I like comfort, warmth, softness and cozyness. So when I decorate (or rather, tell the Mrs. what I would like to have, and hope she agrees with me), those four words are my guiding light.
Some time ago I told the Mrs. that I would like to get a... what do you call them, pedestal lamp? Anyway, I wanted to get one of those for our living-room, so that if you want to sit on the couch and read something, you don't have to turn on those bright ceiling-lights, rather, you just turn on that one light and read.
Last weekend we went shopping, and we found the perfect lamp for our living-room (no pics as of yet, maybe later). It consists of four dimmable 40w halogen lamps. It's covered with yellowish flax-cloth, so the light has a warm tone to it. And since you can dim it, you can easily adjust the amount of light. It's quite narrow, so it fits perfectly between the wall and our couch. It singlehandledly turned our living-room from "OK" to paradise on Earth.
Well, I'm exaggerating a bit, but you get the idea.
While it was the Mrs. that actually found the lamp at the store, the decision to buy it was a joint one. And since this was my idea to begin with, I can take at least some of the credit!
I'm actually starting so see the time when our living-room is "done". The area around the TV still needs work, but that needs to wait untill we get a new television (which isn't quite yet).
Showing posts with label The Mrs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Mrs. Show all posts
Green is the color of money
The Greens in the Helsinki metropolitan area released their proposal for congestion-charges for the city. I wont comment on the actual idea of congestion-charges, but I DO want to comment on their proposal, which is downright stupid.
The charge works as you might expect: you need to pay if you drive to the metro-area. You can either pay per kilometer, or you can buy a monthly "pass". If you buy that monthly pass, you also get a 30-day ticket for the mass-transport in the metro-area. Which is a good idea.
Everything else about their suggestion sucks though.
Their idea is to basically charge money from commuters who drive to the metro-area (Metro-area in this case is the cities of Espoo, Vantaa and Helsinki) from the surrounding counties. Also, if you drive inside the metropolitan area and cross a city-limit (like, driving from Helsinki to Espoo) you need to pay.
Well, what's the problem here? Simple: if you just drive inside one city (like, inside Helsinki), you do not need to pay one dime extra.
Why is that a problem? Well, it's the idea behind all this. Fact is that further away from the metro-area you are, the less viable alternative mass-transit is. And now those who live outside the metro-area would be punished because they commute to the metro-area. And while they are punished, the people inside metro-area (to whom mass-transit IS a viable alternative) are not encouraged to use mass-transit. People who live in Helsinki can keep on driving inside Helsinki, without having to pay one cent extra. Even if they had a tram/bus/metro 50 meters from their home. People outside metro-area who have no other alternative but to use their car, are expected to pay more.
I commute by train, since my workplace is right in the downtown of Helsinki. The Mrs.'s workplace is not in the downtown, so she carpools with her father. The reason for that is that there is not one mass-transit connection between our home and the place she works. Not one.
The Greens' proposal would make it quite a bit more expensive for her (and her father) to go to work. And the mass-transit-ticket they would get in return would not even be useful for her, since it's not valid here. We would have to live closer to Helsinki to be able to use it.
Her only "viable" alternative is to get a 30-days train-ticket (costs 106 euros/month) and in addition, a 30-day bus-ticket from Helsinki to Espoo (where she works, costs 114e/month). It would cost her 220e/month just to go to work. Daily commute would be 60-90 minutes in one direction. So she would spend 2-3 hours a day commuting, and she would pay 220e for the pleasure.
I have mailed two Green politicians about this (one of them my representative in the parliament), but I have received no reply.
why did Greens suggest something like this? Why aren't they suggesting new fares for people who live in Helsinki (or Espoo, or Vantaa), but still use their own car? I guess the reason is simple: This was one of their themes in the communal-elections. And it's not politically smart to tell the voters "if you vote us, we will make you pay more". No, what they said was basically "If you vote us, we will make these other people pay more". People outside the metro-area would be asked to pay more, but those people do not vote in the metro-area communal elections.
