Deep thoughts by Smek the Judge

I have wondered for a long time about the subject at hand. If some information has been gathered by illegal or cruel methods, should it be righteous to use?

Example A: During the horrible holocaust years in Germany, the doctors (or some "scientists") found out many things about human structure, behavior etc. Because it's illegal to study people the way they did, can we use the information they have written down? Wouldn't it be unethical?

Example B: The medicine and cosmetics industry have tested their products on animals for decades. Nowadays they don't or shouldn't do that anymore. Can they still use the information about previous animal tests although they wouldn't approve their methods? This is kind of an extension to Example A. Can you judge the others and then use their knowledge?

Example C: In a TV show You are what you eat, they set up a table with everything a fat person of the show has eaten during a period of time. It's usually full of delicious food, like chips and coke. Delicious but unhealthy. Now, will the TV production team eat all content on the table afterwards or will they throw it in the garbage pin because it's so unhealthy for anyone to eat and drink? What about the poor countries, the developing ones? Should the food be carried to them instead? Wait, isn't it just as unhealthy for them? What should be done with the table full of leftovers then? Isn't that a waste of waste, LOL?

Merry Christmas!

I may not blog before Christmas, so here's my wishing to all of you! It's snowy and cold here in Finland. It really looks like one of those Christmases when I was young. It's great that it still can happen, despite the client changes. I will probably stay passive in my blogging for now due to lack of motivation. Last time I wrote about slowing it down I increased my blogging noticeably! Well, let's see how it'll turn out this time. Have a good and peaceful one!

In my darkest hour

Today it's the shortest day when it comes to daylight. It's Winter solstice, according to calendar. It may not seem that dark because of the snow. It's as if the snow had been invented to shed some light on gloomy Winter days.

Don't get me wrong - I like it dark. It's just that human body and mind doesn't. I want to sleep in the dark, in a way it's my friend. My eyes don't hurt, like they do when it's light. I like it light as well, but not excessively.

If we look on the bright side, it's great that the Winter solstice is before Christmas and the New Year's eve. When those celebrations are due, it's already a bit lighter. That kind of gives a promise of better, lighter if you will, days ahead. The worst is behind and the sunlight in spreading into our days more and more every day.

It's good to have dark days though. Without them we couldn't rejoice days of early Spring that much.

December in Smekland


Keskustori in December or December in Keskustori?

Sorry for my lack of blogging lately. I just haven't felt like doing it. Instead I have concentrated on my comic strip drawings and Facebook. It seems that not before you have found a certain amount of friends there, it gets more interesting.

They have set up a Christmas square in Keskustori, the heart of Tampere city. It looks beautiful now with all those lights and colours, cottages and a huge Christmas tree. It's the second time around when this kind of Christmas celebration is happening there.

Tampere has organized these "Valoviikot" ("Light weeks") in every December as long as I have lived, which is quite a long time. There are many types of Christmas and Winter related characters formed out of light bulbs. They have stayed basically the same as long as I can remember; only some more of them has been added. The latest arrivals are more colourful than the oldest.

I started wondering about the girl feeding seals character. The girl has clearly a mini-skirt on - in the wintertime! Ok, seals are fed indoors in Särkänniemi, the amusement park in Tampere, but still. And isn't it a bit sexist nowadays too? Well, nevermind that. You can judge for yourself by watching the middle picture beside.

Currently I work in the center of Tampere. I use buses to get to work, because it's so damn hard to get a free parking place there. By 'free' I mean both available and costless. If I wake up early enough, I have a better chance to get one, but I still have to walk a mile or so to get to work. That's not bad though.

Now that the temperature has gone below zero, -15 C degrees this morning actually, the starting up of a cold motor engine strains the car a lot - at least according to the latest studies. One cold start-up equals to 500 km of driving. I'm trying to save my car a bit here. A 30-day travelling card (similar to 30-dagarskort in Stockholm) costs today 73 euros. It's handy but if I use the car every now and then, it won't be cheap anymore.

There's no T in Sahara

I read the news. I comment the news. I criticize the news. That's me, like it or not.

In recent news there has been raised an issue about humans' growing need of water in near future. At the same time the ice-bergs keep melting away, which brings extra water. Where is the problem? Today I read that the water level on earth is going to be higher than previously expected. Need of more water in the future again to solve this problem. Why not bring the extra water into Sahara and make it fertile again? Or something just as unexpected.

Scientists are trying to combine hydrogen (2 H2) and oxygen (O2) not just to make water (2 H2O) but in order to get huge amount of energy from nuclear fusion. That should not affect the balance of water still, but the outcome would be more environmentally friendly than radioactive waste. I may calculate here wrong because I wasn't brilliant e.g. in chemistry at school, but instead of using oxygen we could use the ozone (O3). It would require 3 hydrogen molecules, but who cares, right? The ozone layer wouldn't grow anymore and everyone would be happy.

Yesterday there was a piece of news on TV which I had heard already. Having a dog costs environmentally double as a sport utility vehicle (chemically marked as SUV). Ain't that something? It isn't bad enough that people who claim to love animals keep them imprisoned - they also contaminate our future. I don't know who has sponsored that news, maybe the Hummer manufacturers or such, but it leaves us with a wider perspective anyway.

All in all, it seems that we're still dumb enough not to truly exploit the energy our Sun is dealing us every moment. Why to build even wind mills to spoil the views? Ok, the Sun will stop shining one day but it's a millions of years away still. Or hundreds at least. We could save some of it for the future needs already, if we couldn't use all of it right now. Why are we so petty that we fight for a piece of the action while the whole action is endangered?

Chitchat

There are some chat applications available, like Office Communicator. Also Skype, Gmail and Facebook for instance offer chat services. So this topic is familiar to many of us already.

When I use the chat, I can see an informative string of text saying "X is writing" or something alike. That means I'm about to get a reply from Mr/Mrs. X soon. Sometimes the info text is there and then it suddenly disappears. No reply. Then the info re-appears there, only to disappear again. Finally I get a short reply, like "Ok". Sometimes there won't be any reply at all. I wonder what happens. Was the fellow I was chatting with erasing his text, then re-wrote it, erased again and in the end wrote 'ok' and pressed 'send' button (hitting the enter key also does that usually)? And sometimes he cleared his text and didn't send anything? Or is the informative text giving erroneous information? Can it be trusted anymore?

This is not the end of the world, but small things like this start to aggravate after a while. Chat is a good tool for many purposes - both at work and when you want to be a prick with your friends. I do them both, in a positive sense if it only is possible. I'd like to think it is.

On the sunny side of the world

Why is this not happening yet?

While oil-producing countries are lifting up prices, others are thinking of new ways to produce energy. In the worst case, like in England, they start using old ways to do it, like setting up coal factories again. Many countries, Finland in the front row, increase the usage of nuclear power. All of this sounds pretty crazy to me.

I don't understand why oil-producing countries, like Saudi-Arabia, don't develop high tech Sun energy. And wind energy plants. They have vast areas to put up high towers and Sun panels. It's hot there for the most part of the year, if not always. Now that they still have oil (it will end someday, you know), wouldn't it be an excellent idea to invest some of it in the future? They could easily cover the energy need of the whole world, thus making electricity cost much less than nowadays. This would prevent other countries which don't have the highest technology and the warmth of the Sun on their side from competing with them. The oil monopoly would change into energy monopoly.

This would guarantee riches to some of the poorest countries as well. This type of energy is something that never ends. When the need of energy were covered, it would be easier to work for a better and cleaner environment. And leave the rest of the oil for making of vinyl records, LOL!

150 posts so far

While I have been feeling this momentary lapse of motivation in blogging. I can see that there has been slight changes in reader nationalities. The number of Finns has stayed pretty much the same while the Swede count has rapidly decreased. I can't really explain it otherwise than by the loss of Sweden-related posts from me. Or natural lack of interest of Finns by them. Quite a few of Russians have also left my blog, otherwise it looks much the same as it did 50 posts ago.
  1. Finland - 35,49 % (2./35,17 %)
  2. Sweden - 29,61 % (1./38,98 %)
  3. United States - 12,42 % (3./8,32 %)
  4. Hong Kong - 4,49 % (4./5,49 %)
  5. United Kingdom - 1,66 % (5./1,29 %)
  6. Canada - 1,62 % (7./0,68 %)
  7. France - 0,91 % (8./0,51 %)
  8. Russian Federation 0,78 % (6./- 0,94 %)
  9. Germany - 0,76 % (10./0,37 %)
  10. Korea, Republic of - 0,61 % (-)
As it's been mentioned several times, I like statistics. Sadly I haven't received any statistics about the hit count of my blog. Maybe there isn't that many, but I still would like to know. Or else I'll remove those ugly ads in my blog. Whatever it takes, man! LOL!

