Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Noora's LiveJournal:

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Saturday, January 24th, 2009
9:42 pm	The shambling, lurching thing rises from the unnamed pit! Oh. Yeah. Been a while, I can see - RL has been quite interesting for me for the last what, one and a half year? My, does the time fly... Well, the progress with my thesis has been slow and occasionally seemed more asymptotic than anything, but I've talked with my instructors and there is mostly the fine-tuning and "let's move this chapter here and this here and you'll have to read it all carefully and try to find where the explanations for terms and methods have gone wonky because they are out of order now" which is so not my thing. I vastly preferred the field work and the preparation of the samples, thankyouverymuch. I don't think I'm cut out to be a researcher, but the other work options seem even less interesting since I don't want to be married to my job. I've already got this re-enactment hobby I'm practically married to already, and any job in the industry and business world is not very fascinating. In fact I'm not properly interested even in writing the thesis - it's something I want to be done with, not something I want to DO. And as for the what I have been doing because I want to, not because it's sensible... after the last entry I've learned to fight reasonably well, been to several iron age and medieval markets, acquired period clothing for five persons and working on more, ordered a polish medieval handgun that'll be shipped as soon as I get the permit (and boy was that a scare, they were going to ship it before I was in the clear with the paperwork but thankfully they send a "your order has been shipped" e-mail before they send the actual package, thank whatever gods), got into the Cannon Sisterhood of Fat Catherine (gender, not sex exclusive but well, I do ID as female more than male), learned to use a drop spindle, made shoes, started making the layout for the group's paper, got myself to organize an iron age trek next summer (like there were any free weekends to begin with) and generally insinuated myself into the posse. Talk about busy. And it's incredibly fun to detach from the complexities of the modern world, even if it is just for a moment and only for pretend... but still, distilled awesomeness. Ah, speaking of distilled... I've also taught myself to brew mead. Thanks to the trip to Poland and everyone literally hoarding honey mead, I figured it couldn't be that hard... and now I have two batches of rowan berry mead sitting in the cold cupboard under the window and two (my first orders! yay!) burping happily away in the kitchen. Although when I last checked only one was burping, for some reason the other hadn't started at all, and it was the one with actual wine yeast too... chucked in some regular bread yeast to see if it gets it started, and if it will I'll have hell of a headache trying to figure out what to do with it next. This baby, although with lemons instead of oranges, has always turned out great for me. The first batch ever even made it to the alcohol content of whopping 18%. Haven't been able to duplicate it though, my meads are generally in the 12-15% bracket. http://www.gotmead.com/index.php?option=com_rapidrecipe&page=viewrecipe&recipe_id=118&Itemid=459 But let me tell you, I really don't have to worry about what to give people for housewarming and birthday gifts anymore. I'm the official mead master of the Greywolves, yarr. Current Mood: chipper (Comment on this)
Friday, November 2nd, 2007
11:10 pm	Back to uni Time to update, for chance. A lot of things are changing, including squeezing my last basic courses into this last teaching period (English and Swedish, both literary and oral courses of each), starting to get thin sections prepared for my diploma work so that I can pick it up officially when the basic courses are done, and finding some new hobbies. Why must everything happen at once? Gaah. I will probably be updating here as sporadically as earlier, since the said diploma work, while being of interesting subject, comes with a deadline. Eep. Anyway, I have had a little breather for myself in between the summer work and this last period, and have joined the Greywolves (Harmaasudet) who do live steel fighting and LARPs. (The other people do rattan fighting, and hello? I'm average height, thin, and have slow reflexes. Like hell I want to be involved in a full contact combat.) They are a large society and do a lot of different things besides the prancing around with swords - I got a spark to do tablet weaving after seeing some of their work. The other group that caught my interest was the Helsinki University's science fiction club. Library *and* getting drunk accompanied by interesting people and discussion? Count me in. Being that I haven't yet started with the thin sections for my diploma work and I didn't have that many courses in the last period I've also read a great deal more than usually. I've also had the RP bug somewhat fierce lately, with some new (and old) characters poking around in my brain. Sadly, no games with openings for them have shown up yet. I'm afraid I'll be too busy to look for them come next year and spring, but living in hope. Also, a new icon. The picture came my way by accident and it was just too good to pass up on. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 16th, 2007
