Here’s a spoiler:

This species failed. No s**t, Sherlock.

Viacom is currently taking all-too-familiar action removing all the clips from Youtube quoting their usual copyright issues. And more cold water to the Finns – I tried link to the full episode in South Park website, but got this message instead:

Fingers crossed South Park manages to get rid of those pre-existing contractual oblication jerks asap.

The recent promise about the full movies and TV shows to be made available in Youtube sounded great, but don’t believe it, wrote Mark Hachman yesterday in PCMag:

Partners like Crackle, CBS, MGM, Lionsgate and Starz made thousands of TV episodes and hundreds of movies available on Youtube for consumers to watch for free beginning on Thursday, in a bid to challenge Hulu for dominance in the online video space.

Don’t believe it. Google has amassed a TV lineup only a sick old retiree could love, with movies that belong in the dollar VHS bin. At this point, the shocking lack of content only highlights how competitors like Hulu can and will succeed in a cutthroat market where content is king. Quite frankly, it’s a little embarrassing.

The full episode isn’t available in Hulu either, so it looks like Viacom is simply trying to prevent earthlings from watching online how Finland gets nuked. Luckily, all Scandinavians are taught in elementary school where to search for the full South Park episodes.

Information overload.

A view to the young pine forest

Kalle opts for a brand new Stihl 1D10 bush saw for maximum damage.

Everything but the pines must go.

A machete with the power of an ax (…) 21″ FiberComp™ fiberglass handle lets you swing this monster baseball bat style for serious wind-up power.“

Time is money has lately meant to me having money but no time to use it This autumn I have finally had plenty of time instead of money and can do things I haven’t done before. Picking mushrooms is great fun – no joke. Whilst Chef Kalle prepares our daily 1000+ kcal lunch in his Trangia, I run around looking for mushrooms Mario style.

Chef Kalle

Look at the size of that thing!

The evenings I have burned a vainovalkea by the lake. Remember the scene in Return of the King, where Pippin lights up the Minas Tirith beacon? Similar signal fire system used to exist in Finland / Scandinavia warning people about the approaching invader fleets. Those were the times, my signal fire only burns for enjoyment.

The beacons of Amon Din are lit!

Let me stand next to your fire.

Kuusisto, Pornainen

In his time Waltari was not much of a party animal and did not like being famous and celebrated. Some signaling systems (beacons? ) were familiar to him, too: According to the locals, he had a secret signal system warning him about approaching reporters that gave him enough time to sneak out to the nearby forest before they were able to get to his house.

Kieku & Kaiku comics colored by kids in Pornainen

Tässä maailmassa on paljon loistavia näyteikkunoita ja vaaditaan huomattavaa kasvamista yksinäisyyteen ennen kun voi kohtalaisen vilpittömästi huokaista itselleen: Noin paljon on sellaista mitä en tarvitse. Tällä en tietenkään tarkoita vain esineitä. On olemassa muunkinlaisia turhuuden markkinoita. Itse annan suuren arvon kauniille turhuudelle. Se helpottaa ja tekee elämän siedettäväksi. Mutta se ei koskaan saa kädä itse tarkoituksekseen. Tällaisenkin kiusauksen voittaminen, jos sen pystyy voittamaan, on suojelevan yksinäisyyden ansiota.

This world has plenty of bright display windows and it takes a lot of personal growth to loneliness, before one can say without any hesitation: There are so many things I do not need. With this I do not mean only objects. There are also other kind of markets for unnecessities. Personally, I give credit to the beautiful unnecessity that releases the pressure and makes life bearable. But it must never become the reason. Winning the temptation, if one can do it, happens through protective loneliness.

Laukkoski and Jokimäki schools combine forces

Brelo performed several pieces for four kanteles. Kantele is the national instrument of Finland, but bands like this are more of a curiosity. Kids still play metal more often

Brelo live.

Bit more about Kantele: in the Finnish national epic Kalevala, the Finnish superhero Väinämöinen – and Gandalf-lookalike – owns a kantele made of huge pike’s jaw. He has got a handy special skill being able to kill people by singing and playing his kantele. Death metal dirge?

Wikipedia: There can be found some similarities between Väinämöinen and wizards in fantasy literature, first and foremost among them Gandalf in J. R. R. Tolkien‘s The Lord of the Rings. Both are unearthly sages of divine origins, both in possession of unearthly knowledge. Another wizard of Tolkien’s, Saruman the White, possessed a great power of voice and persuasion, which also somewhat mirrors Väinämöinen’s (who was able to charm all manner of woodland creatures with his song and kantele). Tolkien indicated that his stories of Túrin Turambar were a retelling of the Kullervo myth from Kalevala so it is possible that similarities between Gandalf and Väinämöinen were intentional or unconscious rather than coincidental.

A view to my room

The fire is crackling in the fireplace. I will go and enjoy it for as long as it lasts.

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…