Miia Ranta » Life

And then, unexpectedly, life happens

myrtti — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 00:20:32 +0000

I hope none of you have expected me to blog more often. It’s been over a year since I’ve last blogged, and so much has happened since I last did.

I’ve travelled to Cornwall, started a Facebook page that got a huge following in no time, fiddled a bit with CMS Made Simple at work, bought another Nexus One to replace one that broke and after getting the broke one fixed, gave the extra to my sister as a Christmas present, have taught Duncan how to make gravadlax and crimp Carelian pasties, visited Berlin and bought a game. I’ve attended a few geeky events, like Local MeeGo Network meetings of Tampere, Finland, MeeGo Summit also in Tampere, MeeGo Conference in San Francisco, US and OggCamp’11 in Farnham, UK.

I’ve also taken few steps in learning to code in QML, poked around Arduino and bought a new camera, Olympus Pen E-PL1.

What else has happened? Well, among other things, my mother was diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma right after New Year, and she passed away 30th of June.

Many things that I have taken for granted have changed or gone away forever. Importance of some things have changed as my life is trying to find a new path to run in.

Blogging and some of my Open Source related activities have taken a toll, which I am planning to fix now that I feel like I’m strong enough to use my energy on these hobbies again. Sorry for the hiatus, folks.

Coming up, perhaps in the near future:

Rants and Raves about Arduino
Entries about social networking sites
Camera/Photography jabber
Mobile phone/Tablet chatter

So, just so you know, I’m alive, and will soon be in an RSS feed reader near you. AGAIN.

What is happiness / My latest visit to UK

myrtti — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 21:08:29 +0000

I’ve been to UK before, last summer. That visit was quite short and was very tightly knit around LUGradio Live UK 2009, so I didn’t have that good chance of getting to know what life is like in the UK. I had the opportunity to visit the UK again in January for two weeks. This time I wasn’t there on “business”, so I had a bit more time and chance to observe things.

There’s lots of things that can be explained by the sheer magnitude of the population of UK. The selection in Tesco is mind boggling in comparison to even the biggest, best stores in Finland. The Linux and Open source community seem to get things done in the big scale. Then there’s things that can be explained by the geographic location and language. France and the whole of Europe is just a hop away. English is the Latin of the future era, all nationalities are present in the UK.

I didn’t take any days off from work but telecommuted to Finland – one of the perks of a company where everyone telecommutes is that nobody cares where you’re working from. My decision to do so limited what the two weeks held in them for programming, but I was quite happy as I met new people, saw the genuine English surroundings and visited a few quite nice places.

My first weekend was filled with shopping in Peterborough, the second in Littlehampton and Arundel and the last Saturday in Cambridge. I had my first ever sushi, saw my first ever wild European rabbits (the ones in Finland are either mountain hares or European hares), owls and molehills, saw punts in river Cam, fed mallards at the moat of Arundel Castle, ate my first pork pie, scotch egg, proper fish and chips, had my first KFC and cheesecake in 13 years, saw a bottle of milk by the doorstep and went to a real English pub, with a real fireplace, with real coal burning in it :-D (yes, these are again one of those things that a person can be amazed of and can appreciate!)

I’m traveling to UK again on Monday. I haven’t got anything planned yet like I had last time, when I insisted on a trip to Littlehampton. I *do* plan to nudge a certain Steve McIntyre about some Debian Women t-shirts I would have bought at LUGradio Live last summer, if there had been any. I’ve already done huge amounts of shopping and had them delivered and they’re waiting for me.

If you’ve followed me on identi.ca, Twitter, Facebook, Jaiku, Linkedin, Brightkite, or the PlanetPlanets I’m on, or have just stumbled across my page earlier and started to read my blog, you might have noticed my interest in traveling to UK in January was purely personal – I’ve met someone very special. I’m slowly starting to have some of my dreams back and having courage to dream. Feeling emotionally safe – feeling that you’re not alone. Feeling of being supported and supporting, feeling that I’m being held, having strong arms around, and looking forward together. I’m flying to UK on Monday evening. This time I haven’t bought a ticket back. Yet.