12:06 pm	Still alive Well, that was this spring's studies. Seems like I'll pass statics and work psychology, got a good grade on surface phenomena, likely a 3 on the bigass seminar course, and maybe I could get my summer boss/ lecturer to finally mark the geomathematics course marked for me... And I went to Prague for 3 days with a friend and to Nepal for 8 days with my folks, who have this thing with trekking holidays - not that I'm complaining. It was an awesome trip and I'm hoping to get some photos up soon. That's hopefully not soon in geological terms. ( Also, a music meme ) Current Mood: happy (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, February 18th, 2007
11:38 am	Willfull retardation I go to Cuteoverload for the pictures. Pretty pretty pictures of cute fuzzy animals - what betted way to get the morning sugar dose. But what the hell is wrong with the people who insist on spelling everything like they were translitterizing the speech of a retarded kawaii cat girl? In about every caption you get idiocies like "kitteh", "bebeh", "feets", "loff" "soooo comfortuhbuls" - and that's only the first half of the front page, because my English language ear is beginning to bleed. What's the deal with some people's incapability to use their native language to describe cuteness without being reduced to baby-babbling goobrains? Argh! I wish I could get cuteoverload without the eyetwitch-inducing captions. Current Mood: annoyed (Comment on this)
Thursday, January 11th, 2007
10:42 pm	You scored as alternative. You're partially respected for being an individual in a conformist world yet others take you as a radical. You have no place in society because you choose not to belong there - you're the luckiest of them all, even if your parents are completely ashamed of you. Just don't take drugs ok? </td> alternative 79% Middle Class 38% Lower Class 33% Upper middle Class 33% Luxurious Upper Class 21% What Social Status are you? created with QuizFarm.com Hah. About right about that. Been feeling a tad cranky and bristling lately, maybe I should just get a punching bag or start kickboxing or something similar to get the steam out of my system. We got snow for chance, so I'm planning to do another long walk tomorrow. The benefits of exam period - no lectures. Googigoodness. Current Music: Rammstein - Spieluhr (Comment on this)
Friday, January 5th, 2007
12:48 am	Peek-a-boo Started a journal in Finnish as harmaa_rakka, since I feel a bit stupid writing in one place on two languages. (Comment on this)
Monday, January 1st, 2007
9:31 pm	Reflections That much for the old year and New Year's celebration. Hopefully the new year will be good - on the good side, I have my wonderful, beloved SO and things seem to be going fine. On the bad side, depression is acting up again. I think I'll try me a brigt light lamp and see if it'll work, and otherwise see if I can push things along... but a lot of things are feeling a bit off at the moment. I itch to dump most of the things here, quit studies and move somewhere else. But I know I should be rational and finish the tech uni now, it's not like I have a huge amount of courses left... it's just this stupid, irrational, persuasive thought of dropping it all and starting again somewhere else. It would be so great. I'm starting to think that in addition to not being a "pack" type of person I'm not a settler. A lot of people we know are busily rolling towards middle class well off families with or without kids (at least in the future) and it's somewhat scary. I want to do my own thing, work enough to get by and still have time for myself and my relationships, and not live in a place I'm shackled to with a housing loan. If I didn't know entrepreneurism in the handwork field was a damn hard and time-taking career choice, I'd drop school and get an artesan schooling. I'm wanting to dump old things, but also would like to get some new things of the electronical persuasion. It's annoying to find the desire for stuff in myself. My cell phone broke, but I have a perfectly usable one - only it's more than 10 years old and sort of big. I can justify getting a new one, as I can justify getting a better digital camera, but I still don't feel comfortable with buying new stuff. That sort of thing isn't essential, after all. But I also blow money on other non-essential stuff that lifts my spirits, like good food and fireworks.I could make the decision not to buy a new phone. A new pillow, yes, because I'd like to wake up without my head and neck hurting for once, but a new phone... not really a necessity. Merely something to make things a bit more convenient. Damn consumerism. Current Mood: thoughtful (Comment on this)
