I really can't be bothered to upload all the pics here too. But you can view them in my facebook photoes. They are open for everyone. First album consists mostly of pictures from Prague. I've titled them by the area and given some information, usually in finnish, though. Second album is smaller and has pictures from Pardubice as well.

Today I had a really nice day.

Trip was amazing. I took almost 1000 pictures. Our choir got silver diplomas from both series (with compulsory Martinu-song, and musica sacra), and our director said that we were better than ever before.
Local choir won the main serie, I didn't like it. It was too loud and sopranos were way too overpowering. And they had that... full slavic sound. I think our programme was a bit too scandinavian, meaning very different and quirky, and our sound was a bit too fresh and flowing. We don't have much songs in staccato, and locals seem to love it...

Anyway, I enjoyed my time in Prague, and Pardubice had amazing and fun moments and singing was good and yeah. I got annoyed to some choir-mates in some points, and I did learn again that some members of the choir just don't need new friends and are really difficult to get to know to. (They just speak to people they already know, and if you speak to them, they usually just smile and go away). But, some others are brilliant.

We're doing Mozart's Requiem in the coming autumn, and we have an orchestra and another choir with us. Exiting!

Tomorrow is a free day, then back to work.

well, its been raining.

this city is absolutely devastatingly beautiful, though. I love it.

tomorrow I'm getting up early and starting with old town, mucha museum, perhaps charles bridge and torture museum. then I could hit the shopping centres. I hope it doesn't rain this much. didn't go to jewish quarters, because 1) dark, 2) wet. instead, I walked around the city center for a few hours and went to a casino, where I neither won nor lost. then I hunted down one hot dog that wandered too far from the rest of the herd and ate it, before it could grew new feet and run away. it was really meaty, or whatever that stuff was. brains and organs and stuff. people here like to eat 1) butter, 2) meat, 3) cheeze, 4) beer. oh god I'm going to get cardiac arrest. and gain few hundred kilos more, probably before my heart stops.

hotel is really great, though, LAN works like a dream, too.

It seems that it's going to rain during my whole vacation in Prague and Pardubice.
It's really sunny and nice here in Finland.

Yeah, thanks a lot. I guess I'll change my plans of photographing the architecture.

Okay, so I'm leaving tomorrow.

Apparently I will not be putting travelling-photoes online, because after few rather insistent tests, the camera will not transfer images to the linux laptop.

I'll send postcards, probably buy something strange (and cheap) to some lucky winners, and come back after a week. I'll might be updating short comments from the hotel, if the LAN actually works. :)

I've been pretty busy lately.

School ended, I got the best possible grade from the big project I produced this spring (1-5 scale, 5). I still have paid summer-project with MM, and I really have to create good portfolio-site.

In few weeks, just after I get home from Prague and things settle down a bit.

Choir competition in Tampere earned our choir 1 silver stamp. You can get 1-3 stamps from bronze, silver or gold. Last time our choir got 2 silver stamps, so everybody assumed that we're a lot better now. But, alas, in one song which is usually flawless, choir lost it's pitch. For a while. The other 3 songs we sung there couldn't compensate, even if they were brilliant, as far as I've heard.

But, we still have Pardubice Martinu festival and two competing series over there. It would be fantastic if we got even one gold diploma from there.

After a week and 12 hours, I'm going to Prague!
I'm so thrilled that I can't believe.

The only thing that's slowing me down is that I'm having quite a nasty flu going on. I think I got it from Tampere.

Saturday I met some nice friends and got good pizza and company, and also saw a Samba-carneval. I will put pictures from Tampre, Helsinki & carneval when I have time. '

Some of you my dear readers are friends in other circles too, and might remember my complaint about our certain choir piece. It was Bohuslav Martinu's Chceme my se Chceme -song, and the part 'nazel sem o risek', which means 'I found a little nut'. Well, I knew that Chceme was a love-song and that part didn't much make sense to me or help me to get the emotional level of the song. Rather, it made me laugh.

