Moving

Today I spent several hours helping Timo and Sirpa to move, or more precisely I mostly hanged out with Sirpa and the 2-year old Ella while Timo and two Chinese guys moved. For all the previous times I've met Ella she's been extremely suspicious of me, but we really hit it off today. Not only does she now smile at me, she lets me carry her and I'm also accepted as a playmate. Even so much so I made the foolish offer to babysit for Sirpa if would she want to spend some quality time with Timo before their second child is born (in January). I don't know what I'm getting myself into... I've never done any babysitting in my life. Just seemed like a good idea at the time.

Indian summer

We had those couple of days of autumn weather but we're back to the Indian summer now. 20 degrees outside and not a cloud in sight, I had to take back out all my summer clothes that I had already tucked away.

At work it's very peaceful. In the wake of our former HR manager suddenly getting fired, we're chasing a pineapple thief and bracing ourselves as we're in the calm before the proverbial storm. Next few months are going to be really busy but right now we take it easy. I have a new colleague in the automation team - Christine is finally another Java person, and I'll be working closely with her with many of my projects. I was slightly worried in advance about her language skills - she's from China and some of our Chinese speak so bad English it makes communication difficult - but she's great. Her English is good, she's very intelligent, quick and to top it off she's actually really nice. I think I'm going to like working with her.

One door closes...

...and another one opens. Last night I did a class at Sue's studio and stayed after for some tea. The whole apprenticeship thing just came out even though I hadn't planned on talking about it and Sue listened. As a result, I think I'll be spending a lot more time at her studio, and will do some teaching for her. Everything will always turn out fine - things won't always go how you expect them to, but it's all part of the experience.

No go

Lot of people applied to the apprenticeship program at the studio so in the end they just picked three people in random. Alas, luck was not on my side and I wasn't chosen... I have to admit I'm totally gutted - I really wanted to do this and not being chosen to makes me feel all cold and hollow inside. The fact that it's nothing personal helps only a little.

Body Worlds

I went to see Gunther von Hagens' Body Worlds 3 exhibition with some of my yoga buddies yesterday. For those who don’t know, Body Worlds is an scientific exhibition of real dead bodies that have been plasticized where the water and fat in tissues in the body are replaced with a reaction plastic such as silicon rubber, epoxy resin or polyester. We had talked about this exhibition earlier on in the teacher training because it’s one of the rare opportunities to actually see real live anatomy – how nerves and bones and muscles actually connect.

I remember when the exhibition was in London few years back, and the controversy surrounding it. I can understand that some people have issues with displaying real dead bodies – hell, few years back I wouldn’t have wanted to have anything to do with this. All von Hagens has done though is what has been done for centuries for entertainment (public autopsies used to be considered educational entertainment) – we’ve always had a fascination towards the human body. The exhibition has been immensely popular around the world - over 17 million people have seen it so far. All bodies in the exhibition have been donated by people who have given their permission to be used on public display – so in principle I don’t see anything wrong with that. If that isn’t something you want to see, just don’t go to see it, it’s that simple.

Like I said – I wanted to see it because of my newfound interest in anatomy. But my guess would be that most people want to see it as a freak show, and there were certainly lot of people there – we queued for an hour before we were let in, and spent another couple of hours going through it because it was so crowded.

And it certainly left an impact.

First of all, it was extremely interesting. There were three kinds of displays: individual bones, joints and organs, whole bodies in strange poses and plasticized slices. For the individual “items” there were often a healthy one and a damaged one side by side – like healthy lungs and smokers lungs, healthy knee joint and one with arthritis and so on. Same with the slices, normal bones and bones with osteoporosis, for example. I think it’s the whole bodies though that are the biggest cause of the controversies. First thought is that the poses are certainly strange – often athletic like jumping or throwing a javelin, but also just pure strange like praying. Moving on in the exhibition there’s a man who’s just walking, and you realize that to properly see different muscles working in different ways it’s actually quite useful to see them in variety of poses.

And I was surprisingly fine with bones and muscles and organs – it’s strange, for sure, but not that disturbing. But external tissues like skin – that I found disconcerting (I could go on describing what human skin looks like – there was this one body who (that?) was holding his (its?) whole skin in his outstretched arm – but the more sensitive amongst you wouldn’t appreciate it, believe me). I think Nicole got a bit freaked out and had to leave after first 10 minutes or so, and don't really think she was the only one - I myself felt a bit iffy on several occasions... but breathing helps.

Totally worth the experience, for sure. It has left me feeling strange though, maybe I need to think about it and elaborate later on.

