Sorry, Druusi, I just topped my own personal record against all the expectations I had a while ago. Taking the pandige off my middle finger helps surprisingly much.
16 385 points, 355 lines in 23 levels (again the same level; I've come to think that maybe it doesn't even get faster after a certain level, but when you expect it to get faster it seems it goes slower).
16 385 points!
This is the first weekend this year when I have no essays to hand in next week, no books to read for a lecture next week, no exams next week. Actually, due to Easter, for the next three weeks I only have six lectures. Quite boring, to tell you the truth. I can write an essay if I like. If I don't, I don't have to. Really boring, actually. I guess I'll be going to the gym much more often. Maybe I'll try that jukataido next Wednesday.
- - -
What kind of memories do you have of the obligatory PE (physical education, i.e. gymnastics) in school? The mere thought of my experience makes me shiver. I never really got along with my junior high PE teacher. Since seventh grade I was dreaming of the very last class with her, of the joy I would feel then. Unfortunately, she was sick that day so we ended up being supervised by her husband; much funnier than the wife, I have to admit. Well, I suppose there wouldn't have been much joy anyway; she let me skip the three weeks of ice-skating in ninth class, quite possibly out of pity or mercy or just to make the ringette-what-its-name-is thingy easier for the rest of the class, when no one was forced to have me in their team. Trust me, it's not exactly hilarious to stand in a row and, after watching all others in that row to be called before me to join someone's team, see the utmost disappointment and disgust on the face of the captain of the team that have to take me in their team. If you’ve seen Carrie… the scene before the showers is straight from my life.
I guess I'm traumatised by the obligatory gym classes for life. Now that I'm a member of a local sports club (I believe The Wife might have a heart attack if she heard; although my membership is most definitely NOT thanks to her) I still avoid the classes I know require pair or team work. I know I would be left out again, or taken very reluctantly in a team at most. I still hate -and I can assure you, I do not use this word lightly- swimming because of those gym classes where I had to go swimming at the swim hall with all the others. I didn't have my periods then yet but I used them as an excuse anyway to skip at least one swim class every year, two if I was lucky. I mean, can you possibly think of a worse way to decrease the already minimalistic self esteem of an insecure teenage girl than force her to undress in front of all others and *then* continue the torture by forcing them to stay in plain view wearing a bloody swim suit? And I'm not exaggerating when I compare obligatory swimming with torture. There have been listed several common methods of torture and those swimming classes definitely fall under that heading; humiliation (yes), isolation (it's psychological, without a doubt), witnessing the torture of others (possibly), undressing (YES!) and sexual humiliation (everything's sexual to teenagers, especially undressing in front of others), to name a few. These are all subjective things but to me they classify as mild, legal torture.
Now don't get me wrong. I don't think obligatory PE classes in junior high and high school are a bad thing. They are not to be erased from the curriculum entirely, nor should they be elective. After all, if they were elective only the athletes would select them; the non-athletes such as myself, even if we wanted to take them, we wouldn’t because of the condescending attitude the athletes would show. I mean, the peer pressure is bad enough in school without being the only non-athlete among a punch of athletes who have won their first gymnastics competition at the age of six. Everyone needs exercising but not all have the possibility of being transported to hobbies by their parents. I didn’t; I couldn’t have any hobbies because I lived 25 kilometres away from the nearest place where I could have had a (sports) hobby, and my parents had other interests than transporting three children to their hobbies.
I do believe that my PE memories would be less negative if the class division had been thoroughly thought. The teachers should realise that not all have been pre-teen athletes, that some might not even have had a possibility to have a sports hobby. Therefore the class division should keep this in mind; since there already are many different groups, why not group the pupils based on the evaluation of their sixth grade PE teachers. The pre-teen athletes could have their own, advanced group, and people like me could have their own group where they wouldn’t constantly have to be treated as a failure of a human being due to the lack of experience in sports. Hell, I even might have had the possibility to learn to ice-skate properly if there had been such a non-athlete group where the teacher could have had time to teach us the art of staying up with those things tied to your feet. The social pressure would probably also go down; I do doubt whether gymnastics in the end have enough prestige to cause someone being bullied for being in the non-athlete group. And besides, in junior high *anything* is a good enough reason to bully someone. I should know.
Despite the noble intentions of this idea of mine, it may not be practical. If the usual class division remains the same, it might be difficult to carry out the two different gym groups when there are both athletes and non-athletes in a same class, and as in my junior high school one PE teacher had two classes half-merged together; for instance the girls from A were together with the first half of the girls from B, and the other half of B were together with C girls, et cetera. Putting the non-athletes and athletes in separate classes instead of mixing might cause classes that are considered inferior in the school. For example, there was this very clear mentality in my high school that those in advanced mathematics were the elite of the school, and the rest were looked down on by them with that condescending glance saying “get out of the way, you worthless creature, the elite of the school has decided to enlighten you mortal little people with their superior presence".
