Christmas party

I know planning is good but even I don't normally plan this far ahead. I've just been asked if I want to come to the company Christmas party with my husband on 10th of December.

Balance

Lately we've had some serious discussions about future plans. There are issues that need to be talked about, and plans that need to be made - even if we currently know nothing about which ones will be executed. I generally don't like change - I like it better when things are stable and I know how everything is going to go. It's difficult to live in this state, but sometimes it's just out of your hands. But then again, I'm glad problems we've had for years look finally like they're going to be solved.

Despite of everything, I'm currently very happy - I'm with the person I love, I have a job I adore (and it pays good money), I'm not stressed at work, and I've got two holidays planned (and paid for) in immediate future. I'm healthy both mentally and physically, I'm active and I have friends who I care for and who care for me.

It feels strange in some level that I'm not more stressed, but it seems that I have indeed found some kind of balance.

BlogTimes

Here's a useless but very snazzy MovableType plugin: MTBlogTimes. It makes a pretty picture based on the time of your posts (in a specified month) on a bar of the 24 hours of the day. It doesn't really fit into Dragon/kolibri in any way, but it's cool enough that I feel I need to share it. As you can see from the picture, we mostly blog by day.

Hey, it's not completely useless after all!

The Federal Vampire and Zombie Agency

Continuing with Dragon's essential links, these pages are essential for anyone who wants to fight a group of Vampires bare-handed. The amount of work and detail on these pages is simply staggering.

Some people truly have too much time in their hands. Not that I am complaining, mind you.

Iron council

While I'm on a subject of my favourite writers I checked out when China Mieville's next book is out and to my delight, Iron Council is out this September! Further good news is that he's still writing about Bas-Lag, and that the events will take place in New Crobuzon. Apparently the book is best read without knowing anything about it - not even reading the sleeve, so I stopped reading spoilers pretty soon. But not soon enough - I still managed to find out that while the book has a publishing date of 17th of September for UK, it's going to be released in US 1st of July - which is this week! I'm absolutely gutted, and completely perplexed - I'm sure it's some weird publisher issue, but it just seems unfair. I wondered if it would be worth it to order it from Amazon.com - normal postage isn't too bad but to guarantee for it to arrive before we leave for Finland would cost me around $30 which is almost double the price of the book. Maybe I should order it to be delivered directly to Finland... Choices, choices.

Later: Oh well - just when I was about to make the order, they changed the release date to 27th of July... so bye bye holiday reading. It's still sooner than September though.

Order of things

What do you do when you have a difficult decision to make: you have bunch of books waiting to be read, and you can't decide where to start. Answer: you put the books in the order by size, and start with the biggest one. There is a method in this madness - when I'm going on holiday in two weeks time, the less books I have to carry with me to Finland. (I'm starting with Market Forces by Richard Morgan. And while I'm on the subject of my new favourite writer, I was chuffed to discover that his next book Woken Furies to be published next year is also going to be a Takeshi Kovacs novel. Yay!)

Just thought you'd like to know.

Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones

Miss Larkins opened her mouth, and quite a different voice came out. It was a man's voice, brisk and kindly. "You've taken a weight off my mind, lad," it said. It sounded pleased. "There'll be a big change coming up for you now. But you've been awfully careless - four gone already, and only five left. You must take more care. You're in a danger from at least two directions, did you know?"

Ever since Antti and Moira reminded me of Charmed Life by Diane Wynne Jones (translated as Noidan veli), I've wanted to read it again. I picked up the book yesterday from Ottakars, and read it today - light and fun to read. I must have read the book quite a few times when I was a kid since I remembered it almost to a letter. I think that if I had know at that time that it was only the first book in a series, I would have learned to read books in English a lot sooner.

Anyway, for those who haven't read it (and I'd suggest that you fix this immediately), it's about a boy called Cat whose sister Gwendoline is a witch, and events that unfold when a mysterious man called Chrestomanci takes them to live with him after their parents die in an accident. The ideas are truly original in this book - it's beautifully written (although this edition has some weird spelling mistakes), and although it's aimed for children it's easily intelligent enough to entertain adults. I'll be picking up rest of the books in the series too - now that I know it didn't end there I can't wait to see what happens.

Healthy eating

Ladies and gentlemen, I have a confession to make. I have been terribly, terribly wrong about nutrition all along. I feel ashamed and would like to apologise for my heinious slander that I have heaped upon fast food industry.

I just learned that french fries are now offically classified as fresh vegetables by US department of agriculture. So from now on, to get your 5 portions of fresh, unprocessed fruit/veg a day, just scoff down five big portions of fries in the nearest McDonalds. And wash them down with nutritious coke while you are at it. Or what the hell, just start drinking mayonnaise straight out of bottle as your main source of fluid. I am sure it will soon be classified as the recommended way to reduce excess weight.

My head hurts.

Broken Angels by Richard Morgan

Face the facts. Then act on them. It's the only mantra I know, the only doctorine I have to offer you, and it's harder than you think, because I swear humans seem hardwired to do anything but. Face the facts. Don't pray, don't wish, don't buy into centuries-old dogma and dead rhetoric. Don't give in to your conditioning or your visions or your fucked up sense of... whatever. FACE THE FACTS. THEN act. -- Quellcrist Falconer, in a speech before the Assault on Millsport

I've not had enough time to read lately, but Richard Morgan's Broken Angels is one of those books that you can't put down after you've started it. This book is a sequel to Altered Carbon - or at least it features the same main character, Takeshi Kovacs. Genre-wise the books are very different - Altered Carbon was Film Noir style detective story, while Broken Angels is pure hard core science fiction (in many ways it reminds me of difference between Alien and Aliens). The events take place decades after Altered Carbon, and Kovacs signs up to join a covert team trying to secure an archeological artifact whose value is limitless and for which corporations and armies are willing to kill for.

More I read Morgan's books, more impressed I am. He's a brilliant writer, and can only get better. Although he doesn't always follow the rule of "show, don't tell", it doesn't matter because you so desperately want to hear what he has to say you don't mind and just gulp everything he offers. His characters are never two-dimensional - for example in this book the corporate shark Matthias Hand would have been so easy to just leave as a typical greedy corporate bastard, but his character is multidimensional and rich with detail. Kovacs is not an easy character either - he's the main character, likeable yes, but not a nice man by any accounts. He's tough and almost unbeatable - yet not omnipotent, he's cold and methodical murderer - yet not unsympathetic nor cruel.

Wonferful writer, brilliant book. Read it.

Midsummer

I feel that I should write something about Midsummer. For the past seven years, I think I've spent two or three Midsommers in Finland, which is less than I would have liked. There is something magical about that night, sitting on a lakeshore while the the fires are burning. Mist, stillness, light... there are no words to convay those moments.

