(Goethe)
If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. George Orwell
Usually I do not take part in any working class activities (such as driving cars, renovating my home, fixing bicycles, etc), but today I was invited to take part in a bowling session. Bowling is as blue-collar as it gets, right next to wearing jeans, both of which I do detest. But, to my surprise and shame, I found bowling rather fun. I even may consider trying it again.
But I will never wear jeans. There are certain things one should not do. Wearing clothes of American working class is one of them.
Of course, drinking beer is one part of bowling. And drinking beer, whichever class it belongs to, is one of my favourite pastimes. It so happened that I visited the Exodus Bar in Kallio twice today.
I have a really low boredom threshold. Nick Hornby quote
Today was a day of commuting here and there and then back and wherever. First by taxi, then in chronological order by car, car, bus, car, bus, train, and tram. Altogether some 90km. Not good for the climate. Not at all. Consulting seems to be a bad profession climate-wise. But at least I did not drive myself, as gentlemen never do. So, I was driven around by other: engineers, bus and tram drivers and senior executives. Not bad at all. I am a professional passenger.
Just to record some things. So that after a few years, or when I am old, I can remember what I used to do, what life used to be like. Here we go.
Magazines I (we) subscribe to
Some prices in euros:
Favourite restaurants
I learned even though the Chinese are short of oil like the U.S., their first priority is to feed people. Roger Moore
Now that the US government is about to give some 25 billion dollars to GM, the old idea of public transit is raising its head over there as well. Today, Helena Gobban argues for using the billions for rebuilding (or building, as there never has been proved nationwide transit in the USA) transit networks. Let us see whether the new government will see the light.
A simple, quiet day. I took the number three tram to the library, worked there for 6 hours, has late lunch with S in a thai buffer restaurant in the Kaisaniemi metro station (it claims to serve thai food, but actually serves decent Chinese food). Some rest, them a few hours more work, a nice 1.5 hour cycling in the darkness of Finnish autumn, watching some TV.
We shouldn't be looking for heroes, we should be looking for good ideas. Noam Chomsky
Funny how a few beer causes a hangover now that I am over forty. It used to be rather different 15 years ago. Not that it is a huge problem, but still makes a difference. When I have work in the morning, I must stop drinking 4 pints. In 2001, the limit was 6 or 7 pints. Or maybe my work was so much easier back then.
Anyway, I had a very good dinner with Olli, Jarmo, Ville and Marko in Dong Bei Hu yesterday. The food was excellent as it always is, hot and spicy and decilicious. I did hear some interesting rumours of the state of the economy. But they are all classified.
I made a mistake. I assume that the deadline would be next week's Thursday. It is on Sunday, this week. Means that I have to spend also tomorrow in the National library. Not that it matters much, it is November, overcast or rainy and very windy. Not the right time to hang out. And staying at home is somewhat hard for me on weekends. So, I will off to the library early in the morning.
Check out Juan Cole's summary of recent environment news, or the brown clouds over much of Asia and the Middle-East. Not exactly encouraging. We really need to get rid of fossil fuels. Not after 2030 but during the next 10 years. Or even sooner.
Let me see what I can do. I will cut down consulting a little and write articles.
The trouble with music appreciation in general is that people are taught to have too much respect for music they should be taught to love it instead. Igor Stravinsky
Went to listen to RSO at the Finlandia house. They played Webern, Elgar and Seppo Pohjola. Pohjola's 2nd symphony got its world premiere, conducted by Susanna Mälkki. A rather interesting composition, with strong influence from Stravinsky et all. Partly almost kraut rock, partly horror movie audio track, partly joyful and happy, it got everything and more in 30 minutes. The audience like it, someone even shouted "bravo".
Now GE is asking for loan guarantees. And the US government will grant them what they ask for. How could it not? It is about to bail out GM, which market cap is something close to zero. Nuts, there is no way this crisis will go away by adding more and more debt just to pay off earlier debts.
Soon enough, we will see the same in Finland. But wait: we already saw it in terms of tax deductions for forest owners, etc. And then there will be no money left for anything productive, or anything which would create new industrial activity, new foundations for prosperity.
