Feckless in Finland

Moved!

2007-01-31T17:52:00.000+02:00

Extra! Extra!

Feckless in Finland now to be found at

fecklessinfinland.blogspot.com

No more phonetic greek character weirdness, same old host character weirdness.

Winter Finally Here

2007-01-28T22:39:00.000+02:00

I was getting worried when the Texan Blogmeister was reporting icy conditions in The Lone Star State while kids here were trying to convert their sleds into paddle boats, but in the last few days the temperatures finally fell, like they should. Darn global warming.

We celebrated, as dignified, grown-up twenty-somethings do, by flinging ourselves down local hills on "bum-sleighs", hooting. Image above is manly bum sleigh with kitty motif.

Uni has had it's ups and downs. I elected not to sit an exam in a subject that won't come around again until August 2008 - was totally unprepared, tired and fatalistic. Even so, if I get graded "passed" on a paper I've to hand up by Wednesday, and get through another exam in March, I should have 19 credits from last semester - not bad factoring in the full-time work. I'm hoping to rack up 20-25 from this semester - there's a 3 credit book exam available in computer law - all the DRM and Open Source stuff I like to rant about - marvellous.

I'm down to working 3 days a week, which should give me more time, and lead to less all-nighters.

Merry Christmas

2006-12-25T23:45:00.000+02:00

Merry [insert seasonal/solar festival here],

I feel far from my books and study here (even though they're only just upstairs) so I'm slacking off... to blog!

Home is no longer the internetless wilderness it once was (huzzah!). There's a complicated and arcane phone system culminating in broadband and a wireless phone upstairs, but in series with a plain old phone downstairs, a phone that is not to be lifted under pain of death. It came from the electronics shop the video from The Ring originated; the very act of lifting the receiver and hearing its dial-tone kills the internets.

To this newly, wired home I brought the gift of wirelessness. Previously I'd get told off a lot for hogging the connection over the holidays, and the familiar perception (especially with the matriarch) is that sitting at the computer is anti-social, whereas sitting in front of the tv is acceptable. Now, I can do (and am doing) both, praise be the wifi internet fairies, ferrying my packets to a fro. Flit! Fly!

Righty, back to work. New Year's is coming, and this year it brings not only abstracts like *Promise* and *Hope*, but certainties like *Exams*, *Deadlines* and *Grades*.

A special "Merry Christmas" to everyone I can't say that to in person.

Helsinki needs this

2006-11-19T17:42:00.000+02:00

Down under they seem to have the same nocturnal urnitation problems as we do here up above. The proposed solution is magical nocturnal street urinals

that disappear below street level during the day.

As we were walking home last night, a guy under a lamp started to paw at his belt. I just assumed he was going to undo his fly and let loose right below the street-light, and found I wasn't a bit shocked (he didn't).

Friends have seen much, much worse. We speculate it's the closeness to nature engendered by summers in unplumbed summer cottages that lowers the threshold for street, er, performance.

Actually the only flaw with respect to Hki is it's focus on male drinkers.

technorati tags:Helsinki, Finland, Feckless, urination

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Helsingin Sanomat "Now" Ad

2006-11-17T17:33:00.000+02:00

What Now - What Next - video powered by Metacafe

Looks from the late 80s or early 90s.

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San Francisco

2006-11-08T19:15:00.000+02:00

It needs the excersice
Originally uploaded by delta_avi_delta.

I was over in Palo Alto last week for work - my first trip stateside and it was a blast - many cultural learnings.

I'm not a fan of the ingress process though. You have to give details of your stay before they let you on the plane, and you get photographed, fingerprinted, and mildly questioned when you get off. *Fingerprinted*. I may be old fashioned but I consider all of that a privacy violation. Oh and you have to put your potentially explosive deodorant in a little plastic baggy so at least it'll be neat before it goes off. Who comes up with this stuff?

I had thought that staying in San Francisco might mean I'd see some of it, unfortunately work was intense, so I mostly saw the inside of Caltrains and a couple of interesting restaurants, but hey, good food and I'm happy. Uniformly fantastic coffee too and I'm ecstatic.

Wow, the food. I'll put it like this - I rarely, very rarely, oh so rarely leave food behind me, but was defeated two meals straight, dinner and breakfast, and I'm a big fan of Irish breakfasts so you can imagine what kind of monster the Big Breakfast Burrito was.

People seem super-friendly if you're straight over from Finland. Strangers and wait-staff will initiate conversation at will or over trivialities, and assume a level of friendliness that's initially slightly disconcerting if you're used to how things work over here. Of course, I'm pretty certain this is how I come across in Finland. There's a massive dose of spoken formality too - "sir" and "ma'am" you don't get here either, nor in Dublin for that matter.

The usual self-evidents:
1) Everyone drives everywhere. It's at most a 15 minute walk from the train-station to work. I was considered crazy for walking, and kind people went out of their way to drop me off despite my protests.
2) Many people are terrifically fat - you can guess this when you see defibrillators lining the arrival terminal walls.
3) This ain't no social society - I hadn't seen anyone eat from a bin in a long time. Fish in a bin for empties to return for coins for booze yes, fish for dinner, no.
4) A certain sense of paranoia abounds. At every train station, and at the airports you get "if you notice suspicious activity..." messages, and you're constantly reminded "we're at Homeland Security Threat Level Orange".

No other clichés for now :)

Down with DRM

2006-10-03T19:07:00.000+03:00

Today is international Day Against DRM. If you're not sure what DRM is, follow the link. There's too much apathy surrounding digital rights - and far too many clueless politicians are allowing themselves to be lobbied into position by large corporations with vested interests.

"So what," you say, "so I can only listen to my iTunes how Apple lets me, big whoop - 'it prevents piracy'." I say letting The Man decide and then enforce exactly how artists can distribute and how I can appreciate their rock just doesn't roll.

It prevents piracy, true, but it also precludes a host of legitimate uses that goes well above and beyond the copyright restrictions it aims to uphold. Copyright is a rather flexible thing - copyright law grants a "fair use" license to students of the media content, or satirists for example - try explaining that to a DRM algorithm. Want to sell the records you don't like to buy new ones you do? Totally permitted under copyright (it's called "first sale"), not recognized by DRM. It fails completely to recognise next-generation copyright schemes such as Creative Commons.

Also, wise up people. You, the one who bought music on iTunes there - fancy buying a not-an-iPod any time soon? No? Your music will only play on Apple devices? So your next shiny mp3 player will be? Apple. The one after that? Right. This is called "vendor lock in". The reason everyone from Microsoft to our dear Nokia has tried to start a music store in recent years is they see Apple's DRM driven lock in and they can't believe they missed their chance.

You like mashups? I sure do. Mashups have been one of the revelations of the last few years - that dumb "users" could take media, and cut and paste it together to a professional standard to make something more than the sum of its parts was something of a shock to the media vendors. Sadly, not permitted under DRM schemes.

Finally, you know that box of records you found in your parents attic - the ones they bought before they were "Mom" and "Dad"? They were strange and mysterious, and when the popped and crackled to life you discovered a whole world of music you didn't know existed. Forget that with DRM schemes. Your children will not be able to inherit the digital equivalent of your dusty vinyls, because the license you purchased it under doesn't include them, or their devices. Of all the reasons to oppose DRM, that's the one I find the most sad and compelling.

Reaquaintance

2006-10-01T00:32:00.000+03:00

Great to see you! Yeah! So... Hmm... Er... Right. What's new with me? Well, the moving is over. What moving? In the interval between informative posts, I have:

* moved out of old flat and into apartment of a certain good friend (many, many thanks)
* moved onwards to apartment of another certain good friend (many, many thanks)
* moved into hotel when gf moved over here to Santaland (how much?!)
* officially entered studentdom (wohoo!)
* used studentdom to wangle temporary accommodation
* moved out of hotel promptly and into temporary accommodation
* moved into even more temporary accommodation
* started Uni proper (gulp)
* moved into the beautiful apartment of friends of friends (phew)

We're now firmly installed in said aparment, and shouldn't have to shift anywhere for 8 month or so, huzzah!

Also, now that I have study to avoid, you should see a general increase in posting - you may recall that it was the wonderful womb of study-avoidance that birthed this very blog all that time ago. Why, even as I type I'm "taking a break" from catching up on lectures I skipped, owing to their distinct non-Englishness. I used to begrudge myself this non-study time, but I've come to appreciate the creative energy it can engender. Earlier today I baked a pie, something I am not normally known to do.

His excuse, but I'm sticking to it

2006-09-29T15:48:00.000+03:00

I love writing but I hate starting. The page is awfully white and it says. " You may have fooled some of the people some of the time but those days are over, giftless. I'm not your agent and I'm not your mommy, I'm a white piece of paper, you wanna dance with me?" and I really, really don't. I don't want any trouble. I'll go peaceable-like.

-Aaron Sorkin

Changed my worldview

2006-08-30T23:50:00.000+03:00

Watch Online

Thanks to the Bunny Blogger for turning me on to TED and their talks. You can explore them yourself if you have time (ok, I'll sell it a little more, there's a talk by Ze Frank from 2004 there too), but whatever you do, please click the linky thing at the start of this, and watch the short video. It'll probaby change how you think about the world.

Our post viewing talk, we being... well... us, turned to open data, and the amount of knowledge lying around within organisations and corporations that just needs to be made available and then visualized skillfully for a more accurate picture of the world, people, and everything else we've paid attention to as a species to emerge.

If you're tickled by the idea of open data, here's an AULA talk on the subject. The internet was heralded as starting the Information Age - but all that's happened so far is we've digitized information we mostly had already, for accessibility - wikipedia for instance. Now we need to provide all the data we have, on all sorts of topics, so we can mix and mash them into new perspectives and understandings.

Make it so.

technorati tags:AULA, TED, open data, ze frank, Helsinki, Finland, Feckless, talks

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Cars

2006-08-26T16:54:00.000+03:00

Google-kuvahaun tulos kohteessa http://www.numberonestars.com/movies/images2/cars.jpg

Pixar now are like Disney were back in the middle of last century - they're just churning out the classics left right and centre. I went to see Cars last night, and everything was just so. Ok, maybe not the songs, but then I guess they're aimed at kids... thought I never remember liking them as a child, they felt like pandering.

Anyhoo. Everything else - perfect. The story is good, the characters are well drawn (pun intended), the voice acting is fantastic, the humour is laugh-out-loud funny. There's also an insane attention to detail that's mostly absent nowadays - one of the characters is a Porsche for instance, but she's not just a Porsche, she's a 2002 model 911 (the headlights tell all). There are little flourishes everywhere that show just how much passion everyone involved had for the project. These people really believe in what they do, and it shows. I can only hope it stays that way under Disney, and they don't try to milk all their work to date dry in a series of increasingly unoriginal franchises.

Best movie I've seen all year, go see.

Drugs

2006-08-25T22:28:00.000+03:00

I'm suffering withdrawal - I miss my media. It's all locked up in boxes. I'm getting by ok with Last.fm, it's got me pigeon-holed well enough at this stage that plays me music I dig - which is especially good when the artists are new to me. As for video, I've found succour at the ample twin bosoms of youtube and google video. Whilst on the latter I found this:

If Drugs Were Legal - Google Video

It's a BBC production, so as you'd anticipate, the production standards are sky high. Also, I'm beginning to think this kind of reasoned, calm, logical discussion just wouldn't be possible on US tv. I'm purely going to what I see of US programming on said video sites, but I was particularly disgusted by the "count-down to cease-fire" concerning the Lebannon conflict - splicing the countdown over footage of new-year's in Time Square was hideous, and this was from CNN!

Anyway, my political and moral views seems to straddle Liberal and Libertarian, so it was really interesting to see (qualified) people debate over arguements I've tried to unknot many's a late night with friends.

technorati tags:drugs, feckless, finland, helsinki, BBC

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Designer Tea?

2006-08-24T15:21:00.000+03:00

Wallpaper.com - International Design Interiors Fashion Travel - Design

Hype knows no bounds, it seems. Who would have thought the humble cup of tea could have been reinvented as it has been over recent years?

