Thursday, 8 November 2012
Dem photes ain't workn'
So I took a peep at this ole rag again today and noticed that most of the photos no longer work. Posibly because most of them are linked to a friend's facebook, possibly not. Either way I can't be bothered to fix it since aproximately one Carl actually looks at this thing. HI CARL!
Friday, 7 September 2012
Combatting the Poo Brain
More than one post in a month! I must have come down with a brain fever!
As I said in my previous post, I feel to be suffering from the poo brain, an affliction where in my brain does basically nothing and my facial expression is similar to the posted picture of everyone's second favourite Batman (because lets face it, those two movies with George Clooney as Batman are pretty fantastic). In light of this, lately I have been trying to work my brain muscle in some way or another and you know what? I feel like writing could be a fun thing so here I go on another rambling gallivant through my cranial spaces in search of some sort of coherent thought. Oddly enough I'd like to say a quick little thanks to Team Petootz and one C. Doom-Hammer for providing enough thought provoking blog material between the three of them to actually motivate me to do something, which is something teachers have been trying to do for close to 20 years. Good on 'em.
Otherwise, let try and unclog some of this poo from my brain. One would think that starting a project would be a good way to do such a thing and being a manual labour kinda guy that would generally entail making something. Sadly in my current circumstances I can't do that because I have no access to tools and I'm moving in less than 2 weeks so I'd like as little stuff as possible (but I'd still really like to try may hand at some blacksmithing) so that leaves me with trying to pump the old mind muscle with some other endeavors such as the ramble you're reading (or at least skimming), drawing and attempting to learn Finnish whilst skateboarding. Now writing is pretty self explanatory, what with this blog being the form it's taking and all that jazz so I shan't go into that and I'm guessing a majority of my readership (do I even have a readership or am I just writing to no one?) already know that I have spent 4+ years doing drawing as part of my industrial design education so I feel I'd really just be telling you junk you already know there as well. Which leaves me with the interesting field of learning Finnish and skateboarding at the same time.
Now I should probably point out that this isn't some hilarious concept for learning a difficult Finno-Uralic language with enough variations for each word to make your head spin. Mercy me no, not at all. I just happen to have made friends with a local group of skateboarders and curiously enough they tend to speak to each other in Finnish swapping to English when something important comes up. As a result I don't have much to do while they're talking (other than skateboarding) but listen to them and try and figure out what's going on and the result of that is me slowly gaining an understanding of this rather mind boggling language. I certainly wouldn't understand a full conversation and I certainly can't say much but I have been very proud to confuse the hell out of various Finnish people by commenting on conversations that they had assumed I wouldn't understand. So far I can only really do this while talking about skateboards and a few other basic subjects but hey, that's a start.
Now one would think it would make logical sense to take this chance to listen to Finnish all the time by supplementing it with some book learning and you'd be right. However that's not how I roll, preferring instead to piece together an understanding of the language through reading whatever I can get my hands on (I've become quite good at deciphering fast food menus) and asking questions because sadly I'm not a guy that can be trusted to study on his own. Which is something I should really work on because I'm probably missing out on a whole range of educational benefits. But I am really finding that in the last month or two that I have been hanging with these cool cats, my understanding of the language has drastically improved. It probably has a lot to do with Finnish borrowing a lot of words from English when it comes to skateboards but whatever. I find it quite irritating that in all my months prior to meeting these guys, I had made very little head way with my linguistics simply because Finns are so accepting of the fact that their language is so god damned difficult. When they meet someone for the first time they'll talk to you in Finnish and the second you don't react they automatically switch to English and it's very hard to get them to change back, thus throwing away any chance you had to practice your Finnish. I have literally had Finnish people tell me to not bother learning Finnish because its too hard if you're not raised with it and everyone speaks English anyway. Which is a shame because its a pretty cool language with a lot of letters that most folks can't pronounce. Here's an example for you from my favourite internet famous Finn.
P.S. Some of the controls for this blog are in Finnish, how neat is that!
Otherwise, let try and unclog some of this poo from my brain. One would think that starting a project would be a good way to do such a thing and being a manual labour kinda guy that would generally entail making something. Sadly in my current circumstances I can't do that because I have no access to tools and I'm moving in less than 2 weeks so I'd like as little stuff as possible (but I'd still really like to try may hand at some blacksmithing) so that leaves me with trying to pump the old mind muscle with some other endeavors such as the ramble you're reading (or at least skimming), drawing and attempting to learn Finnish whilst skateboarding. Now writing is pretty self explanatory, what with this blog being the form it's taking and all that jazz so I shan't go into that and I'm guessing a majority of my readership (do I even have a readership or am I just writing to no one?) already know that I have spent 4+ years doing drawing as part of my industrial design education so I feel I'd really just be telling you junk you already know there as well. Which leaves me with the interesting field of learning Finnish and skateboarding at the same time.
Now I should probably point out that this isn't some hilarious concept for learning a difficult Finno-Uralic language with enough variations for each word to make your head spin. Mercy me no, not at all. I just happen to have made friends with a local group of skateboarders and curiously enough they tend to speak to each other in Finnish swapping to English when something important comes up. As a result I don't have much to do while they're talking (other than skateboarding) but listen to them and try and figure out what's going on and the result of that is me slowly gaining an understanding of this rather mind boggling language. I certainly wouldn't understand a full conversation and I certainly can't say much but I have been very proud to confuse the hell out of various Finnish people by commenting on conversations that they had assumed I wouldn't understand. So far I can only really do this while talking about skateboards and a few other basic subjects but hey, that's a start.
Now one would think it would make logical sense to take this chance to listen to Finnish all the time by supplementing it with some book learning and you'd be right. However that's not how I roll, preferring instead to piece together an understanding of the language through reading whatever I can get my hands on (I've become quite good at deciphering fast food menus) and asking questions because sadly I'm not a guy that can be trusted to study on his own. Which is something I should really work on because I'm probably missing out on a whole range of educational benefits. But I am really finding that in the last month or two that I have been hanging with these cool cats, my understanding of the language has drastically improved. It probably has a lot to do with Finnish borrowing a lot of words from English when it comes to skateboards but whatever. I find it quite irritating that in all my months prior to meeting these guys, I had made very little head way with my linguistics simply because Finns are so accepting of the fact that their language is so god damned difficult. When they meet someone for the first time they'll talk to you in Finnish and the second you don't react they automatically switch to English and it's very hard to get them to change back, thus throwing away any chance you had to practice your Finnish. I have literally had Finnish people tell me to not bother learning Finnish because its too hard if you're not raised with it and everyone speaks English anyway. Which is a shame because its a pretty cool language with a lot of letters that most folks can't pronounce. Here's an example for you from my favourite internet famous Finn.
P.S. Some of the controls for this blog are in Finnish, how neat is that!
Thursday, 6 September 2012
Gettn' the Poo Brain
I think it is possible that 9 months of living a life of comfort and leisure in Finland may have made my brain space into naught but a mush used to process nothing more than "what should I have for dinner?", "what TV show or movie should I watch?" and occasionally "what do I want to drink?". I think it may be a lack of intellectual stimulation that may have bought around the rather severe case of the Poo Brain that I am now suffering. I can tell you, its not so great. I think the best way to combat this would be to craft something. I am strongly considering taking some sort of knife making course when I return to the land of Australia. That'd be cool. I think the best possible career path would be that of a blacksmith. Think about it, working all day in a forge hammering steel and in the evening I'd be the one that the local tavern would call to settle ruckuses due to my burly strength attained behind the anvil. I can't really imagine any real conceivable down side to that. Just think, I could make armor!
Sunday, 2 September 2012
"KORKOKENKÄKUKKAMEKKOSUOHIIHTO 2012" an excercise report
This is a post at the request of one C. Doomantle and is a study of the video KORKOKENKÄKUKKAMEKKOSUOHIIHTO 2012 and the quality of workout achieved by such an activity. There is also a smaller report as to whether this sport is as fun to do as it is to watch that will be addressed in a different article.
Korkokenkäkukkamekkosuohiihto 2012 or "high-heels-flower-dress-cross-country-skiing" is a video depicting the act of several Finnish ladies taking part in an event where they race across marsh land in the Pudasjärvi region of Finland on modified skis, whilst wearing summer dresses with flower prints on them. This paper will endeavor to analyze the benefits and level of physical activity created by taking part in the activity.
