Cycling / Optical illusion / Emotional illusion

This is one strange autumn: the sun is still shining, 15C, almost calm. I was hoping for rain so that there would be an acceptable reason for not cycling to the office. Now there is none. The only one I can think of is the soreness of my muscles after some excessive training at the gym yesterday, but that would be sissy. One good thing in cycling: I do not have to walk in Leppävaara, which is one of the most boring places I know of.

I do not miss HS yet. After all, I can read it at work if I find I miss it too much.

Cycling

A new record: 30 minutes by bike from home to the office, some 11 kilometers. And I obeyed all traffic rules even. But this is so slow: when I was younger, I could cycle the same route 5 minutes faster. It seems that 20 extra kilos has some effect on the average speed.

Kössi told me that an old guy like me or Kössi must cycle not too fast but for a long time. Just cycling to work and back is not enough; one must have longer exercises. I decided to apply this wisdom and cycled 1h15 minutes after work. It was really fun: I even saw some suburban places I have never seen before in Helsinki.

Optical illusion

When I beard long and bushy, my hair looks thinner. When I shave, my hair starts to look thicker. Anyway, it is time to face the truth: I am getting balder every day. It will, however, take a few years before I start to really look bald.

Emotional illusion

The more one reads about atrocities in Sudan, Iraq, Kongo, about problems of human rights in China and USA and elsewhere, about environmental problems everywhere, the less one feels. I feel that there would be too much to worry about, too many things to be sad of. What is worse is that I start to feel total powerlessness, I do not know what to do. Just donating money to some NGO does not help (my bad feeling). What should I do? Have I become a cold-blooded IT-zombie? Should I admit my new careless myself and move to Espoo, buy a Volvo and start to worry about I do know what. This is really bothering me.

International Herald Tribune tells that the number of war in the developing countries has decreased steadily during the last 10 years. The reason is mainly the fall of communism, which gace rise to (during the cold war) some regional conflict. The number of deaths is still rising, though. And if one counts famines etc as deaths in a war, the picture is even worse.

I spend a few hours in Rytmi with Soili. It is surprisingly nice to meet old friends and hear the freshest rumors etc. And Rytmi is a nice place: good music, decent coffee and lots of light.

Alun perin julkaistu kuukausikoosteessa "Blogs from September to October 2004".