Had my first visit to a coral reef today. And the experience was close to a religious one.

Indeed, took a brief snorkelling lesson and was then let loose in the waters of Moore Reef.

Had the strongest sense of wonder-experience in ages. The water was clear, the reef rich in life and the fish did not shy away from visitors. All in all a great introduction to the wonders below the surface.

The tour was provided by Reef Magic Cruises, and the organization was just impeccable. The distance from the Cairns Marina to the pontoon-base on the reef was quickly covered in a catamaran. During the cruise the crew familiarized the guests on both marine life and how to have a closer look on it.

In addition to self-propelled cruising on the surface, the platform offers an underwater observatory as well as a glass-bottomed boat that regularly travels the waters. Visibility from both was good, though as the photos show, the tint is definitely on the blue side.

An introductory scuba-dive was also available, but participating in one would have prevented from snorkelling and been just some ten minutes long, thus I decided to leave that exercise for another day.

The waters were calm as forecast, and snorkelling turned out to be an easy activity indeed. The diversity of life on the reef was rich, in both the fish and invertebrate kinds. Spotted fish ranging from tiny to huge (the parrotfish is some four feet long), and my fishkeeping background came in handy in identifying them beyond the obvious (the stars from Finding Nemo were all present). Two black-tip sharks put in a brief appearance during the semi-submersible cruise, but didn't approach the platform.

Stinger (two species of jellyfish that are very dangerous to divers) season is already begun, and thus a full-body suit is a must. Wore a half-length wetsuit in addition. Dressing up was less of a chore than expected - the design of the latter has certainly evolved to an ergonomic one. The snorkel itself took some tries getting used to, but quickly transformed from something to be actively thought about to something that just works. "Just works" meaning very basic skills, and nothing more. Didn't really dare to go deep with the snorkel, there was easily enough to see just cruising slowly on the surface.

The attached images are done with the traditional equipment (from both the observatory and the glass-bottomed boat as noted above). For underwater exposures I purchased a fire-and-forget waterproof camera, which contains analogue film. Stay tuned for images from there.

Walked around Cairns for a couple of hours.

This seems to be a backpacker city. There's lots of hostels around, as well as places promising to cater for travellers. And some of the hostels look nice indeed.

Had dinner at Raw Prawn. Didn't constrain myself to pure seafood, but had a Kangaroo Surf'n'Turf instead. The dish consisted of four kangaroo fillets topped with prawns and a Moreton Bay Bug. The last item is, despite its insect-related name, a local crayfish. Its meat tastes very much like that of lobster. The kangaroo meat was nothing short of delicious - almost fat-free meat, taste combines beef with an aftertouch of game. Served on sweet potato mash - this is definitely a dish to remember.

Shops seem open late - apart from those in malls. Surfwear seems abundant, which is good, since I'm in great need of new shorts. Several photo galleries are located close to each other, both owned by guys whom I recognize from postcards purchased earlier, and both offering high quality prints. Lucrative, but no deal yet.

Flew to Cairns, in the North Queensland, and especially next to the Great Barrier Reef.

The Yulura airport is rather small, and offers no boarding tubes. The walk across the tarmac was warm, but still remains second to the scorching heat in Florence in 2003 - the air temperature was +39C then.

Attempted to book a tour to the reef for monday, but was dissuaded by the tour desk guy in the Rydges Tradewinds hotel. According to him sunday will be the calmest day in ages, and is thus the advisable choice. Also changed the destination from planned Green Island to Moore Reef, on account of the latter being in better shape and being restricted to much smaller groups. This is my first visit to a coral reef, and I don't intend to be looking at it in a huge crowd.

The hotel seems to be very centrally located - I can see the ocean from my window, and the Esplanade and its boardwalk are pretty much next to it.

Time for dinner. The local pizzeria offers unseen delicacies such as Meatosaurus, El Scorcho and Cheeseburger. The last of which is, despite its name, supposedly a pizza...

Waiting for the bus to the airport after a two-day stay in the Yulara resort.

Which was certainly what I hoped. Got to see mighty rocks and expect the desert. The latter, of course, turned out to be less desert-y than supposed.

Visited the Visitors Centre for the first time, and went t-shirt shopping. The former was far better than I expected, with multiple dioramas on the local flora and fauna. And the latter wasn't bad either - the shops had several interesting designs composed of aboriginal art available. Ran into a funky-looking bug on the way - no idea what this insect is, but at three inches it is rather impressive.

Missed the King's Canyon area, which is the third big item in the region, though outside the Uluru/Kata Tjuta National Park. But it is rather distant, and, according to tour guys' brochures, uncoverable in half a day.

Also almost missed out on the excellent pool facilities offered by the Lost Camel hotel. The tours turned out to consume significant bits of the time. Did have a brief spell at the pool, water was close to +30C in temperature, and half a dozen dragonflies were constantly buzzing close to the surface.

Thus definitely could have spent some more time here.

The early morning's starting to take its toll. Won't need cricket tonight to lull myself into sleep.

And watching cricket would be impossible anyway, since there is no television set in the room. This must be the first hotel in years without one. Certainly not due to low quality, the service level is nothing short of excellen - but a conscious decision by the management.

The stargazing trip to the Uluru observatory was cancelled again, tonight also due to bad weather. Two rainy days in a row after a drought was a surprise to everybody concerned.

Uluru is pretty much optimal ground for an observatory. The air is dry and there's no light pollution worth mentioning.

Rain and persistent clouds meant that stargazing was confined to craning necks and staring at the sky. Which is, obviously, different from that of the northern hemisphere. Couldn't locate the Southern Cross, and the Milky Way failed to materialize as well.

Had a buffet dinner at the White Gums restaurant. The name does not refer to a dental condition, but the synonymous name of the Eucalyptus tree.

The buffet was billed as being brim-full of Australian items - but a lot of the meats (such as kangaroo, emu and crocodile) were absent. The only truly new dish was the barramundi - it's a white-fleshed fish with an excellent taste. Otherwise the buffer was good - it's been ages since I've had this good baby octopus. The cephalopod/bivalve-part of the menu was covered well, but shrimp were conspicuously absent.

Participated in a second trip to Uluru. This one concentrated on the aborigine legends about the place, and was accompanied by a duo of them explaining some of the things seen.

Trip was run by Anango Tours, seemingly the only company who involves the actual owners of the land in the tours. The trip kicked off at the Uluru Cultural Center with the introduction of two elderly aborigine ladies (Elsie and Bonnie, to use their english names) and two interpreters accompanying them.

The Culture Centre (where photography was again banned) was hot, and kind of schizophrenic. The official parts - where the history, habits and legends of the aborigine people were handled were very well laid out, but some of the shops were on the tacky side.