Gankutsuou

Albert and Franz

Continuing with Gonzo's classic adaptations, we've been watching Mahiro Maeda's Gankutsuou, based on Alexandre Dumas' Count of Monte Cristo. This anime is got to be one of the most innovative pieces of animation ever done - it's one of the first anime series to take advantage of the potential of Photoshop textures and layering in digital animation. In addition, and as per Gonzo's usual style, lot of the backgrounds are rendered in 3D - it didn't work so well with Samurai 7, but works wonders here. The result is something completely unique and has an extremely distinct style I've never seen done in this scale before. It's difficult to describe what the series looks like - and the screenshots won't do it much justice. Basically there's very little traditional hand-drawn animation here - most of the surfaces are filled with textures: faces and skin are often the only parts that are ordinary animation, and then hair and clothes are filled with textures. It's impossible to see from static shots how stunning this actually looks like in action.

Count and Albert

And they've chosen a good setting to do this. Whereas Dumas' novel took place in the 1800s, this adaptation takes place in year 5053 - with number of parallels. For example, aristocracy is doing better than ever - which works perfectly with flamboyant costumes and lavish backgrounds on the animation. The anime follows the plotline of the original book surprisingly faithfully - there are of course new elements (like the mystical Gankutsuou that inhabits Dantes' body) but the basic story is pretty much intact. The story is still about revenge that a man formerly known as Edmond Dantes wants to take on his former friends that betrayed him and sent him to die in prison. Dantes comes back as the mysterious vampire-like Count of Monte Cristo and slides his way into the decadent and greedy Paris high society. But the main characters in the anime are naive Albert de Morcerf, son of Mercedes and the Count de Morcerf (Dantes' former fiance and best friend), his loyal friend Franz d'Epinay and their fiances and friends.

Count of Monte Cristo

The main themes of the story are of course friendship and revenge. In the original novel Edmond Dantes is almost in the mission from God - his anger and revenge are justified. The anime focuses much more on young Albert who is trying to fill his rich but seemingly empty life with the excitement of meeting the new mysterious friend, the Count of Monte Cristo. Albert has never doubted his privileges and heritage, has never doubted his parents word or commands - and the thought of disobeying them, like not going ahead with the arranged marriage to his childhood friend Eugenie, is alien to him. The Count seduces naive Albert with his charisma, his strange companions and his exotic adventures, and while everyone around Albert is warning him to stay away from the Count he disregards all advice and gets thrown in head first. Meanwhile the Count is starting the weave his web around the three men who betrayed him in his former life - but is Albert right about the Count's good heart and intentions, or will he go ahead with his terrible plans?

Flamboyant Count

When talking about Gankutsuou one of the first things one has to talk about is the look of the series. I know it might not be everyones cup of tea, but I absolutely adore the animation. The textures that fill the clothes and background are static while the animation is moving and it creates a strangely magical atmosphere. The CGI that is used for inanimate objects like trains and cars (and the Count has one of the coolest cars ever) stands out, but since there are so many textures on screen all the time it doesn't jump out. The mirror-surfaced space ships are futuristic and simply divine, and especially in space against a breathtaking starry sky it creates one of the most stunning sci-fi imaginary I've ever come across. Then on the end of the spectrum, against the very lavish interiors, Paris is sometimes ugly and plain - use of very rough CGI and crude surfaces sets even bigger contrast to the characters. My favourites have to be the costumes though - nobles have the most amazing "fabrics" while when going down the hierarchy the textures become more and more plain. Costume design is first rate, and they even got Anna Sui, a famous clothes designer, to design the costumes for the last episode.

Mercedes and Eugenie

Albert's parents

And it's the look of the series that first seduces the viewer - but there is substance to the series, too. The plot holds together very well, and I was left wondering how it would turn out until the very end. I'm a sucker for happy endings so I was hoping that the Count would find his humanity in the end and see that revenge is never the right way. It's enough of an adaptation though that although if you're familiar with the original material you can kind of see where it's going, you'll never know for sure. Personally I thought this was an excellent adaptation - something you need the distance to be able to approach a loved story like this one, and I seriously doubt anyone in the West would have had the balls to take this kind of an approach to Count of Monte Cristo. My favourite character was probably Haydee, the Count's companion who he saved from slavery and depravity - she is the voice of conscience for the Count when he starts to lose his humanity, and is the one who believes in him until the very end. I also really liked Franz, who in turn fulfills the same role for Albert - the loyal friend who will stand by with you no matter what.

