Tricorn Centre revisited

As I promised Mikki, we went to see the Tricorn Centre today, hoping that the demolition crew hadn't made a huge mess quite yet so we could gaze at it's uglyness. We were not disappointed as it was intact, and we managed to see at least two guys and hear some drilling noise - but the big buldozers I had expected to see were absent.

And let me emphazise that this building is indeed hideous. When it was a shopping centre, I'm sure it was a hellish place to shop, as not only is it ugly, it is also big and confusing - multiple levels, little straight lines, small windonws, bridges, stairs...

But on a closer look, it was also pretty facinating and cool. There was something about the abandonement - signs for shops that haven't been there for years with empty promises, boarded up windows, remaining class windows and just the general decaying feel of it. I could easily imagine this building in a sci-fi setting after a nuclear winter, but there it was, in the middle of busiest Porstmouth. I'm really glad we went to see it, as it will not be there for much longer and while not pretty, it is certainly a unique building.

Mikki took some photos of the building, maybe I'll steal some later on.

True reasons to excercise

Browsing through motivational articles on excercise I ran into this: 10 Shallow reasons to work out. It might be un-subtle, juvenile, bit tasteless and politically incorrect, but it made me chuckle.

On holiday

Today has been one of those peaceful nice holiday days filled with good food, walk in the park (as the weather was absolutely brilliant) and a movie.

What can I say, life is good.

Hard, harder ...hardest

Britan's hardest competition is over, and as the dust settled, Layton the business manager was triuphant. He bulldozed through firefighters, bodybuilders, boxers, kickboxers, soldiers, doormen, powerlifters, mixed martial arts experts and plethora of other hard men. Mikki was right -business school really seems to make men out of boys.

I might not like salesmen, but you gotta give devil his due: Layton was damn impressive. He simply would not give up. Even Ian 'the Machine' Freeman was impressed.

10K £ prize money probably didn't mean anything to Layton (his opponent in the finals, a young fireman would have probably needed it much more) but Layton just was not prepared to give in, and threw his significantly heavier opponent off the podium with just upper body strength after taking awesome bodyshots in the final fight.

Good timing

Looks like I'm the master of good timings.

I have thought for a while now that once all the stress at work is over, I'll move my schedule forward an hour - start coming to work for eight and leave around four. So I thought this week would be good as Mikki will be visiting and it would be nice to leave early for those days I am working. What I forgot was that of course this is the weekend when the clocks go forward - so waking up at six o'clock this morning was actually equal to waking up at five. I just thought I had slept badly when it was exceptionally difficult to wake up... and only realised why when boys at work were commenting that I must have forgotten to turn my clock because I was turning up to work an hour early.

(And if you have trouble remembering when clocks go forward and when they go back - I was just taught this phrase: "spring forward, fall back" - I thought it was great.)

The Sunday list

In honour of the best Finnish blog of 2003, per Mindy's request, here's my Sunday list (i.e. things done this weekend):

• days working: 0
• days shopping: 1
• movies watched on DVD: 1
• episodes of Tremors watched: 2
• hours watching wrestling: 5
• hours writing blogs: 4
• cleaned rooms: 4
• phone calls to Finland: 2
• desktop image changes: 1
• laundry baskets full of dirty clothes now clean: 2

Finding Nemo

Last night we finally watched Finding Nemo that I had bought based on Chu's recommentadion. And I have to say it was one of the most charming and warmest movies I have seen in ages - the characters were brilliant and funny: my favourite was the "three second memory" Dory who just cracked me up time after time. There were other ingenious ideas in the movie too - the "fish eaters anonymous" where the sharks tried not to eat fish, the hippie turtles and the frighteningly realistic tank with crazy fish and the even more scary fish-shaking nephew.

And I was once again in awe of Pixar's animation - it just keeps getting better and better. I think it's just coming to the stage where you can just forget about it and concentrate on the story - which is surely the purpose. There were still some scenes where you notice the computer effects (like when the fish go to the surface and they appear wet), but all in all, it just looks so good you forgot all about it.

The plot was simple but effective - a father goes on a search for his missing son, and in the end learns to let go and lets him grow up. There are many dangers in the way, and there's an environmental lesson for the younger (and maybe for the older) audience too.

I just hope the success of the movie doesn't ruin the possible benefits - as about 20 million tropical fish and about 12 million corals are captured each year from the reefs for the aquarium market. The methods used are usually barbaric - mostly used methods are poison and explosives. Poison (cyanide) is used with nearly-lethal doses that stunns the fish, and while the fish survive the trip to the shops they typically die very soon of liver failure. And you can just image what kind of effect the poison has on the reefs and other life forms. Another popular and just as destructive method for catching fish is explosives, that also stunns the fish and for those that surive and easily captured. This also has huge effect for the reefs and ecosystems.

More reading: BBC's story on the subject, and Terrible Tackle.

Comment spam continues to plague us

Despite the wonderful MT-Blacklist (and I finally managed to update to 1.63 beta RC2) this morning there was some comment spam waiting for me. Keeping the blacklist up-to-date is very important, and I've done so (and this prevented another 5 or so other spams from getting trough) - but since it's updated by a human, it will always take some time to react.

Incidentally, MovableType 3.0 is on the horizon and they seem to have solved the problem, in a way anyway, and I'd like to hear our readers opinions on the solution. They have implemented a system called TypeKey - let me explain this to you briefly. Basically, it's a registration system - so in the future you would be required to register before being able to comment on this blog. It's not as bad as it sounds though - you would be registering with TypeKey, not with D/k (and I would never get your personal details unless you allow it), and with one registration you would be able to comment on all blogs that use TypeKey authentication. In practice this would mean that when you comment for the first time, I would need to authorise you as a poster before the comment would appear, and all future posts would automatically come trough.

So, people who make comments on this blog, how would that sound to you? I really want to keep commenting as easy as possible, but I really despise spam and I'd like to keep it to the minimum if at all possible. If I added TypeKey autentication to commenting, would you still continue to comment?

