all things me

I hate putting a green custom sticker on gifts. I hate how it also spoils the fun for the packages I get. But without it the package gets stuck in the customs and you have to stand there, watching a mean-looking officer get his dirty hands on your precious gift and give you the third degree.

If I got a wrapped present that I had to pick up at the customs and I obviously wouldn’t know what is in it, would they make me open it there — or worse, open it themselves?

I’ve been making my godson a fancy Christmas card. I’ll buy him a subscription to a magazine (we don’t know which yet) so I decided to make him a magazine-themed card. It turned out pretty cool:

The barcode has (“to” +) my godson’s name and the date of Christmas eve in it; the front cover holds the month and year, “free issue”, and the name of a fictional printing house (a reference to yours truly). And of course, it says “Merry Christmas” in Finnish at the very top. I bought some very pretty — manly enough for a 7-year-old, however — snowflake stickers so I’ll stick a few around Santa. On the inside I’ve written a banner with “Special Offer! Available as long as needed.” and then I’ll write some sort of greeting.

When I was printing the card, the printer ran out of magenta. I opened the cover and replaced the cartridge — and noticed the printer’s serial number is FART05657.

Earlier today I started designing a calendar for Mum. My sister and I are doing a calendar with our doggie’s photos on it. There’s only one photo missing which my sister will hopefully take tomorrow.

Back to designing cards!

Quite a nice find: Music Export Finland.
There you can listen to Finnish bands — some of them even singing in Finnish! I’m not a fan of Finnish bands, but there’re some songs there I like (= can bear):
— Humane: Wish God Was A Woman
— Bomfunk MC’s: Hypnotic (snippet)
— Kwan: Unconditional Love (only a 40 second snippet)
— Nightwish: Walking In The Air (theme from Snowman)
— The Crash: Lauren Caught My Eye
— Kemopetrol: Child Is My Name
— Club For Five: Muistan Sua Elaine (snippet)

… Stupid snippets … oh well. At least listen to the song by Humane.

Even though the singer sounds like he has a hot potato in his mouth, the song’s kind of nice. The piano thingy on the background stuff. Ah, I guess it’s just acquired taste. Everything in music is. (Believe me, I know what I’m talking about. Just for the record: Tripping is a wonderful song and everything on Intensive Care is awesome. Robbie is a god with dimples. )

I’m sure there’d be more nice songs (well, not really sure). I don’t know how long that site will be up (if it’s a temporary thing because it’s “advertising” some party) so Go hear. Finland. And please, don’t judge the country by the kooky bands (say, “Semmarit”).

This is a funny “game”: spot 74 bands or artists. It’s actually a contest for people in the USA (and then some). I’d like an Alienware computer, but alas, I can’t enter the contest. I can, however, try how many I can find. I’ve got 39 so far. Some clues are very obvious but I can’t get the names out of my head (if they even are there).

I haven’t bothered reading the rules if publishing the list is bad, but I’m not going to help someone win an Alienware computer I have the list below this but I’m hiding it. Anyway, the list is not the point. Having fun with a couple (or 74) of heureka! moments is the point.

1. Pet Shop Boys
2. Matchbox 20
3. Guns’n’Roses
4. Led Zeppelin
5. the Eagles
6. Red Hot Chili Peppers
7. Nine Inch Nails
8. 50 Cent
9. Sex Pistols
10. Green Day
11. Deep Purple
12. Queen
13. Garbage
14. Beach Boys
15. Smashing Pumpkins
16. Eminem
17. Alice in Chains
18. Blur
19. Gorillaz
20. White Snake
21. Aerosmith
22. Iron Maiden
23. Radiohead
24. Hootie and the Blowfish
25. Hole
26. Spoon
27. Scorpions
28. White Zombie or Rob Zombie
29. Madonna
30. Jewel
31. Police
32. Pink
33. U2
34. Doors
35. Sheryl Crow
36. Prince
37. Seal
38. Rolling Stones
39. KISS
40. Dead Presidents

– Fourth Splinter Cell is scheduled to come out in spring 2006. And I haven’t got the third one yet either.
– The new Prince of Persia is coming out in a few days (on 9th I think).
– Colorado Kid by Stephen King just arrived for me from a bookstore. I’ll have to finish Insomnia (by S.K.) before I’ll start the newest book. I ordered Blood and Smoke (audio book) as well, and I can’t wait to get to listen to it!
(I actually got it already, but it turned out to be a cassette version so I’ll send it back and ask if they have a CD version.)
– Early next year yet another Stephen King book is coming out: Cell.
– This Tuesday is a public holiday (Independence day).
– Apparently, WordPress 2 is coming out soon.

And last but certainly not least… Fanfare, please.
– 2 days off in January! (Which in practice will be a 5-day weekend, because Friday, Jan 6th is a public holiday and I’m taking Wednesday and Thursday off.) Holy game-a-thon, you say? Yeah, so do I.

