Hello fellow humans...

 (or whatever you consider yourself as)!

This is obviously the first post of this blog so I won't bore you by going out of my way to express that fact in some cheesy pseudo-artistic excuse of meaningful phrasing. (Whoops I guess I did.) I would very much like to say something profound and inspiring and introduce a theme or a concept for this blog that would awaken your interests and make you wait for the next post on the edge of your toes like a ballerina but (a) my previous blogs have fallen down exactly because I always try to set up too limiting theme (such as book reviews) and I always find myself wanting to write about other things but don't want to make separate blogs for them so this time my theme is no theme! Ehe... or my theme is whatever happens to interest me. (In the end my interests don't even vary that much so I think I'm good here). And (b) I've been wanting to give a blog a new chance for a long time but I've been so busy with school and other stuff that I've kept putting it off and off...

But then I just couldn't take it anymore.

I don't have that much time (or even a scanner so excuse the comic!) which is why I'm not thinking this post through that carefully. Most of my posts probably won't be this erratic but this time I'm counting this as therapy between exam books because if I don't take a good break now I'm pretty sure I won't remember anything I read the rest of the day.

Oh, and if you know me you might be wondering why I'm writing this blog in English. Well, that's partially because I just like English and most of my creative writing is in Finnish for practical reasons. But online it's actually more practical to write in English because it's way more inclusive. There's so many English speaking people out there who have similar interests with me, so rambling here is at least one attempt to have conversation with more people. (Also, I'm lazy enough to post most stuff in Facebook in Finnish so this is also a way for my English speaking friends to know what's going on with me if that happens to be something they're interested in.) Of course, if you want to leave a comment or e-mail me, you can do it in either language!

Which brings me to what you can expect me to talk about in my posts. Like I said, I'm not narrowing down my topics but I think I should still give you a list of my obsessions(=interests), so... if you have similar ones we can talk about them and if you don't... you've been warned. :D

SO, this is my... TOP Something. Let's see what and how many of them it turns out to be.

1. My number one interest(=obsession, life purpose...) is writing. Fiction. Novels. I do other stuff, sometimes I write poems or lyrics or short stories and my diary consists mainly of rantings, ravings and musings about... stuff I'm probably going to talk about in this blog as well (but hopefully in more coherent manner). But what I most want to do for living is to be an author (which sadly often makes people snort) and I'm well aware of how unlikely it is to make your living on this field (which is partially why I'm studying to also have a more ”down to earth” profession). As it is, I don't have time to write everyday (because if I start it's very likely the next time I eat or sleep or go to the bath room will be after about 48 hours. Writing is very much about the flow.) but I think about it everyday. It's impossible to get through a class or an exam book without being interrupted (a lot) by a dialogue between my characters or a stricking revelation about where the events in my story are going to lead. 

My writing is first and foremostly character oriented. I know my characters to the core like they were real human beings. I don't plot. I never set out to tell a story in which I want to include specific events for the sake of those events. And I don't sit around wondering which direction I should lead my characters to. The story is inevitable once the charactes are in my head, they are what they are so they make the desicions they make and it often feels like I'm just waching a good show.

 

That doesn't mean I take writing lightly, though. It may feel like that when I'm writing the first draft but then comes re-writing and editing which is all work. There's always stuff to describe more and stuff to describe less. There's always a better way to phrase something. It's always possible to make the world-building more precise and better structured. Sometimes drawing the line between too little and too much is indescribably hard.

Fantasy is my preferred genre. There's also, more likely than not, elements of adventure and mystery but in the center of things, there's always the characters and their intrapersonal and interpersonal relationships.

So, yes, you will see me talking about writing a lot, not neccesssarily that much about the stuff I'm actually writing at the moment but maybe about... more general writing related issues. Things other writers may relate to. Or something somewhere around that kind of stuff.

2. Naturally, here comes reading. Books are the media I consume the most. I read about two books a week, sometimes more, sometimes less. My preferences are the same as in writing and I also often like historical or philosophy oriented fiction but I try my best to read outside my comfort zone (which sometimes leads to ranting about a very badly written chick-lit, YA romance, or thriller) because anything can be great as long as the characters are well-written and it's obviously very important for a writer to read books that can broaden perspective, something completely alien at times too. You can learn from anything. (From other writers' mistakes as well.)

I don't read too much non-fiction outside of school, because really, there's enough of it and my interests are pretty much covered by the classes I take (theology, philosophy, psychology). Theology is my major, so when I read non-fiction for fun, it's usually something else.

I won't go into too much detail about my favourite books here (because that's a field where I have A LOT to talk about) but I'll give you a very general view:

• Well, Harry freaking Potter
• All Sherlock Holmes stories by sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Heros of Olympus by Rick Riordan
• Pride and Prejudice (or anything) by Jane Austen

• The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
• The Passage by Justin Cronin
• The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins
• Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan
• The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
• The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
• Demian by Herman Hesse
• All Anne and Emily books by L.M. Montgomery
• Little Women by Louisa M. Alcott
  
  

Here's a random Saber (Fate/Stay Night) skecth for you.

Manga is also quite a big part of my reading. I don't like to read that many on-going series but every now and then I feel like marathoning a completed one, so I feel like making a separate list for some of my favourite mangas as well:

• Inuyasha & Ranma ½ by Rumiko Takahashi
• Emma by Kaoru Mori
• Helen ESP by Katsuhisa Kigitsu
• Yotsuba&! & Azumanga Daioh by Kiyohiko Azuma
• Full Moon wo sagashite & Time Stranger Kyoko by Arina Tanemura
• Card Captor Sakura & Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle by CLAMP
• Fate/Stay Night by Datto Nishiwaki & TYPE-MOON
• Fruits Basket by Natsuki Takaya
• Warau Kanoko-sama & Koi dano ai dano by Ririko Tsujita
• Meitantei Conan by Gosho Aoyama

Other favourite comics/graphic novels:

• Habibi by Graig Thompson
• Yoko Tsuno by Roger Leloup
• Tintin by Herge
• The Bright Side by Amber Francis (webcomic)
• Shades of A by T A Kimpton (webcomic)
• Kirjoitukset by Marja Siira (webcomic, in Finnish)

I tried to keep it short. If you feel like sharing your opinion on some of them, go ahead! 

