Yay! :)

Finally I can officially share this information, and I'm glad to tell you that our team got 2nd place in 2011 Biomimicry Student Design Challenge! :) I could never believe that we'll be in top3, as we're from Latvia and there are so many better countries, but here we are :) Big congratulations to three persons of our team, who really spent so much time on this project - Anna, Anta and Edgars!

`Using the desert snail as inspiration for their design, a team of students from the Art Institute of Isfahan in Iran took the top prize of $5,000 in the third annual Biomimicry Student Design Challenge, organized by the Biomimicry 3.8 Institute. The team conceived of a building that makes use of self-shading, surface reflection, and insulation to create a livable habitat rather than relying on air conditioning. The second place award of $1,500 went to a team from the University of Latvia for a sunlight-induced shading system that mimics how flowers and stomata open and close. The third place prize of $750 went to a team from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. They designed click-on facade panels that can insulate existing buildings using snow. A Norwegian team from Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences won the Autodesk Sustainability Award, a $500 prize for showcasing how resources from the Autodesk Sustainability Workshop were utilized in their design process.`
You can read about projects (short descriptions), who got prizes here. I thought team from Sweden would win (I liked their idea the most), but they were just third.
Have a nice day! ^^

Magic winter ^^

Today is so great ^^ It's snowing so beautifully outside :) Days when I can say I'm happy are like these - when you can walk through loads of fresh, white snow and smile like crazy, even though all the others walk around, trying to put their hats all over the face to avoid snow. And look at you like you're a bit strange.

And this song is stuck in my head right now. I even was singing it loud while walking at my district (fortunately there were nobody to hear my `good` singing :D )

*of course, it's Nightwish, what else can you expect from me, lol*

Last Friday one of my course-mates went to university, wearing T-shirt with Nightwish, he came in during ecology lecture, and I was like `heeey, Juri, you have a shirt with Nightwish?!` :D Teacher looked a bit surprised :D And I was reading lyrics on his shirt all lecture :)

"Tuck me in beneath the blue
Beneath the pain, beneath the rain
Goodnight kiss for a child in time
Swaying blade my lullaby..."

And two photos from today - we had laboratory works at plant physiology, me & Sandra were working with cannabis plant :)

Have a nice day! :) I'll go to learn plant physiology a bit, have my first test on Thursday :/

Latvia's Golden Talents

Hey! :)

Today just a quick post. Last Sunday I attended Latvia's Golden Talents show, as my best friend Linda was participating there. Was fun & interesting, although I don't like this kind of shows (especially Latvian), and this time all ten contestants were really good.

So, photos & video, where she's playing her violin.

All contestants (all except two guys), who got at least two stars and people could vote for them.

Photo from delfi.lv, on the left are Mārtiņš, Evita, Samata and Krista (part of Linda's & mine friends).

Photo from kasjauns.lv, Linda and us.

I know it wasn't perfect (there were also problems, as she wanted to play with her group, but people from the show didn't let her, then song was too short etc.), but for me she's still the best ^^
Three contestants got into the semi-finals, and they were Ultimate Jump (dancers), Daniela Rozmisa (9 y.o. storyteller) & Agita Gabranova (singer). To watch videos, press on their names ;)
Have a nice evening! ;)

Hello! :)

It's almost 1 a.m., and I'm not sleeping again. Instead of it, I'm listening to different bands from my `must listen sometimes more songs` list. There are 19 bands, 11 of them are from Finland, 5 from Sweden, 12 are melodic death metal bands, rest of them - folk/viking/pagan/black metal. What this winter has done to me? :D *at least I'm now listening to Made Of Hate, and they're not Finns, they're from Poland*

Today I promised again to my teacher, that I will come to him to talk about my course work. Now I have feeling that I won't write anything until 15th May, when everything has to be finished and handed in. Someone has to sit next to me and tell me after every five minutes `write!!!` :D

Ahh, and tomorrow (or today already) there will be referendum about making Russian language second official. I don't like to talk about it, as it's politics, but I'm fed up with all these commercials, leeflets, tweets and videos about it. There will never be so many people to vote for it, so everyone could just chill out, not making a tragedy out of this. But everyone keeps talking about Latvian culture, traditions and so on - one of the things that I can't understand in this world is why people have to make big problems of nothing, rather than solve the small ones, which lead to these big. I'll better shut up.

Something positive - photos from Wednesday party with my best friend Linda & my university girls. Now no parties for me until May & finished course work! :D

Me & Linda ar Četri Balti Krekli

Guys from Germany :D Was `great` to talk with them with my `knowledge` of German language :D

And this one looks like Edward from Twilight (maybe not so much at photo, but in reality it was so funny :D )

Stay positive ^^ And I think I must finally go to sleep now.

