Eating Muffins in an Agitated Manner

Some reading

Posted by jukkahoo

It's been a while. How's life? Same here.

As it is July and my vacation time, I thought that secluding from the world in general was not a bad idea. And since Missus agreed, we decided that a little cottage time was in order.

I took twelve books with me and returned with 24. Of the 12 I read nine, while the other dozen were bought from the Mäntyharju thrift store, for reasons ranging from "Look at the price of this first edition of Borges!" to "Ah, material for my next reference book".

I brought mostly entertainment with me, which turned out just fine, since I did manage to read nine books in a week. Here is a rough coverage of the said books:

John Maddox Roberts: Saturnalia - Fifth book of the SPQR-series of historical whodunnit's in the republican Rome of playboy/detective Decius Caecilius Metelleus Younger. Very enjoyable romps: good humour, decent plotting, fun characters. This one sees our protagonist suddenly back in Rome, where his one of uncles has been murdered. The Elder Metellus wants Decius to ind the grieving widow guilty, while her brother, the veritable Nemesis of our hero, really wants her to be innocent. SPQR-series is well worth one's time and money.

John Maddox Roberts: Nobody Loves a Centurion - Sixth SPQR-book and Decius id dispatched to Gallia, where Caesar is running his masterplan for eventual leadership of Rome. A strange case of dead primus pilum gets Decius in trouble, since the probable murderer is one of his own patronage, or could it be one of the Gauls? Or possibly a blood-thirsty German, one of the many that are crossing over the Rhine? Hilarity ensues. 

M. D. Lachlan: Wolfsangel - Genuinely nice riff of werewolf-myth mixed with some properly gritty Viking-age bloodletting. Nice period-feeling, proper hammer&sorcery, with more than sizable portion of viking history. Loved the magics. 

J. Pekka Mäkelä: Karsta - Fourth novel by the (almost) lone champion of current Finnish SF. Another quiet masterpiece of bystander-sf. Humanity has lost the interstellar war and aftermath means cleaning up the places. Mäkelä solidifies his place as an important sociopolitical-sf writer.

Juha-Pekka Koskinen: Eilispäivän sankarit - Fun pulp fiction where the main character is woken from 30-odd year coma, after a bothched-up robbery attempt. Surprisingly, he seems to have been found guilty of more crimes than he remembers, and now someone is telling him to stop digging up the old stuff. Good, solid Finnish-pulp from craftsman of many different genres. A whiff of spec-fic here, but only a dash of the stuff.

Scott Oden: The Lion of Cairo - Very good historical fantasy, that did manage to feel both fresh and original, while nodding lovingly at Howard and Lamb. 12th century arab world, with muslim protagonists and very little Franks to mess it all up. Delightfully gritty, surprising and swashbuckling adventure. Didn't expect the fantasy aspect. Loved to read more and if I'm not mistaken, a sequel is a-coming. Very much recommended.

Tansy Rayner Roberts: Love and Romanpunk - Four stories of Romanpunk, from age of Julian emperors to near-future. Very nice take on various myths. Loved the Victorian-piece, while I wouldn't have minded seeing the Patrician-story a bit longer. There is some strong SF/F in Australia. 

Gavin Smith: Veteran - Decent richardmorganesque action-sf, with grimy future of interstellar war and dirty sex, drugs and rock'n'roll. Too long, though. And far too verbose characters. Shame.

Ari Marmell: A Conqueror's Shadow - Another dissappointment, which managed to make a small comeback in the later stages. Very average bulk fantasy with some seriously silly characters, plot points and ideas. There is a definite improvement in the last third pf the novel, but while the characters seem more defined and their actions even somewhat understandtable, there is a weird juxtaposition between the way the author handles his characters and the blase rpg-plot and the adult/PG-feeling of the novel. At times the main characters are doing unspeakable deeds, whilst the writer tries to keep the feel of the book at almost kindergarten-level. Horrible violence next to decent humour, next to childish warfare tactics, next to brainless criminal mastermind, next to enchanting tale of fantasyland history, etc. 

