I read an interesting book during the flights on the way from Oulu to San Francisco. It was "Enough: Breaking Free from the World of More" by John Naish. It's interesting how Naish explains our consumer habits by survival instinct that was vital when we still lived in caves. But the question remains open for what happens if we all learn to realize what is enough and that we just don't get any happier after reaching a certain standard of living? The whole current economy is built on constant growth.
I'm not sure how much the book affected me. Maybe I didn't buy as much clothes as I would have thought although they are crazy cheap in US compared to Finnish prices.
One change I decided to make is that I will watch less TV in the future and will lock the Disney Channel so our younger kid can't watch it too much.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Easter in Utsjoki
We had a wonderful Easter break in Utsjoki with two other families - our friends from Oulu and Kuopio.
The weather was just great for the two first days. On the third day it was cloudy but it didn't matter that much. The first day we went ice-fishing on a lake in the fells. We didn't catch any fish though but that wasn't the point anyway. The snowmobile trip to the lake was a great adventure for the kids of our friends. And the sun was shining from a blue sky and the temperature was somewhere around +6 c so it was just great to be there. We sat around a fire eating and chatting, watching kids play in snow laughing and shouting.
The next day we went first skiing on the ice of river Teno. It was just beautiful, sunny day once again. The wind was quite heavy but it was from our back and we were skiing down stream so you didn't really need to do anything but spread your arms to get going. Now our friends have seen Teno in the winter and have skiid to Norway - Teno is a border river.
Later that day we drove up 100 km to see the Nordic sea. I didn't remember how beautiful it is in winter. Our friends who hadn't seen that kind of scenery before were just amazed again.
The last day some of us went skiing on the ice of river Vetsijoki - me, my son and the ladies and girls - while the rest went feeding raindeers in the fell with my wife's dad and brother. Those guys were all smiles after that experience :-)
The evenings with great meals with all the three families together were so nice I'll remember it for a looong time. On the last evening also the family of my brother-in-law and my parents-in-law joined the dinner with us. There were 19 people around the table enjoying good company, good food and wine.
I'll try to post pictures of the trip to Ovi Share within a few days, but I'll probably make those available only to the friends that were on the trip with us.
The weather was just great for the two first days. On the third day it was cloudy but it didn't matter that much. The first day we went ice-fishing on a lake in the fells. We didn't catch any fish though but that wasn't the point anyway. The snowmobile trip to the lake was a great adventure for the kids of our friends. And the sun was shining from a blue sky and the temperature was somewhere around +6 c so it was just great to be there. We sat around a fire eating and chatting, watching kids play in snow laughing and shouting.
The next day we went first skiing on the ice of river Teno. It was just beautiful, sunny day once again. The wind was quite heavy but it was from our back and we were skiing down stream so you didn't really need to do anything but spread your arms to get going. Now our friends have seen Teno in the winter and have skiid to Norway - Teno is a border river.
Later that day we drove up 100 km to see the Nordic sea. I didn't remember how beautiful it is in winter. Our friends who hadn't seen that kind of scenery before were just amazed again.
The last day some of us went skiing on the ice of river Vetsijoki - me, my son and the ladies and girls - while the rest went feeding raindeers in the fell with my wife's dad and brother. Those guys were all smiles after that experience :-)
The evenings with great meals with all the three families together were so nice I'll remember it for a looong time. On the last evening also the family of my brother-in-law and my parents-in-law joined the dinner with us. There were 19 people around the table enjoying good company, good food and wine.
I'll try to post pictures of the trip to Ovi Share within a few days, but I'll probably make those available only to the friends that were on the trip with us.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
The snow mobile trip of the year
Only 4 nights to the start of the main snowmobile trip of the year. This time around we're going to Gällivare, Sweden. Expectations are extremely high! I've been reading trip stories from kelkkalehti.com discussion board and it all sounds almost too good. There's just enough snow right now (68 cm) even though I woudn't mind if there was more. The weather forecast for the time we'll be there looks very promising. And the snow slide risk is very low in the area.
