Much AWhine About Nothing

The Best Christmas Album EVER

2010-12-23T12:48:00.003Z

Behold! It’s a festive blogpost.

Yesterday, at a friends flat where we were enjoying some Christmas treats, I took over her Spotify and put on an album exclaiming: 'THIS IS THE BEST CHRISTMAS ALBUM EVER.' To which she said: ‘Oh, I thought you said that other album was the best Christmas album ever.’

I thought about it and today was reminded of yet another good Christmas album, hence I present to you THE TOP 3 OF CHRISTMAS ALBUMS (in no particular order, links to Spotify and a sample youtube video of a song from each album):

New Kids On The Block – Merry, Merry Christmas

This is the childhood favourite. I inherited the album on a cassette from my sisters at some point and as I went through a phase of being totally in love with NKOTB I obviously also listened to the Christmas album. I listened to it a lot. At school, we also did a very nice choreography to Last Night I Saw Santa Claus for a Christmas party complete with a saxophone playing Santa. Seriously, this album is nothing very special but I have fond memories of it so if you wish to borrow some nostalgia this Christmas, borrow it from me and go listen to this album.

The Superions – Destination...Christmas!

I was introduced to this earlier this year by the boy. Fruitcake was playing in his house many times over the course of a couple of days whilst I was staying at his and what a marvellous tune it is. This is the album you want to listen to when the stress gets more and more unbearable and you realise you still need to make gingerbread biscuits and buy your mother’s present and you have about an hour and a half to do all of that and more. Even though it ends in the relatively creepy Santa Je T’aime, this album does a pretty good job in providing you the extra energy boost you need to get things done by Christmas!

Vince Guaraldi Trio – A Charlie Brown Christmas [Expanded]

This too I was introduced to by the boy a few years back now, I think it was when we were living in Peckham. He also reminded me of this earlier today and having just finished listening to the above mentioned The Superions album I queued this next on my Spotify. This is one to please both the mother and the daughter. I can see myself suggesting we listen to this at my parent’s house when my mum wants to listen to something Christmassy and I want to veto the usual carol type things. A bit of Charlie Brown jazz to make your Christmas just a tiny bit more special. And even though I’ve said this about the two other album previously, I think this one just might be THE BEST CHRISTMAS ALBUM EVER!

Risotto! Ie. There Was a Dinner Party

2010-10-24T12:18:00.007+01:00

I threw a dinner party!

Well, it was really just some friends over for dinner but I actually cooked something nice. In fact, something I’d never done before. And it was nice!

Now I’ve got a rubbish selection of photos again, really should learn to use my camera and also, TAKE MORE PICTURES. It’s just, I don’t like using flash which leads unfocused photos. Hmmm.

Anyway, for starters we had a selection of things, antipasti, if you like. There were olives from The Fresh Olive Company (they have a stall at Borough Market, well worth a visit if you’re around there), little coctail stick things I made with baby plum tomatoes, fresh basil and buffalo mozzarella (from Morrisons ‘The Best’ range, and it was really quite decent, I thought), and tomato and olive focaccia I made using the recipe blogged here before, just adding halved baby plum tomatoes on top to compliment the olives. The focaccia needed more salt, I think. Something about it wasn’t quite right, but oh well.

For the main we had a Butternut Squash and Chorizo Risotto using a recipe I found on the Morrisons website. I’m not even quite sure how I ended up looking at recipes on the Morrisons website, but I did and I’m glad I did. I’d never used butternut squash in anything before and that was quite exciting. The one I got wasn’t quite ripe, I think, but since it was roasted anyway it didn’t really matter. I’m not big on following recipes literally and in this case I used chicken stock as opposed to the vegetable stock in the recipe, I also used it almost a litre but I may have used a bit more rice too (I don’t have scales). I also added some salt and black pepper to the butternut squash before roasting.

The thing I’ll do differently next time is the garlic. In the recipe here it tells you to roast garlic with the squash, but I’d recommend throwing it in the pan with the onions and chorizo. Oh that’s another thing, do fry the onions for a bit before adding the chorizo. And use oil a bit more liberally too. Anyway it was lovely. The taste of garlic on the squash was a tad too strong for my liking though. That’s why I wouldn’t roast it again. The good thing about the chorizo is that you really don’t need any extra flavourings in the risotto. The stock, chorizo and a bit of salt and pepper on the squash are just right. Make sure you get a strong parmesan though, I wouldn’t use a bog standard supermarket parmesan since the other flavours are quite strong and I like to taste the cheese in my risotto too.

In other news, I’m still on the look out for a job so you know, if you know of any good opportunities, let me know. Anything office based. In London. Ta.

Arts and Crafts

2010-10-08T11:49:00.004+01:00

Over the last year I’ve had this urge to DO stuff. Like arts and crafts, or sewing or something sort of creative. Trouble is I’ve got very low self-esteem and don’t really see myself as a creative person, but perhaps that’s just lack of trying.

There used to be a time when I’d write a lot. You know, in my teens, but perhaps that was just what every teenager does to try to deal with all the angst and horribilities (yes, I know that’s not a word) of life. And writing definitely helped me get over that heartbreaking event of getting dumped out of the blue and out in the open. Over time I just sort of stopped writing, perhaps it was partly due to more school work and writing essays and things that killed any aspirations to write in my spare time. There is a certain lack of imagination as well though, I’d always draw inspiration from my own life or dreams and there are only so many stories about teenage drama one can write. I’ve never been one to keep a diary either. There have been livejournals and different blogs and many actual diaries, but for some reason I’ve never been one to deal with my daily emotions in a way that would’ve kept me writing in diaries.

Around the same time as I wrote a lot, I also very much enjoyed sewing and knitting things. Sewing especially would mostly happen at school where there was proper equipment and good advice on offer. I never got along with my mum’s old Singer (that’s a sewing machine for those of you in the dark) and buying fabric always seemed so expensive that I’d rather spend my money on other things. I’ve knitted quite a few pairs of socks and gloves in my time though. I find knitting to be a nice thing you can do whilst doing other things, mainly watching TV or movies. That’s something I ventured in last year. I decided to knit a scarf for the boy. It turned out alright, but I completely miscalculated how much work it actually was, probably because of the lack of practice. It had easily been five years since I had last held the knitting needles. After finishing it (it didn’t turn out to be as long as I wanted it to but I ran out of time) I was so tired of knitting that I didn’t want to take up another project. And I still haven’t.

Regardless, here’s a photo of the finished scarf modeled by the boy himself.

Also, look at that featured on the Sartorialist blog a few months after I’d done the scarf. Uncanny, isn’t it?
Since this post is going all over the place anyway, here’s a little quote from the boy too, in relation to the above linked Sartorialist post. Just because I find it funny.

‘i have no idea how these people are sartorialist worthy

this is just like

but with a silly knot for the scarf’

During my IB times I sort of re-invented myself and was pretty active in school plays and happenings. I suppose after going through middle school in the shadow of my wildly more popular and beautiful BFF I felt the need to be out there, loud, noticed and liked. I pretty much managed to do that too. Kitchen psychology aside, I managed to channel my need to create into different school projects, some that I enjoyed far more than others. There was also a short lived covers band, that was in all honestly totally rubbish. Still, things were done and creative needs were pretty much satisfied.

Enter university, where everything ends. The start of university was a weird time. I moved away from everyone I knew to another country and had to learn to rely on myself and myself alone in life. Suddenly there was no time for anything other than studying, drinking or msn. Although, the first year or two at university I did write a heck of a lot, but most of it would be on msn and the rest would be split between livejournal and essays. Hardly anything was made up. I watched a lot more films than I’d ever watched before, though. Suddenly I knew people with amazing DVD libraries and interest in film. I’d always been interested in film but with the excuse of lack of money (such as with most things in life) never got into cinema in the way I would’ve liked to. So I caught up on loads of films, went to the cinema nearly weekly and I suppose watching other people’s art sort of made up for not creating anything myself.

I still thought about doing things myself and one Christmas brought back my knitting needles from Finland but it never led to actual knitting. I also bought a badge making machine with a friend but that never led to anything on my part. I did make a couple of cards and presents to people, but nothing much. However, I suppose I sort of channeled that creative energy to cooking. One of the good things that come from living on your own, or even with other people is that you get to choose what you eat. And unless you’re cooking with someone, you don’t need to restrict yourself with other people’s tastes. I was pretty content whilst at uni anyway, perhaps because free time was sort of limited and when there was any spare time, something would always be on.

As a little taster of what I did do whilst at university, here’s a birthday video me and the boy made for our friend John. (I do take about third of the credit for this, even though the boy did all the filming and editing etc.) It’s a million times better with sound, but you know how youtube is with copyrights. It also shows yours truly making a photo album for another friend who actually happens to share a birthday with John. Look at me doing things!

The whole point of this post originally was that I wanted to share with you that I feel the need to create things. I suppose it’s a combination of being unemployed at the moment and also being in England. I’m most comfortable with myself when in England and I suppose that sort of frees up emotional space for wanting to do things. Or something. And now I’ll go off on a tangent.

Once I got over the first shock of moving to another country I’ve pretty much always felt happiest and most happy with myself in England. There was a conversation with some friends once about re-inventing oneself and how that often happens when you go to university and how it’s important that it happens and so on. During that conversation I maintained that because I changed schools between middle school and the IB I didn’t have to re-invent myself anymore when I came to university. But I did, or at least I grew to be me. And still, there’s a difference between me in Finnish and me in English. I tie it to the language I speak, not necessarily to the physical surroundings.

This post feels like one big side-track. ANYWAY, after I made the Lego ring featured in a post some time ago I got very excited and realised I could actually do things. I have also recently started reading Philippa Rice’s magnificient webcomic My Cardboard Life and it’s made me wonder why couldn’t I do something like that. And there is no reason. I won’t do my own comic, but it has made me realise that there are a lot of possibilities in the world of arts and crafts and I really should start doing things. Step one will be getting over that money excuse. Step two will be creating things. I’ll keep updating the blog with things if I do end up making something. Perhaps I’ll need to change the header of the blog to ‘Whining and Dining and Making’. Maybe not just yet though.

Puzzles!

2010-10-07T09:46:00.005+01:00

First things first. I am now in London, don’t know for how long, but the main thing is that I am now in London. I’m relying on nice people to let me stay at their houses and am looking for work like crazy. I don’t think I’m lying if I say that in the last couple of days I’ve made more applications than in the last six months altogether (which is still not that much...). There have been all sorts of personal issues going on and I haven’t been doing the things I should have been doing, but obviously this situation at least works for my job hunting will. It's all a bit puzzling. Harhar.

In other news, I do have a job for myself in Finland starting in January, but if I’m able to find something better here I will stay.

Right, the reason I’m writing this is that earlier this autumn, or I suppose it was more like late summer, my mum bought a jigsaw puzzle. Actually, it was bought as a present to my uncle, who has his birthday in November. Mum figured it’d be best to buy it early since she found it and loved it and just in case they’d sell out before the actual birthday it’d be good to get it early. And of course, to be honest, we really wanted to have a go at it too.

So a couple of days after the puzzle had arrived in our house, we decided it wouldn’t be at all wrong to do it before giving it to my uncle. Really, we’d be doing him a favour checking that all the pieces are there etc. It is a 1000 piece puzzle and it’s black and white. Yeah, black and white. It sounded like a really good idea until we started doing it. This is what it looked like after two weeks and about 20 hours of puzzle making time after.

These are most of the pieces left at this stage. They’re all just black. Or white.

Doesn’t that look like fun. Anyway, it doesn’t look as grim anymore. The sky is all done, finally. Now it’s just a matter of fitting all the black pieces in. And I’m not there doing it anymore. As I am in London. The puzzle is in Finland. However, my dad retired last week so he can step up now and help mum with it. It’s a pretty damn cool puzzle regardless.

The One With the Lego Ring

2010-09-29T10:17:00.007+01:00

Hola comrades!

Now, I was invited to a birthday party. And I really wanted to get the birthday girl something, but didn’t really know what and didn’t really have much money to spend either. I’d been eyeing different lego jewelry etc. at boutiques and on people and I figured, that’s a good idea! But I didn’t have the funds to go looking for that kind of stuff anywhere so I figured I’d do it myself.

And so I did.

In hindsight, considering the person I was giving it to a necklace would’ve been a better choise, but I opted for a ring. Partly because I figured it’d be easier to make and partly because when I set out to do it I wasn’t sure if I’d do it with a block or with a person.

Now, the end product would’ve been a bit better had I had the funds to invest in a hot glue gun, but I didn’t so had to find an alternate way of doing it, so I used a base meant for pearl rings. The base has lots of little holes so that you can tie things on it and so I choked the Lego man (GIRL) with fishing line and tied another string around it’s pelvis and behold, I made a Lego dude ring!

Here are some photees. First, the awesome box I made myself with the helpful advice found on the internets.

