain about the European Union and the bad decision-making of the parliament... Many voters also seem to gather behind candidates who are simply "against" the European Union, which I find quite naive. How can anyone expect to change things simply by complaining about how little you like them? (Or, in the case of not voting, not even complaining. Choosing to just stay quiet.)

Sunshine is my new drug

It looks like the belated and longed for spring might finally be here after all. I seem to have more energy than I've had in a long time. Yesterday I went for my longest jog yet this year. Even though I waited until the evening, the weather was almost too hot. Still felt great afterwards, though (in spite of a slight dehydration)! I'm not sure whether I've written this before or not, but I've been surprised this spring of how little my allergies have bothered me when exercising! I still have no idea as to why, but so far I have not suffered one single allergy attack while, nor after, running. I have not done anything different that I can think of, I even exercised less last winter than I'd done the past couple of years, and I haven't changed my medicine (I still go for your average anti-histamines) or anything, but for some reason my health has just been better this spring than "ever" before! Which also means that it's so much easier for me to enjoy running - lovely! Strange, but lovely!

(Oh, I see now that I commented on this a couple of posts ago.)

One more thing that's going well at he moment is my artwork. Suddenly, missing pieces just appeared! Now I just wish I had more time to put on it. I still have deadlines to catch at uni, so I don't quite have the courage to really throw myself into my art just yet. I should probably also look into getting some new canvases, rather than just picking around on my old, un- or half finished ones... Not that I wouldn't love to finish them of course, I'm just starting to realise that it might never happen.And it would be interesting to try out some of the new ideas on fresh surfaces, to really start from scratch for once.

Have to go now (dinner at mum's). Will seriously try to keep up here on the blog. The longer it takes, the harder it is to write...

writing and running

Progress!

I'm getting ahead on my master's, and I've been glad to learn that it is much easier than writing your bachelor's - especially as I chose to continue on the same subject. The subject is somewhat familiar now, and the writing itself is easier, which I guess is a sign of development. I actually enjoy the work, so far at least. It feels interesting again, after having had a very necessary brake from it while writing on other projects.

One more thing that is going surprisingly well right now is my running! Not only have I finally got my arse out of the door and started again, but the return has not been even half as hard as I imagined it to be. Yesterday I did my longest jog so far, since starting again that is, and even pushed myself more than before, but I was still able to enjoy it - no allergy attack (which is what I fear the most), just a slight dehydration... I've been positively surprised at how little trouble my pollen allergy has given me so far this spring. Now I should just return to karate practice too, more than once every second week or so.

Update on this and that

I can't believe how fast this spring is passing. Around yesterday it was still February, as far as I remember... I do enjoy the warm, sunny spring weather, I just wish there was more left of it.

I don't remember whether I already mentioned this or not, but right now my brother is staying here in Turku until sometime the end of this month. This is the first time in.. I don't even remember how many years that my entire family is gathered all in the same town (not counting the occasional weekend or Christmas holiday). Feels a bit strange, up until now Turku has been "my" town. Still nice to be able to spend time together and catch up, of course. My mother's move is not yet finished - she resides in Turku now, but loads of stuff are packed/still unpacked up in Jakobstad, awaiting the next step. I don't know when that will be. Sometimes I think I wouldn't mind moving myself, but I refuse to do it before all this is over. In a family of three, you really don't need more than two members moving at the same time.

Some progress considering my studies. Not much, but slow. Two more coures to finish this spring, waiting to receive credits for one more finished one, and still work (most of it, to be honest) to do on my masters. I naively plan to write on it this summer, as I'll be working quite short days. We'll see.

I wonder what happened to my blogging. I'm doing lots of interesting things, but never seem to gather the energy/inspiration/motivation/whatever to write about any of them here. And when I do blog, I end up with texts like this one - rarely about anything in partcular. Hmmm...

post-weekend update

I was going to post yesterday, but accidentally deleted the post and was after that too pissed off to re-write it. Here's a slightly shorter version of it:

First of all: Two of the jobs I had applied for let me know that they wanted me, so I had the hard luxury problem of picking one of them. Chose the one that seemed more challenging .Will be working at a museum, starting June. Very happy about this, and enjoyed telling my old job I cannot work for them anymore after May. Still have to find something nice for the fall, though.

Last weekend was good. My brother paid a short one-night visit to Turku so I met him on Friday. He has just sold his flat in Stockholm and is now planning a move to Spain. In the evening I joined a friend to a concert, Swaying Wires played a release gig at Dynamo. Good gig, but felt short, I kept expecting the second set that never came...

