An ode to a practical domestic appliance

Got a dishwasher some time ago, and now I can't believe, understand, or comprehend, that we, a family including a kid, survived for over two years without one. It's a, or possibly the, thing that has greatly improved the quality of our lives lately. Our financial situation has improved, we've gotten a better car, we live in an apartment with a sauna now, the wife has finally graduated. Several things have gotten better lately. But there's nothing I like better than not washing the dishes every f***ing night. I just load the machine, humming to the chorus of "Whatever" by Oasis to myself (you know, "I'm freeeee-ee..."), turn it on and the rest takes care of itself. I only have to scrub the kitchen surfaces, vacuum a little bit, clean up the toilet, do the laundry, water the flowers, gather up the toys and whatnot from the floors, take out the trash, newspapers, cartons and such, wipe off some dust, arrange the bookshelfs in an alphabetical order, straighten out the strings at the ends of the carpets, line up every object in the household neatly in straight angles, and then I can have a sweet, peaceful 15 minutes of free time before going to bed.

Seriously, before the dishwasher came, the dishes really had to be washed every night. I don't understand it either. There's only three of us, but every night every single container in the household had somehow gotten dirty and piled in the sink. And there are several sets of dishes in the household. You know, I like washing the dishes just as much as I like vacuuming, it's a satisfying chore where you really get to see the results of your work, but I don't want to do it every single night. It had just gotten ridiculous. Both me and my wife were really stressed about washing the dishes. There really isn't much romance left when you've woken up early, worked for 8-10 hours, gotten home via the kindergarten, prepared dinner, then spent a couple of hours with a two year old tornado and finally gotten him to sleep. Usually, we just managed to lie down on the sofa in front of the TV like two grouchy, bickering logs, the other with a largish branch protruding from the middle section in a 90 degree angle.

Neither of us can relax in a messed up household. If there's a mess of any significance, I have a strong urge to tidy it up, and the wife has a strong urge to make me tidy it up. I guess that she has to be the smarter one.

But yeah, have I already mentioned that I love the dishwasher? Wait, I'll just have to go and give it a kiss... Although our household now consumes more electricity than before, I'm willing to pay for it. If it needed to be fed 20 € bills in order to function, I'd do it. I don't know whether it's less ecological to wash the dishes by machine than by hand or not. According to my very vague understanding, the machine might even consume less water than myself (even if you count beer as water) when doing the dishes. I did choose an AAA machine, intentionally. But if there are any green besserwissers willing to challenge me on the matter, feel welcome to do so, in the boxing ring. I think I can beat most of you up, if I have to. You're usually miserably puny, aren't you?

And finally, I'd like to include a non-ode to a non-practical domestic appliance which also lately came into my possession, or a negative review about the appliance, if you will. Because I can't believe the magazine Tieteen kuvalehti managed to swindle me again. I mean, some months ago they sent me an offer for two magazines and a gift for a measly sum (like 6 € or so). The gift was a wireless audio transmitter/receiver that you can use to hook up your computer and stereo wirelessly. Like a nerd sucker I fell for it. It took for about three months for the gift to appear in the mail, during which I'd already received and paid for several full-priced copies of the magazine, because of course I forgot to cancel the subscription of the magazine at the earliest opportunity. And the appliance ate batteries like crazy and was therefore unusable. It took some fiddling and adjusting to make it work, and then it only worked for about a couple of hours before the batteries ran out. I got fed up, went to the nearest hypermarket, got a lengthy enough RCA cable (for about 10 €) and used that to hook up the computer and the stereo. And that setup works perfectly, without any fiddling. And now I have a useless, overpriced piece of battery-eating, environment-destroying plastic and wiring sitting in my closet. I guess I should just mail it back to Tieteen kuvalehti.

Might I mention that the first time the same magazine swindled me was with a similar offer, except the gadget was a "wireless weather station". It also required batteries, which usually cease to work outside the apartment in the temperatures of the Finnish winter, and apparently had some other issues too, because it just refused to work after a couple of weeks, despite changing the batteries.

I don't even like the magazine that much. Flicking through an issue might provide enough entertainment for a lengthy session on the toilet seat, but for a session of slouching on the couch, I'd rather read a Me Naiset instead. Don't ask why, I can't figure it out myself. Something to do with emotions and stuff, of which, as a man, I don't know nothing about.

