frans

Water, oil and the Internet

Water, oil and the Internet
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.

Learning the ropes in detached house living; there must be at least a dozen contracts you need to negotiate and sign before your new house is linked with all those invisible networks this society consists of. We got water, we got electricity — but we never got the process of
acquiring and comparing competing bids from oil companies finished until the oil actually run out. In -30C nights, in an oil-heated house, having no oil is not fun at all. Happily Esso (Exxon over there) managed to deliver us this precious, soon-to-be-extinct stuff in six hours next day — with some extra cost, of course. In the evening, feeling the warmth come back, and seeing the online content (and hearing it, Last.fm is now available across the house, Wi-Fi) come streaming in, it occurred to me that with water, warmth and Internet you could probably go pretty far. Or then again, I am just being nerdy.

View into the night from the new home

View into the night from the new home
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.

There were some ice chrystals in the air when I took this photo from the upstairs window of our new home. The neighborhood appears quiet, beautiful even when the Finnish winter shows its better sides. Now I just need to learn much more about boiler systems, oil heaters and water circulation piping, pressure levels and ventilations, among other things. But it is good to be this far, already. Following couple of weeks will be filled with housing work, in any case. Keeps you in a hurry.

Eric Zimmerman's workshop closes, day of ice and trains

Eric Zimmerman’s workshop closes, day of ice and trains
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.

Today I participated as an informal reviewer into the game design
workshop Eric Zimmerman organised in connection of our Games and
Storytelling series. I hope the week was productive for all involved —
the final day presentations at least appeared to involve several
inspired designs that also embodied some design research philosophy.
Special thanks also to Jesper Juul from Copenhagen for filling in
Thursday when Eric needed to be elsewhere. In terms of climate, this
week has been extremely cold, cars and trains stuck and frozen. I am
writing this in an evening train going to Tampere, and it appears to be
c. one hour late at the moment. But it is still moving, so lets not
complain!

Smash Asem and the freedom of speech

The Finnish police has now decided to press charges and accuses 86 persons of various crimes in connection of ‘Smash Asem’ demonstration last fall. Negative anarchism and intention to create harm is one thing, but the right to demonstrate and the freedom of speech are fundamental rights for our society, and when people are jailed before they actually commit any crimes, then we have actually entered a police state. Please check one story of this event, as recorded in Jere Leskinen’s video documentary:
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The first cup in the new house

The first cup in the new house
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.

A moment of rest: this Sunday was when we got the keys to our new home, and spent many hours learning its details — and cleaning it, of course.

Wii news channel serves the living room

Today, starting up my Wii, I noticed a system update available and voilá: the Wii News Channel has arrived! Mixing news and entertainment is an age-old, and often critiqued trend, but now Wii succeeds in displaying news attached to a virtual globe (which is a step towards contextually aware news systems in home environments), and makes “news as a slide-show” function something that I might actually sometimes keep on the background, to be informed by a nice selection of global, regional and science/tech/entertainment related pickings. But the information sources in this system might be a bit narrow, still? More here: PlayWii – Nintendo News

Today: Helsinki, the future

Today: Helsinki, the future
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.

Today I decided to take the train rather than venture anything air-related. In Helsinki, the morning was spent in an intensive brainstorming session about the next 15 years of digital games and gaming — arranged by Pelit Magazine, which celebrates this year its 15th anniversary (congratulations!) Much visionary and/or realistic stuff by Tony Manninen, Sonja Kangas and myself, to be reported in magazine’s next issue. Now, in Messukeskus, preparing to talk to the leaders of our educational system about games in Forum Dynamo conference. Lets see how this goes…

Savonlinna. The flying frustration

Savonlinna, OKL
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.

Leena Vartiainen’s lic thesis examination in Savonlinna went as nicely as this kind of interrogations can do. Much talk about Grounded Theory, and I was asking after certain game studies points. All well. But then they messed up my connections again, and I was stranded in Savonlinna, missing my flight home. Finally, in Helsinki they put me — in a taxi! Taking an “intercity-cab” twice in one day, this must be some kind of record. I don’t really know what to say.

Flying the Finnish way: take a taxi

Flying the Finnish way: take a taxi
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.

Second time within few days, I am packed into taxi from the Tampere airport, and rather than flying, there will be a mad car ride to Helsinki. Weird, and nerve-wrecking. I wonder what is wrong with Finnair, Aero, Golden Air: all Finnish carriers seem to be struggling with some kind of problems?

The perfect knife?

The perfect knife?
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.

Laura gave me a gift: a very nice Japanese cook’s knife (“MAC JU-65″ among friends, a 6,5” Nakiri vegetable knife). The quality of steel and touch of handle feels very good (I am not a professional, though). Blade is traditionally ornamented and so sharp you don’t actually need to use force while slicing vegetables: you just let the blade rest on top of a tomato or cucumber, and enjoy seeing how the knife silently goes down by its own weight, and almost cuts on its own. Wow. I shall be slicing veggies every day from now on. (I suspect this was Laura’s original plan, too 😉