In limbo

The latest news on my planning for my trip to Finland:

I spoke with the consulate in NYC and they informed me that it is going to take longer than anticipated to get my residence permit to me. I had previously been told that two weeks was a fair estimate, but tuesday I was told it would be 3-4 more weeks. One week down at this point, but that still puts me over the deadline of my beginning of orientation at HY (helsingin yliopisto = helsinki university) on 9 Jan. Still not sure what I am gonna do there, since I really need to book a flight, but don't wanna take a chance of not having stuff in time....

The other worry I have at this point is figuring out who I am going to stay with that first night if I arrive in Finland after 4 pm (the time the rental office from which I need to pick up my keys closes). I need to just ask someone, but I'm not sure who to ask and I feel bad asking, esp since I still don't have a date of arrival. That part will work out eventually, once everything else works itself out. Still, I don't like having it hang over my head.

That's about it for the trip planning update. Still not sure about my internet access once I arrive, and Finland is on holiday this week, so communications with any offices there won't be answered til after the 1st. Guess we'll see how virtuously patient I am;) Hope the holiday season has treated everyone well!

Name registry

I found this cool. The Finnish Population Register Centre can tell you the number of registered (Finnish) people with your last name since the 19th century. Accordingly, for my last name:

	Total no.	Men	Women	In Finland	Abroad
As present name	89	43	46	78	11
As former name	33	5	28	31	2
As dead persons' name	48	19	29	39	9
Total	170	67	103	148	22

Only 170 people have had it since identity numbers started being assigned. Should I feel any more unique?

So, a little update on the Finland situation, for all those who may be curious. (Really it's just a to-do and done list for me, but I can share).

-Housing is secured. I got a nice place in West-Pasila very near a train station. I will have 2 roomate in a large flat, with a balcony on "central park." hotness.

-I've sounded the alarm and everyone from Helsinki to Sodankyla knows I'm coming. They've been warned. (Actually I still have a number of people to contact, but I'm hoping that people will talk to people will talk to people to save me some time, plus I don't have all the email addresses I need.)

-My residence permit should be able to be processed now that I have housing. I just have to wait for final confirmation on my despoit to send stuff to the consulate and then I should be set.

-Still haven't bought an airline ticket, but I'd like to know when I'll have the residence permit so I can arrive as early as possible... But how long should I wait? That is the question... I'd like to take a trek up to Iisalmi before the orientation starts, but I don't wanna buy a ticket and then not have my passport back in time. What to do, what to do...

-I have at least found a bed, in terms of furnishings. Hopefully more will be forthcoming. Gotta talk to my peeps in Helsinki. I don't really need all that much, just a bed and a desk.

-I need to figure out about the wiring of the building I am living in and how possible it will be to get internet access while in Finland. I'd like to publish pictures and stories here, but I have to make sure I have access to the net from my laptop before I promise to do so. Updates won't be frequent, but I'll hopefully keep you up to date with my travels at the very least. Don't wanna detract from the experience by sitting in front of the computer the whole time though.

I think that's it for now...

guess who got accepted to study in finland?

yep, looks like i'll be heading out soon to return to the fatherland. i got my letter monday, and now have to throw my visa stuff together pretty quickly. barring that, i'll start my studies at the university of helsinki in the beginning of january. if you wanna help me settle into helsinki lemme know:-D

KJ and JK: A Love Story

This is the story of two people, brought together by chance, who found that fate had cast them as compliments, each the inverse to the other. Not only were they born exactly 6 months apart, sharing birthdays and half birthdays, but they were also gender opposites, opposites in orientation, and inversely named. This is the story of KJ and JK, a love story in one part.

KJ and JK met under shakey circumstances. JK was drunk off his ass, and KJ soon found herself too close for comfort... yet.

Not one to kiss and run, JK perservered and spent more and more time with KJ. Still a bit scared, KJ and JK first went on a double date with another supa-fly couple.

JK and KJ were perfect! KJ found that she could really say what was on her mind, and discuss deep subjects with JK...