I was really happy to find this Lego person, although it's supposedly a guy, I changed it's hair to a more girly style I found at home and now the colour at least matches with the girl's I got this for. The camera is also very like her, I thought, and the shoulder bag completes the package.

The photos aren't of the best quality, but I didn't have much time to take them and I'm not the best photographer ever. I'm also way too lazy to try to do any paint.net magic on them. I'll add one more that sort of shows what it looks like on a finger. This is me holding it though and it's on my little finger because I didn't want to stretch the size before giving it. It may also give you an idea of how I tied it to the base. In case that's something you're interested in.

... and we're back! Again.

2010-08-25T12:25:00.006+01:00

This whole blogging thing is getting more and more sporadic. It doesn't help that my laptop is pretty much dead and I need to rely on other computers to do my stuff on. It's never the same when it's not yours, is it.

I have done a lot of cooking and baking and things over the past year, as I've lived with my parents I've had access to their better than average kitchen and my budget for food has also been a bit better. Although, I'd say one of the highlights of my food year was a Sunday roast cooked at the boy's flat. My first ever roast (beef) and my first ever roast potatoes (homemade, that is). I think it came out pretty well, and it tasted nice and all, even though I believe me and the boy did have some differences of opinion on how pink the meat can be. Still, I think we both agreed it was a nice meal.

I also found a new love in risotto. I have enjoyed risotto cooked for me in the past but have always been way too intimidated (for reasons that now completely escape me) to try making one myself. My first attempt was a variation of a lemon risotto with crab meat, prawns and peas. Whilst it didn't taste amazing (the crab meat was tinned and didn't really taste of anything but salty water) it was a good start and since I've pretty regularly treated myself and some other to the niceness that is risotto.

Here's a photo for you of the first ever risotto. Not a good one, but I assure you it did taste nicer than it looks.

There have been some disasters too, like the time I decided to make rasberry and white chocolate muffins, and whilst they tasted nice, they didn't resemble anything close to muffins in appearance. You know, I say disasters, but I can't really think of any others than those muffins.

There was a time earlier this summer, I can't remember why, but I was home alone and decided to treat myself to something supernice to nibble on whilst watching tv. I went to the supermarket with not much of an idea of what I'd like and as I strolled around I found they had barbecued chicken on offer so I bought that and nachos. Behold, the ultimate nachos!

It was a rather perfect mix of nachos, cheese (I think it was Edam, which was not the best choice), salsa, cheese salsa, chicken and sour cream. The only thing missing were jalapenos, which would've completed the amazingness of it all.

In other news, there aren't many. I'm trying to sort out my life and I think for the first time ever, I'm completely unsure where I'll be in the next month let alone next few months. One thing's for sure though, I have got to move out. I'd like it to be London where I'll move to, but at the moment it seems like it might just be the city here. Hmm. Town.

I'll try to get back on track with this blog. I'd love to do more food postings and I've done a lot of food I've thought about making a post here on, but then have lacked the photos and time or something. Excuses they all are. But thanks for reading anyway. Don't get rid of me on your feed reader just yet, this place isn't completely dead.

The one with not much awhine.

2009-12-20T18:39:00.005Z

[Foreword: If you're into drinking games, I suggest you have a drink whenever I say 'Christmas' in this post. I do it a lot. And I don't feel like editing now.]

Yo yo yo!

There are like SO MANY blog posts that need to be written but I'm a LAZY ASS blogger so you can wait for them forever. Well, maybe not forever but for a long time. I've been making loads of nice foods now that I'm living at my parents house and have unlimited access to their kitchen, which while may not be perfect, is pretty damn much closer to perfect than any of the kitchens I've been cooking at for the past 4 years. (Such a LONG time!!)

Anyway, this post might as well be called 'Why I DO kind of like Finland' because it's not about whining at all. For the past week it's been cold. Like down to -15C cold, and it has been awesome. It would only be more awesome if the boy was here to cuddle up to, but I'm not going to whine. I can wrap up in flannel and lambswool (courtesy of Uni Qlo from my recent trip to see the boy, which was awesome btw) and I've got woolly socks too! Whilst these things obviously can't substitute the boy, they make life a wee bit better and the cold weather awesome.

Perhaps because of the actual wintry weather, I'm also sort of looking forward to Christmas (and I'm not going to mention here how much I'd like to spend Christmas with the boy because I'm sure it's self-evident). This hasn't really happened in the last few years and I'm sure as the days go by and it gets closer to the 24th I'll start feeling suitably annoyed and moody about yet another one of these parties which stopped being fun the moment I got younger cousins and stopped getting the biggest load of presents and made further worse with the realisation that most of the presents really don't matter as the person receiving them won't show any gratitude unless it's something they had specifically wished for. Nevermind if you spend a lot of time and effort in coming up with a really great personal gift for someone. (There's the whine!)

To get back to business I am actually looking forward to Christmas this year and in my futile attempt to make Christmas eve and the present giving (and opening) situation slightly better and enjoyable I've decided to help myself. In a flash of shopping mania I bought myself a Christmas present and as opposed to the usual (ie. saying it's a Christmas present for me, taking it home and instantly consuming whatever it is) I wrapped it up as soon as I got home and put it in the Santa's bag to wait to be handed to me by Mr. Claus himself.

This Christmas I also got the best present from the boy, which was handed to me on the 1st of December as I was there at his place then. It was originally sort of unwrapped and we both opened our presents there and then and have been reading our things (I got him a comic and he got me a comic) but I decided to wrap my present (as in his present to me) up too so that I can be mega happy unwrapping my presents on Christmas eve. Here's a picture of the wrapped present too. If you're interested after Christmas I can tell you what it was. I can tell you it's awesome though.

Merry Christmas to you all! Hope you'll be having a lot of fun in good company and that it isn't stressful or anything like that.

Why I don't like Finland, pt. II

2009-10-21T14:21:00.002+01:00

Part deux is here for you already! Can you imagine.

The other thing I don't like here is people. I mean I like being close to my family and friends here, they're nice and friendly and all that. But other people I don't like. You know, just randomers you come accross on the street. I will obviously generalise here but I hope you'll forgive me (if there's anybody out there reading anyway).

What I found odd when moving to London was how lots of people seemed to think that Londoners somehow lacked good manners. I mostly found people in London just as polite as people in Birmingham or Manchester and always more polite than in Finland.

To start off with, people are shit at small talk. That's fair enough and I can't really complain because I don't do small talk either. But if someone leads me I can small talk too. People are also pretty clique-y - breaking into groups of people can be pretty damn hard even if you already know someone in there. Obviously this is the case elsewhere too, but I find that when you're a "stranger" to a group I find them less accomodating here. However, I had a chat with a friend who lives in Helsinki about this, and she said she thinks this might just be a regional defect, not a nationwide thing.

Also, only a handful of people hold the door open for you. Even fewer will say thanks if you do so for them. It's little things like that - a sort of general lack of politeness that makes me miss London. And here's the story that sparked me to start up this series of posts. Are you sitting comfortably? Here goes:

I did a big food shop the other day and obviously forgot one important thing (burger buns, if you must know) because it wasn't on the shopping list. As I'd already left the supermarket I figured I'd just go to a smaller one on my way home, and I did. I found my buns pretty effortlessly in the store (a KKK Supermarket FYI, although I believe they're now just called K Supermarkets). The shop was a bit bigger than your average Aldi or Lidl. I got to the tills and there was only one till open at the time so I joined to queue like a good citizen would. The queue grew bigger though and a lady came to open the next till too. As I made a move towards the newly opened till an older man (I'd say in his fifties) rushed his trolley over from behind me and got into position to start off loading his trolley.

I was slightly baffled and asked him if I could go first since I only had that one bag of buns to pay for (I didn't mention that I was also in the queue before him, because I'm not petty like that) and his response completely blindsighted me. 'No way!' was his answer to me. It completely threw me off, at first I though maybe he was joking but after a short silence he continued saying how he'd waited for so long he wouldn't wait any longer now. (Again, I was in the queue before him so I had actually been waiting for longer than he had.) I was so surprised at his reply that I just didn't know how to react. So I didn't really say anything. And then I felt sorry for the lady (presumably his wife) who was with him. She apologised to me saying how he's such an impatient one etc. etc. And I said to her it's fine, I'm not actually in a hurry, I was just wondering. And she said they're not in a hurry either. Oh well.

I paid for my buns eventually and ended up leaving the parking area before they did anyway, not that it matters. I'm just baffled, because I can't imagine myself ever responding like that if someone asked me if they could go first in a case like that. Even if I was in a hurry and therefore had a good reason of saying no to someone, I'd feel inclined to explain that I'm in a hurry and all that. I've been going through the incident in my head over and over and I just don't understand how someone could be so rude like that. It's not that I couldn't take no for an answer, and like I said I wasn't in a hurry and to be honest I'm not completely sure why I even asked to go first (I think it was probably because he rushed up there from behind me the way he did that made me do it), but I just can't get my head around the way he said no. There.

Now while that was a single incident and obviously could've happened anywhere in the world, it didn't, it happened here and put together with the general lack of politeness around here it is thus added to reasons why I don't like Finland.

Why I don't like Finland, pt. I

2009-10-20T21:18:00.002+01:00

So here begins a new series of posts (again, I hope I get to at least pt. II or even III this time around). In case you don't know, I moved back to Finland about a month ago and let me tell you, it has not been easy. First of all the boy is still in London, secondly, I (still) need to look for a job to get me some moneys to allow me to move away from my parents care and, thirdly, it's just not like London here. Or anywhere in the UK for that matter. At least not like the places I've been to.

Right, reasons why I don't like Finland. The first shocker came a week or two into my stay here when I spent Sunday night at my sisters house and got a lift from her to town on Monday morning. She had to be at her work for half seven so we had to leave a bit before 7am and I figured since I don't really need to be at work (I occasionally work at my dad's office) before 8am I could sleep a bit longer, skip breakfast and just get something from a coffee shop before going to the office. We got to town around 7.20 and I began my wander around the centre of the town in search of a place that would serve a sandwich, or croisant to accompany a cup of a hot beverage but it was quickly obvious that no place was open. In the end I found two places that opened at 7.30 but as I walked around I ended up moving closer to the office than those two places and just went into a corner shop that opened at 7.00 and got a juice carton and a croisant. I realise it's a small-ish city I live in (well close to) and there probably isn't a market for early morning breakfasts, but I'm not sure I want to live in a place where I can't get a bloody sandwich in the morning if I want one! If you get me. Anyway, this isn't the thing that sparked me to start this series of posts, but you'll get the other story in the next edition. Stay tuned.

(Sorry this one's a bit rubbish, but I guarantee the next one will be better.)

Prosciutto and focaccia.

2009-06-17T20:19:00.007+01:00

Hello there!

It has been quite a while since I last wrote here. I do have a couple of ideas that have been circling around my mind for the past few months, but I never seem to have the time or energy to sit down and think about actually writing them up.

Now this post is about food, as you may have guessed from the title. First, let me show you a photo of yummy starter bits I made for the boy and myself a while back. They're nothing overly special, but I thought they looked nice and they tasted amazing! I shall call them Tomato-Mozzarella-Prosciutto wrappers. Isn't that a nice name? Here they are: I very simply made them by wrapping bits of fresh mozzarella, cherry tomatoes and basil in prosciutto slices. I found these awesome slices slices of prociutto in our local Asda. In fact, they were Asda branded too. They were half the size of the normal slices, and thus, perfect for these little finger food bits.

The main thing I was going to blabber on about in this post is the MOST AWESOME olive focaccia I made yesterday. I did it according to a recipe I had on a dish cloth (yes, a CLOTH!) and I was so so happy with the way it turned out. My mum sent me the cloth over a year ago now and I've not used it as a cloth because I thought I really should try baking that focaccia, just never felt like doing it. Well, now I have and I've written down the recipe and am using the cloth for wiping purposes. In case you're interested, here is the designer's home page, sadly, it's only in Finnish. Anyway, on to the recipe.

Olive Focaccia

Ingredients:
1 litre of plain wheat flour
1 bag of dried yeast (I used a Finnish standard yeast, which had 11 grams in a bag. Most UK yeast has been 7 grams, so about 1 ½ bags of that stuff.)
1 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of honey
approx. 3 ½ desilitre of water (NB. about 42 degrees warm to wake up the yeast)
½ desilitre of olive oil
handful of pitted olives
sea salt

The How To:
Mix flour, yeast, salt and honey together.
Add water (remember the temperature!) and olive oil and mix to make a nice dough.
Let the dough rise under a cover (I tend to use a kitchen towel/ pillow case, whatever is clean when baking) for an hour.
Dump the dough on an oiled baking tray and tap it to about ½ an inch thick thing. Let it rise for another 30 mins under a cover.
Press the olives (the original recipe says black olives, but I prefer green so used them) on the dough and springle sea salt on it.
Bake in 180 degrees for about 20-30 mins.