Well, if there are any PE teachers to give me another point of view on this matter, feel free to do so in Finnish or in English, in Swedish if you really have to. I would be grateful.
Wanderer came grinning out of her office on Wednesday, telling me to look up a certain entry in Urbandictionary.com. And I did:
Prom night is...
"For most teenage guys, a form of adult-approved, school sponsored prostitution in which the guy must spend $500 on flowers, a tuxedo, a limo, booze, and a hotel, dance with his escort in front of teachers and close friends while sporting 3/4 chub the whole night, and listen to awful pop music he could get off the radio for free, for which he is guaranteed to dick an untapped pussywell.
For me, an expensive seduction of my left hand."
www.urbandictionary.com
Yes, has changed a little in the last thirty years.
Appears I forgot to add that meme yesterday due to the suspense of the Idols final opponents. Good choice, I have to say. Of course it's subjective; you either like Brask's voice or not. I don't.
- - -
Anyway, here we have yesterday's Meme; a miscellaneous questionnaire collected from Curious Kitty (http://curiousasacat.blogspot.com/index.html):
For what one thing would you like to be famous?
Me, Myself & I: A Nobel-prize winning writer, like Toni Morrison.
What kind of doctor would you want to be?
Triplet: Dana Scully as my inspiration, a pathologist. We once had an interesting discussion about this subject on a lecture about a year ago. People seemed to find my knowledge on the technical terminology of pathology slightly suspicious.
Finish this sentence: "What I really need ____________."
Triplet: ... is to have someone to share my everyday, no matter how boring, life with.
Finish this sentence: "I have been blessed because _______________ ."
Triplet: a)... I participated a ritual where I was actually blessed, b)... I met Wanderer and Her and as a result truly found myself.
Why is the sky blue?
Let the Finnish meteorological Institute experts explain: "Auringon valossa on kaikkia spektrin värejä. Ilman ilmakehää aurinko näyttäisi vaalealta ja taivas pikimustalta. Ilmakehän molekyylit sirottavat auringon valoa siten, että sininen ja ultravioletti poikkeavat auringon säteiden suunnalta eniten, punainen vähiten. Näin sironnutta valoa nähdään kaikilla suunnilla ja siksi taivas näyttää siniseltä. Ultraviolettivalo siroaa vielä enemmän kuin tavallinen sininen. Siksi ulkona kesällä varjossakin voi ruskettua, koska hajasäteilynä saa jatkuvasti UV-säteilyä iholleen.
Korkealla vuoristossa tai lentokoneen ikkunasta tähyiltynä taivas näyttää tumman siniseltä, koska ilma korkealla on ohutta ja sinistä sirottavia ilmamolekyylejä on vähemmän kuin maanpinnalla. -- Suunnilleen stratosfäärissä, 15 - 30 km korkeudessa taivas alkaa olla jo varsin mustanpuoleinen. Ilmiön huomaa jo tavallisen matkustajakoneen ikkunasta tarkkailtuna noin 10 km kilometrin korkeudella: taivas on selvästi sinisen musta."
So remember; every time the sun shines and there are a couple of fluffy clouds floating on the bright blue firmament... the whole thing is just a biological illusion created by the way human eyes perceive different parts of spectre; behind that blue sky there is eternal darkness.
What is your favourite smell?
Me: I love the scent of paper mingled with ink and this combination haven't been in close touch with fresh air for a while... I have a box of papers on top of my bookcase and it really is a nice scent floating upwards as I open the cover.
- - -
The Meme of the Day:
This is probably very pathetic but I like the verse of this song:
“Can you tell me softly
How you always haunt me?
Can you help me? Hold me
Come to me now, slowly
You caress me smoothly
Calm my fears and soothe me
Move your hands across me
Take my worries from me”
‘Sacrifice’ by t.A.T.u.
She spoke to me today. To me, and only to me, no one else. I don't think I've ever stood so close to Her to realise Her eyes are so deep blue. Not dark exactly, bright but semi-dark blue. If you've seen the new Pepsi Max etiquette, kind of like the first two stripes of the third row from top on the right side. Like that but transparent... this makes no sense. It's like trying to describe some colour to a person who's been blind since birth.
I fell again.
It never ceases to amaze me how someone who technically speaking has pretty much the same vocal organs as I do can make so incredible voices. I couldn't but let the shivers run down my spine as the alto, Tuija Knihtilä, was singing. She almost threatened Cristina Scabbia's position as my favorite female singer (though Scabbia has certain advantages, such as me having three records filled with her beautiful contralto; I only heard Knihtilä this once).
You can listen to any musical piece, be it heavy metal or classical, on CD but it's never the same when you hear it live. It's the surroundings, other people. And the church, which I saw for the first time from the inside, was more beautiful than I expected. I suppose I expected it to resemble that of in my childhood home town. Luckily, it didn't.
