I love browsing for news and bits

Some interesting things I found today...

http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=43272&in_page_id=2

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4096586

http://www.vendian.org/envelope/dir2/day_of_dots_clock/

http://www.nopantsday.com/wp/about/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/broncovalerian/274872027/

And a cartoon to finish it off...

Games

This morning I have found out about two interesting ideas for games.

The first is a game called LOST. It is an invite-only game, and the aim of the game is to gain points from inviting others before your timer runs out. You get a 30 day time period between each person who signs up from your invite link, and you lose the game if the timer runs out. So basically, the aim of the game is to make people follow your link and to sign up to the game. People do this on- and off-line, using photos, messages, links on blogs etc, some of which are very clever.

Currently I am 11,420th with 0 points :)

The second game I just found is called"The Game". It is a bit silly, but also fun if you have others 'playing' it too. The rules are simple...

Rule 1. You are playing The Game - This emphasises the fact that this is game is played continuously and that (players believe) once you start playing you can't stop.

Rule 2. Whenever you think about The Game, you lose - This emphasises how The Game is played and gives its objective: to forget that it exists. Some points about the specific wording of this rule (e.g. think about vs remember you are playing) are made here.

Rule 3. Loss of The Game must be announced - This emphasises the consequence of loss and is an important part of how The Game is spread.

Once you have heard about the game for the first time, you are playing. Unfortunately, that means you :) I am going to see if this takes off in our group of friends. (Hopefully some of them are reading this on Facebook).

Remember, don't think about it! (Darn, I lose).

Hey, big spender

Anyone up for spending EUR8,000 on dinner? If you are, then check this out...

Dinner in the Sky

A unique event meant for anyone who wishes to transform an ordinary meal or meeting into a magical moment that will leave a lasting impression on their guests!

Dinner in the Sky takes place at a table suspended at a height of 50 metres by a team of professionals.

Feedback

Yesterday I got my first marks for uni work at CPUT. I have completed a group presentation, a tutorial paper and two small writing/essay type exercises.

Presentation: 52/80 (group mark)
Tutorial: 78/85
Reflective piece: 15/20
Target Audience: 11/15

At the moment I am sitting on 83% overall, which would be much better without the low presentation mark, so that's annoying (I didn't do the presentation, I was one of the researchers). I have the end of semester test coming up in a few weeks, which will then determine my final semester grade.

Yesterday was the last lesson of this semester as it is test week next week, then holiday. That means I am half-way through my studies here! I will probably be taking the test two weeks late as we are going on holiday next week during the time I should be taking it.

Old Disneyland photos

I just stumbled across this amazing set of photos taken around the time of the opening of Disneyland in 1955.

The set | Slideshow

Thembi

IMG_1871_1 Hosted on Zooomr

The Blues

A quick update on the Blues' route through the ice hockey playoffs in in Finland.

They came through the first round (quarterfinals) by 4 games to 1 (L2-3, W3-2, W7-1, W2-0) against Tappara and are now in the semi-finals! This is another best-of-7 round, this time against Kärpät, the team who topped the table at the end of regular season. The first game is on Wednesday. You can keep track of the results here.

Volunteer weekend

On Saturday, AISCT hosted a fun day for the Baphumalele orphanage in Khayelitscha. I went with Milja to help out.

At 9am we helped set up. We had a braai going, an arts and craft area and sports set up on the field. The kids from the orphanage arrived at about half past ten, and ranged in age from 4 to 14 I think. When they first arrived they seemed a bit nervous and shy, but soon they were split into groups to start with some ice breakers and they livened up. After the ice breakers they rotated around the different activities and they seemed to be having a lot of fun. At about 1pm it was lunch time and we all ate burgers and hotdogs from the braai and crisps under the trees. After lunch they played more and then left at about 2-3ish.

Of course we had a camera along with us and we got a lot of photos, mostly cute ones of the orphans. It was a rewarding day and they all left smiling and waving.



More photos from the Baphumalele Fun Day

Yesterday, Milja and I went to DARG here in Hout Bay. It is a rescue centre mainly for dogs, but also for cats I think. Milja needs to complete her community service hours, and as she is a huge dog fan, DARG is the perfect place, and it is right down the road. The first thing we did was take all the dogs round the back out for walks. We took two or three at a time out to the field behind the offices and kennels and ran, walked, stroked etc for about 20 minutes a go. The sun was out and it was great to be doing some exercise and helping out at the same time.