And behold! You've just made yourself a focaccia. It wasn't difficult at all now, was it?

The boy and I ate about half of the focaccia on it's own (although he picked out his olives and I ate them) freshly made last night. The other half we had for lunch today. We filled it with lettuce (rocket would've been nice, but we had romaine so settled for that) prosciutto, tomatoes and mozzarella. It was well yummy. Here's a pic. Byebye.

Obamania, take 2

2009-01-14T16:33:00.007Z

Firstly, I want to make it clear that I have nothing against Obama and I fully support him and hope he'll do well in office. On the 5th November morning when the boyfriend and I woke up to the 8am news and heard that Obama had won, we high fived half asleep and the day seemed to begin well. (It turned out to be a rather depressing morning, but it's a completely different story and didn't involve Obama in anyway.)

I've set out now to sort of rewrite Obamania because I don't think that it was anywhere near eloquent and as I wrote it in a frenzy of uncontrollabel and part-irrational anger I'm not too happy with it. In this post I wish to explain myself again, and I've tried to incorporate some things that I thought about after the feedback I got on the original post. (I'm still going to leave the original post up there, in case someone wants to read it. I'm not sure if I recommend it.)

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I've had the beginning of this post (above) ready for ages, but just didn't have the determination to actually write it up. I did, however write a personal message to a friend of mine who I had a minor argument with regarding my Obamania post. I think, with the Awesome Inauguration coming up next Tuesday, this might be a good time to tackle this one again. However, since I'm lazy and I'm actually quite happy with that message I sent to that friend of mine, I'm just going to copy paste it here. I've done some minor changes to it, mainly to make it a bit more PC as well as adding some links and stuff. (It's a bit long, so prepare yourself, get a drink and some snacks and.. Enjoy!)

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Firstly, I hope you realised from the quality of the blogpost in question that it was written in a frenzy of mindless anger and annoyance. Although, I do stand behind my words. I just mean that had I actually THOUGHT about what I was writing about I would've said things a bit differently.

I am still holding on to my opinion on local elections. I do believe that they are the most important elections for the average Joe or Jane. However, I'm not trying to say that other elections aren't important, on the contrary I believe elections are a wonderfull thing and all of them matter. Neither do I think that people are wrong to get enthusiastic about the US elections (and this is something I realise I didn't make clear at all), but I think that it's a real shame that many of the people I know who got all worked up about the election are people who don't care about what goes on in their own country. Or people who in general don't seem to have any real interest or opinion about US (politics) other than 'Bush sucks' (or more recently 'McCain sucks and Palin is an idiot'). And I'm not trying to say they're wrong, I just think it's a bit pathetic in a way, you know just repeating things they've heard other people say. If you see what I mean.

I'm finding it very hard to believe that we are now or would have been anywhere near WW3 had McCain been elected. I'd like to think that if McCain had died in office and Palin would've become president, she wouldn't have just sent out a load of nuclear missiles to Russia, even if she has seen Putin rear his ugly head or whatever it is she said she'd seen. I just can't imagine it [WW3] happening anytime soon, and I think I personally will stay a lot happier not even imagining such a possibility. (Following pic from flickr.)

I take your point with the July 2005 bombings, though. [This one I should probably make a bit clearer. My friend used terrorism to back up his argument about the importance of the US election to people everywhere, which is a fair point, I suppose.] Terrorism is something (kind of like the WW3-thing) I don't really think about, having never experienced anything the like. I've never felt a real threat of terrorism even living in London now. Perhaps it's because I'm selfish and can't really picture it before something happens to someone I know or something.

I'm a lot more scared of being stabbed, shot or simply mugged in the streets. Just the other day there was a stabbing/shooting (I never found out which it was, my guess is stabbing) right next to our local library. And a few days before that someone got stabbed right outside the house of some friends of the boy. That's something I worry a lot more than terrorism, which brings me nice and neatly back to the importance of local elections. I think it's not easy to link local stabbings with the US presidential elections, but it's a clear sign that there are severe problems in the society we live in (and I mean society here in the national/local sense not in the international sense).

Hm, I think that's it. Well, I've exhausted the pseudo-academic side of my brain and won't say more even if I should. ...And in case I've not made myself clear enough, I'm really glad Obama won!

Original art work by Alex Ross - Get it as a t-shirt here

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I think there is more to be said on the topic, perhaps that's something that could be done in the comments. If you've got something to say, SAY IT! I would very much appreciate any feed back or opinions and I do to keep an eye on the comments in case some of you actually DO want to discuss all of this. If you got this far, that is.

Because I like my chili.

2009-01-13T22:59:00.005Z

This shall be a food post for a change. I wrote it because I've been off ill for a week now and am a lot better now and BOREDBOREDBORED, yet too lazy to do anything. Oh well.

I have found a new favourite food. I had a chili con carne at the boys parents whilst we were living there early autumn, it was my first since age 10 or something like that and it was AWESOME. After that, however, we sort of forgot about chili and stuck to our more usual dishes; different curries, stir frys and pastas. Lately though, we've started making chili nearly once a week. We do one big enough to last us for two dinners, and thus save money and it is always amazing. Today's one, I found exceptionally good, here's how we did it:

Incredients:

400-500g Minced beef (preferably lean, I'm not a big fan of random bits of something indescribable in my mince)
1-2 Onions (depending on size and strength)
1 Chili pepper (medium hot)
3 Peppers (this particular time we used two reds and a yellow)
Box of cherry tomatoes
Tin of red kidney beans
Jar of chili cooking sauce (this time we used a cheap one from Aldi, I think it's quite nice. The boy doesn't like things too spicy, so we've been eating medium spicyness ones.)

Rice (I prefer long grain with chili, but since we usually only have Basmati, that's fine too)
Tortilla crisps
Grated cheese

Preparation:

* Chop everything first. I like my chilies and onions extra small, peppers quite small and cherry toms in half. Beans can be as they are.
* Stick the mince in a pan (we use a wok, it's very handy with large amounts of food) and fry until quite brown.
* Add onions and chillies. Stir and fry for a bit. Then add peppers, stir them in and let things fry on medium heat for 5-10mins. If you like, you can also add some salt and pepper and such spices and flavorings.
* Add cherry toms and stir.
* Open the kidney bean tin and drain the water (if using chili beans or something alike, you can obviously use the juices too). Throw the beans in the pan and stir.
* Add the cooking sauce and rinse the jar with a tiny drop of water and pour it in as well. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat and let simmer (if possible) under a lid for the time it says on the jar (usually between 15-25mins). The longer it gets to simmer, the softer the veg get and everything is nice and smooth and flavours are mixed and yumyumyum.
* (If required) rinse a suitable amount of rice and boil it according to what the package says.
* When the rice is ready, the chili should be pretty much ready too so deal it out, grate some cheese on top and serve it with tortilla crisps. It should be AWESOME. If not, you did something wrong and I'm not to blame!

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Realised I probably should've taken a photo of the chili tonight. But then again, I didn't think I'd blog about it when we had it. Perhaps I'll photograph the left overs when we eat them and add one then. Or perhaps not. I shall keep you in suspence. Muahhahahhaa! (That was an evil laugh, in case you didn't know.) Over and out.

The New Year is Here - and HOW

2009-01-01T11:17:00.000Z

Hello there dear Whine-readers! And happy New Year! I hope you've all had the bestest of times and will continue to have even better times in the near and far future. I now want to share with you the story of my New Year's Eve, as I'm sure you really really want to hear about it. (In addition it is a little embarrassing and I like to tell embarrassing stories about myself.)

Well, my New Year's Eve started with me trying to get up at 8am to go to work for 10. That I did and work was really quiet. And then I heard that my shift the next day (ie. today in other words New Years Day) was cancelled because my managers had decided not to open the coffee shop that day at all. So I was all 'WOO, don't have to worry about not staying up too late or having a drink too many!' And then I also got a text from an ex-housemate saying that he'd managed to gather two more ex-housemates together and were hoping for me and the boy to join them for the night. So we did, even though we weren't mega-keen on the idea of going to a pub for New Year's Eve partly because I'd just earlier that day had a discussion about the bestest of ways to spend NYE and established that it was a house party with a select collection of people and perhaps going out to see some fireworks and mostly because the boy had completely lost his voice and would not be able to speak to people in a loud pub.

But off we went to Camden after having a wonderful pasta dinner at home with breaded mozzarella sticks. The pub we found our comrades in was very loud and had a New Year's Rockabilly Eve and, well, I wasn't happy. We got out of there and our local Camdener recommended we check out this pub in which he'd 'never seen more than two people in'. And it wasn't too busy or too loud and quite good music was actually played. We stayed there for three pints with the boy and then left to take the tube to central London, hoping to catch the fireworks by Westminster Bridge.

And this is where it gets a bit embarrassing and everything starts going a bit wrong. Silly me, didn't use the facilities in the pub before we left. I DIDN'T FEEL LIKE I NEEDED TO THEN! But on the tuby-tube after about two stops I started feeling like a piss would need to take place in the not so distant future. And as we went along I felt as though it would actually be needed very soon. Not to worry, we were going to get off at Waterloo and I thought it's a big station, it must have public toilets. As we stop at Waterloo, I'm pretty desperate already and my desperation is only worsened by the announcement which says 'this train will not stop at this station due to overcrowding'. OH BOLLOCKS! And we stay at the station for what seems to be ages and my desperation is ever-growing now with the added bonus of mild claustrophobia - which I never get, it seems it only happens when tipsy and needing a piss!.

So the tube takes of and the next stop is Kennington. I tell the boy I need to get out if there's no toilets at the station, and it's a small station so obviously people don't need to piss there. No toilets. Perhaps there'll be a pub or similar close to the station we can go in and I can use the toilet. But no, there's nothing. We walk down the street and turn in to a side street hoping that we'll find a dark enough alleyway I could squat down at, but no. I'm super-speed walking around to find something, anything that looks like it could be utilised. In my mind I'm planning on knocking random doors, but the chances of people letting strangers in is pretty slim, right? But behold! There's a house with an open door and people getting out as it is now about 10 to midnight. There's obviously a party thing going on and I approach the people standing in front of the house and very politely inquire whether I'd be able to use their facilities. And these are nice people! They show me to the bathroom (and what a bathroom! If only I wasn't so embarrassed and didn't want to do my business as quickly as possible I could've marvelled at it a bit more) and I wee and thank again and leave.

I come out of the house to find an annoyed looking boy waiting for me and we decide we've now missed our chance to see the fireworks and might just as well stick around to see the people from the house setting their own fireworks at the square they live by. But I feel a touch awkward standing around there so we leave and take the first bus towards Elephant & Castle. At least it's not really late and we can just go home. From the bus we can see people gathered at a crossing looking over to the north and we realise that we can see the London Eye all the way from here! WE get off the bus and join the crowd (of about 20 people) and we can actually see most of the fireworks there!

The fireworks finish and we decide to walk down the road a bit and realise we're actually only a few 100 metres from Elephant & Castle so we walk down and get on a bus home. Nearly get some KFC on the way but because of the queue we just decide to go home for some late night toast and sleep.

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So there, hope you enjoyed the story of my NYE. I have no promises for the new year, I've never really been into that kind of stuff. But I'll do an exception and promise that I shall write up that 'Obamania, take 2' post I've been brewing for ages now. There are a couple of others as well, one in particular that has to do with people and buses but we'll have to wait and see if and when I get around to writing them up.

Anyway, Happy New Year, may it be even better than the previous one!

Those goshdarn Republicans!

2008-11-28T09:52:00.004Z

Oh dear lord. I have just bumped into someone answering the question 'Do you support Republicans or Democrats?' by saying they'd choose Democrats because they like the idea of democracy. Oh my. (And this is someone who studies in a top university and has an 'aura' of social awareness about them.)

Because obviously, Republicans don't believe in democracy, right?

Obamania

2008-11-04T21:36:00.002Z

I've suddenly been inspired by annoyance! This hasn't happened in ages and I've been wondering if I should just declare this blog dead. BUT there is still hope, it seems.

This sudden stroke of annoyance has come from the elections in the US. Now I have a degree in International Relations and I'm especially interested in American politics BUT I am sick and tired of all of the people on social networking sites (read: facebook) going on about how they so wish that Obama would win, and please, oh GOD please, go and vote for OBAMA. Ugh.

I should probably be very happy about so many people taking interest in politics, however I'd much rather they took interest in local, or at least national politics. I know a number of individuals who go on about how they will lose any faith in humanity if McCain wins but don't themselves vote in local elections. Perhaps in parliamentary elections but not in local elections. This is something that really gets my blood boiling. I mean you don't do what?! Vote in local elections. My dear person, local elections are probably the most important elections for you and also the ones where you have the biggest chance of actually having a real chance of affecting the outcome of the elections. Even though I realise that parliamentary elections are also very important, I strongly believe in the importance of local elections because your local council decides on things that affect your everyday life, such a waste collection, schools and libraries. This is turning into directionless rambling because I'm finding it hard to concentrate with so many little things around in my head. (I have a feeling there are more than a few typos in this post already too.)

