The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

I guess it's time to take a look at the last year and list some of the good and some of the bad things about it.

Overall it's been an OK year. Nothing radical happened, not in a good nor in a bad way.

Financially, being a student is a Bad Idea, even though I worked more or less steadily throughout the year I got my fair share of cent-stretching. There's only one course left, however, and the bachelor's thesis, and then I'm done with it (on today's paper was a small story about people wanting to change the translation for ammattikorkeakoulu from "polytechnic" to the "university of applied sciences" - the ministry of education wanting to stick to the old name, how surprising).

My grandma is slowly getting worse, and may not be able to live home for long now. Christmas went surprisingly well and she was more alert than in the previous Christmas, but a couple of days back she started talking to my mother as if she was her sister. Sad.

Then there were the definite highlights.

- Seeing that my friends, some after some rough stuff, are all doing pretty well in their lives.

- The Sziget festival, and the entire trip there and back again. One must be mad to voluntarily sit in a bus through 5 countries. Damn good festival, amazingly well organized, and of course the city of Budapest is worth seeing in its own right.

- The Berlin experience. Thank whoever invented tax refunds (and student loans) so that I could make it there. Last year I traveled more than in couple of the previous years put together, I usually end up doing the obligatory cruise to Tallinn and that's more or less it.

- Finding the best damn sites the internet has to offer. Being asked to moderate the General Forum on Herzeleid.com, which for all its insanity and chaos is a very entertaining place to hang in (though I must admit I'm kinda waiting for the Rosenrot-born hype to wane, the flood of new users registering there is starting to be a bit overwhelming - which reminds me that be the new live DVD will be released shortly. Oh, dear). To balance things out, I go to the Verboten! Forum on the Rammimages.com to enjoy the virtual company of intelligent and witty people posting there. there are several meetings scheduled this year, one of which is held in Finland. I hope I'll be able to make it to the Berlin meeting as well.

In any case I expect this year to be much more dramatic, for want of a better word, than the previous one. I'm graduating, and hoping to get a new job. Finding a bigger apartment wouldn't hurt, either.

And before I go, here's 2 pictures of Himpula, my sister's and her fiancé's cat, who took over their apartment on New Year's Eve. She's a bit clumsy, but otherwise an absolutely adorable creature.



Today's soundtrack has included:
Eläkeläiset: Humppaan itsekseni, Sortohumppa
Janus: Anita spielt Cello (The entire Janus album makes me want to crawl under the duvet, curl up on fetal position and never come out again - Anita spielt Cello, for example, is about a woman who survives the concentration camp only because she can play the instrument; and don't even get me started on the song Kinderkreuzzug. So depressing but also so captivating that I can't help but listen)
Megaherz: I.M. Rumpelstiltzchen, Heute schon gelebt?