(Goethe)
You exist only in what you do. Federico Fellini
I took part in the autumn bus trip of Suomen raitiotieseura, or Finnish Tramway society. We took a bus, of course, no private transportation for this group of tram and bus enthusiasts. It was an old bus, from the late 1970s, but it was fast and comfortable. The bus took us to Hyrylä, where the City Museum of Helsinki is storing some of its trams, trolley busses, and busses. And nice vehicles there were indeed. I was especially impressed by the old tram trailers. The older one was from the year 1929 and had served until 1970s. Impressive and very cute vehicle.
The participant were mostly bus and tram drivers, but there were some people who are not directly working for public transit. Everyone was better informed that me. So, I learned a lot. And I enjoyed listening to the stories. Everyone was so deeply in love with the old vehicles, talking about them just like about people, in tender words and tones.
Check out this article in the Moscow times: Georgian Crisis Is a Trap for U.S. Leadership. I have been think the same. Whatever comes out of this, the main loser will the USA. It will lose whatever credibility and prestige it had before. Shame on Mr. Bush.
The Russians will take over soon.
Diaries by Orwell are available at the Orwell Prize. Much better and more interesting than this blog.
Beware. Do not let the insects to get you. Remember to to visit the gym regularly and to chill out.
Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing. Theodore Roosevelt
I have now visited the gym quite regularly for a month. Now I have two alternatives. Either I continue paying a smaller and not so well equipped gym about 4 euros per visit or I change to a larger gym and pay soem 50 euros per month, 12 months a year. It seems that the price per visit will be more or less the same with three visits a month. So, the question really becomes whether I will have the passion/patience to visit the gym year round. Cannot really say.
On last Thursday, an excellent concert by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Esa-Pekka Salonen: From the house of Dead by Leos Janacek. It is really an opera. This time it was performed with some minor acting and with really depressing, or dark, motion pictures. The orchestra played well, better than ever before. The whole performance was full of strong emotions, sometimes even too strong for me; I had to close my eyes from the motion pictures. In all, very well spent 50 euros and two hours.
On Friday, in the Huvilateltta (Helsinki Festival Tent), Leningrad and the Valkyrians. First, the warming act by the Valkyrians, maybe on of their best gigs so far, very easy going, and making even my dance a lot. Or the whole time. Then, Leningrad came on the stage with their 13 musicians and the master or ceremony, a fat clown. They started fast, got faster all the time, did not have any pause. Simply incredible ska punk, hardcore, Russian folk songs. Everything played well, with strong emotion. The best gig ever, or so far, I have been to. s
With S in both concerts.
Not completely ordinary days, although I do not remember that much what I have been up to. Anyway, on the 19th, we celebrated S's birthday by having a nice dinner in the best Chinese restaurant in Finland, Dong Bei Hu, with Tuula. The food: boiled fish in chili, dumplings, diverse vegetables was as excellent as we expected, if not more so. The company was also lively and interesting. Afterwards, we had a beer in the restaurant Kuu Kuu, where we saw Esa-Pekka Salonen and other conductors. Helsinki is such a small town.
On the 20th, Wednesday, we had a nice evening bicycle tour around the Helsinki peninsula. Helsinki is very beautiful, even full of small mysteries in autumn evenings. One of the most beautiful cities I know. A good way to enjoy Helsinki is cycling around, having a cup of coffee here and there as there are many seaside cafeterias open till late.
On the 23rd, our godson celebrated his 6th birthday, with us and relatives. Again, it gave us a pleasant opportunity to visit Helsinki by bicycle.
On Sunday, sleeping late, idling, then visiting Petri and Mila and their new born cats. All were cute. Yesterday, sleeping in the morning, working in the afternoon. s
Life is beautiful, but the world is hell. Harold Pinter
It seems that there is not much free capacity for car traffic in the city of Helsinki. Yesterday, one lane in Mannerheimintie in the very center was closed due to tram track works. The car traffic was a total mess and also blocked most trams. The car drivers did not mind. They just stopped their cars wherever they please. One idiot even stopped his car in an intersection, thus blocking everything, including two trams full of passengers. Luckily, tram passengers are not as aggressive as car drivers. If they were, the idiot would have got bloody nose, if not worse. He would have deserved it.
President Bush told the Russians that they have to withdraw from Georgia or else they face some serious stuff. Then he got scared and left for a 10-day vacation in his ranch in Texas. The stage is now open for the old senile men: Cheney and McCain. Let us see how big a mess they can cook up.
It is so tragic that those leaders are so furious of the existential threat that the crises in Georgia pose to the USA. And then at the same time they completely ignore climate change. Talk about rationality.
Guardian Weekly ran an article, where a Chinese entrepreneur tells that his solar cell company will be of the size of Exxon in almost no time. He may well be right. During all previous energy revolutions (to coal, to oil), there have been losers and winner. I am sure China may well be the winner this time. I am also sure that Finland will be loser one again, even though we would have all it takes to be a winner. But we are just too stupid, investing all our money in foreign nuclear R&D. It makes me so mad.
