Light and lamps

I'm continuing with my search of a lamp for my living room. Actually I do have light in my living room now since we managed to attach the Bene successfully yesterday with my father. But the daylight lamps from Adlux I have ordered for it might be too powerful. I sent an email to the company Innojok that produces Bene to be sure. I have 32W energy saving (I don't know the term in English yet) bulbs when they mention that the lamp can take 30W bulbs... I hope that there's some safety buffer so that the 32W will be fine.

I really dislike the color of regular bulbs nowadays - I'm really anticipating getting what I ordered from Adlux. Then I can change the color of the light both in my kitchen and in the living room (as long as it's fine with the lamp)!

I found a new interesting company, Eseo, somehow related to Philips. Initially I was attracted to their lamp Clove (at the moment on sale in Finland at kodinvalaisimet.fi) but I like Alexa as well. What bothers me about Clove is that the material is fabric. I would like a close-up image of the fabric but the quick search I made shows that most of the sellers just use the same photos.

I've been reading material about selling, since I've recently become interested in it and my mode of choice for acquiring information is by reading. A rather cynical book I'm reading (Perusmyyjästä supermyyjäksi - From a regular salesperson to a super salesperson - certainly sounds better in Finnish) says that people rarely buy because of any rational reason, but the decision is usually always made on the basis of emotion. It's only later when people come up with other reasons to justify their buy to others. Another thing the writer says is that good salespeople can connect the product with the needs of the customer, instead of just listing the features of the product. I'm wondering what needs I'm trying to satisfy with this lamp buy.

I want to be considerate - the lamp needs to not be blinding to anyone, including children who often look up a lot. I want my home to be stylish - I'm mostly looking at white lamps. I want to consider myself someone who lives in healthy light - buying only daylight bulbs.

What is behind these (imagined?) needs? I really don't know. Why do I want to live a life of quality and use so much time to think about such a simple matter? Would my life be better if I was able to just move on and take an affordable and okay lamp such as Sole? (I'm seriously considering buying it, it's "okay", but not in any way thrilling, exciting, especially beautiful..) Do I want to be someone who only rarely buys stuff but when she does gets the best thing she can in any way afford?

Buying and selling are surprisingly closely related to how we view ourselves. As a salesperson that is something one needs to take into account.

I need light in my living room

I don't know how I've managed four years without a real lamp in my living room, but now I've had enough of the darkness. I tell myself that I need a lamp for the party in a week, and went looking for some yesterday and today. I had a lamp in mind, but the design was very unaccommodating - it's a lamp that is suspended some 90cm below the ceiling. I counted that the space I have is approximately 60cm, so I couldn't get that one.

Just for interest, it was a lamp designed by Tapio Anttila made by a Finnish company Keraplast. At least Kodin1 sells them. I was ready to pay 350€ for some hundreds of grams of acrylic, but no can do. Onto the 2nd choice!

So we went with my mother to look at the other lamp I had in mind.  I don't know the designed or producer, but it was quite a simple round one. But the problem with that was that the lamp was really heavy, and it attaches to the ceiling with screws - I don't trust it to not fall and potentially cause great damage.

I want to get a lamp that has a layer of glass or acrylic beneath the bulbs so that the light doesn't blind anyone, not even children. That limits my options quite a lot. We went to Stockmann today and there were hardly any lamps that hide the bulbs. Another thing I want is for the lamp to have many bulbs since my living room is approximately 20 square meters, I need a powerful lamp.

I went for a walk with a friend today, and they had an extra lamp that fit my specifications. It's not something I would buy necessarily, but is a good match for now. It's called Bene, by Innojok. They have another even simpler lamp called Sole : I'm thinking that I'll buy that one if I don't find anything better within a reasonable time.

But I'm dreaming and browsing the web for interesting lamps. The best are way over my budget. This is my current favorite: Diamond by Morosini. Too bad that the price, 800€, is somewhat more than I'm willing or able to pay. It's amazing how much a simple piece of fabric can cost!

Oriflame excitement

Today I visited someone I know who is quite successful as an Oriflame salesperson, and it just fueled my interest. I'm holding an Oriflame party in a week, and even though I'm not the one benefiting from any sales (aside from potential gifts to the host) I'm excited about the thought of creating an atmosphere that is good for selling, and how I can help. I'm going through the "jaksoesite" (brochure for this period) thinking about which products my friends would like. I also read the materials Oriflame offers to support their salespeople, and even though there are some good points I would really like a concise but exhaustive list of all the campaigns, things to take into account etc.

I would very much like to gain the info I need to advice people on the use of the products and on how to take care of their skin. I imagine that it would be fun to match people with products. Cosmetics are something fun and light, easy to talk about and nice to promote. I would also genuinely be interested in how people liked the products, and since I'm not blindly in awe of everything Oriflame creates I think that I could be an easily approached saleswoman.

