Anu in Blogland

Nothing much

2008-11-23T10:08:00.002+02:00

I still exist.

I don't want to delete this blog, and maybe one day I become more active again.

I'm rather busy studying at the moment and I'm doing rather well. I should spend more time on the internet.

That's all folks.

I Surrender

2007-09-10T17:57:00.000+03:00

Have you ever made a list of "things I want to do before I die"? Very high on my list for over 20 years has been the wish to see David Sylvian perform live. Last Friday my dream came true.

David Sylvian doesn't tour that often, and has never visited Finland, so I thought it's rather unlikely I'll ever witness him playing in concert, but I caught the first night of his The World is Everything tour in Stockholm.

"I won't believe I see David Sylvian before I see David Sylvian" was the feeling I had before the concert, but it didn't get cancelled or the ferry didn't sink on its way to Stockholm (on the way back I didn't really care). The evening was wonderful, the audience very enthusiastic and loving, and I was able to surrender to his voice and the music. I felt very present there and then; peace and togetherness with the world.

Here you can find the setlist and a few words about the performance. Personally I enjoyed listening to the more recent songs the best. As it was (dare I say) rather a sacred experience for me, I can't really find the words to describe the whole thing. It's not really so much about what happened on the stage, but how much it meant to me personally.

"Too much singing in the rain"

2007-07-16T14:25:00.000+03:00

I saw The Who live a week ago. They were fantastic, even if Roger Daltrey had some problems with his voice (hence the subject). I knew that might be a problem from the reports from Roskilde, but thankfully it wasn't that bad. Pete Townshend was absolutely brilliant. And the video screens worked perfectly, I've probably never seen anything so impressive visually in a concert before. I don't usually go to such big concerts, so I'm not that used to big screens like that, but wow!

I think their new album is very good, but I have to admit that the old favourites worked better live, the crowd seemed to love best the songs famous from CSI. There were quite a lot of young people too. It was one of those cases when I wasn't quite sure if I wanted to just sit down peacefully and enjoy the spectacle, or dance around and sing, but I took it rather quietly. I hope the band still knows how much we loved them.

And did you know that Pete Townshend is blogging too?

dEUS

2007-06-23T17:24:00.000+03:00

I haven't really much explored MySpace-sites, it seems there's mainly just huge lists of "friends" that's not very interesting to look at. Anyway I was trying to find a title of a song from dEUS, and stumbled on their MySpace-site. There's some pretty good music (and videos) to listen to.

I recommend Instant Street. I really like the video too.

Sociopath test

2007-06-14T06:12:00.000+03:00

This is just a silly online test, I would never ever believe I was a sociopath whatever the result. I tried to answer yes to as many questions as I possibly could. :)

You Are 16% Sociopath

You're empathetic, loyal, and introspective.

In other words, there's no way you're a sociopath... but you can spot one pretty easily!

Are You A Sociopath?

The Owl Incident

2007-06-07T00:58:00.000+03:00

Tonight Finland won Belgium in a football match, so we can still dream about reaching Euro 2008 finals. It's a slim chance, but if we continue to play this well, who knows. :)

The funniest thing was though that a very handsome eagle owl landed on the pitch, and the match was held up for several minutes. The owl is known to reside on the stadium, but he's never interfered with the game before. He circled around the stadium, and sat on the goal posts. I don't think the referees knew what to do either. Fortunately the owl finally decided to leave the pitch, and the play continued. (I hope the experience didn't shake him up too badly.)

The picture is taken by Markus Jokela from Helsingin Sanomat. I usually try to respect the copyright rules, but this time I just couldn't resist, sorry.

ESC 2007

2007-05-15T02:20:00.000+03:00

The Eurovision Song Contest was held this year in Helsinki, and what a wonderful job we did with it! The show was brilliant, and the overall quality of songs was quite good. I'm slightly tired of it all right now, but I just want to say that I absolutely loved the winner Marija Serifovic and her song Molitva. So here it is:

There's also ESC Webradio, if you want to listen to all kinds of songs that have competed in the Eurovision Song Contest over the years. And there's ESC television on the web, so you can watch the whole final, if you want to.

There's been a lot of horrible music over the years, that's true, but there are some good songs as well. I think the quality has gone up in the last few years, and I'm not at all sorry to see new "eastern" countries to take part. So if next year we'll see Palestine or Kazakstan, I couldn't be happier about it. Welcome to this crazy mix. :)

Poor little blog

2007-05-06T07:06:00.000+03:00

I certainly haven't been paying much attention to you lately. I'm sorry, but I've had some trouble being connected to the internet on my new apartment, so that's a valid excuse I think. Everything should be working all right now. Of course I've also been kind of fooling around a bit... writing to different places, sometimes using different aliases *cough cough*, I want you to know that this relationship still means a lot to me, so... I think we should just go on as we've always planned, right?

On A Curious Singularity you can find what I wrote about short stories In the Zoo and Gimpel the Fool.

Parliamentary Elections in Finland

2007-03-16T01:46:00.000+02:00

It's time to go to the polls here next Sunday. Browsing over entertainment news in Yahoo, I was surprised to find this. It's "a news item" about a book a former girlfriend wrote about our prime minister. No, it's not interesting, I was just surprised to see it there. :) "The news" is that it doesn't seem to effect negatively the general opinion on him.

