Friday, September 30, 2005
This day's been slightly better than the previous one. And I haven't even made the panic call to Virpi! Woo! It's been a family day actually. Spent a quiet morning with Milla, hung around for two hours at mum's and another two at dad's. Now I'm spending quality time with the cats before E+E come over.
Viivi and Stubu have never looked so huge! Viivi the JNS cat (it's getting confusing with the two Viivis) is the only feline being I've seen in the past month, and she's about the size of Stubu's head. I can barely lift these two now.
I told Emppu and Emmu there wouldn be nothing much served this evening but that they're welcome to bring their own food and drink if they like. And then I lost it in the shop. We now have grapes and crackers and bluecheese and brie and whatnot. Jebus. Apparently, I can't have people over without offering them half the food in Finland. Hm.
It was agreed that mum and Jussi helped me to pay for my new computer as a birthday present and therefore I didn't expect to receive anything else. But it turns out that mum bought me another present as well (and knitted a woolly hat for me too). I now own also the Groke mug and the Groke bowl! I am not saying I don't appreciate it, but it does seem a bit too much, doesn't it?
It's Katto-Kassinen tomorrow, which is fairly cool. I've been wanting to see it since spring. I hope it's good but I have my doubts. And as we're going to see Mockshot in the evening, I think it's enough action for one day. Need to keep myself busy while I'm here.
WAH! Something happened to the keyboard and all the symbols are in the wrong place! How, why, what for??! I think this functions like a British keyboard now (reched the conclusion because I can pretty easily figure out what key is for what symbol), but I'm not sure. I've got to fix it but how?? If this was my own keyboard I could probably live with it, but it's Milla's laptop we're talking about. Bollocks.
//edit: apparently, this keyboard thingie is only happening when using Blogger. That's not too bad, then.
//edit 2: there was the tiniest picture of Wentworth Miller on the frontpage of IMDb, and I instantly recognised him to be Gage in one (bad) BtVS episode. I've got to get me a life.
Thursday, September 29, 2005
I am now twenty-three. Not the best birthday ever. I think this might even top my 20th. Dear lord.
I feel like phoning Virpi, who actually said that I may phone her any time, but I don't want to ruin her game evening. I shall phone her tomorrow. Heh.
I'm not sure if I ever planned to be something special at twenty-three. But I'm quite certain I didn't picture this. Ah well.
More deep thoughts later. Now it's not the bestest of times for blogging.
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
The evidence I promised yesterday is now here. Click here and see for yourself. I think the one in the middle, with Reeta, is my favourite as that kind of self-taken shots have always been very dear to me. But I've got to admit that the ones with Matti (on the far left) and Jaakko (on the far right) are most genuine as there is absolutely no awareness of the camera there.
Actually, the Matti pic is part 2/2. The series shot made me laugh. And still does. It's worth at least a 1000 words, probably a lot more. Teehee..
I really do like all the pics. In the ones I haven't posted, I just happen to look like a drunken idiot, but so does everyone else. Except Reeta who manages to look very nice in every single one. Darn her.
Sweet, sweet.
I'm feeling like shit, and no, it is not just birthday blues. Just phoned Virpi and am feeling a little better now. I decided I'm not going to the game thingie tomorrow. I'd really like to be there but I can't make myself split in every direction so I have to let something go. This time, it's my little freshmen. But as Virpi said, I've probably been the most active of the four tutors so it doesn't matter if I'm absent for one evening.
The thing is, I wouldn't have gone there just for responsibility. I think it would've been fun. Ah well. Who says spending quality time with The Last of the Mohicans on the train isn't fun? What could be funner?! Arr! :|
On a side note, Noora's probably the best messenger buddy ever. I swear I can feel my IQ getting lower and lower with every message. :D
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
First things first: I want the Mental Wear hat. The one that says "Saatan olla vaarassa" to be specific. Anyone willing to give me 20e for that? Anyone? No?
Shite.
But as I already started, I might as well add that I also want this and this as well as the "I'm blogging this" t-shirt I still haven't got around to purchasing although I've been dying to get it for over a year already. Ah well.
