Finally, an Athletic Hobby

Time and again, I entertain noble intentions of beginning some sort of exercise regime. Sometimes I even follow it for a week or even two. Invariably, however, the effort fizzles out until I'm again left just making plans that I never go through with.

Well, not this summer! (I hope.) I've always liked badminton, but it was never really an active pursuit. A couple of weeks ago I decided to go ahead and buy a set — 4 racquets, 3 shuttlecocks, plus what's needed to put up a decent net — since it was only about €15 at one of the local convenience stores. Of course, with that price the quality is not dazzling, but it will do for a beginner. I've played two times now with one of my friends here in Oulu, and am planning to take the set with me when I go to Helsinki for the summer. Hoping to be able to play at least once a week for the next few months.

Yes, yes. I will still need to do some other form of exercise, but this is a good start. I think so, anyway.  

We had an extremely enthusiastic spectator: Suvi's puppy, Peppi.

Gorgeous weather, but the sun can be a bit of a bother.

Whoso List to Paint

Shameless modification of the title of one of the first English-language sonnets? Check.

There are times when I like to bring out the acrylics and try to create something even halfway decent with them. Now, with warm weather having finally arrived and less than two weeks until the end of May, I have done so. I'll probably go to Helsinki for most of the summer, and I won't be dragging the painting supplies with me. Still, I'm going to squeeze in as much time with the paints and brushes as I can. I will be able to continue for most of September, I suppose, but still. That's only a few weeks altogether.

This is what I started on... well, it was yesterday at this point.

  

Originally, it was supposed to be a flower on water. Then I saw a shape take form in the blue and lo, it became something quite different. I think it's a dragon's eye. We'll see what the finished product ends up looking like; I shall continue tonight. Probably. I hope.

Give a Word, Get a Card & Other Postcrossing Stuff

Postcrossing! Anyone who bothers reading this blog probably knows about it already, but I still like talking about it, so shush. At the moment, I can have 10 postcards travelling simultaneously. All the slots are currently filled and I await (with slight impatience) for some of them to arrive at their destinations so I can send more. Here are the latest three that have hopped into the mailbox:

Chongqing, China

Hoorn, NL

Minsk, Belarus

Five of the ones currently on their way are going to Russia, and for some reason the trip there takes forever regardless of where in that ginormous country they're headed to. Apparently, the Russian postal system leaves something to be desired. At least I've now unticked the option saying I don't mind sending more than one card to the same country simultaneously. I seem to recall the wording of that option to be different not too long ago... Well, I'm glad they've made it clearer now.


On the Postcrossing Forum, I'm taking part in Laura's round robin "Give a Word, Get a Card" — which is, essentially, a translated version of a round robin that was established in the Finnish sub-forum quite a while ago. The idea is, you think up three words and a "spare" word. Each of those three words, plus the spare word, is given to a different fellow participant whose task then is to send a card corresponding to that word. Everyone gets three cards and three words. It's up to the person who gets each word how they interpret it. My words for this round were celestial, tentacles, and fantasy, the spare word being duckling. I've received two of the three, and sent all of mine (Buddha, travel, abandon). Unfortunately I didn't have the opportunity to scan the ones I sent :/ But here are tentacles (from a fisherman in Ireland) and fantasy (from Russia)!

I would like to mention a tag I took part in a while back. It's dedicated to handmade cards, and each person tagging leaves a request for the next tagger. The person I tagged wished for a mandala. I originally intended to design my own, but in the end printed out and coloured in one from a website that provides free templates. I expressed a desire for something Jane Austen related, and received this lovely Pride and Prejudice card. Fairly certain that the quote is from the 2005 movie as opposed to the book, which vexes me a little (not a huge fan of said film) but it's still quite nice.

This here is Emrik. He's a travelling toy that came to me from Russia via Germany or Netherlands and a couple of other countries. He was only supposed to stay for a couple of weeks, but then I kept him for a couple of months and when I did send a message to the owner saying I was ready to send Emrik forward, there was no response. I don't think she's even read the message. In fact, I'm not sure whether she has been to the forum since November. I hope I won't have to hold on to him forever — it would be a shame for his journey to be cut so short. :(

Reading Beowulf.

Posing with the Irish poet Tony Curtis.

