My life as a married man
I've been married for a week now. It's been fun and I'm indeed very happy about it. Our wedding party was a great success: the location was perfect, the ceremony went smoothly despite us not rehearsing it and everybody (we had almost 70 guests, friends and closer family) seemed to have fun.
We had minimal entertainment: some cello music and an Elvis impersonator. That worked, as we both hate the traditional wedding numbers. We had enough action arranged, but also enough time for us to mingle with the guests.
Monday we're off to Madeira for a week, that should be fun. Our first week of marriage has been great and if the rest of it as much fun, I'd guess we'll live happily everafter.
09. 4.2004 13.00 | Comments (4) | TrackBack
Peace and quiet
Except in my life. Well, we're mostly excited about the wedding, which is coming closer all the time. Just three weeks and five days now! Fortunately everything's coming together very smoothly, we've had no bigger problems. One thing is sure, however - I'm most satisfied man when the festivities are done with and we're married and I don't have to worry about organizing the party. I don't envy wedding planners, that's a job I know I wouldn't enjoy.
08. 2.2004 10.23 | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Bizarre spam poetry
piano salem about vivid sabin label camel abide novel plane knelt also
store kiosk jetty italy group moved whore truck white truck goose abide group as liked,
basis abort clear salsa judge a alias words udder as cadet lives angle.
chips items digit union stops moons ashes means drink
house crisp proud stuff today medal break yearn point dream.
plate those state motor yacht and
plain smoke man sixty as geese route avoid older align pilot major
bitsy world gifts today ports avail karat girls level sixth pilot moose tacit rhode waldo,
snack unsay begin snail brain timid young popup polka ports kings fugue nurse.
as surge newly eject might and was death audit
boxer rough whore china fairy congo apace staff drink an.
storm mount yukon grows kayak grins
weeps label bland fader mouse obese queer agree races under,
plane apart diner cream timid bench.
faint
vbweb naked.
04. 7.2004 10.50 | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Permalinks and lake Bodom
I moved the permalinks to title so that the title of the entry is the link text. That's good thing, usability-wise, I think. Link text should tell something about the target of the link, not about the function, I suppose. I think that's fairly elegant solution, which I've seen used elsewhere.
Biggest and most interesting news in Finland right now is the Lake Bodom murder case. Three young campers were brutally killed at the Lake Bodom in Espoo 44 years ago. The murder has remained a mystery until now. Police has arrested the person they think probably did it. What's surprising is that the person arrested is the fourth camper, who survived the attack. Now DNA evidence points to his direction.
If it really is him, I'd say that's pretty amazing. Of course it's a good thing such a classic murder mystery is solved and murder is found. But imagine how the murderer must have felt! For 44 years he has been able to hide the fact that he brutally stabbed three of his friends to death. What that must've done to his psyche! This, of course, assuming he really did it.
Police has been quite quiet about it this far, but at least I'm rather curious to hear more details about the case.
04. 4.2004 16.42 | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Living with a woman, part 3.8.
(At least in Finland, March 8th is the official women's day)
03. 9.2004 14.40 | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Quality Link Building
A fellow called Raul just sent me a cross-linking proposal:
"I am contacting you about cross linking. I am interested in melankolia.net because it looks like it's relevant to a site for which I am seeking links. The site is about pet odor control and removal products."
His signature says he's from Link Builder, who are "Experts in Quality Link Building". Yeah, right.
01.16.2004 15.23 | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Mobile madness
There's one TV phenomena you can't and shouldn't miss in Finland: mobile chats. Nearly all TV channels have them. The concept is simple: viewers can send SMS messages which are then displayed on TV. Each messages costs from 80 cents to one euro. There's usually a host who's either (usually) a pretty young lady (who might have some popular guests) or faceless commentor whose only presence is in the form of text messages. There are also moderators, who check each incoming message for swearing, phone numbers, racist messages or other nasty stuff - of course, you'll have to pay even if your message isn't shown.
This goes on during the nights and as you can guess, it's a good way to make money. On the bigger channels the chats are so popular there can easily be a lag of over 30 minutes. After all, there's a limit for the speed of the displayed messages.
