So yeah… sorry about that. It’s the end of April. It’s been months. Positively months.
I’ve been busy. I still am quite busy but I’m waiting for something to process in ArcMap so I have some time to write..
Let’s look at my achieved 23 before 23s (underline = in progress, strikeout = complete, strikeout + underline = so far so good but it’s a year long thing)
1. Get into the grad school of my choice and embark upon an interesting thesis topic
Check. I am going to Western in the fall and have an interesting (top secret for now) potential topic.
2. Get into Suomea Suomessa and spend the summer in Finland, speaking only Finnish. (2b. Visit Kimmo and Kari in Vaasa)
This didn’t actually happen. But I scheme to visit Finland in August. So it’s sort of happening. Kind of. I promise.
5. Keep my space tidy.
Relatively tidy, so it’s still in progress. I am throwing out and giving away a lot of unnecessary things, so there’s fewer things cluttering my space.
8. Finish a painting every month (8b. and post it here)
So I kind of started doing pastels and also don’t own a scanner. But it’s going well. I’ll post once I have a bloody scanner.
9. Eat no packaged foods (apart from yogourt and other difficult-to-make-at-home products).
Going okay. I have in a moment of weakness bought a frozen dinner or two, but I would say I haven’t really eaten any packaged-food proper (apart from 4 or 5 ready meals) since I wrote that list back in January.
10. Train every week at least once in any martial art.
This is the one thing on the list that is actually going exactly as planned, and it’s twice a week, and I feel effin’ awesome. Awesome. Being/getting fit is the best feeling.
11. Update my blog every day with something./ 12. Update my Finnish blog every day with something. / 13. Start and update a Russian blog every day with something.
Yeahhh.. well.. :\ That was overly ambitious.
15. Stop buying books until I finish what I already have. (15b. Use the library more often)
Whoops, I’m an addict. But I’ve been finishing books at a prodigious rate. I don’t really turn on my computer at all when I get home from work, since I spend so much time in front of one.
16. Look good every damned day. (16 alternative: Post outfit photos every day)
Waking up early so that I can dress well and put on some decent makeup and do my hair has definitely made me feel better about myself and less miserable and it has the added bonus that people take me more seriously. Who knew! As for outfit photos, I’m waiting until I get a tripod. 
17. Use my lunchbox every day that I go out. (17b. Post photos of my amazing lunchbox lunches)
Welll.. my lunchbox has died.. last week. But I have been packing lunches every day. And I plan to buy a cute bento from Japan. Just because. It has two tiers! And is cute!
The Bento I will probably buy, from Bento&co
18. Make sushi from scratch.
Done. Have photos but I forgot to post them. Maybe tomorrow or tonight I will find them on my computer. I made the rice too salty. 
20. Clear out things from my life that I don’t need or that are holding me back.
See #5 above.
21. Take more photographs and start a portfolio page for them. (21b. A personal website)
Well part of it is done. But I just don’t have the time to edit/process them anymore. I think I will buy Lightroom to speed it up a little.
Anyways, 23 before 23 update out of the way (though some items have to be added to later, like number 18′s photos).
Now onto the round of random things I like which I have been looking at recently.
The new Kaisa library at the University of Helsinki
I love it. I want to study there, officially. I don’t even know what, but that library looks like the perfect place to spend 12 hours reading about obscure Soviet prose writers of the 70ies or some other things that I do in the library. Here is a PDF (in Finnish) with some architecturaley stuff and cross-sections and the like. Just nnf. That window.
Given the West’s recent fascination/infatuation/obssesion with North Korea (à la Sovietophilia, something which I will post about later in May I hope), there has been an abundance of material on the mysterious country posted on the web. By abundance, I mean, many more journalists than before have visited and taken officially-guided photographs, though some slip through NK’s net.
A dancer dressed as a soldier (Reuters/Bobby Yip), taken from the Atlantic
As someone who also performs in dance I can’t imagine the anxiety she feels to get everything in her performance perfect. Her face also seems a little gaunt, but it could be the dance-make up which is usually quite heavy because people far from the stage have to see it, too. I really like this photo, it’s one of my favourites of the series that the Atlantic posted (though they weren’t taken in series or by the same photographer, I just mean the themed series <_<).
I mean you see photos like this of the living situation of some of NK’s residents:
Apartments in Pyongyang April 12, 2012. (Reuters/Bobby Yip) from the Atlantic
But you also think that maybe it was crappy weather when the photo was taken… or something. You just want to hope not all blocks are like this. Though it is a country of contradictory spaces, much like any other. You can see images, mere spaces away from ones like the above that look like this:
The swimming pool at Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang (Pedro Ugarte/AFP/Getty Images) from the Atlantic
But what I sort of find distasteful or dislike about the whole series is its title: “Glimpses of Humanity in Choreographed North Korea”. It’s a shocking title in a way, though I think it doesn’t cause us any pause to think about the daily lives of these people.
In a way, imagery is imagery but for a different cause. The photos of North Koreans which are guided by the regime itself (even the word regime is fully-loaded here, but indisputable) are obviously on the ‘other end of the spectrum’ so to speak.. but I think that the title somehow says that North Koreans don’t possess any elements of humanity, but really, I think they’re quite hidden. Or is humanity only something which can be seen in a glance or a chance photograph? What is ‘real’ humanity?
Anyways… the rain is falling steadily now outside and I have to get back to my maps.
Em out
PS: I’m thinking about doing separate book-review blog. I wonder if it’s a good idea…
