I may at times complain about our coach. I'm not exactly ecstatic about our goaltending. The power play could use some improving.


And yet, when they do something like winning two games in a row in as many days against a team that was just above them in standings, rising to number two, just four points behind the first place team in the process. Oh, how easy it is to forget everything but the love.

Plus, Salomäki scored on both nights, and our nineties line all together were just rocking it, and I can't even! 

(While on the subject of kids: Kasperi Kapanen, the son of Sami Kapanen scored his first SM-Liiga goal, and played on the same line as his dad. I feel old now.)

Kärpät better not only make the playoffs, but at the very least do a deep push, or I'm going to cry. Or who am I kidding, at this point, anything but the championship will lead to tears. And not the pretty kind either.


The only problem is since I'm a little high on the win, not to mention a very hyper, because of the caffeine I've drank so I'll be able to successfully pull and overnighter, so instead of patiently waiting for a couple more hours until puck drop, I feel like a five year old on sugar high, on christmas eve.

.. I thought about using this time in somewhat productively and writing, for about a half a minute, before deciding that I wouldn't be able to focus on it long enough to come up with anything printable anyway.

 And one of them happens to work at a local theater. Which is how yesterday, I went and saw opera in person for the first time in my life. And I only had to pay one euro for the tickets, since it was a pre- opening night showing. The opera in question was Mozart's The Abduction from the Seraglio, which had been adapted and set to modern day Finland. I'm not in anyway a huge opera fan, but overall it was really fun experience.

Also, since the friend who had gotten us the tickets just had a birthday, we went out afterwards, just to play some pool and hang around. Can't even remember when's the last time I've had so much fun going out.



I keep meaning to write about all the things I'm looking forward about the upcoming NHL season, but then I get distracted by new videos and and articles and putting it off. (For all my complaining in the previous post, I am so very happy that there are once again actual hockey news to read.)

But here are some very jumbled thoughts on it:

A) Teemu Selänne cracking the top 10 career goals scored. Being that he only needs six goals for that, it shouldn't be an overly long wait, thankfully.

B) Granlund's first NHL goal. For everyone's sake I'm really hoping this comes as soon as possible. Saturday's game would be best. And not just because the kid deserves all the good things happening to him, but also because I can already see the way at least portions of Finnish media will make out like he is a bust with no future what so ever, if he hasn't scored by his fifth game. And then I'd be annoyed, because would it kill these people to have some patience! and all in all I'd just rather not.

C) Wild making the playoffs. No reason why they couldn't do it, as long as they stay at least somewhat healthy. Which leads me to..

D) Mikko Koivu having a full, injury-free season. Just, please hockey gods, make it so.

E) Seeing Crosby score and score. And then score some more. By the time I started watching the NHL last spring the Pens were already out of the playoffs. So all I've ever really seen of the wonder child is highlight reels, and while those are all well and good, I can't wait to finally see him in action for real.

and finally

F) Pekka Rinne having a career best, Vezina winning year. Not really holding my breath on this happening (not the Vezina at least), but one can always hope.



Been doodling around with some writing ideas once again. The Carter/Richards Second-trade-never-happened!AU is at a point where I have a complete plot outline for it. I think? I'd just need to decide just how depressing I want the ending to be.

And then there's the Koivu/Granlund fic i should get around to completing, especially now that those two are finally in the same continent and playing for the same team. Mostly my problems with that is, that on one hand, the fic I originally had planned is going to end up loooong, and I get frustrated with it and just want to jump right to the sex. But then on the other hand, every time I try and write any sex scenes with the paring I feel like a creeper, what with Granlund being the Official Little Brother of Finland.. So that's something I need to get over.

While on the subject of Koivu/Granlund, Mikko's first post-lockout interview on WildTV gave me so much feels. Talking about lockout being over and how exited everyone is and how it's good to be getting back to playing hockey? No facial expressions what so ever. Getting asked about Granlund? Instant smile. (Careful now, you're adoration is showing.)
(The vid in question.)

Also, if I've looked correctly, based on the interviews, Kyle Brodziak sits between Mikke and Mikko? Meaning that there should be a fic about how they are constantly hassling each other because of UST, and Brodziak, the innocent by-stander gets caught up in it, until one day he can't take it anymore and lock them in a closet (because locked in closet is a great trope and there can never be too much of it!). And then sex happens. But the hassling doesn't stop, if anything it gets even worse, and Brodziak despairs. Someone, please make this happen!


