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Ladies and Gents ..

This will be my first double-post to both here and Mind-Itch.com, which means that we have finally opened up our new home with the technology to support multiple writers and just to customize the whole thing to look nicer.

Of course, we haven't had the time to do that yet, but let's not go there. So, please update your bookmarks as we will do in the near future, we'll probably copy all the old postings to the new MI as well.

Some other good news as well, the move is almost done and my thesis was PASSED (huzzah!) and I got my apartment in Riga packed and ready to go for the delivery guys to break my stuff up.

More news later.

End of Silence

Whoom. That's the sound of time passing by at the speed of light. It has been a while, but I just haven't had the time nor the energy to liberate my thoughts. See, we just finished moving to our new flat last night. Before that there was a lot of packing, sorting, organizing and especially calling people because they didn't show up for the move.

I don't know what's it with people, that makes them so scared of helping others. Or maybe I just don't have good-enough friends :). Anyway, stuff have moved - now what's left is to get the furniture from the store (sweet), clean (not sweet) and organize the rest of the stuff (semi-sweet). Thank god we're getting most of the furniture new, so we didn't have to carry them over from the old place.

Also a lot of other things happened, spent a long weekend in Riga with my main man Ben and sold my friggin' apartment in the same city (super sweet), meaning that I'll have to go there to pack up (really uncool), but hopefully I'll have some good help there to help me do the thing and good thing is that most of the stuff is already packed, so it'll be just detailing - to make sure that the company that delivers the stuff will deliver them intact.

Allright, back to unpack. Enjoy life, spring is coming!

np: K.O.S. (Determination) from the album "Black Star" by Mos Def

ps. Actually had to post this from Blogger instead of ecto, seems like there's something wrong with their match. Well, manual labor it is.

Seven steps to Kevin Bacon

You all know about the game where you need to trace a connection between a Hollywood actor to Kevin Bacon in a maximum of seven steps. I've found a way to make the game easier - Watch X-Files.

Jack Black (School of Rock), Kurtwood Smith (70's Show), Jewel Staite (of Firefly fame), Lucy Liu (Ally McBeal - she's actually speaking mainly chinese in her role in the X-Files), Tony Shalhoub (Monk), Terry O'Quinn (John Locke from the excellent show Lost), Christine Willes (Dead like me) and Willie Garson (the gay buddy from Sex in the City, Stanford) are just to name a few since I've been watching X-Files (again) starting with the first season and it is just astounding how many now-famous actors have graced the show with their cameos and minor parts. I'm now in season three and those names popped in my mind just while writing this.

Of course, X-Files was a really big show at that time and it had a different thing going on every episode with different people. I'm sure it has been a great springboard for many young actors to come.

Real busy again, hitting off to Riga in a few weeks, setting up the new apartment and moving in on April Fool's. Hope it's not an omen.

I am Victory

Whew. Got my thesis finished on friday. Huzzah!

Now I'm faced with boredom, so much time, so little to do - which is really rare. I'm constantly on the edge of getting up and starting to do something, but then again, I haven't had a lot of chances just to relax lately, so why not indulge myself?

Yesterday we went to see the Rat Pack, the remake of a classic show with Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. and Dean Martin and damn that was a sweet show. They performed with a full big band, besides from the violins, which were synthesized - but in general the guy who they were "imitating" sounded just like the real thing (never actually hearing the person on stage alive though, but at least they had the mannerisms correct.)

They will be in Helsinki for another week, I suggest you go and see it.

Now back to Duke Ellington and his groovy razzmatazz.

Ta ta.

Writing, geeking, marketing.

Aw shucks. Although writing is really nice and creative and all that stuff, it has one bad side - it takes time to write and since Mind Itch will not become a link festival or a news copy room, I'll actually have to think of what I write. I do realize that no one actually cares about generic things, like what somebody has done for the last week or anything of that sort - we are always looking for some benefit, be it the fact that most people read personal blogs that show a picture that is poorer than of those of the readers'. You know, you feel better because someone is doing worse than you?