It's incredible how far away all that seems right now. I'm at work, of course, and life here goes on without as much as a wince. Maybe I'll try to make an effort and see if I can capture any of that magic tonight (as we have a beach, albeit on a sea) - but while I admire other people's dedication, I'm no longer that dedicated myself... I draw the line in rainy or cold weather.

Later: we went for a walk in the beach. I shouldn't really be surprised that it was completely different - first of all, it's already pitch black after ten. The garden and park have lot of flowers and smell is gorgeous, especially in the night - but couldn't be further from Midsummer smells. I didn't pick any of them, either (but I'm not supposed to either am I, being already married?). Nice walk though - it was quite warm and half moon was out. We talked about books, which is always a good topic of conversation.

Just accept what's coming down and regenerate

Just don't try to merge it if it comes up as a conflict!! Just accept what's coming down and regenerate.

A comment made by my project manager today on IRC while helping to sort out programmers' problems - totally taken out of context of course. But it sounded to me like a good guide to life: just accept what's coming down and regenerate.

Often the problems that we have in our lives are beyond our control. I'm especially good at worrying about things that haven't happened, or are not necessarily going to happen at all, typically months in advance. In those kind of situations I should really learn to just accept what's coming down and wait it out. In the worst case scenario when something bad happens - like last summer when I didn't get a job I really really wanted - you just need to regenerate and get back in to the game.

I should adopt that as my motto.

Dragon/squirrel

Ah, this is what Internet was invented for! Get your squirrel name here!

Here is the proof that I am in touch with my inner squirrel:

Dragon from this day forward you will also be known as:
Colonel Honeynuts

Offical announcement

Just a quick comment on an earlier post and comment I removed.

Quite a few of our readers know both kolibri and I by our real names. I don’t know about kolibri (she can talk for herself), but I at least write under anonymity for a good reason.

Here I have the freedom to write about whatever I like, without necessarily being connected to my work all the time. You might have noticed a very rarely mention the products I’ve done by name. Companies I work for are very paranoid about their forthcoming products, so I take great care not to name any names if I do talk about my work -I can get into a lot of trouble over this.

I also wanted to make sure Dragon/kolibri does not get swamped by people seeking info on the games I work/worked on. I really enjoy writing for the sake of writing, without having to worry about putting on a public face all the time for hordes of games fans.

It is probably my own fault for not stressing this earlier, but if you want to quote me by my real name and refer to this site and my work at the same time, please ask me.

I know this may sound self-important and a bit pompous, but please respect my wishes in this matter. It is but a small thing, and means a lot to me.

Now resuming normal service.

Morning yoga

For four mornings in a row, I've stuck to my morning yoga routine. It's not easy to get up 5:45 in the morning to do physical exercise, especially when I'm so stiff right out of the bed. But it seems to be working, in many levels. I'm not tired in the morning (or during the day), and this morning I even seemed to be a little more flexible than previously.

There's something about this, definetly.

So Strawberry

I'm always on a quest to find better hair care products. Often I have a favourite for months or even years, then it becomes unavailable and I move into something else. Lately it's been mainly salon products - especially for coloured hair they are often best. The problem with those products is of course the price - I have to easily fork out up to £10 for a bottle of shampoo and another one for the conditioner. With shampoo it's not that big of a deal as one bottle will last me for 6-8 weeks as I don't need that much, even with a long hair. However conditioner is more tricky - my hair requires quite a lot to get it silky smooth. So often I buy a bottle from my salon when I go there - it runs out after few weeks, and then I buy a bottle from the supermarket that will keep me going until the next visit.

So I've been making experiments on different types of off-the-shelf conditioners - expensive "organic experiences", cheaper "natural herbal" types and every other gimmick they can think of... Yesterday I was just looking for something that smells nice and decided to give a kids conditioner a go - L'Oreal Kids So Strawberry - just because it smelled so nice. This morning I tried it for the first time, and I'm most impressed: first of all, the sweet strawberry smell is gorgeous, but it also does the job more than well.The package says "No tangles, no tears!" and that's exactly what it does - even the best salon products have never managed to make my hair so tangle free, just amazing.

So ok, I'm not four anymore, but it doesn't mean I can't still appreciate hair that is easy to comb trough. I have no issues with buying funny bottles, but I'm just wondering why "normal" shampoos don't automatically do this already.

Watership down

Watership down (translated as Ruohometsän kansaa) was one of my favourite books when I was a kid. The book contained maps and detailed descriptions of places, so I was always aware that the events happened in a real place, but it was still a shock to find out that the place is only couple of miles from where I work.

I realised this when I took an alternative route home last Friday trying to avoid A34 roadworks - John drew me a map of the little countryside roads I should take, and then drew a box on side of one road. "This is Watership down" he said and pointed at it, but I still didn't get it. It was only when I actually drove past the fantastically beautiful grassy hills - exactly like Adams described it - that I realised that I was actually looking at something literally out of fairytales.

Absolutely macigal.

More information and some photos can be found from Visiting the real Watership Down.

Minä ja malmi

Disclaimer: I talk about philosophical approach to my weight training hobby. I really could not write this properly in Englsh, but worry not, probably only I and Geek Savant really care about all this.

Eilen aamulla HIIT-treenin jälkeen kulutin varttitunnin vessassa pidättelemällä oksennusta ja sylkemällä limaa. Jälkeenpäin vaimoni kysyi minulta “Miksi teet noin?” Olisinhan voinut saada miltei saman hyödyn paljon vähemmällä vaivalla.

Yllätyin sillä en ollut valmistautunut selittämään tapaani lähestyä harrastustani, (kysymys ei koskaan edes juolahtanut mieleeni) ja jouduin pohtimaan vastausta pidemmän aikaa. Miksi hakemalla haen kaikkein raskainta mahdollista suoritusta johon kykenen?

Vastaus löytyy kysymyksenasettelusta. Teen harjoitukseni juuri sen takia että haluan haasteeni olevan mahdollisimman vaikea. Itsensä voittaminen ei merkitse paljoakaan jos et koe toimivasi kyvykkyytesi äärirajoilla. Kirjoittaminenkaan ei tunnu minusta miltään jos en tuottamaan aikaisempia töitäni parempaa tekstiä. En hyväksy sitä että olisin jo saavuttanut rajani.

Juha Seppälä ehkä paremmin kuin kukaan ilmaisee asian novellissaan Voimanoston dimensiot. Hänen mukaansa rautojen nostelu…

“…on hybristä, uhmaa ihmisen osaa, jumalia ja fysiikan lakeja vastaan.”

ja

“…on eksistenssifilosofian äärimmilleen vietyä ja konkretisoitua rajankäyntiä ja sovellusta. Vieraantumisen aste mitataan siinä kiloina...”