I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this series to anyone, whether you like anime or not. Gankutsuou has also received multiple awards, including the "Best TV Series" title at the Animation Kobe in 2005. It's not typical anime in any sense, not with it's characters, storyline nor the look and feel - so it should be very accessible to wide audiences. The 24-episode series is licensed by Geneon and is now available on six DVDs.

If you want to try something completely different, a feast for eyes and a mysterious story with sympathetic characters - try Gankutsuou.

Delicacies from my home country

Last weekend when I was talking to Laura I promised I would cook some Finnish food for them, and tonight was a perfect opportunity. Something I make far to seldom but I love are Finnish cabbage rolls - they are quite easy to make, and the only more laborious part is blanching the cabbage. I enlisted Laura's help and I was blanching and she was rolling them up, and even though it took a while we had a nice chat about food - Dragon was reading to us about Hitler's diet (he too ate cabbage rolls when he was visiting Finland). We ate the cabbage rolls with potatoes and black currant jam (closest I could get to lingonberry jam) - delicious! For dessert I made marjapuuro, cranberry whip which was also a big hit - Chris must have eaten a half of it.

Rest of the evening was spent watching Gankutsuou (more about that soon) - it's been really fun watching a series together, I think we might pick Wolf's Rain to watch together next. Good times.

Act now

I'm not a political person in any way. It doesn't mean that I don't think about political issues though - for example environmental issues are very close to my heart. So when I got an email from my yoga friend Kiki the other week about this Climate Action Network (CAN) arranging a workshop tonight and she was asking people to come with her, I thought why not. I'm always thinking about it, but why not take a more active role - I have time, and I have the will.

The thing is, the new Conservative government that was elected last year has decided that Canada can not and will not meet its commitments under the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. They are preparing to roll out a 'Made-in-Canada' environment plan this fall that will include an alternative to the previous Liberal government's Climate Change Action Plan (which the Conservatives scrapped when they were elected) and these CAN workshops are gathering grass-root level opinions and suggestions to feed into that plan - hopes are that the prime minister will listen (I'm staying optimistic here).

CAN is asking three questions. How are you experiencing climate change? What should be in a climate plan? What needs to be done to get a climate plan for Canada? We divided into groups and made our own discussions that were then presented to the rest of the groups, and there were some really interesting discussions going on. Our table had some really cool interesting people, and overall the event was well worth going to... if a bit long. I feel more empowered now, or at least more determined to start making those small changes in my life.

We need to act now, we need need to adapt and prepare for the changes we've caused and can't stop anymore, we need to mitigate the changes that we can do something about, and the solution needs to be multi-generational.

Rain, rain

And just like that, we're in smack middle of winter. Yesterday the weather was wonderful, now it has been pouring down for the past 12 hours. The kind of Vancouver rain that will drown everything, mute all the sounds and smells and make everyone hide. I considered skipping yoga and going home, burying myself under blankets and watch a girly movie... then I got an email from Jason and Kelly about the apprenticeship program and I got my priorities back. Yoga is what I want to do, no matter how tired I am from staying up late, or how much it's raining outside.

So I went, and had a lovely class. It's funny you never know how practice is going to turn out... on Monday I was feeling strong and rested, and couldn't do a thing - ended up going to savasana fifteen minutes before anyone else and stopping in child's pose ever possible moment (Erica got really worried, but she doesn't know me). Today I had seriously thought about skipping the class because I was feeling tired and I had a stomach ache - and it ended up being a really strong practice.

Yoga is what I want. Yoga is what I need.

Scatterheart

I went to see Jesse's band Scatterheart tonight with Helena at a small club on Granville. I was totally impressed - Jesse is one of my yoga teachers and is normally very quiet and restrained, and on stage he was shaking that booty like there was no tomorrow and screaming his heart out. Helena likened his style to Freddie Mercury's - obviously no one is like Freddie, but there were certainly some similarities in the way he moved and posed. And wow - his voice was quite impressive, strong even on high notes, I've never heard him like that. Go check some tracks out on their MySpace account, I'll be downloading the MP3s for sure.

Loveless

Ritsuka and Yuiko

I’ve spent the weekend assembling bookshelves and watching 12-part anime series Loveless, based on Yun Kouga’s still ongoing manga with the same name.

Loveless takes my breath away.

And I struggle to find words to describe it that would give it some justice and not make it sound cheap and perverted – I feel a lot of my sentences are going to start with a statement and end with a “but”. You see - it’s a love story between an innocent 12-year old boy and 20-year old man (that’s the perverted part), but what a magical story it is. The events take place in modern day Tokyo, but it’s not quite the world we know – to start with all children have cat ears and tails that they lose when they lose their virginity (and that would be the cheap part). I’ll try to make it sound better...