...Even if JK sometimes was driven up walls from the abstract nature of their discussions.

Still, it wasn't long until the two were inseparable.

They went to the same parties...

...played silly games together...

...and picniced together. It was ridiculously adorable.

Yes, whenever the wind picked up and life was all a-flutter, KJ was there to keep JK firmly grounded.

And when KJ was stressing out and a little tense, JK was there with his magic hands (not to be confused with his spirit fingers).

Soon, the two started travelling together.

In Vermont, they saw a house made of sticks.

OMG- did you see that?

haha- JK has chocolate all over his face!

So close were the two, JK wore interchangable bands which could represent their inverseness everywhere he went (with blue hair). KJ POWER!

In the end, because they couldn't decide whether they would combine as KJK or JKJ, the two decided to take a break. Still, they never forgot the good old days, and thought they may be apart next semester, they will always remember each other. If rough times come, they'll know that they are not alone, and they will walk down that road together.

World AIDS Day

Leaving on a jet plane

This morning I was dazed. It was one of those mornings that wasn’t really morning because there was no night to speak of. I stayed up through the night finishing a paper I still have yet to put the finishing touches on. My plane was delayed once, twice, then until 4.30 in the morning so my Thanksgiving break was extended by 12 hours or so. The internet went down around 1, so I couldn’t really add much definite after that. Just details. I finished that around 2, but was so wired on coffee that going for the hour of sleep would be useless. I tried anyway. No go.

By the time it was time to leave for the airport I was cold. I hate that. It’s the worst part of being tired for me. I can’t hold body heat and I shiver like a toy dog does when it’s excited. I made the trek to the airport for the second time. It’s a much different place at 4 in the morning. This morning, however, there was an abnormal flurry of activity. More Ohioans headed off to war.

In theory I know that the guys fighting overseas are my age; have similar backgrounds; want many of the same things of their lives that I do of mine. But there’s always something more real about witnessing something firsthand. Goodbyes are painful. I know all too well, as I’ve said too many. For many of these guys, this was the first goodbye. None of the farewells I’ve ever said had such tension in the air. This goodbye could really be a goodbye for them, not the “until we meet again” usually associated with parting. They might not come back.

One kid followed me through the security line.

“Is this the place where I empty out my pockets?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

“And my shoes?”

“Yep, they want it all.”

He then went and found a seat off on his own, waiting for the plane to Charlotte to carry him away. His first plane trip, and there’s the possibility of it being a one-way trip.

While he was sitting there, it was noticeable that he didn’t quite fit in with the other guys. He wasn’t necessarily more shy, just not yet one of the gang either. Social dynamics here, something I can relate to. Guys that could just as easily be me or my friends, packing off to war. Yet there I sat, in my privileged seat, returning to the comforts and safety of New England university life. Yet another way in which I am fortunate, that I need to appreciate more.

All too much for 4 in the morning.

Uutiset 19 Nov

It's a light day, methinks:

-Finally a definition of normal I can live with. It's not new per se, but it's new to me anyway. According to Ellen Goodman:

"Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for - in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it."

And in the Finland shakedown:

-Flushed cell phones clogging sewers. I wonder how much Nokia makes off of replacement phones for those that met this watery end...

-The Baltic Times on the recent outrage in Finland over an Estonian shipping company's sewage disposal in the Gulf of Finland.

-Now your medical life will be ruled by SMS too!!

-Russian spies in Finland at Cold War levels again. So the counterintelligence officers in Finland may actually have a lot of work to do. I was wondering the other day why any country would put spies in Finland to steal government (as opposed to corporate) secretes. Seems as though Russia has its reasons.


-Baa raaa muu. The sheep are on the loose

The new Harry Potter movie was pretty amazing. Consider this my endorsement. Missed the last 30 seconds or so though because the fire alarm went off in the theater. That was rather annoying, especially since the exits took us through 4 stories of asbestos filled halls.

Europa down?

I've been trying to access the EU's Europa site for the last few day but have been unable. Does anyone know if it is down or what the deal is? If you're able to get it please leave something in the comments. I have a paper to write and need the site...