Friday, December 8th, 2006
2:42 pm	Whee Firstly: yay! The cabochon course rocked, made some nice pieces: From left, clockwise: Vuosaari marble, some fun metamorphic rock from Peltsan (or somewhere along the Kungsleden in northern Norway), Kittilä chrome marble (tradename Lappia Green) and plain old feldspar, albeit a very nice dark red piece. And a close-up on the heart. It was pretty difficult to make, even though the stone was roughly heart-shaped as I found it - it's difficult to get concave shapes out with a grindstone. All in all, I'm very happy with how it came out - the pearl-like light effect is a result of the internal reflection in the lamellae of the feldspar. Beginner's luck - I certainly didn't know it could shine like that. The picture is crappy, but you can see the silvery shine inside the stone. Definately going to continue this hobby. :) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 28th, 2006
9:25 pm	Well well. Things are looking up again, after a bout of (not-a-proper)winter depression I've been taking to swimming again - 1300 meters yesterday, felt wonderful. What I really like about swimming is no aching throat, and pacing the speed for endorphin levels is easier. And next weekend I'll have a cabochon course in Helsinki - yay! Posting pictures after the course. Also trying to find a new RPG that would be suitable to my picky tastes and actually active. This far no luck, but then again, got exam period coming in a few weeks so it's for the best. Buggrit. Current Music: Ali Project: Kopperia no Hitsugi (Comment on this)
Sunday, September 17th, 2006
8:51 pm	Whee! I've been muchly creative (and muchly avoided doing electric engineering basics' homework). Re-made a nice green flannel shirt, made a pen holder out of mailing tube and an old map, and designed and made a nice hat... also showing off previous Wednesday's henna:( Read more... ) Syksyllä on kivaa, kun jaksaa ja kiinnostaa tehdä juttuja. Valitettavasti opiskelu ei tunnu kuuluvan niihin juttuihin, pitäisi kai panostaa siihenkin (pum!) mutta peruskurssit valitettavasti ovat niin evvk että mielummin käytän senkin energian sitten niihin mielenkiintoisempiin kursseihin. Mutta... syksy, viileät ilmat, villapaidat, ruska, pimeät illat... ihanaa. Current Mood: creative (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, September 8th, 2006
3:10 pm	Foo. No bicycles (too expensive and too many ppl offering for them) but instead, I happened to walk into Lassin Retkiaitta at Forum, and they were having a stock cleaning sale, most things 10-50 per cent off... I bought a 75 liter Savotta backbag for 200 euros (off. 290), a Haglöfs sleeping bag with exteme temp limit of -16 and comfort limit of +4/-1, weighting all of 1,6 kilos, for 90 euros (off. 170), and a small Fjellräven backbag for 35 euros (off. 80). Woot. 500 euros' quality gear for little over 300... not bad, not bad at all. Ihastuin sitten Savottaan Lemmenjoen reissulla, sen verran hyvä kantaa ja päälle saa niin paljon tavaraa kuin hihnoihin mahtuu ilman että tasapainopiste heittää 30 senttiä taaksepäin (kiitti vaan anatomiset), ja noissa uusissa on fiksumpi alalokero jonka saa kokonaan auki, ja kantosysteemiäkin on paranneltu. Uusi makuupussikin tuli tarpeeseen, kaksi viimeistä reissua tehnyt lainapussilla. Tosin taisi tulla vahingossa L- eikä M-kokoinen, vaan eipä tuo mitään, vähän ylimääräistä jalkatilaa vain. Ja kyllä puolentoista kilon 3 vuodenajan (ei kesä!) pussi on aina järkiostos. Enkä edes ala ihkuttamaan tuota reppua kun siitä ei loppua tulisi. Ihi. :) Current Mood: bouncy (Comment on this)
Thursday, September 7th, 2006
3:59 pm	Takaisin Lapista. Ihan kivaa päästä pohjoiseen taas, vaikka vain Lemmenjoelle äidin porukoiden kämpälle. Sää ei kyllä olisi telttailua suosinutkaan, se pohjoisen 75-100% normaalista sademäärästä kun päätti valua taivaalta vielä reissuviikolla. Kotiin palattua opintojen järkkäämistä ja muuta kivaa, liekö syksy vai mikä mutta kovasti syyhyttää tehdä juttuja. Askartelin paskartelin kynätelineen postitusputkesta ja -71 Sodankylän kallioperäkartasta (sievä) ja kunhan Oulusta tulee vaatelähetys niin pääsee modaamaan normaalista maastotakista talvitakin. Pitää vaan selvittää mikä matsku olisi parasta lämpimäksi vuorikankaaksi, villa ehkä turhan huonosti muotoutuvaa vaikka sitä olisikin valmiina täällä. Eli kangaskauppaXQ piakkoin. Ja huomenna poliisihuutokauppaan ostamaan pol...kupyörä. Tai kaksi. Näkee kun näkee, pyörät ja hintatason. Current Mood: happy (Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 12th, 2006
9:05 am	Made a new userpic. Feel free to yoink if you want to. Current Mood: hot Current Music: something from the radio (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, July 7th, 2006
