Today I saw a black cat crossing the road, and I shuddered to think that this means bad luck - supposedly.
A few seconds later I saw the cat come back. It walked across the road again, but this time back to the side of the road that it had started from in the first place.
So the cat came back. Does this mean that this has reversed the bad luck and I now have good luck? Or has it gone back to neutral? Maybe two crossings means doubly bad luck?
I thought about these possibilities for a long time. As to the right answer, I just couldn't find it.
If anyone has any ideas, please do share!
Oh and of course - happy new year to everyone :) The start to my 2011 was very relaxed with a good friend - thus I'm expecting a year along these same lines - fingers crossed!
02 January, 2011
07 December, 2010
Findependence Day?
The 6th of December was the Finnish independence day. Not many people know Finland does or stands for. Yes, there's only 5 million of us, but there's only 500 000 Icelanders (that's a tenth of our population!) and everyone seems to know about them much more than they know about Finland. Why? Here, I am going to put forward a thought that this is all due to the complete inability of the Finnish people to fake a smile.
DISCLAIMER: To my kinsmen, I would like to say in advance that I am deeply, deeply sorry - but someone's gotta say it first.
To explain what led me to this conclusion, I need to go back to the most recent Independence Day celebrations. I was celebrating this glorious day with some friends. The evening before, I had prepared some Christmas Stars (or Christmas tarts) that my boyfriend said resemble more ninja shurikens than actual stars (click the links to decide for yourself!). I had also made a Swede casserole (ironic, isn't it. However this is not made out of Swedish people, but the vegetable and it's a very traditional Christmas dish).
These items travelled with me from Manchester to a little village where I work, and back again. Some people on the train suspected I was carrying a covered bomb around in my armpit, when actually it was just a casserole. I felt all this hassle was however just a minor inconvenience, as this is a great day and needs celebrating.
I got to the party. The theme seemed to be old youtube musicvideos of Finnish pop music. Incidentally, the youtube was in Swedish, as our host was half-Swedish. Grr. They'll soon take over the world just like they took over our country!
We ate (mainly meat and rye bread), we drank (mainly Koskenkorva Vodka), we danced (mainly humppa and letkajenkka) - but there's one thing we didn't do. Talk. If there's one thing you should know about the Finns is that they don't talk. Especially we don't do the 'small' variety. Big talk, we can handle. But small talk, that is just far beyond our scope of ability.
Everyone else had only been in the UK for a maximum of 1-2 years. None was a true Angloveteran like me, I have now been here for more than 5. I tried to talk to three new people according to British rules of smalltalk. Soon I decided to give up. I got nothing back. I had asked several people a bunch of questions, none of which was reciprocated. Later in December I realised this isn't just something restricted to strangers - even my cousins seemed wholly uninterested in actually finding out about me during our family gathering around Christmas.
Finland has some of the smartest people in the world. This is testified by the PISA studies, that show that already at a young age, our kids beat the rest of the world in their mathematical and linguistic skills. After all, we manage to develop some of the best mobile phones in the world - Nokias! (However, when I tell most people that Nokia is from Finland, they normally seem very surprised.)
But what use is having a country full of nerds, when we can't make the most of it, I ask? How do we put these these great minds to use in a wider world, when no-one actually knows what Finland does and stands for?
It is often said that the Finns don't do small talk or promote their products and innovaiton because of a lack of confidence. Sure, we were first under Russia then Sweden then Russia again - but that was a century ago! And if we don't catch up to the rest of the world, we will soon be forgotten.
The bottom line here is that our lack of national confidence comes across as rudeness and arrogance. This is how I felt at the independence party and our family gathering myself. If Finns are unable to show a genuine interest in other people (and by extension, other countries and their businesses), how can we expect anyone to reciprocate this interest in us? The answer is that we can't.
