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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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!
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.
- Finland - 35,49 % (2./35,17 %)
- Sweden - 29,61 % (1./38,98 %)
- United States - 12,42 % (3./8,32 %)
- Hong Kong - 4,49 % (4./5,49 %)
- United Kingdom - 1,66 % (5./1,29 %)
- Canada - 1,62 % (7./0,68 %)
- France - 0,91 % (8./0,51 %)
- Russian Federation 0,78 % (6./- 0,94 %)
- Germany - 0,76 % (10./0,37 %)
- Korea, Republic of - 0,61 % (-)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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!
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