Matti Vanhanen is the leader of the Center Party, and then we have the Social Democrats and the National Coalition Party, which are the three major parties here. In practice this means that one of them is out of the Government, and this has been going on for quite some time, so it's a bit different from those countries that have only two major parties. Every one is trying to get along with each other, so there aren't that many differences between the three.

At least the media is trying to make it a competition between the three prime minister candidates. Is it going to be Mr A, Mr B or Mr C? Who is going to be your next date... excuse me, I mean Prime Minister? :) I wonder if the general public really finds that the most interesting question. I know I don't.

I'm not going to vote for any of those parties anyway, but I will vote!

Treeball

2007-03-09T22:40:00.000+02:00

Treeball is a "Finnish" band that has decided to release their fourth album I Dream of Eclectic Sheep for free on the internet. I guess one might describe their music as indie pop/rock. I've heard some of their songs on the radio before, but I haven't paid much attention really. Why have they decided to do this, I don't know, but I'm pretty sure it's not because they had no other options.

I think the album is rather good, better than I expected. Go to their website, download the songs, and see what you think.

The 79th Annual Academy Awards

2007-02-26T14:35:00.000+02:00

I haven't been to the movies much lately, not at all really. The only nominated movie I had seen was Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. It's a bit of a tradition with me and my mom that if we haven't seen anything else, we've usually seen the the one that wins the Oscar for visual effects. It happened again, and it makes us feel like we're couple of teenage guys instead of middle-aged women, which is kind of cool. :)

Ellen DeGeneres was a nice change as a host, she wore nice suits, and the tone of the event was rather laid back. If you ask me Rachel Weisz wore the most beautiful dress of the evening.

There weren't many surprises, and I'm sure everyone knew who is going to win best director after Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola arrived on the stage to present the award. I'm not the biggest fan of Scorsese's movies, but he surely is a true professional. I haven't seen The Departed, but I've seen the Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs it was based on, not one of my favorites that one either. A good film, but not really my cup of tea.

This year Helen Mirren was the star of the night for me, she was radiant and so clearly enjoying herself. I rooted for Peter O'Toole to win (although I didn't really expect it, but it was nice to see him at least nominated once more), and well, that's it I guess. I have nothing much more to say about this year's Oscars. See you again next year. :)

Still present

2007-02-12T01:51:00.000+02:00

I haven't been here for a while, but hopefully that will change in the future. I'm still rather busy, although my temporary job is over for now. They might take me back when they need extra help in the future. We'll see.

Unfortunately my grandmother passed away recently, and we've been sorting out everything she left behind, and I've been moving too (I still live in Helsinki), although that's been progressing slowly with everything else going on. (And I really haven't felt like being on my own in times like these.)

All my grandparents are gone now. It's almost hard to believe, because I remember them so vividly. Death seems rather abstract, even if you slowly become more used to it. I wonder, in the future, how will I remember who is alive and who isn't?

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes

2006-11-19T06:44:00.000+02:00

Holy cow, I've got a job!

I haven't had a job for a long time, for so long I'm not gonna tell you how long it's been. :P Anyway it's a big deal for me, even if it's only a temporary one as a seasonal help.

And that's not all, it seems I'll also be moving pretty soon, so I'm a bit overwhelmed. Not in a bad way, but I'm slightly afraid I'm gonna mess things up somehow. I might get ill, get the date or time wrong, lose my memory, get kidnapped by the UFOs...

Well, you never know what's going to happen, but I should be okay. Blogging might not be a priority in the near future, but we'll see.

My post on Katherine Mansfield's short story "At the Bay" is here.

Finnish language

2006-11-10T15:31:00.000+02:00

If you want to learn Finnish :), or maybe just know little something about it, go to The Finnish language, a great place to start your journey.

Finnish is a member of the Finno-Ugric language family, and it's rather different from Indo-European languages like English or German. If I was asked to describe it, I'd tell people that there is no grammatical gender or articles, and that words can be pretty long:

Finnish is a synthetic language: it uses suffixes to express grammatical relations and also to derive new words. To take a simple example, the single Finnish word talossanikin corresponds to the English phrase in my house, too.

I could also tell you that sauna is a Finnish word.

Stroke Order for Chinese Characters

2006-11-01T01:09:00.000+02:00

When you learn to write Chinese, it's important to learn to write the strokes for characters in a certain order. It makes the drawing easier, and the rules usually make perfect sense; you draw from left to right, top to bottom etc.

You can find the basic rules presented in a clear way here. You also find what types of strokes there are, and what they are called (which you really most likely don't need to know even if you're learning Chinese).

When I've looked at different Chinese textbooks, I've noticed that the stroke order in characters is not always the same - or at least in one Finnish textbook they are trying to teach us wrong ways of writing the characters. :/ I guess it doesn't make that much difference in practice if you write some individual characters in "your own way", but usually it's better to stick to the prescribed order. In calligraphy the stroke order is more important naturally.

Comments

2006-10-23T01:16:00.000+03:00

Well, I guess you learn something new every day. Today I discovered "comments". :)

A belated thank you for everyone who has bothered to leave a comment on my blog. I thought I had chosen to show them, *and* to be notified by e-mail, if such a miracle ever occurred, but alas, I wrote my e-mail address wrongly, and I had chosen to moderate the comments before publishing (and I really didn't mean to do that).

Well, I've read them now, so thank you. Somebody actually occasionally reads the stuff I write? :o

Ronny Yu and Kung Fu Movies

2006-10-23T00:06:00.000+03:00

Any movie that keeps me in a good mood for about a week can't be bad. I'm still talking about Fearless of course.

