Skateboarders staying overnight...

3 little skateboaders landed into the house...

Gaming...

Nowadays when Henkka stays overnight Vili and Henkka strech the "concept" of a morning in to extreme ... and game on rolled into their blankets

Truly "Fantsu" mobile workhorse ... and new neoprene

N82 has really actually a first good camera plus the flash truly works...
















Also GPS actually works... inside the car (without placing the mobile specifically into a satellite optimised spot) it was indeed capable of actually navigating me to a new place - I found Matti's Outdoorpoint.com showroom in Alaportti 1, Espoo "on the flight" and got my new winter surf gear plus new harness. Wish it would just now either get warmer or then significantly colder.

Great to see that things are done right - one can try out map services for few months... this is the way to make me a paying customer eventually.

Rising Food Prices ....

http://www.ifpri.org/pressrel/2007/20071204.asp

"Income growth, climate change, high energy prices, globalization, and urbanization are all converging to transform food production, markets, and consumption, according to a new report by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). As a result, global food demand and prices are likely to rise, threatening the livelihoods and nutrition of poor people in developing countries. The report, "The World Food Situation: New Driving Forces and Required Actions," was released today at the annual general meeting of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).

"Food prices have been steadily decreasing since the Green Revolution, but the days of falling food prices may be over," said Joachim von Braun, lead author of the report and director general of IFPRI. "Surging demand for feed, food, and fuel have recently led to drastic price increases, which are not likely to fall in the foreseeable future, due to low stocks and slow-growing supplies of agricultural outputs. Climate change will also have a negative impact on food production, compounding the challenge of meeting global food demand, and potentially exacerbating hunger and malnutrition among the world's poorest people." "Economic growth has helped to reduce hunger, particularly when it is equitable," added von Braun. "But unfortunately, growth does not always reach the poorest people."


And 100USD per barrel closing up (even though largely also due to USD lousy state)
















Poorest will suffer .... which in intellectual level makes one of course very worried but unfortunately in truly emotional level is sort of too "distant" to really have a lasting impact.
Well anyway made me remeber one of my old "ruikutus" blog post http://tuomosthoughts.blogspot.com/2006/08/drought-price-of-oil-barrel-finnish.html
I'm more and more convinced that we should really start heavily investing in our countryside and farming as a society - energy needed for large scale food supply chain transportation will just be getting more expensive and there will be less supply globally available/more demand in the future. I just hope EU farming legistlations (tuned really for over production of wine and olive oil ?) will not hinder us too much in trying to live with changing realities.

Actually it's funny that so many Finns are definately pro having our own defence forces instead if Nato ("It will anyway be just us if the shit hits the fan") when in case of equally or actually more important food supply people just seem to fine in trusting that we will be always supplied with food from EU/global markets even in case of "food crisis" ("Why should I subsidise the living standards of our farmers...").

Veitsitukki vihaisille ?

Bumped into this interesting item the other day....
















Funny ? Scary ? Humorous ? Tasteless ? all of it at the same time ? anyway most likely not really good for the knifes

Delicato Cafe...

...excellent cafe in Kalevankatu 34. Good coffee, genuine interior, nice service ... and with a scent of humour:

Paska tarjous - 1kg Paskaa 20€ ;o)

Sam A

Visited Samuel Adams brewery ...but bummer - too late for brewery tour and no brewery pub. Well had my share of "Sam from the tab" in the some of the Boston Pubs anyway ;o)


....and it was good

Interesting point of view to Web ...

In last Sunday's Hesari there was an interesting coverage on a book (Andrew Keen: The Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet Is Killing Our Culture) published about potential risks (to put it mildly) in cultural impoverishment due to web "revolution"....


Interesting aspect to the whole paradigm shift... gotta to get the book.

Burton...

Jake Burton's opening words in their 2007-2008 catalog:

"There was one day this past season that I don't think I'll ever forget. On the eve of Valentine's day it started dumping in Vermont, and it didn't stop until over 4 feet of snow had piled up in Stowe in just 24 hours. We had had somewhat of a dry winter up until that point, but everything changed in one day.