Yesterday was rather quiet. I took a taxi to a customer in the suburbia. Had a nice meeting, and a decent lunch there. Then did some rather interesting business strategy development at our office before leaving for the city. Some shopping, back home. Later, having a beer with S in Weeruska.
Today, breakfast in Luft. After that, reading, surfing, visiting the gym, etc. It has been raining all day. It has made me somewhat not as happy as I would have liked.
Be just and if you can't be just, be arbitrary. William S. Burroughs
Went to listen to Magic Markers at Kuudes Linja with Mr. Musicnaut on Wednesday. Strange band, sometimes sounded rather much like the noisiest Sonic Youth, but sometimes did not sound much anything at all. Nothing much happened. The drummer kept adjusting some computer, the guitarist turned her back to the audience and did something mysterious. But the gig was worth my while, for one never see and listens too much and too varying music.
Mr. Musicnaut has released his first CD Encode/Decode.. It contains rather good noise. He should perform live in Semifinal soon. And you should buy the record. It costs only 3 euros.
The Russians are still in Georgia, occupying about half of the country. The Americans are getting more furious by the day, but cannot do anything at all. It is so sad to see how a great country can be destroyed by incompetent leaders in less than 8 years.
Been cycling to the office and back. It has been fun, although very tiring. I cannot understand how I can be so out-of-shape. It took only two months of not cycling and lots of drinking to lose my shape. I wonder how bad car commuters feel.
At work, I have been working. Almost 7 hours daily on average this week. Not bad at all. It seems that I will have four customers in four different industries to consult during the fall. Should be fun and should pay well enough.
What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love Fyodor Dostoyevsky
I am lucky to have a job in which most days are not like each other. There is enough variety to keep me happy, busy and not bored. This is because I work with many (5 at the moment) customers at any given moment. And even though they do have some recurring problems, they are all still different. Not that it would matter as I would anyway try out some new ways of working. Just to keep boredom at bay.
Otherwise, not much happened. I bicycled to the office. I counted the cyclist riding to the opposite direction (from suburbia to the centre): 47. In the winter, there are less than 5. Sissies!
In the evening, I read the Guardian Weekly and the London review of Books. Somehow I managed not to order any books over the net. It was hard.
Juan Cole put it much better than I ever could. See how Mr. Bush cannot really afford calling Russia names. And even Mr. Putin could not resist telling it to Mr. Bush
It is time in the West to defend not so much human rights as human obligations. Alexander Solzhenitsyn
A nightmare woke me up at 2.50 am. It was such a scary one (I was responsible of killing several of my relatives, etc) that I could not fall asleep before 6am. Since I was about to arrive in our office at 9am, I did not get much sleep. I did not make it to the office in time as busses were running erratically. In the end, I took some bus that took me somewhere not quite where I wanted and where it was raining. A lot. It took 15 minutes by foot to find my way to the office. Somehow my laptop computer survived the hike in the forest.
In all, I walked 50 minutes. It would have taken 56 minutes by bicycle. So I lost time, money, and my nerves. Public transit sucks big time sometimes.
Afterwards, no additional catastrophes or problems occurred. I managed to get some work done (even designing animated cartoons with Powerpoint was fun, and very suitable for a senior advisor.) Other tasks: solving performance problems in a BI-system, writing a project plan, planning workshops, etc. Normal day of a consultant. And not overly long, some 7 hours today.
The most unordinary thing I did today was to visit the gym. It seems that my back is getting old, hurting. I must have some exercise, even though it is rather boring.
Sometimes, too many magazines and newspapers arrive in one day. Today, I have received the Sloan Management Review, the Economist, the London Review of Books and the Guardian weekly. No way I can have time to read books today, or tomorrow.
Political commentary will begin soon. For now, take a look at these articles
Being in a hurry is not just a state of motion, but is an attitude of mind. Christopher Ross
Since the second of June, the main novelties in my life are:
The older one gets, the less one remembers of one's life, at least of the recent past. Even when life is not ordinary at all, it is really hard to remember what has happened. The only way to remember is to blog and to take photos. Thus, I will start blogging again.
Today, Sunday, has been a nice day. Quiet, but still full of nice events. Even some novelties: we took our first ride on the tram number nine, which began its service today. It is the first new tramline in Helsinki since 1991 or so. A major novelty in Helsinki. It runs from the city centre via Kallio, Harju, Alppila to Pasila. The tram was rather full today, but I do not think that many passengers were really going anywhere. They were just trying out the new route. So were we and found the route somewhat useful for our daily life.
Later, I bicycled to Pitkäkoski and back. It seems that not bicycling for two months and drinking a lot of wine is not good for fitness. I have not been this much out of shape for a long time now. What a disgrace.
For a late lunch we walked to Kok Thai, our favourite Thai restaurant nearby. The food was as good as it always is. For dessert, we walked by the sea to the Sininen kahvila, then back home for a nap. Not bad at all. Any of this.
Some rather random memories and reminiscences.
