Guilty of stereotyping?

All of us probably are at some point. But it's never too late to stop doing that.
Regardles of skin colour, religious convictions, family relations, gender, medical history, body shape, hobbies, home country... yup, we're all just people:

Family

My gran turned 85 this past Tuesday. Because it was Tuesday, there was no celebrating. Tuesdays are like that.
Instead we celebrated yesterday.



Family gatherings are by nature a mixed bag. You don't get to pick your family. You can divorce one and you can choose to not have anything to do with them, but going by pure biology, family members are the ones that are the least likely to eat you alive. Which is nice.
And in spite of all the differences in methods of communication between us (or lack of methods), there is a lot of love in my family. And I'll be forever grateful for that.

So Happy birthday, Grandma! Hope to see you again before you turn 90!


Oh, and the saunas and the nature were rawking. You don't get to wash your face in pure lake-water, sitting at the end of a pier too often. Quiet lake with a family of swans swimming around at the other side of the lake is definitely a good way to start the day.

Where to put your money

I'm not a huge fan of blindly donating money for any cause. Not because I don't think you should, but because there are a lot, and I do mean A LOT, of organizations of all different shapes and sizes for causes great and small which can make it downright confusing to both find information on how legitimate an organization is far as actually doing any charity and spending the money you give them AND because on occasion, the need to help overrides planning the means to help. That is, you would want to help, but you're not sure how and a bunch of other people also had that same want and lack of how, so they came up with a charity that sounded like it was addressing an issue, but instead ends up creating a situation where the help actually holds back improvement on the problem it's supposed to be helping with.
It happens. Mostly by accident.
And we're easily attracted by methods of helping that involve NOT donating our time directly. I'm not pointing any fingers but let's just say that there are a whole lot of companies that make a big profit out of selling pink consumer goods.

However, sometimes there are organizations that do benefit mostly out of people donating money to them AND wearing lil bracelets to make the cause more known. I got my lil bracelet in the mail today. I've felt unreasonably proud wearing it all day.
Why do I like This Star Wont Go Out foundation? Mostly because it acknowledges how connected we are on a different level to most any other organization I've come across. Our lives are not singularly our own. Our mere existence affects SO many other people on a daily basis without any particular effort and TSWGO foundation was created just for that. You can read more about the organization here and in case you want to donate by getting a bracelet yourself, you can get one here. 100% of the proceeds (minus shipping costs) go directly to the foundation.

And now that you're on a roll doing good with your moneys, you should also check out KIVA. I might have linked to them before, but I'll link here again because they're just the sort of thing that actually helps build a healthy infrastructure without neverending monetary dependency to "wealthy, donating countries". KIVA provides small businesses with community funded microloans. What that means is if you're a person in a poor country and you'd want to set up a business or expand on an existing on, you can apply for a loan through KIVA. The loans are always comparatively small. The loan application goes up on the KIVA website where you, the person who wants to support equal distribution of wealth across the globe, can contribute towards funding their loan. That is, you can lend them money. The operative word being "lend". 98% of all loans made to small businesses and individuals through KIVA are paid back in full. To find out more about KIVA and/or contribute, click here.

And now I have to get back to doodling. Amma write about the Helsinki Night of Arts later.
Oh and apparently we're going to have one more Restaurant Day this year. It might just turn out to be a very good year. :)

This thing is happening here right now. Acorns. Damn trees.

You break it, you will reuse it

I can't remember if I mentioned this before, but I kind of broke our electric kettle. Totally not a big deal in a household of 3 people who all exist on coffee/tea.
Ok, it was a slightly big deal.
But in my defence, the kettle did smell of burning rubber (or "hot fudge" depending on which one of us you're asking) before I actually "broke it" and I broke it trying to wash the insides clean.

I was not aware that the method of cleaning the insides of electric kettles these days involves not touching the inside. My bad.
So instead of just smelling like burnt crude oil products (or hot fudge), it stopped blinking lights and boiling water alltogether.
Today we put the ex-kettle to use.
Behold the Kettle-Vase!




On an unrelated note, today was yet another Helsinki Restaurant Day: a public event sort of thing that anyone can participate in by setting up a booth/small shop on the street and selling food in it. This is at least the second time they've had this event this year. Maybe one more before the weather starts to suck wet testicles? I was instructed to go visit Mesa Criolla-tent for some Latin American foods. So I did.
And it was pretty awesome.

Boys serving goods.


Kidney beans!


Plate of rice, veggies, chicken and beans. And some tamarind juice. Tamarinade?


More of this sort of thing, me thinks.

Cats and hipster lambs

This is my toiletpaper. For real. This is my actual toiletpaper: it has an eyeware sporting hipster lamb on the package and bunch of "ironic" (or inspirational, I haven't yet wiped my behind with it, so I don't really know the full context) text written on the sheets.
I'm at a loss.

And obviously this stupidest marketing ploy of all time is incredibly effective, because I bought the damn toiletpaper.
Woe is me.

On a slightly unrelated note, I wanted to introduce a few hep cats from the shelter I've been volunteering at, to the world.
Afrodita:



Eetu The Big Boned



Kittens 1 through 5



Yes, the kittens are adorable. Unlike the 2 little geographically confused butthole ones I was working with today. They'd managed to unscrew a vent in the wall of their coop and take a dump in it.
How does one do that without opposable thumbs - the screwing, obviously not the dumping - is beyond me.
Pets rawk.