Despite minor differences in the equipment used, it would stand to reason that many of the health benefits found in cross-country skiing would also be found in korkokenkäkukkamekkosuohiihto. These health benefits are many for cross-country skiing offering a workout that works a majority of the muscles in the body, burns calories quickly, increases cardio-vascular fitness and due to its low impact nature provides a good base to build strong joints. A majority of these benefits could easily be applied to the activity depicted in the video above to a lesser extent than that of traditional cross country skiing. Many of the same muscles would still be worked during this activity as they would be in cross-country skiing. That is except for the lower legs. Due to the nature of the skis using high heeled shoes rather than traditional ski bindings that allow for free movement of the heels, more emphasis is placed on the calf muscles and many of those in the posterior chain of the individuals taking part, thusly giving them a fine set of pins and some nice butts to boot. Calorie burning is a field that it would be said that korkokenkäkukkamekkosuohiihto is not as effective as traditional cross-country skiing for two reasons. Firstly the activity of korkokenkäkukkamekkosuohiihto is not as vigorous as that of cross-country skiing due to participants having to move slowly in order to negotiate the difficult marsh land terrain (this would however create a stronger workout for the muscles being utilized). Secondly the temperature in which the athletes are working plays a roll in the amount of calories burnt, one simply burns more calories in a cold environment that they do in a warm one, so simply because of the fact that this activity takes place in summer it can be said that less calories are burnt. Similar points can also be made in relation to the aerobic nature of the activity as well. The low impact nature of traditional cross country skiing along with the sustained high heart rate it creates allows the participant to keep their heart and lungs working at a consistent rate for an extended period. However in the case of korkokenkäkukkamekkosuohiihto this is not as evident. As previously mentioned the slower nature of this activity puts more strain on the muscles and as a result they will fatigue faster and as a result a sustained cardio work out is harder to achive. This in-ability to keep a sustained low impact workout also has an effect on the joint health promoted by cross-country skiing as the joints, which while still be moved to a full range of motion, may have un-necessary stresses placed upon them that could prove detrimental to their health due to skis becoming stuck in the mud and other such mishaps.
In closing one could conclude that there is a decent workout to be had whilst partaking in korkokenkäkukkamekkosuohiihto but in doing so one would want to pay great attention to what is going on in front of you.
Korkokenkäkukkamekkosuohiihto 2012 or "high-heels-flower-dress-cross-country-skiing" is a video depicting the act of several Finnish ladies taking part in an event where they race across marsh land in the Pudasjärvi region of Finland on modified skis, whilst wearing summer dresses with flower prints on them. This paper will endeavor to analyze the benefits and level of physical activity created by taking part in the activity.
Despite minor differences in the equipment used, it would stand to reason that many of the health benefits found in cross-country skiing would also be found in korkokenkäkukkamekkosuohiihto. These health benefits are many for cross-country skiing offering a workout that works a majority of the muscles in the body, burns calories quickly, increases cardio-vascular fitness and due to its low impact nature provides a good base to build strong joints. A majority of these benefits could easily be applied to the activity depicted in the video above to a lesser extent than that of traditional cross country skiing. Many of the same muscles would still be worked during this activity as they would be in cross-country skiing. That is except for the lower legs. Due to the nature of the skis using high heeled shoes rather than traditional ski bindings that allow for free movement of the heels, more emphasis is placed on the calf muscles and many of those in the posterior chain of the individuals taking part, thusly giving them a fine set of pins and some nice butts to boot. Calorie burning is a field that it would be said that korkokenkäkukkamekkosuohiihto is not as effective as traditional cross-country skiing for two reasons. Firstly the activity of korkokenkäkukkamekkosuohiihto is not as vigorous as that of cross-country skiing due to participants having to move slowly in order to negotiate the difficult marsh land terrain (this would however create a stronger workout for the muscles being utilized). Secondly the temperature in which the athletes are working plays a roll in the amount of calories burnt, one simply burns more calories in a cold environment that they do in a warm one, so simply because of the fact that this activity takes place in summer it can be said that less calories are burnt. Similar points can also be made in relation to the aerobic nature of the activity as well. The low impact nature of traditional cross country skiing along with the sustained high heart rate it creates allows the participant to keep their heart and lungs working at a consistent rate for an extended period. However in the case of korkokenkäkukkamekkosuohiihto this is not as evident. As previously mentioned the slower nature of this activity puts more strain on the muscles and as a result they will fatigue faster and as a result a sustained cardio work out is harder to achive. This in-ability to keep a sustained low impact workout also has an effect on the joint health promoted by cross-country skiing as the joints, which while still be moved to a full range of motion, may have un-necessary stresses placed upon them that could prove detrimental to their health due to skis becoming stuck in the mud and other such mishaps.
In closing one could conclude that there is a decent workout to be had whilst partaking in korkokenkäkukkamekkosuohiihto but in doing so one would want to pay great attention to what is going on in front of you.
Monday, 27 August 2012
A just funkn' around
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| Fresh picked flavour capsules |
There is however a lot of messin' about involved in shooting back to the home land and that is mostly concerned with getting all my junk home. It would seem that I have acquired far more stuff than I had thought while I was here and getting it all back is proving to be an expensive exercise as I have spent almost 150 euro on postage so far and there is more to come. I am getting good at packing boxes though. I sometimes wish I was strong enough to just throw all my belongings back to Australia but I don't think that will be happening anytime soon.
I don't really have anything interesting to say here I just felt like having a bit of a ramble. Oh did you know I went to the Czech republic and waited in a bunch of lines? I also made friends with some Danish dudes. That was a swell time. I sure hope a cat rubs its self on you at some point in the future. Cats are nice. I like cats, do you?
Wednesday, 1 August 2012
Oh yeah, this old thing
Not that I think anyone really reads my non-proof read, poorly spelled and punctuated mindless rants but I figured just in case I'd give the low down on what's been going down in the old Finland. The answer to that is not really that much for the last week or so. Prior to that though I have been on several super cool skate trips which have seen me heading into the lappish wilderness and going down some big hills quite fast on a skateboard. It was quite the surreal experience as we did a majority of our skating between the hours of 6pm and 5am because there are no cars and the sun doesn't set. There were several times where we would have to stop in the middle of a run because a family of reindeer would run over the road, get scared and then start running in every direction and falling over which made things interesting. I even got to do some driving which was interesting considering that everything about it was the opposite to what I'm used to. All in all those were some swell times that can be viewed in this here video.
A week or so after that I had the pleasure to visit my good friend Sampo and his family at their summer cabin in southern Finland. This has been something on my to do list since I first came to Finland and I must say it did not disappoint. The basic idea of a summer cabin in Finland is that it is a somewhat basic house that you go to during the summer to have a relaxing time without all the hassles of modern living. They are usually in a lovely and picturesque location next to a lake or the ocean or some such. Many of them don't have electricity or running wanter, however the one I was at had electricity and bore water (you couldn't drink it but it was good for washing things and the like. It is also common for them to have a composting toilet rather than a flushing one and oddly enough they don't really smell and they have a nice little window in the side so you can observe the wilderness while you take care of your business. And of course there is a lovely wood fired sauna. Basically what we got up to at the cabin was help out with some yard work, play lots of games (Mölkky is a game worth investigating), eat well, have sauna (which involves and invigorating jump into the sea), picking berries and mushrooms and go traveling around the area in a boat (Once we even took the boat to the store). All in all a most relaxing time indeed.
But now that that exciting stuff has happened I've mostly been hanging out in Rovaniemi. I fixed up a bike the other day that I hope to sell it and I created a delicious egg custard type bake thing using some blueberries I picked in the forest near my house (which is delicious). I have also become a favorite snack stop for the local mosquito population which kinda sucks.
Also you should look at this http://teddytourslapland.com/catalog/etusivu.php
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| The cabin in question |
But now that that exciting stuff has happened I've mostly been hanging out in Rovaniemi. I fixed up a bike the other day that I hope to sell it and I created a delicious egg custard type bake thing using some blueberries I picked in the forest near my house (which is delicious). I have also become a favorite snack stop for the local mosquito population which kinda sucks.
Also you should look at this http://teddytourslapland.com/catalog/etusivu.php
Thursday, 5 July 2012
In the summer time...
So after the merriment of traveling around various parts of Europe (namely Estonia, Lativia for a few hours, Germany and Ireland) I have arrived back in sleepy old Rovaniemi. It was certainly nice to get back here after spending something like a month and a half sharing a room with someone every night, sleeping with ear plugs in and occasionally sleeping in some very uncomfortable beds. The internet access was nice too. I do however miss the lovely people I was staying with for a majority of the time. I'll say this about the Irish, they are VERY welcoming and do quite like to feed people when the come to visit. I was feel quite awkward a lot of the time as I was being fussed over and practically waited on and having things paid for for me. You should go to Ireland because its cool. You should also seriously consider going to Estonia too, because Estonia is a jewel in the Baltic that too few have seen. For more details on my lovely adventures feel free to stalk my facebook.
Now that I'm back in Finland I have resolved to try and lose a bunch of the fat and laziness that I gained in Ireland from living the good life. As a result I'm getting really good at making omlettes and I now make a real nice chilli. This week has been all sun and I was recently put in contact with the local longboarding community and thusly I have spent the last few days skateboarding, losing skin and generally having a merry old time. I can see my self almost being good at it by the end of the month. Sadly though, this town is the most uninspiring and depressing place to try and train parkour which has lead me to not do it much, which is a real shame because I love doing that silly leaping about and all that. So the net result of summer up here looks like it will be I get good at longboarding but worse at parkour. I'm not sure how I feel about that.
In other news I'll be jetting down to a friend's summer island later in the month where I will be having sauna and lounging around on a beach like a casual gent. I'll report back in that later.
Now that I'm back in Finland I have resolved to try and lose a bunch of the fat and laziness that I gained in Ireland from living the good life. As a result I'm getting really good at making omlettes and I now make a real nice chilli. This week has been all sun and I was recently put in contact with the local longboarding community and thusly I have spent the last few days skateboarding, losing skin and generally having a merry old time. I can see my self almost being good at it by the end of the month. Sadly though, this town is the most uninspiring and depressing place to try and train parkour which has lead me to not do it much, which is a real shame because I love doing that silly leaping about and all that. So the net result of summer up here looks like it will be I get good at longboarding but worse at parkour. I'm not sure how I feel about that.
