Hesari... more than just a newspaper

One of top rituals I have nowadays is reading Helsingin Sanomat - the real paper one - on Saturday and Sunday mornings with Nina. Sleeping long, waking peacefully up in no hurry, fetching the paper, cooking a pot of tea and diving into Hesari for 1-1.5 hours. This summer that was even doable at the balcony almost every weekend we were in Espoo - triplefermented great ! Even though it's a shame that kids grow up so fast it has it's benefits too - this Hesari heaven has been possible since even Valtteri has started to take care and enjoy the no-fuzz-weekend-cartoon-mornings.

Hesari is Rock'n'Roll. Loads of new things constantly especially in foreign section and special sections.
Btw, paper as media is giving a unique way of actually feeling it all at one time - first quickly browsing the whole section, positioning and evaluating the stories, thinking about "What might that really be about", "hhmmm that looks interesting", and then diving into each story by sometimes just getting a bite of it before moving to next and then coming back to previous and eating the whole story with a sip of tea. Total experince which is just simply not replaceable to me by Internet's effective news feeds and shortened summaries ;o)

An memorable excerp from this weeks Hesari (just a shame that however interesting stories I will forget them too soon... like good jokes)
This weeks science section:
"Strange Mathematical Genius Perelman"
"We are going back to moon"
"The hole in Ozone layer above the Antartic is not widening anymore"
"The ice layer of Greenland keeps melting away" - 7 meters sea water level increase to expected"
"Spiders from Amazonas... first ones to known to hunt in groups"














In culture section there was also an interesting story about the English professor's book about Finland and it's history. "Researcher breaks the myths of Finns".














Hurraa Hesari - hurraa vanha kunnon sanomalehti !

About Google... or actually what

Interesting story about Google in today's Helsingin Sanomat. The story was about how "Tiny and harmless Google has become scaringly strong company" which "Is feared by both many small and huge competitors to be spreading to new areas like a locust cloud." Nothing new really actually.

However, there was a particular sentence which made me think again. Google is supposedly still following something which many companies seem to be thingking is the worst thing one can do - "Engineers first think how a problem could be solved. Only later, if ever, they start thinking how the invention could be used to make money.".
It seems that most of the companies nowadays are increasignly obsessed with the opposite - "Looks neat but show me the money, where is the money"-attitude.
Maybe it's when the career inside dictates your actions more than the future in the outside world when the possibilities become "threads" and "minimal risk to fail" becomes the key criteria to enter anything ? Maybe it's always easier to say no the new uncertain things when the future of your career inside of the company is the only thing to worry... or maybe not.

Google is claimed to be still thinking that "Money will flow in as long as the idea is good." -Maybe this is the rule for the ones with real eye and guts for making things happen.... or maybe not.


Maybe... or not.

Loaded Friday

Memorable Friday ... Outi got tickets for herself and me to Mahler's 8th - symphony of thousand in this year's Helsingin Juhlaviikot. The symphony got it's nick name from being first performed by over 1000 musicians (1028 ?). Esa-Pekka Salonen condunting, 2 orchestras and 3 choirs all together 400 musicians in this performance. Could not help the shivers and some tears during the last moments of the symphony. Amazing music - amazing performance. Actually sort of difficult to understand why we as a nation of 5M people have such large number of talented musicians.
Lucky that there were other values besides global economic effectiveness when it was composed - nowadays nobody could compose anything like that since it would be economically totally stupid. Just makes you think what will be missing, what is left to unfound, what things are not invented since everything is dominated by shere money....

After the concert Outi drop me to Eiranranta were I had rendez-vous with Nummi family and our gang. They picked me up to the boat from Kompassi, and we headed to right front of the Hernesaari were the Finnish fireworks championships was taking place. With Markus's defined instinct we ended up into just perfect position... fireworks looked bloody amazing from that spot ! And it was like all the boats in capital region were there - looked great. Made me think Egotrippi way (again) "In these hours there's something I'd like to own".

Lyrics... again

From Egotrippi's (again) Helsinki-Hollola Cd the song Lennokki:

"Näissä tunneissa on jotain mitä haluaisin omistaa,
ei mikään liikahda
pölykoiratkin pysyttelee kopeissaan
ja tietää mihin luottaa
kun luottaa tällaiseen paikkaan"

" In these hours there's something I'd like to own
nothing moves
even (well not the most perfect translation :o) dustdogs stay in their doghouses
and you know what to trust
when you trust a place like this"

I think this is just perfectly "tiivistetty"/said about those moments which you somehow feel are totally unique, you just simply know that you'd really like stay in that moment, you'd like to remember and come back to it - you'd really like to store into a bottle to be enjoyed also later.

That same song amazingly has another really great phrasing about thoughts:
" Ajatukset ovat kuin lennokki
kun ne saavat ilmaa allensa
kaikki tuntuu lapsen leikiltä
kai se kasvattaa"

"Thoughts are like a model plane
when they get air under their wings
everything feels like child's play
guess it matures you"

1 song - 2 great summaries





The same record has another great song with lyrics that I have really not managed to sort out what they mean. This is bloody great since I find myself always singing along and thinking what could this mean in the car whenever I'm listening the song.

