(no subject)
Keeping my fingers very much crossed tonight for US! Please go well, election counting!
Entry tags:
haute couture and ww2
getting interested in WW2 must be some kind of hormonal ageing thing, as well as hairs growing in ears etc. Previously it just was not of interest to me, and now, at 40... suddenly I find many aspects fascinating. Related to the haute couture fashion espionage I sidetracked into how haute couture survived the war. So many books and movies made about world war II and none, as far as I've been able to find out, about Lucien Lelong, the president of the Chambre syndicate de la haute couture, who managed to turn the head of Hitler about moving haute couture to Berlin. Or the group of 150 American fashion buyers who in January 1940 took a sea voyage to Genova and then an unheated 24 hours special train to Paris (in that exceptionally cold January!) to see the latest fashion collections.
I'm going to buy this book as a reward when I get the workshops related to my thesis organised: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/paris-fashion-and-world-war-two-9781350000261/
I'm going to buy this book as a reward when I get the workshops related to my thesis organised: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/paris-fashion-and-world-war-two-9781350000261/
Hisashiburiiii
I dived into my new studies, also wrote a book, also turned 40 and threw a big party (15-18 coffee and cakes, 18 till midnight cocktails), also the book was published and had a party for that too, and after that – since January – been totally swamped with my studies. Even now, while being stuck at home, it's video meetings and writing from morning to evening... I haven't had time to worry about the epidemic at all, which I guess is a good thing!
The capital region is quarantined from the rest of Finland, which means no spring garden stuff at back at my parents' place, sigh.
All the cons I wanted to go to this year were cancelled or postponed till next year. Sigh.
Other than that, I've adjusted quite well staying at home.
How's everyone doing?
The capital region is quarantined from the rest of Finland, which means no spring garden stuff at back at my parents' place, sigh.
All the cons I wanted to go to this year were cancelled or postponed till next year. Sigh.
Other than that, I've adjusted quite well staying at home.
How's everyone doing?
(no subject)
New studies: exciting though also stressful. Business sustainability course is obviously super useful, helps me understand why companies do what they do, how to perhaps nudge them to do something different. But
this one assignment of analysing a business case, good heavens aaaargh how can anyone in the world be interested in business management? I'm starting to understand why CEO's and big bosses are paid so much. The stuff they have to deal with, is so mind-numbingly boring it can only be rendered palatable through vast amounts of money.
I have problems in staying focused when reading about economy, but this is beyond that. I know that if I understood economy, I'd understand good three fourths of our human world, so even if my mind starts to wander when trying to fight my way through and economy textbook, I still know and appreciate it is important. But business management. Strategies and visions and aligning the mission of division corporate policies, being so removed from the actual thing that the companies do, so abstracted... and yet some people are passionate about it. Never ceases to amaze how different we are, even if we all have pretty much the same brains.
this one assignment of analysing a business case, good heavens aaaargh how can anyone in the world be interested in business management? I'm starting to understand why CEO's and big bosses are paid so much. The stuff they have to deal with, is so mind-numbingly boring it can only be rendered palatable through vast amounts of money.
I have problems in staying focused when reading about economy, but this is beyond that. I know that if I understood economy, I'd understand good three fourths of our human world, so even if my mind starts to wander when trying to fight my way through and economy textbook, I still know and appreciate it is important. But business management. Strategies and visions and aligning the mission of division corporate policies, being so removed from the actual thing that the companies do, so abstracted... and yet some people are passionate about it. Never ceases to amaze how different we are, even if we all have pretty much the same brains.
Entry tags:
wrote this earlier but had no wifi
Amazing, amazing trip. I am now on the very last leg, the ferry from Travemunde, Germany to Helsinki, sharing a budget cabin with two German girls. The other one I haven’t much spoken with, though she seems friendly enough, but the other one I chatted with already at the port, and she’s really fascinating young feminist punk girl into hiking. We love the same book shop in Helsinki, so she has good taste too. I also had a long chat with a Finnish dude returning from 4 years of traveling around the globe. Mostly he talked and I interjected something here and there, but obviously he had not been speaking Finnish for a long time and it must have felt so good to him. And, it was quite interesting what he had to say. All those places, in Asia and South America, going from country to country, at times doing random jobs to gather money for a while… and the shock he has experienced returning to Europe, where everything is (according to him) so sterile and new and removed from the reality of existence. He said he’s getting rather depressed due to all the destruction he saw, he thinks it’s all going to shit in thirty years or so, and it’s here in the bubble of prosperity where we don’t see it. I would not know, I’ve only ever been in the bubble of prosperity. He has sort of given up hope, which I personally find… well, what to call it, irresponsible, a cop-out, but I can’t judge other people’s hope or no hope, when I have no strong arguments to offer. At least he’s thinking about where we are headed, unlike so many. But still it makes me think of this quote from one or other Apollo 11 astronauts when they were asked how would they spend their last hour, praying or reading or what, if the rocket engine had died and they had just one hour to live. “I believe I speak for all of us when I say I would spend that hour doing my goddamnest to fix that engine!”