The majority of the tour was spent around the Kuniya waterhole - the legend involving two serpent-deities was repeated from the morning's trip. Though with authentic voices this time. The local caves and petroglyhps in them were explained in great detail. The way the Pitjantjara tribe has dwelled in the area, and transferred their knowledge throughout the generations got covered as well. Nomadic life in the arid climate certainly sounded like no picnic - resources were scarce and mandated movement across the plains.

The session with the locals was capped with a presentation of some dry bush tucker (food). Quite a few of the spices and berries involved seemed to have equivalents in the western cuisine as well, and the more unsavory bits (like grubs) were avoided altogether. Only the women in the group were subjected to trying out balancing a wooden bowl on their heads. Most were successful, but only sitting down, no-one dared to move about.

Sunset was on the disappointing side. Due to persistent cloud cover the light did not really change the shade of the rock as evening moved on. But it did allow for some killer color displays on the clouds, just as with previous night. The Kata Tjuta sunset was watched by perhaps forty people, but this was a much more popular event - dozens of packed buses, not to mention smaller cars.

Woke up at a horribly early hour to participate on a tour to watch the sunrise over Uluru, and thereafter walk around the rock.

Indeed, got up at 4:25, and hopped on a bus (once again tour organized by the Discovery Eco-Tours) to Uluru.

Sunrise was on the underwhelming side, as we were on the western side of the monolith that was already lit by the ambient light.

The ten kilometer walk around the stone was surprisingly easy. The morning was on the cool side, the paths level and even, and crowds light.

The rock, while a lot smoother than that of Kata Tjuta, is by no means smooth. Its surface is marred by scrape lines, shallow caves and holes whose birth requires some unorthodox erosion processes. The caves have both legendary ties (to dreamtime stories, mainly), and a lot of them correspond to everyday shapes (such as the heart in the attached image).

Unlike expected, the area is not a desert, but blooming with grasses and trees. The former were on the lush side after the recent rains, the latter remain charred from an uncontrolled fire last christmas.

Uluru's girth contains around ten sacred (to the aboriginals) sites, whose photography is not allowed (and enforced with a neat 5000 AUD$ fine). The group (consisting of some fifteen people) behaved well, and these sites stayed out of the viewfinder.

The aborigines take a dim view on climbing the rock as well, but grudgingly allow it. Even though the path up the side looks decidedly dangerous (at least to an acrophobic), the crowds moving up and down were surprisingly large. A lot more people were climbing the rock than walking around it, or just participating in shorter walks.

Discovered a burrowing frog during the walk. These animals can hibernate up to eight years in a mucous cocoon, climbing up to the surface to breed once water breaks the cocoon. Yesterday's rain, though not very powerful was clearly enough to wake up this guy. Who was rather far from the nearest waterhole, hopping on the path. The guide moved him to a less-tread-upon location, and we all hoped he got lucky real soon. The arid climate is just not right for an amphibian.

Sadly the Hakkapeliitat team seems to be on a losing streak, third loss in a row is no laughing matter - and a place in the season finishing bowl appears to retreat further from grasp.

An ugly and low-scoring week for participants, and unfortunately my team scored lower.

The embarrassment of the loss is increased by the three byes taken by the opposing team. In a week where none of the offensive players picked up touchdowns, the kicker scores no field goals and the defense acts like a sieve, a loss is only to be expected and accepted.

Seattle QB Matt Hasselbeck's injury brought down Deion Branch as a scorer, but no explanation for the lousy output of the Dallas running backs really exists.

This week's photo thursday challenge subject is "abandoned".

My take is the attached image - of a seashell on a gnarly tree, left by the passing tide.

Booked the first two tours to the main attractions of the national park earlier today: to view Uluru itself (at sunrise) and Kata Tjuta (at sunset).

The afternoon and evening were spent hiking in and looking at the latter. The tour provided by Discovery Eco-Tours, and consisting of a driver/guide (an amicable hippie with many amusing and pointful stories) and about fifteen attendees.

Kata Tjuta, meaning Many Heads in the local aboriginal language, is part of the same huge sedimentary monolith as Uluru. But where Uluru has a smooth surface, Kata Tjuta is of clearly conglomerate nature, as the second image of the entry clearly demonstrates. Kata Tjuta consists of 36 individual domes (heads), all of which are off limits to visitors - there's just two hiking paths among them to choose from.

After a brief look-see from the official vantage point (where the top image is taken), the tour got semi-physical. A 2.5 kilometer walk into the Walpa Gorge between the two middle domes turned out to be more strenuous than expected. Not due to the distance or the heat - both of which were very much within my comfort zone. No, due to footing, the gorge is very uneven ground. But stable, it's not like the loose collections of rocks in Lapland, just very uneven - both due to rocks embedded within the stone and different rates of erosion.

The tour finished watching the sunset alter the colors of the rocks. Today the process was very subtle due to partial cloud cover, and thus the color changes were not as dramatic as under clear skies. Took several dozen photos just in case - not just of the rock formation, but of the surrounding area, and of the skies, which were lit by a gloriously colorful dusk. The photo op was accompanied by a few glasses of the local sparkling wine and "nibblies" (bread dipped into oil/balsamico mixture and sprinkled with spices and nuts) courtesy of the touring company. Considering that I'd had a very light lunch, the bread totally hit the spot.

The evening never got chilly in the desert, temperature remaining easily above 20C. But darkness was pretty much total. Australians are not very firm believers of streetlights even in the cities, and in the outback such are pretty much extinct. Even the Yulara resort is very dimly lit, and the poles few and far inbetween. The trip from the national park to the resort was in utter darkness, pierced only by the headlights - the driver's music of choice was australian folk, including the Band Played Waltzing Matilda, a song that still, after more than fifteen years since hearing in the first time gives me the creeps. (And no, this is not Waltzing Matilda itself, though the creepiness index of it was raised considerably by David Lynch's use of it in Twin Peaks).

The national park was (again) much greener than I expected. It's not a total desert with occasional weathered trees, rather than an arid steppe, with most of the ground covered with spinifex grass.

Got the first good glimpse of Uluru on the trip. The rock was unearthly radiant in the afternoon sun. But that stone formation is the topic of tomorrow morning's tour.

The late evening programs - dining in the desert and stargazing were cancelled due to bad weather. The former was sold out days before, having an outback-gourmet dinner on a dune sounded exciting to other people as well, clearly. Today actually brought rain for half an hour - the first in about three months in the park.

Flew to Ylura, the town next to Uluru, which is part of the biggest monolith on Earth.

Off to the very first tour to the actual rocks soon, and multi-image entries are to be expected from the couple of following days.

Ylura is located in Northern Territory, which is under Central Standard Time. Which just does not happen to conform to the one zone - one hour scheme. Instead the clocks are half an hour less than in neighboring Queensland. This is the first time I'm visiting a place that has a non-integer difference from UTC. Australia is by no means the only country with such strangeness - Nepal takes the game one bit further by being +5:45 away.