It was pure luck that months earlier I had booked the Stone Hut on top of Mt Mansfield for that night. The Stone Hut is a cabin just above the top chair lift. It's got a bunch of bunks and a wood stove, but no electricity or toilets. I've been up there a bunch, but the purpose of this trip was to get the Burton management team together for a night of fun and discussions around a few topics, followed by a day of riding.

One of the things we talked about most was the impact of all the growth and success we've had in our company and our sport. We all agreed that is cool for snowboarding to grow. Without the growth we wouldn't have the constant improvement in product, the R&D budget, or Chill. At the same time we can't loose sight of what made snowboarding and Burton happen in the beginning.

After late night partying, a solid hike, and a good night's sleep, we woke up to over a foot of fresh (with 3 more feet to come) and it was snowing about as hard as it ever does around here. We got the first runs of anybody on the mountain and continued to ride fresh line after fresh line. After 3 or 4 runs we'd go back to the same spot and our tracks would be completely buried. It just doesn't get better than it was that day. Everything all of us do comes to fruition on a day like this - all the R&D, the testing, round tables, the trade shows, meetings, hours spent in aiport security lines - we do it all for a day like this when the snow is filling in your tracks run after run.

We closed the Vermont office and factory the next day so everyone could get out and enjoy the epic storm. It was a mad rush to the demo closet to get every Malolo, Fish and Supermodel. The only emails that were sent were those to friends, co-workers, or team riders in other places, rubbing in the fact the best snow in the world was right here and right now.

I've been lucky enough to ride on 6 continents, in the all kinds of conditions, with some best riders of the world. But this freak storm and this unforgottable day in my own backyard with a bunch of good friends. That's what snowboarding is all about ... the magic it brings to an ordinary day at home."


The founder and the leader of one industry... not a hint of arrogance, totally loayal to the original "idea" but still sticking his feet solidly to raw ground of biz realities in one (I guess) pretty brutally competed industry - a winning formula which is so often forgotten with lack of true humbleness in front of the ones who eventually pay everybody's wages - the customers.




Typically, despite of how much the companies claim that "You as customer come first" the people inside companies eventually always think they know better what the customer wants ?
As biz environment Internet is interesting since never in history before it has been so easy to just vote on your feet if you don't get what you wanted - Internet is the culmination of consumer power ?

Another interesting idea raised from the story is that how typical it would be in a "standard" company to just recruit basically any VP to management team with good track record but absolutely no soul for the "idea" ... and he/she would definately NOT be happy with this ?

"... a bunch of bunks and a wood stove, but no electricity or toilets. I've been up there a bunch, but the purpose of this trip was to get the Burton management team together for a night of fun and discussions around a few topics, followed by a day of riding." ;o))

Well, OK - is that essential in case of Burton ? Yep it is ... this is what most of their customers would die for if it would result Experinces. Genuine passion results exceptionality&totality which results leadership which results success.

Paying for getting a chance to collect ads...

Went to Ski&BoardExpo again despite of last year's promise to myself not to fall for it next year. There were (again) an amazing amount people visiting the exhibition. Funny to think that we are actually willing to pay 12€ to get into totally packed exhibition hall to collect ads from skiing centers (which they would happily post directly to us as consumers), listen to promotional talks from different brands etc. OK many get their tickets free form somewhere but still I think many many are actually paying for the entrance..

Boardexpo side was again full of life, and the booth's were innovative ;o)

Siisti !

I was playing around with gmaps ... and I don't know how new the feature is but it IS cool - you can can "drag and drop" alter your route. Well does not eventually sound like rocket science (most likely is actually quite a trick to offer that in such a seamless way thru web ?) but for me a first time "find it"er it was a wow...