(Incidentally, due to an issue with the previous version of MT-Blacklist, trackback pings haven't been working and I only now realised this - if you have pinged us in the past, it hasn't registered. It's working now though in case you want to re-ping us.)

Mmm... peace

I'm so unused to having a weekend off I feel guilty for not doing something. Almost that is - we did our normal Saturday routine of going to town and browsing the shops, I didn't really buy anything but Dragon bought some games. We came home and I took a nap, and I still can't quite believe I can do whatever I please now.

I got a text from Mikki late last night and apparently the flying pigs had assisted his plane as he arrived on her majesty's soil well on time. He's spending the weekend with another friend and arrives to Southsea on Monday. I guess that means we need to get the flat in a respectable order before he arrives - not that it should be too much hard work as we just did that for the previous guest.

Dragon Tour of Duty, part II

In the land of Germans order, peace and prosperity reigns. Planes and trains ran on time, there were no traffic jams, the streets were impeccably clean and the shops were literally bursting with merchandise.

Munich literally oozes wealth: nowhere, not even in the heart of LA did I see so many flashy cars (granted, lots of people in Munich work for the German car companies with HQs located in the city). City center was straight from a tourist guide: Bavarian gentlemen in their leather trousers and tirolian hats sipped beer and ate huge platters of sausages. My hosts told me that good leaderhosen cost thousands of pounds and they are passed from father to son.

And yet not all was quiet and peaceful: A humongous demonstration of students and union workers swept through the city centre, protesting against planned cuts on education and union rights. This was a concurrent theme on my trip: Munich, Madrid, London and Milan all had their share of big demonstrations while I was there, which kinda gives me hope: European youth has not succumbed to complete apathy after all.

I had little time to get acquinted with the nightlife of Munich before my press event. I visited plenty of exclusive clubs and restaurants (some you could only enter if you knew the secret knock on the door) and to my surprised learned that all the top-end nightclubs now have young men instead of women as waiters. Height of the fashion, apparently.

The press event next day itself was very easy: Germans are big game players and they are eagerly awaiting my game. The fact that there is quite a bit of violence in the game is bonus in their book, as the Germans resent their strict laws on video games. Needless to stay there were no technical hitches, no slippage of schedules or vistors arriving late: after all, this was Germany.

Afterwards, while the PR girls went shopping once again, I viewed the architecture of the city. Since the war had not devastated Munich unlike so many other German cities, I could visit a lot of original historic sites: houses of government, the house of the reagent, the monument of first world war, the cathedral of Munich and many others. I paid my respects on the grave of Emperor Ludwig (he was mad as a cuckoo, but the people of Munich remember him fondly as he was the last Bavarian emperor). I even learned where the name of the city comes from: the heraldic symbol of the city is a young woman dressed as a monk.

Parties and hangovers

At work we're having a party - new product is selling like hot cakes and the project post-mortem turned into smiling faces and group hugs. An afternoon in the local pub and a sales demo... everyone is just very happy.

Meanwhile in the virtual world in Blogville, Finland people are nursing their hangovers and pondering on winners and loosers of the Kuukkeli awards. Most people seem to be happy with our choices, and the decision to pick the winner for the best blog award outside of the shortlist has turned out to be very popular.

Unfortunately the fact that there are winners means that there are loosers too. The panel was pretty unanimous in their choices, and there is really only one blog that I think should have won that didn't - in the category of new kid on the blog the winner in my mind was the wonderful and warm Menopaussi.

Kultainen Kuukkeli - on NOW

If you are not already in the gala itself, you should find your way to #kultainenkuukkeli on IRCnet. It's already started!

Later: here's the log. Good party.

And the lucky winners are:

Paras blogi: Schizoblog

Paras tunnustuksellinen blogi (paras verkkopäiväkirja): Agrippa

Uranuurtajapalkinto (Superkuukkeli): Agrippa

Kunniamainintoja: Erkki Lampén: Lähdin kävelemään ja Hiihtäen halki Suomen

Paras linkkiblogi: Kasa

Paras mielipideblogi: Siiveniskuja

Paras harrasteblogi: Avokatsomo

Paras uusi blogi: Kysyn vaan

Paras viilaus (tekniikkapalkinto): The Butt Ugly Weblog

Paras ulkoasu: PNUK!

Humoristisin blogi: !Absolute Truth

Paras ryhmäblogi: Tiramisu

Paras ei-suomenkielinen blogi: Fun pastimes for stupid children

Paras tagline: Elokuvia ja valokuvia

Paras vähän tunnettu weblog: Naamioiden takana

Another 10 000 miles

I booked my car into servicing this morning, as it's been another 10 000 miles (~16 000 km) since the last one. This in itself is nothing weird, but considering that my car was in servicing last time four months ago, it's pretty scary.

I have probably driven as many miles in these eight months while working in Newbury, as I've driven within the past 12 years or so that I've had my drivers license.

Thought for the day

If America passes the law banning same-sex marriages (as I think it will if Bush gets second term), what will happen in the following scenario: I am a man, and get married to a woman. Our marriage is thus legally binding. For some reason, I decide to have a sex-change operation, and become a woman. Is my marriage annulled now, as the same-sex marriages are illegal? Would the operation itself be illegal?

Anyone have a view on this? As technology advances, human ability to alter their sex becomes more and more sophisticated, people trying to set rigid rules like this will run into trouble, I think.

Excitement in the air

I can feel some excitement in the air as the Kuukkeli awards ceremony is just hours away. People are writing and practicing speeches, choosing clothes and trying to calm their nerves. I'm trying to leave work early tomorrow so I can get to #bloggaajat in time before the gala begins.