Yesterday I was told more about that part. That, the following 'mezi vinohrady' means 'between the gardens'.

Which means, I'm singing 'I found a nut between the gardens', and it really helps me to get the emotional level of the song, and instead of giggles, I get a little embarrassed. I mean, I'm suppose to be singing little naughty songs in foreign languages now?

Great, we're going all the way to Pardubice to sing about nuts in garden. And to make it better, mr Martinu is the bloke in whose honor the choir-competition is held.

Well, at least we have Monteverdi's Quel'augelling che canta which is about birds who sing 'If I had a soul it would burn of love'. It's pretty neat. And the song they played in the deck of Titanic before it went down. It's called Nearer my God, to Thee or Käyn kohti sinua herrani in Finnish, very beautiful song (I want it sung in my funeral, even if I'm not too religious). And some other neatsies.

Talking of lovethings, I have yet another date. I'm not sure where this's going, but we're seeing more and sending more text-messages and having fun.


It's only a week until Tampereen Sävel choir competition, and only 4 weeks until Prague and Martinu Festival! I'm thinking about routes I'm going to walk around Prague and other important traveller-stuff. But in the end, best parts are singing.

Yay!

And nuts!

EDIT:

now with meme! I edited the type of an animal away from this meme here! I hope you do the same to ensure that others will have tabula rasa when entering the test.

And have some flowers. I visited Kaisaniemi botanic garden when I saw K. on Friday.

( Garden in spring. )


Happy Towel-day everybody! Rememember to take out your towels.

I'm taking K tomorrow to a nice cafeteria. That made me do a little research of city centre's best places. What are yours? Please partake, either in here, or in your journals.
(This is mostly for people in Helsinki-area, or at least from Finland).

Mine are as follows.

Café:
Gran Delicato in Kamppi, near HSC. It's amazing! I always take cappuchino, but I should try some of their ciabata's. They also sell cheeses, coffee and such. Very italian. First time I went there with suojelus, I kind made a joke that if we don't pay our bill, they probably will send hitmen after us. It's very nice, very italian in all details.
I really like Espresso Edge and Krulla's Wiener Kaffeehaus as well.

Restaurant:
Zorbas, definitely Zorbas in Kallio, near Kallio sport house. You can't get better lamb than from Zorbas! And the perfect lemon sauce! It's really worth trying, and not very expensive.

MangeSud. When I'm rich enough, I'll definitely go back to MangeSud. Excellent customer service, brilliant food and menu, very good wines and lovely interior.

Santa Fé. When I want my mexican, I will definitely go to Santa Fe. My favourite was Cantina West, but the last time I was there, nothing worked too well, starting from service and ending in food. Their menu isn't anymore what it used to be. Side dishes are almost as important than the main dish, in texmex, and I've heard good things of Santa Fé.

Bar:
Good beer bars are rarer than it would seem. I prefer:
Praha, Teerenpeli and Kaisla. All have different weaknesses and strenghts. Teerenpeli has very good own brewery products. Praha has the most pleasant athmosphere and music for me. Kaisla has largest selection.

Karaoke bars
Mann's Street (gay bar, karaoke, everybody loves you!), Jones.

Other bars
Public Corner Mikonkatu, kuudes linja, Molly Malones, basically all of the William K. -places.

Drinks:
Sling-in - it's just the best in location and service, IMHO. Bathroom is horrifying, though.

Clubs:
I don't go clubbing too much. But, oh well. DTM, of course. I have nothing against On the Rocks, either. Dante's Highlight is okay. I really don't know good new clubs, but I don't like Sedu-places. And I also have pitiful knowledge of good live clubs! Cuba is probably the only one I have been.

Today is some sort of biblical holiday (I really don't know enough about those) and I spent it by having a good spring cleaning, making good food, and doing a shitload of loundry. It's been rather productive day. I'm still intending to see Martyrs and eat some strawberries.

