all things me

The colour is more realistic and the chair does look more comfy. And you know why the picture’s better?

That’s right. I caved in, surrendered, gave up… I bought Nokia N73.

Actually, I did something worse — I got a package deal! I hate package deals. They make people’s lives way too easy. But it allowed me to take the phone home without paying a dime. Sure, I’ll have to pay a whole lotta dimes each month but I figured it’s not a bad deal because in the end, the phone usage (calls and data, I pay for SMSs per message) is not a big part of the monthly fee. And I was planning on changing service providers anyway.

The subscription isn’t working yet because they have to move my number from the current provider but the phone works anyway. It’s good, because now I can play with it and learn it first without having to be afraid that I’m using something that costs a lot.

First impression: I’m loving it!
(I’ll elaborate once I’ve actually used the phone for a while.)

Note to self: Try and postpone buying a memory card until the MU-36 (2GB) is available in Q4/2006. Why wait when you can buy a 2Gb Kingston miniSD right now with less money.

The library website for our capital city area started offering eBooks in July this year. The collection is still quite small and seems to include only non-fiction books at the moment.

I like the idea though. Of course, I wouldn’t read a 400-500-page Stephen King on the computer screen but for example the CSS guide I test-borrowed works better than well as an eBook. (It is a silly beginner’s book but I just wanted to glance through it quickly.)

A downside is that there (currently) is no way to book an eBook (ha ha). The loan periods are 1 day and 7 days (I think I saw 3 days, too) and you see how long a loan lasts, but because the book can be returned before the loan period is over there is no way to anticipate when a book might be available. And often someone snatches it first. That happened with the CSS book. Every time I went to check, the book was loaned for 5 more days or 2 more days. With books that have more than one copy available this isn’t much of a problem.

Can’t complain though, don’t really have a reason to either, because it’s all completely free (except for the electricity) and very convenient.

My new armchair, photo taken on my old Nokia 6101 — the armchair arrived 2 weeks early!

The background is blurred in the attempt to hide my messy bed and embarrassing X-Files pictures on my wardrobe. The black thing on my bed is a beanbag on its way out of the room.

Not exactly catalogue quality, but Jafer asked for a photo!

I bought this kind of chair today (same colour):

It won’t get here until week 41 (9.10.-) or something, though, but I can wait.

I love it!

I, like many others, have taken a liking to Sudoku puzzles. I started with some simple scanning techniques (examples 1-3) which worked with the easier puzzles. Angus Johnson’s Simple Sudoku program has a delightful Help containing many strategies to solving a puzzle. I haven’t got the hang of (or memorised) the most advanced techniques but recently I finished even the “Ultimate Challenges” in two Sudoku books (about 200 puzzles each) with the following strategies that I’ve found the most effective — and enough.

1. I always start a puzzle by looking at the smallest area possible which is the 3×3 square. I check the missing numbers starting from 1 and see if I can put a number anywhere.

2. After I’ve gone through each of the 9 small squares so many times that I can’t add numbers anymore, I check each horizontal row.

3. After horizontal rows don’t help, I check each vertical row.

4. I repeat steps 1-3 until I can’t add any numbers. Then I write down the “candidates” in each square. Often this reveals new numbers to add when a square has only one possible candidate.

When the candidates are written down it’s easy to see pairs or small groups so I can strike out candidates in other squares. In the example there are three squares that have to contain the numbers 1,4, and 5 so I can discard them in the square that is outside the group. I do this scan on horizontal and vertical rows, too.

5. With the candidates in view it’s easy to find numbers to strike out when I go through the rows horizontally and vertically and notice that a number has to be contained in one of the 3×3 squares. Then I can strike out the number in the other 3×3 squares on the same row. Also, if a number is restricted to a 3×3 square and a vertical or horizontal row, candidates can be struck out within the 3×3 square.

In the example numbers 3, 6, and 9 have to be found on the first row so they can be struck out elsewhere in the second 3×3 square.

Before I learned the strategies 4 and 5 I had trouble finishing the tougher puzzles. I suppose I had thought of checking the pairs but not the larger groups.

Perhaps next I should take on making the puzzles because I tried that on Simple Sudoku and couldn’t get a single one pass the check (= only one solution).

Disclaimer: The examples are not trying to be realistic situations or solveable puzzles, they’re just diagrams.

In senior high (or 10th grade) we got a 3-year assignment to write down and review with a point system of our choice every book we read. This was probably a sub-assignment to reading ten Finnish classics.

My memory in these sort of things (what I’ve read, what movie I’ve seen, what did that character say in that series, what did I do yesterday, what did I just say…) is infamously bad and because I like reading, I took liking to this routine. So, since 1998 I’ve written down every book I’ve read except for the books I read for school (unless we’ve had to read them cover-to-cover and only when I’ve remembered to write them down…).