The charge works as you might expect: you need to pay if you drive to the metro-area. You can either pay per kilometer, or you can buy a monthly "pass". If you buy that monthly pass, you also get a 30-day ticket for the mass-transport in the metro-area. Which is a good idea.
Everything else about their suggestion sucks though.
Their idea is to basically charge money from commuters who drive to the metro-area (Metro-area in this case is the cities of Espoo, Vantaa and Helsinki) from the surrounding counties. Also, if you drive inside the metropolitan area and cross a city-limit (like, driving from Helsinki to Espoo) you need to pay.
Well, what's the problem here? Simple: if you just drive inside one city (like, inside Helsinki), you do not need to pay one dime extra.
Why is that a problem? Well, it's the idea behind all this. Fact is that further away from the metro-area you are, the less viable alternative mass-transit is. And now those who live outside the metro-area would be punished because they commute to the metro-area. And while they are punished, the people inside metro-area (to whom mass-transit IS a viable alternative) are not encouraged to use mass-transit. People who live in Helsinki can keep on driving inside Helsinki, without having to pay one cent extra. Even if they had a tram/bus/metro 50 meters from their home. People outside metro-area who have no other alternative but to use their car, are expected to pay more.
I commute by train, since my workplace is right in the downtown of Helsinki. The Mrs.'s workplace is not in the downtown, so she carpools with her father. The reason for that is that there is not one mass-transit connection between our home and the place she works. Not one.
The Greens' proposal would make it quite a bit more expensive for her (and her father) to go to work. And the mass-transit-ticket they would get in return would not even be useful for her, since it's not valid here. We would have to live closer to Helsinki to be able to use it.
Her only "viable" alternative is to get a 30-days train-ticket (costs 106 euros/month) and in addition, a 30-day bus-ticket from Helsinki to Espoo (where she works, costs 114e/month). It would cost her 220e/month just to go to work. Daily commute would be 60-90 minutes in one direction. So she would spend 2-3 hours a day commuting, and she would pay 220e for the pleasure.
I have mailed two Green politicians about this (one of them my representative in the parliament), but I have received no reply.
why did Greens suggest something like this? Why aren't they suggesting new fares for people who live in Helsinki (or Espoo, or Vantaa), but still use their own car? I guess the reason is simple: This was one of their themes in the communal-elections. And it's not politically smart to tell the voters "if you vote us, we will make you pay more". No, what they said was basically "If you vote us, we will make these other people pay more". People outside the metro-area would be asked to pay more, but those people do not vote in the metro-area communal elections.
A conversation with the Mrs.
Me: Honey, do you remember that domestic period-movie you wanted to go see few months ago, but we never did?
Her: Yeah....
Me: Well, there's another domestic period-piece in the movies at this very moment. Would you like to go see it?
Her: Well....
Me: It's tagline is "Wash your sins". How about it?
Her: ...You are weird, you are so weird!
Needless to say, we didn't go see that one...
Her: Yeah....
Me: Well, there's another domestic period-piece in the movies at this very moment. Would you like to go see it?
Her: Well....
Me: It's tagline is "Wash your sins". How about it?
Her: ...You are weird, you are so weird!
Needless to say, we didn't go see that one...
There's something wrong with the society
We had another shootout in Finland, and this time the number of casualties is even higher: 11 dead (including the gunman). I wont try to make any excuses. The fact is that there is something wrong with the society.
The interesting thing is that all the people who have done something like this (Gerdt, Auvinen and Saari) are all people who lived through the early-nineties recession when they were young. It could be that it turned them in to what they are.
Anyway, there are tangible things that the society and the government can do to fix the problem. It wont be easy, but it will result in a better society.
Increased resources for work on mental health.
Ever since the recession in the early nineties, the resources directed at mental health have been cut back. Which is bad, since that was when they were needed the most. Finland has recovered exceptionally well from the recession, but the funding that were taken from mental health was not given back. So we have a situation where crazy people walk the streets because they do not get proper treatment in time. Hell, back in August there was a case in Kerava (pretty close to where I live) where this 18.year old (or so) guy stabbed a younger girl to death. He had seeked help for his mental problems, but he was told that due to limited resources, he could get an appointment several months away, no sooner. End-result: A stabbed girl. This is totally unacceptable.
