Wash it awayIt's year 2002. Katja has just given birth to her second child and has moved to the first house that she and her partner actually own. She suffers from persistent dizziness, headache, insomnia, brainfog and back pain. But that's how it is with two young children, isn't it?At just three months the baby is constantly ill. There are ear infections, allergies and difficulty breathing. Katja's firstborn had 17 ear infections before the age of two and she has had recurrent ear infections herself, too. Her adenoids were removed twice: first when she was a baby and again in her teens, after they had grown back as scar tissue. She also had her tonsi
Where art meets attitudeI'm disabled, but I don't need a wheelchair for getting around. My magical helper of choice is my PC. Visiting art galleries and participating in writing groups would make me very tired, but the Internet lets me enjoy the same comfortably from my home. Becoming paralyzed wouldn't prevent me from getting my daily eyecandy fix. Being blind would make desktop wallpapers useless, but I could still listen to *Coffeehouse's poetry reading. Even on my worst days I can usually spend some time on the computer. 3C 5F 1N is much better than no human interaction.The success of a service is defined by its accessibility and that applies for art, too. The
Juno Reactor in HelsinkiThe idea of performing electronic music live is still an obscure concept for some of us. Unfortunately that goes for some artists as well. Too often people assume that the process of making electronica is equal to pressing a few buttons and some "live sets" could certainly reinforce that belief. But there are bands and artists in the genre delivering excellent live shows that can include vocals, orchestral instruments and other kinds of performances.Founded back in the prehistoric 1990 Juno Reactor is one of the pioneers of psychedelic trance, also known as goa trance, even though these names technically refer to slightly different genres.
Story of an art corporationWhile demosceners were gathering in Helsinki for Assembly 2000, Scott Jarkoff was working hard to prepare for the launch of a new website dedicated to application skins. It was essentially going to be the skin section of a popular MP3 site called Dimension Music (now known as DMusic), run by a young man named Angelo Sotira, better known as Spyed. Jark had settled on the name DeviantART, with the logic that skinning applications was deviating from their normal look. He decided to call the users Deviants and the submission were to be known as Deviations.Jark spent the entire summer weekend coding DeviantART and it was released to public on th
The flu that didn't go awayWhen did you last see an interview of someone who has chronic fatigue syndrome? You probably didn't, unless you were reading about Laura Hillenbrand, the author of Seabiscuit. Hillenbrand was confined to her room for years and the result was a praised and prized novel. But most people suffering from CFS don't have that book to show others. They may spend years or decades homebound and the world conveniently forgets about them. There is no glamour about CFS. Someone just takes over your life and hits the pause button without asking you.Jat is 20 years old and lives with his family in a suburban area near Toronto, Canada. It has been over a d
Abnormal, but unspecificAt 25, almost half of Riikka's life has been spent with being sick and visiting doctor after doctor. She would surely have better things to do. There's nothing she hates as much as doctors and she has nightmares about visits where she's humiliated. That hasn't been unusual. Even now, doctors treat her condescendingly, like a kid. It took over a decade to obtain a diagnosis.There have been dozens and again dozens of doctors over the years, neurologists, opthalmologists, infection specialists and rheumatologists. It certainly feels like they couldn't care less what happens to Riikka. They're constantly trying to push physiotherapy, something
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