Eating Muffins

Halme Polvinen Family Collective. You will all be assillymated

  • Läpinäkyvän kunnallishallinnon etuja

    Posted by Sari

    Jukka on pitkin syksyä tehnyt kaupungintalolla iltavuoroa ja tullut kotiin varsin myöhään. Minä sitten läheisriippuvaisena vaimona olen soitellut perään että milloin mahtanee mies päästä kotiin asti. Mutta ei enää, ainakaan kun kaupunginvaltuusto kokoontuu. Helsinki kanavan pilottilähetyksistä voi seurata kaupunginvaltuuston kokouksia suorana streaminä. Eikun ikkuna auki kannettavaan ja jo voi seurata kuinka kauan mies vielä töissä viipyy. Bonarina voi seurata kunnallispolitiikkaa ihan livenä, tällä hetkellä Arhinmäki puhuu graffiteista…

  • Suddenly, life is incredibly busy

    Posted by Sari

    Yeah, I don't rightly know how it happened, but suddenly I have heaps of stuff to do. And Jukka is clocking overtime almost daily. We may briefly meet during the day.

    Marttimyy
    Martti has just left to spend few weeks with his owner and after that he is off to Sweden to a dog-show. He was in his first show in champions class in the beginning of November, and got graded a red ribbon (very good). There was around 80 heelers there!

    Viivi has developed a stubborn streak and does not want to let herself to be caught. Myy sleeps. A lot.

    In other news. Ysabel won the World Fantasy Award! Finally GGK is a WFA winner. And with a pretty good book too. I still think that his later books have not been quite on the par with the earlier, Lions was touching but lacked layers, Mosaic duology had great potential but never really got there, and Last Light of the Day is my least favourite Kay of them all. Ysabel is an excellent YA fantasy and does the past breaks into the present trope so much better than (for example) Mosse's Labyrinth. Go and read it.

    Also worth a look is Tor.com's blog where among other luminaries, blogs another WFA winner Jo Walton. Her winning novel, Tooth and Claw is one of those high concept novels that should not work but does. It is a Victorian novel of manners, only with dragons. And it is hilariously brilliant, especially if you are at all familiar with authors like Trollope. She also seems to share my taste in fantasy and SF to an uncanny degree. Her latest post on who killed Arianne Emory has me wanting to read Cyteen for about twentieth time.

    And in yet other news, Finncon 2009 website looks pretty cool, and we should soon have more English content available. Honest.

  • Ecstatic Days

    Posted by jukkahoo

    *Glup*

    Fandom, great place. You get to meet new people, make friends and generally have a good time. And then, once in a while, you say yes to various proposals. Usually these proposals and invitations generate more great things. Usually.

    Sometimes one just finds oneself faced with overwhelming odds. No, not odds, let's say… events. Like now.

    When Jeff (that's my friend VanderMeer) asked whether I'd like to host his blog for a week with Tero, my answer was "kääk!". To those less fluent with duckburgish, that's roughly equivelant of "Yikes!".

    I mean, what do I have to say that might be of interest to the readers of Jeff's blog?

    That didn't intimidate me enough though, that I would've said no, so now we're hosting Ecstatic Days from 3rd of November all the way until the 7th. That's just… 1,2,3… five day. Easypeasy. Just look.

    Other news: Does anyone know where the Doctor is? He seems to have left his vehicle to our balcony.

    IM000373

  • Trick nro 2

    Posted by Sari

    We were at the Book Fair today. Jukka interviewed Jukka M Heikkilä (again…) about Germania and his other interesting historical novels, and I spent few hours behind the HYFSK stand selling mainly badges to kids. Then we wandered around and met people (Jan and Satu! teen idol and municipal election candidate Mr. Pohjola!). We'll be around again tomorrow afternoon so you know to avoid the stand…
    Sekalaista 044
    This meant that Martti was getting bored alone at home and when we got home he was getting hyper. I
    was using a shoehorn to get shoes on and he decided it was a barkworthy dangerous object. To defuse the situation I started to teach him a new trick with the help of the clicker, touching the dreaded shoehorn with his nose. About thirty repetitions and he got it. Lets see if if he remembers it tomorrow…

  • Itä on itä ja länsi on länsi. Tai pyöräilijät ja jalankulkijat.

