Diary Q2 2004
MattiKinnunenDiary2Q2004
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- See also MattiKinnunenDiary1Q2004
- See also HzSeDiary2004 for common events of HzSeTeam. I do not list all events them here.
- See also MattiKinnunenLongDiary for longer nonsense. I do not write long diaries so often anymore, though.
- Send your comments to me!
- THESE ARE MY OPINIONS! THESE ARE NOT OFFICIAL OPINIONS OF ANY ORGANIZATION. READ WITH CARE!
April
Week 16 26.4.-1.5.
- Monday 26th
- I got lazy in the morning and took taxi to the office. It turned out to be a good decision, because it started to rain for the whole day.
- We had an excellent meeting about PipingTask in the afternoon. Now the work in the HzSeTeam has started to be really professional and fast. I really would like to have this more this kind of teamwork in Finland too. We managed to find some problems in some design. It seems that it really pays to check the things carefully!
- We had a firedrill. It went rather well.
- I left the office at 5pm to meet my friends and Markku in, suprise!, Commons Place. We had one beer and continued to the Japanese in BaoChu lu. They serve the best sushi in town. And the waitresses are simply too cute for my friends. I have got used to the Chinese cuteness already.
- I managed to find Gratefull Dead DVDs for my friend Aaro Koskinen.
- We spent the evening playing cards and drinking Shaoxing-wine. Fun!
- Markku, Kossi, and Petri had visited North Peak and the large buddhist temple earlier.
Week 15 19.4.-25.4.
- Motto of the week:
- "We've found by experience that people who are careless and sloppy writers are usually also careless and sloppy at thinking and coding (often enough to bet on, anyway)." - Eric S. Raymond, How to Ask Questions The Smart Way (2002)
- Sunday 25th
- Early morning and straight to the airport. Average speed 74km/h.
- Friends (Kössi and Petri) arrived in time. Taxi back to Mr Donut. 80 km/h.
- Back to HZ by train. Some criminal slashed my bag in the HZ railway station. Nasty, not nice!
- Resting, walking around the neighborhood, some afternoon drinks in our rooftop terrace, nice dinner in Snake-restaurant (we are VIPs there, they let us in despite the long queue.
- Nothing much more.
- Saturday 24th
- To Shanghai (by train, at 10.51)
- We (I, Markku, Sirkku, and Tuula) stayed in the YMCA, which is rather nice place. Since it is build in 1929 or so, it also suits well in my old-hotel hobby.
- Nice lunch in some Muslim restaurant in Yunnan Lu. Great food.
- Funny, but strong drinks in Park 97 (5 spirits mixed together, about 1.5 dl).
- Some bargaining in the markets and then for a short rest to hotel.
- Evening: Sirkku and Tuula went to a rave-party in Park 97. I and Markku rested. I had late dinner and continued reading the "Life and Death"-book.
- Friday 23nd
- 15C in the morning.
- No taxi. I took the 66 bus - it took 1.5 hours to go to the office. I would have walked faster.
- 10-11: HZ IS meeting.
- I had lunch with Markku in ChinChin. Markku liked it. We ate too much.
- I wrote MattiOnIpaFuture.
- I finished reading "The Cathedral and the Bazaar". No ideas, yet.
- My chair is terrible. I got a new one from the 4th floor. It is not much better. All chairs here are terrible, extremely unconfortable.
- Soon we will go to the Commons Place. We shall a beer, or two.
- TeroPeltola? showed up here surprisingly. So, we will have some deep discussions next week. Tero refused to join us in the Commons Place. He wanted to have some proper food, not just spring rolls.
- We cycled to Commons with Heikki. Markku joined us. We did not enjoy Commons for long, but instead went to the revolving restaurant. Their Chinese buffet is really bad!
- Do not go to the "Japanese lounge" in Yanan Lu. It is a brothel! We went there to have a drink, but turned back after seeing no other customers, but some 20 whores. Not for us! Back to Commons (JuhaKamppuri? was there too).
- Thursday 22nd
- No meetings today! I have plenty of time to read, write, and think. Surprising!