I’ve been on the go just for ten days, but there has been so much to experience each day that it feels like half a lifetime. Cities, meetings, sights, different clouds in different places, so many bus and train and ferry seats - all the sitting has made my ankles swell, the only time previously this happened was when I was pregnant! but generally my body is well suited to traveling, luckily no back or shoulder or hip pains apart from some very minor flashes, I fall asleep in buses in contorted positions and don’t suffer too much from short sleep, my stomach is not easily upset, even if I drink all these cities’ tap water and eat whatever whenever with my hands not always so clean– for this I am truly thankful! Thanks, mom and dad, for passing me your sturdy genes, and inoculating my gut flora with that well water which I drank all my childhood and which was later discovered to have various strains of bacteria :D
So many people I know nearing or just passing forty suffer from ailments that would make extended bus travel super uncomfortable. I just keep my fingers crossed I can go on like this for decades to come.
I am still waiting for the moment that I would feel ready to finish this trip, but nope. I feel home on the road. Apart from wanting to see my kid asap and sorry about too much detail but have sex with my husband, I could turn back right this minute and be gone for another couple of weeks or months or whatever. I like being in transit, between places. I like seeing another city when I wake up. How can I organise more of that in my life without impacting my family in a negative way? I have to think about that.
There was this ultimate between places moment, after passport control at UK border, before the bus went forward to France’s side at the Eurotunnel, between jurisdictions, eveningfall between day and night, and so many other moments I’ll remember; the rush of nearly noon London suddenly after silent early early morning Brussels of huge silent glass-fronted buildings reflecting dawn pink-gold and sleepy Eurostar train (the one that goes under the Channel), oh and the full red august moon over Swedish highway, all the world opening up before me as I sat at the front top seat in Flixbus double decker coach, my regular self and identity melting away, kind of feeling unity with he bus and all the people traveling somewhere with it, and the road, and the moon shining on so many roads with so may passenger buses at the same time, all across the night side of the Earth…
I’ve been on the go just for ten days, but there has been so much to experience each day that it feels like half a lifetime. Cities, meetings, sights, different clouds in different places, so many bus and train and ferry seats - all the sitting has made my ankles swell, the only time previously this happened was when I was pregnant! but generally my body is well suited to traveling, luckily no back or shoulder or hip pains apart from some very minor flashes, I fall asleep in buses in contorted positions and don’t suffer too much from short sleep, my stomach is not easily upset, even if I drink all these cities’ tap water and eat whatever whenever with my hands not always so clean– for this I am truly thankful! Thanks, mom and dad, for passing me your sturdy genes, and inoculating my gut flora with that well water which I drank all my childhood and which was later discovered to have various strains of bacteria :D
So many people I know nearing or just passing forty suffer from ailments that would make extended bus travel super uncomfortable. I just keep my fingers crossed I can go on like this for decades to come.
I am still waiting for the moment that I would feel ready to finish this trip, but nope. I feel home on the road. Apart from wanting to see my kid asap and sorry about too much detail but have sex with my husband, I could turn back right this minute and be gone for another couple of weeks or months or whatever. I like being in transit, between places. I like seeing another city when I wake up. How can I organise more of that in my life without impacting my family in a negative way? I have to think about that.
There was this ultimate between places moment, after passport control at UK border, before the bus went forward to France’s side at the Eurotunnel, between jurisdictions, eveningfall between day and night, and so many other moments I’ll remember; the rush of nearly noon London suddenly after silent early early morning Brussels of huge silent glass-fronted buildings reflecting dawn pink-gold and sleepy Eurostar train (the one that goes under the Channel), oh and the full red august moon over Swedish highway, all the world opening up before me as I sat at the front top seat in Flixbus double decker coach, my regular self and identity melting away, kind of feeling unity with he bus and all the people traveling somewhere with it, and the road, and the moon shining on so many roads with so may passenger buses at the same time, all across the night side of the Earth…
Entry tags:
On the road
Since yesterday morning I’ve taken train, ferry and am now sitting in a bus, somewhere in Skåne area, Sweden. Top deck, front seat with view. Had a breakfast while golden fields, fluffy clouds and cute little towns rolled past. Managed to sleep reasonably well (secret weapon: woollen socks).