Schools need to be given resources to employ psychologists and curators that have the time and resources to actually talk with the students. They could have a monthly talk with each student, just to check how they are doing and that everything is OK with their lives.
Also, the class-sizes should be made smaller, so teachers have adequate time and energy to give to each student. With dozens of students per class, paying attention to each student becomes harder and harder.
Increased sense of community
This is the easiest thing to do, and the hardest. This doesn't really involve any money (well, maybe a little) or anything like that, so it's easy. But it's hard because it means change in people's attitudes. Finland is a pretty introvert society in many ways. We place high value on respecting other peoples privacy. And sometimes that means that people could become isolated misantrophes and people around him wouldn't notice anything. We need to change that. We need to make people feel part of the community, as opposed to having a community of isolated individuals. People need to feel that there are people around him that can help him when needed, and we need to pay more attention to the people around us.
The three people who have done something like this in Finland were all loners and introverts. Some of them were also victims of teasing at school. We need to change this. We need to foster a sense of involvement among people and we need to have absolute zero tolerance for bullying and teasing.
Also, to increase the sense of community, we should re-think the way our schools are arranged. The change from primary to secondary education can be quite a shock, and that takes place at the age when the one thing you really need, is stability. In Finland, when you move from primary to secondary, you get a brand-new class with new classmates. Everything is mixed up. Instead of doing that, what if we try to preserve the class that existed in the primary? So even though you would be in a new school, the classmates around you would be mostly the same as before. You would then have same classmates from ages 7 to 15. If possible, the class should be preserved in high-school as well.
What NOT to do
As before, close to half of the discussion so far has been about increased gun-control. While that might seem like a quick solution to the problem, it's not. We should not waste our time talking about what tool the killer happened to use, we should be focusing our time to think WHY the killer did what he did, and how we could prevent it. Taking away the tool does not take away the desire to kill others. If he has no gun, he will use some other tool (like Gerdt did at Myyrmanni, or how the Akihibara killer did in Japan).
Not only is the talk about the tool a waste of time, it distract us from the real issue. At worst, we might have a situation where gun-control is increased, but mental-health work etc. gets no additional resources. Politicians and people would then think "there, by removing guns we removed the problem. good work everyone!". Yes, we might not have shootouts anymore. What we would get instead is stabbings, arsons, hit 'n runs etc. We are doing all of us a huge disservice when we allow ourselves to be distracted like this.
What about the politicians?
Well, communal-elections are coming up. But the thing is that there isn't really a party who has profiled itself as being focused on these issues. Well, maybe the Christian-Democrats, but I won't vote them out of principle. Voting them would bring along all that fundie-baggage that I have no desire to support. Mrs. and I actually joked that we should start a "Family Party" that focuses on issues like these, without bothering itself with religion and all that other crap.
Of course, the "Family Party" would have the risk of being perceived as a "Think of the children!"-party...
The interesting thing is that all the people who have done something like this (Gerdt, Auvinen and Saari) are all people who lived through the early-nineties recession when they were young. It could be that it turned them in to what they are.
Anyway, there are tangible things that the society and the government can do to fix the problem. It wont be easy, but it will result in a better society.
Increased resources for work on mental health.
Ever since the recession in the early nineties, the resources directed at mental health have been cut back. Which is bad, since that was when they were needed the most. Finland has recovered exceptionally well from the recession, but the funding that were taken from mental health was not given back. So we have a situation where crazy people walk the streets because they do not get proper treatment in time. Hell, back in August there was a case in Kerava (pretty close to where I live) where this 18.year old (or so) guy stabbed a younger girl to death. He had seeked help for his mental problems, but he was told that due to limited resources, he could get an appointment several months away, no sooner. End-result: A stabbed girl. This is totally unacceptable.
Schools need to be given resources to employ psychologists and curators that have the time and resources to actually talk with the students. They could have a monthly talk with each student, just to check how they are doing and that everything is OK with their lives.