Intolerable slowness of service

To celebrate the release of our new product, company invited us for a curry last night. We always seem to go this one particular curry house in Newbury, Nawab. Usually it's because they have a banquet night on Wednesdays when food is quite cheap, this time I guess it was just because we always go there. I don't really know why we do, as the food is not particulary good (it's ok, just nothing special), the service is pretty appalling and we suspect that they sometimes put some extra on the bill.

This time we had to wait around an hour before they came to take our order, and another hour for food. By that time I was already half asleep, so I just ate quickly and started driving home after ten. It might not seem too late for some people, but I'm usually in bed by ten - so at that time driving an hour in the dark was really difficult. I was quite painfully aware that I wasn't really in a safe condition to drive, but I had to get home.

This morning we promised once again that next time we wouldn't go to Nawab. We'll see.

Dragon Tour of Duty supplemental - Hotel Gyms

When I stay at hotels, I usually resign myself to my fate when it comes to excercise: most of the hotel gyms have a few running mats, maybe a stairs machine and if I am lucky, some of those horrible pink plastic dumbells with selection from 4 to 15 pounds. During this trip, most of my hotel gyms were just like that, and I grew increasingly annoyed as I hate it when I miss my training sessions.

But the gym of my Spanish hotel was simply sublime -it had a great selection of free weights and resistance machines, and even a squat rack. And all this was next to a well stocked library with high-speed internet connections free of charge. A bliss.

Random thought on hotels: There seems to be one common denominator in all the business hotels I have stayed in. They all offer PPV porn films, regardless of how Catcholic (or Lutherian) the nation you are visiting is. Says something about the businessmen, I'd imagine.

Gone public

And oh yes, told my mom about this blog. I know some people don't - and I didn't in the beginning because I wasn't quite sure what this blog was going to be like and if I wanted my parents reading it. But it has turned out to be parent-friendly, so I didn't see any reason not to.

Hi mom, hi dad! Welcome to our blog, and feel free to comment if you want (in Finnish if you so prefer).

New event, new tickets

I was just going to check this morning if the tickets for RAW's Tour of Defiance that was announced on Friday's event were going to be on sale in Ticketmaster when they go on sale on Saturday, when I found out that they had actually gone on sale five minutes earlier. With trembling hands I typed in three (3), got good seats allocated for us and called Chu to confirm ("Sorry, don't have time to talk, can you call me back" - "No, the tickets have gone on sale NOW" - "Oh my god, yes, book Birmingham" - "Ok, bye!") - and ta-daa, managed to get exactly what I wanted.

I then quickly informed my mates Andy (who wanted to come with his girlfriend) and Woja (who was more than convinced by Friday's event and was coming with his friends) who frantically also managed to book tickets although by the time they got on to it best tickets were already gone. It seems that different companies selling tickets are allocated different blocks to sell: I got mine from Bookings Direct that did not suck this time (but five minutes later when Andy tried it, it was impossible again), but then he and Woja managed to get tickets from NEC Birmingham itself. It all just leaves me wondering - I doubt very much if there will be any tickets left by the time they start selling them officially on Saturday...

Anyway, having just experienced a very tiring but rewading road trip, we're in for another... Can't wait, of course.

Waiste no time

It's always like this when we visit Finland - I plan schedules that book pretty much every single of my waking hours. This short holiday was no exception - it really feels like that once I'm here I need to meet people and do things, that I shouldn't be waisting time.

So yesterday we waisted no time - got up, went to see Dragon's grandmother in the new nursery home (which was really nice), came back to my parent's place, had lunch, drove over to Thor and Sif's to watch WrestleMania XX. I had seen it before, but there were five other people on the room who were screaming hysterically when Chris Benoit made Triple H tap out. Good entertainment in good company.

Today the schedule is a bit better - promised to spend some time with my mother, and promised to take Dragon to some TV interview he's doing before we fly back home this evening.

Par-tee

Good luck continues. The birthday party was one of the better parties I've been to in ages, people were happy and it was great to see the birthday boy and girl. Definetly worth the trip.

Against the odds

What can I say - I've had an incrdebly busy couple of days, but we've actually managed to do pretty much everything we set out to do.

On Friday we set out early - the plan was that we would leave around ten and be in Sheffield around three... then take a shower, hang out - maybe meet Rel and Woja and boys and go to the gig later on. As it turned out, gods of traffic were against us and we were stuck on M1 when it turned into a parking lot instead of a motorway we assumed it would be. After about two hours on a maybe 10 mile strech, we took the first exit out and headed for the longer route. This took us trough little roads trough little villages - nice on it's own right, and although by this time we were hitting the Friday traffic we had planned to avoid, at least we were moving.

So then we were approaching Sheffield from another direction that we had planned on - and the maps we had were of little use. We drove trough the suburbia following some random signs to the arena and city center, and basically just drove around aimlessly until we spotted the hotel. It was high up on a cliff, and although we drove around the hotel, there didn't seem to be any way to get up there - the instructions from the hotel itself didn't seem to bear any resemblance to reality either. After some searching - and by this time we had last time eaten breakfast, been on the road for nine hours, were stressed, hungry, tired and in a desperate need of a bathroom - we managed to find a ramp from very far away that allowed us to drive to the hotel.

Hotel itself was a disapointment - it was very fancy hotel, but the service was most mediacore. We got into our room around six-ish and we had barely time to take a shower before we had to be on our way to the stadium - although when I booked the hotel they had claimed they were next to the stadium (and I notice that that page seems to be removed now) they were most certainly not. So, at this point we decided to take a taxi instead of getting on the road again - and this seemed at the time like a very sensible decision as there were about 15 000 other people trying to park on Hallam FM arena... just stepping out of the cab seemed very simple.

(I'll write about the gig some other time, but it's enough to say now that all we suffered was most definetly worth it. A perfect crowd, the card and performances were top notch.)

