Facebook Killed Blogging

Lately I've been wondering why I have so little motivation for blogging anymore. I came to the conclusion that Facebook is to "blame". Why? Because it has been an efficient way of keeping in touch with people and being up-to-date with what's happening with who. I will have to do some soul-searching and decide which course to take. If I keep my 21st Century Pilgrim blog, I'm pretty sure I need to invest more time and effort: increase both the pace and the level of quality of posts. 

Finnish Police in Vancouver

This was an interesting. The Vancouver Sun reported an incident involving Finland's police hockey team. The headline was: "Fight to the Finnish: Finland's police hockey team halts assault on Vancouver bus driver."

You can read the entire article here. Apparently the Finnish policemen, visiting Vancouver for a police hockey tournament, witnessed a busdriver being mugged. They run after the villain and pinned him to the ground. Vancouver Sun comments: "Surrounded by what looked like odd assortment of fair-complexioned, blue-eyed Canadians, the man was shocked."

"He was very surprised," said Det. Sgt. Antti Karhola. "He had no chance. We felt pretty good about that."

I'm sure they did feel good, considering that they had just been eliminated from the tournament in the first round. But mark my words: this will not happen to the Finnish National Team in the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010.

R.I.P. Näppä Pilvi

We found a bird at our summer cabin, a tiny swallow (or marlet?), that had injured one if its wings. A healthy swallow is one of the fastest flying birds in Finland. We found it just as it was going to drown--it was slipping down a slope into the lake. At first it would jump out of your hands and spiral down to the inevitable crash. But soon it calmed down and began to enjoy our company. It would actually hop into my palm or sit on my shoulder.


Teemu and the girls took over and showed it much love. They even called animal rescue but could find no-one who would take it in. The little bird only lived for two days. Teemu was very sorry, the sobs were deep. But Julia found a little wooden cross (branch) and together with her friend Sini they built a grave with pretty flowers around it. The tomb was encircled with hay and straw, an obvious symbol, I think, for its heavenly nest. Näppä Pilvi--christened posthumously by Teemu--died July 23rd.

Thankful For Housework

I used to gripe about the job of doing household chores
But thanks to television news I don't gripe anymore

In every land and country there are people in despair
So now all of my household chores I do with loving care

The dishes and the pots and pans I do on aching feet
I gladly do because it means we have enough to eat

The sheets I change the beds I make no longer do I dread
Because of this it means that we sleep in a nice warm bed

Vacuuming and dusting scrubbing dirty floors and walls
Means there's a roof above my head so I don't mind at all

And then there's dirty laundry endless baskets to attack
But that just means my family has enough clothes on their back

That's why I'm thankful for housework, I'm blessed abunduntly
Compared to others in the world I see on my TV

Dialogue in a Dream

I saw some intense dreams the other night. But as I awoke, I could not remember anything about them. Except for one short dialogue between a man and a woman. They obviously knew each other very well. The woman was sad, because she felt the man did not love her.

Woman: "I love you! Why don't you love me?"

Man: "You're in love with me. You don't love me. I'm not in love with you. But I love you."

Triple Party 2009

Yesterday was a great day. We had three reasons to celebrate: Benjy turned 3 years, Daniella 1 year, and history (since Christ's birth) 2009 years. (It's incredible how well Danny and Sirkku timed their kisses.)

Oskar (on the left), is going on his first ever safari this weekend, to Mikumi National Park.

Safari, in Swahili, means simply "a trip". But Oskar's safari will include some amazing animals, too.

December Tan

Pretty gross, eh? My scalp and chin never caught up with the rest of my body. (My brother's wife, Sirkku, is on the right. This was taken in Oulu in 2005.)

This was the first tan of my life, imported from Malaysia. It took "only" 45 days. I'm moving to Tanzania soon, December 1st or 2nd, hopefully, for 6 months or so. I'll return to Finland when the Celcius degrees are more tolerable and, above all, when the sun returns from hibernation.

John Paul II Truck

The Tanzanians carry the flags of their heroes wherever they go. In Dar, for example, it is not inordinary to see a truck or a "dalla dalla" (mini-busses, the Dar residents' main means of transportation) named "Jesus Christ" or something like that. Knowing that I'm a fan of John Paul II, Danny sent me this photo today.

Raseborg Ruins

In addition to Olavinlinna's war castle, this summer I've visited another medieval sight - the Ruins of Raseborg or Raseborg Ruins. Though smaller and more modest than the Olavinlinna castle, Raseborg's castle is even older (built in the late 13th hundreds). It is very near Helsinki, in Tammisaari, the city that holds the Brigade in which I completed my military training in 1999. It took me and my friend Saila not even an hour to drive there. As you can see, the weather was optimal for a road trip to a historical location. (Unlike this week, this gray and rainy week. But in one way I'm fortunate: the weather is keeping me busy indoors translating.) We are actually pretty high above ground here.

Human Language

I'm sure I'm not the only person who has these kinds of moments. Every now and then, when you're thinking about a familiar word, any word, thinking about what it means, how it's spelled, what it sounds like when it's said aloud, maybe repeating it a few times - an odd thing may happen. Suddenly, you see it in a new light. This word, used thousands and thousands of times in the past, now seems, looks, and sounds ridiculous. You think to yourself: “Ha, what a dumb word!” (Not the thing the word symbolises, but the words itself.)

Two minutes later, it doesn't seem so stupid anymore, it's returned to its normal familiar state.


I wonder whether on these rare occasions we actually feel the truth which we generally know to be true: that words are merely symbols we quite arbitrarily choose for realities?

The words vary from language to langauge and evolve within each language over time, but the reality remains the same. The thing itself is real, the word is not. But through endless repetition the word and the reality it symbolises have fused into one so that speaking the word immediately brings forth the picture of the reality. But on rare occasions they're detached for a brief moment. And during those moments when the link between the thing and the symbol is not apparent, we realise how inadequate and clumsy the symbol is in comparison to the thing itself.

Perhaps someone can draw even more fundamental conclusions. I don't think trivial phenomena like these are trivial at all: very often they're an echo of an intriguing secret. That makes them so fascinating and worth reflecting on.

A Chocolate-y Laugh

Many people say the loveliest sound in the world is a baby's laugh and the most disturbing is a baby's cry. I am one of these people, I guess. Out of all the baby laugh in history, my nephew Joshua's is probably the cutest. It is so cute - he is so adorable - that you want to kiss him to death. By the way, it's a peculiar thing that parents, at the height of their affection to their children, feel like - and often say it out loud, without thinking too much of it - that they want to eat them. "Oh, I'm going to eat you!" There's a theological theory behind this, but I'm not going into it now. Below Joshua is eating chocolate and enjoying a laugh at the same time.

Summer Season Starts

Summer of 2005. My first tan, ever. It only took 42 days of 24/7 tanning (= living on a desert island), but eventually that red pigment gave way to brown skin. After 2005, it's been very easy for me to get some colour during summers and not remain all whitey. Today was the warmest spring day thus far (this year) in Helsinki. It was a good day in other ways too: Saila was confirmed into the Catholic Church and I spent half the day showing downtown Helsinki to my new friend, Joseph. I guess the summer season started.

I'm particularly looking forward to this summer, as it'll be my last in my current apartment - near the beach. One major project that I intend to complete this summer is the translation of Alexandre Havard's brilliant Virtous Leadership into Finnish. I really think I'll pull it off without leaving the beach (and beach café) all summer. I'm planning to enjoy this summer - without neglecting my obligations.

Blogging in April

I'm not even going to try to lie and say that I'm going to quit blogging. It would be a too obvious April Fool's Day joke. However, I will say that a friend of mine expressed her grave disappointment in me joining the blogosphere. She said that blogging increases anti-socialism. People don't see each other anymore, people don't talk. I guess the same was said of mobile phones too? We all know how that turned out though. People, at least in Finland, began to see much more of each other as a direct result of smoother communication. But I don't know if similar researches have been conducted as regards blogging.

That said, as March comes to an end, I will not blog on a daily basis in April - rather, on a every-second-day basis. (Radical change, I know.) I have an important deadline on April 18th (prayers requested). But if I feel confident that this blog won't turn into an "extension of ”ego” (my phrase, by the way), I might resume daily blogging in May again.

Happy April everyone!

The Nokia Parrot

This parrot did something I had never seen done before. It used to belong to Danny and Sirkku's ex-neighbors. I once walked past their yard and heard a mobile phone ring. You know, the cheesy Nokia tune: “Te-de-dee-dee, te-de-dee-dee, te-de-dee-dee-deee”? I looked around but didn't see anybody. Then I heard a bellowing laughter: “Ha-ha-ha-ha!!” It was the parrot. You see, it had learned to mimic the ring tone of the (Finnish) family's phones. A few times a family member would mistake the parrot's song for the real thing, and would try to answer their phone. Other family members would notice the blunder and ... begin to laugh. Then the parrot would, in turn, mimic the laughter.

A pattern had formed. A Finn would walk by, the parrot would “call” them on the phone, the Finn would try to answer it, the parrot (seemingly on purpose, just to be spiteful) would then fall into a roaring laughter. More than one guest has looked at the parrot with a suspicious eye afterwards.

MacGyver: A Legend

This is my cat, MacGyver. I got him when I was 9 years-old. I chose him out of three cute kittens, mostly because he looked chubby. More than one person objected to the christening of him, though. You named him what? In my defense, MacGyver was cool back then. (If you ask Marge Simpson's sisters, he still is!) Also, today my cat is a legend. Everyone knows MacGyver. He was even mentioned in the Helsingin Sanomat. I'm not kidding. He has lost 11 out of his 9 lives, but is still alive. We don't know for how long still, for he's showing signs of old age. For example, he can't beat the crap out of neighboring cats anymore.

Some Sweat, Some Shiver

It is very warm in Tanzania. I personally love warm weather (I know, I am weird in that way). Danny, on the other hand, "hikoilee kun sika" and I think little Benjy inherited this gene. I've been in Khao Lak during summer, on a shadeless island in the South-Chinese sea, and in Rome during August (when locals usually escape the flow of tourists and the hot sun to higher ground), and I've never had problems with heat. Cold is another story. Below is a photo of a church in Tanzania. Most were built this way: holey. With no AC or fans, a sporadic sea-wind breeze through the church building helps parishioners through Sunday services (often 3-4 hours long).

Sad News

A dialogue between Jussi and me earlier today:

Jason: “Sad news. Henceforth my ramblings too will overflow into the blogosphere.”

Jussi: “Sad news, indeed. Even worse, I already subscribed to your rss-feed even though you haven't written anything yet.”

Jason: “That quite possibly places you just below me on the pity hierarchy.”