Have you ever tasted a Whitstable oyster?

I saw a documentary of plastic surgery today. I have a vague memory of, at some point, saying that if I were a doctor I would like to be a pathologist. At that time I thought its opposite would be to be a gynaecologist (the idea doesn’t attract me at all, against all the lesbian stereotypes). Now I can say from the bottom of my heart that being a plastic surgeon… when I was a kid I once saw some clip on TV in which some guy’s head was cut open and his brain was tampered with as he was awake. It left me a mark of feeling slight disgust towards moving pictures or close-ups of the brains, but this feeling of disgust is nothing compared to the physical reaction seeing that plastic surgeon in action. There was a time when I thought of going under the blade if I ever got enough money, but that is now and forevermore forgotten and buried. Never will I be part of something like that. Whoever I have sex with will just have to tolerate my not-so-perfect body if the alternative is that.

- - -

A few days ago I learned of a short story competition here in Finland. I think I will take part in it. I’ve had this story and its structure dwelling in my mind since last autumn; I think it is time to let it out. Who knows, I may not even send it there but at least I would get it out of my system. Although I’m not sure if I *should* send it there; after all, it is based on my childhood and won’t present my parents in a particularly good light; if I were to get among the ten best (they’re published in an anthology next year), I would have to keep it to myself, despite the fact the stories are probably published using the nicknames, not real names. I don’t think my mother, let alone my father, will be too pleased of the literary accomplishment of their first-born if the text is an implicit statement why being a straight couple isn’t parallel to being excellent parents bringing up stable and productive members to this society.

- - -

The Meme of the Day:
I rediscovered the pleasure of the fine art of origami. It can be really painstaking and extremely frustrating when you’re just not getting something right but once you do… it’s like struggling with a difficult mathematical problem and suddenly you experience this moment of enlightenment. So, give it a go. It builds your character and patience, and quite possibly also the pile of crumpled paper with weird folds on your desk.

Here’s is a good site; the examples consist of coloured paper but mundane graph paper will do as well: http://www.origami-club.com/en/

After swearing, screaming, pounding the desk in frustration, crumpling up way too much paper and doing all of the above at once for about four hours, I managed to complete six origamis. On my desk I know have an almost perfect 2D star (I’m still not quite sure how it is possible to have a symmetrical star just by folding a piece of paper), a heart (I needed something simple to start with), a bat (couldn’t resist), one fluttering beast of doom (another simple one), a shuriken (my personal favourite of them all albeit I still prefer Xena’s chackram) and a clam (“Have you ever tasted a Whitstable oyster?”).

This particular origami dragon was folded by a 23-year-old Japanese named Satoshi Kamiya. It took him 40 hours spread over several months (for a reason, I think). I'm afraid to think how many steps it required.