RIP Pekka Pohjola

Today I, as well as the many of us, were saddened by the news that the greatest composer and bass player of all time, Pekka Pohjola, had passed away. Notice that I'm stating the terms "greatest" and "of all time" as facts instead of opinions. That's intentional.

I'm not a prog rock enthusiast, I'm not a professional bass player, or any good at it. I just love his music. I'm disappointed that I never got to see him play live. I can't tell if his life was too short or not. I know that he never sucked, as many musicians tend to do when they pass their prime. He seemed to be drawn towards a particular type of a synthesizer sound in the 80's, which doesn't seem to age well, but I can live with that. This is the only complaint I can think of about his music.

Now this was a guy that composed music that could bring a hard man, such as yours truly, to tears. This is music that will expand your consciousness if you hadn't heard it before. When you watch the video above, remember that the bass player is the guy who wrote the music, and where the plentiful credit is due. He's not a guy who takes the center stage, but he's the guy you should watch.

I haven't listened to all of his albums, but I know what I like. Wait, I don't. I can't tell whether I like Visitation or Keesojen Lehto the best. They're both amazing albums. They ought to have the song "Try to remember" from Visitation playing in his funeral. That's what I'd like to have playing in mine.

Petty, devastating annoyances

Today I decided to indulge myself. I work in a noisy open office, so I decided to purchase quality headphones of the closed kind. Big ones, because I want headphones not only to sound good, but also to convey a message: I'm working, I'm trying to insulate myself from all the noise and fuss, so don't bother me. You know, you got to have quality headphones when you spend eight hours each day listening to music. I don't necessarily want to spend eight hours each day listening to music, I'm forced to do it because I need to concentrate. It's easier to concentrate while listening to music than listening to coworkers conversating and socializing. They're not supposed to socialize too much in an open office either, because it bothers coworkers, but they do it anyway. Stupid lack of discipline.

Anyway. I went to a small shopping centre two kilometres from where I live, because there's a computer shop there that sells quality headphones at a reasonable price. I had my kid with me. At the store I went directly to the headphone rack, compared a few models, made a decision and went to the counter. It took me all of a 2.5 minutes to do that. But at the counter there was a line of about six nerds and two clerks serving them. I stood in the line for about half an hour, trying to keep my kid calm, while listening to nerds buying computers one component at a time. They'd ask the clerk to recommend a video card, who'd find the available video cards on his computer. Then they'd discuss and compare the merits of each model and possibly agree on the model the nerd would like. Then the clerk would go to find the video card from the store or possibly the back room. Then he'd come back and ask if the nerd would like to have anything else. The nerd would then name the next component he needed. It went on and on. There are many components in a computer. There are many nerds.

I was only one nerd away from purchasing the headphones, but I had to give up. My kid was getting restless and so was I. I took the headphones back to the rack and walked out of the store. The nerd was probably a more valuable customer than I, because he bought equipment for, say, 600 €. But in the time that it took the clerk to service him, 20 guys could have walked in and purchased 30 € headphones each, had there been a counter where purchasing items had been made efficient. All the store would have to do is to separate customer service and the counters. Now the customers who know what they want and want to get it quickly have to stand in line, annoyed, for a long time, tapping their wrists impatiently, and the customers who want customer service have to explain their needs to the clerks in front of an annoyed, wrist-tapping crowd.

So I came back home and ordered the headphones from another computer shop in another city via internet. They'll be delivered by mail and I'll have to fetch them from the post office, which is actually as far away as the shopping centre. But at least in the post office there will not be a bunch of nerds blocking my way. There might be a few grannies, but at least they're usually faster, and stronger, than nerds. They also have a more pleasant odour, might I say.

Oh, and also, there weren't any frozen Karelian pasties in the grocery store. What kind of a grocery store doesn't have frozen Karelian pasties these days? A crappy one, I tell you.

Yes, I do realize that I'm a spoiled brat for complaining of petty matters like these.

That's all.

