What happened to V.

I had a dream that V. started to chat with me via MSN Messenger. She told me everyday things, such as what she has been up to lately, and then she said that we should meet. And later we met in my school, though in my dream she studied there too. She was with her new best friend, and they asked me if I drink. I said that I'm a teetotaler, as I have always been. They exchanged looks and told me that they can't be friends with me if I don't drink. Even in a dream it was really bizarre.

I hate to admit it, but I still miss V. We used to hang out together in high school, but I'd say we become friends only after my graduation. I wanted to learn how to smoke and I asked V. to be my partner in crime. And as we smoked on the crag, watching sunrise, we became friends. Soon we started to hang out in playgrounds at nights, smoking and talking our hearts out.

I thought we were best friends, or at least she was my best friend. We chatted via MSN every day, and on Fridays we used to drink tea and smoke. I'm still not sure what happened, why we stopped being friends. Here is my take on it:

I always told her everything. She was my best friend, so naturally I wanted to share everything with her. But she never did the same. Even the biggest things she kept for herself. I was hurt when I found out that she had bought an apartment. I read it from her Livejournal! She hadn't even told me that she was looking for one. I felt that she wasn't appreciating our friendship and that I didn't matter for her.

And I was bothered that she never asked me to come over. She visited my place on a regular basis, but I had zero clue where she lived. I didn't want to intrude, so I patiently waited for her invitation. But it never came. At the time she was still living with her parents, so I understood why she rather spend time at my place. But I couldn't understood why she didn't wanted to show me where she lived. I knew that she had a lovely room and nice parents, so I couldn't figure out any reason why she would have not invited me over.

It was all these little things, really. It seemed that she was taking more and more space away from me. She wasn't online anymore, and since our communication was based on instant messaging, I though she didn't want to talk with me anymore. She got a job and she bought the apartment. Her life was changing and I felt that by avoiding me she wanted to tell me that I had no room in it. I could say that we grew apart, except it was only she who was growing.

She kept her distance, but I waited for her to contact me. I thought that if I give her little time, she will be back on her senses and remember how great friends we were. But then she complained on her Livejournal how she doesn't have friends she could go out with. I was insulted. We used to go out and have fun, it was because of her that we stopped doing those things. So how dared she to write those things? She knew I was going to read them too. I wasn't just sorry anymore, I was angry.

We met about six months later. She came to see our mutual friend's play. I started to talk with her and it was really nice. Just like in the good old days. I almost suggested that we should go to Ooster like we used to, and drink tea liked we used to, and smoke like we used to. But she had that arrogant look on her face. Like she couldn't bother less. I knew it was over.

***

This was just my side of the story. V's view is probably very different, but that I will never know. I have made new friends since, but there is no one to replace V. After all these things, after all these years, I still think she's the greatest friend I have ever had. I'm sorry that our friendship had to end.

What I got this year

This is traditional too. My third "what I got this year" list:

- Mop
- Hair dryer
- Towels
- Three Taika mugs (o,4 l) by Iittala
- Taika bowl by Iittala
- Suuri Toivelaulukirja 19 (sheet music)
- Optical mouse
- Random cosmetic products
- Pajama
- Wool yarn
- Pistachios
- Derwent Water Color set
- Two tank tops
- Chocolate!
- Nail clipper
- Socks
- Mug
- Eyes and noses for amigurumis
- Calendar
- Small wooden box
- Gift token to the Body Shop
- Free tickets to movies

I always get a lot of presents, but usually I get things I don't really need. So this year I decided to change the system: I wrote a simple wish list and passed it to my family members. I told them that the things on my wish list are only suggestions and they don't have to get me anything from the list if they don't want to. Of course I was a little worried that my family would find my list inappropriate, but on the other hand I thought it would be helpful for them too. I'm not the easiest person to give presents for. Now I'm really happy that I decided to write a wish list. I got such a great gifts: things I needed (such as the mop and the nail clipper) and things I wanted (for example the Taika mugs and free tickets to movies). I'm totally going to write a wish list for the next Christmas too!

Christmas tree

My sister's kids were visiting, and my aunt asked them to decorate the Christmas tree. But I said they were not allowed. They have their own Christmas tree, and I want to decorate ours. I know it's against Christmas spirit and everything, but I really wanted to decorate the tree by myself.

And I did decorate the tree. My mom had bought some new ornament balls. They were silver and red, but we had some old golden ones too. I used them all, even though I knew my mom would hate it. She's not a fan of Christmas decorations, so she wants to keep things simple. And mixing silver, red and gold is not "simple".



I couldn't get a decent picture of the tree. The lighting was all wrong. But I thought that any picture is better than no picture at all. Our tree is a little bit smaller than usually, and we don't have any fancy ornaments. I also took the traditional "stupid dog in a basket" picture, and this time I can post it too! So let me introduce Lissu, the most stupid dog ever:



I also took some pictures of our gnomes. They're absolutely hideous! And that's why I love them, they're so kitsch. I have no idea where they are from, but they're old.

Good morning!

It's Christmas eve and I just woke up. I was going to sleep really late, but it's impossible to sleep here. The others are making too much noise. They have no manners. Anyway. I realized that I have been neglecting my blog, but I have been too busy with Christmas presents, crocheting, spending time with J.R. and working, so I forgive myself.