In not fic related writings, I've been thinking about a Barkov primer, because everyone should love him, and then thought that while I'm at it, I might as well do a primer on baby Finns in general. (And yes, it's because I want to gush about Salomäki, shut up. :D). So if anyone out there has any specific Finnish prospects in mind that they want to know more about, let me know.


Oh right, almost forgot, if there's someone out there lovely enough to to some betaing for me, I'd be so very very grateful. One of the reasons I've been stuck with my writing is that I get overly conscious of all the hang-ups of my second language english and having a beta would really help with that.


Finally, and also on the list of things I almost forgot: a very big welcome to all the new people on my friendslist!

.. Which I sometimes seem to forget.


First things first: I'm BAAAACK.  That is, I have a working computer again, and should once again be able to update at least somewhat regularly. And of course also, yey for NHL getting it's ass in the gear again. Still going to miss Demers though. Why oh why must he play for the Sharks?

Anyhoo, I can't wait to mess up my sleeping patterns by waking up at three am. / staying up until seven am. to watch games, right when I had managed to turn it around to something somewhat normal resembling. But more on the NHL some other day.


Because I went to watch my SM-Liiga team play on Thursday, and I have FEELINGS about the game and I need to get them out. But before I get to the game itself, here's watch been happening with them since I last updated. EVERYONE IS INJURED. That pretty much covers it. If I remember correctly, at the last count, we had I think six or seven forwards out, and as for our defense: since the start of this year we have been able to put six Ds in the roster in idek, one or two games? Rest of the time the whole has been plucked by playing one of our forwards, Joonas Komulainen, who isn't even 170cm in height, so yeah, really tiny, and also did I mention it a fucking FORWARD!

And then they're our goalies. As for them, the situation took a turn for the absurd right before christmas, when our backup got put on IR. Our starter had already been out for almost a month at that time. Meaning that the team didn't have a goalie, expect for a 17 year old junior, who has yet to play a single SM-Liiga game, and a third stringer on loan from the team at the bottom of the standings (who btw, could've gotten called back up by his team, since their start up goalie had been injured as well.)

So I guess you could say, that the last couple of weeks have been somewhat stressful. Luckily, the loaned goalie got to stay with us for as long as we needed him, and both of our own goalies returned to action this week. Still, the amount of bad luck this team has had is really getting out of hand.


But anyway, back to the game on Thursday. My boys won 3-0 after a game of not the worlds most skillful hockey ever. But then again, considering the amount of penalties as special situations in the game, (in total, the teams gathered 59 penalty minutes, 12 of which were for Kärpät.) Of the second period, just five minutes were five-on-five. Mostly the reason for it all being this situation:


Now, as a background, Ohtamaa, the Kärppä player who ends up getting pummeled to the ice, had hit Kantola, the Ilves player doing the pummeling, way back when in October and landed him on IR for more than a month, mostly because of bad luck. This was the first time the two players had met since.

At the time this incident happened the second period had been going on just over two minutes, and Kärpät were up by one. The result of if: Kantola earned himself 2+2+5+20 (hooking and tripping calls, if I remember correctly, a major for the fight, and automatic game misconduct because of it), meaning that his team had were killing off nine minutes of penalties, and were out their number one center. Who, btw, is currently on temporary suspension, while the disciplinary board makes their decision (meaning four or more games, any less and the league disciplinarian would've already ruled on it.) 

The level of stupidness: I'd say even trolls would be capable of more brain functions than Kantola at the time..


But somehow some people managed to be even more stupid.

Including yours truly, the truth be told, because I really should know better than to go anywhere near hockey message boards, when it comes to anything even remotely controversial happening on the ice.

But anyway, I did, and here's the problem I had with the tone of the conversation: a) What kind of crazy person thinks it's reasonable to be asking a person to get up and hit back when they are already down and someone keeps hitting them? Or that taking a defensive posture in that situation (which, btw, is as much about instincts as it anything else) is somehow cowardly?
b) Since when has it been a requirement for players to drop their gloves every single time someone asks them to? Kärpät were already playing with just five Ds, and had Ohtamaa taken Kantola up on the offer, they would've been down to four (and Komu, but let's not go there), since fighting means an automatic game misconduct in any situations in SM-Liiga. And seeing as how the game was 1-0, with 38 minutes left to play, why on earth would've Ohtamaa started fighting then? Or why should he have?