We had planned to hitch a ride back to the hotel with Woja and his friends - but Woja wasn't driving, and his friend - rather assholed'ly if you ask me - refused to give us a ride as he was "in a hurry". So we, among another hundred fans tried to get a cab. I had dressed up quite lightly as it gets very hot on the gig: t-shirt, jacket, no gloves or a hat. It was cold, and windy. The queue was long and taxis were few and far between as the arena wasn't a good pick-up point due to the 15 000 fans now all leaving at the same time. So we waited, and froze and waited a bit more (the only thing that could have made the wait worse would have been stuck in the cold with kids - so we let the lady with her pint-sized kids behind us to get in the queue beofre us).

When we finally made it back to the hotel around midnight - now even more hungry and tired and frozen to the bone - the hotel room service had a two hour wait for food. We had now calculated that we would need to wake up around five to get to the airport in time, so we decided to pass and head straight to bed. This wasn't really that bad for me as eating in a very hyped state I was in has always been very difficult for me, but poor Chu who needs her regular meals was quite unhappy.

I just went out like a light, and it seemed like the alarm went off immediately. Getting up at five is difficult at any time, but after having such a hard previous day it was next to impossible. However the fear of missing the plane was enough of a motivator for me - and we managed to stay on schedule and check out around six. By this time we were not totally surprised that the breakfast boxes the hotel had promised would be waiting for us in the reception didn't materialise, and we waited as the receptionist went to make us breakfast. I think we left rather rude feedback for them, but to be honest at that point my fuse wasn't very long.

The previous days experience made me very nervous about the time I had estimated it would take us to get to the airport, but the sacrifice we had made for the god of traffic the previous day bore fruit and we had next to no problems getting to Heathrow (finding the parking was a bit tricky as there were roadworks, but it was more about having to divert than being really difficult). We parked, got on the bus, checked in - timing was pretty perfect as we didn't really have extra time before the flight was called (and on time too). Chu slept most of the way, I only managed to get about half an hours sleep.

In Finland my mom had invited my sister to have lunch (Dragon was visiting his grandmother) so we had a nice family lunch that we probably haven't done in years. I'm very tired, but extremely happy - the little road trip was very much worth all the effort.

Later: if you want to read about WrestleMania Revenge gig in Sheffield, read my entry in Jawbreaker.

Dragon Tour of Duty 2004, part 1

As promised, here is the first report in my press tour across the Europe. I will describe the places I visited in no particular.

MADRID

It was not the easiest time to visit Madrid because of the terrorist atrocity of Atocha station -indeed Microsoft contemplated cancelling this leg of the tour altogether. Many Americans and Englishmen were refusing to travel to the city, but I felt I would be letting our Spanish hosts down if I cancelled my trip.

The people of the PR office that organised the event were polite and courteous in the extreme. Only time the impeccable manners of my host Oscar Morales wavered was when he listened news where the American politicians slagged off the Spanish electorate for 'appeasing terrorists'.

'If we Spaniards truly were such cowards who can be swayed by terrorism as the Americans claim, ETA would have been running Spain for decades.' he said with barely contained contempt in his voice.

'The ruling politicians decided to lie to us based on their political agenda, on the time when all the Spain desperately wanted to hear the truth. You must remember that the public opinion was already strongly against a war without UN mandate anyway. The actions of the Prime Minister were inexcuseable. For the sake of Spain, he had to go.' continued Oscar. You must remember that Oscar is a well-to-do, middle-aged man, not a young idealist firebrand.

After the event I had some time for myself and I went to see the sights with with Vicki, one of the PR girls who seemed to enjoy introducing her home city to me.

I walked through the streets of Madrid, and admired the city's architecture. Despite its beauty, the city was heavy with sadness. Spanish flags with black scarfs of mourning were everywhere, with baderolles saying 'enough' hanging underneath them.

Yet the life carried on: the palace of the revered king of Spain was being re-decorated, in preparation of the forthcoming royal wedding of the crown prince. The statue of Cerevantes still overlooked the town centre benevolently, and the youth had gathered around it, though many wore the black ribbon as a sign of mourning.

One of the bookshops carried a new book by Arturo Perez-Reverte, with a cover painting depicting a Spanish swordsman -this really cemented my determination to start studying spanish as soon as possible. I literally can't wait for it to be translated.

As I flew from Madrid to Milan, a Spanish businessman on the plane told me that his wife had missed the train that was attacked only by few seconds. He lives only 500 meters away from Atocha station. He thanked Santa Maria for his good luck.

Hit it

Me: It's a 224 miles to Sheffield, we've got a full tank of gas, two mugs of tea, it's rainy, and we're wearing sunglasses.
Chu: Hit it.

Waiting game

Today has mostly been waiting for things: waiting for installations to finnish, builds to be built, meetings to start and planes to land.

Meeting is now pretty much over and I'm off to the airport.

Mallards in the mist

This morning was one of those surreal moments that made me feel like I was in a Far Side comic. I was walking to my car in the fog that was so thick I couldn't see the other side of the road, and while I approached it, slowly three mallards appeared from the mist - very quiet and just staring at me. I'm sure Gary Larson has made a strip out of this... it was either ducks or cows.

While I was driving to work trough another one of those strange English weather phenomenon - rain and fog at the same time - I thought about Janka's entry about signs of stress last month, and how my signs of stress can probably be seen in this blog. My entries seem to become very short and don't seem to make a lot of sense when I'm under heavy stress, and become longer and more elaborate (ok, still maybe not making more sense!) when I'm not.

As you can see from this entry and the fact that it's over three sentances long, my stress level is going down. I went to bed after nine last night and managed to finally get enough sleep. Good thing too, as I think I won't be getting that for the next three or four nights.

Thoughts elsewhere

We're preparing for a big day today at the office, but my thoughts are elsewhere. Can't wait to see Chu tomorrow - and while I wait for the plane we'll have (hopefully) the final Kuukkeli judges meeting. And despite of bad news I'm still looking forward to Fridays gig in Sheffield.

But for today my only wish is that I can get home early to catch up on my sleep. Despite of sleeping for full eight hours last night I still woke up tired.

