Jag känner en bot

And I thought number 3 was bad. Now, topping the list at number one on the nyt.hs.fi purchased tracks chart, Boten Anna by Basshunter. What is the world coming to? I readily will admit that my past prediction came true and I listen to it way too much, but that doesn't mean anyone else should fall victim, nor that it deserves to be topping ANY list, save for perhaps catchy/kampy europop... jeah.

Finnish cooking isn't THAT bad

With the Finnish (EU) presidency coming to an end, it's time for the government to host their summit in Brussels. Following comments by Chirac of France and Berlusconi of Italy, the Finns have sent their top chef to cater the event and show that Finnish food it not something one simply endures, but something that can be enjoyed too. The menu? Blinis with Finnish fish roe, followed by seasonal deer and for desert a cloudberry mousse from Lapland. While I would agree that Finnish cuisine isn't always necessarily that exciting, I disagree that it is not tasteful. Some of my favorite food dishes are Finnish. More [here].

As an aside, I'm heading over now to turn in my final (35 page) assignment for this semester. After catching up on things I've been neglecting, I'll start catching up on other things that I've been neglecting, then hopefully I'll catch up on this blog.

Hyvää itsenäisyyspäivää, Suomi!

Happy independence day to Finland, 89 years old today.

(and happy birthday to my grandma, much younger than Finland)

The Litvinko killing

This story gets stranger and larger by the day. Latest news from the BBC indicates that Finnish airline Finnair is now involved:

On Saturday the Russian transport ministry's press service said traces of radiation have been found on a Finnish plane in Moscow that had flown from Berlin via Helsinki.

I've no idea how a plane not even in England and in fact flying the opposite direction could've come into contact with the substance, but that's what it looks like happened. Sad, since last I new airports had screening machines that picked up on radioactive material people were trying to smuggle onto planes. Obviously not a sound investment.

Please tell me you aren't serious

I seriously hope this isn't something widely known and the site I found it on is a misrepresentative part of the population. According to nyt.hs.fi, #3 on the "Most purchased tracks" at the moment is Bass Hunter with the track "Boten Ana," or "Anna the Bot." This Swedish masterpiece does indeed talk about a bot (or is she?) who boots all the annoying people from the chatroom the singer himself frequents. So he sings about it. He sings about it while sitting at his computer, while riding a boat in the canal (it's almost a play on words), while driving through the country side, and of course on stage in front of a rabid audience. For those who want a quick listen, the youtube link is below. I recommend going to the main site however. They've translated this little gem into languages from English to Afrikaans. The English link is below. If you'd prefer it in Hebrew, Finnish, Icelandic, etc., chose the appropriate language from the left. I know I'm adding this to my play list right now!! (the sad thing is, if it doesn't go out of my head soon, I probably will have no choice! CURSES!)

[Click Me for subtitled and karaoke versions]

This and that

• Amazing Race (one reality show at the top of my "Reality TV shows I can't stand" list) in Helsinki in the latest episode. Is it like the president of Khazakstan said and any publicity is good publicity, or should they not have been allowed repel down the Olympic Stadium? Anyone know which coffee shop they went to when they received their first instructions in Helsinki? I miss Java... EDIT: Turns out they were at Kappeli
  
• Finland NOT preparing to join NATO, contrary to speculation. Too bad I still have to write this killer paper on that very issue.
• Phil over at Finlandforthought pulled up some interesting data from the 1990 US census concerning stats for Finnish and Swedish decendants in the states.
  

Helsingin valituskuoro

Perhaps the most amazing thing ever.

Crystal meth killing Euros

From the BBC:

Sulphates used in the production of the drug could form sulphuric acid when mixed with human sweat, they say, causing banknotes to corrode....About 1,500 banknotes have crumbled after being withdrawn from cash machines, German banking officials say.

US Midterm Elections

No big surprises here, except this: my absentee vote will actually count in Ohio! From Mary Jo Kilroy's website (Kilroy is running for the House 15th district):

Kilroy: Count Every Vote!

Up To 30,000 Absentee and Provisional Ballots
Remain To Be Counted

Deborah Pryce currently has a narrow lead, but the winner of the the race will be determined by the estimated 30,000-plus provisional and uncounted absentee ballots cast in Franklin County.

"We’re not conceding anything," Scott Kozar, Kilroy’s campaign manager, said. "We’re going to make sure every vote is counted."

Will be interesting to see how quickly the results come in and who the other absentee voters were in favor of.

Yeah, KJ, I blogged about it. And just to show there are no hard feelings, I thought I'd give you an opportunity for immediate satisfaction. Yeah, that's right, those are holy sheep. And remember when I made THIS POST? I didn't want to tell you, but I didn't get the same glee out of blogging about this as I do blogging about the fact that Finland rotated into the EU presidency in July. Sorry kiddo.

MTV Europe Awards

Poets of the Fall took the best Finnish artist award at the MTV Europe awards ceremony beating out Lordi, the Von Hertzen Brothers, Olavi Uusivirta and PMMP. I'd say they won fairly out of the group. For those not familiar with their music, see the video for Lift below.

Me and the roomates...

ready for the prepared to pass out pyjama party.

The other side

I just stumbled across this blog post by a girl named Kristiina in Helsinki. As I read over it I couldn't resist the knowing smile that crept across my face as she remarked about each of the "little things" that when taken together can have a crushing impact on the globe-trotting individual's mental state. Graph paper, decimal points, commas... they're not a big deal, but when one is having a bad day seeing a decimal point where a comma should be can bring one to tears.

As also mentioned, the date thing gets me every time. I never know what 4.5.2006 was referring to- april or may- so i've adapted a new strategy in my own writing to take all the ambiguity out. When writing dates I give Day in numbers, month in 3 or 4 letters, year in numbers. I still cross my 7's, and I'm ok with that.

I can't say I've ever really gotten used to writing on graph paper, though I accepted it and moved on. When I was at Helsingin yliopisto last semester I eventually broke down and asked my parents to send me some college ruled lined paper. They did like I asked, but in the end I never opened that paper and threw it out in July. I just find it harder to read my notes on the graph paper since i write small as is, so the additional lines interfering just made it worse.

Anyway, the rest of Kristiina's blog also reflects a thoughtful, empathetic and mature individual and is well worth the time to read over. I highly suggest you do.

Finland this week

Finished up a presentation, a paper and an exam this week, so yesterday I was able to sleep from 7am until 8pm to catch up on all that I'd been missing. The upcoming week looks refreshingly lighter in some areas, so let's hope I'm not as frantic and I get to sleep. In the meantime, here's some of what's been going on up north.

• New Swedish foreign minister Bildt pushing for better EU-US ties in answering the challenge of globalization. Didn't take him long to start making demands, seeing as how he's barely been in office a month.
• Children's book to publish 6000+ kids' letters received by Halonen over the course of her presidency.
• Finnish presidency projects EU solidarity in saying that Sadam should not hang.

Finnish Airforce (the non-mosquito ones)

Finns bombing the Soviets in 1942. (pretty random stuff)

Borat

Borat being interviewed on Finnish TV. Went and saw the movie last night. It has it's funny moments, but it's a bit drawn out. Hard to sit for an hour and a half of it. Still worth seeing.