Neighbours

It is a good thing to know about your neighbours. I remember, that in many movies, the plot revolved around ordinary people (usually youngsters like myself) getting mixed up in all sorts of drug-dealing gun-slinging blood-gushing plots due to their neighbours whom they thought were ordinary people like themselves but turned out to be nothing of the sort.

I'm telling this, because, until recently, we always took the elevator. We live on the third floor, it's not a big deal, but we were so comfortable and pleased that the elevator worked (considering that it doesn't, back at the dorms in Cluj), that we decided to use. The odd part is, it's soooooooooooo slow, that we would be better off using the stairs. So, one time, I decided to actually do use the stairs. Now, everyone's name is written on the door. So when I walked passed one of my neighbours, and saw the name plate on the door, I froze.

Now, I remember thinking about the names in Frank Herbert's Dune, and it occured to me that Corino sounds Italian, Atreides sounds Greek, but I could never really put my finger on Harkonnen. I never thought it would be of Finnish origin. I know it's not the same, but it is damn similar. I should worry, having to live next to someone bearing the name of a javelin thrower (it's olympic javelin thrower... but it still implies sharp things).

Other people whose surname is/was Härkönen include:
- Anna-Leena Härkönen (b. 1965), Finnish writer
- Arto Härkönen (b. 1959), Finnish javelin thrower
- Esko Härkönen (1930–1992), Finnish member of parliament
- Jorma Härkönen (b. 1956), Finnish runner
- Kari Härkönen (b. 1959), Finnish cross country skier
- Kirsti Härkönen (1972–2003), Finnish human rights activist and saxophonist
- Paavo Härkönen, Finnish composer and artist

This Is The End!

I saw this on a post, where the guy said: "Here's what scientists say probably won't happen when CERN's Large Hadron Collider becomes fully operational." I laughed my ass off. I can't wait for 21 October.

Vigilante Coke

My brother has this habit of writing about products with weird names (such as Titan matches and Laban milk). I've discovered that Finland is not without its own products with weird names. Come to think of it, "products with weird names", they should have a special word for that, or abbreviation.

So, here comes Finland's own:

I think it's very strange. I mean, I knew Finland was the home of Santa Claus, but Batman?! If it were Santa Claus Cola, I could understand it (or is that already taken by Coca Cola and Pepsi?), but this is pretty ridiculous. Maybe if you drink a lot of this, your voice becomes all hoarse and shitty like in the movie. I'm pretty sure the Dark Knight wouldn't appreciate having a soft drink (and more so cola) named after him. However, I have a remedy for it: Wayne Enterprises Cola, now that's a horse of a different colour.

However, besides all these PWWNs, there are also some really good products here in Finland. One of my favourites is:

Yes, that's right, stracciatella flavoured yoghurt. Some of you might know, that my favourite ice cream flavour is stracciatella. This yoghurt is heavenly for me. I remember hating yoghurt a few years back. Even after starting to like it, I only enjoyed the ones with different flavours of fruit. But this, this is just great. I can hardly wait to try out other Finnish foods here. I'm looking forward to going to Hesburger one of these days.

Notorious L.H.C. in the Hood!

My brother brought it to my attention that they will be firing up the Large Hadron Collider in a couple of days. So, looking around, I came across a video which I believe even non-physicists will appreciate.

Simply Bad...

I wanted to write about something else today, but I remembered this review, and I just had to share it with you all. Credits go to this guy.

So, without further ado, here's the review of America's 10 Most Wanted! Enjoy!

Avalanche!!!

Do you guys remember those old cartoons where something happened between too characters, which at the beginning started out small and ended up really big? As an exemple, I remember this one with a cat and a mouse, I believe, who are both starving. And the cat wants to eat the mouse, but it is skinny, so it gives it some growth pills, and the mouse ends up bigger, wanting to eat the cat. In response, the cat swallows some pills himself, getting bigger, and so on and so on...

Another good exemple is that episode from Dexter's Laboratory, entitled Monstory, where Dee Dee wants to tell Dexter a joke, and he doesn't want to listen, so he ends up giving Dee Dee some kind of mutating agent, and then he takes some, and so on and so on...

