Last night I joined the Xmas party of my hobbit kin Defenders of the Shire. I did! And here’s the proof
First there was the feast outside the Kinship house, Opale is playing lute:
Preparing for the group photo – I am the ginger one in the front row. I made the classic mistake of choosing the same party dress with Jordetta 
All stay still…
…and catch fire. Weird things do happen in hobbit parties.
Last week when was lying in bed with the cold, so I made a big cup of tea, buried myself on the couch and went to see what Piippola villagers in have been up to.
I’m talking about Animal Crossing, City Folk, the computer game that has a never ending storyline, days and seasons passing in real time. A character moves to a town and begins to live like a villager: house mortgage need to get paid, harvest gathered and friends visited. Activities and events take place same time they happen in real life and there is not an ultimate goal. Life is what one makes of it.
Season had changed, but the villagers are still adorable nutters. Here is a selection of screenshots of what happened.
Baabara was standing outside her house – way past her bedtime. She told me her key fell in the river (even though I am sure they throw it there on purpose). I fished for over an an hour. When I finally found it and rushed it back to her, she thanked me:
Next I bumped to Merry, a new cat in town. She was wearing a pink daisy shirt and carrying a watering can, so I expected her to talk about furry things. But the looks are deceiving in Piippola. Her first words to me:
Derwin is my favourite character, an insecure nerd house full of fossils and junk. He approached me sweating the huge drops of anxiety. Big boys had been bullying him again:
It is absolutely ok to talk about vulcans, I told him. Relieved, he went back home and I continued to look for Harry, the bully. I put on a hockey mask and bun wig to look more intimidating. Finally I found him, an old hippo with no fashion sense and who mostly comes out at night:
Hmm, seems like he has adapted the word himself. Great, no problem there.
I was happy to see that Buck was sporting DS9 Julian Bashir uniform I had designed. And boy, was he feeling frisky in it:
I have to admit the shirt looks great on him.
Next one out and about was Twiggy, who seemed to have a great night. The canary bird chick seems to have lost all his marbles. Note that it’s not even full moon yet:
Before I finished the game for the night, I bumped to Baabara again, who commented my new style:
Six mad villagers. Piippola nights out, of course I am excited
Most of my friends know about my years old plan for 24/7 livestream Lego house, but so far I have struggled with both the bandwidth and the platform. Now that there is the brilliant new Finnish streaming tool Floobs (YAY ^^), I can finally do it. Since all my Legos are neatly packed in a storage box in London 
I opted for Huuto.net, the Finnish alternative for eBay. It only took a minute of ‘Buy it now‘ magic, a short train ride to Puistola to get the bounty and here is a photo of my weekend to come…
Now how much FUN is this going to be!
I will participate in Valentine’s party Saturday evening, because of the tiny voice in my head reminding me that I have to socialise more to meet guys that are not made of polygons. Blah blah yawn, but at least I got the whole Saturday morning for the ultimate coolness of building a Lego house from the scratch.
Talking about other fun things to do during the dark Finnish nights, I bought me a copy of a computer game based on Sapkowski’s best-selling book The Witcher – Thanks Bohdan for introducing it to me last year in Sydney 
. The stories are far from the typical fantasy-for-kids genre and at least the following review hints that the style has been maintained in the game:
If so desired? Hmm. Who wouldn’t so desire?
The Last Wish book cover
Even more cool stuff: this morning it was published that Google bought an old paper mill in Hamina from Stora Enso and will turn the empty factory to a full blown data centre. I first thought that the story was an April fool leaked too early, but it all started to make more sense when the news revealed that the real reason behind the deal was Google’s interest in Russia. Previously the Russian data traffic has been managed from Sweden, but the new FRA law, a Swedish legislative package that was launched in January, angered the Russians. Can’t blame them, since the FRA law “authorizes the state to warrantlessly wiretap all telephone and Internet traffic that crosses Sweden’s borders” (Wikipedia). What an idiotic law is that, and furthermore, why would anyone ever vote for it… This is madness
Now that Sweden was mentioned, I actually did recently ordered me a Piratebay T-shirt for support: the court case against four TPB related people begins next Monday charges being ‘assisting copyright infringement’. Several copyright holders are claiming over $100 million in damages. Phew, that is a lot of money. TPB will stream the audio of the trial online from their übercool bus a.k.a. TPB Media Center.
