Friday, June 22, 2007

"Näin selviät vaarallisesta juhannuksesta hengissä"

"This is how you'll survive the dangerous midsummer" was a front page title in the last Kirkko & kaupunki (Church & city) maqazine. Yes, the midsummer's eve among other drinking festivities in Finland is really dangerous so I thought you might benefit from some tips. According to the article, here are ten things that might cause nuicance during the midsummer: 1. sunburns, 2. holiday stress, 3. heat stroke, 4. loneliness, 5. insect bites, 6. drinking spouse, 7. adder's bite, 8. ticks, 9. wounds from glass splinters, 10. shocking accident.

(The last refers especially to drownings. Last year 6 people drowned during Midsummer. This year already 64 people have drowned in Finland.)

Since safety during midsummer is no joke, I recommend reading the hole article, it's actually quite entertaining. It's called "Puhelin pelastaa" i.e. "Phone saves". Here are some random excerpts:

– Hyvä rouva, voitteko sanoa, mitä kello on? Onko nyt aamu vai ilta?

Kaupunki hengittää virastoaikojen rytmissä.

Parvekkeen kaiteelle istahtanut pikkulintu sai monet tartuntariskiä pelkäävät soittamaan meille.

Lähde tuttavien tai sukulaisten luo tai vaikka kotiin, jos olet mökillä.


Hauskaa juhannusta! Happy Midsummer!

Thursday, June 21, 2007

0 Minutes of Peace and Quiet Left

First of all, let me promise that this will not become a "Oh, just look how cute my cats are" blog. But since Nukka got her own post I think it's only fair that Jymy gets one as well.

















So I was walking by the bookcase that holds all Tommi's Aku Ankka books when I heard a weird swishing sound. And just then all the books came down. Previously Jymy has been getting lots of practice jumping onto bookshelfs full of books – the books just have to sort of go out of the way when he lands. However, now there had appeared a small hole on the other side of the shelf and he was able to jump there and walk behind the books to the other side. But there's a design flaw in the bookcase: there isn't really enough space for turning behind the books.

In this picture Jymy is trying to find another route out after knocking down several books from another part of the shelf.

Relating to a previous comment by Janus, I have to ask: Do you find Jymy's antics also familiar?

Sunday, June 17, 2007

49 Minutes of Bliss Left

















Nukka is enjoying the heat generated by the dishwasher. She also likes the washing machine.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Demonical Creatures?

The figure in the picture came from a Kinder easter egg. It is a math professor, who cannot count and is thus constantly red with embarrassment because people make fun of him. He (or she) is also "a great expert on dragons and other similar animals". He also looks a bit like the devil.

The article is from Helsingin Sanomat. Apparently a reader had been offended with the devilish easter surprise and the question here is whether it's ok to make toys that look like the devil. Nobody questions whether it's ok that there are people who make toys for children who think that math teachers are quite cute because they are so funny and it's a great joke to make fun of someone who cannot count.

If your multimedia plug-ins are up to date you can visit the Magic Kinder site and see the calculus master in action.

I also learned from Wikipedia that Kinder Eggs "are sold all over the world excluding the United States where the 1938 Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, prohibits embedding 'nonnutritive items' in confections".

I'm also probably a criminal now since I scanned the article here but it was in the restricted section in the web Hesari. Let's hope Hesari won't sue me.

No Posts?

I've come back home and hence lost interest on my blog? Is that so? Yes and no. I just can't come up with anything interesting to write about right now. For example: This isn't really interesting, is it?

Any foreign life is always more interesting than your own. That's why you're reading this, isn't it? But you see, I'm living my own life now and it's really boring. There's simply nothing to write about.

Thursday, June 7, 2007

Doubling Ages

This confusingly titled post is ment to be a congratulation to my dad and simultaneously a confession: I'm to be blamed for the shirt.

Doubling ages since we just figured out that my dad is double my age this year. It'd seem quite stupid to write a post just about that, you see, especially since it's only funny because of the name of my blog and thus it's rather getting old already. So it's here only as a side note – and a title – Michigan Dad offering me a convenient pretext.

Monday, June 4, 2007

Who Can Top This?






















That's the path I walk to work every day.

No amount of flower scents or even thousands of different colours will ever come close to the overflowing greenness of the Finnish summer. And no amount of gardening will ever compensate for a total lack of untended paches of land.

More ravings here.