Note to self

It's hard to google for Firefox beta if you just uninstalled your only browser. Be more logical next time.

Splitting hairs

I decided that I'd let my aunt to have her way. That I would let someone professional to cut my hair just the way she wants: a lot shorter. I just want her to shut up. I understand her concern but at the same time it hurts me that she doesn't respect my opinion at all. It shouldn't be such a big thing. It's just my hair, right? I don't know why she takes it so personally.

But after that decision I went to a bathroom. There is a huge mirror and somehow I found myself standing in front of it. My hair open, just the way I always keep it. I tried to imagine it shorter, with layers and bangs and everything. I really used the best of my imagination. And you know what? What I saw in my mind kinda freaked me out.

I realized that my hair is not just hair. It's a part of my personality. If I change my hair that dramatically, I would end up changing everything else in my appearance too to make things match. And then it wouldn't be me anymore.

So no. I'm sorry. My hair stays just the way it is. End of story.

Sometimes I go girly

I'm not sure if this is really newsworthy, but I'm wearing a skirt. It all started quite innocently: First I found myself listening to a cute music, then I started to watch chic flicks and now I guess I have even started to dress like a girl. At least for a day. Anyway. Since no one is seeing this miracle I decided to post a picture of it:


My woollen tights itch like hell. Seriously.

Getting back on track

I have completely lost my blogging routine. And it sucks. But now that I have acknowledged the problem I can start solving it. So here is what I'm going to do:

1. I start to sleep more at night so I don't have to spend all day napping. If possible I try not to nap at all. And if I do, I try to keep it reasonable.
   
2. I start to blog off line. No excuses.
3. I write at least 20 minutes every day. No excuses.
4. I try to post at least three times a week. The partition will be this: 2 posts of egocentric babble, 1 post of something useful.
   
5. I start to read English literature while commuting. I will do this to improve my vocabulary, but hopefully to learn some grammar too.
6. I start to read CopyBlogger, ProBlogger, Daily Blog Tips,and Blogging Pro with more thought instead of just browsing through the titles on Google Reader. I will also pay more attention to Daily Writing tips.

Of course none of this is written on a stone but it's still good to have a solid plan written down.

Happy Birthday

Today is J.R's birthday but since he's doing his military service and is therefore unavailable during weeks, I gave him his gift yesterday. And that leads to a thing you probably didn't knew about me: I love to give birthday presents. It's not only because I like to give presents, but because I really love to wrap them.

Gift wrapping has been my hobby for about three years now. It all started on one Christmas when I was reading a newspaper and thought that some of the ads could make an outstanding gift wrap. I've always been a fan of recycling so I decided to give it a try. And to my surprise those gifts turned out really nice when I finished them with paper strings.

It's easy to make an extraordinary gift wrap, so I wonder why so many go for boring printed wrap papers and cheap plastic ribbons instead. You only need these three things to success:

1. Handmade paper. It's not easy to get for free, but if you keep your eyes open you will eventually end up with a nice collection like I do.
2. Paper string: It's cheap, so go get some. And have a little practice to make a nice bow. It doesn't behave like a plastic ribbon so it can be a bit frustrating at first.
3. Some cheap paper that looks like recycled: I personally like white see-trough paper you get when you buy something fragile. Remember to get loads of this when you visit Ikea! I normally wrap the gift with some heavy print first, and then use one layer of this, so the the print sheers through very nicely.

I was a bit out of material when I wrapper the gift for J.R. but I think I did OK anyway. I wrinkled some brown paper (originally from flower shop) to get some texture. Because it was so thin I used some Christmas wrapping paper under it, but I turned it upside down first. The paper ribbon is something very cheap from Tiimari, but I think it works with this look.


Not so much blingbling since this was for a boy.

I also made the Birthday card myself, but I don't have picture of the finished card. But I do have some pictures I took while the process:



I'm not an artist so I like to trace pictures and then to modify them. In this case I used only the ribbon and Tux the penguin. I tried to make Tux to look friendly, but I think it still looks a bit "arrogant" to me. I should have modified the eyes to be more rounded.


Yep. My friend is super old.

This is how the picture turned out. If you click to enlarge you probably wonder if I draw it or paint it. But I did both. When I was a kid I got these super cool Derwent Watercolour Pencils you can first draw with and then wet the drawing with a small brush to make it look like painting:


It's funny how I still use them. It's been like ten years since I got them. Unfortunately I lack the color black, and that's why my Tux was more greyish than black.

Note to self

When you waste a day there's nothing you can do to get it back. Do something useful next time. And don't go to the grocery when it's closing. You don't love queuing.

How I use Wikipedia to find cool bands

One of my favorite Wulffmorgenthaler moments:

"Contrary to popular belief, none of the 2,000,900 articles on Wikipedia are written by users, but by one extremely dedicated squirrel"

I hate to admit but I'm actually quite new to Wikipedia. Of course I have known it for years, but it was only like months back when I started to use it more actively. It's indeed a great source of information, but to my surprise I started to use it as a new way to find cool bands.