All these cartoons are meant to give you some insight into important aspects of life. They shouldn't be laughed at... ok, maybe they should, but they should also be taken seriously because of their valuable teachings. But you can't really relate to those cartoons and transpose them into real life. Unless you see them in real life... (well, sort of)

Which brings me to today's post. At the advice of a friend of mine (thank you, Irina), I watched a French movie yesterday, entitled Jeux d'enfants (English title: Love Me If You Dare). It is a romantic story (obviously, since it's French), about a little boy and a little girl playing a game of dare. It starts out small, but as they grow up, it pretty much gets out of their hands. It's a really interesting movie. You can't even imagine, when it all starts out, what it will lead up to...

First of all, I remarked the very good directing. Typical of modern French (maybe not just French, but European) movies, it has a fast change of scenes, which are sometimes very artistic, lacking a sense of reality and delving you more into the emotional part of it all. (THIS IS AN EDIT: the directing is awesome. I didn't stress this enough in the original post. It is very very good.) The acting is very good and the dialogues are well thought up. They all seem very natural. My French isn't that good, and in the first part of the movie, the narator keeps spitting out words like he was auditioning for the part of machine in a sound-only anime, so I was in need of subtitles. Try to make sure you get your hands on some good English subtitles, because mine sucked pretty bad. Thankfully, what the subtitles left out, I was able to understand from the original voices.

It is a very good romantic movie, a very good slice of life movie, a very good French movie, and overall a very good movie. I recommend it to all those French-loving romantics out there (hope you're reading this, Adela).

Aftermath...

Yesterday, I "enjoyed" the aftermath of Tursajeiset. So, after shaking off the hangover, today I get to write about Thursday's initiation party.

Tusajeiset is what they call it here. There were premonitions of it Thursday morning when we left the lab and asked the people there at what time we had to come in the next day, and they said: "Oh, no, today is the Initiation Party, so enjoy yourselves!" That was a subtle hint that everyone would be too drunk to come to university the next day.

At four o'clock we gathered at an amphitheatre. We got split up into about 8 groups, with about 12 people in every group. These were most of the first year students. I noticed many of them had backpacks, and after sitting down, they started taking alcoholic drinks out of them, mostly beer and vodka. It was very strange, when the organisers said that the student insurance isn't valid throughout the day. So, then it got me thinking... what's going to happen? I was very excited, as can be seen in the photo.

In the end, it was a very long station game that took us all throughout the city and ended at the Onnala, the biggest club in Valkeakoski, where we had the after-party. However, at the stations and during the walks between the stations, our student tutors kept saying: "Drink! Drink!" Indeed! The whole Initiation Party was about drinking! (I like the way these Finns think)

So, from the start of the Tursajeiset until the end of it, I drank the following:
- liquorice schnapps
- beer
- vodka
- pear cidar
- some kind of cocktail, I don't remember the name, since I didn't order it
- initiation party special (another cocktail, don't know what it contained)
- tuica (yep, one of the Romanian guys had a stash of it)
- bacardi breezer
- vodka-battery (vodka + energy drink)
- lonkero

The club was amazing. It had two halls (both had bars). The larger one had a dance floor, and played all sorts of dance music (house and whatnot). The smaller one had a lot of chairs and tables and played rock music. Smoking was only permitted in the smaller hall, so it wouldn't bother you if you wanted to dance. I loved the place. Here is me in front of the club, out for some fresh air (I already had some alcohol in me by that time):

Before that, we also got to have a dip in the lake. It was awesome. The water was a bit colder than the air, so when you got in, it was a bit unpleasant, but when you got out, it was warm. I thought I would catch a cold because of it, but it was just right. Oh, forgot to tell you, we took a dip the hard way:

Yes, it was one hell of a day! I love Tursajeiset!

School Days, Work Place, Office Space

I previously said that I would be writing about university and what I do here. Today was an exceptional day, so it's the perfect opportunity to tell you about it all.