- I got my laptop back. The first thing I did was to install Opera, Mozilla and Putty. Without them I cannot work.
- I discussed with JaniRahkonen about statistics.
- Markku arrived at 5 pm. We tried to find a camerashop in Qiutao Lu, but failed. It started to rain after 5.20 pm, which meant that all taxis disappeared. So, we had to buy some DVDs and wait for the taxis to arrive. It was hot and humid. Not good for large guys like us. We were sweating like pigs.
- Dinner in the Japanese in Baochu Lu. I had my normal set of sushi and potato salad. Markku had a set meal of pork, egg and rice. He like it a lot. I was surprised that he also like the misosoup.
- Later, I continue reading "Life and death in Shanghai". Now the woman got out of the prison after being there for 6.5 years (rather much for an innocent person) only to find that the criminals had killed her daughter.
- Two trains collided in North Korea killing 3000 persons. This must be the worst railway accident in history.
- It got rather cool in the evening after the rain.
- Wednesday 21st
- Warm still!
- I took taxi to work. The female drive was clever enough not to drive QingChun Lu. No male driver has been so clever.
- No meetings today! I have plenty of time to read, write, and think. Surprising! I will tell later if I come up with something new.
- I cycled back home. We had dinner at Grandmothers: scallops and crabs were almost too good.
- Tuesday 20th
- My laptop broke down - the hard-disk is dead now. Fortunately I keep everyhing important here in Twiki - I just had to reinstall some SW when I get the computer back (Opera, Putty, ...). I lost my bookmarks, which is a pity, thouhg.
- I cycled to work - this time it took 36 minutes. Huge packs of cyclist everywhere.
- Weather: up to 33C, sun. Really nive. I like the warm weather.
- 9-10 Meeting with Main.Basvodde, LvYi, MaunuHolma, HongqiangHuang, KirsiLagus?, JariHassinen? on processes etc.
- 10-11 Discussion with Jyrki on my future tasks in Helsinki.
- 15-17 Discussion on statistics (cell loss measurement) with ChenGuodong and MaunuHolma. This task is almost ready - it is much further than similar tasks in Helsinki!
- I sent the other application. I think it is really good application and I will be really surpised if they do not accept it. If they do not, they really must have some exceptional applicants, or many of them.
- Whole sheep dinner in the opposite XinXian-restaurant. Excellent sheep - even I liked it and ate it - my vegetarianism is fading away. After the dinner we went to Common Place and from there after a few beers and cigars to home.
- Really nice day!
- Monday 19th
- I finally had the time and energy to have pineapple and mangoes for breakfast. They are delicious.
- Cycling to work: only 38 minutes by the heavy Chinese bike. Not too bad.
- First time I used shorts and T-shirt when cycling.
- Weather: 24C, sun. Great!
- 10-12 HzSeTeam weekly meeting HzSeMinutes2004x04x19xToDoWeekly.
- discussion on SeIntersiteMeetingPeriods
- JariHassinen? presented some slides about processes etc.
- Some not so public meetings on SE in the afternoon. We did not decide to do anything dramatic, so no need to worry.
- It is very hot here in the 6th floor. It is rather hard to do any real work.
- Now at 4 pm it is 30C. It seems to be summer, now.
- We (me and MaunuHolma) realized that in the current state of the system of RNC, we do not have so much DC work. We actually should not have any. The basic framework is ready. What remains are the performance issues, traffic issues and occasional hard features. I will write more about this insight soon. Now I will leave and meet my brother. I assume we will have a beer or two.
- I wrote and sent one job application! Let's see how great my market value is. I asked for 6000 euros per month (in Finland) brutto.
- I went with my brother to have beer in the revolving restaurant in Wulin Square/Yanan Lu. The views are really magnigficent from there. I had not realized earlier how large a city Hangzhou really is. I think we could have some common dinner in this restaurant even though their buffet food did not look so special.
- We had dinner in the Ajisen Ramen - good as always. I cycled home and my brother took taxi. The driver drove over 100 km/h in wrong lane. Markku was terrified after the ride.
Week 14 12.4.-18.4.