Tomorrow I'm meeting K again, even if shortly, before going to work. I'm just too relieved that school is out. I should start designing the new portfolio, though. And I'll ask J if I should apply to the game firm. I've promised to visit K and take her some books, and I've also promised to go out with J and M, and I've promised to do shitload of stuff now that the school's out. But, I still have work, and choir competitions are incoming, fast. Oh, well. I guess life is such.

Anyway, I found lovely kitten-icons and indeed intent to overuse them in the future.

Good times.
Everybody's getting married or getting pregnant. Or perhaps both.

Today I visited my brother and his SO, and we cooked together. I used a salad I love to make, and a recipe a friend taught me. Lemon-chili-chicken with couscous and salad with feta and roasted zucchini.

( click for goodies )

Now I'm off to do some schoolwork and watch eurovision song contest! :D

I'm just trying to learn how to use the camera and take good tourist-pics. Lesson no.1: It's very difficult at night. Not only it's too dark to take pics otherwise than very near a well lighted building, but also all asshole-ghosts appear as grey orbs in places and stuff.

( I can has ghosts? )

Okay, I'm done! Hope you had fun.

So I got a camera. I've been shooting here and there with some luck and without. I hereby post some images I took last week in studio-shootings, then some images of my home, and some kittehs of course!

( clicky clicky )

Oh yeah, everybody. Do watch RocknRolla. It's pretty amazing.

Next week: Some school-busyness, some work, choirs spring cortetto (we introduce our whole summer programm)!, and tomorrow I'll jump to game design-lessons, and after that; movies and few pints with friends.

I need a 'yay!'- icon.

En tiedä onko stressi vai lääkkeet kun ei tunnu oikein mikään miltään. Muahan siis eniten ympäröivissä ihmisissä ärsyttää tässä järjestyksessä:

1) en ymmärrä niitä, ne kommunikoivat epäselvästi tai en osaa tulkita
2) ne eivät ymmärrä minua, en osaa kommunikoida selvästi tai he eivät osaa tulkita
3) jääminen ulkopuoliseksi, ei-hyväksytyksi tuleminen porukassa missä muut on jotenkin hyväksytty, tai selän takana puhuminen asioista ja ongelmista joita voisi käsitellä myös suoraan mun kanssa.

Vähän on muutamassa paikassa ilmassa tuollaisia, mutta väsyttää tai stressaa niin ettei oikein tunnu missään. Vaihtoehto tietysti on, että ei tunnu missään kun ei vaan enää tunnu missään. Mut tuskin kirjoittaisin asiasta jos se olis samantekevä oikeasti.
Minkäs mä oikeestaan sille voin jos en kelpaa jonkun tai kenenkään eväsreppukerhoon.


Lisäksi mua ärsytti harvinaisen vähän yksi lempi-peeveistäni: se, että sluibaillaan yhteisestä työstä tekemättä mitään.

Mä en ehkä voi oikeesti tehdä tuottajan hommia cipralexin alaisuudessa. Ei löydy kipakkuutta. Tänään yritettiin tehdä lavasteita, ja porukasta puolet vaan istui ja jauhoi kuvauksista, vaikka näkivät että hommaa on paljon, ja sinne nimenomaan tultiin sitä helvetin hommaa tekemään. Piti komentaa monta kertaa kun en kai ollut tarpeeksi selkeä tai äkiintynyt sanoissani tai viestinnässäni että olis mennyt perille. Samoilla tyypeillä mieli muuttuu asioista ja ne ei kommunikoi tarpeeksi selvästi tuotannon muutoksia, tai toisaalta eivät suostu kompromisseihin. Asiat pitäisi AINA tehdä heidän mielen mukaan, tai kuten he ovat suunnitelleet.

Voin sanoa, ettei tuu olemaan heillä tai hänellä helppoa tehdä ryhmätyöpainotteisia projekteja sit 'isona'.