Ritsuka's and Soubi's first meeting

The main character is 12-year old Ritsuka Aoyagi who has just started in a new school. Ritsuka’s brother Seimei died two years earlier under bizarre circumstances, and Ritsuka has lost most of his memories before that (and goes to therapy for that) – he doesn’t have any friends and shuns those who try to approach him. Until after the end of his first day at school he is met by a man named Soubi Agatsuma who intrudes himself as friend of Seimei’s – Ritsuka is immediately taken by this and spends the afternoon with Soubi in the park taking photos of each other (his way of “making memories” as he’s afraid of losing himself again). And suddenly Soubi proclaims his love for Ritsuka and kisses him – even though he had earlier promised “not to do anything” to him. Before Ritsuka is able to get an answer from the man, two children appear in the park and start a battle with Soubi and Ritsuka. A challenge is given which Soubi accepts stating to be Ritsuka’s Fighter (japn. sentouki) and declaring the battle to be a battle of spells – the short battle that follows is done with speaking out words that then become reality.

Sentou system on! The battle is beginning.

Battle ends with Soubi’s victory, but the incident leaves Ritsuka confused. The pair that attacked them is called Breathless, a name both children had carved in the palm of their hands (“so fierce we’ll take your breath away”). In the same way Soubi has the name Beloved carved on his throat – and one of the only things Ritsuka remembers clearly of Seimei is his true name: Beloved. Breathless also calls Ritsuka by his true name: Loveless, “the one without love” – they also berate Soubi for changing his Sacrifice and that he as a Fighter should have died with Beloved. Soubi doesn’t give much of an explanation to what’s just happened to Ritsuka, but continues to proclaim his love and devotion to the boy who finally finds out that it was Seimei that had before his death given Soubi the order to come to Ritsuka.

Soubi

But who murdered Seimei, and who is now giving the orders to attack Ritsuka? Soubi obviously knows more than he’s able to tell, and even though he vows to obey all Ritsuka’s commands he can’t answer any questions about Seimei. Is it possible for Loveless and Beloved to be together – and while everyone around him falls easy and fast in love with him, can Loveless ever love anyone back? Does Soubi really love Ritsuka, or is he just following orders – and what exactly were Seimei’s final orders? These are the main questions presented to the viewer during the 12 episodes, and ending is left very much open.

This is indeed a magical story, in both literal and spiritual sense.

Creating memories

When I saw the first four episodes on Saturday I just sat there on the sofa hugging my knees staring at the TV almost afraid to breathe lest the magic disappear. Animation is totally dreamy and the soundtrack is haunting, the character design is beautiful and voice actors – especially touching Junko Minagawa who is the seiyuu for Ritsuka, I mean, my heart skips a beat when Ritsuka whispers "Soubi..." – they are just incredible.

I did have my frustrations with the series too. Ritsuka is totally adorable and sensitive – and being 12 you forgive him for some of his temper tantrums. With a murdered brother, absent father and mentally unstable abusive mother - Ritsuka wants nothing else than to be loved and to go back to the Ritsuka from two years past - but on the other hand he's afraid to be loved, being true to his true name. Soubi however as the adult is a different matter – he makes promises to Ritsuka, and then always lets him down and it makes me want to tear my hair out. There are always reasons - and while it’s not clear if the submissive Soubi is capable of making these decisions on his own or if he’s following instructions from Seimei - Ritsuka’s pain and frustration in the face of betrayal is truly heartbreaking. If I could change one thing in the series however, it would be to diminish the role of Ritsuka’s classmates and his teacher - these characters, especially Yuiko (a typical female mask character), seem to be there to mostly provide some comical moments between the angst and the hard place, and while I do appreciate the aspect they bring of Loveless being loved by everyone, I think less would have been more in this case. It’s minor gripe however.

What are the chains that bind Ritsuka and Soubi?

There are some themes in the story that some people will find offensive, not least of all the sensual relationship between Ritsuka and Soubi. Loveless is often categorized in the Boys Love (BL) category and for sure there are homosexual (as well as lesbian and heterosexual) over- and undertones in the story, but don’t let that be a deterrent – it’s truly a timeless and genderless love story. Some people will undoubtedly also take offence with the master and servant aspect of Ritsuka’s and Soubi’s relationship with its chains and the occasional whip, both real and allegorical. Loveless however breaks a lot of BL rules, and for example the traditional seme and uke roles are extremely fuzzy with Ritsuka and Soubi – sometimes Soubi is pushing Ritsuka to do things he doesn’t want to do, but on the other hand he at times also totally surrenders to the boy’s will and always yearns for Ritsuka to command him. It’s all done in an extremely sensitive and beautifully tasteful way – it’s definitely not crude or scary (except in it’s intensity).

If none of this makes you feel uncomfortable, and especially if it tickles you – run to buy the series, right now, without hesitation. 12 episodes on three DVDs are available from Media Blasters in an affordable price. My only word of warning is that the ending of the anime will make you want to go and buy the manga too (published by Tokyopop – two volumes translated so far with third coming out next month) as the story is left hanging just when it seems that we’re approaching some answers about Seimei’s fate. For me it is a blessing - I don't want this story to end.

Bleach

One of the anime series we've been following lately is Bleach, based on Tite Kubo's original manga originally published in Shonen Jump. Bleach is a story about 15-year old Ichigo Kurosaki who has the ability to see ghosts - Ichigo's life is otherwise pretty normal, until the day he meets a Soul Reaper (japn. shinigami, literally Death God) named Rukia Kuchiki and due to an unfortunate accident ends up with all of Rukia's Soul Reaper powers. From thereon Ichigo has to cover for Rukia and take on Soul Reaper's responsibilities, mainly fighting evil spirits called hollows and perform konso (engl. soul burial) to send spirits of dead people to Soul Society. Ichigo's career as a Soul Reaper is however cut short soon enough when Rukia's colleagues from Soul Society come looking for her, and he needs to make some tough decisions.

I like the Bleach anime. After a bit of a slow start story gets really interesting around episode 15 when other Soul Reapers come looking for Rukia and from there the whole story arc happening in Soul Society is very good. And when I say "very good", I mean it in an entertaining way - there are lot of interesting characters, good action and the world and mythology are very detailed and fascinating. It is however first and foremost action-type shonen series, and I can't help but to compare it with Naruto - especially in the beginning I had difficulties not to think about Naruto when looking at Ichigo who shares with him not only the hairstyle but other personality traits too. However Bleach loses to Naruto in every turn - mainly because it's lacking Naruto's strong themes. Naruto is deep and meaningful with big themes like friendship, love and loneliness, whereas Bleach... well, I think it's about duty and friendship - but unlike Naruto, Ichigo as the protagonist is too angry and independent for me to identify with, and unlike in Naruto I couldn't care less about his friends nor do the relationships really touch me that deeply.

But I absolutely love the Bleach manga. Tite Kubo is a very talented mangaka, and the manga is skipping lot of the puerile jokes and fluff that has been added to the anime. Characterizations are better, and generally the complicated plotline is easier to follow. Kubo's art is very clear and strong, and he's especially good at drawing action scenes - and his storytelling is top notch too. If I had to choose between manga and anime in Bleach, I would choose the manga without hesitation - I really enjoy the anime as animation together with talented voice actors and interesting soundtrack is always really great, but manga just makes much more sense in so many ways.

My favourite thing in Bleach is the mythology. Especially in the real world the boundaries between the sprit world and the human world are sometimes a bit hazy, but Soul Society (in Rukia's words: "Soul Society is 80-90% better than this world!") is extremely elaborate and logical. Kubo has some pretty original ideas - part of all Soul Reapers who are made purely of spirit matter (japn. reishi) is their sword, zanpakuto (literally soul cutter - which is also the only weapon capable of touching spirits like hollows and other Soul Reapers). Zanpakutos are not only the manifestation of a Soul Reaper's power and resolve so they all look different, but they are also conscious entities of their own with names - for example Ichigo's zanpakuto is called Zangetsu and in his own form he looks like a older rock star/vampire with sunglasses and flowing hair and cape (Ichigo calls him ossan, engl. "old man", or "uncle").

And when talking about Bleach I have to mention the absolutely humongous supporting cast it has. In the first 25 episodes in the anime around 50 characters are introduced, and it is quite overwhelming as they all have complicated Japanese names that are nearly impossible to remember. Not only does Ichigo have a family and lots of friends at school there are also different allies in the real world, and when we get to Soul Society there is the 13 Guard divisions that guard the Seireitei (engl. Court of Pure Souls) with 13 captains, each having their own vice-captains and several underlings in the upper seats that are introduced by name, and double that if you count their zanpakutos. This huge number of characters is both a help and a hinderance - there are lot of original and interesting characters, but the overpowering numbers make everything difficult to follow at times - for example the 13 Guards are helpfully numbered... with Chinese numbers (that we then had to learn to make any sense out of the seething mass of Soul Reapers in Seireitei). I can't touch but a small number of them in this review, so I'll just mention few of my favourites... Ichigo is a good protagonist, and Rukia is a refreshing independent female lead. I really like the mysterious merchant Urahara in the human world that Rukia goes to get help from - and his posse, especially the helpers energetic Jinta and shy Ururu that look like small children but are probably nothing of the sort. My favourite Soul Reaper is probably fierce red haired Renji Abarai, the 6th division vice-captain and Rukia's old friend, and his zanpakuto Zabimaru (Howl, Zabimaru!). Dragon's favourites are the unbeatable 11th division captain Kenpachi Zaraki and his vice-captain who rides on his shoulder, the pink-haired girl Yachiru Kusajishi.

If it sounds like something you'd be interested in, I really recommend checking out the manga (from Viz) first - there are 14 volumes translated so far. It's really entertaining and well done, and I'm always eagerly waiting for the next volume as it just keeps getting better and better. If you're in North America, Bleach has just started showing on TV - on YTV in Canada and Adult Swim in US - and the English dub has actually been extremely good so far. If you prefer the Japanese version, almost 100 episodes of it have been shown so far - with a first movie coming out this Christmas - and it's probably available with fansubs on your favourite torrent site. But now that it's on TV in North America, this series is going to be the next big thing within a year.

And oh - you might be wondering about the strange name for the series. It's got nothing to do with bleaching anything, it's not a term used, and neither is it a character... in a genuine Japanese weirdo style, Kubo just wanted to name the series Bleach because he's a big fan of Nirvana - and one of their albums is called Bleach. So there...

MELANCHOLY DRAGON

We watched our friends grow up together
And we saw them as they fell
Some of them fell into Heaven
Some of them fell into Hell

During the last few years I’ve lost lot of friends. Some of them permanently, such as couple of my childhood friends who died, some in accidents, some through their own actions. For others I still hope for the best, as one of them has joined a religious cult, one is in hospital following a brain tumor while another battles with King Alcohol. However I feel powerless since I am not in position to help them. It is easier not to think about them since I cannot do anything for them, but that makes me feel guilty when I do remember them. I am a man of action, and I need to solve problems around me or not to think about them at all.

I wonder what is making me this blue? Normally I don’t waste any time thinking of such things.

Since I inhabit my own body, I measure the passage of time with the changes I see in my friends. Perhaps the changes I’ve seen lately in my old friends have not been that uplifting.

Or perhaps I am getting older...

Books, books, books

Finally the new bookshelves are here, so I've spent the whole day arranging the new world order This included taking all the books out from the current shelves, moving the shelves (now in the short end of the dining room), and with some gracious help from Laura - assembling the new shelves. Dragon is still attaching legs to the new shelves, but before we go to bed we should have the shelves ready, so tomorrow "all" that's left to do is to put the books back on. I love the space we're going to have, surrounded by by books from two sides!

Books make me feel like I'm home.

Autumn

And we live in a beautiful world,
Yeah we do, yeah we do,
We live in a beautiful world.

Oh, all that I know,
There's nothing here to run from,
'Cause everybody here's got somebody to lean on.

Don't Panic - Coldplay

It's raining now, and it feels like... coming home. My shoes get wet but it doesn't bother me, the air is getting cold but I don't care. The air smells crisp, and leaves are turning yellow and red and they are slowly starting to fall to the ground.

I think I'll knit a pair of socks.

I love yoga

Have I told you lately that I love yoga? Well, I do. I went back to Flow today, and Kelly was teaching Primary Series. I don't think I'd ever become a full ashtangi, I need more variety, but I love Primary Series - it really feels like coming home. And I love the people at the studio, I love the community and the practice there... so many things coming together just right.

It was quite funny today, when the doors opened we all ran to our spots to put down our mats - I'm in the front left corner one mat away from the wall, Neil is right behind me, Vincent next to him and Nicole behind him, and we're always at these spots. Kate has started changing her spots but I don't think it makes her happy. We're such creatures of habit - I've taught 14 classes so far at the office and my students have also picked their spots and don't want to move from them! We had some people missing today and there was lot of room on the other side of the room, but no one from the other side wanted to go there because they had their spots they didn't want to leave... it's really amusing to see them adopting the same habits that I have.

