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Living In Limbo.

nobody@vox.com(Joni) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 18:09:38 +0200

I am honestly the worst when it comes to holidays. Just this morning ( Ok, it was past noon, but I have a very weak definition of 'morning') I open my window and stare at the expectedly bleak and gray view and think to myself:

"Why are there so many flags up today?"

"... Oh, right."

So for all our Finnish readers, happy Independence Day!

And I am feeling like such a douche.

I haven't even gotten myself a Christmas Calendar; in part because the last thing I want is a countdown for test cramming... but mostly because I totally forgot to get one.

Translation: I forgot to buy a daily chocolate dispenser. I can hear the women cry out.

Christmas is around the corner as well, and as both my mom and dad called me to ask what I wanted for Christmas, the only answer I could blurt out was "Haven't really cared to think about it, but, um... a blender might be nice."

I think that brain fart could be heard all the way to Oslo.

"Time" is, in fact, quite relative.

My main problem has been trying to fit time to get a hair cut. Not that I'm that picky on hair to begin with, but when you start to wake up looking like Cousin It on crack, decisions have to be made.

Looking at the whole thing outside the box, though, I'm starting to resemble my apartment more and more.

... My apartment, being in the middle of an extreme makeover, looks like something out of a Dalí painting. Calling it "bohemian" would make hippies cry.

Then again, it is refreshing to do calculus in the foyer and having dinner in the bathroom. At least now I know what 'adequate living space' refers to.

About 7 square meters.

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Two-Point Frustration.

nobody@vox.com(Joni) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 01:25:04 +0200

Yearly meeting of the Guild of Civil Engineers. Place where the guild members vote the next year's work horses, special positions and the cabinet.

I opted to go for the position of chairman. Been thinking a long while about it, a lotof people liked the idea of it, decided it'd be interesting and a good chance to get some good networking done - selfish, yeah, but what are ya gonna do?

Long story short: I lose.

Votes: 61-65.

...

Fuck. Me.

How the hell does it get close enough that a two vote sway decides the whole thing?!? Unbelievable. Un-fucking-believeable. Makes you want to scream bloody murder. Well, would make most people.

Strangely, though, the whole thing didn't even feel that bad. No huge mental backlash, no complete and utter meltdown, not even a feeling of failure. Just a small acceptance and that's it.

At least, that's what I tell everybody else. " It's fine, it'd just have been a little something to spend time on. No really, I'm OK. Yeah, funny, true, I should be wallowing in my own failure right about now! Hee-hee!"

Honestly I felt really frustrated. In part because the last thing I like to hear when something goes awry are snide comments and feeling trampled on. Makes you really think if people honestly have any common courtesy. Even I have feelings. Some, stashed in a drawer in the kitchen, but it counts!

For the most part, though, I feel frustrated because this is just another one or two-point failure in life. A whole lot of things in my life have gone wrong because of one or two points.

Finals at high school: one point short of acing it.. In three different subjects. Entry exam for architectural studies: less than one point from getting accepted. A whole lot more exams at the university than I'd care to mention ( HI MOM!). Ending up second in so many things, both academically, physically and socially that it stops being funny.

But then again, seeing where I am and where I have gotten, on my own or with considerable help from people I trust, kinda makes the whole argument invalid. Every single time something like this has happened I've gone off a whole lot wiser. As I did today. Downers like this just remind me of a post-it note I wrote back in the beginning of... 2007, if I remember correctly. Stuck it to my window frame right in front of my desk, and it stayed there until I moved out a year later. Simple thing, really, just a short reminder to keep me going – it said ” Winners keep going!”.

Smarter animals would've learnt by now not to go against overwhelming odds.

Never was really the kind that'd learn stuff like that, though.

