Perspective

Its easier to sit behind a screen and judge people....This blogg entry gave a new dimension to the "facebook suicide" discussion. However it doesn't change my ideas of facebook and its shallowness.

To be or not to be...

...a member of social networking site is not a question for me anymore. Been there, done that...nothing for me. The main problem is that a person's social agenda is defined by his/hers activity on the site or how many "friends" a person has. I had about 140 "friends" on facebook, I deleted my account, opened it again after an year and deleted people I couldn't care less about from my friends' list. And guess what? I could delete 100 of them in a jiffy. Why? because I have no personal connection to these people. My account is permanently deleted now, and amen for that!

I read this article which convinced me about the kind of activity people are interested in while spending their time on facebook. A similar case took place in my hometown too. An old acquaintance (whom I wasn't friend with on facebook) wrote "hejdå jakobstad" on his status update, and then committed suicide by jumping off his balcony. He died later on after hitting his skull on the footpath. Why didn't anyone react?

Jealousy, curiousness (not interest), gossiping and hatred are the key words. Most of the facebook users just want to spy, others want to brag about their "social" lives, some like to update every "thought" the have and everything they do EVERYDAY. It's all about me, me, me. Of course their are those who are genuinely interested in maintaining contact with friends but I could count them on the fingers of my right hand. A friend in need is a friend indeed and not a friend on facebook!

Does online social networking make you more empathetic or is the case other way around?

Hats off for the new generation!!

I've witnessed so much "equalism" amongst my students, and I love it. Kids nowadays seem to stand up for their own personalities more than we did. During my teens most of the kids had these stone aged ideas of men and women but the kids of the 90's seem to have bulldozed over our wall of stupidity between the male and female sex.
I saw guys (aged 13-19) sing solos AND shake on stage. Not only one but about 10-15. It was amazing. My 7th graders got a group assignment which they had to transcribe on coloured sheets. I have four different seven graders and whenever I asked them to pick a colour, in EVERY class boys were the first to choose a pink sheet. The older teenage guys couldn't agree more on that the society "stupid declares" men as it is more acceptable for a man to give his own child up than for a woman. Either way its not ok as there is no difference between the quantity or the quality of love, dedication and affection both sexes provide a child.

Exploring the intellect

Teenagers are so much fun to work with. Sometimes they are the worst hippocrates. They often complain when they'd like to show their appriciation. Other times they are just spontaneous, they say whatever comes to their minds. Some of them even love making up stories, it's very hard to tell whether they are telling the truth or if they like to create dispute amongst teachers. Either way, they have a wild imagination.
However, one should never underestimate them. Today our discussions were so intense that we all forgot about the time. Everytime I have these discussions, I get new perspectives. I mean its hard not to develop when you are surrounded by about 100 different people and each and everyone of them has a unique background and life story. I love my job because I get the access to the personal thoughts of so many wonderful people and THAT helps me widen my horizons. Acheiving new perspectives never change you as a person, they only make you smarter in long term (or I hope so). There is a whole philosophy behind the stupid concept of hard headedness and I've left that philosophy behind me when I was a teen....I think :)

Nostalgia

Aaah a typical finnish song with a fusion of cool instruments from around the world. This song reminds me of what finnish spirituality is about. I was about fifteen when this song came out and I was so proud of knowing this band personally. Unfortunately the band is still alive but the members have changed as well as their soothing sound. I remember watching them perform on Jakobs dagar and they quickly made a place in the hearts people of all ages and nationalities. This band was so full of energy, they were dancing around, changing instruments on the stage while performing. They weren't able to leave the stage beacuse of their appriciated music.

A-list

Just struck me that I have had many different hobbies throughout my life. I've never been the competitive type. Of course a like competition but only with myself, never with other people. Maybe that's why I stop with a hobby when it gets boring. BUT its always fun to learn new stuff and in the end its all about finding and developing new ablities in oneself. As I'm the only one reading this blog I'd write down a list of things I've been doing to kill time since childhood :D

So here it goes:
Drawing
Painting
Playing, playing, playing
Yoga
Dancing (bollywood and indian folk dances)
Karate
Oldskool rollerskating
Basket ball
Theatre
Belly dancing
Writing poems and rhymes
Scouting
Playing piano (sooo boring)
"interval running"
Bailatino (if you can call it a hobby)
Flamenco (before my knee got all screwed up)
Swimming
Crafts
Sewing
Weaving
Chearleading (in junior high)
Choir singing
Gymming (haha)
Ballroom dancing
Writing a column (I did it for pleasure)
Travelling
Food (some of my friends call me a culinarist as I love tasting AND cooking and experimenting with all kinds new dishest. If I am in another country I taste exactly everything I find attractive even if I'm not hungry, except raw meat.)
Languages
Henna "tattooing" (I even had my own business of henna tattoos when I was 14-16)
Homemade cosmetics experimenting


And now I'll learn skiing. I hope I don't mess upp any of my body parts.

Have even planned to learn how to properly craft wood....I've allways wanted to learn carpentry.

Wish me luck!

I feel like a teen again.

This song awakes a strange feeling of lacking a big part of my life. Reminds me to be greatful for being one of those lucky people who get to know the feeling of being loved by someone.