I just enjoy traveling so much. Even if a bit cramped, shower overdue, and not completely rested, I feel energized and excited. Coffee tastes better, sunshine is more golden, life in general feels fuller.
Do i have to admit my flight strike is fueled not only by environmental concern but also the desire to just be in transit longer?!
I just enjoy traveling so much. Even if a bit cramped, shower overdue, and not completely rested, I feel energized and excited. Coffee tastes better, sunshine is more golden, life in general feels fuller.
Do i have to admit my flight strike is fueled not only by environmental concern but also the desire to just be in transit longer?!
(no subject)
Off to Worldcon in two days! I’m leaving early (5.45 or so) on tuesday morning (the sacrifices I make for my principles! Future generations, raise me a statue or name a planet in my honor!). Then train, ferry, bus, bus, train, train, ferry and if everything goes as planned, I’ll be in Dublin very late Thursday. I’m looking forward to uncomfortable bus nights and rushed railway station lunches and looooong loooong stretches of uninterrupted writing. Also, being able to boast I visited Stockholm, copenhagen, Hamburg, Brussels, London and Dublin in summer 2019.
I still need to print Helsinki>Dublin tickets.
I still need to buy return tickets...
I still need to print Helsinki>Dublin tickets.
I still need to buy return tickets...
Entry tags:
Book idea
Book idea: culturally meaningful and ubiquitous songs from major cultures.
One of the channels for my procrastination is to get lost in Spotify, following 'appears on' and 'discovered in these playlists' to find hitherto unknown to me music, preferably with names written in characters my computer does not even have support for :D these times we live, there is endless, literally endless possibility to just keep discovering whatever specific content one desires, it's a wonder anyone gets any work done. I could easily spend the whole day just listening to music and sorting it into my various folders << this sorting thing is really important! Yesterday spent an hour and half going through 60s to 80s schlagers/enka type music from Thailand. I try to retain my appreciation and amazement for the fact that this is possible. I'm sure there have been people in earlier ages who would have gladly sacrificed an arm or a leg to have access to all this information.
Chinese traditional inspired pop / cheesy synthesiser versions of traditional tunes is a sort of guilty pleasure (I don't really believe in guilty pleasures, but let's say I meet a musically gifted someone from China, I'd be a bit embarrassed to admit my go-to music from their country is a synthesised pan flute rendition of Girls from Ali Mountain instead of one played with sophistication and skill on real instruments).
Well anyway. Just through this 'research' (can't think of a better word and the quotes do not adequately express that I really don't confuse what I'm doing with actual research) I've discovered for example that the song "the moon represents my heart" made famous by Teresa Teng is apparently not only super popular but like a basic block of modern Chinese culture, everyone knows it by heart just by osmosis. To me the song does not sound that remarkable tbh, but of course I miss the lyrics.
Every culture has these ubiquitous songs, that even if you learn the language, you miss a lot of cultural shortcuts if you don't know certain phrases etc. So it would be interesting and fun to pick a few songs from each major culture sphere (let's say American/English, China, India, Japan, Spanish Latin America, Portuguese Latin America, Francophone Africa, ok don't really know how to meaningfully split Africa into language / music spheres but anyway you get the idea) and try to explain why these songs are classics.
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I get these ideas because the eco book I'm writing is seriously stressing me out, I dream that my next book will be something fluffy and happy.
One of the channels for my procrastination is to get lost in Spotify, following 'appears on' and 'discovered in these playlists' to find hitherto unknown to me music, preferably with names written in characters my computer does not even have support for :D these times we live, there is endless, literally endless possibility to just keep discovering whatever specific content one desires, it's a wonder anyone gets any work done. I could easily spend the whole day just listening to music and sorting it into my various folders << this sorting thing is really important! Yesterday spent an hour and half going through 60s to 80s schlagers/enka type music from Thailand. I try to retain my appreciation and amazement for the fact that this is possible. I'm sure there have been people in earlier ages who would have gladly sacrificed an arm or a leg to have access to all this information.
Chinese traditional inspired pop / cheesy synthesiser versions of traditional tunes is a sort of guilty pleasure (I don't really believe in guilty pleasures, but let's say I meet a musically gifted someone from China, I'd be a bit embarrassed to admit my go-to music from their country is a synthesised pan flute rendition of Girls from Ali Mountain instead of one played with sophistication and skill on real instruments).
