Supposedly yesterday's color scheme was headache-inducing.

Hope this is more to readers liking. And yeah, it is named version two, but the count, of course, starts from zero...

New .css. Now with 45% more blue.

And no more hassle with horizontally positioning elements on the topic-line.

Fact of life #216: you invariably end up supporting something stupid, sooner or later.

Scott Berkun has taken the trouble to discover why, and what to do about it. Good schtuff, and the other essays on the site seem interesting as well.

Ok, discussed this multiple times with friends after having seen Episode III. And now it's official...

There is a shot of the famous smuggling ship in the movie. And a big bunch of other easter eggs as well.

New Gorillaz was finally out, nabbed the two-disc version. Haven't yet checked the dvd, but the record itself is pretty much what I expected an eclectic mix of catchy songs (though nothing as hooky as Clint Eastwood on the debut album) and weird beats.

As was the last album of Sentenced. Last in the sense that they'e decided to quit while on top of their game. Based on a single trip through the record, it's good indeed, and a nice capstone for a decade-spanning career. The very last song on the record, End of the Road, even includes a semi-pompous childern's choir to underline the fact that this is it. Will make an effort to catch them live before they bow out - the two previous gigs (Ruisrock '99 and Tavastia '01 [I think]) were worthy indeed.

Missed Jonna Tervomaa at the Maailma Kylässä-occasion due to a scheduling conflict. Don't think her set was that different from the gig a month ago.

Nokia announced its first pseudo-nonphone-PDA, or "Internet Tablet" as the press release calls it (specs are already public).

What makes the release very important is the fact that this is not a Symbian-based product (like the ubiquitous Series 60 phones). Nope, this baby uses Linux as its operating system.

Which means that producing software for this leverages existing developer base and existing tools. Which should bring lots of interesting applications in short order. Especially when a full-scale development environment is already available.

And the price is on the sweet side as well, first estimates hover around $350.

And at the same time the company also announces that it will not enforce patents in the Linux kernel. A good start in a very controversial field.

[Mandatory disclaimer time: And no, despite yours truly working for Nokia, this is a product of a whole different business unit. And I had no part in designing it. But am quite interested in playing with it and porting stuff.]

Helped Pekka carry in his newest acquisition. Not too much of trouble, the non-widebody machine moved nicely with four bearers. Which cannot really be said of the ST:TNG that needed to be moved during the rearrangement of machinery.

And a pretty sweet machine the Cirqus Voltaire is, indeed. Lots of things to do, and a rubber ball on the playing field to add to the chaos. And how could you not love a game that gives a score-replay on the very first game. And twice more during half a dozen tries. Either I was very good, or the thresholds were set very low. My money's on the latter alternative.

Saw Hawkwind. Another precision-timed gig, band began their set almost immediately after I'd gotten then first and only beer.

Played for about 90 minutes. Setlist consisted of both old (and mostly recognizable) classics as well as of newer songs. Started with Spirit of the Age, did a re-imagined version of Psychedelic Warlords, and missed both Motorhead and Silver Machine.

The concert was very subdued, mellow lightshow, no professional dancers - couldn't afford them, and any amateurs were shooed off the stage in short order. Raps between songs were on the short side, but entertaining - and yeah, the meaning of Assassins of Allah/Hassan I Sahba can be interpreted in that way too...

The average age of the audience was probably the highest I've ever seen at Tavastia - lots of old hippies milling around.

Was entertaining, a very good show, but not enough to entice me to see them again in Tampere today.

Yah. Off to see Hawkwind. Odd to go listen to a band when you're totally unfamiliar with any of their output for twenty years. Or so.

Warmest day thus far. +23 or thereabouts. Did the "afterwork beer on the cliffs overlooking Tali". And noted that a lot of people have already passed by, if the glass shards and dachshund-skins are any indication. Taking cans into wider use would, of course, lessen the impact, but clearly that's not a desirable solution for the local breweries.

Also claimed the third room of the flat for permanent use. Recharged the electric lantern and took it to the balcony, along with a bunch of plants (time to buy basil and rosemary soon), and a couple of magazines.

Was supposed to get thundersome today, but haven't yet seen any promising clouds.

Saw the last part of the second (chronologically first) Star Wars trilogy.

And it's pretty bad. However, it's nowhere as bad as the two previous parts. Phantom Menace was totally void of any real sense of wonder, and introduced midichlorians and Jar-Jar Binks. For those two sins George Lucas has a lot to account for. Attack of the Clones was not much better, and featured the worst romantic subplot this side of Tom Clancy novels. Hence, the bar was pretty low for this movie.

