quick morning update.

I'm getting so obsessed with my (newly-working!) Sims 2 that it's not funny anymore. I love custom content and downloaded loads of it yesterday. I wonder if I get my school work done if this continues..

It's been snowing like crazy over here, finally. Although Finland is known for its snowy landscapes, global warming has hit hard here too. Southern Finland rarely gets snow even in the middle of the winter, and although I live in Tampere, not in the very south, there has been no snow for weeks. I would take some picture if only I had a camera..

#1 run a marathon
#3 run at least 5 times a week
I have to find out some solutions to get rid of the pain lingering on my left knee. It's impossible to try to run a marathon or even 5 times a week if you have to walk half of your route in order to keep the knee happy.

High arches and low ones. Bow legs and knock knees. Too little strengthening. Too little stretching. Too many miles. Too many hills. And those are just the major culprits. Another one: the huge number of strides that a runner takes in a week, month, year--about 1,400 per mile. Each stride sends a jolt up your legs and through your knees.

, says Runnersworld's article about knees. I have high arches, I don't strech too much, I have (in one time of my little life) ran over 4 hours a day (yes, I was sick).. Uhh. I wonder if there even is a way to fix this.

#54 keep my clothes tidy
I decided to my laundry on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and to iron them on Thursdays and Sundays. Just trying this one out, we'll see how it goes.

More later!
It's only morning here in Finland, anyway :)

Progress! finally, at least some.

I spend my morning checking at others progess updates at the official LJ-community.
Why does it seem that everyone else is way ahead of me?
Maybe I'm the turtle in this race - slowly but oh so surely..

BUT. I've managed to do something.

Presenting,

completed (the first one):
#99 fix my sims 2.

That is to say: yay it works! Took some time & effort, but now the flickering and other graphical errors are so marginal I can tolerate them. Still have no idea why it does that, guess I'll never know.

& then,
in progress

(not counting the, um, 'daily dares'. It would take me ages to report every day that yes, i've drank two glasses of water so consider them DONE for the day if not otherwise suggested)


#1 run a marathon.
The great running plan in Runnersworld.com helped me last year (when I almost ran the marathon but then suffered a slight knee injury and alas, couldn't). Also, the Training Log really helps the control freaks like me to keep track of my progess efficiently.

#4 be able to do 50 pushups
#6 get stomach definition
I decided to workout after every run - runnersworld helps me with this too with amazing collection of abs workouts and such. I situps and such absolutely boring and most of the time, even undoable (my back doesn't bend much, a built-in error in my otherwise perfect body.. err..), but I'll sure try.

#46 get a job I don't hate
Ok now. I've send Internet applications to the three biggest grocery store chains, to one major kiosk chain, to Finnkino, to video rental places, et cetera, et cetera.. and I keep an eye on the job vacancies.. For the summer, I'm planning to apply to the amusement park Särkänniemi

#52 visit london again
This MIGHT happen this summer. Unlikely, but..


#93 be able to dance DDR in heavy level For ages, I've had no cable connecting my dance mat to my computer, but today I finally got around to buy it (online, so it takes a couple days for it to arrive but anyway)

#96 go to movies at least 10 times
I TOTALLY FORGOT - 1/10. My girlfriend M and I went to see High School Musical III in Helsinki almost a week ago. Yeees, I know, low-culture, mainstream, sugary fluff - but I just adore the whole silliness and the awfulness of it. M was really grumpy at first, "do we really have to" et cetera, but when she actually saw the movie she told me to download the parts I & II also.. the power of awful musicals is contagious I guess.. :)

Why, Sims 2, why?

Uhh. Yesterday was supposed to be a good day.
I was supposed to cook my Healthy Yummy Food, eat in peace, write some essays.. WRONG. I spent the whole evening and night sobbing in frustration.

Q: What happened?
A: My graphics card (Radeon HD 3850) arrived.
Q: But isn't that supposed to mean that your Sims 2 works perfectly?
A: Yes, it SHOULD work perfectly. It doesn't.

The thing is, I've had issues with Sims 2 since April. I have all the extensions and the I really like the game. First, the new graphic card Dad installed didn't agree with the game, no matter what we did. I sort-of gave up until December, when Dad came here and installed a new graphic card which proved to be too old and inefficient in order to run the game smoothly. We then bought a very new, cute, supposedly very good graphic card (Radeon HD 3850, as I mentioned) and.. yeah.

C and I installed the card perfectly enough, I later downloaded all the drivers and updates and.. well, all, but the effing game just won't work. My Dad, living 300 miles away, took over my computer (with a cute little progam called TeamViewer) and tried to find out what went wrong.