The entourage consist of all together 6 guys of the snowmobile club of Nokia Oulu. I guess all others than me have short sports sleds so I guess they will be digging those up from the snow a lot as they will get stuck. I guess we have to make one trip to Stora Sjöfallet and one to Kebnekaise. Although the mountains, or fjells rather, in Utsjoki where I was raised are very beautiful and some of them pretty high, they really don't compare to Kebnekaise or Stora Sjöfallet at all.
I've understood that Gällivare isn't really a place to go if you're looking for vivid night life. But that's not what we're looking for anyhow so it doesn't matter :)
We will pack the sleds on the trailers on Wed evening and by 10 am Thu we'll be on our way to Gällivare. I hope we arrive early enough so we can already make a small warm up trip on Thu afternoon/early evening.
The entourage consist of all together 6 guys of the snowmobile club of Nokia Oulu. I guess all others than me have short sports sleds so I guess they will be digging those up from the snow a lot as they will get stuck. I guess we have to make one trip to Stora Sjöfallet and one to Kebnekaise. Although the mountains, or fjells rather, in Utsjoki where I was raised are very beautiful and some of them pretty high, they really don't compare to Kebnekaise or Stora Sjöfallet at all.
I've understood that Gällivare isn't really a place to go if you're looking for vivid night life. But that's not what we're looking for anyhow so it doesn't matter :)
We will pack the sleds on the trailers on Wed evening and by 10 am Thu we'll be on our way to Gällivare. I hope we arrive early enough so we can already make a small warm up trip on Thu afternoon/early evening.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Net Gens own the world?
I'm reading Don Tapscott's Grown Up Digital and feel quite related to the Net Gen in some ways although I'm Gen X'er myself. I love many of the great social networking services and other nice stuff on Internet. I love to both consume and share things there. I want my Facebook, Last.fm, Flickr, Twitter, You Tube, Spotify etc.
But then again in many ways the Net Gen is so alien to me. I'm not as fast, I'm not as social with my working practices etc.
But if they are so damn efficient and clever, what is left for us Gen X'ers and baby boomers to do in the work life? Should we just retire and let these guys and gals take care of the business? ;-) Or is there something we're better at? Maybe the answer is there in the book, I just need to finish it first and digest it for a while.
But then again in many ways the Net Gen is so alien to me. I'm not as fast, I'm not as social with my working practices etc.
But if they are so damn efficient and clever, what is left for us Gen X'ers and baby boomers to do in the work life? Should we just retire and let these guys and gals take care of the business? ;-) Or is there something we're better at? Maybe the answer is there in the book, I just need to finish it first and digest it for a while.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Last.fm on Fring
I installed the latest version of Fring client yesterday once I saw the blog post about Last.fm integration to it from TechCrunch. I had been using Fring before but once we got our own Nokia Chat (now called Contacts on Ovi) out last summer I ditched Fring.
Now I played around with the new Fring client a bit and it is pretty nice...they have done quite nice job integrating Twitter, Facebook etc.
But the point for me to check the new client was to see how they've done the Last.fm integration. As I assumed Last.fm is one item on your buddy list. Basically all the main features are supported. You can create channels by a band name, listen to your friends' channels, ban and love music etc. The playback does continue in the background even when you're chatting f.ex. with a Gtalk buddy. So everything is cool otherwise but the UI could be better. It's a bit ugly and moving between the playback, ban, love, etc buttons and artist info field is a bit clumsy because the tab order is weird.
So will I start using Fring again? Well, not for chat as Contacts on Ovi does the trick for me. But I'll keep the client installed for the rare occasions I want to listen to Last.fm on my E71.
Now I played around with the new Fring client a bit and it is pretty nice...they have done quite nice job integrating Twitter, Facebook etc.
