Freedom to not speak

Freedom of speech is something that is taken for granted in the so called Western world, and so here in Finland as well, but apparently with a little twist to it.

According to the Finns I have recently been discussing the issue with, here in Finland it seems that the meaning of freedom of speech here is; (which normally is considered to be that you are allowed to express your own opinions), “the freedom of leaving out to mention about things you should talk about”.

And this has been practised to its’ best extent at least when the late president Urho Kekkonen still lived with some remains still prevailing in today’s politics. The eastern neighbour has ever since been talked about in a hushed tone of voice, some things were best not to talked about aloud at all, and president Kekkonen was according to the information I have found on the subject a mastermind on balancing on a tight rope between the western world and the eastern then great neighbour, The Soviet Union.

Anyway, I never seem to cease to be surprised about what information is freely available on the Internet, like finding a distant relative or a second cousin really, currently living here in Finland and studying at the University of Helsinki!

I have not as yet got any answer to the e-mail I sent this morning but am hoping to receive one soon. It would be very nice if we could meet up, if not at least be in contact by e-mail even though we have never actually met before, just our respective parents that are first cousins as our family is not the very best at keeping in touch and we are spread all over Europe together with a couple of other continents as well and no family reunions have ever taken place. Maybe that is one thing we should take up doing in the future as with age one tends to all of sudden become more interested in one’s family and relatives.

By the way, why do they say that flowers are best captured in backlight?

What is too much?

A quarter of million people in Finland are considered to be risk consumers of alcohol, that is they still today can stop drinking if they want to, they do not think they have a drinking problem and they sustain a job and family etc.

Another quarter of million have problems with their alcohol consumption, they drink too much too often at can not stop. All this according to some new statistics.

Well well, how do you measure this at risk to have problems with alcohol or if you can stop drinking or not?!? And if you deny having a problem yourself, who makes you eligible in the problem group? And what is "a problem with alcohol", if all you want to do is die and you drink as you can not commit suicide and drink in order to some day die sooner than you would otherwise do, where lies the problem? Maybe the 1000 people that died of liver cirrhosis here in Finland last year only wanted to die and did it in their own way of choosing, who is to tell? And what exactly is "too much?"

It is this turning of numbers that sometimes bugs me quite a lot. Twisting the same numbers you can say just the opposite and as not all the facts are taken in concern interpreting the data the turn out can not be true.

Anyway, biggest part of the day today has been spent with choosing between good and bad photos and sometimes when looking at your own photos, I mean photos taken by yourself, there is something in the photo that feels good even though it does not look as good as it feels. They just remind you about something nice that once happened, just ordinary snapshots, and they are the hardest to discard when thinking about what to publish. Now I have the worst backache since forever and have to go get a painkiller. Sitting and playing with your PC most certainly means bad business for your back!

Or maybe I should go get myself a drink or two?

Wonders of the digital age

Digital photographing is so fun and easy, you just shoot and discard the ones you do not like or did not turn out well.

I also like the way to store the photos digitally and not having them all printed out and put into photo albums. I have also recently begun contemplating the possibility of digitalizing all the photos, even the paper copies in traditional photo albums and store them safely on CDs, the only thing about it is that is time consuming project and I like doing things quickly and having them done right away.

Yesterday was one the days I have enjoyed most in some time as I had the opportunity to get some serious photographing done again with many different things to shoot both static and moving ones. Kids and pets are the most difficult ones to get good photos of as they never stay still, they just move about even if you try to make them not move. Actually one of the best shots from yesterday is one that might not be the best technically, shot a bit off handedly and being a bit blurred but it shows real action as only a cat and dog together can perform. So the greater part of today is now spent copying and saving the good ones to save and just by a click discarding the bad ones. I used to develop some of my black and whites myself but I never even tried developing colour prints and now you can just push a button and they are printed at home on paper type of your own choice.

The owner of the photo shop keeps telling me every time I go there for one reason or another that their prints last longer than the ones printed out at home, but hey, you can still print out new ones after they might have faded, just like you could get new copies from your own negatives and still can today.

Lack of time

Currently the sun sets at about 11 PM and rises at 4 AM and that gives me not much time to sleep and Thursday will be the shortest night anyway, after that the nights will become longer and darker again.

Some days there still are too much to do so you have to choose between the things at hand. I had gone through the wardrobes and called a charity foundation that collects things from home and off they went. I even got rid of an old chair that was just in the way.

I very much prefer giving things away knowing that they will come to use instead of just throwing them way in among the garbage in the bin. After being so “good” photographing took overhand of ironing and doing the laundry which I had planned to catch up with today. And many nice photos of summery Finland was shot today, not too much sunshine but that never turns out well in photos, the contrast between the shadows and bright spots is too high.

Guess now having uploaded the pictures from the camera I should go and get some dinner preparations done as soon it will be dinner time and home will be invaded by hungry off-spring and spouse. Is it lack of time or my priorities that are wrong ?

Lucky unluck

The weather has been real nice so we went for a walk, which I now regret very much. Being accident prone and enjoying photographing is not a very good combination. As the spring flowers are beginning to bloom among the last year’s dead grass I just had to take some photos resulting in me falling out in the rough. So now my wounded knee is aching again. And of course it always is the same knee I already injured in a skiing accident 20 years ago.

Coming home I just discovered that the kitchen sink had clogged, and I strongly suspect the porridge maker for this, so I had to ring the service guy.

Clog was fixed in two hours time by some super solvent poisonous substance, at the same time spreading all over the cupboard as well. So the service guy found out that he had no new replace packing for the sink. Monday they’ll come with a new one so now we have to live with the water seeping from under the sink until then.

And all this time with the dustbin on the kitchen floor instead of in the cupboard instead of the worse dustbin being flooded in the cupboard and all of it running over the floor. That would have been some serious cleaning to do; now it is just the sink cupboard. What luck nobody is coming for dinner or anything today, so I have to make special arrangements, and that we were invited over to some friends tomorrow so I don’t have to look at it.

One good thing though, I have a good excuse for not doing anything again, so somebody else will be cleaning, and were not talking about the just washing the burnt pot anymore.

Good luck for me, unluck for the porridge maker.

There is a X-spot

We have all heard about the G-spot, but have you ever heard about the X-spot ?

Well, I had not heard about it and not even thought there was one, but I have seen it and I have proof, I took a picture of it passing it, the X-spot, the other day.

Yes, there really is an X-spot and it is not on our bodies. It is a place, or a certain location, here in Finland and I have a photo to prove it. Maybe you can find out where it is? As I am not going to tell you where it is.

Let me know if you find it!