Anyway, right. By all means, have interest in global politics and current affairs, but please don't stuff it down my throat unless you've got something constructive to say about it. You like Obama, fair enough, so does the majority of European people and it seems possibly also the majority of Americans. And never mind how much the media keeps on saying how it's the elections for the most influential post in the world, it's relevance for a normal person in the UK or anywhere in Europe really, is minimal. I mean, yes the president of the US has a lot of power, but with the American governing system being as it is, he's not allowed to do all that much. The congress matters too, you know. And even if you were to just blame the current president of the US of the war in Iraq etc. does it really affect you that much? Also, I don't understand much of how the economy works, but I don't think that you can blame George W. on the whole recession and credit crunch and stuff either. My point is, it doesn't matter THAT much. But great that you're interested in the first place.

Argh. I'm really losing any coherence now so maybe this is a good place to stop. If you'd like me to conclude (and even if you don't) basically, I'm just ANNOYED with the Obama people. Especially when they can't even vote in the elections in question. There. PFF.

Oh, and I'll leave you with a Looney Tunes short which kind of tell you a bit about what the U.S. constitution is all about.

The summer is over

2008-08-25T23:10:00.000+01:00

It has been AGES. Again. In the nearly three months since the last post I've gathered up anger against a number of things including landlords, recruitment agencies, old shitty airplanes, back ache, parents, unemployment and the list goes on.

During the time I finished uni, moved out of my Birmingham house, went to Finland, became a godmother, came back to Birmingham, graduated, went to New York, flew back to Finland and now I'm staying at the boyfriend's parents in Manchester whilst looking for jobs and flats in London and it is really starting to get to me.

I had thought that at least we'd have a flat sorted in two weeks. Needles to say it didn't happen. I don't know why, we just seem to attract loads of scams (perhaps we are to blame for this because we've tried to go for the private landlords as opposed to letting agents) and the viewings that we actually did manage to schedule fell through. Pff.

On the job front I've applied to a few, so far got back from one for which I had an interview/test last week. I'm hoping to hear back from them in the next few days. It is all very frustrating and not only because everything seems to go through bloody recruitment agencies now. I mean, I am applying for a SPECIFIC job, I DO NOT want to sign on with an agency just to do that. PFF.

Anyway, this is sort of a mid-post, I shall try to put some effort in one in the near future. Ta-ta.

Movies, pt. II

2008-06-09T14:24:00.001+01:00

Since I've been in a happy place for quite a while now I don't really have anything to whine about. So I figured I might as well make post of the movies I've seen after the previous movies post.

Margot at the Wedding
I really liked this one. I preferred it over The Squid and the Whale but then I think I should probably watch that one again. I didn't really get into it, perhaps it was because of where and when I saw it. This is my problem, I need to be in a good mood and comfortable to be able to enjoy a film. I think I might have even enjoyed the first Spiderman movie had the circumstances been a bit better. But back to Margot at the Wedding; I think perhaps the best thing in this was that I really enjoyed Jack Black in it. And I'm usually simply annoyed by him.

Mister Lonely
I thought this one sounded good; a punch of impersonators living together. You could make that into an interesting film. But oh how miserably it failed. It was rather predictable when it wasn't just plain boring. I didn't really understand what was the point of the whole film. The only good things were the storyline following the priest played by Werner Herzhog and Samantha Morton, just because she's well hot, especially as Marilyn Monroe.

Shine a Light
I don't think there's that much to say about this. The boyfriend wrote a review of it, you can read it here. I thought it was really beautiful and a very good concert film. Keith Richards is such a dude. And Mick Jagger's (I first wrote 'Migger Jack's') bum is just way too tiny and it seems that he used to be a lot more laid back and funny when he was younger. Oh well. It was still very enjoyable, there was a point when I had to stop myself from singing loudly along. I thought it wouldn't have been allowed in the cinema.

Persepolis
This was very good. Although at times I thought it was a tad boring. Anyway, I'm now reading the graphic novel, which I do think is better than the film, eventhough the film is very much just the book. But then there are bits in the book that I find very interesting but they didn't end up being in the film.

The Oxford Murders
Because I refused to spend Vapunaatto on a pub crawl, we decided to go to the cinema instead. And because a certain friend of ours is very much into his maths we went to see The Oxford Murders. It was quite horrendous. Although, the good thing was that it reached the level of bad that made it quite funny. If you know what I mean. Anyway, the boyfriend wrote '5 Reasons Why The Oxford Murders Did Not Completely Suck' check it out, it's pretty good.

Iron Man
I liked it! And not only because Robert Downey Jr. is one of the hottest men in the WORLD (although not according to the picture on his wikipedia article, for a better one check this, it's the eyes, me thinks). Anyway, I thought it was very entertaining and had beautiful people in it and eventhough I wasn't at all familiar with the story of Iron Man it did not matter. It's up there with the Batmans fighting for the top spot in my list of best movies based on superhero comics. Although, it must be said that not all of the Batmans are that good and I've still to see Batman Begins.

Il Conformista
This was actually shown at the cinema and we went to see it. It was very good. But it's the kind of film I'm not very comfortable in saying anything about it, and to be honest, I've forgotten what I actually thought about it. It had some very cool shots though. (How lame does that sound?! I'm sorry.)

Planet B-Boy
This was AWESOME. I think my mouth might have been open in awe for about 85% of the running time. Also it made me miss the times I used to do street dance a lot. It didn't even matter that the colour seemed to be a bit well... fucked when they showed it. I didn't really even realise there was something wrong with the colour. Just go and check the videos on the official website, it's a fantastic documentary. And have a look at this too, in fact you should at least watch this, it is full of AWESOME:

Sex and the City
I'm not a Sex and the City fan, whatever that even means. I've seen a few episodes including the series finale double episode twice and cried my eyes out both of the times. However, I've never thought that the series was amazing just harmless entertainment when there was nothing better on tv. Anyway, I still wanted to see the film and eventhough it did make me cry a bit, it didn't really do anything to me. I was really irritated by the r'n'b theme (I mean WHY r'n'b?! It's not like the girls are into it or anything.) and otherwise I though it was just too calculated and slickly produced. In a way it was flawless, but flawless in a very bad way. Plus it was too long. And there was not much of Charlotte, it seemed as if they didn't really know what to do with her character. Plus Kim Catrall really would deserve more money than SJP. And I used to prefer Carrie over Sam, but in the film, Sam was the star. ... One last thing, this dress was gorgeous though.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
I loved it. It felt like it was the natural continuation of the old trilogy. It didn't feel new it felt like it was part of the old ones. I had some problems with the story, but I won't specify because maybe not all of you have seen it yet. All in all, I thought it was very good. And since I don't particularly like Raiders of the Lost Ark, I thought it was better than it. Perhaps even better than Temple of Doom, eventhough I really do like it.

Joy Division
This one I saw yesterday. It was half good, half not so good. I thought it felt a bit too pretentious in parts and it sort of fell apart towards the end. And it did turn into just being about Ian Curtis in the end. And I do see why it is a big part of the whole Joy Division story, but given the first half where I though it did talk more about Joy Division the band and not Ian Curtis and the other dudes that aren't that important. It did have some good laughs though, but over all it was a bit of a disappointment. The end of it just felt a bit too much likeit was just straight out from Control.

Oh dear, Simon...

2008-06-06T13:47:00.007+01:00

I'M SORRY IT'S BEEN AGES since the last post. I had my exams and told myself not to blog during revision and all that.

However, during exam time I came across this hilarious article. (I should probably give credit to the boyfriend who linked me to it.)

It is terrible. And it saddens me that it actually got published in the Guardian. In fact, it was the front page story in the Film & Music supplement. Just read through the article please, I hope you agree with me.

Basically, what annoys me in this one is that the interviewer is just not acting professionally. I strongly believe that a good journalist will be able to set their own emotions aside and despite their own opinion can conduct a balanced interview with someone. I also believe that respect (even if it is faked respect) is important when interviewing someone.

In a way I can respect Simon Hattenstone's honesty as he wants to tell Ewan that he doesn't like the film. However, it seems pretty obvious that he did not give enough thought to how he would tell him that. Also, would it not have been better to wait until the end of the interview to say that? There's no need to write up all the awkwardness that follows from the confession. The worst part is that he doesn't just say, 'sorry, this movie didn't really appeal to me' but he goes on and on about it.

At the end of the movie, I tell him, we had to rewind to the opening credits to make sure it really was a Woody Allen film and that we hadn't been taken for a ride. "Right, right, right," he says again, like a psychiatrist listening to a particularly disturbed patient. I say it's not your fault - it was the direction and the script. "Is it because of the dialogue? Or the heaviness of the film? Or the tragedy of the film?" No, I say, it's because it seems like a terrible stage production of a terrible film that never belonged to a time or place.

What happens then is that he seems to realise his stupidity - Oops. Time to change the subject. I ask about his family. He tries to ask Ewan about his personal life?! That is simply IDIOTIC. You'd think that any self-respecting journalist would know that Ewan likes to keep his private life PRIVATE. I mean, I knew it and I really don't know much about Ewan McGregor. So what is Ewan's reply?

"I won't discuss that with you, so you could ask me another question." Why won't he discuss it? "I've never discussed it with a journalist and I'm not about to change that."

Well done Ewan! What annoys me most about the article is, that Mr. Hattenstone screws up the interview by seemingly not being well prepared and then tries to turn it around by hinting that Ewan McGregor is a bad person because he doesn't want to talk about his private life. From the headline ('Oh dear, Ewan...') onwards it's trying to make us believe that it is EWAN MGGREGOR's fault that the interview was a total disaster.

I'm wondering how on earth I'm supposed to get to the bottom of McGregor when he is prepared to reveal so little of himself. But in a strange way, I think, perhaps he has shown more than he intended to.

UGH. I just want to say this: I'm sorry Ewan. I hope The Guardian at least sent you a letter of apology. I still can't believe they actually printed it too. Oh dear, Simon...

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All paragraphs in italics are taken from the article linked to at the beginning of the post.

NO PORN HERE! pt. II

2008-05-14T11:23:00.004+01:00

Right, so this post turned out to be pretty shite. I just sort of got distracted and lost interest in what I was writing. Sorry about that. However, for a more eloquent post on the issue, check this link.

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In other news, I'm still trying to revise, had my first exam yesterday. It was on International Ethics. I wrote on immigration and "porous borders", humanitarian intervention and global citizenship. I might write on some of them here at a later date, but at the moment I'm trying to focus on the foreign and security policy of the US. Hm, I wish I only had the interesting books still to read, but no, it's the most important and boring book I'm trying to tackle at the moment. Oh well, I'm sure it'll be fine.

Mid-post

2008-05-09T14:19:00.000+01:00

I'm posting now just to bring certain things to your attention. I was going to do a proper post relating to one of the things on the following list but I'm in a weird revision induced blah-mood and can't concentrate.

1) I still hate people in the library. Today especially because after a night out in Nottingham yesterday (which didn't include more alcohol than a bottle of Kopparberg) I just couldn't get out of bed before 9 this morning and therefore people had already spread their stuff all around the place when I got there.

2) My post on the text-scandal got picked up by The Golden Strawberry. (I say picked up, but I shamelessly exploited a friend for that.) And from there it got picked up here, which makes me rather proud of myself, simply because it means that people have actually read something I wanted to write. (Although looking back to that post it could've been a lot more eloquent.)

3) A guy on campus completely made my day and reminded me why I love the British so much. I was going to enter the Guild of Students (that is the students union building) and this guy was just coming out of the door and couldn't possibly see me approaching and thus didn't hold the door open for me. And when he noticed me he said 'sorry'! I love 'sorry' and 'thank you' so much I don't understand how can anybody be fed up with 'sorry' or 'thank you'. (To make that last sentence make any sense I'm going to paste here a bit of the blurb for the Birmingham University Nordic Society's facebook group: A group for all Nordic and Nordic-minded people at the University of Birmingham who sometimes wants a break from tea, "sorry" and David Beckham's right foot. Who would ever want a break from 'sorry'?! I'm beginning to think that I'm neither Nordic nor Nordic-minded.)

This is all.

NO PORN HERE!

2008-05-06T16:34:00.004+01:00

There will be a new Criminal Justice Bill (do read the comments on that article, some really good and some really funny comments up there) passed on 8th May banning "extreme" pornography. At first I thought, alright so what is it going to ban, child porn, bestiality... er... can't think of anything else AND weren't they banned before? Hm.