The moon misbehaves on the southern hemisphere.

As shown in the attached image, the crescent is not horizontal as in Scandinavia, but of a vertical nature.

Maximally strange.

Missed the moon in Singapore due to the persistent haze, so no clue whether they have some intermediate positioning there.

Watched cricket for a worrisomely long period. And could even recite some rules when pressed. This kind of temporary insanity can clearly be explained by the moon and I shouldn't be held accountable to any of such behaviour.

Visited the Brisbane Zoo, quite a bit of a distance away from the city.

It's not a large collection of animals by any means, but it does have a few special advantages and disadvantages over most of its equivalents.

A lot of the animals are in their natural environment, a dry forestland.

The zoo is located in a forest, thus a lot of native animals live outside the cages. In addition to birds (peacocks and bush turkeys the most prominent ones) reptiles were represented as well (a snake in a hollow tree, lizards roaming freely).

Sadly, despite the great environment, the infrastructure is not up to the same level. Some of the enclosures are rather small, and especially the few species of apes bigger than pocket-size looked apathetic in their cages. Compared to the Helsinki Zoo, the baboons were missing most bits of their home trappings - no rocks at all, and a few limp tree branches only.

Unlike pretty much any other zoo I've visited, the Alma Park Zoo encourages feeding of the animals. A subset thereof. A subset that likes pellets pressed together from plants. A subset that extends far beyond the expected farm animals. The visitors are actually able to feed kangaroos (two species: red and gray), wallabies, birds and several others. Including the farm animals, who live in very Orwellian-named "friendship farm".

And interaction with animals is not restricted to feeding them through a cage. The visitors can actually enter the kangaroo pen and pet the creatures while providing them lunch. There's some twenty kangaroos (mainly of the grey sort), who seem to treat visitors as mobile food sources. They eat up the feed from your hand (without any danger to fingers), and allow themselves to be petted. The grey kangaroos' hair feels like that of a long-haired cat, whereas the red one seems to be made of plush. A couple of the grey females were carrying joeys in their pouches. And quite big baby kangaroos at that - despite not fitting well into the pouch, they were still on milk diet, and unwilling to accept any pellets. The fewer red kangaroos had a jaded disposition, not seeking out any visitors, but geelfully accepting food should any come near. The grays, on the other hand, were actively looking to be fed. And considering the dozen or so visitors in the cage, they probably got a very decent (if monotonous) lunch.

Missed the opportunity to feed the wallabies, but seized on the one about meeting a koala up close and personal. These tree-dwelling symbols of Australia sleep up to 20 hours a day, and seem to be rather sessile critters. The keepers retrieved one female from its tree, and allowed it to be gently stroked while holding onto her. The hair of a koala is officially short and kinda curly. The animal didn't seem to mind her position, and actually looked still half asleep.

The oddest animal on the view was echidna - the spiny anteater, the only relative to the even odder platypus. Two echidnas roamed their dwelling in daylight - previously (based on the experience from the Philadelphia Zoo) I'd thought these guys were thoroughly nocturnal. Possums were sleeping in their hideouts, as was a wombat (who apparently didn't fully fit into his log).

Other animals featured in the pictures: tawny frogmouth (a local relative of owl and nightjar), emu (the local flightless bird that grows surprisingly big), and a randomly encountered lizard. The last image is of a strange tree, whose complex root system seems to have drawn a lot of stones, both large and small, out of the ground.

Spent most of the day in Brisbane.

First a lengthy ninety minutes settling on the details of the next week. Domestic travel, especially on a complex route is not an easy task to figure out. Even to a seasoned travel agent. Travelfinders did the job admirably, and the trip to the Red Center and the Queensland Coast is now fully planned and paid for. Only the tours to the specific bits within remain to be taken care of. On location, with the aid of locals.

The riverwalk on the south bank of the Brisbane river is pleasant indeed. It boasts both an actual boardwalk and many parks that follow the river's course. Created in the area bulldozed in the aftermath of the late eighties expo, the whole riverbank looks and feels fresh for the most part. Among the featrues of the area are a rainforest park (rather modest in size), an artifical beach (with lifeguards) and frequent mosaics on the pavement.

Queensland Museum needs a second visit - it seems to be a neat mixture of many kinds of natural history. But ten minutes is not enough, not nearly enough. Bought a guide on Australian mammals from its bookstore though - never realized that there are so many individual kangaroo species.

The botanical gardens are located next to the river, on the north bank. Next enough to have a bona fide mangrove swamp in addition to the traditional garden. Walked through some parts of the garden, but there definitely is lots more to see here as well. Got some nice shots of the dusk and its effects on the garden.

Lots of bikers on the riverbanks, most wearing helmets. Making Australia the second country (after Finland, that is), where bicyclists take measures for their own road safety. And nope, that's not an exhaustive survey, just noted that e.g. in Amsterdam the bikers are amongst the foolhardiest elements in the traffic.

Had dinner at restaurant called Eves in Tenerife. Sumptuous seafood. Stew was a misnomer for the dish - the bits and pieces of individual animals were not beaten to a pulp and mixed with gravy. The mussels and crustaceans were accompanied by gnocchi made of sweet potato - definitely something to try out later again.

Sighted a few ibises (who seem to be very city-savvy), lots of smaller birds and the weirdest cones I've seen. The cones clock in at a length of half a meter, width of less than an inch, and a funky spiral patterning of the scales.

Managed to stay ahead of sleep throughout the day. Though got close to nodding off a few times.

Queensland is far greener than I thought. And the image of a desert was further misled as to the height differences, this is a very hilly area. And boasts some real mountains as well. Drove around the Mount Nebo neighbourhood, whose contents proved that while the area in general looks like a dry finnish forest, the individual components are quite something else.

Saw some animals, including the first native parrots (sulphur-crested cookatoos) and lizards (identity unknown). And heard many others. Kookaburra's call cannot really be described - it's just vocal chaos for a few seconds, and frogs and insects put on a major performance after sundown.

The redeye flight to Brisbane was eight hours of a non-event.

Apart from being slightly delayed off the gate, the flight itself went smoothly, and the captain was able to cut off half of the delay along the way.

Not enough, however, not to clash with the schedules of a few other inbound flights, leading to long lines in the immigration.

Qantas is a regularly polite airline, which feels such a letdown after the pampering administered by the Singapore Airlines. Service was prompt and friendly enough, but not as ubiquitous as on the latter.

The flight was mostly in darkness. Didn't sleep apart from a few scattered catnaps, didn't watch movies, and didn't really get much reading done.

Even after a refreshing shower, this looks like a long day.

Changi has won several awards for being the best airport in the world.

And it's not a bad place to wait for a flight.

First of all there are no boarding calls, which immediately cuts a significant chunk off the noise.