"Kerro minut viidellä niin saat
noin viisi kertaa surremman kuin nyt
kerro minut kuudella niin oon
silloin se joka suoristaa
tätä mutkaa jossa aina kyyristelen

Silloin hengittää
kaikkea tätä turhaa
ja silloin hengittää
vaikka käytettyä ilmaa
eikä keuhkot lyö lukkooon
ei sydän lakkaa
olemasta juuri sitä mitä mieli kaipaa"

"multiply me with 5 and you get
about 5 times bigger me compared to now
multiply me with 6 and I'll be
the one who straighthens
this bend where I always crouch

and then you breath
all this which is vain
and then you breath
even used air
and your lungs will not break
your heart will not stop
to be what your mind yarns"


Brialliant as they would say in Fast Show...

Concept of joy ... 11 years vs. 41 years

What can you say more ?
Things change ....

Scaringly red moon ....

Couple of days ago ago there was a full moon up in the sky which was totally red. Red moon if I remember correctly was thought to mean pretty bad things according according to our ancestors ?

I tried to capture it with the camera and failed ....BUT thanks to social SW somebody got it ;o) aka I got it !

Thanks aixcracker ! http://www.flickr.com/photos/aixcracker/211215472/

While trying to find out next day if anybody got it I also bumbed into this which I think is totally amazingly nice pic from Helsinki Fireworks competition .... hooray Social SW 2nd time. http://www.flickr.com/photos/81303499@N00/200291358/
























And the fact that this pic is about 1 year old and I stil found it and it gives me great plaesure scores the 3rd hooray for social SW !

Umbar also captured "my" red moon in a great way ... Great !
http://www.flickr.com/photos/81303499@N00/210991426/

I failed - Social SW fixed my fault ;o)

Hey - these are actually my pictures !

Done...

Finally done....
My capability to underestimate the time needed to do stuff eternally surprises me (both personal and work/project related). However, I have to say (knowing that Nina will never read this ;o) that Nina is even worse in this.... if I would not know her estimations for time required to move from place a to b in the city I'd be tempted to say that she trusts in my comptencies to build things ;o))

Drought - price of oil barrel - Finnish country side...

It's bloody dry outside this year... surprisingly our neighbourhood's trees have not been suffering about it. Bees have found our Sunflowers.

In Pihtipudas Marja was reading (aloud .... and especially during our looong breakfast sessions) an interesting book about "History of extinction of the cultures" (or something like that). We had many interesting thoughts around how places/cultures have been destroyed over relatively short time period and how vulnerable we are after all "even" today for any major enviromental changes. I also saw a BBC (?) document about fall of Mayas were explained the current understading that it was actually a very unfortunate climate fenomemas which eventually lead to destruction of the empire - 30 years of dryness followed by 30 years of flooding or something like that ...
I wonder how we would (or will) actully with all our modern fantastic technologies survive years of global dryness in key food production areas (mid west in US, middle EU, ...) ?

I also had quite interesting discussion with Sauli (our "next door", long time (for 40 years) neighbour farmer) about what's going on in Finnish/EU agriculture politics. He claimed that at the moment food that is shipped to us in Finland from middle EU is actually mostly over production aka subsidised aka not baring the right price label. Leaving the price issues on their own, my personal favorite basic worry still remains - what if the current EU over production would "disapper" due eg to longer dry season in main EU farm lands ? ... This combined to the fact that price of oil barrel will just keep rising - how much will a kilo of oh so precious barley needed to brew my beer cost when over production is over (due to inevitabel climate change) and when an oil barrel will cost 100USD (equally inevitable on 5 year basis) ?

I wouldn't really care (not completely true) if there would not be Otto,Vili&Valtteri to be thought of ... having your own kids makes you think how their life will be after we are gone.
I sure hope that the current global economy illusion ("free"/very cheap transportation of goods from lowest possible production site to anywhere) will not lead our society to short shightly run down our own country side and force those few still earger to wake up at 5am to milk the cows with practically no holidays to move to cities and abandon the real stuff - crucial food production for the rest of us doing other stuff to keep other things rolling.
I'm afraid we will need our own production sooner than we notice.

Btw, it's quite "funny" to read/hear media talk about how oil price is now "catastropically" high and should come down.. why would it ever anymore really ? On the contrary it should just keep rising since every year we need to move to more challengign areas/depths to pump it.

Excuse but I found a bat in my pocket

Today I took Valtteri to kindegarden. He has now moved into a group of older kids soon starting their pre-school. Since they are "old" they have of course new priviliges... like being able to bring a toy everyday from home to kindergarden ("the best thing in starting the pre-school" according to Valtteri). Today he had 2 toys, a spaceship and a bat, and I told him that he has to give me the other one. I got the bat. Bat went into my shirt pocket where I happily forgot it.