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Wall-y, Wall-y, Oh My Golly!

nobody@vox.com(Joni) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:34:54 +0200

Busy busy busy busy busy. Been a whole lot o' busy lately! But getting 49 credits worth of studying done this fall does take some work [ for reference, the required norm is 30 credits], and with everything going haywire as usual, I suddenly found myself pegged for the position of Chairman for the Guild of Civil Engineers, which is big thing in construction, 'specially since we're right where every damn headquarters is. Networking opportunities.

But honestly, nobody cares one flying think tank about stuff like that; the real thing that's been keeping me busy lately has been my wall.

Yes, my wall. More exact, my work-in-progress 5 x 2.51 m mural, done on a wall more wrinkled and ribbed than Hugh Hefner's... well, I won't go there.

Not yet anyway.

So far, though, I have about 20 h worth of work done on the thing, and all things considered, I've been thinking about stapling myself to the ceiling more than a few times now. That, or stabbing everyone who's been asking about "when it's done" in the face with the sharp end of a brush.

Haven't been getting much food lately. Not that I don't have food, but because a single room apartment only has oh-so-much space, moving your sofa in front of the "kitchen" does pose a few problems.

I know the whole "starving artist" gimmick is fancy and all that, but not physically being able to get to the fridge is just. not. fair. I want food. All I have right now while inhaling more paint fumes than what's probably legal in Amsterdam is a few cases of beer and other like-minded beverages.

Which means that most of the time I've been starving, drunk and high as a kite. Don't take much alcohol to get the mood going when you're reenacting the famine of Somalia. And it doesn't help to have a marinated, 1 kg lump of filet mignon in the freezer, either.

So I'm left with only one option: paint the god damned thing quick and move back all the furniture, or starve - because we all know that unemployed students ( no matter what pseudopolitical positions of power they might posess) can't afford eating out and do, with time, die. Natural Selection á la Capitalism.

Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'll go light the people who think it's a good idea to play rap at midnight on a Friday on fire.

Personally, I like techno.

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The Pink Tank.

nobody@vox.com(Joni) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 15:09:54 +0200

No matter what people will tell you about me, I will adamantly claim that I'm a man of simple tastes. My friends, again, will quite as vigorously state that that man is speaking out of his ass, you shouldn't listen to him and "Hey, is that swine flu?".

I will therefore leave my friends in their own favorous positions. One where I can't hear them.

But it is fun having friends around, I'll admit that much. Nobody else will sit through listening to my incredible stories of adventure and Grand Plans for The Future like them. They will listen to them, but there is one combination of my general humility and GPTF that, once they realize I'm quite serious a bout it, has people hoping that I, " even though unlikely", will never amount to anything nor reach a social or monetary standing high enough to be able to fullfill my Grand Plan. And they're hoping this for not only my safety, but theirs as well.

And what might this plan be all about?

A Pink Tank.

See, most people strive towards fame and fortune because they want to see the world; they want a Lamborgini in their garage, a house in the Mediterranean, a trophy wife who, even on bad days, is as good of a ride as that Lambo downstairs.

Me, I want a Pink Tank.

" But why pink?", is the obvious question. And the most obvious reply is, of course, " Because it's a tank."

See, the thing with asking that question is that most people forget the obvious: I want a tank and I want it painted pink because nobody else has a tank! What that implies, is that nobody else has a say in the matter. It's a huge, 100 ton slab of irony - the proverbial walrus at the dinner table that only you seem to notice: if there's a big, tough-as-nails tank in front of you, the last thing you're going to comment is the fact that it's pink!

And boy, I want you to comment on the color! I want it bad - because the last thing my Pink Tank is going to be is deactivated. You might think my tank looks hilarious, but I know where you live, this thing has horsepower, and Oh-Sweet-Lawd would your house look nice with a few phosphorous or high explosive rounds racing through your foyer.

Because you can believe my Pink Tank isn't going to be firing rose petals, either - though I have been thinking about baby blue surface-to-air missiles to go with it.

Just in case somebody else does have a tank.

