I read through the album today – having a soft spot for the nerds and underdogs <3 how the nerdy bookworm thinks outside the box giving the bullies what they deserve.

Another common wisdom in life is to do exactly what the angry bear requests you to do.

Thinking about boxes – I was sitting in the bus today wondering what this symbol means.

I’m officially square.

Yesterday I found a box, where I had archived important things from my pre-digital times. Time is a peculiar thing: seeing those faded and torn photos I decided to store just a couple of ones here, where they don’t gather any more dust.

Time flies, my friends, but life is a hell of an adventure. Inside me I now carry all these girls and their memories.

Princess Venla graduating from high school.

Singing to the teachers, surrounded by friends and 3A classmates.

Applied – and never got accepted – to become an elementary school teacher. Funny and idealistic interview in Hämeen Sanomat 19.8.1993. (Also love the ‘First digitised Finnish-Swedish-Finnish dictionary’ article below.)

Interviewed Neil Gaiman for MA thesis in Helsingin Sarjakuvafestivaalit, 2000.

In the bottom of the box there was a faded fax message sent only about a month before my dad died of cancer. Sometimes life couldn’t be further from a rose garden;  These intense poems were written to me by my mum Kaija Kivilahti in 1997:

Lapseni, loppuunpalanut

Musiikkikoulussa
kaksi soitinta ja orkesteri,
myöhemmin laulutunnit,
ringette, partio,
kielikurssit,
kaikki kaverit
ja koulu siinä sivussa.
Taideteolliseen aikoi,
kuitenkin ensin maisteriksi
yliopistosta
mitä siihen nyt menisi,
pari vuotta enintään.
Luentopäiväkirjat,
seminaarit ja tentit,
nehän ovat vain järjestelykysymyksiä.
Viikonloput
teki remonttia maalla
purki seiniä
lapioi savea ja
kärräsi kellarista
kymmeniä kuutioita
metriviisikymmensenttisin
naisvoimin.
Opiskelukämpän
maalasi ja sisusti.
Kaksi silmäleikkausta
lukukausien päätteeksi,
ettei vain tulisi hukka-aikaa
ja lomiksi ansiotyöhön.
Mummosta huolehti,
vuorollaan.
Ystävien kanssa
oli niin kivaa
että monesti meni
aamuyöhön
ihan huomaamatta.
.
Ensin meni kyky laulaa.
.
Sitten tuli silmätulehdus, päänsärky, vatsakivut, kuume ja pahoinvointi.
.
Uni ei vienyt väsymystä.
.
Pitkä, mustanhiljainen syksy ilman ainuttakaan unelmaa.

Paskaproffa
kun et ymmärrä tätä nuorta.
.
Ei hän ole sinun kuvasi,
joka vain toistaa sinun ajatuksiasi
sanasta sanaan.
.
Mistä voit tietää, että
sinun metodisi ja johtopäätöksesi
säilyttävät arvonsa
vielä senkin jälkeen
kun tämä ylioppilas
on omansa julkaissut?

Nuoren ihmisen kuolemanpelko
elämänpelkoa
pelkoa heittäytyä elämään
vaikka tietää, että pitäisi.

On lapsuuden surut,
nuoruuden kasvamisen
ja aikuistumisen monet surut.
.
Rakkaus, työ ja perhe,
kaikki ne tuovat murheita.
Ei niitä voi välttää, on vain elettävä.
.
Tulee keski-ikä
vanhuus, sairaudet, väistämättä
pettymyksiä itselle ja muille.
.
Viimeistään luopumisen aikaan huomaat:
Ei kuolema ole pahin vaihtoehto,
ei ollenkaan.

Receiving a eggplant from Leena, a representative of the jury.

My kitchen has been under construction since Christmas and only consists of microwave, toaster and kettle. Being a lousy chef, I had no idea what to do with my prize, so I asked my workmates for cooking tips.

Afterwards I found myself suppressing the eggplant in Kaltsu’s comic blog. Gordon Ramsay beware!