But the point for me to check the new client was to see how they've done the Last.fm integration. As I assumed Last.fm is one item on your buddy list. Basically all the main features are supported. You can create channels by a band name, listen to your friends' channels, ban and love music etc. The playback does continue in the background even when you're chatting f.ex. with a Gtalk buddy. So everything is cool otherwise but the UI could be better. It's a bit ugly and moving between the playback, ban, love, etc buttons and artist info field is a bit clumsy because the tab order is weird.
So will I start using Fring again? Well, not for chat as Contacts on Ovi does the trick for me. But I'll keep the client installed for the rare occasions I want to listen to Last.fm on my E71.
Spotify is cool, but that's it
I've seen a lot of discussions in blogs, emails and Twitter bracing Spotify. Some say after using it for a couple of days that they love it and couldn't live without it.
The laggard that I am, I only subscribed to and installed the Spotify client a few days ago. Right now I'm listening to the new Bruce Springsteen album on Spotify (quite a nice album...basic stuff from the Boss).
I'm not totally blown away by Spotify. I don't see it that revolutionary at all. I mean it's nice and all and surely I will keep using it, but I don't quite see what it brings that I didn't already have with Launch.com (later Yahoo! Launch), Last.fm etc. Being able to access your playlists on every computer you have the client installed on isn't a big thing to me as I don't even store playlists for later use 'cause I want to pick the songs for my playlist each time I'm listening to music.
But bringing social aspects to Spotify, scrobbling your music history and playing your friends' stations or stations based on a band name etc, would make Spotify my one and only player on connected computer. Ahh, yeah I'm also looking forward to a client for S60 phones. :-)
The laggard that I am, I only subscribed to and installed the Spotify client a few days ago. Right now I'm listening to the new Bruce Springsteen album on Spotify (quite a nice album...basic stuff from the Boss).
I'm not totally blown away by Spotify. I don't see it that revolutionary at all. I mean it's nice and all and surely I will keep using it, but I don't quite see what it brings that I didn't already have with Launch.com (later Yahoo! Launch), Last.fm etc. Being able to access your playlists on every computer you have the client installed on isn't a big thing to me as I don't even store playlists for later use 'cause I want to pick the songs for my playlist each time I'm listening to music.
But bringing social aspects to Spotify, scrobbling your music history and playing your friends' stations or stations based on a band name etc, would make Spotify my one and only player on connected computer. Ahh, yeah I'm also looking forward to a client for S60 phones. :-)
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Status messages for life
It's kind of boring to see people update their status on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Bebo, Orkut or whatever social network with the stuff that is just normal routine part of their days, like "Mette Mannonen is at work forecasting the weather" (no, I don't know her but would love to :-) ).
I'm guilty of doing this myself also sometimes when I can't think of anything clever to say but I feel like my lates status update is way pass its' expiration date.
Now I thought I'll write here status messages for the rest of my life...well at least until I'm retiring. These are valid unless otherwise stated in my status message in Facebook and/or Twitter.
MON - FRI
11:45 pm-6:45 am: Marko is sleeping.
6:45 am-8:00 am: Marko is getting ready for the day at the office ie. yawning, washing, shaving and eating.
8:00 am - 8:15 am: Marko is driving to the office listening to Radio Rock morning show (the car might be different depending on the day but who cares).
8:15 am- 4:15 pm: Marko is working, which means boring meetings, boring emails and boring document reading and writing while hoping to be somewhere else doing something else
4:15 pm - 4:30 pm: Marko is driving home and listening to Radio Rock again
4:30 pm - 5:30 pm: Marko is cooking dinner or helping with it and eating it with the family
5:30 pm - 6:00 pm: Marko is trying to rest on the couch while reading a magazine or surfing the web
6:00 pm - 8:30 pm: Marko is taking his kids to their hobbies and/or doing his own stuff like gym, skiing, floorball
8:30 pm - 9:15 pm: Marko is getting ready for the night ie. eating and washing (note: in the morning washing comes before eating), putting younger kid to bed and reading a bed time story etc.
9:15 pm - 11:44 pm: Marko is watching TV, reading emails and maybe working on some work related document, surfing the web or reading a book or magazine
11:44 pm - 11:45 pm: Marko is being gentle to his wife
SAT - SUN
11:57 pm-8:45 am: Marko is sleeping.