Dragon says hi

Dragon called from Munich and here's the story so far: the French are technically incompetent, the models (that Microsoft hires for these press tours) want to go shopping and he was going to go and drink some beer.

Where it all begins... again

When I reached the point last night at work around six where I didn't have anything to do anymore, and Woja asked me if I wanted to join him and his friends to watch WrestleMania XX, I didn't have any reason to say no. Good thing too - we had lots of fun - the guys probably even more so as they kept laughing at my reactions to the matches ("No, don't do that!").

But driving home around midnight dead tired in completely dark and rainy motorway wasn't fun - I managed to get home safely though. Once I got out of the car I had to stop for couple of minutes and just stand there - it was dark, but weather was very mild, and Southsea was quiet and misty. Quiet, but not completely so - there were birds everywhere singing. Beautiful.

Changes in Spain

I woke up this morning to the news of Spain's general election results. When I heard that people had decided to get rid of the old pro-war government, I felt joy and pride.

As the morning went on and I'd heard more about the subject my opinion changed slightly. Yes, I still think it's good that people protested against what they saw as dishonesty and reckless regard for public opinion. But on the other hand, this was a government that until few days ago was predicted to win comfortably - and the situation was changed because of the Madrid bombing, an act of terrorism. If by this act the terrorists got the people to change their minds, doesn't it mean that the terrorists have won? If the new government will retract their troops from Iraq (like their manifesto promises), doesn't it mean that the terrorists have won?

What kind of signal does it give to other world leaders? I'm sure it'll make some governments very uncomfortable, but it will also make them prepared for something similar happening on their doorsteps. I'm sure we'll hear Tony talking about this very soon, and Jack Straw was already defending him this morning by saying that all the decisions they made where with the best intentions.

I just wish it was that simple.

My sucky day

Why today officially sucks:

• It's raining
• I have to work, again
• Dragon is leaving today, and I suck at being alone
• My favourite tea pot broke when the washing machine went on a spin-dry rampage (in this country washing machines are in the kitchen)
• NTL promised us Sky Sports yesterday in "15 minutes", and we still don't have it, and - get this - they don't have customer service on Sundays... so no Wrestlemania today
• Did I say I have to work, again

Later: Dragon is now gone, but record breaking 3,5 hours on the phone with Chu managed to cheer me up. Yes, it was necessary, as after our normal 2 I was still feeling miserable. I've still got some work to do - but I can actually face it now.

All work and no play

Just a couple of more days...

Drained

Dragon left early this morning towards London for the UK press conference with a huge stack of X-Boxes. He's going to be back this evening for one more day before disappearing off to Europe.

All morning they talked about nothing else than Madrid on the radio.

I feel depressed and drained.

Madrid

I was driving to work this morning when the news about the bomb attacks in Madrid started to come in. They were talking about 10, maybe 30 dead.

Since I generally don't read the news during the day, I didn't realise until I was reading Stello this afternoon the scale of this terror attack - currently body count is 173. I'm shocked, absolutely shocked. What the people who did this hope to achieve with this, will always be beyond me.

As for the victims and their families, my heart goes out to them.

Print is forever

I just got my name on print - sounds pretty impressive doesn't it?

The new brochure for the product I've been slaving for lately came out yesterday and the only name that is mentioned in it is mine! This is because the screenshots were taken of my test data, and it contains then name of the author: me.

Made me giggle.

Dreaming of ex-boyfriends

It's not as saucy as it sounds, really.

But I did dream about my ex-boyfriend last night, a guy who I haven't seen in about seven years. I met him again, and it was really nice - we talked about what we had been doing for the past several years and all was well. Then he started saying that since I was back in Finland, we should get back together - and I tried to explain to him that I didn't really want to do that, I was after all moved on and married someone else.

When he heard this he got really angry and started shouting that I always mistreated him - this was at the Helsinki main railway station, and the whole building echoed from his shouts. I just wanted to get away thinking that I would call Chu as soon as I got home (I was apparently going to Pohjois-Haaga where I used to live as a kid), and I got on to the train. For some reason the train was going somewhere completely different and since I had to get this off my heart I started talking to my fellow passengers: whining that some people just can't take the hint.

At this point I woke up, about half an hour before my alarm goes off unable to get any more sleep. Weird - I haven't even thought about this person in ages and then I see this really vivid dream about him.

Flight of Dragon

My European press tour for next week has been locked down: It's UK-Spain-France-Germany-Italy-Sweden (for all the Nordic countries) in as many days. I'll try to keep some sort of log on my trip, though if I know anything of these things I will be forced to drink too much booze and stay up too late -I've never quite figured out how staying awake until and getting drunk in a nightclub helps to promote games, but for some reason it has a long-standing tradition in the industry. Still, the game is looking good. If we can pull this off, I think we will have a big hit in our hands.

Off to Microsoft UK HQ for dress rehersal on Friday. I'll give this to Gate's crew -they do they care of you when you are working for them. First class transportation for me and my debug kit awaits.

Lost city parts 1 & 2

The earth is going to be destroyed by a powerful enemy and the situation looks bleak. Only SG-1 can save the day. I wonder if they will be able to do that, one more time. They've only done it once a year for the past seven years. Yawn.

Of course they will, they always do. There was so much wrong with these episodes, but the good bits were also very good.

Bad:

• You know how it's going to end
• When an unknown young man appears out of nowhere to offer you just what you're going to need, he will turn out to be a traitor
• Healing powers of the Ancients? Please
• Cheap endings: "...and then suddenly they all died"
• Cheap endings, part 2: Will Jack O'Neil survive? Well, what do you think?

Good:

• Master Bra'tac (Tony Amendola) - I love this guy
• Teal'c and O'Neill - I have been missing this close realtionship between these two for many seasons now
• O'Neill and Carter - although my prediction of them getting it on this season turned out to be false, they were not far of. Definetly my shippy couple at the moment.
• William Devane - 'nuf said
• Some great looking space battles - more please

What can we learn from this then? Characters and actors: very good, writing for these episodes: very bad. I was expecting something huge to happen to pave way for Atlantis, but that didn't really happen either. What Atlantis brings to the table is left to be seen on July 16th.