I thought I was a bit harsh when I wrote about hypocrisy of spreading the message of piece in the middle of fighting. But really, how many pacifist movies without violence have you seen?

Fearless isn't just a movie with some martial arts in it, it's about martial arts, that's the difference. The people behind the project seem to know what they're talking about. The story might be simple , but it's heartfelt.

And no, I've never practiced any martial arts myself. The first kung fu movie I ever saw was The Bride With White Hair (1993), which I just noticed was also directed by Ronny Yu. Actually that film was more about fantasy and wuxia.

You can read more about the differences from an interesting article on Kungfu Magazine E-Zine. There's a great interview with Ronny Yu, the director of Fearless. You should read it, if you're interested in martial arts, movies or if you just want to be inspired.

Kew Gardens

2006-10-15T21:58:00.000+03:00

If you want to read something a little out of the ordinary, something challenging, I might recommend Virginia Woolf's "Kew Gardens". It's a rather short short story, and only a click away.

I didn't like it very much. I couldn't really understand it, as is evidenced by my post. Maybe I should stick to kung fu movies. :)

In truth, I enjoy discussing short stories, even if on A Curious Singularity there are so many elegant and thoughtful posts, that I feel like an inferior (reader and) writer. But the good news is that I don't mind it too much.

Back when I was studying literature for a brief while, I wanted to be good at it so badly, that it all became an overwhelming chore, and I switched to studying other stuff. But that's ancient history, and nobody's interested in giving me grades here. :)

Fearless

2006-10-11T02:16:00.000+03:00

I just saw the movie Fearless, and I loved it. If it is Jet Li's final martial arts film, as he says, it sure is a great way to end (this part of) his career. (We'll see.)

The fight scenes are spectacular, and the whole movie is just beautiful. I really enjoyed the quieter moments as well, and I have to admit I was moved to tears while watching it. I guess I have a soft spot for Chinese cinema, usually sentimental films just make me feel cynical and cold.

I don't know how they do it, I totally buy the messages of forgiveness and respect in the middle of all the violent action. I must be naive!

Usually I think that the less you know about the real lives of soccer stars and actors the better, but I've always wanted to believe that Jet Li is a hard-working, decent guy with a good heart. It's always healthy to believe in something. :)

"Kung fu is a means to build your self-pride rather than to destroy others," he says. "We are outraged when we are called 'Asia's sickly people.' But if we are strong and believe in ourselves, it doesn't matter what people call us." From a Newsweek interview.

Currency Converter

2006-10-04T12:49:00.000+03:00

I have no energy to write anything meaningful, so here's another useful link:

XE.com - The Universal Currency Converter ® is a convenient tool if you want to know how many euros are ten New Zealand dollars for example.

And here is a little currency quiz:

1. The euro is the official currency of how many countries at the moment?
2. Can you name them?
3. What is the official currency used in Afghanistan?
4. The forint is the official currency of which country?
5. Whose portrait is on the currently produced US $5 bill?

*
A
N
D
*
T
H
E
*
*
*
A
*
N
*
S
*
W
*
E
*
R
*
S
*
*
*
A
R
E

1. 12
2. Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain
3. The afghani
4. Hungary
5. Abraham Lincoln

A Curious Singularity

2006-09-25T15:50:00.000+03:00

A Curious Singularity is a team blog dedicated to exploring the short story form. The aim is to read and discuss one short story each month. This month's short story is James Joyce's The Dead.(I think the discussion starts on the second Tuesday each month.)

I am a member of the blog, but I have to confess I haven't written anything about The Dead yet. I read it today, and liked it very much, so hopefully I will. I've tried to read James Joyce in the past (A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Ulysses) and I didn't get too far, but that was a long time ago. Maybe I should give James Joyce another chance. :)

I wrote something about Anton Chekhov's The Lady With the Dog. You can read what I had to say here.

You can join in with the discussion, or if you want to become a member, please contact Kate S.

The Weather Pixie

2006-09-18T23:26:00.000+03:00

If you look at my sidebar, you can see what's the weather like at the moment in Helsinki.

The WeatherPixie is a little graphic that shows a representation of the weather using data reported (mostly) by airports and aerodromes around the world.

As the weather in a particular location changes, the characters clothes will reflect the weather and the graphic will show rain, snow, airborne particles and changes in cloud cover. Daylight, sunset and current moon phase are also displayed.

If you want a Weatherpixie, go to The Weather Pixie for more information.

Dental fear and a general update on things

2006-08-25T23:43:00.000+03:00

I've been blogging for about six months now. My goal was to write approximately once or twice a week (about anything really), and I've done that pretty much. Except lately I haven't (but I'll try, I haven't changed my goal).

I have been contemplating my future quite a bit, but there's nothing definite yet to tell. And I've been visiting dentist, and it's taken a lot of my energy.

I've avoided going for years, and there's a lot of dental work to be done. So far it's been going okay, and I advice all dental phobics to make an appointment. Easier said than done, I know. :) There are financial reasons for not going beside the fear, and my dental fear isn't really as severe as it could be, but I've had some bad experiences in the past, and admittedly I've never taken good enough care of my teeth - but that's changed, for good.

For me at least the first step was the hardest, so I guess I would suggest dental phobics to search for information on the web, and start planning the visit, bribe yourself if you have to. The best advice I have is to change your dentist if he/she is unempathetic, and makes you feel bad. There are good ones out there.

Another Betsy in Asia

2006-08-10T08:45:00.000+03:00

Betsy writes for magazines, mainly about fashion I gather, but she loves photoblogging too, so if you want to look at wonderful pictures from Asia, go to Betsy goes to China .

She is actually located in Singapore these days, but travels a lot for her work around in Asia. She also has a fashion blog .

Teaching English in Jinan

2006-08-02T01:36:00.000+03:00

I've never been to China, But Betsy Quicksall has. You can read about her experiences from Intro to Chinese. She was teaching English in Jinan, Shandong for about a year:

"I think I am finally warming up to the idea of what it means to be a teacher. In other words, for the first 5 weeks, I was hesitant to correct the students. I was quite happy to teach, but I delicately tried to avoid pointing out their mistakes. With many students, it feels like trying to coax a shy kitten to come over to you. You don't want to make any sudden movements and scare it back into the corner. You have to be encouraging. Today, I was more critical (constructively) and it paid off.
My fear is that some students are thinking: Who is this young, rich, American kid and what are her qualifications anyway?"

And she visited other places as well:

"We spent one day in a tropical city called Jinhong before setting off on our final trek. Jinhong is home to dozens of ethnic minorities. It felt as though we had left China. There was Dai script on street signs and storefronts, the people looked completely different, and although rice, meat and vegetables were the main staples, the flavors were refreshingly different---chicken stir fried with coconut milk or sticky rice served in a pineapple."

There's not a lot about Chinese language, but there are lots of nice photos. In this case it would be preferable to read the story from start to finish though, but with some effort, you can do that of course, if you wish.

Learning Chinese

2006-07-26T23:35:00.000+03:00

I've studied three years of Chinese, but I've forgotten just about everything I've learned. I never learned enough that it would've been useful for much anything, but I have a thing for languages. I think it's kind of magical that you can scribble something on a piece of paper and it actually means something. I never get tired of wondering that basic thing. Written words fascinate me.

Anyway it could prove to be useful to know Chinese, so I'm determined to try again. It would be really stupid of me to just let all the work I've already done go to waste. Unfortunately you don't hear and see Chinese every day everywhere like English, so it really is very easy to forget all you've learned.

I'm rather tired of my old textbooks, so I now got myself a new one, and I find there's a lot of useful things online too, tools to learn. It's interesting to explore them. Below is one link that anyone can check out just for fun. It's a little introduction to Chinese characters, entertaining and maybe little exaggerating on some points too.

Learn To Read And Write Chinese Characters - Animated Tutorials - Dikk Kelly

Self Portrait Challenge

2006-07-25T10:35:00.000+03:00

Self-portrait challenge is an art project who aims to encourage self-analysis, self-expression and challenging of personal boundaries among other things.

I'm not participating in it, but if you want to, it's rather simple. The main thing is to post a self portrait on your own blog every week according to the guidelines. You can find more info from the site.

The funny thing is that my own self portraits accidentally fit the challenge of the month: "Self portrait as ...". (Of course almost any portrait would fit in the current challenge.)

But even if you wouldn't want to participate, the site is worth taking a look at. The whole idea is interesting. Instead of being afraid of how other people see you, you can try out new ways to look at yourself. It's quite liberating.

It's inspiring just to look at the portraits others have taken. And it's rather educational too. We see many images all the time, and here is a fun way to think about compositions, technics and the like. And with the world full of pictures of models and celebrities, it's nice to look at pictures of other kinds of people once in a while too.

Congratulations to Italy

2006-07-11T12:19:00.000+03:00

So Italy won the World Cup. Well done, I'm rather pleased with that. I wish Cannavaro would've won the Golden Ball instead of Zidane, because in this World Cup defenders were the true stars. I also wish Zidane wouldn't have ended his carrier the way he did, but oh well. (I've never really liked him as much as I should have anyway.)

It was my grandmother's funeral on Sunday as well, so I wasn't really as thrilled about football as I might have been otherwise. My grandmother died at the age of 89, and she was ready to leave this world, but still it's quite sad.

So I watched the games, but my heart wasn't always in it. Still I find sports events like this rather comforting, the ones that have long history give me a rare sense of continuity in this fleeting world.

The World Cup Update

2006-06-25T16:56:00.000+03:00

Some very important personal matters have distracted my World Cup experience, but I've seen at least parts of every game being played.

I got 11 out of 16 right, when I tried to predict which teams will advance from the group stage. I guess that's a pretty average result. I got things wrong mostly because of wishful thinking.

I think Ghana has been the biggest (positive) surprise so far, or maybe the Czech Republic not making it through, but they had a lot of injury worries. Personally I was most upset about the Korea Republic's exit, because they played well and entertainingly.

Many defenders have caught my eye, even if they're not usually the biggest stars; the majestic Rafael Marquez seemed to be involved in everything when Mexico was playing, and Philip Lahm has played an important part in Germany's success with for example scoring the first goal in the whole tournament.

Argentina's Gabriel Heinze's been one of my favorites for some time now, so I follow him closely, I think he's had some hits and misses so far. And it's such a pleasure to watch Cafu, because he so obviously enjoys playing football.

Soccer Videos

2006-06-13T18:48:00.000+03:00

If you really think that three games a night isn't enough football for you, you can watch some funny video clips on Soccer Videos.

I suppose at least some of them are TV ads, but I haven't seen most of them before.

