Greetings February 06!

Dear Friends,

how are you doing? Very well I hope. My february-mail is a bit late, because I've been lazy with it :-)
Things are fine in my life and the winter/early Spring is just beautiful here. It is sunny and not very cold anymore. It is very nice to take walks outside, especially on the ice at Jyväsjärvi. Many people are skating and skiing there everyday.

Good things that have taken place since last time I wrote? Well, there was a cool techno-party at Ilokivi nearby. It was called This Is Not Ibiza. Few live-artists and dj's. I enjoy listening and dancing to good electronic-music! Maybe one day I learn to create that kind of music myself too!

I am still doing yoga and meditation regularly. In February there were two Meditation-evenings at Mandalatalo that I lead. Everyone near jyväskylä, you are very welcome to join us there. Previous experience is not essential to attend.
My yoga-practice is getting better. I have learned to not demand so much of myself and that has made the practice more enjoyable. This week I also tried Chi-Kung and enjoyed it very much. In a way, Chi Kung is not so intense and physical as yoga. It is more relaxed and meditative, this is not to say that one could not experience yoga as meditative of course.

There was also a basketball-tournament here at the University in February. The philosophy-department has been not been very victorious in terms of how many matches we've won in sport-competitions. But...this time is was different! We came third! And it was fun. I had not played basketball in a team before. I mean, this was not a pro-level tournament, but it was still very enjoyable to really go for it, to compete in a positive spirit. It was harder than I thought, but the more I played the more I got the hang of it. In the last games I even made a few points for the team.

I also went ice-swimming once last month. Very energizing experience! If you guys who don't live here come and visit me in the winter-time, I might dare you to try!

I completed few courses too. The philosophy of Science, Argumentation and Rhetorics and Psychology of Personality. I found the last one most interesting, although in the Argumentation-course I got to make an interesting presentation. I analyzed President Bush's this year's State of The Union-speech. I did not find many things from the speech that I was not already aware of, but the section that dealt with the energy-issues and oil-politics was quite interesting and even surprising. Check it out if you are interested from White House website for example.

I finished last night a good book. Paulo Coelho's 'Veronica Decides to Die'. It dealt with questions like What is madness? How many of us are really crazy here? What makes us lose our passion and will for Life and what makes us discover it again? I enjoyed that book. Despite the dark themes that it dealt with, I found the heart of that book to be warm and optimistic.

I am now working on the prelimenary-work for the movie-school that I am going to apply to. It's a bit like doing a small portfolio, except that they give you the topics. The topics are challenging but quite interesting. I hope that I am able to create a good body of work to send to them.

I wish you a joyfull and exciting month! I am always glad to hear from you, so email me or find me from messenger or Skype!
Lots of love to you dear friends everywhere,

Anssi