Hey-ho, it's Frid...oh? That didn't rhyme.
I'm at the English class again, half an hour early because my schedule is still stupid. Oh well, at least I have a time slot to write stuff every week. See, the problem with it is that if I don't have a schedule or something really important to say, I kinda forget to write. That's why I always wrote from Bartlett Square café last year. BTW, I found the cafe's facebook page and finally found out the barista's name. Y'know, the one with the awesome beard? What, no, I'm not facebook stalking random people, honest.
Anyway.
It's almost February and that is so weird. It was just new years and now the first month is just poof. Gone. Speaking of February, Valentine's day is also coming and when that happens the worst thing since Twilight is happening. Yes. The 50 shades of Grey movie.
I normally wouldn't even mind, I think it's high time that a porno made it to the mainstream media (because let's be real, it is a porno) because hey maybe it'll loosen the stigma around sex and women's sexuality (especially the kinky shit) in our society, but not like this man NOT LIKE THIS.
I talked to you a bit about this when you were here but I really need to talk about this some more it's pissing me off. ((DISCLAIMER: I haven't read the whole series. I have read parts of the books and enough summaries and meta to know what happens in it and why it's bad.)
So, 50 shades of Grey. What's so bad about it? The answer: Everything. I'm not even kidding. The language is mediocre, boring and time to time laughable ("‘Are you ready for this?’ he mewled, smirking at me like a mother hamster about to eat her three-legged young."Actual quote from the actual book. And that was during sexy times.), and yes it is nothing but a porno. Socially acceptable porno, but still. Porn.
Don't get me wrong, I have absolutely nothing against reading porn, but at least find something that's good. 50 shades is not good porn.
But that's not really the problem. Oh no, the problem is the characters and the way they are depicted and how they interact.
Anastasia Steele is a worse main character than Bella Swan (which does make sense, seeing how 50 shades is originally a Twilight fanfic. Seriously, of aaallll the great M rated fanfics in the world, they had to publish the worst possible one...) and I am not kidding. Bella was an utterly empty character. She had no personality whatsoever, and the only independent thing she ever did was like an English assignment on some novelist she liked in book 3 or whatever. But I often suspected that was on purpose. So that the reader would fill in their own personality into the empty vessel that is Bella and feel like they were the one living the story. Now, Twilight might not be the best story to live, what with all the unnecessary drama and love triangles and y'know killing and shit.
Anastasia Steele is very much like Bella, except her entire life revolves around Christian Grey. He is her first, he owns the company she works in, he tells her what to do and eat and wear and it is terrible. Christian does not view her as a person, he views her as a pretty accessory, a doll he makes look beautiful and then fucks. And she lets him, because she doesn't know better. Or rather, because the author seems to think this is what romance is.
Spoilers: it's not.
The books also feature BDSM. I mean, they try to. Christian Grey, as a dom, is manipulative, abusive and selfcentered. When he first suggests a relationship for Anastasia he has a flipping contract he wants her to sign, including such points as she has to exercise four times a week with a trainer he provides and that she essentially obeys his ever command. She ultimately does. He also doesn't provide after care nor does he really respect Anastasia's boundaries. That is not the sign of a healthy dom/sub relationship. It's not a sign of a healthy relationship period.
Also at one point when Anastasia gives him her safe word (thank god she at least has one) he later complains about getting "safe worded" instead of making sure Anastasia is ok. And that's just. Nnnnnngh. No. Stop it.
All in all the relationship depicted in this badly written porno is abusive and terrible and it is in the public eye. Women will read the book and think that this is romantic. Men will read the book and think that it's ok to treat women this way. If it were only a regular book I could maybe learn to live with it, but it's not. It it way too popular and with a movie adaptation coming out it will be even more so. And that is not ok. This is not an ok book.
Just. No.
Rant over. Pie out.
Friday, January 30, 2015
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Things you'd think you know
It's the end of January, and there are birds singing out there. So that's nice.
Today I want to list you a few things that you'd think you know until you realise it's something you've never thought to think of. Like
1. The yeast dies if you heat the liquid to hot when you're baking. And then the yeast does nothing.
You'd think you know that, but you'd be surprised.
2. Algae are protists, even the ones that are clearly plants.
3. You will fall if you try to do a tight curve with a bike in fresh snow.
4. Time moves faster the older you get. For example, it's Tuesday today, even though it was Tuesday just yesterday. Also 2006 was yesterday.
What do you mean it wasn't? Of course it was.
Nine years? Are you sure?
Honestly?
I want to be reading a book right now.
Because I got a book yesterday.
(For some reason I keep typing yeasterday...)
And I'm really excited to have that book, because I've been waiting it for a year since I read the first book of the series, and because it only took me two weeks to get it, unlike the month it took me to get the last book.
And because I know it will be a very, very good book. Also, I should try to study some biology, and I just remembered that I have to give a speech at school tomorrow, and I have done exactly zero work on that speech, because of my coming and going on the weekend, so now I really have to go and figure out what to do about that.
Sorry!
Yeah, this will be left a really weird half-finished post...
But here's some warm feelings, or what ever:
~matu
Today I want to list you a few things that you'd think you know until you realise it's something you've never thought to think of. Like
1. The yeast dies if you heat the liquid to hot when you're baking. And then the yeast does nothing.
You'd think you know that, but you'd be surprised.
2. Algae are protists, even the ones that are clearly plants.
3. You will fall if you try to do a tight curve with a bike in fresh snow.
4. Time moves faster the older you get. For example, it's Tuesday today, even though it was Tuesday just yesterday. Also 2006 was yesterday.
What do you mean it wasn't? Of course it was.
Nine years? Are you sure?
Honestly?
I want to be reading a book right now.
Because I got a book yesterday.
(For some reason I keep typing yeasterday...)
And I'm really excited to have that book, because I've been waiting it for a year since I read the first book of the series, and because it only took me two weeks to get it, unlike the month it took me to get the last book.
And because I know it will be a very, very good book. Also, I should try to study some biology, and I just remembered that I have to give a speech at school tomorrow, and I have done exactly zero work on that speech, because of my coming and going on the weekend, so now I really have to go and figure out what to do about that.
Sorry!
Yeah, this will be left a really weird half-finished post...
But here's some warm feelings, or what ever:
~matu
Friday, January 23, 2015
School update or something
Hi. It's Friday. I think.
I'm in my creative writing class right now. We're starting in 10 minutes. My schedule is kinda stupid, because my previous class ends as 12:00 and this class starts at 13:00, so I have an additional ~30min (it takes almost 30min to get from my previous class to this one) which is not enough to go back home but kind of a long time to just sit in the empty class. Luckily I'm not the only one here, haha. (Plus, it's not like I have trouble entertaining myself.)
What should I write to you about, hmm.
School is ok. My logic class started, it's awesome. I really like the teacher, she's very proper and explains things clearly. So far it's only been things I knew from the high school logic course, but that's ok. At least I know I'll know something, so that's good. On the flip side, I think I'm not going to go to the other math class. I seriously don't understand anything the teacher is telling us, and I did some research and it appears that I should've taken a few courses before that one. So yeah. It didn't say it on the registration website, nor did the teacher say anything at the start of the class.
Also, there apparently is an introductory course to university mathematics going on right now and I have no idea how I missed that when I selected my courses. Like what the heck?? I emailed the teacher to ask if I can still go there. Haven't heard back from him yet....
Our teacher is not 5 minutes late. Shame on him.
I, uh, don't really have much else to say right now. I don't like waking up early, but I guess that can't be helped... The teacher is finally here, so I guess I'll stop. Bye.
Pie out.
I'm in my creative writing class right now. We're starting in 10 minutes. My schedule is kinda stupid, because my previous class ends as 12:00 and this class starts at 13:00, so I have an additional ~30min (it takes almost 30min to get from my previous class to this one) which is not enough to go back home but kind of a long time to just sit in the empty class. Luckily I'm not the only one here, haha. (Plus, it's not like I have trouble entertaining myself.)
What should I write to you about, hmm.
School is ok. My logic class started, it's awesome. I really like the teacher, she's very proper and explains things clearly. So far it's only been things I knew from the high school logic course, but that's ok. At least I know I'll know something, so that's good. On the flip side, I think I'm not going to go to the other math class. I seriously don't understand anything the teacher is telling us, and I did some research and it appears that I should've taken a few courses before that one. So yeah. It didn't say it on the registration website, nor did the teacher say anything at the start of the class.
Also, there apparently is an introductory course to university mathematics going on right now and I have no idea how I missed that when I selected my courses. Like what the heck?? I emailed the teacher to ask if I can still go there. Haven't heard back from him yet....
Our teacher is not 5 minutes late. Shame on him.
I, uh, don't really have much else to say right now. I don't like waking up early, but I guess that can't be helped... The teacher is finally here, so I guess I'll stop. Bye.
Pie out.
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
About being bored
Wait, it's Tuesday again. Is it?
Really?
Well, damn.
I haven't thought of anything. I haven't had the time. I've been too bored.
I realise how that sounds completely ridiculous. But let me explain to you.
Right now, unless I have something going on on the weekend, I have four days of absolutely nothing to do every week. I have eight hours of school a week, because I simply couldn't find myself more classes for this period. And honestly, it sucks.
Mondays are ok. I have a flute lesson early in the afternoon, so I have a little time before that, but not much. Then after that, I come home, and I cook a little, and do a little something else. Then I have to go to capoeira training, and when I come home, it's almost eight. Which isn't all that late, but it's late enough that it isn't too many hours until you should go to bed.
On Tuesdays I have to go to the university for two hours to talk about writing styles. And after that I once again eat something and do a little something and then read a book for a while, and it's once again time to start thinking about going to bed.
Wednesdays I'm first at the university for seven hours and then I have training in the evening. No problem there.
But the weekends, starting from Thursday. I have nothing. Literally nothing. Because I have so few classes I don't even have anything to do for school. I have nothing.
So I read a book. I cook a little, eat a little. And continue reading the book in the lack on anything else to do. By five in the afternoon it's still six hours before actually going to sleep, and your eyes are tired and head hurts from reading a book all day. The fact that it's dark all the time doesn't help with the reading either.
So it's five in the afternoon and you don't know what to do anymore, because all you want to do is something that doesn't involve looking at things, and you don't have anything like that to do. So you just sit on the couch a little, and then walk around the tiny apartment, and just think how great it would be to go to bed, because the tired eyes and head ache are rally starting to get annoying, and tomorrow you might actually have something else to do except walk aimlessly back and forth.
But it's half past five in the afternoon. All you want is the day to be over, because there is so little to do. So you just wait the time to pass. Because you don't actually want to do anything, because the boredom is so agonising and your head hurts.
So that was my weekend.
I had so little to do I didn't get a topic done for today, and I didn't even play the flute. Because I was too bored to do those things.
Because I learned last weekend, as long as you have a little something to do, you keep doing things, but since it's only little to do, you take your time. And that's nice.
But when you have absolutely nothing to do and a head ache on top of that, you don't do the little things you could do to fill the time either.
Besides, playing the flute is really not a thing to do when you have a head ache.
I don't know if this makes any sense to you. But that's how it seems to work. When there's nothing to do you don't do even the things you'd like to do.
I did start watching Merlin with Julia, that helped a little with the boredom. But she had stuff to do, so I still had waaaay too much time with nothing to do.
