I like humour. And, if you ask various sources, I like my humour weird. For example, I like off-beat humour like Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal or Fingerpori (sorry, Finnish only). The Mrs. hates them. She finds the jokes "too weird" and characters "horrible".
Then, on the opposite side of scales, I also like Jeeves and Wooster. I find the humour intelligent and the English and mannerism impeccable. Often the humour is low-key and subtle. Of course, the Mrs. hates that as well. She finds it "boring".
Between those two extremes is the a bit more "normal" humour. Things like The Simpsons, Futurama, Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy (<=== It's free to discussion just how "normal" Hitchikers is...), Seinfeld and the like. However, I have a nagging feeling that the Mrs. doesn't care about those either, for various reasons.
I'm not saying that the Mrs. has a strange sense of humour. What's more likely is that _my_ sense of humour is strange... And we DO have some similar interests in the field of humour, stuff like Viivi & Wagner, propably because that strips deals quite a bit about relationships. Reading V&W-strips sometimes feels like looking in to the mirror, which is propably why both of us find it so funny.
Whats the point of all this? No idea, just some random stream of thought or something....
Socks
We (as in Mrs. and me) got out first Christmas-present few days ago. Well, there was no official declaration that it was a christmas-present, but the proximity of the holiday, combined with the decoration of the box it came in made me firmly label it as christmas-present.
It was socks for both of us. And not just any socks, wool socks. And not just any wool socks, personally hand-knitted socks just for us!
Now, I might be a weirdo, but I like socks. Well, not the normal socks that you wear during weekdays. Those are functional, they arouse no feelings in one way or the other in me. But when the weekend arrives, I like to slip on a pair of wool socks and enjoy a lazy weekend. And those socks do make a difference. Normal socks keep you warm, yes. But they lack that warm and fuzzy feeling. Wool socks simply _feel_ better. And I'm a big fan of coziness and comfort.
Now, speaking of socks: I have an issue with my everyday-socks. I own maybe two dozen pair of socks or so, all black (or almost black). The problem is that while I do have several pairs of identical socks, I have lots of "one-of-a-kind" pairs. Matching those socks with their pairs can be tedious. those socks are not easily recognizable from each others, since by and large they are about 90% similar.
I have been thinking about getting rid of most of my socks, and start over fresh. I could walk to a shop and buy two dozen pairs of identical socks in one go, and the problem would be solved. But then again, I hate the idea of tossing perfectly serviceable socks away. And, deep down, I feel that the time I spend pairing those socks is somehow therapeutic. It's just me and a pile of socks, and I go through them one by one.
I DID say that I might be weird!
It was socks for both of us. And not just any socks, wool socks. And not just any wool socks, personally hand-knitted socks just for us!
Now, I might be a weirdo, but I like socks. Well, not the normal socks that you wear during weekdays. Those are functional, they arouse no feelings in one way or the other in me. But when the weekend arrives, I like to slip on a pair of wool socks and enjoy a lazy weekend. And those socks do make a difference. Normal socks keep you warm, yes. But they lack that warm and fuzzy feeling. Wool socks simply _feel_ better. And I'm a big fan of coziness and comfort.
Now, speaking of socks: I have an issue with my everyday-socks. I own maybe two dozen pair of socks or so, all black (or almost black). The problem is that while I do have several pairs of identical socks, I have lots of "one-of-a-kind" pairs. Matching those socks with their pairs can be tedious. those socks are not easily recognizable from each others, since by and large they are about 90% similar.
I have been thinking about getting rid of most of my socks, and start over fresh. I could walk to a shop and buy two dozen pairs of identical socks in one go, and the problem would be solved. But then again, I hate the idea of tossing perfectly serviceable socks away. And, deep down, I feel that the time I spend pairing those socks is somehow therapeutic. It's just me and a pile of socks, and I go through them one by one.
I DID say that I might be weird!
"For science!"
Japan is again sending their whaling-fleet out to sea. Their goal is to "collect" 950 whales "for scientific purposes". What "science" are they conducting with these animals? Seriously? Does it really demand killing of hundreds of whales every year? I would have guessed that whatever they are researching, they would have figured it out by now...
I guess the thing they are researching here is "what is the optimal preparation of whale-meat to make it most succulent for human consumption".
I guess the thing they are researching here is "what is the optimal preparation of whale-meat to make it most succulent for human consumption".
Officially weird
Few years ago I met a total namesake of mine. He was a telecom-specialist for Sonera (the local operator) who came over to our office to install some hardware. It was an eerie feeling when he introduced himself to me and my coworker.
Few minutes ago I received an email to my gmail-account. From myself. It was a test-message with some random letters in it, sort of test-message I would send myself. I kept on looking at it, thinking "have I sent any test-mails recently? I don't think so...". Then I checked the details of the message, only to find out it has been sent from an address belonging to a company that specializes on sales, installation and maintenance of networking-hardware. My total namesake strikes again!
Few minutes ago I received an email to my gmail-account. From myself. It was a test-message with some random letters in it, sort of test-message I would send myself. I kept on looking at it, thinking "have I sent any test-mails recently? I don't think so...". Then I checked the details of the message, only to find out it has been sent from an address belonging to a company that specializes on sales, installation and maintenance of networking-hardware. My total namesake strikes again!
Shootout
Well, as you may or may not know, there has been a serious case of school-shootout in Finland. There's not much to say about the tragedy itself, since words would be pretty pointless.
What I can talk about is the reaction of the media and people to the event. "Disappointed" doesn't even begin to describe my feelings. Where to begin...
First of all, media is telling how "we may never know the reasons for his crime". Well, apart from the lengthy manifesto he posted on the internet? Now, his motives are obviously screwed up, but they are nevertheless his motives. So we do know. We do not agree with them, we might not understand them, but we know what they are.