The degree programme for Automation Engineering in English only started this year, meaning that the university can only provide courses for first year students. Being third year, most of these courses are obsolete for me, so we cannot attend them. Instead, to earn our credits, we are doing some projects in the fields of the courses we should have taken. This is very cool, since we get to stay with the research personnel, have our own computers in the lab, and finally do something, instead of just writing notes during boring classes.

Here are some photos showing the three of us (Ioan, Sergiu and myself) at the office. The place is pretty cool. An amazing fact was that we found Counter-Strike on one of the computers. Ha ha...

One of the projects we're working on is hooking up a slot car track to a logical circuit and give different command through that circuit. We want to plan out the acceleration times of the car, maybe even programme it to optimise speeds and so on. Today, we fixed the track, fixed some cars, installed the sensors, arranged the wiring and just had a jolly old time. Here are some photos to your enjoyment.

After we finished the job, we just fooled around. It was great. Here is a video:

After that, we had a party for all the exchange students. It was great. I tasted good Finnish company (though I would have liked to taste some of them a bit more...), I tasted some good Finnish sausages (try to find that in your dictionary), and I tasted some good Finnish sauna. Yep. I have to tell you one thing... It's hot in there!

So, yes, I'm having the time of my life here. Also had a discussion with Laura from the Student Office, and she filled me in on the good life people have in Finland and about the problems they are facing. Thanks a lot for the info, sorry if I was a bother.

So, yes, life here is good. All of you readers out there, you are welcome to try it out!

Valkeakoski! Tervetuloa!

Welcome to Valkeakoski!

And here I am, in Finland, in Valkeakoski. It's a most amazing place that I simply cannot describe in words. Everything is so beautiful. It is such a different scenery. Instead of the mountains I was used to, here, the horizon disappears into trees that stretch as far as the eyes can see beyond the sunlit glow of the lakes. Aesthetically paved roads wind among the trees connecting one house to the other. The city spans over two-three pieces of land connected by bridges separating the three lakes on which it stands. It is remarkable. I'll let the picture speak for itself.

This last picture was taken at lake Lontilajärvi, just behind the university building (click on it... it's amazing!). And as long as I got to the university, let me tell you about it. It seems so informal and friendly. The teachers are very warm and helping, smiling and cheerful. The secretaries (and this one is amazing for me) are young, beautiful, know their job, do their job, are helpful and concerned about your situation. I never thought I would see something like that. The canteen has delicious food. And also (and this, again is unbelievable for someone coming from Romania), but this happens not only in the university, but also throughout Valkeakoski and I believe everywhere in Finland, people do not tie down their bikes... Talk about ethics and morals. When you can leave a good bike outside just like that, for half a day, and still find it there when you're done with your job...

I'll give you more information as things happen. Next time, I'll tell you about the dormitory and the workspace. See you! Nähdään!

Off to Colder Reaches...

Well, here it is. I'll be leaving within two hours. Taking the train to Budapest, from there the plane to Helsinki, and from there the bus to Valkeakoski. That's right! For those of you who don't know, I applied for an Erasmus scholarship HAMK University of Applied Science, in Finland. I received it, and will be spending the next three months at the Valkeakoski unit studying Automation Engineering. I'll be updating my blog about what's happening, so be sure to stay tuned.

Here is a photo from the goodbye party from two days ago: (Yes... I got a haircut)

DMC - Play It Fucking Loud!

About a year ago I wrote a post entitled D.M.C. - Dumb Mindless Crud, in which I reviewed the Devil May Cry anime series, based on the overly popular video game. Whenever someone would say "DMC", I'd think of that bullshit and would want to punch the guy in the face. This has all changed three days ago.

Another anime series (accompanied by a manga and a live-action movie) is coming out, entitled Detroit Metal City. It is the story of Negishi Souichi, a young countryside lad who goes to Tokyo to become a professional musician. He plays the guitar, writes songs about love and world peace, likes Swedish pop and his favourite singer is Kahimi Karie. After graduating university, he becomes Johannes Krauser II, lead guitar and vocalist of the death metal band Detroit Metal City.