Venla Cooking

Venla: Bad eggplant! Bad eggplant!

…

Venla: I have been adviced that one has to make eggplant cry before cooking it.

Kaltsu: I understand.

Turns out my method wasn’t quite what they had in mind. (Tip for other noobs: I now know that making eggplant cry means salting, drawing out the moisture, so that the end cooked product is denser.)

This evening I took part in an interesting virtual meetup. I have been very frustrated with the recent Finnish political decisions considering digital media and laws. Jyrki Kasvi, member of Green League in the Finnish Parliament, is a candidate in the oncoming elections to become one of the representants of Finland in the Europe’s Union. I was keen to hear what he has to say a month before the voting.

The meetup was taking place in Second Life, the grandmother of all the virtual worlds. I have tried the service several times, but due to its clumsiness, dreadful lag, difficult user experience and generally annoying control system, I never got far. But this meeting sounded so interesting, I was willing to give it another go.

I created a default style female avatar, activated my account and the brand new me was ready to hit the road and the skies:

Hello Venlala Petrolhead, Welcome to Second Life! Now, get ready for some fun. A whole new world awaits you where the talk is free and there’s no limit on what you might discover alongside millions of other Residents from across the globe.

Traveling should be easy in virtual worlds, but it never is. I have spend hours on the backs of griffons, bats, raptors, wolves… Name it, I have done it. The instructions say I can simply type “EduFinland I” to the search box and hit teleport button. Brilliant. I do that, but nothing happens. I am still standing in the noob landing platform and there is no error message of any kind. The help guide suggests that I press ‘Detach All’ option before the jump. I obey, but only succeed in losing my character’s helmet (Nice terminator style cloth disappearing effect

Now I am bald and still stuck.

Next the help guide suggests is to fly up to 200 metres height and try to teleport from there. I fly up and press the button. Nothing. The first first fifteen minutes of the meetup is already over. However, I am getting more determined to continue to solve this problem and find out if anyone else has succeeded to turn up.

Five more minutes of scanning the help guide and pressing teleport button repeatedly and then I receive an error message: too many people in the other end prevents me from teleporting. I double-check to find out how big the crowd is. 62 people in the area of 1,000 square metres! There are more people in Orgrimmar AH on all the time on an average Tuesday afternoon. Sigh.

I go make a cup of coffee and wait. Half an hour after the meeting began, I finally manage to teleport to the green Island of Finnish Education. Almost there: the instructions advice me to walk to the signpost and press a red dot labelled ‘meeting point’ . Pressing that would get me to the right place, but none of the meeting points have red dots. Sigh.

I fly around the island, it all looks empty. I manage to find couple of ducks. I give up and sit down in front of the signpost and wait. Another character approaches from the horizon. He comes to me and says that he is lost. Together we explore the terrain until we finally arrive to the meeting. We manage to catch the two last sentences before it is all over.

I managed to get a screen grab and looks like some people had really made it in time. I am the bald one in the front right corner.

I wonder how Second Life can still be as clumsy, difficult and flaky after all these years in development. I was so frustrated after missing this virtual meeting that I did not continue to the virtual beers with the other participants.

I decide to customise my helmetless bald avatar instead. After a good half hour I still haven’t found any decent tools or textures to create anything but solid ugly flat coloured surfaces that would not even qualify for clothing. So, I ask Google for help. How to create skins in Second Life has been queried 14 million times. After scanning through the first tutorial, I don’t even really care anymore. It is amazing how difficult everything is. One has to be good in Photoshop to create anything decent, and even though I work with Photoshop on a daily basis, I just do not have the patience for it.

