Think it over

I've been printing out my thesis today for it to be taken in to be printed into books. I'd only have to print it once but I want some colored pages and thus I need to print those out separately. The theoretical part is no problem since it only has one colored page but the experimental part is way different. I have to print out like almost all the appendices in color. And that's like almost 100 pages times five. Right now I think I have like 50 pages that didn't work out right because of the heading in Word getting mixed up because I only wanted to print part of the document with "print selection" I could not use "print pages" because the pages are numbered like from 1 to 9 three times within the document and it would print out all pages numbered 6 and so on. At least that's the logic it worked with when I last tried. Or actually it printed out the equivalent of the 6th page even though that might not have been numbered 6 and all the pages numbered 6. Can't they just choose one logic for how it works? But oh well. If I went on complaining about how Word doesn't always work how I think it should, it would just take ages.

I've chosen a new lunch boy. I got tired of the old one even though he does still eat at the same time like every day. Also the old one has company. I think this new one is foreign and works in my building. I have no plan on what to do with this new lunch boy as I didn't with the old one either. Well at least he'll make lunchtime more awkward. Right now I'm asking myself whether this lunch boy thing is a good idea at all. I mean why continue with something that just may affect my appetite. Awkwardness affects my appetite but it's a fun feeling all the same.

I've been thinking about continuing with internet-dating. Now I know it's a sort of bad idea since it would most likely only add to my problems. And feed on my "I'm great, I'm wonderful - everybody loves me" -attitude, which is not all that misguided but still bad at times. It would be nice if they had like friend seeking service so I could get some female friends but it's hardly likely that there are all that many people like me out there. And besides, it would be like really weird to have like "blind dates" with other girls. What would people think. But yeah, I'm not going to be doing the internet-dating thing in at least a while. I have things to do still and I'm going off to Zürich too. Uh oh, can't wait. I wonder if I should pack or think about packing or find my passport or back-up files on my computer since I'm taking that along.

Cool, Zürich

So I've actually been doing some work today and it's been a nice day. Ok so I should keep doing work but I've been looking up things about Zürich since I'm going there to this crystallography school. And what do I find out... They have this huge Street Parade (www.streetparade.com) - "the most attended technoparade in Europe"(Wikipedia). And I'm like "I wonder when that is..." and it's right when I'm there! Saturday 11th of August. Way cool. So I do like have classes on Saturday also so I can't go there till after dinner so that kind of sucks since at night it will of course get like more dangerous and all and colder too but still. I'm sure other people at the summer school will also want to go check it out. Who wouldn't?

See I'm leaving for Zürich on the fifth and now that I've been checking out stuff about it I'm getting way excited about going there. I've never been to Switzerland (that I know of). And like I'm sure I would most likely never go there on holiday so it will be just great to spend two weeks there. The only problem of course is that I'll have classes and stuff till seven pm every day except on Sunday the 12th. But that still leaves nights free or like a couple of hours after dinner, which is at half eight. Ok so I'll most likely be like dead tired every night since the first lectures are at eight thirty each morning. But there's always hope that I'll see at least some of the city. The first day I go there I do have to go check out the center since I'm arriving at like ten in the morning and only have like an evening mixer/dinner thing to start off the course with.

I hope there will be nice people attending with me and I hope I am in a social mood when I'm there. Almost two weeks with the same 20 people should make us a rather nice group by the end of the course. Oh it should be great. Or at least like a change from what I've been up to lately since I'm like really bored of my work at the moment and that's just getting me down. A change of surroundings is just what I need. I can't wait. Only a bit more than a week till I leave on the 5th. :)

Fire alarm and the Pori Jazz Festival

There was this fire alarm in my work building today. There was no fire, though. The alarm just went off and I was like "oh, what is that horrible sound" and then I was like "oh, it must be an alarm of some sort" and then I was like "oh, I think I'm supposed to get out of the building". Then I took my keys and my phone and got in the hallway and started exiting slowly along with other people. The weather was nice outside so I did not mind waiting outside till they turned the alarm off. A kind of nice break to the day. If there had really been like a fire or something I think people should have acted faster. Like me too. And like am I supposed to close the office door or keep it open when I leave. I really don't know.

The weekend was really nice though I felt kind of busy all through it. Well not when I was at the concert having a picnic all day. That was really relaxing. But otherwise like before the concert and sort of afterwards and on Friday and Sunday too. I guess I just didn't have enough time to do all the things I wanted to do and see all the people I wanted to see. Like yesterday as I was going to sleep I noticed that I had not seen my big brother and his wife at all and I wanted to see them. Just with all the other things I had to do it totally did not cross my mind on Sunday, which would have been the only day I could have seen them. Weekends are just too short sometimes (or actually probably always).

