the life according to jukkahoo

Wuss Masters

2008-05-16T08:50:16Z

Trying to stay awake after last night's stag party for Vesa. Slept little, drank enough. Now, dead. Soon, asleep.

But not too asleep to notice that Chris "KeL" Adams made some perceptive remarks this week.

If you really and truly claim to be a Jedi master, you have to expect to come under attack by dark Sith Lords. It comes with the territory (and lightsaber).

Wussies!

Congratulations!

2008-04-01T08:31:29Z

Happy trails to my sister-in-law (and obviously Sari's sister...) Merja and her ~~boytoy~~ boyfriend Teemu, who soon will tie the knot and finally register their relationship! This is truly a happy occasion and I believe ALL our readers will join Sari and me as we wish all the best for the happy couple!

Marriage is a big step in any relationship. It certainly was in our case. So big in fact that we needed to move all the way to those United States. I wonder if Merja nad Teemu will do the same, and move, say, to China? :)

Happy, happy, joy, joy!!!

To me, boxing is like a ballet, except there's no music, no choreography, and the dancers hit each o

2008-03-25T10:38:46Z

Weeks like this are really, really nice. Last week wasn't bad either. I quite like working weeks that end by Thursday. Likewise, I'm more than fond of working weeks that begin Tuesday. Now, if only we'd get more of these.

It is an absolute delight to wake on mornings and realise: "Hey, I don't have to go to work! And the same goes for tomorrow, too. And Monday! Thanks Jesus!" Yet, somehow it feels like cheating. Easter is a four-day holiday because of the Passion of the Christ and as someone who doesn't Believe, I feel a bit guilty of taking advantage of this holiday.

But not guilty enough to actually do something about it. I'll take every single holiday I can get, regardless of the reason. Shouldn't we celebrate some muslim holidays, too? ...maybe not.

As said, I did little beside laid back during the holidays. I would dearly have been in Orbital, this years Eastercon, but as finances are what they are - alas, no. Apparently a good con (by the total sum of one (1) so far seen report, this one by Bellis) with interesting GoH's. Talking about Guests of Honours, Åcon 2 GoH Ian MacDonald's Brasyl just got yet another award, this time BSFA for the Best Novel. Can YOU pass this opportunity to see this multi-award-winning gentleman?

And again, laid-backing was the weekend for me. I painted the mural a bit, but I really need better brushes in order to finish it. I also ate some lamb. We had some family over and so forth, but many were the moments when I just put my feet up and zzzz'd. And you know what? Today I've been mostly awake at work! :)

The title is, of course, a Deep Thought by Jack Handey. But since it is too long, lj cuts out last four lettters. Which are "ther".

"To me, boxing is like a ballet, except there's no music, no choreography, and the dancers hit each other."

LUTZ Today

2008-03-22T23:41:30Z

Easter. Apparently someone died a while ago and workers get few days off because of. Thanks.

I've been mostly thinking about the Åcon2 programming, book reviewing and murals. A mural, to be exact. I've been painting this big red cat, but I really need to get better brushes in order to finish the work. It looks good enough for now, but I'll be tweaking it for some time still. You'll see when you visit. Or I'll take a picture and post it here. Might do that tomorrow. Shadow knows.

Saw a sf-movie today. Alien cargo. I wasn't expecting much (nothing, really) and was pleasantly surprised by this little, entertaining and suspenseful tv-movie. Take some elements from Alien, add little bit of decent plot and suspense, hints of something sinister (but do not show it), rational explanation for irrational behaviour and genuinely coherent ending - et voilá! You have the makings of a very nice film.

Alien cargo is definitely no masterpiece: acting is OK, main characters are not that convincing as space truckers, exposition is dreadful when it happens (the bar scene, ouch!), dialogue gnaws more often than bites and your SFX isn't that much better than Babylon5 - but the film manages to entertain nevertheless. The two "heroes" are likable, especially after they are infected and start acting like it, surprisingly without anyone actually explaining it unnecessarily! And the ending is as it should be. Kudos.

This reminded me little bit about Outland, that MTV3 Scifi also showed few days ago. Gritty workers SF, these are. More of this, please. What kind of a movie could be achieved with little more grit, more eye for little everyday details and - for example - William Barton writing the story!

Incidentally, I see that Barton's last novel came out almost a decade ago. He is still writing short fiction, but no longer pieces. Shame, really.

loosely based on factual errors

2008-03-21T23:43:30Z

I've been organising my cabinets today. As some of you may have gathered (especially from Sari's ongoing commentary here and there) I have few reams of paper products: fanzines, drawings, fiction, doodles, print-outs, crap, notebooks etc. Couple of cabinets, really.

I managed to get rid of couple of boxes, one of which (rather surprisingly) contained about twenty books. Some of which location I had been wondering a bit already, mainly the ones I had on my "To-be-read"-pile. Or the ones I was in the middle of, when we moved. Like Arthur C. Clarke's fiction autobiography Astounding Tales. That I've been searching for these past couple of days after the passing of ACC himself.