At least it looks like we'll have a hosting facility and then we'll just get our geek squad to start laying out the techy bits to make the blog worth the while.

np: Paranoid from the album "Hidden Treasures" by Megadeth (har, har, har)

Gluttony

Ah, there are a few good things in having a birthday. I haven't celebrated my birthday in years, but since we hit round numbers this time, I decided to invite some friends over and enjoy life. So friday went nicely, watching curling and ice hockey and getting wasted.

Saturday we decided to have a gluttony day, since this was my real birthday. Went on a shopping spree and got pretty much everything I could lay my hands on, I had several revelations when paying and noticing that "oh, I didn't remember taking donuts". Anyway, yesterday was a day full of pizzas, chicken wings, bratwurst & sauerkraut, carelian pies, horse sausage, candy, nachos, salsa, guacamole, cheddar sauce, pickled gherkin and a lot of other stuff downed with good drinkies of course. Didn't eat very much in quantity, but it was real nice to just let go while shopping and get all the crap you usually don't get because it would be just pointless.

What was worrying, was the fact that the teller didn't even flinch at the mountain of fat, salt and sugar standing across his counter. Well, Finland is the good number two on the fattest country on the list, so I guess some people might do that more than often. Yuck.

Man I'd like to get this darn blog to rock, rock, rockety rock and get the new stuff online.

np: Ain't Sayin' Nothin' New from the album "Things Fall Apart" by The Roots

Born as Ghosts

Sunday. Olympic fever is surrounding, encompassing and overwhelming the world. Well, the western world at least.

Working hard to get Mind Itch properly set up so we can have our full range of writers coming up and showing their love for the world, now trying to find a good deal on a hosting partner where we could put ourselves, hopefully I'll have something concrete next week.

np: Distance from the album "Stabbing The Drama (Digipak)" by Soilwork

A Trashed Rose

Mental imagery. While working in the advertisement and marketing industry, I've had the opportunity to see great ads and beautiful messages, strong messages - powerful messages. But still, there are a few things that are just so elemental and iconic. Think of a single rose in a trash can. Just a single rose. Why is it there? Is it dead? Have there been any holidays that usually deserve roses? Are there any places that would have roses close by? Was it left by a man or a woman? Was it left in anger or in love? The best image doesn't only answer questions, but gives more of them.

Still sick, I was driven home from work - understandably. I sound like Lance Henriksen (You know, Frank Black from Millennium or the android from Alien). Now I'm lying in the bed, listening to the Engadget podcast and doing a presentation about marketing. My brain is having big difficulties multitasking stuff at the moment. Which is why I'll not babble any further, but will continue doing something that does not require thinking.

Cheers.

I'm just a man

Currently my head has only room for one word: phlegm.

Sure, the stress of things undone has lifted and thus my body has been able to rest and lower its resistance of the elements. Friday held a farewell party for a colleague, the tab was open and the bar was aplenty. Had to wake up early to present my thesis' first draft via Skype - which worked out just nicely, but that resulted in the fact that I didn't have as many hours to sleep as I would've wanted. Same thing on saturday, there always seems to be something more interesting to do than sleeping.

People are funny. Everybody seems to have such strong opinions about a lot of things, and most of them contradict with each other, not even starting to compare them with interpersonal relationships and opinions.

Still, it's so nice to be back in Finland, it's been like three weeks and yes - it's time for the first strike. Again something to do with drivers and their union being pissed about something because of somebody tries to be mean and help these guys work less overtime. But yeah, that would be too easy. The parliament decided to not continue the worker movement restrictions - meaning that in the near future these guys can be replaced with immigrants who would even work for smaller pay.

Eh, I think I'll take a nap and try to gather some strength for tomorrow's labor at the office.

np: Prisoner from the album "Transistor" by 311

Remember March 11th will be 311 day!