Well, it's two days after, but still.
So, what changed? Well, all in all I can be pretty happy with the results. My candidate got through, and Greens managed to get one more seat in the Parliament (15 seats). The Coalition (the mainstream right-wing party, they have been in the opposition recently) got a whopping 10 extra seats. Which is good, since I considered voting for them ;).
Social-Democrats were thoroughly beaten, losing eight seats. Which is good, since the party and it's leaders were arrogant and obnoxious. And they were just about the only party that resorted to mud-slinging in their campaign. They won't be in the next government, that's more or less certain, thus ending their 12 years in the government.
The biggest party is still the Center Party, but they lost four seats when compared to previous elections. They currently have 51 seats out of 200, whereas the Coalition has 50. So it's pretty tight. Social-Democrats plummetted down to 45.
So it seems that we will get a Center-Right government, aided by the Swedish People's Party (they are ALWAYS in the government) and propably Greens. Not too shabby.
Other relevant things: There are more women in the parliament than ever before. 42% of MP's are now women, up from 37%
Space-debris and elections....
...what do they have in common? Both are happening in Finland.
That's right, I saw some space-debris falling from the sky! I was just stepping out of a bus, when I saw something in the sky. Thinking it was just a passenger-jet (which are numerous around here), I didn't think much of it. But when I saw it, I instantly thought "If that's an airliner, it has disintegrated mid-flight". It looked like what Columbia looked like when it disintegrated during re-entry. But, as opposed of being white, this war yellow/red (like flame). There were several fragments visible, and the whole spectacle lasted for just a few seconds.
Other thing going on over here is the elections. Yes, politicians suck, but all in all, things aren't as bad in Finland as they could be. I mean that we have several parties to choose from, instead of being required to pick between "evil" and "incompetent". There are three major parties, representing mainstream right (The Coalition), center (The Center Party) and left (Social-democrats), each with around 20-25% popularity. Then we have the a bit more radical left with around 10% popularity, and the Greens with similar figures. Then there are few smaller parties with around 5% popularity (a bit more radical right, the Swedes and the Bible-thumbers). The category "Other" has maybe combined 2% popularity and it includes parties like "Independence-party" and "Liberals". It also includes three left-wing parties.
And here's where it gets interesting. We have "The Workers Party", "The Finnish Communistic Workers Party" and "The Finnish Communistic Party". Um, does any of that make any sense? What's the difference between the three? Is it like one is communistic, whereas the other two are merely socialistic? Or are they divided along whether they are Leninist, or Marxist-Leninist? Is it really so that the leaders of Communistic Party and Communistic Workers Party (the Workers Party is a new party, haven't seen them in previous elections) never thought about merging their parties? And the weird thing is that the left-wing party with 10% popularity was actually formed in late-eighties/early-nineties by merging the socialistic and communistic parties in Finland in to one. It's like when one left-wing party gets "eliminated", two parties sprung up to take it's place.
EDIT: I just checked. It's actually "The Finnish Communistic Party" and "The Communistic Workers Party". Making the situation even more strange that it was before. I changed the names to the post.
That's right, I saw some space-debris falling from the sky! I was just stepping out of a bus, when I saw something in the sky. Thinking it was just a passenger-jet (which are numerous around here), I didn't think much of it. But when I saw it, I instantly thought "If that's an airliner, it has disintegrated mid-flight". It looked like what Columbia looked like when it disintegrated during re-entry. But, as opposed of being white, this war yellow/red (like flame). There were several fragments visible, and the whole spectacle lasted for just a few seconds.
Other thing going on over here is the elections. Yes, politicians suck, but all in all, things aren't as bad in Finland as they could be. I mean that we have several parties to choose from, instead of being required to pick between "evil" and "incompetent". There are three major parties, representing mainstream right (The Coalition), center (The Center Party) and left (Social-democrats), each with around 20-25% popularity. Then we have the a bit more radical left with around 10% popularity, and the Greens with similar figures. Then there are few smaller parties with around 5% popularity (a bit more radical right, the Swedes and the Bible-thumbers). The category "Other" has maybe combined 2% popularity and it includes parties like "Independence-party" and "Liberals". It also includes three left-wing parties.
And here's where it gets interesting. We have "The Workers Party", "The Finnish Communistic Workers Party" and "The Finnish Communistic Party". Um, does any of that make any sense? What's the difference between the three? Is it like one is communistic, whereas the other two are merely socialistic? Or are they divided along whether they are Leninist, or Marxist-Leninist? Is it really so that the leaders of Communistic Party and Communistic Workers Party (the Workers Party is a new party, haven't seen them in previous elections) never thought about merging their parties? And the weird thing is that the left-wing party with 10% popularity was actually formed in late-eighties/early-nineties by merging the socialistic and communistic parties in Finland in to one. It's like when one left-wing party gets "eliminated", two parties sprung up to take it's place.
EDIT: I just checked. It's actually "The Finnish Communistic Party" and "The Communistic Workers Party". Making the situation even more strange that it was before. I changed the names to the post.
Check the settings!
It was snowing a bit yesterday, so I decided to go take some pictures outside. Besides, I had bought a stand for the camera and I wanted to try it out. I only took half a dozen pictures, before heading back in. And no, the pictures were not any good. But I did notice that you can turn a crap picture in to a bit better picture with some cropping and tweaking. But the fact that your white balance is off doesn't really help. You see, I have the tendency to take the camera and take some pictures, only to notice afterwards that the white balance-settings were all wrong. Note to self: ALWAYS check the settings on the camera before you take any pictures! And if it's snowing, take an umbrella so you could at least try to cover the camera from the snow!
Working-life
Work has been pretty good. Busy, but good. It's great when you get a relatively complex task to do, and you singlehandedly do it. I was asked to arrange some Excel-training. I have done it before, and it's a good thing to see that practice does make one better. Before it was quite tedious and difficult to arrange, but this time everything just flowed in to place. I got the trainer, I got the location, I got the hotel-room for the trainer, and I got the participants.
Working-life
Work has been pretty good. Busy, but good. It's great when you get a relatively complex task to do, and you singlehandedly do it. I was asked to arrange some Excel-training. I have done it before, and it's a good thing to see that practice does make one better. Before it was quite tedious and difficult to arrange, but this time everything just flowed in to place. I got the trainer, I got the location, I got the hotel-room for the trainer, and I got the participants.