It was hell, but we're alright now

It's exactly 70 ago today since the Winter War against Sovjet Union started. The Russians had shot at their own village near the border and claimed that the Finns done it. That was the excuse to start a war against Finland. Sovjet Union began a heavy-scale attack and thought Finland to be conquered in two weeks. It took finally 105 days and Finland stayed independent. The Finns had almost tenfold army against them, but they made it. Support from other countries was close to non-existent. Yet Finland had to pay a heavy price for the war it didn't even start.

Today people ask if the Finns still have the same kind of fighting spirit left. I doubt it, but no-one really knows. At least I wouldn't be willing to find it out. Those veterans of the war were basically common people who had a misfortune to be young adults those days. They didn't think of being heroes; it was just their duty that called. They must have been sad times, times of horror and uncertainty. It has transferred to the following decades and generations. We can't forget the terrible things that happened. Hell, we are not allowed to forget. It will be a part of me too as long as I live, even if I was born more than 25 years later. I'm not sure if that's a good burden to carry.

Both my grand-fathers were in both wars, the Winter war and the Continuation war. They survived but some of their brothers didn't. It must have been hell to discover those unnecessary casualties of war. There probably were no families that weren't affected. Due to reasons I leave untold, I have to confess that without those wars I wouldn't be writing here. Actually, I wouldn't even have been born. Talk about coincidences of life and death.

November in Smekland

Almost forgot to do this...

Series 60 - going seriously on 70

Last weekend was a good one, for me at least. I took a trip to Stockholm with my wife. We flew there with an old Danish airplane, which still had propellers. It was a Blue1 flight, so that was expectable. The crew spoke both languages: English and Danish. Especially the last one was a big help. I had bought the tickets something like six months ago, thus getting them quite cheap. They totalled 100 euros. The only thing that saddened me (yes, there must be one) was that I couldn't join the Christmas party arranged by our company. It was the first time for me not to take part in it during this 9-year span of working there. I'm not really missing the missing, LOL, but it has been such a tradition to follow. Maybe I'll start a new one from now on?

My old mobile, Nokia N73, gave me another disappointment. When I started it up after the flight, it showed me the notorious "Contact the retailer" sign. It was no news to me, I had experienced that a lot lately. For a normal user, it would have been the next thing to apocalypse, but as an experienced user I know the 'secret' magic-key to force format it. Secret in quotes, because it's common knowledge in the Internet. The downside of it is that you lose all of your personal data. That's why I install all the applications and pictures on the memory card. It's true that sometimes even the magic-format won't help. Then it really is time to contact the retailer. Or, like in my case, murmur by myself and throw the cellphone away.

I hadn't experienced the Arlanda Express before. It's a fast train that doesn't stop between Arlanda airport and the Stockholm city. It promises to take us to the capital of Sweden in twenty minutes. Hell, it took even less than that! It was fast alright, but it was expensive too: 240 crowns (about 24 €) each.

We had booked a room in Scandic Alvik hotel which was a pretty good choice. Thanks to Amig-J for recommending it to us! Alvik lies reasonably near Stockholm center and the subway station is close to the hotel. The room was tidy and modern, the breakfast was awesome (there were even pancakes available!) and the service was immaculate. I'll be sure to visit there again, when possible.

The main course was of course yet to come. Another lucky break for us was the subway connection. It led directly to Globen arena. Ericsson Globe, if you will. I won't. It was my second visit to the holy place where Finland won its first (and the only) WM ice-hockey title in 1995. This was the first one to attend a concert there. The event was part of Cliff Richard and The Shadows' final re-union tour. They started together over 50 years ago and now it was time to gather to dissolve.

I have always liked both Cliff and The Shadows, together and separately, but I have never been a huge fan. But this time it was an opportunity to see them all at the same time, performing those oldies. Classics like Move it, Lucky Lips, Living Doll, Summer Holiday, Young ones, Apache, Atlantis, FBI, Shadoogie and many, many more were heard during that night. It was somewhat ecstatic, somewhat unreal to testify it happen. Men around 70 were rocking and rolling, doing those simple - or difficult but only simple-sounding - early songs. They all have an impressive back catalogue after 1966, particularly in case of sir Cliff, but last Friday it was non-existent.

My personal rock favorite by Cliff & The Shads "Dynamite" was also included. They all sang (Shadows can sing too, if you didn't know) perfect harmonies and played amazingly well. One of my Shadows favorites "Dance On" was there too. Sure I missed a couple of my personal favorites of the era, but you just can't have them all. A 3-hour-lasting spectacle with an intermission was more than enough for one concert.

Personally I was a bit disappointed in Hank Marvin's playing, but it may be that he deliberately wanted to sound just as rough as he did in his early days. Kind of refused to exploit his later skills in guitar playing. Or on the other hand he may have lost some of his touch due to his age or some illness. I don't know, really. And furthermore, he must have had to re-learn those riffs, guitar breaks and solos. Can't expect that he would have remembered all of those fingerings by heart.

The drummer Brian Bennett was doing the best job of all, if you ask me. He was in real good shape when it comes to playing drums. In fact, most of the classics of the night were recorded before he joined the group in 1961, so he had to mimic his predessor. His son was on stage too, playing multiple instruments in the background and providing great symphonic instrumentations on synths whenever needed.

Bruce Welch, the rhythm guitarist, lead singer and the lead composer of many Cliff's and Shadows' hits, was playing tight rhythm all over. It's a shame that his guitar was almost drowning in the sea of musical extravaganza.

The bass player had been playing with the group for decades, but to me he was a newcomer. Nevertheless, he played pretty well. There was yet another musician on stage, a keyboardist. He was the most invisible man there - and to me, the most inaudible. I couldn't tell what parts he played, but I'm sure he wasn't there for nothing. I don't believe another "Linda case" (yes, for me to know and for you to shrug your shoulders).

Because we had a luck of getting the first row seats, I could watch them live; I mean real live, not just from screens behind the group. It's a totally different kind of experience to see them close close. Wrinkles, liver spots, sighs and off-the-mic comments. When the show was over and the group bowed to audience in standing ovation, I felt Mr. Bennett looking at me straight in the eye. For a fracture of a second, there was a contact and it felt good. In addition to his own talent, the man has talked and played with such rock legends as Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran. I'd give a penny for Brian's thoughts when they played C'mon Everybody - a Cochran classic - which was one of the three "new" songs by Cliff and his lot. It's because he had played it behind Eddie himself too, on Cochran's and Vincent's tour to Britain in 1960.

They still had the same old dryish sense of humour left. Very British indeed. Actually, they had even the same jokes as always before. Stunts, wise cracks, fake stumble - the works. Now it was more than ok to include them. The best of their songs go together with the best of their stage routine. I found two bridges to the Paul Anka show I witnessed earlier this year. One of them was a speak by Bruce: "It's great to here in Stockholm tonight. At this age, it's great to be anywhere.." Anka said the same about Tampere. Another one was another "new" song, Singing the blues. Mr. Anka had recorded it in the sixties in fact and was for his part only going through his diverse but uneven back catalogue, that being the difference. I like the song, but let's face it: it's not THAT good.

There was a lot of different merchandise available. I bought an extensive tour booklet at 140 kronor. It's pretty neatly illustrated, offering a little information on the side. Well worth buying. The T-shirts were too expensive for my taste, although I must admit that they looked good.

It fits about 16000 people in Globen according to Wiki and I'm not the one to argue. It was a full house as far as I could see. Sitting so close to the target, I managed to snap one intermediate shot with my mobile. It's included here in this post. Damn I wish I had had a decent camera with me! These darn mobile cameras don't work too well in the dark.

Saturday was a second-hand record store time for me. This time I concentrated solely on Solna stores. I started with the one closest to my ex-residence in Råsunda. They have a huge storage of the 80's records. And they are cheap, 10 crowns each. I like the place. My friend S. has his atelier there in the back stage, if you will, but the man himself wasn't there. Then I moved on to the next store. The owner knows me by my face and I'm not that flattered by the fact. Luckily he wasn't around this time. He might have cross-examined me about my absence. I wasn't prepared to speak that much Swedish this time either. The third store lies right beside the second, but it's a whole different gold mine. George Harrison's All things must pass, a-triple album from 1970 was a steal at 50 kronor. I had to act accordingly. Well, not to steal but you know... I was too tired to check out the fourth place. It would have required some walking and the place is by far the most expensive. It has the biggest storage of records in Solna, perhaps in entire Stockholm area, but for some reason I have left the place empty-handed several times.

It was more than crowded at Kulturhuset on Saturday. I don't know what was the occasion, but a lot of families with small children were present. In spite of it, we had a dinner on the fifth floor. There's a reasonably cheap restaurant there. Warm food with salad and coffee cost only 190 crowns - and that was the sum of two persons. You can spend some time up on the roof as well. It served us a fine view over Stan for dessert.
On the ground floor of Kulturhuset there was a miniatyre of Stockholm on display. For such it was huge. I took a picture of it. You can see Globen in front, leaving the center of the city in the background. Although the architectural masterpiece seemed unfinished, it was impressive just the same.

