Will probably take a little break

So for the last... dunno, to be honest, many years I have blogged at least every three days. 

Now I need to adjust that a little. I'm no longer studying and I'm no longer working from home, so I don't have the same time and access to a personal computer anymore.

Instead I have a workload of totally 56 hours/week, and *drumroll* we are moving!

We just signed the papers today and hope we can move in soon. Within two weeks with a little luck.

The hair is still there, being long. It's just me that will probably be pretty occupied mentally with the new apartment and the new job for a while.

Funnily, this is my 1500th post on my blog! 

Updates

So... I got the job.

Pay negotiations are done, benefits negotiations are done.

But I have some drama from my current job, since they don't want me to go.

Right now I'm at a weird point where new work is willing to let me get away with 32 hours/week (4 workdays) even though they asked for 37, and old/current work is willing to let me go down to 24 hours/week (2 workdays) just so both places can keep me. It's weird to be so wanted.

I'm honestly thinking of saying yes to that offer.

Pros

Old/current job has the best pay (by far) and a workload that is really easy. 

New job has the awesome title that will look showy on my CV, and it will be a fun challenge to fill the position.

Cons

Old/current job has the worst administration I have ever experienced. Seriously.

New job is located on the "wrong" side of main Copenhagen, so I will want to move closer as soon as possible (We have talked about this for years, so it's not really something new as such)

What would you guys do?

So... Now what?

Now that I'm done with school (For now. I could see myself returning at a later point) I find myself at this mildly weird point. For so long I have run the blog more or less on auto pilot because I haven't had the energy to get really creative. But now I have all this time freed up.

...At least for a few months, since by the time this post goes up I'm in the middle of a job interview for a job that I'm slightly overqualified for degree-wise, but will land me at more of a boss role than I've ever done before and I'm slightly underqualified for (lol) And since I'm not sure I'm mentally prepared to leave my current job, I will see if I can do both with current job maybe at part time.

So... Now what?

I have a bunch of notes and saved up pictures for inspiration I would like to work though. Some of them are embarrassingly old and have been stuck in my "inspo"-folder for ages.

I'd like to make a few more videos: I was thinking of a "Professional updos for the superbusy superlonghair", I would like to make a few more basic updo videos for superlong hair and I would really, really like to make a hair edition of Stella Jang's Colors song (Which would take a crazy amount of planning, time and effort, but would be super cool!) 

And I could see myself having some sort of "Summer of love" plan, since I haven't made a real, conscious and planned effort for my hair health for ages. 

But... What else?

And yep, that's what I'm asking you guys: Now what? 

What do you like to see, what do you like to read or watch? What can I do that the other longhairs in the longhair circuit doesn't do?

Captain's log

Almost six hours ago I turned in the final project for my last degree. And I. Am. So. Tired. Holy shit. The last semester has been awful and I have felt tired and crappy the entire time. But now it's done. Over.

....Unless I fail.

Follow me around

 

Follow me around

 

Follow me around

 

Follow me around: Thursday

I just don't have the energy to try this again. Sorry to those who cared.

Follow me around: Tuesday

Follow me around: Monday

Bye 2020!

...The end of 2020, that is. And good riddance!

What a massively annoying year.

I guess we are lucky that our lives were affected as little as it was. My work is essential, so life went on as usual for me. Some of my classes were converted to online lectures, that's all. I'm not particularly social by nature, so I kept seeing my usual little circle of friends when I have time. Since the Swedish gyms were never locked down, we kept training as usual.

Mr. Igor however has a little IT business and works in search engine optimization, and he works with clients dealing in luxury goods. He got so few orders this year, I couldn't even be bothered to ask him to pool his money with mine for the household. Yikes. I actually feel very ambivalent about this: On one hand, I find it absolutely barf-worthy that there are people out there that can and will spend more money on a single, unnecessary luxury item than I make in one year. On the other hand, destroying this niche industry doesn't affect the rich people who buy the items, it hurts the people who carve out a living in a niche created by capitalist demand. 

