rants

Whatever’s been shitting me.

Fuck all of you cunts

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3

From MSN:

redknob says (10:55 PM):
now that we have youtube we get all these egocentric, vapid, useless people coming out of the woodwork
bringing no message apart from their arrogance
polluting the internet, minds and the airwaves
and it just continues in a cycle of stupidity
i fucking hate it
marika says (10:56 PM):
but whatabout this redhead guy
redknob says (10:56 PM):
the good side is that good videos come out
marika says (10:56 PM):
young guy
redknob says (10:56 PM):
people with ideas or somethign to say
or videos from interesting places
or current events
and that’s what makes it a good site
but all this stupid camera whoring and self worship and random, vapid, intelligence-insulting shit
makes me want to punch things
:|
redknob says (10:57 PM):
especially these 2 people sitting on the couch in front of me dry humping
and face raping each other
marika says (10:57 PM):
poor ollie
marika says (10:58 PM):
how will look internet in 15 years
redknob says (10:58 PM):
same as now
98% crap
99% crap actually
or more
ugly
attention seeking
polluting decent commentary and messages
marika says (10:58 PM):
jajah
redknob says (10:58 PM):
just with better graphics
and more interactive

Prove me wrong.

JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJesus

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Bloody hell. Just had the most bizarre/tiring/fucked up day in a long time.

Woke up with a hangover. Early. I don’t remember much of it.

Eventually I started cleaning the whole building, top to bottom, except for the basement of course. In the meantime we had our new industrial strength dryer delivered. Tim and I heaved it up to the top floor and took the smaller old one back downstairs.

Unfortunately the dryer needed its own special high voltage wall connection. We asked about it before we bought it but Hugo and I could have sworn that they said no. So, we called an electrician.

Of course, none of these handymen can speak English, so I had to get Renata to converse in Russian whenever I could find her, otherwise I tried my bad Estonian (and probably just made things more confusing).

Dryer man left because he couldn’t do anything until the electrical socket was ready, so electricity man came and started working but then he had to leave because he needed some other equipment. Dryer man came back and didn’t understand why things weren’t finished. Eventually it all got sorted out and off we went.

In the meantime I was trying to set up our new Internet and digital TV connection. Everything went along rosy until I discovered a problem with the actual Internet link. The DSL line was working fine but no matter what I tried it wouldn’t connect to the Internet. A few phone calls to the telecom revealed that basically they’d fucked everything up and it should be ready now within 2 hours.

3 hours later and it was still fucked and everyone in the hostel was quietly pissed off at not being able to browse Facebook. I called again, this time directly to tech support and they said they could see the problem but needed the system administrator to fix it, but since it was already 7pm he wouldn’t be back until the morning. Great.

I reconnected the old router and got back online, that made people happy. All I wanted to do was sleep but Renata had beaten me to it, so I started doing laundry. Boy, oh boy does this dryer do its job. It was pounding through loads of laundry like a dream. I was quietly content, even though I’d been running around like a maniac all day. I had to drink a few small ciders for the sugar rush and energy kick to keep me awake, but I was doing ok.

Jason came over and made a really fucking good spicy pasta, which helped somewhat. The evening was rolling in and people were enjoying themselves, lounging around the common room. We even put a movie on for the first time in ages and some guys decided to order a home-delivered pizza. Top stuff.

Then, at 10:30pm, all the power cut out. Completely.

No worries, I thought. Let’s check out the switches! It happens now and then. Huh? They were all up. What’s going on? Maybe it’s the block or something. Nope, all the neighbours have lights. Even the shop below us…

Well. What to do? We brought out some candles (4 small ones) and I gave out some beers to people. We tried calling some different folks but basically it was too late for the caretaker to do anything, or want to. Even the 24hr service companies couldn’t work out what was wrong.

The guests didn’t seem to mind too much. The only real problem was that there were no lights in the toilets, so that’s where the candles had to go. Unfortunately the candles only really lasted about 2 hours. Never mind.

The pizzas got delivered and the people who ordered them got into a nice argument with the delivery guy. They didn’t realise that the delivery service was a separate fee, which was actually more expensive than the pizzas themselves. This was about the same time I realised that the door bell didn’t work without electricity, so there was no way of knowing who was trying to come inside unless you could hear them knocking.

I love night shift.

I sat up until 2:30 AM on the front step with a blanket, so I could open the door for people when they came back from wherever they were. I was planning on staying there until 7 AM or so, when Renata was meant to get up. Unfortunately it began to rain and I was feeling exhausted and quite stiff. I think I’m getting sick. I decided to head inside and try to sleep on the staircase near the doorway. I even had the brilliant idea of propping a broom up against the door handle and resting it against the wall above my head, so whenever someone tried to open the door it would fall down on me to wake me up. It worked.

