Communications breakdown

Eipä ole taas vähään aikaan tullut kirjoiteltua, sillä mitään kovinkaan järkevää sanottavaa ei ole ollut.

Minulla on täällä vielä huominen jäljellä, jonka jälkeen lähden sitten takaisin Suomeen. Tämän lähtöä koskevan huuman keskelle on kuitenkin laskeutunut varsin ikävä tilanne: kaikki kommunikaatioyhteydet samassa talossa asuviin sukulaisiini ovat kuitenkin mystisesti lakanneet toimimasta. Myös kännykkäni on lakannut toimimasta, ja siitä onkin pääteltävissä, että jokin on ainakin laskujen maksamisessa hiukan enemmän kuin tarpeeksi persiillään.

En tiedä vielä tässä vaiheessa, että mitä on oikeastaan tapahtunut. Se väistämättä herättää äärimmäisen vitutuksen tunteita, sillä epävarmuus elämässä on useastikin niitä tunteita, jotka pyritään tukahduttamaan mahdollisimman nopeasti vastauksen saamiseksi.

Onkin selvää, että en tarkalleen (taaskaan) tiedä, että milloin ilmaannun netin ääreen. Voinee olla, että tämä pieni katkos yhteyksissä ei kestä kovinkaan kauaa, tai sitten se voi kestää hyvinkin kauan. Edelleen, en pysty kertomaan paljoakaan tässä tilanteessa. Pyrin kuitenkin päivittämään blogini mahdollisimman pian siitä, kun saan jo pelkästään senkin tiedon, että onko minulla edes kyytiä kotiin sieltä Helsingin laivarannasta valtavan tavarapaljouden johdosta. Pyrin pitämään itseni siis myös ajan tasalla siitä, miten tämä nyt tulee jatkumaan.

Palaan siis takaisin kirjoittelemaan asioista, kunhan tiedän, että mitähän helvettiä siellä kotipuolessa tapahtuukaan. Pysykää siis kuulolla, ja muistakaakin olla valppaita.

Super Mario Libanonissa

Viime päivät ovat olleen jokseenkin tylsää katseltavaa: CNN:n tarjontaa ja uutisia seurattuani olen pelaillut Super Mario 3:sta emulaattorilla. Se on ollut ihan hauskaa, sillä viimeksi kun todella syvennyin sen saloihin, niin taisin vieläpä ihan oikeastikin omistaa Super Nintendon.

Tämä Libanonin Kriisi, paremman termin puuttuessa, on ollut täälläkin aika iso juttu. Tänäänkin käytyämme nk. "Kvibergin markkinoilla", tuli vastaamme suuri joukko selvästi arabialaisia naisia, jotka olivat tökänneet lastenrattaisiinsa Libanonin punavalkoiset liput liehumaan. Kuulin myös, että jotkut geneeriset "vasemmistotyypit" olivat pitäneet jonkinlaista mielenosoitusta yllä kaupungilla. Taisin myös nähdä erään naisen pitävän ranteessaan valkoista nk. "rannenauhaa", jossa oli Libanonin lippu.

Päästyäni kotiin, tyttöystäväni ilmoitti, että menisi tekemään töitä ainakin seuraavalle viikolle asti, jotta sitten olisi vapaata siinä vaiheessa kun tulen viikon päästä kotiin. Kuulin myös, että Lidl myy erittäin hyviä patonkeja yrttivoilla kuorrutettuna, vaan valitettavasti en taida pitää niistä, sillä olen kehittänyt varsin vahvoja antipatioita juuri yrttipatonkeja kohtaan Pirkan patonkien ällöttävän maun johdosta. Lupasin myös viedä kotoa tyttöystävälleni mahdollisimman paljon lukion ajoilta jäljelle jääneitä konseptipapereita, joita seisoi nyt isoina kasoina kotonani.

Ne Kvibergin markkinat, noin tapahtumana, olivat kyllä tapahtumiltaankin varsin köyhät. Koko paikka oli lähinnä erilaisten "Ahmed" ja "Abdullah" nimisten mieshenkilöiden täyttämä sotku myyntipöytiä, joissa oli tarjolla aina teurastamon antimista matkapuhelimien kautta arabialaiseen musiikkiin. Joku hämärä tanskalainen äijä myi paikalla T-paitoja varsin halvalla, ja hetken mietinkin mahdollisuutta ostaa AC/DC:n logolla yms. raapustuksilla varustetun paidan. Huomasin myös Mr. Punisherin logolla varustetun T-paidan, vaan ongelmaksi muodostuikin sitten se, että oikeaa kokoa ei vain ollut. Nämä paidat olivat aivan suunnattoman isoja, ainakin kaksi tai kolme kokoa normaalin länsimaisen mittapuun ylitse. Tanskalainen äijä yritti tarjota minulle XL-koon paitaa, vaan yritin selittää hänelle, että paita oli vain liian suuri minulle. Pienin koko mikä minulle edes hiukan sopi, oli S. Ostin siis yhden S - koon Punisher - logolla varustetun T-paidan. Hiukka kieltämättä vitutti, kun moinen Tanskalainen myi noinkin asiallisella logolla varustettua paitaa, vaan koot olivat valmistusmaansa Intian johdosta todellakin päin persettä. Luultavimminkin Intialaiset kuvittelivat tekevänsä paitoja lihaville rappiokulttuurin edustajille lännestä, joille koko S:n piti vastata ainakin L:n kokoa jossain muualla.

Olen myös alkanut miettimään sitä, että miten minun tulisi selvitä n. 8 tunnin automatkasta täältä Tukholmaan. Viime vuonna se oli aivan helvetillinen saavutus, ja nyt tällä kertaa minulla on onneksi mukanani hyödennettävänä mm. MP3-soitin, sekä hieman tarkempi idea niistä kirjoista, mitä tulisi matkan aikana lukea. Myös jonkinlaista makeaa syötävää ja juotavaa tulisi ottaa mukaan oikean pukeutumisen ohella. Olen tässä miettinyt, että kaiketi tällä kertaa voisi yrittää kuunnella Reggaeta bussimatkan aikana. Uskon kuitenkin, että musiikkivalinnat tulevat olemaan kovinkin erilaisia näiden varhaisten ideoiden jälkeen.

Noh, pitäisiköhän tästä nyt sitten lähteä nukkumaankin.. Probably, yes.

Another day

I've got a week left in this country, and after that I'll go home.

My girlfriend bought a new couch for her apartment in Kauhava, which happens to be the first piece of western "sitting furniture" for her place, since the apartment has been decorated on in an Oriental way (Japanese, to be specific) . I can't see that couch until next week's sunday, but knowing her good taste in general, I'm sure the couch will be fine. I downloaded a Super Nintendo emulator and Super Mario All Stars for it, in order to pass the time, too.

Also, I picked up a couple of books yesterday; Plato's Republic and The Illustrated Directory of The United States Marine Corps by Chester G. Hearn. They weren't that expensive at all: you can't expect to get these sorts of books that cheap from Finland anyway.

Next monday, while I'm still "in country", I'll continue my internet auctioning after a two month pause: this time though, all the money I get out of will be saved to the last dime for up-coming expenses, and not squandered away at leisure like the last time. I've also been considering on selling my old Sega 16-bit Megadrive in the auctions, since I've seen some fine money made out of old consoles. The only problem with the old Sega console is, that I'm a bit unsure of its' condition. Now, it might still work, or it might not. Have to test it, I guess.

Last Wednesday was pretty shitty too, in terms of my physical condition: I threw up during the early morning hours, possibly due to a stress reaction of some sort, and afterwards collapsed to the bathroom floor. I remember sending some SMS's to my girlfriend, and then after a few moments I started feeling a bit dizzy and finally puked twice. Afterwards, I collapsed to the floor for a few moments while having a fashionable cold sweat and a terrible feel of disorientation. I'm pretty sure, that the reason for this little incident were my deeply irregular sleeping hours for the past month, and the somewhat long nights I've been spending for the last months. Either way, I've been sleeping regular hours now, and temporarily quit burning the midnight oil.

Right now, though, I have some things to do back here, so I'll just bid you a good day.

The dark night swallows the day..

It's been very hot here again.

Last night I had trouble sleeping, and after several failed attempts on hitting the hay, I continued reading Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel. That thing pretty much put me to sleep, although it's still a very good and informative book. It's kinda like if you'd publish a mechanical manual or something to that end on toilet paper: the overall look of the publication wouldn't be much, but the text would sure as hell be concrete "no bull" information.