Europa

Update: It works fine now. Not sure what all that was about.

Keeping up with the Beckhams

Photo: BBC

I'm not gonna lie, I love the Beckhams. I mean, who wouldn't want their lives? Ali G did an interview with them that's now on funny-videos.co.uk. It's absolutely hillarious! Watch here:

http://www.funny-videos.co.uk/videoAliGPoshBecks.html

Uutiset 15 Nov 2005

-The EU will not investigate claims of secret US jails in EU member states.

-Ali G may get sued by the Kazahks for misrepresenting the people with Borat

-Halonen's approval rating (drops) to 71%. Does this mean that she's twice the president Bush is? I'm just asking...

Source: Roosewelt Pinheiro/ABr. 31.Oct.2003.
-...and more Finland: Police may reprimand citizens using SMS. Turn signal out? Best watch out for that text message from the cop you just passed.


-...the last bit on Finland: Conditions for immigrants not all that different between Paris and Helsinki. The Helsingin sanomat explores

-Esquire Magazine names Bill Clinton the world's most influential man.

Violence hits other European cities

GatewayPundit has recapped everything pretty well. This is getting progressively more scary. And for real scary. Not like House of Wax with Paris, Chad, et al. that is scaring the hell out of me right now. It's a completely different scary.

La haine- a film prophetique?

Slate recently published a story about Matthew Kassovitz's 1995 film La haine in which it points out the prophetic nature of the movie. I saw the film last year as part of a French course and presented on race relations as shown by this movie. Though Slate's review may be hard to follow if you haven't seen the movie, it's pretty decent at the outset. I don't think the author gives enough appreciateion to the director or plot towards the end of his review, though. The Cut Killer remix of Edith Piaf from the soundtrack was stuck in my head for days after seeing the movie.

Uutiset

-Finns still opposed to joining NATO. 26% for, 55% against according to the most recent (Suomen) Gallup polls. These figures actually reflect a slight increase in support. At its highest, support was only at 29%. Security and soverignty issues topped reasons for opposition, which is surprising coming from an EU country. Or is it?...

-Helsinki to become a SUPERcapitol? With the annexation of Espoo and Vantaa gaining support, it may happen...

-Conan in Finland? He talks about it enough....

-English about those bloggers arrested in Paris.

-Dictionary.com word of the day for Nov. 8 - nosegay- a bouquet. Riiiiight.

-Essentialist Explanations offers a lot of quotes about the Finnish language (and others). I especially like:

Finnish is essentially Japanese spoken with an Italian accent.

--John Davies

(I always thought Finnish sounded almost Japanese like at times, especially with the spoken "saisinko" and a few other words .) Also:

Ffiinnnniisshh iiss eesssseennttiiaallllyy aa llaanngguuaaggee ffoorr ppeeooppllee wwiitthh ddoouubbllee vviissiioonn.

--Clint Jackson Baker

Good stuff.

-Brown Bears clinch Ivy League Championship. Sweet! We also won both hockey games I went to this weekend.

-NYT publishes stories from Muslims on the riots in France

Love?!?!

Japan's princess is giving up her 12 layered ceremonial kimono (see below) and the life that goes with it (including the ability to live in the royal palace with her parents) in order to marry a commoner. That's gotta be like normal love x12- once for each kimono.


Photo: AP

It's been a while

So, I haven't updated in ages. I have a 10 pager to write right now concerning popular opinion in Estonia of the EU and the question of statelessness in the Baltics, so it seems like the perfect time to write here. Some things on my radar.

-Phil over at finlandforthought has a nice photo-table, if you will, and discussion about the 2006 presidential race in Finland. Halonen may've gotten a boost after Conan's endorsement, but only time will tell. You should check out his blog anyway- it's pretty awesome, twice so if you don't speak finnish.

-Brown will soon be gracing a TV set near you (provided you're near the US...). Beginning this Sunday Brown will again be featured on The Family Guy, and rumor has it that soon the OC (gasp!) will be coming to campus. Family Guy is pretty quality, but I will NEVER sell out to the OC! I like the little bit of soul I have left thankyouverymuch.

