Blogs December 2004
I am slightly dyslexic. Please, try to tolerate some misspellings.
The order of notes is from newer to older. Within a note, the order is the opposite.
The order of notes is from newer to older. Within a note, the order is the opposite.
December
Friday, 2004-12-31
Another unsual newyear eve. I continued shopping necessary things for my new home (shower curtains, lamps, cleaning equipment, etc). But I also had fun. I went to take a look the famous Harvard Law School, had an Indian buffet lunch, and sent tens of SMSs to my dear friends. But then, back in my new apartment, I had to work hard and clean it just to make it suitable for humans. The earlier tenant has apparenty been both blind and smelling impaired. The place was so dirty. Now, after 2.5 hours of hard work, it is about suitable for humans. I still need to buy some necessary things: a stereo set, a TV, a carpet, and lots of food. Then I will be all set and can start my studies knowing that I have a place to call home in which I can relax.
We had nice Japanese dinner in Rosindale. And I was wasted or tired enough to retire to dream lands at 10pm.
Wednesday, 2004-12-29
Air France/Delta Airlines are still holding my bicycle somewhere. I went to the airport. They claim that they have it somewhere and that they will deliver it later this week. Let's see. But other things are proceeding. I have a new cellphonenumber, I have rented some furniture (it was easier to rent than buy), and I should have a deal with the electricity company. Moving is hard, I am totally exhausted. This is why I cannot write anything really interesting now. I will try again tomorrow. Have fun!
Tuesday, 2004-12-28
In Boston, with a terrible jetlag and exhaustion from being in new place. I have now a new place to live, a bank account in Wainwright bank, and I know where to buy cheap things for my new home. I have also found two good restaurants here: Doyle's, a traditional place here in suburbs, and one no-name Vietnames in Chinatown. And I have a monthly ticket to the subway, and I have visited the local public library. Not bad for the firts 24 hours here. More later. Now I will call the electricity companyt etc.
Sunday, 2004-12-26
One Christmas less to enjoy. This one was rather nice, not too full of traditional things. First we visited S's father and his family in some southerh suburb of Tampere. People do live in amazing places, where I could not ever live. They served excellent mushroom-salad and some interesting stories about Urpo Lahtinen, the legendary publisher, art collector, rally driver and whatnot. Much more informative stories than those in the book by Jyrki Hämäläinen. That book is rather bad, not really worth reading. Someone should write a proper biography of Mr. Lahtinen.
On Christmas eve, we had semi-traditional lunch in Epilä, in my mother's house (where I also lived 9 years): ham, salmon, potato and other puddings etc. After which we visited my cousins in the countryside, some graveyard (in Finland, Christmas eve is the best day to visit them even though it is usually way too cold. But seeing thousands of candles burning at the graves is rather humbling, too). And then, later, we went to my brother's garage for a few beers and to watch some Lord of the Rings.
On Saturday, we drove to Helsinki by my brother's new Audi 100 S4, a really nice and fast car. Or I drove south. We then spent the evening at S's sisters place eating, chatting, just having good time.
Today, sleeping way too long, listening to the new Tom Waits CD, finalising the packing.
For an enlightening Christmas fairytale, please read the story about a fool king wasting his great country away. And I am moving to his country...
Thursday, 2004-12-23
Somehow I assume that the Christmas of Mr. Bush is not going to be so peacufull after all. Some human rights organisation has found some papers indicating, that Mr. Bush had approved the use of torture. If he really has, and there is clear evidence of it, then I think there will be quite enough reasons for dismissal. Anyway, telling lies about torture is more serious than telling lies about blowjobs. I would say.
US army can prevent its soldiers from leaving Iraq, even at the ends of their contracts (but it is not, really, legal, and there will be court cases later). But the army, nor the government, cannot prevent the civilian contractors from leaving Iraq. And once they start to leave, reconstruction halts and the army has to take back many of its recently outsourced tasks. And as Mr. Rumsfeld says "Iraq election won't quell violence". But maybe I should write something merrier, just to celebrate Christmas or holidays (depending on one's faith or lack of it).
Or then not. There is an interesting story about Iraq in the 25-year Jubilee issue of Granta. Wendell Steavenson tells the story of getting to know an Iraqi terrorist, Osama. Osama takes part in the insurgency (or liberation war, depending on the side one looks at it) by placing make-shift bombs by the roads, firing rockets and mortars at American soldiers. Steavenson tells how this activity takes its toll on Osama, he suffers a sort of breakdown, and how his wife worries, and his parents do not really accept the fighting. Osama's brother, Duraid, has grown tired of fighting and started to sell cigarettes etc to the American soldiers in their bases. Osama cannot and does not accept this; the brothers argue a lot. The other insurgents/rebels/freedom fighters threaten to kill Duraid; they consider him a traitor. Steavenson's story is interesting as we come to see the life is inside Iraq, hear the voices of many Iraqis, and even some American soldiers, get to know their daily worries. Steavenson is writing a book about the same themes. I hope to find it later and have time to read it, too.
Wednesday, 2004-12-22
Christmas is coming, the ground has thawed, it is getting dark, but still the worse is over and days are getting longer, slowly. And soon we will have summer, and all the joys of it. Thinking and dreaming of summer I ran some errands in the morning. As I am convinced that getting decent customer service by phone is just a pipe dream, I walked, laughing, all the way to one bank in the centre. And then the service was bad in the bank too. Do not ever go the Sampo-bank in Fabianinkaty 23. They will look down on you. And, unfortunately, it turned out that I can only get US dollars from the special bank at the airport. But it does not matter, nothing can really destroy my joyful mood!
Final farewell party
Yesterday, we had nice evening. First we visited the Christmas party of the Voima-magazine (an alternative free monthly city-magazine), met Tuomas, spirited as ever, Tove, who promised a Nokia-shaking book to come out soon, and Teemu, long-time activist and very friendly guy, who gave me a surprise present. I was touched. But we had to leave soon, my final farewell party was about to begin in Sea Horse-restaurant, my favourite restaurant in Helsinki.
Time Out has the following to say about Sea Horse
One city landmark is the Sea Horse (11 Kapteenikatu, +3589628169), purveyor of substantial and traditional dishes to a star-studded clientele since the 1930s.
Sea Horse did not let us down. The food (e.g. my fried herrings with mashed potatoes and pancakes with ice-cream and strawberry jam, S's fried liver with bacon, or Tuula's meat balls) was simple, well prepared, substantial, and gratifying. Some "celebrities" were there too: Renny Harlin, my look-alike from Hollywood, the film-mogul Markus Selin, sculptor Kimmo Kaivanto, and many figures. But the most important guests were, of course, my friends: Maunu, Tuula, Lauri R, Jaana, Tero, Ile, Ville, Aaro, Johanna, Jyrki, Antti, Mikael, Satu, Matti I, Ruurik, Sampo, Lauri K, Aki, and Jussi . It is so nice to have good frieds, who come to my bi-yearly farewell parties. I was also given some presents, totally undeserved, but naturally welcome. The evening was relaxing, full of interesting discussions ranging from rather personal issues to social security systems, to state of US economy, to computational complexity of certain simulation, to the ska-scene in Helsinki, to the life of Feynman to, well many topics. One of the best things in life is to spend long night with good friends in some excellent restaurant. One should do it more often, maybe weekly as they do it in Italy.
Developments in Iraq
As the worst single attack so far killed 19 US soldiers in Iraq yesterday, the grimm reality seems to see daylight. Even Mr. Bush Foresees a Deeper U.S. Role in Iraq, meaning at least 150000 troops there for the whole next year. Bush also said, rather directly, that things are not going well there. It also seems that more and more Americans are starting to realize, that all the reasons for the war were just lies, and that someone is resposible for the dead soldiers (if not of dead Iraqies). Some analysts claim that the whole idea is to Attack Syria next, that "the road to Syria goes via Baghdad". Be that as it may, Mr. Rumsfeld, is taking the heat. Two articles Scapegoating Rumsfeld and Now they are after Rummy claim that he is being put forward as a newly-disposeable scapegoat, so that the people will forgive the real/other neocons behind Rummy and Bush, and the the grand plan for the Middle East will be viable. This is getting interesting. But it is funny how it took only two months after the elections to come this far.
Tuesday, 2004-12-21
The previous king of Bhutan has coined the term "Gross National Happiness", or GNH. GNH should somehow describe the amount of happiness in a society. If the results goes down, the king can then change some parameters of his kingdom, and, as a result, people would live happily ever after. I find this idea rather fascinating. I have not yet read the whole article from the Economist, and will discuss this idea at lenght later. For now, however, consider whether adding still one measurement, "Gross National Unhappiness" would make sense. At first, masuring unhappiness appears easier (number of suicides, sales of Prozak, number of cases of domestic violence). But is happiness the same as absense of unhappiness? Go figure, I go for a Christmas lunch.
Daily crono
None of these last days in Finland (for a while, not for good) is ordinary. Yesterday evening, we had a walk around the Töölönlahti-bay. It was dark, but not depressing. There were other couples walking hand in hand, and it was romantic. The new Hesperia has granite walls instead of the old marble ones. Now it looks dirty or concrete. Not nice. Next to the Finlandia hall ducks (mallards) were drinking or eating something tine from the water. They made funny gurgling sound. We also had our regular stress reduction session in the Akateeminen-bookstore. S were looking for some presents (Christmas is coming), I spent ten minutes reading the collected poems of Rakel Liehu. I have never read any poems of her, and was surprised that I like some of them quite a lot. Especially this one:
Ovikello soi
Koko maailman hätä seisoo ovella,
käsi ojentuneena
ja valehtelee
In English (my own translation)
The doorbell rings
The anxiety of the entire world stands at the door,
holding out
and telling lies
I think I should read more poetry. It might increase my GPH (gross personal happiness).
Camara phones may be dangerous for your freedom
In Delhi, India, one 17-year old schoolboy used his new mobile phone for videoing his girlfriend giving him a blowjob. Then somehow a friend of his posted this video to some India eBay-lookalike. And then the whole hell broke loose. The 17-year old was promptly arrested and put in the most infamous jail in small cell with 70 other inmates. But he is, surprisinly, an US-citizen, too. So, Ms. Rice, the secretary of state, called her Indian counterparts and told that there is no reason to jail the teenager. Funny, conservatives defending porn or freedom of expression. Read the article and find out all dirty details.
Monday, 2004-12-20
Another week in Nokia started nicely. All clouds have disappeared, the blue sky, a few centimeters snow reflect the sky. I have no hurry, no stress. I just take it easy, arrive in office late, take the official position, look concentrated, send emails. The only diffence one can notice is that I do not prepare any slidesets. But difference from what, you may wonder. I will not tell.
On customer service
I must return my work phone and SIM-card. So I need to replace them. I got a phone from Petri yesterday. I only need a new SIM-card. After some surfing, I found out that Saunalahti has one nice subscription type without any monthly fees. But their web-pages do not tell whether it works in Boston. So, I called their customer service, which was busy. After several attempts, I decided to visit their headquarters next to our office. The receptionist called one customer service person from upstair. She promised to find out whether the Saunalahti-mobile works in Boston and email me the results.
This was maybe the fifth time this autumn, that I could not get through by phone, nor did I receive any replies to my emails. So, I decided to visit the company personally. And everytime I have received nice, personal, and fast service. It seems that the customer service personnel really want to deal with customers face-to-face and when someone dares to show up in their office, they are just happy to discuss and help. This works in banks, travel agencies, insurance companies, and apparently also in telecom operators. Strange, but good to know.
Some politics
According to LA Times Bush Presses Pentagon to Cut Its Budgets, which both fine and funny. It this a sign of mr. Bush coming to (his?) senses? Or just empty talk as most he utters. At the same time, even republican are getting enough of Rumsfeld. Let's hope that they get rid of him soon enough - his track record in waging a war is not so terrific. Meanwhile, the situation is not getting better. Another interesting comment on War on the Cheap.