It is an overly amuzing anime, and I believe not just for metal fans. he whole fun comes from the contrast between Krauser, who supposedly is a drug addict, raped and killed his parents and escaped from prison to form the band, and Negishi, who sends carnations to his mom on Mother's Day, has never smoked and is a virgin.

I've seen the first two episodes of the anime and it is extremely promising. I won't say anything more, since I don't want to spoil the fun. I recommend it to anyone who is in the mood for some good laughs.

Reset Generation

Well, I've been home for two days now, and even though I promised everyone I'd have a lot of things to write about, I've been goofing off. Sorry, everyone. However, today I came across a great game which I wanted to share with all of you. So, here it is!

RESET GENERATION

This one's for all of you who grew up on the iconic games of the last century!

Vacation Is Over

Hey, everyone. I just got home from my vacation about an hour ago. I have so many things to tell you all. I'm really tired right now, so I'll get some sleep, and tomorrow I'll start posting about all the interesting things that happened. Please look forward to it!

Their Music Shall Split the Heavens

I'm still on vacation here, but I took some time to write about yesterday's concert.

IRON MAIDEN - SOMEWHERE BACK IN TIME

I can find no words to describe what it was like. When I thought about how to write this, those lines from Tenacius D's song Tribute popped into my mind: "Be you angels?" And angels is right! Because I'm pretty sure that for all the 30.000 people there, those two hours were full of joy and nothing else. I'm certain that these people who are Iron Maiden are blessed by any number of deities you might or might not believe in!

Now, on to the concert. I'll try to be as spoiler free as possible, for those of you who plan to see the concert in these upcoming months they have left of the tour.

I'll just shortly mention the openings bands, Lauren Harris and Trooper.

Lauren Harris is the daughter of Steve Harris (bass guitar player for Iron Maiden) and though her voice wasn't all that great they put on quite a show. It really got you in the mood. And the girl looks fantastic, which gets you in a different kind of mood, if you know what I mean. They jumped around and had attitude, though they weren't excellent, the band was pretty well put together, and I think they did well.

Next came Trooper. For those of you who don't know, these guys are a Romanian heavy metal band. They did a great show. They didn't jump around, but they had the attitude. The vocalist came in as the first song started, grabbed the microphone pole, raised it into the air, screamed... it was fantastic. They even managed to blow the fuse during one of their songs (that's a bit of a lie, actually one of the generators fell, but the impression it gave was "these guys are too strong for the equipment"). They said that their dream was to play at a concert as the opening for Iron Maiden, ever since the band was formed 13 years ago. Well, they seemed pretty happy to get their wish. They even made a tribute song especially for this occasion, the lyrics went something like "Sunt pe scena cu Fecioara de Fier". In my opinion both bands were very well chosen and the atmosphere got really electric before the main event came on stage.

Now, onto the bulk of the evening. The first thing that was out of the ordinary, was the song they began with. First on their list was Churchill's Speech, but they didn't start with that. The first song we've heard, while they were still behind the curtains, was Doctor, Doctor. It was some kind of special bonus track, though I believe it may still have been part of the tuning and soundcheck. Anyway, everyone was taken by surprise, and it was quite pleasant. When the curtain went up and they played the first song from tracklist, Aces High, you couldn't even hear Bruce sing, since the crowd roared throughout the entire song. It was electrifying.

You could see by the reaction of the audience which are the favoured songs here in Romania. Most screams came when that strong voice started reciting the beginning of The Number of the Beast or when the stage went completely dark and the first few notes of Fear of the Dark were being played. It wasn't just a concert, it was a whole spectacle. I particularly liked what they did with Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

Of course, Bruce did his job so very well. He really managed to get the crowd into the atmosphere. "Scream for me Bucharest!" he kept saying, and scream we did until we had no more voice to scream with and then when he said it again, we would still find the energy to scream once more. I was amazed at how animated the whole show was. They were leaping over the speakers, throwing their guitars in the air and such. At their age, it was such a glorious scene.