Pidän saliharjoittelun itsenäisyydestä ja yksinäisyydestä. Edes treenikaveri salilla ei ole ensisijaisesti ystäväsi (vaikka tama asianlaita muuttuu salin ovesta ulos astuttaessa) vaan apukeino tavoitteittesi saavuttamiseen. Olen nähnyt isojen miesten lyövän toisiaan päin näköä testosterone-tasojen nostamiseksi, ja vielä kiittävän jälkeenpäin. Mitä tahansa jotta rauta nousisi. Seppälä sanookin:

”...Edessäsi on kylmä, eloton tanko. Olet yksin maailmassa. Kukaan ei sinua auta. Se on kohdattava kuin kuolema...”

Saleilla jossa viihdyn parhaiten on tunnelma jollaista en ole löytänyt mistään muualta maailmassa. Pukuhuoneet ovat pyhiä paikkoja. Ei ole hierarkiaa, vaan ainoastaan hiljaisia miehiä jotka pohtivat juuri loppuneita treenejään tai psyykkaavat itseään kohta alkavaan koitokseen. Nirvanaan vaipunutta ei sovi häiritä. Kaikki tietävät vaistomaisesti miten olla, lukuunottamatta jokaiselle salille pesiytynyttä omaa kylähullua jonka pölinää siedetään enemmän tai vähemmän hyväntahtoisesti.

Toki jonkinlainen epävirallinen Ja näennäinen arvoasteikko on olemassa. Pienemmät katsovat kunnioittavasti yli satakiloisia järkäleitä ja supisevat hiljaa keskenään kun ovat varmoja ettei jätti näe heitä. Mutta tämä on kuintenkin silmälumetta, silä kaikkein vahvimpien ja suurimpien kanssa keskustelu on valaisevaa touhua. Useimmat ovat aloittaneet 45-kiloisina päähänpotkittuina rääpäleinä. Motivaatio näillä (usein koulukiusauksen kohteiksi joutuneilla) yksilöillä on pohjaton. He voivat tehdä kolme sarjaa kyykkyjä, käydä välillä oksentamassa, ja silti palata takaisin salille hoippuvin jaloin tekemään kolme sarjaa lisää. Seuraavan päivän hirvittävä lihassärky on kuin palkinto, urhoollisuudesta saatu mitali.

Voimailulajeja harrastavia pidetään usein narsisteina ja egoisteina. Jos arvostelijat näkisivät voimaharjoittelijoiden pään sisälle he yllättyisivät. Loputon oman riittämättömyyden tunne korventaa heitä. Ei pidä kuitenkaan luulla että kyse olisi negatiivisesta energiasta. Juuri tämä ehtymätön kehittymisen jano tekee heistä dynaamisempia, vie heidän persoonallisuuttaan eteenpäin, ja opettaa nöyryyttä: voit olla miten vahva tahansa, mutta on aina olemassa isompi rauta jota et saa liikahtamaankaan. Tästä säännöstä ei kukaan ole poikkeus –edes Jumala ei tiedä mitä tapahtuisi jos hän loisi kiven jota ei jaksa nostaa.

Tiukan ohjelman ja ruokavalion seuraaminen tuo elämään suunnattoman tarkoituksellisuuden tunteen. On suunnitelma jota seurata, päämäärä johon pyrkiä. Monille ihmisen onnelisuuden ainekset siis ovat koossa.

En nosta painoja illuusioden luomiseksi -olen nörtti, en koskaan edes väittäisi mitään muuta, sillä tosiasiat puhuvat puolestaan: teen videopelejä työkseni, luen pinon kirjoja joka viikko, en viihdy pubeissa ja klubeissa, ja koulun urheilu väikkyy mielessäni karmeana aaveena. Tiedän että en tule koskaan olemaan edes tasolla jolla voisin osallistua kilpailuihin, ja ymmärrän toki että aika tulee ryöstämään kaikki saavutukseni. Mutta minä aion harata vastaan viimeiseen saakka. Ehkä on vain kyse perusluonteestani. Tämä on minun ja rautamalmin välinen asia.

Tarragon chicken

Time for another Sunday recepie, although I didn't actually make this today but earlier this week. It was totally improvised, but turned out really well so I thought I'd share it.

4 pieces of chicken with skins on - I used thighs
6-8 potatoes, cut in vedges
bunch of fresh tarragon
melted butter (can be replaced with olive oil, but it's just not the same)
salt, pepper, spices according to taste

Chop tarragon finely - use half for the potatoes, half for the chicken. Cut potatoes in vedges and mix with half of the tarragon, pour over melted butter and season with salt and pepper. Make sure that the potatoes are coated evenly. In a separate dish, mix the pieces of chicken with rest of the tarragon, and season with your favourite spices - I use soy sauce, pepper and paprika. Put the potatoes and chicken skin down in an ovenproof dish and put into oven gas mark 8 for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, turn chicken around so that the skin is exposed, and turn the potatoes around a bit so they don't burn. Put back in the oven for another 20 minutes. Make sure that chicken is cooked - cooking time can vary according to the sizes of the pieces. Enjoy!

Mmm... new shoes

This one is for you, Sif darling. Found a pair of burgundy red leather boots on sale from Jones the Bootmaker today, and I just have to show them off.

Waking up

After previous tips I was left thinking about waking up and morning rituals. I've found that like Janne said, taking my time makes quite a bit of difference - even if it's just five minutes sitting still and gathering my thoughts.

Something I'm going to try for the next week or so, is to incorporate yoga into my morning routine - starting from today I'll do the 15 minute short form ashtanga routine as per David Swenson's instructions. This consists of Surya Namaskara A and B, 5 and 3 times respectfully (although I might shorten it to 3 and 2 as currently the routine seems to take about 20 minutes), Pashimottanasana B, Marichyasana C, Navasana (two times), Urdhva Dhanurasana, Pashimottanasana B (again), Padmasana and Savasana. And followed by a shower - it's amazing how hot I get with Ujjayi breath. I've still got long way to go for the sweat dripping heat it should generate, but I think I've grasped the basics.

But this morning I feel energised, happy and balanced, so first impressions are encouraging.

Dragonwear

‘Clothes make a man’ goes the saying, even if I’ve always thought it to be spectacularly inaccurate. But they do make a Dragon, at least in this blog.

You see, my nickname for the blog is perhaps not as imaginative as some of the other sobriquets I use elsewhere, but fitting as I have a huge weakness for any items decorated with dragons.

At work I was recently asked how many pieces of apparel with Dragon motifs do I have, seeing how I always seem to be wearing something with a Dragon on it. The list turned out to be longer than I thought. Ah, the vanity of it all...

T-shirts: 2, both with oriental dragons, though they are of western make.

Shirts: 1, western shirt with a grey dragon.

Jackets: 2, both Chinese jackets with Dragon motifs.

Trousers: 1, Black Chinese trousers. Chinese share my love of dragons.

Ornaments: 2, a silver Dragon pendant and a jade necklace. I don't wear them too often though.

Hats: 1, a cap with oriental dragon and ying/yang motif.

Bath robes: 1, Chinese, with golden dragons.

Belt buckles: 1, an oriental dragon guarding the gate of Heaven, pewter (shown in the picture below).

