On malice of things

My computer bricked. As in changed into an object as useful as a brick. The motherboard died.
I hinted the computer guy that there's the same laptop with a broken screen, maybe he could make one functional and one doubly useless laptop but there were some other issues so I ended up basically laptopless.
Some shuffling later, I got my dad's laptop, IT guy reloaded my mess including history, cookies and similar crap from Firefox and saved my various antiquated software (Adobe runs PhotoShop and InDesign from a cloud and I don't do clouds) for later use. The screen has worse definition makes some of the work applications pretty much useless but it's a working computer and everything went okay, even if PhotoShopless for a few days.
Then the computer bricked again. Dad said that I'm a dumbass, did some poking, prodding and revert-to-three-months-ago thing so bye bye stuff, had to reinstall the things like Adobe Reader or Libre Office, fished out the passwords and references from various places and I'm not allowed to touch any electronics until it's found out whether I bring bad luck or some such.

Since the Nasty Tendinitis of 2012, I use the mouse with my left. With the borrowed computer, I didn't bother to switch and it took less than a week for my recently treated left shoulder and mouseitis prone right wrist to start hurting. First thing today, I changed the rodent to its usual placement and I don't care if people call it weird.
Pics will come. I installed Corel Photopaint which sorta works but I don't know how but I'll find out. Kitty is growing, you know, and being as cute as kittens get.

Dear Ajasto: A5, wire-bound, one page per day

I'm a simple person. I hate to change shit that works.

To the category of shit that works, I used to count my Ajasto diaries. I got my first one umpteen years ago and it was perfect. Wire-bound so that I could flip the cover around and scribble while walking. One page per day, which provided me with enough space to scribble. A5 format which is good for scribbling and pressing smaller plants. And, the Ajasto stuff is cute.

I used to ask Juha and Kata to go and spend the 17-ish euros for my diary and I'd mail them some wine and stuff. So, I wanted to pick my diary, I checked the Ajasto website and... nothing. They just stopped making my good old reliable diary.

Call me annoying but this sort of diary works for me perfectly well. Why should I settle for Erm, this is not exactly offensive?

I checked the internetz. Nothing. I asked my friends in surrounding countries to check the local stationeries in case they bumped into the A5, wire-bound, one-page-per-day thingy but apparently, none exist in Austria, Czech Republic, Finland, Sweden and probably in a few other countries as well, haven't heard back from some people yet.

For the time being, I'm using an excuse for a diary that was added to some fashion magazine and left behind by a guest, it's good enough for random notes but it's not a diary proper.

Dear Ajasto, I acquired my first diary of yours back in 2009 at Hedergrens in Stockholm because it was, apart from the A5 and one page per day, which was my usual standard, it was pretty. I didn't care about the wire-bound back, it was you who made me discover the advantages. That diary for 2010 had a pattern of irises on the binding and said Kunglig hovleverantör. I know I'm not King of Sweden, I'm just a potty-mouthed blogger from somewhere south, but I fell for your diaries and stuck to them until 2013. I would use your diaries forever but you don't have them any more and one week per two pages is not enough for me.

I have a friend who works in advertising. I guess I'll resort to last resort and buy a random hard-bound diary and I'll have it re-bound, she'll be able to make it work.

Call me crazy or stuck in past or useless for the modern world whose other name is Change. I don't care. I want a diary that serves as a notebook which I can flip out on the top of a hill to scribble that I saw an exciting plant and then press said plant in the diary.

Getting lost.

I always prided myself on my orientation abilities bordering with geniality. I wouldn't get lost nearly anywhere, be it a city or a forest, with the notable exception of Venice, which is understandable, and Stockholm, namely downtown Stockholm, where I actually had problems finding myself for most of my previous stay.. and the first thing I did was that I went somewhere and supposed to be going in the opposite direction.

There's something elusive about Stockholm. Many years ago, I remember having read a detective story that happened there, with all the neighbourhood names like Solna or Nacka sounding like a strange incantation and I remember my surprise on finding out that Södermalm is actually an island. And the street plan just puzzles me somehow.

Florence has a twisted street plan, too. Literally.
Florentia was located as a Roman colony, the colonies had a grid but the main axis followed some local logical line, in this case, the Arno. Only later on, the actual town was located, this time on the grid that followed the north-south and east-west axes. As a result, most of Florentine streets follow a grid but it is not immediately apparent that there are two grids. To add a bit of confusion, the fifth line of city walls formed a polygon, now there go the grandi viali and the neighbourhood streets are parallel or perpendicular to the adjacent viale so going from the center towards the edge, one may feel that they go straight ahead or at least moreless so... to find themselves lost.
I needed to read a treatise on urbanism of Florence and stare in the maps for quite a while but since then, I always knew where I was and where to go. Apparently, I need a book on urbanism of Stockholm.

I ventured out - I wonder whether it's really a social phobia or something or whether I'm lazy but I have problems dragging myself out to wander into unknown. It's not that bad as dominocat describes (I really like that blog), I usually manage somehow, it just feels very very uneasy. At least I manage to make myself comfortable with a place by simply walking it up and down... which doesn't work too well when the blistery thing on my heel is still oozing something.

Damn.

Circulus vitiosus

That's really horrible.
I wanted to find something about Acqua di Genova and the sixth Google result is my blog. It feels really awful that in order to find some information, one is bound to create it first.
I'd suspect nearly the same about FSSA but I'm not going to try.