From 9-12.30 we had an intense meeting, and at around maybe 11 I noticed that I have something in my pocket. I dug the bat out, was totally confused about what the heck it was and how did it get there... "Sorry to disturb you but I found a bat from my pocket!" slipped very naturally out from my surprised mouth. The guys were also somewhat surprised not to mention AJK ;o)


Bat has left the building.

Summer night driving and mine did go to 11...

I took Nina, Otto and Vili back to Helsinki from Pihtipudas at the end of the 3rd holiday week. The boys were quite firm (a mild understatement to be honest) in their opinions ("we have stayed here for ages... we must get back to the city!!") - Valtteri stayed in Pihtipudas with my sister Marja.


During the 4 days I was in Helsinki I managed to do some home building duties & efforts...










....Otto and I helped our friend Markus to get his "monster" boat finally to sea. This was a nice new experience to me and Otto. I've never been participating to "veneen vesille lasku". We also managed to see very closely the new Helsinki cargo harbour which is under construction right now. There were some amazingly BIG sea signs waiting to be put into their places. Also saw some very nice cottages and saunas on the way to Katajanokka where Markus keeps the boat.










....I build the 3.6m trampolin which was Vili's birthday present - I have not seen Vili so happy for so long so very often - he was smiling with every jump ! I gotta build one into his room.

Well, I then headed back to Pihtipudas on Tuesday evening at 8pm. I loaded the car with CD's and turned the car stereos on to "11" (Normal amplifiers go to 10... mine goes to 11/infinity). Roads were practically empty from Järvenpää to Jyväskylä, and after Äänekoski ther was almost literally nobody else than me (only some occasional trucks). Summer night was gorgeous, stereos were at 11 and the driving speed was hmmmm OK (452km in excatly 4 hours ;o)

In Ämmänsalmi bridge (near Viitasaari - beautifull place) I actually parked right into the middle of that bridge, opened the window and took some pics about the evening - no cars "disturbing" the event. I had my voice down almost completely since I was singing with the Egotrippi's CD "Vielä koittaa uusi aika" trying to compete with the amplifier's 11. That CD seems to be now geeting to be one of my all time favorites - I think I'm upto about 30 times listening now and that's since March when I bought it... which was noticeable also when I tried to put it on at car with Otto he cried "No 'Asfaltin pinta' !!!" (one of the best tracks in the CD). I did play "Asfaltin pinta" couple of times during the trip ... at 11 of course.
Then it was some days upto 5hours surfing with bursty lake winds, cooking & wine and ending the evening with sauna - that for 5 days - Nice ;o)

Suutari pysyköön lestissään .. vai ?

"Employ rather attitude than know-how. A person with normal 'brains' will certainly learn the new work but if attitude is not correct it will not be changed by anything."

This reminded me of another slighly similar old thought I've been thinking of ... Somehow companies tend to give their trust to a person and his/her attitude only once - when they employ him/her for the first time. The reason for employment in essence is the trust that even if you come straight from school you'll be able to learn the new task and the required competences - you just basically seem to be a good person for the task. However, somehow magically this trust seems to vanish after this "reqruitement moment" - from then on you'll be wearing a label of some special set of competencies and only by that. As a result in practise, it will be very challenging to try to move radically from one area to another within that same company since somehow the trust ("This person seems to be a person whose sure to pick the needed skills... we trust him/her") that initially was the reason to recruit the person to company has disappeared and been replaced by "but hey you've not really been doing anything like this earlier, you do not have all needed competencies right now"-reality.

"Management" as your career is an exception to above mentioned. There is a strong belief that management skills are always transferrable to any level and any organisation. Well, true very often. But so are the thrive for constant learning, open mind and fun. Still, for persons pursuing manager career companies are much more willing to give significantly more challenging task than for those pursuing for constant learning& open mindness.

Maybe the reason why so many very talented "++10years in high tech as specialists" friends are getting frustrated in their previously so very interesting jobs/companies and are dreaming of doing something completely different (which is totally bizarre since we work in dream jobs within dream industry according to all reasonable meters) is that companies do not really challenge their specialist's after the first job but tend to give fairly small iterative challenge increases within the initial competence/job scope in order to minimize the risks that person would not be able to handle the new tasks. Many experienced and very talented specialists are actually kept totally under-challenged in their core competence work scope but neither can they look for specialist challenges within new competence areas since thay have already been labelled by another set of compentences. Their capability to learn, their open mindness and their thrive to master any new things are not weighted. Big companies simply have the luxury of keeping their talented specialist on risk comfort zone ?

Lamb lies down on broadway

"Lamb lies down on Broadway" from Genesis ! Pretty much nothing beats it still... the sound is also surprisingly very much upto date (upto any date)

Valtteri and signs

During the last week in Pihtipudas Valtteri found wild strawberries and got into doing signs. This turned out be eg sign "Males are forbidden to pee here" to a place were wild strawberries were growing. A sign showing were he'd gone is also worth of remembering. (He did the art work and ordered the writing from me and Marja) ....














Almost every morning also started with drawing session from bed.

It is so incredibly nice to hang around with Valtsu - always has something positive going on ! I wish I'd be more like him ;o)