Changing Planes by Ursula Le Guin

I'm back to reading books of my choice - and my latest find was Ursula Le Guin's collection of short stories called Changing Planes. First I have to say that I'm not a huge fan of short stories - I often find them difficult to get in to and then they finish anyway. These short stories - totally different. They hook you in on the first page, and you can't stop until you've finished them.

The book starts by intorducing Sita Dulip's method of changing planes - the method requires you to be stuck on an airport ("between planes"), and once you get to another plane you can spend weeks there without much time passing on your own plane. So each short story tells a story about a different plane - some are funny, some are shocking and all extremely well written and facinating. My favourites were "Porridge on Islac" - eating corn with a woman who is corn, "Seasons of the Ansarac" - beautiful migration in a totally different world where I'd very much like to visit myself, "Great Joy" - so scary but true, "The Fliers of Gy" - powerful and sad, and most of all "The Island of the Immortals" - shocking and sad.

This book is a must read. Especially for my friends like Janne and Jaakko who spend a lot of time in planes and between them. Just read it, ok?

Good deeds

Joined Amnesty and donated money to RSPCA today.

Failing to plan...

There's a saying in English:

"Failing to plan is planning to fail"

I mentioned a couple of days earlier that I have (apparently common) obsession about checking the tickets. It's not the only obsession I have when it comes to travelling - it's all in the planning for me, and hopefully everything is in place now:

• Flight tickets, for me, Dragon and Chu, on the same flights going out with Chu and coming in with Dragon (who will be flying to Finland on Saturday from Stockholm)
• 2 Revenge tickets for the gig in Sheffield on 19th
• Hotel next to the arena booked for the night of 19th
• Parking booked for the duration of our stay in Finland at Heathrow

Now all there's left is wait...

Stamps lovely stamps

It's not often that I get exited about stamps. Often when I'm in the post office and I see a new stamps coming out, I buy them since I like pretty things - but I never buy them because I want to keep them. Today at the post office they were advertising Lord of the Rings stamps - and I'm talking about the J. R. R. Tolkien's original illustrations - so I decided to buy some. And naturally when the lady asked if I wanted a case for them or if I was going to use them, I said that I was going to use them.

But then I got the stamps, and they are so pretty, I almost changed my mind - the photos don't really do them justice. Maybe I should get back and buy another set - this time with a case and make this the only item in my stamp collection.

Women and girls

Mikki writes about the International Women's Day.

In fact, many Finnish bloggers did yesterday since that's when it was celebrated. Strangely or not, no one mentioned it here. Maybe that tells something about this society, maybe it tells us something about Finns and their culture. There was however a short playful discussion about women being called girls on the radio this morning where writer and broadcaster Bonnie Greer and the Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe had been invited to talk about the subject (not that they mentioned International Women's Day).

Now I'd hate to agree with Ann Widdecombe on anything, but I guess in this case I do. I don't generally mind being called a girl - or more precisely, being "one of the girls". I guess the difference here is that singular makes it personal and condescending as in - "Hey, you girl over there", whereas it's quite common that women themselves talk about "girls' night out" - almost eluding to some kind of "sisterhood". I often talk about "girls" when talking about my female friends and myself.

Bonnie Greer's point was that we should think about how society portrays and talks about women at a time when great inequalities still exist. The cause it good - but whether this is the way to further the cause I'm not sure. Also she's originally from US where the girl-culture doesn't exist (as in women don't talk about themselves as girls) so I can imagine that against that background it can feel a bit weird.

So when does a word or a saying become an insult then? As I said, if "girl" was directed directly at myself I would probably take it as a some kind of attempt for the other person to belittle me. (Funnily enough in Japanese - a very polite language - it's a very big insult to use words like that when addressing older people) Or when does harassment become harassment? This is one of the times where subjectivity is really important - if it feels bad to me, it's bad. These kinds of issues are really difficult to define beforehand - my boss calling me a girl would (most likely) be a bad thing, my dad calling me one would be ok. I would let some person touch me without a problem, another one doing I might feel harassed. It's not even about intention of the offending person - they might not wish to offend by smacking me on the bum but think of it as a compliment, whereas I would most likely take it as harassment.

But really, Mikki writes about some real issues concerning women's rights, and does it better than I can - so go and read his entry if you haven't done so already. I, after all, live in a civilised country where I can go outside without my husband, go to work and own property instead of being it. I can write this blog and talk about things that bother me in my own trivial scale.

I think I will take Mikki's advice and go and give some money to Amnesty.

After the illness

Fully recovered now, and here is the final tally of my illness after six days:

Lost 5 kilos of bodyweight

Ate two packets of Ibuprofen

All in all, I think I will leave the whole illness scene to other people. I have no aptitude for it.

TV gone crazy

What's wrong with TV nowadays? Finding interesting things to watch is starting to get very difficult - I currently only watch two series regularly: Enterprise and Stargate SG-1, and it's looking likely that Enterprise won't be renewed for 4th season. Enterprise being cancelled is a bit sad, but not a huge surprise - while I think 3rd season has been much better than the previous ones, let's face it - no other series would have never been given three years to catch up ratings than a Star Trek one.

And there's the magic word: ratings. Many series are given only couple of episodes to prove that they are the moneys worth before they are cancelled - take Firefly or Jake 2.0. Many channels are betting on reality shows that are not only much cheaper to produce than scripted shows, but also very popular with the big spending target audience of 18-34 year olds. If you ask me, reality shows are just a modern version of gladiator games - people watch it only to see other people's misery. Vote (kill off) the comptetitor that you hate, blood lust is certainly still there.

When new series are commissioned - and Sci-fi Channel is still doing this - they are safe bets, like remake of Battlestar Galactica or spin-off Stargate: Atlantis. Sci-fi (and fantasy) is an expensive genre too: sets, make-up, and wardrobe - all need to be original (looking) and can't be borrowed off the neighbouring show. Big-wig executives get nervous with taking big risks and want to have their say very quickly if ratings are not justifying to costs - whether they know anything about the subject or not (and most often not).

It makes me sad - while I have nothing against Stargate, variety is the spice of life and I'd hate to live on just two sci-fi series. So far I haven't come across any other new series starting in the near future that would catch my interest. The only series I know about is 4400 - alien abductees, no thank you. So where is it all, original good sci-fi? Good home offered here with me.

More reading on the subject: 'Rings' can't work its magic on the small screen from Chicago Tribune. Highly recommended reading.

Wost hangovers in the world

I have the worst hangovers in the world.

Not the I-have-a-little-headache kind of hangovers, but the gut wrenching oh-I-hope-I-could-just-die kind of hangovers that last for at least a day but at it's worst two. In fact, my hangovers are so bad, I've genereally given up drinking. I'm not joking here - I've been so sick, so unable to move and just using all my willpower trying to concentrate on breathing that I have (in many occasions) sworn to give up drinking.

Even worse are the moral hangovers - you knew you were going to do something that you were going to regret, and you did it anyway. The next morning... oh well. Most of us have been there.

So here goes: I will never drink again. Please remind me of this entry if I try to.

Drinking not alone

If you're home alone, but you are talking with some people on the net, you're not really drinking alone are you? So you wouldn't be counted as sad or anything then, really.

Note to self: never blog while drunk.

Syndication

Finally managed to put the XML syndication links on the sidebar - MT after all generates them all so it was just a matter of linking to them. So whatever's your poison, help yourselves.

Silence

It's very silent in our household currently.

Dragon went to see the doctor yesterday who told him to keep quiet and gave him some antibiotics for the throat. So currently we don't talk - I feel silly talking when he only responds in nods and grunts.

This morning he explained that Pokemon trainers who travel up and down the country to catch rare Pokemon are really following the old Ronin tradition - and he explained this with handsigns and a book but used no words.

Playing with my hair

Went to the hairdressers today. Decided to put a little more red in, this time only one of the reds that we used last time. Claire put the colour in, set the timer and went to cut some bloke's hair. Waited for fourty minutes (finished reading my book - more on that later), and the timer went off. At that time Claire was cutting some granny's hair. So I waited for perhaps ten minutes before the colour was washed off.

Ten minutes more with red hair colour, children, makes quite a bit of difference. So my hair is very red now. This in itself is not a bad thing, I like bright red. But the problem is that since I've been colouring my hair for years with dark brown colour, most of my hair doesn't take colour in very well - except for the eight inches on the top that has grown recently when I haven't coloured it.

The result: very bright on the top, not so bright on the bottom. Damn. It's not a disaster, it's still relatively ok - it just annoys me when hairdressers make easy mistakes like that. Number one: she should have known that the colour won't stick well on much coloured hair, and warn me. Instead she said "It should be better this time". Number two: she should have paid more attention and get someone to wash the colour off when the timer went off.

Depending on what my hair looks like after couple of washes I might be looking for a new hairdresser.

Revenge saved, kind of

Revenge is saved, in a way anyway. Since Dragon couldn't go, I called Chu who jumped at the chance... and after a lot of searching we managed to get acceptably priced flight tickets booked. I'm really happy that I don't have to go alone, and Chu is ecstatic for this unexpected pleasure.

Now we just need to get Dragon to the party on Saturday.

Revenge indeed

Bollocks. Looks like the WrestleMania Revenge gig is no-go for Dragon - his press tour has been extended by that one crucial day. We are still hoping he can make it to Finland on Saturday, but it’s out of my hands. Damn.

Preliminary judges' meeting

Had the first Kuukkeli judges' meeting yesterday evening. Three of the judges gathered at Janne's place, I was there virtually using a web cam. It was nice to meet Mindy for the first time, she seemed really nice and had lots of good ideas and points. Overall, I think we have a really well ronded panel of judges - different different kind of interests and point of views.

The purpose fo this meeting was to decide who we didn't want to give the awards to, which turned out to be quite easy. Almost all of the judges were unanimous in almost all of the categories - I think I was the only odd one out in defending my favourite for the best blog category while other voted for it to be axed. And for the best kept secret category everyone had their favourites, which made eliminating the rest easy - but deciding on the winner might be a bit tricky. Luckikly us ladies agreed on my personal favourite.

Poor Dragon - he's still ill, and seemed sligtly annoyed about all the noise I was making, yelling and cackling in front ot the computer. (Then again, as he's suffering from a very painful throat, he looks miserable almost all of the time - so it might not be me... he's going to see the doctor today.) In any case, I'm looking forward to the next meeting.

Where I blog

I like this meme - people have been taking photos of the place where they blog. So here you go, my computer and where we write Dragon/kolibri. Ok, I write from work too - but I don't have a photo of the office, and it wouldn't tell as much about me as that photo. As you can see, I didn't clean anything up. Or arrange anything so that it would look nicer.

Hey, my non-Finnish readers, spread this meme! I'd love to see where you blog too, take a photo and show me.

Ticketing

Flight tickets arrived on the post yesterday. I have this obsession when it comes to buying tickets - I check and double check that the time is correct with a calendar before I book, and the same ritual happens when I get the physical tickets. I'm not really comfortable before I've done the check-in that I've actually got tickets for the right time and the right place.

Tickets seem to be correct. Of course.

On judging

We're going to have a meeting with the other Kultainen Kuukkeli judges very soon now in a secret location at a secret time and you can only get in if you know the password. To clear my mind, I decided to write down the criteria I will be judging against in different categories when judging the awards. English translations for categories are mine, and opinions expressed are not representative of the other Kuukkeli judges – they can write their own lists.