For posterity's sake, here are the three books I didn't read: Karen Lord's Redemptio in Indigo, Iain Gale's Man of Honour and Jo Walton's Among Others (Sari read this one).

Cleaning the cobwebs

Posted by jukkahoo

Sorry about the mess. Well, perhaps not mess, but the dust and cobwebs and them tumbleweeds. We haven't had time to clean up.

I say "time". I mean "energy". Finncon 2009 was somewhat exhausting experience, which took the wind right out of my wings. It didn't help that I managed to crop up some extra activities beside, I co-edited two books; Ulkomaisia fantasiakirjailijoita 2 ( "Foreign Fantasy Authors" with Vesa Sisättö and Toni Jerrman) and Historiallisen romaanin taitajia 1 ("Masters of Historical Novel" with Juri Nummelin and Sari); did some serious overtime at work; and tried to keep sane at the same time with various other things, that I'm not going to mention here.

After this (wot? six weeks?) time I should be ready to say something about the con itself, but as I think about the long weekend, I can only remember a flurry of motion and some scattered panicky moments, when something or the other was at miss. Not the Guests of Honours, who were just superb! Or the mega-brilliant Staff, who managed to keep the con ship afloat amidst the Sea of Overwhelming Obstacles. Youse gyus rokkkk!

So, no real con-report, I'm afraid, as I didn't really see all that much. "But you saw the thing from within, sir?", says the wild-eyed person with a fluttering set of hands.

Well, yeah... so I did. So, I might have something to ponder about. And I do. I'll try to put to paper... erm, type to screen... write something about that, OK? Together with some thoughts about the Finncon and the future of Finncon in particular. 

Since we are heading toward something new - and old at the same time. 2010 will be a whole different ballgame and mindset. 2011 is trying to do something, which to my mind, is very difficult and probably not worth it. I think we've seen what Finncon/Animecon is and it is a mess of of a thing, that needs to rest in its laurels and be no more.

But what is Finncon? What kind of a convention should and could it be? It seems to me, that if we want to keep the original idea of "spreading the gospel" of SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY to the mundane masses and, of course, the occasional fans and interested parties, we need to think this through. Is it a literary convention, with emphasis on books, writers and science on the side. Or is it a more general kind of an event, where you can sample little bit of everything? Should it be exclusive or inclusive? Or something in between?

If you ask me (well, since this is our blog, you don't really have a say on this, so here goes) the answer is there in the middle of everything. I believe Finncon should be a literary-oriented sf/f con, with interesting program items from various and sundry fringe mediums (like comics, games, TV/films, horror, slipstream, science, tomfoolery etc). The emphasis should be on booksies and authors of those books, but it shouldn't be all sercon and dry. There should be games and interactive programming, stuff for beginners as well as advanced weir... members of fandom.

I've heard people say, that they'd like to see more media-oriented programming and GoH's. Well, duly noted. Not impossible, nor totally out of the question, but unlikely.

Finncon is a literary-oriented con. Has been. Will be. Despite being arranged together with Animecon, the Finncon-part has always been pretty heavily veered toward literary side of things. And as I see it, the core of the people who have been organising the event in the past, are literary-minded fen.

Shurely we enjoy media. I know I do. But not as much as I like them books. If someone would arrange a mediacon in Finland, I could see me going there. I might even pay for it. A bit. Especially if the Guest(s) would be interesting.

OK, they'd had to be interesting. That's my caveat.

They wouldn't be cheap. Compared to them, George R. R. Martin was cheapo. Heck, Harlan Ellison would've been cheaper, and he was expensive as hell (which, by the way, was the reason he has never been to a Finncon)!

OK. Rant-like part of this entry over. As is this entry. But I have only skimmed the surface here. I'll be back. In a day or two. More thoughts on Finncon, 2009 edition of it and the future of. Feel free to comment.

