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So Obsessed

Welcome to So Obsessed! This is my home on the net, where I post some personal stuff, fanart, memes and news regarding my screencaps and fansites. I have lots of wallpapers and icons here, as well as FocusWriter themes and more! Have a look around and I hope you enjoy your visit and come back soon!

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The Friday Five for 11 June 2021

The Friday Five for 11 June 2021

Ariane June 11, 2021 · Filed under Blog, Memes & Asks, Personal · No Comments

Picture from Pixabay

Answers to today's The Friday Five @ Dreamwidth.

1) What is the best book you've read?

I can't name just one... 'cause there isn't just one. It depends on my mood and what I'm into currently, and what genre we're talking about. I have many favorites, but not "the best" and even faves are likely change depending on what genre I've been reading recently.

2) What is the worst book you've read?

This one particular Harlequin romance... I can't remember its name or the author, but it's the only book I've ever put in the trash after I read it. The heroine was so stupid that I ended up wondering how the hero managed to fall in love with her, instead of strangling her for her incredible stupidity, or at least leaving in disgust. It's been been at least ten years since I read it, propably closer to 15, and I've since regretted that I threw it away - it was so bad, I should have enshrined it instead!

3) What is a favourite book from childhood?

I don't know it's the favorite but certainly one of them... Watchers by Dean R. Koontz. It was the first Koontz book I ever read. My Dad read it first (he was already sick at this point, so he'd started reading to pass the time - before he didn't read that much), he liked it so much he said I should read it too (I've always loved reading and read a lot even as a kid), and then I loved it so much I told Mom she should read it as well. That memory is what makes that book special to me. We read a lot of Koontz's books after that, and I still do even though new ones aren't as good as the old ones.

Another favorite, for the story, is A Princess Of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs. I love the whole Barsoom series but this one is my favorite one of all of them. Another favorite series is The Famous Five by Enid Blyton, but I haven't re-read those since I was a teenager and I can't remember if I had a particular favorite.

4) What is a favourite book from adulthood?

Oh so many! Lightning by Dean R. Koontz is one I'm very fond of. Time travel, alternate timelines and dramatic mysteries, oh my!

Mostly my faves tend to be book series though, for some reason! I really appreciate the Palme Trilogy by Leif G.W. Persson - I keep seeing something new everytime I read it and the humor still makes me giggle even after rereading them like 3 times - and the original Millenium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson. A more recent favorite is The Expanse series by James S.A. Corey.

I also love the Marianne book series by Juliette Benzoni. It's my favorite historical romance series.

5) What is a book you've read a number of times?

I reread a lot! Chances are, if I really like it, I'll reread it! As an example, I reread the Barsoom series about every five years, and when I was a kid/teenager I reread them every year. I've read the early Dean R. Koontz novels (Watchers, Whispers, Lightning, Phantoms... ) something like 10 times (and even many of the later ones a few times), and love them as much as ever every time. Currently I'm looking forward to rereading The Expanse series - but I want to read the last book first, which should come out later this year if I remember correctly.

The friday 5: May 28 2021

The friday 5: May 28 2021

Ariane June 4, 2021 · Filed under Blog, Memes & Asks, Personal · No Comments

Beagle because we had a beagle and she's been on my mind a lot lately. I love beagles! Pic from Pixabay.

I'm bored so have answers to last week's The Friday Five questions!

1) What are you doing this spring that you weren't doing 1 year ago?

Umm... nothing? I think. Well, I think I'm not as worried about COVID-19, or rather the worry has changed shape into trying to accept that it's going to be with us at least for at least the foreseeable future, kind of like having flu vaccines every year.

2) What pandemic precautions are you still taking?

Out and about, and with strangers: all of them so washing hands, social distancing, wearing face masks, no parties visits.

With family/friends: if we're both *completely* vaccinated and I trust them not the be careless out and about, and they have to be spend time with people they don't know about (customer service jobs , schools etc.), we visit each other indoors but try to keep some sort of distance so no hugging or touching, no more than 2-3 persons visiting at the same time. And we still wash hands entering/leaving homes. Otherwise if the other person isn't completely vaccinated yet or sees people who aren't/can't be sure about, we see each other outside with masks on and taking the usual precautions.

3) What's a safety rule that's very important to you?

Washing/disinfecting hands! I've noticed that since the masks because practically required in busses and shops and so people started wearing them routinely, they also stopped washing/disinfecting their hands :(

4) What plants are blooming where you live?