In other news I'll be jetting down to a friend's summer island later in the month where I will be having sauna and lounging around on a beach like a casual gent. I'll report back in that later.
Monday, 28 May 2012
A semester of things
Alright so I'm just gunna start off and say that Finland is pretty swell and in general I've been having a great time running a muck about the place. I've seen and done some pretty fantastic things here along with meeting some genuinely excellent chaps and chapettes. I've also received the odd letter or two from some of my most stalwart friends back home which is just lovely.
Its a bit odd right now, as a write this I'm looking out my window where just over a month ago there was still a large amount of snow covering everything, now the place is a luscious green marvel of a place and I feel somewhat like I should be an extra on the set for lord of the rings. And if I go back to January, when I arrived, the contrast is even greater. When I got here there were around 3-4 hours of light a day, -20 was a pretty normal temperature, and there was a good half a meter to a meter of snow on everything. Now its bright and sunny until about 10:30 in the evening and even after that it only gets a bit dim. there is no total darkness anymore. Which is creepy as shit.
I'm going on a trip to Dublin tomorrow night which sort of signifies the end of this semester. Every exchange student here is going home except for 2 Brazilian guys (and one of them is a master's student so he doesn't count) which has prompted some reminiscing on my be half. A lot of these memories are quite arbitrary ones of going out to bars and night clubs and getting wasted but there are also some genuinely swell ones which would cause a ventricle to burst were you to experience them all in one go. I can't be bothered to write all the things I've done so I'll just bash out some photos stolen from my friends since from what I hear, a picture is worth a thousand words.
So yeah, those give no real idea at all what I've been up but you kinda get the gist of it. I kinda went to uni for a bit too but that's all depressing and I don't like it at all, so that can go get bent.
Love and kisses.
Its a bit odd right now, as a write this I'm looking out my window where just over a month ago there was still a large amount of snow covering everything, now the place is a luscious green marvel of a place and I feel somewhat like I should be an extra on the set for lord of the rings. And if I go back to January, when I arrived, the contrast is even greater. When I got here there were around 3-4 hours of light a day, -20 was a pretty normal temperature, and there was a good half a meter to a meter of snow on everything. Now its bright and sunny until about 10:30 in the evening and even after that it only gets a bit dim. there is no total darkness anymore. Which is creepy as shit.
I'm going on a trip to Dublin tomorrow night which sort of signifies the end of this semester. Every exchange student here is going home except for 2 Brazilian guys (and one of them is a master's student so he doesn't count) which has prompted some reminiscing on my be half. A lot of these memories are quite arbitrary ones of going out to bars and night clubs and getting wasted but there are also some genuinely swell ones which would cause a ventricle to burst were you to experience them all in one go. I can't be bothered to write all the things I've done so I'll just bash out some photos stolen from my friends since from what I hear, a picture is worth a thousand words.
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The river when I arrived |
| On really cold days the one part of the river that wasn't fully frozen gave off lots of steam |
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| Those thar northern lights |
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| Makan' handy craft portraits of our selves |
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| Casually walking into a night club in nothing but a bathrobe, boxers and shoes. |
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| Havn' a pint 'o cream on Paddy's day |
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| Dressed and acting like pirates on a cruise across the Baltic |
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| Soakin' up dem Swedish rays |
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| I wasn't present for this event, but it sums up Finland fairly well |
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| Shootn' ice at trees from a tall tower |
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| Painting the Union Jack onto a guy before heading out to a night club |
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| Taking part in the May day Celebrations. See here and here. |
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| Enjoyin' dem great out doors and finding a BIG pile of sawdust concealing a pile of snow |
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| More 'o dem outsides |
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| If we'd been loungin' like lizards on this rock two months ago, we'd probably be dead. |
So yeah, those give no real idea at all what I've been up but you kinda get the gist of it. I kinda went to uni for a bit too but that's all depressing and I don't like it at all, so that can go get bent.
Love and kisses.
Monday, 27 February 2012
Finland. Its a place with things to do.
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| Beat that birch |
1. Sauna. You think sauna is all about towels and a gentle relaxing time right? Well, you're kinda right. The saunas we have back home are nowhere near hot enough. Here its considered cold if its anywhere under 90 degrees Celsius which is a bit different to the 70 degree ones back home. So firstly its god damn hot. Secondly, unlike at home, its a naked fest for all concerned and those caught waring pants are often scorned for such behavior. Then theres the masochistic acts that are often done together with sauna. Namely vihta and snow diving. Snow diving is pretty self explanatory, you run from the sauna to the snow and jump in. Naked. Its great, trust me. Vihta is a bunch of birch branches tied together that you use whip your self and generally cover the sauna in leaves. Its great, trust me.
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| Easily more interesting than reindeer |
3. See santa. Yeah he lives here apparently. I met him one time.
4. Get drunk on vodka. Honestly actual vodka is hard to get here because a) they tax alcohol a lot here and b) they have really high standards when it comes to vodka. Absolute is treated as rubbish here. But yeah, I've done it.
5. Walk over a frozen river/lake. It gets cold enough here that in mid winter, when the ice is thick enough, they open up pathways across the frozen river to foot traffic and snow mobiles to use. Its a pretty odd experience when you're casually walking over the middle of one of the biggest rivers in Finland. I'm usually scared that it'll break and I'll sink to a watery grave.
6. Swim in afore mentioned river/lake. Some person thought it would be a good idea to cut a hole in the ice and swim in the freezing water underneath. Lord knows why, that shit's cold yo. When I do it, the second I get in the water I wonder what the hell I'm doing.
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| The lights above the neighbor's house |
And thus concludes my list of things that most people think you should do here. Yup.
Tuesday, 14 February 2012
Happy friend day to all
I don't like Valentine's day. And not for the usual reasons that people have like single people being jealous of happy couples and the like. My beef is with the notion that you have to have a special day to show someone how much you love them. What the dicks is up with that? If you love someone you should make sure they know it all the time, not one day a year cooked up to sell cards loosely based on the story of a saint.
Enter The Finnish translation of Valentine's day: Ystavanpaiva. Literally translated it means "Friend Day". Now to be honest I have no idea what Finn's do on friend day as I have spent most of it locked in my flat avoiding reading a design research book and listening to Immortal and generally not talking to people at all. BUT what I would like to think this day is about up this neck o' the woods (do woods have necks?) is a celebration of friendship, something most seem to take for granted that doesn't seem to be celebrated unless you're really drunk. Friendship is great. I like it, you like it. Lets celebrate it. Grab a friend, grab a mutually shared interest and celebrate the fact that you enjoy being around certain people more than others.
Most of my dear friends aren't in this country, but I sure wish they were. Happy friend day friends.
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| Friends together are strong |
Most of my dear friends aren't in this country, but I sure wish they were. Happy friend day friends.
Monday, 6 February 2012
I walked on a river today
The river is so frozen now its safe to walk over to the uni on it. I did that today. Yup.
Thursday, 26 January 2012
Mina en puhu suomea. Anteeksi.
Finland, its a place that I am. Its cold and until recently it was dark. But its pretty swell. And hence forth I shall start rambling in no particular order about nothing in particular.
Getting here: Getting here involved sleeping in some uncomfortable places (cars, floors, planes, trains), being quite close to people I have never met for extended periods of time, sitting for pretty much 12 hours straight and having a reaaaall hard time trying to find a good cappuccino in Amsterdam airport. Oh and they edited all the best parts of Goldeneye out on the in-flight movie selection, I mean why did they get rid of the toilet scene? So getting here was a pain in the ass and I don't plan on doing any intercontinental travel again any time in the next few months.
Drinking: My casual alcohol consumption has sky rocketed over the last two weeks. From maybe one night out a month to several nights out on the piss per week. Why just this Monday night I was at a party. And for some reason there was a child there. Apparently he shows up at heaps of parties. There is more than one night club in this town but for some reason, so far I have only been in one. Now I normally don't like night clubs, but this one has the ok from me because they played some Jimmy Hendrix for me and my friend last night. I don't think mooseheads would do that. Oh and mooseheads isn't full of cute Europeans.
Recreation: This place is great for the old recreation. I have a gym in my basement, a ski slope a 20 minute walk away and hiking is 5 minutes away. Last night I went rock climbing for a mere 5 Euro which was grand. I'm yet to go ice skating, but I hear its marvelous, and free. I don't think I've been so constantly physically active for a while.
Food: The uni will give me a massive meal for less than 2.50 which is amazing. Shame I'm never there at the right times. Other than that I'm getting pretty good at making shit up with a meager selection of ingredients. Yesterday I made ANZAC biscuits too which was swell.
Exchange students: They're fun to hang out with. I just pop over to their building and there's always some sort of fun happening. I wandered into a French flat last night and ended up as a member of the "Buffalo Club" which is a super cool exciting thing to be a part of apparently. Mostly I just hang out with the Irish though. They're great fun.
Straya day: Yup its not a thing here, but I'm gunna cook up some sausages anyway. Happy Straya day!
Getting here: Getting here involved sleeping in some uncomfortable places (cars, floors, planes, trains), being quite close to people I have never met for extended periods of time, sitting for pretty much 12 hours straight and having a reaaaall hard time trying to find a good cappuccino in Amsterdam airport. Oh and they edited all the best parts of Goldeneye out on the in-flight movie selection, I mean why did they get rid of the toilet scene? So getting here was a pain in the ass and I don't plan on doing any intercontinental travel again any time in the next few months.
