soi | Sound Team - Fastest Man Alive

Still here! It's been so sunny... And PS2 is so fun after all this time. I got JakX for my birthday and started playing it today - but I'm really not that good with driving. I should try it later when I'm more speed oriented than now. I'm so totally frustrated with R&C2 too: I've started from cratch (played actually RC1 through by myself, without almost any help which is non-heard thing). I'm stuck with one flying mission. I've never been that good with those tasks that demand some reaction abilities. I'm just like - wall coming, wall ahead, I'm crushing, BOOOM! Hmph.

It's actually second day of midsummer fest but I'm working. My mission is to clear my inbox of all the work related mail - by doing it all. That way I can finally spend some time with Coloria. Maybe.

New site for The Arts Council of Central Finland almost finished. Soon...

soi | Rapture - House of Jealous Lovers

Our house is so messy right now it even starts to bother me - even though I'm not so hyper neurotic about putting things in their right place. We are beginning to recover after yesterdays catastrophe: our cd shelves went down and hundreds of cd's dropped down. It's propably not so bad as you might think: most of the cds stayed put in their cases and even though many cd cases were broken I don't think that there were so many cd's that went to unusable mode... Well, Marilyn Manson took it quite bad: all cases broken. Blah.

My evil brother introduced me the Spider solitaire (bravo, WiinXP - now I'm hooked and can't get to work). Not that old classics like PP Hammer, James Pond and Woody's World would take less time... Or Ratchet and Clank - I restarted from the very first game, from the very first level...

Quite busy on the work front. I'm re-making the site of The Arts Council of Central Finland. Actually it has been finished for a few months now but since another site connected to that one is not finished... I'm planning to publish it this week anyway. The extra site will be finished then later.

Some very ordinary updates: Gallery Becker, Alvar Aalto Foundation, The Arts Council of Central Finland and The Craft Museum of Finland.

Muse - Supermassive Black Hole

Does it make it better? Buying a new computer? Well, it all worked well two weeks. And yesterday I finally got a fatal error flashing on my monitor. The report tells that's it's unrecovable hardware problem, propably something to do with RAM, system board, CPU or power supply. I suspect the latter one - there's a new power plug symbol on the right corner that I've never seen before. I really don't want people with a combo told-you-so-slash-that-sucks look on their face standing beside me when I fight this &¤%¤%%¤W#.

I propably should make some backups...

Nothing new here (well, first SLY for PS2 - I've been searching that one for ages and finally found - but on work front, nothing). Ordinary updates, no new creations.

Uriah Heep - Gypsy

I had totally forgotten: Live Herring 2006 site is now open! The site is really empty still but I'm planning to insert all kinds of small line drawings to the site.

Yesterday I had a killer head ache and I did only the crucial updates (updated new prices to Kirsi Neuvonen's website). Today we had a Välittämö meeting. After the meeting I did some Välittämö stuff and after that spent several hours getting my Norton fierwall + virus preventing thingies fixed. Grrr.

Alas, my inbox is no longer empty...

Automatic - Monster

Absolutely odd feeling. My inbox is empty. Of course there are a few dozens of small updates and bigger changes on my work list written in all kinds of notes etc. but still: I don't remember when I got my inbox emptied last time (if you don't count the time a few months ago when my whole account emptied). Some comfort in this work'a'landia.

Well, actually there are few a bit bigger projects going on. Kirsi changes all her print prices - there's some job for a couple of days. Papiina will update their pages in Swedish and in German during June. The Arts Council of Central Finland site is under renovation but will change at the same time as their artist introduction in English will open. Soon that is. Right now I'm renowating Luova toimiala site because the old one is total mess (viva la wysiwyg Front Page)... But some projects have been easier than I thought. Actually the Craft museum cyrillic site wasn't so bad after all. Only a few pages. Demo is now made.

I've had some problems with RealPlayer - again. The last machine sometimes freezed totally when I tried to listen BBC6 and now it started with this machine too. Actually, now I have so much memory & stuff that it doesn't really matter but the idea of the program not working properly eats me alive. So I changed to Win Media player. SOOO much better quality of sound but not really easy to use. If I stop the damn player and try again, it requires a PASSWORD as the connection changes or something. I can't get the clip working properly but I have to start by going to BBC6 site, then choosing the Win MP option, then from the following page the standalone option... And with RP I can open the BBC site on RP browser but I haven't yet figured out how to open any sites (other that Windows Media things) on the browser (or is it even a browser?) And I still have to find out if there's a chance to rewind these streaming sessions... Blah.

