Saw King Arthur yesterday with Heli. It was quite entertaining, although the claim of historical accuracy made me cringe, as well as much anything else that had anything to do with history. The use of barbed wire was an especially weird thing. But I came there to see people waving big swords, and for that purpose the movie is adequate.
Have a flu from hell. Ate a ton of ibuprofen with pseudoephedrine, and now my nasal passages are dry and burning, and I am in a cheerfully manic state and am unable to concentrate on anything. This is an improvement in comparison to my normal unmedicated condition during a flu, which is unable to breathe, somewhat depressed and unable to concentrate on anything.
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
Monday, August 30, 2004
Attack on the Jewish center in Paris revisited
I guess I was wrong to laugh at CRIF and everyone else who made guesses as to the reason of the arson - in spite of antisemitic inscriptions and all today the police have detained a Jewish guy who seems to be a disgruntled ex-employee who decided to go postal on the ex-employers and blame it all on antisemites. I thnk the fucker is facing 20 years in prison if convicted.
I wonder who is Jamaat Ansar al-Jihad al-Islamiya then (the organization who took the blame)? A bunch of unefficient Islamic extremists who just decided to claim this outstanding Jewish achievement in the fine art of arson for themselves, or the guy himself?
Islamic terrorists are so in. I am a bit more traditional, and if I ever decide to commit a crime against fellow Jews and blame it on antisemites, I'd choose some Communist antisemites to blame it on. Islamists are just too trendy. How about an organization called Soon Hui V Chai North Korean Anti-Zionist Brigade?
(For those with limited knowledge of Russian, "soon hui v chai" means "stick your dick into the tea".)
I wonder who is Jamaat Ansar al-Jihad al-Islamiya then (the organization who took the blame)? A bunch of unefficient Islamic extremists who just decided to claim this outstanding Jewish achievement in the fine art of arson for themselves, or the guy himself?
Islamic terrorists are so in. I am a bit more traditional, and if I ever decide to commit a crime against fellow Jews and blame it on antisemites, I'd choose some Communist antisemites to blame it on. Islamists are just too trendy. How about an organization called Soon Hui V Chai North Korean Anti-Zionist Brigade?
(For those with limited knowledge of Russian, "soon hui v chai" means "stick your dick into the tea".)
Argh! Argh!
Apparently Al-Muhajiroun got kicked out by their Internet service provider again! What am I gonna read in the moments of severe work stress now?
Sunday, August 29, 2004
The weekend and a weird dream
Had a fairly good weekend, but am sleepy as hell. On Thursday went shooting with Leena, and we hanged out afterwards and had a very good time. It was Päihteiden... I mean Taiteiden Yö, a Finnish holiday where everyone gets drunks and goes to some cultural events, evil bookstores lure innocent people with promises of sales, and in the morning you still have to go to work with a bad hangover and a realization that you have just tried to buy out Akateeminen Kirjakauppa the night before, and partially succeeded. The evil bookstore managed to lure Leena and myself, but we managed to run away with only a few books and, in my case, an outrageously expensive package of 5 DVD+Rs.
The evil Commodore DVD+Rs that I bought, which do not work in my DVD drive, work in Killeri's. Which brings me to the problem of finding out which ones do not work in my drive. So the current plan is to buy DVD+Rs of many different manufacturers from various friends and see which ones work, and then order a truckload of them from some country that does not have the stupid tax.
The one Commodore DVD that Killeri has recorded for me can be read by my drive with no problem at all.
Hanged out at Killeri's place on Friday. Went to a very nice party on Saturday, and enjoyed it a lot even though it was a costume party and I had no costume. They stuck some physics transparency to my tits with a piece of tape and told me that I am a quantum mechanic now. That was easy. There was vodka-testing, cherry-smoking (I didn't smoke cherries, there is a limit to everything, I only eat them), scantily-clad men, a pancake-like thing and lots of good company, some of which were the kind of people whom I don't see on a regular basis but who are always a pleasure to run into.
Watched the rest of Band of Brothers today. Was a bit hung over, but liked it anyway (Band of Brothers, not the hangover).
Saw a weird dream on Friday night, and have no idea what it was. I don't mean that I have forgotten, as it often happens, but I did not know what I'd seen even right after waking up. The only thing I know is that it really pissed me off - I woke up in a state of extremely strong fiery murderous rage. Rage is not a condition that easily dissipates, at least not for me, at it was very weird to spend half a day extremely angry while knowing perfectly well that my anger has no object, at least not in the real world, nor in my conscious mind. It got better during the party.
Alcohol usually calms my anger down quite a lot, whether the anger is rational or not. I know it works in a completely opposite way on some people, but it feels really strange to me - very hard to imagine being drunk and pissed off at the same time.
The evil Commodore DVD+Rs that I bought, which do not work in my DVD drive, work in Killeri's. Which brings me to the problem of finding out which ones do not work in my drive. So the current plan is to buy DVD+Rs of many different manufacturers from various friends and see which ones work, and then order a truckload of them from some country that does not have the stupid tax.
The one Commodore DVD that Killeri has recorded for me can be read by my drive with no problem at all.
Hanged out at Killeri's place on Friday. Went to a very nice party on Saturday, and enjoyed it a lot even though it was a costume party and I had no costume. They stuck some physics transparency to my tits with a piece of tape and told me that I am a quantum mechanic now. That was easy. There was vodka-testing, cherry-smoking (I didn't smoke cherries, there is a limit to everything, I only eat them), scantily-clad men, a pancake-like thing and lots of good company, some of which were the kind of people whom I don't see on a regular basis but who are always a pleasure to run into.
Watched the rest of Band of Brothers today. Was a bit hung over, but liked it anyway (Band of Brothers, not the hangover).
Saw a weird dream on Friday night, and have no idea what it was. I don't mean that I have forgotten, as it often happens, but I did not know what I'd seen even right after waking up. The only thing I know is that it really pissed me off - I woke up in a state of extremely strong fiery murderous rage. Rage is not a condition that easily dissipates, at least not for me, at it was very weird to spend half a day extremely angry while knowing perfectly well that my anger has no object, at least not in the real world, nor in my conscious mind. It got better during the party.
Alcohol usually calms my anger down quite a lot, whether the anger is rational or not. I know it works in a completely opposite way on some people, but it feels really strange to me - very hard to imagine being drunk and pissed off at the same time.
Bugger
Went to the store to buy some ice cream, and bought a bookshelf by accident. Now where the fuck am I gonna put the damn thing?
Not that I really mind, I needed that bookshelf. It's just that why do these things always happen to me?
Not that I really mind, I needed that bookshelf. It's just that why do these things always happen to me?
Thursday, August 26, 2004
Don't shit in Montana
A guy was arrested in Montana for shitting in the border crossing toilet. The guy pinched such a big loaf that the toilet got clogged, and was arrested. The border agents have claimed that he produced such a big turd intentionally, which is strange considering that piping is fairly narrow in the US and it's quite common for the toilets to get clogged.
The article does not say whether the toilet was equipped with a plunger.
The article does not say whether the toilet was equipped with a plunger.
Come fly the friendly skies with British Airways
July 26, 1998. BA flight 239. We are going from London to Boston with my then-boyfriend Teemu.
The plane takes off more or less on time and more or less normally, at least for the first few minutes. Then it starts feeling like we are not rising fast enough, nor accelerating fast enough. I decide that I am just being paranoid and imagining things and start staring down at the earth in an evil way in hope that it will get scared and go away. It doesn't. 15 minutes or so go like that, and we are still way too low and way too slow.
Suddenly Teemu says: "Dont't you think that we are way too low and way too slow?" So I am not being paranoid. OK, I am being paranoid but in spite of that the whole world really is against me today. I answer that yes, something is wrong and look around. None of the other passengers looks like they noticed anything, which is not very surprising, considering that we are surrounded by something that looks like a church choir consisting of teenage girls. Such people tend to be in disgustingly good spirit on airplanes, at least until they've had beans for their in-flight lunch. Cabin crew, on the other hand, looks a bit concerned. Or rather they look scared shitless. I'd always imagined they teach them a bit of acting, but apparently they'd practiced with some scenes depicting the last day of Pompei.
After a little while the pilot says in an apologetic tone well-familiar to most women: "Sorry, we can't get our landing gear up. We'll circle around for a while, try to get it up, but if we won't succeed we'll have to land and fix it on the ground". My first thought: "if they can't get it up, it might be they cannot get it properly down either", and I start contempltaing what a landing without functioning landing gear might feel like, what are the chances of surviving it, whether I actually want to survive it, and whether it is likely to cause any kind of injuries that might make me want to kill myself but render me unable to do so without outside help. While I am thinking these cheerful thoughts, the church choir around us has awakened to the situation and is reacting to it like it is some kind of an exciting adventure.
Now we are not only low and slow, but also moving in a wrong direction. Instead of circling around London like the pilot told us, or going northwest towards Ireland like we were supposed to in the first place, we are going southeast, and I can see the North Sea below us and Belgium ahead of us. I might be too paranoid to trust my assessment of height and speed, but I am not crazy enough to imagine Belgium. This makes me think that they really can't get the landing gear down, either, and are trying to land on water. I share this observation with Teemu and start reading the emergency card, mostly just to have something to do since I already know it by heart. Teemu keeps telling me that I should forget it and that we are definitely not going to survive a landing on water, therefore no need for studying emergency exists. I look at him like Han Solo looked at C3P0 every time C3P0 tried to tell him the chances of successful navigation among the meteors.
Suddenly a huge jet of some fluid, presumably fuel, comes out of the wing. I am sitting in a window seat right behind the right wing, so it's only in a few meters from me and I get the best view. I take my eyes off Teemu and give a really evil eye to the jet of fuel. It doesn't disappear. Teemu is carrying on with the "Doom! Doom! Doom!" topic. I tell him that if he does not stop right now he will have more immediate threats to his life and well-being than falling planes. The cabin crew is running around in quiet panic. The church choir is in good spirits.
After a while the pilot belatedly announces that they did not manage to correct the problem, that they are dumping the fuel into the North Sea now and that we will be landing back in Heathrow as soon as we are done with fuel dumping. It goes on for 20 minutes or so, and then we indeed start crawling back towards Heathrow.
At the moment when the landing gear touches the ground I relax quite a bit, especially since it seems to be slowing down in the normal way. The next moment the church choir sees the several dozens of fire trucks and ambulances that were waiting for us and starts panicking. Loudly. We are gloating quietly and wishing them all to shit their pants. Prematurely, as it turns out, since they do not let us off the plane. The plane comes to the gate, they (the pilot, not the choir) tell us that they will fix it in no time at all and just to sit tight. Teemu looks out of the window and loudly remarks that they are offloading our luggage even as they speak.
After an hour and a half they tell us that this thing is definitely not flying anywhere, that they'd get a new plane in a couple of hours, and that meanwhile we can all disembark, go to the terminal, get something to eat and they will pay for it. Quite coincidentally this happens 5 minues after all restaurants in that terminal except MacDonald's close for the night. I don't care for MacDonald's and try to call my parents, but my battery is empty. I ask people in BA information where I can find a continental European plug. They say there isn't any. I look at them. They give me a couple of phone cards so that I'd stop looking at them.
The next plane indeed came in a couple of hours, and the flight was luckily rather uneventful.
The plane takes off more or less on time and more or less normally, at least for the first few minutes. Then it starts feeling like we are not rising fast enough, nor accelerating fast enough. I decide that I am just being paranoid and imagining things and start staring down at the earth in an evil way in hope that it will get scared and go away. It doesn't. 15 minutes or so go like that, and we are still way too low and way too slow.
