Category: Memes & Asks

By spiffikins  at https://spiffikins.dreamwidth.org/1251745.html … Hah! Seriously late this time, here’s June questions!

1. When Was the Last Time You Did Something That Scared or Challenged You?

In April and May (the AKSE course I wrote about earlier).

2. Do You Ever Talk About Issues of Race and Class With Your Friends?

In general terms, usually in relation to how we are voting in elections, or some breaking news or some ongoing noisy online hatred and racist vomit by Perussuomalaiset.

3. Is College Overrated?

In theory, no. More knowledge is always a good thing.

But Finland has gone too far in requiring that everyone has some university diploma or many years of theory learning even when people are training to work in jobs that need other skills and training such as cleaning or plumbing or whatever where practical training is very important. Every job seems to require years of schooling now, leaving people who aren’t literary minded without a place in the job world. While at the same time amount of general education about various societal things people have seems to have lessened – I often find myself wondering “aren’t they teaching this in school anymore??” when listening to people talk about political and societal things.

4. Do You Set Rules for Yourself About How You Use Your Time?

I try to, but I’m not very good at following them.

5. Can You Be Good Without God?

I think the more pertinent question is – if you can’t be good without outside fictional pressure, are you actually good? Continue reading Question of the Day – June 2024

Answers to today’s questions over at thefridayfive @ Dreamwidth!

1. If you are old enough, are you registered to vote?

No need to register. In Finland, “those who have reached the age of 18 no later than the day of the election have the right to vote in Finland. Every Finnish citizen of voting age has the right to vote in national elections and referenda, regardless of their place of residence.”

2. Did you vote in the November 2023 2024 Presidential election (that was the latest election)?

Yes.

I also voted in the 2023 parliamentary/general election.

3. Do you vote in primaries?

We don’t have primaries.

4. Do you plan to vote in the November 2024 2025 Municipal election and Wellbeing Services County election (held at the same time)?

Yes.

5. Do you vote early, by mail, in person, or some other way?

It’s always in person. Mail or online voting isn’t possible.

The common ways are advance voting and voting on the actual election day.

I always vote during the advance voting because it’s much easier. You can vote in any of the maybe 100 or so advance voting places anywhere in the country during the assigned 7 days as long as you have a legit ID with you. Advance voting places are places such as libraries, shopping centers, grocery stores etc. so you can easily pop in while returning your loaned books or doing the weekly shopping or just passing by on your way to/from work. And they’re open like 9am to 8pm most days. My grocery store used to have the advance voting place for a few years, but not anymore so I vote in my library.

If you vote on the actual voting day, you are only allowed to vote in the one specific voting place assigned to you and this can be hard to reach if you don’t have a car or may have to take 2-3 busses to get there even though it’s maybe only 10 minutes by car from where you live but in the wrong direction as in my case and no bus goes that way directly. And if you live in the country, you allowed voting place may be an hour or more away. And on actual voting day it isn’t enough to only have your ID with you, but ideally you’d also have the Notice of Right to Vote (which lists advance voting places, and your assigned voting place on the actual day as well as which municipal’s (your residence) candidates you can vote for).

The last election we had, the Presidential election at the start of the year, my Mom said that on the actual voting day, the officials mark you off a paper(!!) list, while on the advance voting it’s all computers. I couldn’t believe it when she said that! I’ve voted only in advance for at least 15 years if not more, and it’s always been computers there that it never occurred to me they do things the very old fashioned way on the actual day! But my Mom and her SO sometimes vote in advance and sometimes on the actual day, so Mom knows the differences and this time I was watching the news showing a video clip about the voting slips being handled differently on the actual day than mine was on the advance voting (on advance voting, each voting slip is sealed in an envelope, which is stamped and then dropped in the box – on the actual day, the slip is stamped and dropped in the box directly as-is) and we got to talking about the differences.

Advance voting is quite popular because you can do it whenever and wherever, and it seems to be getting even more popular.

There is also a way to vote abroad, but that too happens in person and then the voting slips are sent to Finland to be counted with the all the rest of the slips on the actual day. Also, if you’re unable to go to advance vote or on the actual voting day because you’re disabled or old and have mobility issues, voting officials can come to your home and you vote there (this needs to be arranged a few weeks before hand, so if you get sick suddenly the day before actual voting day, you may have to forego voting that time). I think places like old people homes also have voting official visiting to arrange voting so those that still can and are able to, can vote as well.