As a reminder that Wallpaper* is just as much about the preservation of time-honoured and quality brands as it is about pushing the product envelope, our award for the best brew goes to the wholly reliable Irish tea company, Barry’s. Why?

First, the packaging promises nothing more than a straight-talking cup of tea, but most importantly, the tea itself hails from the best plantations throughout Kenya and India’s Assam Valley. Just leave the builder’s bum to the professionals.

And thanks to Sean's recent delivery it's still what you'll get in a cup if you wander over to mine of an evening.

technorati tags:tea, helsinki, feckless, finland, wallpaper*

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Bad ping times

2006-08-21T16:55:00.000+03:00

I live. I'm kinda homeless, relying on the kindness and trying the patience of friends, and my home computer is in a box. Thanks you Ann-Christin, Andreea, and Rosalinde, especially since your hospitality extended to cover my visiting friend Sean. Yes, I'm the sort of organised person who can't even secure a fixed abode for the duration of a friend's visit. Still, it's giving us interrailing flashbacks so it's not all bad.

Things have been hectic in the best possible way, the weather has been fabulous and we've taken advantage of and exploited it like heartless con-artists with a naive moneyed mark.

There's been surreality too, and regular readers will know that's the icing on my existential cake. There were lots of slowly moving tiny white blobs in the sky (for all our arguing they turned out to be the kites of one TimoNoko), and right now it's like some kind of surreal warzone - the smoke from massive forrest fires in Russia is blowing across Finland and blanketing Helsinki for a couple of minutes at a time before clearing off, like mischevious doorbell ringing kids.

Bits & pieces

2006-07-13T23:47:00.000+03:00

Brussels is quite a nice city. I'd love to tell you all about it's turbulent history, inspiring architecture, etc, but I'm afraid most of my attention went to it's more comestible attractions. I can tell you the french for "waffle" is "gauffre" and that'll have to do for "culture".

While there, my girlfriend and I found out that we've passed the Helsinki University of Technology entrance exams, and will be returning to the smelly, noodle-sucking, student lifestyle once more. We're in good company, Martin Sheen is also returning to college this autumn, he'll be studying English lit, philosophy and theology as an undergrad at the National University of Ireland, Galway. I'm serious.

I'm very delighted by the idea, I hope to be sufficiently solvent and lucid as a sextagenarian to go study all the things I was curious about, had to ignore because they didn't impinge on my main studies.

I'm also just back from watching my home-town team draw with the local Helsinki football team HJK. The experience of walking down familiar Helsinki streets aurally bathed in the accent and expressions of home was exquisitely surreal.

Audiofile #2

2006-06-29T14:32:00.000+03:00

I'll try giving this a whirl again. In keeping with the last post, here's a track mandating easy-goingness - about getting away from the city to take it easy and find yourself. The lyrics are in Irish, but a translations is available from the band's website.

Tóg é go bóg é - [take it softly/easy]
by Kíla.

The file is in the .ogg format, which Winamp should play no problem - a comprehensive list of .ogg playing software is over at Vorbis.com

*Edit*
Um, yeah, there should actually be tracks at the end of the links now...

Juhannus

2006-06-28T17:09:00.000+03:00

06242006133
Originally uploaded by delta_avi_delta.

In Finland "the dream" is a nice house in Espoo, and a nice summer cottage by the sea, or by a lake to disappear to, and perhaps a boat. Once you have this, you have life licked. More is considered gross excess.

This weekend was "Juhannus" or "Midsummer's" - when there's a mass exodus to these cottages. I hadn't understood the appeal before. I'm a country boy, the countryside is kind of "normal" to me, and cities are exciting. Swimming at 2am in the calm quiet sea, under a dark blue sky with one winking star bright enough to be visible, between bouts of sauna, it became very, very self evident.

Swimming

2006-06-14T00:54:00.000+03:00

I was realtively ancient when I first learned to swim. A certain german friend seems to have deduced from polling that a large percentage of Irish adults don't know how to swim. I attribute this to ball shrinking sea temperatures, equally reductive dangerous lakes, and a pitiful lack of public swimming pools, or school-initiated classes.

In consequence, most haven't learned to swim by the time their natural instincts have been replaced by aquaphobia, myself included. I think I was 12 when I went to lessons for the first time, and freaked out entirely, ending up in the very shallow kiddy pool with a bunch of leaky toddlers. I moved soon after, to the classes of the indoubtable Mrs Smith, who lived in an old English country house close to my home, replete with indoor swimming pool. A 9ft deep swimming pool (around 3 metres). When you can't swim, 9ft goes down to Davey Jones' locker. Nessy could have lurked down there.

Her method was old school, and bullshit-free: swim over once or twice with water-wings to get some confidence, then - on the first lesson mind - she forceably removed the floats, and commanded you to swim a width of the pool, then screamed at you till you got across. Many didn't survive the abject terror of the first lesson.

I'll never forget that feeling the first time, letting go of the rope, letting go of solidity, and pushing out into "the void" - it felt dizzying, like falling, looking down from what seemed to be on high. It was all brought back to me with astounding clarity this Sunday, when I took my first tandem parachute jump - from 4000m. I've been trying to describe the experience ever since, from the shocking sight of people exiting the door and just *plummeting*, to the mind-warping experience of following them, to the bizarre relative calm after the shute opens.

And that metaphor is the best I can do. It's like the first time you venture out into deep water, before you know how to swim. Except, y'know, wow.

2.5 kilometres in 50 seconds' freefall.
50 metres per second.
180 kilometres per hour.
I highly recommend it

www.laskuvarjokerho.com

technorati tags: Helsinki, skydive, parachute, Finland

Bubble

2006-06-08T18:03:00.000+03:00

I've had to work from home recently, on something that turned out (as usual) to be slightly more tricky than I'd anticipated, so what I'd estimated would take one afternoon took two. And the morning in between.

It was great fun, there's something about analysing network packets I find very entertaining. Computers are awfully polite things, they let everyone around them know if they have something useful, other computers who shout out questions generally get an appropriate answer, and then there's "handshaking":

"are you well?"
"quite well thank you, and you?"
"marvellous, marvellous, let's proceed!"*

*may not be representative of actual TCP/IP handshaking

Marvellously gentlemanly. However, they can be a little unaccommodating - you have to be damn sure to ask *exactly* the right question, or they'll just shake their heads in complete confusion.

So I've pretty much been in my room for the last 48 hours, with occassional, furtive sorties into The Out to for the essentials - food, bathroom breaks, cappucinos from that wonderful café down the road. Yes, it's essential.

Now I'm leaving my little bubble to go climbing, and re-learn how to interact with people.

Examined

2006-05-31T19:55:00.000+03:00

That's it, exams over. Six days of cramming and note-taking and exam sitting finished with. Now there's nothing to do but wait for the results. Well, that and catch up on four day's work. Bugger.

Audiofile #1

2006-05-24T15:18:00.000+03:00

I love Mariana's blog-series (especially the "Thank you, sir" series (scroll down) delicious and complex, like a good cup of coffee... mmm coffee... where was I?

Right. So, since I did promise you a music file last post round, and since I have quite a large collection of those, I thought, maybe I could try a little series of my own.

Without further waffle:

Rodrigo y Gabriella - Tamacun

Just two guitars, one take, pure.

www.rodgab.com

*edit*
Right, file is now being hosted properly, just click...

Real Music

2006-05-23T02:37:00.000+03:00

05222006026
Originally uploaded by delta_avi_delta.

I try to keep up with the "little" artists I used to follow around Dublin (until the barring orders were enacted - and you thought I came here for work, hah!). Of all the groups, Rodrigo y Gabriela were the most special, the most talented, the least appreciated - so when I noticed they had a new studio album the credit card number leapt from my fingers.

They hate that their music gets mis-labeled "flamenco", so I'll say it sounds "latin", with a strong shot of thrash metal, driven with a rhythm technique that's all their own. Imagine if techno had been invented by banging on acoustic guitars and you're halfway there. Almost all of the album is made with only two nylon-strung guitars, and two pairs of blessed hands.

The music has spontaniety, playfulness, fluency, flow, energy excitement... oh, here - words aren't going to do it justice - wait while I agonise of which track to give you...

From Zero to Hero

2006-05-21T02:52:00.000+03:00

So Finland, the country with the most zero point scoring entries in the Eurovision song contest has won, courtesy of the band Lordi and their hard-rockin' "Hard Rock hallelujah" - lets call it an homage to 1980s metal.

In a sea of sound-alike, stunning but shallow performers, they stood out with their originality, musicianship, and ok, bonkers monster costumes. The Eurovision used to be a tedious joke (except when Ireland won of course), and it's been tending towards irony as our cynical generation rises to ascendancy (check out the ~~Latvian~~ Lithuanian entry - "We are the winners (of Eurovision)") - so it could be said that were engineered, that an entrant that was good, and yet opposed everything the contest stands for had a good chance. I say that's us being cynical again - the band are scarily representative of Finnish musical tastes and output (HIM, Nightwish, Apocolyptica, et al), and the performance was fantastic, so fair play to them.

Unfortunately it seems like Finns aren't quite sure how to celebrate. Our brainwave - head down to a square in town with a big-screen - backfired when

a) there was nothing special on the big screen
b) the square was full of some crazy XBox promotional shite, and...
c) nobody was celebrating outside.

We wandered onwards to a club, but the atmosphere was par for a Saturday night: a slightly disappointing end to a great night. Of course this means there's the chance to actually attend the contest in person next year, assuming I'm still here...

A post

2006-05-20T02:12:00.000+03:00

I was taken to task for the lack of own-brand excrement emminating from this here interweb sewer pipe earlier, so it's been on my consciousness, if not my conscience.

I've been out with friends, I'm horribly, yea, bitterly tired after a night spent pondering great mysteries, dis- or mis-remembering the conclusions, and fighting off sleep-deprivation induced paranoia, chronologically. The latter mostly involves trying to restrain my imagination. I worried that someone will try to kill me.

I decided I am mostly afraid of the pain.

I remember recognising there really were evil people - people whose drives orient them against society - and finding it a depressing, disheartening thought. I puzzled over how to deal with this kind of person, without stooping to their level. I decided that punishment should have an educational component, a chance for redemption, or else it was just vindictiveness, retribution. I decided that if a punishment's purpose was to make an example of someone, that wasn't fair. I can't remember the exact reasoning.

There have been *things* back home lately, things with more gravity than normal. When I'm unoccupied my thought tend towards bigger questions. The big questions don't have answers, only opinions, but the opinions have repercussions - they challenge perception of self, the world, and everything in between.

I worry I'm purely cerebral, emotionally numb.

Then today, at lunch, we talking about writing, blogging, language skills. It's held amongst some friends that this is a space for me to vent my circumlocutions safely. I'll freely admit my style tends to the verbose, but I've always been like this. My english teacher likened me to Polonious. I like words and language, I think of the more esoteric as rare, precious.

I'm not sure if this is merely egotistical.

Anywhoo, somehow all of that conspires to put me in the mood to write a little.

I wonder if pressing "post" is exhibitionist.

Being me

2006-05-06T13:19:00.000+03:00

A massive thank you to all who made my birthday so memorable. For those of you who had to miss the goings on, what with prior engagements, geographical problems, what have you - the scarily creative Helsinki bunch printed masks of, well, me. Very *very* disquieting to come home and find you have an androgynous clone cohort. I feel a rapport with John Malkovich. Thanks again, it was really rather rare and wonderful, and I hope I can reciprocate on the relevant dates.

For now, I'm off second hand bike shopping. I've decided that this is going to be one of those feel-good dramas - I'll look at plenty of shiny bikes with sparkly chrome fenders, but I'll leave them behind knowing other potential owners will snap them up. In the back I'll see one neglected, shy bicycle, stout frame but careworn parts, clearly in need of some TLC. The going will be rough in the beginning - it'll have problems sleeping at night, and then there'll be the phase where it attacks people it doesn't know, but eventually we'll all learn a valuable lesson.

Blimey, this whole anthropomorphisisation (say that ten times quickly) thing has changed my perspective... you don't suppose the last bike... ran off?

Philosophical

2006-05-04T01:26:00.000+03:00

On reflection, recent history had indicated to me that having insurance would be judicious (ask Heinz), but here I stand, tinily representative of humanity's incapacity to learn from History.