Suddenly Teemu says: "Dont't you think that we are way too low and way too slow?" So I am not being paranoid. OK, I am being paranoid but in spite of that the whole world really is against me today. I answer that yes, something is wrong and look around. None of the other passengers looks like they noticed anything, which is not very surprising, considering that we are surrounded by something that looks like a church choir consisting of teenage girls. Such people tend to be in disgustingly good spirit on airplanes, at least until they've had beans for their in-flight lunch. Cabin crew, on the other hand, looks a bit concerned. Or rather they look scared shitless. I'd always imagined they teach them a bit of acting, but apparently they'd practiced with some scenes depicting the last day of Pompei.
After a little while the pilot says in an apologetic tone well-familiar to most women: "Sorry, we can't get our landing gear up. We'll circle around for a while, try to get it up, but if we won't succeed we'll have to land and fix it on the ground". My first thought: "if they can't get it up, it might be they cannot get it properly down either", and I start contempltaing what a landing without functioning landing gear might feel like, what are the chances of surviving it, whether I actually want to survive it, and whether it is likely to cause any kind of injuries that might make me want to kill myself but render me unable to do so without outside help. While I am thinking these cheerful thoughts, the church choir around us has awakened to the situation and is reacting to it like it is some kind of an exciting adventure.
Now we are not only low and slow, but also moving in a wrong direction. Instead of circling around London like the pilot told us, or going northwest towards Ireland like we were supposed to in the first place, we are going southeast, and I can see the North Sea below us and Belgium ahead of us. I might be too paranoid to trust my assessment of height and speed, but I am not crazy enough to imagine Belgium. This makes me think that they really can't get the landing gear down, either, and are trying to land on water. I share this observation with Teemu and start reading the emergency card, mostly just to have something to do since I already know it by heart. Teemu keeps telling me that I should forget it and that we are definitely not going to survive a landing on water, therefore no need for studying emergency exists. I look at him like Han Solo looked at C3P0 every time C3P0 tried to tell him the chances of successful navigation among the meteors.
Suddenly a huge jet of some fluid, presumably fuel, comes out of the wing. I am sitting in a window seat right behind the right wing, so it's only in a few meters from me and I get the best view. I take my eyes off Teemu and give a really evil eye to the jet of fuel. It doesn't disappear. Teemu is carrying on with the "Doom! Doom! Doom!" topic. I tell him that if he does not stop right now he will have more immediate threats to his life and well-being than falling planes. The cabin crew is running around in quiet panic. The church choir is in good spirits.
After a while the pilot belatedly announces that they did not manage to correct the problem, that they are dumping the fuel into the North Sea now and that we will be landing back in Heathrow as soon as we are done with fuel dumping. It goes on for 20 minutes or so, and then we indeed start crawling back towards Heathrow.
At the moment when the landing gear touches the ground I relax quite a bit, especially since it seems to be slowing down in the normal way. The next moment the church choir sees the several dozens of fire trucks and ambulances that were waiting for us and starts panicking. Loudly. We are gloating quietly and wishing them all to shit their pants. Prematurely, as it turns out, since they do not let us off the plane. The plane comes to the gate, they (the pilot, not the choir) tell us that they will fix it in no time at all and just to sit tight. Teemu looks out of the window and loudly remarks that they are offloading our luggage even as they speak.
After an hour and a half they tell us that this thing is definitely not flying anywhere, that they'd get a new plane in a couple of hours, and that meanwhile we can all disembark, go to the terminal, get something to eat and they will pay for it. Quite coincidentally this happens 5 minues after all restaurants in that terminal except MacDonald's close for the night. I don't care for MacDonald's and try to call my parents, but my battery is empty. I ask people in BA information where I can find a continental European plug. They say there isn't any. I look at them. They give me a couple of phone cards so that I'd stop looking at them.
The next plane indeed came in a couple of hours, and the flight was luckily rather uneventful.
Vitutus taas
Nukuttaa. Sataa. Paljon töitä. Irkki on rikki.
Sain eilen Verkkokaupasta tilaamani DVD+R-levyt, poltin kolme, ja nyt mikään asema ei lue niitä. Ne on vissiin write-only levyjä. En tiedä mikä niissä on pielessä, tai mun asemassa. Se kyllä kirjoittaa CD+RW-levyjä varsin kiltisti. Ostanpa joitain muita DVD+R levyjä tänään ja yritän polttaa sellaisen mun asemassa, ja sitten yhden mun nykyisistä DVD+R-levyistä jossain toisessa asemassa. Katsotaan kumpi on rikki, vai kumpikin, vai ei kumpikaan.
Kaiken lisäksi se polttaa näitä levyjä vain 1x-nopeudella, joten joka kokeiluun menee tunti, vaikka sekä levyt että asema on 4x. Asema näyttää polttavan levyjä ihan normaalisti, ja sen jälkeen niitä ei saa luettua eikä edes mountattua.
Levyt on Commodore ja asema on Gigabyte GO-W0404A. Kertokaa jos on ollut samanlaisia ongelmia.
Sain eilen Verkkokaupasta tilaamani DVD+R-levyt, poltin kolme, ja nyt mikään asema ei lue niitä. Ne on vissiin write-only levyjä. En tiedä mikä niissä on pielessä, tai mun asemassa. Se kyllä kirjoittaa CD+RW-levyjä varsin kiltisti. Ostanpa joitain muita DVD+R levyjä tänään ja yritän polttaa sellaisen mun asemassa, ja sitten yhden mun nykyisistä DVD+R-levyistä jossain toisessa asemassa. Katsotaan kumpi on rikki, vai kumpikin, vai ei kumpikaan.
Kaiken lisäksi se polttaa näitä levyjä vain 1x-nopeudella, joten joka kokeiluun menee tunti, vaikka sekä levyt että asema on 4x. Asema näyttää polttavan levyjä ihan normaalisti, ja sen jälkeen niitä ei saa luettua eikä edes mountattua.
Levyt on Commodore ja asema on Gigabyte GO-W0404A. Kertokaa jos on ollut samanlaisia ongelmia.
Wednesday, August 25, 2004
Nasty brats
Yesterday I saw four young boys (ages 8 to 12, I'd guess) throwing eggs at a drunk guy in front of Herttoniemi subway station. I started wondering what can one do in a situation like that, apart from telling them to stop (which they would most likely, but not necessarily ignore). You can't hit them, at least not in front of witnesses at the subway station and not unless you want to be charged with assault and battery. You can legally grab one and hold him until the police arrives, but what will police do with him and what will you do with the rest of them until the police arrives?
Not that anybody could interfere in this particular case, since the little shits threw two eggs and started running, and they seemed to be future Olympic short-distance running champions. Luckily they were definitely not current or future champions in any kind of sport that requires throwing. But the question remains: what do you do to brats who are severely misbehaving in public?
Some people can really talk to children. Viu has that special way of talking that is a prefect cross between a porno-movie dominatrix and a parole officer and scares the shit out of teenagers. But what should the rest of us do, especially in a situation that does not allow for violence?
I remember Viu talking to a group of teenagers who had been shooting fireworks at the windows of a building in such a way that the teenagers ran off screaming that she is a menace to society. That was a sweet, sweet moment. Maybe I should take lessons?
Not that anybody could interfere in this particular case, since the little shits threw two eggs and started running, and they seemed to be future Olympic short-distance running champions. Luckily they were definitely not current or future champions in any kind of sport that requires throwing. But the question remains: what do you do to brats who are severely misbehaving in public?
Some people can really talk to children. Viu has that special way of talking that is a prefect cross between a porno-movie dominatrix and a parole officer and scares the shit out of teenagers. But what should the rest of us do, especially in a situation that does not allow for violence?
I remember Viu talking to a group of teenagers who had been shooting fireworks at the windows of a building in such a way that the teenagers ran off screaming that she is a menace to society. That was a sweet, sweet moment. Maybe I should take lessons?
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
Krav Maga, computer and other things
Had a Krav Maga lesson this morning. Hopefully won't be as sore as after the last one. My opponent this time was a guy who was both much better at it, and a lot bigger. We practiced sparring (really got my ass kicked), wrestling (did a lot better there) and various attacks from behind. One of them (put your arms under the victim's arms and then push down on the back of their had) is a very unnatural thing to do to a taller person, can't even reach their head properly.
The computer started to emit scary noises every once in a while, even scarier than before, I'd guess one of the fans is fucked up, but the problem is that I have to open it in order to hear which one it is, it immediately stops making scary sounds as soon as I open it, and often even as soon as I approach it with a screwdriver. I opened it at night and it's been quiet ever since. Lots of dust inside. Maybe I should vacuum clean it. Advice is welcome (on fan diagnostics, not on vacuum cleaning, although most people who know me probably think I am more in need of the latter).
Al-Muhajiroun gives us a complete analysis of the sutiation in Darfur. "The current problems in Darfur are fueled firstly, by the Muslims in the region having become subservient to the enemies of Islam led by the Jews who live in the region." The fact that there aren't any Jews living there does not bother them much. "Second, is the Eritrean government known for its relationship with Israel and led by a Christian Asyas Aforgi", and "Third are the Americans", not surprisingly.
The Salafi Society of North America gives us its thought on Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Also on peaceful coexistence: "Are these people ignorant of the fact that the only Religion acceptable in the sight of Allaah is Islaam?"
British Airways are having technical problems and are therefore cancelling flights and stranding passengers. They better fix those problems before I fly on them, which will be fairly soon. Once I had the misfortune of observing their technical problems from very close by, complete with dumping of fuel and an emergency landing, but that merits a post of its own.
The computer started to emit scary noises every once in a while, even scarier than before, I'd guess one of the fans is fucked up, but the problem is that I have to open it in order to hear which one it is, it immediately stops making scary sounds as soon as I open it, and often even as soon as I approach it with a screwdriver. I opened it at night and it's been quiet ever since. Lots of dust inside. Maybe I should vacuum clean it. Advice is welcome (on fan diagnostics, not on vacuum cleaning, although most people who know me probably think I am more in need of the latter).
Al-Muhajiroun gives us a complete analysis of the sutiation in Darfur. "The current problems in Darfur are fueled firstly, by the Muslims in the region having become subservient to the enemies of Islam led by the Jews who live in the region." The fact that there aren't any Jews living there does not bother them much. "Second, is the Eritrean government known for its relationship with Israel and led by a Christian Asyas Aforgi", and "Third are the Americans", not surprisingly.
The Salafi Society of North America gives us its thought on Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Also on peaceful coexistence: "Are these people ignorant of the fact that the only Religion acceptable in the sight of Allaah is Islaam?"
British Airways are having technical problems and are therefore cancelling flights and stranding passengers. They better fix those problems before I fly on them, which will be fairly soon. Once I had the misfortune of observing their technical problems from very close by, complete with dumping of fuel and an emergency landing, but that merits a post of its own.
Monday, August 23, 2004
Arson in Paris
A Jewish social center was burned down in Paris yesterday. The place used to be a synagogue until 1960s, after which it became a sort of soup kitchen for the poor elderly, and was situated on the first floor of a residential building.
The arsonists wrote "sans les juifs, on serait heureux", "le monde sera plus pur quand il n'y aura plus de juifs" and "mort aux juifs" ("without Jews we'd be happy", "the world will be more pure withough Jews" and "death to Jews"). Using their mighty deductive powers, Crif (representative counsil of Jewish organizations) guessed that the arsonists had antisemitic motives.
A previously unknown group called Jamaat Ansar al-Jihad al-Islamiya took the responsibility, but their statement could not be authenticated.
It's funny how so many islamic terrorist organizations have very similar names. There's Jamaat Al-Islamiya in Egypt, Jemaah Islamiya in Indonesia, Jamaat al-Tawhid wa'l-Jihad and Asnar Al-Islam in Iraq. Sort of reminds me of Monty Python's Life of Brian and its Judean People's Front, People's Front of Judea and Popular Front of Judea.
The arsonists wrote "sans les juifs, on serait heureux", "le monde sera plus pur quand il n'y aura plus de juifs" and "mort aux juifs" ("without Jews we'd be happy", "the world will be more pure withough Jews" and "death to Jews"). Using their mighty deductive powers, Crif (representative counsil of Jewish organizations) guessed that the arsonists had antisemitic motives.
