Watched the third (and probably final) installment of the X-Men movie franchise. Directed by Brett Ratner, instead of Bryan Singer (who's busy with the reworking of the Superman mythos, out in a couple of weeks). By Ratner, whose career thus far has been as close to the center of mainstream as possible.

And he executes the movie in a quite decent fashion - the gravest mistakes are in the script, not the direction. The script is quite dire, containing both logical holes large enough to drive trucks through, as well as severe detachment from the original source material. At least my meager superhero lore-skill states that this is not how the Phoenix-saga was supposed to happen. The danger room puts in an appearance, as does the fastball special-move.

Like the second, and by far the best, part of the saga, this is a cruel movie. It does not shy away from removing characters by force, and doesn't really give much hope for sequels. But you never know - the ending hints at more troubles/hope to come, and with the reception in the box office, Marvel would probably keep milking the cash cow. The first spin-off movies have already taken lives of their own.

Killer Pike Strikes! Film at eleven!

It's not hot enough to qualify for deep summer, but today's yellow rag proves that it's already a slow week when it comes to news.

Bruno the bear was distant in Bavaria, and shot to death already - so it was a matter of time before the annual "scary animals"-schpiel got turned on.

And anyway, a pike's a bit more credible threat than the conveniently un-photographed "Lion" that plagued Ruokolahti a decade or so back.

Finnkino, the biggest cinema company in Finland just bought its biggest competitor, Sandrew-Metronome. Which means that Helsinki is yet poorer when it comes to choice.

And with the independents (Engel, Bio City, Rex) reeling due to various reasons, it looks like that the finnish film archive is pretty much the only alternative in town.

Recently, the following expressions have been used as shortcuts to reach lavonardo.net.

definition of lotterying cars

Say what?

spanking movie scenes supergrass

Somehow this does not seem right. At all.

Moottörin jyrinä

Yes. Missed the gig. Rub it in.

Many, many variants of "metallica Tallinn setlist".

As expected.

philadelphia for dummies

Which is the topic of an entry.

software for digibox to remove the finger sign of the exposed scenes

Say what, part 2. Seriously.

So, all of a sudden the street-level map of Helsinki (and probably of many other places) is available in google maps. Missed the addition of non-satellite map data completely. And the satellite map data seems to have vastly increased in clarity.

Looks good, apart from some names that persist in swedish (like Berghäll in the attached image). I'm sure someone has already complained.

This year's pool didn't go nearly as well as that of the Euro 2004. Didn't get a podium finish, not even close.

France let me down once again, but an even worse disappointment were the czechs. But managed to suck pretty much in every group, and individual teams cannot really be expected to take the blame for sub-optimal guesswork.

Missed Klose as the first-round goal king, but chanced on the Serbians as the biggest offenders.

Some things to check out in case the games get boring.

• Zork over IP, which goes to show that no matter what the platform, a Z-machine implementation will soon be ported to it.
• Moleskine has expanded its product range to city guidebooks.
• The deepest hole ever drilled into the crust of Gaia.
• This must be the biggest page on the web, after all it covers the deep sky in some 8.1 nonillion pixels. Something to scroll through in a long-winded and badly ventilated meeting.
• A draft of a history of interactive fiction.
• Future of pinball is a forthcoming document of Williams' Pinball 2000 project. A project that was supposed to bring the game into the 21st century, but was instead untimely shut down.

A second concert has been added to the Dropkick Murphys agenda in early august. In addition to being the headliner onm saturday in Ankkarock, the South Boston irishpunkers will play a gig in Tavastia on the previous friday.

Woo. This means that I can still reconsider a trip to Korso. Though at least Opeth and Flogging Molly would be nice to see.

Portugal advances to quarterfinals after beating Netherlands in one of the most card-ridden games ever.

The teams finished with nine men on the field, thus Deco and Costinha will miss the game against England. And Cristiano Ronaldo's status is unknown after an ugly tackle from Bouhlarouz. Who, incidentally, was the only one deserving a red card, the other three were awarded for lesser offenses.

Bah, my application to visit the Next Generation Networks-conference in DC is certain to be denied.

For a pretty good reason, this september's instance has been moved all the way to next year. And into California. Time to figure out something else instead.

A lot of food, good discussions, gorgeous weather, all in pleasant company. Few things might make a midsummer in the city better, but a smoke-sauna on the coastline is not that common a thing. Unfortunately.