Virpi and me are apparently looney magnets. The final proof of that appeared today in the form of a middle-aged woman who was so weird we both got a tad bit scared and had to flee. We seem to attract the attention of the weird people when we're separate but obviously the scariest people turn up when we're together. Gah. It is not pretty. Really. I think I'm actually a bit afraid to hang out in the cafe of the humanities building after this afternoon, and gasp!, where's that going to lead me? Where will I go now? No!
Probably I just have to face my fear tomorrow. It's not like I could keep away from the place unless I suddenly develop a life.
The freshmen party last week was alright. The Social Drunk I seem to get once every year attacked me without a warning I hugged everyone (and their legs) to death. Saw Reeta's photos yesterday and they pretty much prove that I'm not exaggerating. Sigh. I will post (some of) the evidence when I get the photos from Reeta. Which is probably tomorrow, actually.
But all in all it was a good party. Save some nasty things like a few freshmen girls feeling extremely sick and people losing their stuff and the place being a total mess. What happened? I do not know. Surprisingly many people turned up, though, which was really nice.
Some after effects there are too. According to the popular belief I now have a crush on Kari and am feeling all blue because he's taken.
Me: HA! Well. No.
It is true that I am feeling all blue and am half the time wondering whether I should jump off the bridge or tie myself to the traintracks. But I can safely promise that it has nothing (and very likely never will have anything) to do with Kari. Har. :D
But back to my little freshmen.
This has honestly got to be the most active bunch of freshmen in the history of the English department here. When they're not planning a bar tour, they're organising a game night (which is this Thursday and will probably delay my going home by a day). I also mentioned about the Phil Carr gig to one of them and in the end half showed up. They're a strange lot. But it's nice to know they're bonding and making friends and blah blah.. Maybe that means that they're actually planning to stay here and won't pull the stunt half of our year did, ie. leave. There's less than half of us left now. It's pretty depressing.
The Phill Carr gig, by the way, was lovely. Sini was very taken with Phil's voice and ended up buying the CD and everything.
Emmu and me thought we'd go to another bar after the gig but I guess we're too old for that. We could barely keep our eyes awake when the gig ended and just headed home. Don't regret that, though. It's not too cheap to go out on a Saturday night over here.
It was nice having Emmu over although there was, again, too little time. But we tried to make the most of it. We hung out in Kerubin kuppila, made a little excursion to Niinivaara, walked around and made the pizza that for some reason I messed up the dough and it was quite impossible to cut the pizza. Chewing wasn't too easy either. Of course, we'd already invited several people to share the pizza with us and luckily Matti was the only one who actually showed up. Still, I was pretty much mortified since I usually make good dough and this was just a disaster. Except on the following day when I was eating the leftovers and it was perfectly alright. How depressing.
It'd be nice if Emmu came here more often if only a) she could afford it b) I wasn't so darn busy all the time. Whatever. Maybe we can work this out sooner or later. And at least now she's seen that I really do know people here and haven't just made them up to pass the time. Mission accomplished.
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Hung out in the cafe of the humanities building for two hours today again. That is, I went there two hours early just to hang out and have lunch with Virpi. I really do need a life.
In order to get one, I also went to the meeting of the culture section today. I've been trying to go to one for some two years but never really made myself do it. I almost skipped it today but couldn't bear the thought of feeling like an utter loser after deciding to definitely do something and then bailing out (again). So I went. I have no idea what the hell I was doing there in the first place but at least I've now given it a try.
But thanks to these two little excursions of the day, I haven't read half of the material I was planning for the day. Bollocks. Just can't be bothered to read now, I'm too tired. Well. That's just. Fuk.
And since it's the freshmen party tomorrow, I probably won't do much reading even though I know I'll have plenty time between noon and 5pm, which is the time I have to invade Fever for some three hours with Henna, Jari and Kari M.
I went to the introduction to musicology lecture today for the first time as I had to skip it last week. Ahem. Although we barely mentioned musicology itself, the lecture was really interesting. And the lecturer was probably one of the strangest men I've ever seen. Ever. I liked him, though. At least he was far from boring. But I have to say that the part of the lecture that stuck to my mind was the part we were discussing canon. [note MVMVM = a bloke from my year, also an English student]
Lecturer: Anyone know what a canon is?