Blech :-(

Posted by Sari

If Facebook is any indication, everybody seems to be having a flu right now. And so am I. At the moment I am quite unable to speak. Nothing but weak whispers come out of my mouth. Jukka says he can't hear me on the phone. I am also still running a fever after a whole week of feeling crappy. Blablabla, woe is me. So here are some happy things:

1. Congrats to Hannu for his publishing deal, it is truly honestly humongous news.

2. Here is an older picture of Myy and our Andalusian stallion Aguador. They are cute and make me feel better

The Stuff Our Dreams Are Made Of

Posted by jukkahoo

I've spent these few moments of awakedness browsing thru Thom Disch's polemic Hugo-winner of How Science Fiction Conquered the World. The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of is a great read, whatever one might think of the way Disch writes about the importance and history of SF. When the book came out, some critics were less than enthused about it, but I hope that we can look at the book with more open eyes these days and see more clearly what it is: a great look at the wonderful world of Science Fiction!

I haven't read Disch's prose all that much, nor have I had the pleasure of finding my way through his poetry all that much. These past twelve hours have somewhat remedied that part, as I have read various reminiscences of him as well as snippets of his poetry.

Which still leaves most of Disch's major works like 334 and Camp Concentration unread by the oversigned. Yet again, an important author I'm about to get acquainted with, past the passing.

As said aroundishly, I haven't really read Thomas M. Disch. And now that he's shuffled his mortal coil, this reading will be posthumous. Darn. Fuck.

I understand his life had been a bit of an uphill struggle recently. He lost his partner of some three decades only just, he was facing monetary problems and for a long time before all that, been living with severe depression. Sad news. 

I've been very busy with work recently and will probably be so until Finncon. I'd very much like to continue working here, so most other things are on the backburner, though obviously not forgotten nor abandoned. I just need to focus on this a lot more if there is any chance of continuation with it. Sorry about all various and sundry and deadlines and all that. Normal service could be continued any day in the future.

Swimming Guest of Honour

Posted by jukkahoo

No, not really. No swimming GoH's, at least yet. If on the other hand Åcon-superhero and thoroughly Fucking Brilliant Hal Duncan isn't going to be allowed into an airplane in the future, he says that "he'll be back to  Scandinavia somewhere and somewhen" even if he has to swim in order to do so.

But what an amazing convention! Good people, great friends (old and new), great performances, excellent Guests (even if the Book-one suffered from unprofessional organising, sorry about that) and allround FUCKING BRILLIANT atmosphere! Youse guys råck.

This has been a long, really loooong dream-come-true and wouldn't have happened without the work of so many people, that it feels somehow a bit unfair to point out only few names, but the THANKS go to all deserving. Åcon was originally a brainfart of Ben and myself, largely made closer to reality by Tero and finally turned into reality by Eemeli, whose work and enthusiasm was the Real Deal behind it all. If only you hadn't had the need to stick your penis into places which would spell L-u-m-i and P-a-p-u in nine months could've been there!

"Jaast kidding!", of course. All the best for the kids and especially Saija. We seriously want to have you four there the next time (if there is a next time... and why not?).

This wouldn't have been the same without our glorious Guest Hal Duncan, who selflessly sacrificed his (and mine and Sari's) night sleep, in order to party with the Nordic fandom all thru the night. BTW, Hal: I don't think I heard all of the musical/opera at 5AM, so if you could possibly send me a recording that'd be effing brilliant; you see, I have these neighbours...

Huge round of applause from these here hands go also to those fen who always answered positively when asked to participate to the programming. I don't think that anybody said "no" to me. Fancy if that would happen with Finncon...?

And what about our location? Adlon was not only accomodating, they were VERY accomodating, not to mention embarassingly polite and hard at hearing. I could think of several establishments where such ruckus as ours would've been followed by stern lecturing about silence during the night and likely ending of customer/seller partnership. "AND STAY OUT!"

So yeah, Candy. It was truly fucking brilliant and well worth every single moment of sleeplesness and blood, sweat and tears, and other pop groups. I'd do it again.

And I think we will too. Stay tuned for Åcon 2.