Second, we get the usual comments in the media that "did he practice the killing in videogames?". Um, no. Aiming with the mouse and clicking the mouse-button does not in any shape or form prepare you to fire an actual handgun on a living, breathing human being. And even further: the dude specificly said that games, movies, music, his parents or his friends are not the reason for his actions.
Third: we get bunch of people telling how we should "ban handgun". Well, banning handguns would not change the fact that this person was homicidial psycho. The gun was just a tool, not the reason. Had he not had a gun, he could have used a knife (like the killer in Japan did in 2001), or pipe-bombs, or Molotov cocktails instead. Guns are very rarely used for killing others in Finland, even though we are one of the most heavily-armed nations in the world. Usually people use knives or something similar.
What I find lacking is real discussion to the reasons for this tragedy. What could have been done to prevent it? What could we do to prevent future cases? What we DO get is pointless discussion about videogames and banning guns. Since knives kill a lot more people than guns do, why isn't anyone insisting that we should ban knives while we are at it? Instead of intelligent discussion, we have a moral panic, where people talk about the easy things: guns. Guns are easy to blame. But they are not the reason, they are merely a tool. They are easy to blame, but they are the wrong thing to blame. What they do not talk about are the hard things we should be talking about instead: why?
What I can talk about is the reaction of the media and people to the event. "Disappointed" doesn't even begin to describe my feelings. Where to begin...
First of all, media is telling how "we may never know the reasons for his crime". Well, apart from the lengthy manifesto he posted on the internet? Now, his motives are obviously screwed up, but they are nevertheless his motives. So we do know. We do not agree with them, we might not understand them, but we know what they are.
Second, we get the usual comments in the media that "did he practice the killing in videogames?". Um, no. Aiming with the mouse and clicking the mouse-button does not in any shape or form prepare you to fire an actual handgun on a living, breathing human being. And even further: the dude specificly said that games, movies, music, his parents or his friends are not the reason for his actions.
Third: we get bunch of people telling how we should "ban handgun". Well, banning handguns would not change the fact that this person was homicidial psycho. The gun was just a tool, not the reason. Had he not had a gun, he could have used a knife (like the killer in Japan did in 2001), or pipe-bombs, or Molotov cocktails instead. Guns are very rarely used for killing others in Finland, even though we are one of the most heavily-armed nations in the world. Usually people use knives or something similar.
What I find lacking is real discussion to the reasons for this tragedy. What could have been done to prevent it? What could we do to prevent future cases? What we DO get is pointless discussion about videogames and banning guns. Since knives kill a lot more people than guns do, why isn't anyone insisting that we should ban knives while we are at it? Instead of intelligent discussion, we have a moral panic, where people talk about the easy things: guns. Guns are easy to blame. But they are not the reason, they are merely a tool. They are easy to blame, but they are the wrong thing to blame. What they do not talk about are the hard things we should be talking about instead: why?
Grammar-nazi
This is for the Finns out there, but it's in English so others can understand my rant as well.
I always thought that my language-skills (in Finnish that is) are nothing extraordinary. I do make occasional typo and some other random errors, but usually my text is correct. And, IMO, that should be the default. OK text that is not painful to read. If you can write beautiful text, great! But at least don't write crappy text.
But as I thought that I'm more or less average in this area, it's starting to seem like I'm in the top 5% or something. Not because I'm great, but because there's metric assload of people who's text is downright atrocious. I just read a piece of text in an online messageboard. The text consisted of seven sentences, and in that space the person who wrote the text had managed to squeeze in EIGHT grammatical-errors and/or typos! Come ON! And that's not really uncommon.
The one thing that seems to be causing people problems are compounds. Why? They are not THAT hard! But people still make loads of errors with them. "tietokone" turns in to "tieto kone". Goddamit people, get a grip! Were you asleep during your Finnish-classes or something?
If we wish to communicate with others in a civilized manner, we need to master the language. No, something that kinda resembles correct grammar and spelling does not cut it! And it's not like you are asked to do differential algebra in your head, you are just asked to write correct Finnish. You know, the language you hear everywhere around you, the language you think in, the language you read every day? Is it REALLY that hard?
I always thought that my language-skills (in Finnish that is) are nothing extraordinary. I do make occasional typo and some other random errors, but usually my text is correct. And, IMO, that should be the default. OK text that is not painful to read. If you can write beautiful text, great! But at least don't write crappy text.
But as I thought that I'm more or less average in this area, it's starting to seem like I'm in the top 5% or something. Not because I'm great, but because there's metric assload of people who's text is downright atrocious. I just read a piece of text in an online messageboard. The text consisted of seven sentences, and in that space the person who wrote the text had managed to squeeze in EIGHT grammatical-errors and/or typos! Come ON! And that's not really uncommon.
The one thing that seems to be causing people problems are compounds. Why? They are not THAT hard! But people still make loads of errors with them. "tietokone" turns in to "tieto kone". Goddamit people, get a grip! Were you asleep during your Finnish-classes or something?
If we wish to communicate with others in a civilized manner, we need to master the language. No, something that kinda resembles correct grammar and spelling does not cut it! And it's not like you are asked to do differential algebra in your head, you are just asked to write correct Finnish. You know, the language you hear everywhere around you, the language you think in, the language you read every day? Is it REALLY that hard?
The Mrs. speaks...
The Mrs. finally read my blog (well, not all of it). She had two comments:
a) Good lord, our entire lives are in here!
b) How do you have the time to write all this?
a) Good lord, our entire lives are in here!
b) How do you have the time to write all this?