Tänä jouluna jokainen uskoo joullupukkiin

Suomalainen lyhytelokuvasta puolitoistatuntiseksi venynyt joulupukki-splätter pyyhkii timokoivusaloilla kuurankukkia norjalaisen tuntutikämpän ikkunoista. Siitä saatte varman päälle pelaajat.

 

Hieman raakilehan tuo Rare Exports on, mutta meininki on sellainen että tonttulakit pois. Filmi on täynnä onelinereitä, joista parhaat yltävät ihan Arska-tasolle: "Kohta tulee piiskaa", etc.

Parhaista roolisuorituksista norjalaisen mieskuoron jälkeen tekevät isä ja poika Jorma ja Onni Tommila ja etenkin Onni Raunon Pietari-poikana ja kun vielä lisätään joukkoon maininta, että Jorma sattuu olemaan ohjaajan sisaren mies ja siten ohjaaja on Onnin eno. Herttainen perheyritys siis.

Auton vaihtoa

Saab 96 -80? LCP-160, Nissan Sunny -87 LKR-201 (?), Mazda 626 -98 JCK-563(?), Mazda 6 -05 BYV-654 ... henkilökohtaista autohistoriaa parin kymmenen vuoden ajalta. Nyt sitten katoksena alla kyyhöttää ensimmäinen eurooppalainen auto sitten aiemmin poliisin miehistönkuljetusautona [sic!] toiminee Saabin -- The Passat Variant ja samalla myös ihka ensimmäinen työsuhdeauto. Uusihan se ei ole, tänään tuli mittariin jo 30,000Km.

Luettua: Clive Barker; Waeveworld & Heikki Aittokoski; Lihavan kptkan maassa

ja samana päivä luin loppuun kaksi kirjaa... alottanut olen tosin jo jokin aika sitten molemmat.

Clive Barker ... no jätti hieman kylmäksi

Heikki Aittokoski, nuoren HS:n kirjeenvaihtajan mietteitä yhdistyneestä Saksasta vuosituhannen vaihteessa. Zeitgeist joka oli ja meni. Nyt Alexender Platz ja Mitte ovat jo täysin porvarillistuneet.

edit: No kun kerran meni jo tuo vuosi vaihtumaan, niin kirjataan tähän vielä Esko Valtaoja Avoin tie: Kurkistuksia tulevaisuuteen.

Last few weeks...

been quite wild: first in Tampere for Einstürzende Neubauten, then some renovation at the apartment and three nights in Scandic Espoo, and lastly this week in Berlin and Munich.

Einstürzende Neubauten was great! It was their 30 years tour and for some reason they did passed Helsinki and went to Tampere instead. Someone at the venue said that at least Wilco said that the audience in Tampere is far greater than in Helsinki, but I guess that was just suck up.

First night was called "an evening with E N". There was all sorts of program: live show with the band, Blixa making his own performance, Rudi's band (did not catch the name)... It was all great and since it lasted about 1800 to 2200 it left convenient time to spend in various clubs and bars in Hämeenkatu.

I stayed at the Hotel Cumulus with view to the Tammerkoski and the dam there. Very nice view from 7th floor. The hotel is a bit worn out and the breakfast is nothing to talk about, but for the 75€ per night, that was not too bad -- although I have to say still overly expensive, but then that goes for the Finnish hotel stays in general.

The second night witnessed a two and half hours long concert, which unfortunately did not include Perpetum Mobile. The band also had to leave the jet engine in London due some restriction by logistics department and the audience was left to them own devices to imagine the whirling noise that is supposed to make the solo of the song I cannot just now recall.

I had the plan to take an early train to Helsinki and make in decent time back to work, but the nice n97 mini had a surprise for by losing the battery during the night and since I woke up around 9 am and had two hours train trip ahead ... well let's just say that trying to work in IC train without wlan and with crappy 3g is not too fun.

The Berlin / Munich gig was pure business. Got to take a lift with paternoster in Siemensdamm site. Stayed at Radisson Blu (ex-SAS) hotel in Berlin-mitte, just next to Museum Island. My room was facing the Berlin Dom at the other bank of Spree. Went to visit the Hitler and the Germans exhibition in the Deutsches Historisches Museum, travelled back with riksha (did not negotiate the price, since knowing all to well the it is not an easy ride), and went to shopping at Alexander Platz, which has probably changed most from the days of the wall: the plaza is now occupied by big departmen stores carrying all luxory items and the food store of the Galleria Kaufhof is just amazing (Stockmann could lear a lot).

Munich... well stayed at the Holiday Inn, with the room facing to Hilton on the other side of the street. Went to see John Hiatt at the Theatherfabrik, basically because that was the only even remotely interesting gig at the town that I was able to find. Hiatt was not too bad, pretty much American mainstream w/ some blues acts. Not bad, but not my cup of tea anyways. I bet Neil Young fans would have been pleased, though.

The area where the Theatherfabrik is, was pretty interesting though and I guess it does host lots of interesting happenings during the warmer part of the year. It's actually located just in the west side of the ost bahnhof.

HC JURvan POnteva -- Kausi 2011 alkutunnelmat

Checking the stats today makes me happy: Marian Hossa leader in Points and Goals, Henrik Sedin in Assists, and goalie Brent Johnson in number of Wins.

Brent is a late acquisition from last week, doing well this far. Other goalies have been a bit more on the disappointment: Steven Mason seems to be losing another year after the stellar rookie year, sophomore season was a great disappointment and this year looks no better. Brian Elliot is still a bit question mark, managed to ruin my goalie stats for this week after replaced by backup goalie when stopped only 17 from 22 shots, giving a GAA of almost 10.

From the bad news side, although the JPs defence department is of good JP quality: Zidlicky, Kaberle, Pronger, and Rafalski, only Kaberle has been off the DTD: Rafalski even should be in IR, but since Detroit has no roster issues they are just not putting him there leaving all the fantasy owner really dry. And what is really disappointing this far is: Pronger has only 2 minutes in penalty column, a thing expected to change any day now.

