Vappu
Today and tomorrow Finland celebrates Vappu. It was originally the Labour Day, with its protests and marches, but it has now developed into a big carnival, especially celebrated by the university students. The main idea is just to get really drunk, outdoors. Think Madri Gras.

In Helsinki everything starts from the statue of Havis Amanda. She's this completely naked lady by the market place, in the center of a fountain. The different universities take turns every year in who gets to wash her and then a specially made student cap will be placed on her head. All the thousands of people watching will pop champagne bottles and that's the official launch for Vappu celebrations. Other traditions include balloons, dressing weirdly, sima (a special drink just on Vappu), tippaleipä (a strange ball of cooked dough only eaten during Vappu), hotdog sausages with potato salad (don't ask me why) and in general staying outside drinking a lot.

The next day, 1st of May, is a national holiday. In Helsinki everybody gathers in the Kaivopuisto park, where there are speeches, bands playing and everybody has a picnic. This will give you some idea. There's some fairly good other pictures too.

So... what do you know? It's raining today! For weeks and weeks, it's been really warm and dry, so much so that there's been warnings of potential grass fires... in April! In April, when we usually still have snow. Yesterday it was 17 degrees (62F) in shade, with the sun making it feel more like 26C (80F). Such a beautiful, gorgeous day. Today when we're supposed to have an outdoor festival, it is raining. First time in weeks... today of all days. I still can't believe it.
Posted 11:54

Driving
I had to get out of the apartment today, get my spirits up a bit. It was such a beautiful day too. Most people would think that hey I'll go for a walk, but I hate walking for the sake of walking. It's like with swimming too. I love to swim, but my "swimming" is more like goofing around, diving, playing with toys, floating and stuff. Swimming back and forth along a lane in a swimming pool is one of the most boring things I can imagine. Same goes with just walking from point A to point B. Exploring in a forest through the underbrush instead of along the premade paths is more to my liking.

But anyhow, I decided to go for a drive today then. I love my car. I still can't believe I actually own a car. It's so amazing. As long as I can remember, as a kid, I wanted to drive. I'd play those arcade driving games and imagine that real driving must be just like it. That driving a car would be just like playing a game and I'd never be bored during long trips again. You might not agree with me, but as far as I am concerned, I was right. Driving is like playing a game, a lot more serious of course though. But I love to drive and I never get bored of it.

Problem with driving these days though is that gas is VERY expensive (1 euro/liter -> $4/gallon) and I also get a guilty conscience when driving just for the sake of driving, because I am polluting the environment for no reason at all. So I don't do it very much, but today it was just what I needed. Gorgeous sun shining warmly, window open, stereo blasting at full and cruising down the freeway 150km (90 miles) an hour. Ooooh yeah!
Posted 19:55

Not much today
I'm feeling a bit depressed today. Combination of something that's happened on the internet, lack of sleep and just sitting inside all alone all weekend. Sigh.
Posted 18:52

Blogger
Things have been very screwy with Blogger again. For hours I couldn't update at all and for some reason the latest entry isn't showing. I have to make an additional fake entry to get all the ones I want to show up. Very frustrating.
Posted 15:42

Moving
My parents never owned a house when I was little. We never even had our own car. Might sound like we were really poor, but renting an apartment and being carless is not that uncommon around here. Besides my dad always had a car leased through his work and in turn we travelled abroad every year. But being "homeless" had the disadvantage that we were always on the move. My parents could never find a more permanent apartment to rent and instead we always ended up living in other people's homes while they worked abroad for a couple of years. So, every 2-3 years we'd be forced to find a new place as the real owners were coming back to Finland.

I just counted the other day and I remember living in 13 different places, up until to this day counting my present location. My memories begin when I was around 6. We moved a lot before that as well.

I don't have a childhood home or any place I could point at and say That's where I grew up. I have to drive around Helsinki and the neighbouring city of Vantaa to see all the various places we lived at, none more important than the other. I envy the people who are able to visit their parents and their old room is still intact, just like the day when they moved out. I envy the people who have friends they have known since childhood. When you are a child and your idea of friends is ringing their doorbell and asking if they could come out and play, you don't stay in touch when you move away. It wasn't until high school that I was actually able to keep some friends I had when we moved away again. If only I could gather around all the people I have known throughout the years and I'd have something like 30 friends.

All the constant changes and new schools, always trying to fit in and find new friends. It got harder the older I got. I never wanted to move, but at the same time it was just an inevitable part of my life that I was used to. From the day we moved into a new apartment, I always knew that couple years down the line, we'd be off again. It was just the way our life was and had been since I was born, so it wasn't anything to worry too much about.

I've found a great advantage to moving a lot as though. Whenever I think of some memory, it's always very easy to pinpoint what year, give or take one, it happened at. I can always think Where were we living when it happened? and from there I know the approximate year it happened and how old I was. That's something at least.