Photopost: Ice Sculptures, Jelgava 2012

As I promised, I'll show you photos of ice sculptures I took yesterday in Jelgava. It was so cold, that at the end my hands were shaking so much, I couldn't even take normal photos :D

This year's theme of a festival was `Mystery`. Enjoy! ^^

Universe

Author: Alexey Verbitskiy (Russia)

New study semester

Hi to everyone! :)

I think I must apologise now for the fact that I will write soooo rarely here until summer begins. I so much wanted this study year, but it seems like it would be harder than all the previous. I never thought we would have so many tests (I counted more than 30 in 16 study weeks). And also our botany teacher decided to try something new this year - we'll have to write about some plant species, make a list of plants growing in a territory she will show us, write many many pages about all plants growing in Latvia (it will help us later, she says) and learn about 400 Latin names of plants and how they look like. Also ecology teacher said that we'll have to write about plant or animal species (about 15 pages). And there will be so many homeworks in biometry (we are working with a program named `R`, where nobody understands anything). And finally - my course work, for which I haven't even started to analyze literature.

This was the first week, and I even now feel like a zombie - at 9 p.m. I already want to sleep so much :D But I'll make it, I just like to complain sometimes :D

Photos from Evita's birthday (28.01)

And it's just a month now until Nightwish ^__^ And tomorrow I will go to Jelgava to see ice sculptures (as last year), so new photos with them coming soon.

I hope you're having a wonderful time, my dear readers :)

Bye for now! :)

Photopost: Riga Zoo

As I promised, I'll finally show you photos from Riga Zoo I took in April, May & September 2009 :)

It's so cold outside now, and I have sore throat, so I haven't been out for 4 days :/ And I'm just sitting and watching photos from this season's F1 cars presentations & reading about them. Caterham was first at 26/01, then McLaren (01/02), Ferrari & Force India (today). Can't wait for next Tuesday, as this study semester will finally begin - I'm tired from doing nothing, and when I can afford it, I'm becoming so lazy, that I hate myself for it (but I'm so lazy already that I can't change anything :D ). Yeah, and also I can't wait for 10/03 ^___^

Hope you enjoy photos :) (press `Uzzināt vairāk` to see the rest of them)

Hi :)

Finally all my exams are over & I can relax a little and maybe write here a bit more :)

First of all I wanted to tell you that our team at biomimicry project is one of 12 finalists (together 50 teams submitted their works) ^^ Of course, that doesn't mean anything, as final results will be announced at the end of February, but still - we are better than many other teams. If you're interested, here is a link to a page with finalists, our project is with a picture of flowers (surrounded with a red line at the picture below). If you press at the picture of any project, short summary about it appears.

And also I was with my friends from university at the zoo last week (as the entrance costs only 1 Ls after 4 p.m.). Of course, it's not a best time for taking photos, but we had much fun :)

Nice feeling when little pigs are chewing your hand ^^

Giraffes ^___^ This one is Piks :)

I love how their eyes are glowing because of flash :D

Such a funny frog :D

Polar owl

I would like to keep this snake in my house, as it's so beautifully green ^^ *and it's always sitting like this on a branch*
Maybe soon I'll write a post about our zoo with more pictures I took in summer few years ago, as I have time now :)
And all of you know what this video means ^^ Raikko yesterday drove an F1 car again after two years break. I'm getting crazy about F1 again, more than last two years.

Have a nice day! :)

Happiness ^^

Hey! :)

How do you do, my dear readers? :) I'm so happy that after this day I have just one exam left in this January session :) Today I passed physiology, I really thought it would be much harder [as I learned all this amount of information just for two days], but I got the easiest questions in my opinion and could answer everything. And also biochemistry was a gift - I knew maybe 10 questions out of 50, but somehow guessed many others and got 9 in the end :) And also I have 9 at vegetation & soil and German, so nice :)

And snow is also a great gift - I really thought we will have no winter this year, but now it's a bit below zero and snow is there for few days ^^

And I also was crazy enough to buy a ticket to Nightwish concert in Helsinki ^^ Nobody [as always] will go with me, as it's a bit expensive [for people that are not Nightwish fans, and none of my friends are], and I'll have a chance to show myself that I really can do everything. Because I have a friend, who really can do everything - she can go to any random person, ask everything and so on. And I'm always the one who don't like [very much] to talk with totally unknown people, I almost always ask my friends or family to do it for me. And this time there will be nobody to ask :D I just have to order bus tickets & a hostel and wait for 10th of March ^^
Have a nice day :)

Happy New Year!