- Sunday 18th
- I could not get good sleep during the night. There was a disco across the hotel in Maoming Lu. They play bad music very loud.
- No breakfast, I had to leave for the airport at 6.15 am. It was raining. I have never seen Shanghai so empty!
- The taxi was fast - it took 38 minutes for 46.2 km from Ruijin to Pudong airport. It was rainig a lot - I wonder how the driver saw where she was driving. (by the way: female drivers are 100 times better than male ones here in China. Males are too aggressive.)
- It was nice to meet my brother. He looks just as earlier, but of course a bit tired after the flight. He is also too large for the seats in airliners.
- We wanted to take the the maglev-train, but the first train takes off only at 8.30 am. So, we had to take the bus.
- Breakfast (omelettes and beer) in Cafe Montmartre in Xiangyang. Nice, quiet.
- In Hanzhou, at home at 3 pm. So rest.
- We took some new material to the tailor. He will make some new trousers for me.
- Dinner at the Snake-restaurant with JyrkiInnanen, JariHassinen?, HeikkiAhola, KirsiLagus?, Tao Ping and my brother, Markku. The normal Sichuan dishes. The owner was there - we missed him.
- I continue reading "Life and death in Shanghai". I also got the new Harvard international review, which seems interesting.
- Saturday 17th
- I slept rather late - I could not take the early train to Shanghai. I managed to take the 10.56 am train. It was almost empty in the soft seat cars.
- I had reserved a room in the Ruijin guesthouse in the French concession. It is an old set of buildings in a private park. Really nice place, a quiet oasis in the middle of a cosmopolis. I got a room in an new building, which was not so nice, but very clean, spacious, and even luxurious.
- Ruijing guesthouse could not serve lunch for me! I had lunch (salad, garlic bread, garlic soup, seafood curry, caramel pudding) in Sandoz, a Portuguese restaurant in Maoming Lu. Rather nice place. I regret a bit that I did not try their really Portuguese dishes. The real Portuguese food is good and simple (fish, potatoes, green wine).
- After working on the other application for a few hours, I went out for a few drinks. I had strawberry margarity in the Colors bar (great place over artificial bond) and manhattan in some other bar. I was reading the book called "Life and death in Shanghai", which tells a story of a woman during the Cultural revolution. She was working for Shell and for that the revolutionaries put here in prison in solitary cells for 6.5 years. Not even Kafka could ever write so absurd things as Mao and his cronies created in China. The book would be really fun, if it would not tell a true story. I think everyone should read this book too.
- Weather 23C, sun.
- Friday 16th
- 10-12 Meeting with many people about the RIS1 of A43 program. There is huge confusion. There is also much too few persons with any technical understanding of the product discussing these schedules and contents among themselves. Too damn bad!
- Afternoon: nothing specific. I left a bit earlier after I got depressed. I used the whole evening for writing the other application. I hate writing applications - It always causes depression, panic etc. Fortunately, Sirkku was there to support me. Without her I could never write any applications.
- I finished reading Paul Auster's "Oracle night". It is excellent, really modern novel. It tells a story of a authors, who is writing a novel about a publisher, who is reviewing a novel called "Oracle night" - but it gets much more complex than this. You really should read the novel. Auster writes so enjoyable English. One learns much by reading his novels.
- Weather: 20-24 C, sun, nice.
- Wednesday 14th - Thursday 15th
- Nothing. Braindeath, boredom, depression. Tiredness. No motivation to anything. I think someone will blame me for this after 9 months or so. But I do not care - I have drawn the conclusions long ago already. Thirsty and miresable, so I felt. Rollin's Band and Lemmy have a nice version of this classic song.
- If one is always totally motivated, in good mood, one cannot be creative. One must be a bureaucrat! Working by company SOPs, living by some other SOPs, not taking the initiative.
- It is must better to try to live with full speed and every now and then crash than try to hold it back. Life is so short.
- I guess I did something related to Nokia or RNC or whatever. At least I was thinking hard what are the most important problems, which prevent us from getting the products ready in more orderly manner. I even wrote something related. I will let you know more later. You be surprised!