Tippa linssiin.... good days - bad days

Outi organised us (me, Valtsu, Otto, Vili and Marja) a possibility to see Chaplin's CityLights movie in Finlandia House with RSO playing the music live... what a totatally humanly warm and fantastic movie it is and how fantastic orchestra we have here in RSO. I did not remember how fantasticly elegant ending the movie has ... made me swollow tears (so that I would not have needed to explain Valtteri why I was crying ;o)

No science behind this but somehow I'm becoming a believer in "good day - bad day" phenomen. "Today" started with a note at 2am from Outi at the kitchen table "If you need me to take Valtteri to school call 040 xxxxxx" welcoming me back from WidSets Mango party(great party with bunch of great people... ). I've just spend quite some time in the bus on the way back home thinking about how an earth do I organize the morning logistics - no car nor any capability to drive one if I would have one. Thanks Outi ! Then sort of really good things followed each others and all ended to this touching movie performance. Good day.
... and then those bad days - maybe better not blog about those. And actually those days (especially the worst of the bad days) tend to be remembered well anyway. Good days tend to be forgotten and thus deserve to be memorised.

The prepaid principle...

Within a bunch of good friends or/and collegues you have a "corporate mobile subscription" - your speak time never ends ... no matter of how much BS one does all tolerate all since they trust in each other and each other's value in discussions.

With "normal" official relationships you basically have a prepaid subscription - you have a certain speak time in your account and you can earn/pay more minutes by doing good&expected deeds (meeting the expectations that are set upon you).
However in contrast to "corporate subscription" your speaking time is always limited by what how many minutes you have in your account in the prepaid environments.
Your minutes should be used wisely ... for a person who is gotten used to work on "corporate subscription" (=trust) it seems to be way to easy to use them all in trying to drive one idea/belief onwards. Instead these minutes should obviously be used to firstly earn more minutes and only secondly drive the many things you believe are important onwards ... but only minute by minute.

The newest Foo Fighters ...

Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace ... aivan mahtava levy !

Sunday....

Close to perfect sunny still autumn day ... Nina is on Biz trip to Australia and meeting our old friends John, Mara and the kiddoes.

After the typical 1.5hours of Hesari and tea (plus this time exceptionally about 10 extra mins for Citylehti with a story of Hans Välimäki's great new quest ... looking forward of making that my kantapaikka just for supporting the act !) I finally climbed to the roof (or all of them actually) and started cleaning sluices of the house. I was expecting for the worse (shitty job normally) but this time the stuff in the sluices was icy. Great - just lifting the stuff in about 40cm slices ;o)














Gotta remember - this is the way & the time to do this.

I love the bunch of magpies lurking around our and neighbourghing yeards ... somehow magpies and crows have always been appearing as very sympathetic and intelligent beings to me...
When cleaning the sluices I the noticed the downside of "our" magpies since it seems that they eat the insulation of our airheatpump :o(














and then up to the roof.. always giving an illusion of changing perspectives - world looks different from the roof.















Valtteri went here and there during the day ... sometimes watching DVDs, sometimes with Johannes and sometimes with Henna (the lady he's going to "get married with") and then finally started practising skateboarding ;o)














Day ending with propably the year's last bbq (it was pitch black - I had to use N93i's flashlight to see the lambchops and temperature was -4C)... I must admit myself that the lamb chops from Pihtipudas (Tuomo Jääskeläinen's fantastic farm) were this time close to perfection.















Tomorrow - something completely different ... And then to Oulu for among other things Blues Mäysti practising ;o)))))

Direct marketing or direct marketing...

I've been reading the "Communities Dominates Brands - Business and Marketing for 21st Century" book lately bit by bit ....

"All traditional advertising is 'interruptive' and therefore premised upon the notion of 'just-in-case' you might be interested. TV shows and radio programming is interrupted for ad breaks. Magazines and newspapers interrupt the flow of their stories to make room for ads. Yet today the consumers are fed up with the interruptions and are actively voicing their displeasure. In the USA 56M Americans are signed up to the 'do not call me' register which forbids telemarketing. 70% of all people who own PVR skip the TV ads."