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Political Credibility.

nobody@vox.com(Joni) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:56:41 +0200

Being a student representative in the most hyped student union/university merger in the country ~~this year~~, I have to admit, it is nice to sit at the top and watch the little wittle bits and pieces fall together ~~or not~~ in a type of controlled chaos I haven't seen since that loaded up bus in China. And there are benefits...

... I just can't think of any right now.

Of course, most of the job's about ratifying semi-obscure paragraphs and articles justifying our continued existence as a student union - which is interesting in itself ( OK, who am I kidding?), but honestly, knowing there are people there solely for the CV-benefit of it ( I'm guessing 0?), I can think of quite a few better ways to make do of 6h sit-downs every few weeks.

But we are popular! At least the meetings, which are streamed live via Internetz to anyone who'd care, are viewed by scores of people! I kid you not: there are ~~people~~ those who will sit through the whole thing, at home, for fun!

I dug around a bit and found out why: it's the newest craze in - You might have guessed it - drinking games. People get shitfaced according to meeting doctrine ques, because we can't.

And that would be fine if people didn't send me messages during said meeting telling me to show... various things to the camera. Still, these people voted me in there in the first place...

Not that I have much political cred', anyway - at least not anymore, seeing as a semi high-flying mail was suddenly sent to one of my old ( I'm guessing junior high-era) e-mails. Which, to be honest, wasn't that bad. The proverbial twisting of the knife was the completely public, correcting e-mail stating that the sender couldn't find my e-mail but that... facebook stated that that would have been my proper adress.

The day I put up my work e-mail on facebook is the day I honestly believe I should be getting these mails to adresses like that.*

*No, I'm not stating the mail here, even if it's seen less action than Michael Jackon's real nether bits.

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Footnote.

nobody@vox.com(Joni) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:53:49 +0300

There's a place I like to go every now and then to be completely by myself. The view from the rooftop of my apartment block is incredible at night, you can see all over the sea and almost to the other side of Helsinki from there. Absolutely beautiful during winter.

Haven't been up there for a while... but yesterday I sat up there all the way past midnight.

Maybe the coming of snow really has changed the pace of things...

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In The (Exit-)Zone.

nobody@vox.com(Joni) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:35:10 +0300

It's been really busy lately - so busy, in fact, that I've completely forgotten about writing anything! Alright, so my subconcious is shouting that I actually haven't had the time to write anything down, but I'd beg to differ.

Mostly been really busy with the autumn courses; with an intended 47 credits just this fall instead of the normal ( and arduous enough) 30 credits they expect us to push out, I've been mostly just been trying to multitask and schedule my studying more effectively.

So it tears up the social calendar, but what can ya do, huh? Strangely, I haven't been feeling the least bit stressed, but I expect that to change once mid-terms hit me in the face.

But damnit, I like studying! I haven't felt this think-thirsty in years, and I'll be damned if I'm gonna let that feeling slide!

....

Then again, today was the season's first snowfall. Quite a serene change to the whole dreary hail and autumn storms that've been going on lately.

Maybe it's time for a change of pace as well.

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Back In Business.

nobody@vox.com(Joni) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:59:46 +0300

Having taking my own sweet time recuperating from my short trip to Bremen ( OK, my Internet connection was offline for a week, go figure), it was refreshing to get back to the stuff I know best: schmoozing the High and Mighty and selling myself to the highest bidder - pretty much being an academic whore, if you will.

In the aftermath of the recession in construction last year (No, f**k you 'The Economist': Depression!) a whole lot of construction and infrastructure firms are trying to warm their ties to us, the would-be CEOs of anything with the word "build" in it, they've started throwing out meet-and-greets for us: a short presentation, food and drinks on the house, and usually some form of entertainment, usually in the Boardroom's private sauna facilities or some other - to quote McDonald's: "I'm lovin' it!"

Most people decide to go along with these out of pure interest, some for the free food and drink, a few because they like people vying for their future careers. Me? I go there vying for mine.