Group H (the World Cup)

2006-06-04T15:54:00.000+03:00

Saudi Arabia
Spain
Tunisia
Ukraine

Spain are perennial underachievers in the WC, but this time they might have a chance. Ukraine has some injury worries, and Saudi Arabia is probably not strong enough to advance, so I think that Spain and Tunisia will qualify from Group H (although Spain and Ukraine would be a more sensible choise I guess).

Group G (the World Cup)

2006-06-04T15:51:00.000+03:00

France
South Korea
Switzerland
Togo

I feel rather ambiguous about France, it's a good team with many problems. There's too much fighting over the starting line-up, and there's too much respect for the big stars. I don't know if they really work well as a team.

In this group anything can happen. Togo is unfamiliar to me, but South Korea and Switzerland are decent enough. I say that France and South Korea will go through.

Group F (The World Cup)

2006-06-04T15:03:00.000+03:00

Australia
Brazil
Croatia
Japan

Brazil is everybody's favourite. I'm usually hoping that some other team could win, because it's just so unfair that they always do well. But they are good, and I quite like Ronaldinho. I'm afraid the pressure to be the best player (and constantly cheerful) is getting to him a little bit. And they can't win all the time, can they?

Croatia is a good, solid team. Japan's also probably stronger than people think, but I don't think Australia will advance. The match order will favor Japan - that's my theory - so Brazil and Japan will advance. (Croatia is a good bet too.)

Group E (The World Cup)

2006-06-04T14:53:00.000+03:00

Czech Republic
Ghana
Italy
United States

I thought the Czech Republic was the best team in the Euro 2004 (never mind they didn't win). I wish them lots of luck, although some of their key players might be getting past their prime.

Italy tends to play too cautiously. The players are very skillful, but after they score one goal they just concentrate on defending their lead, and that just doesn't work! Will they ever learn? (And they're always bragging about their "superior tactics". I don't get it!) the scandals in Italy surrounding football might distract them also.

I think the United States might be physically strong and slightly underestimated. I'm sorry again, but except for Michael Essien, Ghana is quite unfamiliar to me. Their friendlies have gone rather well though.

The Czech Republic and Italy to qualify. But there's a good chance for some upsets.

Group D (the World Cup)

2006-06-01T00:42:00.000+03:00

Angola
Iran
Mexico
Portugal

I wish Portugal will do well. They have many entertaining players like Cristiano Ronaldo, so they're fun to watch. Iran or Mexico will take the second place. Iran might be a dark horse, but I guess my vote still goes for Mexico. I don't really know anything about Angola.

Group C (the World Cup)

2006-05-31T00:51:00.000+03:00

Argentina
Côte d'Ivoire
Netherlands
Serbia and Montenegro

The group of death. The outcome is impossible to predict, Serbia and Montenegro is probably the least favourite to advance, but who knows. I thought they looked to be tiring towards the end of the match I saw.

It's quite possible for the Netherlands to win the whole World Cup, but I predict that Argentina and Ivory Coast will go through.

Group B (the World Cup)

2006-05-29T22:26:00.000+03:00

England
Paraguay
Sweden
Trinidad and Tobago

England and Sweden seem like clear favourites to advance, but Paraguay might surprise them. England has problems with their strikers, but their midfield is very strong. I expect Lampard and Gerrard to score most of their goals. Peter Crouch or Theo Walcott have a chance to become new stars if everything goes perfectly.

I saw some friendlies, and I think Paraguay will have trouble with their defence. Sweden also seems rather confused about their defensive line-up, but they will attack relentlessly (or maybe not, the results lately have been less than promising). As they're our neighbours I pretend to believe in them still. :/

Trinidad and Tobago have Dwight Yorke and Shaka Hislop, but that's not enough to make a good team, sorry guys.

Group A (my World Cup predictions)

2006-05-29T11:02:00.000+03:00

The Football World Cup starts with a group stage. There are eight groups, and the top two teams from each group advance to the knockout stage.

I think the usual suspects will do well, but there'll always be some surprises. No-one's yet forgotten how Greece won the European Championships.

In my analysis I favor the teams and players I'm familiar with, and I'm heavily influenced by experts' opinions. :)

(I will most likely edit parts of the posts after getting more information. There are many friendlies being played before the WC, and I'll watch some of those. However I won't be changing my predictions after the games start, naturally!)

Group A

Costa Rica
Ecuador
Germany
Poland

Germany is the clear favourite in group A. They're the host nation, and they have a solid team. I think they'll go far.

Costa Rica is most likely the weakest team, and playing in Europe favors Poland. However I'd like to see Ecuador to finish second.

Hard Rock Hallelujah!

2006-05-21T01:43:00.000+03:00

Oh my god! Finland has just won the Eurovision Song Contest!

I've watched the show faithfully since I was a kid. Many people hate it, but I've always thought it's great fun.

Finland has entered the contest 40 times, and it's nearly become part of our national identity that we'll never succeed. We're always moaning about that (and about Sweden doing so well), but now all that is over. (I'm not sure I can deal with that...)

Lordi's victory was monstrous, but don't try to tell me they only won because of the shock value, it was a very catchy tune!