Following Jason Kottke's lead, here's my wikipedia contrail:

• Absinthe, was the featured article the other day. And a fine article it is, indeed, showing how to operate traditional slotted spoon.
• Telltale Games, saw an interview by the CEO in B2.0 and decided to look up more data. And I definitely need to pick up the first episode of Bone some day.
• Platypus, had no idea how big these marsupials grow and felt the need to check.
• State quarters, no direct link to US Mint in bookmarks. Checked how many are already out.
• Jon Stewart, the most trusted name in fake news. Already own both books written by him, checked whether there's more. Nope.
• Collective Nouns, a murder of crows is just a start - there's hundreds of these expressions about.
• The Economist, the magazine is way, way older than I expected.
• Idempotence, forgot the term at work last week and wanted to ensure that I was using it in correct fashion.

What's a contrail? The list of things the browser autocompletes upon seening "en.wikipedia.org/wiki".

First properly watched Brazil's game finally showed the team playing well (was in Tallinn to see Metallica for the first one, and utterly mistimed the second game - saw just the second half).

But this game, against Japan, was of decent quality. Though the japanese attack, not known to be formidable in any sense of the word, did have some uncomfortable spearheads through the defense. But defense held, apart against a single shot - and the offense put in four. Including two from the rather maligned Ronaldo - putting him in an even position with Gerd Müller in the scoring statistics, both have now scored 14 times in the world cup.

Australia joins Brazil in the second stage - they drew against Croatia in a foul-plagued game (one croat managed to pull three yellow cards, must be some sort of record).

Not many expected this from the aussies, but then again, "experts" have repeatedly been proven wrong in the tournament. This time around I decided not to follow the pick in every game. It tends to dampen the enjoyment when score is exactly right half an hour before the final whistle, and you'd just wish the teams would be frozen on the field.

My laments have been heard, and Universal officially launched the second half of the second season of Battlestar Galactica. The good version, the one without cute robots.

Like Lost and so many other shows, Prison Break gets the season split into two volumes in UK. The US-version of the show, on the other hand seems to be quality-ridden indeed. Yes, the BSG referred to above is among the few US exceptions to the rule.

But the two-volume treatment might not be a big enough deterrent to stay away from the UK-edition of Lost. After all, there's a seven-week interval between the two. In favor of the british edition.

Things to click, read and bookmark/forget.

• The Tallinn gig is not yet available at livemetallica.com.
• A lengthy interview with Ken Rolston, one of the gaming greats. Concentrates on Oblivion, but the interviewers sneak in a couple of oldskool RPG-questions as well.
• First beta of flock is out. And the site's rather overloaded. Time to experiment. And to reactivate my flickr-account.
• Suspicious software, part n: an explanation on why Vista will be late.
• 100 awesome music videos as selected by pitchfork. And it does have Röyksopp's Remind Me, one of the best videos of all time. Beastie Boys' lauded Sabotage is curiously absent, though.
• Even more music videos, actually 1400 of them, all from the eighties. Quality is variable, and the selection eclectic.
• O'Reilly has the Where2.0 materials available on the web. Decent rainy day reading, I'm sure.

Another annual company-sponsored summer party gone by.

Decent artists (cover bands, mostly), scorching sunshine, stale beer and lots of friends not seen in ages. Pretty much what I expected.

Official nachspiel quickly deteriorated into a diaspora - ended up watching the rather boring Netherlands-Argentina game in O'Malley's, and a few quicker visits to other establishments.

No adventures with Long Island Ice Tea and a suitably early exit meant that today was actually a semi-productive day at work.

No idea what the looming merger with the Siemens Networking bits means, perhaps we get to enjoy both this occasion and an oktoberfest-equivalent in the future.

Had a very good corruption dinner at restaurant Saari, located a few hundred meters from the mainland in the Helsinki harbor.

Waited for the ferry for a while, getting hungrier by the moment. The ride's not cheap, but fortunately the cost is appendable to the restaurant bill.

The restaurant is definitely a slow food place, the three course meal took almost four hours to finish. And not because of us slow eaters, but of non-rapid arrival of dishes. Not that we really minded, the evening was beautiful and warm, company good and discussion lively.

And there was absolutely nothing wrong with the food either. Started off with a selection of appetizers - a set containing first fresh potatoes of the season, and the first bear salami ever. Had pike perch for the main course, overcooked just enough to ensure easy removal of skin and accompanied by an appropriately spicy potato cake. Capped the meal with a glass of Ålvados, a finnish (or actually ålandic) take on calvados, a bit sharp of taste, but having enough of apple aroma to be worth the name.