We also bought all the needed ingredients to make Sushi. We'll probably try to manufacture it today, but we've also got a game of Petanque set for tomorrow. And I've never played it before, so odds are, that it's going to take a fair amount of time to familiarize.

Anyway, the store I bought all those Sushi-stuff from, also had some weird teas: I ended buying something called "Luo Han Kyo - Tea" from the shop due to its' rather inventive package. It was manufactured in China. Sometimes Chinese food scares me, since you can never know what they manufacture food out of. Once, I remember reading an article about some Chinese folks selling some sort of jam made out of tigers feet. Now, all of the feet that had been used in the production of the Chinese Tiger Foot Jam, had apparently came from the little leggies of some type of an soon-to-be extinct tiger ! And the Chinese made jam out of their feet !

Anyway, the tea was in these little brown cubes you put in hot water. The tea itself tasted like Soy and regular tea put together. It certainly wasn't the nicest of my culinary experiences, but after my second cube of "Luo Han Kyo" - tea, it didn't really matter, though. I'm hoping, that this mystical oriental tea would have some sort of a profound effect on me: perhaps it would let me see in the dark, or perhaps give the strength of ten oxen in bed. Hopefully when I'm done drinking this stuff in a week or so, I'll be the ultimate warrior of all time.

Now though, I'll be going to the yard again to sit in the darkness and listen to music. You have a good night.

Watching movies

Yesterday we went downtown for some shopping again. This time, I bought a wireless keyboard and a mouse of the less than dubious Microsoft-brand. The reason why I bought them was, that at home I'm having some real trouble with all of the dozens of cords and wires hanging out of the computer and slithering along the floor like serpents.. Luckily, I can also throw away the cheap Compaq mouse & keyboard, that I've had since I got that 500 MHz computer many years ago. Needless to say, I don't have it anymore, but the keyboard along with the mouse still remain in service with my new computer.

Anyway, I bought some movies too: Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2 were being sold at the same store I bought all the wireless gimmicks from. I watched both of the movies last night, and have to conclude, that the second part started to suck at the very end, when Uma Thurman finally met Bill at his Mexican Hacienda. The whole "Superman is actually Clark Kent, and so are you" - metaphors sucked real badly, and I didn't really see the movie turning into a slow drawl at the very end. Both of the movies rolled along real smoothly, but the end of part two, as I stated, somehow slowed down and became way too surreal for me to understand. Thus, I started to wonder if the people giving this movie four stars out of five on the reviews had even seen part two completely. Also, the "five point heart exploding technique" was a bit lame of an attempt to quickly finish the movie and let everybody go home. I was expecting a cool sword fight, but it turned out to be an extremely slow and dragging dialogue with a very low-key ending too.

The first part was great, though. The action was great and definately the over-the-top spilling of blood created the ideal atmosphere for my liking. The second part seemed a bit overrated however, especially taking the somewhat vague ending into consideration.

Ostelu iskeytyy päin seiniä

Tänään lähdettiin sitten taas käymään kaupungilla. Tarkoituksena oli ostaa hieman lisää vaatteita, sillä niitähän minä loppujen lopuksi tarvitsen kaikista eniten.

Etsiskelin hihattomia T-paitoja, ja lopulta löydettyämme niitä, saimmekin kolme kappaletta varsin harvalla. Ongelmaksi kuitenkin muodostui se, että päästyämme kotiin asti paitojen kanssa, meille selvisikin, että minun käyttämäni M-koon sijasta yksi paita oli kokoa XL ja toinen omasi niin naurettavan suuren kaula-aukon, että se olisi sopinut paremmin tyttöystävälleni. Hiukanhan tämä "state of affairs" vitutti minua, sillä 2/3 katastrofista olisi voitu välttää sillä, että olisi katsottu hieman tarkemmin sitä, että mitä ostetaan.

Toiseksi kompastuskiveksi muodostui sitten päällyshousujen (engl. "Trousers) osto. Tällä kertaa ääretöntä vitutusta aiheutti se, että etsiskeltyämme normaaleja mustia housuja, saimmekin vain lähinnä naurettavia, ja vähintäänkin halvalta näyttäviä housuja eteemme. Monet kaupat myivät aivan täyttä paskaa, ja sitten kun lopulta löysimme kunnollisia housuja, lähentelivät niiden hinnat normaalin miesten puvun housujen hintaa. Totesinkin, että en helvetissäkään aikoisi maksaa sellaisia summia housuista, jotka kuitenkin tulisivat jokapäiväiseen käyttöön - puvun housut olisivat sitten tietty eri asia. Niitä en kuitenkaan ollut etsimässä.

Lopuksi, saimme kylläkin ne housut, ja ihan hyvään hintaankin, vaan niiden hankkiminen oli helvetillisen työn takana. Eniten minua vituttaakin seisoskella jonkun tavaratalon sovituskopissa, ja testata päälleni viittä eri paria housuja, jotka eivät sitten kuitenkaan välttämättä ole ollenkaan sitä, mitä etsin. Juuri housujen sovittelu päälle on äärimmäisen vittumaista hommaa, ja käsittääkseni olen parkunut keuhkoni mustiksi siitä jo lapsesta saakka. Old habits die hard.

Sitten seuraakin viihde-uutisia: minulla oli myös tarkoituksena ostaa Playstation 2, sillä olen kuullut että kohta se kolmaskin versio julkaistaan, ja täten kyseinen kakkonen voisi alkaa irtoamaan hiukan halvemmalla. Tällaisen uutisen nimittäin sain tämän kaupungin paikallisesta EB Games-pelikaupasta, joka väitti myyvänsä PS2 - konsoleita hintaan 999 kruunua. Kun menimme paikan päälle katselemaan, niin selvisikin että kaupan ikkunassa oleva tarjous oli täyttä paskaa ! Liikkeestä löytyi ainakin n. 20 laatikkoa, missä oli päällä tarroja suuresta PS2-alennuksesta, vaan kaikki laatikot olivatkin tyhjiä !! Haahahah !

Kun sitten kysyin "myyjältä" (oikeampi termi olisi varmaan ollut "seisoskelija tiskin takana") , niin tämä vain totesi, että ei heillä ollut yhtään kyseisiä konsoleita myynnissä. Ilmeisesti moinen tarjous oli sitten vain vituillakseen pystytetty ikkunaan, ja vieläpä tyhjät laatikot laitettu ympäriinsä kauppaa huijaamaan tietämättömiä. Kun sitten kysyin hieman epävarmasti sitä, että missä konsolit mahtoivat ollakaan, niin tämä juntti tiskin takana sitten vain totesi ettei niitä ollut: hän ei siis nähnyt mitään ristiriitaa siinä ETTÄ NIITÄ VITUN KONSOLEITA MAINOSTETTIIN KAIKKIALLA, MUTTA NIITÄ EI SITTEN PERKELE JUMALAUTA SAATANA EDES OLLUT MISSÄÄN ! Eipä sikäli, olen kullut kyseisestä "EB Games" - kauppa ketjusta vain huonoa, joten eipä sikäli mitenkään ihmeellistä.

Poistuin kaupasta, ja sen jälkeen vitutti taas niinkin paljon, että mikäli olisin omannut esim. raketinheittimen, niin olisin varmasti antanut mennä koko vitun piipun täydeltä moisen kaupan tiloihin pari laukausta..

For those about to rock (we salute you)

So, turns out that the ME has once again turned hot. This time, the Israelis have started to roll onto Lebanon in order to stop the terror strikes on their soil and to free those two poor guys the terrorists have kidnapped.

Anyway, I got accepted into the faculty of humanities in the University of Vaasa. This development is quite surprising for me, since I was under the impression after the entrance exams, that I had somehow messed up the first part of the test. Luckily though, I got a pretty good score out of the entrance exams, and can now call myself a student of the (big surprise) English language in the University of Vaasa Department of English.

Me getting into the University also brings some major chances in my life: first of all, I get to move the fuck out of Sipoo and start a life of my own in Western Finland. Secondly, I'll be a completely "independent unit" from now on. There will be nothing else in this world besides me and my girlfriend - my parents will stay in Sipoo.

Now though, I'm going to go and get some sleep. All this rambling has made me sleepy.

Good night.

Some additional pictures

So, here's some additional pictures that I've forgotten to post in the blog:

Here's the 3-color Desert DCU's I bought, They're almost brand new and for sale (again) too.

And here's the cheap holster I bought (Banana not included). It too, is for sale soon at very comforting prices.