So big up and learn how to fake a smile, is what I would recommend to my fellow kinsmen. It's not only the way to get ahead in this world, its actually vital for survival. This I have learned in England. Networking, that dreaded thing. To the Pommies it comes naturally. They are born with the ability (or then it's hammered into them, which is more correct, I do not know). I myself have had to learn this through conferences, job interviews, mingling events - if you don't network, you don't get ahead. That's exactly the same for my beloved Finland. And if we can't smalltalk, we sure as hell can't network. This will in the worst case lead to Finland remaining the 'odd one out' country in Europe, not really Western enough, not really Eastern enough, that most people have know knowledge of. Thus far I have been asked such questions as "Do Polarbears roam the streets?" and "Finland, isn't that the capital of Sweden?" Yes, I been asked these silly questions before.
Maybe this is why the Govenment is worried about our future and has put forth a new 'branding' motion entitled "A task for Finland". Yes indeed, Finns need the Government to tell us to get some self-esteeem, thats how bad the situation is. The newly released report urges Finns to not only make their country a better (reads: 'friendlier') place to live in, it also recommends ways in which we can secure our position in an international business climate and thereby enhance our economy (yes, Finland was also strongly hit by the recent global recession).
As I usher in 2011, I'm very excited to see what the new year will bring for Finland, and most importantly; whether we are up to the task. I pray in my heart that the answer is 'yes'.
DISCLAIMER: To my kinsmen, I would like to say in advance that I am deeply, deeply sorry - but someone's gotta say it first.
To explain what led me to this conclusion, I need to go back to the most recent Independence Day celebrations. I was celebrating this glorious day with some friends. The evening before, I had prepared some Christmas Stars (or Christmas tarts) that my boyfriend said resemble more ninja shurikens than actual stars (click the links to decide for yourself!). I had also made a Swede casserole (ironic, isn't it. However this is not made out of Swedish people, but the vegetable and it's a very traditional Christmas dish).
These items travelled with me from Manchester to a little village where I work, and back again. Some people on the train suspected I was carrying a covered bomb around in my armpit, when actually it was just a casserole. I felt all this hassle was however just a minor inconvenience, as this is a great day and needs celebrating.
I got to the party. The theme seemed to be old youtube musicvideos of Finnish pop music. Incidentally, the youtube was in Swedish, as our host was half-Swedish. Grr. They'll soon take over the world just like they took over our country!
We ate (mainly meat and rye bread), we drank (mainly Koskenkorva Vodka), we danced (mainly humppa and letkajenkka) - but there's one thing we didn't do. Talk. If there's one thing you should know about the Finns is that they don't talk. Especially we don't do the 'small' variety. Big talk, we can handle. But small talk, that is just far beyond our scope of ability.
Everyone else had only been in the UK for a maximum of 1-2 years. None was a true Angloveteran like me, I have now been here for more than 5. I tried to talk to three new people according to British rules of smalltalk. Soon I decided to give up. I got nothing back. I had asked several people a bunch of questions, none of which was reciprocated. Later in December I realised this isn't just something restricted to strangers - even my cousins seemed wholly uninterested in actually finding out about me during our family gathering around Christmas.
Finland has some of the smartest people in the world. This is testified by the PISA studies, that show that already at a young age, our kids beat the rest of the world in their mathematical and linguistic skills. After all, we manage to develop some of the best mobile phones in the world - Nokias! (However, when I tell most people that Nokia is from Finland, they normally seem very surprised.)
But what use is having a country full of nerds, when we can't make the most of it, I ask? How do we put these these great minds to use in a wider world, when no-one actually knows what Finland does and stands for?
It is often said that the Finns don't do small talk or promote their products and innovaiton because of a lack of confidence. Sure, we were first under Russia then Sweden then Russia again - but that was a century ago! And if we don't catch up to the rest of the world, we will soon be forgotten.
The bottom line here is that our lack of national confidence comes across as rudeness and arrogance. This is how I felt at the independence party and our family gathering myself. If Finns are unable to show a genuine interest in other people (and by extension, other countries and their businesses), how can we expect anyone to reciprocate this interest in us? The answer is that we can't.