Cheese Racing

For those of you who have started planning for the mid-summer festivities, here's an idea for you: cheese racing. Idea is simple - put some cheese (the kind that comes in individual plastic wrapping) on the barbi and watch it inflate. The person who's cheese inflates first is the winner.

Unfortunately I won't be in Finland to take part in the races, but do tell me who won.

Thought for the day (2)

"People just want stuff that works. Instead, we've got technology."

-Douglas Adams

Blogging news

After enraging the MovableType community last month with their new pricing policy, SixApart have now done themseves proud. The new pricing policy is more than fair:

• Limited to 1 author and 3 weblogs for personal use remains the same
• Personal Edition (for $69.95) now includes up to 5 authors and an unlimited number of weblogs for personal use. This is a huge jump from 5 authors 5 blogs.
• Unlimited Personal Edition (for $99.95) now allows for an unlimited number of authors and weblogs for personal use
• They also include licenses for non-profit organisations

Seems like everyone is happy now in MT-land. Some people who switched over in a blind rage to other tools may now regret their decision - then again some people might have found tools that suited them better. I never felt that I needed to make a decision right there and then anyway - I'm quite happy with what I have right now and I'm looking forward to seeing if MT3.0 full version will offer goodies I just can't say no to when released in the near future.

The warm and fuzzy feeling isn't extended to the Weblogs.com community, who got carpet pulled from under their feet last Sunday without any notification. Dave Winer who has been running the service pulled the plug on thousands of blogs, stating personal reasons as the cause. While no one can deny that what he did was entirely within his rights, I still think it was an awful thing to do.

Winer also added in his audio message that he believed no matter how he had handled the shutdown, people would have complained.

Now that is not a good reason in my books - yes, whatever you do people will always complain, but that doesn't give you a reason to think that it doesn't matter. I know that even after keeping a blog for measly six months I would be mortified if one morning I couldn't log on - only to find out that I might get my data back in two weeks time if only I asked politely and didn't whine about it. I would like to offer my sympathies to everyone affected - if any regular readers of this blog are on the firing line please contact me and let's see if we can sort out a new home for your blog on dt.net.

Devil's Thoughts

FROM his brimstone bed at break of day
A walking the devil is gone,
To visit his snug little farm the earth,
And see how his stock goes on.

He saw a lawyer killing a viper
On a dung hill hard by his own stable;
And the devil smiled, for it put him in mind
Of Cain and his brother Abel

As he went through Cold-Bath Fields he saw
A solitary cell;
And the devil was pleased, for it gave him a hint
For improving his prisons in hell.

Tonight I was working far too late once again, and to lift my spirits I surfed the Net in search of soothing poems. By a chance I noticed one of my all-time favourites, and wanted to share it with people. The above lines are from “The Devil’s Thoughts” written by Robert Southney and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a pair of tortured, but tremendously talented poets.

While reading the poem again after a long while I found it frightening how modern it sounds, despite being published first over 200 years ago. You can find the final and the longest version in here. I hope you like it as much as I do.

It's shit!

One of my staff, a fine designer named Mark Davies is known for his ability to rant, and I have to say his prowess is up there with Mikki in this noble and ancient art.

In his opinion everything (apart from very few video games and his girlfriend) is shit. In fact he is such a fanatical believer in his creed that he’s started an aptly named website so he can rant about the shittiness of various subjects to the entire world. His chief focus is various tourist attractions, but pretty much anything is likely to get his official seal of disapproval, along with his derogatory comments on whatever it is that he’s deemed to be shit.

Well worth five minutes of your employers time to browse through the galleries.

Purpose of yoga

Mindy writes (in Finnish) about philosophy behind yoga that got me thinking about my attitude to yoga. You might think from my writings in this blog that I'm one of those people who concentrates on yoga as a competition between you and the person next to you and I'd like make a little clarification on that.

For me yoga is exercise and a way of keeping fit - it's something I was bad at when I started and something which I'm better at now. I do consider it training - I go to class and I push myself to improve my asanas from what they were last time, and I get pleasure out of realising that I can do something I previously couln't do. For me improving does mean going further in asanas, but also improving form. At the same time I'm aware that there are asanas I will never be able to do because of my wrist injury, and I try to concentrate on the ones that I can do.

I agree with Mindy - how bendy you are has nothing to do with how "good" or "bad" you are in yoga. I do Iyengar yoga with Pat, and I'm often the youngest person in the class - I may be the bendiest, but I'm by no means "best". The idea of Iyengar yoga is that everyone can do it - focus is on alignment and postures, and props like belts and blocks are used to help the practitioner achieve the asanas on their level.

Then I do ashatanga yoga with Karen - this is a very popular form of yoga sometimes called power yoga, made famous by people like Madonna. The purpose of ashtanga is to purify, strengthen and give flexibility trough not only asanas but also vinyasas (which means the breathing and movement system - for example Surya Namskar (the Sun Salutation) is made out of nine vinyasas). These are two very different types of yoga, but they complement each other as they focus on different aspects.

But it's not just the theory, or the excercise. It's also - despite the hard work - a way of relaxing, a way of finding inner peace (no matter how corny that may sound). It's something I do for me, a moment where I'm the most important person, without worries about anyone or anything else.

Help in need

You know how you always believe that if need would arise, you would stop and help people in need. But when something actually happens, you're just left thinking what you should do until it's too late.

This morning when I was approaching the roadworks on A34, and cars were slowing down to get into one lane, I saw some smoke ahead. This is not unusual - people burn rubbish so I figured that's what that was about - but when I got closer and closer, the smoke got blacker and blacker, and then I saw cars merging into the outside lane instead of the inside lane that was used with the roadworks. At this point I realised that there had been an accident, and there was most likely a car on fire on the inside lane. And true enough - when I got close there was a single car full ablaze, and man standing next to it talking on his mobile.

This was not some small couple-of-flames type of fire - I really mean it was full ablaze with flames going up several meters. In fact, the trees on the side of the road had cought fire too, and the fire was spreading into the woods - and I kept thinking that maybe I should stop to help this guy, but at the same time thinking that what was it exactly that I thought I could actually do. Then the moment passed as I drove past - and heat was so intense: there was a lane between me and the car, and I had windows closed of course, and I could still feel the extreme heat on my face.

So there's nothing I could have done, right? I mean, the guy was quite obviously calling 999 and getting help - and I'm not equipped to fight even small fires, let alone severe ones like this. Still in situations like this I'm always left thinking that I should have done something.

Yahoo responds to GMail threat

Yahoo really surprised me this morning, in a very pleasant way.

