Oulun Kärpät

Today I'm going to go and see a CHL game between Oulun Kärpät and Metallurg Magnitogorsk While I can't wait to see my hometown hockey pride take on last the year's "European Champion" I'm also pretty pessimistic about the chances of the home team. Season start has been quite shaky for Kärpät and very important piece of the team is missing now that Jari Viuhkola is injured. Heck, they even lost their first CHL game to Eisberen in Berlin!

Even if Kärpät is going to loose, it will be interesting to see the event as there are strict rules from IIHF/CHL how the events must be organized. I hope CHL will be a success and will gain the same sort of status in Hockey that UEFA Champions League has in Football. But when I was searching for CHL home page I din't find it by using CHL as search word. If you type in NHL, the first link you get is nhl.com. If you type in UCL, the second link is the official page if Uefa Champions League.
I guess CHL has a long way to go before it is really established, well known and valuable sports brand. In the mean while it wouldn't hurt if they used some money for advertising in Google.

Go Kärpät!!!

My fun room is taken

Hmph...I rarely have time to play games or watch films in my home theater. When I would have time and feel like it then the room is taken either by my son or my daughter. My son plays games with his friends; Champions League soccer, Need 4 speed, Sonic or something else. And when he's not playing then my teenage daughter is playing with her friend or more likely watching a film with her boyfriend.

I think I have to get another game console for the TV room upstairs :)
Only I can't afford to buy much anything in the near future because we're getting drapes or curtains and curtain rods etc for the house. And those things cost a world. I had no idea they can be so unbelievably expensive...damn I could buy another snowmobile with that money!

Hey...it sounds like the fun room is free finally. Gotta go, see ya!

I feel very sad

The college shooting that took place yesterday in Kauhajoki got me very sad. I'm still not too afraid of safety of my own children when they go to school but this sure does get one thinking.

There is a lot to do to prevent this kind of things from happening. The safety measures at schools have to reconsidered. The fire arms legislation needs to be renewed. I agree with prime minister Vanhanen that hand guns should be forbidden altogether from private use as they are too easy to conceal and those aren't used to hunting anyway. As a quick and easy fix the guidelines for the police for the grounds to confiscate fire arms from people that have acted suspiciously should be changed. I think if a person is showing off his gun and acting in a threatening way in public (videos) there is enough grounds for taking the gun away and ordering the person to psychiatric check.

What is most important is obviously to improve the ways to identify individuals who are in risk of getting isolated and becoming twisted and developing the means officials, teachers, health care personnel and so forth can react and help. Also common education for parents for understanding when their child is in need of help and how to get the help is needed.

I'm sure these are all pretty obvious things and have been in discussions at least since the shooting incident last year. Now it is time to move from talk to actions!

- Marko OK

Home theater project approaching goal

It's been more than a month since the last time I blogged something...bad me. So now I thought I'd write a short update on how my home theater project is going.

Last weekend I finally was able to take the first smoke out of the system. My setup includes
- Denon A/V receiver AVR-1909
- XBOX 360 (non-HDMI version) which acts also as DVD player for now
- Optoma HD80 projector
- Grandview Cyber screen 95x170cm
- 8 years old Audio Pro speakers (5+1)
- Leather 2+1 recliner (the back rest of the middle seat turns down into table)

I am impressed. The gaming experience has totally changed compared to 37" LCD that I used before. The picture is not just big (around 72") but it's very clear. Also the old DVDs look so much better than they used to. The scaling works very well on the Denon receiver. And the sound Denon produces through my old speakers is just amazing...I dind't know they could sound this good...my old JVC receiver must have been a total junk.

The recliner is just awesome as I can watch a long movie without any pains in my back. I have a bad back so this isn't the case with a regular coach or sofa.

I'm still missing some important components of the theater though. The most important piece is drapes for the window and the double doors with windows. Currently I can't really use the theater when it is not dark outside. Another important missing piece is Blueray player. I haven't decided if it should be PS3 or just a Blu-ray player.
I'm also planning to buy a media streamer but it is not all that important.

When I have the whole thing ready with decor and all I'll supply a picture here :)

My photo in Schmap San Jose and Silicon Valley guide

Wohoo...I'm rich and famous...well maybe not rich...actually maybe not even famous but anyway my photo with a link to my Flickr feed was selected for inclusion in the fifth
edition of Schmap San Jose and Silicon Valley Guide:

San Jose Sharks
http://www.schmap.com/sanjose/introduction_history/p=168157/i=168157_23.jpg

Talk about lucky shot :)
I just happened to be in the right place at the right time and saw an opportunity for a nice pic.

But that's the way it works for pros and photographing enthusiasts as well I guess. They just take a lot of pics and one out of maybe thousand is worth saving.

My Qstock experience

So last weekend was Qstock but I didn't have time to go see all the bands I wanted to because we were also moving to our new house the same weekend.
Anyway I did see Poets of the Fall, PMMP, Manic Street Preachers, Kotiteollisuus, Sahara Hotnights, Ismo Alanko Teholla and parts of the gigs from Amorphis, Radiopuhelimet, YUP and some local rising stars. The festival area was a lot bigger this year than before. The main stage was also bigger than before and everything worked very well. Big thank you and congratulations to organizers!

I'm very disappointed for not being able to make it to see Stam1na. I only heard the last three of their songs while walking from my car to the festival area. It would've been also nice to catch Mokoma but you can't have it all.
All the gigs I saw were good but the best by atmosphere was PMMP. The video here is of their first big hit, Rusketusraidat, and as you can see it still works.


Manic Street Preachers were also great but their gig was a bit shorter than scheduled and they didn't even do encore. The video is of the song they started the show with - Motorcycle Emptiness.


Ismo Alanko Teholla is amazing, it's just unbelievable what Teho Majamäki can do with all the drums and percussion instruments ...and Ismo's songs are simply genius. This is Levottomat Jalat:


I don't get why Poets of the Fall has not broken through internationally bigger. Here's a shot of them performing Carnival of Rust.


Overall I must say that I enjoyed most of these bands on Qstock much more than Kiss and Bon Jovi gigs I saw in Helsinki on May and June.

I've got also pictures from Qstock on Flickr. I'm sorry for the bad quality of the pics and the videos. The camera on N81 8GB is not that good :(
I should have taken my real camera with me.

Qstock...I can hardly wait for it

Allright, it's time for the local Qstock festival again next weekend. It'll be fantastic to go there to see great gigs from great bands on Friday and Saturday. There's an excellent set of bands on the menu this year, go check it out yourself if you don't take it from me: http://www.qstock.org/2008/index.php?sivu=bandit.
On Friday I'm especially looking forward to see Mokoma, Poets Of the Fall and Manic Street Preachers. It'll be also interesting to catch Sahara Hotnights.
Saturday's setting on the main stage is at least as interesting as Friday's. I just love PMMP live. I've seen the 3 times so far. Kotiteollisuus is also one of my big favorites although I haven't seen them live before. And the main act on Saturday, Within Temptation will be interesting as well although I havent' really listened to their music much. Stam1na will be on "Rantalava" stage and that's definetly a must see. I'll also try to catch part of Jippu's gig.

Keep Rockin'!!!