I hope the next virtual meetup will be held in Habbo, Azeroth, Norrath, Middle-Earth or Eve Online – I might even make it there in time to participate in the debate

Last week, on his first visit to Africa, Pope Benedict said that “[AIDS] cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems”. The Pope’s statement is at odds with the research on AIDS prevention, and a setback to decades of hard work on AIDS education and awareness. With powerful moral influence over more than 1.1 billion Catholics in the world, and 22 million HIV positive Africans, these words could dramatically affect the AIDS pandemic and put millions of lives at risk. Worldwide concern is starting to show results and a willingness by the Vatican to revise the statement – sign our urgent petition asking the Pope to take care not to undermine proven AIDS prevention strategies: http://bit.ly/11fFHK

Like his predecessor, Benedict XVI maintains the all-so-traditional Catholic doctrines on artificial birth control, abortion and homosexuality. There are 1.1 billion Catholics and this man would have the power to make people to listen – I simply wish he would use his advocacy to talk about tolerance, human rights and freedom of choice! Claiming that condom distribution is not an effective AIDS prevention mechanism is UNTRUE, and if it diminishes condom use, it will also be deadly. Please, sign the petition.

Last week Kokkola, a town in Western Finland decided to block people from using Facebook both at work and in schools. The official reason given was the added security risk from Facebook applications. Ooh, scary, so they wanted to prevent bad things from happening? The tone suddenly changes when the IT Manager Jan-Erik Widjeskog continues:

Ei kiellolla ole tarkoitus kiusata ihmisiä. Mutta se päätös hallinnon verkosta ottaa pois, niin sehän oli aika selvää, että ei ihmisillä ole aikaa käyttää tämmöstä työaikana.

(= We don’t mean to do harm to people with this restriction. But the decision to not allow the council-manager government and civil servants and to use it, it was pretty clear that they do not have time to use such things at work.)

So what is going on? Why has everything employees do at work suddenly turned to such a big problem for employers? Why is there this new trend of changing the rules towards monitoring and restricting people’s rights? And why aren’t people making bigger fuzz about it? The following poll was held in one of the biggest Finnish tabloid newspapers last week asking Should Facebook be blocked at schools and workplaces?

66% say yes… WTF? In recent blog entries I have ranted about the recently validated Lex Nokia snooping law. So, I guess MPs are only as stupid as the people that voted for them at the first place. And I am not ranting about Facebook here, I personally hate Facebook, but I am asking, who decides what is good for me and when is good and where is good. Why would banning sites make workplaces better? What motivational value adds the policy of “We know you are visiting sites that do not maximise your productivity, so we make sure you can and will only do what you are paid to do.”

I wish companies would instead value their most important asset, the people who spend one third of their day at work and provide them with trust and assets instead. I always do my best and the deal should be of mutual benefit where both parts win. That is the thing that should really matter.

I had been given a massage voucher as birthday present, but only got around of having it last week. The masseuse immediately informed me that she can see angels flying and energy flowing around me. She also informed that when I first walked in to her house, I didn’t arrive alone, but with my grandmother. That sounds cool, she was one hard lady, mean and tough, but she’s also been dead more than ten years now. Nice icebreaker for a cynic/atheist. Things got even more interesting, when she told me that in at least one previous life of mine I was killed violently, because I was believed to be a witch.

I have been witch even in this life and here’s the photographic proof of Seppo, me and my bro Kalle – two wizards and one witch.

Later when I informed my mum that her mother Agnes still likes hanging out with me, she replied: “Your grandma was an evil person.” Guess apples don’t fall far from the tree. About my violent death as a misunderstood healer she said that in one of her previous lives she had been a fisher, in another one she was living up in mountains and she went on and on… So even my mum believes in rebirth! o.O

For me all those previous lives sound silly – if we all have practiced beforehand, humankind should be doing much better. Frankly, I plan to live, die and not come back haunting you. Unless you deserve it. But if I turn out to be wrong and get to choose my next form, I choose an otter. Did you know that a bunch of otters is called a romp? Sounds like fun, romping with mates. I still love the classic Otters holding hands video:

After the massage I was given my personal zodiac star chart.