I thought of putting the book to the "powder room" ie. the WC (as opposed to the bathroom with sauna), but unfortunately we've been having bit of a problem with plumbing lately. Mainly the hose that leads from the hole in the sink that averts catastrophes if one leaves the water running (what do you call it? overflow-prevention device?) was not connected, meaning that water ran down to the cabinet under the sink.
Damages? Don't ask. I'll have to contact the NCC after Easter and ask what do they think is their responsibility in a situation like this and what do they think is the going rate of 1980's Conan comics. We're probably not going to see eye to eye there.

(Appropriately last.fm is playing Kings of the Wild Frontier right now. Which was preceded by Sunglasses After Dark and I Ran. That's Adam and the Ants, Corey Hart and Flock of Seagulls.)

Earlier today, when ice skating was still only a glimmer in the horizon, I was watching telly and eating brunch. There was this semi-sf series Jack and Bobby on. Somewhat interesting concept, but not that interesting in reality. Anyhoo, I googled the show and wasn't too surprised to notice that the show lasted only one season. What caught my interest was the other Finland connection (Christine Lahti is the lead in the series as the mother of the eponymous characters. I also note that she is married to Thomas Schlamme, one of the producers of the show), namely that the fictional president Adler, who was in power during the War of Americas, was later charged with war crimes, after being arrested by the president of Finland! Way to go, president Joku! (Now last.fm is playing Icehouse's Hey Little Girl. This is really good! Sounds a lot like Girls and Boys -era Bryan Ferry, which is great! OK, now we're back with Thompson Twins.)

I mentioned that I found some twenty books from the cabinets. This finally broke the 4 900 mark at Librarything. Still some way to go for the full... Barth? Barnes? Bromley? What was that 5000+ size of a library?

Slow Cooking

2008-03-20T21:38:00Z

Easter! The Redeemer! The Passion!

Or... four-day-weekend. I'll take that.

I was going to write something really spiffy about various Tähtivaeltaja Award nominees (that includes Tähtifantasia, the one I'm chairing this year), but I've mostly been reading and feeling very much relaxed. Good, innit?

Åcon2 is coming, soon! You should reserve your hotel, now! And the ferry trip, pronto! Check out the website and be speedy about it!

Vir sapit qui pauca loquitur

2008-03-19T19:17:13Z

The season is over. Once more we're left with bedufflement. Why? What? Who? And why the hell cannot our players score?

*sigh*

Not in a mood for blogging. First ACC dies and now this. Spring, your turn.

Parcon

2008-03-18T10:44:24Z

"So, what is Parcon?", asks the uninitiated fan from Lesser Knowledge. Glad you asked, I'll try to answer.

Czechs are known as nearly-as-lucky-but-not-quite-as-lucky-as-Swedes ice hockey players, purveyors of great beer and Velvet Revolution (not to be mistaken for Velvet Underground, which was Vaclac Havel's lesser known band in the Days of Yore).

The most famous Czech speculative fiction author is a toss between two names: Karel Čapek and Franz Kafka. The first gave us newts, the second cockroaches. There was someone who gave Prague golems, too. Little is known about the fandom, but it exist and has been organising cconvetions for quite some time now.

The annual Czech (and Slovak, as they do things together, even if Czeckoslovakia is no more) SF-con is called PARCON, which probably takes its name from the first ever such convention, which was held in the city of PARdubice. Subsequent conventions have been called Parcons, which is quite OK, as otherwise there might've been cons like Olocon, Bracon, Košcon, Šumcon, Banská Byscon, Ústí nad Labcon, Spišská Nová Vescon and my personal favourite: Brandýs nad Labcon.

By using the same principle as the original 1987 con-organisers, this years ccould be called Plzcon. As in Plzeň, or if you like to call it by the German name, Pilsen. Which of course is the home of famous Pilsener, such as Urquell and Staropramen. Very nice.

But, I digress. Parcon 2008 will be held in Plzeň from 22nd to 24th of August and it looks like a very nice little convention indeed. Interesting topic (New Weird, fancy me liking this one...), interesting Guests of Honour (Jeff [and Ann] VanderMeer, Les Edwards and a list of others, who the organisers haven't confirmed yet (Ian R. MacLeod, China Miéville, Steph Swainston). In Czech Republic, where beer costs practically nothing, there are taps on your restaurant table and counters on the wall! Not to mention cheapo accomodation: 200 local ~~dollars~~ korunas/night, which puts you back something like... €8. As said, cheap. Should be good and I'm sorely tempted.

Anyone else interested? Quick trip to former Eastern Europe (Plzeň is of course over ten longitudes west from Helsinki, while the most western part of Czech is more western than Sweden), few cool, refreshing draughts from the "horses mouth" (there could be a pub by that name somewhere, why not Plzeň?) and fun SF with local fen (who really do look like cross between Helsinki-fandom and TeroY) and Guests. Should be pretty cheap also. OK, has to be pretty cheap. My budget does not allow me to do anything other than Really Cheap Tripping, but then again, where does one spend money in a foreign con? Accomodation, some travel, food, beer and ~~cheap~~ souveniers. All these more or less peanuts to us westerners.