Drinking: My casual alcohol consumption has sky rocketed over the last two weeks. From maybe one night out a month to several nights out on the piss per week. Why just this Monday night I was at a party. And for some reason there was a child there. Apparently he shows up at heaps of parties. There is more than one night club in this town but for some reason, so far I have only been in one. Now I normally don't like night clubs, but this one has the ok from me because they played some Jimmy Hendrix for me and my friend last night. I don't think mooseheads would do that. Oh and mooseheads isn't full of cute Europeans.
Recreation: This place is great for the old recreation. I have a gym in my basement, a ski slope a 20 minute walk away and hiking is 5 minutes away. Last night I went rock climbing for a mere 5 Euro which was grand. I'm yet to go ice skating, but I hear its marvelous, and free. I don't think I've been so constantly physically active for a while.
Food: The uni will give me a massive meal for less than 2.50 which is amazing. Shame I'm never there at the right times. Other than that I'm getting pretty good at making shit up with a meager selection of ingredients. Yesterday I made ANZAC biscuits too which was swell.
Exchange students: They're fun to hang out with. I just pop over to their building and there's always some sort of fun happening. I wandered into a French flat last night and ended up as a member of the "Buffalo Club" which is a super cool exciting thing to be a part of apparently. Mostly I just hang out with the Irish though. They're great fun.
Straya day: Yup its not a thing here, but I'm gunna cook up some sausages anyway. Happy Straya day!
Tuesday, 27 December 2011
Thoughts on departure
I'll say this for moving overseas for an extended period, it sure does make you popular. Just today I received at least 4 phone calls from 4 different people requesting my company, which I sadly had to decline due to prior arrangements. Never in my life have I felt so popular. I should move more often.But mostly its just a pain in the ass. Happily a lot of the annoying things have been taken care of like flights, visas, housing ect. but there are still many annoying things about moving OS on a student budget.
Packing: Currently I have been tasked with trying to cram pretty much everything I'll need for 2 years in to one suitcase with a limit of 20kg, a backpack and the pair of pants with the biggest pockets I can find. Currently I've had to cull my precious t-shirt collection down to "must-haves", I'm trying to figure out how best to get my skateboard over there or if its more cost effective to send it and leaving my precious N64 at home for 2 years is going to be the end of me most likely. And there is also the concern that anything left behind will either be damaged or thrown out by my family members while they have the chance to clear out my "clutter". All I can say is that if anyone even TOUCHES my CD collection without my permission, they will be killed.
Money: Shit's expensive yo. I currently don't have enough money to live comfortably for two years AND fly back to Australia when I'm done. Let's see how that goes...
BUT this all has the pay off of me living in a beautiful country where drunken nudity is not only accepted, but expected, for a decent amount of time. Come see me, it'll be like a dream.
Wednesday, 2 November 2011
Similarities between Norse and Christian religions pt.2
So I realized I missed some points in my previous post. Here comes some more mindless drivel!
Significant people sacrificing them selves.
So you of course know that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. What an upstanding thing to do. Not sure what beef the Romans had with him but oh well. Its alright he rose up again 3 days later.
BUT did you know Odin also sacrificed him self for the good of others? Well mostly. When you look at it, his actions could also been seen as overly selfish, but I choose to believe he has every one's best interests at heart. Basically, Odin first sacrificed one of his eyes at Mimir's well in exchange for a drink from the waters in order to gain great wisdom. He became wise but wanted to be more wise (so he could help people right?) so he hung him self from Yggdrasil (the world tree) for 9 days and was pierced by his own spear as an offering to him self. Yes, he sacrificed him self to him self. While hanging from the tree he observed all the 9 worlds and gained great wisdom. He learned 18 runes (18 is a multiple of 9, noticing a pattern here?) that gave him various powers that he could use to help him self or others. He had certain powers just for him, such as a rune that made it impossible to tie him up, but many for others that mostly gave great advantage in battle (very important in Viking culture) such as invulnerability, blunting enemy weapons, the ability to catch arrows etc. etc. There were also a few more practical ones such as one that allowed him to save ships from storms. All up some pretty spiffing things for a chap to be able to do for you. Anyway he learned all this while he was dying on the tree, but its ok he was fine after a good lie down.
Apple theft.
Adam and Eve, those naughty devils, ate some of God's apples in the garden of Eden after being convinced to do so by a sneeky snake and as a result they were promptly ejected from the premises. Harsh drag.
Well I'm sure you'll be amazed to hear that there is a similar story in Norse myth! In this version a giant called Thiazi steals not only the apples of the gods but the god who grows them too. This is all in a cunning plot to see the gods wither into old age (the apples provide eternal youth) and the giant makes off with the goddess Idun to his home in Jountenheim. Loki is sent to retrieve Idun (I won't tell the story but its his fault she was kidnapped) so he transforms into a falcon and flies to the land of giants to get her. He finds her, uses magic runes to turn her into a nut and starts to fly back to Asgaard, but not before Thiazi finds out that Idun is gone! Thiazi thurns into an eagle and chases Loki down just as he reaches the realm of the gods, but luckily the gods are awaiting his and Loki's arrival and they promptly set him on fire and kill him for stealing their apples. That's how that tale goes down. I like it because people are turning into things all the time and there is a chase scene.
In both versions the perpetrators learn not to steal apples. Adam and Eve via being kicked out of paradise and Thiazi by being set on fire then killed. The lesson here is gods really like apples.
Significant people sacrificing them selves.
So you of course know that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. What an upstanding thing to do. Not sure what beef the Romans had with him but oh well. Its alright he rose up again 3 days later.
BUT did you know Odin also sacrificed him self for the good of others? Well mostly. When you look at it, his actions could also been seen as overly selfish, but I choose to believe he has every one's best interests at heart. Basically, Odin first sacrificed one of his eyes at Mimir's well in exchange for a drink from the waters in order to gain great wisdom. He became wise but wanted to be more wise (so he could help people right?) so he hung him self from Yggdrasil (the world tree) for 9 days and was pierced by his own spear as an offering to him self. Yes, he sacrificed him self to him self. While hanging from the tree he observed all the 9 worlds and gained great wisdom. He learned 18 runes (18 is a multiple of 9, noticing a pattern here?) that gave him various powers that he could use to help him self or others. He had certain powers just for him, such as a rune that made it impossible to tie him up, but many for others that mostly gave great advantage in battle (very important in Viking culture) such as invulnerability, blunting enemy weapons, the ability to catch arrows etc. etc. There were also a few more practical ones such as one that allowed him to save ships from storms. All up some pretty spiffing things for a chap to be able to do for you. Anyway he learned all this while he was dying on the tree, but its ok he was fine after a good lie down.
Apple theft.
Adam and Eve, those naughty devils, ate some of God's apples in the garden of Eden after being convinced to do so by a sneeky snake and as a result they were promptly ejected from the premises. Harsh drag.
Well I'm sure you'll be amazed to hear that there is a similar story in Norse myth! In this version a giant called Thiazi steals not only the apples of the gods but the god who grows them too. This is all in a cunning plot to see the gods wither into old age (the apples provide eternal youth) and the giant makes off with the goddess Idun to his home in Jountenheim. Loki is sent to retrieve Idun (I won't tell the story but its his fault she was kidnapped) so he transforms into a falcon and flies to the land of giants to get her. He finds her, uses magic runes to turn her into a nut and starts to fly back to Asgaard, but not before Thiazi finds out that Idun is gone! Thiazi thurns into an eagle and chases Loki down just as he reaches the realm of the gods, but luckily the gods are awaiting his and Loki's arrival and they promptly set him on fire and kill him for stealing their apples. That's how that tale goes down. I like it because people are turning into things all the time and there is a chase scene.
In both versions the perpetrators learn not to steal apples. Adam and Eve via being kicked out of paradise and Thiazi by being set on fire then killed. The lesson here is gods really like apples.
Monday, 31 October 2011
Copyrite or coincidence?
I don't feel the urge to write often but this is a thing I've been thinking about lately and figure I should put it down somewhere before I forget.
I'm just going to put this out there, this could be offensive if you are a religious type, but that's not what I'm getting at here. I just find this real interesting.
As you may or may not know, I have quite the liking for things both Norse and mythological, so it stands to reason that Norse mythology is something I like to investigate. Over the time that I have been reading Norse myths about creation and general activities of gods and what not I have noticed some rather curious similarities between them and my limited understanding of Christianity (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong about anything though. Most of my Religious education comes from the Simpsons) so if you care to read on I will be rambling on at no particular rate about what I've noticed...
The general structure of the world.
-The Christian model for how the universe is generally put together is pretty well known. Up the top you have Heaven, a place where God lives and where all the good and righteous chaps and chapettes go when they die, if they have earned God's favor. Then there's the Earth where people go about their lives, its pretty uninteresting generally. But they do have skateboards and rock concerts so its not all that bad. Then underneath is Hell, a generally hot, firey, uncomfortable place lorded over by a fallen angel called Satan who was kicked out of Heaven because God was afraid he'd start shit. Satan is generally seen as a flaming daemon type character bent on destroying the realm of Heaven and generally causing a rukus. This is where you go if you're a bad egg when you die.