Current roster:


Henrik Sedin
(Van - C)
Ryan Kesler
(Van - C)
Ryane Clowe
Nikita Filatov
(Cls - LW)
Patrick Kane
(Chi - RW)
Marian Hossa
(Chi - RW)
Brian Rafalski
(Det - D)
Tomas Kaberle
(Tor - D)
Marek Zidlicky
(Min - D)
Chris Pronger
(Phi - D)
Mikko Koivu
(Min - C)
Steve Sullivan
(Nsh - LW)
Brad Boyes
(StL - RW)
Brent Johnson
(Pit - G)
Steve Mason
(Cls - G)
Brian Elliott
(Ott - G)

World debt comparison: The global debt clock | The Economist

World debt comparison: The global debt clock | The Economist

During the naughties Finland has doubled its public dept to $106,998,630,137 today. The share of the dept of the GDP has interestingly stayed about the same level raising from 44,0% to 48,5%

Ig Nobel awards go to slime mould and fruity bats | Science | guardian.co.uk

Ig Nobel awards go to slime mould and fruity bats | Science | guardian.co.uk

I like to idea of promoting people at random.

English Russia » Digital Technologies Available For Everyone!

It just makes one wonder, what is there in people's lifes. I have no connection to any of this -- now, I think a couple of scenes looked out something I've witnessed back way back when, anyhow please have a peepingtommish tour:

English Russia » Digital Technologies Available For Everyone!

Luettua: Juhani Aho; Minkä mitäkin Italiasta

Juhani Ahon matkakertomus Italiasta. Merkinnät vuosilta 1893 ja 1903. Juha innostuu kertoilemaan paikallisista kirkonmenoista, välttäen tiivisti kertomatta mitään paikallisesta elämästä, paitsi loppupuolella löytyvästä kantaaottavasta tarinasta pikkulintujen metsästämisestä ja niiden syöjistä.

Alun junamatkakuvaus on nykyaikana hieman huvittava, matka otti ilmeisesti viikonpäivät. Alppien eteläpuolta laskeutuvassa junassa muutaman tunnin unosille uinahtanut Juha vilahtaa hämmästyksekseen yht'äkkiä Italian puolelle: "Mutta näin nopean kulun aikoina saattaa tapahtua, että kun nukkuu yhdessä maassa, niin herää jo toisessa." Nykyään Italiaan lennetään muutamassa tunnissa, Juhan sanoin: "Enkä tahdo sanoa, että nautinto siitä olisi piemempi."

luettua: Carlos Ruiz Zafon; Enkelipeli

Kerrassaan upea kirja. Pitäisi varmaankin opetella espanjaa lukemaan, että saisi lukea tämän alkuperäiskielellä.

Coup de grâce - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

all kinds of coups:

Coup de grâce - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Coup d'état - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Coup de main - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Trees Killed by NYC Storm Number in Thousands - NYTimes.com

Two tornadoes in New York City: Trees Killed by NYC Storm Number in Thousands - NYTimes.com

Reminds me off the true "Boston massacre" in 1938 also called "The New England Hurricane of 1938 (or Great New England Hurricane or Long Island Express or simply The Great Hurricane of 1938)". If I am not completely mistaken most of the victims were due mistaking the hurricane as a normal storm and when people got out after the first violent surge, they got badly battered by the other edge of the hurricane whirlwind.

It anyhow seems to be a struck of luck that only one person in NYC lost her life. Would think that dual tornado in a city that populated would do far greater damage.

luettua: Robert Girardi; Vaporetto 13

There is no vaporetto 13 and it is not going to that remote island in the lagoon, or is there? People belong to barnobotti; to long defunct nobility shceme or are they still very much alive?

There you have your mysteries. The sad thing is that there is not much else. The visit to father, oh so boring and as pointless as it was needless.

Still to a fan of Venice this too is a must reading, it does muster things most have already forgotten. Some deep insight is given.

Part 1: Deeper dive into anything and everything that is filed under Ventiana

You know about the casinos, I am sure you do. Have you ever thought about the word itself: casino. Where does that come from?

In Italian language a house is called casa and you might already guess what is the diminutive of that very word, well it is of course casino -- a little house ... a casino in prairie might not be such a family TV series after all. Perhaps the a club house would be better translation.

Anyhow not all of the casinos are or ever have been for gambling, though that is one thing that may take place in such a place. The meaning refers to a place built for pleasure, such as music, dancing, and gambling. Other type of a house is casa chiusa, better known as bordello.

The first (known) casino was Ridotto in 17th century Venice. Later to be closed when it was conceived as immoral activity. City's often impoverished nobility the barnabotti, one of the reasons for city's final demise were only ones (apart from croupiers) that were exempt from wearing a mask in the casino.

Via Adriatico

I have not had time to write anything lately: I guess my travel report from Primavera'10 is still pretty much a draft if anything, perhaps I should now spend some time writing now although the weather outside is sure nice.

We left Finland on 25th of June, flying by Finnair to Venice Marco Polo. The flight was nice since all the kids were on the same row and us the care takers were having our own rows and since the kids did behave very nicely indeed the 3 hour flight was totally painless. I rememeber that the bread they served instead of any real meal was quite nice too and if I am not totally mistaken the coffee they serve is Robert Paulig's.

Marco Polo worked as a charm and we were in our rental in no time heading to Cesenatico. The navigator which comes with the Nokia phone adviced us to take the SS309 which goes by the coast and not to take the autostrada; a decision which we did repent a while later. The road itself is really nothing special. It does not go right by the sea, so that view has to forgotten and I have to frankly say that the coutryside thereabouts is not that picturesque you could imagine from all those country side pictures you've seen from Tuscany. The real treat was the couple of miles long road work that closed the other lane totally and caused quite huge traffic jam: we were really the lucky ones spending only an hour or so in the queue, since from the other direction from South the queue was some 5 miles long. Anyways it being Saturday of all days I am not sure if the motorway would had been any better.

We stopped at Sottomarina to have a snack, but did not have a look at the Chioggia and it will still remain as a open question whether it is a place worth to visit to. Sottomarina looks like every other beach resort there: thus probably worth to go.