MVMVM: It's a collection of things that is seen as important and ground-breaking..
Hanna: ...and generally accepted, especially.
Lecturer: o_O
Class: *Silence*
Lecturer: Why do I teach these things if you're already that advanced?! How do you know this stuff?!!
Hanna: o_O
MVMVM: Well, it's come up in the English lectures.
Lecturer: It has?!
Hanna: The concept of canon does exist in literature as well!
Lecturer: Yes, of course. Well.
The girl sitting infront of me: [whispering] What was it? I wasn't listening.
Hanna: Good grief. *insert short explanation here*
a) That girl is about bazillionth year student of history. I kind of thought she would've heard of canon.
b) I kind of thought everyone would've heard of canon! It's weird how such concepts become familiar to you and then you don't even question knowing it anymore. It's a strange thing, knowledge.
The other strange part of the lecture was that there were only nine of us there. And one wasn't really a student, she was just listening (and being extremely annoying most of the time with her fatalistic theories that had nothing to do with the things we were talking about). Also strange: MVMVM. I never would've thought he'd be there. Or that he'd be capable of talking that much! Me, him and some other bloke had to do a group conversation thingie and MVMVM was the one doing most of the talking. It'll be hard to get over this.
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
The people I know have suddenly restored my faith in, well, people. I have a constant panic about my a) proseminar and b) mediaculture proseminar-like assignment thingie, but apparently it's all in vain. Everytime I ask for help, I receive it.
I went to Jopi's office today because I had no idea how to approach my proseminar (I've chosen Roald Dahl, preferably Charlie and The Chocolate Factory). He then suggested Bakhtin's carnival theory, which ought to work very well with Dahl. He also pointed me to several books that might be useful for me. Granted, it is his job to help me, but it also made me feel a lot better. It was like the final proof that I'm really not alone in this. Also, the theory seems very interesting to me and I would've never found it on my own.
The other paper then. Phoo. Haven't talked to my supervisor about it yet (will do that next week), but everyone else I've asked have agreed to participate (it's sort of an interview / survey, probably). And more, most of them have voluntarily offered extra help! Either people in general are nice, and I'd just forgotten that, or then the people I know are an extraordinary bunch.
Either way: people <3
And then to something completely different..
My head's been aching like hell for the past few days again. It's that stupid tooth! Arr! I've got a dentist appointment booked, but it won't be until Nov 11. If the ache won't go away, I've probably consumed 3 years worth of painkillers by then. It's getting extremely annoying, really.
Is there a new Robbie album out? Why haven't I heard of it? Who's withholding information? Probably ought to watch more MTV or something, just to be more up to date in such matters.
Mentioning MTV, I think the whole MTV Finland deal is a bit weird. What's the point? I was perfectly content with MTV Nordic. Of course it's nice to have the shows subtitled, but that's pretty much all I can think of as a definite improvement. I've also got a slight problem with Axl now. I thought he was a bit cheesy before, but he's definitely super cheesy now. His style just doesn't work in Finnish, it doesn't. Well. He's better than some laconic VJ would be, but still. I find him a bit icky now.
Extremely deep thoughts these here.
But that's been kind of the theme of the day anyway. I tried to escape from writing my Swedish essay (which I've pretty much completed now, by the way - too bad it doesn't make much sense) and what was the most intelligent and meaningful activity I could think of? Blogthings.com. But thanks to it I now know that I am an emo rocker, my blog should be purple, my ideal relationship is serious dating, my seduction style is being prized object and that my unofficial IQ is 120 (with logical intelligence below average, verbal intelligence above average, mathematical intelligence genius and general knowledge exceptional).