What about the content, then? Well, most of it is looking for company. "17yo stud looking for willing women in Helsinki". Or "Bob rules, John is an idiot". Or "How much is the lag?". If there's a pretty young female host, "host show your tits" is a classic. Sometimes on the smaller and more quiet chats there's been actual conversation. Lag of 30 minutes kills all conversation, that's for sure.
Anyway, there's a new development. The chats have changed slowly all the time, with new, small inventions coming up. One great idea was special VIP messages, which cost more but skip the lag. Latest invention is the use of computer speech software to read the messages. People want the hosts to read their messages aloud - well, the computer does exactly that. First time I saw it, there was an animation of Santa Claus who read the messages people sent. Then I saw it in the night chat: there was the typical host and she was accompanied with an animated computer head. There's another number where you can send SMS messages to be read by the head. Their price is double the normal price, 1,6 euros.
Now that's hilarious. There's a silly animated head with it's broken Finnish computer voice and a host, talking over each other. Then there are dozens of people complaining: "get rid of the head!". Which is of course all good and well from the point of view of the people who collect the money: the money's the same whether people are writing their typical silly messages or complaining about the head. Now I'm just waiting for the moment they get rid of the human hosts. After all, computer does the job for free!
Well, the human hosts do generate lots of "show your tits" messages, so I suppose they do earn their salaries. Also, I don't think they are paid too well. Their base salary must be pretty low - of course it's really higher because they get night and weekend bonuses. Still, it's probably not the best paid job ever.
The computer speech can be funny when it's put to say something hilarious, at least my sense of humour is low enough to enjoy that. Now I'm just anxious to see what they invent next to spice up the good old SMS chatting!
12.30.2003 19.29 | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Secret Santa
Secret Santa 2003 is coming! It's about exchanging Christmas presents. Everybody who participates registers their Amazon wishlist. Then at the December 10th, everyone gets to know a person they'll buy a gift to. Thus, everyone will receive a gift from someone! What a splendid idea! The recommended maximum price for the gifts is £10 or $15, so it isn't that expensive, either.
(via ButtUgly)
11.14.2003 12.11 | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Corporate Foundations Lottery
They replied to me with a winnings claiming form (which was hideous and had a typo in the corporate name, which was written in huge letters on top of it). They didn't want to steal my ID (sorry, Jooseppi's ID), they wanted money. Just few hundred dollars in advance, then they would send me my money. Yeah right.
11. 4.2003 08.27 | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Here we go again!
I got another winning notice from an international lottery corporation ("Corporate Foundations Lottery International"), claiming I've won million dollars. The lottery was allegedly promoted and sponsored by Bill Gates.
This time I'm supposed to contact "fiducial agent" Mr. Bright Martins. My friend Jooseppi did so, immediately. This time without any ticket numbers or anything - let's see if they care. I doubt they do.
I haven't heard anything from Dr. Richmond Berkly, by the way. Perhaps his feelings were hurt by the nasty pictures I sent to him.
10.29.2003 11.53 | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Lottery fraud, part II
Well, of course Dr. Richmond didn't mind when someone else wanted to claim my lottery prize. That's pretty obvious. He replied pretty fast. That's what he wanted:
"I write to notify you that you are one of our lucky winners in our fortune lottery programs,the name attach to your email address was selected through computer ballot system,kindly scan or write your identifcation like working I.D student I.D,drivers licence or international passport through my email for more verifications,and also to avoid double claims of funds,delays,and complications in our program."
Too bad my friend Jooseppi (born yesterday) has no ID whatsoever. That didn't stop me from sending Dr. Richmond Jooseppi's pass port scan and driver's license scan.
10.15.2003 17.30 | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Lottery fraud
I have won 415,810 euros in a lottery. Which is quite neat, because I don't even remember participating in one. But oops - according to the e-mail I got, I'm not supposed to tell anyone. I'll have to contact Dr. Richmond Berkly (he's a doctor, so it must be really important) to get the money.
Let's see. Company that handles millions of euros doesn't have proper e-mail addresses - all free mail addresses from who knows where. Google search on the company name brings up list of Nigerian scam companies. Hmm-hmm... this one's tricky.
Well, let's see what they say when an imaginary lottery winner replies to them!
10.14.2003 17.56 | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Birthday
I'm 23 now (actually, I've been 23 since Friday - it's just taken me a while to get used to the fact). I'm glad to be back in a prime number age - reaching next one will take a while.
