A supposedly dedicated weekend for writing up a conference paper. So wanted to allow myself to enjoy a little relaxation on friday with a theater performance. Located in a basement of a residential building, the place looked and felt like a cozy home. But the show had to be cancelled due to the leakage. So the bunch of disappointed people all went to a nearby bar. First night of talking and drinking too much on the supposedly working weekend. I signed up for the show again on Saturday, so dragged myself to the cozy leaky theater again. Was a fabulous show, place was dry, and many of us the satisfied audience went to the nearest local pub for a pint of debriefing beer. We occupied the only non-smoking room which hosted a door to the female toilet and elegantly finished our first pints when the actresses of the show came to join us. First time to have ‘human’ contacts with performers after a show. Couldnt leave the opportunity (to interact with cute people), so there went my saturday night plan. Was well worth it though. Luckily Sunday was well spent, except that i had to cancel my gym time for catching up with the plan. 80% accomplished. Time to go to bed now.

If these were on the real rocks..

Someone managed to get a key to access the rooftop of our building. The view over our next door neighbor. A nice well-trodden path.

I worked in this building for 4 years and yet today was first to come to this place. The top floor. Nice sky view. Would have been nice if it were not so near the elevator..

The women’s locker room at my gym is usually quite empty, except occasional rush hours immediately after a particularly sweating class is finished. I saw this stuff, complete w underwear at one corner of the room, whose owner was obviously gone to attend to some intentional physical hardship. It’s tidily stacked as if it’s at home. I dont remember how it was like in other places, but i feel very spoiled by the relaxed atmosphere in helsinki- i dont get enough training to be ‘alert’ (for getting robbed or deceived- in fact i got things stolen in london a couple of years ago right in front of my eyes). Of course, it’s too nice to complain about. This is one of the things i love about the Finnish way of life. * I wondered if i should name this post as ’safe helsinki’, but decided it’s somewhat different.

If you see this many people on the metro platform at any given time in helsinki, you can safely assume something is wrong.

Food items i buy mostly come from other countries. Today i wondered if it could be ‘asked’ (required, if possible) to put an image of the tree that produces this kind of fruit, and another image of the representative resident(s) of the region where the produce was farmed. There are many practical problems, but also benefits: could help and promote mutual understandings. Look, people who look like xx bin laden farmed the orange you’re buying. Inducing abstract level of trust by making us realize everyday we eat the same food stuff.
In the long run, this concept may turn out to be more important for meat distribution: mandatory to put an image of the ’source’ animal of the same race. Benefit- to teach kids that chicken breasts that always come in plastic package actually come from an animal. (hmm, well, in fact i once became a vegetarian temporarily due to this knowledge in my childhood)

If your boss is being too quiet, it may be a good idea to check on him occasionally.

A recently registered friend’s blog. I opened up the monthly archives in multiple browser windows like i do for reading news, brought the computer to bed, disconnected it from network (to prevent distraction), and followed up this witty friend’s life settling down in korea. Realized good blog beats mediocre books!

1
for some reason, i went to check out my old account at a korean web portal site where i hosted my immature homepage (never finished, in fact) for free 5 years ago. my account ‘froze’ due to no login for the past x months. again, all emails deleted. life management in the world of scattered digital traces is difficult, especially when you tried to do it for free.

2
in the same site, i wanted to check/change my personal information. took me 5 minutes to locate the link to do so. not sure if i am getting old or estranged from the conventions of the korean websites. it could be simply because of my lack of survival tactics that any koreans would accumulate on the subconscious level naturally over time of repeated usage. i wonder how much usability personnel these companies hire. point is, the more i know, i realize how difficult it is to master the art of being simple.

3
read the bit about paris hilton’s tmobile account which obviously synch’ed with her phone got hacked. of course if she was nobody, no one would have given a damn. but unfortunately her special career and celeb status has given every tiny bit of her personal information the status of ‘worth gossiping about’. whether this leak was a true hack or not, i hope the operators would learn it hard.

4
i have started to accumulate the unconscious stress about the scattered digital forms of my traces SOMEWHERE that i no longer remember or care about. its purely for sanitary reasons: you clean after you use the toilet. i dont know how long it will take to see a personal digital caretaker as official job title - but till then, got to take care of where i shit [digitally].