Dec 30, 2014 Letter

Year 2014 in review

Last year, December 29th, I wrote a piece about drawing every day. It ended like this: “So 2013 was about learning to draw. 2014 might finally be the year of learning to write and illustrate a children’s book.”

This year was one of the weirdest I’ve ever experienced. The thing that hurt most? For the first time in my life I didn’t have the time to respond to everyone, be helpful in every situation. I lacked balance, time and focus. And I miss the pure, unbridled energy and optimism I used to have.

On the other hand I learned so much about my own comfort zone and how there are no shortcuts. I started the year laughingly introducing myself as a children’s book author and illustrator. I end it steadily on that path, but this time I take myself seriously.

I feel like an artists, who’s medium right now are children’s books. I have now idea what happens in 2015, but I’m so glad I made the jump.

I began to realize how important it was to be an enthusiast in life. He taught me that if you are interested in something, no matter what it is, go at it full speed ahead. Embrace it with both arms, hug it, love it and above all become passionate about it. Lukewarm is no good. Hot is no good either. White hot and passionate is the only thing to be.
– Roald Dahl

(Thank you for the inspiration Björn, Nicole, Diana & Emily.)

January

Celebrated Ville’s birthday in Kulttuurisauna. Wrote about it (and the eggs still make me happy. )
Spent two weeks in New York seeing old friends and hanging out with Maija and Jason. Felt weird to be back in my former hometown. Started reading Enders Game and had a memorable evening of eating Korean food in silence, going to the ER, and watching short movies in IFC.
Visited MIT Medialab for the first time and got to meet the people at Lifelong Kindergarten who’ve inspired me so much.
Launched Hello Ruby Kickstarter campaign. Which changed everything for the rest of the year. I remember one evening Ville coming home and me crying and laughing at the same time. The generosity and goodwill of everyone was so overwhelming. But, also the start of my year of bad sleeping.

Books read: Andre Agassi: Open, Enders Game
Wrote: Castles in the Air

February

Met with so many people. Tried to wrap my head (really fast) around a whole new industry of agents, editors, licensing, lawyers and starting a company. Was asking myself the question of what should Hello Ruby be for the first (but not the last) time.
Was in London for Skills2014 with Juhani, researching the future of K12 education. Found my favourite quote of the year from Joi Ito: Internet is not a technology system, it’s a belief system. And finally met the Kano founders! Missed our flights back to Helsinki and ended up sleeping in Arlanda.
Had a fun photoshoot for Aino magazine and made wedding plans for one of my best friends.
Flew back to New York to meet with agents - felt surreal and exhausted, watched House of Cards with Ville and visited Kickstarter HQ and got told it’s projects like this that they’ve built the product for. Made me really happy.

Books read: Enders Game 2 & 3
Wrote: How to run a Kickstarter campaign

March

Went to Jaakko’s housewarming party and learned about posture and animation from Joonas. Had friends over for a Mexican evening and ended up drinking all the red wine in the house. Saw American Hustle.
Worked with Juhani on Koodi2016 and rallying up the right stakeholders. Was reminded how little of a project is actually doing the project and how much is about getting the right people excited and aware.
Was busy finishing the first draft of the book for the Bologna book fair. (I wish I’ll be able to show it someday and how much things changed from this!)
Talked with my editor for the first time. Saw puppies in West Village. Drove with Ela, Seth & Jason around Manhattan on Citibikes.
Was on Korean TV!

Books read: -
Wrote: Discipline

April

Went for a weekend in Taiwan for RubyConf. As always, loved the people and the energy in the community (and took about a gazillion pictures). Did a joint talk with Terence on how Ruby the language influenced Rails Girls.
Had my birthday and celebrated with my family in Atelje Finne. Went for an easter break to Porvoo and hiked around the woods. Became a bike owner, one of the best decision all year!
Signed Kokoro & Moi to help with the graphic look of Hello Ruby.
Loved working with Juhani on the writing process of Koodi2016. In also ended up helping a lot with structuring my thinking around the curriculum for Ruby.

Books read: Dune, Goldfinch
Wrote: Curriculum

May

Started taking swimming lessons twice a week. Under the water it’s hard to feel stressed.
Had dinner with friends and made rating cards for tacos. Had mothers day dinner in Gaijin.
Went to Palermo for a day and again missed all sorts of flights. Graduation party of my old neighbour: so proud of you Maria! Also discovered one of my favorite books of 2015: The Opposite of Loneliness.
Visited my goddaughter and spoke in Tampere about the Kickstarter campaign for the first time. Started a new tradition with Maija of aqua jogging at the Helsinki Swimming Stadium. Blissful, bright summer mornings.

