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A man can stand anything except a succession of ordinary days.

(Goethe)

December 2006

Saturday 06-12-30

By getting up early in the morning one also gets more time at his disposal for work as compared to late-risers. Scholar and thinkers get up early in the morning and contemplate. Rig Veda quote

Morning news

Newspapers I check in the morning

New York Times — web access only 30 dollars a year
Guardian UK
International Herald Tribune
Financial Times
Al Jazeera
Die Zeit
Antiwar.com
The Economist
LA Times

Yes, it takes time and may depress. Still, it is worth the trouble.

Some worthy blogs

A selection political of blogs I follow regularly.

Please, point me to other worthy blogs!

Information clearing house, another independent US-media, carries an interesting story: Iran - a bridge too far. The argument is quite simple. If the USA attacks Iran, Iran is able to sink the US navy in the Gulf. Iran has bought some nasty missiles from Russia. There is no way to defend aircraft carriers from those missiles and Iran seems to have quite a few missiles hidden in the mountains. The net is also full of speculation that these missiles have tilted the balance of power globally, for the might of the US navy is gone now. The Chinese have the same missiles.
Another, a bit overblown article, on the missiles and their effect on the balance of power. I am no specialist in defense, but it does seems that Russia is playing its cards much better than the USA.
Also Globalsecurity.org calls for caution when attacking Iran .

Problems with Saturdays

Saturdays are depressing. I wake up, have breakfast and then I am already exhausted, down, desperate. All I want is to sleep, waiting for Sunday and Monday to come. It has always been this way and it is just getting worse.
And then they hanged Saddam Hussein. Idiots. So depressing. Killing anyone, for any reasons is always wrong, unethical, and unproductive. Just letting Saddam stay in some jail for the rest of his life would have served him alright.
Back to Saturdays. I have to find a way to avoid this regular Saturday collapse. Maybe I should go the gym and pool first thing in the morning. That would wake me up properly and consume some extra energy. It is the extra energy that collapses me, energy which I cannot use for anything, it just drives me mad, sad, bad. Maybe I should then start writing something, developing my systems architecture website, or writing plays (I am still fascinated by "Gogol around the corner" and "Lives of no significance" and some other plays), and all the while listening to punk rock.
Or just getting up, not reading the depressing news in the news papers and in the net, instead thinking all by myself. Maybe it would better to read papers only in the evenings, when my excessive sensitivity cannot spoil anything. For sleep comes easily to me, and the more raw material for dreams, the better. For dreams are better than any TV-show, reality or otherwise.
I could maybe study some languages. Italian would be useful for my frequent holidays in Italy, Arabic for following politics in the Middle East. Latin would be just fun, in its uselessness and grammatical beauty.
All of sudden, I feel much better. Now, I can leave the building, go walking a book for an hour and 30 pages, then for a lunch with S. Self-medication with meditation helped. Thanks for reading. Now, go walking your book.

Daily haiku

Climate changes
People care for shopping
Nature prevails  Mane the mean

Friday 06-12-29
Every second is of infinite value.  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Creativity methods

A good list of creativity methods at Mycoted.com. Very much recommended!

What am I missing from my time at MIT?

I miss the time I spent in Boston. Memories come at surprising moments, positive, pleasant memories. I remember long discussions on engineering and business, hurried coffee breaks in Mass 77, long nights spend reading, writing, studying. I remember heated discussions when our workload exceeded our limits and how we overcame the limits. I remember exhaustion and desperation when writing essay in the middle of the night or when trying to solve problem sets with tired brains. I remember the joy of achievement, when everything was done and over with. I remember long walks by the river, Saturday lunched with Kumar at Pho Pasteur, late night shopping trips to Cambridge. And there are many other things I remember and miss so much.
So, studying in MIT was memorable. I was happy then (although S claims that I was very desperate more or most of the time - my memory may have selection bias). Is there some way for me to recreate the MIT-state of mind here in Finland? I assume there is. The essentials are, I assume, immersing myself in work/studying/politics, meeting friends, surrounding myself with bright people, not worrying about money (there is absolutely no reason to worry about it), eating out, reading a lot. In other words, not succumbing to the nine-to-five existence, but living to the fullest, really following carpe diem.
The goal is to live leaving nothing for regret, sparing no effort. Just writing this made me happy!