Lots of small updates: Alvar Aalto Foundation, Kirsi Neuvonen's website, European Cultural Foundation / Finland, Riiminka, The Craft Museum of Finland, Värjärikilta and Gallery Becker.

Keane - Is It Any Wonder?

I have a new c:ter. I gave Timppa the old one - he can now make some work thingies at his studio. Although he doesn't have any monitor yet... I didn't buy only this machine but also some software: Adobe Illustrator, InDesign and Flash. I can't really use any of them. Some designing schoolish days ahead. Well, if the summer is like the weather today it's not hard to convince myself to stay inside. Freeeeezing here.

The Väristyksiä exhibition opening was last Wednesday on The Craft Museum of Finland and lots of people. We had so delicate exhibition opening food... popcorn. Both salted and sugary (red, yellow, brown and green...) Maybe not exactly what some people came to expect. But the exhibition itself is meant to be funny and different from the usual ones.

I didn't feel myself tired at all while making the exhibition but the very next day I woke up at about six at evening just to eat something, then headed back to sleep until the Eurovision song contest semifinal, and then back to sleep. It wasn't even hard to sleep the next night even though I had slept through the whole day. But the next day I was already feeling soooo much better and I got my energy levels somewhat back. There was an interview for Keskisuomalainen newspaper (there was a story of the exhibition already in Thursday on that same newspaper) and we (Ulla, Tiina and I) posed for a few photos too.

And then I got my new c:ter home. So small and sweet it is, with a blue light shining at the front panel. And silent. I can't sleep at night because I'm so used to the steady sound of the machine. Feels like I'm put offline of the world. But I'll get used to it...

Yesterday the holidays continued. I made a few adjustments. Anssi came to help me with VPN thingie and we made it work. I found all my old settings and configurations for Photoshop and Dreamweaver. And the rest of the evening: Eurovision Song Contest! After 30 years of viewing only a few points at Finnish Eurovision chart it was finally nice to be on lead! Lordi won! It still feels sort of unreal.

Updates (so far, more to come): Riiminka, The Craft Museum of Finland and The Arts Council of Central Finland.

Lazyboy / Roddy Frame - Western Skies

There were so many ggggrrrreeeeat things last week that I don't even know where to start. So I won't.

I've got Gear Works game now - good entertainment for intermissions. Must enjoy while it lasts: my hard drive is most propably broken and I'm planning to take my machine to be fixed and upgraded a bit on Wednesday morning. After that there is a press event of the Colourings exhibition and later the opening of the exhibition. Then propably a small break - what can you do without the machine? Jeeeeezzzz...

soi | U2 - Ground Beneath Her Feet

I'm a machine! Total!

Small site of European Cultural Foundation / Finland (img) has been online since last Tuesday but published officially this week.

Riiminka's summer collection for adults is online.

Jyväskylä Art Museum new front page was actually published a while ago. The idea of the site is that it's very easy to change colours of that site. I've made about twenty different colour schemes for the site. Though it's funny, because the change took place only on the front page. That's because there are some changes coming for the net site anyway but the front page just had to be renewed.

Updates for: Gallery Becker, Alvar Aalto Foundation and The Craft Museum of Finland + Many small adjustments for f.ex. Muhi project.

Still I managed to spend some time outside. It was so sunny and warm that I just couldn't stay in. SO I walked around while listening to some music and enjoyed the green new leaves and the scents of spring. This is absolutely the best time! I decided to buy some ice cream - there was only a few ones left on our local shop... I got a few.

Tomorrow is the day that I've been waiting for. The building of the exhibition will begin. I have to charge my camera battery for this project.

...And now, some quality time with ice cream!

Patti Smith - Dancing Barefoot

I'm quite pissed about one project. Well, there are actually couple of them but this one... I just made some corrections and propably there will be more coming soon. This is one of those corrections after corrections and changes after changes. I feel expecially bored with this project since it has had so many changes that it doesn't look like my design anymore. I won't publish this one on my portfolio even though it's a big one. Right now I just feel that making changes upon changes is just fools job. The funny thing is that the choices that are wanted right now are quite near of what I suggested in the beginning. I quite feel that I don't get any respect - and I really don't require much. Maybe it's because it's not understood how much *just one little change* can take time.