25 things

myrtti — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 19:47:00 +0000

When I was a kid, I cheated my mum that I’d do my evening prayers if she’d subscribe the weekly Donald Duck cartoon magazine for me.
I love to gnaw plastic things, bottle cap seals, zip ties, etc.
I’m not allergic to any foodstuff to my knowledge, but I get migraine from even smelling raw celery and I hate spinach soup.
One of my favourite foods contains celery. I can’t cook it myself.
I hate telephone calls, but when I needed a new phone about a year ago, I bought one of the most expensive ones. I still use it mostly as a camera and an Internet device.
I was a Lion King fan as a teenager. After that I became a Star Wars fan. I collected anything from Star Wars toothpaste to cola bottle labels to LionKing erasers. I sold my Star Wars collection in the Finnish equivalent of eBay few years ago, and my Ex still has my LionKing quilt cover.
Of all the junk in my apartment, I value my books and CD’s the most
I don’t understand digital clocks as well as I do analogue ones. I have to have my wristwatch, kitchen watch and mobile phone clock as analogue ones. I also have two clock widgets on my computer’s desktop. My terminal windows have to be translucent so I can see the clock widgets through them.
My dad taught me to knit at the age of seven or so – but taught me to purl the wrong way. My teacher scolded me when I taught my schoolmates the wrong way. My dad still does it the wrong way.
I hate apples and bananas. I could (and actually have done so) eat 8 clementines or satsumas nonstop.
I’m neurotic about events that I might be late from. I don’t hate traveling as much as I hate the idea of being late from the transport of traveling.
My physiotherapist told me I could have been a great ballet dancer because my joints are hyperextensible. I really wanted to be one when I was 7.
I’ve always called my sister my sister, and once got into a huge fight with my classmates because they insisted that I should call her my half-sister (which technically she is).
I didn’t drink any alcohol until I was old enough to legally do so
My title on my business card is Software Developer. In reality with my current skills in programming, I couldn’t develop more complex systems than HelloWorlds even if the ghost of Grace Hopper bit me.
My fridge always contains apple sauce.
I’m not superstitious but I never open an umbrella indoors.
If I could go back ten years in my life, I’d go to that crafts vocational college instead of trying to become B.Eng in Mediatechnology. I could have become a ceramist.
I’ve been mistaken for a Brummie, a Turku and an Iisalmi dweller and a Valley girl.
I’m pretty emotional person and my emotions usually manifest physically. When I’m angry, I want to break things. So far I’ve broken only two plates in my life by throwing them.
I’ve always wanted a loft bed.
There’s a theory about gateway drugs and how pot can be a gateway drug to stronger ones. I believe there’s a gateway applications that lead you to using Linux. Mine was Sodipodi. It sucked in Windows.
I believe in general conscription and feminism. I don’t believe in armies, wars or female chauvinism.
I compulsively keep receipts of my purchases for at least a month. I don’t know why.
I hate sitcoms from the bottom of my heart. I feel ashamed for most of the characters. I don’t own a tv.
I don’t have a drivers licence, but I’ve always dreamt of owning and driving a Vespa. Preferably a pink one.

also:

I’m terrible in Maths.

“OK, who’s bright idea was this?” -meme

myrtti — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 09:14:57 +0000

I can’t be blamed for this, srsly. Sorry folks.
Blame Og Maciel.

Take a picture of yourself right now.
Don’t change your clothes, don’t fix your hair…just take a picture.
Post that picture with NO editing.
Post these instructions with your picture.

Protected: BwaaBwaakBwaak – Chicken

myrtti — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 12:08:14 +0000

Heippa maailma!

myrtti — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 21:48:38 +0000

“Hi, my name is Miia and I’m an Ubuntuholic.”

Hi, I’m Miia Ranta, one of the recent additions to Ubuntu members but also to Planet Ubuntu. I’ve been using Ubuntu since February 2005, Linux few times before that. I can be spotted at some of Ubuntu related channels in freenode as Myrtti. I’m Finnish geekette, living in Tampere, Finland together with two guinea pigs.

It’s quite surreal to be making my first ever entry to Planet Ubuntu. I wrote about Ubuntu and the spirit of it on my blog oh, so many years ago (was it 2005?). Then, I was still studying in Tampere, doing office cleaning every evening after school, coding my own flat-file based blogging system with PHP, and fiddling with this new thing called Ubuntu. I had used Ubuntu for about 8 months by then. Using Linux and open source fit my mentality and my view on life in general. Since then I was employed by COSS, the Finnish Centre for Open Source Solutions, to help them with Linux and Open source in their own infrastructure, to overview the Finnish Summercode. I’ve met wonderful people, learnt new things, gotten new responsibilities and now working from home for a FLOSS company called Nomovok. Now I get paid for doing what I loved few years ago, but has the basics changed?

No.

Also sprach Myrtti 2005-11-15:
Q:So how does this compute to you being a person promoting open and free source where ever possible?
A:Because I feel that when I help somebody, I get something eventually in return. Because I feel that there is very few types of information that need to be private and classified. Because I think information is the key to every problem. Because I think that *we together* are stronger than *we individually*. Because I think that you don’t have a right to complain about something that sucks unless you’re ready to do something about it. Because I think that if something is wrong and the effort of trying to improve it isn’t uncomprehencively huge, you should. Because I think it’s a sin if you know something and someone would use the information, and you don’t tell it to anyone.

Because I think I love you.

In Soviet Finland, the customer still owns you.

myrtti — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 08:12:09 +0000

I’ve been your customer for several years, since before I can remember. I remember attending your Kultapossu childrens club, reading the kids magazine, going with my piggie bank to your offices to get it emptied, getting my first ATM card and enjoying the freedom of having money of my own, using your payment automats and later your online banking, getting my student’s loan to buy eye glasses and a VCR and computer parts, and got my pink Visa Electron. Now it’s time to go and move over. So long.

Hello Tapiola!