Eating Muffins in an Agitated Manner

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?

Does dragging someone kicking and screaming into the 21st century count as kidnapping?

Posted by jukkahoo

Various things have happened recently. Finncon got some much needed money from Svenska Kulturfondet (nämligen Nylands svenska kulturfond) and it meant that I and Ylva went to the kalas in order to enjoy some Fenno-Swedish cultural entertainment. And boy-o-boy, did we ever!

They had circus and music and servings. And two fairly uninteresting speeches. Rather homey-feeling, this utdelningsfest had. The first performer, Emil Holmström played two pieces of Mozart (the other one was Mozart-Busoni: Eine Kleine Gigue, which was a blast!), but everything after that was somewhat homespun-quality-wise. But they did serve skumpen and pastries and neekerinsuukkoja (what ever is the correct pc-term for those nowadays?). Scrumptuous!

Interesting fact: Nylands svenska kulturfondet gave our €904 000, which was 32% of the total sum that was asked from them. However, they gave money to 525 applications out of 700, which is roughly 3/4 of applicants. 75% who asked for money, got some. They're loaded.

Finncon also released the hotel-deal. Go check that out and reserve soonest. Summer in Helsinki is jam-packed with various happenings and reasonably-priced hotel rooms aren't necessarily that easy to come by. Another thing related to Finncon is that we re-checked the location and it's looking good. Very enthusiastic about this one. Hope you are too.

Risingshadow is a very active and youthful sf/f-forum. Some times, however, the youngsters are a bit uninformed about the ways of science fiction and fantasy, and in dire need of some guidance and information. Just today this 14-year old kid asked about Finnish sf/f. And when I helped out, what happened? The thread in question was locked! This is not just an isolated incident, it has happened before, you know. Very curious.

I'm rather fond of the latter (why am I writing this in English, really?), the older of those two. I chose some of those inaccuracies very carefully, including the 2nd messade, where I "correct" my mistake, while still being very wrong and making additional typo.

There was some talk about doing a similar "History of Finnish SF" and publishing it in some fanzine in English. Drat! Now I've foiled this thing...

 

I got meme'd

Posted by jukkahoo

Pulpetti had this to say: "I was starving when I got home today [...] So, I fried two eggs and bacon and heated up a carrot bun in the pan. I spread some French mustard on the bun and put the bacon and some liver pate on the mustard. Then I put the fried eggs on top and placed the other half of the bun on the eggs. It was the motherfuckingest sandwich I ever did eat! I'd do it anytime again! Instead of memes about the music you loath or the weirdest habits you have we could have one with the best sandwiches you ate."

Now, as sandwiches go, I'm a Heikki-person (as opposed to a Helmi-person). This is a reference to the Blondie comic strip created by Chic Young, where the hubby Heikki (Dagwood) makes these rather towering sandwiches. I'll admit, I can't say for certain that Helmi (Blondie) actually makes and eats sandwiches which are substantially smaller ie. include only one item besides the actual bread and "butter", but I would hazard to guess so. Heikki just piles things on top of each other, thus constructing these massive sandwiches which are just utterly impossible to stuff into one's mouth. Or are they...?

But I digress. Best sandwich I've eaten. The simple tomato-cheddar-ham-mayonaise-lettuce-bacon one purchased from this little deli near the Central Park (either on the 6th or 7th Ave and btw 57th and 59th St; my guess on 6th and btw 57th &58th), eaten while watching people playing softball at the park. Then again, it might have something to do with the whole enchilada: new in town, nice springtime weather, hunger, Central Park, New York, NY... Certainly not the ingredients, as those are just about the mere basics to start from.

I quite like this one too: Cut big loafs of Hassania's (it's a bakery in Pori, our S-Market gets a load once a week) fresh Moroccan bread. Spread with "butter" and some horseradish cream. Hack some leak and mix with shrimp, mayo and stinky cheese. Dash of lemon on top, cover with another loaf of delicious Hassania bread.

Or something with eggs: Fry couple of eggs with some onion and mushroom. Spread your choice of bread with "butter" and top it with the said "omelette" and some ham (maybe spread with mustard) and some cheddar. Oh, and some chillisauce, too. Eggsies are also easily made-to-fit for buns when you use lettupannu. (I'm a bit uncertain here. In my book "räiskäle" is the large flapjack/pancake/whatever that covers the whole frying pan and "lettu" are the smaller ones that you have this handy pan with usually five small holes in it. Is this universally true or not?)

I also like sardines, preferably in tomato sauce, which Sari for some reason just loathes. Apparently it stinks. Fresh or toasted bread, sardines, dash of chillisauce (preferably strong and carlicky) and some cheese (occasionally stinky cheese, but most often emmental). Maybe something oniony as well.

I tend to stay clear of fresh veggies on my sandwich. Tomatoes tend to spread, cucumber is blaah and paprika (you can call it bell pepper or whatever, it's paprika) is just not for me. Lettuce is good. I do like pickled cucumber (or what the heck is suolakurkku?).

The biggest problem is the adding of little things like clams, shrimps, olives etc without some glue-element like mayo or somesuch spread. Things have a tendency to drop from the corner of the mouth

Hot patootie! Fried eggs, mushroom and bacon, all thrown on top of toasted bread with some tomato and basil. I better make me a sandwich right about now. Too much saliva on the keyboard. 

Now you. And especially Avaruusajan päiväunelmia, Markoilua joutoaikoina and Takaisin koulunpenkille.