All in all a pleasant experience - and the difficulty of securing a table is explained by the environment and food. I'll be back. Perhaps already this summer.

It's yet another +25C day. So we're now officially broken the requirement for a "hot" day.

I guess we're sitting on top of the overflow valves of Hell, this being rather early for such warm weather. I mean, they must be letting out the heat from down below now that finns won the eurovision song contest...

Not that I'm complaining, not at all. It was indeed a pleasure to reclaim the last room of the flat for proper use. I'm actually writing this in lanternlight, sitting on the balcony. Which, for me, pretty much confirms that we're in real summer already.

Yet another monthly gamenight at Lemmy's place is now history.

Missed the previous one, and thus the arrival of the sixth pinball machine, Attack from Mars, wasn't news for anybody else. So I pretty much got to monopolize the machine for long stretches. And it was a very good machine indeed. Open field, shots that do not require the manual dexterity of a clocksmith and interesting modes. And large scores. Very large scores. Got over a billion points on the first go, and didn't come close to the replay limit. That kind of defines inflation doesn't it...

The other big event was the very traditional Pro Evolution Soccer-session. Had a two-round game with everybody teamed with everybody else. Some great moments - like scoring on a hail mary-style play on the very last second of injury time, and some not so great ones - like being on the receiving end of a five goal effort from van Nistelroum (that's Ruud van, Konami hasn't bothered to license all the teams).

Another quality evening amongs electronic entertainment - and I'm definitely looking forward for the next one - the newest pinball machine didn't yet surrender its secrets fully.

Finished watching the first half of the second season of Battlestar Galactica the other day. The new one. The one that's being released in two separate halves (at least in region 1).

And it's been rather long since a cliffhanger of this magnitude has been conveniently placed on disc. (Well, not since the season finale of Lost, that is).

And I really, really want to see the second half. Properly. Resorting to peer-to-peer tv is not an attractive option. Even with piratebay back in action.

Spent most of yesterday travelling to / in / travelling from Porvoo. A company event that turned out very well. Even with the stakes definitely raised by a couple of preceding successful events.

Travelled in with a paddle-wheel ship, a lengthy four hour journey. Which wasn't bad at all, considering the weather was pretty much perfect for boating - warm, with enough sunshine to offset the winds.

Grabbed one cache, and ogled the rather sad remnants of the old Porvoo church. It's not in a good shape following an encounter with an amateur pyromaniac a month or so back. The surrounding scaffolding is a sure sign that it shall be rebuilt, with an accelerated schedule.

Had dinner at Timbaali, which is famous for its escargot-based dishes. Had some of those as a side to an excellent buffet. Whose single highlight for me was the best pesto sauce in ages - chunky and almost non-liquid in form, and a great accompaniment to both salad and white bread.

Missed almost all the games of the day - caught the last twenty minutes or so of Mexico-Angola, but had to resort to reading about Argentina's massacre of Serbia from a mobile phone.

Had the nachspiel in the new-ish Virgin Oil bar/restaurant/club-complex. Unfortunately the theme of the day was samba, so the soundtrack of the evening was packed with drums and then more drums. Not even an experimental shot of cachaça was enough to latinify me enough to enjoy the proceedings. Oh well, fortunately the establishment offered some locations away from the music. And interestingly enough an ad for a release party of long-awaited Pulse by Pink Floyd on 7/7, with a gig by Hidria Spacefolk. Let's see whether the date holds...

Saw Magyar Posse in Tavastia yesterday.

Went in around eleven, and saw a good twenty minutes of the warm-up act, Silvio. Sounded interesting enough for the duration, and the vocalists use of flute was appreciated by anyone traumatized by the instrument in music lessons at school. The music was not of one mold, and would definitely benefit from additional tries. While seeking out info about the band, noted that it has quite good jazz credentials, with two musicians of famed Pohjola clan among the members.

Magyar Posse took the stage after a brief stage re-organization. Spent that watching soccer on lobby bar screens (the lonely pinball machine seemed to be out of commission). This was the first time I ever saw the band, and the experience did indeed match raves from reliable authorities. The music was nothing short of majestic, filled with complex crescendos and ambitious twisting and turning of melodies. Considering the instrumental nature of the music, I did recognize the songs, but have no idea what songs they actually were. Had to cut the gig a bit short - early mornings and short nights are not conducive to productive days.