But I'm going to make it up to you. So I started to work again. It's the same place, same job. And it feels like I never left there. When I visited my parents last weekend, I met my sister, and she said "who's so crazy that hires you". I'm sorry, sister, but I'm actually really good at my job, and the others appreciate my work too. Last Friday I accidentally bump into our CEO, and even he said that I'm doing a great job. He also asked if I was able to keep working for them, but I said that I can't. I'm studying now.

On Friday the CEO also gave me a bottle of red wine. It's was a firm's Christmas present for it's employees. I felt a little discriminated. They wouldn't give pork to a Muslim, would they? So why they are giving alcohol to a teetotaler? I don't approve alcohol. And now I'm stuck with a bottle of Santa Julia Magna I can't give to anyone, because it would be against my moral. Great...

And on Monday I had an tooth ache. Or actually it started on Saturday, but on Monday it became unbearable. The gum of my lower wisdom tooth was clearly inflamed and I decided to visit a dentist. And without a warning he removed my upper wisdom tooth. He said that the lower wisdom tooth is not having enough space because of the upper wisdom tooth, and that is causing the inflammation. But I'm just one lucky kid, I didn't feel any pain when he removed the tooth, and I didn't feel any pain after the operation either. And I mean nada! My cheek didn't even swell!

Goodbye holiday, welcome extra income

Yesterday I was excited because I thought my Christmas holiday was about to start. But as soon as I got out from my last exam, my ex-boss called me. She told me that they have a really bad situation at work and she was literally begging me to sacrifice my holiday. So instead of sleeping late and crocheting all night, I'm going to work my ass off. But I think it's going to be worth it... since now I'm able to double my Christmas present budget.

Today I went shopping with J.R. and I got almost all the Christmas presents. I still have to figure out what to give to my best friend, to my mom and to J.R. That's going to be hard since I have like zero ideas. Anyway. I love to wrap gifts so Christmas is like heaven. I usually use recycled or handmade materials, and this year was no exception. This is how I wrapped my gifts this Christmas:


I think my gifts will stand out nicely under the Christmas tree.

Come out and play

I normally get very nervous when I'm supposed to give presentations. I don't know why it happens. I don't have anything against performing, and usually I even like it. People have said to me that I'm quite natural when it comes to giving presentations. But that's only when my nervousness works for me.

See, when I'm nervous, I talk a lot. And that makes people think I know what I'm talking about (and usually I do, by the way). It also makes me crack stupid jokes, which is good, especially at school where presentations are typically dull. So when I'm nervous, I might end up giving a dynamic presentation.

But sometimes my nervousness doesn't work for me. Sometimes it doesn't work for me at all. Like today; We had to give a presentation on the future of the Internet. I had my part figured out and I was prepared to perform. I was nervous, but I thought it was a good thing. I don't know what went wrong. I just totally forgot what I was supposed to say. And I had notes! But I guess I wasn't so bad after all. I just wasn't as good as I should have been. Luckily the others don't know what awesome things they missed, it's just me who knows that I sucked.

One team gave us presentation on Linux. I listened carefully to find out were they for or against, it but they didn't have that kind of a view. They mostly talked about its history. I would have wanted to hear more about their personal experiences, but apparently they didn't reallyhave any.

It seems, as far as I know, that I'm the most experienced Linux user in our class. Last year I installed Ubuntu on my old laptop, and for several months I didn't use any other operating system beside it. So yeah, I learned some tricks... But I'm studying Business Information Technology, which means computers and stuff, so there should be other huge nerds too. Where are they hiding? I want them to come out and play with me.

Little Jellyfish amigurumi

I have had too many serious amigurumi failures lately. I should not neglect the yarn weight or pick patterns that are not well-made. Anyway. I finally crocheted something worth showing! Here's my new friend, Jellyfish:


I look cute... but don't touch my marbles.

The pattern was a bit different than what we're used to, but J.R. had no problems translating it to me. And I had no problems crocheting the Jellyfish according to his directions. By the way, when I say that J.R. translates the patterns for me, I don't mean that he translates them from English to Finnish. I don't understand patterns at all, not in any language, so J.R. "codes" them open for me. Here is a sample of the "Little Jellyfish" code:


The jellyfish is drawn by me. I obviously have a hidden talent.

I know that I should probably learn to read the patterns by myself too... but I think they're easier to follow in J.R's way. He tells me when to increase, when to decrease and how many stitches I should end up with. I get confused with words, but there's nothing confusing in numbers. They're so universal.

Spontaneous Ideas Hearts Extrovert

Last week I wrote a report for school. Our team's subject was "the Future of the Internet" and my job was to write about web 2.0, semantic web and some shit about browsers and standardization. And I'm not pleased how it turned out. I could have done better! But my team wasn't very motivated and it made me less motivated too. I had higher goal first but then it eventually lowed to passing the course. I know that I shouldn't have let my team mates to affect me... but I can't help the fact I'm generally lazy.

I remember writing earlier on my blog that I don't like team working. Well, I have changed my mind. I guess Laurea (that's my school) has brainwashed me by its fancy LbD. LbD stands for "learning by developing" and it basically means that we are supposed to learn by doing real things together. They are encouraging us to be authentic, experimental and creative. And that suits me: according to BBC's personality test, I'm an "innovator".

And innovators are "fun-loving, creative, sensitive people who enjoy developing their ideas by discussing them with others". They support the people around them, easily spot opportunities and recognize hidden potential in people. And get excited about new projects. I know it's just a silly test, but I think the result it gave me really sounds like me. (And I would totally like to hear what's your personality type!)