Why Facebook rules

In the nineties, when I was in my early twenties, I wanted to become a musician. At the time (and still), one of my biggest influences was Mansun, and especially the lead singer/songwriter/producer of the band, Paul Draper. I loved his music. I admired his style. I aspired to be like him. I had secret daydreams of him producing my to-be groundbreaking, legendary first album (still yet to appear).

Well, guess what. This week I became a close, personal friend of Paul's. That is to say, I sent him a friend request in Facebook (because his web pages told me that it's okay to do so), and he accepted it. I enclosed a short message, in which I shyly praised his music, and he responded by thanking me for the friend request. And like a little girl, I'm still somewhat dizzy, giggling and blushed because my idol sent me a personal message, which he actually wrote (or possibly partly copy-pasted), with his own fingers, in his secret musical laboratory, which must be among the greatest places on earth.

Now I can see updates on his Facebook activities, and he can see mine. This is beneficial for both of us. If you excuse the marketing parlance, he can market his products to the likes of me, the consumers. And I get information on his products, which I really want to get, unlike most of the advertising I receive. Also, I get kicks. It makes me feel comfortable to see that he just updated his status or did something else online. I get the feeling that he's out there, and if I yank my network cable his Mac (or possibly PC) will fall of the table. Oops. Better to not yank it. Might accidentally destroy the hard drive containing all of his recordings, which would have been the greatest yet.

All of this applies also to less famous Facebook friends. I can communicate with them in both passive and active ways. I can put things about me on display for others to discover, or I can actively contact other people in numerous ways. I can send messages, invite people to events, join or create groups or participate in silly online games. It's easier and more fun to communicate with friends in Facebook than by email.

Some hundred years ago, there was a cranky old guy (possibly a relative of mine) sitting in a Finnish sauna, objecting to pen and paper. "Why should I learn these new things when I can just go to the neighbour's and sit silently over coffee with them there?"

And then again, some ten years ago, there was a cranky young guy sitting in a Finnish sauna (it was me), objecting to cellular phones. "Why should I learn these new things when I can just go and ring my friends' doorbell and sit silently over coffee with them there?"

Today, there's a cranky guy (Tuomo, I'm talking about you) sitting in a Finnish sauna, objecting to Facebook. "Why should I...", you know.

Well, you should learn it, Tuomo, because it's inevitable. In the future, there will be a means of communication which will replace telephone, email and whatnot. It will be Facebook or some other network thing. You can't escape it, so embrace it.

Information overflow

As you probably have noticed, there's too much information coming in from various channels and media today. More, much more than anyone can consume. Besides the established media, there's the internet, where any moron can publish their thoughts 24/7, or even more often. Anybody with access to a computer can meander on aimlessly forever, providing no real information whatsoever. They can go on and on and on and on, producing non-informative, incoherent rambling. Billions of pictures, web pages, blogs, words, characters, pixels and bits flowing in and out of your eyes, ears, fingers and other organs.

So, as a philanthropist, I'll relieve your pain slightly, and not write any more today.

Boring reads

Because my earlier attempt at art critique was so well received and hugely popular (4 comments, 3 of which weren't written by me), here's some more. Today I'll be reviewing the art of the written word and, true to the theme of this blog, concentrating especially on boring stuff.

Grocery store receipt, dated 22.5.2008, amounting to 34,55 €

This is nice, compact read, suitable length for a bus ride, for example. The format is nicely small and lightweight. When folded it fits in your shirt pocket, or you can even swallow it without too much pain, if you must, to hide your shameful shopping history. The content is maybe not quite lengthy enough to count as truly boring, but the repetition (milk carton x 3, baby food x 12) is a good attempt.

Insurance advertisement billboard

The ad, as seen through the bus window while stopped at the traffic lights and, by chance, while looking up from your grocery store receipt, is kind of too lame and conservative to really catch your eye, but you try to read it anyway. The slogan is instantly forgettable, and the small text at the bottom is too small and lengthy to be read from a bus window. Therefore this doesn't really qualify as boring, but bonus points on the lameness of the information which manages to flow through your brain without ever really registering.