Well anyway. Just through this 'research' (can't think of a better word and the quotes do not adequately express that I really don't confuse what I'm doing with actual research) I've discovered for example that the song "the moon represents my heart" made famous by Teresa Teng is apparently not only super popular but like a basic block of modern Chinese culture, everyone knows it by heart just by osmosis. To me the song does not sound that remarkable tbh, but of course I miss the lyrics.
Every culture has these ubiquitous songs, that even if you learn the language, you miss a lot of cultural shortcuts if you don't know certain phrases etc. So it would be interesting and fun to pick a few songs from each major culture sphere (let's say American/English, China, India, Japan, Spanish Latin America, Portuguese Latin America, Francophone Africa, ok don't really know how to meaningfully split Africa into language / music spheres but anyway you get the idea) and try to explain why these songs are classics.
-----
I get these ideas because the eco book I'm writing is seriously stressing me out, I dream that my next book will be something fluffy and happy.
Entry tags:
music musings
Writing my eco book while listening to my Spotify list "Romantic/dramatic" and have to wonder about the existence of music once again. Certain sounds arranged one after another evoking feelings, even specific scenarios. Latter is greater part cultural but former greater part innate, at least it feels so, though it can very well be that the music available to me even from remote cultures has gone through a filter which removes the incomprehensible and hard-to-relate. One example springs to mind. What little I've been exposed to gamelan music is interesting but can't gleam much emotional message or satisfaction from it.
One of those universal human things, which all human peoples share yet no other animal shares – I mean birds sing and wolves howl and so on, but that's more analogous to language (I think).
Human specialities: Music, fashion, religion (split later into science&philosophy&maybe psychology?)...
Fashion (in a very broad sense) is about being aware of oneself as an individual in a social setting.
Religion is very multi-faceted, but something about dealing with the need to have structure in the universe, an overarching story, which our brains are looking for.
Music = ? social cohesion, but also just the satisfaction of being able to affect one's emotional state quite precisely. But why sounds? Why not smells? Or touching different materials? These was this article titled something like "Science at last discovers why music exists!" and it was that it was discovered listening to music releases dopamine in the brain. Eeehh, thanks for nearly nothing. We already know it's pleasurable and that it's specifically dopamine, well, interesting for brain researchers but not one step closer to answering "why?".
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in other news, I've reserved almost all the tickets I need to get from Finland to Dublin for Worldcon by ground travel. Just the bus ticket from Helsinki to Turku harbour missing, they haven't been released yet. I never realised Ireland was so far away. Most of Europe can be reached in 2 days, to Dublin it's almost 3. It's going to be uncomfortable and expensive (at least more expensive than flying Ryanair or such - about 350€ just one way...) but that's my extreme experience. No mountain climbing or deep diving, just sitting in a bus and train and bus and train for nearly 3 three days straight.
One of those universal human things, which all human peoples share yet no other animal shares – I mean birds sing and wolves howl and so on, but that's more analogous to language (I think).
Human specialities: Music, fashion, religion (split later into science&philosophy&maybe psychology?)...
Fashion (in a very broad sense) is about being aware of oneself as an individual in a social setting.
Religion is very multi-faceted, but something about dealing with the need to have structure in the universe, an overarching story, which our brains are looking for.
Music = ? social cohesion, but also just the satisfaction of being able to affect one's emotional state quite precisely. But why sounds? Why not smells? Or touching different materials? These was this article titled something like "Science at last discovers why music exists!" and it was that it was discovered listening to music releases dopamine in the brain. Eeehh, thanks for nearly nothing. We already know it's pleasurable and that it's specifically dopamine, well, interesting for brain researchers but not one step closer to answering "why?".
----
in other news, I've reserved almost all the tickets I need to get from Finland to Dublin for Worldcon by ground travel. Just the bus ticket from Helsinki to Turku harbour missing, they haven't been released yet. I never realised Ireland was so far away. Most of Europe can be reached in 2 days, to Dublin it's almost 3. It's going to be uncomfortable and expensive (at least more expensive than flying Ryanair or such - about 350€ just one way...) but that's my extreme experience. No mountain climbing or deep diving, just sitting in a bus and train and bus and train for nearly 3 three days straight.
(no subject)
New laptop, the old one literally started breaking apart. The plastic casing is disintegrating. And it can't keep up with new websites anymore. But hey, over 12 years, I'm proud of it! Got the sewing book done on the old laptop, and now it can lay to rest (after I've downloaded necessary files, like photos from all those years etc).