The rest of the weekend was spent in Iitti (south-eastern Finland) attending a short weekend (three-session) karate course. This was a great experience, with good training and great hospitality. Will be happy to return at any time! We were quite a small group training this time, but there are also good aspects of that, like more feedback from the course instructors. The only thing troubling me was the back problem I got from work last Thursday... Had to sit one session, so took lots of photos. Now trying to chose which ones to share on facebook.

The article on death is going forward, but not the English in-class presentation. More and more clueless about it. Oh well, I still have just over a week to prepare it.

exciting work-related headline goes here... (No. I'm keeping this one.)

Waiting to hear from two different eventual future workplaces. I've applied for internships for this summer, and so far been interviewed for two of them. Both interviews were surprisingly nice experiences! The interviewers asked only relevant questions, answered my questions, and seemed more focused on letting me learn about the places in general and the tasks and other details linked to my eventual work there. In both cases I left the interview with a more more positive image of the place, than I had had before. So, of course I hope to receive a positive answer from at least one of them. Still have some places left to apply for, though.

 At Uni, things are... well, quite interesting right now, to be honest. Except for just having started on my masters, I'm also currently working on an article... on Death! Or, rather, on writing about death. Still fascinating, though! It's inspiring to work on a subject this new to me, after having stuck to more "relevant" (to e.g. my thesis) subjects for quite a while. And today, by shear coincidence, I found one more article to use! I might or might not use the same (or a similar) theme for an upcoming presentation in English, but haven't quite decided on this yet. Bo Lönnqvist, who is one of the scholars I'm referring to in this work, will be giving a lecture on the subject here at Uni next week, so looking forward to that!

Library closing, have to log out. Happy weekend everyone!

on writing

It was amazing to have a full weekend off work! I got so much done. It was good to have that little extra time, a chance to catch up and to care for my long-neglected home. I've tidied my flat (which was in a state close to health hazard again), rested, read lots and even got some writing done. When cleaning, I found quite a pile of forgotten notes from last spring, that m now having great use for - both for my thesis and for the essays I'm working on for the moment. The pages of notes came with... maybe you could call it a bonus of kinds. On several of the pages (I had completely forgotten about this!) I had also made my own personal notes in the margins, spontaneous little notes on this and that, on things I had seen or thought of at the moment, absolutely unrelated to what I had been studying. These were very fun to read, made me remember things...I bet I still do them, haven't even thought about it really.

Where does this need to write come from? Sometimes I think I'd be nothing without my words.


I'll soon be off to see the doctor again about my knee. I need to know whether to keep eating the same medicines, and I'm going to ask for one more week of sick leave.

Still alive - and trying to learn this thing called responsibility

I realize I've had one of those longer breaks from the blog again - hope no one has worried. There are many things going on this fall, both at uni and in karate, and now also in my private life.

I am supposed to get two theses started this fall - and at least one of them finished before the spring term is over! In Ethnology and Art theory.

In karate I will, as I suspect that I've already mentioned tons of times before, be teaching this year's beginners group . I'm still looking forward to this immensely! But honestly staring to grow a bit anxious, too... Other karate news, I'll be going to Poland in October! Never been there before, so bet it will be exiting too.

On a personal note, my mother is planning a move down to Turku this fall, so I will be visiting here when I can to look for things to help out with. She has been living in the same big house since we (me, her and my father) moved in there in 1980-81. So you can just imagine the amount of stuff that's been collected there during the years... Also, the house is in quite a bad condition, so there is definitely work to be done... It will be strange but good to have here living in Turku. On one hand, I've grown used to a certain distance (of hundreds of kilometers) since moving down here myself, but on the other it will be good, as her daughter, to be able to be there for her when she needs it. She's already past 70, and not getting any younger after all, and my conscience has already been giving me a small personal hell about the situation for some while.

So if I were to sum this fall up in only a couple of words, I suspect "responsibility" would be one of them. I'll get back to you on the rest of them.

On nostalgia, karate and text messages

Just missed a deadline by 18 minute, but this still means I finished something. In this case the course on contemporary art. Feels great! Fourth course finished this month.

The practice/party-combo of last weekend turned out absolutely awesome, and I think everyone agreed on that. We had loads of fun, and any occasional gaps in the program of the day were quickly filled - training (both indoors and out in the park), sauna and chilling, dinner with speeches, nostalgic pics and videos, and after-dinner beers in the evening sun on one of the river boats. And it was all very inspiring too, at least for me. So eager to go on the next course!

