I finally got around to uploading more pictures of Nenne (thanks to Dugi installing Picasa client on my ‘puter thus making it a lot simpler):
More “albums” will appear in the main gallery on occasion.
Rewinding all the way back to Thursday Apr 17…
I had been feeling ill on the previous day but was adamant to not allow it to ruin the social day of the week. Dugi and I had a lovely waffle lunch with Inger who was visiting Tampere, and in the evening we visited Heli and Simo to enjoy bagels and the Revolutionary Girl Utena movie Adolescence of Utena. It turned out Simo is a big adventure game enthusiast and (needless to say) we hit it off there and then ^_^ It was unfortunate that I got tired towards the night and we had to leave way before we had exhausted the fun of spending time with interesting and entertaining people, but I’m hoping it wasn’t the only chance for that.
On Friday morning we went to the maternity clinic for our bi-weekly meeting with the public health nurse. My blood pressure continued to be fine and there was nothing worrying in the urine specimen, but apparently the size of the baby (according to the fundus measurement; also I had gained somewhat more weight than neither the nurse nor myself was hoping) had gone above the recommendation and so the nurse told me to watch what I eat (i.e. avoid carbs). I don’t know if it’s (more) because I’m so worried about the baby being big and thus the birth being difficult or because my old body image problems have risen their ugly head while I’ve been adjusting (or not) to my changing, pregnant body, that it made me feel super bad. I actually felt pretty flipped out all through the weekend despite my best efforts.
So, the larger fundus measurement may have a lot to do with Mogi apparently having had turned around between the latest and the previous clinic visit (which is good and which probably produces a different kind of measure than previously). My own weight being “too much” may have something to do with my digestion system having had been somewhat mixed up for a few days before the clinic visit. All in all I know that it’s not the end of the world if the baby is bigger than norm, especially since I have had no diabetes symptoms. Still, I can’t help being nervous about the clinic visit next Tuesday and I hate it that the the extra ultrasound the nurse wrote us a referral to (”just to be sure”) isn’t until May 20th.
On Saturday we went to Helsinki and visited Dugi’s Grandpa in the hospital. The visit went well but seeing him in that fragile and occasionally delusional state was somewhat upsetting, especially since I was already feeling upset about the baby size issue. I briefly saw some friends in the evening but was in no state to stay for very long. It was lovely to just spend some time with them, however. We had planned to go straight home from there but decided to go to Helsinki centre for dinner instead. The restaurant we picked, Piccolo Mondo, turned out to be a fabulous experience: delicious food, nice atmosphere and excellent service. I felt a lot better after that!
On Sunday we took it easy.
I returned to work on Monday 21st after over two weeks of sick leave. I was still a bit in pain but much less than during the sick leave ^_^ It was good to have something else to think about than the pregnancy as well.
On Tuesday evening we had prenatal orientation at TAYS, which turned out to be very good. I was really, really tired and wished I didn’t have to go, but the midwife presenting the orientation was really great and the whole thing turned out to be very useful for me. Not mainly due to the information content, a lot of which I was already familiar with, but she presented everything in a manner that was a combination of being suitably informative, no-nonsense and humorous, and I ended up feeling much better prepared for giving birth.
On Wed, Thu and Fri I was at work and nothing else special happened. I guess I was also looking into prams and other baby paraphernalia we were still missing. Probably bought some, too (over the Internet). Oh yes, I also helped out with Emma’s thesis as a beta reader.
On Saturday the 26th my parents visited us on their way from Helsinki to Raahe. They had been in Turkey (I think.. they travel so much I have trouble keeping track, especially in my late pregnancy scatterbrain state ^_^) for a week. It was sweet seeing them! I had slept badly for a couple of nights and Dugi was pretty beat, too, so we actually ended up sleeping most of the evening after mum and dad left.
On Sunday Anni visited us bringing pulla (sweet cinnamon bun, yum!). I decided I get to treat myself with it and not feel bad at all. It was nice being social, too!
This week I’ve been working hard to get everything done at work before my maternity leave starts next week. Tomorrow is a holiday due to May Day and I’m taking also Friday off and doing it in on next Wednesday instead. So, it’s a four day break first, and work on Mon and Wed next week. On Tue I have the maternity clinic appointment in the middle of the day so it would’ve been too complicated to try to do a workday then.
And here we are, back in today. Happy May Day! And in Finland, hyvää vappua!
Angry Video Game Nerd reviews Nintendo Bible games !
So, how many Super Nintendo games came out not licensed by Nintendo? Well, just one, and it found a way […] and you can play it. The question is would you want to? Well, actually, yeah you would. What other first person shooter game you get to play as Noah?!
Listen to how cheerful the music is. … Wow, that’s great, just what you need is some really upbeat music to go along with Noah getting murdered by a bunch of fucking goats.
Angry Video Game Nerd
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I don’t cry often. But I cried when reading this. Like I knew her. And in a way I did.
Happy greenest day of the year!
I’m missing my green whiskey.
Via Emma:
Take the
Role-Playing StereotypeMage Type quiz.
And now for something completely different. Omnia’s Alive! is a perfect example of how albums should be released: great music and the package is so wonderful one just has to own it (as opposed to just getting the music one way or another). The thick booklet contains not only the lyrics in a decorative yet legible font and some atmospheric citations from famous poets, but also fabulous scetchy art by none other than Alan Lee, the renowned Tolkien artist! The whole album is like a little gift from the Faerie, so faithful the whole design is to the theme. I can’t remember when I’ve last been this impressed by an album release*. Check out the album’s page in Omnia homepage (Discography -> Alive!) for a few sample images and two songs in mp3.
*) Actually I do, it was Qntal’s previous release (limited edition) Silver Swan with fabulous and haunting booklet art by Brian Froud and the gorgeous music video to Von den Elben by Brian and Toby Froud.
(I bought my copy of Alive! from Amazon.de along with Qntal’s limited edition Translucida and Corvus Corax’s Venus Vina Musica. Man those mid-Europeans know their neofolk!)
I had a moderate cold and in fear of (again!) having it evolve into a sinusitis, I was on sick leave for Mon and Tue. I’m happy to say it seems to be paying off since I’m feeling almost healthy today. Have I meantioned that being ill while pregnant sucks small rocks? Or that two sinusitises during it are two too many? Anyway, I managed to play through the excellent Neverwinter Nights 2 module Harp & Chrysanthemum twice (one somewhat incomplete and one full run) during the weekend and the rest of ill-time. Now I’m in the middle of a second (hopefully) full run with a female bard protagonist this time (the first full run was with a male ranger).
I love the module so much I just have to get around to commenting it in the Vault. I’ve played several NWN1 modules that seriously would’ve deserved a comment (and one of these days I will comment on my favourite, the erotic and brilliant A Dance with Rogues, I really will) but H&C is such a well thought and made mod to the smallest detail that if I can’t manage one comment for the creator’s hours and hours of creative work, I’m a true loser. I’m so happy there already are modules like this to NWN2 since I’m in a rut with the original campaign.
The SCA’s Grand Council, which is an advisory committee to the Board of Directors, is currently discussing “Membership dues with respect to ‘pay to play’, ‘pay to participate’, ‘pay to fight’, or ‘pay to…?’”. The Drachenwald representative in GC requested comments from the people of the kingdom and since Dugi and I have views on the matter, we decided to write a response. Dugi published our commentary letter in its entirety in his blog.
So, although it’s not acknowledged, we have a society which is entirely sexualised and yet its relationship with its sexual imagination is a really strange and unhealthy one, in that it tries to pretend it doesn’t have a sexual imagination or that having one is in some way shameful, sinful, guilt-inducing. Which means that the way in which the sexual imagination works in our culture is as a kind of multi-purpose social control leash.
It’s a stick and a carrot combined, that for the purposes of commerce it can flood your mind with the most licentious ideas and imagery but woe betide anybody who actually finds themselves in this inflamed state and responds.
Alan Moore
Paul Gravett interviewed Alan Moore on pornography, the world we live in, Lost Girls and other interesting topics in July 2006. Their full conversation is now online: Alan Moore: The ‘Lost’ Interview.
I remember we were on BBC Radio 4 Today programme recently, and the first question that was put to us was “How would we feel if even one paedophile was moved to attack a child by reading Lost Girls?” I restrained myself from asking how the interviewer would feel if even one Ministry of Defence bio-weapons expert was found dead in the woods after being outed on the Today programme, because that would have been impolitic. But I suggested that my main feeling, should such an event occur, would be one of enormous surprise because, as far as I understand it, when it comes to sexual criminals of any kind, whether rapists or paedophiles, it’s obvious that if pornography was doing it for them, they wouldn’t need to carry out these dreadful crimes.
Alan Moore
What a wonderful interview with so many intriguing details and ideas, including background information on the time frame of Lost Girls and the relationship between porn and real (sexual) violence.
It also looks likely that until we have come to the end of our stay upon this planet, whether that’s next Tuesday or in ten thousand years time, we will probably have some form of pornography accompanying us.
So the only question seems to be is it going to be good, constructive, healthy pornography, or something else? Are we going to put up with the same basically ugly kind of material that we have at present. There isn’t any reason why pornography should not be a thing of beauty, which would perhaps make us feel better about our own sexual imaginations.
Alan Moore
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