Luckily, we do just fine on my salary alone and haven't had to cut down on anything. Others aren't so lucky, so we feel privileged we have that option.

I think the only thing that really, truly was different, is that I was supposed to have has my foot fixed by now. By this point in time, I should have been through the surgery, through the 3 months in a cast, done with the 3+ months in a boot and probably more or less done with rehabilitation. I have no clue when it might be in the future. It's frustrating. Everything was planned out with work and school. 

Also we were supposed to go see the ballet Swan Lake back in.... April? And it has been pushed ahead like 7 times now, with the current date set to May next year. What a weird year.

But the important part is, that no one we know got sick and no one we know have died. Since Mr. Igor's mother has both a lung disease and an immune system disease, we count ourselves lucky.

But this has been a weird year for sure. I don't think anyone will miss it.

So... I've been doing a post like this on and off for some years, so here goes...

Best reads

I have always loved dinosaurs. I thought I would "grow out of it" at some age, but nope. Still love them. My favorites are the massive sauropods for also appealing to my geeky side: How did they manage to grow so massively large? How did the meat machine work with such heavy weight? And for that matter, how did they even manage to get enough nutrition to grow that large? How did they keep from overheating?

Enter Biology of the Sauropod Dinosaurs: Understanding the Life of Giants

This book is everything I ever wanted about sauropods. Seriously. I can't recommend it enough!

/Geekgasm

Worst reads

Nuking the moon. This book baffles me. How do you take a bunch of events like this and just make it... Boring? 

Listverse, The Chive, Bored Panda etc. can do it, why can't this book? 

Am I missing something? Is the authors way of expressing himself just completely incompatible with my humor? 

Best TV

I honestly can't chose: The Boys or The Expanse.

The Boys managed to take one of my favourite comic books ever and just make it way, way better. 

The Expanse managed to take one of my favourite books ever and just make it way, way better. 

Nope, can't chose. I love both.

Worst TV

Watchmen. Yikes. So, I can basically say the same about the Watchmen movie as I said about The Boys: It managed to take one of my favourite comic books ever and just make it way, way better (Going for an Occam's razor/Chekov's gun and framing Dr Manhattan as the enemy, since he was going to leave earth anyways was just brilliant) So naturally I was interested in the series. But nope, couldn't even get through the first episode. And that was after getting the Dr Manhattan twists spoiled and being genuinely curious to see it pulled off. Nope. Boring.

Honorable mention

Some times it can be a huge disappointment to revisit a childhood favourite. Because, obviously, you were a child back then, and your taste have developed and refined. 

But not always.

Swat Kats is still freaking awesome. Two seconds into the intro guitar and I feel twelve years old again, and everything is awesome because Swat Kats is on Cartoon network playing on the Blu-ray. 

I loved this show. I still do. 

Back then, I wanted to be Felina Feral, capable action-girl. Instead I have ended up more like Callie Briggs, equally capable, just minus the action part. Heh. 

(I also might have wanted to learn to weld just because T-bone looked so damn cool doing it in the season 2 intro. Don't judge) 

Dishonorable mention

Some times it can be a huge disappointment to revisit a childhood favourite. 

Some times your changing world view also changes how you see a show.

I think I was like... 17? When I first encountered Daria, and thought it was the smartest show on TV. I idolized Daria. I wanted to be her.

Now?

She's a mean person. A pseudo-intellectual female neckbeard. Really awful to people who are trying to be nice to her. An disloyal friend. A slacktivist of the worst kind: Expecting everyone else to fight her battles for her while she makes mean comments hidden behind a book. Judgmental to people who don't actually deserve it. 3edgy5me.

Basically almost everything I hate in current year, rolled up in an entitled little package. 

Some times you change and grow, some times the times force you to grow. 

Luckily, I borrowed a friends collection before buying it myself, otherwise it would have ended up as 2020's worst purchase. 

