Today my twelve year-long career at Nokia drew to a close.

This was neither on account of being headhunted to a more lucrative position, nor due to being tossed after all energy had been sucked out.

Nope, this was the result of the long-ongoing merger with the networking segment of Siemens.

Monday'll show what really happens - thus far the most concrete action has been the change in the official company slide template.

Sadly, there was no wake for the old company, nor any other semi-organized quaffing of Guinness in copious proportions. To horribly misquote Eliot, my employment did not end with a bang, and even a whimper is too aggressive a term to describe the process of quiietly slinking out at the end of a day. Disappointing, that's for sure.

Saw the tail end of the Alamaailman Vasarat gig at Tavastia yesterday.

I've been all for earlier start times for bands for ages, but even more positive about needing a definite showtime on the ticket.

The band had played about twenty minutes when I showed up five to eleven, and played for forty-odd minutes more.

They were in good form - Stakula's raps about as non-sequitur as they get, and the trombonist seemed to be periodically attempting to decapitate bandmembers with his instrument. Props also to the cellist for the rockstaring-est gesture for a long time - after all every Tom, Dick or Harry can toss guitar picks into the audience, but very few are willing to part with the bow.

Heard both old and new songs - the title of this entry is based on the name of a song in the latter category - Huikeuden Lieriö.

Bought the new album Maahan, and a t-shirt - both for a very reasonable price of 15€.

Today it has been three years exactly since this blog got started.

Since then there's been 1655 entries (of which 729 in the last year), a lot fewer photographs and even fewer comments.

The occasion shall celebrated, not with a lopsided cake festooned with a trio of candles, but rather with the bestest and brightest of ethnic brass funk bands.

This week's photo thursday challenge subject is the most beautiful word in the world.

My take on the subject is kesäyö (summer night)- it's a beautiful word, full of umlauts, and as a concept just has no disadvantages whatsoever.

The attached image is from last summer, taken in Pohjanmaa. Somwehere way past midnight, when the sky is still lit by the sun barely below horizon - but the first clouds are creeping in for contrast.

The artificial lengthener of day is here again. And man, I'm having a hard time dealing with the measly one hour difference.

The bout of insomnia, combined with a slowly retreating flu is so not making me a happy camper.

When the world seems to be an arbitrarily cruel place, watching a tapir get massaged by a zookeeper sure can brighten up the day.

[ via boingboing. ]

Agreed: death threats are not protected speech.

The attached nifty logo (from brandcurve) notes the fact that the only violence in this blog is either of an imaginary nature or utterly unglorified if real.

Of course the discourse shown is not that harsh, from a scarred USENET veteran's perspective. But then again, I never got into anything worse than garden variety flamewars that never escalated beyond loud disagreement, and the exhibits provided show that some of the participants got worked up. Uncomfortably worked up.

But the fact that some people just might be able to take a blow without breaking their stride is hardly any excuse for their existence. Since violence is ruled out, let's hope the perpetrolls just get their fifteen minutes of fame in a gigantic display of public embarrassment.

[ via Visa Kopu, and many others besides. ]

Surfed less than expected, but hit some interesting pockets of weirdness that need to be shared:

• Devon seems to be very rich in events that brim with peculiarness: Blackawton Worm Charming Festival, Potwalloping Festival and a three day long Hunting of the Earl of Rone.
• The f*ing short version of The Departed.
• What a movie critic must know. The requirements are hard, and for a large part hovering uncomfortably close to pretension.
• Fifteen unintentionally funny comic panels. Mainly from a much more innocent era, but that hardly lessens the impact.
• Steam Trek, and don't forget the steampunk Star Wars either.

Finally succumbed to a flu. Of sorts. At least there's fever and cough - neither bad, but both annoying.

Took a day off, to avoid another period of doctor-enforced silence, and have been spending it in the way sick leave days are supposed to:

• Reading comics (Nemesis, fresh off a library, is way better than I remembered).
• Strenuously avoiding thinking about work.
• Playing video games (slowly getting the hang of kudos in Project Gotham Racing 3).
• Drinking massive amounts of un-chilled juice.
• Lounging on the sofa.
• Even more strenuously avoiding checking work-related e-mail.
• Reading a few magazines that have been piling on the coffee table.