(Then there's the whole issue of how I much I despise the culture of feminizing players or actions that are viewed as non-desirable, and how that one of the biggest problems I have with hockey culture on general, but I'm trying to not get in to that any deeper right now, because if I did, this post would at least double in length.)

But any case, the rest of the game was enjoyable enough - mostly because yey, we won - but at the same time, it was once again a somewhat bittersweet reminder on how much it suck to cheer for a team when you only ever get to see them in away games. Which made me decide, that come playoff time, if Kärpät manage to make it, I'll be making a trip to Oulu to see them play at home, come hell or high water. Sure, it's over three hours in train, one way, and I'll have to spend close to a hundred euros, on just the travel alone, and also, I have no place to stay up there, but somehow, I'm going to make it work.


Also, for something completely different: the Doctor Who Christmas Special was damn near close to perfection and Clara has the potential of becoming the best Companion since Rose. More on that to follow, for now: Is it April yet?


Oh, and plus: I borrowed the Batman: Arkham City from a friend. So far I'm loving it.

Seems like I accidentally ended up taking a mini-hiatus from blogging. Mostly because life got kind of crazy  in a lot of ways. I had a mid to bad depression period and ended up missing school for a month, plus two weeks of sick leave, but now, thanks to some adjustments in my meds and also after re-structuring my life a bit, things are starting to look up a bit again.

I ended up not being able to change school, because the place I would've tried to get in didn't have any spots open, but I'm surprisingly fine with that. I talked things through in my current school, and we worked out a new class schedule for me, so my work load is much smaller until the christmas break, I have Wednesdays off completely and I'm also spending two days a week interning instead of going to school, which is something I've always preferred. Also, the internship place is really nice, it's a kitchen of a local old folks home, the staff is really great and since it's a pretty small place, it isn't super crazy busy all the time.

So assuming I can keep this up, I'd maybe be able to graduate sometime in the next fall, which while not ideal, as I originally it should've been next spring, is still better than what it seemed when things were at their worst. It also helps that I've really gotten a lot of my motivation back, the lack of which was a big factor in why I was struggling with school so much in the first place.

That said, I am planning on re-applying to schools in the spring also. I've already started prepping a little for the entrance exams for uni. I've wanted to study english and literature for so long, that at the very least I need to try and see if I have a shot at making it happen.


Finally, to the very best of things to have happened while I was busy not blogging: KÄRPÄT ARE NUMBER ONE IN SM-LIIGA STANDINGS!!! That hasn't happened since something like 2008! The team has completely transformed from the crap-fest that was the begging of the season to an actual contender. The goaltending has, as unlikely as that seemed just a few months ago, become top notch, and the team is just clicking. They have the least goals against, by a pretty nice margin at that, and are number two in goals scored! At this rate, we might even have a shot at a championship this spring!

And they've done this, even though the team keeps having injury problems. I think at this point, at least three or for players are or have been on IR because of concussions, plus a whole list of other injuries. Honestly, at this point it feels like trying to keep up with whose out with what is a wasted effort.

All of which leads to me continuing to feel conflicted about the lockout. Seeing as for all that I really want to see NHL being played sometime this season, just the thought of losing our lockout NHLers makes me sad. I actually have the confidence in the team, and I think they'd do just fine with out the NHLers, since a lot of other players have been stepping up and improving, and so losing them probably wouldn't lead to an immediate clusterfuck, but there's no denying that they make the team better.

Especially Demers, who I just can not gush enough about. He's just such a huge presence on our blue line, plays 25+ minutes night in, night out, is third in the team in points scored and second in plus/minus. He's arguably the best defenseman in the entire league right now. Not to mention that he seems to like being here, fits well with the team and all the other players always talk about how well liked he is in the locker room. He's even learning finnish!

Aand that's probably enough gushing for now. 

Friend-of-a-friend friending meme of doom! // Right this way!


For starters, welcome to all my lovely new friends, and a warning: I ramble. A lot. Hopefully you'll bare with me. :)


So I may or may not have mentioned this this earlier, but about three years ago, I was diagnosed with bipolar II disorder. I'm much more prone to depression (which, I was diagnosed and hospitalized with for the first time when I was sixteen) and I've never really had a pure manic episodes in my life. Instead I've had quite a few hypomanic episodes, which are basically just a slightly more moderate version of the same. And even more than those, I've had a lot of mixed affective episodes, which is sort of like being manic and depressed at the same time.

