No nyt ollaan edariehdokkaana. Lista on tosin tyrkkyjärjestyksessä, joten olen siellä epätoivoisten päässä, mutta tuleepas tätkin kokeiltua. Ja kyltereiden diktatuuria vastaan on hyvä, jos meidän porukka saa enemmän ääniä.
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Yritin katsoa Plan 9 From Outer Spacea. Pääsin puoleen väliin; liian hapokasta katsoa sen enempää yhdeltä istumalta. Nyt väliaika eli Sonataa ja Commander Keen ykköstä. 8 bit rules!
Three weeks ago I decided to take up the women's studies basic courses provided by the . I don't really know why I haven't attended them before: after all, I read the books and I'm very much interested in it already, and try to act accordingly in everyday life. This is why a more theoretical framework was so interesting. (Not to mention the possibility to hang out with like-minded people, possibly even finding a more permanent "friend", or -if we're being very theoretical- a potential girlfriend.
Now I found this in my e-mail:
"Valitettavasti naistutkimuksen perusopinnot peruuntuvat vähäisen ilmoittautumisen vuoksi."
Fuck! So much for my sociality attempts...
Ainejärjestön vaaliasiamies kosiskeli listan lisukkeeksi. Lisukkeeksi siksi, että on päivänselvää edustajistoon valittavan olen-kaikkien-kaveri-ja-bailaan-kaikkien-keskeisten-kanssa-joka-keskiviikko-ja-viikonloppu-ja-moikkailen-ylioppilaskunnan-hallituksen-puheenjohtajaa-käytävillä aktiivit, ei tällaisia yliopiston käytävillä aina jotain kirjaa lukeva outsider.
Eli jos paikalla on edari tai ex-edari, saa kertoa mitä kyseinen titteli käytännössä tarkoittaa.
http://home.flash.net/~evt/rapture.htm
This time it's not Jehova's date so maybe it's accurate! Now I get to finally act out my evil atheist conspiracy plan: fucking, killing, fucking, killing, doing drugs, killing, fucking, killing, drinking the blood of unchristened babies, fucking unchristened babies, killing...!!!
(via Pharyngula)
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22.9.2009, 9 am: Still up. But I guess it's still night in the US so perhaps the page updater is still hoping for rapture to arrive... Maybe later today.
Just got Sonata Arctica's latest, have listened to it once through and some songs a few times over, and I can only say this: SA is back even better. 'The Days of Grays' is a very nice mix of power metal elements and progressive metal elements. The use of classical instrumentals works very well, and Johanna Kurkiala as a guest vocalists brings nice variations to the love songs; now they are not only Kakko's lonely one-way lamentations (not that there is anything wrong with that, but change is good too). The Stalker Saga continues with 'Juliet'; I have to say I like 'Caleb' better, mainly because of the alcoholic family theme. Apparently Tony K. is an X-Files afficiando like me. The name alone kind of gave it away (you can see this also in the album visuals), 'The Truth Is Out There'. Didn't quite get it the first time round especially since it has another, quite different theme, overlapping. The theme's hangover and since I don't drink I'm quite at a loss with this.
My favourites after the first listening:
Deathaura
Flag in the Ground
Zeroes ("It’s not my ass, per se, on the line" -laini avautunee vain suomalaisille... ;D)
Everything Fades to Gray (Have to agree with Tony Kakko whole-heartedly: "Diggaan kappaleesta ihan pöljänä. Ja silti se vetää mielen apeaksi." Love the cellos!)
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Edit: Yup, this was a twenty euros well spent. 'The Days of Grays' makes me, for some odd reason, happy. Not probably what the purpose what but no can do. This is just the effect it has on me. :)
A student tells the following incident at a translation course: "When I was visiting a friend in LA a couple of years ago we went to see "Pan's Labyrith" (a Guillermo del Toro film) at the cinema. After about ten minutes people started walking out of the theatre and demanding their money back. The reason? The ad in English "made" them think the film was also in English, not in Spanish."
A few per cent of the entire annual titles published in the US are translation. So the rest -about 95+ %- of the literature is in English. There is also some kind of an attitude that only the intellectual academics watch foreign films, that this is somehow elite and obscure. I can't help but wonder how badly this askews their view of the world, having so little touch with non-Anglo-Saxon cultures and languages (dubbing is undoubtedly used in the uncommon case of imported films/TV-shows). One can even see some irony in it: USA is supposed to be the mix of so many different nationalities and cultures and at the same time happens this.