I think the mathematical intelligence resulting as "genius" is my favourite of the lot. Kind of makes me question all the other results as well. Not that I'd blindly believe them in any other case :)
Monday, September 19, 2005
1. Vastaa nimelläsi ja minä kerron sinusta jotain.
2. Kerron sinulle, mikä bändi / elokuva muistuttaa minua sinusta.
3. Keksin jotain yhteistä/samaa intressiä mitä meillä on.
4. Kerron mistä saattaisin kadehtia sinua.
5. Kerron ensimmäisen muistoni sinusta.
6. Kerron sinulle eläimen, josta tulet mieleeni.
7. Kysyn sinulta jotain, mitä olen halunnut kysyä.
8. Jos teen tämän sinusta, sinun täytyy laittaa tämä journaliisi.
--> No vitsi. Ei ole tämäkään mikään LJ eli ehkä sen nyt voi postittaa muuallekin, jos kokee tarpeelliseksi tai muuten vaan. Enkä pakota ketään, voi vaan vastata ja jättää postittamatta. Minä nyt laitoin, kun jätin Suville oman nimeni. Nii.
ps. Hyvää Jaakon syntymäpäivää.
Friday, September 16, 2005
Well, what do you know. Survived the exam and it appears that at least one of the two essays isn't entirely wrong. Nor is the other one, it just isn't right either. It's just random word after another for a page or so. But at least I tried.
Anyway, we had to answer two of the following: 1) Swing and big band jazz 2) Pioneers of bebop 3) The significance of blues during the development of jazz. I chose 1 and 3. I could've answered number two telling things like "besides an innovative musician, Charlie Parker was a sociopath and a drug addict" but decided against it. Wonder why..
Bought a tank top and a t-shirt to cheer myself after the exam. I really couldn't afford any more clothes shopping but I couldn't resist these two. I'm wearign them right now and it's quite possible I've fallen in love with both of them. :)
I'm looking all fancy anyway as I am going out. For once my make-up turned out alright and my hair isn't that bad either. The one thign ruining it all is that I've still got that cold and my head is sweating so much it isn't even funny. But I'm going out nonetheless. I'm feeling like it and I've got the company so why not. I'm going to Palaveri for an hour or so with a few freshmen and then to Kerubin kuppila with Virpi and Mikko to see Klaus Thunder & Ukkosmaine.
It's Virpi and Mikko's 1½ anniversary today. Were it any other couple, I wouldn't butt in like this, but a) they said they could come with me b) they usually do not make me feel like a spare tire or the Pathetic Single Friend. Let us hope they won't start it today, then.
I bought a can of the new Upcider today. Natural apple or whatever it is called. It's the best Finnish cider I've tasted by far. Crowmoor or Blackthorn it ain't, but I think a new favourite among the usual shop ciders has been found. Which is nice as I was getting a bit tired of the old favourite.
All in all, I'm feeling good and la-la. Besides the sweating, that is. But nevermind. The new tops make up for that.
Thursday, September 15, 2005
Ah, it was inevitable. I caught a pretty bad cold yesterday (I'm not even starting on how badly the whole thign was organised! But let's just say that I'm surprised we didn't all end up with pneumonia or something..).
My throat is sore, my nose is running like there's no tomorrow and my head is buzzing. Not much fever, luckily. But it's the throat that's killing me anyway. Arr. Haven't been able to concentrate on anything today since I'm very conscious about my poor pharynx non-stop whatever I try to engage myself in. Like Swedish homework. Whooopeee!
Went to get some emergency medicine from the pharmacy today, ie. Burana-C. The lady there was way too helpful.
Her: Need assistance?
Me: No thank you. I'm just getting something for my cold.
Her: Well, I just want to check that you are not in a state where you could not use these regular medicines.
Me: I am not.
Her: Allergy? Asthma?
Me: No.
Her: Which of these have you tried before? We have tablets and the ones you can drink.
Me: Basically all of them, and..
Her: Then I would recommend Burana-C.
Me: ..that's what I came to buy.
Her: Something for your throat?
Me: Well, I was going to..
Her: These are really good, as are these. Besides disinfecting they also anaesthezie slightly, and..
Me: Yes, I've used them.
Her: And these?
Me: No. But..
Her: What taste would you prefer? Mint, eucalyptus, le--
Me: Lemon.
Her: And there you are. Something for cough? To open your nose?
Me: NO!
And so I ran away. The thing is that I really wanted to buy a thermometer, as I don't own one yet, but I was so annoyed with the woman that I just left. And borrowed Krista's.
And thanks to her, instead of my usual Bafucin tablets, I now have medicine called Toncils that's supposed to taste like lemon o_O I guess it's needless to say it pretty much tastes vile. And isn't all that effective either. Ah well. As long as it helps even a little, I'm not complaining. At least too much.