8:29 pm	Blargh. I so do not like summer when it gets like this - hot, hot, hot. I wouldn't mind the heat much, I can ignore it or at least accept defeat gracefully, but when the weather continues to top 25 degrees every frikking day and the inside temperatures are WORSE, it just drains me. I could manage with hot days, but the nights have been nearly as bad. I tried sleeping in the balcony, but either that bloody gull family directly above our flat, or the gnat tent I had to hang over the bed keep me from sleeping well, so days pass pretty much in a zombie-like state. The minimum temperature inside last night was 23 celsius. I still managed to get more sleep than during previous nights and actually felt somewhat rested for change. They promised a thunderstorm for Sunday, but the last time I checked it had diminished into a rain on Monday. Blah. Not getting my hopes high - I know this damnable weather can't continue till infinity, but from the weather predictions it seems we have five painfully hot days ahead. (Feel free to laugh, but remember I'll be the one doing the laughing when -20 degrees celsius is insanely cold to you.) Today has been the worst, with even the official temperatures of the Finnish Meteorological Institute hovering only a little below the 30 degrees' mark. Current Mood: listless Current Music: .hack//SIGN OST (Comment on this)
Monday, June 19th, 2006
6:38 pm	Much love This is a good day. Actually the last few days have been very good, despite this bloody heat - over 25 decrees Celcius (feel free to laugh, but remember I'll be the one doing the laughing when -10 decrees Celcius is cold where you live ;p) and my workplace is an old brick building with somewhat inadequate air conditioning. I got a ping from a long lost friend on YIM and was invited to some interesting RPGs - one that I had been a member of for years until it died less than two years ago, and one that is completely new to me. I naturally promptly rejoined the old one, and am currently lurking in the second to see if I would like to jump in. I re-hennaed my hair on Sunday. It turned out really well this time, a nice copper red that will probably set to a slightly less vivid dark reddish brown. The henna powder was the same - the trick was to mix it to a stiff paste with lemon juice the day before, and use strong tea for the final mix to get it runny enough to spread into my hair. Some notes though: heating the paste and the bowl with hot water before mixing the tea in might have produced an ever better colour. Today I made a quickie run to Lidl and found delicious dark chocolate. Mmmm. I'll have my coffee and chocolate black, thank you. +70% is the way to go. Current Mood: cheerful (Comment on this)
Sunday, June 4th, 2006
4:33 pm	Today's experiment... henna So, the events of the last few days. Work began on 1st. I'm at Geological Survey Finland again, and general logistics stuff again - going to field work for 2-3 weeks on July. Worked in the mailing/ map archive section this week, the people are nice but something a bit more related to studies would rock. Went to the city after the first day at work and bought The Hatfull of Sky, a wall calendar (now I'll maybe be able to remember appointments better) and Urtekram's Mahogany henna. Currently sitting at the computer with a plastic bag and a towel on my head. Trying henna dying the first time today, this far everything is good - the stuff is cheaper (8 euros a 100-gram bag, and 25 grams is enough for short hair), smells better (herbal, sweet scent rather than chemical stink), is less messy to put on because of the consistancy of the mixture. The only negative issue is the effect time, 1-2 hours. I'm going for two since I want a nice dark hue. ---- Yesterday on Saturday went to a Greek restaurant Knossos for co-hubby's birthday dinner. Splendid. The place was at the old Hakaniemi market hall, a two really nice storey restaurant on one end of the hall... Old wood, white paint and lovely old windows and a nice view to the rainy harbour. The food was great too, I can heartily recommend the place. The mezés were better than my main dish though (very good vs. excellent), so probably the next time we'll just go for the mezés. Mmm, dolmades and saganaki... mmm. Soon after coming home from the restaurant a friend offered to bring cake from his sister's graduation party if someone could arrange room for a party. So, a hasty cleanup in the living room and kitchen, spread out some mattresses to sit on (it is more of a work room, with computer tables and bookshelves than an actual living room) and the stage was set. After champagne, some suprisingly good cheap plum wine from Tallinn, summoning friends with more alcohol, people going to get some more alcohol from their home, and people leaving only to return later with friends, whom we had never seen before but turned out to be quite likeable people, the "cake party" ended sometime after 3 am. I love this neighbourhood. A cake party? Waffles? Barbeque? Just say it in the club's IRC channel and more often than not there will be people who are interested. It's one of the things I'll miss when we have to move, these quick and easy get-togethers. And oh yeah. Ducklings at the park today, aaaww! Current Mood: happy (Comment on this)
Thursday, May 4th, 2006