Americans tend ot buy filming rights to foreign films that have been proved to be commercially successful. Everyone knows examples of American remakes: the 'Ring' movies, for instance. Of course this also brings extra attention to the original Japanese 'Ringu' movies; I doubt they would be available at the local video store had not the American 'Rings' have become so successful here in Finland. Also, 'El Orfanato', or 'The Orphanage', (a Juan Antonio Bayona film) is in the process of being Americanised on celluloid.
One of the weirdest examples of this is of course Harry Potter books. They were "translated" from British English to American English.
But all this seems so very uneconomic which is what I thought was very much disliked. Apparently the pros -the illusion that US is the world's capital of good movies, the superiority even of the English language and the American culture- are worth spending hundreds of millions of dollars. Distribution rights and translations would apparently be just so completely bad.
The question is: why? Why must this illusion be kept alive at any cost? Is there the same attitude of only the elite watching foreign film in Canada and Britain? One would think that in Britain they must have at least some contact with the European film trade but then again, it is an English-speaking country. This I'd like to know: why ignore well-made movies if they are not in English?
I saw Her last Thursday. Someone might say that I can't be sure it was Her, that someone was cycling past at the other end of the lawn. But it was Her. Funny how, even before my conscious mind realises it, I recognise Her, by the smallest of clues. That there is something about Her that I instantly recognise even though I don't know what it is.
Then I saw Her again today. It felt like I could just stop right there in the middle of the road to watch Her and then close my eyes and cherish the moment a little longer. I wish I could just watch Her without Her noticing, to see Her talk about literature (because She really does seem to shine when She speaks of books) and see something behind Her mask, to wonder what She's thinking when She thinks no one is looking at Her at that particular moment.
I think I won't go forth with the "I'm not getting laid so how about a prostitute" plan. Not until I get Her out of my mind. And since it's soon been four years... I suppose I won't be holding my breath.
Well, for now, at least. I met the bottom and went through the floor to the basement during our first thesis seminar. All those people kept saying how they have no idea what to write their theses about half an hour before the lecture but during the lecture they had all miraculously discovered an area they want to study. But then again I'm the one with the high requirements to the point of being ridiculous.
So I killed my gradu. Now I'm going to do a rehearsal gradu; no pressure on the subject so I can do some diipadaapa literature analysis and be devoid of all pressure apart from the timetable I will set myself.
I feel a whole lot better already. So I'll be here for another year but... well, fuck the but! If it bothers someone they can go fuck themselves.
(Ja sama Googlen käännöskoneella:
"No, nyt ainakin. Tapasin pohjaan ja meni läpi puheenvuoron kellarissa aikana ensimmäinen tutkielmaseminaari. Kaikki nämä ihmiset pitää sanoa, miten heillä ei ole aavistustakaan, mitä kirjoittaa opinnäytetöitä noin puoli tuntia ennen luennon, mutta aikana luento he kaikki olivat kuin ihmeen kaupalla löysi alueen he haluavat opiskella. Mutta sitten taas olen kanssa yhden suuren vaatimusten kannalta on naurettava.
Joten olen tappoi gradu. Nyt aion tehdä harjoitus gradu, ei paineita asiasta, jotta voin tehdä joitakin diipadaapa kirjallisuuden analyysiin ja on vailla kaikkia painostuksen lisäksi aikataulun asetan itselleni.
Mielestäni koko paljon parempi jo. So I'll täällä vielä vuoden, mutta ... hyvin, vittu vaan! Jos se häiritsee joku ne voi mennä vittu itse."
Heh. Käännöskone, juu...)
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Addition in the evening:
I'm smirking like I'm in outpatient care and well medicated. I *know* the world's as fucked up and twisted and unfair as ever, and yet I keep smiling. If I didn't know better, I'd say someone's dozed me with amphetamines or something.
I've been smiling -and listening to my Sappho playlist (you know, all the horribly positive or Byronic love songs, Roxette, HIM, Nightwish, Within Temptation etc.) ever since I googled my first lesbian crush's name. Didn't know what she's doing nowadays, or even the name's correct anymore. I didn't expect to see a picture of her. She hasn't changed much as far as I remember but then again, my memory for faces is infamously terrible. I can still remember her voice, though, perfectly well. When I saw that picture... I wasn't envious, or regretful, or anything. I merely felt something I can only describe as gratitude: gratitude for her existence, for her kindness, for her understanding, for herself. Depending on who you ask, she is to thank or blame that I'm still alive. I don't think I would have survived junior high if it wasn't for her. I just might have cut a little deeper.
I don't know if it was seeing her that made me this high or the fact that I will most certainly leave the gradu alone... but this is so weird. This isn't me! I'm the mean, sarcastic bitch listening to Eths and giving a fuck to everything and everyone. This state is horribly enjoyable. I do hope it won't last very long. I won't make a very good depression patient like this. :)
PLAYING: Jenni Vartiainen - Ihmisten edessä
Just finished Tervo's 'Koljatti'. Vanhanen says the book is "an honour". I think he has no idea what he's talking about.