The shots are of a church of some sort. Apparently it isn't that old compared i.e. to the old church of Porvoo (that got burned fairly recently), but old enough, nonetheless. Now, what I tried to do with these pictures, was to take shots from somehow unusual angles and positions. I've always been alot more interested in a specific building's corners instead of the normal "take a picture of the building from the front" - shots that so many family albums are littered with.

And here's some more pictures from midsummer's eve. Some (Finnish and Swedish) people had lit a large bonfire at a nearby sportsfield.

Went down like a log

Oh man, was I tired last night. I can honestly confess, that last night was the first time in something like two weeks, since I've been able to actually get some sleep. Most of the nights during the last weeks, I've just been up all night watching the TV. The good thing about some of the Swedish channels is, that they pretty much work like cable: you've got programs running all night.

Anyway, I've been reading more of A. Swofford's Jarhead, again. I can't say that the book's that great at all - mediocre at best with all of the pure BS and over-the-top exaggerations. At times, it rather seems like Mr. Swofford has been experiencing severe mental health problems, and has even been able to make it in the Marines on the side. The general message of the book is very clear to me: Swofford's trying to tell the outside world, how the USMC - AKA "The Suck" - traps young boys inside its' gaping bowels and turns them into mindless killers who'll do nothing more than what the government wants - for reasons they don't quite understand themselves. To me, it rather seems like Swofford's place shouldn't have been in the Marines in the first place: he should've probably joined his sister in the quiet and idyllic mental institutions he spends so much time writing about on the book.

Still, though, I'm not saying that all of his stories in the book are lies. What I'm saying is, that most of his stories have been "painted with the broad brush", giving them the similar shock value and controversial content that usually make successful books about this subject. Sometimes, though, such stories are revealed to contain holes in them: and it rather seems, that stories like these are especially appt on having them.

All in all, I consider Jarhead to be an interesting analogy of a man in the wrong place at the wrong time. Even if his physical condition (apparently) was enough to sustain the strains of war and the USMC doctrine, his mental condition surely wasn't. The book, through Swofford, also speaks of double morals: the author constantly worries about his girlfriend's possible infidelity, but it rather seems like the feeling's very much mutual - in other words, all he should be worrying about is his own faithfulness to his lover. I'll have to remark, that if all the psychological trouble and constant pressure that Swofford (supposedly) endured over there would've been transformed into actual motivation and actions instead of words, then perhaps he would've actually done something concrete instead of all that useless bitching and moaning.

My advice to anyone reading this title is, that whatever you do, don't believe even half of the stuff it's telling you. Even if the title certainly illustrates the 1991 Gulf War quite correctly from the soldier's viewpoint, by portraying the loneliness and the small-scale actions, it's still a rather questionable piece of work.

Marching orders

I watched the last remaining episodes of Lost, and have to say that I'm definately hooked on it. Hopefully the 2nd season DVD-box set will be available soon enough, since I'll be buying it faster than you can say "shipwrecked". I haven't been hooked on a series as much as I was since.. Since.. Sob.. The end of Babylon 5 several years ago !

Anyway, to tell you the truth, I think that Lost as a series, is one of the only seriously written and genuinely interesting programs at the moment. The whole plot is so freakin' twisted, that you could indeed be expecting anything. Right now though, I'm betting that it's something of a cross breed between Jurassic Park and Resident Evil.

On other news, I'll be leaving Sweden on the 29th. This time, we'll have to hop on a bus and ride it all the way to Stockholm. The reason for this is, that we can't go into a plane since I'll have to get my sleeping bag and tent out of here. If we were to go into a plane, we'd probably have to pay extra for those items. So, we picked the bus-alternative, and thus we'll be spending six hours in a notoriously hot bus full of little Swedish kiddies running around. All in all, this isn't what I wanted, but it just has to be done for the greater good - and my stuff.

We did the same thing last year too: unfortunate for me, the trip can best be described as a "hellish" ride through Southern Sweden in a boiling hot bus full of little yelling kiddies and drunken idiots. During that trip, I also remember reading Michael Moore's "Stupid White Men", and talking to this half Finnish git, who somehow assumed that I liked Turbonegro. The same guy also followed me around on the boat from Stockholm to Helsinki, and started singing some idiotic song to me. Luckily though, I didn't understand a word he said.

Last year, when we did the trip, it was also alot worse, since we had to return back to Gothenburg. We were just there to deliver the stuff, and then get back here in order to continue the vacation for a while longer. Anyway, as we came back to Stockholm from Helsinki, it was raining very hard, and we were all stuffed into this incredibly old bus with shitty seats and a dozen of screaming little kiddies. I remember having a terrible need to "go", but for some reason couldn't bring myself to stand up and release myself inside the tiny bathroom of the bus.

Anyway, I started reading Jarhead. I'm pretty disappointed so far, since if the book's message to the reader is to relay Anthony Swofford's severe frustration and the fact, that he joining the USMC was wrong - it's doing a hell of a job. If it's supposed to tell us how the Marines are hardcore motherfuckers spreading American sunshine around the world with their M16's, then it certainly fails. So far, I've had tremendous trouble on trying to understand Swofford's deeper message: it just seems like the only things he has to do is to bitch and moan about everything. However, I'll be laying down my final opinion on this title at a later date.

On a related note, I'm considering on getting Colby Buzzell's "My War - Killing Time in Iraq". It'll be interesting to read them both, and then compare their overall message and ideas.

Now though, I'll be going to bed for some quality sleep. I can finally rest easy after getting confirmation on a certain very important thing, that has been bothering me for weeks.

Good night.

Got lost !!

No joo, kirjoitellaan Suomeksi välillä.

Tänään käytiin katsastamassa lokaalin sekatavarakaupan, teknikmagasinetin, tarjontaa: päämäränä oli hankkia halpahko Swiss Armsin reisikotelo pistoolille, joka voitaisiin mahdollisimman pian myydä eteenpäin. Tämä 14 euron hintainen "holsteri" saattaa nimittäin mennä kaupaksi kotopuolessa kaupusteluni yhteydessä mahdollisesti suuremmalla hinnalla, kuin minkä siitä maksoinkaan.

Samalla kun pyörimme aivan Göteborgin keskustassa, sen rautatieaseman yhteydessä toimineen DVD:itä, musiikkia, pelejä ja T-paitoja myyneen kaupan valikoima osui tiellemme. Sattui nimittäin niin, että kauppa myi kahdenkymmenen euron hintaan Lost:in ensimmäistä kautta DVD:lle. Normaalisti tästä saisi pulittaa noin viitisenkymmentä euroa. Tämä sarja on minulle jo oikeastaan ennestäänkin tuttu tyttöystäväni kautta, joka alkoi sitä seurailemaan säännöllisesti kotona. Itse en kiireitteni johdosta ehtinyt sarjaa sen kummemmin seurailla säännöllisin ajoin, vaan katselin jaksoja aina silloin tällöin kun ehdin.

Päätinpä siis hankkia kyseisen DVD - boxin, sillä mitä luultavimmin sen katsottuani lävitse, lahjoitan sen tyttöystävälleni (mutta älkää kertoko sille - tästä pitäisi tulla yllätys !!) . Kyseinen sarja on myös maailmanlaajuisesti aika suosittu, eikä minusta se ole mitenkään liian epärealistinen tai imelä toteutukseltaankaan. Kieltämättä aion katsella jäljellä olevat kuusi DVD:tä Lostia, sillä juuri äsken sain loppuun vain pilotti-episodin 1 & 2 osien lisäksi kaksi muuta. Välillä täytyy kuitenkin nukkua - ja heittää tikkaa.

Mitä nyt kuitenkin neljä jaksoa katsottuani panin merkille, oli se että tämä sarja oli oikeasti ihan hyvin käsikirjoitettu ja jopa toteutettukin. Hahmot ovat inhimmillisiä ja epäilemättä ovat juuri sen yksilöllisen persoonansa joko muita ihastuttamaan tai vihastuttamaan. Sarja on myös sikäli ovela, että sen pilotti-episodista ei voi oikeastaan päätellä täydellisesti sitä, mitä tuleman pitää muissa osissa: Lost oikeastaan yhdistelee erilaisia genrejä yhteen, luoden ainakin minua henkilökohtaisesti kiinnostavan kokonaisuuden.

No joo, nyt sitten saa riittää moisesta sarjasta lässyttäminen: siirrytäänpä seuraavaan aiheeseen. Me nimittäin menimme kaupungilta palattuamme jälleen kerran kauppaan, jossa kävi taas aika omalaatuinen - ja sinällään onnekaskin juttu. Työntelin nimittäin ostoskärryjä pitkin kaupan lattioita, kun yhtäkkiä katsahdin alaspäin. Lattialta löytyi hyvinkin mystisellä tavalla viidenkymmenen kruunun seteli, jonka välittömästi poimin ylös ja pistin taskuuni. Täytyy myöntää, että muut ihmiset eivät sitä ilmeisestikään huomanneet, ja hetken tuntuikin että jonkinlainen pohjimmiltaan pahasuopa ja ilkikurinen henki olisi saattanut asettaa sen minun tielleni. Odotin myös, että joku mummeli olisi saattanut tulla vaatimaan seteliään takaisin jonkun purkkirivistön takaa, vaan moisessa tilanteessa olisin luultavasti vain todennut, että seteli oli nyt minun, ja että mummon kannatti pitää parempaa huolta rahoistaan ja tarkistaa taskujensa ehjyys seuraavalla kerralla. Kyseessä ei myöskään näyttänyt olevan leikkiraha.

Sääkin on muuttunut aivan ihmeellisellä tavalla taas siedettäväksi: muutama tunti sitten alkoi helvetillinen kesämyrsky, joka kyllä pisti vedetkin virtaamaan raamatullisin elkein. Olin ihan tyytyväinen siihen, että nyt sataa puolestaan vettä, eikä kuiva kuumuus näännytä minua hengiltä. Ainoa huono puoli onkin, että nyt en voi heittää tikkaa ulkona koko yötä, vaan joudun jäpittämään täällä sisällä. Plääh.

Valitettavasti en voi vieläkään postailla viime lauantain kuvia, sillä tämä paska blogi ei taas suostu niitä uploadamaan ollenkaan. Valitettavasti takaisku sinänsä, vaan ehkäpä yritämme sitten päivällä uudelleen.

Nyt aion lähteä nukkumaan, joten hyvää yötä..

The animal refuge - part deux

Last morning when we were about to go to the city, something unexpected happened again. We found this fellow sitting on the yard table:

That's right, a very friendly cat stood on the table and jumped down when it saw me. I proceeded to pat it, and it was very friendly towards me from the start. Have I mentioned, that I love cats ?

Anyway, the cat just rolled around and purred happily as I took a few more shots of it:

By all accounts, the cat was extraordinarily friendly. It probably belonged (as far as cats can "belong" to anyone) to one of the neighbours in the area. Nevertheless, it was a very nice sight to see a cat as friendly and nice looking as this one. The 20 or so cats that my girlfriend's parents place houses aren't always as nice as this one, since some of them always try to bite me (but they're little catties, and like to play around, therefore biting me). Once, a cat got its' head stuck in a catfood tin, and it ran around the yard like crazy!!

Still though, I like all the cats I've ever encountered, besides this one ugly bastard that used to beat my black kitty around six years ago. Nobody around that area liked the ugly bastard of a kitten, but its' owner always protected it by going around and yelling at people who gave his precious little kitty some trouble. I hope that fat dude's dead now - and his "lovely" cat, too !

Whenever I see cats, myself, I became somewhat melancholic. I used to have two very nice cats about six years ago, but the older black one just left us when we moved even further into the backwoods of Sipoo. The other cat, named Ernest, got ran over before my eyes when I was about thirteen. I felt very lonely those days when both of my cats had either been MIA'd or KIA'd out of my life. It was a tough time, since I was pretty new to the neighbourhood and didn't really care much for it. I still don't, actually.

My parents then got a dog. It seemed at times, that they were more happy to get rid of the cats and get a dog, than to try and make things better for the cats. Now, sure, I don't hate dogs at all- but the fact still is, that I've lived among cats most of my time, and thus their influence on me has stuck. I don't hate dogs at all (have to say it again), but the individuality of cats fascinates me. They're alot more human than dogs, who need masters in order to be able to survive. I believe that the saying which dictates, that "dogs have masters, but cats have staff", is true for the most part. Perhaps the cat considers you more as a piece of furniture than the supreme commander of its' life. Dogs on the other hand, follow very strict rules and orders for their existence.

Well, I think I'll call it a day at this point. There's still to more posts I have to do today, but right now I'm going to go outside and play a few games of darts !

Bye !!

Pulling the night shift

As I woke up yesterday, I had a real bad craving for three things: Tabasco, instant coffee and M&M's. I can't really tell you why, but I guess that the MRE review I wrote yesterday had something to do with it. I really needed some of that Tabasco-sauce, and fast.

Since it was saturday, we went into the city to for some general exploring and buying of needed things: all in all the trip was well worth the trouble. This French dude, who holds an outrageously expensive store with all sorts of military surplus material, was (of all things) having a discount sale. Now, last year we bought a set of French CCE - fatigues from this dude, and we were basically ripped off. I swore never to return, but Pierre certainly knew how to get into my soft side this time too. Now, he had organized a discount sale in his store, with every price being cut to half from its' original price tag: every clothing rack was layered with notes saying that since his store was about to close for good, all had to go - and for a good price too.

We searched the racks for awhile, when Pierre saw me again: he certainly remembered me from last year, and he came to talk to us. He saw me fondling the US 3-color desert DCU's, and he started raving about how they were so cheap and wonderful - and you could only get them in ripstop for this specific offer. To tell you the truth, the 3-color DCU's were in excellent condition, and they had been hardly touched. Since most of them were made out of the more expensive 50% Cotton/ 50% Nylon Ripstop fabric, I decided that for the price of 50 Euros, a set was going to be mine. Who knows, I might actually be able to sell this with a good price back home at one time or the other.

So, we tried the DCU jacket and the trousers on, and then paid Pierre and left again. He practically begged us to buy the set, and luckily this one wasn't too badly worn either - it was new and manufactured out of freakin' ripstop ! What a find ! I could actually sense from the last time, that Pierre and his little business in this material wasn't going to last too long: he had pretty much the same sort of stuff as the official surplus dealers do, and sometimes with alot more hefty price tags on them. So, I guess that Pierre's business going belly-up like this wasn't much of a surprise, since nobody would be interested of buying overpriced army surplus like this anyway.

To tell you the truth, we actually set out to buy regular clothes, not these cammies. We were originally looking for some trousers, but since we didn't find the kinds we were looking for, we just bought a few more T-shirts for 9 euros. We also ran into a youth orchestra of some sorts, which I'll be covering with details and pictures in my next post. I also took a few dramatic pictures of a nearby church. We also bought a dart board for those pesky dart games in the summer heat.

After concluding our business downtown, we went back home and did a short tour at the grocery store: I bought all the things I had badly craved for along with some other stuff. Then we returned to the house, and I started playing around with the dart board. We also ate some killer liver steaks with the proper sauce + potatoes , and then continued throwing the darts. My girlfriend send me an SMS, informing me that she'd be going to the lake for a short swim.

As the night fell, I decided to keep on throwing darts: afterall, that was the most exhilatering activity I've had for the past two weeks, so I kinda feel instantly motivated on doing it when you get the chance. After an hour of throwing the darts on the board, I felt the need for the instant coffee. I boiled some water while listening to some random, less familiar song from Dee Dee Snider and his band of merry 80's Glam rockers from my MP3-player. You know, to tell you the truth, I'm kinda surprised that of all possible things, I suddenly felt the need to drink (instant)coffee. The reason for my amazement is, that me and coffee haven't exactly gotten along in the past. I remember the horrific event from something like three or four years ago, which pretty much cut my relationship with coffee to shreds.

It all went down like this: it was a nice winter morning during some generic winter holiday, when I had been up all night, probably playing games or something. Since I needed to stay awake, I drank a whole pot of fresh coffee. Since the coffaine kept me up and running, I felt pretty odd from all that sudden energy, but continued on anyway. At some point, I went outside and walked into our garage where the car was being kept (for an unknown reason). However, as I exited the garage, I also hit my head real freakin' hard on the ceiling of the garage, which was way too low for me. The ensuing pain was freakin' gigantic, and I'm pretty sure that I had a mild concussion or something , since there was quite a bit of force used in our little "meeting" with the ceiling.

So, I quickly rushed inside the house, and the extra energy transmitted to my body via the coffee suddenly betrayed me: somehow the energetic feeling added to the horrible pain in my head and made me puke. For the remainder of the holiday, two days tops, I remained in the bed while screaming for mercy from the horrible headaches. As I slowly returned back to reality, I swore never to drink coffee again. And that promise held for four years.

As I sipped on the coffee while sitting on the bench in the yard, I remembered the whole winter holiday and the infamous "Coffee Incident" that came with it. It's kinda funny though, how a person is willing to try the same stuff again after given time to atone. Even if you swore under heavy pain and sorrow, that you'd never touch the shit again, you suddenly find yourself boiling hot water into the cup in order to drink instant coffee again. Funny how "what comes around, goes around" applies to my life too - this way.

Around 1 o'clock AM it started raining real hard: thank whoever's responsible for that. We finally got proper rain here, since the entire climate was starting to resemble Sahara or Arizona with the 30 degrees celcius rates. I can't remember when was the last time I actually was able to sleep well: seems like for the past weeks it's been nothing but suffocating dry heat, that made you constantly sweat even indoors and made standing in the sun almost impossible. Finally the weather's going to cool off. Hooray for that.. And, as a buddy of mine said once: "thank god for small favors". He is an atheist though, but the saying sure does hit the spot.

I'm going to get some sleep now, but I'll write some stuff about that Gothenburg Youth Orchestra that we ran across yesterday. For now though, you potential readers out there, try to get some sleep too ! All these clear nights with lots of light and warmth can mess with your head !!

The great MRE - taste test !!

This post is going to be a definitive review of the MRE (Meal Ready to Eat) - operational rations issued to fighting men and women of the U.S. Military.

First off , here's some links covering the MRE's as a whole:

MRE Info

Wikipedia's entry on MRE's

Olive Drab.com's article


Now, as you know, MRE's are increasingly harder to get even inside the US these days, since their prices have risen due to various foreign and domestic crises of America. The second factor that has made MRE's pretty hard to find is, that the military strongly prohibits commercial sales of the MRE packages. Sometimes, though, MRE's end on commercial markets for sale (mainly E-Bay etc.), and civilian personnel are able to gain access to them. Apparently just this year the US Department of Defence has tried to limit the sales of MRE's on civilian market, but currently I have no info on how this crusade's going. I managed to buy a few off from a certain internet auction - site some time ago, and all in all the place didn't exactly ask extremely high prices of them. Then again, the seller told me that he had personally bought them off from some guy in the US 3rd Infantry Division while he was on tour.

As for the contents of the basic "Meal-Ready-To-Eat Individual" - package, here's a very illustrative picture I took from the contents of menu 21:

As you can see, the main dish in this specific menu is Chicken Tetrazzini, and the ration package is marked with the number "21". The main course is supposed to be warmed with the MRE heater bag, which relies on a chemical reaction with added water to heat the entry: simply put, you just add some water into the bag and throw the main dish package inside it to get hot food in a few moments. All the other stuff can be eaten "as is", or then you might need water i.e. for the drinks.

The little package inside the MRE, which I named as "the little bag of goodies", contains the following (and I'm sorry for the completely idiotic placement of the picture, but the software won't place it on "center", as I'd like) :

The contents of this specific bag may vary. For an example, I've heard that the newer MRE goodie bags also have instant coffee in them. So far, though, I haven't come across any instant coffee bags.

But, in order to move into the actual review of this product, I'll start reviewing the various food articles located in it:

The main course: Chicken Tetrazzini

First of all, I'll have to admit that I ate this one the last. I didn't have any idea what this Chicken Tetrazzini was, and since it sounded Italian, I expected something with Pasta in it. As I placed it inside the heater bag and poured in the water, the larger-than-life chemical reaction instantly started ! I remember reading from several sources, that it was only supposed to take fifteen minutes to get "very hot" food with this heater bag, but reality was a bit more bitter. It actually took close to 30 minutes to get it hot enough for consumption.

As I had a taste, this Tetrazzini made out of chicken tasted pretty good: it was compromised of (naturally) chicken, some sorts of Macaroni's and vegetables. It didn't taste bad at all.

Filled Pretzels, Nacho Cheese

Which "part" of the entire meal were these supposed to be ? I'm thinking, that they were some sorts of snacks, but then again I can't be that sure.

Anyway, these little "Pretzels" were made out of bread and cheese: they pretty much tasted the way they were supposed to. They were crunchy too ! Apparently the little pretzel had some sort of liquid cheese-brand inside it, but the overall "cheesyness" of the entire pastry pretty much absorbed it. They were good, though.

Cocoa Bewerage Powder

This one was the first thing I tasted: first with water (yuck) and then properly mixed with milk. I'll have to say though, that the powder sure was bitter in taste, and mixed with plain simple water it wasn't much of treat. I'm sure that MRE Cocoa powder mixed with water is pretty close to the taste of muddy water - although I can't be sure ! With milk, though, it was a completely different story.

So, this bewerage powder has to be mixed with milk in order for it to be enjoyable enough. If mixed with water, you might as well as drink water from a muddy gutter. I'm personally accustomed to cocoa powders with more sugar in them, but this one certainly had more cocoa in it without the smooth chocolate taste of the civilian stuff I've been drinking in the past.

Iced Tea Drink Mix (Lemon)

This one was the best drink of the entire pack. It's basically just normal ice tea with lemon-flavor. You just mix it in the water, shake well, add some ice - and you're done !

Spiced Cider Instant Apple Flavor Drink Mix

As if the name wouldn't have been long enough, the story behind this one sure was odd: the label on the back stated, that it had to be mixed into hot water. Now, who the hell drinks hot cider ?! Apparently the Americans do, since they've manufactured such oddities into their MRE's. For awhile, a genuine thought of bewilderment towards the instructions to use hot water for the job clouded my mind.

Anyway, I did what the label asked for, and emptied the contents into a glass full of boiled water. I have to say, that the ensuing hot cider drink truly did taste like cider - only it was hot and I'm accustomed to drinking it cold ! This one also had enough sugar in it. It wasn't bad at all, I'm just not accustomed to these sorts of hot ciders.

Chewing Gum

Some of the stories I've heard concerning the MRE chewing gum are just plain nasty. Apparently the gum gives you the shakes, the Heebie-Jeebies and a dozen other wacky intestinal problems. In some stories, this one is supposed to make you crap your pants and in others, it just won't exit the natural way.

In my case, the MRE gum was as normal as the stuff you could buy from the stores. Nothing wrong with it, and it also sticks into benches the same way as normal civilian gum does.

The small bottle of Tabasco

Goddamn, almighty !

The bottle of Tabasco is certainly one of the most useful items in the whole package: it spices up your food, and there's an adequate amount of it too in the small bottle. They should really make a bigger bottle of this stuff with every MRE, since it makes everything you put it on taste hot n' spicy !! Madre de Dios !!

Matches

Just normal matches in a little package. Nothing to report, sir.

Soft Chocolate cake/cookie

This one was a pretty good article of food too. It wasn't too dry and it was certainly soft too: certainly a pleasure to eat.

M&M's

You know, I hope that these little packs of M&M's reach every soldier on the battlefield via the MRE. They're little colorful drops of candy (as you know), and they taste good ! It's identical to the civilian stuff, naturally, but candy like this which tastes good and makes you happy in a cross fire with its' cheery colors deserves to be distributed as far as possible.

Now, I don't know about you, but I'd be very happy to recieve a pack of these during a mission.

The MRE spoon

The MRE spoon that comes with the package is handy in so many ways. First of all, it has been manufactured out of extremely sturdy plastic, so it won't break that easily. It is also small and you can probably re-use it, since that's what I did, at least !

Every morning afterwards, I've eaten my cerials with this great spoon manufactured out of pure military craftsmanship ! You should save yours too !

The final verdict: These things are great ! The MRE is pure magnificance ! The food in menu #21 was great, although these military rations naturally do include a much higher calory content than normal civilian food. Nevertheless I found the food to be excellent for my personal tastes, and would gladly eat more MRE's if they were made more easily available for us foreign civilians. Now, I'm sure that your neighbourhood restaurant might serve much better food, but for a guy like me, this stuff was pure manna from the sky. Granted, I do settle for very little, and thus my taste buds aren't exactly configured for the extreme, microscopic scans of the food's quality. I won't complain about food as basic as this. There's really nothing wrong with it, and the servicemen and women complaining over the quality should probably be left out of the food loop for a while - then they'd be able to appreciate stuff like this - even if, granted, it isn't the most healthy stuff out there.

These MRE's are great for any and all activities outdoors. You should always take a few with you for some extreme camping, hunting, bird watching etc. stuff.