URSA Astronomical Association summarises the problem of horoscopes well (I apologise that everything seems to be in Finnish today):

2000 vuotta sitten aurinkomerkeillä eli ihmisten pääasiallisilla horoskooppimerkeillä oli vielä pitkälti niiden alkuperäinen merkitys. Jos synnyit sinä aikana vuodesta, kun Aurinko oli Leijonan tähtikuviossa, olit horoskooppimerkiltäsi Leijona. Jos taas astuit maailmaan niinä päivinä, jolloin Aurinko oli Oinaassa, sinustakin tuli Oinas.

Sittemmin yötaivaan asento on muuttunut. Maapallon akseli tekee vaivihkaa hienoista kieppuvaa liikettä, jota kutsutaan prekessioksi. Prekession vuoksi eläinradan tähdistöt ovat siirtyneet taivaalla lähes kokonaisen tähdistön verran ajanlaskun alkuun verrattuna.

My astronomical vocabulary is so limited that I don’t even try to translate that word to word. Basically, it says that 2000 years ago the zodiac was actually linked to the stars. However, their position has since radically changed due to earth’s precession – (Wikipedia provides a long, fascinating and difficult article to read, if precession is your thing). Nowadays the original positioning of stars is so different that the original calculation makes no sense. So, I wouldn’t recommend marrying someone based on their star sign.

From my own star chart I learned that the rising signs – “the sign of the zodiac that was rising in the point on the ecliptic that is furthest above the plane of the horizonare” – are the ones that people become in their 30′s. So, I was born September 11th and my star sign is a Virgo. But now I have transformed to my rising sign, which is a Cancer. Therefore I am no longer an anal & annoying organiser, who like things in good order thus annoying everyone around her. Good start, but what am I now?

Cancer

This sign has active emotions in that they are constantly shifting, changing from one mood to another. At their worst, they may be cranky, touchy, sometimes even aggressive. It can sometimes be difficult to understand, being highly influenced (positively or negatively) by emotional patterns. As such, it can be rather whimsical and quite unpredictable at times. It’s not uncommon for Cancer individuals to have a change of heart half-way into things, however loyalties are also strong and they may stick to things on this precept.

Cancer sounds like an idiot as well. My mum simply commented my rising sign stating that if someone asked her, she would simpy define me as “yleisesti vittumainen ihminen” – (=Generally annoying/difficult/obnoxious person).

Sounds about right, I’ll toast to that. Amen.

The bill passed in today’s parliament voting (96-56) and the result just another proof to the well known fact that Conservatives are idiots. With them having a majority in the Finnish Parliament, it was expected/feared that the law would pass. 47 MPs were busy knitting at home today and did not bother showing up.

Lex Nokia (as I have already ranted before) basically makes it legal to organisations that provide Internet services to search the metadata of any IP-based online activity, such as emails and web-surfing. How liberate and forward-looking indeed. Yawn!

The Centre Party and the National Coalition have been supportive of the bill all the way, while the opposition Social Democratic Party and the Left Alliance have opposed the law.

^^ Respect ^^ to Jyrki J.J. Kasvi from Green Party, who held the speech against the law today before the voting.

During the preparation process of the law, there were threats made that Nokia would leave Finland if the law didn’t pass under-Secretary to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Markku Wallin, told the daily Helsingin Sanomat.

Guess they can stay in here now. Currently I feel like leaving the country myself.

However, it is not over yet. A final vote on the bill is expected next week. So there is still at least some hope left…

This positive and hopeful artwork was drawn by my niece (6yrs) to remind me that somewhere out there the good guys are protecting us:

Tarvos & friends

Translation: Once upon a time there was Tarvos (=Starwars), who was Joda (=Yoda) and he fought against the evil and he had friends. Colour this picture.

I coloured Tarvos and his jolly mates as requested

I was also told that my five-year-old nephew asks in his evening prayers God to protect all the aliens and Star Wars characters both in our galaxy AND in outer space. Sounds like he got it all covered, so Tarvos and his mates should be safe wherever they may roam. Amen.

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.

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…

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…