On slightly more zen-like reflection, I have my health, friends, family, a job, and two front teeth (touch wood) for fuck sake - it's mentally and spiritually unhealthy to mourn lost possessions, or to get attached to mere things.

But the observation with the most clarity, that rings most of Truth: he who is so ~~dumbassed~~ naive as to leave his attractive bike untethered, yea even in the locked apartment basement, has delivered his application to The School of Hard Knocks, with acceptance pending.

In other news, simply prefixing my heretofore inconsequential "behave!" command with "Taarzaan says" caused the computer to take heed. She's been running smoothly ever since. I officially give up on you, Simple Simon, you just don't cut the mustard. Let us hope Taarzaan's other decree comes to pass with equal effectiveness. And while you're figuring out why I made those words blue, click on Anonymous's link at the end of that page - his blog will soon change topic somewhat, I salute you sir.

Finally, I am approximately 8766 hours old. Thanks to the rate of Earth's solar orbit, that equals cake.

Numerically Satisfying

2006-05-04T01:23:00.000+03:00

In British time format, tonight saw

1:23 4/5/06

Later on, in reverse, it'll be

06/5/4 3:21

Admit it, you find it pleasing.

Distraught

2006-05-01T17:06:00.000+03:00

Some fucker stole my bike.

Bittersweet

2006-04-29T16:59:00.000+03:00

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

2006-04-23T22:04:00.000+03:00

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

2006-04-12T08:40:00.000+03:00

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

2006-04-04T16:16:00.000+03:00

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?

read more | digg story

Absence from the Internets

2006-03-30T23:33:00.000+03:00

I've been computing at home very little lately. I've gone a week without playing Warcraft. Or any game, in fact (ok, some *flash' games, but they don't count). How? My work laptop has a nice new minty fresh install that I'm not going to sully with unnecessary installs, and the components for my pc-in-potentia are delayed. Very delayed.

I've tried watching DVDs instead (mostly comedy), but unless the source material is stellar, I loose interest. The passive entertainment thing doesn't really do it for me anymore. I've been noodling around on the synth a lot more lately, which is good, but depressing - music is not like riding a bike. Take two long a break and you might remember how to spin the pedals, but not steer, change gear, brake... Still, I had a zone-out moment playing the synthy line from "Everything in it's Right Place" by Radiohead, hasn't happened me in too long. It's very magical, your body is making very controlled movements to produce sound, but you don't think about it at all - you don't think about much of anything, you just feel how the song makes you feel, and retreat inside yourself a litte. Well that's how it is for me.

Entirely coincidentally to the whole non-gaming thing (seriously, I'm not being glib. Not there either), I've started getting up at... 7am. Regardless of bedtime. Turns out I could be a closet morning person after all - I feel more energetic, and I get more work done. I've a feeling it's got to do with the transition to Summer Time, and the feeling of spring that's in the air. That's during the day time. Now when I've had about 4 hours shut-eye in the last 24, things start to become hazy. I apologise in advance in case this exposition on particle physics has gone a little off track.

DRM is Killing Music T-Shirt

2006-03-30T00:09:00.000+03:00

Spread the word (or state the obvious?) for only $8.

The same wonderful folk who gave us the Creative Commies parody t-shirt form last year make yesterdays BoingBoing featured send-up wearable.

The source art is freely available from the page to do with as you wish. - is it evil to think "

read more | digg story

The Frigid Suicides

2006-03-20T11:49:00.000+02:00

Blue skies and clear on a Monday - where's my pathetic fallacy? Hmm, that sounds like a good song title.

It sounded like the end of the world this morning at about 8am. Actually it felt quite a lot like it too. It's that time of year up here when things can't decide if they want to freeze or melt, so vacillate between the two for a few weeks before committing to anything. It sounds harmless enough, but I tell you, it's treacherous. If the slick and shininess of the footpath isn't plotting to land you on your coccyx, then the snow-which-melted-to-water-which-froze-to-ice (I'm sure there's a Finnish word for that) decides that it's got nothing left to live for, in this new warm world, and casts itself into the void, seven stories up, plummeting to a smashy death on pavements below. Pavements populated by people!

Obviously this kind of dangerous icicle suicide can't be tolerated, so frequently (though why before eight Lord, why?) teams of intrepid euthanisers hit the roofs of the town with snow shovels, pushing half-way depressed ice-cubes over the edge.

And that's why it was noisy this morning.

So yes, it's Monday, and yes it's still not Summer, but reflect on your good fortune - you might have been an icicle.

The things we learn

2006-03-18T12:55:00.000+02:00

So we had a short but memorable little St Patrick's day party at my place, during which we discovered

*People need little excuse to get drunk

-"So who is St Patrick anyway?"

*You should be careful who you allow to sit at the computer

-I am now aware of the practice of testicle enlargement.

*Latvian Liquor makes people slightly evil.

-Alex's initiation of new arrivals, with an ancient "tradition" involving taking a shot to St Patrick after making a silent wish for what you want. On your knees. In front of a candle. Bizarre.

*People are willing to believe almost anything where alcohol is involved.

-Corrollary of above.

*The apartment downstairs from us is no longer vacant.

-The new tennant introduced himself, and his desire to add police officers to the proceedings at 10.30.

Very educational for a party, eh?

technorati tags: St, Patrick's, Day, Helsinki, Party

Chinese youth playing socialist MMORPG

2006-03-17T20:39:00.000+02:00

I found this story over on digg.com - as someone who spends maybe a little too much time playing these kinds of games, it's interesting to see.

"For beginners, sewing and mending socks is the only way to increase experience and to upgrade," said Jiao Jian, a six-grade pupil in Yuexiu District, quoted by the newspaper.

"Every time you are promoted to a higher level, your clothes will become more average," he said.

Games are massively underestimated as a vector of culture and learning. The US military have been using games for years to keep soldiers in a battle ready state of mind (since they got a special version of Doom II).

The emergence of "serious" games (ie games with a message or motive) is something to monitor closely.

read more | digg story

Demoing to Michael Caine

2006-03-16T20:43:00.000+02:00

Yesterday saw me wander out half way to Espoo to demo our project to a bunch of interesting and interested people. I'm sure it's not a uniquely software issue, but nothing seems to please the gods of software quite so much as striking their flock with the dreaded "demo effect".

What was that quotation - "As private parts to wanton boys are we to the Gods. They play with us for their sport". Flys? Oh. Em. Never mind.

To add to the disconcernment, one of those in attendance looked the spitting image of Michael Caine, and another like Kevin Kline (and was American). I kept expecting them to break into some kind of routine.

Anywhoo, we recorded some videos of the system in action to cover just such an eventuality, and I always look slightly confused, and in anticipation of random acts of, well, acting, so it all went well.

St Patrick's Day tomorrow. While now it's mostly an excuse to drink oneself to oblivion on dyed beer in kitchy bars, it wasn't till 1995 that bars were allowed to open on the day in question in Ireland (no alcohol allowed on a Holy Day). Not a lot of people know that, as the guy in the meeting didn't say.

On any given Sunday

2006-03-12T16:47:00.000+02:00

Ahoy-hoy,

The last few weekends have seen myself and the indomnitable ter-Minh-ator (above) mosey out north from Helsinki , past fields of snow and pine trees, to a frozen lake whose name escapes me just now, for a spot of cross country skiing.

Minh said it well earlier, it's like swimming - it's not hard on the body, but it's bloody hard work. We reckon we came up a little short of 10km in an hour, which isn't bad for my third time on skiis.

Today was one of those days when Helsinki really is one of the nicest places on earth to be. Vast blue skies and fresh powdery snow reflecting the light, pleasant temperatures (minus two in the sunshine isn't as cold as it sounds), blessed sun, and a large flat expanse only sparsly littered with fellow skiers or skaters lending itself to a strange feeling, like solitude and solidarity all at once.

That and I didn't fall over today, not even once - yay for me - so I was feeling quite accomplished, swaggering a little maybe, on the way back to the car, when we came across a bunch of tiny Finnish kids taboggoning down a slope. Except tabogganing doesn't do it justice. The slope was very bumpy, and the maniacs were being launched a foot or two in the air with each and every jump on the way down - a considerable distance when you're only two feet tall. Respect.

Not for the agoraphobic (taken last week, when it was a bit overcast).

Seeing families out there all skiing together on a Sunday strengthens my gut feeling that Finns in general are just more active than we Irish slobs.

And now I have to stop procrastinating and tidy my room.

technorati tags: skiing, helsinki

Fired up

2006-02-27T13:26:00.000+02:00

Hello hello. Normally my silences are because I've nothing to share I feel wouldn't bore you even more than normal. These last few days I've been too busy to post, which has caused the same kind of apathy after the activity-spree you get when you've missed a week in your diary. If you've ever tried keeping a diary.

Before I delve into some of my more interesting recent happenings, I'd like to point to you to a post by a mind more concise and efficient than mine, re: the recent riots in Dublin. The last line expresses eloquently what would have been a three page tirade in my hands. "Scanger" may be absent from your vocabulary if you're not of Irish extraction, but you'll find it a valuable addition.

Recovery

2006-02-04T15:24:00.000+02:00

Sitting here in front of the face-tanner, sipping Japanese green tea, listening to music - well worn music that has had meaning rub off on it, trying to convince my system that all is good and right with the world after a pretty serious party yesterday. If that sounds far to wholesome to be authentic, then ok, ok, I admit that a dirty Finnish potatoe-bacon-sausage hash preceded all this.

Marvellous.

What party? Well, our eight months late housewarming! Well at least, the housewarming was the excuse... A bit silly to require an excuse to gather so many fantastic people under one roof. I think we should throw "we think you're great" parties, and just be honest about the whole thing. Even after the event, with assorted party detritus littered across every flat surfaces, the apartment is noticeably tidier than usual. Sad but true.

It's damn cold again, and so clear and crisp it's like someone pinched the atmosphere. Cars have little icicle whiskers, and people are walking around with little puffs of breath perpetually in front of their faces, like un-inked speech-bubbles. Anyway, my point is, it's weather for sitting indoors, listening to music while sipping tea. It just feels right.

Repetitious

2006-01-29T13:47:00.000+02:00

(I've been trying to post this since Sunday, but my laptop was having a Mr Hyde day... anywhoo)

A hearty hello,

Again with the blue skies and coffee this Sunday morn. Really nice cafe yadda-yadda, I won't insult your memory, I'll just provide a photo. I don't think it's polite to point a camera at people in a cafe, so here's a shot of the only unoccupied corner - je présente: Café Delicato!

Best damn coffee and sandwiches in Helsinki. I'll reiterate that, they deserve the plug.

technorati tags: helsinki, delicato, coffee,

Not about rights

2006-01-27T02:27:00.000+02:00

Must...not...blog...on...digital...rights.

It'd be so easy to do too, I'm beginning to think that RIAA is pronounced "nats-si".

Instead I'll mention an intersting BBC study I saw about (computer) gaming habits in the UK. The gender gap isn't as big as you'd imagine, and many people over 65 game. The eyeopener however, was the 6-10 category. 100% of 6-10 year olds consider themselves gamers. I guess it's some small comfort to us game-junkies that, rather than stunt our social skills, our gaming is making us into savvier parents who'll be able to understand and interact with junior.

That's the way I like to spin it anyhow.

Also, after an attrocious climbing session, with no sends and a two metre fall I've vowed to go twice weekly. If I haven't posted about my weak pinch-grip twice by next Friday, send me old fish in the post. That'll learn me.

Spread the good news... er...

2006-01-23T18:14:00.000+02:00

I'm pretty avidly pro copyright reform. That is to say, I'm disgusted at the way people, corporations, entities - whatever - claim sole ownership over, and jealously horde, information. It's one of the topics I've been avoiding here, because there's a chance it takes over entirely. I didn't submit you to my strong opinions with regard to the over-zealous MPA threatening people who run websites where guitarist post self-transcribed music for other guitarist for free with jail time. This, however, is so illustrative of the fallacy of "Intellectual Property" (gag) in general, I thought I'd break my rule.