[edit: Dec 6th]
I completely forgot this!
– Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished by Rocky Wood, David Rawsthorne, and Norma Blackburn is coming out. I just hope it’ll be available in Finland.
[/edit]

I thought I’d post for a change even though I don’t have anything special to say.

It’s freezing here and I’m yawning/dislocating my jaws. It was warm (10 celsius) up till the end of last week then came a storm that sounded like a bunch of kids in a rollercoaster and the past few days have been a few degrees below zero. I’m thinking of hooking up my extra radiator.
This week I’ve also been awfully tired for some reason (no, X-Files isn’t on later than usual). The other day, Monday or Tuesday, I overslept but luckily Mum noticed I wasn’t at the breakfast table and came to wake me up.

Yesterday I ordered Colorado Kid and Blood & Smoke (audio book), by Stephen King of course– a little pre-Xmas present for yours truly.

I borrowed Dolores Claiborne (S.K. movie) DVD from a colleague. He’s quite a movie buff. I told him I’d list my puny DVD collection if there’s anything he doesn’t have already, but I’m pretty sure I can’t offer anything in return.

I figured out what I’m going to buy my godson for Xmas: a subscription of Bionicle magazine. It wasn’t available for order at the publisher’s website but I sent them a query.

I’m still trying to figure out what I’d ask Grandma and Grandpa for Christmas… I’m such book-picky but I’ll give them a list of King books I don’t have and a picture of the series I’m collecting and hope for the best. It’s really not such a big deal if the books aren’t from the same series, but it’d be so nice if they were! Well, I’ve already bought mismatching books so it’s really not big a deal. As long as the book is not ugly I’m happy. I once went to exchange a book I had bought the day before because I found a prettier one (correct series!) in another bookstore. Shhhh, don’t tell anyone! I did buy a new book during the exchange, of course.

Oh yeah, I promised to write something about Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy… I’ve forgotten everything I meant to write! I finished my 2nd round the day before yesterday. Next time I have to try and play badly to see what will happen. Anyway, like Kory said, it’s like an adventure game / interactive movie. Sometimes you need to be quite quick in deciding what you want to do (what to say to people etc.). Every once in a while there is an action sequence and depending on how well you do, you may for example avoid cars trying to run you over or find out something new about the story. I haven’t yet tried what happens in certain situations (where you can’t die if you do badly!) if you fail the sequences on purpose. You can decide what you want to do or not do and the story, naturally, changes every time you do things differently.

There is some humour in the game as well. Especially with one of the “cops”, Tyler Miles. His facial expressions are excellent! The main character looks annoyingly and disturbingly familiar but I can’t figure out who he reminds me of. I’ll try and dig up a good picture (maybe take a screen shot).

The soundtrack is wonderful and the graphics are very beautiful, especially during the fights (as far as I can tell, I’m too busy at staring at the Action sequence indicator). I love the Matrix-y moves the main character does. Refreshing change: a game I can, and have the patience/time/endurance to, finish! It is very short; I played it in a Saturday (12 hours minus distractions). Regardless, I recommend it. You US people get a censored version of it (called Indigo Prophecy), in Europe we have Fahrenheit, which includes some nudity. You’re not missing anything with the censored version; in my opinion the sex scenes were unnecessary. But that’s just me.

Now, this is why I stick to PCs:

[Ctrl Alt Del]

I recommend reading all of Ctrl+Alt+Del. The comics are wonderfully geeky.

I queried about Colorado Kid (newest by Stephen King – what else) from a bookstore. I had searched for it high and low of course, but it was nowhere to be found. Well, they responded that the book can be ordered, and included an ISBN. So I go to the bookstore website and search for Colorado Kid, and there it is! Last on the list. It wasn’t there the day before, I swear.

We got our flu shots (against influenza, not common cold). It was voluntary, of course, and I thought I’d go get one because I felt like I had started the flu wave the last time (hopefully I hadn’t…). If I got sick, I’d go to work anyway so it’s just better I don’t get sick. After I had been stung, the nurse said “whoops, there’s quite a lot of blood.”

Oh well, in all seriousness, it wasn’t too bad. My arm feels a little funny still, like I’ve pulled a muscle. I’m hoping I don’t get too bad a quick flu even though I’ve read/heard that may happen.

Now I’m so tired I’ll go and finish IT. Finally I get to finish a book (well, it’s as thick as two very thick books, 1090 pages)! And then on to my “last” King: Insomnia. Quotes because the Man just keeps writing! Oh yeah, on Wednesday I dragged myself shopping and got Robbie’s new album; I take my words back, Tripping is groovy. So are the other songs. Loving it! I also found Hearts in Atlantis as a non-movie version (no A. Hopkins on the cover). Now I’m missing only 7 books from my collection (plus Colorado Kid and future ones).

Note to self (I’m too lazy to write a paper diary): Boss said “has anyone ever told you you’re too efficient?”