The foor court offers very reasonably priced sushi. I overstepped my quota at 16 pieces, and that cost me less than 10 local dollars.

Orchids are the national flower of Singapore, and are unsurprisingly for sale in many shapes and forms. Figured I'll pick up some on the backward swing - the Australian authorities are supposedly very hard on any plants and animals brought into the country. And being delicate flowers, I figure the walkabout through Australia would be hard on them.

The haze remains a popular topic in the local papers. The attached picture is off the Stamford Hotel's penthouse bar - the horizon disappears into the grey murk far too suddenly for comfort.

Even more images... My goal of taking 500+ pictures on the trip will be reached before the halfway point if I manage to keep up the current rate. How many of those are worthy of a second glance is another thing, but I firmly subscribe to the "worst pictures are those not taken"-theory these days.

These images are of architectural wonders. First few of my hotel (which had glass elevators both inside and outside of the building), the next two of fountains encountered (missed the world's largest fountain, even though it was practically next door to the hotel) and the last is a reminder that not the whole city is built of smoky glass, pristine concrete and steel.

While Singapore is indeed a "fine country" - in the sense of any anti-social behaviour being frowned on at S$500 and upwards, it also provides some surreal signs. And this is not a dig on the english-fu of the locals, which is for the most part nothing less than frighteningly good. No - these items stand alone due to their strangeness (or the name that is funny from a finnish perspective).

The first sign is off an underpass near the Raffles' Landing Site, and quite sensibly placed. The underpass is not wide enough to accommodate bikers and pedestrians going both ways.

The second sign is off an MRT station, and shows that the locals take multicultural roots seriously, signs are done in several scripts - here's an example of just one.

The next sign is from Little India. And the name funny in finnish only, and not terribly so in that language either.

I'm a regular abuser of the word "thing", but so is this guy, who promises to deliver flower arrangements for many occasions. Including prayer things. Wonderfully vague, and thus adaptable to any religion on the island.

Molly Malone's is probably the most common name for a bar in the world. Singapore has one such, next to the Boat Quauy. No irish expats, nor anybody else around on a quiet sunday morning.

The last two signs are just plain wrong.

Mushroom soup and cappuccino ought to be kept separate. By law if necessary.

Singapore is located a whopping 1.5 degrees north of the equator. Meaning that no seasons worth mentioning exist. At least in the scandinavian sense. Still, the local entrepreneurs were rapidly moving into the winter season in clothing.

Spent a couple of hours walking along Orchard Road, the biggest shopping area in the country (and probably of quite a few surrounding ones as well).

Wasn't looking for anything special, and basically just ambled through a few malls and shops.

Ended up buying a couple of books and a shirt. The latter a bespoke tailored one from Far East Plaza on Scotts Road, a shopping center that seems to be half-populated by tailors alone. The former from the Kinokuniya, which jumped close to the top of the list of great bookstores - the place is huge and the contents are well laid out. The place would have been even harder to exit were I a friend of manga, the section on japanese comics was well-stocked with the local fans.

Some of the trees on Orchard Road bear a weird reverse polka dot-color scheme, the cause of which wasn't readily available.

The Lonely Planet book on Singapore abuses the local classic drink, the Sling, horribly. Chose not to repeat trying it out from six years ago. Though I didn't find it as disappointing an experience as the author. True, it is overly sweet, but there are far less agreeable things offered as local delicacies all over the world.

Singapore is very much a t-shirt city, being hot and not too formal. Thus the streets are filled with print designs. Most of them good, and very few of them truly awful. The worst the ones catering to tourists, obviously.

The three-prong adapter has turned out to be the wobbliest of the bunch (the first experiences with the Aussie one forthcoming).

And the Pan Pacific's lack of sensible outlets means that arrangements as depicted here are necessary. Otherwise the connection breaks, and no charging, obviously, is subsequently possible.

The contraption consists of an Otrivin bottle (nasal spray to unclog blocked ears), a pack of chewing gum (possession of which no longer seems to be a felony) and a box of mints.

Walked around the Little India neighborhood, watching the Deepavali-festival celebrated today. The Festival of Light was very visible - the streets were festooned with garlands bearing thousands of individual bulbs.

Had absolutely no plan what to see and where, and even without one managed to get semi-seriously lost on the way in. With a square grid and an MRT stop a couple of hundred meters away that took some serious effort to accomplish.

Streets were also full of people. Some tourists, obviously, ogling the proceedings, but mainly locals.

Streets were also full of trash. This was the first time I saw any (probably very temporary) lack of order and control. And even that was confined to just a few blocks along the main thoroughfare.

Spotted a lizard of an unknown identity hunting for moths on a wall. Was not having any major success. Nor fear for the people passing by.

A new merit badge for boy scouts, one for not pirating music and movies.

Score yet another point for the bad guys.

Missed the semi-irregular blogger meeting in Helsinki.

Again. Every single such event in last two years has been hit with either absence from Helsinki, flu or a gig.

Laws of probability have been stretched. But not nearly to the limits.

Out as in available in stores.

Sighted the first volume in Kinokuniya-bookstore. At 120 S$ it wasn't expensive at all. But at 3+ kilos in weight it's just too much to lug around half the world.

No picture. Failed to utilize phone camera for such a good purpose.

The 1001 Nights of Snowfall, the third Fables-spinoff, was out as well.

Visited the Night Safari, the world's first entirely nocturnal zoo. The animals are enclosed by moats, and carefully lit so that they are viewable from afar. Most of the time.

The visit neatly divided into three parts: a tram ride through the area to view the big and easily visible animals, a walking tour to view other creatures and a dinner at the visitors centre.

The tram ride takes around half an hour and brings forth expected hits such as lions, elephants and tigers, but many lesser-known beasts as well (such as tapirs and several species of hyeanas, antilopes and pigs). The tram (basically two connected open-air low-riding vehicles) allows viewing from around ten meters, occasionally closer, often further. The animals are not spooked by its presence, nor of the narrration. This was my second time on the safari - and I was pleased at the evolution of travel companions. This time nobody took pictures with a flash (explicitly forbidden), but just watched the view. I attempted a few pictures, but was dismayed at the S3's capability to take decent pictures in the darkness, especially from a moving platform. Decided to buy a book about the animals from the gift shop.

Last time managed to complete only one walking tour out of three. This time did them all. And saw a variety of critters both small (bats, flying squirrels) to large (leopard). A few of the animals seen from the tram are available for viewing closer up as well. The tiger posed for a while less than two meters away behind a thick glass. Unfortunately the lighting conditions were as bad as before, and photography was further challenged by lack of a tripod and occasional crowds. Hence, a further need for a decent book with lots of images from the park. The animal I wanted to see the most, the clouded leopard was out and about, sleeping on a branch, as were most of the others. Only the two tiny prosimians, bushbaby and tarsier, were no-shows.