Anyway, during the first episode I kept thinking "Who's that king? He looks familiar, like really familiar. I'll just google... Where's someone who looks like that? I'm sure I know him from some- ohdeargod that's Giles."
I didn't recognise him. He was wearing a crown. And being a jerk.
I don't know.
Then again, I didn't realise Wesley is Sandy River, either, so. Apparently my brain won't understand that they're in fact actors in Buffy and can be in other things too.
Except Allison Hannigan.
So that's what I've been doing. I also spent about an hour doing research on griffins one morning. Turns out there isn't much to find. They're mostly creatures used as symbols instead of in stories. Basically they're like dragons (majestic, wise and hoard gold), except not dragons. Also, it's thought that the myth started from some dinosaur remains that people found ages ago and tried to put them together only to get a griffin instead of a dinosaur.
Ok, that's enough for today.
Oh, one more thing.
Even if I wanted to play Minecraft, I'm not convinced my laptop would run it. I tried playing Dota a couple of times over the summer, but gave up on even trying, because my laptop just wouldn't run it properly. So yeah.
This was a very train-of-thought post. I hope it doesn't matter.
~matu
Really?
Well, damn.
I haven't thought of anything. I haven't had the time. I've been too bored.
I realise how that sounds completely ridiculous. But let me explain to you.
Right now, unless I have something going on on the weekend, I have four days of absolutely nothing to do every week. I have eight hours of school a week, because I simply couldn't find myself more classes for this period. And honestly, it sucks.
Mondays are ok. I have a flute lesson early in the afternoon, so I have a little time before that, but not much. Then after that, I come home, and I cook a little, and do a little something else. Then I have to go to capoeira training, and when I come home, it's almost eight. Which isn't all that late, but it's late enough that it isn't too many hours until you should go to bed.
On Tuesdays I have to go to the university for two hours to talk about writing styles. And after that I once again eat something and do a little something and then read a book for a while, and it's once again time to start thinking about going to bed.
Wednesdays I'm first at the university for seven hours and then I have training in the evening. No problem there.
But the weekends, starting from Thursday. I have nothing. Literally nothing. Because I have so few classes I don't even have anything to do for school. I have nothing.
So I read a book. I cook a little, eat a little. And continue reading the book in the lack on anything else to do. By five in the afternoon it's still six hours before actually going to sleep, and your eyes are tired and head hurts from reading a book all day. The fact that it's dark all the time doesn't help with the reading either.
So it's five in the afternoon and you don't know what to do anymore, because all you want to do is something that doesn't involve looking at things, and you don't have anything like that to do. So you just sit on the couch a little, and then walk around the tiny apartment, and just think how great it would be to go to bed, because the tired eyes and head ache are rally starting to get annoying, and tomorrow you might actually have something else to do except walk aimlessly back and forth.
But it's half past five in the afternoon. All you want is the day to be over, because there is so little to do. So you just wait the time to pass. Because you don't actually want to do anything, because the boredom is so agonising and your head hurts.
So that was my weekend.
I had so little to do I didn't get a topic done for today, and I didn't even play the flute. Because I was too bored to do those things.
Because I learned last weekend, as long as you have a little something to do, you keep doing things, but since it's only little to do, you take your time. And that's nice.
But when you have absolutely nothing to do and a head ache on top of that, you don't do the little things you could do to fill the time either.
Besides, playing the flute is really not a thing to do when you have a head ache.
I don't know if this makes any sense to you. But that's how it seems to work. When there's nothing to do you don't do even the things you'd like to do.
I did start watching Merlin with Julia, that helped a little with the boredom. But she had stuff to do, so I still had waaaay too much time with nothing to do.
Anyway, during the first episode I kept thinking "Who's that king? He looks familiar, like really familiar. I'll just google... Where's someone who looks like that? I'm sure I know him from some- ohdeargod that's Giles."
I didn't recognise him. He was wearing a crown. And being a jerk.
I don't know.
Then again, I didn't realise Wesley is Sandy River, either, so. Apparently my brain won't understand that they're in fact actors in Buffy and can be in other things too.
Except Allison Hannigan.
So that's what I've been doing. I also spent about an hour doing research on griffins one morning. Turns out there isn't much to find. They're mostly creatures used as symbols instead of in stories. Basically they're like dragons (majestic, wise and hoard gold), except not dragons. Also, it's thought that the myth started from some dinosaur remains that people found ages ago and tried to put them together only to get a griffin instead of a dinosaur.
Ok, that's enough for today.
Oh, one more thing.
Even if I wanted to play Minecraft, I'm not convinced my laptop would run it. I tried playing Dota a couple of times over the summer, but gave up on even trying, because my laptop just wouldn't run it properly. So yeah.
This was a very train-of-thought post. I hope it doesn't matter.
~matu
Friday, January 16, 2015
Absolutely nothing sensible
Hi, it's Friday.
I know I didn't write last week, but I did not have time. I spent 90% of my waking time doing my cosplay and the other 10% eating and socializing with our guest. We had a visitor who stayed with us during the con, so yeah. And then I spent Saturday at the convention and Sunday going around town, showing Elina around and then it was Monday and I was like eh fuck it. So yeah. Sorry about that. It happens.
I started school this week. It's weird. I have two English classes (creative writing and a reading/discussion whatever) and two math classes (probability theory which I don't really understand and logic, which actually only starts next week). So that's fun. Our creative writing teacher seems super nice. He's from Texas, apparently, and he wanted to be a poet and spent some time as a translator but then he became a teacher instead. I don't know why. Maybe he was bad. Maybe no one understood his poems. Nonetheless, he's cool.
