The Other World

Discovered Judas Priest. Interesting coincidence that I should get my hands on 'British Steel' exactly 29 years after its publication.

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Today I also got a rejection from one place I applied for the summer. I get rejected from places the contract of which should continue during the fall since I'm not sure I'll be here next fall. So... What could I do next summer besides reading Joyce's 'Ulysseus'? Any ideas?

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Got back home yesterday after spending six days at my cousin's (you know, the nearly two-year-old one). Got sick right away. As for my cousin... she talks. A lot. All the time. I tried to teach her to greet me in Klingon ('NuqNeH!) and partly succeeded; I'm not sure she understood it's a greeting but she did almost get the pronunciation right, it's the final /x/ (as the ch in 'Loch Ness) that sucks. But then again, it's not a phoneme in Finnish so it's understandable she doesn't know how to pronounce it. And anyway, I know what she means when she says /nukne/. =)

As a linguist I find her speech fascinating. One of the most notable features of her speech is the strong dialect: 'pukoo' (= '[hän] pukee'), 'pemottaa', 'maitua' (= 'maitoa'), 'lujet' (= 'luet') and 'tyhymä'. Her mother keeps saying how the kid looks exactly like her father; I consoled her saying that the kid has one feature that is clearly from her: she talks so damn much.

My arrival was apparently an expected event. Last time she went crazy with joy when she saw me; her parents decided to get a video camera in case she does the same. Yup: she walked up to me with a solemn expression, I said hello and asked if she remembered me, and the next thing I know she's running between me and the living room with a smile on her face screaming. A bit alarming, to be honest, but nice. Good to know someone misses me. She had just learnt the purpose of hugging and she did that a lot. She has also been in the habit of reading whatever she got her hands on: a magazine, one of her own books, a dictionary... she would sit down with it, babble something with her finger following the text and looking at me as if to say 'don't you understand what I'm saying, stupid' =). Nope, I didn't but that's okay. In the evening she would sit on my lap (with a more or less strong stench from her dipers sometimes) and we would read some of her books together. It's funny; I'd point at the pictures asking what it was and she would use the same words that were in the story in the next page. I guess she needs new books.

In short: I had a nice time when she wasn't screaming her lungs out due to her toothache (apparently getting back teeth hurts a great deal more than her visible tiny front teeth). I also learnt a few wisdoms:
'Siellä on täällä.'
'Mitä sössötät.'
'Kärpässieni on mylkyllinen, ei saa koskia, son tyhymää.'

Indeed.

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In the latest Skeptikko is an article concerning the Council of Europe statement number 1580 under the heading "Luomisopin vaarat kouluopetuksessa". Good that the authorities react before the situation explodes this side of the Atlantic. The article can be read here:
http://www.skepsis.fi/lehti/2009/2009-1-vaarat.html (Finnish)
http://assembly.coe.int/Main.asp?link=/Documents/AdoptedText/ta07/ERES1580.htm (English, original)

I've been browsing through tattoo sites all night. My current to-be-gotten-ASAP tattoo count has increased (but not necessarily in the order presented beneath).

1) the triangle frame tattoo
2) the historical "religion should stay clear from science" quote tattoo
3) start the Strong Women Portray Gallery
4) the blood type tattoo
5) the Slytherin tattoo
6) a qvark tattoo or a DNA tattoo

I currently have only one but once I figure out the couple problems (well, not really problems, confirmations really) I'll be on my way to the local tattoo place. However, I've heard of some nasty criticism on the tattooist who made my first tattoo so I have to look into that one, too. I might also see if the one tattoo place that vanished a couple of years ago is still around in some mysterious place.

And if anyone has suggestions for the graduation tattoo on linguistics, I'll be happy to hear them (disclaimer: I hereby reserve the right to alter the original idea to fit my tastes better). The babel fish was nice but I'm having trouble making it a compact design.