Enough for slagging off Swedes, Finland currently has its own ongoing legislative issues with the proposed Lex Nokia:
The so-called ”Lex Nokia” – also known as the ”snooping law” – would allow employers to investigate the log data of employees’ e-mails, if the company has reason to suspect that corporate secrets are leaking out of the company or that the employer’s communication networks are being misused.
It is a dorky proposal indeed, because it doesn’t only allow employers, but also schools, universities, libraries, councils etc. a greater authority than the police currently have. To gain access to similar information, the police need to get a warrant from a court if it has reason to suspect that a crime has been committed. It has been hinted that Nokia has been putting pressure on the legislation. In a country this small, the company the size of Nokia has a huge influence. I will keep my fingers crossed that the politicians do not vote for it: I have joined Pysäyttäkää Lex Nokia (Stop Lex Nokia) Facebook group and signed the online petition Pysäytetään Lex Nokia. Please, do the same, it is for a good cause.
13 September at 4:34am Becks gave birth to a baby boy Joshua – congratulations Becks, Dan and Isaac! Emma and Garry are tying the knot 19th September in Belfast and as Herbs is the best man, it will definately be a party like no other. And even more great news – Lovely Spaniards have spent their summer celebrating the victorious Euro 2008 and the results will be visible next spring: Laura and Chema will have their first baby in February and Macarena and Jose-Maria become parents in April. Here’s a message from no less than God: “Breed and reproduce in great numbers” (Genesis 8:17). Congratulations to everyone involved – the world is definately heading to right direction. 
Some are born, some are getting older… I turned 34 on Thursday and was congratulated first in the morning by Captain Picard. Andrew C spotted our favourite French space ambassador in Paris. In Andrew’s own words:
Spending a lot of time in Paris too, saw this shop while I was over there last weekend (it’s like a really upmarket iceland!) and thought of you
Shopping's done, beam me up!
Shortly after followed Simon’s and Andy’s collaboration; a remarkable showcase of cutting edge design and Javascript:
Hello Venla,
Simon and I have discussed in detail and we are both very very proud of you. Therefore we have made you this birthday card to celebrate how lovely you are. Bye!
Andy
Screenshot for those with Javascript (WOW!) turned off.
That interactive magical piece seamlessly combines all my interests and also reminds us about the not-enough-celebrated fact of XML turning five years in 2003. Simon and Andy have spent numerous sleepless nights to create such a harmony. Thank you everyone, being 34 has never felt so good.
___
For added entertainment, my niece Aino and nephew Oiva joined me for a green birthday cake. Their words of wisdom left me both bemused and puzzled:
Venla: Did you know that if you eat green birthday cake, your skin will turn to green like Hulk’s?
Oiva: Who’s Hulk?
Venla: The alter ego of Bruce Banner – Stan Lee’s Marvel comic hero, who involuntarily transforms into the giant, raging monster Hulk!
Oiva: (spitting cake with excitement) Yes, yes, I know that! It is the one with the transparent glass and little men inside him flying in space with the hundred eyes and wings!
___
Aino: You are not coming out to play with us?
Venla: Not today, I feel a bit ill.
Aino: Will you die of it?
Venla: Healthy young people usually do not die that easily. One gets ill only to get better.
Aino: (puzzled) But you are not young! You are much older than mum and dad!
___
Oiva: Your Lego character has a light sabre!
Venla: Yes she does, but she is not as good as Yoda. I’ll show you some proper epic battles from Youtube, so you get to see how the real pros fight.