A lot of Christmas lightings sparkled everywhere already in November. Yup, it's approaching once again: time for hot toddies (glögg) and pepper cakes (pepparkakor). We had some foretaste of it in Stockholm. Along with serious gift shopping. Plus my ever-confusing vinyl collecting. Did some great findings there, but who cares? Besides me. Finally we walked to Slussen and Vikingterminal. It had been a beautiful day all day. The long walks require a plenty of rest afterwards. Most of the passengers were eager and ready to start partying, while we were expecting to get a good night sleep. And we did.

Face unknown faces

I just discovered a new challenging game for people with lots of pastime. I include myself in that group from time to time. I'm not a big Facebook fan, but lately I have visited my friends there quite often. Yes, the time on my hands.

My Facebook game rules go like this: First you pick the best-looking woman (or man if you're a woman, or... improvise, for God's sake!) and view all of her friends. Again, select the prettiest one and continue. You win if you finally find your own image in the list. Until then, just waste your time on pretty faces. If there's no women in the list, or if you pick a person who has no other friends, the game is over. In that case just start over with other options.

You can variate this with choosing the ugliest woman/man, the one with glasses, sunglasses, the one without a photo, with a photo not taken of the person - the sky is the limit, man! If you spend your time on this quite a harmless but yet meaningless type of "media", then a game like this may not be that far fetched for you.

The Swedish nose

It's a Swedish day, "Svenska dagen" or "Ruotsalaisuuden päivä" today in Finland. It means that our Swedish-speaking part of us will be celebrated today. I guess they will celebrate more by themselves, I don't know. After having so much trouble with my stay in Sweden - the latest drop in the ocean came yesterday when there seemed to be some connection break between me and the union or something concerning my weeks of being laid-off - I have stopped advertising the good sides of living there.

It's also a nose day, "näsdagen" or "nenäpäivä" today. That sounds too stupid to make nosy remarks. The good cause of it, I don't even know exactly what it is I'm ashamed to reveal, may be worth joining the group of fake-nosed people. To me, it's the part of the body I'm most proud of. Should I hide it then? Hell, no. (TIC)

Today I have finished the third and the last edition of my book, as far as I'm concerned. It was about frustrations during my years in Sweden mostly. I have collected the last part of my stay in the book. They happened after my two previous editions and thus make the story complete. In one episode I even tell about an adventure I was forced into while fetching the second edition of the book in Bromma. It's still in Finnish, sorry, but the most of it can be read in my previous blog, Moved To Sweden. Link beside somewhere.

Smile, you're on YouTube!

See a Finnish female driver tries to leave the parking place. I hate to be mean, at least this mean, but this is awesome. It kind of made my day. Thanks to Big Juice for sending the link to me. I guess the unfortunate star of the clip will soon make a record, host a talk show, write a book, pose naked in Playboy and finally gets elected in the congress. That's how it goes sometimes.

Calorie-loss weekend

Last weekend I had sports of many kind. My muscles still ache some. And tomorrow I'll get some more - ache probably.

Last Friday I had another match against Amig-J. He's pretty much taller than me, slimmer than me and overall in better shape than me. Plus he's 10+ years younger than me. In the beginning I won him easily, but now that he's got the hang of Badminton, it's pretty equal now. Due to the physical facts I listed above, I expect him to beat me bad anyday now. Sure he has won the match several times, but I mean like crushing me has yet to happen. Anyway, I was unusually beat after the one-hour session of Badminton.

The next day we went skiing. Yup, there's no snow on the ground yet, but we took a trip to a 'snow pipe' in Jämi. They have a large tunnel 625 meters long, 8 meters wide, which has two lanes for traditional skiers and the middle for the skating-stylers. I had no experience of doing it inside (LOL!), but it was pretty ok. I did 7,5 km's of skiing which was enough for me. For starters. I found new muscles in me. Well, not new but rarely used lately. I heard many passers-by talking Swedish. Don't they have a tunnel of their own? Or, since it must be environmentally an unhealthy construction, do they criticize it in Sweden and yet visit one in Finland?

It was time to visit the Ice-hall of Nokia on Sunday. They have an open hour for everyone in the afternoon. Since it's a smaller rink than average, even smaller than NHL rinks I suppose, it was quite full of people skating around - mostly in the same direction. It reminded me of skating around the lion king statue in Kungsträdgården, only in larger scale. There was an older man skating close to the fence. He looked like a beginner in skating, having a helmet on and everything. What caught my eye however was the long underpants he wore in his head! A leg of it was hanging in his neck. Ok, he seemed like harmless but still. My feet were killing me again. It's always the first time on skates.

Tomorrow I should be swimming. If my wife joins me and our daughter, I'll get a chance to do some serious swimming for a change. I haven't been lifting weights since last Spring, but otherwise I feel like being in a semi-good shape. I could do more of course, but things like work prevent me from concentrating on these really important issues. Ok, work is important too, in money-wise. And socially of course.

I've been vacuumed all over

The capital area in Finland sucked me totally. Helsinki and its neighbor cities Vantaa, Espoo and Kauniainen form grand-Helsinki which has more than one million people living there. Most of them have moved there from small cities around the country, so it's a kind of melting pot of Finns and other nationalities. Much like Stockholm in Sweden.

I have faced feeling of superiority in so many people coming from Helsinki area that it just can't be a coincidence. It really happens although most of them are born in the rustic regions of Finland. A sudden rise in the ladder make some lose their inheritance or something. You can sense the Helsinki superiority also on TV, even in the news.

Ok, I'm not here to mock Helsinki people. I lived in Stockholm for almost two years and acted quite the same way myself. It's just that I spent two days in Vantaa this week and all this resurfaced. It was a work-related trip so basically I had no chance to choose whether I liked going there or not. It was bearable this time, but anyway I was pretty tired afterwards.

I stayed in a hotel near Jumbo which is a ridiculously huge shopping market center. It's easily bigger than those I have visited in Stockholm area, at least it seems so. I didn't have much time nor strength to browse late in the evening, but I guess I will do that some day. With my wife. She likes those shopping centers. I like them too, but the most of the shops are not usually to my interest. They are good places to find Christmas presents however. All goodies in one place.

One thing I don't like about the capital area is the presence of traffic jams during working hours. It would be desirable to use trains and buses there, even subway, but they just don't cover the whole area. And taxis are expensive of course. At least I'd be in trouble finding a good way of travelling there, coming from outside the ring 3 highway, or what this 'kehä III' or 'ring-trean' is called in English. Frankly, I don't give a damsugare.

Driver download dilemma

I have been in pain with free downloads lately. Nerve-wrecking commercial business is trying to cut in on me. But I'm not buying, nor dancing for that matter. This has gone too far now. Everyone agree?

When you're trying to download a driver for your hardware, perhaps to update it, that should be completely innocent stuff. Manufacturers even encourage to do that. It used to be quite easy. Nowadays you google some pages to find a free download and get a list of several good-sounding links. Almost each of them are commercial. They show the true download link in a small, almost hidden place. The biggest 'download' link goes to a commercial site, where you can buy something. Something else.

Usually the small, real download link leads to another page, which has a similar kind of hide-and-seek download link there somewhere. Or there is no link for it at all; only commercial links. Sometimes the download should have started by itself, but if you have denied an access for active-X components or such, nothing really happens. Only this 'safety bar' appears on top of the page, where you can allow the component to be run. Usually you have to enter the download link again during the same session to continue.

When it comes to drivers, they seem to have a lot of driver detectives out there. None of them are free. The download is free however and the driver detecting is free as well. But when you want to do something about it, it will cost you. And it doesn't say it before you've reached the step three. I don't want to pay for downloading free drivers! Some of the detectives show which driver would be updated by which driver, so that way I can save some time and do it by myself. I agree that those detectives are useful (haven't tried them though) - for some.

When you find a good place to download drivers or other software, it's worthy of gold these days. Even many manufacturers, Microsoft included, have those commercial traps everywhere. Be warned, be worried, be angry.

Bye bye birdie!

Wow, that was fast. My trip in the world of Twitter ended today. I got fed up with it because the celebs were basically talking to each other or advertising their products. If they were who they appear to be. Plus, in Finland the Twitter has not caught on fire, so there weren't any Finnish celebs to read about. This post is basically plainly informative and a kind of an apology to them who had started to follow my tweets.

Who likes birdland?

Memorize the date: the 14th of October. That's a meaningful day for me for another reason too, but I can't discuss that. Yup, it's today, LOL!