The zoo offered decent food in addition to nightly views, the lamb burger hit the spot very well. Sadly the literary part of the shop area was not really good - apart from a set of postcards and a brief, almost brochure-like, pictorial, there was no further info about the park or its inhabitants available.

Spent the morning on Sentosa, an island south of Singapore that attempts to combine several leisure activities. It's got plenty of beaches, a genuine military fortress, a big aquarium with an unattahced dolphin display, hokey monuments, a mountain with requisite cable carsd, uncountable restaurants and many more things of use to vacationers.

The days are hot, today's temperature peaking at around +33C. The sun, directly on top due to the location pretty much on the equator has not yet put in an appearance. Due to smog. And smog that is drifting in from a neighboring country. Indonesia's clearing of oil palms means very low air quality index here. Neither the smell nor taste are as strong as they were in Helsinki this summer, but the light gray haze is very noticeable.

Sentosa is undergoing rather sizable construction, as are some of the corresponding buildings on the main island. But the current effort dims in comparison to the rather over the top plans some entrepreneurs have for reviving the island.

Which is far from the dead, even though now, especially on a thursday morning, is not exactly high season. The beach properties (including the "southernmost point of continental Asia") have nothing wrong about them, and the other attractions visited seem all right as well.

The high point of the Underwater World, the biggest Asian public aquarium is an 83-meter long tunnel through a humongous marine tank. A tank whose inhabitants range from finger-long fish to sharks and rays that stretch to a couple of meters. Those, however, are not the biggest fish on show, that honor rests on the arapaimas, the biggest bony fish on earth. A couple of specimens clock in at close to three meters, and are impressive indeed. As were the sharks, despite being of a non-aggressive species, the sight of an open-jawed fish crusing two feet above your head is a bit worrisome. Other interesting fish sighted: rare (and really primitive) australian lungfish and seadragons.

These crept up unawares.

• Peter Gabriel unleashed the classic Shock the Monkey song to be remixed at will.
• Note to self: Never Embellish a Resume.
• Borat must be clapping his hairy palms: the Kazakhstani central bank misprinted two bills.
• What not to dress up on halloween: a toilet seat.
• Scriptwriting has been the weak spot of Hollywood for ever. Thoughh talent may be prolific, it's not employed by the studios.

My response to this week's photo thursday challenge is nothing extraordinary. To me the fall in Helsinki is embodied in two things: fallen leaves and the misery of a snowless november. Had do pictures of the latter, so the former it is.

Hence: a thick pile of vine leaves colored by the impending fall.

Missed last week's challenge on pride. Had used animals in three consecutive images, and continuing the trend just did not feel right.

On the very first glance Singapore hasn't changed in six years. It's still hot, efficient, crowded and very english-speaking.

Had a pleasant twelve-hour flight from Frankfurt on a Singapore Airlines plane. Having a menu even in coach, and thus the ability to choose food might be nothing but illusionary. But the quality of food is not, both of the meals were very decent, even when measured on a non-airline scale. The 747 offered personal screens, but I didn't bother with movies. Nor with sleep. Despite bravely trying there were nothing more than catnaps to be had.

Taxi ride to the Pan Pacific Hotel in the Marina was brief, but walking out from the hotel proved problematic. Negotiating with major detours and mysterious overpasses should not be left to the sleep-deprived. Thus failed to make a dinner date, and settled for dim sum in a nearby chinese establishment.

The area seems very well populated with malls. There's at least three of them next to the hotel. On a cursory glance there were some interesting shops, but tonight's no good for retail therapy.

The Diners Club lounge in Frankfurt airport has been closed. It was never a very good lounge, but it sure would have come in useful on a six hour layover.

It hasn't been replaced, it's just that the DC-users now have the ability to visit another lounge gratis.

A lounge that's behind security and passport control in terminal 2. The old club lounge was on the landside, and that was inconvenient, but having to walk a good chunk of a mile and go through TWO checks just to spend a while away from the regular airport noise borders on the ridiculous.

But at least this ought to be open a bit more regularly than the old one, which was famour for never being there in the hour of need. Which usually occurred in the early hours of sunday morning, after unslept stumbled off a Lufthansa flight from the states.

Had way too many hours to kill in Frankfurt on a layover.

Figured I'd spend the first two and some in the city itself. Took a train without a problem, and walked around the station a bit. The area seems not to be the nicest around, but at least it was different from the endless shoestores and the like occasionally encountered.

Bumped into the european central bank. Browsed their bookstore for a small, cheap and in-color copy of a catalogue on the euro coins (quite a few specials have been minted in the five years). Each candidate failed at least on a single account. So, no book on numismatics purchased this time.

The attached photograph is from the euro park next to the bank building. I'm sure the area has a proper name, just never popped up on a plaque or anything.

The second image is of a Nokia-sponsored concert, which I wouldn't mind seeing. Seems that old school instrumental / electronic music appeals at least to some guy with an appropriate amount of money and power.

On the way back, I succumbed to the call of a Whopper from a convenient Burger King. Figured that it's better than airplane food. Come to think of it, almost everything is.

I'm a sucker for many things. One of which is puns.

The recently opened Sanaleikkiblogi revels in punning. And the score or so posted already are worthy indeed. That is, if your finnish is up to the task - for others this recommendation can be discarded immediately.

[ via rajatapauksia, who seem to be back to regular posting (the book on Lordi completed, I suppose.) ]

At 3-3-0 now, following a loss to the Brown Bombers, who remain behind the Hakkapeliitat on the merit of points scored alone.

Rex Grossman, the quarterback sensation of the year, and one of the factors of the resurgent Chicago Bears had a not so good night against the Arizona Cardinals' defense. No touchdowns, and six turnovers. Yes - six turnovers. Two lost fumbles and four picks by the opposing secondary.

The Bears were saved by the second factor of their success - defense. The second half of the game was dominated by the Bears cornerbacks, returning picks for touchdowns.

So, the Bears remain undefeated 6-0, together alone on top with the Colts who enjoyed a bye this week. Both teams are coming off very shaky games, so talk of a perfect season is not appropriate at the moment.

And it wasn't really Grossman's off night, nor my failure to run Deion Branch, who got his chance in a depleted Seahawks WR corps. Nope, even with Grossman replaced by Eli Manning and Deion's two sixpointers counted in, the Bombers would've still opened a can of whupass on the declining Hakkapeliitat. Sure could have used some sacks from the otherwise reliable Philly defense, or more than PATs from the Rams' Jeff Wilkins.

While the NFL has had its longest ban in the history of the league, that pales in comparison to the antics in a local NCAA game in Florida.

The game between the University of Miami Hurricanes and their smaller school neighbours from Florida International turned ugly after a violent response to a not-so-well-thought-out celebration following a touchdown.

