Tomorrow is World Book day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Book_Day

Please celebrate in any which way you'd like. :)

In Finland the day is called The Day of the Book and the Rose, so if you go buy a book in a bookstore tomorrow you will get a rose (may be applicable to women only, possibly).

This. http://www.genusfotografen.se/?p=2190 Is. Win.

A school assignment where the high school students were asked to attach August Strindberg's face to a woman's body. (He was a notorious and outspoken women-hater type back in his day, but a world famous author despite that.) He just has the most perfect face for this kind of exercise in the differences how men and women are portrayed in visual language. Similar idea as the much beloved Hawkeye Initiative :)

So I'm still on sick leave. For the rest of this week. What am I supposed to be doing? O_o Someone, quick, give meaning to my life! I already went through all the official forums that I was behind on, I draw and listen to podcasts a lot, I read and study, I walk the dog (as much as he wants to be walked, which is not a lot - today he just plopped himself down on the snow instead of walking to the mailbox with me to get the mail X_x ), I hitrecord, I junk forum, but I need to... do things! O_o;;;;

Yet I feel like I never finish anything, or manage to get on with important stuff - bar maybe the drawing. :/

It seems that I have so much time that I can't use it right, and then end up not doing what I should be doing. What am I supposed to be doing? :/

This was my experience in England too http://satwcomic.com/no-way-out
And it's all the more disturbing because, what if there's a fire? The exit should not be locked so you can't get out without a key!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kD5ImtmTT-w

XD
http://humon.deviantart.com/art/Sauna-Time-137849149

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/232/the-real-story?act=3

One man trying to rewrite Star Wars Episode 1. And his ideas are actually rather win.
(10 minutes)

Bought Paul Simon's Rhythm of the Saints while stopping in a record store (a proper record store like the ones you see in movies) because my bus wasn't coming for another 15 minutes.

Have a week of sick leave from work because my knee is slowly buckling from under me, will try to see if it gets better with rest. :/ The doctor told me that this was not a good line of work for me and that I should go study something. I refrained from pointing out that I have a masters degree, and just said that this is a temporary thing anyways. Three more months, tops.

Reading a collection of Alexander Woollcott's essays, While Rome Burns. It's wonderful, like a new door to that world that Harpo habited. He keeps dropping these names that I've learnt to love: Edna Ferber, Herbert Bayard Swope, F.P.A., Harpo, Alice Duer Miller... It has Minnie's obituary. And "My Friend Harpo".

Drawing a frame of detailed geometric stained glass patterns, coaxing stars out of a dusty table, and making an animated background for the Subway Existentialist collaboration over at Hitrecord.org.

Applying for work in England.

Watching Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Waiting.
_Waiting.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/231/time-to-save-the-world?act=2

Can I do this thing again where I beg you all to listen to This American Life? Because this episode "Trends with Benefits" is good, really really wonderfully good. It's about a county in Alabama where 1 in 4 people are signed up onto disability support, and the show tries to find out why this is happening. And there is this mind-boggling "how the other half lives" kind of moment, where a lady with back pain can't think of any jobs where you get to sit down all day. For a university-educated person like moi, this was quite an eye-opener, a real privilege-moment.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/490/trends-with-benefits

List of countries that still use capital punishment:

Afghanistan Bahamas Belarus Botswana China Cuba Egypt Guatemala India Indonesia Iran Iraq Israel Japan Lebanon Malaysia North Korea Pakistan Saudi Arabia Singapore Somalia South Korea Suriname Syria Taiwan Tajikistan Tonga United Arab Emirates United States Vietnam Yemen


I would point out that the United States is the only first world country on the list if I hadn't for some time ago come to a personal resolve that the United States is not a first world country at all (it is the only way of thinking that helps me make sense of its policies and such without completely losing my mind). In my universe the United States is a second world country.

Wednesday night I felt so sick to my stomach that I couldn't go to work, then found out Thursday morning that my dad was in a similar predicament. Friday morning my mum had the same bug. And Saturday the dog ate a whole ton of dry grass emerging from under the snow, and then threw up Sunday morning.