As it turns out the bill defines extreme porn as
* An act which threatens or appears to threaten a person's life
That seems alright. HOLD ON! Appears to? So if the or more people are engaged in some form of BDSM which might seem to be threatening one's life and they filmed it/ took pictures of it no one apart from these people should be allowed to watch it? Huh? It makes no sense to me. And who defines what appears to threaten a person's life anyway?

Right secondly extreme pornography can be
* An act which results in or appears to result in serious injury to a person's anus, breasts or genitals
This one I think is not quite as straight forwardly wrong as the one before. Actually, yes it is. There's that appears again. Seriously, what do you mean by appears? And what is serious injury? And so, if it's all staged and no one is actually hurt and everyone has given their consent to everything there's still a problem? Huh?

Thirdly and fourthly
* An act which involves or appears to involve sexual interference with a human corpse
* A person performing or appearing to perform an act of intercourse or oral sex with an animal
These I can kind of agree with, I think bestiality is wrong, if it means I'm not open-minded enough, so be it. But really, can you ask for the consent of an animal? Necrophilia is another thing, personally I think it is wrong and I can't imagine why anyone would want to have sex with a corpse or even watch someone else have sex with a corpse, although I suppose you could stage that. But then, I think maybe you are just a bit wrong if you enjoy watching people fucking people masked as corpses. I can tolerate a lot of "kinks" but perhaps that goes a bit far.

Oh, and here are 'Reasons why you should oppose this'.

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Hm. I can't be asked (OMG, I just publicly wrote down 'can't be asked' Oh dear.) to elaborate more. I probably should but pff. The weather is so nice, it's hard to rant when the sun is so shiny. Although I think I might be coming up with a cold though, which is like really, really ridiculously annoying when the sun is shining. Pff.

Top 5 Miserable Songs, pt. II

2008-04-24T10:04:00.003+01:00

The Walrus, a Canadian magazine published their list of 'The Saddest Music In the World'. This led me to wonder what would be my choices for the saddest songs. It was a long list and I realised they were more miserable/depressing than sad. However, I present to you here a top 5 of what I found to be the most miserable/depressing songs I know. Altogether I will present to you at least three of these lists because I couldn't just narrow it down to one single top 5.

Note: This is by no means my attempt to find THE saddest songs ever, this is simply my humble opinion based on music I listen to/ have listened to in the past.

Here is Top 5 Most Miserable/Depressing Songs because I went through my teenage angst between 1998-2002 (in no particular order).

Nebel - Rammstein

I thought this was possibly the saddest, most depressing, miserable - you name it - song even before I found out what the lyrics actually mean (needless to say I don't speak German). It's a fanmade video since the song was never a single and thus doesn't have an official video.

In the End - Linkin Park

Oh come on! Who hasn't been depressed by this one when they were young? It just adds to all the pain a teenager by default feels. And in the end it doesn't really matter.

From Sarah With Love - Sarah Connor

This is a bit of a silly choice and I definitely am not a fan of the song. The reason this is here is that I want to add in a silly little anecdote about an ex. My first boyfriend, after he'd broken up with me and told me he was going out with this other girl he sent me the lyrics to this song. And I was all like why?! What does this mean? Do you want to rub it in me? To this day I still don't understand why he thought it'd be a good idea. (In case this all doesn't make any sense I was very much depressed and heartbroken because of our break up for a long time.) Maybe he thought I could identify myself with the lyrics (which makes sense in a way) but as if I wasn't feeling horrible and sorry for myself to begin with. Did he really need to add to it all? Also, I think the lyrics are a bit stupid and I don't really get the meaning of the song. Pff, I say. Anyway, this is why this song made it to the list.

My Immortal - Evanescence

I bet this is pretty self explanatory. Oh what I'd give to relive the countless hours that were once spent feeling angsty and miserable and depressed (and OMG everything was just so HARD back then) listening to this. Or alternatively 'Hello' from the same album. I managed to tie this back to the above mentioned ex-boyfriend (seriously, I bet I would've been a lot less miserable if it wasn't for him), don't ask me how. Although, I suppose it's more or less obvious. Forgive me for the single version on the embedded video, it has that cheesy, horrible guitar solo that's NOT in the album version.

The Scientist - Coldplay

I had a hard time deciding between this one and 'Trouble' but ended up with this mainly because I relate it to the final episode of Cold Feet. It's the saddest thing ever and oh so miserable and depressing.

Top 5 Miserable Songs, pt I

2008-04-23T10:16:00.003+01:00

The Walrus, a Canadian magazine published their list of 'The Saddest Music In the World'. This led me to wonder what would be my choices for the saddest songs. It was a long list and I realised they were more miserable/depressing than sad. However, I present to you here a top 5 of what I found to be the most miserable/depressing songs I know. Altogether I will present to you at least three of these lists because I couldn't just narrow it down to one single top 5. Therefore, here is Part I: Top 5 Most Miserable/Depressing Songs in general.

Note: This is by no means my attempt to find THE saddest songs ever, this is simply my humble opinion based on music I listen to/ have listened to in the past.

Baby Mine - from Dumbo

Can you really argue with this one? Although, I suppose it's more the context of the film that makes it so sad and depressing.

Hurt - Johnny Cash

I realise this is originally a Nine Inch Nails song, but since I'm not familiar with it and I think Johnny Cash just sounds so incredibly depressing, I chose this one. I think it speaks for itself really.

How Can You Mend a Broken Heart - Al Green

So depressing. Also has links to at least one movie, which to me makes it even more depressing as it is featured in Notting Hill when Hugh Grant is just well depressed and heartbroken.

(It's Hard) Letting You Go - Bon Jovi

Oh gosh, I remember when These Days came out and I was just about to turn 9, I think, and I used to lie in the middle of our living room floor feeling sad listening to this when no one else was home. I didn't even understand the lyrics back then, but I thought it was the saddest thing I'd ever heard back then. It still is pretty damn sad, if you ask me. It's a fanmade video because it was never released as a single and thus doesn't have an official video.

Transatlanticism - Death Cab for Cutie

This is my 'I feel so sorry for myself'-song. I'm forever grateful for the lovely Miss Maija for introducing me to it, even though it is definitely up there with if not the most depressing songs as such, then definitely up there with one of the most depressing songs I know. This is what I listen to when I think I'm miles apart from the boyfriend even though he's in the next room. It's just that kind of song. It's a fanmade video because it was never released as a single and thus doesn't have an official video.

Bubbling under (these won't be included in any of the other top 5s, yet any of them could've easily replaced any of the above five songs):

Tears in Heaven - Eric Clapton

Ain't no Sunshine - Bill Withers

Suicide is Painless - Manic Street Preachers

Street Spirit (Fade Out) - Radiohead

Nothing Compares 2U - Sinead O'Connor

Birmingham

2008-04-22T11:38:00.003+01:00

The other day I went shopping in town. I went to the big shopping centre first and did a bit of general shopping and then walked to Fiveways and did my food shop in the big supermarket there. As I was walking through the town and past the canals I had this weird feeling of some sort of nostalgia, I suppose. I have an odd like-hate relationship with this city. Like-hate because the feeling very rarely, if ever, goes up to love.

After the first year of my studies I've not gone to town all that often, partly because it's not a walking distance away anymore and partly because I realised if I don't go there I won't use that much money. And now, whenever I go I don't tend to walk far from either of the two stations I use, one for the cinemas and the other for shopping. And it is the area in between the stations, the area that I only border on both sides, that is the nicest in town. It is so nice around the canals and the park kind of area (which has a name but I've blissfully forgotten it) between the Symphony Hall and the Paradise Forum. That's where I feel like this city is actually an alright place. But when usually I'm just in the shopping hell that is the Bullring and the high street area around it where I most often go, I just get this feeling of anxiety and/or depression whenever I'm there.

Hm, this post isn't going anywhere, I suppose there's not really a point to it. I leave you with a photo of the view from my room. It was taken on a sunny day when they sky was an amazing shade of blue. I like that plant that is on the wall of the next house, it makes the view from my window a lot better than just looking at a white brick wall.

Dinner Party

2008-04-20T15:00:00.004+01:00

Yesterday I hosted my first (and most likely last) ever proper dinner party in Birmingham. There were three of us, my friend Matt, me and the boyfriend, so it wasn't a big one, but a dinner party nonetheless.

I tried to create a Spanish style menu, so for starters we had my pseudo-tapas selection;
Cantaloupe melon with Serrano ham
Olives in garlic-basil marinade
Toasted baquette slices with garlic and tomato

This is what it looked like (well the melon and ham with the tomato that was to be rubbed on the toast).

The main we had was homemade paella. In reality it was somewhere between a chicken risotto and paella, but who cares. Sadly, when I got back from Finland I forgot to take paella seasoning with me. It's a mix of spices that my family always brings home from holidays in Spain. It gives paella it's awesome colour and taste. I also completely forgot to put the peas in the paella, I think they are a very nice extra in it, but oh well.

For desert we had a dark chocolate fondue (this is where the Spanish theme sort of ceased to exist) with Cantaloupe, kiwi, green grapes, strawberries, banana and marshmallows. It was amazing. I thought it was a good thing to have a dark chocolate fondue, it didn't make it as sweet as it would've been had been made of milk chocolate.

After a short digestion break we had cheese; French Brie, Dutch Gouda and a Roule, with crackers, bread sticks and homemade oaty biscuits.

Along with all the food we drank a bottle of Cava, a very nice bottle of red Rioja (2001), and an Argentinian Pinot Grigio (I couldn't find a Spanish white where I was shopping, so I figured South American will do). Just to make sure I don't sound too cocky, I don't really know much about wine.

What made me very happy was that I think I managed to make our living room look alright. It's amazing what a difference a table cloth (even if it's just an unironed bed sheet in reality) can make. We had to sit on the floor as we don't have a proper dining table and had to use the coffee table instead. But I think it was more or less a success and in the end the cushions on the floor were quite comfy (perhaps all the wine consumed had something to do with that.

I leave you with a picture of what the table looked like (sadly, it was impossible to find three similar plates for starters, but then again, we are students).

The world is full of McIdiots

2008-04-18T16:47:00.003+01:00

A thing that pisses me off more than many other things combined:

People leaving their rubbish on the tables in fast food restaurants.

I really do not see what is so difficult in taking the tray/bag with your rubbish to the bins provided. That's right, there are BINS provided FOR YOU to take your rubbish IN THEM after you've finished eating. Today I failed to resist temptation and had lunch in an evil multinational fast food chain "restaurant" and I can't even begin to describe how much it annoyed me that during prime lunch time when the place was buzzing with busy people eating their unhealthy meals there were people taking up more seats than they needed and leaving their rubbish behind.

The worst thing is that in the past few years the people that seem to be doing this most has changed from loud and rebellious teenagers to middle to upper-middle class people (especially men) dressed office style. These people are usually between the ages 27-40, in their fancy clothes (read: boring black suits), who think too highly of themselves (read: think they're too good to clear up after themselves). I wonder if they actively think that surely there's someone working [their ass off on minimum wage] who's meant to do all the cleaning. I just feel like shouting to these people that YOU'RE MEANT TO TAKE YOUR RUBBISH TO THE BINS YOURSELVES! THAT'S WHY THEY'RE THERE! Pff.

And really, between two people (with no bags, note) YOU DO NOT NEED MORE THAN TWO SEATS! Especially during the busy lunch hours, there's no reason why people should take up more seats than there are people. It really, really frustrates me when people are looking for seats and there are two people taking up tables for four, for example. The situation may be different in a fancy restaurant, but in a fast food place you take up one seat per person, thank you very much. When it's not busy, it doesn't really matter. The worst thing is that many times if you walk up to people taking up many seats and ask if you could possibly take a seat at that table (with no intention to talk to or otherwise bother the people, you just want to eat your food) they look at you with contempt, seemingly saying why should I do ANYTHING for you? Pff, I wish everyone was as loveable and well-mannered as I am.

Pseudo-rant over.

Cinema, pt. II

2008-04-17T10:48:00.004+01:00

OMG! I've spoiled someone's cinema experience !

Last night I went to the cinema with two friends to see Shine a Light. We got there quite early and there were only two people in the screen room before us. They were sitting in the best seats (in my humble opinion) at the right row, right in the middle of it. Therefore we obviously took the second best seats, a row below them, right in the middle of the row. In other words, right in front of them. Now, this is the kind of cinema that is nicely designed so that people's heads won't bother you even if they sit a row below you. However, as we were sitting down and sorting out our finances and stuff and one of us went to use the facilities, I heard the couple talking about changing seats. Then the lady spoke to us in a very polite manner yet very bitchily saying something along the lines of 'you know we were just sitting here, in this big empty cinema and suddenly there are heads in front of us. We were a bit like there's this big empty cinema and these people have to sit right in front of us? We thought about changing seats but then we figured we were here first.' I was in a very good mood and was all 'oh, sorry, we'll move, it's ok.' All the while thinking, WOW I didn't know we weren't allowed to sit wherever we wanted.

