Projects

There are a few projects that I contribute to passively as time and interest allows. While not updated regularly by any means, listed below are a few projects that have become mainstay interests of mine. Most of these projects only get my attention every few months or sometimes even every few years, but they are things I always return to at some point or another.

Minus Shamos

In my younger days I played drums with a friend from Regina. Then I moved away for college. The Minus Shamos project was created from the inspiration of that departure. I was writing songs since I started playing drums but always felt limited because I couldn’t play an instrument with which to write a melody. At some point I had enough. I bought an acoustic guitar and set to work learning chords and building calluses.

Over the years I have recorded a number of songs, often with friends, and all of which are poorly recorded. While the Minus Shamos website is crazy dated at this point it serves simply as a vehicle for where I may choose to communicate some specific thoughts or feelings.

Visit the Minus Shamos project

Moomin Subtitles

The Moomins is a much-loved Finnish cartoon series, especially throughout the Nordic countries. When I first became interested in it I could only find around ten episodes with English subtitles, so I decided to create my own. I teamed up with a few Finns who were interested in the project and we would plug away at it whenever we had the chance. At this point it’s actually been a long time since any of us has worked on it, mostly because learning Finnish turned out to be the better personal investment, which turned out to be true, because as time went on, the episodes slowly became easier to understand.

Visit the Moomin Subtitles project

Study Finnish

When I moved to Finland in 2014 I immediately started learning as many words as I could. I learned what I could from friends and online resources, but found that these methods could only take me so far as words were easy enough to remember but the grammar proved more difficult. I started creating the Study Finnish website as a way to explore grammatical rules, verb conjugations, and vocabulary in an effort to help myself memorise the information.

Over the years it has slowly expanded into hosting additional resources about Finland itself, its language, history and culture. It also contributed to my own personal success in the Finnish national language proficiency examination, the YKI test (Yleiset kielitutkinnot).

Visit the Study Finnish project