-Turning 21 ROCKED! Thanks to all my peeps who made it a memorable event.

Now, back to the GCB with me!

-At your leisure, you should check out the plethora of info out there about the riots in France. If you're reading this, then you might especially be interested in the Bloggers arrested for inciting riots in their blogs (in French) article from Reuters. The event eerily coincides with the predictions one would expect considering the EU's double standard for addressing the problem of citizenship and integration of minorities in new member states. Brushing it under the table in the old member states seems to ultimately lead to... well.. riots. But France has never been really good at integration. They're more "lose yourself" to the French identity than trying to reconcile the two. Nonetheless, it may prove a picture of times to come.

-Azerbaijan elections tainted, say international observers

-"Look! It's Godzilla! (the crocodile)

- Pat Roberson cetifiably insane

And just like that an hour has gone by. more eventually.

Classes?

Anyone else think my class scedule this year looks remarkably like a demon? Luckily the demon won't survive long.... labs and sections still have to be scheduled..... ugh.

I think I should like to have my medial orbitofrontal cortex removed.

Tired of regret? Become a leison patient, and you won't have to deal with it anymore. I think I would be ok with that, but then again, I don't regret that much anyway. I'm trying to determine if i regret anything at all, and i think not. While I wish some things may've ended differently, it was worth the experience anyway, so I won't say I regret it. I just learned how not to do something in the future. I still stick my foot in my mouth on a regular basis though.

The doorbell rings

I returned from work around 6.30 this evening and put in a load of laundry, then quickly began relaxing. "Time is of the essence" (excuse the cliche usage), but doubly so anymore. About 2 hours later, someone began knocking on the door and ringing the doorbell. When I answered I found two pre-teen to early teenage girls standing.

"I know this is going to sound really weird," says one girl, "but do you mind if I ask you a few questions?"

"Sure," I agreed, though somewhat hesitantly.

"Do you have anyone 18-21 living here?" she asked.

"Uhhh... I am," I replied, thinking they were wanting me to buy cigarettes or something.

"Ok, well, here's the thing," she said, finally beginning to reveal her true intentions. "I have a friend who lives a few apartments down and she doesn't know we're doing this, but she hasn't been on a date in a really long time and I was wondering if you would like to go out with her?"

She took a breath after trying to fit that all into one quick sentence.

"I don't think I could do that," I muttered, coming up with whatever I could to get out of this situation as quickly as possible. "Sorry," I said, as I slowly closed the door.

Pass it on story time

A couple weekends ago I was sitting at a pub with some friends listening to a local band [The Bogtrodders] and a few of us decided we needed to go the extra mile and multitask while taking in the sounds. So we played that time old game where everyone writes a bit of the story and then passes it along to the next person who continues, etc. Four of us alternated turns writing, and below is the fruit of our labor... (thanks to aaron for transcribing!) The skipped line means the turn changed and the next person began writing. I'd color code the entries by author, but that woudl take too much time, and if you read closely you can analyze the style;)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The

Jesus <3s Winners

and everyone else hates you

and then I was no longer infected. The End.

But I was still saddened by the abnormally lame wart on your face

Then a giant happy face hopped up along side me and told me about his 90 year old mother who was still practicing S&M with her 23 year old boyfriend and the wart didn't seem so bad.

But it was to late for the wort because the magical elves from osu came and lopped it off. And then...

used the wart to summon an enormous tomato from the neitherworld

which was not unlike that of which a tomato of the Edwardian count of the late 1600s would have all but sold the crown to in a fit of hostile rage.

But I was still sad for the wort and munchkins forced to work in the wizard's chinese style sweat shops.

And, oh how they worked. Their little hands toiled all day long ... 50 of them and at the end of the day all they had to show for it was a single UP elevator button. (Illustration of an UP elevator button) they couldn't make a down one. Those were make in the Phillipines.

But with this button they rallied a union of elves and munchkins to overthrow their dominatrix-styled middle managers by using ...

yo yos. It was a long bloody struggle and there was string and blood and really really funny shoes everywhere!