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    Olen sellainen minäkin, pyöräilijä nimittäin. Pyörällä matkasin
    pari vuotta sitten työpaikalle kesäisin. Ongelmia ei matkalla Talista
    Kaisaniemeen tullut ennen kuin ihan keskustassa: Elielinaukiolla ja Aseman
    editse menevälle pyörätiellä ihmiset maleksivat katsomatta lainkaan minne
    olivat menossa. Välillä oli pinna palaa ja sormeen tulla jännetupen tulehdus
    kellon jatkuvasta kilkatuksesta.

    Kun edellinen pyörä hajosi en ole uutta saanut
    hankituksi joten nykyään olen kohtaamisissa ollut jalankulkijana, usein kahden
    koiran kanssa. Ja nyt roadrage tuppaa kohdistumaan pyöräilijöihin jotka aivan
    valtavalla tilannenopeudella pyyhältävät ohitse niin että tuskin ennättää
    tajuta että ovat tulossa ennen kun ollaan ohi ja koira säntäämässä joka
    suuntaan. Meilläpäin on vain ja ainoastaan kevyen liikenteen väyliä jotka on
    tarkoitettu seikä jalankulkijoille että pyöräilijöille joten edestä ja takaa
    singahtelevat maastopyörät ovat todellinen ongelma.

    Pyörä on mahtava ja
    ekologinen väline liikkua kaupungissa, ja pällejä pölvästejä jalankulkijoita ja
    autoilijoita riittää toki heitäkin – Mekulla on mieletön tarina
    sauvakävelymummoista – mutta pyörän selässä ihmisille tuppaa tulemaan hillitön
    halu saada kulkea nopeasti ja samaa vauhtia eteenpäin. Jalankulkijat ja autot
    pysähtyvät ja lähtevät liikkeelle kaupunkiliikenteessä jatkuvasti. Pyörän
    selästä se hyvän vauhdin tappaminen ja uudelleen kiihdyttäminen vaatii sen
    verta lihasvoimaa että moni pyöräilijä mielummin huiskahtaa ohi enemmän tai
    vähemmän laittomasti tai vaarallisesti kuin jarruttaa tai jopa – gasp – astuu
    alas sieltä satulasta ja taluttaa fillaria. Se kaikkien vihaama
    pari-kolmekymppinen state of the art hybridipyörällä polkeva mieshenkilö tuppaa
    myös kovin usein ajamaan aivan sairasta vauhtia. Talin puistotiellä olen pariinkin
    otteeseen hypännyt syrjään kun psykofillaristi vetää vauhdilla ohi
    nopeusrajoitusta noudattavista autoista ja blokkaa jalankulkijan nurmikolle.

    Viimeisimpiä
    sydäreitä ovat aiheuttaneet maastopyöräilijät. Kun kiltisti lähtee koiran
    kanssa pois tieltä (jossa hauva on lyhyessä narussa) metsään jossa se voi
    fleksissä toteuttaa merkkailu- ja nuuhkailuviettejään niin jostain puskasta
    polkee maastopyöräilijä päin fleksiä. Puhumattakaan näistä paristakin peelosta
    jotka kuulemani mukaan ovat viime vuoden aikana ajaneet keskuspuistossa
    metsästä pahki hevoseen ratsastustiellä.

    Suurin osa meistä on jopa päivittäin
    autoilijoita, pyöräilijöitä ja jalankulkijoista, jotkut vielä skeittaajia tai
    rullahiihtäjiä. Jotenkin vaan tämän syksyn aikana fillari on allut se väline
    joka aiheuttaa eniten kauhua kun sen liikenteessä kohtaa. Eli fillarikaistat
    ajoradoille jonne pyörät nopeutensa puolesta kuuluvat ja maastopyöräilijöille
    merkityt reitit, kiitos.