I've been struggling with the eco book project for half a year now, but f-i-n-a-l-l-y a couple of days ago it started to roll forward, in my head I mean. Got that writing flow feeling, where eating, peeing and socialising are irritating necessities instead of pleasant breaks. Despite there being piles and piles of eco tips books, and flocks and flocks of eco tip webpages, not every angle is covered. I'm aiming particularly to bridge the gap between wanting to do something and action in pushing local authorities on environmental matters, contacting politicians etc. Lots of people would like to be active citizens but are too busy to research where to send what e-mail etc. so I'll cover that.
it does help that the publisher treats me very pleasantly as an established author, which by now I guess I am, but I really enjoy feeling like an author-ity ha ha ha. Tomorrow I'm going to get my author photo taken, professional makeup and all, looking forward to that.
I've been struggling with the eco book project for half a year now, but f-i-n-a-l-l-y a couple of days ago it started to roll forward, in my head I mean. Got that writing flow feeling, where eating, peeing and socialising are irritating necessities instead of pleasant breaks. Despite there being piles and piles of eco tips books, and flocks and flocks of eco tip webpages, not every angle is covered. I'm aiming particularly to bridge the gap between wanting to do something and action in pushing local authorities on environmental matters, contacting politicians etc. Lots of people would like to be active citizens but are too busy to research where to send what e-mail etc. so I'll cover that.
it does help that the publisher treats me very pleasantly as an established author, which by now I guess I am, but I really enjoy feeling like an author-ity ha ha ha. Tomorrow I'm going to get my author photo taken, professional makeup and all, looking forward to that.
Entry tags:
Characters
I read Kim Sanley Robinson's Red Mars, well actually still a few pages remain, but it really got me thinking about characters in literature. With literary fiction of the character-driven sort, I'm often left unsatisfied and baffled, it's like there is no point to the whole thing, and the characters don't really model in my mind as personalities. But with Robinson's Mars, the people really feel like people, I almost feel like I now know Ann and Frank and Nadia and John, I could predict what they might do in a given situation, I could almost ask them for advice! And yet, according to Goodreads, many people have found the characters cardboard-y, one-trait stereotypes etc. I really thought about what's it with the Mars characters that makes me 'get' them. And I think it's that the book is focused on the interaction between humans and environment, both changing and both getting changed. This relationship with the external world, and that the characters have views on how they should or should not affect the world makes them real people in my mind.
So many lit fiction characters are endlessly ruminating their feelings, their past, their past feelings, their feelings' pasts... not the world as it is and how it might become, if we take certain actions. Lately one lit fiction non-genre book I really enjoyed was about an architect who designed the Church of Helsinki (a real historical person). It was a small and melancholy book, with a strongly researched early 19th century. Not much happened in it, plot-wise. It was written from the pov of the architect himself, and much of it was about his responsibility as an architect to create buildings fit to last for eternity. He was definitely viewing himself as a small part of a big Universe, aware of times passed and yet to come, and that is the sort of perspective that touches me.
I think there are two kinds of people. One sort models the world beginning from themselves, extrapolating outwards to as far as necessary, but it all begins with their self and internal experiences. And the other sort the world, the universe is primary, and they fit their model of themselves in whatever weirdly shaped spaces there are left after all the mental pieces of the world they have have been assembled.
Now that I just wrote that, it sounds like how I understand many pre-modern peoples have thought, and perhaps that's why I always feel somehow at home reading really old old texts. The concept of individual self is a bit hazy, or not yet developed... but I also like Heian period diaries and they are very modern and self-reflective in that sense.
I don't know where I'm going with this, this whole train of thought is still kinda half-formed and hard to articulate.
So many lit fiction characters are endlessly ruminating their feelings, their past, their past feelings, their feelings' pasts... not the world as it is and how it might become, if we take certain actions. Lately one lit fiction non-genre book I really enjoyed was about an architect who designed the Church of Helsinki (a real historical person). It was a small and melancholy book, with a strongly researched early 19th century. Not much happened in it, plot-wise. It was written from the pov of the architect himself, and much of it was about his responsibility as an architect to create buildings fit to last for eternity. He was definitely viewing himself as a small part of a big Universe, aware of times passed and yet to come, and that is the sort of perspective that touches me.
I think there are two kinds of people. One sort models the world beginning from themselves, extrapolating outwards to as far as necessary, but it all begins with their self and internal experiences. And the other sort the world, the universe is primary, and they fit their model of themselves in whatever weirdly shaped spaces there are left after all the mental pieces of the world they have have been assembled.
