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.

Late Knitn'tag photos

A bit late, but here are some of my photos from the "Knit n' tag" exhibition of knitted graffiti along the river Aura. I love the idea! And the artwork ads a bit of fun and change to a space we are very used to. I walk here almost every day, to and from uni. The works are made both by individual artists and different organisations, as part of the Turku Design Week project.

A tree-hugger! Unfortunately, you can't see her arms in this picture)

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

Tallinn revisited

Field trip to Tallinn with the department of Ethnology, April 23rd. Here on my personal blog, I've chosen to try and avoid posting too many pictures with people in them.

Open air museum

...and Old Town architecture

Old pharmacy

All in all an interesting trip, even though it was tiring (bus from Turku at 4 am, then almost 24 hrs on the go) and I was especially impressed with the open air museum. Have to return for more touristing, or take the time next time I have a karate course over in Estonia.

Sick, sad world

I had planned to write earlier this week, but then couldn't make my mind up about whether or not (and how!!) to comment on the things that have been all over the news this week - the bombings, the debates on terrorism, the conspiracy theories... I'm still not sure if I really have anything to add to the whole thing. My thoughts, in short, are these: I felt terrible when, on Tuesday morning, I first read the news about the Boston marathon bombing. But no, this does not mean that i do not care what happens in the rest of the world. And no, it does not mean that I think American citizens are more important than people of other nationalities. It does not mean that I agree with the US foreign politics and yes, I am very aware that US military forces (No. Not all American citizens) are killing children in other parts of the world, and, no, I do not think it is acceptable. And finally, yes, I do believe that the world media should be covering the world more fairly.

But. Big but. First of all, I am sick and tired of conspiracy theorists acting like vultures and of the desperate digging for dirt before the blood shed has even begun to cool, just to try prove and spread their own point of view. Secondly, no individual equals one state, one religion or one ideology. Sometimes I feel this is forgot in our hunt for martures and symbols. And, finally, someone killing one of your children never makes it fair for you to kill one of theirs. I do not care who started. Leave the eye-for-an-eye in the Old Testament where it belongs, and then close. the. book. Good.

Picture, once more, blatantly stolen over the interwebs. This message, when pointed at the entire world, summarizes my thoughts quite exactly.

Weekend update

 I'm OK, just haven't taken the time to write for a while. I have two awesome weekends behind me, and a busy week in between these. The course in Tallinn was great, very inspiring and lots of hard work - like it should be.

This weekend was spent at Kåren, where the rock organization RÅA gave their annual two-day festival, featuring 2 x 8 different temporary cover bands. This year shows by the likes of Metallica, The Who, Manowar, Megadeth, Motörhead and Bruce Springsteen, just to mention a few. I had a great time and was quite impressed with  most of the bands. Brought my friend Mr Camera around this time and had some fun with him/it. Still have lots to learn about using it though, and taking pictures during concerts is particularly hard (and often a waste of good concert time). But there were some good pictures among them, just have to sort through them all.

Suffered a bit of a hangover today - seems I can hardly stand any alcohol anymore - but managed to cure it with the help of my  Simple Hangover Soup: very salty (vegetable) stock + frozen veggie mix + chilli powder + garlic. It works!

And tomorrow it's Monday again. Wasn't it Monday just the other day? I'm growing suspicious about these constantly recurring Mondays...

Listening to: Graveyard