  • Number four: Lois McMaster Bujold’s Komarr

    by

    ,

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    Posted by Sari

    For some
    reason this has been surprisingly difficult entry to compose, I know why I find
    Bujold extremely satisfying writer, but I have been struggling with how to say
    it. Lois MacMaster Bujold writes space opera and fantasy and lately also both
    in the romantic subgenre. Most of her formidable collection of Hugo statuettes
    are for books belonging to her Vorkosigan saga, a series of novels about
    magnetic but diminutive Miles Vorkosigan, the scion of a noble house on planet
    Barrayar. Barrayar is struggling to rejoin galactic humanity after centuries of
    isolation during which it had adopted a monarchical system of government
    vaguely reminicent of 18th-century France of perhaps even more 19th-century
    Russia.

    On one
    level, Bujold’s Vorkosigan novels are exciting space operatic romps with royalty,
    conspiracies, secret missions, captivating characters and delightfull derring
    do with cousin Ivan, that idiot, but what pushes them that extra notch up on my
    scale is the way Bujold sneaks in quite serious sociological and psychological
    themes almost casually among the action, romance and comedy. For example, Civil
    Campaing is a romantic comedy, the story of Miles grandiose and hamfisted
    efforts to woo his lady love. But it is also a sly look at reproductive rights
    in a society where male heirs and primogeniture are paramount but which has
    recently adopted advanced technology like ex-utero gestation.

    In my
    chosen novel, Komarr, similar dual layered structure is at work. On one hand it
    is a detective story. Miles in his new job as Imperial Auditor is dispatched to
    Komarr, planet Barrayar has violently annexed to its empire, to investigate an
    explosion which might be sabotage. On the planet he meets Ekaterin,
    long-suffering wife of the chief administrator Tien Vorsoisson, a man who seems
    to be somehow involved in the sabotage. The novel shifts between Miles and
    Ekaterin’s points of view, and thus in between the well crafted mystery plot
    culminating on a hostage situation on a space station, there is a believable
    and terse look at a woman struggling to find her way out of a relationship that
    has over the years turned into emotional abuse and soul-destroying duty. And
    somehow Bujold manages to write these both stories seamlessly together. Now
    that is craftsmanship of highest order.

    And I am
    glad to see that Jo Walton, World Fantasy Award winning author of the best
    dragon novel ever, Tooth and Claw agrees with me on Bujold’s excellence.

  • The louts of late

    by

    Posted by jukkahoo

    So, there I was. Face to face with a foul-mouthed jogging-suit-wearing soccer-dad (or whatever), who was spouting obscenities and promises of a sound trashing. Me, I had Martti on the leash on my left hand and Myy on my right. The soccer-dad had just run over the curb, leaving his 10-12 year old progeny to the backseat.

    My crime? Walking over the street. With two dogs. And overweight, which seemed to be the most egrerious of this numskull's complaints, together with the rearranging of my facial features.

    I admit, I wasn't using pedestrian crossing, but that was mainly due to the fact that there is none. And as there was no sidewalk either, I was forced to move to the other side. While watching that there were no cars too near for us to go across.

    Until the Herr Speedmaster arrived, probably late and driving over the speedlimit. And stepping on the pedal when he saw us not going to stop. Which we did, as I was aghast of getting either one of our wee ones maimed by this… person.

    He shouted something from the car, to which I (stoopid, I know) just had to respond. But while he used language not befitting to the company he was keeping, I remained civil. I merely confessed my worries regarding the wellbeing of our dogs.

    To which this boor responded with the actions depicted in the first paragraph.

    It's been a while since I was threatened with physical violence out of workplace. Not that I'm used to such behaviour at workplace, but there this is not completely uncommon. It was a bit harangueing. The dolt was clearly looking for a fight, even when driving to a practice session with his kid, and was in no mood to listen to reason (which was the reason I didn't need the feel to apologise for running in front of him, which I guess I might have done, if he'd just stopped and complained a bit more civilly). I guess, the main reason for him not puching me, was the fact that I was holding the dogs with both hands, so I was like, you know… pussy unarmed. How sporting of him.