-The Christian structure is all pretty well known. But do you know how the Norse world is structured? Well for a start its all in a tree called Yggdrasil that has three main levels with several worlds with in them (nine in total). At the top is Asgaard, the realm of the Gods. Here is where Odin (the all father, more on him later) and his family and friends hang out for the most part. It is also where Odin's hall of Valhalla is located. This hall is where valiant warriors who fall in battle go when they die, to await to fight along side the gods at Ragnarok, the great battle at the end of the world. Beneath Asgaard lies Midgaard, the world of men (this shares the same level as the realm of giants called Jotunheim) and is generally pretty uninteresting until the Gods poke their nose in. Below is the underworld which importantly contains Nifelheim and Muspelheim, the realms of cold and ice and heat and flame respectively. In Nifelheim is Hel (yes with one "L"), domain of demigoddess Hella, who was expelled from Asgaard because Odin and co. were afraid she'd start shit (her father was Loki, God of mischief and change). She's half dead and half alive and generally just looks after the dead. Next to Nifelheim is Muspelheim where in dwells Surt, a flaming daemon type character bent on destroying the world and generally causing a rukus. It is said that at Ragnarok the armies of Muspel will rise up to fight the Gods and men.
Now I'm just putting it out there that there are more than a few similarities here. In fact I'd go so far as to say the two are pretty much identical save for a few minor details like names and the like. Obviously Christianity's version is lacking a big old ash tree but the similarities between the two are quite interesting. I particularly find the way the Christian underworld seems to be a blending of the two realms and main occupants of its Norse counterpart to be of great interest, it even borrows the name. With Hella and Surt being combined to create Satan and the realms of Nifelheim and Muspelheim combining to create Hell. Interesting no?
Creation and all that Jazz.
-So from what I've heard God was a pretty swell fellow and made us the world in 6 days and also invented taking a day off too (what a rad dude). I have no idea what he used to make it from or anything like that but he certainly didn't just rock up on a pre built place and get his divinity on. He built everything from scratch. He then made two people, a man and a woman, called Adam and Eve who then went on to spawn all humans on Earth. Then later on God flooded the Earth to cleanse it of the wicked (yeah I know that isn't a part of creation but bear with me here).
-In Norse mythology the creation of the world is a little more complex as it also involves the creation of the universe too (the story is similar to that of the big bang if you ask me...). In the start there was just Nifelheim and Muspelheim (remember them from before?). A realm of ice and once of fire. My understanding is that they expanded, with rivers of ice flowing from Nifelheim and heat and fire from Muspel, until they came together in a place called Ginnugagap where the fires of Muspel started to melt the Ice of Nifelheim. Eventually the drops of water from the melting ice formed into Yimir, the first frost giant. From here it goes on similarly with various characters emerging from the ice in various ways (the first "man" is licked out of the ice by a cow). Basically from here there were a bunch of dudes hanging out, both men and giants. The men fathered Odin and his brothers Vili and Ve. Those giants were causing a rukus and generally messing the place up and Odin and his bros didn't take kindly to that, no sir! Basically they just decided to kill Yimir. So they did. Then they dragged his body to the middle Ginnungagap and over some time made the world out of his body (did you know that clouds are actually a giant's brain?). The three brothers then later made the first man and woman called Ask and Embla out of an ash and an elm. They then went on to populate the world. During the creation of the world, there was a great flood of blood (keeping in mind the world was being made from Yimir's body) that drowned all the giants bar two, a giant named Bergelmir and his wife, who survived the flood in a boat made from a hollowed out tree.
The similarities are pretty obvious here. God(s) made the world. Made people. Killed wicked creatures with a flood, which was survived by few in a boat.
God/Gods getting ladies knocked up.
-Basic tale of Christmas, Marry is pregnant with Jesus, Joseph has nothing to do with it. Cuckolded by God, nice.
-In the Viking world there were three castes of people. Basically put, slaves, free men and kings and the like. The way these three castes were established is told in the song of Rig, where in the god Heimdrall heads into Midgaard posing as a man called Rig. In the tale he travels about and on three separate nights he seeks shelter from three different couples, in three different houses of three different levels of niceness. That is to say one was rubbish, then comfortable, then real nice. While staying in these places he would sleep between the man and woman living there and the next morning the woman would be pregnant. The children of these encounters would be the beginnings of the three castes. Summary: Heimdrall is a dick and you shouldn't let him stay at your house or he'll knock up your wife while you're sleeping next to him.
The end of the world.
-I'll be the first to admit I know very little about the Christian version of the end of the world BUT my understanding of it goes something like this. The Rapture, all those who God deems worthy get taken to Heaven. For every one else its Hell on earth basically, with the armies of Satan running rampant about the place causing havoc, death and destruction. So far as I know the four horsemen of he apocalypse ride out and cause a bit of a mess too, basically heralding the end of everything. I'm also under the impression that a happy fellow known as Leviathan rises from the bottom of the ocean and starts to churn up a storm. So much rukus is happening no one really knows what's going on.
-In Nosre mythology the end of the world is seen as a big battle called Ragnarok. During Ragnarok various creatures rise up against the gods of Asgaard to destroy the world. It is somewhat similar to the Christian version but not quite. Instead of those chosen by the gods being taken to safety, they instead ride proudly into battle against the forces of evil along side the gods to fight in a battle they know they'll loose. This is where the armies of Surt (that Satan like fellow from before) ride on the rest of the world, setting things on fire and what not. There are several heralds of the Apocalypse, namely Loki and his sons Fenrir and Jormagand, who's arrival can be seen somewhat like that of the four horse men. At the end of the world Loki joins in the mess with Surt by committing an army of Giants the fray. Fenrir the wolf breaks his bonds (he had been bound by the gods because they were scared that he would start shit) and runs rampant on the earth opening his mouth so wide that his lower jaw scrapes the ground and his upper touches the sky. His brother Jormagand (also known as the Midgaard serpent) churns up the oceans and makes way for dry land and promptly starts spitting venom all over the place. The gods fight against these characters ending in both sides being killed. Generally there is so much rukus happening no one really knows what's going on. After the battle everyone is dead. Gods, monsters, everyone. Except for two humans who hid inside Yggdrasil. These two go in to repopulate the world and everything starts again.
In my simple mind these two events are almost the same save a few choice details. There's armies of evil running about the place. The chosen of God/the gods are involved in some way. There are heralds and there is a big sea creature that basically messes up anything he can. But in the Norse version everything keeps going after.
So what?
What I wonder is if it is a coincidence that there are so many overlapping elements of these religions i.e do people find the same ways to explain things no matter where they are? Or is it more that the Christian missionaries were influenced by the Viking religion when they arrived in the region? Perhaps the populous changed the religion around their pre-existing beliefs? Or did Christianity just think these were some cool stories that they'd kinda like in their religion too? Who knows, I just think its real interesting.
/rant
I'm just going to put this out there, this could be offensive if you are a religious type, but that's not what I'm getting at here. I just find this real interesting.
As you may or may not know, I have quite the liking for things both Norse and mythological, so it stands to reason that Norse mythology is something I like to investigate. Over the time that I have been reading Norse myths about creation and general activities of gods and what not I have noticed some rather curious similarities between them and my limited understanding of Christianity (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong about anything though. Most of my Religious education comes from the Simpsons) so if you care to read on I will be rambling on at no particular rate about what I've noticed...
The general structure of the world.
-The Christian model for how the universe is generally put together is pretty well known. Up the top you have Heaven, a place where God lives and where all the good and righteous chaps and chapettes go when they die, if they have earned God's favor. Then there's the Earth where people go about their lives, its pretty uninteresting generally. But they do have skateboards and rock concerts so its not all that bad. Then underneath is Hell, a generally hot, firey, uncomfortable place lorded over by a fallen angel called Satan who was kicked out of Heaven because God was afraid he'd start shit. Satan is generally seen as a flaming daemon type character bent on destroying the realm of Heaven and generally causing a rukus. This is where you go if you're a bad egg when you die.
 |
| Yggdrasil |
Now I'm just putting it out there that there are more than a few similarities here. In fact I'd go so far as to say the two are pretty much identical save for a few minor details like names and the like. Obviously Christianity's version is lacking a big old ash tree but the similarities between the two are quite interesting. I particularly find the way the Christian underworld seems to be a blending of the two realms and main occupants of its Norse counterpart to be of great interest, it even borrows the name. With Hella and Surt being combined to create Satan and the realms of Nifelheim and Muspelheim combining to create Hell. Interesting no?
Creation and all that Jazz.
-So from what I've heard God was a pretty swell fellow and made us the world in 6 days and also invented taking a day off too (what a rad dude). I have no idea what he used to make it from or anything like that but he certainly didn't just rock up on a pre built place and get his divinity on. He built everything from scratch. He then made two people, a man and a woman, called Adam and Eve who then went on to spawn all humans on Earth. Then later on God flooded the Earth to cleanse it of the wicked (yeah I know that isn't a part of creation but bear with me here).
 |
| Odin riding his 8 legged horse Sleipnir, followed by his two ravens and wolf |
The similarities are pretty obvious here. God(s) made the world. Made people. Killed wicked creatures with a flood, which was survived by few in a boat.
God/Gods getting ladies knocked up.
-Basic tale of Christmas, Marry is pregnant with Jesus, Joseph has nothing to do with it. Cuckolded by God, nice.