3. Drawing, too, goes hand in hand with writing. I illustrate my stories a lot and draw random memes about my characters for my own amusement. (So random they're hardly gonna see any daylight ever.) Comics have been my passion for quite a while. I already drew them before I could read or write, around when I was four years old. They usually involved a picture form of a story I had acted out with my favourite dolls/figurines or something similar. My longest comic so far is actually an exchange/impro story I drew with a friend of mine when we were 11-16 years old and it reached 500+ pages before we both began to have too many other things in mind.

Most of my fiction comics are relatively short, around 20-40 pages. Most of them I drew in middle school. I was able to get one published in an amateur magazine (called Finnmanga) when I was 13 but reading it now... well, I just hope anyone who happens to come across it, realizes that I was immature and 13. I've come a long way since. (Not that I have published much else though.) Since I graduated high school I've been drawing comics significantly less because I've been focusing on writing so much but I haven't given up the dream of publishing a graphic novel someday as well.

I still draw (and paint) whenever I have time and it's usually writing related but not neccessarily for any other purpose than for myself. Sometimes I make short (like one or two page) humor comics about my life or some topic I find relevant. You can expect to see more comic diary type of narrative in this blog in the future! I'll probably share some of my old comics around here too.

4. I'm pretty much a total MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) geek. It's a personality theory based on the work of Isabel Myers, Katherine Briggs and Carl Jung. Those who know a little about the theory are probably rolling their eyes about now, since MBTI is often called the modern horoscope and if you have any experience about the online tests, you've probably noticed they have pretty much no reliability whatsoever. Yes, the tests should not be used as any sort of life quide and the type descriptions that relate to those tests are almost equally poor. However, the actual theory the tests, and the four letter dichotomies, are based on, is facinating, and much, much deeper than it seems if you think about the letters too much.

Basically the test sorts people into 16 personality types based on whether they're more Introverted-Extroverted, Sensing-iNtuitive, Thinking-Feeling and Percieving-Judging, giving a result such as INFP, ENTJ, ISFP and so on, with a description of the personality type. Of course a system like this is going to lead to nothing but useless, or even harmful stereotypes (in case it's taken too seriously) if people don't study the theory themselves, the cognitive functions, which the letter dichotomies are based on.

Soo, I'm not trying to sound like I know everything about this subject, I'm obviously learning myself, but I think I've come to know something about how to NOT type and trying to become better at typing according to the cognitive functions (Introverted and extraverted intuition, sensing, feeling and thinking). The personality theory is not really about whether someone is introverted or extraverted, feeling or thinking and so on. Everyone is all of that. The question is what kind of thinking or feeling or sensing or intuition is your preference and in what order do they manifest.

I'll most likely go deeper into my thoughts about the theory in some posts in the future. I also really enjoy typing fictional characters (Why? Because why not!) so that's something you can expect to see me doing here. And of course, you're welcome to argue (or agree) with me if you like! (I might also touch a little on the alternative theory of Socionics (which is based on the same functions) and Enneagram which I've found to add depth to the function theory.)

5. Okay, I think I've covered the things I'll probably be talking about the most, so I'll just give you a short description about other things that I probably won't talk about that often but very possibly on occasion:

• Movies and TV series. I may not be very up-to-date about them because I don't own a TV (and don't watch it that much when I'm home at my parents' either). I keep up with my favourite series online and often re-watch old favourites. I usually go to movies when there's an adaptation about a book I've read but I don't think I'm that enthusiatic about them. I probably like movies as much as the next person. About my favourites I'll just say I wouldn't say no to an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Doctor Who, Once Upon a Time, Gilmore Girls, Los Serrano or to most Disney and Ghibli movies.
  
  
• Theology (Don't worry, I'm not gonna preach!) or religions in general might sometimes inspire something. Probably not that much because I have to deal with them everyday whether I'm inspired or not and write all my thoughts out on long esseys... but who knows, every now and then I come accross some pretty interesting thinkers...

• Asexuality (and other related things) because, well, I still come across people who've never heard of it or who it would've helped if they knew more about it earlier (and it's something I also identify with). There's a lot of misconception and ignorance which is not only harmful to asexuals but affect people of other orientations as well. If this happens to be the first time you've come across this term or just want to know more about it I recommed you to visit this site: http://www.asexuality.org/home/ (Of course, I'm happy to answer (respectful) questions myself.)

• Other more random personality/human related stuff. I just think and talk about and observe people a lot (no, really, someone who writes character oriented fiction?) so... stuff comes to mind. Sometimes I might rant a little but it's out of love.

• And, it's not really a topic at all but I also like photographing (though I'm not at all serious about it) so you will definitely see more random photos like and unlike the ones you've seen in this post, decorating corners around here. I'm actually quite bad at remembering to take photos of actual life events so most of my photography is very... intentional/staged or just pure cosplay. I don't have Photoshop (yet) but I like playing with Picasa, so more pseudo-artistic stuff ahead. 

Hmm... Okay, I think that's about it for now. This post turned out a little longer than I intented so... Thank you very much for reading this far. I hope you found something awesome we have in common or otherwise gets your sympathies.

Have a great night, or day, or whatever and I hope to see you around here again!