Text message feedback column of local free news magazine

"Dog owners, clean up your pet's droppings, or else...", "Dog haters, stop complaining about dog s**t, or else..." and "12.5. Hotel Vantaa, moustached hunk in a woollen sweater, I miss you and can we meet again? Yours 4ever, chick with black and white hair and considerable love handles.". These and many more can be found among the gems in the free magazine found on the bus seat. None of the items contains any useful information, but sadly, they are the only part of the magazine you can be bothered to read, because you've already read the actual news in the morning from a real newspaper. Great points on the boring, but it is kind of interesting to imagine what the lives of the miserable losers bothering to write this useless crap must be like.

Microwave meal ingredient list

Rice starch, carrot (0.1 %), artificial essence, E241... Mmm... E241. The list of ingredients in the carton of your microwave meal starts as boring, although incomprehensible, but a shocking turn of events awaits at the end: can this 250 g blob of delicious sustenance really contain 310 g of pure fat?

Bus schedule

The bus schedule might not be your primary choice of quality literature to enjoy on an autumn evening in a comfy chair with a snifter of cognac, but it could happen. For example, a fire might destroy all of your personal belongings except your comfy chair, bus schedule, snifter and bottle of Courvoisier. Should that happen, I think you'd be pleasantly surprised. The information provided by the bus schedule is definitely very boring, but ever so useful. Did you know that the 734 goes to Ånas?

Phone book

Now this is the classic boring read. The big book of boring. Generation after generation has been put to sleep by the comforting, indigestible information provided by the phone book. How will the future humans survive, when the phone books have been made obsolete by the mobile devices and the Internet? I mean, you can always make your computer read out loud the Internet version of the phone book, but I know I'll sure miss the comforting weight and smell of the thousands of inky pages on my face while snoring away.

Join Me For Life

Even though I mostly listen to MOR when scrubbing the floors (and so should you), the repertoire of the popular Finnish music group HIM includes several quite snappy tunes. Their biggest hit, Join Me In Death, is really catchy and has the capability to make my feet tap and fingers snap to the beat. But one thing has started to bother me: the lyrics are a bit sad and even depressive. I'm not even sure if it is advisable for the young 'uns to listen to this kind of music, at least often. So here's my improved version of the song lyrics. Cheer up, Ville Valo et al, life isn't so bad (and feel free to record this version)!

Join Me In Death For Life

Baby join me in death for life
Baby join me in death for life
Baby join me in death for life

We are so young
our lives have just begun
but already we're considering
escape from this world marriage

and we've waited for so long
for this moment to come
was so anxious to be together
together in death lawful matrimony

Won't you die live tonight for love
Baby join me in death for life
Won't you die live
Baby join me in death for life
Won't you die live tonight for love
Baby join me in death for life

This world is a cruel happy place
and we're here only to lose enjoy
so before life tears us apart fulfills our dreams let
death a wedding official bless me with you

Won't you die rejoice tonight for love
Baby join me in death for life
Won't you die live happily ever after
Baby join me in death for life
Won't you die dance tonight for love
Baby join me in death for life

This life ain't worth living Seize the day!
This life ain't worth living It's time for dancing in the streets!
This life ain't worth living Don't worry, be happy!

Won't you die smile tonight for love
Baby join me in death for life
Won't you die make love with me
Baby join me in death for life
Won't you die live tonight for love
Baby join me in death for life

Baby join me in death for life

Continuous Cleaning

Ok, here's the long overdue blog entry on household cleaning techniques you've been so eagerly waiting for. You know, there are few things in life that are better than scrubbing your ceramic cooking plate with Dr. Beckmann's cleaning fluid for ceramic cooking plates (with jojoba oil), then taking out those last, most persistent specks of dirt with a razor blade and finally: resting your eyes on the perfect, shining, reflective, immaculate cooking plate. Ahhh... I love cleaning.

I like to call my favourite household cleaning technique Continuous Cleaning. Well, not out loud, but in my mind I do, because I'm a nerd obsessed with cleanliness. But anyway, by Continuous Cleaning I mean the same thing as Not Letting Your Household Get Dirty.