The figures from US are huge .... and so true for me personally too.
Even though I'm interested in many items (laptops, Mobiles, TV flat screens, cars, CD, DVD, real estate, magazines, newspapers, ...) I basically do not ever bother to read the numerous colourfull tempting ads that are send to us directly with Hesari or separately - in Net _I_ myself can do the comparison on more realistic basis on pricing and quality that these leaflets ever could.
I've learned to say directly NO to those numerous telemarketing try-outs for whatever - my assumption is that there is always a tempting hook with a underlying rip-me-off (the magazine subscription will go on for ever with the normal price etc.


Nina drives BMW. That is why they send they graphically gorgeous & just "humanly interesting" bi-monthly or so magazine to our household. Just Friday the last one arrived - BMW is an exemplary case for great involving marketing. The magazine is of course about BMW but somehow the brand itself is just an important sidetrack in the stories whereas you as reader are the key - even though sitting in toilet ;o)

A really interesting web2.0ish feature is that they seem to now be bringing out to public their team memebers as persons out of the big BMW corporate... "the people behind an engine giving our almost 300HP with less tha 6l/100km". Inevitably makes me think that these people within BMW think about us all as human beings are do their best to make things better in the autoindustry to match our common coming challenges... it's not just about money for them.

Interesting.

Corporates do need faces instead of just plain products or "stories" when entering Communities Dominate Brands era ?
Corporates need to have courage to place us consumers into the driver seat and let us make the choise for what is relevant and interesting for getting results as increased sales or just costumer loyalty ... in which case the results might be much bigger than with any traditional marketing approach ?

2nd power of picture sites.... ?

14072006334
Originally uploaded by tsihvola

I started first showing some pics to mom, and ended up going thru my 200 latest Flickr pics (still aren't ready for life time commitment for paying ~20€ for Flickr to keep all my "best" pics .. so 200 latest it is)... in my case pic service like Flickr is great but not predominantly for it's community features. The fact that there is at least this one "media" for which I'm not using a standard pic mess excuse "I'll sort them out later" is making Flickr valued by me.

For example this pic to which I bumped into this time has all the guts and the essence of Finnish summer, holiday, peace & harmony for me. Without Flickr I wouldn't even remember it.

Way to go Pekka ...

Pekka has done great stuff in memorising an important part of our lives... Blues Mäysti. I met Nina "fatally" in one of our gigs in Wappu (being a warm up band for Pepe Ahlqvist & Harp). Intersting to think that without Blues Mäysti I would not have 3 children like Otto, Vili and Valtteri. I would not have spend the last 16 years with Nina. Would not live in the house that I'm living now. And would not be working where I work now... Tempted to think in terms of old Sci-Fi theme of parallel universes ;o)

http://www.elisanet.fi/blues_maysti/

Poro...

It's killing me ... the best (and the only actually so far from Reindeer) Poronpaisti ever by me. Close to perfect roast with comparison to any restaurang or anywhere I've had it before.

M. Jackson would sign like this about my Reindeer roastbeef:

Looking In My Mirror
Took Me By Surprise
I Can't Help But See You
Running Often Through My Mind

Helpless Like A Baby
Sensual Disguise
I Can't Help But Love You
It's Getting Better All The Time

I Can't Help It If I Wanted To
I Wouldn't Help It Even If I Could
I Can't Help It If I Wanted To
I Wouldn't Help It, No

Like A Trip To Heaven
Heaven Is The Prize
And I'm So Glad I Found You
You're An Angel In Disguise

I Can't Help It If I Wanted To
I Wouldn't Help It Even If I Could
I Can't Help It If I Wanted To
I Wouldn't Help It, No


I can't stop eating it ...

Old city design dream....