"Rock 'n roll angels bring thyn hard rock hallelujah
Demons and angels all in one have arrived
Rock 'n roll angels bring thyn hard rock hallelujah
In God's creation supernatural high"

Writing in English

2006-05-15T11:57:00.000+03:00

When I started to write this blog I decided to write in English. Sometimes I wonder how much easier it would've been to write in Finnish (my mother tongue). Oh, how much more interesting this blog would've been. :)

Seriously though it's sometimes frustrating when you are limited to only saying things you can say. I'm not trying to be too modest here, I know my English is rather good, but there's a huge gap between my passive and active vocabulary. I can read about almost anything fluently but I can't write about things.

As the World Cup approaches for example I realize that I can't really use any soccer terms or phrases without looking them up somewhere. Well no matter, a huge part of why I'm writing this blog is to practice writing in English.

Another reason for blogging is the desire to be part of the Internet community. I might be the quiet dull kid sitting in the back row, but I still don't want to be left outside, and as English is the current lingua franca it's logical to use it.

The potential audience is larger this way, but I suspect the actual amount of readers might be bigger if I wrote in Finnish. It might be easier to build a real community, but let's be honest here: I don't necessarily want that. I feel rather conflicted about whether I really want anyone to read this blog or not.

And while in some ways it might be easier to produce text in Finnish, the truth is that writing has never come easy to (for?) me. No matter what language I use I'm quite used to staring at blank papers and screens.

My Preferences

2006-05-10T14:16:00.000+03:00

I think many people are familiar with Project Implicit.

"The IAT was originally developed as a device for exploring the unconscious roots of thinking and feeling. This web site has been constructed for a different purpose -- to offer the IAT to interested individuals as a tool to gain greater awareness about their own unconscious preferences and beliefs."

I completed two Implicit Association Tests with the following results (and my comments):

Your data suggest a slight automatic preference for Tom Cruise compared to Denzel Washington.

When I decide which movies I want to see neither of those actors make much difference either in positive or negative sense. I think Denzel is a better actor, but I feel slightly sorry for Tom these days, because the media presents him as some kind of an insane freak.

Tom Cruise definitely evokes stronger feelings in me, but I think those feelings are mostly negative or confused. Denzel Washington seems like a decent person, and when I think of him, the word "reliable" comes first to my mind.

Your data suggest a strong automatic preference for Ocean compared to Mountains.

That's not surprising as an initial reaction, but when you think about it more it's not so clear (but that's not the point, I get it). Both seem potentially dangerous and hostile places, I don't like sailing or laying on the beach, and I can associate mountains with some good things like hermit sages and daoist paintings.

2006 FIFA World Cup sites

2006-05-06T16:29:00.000+03:00

Here are some sites dedicated to the coming Football World Cup:

And while you're looking through those, you can listen to 16 Horsepower live at Pinkpop 2000. :)

Sundries

2006-05-04T12:42:00.000+03:00

If you've ever read rec.sport.soccer, you probably remember Victoria Barrett, because she used to be a very prolific writer in that newsgroup. These days she seems more interested in blogging. Her blog is called Sundries, which is a new word for me: "Articles too small or numerous to be specified; miscellaneous items".

She used to get into a lot of arguments with people, and many wondered whether she was a fake person or not. Whatever you think of her views or lifestyle, she certainly seems to have amazing amount of energy. Besides studying she is interested in various subjects from soccer and politics to all kinds of girly activities. I can only admire her ease of writing, and the amount of text she manages to produce for her blog.

Football Fever Rising

2006-05-01T14:11:00.000+03:00

The Football World Cup starts in Germany on 9 June 2006, and I'm starting to get excited! The English Premier League is practically over with Chelsea winning the title, and I have to admit they deserved it.

I found this cute and funny Unofficial England World Cup Song: Once, Before I Die. You can watch the video clip and sing along.

It might sound like I'm supporting England, but don't count on it. The first time I watched the World Cup was in 1986, and then I supported them for sure. Usually I like Argentina too, and often I've liked the teams that end up in the third place. Any team can win me over with a little effort. :)

So here are the teams in alphabetical order: Angola, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, England, France, Germany, Ghana, Holland, Iran, Italy, Ivory Coast, Japan, Mexico, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Serbia & Montenegro, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Togo, Trinidad & Tobago, Tunisia, USA and Ukraine.

There's no Finland, we've never made it to the World Cup or Euro Cup finals (except women have), but "once, before I die", I hope. :)

Q is for Quarry

2006-04-26T04:50:00.000+03:00

Q is for Quarry is Sue Grafton's seventeenth book in her alphabet mystery series, which I've been faithfully reading (in order) for many years now.

It's kind of lazy of a reader to get stuck in a series like this. It's easy to pick something familiar from the shelf, and obviously it's easy to market too. It's hard to resist something that comes in such a neat order. And why should I? I like detective stories, and sometimes it's hard to rememeber which ones you've read and which you haven't, but in this case it's so easy: just follow the alphabets.

The problem is that I've become little tired of the books themselves, the plots have never been really the strong point I feel. There is not so much suspense really, more just tireless legwork. You mainly return to meet Kinsey Millhone again.

Bob Hoover writes of her in his review: "Kinsey is nearing 37 as her latest adventure looms -- single, alone, no children, no hobbies, no quirks, no vices, no pet peeves and really, no personal style." I don't think that's quite true, at least she likes junk food and goes jogging every morning. :) I find her rather appealing, I'd like to be as independent, carefree and strong as Kinsey. At the best of times she makes me feel a little more brave and energetic.

I write this mainly, because Q is for Quarry is definitely one of the best ones in this series, so I think it deserves a mention. I don't know if the plot is that exceptional, apart from the fact that the author has been inspired by a real unsolved murder case from years ago, and you can find out more of that from her webpage.