I'm seriously considering this one.

Watching telly

2008-03-17T21:47:12Z

We increased our television channel intake by getting a package deal from Elisa for about a dozen channels. Mainly so that Sari would be able watch Ice Skating (some Championships begin tomorrow). And since they were also very much interested in keeping us happy, they threw in three months worth of MTV3+ channels: Ava, Fakta, Max, This, That - and Scifi.

Which is OK, I guess. We've had it now for a week and during that time I've watched couple of episodes of B5 (yes, really! still not very good), some entertainingly bad direct--to-video films (like Chameleon2), few minutes of Andromeda, some Red Dwarf, couple of episodes of the First Doctor Who (Hartnell!) and the second episode of the Masters of ~~Udder Krap~~ Science Fiction series.

Well worth the price we're paying now, which is obviously €nil at the moment. So NOT worth paying the actual (€20?) list price. OK, you'd get all the Other Great channels they have, like Sub Junior and Leffa and Sarja, but still, no. Though I have to admit that I found an interesting series from Sarja: Reilly - vakoilijaässä (Reilly - Ace of Spies). Loosely based on the life and times of one Sidney Reilly, the world's first superspy. Cracking stuff! The episode I was had Reilly "saving" another spy from German factory, where the huns were making sikrit veapon, just in case there might be need for such a thing (this happened in 1905). Reilly actually goes and steals the blueprints and leaves the other guy (played by young Bill Nighy, as if there actually has ever been a young Bill Nighy!) to die. Realpolitik disguised as spy-stuff. Me liked.

And, no. Not even with Reilly - vakoilijaässä will the MTV3+ channel package be worth twenty åre. Not even with the Formula1 or David Letterman or Secret Army (Maanalainen armeija) or even 'Allo 'Allo (Maanalainen armeija iskee jälleen). Maybe if they would show Survivorman (Selviytyjä) but then again, Discovery is showing that and we got Discovery. What a show! This dude, Les, is dropped in the middle of nowhere, with just some bare essentials and couple of cameras (and some serious batteries!) for seven days, and he has to, well, just survive! Like in the middle of some bigass Ocean with only a rubberboat. Or Antartica, or the Amazon, or... Wherever! Les manages. Today he boiled water in a plastic bottle (his only method of carrying liquids!) with a fire he concoted up from dung, glycerin and potassium permanganate. Which basically meant that he picked up some wilderbeest poo, poured some antiseptics on top of it, which then had a chemical reaction - and hey presto: FIRE! Kool.

Television can be educational.

Onneksi olkoon, herra Koljonen!Part Deux

2008-03-16T21:31:48Z

Hello again!

Took some time off from all that PeBloWriMoing. Missed me? Oh...

As some of you may already know, Finncon2009 (10th - 12th of July) takes place in Kaapelitehdas. It took some time to find a proper venue for the kind of convention we wanted to do: a joint Finncon/Animecon, where both can exist together, but still have their own space. Roughly translated as: massive happening room for the anime-kids and cosy mingling/beer-drinking space for the ~~doddering old fools~~ fen. I think we may have just found the place with Kaapelitehdas.

It will take LOT of doing, not to mention HUGE amount of volunteer work, but I'm sure we'll manage. And that we'll do it together. I think I will address this thing later this week.

Which I will call PeBloWriWe, as in Personal Blog Writing Week. I have some things I like to write about and if I conjure this ~~stoopid~~ incentive PeBloWriWe, I might actually ~~force cajole~~ make myself to do this. So, expect to read a bit about Finncon2009, Åcon2, Tähtifantasia (so, who will win?), Parcon and MTV3 Scifi.

And of course, congratulations to Mr. Koljonen for the BIG L!

Onneksi olkoon, herra Koljonen!

2008-03-02T21:52:26Z

Last weekend went in such a hurry that I can barely realise that it is Sunday now and tomorrow I have to go work again. *sigh*

No PeBloWriMo for karkauspäivä or Leap Day, as it is evidently called. Wasn't near computer that day. Very busy also. We went to Ikea, just for fun, since we actually had a lot to do last Friday, but... Went to Ikea and bought a table. Actually we had already collected the boxes (2) for the said table, when I noticed a peculiarily similar looking table(s) at the "Löytöjä"-corner. There were two tables for sale, the one that I noticed first (really battered for €45) and the one behind the other. Looking bad as well, but as I looked a bit more closely, swiped some of the grime away with me 'and, revealing fairly undamaged and only €89 priced table, I knew this was IT. After some negotiations, renting a van and all, the whole trip to Ikea ended up costing several tenners less than just the new table we were after. Brilliant!

But we did lose some time, which meant that we were in a bit of a hurry to get to railway station and to Turku, where we headed straight away to Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova, and the St. Anna's Chapel which is the said religious place inside the museum. Really intimate and small place. And a very nice place to have one's sikrit wedding.