The only bad thing I have to say, though, is of the heater bag: despite what the instructions on the bag stated, it does take alot longer than fifteen minutes to heat the food for optimal consumption temperatures. You'll have to keep the main course in the bag for at least 30-45 minutes in order for it to be warm enough. Now, I don't know about other experiences concerning the heaters, but at least around here it takes considerably more than fifteen minutes to make it hot !

Any comments or questions over my review are (more than) welcome !

The graceful Bamboo

Sää on taas älyttömän kuuma, eikä nukkumisesta ole loppujen lopuksi mitään hyötyä, sillä uni ei vaan tule tässä trooppisessa helvetissä. Tällä hetkellä olotilaani voisi kaiketi kuvailla hyvin samanlaiseksi kun Ace Venturan, tuon epämääräisen "lemmikki-etsivän", joka hikoili itsensä lähes kuoliaaksi sarjan toisessa osassa sarvikuono-puvun sisässä. Toisin sanoen, on todella lähellä etten kohta kirjoittele näitä postauksia täysin alastomana.

Huomenna pitäisi varmaan taas lähteä lauantain kunniaksi käymään jossakin. Emme ole vielä sen kummemmin paikkaa päättäneet, kunhan vain alustavasti ollaan päätetty jonnekin menevämme. Tyttöystävänikin siirsi suurimman osan maallisesta omaisuudesta uuteen asuntoonsa - jossa on kuulemma virallisten tietojen mukaan söpö ja pieni hattuhyllykin. Tämä on sikäli hyvä käänne, että sen kautta on mahdollista ostaa se harvinaisen tyylikäs ja musta miesten hattu Kauhavan halpahallista.

Noh, vaihdetaanpa sitten aihetta: haluan nimittäin kertoa teille eräästä tapahtumasta, joka jälleen asetti minut harvinaisen paskamaisten tyyppien alaisuuteen viime viikolla. Sattui nimittäin olemaan niin, että kävimme tässä lähellä sijaitsevassa kauppakeskuksessa hieman ostoksilla - puhtaasti elintarvikkeiden merkeissä. Palaillessamme takaisin, kävelimme hiukan isomman bussilaiturin ohitse, jossa tietenkin sitten parveili vaikka minkälaisia ihmisiä. Jo kaukaa kykenin erottamaan todella rähjäisen, vähintäänkin ojasta nousseen näköisen vanhan papparaisen. Tuo ilmestys pisti silmään sikäli, että moinen käppänä oli pukeutunut punaiseen ruutupaitaan ja omasi ällöttävän pälvikaljun takana kasvavan kiharan tukan. Jollain ihmeen tavalla vaistosin jo kaukaa, että tämä tyyppi oli "nothing but trouble".

Kun mies sitten alkoi ohittamaan meitä, niin yhtäkkiä tapahtui mitä odottamatonta: tämä vanha pappa alkoi haukkumaan ja äyskähtelemään minua kohti kuin mikäkin vesikauhuinen rakki. Samalla tämä eksoottinen pälvikalju-pappa alkoi myös osoittelemaan minua, ja äyskähteli minua kohti kuin mikäkin eläin. Kieltämättä tämän papparaisen odottamaton veto tuli minulle täysin yllätyksenä, joten peräännyin moista ulvojaa. Tämän jälkeen kun ukko jatkoi, niin minäkin laukaisin suustani hiukan Suomalaisittain tunnistettavia kirosanoja ja uhkauksia. Mikäli tuo mielisairas pappa olisi tullut vielä lähemmäs ja alkanut vaikka sohimaan ympäriinsä, olisin varmaan pyrkinyt kaatamaan moisen hampaattoman ukkelin katuun. Moisesta syöpäläisestä olisi voinut vaikka saada vesikauhun - tai vaikka hyppykupan mikäli se olisi päässyt puraisemaan tai muuten käpälöimään.

Mies jatkoi ulvomistaan ja haukahtelua vielä kun kävelimme pois, ja huusin hänen peräänsä suomeksi kaikenlaisia hävyttömyyksiä - sinällään kuitenkin hyvinkin tehoton idea. Pohdin itsekseni paluumatkalla sitä, että mahtoikohan moisen papan ärjyntä lopulta tarkoittaa yhtään mitään. Luultavimmin tuo hampaaton kääpä oli vain jotenkin nk. "saanut hepulin" juuri minun kohdallani, ja päättänyt sitten pitää hiukan hauskaa ja osoitella minua kohti muitten nähden. Kaipa se oli ollu pohjimmiltaan vain halukas nolaamaan jonkun viattoman ohikulkijan. Hetken jopa epäilin, että kun kerran tämä sekopää oli näyttänyt arabilta, niin hän saattoi mahdollisesti ladella päälleni ruokottomuuksia vääräuskoisuudesta tai kutsua minua "jenkkisiaksi".

Oikeastaan nyt kun miettiin, niin olen kyllä pohjimmiltaan aika helvetin altis kaikenlaisten sekopäiden seuralla. Milloin ikinä tilaisuus tarjoutuukaan, niin yleensä se kaikista kummin tyyppi tulee ja alkaa puhumaan minulle. Kenties näytän sellaiselta, jolle on helppo yrittää tehdä jotain jäynää tai muuten vain purkaa sekaista päätään muiden ihmisten purjehtiessa eteenpäin. Muistan kerran seisoneeni Porvoon bussiasemalla joskus lukion ensimmäisellä, jolloin täysin huumeriippuvaiselta näyttävä tyyppi ilmaantui puhumaan minulle. Tämä tyyppi oli taas aivan täysin "wasted", ja ilmeisesti pyrki kotiinsa tai jonnekin. Hän sitten tärisi vieressäni ja silmät olivat vähintäänkin teevadin kokoiset: yhdessä vaiheessa hän sitten kysäisi, että olinko mahdollisesti huumepoliisista ja olinko tullut pidättämään hänet. Totesinkin, että kenties minun olisi hänen tilassaan kannattanut olla.

Onhan näitä sekopäitä nähty, joo. Viime talvella palaillessani historian luennoilta, eteeni sattui parrakas vahvasti vanhalta viinalta haiseva törkykasa. Tyyppi sitten kerjäsi minulta rahaa jonnekin hoitolaitokseen pääsyyn, ja todetessani että mitään takuita ei ollut sille että rahat menisivät juuri siihen tarkoitukseen, hän loi minuun aivan infernaalisen jäädyttävän katseen ! Uskonpa, että kyseessä taisi olla nk. "katse joka olisi voinut tappaa", sanonnan mukaisesti. Muutaman päivän päästä näin saman tyypin jälleen kerran parveilevan tuon bussiaseman lähettyvillä rahaa kerjäten.

Ottaa kyllä nykyisin päähän olla kaikenlaisten sekoboltsien huomion kohteena. Olenkin viime aikoina vain kylmästi aurannut tieni lävitse moisten tyhjäpäitten seurasta, ja todennut kauniisti heidän seuransa haisevan. Se on kieltämättä aika vapauttavaa. Ja nämä sekopääthän voisivat hyvin vaikka keskustella itsensä kanssa, sillä juuri siellä omassa pääkopassaan luulisi olevan tilaa myös muutamalle äänelle, joiden kanssa käydä haparoivia keskusteluja.

Plans of future actions

So, Blogger decided to crash again. For no apparent reason, I had trouble for something like 45 minutes on trying to publish my latest entry. At first it just gave a bunch of messages describing various errors, but nevertheless decided to publish the post (??!!). Now everything seems to be running adequately enough , though.

So, I thought that this post might serve as a little reminder of the things to come on my latest entries. First of all, there's going to be a food article: however, knowing me, it won't be a traditional "how to prepare the best Lasagne and mom's apple pie" - story. Instead, we're going to do "something completely different". And, to top things off, there's definately going to be pictures of the things that I mean.

I'm going to write another entry soon enough, since right now I'm too hyped up on night air and cheap soft drinks to be able to concentrate too much. I shall, however, tell you that I'm as homesick and bored as ever. So, until the next post..

"You all have a good one"..

A nightly surprise

So there I was again, sitting in the yard after another meaningless hot day in this land of confusion. The nightly breeze was surprisingly cold, and I was beginning to feel a bit sleepy too.

I walked out of the yard, and went to the small field situated near the yard, when I saw something peculiar: a little dark figure was creeping along the ground. It didn't take me very long to understand, that the figure we were dealing with was a little hedgehog. Unfortunately, it was way too scared of a big bad human to come closer - thus it fled in panic while I went inside to grab the camera. When I returned, however, the little fellow had already ran away.