Olympic Knitting roundup

  olympiaprojektit 
  Originally uploaded by ssssari.

Posted by Sari

So, I did pretty good at my knitting projects during the olympics, even though I had to undo my knitting few times because I made mistakes in all the excitement.

I managed two pairs of socks, mittens and about 15 cm of a sweater I am knitting for my dad. All in all, feeling rather pleased :-)

Now If I only had time to learn how to use the photo editing instead of just randomly clicking around...

The Bravery

Posted by jukkahoo

I got cheap tickets to go and see this New York group The Bravery. Having only heard one of their song (An Honest Mistake) previously - but many a time - my expectations weren't probably all that high, but in the end (or should I say: from the word "go") it was well worth the admission price.

Before the act I said to Matti that if Killer is like Echo and the Bunnymen, The Bravery is Joy Division. After the first song, we decided that Killer is more like Sparkle in the Rain or New Gold Dream -era Simple Minds and The Bravery is lusher, less poppier and more råck Cure around The Head in the Door. Disintegration with shorter songs and less singing guitar.

Me liked a Lot. A definite purchase this one, methinks. The venue wasn't probably ideal, as they sounded a bit too raw for the Hartwall areena. I can imagine this would've been very much at home at Tavastia. Edgy, in your face and hard, with nice tunes and a slight newyorkish artinees to its sound.

A short set of 25 minutes, but well worth both the time and money spent.

There was this other band too, but I don't have time to write an in-depth review of them. I think their latest album is by far their weakest one, but the new songs (all seven of them played) were better live.

Post-olympic skating roundup

Posted by Sari

I am feeling really good about these olympics, which is a nice change from SLC, where there was a huge judging controversy involving pairs and dance where I really liked the winners, and the gold in other two disciplines went to skaters whose skating I actively disliked. There is some dramatic irony in that I don't think either Sarah Hughes or Sale/Pelletier would have been gold medallists if the 6.0 system had wanted the same things from the skaters than Code of Points...

Anyhow, this time around: much better from the emotional point of view. Some general observations.

1. For all the three skating disciplines COP is working better than the old system. There are problems aplenty, but nothing that could not be fixed by tweaking and honing the system.
a) forest from the trees -problem. As COP's technical portion marks individual movements and the level of difficulty in spirals and spins is achieved by having as many positions as possible, there have been lots of "disjointed" and hurried programs where the elements have been crammed in without really giving room of the choreography to grow. It is however possible to create a beautiful, organic performance while complying with the new rules, just ask Matt Savoie.
b) Component mark problem. There are five component marks, all of equal value. Skating Skills, Transitions, Performance/Execution, Interpretation/Timing and Choreography. Judges very rarely if ever give marks that are more than .75 apart in any of these categories. If a skater has gorgeous skating skills, zero transitions, great lines and pedestrian coreography that should be reflected on the scores. This is a problem which will not go away without constant re-education of judges: it is wrong, wrong, wrong to use component marks for protocol judging and you should be slapped on the fingers for doing it.
c) The splat or not problem. COP is a system which really dings underrotated jumps. This has meand that men are less likely to try quads. An underrotated and fallen quad is just a risk not worth taking when the amount of jumping passes is limited. Similarily, women are less likely to try triple-triple combinations. They are riskier and if your second triple in the combo is more often than not downgraded to double anyway, why even try for the riskier element when - again - the number of your jumping passes is limited. This is a problem which either stays or goes away. The next generation of skaters may be better at doing these tricks cleanly and thus have no problem including them. Or they may think that the risk/reward ratio will continue to be iffy and keep it safe. In that case, the rewards for doing riskier elements should be upped.
d) The Technical Specialist problem and the secrecy problem COP is asystem where there sometimes is ten points separating first and second, sometimes 0.01 points. Thus the person(s) who are punching in the sekrit komputer the levels and rotations are in key positions. It is theoretically quite possible for two people in cahoots give a little extra or chip a way from the elements scores of any given skater. Also even if block judging is pretty much impossible, biased judging is easier than ever. There are two answers to this problem. Either change the system, or make it transparent. Now fans are left with the rulebook in one hand and the protocols in other and in many cases really not making sense.

I do think COP can and should evolve all the time, making a rule, seeing what effects it has, modifying it... There should be a hefty bonus for completing all triple jumps in a program, there should be other positions considered difficult than Bielmann, Skating skills and transitions should be worth more than choreography (which, after all, is actually not something the skater has done)... But even with all this, singles and pairs are so much more interesting to watch than under 6.0 system. I see steps, and spins, and difficult entries to the jumps... you know skating.

Unfortunately, quite the opposite is true in Dance. The trend was there before COP, but the new system  has given the final blow to my favourite discipline.  Spins, lifts, twizzles, side-by-side steps with break neck speed - why not just call it adagio pairs and have done with it. I am past caring.

As for the results the fangirl in me says:
Petrova and Tikhonov did it for them selves.
If only Zhao had nailed that toeloop...
Zagorska/Siudek were a joy.
Jay for Plushenko and Buttle.
Savoie rules.
Arakawa was phenomenal.
Awww for Slutskaja.
I am not so sekritly elated that Sasha splatted (her skating personifies everything I dislike in women's skating).
Pocket and Beanie were shafted, I tell you, shafted.
Love Ben Agosto's skating but boy, that flamenco? Ew.
Feeling begins with white pasties? What were Grushina and Goncharov thinking? And that won bronze?