The most embarrassing year was 2001 when I only read four books. I did have my finals, entrance exam to University, and my first year of Uni then so I guess I can forgive myself. In 2003 and 2004 I read twenty-seven books which I haven’t been able to top yet. I guess that was thanks to my half an hour bus ride to/from work. Last year I read only thirteen books which was kind of embarrassing (after the twenty-seven of previous years, at least!) but yesterday as I finished reading Lynne Truss’s Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation I reached thirteen. It is not humanly possible that I don’t finish a single book in the remainder of the year so — luckily — from now on the only way is up!

This morning on my way to work I went to the grocery store as usual to buy some lunch. All summer I’ve bought only cold food like wraps or sandwiches, and so today I got a sandwich with salmon. I was on my way out when I noticed I didn’t have a small plastic bag with me so I took one from a check-out counter. I stepped outside and happily put the sandwich box in the bag — it slipped right through! I was baffled for an instant, picked up the sandwich, and walked on hoping nobody saw that.

Does the youngest child have it easier? Or is it only in this family? Or maybe if I had been a typical teenager I wouldn’t be ‘rent whipped now.

I have a sister who is 6½ years younger than me, which is a lot, but I feel like our parents treat us as being about the same age. She also demands things at a younger age on the pretense that I have them (not just material things but privileges too); no matter if I’ve been 6½ years older when I’ve got them.

On Monday she’ll turn 18, and right away she’ll get to be home alone: Mum got a “great” idea that she, Dad, and I (and the dog) go to the summer cottage and leave my sister home because “she’s always wanted to be independent, let her be independent.” I can’t tell Mum that “I really need a vacation from you not with you” so I suppose I’m going (bye-bye to my plans of getting the passport stuff rolling next week). What bothers me is that I was 22 when I was home alone for the first time. Of course, it’s only a matter of circumstance. Maybe I could’ve been home alone when I was 18–21 if only a situation like that had presented itself, but no luck, Mum was always there. Sometimes it would be nice to get some distance between the parents and I. At least I can take comfort in knowing that in February there’ll be 15200 kilometres between us for at least 2½ weeks. (Better not jinx it by thinking that I’ll probably break my leg or catch a horrible disease and can’t go…)

My sister gets everything without having to do anything. When she needs things — we all need things every now and then — she refuses to pay them herself because she’s “saving.” For what? An apartment! Because she’s never spent any money, she’ll probably get together enough to move out first (and I’ll be a bitter spinster left living with the parents — hurray!)! My sister is anxious to move; I worry how my parents would be left with the dog and 4 walks per day. I am, however, musing of and half-planning to move out by the end of next year; if I have the money.

In our previous apartment my sister and I shared the bedroom (I had a tiny room for myself in a walk-in closet), this was over 12 years ago. One time when she was sick and threw up on the carpet I was left alone in the room (and in the stench) and my sister went to sleep in my parents bed.

Maybe I’m just imagining things, maybe it’s just some sort of sibling rivalry and envy. At least I’m better in the brain department.

Ps. Maybe I should create a new category, “Whine.”

… you’ve been on the computer too much!

A moment ago, as I was excitedly about to continue with my re-try of Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, the extension cord that holds all the computer plugs wouldn’t work. There’s a switch that obviously had resigned. (And now it’s dead, because Dad wanted to take a look inside despite the lack of screws that would’ve made opening it a whole lot easier.)

I was sort of hoping that we wouldn’t have an extra extension because it would be healthy for my sister to be away from the computer for a while. Honestly, she doesn’t do anything else. She’s on a 2½-month summer vacation and I think she’s been out of the house once. She sits in front of the computer from the moment she wakes up around 3-4 pm until she goes to bed around 3-4 am. She even eats at the computer if it isn’t Saturday or Sunday. Alas, the lure of the Panamanian Bank is too much to handle…

I have a short and only vacation coming and I’m already bored out of my skull after work (on weekends, too)! Today there’s nothing interesting on TV until 11:40 pm; I could watch XF episodes but I can’t concentrate on taking notes. I finally finished Prince of Persia (The Two Thrones) on Saturday and now I don’t really have any games that I feel like playing; Quake’s a bit too exhausting, Tomb Raider a bit too puzzling, Luxor just too many times finished in Expert mode and I’m afraid F.E.A.R. would freak me out which would be embarrassing. Reading makes me sleepy, there’s no one to chat with…

Oh, but I do have this morning’s episode of Gilmore Girls to watch! Now I’ll have something to do for about 50 minutes.

Maybe I should take up crocheting or something.