10.14.2003 09.07 | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Bizarre spam
I got this surreal spam message:
"of the older child, how all the life and cares of the mother
To that I owed my stalking by the Leopard-man, on the night of my arrival."
There was a HTML part, which probably had something less absurd, but this part was all I saw with my pine. The first line is from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and the second line is from The Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells.
Talk about bizarre!
10.10.2003 17.00 | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Dogville
We went to see Dogville, the latest movie from Lars von Trier on Saturday. I've been hugely impressed by just about everything von Trier has made and Dogville was no exception.
The most interesting part of it is the way it's done. Von Trier seems to love tricks. This time the catch was the location. Instead of finding a suitable town, he drew it. He got a huge warehouse, where he drew the outlines of the town. There's an outline of a strange blob on the ground and an explanation "Gooseberry bushes". Neat.
Actually, it worked really well. There were enough props to make it believable. Everything there was was used at some time during the movie. The rest of it - the unnecessary bits - were left out. It was very strange, but I got used to it soon. At the same time it help to generalize the events - this could've happened anywhere.
The movie was, indeed, about the human nature. How does a town react, when a strange and perhaps dangerous woman appears? How did they accept her? What were the conditions? It ended up pretty ugly, but that's to be expected from the torturer of innocent women (see Breaking the Waves and Dancer in the Dark for other examples). The ending left me satisfied, but ashamed of being satisfied at such ending.
It was an unpleasant movie, but in a purifying sense.
10. 6.2003 10.40 | Comments (0) | TrackBack
History for Iron Maiden fans 101
In case you've been listening to Iron Maiden's new album Dance of Death, you might be interested in learning some history.
Montségur was a Cathar fortress. Cathars were a Gnostic heretics, who were persecuted by the Inquisition. In 1245, Inquisition conquered Montségur and burned 200 Cathars. Too bad. Boardgamers might be interested to know that there were lots of Cathars living in the city of Carcassonne. If you're interested, Wikipedia knows lots of things about Cathars.
Passchendaele, in the other hand, was a major battle in the World War I. It is better known, perhaps, as the Third Battle of Ypres. As was typical in the WWI, it was a long, bloody fight (about 250,000 casualties) over nothing: almost everything the allied forces gained was lost in the Fourth Battle of Ypres. Wikipedia can tell you more, as usual.
09.26.2003 15.53 | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Operating the circulation
Today was my first day at the Tampere university library circulation desk. It was an easy day, as I had only two hours of real customer service action. The library system didn't work in the beginning, which is always exciting - modern libraries are crippled when the computers don't work.
I'm looking forward to going back to work tomorrow. Working only 20 hours a week makes it a bit easier to handle. Full-time job would be worse. But, I can always repeat my mantra: "library work experience, Voyager library system experience, money" to help me carry on...
09. 1.2003 15.24 | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Morbid dieting
Considering the buzz around the Atkins diet lately, I found this dieting spam I received rather morbid. The subject is pretty tame: "Lose Weight While You Sleep. Here Is How!". It's the sender: "Final Diet".
Indeed there's little need for dieting after a thoroughly executed Atkins diet...
08.23.2003 11.25 | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Who wants to be a millionaire?
I went, I saw, I conquered. I was in the last episode filmed yesterday, so I had to wait the whole day at the studio. That wasn't nice - the show is quite boring to watch and the studio was a sauna with all the super-power lamps.
The competition was a bit more interesting. In the fastest fingers -part I lost the first attempt with about one second - the winner was very fast, with a time of 3.3 seconds. Fortunately he didn't do very well and the left the studio with only 2 000 euros.
Second time I did better. The task was to put the letters P, I, N and T in that order, which I did in 2.99 seconds. Talk about fast!
That was the tough bit. The questions were easy. Because I was the last competitor of the last episode, I'm going back next week for the rest of it. I'm starting with a decent amount of money and will hopefully get a little bit more.
08.20.2003 10.29 | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Bribe me!
I added a link to my Amazon wish list to the front page. It's there in case you feel the need to buy something nice to me... You know, my birthday is getting closer and closer, only two months or so anymore.
Well, not really (but I'm not complaining if you do buy me something), it's there for my purposes and for you to see what I'm interested in right now. Have fun!