Since I have already babbled so much about school, I guess I can continue with the subject. So, today we had a router exercise at Data Network Architecture course. We had to configure Cisco router and make static and dynamic routings. I have no idea what that means, but I had fun while doing it. We had to use command-line interface, and I've liked that ever since my Ubuntu experiments. Pointing and clicking is just so boring compared to typing and executing commands. And in my opinion Cisco IOS was quite easy to operate and to understand.

By the way, my school year is coming to an end soon: Tomorrow and next Tuesday I have some presentations to give and some opposing to do. No big deal. And next week I have Swedish and Data Network Architecture exams. Then it's pretty much over. I have survived my first academic year at Laurea university of applied sciences. Hooray!

Kids, don't plagiarize!!!

It's unbelievable how some people don't take plagiarism seriously. We had this report we had to write for a school project. It's not easy to write several pages when there are more than one writer, so we agreed that each one of us would write one part of the report separately. And when we meet for the next time, we would put the parts together and continue writing from there.

So we had a meeting on Saturday. One member of our team didn't show up. We weren't surprised, and actually we were quite happy that he decided not to come. But he had wrote his part... but his text didn't really match his skills. We knew he wasn't a good writer, probably due to his foreign background. So we did a little Google search... and found out that at at least one big part of his text was directly copy&pasted from the web. Since we couldn't trust his text anymore, we had to rewrite everything. That meant hours of extra work...

I just wonder how he dared to plagiarize. He would have gotten troubles for all of us. He did the plagiarizing but the teachers would have blamed us for not doing the report together. And I wonder if he thought about his reputation. Of course the word spreads and soon nobody wants to work with him. He's already an unliked team mate because of his laziness and lack of original ideas.

And I feel wrong because I have been spreading the word to some of my school mates. I should have talked to him, not behind his back. But I was so disappointed and angry. We were ready to correct his misspellings and grammar errors, but he didn't give us a chance. He should have said to us that he's having problems and we could have helped him. We can't all be great writers, but we can all be honest.

Anyway. I have wrote a lot for school lately, and I still have plenty to do. But all this writing has reminded me how much I love it. Writing is just the best damn thing ever. It's better than crocheting. And maybe, but just maybe, even better than hanging out with J.R.

And apparently I'm one of the best writers in my class. It's just a shame that I know nothing.

Eyes eyes baby

Today I met my uncle at Kamppi shopping mall. He wanted to give me some money for my birthday, though my birthday was over a month ago. I guess it's better late than never. Anyway. I don't go to Helsinki often. There is no reason. We have everything here at Leppävaara... expect a store selling safety eyes. Since I already had one reason to go to Helsinki, I asked J.R. if he wanted to come along. So we could go to Hobby Point and buy some safety eyes for our amigurumis.

We got home with six pairs of small black eyes, one pair of brown eyes, two pairs of big black eyes and two pairs of green lizard eyes. Now we're not running out of safety eyes soon. We mostly use small black eyes, but I wanted to buy some bigger ones too. Just in case. I also wanted to buy green lizard eyes, simply because they were so pretty. The big eyes cost 0,60€ per pair and small eyes 0.50€ at HobbyPoint.


J.R. is crocheting Queen Anne's lace in the background.

I also bought black watercolor pen by Derwent. I got Derwent Watercolor Pen Set of 36 when I was a kid. I'm still using the very same set because I don't draw often. But years ago my sister used to draw... and she used my black color. It didn't really bother me until I tried to color Tux from J.R's birthday card. A penguin can't be gray! So to make sure that next year J.R's Tux is nothing but black, I bought a new black watercolor pen.


Guess which one is the new pen =)

OMGOSHSHEUPDATED

I have been writing an essay for school. I guess I should have submitted it already, but I just don't know when to stop. I love writing so much. There is always something to add, something to edit, something to delete. I feel that I'm never finished. But I'm going to submit it today. Not because I want to, but because I have to.

My aunt dropped by today. Last weekend she visited my parents at Viiala and my mother sent me some stuff via her. My mom does that often. She had bought us some on-sale yarn. I've been longing for blue yarn as long as we've been crocheting, but we have always bought other colors. Now we have two different shades of blue! I'm so going to crochet sea creatures! The yarn is a little bit thinner than the yarn we usually use so I have to switch to smaller hook. It wont be a problem though.


I wonder if he likes the colors.

The beetle bug in the picture is crocheted by J.R. I tried to crochet a beetle too, but I wasn't so successful. I tried to turn my beetle to a ladybug... but that didn't work either. It ended up in crochet X-files. Anyway. The pattern was charted and written in Japanese. And we suck at both. But if you want to give it a try, go ahead.

And talking about crocheting... J.R. crocheted a scarf for me. I have a thing for scarves and this one is very lovely for the winter. It's really thick and warm. I love it, actually, I love it even more because it's made by J.R. The pattern is from Drop Design Studio and J.R. said the scarf was very easy to crochet.


It's J.R. modeling the scarf. Another prove that he exists.

I got a new teapot too, and a bowl for sugar. I think they're lovely. We have six teapots now, but we hardly ever use them. We do drink a lot of tea, several cups in a day, but we always use our tea maker instead of teapot. It makes better tea.