Ja voi vittu mitä virityksiä siellä väännettiin ennen kuin tulin paikalle. Muutaman kohtalaisen painokkaan ongelman ratkaisin, ja siitä ehkä voi olla tyytyväinen.


Nyt ei kyl yhtään nappaa koulu, eikä työt, eikä kyllä vapaa-aikakaan muun kuin nukkumisen merkeissä. Mun pyykkivuori on kohta enemmän tilataideteos. En oo varma onko ton keon alla enää se pyykkikori minkä muistelin omistaneeni, vai ei.

Tahtosin vaan että ois hyvä mieli ja ei sattuis joka paikkaan ja olis niin kiire ettei ehdi kauppaan. Ja että ei miettis koko ajan juttuja joita ei kannata miettiä.

I think, that people think, that I must be stupid.
Perhaps I am. Isn't wisdom quite fragile and subjective issue?

It's frustrating to feel that people probably don't understand what I try to communicate, and in the end, it makes me unwilling to communicate at all - even though I really love to discuss issues and perhaps learn something new during discussions - at least from people I talk with, if nothing else. I really don't like to argue. I end up arguing a lot, but that's probably because I don't get understood. Or I don't understand why people react in certain ways to my communication.

Understanding someone demands desire to understand someone. Sometimes I just don't bother if somebody I'm talking to doesn't seem to have any will to understand me. In such context is almost impossible to communicate.

People want to misunderstand, consciously and subconsciously, more than understand. Psychiatrist whose specialty is communications told me that last week.

It's somewhat depressing, really. What does it tell about humankind?

I rather agree with Wiio on this. Few examples:

1. Communication usually fails, except by accident.
2. If a message can be interpreted in several ways, it will be interpreted in a manner that maximizes the damage.
3. There is always someone who knows better than you what you meant with your message.
4. The more we communicate, the worse communication succeeds.

It doesn't really help that all people, do they realize it or not, are in the same boat.

Yeah. I don't know. I guess I'm doing good, since I haven't posted lately. Or I'm perhaps busy.

Since I already got the plane tickets and a loan to my brother, I needed still to book the hotel. I found lovely hotel in good area near city centre. Hmmh. I booked hotel Alton. It looks lovely. It's strange that the hotel costs more if I would've booked it directly from their service. I booked it trough booking.com, instead, and got a lot cheaper room. It's about 170 euros for 3 nights, including breakfast, and very good range of services.

The camera should arrive in few weeks, too.

Meh, I'm having some poor time because I have to buy all sorts of thingsies here, and the paid project in school doesn't really go anywhere. And if I don't work for it, I don't get paid... The collegue I'm working with has been sick (and I'm not talking about a flu here) so I can't really blame him. We'll work with the project during summer, anyway, and if he delays again, I'll do it by myself. Luckily, it's not really in a hurry.

And, well, probably my brother can wait a little until I pay back, if everything else just fails and I somehow get into a catastrophe with money-issues. I try hard not to. I'm living with a budget.

So, what I've been doing?

I fell in love with lush and got few soaps (face and body) and a shampoo from there. The shampoo is amazing. It's not liquid shampoo, but you rub the bar in your hair until you get lovely scented foam. It also seems to make my hair more brown. My hair looks and feels clean, but it doesn't feel electric at all, nor like plastic.

My earblugs are now 8mm. I don't stretch them any more than that. Now I try to snip a little bit money for some nicer jewellry when it's possible. It's not very high on my list, right now. I'd need new jeans, too, but I'll try to manage without.

I also had a date, which went very well. I'm not going to say any more for now. Let's see how things turn out. But, she said she enjoyed her time as well, and was sure to write soon back after she got back home. I think we both were a bit nervous, and we didn't have much time.


Yeah, I've been really INTJ lately. The meds make me very sleepy and yawny and tired, and quite... serene. And indifferent, perhaps, too, so I can't find often anything to write here - or don't bother to do so.


Yay, I have a hotel-room booked and stuff and in two months time I'll be in Prague!