First we watch Yoda fighting Count Dooku and Darth Sidius followed by classic Episode 1 scene where Darth Maul kills Qui Gon.
Venla: What did you think. Cool huh?
Oiva: My dad doesn’t allow me to watch these at home.
___
Oiva: Do light sabres exist?
Venla: There are some, but they are made of plastic and not laser. They are well cool, they have different colours, they make sounds and you can fight your friends…
Oiva: …can you cut heads off with them?
___
Oiva: Look what happened in the Star Wars game!!!
(Hands over a slimy, drool-covered DS)
An unexpected customer
Millennium Falcon fills the whole starting room of Mos Eisley Cantina and can’t be removed or pretty much moved at all. Wonder if Amaze Entertainment ever had any game testers capable of achieving similar havoc, they should hire my nephew right at this point.
I now know Millennium Falcon FITS in the Star Wars, Star Wars cantina…
Great News: In the beginning of November Easyjet starts to fly between Gatwick and Helsinki and the prices are cheap. A return flight costs around fifty quid, when booked in advance. If you’ve ever thought about a trip to Finland, this autumn is good time to do that. You might even get a native guide to show you around 
Nintendo DS bought from Bangkok has turned to a huge hit with my four-year-old nephew Oiva. Hours pass by and the little guy just can’t get enough of Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy and Lego Indiana Jones, The Original Adventures. The strength of both games is that these cute Lego characters have unlimited lives in their puzzle adventures. Once a story (level) has been played through, it gets unlocked and can be accessed again and again. Nimble auntie is still needed to unlock the stories the first time, but it looks like she won’t be needed much longer… I watch in awe how quickly a kid learns; Legos, Star Wars and gaming combined, I support this hobby full heartedly.
Learning the basics of Nintendo DS
Sudoku and Spanish language games on DS will be tested with my 60-year old mum Kaija some time soon.
Talking about mum, all the apple trees in Laukkoski are bursting and she has become proper hardcore in the neverending process of juice making. When passing the kitchen and her bubbling cauldron, I witnessed these labeled bottles and couldn’t stop laughing:
Liian makea omppumehu
Liian makea omppumehu, ‘Too sweet apple juice’. I pointed out her peculiar labeling, but she didn’t find it funny at all. Instead, she informed that
When I mix the content of these bottles with the previous set of liian hapan omppumehu ‘too bitter apple juice’, the resulted combination will be just perfect.
(Yes, she did a degree in chemistry in the University. One of her wisdoms is: “Everything is chemistry”, which seems to answer pretty much every question I’ve ever asked her.)
Another wise Finnish woman, a priest and journalist Hilkka Olkinuora was recently interviewed in Teema for her new book Elä Ihmeessä! Her revolutionary idea of “On OK olla tavis“, ‘it’s ok to be average’ is refreshing; Western culture emphasises people’s uniqueness and individuality and even though it is encouraging to think that everyone is special, it also increases the pressure to succeed and the fear of failing. Olkinuora’s viewpoint is both comforting and merciful.
Less comforting are the results of a research by Professor Adrian North of Heriot-Watt University that link music tastes to personality. “The aim of this survey is to investigate the importance of musical preference in different aspects of everyday life. We also would like to see if it can have an influence on one’s significant relationships.” Go here to participate in the online survey.
Roi recently defined my favourite music genre as nynnymetalli, ‘wimp/loser metal’. The research defines metal fans (rather accurately to Roi’s definition) as:
Low self-esteem, creative, not hard-working, not outgoing, gentle, at ease
No one has ever called me ‘not hard working’, ‘not outgoing’ ‘gentle’ or ‘at ease’. I am very much the opposite of all those attributes. I go through the results looking for a more suitable music genre for the hard working and outgoing people and the result is – country and western! Curse and damnation!