No idea! I only know that they are pretty but when asked to name them, I can't think of any/remember names. I'm not a plant person. I just notice "Ooh! That's nice and green and lush! Oh that's a pretty flower!"

5) What was your most memorable summer job?

I've only had one summer job that wasn't my occupation which is a librarian. It was in 1993 and it was inspecting buying invoices in a grocery store chain HQ. That meant inspecting that the chain stores hadn't ordered anything they weren't allowed to, and if they had reading them the riot act if they had. No matter what the reason was - usually because the usual allowed product had been unavailable, and they had had to order something outside the allowed list to replace it because customers needed to be able to buy them anyway. I guess I remember it so well because it's so different from what I did as a librarian in the years after.

New Dishwasher + Health Update

New Dishwasher + Health Update

Ariane June 2, 2021 · Filed under Blog, Health, Personal · No Comments

Image from Pixabay

New Dishwasher

I'm getting a new dishwasher!!! My 23 year old dishwasher finally gave up the ghost yesterday! We bought a new one today, and it'll be delivered tomorrow :mrgreen:  I can't wait!! My old one has been a faithful one but I've wanted to buy a new model for the last 8 years or so because they have cool new features the old one didn't, but couldn't justify the cost when the old one was still working normally. (I come from a family that doesn't buy new costly things until they break.) Had to replace my washing machine last July which was 30+ years old in last July, and still crazy in love with my now no longer new washing machine :-D I feel silly being so excited about a new household appliance but there you are!

We decided that instead of waiting for the fridge to break, we'll aim to replace later on this summer. It's also 23 years old, makes too loud noises sometimes... probably normal for an old fridge, but they sound too loud to me because I'm sensitive to sounds due to my migraine. It's the one I've wanted to replace for more than a decade now but money's always the issue and haven't been able to do it because it still works. But hopefully now this time we can stick to the plan!

Health update

Continued to sort of have an migraine attack yesterday, and still today though less so. It's been a long run this time, going on five days :-x I'd like to be able to point to a particular thing and say "this is the reason" but I can't. There's been nothing out of ordinary going on, not really. I did have some stress from mid-May onwards due to having to prepare and leave in formal applications for KELA to handle and all that stress resolved on last week's Monday. So too early to count for this longer than my normal run of bad migraine attack days.

KELA made a negative decision on my disability retirement application yesterday. Which, expected. Still, disappointed. And a little suspicious - the stated time it'll take to make a decision is up to three months. And that's how long they took in 2018 with my last disability retirement application. But this time they handled it in a week and a bit! Doesn't seem enough time to me to do their due diligence. KEVA hasn't made their decision yet. I wonder what happens if they say yes? Apparently it's rare, but it's happened. The retirement pay KEVA would pay me isn't anywhere near enough to live on, so it'd be complicated and probably more of a bureautic headache than a save!

And I can never spell propaply probably, no matter how many times I mistype it!

 

COVID-19 Vaccine Update

COVID-19 Vaccine Update

Ariane May 18, 2021 · Filed under Blog, Health · No Comments

Picture from Pixabay.

Thought I'd post my experience with the COVID-19 vaccines now that I have gotten both doses.

I belong to the first medical risk group, and got my first vaccine (Astra Zeneca) in February, and the second last Wednesday (Moderna). Today is Tuesday the next week. I'm in Finland.

  • The Astra Zeneca only gave me a very slight sore arm for about 1,5 days. Nothing else as far as I could tell - I have chronic migraine/headache every day so I can't say for sure if it gave me a headache or not, but I don't think so because there was no headache that differed from my usual in the following days.
  • I had the following reactions to the Moderna vaccine starting last Wednesday (the vaccination day) through yesterday:
    • Chills and hot flashes on Thursday
    • Slight fever Thursday through Saturday
    • Very sore arm Wednesday through Sunday (bad enough that sleeping was uncomfortable for three nights)
    • Small slightly swollen, red circle on the injection site Friday through Sunday
    • Headache through Thursday to Saturday. I know this because the headaches responded a lot better to medication than my headaches normally do.
    • All in all: I felt sick for 2 days (Thursday and Friday), kind of sick for 1 day (Saturday), and then only had a slightly sore arm on Sunday and Monday anymore
    • Today I'm back to normal

I can't remember whether I had any bad reactions when I was a kid but this was the worst reaction I've had to a vaccine as an adult! I usually just have a somewhat sore arm for 2-3 days, so this was a new experience for me!