Some personal observations, almost in order

After all of the preparations, my con really started, when we (that's Sari and I) managed to find our way to Pasila station and met Hal, Mekku and Eemeli half an hour before our Wednesday train trip to Turku. Hal seemed likeable, Mekku enthusiastic and Eemeli slightly bleary-eyed and tired. Must've been the spring and all that pollen, methinks.

We talked two hours on the train, followed by couple more at Ben's place, where Tero was also driving us, possibly showing off his shiny car. It seemed like Hal was this very nice, somewhat tired Scott, who drank tea and ate hot cheese sandwiches. Little did we know.

The following morning rose far too early, but we managed to find ourselves to Ölcon, the un-Official precon of Åcon. Gadzoiks! Tax-free bheer and Finns. What could possibly happen? Well, you figure that out yourself, my Dear Reader.

Adlon was really just a stone-throw away from terminal, "unfortunately" the terminal in question was Birka Line terminal and not the main Silja/Viking-one. Though to be fair, I guess there are several people in this world who could've thrown the stone from the Silja coming from Stockholm and hit our hotel. It was only a three-minute walk from the ferry terminal after all.

After the check-in, most of my memories are a bit blurred. I do remember traveling back to Helsinki via Turku with Aleksi the Amazing Underwear-Guy! There was lots of programming, but I think that's mostly due to the fact that I actually partcipated in far too many of them. Let's see... Ghaps, I was on nine program items. No wonder I thought there was a bit too much programming. If I could've somehow managed to keep myself away, say about half of those, I might have mustered energy to join the room parties and power drinking. Must remember this next time. I think Eemeli can do nine items then.

Actually, I enjoyed all of the programs I saw and participated in. I had treaded some items beforehand (mainly quizzes) but overall I thought they went well'ish. Some I hadn't planned beforehand at all. Like Alternative Histories or Guilty Pleasures (that's two program items), which I think were both wonderfully entertaining, even if not ambitiously inventive.

And I agree with many, that the panel on Book Collecting was waaa-ay funnier and interesting that the title says. One of the best panels I've been in. It is a fascinating subject (at least for me and I dare to say, to all panellists, maybe even Sari... then again, maybe not) which gives ample opportunities to just be funny ha-ha as well as thoughtful.

Adlon was, as said, very accomodating and just the right size for this kind of con. Åcon could be slightly larger, but not that much. 80 to 100 would be just right, the latter in order to fill up the whole of hotel and thus giving us the free reins to do there whatever We want and not worry about other customers. Which we actually didn't, really. There were few saucer-eyed people, who had no idea where they had landed and why, but in reality we saw very little of other hotel customers. There was that group of about hundred little kids who came to eat at the restaurant, though, but other than that, it was mainly just us.

And the conference-room was OK, too. Could've been bigger, but not that much (maybe then, if we'd be more than hundred in all). The biggest flaw was the AC, which made the place somewhat discomforting after 30-40 minutes. I think we almost lost people during Hal's GoH speech, which lasted for hours (OK - or as we say in Åcon, "ÅC!" - hour and a half). This is something we have to think about in the future. Next time we might think of using more technology. Somehow it was sweet to see in the Pixellated Techno Peasantry -panel, how the panellists were all aching to tap the all powerful innernets and show its sekrets. And all they had was a whiteboard and some third-rate felt pens. Try to be techno-savvy with that equipment!

I personally think that there was about the right amount of programming. Proper free "morning", few hours of programming followed by a decent break and then a number of serious and less serious items, all  well and truly doused with bheer. Now this is what I call a con: good-humoured participation, loose timetables (which still follow some kind of order and schedule), beer/drinks readily available and possible to take to your con-room, relaxed atmosphere and a mix of fun and games with thought-provoking ideas. A meeting of friends and fellow enthusiastics. Fan-stuff. Fandom. Cheers!

So, yes, I think that I'd like to organise another Åcon. With some brilliant GoH and all you wonderful people. You are The Best!

NaFaWriMo

Posted by jukkahoo   

Time flies when you're not feeling too good.

I've been somewhat depressed and down these past two months after Finncon. Multiple reasons and I'm not going to go into them, nothing health-wise, though. Next check-up will be in September 2007.