My comic strip was officially published today, in a net-blog of a newspaper. Because the release contains my true identity, I don't want to give you the link there. In addition, it's in Finnish, so it wouldn't be worth much for the majority of you. I have blogged about it anyway in my earlier posts. This character of mine may travel far, let's see; usually birds do.

However small an achievement this may sound, to me it's another milestone in my artistic career. And there ain't too many of them in the past. I think I'll have a drink today, cheers!

Gay man's an island?

Yesterday I heard the news about Obama's intention to let gays enter the army too. In the US, things get cooking. Some of the gays may be delighted to get an equal share of fighting in wars, but I guess not all of them are happy (although gay). It has been a good excuse for many rock stars to pretend being gay, just not to get drafted. For many true gays who have stayed in the closet, being afraid of getting stamped as homosexual officially, this may bring some consolation. But does it in the end? If you're in gay troops, aren't you stamped 'gay' all over your forehead? I don't know much about the news, but this kind of thoughts started haunting me immediately.

If I have watched and understood American TV series correctly, also junkies and criminals are not allowed to enter fields of war. A criminal record gives a shelter. I don't quite understand this. Of course some schizoid mass murderer might do more harm on his/her own side, and couldn't be trusted. A junkie might endanger the whole group of soldiers somehow. The Dirty Dozen is fiction, but could it have a seed worth sowing? I still don't get it, why a 'decent' citizen should suffer the most.

The gays are 'decent' citizens, as long as I'm concerned, so basically I do agree with Obama. He's got balls big enough to say it aloud - especially after his Nobel peace prize victory. If he were assassinated, I'm afraid we'd face the same kind of deep emptiness that followed after Kennedy's murder. Let's hope it'll never happen. There won't be another Beatles to comfort us.

October in Smekland

Here we go again. Maybe you have to be married or in a serious relationship to get it, maybe not...

Good luck to Obama and Rio de Janeiro!

I'm a bit late with this, but better late than never. Congratulations to Mr. Obama for the Nobel prize. Peace is a wonderful thing and never too much appreciated. However, I was surprised they decided to give the prize to him this soon. I mean, he hasn't done anything concrete yet. And indeed, he was astonished about it himself. Let's hope he'll live up to the expectations he's now been tied to.

It's been almost certain lately that a president of the USA gets a Nobel prize - sooner or later. It feels like a scholarship for peace on Earth. It also occurred to me that when Mr. Obama and Chicago were denied to get the Olympics of 2016 to arrange, they had to come up with something. To compensate the loss, I assume. I was happy that a new continent was introduced to host the Olympics, finally. Party in Rio has already started, of course. These are only my speculations, but sometimes things may be as they seem, i.e. sometimes a Strat is just a Strat, LOL!

Here comes.... pea soup?

This may be of no interest to you, but it may amuse some still. Anyway, I'll keep it short.

The first sentence I spoke in Swedish was "Här kommer ärtsoppa". I had heard that "här kommer" means "here comes". Then, as a clever boy of eight or something like that, I discovered the word "ärtsoppa" in a pea soup can. It probably was a can, I'm not totally sure of it. I could read by then of course. I merely linked these two Swedish lines and came up with an immortal line mentioned above. It's not much of use to anyone, though.

My uncle heard me saying it. He readily admitted that it was genuine Swedish. It was my luck that those words in that line were pronounced as they were written, which is somewhat rare in Swedish. Man, I was proud. I could speak Swedish! Little things can be wonderful, when you're a boy. What happens to us when we grow up?

Lingonberry twist

It's the time of the year when it's worthwhile to go in the woods. When the night temperature has reached below zero (Celsius), the most of the mushrooms are dead. Only some of them, the driest ones like funnel chanterelle (suppilovahvero), survive in a modest freeze. When it comes to lingonberries, the freeze makes them more tasty. That's an old legend told from a father to son, a mother to daughter, and I can't help but agree.

We have a "sure-fire" place for picking lingonberries. It's been there for years. Only this time it wasn't that full of berries. Admitted, there was a lot of them, but yet not as much as I recalled there should have been. Me and my wife picked a little less than 10 litres together and my mother did about 7 litres. The weather was favourable; it was not that cold and windy, LOL! Ok, there was a small rain shower in the end, but otherwise it was a good berry-picking weather.

I didn't take pictures in the woods, so I'm supplying one taken in the yard of our neighbours! They had a lovely set of lingonberries there, waiting for someone to pick 'em. The picture was taken in fair sunlight, so once again the course of events has been manipulated and falsified. In reality, the berry-picking day last Saturday wasn't this sunny and warm. Read more about faking the history in my previous post, if still interested.

It doesn't however end when the picking is done. There must be a twist in my story, especially if the title suggests so, but this time it isn't a Smek twist. When the berries have been cleaned, i.e. all leaves and other impurity that doesn't belong there have been removed, it's time to smash them. Yes, the picture number 2 demonstrates how it's done. You push and twist it (there you go) with a smashing device, until it's mostly paste-like. You can use the same "weapon" smashing lingonberries as you do when smashing potatoes. Then you put a lot of sugar (it's not necessary, but the taste is pretty acid (hapokas) without) and mix it while still twisting. That's how the lingonberry jam is done. No extra ingredients, no food additives! Easy as pie and healthy as hell!

I didn't use to like lingonberry as a child, but during my ever-lasting years of adolescence, LOL, I have grown to like it. A lot, actually. Lingonberry is good as jam, used with game (riista) and food made of blood, liver and other internal organs. Furthermore, it's delicious with quark, yoghurt, in a pie, ... my personal favorite is lingonberry porridge. It's basically a semolina pudding (mannapuuro) with lingonberries. I have variated it with (red) currants and apricots. It's also easy to prepare, and the taste is beyond your wildest imagination!

Another aggravation?

I have noticed that many women want to look good outwardly. They put on make-up and wear clean smart clothes when they go to work. It's important to many. I don't have complaints about it.

When a man goes to work, he's more concerned about looking good internally. He doesn't want to screw up anything. The dressing is of second priority. Shaven or not, as long as the job gets done.

Usually at the work, the internal goodness overrides good-looking appearance. Well, at least in the field I'm working. That makes men getting more respect than women. But: when a woman is both sharp and sharp-dressed, she's the ultimate winner. No man could ever top that.

This all was just gazing from a traditional men's eye view. Meaning when men rule the world and all that jazz. When a woman is a boss, the rules may be turned upside down. Pretty boys with brains get the most respect.

I may be wrong, but this idea occurred to me today, and I decided to try it out in my blog. My observations haven't been that triumphant before and I don't expect it to happen any other way this time either. Something to think about at least?

Over(s)lap in my face(t)?

The company I work for was merged into a bigger company with two other companies last month. Yes, we are going for global world domination, LOL! Seriously, we got bigger threefold, which leads to some questions. It always does.

In an info session, we were notified that the fusion will not affect anyone. How come I knew that? After followed a number of merges in the newspapers, they have always told that it won't lead to any changes in the company. And after six months or so, they always tell us that of course we had to cut down overlapping resources and thus some of the personnel has to go. It happens every time. I can't see why it wouldn't occur with our case.

It's perfectly understandable that when three companies become one, there must be a lot of overlapping around. Rarely the management gets affected by it though. But this lying about it really pisses me off. Why do they pretend as the merge wouldn't affect anyone? Are they the only ones in the world who don't know the truth? Are they so pompous that they think they can make it, not giving room for reasoning, or a reason for that matter?

I think they are only buying time. The workers must keep working. It's easier to work under an illusion that there will be work for years to come. And a worker doesn't know if he/she's the one to go in the end. Personally, I'm expecting to hear from our management the sad, "unexpected" news not later than right after this Christmas. Then, I can write "What'd I say?", which is just about the only consolation I can think of right now.

Smek joins the Twitter community [edit]

The world is full of... compromises? I wasn't too keen on starting to write this blog in Finnish, in spite of its pros (and cons). The readers consist however more and more of Finns. My answer to that may be stupid and temporary, but now I joined the Twitter too. And there I'm writing only in Finnish. You can see my latest twitter post at the end of this blog page, so you basically don't have to visit the Twitter at all. That is, if you don't mind staying out of progress. Progress, my ass, you might say. I'm just finding it out, so I can't really tell.

If you really want to know, I'm bored. But the boredom is the word sometimes. Without it, I probably would never have started Facebook nor Twitter, never got introduced to P2P or Skype, not to mention Messenger; hell, I would never have even blogged! And I have felt mostly good about blogging. No-one knows how long these hype-smelling pastime products will live, but right now that isn't the question. It's more about sharing your thoughts with people who are interested in them. Arguing perhaps, commenting, encouraging, exchanging opinions. Broaden our visions and attitudes to life, at its most optimistic way of seeing it.