But yeah. On Friday we had our class reunion. Only the nicest people arrived of course. I didn't really want to see any of the not so nice people anyways. It was just me and my sister as we had guessed. :) I did see two other nice people who were in the class during the weekend so it was almost like a reunion. Actually as me and my sister were going to the school we were hoping that no-one show up as we really just wanted to go eat at Grilli-Pori and go to the Jazz Street. And well after we waited for a few minutes, went around the school just in case and took a reunion picture, that's exactly what we did. Friday would have been nicer had it not started raining when we got to the Jazz Street but it was ok since Saturday was really sunny and otherwise perfect. And what would the Pori Jazz Festival be like without rain? It's just like part of the atmosphere really. Like going to the Jazz Shop to wait till the rain ends. It's like a tradition.

Saturday was really nice as I said. We had a nice picnic with good food, good company and perfect weather. We even got tickets for 40 eur (original price 60 eur) so it all worked out marvelously. And if the weather and the concert weren't enough, afterwards we went to a party at a friends apartment and had a great time there. The best part was that loads of friends from high school, that I had not seen in ages, were there. It was really nice to see them and find out what was going on in their lives. And going to the Jazz Street with them felt great since it was "just like old times" even though the dynamics of the group have of course changed. Me and my sister's IDs even got checked at the gates. It's always nice to be mistaken as 8 years younger. :) I hope to see the same people more often in the future, though with us living in different places it might take so organizing. Maybe we should try to arrange a pre-Christmas party like a few years back.

But it's Monday again and I have to get back to work. Another week of working on the article. And then one more and I'm off to Zurich for two weeks. And then the summer is almost over but no use thinking that much ahead. I just have to enjoy it while it lasts. Hope you do too.

Have to share my misfortune

Yesterday I was in the city and as I was leaving and got my bike these two bikes fell on my legs. Well it was actually when I was just standing around afterwards talking to a friend so I did not trip them over. It wasn't like all that painfull or anything (I just don't really feel pain from sudden things like that) but I woke up this morning with this bruise on my leg. It's like below the knee at the back of my leg. And it's horribly utterly hugely dark and purple and huge. I kind of like bruises in a way but it's utterly horribly hugely dark and purple and people will see it from miles away if I wear a skirt. And I want to wear a skirt during the weekend. All weekend actually. I think I still am but the bruise is really horrible. I guess this is a sort of warning about it so people don't freak out. And I just had to complain about it.

Side note. I found my class ring. It says 2007. As in 20.07.2007 at 20.07 and PSYL as for the place. So the class reunion is tomorrow! :) I can't wait. (Really I'm about 98% sure it will just be me and my sis but that's like 10% of the class already so it's not so bad really. And I don't really know if I want to see any other people other than these two class members who we'll most likely see anyways.)


Off to Porin tomorrow. Holiday tomorrow. :)

My balcony

And I was planning on posting a view of my balcony with all my plants. So here it is. I'd just planted the one's in the yellow pot that day and they really liked it and are now really much bigger and doing great. The grass is my easter grass. It has now grown more seed bearing grasses. And I've actually spotted easter grass in the wild. Now I know what it looks like "really".

Rainbow outside my flat

So one day there was this rainbow outside my flat and it got bigger and bigger as I was watching it and finally it was a double and it went all the way through these clouds and was like a full double rainbow. It was great. I'm just testing out using picasa to post pics.

Unbelievable!

Truly. See I'm now officially graduated. Great and all but I've got no proof of this as of yet. See I told the university to send my degree certificate by mail. I was like "oh I might not have time to come get the thing myself during work hours" (not that I've had that much work but I'm just lazy). And yeah, I'm sure you've guessed it. The certificate has gone to Espoo. Unbelievable. It was supposed to be taken care of. I called and everything and I did start getting mail like bills and stuff and a post card from my sister. But no, when I wait for something really important they send it to Espoo. So I called again. And the lady at the phone service is like "yeah, I'll let them know, again". And I really hope it works out this time because this thing is getting way out of proportion. I mean what do I have to do to get all my mail sent to me? I wonder if I sent myself a letter, whether it would find me. I'm sure it's just one person who can't seem to grasp the concept that I am in fact living in Jyväskylä, where all my mail is addressed to.

Oh I got the last of my stuff from Germany today. Like my bicycle helmet, which I am currently wearing as I think I'll go hit my head on the wall a few times. (Not really though. I just felt like putting it on. The office can be a dangerous place.)