So big up and learn how to fake a smile, is what I would recommend to my fellow kinsmen. It's not only the way to get ahead in this world, its actually vital for survival. This I have learned in England. Networking, that dreaded thing. To the Pommies it comes naturally. They are born with the ability (or then it's hammered into them, which is more correct, I do not know). I myself have had to learn this through conferences, job interviews, mingling events - if you don't network, you don't get ahead. That's exactly the same for my beloved Finland. And if we can't smalltalk, we sure as hell can't network. This will in the worst case lead to Finland remaining the 'odd one out' country in Europe, not really Western enough, not really Eastern enough, that most people have know knowledge of. Thus far I have been asked such questions as "Do Polarbears roam the streets?" and "Finland, isn't that the capital of Sweden?" Yes, I been asked these silly questions before.
Maybe this is why the Govenment is worried about our future and has put forth a new 'branding' motion entitled "A task for Finland". Yes indeed, Finns need the Government to tell us to get some self-esteeem, thats how bad the situation is. The newly released report urges Finns to not only make their country a better (reads: 'friendlier') place to live in, it also recommends ways in which we can secure our position in an international business climate and thereby enhance our economy (yes, Finland was also strongly hit by the recent global recession).
As I usher in 2011, I'm very excited to see what the new year will bring for Finland, and most importantly; whether we are up to the task. I pray in my heart that the answer is 'yes'.
08 October, 2010
Recycle your clothes and get your money back!
We've all heard of recycling glass, paper, metal and perhaps even plastic. However, you may not have heard that the newest trend in recycling is (drumroll) - t-shirts! Yes, Oxfam has existed for a very long time, essentially recycling clothes, so in this sense this is not anything new. What is new is that you can now return used clothes back to the shop where you bought them from and get some of your money back!
Leading this new revolution is the Norwegian sportswear company Stormberg. The vision behind the idea of getting back a "deposit" upon returning your used clothes (called Panteordning in Norwegian), is of course to reduce waste. On their website, Stormberg explains that these used garments often end up in East Europe, where they start a "new life". This is no doubt very exciting for your old t-shirt - definitely more interesting than sitting in your drawer day in an day out, never seeing the daylight (oh, the cruelty!).
In Scandinavia, a similar Panteordning arrangement already exists for plastic and glass bottles. In your local grocer you pay a deposit for them (10-25p) upon purchase and when you return them empty, a neat machine in the wall gives you this back. This is of course a very humanistic set-up, since collecting empty coke bottles thrown away by lazy spoilt rich kids gives scandi-hobos some purpose to their otherwise empty lives (no pun intended), as well as providing them cash for a daily meal. Brilliant! Brits - I suggest you follow lead.
Mind you, the deposit you get returned for Stormberg's clothes is not a huge amount of money - this deposit is usually around 10% of the value of the piece. Needless to say, this trend will probably never catch onto Primark, where a t-shirt costs around £2!
My mother recently got me one of these recyclable Stormberg-t-shirts. It was bright pink, the colour that particularly attracts bees and wasps, with a yellow text written across the chest: "Pink Different!". I wasn't quite sure where she was going with this but I let out a muffled "thaaannnkkksss...?" just to be safe. Then she went on to explain how it was made of bamboo, rather than cotton - not that I could tell the difference! Apparently, this is another way in which Stormberg is doing their bit for the climate. Bamboo garments are 100% degradable, and their production contributes far less to CO2-emissions, compared to cotton. So far it is considerably more expensive to make clothes out of bamboo compared to cotton (Primark is good testimony to this), which is why this trend is not likely to catch on globally anytime soon. Mind you, it does tick the ever-so-trendy I-do-my-bit-for-the-planet-box, so maybe this will outweigh its high cost. So far, bamboo is particularly popular as a material for sportswear, as well as clothing for the vertically challenged.
Oh, and in case you are wondering, the deposit for my t-shirt is 20kr or £2 (see image). I couldn't promise my mother that I'd ever wear it in public - although this would be setting a good example! I think for now I'll keep it safe just in case one day I'm short for bus change.
Leading this new revolution is the Norwegian sportswear company Stormberg. The vision behind the idea of getting back a "deposit" upon returning your used clothes (called Panteordning in Norwegian), is of course to reduce waste. On their website, Stormberg explains that these used garments often end up in East Europe, where they start a "new life". This is no doubt very exciting for your old t-shirt - definitely more interesting than sitting in your drawer day in an day out, never seeing the daylight (oh, the cruelty!).