A bit disappointed due to my slowness, I returned back to the yard. I just stood there in the darkness with my camera on my other hand. All of a sudden, I heard a faint rattling sounds coming from something real close. The hedgehog had creeped in our yard ! I jumped up, and like a good Japanese tourist, I proceeded to snap great shots of the little fellow as it ran around the yard with me in hot pursuit:














The little hedgehog, whom I named Ziggy, sure knew how to run around the yard and evade my terrific shots!











As I ran behind it, Ziggy systematically started to retreat towards the fence on the back. The poor thing sure was scared. Hope you can find it (Ziggy, the hedgehog) from the picture, still.



Finally, Ziggy was cornered ! Oh, how will our fearless hedgehog escape ?!? By..



Digging through the fence, of course ! Ziggy just managed to pull itself through the small openings on the fence, while I hysterically tried to "snap a few good ones" of it. Unfortunate for me, Ziggy escaped and my shots weren't all that commendable. After getting through the fence, Ziggy returned to the same little field in front of the yard.



I followed Ziggy around, and thus managed to get the best picture of it from the whole collection. This one's a pretty nice shot, even if I do say so myself, since it illustrates that Ziggy is infact a fully grown, adult hedgehog.

There goes Ziggy again.. It pretty much made these funny Zig-Zag patterns while trying to evade me and my ever-present camera flash. This picture along with the one I posted here earlier, shows that Ziggy's a pretty health and big Hedgehoggie.




Ziggy's backside fully illustrated, even if a bit non-illuminated.



This badly illuminated shot can reveal Ziggy to us in only one way: one of Ziggy's eyes is glowing brightly in the darkness on this one. This is also the last shot worth showing to the general public, since most of the other pictures did not succeed that well at all. All in all, we can conclude, that Ziggy disappeared into the darkness after this. Hope he comes back some night, though.

Midnight on the firing line (my thoughts on North Korea)

It seems like I'm not exactly the only guy out there sweating out of fear.

Turns out, that the Northern Koreans have finally managed to get their long-range Taepodong-2 missiles working. These things could, potentially, reach the western coast of the US and annihilate millions of people with their nuclear warheads. The missile test they conducted today wasn't exactly a success, since one of the missiles apparently malfunctioned somehow and exploded in mid-air.

Many people probably gloat over the DPRK failure, but I bet that some of them also fail to see the bigger picture: North Korea now has the capability to produce, and probably has produced, missiles intended to hit targets located even farther away than before. These things could, in theory, hit targets in the US soil now - not to mention Japan and Southern-Korea. So the way I see it, is that alot of nations are going to be falling under the DPRK's nuclear reach even more than before , and potentially Kim Jong Il could use these weapons if pushed against the wall.

I think that anybody even mad enough to threaten others with nuclear weapons should be considered absolutely and 100 % "for real". These are the sorts of doomsday weapons, that could indeed trigger a worldwide holocaust if used carelessly. So, a person like Kim Jong Il and his Stalinist military junta, should be considered extremely dangerous at this time, and their notifications of meaning business should be answered with similar responses. Nuclear blackmail, in essence, is one of the most ultimate ways to bind your enemy - but it also seems to be the ultimate way to get yourself eliminated in the process as well.

So then, what to do ? A large-scale military campaign like the Korean War of the 50's is completely out of the question: the United States, currently involved in the Middle-East, couldn't support such a war in the Korean peninsula without having to abandon its' former commitments. Most of the European powers are currently unwilling to take a stand on the DPRK - issue, mainly because a potential crisis wouldn't really concern them directly: thus the only sizable force, the US, would be the one who would have the be involved in it. I doubt, however, that the Pentagon planners (even under Bush) are considering a full-blown military campaign against the north: such a campaign could be very costly in several ways, both militarily and in a humanitarian viewpoint, that I'm willing to bet that it has been ruled out. It just isn't possibly to execute at this time - too many other situations to solve.

Negotiations are always a viable solution: however, with the DRPK's case, negotiations wouldn't be the the final guarantee for a peaceful solution. The DPRK might settle for the "non-aggression treaty" with the US (which they have been proposing) , or then it might just continue its' old ways while having succeeded in humiliating the US. I'm quite confident, that Kim Jong Il himself has some sort of a Napoleon Complex, that in turn reflects upon the DPRK's foreign policy decisions too. This way, the state thinks that in order for it to continue existing as a Neo-Communist state in seclusion, it has to act tough for its' neighbours and even pick up fights with the biggest and baddest boy on the block, the United States of America.

I see North-Korea as a dying nation: its' ways and ideals have been dead since the 1990's fall of Communism and the overall downfall of the Marxist-Leninist ideals. However, I'm sure that Kim Jong Il either knows these facts very well but despite it tries to keep his power base intact - or then he is living in his own little world of dreams much like Hitler did. Either way, the guy is very dangerous and quite possibly even owns nuclear weapons by now.

Sometimes, these sorts of leaders fall due to the efforts of their own people: in this case, however, Kim Jong Il's police state has guaranteed his dominion in the most devious way. The state media and the entire society in the DPRK has been only constructed to serve "the sun of the 21st century", thus making the monitoring of the citizens quite easy to accomplish. The citizens are only miniature cogs in a large machine producing wealth and material to the personal treasury of Kim Jong Il. The manufacturing of weapons and defence material, naturally, is the lifeblood of the DPRK industry.

There's been debate about opening up the possibility of waiting for the North Korean society to fall on its' own: many humanitarians argue, however, that waiting for such a fall to happen, would mean the deaths of thousands, even millions of North Korean civilians mainly due to starvation and totalitarian rule over the years. The civilian population in the DPRK hasn't been given any possibilities to revolt: the army controls the guns and the people are just peasants and simple manpower for the industrial machine. Due to this situation, ways of somehow eliminating Kin Jong Il and/or making a change from the inside is quite hard, even impossible. By this observation, it would seem, that somehow from the DPRK military would have to make the change, and ultimately understand the futility of the entire "Juche" - ideology. All of this is wishful thinking, of course, but in the end it is also all what it comes down to: can the North Korean military, as a miniature society, somehow conspire against their great leader, and make a change from the inside ? I would see the DPRK military to be the only real faction of the North Korean society as capable of somehow removing Kim Jong Il and changing things, since the civilian population is unable to do so due to severe restrictions on personal freedoms.

Perhaps the winds of rebellion might start to blow in the DPRK if the whole trouble with starvation continues. Even if Kim Jong Il keeps his army in top shape, he also must know that keeping it happy and content is also of highest priority: that's also why the military eats the best in the entire society, second only to the highest members of the DPRK political party.

Only time will tell how the DPRK will end up. One thing is certain, however: in order for it to survive, it has to change dramatically - both externally and internally. The North Korean society seems to be at peace for the moment, but in the future as the DPRK alienates itself even more from the western countries and its' own people, its' fall might be as sudden as the end of the Soviet Union during the early 1990's.

See that jarhead ? It's me

The way I see it, is that I've been here for almost two weeks now, and it's starting to be quite boring.

You've got your noisy neighbours, deep screeching sounds and the usual hassle of the city: but what you don't have, is something to do.

I've been really bored lately: my daily routine kinda reminds me of my days back home. You've got nothing else to do, besides watching the television and waiting for each day to end and a new one to begin. It really starts getting to you after awhile. And maybe, just maybe, it'll get you too. My daily routines consist of laying in the sun and reading books: a few weeks ago I started this historical bible-sized book of "epic proportions" from Jared Diamond, called Guns , Germs and Steel. And as I stated before, it's one hell of a book in both the size and content: you've got the rise and fall of the European and Native-American civilizations explained along with very well explained theories on why the African culture in particular didn't get to rule over us whites millions of years ago.

All in all, it's one of those "just the facts, ma'am" - books, that deliver all the concerete hard facts along with the interest level of a stone dry carcass. So all in all, you're certainly required to be in the "right mood" to be able to enjoy it - in fact you've got to have the right state of mind to be able to pick it up and have a go in the first place.

Anyway, alot of soft drinks are downed here every day too. Last year I started building a huge tower out of the Coke, Sprite and Fanta cans that I had emptied. Now though, I'm building another tower for the sole purpose of throwing rocks at it so I'll have something to do.

Like I told you before: I'm bored as hell here. I wish I'd have darts here, I'd probably throw them around all day long - and the night too, I guess. Afterall, I've got nowhere to go and the time, unfortunately, is plenty.

