In English- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Welcome to the personal homepage of Ville Pekkala, a young Finnish wannabe-gentleman! These pages are meant for piling up all sorts of information that has never before been available in digital form. Now basically all you need to know about me can be found under the same address. Please! Don't be shy about contacting me. E-mail works the best: vihaposti (at) gmail (dot) com And please refrain from sending e-mails in other languages than English or Finnish, otherwise answer's not guaranteed. English page updated on May 22nd 2011. |
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THE BIOGRAPHY OF A SILLY MAN
I was born in early February at the regional hospital of Iisalmi AD 1988. I am my parents', Väinö Pekkala and Katariina Pekkala (born Remes), first child. I have one younger brother (-89) and two younger sisters (-91, -99). All my childhood and most of my youth I've spent on my mother's home farm, Murennos, in the woods of Kiuruvesi.
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Life in the country is always full of physical labour, especially when your parents have 30 dairy cows to take care of. During the summers, when we didn't need to go to school, we helped our parents in everything. Farm work from operating heavy machinery to milking bovine animals is well know nto me. The best thing my parents ever taught me was to respect honest work. And, so far, that's the way how I've gotten myself bread on the table. Agriculture didn't, however, invoke a burning desire within me, so I went to study something completely else. I took part in the experimental MAHIS-project after primary school / junior high,, under which I completed senior secondary school, matriculation examination and a vocational degree by the end of the year 2006. |
Besides farm work and school, I've also had time to take part in communal activity. I was a founding member of the Kiuruvesi juvenile council and later on the vice chairman and chairman. I've also worked in the national Nuori Osallien ("young participant")-project's regional cordinator group as youth representative. So both the long meeting tables with a gavel at the end and the life of a roadie are familiar to me.
Physically I'm around 185 cm (6'1 ft) tall and weigh about 80 kg (180 lb). Hauling around fertilizer sacks and moving around cattle used to show in both good and bad - I was heavily built, but I also had a gigantic appetite. In winter time the physical labour for me was at it's minimum, so I had to come up with other activities. Some years ago I used to ski quite actively, until I found swimming. Nowadays I aim to exercise regularly, but due to the university student budget I've changed swimming to jogging. Nowadays I'm pretty much a shadow of my former 110 kg (240 lb) self.
My conscript service was a fine time of my life, because I grew both mentally and physically a lot. I met a whole new variety of people and the amount of contacts I gained is quite vast, not to mention all the interesting things and skills I learned there. It turned out quite well - I served my country for 362 days, gave her the ligaments of my left knee and invested a noticable sum of mental capital. Someday, somewhere in a party organized by the Reserve Officers' Union I will then get to boast about the pieces of medal and ribbon I got on my chest.
The university life touched me deeply in autumn 2008 when I began my political science studies at the University of Jyväskylä. This change in way of life surprised me in many ways, but I've gotten pretty much used to it by now. All in all, academic life pleases me, especially after years of living in the backwaters of Kiuruvesi and conscript service. The beginning of a life together with my common-law wife and bethroed Eeva Nousiainen is of course a remarkable milestone in my modest life.
Politics have always interested me. To find my "political home" I've gone through and awful lot of trouble, though, and despite my connections all around, I still haven't joined a party. Activity in the right circles has opened some quite interesting doors for me, but I'm not really fond of the idea that politics would become my "daily bread". You've got to be popular, and ignorance and treachery are not disliked characteristics - they're recommended.
My life took a turn towards adulthood when Eeva and I finally decided to get married. Our wedding took place in July 2010. I sincerely hope that there will only be two Pekkalas living in our residence for the next couple of years. But you never know, you know...
NAME Ville Henrik Pekkala BORN 1988 MARITAL STATUS Married RESIDENCY City of Jyväskylä
| Basic schooling | Kiuruvesi elementary school 1994 - 2000 |
| Kiuruveden comprehensive school 2000 - 2003 | |
| - grade point average | 9,4 (out of 10) |
| Senior secondary / High school | High School of Kiuruvesi 2003 - 2006 |
| Matriculation examination | Spring 2006 |
| - grades | Finnish language - eximia cum laude approbatur |
| Swedish language - eximia cum laude approbatur | |
| Advanced mathematics - magna cum laude approbatur | |
| English language - laudatur | |
| History - - eximia cum laude approbatur | |
| Social studies - eximia cum laude approbatur | |
| Vocational school | Vocational Institute of Northern Savonia 2003 - 2004 |
| Adult and Vocational Education Centre of Savonia 2005 - 2006 | |
| - degree | Computer Engineering, digital communications study programme |
| Bachelor of Social Sciences | University of Jyväskylä 2008 - 2011 |
| - major | Political science - grade: 5 (1-5) |
| - minors | Economics - grade: 4 (1-5) |
| Basic Business Studies - grade: 4 (1-5) | |
| Work experience | Substitute primary school teacher 2006 - 2007 |
| High school computer tech support 2006 | |
| Columnist (paper: Iisalmen Sanomat) 2002 - 2008 | |
| Insurance agent ( ACE ) summer 2009 | |
| Bank Teller (Kiuruvesi Cooperative Bank) summer 2011 | |
| Conscript service | July 9th 2007 - July 4th 2008 |
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Kainuu Brigade, 1st Seperate Truck Company |
| Reserve Officer School, Infantry (rifleman) | |
| Reserve officer course 231's student union general secretary | |
| Highest score on the rifleman line | |
| Reserve officer course 232's assistant instructor | |
| Medal of Liberty, 2nd class | |
| Wartime situation: infantry platoon leader in southern Karelia | |
| Rank: 2nd Lieutenant | |
| Driver's license | European standards: BEC + MT |
| (a resembling American equivelant of CDL, class B) | |
| Typing | Over 500 correct keys per minute. |
| Organizational activities | Kiuruvesi Juvenile Council "Young participant" -national project Political scientist labor union (SVAL/SVOL) Army Reservists (Jyväskylä, Central Finland) |
| a better world's in birth | Social liberalism, feminism, utilitarism and egalitarism |
| no more tradition's chains | Free Thinker or atheist / a-theist |
| arise you slaves, no more in thrall | Freedom is not a question of "why?" but "why not?" |
| 'tis the final conflict | Preparing for war is the precondition for peace |
| let each stand in his place | National Coalition Party |
The small-ish, local paper called Iisalmen Sanomat, that is read around the area of Upper Savonia, has published my columns since 2002. Unfortunately they're all in Finnish, surprisingly enough, and I haven't got the time nor the interest to translate them all to the English language. Therefore I must disappoint my foreign readers by not letting them "enjoy" my years and years of frustration on paper.
In 2004 an American friend of mine asked me to write columns for his web paper called PrettyWitty.com. I had quite humble vocabulary, naive ideas and awful gramatic skills back then, so it proved to be way over my head in the long term. I also got in a bit of an argument with some of the more conservative writers on board - they thought that my atheism and liberal thoughts were just childish instability, that would pass with time. I did manage to get two of my columns published, though:
| European Union gets it's own constitution |
| Forums I visit | If you liked the things I had to say, you can find more of my thoughts (and things I typed out loud without much thinking) on these places. | |
| Fun sites | These are websites I just find entertaining. To kill time etc. | |
| Knowledge | Places where I retreat to fix my arguments and check my facts. These places have helped me understand the world better and influenced me in my studies. |