After about an hour of walking we were offered the 'job' of playing with the puppies. We said yes, of course. We went to the new building, that, when it is finished will be an amazing addition to the place, and sat in one of the kennels with 3 boy puppies and their surrogate mum. I don't know what happened to their real mum, but this one was doing a great job. We stroked and played with the tiny pups for nearly an hour, and eventually they all settled down and slept. They seemed to like knawing on my belt buckle.

MeeLee

MeeLee Hosted on Zooomr

Milja has picked up another nickname while she has been here.

Housesitting is easy

I had a great time housesitting last week for Charlotte's family. I was there from Thursday morning at 8am until Friday until about 10pm, although they came back around 7pm. Looking after two teenage boys is not much of a challenge, so there wasn't much for me to do. I loved driving around Constantia in their Nissan Micra, the car that I learned to drive in - and a manual! Boy, I miss driving a manual :)

The only problem I had was that their electric fence seems to start alarming each evening so I had to phone Paul and get instructions on how to stop it. I ended up going out in the dark and rain to reset it. It worked, thank goodness.

Luckily I didn;t have uni on Thursday, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to do it, but it was fun... plus, I improved dramatically on NHL '07 on the XBox :P

Learning Finnish

I have started a new blog. Not a replecement for this one, mind, but for Finnish language learners. From my new found thirst to improve my Finnish vocabulary, I have lists of new words written down, and I thought it would be worth it putting them online for other Finnish learners. I post new words when I encounter them and categorise them by letter and type (noun, adjective etc) making them easy to browse and search. Still, I think the best way to look at the content is to subscribe to the post feed so new words are sent directly to you.

The site is called 'Learn Finnish' (good, eh?) and is located at learnfinnish.wordpress.com

I am hoping that after a while I will have quite a comprehensive collection of words on the site. I have also, today, integrated Quizlet, the really good vocab learning resource, so that anyone using the site can test themselves on each week's words. Try out this week's word set here.

On the fly music sampling

Check out this video...



Wii Loop Machine Demo on Vimeo

This guy has created a program (downloadable) that allows you to throw together loops and manipulate them real-time, all by using the remote for the new Nintendo Wii games console. The video pretty much explains it. Amazing.

Hiding in the vines

Hiding in the vines Hosted on Zooomr

This is my favourite of my photos from last weekend.

Housesitting

I am at Charlotte's house. I am housesitting and looking after her brothers until tomorrow evening while Charlotte and her parents are in Jo'burg overnight.

It is cold now. Milja and I both left the house this morning wearing jumpers. It is cloudy and rainy today, and I saw a rainbow this morning outside from Charlotte's lounge.

What if

What if Hosted on Zooomr

Milja's Birthday Weekend

Milja was 19 on Sunday and had planned a number of things to do as part of her birthday weekend.

Friday night we went to Jamie K's house for a small party/gathering. It was very relaxed and fun adn I ended up playing a silly little game with Jamie B for maybe an hour, trying to guess what the other person liked out of two options they gave.

On Saturday, Milja and I headed to Charlotte's house and then off out to lunch at a new restaurant for us, The Range, in Tokai. It was very sunny but also quite windy so we were cold, but it was a lovely restaurant on the edge of a vineyard. Lovely views to the vines and the mountains in the background. Mila joined us for lunch and we went back to Charlotte's for a bit. I played Xbox with her brothers while the girls, plus Hattie who'd arrived, sat outside in the sun. We also got bullied by Charlotte's aunt who was on a video call from Canada with Paul and Mary.

In the evening we drove out Spier, to go for dinner at the amazing restaurant there, Moyo. It is a great place to go and have some food. There is a huge buffet, with food being cooked in front of you, and it's in a huge tent with live music and African face painting. Outside the tent there are also tables in tree houses, although they were all booked up when we rang last week. The food was great, the music was wonderful and we had fun looking African with our face painting.

On Sunday, Milja's birthday, we went wine tasting with Charlotte and Hattie. We went to Anura, where we had been with Dad when he was here. We managed to taste 9 of the 14 wines they have, and we all picked out our favourites sitting in the sun and tanning nicely. As we were there for quite a long time, we decided to stay and have lunch at the Lily Pad restaurant nextdoor, rather than go to another wine estate. We had a delightful lunch in the garden under a tree. The waitress looked very disappointed when we didn't have wine with our meal :)

We then returned home and Milja opened some presents. We watched some Simpsons as a family and ate noodles before playing Scrabble all evening. It was a relaxing end to a lovely weekend.

I am in the process of putting photos online from the weekend. I have made a set here, and will add to it in the next few days with more when I put more photos up.

Invited to exams

Yesterday, Milja received through the post a letter from the University of Helsinki inviting her to the entrance exams. This means that she is very welcome to go and study next year, and if she manages to get over 66% in the exam, she will get onto a course. It says in the letter that she might not get onto her chosen course even if she passes, although this will only mean that she gets put onto another, similar course (ie: something to do with sociology).

Now, Milja and Minna have to arrange flights for Milja to get to Helsinki. The exam is, unfortunately, in the week before we return to Finland from South Africa, so Milja will be travelling a lot in the first two weeks of June. There is the option of Milja staying in Finland after the exam and waiting for me to fly back the next week, but then she will miss her graduation and the last week with her 'crew' over here. It is more likely that she will make the trip to Helsinki twice.

We are all really happy over here, and hoping that Milja will get in. She has two long-ish books to read up on for the exam which will be difficult to do alongside her regular school work, but she is very determined and should fair fine.

Cape Argus Cycle Race photos

Zooomr have been upgrading in the past week so I have only just been able to upload my photos from last Sunday from the cycle race. I have put them in a SmartSet here.

Here is the best photo of Charlotte's Dad, Paul, I got. He suddenly appeared and I didn't have time to get a good shot :)

On his way Hosted on Zooomr

By the moon

By the moon Hosted on Zooomr

Uni work

This morning I handed in my first big piece of work since I left EVTEK for a year last April. It felt good getting down and working hard in order to get something done for a target date. The Java course I did for 3 months at the end of last year was similar but as it was teach-yourself, there was no real pressure to work. The assignment was a 100-mark question paper about Multimedia and different aspects of it, including one question/task to create a suitable Multimedia work station with a budget of R20,000 (about £1,600), which was really fun.

In the lesson we had today we started our Photography module, 3 weeks early. It's going to be great to go into to class to do photography :) We were also given an assignment to take photos documenting the 26 letters of the alphabet using shapes, buildings etc. Should be great. I don't have to go in to uni next week because Wednesday is a Public Holiday and for Thursday I arranged with my teacher that, as all we will be doing is taking photos, I can stay here and do it in Hout Bay. I will post some of the photos online when I've done the task.

End of the season and a climb up the World table

It has come to the end of regular season in both Salibandy and Ice Hockey in Finland.

Espoo Blues, my (very) local ice hockey team played their best season since I I first saw them play (3 seasons ago) They finished 5th, winning their last game 5-1, and automatically qualified for the playoffs for the first time ever (I think). They face the team who finished above them, Tappara, when the playoffs start tomorrow.

In salibandy, Janne's team, HIFK, won their last 5 games (after failing to win in the previous 11!) to come within one point of the playoffs. Shame they didn't make it, but that bad streak really hurt their playoff chances. Janne played well in the last game, scoring once and assisting once in the last game. He had said a few weeks ago that he would dedicate his next goal to me, so that one was mine :D He finished on 7 points (3 goals, 4 assists) in 23 games. Well in.

FC Honka (football) are mid-pre-season and doing well in the Liiga Cup, a warm-up (literally!) competition before the season starts. Their first league game is April 22nd and we will arrive back in Finland at precisely half-way through their season :)

In other Finnish football news, the National side has climbed 15 places (the biggest climb in the top 50) in the latest FIFA World Rankings and are now 33rd, the highest the country has ever been before! Looks like Roy Hodgson has done a lot in helping the side improve.

Tea Bags in Finnish

I have chosen the Finnish book I will read and learn words with. It is called "Nimelt Tea Bag" ("By the name of Tea Bag") and it is by Henning Mankell, a Swedish author and playwrite. The book was originally written in Swedish. There is no English translation as of yet, so I won't be able to check if I'm doing alright unless I ask a Finn :)

Fork

On Friday evening, Milja, Hattie, Charlotte and I went into Cape Town to try out a new restaurant called Fork. We go out for meals all the time and we have semi created an eating club, meaning we try to go to different restaurants each time we eat.