Buying Silvio's new-ish album wouldn't be a bad idea, and I definitely want to see Magyar Posse again. Soon, please.

Saw Metallica for the eighth time on their "Escape from the Studio 06"-tour. On Laululava in Tallinn, Estonia.

This was the first time ever to go see a band abroad. And the trip was pretty much as painless as you can get. Took an express boat both ways, at 1:45 the trip was not too long by any means.

The stage was set on Laululava, about three klicks away from the harbor. Walked both ways. And took a wrong turn only on the way back.

Despite only three gates for seventy thousand people, the utterly failed entry like two years ago in Helsinki wasn't repeated, entry was quick, as was the exit.

The place itself is a natural amphitheatre, with sloping hills allowing excellent view on the stage. A food court, a couple of overworked drink stands and toilets were set off by a couple of hundred meters.

Missed the first two bands by arriving late. The real warm-up act Bullet for my Valentine wasn't bad at all. Apart from the screamy vocals the rather variable nu-metal/crossover/whatever music was pretty interesting and probably merits further investigation if albums turn up at a decent price.

The main event started with a familiar sound. Ennio Morricone's Ecstacy of Gold still brings chills up and down my spine. After a trio of true classics (and Fuel), the band played through the 20-year old Master of Puppets in its entirety. Nope, not just the song (which is usually cut off mid-point), but the entire album. Including Orion, their grooviest instrumental and Disposable Heroes, which due to its length is rarely played live. The eight songs were backed by title-related imagery on the video screens: Leper Messiah had images of television preachers as a mosaic, while Sanitarium featured a straitjacketed guy thrashing in a padded cell.

Surprisingly the excellent song selection lasted throughout the gig, and Fuel remained the only title from last three albums.

Set list:

Creeping Death
Fuel
Wherever I May Roam
For Whom The Bell Tolls
Fade To Black
Battery
Master of Puppets
The Thing That Should Not Be
Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
Disposable Heroes
Leper Messiah
Orion
Damage, Inc.
Sad But True
Nothing Else Matters
One
Enter Sandman
//
So What
Seek and Destroy

Had to make it to the ferry leaving at 1:15, and decided to take off around the beginning of Seek and Destroy. Picked up a commemorative t-shirt along the way, and walked back to the ship. And noted that I'm as bad sleeping in boats as in planes - hopeless, in a word.

This was indeed the eighth time I saw Metallica live. Fourth time in an outdoors-setting. And by far the best of the four. Due to late-ish arrival the view onto the stage was limited (we were far indeed, as shown in the attached image). There wasn't really anything wrong with the place. The weather was close to perfection as well. Around +26C, with a nicely timed sunset during the headliner's set. Some of the catering services could have been a wee bit faster, but that's a minor complaint - altogether the crew got off clean.

The organizers had extra base stations available for mobile phones, and a nice touch was the cell name shown on the phone screen, on some it was plain boring laululava, but on others: metallica...

Nine points behind the leader in the office pool.

Not too far back, but not very comfortable either.

Scoring is simple - three points for the correct result (home/visitor win or a draw) and a point per correctly picked goals.

No five-point games thus far on my sheet, but several of the four point-kind already.

But that's just eight games down the stretch, the forty remaining ones will alter the balance of power many times over.

Early summer is finally here.

Early summer as defined by the temperature, not by calendar. It's pleasantly warm, around +23 degrees. And sunny. But neither going to the extremes, and both tempered by a pleasantly chilling wind.

Early summer as in the green season - before the heat, sunlight and wind dry out the lawns from their current emerald green into less pleasant yellowing straw. Season when even the birds themselves seem to be perplexed by the constant cacophony in the air.

Early summmer as "early", when the heat is still a renewed experience after a prolonged winter and a wet spring. And not something that causes everybody to wonder whether the short warm season would justify installation of air conditioning. Or at least buying a bigger fan.

Truly the best season, whose annual appearance never ceases to amaze.

I sure ought to have some pictures here of the celebrated nature, but nope, not yet. Went frisbee-tossing after work and forgot about photography altogether. Traditional session at Tali, throwing a 175-gram ultimate disc around. Session was good, my forehand throw sure wasn't.

Bah, for the second summer in a row, the best sweden-originated irish-style band, Stamp 'n Go Shanty will miss Helsinki.