A previously unknown group called Jamaat Ansar al-Jihad al-Islamiya took the responsibility, but their statement could not be authenticated.
It's funny how so many islamic terrorist organizations have very similar names. There's Jamaat Al-Islamiya in Egypt, Jemaah Islamiya in Indonesia, Jamaat al-Tawhid wa'l-Jihad and Asnar Al-Islam in Iraq. Sort of reminds me of Monty Python's Life of Brian and its Judean People's Front, People's Front of Judea and Popular Front of Judea.
The weekend
Went to see Vares on Friday with Heli. It was a very pleasant surprise. The trailer advertises it as a thriller, but the movie is in fact a comedy, and a very funny one at that. I'll get a DVD when it comes out. After the movie went to see Heli's new place. It has a lovely view over Pasila.
On Saturday went shooting. It went better than expected, but need to practice more. In the evening went to friends' housewarming party, which was very nice. Everybody left at one, and some people went to continue elsewhere, but I was too sleepy. I am getting old, and even though I try to practice my partying skills almost every day, I only manage to party through the night once a month, if even that.
On Sunday went to Korkeasaari with Killeri. As soon as we got to the bears Killeri got a phone call summoning him to participate in the search and rescue of three lost girls. That's the problem with dating really nice guys: every once in a while they run off to save the world, democracy or some lost sprogs, and leave their girlfriend in a very uncomfortable state of arousal. I realize that in some big and objective scheme of things rescuing the three girls before they get eaten by wild hares and squirrels is a lot more important than whether or not I get to spend a nice evening with Killeri, but I find it unfair that children interfere with my sex life even though I don't have any (children, not sex life, although if children start getting lost every weekend to the extend of raising all the search and rescue-volunteers in the Helsinki area, might not have much of a sex life either).
Luckily the brats were apprehended pretty soon and Killeri came back to my place. Too bad about the zoo.
On Saturday went shooting. It went better than expected, but need to practice more. In the evening went to friends' housewarming party, which was very nice. Everybody left at one, and some people went to continue elsewhere, but I was too sleepy. I am getting old, and even though I try to practice my partying skills almost every day, I only manage to party through the night once a month, if even that.
On Sunday went to Korkeasaari with Killeri. As soon as we got to the bears Killeri got a phone call summoning him to participate in the search and rescue of three lost girls. That's the problem with dating really nice guys: every once in a while they run off to save the world, democracy or some lost sprogs, and leave their girlfriend in a very uncomfortable state of arousal. I realize that in some big and objective scheme of things rescuing the three girls before they get eaten by wild hares and squirrels is a lot more important than whether or not I get to spend a nice evening with Killeri, but I find it unfair that children interfere with my sex life even though I don't have any (children, not sex life, although if children start getting lost every weekend to the extend of raising all the search and rescue-volunteers in the Helsinki area, might not have much of a sex life either).
Luckily the brats were apprehended pretty soon and Killeri came back to my place. Too bad about the zoo.
Friday, August 20, 2004
In the news
It's official: you can't be a good Catholic if you have celiac disease. At least in the opinion of the Diocese of Trenton, New Jersey. At least you cannot receive Holy Communion. The Communion wafer does not really become body of Christ if it does not contain wheat.
While MA Senator Kerry is trying to run for White House, MA Senator Kennedy is trying to board planes, with moderate success. Apparently he looks like a terrorist, has a red nose, and has a name similar to a notorious terrorist Edward-Mohammed Al-Kennedy.
Well, CAPPS (the passenger surveillance system) screens, among other things, for one-way tickets, tickets bought at the last minute and tickets bought for cash, therefore fairly often it selects our fearless leaders flying between Washington, D.C., and their home state. What attracted my attention though:
The article says:
"Kennedy said he was stopped at airports in Washington, D.C., and Boston three times in March. Airline agents told him he would not be sold a ticket because his name was on a list.
When he asked the agent why, he was told, "We can't tell you."
Each time, a supervisor recognized Kennedy and got him on the flight. But after the third incident, Kennedy's staff called the Transportation Security Administration and asked to clear up the confusion."
Apparently CAPPS marks at least some people as not being allowed to fly at all. Is that really necessary? Yes, suspicious people should be searched and questioned more thoroughly than others, but once you have searched them and found that they are not carrying a bomb in their suitcase, a pistol in their purse and a knife in their asshole, shouldn't they be allowed to fly wherever they want like the rest of us? I mean, even Osama Bin Laden himself could not really hijack a plane with a toothbrush and underwear. "Fly that plane into the Sears tower now or else I make you smell my undies!" I don't think anyone'd obey him, not even if he uses the underwear that he used for 5 years in Afghanistan without ever taking it off, even in the toilet. (Well, these could be confiscated as a chemical weapons anyway.)
Richard Reid disapproves of the prison conditions. "Officials at the ''Supermax'' prison won't let him call his aunts and uncles and are blocking him from certain prison jobs, classes and religious materials, he says. " Also, the shoes are unsufficiently warm for his taste.
While MA Senator Kerry is trying to run for White House, MA Senator Kennedy is trying to board planes, with moderate success. Apparently he looks like a terrorist, has a red nose, and has a name similar to a notorious terrorist Edward-Mohammed Al-Kennedy.
Well, CAPPS (the passenger surveillance system) screens, among other things, for one-way tickets, tickets bought at the last minute and tickets bought for cash, therefore fairly often it selects our fearless leaders flying between Washington, D.C., and their home state. What attracted my attention though:
The article says:
"Kennedy said he was stopped at airports in Washington, D.C., and Boston three times in March. Airline agents told him he would not be sold a ticket because his name was on a list.
When he asked the agent why, he was told, "We can't tell you."
Each time, a supervisor recognized Kennedy and got him on the flight. But after the third incident, Kennedy's staff called the Transportation Security Administration and asked to clear up the confusion."
Apparently CAPPS marks at least some people as not being allowed to fly at all. Is that really necessary? Yes, suspicious people should be searched and questioned more thoroughly than others, but once you have searched them and found that they are not carrying a bomb in their suitcase, a pistol in their purse and a knife in their asshole, shouldn't they be allowed to fly wherever they want like the rest of us? I mean, even Osama Bin Laden himself could not really hijack a plane with a toothbrush and underwear. "Fly that plane into the Sears tower now or else I make you smell my undies!" I don't think anyone'd obey him, not even if he uses the underwear that he used for 5 years in Afghanistan without ever taking it off, even in the toilet. (Well, these could be confiscated as a chemical weapons anyway.)
Richard Reid disapproves of the prison conditions. "Officials at the ''Supermax'' prison won't let him call his aunts and uncles and are blocking him from certain prison jobs, classes and religious materials, he says. " Also, the shoes are unsufficiently warm for his taste.
Computer problems and fireworks
The net connection at work was fucked in a mysterious way yesterday, all night and all morning. At first I thought it was some Eunet problem, then figured it must be my own since Lasu in the next room had no problems at all. Looked really weird, like half of the packages were not getting through.
Ran out of ideas, asked around. Mio said her computer started doing the same thing yesterday. Turned out that a certain silly bugger whose name shall not be mentioned put our computers under the same name on our DNS server. No wonder we only got half of the packages each.
Had a nice evening with Kristiina, who had brought some nice French desert wine. Even had some coffee, which is sort of an event, because I usually don't drink it.
In the middle of the evening we heard some strange noise, sort of like thunder but longer. Turned out to be fireworks. We did not go out to see them.
I used to like fireworks when I was a kid, but not anymore. I wonder why. Spending New Year 2000 in Helsinki has definitely contibuted to it, but I remember cooling off towards fireworks even before that. I can still enjoy them from far away, but from up close they are just burning things falling through the air and making an annoying noise.
I really don't like the ones used by the population. When I was a teenager I always though it silly that it was not allowed to sell fireworks in Massachusetts. "Why can't we have fireworks in stores like in New Hampshire?" was my regular whine, as well as everyone else's. After spending my first New Year in Finland (where, thank god, people are only allowed to buy them between Christmas and New Year, unlike in New Hampshire) I realized exactly why we don't have them in Massachusetts, and hope it will stay that way.
Ran out of ideas, asked around. Mio said her computer started doing the same thing yesterday. Turned out that a certain silly bugger whose name shall not be mentioned put our computers under the same name on our DNS server. No wonder we only got half of the packages each.
Had a nice evening with Kristiina, who had brought some nice French desert wine. Even had some coffee, which is sort of an event, because I usually don't drink it.
In the middle of the evening we heard some strange noise, sort of like thunder but longer. Turned out to be fireworks. We did not go out to see them.
I used to like fireworks when I was a kid, but not anymore. I wonder why. Spending New Year 2000 in Helsinki has definitely contibuted to it, but I remember cooling off towards fireworks even before that. I can still enjoy them from far away, but from up close they are just burning things falling through the air and making an annoying noise.
I really don't like the ones used by the population. When I was a teenager I always though it silly that it was not allowed to sell fireworks in Massachusetts. "Why can't we have fireworks in stores like in New Hampshire?" was my regular whine, as well as everyone else's. After spending my first New Year in Finland (where, thank god, people are only allowed to buy them between Christmas and New Year, unlike in New Hampshire) I realized exactly why we don't have them in Massachusetts, and hope it will stay that way.
Thursday, August 19, 2004
The victory over the evil constipated computer
I performed a magic rain dance last night, and as the result of it, or in spite of it, the computer did not get constipated last night.
The magic rain dance consisted of uninstalling ACPI, removing the microphone and not leaving skype on overnight. I'll try putting the microphone back in tonight, see what happens. I suspect ACPI was the problem.
HTV was doing weird things yesterday, I suppose they were trying to make everybody else's connections faster. Does not concern me probably, I've got Welho Pro.
Now the computer at work started doing naughty tricks. No rest for the wicked...
The magic rain dance consisted of uninstalling ACPI, removing the microphone and not leaving skype on overnight. I'll try putting the microphone back in tonight, see what happens. I suspect ACPI was the problem.
HTV was doing weird things yesterday, I suppose they were trying to make everybody else's connections faster. Does not concern me probably, I've got Welho Pro.
Now the computer at work started doing naughty tricks. No rest for the wicked...
Wednesday, August 18, 2004
The evil constipated computer
My computer got constipated last night, and then this night again. Both time I woke up to it (I wonder why) and tried to see what's wrong. Which was not easy, considering that the degree of constipation was such that ps -ef took half an hour to run.
The weird thing is that nothing seems to be wrong. ps -ef is not showing anything unusual, and neither is top. Nothing seems to be using a lot of processor time, or a lot of memory. The problem happened both times when the computer was idle for a while at night, and does not happen when it is idle during the daytime. Daily cron was my suspect number one, but it seems to contain nothing suspicious, and moreover, nothing new. The only new thing in my computer the other day was the microphone, but it's hard to imagine it can do that.
What is it that makes computers very slow and does not show up as a process?
The weird thing is that nothing seems to be wrong. ps -ef is not showing anything unusual, and neither is top. Nothing seems to be using a lot of processor time, or a lot of memory. The problem happened both times when the computer was idle for a while at night, and does not happen when it is idle during the daytime. Daily cron was my suspect number one, but it seems to contain nothing suspicious, and moreover, nothing new. The only new thing in my computer the other day was the microphone, but it's hard to imagine it can do that.
What is it that makes computers very slow and does not show up as a process?
Krav Maga
Been to Krav Maga again after the summer break. Set a new record of how many muscles can be sore in a human body at a given time. Probably am in no condition to go there again today.
Luckily we only practiced old stuff, the only new thing was rolling over one's shoulder. I think my ass falls in a somewhat wrong direction when I do that, but that would only serve to confuse the adversary, so that's OK.