On a completely unrelated topic, my phone finally decided to die on me last week. This was no shock, it was 8 years old after all. I got myself a new phone and everything is working well... except for the one small detail of me having lost every single phone number I had on the old phone. (Assumed they were on the card. Turned out they weren't.) I've been able to retrace some of the most important numbers, and I'm currently working on most of the rest.

One more thing that came out of this: I remember writing here, not too long ago, about how the dilemma of what to do with old text messages you have a hard time letting go of. Well, let's just say I don't have that problem anymore. They are all lost. Realising this first made me very sad, but then again - you can't hold on to everything that makes you nostalgic, and I guess sometimes maybe you just have to trust your own brain to save those memories for you.

Update on this and that/ first post of May

I know I've been neglecting this blog recently. Or... well, this month. I just realised I haven't written at all since April. Have had lots to do at uni, with everything that needs to be done and/or finished before the  term is over. The  same thing every year, except  this time I'm actually getting things done. Maybe not quite as effectively as I should, but doing the best I can, I believe. On the other hand, so far the grades haven't been too bad either, if I may say so myself...

Lots of things coming up, too! This weekend my karate club will have a party (the concept, as always, is practice first, then party.) to celebrate 10 years as an organization. I haven't been too active a part in the planning myself (not been able to!) but enough to be allowed to watch the whole thing develop, and I've been very happy...quite impressed with what has been done! I'm really looking forward to the weekend now!

This is folllowed by a week full of deadlines, and then the double-booked weekend starting with the Ethnological symposium here in Turku on Wed-Fri, and ending with a karate course in Nykarleby Fri/Sat-Sun. I'm expecting to feel quite wrecked on Sunday. But in a strange way looking forward to that, too.

I had planned to post some photos here, but haven't had the time to sort through them. Oh well, in time...

On excercise, dog owners and essay production

This morning I finally went out running again (or er... jogging.) after a break of... months..? This has been the longest break I've had since I first started running, so I was a bit worried about my shape, but it went well and I enjoyed it so much! I had started to notice my own bad shape on karate practice, where I haven't been able to train on the (physical) level I had grown used to. The one thing that bothered me was - again - certain dog owners... There are obviously still people who refuse to accept that it's against Finnish law to bring your unleashed dog to the jogging trails. If you want to train with your unleashed dog, please stick a fenced dog park. There are several in most towns. Don't believe me? Google it.

Now at uni, trying to finish a package of four ethnological essays. Looks like I'll be spending the rest of the night here. I find what I'm working on right now very interesting, I just wish there were more hour in a day so I wouldn't always have to have to feel I'm compromising the result to finish on time. Or, now that I think about it, that is quite possibly just exactly how I would still feel, no matter how much time I'd have.

Listening to: Von Herzen Brothers, Kings of Leon, Megadeth

Good news - bad timing

Today I talked to one of my professors about a work experience opportunity. I don't know how much I should write about it yet, but the job includes helping out in hosting a big ethnological event here in Turku in June. It seemed very exciting, so after the talk I was very happy to learn it seems I'm being recommended for this. There are only two downsides to it: 1. The work is unpaid. This I as OK with, as I still see it as a good experience, and the deal also includes free participation (when possible) in an event that would otherwise have you pay an expensive fee. But then I noticed downside 2: The symposium coincides exactly with the Sensei course in June... This is one of the biggest karate happenings of the year, and since i started practicing I have missed it only once. Both happenings are major events in their respective area, that I should partake in. So frustrated now!

on little pink notes and positive thinking

Look, I know you're supposed to photo-post these things, but unfortunately I didn't bring my camera today so you will just have to imagine the thing, OK?

This day started badly, and has so far for most part continued badly too. Just as a hint, I was already close to tears on my way to university this morning. And this of course means being more sensitive to all kinds of negativity for the rest of the day.'

Then, in one of the toilet stalls at my faculty I saw this: [this is where you get to use your imagination] Someone had left a pink, heart-shaped post-it note on the washbowl, saying "Breathe. It's a bad day, not a bad life."

Made my day!

letters or text messages

With the obvious risk of sounding old: Sometimes I miss the times of letter-writing. Late night I leafed through the always-full inbox of my mobile, searching for messages to delete, and I realized I still have some very old messages in there, ones I just haven't had the heart to delete. And now I don't know what to do with them.

This was what brought my mind to letter writing - in a way I envy the people of my parents' and grandparents' generations, who still wrote letters. Letters are so easy to save, you can just stack them away somewhere safe to find them twenty or more years later, but what to do with old text messages? I don't feel like copying all of them, because some are just... well, let's just say a bit private.