I'm trying to get over this slump (of creativity and of gigantic proportions) with new regime. First in order of things: I'm calling November the National Fanzine Writing Month. At the end of this month I'll have material for three fanzines: Arimoniitti #4 (my long-suffering FAPA-zine), Legolas 4/2006 (the Finnish Tolkien Society's fantasy magazine, with special theme-issue honoring Robert E. Howard - and his century) and the slightly hush-hush fanzine for something I'll be talking a LOT soon(ish).

Same rules apply as with the regular NaNoWriMO, but this is not a novel (evidently!) but material for fanzine(s). 50 000 words. I'm expecting to write a fair deal about Finncon, as well as Swecon and various other little meetings (Kirjamessut etc). Åcon, for sure (hey, Hal Duncan!). We may even soon have a place to have the con. Could you believe that Åland hotels are bidding over us? More info ASAWGI.

Talking about Finncon: our gracious GoH, Mr. Jeff VanderMeer has started doing a new column -  called Dispatches From Smaragdine - for the SF-Site and what is that fungi... erm, fun guy talking about in his first piece? Here is the evidence, pardon if I'll go and demonstrate the colour of a fire truck to little Myy.

And why didn't nobody told me that Propaganda actually a good band and not just the odd German one with that one good song (Duel).

More soon.

"Ethshar!" - "Bless you!"

Posted by jukkahoo

I have seldom read a lot of fiction from the screen. I guess a palm or some such could be a different matter, since the little I have managed to browse with various people's PDA's kinda showed me that it could work. Now I have this conundrum.

Just the other day Ellen Datlow's amazingly well-received (numerous awards, including two Hugo's only last August) SCI FICTION met with a decisive "thank you for playing, but we're now going to continue serving people with more of the mindless visual gimmickry they so obviously want!" service announcement from the Sci-Fi Channel. No worries there, as it is their site, but as SCI FICTION has been pretty much the only service of it's kind I've been using, it was a bum news though not that great.

What really has now picked my interest, is the finalization of Lawrence Watt-Evans' new Ethshar-novel. Those of you who have no idea of what I'm talking about: Lawrence Watt-Evans is one of my guilty pleasures, a a fairly humdrum-reputated speculative fiction author whose works I have enjoyed a great deal all these years. He has several series, of which the Ethshar is his most well-known to most (who know of his works). It's a very low-key fantasy setting with stories that do not necessarily involve the high and mighty, but most of the times the little people, the salt of the earth, the mundanes, the regular folk. You get the picture. His latest published Ethshar-novel Ithnalin's Restoration was (as I understand it) a qualified non-success and thus his publisher (Tor) pulled the plug on the series, thought they did continue with his Obsidian Chronicles and future works.

Waah, no more Ethshar, or...?

Possibly due to his rather fervent fan-base on the net or some other dubious idea, Watt-Evans decided to have a go and try the not so well-regarded Stephen King Approach and started posting his next proposed Ethshar-story Spriggan Mirror to his website, a chapter at a time. He promised to write and publish a chapter of such and such lenght each week, provided he'd get a sum of $100 each week to his account (via various means). This continued all the way up until few days ago when the novel was finally finished! There is a now brand new Ethshar-novel available for all the people to read for free. A full-length novel! Duh, where is a palm or a cost-effective way of printing this monster? Apparently Watt-Evans will get this polished and edited into a proper book one of these days, which sounds like a grand idea in my (er...) book.

So, I now have the option to either wait for a new book to be released ghud knows when, from roscoe knows where from, or I could just go to the website and read it from there. Or print it, or... I don't know.

In other news: Risto Isomäki is the Finnish GoH of Finncon 2006.

[edit]: Stop the PRESS! Risto Isomäki's new book Saraswatin hiekkaa is on the shortlist for Finlandia award. Congrats!
 

