Eating Muffins in an Agitated Manner

The obligatory Figure Skating Post

Posted by Sari

Nice things about the new flat: state of the art internet. Just plug the cable in and hey presto: broadband. Also, two computers so Jukka can escape to the library room and I can take the lap-top and watch skating and surf in the living-room. Now if I only would manage to get the wireless network to work. For some reason I keep getting the "vajaa liitettävyys" error message.

Anyway, skating. World Championships. I went and got cable just to get Eurosport coverage, though I have to give props to YLE: they had live streaming on internet available of lower ranked couples in the Free Dance. Way of the future, I think. Eurosport has one advangage over YLE, though. They broadcast in four languages which means I can choose Danish which I really don't understand that well and thus not get annoyed over the commentating.

As far as actual competition goes, I love the fact that there are more and more countries sending in skaters and also getting near the top. Russia goes home from these championships with one bronze and USA failed to get three spots for women next year. Instead we have medalists from countries like Korea and Italy.

I actually have no squabble with judging in this competition, expect for the the deduction Joubert got in the short for having vocals in his music. As he had performed the program in international competitions this year without deductions, I think it is plain wrong to penalise him now.

My favourite perforances came from Pechalat/Bourzat who had great flamenco OD and great high-concept FD, Yu-Na Kim who is first lyrical skater ever whom I really love and Joannie Rochette whose short was well performed and coreographed. Lambiel's programs could have been great without his stumbles and Browning has really done well for Joubert, first time I rooted for him and so much I nearly couldn't watch.

Also I  really, really think all three of Shpilband's couples shoud get choreography from somewhere else. At the moment Virtue/Moir and my absolute favourites Davis/White succeed despite of their programs not because of them. Both teams have the skills and charisma to be legendary, but the programs really let them down.

All in all, good championship.

Superbowl XLI

Posted by jukkahoo

Yeah, silence rules.

Anyway, it's middle of the biggest show on Earth, the Superbowl. This time in rainy Miami. Halftime show is going on, Cirque Du Soleil did some Miami rumba or whatever and next up is Nigel, or The Artist Formerly Known as Prince, Symbol, err... Prince.

Boy, does Bears suck! How is it possible that the game is only 16-14 for Colts (oh, how would've Patriots KKKRUSHED this feeble excuse for pro football!)? Well. obviously Colts are also playing some really flawed game here, but still. Bears defence: mediocre, often lame. Bears offence: sadly pathetic and Lame City. OK, lucky break with the receiving goal and the one and only decent throw from Grossman reaching for Mohammed. Other than that, purely Colts mistakes. Bears are so going to loose. Well, they ought to anyway. Payton Manning should head home with this one, with Addai and that Rhodes And Harrison. More anon.

[snorefest]

Jessuskrist. Worst Superbowl I've seen, but then again, I haven't seen that many. Ten'ish.

Short recap:  Jesuspeople won by simply being less bad than the other (probably Jesuspeople too) ones. The main difference was that Colts were football players, whereas Bears were members of the Klutzy the Pääsiäiskäsi Group. Payton "Mr. Perfect" Manning vs. Klutz the Fumbler. C'mon Grossman! Fumble, fumble, hero throw, hero throx, fumble, etc, ad nauseam. Sad performance.

Bears defensive line was supposedly tough. Tsah, dough more likely. Colts offensive line. Ruled! Manning, one or two incomplete passes and one interception. And close to thousand yards with little hlp from Addai, Rhodes, Harrison etc.

Grossman... sigh.

Waah, Patriots would've so kicked either teams rears easily. Poor game, less bad team won. Superior quarterpounder finally got his Vince Lombardi and MVP. Congrats to PM.

The most interesting thing about the game? Apparently the first ever Superbowl, when it rained during the Game. And some people are saying that global warming is not happening? For shame!

Good beginning

Posted by Sari

It is officially autumn as Hockey season has begun! Yesterday was our third game of the season and if one does not count the anemic second period it was entertaining. Or as entertaining as SM-league hockey nowdays can be, what with the new rules removing all contact from the game. Honestly, ringette is more physical nowdays than this...