I am more than a little stressed right now. I am late with every assignment I'm working on. Every. One. I have tried to explain to my professor that however much I like the thought of putting everything else on ice for a couple of weeks to finish my thesis, it is just not possible at the moment. I cannot skip the courses I'm taking right now, as most of them are mandatory - so without passing them I will still not get my degree. Hope we'll find some kind of agreement soon. I do want to finish, it's just not possible to do more than I am doing right now.

Friday and still alive

This has been a busy week! Especially since I missed one workday by chosing to return to Turku on Monday night. But I'm happy with what I've achieved during the week, and for once I'm still on schedule (or I hope I am!) with every project I''m working on at the moment.

I spent last weekend in my hometown, the official excuse being the birthday of a friend. It was very nice to spend time with some of my oldest friends - I do miss them a lot in Turku and wish I could see them much more often! - and so the weekend sadly just flew by. Had lots of fun, though!

The courses I'm taking now are still inspiring, but also loads of work. There are assignments every week, as opposed to that one essay or exam bythe end of the period, as I'm used to. But I think this works for me, at least it stops me from procrastinating too much. Also, I've been rising early in the mornings again, which is good but means I'm close to constantly sleepy. But it does give yo more time to finish things!

Today, I had a first meeting with my professor about my master's thesis (to be), and after some kind suggestions and a bit of discusion we seem to have found something for me to work on, without me trailing off too far from what I did (am doing) for my bachelor's. You're not in any way obliged to stick to the same area, but it does make life just that much easier if you chose to do so.

Its now Friday, and the first snow fell last night. I like it. Wish I could sleep in tomorrow, but it's a normal work-day Saturday.

Premiere tonight!

Sitting in a computer class at uni pretending to work again. I did get some work done, but realized I didn't fully understand the task, so had to email the lecturer. And now I don't know what to do. Tonight's karate session starts in just under 50 minutes, so there's really no time to get started with anything new.Tried to look for something to write about on my other blog but couldn't find anything I felt like commenting on. So typically me, now that I'd finally had the perfect time to do it.

Tonight is our first session of this year's beginner's course. I'm quite excited about this, but honestly also a bit worried. I've heard from very few karate-curious people compared to last year. Of course I still hope that we'll still have at least the normal amount of new guys showing up at practise tonight, and that they've just been less prone to ask about us. And not all people who contacted us last year showed up, by far. But I'll also always react like this, if I've been involved in the advertising. I know it'll be good once I'm there!

Now listening to: Deep Purple. 8-)

Weekend update

I just came from the pub where we (my karate club) held our fall meeting. One more person attended, compared to last meeting - this time we were the board members plus two people, whereas last time we were the exact same group minus one. I wish I knew what to do to get people activated... But except for that, I'm pretty happy with the meeting, it was good to talk things thru, and sometimes more effective to discuss eye-to-eye than only over the internet. Also, there were some good, creative ideas and suggestions.

I just now finished and printed my essay for tomorrow. This will be a heavy weekend, tomorrow I'll have both a lecture (10-16s) to attend and my regular job. There goes the weekend. I'm taking a course called Academic English, I believe it's for the third time now. At least this time attendance shouldn't be too big a problem as there will only be two actual sessions - tomorrow and then one more in December, when we are to give presentations.

I heard some great news today, turns out there's a black&brown-course in Tallinn, Estonia this October. I was very happy to learn this, as there (I might have mentioned this before?) are  nothing but two Black-belt courses left on the Finnish course calendar for the rest of this fall. I had planned to go back to my routine of last fall, of one weekend free every month, but thanks to this it looks like I'll have two weekends off again in October... Not that I would normally mind weekends off (who would?), but for me it means unpaid vacation. I really want a new job.

Been listening to today: Animals as Leaders.

Weekend update

Lots of things going on right now! Mostly good things, luckily. This weekend I've had a good old friend visit Turku - one thing I wish would happen more often! The visit included a tasty homemade dinner, whiskey tasting, a good beer or five and photography. And for next weekend I can look forward to a karate course (with Sensei!) in Vasa, and the week after that I will have another friend from home visiting me. Of course there's also the stress that comes with every start of a new season. I've been trying to get my university studies to at least look like they are following some kind of plan (and failing at this), and it's also the time of year for advertising our karate club. And I love being involved in that, even though I know there are other things I should be focusing on right now.

I still don't know what was/is wrong with my stomach, as I haven't been able to get in touch with the lab. It's much better but not good. Looks like I 'll have to visit the hospital again. Hope it's nothing too serious. The foot still bothers me a bit too, the pain comes and goes.

The following couple of days will probably include more than a little photography, as the friendly visit included a very nice used compact camera. Loving it so far!