December 2011
127 posts
4 tags
3 tags
7 tags
I asked my friend which sense he couldn’t live without and he answered with sight. While I do work within a visual field, I’ve found that sight as a sense is overrated. Within my own experience, I’ve begun to understand that visual beauty is nothing more than a learned preference. I suppose the positive (or negative) feelings associated with smell are also learned but they are...
5 tags
3 tags
7 tags
4 tags
5 tags
4 tags
6 tags
5 tags
6 tags
5 tags
3 tags
5 tags
5 tags
4 tags
Charles Ollier observed that GHOTI can be pronounced “fish”:
GH as in laugh
O as in women
TI as in nation
Melville Dewey, who devised the Dewey Decimal System, suggested that GHEAUGHTEIGHPTOUGH spells “potato”:
GH as in hiccough
EAU as in beau
GHT as in naught
EIGH as in neigh
PT as in pterodactyl
OUGH as in though
This sort of thing can get out of hand quickly. In his 1845 Plea for...
6 tags
8 tags
5 tags
Dinner with my 'brisk' friend Petra!
Today I went to THREE apartment showings. As of now, I’ve been to over eight apartments and have yet to receive a call. I even gave them a letter with a brief overview of my financial and educational background as well as references. Why does this feel like a job interview? Because it’s Helsinki. Anyways, onwards to happier times.
I met up with my reipas ystävä (is that actually...
5 tags
3 tags
3 tags
8 tags
7 tags
6 tags
6 tags
7 tags
4 tags
6 tags
5 tags
11 tags
Jouluni Pieksämäellä sukulaisien kanssa!
Obviously, I set about making joulutortut!
When Outi came home from work she set about making the piirakat. Secret way of making them even more delicious? Dunk those babies in melted butter!
Ok, so this is riisipuuro. Not the best bowl to photograph it in but it’s basically rice cooked in milk, cream and a bit of salt for taste. My aunt made a sort of…fruit stew to put on...
5 tags
What moral obligation demands, not only your life, but the last gasp with which...
– The Idiot by Dostoevsky
4 tags
There could be no doubt that her anxieties about her family were groundless;...
– The Idiot by Dostoevsky
5 tags
6 tags
4 tags
5 tags
5 tags
4 tags
To keep growing, societies must keep solving problems as they arise. Yet each problem solved means more complexity. Success generates a larger population, more kinds of specialists, more resources to manage, more information to juggle - and, ultimately, less bang for your buck.
Homer-Dixon doubts we can stave off collapse completely. He points to what he calls “tectonic” stresses...
4 tags
6 tags
5 tags
6 tags
I met up with my friend Robert in Helsinki today after class. We sat for some tea at Théhuone (I got chai and he got white tea). The prices for takeaway bags can be a bit pricey but for a personal teapot it’s always 5 euros no matter what tea leaves you actually choose.
I had told him before that since I’m no longer a vegetarian, I’ve been dying to eat a real burger so...
7 tags
4 tags
6 tags
6 tags
3 tags
3 tags