Now that I just wrote that, it sounds like how I understand many pre-modern peoples have thought, and perhaps that's why I always feel somehow at home reading really old old texts. The concept of individual self is a bit hazy, or not yet developed... but I also like Heian period diaries and they are very modern and self-reflective in that sense.
I don't know where I'm going with this, this whole train of thought is still kinda half-formed and hard to articulate.
Sealife
Had a fun family outing at Sealife aquarium, looking at weird and wonderful sea creatures, feeding fish, etc. Sea anemone and coral animals, starfish and medusae are fascinating and otherworldly beautiful, but they give me a similar feeling of dread as seeing a huge truck driving across the zebra stripes I crossed only 30 seconds before. A sense of just-missed terrible catastrophe. Those animals which hardly have any kind of central nervous system seem to be doing just fine. Their species have lived for millions of years without eyes, without intentional communications, without even tiny brains... what if evolution had never taken the turn towards complex brains? It's not hard at all to imagine an Earth with only starfish and mollusks and medusas and such, and it gives me shivers.
All the rainbows and sunsets and colours and no eyes to ever see them. All the possibilities of touch and mating, and no-one with a skin to welcome another's touch. No companionship, or pleasure of successfull communication. Admittedly, a lot of suffering would have been avoided, but still! I'm so thankful for my (our) big brains and all the complexities that follow from having them.
All the rainbows and sunsets and colours and no eyes to ever see them. All the possibilities of touch and mating, and no-one with a skin to welcome another's touch. No companionship, or pleasure of successfull communication. Admittedly, a lot of suffering would have been avoided, but still! I'm so thankful for my (our) big brains and all the complexities that follow from having them.
Writing (own stuff)
I joined a group of amateur speculative/sf writers who gather once a month to read and critique each others' work and it's awesome for feedback and general hanging out with people who share same interests. But darn coming up with new stuff or even improved old stuff every month is hard! I end up writing at night (like now), and daydream about being able to dedicate a whole day for my sf writing. Which I guess I could do, if I was not mismanaging and wasting my work time...
I *need* to do somethng about my procrastination problem. There's this book for adult ADHD folks, full of practical strategies on focusing and getting things done. My friend who has ADHD recommended it. While I don't think I have ADHD, I could benefit from it anyway. I should h´make some new years resolution but I'm not sure yet what would it be to be most useful.
Currently I'm writing this light-hearted piece about all-female United States of the Americas trying to send a woman to Moon before the Empire of Europe and Russia does. Lots of neat suits, red lipstick and fully fashioned nylon hosiery. All the characters (apart from President Jacqueline Kennedy) are named after textile testing equipment. I don't know if anyone else is as amused with this concept as me, but writing it is so much fun!
I *need* to do somethng about my procrastination problem. There's this book for adult ADHD folks, full of practical strategies on focusing and getting things done. My friend who has ADHD recommended it. While I don't think I have ADHD, I could benefit from it anyway. I should h´make some new years resolution but I'm not sure yet what would it be to be most useful.
Currently I'm writing this light-hearted piece about all-female United States of the Americas trying to send a woman to Moon before the Empire of Europe and Russia does. Lots of neat suits, red lipstick and fully fashioned nylon hosiery. All the characters (apart from President Jacqueline Kennedy) are named after textile testing equipment. I don't know if anyone else is as amused with this concept as me, but writing it is so much fun!
Kid's hair stuff
Very warm, indescribably happy feeling when my kid wanted her bangs cut in a certain way. There's something about my baby developing her own style that just makes me feel joy. She wanted curved bangs in a sort of Betty Page style, but it's been weirdly difficult to get hairdressers to comply with her wish, they always just stare confusedly and then cut straight bangs – and I'm not used to operating with hairdressers. I'm soon forty and mom still cuts my hair :D Once she even drew a diagram, but it did not help. It would be too weird to show Betty Page as a reference for kid's hair style so it's been straight bangs. Until now!
This time, again after getting straight bangs, I said I'll try and cut the style she wants. And then I snipped wth craft scissors and it's not perfectly symmetrical and it's obvious it's a home cut BUT she's so happy with it. Finally her hair is the way she wants it. It suits her too!
Strted reading Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy. Very refreshing to read something so ... factual and reality-based. Sukkiri!
