I came across this list of 100 ideas to brighten up your day. I spend 7 and a half hours typing data into a computer...I need all the help I can get. Plus, my idea for making my life more interesting is to learn Lithuanian! It's hard to feel like I'm achieving anything quickly here. This week on the way to work (one hour bus journey) I learnt the first two lessons in po truputį, including conjugating some verbs, declension of nouns in the genitive and locative, asking questions, introducing myself, countries and nationalities, about 30 adjectives and professions. A quick question for all you Lithuanians out there. You know the adjective juokingas (it means funny as in haha funny)? Well, is it from the English word joke or joking? Have you ever thought about this connection?
Well, the ideas from the link are a lot more attainable than learning a whole language. Let's have a go:
Idea number 37. List all the places you've ever lived. OK, this one is easy: Blackburn, Cologne, Oxford, Yaroslavl.
Idea number 39. Write about your relationship with your washing machine. ??? Well, firstly it's not my washing machine, but I think we have a healthy relationship. No socks go missing, no clothes shrink and it's automatic (unlike the ones in the public laundry in Yaroslavl!)
Idea number 58. List you ten most important things (not including animals or people). This is just from the top of my head and after just taking a quick glance around my room. I hope this doesn't mean practical things like shoes or anything. Photographs and letters, German dictionary, Russian dictionary, Russian vocabulary notes, my computer, passport, paper, pens, my necklace. So the list isn't too sentimental. But that Russian dictionary is a second hand bookshop find and I haven't seen it in any other shops.
Just one last link to finish off the post. It's 3 o'clock in the morning in a Yaroslavl suburb. You've drunk 5 litres of beer and the thirst is kicking in. But you remember you can't drink tap water and boiled water tastes like crap. What do you do? Go to a kiosk staffed by a lonely old woman. Knock on the little glass window and get served some refreshing mineral water. Oh and a packet a crisps. Oh and just one more beer. Oh yeah and a mars bar...In celebration of the wonderment of kiosks (a rarity here in Britain) is the website Kioskierung. Scroll down for a link to the English version.
Created: 2008-01-17 18:26,
Tags: blogs,
creativeness,
ideas,
kiosks,
links,
Yaroslavl,
Comments: 0
It's not going to be a neat and tidy post; it's going to be a jumble of random stuff that you may be interested in. Firstly, there's the news that I'm flying back to the UK on 3rd November. I expect balloons and banners waiting for me in arrivals in Liverpool. I'm getting a job and earning lots of money which I'll probably just put in the bank for a rainy day or possibly pay off my student loan...but it's a big possibly. I've also been learning a bit of Lithuanian. I was searching manically on the internet to find out how "mano" declines (it means "my") and I searched and searched, but nothing...and then Tomas told me that it doesn't decline at all!!! This is amazing news and means it makes learning Lithuanian about 1% easier.
I've also had plenty of time to surf the internet. I've found some pretty sweet blogs from Sweden and Finland:
happysilly
manteli
une petite fleur
smosch
fine little day
They make me want to live there so much. Everything seems so fresh and natural. All that crispbread, smoked salmon, dill and lingonberry jam.
On my travels I also found another cute Korean stationary site. Here's some of the nice things they produce:
I'm really thinking about investing in some stamps. They would add a little something to my letters.
Created: 2007-10-23 15:35,
Tags: blogs,
design,
inspiration,
life,
links,
randomness,
stuff,
Comments: 0
My life is pretty uneventful at the moment (but is going to perk up soon) and the only thing left for me to do is take comfort in other people's creativity. Here are some of the sites that bring me the most pleasure.
Take one camera and hundreds of cool Helsinkians and you have the recipe for a totally addictive site. Hel looks is a site which documents the imaginative, individual and sometimes downright strange styles and fashion on the streets of the Finnish capital. If you love the idea of FRUiTS, then you'll love this site too and probably start getting a bit angry when they don't update the site often enough. If you're lucky, they also add links to Finnish fashion/design related pages. Of course all the best ideas around are bound to be copied. A number of inferior ripoffs of hel looks also exist. I think one of the best clones is manchesterlooks, which also seems to have received quite a lot of critical acclaim.
About a week ago I found out (via my boyfriend) about a simple yet brilliant site called colourlovers. All you have to do is combine 5 colours to create a colour palatte. Other users will review and rate your colour combination and let you know whether you have taste or not. Here is my first attempt:
You feel like you're actually creating something amazing, yet it is one of the most basic things in the world.
I also came across a lovely cupcake baking site, which made me want to get in the kitchen straight away. The only problem was that we had no bun cases and my plan was foiled. The woman who creates the recipes is a true genius. I mean look at these chocolate truffle cupcakes :)
Created: 2007-09-16 15:44,
Tags: baking,
blogs,
life,
stuff,
Comments: 1
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