There's, by the way, an interesting detail in the manual given to us in the concert. Between the Finnish "Pääsiäiskonsertti" och samma på svenska there is a pentagram. I have no idea where that came from. Although, as Wanderer pointed out today, Ostrana (which is also celebrated around the Christian Easter) existed long before Easter.
- - -
A miscellaneous thought while watching Kuka, mitä, häh?: Am I the only one who thinks that the blonde woman looks all the time like she's in pain or about to burst into tears? Why *does* she look like she's suffering?
- - -
And about Idols, of course! Ari really rocks! Asko was probably right to say that the question isn't who goes to the finals, the questioin is who goes to the finals with Ari. Well, we'll know for sure within the next ten minutes.
I'm feeling fine (for a change...). I've been at school whole day and have actually been quite social. One of my teachers made fun of my tendency to sit in a certain place on the department. I don't know what to do next year when they come and tear it apart. It's just a perfect place to do homework or just be (although that's not possible in English). It's never really totally quiet but not too noisy either. And then there are lot of people going by; I like watching other people but don't really have any excuses to do so. People usually just walk past me without even noticing I'm watching them. And I've managed to develop this sense to know which of the department's teachers is going to walk past me next; they all have their own way of walking and certain type of shoes. For instance, She always wears high heels which alone make a lot of noise and then Her step is quite fast, like She's in a hurry all the time. And in my leisure time between listening to people's walking styles I actually get some homework done occasionally.
And I saw Her today, too. This is probably temporary again, but for a change I was able to talk to Her in a somewhat intelligent way. And to look Her in the eyes, fact forbid.
But now I have ten minutes to get going. There's an easter concert at the local church, they're performing Mozart's 'Requiem'. I can't wait to hear it. And another chance to watch how other people behave. I'm currently taking a non-verbal communication course so I can see the things covered on the course in action better, too. The Meme once I come back.
Found yet another Geek test, this time a more thorough one. It's also very funny (and, as all true geeks will notice, not the latest one).
http://www.innergeek.us/geek-test.html
I scored 36,68639 %, which makes me a Major Geek. Whohoo!
- - -
I really should go to bed.
I just watched Madagascar. Absolutely hilarious! Especially the American Beauty rerefence which probably didn't catch the attention of the movie's younger audience was great. I'm not a fan of Ben Stiller (actually I cannot stand a sight of him; same reaction with Adam Sadler and Kevin Costner) but his voice was perfect for Alex. Melman was really adorable; hypochondric but adorable. Gloria rocks! But all the glory to the penguins! But why on earth were they portraited so mean?
So, it would seem I have been replacing your reality with mine for 128 days with hundred entries. I should probably have something really, truly, bluely, mind-bogglingly interesting to say but I really don't. Therefore I will be using the trick all TV shows use at least once: it is time for a recap!
In the first (or last) hundred entries I have…
… referred to the X-Files twelve times.
… mentioned (feel free to exercise vast semantics here) Her 25 times (excluding this).
… mentioned Wanderer 29 times (again, excluding this).
… complained twenty times.
… taken 22 different tests, quizzes or polls.
During these 128 days I have also…
… passed an exam without reading a single word for it.
… talked about my masturbation habits to some extent.
… revealed my secret of listening to Roxette (and nowadays also t.A.T.u.; shame on me!).
… seriously considered publishing a book.
And yet my blog has been read approximately two thousand (excluding the thousand times I’ve read to check it for my spelling mistakes) and had 57 comments. Thank you all!
I would also like to warn you: beware ginger unless you have a thing for spicy food. I ate a small piece of it today and was forced to drink about a British gallon of water afterwards. Ye be warned!
- - -
The Meme of the Day:
A short list of things to do before you die (according to ‘101 things to do before you die’ by Richard Horne):
4. Catch a fish with your bare hands.
8. Make your childhood dream come true.
15. Act appropriately in a rock concert.
17. Own a perfectly useless collection.
23. Get yourself arrested.
27. Witness a volcanic eruption.
34. Design your own cocktail.
40. Travel in first class for free.
47. Milk a cow.
51. Learn a new language.
54. Buy something you really can’t afford to buy.
59. Quit.
86. Run a marathon.
87. Beat your fear.
95. Avenge.
98. Take part in a demonstration.
Yours truly would like to add some things from her own list of things to do before she dies:
3. Learn to ice-skate.
11. Build the biggest jigsaw puzzle on the face of Earth (18 240 pieces, to be exact).
13. Be hypnotised.
23. Take the Mensa IQ test.
26. Swim in a lake in the middle of winter.
29. Taste sushi.
37. Shoot a gun.
42. Take the Rorschach ink plot test.
What would you want to do before you die?