08.17.2003 17.31 | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Who wants to be a millionaire? Me!
Last Tuesday I was sitting by the phone waiting for a call from Who wants to be a millionaire? quiz show. Ismo was competing and I was his dial a friend -lifeline. The call never came, he was too slow and didn't make it to the show. It was close! He would've called me on question nine, asking for the cause of death of Alexander Pushkin. I would've provided the answer under 30 seconds, easily!
Well, now the roles reverse. My mother and Ismo promised to pay the costs of participating so I had nothing to lose. It took me two attempts - first time was definitely too slow, therefore the second try. Today the called me, I'm invited to the competition next Tuesday!
If I'm only fast enough to get to the hot seat, I should be able to come home with a decent pile of euros. The winnings in the Finnish version are pitifully low, though. The main prize is only 200 000 euros.
It's funny, though: it's not lottery taxed, it's proper income. Therefore it affects my student grants. If I win more than 6 000 euros, I'll have to return some of the student grants I've got this year. If I win more than 15 000 euros, Johanna gets less money for rents. So if I win the 10th step, which is 20 000 euros, I'll actually get something like 7 500 euros after taxes, student grants and all that. Still, 7 500 euros is a huge amount of money from my point of view!
08.15.2003 12.52 | Comments (0) | TrackBack
TV treats
Yesterday was a good day, TV-wise. New episodes of Cold Feet have arrived! It's a very good show and definitely one of the best running right now. Of course I'm hopelessly hooked on Survivor, even though the Thailand series they're showing now has started off quite slowly. Hopefully it gets more interesting, but I'm afraid the people aren't as interesting as they could be. Johanna quoted a news article or something like that to me which said the Thailand series is the most boring of them all, but the next one should be much better. Hope so!
08. 6.2003 10.06 | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Anniversary
It's our fourth anniversary today. I've got a gift for Johanna and tomorrow we'll go and have a good meal in a restaurant. It's been a good year, and even better ones will come!
(On a side note, it's also the 84th anniversary of the Finnish goverment system.)
07.17.2003 08.47 | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Finnish coffee mania
Finland is the world leader in coffee consumption. It's something like an average of nine cups per day per person. Which is a lot, considering that many people don't drink coffee at all. Finland must be full of caffeine addicts.
This mania of coffee drinking can be seen in various places. Today, I went shopping for groceries. Coffee was on sale - half a kilo packet of quality coffee was only 1,69 euros. Because of this amazingly cheap price (perhaps 50 cents less than usually), there was a sign that said "Only for households. No more than 10 packets/household."
And I was thinking about buying 11 packets! Darn. Then I just went on with my shopping, buying exactly one packet of different kind of coffee which cost me exactly two euros.
07.14.2003 13.14 | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Another PayPal fraud
Once again I'm targeted by a PayPal fraud. This time they asked me to verify my e-mail address. The URL revealed it, though... They tried to use the old trick of using the right address as a username for a fraud site, so the URL looked like this:
https://www.paypal.com:[long string of mixed characters]@some.fraudsite.com
Nice try, but I didn't fall for it. Instead I forwarded both of the messages (which made it more obvious they were fakes, why would PayPal send me two similar requests...) to PayPal spoof checkers.
07.13.2003 10.16 | Comments (1) | TrackBack
PayPal fraud
I've now received several rather nasty PayPal fraud attempts in my inbox. I got a very authentic-looking e-mail saying that to prevent fraud(!), I should log in to the PayPal web site and verify some information about me. I believed it enough that I went to see the web site. It looked exactly like a regular PayPal login, but with one huge exception: the address in the location bar of my browser wasn't PayPal's. Oops.
Fortunately I didn't enter my user name and password, but I'm afraid many people have. I reported the fraud to PayPal, hopefully they will do something. If an experienced e-mail user like me can be fooled, then what about somehow who isn't critical enough?
06.26.2003 08.49 | Comments (1) | TrackBack
New look
Hi!
This is the new Melankolia.net front page. It features a list of contents, which you can see on the right. On the left, here, what you are reading, is a blog. Sort of. It's about what's new in Melankolia.net. In lesser amounts, it's about my life. I will probably keep you posted on major events in my life, but don't expect any dirty details.
06.12.2003 10.24 | Comments (0) | TrackBack