Tag: television

Bloganuary: Without sports life would be dull

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What are your favorite sports to watch and play?

Bloganuary 2024

I was always good at sports in school. My favourite was Finnish baseball (pesäpallo). It’s almost like baseball but doesn’t have a pitcher in the middle. I can’t explain it, so go and look at what it is. The other sport I liked was ice skating, but I haven’t done it in 30 years or so. I also did slalom skiing, but the same with that. The last time I did it was in 2011, but my mother got sick in 2012, and we didn’t do it anymore. I still have the gear but don’t know if I will ski again. I started to ski when I was 6 years old. We went to Lapland once a year to ski for a week. We had a cabin that my dad owned with some of his friends. When he sold his part of it, we went to a hotel. We went to Lapland for at least 30 years. It took about 13 hours to drive to the North of Finland. We won’t do it again because it’s tiring and stressful. Those were good times, though.

Now I only watch sports on television. My favourite sport is ice hockey. I’ve been to my local team’s games several times. Sometimes, they show their matches on the free channels, but I mostly listen to the games on the radio because if you want to watch ice hockey, you have to pay for them. Fortunately, it’s free to watch when Finland plays in the world championships and other international tournaments. I only follow the Finnish ice hockey league, so no NHL for me. Unless they show games with Finnish players. Watching ice hockey on site has a unique atmosphere. It feels like you’re with people with the same piece of mind. In Finland, there could be more noise in the ice rink, like in the NHL, but the fans are the only ones keeping the noise here. Without them, the rink would be quiet. But still, the atmosphere is different when you watch it at home. Watching sports on-site isn’t cheap, so all you can do is watch on television. But that’s better than no sport at all.

It is difficult to think what life would be like if there weren’t sports to watch. I also like to watch sports with excitement. I used to watch Formula One, but it has become boring. Consistently, the same teams and the same drivers win. All of my favourite drivers have retired, too. They also don’t show the races for free anymore. It has been like that for at least 10 years. My life used to surround it. I couldn’t do or go anywhere when there was a race weekend. When all of that stopped, I felt a relief. So, in a way, they did me a favour: the TV people and the people who make the rules in F1. I was free of all the restrictions that the sport had on my free time. I still plan my weekends on what sports are being shown on TV, but it doesn’t matter if I miss an event or don’t see it from the start. Watching motorsport like F1, you need to see the beginning because that’s the most exciting part. Some say motorsport is not a sport, but they don’t know how much the drivers do training during the off-season and how much strength they need to make it through the races. Not just anybody can fit into those cars. Unfortunately, with all those technical things those cars have these days, you don’t know who is the best driver.

If the question is, what is more interesting, summer or winter sport? I would say winter sports because there is more to choose from. But I also watch summer sports when Finns are competing. The Summer Olympics in Paris is this summer, so I’ll be watching some of that. Athletics mainly, but maybe something else. As long as it’s Finnish athletes. Supporting your country is the best thing about sports. Perhaps they don’t fight for the medals, but all the emotions that come with it are essential. Without sports, life would be dull. I’m glad I found the love for it. I wasn’t a big fan of sports the way I am today when I was younger. I watched some of it as a child, but that was only because my dad watched it. Now I think I know more about sports than he does. Just because I’m a girl doesn’t mean I don’t understand sports. A lot of females follow sports and know what it’s all about. It’s like anything in life; studying the subject lets you learn about things. It doesn’t matter what gender or sexuality you are. Sport is for everyone who likes it. You don’t need to understand it, but it helps. I’m tired of hearing some people think girls only watch sports because of the good looks of an athlete. There are those, too, but don’t fall for that stereotype nonsense. You’ll be surprised how much women know about sport. Even more than some men do.

I love watching sports; the only sport I do today is cycling. Everybody needs a hobby they like, and those are mine.

Bloganuary: Top 5 things I do for fun

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List five things you do for fun.

Bloganuary 2024

Always enjoy the things you do. It can be for fun, or it can be a job you do. Even if your friends and family don’t like the same things, don’t let your fun time fall into a black hole. It can sometimes be annoying that no one else likes the same things as you do. That’s how I feel when I meet new people. They never seem to have anything in common with me. But I enjoy doing things alone anyway. Here are my Top 5 fun things I like to do.

