“Tuomi kukkii”, bird-cherry is in flower. Somehow the English expression does not carry the same feeling. “Tuomi” is the name of this sweet-smelling white-flowered-tree for me; and it is also one of the fragrants that carry the unmistaken message: summer is here. “Suomen suvi.”
Category: personal diary
mostly personal, notes on the road
lordi – victorious finnish monstrosity
Last night, an increasingly amazed and exited audience followed how a Finnish monster rock band “Lordi” won the Eurovision song contest. This is good news for Finnish fantasy art (in which heavy rock is actually a major element), the band (which can continue rocking with increased popularity) and to the song contest itself — it is high time for someone to break the tired format. And that Lordi had such a clear victory was just amazing, too: their final points were highest ever recorded in the contest. Being myself from the same town (Rovaniemi, in Lapland) like Mr. Lordi, I just toast happily: congratulations guys, and good luck!
capturing the moment
There are many interesting options that things like cameraphones and mobile blogging have opened for us: the instant thought or sight, documented right at the spot. But an early summer’s day like this one (very welcome after the cold spring) would require much more to be mediated with any kind of fidelity: how can I capture the sounds of birds, the warm touch of wind, or smells of fresh leaves and earth itself? Will there ever be a true mobile blogging device that would reach into any of these?
ice cream
Back in Finland: there is a veritable heat wave now going on, which is a perfect excuse to enjoy the first cone of summer!
feeling summer in tallinn
This weekend there is a trip to Estonia: Mauri Kaipainen and the IMKE program kindly put out an invitation to come and hear about this new international, interactive media master’s programme. Summer seems to be already reality in Estonia; we are staying in Sausti Manor, and frogs are making conserts in the pond (herons are nesting also next to the manor). Beautiful, interesting and relaxing at the same time.
sample resolutions
Ok, this is sample photo from 6630 from the dinner. It is clear that cameraphones are getting better, yet it is easy to find problems with the sharpness and colours.
6630 on the move
Since yesterday, I have been trying out Nokia 6630, which has now replaced my worrisome Vodafone mobile data card. As far as I can tell, it turns out that my Thinkpad T43 uses a version of bluetooth stack that is not supported by Nokia PC Suite (a Broadcom one), so a USB cable is the only option for getting online; that seems to do it. But the phone itself seems to work fine. The camera resolution is 1,3 megapixels which is much better than the VGA of my old 6600, but way behind the 2 or 3 megapixels that the latest multimedia models are packing. But the OS is reacting fast, screen is clear and I like the touch of the keyboard. As the Nokia N series still has various baby illnesses, and E series delayed until summer, this model appears to be a nice compromise if mobile data is mostly what you are looking in a phone right now. The new HSDPA models are not far in the future also, and obviously we need a new communicator model with 3G/3,5G connection speeds. Until then, I will ride with this 6630. (Coming in from a bicycle trip, it just automatically transferred all shots via bluetooth to a date-format folder in my laptop, perfect! Now, if it only could use that bluetooth for a PC modem connection, too.)
in bloom
This time the fearsome bunny-rabbit has not eaten the spring crocus.
happy vappu
Cheers! TATTE organises today their Vappu party at the campus: mead and a doughnut. Tasty! May Day, Vappu, is the workers and students festival, so the university is the right place for this.
sun'n'games?
I visited Leinola school in Wednesday evening, speaking in a Media Education panel. Finns tend to be rather liberal and open-minded in international comparison, and this was also rather civilized event. I talked about need of parents to 1) pay attention to games, 2) to listen their children in order to understand both them and their relation to games, and, 3) join games themselves, to bridge the digital divide, and to enjoy some free time. Media fasting was also discussed; my point was that it is demeaning our lives and anything of value in media culture to bury ourselves in media indiscriminately — it might be wise sometimes to switch off all media from our lives for a few days. Might try that even myself. Sun, outdoors, what a combination.
frans goes blog 
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