Unfortunate indeed, they've been very enjoyable on every occasion. After all, they play both their own songs and covers that have been selected with a reasonable bit of good taste. And it's not often that you hear the opening bars of Emil i Lönneberga theme being carefully smuggled into Dirty old town.

According to a relevant search in any sensible online merchant Nelly Furtado's third album is out.

I obviously need a better reconnaissance apparatus, since this has arrived completely unheralded. The just renewed Rumba magazine obviously concentrates on Wrong Bits.

A more traditional game, scoring-wise, than the first one of the tournament.

Rather enjoyable, no matter what.

But that's probably just the lack of pretty much any football watched in a couple of months talking.

No aversion to finnish commentators yet, but the Sami Hyypiä/Teemu Tainio show on the halftime is beyond hope in its amateurishness.

So much for a prognosis for a slow-paced careful game with a low score.

Germany and Costa Rica score no less than six times, with both Miroslaw Klose and Paulo Wanchope netting a brace. If this is the way the games go, I sure won't be complaining.

Akateeminen Kirjakauppa has its annual early summer sale: 20% off the price of paperbacks.

Dropped by the other day, and succumbed to the new offerings on the shelves.

Bought the fourth Charles Stross book in the space of a few weeks. Accelerando has been out in hardback and on the web for ages, but I prefer mine in paperback format. And yeah, he is a pretty prolific author - but I held off on a couple of books for a long while.

Enjoyed Microserfs back in mid-nineties a lot, being a newly minted Nokia wage slave and all. The sequel, jPod is now out, in trade paperback weight class.

Third book was the english edition of Bonjour Paresse, the french slacker bible.

And had a reasonably large surprise at the graphic novels-rack, the first part of rather raved-about Vertigo product 100 Bullets was available at a reasonable 10 euros. Never read a single issue. Took the plunge.

The Cup starts in a few minutes and I'm stuck on a train somewhere between Helsinki and Tampere.

Oh well, first games of the cup were never any goal-rich affairs, and there's sixty-three more to go.

First link batch of june.

• For those that already have everything, eBay has just the thing: a life-size wax figure of Walt Disney.
• Jon Stewart deftly demolishes yet another republican. Forget Hillary, dear democratic party, and run Jon for president in a landslide in 2008. Please.
• Google Browser Sync for those who have the need for the same bookmarks on all computers, all the time. That is, if you don't mind google taking a peek at them.
• Widsets, widgets for your java-enabled phone. It's beta. And looks nifty.
• Reverse snobbery, for the truly cultivated among us.
• John Cleese lends a helping hand to colonists in the New World.

The kickoff just one day away, it's time to take a trip down the memory lane of past games.

2002 is remembered less for the brazilians fifth championship than the taint of unsportsmanlike conduct - chief protagonists of which were Brazil's Rivaldo (a truly swan lake performance against Turkey) and the referees who ensured that South Korea beat both Italy and Spain. France sucked horribly, which was a nice bonus.

In 1998 Ronaldo choked in the finals and the french cruised to an easy victory. Spain choked. But played an entertaining last (but meaningless) game after a very disappointing tournament.

The 1994 games were hosted in the US, a definite football wasteland. Saw almost the full tourney in Utah, rejoiced at Bulgaria's surprising demolition of the germans and after returning home watched the final, Brazil beating Italy on penalties, in a hopelessly jetlagged state in the middle of the night.

In 1990 Brazil played a horribly ineffective game against Argentina, and lost on Claudio Caniggia's goal on the opponents lone decent offensive move. Rijkaard and Völler engage in a spitting contest that ends in multiple red cards. Africa arrives on stage, with Cameroon almost reaching the semifinals.

For the 1986 games in Mexico the Lavonius clan bought its very first VCR (and ended watching the games live anyway). Maradona's "hand of god" gets proven only long after the games. Brazil ousted in quarterfinals when Zico fails to score on a penalty (to be fair he was cold, having just been put onto the field).

Brazilian dream team plays beautiful soccer in the 1982 games, but loses to Italy after disgraced Paolo Rossi's hat trick in the second round.

Not much recollection of the 1978 games. Apart from wondering why perfectly good toilet paper is tossed on the field after the hosts narrowly beat Netherlands in the final game.

Wikipedia's branching out by creating Wikia, a site where single-topic wikis can be created by anyone. Though not on every possible topic, as there exist guidelines on banned topics.