By 6 AM I figured most people must be back, so I put a sign up saying reception is closed until 9 AM unless you knock on the window on the other side of the street. Yep, I slept in the window sill after that. With the blinds open so people could see me. That was a bit awkward but remarkably comfortable.

All of a sudden, it was 9 AM and the lights flicked on. Woohoo! Raivo the caretaker had done something magical to fix it. It turns out the dryer was sucking too much power and didn’t like being on the same power line as the sauna, or something. So, we need a separate line just for the dryer. That’s fine and all, but we can’t actually use it until then. 2000 euros of metal and we can’t do anything with it. Hmm.

Now I’m awake and I’m alive and the telecom company still hasnt’ fixed the fucking problem. I’m gonna call them again now.

Thanks for listening.

Summer days, drifting away

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Yep. Nothing but cold wind and rain now. Bugger.

Well, at least I’m not sweating any more.

I’ve spent the last few weeks drinking on and off. Listening to Jason and his interesting stories. Apparently he’s coming back in February. He reminds me a bit of Luke. Sort of. Maybe that’s insulting to both of them? Ha.

We also built a funny little bar. I run it. And fund it. I’m sure people are sick of me charging them for drinks, but fuck it, Rimi is open until 10. :)

The bar has become my own little cave. It’s quite cool, since we made it out of a bunk bed. I just fold a mattress out to sleep underneath it. I like it. I even get a window above me to blow some nice fresh air in. Life is pretty good.

Still, winter will be fun. I think. I hope. At least then we will all get beds. Huzzah! I hope.

Hugo wants to open another building just outside old town. I can’t remember if I mentioned that before. It’s not a bad place but needs to be built up. We’ll see if it comes about, though. At least it’s near dirty burger if anyone gets hungry. Apparently there’s a 24hr shop near it too, but I’ve never actually been to it.

So, Suvi came to visit. I’m sure she wasn’t as impressed this summer as last year. I don’t think anyone was, actually. Too much work and no fucking beds. Yeah.

The other day some muso cunt tried to force his way into the hostel with some friends so they could come up and play some “live music”. I said no thanks I’m not interested. We then started arguing about why they shouldn’t come in and why I wasn’t interested in some “alternative” culture. Considering how every single “trendy” musician seems the fucking same to me, I wasn’t impressed. I told him I’m alternative enough, thanks. He told me that if that’s my attitude, I’m definitely not. Wanker. It was good to piss him off, though.

Gym’s coming along nicely. I have to pay Tim back some cash, he bought some mint-chocolate flavoured protein powder, or whey powder or something. It tastes fucking good. I could mix it on my cornflakes.

Soon I will shave off my beard again and only leave a moustache. Soon.

Speaking of soon. Dexter!

Mental

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The cops just came down our street with a megaphone telling everyone in front of Levist to bugger off. I haven’t seen that before. Awesome. It’s crazy out there.

It was crazy in here too, with some fine gents bringing two very attractive women (definitely too attractive, clean and well dressed for anyone sleeping in a dorm) back at 5 AM. They could have gotten away with it if they weren’t stupid enough to storm in and wake me up while I was sleeping on the couch (that wasn’t meant to sound like Scooby Doo, honestly). I had to chase them up the stairs and kick them out, after they lied saying that they were staying here. Yeah, right. Not with those shoes, lady.

Last night another fine gent (why are they always British? Oh, I think I know…) decided to keep me awake with his friend for a few hours in the early morning before passing out on the couch. That wouldn’t have been so bad if he didn’t then lean over and vomit all over the floor, again waking me up. I think I’m sleeping on an unlucky couch or something. It’s always uncomfortable and every time I lie down on it something goes to shit.

I haven’t bothered uploading any photos of my hair yet. Fuck it. There are some and they will come, but not for a bit.

The Viljandi folk festival was very cool. I took a 4 day pass and bought Marika one for her birthday, too. Lots of us went together and most of us camped outside, some at the grounds and some at Kea’s house a bit out from the centre.

The weather was perfect and my wallet became empty very quickly. It took me 3 days to recover from my trip to the gym the morning that we left. I could barely sit down or move I was so stiff and sore. At least if I can survive sleeping in a tent with a body that sore I know I should be able to cope as an old man.

Overall it was good fun! I did miss the old free stage, though. It’s pretty clear they want to stop all the drunk, poor kiddies from fart-arsing around and leaving garbage everywhere. Rumour has it that there won’t even be any alcohol served next year.