In this case the marriage between my bloodbrother Hannu Pajunen and the lovely bride, Kristiina Koljonen. Surrounded by some dozen relatives and close friends, we attended the ceremony. I had the honour of being the bestman, and while I had the urge to snap the ringbox on the reverend's fingers, I managed to control myself. Barely.

Stayed at Hannu's place for the night (while the happy couple were doing whatever people do in a undisclosed location) and headed to Tammere with Tomi and Tero, at Tero's car. I was already feeling the flu I'm currently having (the one Sari's been having for some time now) and felt somewhat drowsy. It's irritating fly, this one. Not really that bad (I'm going to go to work tomorrow, unless my temperature will rise significantly before morning), but bothersome, to say the least.

Ate a hearthy lunch at Ali Baba's (Turku-people's regular haunt for he Yhteistyökokous). I recommended the nearby Ragu's Malesian restaurant. Really good, you should try that one. Better food than Ali Baba's mediocre kebab. Nothing really that wrong with their kebab, well worth the €6 or so. Still, Ragu's. Better.

Yhteistyökokous was good, if a bit long. But then again, it was pretty much what it was supposed to be. Co-operation and information. Good stuff and it has been really excellent that SPEKTRE has organised this one now for six years in a row. I think we were wise when we asked whether the Tammere people would be willing to arrange this thing for the common good of Finndom.

After the Real Deal, we ate a bit, drank a bit, went to sauna (or some people did, as well as dipping into the frozen lake, I didn't as I was feeling the coming of the Cold), fried some sausages, smoked a few cigars and had a raffle. Eight tickets, one prize. Should've bought only two, probably would've won with both of them.

Unfortunately the DVD-player didn't recognize Atlantiksen jumala, which meant that the Rest of the Finland's Premiere is still yet to come. In hindsight, this may have been a blessing in disguise. The co-operation meeting was so long that we may have had to skip or really shorten the last event of the day, the NoFF-auction, which would've been simply terrible.

I acted as the auctioneer (which isn't the reason I think it'd been terrible to miss it) and together with the generosity of the fandom, we managed to raise well over 300 euroes (over €280 for the auction and some extra from anonymous donators) to this year's trip! Give yourself a round of applause, people! Well done.

We headed to train station in order to catch the 11Pm train, managed to do that, spent hour-and-half sitting uncomfortably at pendolino's chairs, while the two brats in front of us were behaving obnoxiously and were in Helsinki at 0.30AM. Which was covered in snow, and kept snowing. And I thought the spring was here already. Fat chance.

Today we've been mostly sleeping, trying to get better and fixing the flat up. Still plenty of stuff to do, but every day is looking more and more likely that we might be ready to hold a house-warming party. RSN.

OK, to bed. PeBloWriMo is over, rejoice!

PeBloWriMo Day Twenty-Eight: The Penultimate Truth

2008-02-28T22:24:34Z

OK, it's really Saturday, but I just got back from SF-mafia at St. Urho's Pub. If you're ever in the neighbourhood, feel free to drop in every other Thursday (odd weeks, like week number 1, 3, 5, 15, 37, 41 and so forth) starting from 6PM'ish.

Decent crowd today: some less seen figures like Päivi, out-of-towners like Juri and way-long-ago-last-seen like AnttiJ. Nice. Had a good discussion with Toni about Viivi Hyvönen's new novel Apina ja Täysikuu. Everybody should go and buy this book, and then read it. If you can't buy it, borrow, and read. Good, interesting, new, thought-provoking SF mixed with fantasy, detective stories and whatnot. I dare to call it very much New Weirdish. There, I've said it.

Tomorrow to Turku and then to Tammere on Saturday. Now: Sleep.

PeBloWriMo Day TwentySeven and counting

2008-02-27T21:58:46Z

Last two days have been bit more "exciting" than I expected, as I was transferred to another place at the Work. New gig, new duties, new everything. Pretty busy. Overtime."Spennailua", as we from Helsinki would say. We'll see how this goes. In actuality, this particular stint will last only until Wednesday, when I will take over the job I've been meant to take for some time now. So this is really a wee interlude, but holds a fair number of new things that probably will be important in the long run. Especially if this gig continues over the original eight months. Here's hoping.

I wouldn't also mind some kind of a holiday. Next weekend I'll be busy travelling, three cities in two days. And there's still quite a number of things I'd like (and especially Sari would like to see me) so in our new flat. Like drilling holes to the walls in order to put art, shelves and various and sundry hanging objects to there. As well as paint my HIFK-mural. So my next three weekend (following this travelling wilbury -one) will be dedicated to homestead maintenance.

This is funny. Really funny. I wish someone would do this for real and in album form. I'd buy a copy.

PeBloWriMo Day kakskuus

2008-02-26T20:59:46Z

"You maniacs! You blew it up! Oh, damn you! God damn you all to hell!"