In Scandinavia, a similar Panteordning arrangement already exists for plastic and glass bottles. In your local grocer you pay a deposit for them (10-25p) upon purchase and when you return them empty, a neat machine in the wall gives you this back. This is of course a very humanistic set-up, since collecting empty coke bottles thrown away by lazy spoilt rich kids gives scandi-hobos some purpose to their otherwise empty lives (no pun intended), as well as providing them cash for a daily meal. Brilliant! Brits - I suggest you follow lead.
Mind you, the deposit you get returned for Stormberg's clothes is not a huge amount of money - this deposit is usually around 10% of the value of the piece. Needless to say, this trend will probably never catch onto Primark, where a t-shirt costs around £2!
My mother recently got me one of these recyclable Stormberg-t-shirts. It was bright pink, the colour that particularly attracts bees and wasps, with a yellow text written across the chest: "Pink Different!". I wasn't quite sure where she was going with this but I let out a muffled "thaaannnkkksss...?" just to be safe. Then she went on to explain how it was made of bamboo, rather than cotton - not that I could tell the difference! Apparently, this is another way in which Stormberg is doing their bit for the climate. Bamboo garments are 100% degradable, and their production contributes far less to CO2-emissions, compared to cotton. So far it is considerably more expensive to make clothes out of bamboo compared to cotton (Primark is good testimony to this), which is why this trend is not likely to catch on globally anytime soon. Mind you, it does tick the ever-so-trendy I-do-my-bit-for-the-planet-box, so maybe this will outweigh its high cost. So far, bamboo is particularly popular as a material for sportswear, as well as clothing for the vertically challenged.
Oh, and in case you are wondering, the deposit for my t-shirt is 20kr or £2 (see image). I couldn't promise my mother that I'd ever wear it in public - although this would be setting a good example! I think for now I'll keep it safe just in case one day I'm short for bus change.
20 September, 2010
The circle of life...
... well, of student life.
Today was the official first day of Fresher's Week 2010. The city is yet again in full bloom with bewildered faces and those innocent eyes that are soon to be corrupted by the evils of student life. They seem to prowl the streets in groups, large groups. After all, even the lowest of animals (like fish, for instance) know that there is safety in numbers.
I had to fight the urge to tell them many a wise thing. On the sly, I was curious to spot signs of genuine fear in their eyes - sadly I was unsuccessful. Perhaps they were relieved they weren't in high school hell anymore, or just simply happy to be free from mom and dad's clutches (oh how soon that gloat will pass).
What I wanted to tell them was that university is a test. It's not an easy test. Neither is it a multiple choice test. Most of all it's not a test that you can study for. Nay, but rather, it's a kind of test that you have never taken before. This test called university presents itself with the opportunity to re-invent yourself, to be whatever you always wanted to be (or at least thought you wanted to be).
However, en route to this wonderful fulfilment of finging yourself, one needs to avoid many a temptation. Drugs. Alcoholism. Laziness. Loneliness. Allnighters. But worst of all, one must learn to avoid getting lost in the crowd, where it is safe, and trod one's own route through the forest of life.
This path is beautiful. It's scary. But it's the only on that eventually leads to fulfilment.
To end in a slightly less poetic note, our local milkman said he hadn't seen me for a while. Granted, we had moved 5 minutes down the road so my usual route had been diverted accordingly. I said 'well, I'm not a student anymore'. His reply? 'you still look like one'. Echoing this sad truth, I got ID'd when buying half-price wine in Tesco.
So, what has changed? Not much. Yes, I may be employed and no longer inhabit mice-infested, rotting, safety-hazardous student flats and have instead moved onto greener pastures, literally (see photo). I am still a scared, living-on-a-shoestring teenage girl to the outside world. Apparently.
Today was the official first day of Fresher's Week 2010. The city is yet again in full bloom with bewildered faces and those innocent eyes that are soon to be corrupted by the evils of student life. They seem to prowl the streets in groups, large groups. After all, even the lowest of animals (like fish, for instance) know that there is safety in numbers.
