Happy?

Sitting in a cafeteria waiting for my son from his swimming practice
Read a book about happiness, happiness at work
Thinking of life
Am I happy? I think I've always been
Sometimes I get sad, like today, but I'm never unhappy
I hope to stay this way
Sometimes I want more, like the other day, but I'm never unhappy
I hope to stay this way
I've been pushed around, I've been hurt
But I've never been unhappy, just sad
I hope to stay this way
I've bullied, I've been an asshole, I'm sorry
I hope I'm bigger now
I'm happy, but let me be sad for a while

Playing drums in a band - Can 37 year old dude still learn new tricks?

I had payed drums just a little bit for a few months when I was 10 years old. So when my colleagues starting a band asked me in March this year if I'd like to come and play drums in the band, I wasn't sure how that would work out. Anyway I said I can give it a shot. I also told them to give me a boot if I wasn't learning. Luckily there is a band training room available for bands of Nokia Oulu music club, a music club for Nokia employees, with some PA equipment and drums included. So we started practicing during March trying different songs. After a few practices I started to feel like, yeah I can manage this. The first song we learnt was Paranoid. For along time it was our warmup song. We had practices once a week from late March to late June. During July we really didn't practice as all the band members were on holidays.

Early August there was an email from the music club president telling about Muterock event in September 24 and asking bands to enroll. After thinking and discussing about it for a week or so we decided to enroll. The band's working name had been Sun Faded, but we now changed it to The Misplaced at this point. At that moment we had probably only like 4 songs that we were able to handle decently. And we had our first own song cooking as well.

Now that we had a tangible goal the motivation to practice was really high. But still we had problems in getting all the band members to participate all the rehearsals, it's pretty damn difficult to match the calendars of 4 family guys. So we were making progress in learning the songs we had chosen, but really when it turned to September, it felt like there's too little time. I don't have drums at home at all so I could only practice when we had the band practice. That wasn't making me any more confident with the upcoming gig, but on the other hand I didn't want to spend big money on drums before I would see how the gig goes and do I feel like I want to continue the hobby after that.

Early September I was able to lure my dear colleague to create a logo for the band. Once I got that, I set up a fan shop for the band. It was part of the scheme to keep having something to tell our friends in Facebook, you know, to keep them hooked :-)

So the big day eventually was two days ago, The Misplaced gave it's first gig ever at the Muterock event with four other bands. There was a lot of people there in the small pub called Ykän Pub as friends of the player's of the five bands were there supporting. We were playing third, and I can tell you it was a long time to wait for one and half hours+. I was pretty nervous but couldn't even drink much alcohol to relax my nerves before the gig as I was sure I would blew it if I got drunk at all. So after Crimsonics and Embe Brothers it was finally our turn. Man I was nervous and excited. I was sure I'm going to drop the stick from my right hand at some point (that happens to me every now and then). And there was this one point in Lil' Devil I was sure I'm gonna play wrong. And I only figured out how to play one part of Hide Your Scars the day before the gig. Hence I was sure I wouldn't remember it from the excitement.

Due to fear of dropping the stick and overall excitement I was squeezing the stick in my right hand so tightly that after two songs my arm was cramping. I was sure I'm not gonna make it to the end through all the nine songs. I had to change my grip of the stick to hammer style every now and then to give the cramping muscles a little break. And between the songs I tried stretching and massaging. It all helped enough to get me through the gig. It was really hot there so when we finished off with our own song Biker, my t-shirt was all sweaty. And I was so happy, bathing in endorphin. And seeing the glowing happy faces of my band mates, it was clear we want more of this drug.

It wouldn't have been as nice without the support of other bands and having my wife, brother and a lot of friends and colleagues in the audience. Thank you all for your support!

I guess it's time for me to then buy the electric drum kit so I can start practicing at home.

The songs we played and comments on how it went from my perspective:

* Don't believe a word - Thin Lizzy (this went pretty well, I only missed some of the fills)

* Lil' Devil - The Cult (a small error exactly where I was expecting it to happen, but I think not too many noticed anything)

* Hide Your Scars - Doom Unit (this went very well)

* Mama Said - Metallica (small problems in remembering every small detail, but overall ok)

* Sex On Fire - Kings Of Leon (This worked otherwise really well, I only forgot how to end it nicely)

* Under The Bridge - Red Hot Chili Peppers (Again problems in remembering when the song ends and thus missed the ending fill)

* Lithium - Nirvana (rock, no problems)

* Rebell Yell - Billy Idol (this was heavily altered version of the original and we nailed it, it was amazing)

* Biker - The Misplaced (I was a bit too hasty in one of the switches between parts, but still a good performance).

Pics and Video from the gig will be available through our Facebook page shortly.