Ari was making fun of me and joking about Lenin.
Gotta pay for it, too. The damn classes are expensive.
Luckily we only practiced old stuff, the only new thing was rolling over one's shoulder. I think my ass falls in a somewhat wrong direction when I do that, but that would only serve to confuse the adversary, so that's OK.
Ari was making fun of me and joking about Lenin.
Gotta pay for it, too. The damn classes are expensive.
Monday, August 16, 2004
Weekend
Hanged out with Killeri Friday night. We went to see The Butterfly Effect. I liked it a fair lot, but this is not the kind of movie that one would like to see twice, or hear spoilers about, so won't post any spoilers.
Saw the first 6 episodes of Band of Brothers Saturday. It was every bit as good as everyone had said.
Went to the zoo on Sunday, and immediately it started raining. They finally have bears now.
Last night was drinking with Anu and Elaine. Were talking about various sad things, like the November election and the sex life of the governor of New Jersey, but was a lot of fun anyways (for us and not for the governor of New Jersey). Among other things, I drank some mild alcoholic drink that contained coffee. Don't recommend it.
Ordered some DVD+Rs from abroad. Whoever expects a cassette fee for them may consume excrement and expire.
Saw the first 6 episodes of Band of Brothers Saturday. It was every bit as good as everyone had said.
Went to the zoo on Sunday, and immediately it started raining. They finally have bears now.
Last night was drinking with Anu and Elaine. Were talking about various sad things, like the November election and the sex life of the governor of New Jersey, but was a lot of fun anyways (for us and not for the governor of New Jersey). Among other things, I drank some mild alcoholic drink that contained coffee. Don't recommend it.
Ordered some DVD+Rs from abroad. Whoever expects a cassette fee for them may consume excrement and expire.
Hangover and a little fridge
Feeling a bit hungover today. See what comes from not drinking regularly enough! Went to bed at 2, woke up at 4 to see that I had fallen out of bed and got a sore ass, crawled back into bed, woke up at 6, opened an eye and looked at the world with disapproval, had some tea and a shower, the world improved a bit, and I went to Verkkokauppa, who had an opening day sale with tiny little fridges for 90 cents to the first 200 customers.
Fast hardware check on the way to estimate the effect of hangover: brains: more or less normal, balance: normal, eyes: normal, dehydration: normal, taste in the mouth: bad, blood sugar: nearly nonexistent, sounds from the stomach: scary and remind of the broken chipset fan that I had last fall.
8:40: A huge line outside Ruoholahti shopping center. No way I am gonna get that fridge. Real men have probably come at 6. The atmosphere is similar to a Gorbachev-era Soviet liquor store at 13:40. The median age of the crowd is younger than me, although the average is probably older.
9:00: The line starts moving. Does not move far, or for long.
9:02: People come out and say that fridges are gone. Nobody is actually carrying any fridges.
9:05: We see the first little fridge.
9:10: Seen 15 people carrying little fridges and about 50 people saying that fridges are gone. The line is still there, because once people are there they want to check out the store anyway.
9:15: Finally inside the shopping center though not the store. It smells like piss after eating asparagus. Don't know why. Hope Subway or Spizy don't recycle asparagus soup. I see the door that the previous customers have broken. A granny who'd been standing in line since 7 and got a fridge comes up to us and describes the battle for the fridges and how they broke the door and some furniture. Two young guys also come up and demonstrate their minor but visible injuries, but they don't have a fridge to show for it.
9:35: Finally got into the store. Got a 256MB Compact Flash and a microphone. Survived.
Fast hardware check on the way to estimate the effect of hangover: brains: more or less normal, balance: normal, eyes: normal, dehydration: normal, taste in the mouth: bad, blood sugar: nearly nonexistent, sounds from the stomach: scary and remind of the broken chipset fan that I had last fall.
8:40: A huge line outside Ruoholahti shopping center. No way I am gonna get that fridge. Real men have probably come at 6. The atmosphere is similar to a Gorbachev-era Soviet liquor store at 13:40. The median age of the crowd is younger than me, although the average is probably older.
9:00: The line starts moving. Does not move far, or for long.
9:02: People come out and say that fridges are gone. Nobody is actually carrying any fridges.
9:05: We see the first little fridge.
9:10: Seen 15 people carrying little fridges and about 50 people saying that fridges are gone. The line is still there, because once people are there they want to check out the store anyway.
9:15: Finally inside the shopping center though not the store. It smells like piss after eating asparagus. Don't know why. Hope Subway or Spizy don't recycle asparagus soup. I see the door that the previous customers have broken. A granny who'd been standing in line since 7 and got a fridge comes up to us and describes the battle for the fridges and how they broke the door and some furniture. Two young guys also come up and demonstrate their minor but visible injuries, but they don't have a fridge to show for it.
9:35: Finally got into the store. Got a 256MB Compact Flash and a microphone. Survived.
Friday, August 13, 2004
About IQ, again
I'd always wondered how many of the people who say "IQ does not matter at all" or "heredity has nothing to do with IQ" really believe it. Somebody (Daniel Mocsny?) has once suggested an experiment: if a person is faced with a heart surgery and has a choice of surgeons with the IQ of two standard deviations below normal and two standard deviations above normal, how many of the IQ-nonbelievers would choose a low-IQ surgeon and how many would have a crisis of faith? I'd like to add: if a person needed donor sperm or a donor egg, for many would willingly choose an egg or sperm of a donor with low IQ?
Incidentally, the stupidest person I have met in my life is a mother of two very smart children. It happens. Maybe she inherited some particularly unfortunate combination of genes. Maybe something happened to her, too little oxygen at birth or something like that. I'd still choose a smart donor's genetic material over a stupid one's. Not that I have any use for any genetic material, of course.
I wanted to write about the Bell Curve, but Tommi read my mind and beat me to it.
Incidentally, the stupidest person I have met in my life is a mother of two very smart children. It happens. Maybe she inherited some particularly unfortunate combination of genes. Maybe something happened to her, too little oxygen at birth or something like that. I'd still choose a smart donor's genetic material over a stupid one's. Not that I have any use for any genetic material, of course.
I wanted to write about the Bell Curve, but Tommi read my mind and beat me to it.
Vanhanen
Looks like Tatu Vanhanen is not going to be accused of inciting racial hatred after all. Thanks god for small favors.
What bothers me about the attempt to accuse him is how it relates to the scientific process in general. The man was obviously not screaming "kill the black people!" in the streets - he was expressing the results of his research, his theory, which he of course believes is right. Which brings us to the question: if his theory, god forbid, is right, do we want to forbid saying the truth because it insults an ethnic group? And if we are trying to punish him precisely because he is, in fact, wrong, does it mean that making mistakes in science is punishable by law, at least when these mistakes are insulting to as ethnic group or race? I thought that scientific research normally involves a lot of people being wrong a lot of the time.
OTOH: this is an example where the claim is not likely to incite violence. Saying "Blacks are stupid", "Jews are ugly" or "Norwegians fart all the time", although is not likely to please said groups, is also not likely to incite violence against them. What if the claim were "most Russians living in Finland have spied on Finland for Russia during the Winter War" and it were uttered right after the Winter War? And what if it were the truth? Would the turth have to be suppressed in order to avoid the violence? I don't know.
Another disturbing thing: some things are just too hot to touch, even for scientific community. IQ, as some people say, does not matter in any way and is totally unimportant, and therefore everybody who is studying it is a menace to society. IQ has absolutely no hereditary component, say some, and any correlation between smart parents and smart children is purely accidental. The thought that there might be variations in intelligence between ethnic groups is outright heretical, especially when expressed as "group A has lower IQ than our society's average", as opposed to the also politically incorrect, but much less so "group B has higher IQ than our society's average".
Vanhanen's research might be of low quality; hard to say since I have not read the book, but if this article is true, his method of data collection is, to put it mildly, rather unfortunate. What bothers me, however, is that if somebody did perfectly good research and came up with the same or similar results, it would not piss people off any less, in fact probably more. And no matter how good or well-proven the theory would be, the scientific community and the rest of society would not accept it - we are just too uncomfortable with the idea. In fact I am rather uncomfortable with the idea, though obviously not to the point of wanting to punish the researcher.
What bothers me about the attempt to accuse him is how it relates to the scientific process in general. The man was obviously not screaming "kill the black people!" in the streets - he was expressing the results of his research, his theory, which he of course believes is right. Which brings us to the question: if his theory, god forbid, is right, do we want to forbid saying the truth because it insults an ethnic group? And if we are trying to punish him precisely because he is, in fact, wrong, does it mean that making mistakes in science is punishable by law, at least when these mistakes are insulting to as ethnic group or race? I thought that scientific research normally involves a lot of people being wrong a lot of the time.
OTOH: this is an example where the claim is not likely to incite violence. Saying "Blacks are stupid", "Jews are ugly" or "Norwegians fart all the time", although is not likely to please said groups, is also not likely to incite violence against them. What if the claim were "most Russians living in Finland have spied on Finland for Russia during the Winter War" and it were uttered right after the Winter War? And what if it were the truth? Would the turth have to be suppressed in order to avoid the violence? I don't know.
Another disturbing thing: some things are just too hot to touch, even for scientific community. IQ, as some people say, does not matter in any way and is totally unimportant, and therefore everybody who is studying it is a menace to society. IQ has absolutely no hereditary component, say some, and any correlation between smart parents and smart children is purely accidental. The thought that there might be variations in intelligence between ethnic groups is outright heretical, especially when expressed as "group A has lower IQ than our society's average", as opposed to the also politically incorrect, but much less so "group B has higher IQ than our society's average".
Vanhanen's research might be of low quality; hard to say since I have not read the book, but if this article is true, his method of data collection is, to put it mildly, rather unfortunate. What bothers me, however, is that if somebody did perfectly good research and came up with the same or similar results, it would not piss people off any less, in fact probably more. And no matter how good or well-proven the theory would be, the scientific community and the rest of society would not accept it - we are just too uncomfortable with the idea. In fact I am rather uncomfortable with the idea, though obviously not to the point of wanting to punish the researcher.
Life, games and shooting stars
Have no time to write much this week: too much work and three role-playing sessions, two of them for the same campaign. Although did not really have to do much there since my character got delivered to a hospital with a punctured lung in the beginning of the Tuesday session and therefore was in no condition to be very efficient. But it's fun to watch other people playing while one's own character is very much out of the game.
Saw the shooting stars on Wednesday. Even dragged my ass to Kaivopuisto for that just before midnight. Spent 20 minutes lying on my back and staring into the sky, saw 4 shoting stars for my trouble. There was a lot of other people out there but they were all going to Kaivohuone. Have no idea what was happening there.
Never understood the popularity of Kaivohuone, but then I tend to favor quiet pubs with as little smoke and music and as big a selection of beer as possible.
Saw the shooting stars on Wednesday. Even dragged my ass to Kaivopuisto for that just before midnight. Spent 20 minutes lying on my back and staring into the sky, saw 4 shoting stars for my trouble. There was a lot of other people out there but they were all going to Kaivohuone. Have no idea what was happening there.
Never understood the popularity of Kaivohuone, but then I tend to favor quiet pubs with as little smoke and music and as big a selection of beer as possible.
Wednesday, August 11, 2004
I just can't leave Al-Muhajiroun in peace, can I?
Here is a lovely article with instructions in toilet use for proper Moslems. Features: "you can't read Quran in the bathroom", "don't stay there too long", "did the Prophet piss sitting or standing", etc.
OK, shouldn't make fun of it. Whatever people do in the toilet is their business, provided they don't miss the bowl.
Here is another one about the education system:
The Islamic state will have its own media department which it will use to propagate Islam and the Islamic values throughout the world and refute all the lies and misconceptions that have been propagated by the disbelievers. All the latest technological and scientific means of communications, such as satellite, electronic mail, teleconferencing etc. will be tapped, used and explored by the state in its quest to educate the citizens of Khilafah. Foreign media sources like BBC World Service, CNN, Voice of America etc., which exist in the Muslim world to confuse, attack and divert Muslims from Islam will be banned.