Let's be frank: we're not going to get better chances to mingle one-on-one with these CEOs later in life unless we're really crafty, smart or plain lucky, and wisened from last summer's less-than-optimal job market, I'd decided not to leave those meet-and-greets without at least one phone number, even if it was just the receptionist's! Networking is the word, ladies and gentlemen.

Today was my first meet-and-greet this autumn, with YIT none the less, one of the biggest contractors in Scandinavia. Long story short, asking business-related questions you already know the answers to, making some educated guesses and comments and chatting it up with the Senior VP of Baltic Affairs will quickly land you a few helpful phone numbers.

”Nothing certain, of course, but a determined applicant should be able to make good use of those people”.

Booyah bitches, we're back in business!

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I'm Not Dead! (Yet!)

nobody@vox.com(Joni) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 00:40:27 +0300

My, it's been a busy few weeks!

Busy introducing the newest batch of freshmen to the school ( and quite a fetching batch they are), getting through the last summer exams just before the autumn courses hit me in the face like a shovel in the hands of a hillbilly and sinking deeper into the marshlands that is university politics - ”politics” being something I swore sometimes I'd never get involved in, but this job didn't seem like politics when they whipped me into it.

But most of all I've been enjoying the fact that I've gotten to see my fellow classmen again! It's fun to see the people you messed up your own freshmen year and admitting there's a chance that it might happen all over again!

It's been especially fun realizing how I'm stuck in the grinder once again; one week down and I'm knee deep in everything you need to screw with your head and mess up your spare time, not to mention your sleep.

... Which is exactly why I'll be heading off to Germany, next week for a few days, because nothing messes with your deadlines and lab reports like a good binge, right?

The again, I may actually be getting a bit old since I've actually garnered some interest in studying; partially because all of my freshmen seem to be able to party harder than me ( and with a median age difference of 3 years, I'm glad about that), but also because we're starting to get to the honestly interesting courses – not that many people get the chance to go on an ”Explosives 101”or ”Fire 'simulation'”-course, now do they?

And let's be honest: few people enjoy wanton destruction, huge explosions and pyromania as much as I do - something everyone should write in their blog at some point, just to keep the G-men on their toes!

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In The Mean Time...

nobody@vox.com(Joni) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 13:17:15 +0300

It's really silly that I haven't had any time to post anything for a while, but with summer coming to an end and the new semester starting on Monday, I've been busy like no other.

I mean, you shouldn't feel stressed during your vacation, but dangit, I guess i have been! I've mainly been busy studying to a few exams up this week and next week, preparing the upcoming tri-university merger as a member of the new-yet-not-really-existing student council, coaching and preparing this year's freshmen and some other personal projects as well. And on top of that, I've been desperately trying to find time to not only spruce up the walls in my apartment ( I've got all the materials ready, but no spare 20h shift) as well as finding an empty weekend to go visit the 'rents!

Hold up! First off, why the hell am I stressed over stuff like that, anyway? The exams, while compulsory at some point, aren't really that crucial to get through right now, so I'm just blowing hot air over that one. The whole student council-thingy, on the other hand, is so not me; people who know me will tell you that I don't do anything out of charity - but it looks good on the CV and I tend to end up in newspapers and the evening news every now and then because of it, so that's ... cool. Not that I really give a damn about politics, student or other, but damnit, if people want me elected and then actually do elect me, there's nothing really nothing to cry about, is it? No stress there, really, since I'm good as is, and it's not like I tried to get in there in the first place.

But the freshmen, uuuh! That's just a whole lotta fun coming my way, but it's gonna suck out a lot of time for a few weeks because of all the tutoring... and stuff.

But the two things that actually have been stressing me has been seeing the parents and getting this damn apartment done so I could finally, finally have a house-warming party ( just hit the 1-year mark for the place, by the way. YAY!)! But time, for the moment, is a luxury I simply don't have, and whenever I do, most of it goes to exercising or lying on the floor going *GASP!*.

Which is fine. And that tasklist is going to go down like crazy within the next two weeks, just swimmingly in time to clear out space for the autumn classes! WHEE!!!

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