We decided to stay until Monday and then Pilly and I would take the train back. Sunday night was our big barbecue night and somehow I ended up having to take care of most of it. How impressive. The next day everyone else hitchhiked or took the bus in impatience, apart from Eagle 8. We met her by chance at the train station and she gave us some wine, so we vegged out on the couch until we pulled into town 2 and a half hours later.

Since I got back it’s been pretty good here. I even saw Wanted and the new Batman, The Dark Knight. One is better than the other, so clearly Morgan Freeman isn’t the difference. They’re both good in their own ways, too. Still, Batman is very over-hyped but it’s mostly coherent, Wanted is just cool to watch but the story is… well, even for a stylised comic book action movie it doesn’t make sense.

I have a big happy belly from all the festival food. Oops. Gym tomorrow, if I can stay awake.

Teary corner

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We’ve been getting so many mixed reviews at the moment that it’s doing my head in. To make it worse, people staying here that I know have had a blast aren’t leaving reviews, so it makes things even worse. I’m not sure what I’m meant to do to fix it, either.

It feels fucking hard for me, at the moment. There probably isn’t much anyone can do about it, though.

Unfortunately it just seems to be one of those times where I’ve got plenty of shit on my mind and only a fraction of them are positive.

So, instead, let’s talk about the new Incredible Hulk movie. It’s good. Very different to the first movie (which I actually enjoyed) and overall it did a great fan service with its little nods and winks to readers of the comics. The Avengers tie-in, similar to Iron Man also helped develop a decent bit of saliva. The only thing I didn’t like was Hulk’s lack of strength increase in proportion to his rage, although I realise it probably would have fucked up the plot if it occurred.

I’ve been on a bit of a revived comic binge of late, due to all these lovely movies coming out. I could list them off, but no one would give a shit.

After months of deliberation I finally picked up a few blank DVDs in order to boost up our movie selection. People probably won’t want to watch some of the movies I’ve picked up, but fuck them. I made a crowd pleasing one, kind of. Well, I will. Or something.

So, I watched True Romance (I can’t believe I hadn’t seen it before, although I did know of it. Alabama reminds me too much of Marika, whether or that’s a good or bad thing I don’t know), The Prestige (ok but I believe it to be very overrated), Raging Bull (I’m sure it had more of an impact when it was created, but it just reminded me of Rocky with better acting and worse fights), Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs (cute but still has nothing on the show). I still haven’t put on Arrested Development yet. Fuck, no one’s even seen it. Jesus.

Before anyone jumps in on it, yes, I got the movies. I guess I just get more critical about dramas or character-driven plots or something because I don’t actually care too much about other peoples problems. It’s just a simple lack of sympathy and empathy. Tough shit. I’ve got enough to worry about without having to get emotionally involved with fictional characters for 2 hours.

I’m meant to get up soon. I don’t want to. Waah.

Bob Dylan – more boring to be him or watch him?

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Yes, I saw Bob Dylan play last night at the Saku Suurhall. I saw his left side. Yep. He faced the band for the entire concert. At least the band looked at the crowd. He didn’t acknowledge the audience at all, not even a hello. After 2 hours of slurring and rambling indecipherable lyrics of dramatically re-arranged old songs he simply announced the name of his bandmembers, took a bow with them and then left the stage without so much as a goodbye.

Ok, fine, so I understand that it would be pretty tiresome to continually perform the same songs for 50-odd years. It’d be even harder to remain enthusiastic about it. What shits me is that he’s a prick. Perhaps he’s always been like that. Whatever.

The music sounded good, I have to say. The band was fine and all. Too bad no one understood anything he said all night. The general consensus of all the people I went with was “underwhelming”.

I admit, I’m not the greatest Bob Dylan fan. I only really wanted to go because I wanted to see him before he died and I figured doing it over here would be fun in itself. Sure, I’m glad overall that I did it. It just wasn’t awe-inspiring.

Lou Reed is coming here soon as well. I was considering seeing him as well since he’s probably gonna kick the bucket soon. Meh. He can’t be much better.

Actually, seeing bands live is really shit unless you’re a bona fide, die-hard fan. At least in my experiences. Maybe I’m just not a big live music person, but I always get bored and start falling asleep. Maybe it’s to do with not always being up the front, close to the stage. No, I think I have to be a fan of the music and up the front in order to stay awake and wholly enjoy the music.

Fucktronics

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It’s been over 5 weeks and my iPod still hasn’t returned. I called for the third time yesterday and finally found out that Apple’s “repair policy” (the headphone jack is a bit faulty, but otherwise works fine) is to simply replace the entire iPod without transferring the data, as that’s “not under warranty”. Cunts. It’s not so bad, as I like starting fresh, but the main annoyance is that Apple still hasn’t sent the replacement one to the repair service.