We're supposed to write a journal for the class. I think this counts, right? I mean this is not a personal journal or anything, but I do use it as a journal tbh. We also need to read as much as possible and keep a record of it (which we do need to hand in at the end of class, we don't need to hand in the journals) which is kinda awkward because I read a lot, but like... fics. And stuff. I asked the teacher if "unpublished works" count and he asked "like online?" and I was all "...yeah." He said of course they count, but he would appreciate it I could write down a little about what happens in them. Which is like. Take two characters and put them into settings with infinite variations and watch them fall in love despite. That is like 99% of the fics I read. Sometimes I find something nonromance, like uh that one Star Trek fic with the parallel worlds...... No wait, that was ultimately a romance too. Uh..... there has to be something without a ship. There was one Merlin fic I read in which Arthur was cursed to have super bad luck. Can't think of another. But I digress, sorry.
Anyway, creative writing. I was thinking I'd try to write more Robin during it. We need to turn in five pieces of literature (at least) and I was thinking I'd try to get a few chapters done. I also thought I'd turn in Caged Bird. Seriously, since its initial writing I've used it in three separate cases I needed a complete piece of fiction. I think I posted it here as well? *spends like 15min going through old posts* yeah, it's there. Back in August. I think I was over in Canada so I had to schedule something premade. Aaaanywho. I got distracted again goddamnit.
There was also this girl in a Gryffindor hoodie in the class. I'll let you know how that befriending attempt goes as soon as I get to actually talking to her.
What else, uh. Idk.
I've been watching so many Minecraft Let's Plays recently, it's insane. I kinda wanna play it with you! If I buy you the game will you play it with me? I didn't actually get you a Christmas present (oops) so that could be it? I could get one for Iita as well, I think she's been planning on getting it. Then we could have like Minecraft parties! But yeah.
I have no idea where I'm going with this post. Probably nowhere. Sorry. Coherency is for weak people!
About your pronouns: There's always it/that/this/those/these? Could they work? Just throwing it out there. Also, am I really the only one who knows the last wolf? Huh. Interesting. Then when the thing comes out I can write all this meta and people'll be all "pfft that's stupid" and I can be all "lol jokes on you this is canon". At least that's what I plan to do if I ever get Robin published. Seriously, I will be the number one source of crazy headcanons and crackfic. Also the meta, alllll the meta. And no one shall know it's me. I will be lurking in the fandom, reading all the fics and meta, the stupidest ideas and the craziest fics with the weirdest pairings and the kinkiest shit. Excellent.
Well, this isn't going anywhere, is it. I think I'll just stop now. Bye.
Pie out.
P.S. I'll write something extra eventually.
P.P.S. How do I taxes????
I know I didn't write last week, but I did not have time. I spent 90% of my waking time doing my cosplay and the other 10% eating and socializing with our guest. We had a visitor who stayed with us during the con, so yeah. And then I spent Saturday at the convention and Sunday going around town, showing Elina around and then it was Monday and I was like eh fuck it. So yeah. Sorry about that. It happens.
I started school this week. It's weird. I have two English classes (creative writing and a reading/discussion whatever) and two math classes (probability theory which I don't really understand and logic, which actually only starts next week). So that's fun. Our creative writing teacher seems super nice. He's from Texas, apparently, and he wanted to be a poet and spent some time as a translator but then he became a teacher instead. I don't know why. Maybe he was bad. Maybe no one understood his poems. Nonetheless, he's cool.
We're supposed to write a journal for the class. I think this counts, right? I mean this is not a personal journal or anything, but I do use it as a journal tbh. We also need to read as much as possible and keep a record of it (which we do need to hand in at the end of class, we don't need to hand in the journals) which is kinda awkward because I read a lot, but like... fics. And stuff. I asked the teacher if "unpublished works" count and he asked "like online?" and I was all "...yeah." He said of course they count, but he would appreciate it I could write down a little about what happens in them. Which is like. Take two characters and put them into settings with infinite variations and watch them fall in love despite. That is like 99% of the fics I read. Sometimes I find something nonromance, like uh that one Star Trek fic with the parallel worlds...... No wait, that was ultimately a romance too. Uh..... there has to be something without a ship. There was one Merlin fic I read in which Arthur was cursed to have super bad luck. Can't think of another. But I digress, sorry.
Anyway, creative writing. I was thinking I'd try to write more Robin during it. We need to turn in five pieces of literature (at least) and I was thinking I'd try to get a few chapters done. I also thought I'd turn in Caged Bird. Seriously, since its initial writing I've used it in three separate cases I needed a complete piece of fiction. I think I posted it here as well? *spends like 15min going through old posts* yeah, it's there. Back in August. I think I was over in Canada so I had to schedule something premade. Aaaanywho. I got distracted again goddamnit.
There was also this girl in a Gryffindor hoodie in the class. I'll let you know how that befriending attempt goes as soon as I get to actually talking to her.
What else, uh. Idk.
I've been watching so many Minecraft Let's Plays recently, it's insane. I kinda wanna play it with you! If I buy you the game will you play it with me? I didn't actually get you a Christmas present (oops) so that could be it? I could get one for Iita as well, I think she's been planning on getting it. Then we could have like Minecraft parties! But yeah.
I have no idea where I'm going with this post. Probably nowhere. Sorry. Coherency is for weak people!
About your pronouns: There's always it/that/this/those/these? Could they work? Just throwing it out there. Also, am I really the only one who knows the last wolf? Huh. Interesting. Then when the thing comes out I can write all this meta and people'll be all "pfft that's stupid" and I can be all "lol jokes on you this is canon". At least that's what I plan to do if I ever get Robin published. Seriously, I will be the number one source of crazy headcanons and crackfic. Also the meta, alllll the meta. And no one shall know it's me. I will be lurking in the fandom, reading all the fics and meta, the stupidest ideas and the craziest fics with the weirdest pairings and the kinkiest shit. Excellent.