I think it's time to write a new post finally about my NY celebrations :) And also - Happy New Year everyone, I think it's never too late to wish it ^^

So, as I think all of you know, I finally spent new year night outside Latvia, which, I hope, means, that I'll travel a lot this year ^^ I was at Tallinn for two days, and they were nice. Of course, if I knew that fireworks at Helsinki will be together with Nightwish music, I would go there, as it's not too far, but ok, what's done is done :D

So, photos from Tallinn:

Near the ferry terminal

Excursions aroun Tallinn

Our hotel was near the main train station, so view was wonderful outside the window ^^

Also this old train was standing near our hotel. And we had a wonderful snow that day ^^ In Latvia there wasn't snow at all, so this one was like a fairytale ^^

Christmas tree (the one which fell several times this winter) and a Christmas market at a town hall square.

And also two cute deers were there, poor animals were so scared during fireworks :/

Fireworks at 12 a.m.

And on the next day we went to Rakvere to see its castle.

Me & my dad (it was possible to wear funny clothes like these :D )

Horses ^^

In this castle, to show things that happened at medieval times, was also a torture chamber - different devices used to hurt people, a skeleton in a coffin and also these `dead people`

And later we went to hell - underground tunnels with different scary things around - skeletons appearing in a mirror, dolls with scary faces and so on. For me it was just fun, also when our guide hid behind a wall and touched everyone coming close to scare them, but not for some other people - never heard so much crazy yelling! :D

Me near a cannon.

Rakvere's symbol - a giant bull near the castle :)

And today I had an exam at Latvian typology of soil and vegetation. I thought it'd be the easiest one, and so were questions about soil (and also I often chat with this teacher, so have a motivation to learn everything :D ), but questions about vegetation was simply horrible. Everyone handed in almost empty papers, because in some tasks we had no idea what to do at all, not talking about our unability to learn 277 Latin plant names and where each of them grows. And next exam is biochemistry. I didn't want that day to come since 4th of September, when I had my first biochemistry lecture.

This one is my favourite slide from presentations. And underlined sentence (after finishing the biochemistry course all of these reactions should be known) simply kills me :D

Have fun and take care! :))

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas for everyone, who is celebrating them on 25th & 26th of December! :)

As always,it's some kind of thinking time for me. I always disappear from Twitter and other web pages and start to think about life. And this time, as I was cleaning one of the rooms and found many books from my (and also from my dad's) childhood, I'm reading them. And you know what? Reality doesn't exist for me then, I just want to return back to a time when I was 4 or 5 years old. Then there were no problems, no violence aroud, no thoughts about future which scare me too often, nothing, just friends and happiness. Two things that I miss too much sometimes.

Now I just like a thought, that finally I won't be celebrating New Year in Latvia, maybe it's a chance to change everything and 2012 won't be as all the other years.

And I also hope that normal winter will come soon. Today it was +9°C. What a December.

Have a nice day, my dear readers! ;*

Make your wishes come true

Hi! :)

As my study year finally is over (just exams in January), I'll have a bit more time and try to write more often. But today just a quick post (as it's 2 a.m. already :D)

Today I decided to write here my wishlist. You can see it as a page in my blog. In 2009 my dad challenged me (I don't know how to say it differently) to write 100 wishes. I accepted challenge and wrote them (in two years, I think :D). None of them are personal (like that I want a good boyfriend or stuff like that) and none of them are like `I want a husband millionaire`. Just random wishes I wanted to come true then.

Some of them sounded impossible for me, for example, that I want to have a photo with Kimi Raikkonen or go to The Rasmus concert, as I considered myself just as a simple Latvian girl who can't do anything if it's related to celebrities, people I adore or another countries I want to visit but don't have a chance.

What about now? I understood that everything is possible. Really, everything. When I after some time read it again and marked things I've done, I was so surprised that I made it. You just have to believe it. And keep this wishlist in a place where you see it often.

So, a challenge for you, my dear readers - who wants to write a hundred things to do in this life and try to make them real? ^^ Try, it really works :)

Hey! :)

Finally I have a bit time to write something here :)

First of all, I want to say a big thanks to Ksu for a Christmas card that arrived yesterday! It was so sweet, I couldn't stop smiling all evening :) And I was very surprised that it arrived so soon, seems like Latvian post service works better than I thought (it was no doubt about Finnish, only about LV). Once again - thank you, Ksu ^^

And today is almost a month since the `magic date` 11.11.11. I wanted to write a post then, but had no time. So - what do you think about these magic dates? :) I always remember what I did on these days, since 05.05.05 :D And this year we had a lecture in genetics, and it seems like all our course made a wish at 11:11. I also took a photo then :)

Last Saturday I went to my grandma on my bike - this year December really isn't like it was two previous years :/ It's so warm and without snow. Only on 7th December at the morning there was something like snow lying on the ground and falling from the air when we had lectures, and also yesterday, when I went home from uni, it was snowing. But snow is still wet, as it's +1°C outside. So, few photos from 03.12:

Me :D

Road through the forest near our house.

Sunset ^^

New tram :)

Alfa shopping center :)

And yesterday my best friend had her 20th birthday, so tomorrow we'll celebrate it & I must do something for university now :)

Hope you are having a wonderful day :)