Understandably this has caused problems in quite a few areas in my life, one of them being school. I mean when something as simple as getting out of the bed feels like an insurmountable obstacle, going to school day in, day out is sometimes completely impossible. Which has grown into a really huge problem this fall.

I'm on my last year in the school I'm currently at, and if I wanted to be able to graduate this spring, as I should, I not only couldn't miss so much as a one day in school, but I'd also have to work through every holiday break we get between here and then, plus quite a few weekends also.

All this has been piling up and adding to my stress levels, and so for the past month or so, I've been stuck in this ever worsening nightmare, where I'm not going to school because I'm having a depression episode and because I'm not going to school and constantly stressed about it, making my depression even worse.


And then this weekend, I was talking about schools with a friend of mine, and he mentioned the school he went to, and I realized that it's the perfect out of this hellish dead end I've ended up in. See, the school he went to, and to which I have a change of transferring to, is one, that specializes in helping people who have learning impairments for different reasons (for example, the friend who I spoke of it with, has ADHD).

So if I could get in, I could do the same degree I've been working on for two years now, instead of dropping out, or delaying, because I'm on a verge of needing a prolonged sick leave, if nothing changes soon, but do it in a manner and schedule, more suited to my current condition.

Also, if I got the transfer, I'd also get to move cities, a definite plus on so many levels. For one, I'd be moving to Tampere, where most of my friends, and one of my sisters, live and where I'm so much more comfortable than where I currently live. It's also the city where my trans process is happening, so moving would make that so much more easier as well, since I would have to sit in a train for two hours in one direction every time I have an appointment. Plus, I just don't like the city I live at the moment, and have wanted to move away from here for more than a year now, but haven't been able to, because of school.

And just like that, I feel like I'm slowly starting to claw my way back into health once again. Or as close to it as I'm ever going to get.


As for the other stuff mentioned; I'm trying to decide whether or not I should get tickets for the Karjala Tournament played in Turku in a couple of weeks. For those on my flist not familiar with European hockey, the Karjala Tournament is the first part of Euro Hockey Tour, played between Finland, Sweden, Russia and the Czech Republic during the regular season and leading up to the Worlds, which each country hosting a round-robin Tournament. No league games are played during the tournaments.

For the most part the EHT is consider as practice for the Worlds/Olympics, as well as a change for younger players to show the coaching staffs that they deserve a roster spot in their national teams. For one, there has already been some speculation about Barkov (the top Finnish prospect at the next years draft) maybe suiting up for our national men's team for the first time ever, which would be awesome to see.

All in all, it'd be a great change to see team Finland play live, and at a quarter of the cost that waiting for the Worlds in the spring would be. The only problem is that I'm currently pretty much broke, and even the 20 or so euros for the tickets, plus train rides there and back, might mean that I won't have any money for food next month. So.. Food, or hockey?


On the next chapter in my teams goalie situation, wherein everything is starting to get somewhat hilarious. Not only is does our "back-up" goalie have a better save percentage and goals against average (AND more shutouts, not that that's hard since Backlund is yet to record even one) than our "number one", he's also in the league top 3 in all of the previously mentioned categories, where as Backlund isn't even in the top 15 in save percentage, and is something like eight or night in GAA. And they are even in wins, with Karhunen having played in one less game.

So our back-up is better than our number one, but for some reason our couch won't face up to it, officially at least, although it's starting to feel like he does a coin toss or something, before each game to see which one will be playing, and all of it is just so very confusing.


On the plus side, Kärpät have finally started to slowly climb their way back up, after the disaster that was the start of the season, and are now third in the standings, so there's that at least.
Although I am somewhat afraid that should the lockout end, that they'll come crashing down again, since that'd mean losing Demers (who, btw, I've really come to like, but why oh why, is he a fraking Shark), who has been a real difference maker for us, especially on the PP, not to mention Turris, after which, with the current injury list a mile long, we'd be effectively without a first AND second line center. Fun times.

I'm all for NHL coming back, but oh do I ever wish that it wouldn't mean losing Demers. It's not that he's been a great player for us, but I've also really grown to like him and seeing him play with Kärpät.