The Friday Five for 14 May 2021

The Friday Five for 14 May 2021

Ariane May 14, 2021 · Filed under Blog, Memes & Asks, Personal · No Comments

Picture from Pixabay. Answers to today's questions at The Friday Five @ DW.

1) Have you ever done something awful to your hair? What happened?

When I was in my 20s I used to home dye my hair for many years, usually some shade of red/reddish brown. But one time I decided to dye it black. I'm very pale, and have very light natural blond hair and I looked just awful with black hair, so then I bleached my hair and dyed it red. Which came out okay, which I'm stunned about now years later! But yeah, I wouldn't home dye my dark colors myself anymore, I think a trained stylist can better tell what shade and color temperature will work best for me if I want to dye my hard dark. But also, these days I prefer that it looks more like natural color than bright red, as an example :)

2) Conversely, at what time in your life have you looked your best?

Bodywise - before my boobs grew in when I was around 10 years old. Hairwise - well, now actually. I'm very happy with my short hair at this time :D Actually, when I've looked at old photos of myself, I've always looked ok although I've never felt it about myself as I look in the mirror. Normal, clean, neat, put together, dressed appropriately for the occasion. I've never been pretty or thin so I've been trained to think by society that I don't look good when I look in the mirror, I only see the negatives. It's only years later when looking at photos, I think I actually looked fine!

3) Do you have a favorite article of clothing? Tell us what and why.

I love the knee length beach dresses I bought last year - the material is soft, and it helps me keep cooler when it's too warm or a heat wave. I'm wearing one now because we're having the first summer days this week! Not a heat wave hot yet, but about as hot as I can handle confortably (so around 18-20 Celcius). I also love a bunch of shirts I bought last year, same model but different colors/patterns. I hate clothes and shoes shopping and don't care about modern fashion (I love women's pre-20th century fashions, always have and would love to be able to try on some of them!), so pretty much everything I wear is my favorites because I only have a few of any given thing and I'm rather picky about colors/patterns/how it sits on me.

4) Confess the worst fashion trend you ever succumbed to.

I never know what's trending in fashion so I've no idea! Except maybe that 1980s perm hair that was always sort of frizzy no matter what I tried to do to it?? Those look horrible in photos now, both on me and everyone else.

5) Are there any clothing/fashion trends today that you simply don't understand?

I've no idea what they are all called but I see a lot of styles on people around town that *I* think looks ugly on them... like too tight shirts that looks like it's 5 sizes too small but I guess is fashionable because so many people dress like that. One thing I don't understand and hate is wearing sports clothing when you're not doing sports.... but that's because I loath sports and don't want to be reminded of it. I think all sports clothes look ugly, no matter who's wearing them and how. That's clearly a me problem, though!

Health Update

Health Update

Ariane May 12, 2021 · Filed under Blog, Health, Personal · No Comments

  • Got my second COVID-19 vaccine today! First one was Astra Zeneca in three months ago in February, this second one was the Moderna one. Didn't get side effects apart from the usual sore muscle in February, soon I'll see what happens with this one!
  • Saw a neurologist last week because my migraine symptoms have changed - they're often in a new place now, and in February, I had the very first aura I've ever had. So far it's the only time. We're gonna try to bump up Propral (depends on whether I can handle without fainting because if affects blood pressure) to see if it helps. If not/not enough, we have a plan in place to try Aimovig, the biologic, starting in January. I have to keep a detailed migraine diary the rest of the year to make sure I qualify for Aimovig.
  • So I'm cautiously optimistic because Aimovig, but it's also it's my last hope as it stands now - if a biologic doesn't work, there's nothing left to try and only maybe menopause can improve my migraines then.
  • Having problems with Ferritin since last summer. Started taking iron in November by January the ferritin had got a little better, just about as much as could be expected for 2,5 months. But in April's labs, no change from January  :-( I'm so damn tired all the time, I'm starting to run out of patience with the shitty ferritin!
  • Applying for disability retirement again, my doctor already sent it the doctor's thingy (can't remember the word...) needed and now KELA just needs an application from me. I filled it in online, but need to write up a txt file too because all my illnesses and their various effects were too much for the allocated number of characters allowed in their online forms. Gonna do that tomorrow or day after. I do love that this can all be done online - the last time I applied I had to download a pdf, fill it in and then either upload it via the message center along with an extra txt for the same reason or print them and send via snailmail. Now the application itself is fillable online too :-D 
  • Both my doctor and I think that I probably won't get the disability retirement now either (they are too strict about it if you are unemployed when you become disabled; it's an acknowledged problem due to prejudices about unemployed people) but that it helps to build a history about doctors -thingies- showing you are unable to work and applications even if they are rejected. Black on white, medical history and history showing you've haven't improved even with rehabilitation etc. so at some point it'll get accepted, even if it takes years and years.
  • The 300 days of long term sick leaves will run out at the end of June; if I don't get disability I'll have to return to unemployment benefits which is really stupid because in reality I'm not able to work, and that means only extra work for the unemployment agency and more stress for me :_( But there's no other place for people who run out of long term sick leave and don't get disability :-( 
The Friday Five for 9 April 2021