For example if I feel like exploring some doom metal bands I go to Google and type:



Then I just open my Wikipedia list and start to click quite randomly whatever sounds cool. But before I bother to download anything, I do at least these three things:

1. I recheck the genres to make sure that there's no(t much) gothic shit included.

2. I read trough the short introductory and quickly glance through the rest.

3. I go to the discography section to see how many albums the band has. If there are only few I might actually download the whole discography, if there are more than three I go picky. But I always take whole albums so I don't have to bother getting them later if I end up digging that band. It's a lot easier to hit delete if it's the opposite.

The timeless Peach Mango Tea

I wrote earlier that my aunt gave me some tea. She knows how much I love to drink tea and how I like to have a good variety of them. By the way, it's quite awesome that so many of my friends are eager tea drinkers. Like who needs coffee?

So my aunt gave me some tea. And as J.R. quickly noticed, the labelling was quite confusing. The package itself screams "NEW". You see, on the corner, blue background, yellow text. You simply can't miss it.



But on the top of the package...



...there is a sticker saying "poistuva tuote". I don't know what´s the direct translation, but it gives you the solid idea that the product is so old that they're not even producing it anymore. I'm not sure if it's true but that's definitely how it sounds.

Anyway. That Peach Mango Tea has been around like forever. I remember that I drank it for the first time like five years ago. It used to be one of my favourites back then. But doesn't calling it "new" after all these years like harm their credibility? How long can they claim something as a new product? Seriously?

New Design

I hope you don't hate this.

From CSS to XHTML

Once again I have nothing to do at work. But I have spent my time wisely.

As you all know, I have been working on a new design for my blog. I guess it was back in October when I first announced it was coming. And ever since I have tried several designs but none of them really suited my blog the way I wanted. But with this current design I have a strong feeling that "this is it". It's different, but not dramatically, and it's very simple and nerdy in a girly way.

But to keep myself extra busy with it, I decided it's time to do Blogger layouts. So today I have been converting my new design from CSS template to XHTML layout. It's been quite easy to do so far, but I have to admit that I'm not so keen on widgets. They make it so WYSIWYG, and since I know how to code things manually I can't stand the idea that something happens simply by clicking a button. I feel as I'm being totally underestimated here! Give me the power!

...But I also have to admit that those widgets are beautiful. They offer a way more functionality and usability than was ever possible with CSS templates. If you're familiar with Blogger blogs with XHTML layouts, you probably know exactly what I'm talking about. But hell, I'm going to miss CSS.

Song for the Sunday

I almost forgot. This is the first piece of shit I made with FL Studio like weeks ago:

Amoena - Sweet Dreams Space Dreams

I know it's like really sucky. But according to Hannes it won't kill your ears. Anyway. I was just trying out how FL Studio works, like how to put things together. And this is the outcome of my random experiments. Half of this so called song is by me, and the other half is just me taking advantage of FL Studio defaults. I guess it's easy for you to hear what is by me and what is not.

Socially active but blogging crappy posts

I have reached a point where I can no longer call myself as a nolife. This is strange and I never saw this one coming. I thought I was doomed. Anyway. I used to convince myself that I don't need friends because I didn't really have any. But I always felt like this unexplained void in me, and I did noticed that every time I actually spend time with someone I felt a lot closer to sanity. It's like in that movie Just Like Heaven: "All I know is when I'm not with you, it's like I don't... exist." And now that I have friends I surely feel like existing.

So on Friday O. came by. Though I think it's time to take him out of the closet and call him Ossi. It's easier for me to use real names instead of initials. Though I will still call J.R. as J.R. because that's sounds cool and J.J. as J.J. because he's afraid someone could recognize him. Anyway. We didn't do anything extra ordinary, which from my point of view is like the best thing ever. I really like to stay home just hanging. And Ossi's like a master of hanging out. Ossi's also a master of handicrafts because he made this thing for my Nokia 6111:



By the way, I'm not showing off my laptop on purpose. It's just that there is a lamp above it and my camera phone requires a lot of light to take decent pictures. Ossi also brought Forest Fruit loose tea with him. It's like in the middle of the picture.


I know. My tea closet is a bit crowded. But I'm attenting TA meetings (for tea drinkers anonymous).

On Saturday I was even more socially active. Like a week ago I made plans with J.R. that we'd go to movies this Saturday. I had these Finnkino gift tokens I wanted to use. And since I knew was going to Helsinki anyway, I contacted my aunt who was storing some stuff for me if I could get those at the same time. But instead of just making some quick date she invited us over a dinner. So the plan extended from a movie to a dinner and a movie.

My aunt is not a nice person, but at least she's a decent cook. She made us chicken with chevre cheese and wokked vegetables. Of course the dinner included also salad, bread and rice too. It was quite luxury for me since I normally eat like... sandwiches. Before we went there I was about to say that my aunt is so going to give me her regular speech about my hair. But then I thought she wouldn't dare because of J.R. I was wrong. She totally dared.

My aunt likes to say nasty things about my hair. Sometimes she's unbelievably frank. Like she had no boundaries or whatsoever. Anyway. Last time I saw her like two days ago she said that my hair is just plain ugly and that I should have at least half cut off. I rarely comment back since I know it's useless. She wants my hair to be all shiny and sleek. And I want it to be just the way it is now. Though it could grow even longer and be even more messier.

And I wrote that in November 2007. But she have said those same things so many times before that it doesn't even bother me anymore. It's like a really good joke she doesn't get. Anyway. She's not all rotten tough. She gave me the last Harry Potter book in Finnish. It just got out so it's a big thing. I have already read it in English and I didn't like it so much. Maybe I change my mind after reading it in Finnish. Or not.


Yes. Harry Potter has a huge nose. And you know what they say about men with big noses. Hmhmp.

I can't believe how crappy this post turned out even though I spent eight (!!) hours to write this. But hey, enjoy the pictures!

Bored. And bothering.

I have done nothing all day. My job is here is a bit twisted. When you have something to do, you have a lot to do. And then there is the opposite: absolutely nothing to do. But I keep on checking the situation by walking downstairs every 30-40 minutes. Though it makes me feel really stupid. I just walk there and turn right back. Walk there and turn right back. Walk there and turn right back. Anyway.

So today, at work, I have been reading stuff about jQuery. It's sounds like fun and I guess I should give it a try. But the "problem" is that I'm way too lazy to make any experiments with something I don't actually need. Like, why would I need jQuery if I'm only blogging and making Blogger templates based on CSS? By the way, I should really consider switching to Blogger layouts since then I would have a good reason to do some XHTML and to try out all those cool Blogger hacks I've bumbed into.

Hmm... Should I know like some javascript before jQuery? I mean... I skipped HTML and went straight to CSS. Could I do the same with this? This is unbelievable how out of the scene I am nowadays. I guess I should have stick at school after all. I would be such a nerd by now. Though then I would also be poor, miserable and lacking three friends. Hmph.

Amoena discovers theDailyPlate.com. Unfortunately.

Ever since I switched to Ubuntu I have also been a subscribed reader of UbuntuHQ. It's kind of a blog that collects Ubuntu related articles. Anyway. I don't normally read it so carefully, but this title totally got my attention:"Open source makes a healthy site for healthy eaters". And that's how I learned about theDailyPlate.com.

TDP helps people keep track of their eating habits by providing nutritional information on thousands of different kinds of food, and provides the calories per hour burned by doing various kinds of exercise. Registered users can create a profile that saves the information they have logged and creates formatted reports to track weight loss and gain or body measurements. (from Linux.com, click the first link to read more)

Of course I registered instantly. And now I know that I shouldn't have. When I wrote here that I'm not a "skanky anorexic bitch" I was lying a little. I'm not skanky, and I'm not anorexic. But for the last two years I have been playing with food in a way that is not exactly healthy.

And I blame Aleksi for this. I was completely happy with my weight. OK, I probably wasn't but I never thought that I should actually loose some. Until one day after a nice salad Aleksi basically said that I have got fat and that I should eat more salads. And instead of smacking him I decided he was right and I should do something about it. And I didn't eat for months. And I lost eight kilograms. And I was underweight. And extremely miserable even though I loved when people started to notice my weight loss.

I have started to eat since, obviously, because I still exist. But I only got half of the lost weight back. Now that I have seen the dark side, I don't want to go back to the state I now call "chubby". So I struggle to keep my weight low enough. And it means that I still see food as an enemy, that I still skip meals, I still fast. But I'm not obsessed. It's not controlling my life. I think myself as an unhealthy eater, not sick in any way.

I registered to TDP so it could help me to eat more healthier. That it could help me to eat without feeling guilty. But it turned out to be the opposite. I have been registered only for like three days and I have already started to eat less and less. And I'm way too excited over the fact that I have lost weight because of it. I have even found myself thinking how low I could get my weight this way, simply by not eating so much. And even I know it's not OK.

I don't know what to do. I really like the idea of TDP and I don't feel like letting it go. I wonder if I could force myself to eat all the 1,576 calories a day... It sounds a lot even though with that calorie intake I should still be loosing two pounds per week (according to TDP). But I have cracked my metabolism and I know that with 1,576 calories my weight stays the same.

Anyway.

If you're planning to loose some weight, then try out theDailyPlate.com. It's free and very easy to use. But if you're like me, STAY AWAY FROM IT.

Something good about IE6

I'm not sure how smart it was to come to work today even though I didn't have any fever on Sunday. I don't feel so sick but I'm not feeling perfectly fine either, and I look really crappy. I look exactly like if I have been sick for two days and then crawled to work.

Anyway. I'm quite happy that they have IE6 here. Yeah, it's one piece of shit, totally pain in the ass, and if I could choose, it would burn in hell. But there are people, just like me right now, who are still forced to use it. But having IE6 here means that I can easily detect all IE6 bugs in my future blog design and fix them as easily. And I don't have to have any Windows trash at home.