See this is why managing updates more regularly than twice a month is a good thing; so things that you've been thinking of posting about don't just pile up until you really don't even know where to begin.

I guess saying that I got a letter from the Tampere University Hospital a week ago is as good a place as any. I'll try to make a separate post about it at some point, because Feelings (so far, I've gone from exited to panicked and scared and then back to exited again), but anyway, the point is that after months of waiting, things are finally happening regarding the trans process, and I'll have my first appointment in less than two weeks and then another one in December. I've been waiting so long, that even that much progress makes it feel like everything has at least doubled in speed all of the sudden.

The first one is with a nurse and the second one with a social worker. Besides them, I'll meet with a psychiatric and a psychologist at least once before getting the diagnose. Could be I'm forgetting someone, and I'm pretty sure there's at least two appointments with the nurse and some one else as well. Hopefully that part will be done sometime before the next summer. Fun fact, transsexualism is the only condition diagnosed and treated as a mental disorder which requires the patient to prove themselves as being totally NOT crazy before getting treatment. :p



Bad camera phone quality is bad.

So last Thursday was kind of perfect by all accounts. Not only was it the day of the arrival of the previously mentioned letter, I also went to Tampere that day and me and a friend of mine went to watch one of the local teams host Kärpät. Full disclosure, this was my first time seeing a game life, for all that I've been literally watching hockey for as long as I can remember. (The very first game I have clear memories of watching is the '95 World Championship Final. I was five correction, since I can count for shit, seven, at the time; talk about growing up with unsupported expectations. It took me a really long time to realize that such things are a great novelty, when you cheer for Team Finland.)

So no surprise, my excitement levels were somewhere up there with "five year old on Christmas Eve" levels by the time we got to the rink. And god, I'd really forgotten the smell of freshly laid ice. I mean as far as winter sports in general and especially school went, skating was always my favorite (to be fair, considering the alternative was usually cross country skiing which I loath, it didn't take that much), and it's something I haven't done in years, but now I kind of want to, as soon as the public outdoor rinks open up.

Getting back to the game itself.. IDEK, I really enjoyed the experience and all, it's was a really nice, even game with lots of goals, but Kärpät ended up losing 4-3 on overtime, despite having a two goal lead for a period and a half. Mostly because of absolutely stupid penalties the team started taking from the end of the second period and onwards. In the end, our PK had to work through two five minute majors, and the second one was just too much (having one of our Ds plus our leading point scorer ejected from the game also didn't help).

Also, the game winning goal came with about a half a minute of the overtime left, so I was doubly pissed, because I'd sort of started hoping to see Jokinen in a shootout live. Since, if we couldn't win in in regulation, there should be at least some benefits, dammit.

But all in all, I really did enjoy the game, even if cheering for the away game did feel a bit awkward at times. Mostly because our seats were in the home team's end and so of course we were surrounded by their fans. Good thing hockey fans don't have the tendency of getting into brawls, unlike football, and also it not like it was a rivalry game or anything, so I think mostly people just ignored me for the most part. :D

So, definitely going to see them again the next time Kärpät are playing in Tampere. Too bad that isn't until over a month from now..

In other Kärpät news; Kärpät most certainly do NOT have a goalie problem, part I don't even know anymore: after playing a somewhat nice and solid game on saturday, our number one goalie was pulled out of the line up at the last minute yesterday. (Which, yeay, Kärpät won, but considering they were playing against a team who is yet to won a single game on regulation this season, and is the last in the standings, it doesn't say all that much about their performance.) Like, he was announced as being in the line up when the team skated on ice, late.

Turns out, he'd said he was feeling too dizzy to play, after the warm-ups. Because of TOO LOW BLOOD SUGAR. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't taking care of your diet so that such things wouldn't happen, umm, part of your job perhaps? Isn't avoiding things like this happening the reason you have nutritional plans and shit? I mean what even?

Really want to know who the hell came up with hiring this guy. I mean a Swedish goalie, who used to play for the Flyers. In what kind of twisted mind does that sound like a good idea?


Meanwhile in the real worlds, last weekend was a somewhat spooky/crazy one. I stayed in Tampere until Sunday, and while I was there, my hometown, and especially the nearby areas where hit by record flooding, mostly because of heavy rainfalls. I don't actually live anywhere near where the worst of it hit, and I already knew that, when I read about the whole thing online on Saturday, because the closes source of water is over a kilometer away from here.