And to be honest, it wouldn't have cleared if it had been any higher. The characters are wooden, acting doubly so - and Lucas manages to make even Ewan McGregor and the ever-cool Samuel L. Jackson to give perplexing wooden dummy impersonations. Maybe they just loaded up on horse tranquilizers upon reading the script. After all, it worked wonders with Keith Moon. And yeah, the script sucks royally - with dialogue that would not look out of place in a Bulwer-Lytton contest.

The story has epic overtones, but the much-touted Fall of the Chosen One never really convinces. But that's mostly due to the utter disdain to reality that the story keeps carrying on. Of course, a certain amount of suspense of disbelief is expected in a fantasy movie, but my suspenders can only take so much stress before violently snapping.

The movie is on the violent side, bloodless of course, with damage mainly confined to droid opponents. However, there's occasional maimings and slayings of humans as well - leading to the higher than expected rating (11 years+ in Finland). The only really disturbing images are at the very end - a well-roasted Anakin and his Vaderization and the return of Jar-Jar (fortunately silent).

However, despite the criticism, there are good aspects to the movie - space scenes are evocative, and the Coruscant background nothing short of beautiful. However, they really do not outweigh the bad parts, but make the experience reasionably painless on the eyes. And it's weird how each planet is known by a singular feature (cold world, volcanic one, blah blah blah).

On the definitely positive side, the plot about the emperor seizing power has obvious counterparts in the current dispersal of civil rights, and this has given the bloodhounds an amusing hissy fit. Hence a bonus half-a-star.

And for a dissenting opinion, New Yorker's Anthony Lane utterly massacres the movie in his review. And don't forget the inspired rant by another unsatisfied customer.

Sheesh. A year older. Could quote Pink Floyd here about years getting shorter, but that'd be even more misery-inducing than I intend.

Seems that a followup for the glorious Troops-spoof (Star Wars meets Cops in a gritty rendition of the everyday life of the ubiquitous troopers in white) is out. And either Bittorrent in general or just my instance of Azureus is acting up (and very slow).

Bugger. Not going to try to fix it now.

And despite spring being barely officially noticed, it seems that summer is definitely rolling in.

• Daytime temperature >20C. Check.
• First visit to a beach.
• "I definitely need new canvas tops". Check.
• First beer drunk on the cliffs near work.
• First visit to Suomenlinna. Check.
• Plants taken out to balcony. Check.
• Official summer songs (Blackfoot's Fly Away and Seals & Crofts' Summer Breeze for starters) percolate to the top of the pod. Check.

So nope, despite a strong appearance, it is not yet summer. But I'm happy with it, no matter how the current season is classified.

Despite being firmly a nike-man, I gave Converse-kerho serious thought.

But decided against it. Somewhat early morning wakeup call and general lameness (had to catch this week's 24 on the rebound on subtv) were too much of a gluing factor.

Next time, then.

Records: new Dickinson, Itäväylä's debut, new System of a Down, Fantomas' Suspended Animation (calendar edition, of course). And the Cult's 5-disc box borrowed from library.

Books: new Soininvaara (now out in paperback), old Bryson (Mother Tongue - never even seen it before). Sin City parts 2 and 3 (Dame to Kill for and Big Fat Kill), that I missed when being a poor student. New Dark Horse editions are nifty and done on decent paper.

Dvds: Raging Bull, last instance of Band of Brothers in the metal box.

Other entertainment: Pigging out with delicious sushi at Koto, cursing self for having forgotten ipod at home and being forced to listen to more-than-usually inane banter on the bus on the way back (and no, being tipsy is no excuse for singing - thankyouverymuch).

Curiously absent: noticeable hangover, updates to tv or stereo, no DS. Their time will come. Forgot the new NIN, and Gorillaz was not out yet.

Behind an innocent mamejump-link lies a truly oldskool-inspired flash movie.

More tour guidance.

Visited the ice bar at Uniq. Nice experience. Chilly, as expected. And you're forced to put on this Romulan-Inuit coat that certainly nullifies anybody's street cred in a moment.

Ate at Belge for the first time. Good food. Plentiful portions. Decided that three days of finnish food is torture enough for anybody.

Torni had been de-scaffolded, and the view from the Ateljee-bar on the 11th floor was still mighty good.