Charlotte and Hattie booked us a table at a small little restaurant on Long Street. We only managed to get a table because Charlotte told them we were there to try out the food and location for the school's Prom in May. The venue was chosen a while ago, so this was in fact a lie :)

Fork is a tapas restaurant which serves purely tapas and desserts. Having tapas is a great way to eat as you can get a near continuous stream of food to your table throughout the night without feeling full at all, and it allows for free-flowing conversation as you are never stuck with a whole plate to eat to stop chit-chat. The only down side is that it can get slightly more pricey than having a usual one or two course meal, as each plate (which contained four pieces at Fork) costs R30 or R45. Luckily Charlotte's Mum, who is on the Prom Committee, gave us some extra money in order to help pay as it was her idea to go.

The food was delicious and it was great to be able to order a wide variety of dishes. I would love to go again to try out the dishes that we didn't try this time around.

At Fork Hosted on Zooomr

New Finnish words

I have decided to brush up on my Finnish, learn some new words and basically prepare myself for a return to Finland in June. I am planning to use Finnish a lot more than I have before, as I tended to rely on English to get by.

I found a website called Quizlet a while ago which helps you to learn stuff. You can put in terms and definitions and it gives you different ways of learning, using games, timed exercises etc.

My idea is to try and read one of Minna and Heikki's Finnish books (recently put into the new shelving we have in the dining room) and learn the new vocab the book spits at me.

Here is an example of some new words I just found browsing through the dictionary. See how well you do! I finished in 23 seconds.

The Cape Argus bike race

Yesterday was the 30th annual Cape Argus bike race around the Cape. It is a 109km race that leaves Cape Town, heads South to Cape Point, then turns North again, passing through Hout Bay, and finishing back in Cape Town. Charlotte's Dad, Paul, and Hattie's Dad, Kevin, both took part. The race is the biggest timed cycle race in the world - there were over 30,000 participants this year, including former football star Lucas Radebe, former rugby star Francois Pienaar, and past Tour de France winners, Greg LeMond and Jan Ullrich.

The race heads through Hout Bay coming off Chapman's Peak Drive and up the steep hill, called Suikerbossie, towards Llandudno. Suikerbossie is known as the best place to watch the race because everyone slows down as they attempt to cycle up the steepest hill on the race after already riding for 90 kilometres. Luckily for us, the road is only about 100 metres away from our house and it was possible to see the riders from our drive. Hattie and Charlotte came over in the morning to watch their Dad's whizz past. We saw Paul, but Hattie's Dad came through after we left watching.

The winner finished in 2 hours 32 minutes - Paul finished in 3 hours 50 minutes, and Kevin finished in just over 6 hours. Creditable results! I wonder how I would have faired doing the race. I could not imagine riding from Cape Town to Cape Point, let alone all the way back. I just checked, and it is about the same distance between Helsinki and H (where Raija's summer cottage is). That is crazy.

Ostrich Air

On Thursday last week, Milja and I went to AISCT to watch the latest school play, Ostrich Air. The play is set in an airport terminal, and then in an aeroplane, with the action going on around you as the audience are passengers too.

It was quite a bold play to put on because of the unpredictablity of the audience. We had people trying to get other passengers to take drugs onto the plane, security guards wrongly accusing passengers and some double dating going on. We had to check in and then board and we all found our seats on the plane.

It was the first night they had done the play with an audience and unfortunately it showed. The play was a bit scrappy and stilted and there were some technical problems. Even still, the play was funny and it was interesting and fun being in between all the action. Apparently the next night, when Heikki, Matias and Sinekaya, went a lot smoother.

View photos here.

Glass Harp

Amazing glass-playing.



Glass Harp on Vimeo

Weather

The weather has been getting gradualy less Summer-y recently, with lower tempertaures and more cloudy days. When Mum and the girls were over we had a week with rain and cloud but then it got better again. Last weekend was awful with near-constant rain and no sun at all.

This week, however, is has got back to 30 degrees, today being 36 degrees in some places. I heard on the radio yesterday someone saying that we're not in a heat wave, but we are experiencing warmer weather than usual in March. Even though, it is now much colder in the evenings, especially inside.