Washing the dishes might be a suitable example of this technique. Owners of a dishwasher, please use your imagination. This technique can be applied to all kinds of cleaning tasks. Let us compare the ways a) an anonymous, non-continously cleaning person and b) myself, a continuous cleaner, would typically handle diswashing during a week (note: exaggeration):

a) Get a clean glass from the cupboard every time you drink water. Put the glass in the sink after doing so. Leave food leftovers on plates and pile them onto stacks. Leave empty milk cartons, baby food jars and the like on the kitchen counter. Postpone washing the dishes until there aren't any clean containers for food left, except the ugly flower vase you received from your mother-in-law. Oh sod it, that can be used as a beverage container too. Complain noisily that dishwashing is dreadful. Finally, wash the dishes at the end of the week when raccoons have started taking over the garbage heap that once was the kitchen counter.

b) Use a single mug for coffee and other beverages for a day. Rinse empty milk cartons and baby food jars and put them away right when they are emptied. Wash the dishes after each dinner, if possible. If something spills on the kitchen counter, wipe it away immediately. Before going to sleep each night, wash the remaining dishes, if any.

Which method seems better? Ok, we all agree that b) is much better, at least for these reasons:
- there are clean containers for food available all week
- being in the kitchen doesn't cause weird, indescribable anxiety
- health hazards caused by mutated food leftovers and raccoon attacks are unlikely
- loud complaining by family members is scarce and therefore stress levels are tolerable.

Now which method seems less troublesome? Some might argue that method a) is less work because you can just slob away all week and then take care of the cleaning on Sunday. I'll maintain, however, that method b) is easier based on the following opinions facts:
- rinsing away non-dried food leftovers is significantly easier than scrubbing dried up, unidentified goo
- washing the dishes is easy when you have room to do it, i.e. the sink is not full of other dishes
- the total work seems easier, because washing up a couple of plates does not seem like an insurmountable task that takes up the whole Sunday afternoon
- the continuously clean environment lifts up your spirits so you'll have more energy to wash the dishes.

Ok, if this didn't convince you, I'll offer another example. Suppose you've spilled some coffee on the wall and floor on a frantic morning when trying to feed the kid in a hurry. If you clean it up right away, you'll be late, but at least it's free. If you leave it uncleaned, thinking that it's unjust having to clean it up in such a situation, the coffee will soak up into the wall and possibly warp the floor. And later, when selling the apartment, you'll either have to repaint the wall and have the floor leveled, or possibly accept an offer from a buyer that's thousands of units in the local currency below your request because of the damage. Beware!

Ok, this might get a little far-fetched. But please excuse me. I'm an engineer by trade and therefore mostly spend my working days figuring out solutions to problems, optimizing processes and convincing other people that the way I want to do it is the best way to do it. I can't just stop doing so at home, can I? And there's no point in telling me that "you've changed man, it used to be about the music", Mr. Hippie, you weren't born a guitar up your arse either, it just became located there some 20 years later. Everyone changes, all the time.

The quickest blog entry in the world

Ok, I'm going to have to be very fast and efficient here. I guess I have approximately... damn, shouldn't have written "approximately", "about" would have been much faster to write and done the same thing, but yeah, approximately 4 minutes to write this entry. That's because my kid is not asleep yet and I'll have to go put him to sleep soon. So I'll just give you a short status report on moi, instead of the volumes 1-20 on household cleaning tips that I would like to write:

- My laptop broke and was being serviced. What an awful 10 days that was.
- I got a new bicycle. Sweet! So far the top time from home to work (or vice versa) is 4:47 (1.6 km).
- Our family has, apparently, moved to the upper class: we're having somebody coming to clean up our apartment tomorrow. From window washing to floor scrubbing. I can't wait. I like cleaning, but lately there's been no time to do it. And if it is affordable to buy as a service, then hey, why not.
- Oh great, now my wife got the kid to sleep and came to stand behind me. How am I going to write anything now.
- Hmmm. I was just thinking that... honey, I'll clean up the toilet tomorrow, there's no reason to do it now, it's late and... oh, never mind, I'll do it now.
- Yeesh. I wonder whether or not one can improve their concentration capability by practicing. If, for example, one would try to concentrate on complex stuff in a noisy environment for a long time, would they get better at it? I think so, based on empiric experiments.
- I would like to have sex. I wonder if that's possible.

The meaning of life

Tonight I thought that I'd give you an answer to the question that has been plaguing mankind for ages: the meaning of life, that is. Because, you know, it just came to me one night, and I'd like to share it to y'all. Sorry about the lack of funniness in this post, but I'm sober, and the topic is kind of grandiose, so maybe it's best to approach it seriously.