The rest of the drive to Cesenatico did not take too long and after surviving some navigational gimmicks of the Navteq we finally made it to the hotel half dead after some 4 hours drive. We stayed at the hotel Esplanade almost next to the beach.

We packed the swimming gear and headed to the beach. 2x parasol and 4 sunbeds cost us 20€ to the noon next day. We got the evening free since there was about an hour to go.

Had a dinner in a place I cannot anymore remember the name. Every other being had pasta vongole, I had pizza Napoletana feeling way too hungry to settle for a spagetti. Everything was good and the total bill was 110€ for 7 -- not that bad.

The night was restless. Our room was on the first floor (that is the European first floor) with balcony giving to the main street. The noise died at 4 am: I guess. My clever little girl put it in the words: "Italy wakes up at night" and was so right.

The checking out was already at ten and the hotel did not have any luggage room, which gave us a certain amount of headache. We had our cars in a shared garage, but the ladies at the reception said that she needs the garage empty by eleven and since we had not reason to leave before early afternoon we had a problem -- to be frank it was me who asked about when to vacate the garage and thus creating the problem in the first place. Well we pushed a little bit and left by the noon, hoping not to put those lovely ladies in a bad spot with their management. Anyhow because of the noise from the street I cannot really recommend this hotel to anyone. The price for the night was some 120€ or so for a room for 3.

The next day we where in no time in San Giovanni in Marignano and decide to stay at the village before driving up the cottage/villa/whatever ... let's call it Ca'. S.Giovanni, altough us being there already for the second time, really revealed its secrets to us: it is one of the nicest towns I have visited this far. The centrum is just so lovely that one would like to live there forever (I do from time to time get this feeling in various places not home).




The Ca' looked just like we left it two years ago ... well not quite someone had cleaned it a bit ... we made the same room arrangements and headed to Tavulia Conad, where to my great surprise people spoke English!!! Ate a lot of salsiccia fresca and was happy. Found a half a liter gin and was even more happy. The next day find out that the mosquitoes had found me and I was a proud owner of some ten new gnat bites, which all showed up a good potential to really infect. Learning from the past I took all the care I could to stop them to get any worse and not to look like a junkie with
plague. Word of warning: learn from the zombie movies and do not get out after the sun is down!




The bagni 42 was just as lovely as we were able to remember. Got a decent deal (sic!) 2x parasols and 4x sunbeds for 4 days 130€. Swam, took sun and ate.... mcdonalds ... really ... to understand why you need to realize that in Italy basically everything closes for siesta and that includes all the food joints apart from McD and if you spend a day in the sun nothing really tastes better than a hamburger and fries and you really do not want to eat local hamburgers: thus we were guilty for the most gravest of all sins: eating McD in Italy.




We stayed at the beach for pretty much all the time, well apart from staying at the Ca' or visiting San Marino (the rip off joint), Gradara (nice little fortification near by), Maranello Ross Ferrari Museum and some outlets. The gyu managing the Bagni 42 Enrico was ever so nice bribing the young ones with shellfish necklaces and other treasures.




The last day in Cattolica was crowned by the Notta Rosa, which painted the town pink.
We visiting the pizzeria and although all the other pizzas apart from them frutti di mare I had were just excellent there is now no reason to go back: this was our 10th anniversary in visiting the place, but it seems that the new management has not really got how to really run the place. Saw the guy from Bagni at the evening and he wished us welcome back soon: well who know maybe next summer.




After Cattolica we drove back to the Marco Polo airport to drop the rentals. I was given the last day free althought I managed to return the car at 13.15 due heave traffic in the autostrada ( and leaving the departure a bit tool late). We took the motoscafo from airport to the hotel: funny enough the price quote I had got was only for 4 people and we ended paying 120€ one way. The ride to Lido was nice though and the Villa Mabapa had their own pier just at the front of the hotel, which was more than nice since the wheather was really warm and we did have plenty of luggage (58,5 Kgs to be exact, not counting the hand luggage).

The room was really not up to our standards: the view to the hotel garden was blocked by giant bush and the hotel room had a scent of menthol that our youngest one could not really bear. After one hour siege at the reception counter we were offered a delux twin room which could be fitted with a spare bed. The spare bed was later revealed to be a mattress fit for a small dog, but the room was just beautiful. The room was from the original 30's villa and had a view to the laguun. With a fishbone flooring and bay windows I could not but just love the room: although I later came to think that perhaps we paid a bit extra for the room, since it was a double room and they charged us for three.





Lido was everything you can expect and some more. It is full of beautiful villas form the time before the war and since you can get to San Marco with vaporetto in perhaps 20 minutes and there is only some half a klick walk to the beach, one can easily combine the city vacation to staying at the beach. The beach was not that nice though. There was all sorts of garbage floating in the water and the beach itself is not even half as nice as the beaches are in the Riviera. But on a too warm day it sure does the trick. The water was warmer than ever, which also kind of worried me, since warmer it gets more things grow in it. Well none of us got any rash or other symptoms from swimming in it so I guess it was ok.

Venice was as nice as always. We got there by private motorboat, first spending a twenty minutes in one glass factory and being exposed to some quite amateur ripping off efforts. There were some nice pieces of glass showned, but since the prices offered were just staggering we left without any shopping. They said something about Finns not spending money when we first time entered the premises. Well we did saw some cleaver glassworkmanship, when they made a glass horse right in front of our eyes, that was something worth to witness, otherwise the whole trip was almost like a visit to timesharing condo market presentation.

On our way back I learned that you should trust your hotel staff and let them handle all the reservations: I manage to reserve a motroscafo for 5 at 7, when I should have made the reservation for 7 at 5. Otherwise there was nothing really to report. Lovely trip really.