But it was somewhat shocking all the same, possibly because it came so left field. I'm originally from way up north, and as far as possible natural catastrophes go, the only thing I've learned to regard as a less likely to ever effect my life in however small way, is an earthquake.

And then to top of it all, when I was heading back home on Sunday, a friend of mine called to say that there's been a fire in my apartment building. Since I'd left the cat home, I really freaked  about that one. Luckily everything was fine, the fire hadn't spread out of the one apartment it had started in, which wasn't anywhere near to mine. Although the cat did demand some extra attention and cuddles when I got home eventually, so I guess she got spooked by the sirens and all that.

I wonder what'll happen this weekend, since I'm not home again for that either..

But not to end this post with such a downer, here's perhaps the best song/music video about queer gender identity ever made:
Plus it's just a great song, in general.

 So way back when I started this blog, I mentioned that I'm starting a female-to-male trans process, and would maybe be writing about it at times. Thought that now would be as good a time as any to make good on that.

Now, since Finland is a socialist country we have a free, public health care, which covers the treatments required for a trans-process. There are two specialized transgender health programs, which treat all the trans-people of Finland, one at the Helsinki University Hospital and one at the Tampere University Hospital. Not surprisingly, that means that actually getting an appointment at either place, doesn't really happen overnight.

For one, you'll need to be referred there by a doctor, any GP will do. In theory, getting one should be easy enough, all you have to do is to go to a doctor, tell them that you identify yourself as a trans, and after asking bunch of questions, mostly related to your basic health, the doctor will write a medical statement and sent it to either policlinic, and then you get notified once they have received it. After that you just wait for them to let you know when the first appointment will be.

In theory at least, and fortunately for me personally that's pretty much how easily that part of it went (my GP said he'd written these statements before also, so he had some idea about how to go about it, even if he did ask some stupid questions), but many trans people will run into their first roadblocks at this point. For one, it's not in any way uncommon for the "patient" to be more informed than the doctor, starting with not knowing where should trans patients be referred to or where to sent the statements. There are doctors who'll try to just send trans people to a psychiatrist, claiming that they are just mentally ill. In some cases a doctor may try to refuse to do anything, which, not something they're allowed to do and would be consider malpractice, but well.. Usually pointing this out will be enough to get the statement out of even the most ignoramus of country doctors.

Point being, that when making the decision of starting the medical portion of the trans process, one really needs to be aware of what their rights are, and what can and can't the doctors ask of them. Fortunately we have a really well organized advocacy group for transgendered and intersexual people, on whose site there is a really good and simple document on all the things one should know when seeking to be referred, so the information is out there.

So now you have gotten referred. You've heard for either the Tampere University Hospital or the Helsinki University Hospital (Tampere is the likelier option for most people, as Helsinki mostly treats just people living on or near the Greater Helsinki area.) The appointment should be any day now, right?
Sadly, not quite so. Centering the care in only two places means that the waiting lists are long. So at this point, one will just have to settle down and wait. And we are talking months here. I was referred to Tampere in May, and beyond getting notified that they had received my file about two weeks after my doctors appointment, I've yet to hear so much as a peak from them. Wasn't really expecting to at least until late August either, but now I'm really getting to the point where checking the mail is a daily exercise in swallowing disappointment. I'm not the most patient person and every day that nothing happens my frustration grows and grows.

Something that at the moment isn't helped at all by two of my friends who started the process about a year earlier than I did. For most part, is really great having close friends who are going through something this huge and life altering about the same time you are, as you really can't get the same kind of support from anywhere else, but right now, with both of them having been on testosterone since spring, and the physical changes caused by that are starting to become really obvious. I just can't help the jealousy when I hear how much lower their voice has gotten or when they speak about spotting the first facial hair. And that just makes me hate my own ugly high voice and baby smooth chin all the more.

Then there's of course my body, which is about as feminine as you can get, what with having big breast and wide hips. Maybe if I could hold any kind of notion that I'd have a change of passing for a man as things are currently, the waiting might be somewhat easier. Or not. At the very least I wouldn't feel the need to start yelling every time I hear myself being spoken about as a woman. (Question for any cis-gendered person reading this, do you ever notice how much that is done. Not just using male or female pronouns, but stuff like speaking about how some one is such a funny gal or awesome guy and such?)