Well, this isn't going anywhere, is it. I think I'll just stop now. Bye.
Pie out.
P.S. I'll write something extra eventually.
P.P.S. How do I taxes????
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Pronouns
You owe us some extra posts. You've missed so many lately you'll have to write some more than just Fridays. Because anyone can make time to write a small post, even if the whole day was spent doing something else. Because no one does something just one thing for literally the whole day. You don't spend all your awake time sewing, even if you had to get something quickly done.
So you gotta give us extra.
And then to my today's topic.
I started thinking about this when I started to wonder if I should write Nocturne actually in English. Cause right now, as you might know, or then not, I'm writing in Finnish, mostly because I admit that my Finnish vocabulary is way better than my English one. A person simply writes better and more complex and lively in their native language.
And yet, English seems to come easier. Everything just sounds better English. A lot of things sound really stupid in Finnish.
But the biggest problem in writing in English, at least to me in this case, is pronouns.
I actually think I might have had this conversation with you already before...
The pronouns in English language are stupid.
First, they have he and she separately.
Though in this case it's Finnish that is different, because in all the other languages I know enough to know this (meaning Anglo-Saxon and the language group that derives from Latin, meaning European languages) they have gender specific single third person pronouns. And some languages like French have that also in plural. Which you know, having studied French. And all words being masculine or feminine like in all the Latin-based languages, that's just a pain. At least in English the articles rules by pronunciation. And then there's the. Having to learn and remember which article you're supposed to use with which word with no logic other than someone has once decided takes a lot of energy and is quite frankly annoying. Coming from a language that doesn't have to deal with articles at all, that seems like pointless difficulty. Since Finnish isn't a difficult language or anything.
But I'm getting off topic. The problem I have with having gender specific pronouns is not only that it's pointless, but also it makes my writing in English that much harder. You know I have three wolves on my story, and you know the identity of two of them are known to the reader from quite the beginning. You also know you never find out the identity of the third wolf. (Well, you know it, but it's the you-passive. You know. I'm still counting on you never to tell anyone who it is, since you're the only person I've told who it is.)
And that is a problem, because it means I can't, even in the wolf-scenes, refer to my third wolf with a third person pronoun. It's not a huge problem, since that wolf is a first person narrator, but I have to be very careful with what the other two are talking.
And even if I didn't have this particular problem, it's still inconvenient to have gender-specific third person pronouns. What if you want to refer to someone who's gender you don't know, like the person driving the car in front of you? Or what ever. What do you say then?
Did you know, that the Swedish people have a few months ago taken officially into use a third, gender neutral pronoun with their hon and han? It's hen. Because, you know, Sweden is a great place when it comes to this kind of stuff.
You probably already knew that, though.
Secondly, English only has one they.
Which sounds ridiculous when you say it in English, and probably to any hypothetical native English-speaking people who accidentally stumble over our blog and read this far.
The point is this: English does not have a plural for it. Or, well, they do, but it's the same as for he and she. And this isn't just in my text. In Finnish, (not in spoken Finnish, that's completely different. I've understood the difference between written and spoken Finnish is unusually big compared to other languages. Which I can agree with, with what I know about languages) in Finnish it's completely different in a text whether you use ne or he. It tells about whether the person speaking (or writing, if it's not a dialogue in a story or something) thinks of the people they're speaking of as people or as things. Like the difference of calling a person it instead of her, except in plural.
This is a problem to me in this case, because having written Nocturne in Finnish so far I've developed a clear distinction in my head about which of the characters use which pronoun when talking about the wolves, and written into English it loses a significant amount of meaning when there is only one word to use for both.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'll finish my rant about stupid English pronouns here, because my hands are freezing having to type, resting on top of the computer. With my old computer it wouldn't have been a problem, because it would've nicely warmed my fingers while typing, but this one doesn't heat enough to warm even when it's on my lap instead of the table. I'm taking that as a good thing, even though it means cold fingers.
I will hear from you on Friday.
Wouldn't mind also before that, though.
~matu
So you gotta give us extra.
And then to my today's topic.
I started thinking about this when I started to wonder if I should write Nocturne actually in English. Cause right now, as you might know, or then not, I'm writing in Finnish, mostly because I admit that my Finnish vocabulary is way better than my English one. A person simply writes better and more complex and lively in their native language.
And yet, English seems to come easier. Everything just sounds better English. A lot of things sound really stupid in Finnish.
But the biggest problem in writing in English, at least to me in this case, is pronouns.
I actually think I might have had this conversation with you already before...
The pronouns in English language are stupid.
First, they have he and she separately.
Though in this case it's Finnish that is different, because in all the other languages I know enough to know this (meaning Anglo-Saxon and the language group that derives from Latin, meaning European languages) they have gender specific single third person pronouns. And some languages like French have that also in plural. Which you know, having studied French. And all words being masculine or feminine like in all the Latin-based languages, that's just a pain. At least in English the articles rules by pronunciation. And then there's the. Having to learn and remember which article you're supposed to use with which word with no logic other than someone has once decided takes a lot of energy and is quite frankly annoying. Coming from a language that doesn't have to deal with articles at all, that seems like pointless difficulty. Since Finnish isn't a difficult language or anything.
But I'm getting off topic. The problem I have with having gender specific pronouns is not only that it's pointless, but also it makes my writing in English that much harder. You know I have three wolves on my story, and you know the identity of two of them are known to the reader from quite the beginning. You also know you never find out the identity of the third wolf. (Well, you know it, but it's the you-passive. You know. I'm still counting on you never to tell anyone who it is, since you're the only person I've told who it is.)
And that is a problem, because it means I can't, even in the wolf-scenes, refer to my third wolf with a third person pronoun. It's not a huge problem, since that wolf is a first person narrator, but I have to be very careful with what the other two are talking.
And even if I didn't have this particular problem, it's still inconvenient to have gender-specific third person pronouns. What if you want to refer to someone who's gender you don't know, like the person driving the car in front of you? Or what ever. What do you say then?
Did you know, that the Swedish people have a few months ago taken officially into use a third, gender neutral pronoun with their hon and han? It's hen. Because, you know, Sweden is a great place when it comes to this kind of stuff.
You probably already knew that, though.
Secondly, English only has one they.
Which sounds ridiculous when you say it in English, and probably to any hypothetical native English-speaking people who accidentally stumble over our blog and read this far.
The point is this: English does not have a plural for it. Or, well, they do, but it's the same as for he and she. And this isn't just in my text. In Finnish, (not in spoken Finnish, that's completely different. I've understood the difference between written and spoken Finnish is unusually big compared to other languages. Which I can agree with, with what I know about languages) in Finnish it's completely different in a text whether you use ne or he. It tells about whether the person speaking (or writing, if it's not a dialogue in a story or something) thinks of the people they're speaking of as people or as things. Like the difference of calling a person it instead of her, except in plural.
This is a problem to me in this case, because having written Nocturne in Finnish so far I've developed a clear distinction in my head about which of the characters use which pronoun when talking about the wolves, and written into English it loses a significant amount of meaning when there is only one word to use for both.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'll finish my rant about stupid English pronouns here, because my hands are freezing having to type, resting on top of the computer. With my old computer it wouldn't have been a problem, because it would've nicely warmed my fingers while typing, but this one doesn't heat enough to warm even when it's on my lap instead of the table. I'm taking that as a good thing, even though it means cold fingers.
I will hear from you on Friday.
Wouldn't mind also before that, though.
~matu
Tuesday, January 6, 2015
How to be a student
Ok.
I've been saving this post for about a half a year, because you didn't actually start studying when you came back from the US. Bot now (I think? I went to sleep while you were still trying to figure out how the things work) you will start taking classes, which means you can start getting student allowance (though you first have to fill in the forms saying you want some), which means you will be joining the thousands of university students in Finland living off of 470 euros a month. (Yes, the allowance is actually about 500, but they take out 30 euros of taxes, in case you'll have to pay some taxes. You'll get it back in the next tax return).
For the record, in Finland, if you live alone and earn less than 1080 (is the last figure I saw somewhere maybe a year ago, might have changed) euros a month, you're by definition poor. Students in Finland get half that. Unless they also work, which is something a lot of us actually do, because 470 euros is a really miserable amount of money. Then again, we don't have to pay for studying like almost every one else in the world and instead get money from the government for studying, so I guess we're doing ok.
Anyway. You pay 300 euros of rent. That leaves you with 170 euros to use for everything else each month. That's about 6 euros a day. So here's some tips on how to make that money be enough for the whole month. (Let's face it, it's not, really. 30-40-50 euros more, and it's doable, and not even too hard.)
1. Don't buy anything you don't actually need. Every time you're buying something, ask yourself, if you actually need it. If you don't, don't get it. It's harder than you think. There are things that you don't actually need, but that you really want, because they make your life a little easier, and that makes you feel like you need them. The point is, think before you buy anything.
2. Eat at the university. I don't know about Helsinki, but here you can get a whole warm meal for 2.60. And if you eat some time between two and four in the afternoon, you don't really need another proper, warm meal.
2.2. Also, when you do eat at the university, especially if you're really hungry, eat something that doesn't have a number limit, like chicken fillets or meatballs usually have. It's rice or pasta and sauce. That you're allowed to eat as much as you can fit on the plate. If you want more meatballs, you have to pay extra. Though usually the portions you can have are big enough. For me, that is.
3. Don't drink juice. Or ice tea. Or soft drinks. Or actually anything other than water. Tea is ok, since you can buy like 40 bags for 5 euros, and get 20 litres of tea out of that. 25 cents a litre isn't too bad. Milk you can have for baking (which is unnecessary and takes money, but it's the cheapest way to get something good when you really feel like it) or to eat with cereals, but if you always drink milk, you'll end up spending a quarter of your monthly budget on that. Other drinks you could buy are even more expensive. Definitely don't drink alcohol. I've never understood how all the students who go partying every two weeks can afford it, because alcohol just costs so much compared to pretty much anything.
4. Don't eat candy. Of chocolate, or chips, or really anything that you don't need to eat to not be hungry. Or maybe once a month. The good thing is that when you're a student, you simply don't have the money to gain weight. If weight is something you're interested in. Though if you really try hard to eat as cheap as you can and gain weight, it's possible. But it's stupid, so.
5. Use the bike or walk. Though in a city the size of Helsinki it's a little more difficult to not use public transport ever. So walk and use the bike as much as you can. Never ever use taxis of the night bus.
6. When you cook, cook for a lot of people. If you always cook for just one person, it takes more food than cooking for seven people at once. Partly because bigger packs usually cost less to the size and because a single person just simply eats more than each person in a seven person group. I have no idea why that is, though. And this isn't really a problem for you, since you have two roommates, and if you just cook enough for a couple of days for all three of you, you'll get off the cheapest.
7. Noodles are supposed to be the food for students with no money. It's not. Noodles are surprisingly expensive. Macaroni on the other hand doesn't cost anything. You can get macaroni for half a dozen people with the money you get noodles for one.
8. Eat vegetarian food. It's possible to make expensive vegetarian food also, yes, but if you for example start replacing minced meat with soy, it's so much cheaper. A pack of meat costs about the same as the pack of soy, but the pack of soy never empties. Well, maybe it does, but you can eat out of that twenty times, compared to twice from the pack of meat. Lentils don't cost too much either. Also eggs are amazingly cheap.
9. Buy what ever is cheap. I mean, even if mom always buys Oivariini and won't use Keiju even if there's some in there fridge, you shouldn't do that, because it's just so much cheaper. And it's not bad like she believes it is. She's just weirdly insistent on using saturated fats in everything. Which are not only expensive, but also bad for you.
Ok, nine is enough, I think. You may notice that most of there are about food. That's because if it's not food, it's something you don't really need right at the moment, and thus you shouldn't buy it unless you've come across some extra money. Or if it is something you actually need then it is something you actually need, and you have to get it whether you have money or not. There's not much saving from that. Oh, I do have one more.
10. Try to get student discounts from everywhere. Apparently you can get discounts from surprisingly a lot of places without anyone knowing about it. Of course not places like grocery stores, but still. Other stuff. There's never any harm in asking if you can get a discount in a certain place.
Ok, now it's enough.
Oh, and a comment to your post: how is "Global warming is real for real" news?
~matu
PS. Could you take that Christmas hat off the tardigrade now that it's not Christmas any more? I would do it myself, but I don't know how to do that.
I've been saving this post for about a half a year, because you didn't actually start studying when you came back from the US. Bot now (I think? I went to sleep while you were still trying to figure out how the things work) you will start taking classes, which means you can start getting student allowance (though you first have to fill in the forms saying you want some), which means you will be joining the thousands of university students in Finland living off of 470 euros a month. (Yes, the allowance is actually about 500, but they take out 30 euros of taxes, in case you'll have to pay some taxes. You'll get it back in the next tax return).
For the record, in Finland, if you live alone and earn less than 1080 (is the last figure I saw somewhere maybe a year ago, might have changed) euros a month, you're by definition poor. Students in Finland get half that. Unless they also work, which is something a lot of us actually do, because 470 euros is a really miserable amount of money. Then again, we don't have to pay for studying like almost every one else in the world and instead get money from the government for studying, so I guess we're doing ok.
Anyway. You pay 300 euros of rent. That leaves you with 170 euros to use for everything else each month. That's about 6 euros a day. So here's some tips on how to make that money be enough for the whole month. (Let's face it, it's not, really. 30-40-50 euros more, and it's doable, and not even too hard.)
1. Don't buy anything you don't actually need. Every time you're buying something, ask yourself, if you actually need it. If you don't, don't get it. It's harder than you think. There are things that you don't actually need, but that you really want, because they make your life a little easier, and that makes you feel like you need them. The point is, think before you buy anything.
2. Eat at the university. I don't know about Helsinki, but here you can get a whole warm meal for 2.60. And if you eat some time between two and four in the afternoon, you don't really need another proper, warm meal.
2.2. Also, when you do eat at the university, especially if you're really hungry, eat something that doesn't have a number limit, like chicken fillets or meatballs usually have. It's rice or pasta and sauce. That you're allowed to eat as much as you can fit on the plate. If you want more meatballs, you have to pay extra. Though usually the portions you can have are big enough. For me, that is.
3. Don't drink juice. Or ice tea. Or soft drinks. Or actually anything other than water. Tea is ok, since you can buy like 40 bags for 5 euros, and get 20 litres of tea out of that. 25 cents a litre isn't too bad. Milk you can have for baking (which is unnecessary and takes money, but it's the cheapest way to get something good when you really feel like it) or to eat with cereals, but if you always drink milk, you'll end up spending a quarter of your monthly budget on that. Other drinks you could buy are even more expensive. Definitely don't drink alcohol. I've never understood how all the students who go partying every two weeks can afford it, because alcohol just costs so much compared to pretty much anything.
4. Don't eat candy. Of chocolate, or chips, or really anything that you don't need to eat to not be hungry. Or maybe once a month. The good thing is that when you're a student, you simply don't have the money to gain weight. If weight is something you're interested in. Though if you really try hard to eat as cheap as you can and gain weight, it's possible. But it's stupid, so.
5. Use the bike or walk. Though in a city the size of Helsinki it's a little more difficult to not use public transport ever. So walk and use the bike as much as you can. Never ever use taxis of the night bus.
6. When you cook, cook for a lot of people. If you always cook for just one person, it takes more food than cooking for seven people at once. Partly because bigger packs usually cost less to the size and because a single person just simply eats more than each person in a seven person group. I have no idea why that is, though. And this isn't really a problem for you, since you have two roommates, and if you just cook enough for a couple of days for all three of you, you'll get off the cheapest.
7. Noodles are supposed to be the food for students with no money. It's not. Noodles are surprisingly expensive. Macaroni on the other hand doesn't cost anything. You can get macaroni for half a dozen people with the money you get noodles for one.
8. Eat vegetarian food. It's possible to make expensive vegetarian food also, yes, but if you for example start replacing minced meat with soy, it's so much cheaper. A pack of meat costs about the same as the pack of soy, but the pack of soy never empties. Well, maybe it does, but you can eat out of that twenty times, compared to twice from the pack of meat. Lentils don't cost too much either. Also eggs are amazingly cheap.
9. Buy what ever is cheap. I mean, even if mom always buys Oivariini and won't use Keiju even if there's some in there fridge, you shouldn't do that, because it's just so much cheaper. And it's not bad like she believes it is. She's just weirdly insistent on using saturated fats in everything. Which are not only expensive, but also bad for you.
Ok, nine is enough, I think. You may notice that most of there are about food. That's because if it's not food, it's something you don't really need right at the moment, and thus you shouldn't buy it unless you've come across some extra money. Or if it is something you actually need then it is something you actually need, and you have to get it whether you have money or not. There's not much saving from that. Oh, I do have one more.
10. Try to get student discounts from everywhere. Apparently you can get discounts from surprisingly a lot of places without anyone knowing about it. Of course not places like grocery stores, but still. Other stuff. There's never any harm in asking if you can get a discount in a certain place.
Ok, now it's enough.
Oh, and a comment to your post: how is "Global warming is real for real" news?
~matu
PS. Could you take that Christmas hat off the tardigrade now that it's not Christmas any more? I would do it myself, but I don't know how to do that.
Friday, January 2, 2015
Good riddance 2014!
So it's 2015. Wow. I swear to god it was just 2012. Like yesterday.
2014 has been, well kinda shitty, honestly. Like pretty nice for the most part, but every time you start to really think about it it's been kinda shitty. But maybe I'm just feeling pessimistic. That's weird. But anyway.
I thought I'd make a list of some of the things, in memory of the passed year. So here is..
14 BIGGEST THINGS/NEWS/DISCOVERIES/WHATEVER OF 2014!
That's it then! The 14 most important things in 2014. In my opinion anyway. There's been good and there's been bad but I'm just glad we keep moving forward.
Well, I guess 2014 is over. It's been decent. Happy 2015!
Pie out.
2014 has been, well kinda shitty, honestly. Like pretty nice for the most part, but every time you start to really think about it it's been kinda shitty. But maybe I'm just feeling pessimistic. That's weird. But anyway.
I thought I'd make a list of some of the things, in memory of the passed year. So here is..
14 BIGGEST THINGS/NEWS/DISCOVERIES/WHATEVER OF 2014!
- Malala Yousafzai
This year's Nobel peace prize winner is Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani girl and an activist for female education. In October 2012 she was shot in the face by a Taliban, but survived and has since then been speaking publicly about the importance of feminism and education, especially for girls.
(Nobel acceptance speech, speech at UN last year) - Ferguson
I made a whole post about this issue back in August. The frankly brutal murder of unarmed teen Micheal Brown on August 9th sparked up a nationwide discussion in the USA. Almost the whole city of Ferguson started to protest against Brown's killer, a police officer by the name of Darren Wilson, who, believe it or not, was not charged with murder like he should've been. And the sad part is that after that there wasn't a single week where a black person wasn't killed by a police officer: Eric Garner, Tamir Rice (who was twelve!!!!), Antonio Martin, and Andy Lopez, to name a few, and I'm pretty sure no one has been charged. This is ridiculous.
(wikipedia pages for Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, and Andy Lopez, the video of Eric Garners murder, eyewitness accounts of Michael Browns murder, grand jury transcript of case against Wilson, documents released in said case) - Ukraine
I'm not actually sure what is going on with Ukraine. There's been all kinds on protests and conflicts and general unrest. It's something to do with Russia, I think. But it's been on the news a lot.
(wikipedia article, a BBC article with maps and shit) - Rosetta mission
The ESA landed, for the first time ever, a probe on a comet. It was amazing.
(the official ESA site, a BBC article on the Philea probe) - Ebola
Ebloa has been big news everywhere recently. The disease had an outbreak in West Africa and while it is a survivable disease, the bad healthcare facilities in the poorer regions of West Africa has really amped up the mortality rate. There has been a few cases outside Africa as well, but personally I find it unlikely it will spread into such an epidemic the US news stations seem to want people to believe.
(World Health Organization site on Ebola) - Same-sex marriage
Some local news for a change. The Finnish parliament voted on the bill for the legalization of same-sex marriage. While it has not yet passed into law, the only vote left is whether or not is will pass into law, and at this point it's highly unlikely for the bill to not pass. So that's great!
(an article on how the MPs voted, some interviews, and charts) - Global warming
The IPCC told everyone that the global warming is a real thing. For real.
(the IPCC website, the Fifth Assessment Report) - CIA
The CIA was in a bit of a pinch when leaks revealed they use brutal torture methods to interrogate people and the government lies about it.
(news article about the thing) - Cuba
The United States and Cuba have finally started to try and patch up their relationship, after more than 50 years. They will try to re-establish diplomatic relations, make it easier to travel and expand import and export, among other things.
(the official White House site on it) - Malaysian Airlines
Malaysian airlines has had a bad year, with one plane missing and one crashed. Malaysian Airlines flight 370 set off from Kuala Lumpur on March 8th heading to Beijing, but its signal was lost somewhere over the South China Sea. The aircraft had 239 people on board and it hasn't been found yet. Another Malaysian Airlines flight left Amsterdam on July 17th for Kuala Lumpur, but it crashed in Ukraine, allegedly shot.
(news on flight 370, a BBC article on flight MH17) - ISIS
ISIS is a group of Islamic extremists fighting for... I don't even know. To get back the land they think should be theirs? I don't even. They are not nice people.
(NBC news) - The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge
The ice bucket challenge is a phenomenon that swept the internet in July and August. It was a publicity stunt to raise awareness for the disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and raise money for charities that fight/study said disease. Essentially, once tagged you take a bucket of water with ice in it and dump it on your head. Then you nominate a bunch of other people to do the same and donate some money to the charity. Some people criticize the ice bucket challenge for focusing on the fun and not the charity part, but it has raised the awareness and donations grandly.
(wikipedia article, a BBC article about it) - Scotland
Scotland voted this year on a big thing; whether or not they wanted to be independent from the UK. The vote took place on 19th of September and with over 3.6 million votes the answer was no, 55% against and 45% for independence.
(a BBC news article) - Emma Watson
What better way to end this list than the same way I started it; a badass woman giving an inspiring speech. Emma Watson took the podium at the UN this September with a brilliant speech on gender equality and feminism. And it was... It was just... Just go watch it.
(the speech, a UN Women article, the HeForShe site)
That's it then! The 14 most important things in 2014. In my opinion anyway. There's been good and there's been bad but I'm just glad we keep moving forward.
Well, I guess 2014 is over. It's been decent. Happy 2015!
Pie out.
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