The meaning of life in general

The meaning of life is to evolve and spread. As far as is understood currently, life on Earth has evolved from some kind of primordial ooze to ever more complex forms, like plants, animals and humans. At the same time life has spread from a single organism in a primordial sea to zillions of organisms all around the world. Therefore it would seem obvious that the purpose of life is to keep on evolving and expanding. Lifeforms will become more complex and better (whatever that is). Life will spread to other planets (if it isn't there already).

The meaning of life - a human

The meaning of the life of an individual human being is to support the evolution and spreading of life in general. Therefore one should aspire to educate himself/herself, aid the progress of the human kind and to reproduce. The advancement of scientific progress might be the most direct way to aid the evolution of life for a human being. However, not all of us are scientists. Even by just being a living organism you are a part of the process of evolution. Remember, evolution is a very slow process, it takes forever. Literally.

Note that when I'm talking about evolution I'm actually talking about two things here: the natural evolution of organisms and the evolution of the scientific knowledge of humans. The former just happens by itself. The latter helps the expansion of life (because we learn to use natural resources more efficiently and can migrate to other planets, so there will be more room and better living conditions for more organisms), but also, in my opinion, enables humans to evolve into different, and hopefully better, forms of life. And possibly create new lifeforms. Just think about artificial intelligence, for example.

The meaning of life - myself

But what about the meaning of your life? I don't know that. But as an example, I'll try to define what could be the meaning of my life, in order to help you defining your own meaning.

Well, the reproduction part is easy. I should have kids. I have one already and I'd like to have more. The next one could be a girl, and possibly red-haired. Also, I'll have to work in order to be able to provide adequate living conditions for my kids. And furthermore, I'll have to be a good parent and try to raise my offspring as well as possible. I'll also try to encourage my kids to get as good an education as possible.

The advancement of the progress of the human kind is slightly more difficult. It seems unlikely that I'll achieve any scientific breakthroughs in the near future. But as a software engineer, I'd like to think that maybe I can advance the development of software engineering methods and/or technology, just a little bit, during my working career. Or at least advance the development of the software profession by acting as an user and a tester of software products designed by smarter people. Think about it: nearly anything can be seen as beneficial to the scientific advancement of the human kind. By taking an aspirin I'll act as a human guinea pig for the pharmaceutical industry, and therefore aid the development of pharmaceuticals. By belching and picking my nose on the sofa I can act as a warning example to my kid, who'll then decide to do better than me and apply to the university.

Communication eras

Good evening, the elderly, and yo, the youth. Tonight I thought it'd be interesting to talk about... oh, wait a minute, this is the boring blog. Hmm... why don't I ponder on, say, communication.

I recently noticed that in the short span (at least on the cosmologic scale) of my existence so far, the way people have communicated with each other has clearly changed every now and then, usually following a technological breakthrough. So here's the history, and the present, of communication between the members of the human kind, in a nicely compact form, as observed by me.

1) The prehistory

As I understand it, before the seventies, people communicated mostly by grunting, throwing potatoes at their neighbours and writing tacky love songs to chicks in mini skirts. And centuries ago, there might have been some distinguished poets too, who wrote some love poems or whatever. With a pen made out of a feather.

2) The Kekkonen era

In the countryside, people just walked into their neighbours homes, sat on the bench and waited to be served some coffee. Then they might have talked a bit, if the coffee was good enough. Letters were sent to relatives a couple of times a year. The telephone was invented, but it was mainly used to ask relatives if the letter had arrived yet.

Music was recorded on LP records, which were large, unpractical and expensive. Kids mostly copied LP records on C-cassettes, if they could afford blank ones, and were lucky enough to know somebody who actually owned some music. The rest of us played with matches, cows made out of pinecones and the popular computer C-64, which required copying games on C-cassettes.

3) Late eighties, early nineties

Sometime later, the CD record was invented. Unfortunately, nobody knew anyone who'd actually seen one.

Popular forms of communicating with other people were passing paper notes in the classroom and barfing on the shoes of the one you were attracted to in the local disco. The telephone continued to be frightening and the letters continued to be infrequent.