    And maybe, somewhere in his boiling turnip of his, there was that realisation, that he was actually just giving his son a life-long lesson of dealing with fat, dog-walking idiots. Maybe repartee was what the doctor ordered. Witty commentary, yes, that's the ticket!

    I don't think the sodding simpleton realised that he was on Elisa CCTV all the time. In hindsight, I don't care. Myy and Martti are OK (Martti may be a bit traumatised, he is scared of noises and sudden movements, which this nincampoop provided plenty of) and I didn't suffer the fool. I mean, damages.

  • Training Day

    Posted by Sari

    Martti and Myy went to the vet today. Myy had some problems with her teeth, and one of the lumps in her stomach had grown a bit, but nothing too alarming for a dog of her age. Martti had some blood drawn and a dna swab done (very CSI…) for all sorts of genome registers and research projects, and behaved beautifully. Myy got new food better for her teeth and Martti also got some changes in his diet. I feel like part alchemist, part nurse and part lunch lady when I am mixing together all the different things they eat…

    Later we went to the airport to practice for our next show. Airport is a big inside space with noise and people and announcements from the PA system, so it simulates an indoor dog-show pretty well. Viivi who was along to get used to crowded places managed to wiggle out of her collar pranced about free for a bit but other than that everything went pretty well. Kuva012

    Martti has also been learning a new trick: he knows how to touch my fist with his paw to get the goodie hiding inside.There is a new picture of him at Marmalade'sSekalaista 005 home page (the feet in the picture
    are mine!), and here are Viivi (in August)
    and Myy

  • Picnic at the Whitehouse

    by

    ,

    Posted by jukkahoo

    It was a quiet, nice weekend. We stayed at home pretty much, occasionally taking the dogsies out for a wee walk. Sunday we had Mekku and Teemu over and we made some sushi. My bad, there was just about enough rice, I guess we could've eaten more.

    So, nothing really exiting. There are days like these. Plenty, really.

    P.S. Kudos to Marx. Das Kapital, indeed.

    Oh, title, yes. I got a nice b-day present last December from my siblings, a combined turntable/CD/mp3-player,  which for a while had been used mainly as a CD-player due to the fact that the apparatus' stylus/needle was somehow damaged at some point. I finally managed to buy a new needle and now we've been reminisceing with some olden goldies from our rather substantive album collection.

    Sari's been listening to The Proclaimers, Midge Ure and – dog forbid – Hector, while I've been playing the aforementioned PatW, Drum Theatre and Modern English, none of which I do not have in digital format.

    Must get down to the basement and bring up more treasures, especially Cocteau Twins' album of the same name.

  • Linky

    Posted by Sari

    As the flu has robbed me of most of my cognitive functions I have been spending my day drinking endless cups of tea and surfing the net. Here is the haul:

    As i have been one of the drones who input data to a system, I see how this could happen, but that the first response did not ring a bell makes this funny. Poet dead for 200 years told to pay TV licence.

    Great play from our age's best playwright. I have tickets, do you?

    I have been reading about history of Africa lately. And I bet reading Babar now would be an interesting experience.

    When I was around 12 years, I hated L.M. Montgomery with the passion of a thousand suns. Like most of Finnish girls, I read and loved Anne of the Green Gables. What I could not understand was the betrayal of the later books, of how the smart, impulsive, romantic, determined and driven Anne degenrated into a swooning doctor's wife without a life of her own. Maybe this explains it a little.

    Scholars who are also members of LDS church have produced a new book on Mountain Meadows Massacre. Sounds interesting, but do they also cover the cover up?

    And I also had time to look at my backlog of the Daily Show. Here is one of Jon's better rants,  from 30th of September, when the bail-out bill failed to pass the House.