Also, the class-sizes should be made smaller, so teachers have adequate time and energy to give to each student. With dozens of students per class, paying attention to each student becomes harder and harder.
Increased sense of community
This is the easiest thing to do, and the hardest. This doesn't really involve any money (well, maybe a little) or anything like that, so it's easy. But it's hard because it means change in people's attitudes. Finland is a pretty introvert society in many ways. We place high value on respecting other peoples privacy. And sometimes that means that people could become isolated misantrophes and people around him wouldn't notice anything. We need to change that. We need to make people feel part of the community, as opposed to having a community of isolated individuals. People need to feel that there are people around him that can help him when needed, and we need to pay more attention to the people around us.
The three people who have done something like this in Finland were all loners and introverts. Some of them were also victims of teasing at school. We need to change this. We need to foster a sense of involvement among people and we need to have absolute zero tolerance for bullying and teasing.
Also, to increase the sense of community, we should re-think the way our schools are arranged. The change from primary to secondary education can be quite a shock, and that takes place at the age when the one thing you really need, is stability. In Finland, when you move from primary to secondary, you get a brand-new class with new classmates. Everything is mixed up. Instead of doing that, what if we try to preserve the class that existed in the primary? So even though you would be in a new school, the classmates around you would be mostly the same as before. You would then have same classmates from ages 7 to 15. If possible, the class should be preserved in high-school as well.
What NOT to do
As before, close to half of the discussion so far has been about increased gun-control. While that might seem like a quick solution to the problem, it's not. We should not waste our time talking about what tool the killer happened to use, we should be focusing our time to think WHY the killer did what he did, and how we could prevent it. Taking away the tool does not take away the desire to kill others. If he has no gun, he will use some other tool (like Gerdt did at Myyrmanni, or how the Akihibara killer did in Japan).
Not only is the talk about the tool a waste of time, it distract us from the real issue. At worst, we might have a situation where gun-control is increased, but mental-health work etc. gets no additional resources. Politicians and people would then think "there, by removing guns we removed the problem. good work everyone!". Yes, we might not have shootouts anymore. What we would get instead is stabbings, arsons, hit 'n runs etc. We are doing all of us a huge disservice when we allow ourselves to be distracted like this.
What about the politicians?
Well, communal-elections are coming up. But the thing is that there isn't really a party who has profiled itself as being focused on these issues. Well, maybe the Christian-Democrats, but I won't vote them out of principle. Voting them would bring along all that fundie-baggage that I have no desire to support. Mrs. and I actually joked that we should start a "Family Party" that focuses on issues like these, without bothering itself with religion and all that other crap.
Of course, the "Family Party" would have the risk of being perceived as a "Think of the children!"-party...
It's my way, or the highway!
Yesterday I had a short discussion with the Mrs.:
Me: "Honey, what would you think if I bought this collection of hardcover Calvin & Hobbes-comics? It contains every single C&H-strip ever published! And they are in these beautiful hardcover-volumes!"
Her: "How about not?"
Me: "But I don't have all the strips at this moment. Also, I could then sell my current C&H-comics to the used-books-store"
Her: "No, that's stupid"
To hell with it, I did it anyway! I wear the pants in this relationship! Yeah!
Let me enjoy my sense of triumph for few minutes!
Me: "Honey, what would you think if I bought this collection of hardcover Calvin & Hobbes-comics? It contains every single C&H-strip ever published! And they are in these beautiful hardcover-volumes!"
Her: "How about not?"
Me: "But I don't have all the strips at this moment. Also, I could then sell my current C&H-comics to the used-books-store"
Her: "No, that's stupid"
To hell with it, I did it anyway! I wear the pants in this relationship! Yeah!
Let me enjoy my sense of triumph for few minutes!
A glow-in-the-dark Savior
I have been away for over a week now. I was visiting my ol' stomping-grounds up north, and then I drove back here with the Mrs. stopping by to visit my mother. And since my mother lives in about the middle between this place and my birthplace up north, it's a convenient place to spend the night and rest.
While we were there, I recalled an incident that took place few years ago. Me and Mrs. were again spending the night there. As we turned off the lights and went to sleep, things took a turn for the spooky.
As the lights were turned off, and everything was dark and all set for some sleep, I felt the Mrs. poke me on my side and whisper "There's something out there". "Where?", I asked. "There, next to the door". Sure enough, there was a humanoid shape floating in the air and glowing! I turned on the lights, and... There was a crucifix hanging on the wall. I think it was a souvenir from the "south" that my uncle brought with him. It was a pretty ordinary crucifix with a wooden cross and a Jesus that was made from what appeared to be marble. The cross was about 30cm long, Savior being about 20cm long. But for some reason, the perverted mind that created that thing thought that it would be good idea to have Jesus glow in the dark.
So, knowing that we were not being visited by ghosts or aliens, I turned off the lights. But it would not work. The glow was so spooky and distracting that sleeping was completely impossible. So I took a towel, and covered the crucifix with it. After congratulating myself for smart thinking, I was dismayed to notice that the powers of the almighty Savior were greater than the powers of the towel: it shone right through!
The next step in defeating Jesus was of course to remove him from the wall. But alas, his home was nailed to the wall. It wasn't merely hanging from it, it was nailed to it. Defeated, I had to go talk to my mother and ask for a hammer or some other suitable tool for prying out nails. When I told her why I needed the hammer, she had a look of confusion and disappointment on her face. Se got up, entered the room and ripped the crucifix from the wall. That's the last time I have ever seen that thing.
If there is a God, I'm going straight to hell. I just know it.
While we were there, I recalled an incident that took place few years ago. Me and Mrs. were again spending the night there. As we turned off the lights and went to sleep, things took a turn for the spooky.
As the lights were turned off, and everything was dark and all set for some sleep, I felt the Mrs. poke me on my side and whisper "There's something out there". "Where?", I asked. "There, next to the door". Sure enough, there was a humanoid shape floating in the air and glowing! I turned on the lights, and... There was a crucifix hanging on the wall. I think it was a souvenir from the "south" that my uncle brought with him. It was a pretty ordinary crucifix with a wooden cross and a Jesus that was made from what appeared to be marble. The cross was about 30cm long, Savior being about 20cm long. But for some reason, the perverted mind that created that thing thought that it would be good idea to have Jesus glow in the dark.
So, knowing that we were not being visited by ghosts or aliens, I turned off the lights. But it would not work. The glow was so spooky and distracting that sleeping was completely impossible. So I took a towel, and covered the crucifix with it. After congratulating myself for smart thinking, I was dismayed to notice that the powers of the almighty Savior were greater than the powers of the towel: it shone right through!
The next step in defeating Jesus was of course to remove him from the wall. But alas, his home was nailed to the wall. It wasn't merely hanging from it, it was nailed to it. Defeated, I had to go talk to my mother and ask for a hammer or some other suitable tool for prying out nails. When I told her why I needed the hammer, she had a look of confusion and disappointment on her face. Se got up, entered the room and ripped the crucifix from the wall. That's the last time I have ever seen that thing.
If there is a God, I'm going straight to hell. I just know it.
The Cone of Silence
The Mrs. has (more or less) lost her voice for now. She has some kind of infection in her throat, and it's quite hard for her to speak. So this weekend has been pretty quiet, literally.
I had my annual review about a week ago, and everything went well. Well, I didn't really achieve my goal of getting absolute top-scores, but I still got very good scores, and what's more important, the actual feedback from my co-workers was excellent. So I can't complain. I have several new ideas on how to proceed and how to do an even better job.
As I'm typing this, I'm sitting in our backyard, under a sunshade. I guess this means that summer is officially here. Thank goodness for WLAN.
I had my annual review about a week ago, and everything went well. Well, I didn't really achieve my goal of getting absolute top-scores, but I still got very good scores, and what's more important, the actual feedback from my co-workers was excellent. So I can't complain. I have several new ideas on how to proceed and how to do an even better job.
As I'm typing this, I'm sitting in our backyard, under a sunshade. I guess this means that summer is officially here. Thank goodness for WLAN.
Humour me
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....
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....