Vatican 'cashes in' by putting price on the Pope's copyright. If you would like to spread the Pope's teachings, you'll have to pay. Every little parish news letter that would like to quote the latest from the guy in the Vatican has to pay a tithe. What's more it retroactively covers all papal pronouncements going back 50 years.

If past experience is anything to go by, I'm getting blank stares, or I've been tuned out completely. Guthenburg would understand.

Snow-shoes for shitsus

2006-01-22T13:38:00.000+02:00

Snow makes things bright and pretty. That wasn't my initial reaction stumbling out of the building, but a good cup of coffee tends to bring me round. I really must remember to take pictures of the exquisite Café Delicato next week, it's a bit like a very homely family sitting room crossed with a café, with some art-gallery genes spliced in for good measure (not to mention ambience). Quite a good place to work out the cobwebs on a Sunday morning.

Last night we helped Rosalinde move into her new apartment. At least, the others helped. I mostly spent over an hour stumbling about in the cold trying to find it, and arrived when most things were moved. A lousy sense of direction can give you hypothermia at this time of the year.

The temperature is holding below twenty. Conditions like this are hard on dogs and dog owners - Fido still needs to be taken on his constitutional stroll about the block, but padding on ice isn't so fun for either party. Maybe Gatochy Corp. could start selling snow-shoes for shitsus.

I spent the last few days concerned at international press reports that Russia had warned it might cut power exports to Finland by a third due to domestic demand. Not so much concerned that I might freeze, but that my computer wouldn't function. I think I've crossed some kind of threshold. Anyway, there wasn't any mention in the Finnish press till yesterday. Despite the fact that Finland gets 30% of it's power from Russia, and yesterday power demand was 300MW higher than the previous national record, they're totally unperturbed - they have not one, but two coal-fired plants on the outskirts of Helsinki ready for just such a scenario. So wonderfully, typically Finnish.

Forecast: frigid

2006-01-19T23:09:00.000+02:00

Things have escalated a little around here since I mentioned it was cold. Maybe declined is a better word. I've a new "should have worn long-johns" cycling record (more than 5km at minus 22 celcius). The only way to overcome that kind of bone-chilling (my breath fogged my glasses, the fog froze) was with dinner with friends. Luckily that was the destination, and frostbite was warded off with belly laughs and a bowl of vindaloo - huzzah. The record-breaking was almost rounded off with some arm-shattering when I neatly demonstrated, albeit unexpectedly, the proper technique for dismounting a moving bicycle, as practiced by motor-cyclist in an emergency. I really must fit my winter tyres.

On a more serious note, this weather front has been moving east from Siberia and has hit Moscow pretty badly. It's around thirty below there and despite keeping the subways open, homeless people are dying on the streets. No friends. No chilli. Life isn't really fair.

Sky salt

2006-01-18T17:59:00.000+02:00

So it's snowing at last, in that powdery little way it does up here. You get little sand-devils of snow moving down the street, it's very dry. I'd be delighted, except I've been doing some work outside recently, where you remember the corollary of "It is snowing" is "It is cold" (this is the polite, anatomically unspecific, blasphemy free version) - minus twenty without factoring some serious windchill. I did have one zen moment amidst the chill, when a perfect, perfect, six armed snowflake landed flat on my screen, was back lit for a second, then contracted into a tiny droplet.

Happy New Year!

2006-01-09T14:46:00.000+02:00

Hello hello,

Belated best wishes for the future to one and all. My 2006 started a little inauspiciously, I had a bit of a cold, and lost a sum of money playing poker with my extended family on New Year's, then once back in Finland my computer died, leading to a bout of radio silence. In all honesty, it didn't die, so much as become terminally ill, whence, attempting resuscitation, I accidentally euthanized it, but I don't like to tell it that way. Many family members trust me with their computer's mysterious inner organs, and I don't want to disillusion them. Likewise, I don't inform them the magical "incantations" I employ when necromancing their hardware are sotto voce curses. The world needs more mystery.

I've decided not to make any new years resolutions just yet. January seems a bad time to pledge change, I find it an attritious month at the best of times, without the hardship of pledged self-improvement. This time of year more than any other finds me retreating to the soft bosom of minor vices I'd be likely to swear off: sugary milky coffees, chocolate, and late-night gaming sessions and attendant day-sleeping. God help newly minted non-smokers.

On a brighter note, happy birthday to the inestimable, the inimitable, the ineffable, the one and only... Taarzaan!

Pop Tour of Helsinki

2005-11-23T02:09:00.000+02:00

From the video to "Heartbeat" by Norwegian pop singer Annie. It took me no more than four seconds to recognize my city of residence.

Ladies (and particularly gentlemen), prepare for the only street-tour you're likely to take with a Scandinavian pop-vixen.

This is Mannerheimentie, the main street of Helsinki. The tower with a dome in the background is owned by a Finnish student body, and houses Joonas' student society and it's infamous "Pharmacy". The building just at our singer's right shoulder is the Swedish Theatre.

I forget the street name, but this is by Kauppatori, the market square down by the harbour. Obviously a good place to go to get fresh baltic herring of a weekend, but it holds surprises. The brick building on the right is a covered market, where everything from fine meats and cheeses to sushi, to hand-made chocolates to really nasty coffee can be had. On weekends the outdoor coffee stalls open at 5, so it's not uncommon for a party to sober-up and disperse here. That there's a typical old-school Helsinki tram (if you're watching the video note the oh-so-old here electronic ticket reader in the inside scene). They replaced some of them with fancy-schancy trams from Germany, which literally started disintegrating after about a year, and had to be sent back for overhall.

Ferry back from Suomenlinna, the UNESCO protected Island fortress to the south, but also simply "home" to many people. The ferry itself is part of the public transport network, and runs from morning till night. No night-link though, and it's a bit of a swim. Until the sea freezes.

The restaurant in the central railway station...

...outside said railway station...

...and inside said railway station (people walking all around). Designed by Eliel Saarinen, it really is that funky in it's Late Finnish Art Nouveau elegance. There's delightful detailing you can't really appreciate from the video - the period lighting in this hall for example. The entire square around it was exclusively filled with beautiful architecture until some genius decided to shoe-horn the most ugly modern block in right across the street some time in the 60's (I guess, I'm not motivated to research mediocrity).

Finally, I think the club is DTM (you want a screen-grab? But there's nothing to see?) - those side-lit-red tables are pretty unique - maybe I can get confirmation from Alex...

All in all a thrifty little video, which seems to have cost little more than a tram-ticket (which would have covered the ferry). It, and many more can be found here. Click at your peril, hours will be lost...

Technorati Tags: helsinki

So cold!

2005-11-22T01:15:00.000+02:00

A drain-pipe on my way to work was taking a surreptuous leak on Sunday night, when temperatures suddenly fell. The stream, now a frozen snake inching two feet from the outlet, a witness to the days long subzero spell. I'd love to report something analagous happened to a doorstep-desecrating tramp a few blocks down, but that is not the way of the world.

What I'm painfully, belabouredly endeavouring to elucidate (it's not funny? I thought it was ironic...) is: it's cold. Ten below currently, and I, like the drain-pipe and my imaginary tramp friend, have been taken a little by surprise. I have no "winter coat" you see. My old, trusty coat and I enjoyed many adventures, but they were the kind of advenures that left both of us scarred and tatty, so it had to go.

I dislike shopping. I tried to buy a new one. Twice. In two different stores even. All the coats I liked had prices I could quote in units of weekly salary, and so I did what I always do in these situations: I procrastinated. Now I'm a cold little Hamlet. Still, it's forecast to be a toasty one above tomorrow, so no panic, eh?

Technorati Tags: helsinki is cold

05112005(005)

2005-11-09T16:39:00.000+02:00

05112005(005)
Originally uploaded by davemurphy.

Hmm, a bit late, but I was at a really good Manga exhibition in Tennispalatsi this weekend. My favourite exhibit was this room, with cheap contemporary manga books dangling from the ceiling. It was quite surreal to wade in, find an interesting cover, and start browsing the works.

There was a display of "Finnish Manga" - which was misleading. It was manga by talented (and frequently very young) Finnish artists, but it had no discernable local flavour - indeed the accompanying spiel explained how even if the story was set in Helsinki, it would look like it was set in Japan.

Isn't it a little sad that you can't differentiate between US, Japanese and Finnish manga on visual inspection? I've seen some underground Finnish comics, and they're excellent - the characters were very Finnish, in looks and body language.

So while I appreciated and enjoyed the display, I'm no clearer on what "manga" is, or why it isn't comic-book art, except that "you know it when you see it" - since it all looks the same.

New links

2005-10-27T00:20:00.000+03:00

Unless you're fluent in either German or Dutch, you'll just have to enjoy the photos of my photogenic friends, the dynamic duo Ann-Christin and Dirk. Permanent links over there to the right, amonst the other blue words of magicalness.

Technorati Tags: blog

Flocking fantastic

2005-10-26T17:52:00.000+03:00

You may or may not be aware of Flock - a new Firefox based browser. It's a super tasty piece of software. It's got that firm Firefox base, onto which you can spread all your favourite plug-in goodness, but the icing on this particular cake is the Web 2.0 functionality. You can blog straight from the browser (as I'm doing), post to, and view pictures straight from, flickr, and you can set it up so your favourites and your del.ico.us tagged pages are one and the same, across browsers. It also manages said favourites and RSS feeds in the same nifty interface.

Excitingly, it's just the first of a number of Firefox based browsers (and tools like Greasemonkey) that try to redefine the browsing experience, which has been surprisingly static since Netscape first exploded on the scene.

Technorati Tags: flock, blogging tools

First Snow

2005-10-26T16:28:00.000+03:00

It's snowing! Much earlier than last year! It's certainly not going to stick, with the mercury hovering around a balmy zero degrees, but it's somehow very uplifting all the same.

Back home, snow frequently meant no school, since the school heating system couldn't handle the cold, and the busses couldn't navigate the twisty rural roads. I guess there's a Pavlovian connection deep in my mental wiring between the sight of snowfall and a pending fun day off playing outside. Why don't we play anymore?

I am an elf

2005-10-25T20:48:00.000+03:00

A night elf to be precise. I've done a terribly thing. With just a little egging on from a friend, Tom, I succumbed after a years worth of holding out against World of Warcraft. For those who are blissfully unfamiliar, it's one of those Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games or MMORPGs (why make an acronym like that?).

I've been playing for a week now, and while I'm already prone to game addictions, this thing literally sucks you in. The world they've created is immense, textured and beautiful. But the most amazing part is how much fun it is playing with real people. I've played games online before, mostly first person shooters, where the object is to kill all the other human players. This brings frustration, and annoyance when it becomes apparant that most of your online host are twelve to fourteen year olds who think calling somone gay repeatedly in overly squeeky pre-pubescent voices is the height of wit. Whoever introduced microphones to online gaming should be shot, and I don't mean virtually. But I digress, the point is, you play against, rather than with, your fellow flesh-and-bloodies.

In Warcraft, players have objectives to fullfill that involve killing non-human characters where killing is involved at all. Actually the process by which you could kill another human player is deliberately esoteric, and the state temporary. Instead, it is often necessary to team up, frequently with complete strangers, and I've been amazed by their levels of generosity and kindness. I've had people go well out of their way to help me, when there is no game mechanic to reward them for doing so. The internet has gotten a pretty bad rap for antisocialism. It's nice to see the fundamentals of human-relationships (making "friends") and a little goodnaturedness and altruism emerging in this context.

Technorati Tags: blog, warcraft, gaming

Politicking

2005-10-13T22:06:00.000+03:00

Hello hello,

I've been uncharacteristically silent lately, I'm not quite sure why.

Autumn is really settling in over here - the trees are mostly non-green, and working their way slowly through their annual strip-tease. Temperatures hover around 10 degrees, and the beautiful blue skies we've been enjoying here lately lead to treacherous declination in atmospheric warmth after sunset.

As for the title - you're probably not aware, but Finland passed a simply daft copyright bill here last Wednesday. Myself and Alex were protesting outside the parliament the day before, and today we were signature hunting for a petition beseeching the President to exercise her constitutional powers and send the bill back to Parliament for further consideration unratified.

