State of things

On Friday the Moodle Quiz UI project I proposed got chosen in the Kesäkoodi competition (a Finnish variation of Google SoC ) to get funding. I heard there were thirteen competitors originally, seven of which got to the finals and five of which were granted a summer job. I’m full of ideas and the project page will soon transform into a blog, the related documents will probably go to Moodle Docs .

Slowly but surely, also my trip to Metz, France next spring is approaching.

Sun 2008-03-30 17:41 in diary No comments #link

GTD, gettin' it flowin'

I'm glad they've ordered translated copies of David Allen's Getting Things Done to the Library of Tampere . I'm currently reading it in a university PC class via ebrary. I have been delaying this too long.

For a 45 minute easy intro to GTD, see the video on Youtube, David Allen: Getting Things Done

(Yes, it's slightly comical, seeing what I'm complaining about in the previous post.) 

Sat 2008-03-15 14:00 in diary No comments #link

Overwhelmed

So many things are happening. I am happy, but seem to have slight problems keeping up. I feel useful and needed, many doors have opened. I am hesitating a bit but I trust that in time I will gain perspective and overall, I am heading somewhat in the right direction. The Kesäkoodi application process is at an interesting stage and people around me care for me, and I care for them.

It is all quite stable, though I feel a bit like a vagabond (Finnish: kiertolainen).

Tue 2008-03-11 17:27 in diary No comments #link

Hooray, Pilates (unpaid ad)

I love Pilates, I realized that again this morning. I love Malla my dear friend (ehm, among other things) for demonstrating the Pilates for Dummies DVD by Michelle Dozois and Andrea Ambandos to me in the Autumn. Since then, I have been doing 'em moves  in the mornings, about three or four times a week. For me, this is a miracle and an answer to prayer, since I've spent the last ten years searching for a sport that a) I would enjoy b) I would find motivation to do often enough to keep at least some sort of a basic condition. Jogging (boring), swimming (takes too much time)  and roller skating (only summers, boring in the long run) once came close, but didn't make it.

There are twenty different moves in the intermediate version (there's also a beginner version, which is good for getting started) so I don't get bored doing them. They're simple enough to learn gradually, but challenging enough to keep the mind focused.  It takes about half an hour for me to do the moves with the DVD - though now that I don't use the DVD anymore, but just use a written list of the moves, I probably go a bit slower. I did not like other DVDs, such as MP Power Pilates or IMC's Kiinteyttävä Pilates as much - though that might be just because I had already gotten used to  the Michelle's energeticality.

Thu 2008-02-07 10:58 in diary 2 comments #link

From Taizé, June 2007

(I was in Taizé, France last summer. I wrote this back then after having gotten home. Somehow I never posted this though that was my intention, so here goes.)

During the time in Taizé, something was turned over within me. What happened has a rational dimension as well: on last Sunday, when leaving Taizé approached, I realized I had found a trust for God and people around me, and I was afraid of losing it, getting swept away by everyday worries as usual. So I wrote down the main points. However, right now the only thing I can remember anymore is: trusting Jesus is trusting Someone who also has a deep trust in me. This was derived from a quotation from Dostojevski's Idiot, which was in a book I bought in Taizé. Too bad I seem to have given it to someone and can't find its name anymore. It was: Never a Stranger, God's Otherness in the Light of the Gospel by brother Emile of Taizé (originally Nul n'est plus proche que l'autre. I read it in Finnish though: Lähempänä kuin kukaan - Jumalan toiseus evankeliumin valossa).

I've found new trust, or peace. Faith is no longer as much of an intellectual problem as it used to be. As faith is closer to my concrete life, theories and speculation get less relevant. It's easier to see now that God provides the purpose for my (and everyone's) life. The gospel of Taizé seemed to be this trust.

Still, just rationalizing it doesn't really cover what I believe God did to me. For years now, for example, I have found myself obliged to try to study apology in order to justify believing and still being a rational being. This was partly a social need, although of course I want to remain intellectually honest as well. At the end of the day, faith in Jesus isn't something that can or needs to be proven: God is a personality, not a phenomenon that would ever surrender to any human theory.

Anyway, as I felt faith wasn't really in my life, it seemed that I needed some kind of a justification for it. I still can't claim that my understanding of myself or the world around is completely coherent with all the things that the Bible says, but God seems to indeed have taken myself somewhere. Many times this week I've found myself humming the chants I learned in Taizé, and they do give a peace.

I think one of the things that got easier was that in Taizé, people seemed less eager to keep faith paradoxal. The Lutheran-evangelical environment where I grew up actually emphasized in some cases that some things can't be understood - and on a level, I agree. Ultimately, faith requires God to work in the one who believes. But this(?) easily becomes a barrier, too, making faith somehow a block of doctrine believers must adopt without questioning. This would be violent, and I don't see God being that.

The trip we made was also featured in spring 2008 in Kirkkosanomat (page 9 - PDF 2,35 MB, in Finnish), a local paper of the Lutheran church, circulated for free in all homes of Tampere.

Mon 2008-01-21 14:43 in diary No comments #link