Anyway, though KalPa might not be an accurate measure of IFK's form, but the game looked very promising. For a change foreign help is actually earning their keep. Murphy is a first class defender, Guolla an excellent play-maker, and Murray good both in the attack and defense. Guest-star Hrdina is also definitely an asset. Special props to Janne who, in my opinion, is better at directing rebunds to corners than he used to be. With Schnabel as the extra foreigner and Saarinen injured, the defense could have been stronger. Laakso was a pleasant surprise, though that might have been just the fact he was playing with Seppänen who as pretty unsure. As far as the offensive end goes, seven goals, all from different players  (one of them first league goal for Jouhkimainen) speaks well of the material.

Summa summarum: lots of goals, shutout for Janne, cold beer and good atmosphere thanks to B2, what's not to like?

Back to normal...

Posted by Sari

So, Bronze. Not really that bad, definitely better than I dared to hope before the tournament. Germany has a bunch of  young players (Schweinsteiger, Podolski, Mertesacker, Odonkor, Lahm...)  who will hopefully be around for quite a while, so future is looking interesting too. As for the trophy, rather Italy than France, if for nothing else than Fabio Cannavaro who is and was phenomenal.

In other news, the traditional Science Fiction pick-nick at Suomenlinna was a great success. The Day was sunny and there were lots of people around, both old and new faces. Tarja and I even met another poor soul who has caught the bolly-fever.

Speaking of which, boy do I want to se Fanaa. I mean: Aamir! Kajol! Jatin-Lalit Score! The Prettiness! Poland doubling for Kashmir! Also, a love story between a blind girl and a terrorist. It just can't be bad. More seriously, even though Fanaa has been a huge hit all over the world, there has been a political controversy surrounding the film in Gujarat.

And then there is Krrish (a flash intro) which sounds just... I mean.... It's... The mind just boggles.

...it pours

Posted by jukkahoo

Mr. Sanders died. It's gone. Pining for the fjords it ain't.

So, we got a new computer.

And yes, since it is me, I did lost some data. Especially emails. All of them in fact. So in case you're wondering why I haven't answered to your requests/questions/ponderings etc, it's due to the fact that I a) do not have your email and b) no recollection of what I was supposed to be doing. I do remember some stuff, but at the moment I'm pretty much swamped with myriad of things to be done re: Finncon and Uuskummaa? -anthology, that I'm afraqid I'm going to both ask for your indulgence and patience during this time of crisis. Send me email if you need that answer asap. In fact, why don't all of you send me email, so that I can get my eddresses back in order.

Football. Brasil winning, good. Not glorious, nor samba-like, but two wins out of two games is a helluva lot more than, say, France. Still confident.

Not only am I (yet again) missing deadlines and looking blankly at herra Miettinen, I also have these stabbing pains in my back. Literally stabbing pain (kuin veitsellä pistettäisiin) approximately middle of my right long back muscle. Sari says it's kramppeja. I say it is some sort of punishment for trying to do everything and then some. Expect this to change.

Tired, hurting, busy, working, late. So what else is new?

Brief moment of Glory

Posted by Sari

It began. And with an excellent match too. Not even Jukka wearing his silly Brazil hat to the sports bar and nattering on and on and on about the excellence of seleçao could ruin the atmosphere ;-) The goals scored by Lahm and Frings were both outstanding and the game itself was entertaining. What has Klinsmann done to my dear steadily and boringly grinding Germany? Four goals! And the defence leaking like a sieve...

As far as my moment of glory goes, for this brief moment I rank as 642 of the over 400 000 people playing the official fantasy game.

Motor Sports

 
  Taru
  Originally uploaded by ssssari.

Posted by Sari

My friend Taru's hobby is Enduro. Personally, I think she is bonkers but in a totally admirable 'OMG how on earth does she do it' kind of way. I am dogsitting for her this week-end because she is taking part in "Päijänteen Ympäriajo", a three-day classic race which apparently is held at this time of the year because the weather conditions are the worst possible. The history of the competition is called "Wet and Cold. Sixty times around Lake Päijänne". The contestants are usualy so covered in mud you can't really tell who is who at the finish.

This time this is especially true. There is more snow, water, sleet, mud on top of frozen groud, just plain mud and did I mention sleet and mud than previously, the spring being late.

We went to see her off and checked out a time-trial in Sipoo. When we piled back into the nice warm car on our way back to Helsinki it started to rain sleet. Taru continued to the next time-trial. In the dark. While it was raining. Over two hundred participants began the race, four of them Women. Did I tell you she is mad?