I should write a proposal about eco tips book (like '365 little things you can do to protect our Planet!' type). Exactly what I've dreamed of. But shiiiiit, hard to come up with a new viewpoint. There are already so many books like this and some of them are pretty good. I only wanna write books that are the best in their genre (in Finnish market) and haven't yet figured out how to reach that target with this thing.
EDIT: HAPPY 2019 everyone!
This time, again after getting straight bangs, I said I'll try and cut the style she wants. And then I snipped wth craft scissors and it's not perfectly symmetrical and it's obvious it's a home cut BUT she's so happy with it. Finally her hair is the way she wants it. It suits her too!
Strted reading Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy. Very refreshing to read something so ... factual and reality-based. Sukkiri!
I should write a proposal about eco tips book (like '365 little things you can do to protect our Planet!' type). Exactly what I've dreamed of. But shiiiiit, hard to come up with a new viewpoint. There are already so many books like this and some of them are pretty good. I only wanna write books that are the best in their genre (in Finnish market) and haven't yet figured out how to reach that target with this thing.
EDIT: HAPPY 2019 everyone!
Missing blueprint
Donut Economics by Kate Raworth - the first book on economics I have actually read more than 2 pages continuously without coming up with excuses (oh need to wash dishes, oh better go running now or it'll be too late, oh I'll just check facebook really quickly). But I'm worried it will end up like so many exciting books that first smartly and with great insight outline the problems and issues of the modern world, but feel like they miss the final chapter where they advise *what to do* to make it all better. Like, I just want to get the blueprint for a better world in my hands, so I can start doing something that actually helps. I mean I do stuff, I'm participating in Fashion Revolution 2019 and I'm writing a book about simple steps to being more environmentally friendly etc but it seems so small compared to what should be done!
There is the worrying possibility that no-one has managed to draw the blueprint for the world where everyone has enough without burdening the ecosystem too much, because such a thing is impossible. I really don't like to think about it. But it is possible that such a world is as impossible as a perpetual motion machine.
And yet, even if the fair and thriving world is an impossible utopia, I still want to strive toward it...
There is the worrying possibility that no-one has managed to draw the blueprint for the world where everyone has enough without burdening the ecosystem too much, because such a thing is impossible. I really don't like to think about it. But it is possible that such a world is as impossible as a perpetual motion machine.
And yet, even if the fair and thriving world is an impossible utopia, I still want to strive toward it...
Your Free Will is Not as Perfectly Free as You'd Like? Huh?
There's no reason to be upset if it does not fulfill your picky standards of what's "free"! Just be grateful you have any sort of will! Most of he universe doesn't.
I'm almost through Dennett's book Elbow Room. It's captivatingly written but not in the least bit fluffy. I don' think I've ever spent as long reading a slim book I really enjoy reading as this one. It just requires a lot of thinking and concentration.
Aaaand I've come to the conclusion that (hard) determinism is, though perfectly logical, just the same sort of trick as Zeno's paradox (the one with tortoise). You can go slowly mad thinking about it, but it does not have any practical application. It's not possible to disprove determinism, any more than it's possible to disprove that every one of us has an undetectable and invisible monkey sitting on top of our heads.
Most of the Universe is causally determined – if you knew exactly the position and velocity of every atom, it might be possible to calculate where t ens up in a million years time (probably this would need a computer as big as the Universe). But not life. Life is an exception. Life = will to change local deterministic causation, and some means to do it.
Most of the 'will' us humans have is the same sort of unconscious will as bacteria have. That's nothing to be grumpy about. So what if the majority of decisions we make are made by or majorly influenced by unconscious stuff and therefore not 'free'? We humans still have the most will and free will compared to anything else in the known universe. And there seems to be a trajectory towards greater conscious freedom of thought, so even if at current moment the amount of 'free will' compared to baseline 'will' is low, it apparently is growing towards ever free-er and free-er will.
***
Something like 3000 years of philosophers wracking their brains about this and all they needed to do was ask me...
I'm almost through Dennett's book Elbow Room. It's captivatingly written but not in the least bit fluffy. I don' think I've ever spent as long reading a slim book I really enjoy reading as this one. It just requires a lot of thinking and concentration.
Aaaand I've come to the conclusion that (hard) determinism is, though perfectly logical, just the same sort of trick as Zeno's paradox (the one with tortoise). You can go slowly mad thinking about it, but it does not have any practical application. It's not possible to disprove determinism, any more than it's possible to disprove that every one of us has an undetectable and invisible monkey sitting on top of our heads.
Most of the Universe is causally determined – if you knew exactly the position and velocity of every atom, it might be possible to calculate where t ens up in a million years time (probably this would need a computer as big as the Universe). But not life. Life is an exception. Life = will to change local deterministic causation, and some means to do it.