Traffic jams
And interesting article " The slow and the furious tells about the worsening tarffic jam situation in Britain. Some calculation showed that an average driver spends an extra 42 hours per year in jams. But who cares? It seems that most of us prefer spending next to unlimited time in our own cars in traffic jams over taking a bus or train and arriving in time. Read the article, it is interesting. For me, concentration in tranportation systems is one option MIT. MIT has rather many interesting courses available and I thinking about traffic is rather important - consider for example the fact that the traffic situation is already terrible in China and getting worse. Sooner or later, we must find other ways to arrange our transport systems. And we must find ways to minimize the daily commuting distances. Etc.
Sunday, 2004-12-19
Nice weekend, many different things happening, just personal, private issues - no real time or interest to follow international politics or contemplate anything deep. Here we go.
On car rental systems
Funny notice: Avis has a nice web-based reservation system, which works and is easy to use. Hertz, their main competitor, has a form in the web. The form is easy to fill in, but it is not interactive. Instead, when one clicks on "submit", the form sends an email somewhere and displays a promise to confirm the reservation in 24 hours. well, after 72 hours I had not received any confirmation. So, goodbye Hertz, you just lost a customer.
Countryside adventure
On Saturday, we drove to meet S's uncle and his wife in Valkeala, which is 25 kilometer north-east from Kouvola. Meaning rather far from my comfort zone (which actually ends by the Kulosaari bridge). The uncle is a nice old man, now 72 years old, a farmer. He has excellent memory spanning at least 60 years and he likes to tell silly stories in which he himself is most often the somehow unfortunate protagonist. I never tire to listen these stories - after all, they tell about a world in which I have never lived. I wonder how one could preserve these stories. I hope the uncle writes his memories like many other old men do.
The weather was terrible: raining, some 2 degrees, overcast, dark. Driving in such a weather is not too fun. Fortunately, there are two nice places to visit along the way. Just before Porvoo, there is a small roadside cafe serving freshly baked bun and decent coffee. About 30 kilometers before Kouvola, one can visit "Pukarin Paroni", a private cafe, shop, bakery, gas station, etc. They also sell all kind of second-quality things. Recommended, if you ever have any need to drive to Kouvola from Helsinki.
On the way back, we visited some eastern suburbs of Helsinki. The "Sun beach" of Vuosaari was not so sunny in the winter storm and darkness. But it is a nice place, in which I would not like to live. There are not enough shops, restaurants and other services. Same hold true for Marjaniemi and Laajasalo. We also visited my office in the western suburb of Leppävaara. S found the office really terrible (as it is) and remarked that it is not a place to do creative work productively. But as we know, measuring productivity, not to speak of innovativiness, is not easy. Measuring working hours and rent expenses is too easy. So, companies measure on working hours...
Another farawell party
Leaving is sad, but arranging farawell parties in fun. For this reason, we threw another one today. Participants: Olli, Maritta, Tarmo, Päivi, and Petri. We had some hot wine, lots of cold-smoked salmon, cheeses etc. Before the party, Päivi interview me about money and using it. The interview will come out some afternoon next week in YleQ. Listen if you dare. Petri lent me a mobile phone for USA.
Friday, 2004-12-17
How to stay healthy
S pointed out this interesting article in British medical journal. It basiclt says that one lives longer if one has daily one meal with fish, wine, fruits, garlic, dark chocolate, vegetables, and almonds. Doing so will lenghten life several years. And life would be even much more fun! Here is a short summary in Finnish:
Tutkijoilla on joulun alla esittää hyvänmakuinen terveysviesti: yksikin kunnollinen - viiniä ja suklaata sisältävä - ateria päivässä vähentää tuntuvasti sydän- ja verisuonitauteja. Ihanneaterian tulee sisältää kalaa, viiniä, hedelmiä, vihanneksia, valkosipulia, manteleita ja tummaa suklaata.