New Tuesday class

As a show of support I went to Sue's studio today - I'm really trying to get up to speed with yoga again and will try to get back to my three to four practices a week. Sol from my teacher training posse was teaching, and I'm just constantly amazed by the possibilities vinyasa yoga offers - since we've all done the same training you'd imagine that our styles would be similar, but they are nothing alike. Of course Sol takes a lot from her dancing and hatha background, whereas my yoga roots are firmly in ashtanga - for example she likes to start the class with very gentle spinal warm-ups, whereas for me there's only one right way to start a class and that's five Surya Namaskar As and 5 Bs. Mind you, I had promised myself to keep and open mind for her new ideas, and I quite enjoyed her teaching.

Sue's studio is really small, but as long as it doesn't get too crowded I quite like it. I feel slightly uncomfortable in the neighborhood (Broadway Skytrain station, Commercial and Broadway) as it's a bit rough - but so far nothing threatening has actually happened so it's not too bad. I have a ten class card for the studio so I think I'll make this my Tuesday class for now.

Weekend

I found myself singing in the elevator this morning. I guess that means I had a good weekend, then... also as evidence should serve the fact that I’ve been a lazy blogger.

On Friday night I woke up because it was raining outside! I never thought I’d love the sound of rain that much, but it’s been so dry for so long hearing that was so cleansing. And when Saturday came, it was wonderfully misty and rainy which made me deliriously happy... I guess I’m really becoming a true Vancouverite. After burning a bunch of DVDs for the folks back home, I took the packages and letters I’ve been meaning to send (like, forever) to post office. After that I went to do some shopping, and ended up buying two pairs shoes... first one was a pair of fuchsia Adidas trainers with raw silk finish (I couldn’t find a photo, sorry, maybe later) and second was a pair of the sexiest shoes I’ve ever owned by our own John Fluevog. I tried out the black ones too, but they just didn’t hold the va-va-voom that these ones did so hence I ended up with two pairs of purple shoes.

So of course the girl goes, like, I need some purple clothes with my purple shoes. So I went shopping on Robson in quest to find some purple-ness to put into my wardrobe, and I was trying on a purple coat in this one shop when my phone rings. It was Laura who just happened to be doing her shopping just few blocks away so we met up for some coffee and ended up chatting for three hours. It would be a lie to say we had to cut it short, but since I had invited people over to watch Seven Samurai we had to put a sock on it at some point and went to buy some food from Capers. Laura made her fantastic guacamole and I made my salsa with heirloom tomatoes (without coriander) and the boys who had been working all day joined us later on – no one else came but we are happy that way too, we spend quite a lot of time just the four of us anyway.

On Sunday I spend my customary few hours on Skype with Chu while drinking new rooibos chai I had picked up from Teaz (I’m not too impressed with it, it’s too citrus-y). Afterwards I had promised to help Connie – a fitness centre she was applying for a yoga teacher job had asked her to give a photo portfolio (don’t know why) – so we took some yoga photos of her down on the beach. She’s so incredibly funny and pretty it was just a big pleasure for me. Weather was back to incredibly fine sunny weather, but there’s a bite in the air now that wasn’t there before Saturday’s rain.

After burning her photos on a CD for her, and also giving her a copy of Thursday’s Flow Yoga show (she was on it with me) I went to Capers to do some grocery shopping. It’s been literally months since I’ve been cooking regularly – I think it was sometime around my last teacher training and the stress of my mom being ill that I lost the track of cooking and taking care my eating... So on Sunday I decided that it was really time to get back to it, and I bought a whole chicken and made a spicy paprika chicken hotpot. After eating out and take-out for months, I can say again with full conviction that nothing beats home cooking.

Rest of the evening I spent giggling on the sofa reading Ouran High School Host Club manga (I'm getting into shojo... oh dear) while Dragon was watching brutal violence in the form of PRIDE. Life is good.

Look mom, I'm on TV!

Yay, the episode with me in it aired today, I'm so famous now. It's really weird seeing yourself on TV, doing yoga nonetheless - I look so... soft, somehow I thought I'd be more, well, fit. I think the show looks really good otherwise - Jason and Kelly look really natural and themselves, and the practice is nice and accessible. See more screencaps (and some of you will be receiving the DVD in mail - if you think you won't get one and would like to, drop me an email).

I'm on TV

In case any of my yoga-oriented readers are in the Vancouver area, check out the new season of "Flow Yoga" that started showing this week on Channel M (cable 8) - it's on every weekday at 11am and repeated at 4pm. As you might remember, I shot six episodes with Jason and Kelly earlier this summer, and I believe first one is on tomorrow (but it might be off a day or two). I'm the strange Finnish girl... not the Chinese one, you'll know what I mean.