But what's *not bugging me* is the Colourings exhibition for Craft Museum of Finland. The exhibition will open in 18th of May and the building of the exhibition will start next Tuesday. I've been so happy writing + planning that exhibition - I get to work with colours and actually it's my work! I don't have to fight with my guilty conscience while spending time with the project. I've got tons of new ideas for Coloria also, and lot's of new contacts and all. :)

Small updates: Alvar Aalto Foundation, The Craft Museum of Finland, The Arts Council of Central Finland and Värjärikilta. Added new images to Kirsi Neuvonen's website.

Gosh. I so need to make some new beautiful project - not so ordinary. Something...

Gnarls Barkley - The Last Time

Papiina's make over has been online for a few weeks now. Yesterday I made a few corrections but that's it for now. The viewers won't propably notice anyhing because the changes have been mostly in coding: from html to css. Plus there are now product 'info cards' of every product.

Välittämö + Välittämö gallery has been officially from Tuesday - the same day that there was the exhibition opening of the whole project in 00130Gallery (Korkeavuorenkatu 27, Helsinki). The Välittämö project connects art with business and with exchange/bartering. Maybe artworks can be sold not only with money but also by changing them with services and goods. Sort of: give a artist free lunch for a month/year (or another selected time) and get art work. The Välittämö Project was a "critic's pick of the week" on yesterday's NYT / Helsingin Sanomat.

I should continue to clear my table of the work thingies so that I could fully concentrate on Väristyksiä colour exhibition that should open in short two weeks time. I'm so totally freaked about that one right now... I know the exhibition itself will be really fantastic but somehow it still frightens a bit when you know it's the main exhibition of the Craft Museum of Finland this year.

Shins - Your Algebra

On weekend I worked like maniac, then on Monday I had a morning meeting with Välittämö project (after three hours of sleep), then from mid-day till evening Craft Museum exhibition meeting and after I came home I worked with the same exhibition until about four on morning. On Tuesday I started by making some notes for our Craft Museum exhibition, then lecturing about colour (to a very nice group!) and then finally working with Välittämö project the rest of the evening.

I'm constantly feeling guilt about how little I've given to the projects going on but at the same time I realize that there are fysiological limits in this world. I've slept about 3-4 hours a night for a couple of weeks right now and on Wednesday I collapsed totally. Not blackouts or anything but I just couldn't get myself up. It was the first day for a long time that I didn't have to go anywhere and so, my brain just went to tilt mode. One day total rest did good. I can *think* again (well, sort of...)

Yesterday I worked the whole day with Papiina site which is now totally renewed. Mostly the renevation is in code (to css) but there are also new product information pages that didn't exist before. That's a nice thing - one site that has been bothering me a bit since I know it's much used...

So glad it's Easter - people won't send me more work during it. I'm able to finish my T-D-List and continue with Craft Museum colour exhibition texts...

Lacuna Coil - Enjoy The Silence

From the lowest lows to new hights? Last Wednesday I lost all my email. Last nail to my coffin. But the very next day it was sort of nice to open my email and see... no work at all. At the beginning of the week I was so tired already about the thought of the amount of jobs that was waiting for me. Emptying your email account - easy way to get rid of all the work!

The rest of the week however was still very amebaish low-life. I've been feeling a bit low and haven't really been out (except for short walks) since last Wednesday. I felt I was working all the time but really complished nothing. Maybe it's because many of my ongoing projects are very complicated and long time things and even if you finish one part of the project it won't be seen for a while.

Yesterday I found myself a really nice coat from flea market. Except I should lose some weight for it to fit me perfectly (Have I now joined the army of frustrated women who buy themselves too small clothes living in some kind of dreamworld...?) Actually I went to the flea market to find some porcelain to the exhibition installation (only few weeks to opening). Anyway, somehow it was really relaxing to wander and look all the old stuff (and have a few words with a friend whom I haven't seen for ages) that also my workstuff started progressing. I spent the whole day with Jyväskylä Art Museum front page: I made the requested changes and about 20 colour schemes for future use. Plus wrote a bunch of answers + instructions. It's a bit funny to make make-over to the front page only when all the other pages of the site are still using the old layout - but hopefully it will work somehow.

Right now I'm really drawn into ugly interfaces/layouts. I should finish new Live Herring 2006 layout soon but right now I'm a bit unsure... It's starting to be a bit too ugly... I'll have to get my work done so I could think about that.