We also got this thingy to keep the teapot warm. You insert a small candle in it, close the lid and put the teapot on it. And it's not just practical, it's pretty too:



I think we're officially collecting teapots. And it's not good because they take a lot of storage pace. It was better when I was a kid and I collected serviettes. They didn't took much pace and years later my mom used them all for her decoupage flower pots. That's a good collection.

Aapeli, the Curious Creature - free amigurumi pattern

We designed our first amigurumi! I saw a knitted Loch Ness Monster on Etsy and I told J.R. that I want to crochet something similar. And together we created Aapeli. It's not exactly Nessie but darn cute anyway. J.R wrote down the pattern so I could share it on my blog. Thanks, J.R!



Materials
Aran weight yarn
G hook (4mm)
Stuffing
Pipe cleaner (about 7cm)
Safety eyes

Size
Height: 14cm (5.5 inches)

Abbreviations
sc = single crochet
inc = increase, 2 single crochets in 1 stitch
dec = decrease, crochet 2 stitches together
ch = chain

You can find a good tutorial of magic ring from here:
http://www.hookandneedles.com/2008/03/22/amigurumi-tutorial-1/

Notes
You can make different facial expressions to Aapeli by shaping its mouth and ears/antlers, though this may depend on the yarn.

Head & Body:

Starting from the head
6 sc with magic ring
R1: sc around -> 6 stiches
R2: inc around -> 12
R3-R9: sc around x7 ->12
R10: dec three times, sc in the rest of the stitches -> 9

Push the mouth in by using your finger (see the picture below). Sew one or two stitches to secure.
Insert eyes and stuff. (The decreases in rows 10 and 11 form the back of the neck.)

(I wanted to make sure the eyes are nicely positioned, so I crocheted the next two rows, placed the eyes and unraveled the rows to have enough space to attach the washers. You can do the same if you are unsure about the position of the eyes.)



R11: dec twice, sc in the rest of the stitches -> 7
R12: sc 4, inc, inc, sc -> 9
R13-22: sc around x10 -> 9
R23: sc 6, inc 3 -> 12
R24: sc 7, inc 4, sc 1 -> 16
R25: *inc,sc, repeat from * around -> 24
R26: sc around
R27: *inc,sc,sc, repeat from * around -> 32
R28-R32: sc around x5
R33: *dec,sc,sc, repeat from * around -> 24
R34: *dec,sc, repeat from * around -> 18
R35: *dec,sc, repeat from * around -> 12
Stuff
R36: dec around -> 6

Finish off. Cut the yarn and pull through the loop.

Legs (x4):

5 sc with magic ring
R1: inc around -> 10
R2-R5: sc around x4
Cut the yarn leaving long tail for sewing and pull it through the loop.

Big Wings (x2):

ch7
R1: sc in second ch from hook, sc around the starting chain. -> 14
R2-R4: sc around x3
R5: *dec,sc,sc, repeat from * around -> 10
R6: *dec,sc, repeat from * around -> 5
R7: sc around
Cut the yarn leaving long tail for sewing and pull it through the loop.

Small Wings (x2):

ch4
R1: sc in second ch from hook, sc around the starting chain. -> 8
R2-R4: sc around x3
R5: *dec,sc,sc, repeat from * around -> 6
Cut the yarn leaving long tail for sewing and pull it through the loop.

Ears/Antlers (x2):

ch6
Row 1: sc in second ch from hook, sc to the beginning of the chain, ch1, turn
Row 2: sc from the first sc to the end, ch1, turn.
Row 3: sc from the first sc to the end.
Cut the yarn leaving long tail for sewing and pull it through the loop.
Stick a piece of pipe cleaner through the head so that it forms two ears (or antlers) and sew the pieces on it.
Remember to sew them into the head too.



Tail:

ch7 =)

Assembly:

Stuff the legs and sew them under the body.
Sew the big wings to the sides of the body.
Sew the small wings above and over the big wings (see the picture below).
Sew the tail in the back of the body.


Ravelry Download (Registration needed)

Repeat after me: Domain is not God

It seems I can’t avoid metablogging themes... Last week we had a DNS lecture at school. I’m finally starting to understand these things. Anyway. DNS stands for Domain Name System and that led me to think custom domains and blogging.

All the big metablogs preach us that domain is the God. You must have your own domain. I agree and disagree with this claim. I think it is important to have your own domain if you’re creating a brand. It’s like a part of a good product and good service.

But if you blog only because you love self-expressing and writing... Then I think it’s perfectly OK not to have your own domain. Domain is just a line of easily remembered characters pointing to a specific IP address. Since when did that have anything to do with the urge to write?

And I have never thought that a blog without own domain is somehow untrustworthy. I’ve been writing and reading blogs for years and all these different blogging platforms are like my old friends. I think that a blog hosted on Blog*Spot, for example, is as trustworthy as all the other blogs. I just think that the writer of the blog likes that certain blogging platform and is not bothered by the whole domain issue.

And honestly... I don’t give a rat’s ass about your domain. The content and the blog design are the only things that truly matters to me. Domain was just a substitute for a clumsy IP address... It doesn't make the blog any better. I’m not tired of reading blogspot.com in blog domains, I’m sick tired seeing Blogger default templates. Your blog should, first of all, look like your blog. Make some effort, make an outstanding blog design.

"Custom domains are easier to remember." We have heard that explanation before, and it's true. But how often do you have to remember domains? If you’re like me, you support bookmarking. I use Delicious.com to bookmark everything interesting and my browser to bookmark sites I know I’m going to visit on a daily basis.