Most of the 'will' us humans have is the same sort of unconscious will as bacteria have. That's nothing to be grumpy about. So what if the majority of decisions we make are made by or majorly influenced by unconscious stuff and therefore not 'free'? We humans still have the most will and free will compared to anything else in the known universe. And there seems to be a trajectory towards greater conscious freedom of thought, so even if at current moment the amount of 'free will' compared to baseline 'will' is low, it apparently is growing towards ever free-er and free-er will.
***
Something like 3000 years of philosophers wracking their brains about this and all they needed to do was ask me...
Afterwards
The con is over and I'm trying to adjust back to normal world. For example by pulling an all-nighter to finish a paying job which had been run over by con-arranging... and now I'm tired and have a sore throat and should clean up the house since it's all messy because of con stuff and my work stuff and it would be nice to surprise husband with a neat house after him being practically a single dad for the past month.
I screwed up some things but on the whole I'm pretty surprised how well I managed to organise my particular section of that event. I guess I would not have volunteered if I had figured out just *how* much work it would be or at least tried harder to split the workload to more people. Anyway, I'm not dissatisfied. For whatever reason, acute stress experienced with co-volunteers at a con is an enjoyable experience, I guess much the same as extreme sports. Running around organising things, giving orders to gophers, gulping down a quick coffee at the volunteer lounge and all the time feeling surrounded by my own sort of people... Real life feels boring and empty in contrast.
But I could not do this more often, I just look in amazement at people who organise cons year-round. Just how do they have the energy????
I screwed up some things but on the whole I'm pretty surprised how well I managed to organise my particular section of that event. I guess I would not have volunteered if I had figured out just *how* much work it would be or at least tried harder to split the workload to more people. Anyway, I'm not dissatisfied. For whatever reason, acute stress experienced with co-volunteers at a con is an enjoyable experience, I guess much the same as extreme sports. Running around organising things, giving orders to gophers, gulping down a quick coffee at the volunteer lounge and all the time feeling surrounded by my own sort of people... Real life feels boring and empty in contrast.
But I could not do this more often, I just look in amazement at people who organise cons year-round. Just how do they have the energy????
Shutting down the internets
Also, an unrelated thing, just in case someone might know: are there servers vital to the functioning to internet that solely reside in the USA? Or is everything distributed globally? I thought some naming/isp servers were only in the US, but now that I researched, it seems this hasn't been the case since 90's.
I'm not planning to ruin the internet, trust me, I just need this for a story I'm writing. I need the internet to crash in it, which could maybe happen if USA seceded from the rest of the world and cut all electronic contact, and all computer technology from US self-destructed, but I'm not sure if it's theoretically possible to shut down the internet anymore.
I'm not planning to ruin the internet, trust me, I just need this for a story I'm writing. I need the internet to crash in it, which could maybe happen if USA seceded from the rest of the world and cut all electronic contact, and all computer technology from US self-destructed, but I'm not sure if it's theoretically possible to shut down the internet anymore.
Gudetama
I can't bear to think about the Basic Finns horribleness today, although it would be a good time to freak out. That man is so evil, and to top it off, also smart. A horrible, dangerous combination. I fear for this country's future.
Instead, I wonder if there's somewhere an essay dissecting Gudetama dance in the light of Japan's current generation's feelings of lack of direction and meaning. The continuous absurdity and relatable feelings of embarrassment... I can't put it to words yet, but the series is popular not just because it's "funny". Going through the motions even if they don't make sense, and are harmful to inner sense of dignity, and still trying to do that properly, because the other option is impossible to imagine. Maybe, something like that.
Also, reading Gibson's Zero History, and making dog's ears on pages he writes something interesting about fabrics, or fashion, and that is like every other page. Why haven't I realised before there's a whole Gibson book about fashion!?!
Instead, I wonder if there's somewhere an essay dissecting Gudetama dance in the light of Japan's current generation's feelings of lack of direction and meaning. The continuous absurdity and relatable feelings of embarrassment... I can't put it to words yet, but the series is popular not just because it's "funny". Going through the motions even if they don't make sense, and are harmful to inner sense of dignity, and still trying to do that properly, because the other option is impossible to imagine. Maybe, something like that.
Also, reading Gibson's Zero History, and making dog's ears on pages he writes something interesting about fabrics, or fashion, and that is like every other page. Why haven't I realised before there's a whole Gibson book about fashion!?!