For anyone who ever loved Iron Maiden, this is something you mustn't miss. For everyone in Romania, if you're an Iron Maiden fan, and still didn't make it, the best chance you'll probably have is to see them in Budapest, performing at the Sziget Festival, on 12 August. If you're coming, you might get to meet me there. Until then, ROCK ON!

Vacation

I'll be going on a short holiday these coming weeks. I'll try to update the blog as much as possible, according to my set standard (at least 1 post/week). Please don't be angry with me if I can't make it. Meanwhile, enjoy this little video on the Rules of Metal:

NO POST!

Image:

Comment:
UNDERSTANDING IS A THREE-EDGED SWORD.

Everyone's Favourite Chemical Element

Originally, I had intended to write about a different thing, but I didn't really think it over, so this is sort of a filler post.

I remember browsing Amazon a little while ago and found something pretty interesting (actually, it was my brother who brought it to my attention). Feast your eyes on this item (open the image in a new tab, to see it in its full glory):


Yes, that's a real item on Amazon (search for it, you may still be able to find it). Yes, that's uranium ore. And it's for sale. And it's that cheap. Now, you might start saying that it's dangerous or illegal, but it's not enriched uranium, it's just a lump of uranium ore. You'd probably want to buy some in order to calibrate/test your radiation measurement tools.

The funny thing, in my opinion, is actually the lower part of the screen. Let's check it out.

Customers Who Bought Items Like This Also Bought:
- Basic bulb Anal Douche easy to use Rectal Syringe for anal Hygiene
- Anal Douche Rectal Syringe Easy to Use and Clean
- Vulcanite Anal Douche Rectal Syringe bulb type
- Enema Syringe Anal Douche Rectal Syringe
- The Simpsons Movie (Widescreen Edition) DVD

There is no Idiot's Guide to Home-made Bombs, however, this list is pretty unsettling in its own way. My only explanation is that a large group of enema fetishist Simpsons fans all decided to calibrate their radiation measurement tools at the same time, and decided to order some uranium ore off Amazon, and in the process came over some items they just had to buy. Next time someone wants to test their Geiger-Müller counter or wants to watch The Simpson Movie in widescreen, think again before buying stuff from Amazon, you might get associated with the wrong kind of people.

Ban(ne)ds with Other Red Creatures

I've overshot the deadline with a couple of days, but I couldn't write, since I was too busy (that's a lie, I was actually too lazy), however I'll make it up to you all and I promise to write another post by the end of this week.

No, this post is not referring to Magic: the Gathering, but if you made that association, you're on the safe side of this article. If you didn't, then before you go on, I advise you to take an ordinary IQ test and come back only if you scored above average.

(In case you did go and perform the IQ test, you might actually turn up on the wrong side of this article, though that's not necessarily true. It only proves that you're extremely gullible and you should be careful when talking with door-to-door salesmen.)

But why have I asked you to do this? Well, let's start at the very beginning. About a week ago (when I first had the intention of writing this post), Pali and I ended up in a state of nostalgia and wanted to watch old cartoons (or at least their openings), so we ended up browsing YouTube until about four o'clock in the morning. We found two nice series of videos.

The first one, entitled Top 100 Cartoons Series, has 10 parts, and shows 100 cartoon openings. If you look at it as a hierarchical list, it's pathetic, but it sure brings back memories.

The second one, entitled 100 Greatest Cartoons, has 21 parts, and is a 3-hour show made by UK's Channel 4 based on the viewer's votes. Though I haven't finished watching it yet, it is quite interesting.

There were a lot of comments on both series of videos, in which people demanded (and harshly offended the uploaders of the videos) that Dragon Ball Z be declared as the No. 1 Cartoon of all time (I didn't watch it all through, but from what I understand, it didn't even make it on the list). Now, I never was a fan of Tom & Jerry, and I'm bringing this into discussion because it placed 2nd on the second series of videos I've mentioned, but I've always recognised its value and cultural impact. Of course, not every one of us is objective in his criticism. In fact, none of us are. Also, some of us don't even try to be objective in their criticism. And more so, some don't just give a fuck about reality. What to do about these people?