All the moving around has left a kind of wanderlust in me. It's lessening the older I get, but I still find myself restless from time to time. I get an almost compulsive need to travel abroad from time to time, and after living in a certain apartment for a couple of years, I get the feeling that it's time for a change. I'm quite pinned to my current home though, as I own it and have absolutely no wish to go through the hassle of selling this one and buying a new one. I never thought I'd become a home owner myself. I was very content with the idea of living on rent for the rest of my life, as I was used to doing since childhood, but things took a rather weird turn a few years ago. Something explaining which I'll leave for another entry another time...
Posted 15:39

My rise into the blogging world
I've used e-mail since 1990, back in the day when it was just something that university students knew about and there was no internet to speak of. Ever since then I've used computers just about daily, but I never realized the existance of on-line diaries until around August 2001. It was a dark and stormy night... for some reason I started thinking whatever happened to that guy who used to play Wesley Crusher in Star Trek: The New Generation. Contrary to many others, I actually liked the character. So, I found Wil Wheaton's webpages and much to my surprise he was keeping an on-line journal. I got hooked on reading it about daily. Each of his entries had a comments section as well, and that's where I found SPB's journal. Through him I found this weird place called Diaryland and soon realized that there are actually thousands of people keeping daily diaries and blogs.

I still think the whole concept of on-line diaries is absolutely crazy. To write about your life, thoughts and experiences for the whole world to read... it's just plain nuts. And it doesn't even stop there. Some people keep webcams. There's actual conventions for journal keepers! People write about their sex lives and the most intimate details of their lives. Crazy.

But like the person who just has to peek in at an accident site, I find myself pulled in more and more. I visit Diaryland quite often in search of new daily reads. Checking upon journals has become an almost daily activity. And what I thought would never ever happen, has happened anyways, because here I am writing into a blog. Next thing I know I'll probably be buying a webcam and signing up for the con in 2004...
Posted 18:32

Bah
I've felt horrible all day, physically. Dizzy, headache, stomach upset... It's almost as if I had a hangover. All because I slept at strange hours and not enough. I am getting way too old. Then of course the store refused to take my game of Dungeon Siege back. It works on their computer, so who cares if I can't get it to work on mine. I even took a copy of the error messages that I got. "So sorry, don't know what to say" Yeah, sure. To top it all off, my Internet Explorer has stopped working. It's acting real strange and no pages show up. I am currenly using Netscape and not liking it too much. Nothing wrong with the program really, but I've just gotten too used to the Evil-Capitalist-Monster's IE.
Posted 21:42

Confused
I stayed up till 7am this morning, then slept until noon. Now I'm all confused about where I am, what day is it and so on. It feels like I experienced a new day, then slept and so now it must be Friday... The internet can be an evil thing to make one stay up all night!
Posted 14:26

Ian Holm and Greens
This was news to make me smile. In this day and age of ruthless capitalism, pollution and every man to himself, I find it incredible that some people have formed a whole political party just to save the environment.
Posted 19:34

Food is going to kill you
I opened the tv today to find a panel discussing this (they're fast) and now found stuff about it on Yahoo as well. Just what are we supposed to eat anymore these days when everything is becoming a hazard?
Posted 19:28

Technical gadgets
Somehow I've become the technical expert to my mother when it comes to any kinds of technical devices. Tuning the channels in the tv and videorecorder are my specialty. My mother can actually use the videos and she even knows how to set things on a timer, but when anything else goes wrong, I'm the one to fix it. I just find it all rather funny, because I consider myself completely hopeless when it comes to technical matters. Computers are quite a mystery to me.

Today my mom called me cause her videos had stopped working. Well, everything else worked, except the machine refused to change channels anymore. I tried to suggest all kinds of things through the telephone, but as nothing seemed to work, she was getting irritated and was thinking of taking the machine to a repairman, I told her I'd drive over first to check it out properly. Sure enough, one press of one button on the remote control and it was fixed *smirk*

It's kind of cool though. I'm not the world's best in anything and hardly an expert, but according to my mother I am when it comes to setting TVs and videos. Even though it sometimes means having to drive kilometers and spend hours of my day to do something, it's still a nice feeling that I'm the one they call when they need help in these matters.
Posted 17:40

Crappy Games
My quest for a good computer game continues. First I bought Stronghold, a medieval castle-building simulator, but it's proven to be far too difficult even with the easy setting. If I had known it has a timelimit in which each mission needs to be completed, I would have left it at the store. I hate timelimits! So then next I bought Dungeon Siege, a hack-and-slash RPG game, and the damn game won't even start! I get a very strange error message about it not being able to access the correct directory and it just quits right off. The shop better be taking the game back! That's about $100 put into games that I am either too dumb to play or my computer doesn't approve of. *sigh*
Posted 17:28

Kitty brains
Smelling brains seems to be the latest fashion.
Posted 10:10

Things that I don't understand
One of the things that continues to boggle me is why in some parts of the world they consider the week to start from Sunday instead of Monday. Just looking at blogspot itself, the calendar that I can see right now on the update page shows 21st April, Sunday, to be the first day of the week. I just don't get it! Sunday is still part of the of the weekend. Week....End. It is the end of the week. Let the week end in peace, before you start a new one. You don't cut it in half! If it has something to do with Sunday being a holy day and wanting to make it special... well if you go by the bible, Sunday is the 7th day, not 1st. I just really cannot see any logic whatsoever in putting Sunday first.
Posted 12:12