So where do we move? The obvious choice is to move behind this couple, as that'd be the next best row and for sure, we want to sit in the middle of the row. And so we do. Guess what happened then? That's right, they move. That's when I got really frustrated (I kept it all inside though, as I don't tend to confront people I don't know unless they're playing loud music in the library ). So this couple had payed for about 10 seats around them? Just because they were there first no one else was allowed to have good seats? WTF?!

If there is an unspoken rule about cinema seats that says you're not allowed to sit in front OR behind (really, BEHIND?!) people, please do tell me and I'll make sure I won't do so again. But really, it's not like we were loud or kicking their seats or anything like that. I'd say that couple was a prime example of people making things too hard and thus causing discomfort for not only themselves but also others (if you know what I mean). Glory for positive thinking, I say.

Seriously, what pisses me off the most is the fact that we were being really nice and moved but even that was not good enough. They made me feel really bad even though I felt like I'd done nothing wrong. PFF. I hate people.

On a completely different note though, Keith Richards is such a DUDE!

'I did not send sexual texts to that woman... Ms. Tukiainen' - On the SMS scandals of ex-FM Kanerva and PM Vanhanen

2008-04-16T11:34:00.005+01:00

I was going to write this post ages ago, but I didn't know how to tackle it.

The thing is, I'm utterly disappointed in Finnish people. (Well not entirely, but anyway.) I view Finland as a free and open-minded society where people can be who they want to be without much judgement from other people. Obviously this does not seem to be true when it comes to politicians. For some reason, it seems that politicians are not allowed to have private lives.

The reason I was first going to write this post is this story: 'Finnish FM loses job over texts' So, the story goes that Foreign Minister Kanerva sent over 200 texts to an erotic dancer (OMG!) from, wait for it... his work phone! Oh dear. He should be decapitated for that! NO. So what if he did? It is a very unfortunate thing that this woman decided it was a good idea to give the texts to a yellow press magazine. It probably was for herself, she's got a lot of free publicity out of it. She also ended up causing the FM to lose his job. She must be well proud of herself. (Lately she's been crying in the press saying 'I didn't want this to happen'. Maybe she should've thought about it before she handed the texts to a third party.)

Anyway, what frustrates me more than this dancer giving the texts to a magazine, is the way the gossip press industry works. I know a few people who would want to be journalists and I've even considered it myself, and it just amazes me how people end up working in these magazines and papers. Is it just that when you're not able to get a job as a proper journalist, you've just got to take what is given to you? I just don't understand that total lack of respect for people's privacy.

Right, going back to ex-FM Kanerva texting from his work phone. To me it doesn't matter, I know there are people out there who think it's wrong because it's TAX PAYERS MONEY that pays for that phone. I might be wrong but I've understood that there's only a monthly 'allowance', which is not very big, from the state towards the phone bills. And even so, I bet there are many people out there who misuse whatever benefits they get from their jobs. I know people who have a company car with all the gas payed etc. who use that car for much more than just driving to and from work. Similarly, I do know many people who use their work phones for private stuff. Shockhorror! But a Minister doing that?! That's just unacceptable. PFF.

Another thing that people have commented is that ex-FM Kanerva should not have denied sending the texts in the first place. This maybe true, but take a moment to think about it... In the end, they were private messages that were not meant to be read by anyone else than the two involved (Tukiainen and Kanerva), I'd say he was just trying to defend whatever privacy he had left there. And then when he did admit to sending texts he said that they weren't about erotic in nature,OMG ! LIAR!! Again, I can completely understand he simply tried to hold onto that thin veil of privacy he at that point had left. Maybe, in hindsight, it would have been better for him to admit the texts and the nature of them in the first place, but really, do we care that much? I know I really don't. I still think that whatever texts he sent were private and had nothing to do with his ability to work. And here people will say 'Oh but he cancelled his participation in a meeting in Estonia!' Again, can you really blame him? At that point the media had been after him for about two weeks already, and it really wasn't a major meeting. The texting itself in no way prevented him from doing his job.

Now, the thing is, he had been in the tabloid before about texting to models, dancers and whatnot unnecessary "celebrities". So maybe that was why this thing got so big. Still, it is my firm belief that whatever texts he's been sending and is sending at the moment are his private texts and even if he works for the government, we have no right to know what he'stexting and to whom. What makes this whole scandal even more ridiculous that no one knows what this woman texted back to Kanerva. They've only published a few of Kanerva's texts and we've got no idea how Ms. Tukiainen replied to them. My guess is there has been heavy flirting going on both ways.

The newest thing now is that the editor-in-chief of a Sweden based Finnish newspaper has published texts that the Prime Minister Vanhanen sent to his girlfriend over a year ago. This is possibly even more ridiculous given that she was his GIRLFRIEND at the time. Of course there has been erotic texts back and forth. That's what happens in a normal relationship. PFF.

The most ridiculous thing is that the opposition now has started to say that the government can't be trusted (note: link in Finnish), there are too many scandals and that the weight is too much on private lives. Who can be blamed for this? Surely it is the press. We all make mistakes in who we trust and let close to ourselves. I'd guess most people know at least one person who has betrayed their trust, it's just very unfortunate that it happens to a public figure and ends up in the press. This just frustrates me SO MUCH. As we live in the 21st Century, I'd like to think that people should be free to live outside a nuclear family type of relationships and that people were allowed to be in contact with their sexuality. Sex is the most natural thing there is and it can only be a good thing that people actually talk about it with each other etc. However, I still think that discussions between two people, be it through texts, e-mail or face to face, should be the private property of those two involved and without theconsent of both parties should not under any circumstances be published.

There, I think that's it. Please do comment, as I'm sure at least some of you reading this won't agree with myself.

Oh, I also want to note that I don't want to affiliate myself with the politics of either ex-FM Kanerva or PM Vanhanen. I have met ex-PM Kanerva personally a few times, but the last time I've met him must have been almost 10 years ago now. I've got no real personal link to him though, it just happens that we've been in a few social events at the same time. This post is purely about the ridiculousness of pseudo-celebrities, unhealthy interest in politicians' private lives and the bloody press.

A Tribute to Marimekko, pt. II

2008-04-13T11:08:00.004+01:00

I spoke about A Tribute to Marimekko in an earlier post. I ended up buying that long dress and here is a photo of it!

In other news, lately I've been playing on Guitar Hero III and Mario Kart Wii a lot. I very much like Guitar Hero and Mario Kart Wii isn't bad, but it does get a bit repetitive and is frustratingly difficult at times. On the harder settings it seems to be not about how good you are but more about luck. Which is a bit odd given that it is a computer game after all. Oh well. I think it might be time for some Wind Waker action for a change.

I promise I'll do a proper whine in a bit. As it is revision time, I'm sure there'll be plenty of procrastination going on.

Snow, pt. II

2008-04-12T12:31:00.004+01:00

As promised, here's some photos of SNOW in Manchester the morning after I arrived. There's only two and they're not too good but anyways.

This first photo is of the front garden, it's a lot better than the other one. I like the light on the first photo, it gives it that weird spring-like feeling you get when the sun is warm and bright yet there is snow on the ground. And the birds are singing, obviously. No matter how pretentious it sounds I think you can almost hear the birds when you look at this photo. (I SO think too highly of myself.) This was the first time during my 3 years in the UK when I've got that feeling here. It made me feel like home.

This one is cut from a photo of the back garden. It's not very good (the photo, I mean) and that's definitely the best bit of the photo. As it was on he dark side of the house there wasn't enought light and I was lazy and instead of opening the window I took the photo through it and there's all sorts of reflections on the photo. But that bit is alright. I really like the table and chairs set in he garden.

A Tribute to Marimekko

2008-04-10T15:18:00.002+01:00

Oh dear. Today saw the launch of A Tribute to Marimekko. It caused a weird nationalistic feeling to take over me and I took a train at 10am to be in store shortly after it opened. As I was walking through the shopping centre to the H&M store I realised I walked faster and faster in this weird shopaholic state of mind. I HAD to make sure I'd get whatever I wanted. I'm not even sure why I got so excited about it. Did I really want clothes that had prints my Gran used to have for curtains so much? Maybe it is just that I have pretty much always liked especially the 1960s Marimekko designs and for once they'd be in my price range.

Obviously, when I got to the store I was faced with the reality that I was not in Finland and I didn't have to fight for the garments. I doubt there was a que outside the store before 10am when it opened. Anyway, I did enjoy being able to go through the clothes taking my time and I felt an odd sense of superiority when 'stupid English people obviously did not realise how cool Marimekko is'. To be honest though, I didn't find the line amazing, although there was this one dress (I tried to find a picture but could only find this. It's the long black and white one.) I'd decided I wanted in advance. With my luck though, the store had about 15 of those dresses all sizes 8 and 10 (that's 34 and 36 European). WHY?! Because I'd set my mind to it, I tried the size 10 one anyway, just to see if I had false hopes for that dress. I didn't. I think it's amazing and luckily there were my sizes in another store a couple of blocks away.

I didn't buy it. For some weird reason the dress that was actually my size didn't look as nice I thought it would have (mainly because it's a halter neck and with my boobs I can't feasibly wear it without a bra). Oh well, there was also this shorter dress that I liked and I can't decide whether they are worth it SO the boyfriend will have to come with me to the store and decide for me. (I'd hate to be my boyfriend.)

Also, as an addition to the library post below. I can't stress how much I HATE the people who leave their stuff on a desk for hours (there have actually been instances where I've been at the library at 9am and there were someone's stuff lying around until they came back at 11.30am) just because they know that if they take their notes and books and whatnot with them they'll lose their spot. That is just not on! These people effectively take the places away from people who would actually want to study there and then. I can understand going for a 20-30 min lunch or a cigarette break but really more than half an hour is just not acceptable. Especially during revision time when the library is actually FULL.

Library

2008-04-09T14:53:00.001+01:00

As it is revision time again and I'm trying hard to spend my days in the library (because for some reason I don't get any work done at home), I've come to remember how ANNOYING people can be in the library.

Note: the following is inspired by my personal experiences in a campus library.

Now, if I'm working in an area that is not one of the 'quiet study' areas I should be prepared to deal with people chatting etc. HOWEVER, it really ANNOYS me when people seem to be unable to turn their mobiles on silent or beep or at the very least turn the volume of their ringtone down. PFF. Fine, talk on the phone with a low voice but does the ringing really have to be loud enough for people to hear it in the next room as well? And still, even if talking isn't exactly banned in these areas, is it really that unimaginable to try to keep your voices down just a tiny bit. In a large room, with a high ceiling and 60+ people in there the noice accumulates even when people keep their voices down, so imagine what it sounds like when people don't even bother to do that. I just hate that kind of total disregard of other people. And again, I do understand it is not a 'quiet study' area, but still, there are many people trying to study. It is not the 'talk as loudly as you can' area either. PFF.

This post would be a bit pointless if all there was would be that paragraph above, thus, there is MORE.

All of the above is also true in the 'quiet study' areas. I do not understand what is so hard in keeping quiet. I can bring myself around to accepting short discussion to make plans for study breaks with friends etc. as long as people keep their voices down. But especially during revision time when the library is full of people studying WTF is wrong with people?! When you see an area full of people who have burried their heads in their books do you not understand that you are then not in a room where you chat with your mates. When these rooms are generally actually quiet all the douche bags gossiping about who slept with Jonathan next door last night infuriate me. If you want to talk to your friends the corridor/staircase is not more than 30 seconds walk away GO THERE, that is where you can talk as much as you want and pretty much as loudly as you want. Same thing with your mobile. If someone calls you, either don't answer it or take it to the corridor. PFF.

Oh, and one more thing. Be my guest and spoil your hearing before the age of 25 by listening to your mp3-player on full volume, but please do it somewhere else than in the quiet library rooms. If I want to listen to music while I study I want it to be what I've chosen myself. I will (and I have in the past) come up to you if you try to impose your annoying party tunes on me by having the volume of your player so loud that I can hear it 3 cubicles away clearly enough to sing along. If it makes me a bitch, so be it, but you should have some consideration to your fellow library goers. PFFF.

--------

On a completely different note, I flew to Manchester on Saturday (5 April) and in the evening it snowed! And it did so again on Sunday. I took some pictures but I don't have my camera with me now. If any of them worked out fine I'll post some here later.

SNOW!

2008-03-29T07:09:00.006Z

It's been a while. There are a few things:

1) Having an internet connection that DOESN'T WORK - extremely annoying.
Especially when it's at your parents house far away from anyone else. (Not that I have anything against my parents, I'd just like to talk to the boyfriend, waste my time on fbook etc.)

2) Having numerous members of family who think you're some sort of IT-genius just because you happen to use a web browser that's not Explorer - extremely annoying.
Although, there was a moment of joy with my skills when I managed to secure my sister's wireless. And may I add that the manual I used was more than unhelpful (in a bad way, does that mean I should say 'less than unhelpful'? It does, doesn't it?).