So many shoes that flaming franks shoe-dar went off and all of the sudden there were so many homos fighting over clothes you would have thought it was wedding dress day @ Filene's Basement

which is a nice, neat store at it's home location in Boston, but in other regions is not akin in the most obvious way to being a regional clothing Big Lots.

This part of the story was lost due to bad handwriting amd it's loss is deeply morned by all the Angels and muses. Oh, woe to the lost part of the story.

When the dust had settled and the ground was strewn with the dead and dying munchkins, elves, homos, and dominatrixes a lone figure emerged from the rubble, he would hence forthe rule the land with justice and virtue. His name was Hermy and he...

lived happily ever after and made lots of babies. The End. Hugs + Kisses.

(we ran out of napkin and had to end the story here, to the chagrin of many)

Create your own stripper!

Watch me change

So amazing

The Beaver Hunt

So here's the deal: Last week I was working in a place called Xenia, Ohio. Xenia is in the middle of nowhere and there's not a whole lot to do there. Nearby, however, is a ritzy suburb wannabe called Beaver Creek. Beaver Creek is celebrating its 25th anniversary and in celebration has commissioned 25 beaver statues to be decorated and placed throughout the town.

Now, picture this: It's after 1 am, I'm a little tipsy, and we have been in this town for a week with nothing to do. It's time for a beaver hunt!!! Me and my friend erik drove around in the dark (he wasn't drinking, cause drinking and driving isn't cool) and found as many of the beaver statues as we could--meaning we found all of them that hadn't been stolen or thrown into ponds. Here is the result of all the toil. Enjoy!


Beaver #1 was alongside the highway. I didn't know what this beaver was so curious about


Our next beaver was found near the YMCA. That sign next to it saying not to touch the beavers told me that "Beavercrete" was just asking for a ride.


This beaver was so irressitably hot. A beaver in overalls..... ohhhhhh snap. Who's your daddy?


Ehhh this beaver was outside the library and like to read. How interesting could I really make the picture?


This beaver needed some serious trimming of its shrub.... fo' real.


Mmmm a beaver in uniform...


This one was actually a pretty cool beaver. Loving the starry night swirlage, plus I am running out of bad beaver jokes quickly.


This beaver can mend my road any time. Sexy!


Watch as this beaver marches across the field, holding his trombone, his intrument high. Play that funky music, beaver.


Fly high with beavers


The original beaver- anything else is just a copy.


Me and the rabbit munching the beaver


I wasn't done with the original beaver juuuust yet.


Supa fly beaver and me


*insert indian noises here*

Some of the beavers were inside and had to wait until the next day. Isnt' my work polo amazing?


I have no idea what this one is supposed to be. A scientific beaver? I'm spent.


My my, what a well maintained beaver.

So that's it, there you have it. Misadventures in beaverland. Until next time/

Ancient phallus unearthed in cave

You have got to see this.



Ancient phallus unearthed in cave

So beaver hunting has been at least temporarily postponed... but more later.

Give me a sign (said to the tune of ...Baby one more time)

Interesting signs from the road. Jesus and stuff.


For all of us wondering what the answer is.


And I thought semi-trucks were only good for a toot of the horn. Get out your message!


Part one of Two. Where will you spend eternity?


Part two of two. Hell IS Real fo' real.

Now for the non-jesus stuff...


Beaverdam... yeah... just where I wanna be.

And finally, the best town in all of Ohio: Cridersville.


That's all for now. Tomorrow we may have go beaver hunting. There will surely be photos from that. (Don't worry, no beavers will be harmed in the taking of our photos.)

Peace out.

Were you born in a barn?

As part of the Ohio Bicentennial celebration of 2003 the state commisioned 1 barn in each of the 88 Ohio counties to be painted with the bicentennial logo. These are pics of the ones that I have seen lately, and was quick enough to get the camera out for. I'd tell you which county each was in, but i have no clue. If you're all that curious i suppose i could come up with some estimate.