Humanoid landed to this place

[Humanoid]

That is me.

I´m politically green, religiously doubting, scientifically interested and socially open entity.

I come from Finland. I am a father to a girl, husband to a woman and a fisherman. I also practise martial arts ( if I have time )

I used to be christian. I worked 12 years in youth ministry, being youth councillor. Then I lost my belief in christian theology and Bible... not much after that I started seriously doubting the existence of God. So I quit my ministry work.

Currently I am freelance journalist and writer. I also study journalism in a university of applied sciences.

I have more questions than answers. I hope you accept me here.

[Kimberly]

Hi Humanoid welcome to the forum. I hope you enjoy your stay.

[Emily]

Hello, Humanoid. Welcome to the forum! 

[jetson]

Welcome!  What martial art do you practice?

[wright]

Welcome, Humanoid. I take it fishing is your profession; do you work for one of the big fleets or a smaller business?

[One Above All]

Welcome to the forum.

[Ambassador Pony]

Hi. New member "wrec" is also in your part of the world. It's the Finnish invasion!

[Humanoid]

Welcome!  What martial art do you practice?

I have practised Aikido 12 years, under the Aikikai-federation. I follow the styles taught by late Shoji Nishio sensei and Kazuo Igarashi sensei.

I have also practised boxing, Hontai Yoshin Ryu Jujutsu and Taura Muso Ryu kobudo.

[Humanoid]

Welcome, Humanoid. I take it fishing is your profession; do you work for one of the big fleets or a smaller business?

No. Being fisherman is state of mental euphoria (= hobby).. fly fishing.

Writing is my profession. I write for local newspapers and national magazines as a freelancer. News, features.. etc.

[Emily]

Writing is my profession. I write for local newspapers and national magazines as a freelancer. News, features.. etc.

If I may ask you a question about freelancing. I've been considering taking up freelancing work designing websites, and the thought of it makes me very excited, yet also nervous.

My two questions regarding freelancing.

How do you find work? Do you bid on jobs or do people come to do? Do you submit your writings to papers along with other freelancers submitting their writings, and it all comes down to you beating the competition?

Also, how did you first start out, and how difficult was it?

(I guess that's actually three five questions. My bad.........)

[Humanoid]

Good questions Emily!

Honestly I got to say that making a living by doing work as a freelancer is not easy. Because of the competition. At least in my business but propably in yours too.

For me it started as doing a practical placement to newspaper. I didn´t get any money of it. But I showed my skills. After that period they knew me. After the placement I sent them ready feature ( that I had ownership ofcourse ) and offered it to them.. asking money of it. It was a quality feature so they payed of it. Then I sent big amount of ready features to another magazines and included the information of the magazine who had published my other feature. Couple of them bought my features. And now, doors were open.. I got 5 magazines. I started to send them ideas ( not ready features anymore) and so on.. Nowadays two of those magazines are asking me weekly basis to do a feature or gig for them and the others I still sell ideas.. and they usually buy them.

First. You have to have idea. A good one. Something innovative. Something no one has done before.
Second. You have to be persistent and sell your works, even if most of the buyers refuse to buy it, offer another one! Once you get a deal it is always much easier to get another one.
Third. Always keep your word. If you´ll get the deal. Do it!! Even if you are tired, sick or anything else. You sell your skill, but also professionality.

It is a hard work. But there is also freedom.

[wright]

Thanks for the replies, Humanoid. Btw, your written English is very good. I've been told it's a very difficult second language to learn.

[Seppuku]

Welcome Humanoid!

And you're from Finland, that's awesome. You're a journalist and a writer, but the fact you can call yourself a freelance one puts you a step ahead of me, although I've had stuff published, but I don't yet make money off of it, so I'm jealous of that, alongside the being 'Finnish' thing there. 

Well, you sound like an interesting chap, so I am sure you'll fit in nicely and I hope you enjoy participating in the forum.

[shnozzola]

Hi humanoid,
Welcome to WWGHA.  I shouldn’t  be so direct, but I also hate to waste time.  Question for you.  We were arguing about the high tax rate in the Scandinavian countries compared to the US, and most people in the discussion conceded that the general quality of life in your area of the globe is not to shabby, and I for one feel that there are some great things you can teach the US about democracy that “mainly” our US republicans need to learn.
   Maybe I should start it in a thread, and maybe my point is too general, but think about it and I’d be interested in your opinion (and others from “up there”) of how your higher tax rates have affected society.  Current US philosophy seems to despise government and taxes so much that that we are willing to let Wall Street run the US and.......

[Humanoid]

Thanks for the replies, Humanoid. Btw, your written English is very good. I've been told it's a very difficult second language to learn.

Thanks!

Actually English is easy to learn compared to fe. Swedish, German and Russian.

[Humanoid]

You're a journalist and a writer, but the fact you can call yourself a freelance one puts you a step ahead of me, although I've had stuff published, but I don't yet make money off of it, so I'm jealous of that

Doing freelance is hard job.. so there´s no need to be jealous.

It is at the moment the only reasonable way for me to work alongside being a student and getting money. 