Episode II
The subtle advertising for Episode 2 has obviously started, because yesterday they showed Episode 1 on TV. Now it might not sound like a big phenomenon, but it was the first time that movie was shown on regular, national TV here. With Episode 2 coming in just a month, the timing seemed just a bit too co-incidental. Anyhow, I watched it with a friend of mine who hadn't seen the movie since the theaters in 1999. I spent the entire movie trying to explain who was who again (she thought Anakin was going to grow up into Luke Skywalker etc) and she spent the whole movie cooing after Jake Lloyd. Every single time the little kid showed on the screen, she was aahhing and ooohhing and saying how adorable he looks and how she'd just like to eat him up and saying "I want one of those!" and so on. I love watching movies with friends at home, because then you can make all kinds of stupid comments whenever you like.
Posted 11:59

Come to Finland
I'm so late with these links, but hey I only started this blog a couple weeks ago! This is almost a year old now, but it's still cool.
Posted 17:05

This blog
I've been wondering lately the purpose of this blog. I'm a rather private person, one who doesn't want to talk about their real life to strangers. I don't even like to reveal my real first name to anybody on the internet. I knew right from the start that I wouldn't want to write detailed stories about my daily life in here. Therefore this is a blog, instead of a diary.

But I think a lot. There's constantly all kinds of thoughts roaming around in my head and I've never really had a place where or a person to whom to express them. For example, when I found out today about Heyerdahl's death, it was a fairly big deal for me. Not because I was especially fond of the man, but because reading about him took me back to my childhood and brought back a lot of memories. I'm not very good at writing about it all, but I still felt the need to express my thoughts in some fashion. So the blog serves a purpose in that respect.

It's also a kind of a test to see how long I will be able to keep up with updating here. I tend to get excited about things, but then after a couple of months forget about them completely. I can only applaud to those who have managed to keep a diary/blog for years. Just how do they do it?

The problem arises though, when lately I've come to realize that there are some thoughts in my head that I have a real problem bringing forth to the public. The other day I started to write an entry about my father. There are some things between him and I that I keep thinking about a lot and a good part of me wants to write about it. I deleted the entry though. Some things are just so private that I am not ready. Sure I could write about them in a notepad and never show it to anybody, but that'd really be no different from me keeping it in my head. It's not some overly traumatic experience, where just writing about it anywhere would be therapeutic. It's just some thoughts in my head concerning my current relationship with my father. But for some reason that's just too private to share.

It's my blog, so I'll do what I want with it, but does make me wonder what is the point with "Hidden thoughts" if there are so many of them that I am unable to write about.
Posted 15:03

Cat & Dog Wisdom
A dog thinks: Hey, these people I live with feed me, love me, provide me with a nice warm, dry house, pet me, and take good care of me... They must be Gods!
A cat thinks: Hey, these people I live with feed me, love me, provide me with a nice warm, dry house, pet me, and take good care of me... I must be a God!
Posted 14:41

Thor Heyerdahl
Thor Heyerdahl died. I remember when I was in my early teens and I found a book of his from my parents' bookshelf. It wasn't Kon-Tiki, the one that he's most famous for, but a book about his next trips with Ra and Ra II. His theory was that since Incas in South America and Ancient Egyptians both used pyramids, that the two groups of people must have been closely related. He claimed that Incas must have actually been descendants of Egyptians who crossed over the sea. To prove his theory, he built a boat made of reeds using the old Egyptians methods and set out to sail across the Atlantic Ocean with it. The first one sank within sight of the American continent, so he built a new better one and that time got all the way across. It was a really inspirational book to read and a fascinating theory all in all. Later on I read Kon-Tiki as well. While the books mostly deal with just floating on a raft in the middle of the ocean with nothing much to do, he managed to write them so excellently and in an entertaining style that I had problems putting them down. Highly recommended, if you are even a little bit into travelling journal type of books.
Posted 14:35

Blah
Ever since starting this blog, I have started getting spam e-mail. And today I received a "personal" ad offering me a service to get my page added into lots of search engines. The vultures are everywhere! Grrr. I suppose it's better than the multitude of "Do you want a penis enlargement" e-mails that I also get.
Posted 22:55

Bridget Jones wisdom
Taken from the book Bridget Jones:The edge of reason:

      My favorite book, she claims - of which I have no memory - was about how little kids get one toy that they love more than all the others, and even when its fur has been rubbed off, and it's gone saggy with bits missing, the little child still thinks it's the most beautiful toy in the world and can't bear to be parted from it.
      "That's how it works, when people really love each other," Mum whispered on the way out in the Debenham's lift, as if she was confessing some hideous and embarrassing secret. "But, the thing is, darling, it doesn't happen to ones who have sharp edges, or break if they are are dropped, or ones made of silly synthetic stuff that doesn't last. You have to be brave and let the other person know who you are and what you feel."