Finncon 2006 on tulossa (oikeasti)

Posted by jukkahoo

Liikettä tapahtuu koko ajan. Nyt on viimeistään aika varata ensi vuoden elokuun kolmas viikonloppu sf-harrastuksen parissa viihtymiseen. Lisäinfoa on TULOSSA niin nettisivuille, kuin myös vuorovaikutteisesti ja ajan henkeen sopivasti verkkopäiväkirjan sivuille. Käykää katsomassa, kommentoikaa, ehdottakaa ja levittäkää sanaa. Kiitos.

Finncon 2006 is a-coming. Apologies for the lack of decent English material at present, more and better is expected to be available RSN :) Both the website and the Livejournal will have proper info in the near future. Spread the word, ask questions and make comments. Thank you.

A Good Book Fair

Posted by jukkahoo

As book fairs go, this year's Helsinki one was OK, maybe even good. Lots to see (and far, FAR too much of the good thing ie. books to buy), especially people. Perhaps not as many as a month ago in Turku (that was fun, but then again, I was there for mere three [3] hours!), but good nevertheless.

As expected, SciFi-Sunday was the Place To Be for any discerning fan. The programming was fast-paced and over before you noticed. I'm supposed to be writing a longer summary of this for Alienisti but here are some thoughts of mine:

I saw Jonathan Carroll at 1PM at Helsngin Sanomat stage, where he was interviewd by Jukka Petäjä. I had heard earlier that Carroll's previous interview had been real stinker and though Petäjä's wasn't in any way bad, it wasn't very good either. Carroll was never really comfortable with the questions and in some cases he actually had some dry answers which veered close to being obnoxious and/or rude. On the whole, "ihan kiva".

The REAL SciFi-Sunday started at 2PM, when Vesa Sisättö lead his entourage of fourty-two (or some such horribly large crowd) people on stage to talk about SF/F magazines and forums. A good show with some minor quibbles. Perhaps a bit more livelier performance by the panelists could've generated a modicum of response from the audience? Ben took home the first blood with his callous commentry, but it was really Toni Jerrman Show from there onward: statesman-like answers, sir!

And then it was Carroll, again. And apparently the same interviewer as few days before or so I was told. She had some good questions at first, but when it started to go wrong, it took a nosedive. Ipa had told me to ask a question at some point ("have them [as in many!] ready", she whispered), but when she finally run out of her own questions(?), she turned into the astonished audience, desperately looking for help.

If only.

I had realised earlier, that I really didn't need to know anything more about Jonathan Carroll the Man,  "Just the books, Ma'am", as Joe Friday was fond of saying (in paraphrasing). I'm told over and over again, that he's not a people-person, doesn't like large crowds and more or less isn't comfortable in public. OK, fine. Let the man be in peace, fercrissakes!

The following interview was nothing like the one before. I was truly sorry to miss most of this one, since both the interviewer (whose name escapes me at the moment, but she is superbly funny in Stan Staanila's show... erm, ditto)and the author, Johanna Hildebradt, were excellent. I even managed to get her Norwegian! But I really had to rush to an appointment and to be Frank and Ernest, I find the idea of paleofiction not a cup of my tea. I did like Björn Kurtén somewhat, but I have never been interested in this particular brach of speculative fiction. My bad. The small portion I heared was very good interview-wise. More this!

Hiltunen-free Praedor session with Ville Vuorela was a good show. Not only was Ville good, so was Aleksi Kuutio as the interviewer. Twenty minutes went by in a hurry, with nice info acquired by the audience. Perhaps Ville could've been a bit more verbose, but this was not a serious drawback in any way. He did put his feet way up his mouth though and he is sorry, too. I didn't mind terribly, as I do realise the Flame Mountain productions are an effort of enthusiastic spirit of having fun, more than a serious attempt at creating memorable movie magic, but still I was a bit taken a back by the abruptness of Ville's comment. Which he apparently didn't mean to. Consider yourself forgiven, I'm certain Petri won't bear grudge. A finger will do.

I cannot really comment on the next interview too much, I think this'll have to suffice.