P.S. The task took couple of years to complete, but I finally finished watching the whole seven seasons of Deep Space Nine: 176 episodes, 45 minutes each adds up to 132 hours or five and half days of Star Trek. Time well spent – I might not qualify as a Trekkie, but you can call me Niner anytime:
Star Trek fans who believe Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is the best series of the franchise adopted the title of Niner following the episode “Take Me Out to the Holosuite“, in which Captain Benjamin Sisko formed a baseball team “The Niners”. (Wikipedia)
Nerdy and nice. Wonder where I should proceed next? Captain Picard beware…
Favicons work great in every other browser, but after a long pointless fight IE7 (www.ie7.com still makes me smile.) still refuses to view it. This is rather odd, since .ico file is a windows image file format to begin with.
I have this simple one liner in the header.php file, so there is not that much margin for error:
<link rel=”shortcut icon” href=”http://www.venla.net/favicon.ico”/>
The latest Flock, Firefox, Opera and Safari are all happy with it. I have checked all the forums, but still can’t get it to work in IE7. Anyone, any ideas – I’ve started to think that ignoring IE7 might be a good general rule.
Flock, Opera and IE7. One of them is wrong.
Tomb Raider: Underworld is released in the UK on 21 November. Time flies, it’s already 8th game in the Tomb Raider series, I haven’t bothered after the 3rd one, but I admit Lara was fun when she first appeared in what…1996! BBC is showcasing some pics of the new marketing face of Lara, and damn, she looks scary.
The days are rainy, nights are getting darker and the apples in the garden get bigger by day. Last weekend we were picking Valkea Kuulas apples in Laukkoski.
There are still plenty of apples left, but I need to start quickly experimenting with apple recipes. Does anyone know how to make cider?
A modern Eve and a web-monkey
I am trying to re-establish my relationship with the nature after the years in London. The coming weekend I plan to go to look for mushrooms.
Last Saturday we drove to Kalkkijazz, a one-day-one-stage jazz festival taking place in a random but interesting setting outside a Nordkalk, a chalk factory in Sipoo in South coast of Finland. Sipoo is the rebellious countryside neighbour of Helsinki that has been in the news in negative light the past year or so. The capital area getting densely populated (in a Finnish scale and Helsinki needs more land to house the new inhabitants. Sipoo was not willing to give much demanded land, so it was taken by force. Wikipedia describes it:
Helsinki announced plans to annex a part of the municipality in order to respond to population growth pressures. The Finnish state council voted in favour of the annexation on June 28, 2007
Sipoo couldn’t live in the past forever. The capital area is growing and Sipoo is now finally having to face the facts. Its eternal love for countryside and green meadows is at the same time amusing and painful to watch, but the times are changing nevertheless.
Few empty chairs make a typical Sipoo festival
The jazz was great and program varied remarkably; a four-piece harmonica band Sväng, Iiro Rantala trio featuring saw-playing Irina Björklund, funky Tuomo Prättälä band, Claes Andersson’s jazz trio (Finnish MP and previous Culture Minister) and talented singer/piano player Anna-Mari Kähärä. I really enjoyed the variety of music styles.
The weather was cold but sea breeze and live jazz make good for the brain. It was actually so cold that the bar ran out of coffee instead of beer, which is not the usual thing to happen in Finland.
Kalkkijazz was held in this charming setting
The chalk covered the soil
Another great discovery of the weekend (thanks to Lorry) was The Guild:
The Guild is a independent sitcom webisode about a group of online gamers. It is written for gamers, about gamers by a gamer. Episodes vary from 3-6 minutes in length, and follow the Guild members’ lives online and offline. The Guild is the winner of the YouTube and Yahoo 2007 Video Awards for Best Web Series, as well as recipient of the SXSW/On Networks 2007 Greenlight Award for Best Series.
It is genius and so painfully and adorably accurate. I recommend it for all you fellow gamers out there.
The climax boss fight is about to begin… spot the rogue, anyone?
(a screenshot from The Guild final episode)