There's a really funny excerpt from the book here. It's when Bridget Jones travels to Rome to interview the actor Colin Firth. Mmmm. I love that man.
Posted 20:19

Calvin & Hobbes wisdom
From the old Calvin&Hobbes comic book called The days are just packed:
Calvin: Isn't it strange that evolution would give us a sense of humor?
Calvin: When you think about it, it's weird that we have a physiological response to absurdity. We laugh at nonsense, we like it. We think it's funny.
Calvin: Don't you think it's odd that we appreciate absurdity? Why would we develop that way? How does it benefit us?
Hobbes: I suppose if we couldn't laugh at things that don't make sense, we couldn't react to a lot of life.
Calvin: ......
Calvin: I can't tell if that's funny or really scary.
Posted 20:17

Movies with guys
I bought the movie Swordfish today then. Not because I thought it might be a good movie. Not because I thought the actors in it can act so well. No, just so I could stare at Hugh Jackman some more. I wonder if guys ever do that... go see a movie just to drool about some woman? Well, it was a bit of a strange movie, but Hugh was as swoonable as ever I must say. The funniest thing in the movie, by far, was a hacker guy called Axl Torvalds from Finland. I just laughed and laughed. Ok, so they were trying to copy Linus Torvalds, the father of Linux, but it was so funny how there was nothing finnish about the guy at all. He looked german and spoke mumbled german, which was supposed to be finnish, and his english accent was nothing like finnish. He he.
Posted 18:29

Hugh Jackman
Went to see Kate & Leopold. Another one of those depressingly happy movies where the beautiful people get each other and live happily ever after. All the things that never happen in real life, at least not to me. But I must say I found a new drooling target, Hugh Jackman. He was soooooo gorgeous in the movie. *drool* *pant* I don't usually fall for the scruffy look, the type that he had in X-men (sideburns... eewww). I need to see Swordfish now!
Posted 20:31

Travelling in Finland
Up in Lapland, they have all kinds of weird guided trips for tourists.
Posted 15:57

Something to do
Finally something to fill my empty days with... a countdown to the premier of The Two Towers, next Lord of the Rings movie. What did I ever do before without one of these! ;) *watches the seconds hypnotically*
Posted 15:44

Delays, Americans and Canadians on the internet and things
As you might have noticed, I come from Finland, a small (populationwise) country in nothern Europe. What this means is that it is usually very hard to find fellow Finns on the internet. It's hard to find fellow Europeans even. We're out there, but we get lost in the great masses created by Americans and Canadians. North Americans are everywhere! I surf around the web daily and I've never met a single Italian, Hungarian or Austrian person, to name a few countries. The Asian and South American countries do even worse. Australians show themselves from time to time, but generally speaking 19/20 people on the internet seem to be from North America.

Sometimes that can be a real problem. I have nothing against USA or Canada or the people living in both countries, but sometimes it's hard to relate to the things people talk about. Over here in Finland we usually get stuff after a delay. Movies might take between a month to six months before it premiers here. The general rule seems to be that by the time the movie is on DVD in USA, we're getting it into the theater for the first time. Computer games come with a delay. The few TV shows that we can see, are always 2-3 years old. We get the Christmas 1999 episode in the middle of summer 2002 etc.

It gets real hard trying to participate in chats or discussion groups when the majority of the people are talking about a movie or a tv show that I have never even heard of. By the time I get to see the particular movie and would like to talk about it, people are already discussing something else. I remember when Star Wars Episode I came out... in USA it came out in May, in Finland it came out in August. Back then I was seriously contemplating flying to NYC just to see it earlier. Yeah, I was that nuts at the time. Luckily some things have been better lately. Lord of the Rings premiered at the same day and Episode 2 will be doing the same. Hurray!

But it's not just about delays, but the whole cultural differences. People in USA will tell stories how they grew up watching Sesame Street. We got that show here just a couple years ago. If I tell people on the internet how much I used to watch Pikku Kakkonen as a child, it'll say nothing to most people. People in USA all gather together to watch the Super Bowl and then afterwards talk about all those cool commercials that they saw. I don't see either, at all. If I try to explain how half the population watches the President's independence day reception and talks of what the ladies were wearing, it just doesn't say as much to a foreigner.

I still love the whole concept of internet and being able to contact people from all over the world. I just wish the 'all over the world' didn't almost always mean just North America.
Posted 19:21

Games
Dungeon Siege looks like a game that I will definately be buying. I've been trying to find a really good game for a long time now. I end up wasting money on a lot of games that I never play. Just about any game that has an isometric perspective (from above), like Diablo 2, Dungeon Keeper 2 or Caesar 3 perks my interests. While I like to play some games online as well, I've never gotten into games like Everquest because of the 3d perspective (and the fact that you have to pay monthly). Ultima Online would have been perfect, but by the time I got a good internet connection, it was already quite old. I'm still debating whether I will get Star Wars Galaxies once it's out. I love Star Wars, but the game looks too much like an Everquest clone. It's hard to find good games. I want one where I will just get lost for hours and hours, stay up until 4am playing and completely forget about my real life. Right now that'd be preferrable.
Posted 18:38

Weekend
It has been a weekend of booze and debauchery. Well, ok, just booze and partying. I seriously didn't want to go. I was feeling so depressed, I was horrible company for the first few hours. Luckily my friends were able to break through it and the evening ended quite well. Drank way more than I should have though and been paying for it today. Ugh.
Posted 17:43

Naughty
This site looks a lot better through this.
Posted 17:33

Helsinki webcam
From this webcam you can see a small part of the south harbour. The white building middle-left, with the little courtyard in front of it, is where the President works. The area across the street by the water is a big market place.
Posted 11:05

Past Lives
I'm not going to be filling this blog with all kinds of personality tests, but I ran into a couple about past lives, which intrigued me. I don't really believe we are born again over and over, but it is an interesting concept and sometimes I wish it were true. Anyhow, here's a theory of mine and then the test results...
Posted 18:48

Soul Mates
Now assuming incarnations were true, here's a theory of mine:
There used to be a heck of a lot less people in the world than there are now. Go back a few thousand years and there were less than a million of us on the whole planet. So if all the people now are a reincarnation of some earlier person, then where are all these new people coming from? My theory is that "souls" get split between several individuals. Of that caveman who lived a long time ago, there are now a hundred similar versions walking on the planet. Not identical, but similar like children resemble their parents. What if these "offsprings" are what we call soulmates? What if, when we try to find 'the one' for ourselves, the one to share our life with, we are actually looking for another reincarnation of the same person that we are?
Posted 18:36

Past Life - version 1
This test says I was an artist/magician/fortune teller.

Diagnosis:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I do not know how you feel about it, but you were female in your last earthly incarnation.
You were born somewhere around territory of modern Spain approximately on 475.
Your profession was artist, magician, fortune teller.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your brief psychological profile in that past life:
Natural talent of psychologist, you knew how to use the opportunities. Cold-blooded and calm in any situation.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lesson, that your last past life brought to present:
Your problem -- to learn determination and persistency. Every misfortune should crash upon your strong will.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now you remember?
Posted 18:23

Past Life - version 2
This test claims I was a soldier in my past life:


What were you in a past life?

Dying bravely for king and country is what every solder both dreams of and fears, isn't it? Long nights spent on guard, hard marches, and the brutality of war surrounded you, but you held fast to your honor and loyalty. You were determined to march off into the face of the enemy, screaming your country's battle cry and dying with your leader's name on your lips... you got your wish, and you took a lot of the Other Guys down with you. A real hero.

Guess what, hero? Although no one can say that loyalty and honor are bad qualities, sometimes you need to take a look at what it is you're fighting for. Devoted to the Cause? Determined to see it through? Ask yourself why. If it's something WORTH fighting for, you should be able to find that 'why', and if it's not... then put down your gun, soldier. Stay home. Marry. Have kids. Whatever makes you happy. Take a turn, this lifetime, at being what the heros are fighting for... at least until you know why you're fighting.
Posted 18:23

Babylon 5 Wisdom
I was watching some old the episodes from Babylon 5, the greatest ever TV show, and I am always amazed by the good writing. Here's an excerpt:

There is a greater darkness than the one we fight.
It is the darkness of the soul that has lost its way.
The war we fight is not against powers and principalities,
it is against chaos and despair.
Greater than the death of flesh, is the death of hope.
The death of dreams.
Against this peril we can never surrender.

The future is all around us,
waiting in moments of transition,
to be born in moments of revelation.
No-one knows the shape of that future
or where it will take us.
We know only that it is always born in pain.
Posted 23:31

Scary
This is so like me, it's almost scary.
Posted 14:56

Birthdays
Why is it that when my birthday is coming up, I am the one expected to organize everything for it? My best friend is anxious for a party, any party, and so she thinks I should have a huge party for my birthday where she could invite all of her friends too. When I told her that 1) I am getting depressed because yet another birthday is coming up and I still haven't achieved anything in my life, 2) I don't want to organize everything by myself and 3) I am low on money, all pointing to the conclusion that there will be no party, she's now completely forgotten about my birthday. She didn't offer to help, she didn't offer to pay partially, she didn't ask me was there anything else that I would perhaps like to do on my special day. Nope, she's already made all kinds of other plans with her other friends, so I won't be seeing her on my birthday at all. And no, it's not some plot to organize me a surprise party either. Those things just don't happen, never have. This won't be the first time I've spent my birthday all alone. I'm mad and getting all the more depressed.
Posted 14:34

Haircuts
I don't want to sound like the kind of person who just hates everything (see 'Euro' from yesterday), but I do hate getting my hair cut. Because of this I only do it 3-4 times a year. I have it cut real short, with the tips above my shoulders and eyebrows and then just let it grow until the hair falls between my shoulder blades and in the front reaches down to my chin. So when I finally get a haircut again, it's a whole new me in 30 minutes. I'm always afraid the hair dresser is going to do something completely horrible. I sit there, staring at the mirror in terror and in my mind I'm constantly going 'What is she doing now? No, no, not there! Not that much! Nooo! Oh god what did she do now? Oh man that's going to look dorky.' and so forth. Of course I never manage to say anything though, but I just sit there and smile faintly as if nothing's wrong. The other part I hate about it is the constant need to do smalltalk. I don't know how things are elsewhere in the world, but here are you practically required to chat amiably with the hairdresser during the whole procedure. I'm horrible when it comes to thinking of topics for discussion of practically nothing with a perfect stranger. I was sitting next to an elderly woman (80s) today and she just talked and talked. She talked to me as well, even while the hairdrier was right next to my ear and I couldn't hear a word. I just kept nodding my head and smiling. Now the problem is that the hairdresser didn't cut my hair short enough, so I'll be forced to go again in a couple of months...
Posted 13:13

Old games
I've seen it before a few times, but it's still a very funny, albeit slightly too long, flash movie about Pong. I still remember that game, playing it with my father. After that came the ultra-awesome Space Invaders. Man, how cool that game was back then and the only way to play was to find an arcade hall somewhere and stick coins into a machine. The black&white blocks and simple gameplay... It's amazing how far just the gaming industry has gotten in twenty years. Kids these days just don't know how good they have it now! *grin*
Posted 01:57

Euro
I still hate Euro, the new currency. I realize how great it is for businesses, travellers and to generally keep track of commerce between the countries, but I just miss the old markka so much.