I'm thinking Åcon2 programming. I think we did pretty well last time with the proposed schedule, so I guess we might just continue with it. It looked like this. I think we might talk about translating, books (always a good plan), post colonialism in SF, forgotten authors, and perhaps BS.

65 days to go.

Oh, the bit from Planet of the Apes is answer to a question at a quiz at Åcon. Might be worth a few points.

PeBloWriMo Day Twenty-Five: ESCape from Espoo

2008-02-25T21:41:55Z

Various interesting foodstuffs by something called Clearspring have bee seen at shoppes. Like these absolutely luvverly Teriyaki ricecakes I'm right now munching away with some fizzy and fruity. Horribly expensive, but looking very nice, clean and Japanese. English, by looking at the label, I see. This package says all kinds of things, like allergy free, vegan, wheat free and so on. And good.

Anyway. Today we had a little meeting at Mr. Tähtivaeltaja's place and such was the fervour and sparkle of wit, that the apartment next door caught fire! We (or Toni, really) were wondering what on earth is this slight, foul smell, when we heard sirens. And lo and behold!, fire trucks and firemen! And proper FIRE! Intense action for few minutes and then it was all over, wisps of black smoke as the lonely reminder of someone's personal tragedy.

After all this commotion, we needed beer and since it was the monthly meeting of the Espoo (and nowadays also Kauniainen, Kirkkonummi and Klaukkala) Science Fiction Society ESC, we went to Tapioca. ESC were also having their annual general meeting, but I managed to avoid all important positions of influence (and work) and almost esc-ape without any official duties. Somehow I was burdened with 2nd Assistant Bookkeeper title. I'll live.

ESC are planning some nice things or the future: ESCON will be held in 8th of October, they are publishing another book (first one was the simply brilliant Hannun basaarissa), and arranging another excursion into mystical Espoo! But what they do to trump last year's superior Hunt for the Giant Ape in Iso Vasikkasaari? Tough act to follow that one.

PeBloWriMo Day Twenty-Four or, Nothing, Really

2008-02-24T22:20:45Z

On occasion, I have days off. This was one of those days. Shelved some booksies, cooked dinner, took the dog for a walk and watched some footsie. And since it evidently is an off-season, Los Galacticos went and lost to Getafe (of all possible adversaries). Here's a prediction: none of "my" teams (HIFK, Liverpool, New Jersey Devils, Real Madrid, ToPo [that would be spectacular, considering how well they actually have done this season], Inter [OK, they too]) will win Championship this year. Just watch, folks.

Like Sari told at Eating Muffins, yesterdays wedding was a lovely occasion. Fionna looked stunning and all the necessary accoutrements were done right and proper. We left around 1AM and were home somewhat after 2PM. The happy couple are going to Aruba for the honeymoon. Aruba. *sigh* I guess that means sea, sun and warm. *long sigh* Well deserved, you too.

Still looking for more GoH ideas, people. Repetition is fine, explanation for "Why her?" encouraged. Why would you want to see Liz Williams or Steph Swainston or Pat Cadigan as guests in a (hypotetical) Finnish con. Thanks in advance.

PeBloWriMo Day 23: "With Brigitte Bardot playing part of Hypotenuse"

2008-02-23T09:33:02Z

Posted by jukkahoo

Let's say you'd be organising a science fiction/fantasy/horror convention. Pretend you are, this is purely hypotetical. And you'd have some Guests of Honours ready. Let's make them all male. And let's pretend that in order to give your con some sort of aspect of gender equality, you'd want to add a Guest (or two) that are female. Who'd be on top of your list?

And let's continue this game furthermore: say you'd be organising this con in Finland and you'd be advised not to bring back old GoH's. New would be the idea, not necessarily age-wise. And one more thing: in order to keep a well balanced budget, that GoH (or two) would have to be either European or already in Europe for reasonably priced travel expenses.

Now, in this completely hypotetical situation, who would You choose?

I'm now off to Hämeenlinna.

PeBloWriMo Day kaxkax

2008-02-22T21:35:25Z

Just got back from town. I and Sari met with YlvaS från Sverige and had a lovely dinner at Little Nepal. Recommended and probably rather Nepalese, in Indian way as Finnish Nepalese tend to be. Menu in Nepalese was a nice touch. It's now larger than last we visited, then also with Swedish friends, and I think their food has gotten better. It's nice, decently portioned and prices. Good little restaurant. Especially liked the mango lassi. Kukhuro Shiraz was marked down as medium spicy, which I first thought as somewhat under described, but soon realised that I probably ate the chili piece in it then. Solid, though. I think Sari had Bhendo Bhuteko, which was very good also. So, recommended.

Had a good chat with Ylva about various differences with Finnish and Swedish fandom, conventions and traditions. There are more similarities among us than differences, but what else is new? Tomorrow we'll head for Vanajanlinna for Fionna's wedding, in order to represent Scandinavian fandom there. I dread the possibility of dancing...

I have to share this with you as I find it very endearing. Waldrop is one of my favourites and his short stories some of the finest ever published. Go and buy any collection you see, you'll see. And if you don't, you're weird and boring. Well, not weird perhaps as is, but boring anyway and that is much, much worse.