8:45 am - 10:30 am: Marko is getting ready for the day ie. yawning, scratching, washing, shaving and eating.
10:30 am - 11:45 am: Marko is taking it easy at home, watching TV or playing with kids or something
11:45 am - 3:00 pm: Marko is fixing or building something at home OR shopping downtown AND/OR taking kids to their hobbies
3:00 pm - 4:30 pm: Marko is cooking and eating late lunch with the family
4:30 pm - 6:00 pm: Marko is again watching TV
6:00 pm - 8:00 pm: Marko is excercising (either gym or skiing)
8:00 pm - 9:00 pm: Marko is in sauna
9:00 pm - 9:30 pm: Marko is having evening meal, putting younger kid to bed and reading a bed time story etc.
9:30 pm - 11:45 pm: Marko is watching TV or a rental movie
11:45 pm - 11:55 pm: Marko is getting ready for bed, washing and stuff
11:55 pm - 11:57 pm: Marko is being gentle to his wife double as much as on weekdays
There you have it. If there's nothing special mentioned in Facebook or Twitter just check the list above and you'll know what I'm doing.
I'm guilty of doing this myself also sometimes when I can't think of anything clever to say but I feel like my lates status update is way pass its' expiration date.
Now I thought I'll write here status messages for the rest of my life...well at least until I'm retiring. These are valid unless otherwise stated in my status message in Facebook and/or Twitter.
MON - FRI
11:45 pm-6:45 am: Marko is sleeping.
6:45 am-8:00 am: Marko is getting ready for the day at the office ie. yawning, washing, shaving and eating.
8:00 am - 8:15 am: Marko is driving to the office listening to Radio Rock morning show (the car might be different depending on the day but who cares).
8:15 am- 4:15 pm: Marko is working, which means boring meetings, boring emails and boring document reading and writing while hoping to be somewhere else doing something else
4:15 pm - 4:30 pm: Marko is driving home and listening to Radio Rock again
4:30 pm - 5:30 pm: Marko is cooking dinner or helping with it and eating it with the family
5:30 pm - 6:00 pm: Marko is trying to rest on the couch while reading a magazine or surfing the web
6:00 pm - 8:30 pm: Marko is taking his kids to their hobbies and/or doing his own stuff like gym, skiing, floorball
8:30 pm - 9:15 pm: Marko is getting ready for the night ie. eating and washing (note: in the morning washing comes before eating), putting younger kid to bed and reading a bed time story etc.
9:15 pm - 11:44 pm: Marko is watching TV, reading emails and maybe working on some work related document, surfing the web or reading a book or magazine
11:44 pm - 11:45 pm: Marko is being gentle to his wife
SAT - SUN
11:57 pm-8:45 am: Marko is sleeping.
8:45 am - 10:30 am: Marko is getting ready for the day ie. yawning, scratching, washing, shaving and eating.
10:30 am - 11:45 am: Marko is taking it easy at home, watching TV or playing with kids or something
11:45 am - 3:00 pm: Marko is fixing or building something at home OR shopping downtown AND/OR taking kids to their hobbies
3:00 pm - 4:30 pm: Marko is cooking and eating late lunch with the family
4:30 pm - 6:00 pm: Marko is again watching TV
6:00 pm - 8:00 pm: Marko is excercising (either gym or skiing)
8:00 pm - 9:00 pm: Marko is in sauna
9:00 pm - 9:30 pm: Marko is having evening meal, putting younger kid to bed and reading a bed time story etc.
9:30 pm - 11:45 pm: Marko is watching TV or a rental movie
11:45 pm - 11:55 pm: Marko is getting ready for bed, washing and stuff
11:55 pm - 11:57 pm: Marko is being gentle to his wife double as much as on weekdays
There you have it. If there's nothing special mentioned in Facebook or Twitter just check the list above and you'll know what I'm doing.
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