We got the game working by midnight, but it still flickers and flashes black once in a while. So annoying, and therefore I can't say that the goal #99 would be done. I want the game work like it should work, I just don't know what to do anymore.

tingatinga!

Yesterday my girlfriend C and I went to see an exhibition of African modern art in Tampere Art Museum. As usual, I didn't understand half of it (i admit being ignorant about art), but loved the other half. For example, the art of Tingatinga artist David Mzuguno made me feel.. joy. I don't usually connect with art, especially modern art, in a way that makes me joyful. Anyway, Tingatinga is something I really want to see more.

Afterwards we ate in Veganissimo, probably the best vegetarian restaurant I have ever visited. And, it was Tuesday = all burgers 6 euros. Yummy, healthy, inexpensive AND vegan.

Anyway, the goals.

#3 - Run at least 5 times a week
I haven't been able to run at all because of the cold weather. It has been something like -10 degrees here, and unfortunately I don't own any real winterwear sports clothes. I would've frozen to death. The weather will stay cold (today -12, tomorrow -12) until Friday, and - cross my fingers - I WILL run then.

#15 - write at least 500 words a day
Yes! I've been writing a short story about my RPG character Joa, sort of "what happened in between" -story for my friend. I still think my writing sucks, but editing is meant for later, right?

#16 - read more poetry
I decided to bring the poetry to me, ha. Id est, I subscribed to 3 LJ communities in which numerous poems are posted each day. I've found some amazing ones, like this:

Brooklyn Anchorage | Lisa Jarnot

and at noon I will fall in love
and nothing will have meaning
except for the brownness of
the sky, and tradition, and water
and in the water off the railway
in New Haven all the lights
go on across the sun, and for
millennia those who kiss fall into
hospitals, riding trains, wearing
black shoes, pursued by those
they love, the Chinese in the armies
with the shiny sound of Johnny Cash,
and in my plan to be myself
I became someone else with
soft lips and a secret life,
and I left, from an airport,
in tradition of the water
on the plains, until the train
started moving and yesterday
it seemed true that suddenly
inside of the newspaper
there was a powerline and
my heart stopped, and everything
leaned down from the sky to kill me
and now the cattails sing.

Oh wow. It gets me everytime and I don't even know why. Anyway, back to business..

#18 Consume caffeine and sugar only once a week
This goal is somewhat misleading. I have one day of caffeine (ie. coffee) and one day of sugar (ie. candy & such ) but those days can be separate ones. This week I had my coffee day on Sunday, and yesterday was my sweet day. Letting go of my morning coffee has been surprisingly easy. Although, I have had an amazingly painful headaches, somewhere between a migraine and a simple headache really. A caffeine headache? o__O" I've never had one.

#19 drink at least 2 glasses of water each day
I've really done this! I try to carry a water bottle with me, it helps.

#21 have one overly healthy day a week
For now this means a food-wise overly-healthy day. Today's the day! I've already eaten breakfast, and plan to eat lunch, a healthy snack, dinner, an evening snack.. which is very unusual for me. I usually either forget to eat or don't feel like eating. Also, I'm planning to cook the food myself - no preservatives or other nasties. I gathered the recipes from Runnersworld.com, if they work I might just use them next week also!

#53 - have a place for each item I own
This was the first thing I tried to tackle. I'm a very, very messy person, my girlfriend (actually.. both of them :( ) tease me for having (apparently endearing) "piles of stuff".. yeah.
So, I faced the Lair of Doom, that is: my 8-drawer chest filled with papers, magazines, clothes and well, yeah, stuff. And believe or not, it's actually very very organized right now. I did the same with my bookcase. A lot of work to day but this is a very good start, at least.

#55 try to avoid overly-packaged foods/goods/anything
.. This should be in the 'ethical' section, shouldn't it? Anyway. I've been trying to choose groceries with less potential-garbage around it. For example, yesterday I bought candy - and chose not to buy individually wrapped candies.

I guess that's it for today. Hopefully I can crack the mystery of fucked-up Sims 2 in the near future, maybe even later today, when the new graphic card arrives. I have to install it myself, though, which is absolutely frightening (considering my 'good luck' with electronic devices). Uhh.

First.

The main idea for this blog is to keep up with my über-great list of 101 things to do in 1001 days. The orginal idea and all the credit goes to the Livejournal community "101 Things in 1001 Days" (which I can't link for whatever psychotic reason) and its creators.

