Life milestones imply some kind of change. For personalities as mine, a life milestones can be experienced as paradoxical moments. Let me explain. One works intensively hard for a period of time to reach successfully the specific milestone, and then at the particular moment to face the milestone it emerges: (i) the rejoice that the process is over, (ii) simultaneously diverse emotions connecting me with the efforts of the journey hold me to the moments before the change and (iii) feelings of nervousness of the unknown future are also present. It is so incredible intense!
Milestones remind me vividly that life only moves forward. Take the time that it takes to walk the personal path towards one’s milestone. Just never give up! No Sir. Life only moves forward.
What does the milestone submission mean? It means that Erkki said my thesis is ready, he assigned my reviewers and yesterday my dissertation was delivered in the faculty to start the process towards the end of my PhD journey. Wow!
walk until reach your milestone *
* Translation of the photo: NO! Never give up, the good things can soon show up.
A common question I hear is: why games are immersive?. If there is an answer, I believe it is not a simple one. Some game researchers respond to the previously stated question of immersion with the flow phenomena that is reported the players experience while playing.
However, I consider the question we should be asking ourselves is: why real life is not immersive?
Yes, newspapers offer a clear answer why real-life is not as appealing 🙁
But let’s be honest, when Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi researched the flow phenomena, he did not research games or players. Csikszentmihalyi’s research was based on individuals who are passionate doing what they like in their real life.
Perhaps because I live my life intense and I am playful in it, undoubtedly it is immersive 🙂 But I also know what is to avoid something, trying to be immersed elsewhere…. So, I wonder, are we making the proper question?
My memories tell me that I always have liked books. However, books for study are another issue. In my first semester on my first University (yes I have been in several of them 🙂 ) my Dad did something I will always be thankful for. He bought me ALL the books I needed for my studies that semester: the text books and the reference books. Crazy? perhaps. I bet they were no cheap. Also, I remember he told me something like: now you have all what you need for your studies, you cannot quit this semester.
At the time I was studying Electronic Engineering at ULSA. The first semester was very hard for me. It is the only semester I remember some part of the schedule: Monday, Wednesday and Friday my mornings were full: 7-9 Physics, 9-11 Calculus and 11-13 Algebra. Of course I had other lectures at the afternoon, and on Tuesday and Thursdays. But that triplet was unforgettable for me.
I must confess that my Dad did the correct and very intelligent thing getting me the books, because I recall that more than once, when I came back home after that triplet I was ready to quit. But then I looked to the books he bought me, they REALLY helped me to pass the courses and I felt supported by them. I must acknowledge I also had a very GREAT group of friends 🙂 . But the books played a role in no quitting that specific semester.
Since then, books related to my studies acquire a special meaning. It is as having wise people next to me, explaining me things. Books are just special.
My Dad turn to be an angel in 2011, and still I am digesting his transformation. In reference to his profession, he was a GREAT civil engineer and passionate learner. As you might imagine he had a very special library about his profession. We decided to canalise his library so it could support others to learn by spreading knowledge. Some books are actually gems in his field, according to diverse engineers.
My dad was active at the CENAPRED, and we decided they will be at charge of indexing the volumes and canalize them properly. They just reported us that my Dad donated 746 volumes. Wow! I am so PROUD of my Dad! and very thankful you for this knowledge-addiction that he somehow seed/share/promote with me.
No wonder why I love so much the books in my profession! 🙂 Now, I think I will start to share more about them.
Sr is BACK! 🙂 . It arrived via Matkahuolto, complete and sound 🙂 The service of Kampus Data Oy was very good, and I transferred the last backed-up data that I had to Sr from the time machine. Still I have to do some hand work with some of the data we were able to rescue before send Sr to Jyväskylä, but step by step. Here some photos of the story of re-activating Sr.
Arriving to Matkahuolto package in Joensuu to pick up Sr
Here it is, Sr is inside
Sr well packed
The ONLY thing I want to highlight is: Kampus Data installed Finnish OSX on Sr instead of English. Yes, I know how to change the language on my account, BUT I found interesting that apparently Macs have troubles dealing with languages.
Suomi - English
In anycase I am HAPPY that Sr. is back. I want to acknowledge that I have learned a lot of time management with the HP compaq nx 9005 that I had for somedays. Thank you HP! Now it is time to go back to work! 🙂
After working with Sr’s HD the whole Thursday evening and the complete Friday, we declare that Sr’s HD must be changed. For those who use apple computers might be aware that in emergency cases, as this one, one should contact a MacAuthorize Specialist to keep some warranty (yes a “luxury” of an expensive membership to Mac products). I am located in Joensuu, and the closest Mac Service Centre to my location is in Jyväskylä (~246 km away). Oh man! so we drove over six hours on Saturday only to bring Sr to an authorized “Mac Hospital”.
Driving from Joensuu to Jyväskylä @ ~7:30 am (road 23)
Kampus Data Oy - Closest Mac Authorized Centre to Joensuu
Someone could ask me why I did not send Sr via snail-post. I had two reasons to bring it personally: (1) I did not have the proper package to wrap Sr and (2) honestly I wanted to talk face-to-face with whom would be responsible of Sr.
Next Monday I should know what is going on with this story. I hope Sr is back home soon!
By the way, I am writing this post from an almost 10 years old laptop, compaq nx 9005, which is SLOW but working perfectly 🙂 . We looked for a newer laptop at the EdTech lab, but it is nothing available so, learning to work with the resources available. 🙂 Also I want to thank Mikko for all the support in this Mac adventure.