Paras blogi - Best blog of the year
Well, this is the biggie – but it's a good place to start since lot of the qualities of the best blog are qualities that I'm looking for in other blogs too. This needs to get everything right – it should be updated frequently, entries should be of high quality, appearance pleasant and site should usable (in all aspects).

Paras tunnustuksellinen blogi – Best social porn blog
Here the quality of the content is very important – I'm looking for a blog whose writer bears it all. They should be writing about intimate feelings in a frank and uncomplicated fashion. Make me feel like I know this person although we've never met.

Paras linkkiblogi – Best meme blog
I want to see interesting links and memes, and I want to see them here first. This should be the blog that finds the most interesting things around the web, and describes them so irresistibly that you just got to click and see what it's all about. It should be updated frequently and should be the place to go if I'm feeling bored.

Paras mielipideblogi – Best topical blog (or at least most opinionated)
Again, content is what counts. Here the quality most definitely overrides quantity – the blogger(s) should have options and be able to express them clearly and concisely. But what I don't want to see is a blogger sitting on a high horse being more nasty than clever.

Paras harrasteblogi - Best hobby blog
The hobby, whatever it may be, needs to be the heart of this blog. The blogger's enthusiasm should be evident and knowledge forthcoming. This should be an excellent place too look for those useful hints and tips, or just to catch up with the latest news and gossip. It should be updated fairly frequently or offer otherwise extensive content on the subject.

Paras uusi blogi – Best newcomer
Well, this is the best blog all over again, except that the nominees have all started the blog in year 2003. In addition to the criteria for best blog, I'm looking for freshness and new winds, something new on the table.

Paras viilaus – Best programming of a blog
Ooh, one of my favourites. What I'm looking for here is usability – making technology work for the users. So RSS should come as standard, customisations, useful little features, all should enhance the reading experience. I would also like to see the passion of the blogger for tinkering to shine out of this blog – I want to read about handy little tips that the blogger can offer for a fellow geeks. Whether the blog is based on an existing blogging platform or is homemade is irrelevant to me – dedication comes in many forms.

Humoristisin blogi – Most humorous blog
Just make me laugh. If doesn't need to be a full belly laugh, giggles are good too. Sharp witty, or just plain silly. I'm easy.

Paras ryhmäblogi – Best group blog
Just like the best blog, expect I'd also like to see all the blog writers pulling in the same direction. This should be different to many people just writing on the blog – they should have a common goal and a purpose.

Paras ei-suomenkielinen blogi – Best non-Finnish language blog
Just like the best blog, except language isn't Finnish. Reason for choosing another language is irrelevant to me.

Paras tagline – Best tagline
I like funny taglines – maybe it's a punch line, or it has a hidden meaning – it should tell something about the blog and the blogger.

Paras vähän tunnettu weblog - Best kept secret blog
Just like the best blog, except Pinseri top 100 is excluded. Although this might very well change after the limelight.

And can I say it one more time? Content, content, content. If you get that right, everything else is irrelevant.

Calvin and Hobbes strip search

And before I start, wipe that smug smile off your face. Not that kind of strip search. It's a complete database containing one of the best comic strips ever, Calvin and Hobbes with together with descriptions, so it allows you to do free form searches on your favourite stories. For example, want to see strips where Calvin is naked? Here they are. Enjoy. I know I did.

Via Nick Bradbury.

The art of being ill

I've never mastered the art of being ill.

It's been almost 16 years since I've been ill for more than a few hours, and I can't say that I feel I've missed out. My throat hurts even if I just swallow some air, I get tired for just walking from a room to another, I feel weak like a new-born kitten, and my whole body aches. Worse, I feel I'm just wasting my time by loafing in my bed.

I know it just a common flu, nothing out of usual -what I lack is the routine that most people I know have for being ill. The true masters of flues and colds have the whole routine down to art: they have huge reserves of tissues, strepsils, chicken soup, extra-warm duvets, grandmother's secret cough syrup recipes, and a whole host of other arcane tricks I lack due my lackluster record of illnesses. The best I can muster is an ice-cold shower if I have a really high temperature -according to my captain in my army unit it will either kill the unfit or force your body to cool down.

Still, this is almost over. Notes to self: train harder, and eat healthier. If I get ill again in another 16 years it is way, way too soon.

Atlantis crew announced

The cast for Stargate Atlantis has been announced. Not that any of the names or faces mean much to me, but five people is a good sized cast, more usually means weak characters. David Hewlett's character has appeared before and I don't think I liked him too much - this could be a good sign too, since the character was very strong. To say I have high hopes for the series would be overly optimistic, but I am expecting a solid and entertaining series with decent writing and good special effects, just like Stargate SG-1.

Still ill

Dragon is still ill.

It’s really weird – this is the first time in our seven or so year relationship that I’ve seen him ill for more than few hours. Before it has always been "I'm feeling a bit rough, I'll just go to bed early" and then he would be fine in the morning. Me – my colds always last for three days and are accompanied by headaches, blocked nose and the sorest throat ever. This time looks like I'm the lucky one – he's been ill for about two and a half days ill and I'm still feeling ok, so I'm hopefully in the clear.

Mind you, now that I've actually said it, it's bound to happen.

Kuukkeli nominees

Kuukkeli nominees are up.

On the other hand, the list doesn't surprise me as it contains many of Finnish blogging world's sweethearts, but on the other hand it disappoints me as it contains so few of my favourites (despite the fact that I voted for them as well). Oh well, maybe that's better for me anyway, since as a judge I'm supposed to be objective, and it's always more difficult if I have firm favourites already. And also, I'm looking forward to maybe finding new blogs to put on my daily blogroll. And in fact, I've already found one last week when I was going trough the initial nominee list.

Later: My English-only readers might be interested in one category which is the non-Finnish (language) blogs. There is one blog there in Swedish, but rest you can enjoy too. The category is called "Paras ei-suomenkielinen blogi".