Disciplinary measures are expected to be harsh. And rightfully so.

My attempt to watch Dr. Who has been met with almost similar success than that of Tru Calling a couple of years back.

Thus far I've seen one episode out of eight (and the pilot episode at a friend's place ages ago). I think that's a blatant hint to buy the show on dvd...

And recording the fifth season of the Shield off canal+ has proven to be unexpectedly difficult as well.

I've been a passive geocacher for almost a year and a half. Been a co-cacher all that time, having hung on to friends (mainly messieurs srpnt and kha) on a couple of their quests for caches.

Had been tempted to strike out by myself before, but always disappointed at the local prices for equipment. Which are on the high side. Had my eyes on a couple of quality pieces in huuto.net, but either got sniped, or the prices hiked above comfort level. And on a few occasions just embarrassingly forgot the closing date of an item.

The situation changed with the arrival of nav4all's new campaign. They are flogging the Holux GPSlim236 at well below market price.

Ordered one, and got it after some postal adventures. Read up on using a s60 phone for caching, and grabbed two programs for trial runs.

Locating the first cache took a while - last week was full of long days at the office, and being out and about in the clammy evening with a lingering flu wasn't such a hot idea. Picked the next to nearest cache, and successfully sought it out on a lazy (and pleasantly warm) weekend evening. The GPS device seemed to be a bit off the mark, but according to the logs of said cache others have had some trouble with the coordinates.

One down. Many to go.

The attached panel is off the recent graphic novel Valkoisen Meren Timantit, the quickly arrived sequel to Marian Koodi, which I quite liked. The new album continues in the pleasantly well-drawn fashion. And the story itself is significantly better than in the rushed first book. Geocaching as a hobby is featured in a side plot (not an entirely convincing one, but far worse have been seen), and all in all the entire album is easily classified as quality entertainment.

Another ancient bit of statistical trivia: Finland being ranked #15 in the world on liberty, with Estonia and Ireland claiming the two top spots.

We'd be way higher if the government/taxation domain were a bit lighter. Though the other Scandinavian social-democrat utopias fare even worse (Denmark at #69 on taxes, Sweden on a dismal #114.)

Finland's silver finish on the individual freedoms seems a bit on the optimistic side.

(Yes, the site is very libertarian in its outlook. I don't think it distorts the message too much, one way or the other.)

As mentioned several times previously, I'm a sucker both for trivia and good visualization. And when the two are combined by Ben Schott, the top trivia-monger of the decade, the result is very worthwhile. You need a decent monitor and time to appreciate the effort.

And happily it looks like there's a new book on the way. Though no information of its arrival in shops is volunteered. And it looks like that the last year's book (or almanac, to be exact) will not be translated/localized by nemo, who did the first three Miscellanies.

(And yeah, this is ancient by any criteria - forgot to blog about it in september. I blame the Massachusetts jet lag for the omission.)

Spotted the very recent finnish book on blogs on a visit to Akateeminen Kirjakauppa today.

Was tempted to buy, but the price, at 44 euros for a thin hardback, scared me off.

Browsed the book briefly, and no glaring inaccuracies leapt out in the few moments.

Noted that the book is capped with a list of fifty recommended blogs by finnish authors. This one is naturally absent, but did spot some regular haunts. For example Kasa at the very top.

The grocery store bit of the downtown Stockmann resembled a war zone. That is if a war would be fought by old ladies, using carts for vehicles, tickets for weapons and belligerent shoving as the general strategy.

Was shopping for supplies for the Tapas-evening of the Wednesday Emperors, and dismayed at the lack of credible alternatives. The fishmonger's section did not have the usual mixed seafood salad at all, and the selection of mussels and crustaceans was not interesting enough to warrant being clipped on the achilles heels by shopping crazed grannies.

So, settled for canned goods as opposed to fresh. Knowing that the usual tactics of these occasions is "bring food to feed at least half the group", we will not starve, even if some of the said selections would turn out to be sub-optimal.

Have now watched the first third (four episodes) of the second season of HBO's masterful Deadwood. Liked the first season immensely, and the feeling remains for the second.

People are still nasty as ever, the language remains raw, and plots abound. But things are different as well: Al Swearengen is an ailing man, the Hills are on the verge of being incorporated into the Union and the influx of dangerous players into the town continues to fan the flames.

It's still a Western with Tourettes. And I certainly look forward to the remaining eight episodes.

And incidentally, now that the second season of Lost has been seen, the previously hideously spoilerish entry on the activities between seasons two and three at Pinseri is now much more approachable.

Skipped the very traditional visit to Swamp Music in Tampere, and took a brief foray into the Stockmann there. Was in town for four meetings, with a very inconvenient gap inbetween them.

The occasion's not really different from that in the original store in Helsinki. Though the speakers being dressed as cavemen seemed to be a local twist.

Picked up a couple of cheap movies: Talk Radio (an unseen Oliver Stone) and Magnolia (and even more surprising omission on the "seen"-list), and stocked up on socks.

Escaped without any serious damage to bodily or mental health. Being time-constrained by the parking of a car half a klick away does have its advantages.

As noted in an article in Washington Post, handwriting is an endangered species.

The chief culprit for the decline is the omnipresent computer and the inconvenient but irreplaceable QWERTY-keyboard.

Definitely noticed the trend in myself as well a couple of years back - I was using my trio of Palms almost everywhere, and used a laptop to take notes at work. As a result the rare written notes were reaching unreadability. Often in ways that rendered them at least partially useless.

Fate intervened in two fell swoops:
misplaced the T3,
got a new superior at work whop had a very dim view on constant laptop use in meetings unless you were presenting.

That combination led to the current situation where most of the off-desk writing at work is done in a notebook, as is almost all off-sofa writing at home, and outside the house, obviously. I don't think the change has swelled the coffers of Moleskine in any significant fashion, but it sure resurrected my handwriting. The last vestiges of being a Palm-user remain - I still tend to draw the 'v' character from right to left.

[ via Jason Kottke. ]

I expected to cover the review of this book in a humorous fashion, with a convenient shell command, but was proven wrong.

Tuomas Vimma's sophomore novel is more of the same.

But in a different way than what I expected.

This time no single industry gets skewered, though name-dropping inroads are made against fashion.

But they are a sideline plot against the main arc - a wish-fulfillment fantasy on what happened after the release of the first novel.

The plot makes sense most of the time, though most of the characters and their actions do not. So that's a definite improvement over the previous novel. Oneliners occasionally hit their marks, some well enough to warrant adoption, but the flow of the text feels more strained this time around.

Not bad. And entertaining enough to merit looking for the inevitable third book. In a sale, just like this one.

100 feet tall, and breathing fire.