Best purchase

I got the Plantronics Poly BackBeat FIT 3200 for the gym, but they have basically become my favorites for everything non-commute related. These are really good, and the little charging station/holder is a convenient one too. I like that I can have one in my ear and the other one charging, instead of the massive headsets I usually wear.

I replaced my old phone with the Nokia 8,3 and have been really happy with it. It's just a good, nice phone. But hey, it get's a coolness factor point for being a Nokia instead of the Samsung's and Apple's that everyone else seems to have.

Worst purchase

Probably the tickets to the Swan Lake. lol. Once we actually get to go, I will probably have forgotten about them. 

Today's hair

Spent a little time in the fading autumn light in the city park today. It will probably be the last day I can do this.

Updo Series September: An introduction

 

Today's hair

Double braided Chinese buns made out of five strand braids

So whats up with Igor?

I had a long moment of self pity over how incredibly screwed everything is because of the Corona virus. I felt genuinely sorry for myself, even though my work is essential, stable and continues as planned, even though my school continues as planned (Just might be online again this autumn like it was this spring) and even though no one I know has gotten sick.

I still have no idea when I will hear something new about my surgery. Still postponed, that's all I know. By now I really just want to get it over with. I'll make another video once I do.

Strangely, I find the Buffdudes road to recovery playlist very useful even though it's a planned surgery versus an accident. If I plan for it correctly and take my recovery process seriously, everything will be well eventually.

Anyways. We don't dare to count on travelling anywhere any time soon, especially since we have two different nationalities and there are a lot of differences in what different nationalities can do in which countries, and it seems to change on a daily basis.
We can't even really go anywhere here in Sweden because they banned you from travelling over two hours away from where you live (And no, we have absolutely no clue how they think they can check, calculate and judge that either).
Even local summer events has been drastically reduced.

To do something useful with our time, mr Igor signed up for an advanced programming course and I picked up another work #2 since old work #2 went under in the Corona crisis.

I might have overdone it though. Good thing we have a planned trip to Læsø in week 38 and 39 coming up. I need something pleasant to look forward to.
This is what my calendar looks like now:

      

Colour codes
Light blue: Work #1
Dark blue: Work #2
Orange: Things I do voluntarily, but isn't really fun
Red: Fun stuff
Yellow: School

But what can I do for fun this summer?
What is there to do for dopamine and seratonin?
Of course there is always food and snacks, but that's a pretty bad strategy.

Then I thought of one of my favorite things in this world: Christmas calendars. Which I have posted about on this blog way too much.

But surely, there will be no Christmas calendars left over on the market in July.
Would there?

The answer might not surprise you.
Since, obviously yes, otherwise I wouldn't have made a post about it.

On a site called parfumdreams, I found three different ones and I bought them all.
Verveine Advent Calendar by L'Occitane
For Her Advent Calendar by Alcina
Xmas Advent Calendar by Alessandro

Except for the L'Occitane calendar, I've never heard of the brands before.

But hey, this is a little bit of fun every day, that doesn't involve calories or leaving the safety of my home for unnecessary trips. I'm going to open one on the 1st to the 24th for the next three months.

Follow me around

I made this video as a test before the covid issues exploded. I never really intended to use this, but since so many things are different now, I'll show it anyways. This is for my preparation work for phase 1.

How are you all doing with the covid-issues?

I hope everyone are well, and not going crazy from being locked up at home?

I'm sort of, kind of, okay.

My classes are now all online, but I continue having to go into work. So that's really weird.

And yes, I'm one of the weirdos in the masks on the trains. People can be nasty and gross even under normal circumstances, so I'm not taking any chances. Although I don't worry about me, I have people around me who have compromised immune systems.

The Danish lockdown isn't a problem because of my citizenship and being essential personnel.The ID check in Kastrup is really smooth and problem free, but for some bizarre lack of reason and logic, Skånetrafiken decided to stop all trains in Malmö, so now I have to change trains there. It's massively annoying because there seems to be no logic and no reasoning behind it. Leave it to Skånetrafiken to make a mildly annoying situation worse!

My surgery was cancelled. It was supposed to have been this Monday, as in tomorrow.
We kind of saw it coming, but I kept hoping that Sweden would continue its singular, stubborn refusal to take the same measures as pretty much the rest of the world.
When they called about the cancellation, I spent the rest of that day on the couch being insufferably pouty and feeling sorry for myself.

It would have been perfect: I could have squeezed in an obligatory 5 ECTS point class (Which is half the work load of the regular classes) in the work free sick leave period. I would then only need the final project, and I could have finished half a year early. But no such luck.

Booh.

So I should just "Hold onto the descutan" until I get another date.
I'm supposed to wash my hair once and my body three times with these, 12 hours apart. I don't even need to analyse the ingredient list to know that my scalp and skin will be absolutely miserable and crackly dry after this. Sigh. You know you're a skincare nut when this is something you worry about and it doesn't pale in comparison to the surgery itself!

Mr Igor only managed the first few lines of the description of the surgery before declaring he didn't want to know. Welcome to the club, Mr Igor! 

I had done really well up to then too: Been on a workout and diet routine to build strength and lose weight. Having to carry all your weight on one leg and a set of crutches is seriously hard, so more strength and less weight would make everything easier.
Especially for the recovery process where I'll get back to putting some weight on a foot that haven't carried any for 6 weeks.

I've gone up 10 kg in pretty much all my lifts. I lost 5½ kg and 3½ % body fat in two months.

But with the surgery cancelled, all I could think was "Screw this! I will eat everything!"

It took a lot of willpower to not just ruing everything I have done the last two months. After having done so well for so long with workouts and calorie counting!

Awesome, filling, protein rich breakfast.
(This is so filling it keeps me from snacking before lunch)
80 g avocado: 128 kcal and 2 grams of protein
50 g chicken bacon: 55 kcal and 6 gram of protein
20 g chorizo: 85 kcal and 5 gram of protein
50 g egg: 75 kcal and 6 gram of protein
45 g meatballs: 117 kcal and 6 gram of protein
20 g tomatoes: 5 kcal
110 g turkey bacon: 143 kcal and 19 gram of protein
Small amount of oil for frying
Total: 608 kcal and 44 grams of protein

Awesome work lunch: Mozzarella and tomato salad, blueberries and strawberries.
200 g tomatoes: 50 kcal and 1 gram of protein
125 g mozzarella: 260 kcal and 23 grams of protein
Small amounts of red onion, spring onions and basil
50 g blueberries: 30 kcal and 1 gram of protein
50 g strawberries: 15 kcal and 1 gram of protein
Total: 355 kcal and 26 grams of protein

Pink is body weight, grey is body fat.
I'm 173 cm or 5´8" tall.

February 4th: 65,7 kg and 23,2 % BF (That is 143 lbs for those who use pounds)
March 28th: 60,1 kg and 19,7 % BF (That is 132 lbs for those who use pounds)

I've never weighed myself this often before, so I actually found myself being very fascinated by this. Of course I always assumed I would have some period bloat, but seeing it in the graph is pretty interesting. And seeing the graph going crazy around the last weeks before I turned my semester project in was... Thought provoking. LOL. Snacking in frustration versus forgetting to eat regularly because I was on a roll, really made my weight jump all over the place!

My pity party over the cancelled surgery isn't entirely over yet, but I'm trying to work through it.

Well. At least I haven't cut my hair in boredom!

Hair and Fuerteventura

Mr Igor and I really enjoyed Fuerteventura. It was very windy and very much a desert island, just like we had been "warned", but it was very enjoyable.

Impressive nature, so much history, really great food and a constant pleasant warmth in the air. Not too much, not too little.

I honestly didn't think it was possible that one island could have so many different types of beaches!
Golden sand, black sand, red sand, grey sand, beige sand... And let's not forget about the popcorn beaches! We found two smaller deposits along the beach in Corralejo and of course the bigger, famous one a 5 km hike away.

I did my best at protecting my hair from the near-constant sun and wind with SPF, protective styles and headwraps in different styles.

Of course the access to really nice pools and a really nice spa didn't make it better. 

I could feel how dry my skin got from the chlorine...

But still... Worth it!

But the real problem was with the water in the pipes. The water in Fuerteventura is seawater, with the salt removed and treated somehow. I've been trying to find any actual data on how it's been treated and what is left in the water, but with no luck. All I can say is that it smelled... Strange.
Something slightly like chlorine, except not. Almost sort of like ozone. I think it was mostly the smell that bothered me about it, my skin and hair seemed surprisingly okay. A little dry, but that was to be expected. No major hissyfits from either the diva Hair or the chaotic mental patient I call my skin.

One thing is subjecting my skin and hair to wind, sand in the wind, sunlight and poolwater, but not being able to get rid of it by washing in good, clean water? Not good. I seriously considering using some of our bottled drinking water for it, but that felt like too much trouble. I figured I should just enjoy the vacation and deal with it once I got back home to our super clean, very natural water instead. My hair should bounce right back after a treatment or two.

We met JP and Sue of JP in Fuerteventura
(First shoutout at the timestamp. We're not featured in the video though)
Wonderful, sweet people!

 

I also met my nemesis!
Complete with creepy, unblinking eyes in his poop-emoji-shaped face, boxing glove-hands and kneeless legs with webbed feet.

Ridiculous longhair problem #72, part II

I have complained about headphones versus buns before, and now I will do it again!

But first: A rant
One of the things that really bugs me is when people replace things because they want the newest model in something.
Especially when people replace a functional item with "Ultra green eco friendly eco-eco-eco-green-whatever item" and then argue it's better for the environment. No, you were just tricked into consuming something that you otherwise wouldn't have bought by a unscrupulous company. And you are a slacktivist of the worst kind too.
Consume something when it needs replacement or the next model has a function you want, don't replace something just to have a newer model. Or, buy what you want, when you want, but don't lie to yourself and others about it.

Basically, this:

Mr Igor an I were actually the last people I know of who had an old fashioned fat screen TV. It worked, and we weren't missing any functions, so why should we replace it? Eventually Mr Igor's mother took offense to it and bought us a plasma TV because apparently she couldn't stand the thought that we had such an old fashioned TV. Meh.

Anyways.

I love good headphones. I spend quite a long time during my workdays on public transportation trying to drown out other people's noises and I want good sound on my music. I also can't stand having the headphones resting on my ears, so I want good, noise-cancelling around the ear headphones. My headphones get a lot of use, and a lot of wear and tear from weather and going in and out of backpacks. So I want to spend a good amount of money on quality ones.
But, since everything seems to break the day after the two year warranty goes out, it puts a limit to how much I want to spend. So I usually buy the high, but not very high end models. I like Sennheiser, V Moda and Bang & Olufsen.

But wanting my headphones big enough to not rest on my ears creates a problem with space: Especially braided Chinese buns are a problem, but basically any bun that is nice and flat will have to compete for space on my head.

For some years I have wanted to switch to Bluetooth MP3 players, but since both my wired MP3 player and headphones have worked perfectly, I haven't decided to switch. But then my wired Sennheiser headphones died in the left ear, and left me with two options:
1) Replace the wired Sennheiser with another wired headphone or
2) Replace both the wired MP3 player and wired headphones

Although I dislike replacing the functioning MP3-player (See rant above), I decided to go with option #2.

Since I was trying something new, I fell for an in-ear headset just for the design: Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H5.

Unfortunately they immediately proved why I prefer the massive around-the-ear models. They just don't fit into my ears and end up slipping out slowly. I ended up bringing them to work where they function as my "Go away, I'm busy"-signal.

And here is a fun and unexpected function of a hair fork: They can be used to anchor earphones in place:

When you leave the connecting wire to the earphones to rest on your shoulders, it seems to create more interference with the fit. "Lifting" it off the shoulders limits the problem.

So, that was a bit of a fail and I went back to look for the big around-the-ear models. The next headphones I got was Bose QuietComfort 35 QC35 II.

This model won a bunch of awards for the sound and felt really comfortable in the store. No contact  with my ears and felt very soft.

Since I was in the middle of my little "picky fit", I also fell for the wireless V Moda Crossfade II Codex Edition.

I really like V Moda. They are super comfortable and there is something about the designs that I really like. And they have previously proven to be just as tough as they advertise them to be.
If I had a family shield or a cool blogger logo or something, I would get it engraved on the headphone shields!

But how about the space-issue with my buns?
My old V Modas were the same size, and also left me with issues with some updos.

Comparing the Bose QuietComfort 35 QC35 II with my old gold standard, the Sennheiser around-ear model PXC 480:

The Sennheisers are 10,5 cm long, 7,5 cm wide at the widest and the earcup cushion is around 20-25 mm wide.
The Bose are 10 cm long, 8 cm wide at the widest and the earcup cushion is around 20 mm wide.
The Bose model is noticeably rounder, where the Sennheiser has an almost triangular shape.

The wireless V Moda Crossfade II Codex Edition looks awesome. Just the box it comes with feels so much more study and interesting than the Bose.

Comparing the V Moda Crossfade II Codex Edition with the Sennheiser around-ear model PXC 480:

The Sennheisers are 10,5 cm long, 7,5 cm wide at the widest and the earcup cushion is around 20-25 mm wide.
The V Moda are 9 cm long, 7,5 cm wide at the widest and the earcup cushion is around 20 mm wide.
The V Moda model has the hexagonal shape like all of the models, where the Sennheiser has an almost triangular shape.

Comparing some measurements
Sennheiser: 10,5 cm long earcups
Bose: 10 cm long
V Moda: 9 cm
The length is not really an issue when it comes to having room for my updos, but it is interesting that there is such a difference between the brands.

Sennheiser: 7,5 cm wide earcups
Bose: 8 cm wide
V Moda: 7,5 cm
The Bose model feels noticeably wider than the Sennheiser and V Moda, but I think it's more the difference in shape than the actual measurements? The Sennheiser has an almost triangular shape and the V Moda has the brands hexagonal shape, where the Bose is oval. Without knowing anything about ear anatomy, I think the most logical shape belongs to Sennheiser, since I think most ears are slightly egg shaped and wider near the top? Also kind of interesting that there is so little difference in width of the earcups when there is 1,5 cm difference in the length,

Sennheiser: 2-2,5 cm wide foam earcups
Bose: 2 cm wide
V Moda: 2 cm
I think the Sennheiser being wider is probably more to do with being worn and the cushion getting squished with wear?

Sennheiser: 230 g weight
Bose: 240 g
V Moda: 315 g
It's crazy how much heavier the V Moda feels even though it's just 85 g heavier than the Sennheiser which was the lightest model. But of course this is 37% heavier, so I guess that's the noticeable part?

Also a fun little comparison:
Bang & Olufsen is a Danish company and was founded in 1925, so it's the oldest company of them at a grand old 94 years old.
Sennheiser is a German company and was founded in 1945, so it's 74 years old.
Bose is an American company and was founded in 1964, so it's 55 years old.
V Moda is an American company was founded in 2004, so it's the youngest company of them at just 15 years old.

The V Moda's in action on my way to work. It feels a little like "cheating" because my hair is in two vertically stacked braided buns, which is one of the more narrow updos in my repertoire. But maybe this proves my point since this is such a narrow updo and it still doesn't leave a whole lot of space.