This review is brought to you by BBC -- twice

Andrew "and I have no clue" Mueller has kindly reviewed two albums from Canadian bands The New Pornographers' Together:

It seems self-evident that if you put a bunch of talented musicians together, they will come up with great music – just as it appears no less obvious that all you need to do to win football matches is put talented players on the park and let them get on with it. However, just as a team of overpaid athletes will occasionally get turned over by a lesser but better-drilled outfit, so the efforts of putative musical supergroups are often scuppered by ill discipline and a degree of vainglory. The New Pornographers’ fifth studio album, Together, is – to pursue a metaphor to exhaustion – something like watching a lengthy, impressive and pretty succession of passes that rarely lends the impression that anybody is going to score.

and Broker Social Scene's Forgiveness Rock Record:

It’s not that the umpty-dimensional indie-prog melange presented here is objectionable – far from it – but that it’s so unfocused that it becomes difficult to perceive Broken Social Scene as anything but the musical equivalent of a chimpanzee typing pool: when they do come up with something lucid, it feels like it’s rather more by accident than design.
Inevitably, Forgiveness Rock Record is the result of the deliberations of a committee. Hilariously unwieldy hodge-podges like this usually are, and often in proportion to the size of the collective that created them. Even after what the accompanying press release calls a “paring down”, Broken Social Scene’s current core line-up still consists of no fewer than seven people, and the giddying roster of guest performers on Forgiveness Rock Record runs into double figures, including contributions by members of Stars, Metric, The Sea & Cake and The Weakerthans. By about halfway through, it’s difficult to be entirely confident that you didn’t play bass on a couple of tracks yourself.

Anything even close to similar?

Rippi

luettua: Carlos Ruiz Zafon; Tuulen Varjo

Uskomaton teos. Luin yhtenä päivänä noin 600 sivua, valitettavasti hieman ahmien. Olisi voinut ehkä hieman säännöstellä.

En voi muuta kuin suositella! Enkä referoi juonta ollenkaan.

Openbook

Nonniin, nyt mä olen koukussa openbook:iin, palveluun, jossa voi hakea avainsanoja ihmisten julkisista -- siis joko tahallisesti tai tahattomasti julkisista statuspäivityksistä. Oma henk.koht suosikki on hakea sanaa "cunt":

Ruby Murray Harper: In preparation for the world cup i hung an england flag in my window. Not knowing wether it would offend any muslims, i wrote Allah's a cunt just to make sure.


En honestly tiedä mitä tuohon enää lisätä. Tosin en en ole ihan täysin varma miksi tuo Englannin lippu, ilman tuota kirjoitusta, olisi muslimeja loukannut, tietenkin siinä on linkki paikalliseen skiniaatteeseen, mutta muuten?

Gretchen Guarniere: I know a girl who is not my friend but she thinks my daughter brit is fat but she is a ugly pyschotic bi polar cunt that livep off her sons $ cuz she is too lazy to get a job

luettua: Chris Cleave; The Other Hand

Löytyi hyllystä -- lainakirja, jonka lainaaminen on jo unohtunut... The Other Hand kertoo nigerialaisen pakolaisen matkasta Englantiin tapamaan ainoita ihmisiä, joihin hän voi turvautua. Kirjan amerikkalainen editio on lainannut nimensä Little Bee tämän pakolaisen nimestä: ilmeisesti The Other Hand ei olisi sitten toiminut niillä markkinoilla. Ja kieltämättä tuo nimi ei oikein minullekkaan aukea -- tai sitten se on vaan sellanen pikkunäppärä nimi -- vähän niin kuin koko kirja. Ihan luettava se oli, mutta välillä oli vissiin niin kiire alleviivaamaan, että juonen käänteet olivat a) epäuskottavia tai b) lapsellisia tai molempia. Tarina on kuitenkin kokonaisuudessaan hyvä ja Chirs:llä on kertojan lahja. Olisi vaan saanut hioa hieman pitempään.

Isolation

A volcano in Iceland can stop all air traffic in whole Europe for a considerable time -- if the worst should come, maybe even for years! Something that tooks us by surpricse and it seems that this scenario has not been taken into account when thinking about how to connect Finland to rest of the Europe. Granted there's been some discussion about the railroad tunnel across the Gulf of Finland, connecting Helsinki to Tallinn, but that was more or less related to the greenness of rails compared to air traffic -- I do not recall anyone flashing the possibility that we would end up this grounded as we are now and have been since last Thursday when this volcano in Eujafjallajökull started to erupt.

I was able to find an estimate of how much this tunnel would cost. In 1997 the cost was estimated to be around 1,1–1,6 billion (am.eng) euros, converted to current value 1,3–2,1 billion euros. That is 2 000 000 000€. Sounds like a lot of money. Well, in today's Helsingin Sanomat published in their Sunnuntaidebatti (Sunday's debate) column Risto Sulkava's article about the peat production in Finland. He claimed that Finland uses every year 100 000 000€ as a public subventions to peat production, curiously enough that would mean -- well as an educated guess -- if the digging of the tunnel would take 5 years and cost the aforementioned 2 000 000 000€, that is 400 000 000$, then money spend from tax payers pocket to support very questionable peat production would already be 25% of the yearly cost of tunnel digging, you dig?

With a railroad tunnel we would not be so isolated from the rest of the Europe anymore. Some other option to be entertained: what if the tunnel would be from Naantali to Kappelskär, or from Vasa to Umeå.

don'r mock my voice -- i can still sing

A friend of mine asked: "Why is that it is only sport where experience, skill and talent is appreciated by the mob?" -- w.r.t Idols, x-factor and all those TV-shows that mock musical performances.

I have probable answer: the same reason guitar hero and rock band games are so popular -- everyone wants to be a start musician. Of course everyone would want to be a star football player, but there we are more aware of the limits of our body, perhaps due the school gymnastics lessons.

But if Matti Laamanen [or who ever that was] can sing, maybe my voice is not that bad either. Singing is easy, you do not need to be fast or have excellent balance -- you can be fat [and dumb]! If you can speak, hell, then you for sure can sing: and earn millions of bucks [have you ever heard William Shatner's version of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds]. William, stop haunting me right now!

We just lack ear for music, limit to our imagination, but for sure do not have a lack of wishful thinking when it comes to fame. Or perhaps is not the fame, but as Stone Roses so cleverly put it: I want to be adored. You ever heard Ian Brown sing, I always thought the Monkey Man nickname came from his eyebrows.

But hey man, that was what to punk was all about: everybody knows how to make music! Idols is what punk is today.