-In the Viking world there were three castes of people. Basically put, slaves, free men and kings and the like. The way these three castes were established is told in the song of Rig, where in the god Heimdrall heads into Midgaard posing as a man called Rig. In the tale he travels about and on three separate nights he seeks shelter from three different couples, in three different houses of three different levels of niceness. That is to say one was rubbish, then comfortable, then real nice. While staying in these places he would sleep between the man and woman living there and the next morning the woman would be pregnant. The children of these encounters would be the beginnings of the three castes. Summary: Heimdrall is a dick and you shouldn't let him stay at your house or he'll knock up your wife while you're sleeping next to him.
The end of the world.
-I'll be the first to admit I know very little about the Christian version of the end of the world BUT my understanding of it goes something like this. The Rapture, all those who God deems worthy get taken to Heaven. For every one else its Hell on earth basically, with the armies of Satan running rampant about the place causing havoc, death and destruction. So far as I know the four horsemen of he apocalypse ride out and cause a bit of a mess too, basically heralding the end of everything. I'm also under the impression that a happy fellow known as Leviathan rises from the bottom of the ocean and starts to churn up a storm. So much rukus is happening no one really knows what's going on.
 |
| Gods face their enemies at Ragnarok |
-In Nosre mythology the end of the world is seen as a big battle called Ragnarok. During Ragnarok various creatures rise up against the gods of Asgaard to destroy the world. It is somewhat similar to the Christian version but not quite. Instead of those chosen by the gods being taken to safety, they instead ride proudly into battle against the forces of evil along side the gods to fight in a battle they know they'll loose. This is where the armies of Surt (that Satan like fellow from before) ride on the rest of the world, setting things on fire and what not. There are several heralds of the Apocalypse, namely Loki and his sons Fenrir and Jormagand, who's arrival can be seen somewhat like that of the four horse men. At the end of the world Loki joins in the mess with Surt by committing an army of Giants the fray. Fenrir the wolf breaks his bonds (he had been bound by the gods because they were scared that he would start shit) and runs rampant on the earth opening his mouth so wide that his lower jaw scrapes the ground and his upper touches the sky. His brother Jormagand (also known as the Midgaard serpent) churns up the oceans and makes way for dry land and promptly starts spitting venom all over the place. The gods fight against these characters ending in both sides being killed. Generally there is so much rukus happening no one really knows what's going on. After the battle everyone is dead. Gods, monsters, everyone. Except for two humans who hid inside Yggdrasil. These two go in to repopulate the world and everything starts again.
In my simple mind these two events are almost the same save a few choice details. There's armies of evil running about the place. The chosen of God/the gods are involved in some way. There are heralds and there is a big sea creature that basically messes up anything he can. But in the Norse version everything keeps going after.
So what?
What I wonder is if it is a coincidence that there are so many overlapping elements of these religions i.e do people find the same ways to explain things no matter where they are? Or is it more that the Christian missionaries were influenced by the Viking religion when they arrived in the region? Perhaps the populous changed the religion around their pre-existing beliefs? Or did Christianity just think these were some cool stories that they'd kinda like in their religion too? Who knows, I just think its real interesting.
/rant
Monday, 25 July 2011
Things I've been thinking of late.
Sometimes I remember that I have a blog to write my rambling thought paths down into for all the world to see. The problem is when ever I think of something to write I'm not near my computer and when I am I've forgotten what I was going to say. And they were good things to say too. Anyhoo, here's a few things that have been on my mind.
1. Religious holidays in Harry Potter. I'm all for tolerance and all that jazz and I have no objections to witches and wizards exchanging gifts under a large tree that has been erected indoors at christmas time but one thing bothers me here. Doesn't god hate witchcraft and all that sort of thing? I'm sure there was this whole burning witches at the stake thing that happened at some point that I would have thought would make magic types want to distance them selves from religious types as much as possible. I understand that christmas is a pretty neat time of year and all (I'm certainly not religious and I certainly don't object to food and gifts in large amounts) but I figured magic types may have some better thing to do than celebrate a holiday central to the reason their people were constantly murdered violently. Just seems like an odd choice to me is all...
2. The Finnish government. Now I understand that Finland wants to keep undesirables (read poor people) out but why the hell do they have to make it SO DAMN HARD to get into their country? Firstly I need to have 500 Euros in my bank account when I apply for my residence permit. I can't show documentation showing that I will have the amount by the time I'm in the country, I clearly need to have that money 6 months before arriving. I understand that you don't want some foreign schmuck mooching around in your country doing nothing but taking up valuable resources that could be used by useful people and 500 Euro per month is a reasonable amount to expect but it makes it very hard to get a visa if you have to have it on hand right away. Health insurance is another thing. Sure, again you don't want to be supporting mooching internationals on your excellent public health scheme but Australia and Finland have made a thing stating that Australians have access to medicare in Finnish medical facilities (read we still get subsidized healthcare like we would here) so why do I need insurance that does pretty much the same thing? Or perhaps I don't understand how medicare works, which is entierly possible...
3. My boss. Why would you sign someone onto a permanent part time contract for 21 hours a week then hire more people and cut everyone's hours? It just makes no sense to me. Also why is it so hard to actually roster me on for the hours you promised to give me?
4. Why are people scared of fun? There's this dude I work with who seems to be scared of having any fun at all. Anything at all seems to be far too risky for him to consider doing. I'm surprised he's even left his house. I mean honestly what's the point in having a life if you spend all your time doing nothing to keep safe.
5. Nintendo 64 controllers. Seriously, Nintendo designed a great controller for a great platform but why did they allow it to fall down in material selection? I recently pulled apart a N64 controller to see if I could discover why the joystick goes all loose and limp after a while and it turns out that it all came down to poor material selection by the design department. There are three components which are in constant contact in the joystick assembly, namely the joystick its self and two black plastic parts that it locks into and moves when the joystick is moved (which in turn activate optical sensors that tell the computer that's going on. Think old school ball mouse). The joystick is made of a harder material than the two black parts which results in the black part grinding away every time the stick is moved and causing the stick to feel loose after a while as it has nothing holding it up anymore. Games like Zelda, Mario Party and GoldenEye (which relied heavily on vicious joystick use) have a lot to answer for here. Was this planed by Nintendo to facilitate more control sales (remember all the pretty colours these things came in?) or just some lack on foresight by the design team?
Anyway, that's me done for now. I hope you enjoy my poor spelling and bad grammar.
1. Religious holidays in Harry Potter. I'm all for tolerance and all that jazz and I have no objections to witches and wizards exchanging gifts under a large tree that has been erected indoors at christmas time but one thing bothers me here. Doesn't god hate witchcraft and all that sort of thing? I'm sure there was this whole burning witches at the stake thing that happened at some point that I would have thought would make magic types want to distance them selves from religious types as much as possible. I understand that christmas is a pretty neat time of year and all (I'm certainly not religious and I certainly don't object to food and gifts in large amounts) but I figured magic types may have some better thing to do than celebrate a holiday central to the reason their people were constantly murdered violently. Just seems like an odd choice to me is all...
2. The Finnish government. Now I understand that Finland wants to keep undesirables (read poor people) out but why the hell do they have to make it SO DAMN HARD to get into their country? Firstly I need to have 500 Euros in my bank account when I apply for my residence permit. I can't show documentation showing that I will have the amount by the time I'm in the country, I clearly need to have that money 6 months before arriving. I understand that you don't want some foreign schmuck mooching around in your country doing nothing but taking up valuable resources that could be used by useful people and 500 Euro per month is a reasonable amount to expect but it makes it very hard to get a visa if you have to have it on hand right away. Health insurance is another thing. Sure, again you don't want to be supporting mooching internationals on your excellent public health scheme but Australia and Finland have made a thing stating that Australians have access to medicare in Finnish medical facilities (read we still get subsidized healthcare like we would here) so why do I need insurance that does pretty much the same thing? Or perhaps I don't understand how medicare works, which is entierly possible...
3. My boss. Why would you sign someone onto a permanent part time contract for 21 hours a week then hire more people and cut everyone's hours? It just makes no sense to me. Also why is it so hard to actually roster me on for the hours you promised to give me?
4. Why are people scared of fun? There's this dude I work with who seems to be scared of having any fun at all. Anything at all seems to be far too risky for him to consider doing. I'm surprised he's even left his house. I mean honestly what's the point in having a life if you spend all your time doing nothing to keep safe.
 |
| What your joystick looks like inside (LOOK AT THE DUST!) |
 |
| The sides of the hole are not supposed to have a big curve in them |
Thursday, 23 June 2011
Driving with Douglas
I'm scared of a great many things, snakes, heights, really small places where I can't lift my arms, deep and meaningful conversations... but the one thing that scares me more than many of those things is driving with my father. During the time that I was on my L's my dad was very insistent that I learn how to drive properly and safely. He even made me read a few books on safe driving techniques (I think he may even have quized me on them). I even remember one afternoon where he made me reverse around a car park for at least half an hour so that I could do it well, man did my clutchn' foot hurt after that one. When I got my license, that birthday I received a voucher for a defensive driver training course from my dad because he wanted me to be a safe driver. I learned the basics of how my car would act in varying situations and how to act safely on the road, which was all great, a very good gift for a new driver indeed. I was also encouraged to complete and off road driver training course, which I did and that was great. all up my dad wanted me to be a safe and cautious driver.