So that's where I am with my process currently. Waiting. The only good thing is, that my waiting really should be coming to and end sometime in the next two months. Finland has had a law since 2005 about guaranteed treatment, which states that all non-urgent medical conditions requiring specialized care, should be started within six months of being discovered. For me the deadline for that will pass in November. Hopefully I won't have to wait quite that long however. Even if it's starting to feel like any waiting is becoming too much.

And that's all for now, since I really need to be sleeping already. I'll try to get around to doing another post soon enough about what'll happen once I actually get the appointment. For now, I'm more than happy to answer any and all questions any one has so feel free to shoot them.

Saw first tv ad for the upcoming season yesterday, yeah! I don't even know why, because with the pre-season having been in full swing for weeks now, it really shouldn't, but it didn't really hit home how soon the season is starting before that. Only like couple of weeks left.

So what better way to celebrate that, than another primer. Here's one on Mikko Koivu, the captain of Minnesota Wilds, and Mikael Granlund, their top prospect.

First off, this was supposed to be a short, quick look on who these two Minnesota Wild players are, and why are they shippy together. Which it still is, except for the short and quick part. But in any case, it's done now, so let's just get right to it, shall we?

As a disclaimer: All pictures were found using the google image search, and I don't own any of them. If you wish to be credited just let me know and it shall happen. The same goes for youtube videos.

( This way to the primer )

So the great thing about being a european hockey fan (besides not having to be so completely and overly worried about a potential lockout) is that it's already almost time for season opener! Less than a month in fact! And the pre-season games have already started!


.. Expect I'm having hard time trying to feel exited about the upcoming season, since my team is continuing doing what they've done for a couple of years already, by which I mean sucking. So far, they've played three games, and lost all of them. Sure it's just the pre-season, but it still isn't very confidence inducing. I mean they had a total of minute and a half worth of 5 on 3 advantage in one game, and couldn't score a single goal in that time, what even! I don't care about how well you're dominating the game, you need to score some goals to win!

Also, their coach continues to be complete ass, who can't admit when the team needs to improve. It was infuriating when he was coaching our national team to not win, and it's infuriating now. I mean focusing on the positive is one thing, but staying stuff like "we had some great presence out there tonight and really gave it our all", when you've just lost 6-0, is just sticking your head in the sand.
And yet, he does so like to find faults in our national teams current head coaches performance, even when the team is winning. Remind me, which one of you was the one to coach the team to it's second ever world championships in his third year of coaching and which was the one you couldn't deliver the same in his five years as the bench boss? Wasn't you? Then shut the hell up.

Why was this guy hired in the first place? I mean it wasn't like he'd just gotten fired by another team, due to them being at the bottom of the standings, prior to coming to work for you? Oh he was.. Well, I guess they were having some financial issues then, that we they to literally scrape the bottom of the barrel. What was that? One of the richest teams in the league? So why the hell do they have such a suck-y coach then?!

Remember the time when we won the championship four times in five years? 'Cause I do. And I'd really, really like to go back to that, instead of maybe barely making it to the playoffs, never mind getting past the first round..

On other news, I'm thiiis close to finishing the Finnish Hockey Primer. Sorry it's been taking so long, my summer ended up being a lot busier than I had planned, and as such I haven't have all that much time to work on it. But I am hoping to send it of for beta reading by tomorrow night.

First off, to any and all, who ever consider taking a cat: DO NOT TO IT, they are horrible creatures, WHO WILL DESTROY YOUR LIFE. That is to say, I've been without a computer pretty much this whole week now, since the demon pretending to be cute and innocent little pet that is my cat took it upon herself to once again eat through my laptop's power chord. In the two years that she's been with me, that's like fourth or fifth one now. What with replacing one costing around 80€, you can probably imagine how very not pleased with it I was. Not to even mention all the headphones and phone rechargers that have become victims of the same.


Also, the month and a half vacation that I was planning to have got cut short, when after three days of it, the temp agency where I'm listed called and offered me a yet another cleaner job. And okay, it's only two to three hours a day, and I get payed for four hours of work, because that's the minimum amount that the agency will let their employees work for, but I hate it already, and because it's a night time job in just two days my sleep patterns have gone to shit, and I really could've just said no. But of course I didn't because saying no when someone's offering work is just not something you do, because that might mean you never get offered again.

Also, it might be a high time to admit to at least some levels of workaholism.