What made this book enjoyable has a lot to do with the characters of two retired detectives who help with the investigation, and also it's quite interesting to know something more about Kinsey's own past. Anyway it's nice to know that there's some life left in this old series still after I was gradually starting to lose my interest.

The Gospel of Judas

2006-04-13T00:37:00.000+03:00

Easter is on the way.

That is why it's a perfect time for The National Geographic Society to publish the first translation of The Gospel of Judas, which was discovered in Egypt in the 1970s. You can read it yourself here.

I read it through, but I'm no theologist and I found some of it hard to comprehend (and I didn't try too hard I must say). Jesus seemed to laugh a lot, that I noticed. I guess in many cultures laughing gives the impression that someone is enlightened and above others. When everything is clear to you, others' confusion and ignorance seem amusing. (Although Jesus said that he was not laughing at his disciples.) The betrayal part was quite brief.

You can find out more about the project and restoration process from the National Geographic site.

If you're in the mood to find out more about Judas Iscariot and all the philosophical questions and interpretations surrounding him, I highly recommend the article on Wikipedia. It's very well written and informative.

We all know that "Judas has become the archetype of the betrayer in Western culture", but I've never realized for example "that the similarity between the name 'Judas' and the words for 'Jew' in various European languages has contributed powerfully to anti-Semitism".

Black Jim

2006-04-06T07:05:00.000+03:00

Here is a music video you can download.

If you're not Swedish it's quite possible you've never heard of Thåström, but he's certainly one of the most famous rock stars over there, and he's being doing music since the late 70s. Of course one of the reasons he is not so well known elsewhere is that he sings mostly in Swedish, just like in this acoustic song Black Jim . The video is from his official site (so it's legal and safe), but it will be available only for a limited time, so don't wait too long, if you want to see/hear it.

Brokeback Mountain

2006-04-02T13:49:00.000+03:00

I think I promised to go and see this film, so I guess I have to report now that I've done it. :) I don't usually like to give out any spoilers, but I'm sure that just about everybody knows that it's a love story between two cowboys. For me it was basically just a beautiful movie. I don't know if I thought about it as a gay love story, maybe more just as a story about life in general.

The focus is closely on the main characters: Ennis and Jack. You get a strong feeling that these two humans are part of the nature. They are also clearly affected by their social environment and by their personal backgrounds. (It's a far cry from the idea that people are free and able to do whatever they want if they just try hard enough.) The acting is great.

Ang Lee as a director seems to be just observing the happenings and not trying to manipulate the viewer. He has an eye for beauty and sensual things. The movie manages to be both realistic and poetic at the same time. So yes, I thought it was very good, and I suspect it's the sort of a film that will haunt you for a long time afterwards.

Searching Chekhov

2006-03-28T03:20:00.000+03:00

I don't feel sleepy, and I have nothing better to do. :)

If you don't like reading, on Lydia's Lounge you can actually listen to one of Chekhov's short stories, "The Bet", read by Lydia. It's thirteen and half minutes long.

Maybe I should listen to Bob Dylan more? This tidbit was totally new to me:

"In Dylan's 2004 memoir, Chronicles, Vol. 1, he claims that although one album of his songs was entirely inspired by short stories by Anton Chekhov, many of his fans and critics treat it as autobiographical. This passage is often cited as a reference to Blood On The Tracks."

Wkitten has written a poem about a dream she saw about Anton Chekhov. Here's an excerpt:

"In the smoking carriage, Dr Anton Chekhov
converses in odd German with Friedrich Nietzsche.
The latter talks all sturm and drang, destiny --
ash has fallen on his trouser leg

Chekhov is polite, but notices the ash
He’s a microscope with the small things, that’s doctoring
for insight, everything is a symptom. I can tell
he is a little bored. I interrupt, we talk"

And I have to say that reading this poem "Russian Vodka" makes it very clear that I'm not the only person obsessed with Anton Chekhov.

Differing opinions

2006-03-28T01:07:00.000+03:00

I searched the blogs to see if there's something written about Anton Chekhov. Gladly at least Blog Prince shares my opinion that he is the best writer ever. :) Blog Prince writes:

"Through his writing he offered a diagnosis of sorts of his contemporary Russia and much of what he wrote about in his plays turned out to be prophetic. He offered a diagnosis, but never a remedy or cure, other than perhaps the love of life that clearly seeps through most of his work. He was a consumptive for pretty much all of his adult life. It confined him and ultimately took his life in his early 40s. But it gave him such an appreciation for life."

Clearly all people do not agree with this, since L'Homme de Plaisir writes that:

"his stories had no value to me but to describe one horrible situation after another. I had incredible difficulty forcing myself to complete this book, and I was very happy when I had finished it. I truly do not understand why Chekhov is considered a great writer."

One thing you learn very quickly on the internet is that there are always differing opinions about everything. One would think that this would help people to be more tolerant, but there doesn't seem to be too many signs of that happening these days unfortunately.

Zoice

2006-03-19T14:05:00.000+02:00

Zoice is a new internet radio station that I've been listening to occasionally lately. It is Finnish, so you can hear a lot of Finnish "radio friendly" music. I can't exactly recommend it, but I'm giving it a benefit of doubt, because it's well, new, and it's supposed to be interactive. You can tell the player if you like the song playing or if you never want to hear it again. At least it's easy to use.

Why do Finnish people mumble?