Snowmobiling in Riksgränsen

I was on a snowmobiling club's trip to Riksgränsen, Sweden last week. And I have to say WOW! It was simply amazing. The fells there are something else compared to the low one's in Finland and you're allowed to drive anywhere, no need to stay on dedicated snowmobiling trails. This means you get to do hill-climbing on untouched snow.

This time there was a lot of snow and it was packed hard with only 5-10 cm of loose snow on top of it. This meant you could basically drive anywhere climbing unbelievably steep and high hills. And there wasn't much of a risk to hit a stone hidden under the snow.

We drove to Riksgränsen on Thursday and arrived at around 10 pm local time. Kari's Ford Excursion did a good job towing all our five sleds on the trailer, no problem there. Only small hick-up was when we started the trip back and the break of one of the trailer's wheels was dragging. After a few kilometers we stopped to check if everything was ok and saw smoke coming from the breaks. A little knocking on the bolts released the break and snow on the rim cooled it down so we were able to continue.

We stayed at Katterjåkk in a new apartment hotel that was opened last year. Another one of the two apartments we had had a sauna so it was ok. The apartments were specified to be for 2+2 but really 3 is the max number of grown ups for one room. Based on the number of sleds on the parking area there were more than twenty other snowmobilers also staying in the Katterjåkk.

But back to the snowmobiling. First day the weather was just great, sun shining all the time. Somehow we ended up driving our sleds to Abisko which made absolutely no sense at all as there was no snow left there. And we even knew it as we saw it the day before when we drove by it in a car. One of the sleds, Pekka's Yamaha Phazer almost died there as the cooling fluid started to boil and and there was a problem with a broken slide runner that ripped the track. Also Kari's Polaris had cooling problems when there was only ice or very icy snow. Anyway after a lunch in a restaurant in Abisko we headed back to fells except Pekka who's Yamaha was broken. In the end Pekka was able to fix it into such a condition that he was able to drive back to Katterjåkk in Riksgränsen on the ice of the lake Torneträsk.

The rest of us drove to Unna Allakas and were planning to drive to see Kebnekaise as against our original thoughts we had been told that it is allowed to drive there if you stay on the trail. Well it was not allowed and we were told so and we had to ditch that plan. Then we ended up spending the rest of the day moving back towards Katterjåkk climbing up nice hills we saw along the trail. The second day started also well as the weather was ok. We headed to northern side of Riksgränsen and basically did hill climbing all the day until early afternoon when we went to Katterjåkk for a lunch and a short break. After the break the weather was turning worse with clouds covering the sky and after an hour of driving it started to snow lightly. After about 2 hours of driving the it started storming and visibility was so lousy we had to quickly head back to Katterjåkk.

As the trip takes about 9 hours from Riksgränsen to Oulu, we didn't do any snopwmobiling on Sunday but just drove back to Oulu. On the way back it was agreed that we will be back to Riksgränsen next year the same time. The only exception to this year will be that we'll leave there already 5 AM on Thursday so we get to drive snowmobiles a little already that evening.

Miksi suomalainen urheilija kämmää?

Vancouverin talviolympialaisten päättymisestä on jo kohta viikko kulunut ja olen ehtinyt Suomen menestystä, tai paremminkin menestymättömyyttä sulatella. Sulattelu alkaa pikkuhiljaa tuottaa tuloksena kaksitasoisen analyysin syistä siihen miksi suomalainen urheilija harvoin onnistuu ylittämään itsensä kauden päätapahtumassa ja tavallista useammin jää jopa oman normaalitasonsa alapuolelle, ja mikä tärkeintä ei usein edes pysty maksimaaliesti koskaan saavuttamaan lahjojensa edellyttämää tasoa.

Pitkällisen syvällisen analysoinnin ja taustoihin perehtymisen jälkeen olen siis tullut siihen tulokseen, että suomalainen urheilija kämmää, koska
1) kotimaassa yltää staran statukseen pelkällä kansallisella menestyksellä
2) suomalaiset lajiliittojen sekä olympiakomitean johtajat ovat epäonnistuneet

Otetaanpa tuosta ensimmäisestä syystä esimerkki. Suomalainen pikajuoksija Markus Pöyhönen oli iso stara Suomessa vaikka ei koskaan yltänyt oikeastaan minkäänlaiseen kansainväliseen menestykseen. Ja kaverin nimellä voi vieläkin myydä lehtiä vaikka ura on jo jäänyt taakse ja aktiiviajan suurimmat saavutukset olivat muutama SM-mitali ja Ruotsi-maaottelussa kuuden parhaan joukkoon sijoittuminen.

