Right, so you know I'm making this dissertation on humour. And I've made a few interesting observations that I just need to get out of my system (but can't put in the essay itself since it has to be objective or whatev).

Yesterday I was reading this book on Google Books (<3), a self-help book on relieving stress, and humour was recommended in one chapter. And this author had listed different types of humour, and wrote about sarcasm: "this is the lowest kind of humour, it is to be avoided since it doesn't relieve stress, it creates it." And I had to take a time-out to go "wtfomglmao". All humour can be used to meet both social and anti-social ends, sarcasm isn't particularly evil - only if you don't understand it.

Also, near all of the texts I've read so far begin with "humour is such an interesting field for research yet it has been examined very little." In fact, there is so much research about humour by now that it's getting a bit annoying that all the authors make this observations (even ones from recent literature, an essay from 2005 stated that too).

And another text I was reading today was proposing a practical application of their theory in the current debate of political correctness. And it was going on about racist/sexist jokes and whether they should be banned because of what they might make people think about the persons sharing the joke (so if a white man is telling a racist joke we can assume he really is racist). And two words kept repeating in my head: "Read. Freud. Read. Freud." I hope my telepathic message reached the authors. See, Freud (being all cool and strange and inverting everything) seemed to reckon that a person who is offended by an anti-semitic joke is more likely to be unconsciously anti-semitic, as opposed to someone who is enjoying an anti-semitic joke simply because it is a funny play on incongruity and stereotypes, and not because he really is all anti-semitic inside.

Some of you have been prodded before about this, so I must warn you: it'll be painful:
But vote in 30 books, people! *prod prod* I know for a fact that you can all read, and I'm pretty sure that you've read or heard of at least some books on that list - so vote! I might have to sulk at people who don't vote...

I apologice for anyone reading this who already has voted. I lob you.

On a very specific note: Meri! Pahus! Vote!!


Unrelated edit: My tea smells of my dog. Either I miss my dog very much or this cold has done something very strange to my smell-receptors (=nose).
Quote of the month: "Hey, why do you have two noses?!" -"One's for showin', the other's for blowin'!"

Again it happened. A message from a member got me rambling about something semi-related:

I have a habit of being very mirror-like when it comes to internet personality, and maybe real life personality as well (it's not as easy to observe your own personality in reality as it is online). What I type is often toned according to the other people around, to reflect what I see of them. So talking to someone sarcastic tends to make me more sarcastic too, and someone really happy and bubbly makes me seem like that too, and a serious conversationalist makes me appear like one. Strangely though, this seems to work only with people who are on the same kind of social level as me. I seem to turn the mirror away when talking to "higher ups" like teachers, or parents, or even [Hedda]. Which means I'd be a terrible comedian, afraid to poke fun of the powerful. o.O

This is just a theory though (and not a very original one at that, either - was it Jung who said we all wear masks in different social situations?) The reason I'm observing it and so interested in it is because I'd lke to be able to make my art practice work like that too. A lot of artist's work is about sharing an experience - if the experience is universal enough the viewer will understand and learn from it. I'd prefer my art to be less about me (again, not an original idea) and more about the viewer entering the work to reflect him/herself from the work in order to learn about him/herself.

Apparently I can talk about myself sometimes. Fancy that. o.O
(The message-sender seems promising. A new nonner, mayhaps...)

Come see the hottest math-porn of the net.
Math porn dot com, "'cos tan (is) [sin]..."

What? I'm ill, I'm excused some feverish babbling.

I've gone essay-happy. >_> Comical or cynical?.
If there are typos or whatever and you really want to edit the page, the password is 'nutty'.

Also, if you are into any kinds of comics, pay the wiki a visit and sign up as a member - I'm seriously curious about the amount of comic lovers in ET. :3

Time for you to interfere in my life again :P Read this and say when it doesn't make sense :P

Artist's Statement
I am a draftsman. I do both realistic drawing and drawing from imagination, and I use a lot of references for both. I use pencils, pens, inks, charcoal, pastels – almost anything that makes a mark without mixing colours before applying - as well as drawing programs on the computer (both raster and vector), with either a mouse, or a tablet and drawing pen. The technical aspects of my current practice explore the possible combinations of traditional drawing media with interactive new media tools, and the (ab)use of internet for artistic purposes.

My visual language is mechanical in a nostalgic sense: old-fashioned industrial precision in drawings of out-dated machine components. The work doesn’t discuss anything as such, it is more about the reality I live in. Yet in strange contradiction to that, I consider my work to be about nondividualism. It isn’t about me, but about my role in an unknown collective. For example, we live in an individualist society, which neither fully recognises us all as individuals (since that defies democracy) nor accepts that we are all just parts of the whole (since that breaches over to communism). It is paradoxes like these that I find particularly amusing and useful.

The body of work produced for my degree show is – in the holistic tradition – more than the sum of its parts. The drawings and the final interactive pieces are accompanied by notes and sketches (not unlike the work of Marcel Duchamp) to make the space as a whole to contribute to the work, yet not quite as an installation.