I had to fight the urge to tell them many a wise thing. On the sly, I was curious to spot signs of genuine fear in their eyes - sadly I was unsuccessful. Perhaps they were relieved they weren't in high school hell anymore, or just simply happy to be free from mom and dad's clutches (oh how soon that gloat will pass).
What I wanted to tell them was that university is a test. It's not an easy test. Neither is it a multiple choice test. Most of all it's not a test that you can study for. Nay, but rather, it's a kind of test that you have never taken before. This test called university presents itself with the opportunity to re-invent yourself, to be whatever you always wanted to be (or at least thought you wanted to be).
However, en route to this wonderful fulfilment of finging yourself, one needs to avoid many a temptation. Drugs. Alcoholism. Laziness. Loneliness. Allnighters. But worst of all, one must learn to avoid getting lost in the crowd, where it is safe, and trod one's own route through the forest of life.
This path is beautiful. It's scary. But it's the only on that eventually leads to fulfilment.
To end in a slightly less poetic note, our local milkman said he hadn't seen me for a while. Granted, we had moved 5 minutes down the road so my usual route had been diverted accordingly. I said 'well, I'm not a student anymore'. His reply? 'you still look like one'. Echoing this sad truth, I got ID'd when buying half-price wine in Tesco.
So, what has changed? Not much. Yes, I may be employed and no longer inhabit mice-infested, rotting, safety-hazardous student flats and have instead moved onto greener pastures, literally (see photo). I am still a scared, living-on-a-shoestring teenage girl to the outside world. Apparently.
27 June, 2010
Roots and Seeds
...and you open your eyes to the realisation that you are done with all the bull***. It isn't attractive in all its glitter and glory anymore. You long for something more substantial. Some thing real. And you accept that you are not just a product of years of independent growing in directions chosen only by yourself, but more than that, you are the yield of your blood, a fruit of your upbringing, the seed that was sown in you years back. A product of domestic soil. It means something. You can't quite figure out what. But that's what really matters. And you're almost ready to give into it. Life. Love.
.. as I finish writing this Sheryl Crow sings "I belong a long way from here". It rings in my ears, "a long way from here". No matter how unconsciously I end up decorating my flat with red and white, it's the unescapable truth.
She continues with that famous slant of Americana in her voice:
"... if it makes you happy.. then why the hell are you so sad?"
She continues with that famous slant of Americana in her voice:
"... if it makes you happy.. then why the hell are you so sad?"
31 May, 2010
Winston wins me over
I know, what a tacky title for a blogpost. But to be frank I don't really care what you think, because I am buddies with Lord Professor Robert Winston - the guy with the big moustache on telly who knows all about human behaviour! By buddies of course I mean we are on email terms - althought I have stood face-to-face with the man himself taking his picture. Now that I've got your attention, please do read on.On May the 12th good old Bob came to Manchester to give us postgrads a talk to promote his new book 'Bad Ideas', which you can scope out here if you haven't already heard of it. This was a lecture I had been anticipating for weeks, as Winston was a childhood hero of mine. I used to religiously tape (VHS of course; it was the 90's after all!) his moustache-muffled science musings in the form of The Human Body, Human Instinct and The Human Mind.
To a neuroscientist like myself, Winston is what Sir David Attenborough is to a zoologist - practically a God of Wisdom. So when people queued up after the fully booked event, I naturally joined this line, after a quick internal debate as to whether I actually had a clever question to ask him. Disappointingly, many before me intended only to get their picture taken with him with a cheesy grin on. My stomach churned when I saw one of my friends commit this unholy deed. If a musician met John Lennon, would he really ask him to "say cheeeeese!"? I doubt it. Anyhew, the self-indulgent facebook-enthusiasts in the line before me meant that the Professor was ushered out of the building before I got my chance to pose my question.
I pushed aside my annoyance and remembered what Bob had said in the beginning of his talk - that he always replies to students' emails. So I trotted home determinedly and decided to write to him. Despite the Professor's promise, I never imagined I'd get a reply within 45 minutes of pressing 'Send'. What was even more remarkable was that this genius with no less than eight titles behind his name (check out his achievements here), considered my query as "A good question".