This sounds somehow familiar to an old Russian.
The current secular school system is very, very bad:
Perhaps the first lesson is geography. Your child will be taught about the different countries : its resources, population, peoples and culture, language, its national flag etc.... And many of these will inevitably be of Muslim countries. It all seems quite harmless until you realise that Islam does not recognise most of these countries as legitimate countries.
...
Maybe the next lesson in the daily routine will be science. You expect your child to gain an understanding in science that will further his/her future career. But it is easy to forget that many of the ideas taught in this subject are in direct contradiction to the Islamic belief.
After all, many theories, hypotheses and speculations, which have no firm foundation in evidence and which are subject to dispute among experts are taught as if they are established facts. The Theory of Evolution suggests that humans evolved from apes. The principle of Conservation of Energy proposes that energy is eternal (cannot be destroyed or created, but just transformed). Humans are put in the same category as animals (differing by being just a more advanced animal). The water cycle is presented as a self-subsisting system.
"Attitudes in Western science threatens the very status of God. " Duh.
Their vision of an Islamic state includes a vision of schools:
Let us consider a similar scenario as above. Your child arrives at a school in the Islamic State, and begins the day by greeting his/her colleagues and teachers with the greeting of Islam. Your child has the first lesson, perhaps a science subject. It could be a selection of the experimental or pure sciences. It would be taught with the Islamic 'aqeedah (belief) as the basis and an overriding guide. You as the parent, could rest assured that ideas such as the Theory of Evolution would not be taught; humans would not be considered as advanced animals; the Big Bang Theory would not be taught as fact (these would be studied later in university along with their refutation). Allah (swt) says in the Qur'an : "But most of them follow nothing but conjecture. Truly conjecture can be of no avail." [TMQ 10:37]
Yeah, "conjecture can be of no avail" is just an attitude for a scientist to have.
Whereas science in the West is seen as a contradiction to belief in God, within the Islamic State science would be a confirmation of the existence of Allah. Your child would come home and explain that he/she learnt about the water cycle : how Allah (swt) causes water to rise as vapour from the seas by evaporation and form clouds; then Allah (swt) would cause these clouds to give rain once they were over the lands; and Allah (swt) would cause the rain-water to gather and return back to the seas to once again start the cycle. Nothing that is taught would be in contradiction to Islam.
OK, shouldn't make fun of it. Whatever people do in the toilet is their business, provided they don't miss the bowl.
Here is another one about the education system:
The Islamic state will have its own media department which it will use to propagate Islam and the Islamic values throughout the world and refute all the lies and misconceptions that have been propagated by the disbelievers. All the latest technological and scientific means of communications, such as satellite, electronic mail, teleconferencing etc. will be tapped, used and explored by the state in its quest to educate the citizens of Khilafah. Foreign media sources like BBC World Service, CNN, Voice of America etc., which exist in the Muslim world to confuse, attack and divert Muslims from Islam will be banned.
This sounds somehow familiar to an old Russian.
The current secular school system is very, very bad:
Perhaps the first lesson is geography. Your child will be taught about the different countries : its resources, population, peoples and culture, language, its national flag etc.... And many of these will inevitably be of Muslim countries. It all seems quite harmless until you realise that Islam does not recognise most of these countries as legitimate countries.
...
Maybe the next lesson in the daily routine will be science. You expect your child to gain an understanding in science that will further his/her future career. But it is easy to forget that many of the ideas taught in this subject are in direct contradiction to the Islamic belief.
After all, many theories, hypotheses and speculations, which have no firm foundation in evidence and which are subject to dispute among experts are taught as if they are established facts. The Theory of Evolution suggests that humans evolved from apes. The principle of Conservation of Energy proposes that energy is eternal (cannot be destroyed or created, but just transformed). Humans are put in the same category as animals (differing by being just a more advanced animal). The water cycle is presented as a self-subsisting system.
"Attitudes in Western science threatens the very status of God. " Duh.
Their vision of an Islamic state includes a vision of schools:
Let us consider a similar scenario as above. Your child arrives at a school in the Islamic State, and begins the day by greeting his/her colleagues and teachers with the greeting of Islam. Your child has the first lesson, perhaps a science subject. It could be a selection of the experimental or pure sciences. It would be taught with the Islamic 'aqeedah (belief) as the basis and an overriding guide. You as the parent, could rest assured that ideas such as the Theory of Evolution would not be taught; humans would not be considered as advanced animals; the Big Bang Theory would not be taught as fact (these would be studied later in university along with their refutation). Allah (swt) says in the Qur'an : "But most of them follow nothing but conjecture. Truly conjecture can be of no avail." [TMQ 10:37]
Yeah, "conjecture can be of no avail" is just an attitude for a scientist to have.
Whereas science in the West is seen as a contradiction to belief in God, within the Islamic State science would be a confirmation of the existence of Allah. Your child would come home and explain that he/she learnt about the water cycle : how Allah (swt) causes water to rise as vapour from the seas by evaporation and form clouds; then Allah (swt) would cause these clouds to give rain once they were over the lands; and Allah (swt) would cause the rain-water to gather and return back to the seas to once again start the cycle. Nothing that is taught would be in contradiction to Islam.
Al-Muhajiroun, again
Al-Muhajiroun have an opinion on democracy, too:
To vote for a particular candidate on the 10th June will also be recorded as a vote AGAINST Allah (swt), his Messenger Muhammad (saw) and the deen of Islam.
Voting for Democracy is pure baatil (falsehood) and has no place in Islam; unfortunately some so called Muslim organisations have been duped by the fancy packaging of democratic elections, and even rally behind kuffar (disbelievers in Allah and Islam) propagating this FALSE system.
...
O Believers in Allah (swt) do not fall into the trap of apostasy; refrain from the kufr elections on the 10th June.
I wholeheartedly agree. Hey, Al-Muhajiroun and their supporters! You heard the man: voting is again the will of Allah.
The Muslim Council of Britain happened to disagree, for which Al-Muhajiroun called them a voice of Shaytaan.
Seriously, if I did not know they are real I would have though Al-Muhajiroun are a parody of some sort.
To vote for a particular candidate on the 10th June will also be recorded as a vote AGAINST Allah (swt), his Messenger Muhammad (saw) and the deen of Islam.
Voting for Democracy is pure baatil (falsehood) and has no place in Islam; unfortunately some so called Muslim organisations have been duped by the fancy packaging of democratic elections, and even rally behind kuffar (disbelievers in Allah and Islam) propagating this FALSE system.
...
O Believers in Allah (swt) do not fall into the trap of apostasy; refrain from the kufr elections on the 10th June.
I wholeheartedly agree. Hey, Al-Muhajiroun and their supporters! You heard the man: voting is again the will of Allah.
The Muslim Council of Britain happened to disagree, for which Al-Muhajiroun called them a voice of Shaytaan.
Seriously, if I did not know they are real I would have though Al-Muhajiroun are a parody of some sort.
Londonistan
The annual Rally for Islam in Britain, organized by Al-Muhajiroun, took place a couple of weeks ago. Here is Al-Muhajiroun's press release about it.
I'll only quote some choice bits from their vision of how Sharia should be implemented in Britain:
...hence it is a fundamental belief of every Muslim that Islam will one day dominate the world, including Britain, it is just a matter of time. Today we call for the people to embrace Islam and change the law and order themselves ; tomorrow an Islamic State may forcefully remove all obstacles in the way of the implementation of Islamic law, as part of its foreign policy.
...
The sale of alcohol or pork would be prohibited, gambling would be outlawed. The currency would change from paper money to the use of Gold as standard, thereby eradicating inflation. Stocks and shares would be prohibited as would insurance, interest based transactions and the current company structures - all of this would be replaced with a unique economic system encouraging distribution of wealth, banning exploitation and hoarding and ensuring transactions are done where the goods are tangible, the services specified and the companies are real. Man would be the trustee of God's wealth on Earth promoting investment of it to please God as in Jihad to conquer other lands to spread the law and order of Islam.
...
There would be no pubs for example, and night-clubs, porn shops or other places of entertainment between men and women, encouraging promiscuity and sexual deviancy (such as homosexuality) will be banned. Both men and women will be required to cover themselves properly in public with women wearing the Khimar and Jilbab (headscarf and long barrel shaped dress) and men covering at least from the navel to the knees at all times. Segregation (between men and women) in all public places will be enforced.
...
The Islamic judicial system would be implemented where adulterers would be stoned to death and thieves would have their hands cut. There would be no jury service or solicitors or barristers, rather Judges qualified in Islamic Law would preside over all cases and Judge according to God's law.
...
There would be compulsory Islamic education for all with Arabic being the national language so that the people can properly read and understand the Qur'an. False ideas such as evolution and the equality of religions and corrupt subjects such as music, drama and art would not be taught. Rather every subject will be linked to the relationship with God and new subjects such as Islamic concepts, Shari'ah law and Islamic Jurisprudence will be introduced to the curriculum. Other subjects such as science and mathematics will be cleansed of any concepts contradictory to divine revelation. History from an Islamic perspective will be studied. There will also be an emphasis upon boys to have military training so that they can participate in Jihad after they become 15 years old and an emphasis upon girls to learn those subjects such as cooking, managing the household and looking after and bringing up children to train them properly for their roles as mothers in the future.
With such advertisement it's really a wonder all Britons are not standing in lines for conversion to Islam. Wouldn't you all love to live in such a country? The members of A-Muhajiroun are willingly sacrificing their opportunity to live in the wonderful and happy lands of Shariah in order to live in miserable and decadent Britain and carry Islam to the poor British infidels, and the infidels are still persisting in their own infidel ways. But I am sure they will all see the light real soon now.
Incidentally, my own very suspicious attitude towards Islam began right there: at the Al-Muhajirouns Rally for Islam in Britain in July 1998. I wandered into the rally by accident, listened for a little while, was given some leaflets, read them, took a look at the people holding the "Islam - the Future for Britain"-slogan and was a bit surprised at the extent of how much I did not want Islam to be the future for Britain, or any other country that is currently not Islamic.
BTW, I wonder how come all the religions and movements who think that a woman's primary or only role is a wife and/or a mother always try to teach the girls "cooking, managing the household and looking after and bringing up children" and never a word about sex, even though being able to have sex is usually a fairly important prerequisite for being a wife and a mother? Yeah, people can usually have sex without being taught how to, but same goes for cooking and raising kids, and teaching might improve it. Wouldn't this sound better: "an emphasis upon girls to learn those subjects such as cooking, managing the household, sexual subjects such as intercourse, oral and anal sex and handjobs and looking after and bringing up children to train them properly for their roles as mothers in the future"?
I'll only quote some choice bits from their vision of how Sharia should be implemented in Britain:
...hence it is a fundamental belief of every Muslim that Islam will one day dominate the world, including Britain, it is just a matter of time. Today we call for the people to embrace Islam and change the law and order themselves ; tomorrow an Islamic State may forcefully remove all obstacles in the way of the implementation of Islamic law, as part of its foreign policy.
...
The sale of alcohol or pork would be prohibited, gambling would be outlawed. The currency would change from paper money to the use of Gold as standard, thereby eradicating inflation. Stocks and shares would be prohibited as would insurance, interest based transactions and the current company structures - all of this would be replaced with a unique economic system encouraging distribution of wealth, banning exploitation and hoarding and ensuring transactions are done where the goods are tangible, the services specified and the companies are real. Man would be the trustee of God's wealth on Earth promoting investment of it to please God as in Jihad to conquer other lands to spread the law and order of Islam.
...