Souvernir t-shirts are surprisingly expensive.

And there's a lot of image-filled books about Finland. And some manage to hit all the clichés along the way. But some don't, thankfully.

So, another reunion draws to a close. Thanks guys. And see you in Bavaria, next year.

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British post-progressives The Coral seem to release a new album on my birthday. Their site is definitely not the greatest thing in the web, but seems functional apart from the store-pages.

Didn't much like their previous record, Nightfreak & The Sons Of Becker, but that probably could have been rectified by more thorough exposure to it. Still prefer their eponymous debut album to their later output.

And since the new singles (two versions of In the Morning) don't seem to be on sale locally, have to scrounge them from the usual suspects at ebay.

And both Audioslave (no idea which direction they have turned to) and Gorillaz (Feel Good Inc. seems decent continuation from the first album) release their second albums on the very same day. Bruce Dickinson's new solo work should be released this wednesday, as should the first part of the System of a Down double-header. And I still haven't seen the new Nine Inch Nails' With Teeth either. So, it'll be a busy season for recordstores...

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Played host for a bunch of visiting friends over the weekend (a non-sanctioned Utah European Alumni event).

Weather was nothing short of excellent, and sunshine was much appreciated. Especially when it's been raining rather severely today.

So, what's there to do:

• Reindeer and other finnish delicacies at Lasipalatsi.
• Boat-tour of the Helsinki harbor and environs. On the chilly side, but definitely worthy.
• Day trip to Porvoo.
• More finnish specialties at Zetor. Elk sauté (riistankäristys) is definitely worth a visit.
• Temppeliaukio Church never fails.
• Mandatory nightcaps in U.Kaleva & Torni
• Suomenlinna in the evening, in high winds and bright sunshine. And before the summer crowds swallow up the islands.
• Listening to some non-descript up and coming band pound their instruments from Kappeli patio.
• Weird recycled-materials art show behind Kiasma.
• Just generally rambling around, pointing out buildings, statues and things as they are passed.

All in all an enjoyable weekend. Pictures will be posted somewhere once I wrangle them out of the camera. Don't hold your collective breaths (and anyway, I took only a few).

And I'm definitely looking forward to the upcoming one in Munich next year.

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And lehti comes through with an utterly appropriate eulogy for the late poet. In finnish only, as expected.

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The embrace of the inevitable utter and total mainstream position of blogging is sealed when a monopoly variant is based on it.

But then, there seems to be tons and tons of them around.

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Bah. Couldn't find this in anything but finnish. Sorry.

Seems that there's a move underway to update the euro coins soon.

Mainly to reflect the upgraded EU map, but some member states have a pretty good reason to update their coins altogether. Vatican has a new pope, and the Begian coins are just boring. And probably some of the new member states are looking for membership in the euro-zone as well. UK and Sweden probably will resists that till the bitter end.

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Ok. So data on the new XBox360 is now officially out (and the official site officially blows). The machine looks powerful, and thus expensive. And the usual song applies - it all depends on the games.

But who-hoo! The new console includes a light synthetizer by Jeff Minter, a coding hero of yesteryear.

Time to re-think whether this would fit into the entertainment shelf after all...

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Executive summary: lost in the penalty shootout.

Period 1: Weird hockey, where both goals seemed to have puck-magnets in them. Finland has more luck. Slightly.

Period 2: Finland has no luck whatsoever, and Russia has us to a wall pretty much the whole period. Only one goal, so the game is drawn.

Period 3: Finns remember that it's a hockey game out there. To no avail as the Russian defenses hold. Very decent play indeed. From both teams.

Overtime: The good quality game continues. And draws to a close too fast.

Penalties: Sokolov, Mr. Dropsthepuck for most of the game plays very well, whereas the russian shooters manage to locate holes in the finnish goalie's defense. And yeah, let's just say that the selection of finnish shooters was not really optimal.

So, the games are now done. We beat Ukraine and Denmark, and either lost to or drew with everybody else. That's not exactly the result everybody expected. But then, most people expected a heavy-handed loss against the Canadians.

Well, see you in Riga next season.

And unless the sky falls, this is the last hockeyblog entry for a long time. And for good measure let's now define a re-opening of the NHL as "sky falling".

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Swedes delivered, so Finland continues in the World Championship.

And today the games really begin, as the playoffs start. Finland, facing Russia, has a pretty tough game ahead. But hey, nobody said it was going to be easy. Let's just hope it'll stay fair.

