Oops again!

I really don't know where time always goes! I meant to update my blog earlier but somehow time passed... Let's see, what in terms of news.

I went to the unemployment office again after my research grant term officially ended on the 14th of this month. In December they had decided that I am not entitled to receive unemployment money because I was still "self-employed" with the research grant, but now they changed their decision, so I was able to fill the application form for the unemployment benefit and send it off. Hopefully I won't have to stay on it for a long time; it's just so troublesome, having to submit accounts every four weeks: you have to fill a list and mark on every day whether you have been unemployed, ill, employed full time, employed part time. You can't even say "unemployed every day for the past four weeks, you have to fill in every day separately. There are a few research grants open for application in February, but I also decided to apply for a position as museum guide at the Helsinki city museum. I don't have work experience of the field one month's summer job 13-14 years ago notwithstanding. As for their other requirement, interest in history, I guess I can tick the check box fairly confidently on that, having gone all the way to the doctorate. We'll see. It would be something I could imagine doing, because I'm genuinely interested in the local history of Helsinki. Also, as the world goes, I'm not sure it's wise for a humanities person to have all the eggs in one basket, so to speak.

I have been doing writing work on articles. I've three texts that are mostly. One I'm going to pass on for review to the volume that's going to be compiled of the papers at the conference I went to last August. The other two I'm going to try for some journals. Gotta have academic merits, see. Sometimes there are really good days with the writing, like on thursday I really enjoyed it. The inspiration and the ideas were there. But often it's something entirely different. I might start on the computer and suddenly feel immensely sleepy even though I had been completely alert the moment before. Or I might sit at the computer and no idea would come to my head. It's funny really how something being work can change things, even if that something is basically interesting.

Still cold, minus 15 celsius or so. The birch trees in their dress of white frost are so beautiful, but really I'm getting bored with the cold. I wish it was warmer already.

This is from one magical day last November. The mist and the light were something I have never seen before.

And a snow picture - or rather snow on the ice on the bay. Light here as well. I like this shot, the minimalism of the small pawn prints and the stick and its shadow. One cool thing about it being so cold is that the ice is now thick enough to walk on. I can walk to the islands close by. The closest one is just 50-100 meters away across the ice. Kind of funny: in the summer there's a regular boat line going to the island and that costs 4 euros for two ways. That's more than a regional ticket for the public transportation that's valid for all of Helsinki and the neighbouring cities of Vantaa and Espoo!

And finally, if someone would like to hear a great song and watch a really cool video, check out this one: Watching the Planets by The Flaming Lips.

It is something quite different. Quite weird - though from another perspective not at all weird, considering it's The Flaming Lips. I love it, both the song and the video. It was shot in Portland, Oregon. Americans have a reputation of being prudish about things like nudity. Clearly they are not in Portland. I think I'd like to visit.