D&D Web

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.” Albert Einstein

I am now in a train going to Tampere and I was so impressed by the modern =
features here that I have to blog. First of all, they actually have a =
special toilet room for handicapped people, which is big enough to allow =
people with wheelchairs to get in and move around. The door opens and locks =
by pressing buttons. Inside they even have an electric bottle warmer for =
babies! Of course, the water and the dryer are with sensors. That creepy =
train we got to go from Boston to Rockport is like from a nightmare! Of =
course the tickets here are much more expensive but you can also see why =
you’re paying. On the other hand, the trains in US are targeted only to =
poor people and they definitely look like that.

Dana

I am sitting at the breakfast in the Cambridge Belfry, awaiting my meetings =
at the university. The hotel is some 20 minutes outside the town (I gotta =
tell the travel agency some words). Luckily there is just another night =
before I will be going home again…

Dirk

Since I have some time to kill now, I thought I would write an update on life in Finland 9 months after moving. While I cannot say I am as enthusiastic as I was at the beginning, I have not found anything fundamentally wrong here. I still like to live in Helsinki and we keep discovering places around: restaurants, cafes, and others. I am still amazed how different every house is, with all the ornaments and architectural style. As for language, I got so used that mostly everybody speaks English here that I am surprised when I find somebody that does not speak. I cannot say I am too much up-to-date with the Finnish news since we cannot understand what they say on TV. Well, we don’t even watch that much TV anyway. Maybe I also don’t care that much about what happens since I know nothing as stupid as signing anti-abortion bills or cutting education spending is going on here.

The weather is not my favorite but it has not been that bad. The worst time was in November-December when it was dark and there was not too much snow. Then from February on, the day started to get longer and it snowed quite often so it looked much nicer. Of course I would like to see some spring now, but I can still enjoy bright sunny days like today even though it probably was still around zero degrees.

One thing I don’t like here is that Helsinki is definitely not on the route for major tours. I assume it’s both because you need to use a boat to get here but also because there are not that many people to make it worth. Also, my first visit to the Finlandia Hall was a dissapointment: I did not like the hall at all, both as acoustic and as design. Modern design is fine but I still prefer concert halls that have more of a classic look than a sterile, hospital-like one. I will try the opera, maybe that will be nicer. Also, as I wrote on some previous blog entry, there is something weird about the Finnish audience: too many people get up and prepare to leave when it looks like the show is going to end. Still not sure what this is about. However, I really like the movie theatres: the screens are big and the seats are amazingly comfortable, not like in Boston where I hated to go to a movie because the chairs were terrible.

Helsinki is more of a small city, but I really like it so far. Also because of that! There are enough stores to keep you occupied for a while (recently, another big shopping center opened in the middle of the city, in Kamppi). I am not really missing anything here, in terms of shopping.

Speaking of missing, there are some things I miss from US: HD channels and Metropolitan Opera. However, the lack of HD TV channels would be a problem anywhere in Europe, since they seem to be so slow in adopting that. About the opera, we would probably have to move somewhere like Berlin or London

Overall, I am feeling good here. I never miss US and I got so used not hearing/seeing Bush on TV that I get startled when I acidentally see him. I appreciate the variety of channels from Europe that do not play the bullshit media game like in US. I sometime try to watch the same news on different channnels and then compare to CNN, just for fun, to see how the greatest US brainwashing channel choses to present the same thing

So, I got used to the superior quality of life here, all the little things around like: high-quality houses, modern public transportation, RF travel cards, no checks, credit card payment everywhere, real people (not fake overly nice service personnel), short flights to anywhere in Europe, goverment and people caring for the less fortunate, permanent residency card and social security rights, walking everywhere, and nice and relaxing cafes.

So there he is: Jon Stewart in Comedy Central (comes here via CNN) with his embarrassing level of ignorance for other places that reside outside of the good old US of A. Natalie Portman is his guest, having filmed a movie in Berlin. Not only does he place the Octoberfest to Berlin. He later confirms his apparent lack of better knowledge with references to Bavaria (I wished someone would send a map to this guy). His remark on German language and its sharpness is countered by Natalie with a reference to German poetry, which is surely questioned by the undoubtly not-knowing-better Mr. Stewart. I wonder if he read any poetry ever in the first place not to speak German poetry. This “show” certainly reaffirms my reasoning to have left the US.

Reading this text in the New York Times today:
“A federal appeals court on Friday overturned a clean-air regulation issued by the Bush administration that would have let many power plants, refineries and factories avoid installing costly new pollution controls to help offset any increased emissions caused by repairs and replacements of equipment.” makes me really wonder if folks can actually really believe this in the US? If you read the text, you actually figure out that the new “clean-air regulation” would have allowed to reduce requirements of the Clean Air Act for emission control. Of course, this is quite well aligned with usual Bush politics regarding anti-environmental issues but does one really needs to use Double Talk in such blunt and obvious way?

We’ve been quite lazy this weekend. We took Friday off and enjoyed a really long sleep to start off the long weekend. We then made it downtown for some lunch and a small shopping at Stockmann. We had a look at a MediaCenter PC, more out of fun. It’s hard to get some with DVB-C cards to watch TV and use it for a digital PVR. So we left without any conclusion. The rest of the weekend was even slower, which gave us ample opportunity to rest. It´s so good to be just lazy