• Tempest in a teacup. A finnish poet has his vanity page put on the to-be-deleted- list in the finnish wikipedia, and the resulting furor is amusing to watch. And the Hitler-card is played immediately.
• Wilhelm Scream, theory and practice.
• This could be a reason enough to try out swedish: Clockwork Orange as re-imagined by the Viirus theatre.
• An updated list of programmatic ways of shooting yourself in the foot.
• Worth1000 rarely fails. This time the topic is "movies, whose title has a single letter mistake". The results are worthy indeed.

Missed most of the game, but saw the last fifteen minutes and the post-game highlights reel.

The finnish team had obviously put the goalless draw with Armenia on saturday behind them, and approached the game with fresh interest.

And that, happily, led to a good result - with the visitors marching off with the whole three points.

Four games into the campaign, and the finns have eight points. More than most hoped for, considering that the sole home contest was against the top dog of the group, Portugal, and the three others have not exactly been pushovers either.

Bluff your way through multiple more or less interesting yes/no questions. An invaluable sanity saver for those meetings whose length feels like it's measured on a geological scale.

Seems that ought to pick up Dungeon Siege cheap somewhere.

Not because of a fondness for action RPGs, but because the game has been used as the foundation for two remakes from the long and classic Ultima series of games by Origin Systems.

Indeed, two of the series have been given a new life using the Dungeon Siege as the underlying engine. Lazarus, whice provides Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny in 3D as opposed to the original tile-based environment was the first, and is fully implemented. The new arrival, Ultima 6 Project attempts a similar approach on the next game in the series: Ultima VI: The False Prophet. This is also fully three dimensional, the original was constrained to a fixed isometric perspective. But unlike Lazarus, this project is just getting started - and has just put out its second milestone release (with two towns available).

Pretty much missed both on original release, had sold the Commodore 64 when the first came knocking, and didn't get into the second one seriously.

These are by no means the only remakes of the series, the most famous thus far is Exult that provides access to Ultima VII in modern environments (the original was legendary in its picky demands for properly set up memory in the DOS). A couple of lists of the attempted re-workings is surprisingly long, but many of the projects have been abandoned before the first release.

Attempted an easy way to get the music on my venerable PC (and the host of the old iPod) to gromit the iBook.

Attempted several transfer programs, but all of them met with different mishaps.

iPod Viewer failed utterly. It wasn't even able to read the track information off the old gadget.

Rob's iPod Exporter failed to install. Though the fault seems to be in the packaging, not the program itself.

Ollie's iPod Extractor failed with an unexplained dialog box about a too long argument list. Its newer version Broken Helix worked better, but the program slowed down after around 600 songs and ground to a halt at 630. No idea why, but a colleague's idea about running the fsck-equivalent on the VFAT-filesystem would definitely be an idea worth considering.

Discouraged, put the new nano into good use and used it to shuttle a full load of songs between the computers. Here the Broken Helix worked perfectly.

A few new ones that have risen above periscope depth:

• A newbie's journey into Linux.
• The jack-of-all-trades blender of Image-publishing.
• First finnish book on blogs.
• lehti.
• Übercuul - trends for the whole family.

Missed the "praise blogs with less than 25 subscribers" that recently made its rounds - this very blog got a very appreciated tip of the hat, but no new subscribers this time.

An unpleasantly narrow defeat.

Big shoulda: replaced Philly defense with that of Indianapolis. The latter were so-reliable last year, but this time had their hands full with the lowly Titans.

So, the guys started playing already, and no-one saw fit to make a fuss?

Missed the original Yahoo Fantasy Hockey draft date, and had to settle for a league that began tallying score on the second week.

Bad luck at the draft continued, got the ninth position, which meant that the big guns were gone by the time I got to pick the first player. Hadn't fiddled much with the order - downgraded Bertuzzi and Forsberg, though. The latter for being on IR for quite a while still, and the former due to severe personal dislike. And upgraded Selänne and Koivu, just because they are the most respect-worthy finns in the league. Ended up with no less than six countrymen amongst the sixteen players drafted. Spooky. And I utterly forgot to draft Kimmo Timonen, whose numbers from last years campaign for the Nashville Predators were way higher than expected.

There's now at least three professional finnish hockey blogs: the original (which has moved around quite a bit), and the two on NHL by Ilta-sanomat and hesari.

Visited the brief candle-light vigil for slain Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya. A journalist who specialized in being a very visible thorn in Russian establishment's side. A journalist who achieved much, but paid the highest price for her articles.

The vigil was organized in front of the Russian embassy in Helsinki, attended by a few thousand people, and held in silence. The organizers got a megaphone in the waning moments of the occasion, and even then the volume was low. Low enough to dissipate the speakers' voices into the winds.

Score one for the bad guys.

A decade or so ago, being disappointed for a draw in an away qualification game would have been unthinkable. For the most part - San Marino was a pushover back then already.

However, today's goalless draw in Jerevan, Armenia, for the Euro 2008, was a disappointment. Finns dominated the game, but were unable to score (apart from two that were - rightly - ruled out as offsides), the Armenian goalkeeper had a couple of dream saves, but partly the drought can be blamed on the finnish offense.

But a draw is always better than a loss, and a single point better than zero. Let's just hope neither of the finnish injuries on the second half (Väyrynen and Johansson) is serious enough to affect the next game in Almaty on wednesday.

Today is the 24 hour comics day. A frighteningly compressed event that directs the participants to create a 24 page comic from scratch in as many hours. Today is the third such day, and artists all over the world are struggling to fill the pages.

In the Blog Age the progress and the results of many of the efforts are recorded and distributed through the usual channels. Rami Rautkorpi tracks the progress on Feminist-man in Katuoja.

The man behind the idea of a 24 hour comic is Scott McCloud, a comics-scholar who has been studying and reinventing the genre for years, both in well-received books. His website, on the other hand, has not been diligently updated.

And digressing of the title of this very entry: I'm probably one of the less than seven people on Earth who hasn't yet seen the supposedly excellent 24 hour party people.

Twenty years, and some three weeks ago an era came to an end on a dark road in southern Sweden. Metallica's tourbus skidded off the road, and Cliff Burton, the bassist, died in the resulting crash.

That fatality, obviously, was not a permanent hitch on Metallica's path towards total world domination. The band has gone through two bassists since - Jason Newsted, recruited off Flotsam&Jetsam lasted some seventeen years, and the new one Robert Trujillo joined from Ozzy Osbourne's band.

But still, whenever Metallica has released an album after the 1986 Master of Puppets, dissenting voices have been loud, exclaiming that "with Cliff in the band, such garbage would never see the light of day". Blatantly forgetting that Mr. Burton used to be the semi-hippie progressive element in the band, offsetting the genre-purity and NWOBHM-roots so acclaimed by the leading duo: Hetfield and Ullrich. But we'll never know what would have happened - would something like Mama Said have appeared on the black album already, or would the band have gotten stuck in reproducing one speed metal masterpiece after the other. Or, in the worst case, would the foursome have disbanded following worse than usual arguments.