Back to work tomorrow, unless the flu really degrades a lot.

Playstation 3 seems to have a lot of problems getting kickstarted in Finland. Unlike with recent other manufacturers' consoles, there's no shortage.

Quite different from the feeding frenzy that occurred in the states.

Where does this lack of interest stem from, it's hard to pinpoint, but easy to guesstimate: the launch line-up doesn't have any triple-A games (though Motorstorm does look nice), the price at 689€ is likely beyond most potential buyers threshold for pain and Sony just doesn't seem to figure out what to do with the new console.

Me? In no hurry to buy, waiting for proper games and hefty reduction in the price. Xbox 360 is 3rd generation enough for me.

[ EDIT: Bah, the hesari games blog spotted this sales anomaly as well, and their article is far more thorough than mine. ]

The otherwise very reliable digital video recorder by ProCaster has developed a peculiar deficiency: it no longer accepts guidance from the remote control, unless said gadget is held in front of it less than a foot away.

It's not a case of dead batteries, nor of a battered remote, since the same behaviour is exhibited with a fresh set of duracells and with a Logitech universal remote (of which more later).

This certainly puts a crimp in my channel-surfing activities.

Saw Terry Gilliam's newest movie, Tideland, yesterday. And my indifferent response is reflected in the less-than-average number of stars.

It's not that I didn't want to like the movie - the ex-Python is one of the directors whose output I've found to be very agreeable (even when it's at the odds with the rest of the world, like with Brothers Grimm). But Tideland was a movie I honestly found myself increasingly disliking - though things improved towards the end.

Like the recent Pan's Labyrinth, this is a fractured fairy tale, told from the perspective of a young girl. The circumstances are obviously different than in de Toro's masterpiece, and Tideland never ventures truly far into the realm of fables.

And that's probably one of its downfalls, the movie has a very boring mid-section, and only the glorious scenery - flowing gold in the form of undulating wheat - keeps from falling asleep.

Apart from Jeliza-Rose, the protagonist, the rest of the troupe is between disturbed and annoying. Jennifer Tilly, obviously, falls into the second batch.

The story on the confusing side, and very little is explained fully. Thus the watcher is left to puzzle over the dialogue - most of which are from very unreliable sources.

Like in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the recreational use of drugs is common in the movie - something that the more censor-oriented watchers found very damning, especially when it's the little girl that prepares the doses for his Denmark-obsessed father.

Half a star as a bonus to the translator/subtitlist, whose expression "suojässi" for "bog-men" definitely was one of the very few highlights of this film.

The European Union turns 50 years today.

Even if Finland has been riding the wagon to Brussels only a dozen years, the ride's been mainly beneficial.

Food is cheaper, the selection of goods much wider, a single currency makes travel significantly easier, as does the Schengen-convention, ESA and CERN are doing big things to advance science, GSM happened.

Many happy returns.

This week's photo thursday challenge subject is cosy, homelike. The original expression doesn't translate well into english, but the danes have a masterful word to describe this and much more: hyggelig.

My take is the attached image - scene from the spacious Lavonardo HQ, after having taken the first left after the polo court (the second left goes to the rock garden).

This photo misses out on the sofa-department, but highlights the watery abode of my scaly housemates (the funky contraption to the front left glass is a carbon dioxide diffusor) as well as the bedroom shelves straining under ever-growing load of books.

The planned early summer rock'n'roll extravaganza took a major hit last week.

Placebo was sold out completely, and Killers only has seated tickets available.

Bugger, time to turn to the secondary market (read: scalpers).

Shutdown day successfully completed.

Didn't touch a computer the whole day.

The second day of the workshop was even more hectic than the first, though briefer due to the fact that there was an airplane to catch. Free time was in very short supply - and the only half an hour was consumed neatly with an innocent "let's have a beer before dinner"-suggestion.

The karmic balance of the universe was preserved - on the way in the airplane food was despicable (barely warm beef lindström), and on the way back surprisingly decent (chicken with BBQ-ish sauce).