IEA claims that there will be another energy crises in few years. Sure, there will, or rather the existing one will continue. IEA also thinks, that global oil consumption will grow by 50 percent by 2030. No, it won't as there will not be that much oil to be drilled. Most likely global oil consumption will decrease by 50 percent by 2030, if not more. We have reached the peak oil. It will be downhill from now on in terms of oil production and global populations. Anyone who lives the next 50 years will see global population collapse to 2 to 3 billion. It will not be nice, it will not be peaceful and it will not be fun.
Meetings are for those with not enough to do. Paul Arden
I am now keeping two diaries. This is one of them and not that regular. The other one is regular, daily, but secret. It is where I record how my work is going, what kinds of problems I run into, whom I meet, what they are like. I also tend to record what I am doing in my rather limited free time in the secret diary. Thus, there has not been that much need or purpose for this public diary.
Still there is a need. I need to write about current affairs, discuss with my dear (if not imaginary) readers about the state of the world, and just clarify my thinking, or rather think aloud. So, I try to begin this public blog once again. Let us see whether I have the time and energy.
Now that the Americans somehow got their guts and intellect back and selected Mr. Obama as their next president, the world is awash of hope. Maybe there will be some important changes in the US policies: reigning in the free capitalism, cutting down CO2-emissions, closing Guantanamo gulag, withdrawing from Irag, not starting yet another war with Iraq/Pakistan/Syria/Russia. Maybe, but we should be careful as it may turn out that the military-industrial complex will be stronger than Mr. Obama and all Democrats.
As was to be expected, many respectable persons are offering their advice to Mr. Obama.
Many Americans have already bought their last car -- they just don't know it yet.which I think is true also in Finland.
In addition, I would recommend following The daily dish by Andrew Sullivan. He is a very clever man. With PhD from the other school upriver.
It is so funny see how the Finnish politician finally get it. The recession and the long depression will arrive in Finland. A few months ago, the politicians and all journalist were telling us how the international economical problems would somehow not reach Finland. Now they have reached and overall panic is here.
The news is full of stories of corporations laying off employees. Today, it was Nokia Siemens networks with 750 layoffs (all-tough they should not bother: they are losing their best employees anyway and so they are losing their ability to run their R&D. I know, trust me.) Yesterday, it was Abloy, Nokian Renkaat, all paper companies, etc. Not good for the Finnish economy, but should be good for the global climate.
GM is more or less bankrupt. See e.g. CAlculatedrisk.com. I remember that I wrote about GM and Ford and their eventual bankruptcy at length back in 2005, but most readers and my classmates in MIT did not agree. It was somehow too much. But now it is happening. The Deutche Bank says that GM shares are worth nothing.
And Ford will follow GM. The next ones will be most airlines. Yes, I am a mini-Kunstler.
A weird world rolls on Paul Auster
Still alive, kicking, drinking, cycling, partying, reading, working and whatnot. Time goes by, the weird world rolls on. I begun writing a private work diary, which has made this blog less important for me. Also, I have had quite a lot work to do, especially writing architecture specs, which has made me reluctant to touch computers late in the nights. The results: more or less no blogging. But still, what have I been doing?
On Saturday, Kössi and Billy celebrated their 40th birthdays in some watering hole in Tampere. A very nice it was. Many friends (Timo, Kalle, Vilja-Kaisa, Elina, Severi, Tero, Kari, etc) I had not met for ages. And still they were the same guys and gals I used to know back in the 80s and early 90s. Good to know that one cannot really lose one's friends if one just behaves. The party had a lot of dance, music (Liquid Sisters), laughter, drinking, and all things that make time good. After the watering hole, we moved over to Klubi, which was backed. And very noisy. Somehow I had great difficulties in listening to my friends, who at that point happened to be 25 cm shorter than I. So, and because it was late, I took taxi back to my mother's place in the suburbs.
On Friday and on Wednesday we/I visited Petri and Mila in Maunula. First for some soccer on TV, then for a dinner and some documentaries on TV. Both visits invigorating.
Otherwise, the last 9 days have been somewhat full of work. No cycling, mostly taking a tram to the National Library and back, having lunch in some ethnic restaurant in the city centre, working on a few systems architecture specifications, enjoying civilised surroundings and atmosphere. Well paid work in decent manner. No complaints.
The economic situation remains dense. It pays to follow what Paul Krugman writes in NYT. He was awarded the Nobel prize last week. And otherwise: the more one reads, the less one needs to guess.