Kirjava has the first ever translated collection, Musiikkia miesäänille ja lentäville lautasille, with original introduction by the man hisself. Then these's the new collection THINGS WILL NEVER BE THE SAME: Selected Short Fiction, 1980 - 2005, which is equally great way to introduce yourself to Hard Waldrop. I understand Jan met Howard last weekend at Boskone. *envy*

And finally Eurovision Song Contest. Yes, that one. It's been barely a year and something since Lordi won the blasted thing. Last year we hosted the event and tried to be poprocky. No result. As we can easily deduct from this, we need metal. Namely, hero metal and therefore: Teräsbetoni. I didn't watch the actual show (hello!) but as Hesari had the results on their website, I needed to see what those Manowar Lite were up to.

Teräsbetoni had a solid first album with especially great singles as "Orjatar" and "Taivas lyö tulta". 2nd album felt like the "joke" (if there is one) was running thin. Now, with Eurovision Song Contest ("kuuntele kilpailukappaleet" opens a player where you'll find, among others, Teräsbetoni's song) they are back with a song called "Missä miehet ratsastaa". Gold, I tell you. GOLD. How cannot one just love a song with chorus like:

"Missä miehet ratsastaa,
siellä lampaat ei voi laiduntaa.
Missä miehet ratsastaa,
kuulee suden ulvontaa."

"Where Men ride,
no sheep can prowl.
Where Man ride,
you'll hear wolves howl."

("Translation" by moi)

As Calvin used to say: "It's great to be male!"

PeBloWriMo Day Vingt-et-Un

2008-02-21T21:48:31Z

Just got back home from Finncon 2009 meeting where we welcomed some new organisers and went thru what has happened during our two month hiatus. Lots have happened. We're finishing our deal with the site (Grand Unveiling will happen at the Yhteistyökokous in Tammere in eight days time, just after PeBloWriMo), asking some new Guests of Honour, revamping the website (soon, RSN, Eemeli promised) and whatnot.

And what about our home? Sari has done some magnificent things here today! One of these days were going to have our home warming thingye and you're all welcome. We need to co-ordinate these things with Suna-people though, since they are also proud owners of a new home. Hello Suna!

I also bought a book today. Been a while since the last one. More soon, I hope! Also managed to see new Viivi Hyvönen novel, Apina ja uusikuu, which I read in manuscript form a while back. Really interesting work, which I have high hopes for as a finished product. Don't let me down, Viivi!

Early wakeup call tomorrow, so I'll hit the sack now. A Swedish friend is coming to Helsinki tomorrow, in order to attend a wedding on Saturday and we're meeting for dinner in the evening. Saturday well act as guides and head toward Vanajanlinna, where Fionna (nearly typoed Fiona, ghaps!) and Mark will be wedded. Hooray!

PeBloWriMo Day Twenty: Venttivan

2008-02-20T19:56:40Z

Miksi Black Jackin suomenkielinen nimi on Ventti? Niinko kakskymmentä? Tarkoitushan olisi saada korttien yhteenlasketuilla lukumäärillä kaksikymmentäyksi. Niinko Venttivan.

OK. Nyt ei aivot pelaa, joten käytetään arkistoja huikeasti hyväksi. Muistatteko M. Arvin kirjakataloogin vuodelle 2007? Huikean muikea Marvin - The Lehden numero viime vuodelta, joka on siis kyseisen otsakkeen mukaisen kustannusliikkeen 100-vuotisjuhlakataloogi, jossa esitellään kunnianarvoisan kustantamon historia yhdessä uutuuskirjojen kera. Tätä(kin) Marvinia suunniteltiin kohtuullisen pitkään ja hartaasti. Jopa siinä määrin, että pidettiin parikin kokousta, jossa näitä kirjoja ~~keksittiin humalapäissään~~ luotiin rakkaudella ja hartaudella.

Mutta koska monituinen asia usein onnistuu suuntautumaan kohti Mönkä-nimistä paikkakuntaa, enemmän kuin useampi laadittu ~~huono vitsi~~ loistava idea jäi totetumatta. Alla oleva tekstiviipale on muistiinpanoja kyseisten kokoontumisajojen tiimoilta. ©opyright on tietenkin kaikkien paikalla olleiden indiviidien, mutta jotta nämä ~~hömpötykset~~ neronleimaukset eivät jäisi vain arkistojen ~~pölypuudeleiksi~~ aarteiksi, här tvättas:

Astro Lundgren

Friedrich Wilhelm von Mäntsälä

”Pistä vielä yksi kalja”

Lukemattomia kirjoja

Viimeisen mohikaanin poika

Tuntematon sotilas 2 – Tuntemattomampi sotilas

Wayne Castle: Unknown Warrior, Under the North Star

Mike Waltari: Enemy of Mankind, Secret of the Realm

Alex Stone: Seven Brothers, Shoemakers of Baskerville

Cthulhu sisustusopas

Pieni Cthulhu-opas lastenkasvattamiseen (sarja)

Kapteeni Kekkosen seikkailukirjat (40-luvun Suosikkikirjoja –sarja)

K. H. Eops: Mitä pyramidin esiin kaivaminen maksaa

Sinä se vasta sopan keitit

Juustot & astrologia – Mikä on juustomerkkisi?