I like to travel a lot and I've never had problems adjusting to foreign currencies, but now I just can't get used to the Euro. It's been almost four months and I still have to convert prices to markka to make some sense of them. I mean, if I have to buy milk from the store, then I'll just buy milk and not think about it. But if somebody says 'oh this shirt was so expensive', then I have to do the convertion thing to get some idea just how expensive do they mean. It's so different when the money changes in your own country, versus going abroad where everything is all new. Plus my hatred for the Euro probably has a lot to do with this as well.

I'd really like to see the people who came up with Euro and go What the hell?. First of all, why do the pennies have to be called cents? Cent is a length measurement around here, as in centimeter. You don't get Americans saying 'This'll cost 3 dollars and 20 inches'. Secondly, what's with all the dozens of different monetary units? For the cents, you get 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50 cent coins. Then you have the 1 and 2 euro coins. That's 8 different types of coins littering your wallet. Why is there any need for the 2 cent and euro coins at all? If something costs 8 euros, how hard is it to give a 5 euro bill and 3 times a 1 euro coin? Thirdly, why do others get the 1 and 2 cent coin and we don't here in Finland? All our prices are rounded up or down to the nearest 5th dividend (or however it's called), while elsewhere in Europe they get to pay the exact amount.

Growl. I hate the Euro.
Posted 19:26

Sun Crazy
To prove my point from yesterday, that we really love the sun like maniacs, today on my way home from the grocery store, I saw two convertibles (top down naturally). The temperature was still only 9C (48F), but the sun from the cloudless sky was really making it feel more like 20C (68F). Now I realize to people in California or Australia 20C might be the coldest weather they get during "winter", but to us with real -20C (4F) winters, this is already heaven.
Posted 18:51

Personality Disorders
I found a Personality Disorder Test from a diary today and just had to take it.

My results:
Disorder | Rating
Paranoid: High
Schizoid: Moderate
Schizotypal: Moderate
Antisocial: Low
Borderline: Low
Histrionic: Moderate
Narcissistic: High
Avoidant: Very High
Dependent: Low
Obsessive-Compulsive: Low

I have to say I strongly disagree a lot with what the Avoidant stands for. It says I am afraid of embarrassing myself in front of others, frequently depressed and have low self-confidence. And yet when the test specifically asked for those things I said no. Hmph! Maybe I misread the questions, because for a lot of the things I replied with 'no' it now claims I possess those abilities. The Narcissistic for example: exaggerate achievements, uninterested in the feelings of others and may take advantage of them. *boggle* Again, the test asked specifically about those things and I said no. Bah humbug! Paranoid? "Read hostile intentions into the actions of others". "Shift blame to others and tend to carry long grudges". Bah again I say!

I know myself very well. I love myself. I think I am weird and I wish I could be different in some matters, but then again, it wouldn't be me anymore. If I'll slowly change throughout the years to something better, then good, but I don't wish for some magic button that'd suddenly make me a new person. I have trouble trusting people. Not in the general sense that I feel they will lie to me or steal from me, but in putting myself completely at somebody else's mercy. I want and need to be in control of my own life. I'm not very thrilled about meeting new people, but I don't avoid anybody for fear of failure or embarrassment. Hrrmmm. Silly test!
Posted 17:34

Sun worship
It's amazing what a difference sunshine can make. Most of the year it's cold, dark, dreary and totally depressing here. You don't feel like doing much at all. The people you pass on the street are all bundled up, heads bowed against the blizzard, so you can't even see their faces. Everybody looks pale and worn out. It all changes magically when the sun comes out again in spring, and especially during the summer. We really know how to take every ounch out of every ray of sunlight that we get. For example, a lot of movie theaters close for the summer, because nobody wants to sit inside, not even to watch a movie.

Today the temperature was only 6C (43F) and you can still see snow here and there, but the sun was just shining so warmly that I was out there with a t-shirt on. It's absolute bliss. I would have made an excellent ancient Egyptian, because I worship the yellow ball like a god. I really can't wait for summer! Between June and July the sun shines about 22 hours a day here in Helsinki. The people in the north are even luckier, for them it just circles above for a month.

I've never understood the idea about curtains. I can understand the need to have curtains if the window is in such a place that other people might be able to look in the house. But I just can't understand people who have to make their bedroom pitch black when they sleep. Don't they feel completely exhausted and tired still when they wake up in complete darkness? I love waking up to sunlight. My bedroom window faces east. In the summer, when the sun gets up around 4am my whole room begins to bathe in the light. Then by the time it's about 8am the hot sun is straight in my face and I am forced to get up, because I am starting to sweat. But I love it, absolutely love it.
Posted 15:52

Helsingin Sanomat - Helsinki's News
I had no idea the most popular Finnish newspaper also had an online english edition. The funniest story there must be the one about Pirkka, a Norwegian TV show about a Finnish man who curses all the time, rarely changes clothes or washes himself. Yep, that's how our lovely neighbours see us *smirk*

I also had no idea you could learn to speak Finnish in 3 minutes. The language must be easier than I thought...