I'm not a mentalist, but it seems obvious even by now, that these gadgets, toys for socially active people, will be gathered under one portal application, if you will. From there you can control all of these 'needs'. And from there your 'needs' can be controlled. That application will be used via mobile phones. I'm not a fortune teller either, but mark (read: mock) my words!

Alright, I removed the Twitter link in my blog, because I simply couldn't make it fit and look stylish enough. If you wish to visit there however, you can find in here.

Nokia for dummies, part 2: Kuuma koira

This is not a Finnish, but a Nokian culinary dish. It's called 'kuuma koira' which is a translation of 'hot dog'. However, it has very little to do with a hot dog as we know it. It's a grill kiosk product invented by a man called Teutori in early 70's. He served this 'kuuma koira' along with basic grill products, such as meat pies, hamburgers and, I assume, genuine hot dogs too. Nowadays some other people have taken over, but the name of the grill kiosk is still 'Teuto grilli'. See the small picture of it, lying close to Nokia's railway station (PIP).

I hadn't tasted it before I moved to Nokia, so it wasn't that famous even in Tampere which is located right next to Nokia. Actually, my then-future wife wanted to introduce it to me. She didn't care for it that much herself, but I liked it from the first bite on.

A picture tells more than a 1000 words, they say, but I still want to describe it textually too. The basic idea of the 'kuuma koira' is that it contains a standard doughnut (munk/munkki) with a large steamed sausage. In addition there is cucumber salad, ketchup and mustard - standard grill spices as you like it. It used to have doughnut jam there too, but it was removed later, due to the extreme heat is gathered while re-heating it.

The taste is confusing. It tastes both sweet (the sugar of the doughnut) and salty (the sausage and the spices). There is a plenty of eating in it, and it's relatively cheap too. It's not a healthy meal, and that's why I can't have it that often. Still I can recommend it to anyone. Actually, I introduced it to my by-now-very-Swedish uncle a few years ago, and he said it was interesting. That could be interpreted that he didn't really like it. But I'm sure it was worth trying for him too. Even now, as I write this story, I get hungry even by thinking about it. The picture though may not look that tempting, LOL!

Today, the 1st of October, 2009

Today Tampere celebrates its 230 years of being a city. Gustaf III founded it in 1779. It's a long way from those days, a lot of water has run down in Tammerkoski, the falls in the heart of the city. Yesterday, a radio reporter claimed that Tampere was now 320 years old. Some journalism, some math brilliance. Happy birthday, my old home town, however old you are!

Today the grocery tax was lowered finally. The reducement is so small that it's hardly visible. When rounding cents (hundredths of an euro) to the nearest 5 cents as we do in Finland (1 and 2 cent coins are not in use, although they exist), the gain may be totally lost sometimes. They have calculated that a family saves 100 euros per year after the tax reducement. It's a temporary relief though, because the tax will go up again next Summer, by one per cent. A lot of price tag changing for so little amount of money.

Today the alcohol tax was raised. This will not concern me that much, since I have started to cut down my alcohol consuming. The point of getting drunk, if there ever was one, has never appealed to me. Instead of strong liquor, I have plans to concentrate on wines. My wife has come to the same conclusion. Hell, 15 years ago I didn't even like wine. Well, now I do. It's not that dangerous nor expensive to open up a bottle every once in a while. It may be even healthy, if you believe what they have found out about redwine.

Today it's official: the great Finnish formula driver Kimi Räikkönen leaves Ferrari. It's not yet sure whether he will carry on racing in Formula 1. He has lately been participating in some rally racing competitions, with promising results. If I received 42 million euros as a golden handshake for leaving my job, I wouldn't hesitate to retire. Then again, my career hasn't been as glorious as his. So far, LOL!

Today the police starts giving speeding tickets after you have been caught speeding 11 km/h. After speeding 6 km/h, they will give you a warning. Until today, the decision has been under policemen's consideration, when the speed limit has been exceeded worth giving a ticket. Now the rules are clear and there's no room for speculation. However, I'd like the speedometers to show the precise speed of the vehicle. As far as I know, every car's speedo shows too much. How can I drive and speed 10 km/h and thus avoid the ticket, if I don't know my exact velocity?

Today I started using ads in my blog. I hope to see the hit count that way. It would be great to know are we talking about dozens or thousands of readers here. Funny, those ads reflect my posts. Now there seems to be a lot of links to criminal TV series on DVD available. It'll be quite interesting to see if the bot detects and solves any of my multiple quotations and other twisted jokes I plant in my blog. I'd better not let it affect my blogging anyway...

Nokia for dummies, part 1: The introduction

Now that I have re-inhabited myself back to Nokia, I received a 'Welcome' post from the city. Nine months overdue! Well, at least I'm welcomed now; it didn't happen in 1995 when I originally moved to Nokia. The brochure contained information where the name 'nokia' comes from. I did not know that, and neither did my wife - a native Nokian. Actually, no-one really knows, but they speculate it's from sable, a furry little animal. The brochure is worthy of a free entry for two in the swimming hall of Nokia. Just how lucky can one get?

Nokia used to be a part of Pirkkala, until it was dealt into Northern and Southern Pirkkala, Nokia being the Northern. When Nokia name was taken into use in 1938, the people in Nokia actually wanted to have 'Pirkkala' as the name, but the president of Finland decided otherwise. 'Pirkkala' name was given to South-Pirkkala. The Nokia manor may have been the cause for the name change. It had existed since the 1600th century, at least. Read more about in wiki pages.

The company called Nokia has its roots in the city alright, although they have never manufactured one single cell phone there. That is something that seems to bite many Nokians. Of course they'd like to gather all credit for it, but it simply isn't up for grabs. When there have been plans to unite Tampere, Nokia, Pirkkala and Ylöjärvi, and call it Tampere, some Nokian have said 'Why not call it Nokia? It's far more famous all around the world!' Well, that someone is right, but clearly doesn't want to remember that Nokians didn't approve 'Nokia' for the name of their town in the first place. In addition, Tampere is still one of the key places where Nokia's mobile development takes place.

The city of Nokia is somewhat pathetic. Most cities own their name for a web site, e.g. http://www.tampere.fi/, http://www.helsinki.fi/. But http://www.nokia.fi/ leads to the company pages. Instead they have a difficult http://www.nokiankaupunki.fi/, which means thecityofnokia. In 1977, Nokia became a city.

I have wondered for a long time, which one of these has used this font for 'Nokia' first. There is a paint shop in Nokia that has a name 'Nokian väri' (Nokia's colour). Well, Nokia's colour has always been red, LOL, except lately when the right-wing took over. In political wise, nothing has still changed because the same old farts are in the same old positions, doing the same old decisions. And the same old mistakes, I might add. Back to the logo and the font: see for yourself the similarity! I'm surprised that this kind of news has never reached the media's attention. They may have some kind of agreement made in the background, who knows. The paint shop, by the way, is a good place to do shopping. Good service, although the prices are bit high for my taste.

The cat's gone

Where is the cat? The cat's in the Moon. The cat's in the cradle. The cat's gone.

There is a district of Nokia called Haavisto. I live not so far away from it. I have heard rumours from wife that there is a man (let's assume it's a man) who hates cats so much that he even lures them into his yard and then catches them. He sends them to a lost-and-found office for animals. That's quite nasty of him. Of course loose cats are a problem to an extent, but this is almost cruelty to animals. And to cat-owners of the district.

Personally, I don't like cats. I prefer dogs. Cats scratch and will never be tamed. My wife hates them both and our daughter loves them both. The conclusion is that we don't have furry animals in our house. There are allergies involved too.


However, I kind of like those wild or loose cats walking around our yard, because they catch mice. At least they keep them away quite succesfully (That reminds me of having to set up mouse traps; it's a dirty job but someone's gotta do it).

Then again, I don't like cats killing birds, pheasants (fasaani) in particular which used to be widespread all around Haavisto and its neighborhood. Also one of the most sympathetic animals, hedgehogs, are a rarity around there these days. Hedgehogs eat snails; we'd welcome one anytime in our yard. Cats do love to piss and shit in the sand, which we have all around.

That being said, I still wouldn't harm a cat. None of us would. For weeks ago, we received a note saying that someone had lost their cat. The print-outs were in lamp-posts, basically everywhere. Then the former cat-owner must have gotten an angry, almost threatening letter, presumably from the kidnapper of the cat. The letter implies that the cat will be killed the next time it crosses their yard. Maybe the next time was at hand? If the execution has taken place already, what's the use of spreading leaflets? Shouldn't the police be notified?

Now we, along with other inhabitants, got a printout of the threat and information about other several similar cases. The note says that their cat had been searched everywhere, lost-and-found office included. Someone in there really doesn't like cats! Ok, I'll do the same to the mice, but those are not anyone's pets. I wouldn't lure them into our house just to kill them.

Indeed, I haven't seen any cat walking around our home lately. Someone has been efficient, I must admit. But that someone hasn't everything in order at his home. Beware of the catman!