Horsing around

Posted by Sari

This week-end I have been busy volunteering at Equitainment show at Helsinki Fair Centre. The show was a fun mixture of all sorts of horsey music-hally numbers designed for family entertainment. There was Fonzie the pony, Finnish Horses, Carmen and Don José on horseback, camels doing dressage and lots of other entertaining show numbers. Great fun especially for kids.

After the show on Saturday Kyra held a clinic for dressage riders in TeamPP. It was wonderful and a bit surprising to see that over two-thousand people had bought a ticket to see Kyra explain her training-method with the help of her students. Dressage sure has gotten more popular since the early 1990s when we were actively touring competitions. Mexi was sitting next to me counting the flying changes, shifting her body weight on her chair and having flash-backs to staring at the corners of the manege...

All in all, it was fun. Not to mention a very good chance to excercise my spoken swedish...

Golf and Scholarship

Posted by Sari

Channel 4 digi is showing British Open. Not a reason to do a jig in itself as golf is a boring TV sport, but this year Open is again at the Old Course of St. Andrews, which has made me nostalgic. The views from the 1st and 18th fairway towards the Royal and Ancient golf club just makes me go all misty-eyed. Studying at St. Andrews was great:  teaching was excellent and the milieu was just incredible. (As an example, the bilding on the left right -you have no Idea how hard passing driving test was when you have difficulty distinguishing left and right - in the picture from the fairway is Hamilton Hall, one of the dorms)

I tried to do as much of the standrewy things as possible while I was over there: lived in a hall of residence, had my turn at the High Table Sunday lunch, walked the pier walk went to debating society meetings, took part in the rasin-weekend (excluding the foam-fight), never stepped on the initials in front of the chapel, went to ceilidhs, saw Twelfth Night staged at the ruins of the Bishop's Castle and even tried some golf - defenitely not my sport.

The smallness of the Town and the ubiquitousness of Golf can cause cabin feaver, but even if the passage of time is making the past more golden than it really was, I really had fun. And managed to do more work and get better grades than ever in Finland to boot. I rather thing the Anglo-American university system suits me buch better than the Finnish German-based system.

Seleção!!!

Posted by jukkahoo

Brrrrraaaaaaaaazzzzzzzziiiiiillllllllllllllll!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[samba] Auriverde rules! What could be more "beautiful game" than that? Adriano! Kaká! Ronaldinho! And Adriano again! 4-1!

Did you see how Cicinho played? The tiny man assisted in all four goals. Magnificent! He may well be the answer for Cafú´s probable departure from the international games in the near future (he did leave Auriverde after Japan, but he seems to have changed his mind at some point). Sadly, Gilberto is no Roberto Carlos, even though he isn't bad. Not just... great enough. If only Roque Junior wouldn't be Carlos Alberto Parreira's backrubber or summat.

And finally Kaká woke up. A lot of work during previous four matches, but little to show for it. Juninho Pernambucano played (what, a game and a half?), scored a glorious goal and showed amply why he is the heart and soul of Olympic Lyonnais. Kaká needs to play like this (and like he does with AC Milan) in order to keep his position. But then again, it's CAP, he is notorious for sticking with the system, and at present the system is Kaká with Ronaldinho. We'll see what happens next year, when the three champions (Il Phenomena, Il Pendolino and RC) are thrown into the mix.  Ronaldo AND Adriano up? Robinho and Ronaldinho passing the ball on up-midfield and Kaká with Whoever-likes-to-defend behind them? With Roberto Carlos and Cafú (or my new favourite Cicinho) running the sides. Could Ze Roberto or Emerson take Roque Junior's place?!! Please...?

And Adriano! Il Imperatore was sublime tonight. Two outstanding goals and great moves through-out the game. That left feet is worth its weigh in gold-pressed platinums. And more. Much more.

The Canaries are now the reigning World Champions, Confederation Cup and Copa America Champions. Rather impressive. A week ago the under-21 team were still the reigning champs. And I believe the under-17 team champions are... Brazil!

AURIVERDE!!!! [/samba]

(Um, yes... the Swecon report. RSN. Meanwhile, read what Tero has to say about it.)