The Friday Five for 9 April 2021

Ariane April 9, 2021 · Filed under Blog, Memes & Asks, Personal · No Comments

The Friday Five question for today. Picture snagged from Pixabay.

1) Do you like to drive?

I like it fine, but what really gives me pleasure is the freedom and independence it gives me - meaning I don't need to rely on bus schedules, or factor in how long a shopping trip to a big store (one with groceries, clothes, work tools etc) will take using a bus (three hours). I've and we've always shopped daily groceries in a nearby groceries-only shop. Big store shopping trip is for when you need more, or stock up on flour or washing liquids/powders or need to buy clothes because those big stores always take a lot more time to shop in because they're so big that just walking through them takes time! When I had a car I was also able to take jobs out of town, and about half of them I wouldn't have been able to take at all, or the commute would've been unpleasantly long. So for me, owning a car means freedom and independence.

2) Do you own (or have regular use of) a car? What kind is it?

Not for the last 5 years or so. I used have my Mom's car, a 2000 three-door hunchback Toyota Corolla for about 15 years because they didn't need a second car anymore. But what with my chronic illnesses making me dangerously tired to drive for several years/the car windows freezing on the inside in the winter and being a bitch to scrape and then fogging up too much see something/my needing to drive only short distances (5-15 mins) most times/there's a good bus services in my city thankfully/the car getting to very old so for all that we finally decided to sell it.

Frankly the bus service is so good here in my city that I haven't needed to even think about owning a car. The only reason I took my Mom's car was because otherwise it would've gone unused. Since we sold it, I've used a taxi a few times coming from the ER/hospital, and those times frankly it's better to use a taxi or a bus, because there's always a chance I'll be taken in to a ward for a day or longer (a week, the last time) so if I went by car then I'd maybe have the problem of parking, or due to the medication given me I might not be allowed to drive back anyway. The parking is only available for a few hours, a day at the most and when you're in the hospital, the last thing you want to worry about is going out to feed the meter, or a huge parking bill and car being towed away because of not feeding the meter.

3) What is your favorite optional feature on a car?

Windshield that doesn't freeze on the inside, and then fog up after scraping it!!! Seriously though... I don't know! I haven't kept up with what new cars have by default, much less what bells & whistles could be ordered as extra. My car didn't have car radio or music player, and I always dreamed of having a car with one when I was younger. My friends either don't own a car, or own a very basic, cheapest model with no bells & whistles. The one time I was driven by a acquaitance whose car did have all the bells & whistles, she didn't know how to use any of them! *mind boggles* I suspect I'd love to have all the bells & whistles!

4) How much does gasoline currently cost where you live?

I don't know! I haven't needed to know for the past five years or so so I haven't been paying attention. I only know that bus tickets keep getting more and more expensive).

5) What is the longest car trip you have taken?

When I was like 9 (so about 1983), we went on a summer trip from our home town Turku, all the way through Finland to Lapland. We'd drive 3-5 hours a day, camp in a tent in a camping area and often we'd stay in a place for a day or two as turists. Up in Lapland I think we stayed like a week, and then drove down a different route, again camping every night in camping areas. The whole trip took 4 weeks and was probably something like 2500-3000 kilometers of driving all in all, maybe going by Wikipedia. That's the longest trip I've ever been on, and obviously I wasn't driving, being a little kid :) My Dad did all the driving because Mom didn't yet have driver's license at the time. The next summer we also went on a car trip, this time only about half-way up to somewhere around Rovaniemi level. This was the trip where we for the first time noticed that something was going on with Dad (turned out to be a brain tumor that grew back three times, he died in 1989 of it). But I have very good memories of these trips and of the red Lada we had :)

As an adult, and driving myself either all the trip or half of the trip, are probably the adventures from our home town Turku to Finland's capital Helsinki we did with my best friend when we were in our 20s. I can't remember the reasons for the other trips, but our first one was to go to the Korkeasaari zoo.