TOP10 in televison

It's time to update my favorite TV programmes at the moment. Let's see how many of them I can come up with.

1. The Shield - a great series. I like the total dispare it puts on display. I don't watch it now, however, because for some reason I have seen them all already.

2. CSI - one of the best ever. I watched the episodes shown in Finland already in Sweden, so I'm basically putting all CSI's on hold while I get new stuff to watch. I don't care for seeing the same episodes twice.

3. CSI - Miami - Caruso's legendary performance keeps amazing. He moves at the speed of light, hell, he's everywhere. We should have more bosses like him, LOL!

4. CSI - NY - the same thing as with the other CSI's: waiting for unseen episodes to watch. Sinise's role is perhaps the most credible of all. He's the most sympathetic anyway.

5. 2½ men - This series is shown in the afternoon. Bad time for a working class hero to watch. The first comedy in the list, and the fifth favorite show I'm not even watching!

6. Cold Case - I discussed this in my previous post. The storylines and the characters are fine. There's a certain type of coldness in the lead character, which only needs to be accepted.

7. NCIS - not that far from CSI naturally. This has much more humour in it. Great characters, great bitching. The PC-nerd maid is hot. Nice awkward situations in every episode. David McCallum has had a role in a popular series every decade since the 60's!

8. Bones - this is maybe the greatest show I'm watching this Fall. The lead, and even side characters are just perfect. Small humour thrown between the lines.

9. Law & Order - ok, with it's spin-offs, although the UK version hasn't really convinced me. It's a classic with carefully written stories. The theme, especially in its original form, is one of the most fantastic ever implemented.

10. The Mentalist - in Finnish: Mentalist. LMAO! I'm not sure whether this should be included here, because I have seen only two episodes of it. I will give it another go still.

The series I miss: Millennium, especially the 2nd season, a classic. X-files, in its heyday. Star Trek stuff, all of it. Not much good comedy in sight, most of them are movies. Married with children was good, so was The third stone from the Sun. 4400 was also good sci-fi, but I lost it when moving to Sweden. Expecting this list to be updated, let's see if I will post it then.

It's yesterday once more

I have some theories why days in the past seem often so attractive and "better". I don't have exclusive rights to all of these, but no matter. Just let me entertain you (a Queen quote, not by Robbie Williams).

One of my oldest observations is about the movies. Yes, if a film describes a certain year in the past, there are old cars in the pictures. To be exact, they are all of that precise vintage: if you have a "backflash" in a movie from e.g. 1955, every goddamn character has a new car from that year. And they are always pretty clean and waxed, all the time. Hell, if I looked out the window (if I had one with such a view), I'd see quite few car models of 2009. And the standard of living has risen since the 50's. Take a look at film footage from 1955, there's a lot of cars from the 30's in it. Probably the actual owner of the car, who has lent his/her pride and joy to the movie production, wouldn't have allowed them to be smutched, not to mention scratched. That's a fake picture of the past, and of course more beautiful than in reality.

The same goes for cellular phones for example. It's pretty rare to see a brand new phone in use immediately after its release, unless it's a company phone. Well, in The Dark Knight movie Batman used a Nokia model which hadn't even been released yet. But that is fiction and Tube isn't actually state-of-the-art tech anymore. In one episode of X-files there was a tongue-in-cheek flashback, with Mulder carrying a huge mobile phone with him. Old technology means fun sometimes, especially with phones. I had my first cellular in 2001, because I was strongly against it for years. I had to have it because of my work. It didn't fit in my philosophy then; now I can hardly live without it. Things change.

Also TV's fall into the same cathegory. Right now, I don't possess an HD-TV, and it was not until late 70's when we had our first colour TV. Naturally without a remote control, although they were already in constant use in the US by then. Even in some Finnish series they like to "remember" everyone having a colour TV in the 60's. Hell, there wasn't even that much production in available in colour. In the mid-70's, all the TV presentations were still in black-and-white.

Maybe the worst generalizer of all is the TV series Cold Case which I otherwise dig. Basically everything is vintage about the year in question. For instance, I didn't listen to the hits of the day at home in 1998. I don't even know what the hits were then. I was so concentrated on my own music that I couldn't care less about others'. And the music in Cold Case etc. filming plays in stereo, sometimes even in 5.1, 6.1 or 7.1 (how far can they go with the speaker system? 1000000.1? LOL!). Mono players were very popular still in the 60's. There are no scratches in the records, remember vinyls and 78s? (shellac, savikiekko, stenkaka) I bet that the next time they set up a sixties scene in a movie, they will use the fresh out of print re-mastered versions of The Beatles songs in it. Why not? Authenticity is for the freaks like me (another good title: freaks like me. LMAO!).

About the beauty of the past. When we take a look at old photos or video shots, it's usually sunny and beautiful. Well, those days photography was heavily dependent on light and shooting in the rain was out of the question. We usually smile for the camera, rather than cry. All of this moulds our minds later when we browse old pictures. Even in the movie industry they need light and sunshine to film outside the studios. Rain has often been arranged with artificial showers.

Naturally our own personal memories are alike. When we were young and healthy, without worries of adult age, everything may easily seem to have been lovely in the past. It affects whether we like it or not. People tend to remember only the good things in the past, leaving the bad stuff under the carpet. That may be wise for humans to survive (this one's for Darwin). Looking at old pictures may bring back bad memories as well, but mostly people skip those pictures, or move on quickly to the next picture with more pleasurable memories.

Like a legendary Finn, Matti Nykänen, has once said: "Elämä on ihmisen parasta aikaa" (Life is the best time for man). He should know. Carpe diem, seize the day, and remember that we're living now those wonderful memories of the future! Smile :)

Johnny, remember Winter

As they promised, the weather turned cold today. It was barely above zero degrees (Celsius) this morning. The wind shields of my car were covered by thin freeze. Even yesterday evening we saw a pair of hail showers, and somewhere in Lapland genuine snow had fallen down. The signs of Winter are here alright.

As for me, I'm not yet ready to welcome Winter. I'd like to have a long warmish Autumn first. We have had some foretaste of it already, but I want more. The leaves of trees are magnificent at the moment. The insects are mostly gone. There was not that many butterflies this Summer, but the crickets were still there. Let's make a note: in the year of 2009 I did hear crickets chirp. What a thriller it will be for the next Summer, LOL!

Chauvin's Etude in matter minor

The reason behind this post is to check if I still have female readers left. After reading this I'm sure I won't have any, LOL! Well, joking aside for a moment, this is basically serious stuff.

At least in Finland I keep hearing several women protest: "The same-sized salary for the same work." Yes, that's familiar stuff indeed. Women are getting paid less for working in the same position as men. In principle I agree with them: everyone should get the same reward for the same job. Regardless of sex.

But, as far as I have seen it happen, women don't do the same amount of work. Exceptions exist of course, but at the jobs I have had there has always been a woman who does 95% of the talking. It's humanly impossible for her to manage with the same work load than the rest. And usually those even interfere others work, sometimes massively. They use their womanliness to lure poor men to do some of their work. Am I right?

To prove my point, let's take a look at the sports. 100-meter sprint, for example. Women do the same work as men, only slower. If they want the same fee for it, why don't they race in the same competition then? Side by side. Unisex sports are rare, what does that tell you?

Admitted, I'm deliberately trying to raise some eyebrows. It's only because I'm sick and tired of hearing that 'same salary for same work' slogan. I agree, as long as it really is the same work. And, in places where I come from, it is not.

Cleanup time

We have a personal cleaning lady in our premises in Tampere. She probably has more places to clean than ours, but she seems to spend her time here. She's quite a personality.

I have no knowledge about what rights she has been granted, when she moves around our working site, but she seems to have them a lot. She drinks our coffee in our coffee space, reads our magazines or newspapers on our tables, heats her lunch in our microwave oven, puts her dishes in our dish machine etc. I don't mind that, but it feels weird. In a way, she's one of the 'guys' here, which is extraordinary. Normally cleaning ladies are hardly even treated as persons in this sector.

She's the boss when it comes to cleaning toilets. There's no interrupting her. Unless there is a lunch break. Then the toilet cleaning is put on hold and no-one is allowed to enter before her lunchtime has ended. We need more people like her, I suppose. Self-respective. I usually greet cleaning staff. That's not what everybody does. She is not shy to have a word with our 'prez' either. Indeed, she IS one of us.

Get Smart - TIC of the month?

Way, way, way back in 1985 - a good year for me by the way - I made up the following thesis:

If you educate someone, you'll get dumber yourself!

It means that when sharing a piece of your information with someone, the average wisdom in the world grows - while yours stays the same. Simple. The meaning of this post was not to brag about ancient wisdom I used to possess, but the following news I read today game me the reason to use my anthiques, LOL!