Case: valkoiset kivet raakakypsytetyssä kinkussa

ah ja voi, olipas oikein mukava pikku välipala näin sunnuntaikävelyn jälkeen. Kävimme kurkkimassa asuntonäyttöjä ja olisihan sieltä oikein mukavakin löytynyt, jos olisi sellainen 300KEUR ylimääräistä.

Mutta takaisin siihen välipalaan: kreikkalaisia kalamataoliiveja, jamon serranoa ja hunajamelonia oliiviöljyllä, mutta mitäs nuo pienet valkoiset kivet tuossa kinkussa ovat, nuo jotka näyttävät aika ikäviltä ja ovat kovia ja noin vähän alta millin kokoisia.

Sitähän lienee joku tutkinut... Chikuni et al totesivat jo vuonna 1986 julkaistussa tutkimuksessaan: 乾燥食肉製品に生じた白色石様物質の同定, perustuen histologiseen ja kemialliseen analyysiin mm. spektogrammiin, että kyseessä on l-tyrosiini kristallisoituneessa muodossa. Tähän samaan lopputulokseen on myös myöhemmin päästy muiden tutkijoiden toimesta, joten toteamme tämän kysymykseen siten vastatun.

Boston 2010 part 2

The second part of the memorandum from the "great" New England 2010 tour. After the Chelmsford I got back to the Back Bay, this time I did chose Hilton just across the road from Sheraton. Hilton and Sheraton are quite at the same level me thinks, nothing badly wrong in neither of them. In Hilton I did get to the Honours floor with quite a nice room, but then again I guess the Sheraton room was also in some sort of club floor.

The day of return was pretty much uneventful, since I decided to have a pizza to go and watch the new Coen brother's movie or masterpiece called: A Serious Man, at the hotel (cost me $14!). There are not too many film makers that can make such a great movie from such a few ingredients.

The day of departure I decided to check out late, well at noon, but still quite a late I would say. Since the sun was shining I thought I would like to go to a beach and drove to Dorchester beach. Nothing much happened there and since I had my luggage inside the trunk I could not just stare at the sea without constantly worrying about the security of the said luggage -- just silly, but I just could not help it. Decided to drove through the waterfront and just see what comes next I ended up at the old fortress Fort Independence next to Boston harbor. It was just the place to have a lunch: I really wasn't the only one who popped in for a quick lunch at Sullivan's, I had clam chowder and fish and chips, both excellent in fast food joint standard.

There is not much to see at the castle island either, but since I was able to see some of the islands I recognized to be the same I'll be watching from terminal E at the Logan I put the neverlost to take me to the Deer Island, although I just made a waypoint in the map, since I did not know the name of the place.

It was a good 20 minutes drive, but still more than ok, since it took me closer to Logan too. The Deer Island, Chelsea and Winthrop, with a very easily recognizable water tower, which I have always mistaken to a bit funny looking lighthouse. The Point Shirley Beach is a nice place for plane spotting, since one of the runways is clearly adjacent to this beautiful artificial cape made by man during the WWII to connect the Deer Island to the mainland.

The flight back was unimpressive: the only emotionally uplifting occasion was when the chap in front of me decided to very suddenly lower his backrest and setting the wine bottle and coffee cup and some unaccounted utensils for an unglamorous and short flight from my tray: luckily all the food and drinks had been consumed before the accident, thus there were no real casulties. I calmly consider either calling this gentleman as an asshole or some perhaps better fitting nickname from Finnish language: I did chose the international version, but it appears that the Finno-Ugric would had worked just the same, since I had pleasure to have this asshole in the same flight from Heathrow to Helsinki.

HC JURvan POnteva -- pronssia -- post mortem 2009-10 kaudesta

Juuri ja juuri pronssille 3 PIM:llä...

Yllätys maalikuningas joukkuseessa, jossa oli Eric Staal... tosin samasta joukkueesta tuo löytyi: Jussi Jokinen 29 maalia.

Syötöissä, siis NHL tilastoja, ei "seuralle" tahkottuja: Daniel Alfredsson 48 kappaletta. Daniel tuli mukaan joskus alkuvuodesta, kun joku ääliö oli päättänyt hänestä luopua?

+/-, jossa Jurpo oli liigansa heikoin: Chris Pronger 20 plussalla, ja asteikon toisessa päässä oli sitten Marek Zidlicky -17.

Huom. nämä statistiikat vain niistä pelaajista, jotka olivat mukana viimeisessä matsissa. Jurpo teki 26 siirtoa kauden aikana, joista tosin Jussi Jokinen oli tulossa ja menossa pariin otteeseen, samoin Teemu Selänne.

PIM tilastossa johli Daniel Carcillo, tosin Jurpolle niistä tuli vain yksi kakkonen Carcillon ollessa jotakuinkin viimeinen hankinta: samassa pelissä Dani tosin kuittasi yhden maalinkin. Toisena oli ylätys yllätys Chris Pronger 79 minuuttia.

PPP:ssä juhlivat tutut nimet: Anfredsson 28 ja Pronger 26 pistettä.

SOC oli ainoa kategoria, mikä sujui Eric Staalilta niin kuin odotettiin: 262 laukausta.

Maalivahtiosasto osoittautui tänä vuonna ongelmalliseksi. Muistan vielä sen onnellisuuden tunteen syksyllä, kun onnistuneen draftin jälkeen JurvanP:ssä oli Tim Thomas ja Steve Mason... no molempien kausi oli hieman hankala: Thomaksella 16 ja Masonilla 20 voittoa... vertailun vuoksi: Martin Brodeur 41 voittoa.

HC JURvan POnteva -- tuleeko vielä pronssia

Ei päässy HC JP finaaliin, läheltä piti: tai no ei oikeastaan. Pudotuspelit päättyivät 3-6 tappioon. Jätin pelaamatta Tim Thomasia, joka olisi tuonut yhden nollapelin, jollion tilanne olisi luultavasti ollut 4-6. Kysymysmerkiksi jää olisiko torjuntaprosentti tai GAA muuttunut riittävästi, mutta koskapa Tim istui penkillä tuon pelin, niin en ole tuota alkanut tuota laskemaan.