For the past couple of years, I've paid Yahoo around £15 a year for a POP mail access, and this morning when I logged in the following announcement waited for me:

Thanks for being a loyal Yahoo! Mail user. To show our appreciation, we've expanded your POP Access and Forwarding service to include all the benefits of Yahoo! Mail Plus – at no additional cost! Here are just a few of the things you'll love about Yahoo! Mail Plus:
* Virtually unlimited storage - Even if you POP your mail, you've got 2GB of storage. Keep thousands of messages, photos, and other files – think of it as your online archive.
* Virus cleaning from Norton AntiVirus™ - This powerful tool helps protect you from dangerous viruses – even when you POP your mail.
* 10MB total message size - Share photos, documents, and other large files more quickly and easily, so you can get on with your busy life.
* No graphical ads - When you're using the Yahoo! Mail web interface, your experience will be even more enjoyable.
* And much more!

Wow. Looks like Yahoo is really starting to take GMail threat seriously. 2GB is going to last me for a lifetime.

Later: Seems like Yahoo is upgrading even normal accounts to 100MB storage. For normal email usage, that should be more than enough for most people.

Prinny, dood!

Disgaea, the latest PS2 RPG I am playing has Prinnies in it –human souls trapped inside penguin suits. They address everyone and everything they meet as ‘dood’. If you throw them they explode causing great devastation.

In order to atone for they sins Prinnies have to serve in either heaven or hell. In heaven they work as cooks and cleaners without pay. In hell they become shock troops who have to save enough money for reincarnation.

What sort of mind comes up with this stuff? No wonder I love Japanese RPGs.

You can even find out what type of Disgaea character you are here, though this will probably make no sense whatsoever if you haven't played the game.

B stands for blog

Children as young as seven in one British school are using weblogs as part of their normal routine, and are doing better than non-webloggers as a result, their teacher says. Weblogs, easy-to-use personal journals published on the internet, get children more interested in school work they might otherwise have disliked, says junior school teacher John Mills.

If blogging is being taught at schools, it must be going seriously mainstream. I think this is essentially a good idea - it not only teaches kids a little bit about technology and internet, it can also help them with language and communication skills. (I've also seen blogs being used as tools by lecturers in universites - it's a good and interactive way of communicating with students.)

Source: BBC News.

Elections

There have been a lot of elections in this, and other countires across the Europe in the past couple of days, and I'd just like to say this:

• Local elections: ok, I understand that people are disappointed in Labour - but Conservative? Gimme a break.
• London Mayor: go Ken!
• European elections in Finland: my candidate got trough, and I'm happy
• European elections in Finland, part 2: Anneli Jäätteenmäki - WTF? And I'm NOT happy
• European elections in UK: UKIP is a strange choice, but hey - at least it's not BNP... we'll know more tomorrow
• European election turnout rate: disappointment across the Europe, but at least UK and Finland were up

That's enough for me for today. How can lying in the sun make you so sleepy?

Yamada DVX-6600

I've been playing with our new DVD player that arrived on Thursday, and so far I'm pretty happy. First impression was that it was very pretty device - about an inch slimmer than our previous Sony. Especially the disk tray is ultra-thin - just slightly thicker than a CD, which makes it a bit flimsy... but so far no actual problems with it. Remote control is bulky, buttons require a firm push before they work, and buttons could have been laid out thinking about the usability a bit more.

The player seems to have some difficulties communicating with our widescreen Sony TV. It seems to indicate to the TV that the format is always widescreen - which results to distorted picture if the ratio is 4:3. Not too big of a problem, as I can always adjust this manually with the TV remote, just annoying. There is an options menu on the device, but setting the TV display format didn't change anything. I emailed Umax about this issue on Friday - to which they promptly replied - and there is hope of getting this fixed. My guess is that it's a compatibility issue with the TV.

But that's all really besides the point. I was most interested how the picture quality of this budget device would compare against our old top of the range Sony. And wow - I'm not an expert on this subject, but with DVD-playback I couldn't really see any difference on our 36" widescreen TV compared to the old player: picture was smooth and clear. This morning I tried out the other selling point of this player - the possiblity to play other format video files. Watched couple of episodes of Jeremiah that were encoded using Xvid, and I was quite happy. Picture and sound quality were good, and mostly smooth - sometimes there was slight jerkyness to the picture but not to distraction. Had a brief look at some Divx encoded files too, and although with some of them I had to manually adjust the TV display, they were pretty good quality too. If you're interested on what kind of encodings this player supports, VCDRookie has a fairly comprehensive list on the subject (on the second page of the review). You're bound to find some encodings that won't work, but mostly it's all good.

All in all, I think this player is very good value for money. It's not as polished experience as a more expensive device would be, but that shouldn't be expected for £77.

Viva la France!

I know that when it comes to triceps exercises, there is no substitute for French Press (Which I guess would be called ‘Freedom Press’ in US now?). But I’ve always had one problem with this move: both my wrists and elbows hurt like hell when doing this exercise, forcing me to use light weights and therefore reducing the efficiency. I’ve replaced the French Presses with close-grip bench press and weighed dips, but I always felt I was missing out, since every time I asked for advice for training my lagging triceps, I was urged to do the French Presses.

Just a few days ago I was introduced to Incline French Press. The idea is simple –you perform the French Presses just like lying French presses on flat bench, except you set your bench to (slight) incline. Note that in the picture below the angle of the incline is really severe –only small incline is enough at least for me.

Now I feel no pain anywhere when doing this exercise and I can pile on the poundage like never before.

Why didn’t anyone tell me about this move ten years ago?

Traffic blogging

A34 is a car park. I can think of nicer places to spend the Friday evening.

Stats messaging

I keep an eye on my logfiles, and sometimes there are some odd Google searches that stand out. I don't mind people coming here to search information - sometimes I write about stuff because I couldn't find any information about myself - one of the top searches at the moment is "body pump" and it's derivatives... looks like no one else is writing about it so my entry about the latest program is very popular. I don't usually write about the odd searches that we get, as I don't really want to encourage more useless hits... but there is a funny (and really geeky) meme going around the web at the moment relating to odd searches. (While buy a lowrider in eu and how to turn into a dragon are amusing examples, personally I don't want to know what people who come searching for moomin paratroopers or odd nipples want.) But the meme - here's how it works:

Visit a friend’s blog and look for some key words that they have used in a post. You might want to go back a few weeks to make sure those posts will show up in a search. Make a sentence with those words (the more unique the words are the better). Using the person’s blog name is good if it’s unique. It should have some sort of message like the one above. Type the sentence into Google with NO quotes and see if you find the persons blog. If you do, make sure you click on it so that the search will show up in their stats. If you do the search a few times, they will have a better chance of noticing it in their stats.

Admitedly, Finnish is a bit difficult language for this, but given a productive enough writer you're bound to come up with something funny. Just try it.

Via Brooks Blog.

Schools of Magic

Today I got involved in a discussion (or an argument depending on your point of view) where couple of my colleagues were praising Harry Potter series of its original and unique idea of describing the world of wizardry through the eyes of a young boy who studies magic. They were quite shocked at my claim that J.K. Rowling was not the originator of this idea. Now don’t get me wrong: I truly enjoy Rowling’s books, but she certainly was not the first to describe how a young boy grows up to be a powerful wizard.

