Bittersweet

So I promised myself I wouldn't post again until it was from my spiffy new computer, which at the time was in a pile of components on my bed. Well here we are. It's plagued by mysterious badness, and needs a good sorting out yet, but right now it's kinda working...

Return of The Thing

I'm back home from my trip, eh, home. Had a great time, I'm not the best at staying in touch with distal people, so it's beautiful to meet friends you haven't seen for a while (or more than a while) and find that you still connect in the same way. It's similarly lovely to get to meet the new people in their lives, birds of a feather etc. As usual, the number of things to do and people to see expanded to exceed my stay, and regrettably there are still a couple of names unchecked on my "must see" list. You know who you are, next time I hope.

It was also a little bit surreal - but I like surreality - especially spending time in Seamas's apartment exactly one floor down from my 4th year dorm (where this blog had it's confused birth in a fit of procrastination amidst portents of The End of Things), playing frisbee (well, trying at least) on the green in the centre of campus. It was like traveling back to the near past, or vicariously living the "stayed at home and did a master's" possibility. Even the weather was photoshopped-reminiscences pristine for the most part. Or perhaps it wasn't, and these are already reminiscences, curse you subjectivity.

I even managed to fend off a sieging cold until yesterday. Now I'm desperately trying to OD on OJ and make it go away, much much work to catch up on, starting tomorrow, early, with a day long meeting. Actually, scratch that, starting now with some background reading - my best laid plan to revise that stuff before breakfast is sure to gang aft aglay.

technorati tags: helsinki

From the airport

I'm going to have to be very careful. You very nearly got a kind of two dollar word dump that didn't say very much at all. I'm sitting in Stockholm airport, three hours sleep in the hand, two hours in this particular bush, a pit pissed at Time for getting earlier on me - stay still you capricious bastard. Capricious... must maintain vigilence.

***

Back in Helsinki this morning, a vaguely Asian woman was escorted to a desk, where tickets were bought, and then escorted to her gate, by two very matronly female Finnish police officers. It turned out to be my gate. She was standing, looking down the aisle, as we trooped off here in Stockholm, looking like someone without many resources desperately trying to formulate "Plan B". I'm half asleep, so it's all I can do not to project some elaborate deportation scenario onto this person, I wonder what her real story is.

Incidently, "matronly" is not an adjective often used in conjunction with Irish female police officers. Irish police in the line of duty seem to strive to project a kind of guarded menace - Finnish police officers let the large pistol at their sides do that kind of dirty work for them. Actually that's a gross over simplification. There seems more of a respect for authority, and therefore more confidence on the part of authorites. That's an oversimplification too, I guess.

***

My first reaction upon seeing about a dozen heavily armed soldiers huddled in cover positions around the entrance ramp to a downtown carpark late last night was a kind of delight at finding something so novel (I often worry about myself). I had the cameraphone out, and was laughingly trying to take some shots in the dim light before it struck me that a) I had assumed their presence was merely benign, b) things that one points, sights, that make small flashes, in a noisy city, in the dark, might readily be misconstrued. I'm quick like that. I put the camera away, wondering if the guns were loaded, when rather impressively, about half a dozen more sprinted out from some excellent hiding place in the urban jungle to join their squad.

***

I have to do something about these hunger-pangs. Maybe I should put up a sign saying "feed the blogger" - people keep wandering over to inspect the internet kiosks, figure out fares etc, but it's easy to suspect they're oogling me - this strange human-like creature. I'll take my leave.

2,000 File Sharers Sued in Europe

The NYT is reporting that the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry has broung over 2,000 suits against individuals in ten countries today. The suits were brought against uploaders. This brings the total number of people sued outside the US for file-sharing to approximately 5,500. Where does it end?

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