3) SNOW - AMAZING!
There was what they call a snow storm here (I suppose it's needless to say I'm in Finland at the moment, but I'll say it anyway: I'm in Finland at the moment.) on Wednesday. It was amazing, I got out of bed around 11am, I think, and looked out the window and it was all white outside! And better yet, it was still snowing! I went out to get the mail (our mailbox is a short walk down the road) and had to clear the drive way, stairs and stuff of the snow. There was about 10cm (about 4 inches for you ignorant fools out there) of it by then and when I left the house less than two hours later another 10cm had snowed on top of it. So by 3pm, there was about 20cm (8 inches, I'm sure you all know your maths) of snow and it was AMAZING! When I came back with my mum later, we did the whole clearing the front of the house and stuff from snow thing, (I'm sure you have a word for it in English, I just don't know it, should probably look it up) and it was great. The snow was the kind of really light and powder-y snow that flies on your face when you thrown it against the wind. It didn't take us long at all and I felt so happy doing it I almost offered to do the neighbours drive ways as well, but they'd already done theirs. (And in the end, I think I may not have been as happy had I done a lot more.) But anyway, yay for snow. I was so excited I just kept taking pictures like a crazy tourist who has never seen snow before. Sadly, my camera isn't very good and most of the shots aren't presentable, but I'll see if I can find some to put at the end of this post.

As it happens, this is the end of the post, so here are a few.

My foot prints in fresh snow

My shoes after walking through the snow to the mail box

My hat after 20min outdoors

The fence of our patio in the snow

Stupid people

2008-03-06T19:16:00.022Z

[Edit: I can't seem to get the font size right with this one, which is a bit odd, given that there's only 5 options and I've always used the same one. But pff that, you can just add stupid text editor applications to the list of all the annoying things.]

Picture this:

You're walking down a pavement of a regular width (you can easily walk two-a-breast, even three-a-breast if you squeeze a bit). You're walking down on one side, minding your own business and you're not even feeling too pissed off about having to go to a seminar you don't particularly look forward to going. You're doing this when a group of approximately ten people walk towards you, nothing wrong with that really, they're allowed to walk there, after all, it is a public walk way. You'd expect that these people would make some way given that you're on your own and there's many of them. But NO! These people walk fucking three or four side by side. WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?!

I hate people who don't give way for others! Where the fuck am I meant to go, jump among the cars going by?! There's one of me and many of you, you can walk behind each other, I can't make myself any smaller, can I?! (Well I could, but it would take a change of diet and an increase in exercise, and I'm just not prepared to do that right now. And even if I did, it wouldn't really change the situation here.)

This is all.

Living, pt. I

2008-03-03T09:12:00.003Z

Living - a note for all those who find living without mummy's care a tad difficult. And for those who just don't care.

Toilet/Bathroom

- After using the toilet (no matter if it's a weewee or a poopoo) WASH YOUR HANDS. If you don't wish to use the soap, don't but at least rinse your hands with warm water.
- When after pooing your poo doesn't go down with the first flush, wait a while for the water tank to fill up again and then reflush.
- When after pooing your poo is all over the bowl, use the toilet brush provided to clean to largest bits off.
- When after cleaning the largest bits of poo the poo is stuck to the toilet brush flush again and hold the brush in the water flow. This will get rid of the poo on the brush so that the next time someone takes it from its stand they won't have to use a poo-y brush to clean.
- When after pooing the bathroom smells of your poo, use the air freshener if one is provided. If not, there might be some matches, if this is the case, burn one of them and throw it in the bowl. This will get rid of at least most of the odours of your poo.
- Once a week or a fortnight use some toilet cleaner. According to the instructions (these will be on the side of every cleaning detergent imaginable!) pour some of the cleaner in the bowl, all around, leave it to be for a while (usually 5-15 mins) then use the toilet brush to brush the bowl all around. Now flush the toilet and again clean the brush in the water flow.
- When cleaning the toilet it would be a good idea to also wipe the dust and goo that gathers around the bowl (I mean the bits that water from flushing doesn't touch). If you do this whenever you clean the toilet it will save you from doing a very disgusting clean after a year of gathered dust and goo.
- When using the last squares of the toilet roll, REPLACE the roll. It doesn't require much.
- When you start using the last roll of the pack/notice the paper will run out shortly, BUY a new pack next time you go out.

- When after showering the bath/shower floor is all covered in your pubes, use the shower to float them down the drain.
- When after showering you find that most of your hair did not go down the drain pick them up and bin them. You can use a piece of toilet paper or similar if you don't want to touch them bare handed.
- About once a fortnight clean the bath/shower. This you can do using a special bathroom cleaner which you spray on the surfaces and then wipe out with a sponge or a cloth and warm water. This is especially important if your bathroom has bad heating and/or air conditioning. Again, doing it regularly will save you from being disgusted going to the shower and it'll prevent you from having to do a clean of loads of discusting goo/mould/whatever gathers in there. I suggest you also clean walls around the bath/shower, because they too get pretty disgusting after a while.
- Make sure you use your own shower gel/shampoo/other products. If you use someone else's without a permission chances are you'll only end up annoying them. AND especially if you're a student/are using a student's shower gel/shampoo/other products you'll cause them extra costs and they might actually be a tiny bit skint even if you're not. Especially if you haven't bought your own shower gel/shampoo/other products and have been using theirs.
- When in shower, if there's a shower curtain make sure it covers as much as possible preventing the water from going anywhere it's not meant to go. If you're in a bath it means the water should stay in the bathtub, if it's just a shower with a floor drain, the water is meant to stay as close to the drain as possible.
- If there's a bath mat, it is not there to absorb all of the water dripping from you after your shower. This means that you should dry your self in the bath/shower (obviously after you've showered). If you keep your towel somewhere in the near vicinity of the bath/shower this should not be a problem.
- If you do happen to water the whole bath mat, do put it somewhere to dry. If there's a radiator, that's good, if not, see if you can hang it somewhere.
- It is likely that the bathroom will also have a water basin there. This too, should be cleaned regularly, needless to say, I hope.
- Oh and, just as any other room in the house/flat the bathroom floor needs to be hoovered/mopped every now and then. It would probably be easiest for yourself to do it whenever you're cleaning the toilet/bath/shower. Otherwise it'll just look a bit silly, you know, a dusty floor when everything else is clean and sparkling.

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While writing this I realised that things that seem natural and obvious to me, actually do require quite a bit of thinking if you've not had to do any of this whilst living with your parents. I would like to say here that I'm very grateful for my mum that she made me do things, and also for my primary and secondary school teachers (and the Finnish curriculum) for being so amazing and teaching the practical as well as boring stuff like maths. I could go on about how we were taught to fight, clean, cook etc. in school. And this was for both, girls and boys, if any of you want to use that silly excuse: 'but you're a girl, you should know these things anyway'. - It is not a priviledge that comes with being a girl, it comes with being a human being!
[edit: they taught us how to quarrel fairly, we didn't have fist fights in home economy.]

In case some of my housemates actually reads this, I want to say that I realise I don't live up to these 'rules' myself. This is mostly because I don't feel that most of you realise how dirty our house is and I don't want to clean things up just so that after a day it'll all look the same again. If you seemed to care more (I know some of you do, but I refuse to name anyone) and actively did something to keep the house clean, I too would do my share. If you decide not to believe me, feel free to bitch about me as much as you want. In the mean time, I'm just waiting live with clean people. Make that a person.

Movies

2008-03-02T11:10:00.005Z

I've not been annoyed by much lately, which is annoying because it means that I don't have anything to write. I remember I was annoyed by things a couple of times whilst writing my dissertation but I resisted the temptation to update this blog, and now I can't remember what the things were. Therefore, this is going to be a boring non-whiney mid-post about the films I've seen at the cinema since the beginning of the year. So, two months have passed, and I've been to the cinema 11 times, I think it's pretty good. I do love student offers.

I'll just do this as a list. It's boring, I know, but oh well.

I'm Not There
- The Bob Dylan film by Todd Haynes, very good. Richard Gere was probably my favourite of all the Dylans if I had to pick a favourite, but they were all very amazing. Definitely worth seeing, and I suppose needs another viewing to completely appreciate it.

Paranoid Park
- One of my favourites this year so far (although this year there's only been one film I didn't think was really good). So beautiful with an entertaining story that the slightly gore-y bit in the middle which I thought was a bit surprising didn't really affect the overall experience. This is to say that I thought it didn't fit the style of the film, but then again, surprises are (almost) always good.

No Country for Old Men
- Very good. I wasn't sure I'd like it judging by the trailer, but it was quite frankly amazing. I liked the story, sound design was amazing and casting was really good. Especially Javier, I was amazed after I checked where I'd seen him before and realised he was Ramon in Mar Adentro!

Lust/Caution
- Definitely very good. (I really should stop saying 'very good'.) I thought the rather graphic sex scenes portrayed the relationship between the two main characters perfectly. In addition the story was gripping and surprising.

Sweeney Todd
- Just to get this out of the way, I really like Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera and I thought the recent movie version of it wasn't too bad. I'm not sure why I felt the need to say that, but there I said it. Anyway, I did like Sweeney Todd too. As far as musicals go, it can never take the place of Phantom in my heart, but then that's not really the point. It was visually amazing, Johnny was good, Helena was incredible BUT the young lovers, were NOT to my liking. The chic especially was just ANNOYING. I did my best to ignore them though, and left the cinema feeling pretty good about the film.

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
- This one's a bit iffy. It was well directed and well acted. I don't think the script was very good and at times the use of what I suppose was supposed to be tension-building music was just annoyance-causing. Overall, it was alright, and I think I have a real soft spot for Ethan Hawke. I don't know why, but it is there.

Juno
- I liked Juno. Despite the music chosen having been a bit odd. (Yet, I do really like this song.) And even though Jennifer Garner annoyed the hell out of me, I still thought the story was good and it was funny and well, I'd love to have CJ Greg as my stepmother.

4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days
- This was just amazing. It wasn't preachy, it wasn't shocking, it was just honest. It simply felt so real I'm not sure I've ever seen a film that felt so real. (And still I was slightly annoyed by the use of light in some scenes, although, I decided it was because it made me uncomfortable which again was simply because it made it feel so real. If that makes any sense.)

There Will Be Blood
- I didn't expect to like this at all. The trailer really didn't make my juices flow, but with all the fuss about PTA and Daniel Day Lewis, it was a must see. And I'm glad I did. It is very good. All I've got to say is 'I am a false prophet. God is a superstition.'

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
- I walked out of the cinema deeply moved and still weirdly displeased with the movie. But having given it some thought, I've come to the conclusion that it was the fact that I kept on crying for most of the second half of the film that made me so uncomfortable. This is an amazing film (so I stop saying 'very good' and now everything's just 'amazing') and everyone should go and see it. It is BEAUTIFUL and MOVING and AMAZING.

Be Kind Rewind
- Now, I don't like Jack Black. But I liked the idea of Be Kind Rewind, so I went along to see it. And then, I didn't really like it. I think the story had potential and was actually rather endearing and all, but I wish it didn't have Jack Black. It just seems to me that everything I've seen Jack Black in (High Fidelity, School of Rock) he always plays the same role and it's always equally annoying. I really WANT to like High Fidelity, for example, but for some reason I don't. I think it's because of Jack Black. Yet, I'm looking forward to seeing Margot at the Wedding, and I'm hoping in that Jack will prove me wrong and will be very good. Or at least less annoying.

There, that's done now. I'll try to get something a bit more substantial done the next time. Chances are, that during the next few weeks, when I'm meant to write a load of essays, there will be some whining.

Cinema

2008-01-17T11:34:00.000Z

Having been to the cinema rather often lately, I've been well annoyed by certain things. Therefore, I've decided to write a 5 point guide on how to act at a cinema.

1) Arrive EARLY. You can still walk in the theatre during the trailers, that's fine, but once the movie's started you're just going to ANNOY and DISTURB other people. Arriving early shouldn't be too difficult as the trailers most of the times, especially in big commercial cinemas take about 20 minutes from the announced starting time of the film.

2) This one basically has to do with the first point. Go to the toilet BEFORE the movie. When you arrive at the cinema early, you'll have time to empty your bladder before the film starts and you won't have to go to the toilet while the movie's playing. Not only will going to the toilet during the movie spoil your own experience it will also spoil the cinema experience of all your fellow viewers. And for fuck's sake! if you really, really need to go PLEASE don't let the door slam when you go out (or into) of the theatre.

3) Surprisingly, this as well has to do with the first point. DO NOT talk. When you arrive early you can chat with your friends before the film, during the trailers and such. (Some people seem to think that it's wrong for people to chat during trailers, but as long as you don't speak too loudly, it's fine by me.) DO NOT in any case talk when the film has started. All talk should end when the production companies' logos come on the screen.

