Swankified in the Summer Sun

Been a while since my last post, mostly because I've been vacationing up in Nilsiä and there hasn't been much to say. I completed my annual ritual of reading Miyazaki's Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind, then read The Return of the King (I'd started re-reading LotR a few years before, but got sidetracked somehow, as is too often the case). The weather's been much nicer than last year, but, as usual, I've done much less creative stuff than I'd like.

But onwards to the main topic: I've written before about using StumpWM. Last night I finally got around to setting it up so that it runs the Swank module, the Lisp-side component of SLIME, Emacs's Lisp editing mode. This makes it possible to connect to the running Lisp process from Emacs and edit the code interactively, while the software is running! This interactive development style is, of course, one of the main features of Lisp.

Now, whether I'll actually use this potential is another matter entirely. At the very least it'll make editing the configuration file easier (since that is just Lisp code same as the rest of the software). It was possible to load new or modified elements before using a simple StumpWM Emacs mode provided, but this was much more limited. But whether I'll have the guts or inspiration (or simply the energy) to delve into the depths of StumpWM is a whole other matter...

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas I Got a Flu

Well, I'm back in Helsinki, just in time to catch a cold. Wonderful. Luckily today is a holiday, but still, not the best time for a flu, I (surprisingly) hope it won't be a bad one. I'd rather have the drummers.

I spent the weekend in Tampere, where we held the Finnish Tolkien Society's traditional party on Tolkien's birthday (January 3rd). It was fun. I went on to stay at my cousin's place for a couple of days. Which was also fun.

The holidays were ok. I managed to read a good book, write a couple of songs, brush up a little on my tarot and astrology. I didn't get enough fresh air, jellies (what? only chocolates this year? I don't even like chocolates much, except for liqueur fills), cousin time (although the visit to Tampere improved the social side of Christmas somewhat), or anime (lots of old favourites waiting for a re-watch).

The Happy New Year 2009 Post

A few hours from now there is an arbitrary point in time when it stops being 2008 and 2009 begins. I guess that's worth a blog post.

In Finland New Year's Eve is synonymous with fireworks. It's the only time the public is allowed freely to buy and fire them. We've had (a few cheap) fireworks a few times back when us kids were still kids, but mostly we've been happy to watch. The display here in this cosy town of 6,000 is pretty quiet and sparse compared to the cities, but that's really how I like it. A few good ones are much better, I think, than a never ending bombardment. There'd probably be more near the tourist area of Tahko, but that's on the opposite side of town.

Coincidentally, as far back as I remember, with only three exceptions, I've spent every midnight as the year turns on pretty much the same spot, on the little road that runs in front of my grandparents' house here in Nilsiä. The exceptions are one New Year's Eve as a kid we spent in Helsinki (I don't remember the reason exactly, but I'd assume it's been because of my mother's work schedules), and two occasions when I've been bedridden with flu (one as a kid, one a few years back). It's almost like a ritual beginning for the year. I'm not sure what I'll do when the time comes when I can no longer spend New Year's Eve here. Perhaps time will stop and a new year won't begin? (The same applies to Christmas Eve, which I've always spent in the living room of this house.)

Other random content: I re-read Masamune Shirow's Orion again, like I've often done over the Christmas holiday (as a kind of counterbalance to reading Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind during the summer). It's one of my very favourite comics of all time. It must be one of the most imaginative works ever, an insane mixture of adventure, humour, science, Buddhism and Japanese myth. The dialogue with it's inventive terminology is difficult to understand at best, but that's one of the reasons I love it so much.

I don't do New Year's resolutions. I'm sure my life is far from perfect, but there's nothing I could improve by making some arbitrary promise which I'd soon forget about anyway. I don't do much looking back to the highlights of the past year, either. It's just another year, like all the others. I read one or two cool comics, played one remarkable video game, that's pretty much it.

Ahead of Schedule

Another relatively random blog post. First whole day here in Nilsiä. We're getting ready for Christmas, and we're pretty early this year. Most of the cleaning is done. The tree is already up and decorated, something we haven't usually done before Christmas Eve. Tomorrow I guess will focus on cooking. And we'll probably have our traditional Christmas sauna tomorrow as well, meaning we'll have a more leisurely Christmas Eve, less stuff crammed in.

Even with all this stuff going on I've managed to do some work today. The latest translation project is pretty much done, awaiting a final read through. I've been doing Finnish translations of Chris Hart's Manga Mania series for a couple of years now, about a dozen books now (link to list at Finnish publisher's website). It's just a couple of weeks of work at a time, but it's nice to earn a little spending money. It made it possible for me to get a PS3 last winter, which, of course, was a prerequisite to my recent MGS4 bliss.

