Independence Day
6 Dec 2018 13:49![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
extrapenguinPaljon onnea vaan
Paljon onnea vaan
Paljon onnea, Suomi!
Paljon onnea vaan
I'm baking a cake using this recipe. I have the day off, like everyone else, and I'll have my cake then eat it too. With some tea, because I am a paragon of Finnishness*. There are lots of traditional Finnish things (watching Linnan juhlat, where the president shakes hands with fancily-dressed important people for 4 hours, watching Tuntematon sotilas on the TV) that I have no interest in doing, since I hate audiovisual things and as with pretty much everything, Tuntematon sotilas is better as a book than as a movie.
Not five minutes ago, I took the cake out of the oven (note: I doubled the size from the recipe, and it took 50 min to bake) only to discover I have no chocolate in the house. Thankfully the stores are now open on Independence Day, which is a huge change from even five years ago – stores used to close earlier in the evening (21:00 vs 22:00), and nothing was open on bank holidays. As someone used to that state of affairs, the current 24/7 always on, always open state is baffling. Same for stuff like Halloween and Black Friday – the latter especially was Not A Thing even very recently. Ah, the scent of American cultural imperialism in the morning. (Can we band together to banish it all?) I grew up being othered here in Finland, but on the internet, I have discovered my true nationality and categorization: Not An American Dammit. So I celebrate at least some of the Finnish things in a way perhaps mistakeable for the Finnish one from a great distance, since what else do I have? (My relationship with identity and such is complicated.) At least Finland is a nice place to live, and I'm glad to be able to live here and affect things.
In more general blarghpost stuff,conuly has a nice link roundup post about the Tumblr exodus and how to adapt to DW. flamebyrd (of a number of very useful AO3 bookmarklets) has offered to make DW browser tools. I backed up my Tumblr(s) using the Python scripts of tumblr-utils mentioned in this Tumblr post. For those of you who know me from elsewhere, I'm about to go through any recent meta I posted onto Tumblr but not here (ex: chapter recaps to Heaven Official's Blessing) and crosspost over the next weeks/months, whenever there's a lull in "new" stuff I'm posting.
* For those not in the know, Finns only drink coffee, and lots of it. On one memorable occasion, when I said I didn't like coffee/only liked tea, the reaction was "and they let you keep your citizenship????"
Paljon onnea vaan
Paljon onnea, Suomi!
Paljon onnea vaan
I'm baking a cake using this recipe. I have the day off, like everyone else, and I'll have my cake then eat it too. With some tea, because I am a paragon of Finnishness*. There are lots of traditional Finnish things (watching Linnan juhlat, where the president shakes hands with fancily-dressed important people for 4 hours, watching Tuntematon sotilas on the TV) that I have no interest in doing, since I hate audiovisual things and as with pretty much everything, Tuntematon sotilas is better as a book than as a movie.
Not five minutes ago, I took the cake out of the oven (note: I doubled the size from the recipe, and it took 50 min to bake) only to discover I have no chocolate in the house. Thankfully the stores are now open on Independence Day, which is a huge change from even five years ago – stores used to close earlier in the evening (21:00 vs 22:00), and nothing was open on bank holidays. As someone used to that state of affairs, the current 24/7 always on, always open state is baffling. Same for stuff like Halloween and Black Friday – the latter especially was Not A Thing even very recently. Ah, the scent of American cultural imperialism in the morning. (Can we band together to banish it all?) I grew up being othered here in Finland, but on the internet, I have discovered my true nationality and categorization: Not An American Dammit. So I celebrate at least some of the Finnish things in a way perhaps mistakeable for the Finnish one from a great distance, since what else do I have? (My relationship with identity and such is complicated.) At least Finland is a nice place to live, and I'm glad to be able to live here and affect things.
In more general blarghpost stuff,
conuly has a nice link roundup post about the Tumblr exodus and how to adapt to DW. flamebyrd (of a number of very useful AO3 bookmarklets) has offered to make DW browser tools. I backed up my Tumblr(s) using the Python scripts of tumblr-utils mentioned in this Tumblr post. For those of you who know me from elsewhere, I'm about to go through any recent meta I posted onto Tumblr but not here (ex: chapter recaps to Heaven Official's Blessing) and crosspost over the next weeks/months, whenever there's a lull in "new" stuff I'm posting.* For those not in the know, Finns only drink coffee, and lots of it. On one memorable occasion, when I said I didn't like coffee/only liked tea, the reaction was "and they let you keep your citizenship????"
no subject
Date: 2018-12-06 13:28 (UTC)which was easy because I have no money to spend anyway. The only way I accept Black Friday is if Europeans dedicate it to remembering the genocides perpetrated by some of our ancestors in Northern America. :)I'm a cliche Finn and will watch the tv broadcast and eat traditional baked goods (pullaa & tähtitorttuja) and stay mad at the neonazi demonstration and their enablers.
"and they let you keep your citizenship????"
Ahhh, gotta love that original joke. Signed, a coffee AND tea drinker.
..sorry this turned out quite a negative first comment. :D I hope your cake turns out delicious!
no subject
Date: 2018-12-06 14:33 (UTC)which was easy because I have no money to spend anyway.Ha, me too! Turning Black Friday into a genocide remembrace day sounds delightfully passive-aggressive; I'm all for it.
My cake, well. It's a cake! In my typical way, I forgot that my current oven is super underpowered, and discovered that it's still a bit raw – while cutting the top and bottom. It's very crumbly, but since it contains no eggs, it's OK to eat. I poured 70% chocolate on it and splatted on some Egyptian strawberries to make it look festive. Once the chocolate sets a bit, I'll cut into it and eat cake! (It is a very Finnish cake, perched atop an Iittala glass plate that is almost big enough for it.)
no subject
Date: 2018-12-06 16:45 (UTC)I made a cake today too and am not doing any traditional independece day things (confession: I have never seen or read Tuntematon sotilas)
no subject
Date: 2018-12-06 17:17 (UTC)I read the book, and shortly afterwards was shown the traditional film version. I think it lost a lot in the adaptation; the film is very much "yay war heroes" while the book is more of the anti-war persuasion, albeit not All Quiet on the Western Front. Additionally, since I have what is best termed "face nearsightedness", the actors were indistinguishable, what with their identical haircuts and uniforms. Also, the book was very clearly written by a socialist; the film is more in support of the traditional institutions of power.
no subject
Date: 2018-12-06 20:05 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-06 21:11 (UTC)We did spend a lot of time covering WWII, but ... not that much. We basically covered it twice, once for the rest of the world, once for Finland, but thankfully my teachers at least believed in life after WWII and covered the Cold War etc as well.
no subject
Date: 2018-12-06 21:05 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-06 21:11 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-06 23:57 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-10 11:50 (UTC)The reason I commented here instead of that post is because Not An American Dammit is the most accurate thing ever. :D
Anyway, I'll subscribe to you if you don't mind. (I'm not really into celebrating Independece Day, but still, hyvää myöhästynyttä itsenäisyyspäivää, Suomi!)
no subject
Date: 2018-12-10 12:02 (UTC)Lol yeah, "Not An American Dammit" is a rather encompassing and strong identity for us non-Americans on the Anglophone internet.