Spam and more spam

Statistics of email to my helsinki.fi-address since fall 2004. Note the steep increase since September 2006 (the red line). Of the 250 pieces of spam I receive daily, about 10 make it to my mail reader. The filters are quite good at the moment. I have three filter in series: at iki.fi, at helsinki.fi and at the reader. Works fine.
Email received

 

---- Summary since September 6th, 2004 (845 days)----

Total number of emails: 113222
  per day:               133
Total number of SPAM:   77977
  per day:               92
Spam percentage:        68.8700

Total non-spam emails:  35245
 Of which
  personal email:     22909
    per day:           27
  list email:         12336
    per day:           14

Total SPAM in MB:       872.568 
    per day:             1.032
Total EMAIL  in MB:       6623.8 
    per day:             7.838

Visit to my site in 2006

Another war to start the 2007?

Larisa Alexandrovna speculates whether Mr. Bush and other criminals have already decided to attack Iran in a week or so. She thinks they have decided and will attack. The only good thing that can come out of yet another war is dramatic rise in price of oil. That should, I hope, wake up the Western governments to the peak oil. Let's see. I do hope Ms. Alexandrovna is not right.
Read also what Riverbend has to say about her country.

Wednesday 06-12-27
He wrapped himself in quotations - as a beggar would enfold himself in the purple of Emperors. Rudyard Kipling

Ordinary days?

Ordinary days threaten me. I do not like them. To avoid ordinary days, we have decided to go to the movies at least once a week, not to watch TV (instead read books). Maybe I can avoid too many ordinary days, so that I will not miss my time in MIT too much.
Today: walking to the office, working in a very silent office all alone, watching "Das Leben der Anderen" with S (one of the best films I have even seen: phenomenal acting, faultless script, invisible directing, beautiful yet deeply touching), buying some CDs from the annual sales.

Strange weather

The weather is strange: still no snow, today 6 degree centigrade, clear skies. I do not actually mind this myself, but I assume this does not bode well. We (the human race) must start taking the limits of growth more seriously.
I read somewhere that Egypt imports 40% of its food. It cannot grow more due to lack of water. How do they plan to survive once oil gets more expensive, water shortages become frequent in other countries as well (e.g. in USA), irrigation makes fields salty? The Chinese predict that temperature in northern China will rise by at least 3C in 50 years or so. This will make their already bad water shortage even worse. How do they plan to feed their citizens? How do we here in Finland? Or, if we can feed ourselves, how do we keep warm? I do not know, but I know that the Finnish politicians are not even asking these questions. Let's make them ask!

Tuesday 06-12-26
Our time is so specialised that we have people who know more and more or less and less. Alvar Aalto

Cities visited 2006

I visited these cities in 2006 (criteria: spending at least one night, * means several visits) (check also Lavonardo's list)

Boston, MA, USA*
New York, NY, USA*
Washington, DC, USA
San Francisco, CA, USA*
Palo Alto, CA, USA
Santa Barbara, CA, USA
San Diego, CA, USA
Tampere, Finland*
Joutseno, Finland
Espoo, Finland*
London, UK
Venice, Italy
Valletta, Malta
Victoria, Gozo, Malta
Naples, Italy
Ardea, Italy

In addition, I visited some other cities briefly

Pompeii, Italy
San Jose, CA, USA
Berkeley, CA, USA
Paris, France
Catania, Italy
Anacapri, Capri, Italy
Rome, Italy
Xaghra, Gozo, Malta
Tallinn, Estonia
Porvoo, Finland
Hyvinkää, Finland

Tuesday 06-12-19
Always design a thing by considering it in its next larger context - a chair in a room, a room in a house, a house in an environment, an environment in a city plan. Eliel Saarinen

No politics

I have decided not to bother myself with politics, global warming, peak oil or falling dollar anymore this year. It is Christmas time, I am trying my best in my new work, and I am lazy. I will return back to my ranting self in two weeks. Now, I will just read books, study, take it easy.
It also seems that I have run out of things to say today. I do not know why.