While there have been scores of specialized wikis all over the web, it's convenient to have de facto-hosting for any topics that grow too large and niche-y for the original site.

Been catching up on the CSI franchises lately. As broadcast by the local company and captured on the digibox disk - I'm not nearly fan enough to resort to p2p-tv.

And noted that there's quite a bit of discontinuity as the shows are not shown as in the states. Miami has progressed well into the fourth season, whereas NY is just starting off.

Thus the crossover-episode between the two was an odd discovery and the story was left completely unresolved. But it has to be assumed that everything went well, since David Caruso is back from New York as the trusty platitude-cracking Horatio Caine.

More data about the upcoming thorough re-working of Neil Gaiman's Sandman.

Scroll down the page for a comparative pair of frames from the original and the upcoming edition. And for the price: $99 for a volume containing the first 20 issues (first three collected volumes). Not cheap, but at least Vertigo has opted for thicker books than originally feared.

And there's a few tidbits about what's going to happen in Fables, the best comic currently published.

[via rajatapauksia.]

The football pool at work seems to be turning into rather a good competition - with more than 25 people already having turned in their coupons we're now set to break the record from Euro 2004.

Yahoo has collaborated with fifa to create a nifty pick-your-team game. Now's the chance to choose the very best the teams can field and outguess tens of thousands of opponents with your selections.

Ronaldinho gets new shoes. Amount of digital work on this video is a subject of much debate - the strikes do seem unlikely, but there's no denying that the man's a dribbling genius.

And yeah, I'm a sucker for football commercials on television anyway. Rarely do the players get to display their skills on the field, defenses being locking up tighter year after year.

Missed the six-cubed- day entirely, forgot to observe the National Day of Slayer, and had no inclination to go watch the re-working of the seventies horror classic Omen.

While the kid star of the latter looks suitably creepy, the film firmly belongs to the "watch on tv after a couple of years"-category, but the new Slayer song Cult streamed on the band's site definitely merits a second listen. At least to hear it from a better source than tinny laptop speakers.

Smooth ride from München. And a surprisingly decent dish catered by the reliably inedible Lufthansa. The airport had decent shopping facilities, but oddly the World Cup merchandise was confined to a single small stall, with a very meager selection of wares.

Also noted that Germany still has proper luggage lockers available at train stations. Such lockers seem to be entirely eradicated off the north american cities after 9/11. Or perhaps they're just hidden better.

Like so many other old media institutions Hesari has a world cup blog as well.

Succeeded in buying the heavily soccer-based national geographic in the Hauptbahnhof of München. Five copies left, only one with the map supplement. Have to admire the sleight of hand of german shoppers.

Visited the Bavarian film studios in the outskirts of München. Monday's a religious holiday here, so pretty much the whole city is shut down.

This was the very first film studio I ever visited, and the experience was quite on the positive side.

The ninety minute tour took us through active areas (like a fake suburb where Marienhof filmed) as well as passive ones (museums for hit movies of yesteryear).

The tour was given in german, and the clippy accent and rapid pace of delivery meant that quite a good bit went through my unadjusted ears.

Among the former the big scenery set up for entire streets would easily have fooled the casual visitor. Until a wall is knocked, and discovered to be made out of wood. Visually very convincing, however. And large, the various sets shown covered large chunks of land.

A definite highlight among the latter is the model used for U-96 in Das Boot, the best submarine movie of all time. Claustrophobia-inducing, dark and believable - walking through it was a thrill.

In addition to Das Boot, among the biggest german successes exhibited were the Neverending Story (with the Limahl-sung title track of the movie looping in the background) and the two Asterix-films.

Also saw a stuntman-show on the premises, decent fun - the protagonists took great care in explaining that none of the tricks ought ever be tried by the audience. Not sure whether that sank in into the scores of eager kids on the stands.

Had a three hour guided tour in downtown. Themed History and Beer it was rather a rousing success. The guide was good, her stories interesting and individuals presentations kept short enough not to cause interest to waver. Got rained on a little, but the weather never deteriorated beyond "a bit drizzly".

More traditional food for lunch. Had my first ever Weißwurst, whose contents are disconcertingly sucked out of the intestine rather than civilly eaten with a fork and knife. Fortunately no-one present had the initiative to capture the frightening images on camera.

The downtown is full of two-meter high lion statues. A parade for charity (just like the one with cows in Portland, Oregon a few years back). Though here the decoration is provided by businesses fronting the cost as opposed to local artists.

