The book meme, finally

In the spirit of Christmas, I will finally answer the book meme Dan tagged me to do. I know, I know, you have all been holding your breath until now.

1. One book that changed your life: Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Weis-Hickman. The first fantasy book I read, and the beginning of many.

2. One book you have read more than once: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban takes the lead, I presume.

3. One book you would want on a desert island: Takaisin Muumilaaksoon (Back to Moomin Valley) - a collection of Moomin books. This doesn't have all of the books, as there are two collected volumes. But as long as I have Taikurin hattu ("Finn Family Moomintroll" - the original name is actually "The Magician's hat") and Muumipapan villi nuoruus ("The Exploits of Moominpappa"), I'm okay.

4. One book that made you laugh: Naiv. Super. by Erlend Loe. Gods, I can't get over how funny it is.

5. One book that made you cry: Test of the Twins by Weis-Hickman. First experience of the death of a loved fictional character.

6. One book you wish had been written: Mine.

7. One book you wish had never had been written: Don't feel that strongly about any book I've read. Can't really say for the ones I haven't.

8. One book you are currently reading: Mosaiikkilintu by Ulla Viertola. My aunt's first novel, published last autumn. It's a fantasy book, for about 10-12 year olds. :)

9. One book you have been meaning to read: Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco. Borrowed it once from the library, read the first page. Had other things to read, and so it goes...

10. Now tag five people: Not going to. Everyone is tagged already anyway. Tag yourself if you want to.

I'm off to the holidays - spending 4 hours in the train tomorrow and then it's Christmas. So Merry Christmas to everyone! (If you didn't know, Finns celebrate Christmas on Christmas eve, 24th's the day. Santa comes during the evening and says hello, instead of sneaking about at night. :D )

Of missed emails, work, Kalevala kung fu movies and stuff

Hi everyone!

I thought I should finally make my return. Not the least of the reasons for this is that Vishal, I think I just accidentally deleted a Happy Birthday mail from you, since Yahoo thought it to be spam and had placed it in my bulk folder. So I never got to read it, but thanks and feel free to send the mail again or just comment here if you feel like repeating yourself. I had a fun birthday, Juri made me gingerbread animals and other stuff, and I got cake at work.

Getting the internet was actually quite easy. The same place that provides our TV connection also sells internet connections. So after buying the connection we just plugged the net cable in along the tv cable and voila, instant internet access. The reason I haven't been writing here is work - I sit at the computer all day there and don't feel like doing it at home, too. I also developed a neck problem thanks to the sitting, but now it seems to be subsiding, thank gods.

So what have I been up to? Going to work, playing Kingdom Hearts 2 (haven't finished it yet, so no spoilers, please). Not that much. Here's how I get to work: I wake up at seven, leave to work at half past eight or so. First I take the bus (the stop is in front of our house) to the subway station, then I take the subway to the city and walk to my work place where I arrive a little before nine.

My favorite part of going to work is when the subway travels over the sea, when it goes over two straits. Or it was my favorite part when two weeks ago I still could see anything. Thanks to the Finnish winter, now it's dark when I go to work and dark when I come home.

It also snowed the first of November, but it melted away and now it's just rainy and dark. Snow would help some since it would reflect light and so everything wouldn't be so dark and black. (Try to tell us Finns that there is no such thing as global warming when winters have steadily come with less snow and minus degrees around here. When I was small we got 20 cm of snow that stayed in November, when now the snow arrives around Christmas, if even then.)

What else should I ramble on about? Oh, I went to see the Finnish movie Jadesoturi (Jade Warrior) in the theaters. It was said to mix Kalevala myths with Chinese myths and kung fu movies. Actually it had very little Kalevala in it, except for the inclusion of Sampo (Wikipedia: a magical artifact that brought good fortune to its holder). It had some kung fu style fighting, and a lot of Finnish and Chinese people speaking Chinese. Weird watching a Finnish movie with subtitles, but hey, we Finnish are used to our subtitles. The movie was the first Chinese-Finnish co-production, and the first Finnish movie to get a theatrical release in China.

The movie was actually a decent movie. Nothing that special, but I didn't once feel bored watching it. A two-and-a-half-to-three-star movie. The story's about this modern day Finnish smith who is the reincarnation of this mythical ancient Chinese warrior. It actually has two storylines, the modern day one where the Sampo is found again and the ancient one where it's gradually revealed what happened in the past with the Sampo. My favorite character in the movie was played by Markku Peltola, who I know nothing about except that he's been in a few Kaurismäki movies. (It was also fun watching him fight.)

Okay, that's about it of me rambling. I have one question: How many of you also have Livejournal accounts? I've been thinking about switching my blogging there and making at least some of the posts 'friends only', so you'd have to have an account to see my posts. Sound good or stupid?

(Oh, and I didn't take part in Nanowrimo, as you might have guessed, but would love to read your stuff.)

Forgot to say: The new show Heroes soooooo rules my world.

Moving

Hi everyone!

Since I'm such an avid blogger, I have completely neglected to mention that I got a job about a month ago. I'm a graphic designer in a mobile phone software/content producer company. I haven't started yet, 'cause the work place is in Helsinki (the capital).

I'm moving this Friday (Friday the 13th!), and that means I won't have the internet starting from then. It takes a while to get an internet connection in the new place, so I might be absent for about a month or so. Of course I will pop by now and then, from work or somewhere else, but I won't have the internet at home.

So, bye bye for now! I'll let you know how work is later.

It's Uncanny!

New website!

Or actually it is the same old website, just up in new place. So go visit death-teddy.net for all your Maija needs. Also now you can go visit Red Riding Hood's little business, the office of the Hood Girls (a.k.a. my graduation project that I never linked to).

I promise I will answer Dan's meme the next time I write. Also, I've been wondering what to do with my LJ? I have one, you know. Perhaps a sketch or writing journal or something. But I never update even this place, so would I be any different with two blogs? Now I just use the account for following other people's posts.

(This vanilla-rhubarb yoghurt is good!)

Pictures of me

I thought I'd post some pictures of me because... you know, there has never been any. Also I'm puzzled by the fact that I always seem to have my eyes closed and manage to look somehow pleased with myself in a stately manner in all pictures.

Proof (from our graduation party with our class):
1
2
3

The curse is broken! I am having fun:
Laughing and dancing, skipping and jumping.

But then my coolness is jeopardized:
Yes, it's karaoke.

And because I want to, here are some pictures of me from a pirate costume party from last fall. I'm dressed as a pirate flag.
Me posing (oh no, the cleavage-ness).
And me killing a friend of mine while she is killing the photographer.

And finally the two/three years old picture of me from a photography class. I'll show it last so that I can pretend I always look like that and so that you will forget the bit with the karaoke.
Studio

There, I think that's enough egoism for a few years. Now you know what I look like. Don't expect new photos of me anytime soon. I will probably just have my eyes closed in them.

Website Trouble

Help me! What will I name my new domain when I get one? All suggestions welcome, although some may be laughed at. :D

So, my website is down now. I had it on a friend's server, and the server broke down, so there. It's annoying because I had just finished the fiction site I was going to add there, and I was about to post an address to that graduation project of mine here on the blog. But now I have to hunt for a web space provider and wait until I have money to buy the domain/space.

I got the grades for the graduation project - I got 4 out of 5 from both the written and the artistic part. I'm pretty disappointed about the 4 in written, since I worked really, really hard on it and I know I'm a good writer. The teachers didn't have anything bad to say about it but then they gave me 4 because the subject (Red Riding Hood tales) was quite far away from our studies (Digital Arts). But I'm very happy of the four in artistic!

Anyway, I haven't really done anything, I've just taken it easy and read comics (Bone, Akira (up to 8), V for Vendetta, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen 1). :P

Wtf did you smoke, Kiba?

The end of Wolf's Rain is like... on crack. What were the creators on? Or is my brain too limited to understand their great minds?

Edit: Ok, I do understand some of it (just re-watched it when I wasn't dead-tired). It's just that when I think that I understand all of it, something pops to my head and makes me think that "No, I've got it all wrong"...

Numfar, do the dance of joy!

The graduation work is done! I just need to write a 5 page essay for a course and get the written part of the thesis between covers and delivered to the proper place, and I'm done with this school!

Head exploding thesis work

Working on my thesis. I have 4 weeks to get it done if I want to graduate this year. Wish that my head doesn't explode. Talk to you later.

Vishal bugs me!

Ha! I will not give in to your bugging, Vishal! Oh, wait, damn...


...


Christmas went well. ^_~