Projects

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.

Moomin Subtitles

The Moomins is a popular Finnish cartoon series that everyone in the Nordics loves. I couldn’t find more than 10 episodes with English subtitles so I decided to create my own. I rounded up some Finns who were interested in the project and we plug away at it when we can. It’s slow going but hopefully in a few years (or decades) when my Finnish skills are stronger the project will progress at a quicker pace.

Study Finnish

I moved to Finland in 2014 and immediately started learning as many words as possible. 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. The Study Finnish website is a study guide that includes grammatical rules, verb conjugations, a large vocabulary, and other resources about Finland, its language, history and culture.