4) The doorbell era

The cellular telephone was invented. Anybody who owned one was swiftly kicked in the nuts for being an arrogant yuppie, making it ineffective as a means of communication.

A popular way to communicate was to go to a person's home and ring the doorbell. If they were home, communication could happen, provided that enough beer was brought by the visiting person. Letters were still sent to persons living in other cities, but the amount of beer that could be attached to a letter was insufficient to guarantee any real communication.

An extraordinary means of communication was invented in Finland: by standing up in the sauna and farting on the face of the person next to you appreciation could be expressed and a lifetime bond could be engaged. Lots of communication ensued.

5) The text message era

In the nineties, cellular phones became affordable, and therefore could be owned by regular people. Telephoning still continued to be synchronous, and therefore uncomfortable to some people, except when drunk. However, text messaging, being asynchronous and inexpensive, quickly became widely popular.

In the nineties, personal computers were quite common, but Internet connections were expensive and slow. Therefore computers were mostly used in communication in two ways:
1) Writing a letter on the computer, then saving the document on a floppy disk and sending the disk to the recipient by mail
2) Ringing the doorbell of a computer owner, then playing a two-player computer game with them using the same keyboard (provided that the amount of beer was sufficient).

6) The dotcom era

The Internet connections became affordable. Sending letters via e-mail finally made sending pieces of paper stained with ink through mail obsolete. Chat applications made synchronous communication available through the computer. Synchronous communication still required drunkenness, at least in Finland.

7) The web 2.0 era

The appearance of online communities, like Facebook, made communication easier. You didn't have to know the email address of a person, you could look them up using the search functionality of the community. By blogging you could inform your friends of the recent events in your life, without forcing them to being informed. By doing at least something in Facebook, you could signal your friends and relatives that you are alive.

As a conclusion, the means of communication we have today are plentiful:
a) synchronous, real-time communication (farting on the face, talking on the coffee, talking on the phone)
b) asynchronous communication, provider model (text messaging, email)
c) asynchronous communication, subscriber model (spying on other people in Facebook, RSS).

Political rant

The bourgeoisie. Or the right wing in the political field, whatever you like to call them. I can't understand them. To me, to declare oneself as bourgeois, is about as offensive as to admit to being racist or Nazi. It's as if you'd tell everyone that you like to inflict pain on other people and watch them suffer. It's like declaring yourself as superior to the common people. It's like saying that I'm entitled to own a SUV, you're not, and maybe you can wipe my windshield in the traffic lights but I'll spit in your face and drive over your toes when the light turns green.

It might be just my fault. Maybe I've got it all wrong. It could be that the right wing just has not been able to get their message across to me. It might be that I've just been brainwashed enough by my parents so that I can't see anything good about them. But it's funny, because I think that I should be in their target audience. I'm urban and relatively white collar, but still I don't get their message. But do I even know what they are advocating or am I blinded by my prejudice?

Let's see.... the site www.kokoomus.fi (the web pages of the most popular national right wing party) is as mind-numbingly boring as you'd except from a mainstream political party. The only provocative thing that I can see is a news item about Kokoomus members being active in some kind of church-related election. Yeah, way to lick the elderly conservatives. It seems that I'll just have to compress their political program myself:
1) I'm better than you, because I do (or will) earn more money than you, and therefore more privileged
2) Things should be kept that way, forever. Oh yeah, and my kids are better than you, too.

To me it seems that they're really wanting to preserve class society. Like, we're the factory owners, you're the workers, and we're going to rip you off. I can't understand why anybody who doesn't own at least one factory would vote right wing. But yet large masses of people do. Haven't they realized that, by definition, the masses can't be elite? And, as a result of this logic, the bourgeoisie, who should be a minority, are ruling. Democracy doesn't work. And it's our fault.

To me, the most uncomprehensible thing in the political field is the young conservative. It's an oxymoron of a kind. Like "currently I'm slaving as a clerk at this kiosk (because I'm studying business related stuff), but I'm aiming to be the head of a conglomerate some day, so I'll vote conservative, instead of the party that would like to improve my working conditions". "I'm the future dictator, so I'll support the current dictator, even though he'll probably cut my head off."