There would be no pubs for example, and night-clubs, porn shops or other places of entertainment between men and women, encouraging promiscuity and sexual deviancy (such as homosexuality) will be banned. Both men and women will be required to cover themselves properly in public with women wearing the Khimar and Jilbab (headscarf and long barrel shaped dress) and men covering at least from the navel to the knees at all times. Segregation (between men and women) in all public places will be enforced.
...
The Islamic judicial system would be implemented where adulterers would be stoned to death and thieves would have their hands cut. There would be no jury service or solicitors or barristers, rather Judges qualified in Islamic Law would preside over all cases and Judge according to God's law.
...
There would be compulsory Islamic education for all with Arabic being the national language so that the people can properly read and understand the Qur'an. False ideas such as evolution and the equality of religions and corrupt subjects such as music, drama and art would not be taught. Rather every subject will be linked to the relationship with God and new subjects such as Islamic concepts, Shari'ah law and Islamic Jurisprudence will be introduced to the curriculum. Other subjects such as science and mathematics will be cleansed of any concepts contradictory to divine revelation. History from an Islamic perspective will be studied. There will also be an emphasis upon boys to have military training so that they can participate in Jihad after they become 15 years old and an emphasis upon girls to learn those subjects such as cooking, managing the household and looking after and bringing up children to train them properly for their roles as mothers in the future.
With such advertisement it's really a wonder all Britons are not standing in lines for conversion to Islam. Wouldn't you all love to live in such a country? The members of A-Muhajiroun are willingly sacrificing their opportunity to live in the wonderful and happy lands of Shariah in order to live in miserable and decadent Britain and carry Islam to the poor British infidels, and the infidels are still persisting in their own infidel ways. But I am sure they will all see the light real soon now.
Incidentally, my own very suspicious attitude towards Islam began right there: at the Al-Muhajirouns Rally for Islam in Britain in July 1998. I wandered into the rally by accident, listened for a little while, was given some leaflets, read them, took a look at the people holding the "Islam - the Future for Britain"-slogan and was a bit surprised at the extent of how much I did not want Islam to be the future for Britain, or any other country that is currently not Islamic.
BTW, I wonder how come all the religions and movements who think that a woman's primary or only role is a wife and/or a mother always try to teach the girls "cooking, managing the household and looking after and bringing up children" and never a word about sex, even though being able to have sex is usually a fairly important prerequisite for being a wife and a mother? Yeah, people can usually have sex without being taught how to, but same goes for cooking and raising kids, and teaching might improve it. Wouldn't this sound better: "an emphasis upon girls to learn those subjects such as cooking, managing the household, sexual subjects such as intercourse, oral and anal sex and handjobs and looking after and bringing up children to train them properly for their roles as mothers in the future"?
Tuesday, August 10, 2004
Adventures in installing SuSE
I was feeling a bit self-destructive last night and decided to upgrade from SuSE 8.2 to SuSE 9.1. That in spite of the fact that even when I was a little kid my mother always said that you shouldn't upgrade an operating system while the current one is still working fine. I think she is right, but sometimes I just can't resist. Maybe should join some OS Upgraders Anonymous. "Hi, I am Vera, and my internal peace is always severely disturbed by the release of a new SuSE."
First I tried to do an online update from YaST, in order to preserve whatever configurations I had. I think I did something wrong, because in the end I had a truckload of new software and no working kernel, and the new kernel sources did not want to compile with the tools I had. After doing some things that do not bear mentioning I said "bugger it" and stuck a 9.1 Personal Edition installation CD into the DVD drive. You know, nowadays they distribute the Personal Edition installation CDs right on the net, just burn your own and install. Very convenient. Except that the fucking thing did not work.
You could boot from it. It gave you a normal-looking YaST menu. It even did the base system installation, and the machine even booted after that. But unlike all previous, and, as it turned out, subsequent SuSE installation CDs, it never returned to any configuration menus, and the base system it had installed was, well, too base to run any self-respecting config program from there. If I were a woman with a spirit or the situation were an emergency I could have configured it from there, but it was 3 am already: too late for a spirit and too early for an emergency.
I found my weapon number two, a boot CD which can install from the net, and, after a short bit of disagreement as to where on the net the installation source was located it started installing. Installed everything, including the kernel, quite uneventfully. I chose to install the default system since I wanted to see the results of my handiwork fairly fast and was not sure how long it would take. Turned out to be quite fast, too almost as fast as from a CD.
Installed, booted, configured. The only thing that did not get configured properly was the X server, because for some reason the system decided to take a wild guess and guessed that my monitor has a resolution and a refresh rate that would make even ancient Romans cry. I tried to correct it by editing the config file and then realized with horror that the default installation of SuSE 9.1 does not include emacs. SaX did not want to work either. After a bit of howling I managed to get SaX to work and fixed the refresh rate, after which I beheld the ugliest and most difficultly readable instance of KDE ever seen by human eyes. Fixing it, however, was pretty easy, and after a bit of fucking with YaST I installed emacs and then started installing everything else. Hope it's done by now.
The whole process made me unbelievably horny, too, which probably makes me a pervert. 3 years ago I had a serious sexual fixation on compiling and installing new Linux kernels, but I am a bit better now.
First I tried to do an online update from YaST, in order to preserve whatever configurations I had. I think I did something wrong, because in the end I had a truckload of new software and no working kernel, and the new kernel sources did not want to compile with the tools I had. After doing some things that do not bear mentioning I said "bugger it" and stuck a 9.1 Personal Edition installation CD into the DVD drive. You know, nowadays they distribute the Personal Edition installation CDs right on the net, just burn your own and install. Very convenient. Except that the fucking thing did not work.
You could boot from it. It gave you a normal-looking YaST menu. It even did the base system installation, and the machine even booted after that. But unlike all previous, and, as it turned out, subsequent SuSE installation CDs, it never returned to any configuration menus, and the base system it had installed was, well, too base to run any self-respecting config program from there. If I were a woman with a spirit or the situation were an emergency I could have configured it from there, but it was 3 am already: too late for a spirit and too early for an emergency.
I found my weapon number two, a boot CD which can install from the net, and, after a short bit of disagreement as to where on the net the installation source was located it started installing. Installed everything, including the kernel, quite uneventfully. I chose to install the default system since I wanted to see the results of my handiwork fairly fast and was not sure how long it would take. Turned out to be quite fast, too almost as fast as from a CD.
Installed, booted, configured. The only thing that did not get configured properly was the X server, because for some reason the system decided to take a wild guess and guessed that my monitor has a resolution and a refresh rate that would make even ancient Romans cry. I tried to correct it by editing the config file and then realized with horror that the default installation of SuSE 9.1 does not include emacs. SaX did not want to work either. After a bit of howling I managed to get SaX to work and fixed the refresh rate, after which I beheld the ugliest and most difficultly readable instance of KDE ever seen by human eyes. Fixing it, however, was pretty easy, and after a bit of fucking with YaST I installed emacs and then started installing everything else. Hope it's done by now.
The whole process made me unbelievably horny, too, which probably makes me a pervert. 3 years ago I had a serious sexual fixation on compiling and installing new Linux kernels, but I am a bit better now.
Monday, August 09, 2004
Those pesky Israelis
Now they are supporting the rebels in Darfur, according to the Sudanese government.
The purpose of this lie is not to discredit Israel, of course, but to discredit the Darfur rebels and gather sympathy for the Sudanese government in the Arab world. Looks like the best way to discredit somebody in the Arab world is to allege their ties with Israel.
I wonder at what point Israel will catch on and use this for blackmailing various Arab nations and organizations. "Do as we tell you, or else we'll say you have ties to us, and we'll fabricate the evidence, too."
The purpose of this lie is not to discredit Israel, of course, but to discredit the Darfur rebels and gather sympathy for the Sudanese government in the Arab world. Looks like the best way to discredit somebody in the Arab world is to allege their ties with Israel.
I wonder at what point Israel will catch on and use this for blackmailing various Arab nations and organizations. "Do as we tell you, or else we'll say you have ties to us, and we'll fabricate the evidence, too."
Sunday, August 08, 2004
Hot
Too hot for any kind of normal life, really. Was 26 degrees outside today. Is 27-28 inside my apartment all the fucking day and night. My freezer keeps melting all the time, and the fridge is all wet. Just had my 7th cold shower of the day, it helped, but not for long.
Worst of all, can't sleep properly. I keep waking up every few hours for another cold shower. Feel awfully dehydrated and salt-depleted all the time.
Heat sucks.
Had a nice girls' night out on Friday (a couple of boys appeared at some point too), but got way too dehydrated. Saw a green bus that said "Jesus on tour".
Saturday was three friends' graduation party in a sauna. Liked it a lot but was very tired so had to bugger off to bed fairly early. The funny moment of the evening for me happened when I tried to recommend the meringue cake to Tuija ("hey, it's great, grab it while it's still there!") and it turned out to be her own. Gotta ask her about the recipe.
Killeri came over today, and then we went to visit Ville and Leena. They fed us some really good steak and wine. Leena has got a new haircut, which is a bit perverse looking but she likes it.
Talked a bit about IQ in relation to some article in Helsingin Sanomat. Some guy had tried to measure average IQs in different countries. The articles gives lots of numbers, but never the scale of the test, its standard deviation. I think there should be a special place in hell for journalists who write about IQ with numbers but without any mention of the standard deviation.
Some people say one can train for IQ tests, but I never managed to raise my own IQ test scores by training. But if this is true for some people, I wonder whether one can do IQ-comparing research by training the subjects and then measuring the IQs after the training. That would take care of at least some of the problem of culture-specific tests, but would make research a lot more expensive.
Worst of all, can't sleep properly. I keep waking up every few hours for another cold shower. Feel awfully dehydrated and salt-depleted all the time.
Heat sucks.
Had a nice girls' night out on Friday (a couple of boys appeared at some point too), but got way too dehydrated. Saw a green bus that said "Jesus on tour".
Saturday was three friends' graduation party in a sauna. Liked it a lot but was very tired so had to bugger off to bed fairly early. The funny moment of the evening for me happened when I tried to recommend the meringue cake to Tuija ("hey, it's great, grab it while it's still there!") and it turned out to be her own. Gotta ask her about the recipe.
Killeri came over today, and then we went to visit Ville and Leena. They fed us some really good steak and wine. Leena has got a new haircut, which is a bit perverse looking but she likes it.
Talked a bit about IQ in relation to some article in Helsingin Sanomat. Some guy had tried to measure average IQs in different countries. The articles gives lots of numbers, but never the scale of the test, its standard deviation. I think there should be a special place in hell for journalists who write about IQ with numbers but without any mention of the standard deviation.
Some people say one can train for IQ tests, but I never managed to raise my own IQ test scores by training. But if this is true for some people, I wonder whether one can do IQ-comparing research by training the subjects and then measuring the IQs after the training. That would take care of at least some of the problem of culture-specific tests, but would make research a lot more expensive.
Friday, August 06, 2004
Grandma, part two
She was born in a small village on the Russian-Polish border, the youngest child of 7. Sometimes she says that people spend a lot of time with their children nowadays, unlike when she was a kid, when nobody paid much attention to them.
She remembers the first radio in their village, and the sense of wonder.
She also remembers that the village was so close to the border that her sister, who was studying elsewhere, had to apply for a special permit to visit back home with her family. After the border moved half of the family turned out to be living in Russia and half right across the border in Poland. They (the Russian half) never saw the Polish half again.
When grandma graduated from high school, she went to Leningrad to apply to the university to study physics. Don't know where she got the idea, and why. I was quite surprised when I found out about it. Anyway, she didn't get in and was offered a place in the biology program instead, which she didn't accept. She went to study economics in an engineering school. Have no idea why they teach economics in engineering schools in Russia. I suppose this is similar to the tuotantotalous programs in technical universities in Finland. She made a fairly good career for a person with a quadruple handicap (Jewish, female, born in an area that occasionally belonged to Poland and of a wrong social background - her parents owned a "leather factory" of which they were the only workers).