On another note I've been having a series of very vivid, very strange dreams. Everything from being sent to jail (I was taking the fall for something, and was peeved), to being involved in bizarre US election results.

Good thing this isn't an audioblog

2005-09-26T15:19:00.000+03:00

I've been exploring the Finnish public dental system recently, and it's quite good. A trouble maker in the back row started becoming very sensitive to heat, which is apparantly, A Bad Thing - it implies inflammation, which precedes big dental trouble, yea even unto the roots. It also makes hot beverage drinking unenjoyable, which is what finally prompted action. It's just wrong when coffee hurts.

There are two kinds of public dental appointments you can make here. A regular "appointment" which will be honoured at some indeterminate time in the next three or four months, or an urgent appointment, which gets seen to that day, at the University dental clinic. Since it sounded like I'd have an abcess within four months, I qualified for the fast-track.

I don't know if you've been to university dental clinics, but they're not for the gimlet-phobic. Row after row of half-hidden surgery, the air thick with whining and sucking and scraping... and screams. Little, girlish screams, I couldn't contain myself. They had all sorts of new-fangled things - a little electric zapper to check if a tooth was alive, a bitey-downey thingie (which perhaps has a technical name) for testing for root infection I guess, and a funky portable x-ray machine, swinging around the cubicle on a boom. Madness! I had a little photo of my teeth in my pocket for the whole weekend. I was drilled twice in the same tooth, about half an hour before the anaesthetic kicked in, then had the holes temporarily filled, and was given a magic piece of paper, imbued with mystic powers of referral.

The public dental system here was expanded to cover an additional 130,000 adults last year. The public dentists can't handle all this work by themselves, so the public system outsources explicit work to contracted private dentists, in my case properly filling the holes, and dealing with a fracture I have in another tooth (from when I tried to eat a computer-case-screw sandwich. Don't try this at home.) It all seems wonderful, but as usual with public systems, there are inefficiencies. At no stage was I given a general check-up. Should the private dentist notice half my mouth is about to become infected with tooth-plague*, he can't do anything about it. If he deviates from the contract drawn up by the public dentist, the victim has to pay through the teeth, so to speak. So, though by this time next week I'll have had three dentist appointments, I still feel compelled to book another one, for sometime early next year, just to make sure everything is ok.

Kinda boring, but maybe useful for someone that blunders into this in about ten years with a toothache in Helsinki. Hmm, on that note, the dentist's number can be found at www.hel.fi

*I'm very proud I resisted the urge to scamper whimsically down the Zombie-Tooth narrative path that beckoned just there.

End of anonymity

2005-09-14T14:06:00.000+03:00

This is a bit coincidental. I was having a discussion with my friend Gilles over dinner about how companies like Google had amassed so much information on all of us by now, that it would soon be possible for these bodies to string our web accesses, thousand unremembered posts, and profiles together into a pretty comprehensive portrait of who we are, what we value, what we believe, what we want to buy. Not a very ground breaking thought, admittedly, but I wasn't expecting a proof-of-concept within 24-hours - witness: Google's blogsearch.

Now I'm not exactly paranoid, but I do equate anonymity and privacy, and so my Blogger profile is only privilege to my first name, and even that isn't listed in my profile. Google operates both Blogger and, significantly, my Gmail account. Which means they know my name. Which means if you can blogsearch my name, you'll find my blog.

Eclectic Electric

2005-09-06T19:58:00.000+03:00

I only managed to make it down for the first day, but the Electric Picnic down at Stradbally House, Co. Laois has become my favourite festival.

It wasn't just the great acts like the Flaming Lips or Kraftwerk, nor that my well connected honey managed to score VIP passes; it was just the general groovyness that pervaded the whole affair. An abundance of ancient trees gave the place a natural vibe, and the organisers exploited this with genius, disguising marquee poles with hollow tree-trunks, decorating trees with giant colourful butterflies, and setting up an holistic "body and soul" chillout area in a log-lined hollow (normally used in show-jumping competitions), complete with an alcohol-free "sacred shrine area", parachute-silk hammocks, and even massages - Trey, see if you can get a gig there next year!

Maybe it was because it was held down the country, but there was a calmness about place, people were very friendly, and security was relaxed with none of the near strip-searching that can happen at other gigs. This also meant a fair amount of, er, contraband was wafting around in the air... Potent contraband.

There was variety. An electric music tent, a DJ tent, the mostly rockin' main stage, a cinema tent (also hosting cabaret), a stand-up comedy tent, amusement park rides, market stalls, there really was something for everyone. Even the food and drink was the most varied I've seen at a festival.

Finally, as Wayne from the Flaming Lips said, it's just got the coolest name. Now where's my promotion fee?

Surf Sligo

2005-08-26T16:50:00.000+03:00

Surf SligoWell, in my head it was always going to happen in Hawai, but I've just had my first surfing lesson at Enniscrone beach, here in Sligo.The Atlantic gives you real waves, not the ripples you get in the baltic. It was great fun, and free as part of the Enniscrone Festival (though it was only polite to donate to the instructor's efforts to get to the championships next year in portugal). Good fun, but I stank like dead aquatic life, which would have performed better. My siblings were much better, particularly my lil sis who rocked entirely, until she split her foot landing on something.

Moblog your life!

Clarification

2005-08-24T17:08:00.000+03:00

Last night, Alex had a plan. It called for getting a train to Tikkurilla, in Vantaa, and pedalling along the scenic route to Kerava (a route that runs away from Helsinki), then returning home via train from Kerava.

As I mentioned the conditions were bizarre (climbing a couple of metres could bring the temperature and humidity up so dramatically that my glasses would fog) and conspired to slow us down, or have us loose our way in the middle of nowhere, so that when we finally reached the train station at Kerava, at midnight, we were 11 minutes late for the last train. Two hours later, with a total trip distance of 80km, we rolled into Helsinki, and about 15 minutes after that I crawled in to bed.

Spooky ride

2005-08-23T15:28:00.000+03:00

Spooky rideMyself and Alex are in the middle of nowhere just now, with fog rolling over the plains between the Grimm-like woods, all lit by an eerie pink moon. Saw it written on a sign saying...

Anyway it's beautiful, if you never hear from us again, it was probably the were rabbit of vanta!

Moblog your life!

End of the Athletics

2005-08-14T13:08:00.000+03:00

To reiterate what the title tells, today is the last day of the 2005 World Athletics Championships. Hopefully this means the weather is going to return to normal - it's been bad enough that the odd events had to be postponed, and on one occassion all the screens and electronics in the arena had to be powered down for two hours during a thuderstorm! Ah the arena, very old, very beautiful, very exposed. Very illustrious too - before the dominance of Kenyans, Ethiopians et al, the Finns were the kings of long distance running, and so successful in the 1920s that they decided to try to host the Olympics. The stadium was inaugurated in 1938, a pesky world war got in the way, and they didn't get the Olympics till 1952. It's still the smallest city ever to host a Summer Games, and has hosted the World Championships twice now, which deserves respect. Imagine Dublin trying to host anything...

I'll be wandering in to see the women's marathon in town in about an hour. The walking and marathon courses are a little funny if you know the city. They're described as 10km loops showing the most beautiful streets of the capital, but 4 kilometres in any direction from the start and you've left the city centre for apartment-suburbia (or if you travel due south, for the middle of the Baltic). The solution has been to have competitors run up, then down the same streets. Repeatedly. They're lovely streets, mind, but if TV coverage is giving you the impression that Helsinki all looks the same, it's really more varied a city than the routes suggest.

Dejà vu

2005-08-05T12:24:00.000+03:00

I have exactly €32.43 in my bank account, and it's over two weeks till payday. The noodles have been stock-piled; they fill the gaps between the tuna and tomato tins and the curry-powder. The guitar has also found itself used for songwriting purposes for the first time in far too long, and I sincerely hope this is unrelated - I don't want to have to starve to summon my muse. Apart from the pre-uni shortness of my mop it's Uni all over again.

Thankfully this situation is (probably) temporary. I'm waiting on an overdue money transfer from Ireland. I awake every morning, check my balance, then utter righteous howls along the lines of "Three working days they said! Those complete and total jobsworth bastards!" or just "'SWIFT' me hole!" depending on the amount of caffeine that has made it to the old thinking bean by that stage.

Makes me smile

2005-08-05T12:23:00.000+03:00

Makes me smileOne of the quirks of the area I work and live in is the freight line that runs from the dock in the south west, to the rail-yard over by where I used to live in Pasila. A few times a day a train leaves, yet until just now, today on my way home, I'd never caught all of it. I was half-way over the tracks when the bells started pealing.

Also, I've just walked across another section of the marathon route, where some determined amateurs are still plodding along, with my full respect - I couldn't run the hundred metres!

Marathon

2005-08-05T10:55:00.000+03:00

MarathonThe World Championship Marathon route runs past my office (yes, bad pun, apologies...)

Happy Anniversary...

2005-08-03T18:48:00.000+03:00

I was too busy at the time to post, but Monday was my one year in Helsinki anniversary. Time flies...

Bloom baby bloom

2005-08-03T18:45:00.000+03:00

<nonchalonce>As I was flying over the baltic mid-afternoon on Thursday, I couldn't help but notice that the phytoplankton were blooming. How dreadfully green they make everything. Pass the salt, would you?</nonchalonce>

It's probably a mixed blessing for the aquatic ecosystem (tons of "sea-grass" good, tons of "sea-grass" consuming limited oxygen bad) but it's very captivating from way up high, swirled around by the currents. It's also immense. I'm not sure when I became aware of it (I was reading at the time) but it was definately before Sweden, and it lasted until the coast of Denmark. More here if you're interested.

What brought me to Denmark? Thanks to the continuing mystery of airfare pricing, it was more economical (not to mention a whole lot more fun) for myself and Niamh to rendez-vous in the land of Carlsberg and Christian-Anderson (Hans), before taking a train the following day to Gothenburg (I'm still awed that you can take a train from Denmark to Sweden - an international bridge!), and then return for the homewards journey. It was a beat-the-system kind of plan, and as is always the way when you try to outsmart The System, monkeys trained in throwing turn up at The Works, and find a box of spanners.

It transpired that everyone in Sweden was back at work the following Monday, and all the Swedes holidaying in Denmark had booked all the trains to Gothenburg. We were advised to get a train to Malmö, and then try to get a ticket for the next Copenhagen-Gothenburg train there, it would arrive half an hour later. Amazingly it worked, and even more amazingly we ran into an ex-classmate in Malmö, queueing for the ticket counter. In the end we made it to Gothenburg safe and sound, and rendez-voused with Alex.

Gothenburg, or Göteborg (yot-ay-bor-ay) was, of course, where U2 were playing on Friday night, at the Ullevi Stadium, and boy was it a cracking gig. The crowd was great - really friendly and excited - very warm towards the two warm-up acts who had local connections. There was even a half-hour long spate of cyclical mexican waves around the stadium before the main event. Bono kept his shtick to a minimum, and joy-of-joys, they played some great old classics, including Trash Trampoline and The Party Girl, a favourite of mine.

I'd be lying if I said we saw much of Gothenburg - we left the following day. We didn't see too much of Copenhagen either, but I was very impressed with the cycling culture... there's a city I could live in. We were going to go to Elsinore, until we realised that it's Helsingör, and would require another train (8 hours in two days is enough for anyone), so we went to the Carlsberg factory instead. The elephant on the left made fun of me. I cried. This left it up to Niamh to defend my honour. As you can see, he was cowed, and sulked with his ball until we went away.

My Secret Shame

2005-07-24T23:52:00.000+03:00

Ok I'll admit it... I really like personality tests. I have a pretty poor understanding of myself in general, so there's a curiousity element, and it doesn't hurt that they tend to couch their answers in positivity. So, when I saw Annie link to some tests I made a mental note to self to try them some time when I was feeling lazy.

The test in question are from the BBC, if you're interested, and they are quite educational.

Back!

2005-07-21T19:49:00.000+03:00

Right so, after being chastised this morning for not filling your screens with drivel in so long, witness: drivel.