2006-03-12T17:34:00.000+02:00

I've been reading a book on Finnish grammar. Oh man, it's complicated. The one thing I found new and interesting is that our language has always aimed to be easily pronounced. That means that we don't necessarily bother to pronounce things very clearly, and we tend to mumble. You've been warned!

The 78th Academy Awards

2006-03-06T18:49:00.000+02:00

I stayed up all night and watched the ceremonies with a little bottle of cheap sparkling wine. I didn't like the first-time host Jon Stewart too much. Somehow the whole show seemed a bit too serious, maybe it's also because of the movies that were competing. It's a good thing that they are making movies with more meaningful themes naturally, but I expect only light entertainment from the Oscars: glamorous dresses and fun moments.

I haven't seen many of the films (yet), so I guess I didn't know who to root for. I've seen "Wallace and Gromit", but I liked "Corpse Bride" much better. Okay, so I'm a huge Tim Burton fan, and I'm amazed how he never wins anything! It doesn't really matter I know, but still I'd like to hear his acceptance speech one day. BTW Philip Seymour Hoffman didn't bark at all in his speech as was rumored beforehand. (He made some kind of pact with his friends about it when younger.)

I cheered for Ang Lee because I like him, but I haven't seen "Brokeback Mountain" yet either. I will very soon I promise. I have seen "Walk the Line", so I was happy that Reese Witherspoon won. I think she deserved it. While Joaquin Phoenix is one of my favorite film stars I don't really think he should've gotten an Oscar even if he did great as Johnny Cash. The whole movie was rather predictable even if there was nothing wrong with it. Maybe there's just been too many biopics lately.

The women always look beautiful, but I guess the retro glamour doesn't work that well for me, because I think I've seen better. I liked some of the black dresses best. I thought Rachel Weisz and Felicity Huffman looked great for example. And Keira Knightley of course. The men were as boring as usual. On the red carpet they always mentioned it only took them about three minutes to get dressed (Tim Burton) or that they are wearing the same thing for the 10th year in a row (George Clooney), so a retro macho attitude seems to be going strong. ;)

Browsing

2006-03-02T13:23:00.000+02:00

So I like to push the "next blog" -button and see what comes up. Here are some examples:

Indaus is written by an Indian guy living in Australia. He follows at least cricket and things happening in India.

If you're interested in African American woman's perspective, go to Cynthia's Interests.

Terrorism is a controversial subject of course. You can find writings about it at least in Terrorism News, Terrorism Unveiled and The Counterterrorism Blog.

The Olympics III

2006-02-28T16:05:00.000+02:00

Now that it's over I should probably make some kind of concluding posting, but I haven't really been in the mood for it. I'm glad it's all over, I've had enough. The worst part is starting to feel like you have some kind of obligation to watch, say ice hockey, even if you're not the least bit interested, just because your own country is playing.

I think it's time for this coach potato to put on the walking shoes and go out for a change!

The Olympics II

2006-02-22T23:25:00.000+02:00

It's hard to imagine how on earth something as weird as curling ever got invented, but according to history of curling it indeed has been around for long:

"The first hand-written record of what could be called an early curling game dates from February, 1540, when John McQuhin of Scotland noted down, in Latin, a challenge to a game on ice between a monk named John Sclater and an associate, Gavin Hamilton."

But it's enjoyable to watch, if only during the Olympics. And Finland has been doing amazingly well!

I always follow figure skating closely. I think the new judging system is a step in the right direction. Some say the artistry has suffered, but I hope it's only a temporary thing while everyone is still trying to get used to the new requirements. It seems fairer, even if Zhang/Zhang in pairs obviously gained some sympathy points after Dan's terrible fall.

So far I think the highlight has been Johnny Weir's short program. And it's always nice to see an American who appreciates foreign cultures. :)

Weir causes stir with Soviet jacket

The Olympics I

2006-02-19T16:59:00.000+02:00

I like to watch the Winter Olympics, but I'm not sure if I have that much to comment about it. The Web is full of stories, blogs and comments, I'm sure, and I have nothing much to add. I wonder if anybody who is interested actually has time to read any of it, because they're glued to their TV sets.

I'm not sure if I'm that thrilled, but the Games provide at least a nice background noise for the whole day, you can do your chores, knit, exercise and eat while being entertained by the brave and energetic athletes. It's a communal experience, and that's the biggest thrill: knowing there are millions of people watching the same event as you are. Of course it's also a distraction from more important things you probably should be doing in most cases.

Blog basics

2006-02-08T12:29:00.000+02:00

I've tried to learn little something about blogging, how it all started and other basics. One place to start the research is BlogBib.

Once you start blogging you might need Ten Tips For A Better Weblog. Or maybe you need more tips. How about 47? And here are some more thoughts about blogging:

A Hesitant Blogger

2006-02-07T14:37:00.000+02:00

What am I doing in Blogland? How did I get here?

I suspect that I have (at least some traits of) avoidant personality disorder, so I usually avoid blogs, jobs and all other useful things. Are blogs useful? Mine probably isn't, but globally speaking yes, I think so.

I'm currently unemployed, and I wasn't selected to the vocational course I applied to, so I have the time. I've thought about blogging, but I'm not sure if it's my thing. There are so many decisions to make, and what's the point really? I still don't know, but as a result of a very rare act of spontaneity: here I am!

Maybe it's an existentialist thing (or Cartesian more likely). I try to prove myself that I exist. :)