But very much worth reading; nice structure (similar to 'The Collector' by John Fowles, also similarities in themes) and very well written. It's like Six Feet Under "is this really happening or is this one of those imaginary realities?" style, except that whereas 6FU is most of the time absurd and funny, 'Koljatti' is most of the time absurd and gross... apart from the times when the absurdity is just so out there, regardless of being simultaneously very gross, then you can do nothing else but laugh.
Read it, if only for general knowledge since this is going to be in the headlines and talked about for quite a long time.
Post scriptum: I wonder how much -in percentage- Lahnanen has in common with Vanhanen, factually?
Spent the last week at my cousin's. Two years old and has enormous amount of energy. And she talks all the time; apparently she also has an imaginary friend. I have to admit, I was prepared for almost everything but that. It never even crossed my mind to add to my knowledge something about imaginary friends since I've never had those. Apparently this is something I shoudl have read together with growing statistics, development stages and figuring out answers to likely 'why' questions. The colour and essence of Kantafelowhatever was not included on my list.
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The summer has finally come to an end. It actually ended a bit faster than I expected; the actual member of the faculty board has taken off and I am to replace him. Shitty thing, really. I didn't remember that my spare-memberhood continues for another year until it pop in my head some time at the end of July. Last Friday I got a message saying the board meeting has been changed: my first meeting is tomorrow morning to which I now have had time to prepare for two days. Hopefully there will be other student members, too, otherwise I'm a bit lost on protocol and such. Well, at least I've read the papers sent to me and made nice post-it additions to them. And, of course, the infamous 'johtosääntö' (see some previous entry not long ago) is up for discussion. Of which students seem to either no nothing about or care nothing about; the result's the same since the thing has been up for the so-called commentary on the university forum for about two weeks and has no replies. None. I suppose others have noticed the same thing: they've already decided this is what it will be and all comments are ignored. Nice job, people, that's the way to open up administration...
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Since the summer ends so abruptly, I won't have time to finish that book I'm reading. This is what I read over the summer; 'Ulysseus' won't be on the list.
Beckman, Petr: Pii - Erään luvun tarina
Bradbury, Ray: Fahrenheit 451
Brown, Dan: Angels & Demons
Carrère, Emmanuel: Huviretki painajaisiin
Carrère, Emmanuel: Valhe
Carrère, Emmanuel: Viikset
Carroll, Lewis: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Ervast, Johanna: Jäähyväiset Einolle
Gaiman, Neil: The Dangerous Alphabet
Gaiman, Neil: The Graveyard Book
Hassi, Satu: Tukka hattuhyllyllä
Hirvonen, Elina: Että hän muistaisi saman
Huhta, Liisa & Rosa Meriläinen: Feministin käsikirja
Hynynen, Jouni: Rakkaudella, Hynynen
Hännikäinen, Timo: Ilman
Kapari-Jatta, Jaana: Pollomuhku ja Posityyhtynen
Kohelo, Pauli: Ohessa tilinumeroni
Kontula, Aino: Herra Rehtori
Krohn, Leena: Valeikkuna
Lindsay, Jeff: Dearly Devoted Dexter
Lindsay, Jeff: Dexter in the Dark
Lumberg, Kiba: Musta perhonen
Lumberg, Kiba: Repaleiset siivet
Marklund, Lisa & Lotta Snickare: Helvetissä on erityinen paikka naisille jotka eivät auta toisiaan
Meri, Veijo: Manillaköysi
Nopola, Sinikka: Miksi emme totu pystyasentoon ja muita kirjoituksia
Nuotio, Eppu: Maksu
Nuotio, Eppu: Varjo
Pakkanen, Outi: Hinnalla millä hyvänsä
Palmgren, Reidar: Jalat edellä
Pappas, Theoni: Matematiikan ilot - Näe matematiikka ympärilläsi
Peltola, Sirkku: Suomen hevonen
Repo, Merja (toim.): Miksi Saara nauroi? - Raamatun naisten kertomuksia
Salminen, Arto: Kalavale
Sendak, Maurice: Hassut hurjat hirviöt
Särkelä, Jussi: Koulumurhat
Wahlström, Erik: Jumala
37, of which two are picture books though I didn't know that at the time I went to get them from the library. Only seven of these were from the list I made in May (or April maybe). Apparently lists are more like guidelines, really.
I also managed to update my reading blog up to date. Didn't think I would but hey, I did. In the process I changed its name and appearance (though I guess I'll be changing the latter from time to time, I like the green one at the moment).
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Okay, now back to House's first season.