A tiny introduction:
My name is nina. I'm 21 and I live in Finland. The most important things in my life right now are my 2 cats, Uinu and Rutto-Kaneli (very roughly translated as Sleepy-one and Plague-Cinnamon which, I know, doesn't make any sense), and my 2 girlfriends which sounds a lot more kinky (and/or complicated) than it actually is. I consider myself pretty normal, although I have a ..thing with electronic devices which seems to break if I touch them.

I'm passionate about quite a lot of things: gay/animal/women's rights (and more..), environment, awful tv-shows and movies, music (though sadly, I don't play anything, not anymore), writing, reading.. I get excited almost too easily.

I try to update this blog everyday, with a heavy emphasis on the word try. And without further ado, here's the list:

the amazingly amazing list of 101 things that nina will try to accomplish in 1001 days



‘fitness’
1. run a marathon
2. run a marathon abroad
3. run at least 5 times a week
4. be able to do 50 pushups
5. join a nice gym (even if expensive!)
6. get stomach definition (oh god)
7. get arm definition.
8. stretch every day


reading/writing
9. finish the stories I’m writing
10. win nanowrimo 2009
11. read 99 books
12. review the books on Goodreads.com
13. re-read the Harry Potter saga.
14. read 5 books from the Banned Books list
15. write at least 500 words a day
16. read more poetry


health
17. keep a mood diary to find out what the hell is wrong with my head
18. consume caffeine and sugar only once a week
19. drink at least 2 glasses of water each day
20. learn to yoga
21. have one overly-healthy day a week
22. maintain a healthy weight, nevertheless not more than 50kg
23. clean and moisturise my skin every day
24. go to dentist.
25. pluck my eyebrows


ethical/environmental
26. go mostly vegan
27. be personally involved in politics and/or activism
28. donate blood
29. stop wasting food
30. buy most of my clothes used
31. donate the clothes I don’t actually even wear
32. carry a reusable grocery bag with me


work/studying
33. get into university (to study journalism)
34. finish everything in the current university before going away
35. study at least 6 hours a week for the entrance exams
36. get involved in said university (student clubs, guilds..)
37. have a gpa of 4.5 in said university
38. decide what the subject of my Bachelor’s Degree will be
39. begin to work early on said degree
40. relearn German
41. relearn French
42. relearn Swedish
43. relearn the Greek alphabet
44. read the newspapers thoroughly
45. read (at least) the editorials of (at least) 5 newspapers daily
46. get a job I don’t hate
47. maintain a good basic knowledge of everything i’m interested in
48. watch the Daily Show every day (it’s almost studying..)
49. watch Democracy Now every day
50. polish my English skills – especially grammar


travelling
51. go to japan again (with m)
52. visit london again


domestic
53. have a place for each item I own
54. keep my clothes tidy
55. try to avoid overly-packaged foods/goods/anything
56. keep my computer organized
57. bake the most amazing chocolate cake ever
58. keep my home beautiful and organized
59. be a baking guru.
60. learn to make my own clothes
61. learn 25 delicious dishes by heart


finances
62. save some money: put at least one euro a day in a jar


big and important
63. love, come what may
64. be stronger: be less afraid: be less self-conscious
65. (secret goal)
66. cut out those people whom I have nothing in common with. (remember I don’t have to please everybody)
67. learn to listen better


other, and mostly completely random
68. get a tattoo of a moth on my back
69. never drink champagne ever, ever again
70. learn to knit
71. go to a gay pride parade.
72. buy a camera
73. get my ears pierced (tragus!)
74. find a hobby
75. participate in adayinmylife
76. learn to play the piano again
77. watch every movie featuring Audrey Hepburn
78. move out of this overly-expensive (if lovely) apartment
79. own & use coco mademoiselle
80. find the perfect pair of sneakers
81. learn walk with heels without insecurity
82. get involved in at least three Internet communities
83. get absolutely drunk at least 10 times
84. party a weekend (or a longer time)
85. have a themed movie marathon. Or two. Or three.
86. go hiking overnight
87. go hiking for more than overnight, at least once.
88. get a cool haircut and love it.
89. grow herbs
90. actually use said herbs
91. learn how to light a fire
92. be a good mommy to my kittens
93. be able to dance DDR in heavy level
94. drive a car whenever I have a chance: to keep up the skills
95. complete the “Photo 365” challenge (0/365)
96. go to movies at least 10 times
97. don’t flip out while drunk.
98. learn to read palms.
99. fix my Sims 2.
100. update this blog (almost) dail
101. for every 5 goals completed, add one new