Part of the reason I've been so silent is I was incommunicado in Disneyland Paris for a whole week. I'd like to say I hired to infiltrate the park on a secret mission, but I have to admit that I was merely holidaying there with Niamh, Ian and Rebekka. The weather was possibly too spectacular, leading to much trying on of hats, and long bouts of doing not-very-much in the sun. No that's not a euphimism - it was far too hot for that outdoors, and anyway, think of the children won't you?

The other reason is that 'till yesterday, the weather here has been similarly excellent. Sunshine brings out a real carpe diem spirit in the Finns and foreigners alike, so I found myself participating in all sorts of archipelago activities from picnicing to finding rocks not marked on the sea-charts with the bottom of Joonas' boat, to being dragged behind it at by a rope at 20kmph (more fun than it sounds).

Oh, and I let a friend cut my hair. This is most of the divorced follicle spawn which littered her floor afterwards. I then let a professional "fix" it.

The final reason for is that I've gotten my synth all nicely set up in front of my computer, and what starts as an "Oh, I'll update my blog" urge winds up as a four hour jam with my imaginary band buddies Leroy (drums), Merv (double bass), and Tito (alto sax - I generally play rhodes or filthy organ), or with me loosing the guys and wigging out electro style, depending on my mood.

Furniture hunting

2005-07-05T02:44:00.000+03:00

We got up early and headed for a park known for wild furniture. After row upon row of placidly grazing park-benches, we came upon these magnificent creatures. They were flighty, but we got them all right. Another successful hunt.

Incidently I'm very sleep deprived...

For Seamas

2005-07-03T07:24:00.000+03:00

A pretty alternative form of transport. Note the lid to the brain :) This is right up there with wife-carrying competitions for Finnish wackyness...

Helsinki in June

2005-06-21T21:09:00.000+03:00

I thought I'd add a couple more pictures of Helsinki in the summer time, it's the most wonderful place:

This is a bay right in the centre of town. The channel to the sea is so small I mistook it for a lake for ages. The residents have resisted plans to drain it, for which they should be applauded. This is at about 11 or 12 at night.

Joonas and Alex chat close to where the president lives, the rocks are climbable, and the water is warm. Again, despite appearances, that's the sea.

Seurasaari, the "Museum Island" (a bit like Bunratty back home, they moved a bunch of interesting buildings to one place for preservation and tourist luring) has a nudist beach. It's completely walled off from the rest of the island, and the sexes are segregated. This entrance is as close as they get.

Oh and a very Happy Birthday to Mariana!

Fun in the sun

2005-06-21T20:08:00.000+03:00

Hei hei,

What a weekend. The weather lived up to the promises of the forecasters (Sunday was billed to be "Delightful, with overcast periods" which is decidedly un-Finnish, and just demonstrates what Finns might be like if it was sunny here all year round...)

Anywhoo, after a refined evening out with Lorna and some of her friends on Friday, Alex and I did the first 50km of Reitti 2000 on Saturday - a cross country bike route with terrain ranging from nice paved road, to rocky tracks, to "I can't believe it's not bog". My poor, light, little kerb-hoppin' city bike made me proud (even if the front wheel is no longer perfectly planar). We arrived back at my place from Espoon Keskus by train, made some food, and collapsed in front of the "Team America: World Police" DVD that Niamh the super-thoughtful (kisses) sent me by post (surprise postal packages are like mini-Christmas). I'd spent a lot of time in Paris completely out of the loop, pondering the hidden hilarity of "I'm so wownwy..."

Sunday saw me doing a little bit more cycling (speedy city sprinting this time), rock climbing with Joonas on real rock at long last (unfortunately I sucked), and er... better say "spontaneous swimming" at Seurasaari, in the sun, at 10pm. I then went home and practiced skateboarding. To say I suck at that too is an understatement, but it's more fun than walking, and shall be my new mode of commuting after the move. The board has been christened Yorick for obvious reasons.

Anyone who attempts to refer to me as "skater boy" shall be first against the wall after The Revolution - you have been warned.

Oh and what do you think of the new avatar thingie? I was saddened to see other people use my "totally unique" South-Park style self-representation. Gilles has cartoonised me (in about ten seconds, amazing), and given me a semblance of hair-style, so I'm switching to this instead :)

On the move

2005-06-14T00:43:00.000+03:00

Salut mes amis!

Well Paris was fantastic. Almost a fortnight ago now, damn my tardiness, but I spent many hours over the weekend developing and printing some of my photos of the trip by hand so it's very fresh in my mind.

Well when I say that "I" did it, I should clarify: my friend Antti, a professional photographer in his spare time, attempted to teach me how it's done, illustrating many tricks of the trade... and I tried not to get in the way.

In effect, the man booked a photo lab in Helsinki, developed both our films, then proceeded to help me choose the best from mine, and print each of them just so, attempting to correct for my shoddy photography, and making sure each was the best it could be before moving on. I think one in particular took almost an hour. I'm profoundly grateful to have five A4 sized prints I'm very delighted to lay some small claim to (even if the best shot of the bunch was captured by Seamas - I'd love to pretend it was mine, but this may be tricky, given I'm in the picture...).

On another note, it's finally completely official - I'm moving from Pasila. Joonas has purchased a rather nice apartment in town, and I'll be renting a room from him. On the upside, it'll be central, merely a kilometer from work. Oh, and living with someone might just recalibrate my circadian rhythms a little. On the downside, my most enjoyable 6km morning sprints will be no more. I'm in two minds as to whether to pretend work is in fact very far away, and take a circuitous route, or to seek alternative commuting pleasure in the form of a skateboard. Comments welcome.

Today I became unseated once more from my bicycle. In the middle of a road. I was trying to learn how to "wheelie", and generally successful.

Star Warsit

2005-05-29T19:46:00.000+03:00

I've also made it to Star Wars, though the iconic scrolling intro went right over my head

Sushi Chef

2005-05-29T19:18:00.000+03:00

On Wednesday myself and Alex took our first tottering steps on the path to sushi-chefdom. In one five our stint we learned the history of sushi, and how to make different kinds, and general tidbits about sushi culture, Japan, fish, rice and cows.

I love useless bits of information. If only they weren't useless, then I could be an expert and earn a PhD in Factoid Studies. Factoid is an appropriate term, in that it is reminiscent of hemorrhoid, and like hemorrhoids, factoids are things many people would rather not be subject to, would rather not discuss at dinner parties, and find irritating at best, but I digress.

Did you know a real sushi-chef undergoes a ten year apprenticeship? And for the first three years he does nothing but make rice (to learn how to make tiny adjustments in the water level to compensate for humidity)? Or that you need a special license to become a Fugu chef and serve possibly deadly blowfish (who says The Simpsons doesn't educate?). Ah, but do you care? Possibly not. Anyway, these are my sushi:

Underpants theft

2005-05-25T17:17:00.000+03:00

I hope this is some kind of prank. This notice is stuck to the door of the mens changing rooms at work. I'm not sure which is scarier - that the poster thinks that the theif is going to present himself, and the pants in question to his office, or that he wants his underwear back. From the sort of person who had the kind of personal hygene that is not beyond "liberating" other peoples (previously worn) underwear from a gym changing room. The whole thing is vaguely disturbing.

In other news, I'm very impressed with Air France - my tickets arrived today, and thoughtfully included a little card stapled to the front of the ticket envelope thingie with such useful details as the boarding gate opening times and arrival times for my flights, and a very comprehensive tourist map of Paris, and two little baggage tags. Yeah, I'm easy.

The Great Flight Price Mystery...

2005-05-23T19:54:00.000+03:00

I will never understand airfare pricing. There should be a relevant chapter on final year philosophy syllabi - great minds could wrestle with the illogic of it all, maybe one day culminating in a pivotal moment of understanding. I can see it now - hushed academics crowded into an ancient, tiered lecture room, all eyes trained on the brilliant PhD student taking the lecturn: "Gentleman, I have the answer..." - dead silence. "The answer to the meaning of the question of airfare pricing is: 'Bollocks'." Well at least it wasn't 42.

I rolled up at the Finnair website this evening, and went about purchasing the €138 each way tickets to Paris I'd seen over the weekend. I found them, selected some convenient times, reconsidered, and went back to change the time of my return flight. Was this discourteous? Did I somehow offend the cheap flights' sensibilities? Was I overly insensitive with a check box? Who knows. When the page finished loading the cheap options were gone for good, leaving me with €528 euros return as the cheapest option. Oh dear.

Now Finnair runs the flights in question. They are Finnair flights, on Finnair planes, with Finnair meals (they still serve meals and provide free drinks - kudos), served by Finnair hostesses, in Finnair uniforms - you get the picture - yet somehow, the exact tickets that cost €528 euros when purchased from Finnair, cost €325 when purchased from Air France, who buys them from Finnair.

I don't get it. However, I don't care - I've saved €203, which is the approximate price of 5 nights accomodation in the Gobelins district, left bank, baby.

Airline pricing schemes, I fart in your general direction.

Green

2005-05-19T20:55:00.000+03:00

I had been told here that Spring would come quickly, but the digital nature of the seasons here is almost outrageous. In the last week every blooming thing (thank you Patrick Kavanah) has sprouted lush green foliage, just as rapidly as they all embraced nudism last October. The clouds relent at least once a day, and if it weren't so unpleasantly frigid (sub ten all week) all would be perfect.

Alex and I were brainstorming as to what conditions lead to such a burst of springiness, which led us to the current changeability of the weather (hint for Helsinki residents - it rains when I take my bike outside...), which in turn led us to mushrooms. We have mushrooms in Ireland, and I'm vaguely aware that some can be eaten, but I've never been mushroom picking. Probably because mushrooms grow in fields, and so do cows and sheep. Well they do.

Around here, and in Russia, on the other hand, mushroom picking is a big past-time. Some Finnish mushrooms are considered delicacies abroad, and sell for hundreds of euros per kilogram. All of which means Finns and Russians know a lot about mushrooms, and one of the things they know, is that intermittent bouts of sun and rain are very good for our fungal friends. This is so culturally embedded, that what we call "sun-showers" in English, are called "mushroom rain" in Russian. Well I found it interesting.

Oh, and finally, I'm going Paris over the first weekend of June with Niamh, Sean and Seamas. What started with a 2am chat in his sitting room in Dublin, ended with a frenzy of phone calls and internet booking in Helsinki. For any of you Dublin or London folk interested in joining the flock, Ryanair flights were dirt cheap (on Tuesday at least).

Go n-éiri an bothair libh :)

moblogs

2005-05-12T19:21:00.000+03:00

Despite a massive universal trend towards technological convergence, it seems blogger want you to have a separate blog for mobile posts. I find this baffling, especially since their existing interfaces let me create and publish this post from my phone...

30042005(011)

2005-05-05T20:24:00.000+03:00

30042005(011)
Originally uploaded by davemurphy.

I meant to do a discovery channel style cultural discursion on Vappu, or Labour Day, May 1st. It's a big event here, and when I say big, I mean Vappu eve is comparable to St Patricks day in Ireland, and like St Patricks day in Ireland, everyone comes to the capitol to get drunk and go crazy (see pic). Ethanol fueled Finns are... I'm tempted to say something dramatic, but they're a lot like loud Irish people.

At 6pm on the eve, the students of Helsinki (and thanks to liberal student funding, there are a lot of students in Helsinki) gather in Esplanadi, wash one of the statues, adorn it with a student cap, and give it a drink, commencing the festivities (and the Summer, depending on who you ask). Things proceed in a simple manner: everyone gets pissed. The following day at 1pm many many people descend on another park in Kaivopuisto, and have a nice picnic; sparkling wine is traditional.

While I can tell you all this, I can't say I saw any of it. This irks me, I normally strive to witness. I missed the Saturday stuff because I was buying booze for a party at my place (it was the day after Alex's birthday, and a couple of days before mine), and the Sunday stuff because I was asleep. Shameful.

Object of desire

2005-04-27T17:04:00.000+03:00

Now, normally I wouldn't bother you with the most recent entry to my material wish-list; in general people aren't interested in clip-pedals or synthesizers, or if they are, they aren't the same people, but this I'm sure, will have mass appeal.

Nokia have just released a new series of phones, including this very pretty, very capable model, the N91.