The Charlatans - Blackened Blue Eyes

I feel the whole two weeks have been total mess and I've under-achieved everything I've done. Plus the fact that I'm late with my work AND own personal pojects. Right now I feel that this much stuff to do is freezing me to this one position and one thought full of panic, without any sensible way to make this l-t-d a bit shorter.
Updating Värjärikilta's web page took a big part of my non-sunny Sunday but somehow it was really relaxing. I made a makeover to picture gallery and it was sooooo relaxing to watch sunny summer photos... I also got the pre registration for dye-week next summer and I DID register myself already.

Uh, next summer... Wish I was there already. The next big deadline is our Välittämö exhibition after Easter, then just under one month until our big colour exhibition opening in Craft museum and after that another colour exhibition in art museum. And trying to make some sensible plans for Live Herring. Plus the ordinary work of course.

Well, nothing good comes easy. It isn't a project if some tears aren't shed and it's not spring time if you can relax and sleep. Who needs dreams anyway? When you're tired enough you don't actually need to sleep to receive some wild psychedelic ones.

¬_¬ Starting to scare myself a bit. Maybe it's time to finish working for today and try to think about something else for a while.

But some work though: Last night I coded some templates for the Jyväskylä Art Museum - and had some very sugary colour selections... Hopefully there's some use them some time - bored to see all official web pages. Not published yet though.

+ Some basic updates: Gallery Becker, Alvar Aalto Foundation, The Craft Museum of Finland.

Dresden Dolls - Sing

Riiminka's summer collection 2006 is now online...

Renewing Papiina and Jyväskylä Art Museum sites, making graphs for Muhi etc.
+ Some basic updates: Gallery Becker, Alvar Aalto Foundation, The Craft Museum of Finland. Normal actions. Nothing explodingly new. (I know, that's not propably a word but I'm not *so* limited.)

A few days ago I gave a short interview for Värillä zine via email. About natural colours & such. Nothing big but since then I've had to force myself to continue working and not rushing to update Coloria.
I'm panicking a bit with all my projects (work and other). Today I should've had a meeting about colour exhibition but I missed it: don't feel very well right now. But anyway, I'm mentally in much better condition. Last week I had a meeting with some people interested in organizing Live Herring which brought me a good, light feeling of relief. A little bit of help is all I need.
And sleep: last Thursday I was dead tired when I came home: I was in sleep before (I think) nine at Thursday evening and woke up Friday evening at seven. Not feeling much better now.

E S G - You're No Good

Weekend without weekend. Again.

I'm *not* so tired of my job (about 42 subjects on my to-do-list, big and small mixed, some I-can-hardly-wait-fantastic, some of them absolutely-pain-in-xxxxx-&%¤%¤) but the fact that this damn c:ter is not well. As it wasn't enough that RealPlayer is eating all the memory alive but there is something serious errors on hard drive. I just can't afford to take it to be fixed because of my long t-d-l that I just have to get shorter before my head explodes. So I'll just have to hope that everything would go smoothly (- just one more month, please....) Now the latest one is this: I can burn cd's and listen audio cds but (sarcastic *ha* here) I can't get my back up files open. F.ex. I have this old front site plan for Sibelius Academy Muhi project which I just can't get open. Today I realized that if I'd started remaking the whole thing instead of using tons of time first to find it and then to find out that I can't open the files... Well, you know. (Place some heavy curse words here.)



Nothing new online but lots of small updates. One bigger one: updated Papiina's new collection - but I'll have a small site make-over going on. Hopefully new site will be online in two weeks time.

Riiminka's spring collection is under work... Have to start with that one. But first I've got to get some sleep. Before it's afternoon again.

Gnarls Barkley - Crazy

Very bony life here... :) On last Friday I bought the most essential things for our household for a long time, f.ex. black rubber gloves with skulls. I started to sketch layout for my skull project. I actually got myself a new domain a few days ago: skullstation.org. But there's nothing there yet.

I also continued to plan my colouring site a bit more. This project has been frozen since August - I'd need to go and get me some photocopies. I've promised myself a million times that I'll take care of that but somehow... Now I publicly promise that I'll take the photocopies next week and continue with the project.
Basic updates + some fixing: The Craft Museum of Finland + Alvar Aalto Symposium 2006.