Arvostettu British Medical Journal -lehti suositti vielä viime vuonna aspiriinia, foolihappoa sekä kolesteroli- ja verenpainelääkkeitä kaikille yli 55-vuotiaille. Nyt lehti toteaa, että yllä kuvattu seitsemästä osasesta koostuva Polymeal (poly- eli moniateria) ajaa käytännössä saman asian.
Ateria koostuu aineksista, jotka ovat tuttuja terveelliseksi tunnustetusta Välimeren ruokavaliosta. Polyaterian myötä miesten elinikä pitenisi tutkijoiden mukaan 6,6 vuotta ja naisten 4,8 vuotta. Sydäntaudit vähenisivät peräti 76 prosenttia.
Kalaa pitäisi syödä neljästi viikossa ja viiniä juoda puolitoista desiä eli lasillinen päivässä. Sopiva tumman suklaan kulutus on 100 grammaa päivää kohti. Hedelmiä ja vihanneksia pitäisi popsia päivittäin 400 grammaa, valkosipulia 2,7 grammaa ja manteleita 68 grammaa. (STT)
Basicly, the result means that the well-meant, boring guidelines all the authorities have been touting for years, are flatly wrong. Excellent. I will start to follow the new, scientific diet at once, today. This was the best news I have read for a long time.
Another adventure
I rented an Open Corsa for weekend (only 99 euros for 500 kilometers) from Avis - we will have a trip to make. We decided to drive to and check the supermarkets near the airport. Since we were looking for some fine cheese for our party on Sunday, we drove first to Sesto. It was really a bad store - poor selection of anything. Next we tried the K-Jättijako, which had even a staffed cheese shop and an Alko. The whole trip was really excotic. Without a car one cannot really visit these strange supermarkets. But I do not find them nice. I always feel that I am wasting my time in them and I get on bad mood. Clearly I must not visit them often. It is better for me to stay in the centre and shop in local, small shops.
MIT preparations
Paying the tuition using the internet bank is impossible. The only way I can now find is to get a new bank account in USA, transfer some dollars from my Finnish dollar account to USA, and write a check and give it to someone. Strange. World would need a global banking system. It would save a lot of money.
I tried to order a laptop from Amazon.com. They sell Apple iBook Notebook 12" M9623LL/A (1.2 GHz PowerPC G4, 256MB RAM, 30GB Hard Drive, Combo Drive, Built-in AirPort Extreme) for some 780 euros. Let see if my credit card is OK for them. The US Apple-store did not accept it, because it is not an American credit card.
Thursday, 2004-12-16
MIT preparations
I used some time for checking what the next year will be like. I also started my MIT-pages for keeping some booksmarks, essays, calendar etc. Check it in April or so for some interesting essays.
Even though the bank system seems to be rather old-fashioned in USA, the internet service for students in MIT are excellent. One can manage all information (money, addresses, courses, graduation, communication, grades, whatever) and has access to libraries, magazines, news agencies etc. Really nice. I think I will not subscribe to so many magazines next year. Maybe only Economist, Le Monde Diplomatique, New Internationalist, and Foreign Affairs would be enough. I may also have something else to read next year.
An adventure in Espoo
Yesterday, I decided to jump on the first bus when leaving from the office. It was the 550 and it was heading for Westend. I was reading the whole time and got of when everyone else did. I thought that I was in Westend and was quite surprised to find a Stockman-department store. I bought some smoked fish for dinner and tried to leave for Helsinki, but all busses were going to Espoo. It took quite a while for me to realize that I was actually in Tapiola, and that the busses to Helsinki were leaving from the other side of the busstation. So, one can have strange and confused adventures also here in Finland - even without having any drugs!
Culinary adventure at home
S cooked us an excellent Chinese dinner. I wonder why she can cook better Chinese food than most cooks in the so called Chinese restaurants here? Or is it such a surprise, after all.
Wednesday, 2004-12-15
MIT preparations
I am almost all set now. I have my flight tickets, my visa (in my almost full passport), a place to live in Boston, friends coming to meet me at the airport. Today I even found out how to pay the first third of the tuition. They do not have similar system of bank accounts and internet banking in US as we have here. So, I have two options: either send a written check by mail to MIT or wire some money to MIT. I do not want to send large checks by mail, too risky. Fortunately, it turned out that I can pay the tuition using my normal internet banking system - the trick is to know which information to enter in which field of the form, which is not so easy, because the terminology is different. I hope it will work out well. Advertisement: if you want to get good personal service in the bank, go to Mandatum in Bulevardi. Excellent service, friendly persons!
Daily crono
Typical or then not: up, breakfast, shower, tram to the bank (usually metro to the busstop and then bus to the countryside where the office is), train to work, tossing and turning in the office trying to get something done with no success, and in the evening going back home, eating something, reading, going to bed. This is how I seem to spend my life. But lately my life has been almost too hectic with all the travelling and MIT-preparations. It will be fun to see and feel what kind of daily life I am going to lead in Boston. Most likely it will be superficially rather monotonous: sleeping, exercising (gym, walking, cycling), studying, eating. I will try to develop weekly habits for laundry, shopping, etc so that they would disturb my studies as little as possible. I like to cook, but I would not mind being able to eat out all the time. Cooking for oneself alone is not so fun, nor is eating alone.
On SUVs
The Big and Bad-article discusses the phenomenon of SUVs. In short: the SUVs are much more dangerous than normal cars. Partly there are structural resons for this, but also the false feeling of security makes people to relax and drive dangerously. I have been taking part in a discussion in rec.travel.europe on the proposal to ban SUVs in centre of Florence. Read the article, it is really interesting. I think there will be some discussions about SUVs or cars in general in USA next year. Another article Wrong turn tells the story of seat belts and air bags in US. Interesting, but takes some 20 minutes to read.
Tuesday, 2004-12-14
Publishing a magazine is quite easy after one has published it for 5 years. One can publish the same stories every year, or if one has more ambition, one can have a set of 5 stories for each season and publish them in different years. For example, right now one must publish stories about Christmas (e.g. what kind of food to cook, what food makes one fat and how to avoid that, what presents to buy, how Christmas is too secular and families are broken and everyone drinks too much of hotwine), of the darkness outside and how it makes everyone sad or tired, but that it is OK to be sad. After Christmas, publishing dieting advice and stories is always OK. For this simplicity, I choose the magazines I read rather carefully.
But it is really dark now. And I do not like this season at all. Yesterday, I found myself looking for future jobs in Singapore. There are no seasons there at all: it is always the same sunny and rainy place.
Global soul is really a good book. The writer has Indian parents, was born and went to school in England (but his parents were living in California at the time) and has after that lived in USA, Japan, and Britain (at least) and travelled quite extensively (even in Bhutan and North Korea). He tells stories about airports, about not having a real home anywhere. I have just read some 60 pages. The books reminds me of the Tokyo does not love us anymore by XXX.
Renting a Ferrari in Finland
If I would not move to USA, I would join the Rental special car rental service. After paying some (unspecified) fee, one could rent a Ferrari for just 650 euros per day. The poorer ones can of course rent a lousy Camaro for 30 euros per day. Sounds too good. Maybe I will rent a Ferrari in Boston. But I only want to drive a Ferrari, because a Ferrari is so interesting in technical sense. Or then I am kidding or just lost it all.
Dinner
Julle and Mammu invited us over for a dinner and chat. And also to see their new, rather nice and well renovated, home in Kallio. I was afraid that I would get envious of the flat, but somehow I have been able to accept the fact that I seem to be "bohemian" or strange enough not to have own flat. But theirs is nice and I, of course, would like to have similar, but I just will not have. Anyway, Julle had cooked nice fish soup. Afterwards, we had icecream and various drinks. Suddenly, it was 2 am, and we were clever enough to leave. Again, one night with only 6 hours of sleep.
Monday, 2004-12-13
Back from Paris, and again rather tired. I take travelling too seriously and get exhausted every time. Anayway, we had great time in Paris: visits to several museums, nice walks by the Seine and elsewhere and delightfull dinners and even hot chocolate in Cafe de Flores. Excellent. More later. Now I must rest: by reading Global soul by Pico Iyer, found by S in Village Voise, Paris.
Wednesday, 2004-12-8
I have problem: I really cannot spend my holiday days at home, doing nothing. I have heard that others can stay at home, do some small things, idle. I cannot. I need to get somewhere, preferably abroad, but getting to some other town could well also be enough. Strange, I am so restless, and I am afraid I am just getting more and more restless. Anyway, we will visit Paris, which should be quite enough even for me. I have not really visited Paris since 1997. I spent 4 hours there in May 2003, but it was raining and I only had shorts and T-shirt on and it was Sunday morning. Not fun!
Lazy day, I tried to idle at home, but got anxious. It was good mood to visit the Kela and file in some applications and also call the tax office and do some other byrocrazy things. I do hate them, it is better to be on bad mood already. I decided that I had earned something nice, and spent 2 euros by playing flipper in Tennispalatsi. Nice game, but a bit too hard for me today. No free games! Then some coffee in Cafe Ekberg (getting used to being not so young anymore). Etc, nothing much.
Soldiers suing the government
Some unfortunate soldiers have been told that they have to stay in Iraq longer than their contract states. Of course, this will not do and thus the soldiers have sued the government. Let's follow this story, it will be quite fun to hear/read what happens in the court. Another article asks, in rather polemical manner:
Did the Americans who reelected Bush know that the president who will admit to no mistake is locked on a course that will squander a half trillion dollars for no purpose other than to kill and wound between 36,290 and 73,205 U.S. troops, with "collateral damage" to Iraqi civilians ranging from 443,941 to 2,825,710 dead and wounded?
which I consider quite an essential question. It will be real fun to discuss these issues in Boston next year. Another interesting story to follow is what caused Yushchenko's illness. Or have they changed the whole person?
Tuesday, 2004-12-7
Life has been hectic for the last two weeks. First, I visited Venice with my brother, Make for 6 days. I will write a separate story about that later. Meanwhile, go the the library/Amazon and get your hand on Brodsky's Watermarks. I will not write better, so there is no need to wait for my amateurish text. Second, I had to go the office and do some work and somehow I was busy also in the evenings: one day (cannot recall which one), we visited a nice Greek restaurant in Iso-Robertinkatu. More about that later, too. On Friday, Tuomas and two women had their combined 106-year birthdates (sic!) in the Koko-theatre and in Juttutupa. But before that we went to see the play Rivosuinen prinsessa in the Q-theatre. It was terrible - I have never seen such bad a play, please, do not go to see it. It did not have any sense, no plot to speak of, the characters were shallow, the acting disgusting. On Sunday, we celebrated the birth of the second daughter of Otto-Ville and Susse and, on Monday, we were glad to live in an independent country (even though the official parties were more like funerals or something else sad).
MIT preparations
Finally, something simple and easy with the visa process: the interview. After getting through the security check (giving away all my stuff and getting my jacket back with emptied pockets), I was lead (you must not walk unattended in the embassy premises) to the consular section. The interview took 45 minutes of waiting and 2 minutes of talking. Now I am all set and will receive my passport soon enough. But there were some funny parts before today. On Friday afternoon, I was getting a bit curious what had happened to my passport and when I will have the mandatory interview, so I called the embassy. I took 1.5 hours to get through. The woman then calmly told me that I have the interview on Tuesday (=next working day) and that I need to pay some SEVIS-fee (still do not know what it was for) and that I need to have documentation showing that I have $77000 available, right now, not next year. It took some tinkering to meet these new requirements, but now it is all over and OK.
I have also bought the flight tickets via Paris to Boston later this month: 412 euros, rather cheap. Furthermore, the rental agent, Paul, informed me that I will have a place to live in Boston: a smallish studio with a loft for $800 per month. Reasonable, I would say. Or at least I can afford it.
Feelings
I have rather been down lately. I seem to take leaving Nokia, even temporarily - but knowing rather well that my next task will not be at the same level of whatever as the current one, rather seriously. Somehow, it is sad to leave the workmates behind, not to work with the WCDMA systems anymoreo or just getting rid of old stuff. Add to this sadness of leaving the anxiety of arriving to a place and environment totally new, and at least I find myself more than a little sad and anxious. And then we have this terrible darkness of winter here, too. Fortune favours the bold, I hope.
Coming travelling
No rest for the wicked ones! I and S will visit Paris next weekend. We will stay in Hotel de Nesle, which looks like a place for not so young hippies to crash in. We will enjoy some onion soup in Le pied de Cochon, after midnight. I used some of my Eurobobus-points for the flight tickets - some fun out of earlier trips still.
A Greek place to visit in Helsinki
If you want to have an exotic dinner in Helsinki, visit Athanasios Kreikkalainen Ruokala in Iso-Roobertinkatu. The same man has owned and kept the restaurant since 1966, and it shows. The man behaves in semi-insane manner, talking to himself, serving extra dishes all the time, and telling strange stories. But the food is good, prices are reasonable, and the whole experience is exceptional. I felt more abroad and further from home than I did in Venice. A must place!
Marketing failure / on food
I intended to have my first farewell party today together with the monthly Tuesday-meeting. But only the most loyal friends showed up. Mea culpa. I and Petri did not mention the farewell idea at all in the "subject" of the invitation email, and I assume most people do not really read the invitations. They are usually always similar. Pity that this ended like this - I have to arrange something else still. But that's not so terrible: one has to eat and drink every evening...
I had today "Kuhaa Marski" (pike-perch cooked in the way the marshal Mannerheim liked it) and it was good, but still a bit disappointment. I have had better "Kuhaa Marski" earlier, I think it was in Restaurant Lasipalatsi 1.5 years ago. Next time I will continue to have fried herrings. Today they did not have herrings. S had an onion steak, and also she will revert back to her all time favourite, fried liver with bacon, next time. By the way, we had pike-perch in Thai-style on Sunday in Mai Thai. It was delicious and definitely not too mild, a bit on the hot side I would say. Also the papaya-salad and tom kha kai-soup were more than OK.
Politics
Well, G Bush has now his second term going well. The terrorists are still loose, but it does not matter, it just justifies something or everything. Yesterday I read somewhere that even Rumsfeld thinks that his troops will stay in Iraq for the next 4 years. Today, a leak tells us that nowadays CIA sees the situation more likely to get worse than better. But, that is it for now, I will continue on energy politics and education.
The November/December issue of Foreign Affairs has some really interesting articles, some of them free on-line. For example, Adam Segal discusses whether USA is losing its edge in global R&D. Even though USA still uses more money than others, it is losing its position: the Asian countries are investing more and, furthermore, getting their business and science infrastructures in shape. One symptom is that many US-trained engineers and scientist are returning to their home countries and establishing businesses there. The draconian visa-policies do not help: the number of oversea PhD-students is getting smaller and US does not have enough of its own. This is somehow actual topic, I have read several articles about this lately. Another article discusses how to avoid or slow down the global warming. After dismissing energy conservation, solar and wind energy, hydrogen cars, and nuclear energy, the article proposes building strange new power plants, which somehow are able to deposit CO2 underground. Sounds pretty utopian to me. I have to read it again. Still another article points out that globalization has not profited the middle-income countries. The points is that if a country neither has what is takes to compete in the knowledge economy (highly educated workforce, and suitable, efficient infrastucture) nor semi-infinite low-wage workforce, the country is bound to lose in the current globalization. This observation has profound implication on the policies we should apply in Finland. So far, for the last decades, we have been able to maintain our position at the top of the knowledge economy. I am, however, a bit worried that without some rather profound changes in our social securities etc, we may quite well slip in the middle-group. More about this later - I really must write about this, since it both bothers me and is important. Meanwhile, go to the local bookstore and buy your own copy of Foreign Affairs.
All opinions are mine and do not reflect opinions etc of my current or future employers as far as I am aware.
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