4) If you've got to eat in the cinema make sure your sweets, popcorn, whatever is in a box or something that doesn't really make a sound while you're reaching for something to eat. Sounds of eating are extremely annoying especially in a full theatre where the sounds are multiplied by tens if not hundreds of people eating. I understand that snacks might make your cinema experience more enjoyable, but please do your best to keep the noises down.

5) KEEP your mobile SILENT! And if you can't resist answering your phone TURN IT OFF. If you're going to answer your phone during the movie there's no point in having it on silent. Seriously, no talking in the cinema. Not in your mobile or to other people. Especially not your mobile.

There. This could've been a lot better, I might edit it later (I have a feeling there may be more than one spelilng mistakes etc.)

UGGH

2008-01-08T10:28:00.000Z

To begin with, I'd like to say that there'll probably be more on the subject of the post below as I'm not perfectly happy with what I wrote. I don't think I made myself clear enough. I'd like to elaborate on the subject a bit more.

Right, a couple of days back on campus has reminded me of the horror that is UGG boots. I mean why?! Why would you ever want to wear a pair?

Firstly, the price is ridiculous (if you want an authentic pair, that is) uggsdirect.co.uk sells them from about £80 to over £200! TWOHUNDRED POUNDS! Most I've ever paid for shoes (well, to be honest daddy paid) was about £60 which I thought was a horrible amount of money to pay for shoes. However they did serve me well for 3-4 winters (they were suede winter boots) and they'd still be alright to use if I hadn't left them in our house for the summer and have our landlady's workmen destroy everything that was left there.

Secondly, they're so UNsexy. They're alright for the first maybe two weeks, but they lose their shape so quickly and make people look like they can't walk. And they seem to make the person wearing them actually forget how to walk. As if there was an unwritten rule that says if you wear UGGs it's ok for you not to lift your feet from the ground but rather just drag them along. WHY?! Just the sound of a person walking with UGGs is ANNOYING!

And thirdly, they ARE winter boots. They're meant to keep your feet warm when it's cold outside, not to keep your feet sweaty in July. Really, if you insist on wearing them, at least only do it when it's actually cold.

I think here would be a good time to make a confession. I did want a pair when they first came out. I thought they looked so comfy and warm and all (however I was going for the "fake" ones that only cost £10) but this was when I had just turned 16. I think we're allowed to make mistakes when we're young. I don't understand why people who are already in universities and are supposed to be intelligent and all still insist on wearing them. I'm very thankful for my mum not giving me the money to buy a pair but instead bought me the above mentioned boots.

Porn and Sex and Feminism and STUFF

2007-12-29T13:59:00.000Z

I wrote this post and it turned out to be quite personal and I almost decided not to post it at all. However, I decided I would and now I would like to say that whatever I've said here is based on the few pieces of writing I link to in this post and also conversations with friends over the years and personal experiences. I don't mean to generalise, so if and when I do, bear in mind I don't mean to.

I got a bit distracted whilst writing (well, pretending to write) my dissertation and read a couple of articles and blogposts that were all interlinked. It all started with an article the 'girl with a one-track mind' had written. She was talking about female sexuality and male dominated world etc. You know, sort of feminist stuff.

Now, if you know me at all, you'll know that I find much of feminism a bit bollocks (well, not bollocks, it just seems to go a bit too far at times, I believe in equality) and when it comes to sex related issues and such, well, I quite like watching porn. However, it was only when I read this blog post, that I realised that it is only really certain stuff that I like watching and I found that I too, have become somewhat conditioned to adapting certain expectations about sex. I mean fantasies and such, that have rather clearly, now that I think about it, been affected by things I've watched, read etc. Even by an ex-boyfriend, who in turn, I think was basing most of his assumptions about sex and what women want on the porn he had seen. In the middle of all of this I'm wondering what it is that I really like, and had I been exposed to different stuff, would I then like different things.

Anyway, to come back to the point I wanted to talk about, the articles, blog posts and such only just really made me realise how much of porn is made for the male audience and is enforcing images and ideas of male domination especially in sex. The Ms. Naughty blog, I think really made this point well. This is what she said: 'I make porn sites for women. I'm trying to cater to the millions of female surfers that go online every day trying to find something that will turn them on. I spend my days trying to find hardcore adult material that women will enjoy, and trying to present it to women in a manner that they will find accessible, arousing and inoffensive.' Now, obviously people like different things and you can't really generalise too much, but much of the porn (that I've come across) is empowering men and presenting women as being there for the pleasure of men. Ms. Naughty continues: 'Never mind if there's been no female orgasm (and I'm talking vaguely real ones here, not the 15 minute endless moany fake ones), in porn the money shot is the official end of sex.' (Oh I wish my dissertation was on something like this as opposed to what it's actually on.) Having thought about this, I realised that I very much like porn where the female orgasms look real. And no, I'm not turned on by lots of cum all over the place.

This all also reminded me of a conversation I once years ago now, (it must have been about 3 years ago) with a friend of a friend who was moaning about not liking anal, having a boyfriend who wanted it, liking to watch porn but not wanting to watch anal stuff, and most of the porn she could find (this was by browsing the internet, and sex stores etc. she'd done a rather thorough search) had anal stuff in it. Or as she pointed out, much of what she'd seen, she disliked because of the rather obvious faking by the women. I think porn poses "problems" for the female viewer as well, on the side of men getting "wrong" ideas about sex and sexuality on the bases of watching porn, also women can be conditioned to the idea that when having sex their only object is pleasing the man. It doesn't matter if she doesn't enjoy it, she might even fake her orgasms just to keep the man happy, and I might be wrong, but this can be due to the image of what sex is and should be like that we get from porn.

Oh there's so much I want to talk about. When it comes to men being empowered by porn there's also an example I want to draw from a blog I've been reading, written by a woman about her sexlife. (I won't link you to it because it's in Finnish.) I quite like it and I think she has a rather healthy attitude to her sexuality and she knows what she wants and all that. But still, she writes about how she likes men taking her hard, "raping" her and I think that again is an example of how, even though porn can empower women, and mostly I'd like to say that she's a good example of women being empowered by porn, but then at times she manages to lose that position of being equal in sex by subjecting herself to the man in question. I like her blog, it's just the usage of the verb "to rape" that really puts me off. I think that is where she stops being equal, let alone in power and is merely used by the men who "rape" her. If you know what I mean.

Now, I don't think porn should be banned or anything, porn can be a good thing. And as Zoe Margolis said: 'But banning it will achieve nothing because it's just a symptom of a wider-ranging sexism in society, rather than the cause of it. Porn doesn't become mainstream in a vacuum.' And I'm not going to suggest how things could be changed, I don't have the answers. But I hope, that this'll make some of you think about things. This may also be a bit incoherent and rant-y, I really should proof read these things, but then who cares. And I don't know if anyone actually reads this either. Comments are very welcome.

Post Scriptum: What really sparked me to write this was me getting furious because of the "harvesting" by footballers. Read about it here.

Christmas

2007-12-26T15:03:00.000Z

I'm starting to be pretty fed up with christmas. I started to be pretty fed up already before CHRISTMAS to be honest. Once again most of my friends and family were stressing over what to give and for whom etc. I find all that so ridiculous. Well, maybe that's a bit too harsh a word, but there's just way too much stress with the whole gift giving stuff.

This year, I again decided not to give anything to anyone, with the exception of the boyfriend, but things I got for him were for his birthday and christmas jointly. And I wasn't expecting to get much myself, however I did end up having more than I thought I would. Although it was mainly money. BUT to be honest, I think people should give more money than things. I mean, what's the point in getting your middle-aged parents/aunts/uncles etc. things that they'll say they love but really don't need nor want. People have too much stuff anyway. (I'm not trying to say I don't have too much stuff, but I'm happy enough not to get more stuff because most of the presents I get I get from Finland and I've made it clear that I DO NOT want any stuff because I can't take much stuff with me to England.) But really, even though giving money might seem a bit unimaginative or even cold, at least for me, being a student it is always welcome. And for someone who already has everything, at least money might not be completely wasted. If nothing else, they can use it to buy a nice bottle of wine.

Hmm, I have a feeling this is all mindless ranting again and doesn't make much sense. Oh my.

I find that I don't really enjoy christmas as much anymore. I think it's because of the stress surrounding it. This year it's been especially bad, partly because of the unbearable stress of uni work on top of the normal christmas stress. But really, I think that christmas should be just being with family and friends, not having to worry about anything. And to be honest, it did happen this year and it was nice (the best part was (as always) having drinks with my sister and parents after everyone's gone and just chilling.) There weren't too much presents and there wasn't too much stressing and it was all rather painful. But also, I don't really understand why does it have to go on for three days. Two is fine, our family at least has grown too big to see all at once, but really, after two days we've all seen each other enough already.

I think this is enough now. Don't have much more to say. Maybe to conclude... one of the best presents I've ever had was a towel from my aunt and uncle, they gave towels for everyone, they had named them and it was good. It was so simple, practical and HOME MADE. Also, my sister this year gave chocolate covered Rice Crispies to people and it was good too, we made them ourselves (I was helping her out) and they were all eaten and they were good. Really, there's no need to spend so much. Why, oh why, do people feel the need to spend so much? And to be frank, it's not only around christmas time, people spend too much anyway.

One more thing, apparently this year there was a growing interest (in Finland) to give "ethical" presents (not that I know of anyone who did). By ethical, I mean donating money to charities and thus giving a goat, or a cow, or a well in someone else's name to people in developing countries. I think this is a wonderful idea, and I would've loved it had someone put the money they used for my present towards buying a goat or whatever. Because really, I don't need anything.

I hope everyone's had a lovely and stress-free christmas. And to clarify, I do like getting presents, I just think that a good present is one that's not been bought under pressure because you have to give something for someone for christmas. I'd much rather get a random present at a random time of year just because someone thought that'd be something I'd really like. If you know what I mean.

Crash

2007-12-19T13:28:00.000Z

I recently watched Crash again. I really don't like it, but as it was on TV I wanted to watch it again so that I could properly make my mind up. It seemed odd to me why I'm not a big fan of it while so many people are. Not to mention it won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2005 (although people thought it would go to Brokeback Mountain, another film that I really didn't like).

Anyway, my dislike was clear to me from the first few minutes onwards. I just hate it how it is so in-your-face telling you what to think. The racial stereotypes to me seem so glued on and again, in your face that it just really annoys me. I'd quite like the story if it wasn't so bound to the race of the characters. Maybe it just shows that I'd rather close my eyes than see the way things are, if that's the case, then be it I don't care. I think that the movie could've been as appreciated and maybe even more so, if it was a bit more subtle and left the viewer to realise certain things. This is the problem with some Hollywood films, as they're usually viewed as movies that are meant to entertain, I feel that they sometimes explain everything so that people can go and watch it and come out of the cinema possibly feeling entertained but not having gained anything from it. If you know what I mean. I'm sorry for the generalisations.

I should've written this immediately after watching the film because I now find it hard to gather my thoughts and write anything coherent. I just feel like ranting about it.

Another thing about it is that when I first saw it in the cinema, my friend said it was kind of like 21 Grams but not as good. (I think that I should say here that also 21 Grams to me is over-rated, it's good but not amazing. Out of Iñárritu's movies Amores Perros is clearly the best one.) I can see where he came from with the comment, I feel like Crash tries to find a balance between being a Hollywood film whilst trying to be arty and stuff. I think it doesn't pull it off really well. Now I don't know much of actual cinematic terms and all that, but it does the annoying blurring of city lights a lot and I find it to be well pretentious. There are other things too, but that's the one that especially annoys me. The score is also rather sentimental, which I suppose supports the story, but it's the kind that is just telling the viewer what to think and how to feel all the time. This again adds to the film telling you what to think and feel rather than leaving you to think for yourself. And it is annoying.

When it comes to the story, as I said before, I think it has potential. And the story of the locksmith and his family is one of my favourites ever, the bit where his daughter gets shot (don't watch the clip if you've not seen the movie and intend to see it) is one of my favourite scenese ever, but then this is I suppose because it appeals to my emotions. Also, I somehow find it credible and I think that eventhough there are racial prejudice in play here as well, they're not as in your face as in the other stories. Altogether, I just feel that they don't have to emphasise the racial prejudices/roles as much. Pff, is all I have to say.

First

2007-12-07T16:12:00.001Z

Right, lately I've been getting really angry/frustated over things and I figured maybe it was about time for me to start a proper blog. As in one where I'll just have rants about things (obviously that's the definition of a "proper" blog). This all may end up sounding really quite pretentious, but then, no one is telling you to read this if you don't like it. Please do comment, the first proper post will hopefully be up here around mid-December, at the moment I'm trying to meet the deadlines for my essays so don't really have time to write anything else. This will not be the most serious of blogs, this is just a place for my to write my thoughts.

I may end up writing about food too, because, well, I like food.