Marko had some problems with Anu Holopainen. He didn't seem to be all that comfortable with the subject and it was clear to see that he had couple of really arkward moments when he seemed to lose his train of thought, which lead to stammering and a loss of words. Holopainen seems like a very nice person and I guess I'll just have to read one of her newer books. I read her first book and more or less savaged it in Tähtivaeltaja (in 1996). I just had to introduce myself to her and she didn't seem to mind meeting her Nemesis of Old!

Stendec Blommila was supreme, as usual. Risto Isomäki had interesting and thoughtful things to say, whereas Hauta showed why he is simply the BEST sf-interviewer in the whole wide world.

Addenda: Kuvastaja-palkinto (Mirrormere) was once more awarded by the Finnish Tolkien Society. This year the wildly oscillating bust went to Ilkka Auer and his first novel,  Lumen ja jään maa: Sysilouhien sukua. I have had the book now for about six months and apparently I really should read the thing! Congrats!

The last panel was about publishing and a very good panel it could've been too, if only they would have had more time or a more determined moderator. Unkind as this seems, but Marko was again a bit off-pace. He was way better than with Holopainen, but still there was a lot he should and could've done in order to make this one a memorable one. A good crowd, with representation from Kirjava, Karisto, Loki and Like. Patricia McKillip in Finnish, hooray!

All in all, a very nice programming. A nice boost of scientifictioness to warm the proverbial cuckoldes of the heart, while the world turns white or the colour slush and there really isn't all that much to do. Next year, again?

In other news: Monta apuraha-anomusta Finncon 2006:n nimissä lähti tänään liikkeelle. Toivottavasti rahaa on tulossa, muuten voi vielä käydä ohrasesti ja jäädä homma tekemättä. Sanotaanko että muutama kymmenen tuhatta euroa ei esiinny ainakaan meikäläisen takataskussa.

I'm OK, you're OK(?), we're all OK!

Posted by jukkahoo

Once more I have visited the hotsipal and once more my doctor has told me I'm OK. Blood, CAT and all that jazz were good. Hurrah and huzzah!

And as it has now been almost two years since the implantation of my veinal gate (laskimoportti), it is due to be removed. Should happen the 10th of Oktober. Sigh! Goodbye my sweet cyborg appliance, who remainded silent thru the Kittilä airport security check, the Seutula one and mightily beeped at the Brusselleux International, thus giving an excuse for that Belgian to frisk me. Farewell!

I'm taking this as a good sign, and so should you too. I wonder if they let me have the thing? Could it be turned into some kind of a pendant? I think I'll have to ask.

Other news: I have been watching the new Galactica. It isn't half bad. I just said today, that I think it is the best sf-series since DS9. Then Teemu (or was it Marko?) asked whether it is better than Firefly. I have to admit it is a close call, but galactica has better premise and no stupid sooooooooooo out of place element.

Anyway, me likes. It's not the best thing since sliced bread, but a very good sci-fi tv-series. I must admit I was more than a bit sceptic about the modernisation of an old and definitely camp series, but Ronald D. Moore has done a very nice job with combining the original idea and characters with today's perspective. Good casting, though I cannot see the sultriness of that Jessica Simpson -lookalike. Baltar, Starbuck, Adama, Tigh and president; great choices. Not too sure about Apollo, and very uncertain about Boomer. And the human cylons. Too much this "what am I?", "what is love?" and "gee willikins, I can have sex!". And some other things, but as that would really need getting into details, I think I'll pass. Check it out, though. Jukkahoo says: "verra nizza!"

What isn't very nice, is another childhood/teenage love: "Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy". Oh, for f**k sake what a piece of c**p! Laugh-free near two hours, with decent choices as characters, but utterly dismal script and staggeringly fun-free dialogue. How the frag can they manage to distill Adams' radio-play/books void of anything funny? C'mon, the dialogue was there already! How can you possibly take out all the humour? What kind of a sick joke is this movie? How could that brainless twat at the showing snicker and giggle thoughout the entire movie? How is it possible, that I actually paid good money to see this... travesty? I could've just burned the tenner, or wipe my nose with it. Must have been both funnier and less painful that way.

New Galactica = Good. HHGG-movie = Bad. Health = Good.

Summa summarum = doubleplusgood. I can live with that.