Early Summer 2014

Not much writing on here lately from me.  Got a sunburn yesterday at Black's Beach.  Ouch.  Trying to use some moisturizer (topical) and ibuprofen (anti-inflammatory).  Probably should use more sunscreen.

Might be teaching a few courses at Palomar this summer.  Definitely will teach one Chem 100L lab.  Waiting to hear from the physics dept on whether or not I'll be teaching their Physical Science (PHSC 100) lecture and lab courses.  The PHSC course covers physics, chemistry, geology, and astronomy.  I don't remember much physics, so I've been reviewing a bit, probably not enough!  Summer courses start on the 16th of June.  My life of leisure is taking a turn toward more work; my aim is to keep the stress in check.  New courses can be daunting.  Who'dathunk I'd be teaching physics someday!

I got a course at Palomar for the fall too: Chem 100 lecture class T/Th mornings.  Will be nice to do the lecture part again.  Wish I could do both lecture and lab.  That would make more sense for everyone, I'd think.

Del Mar Fair starts on Saturday.  Might go a couple of times so I can see some good concerts, e.g., Huey Lewis and the News, the Spinners, and others.   Some good Humphrey's concerts coming up soon too.  Time to get out the kayaks.

Been walking a lot more lately.  Goal is 10,000 or more steps per day.  I've met the goal every day since May 15.  Turns out my iPhone can log steps.  That's fortunate because I put my FitBit One in the wash a few too many times.  It's sitting in some rice in an attempted resurrection, but I'm not holding my breath, nor do I care, because my iPhone counts the steps anyways.

Finnish Music

I've been looking to purchase the CD, Memento Mori by Mariska.  She's one of my favorite Finnish singers and I have two of her other CDs through http://www.recordshopx.com/finnish/, but this one appears to be very scarce on the Net.  Mariska is into her second decade of making music, but I just discovered her, and Finnish music in general, last year.  What spurred me to look into it, I don't remember, but I ended up watching Finnish music videos on YouTube and am now a fan of several artists, including Jenni Vartiainen, Chisu, Laura Närhi, Cheek, Samuli Edelmann, and several others.  Mariska's Toisen Sanoen CD has stayed in my car's CD player for months and I start it up whenever the radio gets annoying with too many commercials, repetitive news, or bad songs.  That's quite often, unfortunately.  Mariska is a singer-songwriter whose albums could be classified as rap or hip-hop, although more recently she has switched genres to music that she calls punk jazz.  Based on the reviews, people like her lyrics, but I don't understand Finnish yet, so I just enjoy the music.

So anyway, after failing in my search for the Memento Mori CD, came upon the whole album on Rdio.com (pronounced "ar'-dee-o).  Unfortunately, the songs were unavailable in the US, so I tried using TunnelBear to change my IP address to a different country and found that it's available in Australia.  After all that, I'm enjoying Memento Mori  on my iMac.  Evidently, Rdio.com works on mobile devices, so maybe I'll try that later on.  Meanwhile, I give this album a thumbs up.

Here are a few Finnish songs on YouTube that I've enjoyed.  Maybe you will too.

Laura Närhi's Hetken Tie on Kevyt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZVIjrxDhO0

Mariska & Pahat Sudet's Liekki https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6RBNnIseDE

Chisu's Sabotage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOsW6BHzrD8

Mariska's Murha https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYjZX5AH-ZU