I'm thinking of going someplace else the next vacation: afterall this place is starting to grow a bit boring after seeing it for something like fifteen years. I'm thinking about Lapland for the next vacation spot, mainly because it is new and strange for me. My girlfriend's been there a few times, and she tells me that in this one specific place over there, the hotel and accomodations are really cheap. Apparently you get a fully outfitted room with TV's, microwaves, DVD - players, fridges etc. for something like fifty euros a night. You can't beat that, even if the local supermarkets only sell food products made out of reindeer meat.

The night's dark again: the creepy voices and that warm hot air of summer nights confronts me out there. I'll go sit in the yard again, hopefully it'll be quiet again while I listen to my MP3 - player..

Hot days and warm nights

Ei saa taas millään nukuttua kuumuuden takia.

Tänään varjossa oli melkein 28 astetta iltapäivällä, puhumattakaan siitä, mitä lämpömittari taisi näyttää sitten täydessä porotuksessa. Säät ovat kieltämättä älyttömän lämpimiä ja yöt samalla mitalla "hikisiä" lakanoiden liimautuessa nukkujaan kiinni. Believe me, I know.

Nukkumisesta ei oikeastaan viime yönä tullut taaskaan mitään, ja heräsin aamulla (jo) yhdentoista aikoihin. Sen jälkeen lähdimme käymään paikallisessa Germaanien uutta Euroopan ylivaltaa korostavassa Lidlissä, jossa huomasimme "sinisessä purkissa myydyn jäätelön" olleen vihdoinkin saatavilla. Lidlissä myytiin myös räpylöitä uimiseen, joiden hankintaa punnitsin muutaman hetken. Nämä Lidlin räpylät ovat ainakin tyttöystäväni mukaan parhaimpia mitä hän on toistaiseksi käyttänyt kolmen parin jälkeen, joten onhan niiden väkisinkin oltava sitten sentään edes hiukan laadukkaita. Hankintoihin erikoistunut kommissi(oni) parhaillaan punnitseekin mahdollisuutta niiden hankintaan.

Kävimme myös viime lauantaina mm. armeijan ylijäämäkamoja sekä muuta militariaa myyvässä Kvibergin "överskottlagret:issa". Muutamana edellisenäkin vuotena olemme siellä vierailleet, vaan yleensä hintataso on ollut ikävän kova verrattuna maan yleisesti halpaan hintatasoon ja tavaran laatuun. Viime vuonna kyseinen paikka ei mitään kovinkaan uutta ollut saanut hankittua, mutta tällä kertaa sieltä löytyi sentään jotain: ostin Norjan asevoimain käytöstä poistuten ja maastokuviolla varustetun takin. Vaikka olenkin vannonut vähentäväni armeijakamaa kaapeistani, niin tällä hetkellä uskoisin omaavani oikeuden ostaa kuitenkin yhden pukineen lisää hyvinkin tyhjään kaappiini kotopuolessa.

Huvittavinta oikeastaan olikin juuri tämän Kvibergin kaupan kassalla tavaroiden maksaminen: kassalla seisoskellyt älyttömän ylipainoinen Ruotsalainen mies, ilmeisesti "Herr Kviberg" itse, sai aikaiseksi pieniä ongelmia takin maksamisen kanssa. Tätä ennen olimme huomanneet, että moisella äijällä oli niin valtavan iso maha, että se pursusi T-paidan (wtf?) alta, vaan se on tietenkin sivuseikka. Noh, maksaessamme takkia kyseinen tyyppi näki ilmeisesti sen äärettömän halvassa hinnassa jonkin epäkohdan, ja sanoi menevänsä tarkistamaan sen hinnan jostain takahuoneen luetteloista. Odoteltuamme hetken tämä paksukainen palasi kassalle, ja totesi sitten että ei löytänyt sen hintaa mistään. Totesimme ukolle, että kaikissa takeissa oli ollut tuo sama hinta vaikka tästä hintalappu puuttuikin. Herr Kviberg ei kuitenkaan uskonut meitä, vaan hetken selaili jotakin luetteloaan ja kutsui paikalle eksoottisennäköisen apulaisensa. Tämä joko Sri Lankasta tai jostain Bengalin takamailta ilmestynyt tyyppi ilmoitti paksukaiselle kevyesti, että moinen takki maksoi tietenkin neljä kertaa enemmän kuin mitä me olimme sanoneet. Tämän jälkeen sanoinkin tyypille, että en suostuisi maksamaan kyseisestä takista sitä hintaa, sillä yläkerrassa sijainneilla takeilla oli kaikilla tuo sama hinta. Herr Kviberg mulkaisi meitä vihaisesti, ja kysyi vielä varmistaakseen että olivatko nämä samoja takkeja. Totesimme sitten yhteen ääneen moiselle herralle, että menisi sitten vaikka yläkertaan katsomaan oikean hinnan mikäli sitä ei kassalta löytäisi: selvästi tämä kehoitus oli meidän puoleltamme aivan väärälle henkilölle suunnattu, sillä hänelle portaiden kautta ylempään kerrokseen kiipeäminen oli vähintäänkin ainakin vatsan koon perusteella samanlainen tehtävä kuin esimerkiksi kamelin työntäminen neulansilmän lävitse. Vihaisesti tuo äijä sitten naputteli meidän hintamme kassakoneeseen ja sen jälkeen lähdimme pois.

Otin muuten kaupan pihalla sijainneista armeijan ajoneuvoistakin kuvia: paikalla oli jopa sadanviiden millimetrin kenttätykki. Valitettavasti kuitenkin kuvat eivät onnistuneet niinkään hyvin, sillä huomasin tämän koevedoksen jälkeen, että salamaa on käytettävä ulko-olosuhteissa kuvatessa - muussa tapauksessa kuvista tulee surrealistisen sinisiä. Pahoittelen tapahtunutta.

Oikeastaan tulin tänne sisälle vain kirjoittamaan tämän postauksen: kuuntelin pihamaalla istuskellessani harvinaista herkkua: yöllisen kaupungin ääniä. Oikeastaan kaupungin erittämä äänisaaste suhteellisen hiljaisen maalaismaiseman desibelitasoon verrattuna on huomattava: kaupungin yössä kuuluu vaikka mitä pärinää, porinaa, apinoiden mukellusta muistuttavaa örinää, autojen ääniä, ääretöntä kirkumista, hysteeristä naurua sekä välillä äärimmäisen tukahdettujakin ääniä. Kaiken perusteella kaupunki on siis - ja jopa minunkin kokemuksillani - vain eräänlainen ihmisen kehittämä (asvaltti)viidakko, jonka ominaisääninä tunnetut ajoneuvojen ja suurempien väestönosien ihmiselämän äänet ovat yhtä luonnollisia ympäristölleen kuin vaikkapa Kaakkois-Aasian viidakoiden apinoiden tai muun yöllisen elämän kirkuminen ja parahdukset. Urbaani ympäristö on siis yhtälailla luonnollinen ympäristö, vaikkakin kieltämättä kehitetty ja keinotekoinen.

Join ulkona myös teetä, ja toisinaan kuuntelin myös musaa MP3 - soittimesta: nyt erityisesti Red Hot Chili Peppers on kova sana. Ja siinäpä oikeastaan näette, että kykenen aivan hyvin kuuntelemaan myös Funkia ainaisen raskaamman tai kevyemmän rokin sijaan. Vaikka, kieltämättä, Funk on minun terminologiani mukaan sitä kevyemmän ja raskaamman rokin välimaastoa, joka voi potentiaalisesti eksyä ihan kummalle puolelle kumpaa tahansa genreä. Se riippuu siis esittäjän, ja tässä tapauksessa RHCP:n, ideoimasta musiikista. Lopuksi todettakoon, että en ole kuunnellut Stadium Arcadiumia vielä, mutta kieltämättä aion sen jostain jotenkin hankkia - ja tanssahdella sen tahtiin ! Haahahaha !

Noh.. Yö alkaa nyt vasta kunnolla iskemään täälläkin päälle. Ulkona on pilkkopimeää, ja taidanpa sukeltaa sen syvyyksiin vielä kerran. Taidanpa palata sen syliin kuuntelemaan sen ääniä ja haistelemaan oikean suurkaupungin industrialistista pako- ja ponnekaasujen sekoittamaa usvaa.

Haluan todeta loppuun vielä muutaman asian:

Ihanalle tyttöystävälleni: sleep tight, sweetie !



And for the rest of you lurkers:


Good night, wherever you are !