It's a bit like an iPod mini. That's a 3G phone. With Wi-Fi. And a useable camera. That I can program for. Mmm.

Now all I have to do is convince superiors that I really need one for "testing" before the release date, which, contrary to most sources you'll find on the web (including the official page) I can tell you won't be until the end of the year. Don't ask me how I know that.

20042005

2005-04-21T19:49:00.000+03:00

20042005
Originally uploaded by davemurphy.

It seems my "Come all, rejoice! for Spring has sprung" Morris dancing routine was a tad premature. I got as far as "Step, turn, step, wave hankey" and slipped on fallen sky.

Unlike subzero snow, this stuff is wet and horrible. Minus five really is more pleasant than zero.

Lordy

2005-04-18T19:32:00.000+03:00

I'm sure it didn't actually distress anyone, but it's been two weeks since I posted. I've been mighty busy at work - I even had to keep business hours last week, arriving before 10am daily was quite a shock to the system - it left me feeling like a soft-drink gone flat. It might have helped if I'd gone to bed before 2am any night...

I may or may not have an ebay saga for you, I'm afraid that blogging about things now will jinx everything. Suffice to say that either I've gotten a good deal, or I'm going to get to know the people who deal with VISA fraud very well.

Also, I'll be home from the 6th till the 9th of May. A goodly portion of that will no doubt be spent with family, but I hope to sneak away at some stage. I may not be able to manage a night out in Dublin, but we'll see.

Have to do this 10am thing tomorrow too, so I'm off :)

Geek

2005-04-01T17:10:00.001+03:00

You can have all sorts of interesting hobbies - hobbies that may, at the moment even be considered "cool", but if you've got one, your inner geek will shine through.

Here's a particularly funky inner geek test: if this elicits no excitement, you are a normie. If, on the other hand, it excites you as few things have done thus far this year, you are - like me - a geek. Though I am an extreme case beyond redemption. Were my bladder not empty when I received notification of this going live by email, "he wet himself with excitement" might have been more than a crude exaggeration.

This is definitely something I'm going to tweak over the coming days. It is also something that is assuredly going to crash - practically every component is in beta, so if the link is dead, check again later.

The weather here is glorious (though still kinda chilly at 9 degrees). I'm starting to hanker after a synth/midi controller. I've just realised the extreme non-sequitur nature of that comment reflects on the intensity of the hankering. This will have to be handled carefully, else I'll be holidaying on credit!

Have a good weekend everyone!

**Update 24/4/2005
I'm afraid my cool mysterious geek thing is going to be offline for a while, due to cool mysterious geek reasons. It'll be back in new and improved form soon...

Easter

2005-03-22T22:25:00.000+02:00

Easter is approaching, and there are some uniquely Finnish ways of celebrating the occasion. One is the eating of mämmi.

From the Helsingin Sanomat:

Mämmi is a thick dark brown porridge made from water and sweetened rye malt. It is baked in the oven, then stored in the fridge and served cold, perhaps with sugar and milk or cream.
Rather like another odd Finnish speciality, the salty licorice-flavoured candy known as salmiakki (made, believe it or not, from ammonium chloride), mämmi is "an acquired taste".
Actually a Germanic (and Roman Catholic) invention, mämmi is now just a curious Finnish relic, and it has even lost its early laxative/purgative usage during Lent and is seen simply as a traditional Easter dessert.

What they don't say there, is that mämmi looks like the result, rather than the cause, of laxative effects. This has put me off trying it just yet (though I will buy some for the weekend).

The diametric opposite is the eating of luxurious Fazer Mignon easter eggs. Fazer, the Finnish confectionary company, makes marvellous little hazlenut-chocolate filled eggs for Easter. I don't mean some kind of cheap chocolate shell filled with chocolate goo - they fill a real eggshell. Back in the day, they were given as gifts at the court of the Czars (when Finland was part of Russia) so it's another modern miracle that you can pick up an Easter egg fit for a Czar for about two euros in any supermarket now. It struck me when I saw the Fabergé eggs in St Petersburg, that though beautiful, they were inedible. To a younger memeber of the court, I wonder which was more wonderful: a golden egg, or a plain eggshell filled with chocolate.

A more pagan tradition involves growing a small bowl of rye-grass to thank the Sun for returning after the dark winter (we were stupified by the sale of tiny bowls of grass for five euros at the supermarket yesterday, which prompted research).

Changes

2005-03-22T21:48:00.000+02:00

The visit of the parental units was a lot like Changing Rooms or whatever the hell it is now. I have curtains (no little thing, I have an apartment-wide window facing west), a comfy computer chair, and general order. I very nearly had a dining table and four chairs besides. I think they really enjoyed it (no irony), and it's nice that there's a bit of them in the room. Metaphorically, of course.

I've also finally figured out why I can't record my guitar on my computer. It's a very tricky issue, involving treatises on buffers, ADC chips etc, but can be summarised as follows: my current soundcard is, technically speaking, a bunch of arse. Unfortunately, I work very close to the computer equivalent of IKEA (bless you Verkkokauppa!), and have just purchased a Creative Audigy ZS. Like an ageing celebrity, my computer has increasingly few original parts left.

It becomes clear

2005-03-18T16:57:00.000+02:00

To continue the trend of elucidating the post before, the reason my apartment has been made detergent commercial clean is that my parents are visiting. It's the first time they've come over, and it's a little strange to see them here, to be honest. Not bad or uncomfortable, but it's like when I used to meet Dad in college - I just didn't associate him with the space - somewhere in my brain it triggers a mental non sequitur.

To return to my abode: it is possibly too clean. While ridding it of mess, it became apparant that said mess was probably making up for lack of character. It's now a little sterile, and it has that faint empty-room echo that makes uninhabited houses vaguely creepy.

Late

2005-03-17T17:56:00.000+02:00

Moi,

Well, there was supposed to be a post to go with the picture below, posted yesterday, but Blogger just wouldn't let me log in (dangerous behaviour on the day I created a Livejournal account).

I spent all morning rendering my apartment spotless. It's surfaces, recently obscured by dirty dishes, and primordial soup (very tasty with fresh bread), now gleam.

I really must get around to sticking an "Ei mainoksia" - "no junkmail" notice above my letterbox. I have a tendency to allow things to accumulate. Unwashed dishes, for example, empty cereal boxes (they have to be recycled down the road, and it's not worth the trip for one box), and inevitably, junkmail. I had enough unsolicited advertisements, free papers, and come-ons from local pizza vendors stacked in or around my doorway to completely fill a large black refuse sack. This was a satisfying enough process, until I realised that it was effectively refuse-sack sized chunk of reconstituted wood. After a struggle, the contents ended up in the relevant bin outside for collection, and I returned upstairs for my boxes and bottles (for that trip down the road). There was an ad-ware paper on my floor.

Anyway, back to the picture: over the weekend I went to a large, frozen lake in Järvenpää with Joonas and a friend of his. They enjoy kite-surfing during the summer months, and were planning on using the kite, a snowboard, and cross country skiis to duplicate the fun on a frozen snowy lake. While I did get to do some skiing, the kite I tried by itself. Great fun, though!

2005-03-16T22:42:00.000+02:00

Note the tracks behind the heels...

2005-03-11T01:46:00.000+02:00

This is about to be my low-temperature cycling record.

Finland does Winter awfully well

2005-03-07T21:49:00.000+02:00

Good (insert appropriate greeting here),

Well, it was so bright and sunny today that I assumed it was above zero on my ride in. There was a time when -5 equated to "dangerously cold" in my little head (now it equates to (2.23606798 i)^2 - this is what they do to you in JF engineering). The weather is exactly the kind you don't get in Ireland: blue skies, dazzling sunshine, bright white snow everywhere (pleasingly crunchy under wheels), it's quite uplifting. I took the long route to work, just to provide myself with a little more vitamin D, and a couple more kilometres on my speedy aluminium steed. I have to say, if you want to buy a bike in Helsinki, go to Velosport - that last service was worth every cent. It's so gratifying when your mode of transport makes you smile.

Collectively, people started going out on the lakes in large numbers over the weekend - there seems to be some kind of Finnish sixth sense for knowing when it is ok to walk on a frozen lake. The unbroken sub zero temperatures seem to have frozen most water sources sufficiently solid for most icy-lake pursuits, such as skating on prepared tracks and through ice-sculptures (actually, I'm not sure how usual that is), and it's not uncommon to bump into someone coming out of a metro car carrying one of these:
My standing-around-in-the-cold experiences leave me in no hurry to grab join them in the sitting-around-in-the-cold-holding-a-pole excitment just yet. Now that I consider it, there's a good chance that that "sixth sense" is in fact an announcement on TV.

I should be regailing you with tales of a seriously good time had at the water-park meets rave event held in Espoo this weekend but, unfortunately, I was feeling quite unwell and didn't go (cursed microscopic bastards, RELEASE THE T-CELLS!), so you'll have to learn Russian and hope that Alex has posted about it instead. This was probably the wisest thing I've done all year, but wisdom does not a fun time make.

On Saturday I did make it out of the appartment briefly, and met Joonas at ESO (a student union building) where he'd overnighted after a party. They take their partying pretty seriously at ESO, as you can see:

There I spied a noble conservation park, dedicated to the endangered and ellusive "Champagne Creature"

This guy looks happy...

In an entirely unrelated note, in Finland the government pays you to study...

The Chills

2005-03-02T23:29:00.000+02:00

Since I last wrote, I have again introduced a little bit of mirth into the lives of complete strangers, and a little bit of bruising into my own. On the first commute after my bike was re-incarnated, it decided (it definitely has a mind of its own, think of it more as an aluminium horse) that the deep hollow in the sloped drive up to my block had far too close a resemblance to a luge course to just roll down, on wheels. Oh no. It was a short, but close race, and I feel had I been wearing my water-proof over pants that the reduction in friction might have made all the difference, but in the end, it won by a length.

I don't know if you've ever tried, but I'm becoming quite experienced, and I've decided it's just not possible to regain your dignity after something like this. Sometimes it take a couple of kilometers just to regain any feeling in your ass. Not something that is helped by the temperatures it has to be said. It's been cold here for a while now, and when I say cold, we are subzero on the Fahrenheit scale. It's been at least ten days since the temperature has been above minus 5, and at the minute it's plunging towards minus twenty at an appreciable rate (which makes me feel like I should start pedaling homewards post haste).

In other news, I think I've been infected. There's been a flu bug circulating for the last few weeks, and it's finally mutated into a form that allows it to slip insidiously past my defenses. I'm hoping I can fight it off - at the minute my arsenal consists mostly of oranges, which have proved ineffectual in conflicts in the past, (having little or no effect on the zombie hordes that invaded our flats a while back for example, even when peeled and segmented for greater shrapnel effect) but I'm reliably told that they are "the bomb". I've tried setting fire to one, but apart from a little sparking I can't confirm this.

Apart from all that silliness, I was delighted to find the Swearasaurus recently. Great stuff, but I was a little surprised that the rather innocuous "Is dócha nach bhfuil seans ar bith?" (~= So there isn't any chance at all?) seems to mean "I suppose a ride is out of the question" to real gaelgóirs (Irish speakers). I could see people stumbling into this one by accident:
Doctor: I don't want to sound negative sir, but you're hemorrhoids surgery didn't go so well, you probably won't be out this weekend.
Man (coaxingly): Ah go on doctor - isn't there any chance at all?!
*Camera pans to the hospital grounds, where a piercing scream frightens the resident ravens*

Meanwhile, contrary to fairy tales and TV, my presentation for tomorrow has not written itself like it was supposed to...

Mobile

2005-02-26T16:54:00.000+02:00

Not much happening in the scrotum of scandinavia this weekend. I had planned to go see Team America, World Police this morning, but rolled out of bed at about the time that the credits were rolling. I did manage to pick up my bike. She's had a complete tune up and she looks, and rides like a dream.

Things are a little more lively back in Eireann. Reports are coming in of a new underground racing scene in the Sligo town area. The local farmers are shambling wrecks of the men they were before - they and their tractors have been shamed at traffic light show-downs on the Ballina road (the only junction with traffic lights), by a pretty brunette in a red Nissan Micra with matching L plates. In a completely unrelated story, Niamh has been seen shopping for fluffy dice and nodding dogs...