I'm making a list of things to consider and the ideas I have. I will take some time to ponder becoming an active salesperson. I would like sales experience, and I imagine that holding beauty evenings would be fun. However, I need to calculate average gains taking into account the costs of the brochures, samples and shipping, time spent and so on. But I'm enjoying dreaming at the moment.

22 / 24 !

Sain tänään tietää, että diskreettien rakenteiden tentin tulokset ovat tulleet. Kolmen tunnin harjoitusten ja luennon jälkeen kävin katsomassa listaa (piti kaivaa opiskelijakortti esille, koska en muista vielä numeroani). Sitä ennen olin jo katsonut, että paras tulos on 23 pistettä ja että joillakin on 22. Olin todella iloinen kun tajusin, että olin yksi niistä 22 pistettä saaneista. Tentti oli kyllä helppo jos oli opetellut perusasiat. Luennoitsija on selvästi kyllästynyt alhaiseen läpipääsyprosenttiin ja yrittää auttaa opiskelijoita sen minkä kykenee. Silti ilmeisesti useampi kymmenen ihmistä oli saanut 0 pistettä kahdesta ensimmäisestä tehtävästä (yksinkertainen algoritmi ja kantalukumuunnostehtävä). Ei varmasti ole kiitollinen homma opettaa tuolla kurssilla... 

Tulin kotiin, olin ihan poikki, pelasin dominionia. Sitten tajusin mennä suihkuun ja tehdä jalkakylvyn: nyt istun kirjoittamassa ja pelaamassa jalat virkistävästä voiteesta kihelmöiden. Olen illalla menossa yhden asumisjärjestelyn lopettajaisiin (lue bileisiin), sitä ennen aion vielä meikata, käydä kirjastossa ja mennä ostamaan tarjottavia. Hieman hervoton olo, pullo pepsi maxia taisi olla liikaa kun on muutenkin marraskuinen jaksamistaso. 

Modeling for a photography exhibition

Today was an exciting day since a friend of mine, a photographer, asked me to be one of his models for a series on Northern everyday fashion. I don't consider myself especially fashionable, but I think that the images will be at their strongest some 50 years from now...

This is me, distorted by the mirror. Those with some imagination can see that I'm wearing light to medium brown matte eyeshadow. Those are really drawn in eyebrows, mine are practically colorless.

It was interesting to strike poses nevertheless. I wore some makeup, including my Lumene Matte Harmony mineral powder which I'm not that pleased with. The reason was found with a little googling: it's probably best for somewhat oily skin whereas mine is quite dry. The world of cosmetics is very interesting to me, and the thought of becoming an active Oriflame representative has been on my mind a few days. I've been browsing their site and imagining recommending products to people, hearing their complaints and so on. Selling would be a good skill to have!

I have a discrete maths exercise group tomorrow and I haven't finished all the exercises. I doubt that I'm going to do it today. I did finish a short written assignment earlier, so it hasn't been an altogether useless day when it comes to my studies. We're supposed to write an innovation plan for a software company for Sunday, I'll work on that now. I'm just gathering ideas and concepts for now although I'll look for good sources as well.

Näin ihanan unen

Ihastus on lupauksen näkemistä. Kaikki mahdollisuudet eivät toteudu, mutta voi olla ihanaa myös vain kuvitella. Näin juuri unen, jossa ihastukseni oli selvästi minusta kiinnostunut. Olimme saunaillassa, ja näppäilin tunnussanaani (jonka hän jostain syystä tunsi) hänen vatsalleen. (Ilmeisesti näppiksen sai mihin tahansa.) Hän pyysi anteeksi aiempaa töykeyttään ja katseli minua lempeästi. 

Koko unesta jäi ihana mieli, ja muistan taas paremmin, miten haluan olla. Yleensä kuljen yliopistolla kädet puuskassa, jäykkänä, kasvoillani ilme jota luulen pohtivaksi mutta joka luultavasti näyttää vain kypsääntyneeltää. Minusta ei helposti saa kuvaa siitä, millainen olen rentona ja vapautuneena. 

Juuri eilen sain kuulla olevani "hurjan kaunis" kun hymyilen. Tämän haluan muistaa, ja haluan antaa itseni vain olla, rauhassa keskellä kaaosta.

The birth of a thrummed mitten

Today I had a reason to go through the yarn I have accumulated in the last few years since I went to a knitting party. I also had to come up with a new project since I haven't knitted for a while - I didn't want to be the only one without a project.

All of those boxes are filled with yarn. 

This is what I came up with in a few hours today. I'm using 52 stitches and 10 stitches for the thumb. (I'm really  just testing, hope it works out!) The mitten reminds me of boxing gloves, it is very puffy.

The inside of the mitten.