The most interesting piece of news on the finnish version is a news piece about the police trying to get permission to read suspects' e-mail. They got permission to eavesdrop on phone conversations only a few years ago. I'm not entirely sure what to think about these abilities granted to the police. A part of me is afraid of the whole 'big brother is watching' tendency that is slowly spreading to all parts of the society, but naive or not, I still have faith in the Finnish powers-that-be not to abuse the powers they have been granted with, at least not a whole lot. According to some international study, for which I cannot find the link for now (saw it in tv news few weeks ago), Finland is among the least corrupted countries in the world. I have faith yet.
Posted 20:52

Female - Male
Sometimes I wonder what makes men look male and women look female. If you strip away all the make up, frizzy hair, facial hair, jewelry and generally all those things we generally associate with one gender, then we all have the same two eyes, nose, mouth etc. So what is it about that combination that makes some look male and some female? Or is there anything? Do we need the extra stuff (makeup etc) to know?

In the movie Pitch Black the actress Rhiana Griffith played a girl disguised as a boy. The disguise was so good, that she sure got me fooled. This is her as a boy, while here you can see pictures of her as a girl.

On the other hand, in G.I.Jane the actress Demi Moore managed to look still very much like a female even with a shaved head.

Is it the eyelashes? Cheekbones? Shape of the mouth? What makes us look male or female?
Posted 12:52

LOTR Weakest link
A person by the name of White Rider at the LOTR Fan Club Boards wrote a funny post with the Fellowship members taking part in the Weakest Link show:

Anne Robinson: So, we’ve already lost Gandalf and now Merry & Pippin! You’ve got a miserly One ring out of a possible twenty! It’s pathetic isn’t it? What have you got to say for yourselves? Thought not! Very well, it’s time to vote off.... the Weakest Link! Aragorn, you’ve chosen Boromir! Why?!

Aragorn: Well, he was heroic but not nearly heroic enough. If by my life or death I can win this game, I will. He has my vote.

Anne Robinson: I see! Well, let’s hope you improve a bit if you think you can reclaim the crown! Frodo Baggins, you also voted for Boromir! Can you tell us why?!

Frodo: I know what he would say, and it would seem like wisdom, but for the warning in my heart. There is no other way.

Anne Robinson: Don’t trust him to bank the money, eh? Probably wise! So Boromir, Frodo doesn’t trust you and it looks like he was right! Why have you picked him?

Boromir: How it angers me! Fool! Obstinate fool! That ring should be mine! Give it to me!

Anne Robinson: Let’s wait and see shall we?! Samwise Gamgee, another vote for Boromir?

Sam: Well, begging your pardon Ms Robinson, but it’s like Master Frodo says, “But I’m voting for Boromir alone”. And I says, “I know that well enough, Mr Frodo. Of course you are. And I’m voting with you.”

Anne Robinson: Well, quite the faithful little gardener, aren’t we? Let’s see how much good it does you! Gimli, son of Glóin! A vote for Legolas, eh?

Gimli: Hammer and tongs! I will be dead before I see the ring in the hands of an elf!

Anne Robinson: And Legolas! Returning the favour with a vote for the dwarf! Got something against red-haired dwarves have we?

Legolas: I have not the heart to tell you. For me the grief is still too near.

Anne Robinson: I see! Well, Boromir! Looks like you’ve blown your own horn for the last time. You are The Weakest Link! Goodbye! (wink)
Posted 22:11

Half-Life
I finally gave a try to the Day of Defeat mod for the game Half-Life. The DoD mod is a World War II based Allies vs. Axis game and from the looks of it, fairly realistic. Half-Life is the first computer game I bought just for the online multiplayer games, after finally getting a decent ADSL line. I'm really not into 3d shooters, but the Team Fortress Classic proved to be quite fun. I can't play it for more than 30 mins at a time though for some reason. What surprised me the most was the actual single-player game itself. Nothing like what I had expected from a first person shooter. There's an excellent plot, gripping atmosphere, different places and puzzles to solve and creatures in the game that act logically. I've never been so scared when just playing a computer game! All those dark, murky waters where you keep sinking towards the bottom and monsters wait to devour you. Sometimes I had to use the cheat codes just to avoid the scariest parts. I guess the game is not really one of its kind anymore, but it's still among my favorites.
Posted 21:04

Asteroids are coming, asteroids are coming!
Although it won't happen until 2880 and the odds are 1 to 300 that it'll actually hit, I'm still imagining all those Hollywood movies where a group of rugged oil drillers will save the world from armageddon. I don't want any asteroids to hit Earth or to even come close, but it is interesting in a way to think of all the possibilities. What kind of technology will they have in 2880 to get rid of it? Will somebody just push a button and a laser beam shoots out into space vaporizing the whole asteroid? What if we blast ourselves back into the stoneage with a World War 3 and the poor people then won't even realize what's coming to hit them?
Posted 13:52

Cats
I like cats. I used to think I am more of a dog person, but after I had a cat myself, I saw how cool they can be too. My cat thought she was a dog though, so I guess it worked out perfectly. I never thought this would be possible, despite the rumours I heard, until I actually saw that site and the pictures. Never went through the trouble myself. My cat hates you is the second in my list of very weird cat sites. Although I have to say this is quite funny.