According to an article I just read, physical violence against children makes them dumber. Their IQ can reduce even by 5 points. That's much. Hell, I could have been a colleague of Mogli with those points, LOL! Or his boss.

Well, back to the thesis. Now it can be moulded into this form:

If you punish your child physically, you'll get smarter!

The same logic: while your child gets dumber and thus lowers the average wisdom in the world, yours stays the same. Sad but true. Personally I think that people who see violence as a solution, are stupid, but maybe I have been wrong all along?

Van Hanen goes heavy?

It would be interestig to know how much about this piece of news has been released around the world. You be my guinea-pigs, please!

In Finland, we have had a storming year with the funding behind the politicians and parties. Some of them admit knowing where the money has come from while most of them act ignorant. In principle, no-one has done anything illegal, but the cover-ups and denials make the politicians look dirty. It's all about the credibility in the end.

Our not-anymore-so-beloved prime minister Mr. Vanhanen is in the middle of it. He has been connected to RAY, which is a Finnish money games owning company. All left-handed robbers (or fruit-games, as we called them today) for instance belong to them in Finland. RAY is a sacred institution for us, and therefore should be non-political.

Vanhanen and his party, the Center party, are involved in another mess too. Along with most of the congressmen in Finland. There is a company called Nova group which is now bankrupt. It was revealed that several parties and politicians had received vast amounts of money from them when the company was in economical trouble. Now they are forced to pay back the easy money they had received. It hasn't gone without objections naturally. The 100k-euros-plus the Center party now owes to Nova group isn't actually chicken feed.

Because of the innuendo that these gifts and contributions might have affected the result in the previous election, many congressmen, especially on the opposition side of course, demand a new election. Immediately. Prime minister says no, and the debate continues.

I must admit that Mr. Vanhanen really has balls. Like a true heavy rock star. He's in deep shit, so to speak, and yet he acts like nothing had happened. Quite like Berlusconi, I could imagine. Maybe that's the only way to stay in power. Denial gets you far. Into my blog too, LOL!

In fact, I'm not that excited about the new election. Let's face it, some faces might change, but the composition in the parliament wouldn't. People are so slow when it comes to change their mind about political orientation. After all, it's the parties that "guide" their representatives in the parliament. It would be gullible to think otherwise. And, frankly, I think Matti Vanhanen has done a great job so far. His non-political moves are only a good sidekick to his otherwise boring persona. Who said that politics mustn't be funny too? Not me.

Flea market brain?

I have normally avoided such places as flea markets (kirppis/loppis). It's basically junk they try to sell there, with few exceptions of course. Well, these days I think differently.

My wife has hired a table in a flea market in Nokia several times. She has been selling old baby clothes mostly. They are very handy stuff because they seldom get so worn out. Children grow so fast when they are babies. That's why it's almost stupid to buy new stuff for them. And - yes, the green values ahoy - it's ecologically wise to recycle.

Well, my interest didn't reach the baby stuff selling, although I was glad to hear that we got some money back. The table costs 25 euros per week, which seems quite expensive to me. Since the stuff you sell can't be price-tagged with several digits, you have to sell a lot only to cover the table rent.

There's another angle to it: you get rid of old stuff and get room for new stuff. What would we need old baby clothes for? We're not planning to increase the family number of ours. Surely we have received and given plenty of material to our friends and relatives, but that's just a tip of an iceberg.

This time I got interested. I had a load of vinyls I didn't care for, some of them bought in Stockholm. Yes, I make mistakes too. Plus I had bought some collectors' items just to sell them later in my life. Now's the time, it seems. Records are much cheaper and in better condition in Stockholm compared to Finland. Well, based mostly on my Tampere area experience. Thus it's not a crime to sell them at a higher price. The travelling costs are not non-existent, you know. The sad thing of it is that the Finns, and the Nokia people in particular, are such a cheap people who'd buy nothing that isn't free. I have closed some deals there anyway, hoping to cover the rent for four weeks. Actually, the table is joint with my brother, but I'm in charge of everything this time.

Yes, you have a chance to join this flea market hype and visit my stand in Nokia! I'm not expecting anyone really to be there, but hypothetically it's possible now. You won't see me there either, because the owner of the market takes care of the charging. I only put my things on display (no laughing here). I have some CD's, DVD's, books and magazines there as well. Even some VHS's, for old-fashioned. They kind of fit to be close to vinyls, don't you think?

Swedish chopper in the news

Yesterday, in broad day light, a group of people robbed a huge amount of money in the Stockholm centre. The group didn't get caught while the Swedish police watched it happen with the front row tickets. Yes, it's possible, but only in Sweden. It might have been too 'jobbigt' (troublesome) or 'farligt' (dangerous) for the policemen to try stopping them, I suppose. There was a bag close to the choppers which presumably could have included explosives. Were ALL of the police helicopters in one place, surrounding the bag? Can one bag make the Swedish police force powerless?

How difficult it is to follow a helicopter these days? The police told the press that the chopper landed in Arninge, near Täby. Why wasn't an army of policemen (and policewomen) waiting for them? Didn't the information get through to Täby? Was there a 'fikapaus' (coffee break) going on? LOL! Last year I was marvelling at the robbery in Kista, Stockholm, when the thief escaped by a moped and got uncaught. Now the getaway vehicle was even more striking.

By now it's clear that the rest of the world enjoy reading about the Swedish police. It really makes me wonder, why they didn't try shooting the chopper down. That should have been an easy task. When it was flying above the forest or other uninhabited area, to prevent from getting unnecessary casualties. Was the money in the chopper the reason? What WAS the reason?

The thieves must have had inside information to carry out a project of this scale succesfully. The police have arrested two persons which may have had something to do with the robbery. If the story continues as with those multiple robberies before this, nothing will be solved. And this piece of news will fall into oblivion, at latest when the next, perhaps even bolder attempt steals the column space all around the world.

Je m'appelle Smek

Bonjour, everyone! It finally happened. I'm studying French! I have three lessons behind myself and who knows how many ahead.

It has been almost legendary with my French studies. More than 15 years ago I wanted to learn some French. The French night school courses in Tampere where I lived were always sold-out. Those days the Internet wasn't really in use as we know it, so I had to walk to the door of a high school to find it out. I didn't give up, so I borrowed a book in library and started to study myself. It didn't lead far from zero of course.

Years later I tried to join a night college or something, but I didn't find the right door in a strange place. I had recently moved to Nokia and the city was almost totally unknown to me. I was unemployed at the time, so I could have easily taught myself a new language.

This Autumn I felt like learning again. It's still not clear whether the course will go on any further, because the minimum amount of participants is eight, and there are only six of us. It's been great so far, although as the only male in the class I get too much unwanted attention. I wouldn't want to get to answer the teacher's questions as often as I have to. Somehow along the line I have got used to accept that I won't get any French education, so this feels quite weird at the moment. It's been clear from the start that this language is difficult. For me at least. This learning is more like pastime to me than a serious hobby. It never hurts to get more educated. Well, sometimes it does.

Greedence Revival

It's frustrating and annoying to read the news sometimes. Now the price of gasoline is going to get close to 2 euros per litre in Finland. That's a lot. This way, the oil companies will harm themselves, by giving room for bio-gas. That serves them right! The greed knows no boundaries.

The electricity companies are legendary, especially Fortum which is led by the state. They lifted up the price when there was not enough rainy days in Norway where the electricity was coming from. The next year it rained a lot there, but it didn't lower the prices. They went up again instead. Many times when electricity consumption has increased, they have pumped up the price, because it's so damn expensive to cover the peak consumption. This Summer the news from Fortum was no different - only the grounds were new. The Finnish electricity consuming had dropped 10%, so they will have to increase the price by 11%! Boy, did I get angry to read that! I have tried to save energy - only to get my electricity bill stay the same? Normally, when consumption goes down, the prices follow. But not in this case. And they are even increasing their income by 1% on top of everything. Greed is the word.

This Autumn the tax (GST, ALV, MOMS, whatever the tax is called) of the groceries will be lowered. They have set up some officials in a group to watch that the prices wouldn't go up right before the tax lowering, thus bringing the profit into the sellers' pockets instead of customers'. Like it did when we changed our currency to euro in 2002. Now they have already detected the face-lift of the prices in several places. I must point out that the food costs in Finland more than in any other country in EU. The poor people must suffer always, it seems. Nonetheless, the people get screwed in the end. The greedy rich get greedier when they get richer.

This note's for me

This is the first day for me at work after the lay-off. It feels like my watch had suddenly emptied its batteries. Time is running too slow right now and I'm sleepy at all hours. My personal projects naturally suffer from being at work, but the money is needed anyway so... Ok, the first day, it's always like this. I have some topics to blog about still. Let's see how they'll materialize in near future. I have put some ideas on hold. Actually, I'm waiting for replies. Maybe that's why the time goes on so slowly today. And tomorrow, etc. Let's not blame the work I have hardly started yet.