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Neatly visualized in an informative applet. Would be even cooler if the same information were available on the site in more traditional format as well.

And yeah, got tix to both Hawkwind and Fantomas gigs. But forgot to drop by Tunnelin Levy to pick up the newest record by the latter. Well, there's still time to get familiar before the actual concert.

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Two books on open source. First one in finnish, the second in english. Latter concentrates on software (and operating systems in particular), the former is pleasantly rambling from Mozilla to Stephen King.

Free, of course.

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Finland, whose game has been pretty much lost for the most of the ongoing World Cup, is now on the verge of being eliminated after having drawn a goalless game with Latvia yesterday.

The only thing that is sure to keep the finns afloat is the victory of Sweden over the Latvians today in the last game of the second stage.

I'd love to rely on our westerly neighbours to come through in the hour of need, but we'll see tonight what really happens.

Or we'll see the results - since I'm opting for 24 (remnants of the third season) and West Wing (opener of the sixth season) instead.

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Bah. Been absolutely ages since I've been to watch a movie. And thus the 'flicks to catch' section of this very page keeps needing to be trimmed of films that have already passed beyond general release.

No good. Have to start playing catch-up soon to maintain the "at least one movie per month"-rate.

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Well well, this would, beyond any doubt cement my reputation as an interactive fiction geek. So, gimme...

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A duo of links. The former will take five seconds, the latter five minutes.

• Han Solo in Carbonite as interpreted in lego.
• A long, amusing, and precise rant analysis of the movies, and especially of George Lucas as their director/auteur. Be warned, it is merciless.

Would have been appropriate to cap this entry with a picture of the absolutely humongous Episode III sheet hanging off Kinopalatsi on the Rautatientori-side, but wasn't packing a camera on friday. Supposedly sized at 500 square meters, which is about 5500 square feet. That ought to be just enough to cover the expected plot holes in the movie.

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As Pekka notes, yet another monthly gamenight in the Flouder's Attic is now past.

Continued to suck at pinball... Both Twilight Zone and TNG were playing very much hard to get. Former with regard to points ("high" score a meager 150M), the latter with one unfortunately misplaced ball (though a decent score would still not have been likely, but higher definitely as the game now perfectly mistimed all modes). Personal high score in Indy was pretty much the only really bright spot, silverball-wise.

Had my first encounter with Sony's Eye Toy. Was sceptical, but the camera proved to be quite successful as interaction device, and games (remixed Sega classics) definitely on the amusing side.

Pro Evolution Soccer via multitap (2-on-2) was fun as usual, GT4 got a suitably subdued reception. And yeah, I'm not that thrilled either.

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Tavastia has been upping the ante lately, and the couple of newest signings seem very promising.

Hawkwind on 26.5. ought to be interesting. Though I have no experience with post-1990 albums. But I guess no-one goes to their gigs to hear new songs rather than Silver Machine or Brainstorm...

An even bigger catch is Fantomas on july seventh, Mike Patton's remaining band (now that Mr. Bungle called it quits). Again, like with modern Hawkwind, would be beneficial indeed to have a good listen to their material before the actual concert. At least to get a good idea what the band is all about. But in the case of Mr. Patton this may be a false hope, none of his previous groups really fit any single mold.

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Let's evaluate the symptoms.

• No frost on the ground. Check
• First utepils. Check
• "Perhaps I need new sneakers". Check
• First ice cream cone bought and eaten out. Check
• The color of grass is closer to green than grey. Check
• First miniskirt. Check
• Abundant cries for the sacking of the finnish ice hockey coach. Check
• First bumblebee shooed off the balcony. Check
• Too many unskilled skateboarders in too many public places. Check

Spring.

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... because they can always go back.

Anyway, seems that they've been adding psychoactives in the Massachusetts groundwater. Anyway, I expect a report from this occasion. With pictures. And paradox-inducing explanations.

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Traipsing through the poisonbit-infested wilderness:

• Best of Hubble.
• Google sightseeing has its own domain now.

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Yet another may first bites the dust. The usual. Hanging out in the chillish, and not yet very green Ullanlinnanmäki. Took a less scenic, but by no means really direct route back to the HQ than last year. Noted that some places charge an arm and a leg for a simple mojito. Which was probably not the best choice anyway, considering the less than Havana-esque weather.

Had a slow, but not really unproductive day at work. As is probably poetically just.

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