Something to keep clicking on until the fireworks start embroidering the sky with flash and fire.

• An inspired opinion on Why Vista Security will suck.
• The history of computerized role-playing games starts from the very beginning: the first part covers 1981-83.
• Something to check up on a lazy day: are web-based operating systems viable at all?
• And something for lazy days in the cubicleland (sounds turned off, obviously): best of web games.
• Wired's annual Vaporware Awards feature both familiar faces and inspired newcomers.
• BBC's 100 Things We Did Not Know Last Year.

In the midst of clashing and confusing news fallout, it would appear that the former Iraqi president has indeed had a final date with a noose.

One fewer thorn in the side of current regime, that's for certain. But the act might also open the wounds between the skirmishing groups much deeper and wider, as there's now no uniform object of hate.

Today's movie on television is Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation, which I quite enjoyed back in the earliest days of this very blog. More than the original entry reflects, it's definitely a four star movie on later thought.

But that movie isn't the topic of this entry, it's the attached slice of Calvin & Hobbes from today's "100"-newspaper.

In which the translator failed to translate the word "hornet", and used the english word as-is. When there's a common and good finnish word for the insect ("herhiläinen"), such gross ignorance ought to be punishable.

Two meals outside the common reference frame in a day is certainly an unusual occurrence.

Had lunch at Dong Bei Hu (no homepage that I could find) on Museokatu - it's been a slow week at work, and lunches have been on the extended side. According to more knowledgeable colleagues this is way more authentic than the vast majority of chinese establishements in Helsinki. And the taste was not of the traditionally cloying sweet and sour, but something plainer, but certainly attractive. Definitely worth a second visit, the abbreviated lunch menu certainly didn't show everything the place is able to offer.

Spent the evening at a long-time colleague's farewell party in Manala. Good food, excellent company (including many former workmates not seen in years), and interesting discussions that could easily have been stretched much longer. The combination of escargot and pizza turned out to be just a tiny bit too big. But both were pleasant - and the Manala/Urho's kitchen remains one of the very best places to enjoy a pizza in Helsinki.

Kill Doctor Lucky was the first Cheapass game that I ever bought.

And was very happy with it. After all, it cost next to nothing, and dispensed with expensive components completely. The company philosophy was that houses are packed with tokens and dice, there's no need to supply extra in every single game.

The game itself was on the simple side, and concentrates on what happened just before the start of a Cluedo game. The aim is to just off the Doctor without any of the other players witnessing the act. It's a perfect beer & pretzels game - the inherent randomness of the game (success and failure in precision-level murder depends on cards dealt to players) ensures that no two rounds are alike.

The game was a big hit for the company, and they brought out a director's cut of it in 2002. And yes, the director's cut does include a commentary track in addition to a second board and rules variants.

Spotted an even newer version of the game the other week - and it has now evolved into a proper boardgame, courtesy of Titanic Games. The irony of having a mounted board and nifty pawns at a much greater expense is probably not lost on the fans of the original.

The first mystery novel of this christmas season was Harri Nykänen's return to the seedy Helsinki underworld. Raid ja Tappajat - featuring the return of Raid, the perpetually duosyllabic and occasionally righteous anti-hero, after a two year absence.

The story picks up where the previous two Raid novels left off, and ties the plotlines together into a semi-plausible whole. Not all of them, and not in a fully convincing fashion.

While the book's nothing less than good, it feels like a pedestrian effort. It does not really add anything to the realm, just plays an extended encore for the previous two. While the dialogue clicks on confidently, it feels subdued to the occasional fireworks of the first Raid outings.

Yeah, let it be noted that I actually preferred the two books centering on Ariel Kafka to this one.

Been a while since the previous exposé on which topics bring innocent bystanders to this site:

what is the worlds second biggest mammal??

The two questionmarks obviously do the trick, since the answer is readily available in the archives.

lavonardo davinci

Not exactly, but nice to know somebody made this mistake.

campus cafe lufthansa zero 33 cola

Say what?

nypykät kanuunaralli lyrics

Translated the whole album once, but only on paper. And the sheet is long lost.

dry grass

About as fascinating to watch as this blog, right?

disadvantages of buying in kinokuniya traditional bookstores

Are there any?

symbiotic tower in riga

Well, don't hold back, tell us more!

donnie darko tapani maskula

Unfortunately the master of the single star never seems to have reviewed Richard Kelly's masterpiece.

Stay tuned for more in a month or two (unless something truly extraordinary crops up).

I am Time magazine's person of the year.

Recognition, finally!

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the academy, my producer, my colleagues, ...

(And yeah, the cropping in the image is cosmically bad, no tripod, and didn't bother straightening the magazine.)

The annual ritual of checking off seen movies from Empire's Top Films brought a low result - mere eight out of twenty-five. That's four fewer than last year's tally.

(Though for purely defensive purposes it must be stated that neither the Prestige nor Pan's Labyrinth is not out here yet).

Didn't fare much better in Guardian's Quiz on the subject. 14 out of 30 is not respectable. Though some of the questions do border on pathologically obscure.

For the first time in four years I did not lose the final game in Yahoo's fantasy football league.

Seventh position in the league is no source of great joy, though. The team played way inconsistently - the offense was not reliable (on any front, be it the QB, running backs or the receiver corps), kicker stalled after a fabulous start, and the previously reliable defenses were continuously outplayed.

The season's down in the league, but NFL barges onwards. Niners are out of playoffs despite flashes of brilliance from Alex Smith and very reliable footwork of Frank Gore. The Colts have taken the perfect season-jinx too seriously and dropped a few games - the very last and unexpected one to Texans. The elder Manning ought to get his troops in form for the playoffs, the margins are tiny at the top.

Quite green.

Snow did not reach Finland in time, and still has not. In the capital region it's confined to odd clumps scattered around.

At least the grass was still semi-verdant, and prevented deterioration into a purely black christmas.

Other than the anomalous weather, the period was spent in traditional fashion. Ate a lot. Chilled out. Read a lot (as witnessed in the sidebar). And noted that even at four days, the vacation is way too short.

Indeed. Merry christmas, friends, romans and countrymen.

Clicking on this Hoff on Christmas is suggested only to those strong of will (or adequately lubricated with mulled wine). Yes, it is scary - and in the interest of public safety and sanity the image is not attached here.

Merry christmas. It could be a bit whiter, but it's christmas all right.

Saw the new James Bond movie again.

The traditional eve-before-christmas-eve movie trip with high school friends ended up watching a movie that three of the four participants had already seen. A logistical masterpiece, but on account of the quality of the movie - it didn't matter much.

Even on a second time around, it's still a movie worth watching.

• Had missed Richard Branson's cameo the first time (being frisked at the Miami airport).
Chris Cornell's title song sounds even better the second time around..
• Eva Green as this round's Bond Girl still fails to convince.
• Hopefully Martin Campbell gets to direct the next movie, as "James Bond will return in 2008", and he's clearly got what it takes (having now directed two of the best Bond films).

Blogs have a jargon of their own, that's for sure. But some of the regularly seen expressions have evolved into clichés, some even way before being incorporated into the bloggers language.

According to the Gawker census of bad lingo, this very blog is slightly over 25% guilty.

Best. [ultimate thing or experience.] Ever/Evar.

Yes. The comic book guy has had his 15 second of fame on this very blog. Repeatedly. Tick one.

[undesirable counter-example], not so much.

Just say no.

FTW, O RLY, lol, FTL, OMG, FWIW, btw, PWND, ROTFL, etc.

Just say no, part 2.

[negative experience, situation, or description]; I just threw up a little bit in my mouth.

Nope. Haven't even see it used. Which probably means that my blogroll is on the boring side.

[purposefully non-ghetto statement], yo.

Nope. My ghetto-fu is weak, and misuse would threaten to strip the last shreds of street credibility.

[undesirable conclusion]. Oy.

Nope, again.

[amazed paraphrase of opposing position]. Seriously? Seriously?

What's wrong with my writing - why haven't I used even this one?

What's next? [outlandish scenario]?

Used, though only very rarely.

I'm looking at you, [example of complaint].

Nope, this list sure isn't getting nowhere fast.

Um, [condescension]?

This one missing from the list of sins committed as well.

[Argument], wait for it, [rhetorical flourish].

Used this one live (and am probably going to suffer a serious decrease of karma for it), but never here.

[Undesirable experience] made my [sensory organ] bleed.

Been there. Done that. Tick three, that is.

[adjective]-y goodness

Uh. Guilty as charged. So, that'd be #4.

[any word]-gasm

Nope.

[x] is the new [y].

Not used here, but seen daylight elsewhere.

Notes:

Surprisingly, the generic english wikipedia entry on the CBG is far more informative than that on the Simpsons-specific one.

This Is The New That is a blog that tracks occurrences of the very last crime against language on the list.

Following Jason Kottke's lead, here's my list of cities that I visited (qualifier: spent one or more nights) during the year:

• Tampere, Finland*

• Nivala, Finland

• Munich, Germany*
• London, United Kingdom

• Boston, MA*
• Philadelphia, PA
• Washington, DC
• Singapore, Singapore
• Brisbane, Australia*
• Yulura, Australia
• Cairns, Australia
• Sydney, Australia

As in the original, an asterisk denotes multiple visits to a location.

EDIT 26.12.2006: Added London after prodding from mr. Srpnt.

Tabu, the very finest hour of finnish television comedy, will be back on the small screen, starting on 14.1. on Subtv.

Hopefully this re-run paves the way for an imminent dvd-release as well.

Tabu was, after all, something of a rite of passage in high school. Unless you could quote several of the sketches verbatim, you were clearly of an inferior stock.

Photo thursday is on a well-deserved break till mid-january. Standing in for a weekly image is a questionnaire from neulekirppu.

1. Which subject did you shoot the most during 2006? Did you concentrate on something specific or just snap photos of whatever came along?

The most common subject is the rainforest canopy. Snapped dozens of images of various jungly bits of land during the trip to Australia. But pretty much was in rapid fire mode whenever carrying the camera, and subject vary greatly.

2. Did you participate in the photo thursday or other such events during the year?

Participated in photo thursday nine times. No other events, though the monthly photo contest run by the neighboring team at work seems interesting.

3. Which of your photos taken this year is your favorite? Why?

No single absolute favorite. I'm very fond of the angry ants attached to this entry.

4. Did you learn anything about photography during 2006?

New appreciation of field of depth. Among many other things.

5. Did you buy any accessories or even a new camera during the year?

Bought a Canon S3. No accessories.

6. What do you plan on photographing in 2007?

Whatever comes along.

[ via skrubu. ]

The longest night of the year will be easier with the following:

• An interview with Michael Gentry, author of one of the greatest recent IF games, Anchorhead (a special edition of the game is now in the works, with a demo already out).
• Inside dirt on the effects of the second Pirates of the Caribbean.
• Top Ten of dangerous toys (no, not the band - but actually lethal devices for kids).
• Universal Text Imitator. For the times when lengthy non-sensical, but syntactically correct phrases are called for.
• The worst loser award of 2006 goes to Michael Crichton.
• A collection of heroically geeky animals.

Lost the consolation placement game, and will be bravely fighting for spot #7 this weekend.

This time it was pretty much three factors that settled the loss: bad play by the receivers (across the board, bench fared no better), Giants scoring only on running plays (Eli Manning had very decent yards, but no touchdowns), and a great game by the opposing quarterback (Michael Vick scoring on no less than four throws).

Oh well, time to concentrate on the fantasy basketball and hockey leagues.

Spent three days working in Munich without access to network. TMO's hotspot utterly failed to co-operate with my thinkpad at the hotel, and the days were just too busy for any extended experiments.

Mayerhof Hotel on Dachauer Straße was small, clean, right next to a tram stop, and apart from the niggling failure to access the net, pretty much an optimal selection.

Visited Tollwood, the humongous christmas market in Theresienwiese on sunday evening. The area is packed with both crafts and mass-produced fare - fortunately concentrating on the latter. Browsed a few, picked up a nicely challenging three dimensional wooden puzzle and settled in for a couple of glühweins with some finnish expatriattes (served with a sugarcube doused with rum and set on fire). Late dinner in the Augustiner brew-pub was in the shape of a schnitzel, and very agreeable in taste.

Monday evening's entertainment consisted of limited shopping (the big Saturnus shop can keep their Gorillaz dvds and queues stretching to infinity), walking in the Marienplatz christmas market (crafts and eats) and trying to locate an italian restaurant. Last step utterly failed, and in the rapidly chilling evening had to resort to Ratskeller, a very centrally tourist trap. Their selection of sausages proved to be good indeed. Capped the evening with a visit to an even more tourist-catering place: the Hofbräuhaus. It hadn't changed since the previous visit: loud, packed with tourists swilling from hefty tankards, and harried waiters carrying overflowing plates of food. Dancing brits were an unexpected bonus.

I'm pretty sure the Outlook Inbox will be overflowing tomorrow morning.

Well, the blogger code itself has been updated to version 2, so it was only appropriate to update my own.

No significant changes. A bit more links. A bit more positive disposition towards memes.

Post-christmasparty lack of sleep and the farewell party of a friend took precedence over yet another missed Helsinki blogger event.

Supposedly there's a shadow party coming up next week, and I've no useful excuse lined up right now. Operative words probably being: "right now".

A List Apart, a non-obvious name for a website that's absolutely bristling with useful information.

Most of it harder core than what is needed to render this website, but I'm sure there's appropriate material hiding amongst the hundreds of articles.

Picked up the first batch of Carl Barksin Kootut today.

The first, eleventh and twenty-first volume out of the thirty to be published altogether were a pretty hefty package to lug home from the post office (conveniently open on a saturday on account of looming christmas).

Haven't but briefly browsed the books, but the quality seems to be exquisite. Paper, coloring, translation - all have had significant improvements over previous editions. Editions, that while not as thorough as this one, have published the output many times over.

Stay tuned for a proper review.

This week's photo thursday challenge is a "bad shot". A photograph that is decidedly lacking in some quality.

I usually excise the worst offenders on the field already, but some make it through. The example selected here has the surface reflection intruding on a not 100% focused underwater picture.

I don't like the new coke, that's been established already.

The finnish consumer advisory board has banned the commercials advertising the product.

Not due to the taste, but on account of the said advertisements being demeaning to women.

True, the ads are a match for the product, but this is rather harsh a step. Then again, I obviously haven't seen all the variants, since the one quoted in decision is unfamiliar.

For the sake of balance, here's a pepsi commercial that was cut.

[ via kulutusjuhla. ]

Click. Click. Click.

• Linus sounds off on banning binary-only modules. A decent idea, but fundamentally flawed.
• Wikipedia's list of featured articles rarely fails, yesterday's: Monopoly-game's history.
• Next entry in the long-running series "blogs to follow, or at least check out": Smart Economy.
• Gingerbread Carcassonne.
• Google launches patent search.
• Regrettheerror collects the assorted mistakes from media all over the world.

The third, and this year's last christmas party is now history.

Botta offered mediocre food, loud music and tight quarters.

Band played loud, but their repertoire was interesting. First time I've heard Rammstein covered. Coming from a band whose selections otherwise quite tightly stayed within the traditional (from I will Survive to Runaway), Du Hasst was definitely a positive surprise.

Now this is one seriously disturbed USB-stick design.

The short presentation on the product's homepage is worth the wait.

[ via boingboing. ]

Exhibit "A": Che-bacca shirt at threadless.

Exhibit "B": The characters of the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica, rendered in Simpsonese.

A musical meme, "describe your life in the names of songs", is making the rounds again. Answered this way back in 2003 (before I got bitten by blog-bug), and mr. google still conveniently provides access to the old set.

The questions have mutated a bit in three years, so it's time for a repeat. Using the same artist, of course, premier league football teams come and go, but the disturbed man from Arizona remains.

1. Gender?

Jackknife Johnny.

2. Your greatest dream?

Might as well be on Mars

3. What do you hate?

Fields of Regret.

4. How do you feel right now?

Between High School & Old School.

5. How's it going in general?

Never Been Sold Before.

6. What do you like?

Sun Arise.

7. What would you like to say to your girlfriend?

Who Do You Think We Are?

8. Where would you like to be?

Caught in a Dream.

9. Describe life.

I'm Always Chasing Rainbows.

10. Describe yourself.

No more Mr. Nice Guy.

11. What would you like right now?

Escape.

(And the artist is Alice Cooper, to clue in the less observant among the readers.)

Some recent gaming-related links and products that look worthy of a click or even a purchase.

• China Miéville's New Crobuzon will get turned into a game setting in Dragon#352 in january.
• The third expansion for Arkham Horror will be King in Yellow (though it hasn't yet been officially announced by the publisher).
• Munchkin Cthulhu has been delayed till spring 2007.
• Age of Decadence looks like an immersive and text-rich role-playing game. Without a set release date.
• Changing Times is the first new Transhuman Space product in ages.
• Jenova Chen's Flow is nothing short of hypnotic.
• Tarot of Cthulhu, Ken Hite's followup to his wildly successful Dubious Shards has been out for a while.
• And while continuing in the unremitting horror-genre, the brand new Esoterrorists looks like a game with a worthy subject and an even worthier author.

The lead article of today's hesari's science pages was about renaming mammals (article not available for free).

Following in the steps of the ornithologers who have given a finnish name to all the bird species in the world, a dedicated group is on the final stretch of completing the process for mammals.

The article concentrated on two topics: renaming old friends and inventing completely new names. A lot of animals will have their official name changed to correspond to style guidelines and to reflect the animal's place in the family tree, examples of such include critters such as leijonahylje (ex-merileijona) and saksanpeura (née saksanhirvi). But the second big topic is far more interesting. Due to the need to name hundreds of rats and bats the group members invented new foundations for such creatures, including the two shown in the title of this entry. A hiiru is a mouse with an american origin, and a lenko is a fruitbat (curiously abbreviated from lentävä koira - flying fox in english).

The work is not finished yet, and apparently not available online at all (at least casual googling picks up no hits). Hopefully the authors will take the same route as the bird-enthusiasts and publish it for free. Though as a closet taxonomer I wouldn't mind a cheapish softback edition either (like that published of the fish species of the world two years ago).

... it's reality for the brave Hakkapeliitat.

The last game of the regular season was a defeat, and that means that a trip to the consolation row just began. On one hand it's sad that the series of bowl appearances ground to a halt after four consecutive ones, on the other this was a long time coming.

Lost the last playoff spot by the smallest of margins, by placing fifth, after getting beaten by the team that finished fourth. The loss was entirely my own doing. Ran the wrong RBs - both guys on the bench reached the end zone, whereas Marion Barber, hero of two previous weeks with four TDs, ran a grand total of three carries. Picked up Vince Young for this round, and while he has the makings of a franchise quarterback, he wasn't too productive this time around. Eli Manning, who had shown improvement the previous week was steady, but I misguidedly ran the Tennessee freshman instead.

So, at 7-7, it's time to face the challenge of the consolation, and emerge at the top of that. Not as flashy as a bowl game, that's for sure, but a decent goal nonetheless.

The Colts, who at one point looked like a sure thing were neatly trounced by the Jaguars, and they still haven't clinched even their division yet. And Drew Brees sure has landed on his feet in New Orleans, showing with a five touchdown game that he's not dependent on the top flight receivers he enjoyed working with in Chargers. Chargers, who are in scary form themselves, as LaDainian Tomlinson has already set a new record for regular season touchdowns - and there are still two games to go.

Cory Doctorow has a good piece in Forbes on making his entire bibliography available for free.

Indeed. His novels and short story collections are all available on his website. I've only read his debut novel Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, and found it both clumsy and filled with captivating ideas.

Being an old-fashioned reader, I'm not much of a reader from screen, so the rest of the books I will be picking up one by one - though not locally as the bookstores in Helsinki seem utterly unable to stock his books.

However, Doctorow is by no means the only author who has thrown down the gauntlet of attracting more readers by giving the books away for free.

Charles Stross' Accelerando has been available since last summer. And its downloadability has not been a disadvantage for its sales. It's a novel that takes the future on a ride, and never lets up on the gas, hence the name. What begins as a conventional study of near future quickly turns completely unrecognizable.

The newest arrival on the scene is Peter Watts' Blindsight, just out in hardback format, as well as available on his website.

Sami at Überkuul amusingly massacres Coke Zero. Pretty much echoing my thoughts. The taste is a pale imitation of the real thing, and it never attempts to reach anything beyond the original. And the advertisements, especially the long one torturing the public before movies, are grounds for a week in the stocks.

The description of what a single glass of sugared up soda does to the human body is scary reading. And it's by no means coke-specific, but reaches across the spectrum of liquid syrup.

(And yes, I'm a Pepsi Max man myself, just to set expectations right.)

A new monday, a new weekly five. As per the previous, the lost in translation-moments are by me, and the originals are not to blame.

This week's collection continues on the topically calendarial matters.

The second advent candle has now been lighted, and there's two to go before christmas. But there are other candles than advent-related ones. Let there be light, as is appropriate on a week with Saint Lucia's day.

1. How often do you light candles? Where?

Rarely. Usually in december. Home.

2. What kind of candles? Any favorite brand or a model?

No particular favorites. Tuikku is a perennially useful light source, and never tips.

3. Where do you pick up the candles (tips on shops much appreciated)? Or do you craft your own?

No tips on shops. The last four dozen came from Stockmann. Last candle I created was back in elementary school.

4. Electric candles - not even by accident, or just the thing? Why?

Nope. The live fire is the real deal.

5. The first finnish Lucia was crowned in 1936. What are your thoughts on the seventy year-old tradition?

Harmless. And the buns spiced up with saffron make it worthwhile.

Days of Wonder's Ticket to Ride has turned into a decent franchise - having spawned both expansions and spinoffs in the two years following its victory in the annual Spiel des Jahres contest.

In addition to the official expansions, lots of enterprising folks have taken up the challenge to design additional boards for the game.

The newest entry is a map of Finland, done using the pre-WW2 borders (so there is actually something to do in the eastern parts of the country).

Bought Jeffrey Zeldman's Designing With Web Standards book last week. On a whim, hadn't planned on getting this tome.

I'm pretty much halfway through it, and it's turned out to be a good book indeed. More about methodology than bit-level design, though the latter is present en masse in some chapters. And some of the fruits of learning shall be put to good use here. A redesign (of at least this blog) has been pending for a while.

But it's not the sensible content that is the mystery about the book. Nope, its copyright date just seems plain wrong - as indicated in the attached image.

Gemischte linke.

• Truthiness is the word of the year, if the Merriam-Webster guys are to be believed.
• Before blogs, there were diaries, and some folks just didn't know when to stop.
• Clive Thompson's collision detection seems to be a worthwhile blog to pick up.
• Another fine idea that ought to have been forgotten the next morning once sobriety kicked in: a headcrab hat, straight out of Half-Life.
• Wikipedia provides insight into the etymology of "considered harmful".
• Compressed history, nominally for writers, but a great source of trivia and facts for everybody.

The second christmas party of the weekend. This one with a czech theme. Meaning that the food was sausage-y, and the beers either hopsy or caramel-sweet.

The Keskiviikon Keisarit tradition of rookies beating veterans in board games continued - got trounced in Munchkin.

With the decline of MTV to providing information on hiphop stars' houses and endless variants of the Real World, it's the music that has suffered.

With videos shoved into a minority fraction of the airtime, and the selection limited to a dozen on the powerplay-list, it's just too time-consuming process to try and stay up to date with music videos.

Fortunately the good folks of DoCopenhagen have put together a page with their selection of the top 50 videos of the year. No metal within the collection, which is obviously a minus - but this sure is a decent introduction to the subject.

Dunwich Horror, the second expansion to Arkham Horror, is out and available in shops.

Seems that my living room table is too small to accommodate the two towns, as the expansion adds a two-panel board to the already big need for space.

Thus far the Wednesday Emperors have beaten the Great Old Ones 3-0, but the expansions supposedly turn up the difficulty of the game.

Old, stodgy and occasionally frighteningly conservative finnish weekly magazine, Suomen Kuvalehti, has branched out to unknwon waters recently.

Their article on wikipedia expects the readers to be rather well-informed about the subject, which probably is too much for the majority of the readers. Finnish wikipedia gets half the article - the history bit (zero to 83'000 articles in four years) is spot on, but the rest is spent on waffling about the editing protocol, using case Sipilä as a measurement stick.

The article on old school notebooks (only partially available on the web) is far less controversial. And manages to give heavy props to Moleskine, while noting that PDAs were not a convincing replacement for paper.

While the former article gets lost in details, they both are on the decent side, and hopefully the magazine keeps up its interest in such unexpected subjects.

Watched the first UEFA Champions League game earlier this week, Barcelona pretty convincingly beat Werder Bremen and advanced from the group stage.

Despite the catalans good progress in La Liga, the Champions League has not been easy - they secured a place in the next stage in the very last game. The season-ending injury of Samuel Eto'o has definitely struck them hard.

The game was a pleasant one to watch - technical football that rarely bogged down in the midfield. Two goals (first of them a brilliant trick shot by Ronaldinho) supplemented by two shots on goal posts.

Chelsea has been doing great as well, though is six points behind the Red Devils in the league. Somehow I've ended up losing interest in the team - and their continued moneyball game netted one of my least favorite players. Though the purchase Ashley Cole alone cannot be blamed for the decline.

Planned on briefly visiting a friends' christmas party on friday evening. Failed, and ended up spending the entire evening on the premises.

Arrived late, and without supplies, but no-one minded participating in destroying a copious supply of mulled wine.

Main entertainment of the evening was table hockey, but played with two guys on each team, both controlling three rods, alternating the position after scoring a goal. First two games were pretty much chaos, hadn't played table hockey in years. But the old skills slowly returned, and managed to put on some decent sniping action in subsequent games (still cannot produce any effective solo play by the center).

Cat-sitting in december must be one of the least stressful duties available.

After all, the creatures pretty much fend for themselves, and are not enthusiastic about spending any extended time outside in the rain.

And having one curled up on your legs while reading is definitely something that a tank full of tropical fish cannot provide.

So, sure, pencil me in for the next tour of duty as well.

There's many good things about having a national holiday in the middle of a week.

The list of good things does not include the inevitable monday-morning wakeup effect the next day.

Yeah, it's becoming a weekly ritual, answering Skrubu's weekly five. Again, grievous bodily harm visited upon the english language is mine alone, and no co-defendants are to be found.

This week's quintet concerns itself with december, and its holidays.

1. Do you have an advent calendar (and of what kind, if so)?

No physical calendar, but reading the Official One on a daily basis.

2. Any christmas parties thus far?

None yet, three to go.

3. What do you think about the presidential ball on independence day?

Harmless tradition. No strong feelings one way or the other.

4. Are you planning to watch the ball on television (why, if so), or are you among the invitees, or planning to cause commotion outside the palace?

Nope. And with the weather like this, definitely sticking to indoors amusement.

5. Have you purchased all presents already? And are you perplexed by the fact that more than 300 shops will be closed on christmas eve?

Nope, just a few thus far. And I do aim to get the shopping done well in advance, so the shops being closed ought not to matter.

Another Guardian list, another uncomfortable reckoning of spotted works.

This time the count is five certain, and three possibles. Better than the books of 2006, but still pretty lame:

• Botticelli's Primavera,
• Leonardo daVinci's Adoration of the Magi,
• The Book of Kells,
• Géricault's Raft of the Medusa,
• Hokusai's 36 views of Mount Fuji (as prints, not the originals).

Not 100% sure on the Spiral Jetty (I'm pretty sure it was submerged in 1993-94) or the other two works displayed in Louvre (the 45 minute forced march through the halls left out a lot). Many, many embarrassing "not yet"-notes, Stonehenge and the Scream at the very top of the list.

No less than three finnish social bookmarking/news sites (all of them quite like digg):

• kerro.fi.
• blogispotti.fi.
• hreq.fi.

I'll keep an eye on them, but none of them seems to be moving very quickly, nor attracting too many pings per item.

Finished the first season of Veronica Mars the other day. Quality remained high to the very end, and the early positive impressions were not wrong.

The long story arc gets wrapped up in the final episodes, and continues in the background through the entire season. Unlike Buffy, and especially X-Files, where the main plotline gets occasionally lost among the monster-of-the-week episodes. In the end the solution proves to be nothing special, but like in Twin Peaks, it's the journey, and the secrets uncovered along the way, which is really the star of the show.

Indeed, the scripting remains good throughout the season - covering both crimes and misdemeanors, and never forgetting the rigors of high school social life. The show manages to push most 00-decade's buttons as it goes - too early for MySpace, obviously, but google gets namechecked several times. And everybody packs a cell phone.

Bring on season two. But not right away, now's the time for some covert police work in Baltimore.

Added a live bookmark-link to the blog (now visible as an icon in the address bar of the browser).

#10 has offered a feed for ages, but been missing a crucial bit in the header of the page. Now the blog is 18% more discoverable.

Eighty-nine years in.

And no end in sight - despite the almost weekly demonstrations against the Infernal Beast of European Union in front of the parliament.

A brief stroll outside proved that the traditional pairs of candles straddling windowsills have given way to electric candelabras. But I'm pretty sure a vast fraction of households are keeping an eye on the presidential ball tonight.

Darkness. Brief days. No snow. Intermittent rain. Profound need to sleep in. Darkness. Temperature hovering just above zero. Lack of energy. Sun absent from the skies, behind grey clouds.

And did I mention the darkness already?

It's the worst Helsinki can offer, weatherwise - the period when the wet tarmac eats up the photons, turning the days into gloom.

But I shall not yield. Nor shall I resort to the seasonal extra-bright lights. No - it is much better to combat the symptoms with candles, quality entertainment and peaty scotch than attempt to recreate the summery conditions. Good orange juice is ok, though.

As reported in late november, Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon's Preacher is headed to the small screen, courtesy of the cream of the crop: HBO.

And thankfully it is the small screen, and the HBO. A movie couldn't do justice to the 66-issue story, and no other production company would dare to touch the graphic novel with a ten foot pole. Religion is mocked and defied in ways rarely seen, violence is rampant and none of the characters can exactly described as a good guy.

No-one has been cast as Jesse Custer yet - and the casting call at Rajatapauksia hasn't produced any credible results yet.

And incidentally, my copy of Until the End of the World collection seems to be missing from its notch on the shelf, so anyone who might have borrowed it, please check under coffee tables and other likely locations...

Verkkokauppa claims that the next shipment of Nintendo's Wii comes in in january, way too late for christmas.

As usual, the initial lineup does not look much - with just the new Zelda standing out. But in the case of Wii, the appearances might very well be deceiving - this baby does not attempt to attrach customers with flash, opting for a good gaming experience instead.

Didn't expect to be first in line when Wii comes out in Scandinavia, but I do expect to have a firm go with a console that I come across.

The recent trouble in Australia was unforeseen, and this week's hardships doubly so.

Some enterprising soul at otherwise reliable Stockmann has seen fit to drop the One True Jeans. Them being dark indigo Levi's 501. And picking them up in other stores has turned out to be problematic as well, with lots of shops opting for other brands - hinting that I might be caught up in last millennium in my desire to stick with the brand.

Unless the local Levi's store (inconveniently relocated somewhere in the far east, now) is able to help, it may indeed be a sad day when I actually have to try on some new jeans.

Watched Casino Royale, the relaunch of the Bond-franchise and was impressed, very impressed.

The mythos has been reworked on many levels, and the changes are positive indeed.

The most visible change, obviously, is that of the actor. Daniel Craig excels as the inexperienced Bond, prone to mistakes and overconfidence. His depiction of the british assassin is of a cold, cruel overachiever, and hits the notes spot on.

The story has been upgraded to the age of fear - Le Chiffre is now a banker for terrorists, and gets into trouble on mistimed playing of the stock market.

Like last year's good, and appropriately successful, restart of the Batman-franchise, Casino Royale plays with the expectations of the audience, while convincingly building up the mythos from the scratch. A lot of elements have been ditched - sadly including both Moneypenny and Q. Q's disappearance is a mixed blessing - but the lack of reliance on gadgetry (that almost destroyed the last of the Brosnan's Bonds) is a welcome breath of fresh air.

Casino Royale is directed by Martin Campbell, who almost resurrected the franchise once before. Though with GoldenEye the approach was not nearly as revolutionary as with the new film. Sadly the Bond girl this time around, Eva Green, does not compare favorably with the best in the role. But that's hardly a fatal mistake for a movie.

And fortunately, such mistakes are very few in Casino Royale. And the ones present are pretty much minor. The gambling scenes are a bit lengthy and the grande finale in Venice goes over the top. On the other hand the film never over-explains itself, and pulls no punches when a spot of ultra-violence is needed.

Random cruft recently scraped off the surfboard.

• Rex at fimoculous has started the traditional collection of end of the year lists, the one on unfamiliar blogs ought to provide amusement.
• Seems that the recent release of Pixar's Cars is lame everywhere but Australia.
• Another Guardian list, this time on the forty best directors (current ones, that is). I don't think Lynch and Scorses pack an equivalent amount of substance, and that, if anything, is a decent argument to kick off discussion with film buffs.
• A chocolate cake for the Dr. Who fans among readers.
• The european airlines' in-flight shopping magazines are thin and filled with boring and unimaginative stuff when compared with the US ones - though this joke can be taken too far.
• Zeitgeistiest poster of the year.

Jagshemash!

Saw Borat, and was much impressed. Rarely has such a large amount of well-developed bad taste been compressed into a small package.

The movie is eighty minutes of pure mischevious mirth. While at first it appears to laugh at the expense of the imaginary kazakhs, it turns quickly into a scathing attack on America (or, as the protagonist states: US and A).

The backstory is expectedly lame (even when compared to Sacha Baron Cohen's debut), but it's the randomly encountered and interviewed natives that are worth watching.

The naked wrestling scene left me scarred for life. Easily the scene from the cinema of 2006 vintage that I probably will (unfortunately) remember clearly for years to come.

Heavily recommended.

Attended a gamenight at Lemmy's place. Had missed last three or so, mainly due to badly calendared travel.

The pinball collection had had a small update, Star Trek: The Next Generation was replaced by Williams' The Getaway. Unlike the previous few acquisitions (Cirqus Voltaire and Attack From Mars) this was not an easy game to get to grips with. Spent a decent chunk of time, but never got the scoring to accelerate. Addams Family was down for the count, predictably sucked at Indy, and got a passable score on my favorite of them all, Twilight Zone, on the first and only try.

Indeed, spent only a little time on pinballs, and concentrated on videogames instead. The two recent sports games on 360 got a definite seal of approval. NHL 2007 has a new puck control mechanism, which caused a lot of confusion in 2-on-2 games - scoring goals was hard, apart from the last of the three games we steadily produced goalless draws (and took a long time scoring in the shootout). The new mechanism was thus hard, but rewarding - the few goals were celebrated accordingly. Pro Evolution Soccer 6 is missing a lot of the bling the PlayStation 2 version has. But that doesn't affect the gameplay itself, which is stil a stellar approximation of football. Round-robin 2-on-2 games produced decent games for the most part - only the last was an utter massacre. Tried out a new Tom Clancy-derived game on four xboxes, while this was not close to the traditional Ghost Recon 2 in its ability to lure us into ambushes, even the first mission proved hard to beat.

Watched Helsinki Jesters dismantle the hockey club from Hämeenlinna yesterday evening with a bunch of ex-workmates.

The game got started with a bang, as the visitors goalie had the worst possible start to a game - two shots, zero saves, two goals.

It got a bit more even after that, and the numbers (7-2 for the home team) do not do justice to the effort shown by the visitors. But effort ain't what counts, it's the goals, and the result is ugly indeed.

But the good thing is that the game wasn't ugly at all. While it's not hockey2.0 as played in NHL, it's still enjoyable to watch with the referees attempting to cut out needless hooking and interference.

Nachspiel in Teerenpeli was cut short by lack of their own brews and the feeling of stuffedness brought on by one of the humongous toasts.

Jolly good, to be repeated once the playoffs kick in.