- Hot pot dinner with many Finnish and one French person. The food was as good as usually. I also ordered a bottle of Chinese spirit. It did not get too positive feedback. Later, JyrkiInnanen blamed me for causing him a bad hangover.
- Tuesday 13th
- I took the TOEFL-test. The result is about 260 out of 300. This should be ebough.
- Lunch (Tuesday buffet in Branto) - I really miss this restaurant in HZ.
- We visited the calligraphy exhibition in the HK museum of Art. Much better than the exhibition in the Shanghai Museum.
- there was a visiting exhibition of Vietname art from the time of the war. Interesting.
- Drinks at the lobby bar of the Peninsula hotel. The lobby is rather posh. Were I much richer, I would have high tea there every Saturday.
- Back at home after 10.30 pm.
- Monday 12th
- Just taking it easy. Walking around, sailing with the Star Ferry.
- We had lunch in the "Vietnam ...". This time we got the right spring rolls. They were delicious.
- Dinner at ...
Week 14 5.4.-11.4.
- My favourite places in HongKong.
- Branto - pure South Indian vegetarian in Lock Street, Tsim Tsa Tsui, Kowloon, opposite Cigar express (which is also worth visiting...). Better Indian food than aything I ever got in India! They have budget lunch on Tuesdays.
- Vietnam Thailand Spice Village - opposite Guandong Hotel, Prat Avenue (?), Tsim Tsa Tsui, Kowloon. Exellent Vietnamese spring rolls (not deep fried), delicious margaritas and tasty Tom Ka Kai.
- Habibi - Egyptian restaurant in Central, HongKong? Island. Best dates, halva and other desserts I have had (from Middle Eastern kitchen). They also serve Egyptian coffee, which is just right.
- After lunch or dinner, I always visit either the large bookstore in Lock Street or the small (Dymocks) at the Central Star Ferry Pier. It is definitely a pity that I most probably do not have an opportunity to visit these restaurants for a while.
- Sunday 11th
- We went to see the horse racing to the Sha Tim racecourse. It was really fun. We were betting and having drinks for 6 hours. It was more fun than I expected.
- Dinner at Branto, the vegetarian Indian restaurant. Food was as good as always - much better in most Indian restaurants in India!
- Saturday 10th
- Early flight to Hongkong (KA623 at 830, rather good connection, one can have not too late lunch in Hongkong)
- The taxi from our home to the Xiaoshan airport cost 91 by meter. We paid 100. The driver ask for 120.
- It was really nice to be in Hongkong among the Western civilization. I have noticed that I am really European - I really enjoy, and miss too, nice cafees, decent bookstores, large people...
- We had lunch at "Vietnam Thailand spicy village". I tried to order the excellent not-deep-fried spring rolls I had last time, in March. But I failed. The food was OK anyway.
- The next natural thing to do was of course to visit the bookstore in the Lock Street. I bought "Einstein in Berlin", which tells about the time (1914-1932) Einstein stayed in Berlin. There were also some other famous physicist. It was the golden time and place for physics. It was also the time the Nazis took over. Really interesting book!
- In the evening, we took the Star Ferry and had small dinner in the Egyptian restaurant Habibi in Central. I have never had so good halva and dates before. The restaurant is worth visiting just because of the desserts.
- Then to the Dymocks bookstrore at the star ferry terminal. It is so small, only 40 square meters. But it is better than any bookstore in Mainland China. I bought Paul Auster's new novel "Oracle night". It seems to quite good. I also bought the "Sex and the city"-book!
- Then walking in Tsim Tsa Tsui. It is my favourite area - we were staying in the Kowloon hotel in there. It is so nice, lots of people, any shop you ever want to visit. Everything one needs in 3 square kilometers!
- Singapore and Hongkong are examples of "socialism done right" (See Fortune favours the bold, by Thorouw).
- Tuesday 6th - Friday 9th
- Some meetings, lots of discussions about HSDPA etc.
- Again, nothing specific, but working late.
- Evenings: hanging in the office for way too long, but working most of the time. Some saldo is building up. I will use it later.
- Wed: training for TOEFL.
- Thu: dinner with MaunuHolma in the QingChun Lu Japanese.
