Rants, Links, and Photography.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Chariots of the GODS
The original from the classic book! Its somewhat dated now, but the facts stand the test of time!
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Friday, December 16, 2011
Dejavu
I was on the train this morning and the same wussy mother I bitched about ( see post from a week ago) was onboard again, and the kid phoned again to whine about the boys teasing them (no snow this time) Luckily the class was open so they could go indoors to cower in fear. This time the mother had a crabby looking menopausal croney in tow and they began to tsk tsk and bemoan the state of the world as if kids teasing each other was a 21st century phenomena. This didnt happen in the good old days, oh no, BUT in those days so many children died young from snakebites and rickettes they went on.....Yes snakebites, there is one species of poisonous snake in Finland I think some kind of Adder, and Rickettes because back then oranges cost a years wages and had to be imported from the dark continent at great risk, many sailors having died en route. No kids didnt have time to tease each other they had too much work to do sweeping chimneys and plowing the potato fields, or whatever they did in the 19th century to survive...oh waite I believe they were discussing life in the 50's after the war. Back then people would have to have like 8-9 kids just to keep the homested running and the Russians at bay, all without electricity or running water! WHAAAAAT! what is this India! I dont know about rural living but I do know when people are exagerating a bit!
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Finland in no Funnyland.
This part of the world is not renowned for having a sense of humor. Granted the Brits are funny, but Finns make Germans look downright jolly and even the Russians appear to laugh more. Finnish humor is based on the same things Finnish drama, music, and literature are: drunkeness, promiscuity, and violence and its tragic or hilarious consequences.
Maybe its because the higher the self esteem, the easier it is to laugh at ones self. Finns have a notoriously low self image you will often hear them actually moan "Sorry for being" meaning literally "I apologize for my existence" I have never seen this in any other nationality, and believe me I've met many in my ramblings. This low opinion of themselves is in extreme contrast to national pride "I may a be worthless nonentity, BUT, my country is the greatest on the planet, Dammit!" face red, spit flying, fists pounding, PERKELE! drinks spilling, knives drawn, crying, bruised and hung over in the drunk tank.
There seems to be a deep insecurity in most Finns, I don't suffer from it as I spent my life growing up in more culturally diverse and positively charged areas of the world. When you have confidence and someone teases or mocks you can laugh it off and offer an insult or joke in return. You don't sulk and complain about it, you don't attempt to analyse the profound implications or deeper motivations of the joke or joker and you certainly do not earnestly try to defend your position. Just listen to a Finn trying to defend the utterly disgusting burnt rubber taste of "Salmiakki" candy "No its good, you just have get used to it" blah... blah... blah...
Then there are those grim, ashen souled, tight ass bureaucrats who fear any less then reverential mention of the nation will tarnish the Finland "BRAND" (its obvious they have an entire tax payed funded organization devoted entirely to monitoring the worlds media and entertainment outlets for ANY mention of Finland) First of all the "Brand" is not all that well known in the world, ( how many people still think Nokia is Japanese) and secondly and most importantly as the old cliche goes, there's no such thing as BAD publicity in terms of name recognition!
Whats the worst people with no concept of Finland will think after seeing that bit? "Finns are a bit stiff, gray and humorless, and they have weird, hard to pronounce names" HELLOOO!!
True... and after the article I'm willing to add grim, earnest, and defensive to that list of stereotypes. I wont go on about the perverted, drunken, and violent, stereotypes just yet, that's an entire other rant that I look forward to posting another day.
10 Bizarre Theories And The Facts Surrounding Them (click here)
This photo by me
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Boomerang-shaped UFO above Partille, Sweden 8-Dec-2011
Boomerang-shaped UFO above Partille, Sweden 8-Dec-2011 This is a bit close to home!
Friday, December 9, 2011
I was eavesdropping on the train this morning, when a yuppie woman got a call from her daughter, presumably a 1st grader, complaining that the classroom doors were locked so she and her friend would have to wait outside for 10 minutes where the boys were throwing snowballs at them! She told them to go to principals office to be safe and then proceeded to phone the school and inform them of this dangerous situation! Now, I don't have offspring but have noticed a shocking trend of overprotective mothers and wussyfide whiner children lately, she was essentially teaching her daughter its better to run from your troubles rather than risk the consequences of dealing with them! The consequence being perhaps a couple of snowballs down the back! Imagine snowballs in Finland in December! I dont know what Carol Brady or June Cleaver would have done but I would have told the kid to stop crying and start chucking snowballs back and if you throw like a girl, go ahead and toss a rock (just a small one of course). In this P.C. age snowballs are grounds enough for suspension I'm sure, But a small price to pay for your empowerment and learning to fight for your right to live free of oppression!
The other day I was on the bus at rush hour and was forced to endure 15 solid minutes of a boys continuous screaming. Literally at the top of his lungs screeching "I wan off I wan off I wan off!!" Red faced, drooling, and squirming like a seal caught in an oil spill as his mother tried to hold onto him. I assumed he must be somehow "challenged" as he was not a teething/dirty diapered/colichy/earachey baby but at least 4 or 5, old enough to say whats troubling him. The mother had obviously just picked him up from daycare after work. What cheesed me off most of all was how she just kept ASKING him politely "could you please be quiet" COULD YOU PLEASE! You do not NEGOTIATE with a little kid, you tell them, you don't ask them, period! No wonder he was screaming like he was the effin little prince of Bratstania. I'd wager that not a soul on that bus would have said a word if she'd spanked him.
The other day I was on the bus at rush hour and was forced to endure 15 solid minutes of a boys continuous screaming. Literally at the top of his lungs screeching "I wan off I wan off I wan off!!" Red faced, drooling, and squirming like a seal caught in an oil spill as his mother tried to hold onto him. I assumed he must be somehow "challenged" as he was not a teething/dirty diapered/colichy/earachey baby but at least 4 or 5, old enough to say whats troubling him. The mother had obviously just picked him up from daycare after work. What cheesed me off most of all was how she just kept ASKING him politely "could you please be quiet" COULD YOU PLEASE! You do not NEGOTIATE with a little kid, you tell them, you don't ask them, period! No wonder he was screaming like he was the effin little prince of Bratstania. I'd wager that not a soul on that bus would have said a word if she'd spanked him.
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