Posted 19:10

Mars again
Speaking of Mars... reminded me of the Send your name to Mars project that they have. Just checked and sure enough, my name is still on the list. It'd feel a lot more special if I didn't know they have millions of names in there, a lot of them fake too. For example, they have 22 Luke Skywalkers listed and 8 Spocks. Darth Maul is going to Mars in 9 pieces. Also the fact that this is part of the SpaceKids program makes me feel a little ridiculous, but anything to get even a small piece of me to that planet!
Posted 23:21

Mars 2001 Odyssey
I have an almost unhealthy fascination with the planet Mars. If I was given the choice to leave Earth right now, travel to Mars and live the rest of my days there, knowing that I will never be able to come back or see the people that I love, I'd still go in a heartbeat. Sometimes I curse myself for having been born too early for Mars travel to be possible. Heck, I'd almost settle with being able to get into outerspace, but even that's not possible for commoners like myself. Bah!

Nasa currently has an orbiter around Mars, the Odyssey. It's currently taking photos of the surface and they post a new picture every day.
Posted 23:03

Online communities
One of my daily reads are the message boards at the Lord of the rings Fan Club, being a Charter Member myself. I have remained mostly the lurking outsider however, much like how things go in real life as well. The atmosphere at the boards is really wonderful, with everybody being overly encouraging of each other, no flaming or cursing is allowed and the moderators are doing an excellent job in keeping everything in check. There's not a twink in sight, which is highly unusual. There has formed a very strong community around the message boards, something which I find unbelievable. How do a bunch of people from around the world go from making a few posts dealing with Lord of the Rings into basically lifelong friends?

Green Dragon Inn has a collection of links to the various websites that the board members have put up. There's collections of petitions, poems, jokes, art, photos, profiles and so on. When one active member of the boards got seriously ill, the others gathered a huge get-well card for him, talked with the man's son and arranged for it to be delivered in person. With the recent Oscars ceremony, the One Ring net organized a huge party for LOTR fans, where a bunch of the fan club members also went and met for the first time in real life. Irascian made an excellent photo collection of the whole experience. Right now the fan club members are trying to organize a full page ad in the Variety magazine to thank Peter Jackson&company for their hard work, even when they didn't win big at the Oscars. Then there's the plans to organize a big New Zealand event for 2003, when the Return of the King movie premiers.

All of this made possible by the internet... As much like a corny cliche as this sounds, but internet really is changing the way we experience and see life.
Posted 16:02

Growl
I'm a new user to both, but I sure hope Blogger and Blogspot are not always as crappy as they have been the past few days. I'm constantly having problems logging in or even seeing my own blog. When I try to write an update, either the whole page does not show up properly or when I go to publish, I get hit with the 'page not found' and everything that I just wrote has disappeared. Aaaargh!

Posted 22:11

Two Towers trailer
Some Czech website set put up pictures from the new Lord of the Rings trailer for the Two Towers. Cool trailer and cool pictures, but makes you wonder how they got them, since the trailer is only showing at movie theaters right now. Judging from the photo quality, somebody must have taken a video camera to the theater. Sigh... down with piracy!
Posted 21:58

Heart of the Star Wars
Mark Tatulli, the creator of the Heart of the city comic, must be a fan of Star Wars. One of the comic's characters Dean is constantly quoting SW or dreaming about it. I actually found 31 strips from year 2001 with SW references in them. (yeah so I was bored)

Here they are in order of appearance:
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10
11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19 - 20
21 - 22 - 23 - 24 - 25 - 26 - 27 - 28 - 29 - 30 - 31

Posted 16:02

April Fool's
I haven't done an April Fool's joke since I was like 13 years old or something. I just completely lack the ability to lie to somebody, when it's not something important. Trying to tell a lie just for the sake of a joke makes me giggle, squirm and nervously twitch my hands, which makes it very obvious to everybody that something fishy is going on. Luckily I haven't been the object of many April Fool's jokes in a long time either. I'm a real sucker for those, because most of the time I don't realize what day it is until it's too late. Luckily I just saw mention of it at a website, so I'm ready for anything now...
Posted 13:18

Weekends and holidays
I am currently unemployed, with no major responsibilities or worries, so I find it rather strange how much I still love weekends and other official holidays. I can always sleep as long as I want and basically do whatever I want during the day, but still the real days off are special. It's like getting an official permission that during holidays I really don't have to do anything at all. During the week when I just sit at home doing nothing, I always feel guilty, I feel like I should be out there doing something, anything productive. The past four days of the Easter weekend have been absolutely wonderful. I feel far more relaxed than usual and now I am starting to feel the stress creeping back in when I think that tomorrow this bliss will be over. It's really sad how the world has imprinted this feeling in us that if you are not a contributing member of the society, then there is something inherently wrong with you.
Posted 13:10