You never know you are in a prison unless you try the door. Joe Bageant
It turned out that I have no hernia nor cancer. Or nothing like that. Just badly strained stomach muscles. That is why taking it easy helped so much. Now, since I run out of excuses for not exercising, I must begin cycling and gymming once again. Carefully.
RSO played Schönberg, Berio, Nono, Stockhausen; conducted by Sakari Oramo, Magnus Lindberg, Kimmo Hakola in Kulttuuritalo on Friday. See here for the program. I found Schönberg's Theme very hard to follow, to concentrate on. Nono's Varianti was more interesting, strictly serial, full of surprising details. But the moment of the evening was, of course, Stockhausen's Gruppen. Even more serial, thoroughly theoretical composition, in which all notes, noises, and sounds follow their own strict rules, and especially tempos. Since a single orchestra can only play in one tempo, the composition requires three separate orchestras. And indeed, there were three of them. Once conducted by Oramo, the others by compositors Magnus Lindberg and Kimmo Hakola. The results were beyond words: pure beauty. I can still hear almost the whole composition in my head, the sounds pure and clear. Something which has never happened before.
Later on Friday night, I went to Tavastia to see and listen to Pahat Agentit, Kumikameli, and Eläkeläiset. Rock, punk and humppa. House full of huge men, all drunk as sailors. Scary. Interesting.
Once again, I took my work computer home to do some serious work during the weekend. But nothing came out of it. No work done. No stress either, which I find remarkable. On the issue of leisure, idling and weekends, see Waiting for the Weekend by Witold Rybczynski. And do take it easy.
So, what was the nothing I did. On Saturday, I took the tram to Akateeminen kirjakauppa, read a book there, took another tram to some other place, came back home, went to Weeruska to watch some soccer on the TV, took another tram to the centre, visited quite a few pubs, and returned home to read books. On Sunday, we had a nice morning stroll in Vallila, lunch in Kruo Thai in Töölö, then coffee in Porvoonkadun baari. After which I took a tram to Kauppatori to see some old ships (some regatta), had coffee in Cafe Ekberg, etc. So, mostly I have been taking trams here and there and reading. Not bad at all.
The economic situation is getting downright scare. Nightmarish. Of course, the crash itself was no surprise, but the abruptness of it was. To me, at least. Now, many economist are predicting global financial meltdown. This seems to be the consensus. There is some disagreement about the future though. James Kunstler predicts a catastrope, Friedman is little less concerned. Some others, such Ruth Sunderland predict Anarchy in the UK. Who knows? But we know for sure that this recessions will be deep and long.
The worst thing is that there is next to nothing governments can really do. The bubbles must pop, the debt must be cancelled via bankruptcies, and we must build a better financial system. The current system has proved as impossible as the sovjet system did.
Personally, I am scared. Not only because of the economy, but also because of the ecological problems which are worsening and on which few can now pay any attention.
And to think about what will happen in the USA in the next few months gives me the creeps. Actually, I am happy I did not stay there until now.
You can plan events, but if they go according to your plan they are not events. John Berger
All kinds of ailments and pain have found me. Now, some strange pain in my stomach. For a week now. I have a plan to visit my doctor tomorrow. This pain is not funny, but it reminds me that health is not given but to preserve.
Check the DOW today at Google Finance. I would call that cliff diving. It has lost 1700 point, or 17 percent during the last 5 days. At the same time, the Icelandic banks have failed and been nationalised by the government there. Iceland will have severe problems even with importing food and other necessities soon enough.
In Finland, our government tells that the crisis will not find it way here. I do doubt it. The housing inventory stands at 15 months, or 4 months higher it ever did in the USA. Prices have doubled in a few years. I think they will crash, by some 30-40 percent before 2010.
Well, having the pain and quite enough work to do has kept me inside, with no cycling or weight lifting. Nor have I visited any pubs or restaurants since weekend, when we did have lunch in the Kurd restaurant. Or, maybe I had lunch with S in Lemon Grass on Monday. Do not really remember.
Then again, we had the monthly Tuesday meeting in Juttutupa. Present were at least Mila, Petri, Pekka, Tappi, Jaana, S, Tuula, Maunu, Kari, Risto, Matti I. Discussions on the economic crisis, future of Finland, etc.
In the weekend, nothing much took place. On Saturday, trying to have breakfast in the Danish sandwich cafe. Got the food, but there is no place to sit down. Wandered around in search for a lunch place, had lunch, spend a few hours in the library. On Sunday, visited the annual herring market by the sea (main market place), spent the rest of the home.
Been commuting by tram, bus, train, foot, and train. For some 8 hours this week. Too much.
To know you have enough is to be rich. Tao Te Ching
It seems that I can only work on one enterprise architecture during a day. I can discuss any number of architectures, but I can only write about one. I do not know why this is. It is not that I could not keep several models in my head at the same time. But it must have something to do with the act of writing itself. Whatever it is, I must arrange my calendar so that I do not have to jump too many times between different writing task daily.
I have quite some work to do. So, I took some work with me from to office and carried it to home. At home, I did not open my airtight bag, so the work did not get out, nor did it get done. I left for the pub and forgot all about work. Good! Tomorrow should come tomorrow as it has done for a while now.
Our new washing machine arrive today. The delivery men carried it to our bathroom. I installed it. I lost one O-ring. Now the machine is leaking water. Such a DYI man I am!
Some new books have arrived.
Words ought to be a little wild for they are the assaults of thought on the unthinking. John Maynard Keynes
I used to think that consulting is not that bad a job in terms of CO2 emissions etc. I have been able to commute by bicycle and to take bus to customer's offices. But not anymore. Some of my current customers have located their office in places, which are next to impossible to reach by public transit. Or at least the transit connections are unreliable and way too slow. So, I have take taxi. Today, I took taxi twice and travelled some 55 km. Too bad. It is rather expensive as well, and I hate that as well.
Been somewhat short of blogging time lately. Not ordinary days, not at all.
A life without adventure is likely to be unsatisfying, but a life in which adventure is allowed to take whatever form it will is sure to be short. Bertrand Russell
My caffeine consumption got totally out of control. All kinds of troubles brewed: irritation, restlessness, excessive sweating and swearing. Discomfort, in short. So, I decided to dry to be without daily doses of caffeine.
Now I feel much better. No sweating, no irregular heart beat, less irritated, more tolerant. A nicer person, that is. Let us see how long this is going to last.
Six years ago I used to spend Friday evening in some cheap watering hole with work mates dissing bosses etc. Today, I bicycled for 2 and half hours in darkness around Espoo: Alppila - Lauttasaari - Otaniemi - Tapiola - Olari - Friisiä - keskuspuisto - Suna - Suvela - Kauniainen - Kilo - Alberga - Perkkaa - Tali - Munkkiniemi - Alppila. Very refreshing, autumn has arrived, it is quiet, not many people outside.
Yesterday, several interviews at customer's. Then doing some sales work or preparing slidesets, designing enterprise architecture for two customers, etc. Normal, easy stuff. In the evening, a pint of beer with Christian and Timo in Sport's Academy bar in a mall in Espoo. Very exotics. Beats Paris hands down.
Today, more interviews, a meeting on product development process (very interesting). And all sorts of other stuff. Back home at 5pm, a short nap, bicycling, idling.
Crows are smarter than apes. Check it out at New Scientist. Crows are my favourite birds. Observing them is always full of surprises.
The Iraq war has cost some two to three trillion dollars. Annual defence (and attack) budgets of the USA are about one trillion dollars. Now, the US government is spending yet another trillion dollars on rescuing banks from consequences of their own greed. The USA is a rich country indeed. No other country could throw trillions here and there, seemingly in very casual manner.
And then they claim that changing the energy regime would be expensive. Did they just run out of money? Why cannot they throw a few trillion dollars on preventing climate change?
Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer. William S. Burroughs
Russian stock market is collapsing. Trading stopped for the second time in two day. I wonder whether there are some speculators gaming the market. Should I have some extra money, I would seriously consider investing it in some Russian index fund. The market will certainly bounce — the energy resources have not disappeared.
The US government has now nationalised AIG, the biggest insurance company. As Mr. Roudini points out So the US government is now the largerst insurance company in the world. So the transformation of the USA into the USSRA goes a step further. and continues by observing that:
So soon enough the transformation the USA into the USSRA (United Socialist State Republic of America) will be complete: we have defeated the USSRR to create a communist economy in the most advanced free market economy in the world. And calling it socialism (even socialism for the rich, the well connected and Wall Street) is giving a bad name even to a failed experiment like socialism; this is more akin to the creation of a corporatist state (like the Italian fascism or the Germany Third Reich) where private sector interest are protected (gains privatized and losses socialized) where the government is taken over by corrupt and reckless private interests.
This is actually very, very worrying. Remember that the USA has its gulags everywhere, is conducting pre-emptive wars, and attacking here and there, defending nowhere. Opposition is beaten down with truncheons and tear gassed. And then there are those in the government who want to censor books etc. Yes, the times we are living are both dangerous and interesting.
All this fascism is raising its ugly head when the whole humanity should not fight each other, but climate change, when co-operation is more important than ever before. Not too good.
Some notes on the art of interviewing (when doing enterprise architecting)
Bicycles to the office via Tali. Some 14 km in light rain. 5C. Very relaxing. Worked a lot today. Organized interviews, wrote agendas, conducted a few interviews, discussed with colleagues, etc. More than 8 hours. Huh!
Visited the post office. Sent invitations to mother's 70th birthday party. In two weeks. Visited Partioaitta, bought new rain trousers.
The United States in particular and the West in general should be feeling a little embarrassed about all that lecturing we did to the Third World. Paul Krugman
Well, the free markets have not fixed themselves yet. It seems that they really cannot do it. For more information, see a good summary by Nouriel Roubini.
It seems that the free market fundamentalist were able to bring their own ideology down in ashes. It took only some 19 years after the fall of communism. Maybe we can now start again and behave frugally, modestly, and with some decency.
Today we had the second shorthand class. It is just wonderful, interesting, funny, good for both intellect and memory. And harder than enterprise system architecting. Excellent hobby! Now I know how to write and read what I have written, e.g. works like rakastaa, varas, pakkanen, hattaja, jana, kakka. Or in the other words, more or less any Finnish word without other vowel than "a". It is a good beginning.
I had lunch in Dong Bei Hu, the best Chinese restaurant in Finland: tofu and fish, Cantonese style. Excellent, at least if one likes Cantonese food.
It is such a pity that our office is in Otaniemi, next to nothing but the highway. Good that I can work in the library/at home etc every now and then and have decent lunch. In Otaniemi, no decent restaurants. All bad or worse.
I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do. Leonardo da Vinci
Well, Lehman did not make it, but filed for chapter-11 BK. Bank of America bought Merrill. Stocks are down. Fear is up. AIG is still a mess, although it will get some extra funding for the next months. I just wonder which bank will be the next (except WaMu etc, of which we already know). Since the real estate prices will be going down, there will be more troubles ahead for banks and insurance companies. Very, very interesting.
For some rather startling piece of information, check Self-evident.org.
In Finland, things are still rather calm. Some tens of millions had been invested in Lehman, now lost. But the Finnish banks (or the Scandinavian banks operating in Finland) seem to be doing fine. Let us see for how long. Real estate prices are coming down here as well, unsold inventory is building up (alone in Epilä, a small suburb where my mother and brother live in Tampere, there are close to 100 unsold, empty, new apartments). This is not the time to take a mortgage and buy any kind of house or apartment. This is the time to save, as much as possible. And to work as much as possible (if there is positive correlation between working hours and salary)
Meanwhile, US forces are attacking Pakistan in still another illegal war by Mr. Bush. The Pakistanis, who used to be US allies, are fighting back — maybe with American F-16 fighter planes. For more, do check Antiwar.com and Juan Cole's new writings.
In a way, a depression would be a good thing. It would me somewhat smaller CO2-emissions globally. And it might make people realise, that producing more and more useless stuff is not the source of happiness, not even wealth. Let us hope so at least.
Today, I bicycled for an hour around the forests and suburbs. It was dark and it certainly was not too warm. I have to find my winter gear.
Tomorrow I intend to visit the gym for some semi-serious exercise. On Wednesday, I will take the longer route to the office. It is 26km.
Yet another noise band from the USA visited Helsinki. This time it was Black Dice's turn. They played way too loud, my head was buzzing and ringing even though I had stuffed my ears with earplugs. I had to leave to concert after three songs. I cannot tell whether the band was good or bad, since I could not hear them. I could only feel them. And that was not pleasant.
It happened again. First two weeks of the month are easy, almost nothing to do. The last two weeks are full of things to do. Today, working for three customers.
In six weeks, laughing all the way to the bank. If there are banks left then.
Speed corrects all mistakes Writing on the wall
Tomorrow should be a very interesting day. It may happen that the American financial system starts to unravel faster and faster. It they cannot find a way to bail out Lehman Brothers (and the government has pledged not to risk its or taxpayers money - as if they had not already), things are getting very serious indeed. Whatever trust there remains will be gone and all hell will break loose. See, for example, the RGE monitor for the latest news and analysis.
Of course, there is next to nothing anyone or any corporation or government can do at the colossal mistake that is called the suburban project in the USA. All those house, malls, highway, are losing value by the day, and will do so as oil will become scarcer and more expensive. For more, take a look what the funnies doomsday prophet, James Kunstler, has to say. I do agree, and find it funny that the Finnish prime minister still calls for more and more spread out suburbia in Finland.
UPDATE: According to CalculatedRisk there is only one buyer left for Lehman. And so it is likely that Lehman will go down. It will be very very interesting how things will unwind from there on. It does look very serious.
Viiala Pinball Open 2008 (VPO 2008) took place on Saturday in, well, Viiala, near Tampere. Lemmy and Marble had asked me to join them, and I was glad to to do so. We left by Marble's car, a worn-out turbo Saab with some 400000km. Still going strong, or at least 140km per hour was no problem. Problems arose when we arrived to the venue. I had forgotten to register and the organiser did not accept last minute registrations. Which was, actually rather OK for. I have not played any pinball since Stockholm Open in June. I would not have player well at all. But I did play a lot, maybe for six hours.
Otherwise the tournament was decently organised. They machines were in good shape and there were many machines I had not seen nor played before. There were also some machines, such as Alien Poker, which I did play a lot in the early 1980s. Strange that I played it much better then that I did yesterday.
Been busy in the evenings. Thus, no blogging.
On Wednesday, I went to see The Micragirls at Tavastia. Mr. Musicnaut had told me about them, and since I missed their gig in Alppipuisto a month ago, I just had to make it to Tavastia. And they were good, very good indeed. It is not that they are greatly skilled musicians nor that their songs are anything new. But they play their garage punk well, their performance is full of energy and irony. Do check them out, e.g. at their MySpace
On Friday, we (I and S) went to listen to RSO in the Temppeliaukio chruch. The program had Pärt, Webern and Schubert, all conducted well and lively by Olari Elts. The church acoustics are exceptional, making music float in the air, not coming directly from the orchestra. Since I had also take some opiates for my back pain, the music in the church caused some hallucinations. During Webern "Five pieces for orchestra, op. 10" I closed my eyes, felts weightless and floating in the air. And so happy, almost blissful. I recommend modern music and opiates. Excellent combination.
On Saturday, after the pinball tournament, I went to Tavastia to listen to and watch at The Valkyrians and The Aggrolites. Both played well, the hall was full of dance, joy, stomping. Unfortunately, I had to leave while the Aggrolites were still playing, I just got too tired.
Summer is over, autumn is here. It is not too warm, it is raining. Thus, it is just the right time for some serious cycling. Today, I rode to Suvisaaristo and back, some 50 km. It was just 8C, but it was fun. On Friday, it was a bit warmer still, so I had only a short ride around the Vanhakaupunki bay. No point in cycling when the weather is too nice. Too many amateurs clogging the bike lanes. Otherwise, I have been cycling to work and back. I found a new nicer route, which is 14 km long. In the future, when not having a meeting at 9am, I will take the longer route. It makes no sense to ride on 9.5 km in the morning. Leaves too much energy for work, which is not good at all.
The Russians did not exactly take it well, when Ms. Palin threatened them with war.
Barbara Ehrenreich has a blog. Worth reading, as are her books.