But to blogs I subscribe.

And that is the main reason why I think blog domains doesn’t matter so much. You find a nice blog, you press subscribe. The next time you want to read that blog, you do that via your RSS reader. You don’t need to memorize hundreds of blog domains, you only have to remember the address of your (web-based) RSS reader. And that's easy.

So, in my opinion, domain names do and don't matter. If it matters to you, get one. If it doesn't, don't let some fancy metablog make you believe otherwise.

I'm perfectly happy with its-about-amoena.blogspot.com, even though it's clumsy and almost impossible to remember. I have an unique design, good content and a huge subscribe button. Fuck the domain. I trust my readers. If they want to read my blog, they subscribe.

Toad Princess amigurumi + Crown pattern

Today I crocheted a Toad Princess. It was just a toad first, but I thought it was too boring. I gave her lips and then I decided she needs a crown too. It was a bit difficult to crochet (because I suck at improvising) so I asked J.R. to crochet it for me. I think he did a great job. And I'm really pleased with my Toad Princess too. She has a little bow and everything. And I learned how to crochet cluster stitches!



So... Kiss me?

The Toad pattern is from Roman Sock, but I crocheted single crochets instead of double crochets. J.R. said that the double crochets made no sense to him and I don't question his directions. And here is the first original pattern by J.R:

Crown Pattern

ch13, turn
Row 1: 1 sc in each of the 12 stitches, ch1, turn
Row 2: * 1 sc in the next 3 stitches, ch1, turn
Row 3: sc2tog, sc, ch1, turn
Row 4: sc2tog, slip stitch in to the third stitch of second row, repeat from * three times
Finish, but don't cut the yarn too short. Use that yarn to sew the ends together and to sew the crown to the head.

Amoena lurves technology... or something

I’ve been a lazy blogger lately. And lazy with everything else too. Right now I should be working on a big school project but I feel like sipping tea and blogging instead.

J.R’s been working at Alternative Party and I've had to spent a lot of time alone. And I have to confess that I suck at it... I have just waited for him to come home. I simply don’t function without him so I have been a lot less productive than usually. And it bothers me a bit since I should have done like million things during this weekend.

Anyway. Yesterday J.R. suggested that I should buy HP Mini-Note since they are selling them with a very low price tomorrow and he's able to queue it for me. And after that he pointed out how I’m the biggest geek in our household since I already have two laptops, a communicator, a fairly new cell phone and I’m planning to get my third laptop when he only has one small laptop and he's happy with it.

But I really don’t think that the amount of gadgets makes you a nerd. Even when you know how to use them and use them a lot. I have covered this subject before and I remember that I came to conclusion that the only thing that makes you a nerd is passion towards everything nerdy.

And I has it.

But I just like to take an advantage of technology. For example I’m currently writing this with my communicator since it allows me to write comfortably on our retro armchair. And the other reason is that since we don't have wlan, I can't surf the web while writing. It sure helps to keep my mind focused on blogging.


Just me, a cup of tea and my communicator. The perfect setting for blogging.

And I use my Nokia 6111 cell phone as a blogging tool too. I don’t really make phone calls (only rarely to my mother) or anything else you’re supposed to do with a phone. My phone is my camera and I take pictures pretty much on a daily basis. I photograph our crochet projects, school stuff, people I’ve met, things I want to blog about... And I know that the pictures I take are a bit LQ since my camera is not super. But the camera function is easy and fast to access and that's the only thing that matters. I don't take pictures to make my blog more artsy. I take pictures to show things and to share information.

And I love my Asus laptop. Yes. It has Vista and all the Vista problems. But it runs FL Studio and Adobe Illustrator, it works and it’s mine. The only down side is that it’s too large and heavy to carry with you just for fun. That’s why I want a mini laptop, so I could take it to school and to Viiala for the shortest visits without breaking my back.

And then there is my first laptop, Acer TravelMate (you can see it in the picture above). It works like shit. It’s like big and heavy, gets hot when you use it and makes an awful noise. But it has an emotional value. So little while ago J.R. installed Debian (though this is not 100% fact, this is just what I recall from our conversations) to it so it would at least boot really fast. And I assume it does now. Anyway. It is going to be placed on our kitchen table so I could IM and blog while we crochet... So it's going to be in use again as soon as we get everything set.

Umm... So I guess that in a way I love technology and I'm not afraid to use it as much as I need it. It makes blogging easier. And my life is blogging so I guess it makes my life easier too. And that's cool. And all nerds are cool, even though that claim has pretty much nothing to do with this post.

Imaginary amnesia

I’ve been inspired by my sister’s (she's got back home from the hospital, by the way) amnesia lately. I started to wonder how would it be if I’d lost my memory now and I would have to learn again who I am. What would I think about myself? Would I like my life?

I guess I would like my home. Our apartment is fairly new and in a very good condition. And we have enough space for both of us. I think I would also like the way our home is decorated. Nothing too fancy but oh so cosy. I would also smile for the extraordinary decoration items that we have many.

And I would definitely like my choice of a boyfriend. I would fall for him all over again and it wouldn't even take long. It didn't matter back then that I didn't knew anything about him and I think it wouldn't matter now either. And I would totally congratulate myself for scoring a younger guy.