But then again, what are the alternatives? I don't know. The left wing does not fill me with trust (0ne youthful candidate is not going to do it). I'm not half swedish or a religious nutcase. The green party might be just a decoy for the urban conservatives, and their best guy just left. Where is the political party with fresh ideas and no past ballast?

Non-voting is seeming to look a like an option here. And maybe some brick-hurling would be in place...

A financial review of the year 2007

Wowee. It seems that lately, my readership has multiplied to staggering new heights. On some days as many as 4 people have visited my blog! Hopefully I'm not getting stage fright. Or starting to censor my more radical opinions subconsciously. I mean, it's a responsible position to have such huge audience, part of which might consist of young, easily influenced minds. So, as a disclaimer, I'd like to underline that I'm not advocating programming, as a hobby or a profession, to just anybody. A wildly exciting thing such as programming also has its downsides and is not suitable, in my opinion, for the faint at heart.

It seems that my recent writings have slipped to some kind of feeble attempts at humour, so today I thought I'd get back to the very essence of this blog: boring musing on strict, hard, insignificant facts. And more specifically, numbers. Because, man, I like numbers. Therefore I keep track of my income and expenses closely and have a jolly good time at the end of each year when I get to summarize my accounting and compare it to the previous year. So here's a short analysis of my financial situation in the year 2007.

Income

My income in the last year consisted, unsurprisingly, mainly of pay from work. The profits of my investment activity (or more accurately, the deposit interest of my bank account) were a mere 0,0003 % of my total net income. That's sad. It means that my income was earned by working hard myself, instead of leeching off on hard work performed by other people, which I think I might be able to enjoy.

All except 0,11 % percent of my income was spent during the year. It might indicate that my budget is too tight. For certain it indicates that I'm not overpaid.

The cost of living

About 45 % of my income was spent on living expenses, i.e. mortgage payments, apartment maintenance charges and electricity. Damn. If living here wasn't so expensive, I might actually have some spare cash sometimes. But let's not forget that the mortgage payments, which were about 32 % of my total income, are a form of investment. Whew. At least some of my money has not disappeared to thin air, down the drain, or become a spare tire around my waist.

Food & household expenses

From 21 % to 25 % of my income last year was spent on food and other household expenses (cleaning products, pharmaceuticals, diapers, furniture and various stuff). I'm not sure of the exact percentage because my accounting system is not precise enough. Of all my expenses, this probably is the one that could be decreased the most. By buying cheaper ingredients and preparing more foods myself I could probably save significant amounts of money. But on the other hand, a family with a small kid doesn't always have the time to cook elaborate meals. By eating frozen pizzas and ready made baby food lot of stress can be avoided. But yeah, I should cut down on the caviar and the condor egg omelettes. Mmm... a couple of those would be tasty right now...

Transportation expenses

Last year, nearly 5 % of my income was spent on car related expenses. That seems kind of expensive, given that I don't really drive that much. But if I would have given in and bought a new, expensive car the percentage would be a lot bigger. There probably is not much to save here: if I didn't own a car, the corresponding sum (or more) would be spent on train, aviation and other public transport tickets by the family. And hey, it's less than in 2006, probably because of cheaper insurance (more bonus).

Entertainment

Then to the fun part. In 2007, I spent less than 2 % of my income on alcoholic beverages and eating at restaurants. That's not much, eh?

My clothing and beauty treatment expenses in 2007 were slightly over 1 %. In the future, it will hopefully be less, because I finally bought a home barber kit. In your face, barber industry, from now on I'm doing it myself!

On music records I spent 0,25 % of my income. That's ridiculously little for a music enthusiast! Hmm. Can I still be called a music enthusiast?

Then some 12 % of my income was spent on miscellaneous expenses, most of which belong to the household category. I see my accounting system (an Excel spreadsheet) has room for improvement.

Conclusion

Once again, 2007 was a financially succesful year, I might say, based on these undeniable facts:
- the family got to live in a house
- nourishment was adequate
- no vital organs had to be sold to fund expenses
- the amount of debt decreased instead of increasing.

In 2008, I hope to achieve the same goals, and additionally I hope to be able to invest more on entertainment. Family entertainment, that is.