Suomessa siis pääsee suhteettoman suureen suosioon jo sillä, että pärjää kansallisella tasolla. Ja Suomen pienuudesta johtuen kilpailu on pientä ja kohtuullisen helpolla voi sopivaan aikaan sopivassa lajissa yltää Suomen mestaruuksiin. Kun sitten media alkaa saman tien elätellä epärealistisia ennenaikaisia odotuksia arvokisamenestyksestä, alkaa urheilija helposti leijua ja kuvitella, että nyt sitä ollaan jo maailman huippuja. Leijuminen johtaa tekemisen tason laskuun, kun eihän enää tarvi ponnistella, kun kerta huipulla jo ollaan. Loogista, eikö?

Lääkkeenä tähän ensimmäiseen ongelmaan tarjoaisin medialta kriittisempää otetta kirjoitteluun ja kansalta kovempia vaatimuksia urheilijoiden kansainväliselle menestykselle ennen jalustalle nostamista.

Lajiliittojen ja Olympiakomitean tärkein tehtävä on huolehtia riittävästä rahoituksesta jotta harjoitteluolosuhteet ja kaikki tarvittavat tukifunktiot urheiljoille ovat parhaassa mahdollisessa kunnossa siten, ettei anneta tasoitusta muiden maiden urheilijoille. Tässä tehtävässä epäonnistutaan vuodesta ja olympiadista toiseen. Ja mikä hassuinta, urheilujohtajat tykkäävät käyttää resurssien puutteellisuutta selityksenä huonoon menestykseen vaikka juuri siitä huolehtiminen olisi heidän tärkein tehtävä. Ja epäonnistumista ei missään vaiheessa tunnusteta eikä osata tehdä oikeaa johtopäätöstä. Ja tämä oikea johtopäätös olisi irtisanoutuminen. Mutta tämähän on suomessa toki monilla muillakin aloilla tunnettu ilmiö, irtisanoutuminen on pois laskuista vaikka miten pahasti olisi tyritty. Häpeämätöntä touhua.

Yksi selitys mitä usein tarjotaan jos Suomi on menestynyt heikosti jossain kisassa on, että toiset käyttää dopingia. Tämä väite on varmasti puolittain totta sillä on olemassa maita joissa dopingin käyttö on paljon järjestelmällisempää kuin Suomessa. Mutta kokonaisuutena en usko tämän olevan mikään suuri tekijä taustalla, sillä kyllä Suomessakin osataan...valitettavasti.

Oikeastaan root cause molempien edellä tarjoamieni syiden taustalla on koko Suomalaisen yhteiskunnan nössöytyminen. Ei uskalleta vaatia mitään sen enempää muilta kuin itseltäkään. Kun ei muilta vaadita mitään, kuten urheilijoilta kansainvälistä menestystä ennen fanituksella palkitsemista, ei myöskään tarvitse itse hävetä omaa epäonnistumistaan. Lopputulos on, että epäonnistuminen on ihan ok. Phuh...sainpas tämänkin sydämmeltäni. Nyt voin taas keskittyä tekemään työtäni ja ehkä näin saan sen suoritettua kiitettävällä tavalla. Jos en, niin syytän olosuhteita ja pomoa ja vaadin lisää palkkaa.

Ahtaajien lakko...wtf

Ihan pakko on avautua täällä, kun ottaa päähän niin ankarasti tuo ahtaajin lakko. En ymmärrä miten tällaisessa taloudellisessa tilanteessa kuin koko maapallo nyt makaa voi mikään ammattiryhmä katsoa oikeudekseen ajaa omia etuja lakkoilemalla. Arviot vientitappioiden summasta lakkopäivää kohden pyörivät 100 M €:n tietämillä. Tähän ei vielä sisälly tulevaisuudessa menetettävä myynti johtuen siitä, että asiakkaat vaihtavat toimittajaa suomalaisten ytitysten toimitusvaikeuksien vuoksi.

Kauppalehdessä julkaistuun Iiro Viinasen haastatteluun on tässä tilanteessa helppo yhtyä. Mistä löytyisi voimia jotka saisivat nämä vastuuttomasti toimivat AY-johtajat kuriin? Ja miten heitä seuraaville lampaille saataisiin omaa ajattelukykyä?

Uutisten mukaan valtakunnan neuvottelija totesi viime yönä, ettei mitään edellytyksiä sopuun ole, eikä näin ollen edes jättänyt sopimusehdotusta. Ilmeisesti eniten hiertää AKT:n vaatimus ahtaajille maksettavista erorahoista irtisanomistilanteessa. Vaatimus on aivan pöyristyttävä, eikä tuollaiseen missään tapauksessa voi suostua. Tietysti kyseessä voi olla neuvottelutaktiikka ja tuo vaatimus vedetään hyvän tahdon eleenä pois parin päivän lakkoilun jälkeen, jotta saadaan muut pienemmät vaatimukset läpi. Uskomatonta pelleilyä.