good work flow

my old hairdresser (i only saw him for a little over a year though) moved to NZ and i went to someone else in the same salon. if he hadnt moved, i wouldve gone elsewhere anyway, unfortunately. he was funny and interesting, but also veeery negative and just eager to move away. on every visit i would hear the same intense rant on how horrible the UK is, how poor his health is... and i was exhausted afterwards. felt like mental work. anyway the new hairdresser not only did a good job with my hair but was pretty chill and more optimistic in his outlook overall. so he is a keeper i think. 

New York Times: Turkey's people are resisting autocracy. They deserve more than silence.

i met this guy recently (long story) for drinks, like as a potential friend sort of, no agenda. anyway interesting normal person but i got this distinct feeling that i was an audience, that i was being "talked at". ive been in that position many times in my life but i did not recognise it very well when i was younger, probably just felt weirdly bored and annoyed. but now i can say that it has happened a lot, and its typically men who do this; talk AT you, not with you. its not malicious, these are regular men i guess, but maybe on the overconfident side - the kind who believe they understand most subjects better than others etc. which then leads to this situation where a lot of the "talking at" is educational - like a mild version of mansplaining. also theres possibly the assumption (on a subconscious level) that the listener does not have anything to contribute cos they dont really give space for contributing. hence the other person indeed is a listener, not a conversation partner. i didn’t enjoy this dynamic and will try avoid it in the future.

i went to my friends Eurovision watch party and decided i’ll skip next year. the israel stuff is just too much, i got so annoyed. i felt like Austrias winning entry was somehow a copy of last years winner, Nemo. but in the end i had to hope it would win over Israel. Sweden (and others) borrowing artists from neighbouring countries is also annoying and doesn’t make sense. i thought KAJ’s sauna song was catchy and fun. and our Erika’s sex positive song about a woman’s orgasm was overall ok - not my fav music but good performance and a very important topic! also catchy. i might get an Ich Komme shirt cos, well, i’m all for it. 

 ads are always exaggerating, but seeing these social media ads on repeat where it says something like “skip botox use this sleep mask instead”, is really pushing it. i want a nice sleep mask but im not delusional.

update on Tom the foster cat: he stayed with us about 2 weeks and was picked up for a long trip over to the coast. he did not get comfortable with us, and seems like he was just too feral to live in a home. so he was taken to a farm where he will have access to food and indoors too, if he chooses. but he doesnt need to interact with humans if he doesnt want to.

Tim Burton expo in design museum where i went with Aleks. 

 

random pics from Helsinki. the first half of the trip i had company, Can & Burcu. I gave them a list of things to do, and visited some places with them - its been a while since i sa so much of helsinki tbh. the cathedral, design district, Oodi library, Stockmann...  we also went to Allas sea pool for a sauna and swim experience.

our new office is in Hakaniemi (above is from nearby). i like how its shaping up, nice place. we had company development days during my stay too, staying overnight in espoo. i joined the hackathon as we were testing various AI coding tools, and ended up developing my first software using Claude Code. its functional with a user interface etc (of course). it was based on a need to compare marketing plans with reference material, so required upload of files and then AI analysis and comparison. obviously took me a while and was not without struggles, but in the end it worked. i was surprised and a bit shocked. it opens a lot of opportunities for a non-coder like myself.

i got these trainers from a second hand shop in helsinki. technically they are missing the laces but it's not too obvious, i like them as they are and wont add laces. i washed them in the machine and painted the soles black, as they were originally white. 

a protest against the genocide in Gaza in Kensington yesterday. its horrifying to observe this happening while western leaders seem too sheepish to do anything.