Here were the examples that I could remember off the top of my head.

The first book of the Earthsea saga, A Wizard of Earthsea, describes the apprenticeship of tremendously gifted young peasant boy Ged from the island of Gont. He first studies under the great mage Ogion, but is then sent to the island of Roke to learn from the masters of different disciplines. Of all the books I’ve read, this would have probably served as the strongest inspiration to Rowling, though I am only guessing here. But the great Archmage, and the masters of the different lores of magic do share some similarities to Hogwarts and its wonderful cast of characters.

Sidenote: There is a also a TV series on the works based on Earthsea, which I hope and pray will do some justice to the magnificence of the books.

The classic The Dark is Raising Sequence (Pimeä Nousee) had perhaps the most original apprenticeship of any young wizard: The Book of Gramarye which eleven-year Will Stanton only needs to read oonce in order to bestow all the knowledge of High Magic to him permanently in one sitting. Efficient.

My absolute favourite book of this ilk must be Satanic Mill (Mustan Myllyn Mestari). It tells how a young boy named Krabat is lured to serve under a sinister master of a mill and study black magic as well as the skills of a Miller. Though the magical powers taught by the master are great, there is a price to pay: Each New Year one of the boys studying under the master must die after digging his own grave. Of all the books that I’ve read it alone describes study of black magic and how normal boys would react to studying dark arts, and it also gives a fascinating glimpse to the historical setting when Europe was fighting a bitter war against Ottoman Turks.

The book is haunting, chilling, and touching masterpiece that has not gotten the recognition it so richly deserves.

Can any of our readers recall any more?

LATER: Edit. Damn typos.

Missing things

People often ask me if I miss Finland (or sometimes they ask if I miss home - but that's just semantically wrong as home is currently in Southsea). My answer is always: no - but I continue to say that I miss my friends and my family.

I mean - how can I miss a complete country? I'm proud to be a Finn - but I'm not patriotic enough to miss the abstract concept of Finland containing all things under the sun that are Finnish. I don't even miss places that much - my parents don't live in my childhood home anymore, and we never had a summer place to go to - in any case I've never grown attached to places for the places' sake. I don't especially like Finns either - although generally honest and well-meaning, they can be rude and inconsiderate.

People, individuals - they different. For me, it's people and sharing experiences with them that make a place or an event and memories. My friends and family are what I miss, they are the reason I keep coming back to Finland every holiday. I have been blessed with many friends who I have been able to maintain close relationships with, despite the fact that we rarely meet in person. Friends who are still always there for me if and when I need them, who tell me every time we meet how much they missed me, who care for me and want me the way I am.

You know who you are, and I love you.

Funky like a monkey

There are few sounds in the nature that are more beautiful than song of a gibbon. Swedish composer Jan Sandström obviously agrees as his piece from 1991 called The Singing Apes of Khao Yai is based on gibbon songs. The piece had it's UK premier last month by the The London Gay Men's Chorus.

The piece is constructed around a male gibbon's song in the jungles of Thailand. Legend tells of a princess who deceived her husband and, in punishment, was transformed into a gibbon who had to sing his lament in the forest every morning. The work must be sung with the testosterone supply fully open; wildly but rhythmically precise. The breathing of the choir should be planned ahead of time, with the voices ideally in choral pairs, and the tenor solo part should be sung wearing an ape-mask, and should be placed in the midst of the other tenors, not on the outside of the choir.

They played a piece of it yesterday morning in the radio and it sounded lovely. Maybe not quite like gibbons, but the inspiration could definetly be heard.

From GayLinkNews.com.

End of hangovers?

If this drug does indeed do what it says on the tin, then it is nothing sort of a find comparable to the Philosopher’s stone. Apparently it allows you to drink alcohol without suffering any ill effects from hangover –though you might look a bit susceptible popping a pill or two after each drink.

The story behind the miracle medicine is about as far-fetched as possible, too: Allegedly, Russian scientists developed the drug for KGB agents so they could as much as they wanted and still be able to function in the morning.

RU-21 is due to be launched in UK this month with massive advertising campaign, though it will not be allowed to make a claim of curing hangovers until clinically proven to work.

Blog diet

Schizo Janne wrote (in Finnish) recently that he wanted to see blogs become a real content producing genre instead of just an inner circle joke chain. While I think it's the intercourse (in many senses of the word) between blogs is something that makes them different to all other content in the web, I do agree that high quality content with personal touch and from indipendent sources is what blogs should aim for. Unfortunately - to quote Butt Ugly Janne - "The internet is built on crap" and this means that most of blogs are crap.

Last week Steve Rubel made an experiment out of what would happen if his only source of information was the blogging community. He read only the descriptions on news on the blogs themselves, but didn't follow the links - so his perception of the events was solely based on bloggers' opinions. It might not be a huge surprise for anyone that while he did learn about most important events, he wasn't fully up to date nor did he learn about minor events. It seems the while some news travel extremely fast and is published in blogs around the world within minutes of happening, most of the news are actually reported around 24 hours later. Also blog-aggregation sites are irreplaceable if you want to stay on top of the news - otherwise it's likely that you wouldn't have time to do anything else than go from blog to blog trying to find out something even remotely interesting. Certainly I rely on Pinseri and Bloglines to keep track of my favourite blogs, even if the intention is not so much to learn the news but to hear a different perspective.

It is interesting though how it's even possible to use blogs as source of information - I think few years back that role would have possibly been filled by usenet (but I haven't really followed that scene in a long while so I can't really say what the situation is like nowadays).

Via The Dead Parrot Society.

This must be it

I finally feel like the summer is here: I stepped out this morning around 6:30 and it was very warm (I left my jacket home - something I'd never do in Finland), the sky was amazingly blue, the sun was very bright (despite Venus) and I could smell the sea. To top that we finally booked the summer holiday flights to Finland last night, and this morning I also realised that it's really only weeks away.

I love summer.

Masa-hiiri

DISCLAIMER: I write about the winner of the ‘Most unnecessary Finnish celebrity’ competition in this entry. I don’t think I could properly translate his pearls of wisdom if I tried, and I would probably be doing a disservice to you all if I did. Be it sufficient to say that one of his quotes goes something like this: “My chances are fifty-sixty right now."

Tiedän ettei moniongelmaiselle ihmiselle pitäisi nauraa, mutta enpä malta olla nauramattakaan. Spottasin nimittäin Matti Nykäsen kootut lausahdukset. Kyllä näillä eväillä pääsee varmasti vielä ainakin Europarlamenttiin.

Tosin joukosta puuttui yksi kaikkien aikojen suosikeistani mitä Matin lentäviin lausahduksiin tulee:

- En suosittele Antabusta kenellekään. Sen kanssa tulee ryypätessä ihan kammottava olo.
Matti ei selvästi ollut hiffannut lukea k.o. aineen pakkausta.

...experiencing some problems

If you had problems accessing D/k earlier today, here's why:

At present our network provider is experiencing some problems, causing intermittent service. This means that there will be occasional problems accessing some customer websites and email accounts. We apologise for this inconvenience. Technicians are working on the problem and hope to have normal service back as soon as possible.

I've not had any problems with my service provider before this, and I hope I won't in the future. Sorry about the disruption.

"Lights out" Chili

Here's my recepie for chili we had today - I call it "Lights out" chili as that's what usually happens when I make it. We gorge on it and then are forced to take a nap - I don't know if it's because one becomes sleepy with full stomach, or if there's something in chili peppers that makes one sleepy? Anyway, guaranteed to succeed.

1 red onion
1 red chili pepper (adjust according to the hotness of the pepper)
500g minced beef
1 can (400g) of chopped tomatoes
1 can (400g) of butter beans
1 can (400g) of kidney beans
tomato puree
garlic puree
bunch of chopped fresh coriander

Instructions are as simple as you can imagine - fry chopped onion and chili pepper until caramelised, add mince and fry until brown, add rest of the incredients, let simmer gently as long as you have patience to wait. Serve with grated mature cheddar cheese, creme fraiche and nachos.

Homewards

Quick in and out operation failed miserably pretty much like I expected (the quick bit that is). London is as chaotic as ever: Central Line wasn't running, so all the other lines were worse than usual. We managed to get lost on Belgrave Square although we've been to the embassy numerous times before - but hey, it's not that big so we found the Finnish flag eventually and performed our civic duty.

Next objective was to "quickly" nip to Forbidden Planet on New Oxford Street to check for latest books and comics, but it never works like that does it? First of all Forbidden Planet had moved: it now resides couple of blocks down the road on Shaftesbury Avenue, on much nicer premisis. The downstairs is now air conditioned and roomy, exact opposite of what it used to be. Good and bad news was though that they had reduced the size of the comics collection and had increased sci-fi - this in turn meant that we couldn't find practically any of the stuff we were looking for. Help was at hand though because there is an extremely nice little comics shop opposite British Museum called GOSH! - from there we got three first albums of Transmetropolitan, and some Hellboy and Superman.

Now we're sitting on a slow train back home and I feel tired but happy that we accomplished everything we set out to do.

We're going in...

After a totally shitty morning we're finally sitting on a train to London. (Morning highlighs included trying to book tickets from the miserable Bookings Direct for two hours both by phone internet, only to overbook when finally getting trough, not getting a taxi because of the D-Day celebrations, deciding to walk to the station which is not aroud the corner, and then later after some walking deciding to take the bus...) It's not often when I say this but I wish Finland had arranged voting like it has been done here, and we could vote by post.

I love London, but going there always takes the whole day, no matter how you try to arrange it, or how much time you actually spend there.

RIP

Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. Our DVD player (Sony DVP-S735D) has finally resigned, kicked the bucket and gone to meet it's maker. It's not recognising any disks anymore - makes a funny whirring sound and then just says "no disk". Apparently it's the laser, and repairs would be costly (others have had the same problem).

I find it absolutely unbelievable that home electronics last such a short time these days - this DVD player was top of the range when I bought it four years ago and I paid £400 for it. Which means I've payed about £100 a year for it, and I find that disgraceful.

So I put an order in for Umax Yamada DVX-6600 - this player can play all regions, all formats of media, and all formats of video (including DivX and Xvid), and costs under £80. If it lasts for the 12 months it's got warranty for, it's been a better deal than the crappy Sony.

Dog eat dog

The aptly named Testosterone Magazine writes a controversial piece on how men view each other. Not that it really reflects my thoughts on the subject (I care far too deeply for my many male friends to see them all as competition), but the article is at the very least entertaining.

Be warned! If you have strong opinions about roles of men and women, take a deep breath before reading it –it might offend you.

I bet this could be translated and used to cause minor civil war in the Finnish Blogistan, since the discussions in several blogs seem to be revolving around relationships and equal rights.

Seven deadly sins

WRATH
1. Who did you last get angry with?
Steve at work. Over the IRC it's next to impossible to get sensible information out of him.
2. What is your weapon of choice?
Words, although I try very hard not to get nasty when I'm angry.
3. Would you hit a member of the opposite sex?
No, I don't think I would ever hit anyone.
4. How about of the same sex?
No, I don't think I would ever hit anyone.
5. Who was the last person who got really angry at you?
Probably a fellow road user, but they get angry very easily.
6. What is your pet peeve?
Numerous, I mentioned two just today.
7. Do you keep grudges, or can you let them go easily?
I used to when I was younger, but it's very consuming. So I don't anymore. It's either live with it or let go, depending on the person.

SLOTH
1. What is one thing you're supposed to do daily that you haven't done in a long time?
Moisturise.
2. What is the latest you've ever woken up?
Early afternoon. I never ever sleep late - but I do take naps.
3. Name a person you've been meaning to contact, but haven't.
Terhi, a girl I used to know when we were kids, but we lost touch.
4. What is the last lame excuse you made?
"I forgot" - yeah, right. Most of the time I remember but I keep putting it off.
5. Have you ever watched an infomercial all the way through (one of the long ones...)?
Probably. Can't say I was scarred for life.
6. When was the last time you got a good workout?
Yesterday.
7. How many times did you hit the snooze button on your alarm clock today?
I didn't. I never ever do. Waking up is not that difficult. Or it might be difficult but never overpowering.

GLUTTONY
1. What is your overpriced yuppie beverage of choice?
Champagne. And caviar. No, honestly, I love that stuff.
2. Meat eaters: white meat or dark meat?
Like in a chicken? White please, but if I can choose I'll take beef.
3. What is the greatest amount of alcohol you've had in one sitting/outing/event?
Probably around two bottles of wine - but I was young and stupid. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.
4. Have you ever used a professional diet company?
No. Never even thought about it.
5. Do you have an issue with your weight?
Sometimes. I know some people would get angry with me, but I'd like to loose about 3 kg.
6. Do you prefer sweets, salty foods, or spicy food?
Salty, hands down. Crips are something I crave for daily.
7. Have you ever looked at a small house pet or child and thought, LUNCH?
No, but I once saw a lion eye up a kid like that.

LUST
1. How many people have you seen naked (not counting movies/family)?
Honestly, this question is not for Finns. I've seen most of my friends naked in sauna.
2. How many people have seen YOU naked?
...and from this it follows that most of my friends have seen me naked.
3. Have you ever caught yourself staring at the chest/crotch of a member of your gender of choice during a normal conversation?
Not in mid-converstaion.
4. Have you "done it"?
Hey, I'm married so it's ok.
5. What is your favorite body part on a person of your gender of choice?
Biceps, maybe chest.
6. Have you ever been propositioned by a prostitute?
No.
7. Have you ever had to get tested for an STD or pregnancy?
I've done a home pregancy test, but never got tested.

GREED
1. How many credit cards do you own?
Three, but two of them are in the drawer. And I've got a store card too for Monsoon that I use regulary.
2. What's your guilty pleasure store?
Probably HMV at the moment, for DVDs. I never feel guilty for buying books.
3. If you had $1 million, what would you do with it?
I would go a bit mad, and then probably buy a house, and a Jaguar.
4. Would you rather be rich, or famous?
To quote Lance Storm: "When I was young I thought I wanted to become rich and famous - when I got older I realised that what I really wanted was to become rich". I'll take his word on it.
5. Would you accept a boring job if it meant you would make megabucks?
Nope, not for more than couple of months anyway.
6. Have you ever stolen anything?
Yes.
7. How many MP3s are on your hard drive?
Not many, maybe 20 or so.

PRIDE
1. What one thing have you done that you're most proud of?
Survived this far.
2. What one thing have you done that your parents are most proud of?
I would think they are proud of the fact that I'm happy.
3. What thing would you like to accomplish in your life?
I would like to achieve something creative - maybe write a book.
4. Do you get annoyed by coming in second place?
Yes, I'm a bad loser.
5. Have you ever entered a contest of skill, knowing you were of much higher skill than all the other competitors?
I don't think so. But I very seldom enter into contests because I hate losing.
6. Have you ever cheated on something to get a higher score?
Maybe in solitaire?
7. What did you do today that you're proud of?
I found a nasty bug. I'm proud of my work.

ENVY
1. What item (or person) of your friend's would you most want to have for your own?
I probably envy other people's cars a bit, but normally if I see something I want I get it. Within reason of course.
2. Who would you want to go on "Trading Spaces"?
I don't know the show.
3. If you could be anyone else in the world, who would you be?
I'm happy the way things are. How could I know that something else would be better than what I have anyway?
4. Have you ever been cheated on?
In a relationship, I hope not. In something else, probably but I haven't suffered too much.
5. Have you ever wished you had a physical feature different from your own?
I'd like Victoria's back and arms, please.
6. What inborn trait do you see in others that you wish you had for yourself?
Intelligence. I know some incredibly intelligent people.
7. Do you wish you'd come up with this survey?
No. I'm happy to do it, but writing them is not my ambition.

8. Finally, what is your favorite deadly sin?
In a nice way? Lust or gluttony. Sloth is good too.

Jittery

Last night's ashtanga obviously drained me because I had huge difficulties getting up this morning. For situations like this we stack couple of cans of Red Bull in the fridge - so that when I need to get going I can take something not to fall asleep on the wheel. Normally I don't need anything, and since I don't drink coffee my body is not accustomed to caffeine and generally I don't seem to react very well to it.

Today I've mostly been very hyper, I've got slight jitters and I feel cold. I've been thinking about taking up drinking coffee - but if the problem is really caffeine and not something else in Red Bull that wouldn't solve my problem.

Can anyone suggest anything else that would get you going in the morning that doesn't involve caffeine?

Bad traffic

It's half term this week so traffic is supposed to be light. But this morning I experienced the worst traffic since I started coming to work an hour later.

There was a car on fire on M3 - on the opposite lane. This is one of my pet peeves: in theory it's not directly affecting traffic in the direction that I'm going, but in practice it is as people slow down to have a look. What is it about this universal morbid curiosity when people want to see how badly things are going for other folks? It never ceases to amaze me.

Then there were new roadworks on A34 that go on for miles and last till August. This involves two lanes merging into one, and another one of my pet peeves involves people who see the signs that they need to merge with the other lane but keep going on until the very last meters just because they want to save couple of seconds. I never ever let those people in the queue before me and it's one of those rare things that stir the road rage in me. This morning there was this idiot in a silver Audi - the bastard didn't even indicate, just kept nudging at my side. In the nick of time he got the hint I wasn't going let him in, and pulled behind me - after that I saw that he was actually talking on a mobile phone, really talking: holding a phone to his ear which is not only illegal, it's also totally irresponsible.

New roadworks have also appeared in Newbury, just before my workplace so I can't avoid them either. Looks like I need to set my alarm back for at least 15 minutes if I want to get to work at the same time I was doing just two days ago. I so hate commuting.

Later: I should really point out that the photo there was taken when traffic was standstill and it was safe to do so. I do have some kind of moral backbone, thank you very much.

Thermodynamic Dragon

I've always been fond of the second law of thermodynamics:

The second law is concerned with entropy, which is a measure of disorder. The second law says that the entropy of the universe increases. An increase in disorder (overall) is therefore spontaneous. If the volume and energy of a system are constant, then every change to the system increases the entropy. If volume or energy change, then the entropy of the system can actually decrease. However, the entropy of the universe does not decrease. The molecules in one's body exist in great order; this only happens because the entropy of the rest of the universe is increased to a greater amount than the entropy of the body is decreased.

Basically, this law says that the amount of disorder in the universe either stays the same or increases, no matter what action is taken. Even creating something very orderly will just increase the overall entropy. I always though this as a brilliant law, and one that I gladly follow -join the winners!

Much to my annoyance, Australian scientist have discovered that this is not always necessarily true.

However the only way to decrease the entropy in the universe is to put a tiny bead into a water-filled container and fire a laser beam at it. The researchers discovered that in such a tiny system, entropy can sometimes decrease rather than increase.

Luckily the effect was only seen when the researchers looked at the bead's behaviour for a tenth of a second. Any longer and the effect was lost. So there is no danger of order gaining supremacy over disorder anytime soon in a universe near you.

Waiting

It's always like this. I'm sitting at my doctor's surgery, on time as always and she is late as always. Typically I have to wait around 20 minutes, even when my appointment is among the first ones in the morning.

I remember one time I was two minutes late and I ran in apologising - the receptionist looked at me coldly and said that it was probably ok. I waited almost half an hour that time.

I don't understand what's so difficult about time management.

Later at home: It's not that I don't like my doctor, I think she's otherwise very nice and capable. But for example today, I was her first patient (she was doing an afternoon surgery) and still she was 15 minutes late.

Market Forces by Richard Morgan

“Do you really think we can afford to have the developing world develop?

Who is going to soak up our subsidised food surplus for us? Who is going to make our shoes and shirts? Who is going to supply us with cheap labour and cheap materials? Who is going store our nuclear waste, balance out our CO2 misdemeanours? Who is going to buy our arms?”

I greatly enjoyed mr. Morgan’s earlier works, so I was very eager to get stuck into Market Forces. It turned out to be a very different book than I expected, but no less satisfying. Unlike his previous hard sci-fi offerings, Altered Carbon and Broken Angels, Market forces is a cyberpunk novel, set into uncomfortably near future. In a world run by big businesses, only the rich are allowed to drive cars and fly planes (not too far from reality if you look at UK nowadays), and the poor are forced into ghettoes called ‘Zones’. The top corporations settle their differences in carefully controlled gladiatorial due