Something [Fizban] said in a message got me on a roll:

Humm... I don't really know (how ET has changed over the years I've been here), I really only know my little corner of ET, which has only changed because I and my friends have changed. o.O Back in 2003 I only managed to get online in Sundays, which I dedicated to roleplaying with Silvie. Then I got more into the wiki and became wiki-obsessed. It seems that there were a lot more people in wikis back then, talking and finding the odd and random pages. So all the weird wikis had a conversation (or a flame war) going on, and that formed a group of people who all were on all wikis (wikimancers). I moved to England and started to be able to use the net more on a daily basis. Then I was invited to be in the council so I got into that forum-thing (most council-work is about sorting things out in forums -_-), which also has its own group of people who are in all the forums, talking and fighting. And that's pretty much as far as I've gone with it.
From my point of view, there aren't really 'years' in ET like there are in the real world, or at least I can't keep track. I wouldn't even say I've been here that long yet. o.O (And I just realised I have, four years! O_O)

I can't really say that things have changed much while I've been here, people are pretty much the same generally speaking. There will always be newbies, n00bs, flamers, spammers, l33tists and nice people. Everybody goes through the motions. Maybe the chavs are the first real group that I don't think I've ever been in. :P

An interesting personality test
http://www.kisa.ca/personality/

My result was ISFJ http://typelogic.com/isfj.html
While I don't agree with all the bits there (family isn't everything for me, for example), it's still pretty accurate. Sides I don't count out the possibility that it includes things through life, (for example, while the family in which I was born isn't that important to me, maybe the one I make myself will be.) o.O

A list of things from the "suitable careers" thing:

Large, rich inner store of information which they gather about people - check: I'm like House, endlessly curious about people for no apparent reason.
Highly observant and aware of people's feelings and reactions - check: nothing better than observing people
Excellent memory for details which are important to them - check.
Very in-tune with their surroundings - excellent sense of space and function - not so sure, but I don't deny it. I have a shit sense of direction, though, is that the same as sense of space?
Can be depended on to follow things through to completion - check: this one gets me into trouble.
Will work long and hard to see that jobs get done - check.
Stable, practical, down-to-earth - they dislike working with theory and abstract thought - check the first part, but not the second part, I like abstract thought.
Dislike doing things which don't make sense to them - Erm, check? I thought everyone does, 
Value security, tradition, and peaceful living - check, again: who doesn't?
Service-oriented: focused on what people need and want - Check, although I am also people. 
Kind and considerate - check, although less so online.
Likely to put others' needs above their own - checkcheckcheck and one more massive check.
Learn best with hands-on training - So check.
Enjoy creating structure and order - Uhm, I didn't fold an A2 size paper 5-6 times to make a grid on which to draw... >_> Check.
Take their responsibilities seriously - pheaaar teh check!
Extremely uncomfortable with conflict and confrontation - Extreme is such an... extreme word...

The guy in the laundrette place was a yucky old gimp >.< The young guy who works there's ok, but this old guy was horrid. He was pestering us, wanted to see in the bag (we didn't let him), and was going on about whites and coloureds (the racist :P) when we don't give a damn and was everything mixed up. Grah, it was so annoying, and I think he's trying to be helpful but ends up being annoying and horrible.

I need to "demonstrate some experience or use of computers in design-related activities" for my MA application. I can not believe how hard this is turning out to be. I know how to use Photoshop/GIMP/pixel art programs, but can't find anything I'd want to show for that as proof; I can use Flash and Illustrator a bit, but simply can not find a decent example that proves that. X_x

Rantrantrant

gotoAndStop("framelabel");

Apologies to forum-people who already know, but see what this fortune cookie website told me:

"You have an evil heart and are greatly despised."
How did it know?!?!?! :O

I greatly recommend having something obvious said to you by this fortune cookie place: http://www.badcookie.com/

Silvie (and Draug) calls me a jew. The other day I was in the studio talking to two guys who aren't in my utter closeclose circle of friends (Ct. Bligh and Frossie for the interest of the Fish who doesn't read blogs), and though I can't remember what we were talking about, Bligh's reply was an insult to me that consisted only of the word "you". but he said it like "j00" which sounds like "jew". I stood there stunned, and he already rushed to apologise, saying he was kidding etc... and I started laughing so hard and had to explain the jew-thing, and then where it comes from and that I'm not actually jewish and that I was so stunned because I was going "wait, how does he know" in my head. But it was awesome (and proves that I should indeed be called "jew")
-"j00!" XD
-"..."
-"ehh" O_o;;
-"Buahahahahaa!" XD
-"?"
-"I thought you said jew"
-"No no no, I'd never..."
-"And a friend of mine calls me a jew at times"
-"...are you Jewish?"
-"No, it comes from Harpo Marx, who was jewish... you know my MSN nickname Exapno Mapcase..."
-"aaaah! I thought you got really insulted there..."
-"No no, I just had to stop and think 'wait, how does he know?'"

Well it was funny when it happened. >_>

Hello and welcome back to "Quote the [Viking]"!

Here's today's quote:

No, I understand your point.

Your point is invalid.

This is not a bloodless war. Not even a 'relatively' bloodless war.

You do not understand the point of war. You do even not understand the concept of war. Until you can understant basic concepts, I must consider your opinions to be those of an ignorant child.

Thank you for listening, and don't forget to tune in next week for more quotes from the [Viking]!

Sorry for another one (I'm turning into someone we know O_O)
But I have to share this. These are photos of a Finnish secondary school class visiting Sweden six years ago. My class to be specific. How often do you find a picture of yourself (yes, I'm there) on the internet? :O

http://opetus.hamsenet.fi/vehkalahtiya/vehkapitsa/Ruotsi/sverige.htm

All I did was googled the name of an old friend.

www.obscure.org/

Wow.