My sister couldn’t remember what kind of clothes she used to wore. I wonder if she was happy with her wardrobe once she got to discover it. I’m not sure if I’d be 100% happy with my so called style. It lacks personality. I just wear black tops and blue jeans day after day. But I would love my scarf and pendant earrings collections. That’s for sure.

My family. I would be sorry to realize that I don’t really keep in touch with them. I’ve always said it’s because I live so far away from them and because my sisters treat me like an alien. But I could do more. I could call them once in a while instead of waiting for my mom to call every Sunday.

I would probably be surprised to find out that I’m studying Business Information Technology in Laurea. That’s pretty low. But I guess I would cope with it after a while. I’m not saying that I don’t like my school. I just think that I could have done better. But at least I’m studying something I’m truly interested in and I could be good at. And my school is nice and I have some cool classmates too.

I guess I would be a bit shocked at first to find out how little friends I have. But my shock would vanish quickly after finding out how great all my friends are. Hannes for example is just super, he’s like my gay best friend.

I think that all in all I would be happy with my life. Why wouldn’t I be? I have everything I need. A little while ago I found a list of things I would like to change in my life. I remember writing it like years ago. And I was surprised to find out that I had made all those chances.

Life just seems to find its ways.

EDIT: Hannes wanted me to clear out that he's not gay. He's just like my gay best friend.

Blogging with a communicator

I got a new toy! J.R. said that I can use his old Nokia communicator for blogging purposes. I told him earlier today how I always get the best blogging ideas when I'm at school and unable to blog. I just don't know how to write by hand anymore... Anyway. Of course I have considered buying a smaller laptop (or mini PC to be more precise) but that still wouldn't solve the blogging problem. Working with a laptop at my school doesn't offer any privacy. We use auditoriums and very intimate class rooms. And I'm really uncomfortable with the idea of writing down my thoughts when someone next to me or behind me can read every word. I never let anyone see my unedited text.

But this communicator on the other hand... This has a qwerty keyboard, a decent text editor and a big(ger) screen. And yet this is small so I can take this out whenever I want and write whatever I want without anyone being able to read it. And this is so discreet that I can blog during the boring lectures without the teacher noticing. One blogging problem solved.


I like the fact this communicator has patina. These things shouldn't look brand new anyway.

Every word in this post is written with a communicator (still slowly) and later edited with PC. I think this companionship could actually work. I just need to learn to use this communicator thingy actively.

7 facts about me

I got tagged by Sunnie Fairy! Here are the rules:

1. Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog - some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blog.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

And here are the seven facts about me:

1. I get depressed when it rains. And it doesn't even matter how much it rains or if I have to go outside or not.

2. My favorite food is chicken with peanuts and sliced bananas.

3. I use J.R's Assembly 2007 T-Shirts as nightgowns.

4. I always check the closets when I'm using other people's bathrooms. I'm just so curious.

5. I'm the one wearing the trousers in our household. (And J.R. is OK with that.)

6. I have drank coffee twice since my childhood.

7. My mom calls me every Sunday. And after her call I text message with my friend Ossi who's doing his military service. These are the two things that make my Sundays to feel like Sundays.

OK. Now it's my turn to tag people. I don't even know seven bloggers... I guess I just tag Elina and Pete.

You're tagged.

What's my age again?

I visited my parents again. My godson has his birthday party and I actually took part twice. So maybe next year I can skip his birthday. They are always giving him so noisy toys, they make my head ache. Don't the toy makers think about the parents at all? Or the hearing? Anyway. The cake was decent.

I also visited my big sister who's in a hospital. She's been there over a week now. She had encephalitis but she's so much better now. And she's going to be fine, she just can't remember certain things. It's really weird actually since she seems so normal. She told us that the doctor said she might never remember again the things she had forgotten. But luckily she had only forgotten small things. She remembered us, her family, her boyfriend and all her friends, perfectly well. She remembered a lot about her life in general. But then the little things were a bit lost. For example she remembered having Facebook friends even though she couldn't remember what Facebook was. And she remembered that In Flames used to be her favorite band but when she listened to it, she couldn't recognize the songs. So she was really lucky. There was another girl in the same room with encephalitis and she couldn't even remember where she lived and she had completely forgotten her boyfriend. That's like serious memory loss.

Fairy godmother... in the future maybe

Today is my official birthday. I'm getting old, for real. Soon I'll be like thirty and then I could be dead as well. I'm not so keen on this whole aging thing. Anyway. I'm really happy that I have gotten myself a younger boyfriend. Older boyfriend would keep me only younger-looking, but younger boyfriend will keep me young. Though J.R. is not that much younger and I'm not so much older either. He turned 20 years old earlier this year.

My godson's birthday is on Saturday and his family is having a small party. They have thrown him a birthday party every year, but this is the first time I'm actually going to be there. I guess I have been a very bad godmother. But I hope that in the future I will be the cool aunt who lives in the city and takes them, my godson and my niece, to the zoo and let them live at my place if they want to go to a bigger high school. My own aunt did all that for me, but unlike her, I actually have quite likable personality. So I guess my godson and niece could actually like spending time with me when they're older.

"No colors anymore, I want them to turn black"

My favorite color is black and I wear it on a daily basis. Pretty much all my tops are black; I have black t-shirts, black tank tops, black jerseys, black long-sleeved shirts... Only my jeans are blue. And J.R. likes to wear black too. Even more than I do, I guess, since he's wearing it head to toe. Sometimes I think that wearing black is like some kind of uniform for nerds.