My work orientation is missing a bit. I'll have to make myself some kind of list again. Getting rid of email (eh, by making all the jobs listed there) is one thing but kind of never ending because my email box is like that golden pot in that one fairy-tale: when you get some from it, it just doesn't get empty. So, writing things-to-do-list with a thick black pen to a paper and then overlining after the job is done is most rewarding. Looks a bit like playlists on gigs. ¬_¬

I continue living in my dreams.

PJ Harvey - This Is Love

Varpu and Kimmo at their home. [Image has been photoshopped a bit.]

Back from Helsinki. Depeche Mode gig was great. We stood right in front of the stage ramp and when the gig started I lost it completely. Even though I didn't remember all the words, I just sang along fine. Except when Gahan came to stand at the edge of the ramp (like 2 meters from us) and looked straight to audience near him, listening (and watching) us singing. Pressure. There were a few moments like that when I didn't remember the words at all but I just had to play along and open my mouth and hope it would look real. Hopefully he didn't notice one member of the audience faking (¬_¬ ...like it really mattered...). But the ending of the show with Dave Gahan and Martin Gore standing at the end of the ramp holding each other was absolutely gorgeous.
One complain though: confetti was missing. Big gigs should always end with tons of confetti raining down. Grrrr.

--

Anyway, it was awsome time in Helsinki anyway meeting friends I haven't seen for a while. Jani I had seen last November (...LiveHerring), my brother Kimmo last xmas but Evis about four years ago!

It would've been nice to stay longer but it was nice to return home too. I was so totally physically damaged after three hours of standing and hardcore jumping in Monday that it still feels a bit so shopping around Helsinki wasn't very enjoyable anymore...

And about my work: haven't done any today. Maybe tomorrow.

Mystery Jets - Alas Agnes

What a poor day. Small thingies, not able to concentrate to any important things. Feel a bit tired and lacking interest. My voice has craked a bit - I almost regred that I've answered phone today since I must have sounded non-enertical there's-no-fun-anywhere kind of loser. I haven't even dressed yet - what's the use anyway, it's soon night again. *Sigh*

Normal updating sessions: Gallery Becker, Alvar Aalto Foundation, The Craft Museum of Finland. Searched for an answer to one Periferia Design problem but did not find it (actually: I know the task is impossible but I just had to try my luck). Some small Muhi adjustments, have to continue tomorrow.

A new layout for Building Preservation of Alvar Aalto Foundation (just in Finnish) is under way.

A lot of small things with Coloria. Started updating images but there's no time for full renewing... Not yet anyway. Even though I have a pretty good idea of complete makeover... Right now planning the ultimate Coloria makeover is the only thing that makes some fuzz in me.

Inhaling a strong boiling mushroom air here. I had some old dyes frozen outside and one old dress inside - so I combined them all. There's not much dye left in dyebaths and the dress is made of cotton - so I doubt there will be no colour changes in my dress. But I have a good, thick smell though. Better than glue anyway... (*sarcasm*)

Theoretical Girl - It's All Too Much

Pikku Huopalahden Kustannusosakeyhtiö Opus [120206]

I've made some offers and created a bunch of layouts to company offers. Needed to do something already, to test if I'm up to it.

I've designed a few different front page layouts for Jyväskylä Art Museum too. Hopefully some of them will be accepted. They're not very final though, just some sort of impressions, so there is still a lot of work.

Today's been sooooo slooooow. I'm not very excited about anything. Just sitting here, making small updates, avoiding big, boring jobs. Maybe I just need more sleep. It takes me two cups of coffee just to make one blog entry.

The Sparks - Perfume

Kuopion Konservatorio [080206]

Last week was so strange. There was a lot of talk about new projects and also about some older ones that have been off the table for ages. One of these projects has haunted me a bit since I've been a bit unsure (should I or shouldn't I things). I haven't been able to reach the contact person of that project for some time now and mentally I had already given up the project. On Friday I found that the contact person had a very serious illness and is now passed away. We never met actually, just talked on phone and emailed but still - feels a bit hollow.

A lot of projects are on the finishing line - and many of these have been quie difficult to make. The project for Kuopion konservatorio (The Kuopio Conservatory) was a nice and quite easy one. I made just the layout for the page. First layout I made was this dark/brownish thirties style site which I liked very much myself - but this chosen one is more clean and up to date. I just made the layout and Petteri did the coding.

...More coming. Soon.