Somehow this just tickled me, that everyone in the family had the same, very brief stomach bug. Even the dog.




In other news-worthy news, I really like Duck Dynasty now.

I'm still sort of in aversion mode. Apologies. If it seems that I'm not doing anything here, it's because I'm not doing anything here. :/ It's kind of a personal crisis type thing. Or something. I'm kind of just nipping in and out again occasionally.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/525380_10151469522753827_389079505_n.jpg

I assume that the text means something like "attractiveness depends on your thoughts" or something to that effect (or what, German-understanders?)
*edit* It says "more attractive than you think". [Teufelsweib] knewed.

I'm sure it's just some kind of a visual clever thing, but I think it kind of points out how ridiculous it is to obsess over the thing on the front of women and then think that the same thing on the back on men is gross.

This gives me so much squee and I could just watch it go for hours <3

:*

I finally learnt what the breed of the dog I want is called. Borzoi. (In Finnish it's "Russian Greyhound"). It's kind of like an Afghan hound, but not so lady-like (the Afghan hound wears a dress).

I learnt it because of WNYC's dog project http://project.wnyc.org/dogs-of-nyc/
I get WNYC's emails because of RadioLab.

So this is all just another thing that RadioLab has done for me.
Thank you, RadioLab.
I should donate to them.

So the only thing I watch on TV is Star Trek Next Generation, and I never watch it as it airs, I watch it recorded. So I fast-forward the ads. And there is an ad that swishes by that is for some kind of a Finnish dating site, called "Elite Partner" and on the ads there is a picture of the usual ad model handsome/beautiful person, with a name and an age and a job title, and their jobs are all like, surgeon or CEO or such. And the last shot in the ad gives you the details like the website name, and in small text at the bottom of the screen it says "to join you must be at least" and then the fast-forward would change the picture and I was left wondering what one has to be in order to join an "elite partner" dating site. You must be at least an MA? Earning a certain amount? What could it possibly be? So one time I slowed down at that ad to see what it said.

It says "you must be at least 18 years old." Buh. How unexciting.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/01/24/170187741/rollergirl-displeased-with-hedge-fund-manager

Combining two cool things, Planet Money and Roller Derby :D

My dog fell down the stairs today :( It wasn't too bad, luckily he has quite a bit of bulk (to put it lightly) so he just sort of... paw slipped and he went down a number of steps like a sled, then skidded to a halt. Then got back on his paws and went down. But it really hurt the heart to see it happen.

And then ten minutes later he was back upstairs. -_-;

*has a bad*

Free comic!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanestrada/the-whole-story-winter-2013

So I backed the Whole Story comic bundle on Kickstarter, I think you all know about this. And it's pretty mad. The guy, Ryan Estrada, has raised a hugely mount of monnies already, and it's not over yet. And I'm really happy for him, because the Whole Story is really cool and if/when I make a comic I'm giving it to him to see if the Whole Story would want to do it. Because it's just so much awesomeness in that company.

Now this guy Ryan is way excited about comics. Like, way. And he does these project updates all the time, and he keeps adding to the backer package. So I'm actually going to drown in comics, come February.

And one of his updates recently was:
I want to make this even bigger. I want everyone who loves comics to find out about The Whole Story! But I hate promoting. I like sharing! So just for my backers, I’m going to give you a free copy of Plagued to give to whoever you want.
There are no strings attached! You can give it to anyone you like. You can give it to as many people as you like. It’s the whole book, not a preview. They don’t have to visit the site, sign up for anything, there are no ads thrown in, it’s the same book I gave you guys. You can give them that link, or download it and put it in an e-mail.

It's a pretty fun comic. And I like sharing too, so I want to share it too. But I'm not sure if by "sharing" he meant "post link to the Internet in a public place", so in case that wasn't what he meant, I'm going to ask you to talk to me and I'll send you the link. Just express interest.

This is actually a ruse. I just want to talk to people on ET. Even people who I don't know yet. But the comic is real. So if you like comics, here's a conversation starter. Just ask me to share Plagued with you.