Category Archives: Current Matters

First Day in Helsinki

Current Matters, personal

My new life in Helsinki begins humbly. The bulk of my belongings still wait in Tampere to be moved. I took only what I could carry. That means sleeping on the floor and every now and then wondering why didn’t I bring this-and-that -thing with me.

I’m writing this in a cafe, it will be weeks before I get net connection to home. Money will be short for awhile too, so I have to resist all the urges that this city offers… I live in Kallio, a somewhat infamous former, now retiring working class homestead. It has slightly rowdy reputation, there are sex shops in every corner and if your thai-muscles ache you can get limbered up in several thai-massage-parlor. One of the streets even had a sign saying it was under polices technical supervision. I feel safer already.

I like the way Kallio looks though, it has that kind of charm that a place that has been as urban as you can get in Finland for closer to 70 years. My apartment is in one of those 70 year old buildings, it has plank floors and a very well equiped kitchen. If I ever come to possess more than one plate, I never have to wash it myself!

Studying Pays Off!

Current Matters, personal

Right, I’m taking off. I am glad to announce my recent deunemployency. I am heading to the south coast of Finland, they made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. They seduced me with title and money. I couldn’t have refused the offer otherwise either since it was the only offer I’ve received.

I’ll be doing programming in a big international service (among others) house. I am feeling like a cow in the spring being released to the meadows for the first time after winter… You can leave your well-wishings, words of infinite wisdom and confessions of infatuation in the comments!

/me continues Victory Dance.

Lean, Mean Birthday Entry

Current Matters, Nostalgia

I turn 33 years old this day. Jesus (according to many) died at that age, as did Alexander the Great. Not that I’m comparing myself to these gentlemen nor making a prediction, just bringing up historical facts to your attention.

Those who know me are aware that I’m something of a nostalgic. Tommipommi had dug up some opening themes from various tv-series from the 70’s which has been an inspiration for this entry. These are all tv-series that have made an impression on me in my childhood, via continued exposure or other means.

Matka maailman ympäri was a Spanish/Japanese co-production and although it was later neutered with a Finnish dubbing, it has left it’s mark in my brains in Spanish. I think I even preferred the ending titles with it’s clock-theme.

Arsène Lupin is the prototypical rogue-character to me thanks to this French series. I don’t remember much about the series itself, except I recorded the theme of it on tape (a popular past-time) and thus it followed me for a good part of my childhood. Again, I prefer the ending titles.

Galactica was the best thing ever! It defined how a spacecraft should look like for a long time. Everything sci-fi was compared to it, including Star Wars. For some reason at some point I was forbidden to watch it, which for me has stayed as an example of a cruel and unusual punishment. In pre-school we were denied a certain type of toys because “you would construct Galactica ships with them”. I don’t know why I’m not more bitter a person today.

Salaperäinen Saari was a show I have only a few memories of. It did introduce me to Jules Verne though and coupled with the programme mentioned just above lead to our pre-school teacher going to a tv-show called “Sydämeni pohjasta” (Transl. From the Bottom of My Heart) to express her worries about the effect of tv on kids. I landed my first tv-appearance on the intro of that particular episode.

Olipa Kerran Avaruus was another sci-fi (animated) series that defined in turn what things should look like. I now own the series on DVD (which actually left me wanting in the nostalgia department), but it remains as a golden childhood memory. This one I was allowed to watch.

Robin Hood was a series that provoked endless plays of, well… Robin Hood. All the other attempts at portraying the myth have been somewhat disappointments, maybe apart from the Errol Flynn one. I think this series planted a seed that found a perfect soil in Lord of the Rings.

One more! Chocky was about a boy who meets an alien that manifests itself as a spinning pyramid. I honestly think I could watch it today and not cringe over the cheesiness of it. The last episode was fried gold.

…Tripods!

Looking back that list, I guess I have to admit that I was brought up on sci-fi. Of course this isn’t exhaustive list. There are some memories that I’d like to find the source for.