  1. Blogging
    • I blog for fun. I also want to become better at writing in English. Blogging is like having a diary; others can read it, too.
  2. Watching movies and TV series
    • I watched movies on TV, but there were too many commercials. I have Disney Plus, so I watch movies from there. I also go to the movies. The last time I went was last week. It was a preview for a Finnish movie. I mostly like watching old TV shows; it was when TV was good. I’m not fond of what is being shown on television today. I love comedies the most.
  3. Cycling
    • When my mother was alive, we used to take bike trips to different places, but now I do it alone. I only cycle 3 seasons (Spring, Summer, and Autumn). I also take the bike when I go to the grocery store or the centre. Even if I have a driver’s license, I still cycle. It’s good exercise.
  4. Writing fan fiction
    • I write Real Person fiction in English. I haven’t done it in a while. I have them on AO3 (Archive of Our Own). It’s a good exercise for storytelling and also for getting better at English. I’ve always had a good imagination.
  5. Surfing the Internet
    • Sometimes, I’m not looking for anything special. When I have a lot of time on my hands, I search for whatever pops into my head while surfing the Internet. Sometimes, I find things I can learn something from and find something I haven’t even thought of. The Internet can be exciting; you never know what you can find.

So that was my Top Five things I do for fun. I hope this post doesn’t fall into a black hole.

Bloganuary: What brings me joy

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Bloganuary: What brings you joy in life?

At the moment, getting rid of this flu would bring me joy the most. It’s getting better, but it’s not finished yet. Flu takes a lot out of you. The nights are the worst with all the coughing and phlegm in your lungs. I get a headache from all that coughing. I miss breathing and the taste of food. Now it tastes foul, but even that is getting better. Being ill makes you appreciate being well. All that matter is that it will be over soon.

Blogging and writing bring me joy. I’m always good at it in some ways. I prefer writing to talking because you have time to think when you write. If I say something, I often believe afterwards that I should have said it some other way, but then the situation is over. That’s one of the reasons why I fail at job interviews. I’m not verbal enough in conversations. But writing can also be frustrating. Especially when it’s challenging to find the right words to describe things. I have a love and dislike relationship with writing. Fiction goes better than fact writing. I couldn’t live without writing my thoughts down somewhere. I used to write a diary, and now I blog. The difference is that blogging is sharing with others, which brings me joy.

You can’t always stay inside. If I didn’t go somewhere, I would go crazy. I love going out for walks and taking long bike trips in the summer if it isn’t too hot. I can get away from the city and be alone. It’s relaxing, and I get back home, feeling I have done something. I can’t understand how certain young people can stay inside a year in and a year out. They only go out to go to the store or smoke on the balcony. I’m a homebody, but I want to be away from it once in a while. I don’t love my home that much. I feel joy when I get to explore my city on a bike. Some people get to the gym, and I take bike trips or long walks. That’s all the exercise I need. Nature is essential to me. It gives me strength. It’s good for your mental health.

Movies, television, and music are my escape from the real world. When we first got cable in 1987, I was hooked. My mother thoughts I was watching too much television at the time. Cable got everything; it was a dream come true to see music videos and all that stuff. Of course, we had TV channels before, but not until cable TV videos were nonexistent. It opened a whole new world, and I haven’t looked back. Before cable, we went to the theatres to see movies. I belonged to a movie club with my mother when I was a kid. They showed movies for kids. I have been fascinated by movies for a long time. I always watch the extras on DVDs about making movies. One of my first education was screenplay writing, and now I am studying filmmaking again. That’s how much I enjoy it.

The most joy is definitely watching sports on TV, especially if they win. Nothing beats the adrenaline sport gives you. Seeing a Finn winning or losing gives so many emotions. It got everything, drama, tears, happiness, disappointments and everything in between. My favourite sport is ice hockey. I’ve seen quite many games on the spot from our local team. The atmosphere is fantastic. It’s something you don’t get through the television. The best feeling is when your country wins championships in something, and the whole country has something in common for a change. Ice hockey is a significant sport in Finland. Last year we won our first gold in the winter Olympics and world championships at home. Half of the country went mad. Winning in ice hockey is probably the only time Finnish men cry. Sometimes the win celebrations get overboard. They break things and do silly things. That’s what too much alcohol does to some people, which is a shame since it should be about fun and not acting like jerks. That’s one of the downsides of watching sports.

Without all of this joy, life would be much duller. Doing something positive will do anyone good.