Why do schools divide pupils to different subjects according to their sex? The Ministry of Education curriculum says both girls and boys should gain certain knowledge on both subjects but do they? I certainly didn't: 8 months doing textiles, one month (if lucky, otherwise two to three weeks) in technical. Furthermore, there is clear discrimination as the curriculum goes on saying schools can (but note, it means "are not obliged") to offer pupils the possibility to specialise on either one of them depending on their interest. In my opinion, it is also noteworthy that anyone can go to a general store and get a pair of weaving stiches and some thread and look up the multitudious sites online teaching weaving from the basics. Technical craftwork, on the other hand, requires a specific space, tools and material in order to be worked on (hands up, how many has a lathe or a milling machine at home?). This possibility is denied from most girls unless they choose to go to the given branch on a vocational school in which they of course are worse off than their male counterparts as they were never given any specific teaching on the matter.

The conclusion: elementary school discriminates on people due to their gender.

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Now, there's a happy spider!
(via Pharyngula)

(via Paholaisen asianajaja)

http://www.hs.fi/ulkomaat/artikkeli/Obama+Yhdysvallat+haluaa+ydinaseettoman+maailman/1135244962599

Have to say, he's read his Sagans well. He's proved to be more than words already and sometimes I fear I'm dreaming, or -I can't believe I'm actually saying this- afraid for his safety (not that his bodyguards wouldn't know their job) because some fundie nutjob might succeed in assassinating him.

Introducing the Vatican's new line of infallible condoms "Till Kingdom Cum" condoms! Reliable until the second coming!
(via Pharyngula)

A recap from two weeks back (18.03.):

A co-student A asked me for a coffee last spring, we went, it was a disaster and waste of time. The story continued when two weeks ago he said that I "look very beautiful today". As the lecture we both are attending was cancelled last week, I asked him today what exactly he meant by it (I had two separate assumptions that his intentions are unlikely to be those of a mere friend) as it implied very strongly that he does not understand the semantic field of the word 'no'. He claimed it was just a comment with no special underlying meanings. My conlclusion: either he's sincere (unlikely) or he's lying to save his face (more likely). The bastard even kept going on about how I should stress over a thing like that. "Oh, I'm sorry, should we go to the lobby or does your ego fit into this huge classroom?" And people wonder why I'm so negative towards men and especially white straight men! They're just downright ridiculous with their egoes one can either be raged (which I already am so I can skip it this time) or just laugh at them. How stupid and pathetic they are!!!

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And the morale of the story of the dolly girls was that apparently normal people can say that kind of things only in a likeminded company (damn it, I've learned the Italian preposition-article combinations so well I try to do it with English, too..). Apparently there are subjects that can only be said in a company you know well, like saying you don't like kids (if you're a woman, someone claimed men can't say that either anymore) or that you like cemetaries (I don't know why since they are built for the living anyway).

Then again, there are also those of us who play with this expectation for (a little bit) a shock effect. Mainly I do it because I don't want to give false impressions (I don't say I like kids just because the surrounding community expects me to unless I agree etc.).

No, I'm not talking about Sirkka Mertala but Susan Ruusunen/Kuronen. Read the book yesterday. My intention was not to read it but as the court sentenced Kuronen, I just had to know what is it that makes privacy more important than freedom of speech. And what did I find? Lots of detailed descriptions on the Prime Minister's penis, more detailed descriptions of kinky sex, S/M, "I'm your bitch, Susan!", water sports, gender bending... not. What I did find was poor language skills, a typical story of a failed relationship and a text in serious need of an editor (who had apparently been high while proofreading if that ever even took place). Let's justify these.