Generosity

Seems like attitude is everything... Work was easier today with a "will do" attitude than last weeks "lemme out of here" one, I managed to even do something useful today. I've been working on a piece of Java code lately, and I haven't really written any pure Java for... good grief, it must be something like three years. For the past year I've been working with JavaScript which looks really similar on the surface, but after getting back to proper Java is just a pale imitation and I've had to do a lot relearning to get back to speed. Definitely out of my comfort zone, like my boss would say, so I think this is good for me... in addition I really really like coding with Java (I love NERDS).

So immediately after getting to speed with my day job, I'm seeing lot of opportunities elsewhere and it confuses the hell out of my planners mind. Yes, I went to yoga today and got talking to Jason about life and yoga and Rockstar: Supernova (Goddess, that show rocks). I promised him I'd help him to set up a new computer system he's planning to put in place - usually when it comes down to anything to do with yoga studios or running them I have no relevant skills whatsoever, but for once I might be of some use.

For one reason or another, I seem to be in a place right now where I feel I can be truly generous towards my friends. It's a great feeling...

Post-holiday

I guess the fairy-tale is over... After a month of three and four day working weeks, this weekend was the last long one for a while. Today was labour day and one more reason to stay at home doing nothing, absolutely nothing. I had some plans, but instead I spent the morning on the phone with Chu, and then the afternoon writing a little bit for my own pleasure. Tomorrow, back to work and yoga and the normal schedule, and I really hope this post-Chu low will start to lift.

Dragon answers the challenge

Time to answer kolibri’s challenge!

1. One book that changed your life? Mika Waltari’s Dark Angel. I am not big on books about love, but when it is done this well, I am sold.

2. One book you've read more than once? Dozens in this category. Legend by the sorely missed David Gemmell, Dark Angel, the Etruscan and the Egyptian by Mika Waltari… hell, I read most of my books more than once.

3. One book you'd want on a desert island? Master and Margarita (Saatana saapuu Moskovaan) by Bulgakov. What a book. I never tire of reading it.

4. One book that made you giddy? Incompitence by Rob Grant (misspelled on purpose). It’s all SO true!

5. One book that wracked you with sobs? This is very, very rare, and that honor goes once again to Dark Angel by Mika Waltari.

6. One book that you wish had been written? Necronomicon ex Mortis. It is such a pity it only exists in fiction. Imagine having all those cool zombies around!

7. One book you wish had never been written? I name Mein Kampf here, though I doubt whether the existence of the dreadfully boring litany of hatred had any effect on Hitler’s raise to power.

8. One book you're currently reading? I am re-reading Gemmell’s Lord of the Silver Bow. It is hard to read, as I am filled with sorrow, knowing his next published book will be his last.

9. One book you've been meaning to read? Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger – kolibri keeps telling me how great it is, and I am curious.

Good karma

I went and took some yoga photos again today, this time at Sue's studio of her teachers. I seem to be in business for taking photos in exchange for yoga - I got a ten class card from Sue in exchange, and I'm looking forward to using it. I love Sue's studio, especially the tea house part of it - partly because there's always great tea there, but it's also very pretty and cozy. She's got a friend at Saltspring Island who carves these amazing Buddha statues from stone which are everywhere at the studio, and since we have the new bookshelf coming that will mean lots more space I finally gave in a bought one of the statues. It's actually just a part of Buddha's face but it's so peaceful and beautiful, and I think it suits our living room better than a straight on religious statue would. Since I was already dragging along my camera and laptop, I left the statue there for now - I'll put up some photos once I get it.

Goals

I had my review at work today. I sent my initial cut-and-paste-from-the-previous-one review form two days ago, but after I sent it I realized that I actually do have a career goal. Strange, perhaps for the first time ever I know where I want to go with it. So I told my boss today that I want to become a technology expert in the automation team, and I don't want a team-lead or any other kind of people management role. It's not like I haven't known it before, it's just that I suddenly realized I should probably tell someone at work about it. Then I got the speech about taking on a senior role in the future and how that will mean more work, meaning more overtime... and also apparently I need to talk to other QA people more about my work. She said someone had complained about it, but it could be just her figure of speech. It's true, I've been lately staying very much in my comfort zone and talking to people and explaining things to them is very much outside of it. Oh well, now that I know what I want I can actually start working towards it...

And talking about working towards goals, I formally told Jason and Kelly I want to take part in their apprenticeship program at the studio. I don't really know what's coming out of all these goals, the future seems really muddled right now.