Unlike the two previous trips to München, Helsinki had not turned white with snow in my absence. The weather started picking up during friday, and was actually nice and warm at the end of the day. Here, it's hard to evaluate right now, but the weekend is supposedly spring-y.

In München for a two-day workshop.

It's surprisingly chilly - there's snow both on the ground and the weather forecast. The locals are full of stories how nice it was last week, and how much even nicer it will be next week. But right now the conditions are cold, much wintrier than back home.

Had dinner at Haxnbauer, a seemingly traditional bavarian restaurant. The menu was simple: you eat pork/veal knuckles, or you starve. The knuckles appeared to be not from the palms of the animal, but the shoulder joing of a foreleg. Meaning that getting at the choicest bits needed some quality disassembly work. Apart from the skin the portions were surprisingly non-greasy. The skin, on the other hand, just felt like it had accumulated all the lard roasted off during the preparation process - one bit was sufficient to deter from further culinary exploration. The knuckles were not served entirely bare: mashed potatoes and roasted onion were all right as accompaniment, but potato dumplings were just too dense to consume.

Tickets to Killers and Placebo gigs in Helsinki (in june and may, respectively) go on sale tomorrow morning.

Let's see how the local e-ticket purveyor will be quite swamped. Probably not to the depth of the recent Metallica-fiasco, but swamped nonetheless.

Guitar Hero II for Xbox 360 will be released in a few weeks.

The german satirists strike again.

The Playstation 3 European backwards compatibility list is out.

And it contains quite unexpected omissions when it comes to popular games - Final Fantasy VII and Gran Turismo 4 are missing altogether, as is the brand-new Okami, and the GTA:San Andreas will exhibit "noticeable problems".

Firmware updates will probably extend the list, but it's still worrisome to see some of the golden franchises (silent hill, metal gear solid and many others in addition to the ones listed above) handicapped from the start.

The compatibility list has 1845 games, but the list is presented in a way that renders sensible searching almost futile - the pages are rendered dynamically and restricted to twenty or so entries per page. Thus liberal searching for known titles takes a lot more work than ought to be necessary.

Hands down all who weren't surprised when the ten-years-in-the-making Guns n' Roses album failed to materialize on its tentative release date two weeks ago.

According to usually reliable source of news, the album is "being mixed".

Best enjoyed with a quality browser.

• A surprisingly large-scale prank played at the superbowl.
• WTFCNN? - mercilessly reporting on the yellow-press-like headlines uncomfortably often sighted on CNN.
• Interactive fiction on the DS.
• Wave Bubble, just the device to eliminate cellular phone traffic nearby. Probably approaching illegality in the continental states and un-gentlemanlike conduct all over the world.
• Laws of physics that do not apply in Hollywood.
• The finnish wikipedia hosts a seminar on wednesday evening to celebrate the breaking of 100k barrier in the number of articles.

Candidate made it. Not that I doubted it.

In other news the social democrat / centrist-government took a huge hit. The main beneficaries were the conservatives (attaining ten new seats in the parliament) as well as the green and nationalist parties (one and two new seats, respectively).

Excellent. Apart from the nationalist party's increased share.

Even better is the fact that the sanest man in the parliament, Jyrki Kasvi, extended his mandate with four more years.

Another glorious astronomy picture of the day.

This time of a solar eclipse as viewed from the moon.

[ via pinseri. ]

National duty performed. Once again.

Dropped by the first Red Bull Crashed Ice event held in Helsinki.

The rules of the game are pretty simple - you just have to get to the goal first. The route is a steepish ice half-tube, with some bumps and raised turns thrown in for good measure.

The track was built on Tähtitorninmäki, and on the 400-odd meters of ice the fastest among the skaters (reportedly) reached speeds in excess of 70 kilometers per hour.

Watched a few heats in the first two rounds, but gave up in half an hour - the competition was simply not interesting enough.

The weather didn't show its best side either. A hefty snowfall descended on the city, with big fluffy flakes raining down. However, the conditions were not that wintry - the park around the tube was churned muddy, and temperature was steadily above zero. Might be an idea to host the event earlier in the year. That is, if this is to be a permanent entity in the calendar.

Out of the blue there's a brand new species of a cat. And the species is not the same caliber as the recent new mammals (maxing out at the size of a rat), but a predator that clocks in at more than 20 kilos.