The language really is bad. I kept fighting the urge to get a red marker pen and correct all the spelling mistakes (there were some), grammatical mistakes (a lot of those, especially incomplete sentences), stylistic mistakes (even more) and the colloquial language (that really annoys me). Also, punctuation does not seem to be the strongest side of whoever is responsible for the final draft that goes out for printing. Examples:

Exhibit A for bad structures (would be good exercises for pupils to try to rephrase them into readable sentences): "Tarja Virmala kirjoittaa: huomiotalouden uhrit, otsikkona on: kohtuutonta että pääministerin rakastumisesta rangaistaan niin rankasti että joutuu koko kansan saaliiksi, tässä on lyhyesti: jos minun pitäisi valita ajanko haisevaa roska-autoa vai siivoanko ravintoloiden ruokottomia vessoja vai soitanko Susan Kurosen entiselle miehelle kysyäkseni onko pääministerin nykyinen naisystävä hänen mielestään suurennuttanut rintojaan [she has now...], valitsisin auton tai ruokottoman vessan; olen ajanut kuorma-autoa ennenkin ja tottunut penskana maalla monenlaisiin lemuihin, siivous- ja roskien keräily ovat kehnosta arvostuksestaan huolimatta säällisiä ammatteja ja erittäin kiitettävää työtä, siinä jos missä näkee työnsä jäljet." (s. 124)

Exhibit B for grammatical mistakes: "Sain vastauksen; [should be ':'] tuo oli tapahtunut ennen kuin olimme edes tavanneet." (s. 36)

Exhibit C for colloquialisms: "Minä olin että mitä?!!" (s. 19)

Exhibit D for 'someone needs to boost this woman's sense of self: "Matti sanoi minulle esimerkiksi hammaskorustani, että onkohan se kovin sopivaa enää keski-ikäiselle naiselle. No, kävin poistattamassa sen, kylläkin vasta kun hän oli jättänyt minut." (s. 18)

I'd say the book reveals mainly things (and thus invades the privacy) of Susan herself.

Exhibit E: "Minä taisin olla vähän aktiivisempi, ehdottelin kainelaisia uusia juttuja. Mattikin innostui, mutta ainakin yksi minun fantasiani jäi lopulta toteuttamatta. Matilla nimittäin on juhlasalissaan ehkä kahdeksan metriä pitkä ruokapöytä, ja minä olisin halunnut rakastella sen päällä, ihanissa alusasuissa ja korkeakorkoisissa saappaissa." (s. 62)

The text is clearly been recorded and then transcribed into the text. This shines through the colloquialisms and the wordings. In the second section (a compilation of paper clips of the stories written about the relationship and Kuronen herself with her comments on the stories) it is actually said in the beginning that the text is colloquial due to "challenging schedule (read = hurry) and that this way the reader really hears Susan's voice". As Exhibit A shows, the voice is that of an unorganised person and needs to be shifted into readable text.

And then the structure. The sloppy editing aside, the structure is unchronological. In my opinion, a 164-page book does not need a contents list in the beginning (the three section could easily have been dealt with in the preface). If it is absolutely necessary to keep the ½ to 4 pages per subtitle why not write them so that the actual contents beneath the title match the title! Jumping from one thing to another just confirms the recorded/transcribed theory. Vanhanen's text messages seem to be thrown in merely on the basis on when they were sent as they don't really add to the actual text or event at hand. This confirms the sense of sensationalism this book has.

As for the actual story... I don't see what the fuzz is about. Somewhere around 50 pages to the story I no longer thought about it being about the prime minister, more I thought of any ordinary person being involved with a high profile politician and the troubles this brings. All in all this might actually (I'm on a good mood) be useful for the rest of us to have one prespective on how the media constructs the image they choose to display and how the media works in a situation like this.

The way Vanhanen appears in the story does not boost my confidence in his actions. The pension reform was enough to break it altogether already and his engagement to Mertala appears a cheap media trick. But I have agree with Annamari Sipilä: if the prime minister doeasn't have the guts to tell frankly where he met his girlfriend but instead makes up stories that are even relatively easy to see through, how can we as citizens trust that this tactique is not employed to state matters? And in the end I also have to agree with Kuronen: Vanhanen's attempt to draw a clear line between his privacy and his public job doesn't work. Therefore also the sentence given for this book is in my opinion unjust. Or what would you say is a prime minister's ex-girlfriend wrote a book about the relationship and got sentenced as a result? Sounds very China/Russia/some-other-country-with-issues-on-freedom-of-speech to me.