- Fri: getting clothes from the tailor.
- Weather rather varying: Tue 29C and sun, Wed 10C and rain, Thu 17C and sun, Fri 20C and sun. I hope for more sun.
- I wrote two invention reports and started to prepare for the 3rd one.
- I got some good ideas in the IS-meeting. And some other thoughts:
- the new HZMT seems to be a reincarnation of the old DMT and PMT. Furthermore, there are too many ways to bring issues to HZMT without passing them through HZIS-meeting, that I am afraid that this will corrupt the whole basic idea behind this new structure.
- Also, I really wonder that we do not take any advantage of computers in preparing the decisions. There are Word and PPT-templates stored there and here. Instead, there should be a WEB-application in which we write the proposal. Each proposal would have a state (draft, WG, proposed for HZIS, decided by HZIS, ...) and all the decision proposal would then be visible for all (even rejected...). It would take 8 hours to implement such a system in Twiki, and it would save these 8 hours in one week. But, no computer, not in Nokia R&D.
- In the evening we just packed our things for the Hongkong-trip.
- Monday 5th
- Early plane to Hangzhou. Back in office at 11am.
- Some meetings.
- Nothing specific in whole day.
Week 14 29.3.-4.4.
- Sunday 4th
- The Summer Palace.
- We even hired a cycling boat, which was not that fun - it is really hard to pedal.
- The marble ship is a significant invention. One cannot use it for killing people. I recommend other marble guns for all countries. USA could build a really magnificent one.
- Evening: back to the Pass by bar. Then trying to find a theather with Chinese opera. After taking several taxis, seeing bazaards we ended up to a concert of Mozart. It was really bad. Some dinner in Beijingese restaurant.
- Saturday 3rd
- Seeing the Great Wall at Simatai with 23 other backbackers. Fortunately the others went hiking. We took it in a lazy manner and took the cable car to the top. I was so afraid up there - I had to come back down really soon. But I went up the stairs faster than any hawkers. I am not scared to go up, if I go fast. Staying at the top and, especially, coming down is what is really terrifying. I am such a chicken, a sissy.
- The Simatai Great wall is worth the fear. The wall is on very steep mountain range. I do not understand how anyone could attach over the range even without the wall.
- It takes 4 hours to drive to Simatai (about 150 km...). We also saw some really dry countryside. It was really not that tempting place for planning a cycling trip.
- Dinner at "Pizza Works" (39RMB and one can eat all the pizza etc and drink all the beer one can). Then to "Pass by bar", which is absolutely a world class backbacker place. It so nice to be there having some drinks, see all the people, look at the old hutong-houses, see all the books. I do recommend it to everyone. If I would like in Beijing, I would go there several times a week.
- Friday 2nd
- No real sightseeing today. Just going around - we tried to go to the Summer palace, but it was too cold.
- I had my usual 2nd vacation day stress - it is so terrible - even drugs do not help. I even had pain in my neck, literally.
- having Thai-food provided temporary relief.
- In the evening we had a walk in the Hutongs. They are nice to look at and wander in, but I am not so sure whether I would like to live in them. I so spoiled.
- Dinner at the "Big Fish Bowl"-restaurant, which BasVodde introduced to my in January. Fish was good as usual, and even hotter than I anticipated.
- Thursday 1st
- Sightseeing began in earnest! We went to see the Forbidden City. It is really magnificent set of houses etc. But the most interesting issues were those historical fact I learned there. I did not know that the Chinese emperor almost never left the Forbidden city - it is rather strange way of managing a country - of course, travelling used be much slower in 1600. Also the approach of builing in ancient times seems to be valid also now: just gather more than enough workers and things get ready very fast. They got more than 1 million workers to build the F City.
- We had Beijing Duck in the famous (?) Beijing Duck restaurant. We ate the food of precidents, chancellors, and dictators: Ahtisaari, Kohl, and Castro had been there before us. It was good and the beer there was even better.
- The Tianmen square is very windy, and I think the mausoleum of Mr. Mao spoils it!
- Set ALLOWTOPICCHANGE = MattiKinnunen
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