Books read: The Opposite of Loneliness. Stranger in a strange land.
Wrote:

June

Moved my desk to the SlushHQ. The energy is contagious and was nice to be around old friends once more. Went to Brussels. Enjoyed the football crazy Belgians and looked forward to the EU elections.
Launched Koodi2016 with Juhani. Enjoyed working together with someone and the finiteness of a print product: you can’t tweak it. Also: realised I don’t want to work with schools or school systems with Ruby.
Ran my first half marathon. Celebrated a very special anniversary.
Has Jason over for a few weeks. Did a lot of walking around Helsinki and tried to show him all the magic. Helsinki was at it’s worst: the whole time it rained. But we got a nice midsummer and a bonfire.
Spent a lot of time thinking about structure and direction. Had lots of help from my brother in running stuff. Bought a Cintiq, Kyle Webster brushes and a Mac Pro. Started finally to feel good about my illustrations.

Read: My Life in Middlemarch. The Hard Thing about Hard Things.

July

Traveled to Berlin with Henkku and Jason. Loved seeing the juggernaut that Rails Girls Berlin has grown into. Rooted for Germany in the football finals, which Linda 10 years ago would have disapproved.
Spent a lot of time in different parts of Finland: Pori, Rauma, Joroinen, Varkaus, Jyväskylä. Partly work, partly cheering boyfriend triathlon adventures. Went also SUPping and drove Rantaraitti twice.
Went to Meidän Festivaali to see Maija’s video installation as well as took part in Skidit Festarit and tested some of my exercises. Loved the urban culture.
Had many a-ha moments that cumulated towards end of the year. Started to form my own philosophy for code education.

Read: Brick by brick: How LEGO Rewrote the Rules. Creativity Inc
Wrote: Play

August

Was feeling very stressed out. For the first time all year didn’t feel like going to work on Mondays. Partly because at this point I already knew the project was going to be delayed.
Had my first bachelorette party and made some custom illustrations. Gave a speech at boyfriends moms birthday party and revisited my roots as poetry reader. Started reading Dune series.
Loved the grocery bag from Anton & Anton, totally saved my meal planning!
Made a publishing deal in Finland. Kept on coming back to this one blogpost about time as raw material of creation. But really sucked at carving out that time.

Read: Dune. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.
Wrote: Everything needs time.

September

Asked for help: e-mailed a few people for advice and support and everyone responded. Was so surprised and decided to ask again. Never did! Found lots of support from re-reading Tove Janssons diaries and letters.
Went to Paula’s wedding, gave a talk which I was pretty proud of. It had Zadie Smith quotes in it. Loved the Hilma af Klint exhibition and A Pattern Language which Konstantin recommended.
Had SO MANY SPEAKING engagements. Here’s one (in Finnish) from Campus seminar and one from Stockholm from Grid. Also spoke at Nordic Business Forum, and was applauded almost every time I opened my mouth (which was weird!!)
Met also a lot of Ruby friends in Frozen Rails (although couldn’t take part in almost any of the conference :( ). had Rails Girls organisers weekend and felt really proud of everyone.

Read: Dune Messiah. A Pattern Language.
Wrote: Playtesting (and you’re invited)

October

Moved apartments. I loved our old place, and the new one is totally different. But starting to feel like home nonetheless. My favourite thing is that you get morning porridge from the neighbouring restaurant for one euro.
Travelled to Wired conference and saw London with my mom. We went all hipster: enjoyed museums, restaurants and walking around. I especially recommend House of Illustration. Met with BBC people.
Went to Krakow to say hi to Jose’s baby <3
Had the worst sleeping patterns: woke up two hours after going to sleep screaming, every single day. Luckily it’s a bit better now.

Read: The Martian. Not that Kind of Girl.
Wrote: Dealing with delays

November

Talked in Slush about my Principles of Play. The audience was probably the most warm I’ve ever had. Won the Think Ink competition and got the State Award for Children’s culture. Had my face plastered all over the place on the cover of Image.
Launched a new version of helloruby.com with help from Kisko. Loved the conviviality and sense of us on Github and was reminded how much I miss a tram.
Had too many things going on. Was really tired most of the month and felt like a fraud. Most of what I wrote needed to be positive and upbeat, so ended up having a lot of outbursts of crying.
Had father’s day dinner in the new home and received compliments about my ceviche.
Realised I really need to get someone to work with me, not only my family. Started talking with a bunch of people. Had so much help from Ville.
Celebrated Thanksgiving in Brooklyn with a bunch of lovely Finns.

Read: The Fault in Our Stars. Kissani Jugoslavia. Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage. Hard-Boiled Wonderland (Murakami is my plane buddy),
Wrote: Pulling back curtains

December:

Was really frustrated with legal stuff, timelines and negotiations. Visited MIT again and loved the sunshine in Boston. Saw my old Codecademy colleagues for drinks. Loved Soulcycle and the energy it gives. Saw Imitation Game and cried.
Went to the famous Otava Christmas drinks, but felt too shy to talk to anyone.
Dedicated the last two weeks of the year for crunch mode drawing. Felt great to be introverted and not constantly interrupted. Started to listen more and more self-help type of stuff (as well as tons of This American Life. And Serial. Of course.)
Was very endeared by Sesamy Street. Had all my cousins and family together for Christmas, which was great. Made home feel more home by reinstalling lamps.

Read: Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street. He eivät tiedä mitä tekevät. Embassytown. The people’s platform. Annihilation (Southern Reach Trilogy #1)
Wrote: Happy holidays!