To make it more annoying, I spilt beer on my keyboard a few days ago and thought I’d buggered it up completely. If I’d only waited longer before I pulled the machine apart I probably wouldn’t have damaged my E key, which now is a bit sticky and temperamental. Although, it was an informative lesson in laptop deconstruction.

Actually, I would have done the same with my iPod if I’d had a replacement headphone connector. There are videos online showing how to do it in under 5 minutes. :(

Some good news in the world of geek interests: I upgraded to WordPress 2.5. So far, so good. I also tried out the new Firefox 3 Beta 5. It didn’t seem to different to use, from a browsing sense, but I’m sure it’s juicy and fun in many other as-yet-unused-by-me aspects.

We have some new country-girl Estonians volunteering here now, from Raapina. Apparently it’s tiny. Awesome. There’s another young one starting on the weekend, too. It’s nice to get some more locals around.

More hostel news: we’re expanding into Müürivahe street for summer. Looks like Tim is going to be running it. It should be up and running by the end of the month. It’s exciting, but it also means we’re gonna have to build more fucking beds. It also means I’m going to have to set up more fucking PCs and wireless networks, I’m sure.

My cooking isn’t really progressing. I have been experimenting here and there, but not having my own kitchen and only usually having 1 person to cook for is holding me back, I think. The trouble is that I don’t want to cook for a big group, yet. I probably should just bite the bullet.

I did make a funny creamy chicken pasta with garlic sauce. Wasn’t bad. I tried baking bananas filled with chocolate but it didn’t work. I tried twice, anyway.

By the way, I’m trying to take a few weeks off playing foosball. I’ve lost my edge.

That is all.

P.S. Marika.

Juno is shitty and beyond overrated

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Really. It is. Why are so many people so far up its arse?

Apparently these are the only reviewers with any sort of sense.

Sure, it had funny parts but it really does try too hard. Read the reviews above, they sum up what I think.

Also, while I’m on it, I Am Legend was actually decent until the fucking woman and kid turned up, even if it did drift a mile from the book of the same name (which I enjoyed, by the way).

Lastly, Starship Troopers (the book) was interesting, if somewhat hollow. Bugger the movie.

Yes, I do read!

Getting by

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Waiting for people to come and pick up their bags has to be my pet peeve with this place. A close second is waiting for people to arrive.

Sure, I should just get someone to come down and hang around while I go off and do things. It’s not hard, I know. I would have if I wasn’t already still here around the time these people are meant to be back, so now I’m just going to wait.

Actually, I just want to have a fucking shower. I can’t though because I won’t hear the door bell go off and no one will be able to let them in. I should give people a different set of keys for them to get back inside and pick up their bags. Normally I just let them take their room keys and drop them off after they return, but these guys left them here. Great. They’re only 90 minutes late and there’s meant to be people coming here directly at 7pm. It’s 4:21pm now.

Today’s lowlight so far? Scrubbing a steamy, sloppy, post alcohol turd off the inside of the toilet bowl. At least I didn’t have to unblock it by hand. My other major dilemma for today is that it appears one of the pillow slips has gone missing. That’s not only odd, it’s annoying. Fuck it, I won’t have to care in a little over a week.

I’m also meant to be meeting up with Livijus today to work out what’s happening with his website. Basically he just needs to pay for a web host and domain and I can do the rest. I’m sure he’ll have other things to say, though.

At the end of the month I’m getting out of here for a while. I’m going to meet up with Emily in Finland for a bit, then we’ll go travelling together until mid June. That’s the plan, at least. We’re working things out, which is good. Em’s been staying at Heli’s parent’s place this last week but apparently she’s heading to Savonlinna again for the weekend. Happy times.

I have to pull my finger out and sort out my driver’s license and apply for some jobs in the UK. Finland’s not on the cards at the moment as it’s looking too difficult and frustrating to arrange visas, look for jobs and find a reasonably priced apartment in Helsinki. Maybe next year. We’ll see.

I’m even feeling like getting my hair cut. What’s happening here? Am I winding down my hippy behaviour? Am I tiring of my bohemian, hedonistic lifestyle? Am I already at the age where I want to cash in to a proper career path and start considering bank loans and first mortgages? Crikey.

Well, maybe just for a little while. There’s still plenty of other countries I’d like to see for now and I really want to hit up Russia on my way home, whenever that may be.

Woohoo, these people have picked up their bags. Finally, a chance to shower.