They're arranging some get-together at the town hall some time during easter and was trying to persuade me there (as if...). Last time we were talking about the contradictions in the bible: she claimed there are no contradictions as it is the word of her god, I said there are. I listed some of the contradictions later as I couldn't (surprisingly enough..) remember them -the chapters, the verses, etc.- by heart so if she ever returned I'd have them at hand. And I did. And as a sidenote: Martin, feel free to answer the questions, they weren't rhetorical.

How did Judas die?
A) Hanged himself (literally: "Silloin Juudas paiskasi rahat temppeliin, meni pois ja hirttäytyi." Matteus/Matthew 27:5)
B) Exploded (literally: "Petoksensa palkalla hän hankki itselleen kappaleen maata, mutta sitten hän syöksyi päistikkaa alas, niin että hänen vatsansa halkesi ja sisälmykset pursuivat ulos." Apost./Act 1:18)

Her answer was C: both of the above. Judas first hanged himself and then fell down and exploded. As far as she's concerned, a lot of people who hang themselves explode when they fall to the ground. But let's think for a second: how high does one have to fall in order to "explode". Physicsist, feel free to correct, but something tells me one cannot hang oneself that high, unless you own a private jet of course, which I doubt Judas did.

And of course the same "do you believe in evolution/Big Bang/yadda yadda yadda...". It is indeed remarkable how fundies (and other religious people, too) use religious language on things that do not require belief as they have been many a time proved highly likely (more likely than talking snakes, anyway... hey! Maybe Adam and Eve spoke Parseltongue!!!). According to the Jehova, understanding the bible does not require that mysterious Christian intuition but humility. If only they used all that humility to understand other people, and the world just might be a teeny-weeny better place.

Due to the university reform I've almost forgot to follow the marticulations. Here's the second part of Finnish. Seems to me that it's a combination of the two exams I had and the previous one is a specific are of the former exam I had. I wonder what is the purpose of this change.

1. Rakkaus ja kuolema jonkin romaanin, näytelmän tai elokuvan teemana.

Okay, starts with a general topic for everyone. Not a good choice for those wishing to have a good grade due to originality. Or I suppose that's possible but it really has to be VERY original to stand out of all the other 50% of all papers. Interesting, though. Offers max. magna/eximia.

2. Mihin tarvitsemme Facebookia?

A given title that suggest clearly what's expected. I have an answer: we don't. Well, many I know have a Facebook profile but so far I haven't needed it. This might have been an interesting perspective on the matter and would have probably been somewhat unique amongst all the other papers explaining Facebook's benefits. Max. magna/eximia.

3. Kirjoita aikamme voittajista ja häviäjistä. Aihetta voi käsitellä esimerkiksi koulutuksen, talouden, politiikan,
median tai yhteiskunnallisen eriarvoisuuden näkökulmasta mutta myös yleisesti.

Had they left the latter part of the topic out, it would have been a whole lot more challenging and therefore an easier job to be original since most would have -probably- concentrated on the economic and employment and possibly educational point of view. I doubt many would have thought of media as a perspective for this and for those it would have given a good chance to get a high grade. Max. magna/eximia.

4. Miksi Lähi-itään ei saada rauhaa?

Another given title. Requires A LOT of background knowledge but for those who have that knowledge, this would be an easy high grade. A good topic for cynical pessimist bastards like me. Max. laudatur.

5. "Lukioiden oppilaskasteet ovat simputusta", kirjoitti eräs lukiolainen mielipidetekstissään syksyllä 2007. Mitä
mieltä oler koulun aloittamisrituaaleista?

All of them are. Another general topic for those that have little interest in anything but have to pass these anyway. Not what I would have ever chosen. Max. magna/eximia.

6. Mitä kilpaurheilu-uran jälkeen? Pohdi huippu-urheilijan elämäntilannetta urheilu-uran loputtua.

Also requires a lot of background knowledge and one's own experience if only possible. Matti Nykänen could have been used as a warning. But if someone indeed had had the knowledge and experience and good written skills... well, a laudatur it would be. Max. laudatur.