The Bornean Clouded Leopard is even more secretive than its relative (whose subspecies it was till last week). Not much is known of these cats, and they are far from common in zoos. Saw a clouded leopard last fall in Sinpagore's Night Safari, but the enclosure was dark enough to prevent any attempts at photography.

Been a while since I disliked a movie so much.

Despite having Donnie Darko's Richard Kelly as the script-writer, Tony Scott's Domino just sucks, plain and simple.

It's a post-Tarantinoan hard-boiled thriller with a somewhat splintered structure. But it seems to be too pleased with itself to rise above the norm. Actually, with a badly selected bunch of plot devices, mediocre acting and horribly experimental cinematography, it keeps sinking lower and lower.

Indeed, it is the cinematography that catches the eye, even on the cover of the dvd - the post-production has added over-exposure and solarization almost across the entire length of the film. In the beginning it's an in interesting concept, but grows old fast.

I expected to like this movie despite its rough reception across the board. But just couldn't locate any real redeeming features within.

Continuing the Campaign for Proper Literature[tm], finished Jari Tervo's Ohrana the other day.

It's a history-spanning novel, the main events happening in the present day and the waning moments of the second world war. Especially the latter is well-executed - the russians' bombing campaign of Helsinki forms a nice frame for the chaotic cloak and dagger-work. The protagonist is a reasonably effective hunter of desants (russian infiltrators), and through him the finnish desperation is given many faces and voices.

The tale twists and turns through the five hundred pages. A few of them hit the reader in a pleasantly unexpected fashion, but the final turn seems too complicated for comfort.

Like Westö's recent Finlandia-winner, the novel would be usable as a movie or a high profile mini-series. High profile on account of the capital city falling apart under the bombs.

Haven't yet read Myyrä, Tervo's previous novel based on the unknown moments of finnish history. Based on this one, I've been missing out on something good. With it available as a decently priced paperback, there's no excuse not to read it soonish.

Saw PMMP yesterday at Tavastia. And quite a chunk of girl power was provided to the audience.

Heard a couple of songs in Ankkarock last summer, and was impressed by the performance. Hence, picking up the ticket to the gig was not exactly a shot in the dark.

The concert started at 2315, an appropriately early hour for a thursday show. The first song was Joku Raja, the new single, and the murderous anti-domestic violence kicked off the show very well. Songs selected ranged from ballads (two played acoustically) to quasi-punk via power pop.

Didn't recognize all pieces, but am pretty sure that only two off the debut album were played, and the band concentrated on the two later records.

Tavastia was sold out, but like at the Poets-gig, not really crowded. The gender-ratio was quite different from say, the Cathedral-show, with women easily outnumbering.

This week's photo thursday challenge subject is power of thought.

My take is the attached image - a bright white contrail across a cloudless spring sky.

Sometimes flying away would be such an easy solution to all worries.

Two frequently-browsed sites just upgraded their designs. One for the better, the other for worse.

New Yorker is a magazine I'd read if I had copious amounts of spare time, nowadays it's restricted to very occasional issues few and far between. The site looks cleaner, and the ability to read whole articles on a single page (just append "?currentPage=all" to the URL) is a boon. There wasn't anything particularly wrong with the old design, but the upgrade is definitely worthy.

I thought that I didn't like radar's evolution much. The front page seemed sparse, and filled with too much white space. The number of entries per page is still on the low side, but I've got used to the styling. What's inexcusable is the fact that the archives are hidden (append /year/month/ to the baseline URL to get to the entries of a particular month).

Yes, as shown in news all over the world, Viacom sued YouTube/Google for a cool billion dollars on account of "massive copyright infringement".

Precedent for a worrisome future? Sure, precedent for an uncountable amount of frivolous lawsuits if this one is not shot down hard.

The top 100 Wikipedia articles of march 2007 are a random bunch as expected.

Sex features big, as do television shows. Surprisingly high are two comics-related blobs of articles. The brand-new movie based on Frank Miller's "300" has attracted a lot of readers. As has Naruto, an obviously popular manga, of which I famously have No Clue.

Quite a crop of artists announced in today's press release.

Definitely: Slayer, Flaming Lips, Pain, Ne Luumäet.

Likely: Marillion, Ark, Hives, Mastodon.

Wouldn't mind: Pretty much everybody else.

Now if only the organizers would get a clue about getting the traffic outta the Island working...

No rhyme or reason, just things to poke and click.

• What would the world map look like if the countries were sized according to named criteria.
• Presentation files from O'Reilly's recent Emerging Telephony 07 are available.
• Economist, the next generation? That's what Project Red Stripe attempts to be.
• Amazing kids' book on typographic animals.
• Evolution of blogging.
• Dance Dance Immolation, for those among us that are really confident in their steps.
• Over a million free stock photos at everystockphoto.com.

[ Abba the Hutt image from studio muscle. ]

Nicely campaigned - some election billboards in Helsinki have endearingly self-made ads for Mr. 249, a fully independent candidate. And my namesake. Though equipped with rather wrong opinions, at least his aims are commendable, nothing less than saving everything. Yes, everything.

Yes, the image is of lousy quality - but that's what you get for taking photographs in darkness and rain.

[ thanks to Otto for the original link. This particular ad is located in Elielinaukio. ]

But Borat is the top movie in the republic.

After all, we had several hours of +6C weather today.

And you never know if some people might be trying to set a personal utepils record.

Nope, I wasn't. I prefer non-arctic conditions - the evening had turned nippy after sunset.

Steampunk Magazine has published its first issue.

The first part of a graphic novel adaptation of William Gibson's cyberpunk classic Neuromancer is available on the web. Sadly, this book never progressed past page 48, and as the author himself states: "the artist just couldn't draw women at all".

Clockpunk seems to be a specific offshoot of steampunk.

Not a good week for the catalans.

Getting ousted by Liverpool was unfortunately predictable on wednesday. Thankfully neither team resorted to defense, and the game was entertaining to watch.

Tonight's draw with Real Madrid in the El Gran Clasico was a lucky one - the white-clad boys from the capital seemed to be a step or two ahead almost the whole second half. But that's what happens when you play a whole 45 minutes shorthanded. Fortunately Lionel Messi completed a hat trick, and levelled the game in the waning minutes.

Time to enroll in the local chapter, and start planning a trip to see a game in the fall.

Finished my third trip through one of the finest television dramas ever: BBC's Edge of Darkness. The twenty years since its first broadcasting have not dulled the content, and I was still as hooked as I was back in 1986 when this was broadcast the first time.

The plot effectively combines personal tragedy with the timeless concepts of politics (national and international), police work and cold war thrillerism, and rarely has a boring moment in the six hour-long episodes it takes to tell the tale. The conspiracies within conspiracies are a lot more complex than I remembered - missed out on a lot on the two first spins in the eighties.

The episodes are directed by Martin Campbell, a man who has also directed the two best James Bond installments (Casino Royale and Goldeneye). Wasn't aware of this factoid until late last year.

Another element that ties the series to the 007-franchise is Joe Don Baker, whose Darius Jedburgh, a jaded CIA-man, was ported almost as-is to the Brosnan-era movies. Strong as Baker's role is, he plays second fiddle (albeit a very good second fiddle) to Bob Peck's protagonist. Peck received a BAFTA-award for his role, and at least in my mind was instantly branded as a grieving policeman who'll do anything to get at the truth.

The sountrack of the show bristles with Eric Clapton's guitarwork, and includes odd songs quite naturally woven into the story. The most memorable is Willie Nelson's Time of the Preacher, but NMA's Christian Militia has good placement as well. Sadly it would appear that BBC never released the soundtrack in cd format.

In addition to a twisting plot and impressive acting, the series is a neat cross-cut of Britain in the mid-eighties. The country barely out of Falklands, still embroiled in North Ireland and struggling with its identity both internally (unions) and externally (relationship to the united states).

And no television show that introduces the concept of Gaia can be all bad.

Purely game-related links, avoid like plague if you think gaming is not a dignified pursuit past the tender age of tweleve.

• The second part of the history of computerized role-playing games is out. And this one covers much more familiar ground than the previous segment.
• Chaosium's Beyond the Mountains of Madness is one of the most imposing books on my gaming shelf. Imposing enough that I haven't really considered subjecting any players to it yet. A recent collection of game aids for it might just mean that a summer campaign is born. Too bad that it's a monograph, and not for sale except through direct order (wouldn't matter much, but Chaosium's mailing chargers are a killer).
• The issue of Dragon Magazine focusing on the works of China Miéville is out. Forty pages of low-crunch goodness.
• Put together a set of pages for our nicely starting Enemy Within-campaign.
• Casual games: does uncle Bob dare to go BEYOND MINESWEEPER?
• Haven't participated in the annual novel-writing effort, 50'000 words in a month is a scary concept. However, a target of writing a 32-page adventure is far less frightening - and that's exactly what Worldwide Adventure Writing Month attempts to accomplish this june.

Happened upon two books that just had to be bought on a reconnaissance trip to akateeminen kirjakauppa.

The graphic novel adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere is finally out as a collected edition. On a cursory glance Glenn Fabry's art is filled with evocative character designs and details hidden in the edges of frames. Nine issues to savour.

The other object was Charles Stross' brand-new Glasshouse. Sadly the novel appears not to be a part of the masterful Eschaton-continuum, but a standalone book.

Bugger. The impressive Neo-Mickey video is gone from Youtube.

Not on account of rabid Disney lawyers, however, though that remains a worrisome possibility.

Nope, the author just wants to assess the situation.

Haven't bothered to seek a second source, some still images are availale in wired.

This week's photo thursday challenge subject is blue.

My take is the attached image - a sunny seascape from the waters off Cape Cod.

Shades of blue across the scale, with a funky cloud thrown in for good measure on the right hand side.

Watched Mike Judge's famously underpromoted movie recently released on dvd.

Idiocracy is by no means as bad as the lack of attention from the production company would indicate. But it's not that great either, just an amusing eighty minutes - nothing in the league of Judge's previous film, Office Space.

Joe Bowers: Man, I could really go for a Starbucks, y'know?
Frito Pendejo: I don't really think we have time for a handjob, Joe.

While the dim future of the dumb is an amusing concept, the concept is not taken far enough - and the jokes tend to either stall or resort to cheap tricks with swearing. But at times it manages to exceed the future imagery of Futurama, and that's not an easy feat.

No less than three long-form artifacts made it to bookmarks recently.

Web usability is a subject that never gets old, and Jacob Nielsen is just the man to explain what the deadly sins of the designers have been, are, and will still likely be in the future.

Kari Hintikka's report on web 2.0, on the other hand, has picked snide comments on its translations. Haven't finished it yet, and some of the terms do rub the wrong way.

Community Created Content is written by three finnish lawyers. It provides a neatly-wrapped, but brief introduction to commonly used licenses and their applications in business. Nothing earth-shattering, but an easy read nonetheless.

Well, I thought the chuckle-inducing Chad Vader, day shift manager was an one-shot YouTube darling, and never gave it a second thought.

Was proven wrong yesterday, when I noted the full extent of the series so far. In the six episodes produced thus far there's quite a bit of repetition, but also several scenes that stand a full head taller than most of the episodes one to three...

I'm a David Fincher fanboy, a fact that's been established ages ago (I knew I was a goner when I picked up the second copy of Fight Club on dvd).

Hence a collection of music videos and ads directed by him is certainly appreciated.

In two weeks and some change, the world shall attempt not to use a computer for a whole day.

Scary concept. I will attempt to participate - there ought not be anything demaning access to a glorified difference engine on that day.

(And yeah, the last I checked, shutdown does not take arguments as specified above, it accepts only the number of seconds. But it's been a while, might have evolutionized. Then again, having less than complex shutdown CLI was never actually the sorest spot in Linux.)

Miscellaneous surfing targets picked up recently, all somehow concerned with literature in some form.

The first link has way too many non-euclidian angles and oddly shining colours for any sane human to click on. The subject is, of course, Howard Phillips Lovecraft, and the ever-reliable Kenneth Hite will take readers on a slow ride through the entire bibliography of the troubled Providencian. Livejournal sadly does not offer browsing per-subject, but the individual articles are at least tagged with a common header.