(Ensi vuonna: Minkä sienen alla olet syntynyt? Mikä on sienimerkkisi?)

Muista myös edulliset pokkaripainokset!

Paragon: Anakin Tossavainen, olarilainen 13-v. tyttö

Synkkään sieluun syöpyvät sanat

Idästä tuleva sarjakuva valloittaa: Voe miu jumalaein!

Anna kyynelten tulla, pyysi noviisi

Voldemar Potka

Käsikirja – käsistä kertova kirja

Parsa on paras

Nuoren miehen käsityökirja

Kohtalon miekan paluu – nuortenfantasia

Varsaselleri, 77 hauskaa reseptiä

Verireseptejä

Dippaa ja paista! – kahdeksan hauskaa marmelaadireseptiä!

Halvalla maukasta, joka kokin tuunauskeittokirja

Etsivä Kokki

Tähteet ovat oikein!

Sitä, Siksi, Silloin – Kansalaisen "vuosi"kirja

Muinaisten sumerien Salattu Viisaus

Matti Vanhanen: Toisteluni

Kun Suomi pakeni: Piia-Noora Kauppi valittiin presidentiksi

Erään hauvan tutkimuksia

Kuka nyysi Puppen bisset? – kuvateos

Ylermi Julmapuuro

Säädytön murhenäytelmä

Jortikka & Alapää

Tikkaseura Alapään nuolijoitten historiikki

Aasian kettiö

Panemisen historia: Opastus oluen tekemiseen kautta aikain

Xenafobia länsimaisessa kulttuurissa

Väitöskirjasarja ”Onpas!”

Viisikko vetää perseet Edith Python

Lumessa ja pilvessä – Suomen mäkimaajoukkueen historia

Krilliherkkuja valaille

Räjähtävä keittiö

Luennon armoilla

Luonnon armoilla: Lasten selviämisopas ydintuhon jälkeiseen maailmaan

Oluen arkeologia

Ruokaa uhanalaisista eläimistä

Saimaannorppapihvit

Lance Jordan: Ajan pyörää

Mustan linnan valtijatar

Paksupäiset kaksijalkaiset

Pastori Käteinen

Komisario Hopeapoppeli

Miekkavalas kivessä

Vaaleanpunainen yksisarvinen ja muita helvetillisiä kauhuja

”Haju on kuuroja varten”

Nutkracker Sweet

Helvetillinen pauke: Saatanan kirkon kellot

Posket kurtussa

Sun perse on kurtussa

Heräsin naama hanurilla/ssa

Hanuristan

Nahkahousut ja hanuri

”Kaasua, komisario Kokki!”

Jorma Piirakka

Tomb Clancy –sarja

- Julma tunkeutuja

- Vaarallinen vaara

- Sumusta nousee uhka

- Koston Erkki

- Työn Sakari

Jorma Maskulin: Kultaisen sateen maa

Kana taisteli

Vesä Sisättö: Alkuillan tarinoita: Vähän humalassa

- Tuopista löytyi stobee

Epäkuolleitten runoilijoitten seura

Viheltäen yli sillan

Lapin sodan saksa

Keine anung: saksaa tietämättömille

Linnunradan käsikirja pihtareille

Miksi kukaan ei kelpuuta minun ideoitani suoraa?

Suomalaiset bussipysäkit värikuvina - Emma Numminen

Etelä-Suomen liikenteenjakajat värikuvina

Hurjaa huutoa huussista: Chili ruoanlaitossa

Dostojevski: Amaootta

Dippaa tai grappaa!

Tuhat käyttöä maustamattomalle currylle

Huriseva Harjunpää

GONZOJOURNALISMI!
Sarjakuvia:

- Kiroileva terässiili

- Teräsmies ja Jaska Jokunen

- Ninjaurkuri

- Ratsupoliisi King ja Pyhä Pietari

Chronicles of the Objects of Power

Humalainen näytelmä – pieleen menneet kiljukokeilut

“Se ei pysynyt mahassa niin pitkään, että se olisi ehtinyt käydä.”

”Aina alkaa tapahtua, kun juodaan kiljua!”

Suomalaisen kirjallisuuden tätihetkiä

Batseba Pöksyläinen, Lestijärven kohtalokas leski

”Mua fleguttaa”

Henkilö, jonka vaihtoehtohistotiakin unohtaisi

Anonymous Nobodys

Lihapiirakka, kasvissyöjän(kin) vaihtoehto

Filosofisia keskusteluja tyypin kanssa

Elävien kuolleiden runoilijoiden seura

Hegeliä ja ruoanlaittoa

Futuristinen keittokirja

PeBloWriMo Day Nineteen: Jagshemash

2008-02-19T22:22:21Z

Awful sporting day today. Not only did HIFK lose, so did Real and Inter. The latter one wasn't really helped by the fact that they did lose to Liverbox, as I was sort of counting for Inter to put the Reds out of their miseries (Bransley...) for good. And what do they do? Second rate effort, with Materazzi doing what he does best, f**king it all up.