Train late and my graduation late

Yesterday my train was an hour late. I got fine to Tampere but from there on it was first kind of unknown whether the next train would leave or be replaced by buses. I was like "oh no". I actually said that out loud when the conductor made the announcement in the train. The good thing was that I happened to go on the same train as these friends of mine who were returning from their vacation. So we went to the restaurant car and I got to listen to stories of their vacation. I think the train stood at Orivesi for almost an hour but that didn't really matter since I was having a good time in the restaurant car. Had I not taken the same train I'm sure I would have gotten bored to death and as it happens all the earlier trains were replaced by buses. I think ours was the first one to go since the afternoon. See the engine of a cargo train had gone off the tracks at some point between Tampere and Jyväskylä and that was causing the problems. No-one had gotten hurt or anything but they did have to haul the engine somewhere after they had investigated as to why it happened. But I got home alright in the end - a little bit later than I had hoped but in good spirits (in more ways than one). But fun trip all in all and I'm glad I was lucky enough to meet up with friends.

I've been trying to get myself officially graduated today but it's quite difficult since like everyone is on vacation. I don't really know when I'll be graduated and where the hold-up is and well I don't know who to ask about it since all the people I could ask about it are on holiday. Like the lady that I would have to take my theses to get put into books is on vacation till next month and the person who I think needs to sign some papers to make the graduation official is also on vacation. But yeah, I guess it is expected. There were also hardly any people at lunch. I just want to get this whole graduation business out of the way soon but it seems I might have to wait a while still.

I had a rather good weekend. It was fun hanging out with the family. I'm going back this week and I'm hoping the weather will be good. I might be going to see a jazz concert on Saturday. But more on that later.

Post #160: A dream, gaming in a skirt and the gym

I had this dream last night where I was giving this talk about polymorphism, "surprisingly" (the subject of my master's thesis). The thing was that it was really difficult since like all these people were bothering me and stuff. Like these girls put like this music (like dance-pop Madonna) really loud and no-one could hear me. And I was like "is someone going to take care that those people don't bother my presentation?" and no-one did. So I had to go have a fight with the girls (like people from junior high..? Something to do with the up-coming "class reunion" that most likely only me and my sis are going to) for them to turn it down. I think I did get them to turn it down eventually. But like the weird thing was that all through the music and various other interruptions, that I can't remember, I stayed calm and just tried to do my presentation. I was like "well, I'm here to give this talk and that's what I'll do". It was really weird. Like after I got the music turned down I just went back to my slide show and was like "excuse me for that and let's continue on with polymorphism".

I went to play board games again yesterday. It was quite fun. I actually won this one game. I kind of finally figured out how to play it. But I have to admit the game relies a lot on good luck. Since all the other people were guys I just had to go in a skirt. I was the happy summer-me and it was fun. I think I'll also go next week. I don't know if I wrote about how my ex was like "why do you want to go there? - there are just nerdy guys there" and I was like "and that differs from my current and usual company how?". I'm thinking maybe by going there I can also brighten up someone else's day in addition to brightening mine.

I made this weird observation at the gym on Monday when I went to this healthy back -class. Like sort of like aerobics concentrating on getting a healthy back. But there are these mirrors on the walls and I was looking at them and noticed that I have like this really weird body shape as compared to the others. It was bizarre really since I'd never really thought about it or had like an equal chance to compare. I can't really say what was so weird about me. Maybe it was my posture or something like that or maybe it was just my clothes (red pants and a green top = too colorful?). It might also have been my attitude towards the class or something like that but after I noticed it, I felt like other people also noticed and the instructor sort of tried to see that I was doing things right but sort of didn't have the courage to really say anything to me. Ok, so maybe I'm just imagining the part about other people looking at me weird.

The food at the cafeteria was really awful today. And I had to like try to eat as much as I could since I'm going to the gym after work. I just could not eat all the "fruity vegetable risotto" and I'm sure anyone who happened to glance my way noticed I was having trouble with it. I think I usually must look deathly bored in the cafeteria but in addition I must have looked like I have some sort of eating disorder that I'm desperately fighting against by forcing food into my mouth. Luckily tomorrow they should have better food. Thank goodness.

Weird and wonderful things

I got home from my weekend trip yesterday and decided to watch a movie since I was not really sleepy. I've had "Superman Returns" on my computer for quite a while so I decided to watch that one. I was expecting it to be a "Superman saves the world and so on" -movie but it was really weird. I mean he did save the world but otherwise the atmosphere was strange. It might have been that the sound quality apparently was not so good as I was having trouble hearing what the people were saying. It might also have been the fact that it was just pouring outside and the rain drops hitting my window were really loud. Maybe it was a combination of the two and me being sort of weird that made the movie seem weird. Maybe if I'd watched it during the day or with company, it would have been different. Well anyway. It wasn't such a bad movie. Quite predictable, really, though in a weird sort of way. It also made me have weird dreams, though there really isn't anything weird about me having weird dreams.

But yeah. The weekend was really nice. Good company, good food and new places and things. We even went too a night club in Kerava. Now that was an experience. Apparently there is like this new song about the city/town and they played it like twice and "everyone" went to dance. We were like "what the heck?". The night seemed kind of surreal really. I'd only had like one cider before going there and only one there so alcohol can't be the reason. But it was really fun in a weird sort of way.