Stockholmian vinyl logic with mustard

This post couldn't have come in a better time. Today my Finnish readers (or to be exact: readers in Finland) overtook the Swedes. They have been neck and neck for a while now, but I guess the Swedish crowd has lost its interest in me after I stopped writing about them. Beautiful! I also have noticed that while the smiley amount has gone down in my blogging, the more and more pictures have started appearing here. Whether this has or hasn't anything to do with the decrease of Swedish followers, I don't know. But relax, foreign readers, it seems that the Finnish reader amount has stayed pretty much the same, while the other countries have replaced some of Swedish following.

However, the reason for me taking a trip to Stockholm wasn't my Swedish readers. It was the second-hand record stores, of course. I had to postpone my trip, because I got laid-off. I simply had no extra money to spend. Right after I got an envelope from the Swedish tax company saying that I'll get a few thousand euros back in tax return and when they had materialized in my bank account (thus verifying that I had understood what the Swedish text was all about), I bought tickets for me and my wife. As the schools had started in mid-August, the prices had gone down. With 'red prices' or 'last-moment trips' in mind, I managed to get them at 22 €. Back and forth for the two of us! Huge thanks to dear lady Jane, who tipped me off about the tax reducements! I wish you well!

We had to wake up very early to leave the ship in Stockholm. It was something like 6:30 a.m. local time. There was no hope of any shop being open at that hour. So we took it calm and walked all the way from Vikingterminal to the T-Centralen, via Slussen and Gamla stan. The weather was lovely and we had the time.

I had accidentally found out that there was a tunnel in the center, stan, which was basically a round tube. I read about it. It had cost a little to use the tube in the early days, but people would rather walk the other way than to pay for it, so nowadays it's a free ride. As you can see in the pictures, there's not much to see. Now we know that too. The street leading to the tunnel was according to my source the place where Olof Palme was murdered back in 1986. There were several memorial plaques for some other important persons, probably for those who planned the tunnel, but no sign about Palme. Maybe I didn't look carefully enough. Granted, the street carrying his name is nearby.

In Gamla stan, the old town of Stockholm, there were concrete dickless lions which served as show stoppers for the cars. Some may remember my post in my Swedish blog, Moved to Sweden. I wrote about the Sweden's decision to remove dicks in all military uniforms. Just to increase equality between sexes. It should not take an animal expert to know that the long hair is also a sign of a male lion. Females don't have the hair. Another case of hermaphrodism perhaps? LOL!

One of the targets was also to find a magnet sign for our dish-washing machine. We had seen one in a shop at Sergelstorg area, right next to Kulturhuset. I'm so poor at noticing when the dishes are dirty in the machine. My wife does some pre-cleaning up before putting the plates etc. into the machine. Many times I can't tell whether they should be taken into use already. I didn't like to have that machine in the first place, but I kept my mouth shut. There are occasions when the washing up hasn't removed all dirt in the dishes. Then you have to wash afterwards as well. I'm the person who usually takes care of manual washing up, but my wife controls the automatic cleaning. From now on, when I see the sign "DIRTY" (Swedes pronounce it in a funny way, like 'dirr-thea'), I know to add dishes there. And when the sign is turned around, saying "CLEAN", I know that it's my time to gather the dishes from the machine and put them in their correct places. Simple but efficient!

The mission I was on, the search of old vinyl rarities, was somewhat satisfying. There's not enough time in the world for me to look at each and every LP there is in Stockholm area. I have to skip something, this time I didn't go to Solna at all, although there are four very professional and, if you must, less expensive, record-stores. I concentrated on Södermalm and St. Eriksplan area. Man, I was tired in the end. I spent about 50-60 euros on vinyls. There was a couple of gems I came across. Some of them I bought, some I had to leave there because of the price. Man, I should have got more tax return, LOL!

My wife did some shopping on her own in the meantime. She didn't find much, but was obviously pleased with window-browsing and visiting small antique shops in Vasastan and Kungsholmen. She was looking for small sushi plates for soy, but didn't find any to her liking.

It was a rare experience for me to stand in Slussen in a warm and sunny day. It usually rains, blows or both. Preferably hard even. We bought by now an almost obligatory skåning from a booth at the square. That is basically a fish burger, or a Danish sandwich if you will. There is a fillet of fried herring on a dark toast with sweet mustard, red onion and miscellaneous spices. It's worth every 35 crown it costs. Me and my wife recommend it warmly.

We had a little extra time on our hands, so we decided to have a drink at a terrace in Drottninggatan. There was a plenty of cafés around, but not that many bars. It was surprising to realize that. In the end we sat down in a terrace of a Mongolian restaurant. It was crowded because of the fine weather. The service was poor and when we had told them that we were there only to drink, they totally ignored us. It was almost humiliating, but everything turned out nicely. We left the place to watch the booths around the Sergelstorg square. Maybe it was because Sweden is the chairman in the EU at the moment, but there were booths from separate nationalities, serving food, handicraft and such. So we stopped at the Austrian/German stand and bought a few pretzels. There was no logic behind that decision, but they tasted alright.

There was also a protest going on, which we skipped. They demanded that USA should leave Iraq or Afghanistan or whatever. It's quite easy to demonstrate here in Stockholm. You sing a couple of songs, stand among the crowd and go to your well-equipped home. Pleased with yourself. With a 100-meg broadband. I may sound a bit ironic here, but let's face it, how much good did that demonstration do? Did the US leave any country?

Finally we hopped on a Silja line ship near Gärdet. The subway was working as before. There was not many evident changes in sight. The Kista Galleria was still under construction. The sushi was great there. The old SL magnet tickets were still in use, although the new ones which could be loaded with any tickets I suppose had arrived. Again we were damn too tired to exploit the tax free shopping in the ship. Unlike for so many, our goal wasn't there, it had been in the city.
I bought a can of cola with a new label. Limited edition and all. I had to take pictures of it. Two reasons. The first: It was the first time ever I had had a cabin with a real window! I had already forgotten that they exist. It was a nice view to the harbour, and I wanted to use it in the background of another picture collage of mine. The second: I don't know how readable it is, but the can says '0 calories'. When you take a closer look at the list of contents, you can see that the calory amount is 1. What..? Why do they lie to us? Or rather: why do they let themselves get caught? I both hate and love this kind of so-called informative lapses.

In two-month's time, I will be visiting Stockholm again. And you can read about it in my blog naturally. That piece of information hardly keeps the remaining Swedish readers online for me, but just in case a bit of advertising. One thing that I was expecting was to meet my old (or ever so young, LOL) colleague Jaime in Stockholm. My another friend Amig-J had met him there twice, without setting a date! I failed to meet Jaime by accident, which led me to thinking that maybe he had moved away from the city. Just kidding, I know he lurks there somewhere. With or without an instrument in his hand, LOL!

September in Smekland

It's so like me to start up more ideas than I can chew. I almost forgot my brand new monthly Smekland comic strip series. I have a rule that I won't use more than 30 minutes in finishing the picture. Unfortunately it shows, but as you can see, the pun if there ever is one, is quite lame as well. This time I used MS Paint to do it. Maybe I'll get back to GIMP next time. At least it's in colour this time. Enjoy, if you can, LOL!


Stayed up for crabs

Last Saturday I entered the first crawfish party ever for me. It was fun. It was... an experience. Funny that I had to come back to Nokia from Stockholm to do it. But I guess things happen that way.

We were invited to a buddying family of ours to spend an evening at their house. They had fished crabs in a river nearby, Nokianvirta. That's the main stream (pun intended) that runs through the city of Nokia, being the main reason for the birth of the city as a matter of fact. The huge paper and gum factories still lie by the river. Well, they have put some baby crabs in the river years ago and now they are up for grabs.

As the tradition requires, we took a schnapps in the beginning of the meal. A small drink of hard booze down the hatch. Then we learnt how to eat crawfish. I knew already that it's pretty messy but also that it couldn't be avoided. There's not much to eat in one crab, but it tasted good. Surprisingly good actually. Along with wine and more alcohol we discussed and had a pleasant evening there. We even went for a walk to see some crabs in pots placed in the riverside. The view from there was beautiful. It was chilly, dark - only some city lights glimmering and reflecting in the river. I hadn't seen Nokia in that light before.

Luckily I didn't get too drunk. We had planned to take a taxi anyway, so there was no need to worry about it. This Swedish custom of having crawfish parties includes singing crab(by) songs, but we skipped that. In fact, it was not even mentioned. Knowing our family singing abilities, that was a wise choice. At 2:30 a.m., we were climbing from a taxi to walk home and almost straight to bed. It was a reasonably controlled drunk and the hang-over that followed the next day. Naturally. This time a fair enough price to pay.