She is the one person I know whose health had really greatly benefited from overwork. During the war she came to work on Sunday, and suddenly soldiers came, grabbed everyone and stuck them on a train. Turned out to have been the last chance to get out of Leningrad before the siege. The train came somewhere in the middle of nowhere and grandma got placed with a family in a village that was not blessed with any of the necessities of modern life. The host family was very surprised to her that she was Jewish, because they had thought that Jews had horns and she didn't have any. Should've told them that they fell off during the train jorney. Anyway, grandma learned some agriculture, to the point that she managed to provide her two surviving sisters with something green every once in a while (they were evacuated to some nearby towns and did not have a lot of opportunities in the way of agriculture).
After the war she came back to Leningrad, continued her career, got a husband, got a kid, got a grandkid and retired. The poor thing probably thought that the grandkid would turn out better than the kid, now that she has retired and has a lot of time to participate in child-rearing. Turned out even worse, I think, from her point of view.
She tries to advertise the advantages of husbands over boyfriends: "A boyfriend does not have to be with you 24 hours a day and obey all your orders". The mind boggles. Why would a marriage certificate do that to a person, and why would I want a man who is with me 24 hours a day and obeys all my orders? "I have a computer for that," I say. Grandma looks pensive.
She doesn't have many books, almost none. She (and Grandpa, when he was alive) is the only person in the family like that. Moreover, she disapproves of the rest of us owning so many books. Never could figure out why. She likes to read, though, and she borrows a lot of books. The books she reads are usually history books and sometimes historical fiction about the parts of history she'd seen with her own eyes. Considering the history, "masochistic" is the word that springs to mind.
For a person with a fair bit of anti-intellectial inclinations she sometimes has amazing questions. Once tried to get me to explain to her how the TCP/IP works. Apparently understood the explanation, too. She loves all the new technical gadgets, not to own but to look at, at least on TV, and listen about. Sometimes she says that at her age the only thing to live for is curiosity, to find out what kind of things they'll invent the next year.
I think what the old bat really needs is a computer with Russian fonts installed as a default, and a broadband connection. Maybe I should see about it the next time I am there.
She remembers the first radio in their village, and the sense of wonder.
She also remembers that the village was so close to the border that her sister, who was studying elsewhere, had to apply for a special permit to visit back home with her family. After the border moved half of the family turned out to be living in Russia and half right across the border in Poland. They (the Russian half) never saw the Polish half again.
When grandma graduated from high school, she went to Leningrad to apply to the university to study physics. Don't know where she got the idea, and why. I was quite surprised when I found out about it. Anyway, she didn't get in and was offered a place in the biology program instead, which she didn't accept. She went to study economics in an engineering school. Have no idea why they teach economics in engineering schools in Russia. I suppose this is similar to the tuotantotalous programs in technical universities in Finland. She made a fairly good career for a person with a quadruple handicap (Jewish, female, born in an area that occasionally belonged to Poland and of a wrong social background - her parents owned a "leather factory" of which they were the only workers).
She is the one person I know whose health had really greatly benefited from overwork. During the war she came to work on Sunday, and suddenly soldiers came, grabbed everyone and stuck them on a train. Turned out to have been the last chance to get out of Leningrad before the siege. The train came somewhere in the middle of nowhere and grandma got placed with a family in a village that was not blessed with any of the necessities of modern life. The host family was very surprised to her that she was Jewish, because they had thought that Jews had horns and she didn't have any. Should've told them that they fell off during the train jorney. Anyway, grandma learned some agriculture, to the point that she managed to provide her two surviving sisters with something green every once in a while (they were evacuated to some nearby towns and did not have a lot of opportunities in the way of agriculture).
After the war she came back to Leningrad, continued her career, got a husband, got a kid, got a grandkid and retired. The poor thing probably thought that the grandkid would turn out better than the kid, now that she has retired and has a lot of time to participate in child-rearing. Turned out even worse, I think, from her point of view.
She tries to advertise the advantages of husbands over boyfriends: "A boyfriend does not have to be with you 24 hours a day and obey all your orders". The mind boggles. Why would a marriage certificate do that to a person, and why would I want a man who is with me 24 hours a day and obeys all my orders? "I have a computer for that," I say. Grandma looks pensive.
She doesn't have many books, almost none. She (and Grandpa, when he was alive) is the only person in the family like that. Moreover, she disapproves of the rest of us owning so many books. Never could figure out why. She likes to read, though, and she borrows a lot of books. The books she reads are usually history books and sometimes historical fiction about the parts of history she'd seen with her own eyes. Considering the history, "masochistic" is the word that springs to mind.
For a person with a fair bit of anti-intellectial inclinations she sometimes has amazing questions. Once tried to get me to explain to her how the TCP/IP works. Apparently understood the explanation, too. She loves all the new technical gadgets, not to own but to look at, at least on TV, and listen about. Sometimes she says that at her age the only thing to live for is curiosity, to find out what kind of things they'll invent the next year.
I think what the old bat really needs is a computer with Russian fonts installed as a default, and a broadband connection. Maybe I should see about it the next time I am there.
Grandma
Grandma is showing her unfriendly side, says my family. It's very disconcerting to think that she has an unfriendly side, in the sense of being even less friendly than the side that she usually shows to people. But she has just turned 90, she is sick, she is depressed, probably clinically, and she is pissed off, which is sort of the normal state of affairs.
She is complaining about all the diseases that she's been diagnosed with, which are plentiful, and all the diseases that she believes she has but has not been diagnosed with, which is the rest of diseases known to man, Or woman. OK, she probably knows enough biology to figure out she does not have testicular cancer.
If you visit her you have to have all shields up to protect yourself from her. If you have any cracks in your armor, she'll find them and poke you with a hot poker through them. Usually I can manage fairly easily, but in 2001, when I wasn't feeling so well, the woman managed to make me cry every time. Each time she was extremely surprised at my reaction. She also wondered why I did not visit her too often.
Here is how visits usually go (that's the variety that does not make me cry):
Her: Oh, hi! So glad to see you! Your hair is really ugly! Why don't you cut it off?
Me: [rolling my eyes]
Her: You are so awfully fat, too! Want some candy?
Me: No, thanks,
Her: But have some.
Me: [would take some candy if it were of the kind I like, but it usually isn't] No, thanks. Didn't you just say that I was too fat?
Her: A little candy won't hurt.
Me: No, thanks.
Her: You are dressed horribly! [To Benka] Why do you dress her like that?
Benka: [Giving grandma a steely bluish-gray stare that you generally see on some Western hero before he shoots up a saloon full of enemies] She's 32, mom, and I haven't been dressing her for quite a while. But if you want to try, be my guest.
Her: Horrible clothes, horrible. Want some tea?
While we are drinking the tea she discusses my wrongful life and all the things I am doing wrong. I live in a wrong country, work in a wrong field, and in a wrong company, have wrong friends, am dating a wrong guy and generally do everything wrong. Mind you, she doesn't really know what I do at work, has never met any of the friends she disapproves of, and has never met Killeri, either. Although in Killeri's case she probably mostly disapproves of his unability to speak Russian and therefore unability to listen to her lectures.
She has something to say on the subject of boyfriends in general:
Her: You shouldn't have a boyfriend. You should have a husband.
Me: Husbands generally start out as boyfriends, you know.
Her: That's bullshit! None of the women in our family has ever had a boyfriend.
Hrrmm. I don't know of any woman in her branch of the family who got married while still a virgin. Not that I'd checked, of course, but I assume the vast majority of women who have lived together with a guy in a relationship for several years have managed to lose their virginity at some point. And living together was also the normal thing in my parents' and grandparents' generation. A certain relative of my grandmother's age married her boyfriend when they got a granddaughter. My grandma might claim that she'd been a virgin all the while but I don't buy it.
She also has something to say on the subject of friends: they are not necessary. In the same breath she complains about the lack thereof. She does have some friends, in fact, but won't usually call them because she believes that if they wanted to talk to her they'd call her themselves. I tell her that this way nobody would ever call anybody.
When she is done with the bitching for the day, she can be interesing to talk with. I've known her all my life and still her personality somehow does not compute for me, but we do have things to talk about. She talks about the past, speculates about the future, and is one of the very few old people who do not believe that the old days were better.
She is complaining about all the diseases that she's been diagnosed with, which are plentiful, and all the diseases that she believes she has but has not been diagnosed with, which is the rest of diseases known to man, Or woman. OK, she probably knows enough biology to figure out she does not have testicular cancer.
If you visit her you have to have all shields up to protect yourself from her. If you have any cracks in your armor, she'll find them and poke you with a hot poker through them. Usually I can manage fairly easily, but in 2001, when I wasn't feeling so well, the woman managed to make me cry every time. Each time she was extremely surprised at my reaction. She also wondered why I did not visit her too often.
Here is how visits usually go (that's the variety that does not make me cry):
Her: Oh, hi! So glad to see you! Your hair is really ugly! Why don't you cut it off?
Me: [rolling my eyes]
Her: You are so awfully fat, too! Want some candy?
Me: No, thanks,
Her: But have some.
Me: [would take some candy if it were of the kind I like, but it usually isn't] No, thanks. Didn't you just say that I was too fat?
Her: A little candy won't hurt.
Me: No, thanks.
Her: You are dressed horribly! [To Benka] Why do you dress her like that?
Benka: [Giving grandma a steely bluish-gray stare that you generally see on some Western hero before he shoots up a saloon full of enemies] She's 32, mom, and I haven't been dressing her for quite a while. But if you want to try, be my guest.
Her: Horrible clothes, horrible. Want some tea?
While we are drinking the tea she discusses my wrongful life and all the things I am doing wrong. I live in a wrong country, work in a wrong field, and in a wrong company, have wrong friends, am dating a wrong guy and generally do everything wrong. Mind you, she doesn't really know what I do at work, has never met any of the friends she disapproves of, and has never met Killeri, either. Although in Killeri's case she probably mostly disapproves of his unability to speak Russian and therefore unability to listen to her lectures.
She has something to say on the subject of boyfriends in general:
Her: You shouldn't have a boyfriend. You should have a husband.
Me: Husbands generally start out as boyfriends, you know.
Her: That's bullshit! None of the women in our family has ever had a boyfriend.
Hrrmm. I don't know of any woman in her branch of the family who got married while still a virgin. Not that I'd checked, of course, but I assume the vast majority of women who have lived together with a guy in a relationship for several years have managed to lose their virginity at some point. And living together was also the normal thing in my parents' and grandparents' generation. A certain relative of my grandmother's age married her boyfriend when they got a granddaughter. My grandma might claim that she'd been a virgin all the while but I don't buy it.
She also has something to say on the subject of friends: they are not necessary. In the same breath she complains about the lack thereof. She does have some friends, in fact, but won't usually call them because she believes that if they wanted to talk to her they'd call her themselves. I tell her that this way nobody would ever call anybody.
When she is done with the bitching for the day, she can be interesing to talk with. I've known her all my life and still her personality somehow does not compute for me, but we do have things to talk about. She talks about the past, speculates about the future, and is one of the very few old people who do not believe that the old days were better.
Who let the monkey out again?
At the signing ceremony for the defense spending bill President Bush gave a speech.
"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we," Bush said. "They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."
No one in Bush's audience of military brass or Pentagon chiefs reacted, probably due to being asleep.
"But the American people know this president speaks with clarity and conviction, and the terrorists know by his actions he means it," White House spokesman McClellan said.
"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we," Bush said. "They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."
No one in Bush's audience of military brass or Pentagon chiefs reacted, probably due to being asleep.
"But the American people know this president speaks with clarity and conviction, and the terrorists know by his actions he means it," White House spokesman McClellan said.
Thursday, August 05, 2004
One-way Masspike, our terrible weapon in the war on terrorism
The fearless leaders of the Boston Emergency Management Agency have in their infinite wisdom decided that in case of a major terrorist attack on Boston they will turn Masspike into a one-way westbound highway from downtown Boston to route 128.