The drive on Friday was sort of fun like I'd expected. It was great seeing my sister and her husband. And sometimes it's just incredibly fun to get together with family. Like we went to have a bathroom break at this huge mall near Tampere on our way to Helsinki and there was this booth selling strawberries. Me and my sister were like "let's go get so strawberries!" and ran over to the booth. See normal people would not have run over, but we did. We even bought some peas. And while we were waiting for my sister and her husband at Tampere railway station I wanted and thus bought some ice cream. Then when they came over, they wanted ice cream too. I thought that was just great. See it was like we wanted to get too where we were going but still has time to get the ice cream and the strawberries and have fun on the way there. It's often like that when I see my sisters and brothers and they've even managed to find significant others that go along with it, which is really wonderful.

Almost graduated

So I've almost graduated. My thesis got graded, that is. I got an eximia cum laude approbatur. That's the second best grade one can get. So yeah it's good. Good for me. However, I'm not really excited about the good grade. I don't really know why and whether I should be "oh yeah let's party" about it. Maybe I can sort of party about it during the weekend. And yeah, I admit I wanted the best grade.

Anyways. On Tuesday I went to this game night. It was sort of fun. I mean I like playing games and all. The only problem was that all the people there were like pro-players and I'm just like "oh it's like fun to play". But it shouldn't matter. I don't need to win to have a good time. And, besides, my strategy is to just play so that no-one thinks I am about to win and then come from behind the corner and go "whoops, I think I won" like I'd not noticed I could. It's always handy to act kind of stupid around experienced gamers. They won't know what hit them since they're more centered on showing how knowledgeable they are about the game and analyzing the different strategies one can use to win. Winning is just a bonus for me though I have to admit it is fun to win. I think I'll maybe go to the game night next week too since I have like nothing else to do. Unless the weather is good enough to go skating and I'm feeling up to it.

I did some grilling yesterday. The food turned out ok but I got sort of tired of the company and decided to go read a book (Dragonlance) on my balcony. It turned out to be a good idea. I'm really getting into the storyline of the book now. And at nine pm it was still like over twenty Celsius out so reading on the balcony with my big bunch of flowers was really nice. See I have like five big flower pots full of plants. Oh I have to post o picture from my balcony if I have time at home.

But yeah, luckily tomorrow is Friday and the weekend starts. I'm heading over to visit a friend. The way there should also be interesting since I'm picking up my sister and her husband and I'm giving a ride to a friend of mine and his friend. I hope we all fit in the car with all our stuff. I have to remember to pack light but have loads to snack on on the way. I'm actually really looking forward to the trip. It will be a change from the norm. I think I need like a vacation.

Don't tell anyone but I skipped work yesterday. I first slept late and then though that there's no point in going anyways since I don't have any inspiration to work. Then I washed my window, cleaned my apartment, balcony and aquariums. I did a really big job in cleaning the smaller aquarium since I took out like "hundreds" of evil snails that have infested the aquarium making it look really bad. I have to keep taking them out now every time I see them or at least once a day to really get rid of them. I hope it works. I may buy some new fish into the small tank now that I have it all cleaned up. I'll see about it today probably.

Automatic doors

There's this button one can press in the doors to the physics department that makes them open automatically. It's for like handicapped people so they can get in easily. The door that has the button is very hard to open without the button because of the automation. There's also another door that does not have a system like that right next to the door with it. Loads of people use the door that opens by pressing the button. They press the button and go in using the automatically opening doors (there's two doors in a row). I don't get it. I use the door that I have to open myself. I only have to open one door since in the summer the space between the doors would get too hot if the inside door were not open. The point is that I don't get why like almost everyone else uses the automatic doors. Is it too hard for them to open one door? Are they too lazy or what? I mean it does use up like electricity to open up the two doors mechanically. Is it not a waste if healthy people use the system. This just bothers me every time I go have lunch or coffee. I've started scolding people under my breath every time they use the other doors unnecessarily. And I know this is not a big deal and I must be a freak to get annoyed about it.

I'm not liking my "work" at the moment and not getting anything worthwhile done is getting me depressed. ("Oh buuhuu")

The climbing place is closed for July. My bouldering pad is not available in the stores before the middle of July and then I don't have a way to get to a bouldering place (a car). There's another place to climb inside that opens again in the middle of July but neither of my climbing friends has the needed equipment to go there. I did not get up the wall I was planning to get up on Friday but I did go up the first negative one like twice in a row again.

The weekend was great. The weather was great and it really felt like a vacation. Too bad it's now Monday and I had to come to work.

They're promising quite nice weather for this week. I'm hoping to go around the lake on my skates a few times this week. I haven't been able to do that in ages. It should be fun.