Kishore Mahbubani argues that most Western analysis on Georgian/Russia is faulty
The biggest paradox facing the west is that it is at last possible to create a safer world order. The number of countries wanting to become âresponsible stakeholdersâ has never been higher. Most, including China and India, want to work with the US and the west. But the absence of a long-term coherent western strategy towards the world and the inability to make geopolitical compromises are the biggest obstacles to a stable world order. Western leaders say the world is becoming a more dangerous place, yet few admit that their flawed thinking is bringing this about. Georgia illustrates the results of a lack of strategic thinking
No strategy, no architecture Wisdom
We were in Darjeeling, India, drinking gin-tonic when the suicide bomber flew in the WTC in new York and all hell broke loose. And it has been loose ever since, and sometimes I think it is getting looser by the day.
Juan Cole has written an important analysis on the seventh anniversary of 9/11. He concludes:
The original al-Qaeda is defeated...For now, our war is over. Time to come home, and train and fund locals to do the clean-up work.What could I add to that.
Today terrorists are bombing Pakistan from the air. Mr. Bush has authorised his army to bomb the sovereign country of Pakistan with asking, or even notifying, the democratically elected government of Pakistan. It is against all international law, and an act of war, or maybe just simply state sponsored terrorism. Pakistan, an ally of the USA, has not attacked the USA.
Today, we learnt that Finnish paper and pulp industry has lost its mojo for good. They are shutting down some half a dozen factories in Finland, laying off some 3000 workers. This is what happens, when corporations become complacent, do not innovate and just rely on the government for help. This is what is going to happen to all those corporations (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman, GM, Ford, etc) that the US government will bail out very soon. Today, GM is asking for 25 billion dollars loan so that it could develop cars with 25 percent better fuel economy. How come they did not do that when they still had money of their own? And just increasing by 25 percent is nothing. Simply by replacing SUV with something like Ford Focus would make it. They should aim at 100% increase. That would be worth government help.
As always, following Calculated Risk is worthwhile. Without it, one will be surprised about on-going event. By reading CalculatedRisk and other blogs found within it, one is able to see what is coming. For example, we can be sure, that prices of house and apartments in Finland are going down by at least 40%, if not more, before 2012. Now it is not the time to buy anything. Now it is the time to save and live frugally.
Suddenly, life is better. Or I have lost my stress. It was all due to some, eventually solvable, problems at work. Now, no problems. The only problem is that I have somehow broken my back. Went to the doctor's, she prescribed some strong painkillers. Suits me fine, I like strong painkillers. They kill the pain and increase creativity. One of my patent came about after a strong dose on opiates. Not recommended to those with weak souls.
Yesterday, worked, bicycled to the office and back via Alberga, saw how a truck and a tram had fought it out. A draw. Nobody got hurt, I assume. Met Soili. Interesting discussions. Later, saw Micragirls in Tavastia. Hilarious.
Today. Bicycled to the office via Kamppi and Lauttasaari, idled mostly at the office, visited a customer for a short interview (interesting stuff, those moments when it is really rewarding to be a consultant), and bicycled back home. That is all, for now.
Writing novels is an uhealthy type of work. Haruki Murakami
Professor Roudini has got it right. Check it out! out right now. Below, the conclusion.
Like scores of evangelists and hypocrites and moralists who spew and praise family values and pretend to be holier than thou and are then regularly caught cheating or cross dressing or found to be perverts these Bush hypocrites who spewed for years the glory of unfettered wild west laissez faire jungle capitalism (and never believed in any sensible and appropriate regulation and supervision of financial markets) allowed the biggest debt bubble ever to fester without any control, have caused the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression and are now forced to perform the biggest government intervention and nationalizations in the recent history of humanity, all for the benefit of the rich and the well connected. So Comrades Bush and Paulson and Bernanke will rightly pass to the history books as a troika of Bolsheviks who turned the USA into the USSRA. Fanatic zealots of any religion are always pests that cause havoc and destruction with their inflexible fanaticism; but they usually donât run the biggest economy in the world. But these laissez faire voodoo-economics zealots in charge of the USA have now caused the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression and the nastiest economic crisis in decades. So let them be shamed in public for their hypocrisy and zealotry that has caused so much financial and economic damage.
I have a new hobby: trying to learn to write shorthand. The first class was today and we (there are 7 of us, of whose only two novices) learned to write all consonants. So, I can already write some simple words, and read what I have written. Even after a few hours. Or so I think. I hope I will be able to keep up with the classes and do my homework diligently. I would be so fun to take notes in customer meeting in shorthand. I might be able to do already in February!
Again, some new books.
Random memories of the past two weeks.
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.