Today we also chose the Tähtifantasia Award nominees for the shortlist. And the brilliant five books are...

Take a guess. Go on, pick the right ones. Five books out of all those fantasies published in Finnish last year. Translated books, mind you, the originally Finnish fantasies are awarded the Mirrormere Award by the Finnish Tolkien Society.

Which really should consider very seriously Päivi Honkapää's Viides tuuli, which just last weekend won the Tiiliskivi Award, given by the Lit. Crit. students of the Tammere University. Viides tuuli is good, solid effort, which deserves much more credit and appreciation than it has so far garnered. I have a personal history with this one, as I was the original Reader of the manuscript Way Back Then. Now, years later, the book is out, it's good and getting good reviews, wherever good fantasy is appreciated.

I apologise for the relative shortness of these PeBloWriMoes of late. Various duties (or I call them duties, anyway) are keeping me rather occupied. The main one obviously being the move, but I cannot hide behind that one any more, as we have now given away our keys to the Taimistontie apartment. Gone, that happy home I used to call Casa Tali. But will Purotie be Casa Tali Two, or what? The Shadow knows, but he isn't telling.

I'll try to be more active with this one in the future and really have something to say. (*chuckle*) As if...

PeBloWriMo Day Eighteen: Åcon2 is only 73 days away!

2008-02-18T19:44:22Z

Are you coming to Åcon2? What kind of programming would you like to see? What would you be willing to do yerself? How does William Shatner karaoke sound like? Post-Colonialistic SF/F? More Never Mind the Buzzaldrins, with humming part intact?

I'd really like to hear from you guys about the programming part of the convention. And anything else that might interest you. I meaning here of course the lot of us. This more than any other con in Finland is a group effort. It's not quite relaxacon, but relaxed and loose, fun and games, interesting and proper fandom.

All comments are REALLY appreciated, both here and @sci.fi. Now, I need to go and see how Jesus people train their young ones on channel FST5. Digidigi.

PeBloWriMo Day Seventeen: No rest for the wicked

2008-02-17T19:31:06Z

Rest has been in short supply lately. Move is still affecting life more than I'd care to admit and work seems to be draining the leftover juices pretty effectively. There's couple of conventions to arrange: Åcon2 and (admittedly a bit more distant) Finncon 2009. And everything else.

This weekend was once more one of little rest. We cleaned Taimistontie pretty much as clean as we possibly could, ate pretty decent Chinese at nearby Mr. Lau (Sari: "They have General Tso's Chicken!!!") and went back to clean the old place some more, and finally threw away some leftover crap from the balcony. We just went to sauna and now I feel like relaxing and taking it easy. In ten hours I should be back at work, though.

Next weekend we'll be in Hämeenlinna, in order to celebrate Fionna's wedding, so not too much rest there either, I'd hazard to guess. The weekend after that is Yhteistyökokous in Tammere, so... You know. I guess I might get some sleep in March.

"Ah, Myy! What did you say? The evening tea is ready! OK, I shall be on my way..."

PeBloWriMo Day Fiveteen: Wool

2008-02-16T21:14:06Z

We've been married for seven years now with Sari. Yay! In order to celebrate this momentous occasion, we cleaned up the old flat in Taimistontie, with huge help from Mekku and Ylva and not so much from Saga and Theta. Thanks for the entertainment, though.

Still things to do there, but increasingly less than before. Horrid work this cleaning business. How on earth did we manage to live among all that filth? The things you find when you've cleared out the furnitures and... stuff. Just mindboggling.

And then there was the Grand Premiere of God of Atlantis (Atlantiksen jumala/Gudan av Atlantis)! Wahey! What a motion picture supergavanza! As I said few days ago, I had some reservations before, but little of that is there now. Sure, there are lots of things in the film that could be better, but as sheer fun movie-making magic and friendship effort: PURE GOLD! It looked true, music was inspired (maestro Jyrki Tudeer!) and script that felt at times less than brilliant (my bad) was solid. Great one-liners, good humour and some truly magnificient performances, none so supercalifragilisticexpialidocious as the one by none other than that Dean of physical comedy, Tapio Ranta-Aho!!! I felt the pain only a man can feel at the end of the battle with invisible Jouni Kaartinen. Oumpf.

Great fun, really. Distributed by Flamemountain films, wherever such funtastic films are being sold. I'm guessing from Petri himself, and maybe Pieni Leffakauppa, dunno.

PeBloWriMo Day Fiveteen: Sad

2008-02-15T21:49:45Z

Tough day today. Myy's father, the inimitable P. Mommsen has passed on and joined the choir invisible. You will be missed, Vötkäle.