Had the biggest pretzel ever at the english garden, which is a pleasant green blotch on the city map. Splitting the pretzel among four hungry walkers was not enough - a sizable chunk of the biggest arc went uneaten.

Saw the Allianz Arena, the new football stadium. Trivially reached via the S-bahn.

From afar, the security around the area refused access closer to 150 meters or so.

And yeah, it is a very peculiar-looking building. Even in daylight, let alone at night when the exterior can be lit up in multiple colors (chosen to match those of the two home teams, of course).

The official part of the alumni reunion was short and to the point. Just as presentations ought to be.

Food was very traditional (but went un-photographed sadly). Started off with a snack plate, on which pretty much everything was either greasy or made of meat - at best both.

Again, like the previous occasions (2004 and 2005) it was great to meet old friends - though this year's crowd was quite a bit thinner than it has usually been. Quality, not quantity definitely.

Took a long walk through the historical areas of München. Decent weather for walking - some could even call this chilly - at 15C it's a lot below seasonal average.

Happened by the city hall when the glockenspiel at the city hall goes through a minutes-long ceremony. It's a clicky mechanical contraption whose details are barely visible from the ground. And crowded, really crowded. Probably a prime location for pickpockets, with most of the people craning their necks to catch a glimpse of clockwork knights jousting.

Spent two days in the city back in 2003 (in jetlag-grogged state), and some of the areas do seem familiar. Located a decent bookstore, but they did not have the second volume of Catfish Atlas on their shelves. But I did snag a musical curiosity "German Album" by Peter Gabriel - Shock den Affen sure sounds cooler than its english equivalent.

The world cup is everywhere here - the official logo ubiquitous, and t-shirts of both fifa-sanctioned and rather dubious origin for sale in shops and stalls.

The jerseys are expensive as ever - despite having an obvious hole in my wardrobe at the "Brazilian Visitors Jersey"-space, the 65 euro price kept me away. After all, it's the yellow/green-combination everybody knows and loves - the blue/white is just a mandatory necessity.

And there's no getting away from the stars, former and current. Ballack is, as the midfield dynamo, the most prominent - but by no means the only one on the streets. And good old Jürgen Klinsmann (or Klinsi, as he's affectionately called) is back in the limelight as the coach.

So yes, let the games commence, the host country seems to be well-prepared.

Had dinner at aboslutely humongous Ratskeller-restaurant. Not kidding, this place easily would fit hundreds upon hundreds of hungry customers. Not in a single hall, but spread around the mazy interior. The reunion program promises plenty of wurst in the days to come, so chose a schnitzel instead. Served in the Viennese style, no capers/anchovy and mashed potatoes replaced with potato salad. A reasonably soft landing into german cuisine.

Visited the legendary Hofbräuhaus for a couple of their products. And was surprised at the more than subdued atmosphere. Turns out that the real rowdy deal is downstairs, and we'd hit the rather quiet restaurant upstairs by mistake. Oh well, nothing that cannot be rectified on a later visit.

Another boon of staying in the InterCity is the free municipal transport provided - trams and two kinds of subways crisscross the city, making this an easy place to navigate.

The main theme of the newest issue of National Geographic is "soccer". A lengthy article accompanied with a map supplement is enough reason to buy.

The finnish edition was out when I left, let's see whether the original can be picked up here.

Flew to München for the annual Utah european alumni reunion.

Ate properly for the first time ever at the Helsinki airport after missing lunch at work. The shrimp-satay was okay, but the chef sure has to work at his risotto. Food catered by luftwaffe was predictably bad.

There's a convenient train from the airport to downtown. The only inconvenient bit is lack of clear guidance how much the trip costs.

Searching for the hotel took a bit of time before realizing that the InterCity München is not really near the station, but actually built into it. Clean, central and cheap (three nights for the price of two) - seems like a working recipe.

Some tinkering for rainy summer days: a battery-powered USB charger. Built into an Altoids box, which is definitely a coolness-upping factor.

Seems a wee bit on the complex side, and my subconscious is sounding an alert based on ten plus years of no serious fiddling with electronics at all.

So it has to be a pretty rainy fortnight before I leap into building this.

Yes, there is such a beast as an official blog for the World Cup. To be exact, in addition to a general blog there's actually a wide collection of blogs, one for each team, and a bonus one for the referees.