[Humanoid]

Hi humanoid,
Welcome to WWGHA.  I shouldn’t  be so direct, but I also hate to waste time.  Question for you.  We were arguing about the high tax rate in the Scandinavian countries compared to the US, and most people in the discussion conceded that the general quality of life in your area of the globe is not to shabby, and I for one feel that there are some great things you can teach the US about democracy that “mainly” our US republicans need to learn.
   Maybe I should start it in a thread, and maybe my point is too general, but think about it and I’d be interested in your opinion (and others from “up there”) of how your higher tax rates have affected society.  Current US philosophy seems to despise government and taxes so much that that we are willing to let Wall Street run the US and.......

I´d love to get into this. Make a thread for it.. I´ll join in. This thread is not best for this discussion.

Now... I need to go to wash up my daughter.

I´ll join it later this evening.

[Bereft_of_Faith]

Welcome

[oogabooga]

Hi. New member "wrec" is also in your part of the world. It's the Finnish invasion!

I love that! I have a really strange affinity for Finns. And Finland. Went there once, came home thoroughly convinced that's the country where fairy tales were born. It's beyond beautiful. Anyway, I can get so obsessive about anything Finnish I'll cheer for Finland in anything, from Eurosong to hockey. Even when they're playing my own country.

Oh, almost forgot - welcome, Humanoid.

[Humanoid]

Hi. New member "wrec" is also in your part of the world. It's the Finnish invasion!

I love that! I have a really strange affinity for Finns. And Finland. Went there once, came home thoroughly convinced that's the country where fairy tales were born. It's beyond beautiful. Anyway, I can get so obsessive about anything Finnish I'll cheer for Finland in anything, from Eurosong to hockey. Even when they're playing my own country.

Oh, almost forgot - welcome, Humanoid.

You are from Slovenia?

Being a flyfisherman I have been dreaming for two years of visiting your very beautifull country and going to fly fishing to Soca and Sava Bohinjka rivers. Those are the finest and most beautifull streams in whole Europe!

[Energized]

Welcome to the board, dude! Glad you found your way over here.

E.

[screwtape]

Welcome

...husband to a woman and a fisherman.

So you have a plural marriage or is your woman also a fisherman?

[oogabooga]

You are from Slovenia?

Being a flyfisherman I have been dreaming for two years of visiting your very beautifull country and going to fly fishing to Soca and Sava Bohinjka rivers. Those are the finest and most beautifull streams in whole Europe!

Well, if you're ever in my neck of the woods, give me a shout. While I'm not really a fishing enthusiast, I do know that there's a lot of flyfishing going on over there and it really is gorgeous. My experience with So?a is mostly limited to dunking myself in it during MetalCamp. There's also a lot of places to fish all over the country, so you really should explore a bit. I'm pretty sure it'll be well worth it.

[Fiji]

A Finn on the board?! Break out the Lordi! ... or the Finntroll ... or the Nightwish ... will you guys please quit being so awesome?!

Seriously though, been a while since I've been to your corner of the continent, Jyvaskyla to be precise. I remember, besides the bands, massively pretty girls and damn good pilsner beer. Oh and the fact that the melting point of a Finn seems to be somewhere between 20 and 25 degrees celcius. (it was a VERY hot summer)

Welcome to the board, Humanoid.[1]

1.	That's not a reference to the Joke Guinan tells Data in Ten Forward, is it?

[oogabooga]

Fiji, you forgot Apocalyptica and Arto Paasilinna. 

[Fiji]

You see, oogabooga, the problem with listing awesome Finnish bans is that the list quickly becomes larger than the begats from Matthew 1:2-16

[Seppuku]

My experience with So?a is mostly limited to dunking myself in it during MetalCamp.

Oh man, I'd love to go to Metal Camp, sure I'm going to Wacken next month, but the concept of Metal Camp just sounds so awesome.

Fiji, you forgot Apocalyptica and Arto Paasilinna. 

And Tarot, Northern Kings, Sonata Arctica, Korpiklaani[1], Swallow the Sun and more.

1.	And damn, they're playing Metal Camp this year, so's Finntroll

[Humanoid]

Welcome

...husband to a woman and a fisherman.

So you have a plural marriage or is your woman also a fisherman?

Yes. She has even thicker beard than me!

You have to forgive me these occasional language issues.. You know my Finglish is pretty decent but don´t count too much on what I write.

[Humanoid]

Seriously though, been a while since I've been to your corner of the continent, Jyvaskyla to be precise. I remember, besides the bands, massively pretty girls and damn good pilsner beer. Oh and the fact that the melting point of a Finn seems to be somewhere between 20 and 25 degrees celcius. (it was a VERY hot summer)

You have been in Jyväskylä.. Ok.. that being a student city.. there is loads of beautifull women.

Finnish beer is decent. But being honest.. I prefer czechish beer.. Staropramen, Velkopopovicky... or from Brits.. Guinness, Murphys..

But good metal we have. We are rock and metal driven country.

I love Tarot, Amorphis, Synergy, Nightwish, Sentenced... etc