Partagas Habana is one of the best Cuban cigars, I believe. I bought one of Serie P no. 2 to a friend. I hope he still likes cigars and can appreciate good, expensive cigars. I bought one Nicaragua quorum - five times cheaper and quite a lot smaller one to accompany it. It might be he don't want to smoke whole Partagas during the party. I wouldn't. I couldn't really afford too much gifts right now, but I think this person quite deserves it.

Other than that, I bought a camera. I'll be paying it in several different parts, but at least I have some time to get used to it before summer.

Tomorrow is nice day; Dealers hold'em poker FC (Finnish championship) tournament, and choir practices. I also managed to fail something choir-related (a small group's gig for our 'inspehtori') I promised to attend to, and then forgot in the middle of all this chaos my life has become. I missed the practice(was working my ass off during it), so I'm as good as nothing tomorrow. I think they'll be fine without me, though.

Luckily, one more month to go and my summer vacation will start. Kinda. I still have game design until the end of May, and I really need to work on the project we're getting paid from the school. I need the money. I think our new deadline will shift from end of may to end of June, though. It seems more reasonable.


Meh. But, this week is full, I'll try to figure out my timetables when I have time to be home at peace. I don't want to stress myself out more than I already have.

Right now, I'm so tired and sore that I probably fall asleep the moment I touch the bed. It was a long day and I haven't slept more than 9 hours since monday.

Oh my, so I'm leaving. I'm buing tickets in tu/wed. I already collected links I need to study, and wrote a list of stuff I need to do before the trip and during the trip. I also booked an insurance during the trip, and sent out an e-mail for choirmates if they want to travel with me before going to Pardubice. Somehow, I think I might prefer going around alone, taking pics (should I buy a camera or lend one?) and being gleeful all around the city.

I love Prague, I really do, and I've never been there. It's historically one of the most gorgeous cities in Eastern Europe, and because I am a history-nerd AND I just love pretty things, this is like I'd get a chance to go for a date with a girl I thought was way too good looking and intelligent for me.
I'm pretty happy.

Because I haven't much traveled around, I could use some tips of what to do and what not to do. Should I use travel checks? Should I use only credit cards for payment there? Should I print out hellish amount of stuff of what to do and how to move around or go with the flow? How much time should I reserve for airports and transportation? Are there things that almost always go to hell?

I think I'll plan a lot, but not stick with the plans. It's my nature to plan stuff. It makes somehow everything much safer.

Speaking of dates earlier, I have kinda-date next week. I thought I'd have one tomorrow, but luckily I have one more week to get nervous.

Anyway, thank you for my big brother who lends me some money so I can buy the tickets now. If I had waiten much longer, they might have gotten too expensive to go.

Choir is going to competition to Pardubice, Tzech, in June. It's about 100km from Prague, and I've been wanting to go to Prague for years and years. So, I thought I'd try to get these things work together. I have my holiday week in that same week, so if I get some kind soul to feed my cats, I could make it.

Flies are (now) in supersaver 258€ Helsinki-Prague, 23.6 and back Prague-Helsinki 28.6. The hotel I need to pay for two days before I go to Pardubice is about 85€ - it's a good hotel near centre, easy to travel to. In Pardubice we have a hotel together for the whole choir, and I'll be staying there until Sunday. The only problem is, that I don't have money now, when I'd like to buy the tickets and all. I don't know yet what to do, but I'll figure out a way. I surely have enough money coming in this spring and early June to make it, but I wouldn't want to wait much longer. The flies might get more and more expensive, quite soon.

I've decided I'm going, though. :] I guess that's something. I should ask some choir-mates if they want to stay from Tuesday to Thursday afternoon with me in Prague (I have to be in Pardubice in late afternoon). I plan to run trough some sightseeing, and perhaps buy some stuff, like shoes or alcohol (real absinth!). :D If a friend from LJ gets excited, I'm more than willing to share few days trip.

Anyway, I had to write this down. Mostly for myself!