Jaakko and me are meeting the new freshman boy tomorrow. I have no idea if I have enough energy for the meeting, considering the fact that in this state my attention span lasts about 10 minutes if I really, really stretch it and I also have the history of jazz exam tomorrow.
And why oh why am I always sick when I've signed up for an exam on a general exam day?? I honestly can't remember one where I wouldn't have eben accompanied with a packet of Mynthons and a big pile of tissues. I've always passed, so it's not like I couldn't pull it off with a cold. It's the people sitting around me that I'm not envying. Har.
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Again, it took blood, sweat and tears as well as endless phone calls to various places but now my net connection works. What a relief.
I got the modem and the RJ45 cable last week but for some reason nothing would work. I tried everything I could think of with no result. Kari came here and tried to fix it, nothing. In the end it turned out that some firewall I didn't even know was on (or really even existed) blocked everything. So idiotic. But whatever.. It works now and that's all that really matters.
It's Lehtiä Ilosaaressa today and of course it's raining :| Normally I really wouldn't care, but I volunteered to sell tickets and last night it turned out that my shift lasts from 2pm to 7pm. That's five hours. In rain. Arr! Luckily I'm not alone there (though I have no idea of the person who's working with me) and my shift will end early enough for me to see the Stam1na gig, which is the only one I really have been waiting to see.
But I think I'll come home early today. Even with free entrance to all the clubs. This week is way too hectic for me to stay out too late, and I've got be in the Swedish class at 8.30am tomorrow morning. Not that I could keep myself awake after midnight anyway. So I won't even try.
Viivi's sleeping on my lap again purring. Apparently, she liked listening to the sound of typing. She's usually on Krista's lap when she's working but now when I spend more time infront of the pooter, too, she sometimes comes here. She's just too cute. When she's not dropping and breaking things. Or leaving white cat hair all over my clothes.. The two sides of having a little kitten in the household.
Two chapters of the history of jazz book to go. Read one this morning and decided I won't even try another one until tomorrow. The exam's on Friday and I do hope I'll pass it. I'm quite happy if I never have to lay my eyes on the book again. Rraah.
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Last week was just bad. Bad. One more day of it and I'm sure I would've done something desperate. Grah. Never again.
Luckily I'd invited myself to Jaakko & Juuli's housewarming party on Saturday, it pretty much saved everything. I only knew some people there and almost didn't go but figured that skipping it would be too embarrassing as I'd used a notable amount of time and energy to actually invite myself. Ah well. Met some new nice people and ended up in Kerubin kuppila with this girl called Venla I'd never met before. But she was really nice. And scarily a lot like me..
Venla: *random sentence*
Hanna: Are you me??
Venla: Apparently I am.
Hanna: o_O
New students arrived yesterday.. There are quite bunch of them, actually. At the moment I'm quite sure I'll never learn their faces, let alone names. But they seem enthusiastic even though only some four or five of them had Joensuu as their first choice. Easy to tutor, I'm sure. And it's only today and tomorrow left anyway because some genius thought a three-day orientation is enough. Well, yay.
I'm already hungry and I've got a media culture lecture in half an hour. And I have to leave that 30 minutes early because the tutoring starts at 12.15. When will I eat?? Aaaa!
Bought a new computer last week. Net connection not in function yet but at least I have something that works properly instead of that dread old machine that froze every five minutes or so. Woo.
//edit: Excitement of the day - I lost my phone. So stupid of me, I just left it somewhere. God, I was so angry as I practically never do something like that. Never! I was so nervous. But all in vain, really. Figure this: some random person had picked it up from the school corridor and phoned the first person on my recent calls list. As Piia was tutoring our little first years, she didn't hear the phone. So this random person phoned the second one, which turned out to be Samu. And then brought the phone to him. Samu then phoned first Kari, who didn't answer and then Piia telling that he's got my phone now and will bring it to me to Palaveri this evening.
Did he ever ask from this random person who she or he was? No. I have no idea who this angel is, but apparently there are some good people left in this world. Most kind, really. I'm in awe.
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