Instead of all those annoying captcha (if you don't know what these are, click here, and remember, Wikipedia is your friend), they should put IQ tests whenever the danger of a fuck-minded person commenting or posting may arise. And if they fail the test, they should be band... from the whole Internet... for life...

Anyway, now that I've dealt with the turd-brained people, I'll return to the videos a bit. Though the first one can't even be considered a top something list, the second one is pretty good, however, something doesn't seem right to me. Though I suppose Dragon Ball Z didn't make the list, a very La Blue Girl-ish anime, called Legend of the Overfiend (know of it, Szilard?) did make it onto the list. Though I have no problem with the idea of arranging cartoons and ordering them by which is the 'best' (e.g. the best, less best, worse than best), I somehow can't come to compare Legend of the Overfiend with Tom & Jerry, or Akira with The Simpsons. It's just not right. On this account, check out my brother's top 6 anime by genre and my own Anime-Planet profile, where I've rated the anime I've watched so far.

Well, there's not much more to say. I can't think of a way of finishing this post with a bang. Wait a minute... It just hit me! How about 10 points going to the person who can guess why I used this post title (or 100 points the the one who can give the weirdest explanation). That's all folks! Bye-bii!

Death from Above!

Yesterday I spent an enjoyable time with Andras. Since I took the effort to bring the Monster PC home from Cluj (the damn thing is heavier than it's worth), we decided to fire up the LAN and play some of the games you can't on a single PC (actually you can, but they're not as enjoyable).

We initially intended to play Higurashi Daybreak, and after making use of the appropriate wiki, we found out how to start a LAN game... technically. Of course, as all things go, we didn't manage to start the game, so we swiftly abandoned the idea, and headed off to some of the games we knew would work.

Our second choice was Starcraft, playing the Bunker Command stage. I remember Adi telling me about it back when Starcraft was still 'the rad'. I must say, it was interesting. I believe back then, 'use map settings' stages were considered awesome and defying the laws of the game.

After hastefully dispatching me, Andras suggested a different game, so I cast my vote for DotA. In the same spirit of 'use map settings', DotA really popularised Warcraft 3. I don't even remember, I think we played about 5 games. It was most pleasant. The good thing is, I finally got Andras to like the game. If all goes well, I might have gotten myself a stable DotA partner.

Our final choice for the evening was Unreal Tournament 2004. I can never get enough of this game. It was actually Andras who suggest we play it, and I didn't know he was this good at it (or maybe I was just too sloppy that night). Anyway, we started talking during the match, and tried to find out what is so special in UT2k4. Besides the fact that nothing can compare with a good InstaGib match, both Halo and Quake 3 lack the atmosphere of this awesome game. Even if we're talking about the classic Unreal Tournament, the maps were so amazing. They each had their own style and they were so well designed, that you never had to turn back because of a dead end. There was always another turn you could take. I've realised that the levels are highly asymmetrical, and that makes then really awesome. Hell, even capture the flag stages are asymmetrical, how cool is that? Some of the stages are so intricate, we ended up not being able to frag each other the necessary amount of times and the match ended with a time out. Here is the last image of the game, Andras willing to descend upon me with the fury of his enhanced shock rifle, but too late, as the timer reaches 0 and I am declared the winner.

Built-in OS

A little while ago, I had a little accident with my PDA, which resulted in a cracked LCD display (poor little liquid crystals...).

So, I ended up ordering a new LCD display + digitizer (that's the thing which recognises the stylus touches) from eBay. For all those people who haven't used eBay before and are reluctant either because they are afraid they may get swindled or because they complain since no one ships to Romania, I have to encourage you to use it. I am very satisfied with the service, and I have been using it for some time now.

Anyway, I received the LCD display + digitizer, and found that I had a lot of problems opening the damn cover of the PDA since none of the screws used are standard ones. Don't you just hate that? It took me 10 days to open the cover, and when I plugged in the new display, I was shocked to find a built-in OS! That's right, can you believe it?! Here is the image, in case you doubt it: