Okay, I was once again ahead of everything. I did manage to get that analysis ready after all and it wasn't even that bad. At the moment I'm waiting to get to my lecture and to kill time I made a couple of tests. Here's the results.
Here is also a list of my virtues and vice according to YLE (http://www.yle.fi/pyhatjapahat/testi.html):
Virtue: justness, temperance, love
Vice: pride, worrying, the lack of humour
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It is, by the way, John Keats' 211th birthday. In case someone is in Rome passing by the Cimitero Acattolico, say hello for me.
I am a failure. I cannot come up with a proper poetry analysis. I'm stupid and I should have started the analysis weeks ago but instead I didn't do anything until last week and now I'm ready to cry because I cannot figure out the stanza in a poem I need for my current analysis. I started with a combination of Keats-Pope-Yeats, changed it into Keats-Pope-Wordsworth, then Keats-Wordsworth and now I'm in Keats-Ashbery. I finally have a tolerable main thesis but I don't have the means to do anything with it until I figure out the goddamn stanza form. I'm fucked.
One hell of a day, Wednesday. One more reminder why I don't go to strange places more often.
Okay, I got myself to train on time. The first ten minutes I walked in circles (what a classic) and after that I walked twenty minutes to the wrong direction. I mean, one road, two possibilities and I go to the wrong way. I have an undefeatable ability to get lost anywhere. I almost burst into tears when I saw Stockmann and I knew where I was. Later that day when I used the subway for the second time in my life (I went to Kallio to meet my cousin) I was slightly nervous getting back up in daylight worrying (what if I had left the "train" too late or too early and I wasn't in Kallio after all). I don't think I've ever been so happy to see Seksipiste the sex shop.
The concert was great. It was an interesting coincidence that I wore clothes almost exactly the same as the singers did. White shirt, black tie... Of course Cristina Scabbia looks so much better than I do... and sounds amazing, too. It was an excellent experience to see them play live. It never ceases to amaze me how different the songs can be when played live and on the record.
After the concert I also went to DTM. My first time in a gay bar. My first time in any bar, for that matter. I've never free willingly gone to a bar without there being a band I want to see perform live. It wasn't exactly as I imagined it but it was an interesting experience, just to sit there among people of my kind and reliving the concert in my head before going to bed.
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I have a confession to make. I did something last night that I quite possible should regret. I couldn't sleep and my mind was going around Her again. My thoughts were running wild and I ended up firing the Surgeon General (masturbating, that is). I was so carried away with my fantasy that I completely forgot that my roommate was home, sleeping (hopefully...) in the next room. Unfortunately, the walls are not soundproof and silence isn't one of my virtues in any aspect of my life. I stopped when I remembered her presence. Now I regret it, though. I would have had an orgasm of a lifetime.
Here's an interesting anecdote: the slang phrase for masturbating used above derives from an incident in the United States. The Surgeon General (the head of Public Health Service Commissioned Corps) in 1994 was Joycelyn Elders who said once in public that maybe it should be put in school curricula that masturbating is perfectly healthy and normal part of human sexuality. Numerous Christian groups began spreading their hypocritical and conservative, holier-than-thou views on sexuality again, forcing the president to ask for Elders’ resignation (read: firing her). Hence the expression "firing the Surgeon General". Why is it that they seem so interested in what happens in someone else’s bedroom miles away, alone or under the mutual agreement of two (or more xD) adults?
Another interesting anecdote, but first, hand up those who have ever eaten Kellogg’s Corn Flakes! Yeah, me too. But did you know that when the Kellogg brothers accidentally created corn flakes by leaving cooked wheat to sit, they were actually trying to create a natural medicine to prevent masturbation? Well, penicillin was accidental, too.
"We know that more than 70-80% of women masturbate, and 90% of men masturbate, and the rest lie." -Joycelyn Elders-
Everything's ready for tomorrow. I got the concert ticket yesterday and managed to get a room from a youth hostel. The train tickets I can pay in the train. Now I just have to work on my school essay so I don't have to worry about that while my stay in Helsinki. I have to remember to call my cousin. He lives in Helsinki so I could go visit him and his parents before the concert since I have time. After the concert I could go to DTM, for once in my life.
Miss Spec-TA-cular is sitting in front of me again. I said it once and I'm saying it again: God, I'm so gay.
I had the questionable fortune to watch Legally Blonde last night. There aren't people like that for real, are there? I mean, to use all that time to read fashion magazines and cuddle tiny dogs and go to manicures when you're feeling down... Well, they would probably feel the same way about me and my not-so-well-polished black nails.
But. Now I really have to start writing that essay. Have a nice evening tomorrow; I know I will.
I just found out about half an hour ago that Lacuna Coil is coming to Finland! I never thought I would actually have a chance to see them live so now I'm trying to get the concert ticket and figure out the transportaition to the place, not to mention the of problem where I'm going to stay for one night. Anyway, I've already found the train schedule, now I just have to get the train tickets as well. I wonder what's the best place to get a map of Helsinki for free? And if anyone knows where Nosturi is located, I would be grateful for that piece of information.
Finally! It's snowing outside! I was afraid there might not be any snow on the ground on my birthday. Now there's a chance, no matter how little. And I got a perfect excuse to again wear my Slytherin scarf I made last spring. I LOVE WINTER!
"When we finally kiss goodnigt
How I'll hate going out in the storm
But if you'll really hold me tight
All the way home I'll be warm
The fire is slowly dying
And, my dear, we're still goodbying
But as long as you love me so
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!"
I saw Her last night. I got to spend one hour in close proximity with Her. Her hands are so beautiful. I just lay on the couch for half an hour after the class thinking of Her. So much for the theory that my obsession is getting more realistic.
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I was reading Herman Melville’s Benito Cereno last night and I have to say that, even though my teacher seems to think very highly of this piece, I find it quite boring. Melville writes even more difficult language than me sometimes. It was like reading legal texts: one main sentence that is constantly interrupted by numerous subordinate clauses which, in turn, are interrupted by more subordinate clauses. Sometimes I needed to read the entire paragraph all over again to get the idea. Well, I suppose I just have a problem with the structure. Holding the important information till the very last makes the beginning boring if you don’t know how interpret the little clues the main character in his almighty stupidity decides to ignore.
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I’ve never really gotten the whole fuss about people’s arses until now. I’m writing this in a somewhat public place and that woman has THE most perfect bottom I have ever seen. “Spec-TA-cular!” God, I’m so gay.
Been busy so haven't been writing in a while. I just started reading Isabel Allende's absolutely fantastic novel Fortune's Daughter. It's a long time since I've laughed this much over a book, including Roddy Doyle's The Snapper, which, according to my teacher, is supposed to be funny. It didn't quite make my Smil-O-Meter skyrocket but it was definitely worth reading. Or as Lord Byron said: "Even a bad book is a book".
My Impossible Love has started to get realistic, eventhough I still act like Eliza in the first part of Fortune's Daughter.
We also have a special day today: the day for Finnish literature. To honour the day I have gathered a small list of books I like and think most people –if not everyone- should read. The list is a shortened version of my own list of books I want to read before I die (at the present time that list has 121 books; no, 122, the list begins with a zero [it’s a number, too.]). Enjoy!
Douglas Adams: Linnunradan käsikirja liftareille -trilogia
- Actually has five parts but it's hilarious nonetheless
Isabel Allende: Rouva Fortunan tytär
- I love the raw, primordial imaginery Allende uses
Margaret Atwood: Orjattaresi
- What if women were nothing but baby machines?
Ray Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451
- What if it was prohibited to read books?
Paulo Coelho: Veronika päättää kuolla
- A very nice story about suicide and life and love for life
Eve Ensler: Vaginamonologeja
- Every woman as well as a man should read this
William Golding: Kärpästen herra
- This really is quite disturbing; moral codes do not apply in a group
Anna-Leena Härkönen: Häräntappoase
- Do I really even need to explain why every Finn should know this?
Anja Kauranen: Pelon maantiede
- Women don't rape but might avenge to those who do
Ken Kesey: Yksi lensi yli käenpesän
- A conversation with insanity
Toni Morrison: Sinisimmät silmät
- Any other book by Morrison goes, too, this is just my personal favorite
Timo K. Mukka: Maa on syntinen laulu
- Did you know Ville Valo has a picture of Mukka tattooed on his skin?
Anaïs Nin: Pikkulinnut
- I love Mandra!
Sofi Oksanen: Stalinin lehmät
- The most recent one but one of my favorites in Finnish literary scene
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: Pikku prinssi
- This is just so adorable!
Hannu Salama: Juhannustanssit
- Probably the only Finnish book ever banned in Finland; the writer got a conviction on blasphemy
J.D. Salinger: Sieppari ruispellossa
- Another classic
Mary Shelley: Frankenstein
- Did you know Frankenstein is the name of the scientist, not the monster he created?
Oscar Wilde: Dorian Grayn muotokuva
- I'm going Wilde!
And do bear in mind that this is a much stripped down version, and it excludes many world classics. But I trust you all know those from Finnish lectures so here is more recent classics and books that I’m intrigued by.
