moblog – Page 11 – frans goes blog

Media room project, part 3

Media room project, part 3
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.

Among all the other stuff, the media room project has progressed, too. During the Easter weekend, we finally got the cables into their canals and fixed to the corners of walls, and after carrying in the chairs the project reached some sort of temporary finale. There must be over 50 meters of medium-heavy loudspeaker wiring alone in the room. The most critical point currently is heat: few people, computers and a powerful video projector can easily transform a small home theatre into a sauna. Moving the server and printers into the storage room helped a lot, though. After a couple of movies (Happy Feet, Pirates of the Caribbian) I am actually rather impressed by the quality of audio and images. But there is always something to improve, of course. (Note the custom-made projector logo: “Mäyrän mediakellari”.)

Easter 07

Easter 07
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.

This is the first Easter in the new home. We have been working hard on everyday things like trying to find all the clothes and other necessities for daily life. Most of these few days and nights when there are no work related appointments have been used on organising and reorganising the house. But: a quiet, peaceful moment when there is no other need than just to be silent and enjoy life — this is what Easter is at its best. And to eat some Mämmi, of course!

Talks in Torni

Talks in Torni
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.

Torni (Tower) is a famous old high-rising hotel in Helsinki; today we had the advisory board meeting there for MindTrek Association, which runs probably the largest and oldest new media event in Scandinavia and one of the leading ones also in European scale. There is the constant challenge of what an event that is focused on the emerging, and the new, while also trying to capture attentions of professionals and general audience at the same time should focus this year. There is again some fresh energy in the air, so lets hope for an interesting, more tightly packaged MindTrek: most things will happen this time during only two days in Tampere, so book October 3rd and 4th in your calendars!

Moving stuff

Moving stuff
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.

We only have two days to move all Laura’s stuff in, after selling her apartment, and after one day we both feel pretty much like someone would have beaten us with sticks and stones. Many things go into contemporary living, many of them big and heavy. Oh, did I mention the aquarium?

Morning flight

Morning flight
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.

High above the sleeping land, you can still see snow on the ice-covered lake shores, as white crescents, circling the northern rims of thousands little ponds.

Early spring, London trip

Early spring, London trip
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.

This Sunday birds are already convinced that Spring is here, according all this vocal singing surrounding our house. Laura set up the flowers, I need to prune the apple trees. But this is fun. Getting the Ubuntu server email configuration back online was not as much fun — it took all night and is still only half-working. Tomorrow will be another very long day: wee hours flights (several connections) to get to London, then busy meeting day around pervasive games, then several connections to get back, again well after midnight. Could we just stay at home and do this all virtually, please?

The Spring Lätty 2007

The Spring Lätty 2007
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.

The spring is officially here: the time of fairs, people selling their goods, the time of Lätty (muurinpohjalätty version), the Finnish version of sweet crepes.

Christy Dena in Helsinki

Christy Dena in Helsinki
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.

Christy Dena from Sydney is today speaking about Alternate Reality Games in Helsinki. She is a co-author of ARG SIG Whitepaper, and has a good overall view of the development of this field. Rabbit holes, mailed mysterious objects, videos, quicky shown phone number in a fake tv ad — that is all some people need in order to dive into an ARG adventure. But what is it in human nature, that we cannot resist a (playful) challenge?

This week on the road (& in media)

This week on the road (& in media)
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.

After arriving home late last night from Kuhmo (where the seminar was interesting and music good), I had time to vote in the Finnish parliamentary elections with Laura, trouble-shoot more the Linux Ubuntu upgrade which went wrong (see a previous post), and then get up before 6 am to catch the morning train to Helsinki. YLE1 radio station will air a long interview/discussion between me and Sonja Kangas from VTT around 1pm this Thursday (we talk about games and gender in programme called “Kaapin Paikka”). Me and Sonja were also interviewed for Helsingin Sanomat for a story discussing the “next next generation”, a piece related to Sony PlayStation 3 arriving to Finnish markets. We were joking that we soon learn each others views by heart, if this continues. Tomorrow will also be a “Helsinki day”: travelling into the Nokia HQ to listen Christy Dena from Australia talk about pervasive games — hopefully there will be some interesting discussions also. We recently were given a grant by NiCE to expand the study of pervasive games into Mobile Learning Environments project, something that we will work on with our Nordic partners. Wednesday will surprisingly be a day in the office, but Thursday will again be travel, as the GameSpace steering group will be in TeliaSonera’s rooms in Helsinki. A pretty typical week. Train trips will be the moment to do the work, reading, writing and doing review wor for journals and conferences, the usual stuff. Sometimes it feels good to stop for a minute, look at the snow-covered landscape, trees, an old building, and think about time, life, passing of generations, all this human humdrum. And then: continue, tracks taking from the past, into the future.