Anyway. On a laundry day our bathroom looks like this:



It looks like a funeral procession of clothes. Depressing.

Amoena's birthday party

Yesterday we celebrated my 22th birthday (my real birthday is not until Wednesday). Ossi was the first guest to come and he wanted to give his present to me right away. He gave me new stuffed animal to put in our refrigerator. Yes. We have stuffed animals on our fridge.


Last Christmas I got a stuffed toy cow from my work and I didn't knew where to put it. My fridge looked empty so I put it in there. And it's been living in our fridge ever since.


And now he can chat with the panda when the door is closed. He's no longer lonely.

I got other presents as well. Hannes gave me a puzzle game in case of we get bored of crocheting. It was a really difficult one, with skyscrapers and a big blue sky. I'm not sure if Hannes is a good friend or not... Julia gave me Irish Coffee set for four, but she said that she thought they would be perfect for glögg too. And I like glögg. And J.R. gave me a book I have been wanting to read.

And we ate some chocolate cake that J.R. had baked the day before. He was really excited about the cake and I think he did a really good job. I'm not an expert on chocolate cakes but it was delicious for sure. He also baked banana cake but that was not as big of a project as the chocolate cake. And I made some feta-olive muffins but I think I put too much salt in them.


My boyfriend cooks and crochets... and bakes chocolate cakes. Are you like envious?

I'm running out of words now. I surely had fun and I think the others were enjoying as well. But since we mostly just goofed around, there is not much to blog about.

Introducing some new amigurumis

Say "hello" to my new amigurumi friend! His name is Bärtil the Bear and I just got him finished. The inspiration came from Imaginary Wardrobe; Riikkael mixed two patterns and I did the same. The body pattern is from Crochetville forum and the head is from Animeko pattern. Riikkael crocheted a cute red hoodie for his bear, but since I'm not that talented, I decided to crochet some autumn accessories instead.

Hmm... I think I did well with the body, but the face could be better. It sucks that I don't have any big plastic doll eyes. I only have small ones and they were way too small for this bear. Plastic eyes would have made the difference. I'm quite happy with the beret too since I crocheted it without a pattern. And I'm not good at improvising, especially when it comes to crocheting.


He looks a bit stiff. Maybe he could relax a bit.


The tail is my own creation. I wanted my bear to have one.


My bear is like me, always wearing a scarf.


I could wear this beret too. Maybe I should crochet one for myself?

J.R. crocheted a hippo. It looks quite small in the picture, but don't get fooled. He's climbing on a very big book. The pattern is from BitterSweet.


This hippo is doing some heavy reading.

Metablogging

Today I was supposed to give a presentation at school about how I got interested in ICT branch but I got sick. I was going to tell that it was blogging that really got me hooked on computers. And it's true. Pretty much everything I have ever done with computers have had something to do with blogging, one way or another. For example I learned CSS only because I wanted to make my blog look unique. And then there is an infinite list of things I wouldn't be even aware of without blogging, things like RSS and SEO. It just blows my mind away.

And one another thing that also blows my mind away is the fact that I have blogged for about six years now. Though I can't remember the exact date when I started to blog, but I remember it was Fall 2002. Doesn't that make me a veteran or something? So I guess it's no wonder I know so much about blogs and blogging.

And I talk a lot about blogging. So much in fact that J.R. is tired of listening to it. But I can't really help it. I love blogging and I love to talk about things I love. I talk a lot about J.R. too. So much in fact that Hannes is tired of listening to it... Anyway.

As I have pointed out, I know a lot about blogging. I know the ingredients you need to create a killer blog. But I'm just not into that. I love to learn all these things about marketing and search engine optimizing and so on, but blogging is just a hobby to me. A very important hobby, but still just a hobby. I take blogging very seriously, but I don't want my blog to be serious. I want to drive my blog, not the other way round.

And my blog evolves with me. For example when I was exploring Ubuntu, I wrote some Ubuntu related articles. Now I'm into crocheting and it shows on my topics too. I even changed the header to match the blog content better. If this was a serious niche blog I wouldn't be able to do so. My blog is a reflection of my current interests. And they vary.

OK, this may be a bit off topic... But I just got home from grocery store and I need to share this with you. I was walking to the store when a man stopped me. And out of the blue he asked if I wore panties. Like what is wrong with him? Seriously. You can't just go asking women if they are wearing underwear! That's not cool. And I'm not even hot or anything. Ugh.

Crochet calendar

J.R. crocheted a fluffy calendar cover for me:


There is a notebook...


... there is a calendar...


... it's unique and it's all mine.

Crochet X-Files

I crocheted a chihuahua. Or a hideous monster. I'm not sure yet. I guess it was a mistake to use pink yarn. A big mistake. And I wasn't so patient when assembling it. I just wanted to get it done because I wasn't pleased with the color. That explains the eyes too. I didn't wanted to waste our good doll eyes for this ugly puppy so I used old buttons instead. Anyway. This thingy was really easy to crochet and I can even see myself crocheting another one if I get better colored yarn some day. The pattern is from Katrina's Crochet Creations.


Please, turn your eyes away. I'm u-g-l-y and I admit it.

Amibunnies!