Uudet viimeisen viikon värväykset sen sijaan onnistuivat aika mainiosta:

- Mikko Koivu, jonka vauhti hiipui Olympia-turnauksen jälkeen (eiku aikana) vaihtui Coloradon Peter Mueller:iin: 2 maalia yhdessä ottelussa.

- Danny Briere vaihtui Phoenixin Leo Stempniak:iin 3+1 kahdessa matsissa

- Jussi Jokisen tilalle tuli Philadelphian Simon Gagne 2+1 kolmessa matsissa

Aiempien viikkojen superlöytyjä oli tietenkin Daniel Alfredsson, josta jöku hölmö meni kesken kauden luopumaan.

Chelmsford

Nothing to report. Weather sucks. Ate Thai, nothing fancy. Bought press'n'seal plastic wrap -- amazing thing, I have to say.

New England Tour 2010

Boston -- it's been a while. I would check how long but for some reason the search provided by blogger does not work.

Arrived at Sunday. Picked my Toyota Corolla form Hertz -- what good does the gold card do when you always get the shitty wagons. And it is amazing thing how fast the rental eats cars. 30K miles and the car is busted junk.

Traffic is scary. Especially in the freeways inside the Boston city limits with all the tunnels, ramps and speeding cars -- the tunnels are much fun, when the neverlost gets lost.

Obama went and pushed the health care bill through. Now the TV is nothing but health care fight. No republicans voted for and even some of the democrats voted against for the bill. But c'mon what's the problem, it is now done! Get over it!!! Let me see pictures of the floods from Fargo, volcano from Iceland, and whatever has happened in the world.

Staying at Boston Sheraton in Back Bay. The closest subway station is just behind the corner. The green line takes you to the government center just block away from Quincy market. 26th floor does give you a decent view, alas not towards the river nor to the downtown.

Made the obligatory pit stop at McCormick and Schmucks: they had not the scallops w/ artichokes and bacon and the had no key lime pie ... a catastrophe! Ate stuffed jumbo shrimps with crab cake(?), but the taste was far from delicacy but something you would expect to have from one of the local fast food joints in the Quincy market house at Faneuil hall. Had two Sam Adams brick red beers, which were pretty nice with red colour and intense flavor.

Had to make today a check on the Boston trad. sea food joint Legal Sea Food (if ain't fresh, it ain't legal) and had clam chowder and sea scallops. Chowder was the first I ate that did not burn my tongue. The sea scallops was an Italian menu item, since the portion did contain only the scallops, grilled in an wood oven. I managed to order french fries and coleslaw, which would be perfect accompanying a hamburger, but with scallops it was a failure of miserable kind. But they had Key Lime Pie -- but unfortunately very bitter one. But anyways the taste brought memories -- I sometimes do wonder if I have an addiction and if my relationship with food is a healthy one...

Bought a book this far, a couple of jeans and one suit shirt. Not much shopping, but that was the plan. Have spend way too much on coffee, donuts, and food.

Tomorrow is the real working day, not that this one was not: I woke up at 0330 and started to work with my mails. Next night will be spend in Radisson Chelmsford...

Skimba: Vihti Ski

Vihti Ski on tyypillinen eteläsuomalainen nyppylä, joka siitä huolimatta, että hallitsee uusimaalaista maisemaa ei ole kunnon tunturia nähnytkään. Silti kohtuullisen kiva laskea. Ikävä kyllä paikalla oli jokin über-kristillinen poppoo ja ehkä siksi väkeäkin hieman liikaa paikalla, joten jonot ehtivät kohtuullisiksi. Mutta mikäs oli jonotellessa kun räppimusiikki raikasi, paitsi että kyseessä oli gosbel-rap -- sellaistakin näymään on.

Olin liikkellä uusien monojen kanssa; Salomon Impact CS8, joiden erikoisuus on kustomoitava ulkokuori. Sisäkenkäkin on lämpömuovailtava, joten olettaisin, että kyllä noista vielä monot saa, etenkin kun monoissa itsessään on kaikkea kivaa tuunattavaa, kuten lukkojen paikat etc. Lukotkin ovat vielä varustetut ns. mikrosäädöilä, joten eiköhan siitä vielä löydy hyvät säädöt. Nyt ensimmäisellä kerralla tuli todistettua, että ainakin noilla monoilla saa estettyä pintaverenkierron jaloista.

leffa

Descent

Häijy chick-leffa. Klaustrofobiaa ja siitä se vaan pahenee.

Movies more and more

ja kuinkahan monta olen unohtanut välistä....

n. When Eight Bells Toll

Leffan nähtyä ... en tainut nähdä ihan alkua ... tuo title jää kyllä kovin vieraaksi. Anthony Hopskins on älyttömän ... pökkelö ... sama pökkelö kuin kaikissa myöhemmissäkin leffoissa.

** (en tiedä mistä tähdet tulevat, ehkä sille, että tarinan keksijä on Alistair Maclean ja leffassa juodaan koko ajan ja jatkuvasti whiskyä)

n+1 Dokumenttiprojekti: Epäilyksen varjossa
Dokumenttielokuva tapaus Alpo Rusista, suomalaisen politiikan eliitistä, toimittajista ja suojelupoliisista. Ohjaaja Pekka Lehto. Tuotanto First Floor Productions Oy 2009

Kudos to Yle!!!!!! Luulisi tämän jälkene lätyn lätisevän. Uusintaan prime timeen!!!!

*************************** (muutama lisätähti kun Lipponen ja Aho saadaan valtakunnanoikeuteen)

Matkakuumetta

Suunnitelmissa seuraavat matkat:

1. Maaliskuussa Massachusettsiin
2. Toukokuussa Barcelonaan Wilcoa et al kuuntelemaan eli Primavera Sound Festival
3. Kesäkuussa Italiaan

Ja liput ja majoitukset pitäisi varata nyt ja tietenkin niskassa on edellisen Jenkkilä keikan luottokorttilaskut... pitää varmaan vaihtaa duunia, että saa enemmän liksaa.

movies more

History of violence

***

The Blue Dahlia

Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake in Raymond Chandler's Blue Dahlia -- a classic.


*********

New state quarters

This time two new: Oklahoma and Wyoming

US Mint 50 State quarter program

* = mulla on
1,2,3, etc rivinlopussa = ylimääräisiä

1999
* January 04,1999 Delaware December 07, 1787 774,824,000 1
* March 08, 1999 Pennsylvania December 12, 1787 707,332,000
* May 17, 1999 New Jersey December 18, 1787 662,228,000 2
* July 19, 1999 Georgia January 02, 1788 939,932,000 1
* October 12, 1999 Connecticut January 09, 1788 1,346,624,000 1

2000
* January 03, 2000 Massachusetts February 06, 1788 1,163,784,000
March 13, 2000 Maryland April 28, 1788 1,234,732,000
* May 22, 2000 South Carolina May 23, 1788 1,308,784,000 3
* August 07, 2000 New Hampshire June 21, 1788 1,169,016,000
* October 16, 2000 Virginia June 25, 1788 1,594,616,000

2001
* January 02, 2001 New York July 26, 1788 1,275,040,000
March 12, 2001 North Carolina November 21, 1789 1,055,476,000
* May 21, 2001 Rhode Island May 29, 1790 870,100,000 2
* August 06, 2001 Vermont March 04, 1791 882,804,000 1
* October 15, 2001 Kentucky June 01, 1792 723,564,000

2002
January 02, 2002 Tennessee June 01, 1796 648,068,000
* March 11, 2002 Ohio March 01, 1803 632,032,000
* May 20, 2002 Louisiana April 30, 1812 764,204,000 1
* August 02, 2002 Indiana December 11, 1816 689,800,000 Bad 1
* October 15, 2002 Mississippi December 10, 1817 579,600,000

2003
* January 02, 2003 Illinois December 03, 1818 463,200,000 1
* March 17, 2003 Alabama December 14, 1819 457,400,000 bad
* June 02, 2003 Maine March 15, 1820 448,800,000 1
* August 04, 2003 Missouri August 10, 1821 453,200,000 1
* October 20, 2003 Arkansas June 15, 1836 457,800,000

2004
January 26, 2004 Michigan January 26, 1837 459,600,000
* March 29, 2004 Florida March 03, 1845 481,800,000
* June 01, 2004 Texas December 29, 1845 541,800,000
* August 30, 2004 Iowa December 28, 1846 465,200,000 1
* October 25, 2004 Wisconsin May 29, 1848 453,200,000

2005
* January 31, 2005 California September 09, 1850 520,400,000 1
* April 04, 2005 Minnesota May 11, 1858 488,000,000
* June 06, 2005 Oregon February 14, 1859 720,200,000 3
* August 29, 2005 Kansas January 29, 1861 563,400,000
* October 14, 2005 West Virginia June 20, 1863 721,600,000 1

2006
* January 31, 2006 Nevada October 31, 1864 589,800,000
*April 03, 2006 Nebraska March 01, 1867 591,000,000
June 14, 2006 Colorado August 01, 1876 569,000,000
* August 28, 2006 North Dakota November 02, 1889 664,800,000
* November 06, 2006 South Dakota November 02, 1889 510,800,000

2007
* January 29, 2007 Montana November 08, 1889 513,240,000 2
April 02, 2007 Washington November 11, 1889 TBA Current Quarter
* Idaho July 03, 1890
* Wyoming July 10, 1890
Utah January 04, 1896

2008
* Oklahoma November 16, 1907
* New Mexico January 06, 1912
Arizona February 14, 1912
* Alaska January 03, 1959
* Hawaii August 21, 1959
Posted by srpnt at 12:09 AM
Labels: quarter, state

ja "In 2009, the United States Mint will mint and issue six quarter-dollar coins in honor of the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories: the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands."

2009
* Guam

Albuquerque/Dallas tour

I was visiting New Mexico for the first time in my life. Thought first that since it is far in the South it would be Summer -- luckily I checked the weather from weather.com and I was not that totally surprised when ending up with nightly frost and up to 10 degrees Celsius daily temperature.

I flew to Albuquerque through Copenhagen and Washington DC. The original plan was to fly through Heathrow, but BA end up cancelling the flight form London to Dallas. That then ment BLUE1&SAS. Traveling on Sunday and having the coach ticket means that with BLUE1 you are not only not paid for the traveling time, but you would also need to buy your own food, since only the coffee&soda is free. SAS kindly offers two drinks: one w/ meal and another right after that -- the rest will cost you money: beer $5. I manage to get one beer free, cause the payment with credit card did not work.

Copenhagen was nice as usual, but since the the deicing of the motors at Helsinki-Vantaa started when the taxing should have started we got that late to CPH there was no time to visit the Diners lounge or any of the fancy snack bars, which have been found to be world class.

Washington was just plain awful. The queue to the immigration took something like 2 hours. The check itself was not anything special, naturally my September visit might have helped here, but there was no any extra layer of security checking attached. My guess is that the officers try to grill the Asian travelers by leaving them standing there for indeterminable time and checking if they are getting nervous or not.

Well "luckily" the flight from IDC to Albuquerque was late and that left us plenty of time to have a bite. This was then the first of the many magnificent hamburgers I ate during the trip -- and Sam Adams too. The flight itself was not anything remarkable. I could not sleep much, so I just waited to flight to end. Unfortunately I had miscalculated the number of time zones and I was getting ready to land an hour too early -- caused some minor disappointment there.

Albuquerque Hertz did not much appreciate my Gold Card and we end up having a battered old Toyota Camry with lazy 2.4 4 cylinder.

The whole trip to the Albuquerque took full 24 hours. One of the longest yet. New Mexico is not that too far, but a small amount of bad luck easily delays you a lot.

We stayed at Hyatt Place Uptown. The downtown, it seems, is not the place you want to be and you best avoid all the western parts of ABQ. There was a mall, called ABQ, just opposite the street, but I did not make it at all during the whole stay. The hotel was decent, but not as cool as the pictures let you understand. Breakfast was not much and the airconditioning/heater made such an awful noise that most of us just turned it off. I couldn't, I was on the 1st floor and I was not enjoying the left over heat from other floors.