Does anyone remember a *ahem* sci-fi -series from somewhere Eastern Europe, perhaps Hungary, from the 80’s. It dealt with time travel and it might have been about timetravellers being stranded on our time and trying to get back? I remember one slice of dialog from it, an older man is explaining to a boy how circle and roundness is found everywhere in the world, when you throw a rock in to water, the ripples are circle in shape, the bust of a woman when she’s lying down… Does that ring any bells to anyone?

Crowd Control

Current Matters

This week and yet tomorrow I’ll be engaged in the extreme enterprise of being a substitute teacher. I’d be at fault claiming it has been as awful as my worst nightmares, but on Monday I had to be up at six, find necessary places, drag a load of math from the bottom of my brain and so on. Today everything went smoother.

The waking-up-at-six -part alone has kept me from updating a certain design document.

Brief Hiatus in Game Design to Design a Game (Level)

Current Matters, Game design

I was given a small Game design task by a prospective employer and this task has required my game design -eligible part of my brain. Fortunately I’ve now finished working out the idea I had and should soon return to the task at hand.

I was given a task to design a level to a game and given character around which the game revolves. I have a question for you hordes out there. Do you think a walk-through would be a good way to demonstrate my idea?

Blessed Are Thy G-Forces

Current Matters, Hedonism, personal

I took it as my liberty to spend a day at a local amusement park. As usual, inspite of my minor efforts to hire people to join me in merriment, I was forced to enjoy by myself. It was smaller a hindrance to pleasure than I thought. Granted, it would have been probably a few ounces more enjoyably with a good friend with a similar outlook in enjoyment (it begins with a fear of death). I just have to admit I’m just not charming enough. The day was warm (borderline hot) and this being a weekday in June, the place only had short queues. The place was filled with happy, young people, and it all made me a bit nostalgic.

The rides didn’t make that much of a impression, but there was enough of gut-wrenching -sensation to feel pleased. The amusement park in question is located on a narrow cape, and all the rollercoasters are limited on a small space, in turn limiting the speed and g-forces of the rides. In fact, one of the new rides, where you lie down on your stomach, face down, was quite uncomfortable due to this restriction in space. It was all sharp turns after another.

Big Phat 5th Anniversary Posting

Current Matters, personal, This Blog

It was exactly 5 years today that this Blog began its existence as a simple HTML-page on my University of Tampere pages.  The idea of a “blog” was presented to me the previous fall at a New Media studies course by a prominent Finnish game researcher, Aki Järvinen. This proves nothing but that I’m slow.

The beginnings were more than humble and being first (or among the first) doesn’t mean a thing. My blog was left to the fringe when more controversal, better and more frequent writers took the stage. Pinseri hosted an official Finnish blog-list. I had some pleasure watching the relative position of my blog flactuate. Long term movement was firmly DOWN. I held to a belief that my chosen language was a reason for my poor numbers in readers. This belief was hamppered by a Finnish blog with a better standing that was written in Irish…

The bulk of my readers have been people who already know me from other venues of life, usually from academia. One interesting, yet small group of readers has been prospective employers. Now, I can’t prove anything, but I find it plausible that there’s at least one instance when the attitude of a prospective employer has gone several degrees colder after someone for her organisation had read my blog.

This blog has, in spite of everything, seen one self-proclaimed fan. For me there is no way to defend from this kind of attention, even taking in consideration all kinds of circumstancial matters, I have to admit, if I may, that, Katja, for this reason only, you hold a special place in my heart.

5 years is a short time for almost any kind of human project, for a blog it’s almost a lifetime. Technical, social and numeral matters in the blogosphere have changed immensely. I guess that the subsequent progress from now on will be something a lot different. I have felt somewhat priviledged to see the beginnings of this chaotic and influential and chaotically influential media.

No April Fools Around here

Current Matters

I am not a convincing person, at least, not in my on-line form. For the past few years I have tried to pull a manner of April fool tricketry with this blog with non-existant to miniscule success. It is possible that my April foolery has costed me an interest of a employing party. It is for these reasons why I’ve decided to give up on it.

There will be no more April foolery on this blog.