Eating Muffins in an Agitated Manner

Reading update

posted by Sari

I have been reading, honest - well, as much I can when I have to work and play Civ II. There must be priorities after all. My mom nicked the History of the Universe book before I could finish it so I'll get back to that later. Now I just want to say that those of you who have not been at Kari Enqvist's lecture "Physics for Poets" have missed a great deal. I actually think I now understand relativity and quantum theory as well as it is possible without mathematics. Enqvist also got one of this year's eight State Information Prizes for his book on Kosmology. (And not to brag, but our dad got one too, for his biography of Paasikivi :-) )

But back to books I have actually read (no I have not read Paasikivi, I typed it from dictation), Robin McKinley's Spindle's End was quite good re-telling of Sleeping Beauty. Her style is delicious and you chuckle more than once while reading her descriptions, and there is enough of subversiveness and invention in her version to make it seem refreshing. I did think, though, that the final third was not quite as succesfull as the early parts of the book.  The story gets more exciting,  but at the same time more predictable and less fun. But all in all, very well worth reading.

I have also been re-reading Robertson's Mars trilogy and Antarctica. The first is so massive I had frogotten a lot between readings. It is still a breath-taking in its breadth, but the whole does not quite work for me. I also missed better maps. The best parts of the trilogy are those describing Mars and how it changes, and I really could have used more references. Antarctica I remembered better, the last third being very much a rehash of some characters and sociological ideas from Mars Trilogy (or vice versa, which was published first?), but the meditations on the antarctic and its history were very good. It helps Robinson has actually been on Antarctica in some exchange program for artists or some such.

Och jag läste alla återstående Liza Marklund's Bengzon deckare som är ute i paperback: Studio Sex, Paradiset och Prime Time. Kanske inte den klokaste beslut för att böcker är lite för likadana men deckare är ännu en trevlig väg at förbättra sin språkkunskap.

Now, Mary Gentle's swashbuckling alternative history and Man's extremely readable and interesting book about the birth of the alphabeth.

Sari's Addiction

posted by Sari

I have always suspected I have an addictive personality and now it has been proved. No, it is not drugs or alcohol or shopping or even books (well, maybe books), but the final awful realisation was the fault of bi-annual sale at my department store (yes mine, because I own enough of stock to maybe own one half of a step on one of the escalators, though that is probably too optimistic). See, they had Civilization II on sale.  As my computer seems always to be two or three generations slower than what current games demand, I have never really gotten into games before.  Except for Myst.

Anyway, Civ II was on sale, I bought it and now I have asked Jukka to hide it from me. I could have gone on playing it forever. Scary.

They're gone

Posted by jukkahoo

I've had them for some time now. Four years, methinks. Four years and some months. And now they're gone. Without saying goodbye, arrivederci, auf wiedersehen. Not even a note, nor a box of chocolates. Nothing. Nada, as they say in America.

I'm talking about my webpages at geocities.com. They're not there anymore. Vanished without a trace, leaving no sign of ever being there in the first place.

I was never even notified of this. I didn't get the memo: "Hi! jukkahoo, we're shutting your website down! We enjoyed our long and fruitful co-operation, but now it's time to say goodbye, no hard feelings?"

Eff you.

I tried to get in touch with someone. Anyone. The pages are gone, no big deal, no real harm done. I can live with this, even though I'm a bit miffed about all this, since there was a thing or two I'd love to have kept available in the web. My rants. The Read-list.

Oh bugger, my Read-list... That I'm going to miss. And the Rants. Some of them were pretty funny. My American Diary... *sigh* Now that I am really going to miss. - It turns out I'm actually missing those pages already. A lot more than I initially thought I was going to. Maybe someone LOT more net-savvy can tell me, whether something can be salvaged? Any ideas? I'm really open for suggestions here.

So anyway. I tried contacting geocities and yahoo. All I got in return was automatic responses, offering totally useless advices and damage-control links. Nothing to do with the case here. They simply have no place where one can ask a simple question of "Why have you removed my pages? Why didn't you inform me about this thing?"

I know that according to the deal we made, the "I accept these terms..." -click that I did, they have the right to delete my pages without any prior announcement or any reason what so ever, and they don't even have to give me an explanation. It's a silly, stupid and incredibly harsh deal, but hey!; the pages were free and I actually did read the contract and the fine print. This thing that happened was a possibility, but I'm still a bit baffled. Was it something I did? Or something some pea-brain hacker-dude, out of sheer spite and fun? Or some moronic geocities-wanker who had nothing better to do than removing some freeloading pages in some alien language? Who knows, who cares?

I'm done. Thems pages are lost and gone forever (unless someone manages to help me with this). Spilt milk and all that. *sob* I'm really not going to cry over this one. *sob* Really. Not me. *sob* Uh-huh.

I feel vindicated

Posted by Sari

I bought a latte from Robert's Coffee on my way to work from the Buss station, and the smell of the coffee, the feel of the cup and even the little card you can collect stamps to get a free coffee  made me forget all the unpleasant post 9/11 stuff and made me nostalgic for the States. (Though over the water they seem to prefer to punch holes through the cards rather than stamp them...) I bet Cherry is blooming in Princeton, all those American Gothic houses, neat bar-coded bonus cards you could attach to the key ring, bookstores, museums, PBS documentaries... ah well maybe in August, if they let me back in the country :-)

So when I got to work I surfed to by quondam colleague's webjournal for some vicarious cultural crossing and felt very vindicated that he found just about the same things baffling, annoying or just noteworthy as we did during our stay: the paralysing effect of creditlessness, Starbucks, the stone age banking system, the State of the Union speech...

I do have to admit I completely revised my opinion on something I found utterly baffling in the beginning: iced coffee. I used to write whole entries on bulletin boards on this ridiculous idea, but nothing, I tell you, nothing is as great on a hot day than a Starbucks Frappucino. If I could only get the coffee shops here make me something like that: not just a latte with ice-cubes but a coffee milkshake. Anyone know where to get one in Helsinki?

The Dishwasher

Posted by Sari

As the huddled masses who read this thing (that is at least three persons) have asked this, I suppose I must finally unveil the name of the Dishwasher. I am sure you remember my brilliant plot to acquire a dishwasher. And as I have a habit of anthropomorphising machines, it of course needed a name. For reasons that do not need exploring at this juncture, Rabbits are a much discussed subject in our household, so when my sister suggested we name the thing Bulibubu Suuri Kaniini (Bulibubu the Great Rabbit) from Umpahpah, the idea seemed worth developing further. Some sort of rabbit it would be.

The I remembered a story by world's funniest man Ephraim Kishon, where he tells about his washing machine Jonathan who desired freedom so much that jumped out of the bathroom during the spin cycle. So I decided that the washing machine would be named rabbit, but in Hebrew. And thanks to the wonders of iformation superhighway my Israeli friend Miri (hi Miri :-) sent me an extremely informative e-mail which led me to name the dish-washer - tadaa! - Arnavet. Ninni, an acknowledged authority in drawing rabbits promised to draw a picture we can attach on it.

All joking aside, it is a wonderful invention. So all hail Josephine Cochrane. I am thinking of giving a party on her birthday.

Matrix

Posted by Sari

Our video rental is moving, closer to us. This I found out when we decided to slack off on Easter Sunday and check out some DVD's. That was the good news. The bad news was that apparently I have not developed any kind of instinct about these things because I insisted we rented Matrix Revolutions. What a waste of money. Sound and fury signifying nothing, to use a cliché.

The romance did not work, and with that went all the believability of the love conquers everything -theme. I kept shouting "die already" at Trinity in her last scene. The plot (there was a plot?) did not work. Honestly what as going on? The pacing was terrible: boring pseudo-philosophical mumbo-jumbo (all things that have a beginning, have an end...) intercut with massive battle-scenes. The pseudo-philosophical mumbo-jumbo did not work and the allusions to all sorts of messiah-figures were so heavy-handed that the thing was almost a trite allegory. It is not enough to raise questions about life, death, humanity, individuality, free will, reality and causality if you do not do it well enough to get people thinking about these things.

Me, I am with my sister and her colleague who had a much better ending for Matrix: what if both the Matrix and the Zion world would have been simulations and the purpose of the experiment was to push Neo (a program) into becoming the first AI. That would have been really interesting and would have explained all the plot-holes and logical inconsistensies and the fact that Neo is a bit of a thickie...

On the plus-side, Carrie-Ann Moss still looks extremely cool, I want Neo's coat, Hugo Weaving hams brilliantly and the superhero battle at the end was comic-book like to make me feel all nostalgic about 1980s Marvel and DC. But really!

Hristos voskres

Posted by Sari

Happy Easter, glad påsk and hyvää pääsiäistä. The lamb is in the oven and Pasha is ready. Chocolaty Arnavets wait to be consumed.

The Easter was a little more hectic than originally planned as my Mom (you remember her, almost 70 and two artificial hip joints) managed to get her big toe stepped on by our Finnish horse. Being one of the more macho persons I know she was not too bothered about that, just continued to do chores at the stable as usual and drove back home with some difficulty as using the clutch was a bit painful. At home she managed to get the boot off and started to wring blood out of her sock. I said macho, not sensible. She did see the light at this point and asked for help. So in addition to spring cleaning our place I have been shopping and cooking and cleaning for my parents too. But now all is ready and quite lovely, even if I say it myself.

Bookmarks

Posted by jukkahoo

I stared at the opened Mozilla and what do I see? Nothing. Well, not nothing obviously, but there was certainly something missing. Like them bookmarks.

Aaargh! All those lovely bookmarks: those regularly-visited sites, those ear-marked-ones for later inspections and ruminations, those slowly digested ones that you visit only occasionally... All gone. Bah-Navka!

I have no idea what really happened, but I'm blaming Canada. Or possibly this almost-over-the-edge computer of ours. Poor old Mr. Sanders, your time is coming to an end...

I just wrote "vomputer". Sounds a bit like a cybernetic wombat. Womputer - the Mechanoid Menace from Down Yonder!