It's time for the prom

AISCT is having a Senior Prom in May. They are still in the planning stages, and I was asked on Wednesday to design the tickets, and yesterday to design the invitations. I have been busy the past two days creating a draft of the tickets, which has come out quite well in my opinion. I have sent it to Charlotte who is on the planning committee to see what she says. I will await further instructions and comments on the draft before I start on the invitations.

Haircut

I got a quick trim on Monday while I waited for Milja and Matias to finish school. I went for a lovely lunch at this really cool new-ish cafe in Constantia Village (been there the last three days running, in fact) and then went to the barbers.

As always, I came out with a lot less hair than I wanted and I look a bit stupid in my opinion :) It's a bit like an army crewcut, except more grown out - shorter around the sides but longer on top. Hmmm, I'll just have to wait until it grows out or shave my head, which can be an answer to any hair problems :)

Cape Town Flash Mob Pillow Fight

On Saturday, Charlotte told us about a Flash Mob (more here) event happening in the middle of The Waterfront shopping centre in Cape Town. We quickly arranged to go and watch. The event, a random pillow fight, which would end after about a minute when everyone would lie down on the floor with their pillows, was arranged completely on Facebook.

It was a horrible day, lots of rain and cloud - very English. On the way to town, we picked up Hattie, Ryana, Roxi, Pri, Charlotte and Mila (yes, all girls!). We got to the Waterfront at just before 12pm, a few minutes before the event was supposed to start, at 12:07pm. We could see loads of people huddling away from the rain with their pillows under their shirts or in plastic bags. We found a vantage point above the area where it was supposed to kick off and were ready with our cameras rolling by 12:05.

Right on time people started running towards eachother with pillows drawn, but unfortunately for us, everyone gathered in an area blocked mostly by trees from where we were standing. We could still see it happening, though, and it was hilarious when everyone suddenly stopped to lay down. Brilliant. Straight away they got up and then dispersed, leaving passers-by confused and wondering what on earth was going on.

About 150 people were guessed to have turned up to fight, which was good considering that it was the first Cape Town Flash Mob event. The Sunday paper had a story about the fight, with even a small bit on the front page!





More photos here if you're signed in to Facebook.

Both Milja and I shot video, but Milja's turned out better.



Cape Town Flash-Mob Pillow Fight on Vimeo

There is also a good close-up video on YouTube here.

It was good to see so many people out in the rain, and the next event is going to be so much better. Hundreds of new members have joined the group on Facebook, which shouolld mean that more people will partake at the next one.

Guy from Green Wing

If anyone has seen the brilliant Channel 4 sitcom, Green Wing, then you will hopefully see the resembelance between Charlotte's brother Patrick and Guy Secretan from the show.



Guy from Green Wing on Vimeo

Gone blue

I just quickly changed the colour of links on parawars, and now it looks a lot more relaxed and blue. I did like the previous red, but I'll try this blue out and see how it goes.

I also added my latest videos to the right menu towards the bottom.

If you have time, check this photo out. Scary!

Interesting (and slightly strange) news from Asia

You have to read this... It is one of the weirdest articles I have ever read.

http://news.asiaone.com/a1news/20070228_story20_1.html

At the Waterfront

Yesterday was Ryana's birthday. She had arranged that a gang of us go to a lovely restaurant where there was live African music just by the Clock Tower at the Waterfront in town.

Milja and I picked up Pri, Hattie and Charlotte on our way to the Waterfront earlier than everyone else so we could get some dinner. We had fun walking around for a bit and taking photos before dusk came, and then we went upstairs to the balcony for drinks and food. We were there for a while before we were moved inside to a larger table so that when everyone else arrived there would be more room.

I took the opportunity of being at the Waterfront at dusk to take photos while the sun set and it got dark. I came home with some decent-enough shots...

I also shot some videos, but I'll have to wait until later before I edit them and put them online. I am becoming a bit of a video freak, too, now.

Our food was tasty and as more people arrived, we waited for Ryana to turn up. She did eventually, but we only stayed about an hour after wards and we headed home. We had some more fun with the cameras in the lifts and in the car park and we dropped off the girls on our way back to Hout Bay.

Helsinki model

I came across a young photographer based in Helsinki on Flickr recently. His name is Samuli Ikäheimo, and he has even had his photos in national newspapers. Crazy stuff.

This photo is another example of tilt/shift, making the objects in a photo seem like they are tiny little models. The photo is taken from Kamppi, the new bus station.