Answers to today’s questions thefridayfive@Dreamwidth

1. Are you and your birth family close?

I was adopted when I was 1 month old, and I’ve never met my birth family. I’ve only talked a little with one of my half-sisters when she informed me that my bio-dad had died and I was one of his heirs, which shouldn’t be happened because the adoption was supposed to cut all legal and otherwise ties to my bio family, but the law had changed a few years after the adoption and we didn’t know until 2022 when she informed me about his death. (If you want to know more, I’ve posted about this before. It’s still unsolved.)

So the answers to these questions are about my adoption family.

I’m very close to my Mom, was close to Mamma (Mom’s mom ) while she was alive, and growing up I was pretty close to my girl cousin in the sense that we only saw each other maybe 3-4 times a year but it was like no time had passed at all and we always got fun and games going immediately.

Now I’m only close to my Mom, I’ve (we’ve) pretty much lost touch with anyone else over time.

2. How far away do you live from your various family members?

From my Mom – about 6 minutes by car, 30 minutes by walking, 15 minutes by bike and 60 minutes by bus.

I don’t even know where precisely anyone else my age lives at the moment other than that it’s around this same town as ever. We e-mail/WhatsApp occasionally though. I don’t have personal contact with my younger relatives since they’ve moved out on their own; I know many of them have moved a lot because of work and university.

3. When was the last time you visited with relatives?

My Mom – I visited her on July 9th (I remember the exact date because of the bathroom renovation was in it’s second week and I went to do my laundry to Mom’s on the Tuesday of that week!). My Mom visited me on Monday the 29th to see the new bathroom when it was ready.

I don’t remember the last time I visited my other relatives – these days we usually meet for a coffee in the town sometimes rather than go to each others homes. Seems easier this way and doesn’t require as much planning and work.

4. Do your relatives travel to visit you?

Nope. None of the relatives I see sometimes live far away. But we live around the same area/the same town and it’s about 30 minutes by car at most everywhere or 45-60 minutes by bus. That’s normal and not “travel”. My Dad’s brother and his wife used to travel to visit us (and us them) once or twice a year from Helsinki (about 2-2,5 hours away by car) back when I was a kid, and my Dad’s sister with her family from Harjavalta (about the same by car) but after Dad’s death we lost touch with that side of the family. I don’t think I’ve seen them since turning 20 and I’ll be 50 next so.

So Mom and I aren’t really close with any of our relatives except for each other, but it isn’t bad blood anything like that. Just life and circumstance and in a few particular cases, having to move to other cities to get work, that the relationships ended drifting apart over time. My Mom has said that we all lived very close to each other when I was a baby and so spent time together, and then there was also the grandparents who’d everyone visit for Christmas and holidays and birthdays and such and stayed in touch just simply seeing other because of that. But after the grandparents died and people moved further apart with random work schedules and seeing each other started requiring actual planning, a lot of those relationships just drifted apart overtime.

I don’t miss having closer relatives but my Mom would like to have a closer relationship with the only brother she has now here in Finland; she’s tried, but you can’t keep a relationship going all by yourself – it requires two, and he’s kinda busy and a kinda messy and Mom’s given up. My Mom also has siblings living in Sweden that she’s never met or known except for postcards and photos – the siblings were sent to Sweden as tiny toddlers for safety during the Winter War/Continuation War in the early 1940s before Mom was born, and never came back. I don’t actually know whether they were formally adopted or if it was another sort of legal arrangement (a lot of kids were sent to safety to Sweden, and it seems most of them didn’t return when the war was over), but essentially they have Swedish parents and were raised there as their own kids with their own kids, and are for all intents and purposes Swedish but with Finnish connections and background. I don’t think they’ve ever met their bio family after being sent to Sweden, but there’s regular yearly contact with postcards/letters and the occasional phone call.

5. How do you stay in touch with family: phone calls, email, snail mail, texts, other

I talk on the phone with my Mom 1-3 times a week and more often if something is going on, and we also WhatsApp each other several days of the week. Also e-mail but that’s more rare these days now that we’re using WhatsApp.

Facebook and WhatsApp with all the others.