For those who don't know, Masspike is a big east/westbound highway (more properly, the big highway) into and out of Boston. It can't handle the traffic on a perfectly normal workday. Or rather, it can, but the people in the cars cannot. I used to drive there against the traffic every day, since most people live in the suburbs and commute to Boston and I lived in Boston and commuted to the suburbs. There was an inbound traffic jam from route 128 to Framingham there every day, and that's at 10 am and not during the worst rush hour. On Friday afternoons there was usually traffic (of the standing kind, not of the moving kind) outbound all the way from route 128 to route 495, and that's about 35-40 kilometers.
What they are suggesting now is to open all lanes westbound till route 128. But what then? There are jams on the exits to 128 as it is - do they expect those cars to add to the jams or to magically disappear into the thin air? Have these people ever tried to drive from Downtown Boston to, say, Natick Mall at 4pm on Friday?
Mind you, those are the same people who still haven't figured out how to cope with the terrifying and totally unexpected emergency of having snowfall each year.
But not to worry - Masspike is indeed our weapon in the war against terrorism. No terrorist is ever going to attack the city if he or she knows that the only route to escape will be Masspike. Even suicide terrorists just might kill themselves in the car out of sheer frustration before ever getting to Boston.
For those who don't know, Masspike is a big east/westbound highway (more properly, the big highway) into and out of Boston. It can't handle the traffic on a perfectly normal workday. Or rather, it can, but the people in the cars cannot. I used to drive there against the traffic every day, since most people live in the suburbs and commute to Boston and I lived in Boston and commuted to the suburbs. There was an inbound traffic jam from route 128 to Framingham there every day, and that's at 10 am and not during the worst rush hour. On Friday afternoons there was usually traffic (of the standing kind, not of the moving kind) outbound all the way from route 128 to route 495, and that's about 35-40 kilometers.
What they are suggesting now is to open all lanes westbound till route 128. But what then? There are jams on the exits to 128 as it is - do they expect those cars to add to the jams or to magically disappear into the thin air? Have these people ever tried to drive from Downtown Boston to, say, Natick Mall at 4pm on Friday?
Mind you, those are the same people who still haven't figured out how to cope with the terrifying and totally unexpected emergency of having snowfall each year.
But not to worry - Masspike is indeed our weapon in the war against terrorism. No terrorist is ever going to attack the city if he or she knows that the only route to escape will be Masspike. Even suicide terrorists just might kill themselves in the car out of sheer frustration before ever getting to Boston.
Craziness in Paraguay
More than 400 people have burned to death last Sunday in a mall in Asuncion. Apparently, after the fire started the owners told the security guards to lock the exits so that people wouldn't run away with merchandise without paying. Now the owners and the security guards are accused of manslaughter.
WTF is wrong with these people? Even if we disregard the moral aspects of letting people burn vs. letting them get away with unpaid merchandise, the merchandise was about to burn anyway, and did. Did the fuckers only have insurance for fire and not theft? Wouldn't be hard to make a fake claim under the circumstances.
Wonder how much they give for manslaughter in Paraguay. Also, how long it would be until some relative of some of the manslaughtered gets a shotgun and tries to get some extra justice of his or her own. Feel sorry for the cops on this one: "Did the guy have any serious enemies?" - "Yep, here is the list of 3256."
WTF is wrong with these people? Even if we disregard the moral aspects of letting people burn vs. letting them get away with unpaid merchandise, the merchandise was about to burn anyway, and did. Did the fuckers only have insurance for fire and not theft? Wouldn't be hard to make a fake claim under the circumstances.
Wonder how much they give for manslaughter in Paraguay. Also, how long it would be until some relative of some of the manslaughtered gets a shotgun and tries to get some extra justice of his or her own. Feel sorry for the cops on this one: "Did the guy have any serious enemies?" - "Yep, here is the list of 3256."
Drinking outside and ATMs.
Spent last night drinking outside with Anu. Had a couple of beers. Good thing that Benka is probably not reading this, she disapproves of beer even more that she disapproves of other forms of alcohol. Don't know why. She says that beer has a lot more calories than everything else, but that is not really the case. She has never let any facts get in the way of chewing me out when she feels like it.
Had a few drops of honey in my beer, after which Anu informed me that usually people put it (honey, not beer) into their tea. Never heard about it before, but then I realized that I don't know what people usually do with honey at all. A police car drove by and they stared at my little bottle of honey suspiciously. Probably wondered how come a crazy woman is drinking tea instead of beer on a hot summer day.
At some point two drunk ATMs (men of low sexual market value) came up to us. One was British, the other one apparently Finnish. The British one sat next to me, way closer than even friends usually sit to each other, leaned even closer towards me, and the Finnish one stood next to us, and they immediately tried to cut into our conversation, which was not easy for either party considering that we were speaking Finnish and they English.
"I don't think we need any company," - I said.
"But you have huge tits," - responded the Finnish guy, although it was unclear to me how it related to our need for company or lack thereof. He, like most of such people, sounded like he was offering me a bit of useful information that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise.
"And you have a small dick," - followed my automatic answer, which the guy took in like it was also meant as useful information.
At that point Anu exploded with the elation of a zoologist who has finally heard some rare frog produce the "kraah" sound it was supposed to produce. Waving her hands in the manner of small but powerful helicopter she started telling me that she'd always listened to my stories of the guys who come up to me and inform me that I have big tits, but had never actually seen one before. She was positively delighted with this anthropological phenomenon. In the meanwhile the British guy, who was still sitting right behind me, was also describing my breasts and making uneducated guesses about my vagina. Was kind of hard to tell him to bugger off while simultaneously discussing with Anu whether we should take a picture of the anthropological phenomenon.
Suddenly I felt the British guy's hand going under my arm from behind and trying to grab my breast. I turned to him while growling "irrrrti, saaaaatana!" in a tone of voice similar to the one that Killeri uses on Jero when Jero tries to eat his guests, but a whole lot louder. The Brit immediately acquired a sufficient working knowledge of Finnish, jerked his hand away, and the whole anthropological phenomenon quickly buggered off, complaining about violent women in English to each other. I still managed to take a picture, but only from behind.
Had a few drops of honey in my beer, after which Anu informed me that usually people put it (honey, not beer) into their tea. Never heard about it before, but then I realized that I don't know what people usually do with honey at all. A police car drove by and they stared at my little bottle of honey suspiciously. Probably wondered how come a crazy woman is drinking tea instead of beer on a hot summer day.
At some point two drunk ATMs (men of low sexual market value) came up to us. One was British, the other one apparently Finnish. The British one sat next to me, way closer than even friends usually sit to each other, leaned even closer towards me, and the Finnish one stood next to us, and they immediately tried to cut into our conversation, which was not easy for either party considering that we were speaking Finnish and they English.
"I don't think we need any company," - I said.
"But you have huge tits," - responded the Finnish guy, although it was unclear to me how it related to our need for company or lack thereof. He, like most of such people, sounded like he was offering me a bit of useful information that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise.
"And you have a small dick," - followed my automatic answer, which the guy took in like it was also meant as useful information.
At that point Anu exploded with the elation of a zoologist who has finally heard some rare frog produce the "kraah" sound it was supposed to produce. Waving her hands in the manner of small but powerful helicopter she started telling me that she'd always listened to my stories of the guys who come up to me and inform me that I have big tits, but had never actually seen one before. She was positively delighted with this anthropological phenomenon. In the meanwhile the British guy, who was still sitting right behind me, was also describing my breasts and making uneducated guesses about my vagina. Was kind of hard to tell him to bugger off while simultaneously discussing with Anu whether we should take a picture of the anthropological phenomenon.
Suddenly I felt the British guy's hand going under my arm from behind and trying to grab my breast. I turned to him while growling "irrrrti, saaaaatana!" in a tone of voice similar to the one that Killeri uses on Jero when Jero tries to eat his guests, but a whole lot louder. The Brit immediately acquired a sufficient working knowledge of Finnish, jerked his hand away, and the whole anthropological phenomenon quickly buggered off, complaining about violent women in English to each other. I still managed to take a picture, but only from behind.
Wednesday, August 04, 2004
Life
Monday was the last day in the Northern wilderness, at least as far as this project is concerned and as long as there are no bugs that'd require a visit there.
Now everyone in the office is back from their summer vacations, but as soon as they came back to work the summer actually started. Too hot at home, and ice cream melts in the freezer a bit. My fridge has a shitty freezer; I'd like to buy myself a separate freezer, but really have nowhere to put it. Do they sell little freezers? Never seen one.
Killeri finally came to visit me Monday (hadn't managed to spend any time alone with him for a while because of the Ropecon). He applied the stress relief method that they probably didn't teach him in the Red Cross, and I immediately felt better. I would've made him mix me a drink or two, too, but I had only booze and nothing to mix it with, and figured that a cognac-rum-vodka mix wouldn't be good.
Skipped work yesterday due to an unexpected tooth problem that felt like a filling falling out. Went to get acquainted with the public dental care in Helsinki. The dentist took an X-ray, didn't see anything on it, didn't see anything in my mouth, either, said that maybe the filling is too high and lowering it might help, lowered it a bit and wished me a speedy recovery. Against all my expectations it actually did help. I wonder how come though: this filling had been there for many years and I assume it did not grow in the meanwhile. So why did it suddenly get so sore?
Saw the new Harry Potter yesterday with Heli. Was good, although it was clearly meant for people who have read the book.
Now everyone in the office is back from their summer vacations, but as soon as they came back to work the summer actually started. Too hot at home, and ice cream melts in the freezer a bit. My fridge has a shitty freezer; I'd like to buy myself a separate freezer, but really have nowhere to put it. Do they sell little freezers? Never seen one.
Killeri finally came to visit me Monday (hadn't managed to spend any time alone with him for a while because of the Ropecon). He applied the stress relief method that they probably didn't teach him in the Red Cross, and I immediately felt better. I would've made him mix me a drink or two, too, but I had only booze and nothing to mix it with, and figured that a cognac-rum-vodka mix wouldn't be good.
Skipped work yesterday due to an unexpected tooth problem that felt like a filling falling out. Went to get acquainted with the public dental care in Helsinki. The dentist took an X-ray, didn't see anything on it, didn't see anything in my mouth, either, said that maybe the filling is too high and lowering it might help, lowered it a bit and wished me a speedy recovery. Against all my expectations it actually did help. I wonder how come though: this filling had been there for many years and I assume it did not grow in the meanwhile. So why did it suddenly get so sore?
Saw the new Harry Potter yesterday with Heli. Was good, although it was clearly meant for people who have read the book.
Monday, August 02, 2004
Tired
On Saturday Lasu, Joy and Krabak had a party and it was great. I've spent Friday evening and Saturday morning baking chocolate cakes and then partied hard with the feeling of a job well done. Killeri was mixing drinks all the time and I have a feeling that I drank them all, although I am sure there were other people helping. Anyway, the last time I had ingested so much alcohol was sometime in the summer of 1995, when I shared a 1.75l bottle of Absolut with Tanya and Anya, jumped into the 13-degree ocean on Revere beach in my clothes and lost my panties in the process. In comparison with that event the Saturday's party went very innocently, with no loss of underwear and very little hangover.
Had to work on Sunday, which was not nice, but now the software works! Really, really works! Go me!
Today woke up god knows when and went to the desolate place in the north. At some point Markus and Kaius came there to rescue me and brought me a piece of working hardware, after which everything started working properly.
But now I am tired and ready to go home.
Had to work on Sunday, which was not nice, but now the software works! Really, really works! Go me!
Today woke up god knows when and went to the desolate place in the north. At some point Markus and Kaius came there to rescue me and brought me a piece of working hardware, after which everything started working properly.
But now I am tired and ready to go home.
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