At the first full day Monday we took the car and drove the Sante Fe. There was Martin Luther King memorial day at the weekend and at Monday 8 am there was no traffic. Santa Fe was not all that much. Had a cup of coffee and enormous carrot cake in a coffee house there. Did not buy any indian crafts or art, did not feel that much about shopping, thought right after that went to outlet mall, which had decent bargains. Bought Tommy Hilfiger t-shirts $7 each, among other things.



We took then the alternative mountainous route backto ABQ. Drove through Los Alamos, which was not much. Stopped at the first place recognizable as a bar: Los Ojos. It was a small bar at a mountain village filled with local people -- who at the end turned out to be very nice folks: hunters, bikers.... Lots of dead game at the walls. Good food, although their idea of a hamburger is at least interesting.



We had an excellent beer there, but I not quite sure if it was this one or just something similar:



The next few days went on business. There was a visit to El Pinto, most established Mexican restaurant in ABQ and a visit to Sandia Peak (ie watermelon mountain). Sandia Peak hosted the longest passenger aerial tramway in the world and eating ribs in County Line BBQ.



And interesting detail is that the whole New Mexico or so used to be covered by shallow sea back in a couple of tens of millions years ago and one can find fossils of sea creatures at the top of the mountain at the left hand side of the picture below -- now at the level of 10000 ft:



One "funny" thing was that the whole ABQ was at the quite high altitude, some 1600m from sea level -- this appeared to have an interesting effect on my body: it did not matter what I drank, I had to visit the toilet quite a many times during the day and the same seemed to apply to all the other people too, thus perhaps there would be a place to have a new saying: "peeing like in Albuquerque" --- "One of the body's reactions to high altitude is water dumping to allow the blood to carry more oxygen. Frequent urination is a symptom of this process".

After three days of business it was time to go after some warm weather, or at least that was the idea -- to go to Dallas a day ahead the schedule. Most likely we were still lucky to get only minor rain, since there was a major storm in the Southern Texas.

Dallas or rather Irving provided the nasties surprise. We were planning to stay at the Marriot Residence Inn close to NSN office and I did make it to the room just to find a German Cockroach at the floor of my privy. Changed hotel of course, to neighboring Marriot Courtyuard, which was not much better. I got the first room at the top floor and there seemed to be a very noisy airconditioning unit at the roof of the building just top of my room. There was no way anyone could sleep there, thus I needed to change the room -- again.

Flight back to Finland started in the usual cicumstances: the flight was late. I arrived at the airport the two hours before the flight should take place just to find that there was no queue at the check in or at the security and thus had three hours to wait. Luckily the flight back was with BA and they served decent food, decent amount of beverages including a free brandy and a decent entertainment unit with full control on which movies you want to watch and when. The plane was nice too: Boeing 777.

Heathrow's new terminal 5 was not bad. Had a brief stop at the security and the buses to other terminals were very easy to find. My Finnair flight departed from the old terminal 3 and there was not much of thrills, apart the visit to the sushi place. Had an excellent view to what the chief chef was doing and saw him preparing some greens and failing to wash his hands or the salad at any times. Probably the last time I eat there.

Bought:

AF-S DX VR Zoom-Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6G IF-ED
Vampire Weekend: Contra
Phoenix: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Niall Ferguson: The Ascent of Money
and some clothing

Movies from 10 miles up

An update on movies:

Aliens in the Attic

Goes well in mid-flight over the Atlantic, cannot guarantee that this is funny in any other circumstances

Zombieland

the same as the previous one

Hangover

Much more funnier than I thought. The end is a bit disappointing after all the building up the momentum, but still a good comedy -- or then the previous statement applies

500 days of Summer

Me watching a romantic movie, well if Zooey Deschanel is involved I just might and I did. Nice flik. Grown up Tommy Salomon ie Joseph Gordon-Levitt from 3rd stone from the sun was the protagonist falling in love with Summer ie ever-so-ihq Zooey Deschanel. Lot's of references to Manchester: Smiths, Joy Division...


District 9

Watch this one at home. Not quite sure about the goodness or badness: but see for yourself. Old theme in a new form. Nice camerawork though.

leffoja

3. Terminal

Spielbergin harhaosuma. Forest Gumpin olisi ollut parempi valvoa Seatlessa, kuin eksyä JFK:lle. Igqu Catherine Zeta-Jones tarjoaa silmäniloa, mutta ei pysty silti paikkamaan paskaa leffaa.

*

4. Deep Rising

Ennen kuin Stephen Sommers ohjasi kökkö-muumion, niin hän tuhlasi other people money:n tämän juonen pötkäleen kuvitukseen: "A group of heavily armed hijackers board a luxury ocean liner in the South Pacific Ocean to loot it, only to do battle with a series of large-sized, tentacled, man-eating sea creatures who have taken over the ship first"

Ihquna Famke Janssen aka Xenia Onatop

*

5. Underworld

Ihquna Kate Beckinsale, parempi tämä oli kuin naapuri kanavalla pyörinyt Pearl Harbor.

**

Uusi yritys leffojen listaamisessa

aloitetaan tästä uudesta vuodesta:

1. The Secret of the Moonacre

Satu laaksosta, jossa on iso kuu. Pääosassa Golden Compassin Lyra, eli Dakota Blue Richards. Edelleenkin hieman yksiulotteinen. Kohtuullisen scriptistä on saatu kohtuullinen seikkailu aikaiseksi, mutta ei mitään mikä jäisi historian kirjoihin.

**

2. Ali

Inhokki Will Smith näyttelee Cassius Claytä Micheal Mannin leffassa Ali. Leffa keskittyy Alin politikoitiin, kunnes sitten päättyy Rumble in the Jungleen. Kovasti kyhätyn oloinen ja episodimainen elokuva, joka ei koskaan pääse kunnolla vauhtiin. En ole koskaan Alin elämänkertaan perehtynyt, mutta en olisi kovin yllättynyt, jos tässä olisi Alin suhdetta mm. Malcomm X:n hieman liioiteltu -- tosin sanoen tarina ei ollut kovin vakuuttava.

*