It'll be a white Christmas. It pretty much always is, up here.

What Have I Forgotten This Time?

Tomorrow I'm off to the country, to my grandfather's place, where I've spent every Christmas, and New Year (except for one), for as long as I can remember. Packing is pretty much done, so I can relax tonight, and I've got time for a totally pointless random blog post. Compulsive blogger, or just time to kill? Not really sure.

I'm not looking forward to Metal Gear Solid withdrawal. I actually started replaying MGS4, which isn't something I often do after beating a game. (I don't remember ever completing a game twice in a row, and I don't really expect to this time.) I keep humming the song "Here's to You" constantly, and it almost brings tears to my eyes.

(The earlier instalments are due a replay too, really. I was playing the first MGS a year or two back, but got sidetracked by something halfway through. MGS3 I remember least well of the lot, but I'd really like to get the Subsistence version before I play it again. MGS2 I've played most of all, but not for a while, and it really is an amazing game.)

I'm not planning to play much games over the holiday. For one thing, pads take up a lot of space in my already full bag. (And there are few games I enjoy that can be played without a pad.) I'd love to just take it easy and read something, for a change. Apart from comics, I've read hardly any fiction in ages. I blame the modern lifestyle with its broadband Internet and mp3 players. Just too many distractions and too few opportunities.

What's With All the Roadkill?

I'm back in Helsinki.

I'm rarely satisfied with the results of my time spent in the country. I always have big plans, every year I'm going to write a lot and work on other creative projects, or just read, even. Well, at least this year I can blame the weather. It was one of the worst July's I can remember. When it wasn't raining, it was cold. Honestly, I haven't worn shorts even once this summer.

And then there are all the little chores you have to keep on doing. There's the woodshed to fill. Berries to pick. Lawn to mow. Even if you do just a couple of hours of work, the drain combined with the gloomy weather is likely to kill all the will and energy you may have had for creative work.

And there seemed to be lots of roadkill on the way home. More than I've noticed before. What's up with that?

Idle Country Blogging

It's funny how the times change. Just a couple of years ago the idea of spending my vacation here in the country surfing the web, playing games and watching DVDs would have seemed utterly alien. Just two simple things, a laptop and an Internet connection, have entirely changed my way of life here.

While the change has it's blessings, it's not all for the best. Just as it is at home, it's much easier to procrastinate. Surfing the web and chatting with friends tricks the mind into thinking you're actually doing something. Starting new projects, whether creative work like writing or music, or something as simple as reading a novel, feels next to impossible.

It's not all technology's fault, though. The weather these past couple of days has been pretty bleak. Otherwise I might well have been sitting outside with a good book in hand, at least. I have this tradition of reading Hayao Miyazaki's comic Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind each summer while I'm up here in Nilsiä. It's my favourite comic book bar none, and even one of my favourite books in any form, graphic or prose. (The movie version, based on just the early parts of the comic, is much inferior.) The hammock is my favourite place to read here, although these days there seems to be a lack of really suitable places to hang one.

Going Country

Six hours on the road isn't really my idea of fun. It's boring, and has a tendency to make various things ache. I listened to a little music, stared out of the window and... that's about it. I had toyed with the idea of playing games on my MacBook, but it would probably have been too hard to concentrate in the car, and in the end the sun was too bright to even see the screen properly.

I'm up at my grandfather's place for a few weeks. He'll be 100 in less than a month. Which is impressive, but I'll leave it at that. This is a blog about me, after all. I don't want to talk too much about my family and friends. It's too easy to cross boundaries and offend their privacy. Anyways, I've spent my vacations in this little town called Nilsiä since, well, I've existed. It's a nice, peaceful place, even though they're making a little too big a deal out of tourism here lately. I come here for peace and quiet, after all, not to see hordes of upper middle class Russians on skiing holidays (or whatever it is they do in the summer). Just how many golf courses a town of 6000 inhabitants needs, is what I'd like to know.

As you can see, we've got an Internet connection here (and no, my grandfather doesn't use it), so, apart from my physical presence in the capital, there should be very little change in my activities in the near future. I might even get around to playing and reviewing a game or two. I've had a yearning to replay Loom recently, and managed to get it working on my MacBook with the help of ScummVM. It's a nice piece of software. It's just a shame that, although I have a lot of respect for them, I don't really have enough patience to play most games in the point-and-click adventure genre. Loom is probably the only one I've beaten, probably because it's quite easy and quite short.