Today we finished our amigurumi bunnies. I can't remember when we started to crochet them. It was over a week ago, before we visited my parents at Viiala. Anyway. The pattern is from Lion Brand. You have to register to see it. I made the white one. I have no idea what I'm going to crochet next. I think I'm going to try something more challenging.

"You take that apple and..."

I lost my Mac-virginity today. For no apparent reason we had a lecture in a Mac classroom. All the computers in that classrooms were Macs. So I had no other choice than to log on to a Mac. And it was pretty much everything I expected: totally gay. By the way, have I ever mentioned that I'm not a particular fan of Macs or Mac-fags? Well... Now I have.




"Look at me! I'm iMac!" Just how gay is that?


It says "keyboard" in the keyboard, so the Mac-fags can tell it's a keyboard...


Mac-fags are afraid of buttons?

OK. It was not all bad. After a while the mouse started to feel quite good. I didn't liked the way it functioned but I liked the softness of the scroll ball. And... No. That was honestly the only good thing that came to my mind.

And why they don't have Linux classrooms? Anyone?

Learning by doing some other stuff

I was really ill yesterday. First my eyes started to ache and I decided to take a little nap. I slept for few hours and when I woke up I had the most terrible headache. But I took a pill and ate some banana cake that J.R. baked and I started to feel better. Though I'm not sure if it was because of the pill or the delicious cake. Anyway.

J.R. and I spent the last weekend in Viiala. This time we had no particular reason to visit my parents, I just wanted to visit them and J.R. had no better plans either. OK, we had this one reason: my mom wanted to take J.R. to pick mushrooms with her. I had to go with them too, though. My rubber boots were too big and they make my toes ache. I didn't complain much, though.


And now our fridge is filled with trumpet-shaped chanterelles.

And my sister commented my weight. She said that I should watch what I'm eating because I'm getting chubby. She's so polite, isn't she? She's right though, I'm getting heavier. But in my opinion I'm just getting healthier. Couple years ago I was like anorexic. I wasn't eating much and I lost a lot of weight in a short time. It's good that I'm actually eating nowadays and it's only good that my body is taking its natural shape again. I was not born to be thin and it doesn't suit me. My current size is OK and I hope my sister stops makings comments about it.

I thought that I should write something about my school too. I have now studied three weeks in Laurea University of Applied Sciences and I'm still not sure if it's what I really want to study, but it's not bad either. For example we have had some interesting data network architecture lectures. And our school is actually quite nice looking in the inside:



Laurea has this fancy thing called "learning by developing". It means that we are forced to work in groups. A lot. And I'm not a fan of group working so it might become a problem. Our last project was ten page report of the history of the telecommunication. I wrote about smoke signals and homing pigeons and stuff. It was actually quite interesting. And today we gave a short presentation of the subject to the rest of the class. I think our presentation was the best of the bunch. There were better performers but their presentations were too long and too heavy in the details. So I could congratulate myself for doing a good job.

I Love You But I've Chosen ... Amigurumis

On Friday I visited my old school, the school where I used to study dentistry. I thought it was about the time to empty my lockers and give back the keys. It's been almost a year since I quit studying there. But all my stuff was still in place. Now I have my nurse suit here, though I'm not sure what I should do with it. Elina suggested that I should use it for some kinky costume plays but clearly she has not seen the suit. It's definitely not that kind of a nurse suit. I guess I should just sell it.

I also met Julia. She's still studying there even though she used to be more eager to quit than I was. I saw her on the clinic. She was wearing her nurse suit and filling out some papers. And I was sitting there, on the corner of the unit, chatting to her. It felt exactly like in the old days.

And the board was still there! When I started my dental hygienist studies, I noticed that there was a white board in a corner of one elevator. I expected it to disappear but it didn't. After two years it was still there. And then once I talked with some older students and they said that the board had been there like forever. And on Friday I used the same elevator again, and the board was still there.


After fours years the board is still there.

On Friday we crocheted again. I crocheted a turtle. I think it's the cutest thing I've crocheted so far, and it's like amigurumi cute. The pattern is from here but I modified it a bit with J.R.






And J.R. crocheted an elephant. He said that the pattern was very hard to follow so I wouldn't recommend it for the beginners. In my opinion it turned out pretty cute anyway.




Our crocheting playlist was a bit different this time. Usually we have just sampled some random singer-songwriters on Last.fm and downloaded whatever suited the mood. But this time we went to library and borrowed actual CD's. And all of our choices were based entirely on title names or cover arts. So we had no clue how the bands and artist would actually sound like.

Here is the full soundtrack:

Comfort of strangers / Beth Orton
Shocking Pinks / Shocking Pinks
I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness / I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness
Fusion / Eilera
Smoke / White Williams
Soft commands / Ken Stringfellow
From the corner to the block / Galactic
You're under arrest / Miles Davis
New boots and panties!! / Ian Dury
Music for elevators / Anthony Stewart Head & George Sarah

Not exactly Mickey Mouse but pretty cute anyway

I know you're probably all fed up with my crochet posts. But you know what? I won't let that bother me. This is a blog about me and I'm into crocheting right now. So I will post as many crochet related post as I want to. I may even turn this to a craft blog! Nobody reads my blog anyway!

So... Anyway. Today I used plastic doll eyes for the first time. I bought them from Hobby Point and they cost like 0,50€ per pair. They had a good selection but I only wanted to buy tiny black ones. I like simplicity. The mouse I crocheted today was also very simple. The pattern is from Crochetville.



Cheese?