Coming soon is the recording of Seamas' second show. Seamas writes songs, in case you didn't know - good songs, and after a little coaxing he performed two live, so in the near future this recording will be worth a fortune, or at least it would be, if I weren't generously supplying it to you fine people.

Good day!

2005-02-23T00:36:00.000+02:00

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

I like to go a wandering...

2005-02-18T00:36:00.000+02:00

Hello hello.

I would have posted earlier, but my browser crashed, at precisely the moment after I had completed a leviathan of a post, but - crucially - before I could hit the "Publish Post" button. I must have sat inert in front of the monitor for 15 minutes, stunned at the treachery. You Fox bastard!

Well anyway, I'm pretty sure this post won't become too bloated, I've worked late, been to the gym, and elicited cacophonic tones from the piano down in the band room, and if I don't feck off from the premises soon, I'll be looking at a long walk home through the snow. Actually, that's quite appealing. It's been chilly here, around -15 or so for the last few days. This is just cold enough so that when you breath in, you become aware of your lungs.

Now, catch up time. The Stockholm trip almost two weekends ago is fast becoming the stuff of legend, at least amongst the participants - excellent folk all. So excellent, in fact, that I actually enjoyed the ferry trip over. Then again, it's hard not to be amused by the helpless stumblings of a dancefloor of drunks in high seas. Here's the thing, though, everyone stumbles in synch. It's like some fantastically clumsy ballet. Stockholm itself was great - more of a big city than Helsinki, and a little prettier too. Apologies to the woman who backed in to me whilst carrying a round to our group in the corner over my head.

Amsterdam: beautiful. I've never seen a more beautiful inner city. It's not grandiose, it's not overblown, it's just got such character. The gigs were great (The Frames were missing Colm Mac Con Iomaire, which was disappointing). Paul Noonan seemed determined to kick the monitor off the stage and on to our toes whilst doing his usual epileptic on E live routine - intimidating from that close! The next album's going to be a cracker btw. We pretty much covered all the bases, my tulip and I: the Van Gogh Museum, Rembrandt's House, the Red Light district, a (dull, frankly) coffeeshop, some good cafés (bars), a jazz club, a comedy club, and every major ice-cream vendor in the city, I think (the zenith of our ice-creaming was a valentines chocolate fondue in the Häagen Dazs Café... mmm).

Both our flights were delayed on the way back, so Niamh missed her train to Sligo, and I worried I'd miss my connecting flight, but we got to spend an extra hour with each other (albeit, in the airport, whose charm began to tarnish after the fourth hour...) When I say that I worried about my connection, I needn't have bothered. I know that SAS would have waited me. I know this, because after sprinting to the correct gate, and getting seated twenty minutes after boarding time, the last of our passengers found theirs about an hour later. At this point it became apparent that the man who drives the little kart that tows the plane from the gate had gone home, leaving us stranded at said gate until a qualified candidate could be found. It musn't be quite so easy as it looks, as this took about an hour. Or perhaps they trained someone in from scratch. We then joined the (long) queue for de-icing... I'll just skip to the end and say that, while we were due to land in Helsinki at 22:15, I had the pleasure of confirming that, yes, all the buses had long ceased to run, at 1:40. The queue for the taxis was about 300 yards long. I was on the verge of cosying up on the floor for a bit, when I had an epiphany, and got a seat on a minibus cab. My unfashionable North Helsinki address saved the day - the road from the airport to the centre passes my block of flats, w00t- a happy ending!

In other news, I've been "concepting" lately. This seems to be business speak for "being imaginative". As any imaginative, devilishly attractive, panache oozing, creative type like me (I know, *too* imaginative) will attest, you need inspiration to be at your visionary best. Lately I've been drawing mine (as usual) from other people's blogs. Gatochy has had some achingly beautiful posts lately (the story of her family will whip you into perspective, as will a trip to Rob's blog), our long haired Texas friend is treating us to simultaneous fonts of wit and wisdom (many thanks), Skipn_Easy is [censored :p], Bob the killer goldfish is once more on the hallowed path to world domination (show that flu who's boss!), Hedonist has some pretty pictures (the rest is lost on me!)... I could go on all day and get all cyclical, but if you're spending time, there are much less enjoyable, educational, amusing, and elightening ways than clicking those links on the right.

Now pray to a deity of your choice while I hit this button... Oh great Agnos...

Tripping Out

2005-02-03T21:29:00.000+02:00

I hope you've had a good week!

Exactly a week ago, I was sitting in Alex's mother's apartment in St Petersburg, a little overwhelmed by the scale of the place, and the lung-chilling cold, when we discovered that the rumors were indeed true: REM's equipment had been stopped by Russian customs, the gig would not go ahead. Bother. Not exactly what I said, but it sounds similar, and conveys the sentiment. I'm quite bitter, since this is the first gig I've tried to catch since accidentally missing The Pixies slot at a rock festival in San Marino, and it makes me a tad pessimistic about traveling to Amsterdam next week to see The Frames and Bell X1.

On the other hand, I traveled to St Petersburg with a bone-fide Russian at very little expense. The last time I was in St P, in July 2003, I was a tourist amongst tourists, staying in a very dingy hostel. They assumed that we were a group of Finnish Vodka tourists (or so the excuse goes) and so showed us to their very worst rooms (which were bad).

The communal toilet looked like it had lost the capacity for flushing circa 1985, but had carried on stoically taking crap none-the-less. It's smell was a physical presence. It had also somehow managed to mislay its seat, which we were encouraged to replaced with our own money. Similarly, toilet paper was considered something we could invest in ourselves if desired. Whenever I stay in poor accommodation, I immediately treat it as a prison sentence, and start counting down the days till my liberation. The idea that I have to return sort of hangs over me like a cloud; and like a cloud, it rains on the parade that is the trip, dampening the experience a little (extended metaphors are tedious, aren't they).

To add to the general experience, at the time I had quite literally only 20 euros to my name. This limited my activities somewhat, and meant I spent four days subsisting on blini (pancakes), which were the cheapest thing to eat by far. Now, I like pancakes more than most, but after the third consecutive meal, the honeymoon is over, and by the end of the fourth day the relationship has deteriorated to the point of barring orders.

Anyway, the point was going to be that at the time I noticed that the Russians I encountered (waitresses, tour-guides, our land-ladies, the Militia, customs officials) were quite unpleasant. They were supercilious, they were contemptuous, and they were grumpy. I blamed the tourist season, and my negative context, and vowed to return and verify this impression.

This time around, I'm delighted to say that my experiences were polar opposite. For a start, there were no blini, and Alex's mother tried her best to food poison me. Don't misunderstand, the fare was spectacular. I'm simply trying to convey that, at a certain point, an excess of anything becomes toxic, and in this case, the quantity of food she provided was threatening my health. Magnificent woman, she is possibly the only person ever to have found my capacity for packing away the stuff lacking.

Then there were the people: Alex's jovial friend Dmytri put his beautiful new apartment entirely at our disposal, and moved back in with his parents for the duration of our stay, turning up at lunchtime to cook for us. He will forever be my standard for judging "the perfect host" (he immediately got high marks by providing towels - I am always profoundly grateful when my lodgings include towels). Very friendly, quick to laugh, and generous to a fault, this was a face of Russia I had missed the last time. Alex's mother couldn't have been more generous or welcoming either, and was like a surrogate mother, even providing me with extra clothes against the cold.

Also, I got to see the Hermitage again. Now, the National Gallery in Dublin is by no means a barn, but they're very proud of their single Carravagio. You get the feeling that the Hermitage doesn't show an artist unless they have at least half his works. Rooms of Monets, Picassos, Mattisses, and the Rembrandts! Alex led me to "The Return of The Prodigal Son" and gave me some pointers. He then went on to tell me the story behind "Danae": in the 80s, a disturbed visitor poured concentrated acid on the canvas (you can get deliciously close to the unprotected canvases in the Hermitage) and stabbed it repeatedly. After 10 years of reconstruction, it's scared, but still fit for display. The Fabergé Eggs, while overly extravagant to my mind, were beautiful. Further extravagance is evinced by bathrooms are designed by Versace!

Alex also gave me some really leisurely walking tours, the antithesis of our inane bus-tours, that whizzed us past palaces, and dropped us at every tawdry market selling hats or stamps or other fake CCCP memorabilia. When walking, you really do get a feel for the enormity of the place (compared to Helsinki, or Dublin). The palaces are simply huge. I took my camera, but without a wide-angle lens I was stumped. The streets are miles and miles long. The apartment blocks are staggering - twenty stories tall, and cubic, in rows upon rows...

I got to see little glimpses hidden from summer tourists: the long, think streaks of polished black ice in the snow, upon which the young (and young at heart) slide along. Evading the ticket lady on the tram; the liberal interpretation of traffic laws. I also got an extensive tour of the metro system, which I believe is the deepest in the world, St Petersburg having been founded upon a swamp.

So all in all a successful and enjoyable trip, despite the gig. Off to Stockholm this weekend, and embarrassingly I've just asked for leave again, to go to Amsterdam next Wednesday. Sometimes it feels like I lack sufficient judgment to enjoy self-determination.

The sloth gets tagged by Gatochy...

2005-02-03T18:09:00.000+02:00

Music! I'm quite a calm, quiet, easy-going type of person, but music has the capacity to light a fire beneath me, and turn me into a passionate, egotistical, diva-like,well.. ass, basically. You think I'm joking, but ask my siblings what I'm like when we're trying to learn a song, and it's not going well...

Taking the stick(with trepidation) from Gatochy (who along with Gadding Girlzoot and Taarzaan has great taste)

Random 10 (as selected by my player)
1. dEUS - Hotel Lounge
2. The Smashing Pumpkins - Machina
3. Bell X1 - Man on Mir [roll on Amsterdam!]
4. Metallica - Of Wolf and Man
5. U2 - Desire
6. Portishead - Sour Sour Times
7. Yann Tiersen - La Valse Des Vieux
8. Air - Alone in Kyoto
9. Radiohead - High and Dry
10.The Frames - In the Deep Shade

(The 11th would have been DJ Zeebra - Boombastic. I mention this in case you're into mashups, in which case check him out, he's probably my favourite mashup-artist...)

1. What is the total amount of music files on your computer?
On this computer? 5Gigs, but it's my work computer - very little downloading, mostly my CDs in Ogg format.

2.The last CD you bought was:
Rodrigo y Gabriela - Foc, and Rodrigo y Gabriela live Manchester and Dublin in Tower Records on Grafton St, with Niamh, who bought some Afro Celt Soundsystem.

3.What is the song you last listened to before this message?
Feist - Mushaboom

4. Write down five songs you often listen to or that mean a lot to you.
"I Remember it Well" - Damien Rice
"Face" - Juniper / Damien Rice / Bell X1
('I want to be the only one that you know, because I adore you')
"Friday I'm in Love" - The Cure
"Hey" - The Pixies
"Fanny Power" (Behave! it's a lady's name!) - Traditional, but Planxty do it best.

5. Who are you gonna pass this stick to (three persons and why)?
I'm going to cheat - first three replies, whoever gets there first...

Just a quickie...

2005-01-27T04:21:00.000+02:00

Right, that's that. I've gotten my Russian Visa (pictures to come), frozen my bits right through at a tram stop, purchased my train ticket, bought film, remembered my gig ticket, realised I have to post my tax return tomorrow, found my tax return, filled in my tax return, cursed around the apartment for an envelope for the my tax return, decided to go to work first thing tomorrow (to post the feckin' tax return - could they possibly make the process of taking money off one any more painful?), packed my bag (including tax return), and it's only 4.23 am. The alarm is set for 6, I'm tempted to just veg in front of the computer - I've even started leaving sleeping until the last minute...

With any luck, this time tomorrow, I'll be snoozing on someone's floor, dreaming of a great REM gig, and the day I plan to spend in the Hermitage...

When I have more time, I might go into the magnetic properties of computers... I only came over here to turn this one off, and look what happened...

Anyway, sleep! Me that is, you enjoy whatever it is you're doing...