Good day!

I swear I'm a sun-junkie - sunshine has almost as much tonic effect on me as it has upon Clark Kent in his red underpants. It was a spectacular, fresh winter morning here - glorious yellow sunshine literally sparkling off the fresh snow crystals, the air breathtakingly fresh at minus 12 degrees C...

I haven't gotten around to installing curtains, so I woke up quite naturally with the sunlight, to a message from Seamas - he was about to start his 2 hour slot on Trinity FM - the infrequent radio station of Trinity College Dublin. Seamas is quite a pro at this stage, this is his fifth year mixing the perfect blend of morning tunes. While they augmented my mood, leaving me about as bright and bouncy as it's possible to be in Finland in winter, it did leave me quite late for work...

Anyway, I tuned in, basked in the music (how can I put this nicely... Finnish DJs suck), sent him some texts of encouragement, and had the delightful experience of having about an hour of a radio show pretty much dedicated entirely to me - this is how it shall be when I rule the world (and I mean just like this, Seamas will be my Minister of Music). For all of you that missed it, I managed to figure out how to capture the stream after about 25 minutes, and I provide it free of charge here later today. Additionally, you can catch his second show live 9-11AM GMT, 25th January 2005. If you like alternative rock music in specific, or music with integrity in general, don't miss it - if you're not Irish (...actually, even if you are, more than likely), you'll be exposed to a lot of good bands you won't hear otherwise... And if you do listen to the live show, drop the man an email, and tell him what a good job he's doing (he takes requests by the way)!

Well, I finally made it in to work (radiating cheer) just before 2PM (I work very-flexi-time), in time for out group meeting. Now, my project excites me. I'd love to tell you about it, but I can't. Suffice to say that, when our boss tries to outline the idea to the business units, they react with incredulity, and proceed to express great certainty that it can't be done. Today we demonstrated our progress to the group. I'm not entirely unconvinced that a positive mental attitude can't bend the rules of physics a little, because frankly the demo went better than any testing we'd done unobserved (the inverse of the normal scheme of things). I think Seamas deserves the credit.

After our group meeting, we had our (very delayed) group activity to celebrate our new group. This took the form of our leisurely working through seven or eight courses at a nice restaurant. Pictures may follow, Alex documented the event with his teeny camera. I had planned to go back to work afterwards for an hour or two, but the idea of walking the few kilometers in to the tram in this weather, and my light meeting/dinner clothes made it all the easier for Joonas to steer me towards the student union building, and it's warm be-televisioned common room (and, incidentally, Joonas' side venture - in typical fashion, the man has figured out a way to provide it's occupants with chilled beer for 50 cent a bottle - and (I kid you not) he's outsourcing both the chilling, the supply, and the recycling of the bottles...)

Well, my general cheeriness has reminded me of this cartoon, you'll like it if you've been thinking "fucking happy bastard... grumble grumble": Suicide Boy meets Happy Boy