So why, I query, is driving with my dad at the wheel often such a frightful experience? I have a memory from some family holiday of my dad over taking several cars around a corner on double un-broken lines. Which to me back then was perfectly normal. I mean everyone's dad drives like that right? Just tonight as we were traveling to the gym for our weekly pump fest, we were speeding, tailgating, doing risky lane changes and taking some very small gaps. If we were in a hurry this may have made sense, but we weren't, so it seems quite unnecessary to take such risks and endanger the live of others for a trivial time gain. We were almost in an accident and I was constantly pushing my right foot into the floor looking for a brake pedal that wasn't there. I remember once in high school I was at a friend's house and we wanted to go to the shops, so we got my mates brother to drive us. He drove your typical bogan HSV commodore so a mere drive to the shops consisted of multiple power slides, burnouts and a top speed that exceeded 100km/h. The thing was I didn't notice, I was too busy thinking how much I hated the nelly song playing on the CD player. My mate was most surprised when he asked me what I thought of the drive I had no idea what he was talking about. For me it was just a regular drive. I'm not saying my father is a drastically speeding, burnout doing bogan, but it's not uncommon to here those tires squeal from time to time. Mostly I've just taken to accepting that fact that he's never actually BEEN in an accident ever so I'll probably be fine... probably...
So why, I query, is driving with my dad at the wheel often such a frightful experience? I have a memory from some family holiday of my dad over taking several cars around a corner on double un-broken lines. Which to me back then was perfectly normal. I mean everyone's dad drives like that right? Just tonight as we were traveling to the gym for our weekly pump fest, we were speeding, tailgating, doing risky lane changes and taking some very small gaps. If we were in a hurry this may have made sense, but we weren't, so it seems quite unnecessary to take such risks and endanger the live of others for a trivial time gain. We were almost in an accident and I was constantly pushing my right foot into the floor looking for a brake pedal that wasn't there. I remember once in high school I was at a friend's house and we wanted to go to the shops, so we got my mates brother to drive us. He drove your typical bogan HSV commodore so a mere drive to the shops consisted of multiple power slides, burnouts and a top speed that exceeded 100km/h. The thing was I didn't notice, I was too busy thinking how much I hated the nelly song playing on the CD player. My mate was most surprised when he asked me what I thought of the drive I had no idea what he was talking about. For me it was just a regular drive. I'm not saying my father is a drastically speeding, burnout doing bogan, but it's not uncommon to here those tires squeal from time to time. Mostly I've just taken to accepting that fact that he's never actually BEEN in an accident ever so I'll probably be fine... probably...
Sunday, 19 June 2011
Your fittness is what you make it fool!
Before I start, I have no problem with fat people. If you want to be fat that's fine with me, just don't complain to me and do nothing about it please. Also its important to note that I have no qualifications at all.
Now I am hardly a fit person. I spend more than my fair share of time in front of a computer contributing in no way to the betterment of man kind. I like to drink, eat fatty things and spend whole days watching TV shows. Yet I am constantly cursed as a "fit skinny bastard" which I think is a little un-just. I'm going to make a possibly very offensive statement here. If you aren't as fit an healthy as you like and don't have some legitimately good reason for it (like a medical condition) then I'm going to go out on a limb and say its your fault. As I said I like to drink, eat and have lazy days where I do nothing, but I do this in moderation. Its about realizing what your body needs see? My dad complains to me about how skinny I am and how fat he is then proceeds to consume a whole block of blue cheese and consume a bottle of wine. This annoys the hell out of me. If you aren't happy with your weight or fitness I have no problem with you complaining (god knows I do) so long as you actually TRY to do something about it. Here's how I managed to trim off some of those pesky fat handles if you care to read.
First is food. Put simply, eat what you need. Your body uses what ever you eat to refuel and build it self, what it doesn't use it keeps for later in a general sense (read fat). Carbohydrates (like in bread, vegies, grains and all manner of other food stuffs) are what the body primarily burns for fuel. So your intake of them should compliment the amount of activity you do lest there be a surplus that later gets turned into fat. Protein is what YOU are made of so its important if you're looking to get those big biceps to impress girlies at the pool this summer. You should again be eating this stuff as suits your activity. I'm no expert in the matter though and have no idea what your goals are so I'll let you do some research in to what you should be doing here. Although I do quite like the idea of the Paleo Diet. Eating in general should be done after physical activity, not before. Its after any intensive action that your body is looking for something to replenish its fuel and build stuff out of so to get the most out of your food eat within two hours of finishing a workout. Which leads me to...
DOING STUFF. People think getting fit and healthy means they have to go buy a gym membership and buy protein shakes. But did you know you can do all that stuff for free (or close to if you want to get a bit of equipment) if you're clever? First is the most obvious. Walking and running. Cardio work is great and not enough people do it. I don't see why people have to drive to the gym to get on a treadmill either, why can't you just go for a walk? You get to see more than a bunch of fat sweaty middle aged women wobbling about and I personally feel like I actually achieve something when I go for a walk or a run. So go for a walk or run. RIGHT NOW(note: bikes are good too). Secondly is for the people who are after a bit of beef on the ol' bones. Again you don't have to go to the gym to get big and strong. Here I like to use the ideas of Georges Hébert and his natural method of training, which you can research as you will. Basically use what you have around you to make a work out. While you're out on that run why not stop at the local play ground and do some pull ups? or do some Bulgarian split squats on the park bench with a big rock? Why just an hour ago I did a strenuous workout in the corridor of my house using the floor, a door frame and a wall. Get creative. Pushups can get boring fast, but try some variations. Try different hand positions, change the elevation of your feet, put some weight on. Try it with your hands on a ball. In general body weight exercises are your friend. And if you're feeling adventurous parkour will build a lot of strength fast if you apply your self.
So if you're fat, unfit and don't like it (providing it isn't due to a medical condition) its your fault. Go do something about it. But if you like eating cakes all day and watching high quality TV shows that's fine with me too. Be what you want to see in your self.
Now I am hardly a fit person. I spend more than my fair share of time in front of a computer contributing in no way to the betterment of man kind. I like to drink, eat fatty things and spend whole days watching TV shows. Yet I am constantly cursed as a "fit skinny bastard" which I think is a little un-just. I'm going to make a possibly very offensive statement here. If you aren't as fit an healthy as you like and don't have some legitimately good reason for it (like a medical condition) then I'm going to go out on a limb and say its your fault. As I said I like to drink, eat and have lazy days where I do nothing, but I do this in moderation. Its about realizing what your body needs see? My dad complains to me about how skinny I am and how fat he is then proceeds to consume a whole block of blue cheese and consume a bottle of wine. This annoys the hell out of me. If you aren't happy with your weight or fitness I have no problem with you complaining (god knows I do) so long as you actually TRY to do something about it. Here's how I managed to trim off some of those pesky fat handles if you care to read.
First is food. Put simply, eat what you need. Your body uses what ever you eat to refuel and build it self, what it doesn't use it keeps for later in a general sense (read fat). Carbohydrates (like in bread, vegies, grains and all manner of other food stuffs) are what the body primarily burns for fuel. So your intake of them should compliment the amount of activity you do lest there be a surplus that later gets turned into fat. Protein is what YOU are made of so its important if you're looking to get those big biceps to impress girlies at the pool this summer. You should again be eating this stuff as suits your activity. I'm no expert in the matter though and have no idea what your goals are so I'll let you do some research in to what you should be doing here. Although I do quite like the idea of the Paleo Diet. Eating in general should be done after physical activity, not before. Its after any intensive action that your body is looking for something to replenish its fuel and build stuff out of so to get the most out of your food eat within two hours of finishing a workout. Which leads me to...
DOING STUFF. People think getting fit and healthy means they have to go buy a gym membership and buy protein shakes. But did you know you can do all that stuff for free (or close to if you want to get a bit of equipment) if you're clever? First is the most obvious. Walking and running. Cardio work is great and not enough people do it. I don't see why people have to drive to the gym to get on a treadmill either, why can't you just go for a walk? You get to see more than a bunch of fat sweaty middle aged women wobbling about and I personally feel like I actually achieve something when I go for a walk or a run. So go for a walk or run. RIGHT NOW(note: bikes are good too). Secondly is for the people who are after a bit of beef on the ol' bones. Again you don't have to go to the gym to get big and strong. Here I like to use the ideas of Georges Hébert and his natural method of training, which you can research as you will. Basically use what you have around you to make a work out. While you're out on that run why not stop at the local play ground and do some pull ups? or do some Bulgarian split squats on the park bench with a big rock? Why just an hour ago I did a strenuous workout in the corridor of my house using the floor, a door frame and a wall. Get creative. Pushups can get boring fast, but try some variations. Try different hand positions, change the elevation of your feet, put some weight on. Try it with your hands on a ball. In general body weight exercises are your friend. And if you're feeling adventurous parkour will build a lot of strength fast if you apply your self.
So if you're fat, unfit and don't like it (providing it isn't due to a medical condition) its your fault. Go do something about it. But if you like eating cakes all day and watching high quality TV shows that's fine with me too. Be what you want to see in your self.