Tonight, there's a seemingly official memorial occasion organized by the local fan club chapter. I don't think I'll bother attending - just put on some classic pieces (Orion, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Call of Ktulu to name just a few) that feature his unorthodox view of tooling with Rickenbacker.

And certainly ought to pick up the dvd version of the 1988 home video collection Cliff 'em All, which chronicles the early days of the band. Crafted as a loving memento for the late bassist, it features clips of low quality and high intensity. And some speaking bits from mr. Burton.

The death occurred before the band had thoroughly broken into the mainstream, and the news took several days to percolate to autumny Helsinki. But that was another age in many ways - newspapers had little room for popular culture, and underground news spread through musicians. The news to our junior high class came indirectly through Roope Latvala, the lead guitarist for the then reigning finnish metal band Stone.

My fifth participation in the photo thursday, the topic for this week is meal.

This is from one of the warmest last summer, when I visited the Helsinki Zoo. The local newspapers had been full of venomous commentary about seagulls getting bolder by the day, and here's one such. No idea whether he stole the ice cream cone off a kid, or just recovering fallen goods, but he does look awfully smug, finishing it off and holding lesser gulls at bay simultaneously.

(And I hope that next week I have something else to offer than images of birds - it's now two in a row.)

The last saturday's monthly supplement of Helsingin Sanomat had a very good article on Wikipedia, and especially on some of its finnish authors.

The article itself is, sadly, available only through payment on the web, but is worth hunting for on the paper, if you missed it last week.

Pointered towards in the comments in Hesari is (probably, ain't going to bother checking) the first finnish masters thesis on the subject.

As a movie, the recent maximally retro Call of Cthulhu is not very good. The minimal budget of the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society shows, but in the end: the low allowance does not matter, and the movie just moves along at its own pace, entertaining for the whole 45 minute length.

I never expected an HPL movie to be full of deeply built characters played by the marquee names of the day - no, the anonymous actors employed suit the genre perfectly.

I never expected spectacular effects, the rather blatantly stop-motion animated Cthulhu suits the purpose well, as do the ship models. Which are not CGI, but real scale models.

I kind of expected the movie to be tied together a bit more - the short story consists of thinly connected separate threads, and the state of affairs remains the same.

As a movie this is indeed decent brief entertainment, and as such a good introduction to the works of the Cthulhu Mythos. For the HPL-connoisseurs the movie is a revelation - the works can be brought to celluloid without resorting to modernization and extra gore (no matter how functional and entertaining they may occasionally turn out to be)

The production values on the dvd do not leave anything to be desired. Well worth the money, and hopefully the proceedings bring forth more such fruits of labour.

Ran into a whole new concept at Janne's blog today: web devolving to the way of television - watching people doing things, instead of doing things.

While I'm an occasional reader of two magazines (Make and National Geographic Adventure) dealing with things that are not exactly part of daily activities, I still consider myself as not being Strömsöized (see comments in the source [in finnish]) yet.

While I like drooling over the best photos at flickr, I still prefer the act of photography to ogling others' output. I keep dabbling in code (even though today's mishap at work should prove a good indication to steer clear). And I don't really treat blogging as nothing more than a therapeutic expressivity-channel - at least none of the blogs that I read exceed the common norm so well that I'd be scared of attempting to try out something in a similar vein. And I promise that I'll get more productive in Wikipedia soonish. As noted in the comments referred to above, even browsing the said font of knowledge feels better when you know that the machinery behind the scenes is not that complicated, and within any reader's reach.

Foiled. Twice in a row. Picking up a package ought to be somewhat simpler than this in a modern society.

Yesterday forgot to pack a photo id with me. Groggy mornings are never good. Realized the omission before walking to the office, so this was nothing but a delay. On top of the three days spent fighting mr. and mrs. flu bacteria and their 10^23 offspring, this wasn't too bad a setback.

Today morning was far less groggy, and was certain that I had all the tools needed to obtain the elusive parcel. But that was not to be had. The post office (Helsinki 32) was "undergoing a renovation/fallback" and closed for the whole day. The local post office was closed in the summer and the traffic moved to a nearby crafts store. Seems that they got more than they bargained for, and the post office is being reinstated right now. In the very same location. "Being reinstated" unfortunately also means "being closed", so here yet another delay is incurred.

The release date for Brian DePalma's version of James Ellroy's masterful Black Dahlia seems to have been set on 29th of december.

Missed it in Boston, it premiered on the last evening there, and was unfortunately otherwise occupied. And it appears to be taking a good time reaching Finland.

The movie hasn't gotten exactly rave reviews across the media. But then again, I've been a fan for a long time - though the latest two books weren't, frankly, good at all. And haven't yet seen a bad Ellroy film.

To horribly misquote mr. Marvin Lee Aday.

One of the brand-spanking new features that the Xbox 360 brought with it is the seamless integration to Microsoft's online service (Xbox live). Most (if not all) games for the console provide achievement points upon reaching some pre-defined goals. Goals, that are obviously very dependent on the game played.

The points are tallied by the online service (as shown in the bottom-most entity on the left sidebar right on this page), and the scores are comparable against your buddies.

There's nothing wrong with this, and I quite like the static feedback from developers.

Seems that lots of others do, as well - and entire sites have sprung up around "achieving the achievements".

There's nothing wrong with that either.

But I draw the line before paying someone to loaning your xbox live account to a vendor, and having him inflate your gamerscore.

I'll much rather spend an extra hour or two trying to attain a goal, than hide behind a purchased achievement. And the 300$ (for the grand total of 3000 points) is much better spent elsewhere. Though we all know what's the score on fools and money.

No Deadwood right now - the rather recent Call of Cthulhu movie shall be the form of entertainment that rinses visions of lush Oahu from my brain.

Black and white. Silent. Ought to be good. And different.

Second day of flu/fever-induced absence from work.

Finished the second season of Lost, having gone through seventeen episodes (one of which was a double-length two parter) in little more than two days. The quality remains consistent throughout - and the pace is much quicker than on the first season. Flashbacks abound still, but they are not as long as in the previous episodes.

Bring on the second season of Deadwood...

Germany is under martial law, following the appearance of a gigantic insect on the countryside, as shown on the attached image from Google Maps. Fortunately the critter has been very docile, and has not moved since the initial sighting.

Seriously, though, this is old hat, and the insect has been identified as a thrips that got squished during the scanning of aerial (as opposed to satellite) photography.

Been a while since the last terse collection of completely unrelated links. Here goes.

• Today's featured article on Wikipedia is on Lost. Didn't read, being quite averse for spoilers. Two thirds down the second season. And still pleased.
• Google Reader has undergone a redesign. The new version is a long way ahead of the old in usability.
• Seems that Rocks