Adapting

Human brains adapts to broken body parts surprisingly fast. It only took a week for my middle finger to take over almost all tasks of my broken index finger. Now the middle finger can do anything but pick my nose, which does not matter that much. I still have the other one intact.

Tuesday 06-12-12
When a great adventure is offered, you do not refuse it. Amelia Earhart

Getting a bit ordinary

I try my best to avoid succession of ordinary days. Right now it is quite easy, for my new job still surprises me daily and I learn many new technical things. I also learn even more about organizations and management and businesses. Clearly I made the right thing when I left Nokia for Posti.
In the evenings, mostly reading books. We have not watched TV for a week now. We feel so liberated. Today, I also met Maunu for a discussion about a new club we are about to establish. More about that later, but some new robots are what we are up to. Web 4.0 robots!
So, only being in Helsinki is ordinary. Otherwise, I am safe.

Web 3.0

Web 2.0 is passe. Web 3.0 is coming up. It seems that there is too much free capital with foolish owners (or investors) in the world. I have not even understood what Web 2.0 was, but I intend to catch up with Web 3.0 and make huge amount of money by inventing something really incredible and making the gullible pay my collection of contemporary art.
In addition, as I think that information society is passe as well, I intend to make even bigger bucks in energy, transportation, and health care. The real need for innovation and new system are in these three areas, not in "information systems" or similar.
The so called information society was just the last extension of the industrial society. There was no new economy, no new business ideas. It was just the old industrial economy with cheap energy and increasing productivity (thanks partly to advances in information systems). Next, energy will become very expensive, climate will de-stabilize, the old industrial society will stall. It is the time that we will have to rethink most things we do.
Meanwhile, let us take advantage of foolish investors. Of course, I will not reveal my great business ideas here.

Monday 06-12-11
The great are only great because we are on our knees. Let us rise! Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

Adapting to the crowd

Last week, I was invited to an open house at a local club house of people recovering from mental problems. When I entered the house, they told me that my shoes did not match. Both were black, but they did not make up a pair. Next, they asked whether I was member of club. I denied, but I was not very convincing.
No planning was involved, as is evident.

Books or plays I will soon write

I will soon write two books or plays. I already know their names. The first "Lives of no consequence" will tell a story of some losers, who end up being of no consequence, but still important members of the society. I am so fed up with all empty celebrities being celebrated for their emptiness and lack of consequence. It is time for the rest of us! The second play "Nurkan takana Gogol" (Gogol behind the corner) is a serious commentary about current fake seriousness and infantilisation of common behaviour.
Coming soon to the theatre near your day care centre.

No politics today

I have not been following international politics closely lately. Thus I cannot rant at all. Instead, let me tell about our trip to Malta. So, we visited Malta. It is a small island with compatible, small people. But I do want to rant about them either. It is better that I do not rant at all today.

Back in Finland

It is the darkest time of the year. And it is dark indeed. Most Finns seem to have great mental pain. Or maybe they just have very acid heartburn. They do look so sour that I can hardly look at them. And they cannot stand my happy and smiling face at all. I am so happy, I cannot even see the darkness. For me, the lights are on, after a while of being dimmed. No more whining.
The weather is strange. It is almost mid-December and I can still roam the street wearing only my summer jacket, T-shirt, summer trousers and Dr Martin's. It should not be like this. It should be much colder. I wish for some snow, some bitterly cold mornings, when even thick beard cannot insulate enough.

New job

So I have began to work for the Finnish Postal Services (actually an obscured named subsidiary of it, but who cares - I only recognize corporations). The work is quite nice, although I have not yet done much of anything but interviewed co-workers. And I did manage to develop quite a fame for myself: I failed to open the front door of the office building. My right index finger somehow got smashed between the door and its frame on my way out. Lots of blood, some confusion and quick visit to the surgeon's - I only lost the nail, earned a nasty cut and a broken bone. All this on my third day at work!
My finger was somewhat painful for the first few days, especially in the evenings. So, I flushed down some paracetamol (acetaminophen) and codeine with some 2 deciliter of Bombay Sapphire. No pain! Very much recommended! But only for a few days in a row and only with great care (with the pills).
Typing is still rather tedious and painful. So, I need to keep this entry short.