7. Suomalaisia moititaan erityisesti puhetavoiltaan epäkohteliaiksi, kun meitä verrataan esimerkiksi
keskieurooppalaisiin. Pitääkö käsitys paikkansa?

A general topic again. A boring one, too. The form of the question, however, does offer a tiny slice of originality if one so wants, as one could think of the definitions of politeness from different points of view. Obviously, from the Finnish point of view we're not impolite, we're just Finnish. From our point of view Italians and Spanish seem impolite, especially if they go invading our personal space... :) A moderate grade here. Max. magna/eximia.

8. Miten sivujen 4-5 runoissa on käsitelty musiikkia? Mitä ajatuksia runot sinussa herättävät? Kirjoita yhdestä tai useammasta runosta. Keksi oma otsikko tai ota otsikoksi Runo puhuu musiikista.

They've combined the use of material to this one. Boring material, if you ask me. Poems are a double-edged sword, really: on the other hand they are easily screwed up if one thinks they're "so easy", on the other hand they offer an excellent grade for those that have experience, knowledge and terminology on analysing poems. I suppose everyone who've been paying attention at classes should be able to do this. Magna/eximia/laudatur.

9. Pohdi todellisuuden ja mielikuvituksen suhdetta Joni Skiftesvikin novellissa 'Musta lokki' (s. 6-9).

Somebody kill me. Where do they get the material?! Same goes with analysing short stories as what I said about analysing poems: if you've paid attention to the teacher and what they're saying, you should be able to do this and get a pass. Laudatur would not be easy to get with this.

10. Onko nuorilla sananvaltaa koulussa? Kirjoita aiheesta kantaaottava teksti Mannerheimin Lastensuojeluliiton tiedotteen (s. 10-11) ja omien kokemustesi pohjalta.

General, general, general... is there a prescribed quota for these general topics? Well, at least this is somewhat interesting (I would have a lot to say about this nowadays!) but so easy that you would have to do Faustus and sell your soul to the Devil in exchange of a laudatur.

12. Pohdi ihmisen ja koneen suhdetta Jarmo Lehdon kolumnin pohjalta (s. 14).

So clearly a guy topic, though I don't doubt for a second that women would have much to contribute to this conversation. Alas, there's no gender quota in YTL. Damn... Max. magna/eximia.

13. Katri Merikallio vertailee (s 15) intialaista ja suomalaista kulttuuria. Miksi Suomessa -toisin kuin Intiassa- nuorten varhaista itsenäistymistä pidetään tärkeänä?

A very clear laudatur topic. Knowledge, overwhelming knowledge and good and witty writing and you have a laudatur.

14. Erittele ja tulkitse Markku Laakson maalauksia (s. 1 ja 16).

These painting/art analyses are for the artists. Come up with a surprising interpretation, give reasonable justifictaions, use clever language, throw in a few terms et voila! you have a laudatur. Not an easy achievement, though, I think for most.

11. "Ikijää ja ikirouta sulavat, valkoiset vuorenhuiput katoavat, entiset umpijäätiköt lainehtivat sulana vetenä ainakin kesäisin. Tulviva vesi uhkaa ihmisiä tulevaisuudessa myös valtamerten matalilla rannoilla." Näin kuvailee maapallon tulevaisuutta Jukka Ukkola reportaasissaan Suomen Kuvalehdessä 2.11.2007. Miten käy? Arvioi jäätiköiden sulamisen seurauksia sivujen 12-13 tietoaineistoa hyödyntäen.

Lots of knowledge, special terminology and things explained so well that even the most thick-headed redneck understood what global warming is about and we have a laudatur. Reading 'Billions & Billions' by Carl Sagan would help with this assignment. Would have been much better without the helping information provided in the material, then this would have been my choice of subject. But as it is...

Luckily there's the left side to the bell curve, too. ;)