Thursday, 16 June 2011
Nuclear Blast webshopping
Again as you may or may not know I have recently been on a quest for sew on patches of bands that I like in order to sew them onto a vest I have. Its a heavy metal thing and some fine examples can be seen here. So for the past few weeks I have been trawling about the internet in search of the patches I have become so hungry for. Which eventually lead me to the Nuclear Blast webshop. At first you may think, as I did, that this is your simple run-of-the mill heavy metal webshop despensing the standard fair of black band shirts and a fine range of patches. But after further investigation, it would seem that Nuclear Blast have taken things to the next level. Not only do they carry a wide range of band merchandise but anything else a metal head could need...
Firstly, what do you do as a extreme music fan? You go to festivals of course! Its ok, Nuclear Blast have you covered. They have everything the intrepid festival goer could want from tents all the way to a camp toilet and camo netting. I was amazed at how much this made sense and wonder why I had never seen this before. But wait! THERE'S MORE!
A lot of heavy metal makes reference to old religions such as that of the old Norse, so this section also makes sense even if it is a bit left of feild... I must say I was more than a little tempted by some of those drinking horns and some of that chainmail looks pretty fresh... but who could go past the chainmail neck tie? I was again, flabbergasted by the array of viking related goods available on this site owned by a recording label (who are supposed to make their money from recording stuff). I mean there's even carved wooden wall hangings and mead...
But what got me the most about this site was the homewares section, which has everything from heavy metal tea and black skull and cross bones pasta all the way up to black christmas trees with decorations. I'd like to think that when I own my own home that it would be full of classy things like this. No because I think its cool, but because I think that heavy metal is stupid as hell a lot of the time and too many people take it too seriously ALL OF THE TIME. I'm all for artists being serious with their music and that, don't get me wrong. I'm not suggesting that every band become some cheesey Alestorm type novelty, more that everything doesn't have to be frost bitten and grim all the time...
After spending several hours perusing the pages of this webshop I drew a conclusion. And that is that I should probably try not to buy stuff from it, simply because I know I'll lose controll and within 3 days a package containing a drinking horn, some cool biscuit cutters and maybe some spikes to stick on my belt would be shipped from Germany to my door. Oh, I may get some patches too.
This site is amazing and is doing a great service to the fans of metal. Not just selling the wares of the artists signed to their label but selling them the things the really need.
 |
| Heavy metal utensils |
A lot of heavy metal makes reference to old religions such as that of the old Norse, so this section also makes sense even if it is a bit left of feild... I must say I was more than a little tempted by some of those drinking horns and some of that chainmail looks pretty fresh... but who could go past the chainmail neck tie? I was again, flabbergasted by the array of viking related goods available on this site owned by a recording label (who are supposed to make their money from recording stuff). I mean there's even carved wooden wall hangings and mead...
But what got me the most about this site was the homewares section, which has everything from heavy metal tea and black skull and cross bones pasta all the way up to black christmas trees with decorations. I'd like to think that when I own my own home that it would be full of classy things like this. No because I think its cool, but because I think that heavy metal is stupid as hell a lot of the time and too many people take it too seriously ALL OF THE TIME. I'm all for artists being serious with their music and that, don't get me wrong. I'm not suggesting that every band become some cheesey Alestorm type novelty, more that everything doesn't have to be frost bitten and grim all the time...
After spending several hours perusing the pages of this webshop I drew a conclusion. And that is that I should probably try not to buy stuff from it, simply because I know I'll lose controll and within 3 days a package containing a drinking horn, some cool biscuit cutters and maybe some spikes to stick on my belt would be shipped from Germany to my door. Oh, I may get some patches too.
This site is amazing and is doing a great service to the fans of metal. Not just selling the wares of the artists signed to their label but selling them the things the really need.
Wednesday, 15 June 2011
Pungent puns with Tim
You'd best believe my life contains pun duels. To this day I have proven to be a strong pun master and just tonight I bested Tim in a pun off. Oddly enough the topic of the punning was sewing and all involved showed an unnatural amount of knowledge on the subject for two men in their early twenties still living at home. The battle raged for 20 or so minutes with many well thought out (and some not so well thought out) puns being flung to and fro. the conversation went something like this:
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
would it be too much effort to make my own blind guardian patch?
Team says:
I imagine sew.
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
oh tim
bravo
Team says:
That pun was just looming around, waiting to be used.
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
oh man
Team says:
You'll be in a stitch if you can't think of any yourself.
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
you've got me in stitches here
Oh
god
damn it
Team says:
I've just got too much material tonight.
Sassy says:
Needle little help there James?
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
my roll as pun master is unraveling
Team says:
Start a thread on 4chan about it.
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
I was going to make a thread pun
but thought better of it
I figured you'd all cotton on soon enough
but we've had a good yarn
so not all is lost
Team says:
Well, I had it bobbin around in my head for a while too.
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
see I couldn't find a way to weave it into the conversation
and neither could you
you were at a loose end
Team says:
I don't think I had to go too far from the pattern to get it in here.
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
Man
these are getting laboured
it seems like we should stop now...
*seams
Team says:
Yeah. I absolutely agree.
They're getting worn.
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
A bit thread bare
Team says:
All strung out.
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
well we've skirted it enough now
we should stop
Team says:
That's enough talk about your full metal jacket.
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
man
untill now all our puns had been cut from the same cloth
Sassy says:
Oh darn
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
but that one jumped
oh man slim
nice
Sassy says:
I was going to start some bullet puns
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
wait
did you intend that pun?
Team says:
So simple, Slim, yet so clever.
Sassy says:
But you continued
....yes
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
good
I was unsure
Sassy says:
And by that I mean no
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
this saddens me
Team says:
How long did you have that one up your sleeve?
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
a while
I'd say he just kept his lips buttoned untill the right time
Team says:
We really need to just zip it on these.
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
we really need to cut them out
yes
Team says:
Having to think of replies is getting me all hot under the collar.
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
We're going to have to trim our oun usage for a while
*pun
Team says:
Eventually one of us is going to have to split anyway.
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
before one of us comes undone
Team says:
And I'm not as good as you at fabricating puns, either.
Sassy says:
Yeah, I think soon I'm goign down for the night
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
mine are getting a little frayed around the edges though
Team says:
You're just better tailored to it.
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
you're pretty well suited your self
Team says:
Nah. I doubt I can keep going in this fashion for long.
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
you're going to have to pin me down with a good one soon though
Team says:
I thought I had you in a tight fit with that last one there.
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
I've got beads of sweat running off me trying to think of another
Team says:
Well.
You got me.
I'm all tapped out.
Well fought.
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
I'm sure you can patch together something?
Sassy says:
I wool'd think of one if I could
Team says:
I couldn't remember if we'd used 'freyed' yet, but I think you did.
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
I did
you could have made some alterations though
And that gentle reader is how I beat Tim in a sewing related pun off.
The end.
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
would it be too much effort to make my own blind guardian patch?
Team says:
I imagine sew.
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
oh tim
bravo
Team says:
That pun was just looming around, waiting to be used.
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
oh man
Team says:
You'll be in a stitch if you can't think of any yourself.
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
you've got me in stitches here
Oh
god
damn it
Team says:
I've just got too much material tonight.
Sassy says:
Needle little help there James?
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
my roll as pun master is unraveling
Team says:
Start a thread on 4chan about it.
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
I was going to make a thread pun
but thought better of it
I figured you'd all cotton on soon enough
but we've had a good yarn
so not all is lost
Team says:
Well, I had it bobbin around in my head for a while too.
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
see I couldn't find a way to weave it into the conversation
and neither could you
you were at a loose end
Team says:
I don't think I had to go too far from the pattern to get it in here.
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
Man
these are getting laboured
it seems like we should stop now...
*seams
Team says:
Yeah. I absolutely agree.
They're getting worn.
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
A bit thread bare
Team says:
All strung out.
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
well we've skirted it enough now
we should stop
Team says:
That's enough talk about your full metal jacket.
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
man
untill now all our puns had been cut from the same cloth
Sassy says:
Oh darn
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
but that one jumped
oh man slim
nice
Sassy says:
I was going to start some bullet puns
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
wait
did you intend that pun?
Team says:
So simple, Slim, yet so clever.
Sassy says:
But you continued
....yes
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
good
I was unsure
Sassy says:
And by that I mean no
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
this saddens me
Team says:
How long did you have that one up your sleeve?
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
a while
I'd say he just kept his lips buttoned untill the right time
Team says:
We really need to just zip it on these.
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
we really need to cut them out
yes
Team says:
Having to think of replies is getting me all hot under the collar.
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
We're going to have to trim our oun usage for a while
*pun
Team says:
Eventually one of us is going to have to split anyway.
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
before one of us comes undone
Team says:
And I'm not as good as you at fabricating puns, either.
Sassy says:
Yeah, I think soon I'm goign down for the night
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
mine are getting a little frayed around the edges though
Team says:
You're just better tailored to it.
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
you're pretty well suited your self
Team says:
Nah. I doubt I can keep going in this fashion for long.
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
you're going to have to pin me down with a good one soon though
Team says:
I thought I had you in a tight fit with that last one there.
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
I've got beads of sweat running off me trying to think of another
Team says:
Well.
You got me.
I'm all tapped out.
Well fought.
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
I'm sure you can patch together something?
Sassy says:
I wool'd think of one if I could
Team says:
I couldn't remember if we'd used 'freyed' yet, but I think you did.
Alphonze T. Habbernackle says:
I did
you could have made some alterations though
And that gentle reader is how I beat Tim in a sewing related pun off.
The end.
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