I guess at this point you're wondering what I asked him? I'll take you through the essence of it. Winston argued in his talk that the great technological advances of our times - microchips and the contraceptive pill included - have been largely made NOT due to goal-oriented conduction of scientific research, but rather haphazardly, with their wider societal utility having been revealed only retrospectively. Indeed, this is true. In fact, many drugs, such as cancer drugs, penicillin and antipsychotics (used for schizophrenia and hallucinations), were not discovered because scientists set out to find treatments for these conditions. Rather, these successful drugs were designed for for different purposes, and were later shown to work more of less perfectly for the conditions that they are used for today. Only after this discovery did researchers figure out the mechanisms of why they worked so well. In this way, these drugs were produced by a method that can be viewed as the opposite of goal-oriented medical research, which takes the mechanism of a disease as a starting point, and then designs drugs to stop the disease.
My question was: should we change our thinking of how to conduct and fund scientific research when for example much of medicinal research is based on curing diseases (i.e. 'goal-directed science')? I asked Professor Winston whether he had ideas on what would be the alternative to 'goal-directed science', if this is more likely to lead to greater advances in terms of societal benefit?
Winston's reply was that "we need to make sure we continue to devote a substantial part of the budget to non-orientated, blue skies research". This was his suggestion for an alternative to the goal-oriented medicinal research I was talking about. He continued: "Actually I am not sure that you are right about medical research - which mostly is not focused on finding cures, but rather exploring phenomena and mechanisms. Certainly this is true of the MRC and even Cancer Research UK, which funds a huge amount of basic human and cell biology." The Professor had left me corrected. The answer didn't leave me satisfied on what the future direction of medical research should be - but I guess that's why we have politicians!
Coming back from a family Bank Holiday, I saw Winson was back on the BBC again! This time the Professor was probing human personality. I learnt that being 'agreeable' won't get you a big salary, but does forbode good health and better relationships. Definitely something to consider when sorting out one's priorities! I wanted to take 'The Big Personality' test myself - but the website has been experiencing "major technical problem" since the airing of the program. You can try your luck yourself by clicking here: BBC's BIG PERSONALITY TEST
And if this really grabbed your attention, you can read more in 'Bad Ideas?' which is currently on sale for less than half price on Amazon: Hooray for credit crunch price busters!
15 May, 2010
Photohappiness
My photography is being taken seriously! Hence blogpost to celebrate. Reasons:
A photo I took of rainy Curry Mile (Rusholme) will be featured in a promotional leaflet produced by the Manchester Careers Service Graduate Internship Programme.
You can see the entire showreel of great Manchester photography here. I wasn't shortlisted, but to be fair, I was up against some pretty magnificent photographers, so please feast your eyes on the showreel!
This week I got an email from the WHO, i.e. the World Health Organisation, requesting authorisation to a picture I took of Ellen 't Hoen, an advocate for the UNITAID HIV/AIDS patent pool initiative, in November 2009. The image will be featured in a magazine called Managing IP. My photos have been featured in Student Direct : Mancunion before, but as subeditor I've obviously had the freedom to choose to put in my own images, so this feels like a greater achievement and recognition for my work in comparison.
This leaves me feeling very inspired to pursue my photopassion! :)
A photo I took of rainy Curry Mile (Rusholme) will be featured in a promotional leaflet produced by the Manchester Careers Service Graduate Internship Programme.
You can see the entire showreel of great Manchester photography here. I wasn't shortlisted, but to be fair, I was up against some pretty magnificent photographers, so please feast your eyes on the showreel!
This week I got an email from the WHO, i.e. the World Health Organisation, requesting authorisation to a picture I took of Ellen 't Hoen, an advocate for the UNITAID HIV/AIDS patent pool initiative, in November 2009. The image will be featured in a magazine called Managing IP. My photos have been featured in Student Direct : Mancunion before, but as subeditor I've obviously had the freedom to choose to put in my own images, so this feels like a greater achievement and recognition for my work in comparison.
This leaves me feeling very inspired to pursue my photopassion! :)
