Frankie reads 2013

[frankie]

x

XD, well sometimes I ask for practical gifts too so I understand. I don't mind the element of surprise much, I don't like most surprises, so as long as there's a few gifts in there that I don't know about, I'm fine with knowing some of the other gifts. (EDIT: Also, knowing what you get but not knowing 100% what it looks like IRL is a bit different too).

 

I suppose asking for practical gifts is okay if there are a few surprises there as well Only I've noticed that the older I become, the less I have to ask   Mum's knitted woolly socks I want every Christmas for sure, and I don't mind a book, too, but otherwise the Christmas pressies aren't as important as they were when I was younger The food's more important nowadays

 

 

For me and my boyfriend, we were friends for about 4+ years when I fell in love with him. I've never started a relationship in which I wasn't friends with the person first, I guess that might be how it works for me. We were friends for a long time, we met up quite a few times over the years, he was here, I went there, we also talked a lot via IM (I used to use it a lot, not so much these days). During most of this time I was with my ex. I broke up with my ex after I realised he's a selfish jerk and what-not. Some time after that, my boyfriend (then my friend) told me that he liked me as more than a friend. I wasn't too sure at first, but then I met up with him and fell in love. During this meet up, my ex was there too (since when we made the appointment I thought I could stay friends with my ex, this was before I realised how angry I was at him). So, during this meet up, I was with one person who wanted me back (my ex) and one person who wanted me (my boyfriend). I also was having some confusing feelings regarding something else. After the meet up, my boyfriend (at the time my friend) and I decided to meet up again soon after, and I took some time to think about things. Then I realised what I felt for my boyfriend was much more than friendship and so I told him I wanted to give our relationship a chance. It's the best decision I've made in my life, I think. From the moment I decided that, I was very happy. When we met up, it was a week / few days filled with happiness. I love him so very much (as you can probably tell from this story XD).

 

I'm curious, where did you two 'meet' online, what kind of a forum was it? If it's too personal, you don't have to answer, of course That's a long time knowing someone online! And when you're not talking to someone to 'get in their pants' but just to make friends, I think talking online is a pretty great way to get to know someone. I think one's more likely to open up more and earlier on, than if it happened in 'real life'.

 

I'm glad you realised that your then boyfriend was not deserving of you. You deserve far, far better!    I can't imagine, though, what it must've been like when your now BF told you he had developed stronger feelings for you and wanted more. You must've been pretty confused! I'm happy you decided to give your then friend a chance, and that you are now happily together From what you've said about him on other threads, he seems like a perfect fit for you

 

I think I'm like you in that respect that I would rather have something more develop out of a friendship. I'm really not a 'dating woman'. I feel awkward about going on dates and I hate the idea of feeling like I have to make a good impression. I get nervous and I might even start to babble and I give the wrong impression. 

 

 

Awww bless her Alan and I did some carol singing at an old people's home (as part of the local community) and some of them asked us what school we went to  .. then Alan was chatting to a lady and telling her he was putting up his Christmas tree the next day and she said 'what? .. in summer?' Bless them they were happy to be away with the fairies .. I hope they were anyway.

 

Awww, sweet people I also like to think that they are happy in their way. You put it very well, 'to be away with the fairies...' I like that.

 

I was just on the phone with Dad, it's his Birthday today so I called him and while we were talking, I asked him if he had met the cross country skiing woman again. He said that as a matter of fact, the woman is 92 years old, and she had her Birthday yesterday! So she's exactly 30 years and 1 day older than Dad. He said that the people at the home for the elderly had gathered around to sing Happy Birthday to her, even Dad and his work mates joined them (Dad likes to sing and I think he has a very decent voice) Then they'd had cake, and then the lady had taken up the whole couch and decided to take a nap during all the festivities Good on her! It's her Birthday and she can do as she likes

 

[frankie]

I finally finished The Ingredients of Love and it was just as predictable as I'd feared I started reading my first Mo Hayder book last night in bed, it seems really good so far. Can't wait to see what happens

 

Today was my second day at the festival area, guarding it with a friend and sending away all the unauthorized people. (Yesterday we got a cranky one: he said it was an annual pain in the ass to have a festival in the area, what with all the noise and stuff ) I was tired in the morning because I didn't get enough sleep, but the hours went by. I'd brought along a book, because I thought I might like to do some reading if it was getting really slow. But I didn't want to bring the Hayder book because that demands 100% concentration, so I looked at my shelves and went for The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. When I bought the book at a charityshop some years ago, I quickly leafed through the pages and came upon an example of real life story which sounded good, so I thought the book might be insightful.

 

But so far it hasn't been. I started leafing through the book today, seeing that it was, in my humble opinion, a bunch of rather obvious stuff. However, as I was bored, I started reading the book out loud to my guarding partner, a pal of mine. I read 30 pages or so, and it was hilarious and passed the hour very quickly It was 30 pages of basically the same thing, in different word order, with a few different words thrown in. But basically just the same sentence over and over again. It was hilarious I kept reading and laughing, and my partner was rolling his eyes and sighing loudly and saying it was a bunch of crock, and I just kept reading and laughing at his reactions The book talked about how we need to visualize what we really want, and I told my partner I was now going to visualize that the guarding team director was going to walk over and tell us we could finish early today, and my partner said he would now visualize that we could get a cup of coffee. Soon enough the cafeteria actually opened and one of the workers came to tell us there was coffee! And the director did come over shortly, but unfortunately he didn't say we could go home for the day.

 

In other news: as you might have noticed, I've been going through my bookcases to see which books I could donate to the library book trolley, and I've had a whole bunch of books in the cupboard waiting for me to take them. As I got a lift to the festival area from work partner, I got two bags of books with me and after our shift I took them to the library. I got rid of all my Patricia Cornwells, for sure! (Except for the Jack the Ripper book) I also got rid of 26 other books, 10 of which were on TBR.

 

TBR is now down to 460! I know most of it is due to me giving up a lot of unread books, but I've also managed to read at least 30 books off TBR this year. I can't remember when my TBR was this 'small' the last time!

[pontalba]

Giving books away.  /sorrowful sigh/  gad zooks woman!  /more sighing/ /evil grin/ heh

[frankie]

I remember when I moved into this apartment years ago and thought I had a lot of books and was cussing them weighing so much... I imagine I now have three-four times as many books as I had back then.... I ain't hauling them all over to another town!

[pontalba]

LOL  Well, good on ya then Frankie!  I honestly can't imagine trying to move......we'd have to have a moving company come in and pack and ship!  You are going about it in the right way.

 

I read about a woman up in New York that had, well, more books than we have, but not by a whole lot.  When the movers came to give her an estimate they said they'd have to classify her as a library.  Oy.  Higher rate, of course. 

 

Of course I also read in the New York Times, about 7 years ago about a woman that had 20,000 books in her apartment. 

I hope she never moves!!

Edited July 5, 2013 by pontalba

[chesilbeach]

I remember an interview with Barry Humphries (aka Dame Edna Everage) and he has something like 30,000 books in his home - and I'm sure they said it was so many they had to have the floors structurally reinforced to ensure they could cope with the load!

Edited July 5, 2013 by chesilbeach

[frankie]

LOL  Well, good on ya then Frankie!  I honestly can't imagine trying to move......we'd have to have a moving company come in and pack and ship!  You are going about it in the right way.

 

That's exactly the thing! I'm already thinking about my poor mates and possibly parents who might be there to help me move, and them looking at my bags of books, thinking, 'this lady is cuhrrr-raaaaazy for having so many books, why do we need to move these, we could just dump the lot, who needs this many books??' 'She's like one of those old spinster ladies with loads of cats, only she's allergic, so she has books. Good riddens!'

 

 

I read about a woman up in New York that had, well, more books than we have, but not by a whole lot.  When the movers came to give her an estimate they said they'd have to classify her as a library.  Oy.  Higher rate, of course. 

 

No way! They had to classify a normal private person's books as a library? Wow, I would have liked to see pictures of her house! That's legendary. Bloody expensive, but legendary

 

Of course I also read in the New York Times, about 7 years ago about a woman that had 20,000 books in her apartment. 

I hope she never moves!!

 

That must be one helluva apartment, I say! I was reading through my bookish note books, and I caught sight of a quote I'd made of a book on books and people with personal libraries, and hm, I'd written something about a person who has the biggest personal library, and I was thinking it was 30,000 titles, but now that I've read your and chesil's posts, I'm thinking it must've had another zero after that sum...

 

I remember an interview with Barry Humphries (aka Dame Edna Everage) and he has something like 30,000 books in his home - and I'm sure they said it was so many they had to have the floors structurally reinforced to ensure they could cope with the load!

 

That's dedication! Imagine if he lived in an apartment building and had the floors reinforced, but then bought a few more books and the floors would cave in... imagine the bother for the downstairs neighbor

[Athena]

I'm curious, where did you two 'meet' online, what kind of a forum was it? If it's too personal, you don't have to answer, of course That's a long time knowing someone online! And when you're not talking to someone to 'get in their pants' but just to make friends, I think talking online is a pretty great way to get to know someone. I think one's more likely to open up more and earlier on, than if it happened in 'real life'.

 

I'm glad you realised that your then boyfriend was not deserving of you. You deserve far, far better! I can't imagine, though, what it must've been like when your now BF told you he had developed stronger feelings for you and wanted more. You must've been pretty confused! I'm happy you decided to give your then friend a chance, and that you are now happily together From what you've said about him on other threads, he seems like a perfect fit for you

 

I think I'm like you in that respect that I would rather have something more develop out of a friendship. I'm really not a 'dating woman'. I feel awkward about going on dates and I hate the idea of feeling like I have to make a good impression. I get nervous and I might even start to babble and I give the wrong impression.

x

It was a forums to do with gaming, mainly to do with modding games (editing ini files, making new graphics for a game), the main focus were the Command & Conquer games (Westwood, EA) though other games were welcome too (ie. there was also a big section on Battle For Middle-Earth). Here's a link to Revora, however I should say that the forum is a lot different these days, to me. I've been a moderator there, an admin and a leader. I was also Hosting Manager for a while, so anyone who had a mod and wanted web space and a subforum on the forums, could apply for it. I would then arrange everything so they can use their forums and web space. On a few occations when there was a crisis (ie. a hack, many spam bots, database crash) I helped fix the forum and websites. My boyfriend was also an admin (and moderator) there, so we often worked together on things. He makes a mod for Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge called D-day (real time strategy, D-day is a World War II mod, it contains many units from pre-WW2 to post-war, land, sea & air units, atm eight playable countries, several non-playable ones, five time frames and total war and unholy alliance game mode, new terrain, new maps. My boyfriend likes things to be historically accurate so everything is done with a very high accuracy). He's been working on this for a long time (it's the longest running RA2: YR mod)and I help him with it now and then (in fact he's working on it right now ). I left the forums (and quit my jobs there) when I broke up with my ex (it was through my ex that I heard about these forums), I felt it was the time to go. My jobs felt like a chore there, I didn't enjoy it anymore. My boyfriend is no longer admin there either, he also quit (his project is still on there though as well as the subforum). He's more active on Project Perfect Mod (PPM) now.

 

Thanks for your kind words ! I do think we are a great fit for each other. I feel very lucky we found each other.

 

Funny thing perhaps, I actually met my ex in Rome. My school was on a school trip there (in the 5th year, everyone cof that year can pick out of a few destinations, where to go), I was with my grandparents because the school's programme was too busy for me. I wanted to spend a day with the people from school though so we tried to find them (they gave us the wrong hotel number so we couldn't phone but we did have a programme). I remember waiting near a church, they were supposed to be there. I waited for a bit of time, then they showed up. That's when my ex started talking with me. We became friends and he introduced me to several forums (and the games, I hadn't heard of the games before).

 

Anyway, I'm very happy with my boyfriend. The long distance thing can be difficult sometimes, but it's always a lot of fun when we are together. I really enjoy spending time with him. Can you tell I love him .

 

I wouldn't like to go on a date with a stranger either! I much rather get to know them on a friendship level first. For me, liking someone as more than a friend comes after I get to know them, I think. I would be very nervous too so I understand you'd feel that way.

 

@ moving books

Wow, that's a lot of books! I can imagine moving might be difficult if one has a lot of books. When I move out, it should be interesting to see how it goes, I own quite a few books (though not 30000!). Mainly though I'll be worried about things being damaged and whether I'll like the new place and get used to it. It took me quite some time to get used to this house so I think moving in a few years might take me a bit of time too (although this time it'll hopefully be because I want to, not because someone makes me).

 

First though I'll move into another area of the house, though my stuff will stay in my room. The space we're going into is likely needed for my boyfriends' stuff (he has no where else to store his stuff). We'll be doing it up a bit this summer. I'm hoping there'll be a bit of space left so I can at least have a couple of books there (like a TBR-soon) and there should be a desk and chair for me. I look forward to have my boyfriend here all the time and have all his stuff here (atm some of it is in boxes so I haven't actually seen everything, not that I have to XD, but I'm curious ). However we have to sort out some issues first, to do with finance and rules of immigration and what not.

x

TBR is now down to 460! I know most of it is due to me giving up a lot of unread books, but I've also managed to read at least 30 books off TBR this year. I can't remember when my TBR was this 'small' the last time!

x

Good job!!

 

Sorry if this post was rambly! This is your thread frankie so I'll now "thread" away quietly and let you talk again .

[pontalba]

Athena, what a marvelous story!  I'm happy for you (both).

 

 

AIE:  30,000!! /envious sigh/ marvelous! 

OTOH, if I'm confused now....what would I be then!?

Edited July 7, 2013 by pontalba

[Athena]

Thank you!

[Kidsmum]

What a lovely story Athena & very romantic 

[frankie]

I've been wee poor on doing things on the forum lately, what with the Ilosaarirock festival and what not....

 

Athena: Thanks for the more detailed info Although I've got to say I don't know much about gaming and stuff... We did have an Amiga back in the day, and I really liked playing with it, but that was ages ago... We still have the gear though and I tried if it worked a few years ago and it was like a blast from the past... Sweet  

 

 

Athena, what a marvelous story!  I'm happy for you (both).

 

 

AIE:  30,000!! /envious sigh/ marvelous! 

OTOH, if I'm confused now....what would I be then!?

 

Don't worry my love, you'd be a library on your own right... There there  

 

I'm trying to get back on track with things. There were a few odd weeks what with stuff and then me doing my voluntary shift for the rock festival in order to get my free ticket to get in, and then the festival was here, and I had two house guests over... One from Lahti and one from Italy. (The Italy one is someone I was friends with in junior high/high school, she bagged an Italian fella 9 years ago and has lived in Italy for 8 years now)

 

Bookwise I haven't done much. I finished my first Jodi Picoult book (The Pact) and it was great, and I also read The Silver Linings Play Book by Matthew Quick, which was also great. I had a lot of problems last night, trying to find a book I'd get into, tried a few, and then sneakily picked up Replay by Ken Grimwood and it was pretty good as far as I got to reading it before falling asleep ...
 

[pontalba]

 

[Athena]

I look forward to read your thoughts on Replay, I hope you enjoy it! Did you have fun with the festival?

[frankie]

I did, most definitely. I've been going there since -97, but in the last few years it's been a bit boring and I haven't seen that many bands either... This year however I had a friend over at my flat and eventhough I didn't happen to see a lot of pals, I spent some real quality time with the ones I met, and they were the ones I'm closest with from all the people I know who come to Ilosaarirock

 

I even met my ex co-worker from the library, I happened to see her at a bookstore on Friday and when she saw my festival bracelet and found out I was going, she told me she was going for the first time ever and was going solo, so I immediately told her to look me up so we could have a proper chat She took my phone number, and she did indeed send me a text on Saturday and we also met up on Sunday. It was so much fun talking to her, it's been really sad that we lost contact for a while (due to personal stuff in our respective lives). Yay!

[Athena]

I'm glad to hear you had fun .

[frankie]

This is a bit off-topic, but since I brought up the subject of me creating a profile on a Finnish dating site and having this pretty good sounding guy writing me a PM, I thought I'd just do a bit of an update: so he PMd me, and I wrote him back, and then he wrote back to me. I can't remember when this was, but I was off to visit my parents, I think, and there were loads of stuff going on, and I just figured I'd write him back a little later, because it was such a long PM that I wanted to fully engage in writing to him and not just half-ass it.

 

Anyhow, when I logged in again I found that he'd PMd me three days after his last PM, asking me why I'd stopped all contact with him, and asking if it was his sense of humour that drove me off, or if the PM had been too long. I'm very much new to this datesite thingy and I didn't know there was a deadline! I thought that was a bit needy... Anyhow, I was going to write him then and there, but he either 'hid' his profile from view, or deleted it altogether. Or, maybe he just blocked me from seeing it. Very mature... How am I going to tell him what happened and that he didn't do anything wrong if it's virtually impossible for me to contact him? So, that was that, obviously

 

Another thing, of more interest to self: I got this offer from a friend last weekend: she works at the Joensuu unit of the Finnish Forest Research Institute, and she said that she's had to do a lot of translating into English and that she doesn't have the time for it during work hours. So she thought that if I was interested, she'd suggest to her bosses that they hire someone to do the translating for her and her work mates, and that person would be me! Bloody hell.... At first I was really scared, thinking I couldn't do it, and I actually recommended a friend of mine whom she could recommend, my friend having actually studied translating at a uni... I've only really studied the English language and culture, I've never studied translating! But the more I've thought about it, the more keen I am. When I was applying for unis back in the day, my first choice was actually the Savonlinna unit where I could've studied translation.... I didn't get in, I was short by 0,07 points, can you believe it? I wonder what my life would be like had I got in. Anyhow... I think I might actually enjoy being a translator, and I would really like to be given a shot at it. I know that forestry is something I know absolutely nothing about, and I would have to learn the vocabulary, but I don't mind, I've done vocabulary learning a whole helluva lot before as you can imagine.

 

My friend's just having her summer holiday, so she's not going to get back to work until August, but she'll then ask her bosses, and I think I would have to do an interview (bloody hell!) and I think they'd let me do one article at first and see if they were satisfied with my work, and then take it from there.

 

This job is something I could actually do wherever, I could still move to another city and just do it online.... I'm pretty nervous and excited!!

Edited July 19, 2013 by frankie

[Brian.]

I think that your English knowledge would be more than sufficient for translation work. As for dating sites, I have found them to be very hit and miss, I closed an account on match at the end of last year. I'm sure there are some decent people on them but it does seem to also attract the crazies

 

Him deleting/blocking his account is very childish and I think that you've probably dodged someone who is too needy.

[frankie]

I think that your English knowledge would be more than sufficient for translation work.

 

Thanks If I get the chance to translate an article or two, I will be bugging all of y'all to start pointing out all my grammatical errors on here...

 

As for dating sites, I have found them to be very hit and miss, I closed an account on match at the end of last year. I'm sure there are some decent people on them but it does seem to also attract the crazies

 

Oh yeah, the crazies... When I was doing my profile, there was a question 'what are your turn offs/pet peeves'. Well, I wrote a couple of things down and ended off with 'wet socks'. Later I got a PM from some dude, he was using his exclamation marks and periods and stuff like there was no tomorrow, and said he'd better take his socks off etc etc...  

 

Him deleting/blocking his account is very childish and I think that you've probably dodged someone who is too needy.

 

Absolutely agreed. If it was me, yes, I would be wondering why the guy's not PMd me back, but I would never start asking him what I did wrong and I would never block him

Edited July 19, 2013 by frankie

[pontalba]

Hmmm, the guy sounds a bit needy, possibly weird.  I'd take his cutting off like that a blessing, and possibly a sign to not worry about contacting him!

 

Glad you're reading Replay.

 

Sounds a great opportunity.......the translation business!  Really great!!

[frankie]

Hmmm, the guy sounds a bit needy, possibly weird.  I'd take his cutting off like that a blessing, and possibly a sign to not worry about contacting him!

 

I'm not a big believer in destiny, but with this one I do take it as 'it just wasn't meant to be'.

 

Mind you, he is a tad bit younger, so maybe that's partly to do with it... I'm old, and I'm more inclined to take things a bit slower...

 

 

Glad you're reading Replay.

 

I've not read much of it yet, but it's good so far But I really think that when I get to reading it, I should start all over, because it's been three nights and I've made like 20 pages of progress... Not good!

 

Sounds a great opportunity.......the translation business!  Really great!!

 

Yep, and like my friend said, it's all about connections these days, and I'm super lucky that she's going to suggest it to her boss and recommend me!

[pontalba]

 

I'm not a big believer in destiny, but with this one I do take it as 'it just wasn't meant to be'.

No, and let me clarify.  I don't believe in "destiny" or predestination. 

I simply meant that sending out vibes like that, he seems to be one to avoid. 

[frankie]

No, and let me clarify.  I don't believe in "destiny" or predestination. 

I simply meant that sending out vibes like that, he seems to be one to avoid. 

 

That's alright, I didn't mean that you meant it as destination or somefink, I just meant that personally I'm not pro-destiny stuff, but with this one I think it wasn't meant to be

[Kidsmum]

Hi Frankie   Just caught up with your news. The translating job sounds fantastic & the fact that you're able to do it wherever your living is definitely a bonus. The guy sounds like an all or nothing sort of person to me, people like that are usually very insecure & tend to be a bit smothering so i think your better off keeping your distance. 

[Athena]

The translating job sounds awesome !

 

I agree with everyone else, probably best you're rid of this guy.