There will probably be quite a few Postcrossing-related entries. It's... one of my more important hobbies right now, I suppose. Be prepared. :D

Sudden Summer and Other Observations

Summer arrived last Friday after about a day or two of spring. I'm serious. Temperatures just suddenly went up; before that it had still been rather cool. Not that I'm complaining much. I like that it's warm now... but my body doesn't know what to make of this. It feels like I'm melting at 20°C, which previously has been close to an ideal temperature for me. Then again, I've been more sensitive to heat since that one case of heatstroke I had a couple of years ago. Wasn't much fun. Ah well. This weather also doesn't help the near-constant sensation of thirst I've been experiencing ever since I began taking Sertraline. But I guess that's a small price to pay for feeling more balanced. :)

Now, a brief musical interlude:

This song was played to us in DevLit (in the lectures last autumn, not when I took them before... I'll get round to talking about that mess somewhere below) and I immediately liked it, so it stayed in my head afterwards. Perhaps I ought to look for more mediaeval songs to listen to.

I don't listen to nearly as much music as I used to before Jussi and I moved in together. That's actually one of the bigger gripes I have about co-habiting. Otherwise, miscellaneous relationship snags notwithstanding, the situation suits me. I'm not even sure I would know how to live completely on my own. I've never had to. As much as I hated living with flatmates and would have preferred to have the entire space to myself, I don't know that I would have dealt with it very well. It's way too easy for me to slide into full hermit mode when alone.

Apparently, the medication I started a bit over a month ago should also help with the social stuff. I have yet to notice a marked improvement in that regard, but I do handle being stressed out a lot better, and when I start feeling glum I can pull myself back from the spiral that would lead me to suicidal thoughts. I lacked that ability before. I still get bad moments, but they are fewer, and the black is not quite so black anymore.

This, by the way, is where I keep my happy pills:

When I saw these tins at a store where they sell all kinds of cute little stuff for really cheap, I decided I want to store the meds in an adorable box instead of popping one out from the slip every night. I really like it better this way.


So. Literary and Linguistic Developments 500–1660, also known as DevLit. I originally attended the lectures back in the autumn of 2010, passed the exam the following January, and stupidly left the essay to dangle even after receiving an extension all the way into the end of June. Silly, silly girl. As a result, the course remained hanging for some time until I finally came to a decision to simply re-take the whole thing. Thus, I went in for the lectures again, and passed the exam (which by now had the essay component integrated into it)... in April. Because I just fail that much. This was the last chance, too; they're shutting down the course and separating it into at least two independent ones. Wonder how that'll go. It's not for me to worry about, though. I finally have those 8 study points in the bag, and with a grade 4 to boot! Something to be happy about, at least.

Other courses I had this year include (but are not limited to) some Art History as a new minor subject, a few English courses, obligatory Swedish (the written portion of which I passed on the second try, pah) and German. I'm reacquainting myself with the language. It's slow going, but I may be able to obtain some level of fluidity eventually. I did get a 4 from that course, which is encouraging.

I still have a crapload of essays to write, and next Monday I have a book exam on a Lit course I tried to write a lecture journal for but failed. It's lovely that us minor students can handle things by book exam.

I sat the Grammar 2 exam (yet again) and unless I get a pity pass I'm pretty certain I bombed it. I live in hope, though. Either way, when I finally deal with this course and the damned Phonetics one, I can let go of a little bit of the stress I carry around all the time. Of course it'll just be replaced with worries about something else, but hey, change is change.

Yeah, right.


Just got myself an appointment to see a shrink. Woohoo. I really hope it won't take too long to find a compatible one. As a matter of fact... no, wait. I was going to say I hope this one will be good, but she's downtown. That means bus fares. Well, now in the spring and for much of the autumn I suppose I can ride the bike but still. Meh.


This post was supposed to go up yesterday evening, but then we popped over for an impromptu visit to Matt and Anna-Laura's place. They have a bird's nest in a hanging flower pot outside their window! We've ascertained that it's some sort of thrush, but aren't sure of the exact species.

Matt and Jussi talked MtG while A-L and I discussed art nouveau (mostly Mucha) and tattoos. We also had some tea that Laura's fiancé Marc brought me from China. It's a green tea, smells heavenly and tastes pretty good, too. As you can see, Jussi appropriated the box it came in for storing some of his cards. I am fully intending to snatch it back if I ever get a deck or two of my very own. Will have to ask the brother about maybe lending me some of his, since he doesn't play any more.

Well, that's all for now. If you got this far, I commend you for an impressive attention span. Later today, I shall talk about Postcrossing. Ta! 

Hello there

I'm not even going to bother with trying to make this blog regular. However, I do think that I would like to resurrect it again. There's a couple of other places I really ought to pay attention to — Tumblr, Elftown, dA — but I'll worry about those some other day. Tomorrow, perhaps.

For now: Hi! Welcome back to the life of the Lami. I'll make a proper update tonight. Meanwhile, have a kitty.