Charles Stross brings forth a disturbing topic in this blog: as of last year, to glorify terrorism is a crime in the UK. A bunch of enterprising authors have joined forces to produce a short story anthology on the very subject.

It's been ages, absolutely way too long since my last trip through Orwell's 1984 - the first chapters of the novel are now available in graphic form.

"A science scout" is not a very clearly defined term, but they sure have got nifty badges. Some of which I will appropriate at an opportune time.

Haven't read the rather imposing first issue of monocle yet. Ought to, as the review I stumbled upon in Jason Kottke's blog is on the positive side.

Didn't miss the weekend's big astronomic event on account of playing table hockey and refusing to smoke cigars. No, missed it on account of plentiful clouds.

Fortunately, the skies were actually clear somewhere, and this amazing animated .gif of the eclipse is the healing salve for us deprived of seeing the moon descend into the darkness of umbra.

Jari Lindholm.

A finnish journalist with a biting tongue and an eye for the news.

Truehoop.

NBA.

Sarjakuvia.

Odd comics in finnish.

Assistentti havaitsee.

Sharp discussion from the halls of academia as a staff member.

Seppänen.

Pointful observations.

BTJ-Kustannus.

Publisher of the forthcoming book on new-style boardgames.

An amazing set of Star Wars character reinterpretations in steampunk trappings is available in the artist's blog.

Three images are available right now - Lord Vader (with his Phlogisticated Aether Torch) as the trailblazer.

Consider me sold.

On account of the previous entry's aftereffects, I was probably not at my brightest this morning.

But the season opener for CSI:Miami was so hard to follow, I'm willing to lay part of the blame on the scriptwriter. Like, when did Horatio Caine's brother get resurrected all of a sudden? The unexplained leaps between scenes stretched credibility more than ought to be allowed.

Celebrated Jusa's first child with appropriate measures yesterday.

Bunch of guys (some of whom I hadn't seen this side of the millennium), copious amounts of alcohol, very limited speeches, 2-on-2 table hockey tournament and old skool heavy metal - what more could you ask for?

Mission accomplished, picked up the two targeted magazines.

Vanity Fair's Hollywood issue was trivial to pick up (though less thick than I thought), but the premier issue of Monocle was pretty much unfindable. It was sold out in the stores I could think of, and none of them expected reinforcements any time soon. Lucked out and picked up the magazine at the grocery department of Sokos.

Whether either is any good remains to be seen.

Both CSI-spinoffs are back - the second season of the New York-franchise started a few weeks ago, and the fifth season of CSI: Miami kicks off tomorrow.

Oddly enough I like them both better than the original, though cannot really explain why. Certainly this is not on account of the characters - they're pretty much cardboard cutouts across the continent. Not because of the stories - without a few exceptions they'd be interchangeable between the cities. Not because of the actors - though Emily Procter out-cutes the competition.

Definitely shows where a missed episode doesn't mean much - there's little continuity inbetween - but decent entertainment nonetheless.

David Fincher.

Jake Gyllenhaal.

Robert Downey Jr.

San Francisco in the seventies.

Zodiac.

No finnish release date yet.

Descriptions are for wussies.

• 19 ways to screw up a website.
• Fifth Element Street Scene as a spherical panorama.
• Fake Gucci Ad = Instant Fame.
• Media images from Children of Men.
• Spaghetti junctions.
• Cats watching cats watching cats.

Whatever the artist has been taking, I want half a dose of...

The still image of the first frame does not look like much, but do persist, the sense of wonder included is measured in tons.

Had a very pleasant dinner yesterday at Savotta, a restaurant that emulates an old finnish lumber hut.

Starter was a mix of bite-sized chunks of delicacies: smoked perch, reindeer, mutton and assorted salads and karelian pastries.

The main course was one of the finest I've enjoyed in ages: a roll of smoked whitefish accompanied with herb-encrusted potato puré and mushrooms. Nothing short of absolutely glorious, and definitely a dish to go back for.

The decoration and the dresses of the staff are two points to right of over the top, but that's easily forgotten. The food shines, quality-wise, and the waitresses sport a decent attitude.

Definitely a place to try out a second time.