8:09 pm	Sunshine Many god things today: 1. The weather, although I got first twinges of headache when coming home - sunny, warm, first summer day of the year. And I didn't have a hat. Luckily no sunstroke yet, but it spurs to make myself a new summer fez to replace the one I lost last autumn. 2. New fan for Ein. The bearings of the old one took damage and it got so noisy I had to shut him down for the night in order to sleep. A Nexus Silent 92x92mm, boasts 19,2 dB... and is quiet. Now I can hear both of the computers - Ein, Hi the firewall, and even that annoying hum of the SEAs film archive cave's air pump machinery outside. 3. Fabulous lunch at Pikku-Nepal. The only veggie option was vegetable and cottage cheese balls in tomato cream sauce, which didn't get my hopes high at first (because I had been something spinachy) but it turned out to be delicious. And they actually had properly seeped tea and not just the standard "hot water and a lipton bag". Earl Grey, I think... the bergamot was quite overwhelming as an aftertaste, but bergamot is all cool. And a cheap restaurant offering chai... not happening. On the minus side, someone is competing for the mem stick I had my eyes on in huuto.net. Mef. Somewhat understandable, since I don't think there are a lot of 256mb 100 hZ sticks floating around, but still annoying. Current Music: CMX: Eufrat (Comment on this)
Sunday, April 30th, 2006
2:31 pm	New computer and stuff Hee! After the netboot of the Single Board Computers that had served as our workstations died several months ago, I've mostly been using the only comp with graphical interface when cobby (who works at home and actually needs it) isn't using it. I was fine with using the text-only firewall computer for a while, but it becomes somewhat annoying now that I feel like playing more again, and would need to use yahoo groups and IM software more regularly. So, the solution... is humming underneath the table at the moment. Sure, it's a bit slow, due to small amount of RAM, but it's quiet, cute in a weird, flat way, and I can get online without interference and browse 4chan do stuff without having to wait until cobby can spare a moment. May I introduce Ein, the 2-processor Dell workstation, currently hosting Ubuntu 5.10 for OS, although I might want to go Debian all the way again later on. (Ein because, well, what else can you name a computer the size and shape of an Alpha workstation if not after an anime Corgi.) Made myself some new userpics too, and found out that Ein doesn't have enough RAM to even open a file in GIMP in any sensible time. *shrug* Well, that's what ssh -X is for. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, April 23rd, 2006
5:59 pm	Spring, about time Fabulous weather all the day, from morning on - hardly a cloud in the sky, so we decided to do some quick food shopping and head for Luukkaa outdoors center's trekking paths. We didn't have a definate plan, other than to go there, walk at least the local trail (8-ish kilometers) and either go back the same way or walk the 8 kilos to Pirttim*ki. Being that this was the first longer walk of the spring we decided to call it quits after lunch - while the weather was almost perfect for walking, the trail that had been used for skiing all the winter was still covered in a thick layer of ice in places, and walking on it was not enjoyable. So we just checked out all three of the grill setups in the east shore of Kaitalampi, found them all occupied and returned to the one that had least offensive people occupying it. (A choise between a smoker guy with a sprog, a family group + some people with dogs, and some 7 teenagers and 2 adults... ick.) We picked the second one and luckily the family group left pretty soon, so no happily screaming children to ruin the campfire mood. Tin foil potatoes and onion (yum), mushrooms and sausage to bf. Mmm, 'shroomies. I wish I had remembered to bring the camera though - a somewhat crappy Aiptek, but good enough to capture some of the splendid, massive sheets of ice in the shadow side of the rocky bumps in the landscape that go as hills in this part of the coutry. Especially the foot-thick mini glacier in the trail itself, with a narrow gully with a little meltwater rill in it... so pretty. And so nasty to climb up. Current Mood: happy Current Music: Ultra bra - Naispaholainen (Comment on this)
Thursday, April 20th, 2006
4:31 pm	Grey Blah. It's raining so didn't go for a walk, I've been having mild headaches the last two weeks, I'm tired all the time - the "never really awake" tired, not exhausted-tired, the kimono I was planning to sell (since light green with cream little flowers - so not my style) turned out too narrow and I'm not sure if I have enough cloth to extend the wrap width, and generally everything sucks. I probably won't get field work this summer either. I'd like to dump this all and go crazy hippie hermit artist. Just leave the studies and pick up something else, somewhere else. Somewhere where I wouldn't have to think about all this stupid human relations and societal expectations thing. Why must things be so bloody complicated? Current Mood: blah Current Music: Raindrops hitting the window (Comment on this)