I had a really bad dilemma at the shop today. We needed to buy some beer, as one does, and headed towards the section where you can purchase Sinebrycoff's brews, when we saw a huge amounts of Karjala-beer in "mäyräkoira"'s. (Intermission: "Mäyräkoira" (daschund) is a package of twelve bottles of beer.) Priced €8,49. As opposed to €12 for a similar Finnish lager of Koff, Karhu or Lapin Kulta. Or a lot more for something better.

One Finnish lager is very much any other Finnish lager. Karhu may have a slightly more full flavour, but in reality, they are all drinkable, light and easy beers. Not like Budwaiser, they are beers fercrissakes!, but nothing really to write home about. The thing is, Koff (as in Sinebrycoff) is our beer, whereas Karjala (as in Hartwall breweries) is their beer. This has all to do with ice-hockey.

Tough dilemma, loyalty to the team or cheaper beer? Luckily, there was a way out. Karjala is not just their beer, but also the Official Beer of Team Finland! And they had some "mayräkoira's" with Team Finland -logos! And since our team (Idrottsföreningen Kamraternas i Helsingfors ie. HIFK) has officially started their summer holidays (by winning the Bronze medal match yesterday 3-1 vs. HPK), it's OK to start cheering for the national team. Phew! Saved by the bell.

Enjoy the Passion! Nauttikaa kärsimysnäytelmästä!

Ruma sana

Posted by jukkahoo

Tämä voi mennä melankolisen tai absurdin puolelle, mutta kirjoitettakoon silti.

Minä en pidä häviämisestä. Minä vihaan häviämistä. Itse asiassa "vihaaminenkin" lienee hieman alakanttiin osuva kommentti. Minä inhoan sydämeni pohjasta häviämistä. Inhoan ja vihaan. Henkilökohtaista ja kannatuksellista häviämistä.

Minä olen huonoin tuntemani häviäjä. Olen aina ollut. Lapsena, nuorena, aikuisena, nyt. Aina. Aion jatkaa huonona häviäjänä.

Tappio on karvain mahdollinen kokemus elämässäni. Se on menettämistä. Muutkin menetykset ovat pahoja, mutta onneksi olen vielä säästynyt niiltä pahemmilta. Näitä lienee tulevaisuudessa tulossa, siitä pitänee elämä ja luonnon kiertokulku huolta. Viimeksi mainittu yritti viime syksyllä, mutta otti sitten kehätuomari keskeytyksellä hienoisesti kuonoonsa. Tähän mennessä ne kirpaisevat menetykset ovat tulleet kärsityistä tappioista. Tappioita on tietysti monenlaisia: on hieman helpommin sulatettavia tappioita, sellaisia joissa yritystä ja uskoa on ollut loppuun saakka; on niitä, joiden tunnustamisen voi hyväksyä aika pian, koska niin nyt vain kävi; ja sitten on niitä, joita ei voi kerta kaikkiaan sisäistää. Niin kuin nyt esimerkiksi tänään, kun HIFK hävisi ratkaisevan välieräkamppailun Oulun Kärpille. Jatkoajalla. Alivoimalla.

En nyt halua käydä kertaamaan, miksi minusta tämä tappio olisi voitu välttää tai kuka on syyllinen. Tässä vaiheessa moinen ei kerta kaikkiaan enää ole olennaista. Ainoa tosiasia on, että Suomen mestaruuden ratkaisevat joukkueet, joiden peli parhammillaan on todella kaunista ja hienoa jääkiekkoa, mutta joiden yleinen pelikäsitys ja esittämä kuva jääkiekon tulevaisuudesta Suomessa on sellainen, joka yksinkertaisesti johtaa lajin tylsistymiseen ja maajoukkueemme jatkuvaan alamäkeen. SM-liigassa pelataan yleisellä tasolla aika kelvotonta kiekkoa, jossa esim. tämän kauden aikana näkemieni otteluiden yleinen taso on ollut play-offseja lukuunottamatta sellaista sontaa, että pahaa tekee.

Tuomarit, tuo rakastettu ammattikunta, eivät tätä kisaa (HIFK vs. Kärpät) ratkaisseet. Maalit sen ratkaisivat, ja niitä jyrsijät tekivät yhden ratkaisevan maalin verran enemmän (muutenhan maalit menivät meidän eduksi 15- 11). Tuomarien toiminnasta jokainen saa ja voi olla omaa mieltä. Levonen oli tänään ihan hyvä, Favorin perjantaina Helsingissä ratkaisevilla hetkillä luokattoman huono. Pilli on ihan sitä varten että siihen puhalletaan kun on aihetta, oli rikkeen tekijä sitten meidän tai niiden mies. Muuten olen aika lailla samaa mieltä kuin HS:n kolumnisti tänään: miten ihmeessä pleikkareissa on eri säännöt kuin runkosarjassa? Missä muussa urheilulajissa on näin?

Enough. Oletan että pitämäni ihmiset ymmärtävät tilanteen merkityksen minulle ja toimivat järkensä valossa ja vaistonsa ohjaamina. Muista ei ole niin väliä.