Picked mom up from Kamppi, and we went of wondering how shopping malls are new outdooring places for Finns (replacing increasignly real outdoor activities... not a joke but a fact for an amazing amount of Finns), and how shopping itself has become new national sport (one day it will an olympic sport and Finns are going to dominate it ;o)... the whole thing woke up an old city design dream which no doubt gets it roots from heavy Science Fiction consumption of my earlier days. It would somehow combine optimal egolocigal effectiveness and bring nature back to urban life as natural things, not just an ackward unpleasent trip to land of mosquitos and Mooseflies ?

City would consist of one huge park/wild area and few tens of pretty loosely located huge towers having office-shopping-restaurang-leisuretime-production on the lower floors and flats on the higher. Each tower would inhabit upto hundredthousand inhabitants. Most of us would basically work and live in the tower. Towers would be connected by metro like direct links to each other (or even better - transporter belts providing constant flow between towers). Hop into "transporter belt" and you are in the next 100k person tower just in few minutes visiting your friends. Hop into an elevator and in a minute you are outside in close to pure wilderness.
This could be hugely "green" - very energy efficient - and also very human ... leaving us several hours more to live since commuting times would be non-existant compared to current ?
Cars ? They's be needed to go to real countryside but who ever would like to own one could keep it in the underground at the edges of the city - again metro connection to these roadtraffic end-points.

Well actually I managed to describe some ant societies - good job Tuomo...

One day I have time again to read Sci-Fi and build wild dreams...

When it works it just works ?

Got a viral marketing email from EMI thru a friend ... Thinking went along these lines immeaditly: "wow - 100 albums of music !" "The guys will surely not think I'm spamming if I 'spam' them with this" ... "after all being heavy music consumers themselves they all will surely value the chance to participate too." and off the emails went to about 10 persons within few minutes. When the motivation/price hits the target group virality works like old train toilet ? or then maybe not since most of the people did not bother to send the message onwards after all... so another pointless blog post by me.

Evolution of a race by Valtteri....

"First at year 1000 all men were OK. Then at year 2000 men went broke, and monster, zombie and other broken alien versions were born..."

Hykerryttävää tila"taidetta"

"Paskat linkoava huussi" tilataideteos:













Need this to our summer cottage ;o)

Miesparkki....

Men park.... Obvious marketing stuff but still made me smile... smiles are always worth of remembering ?

Bumped into www.dapper.net (thru a Google Ad in Jaiku... some revenue to Google thru Google ;o)

Nice to get still really excited on a technology from time to time - pick a wb site and choose the elements from it you wish to make an RSS out of. I don't know how many of alikes there are but at least Dapper was a fantastic founding for me. Some slight usability issues but mostly very straight forward "WOW...

Espoon Pursiseura's oh so important windmeter website:

















The page in dapper:















And the page in Widsets thru Dapper RSS:

















Exactly what I need for my mobile...sometimes ads can expand and ignite us

It was great...

Tuomo Prättälä & co live at Valve-Jaiku-Thinglink housewarming party


A great gig - the CD is great and it's sooo nice to get something equally good but different in a live situation. He's an amazing singer...

uups looks like Blogger video stuff does not work after all ?












OK... picture that is then:





Kumu made in Finland... great strong nice name for Bassdrum. Tastes good in mouth ?

Street art

ref Futurama's parallel universe ?

Many kinds of Charm...

On the final day of the very nice family visit Serge and Pascal and Andre took us to a short Martique by sea trip. Old center of Martique and the channels are very nice ...



















...but somehow my attention was captured also by the charm of industrial "decadence" - big old rusty machines, massive railroad bridge, massive main power line tower. Somehow sympathetically human/real life ?

Otto in Skateboarders' heaven... Tuomo in Food Market Hall

After listening for hours how "Barcelona is THE place for skateboarding and how "all" stars have been making skate movies there" I finally bumped into couple of those great spots with Otto... La Parallel and MACBA. Quite many skaboarders there during the day but real activity seemed to start after 8pm. Otto wants to go there for all holidays now...

For me the Food Market Hall (just one of them ?) was something to make me think alike: