in and out of Helsinki

Moving in - Status Update

Georg Mayer — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 21:43:16 GMT

This year I will make enough miles to get my Lufthansa gold card again, but that is nothing compared to the Ikea platinum status I soon will get. I am drowning in cardboard waste (the stuff that Ikea furniture is wrapped in) and wait for UN forces to carry them down in order keep peace in my new flat.

During the weekend a good friend a colleague from Norway visited me and we put up some stuff that I could not manage alone. It was raining, so I did not have to feel bad, that he did not see much of Vienna.

And tomorrow my stuff will finally arrive from Helsinki. Oh I look forward to my bed. I bought it in January in Espoo (Ikea, of course) and it is the best bed I ever had. It is ok to sleep in Hotels during travels, but it is not ok to sleep on a sofa at home.

Besides all that I am now the owner of a drilling machine and feel even more like a real man than I anyhow do since I am five. I also own a ventilator now and the most comfortable office chair that one (at Ikea) could think of.

Next Wednesday I will get my DSL connection (so far I am connected via my mobile phone) - so I gain back my humanity. And from Sunday to Thursday my daughter will visit me. Well, actually (I have to tell this), she (15 years old) visits Vienna with her boyfriend. I am only the sleeping location for her. Children become people, the wise man said.

Greetings from Vienna
Georg

out of Helsinki

Georg Mayer — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 10:02:00 GMT

Dear Readers and Friends,

after nearly six years of living in Finland I will move on. I tried for quite a while now to get permission to relocate within my company to Vienna and my request was finally accepted. During this month (August) I will be moving and from first of September on I will be living in Vienna.

Things happened fast since end of June, when my boss gave the "OK" for the relocation and still there is a lot to do and some details are not too clear right at this moment.

It does not make me happy to leave Finland, especially not Helsinki - I love the country and the city and I never managed to feel negative about it. Looking back at the last years I can for sure say that they were some of the most event- and colorful in my life. I had a very good time in Suomi and I will for sure not forget it. In any way I will stay connected to Finland, as I will go on working for my employer and will for sure visit every now and then.

Nevertheless, the move to Vienna makes me very happy. It is a return to my mother tongue and it is also finally arriving in the place, where a lot of my friends live of which I know some since more than ten years.

At the moment I do not intend to close down this blog - I might be silent here for a while, due to the tasks of the next weeks, but in general I feel still comfortable here and just because I will be "out of Helsinki" most of the time, this does not contradict the title of the site.

All you good people, keep on moving, take care and all the best to all of you!
Georg

Protest

Georg Mayer — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 13:47:04 GMT

Greetings!

Hard to know, whether there are more people still reading this blog than writing - but that is no excuse to for writing just the next entry. Yes, I still exist, I still live in Helsinki and I am not keeping contact as regularly as I should.

Here are two songs I wanted to point out to you for your last weekend in spring - be sure to read the lyrics.

Kill the poor sung by Matthew Grimm & the Red Smear (lyrics). I know, the Dead Kennedys once did a song with the same title - this one here is the 2008 update.

World turned upside down sung by Billy Bragg (lyrics).

That's at least part of what activates me at the moment - hope it helps you too.

Cheers
Georg

The Ringmaster ist dead

Georg Mayer — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 09:26:13 GMT

"[...] I beg your tolerance. There is nothing I can do to make things any easier for any of us, and you will have to accept being addressed by a disembodied voice just as I accept the compulsion to speak out even though I am painfully aware that I am talking to an invisible, perhaps nonexistent, audience. Wise men have regarded the earth as a tragedy, a farce, even an illusionist's trick; but all, if they are truly wise and not merely intellectual rapists, recognize that it is certainly some kind of stage in which we all play rolse, most of us being very poorly coached and totally unrehearsed before the curtain rises. Is it too much if I ask, tentatively, that we agree to look upon it for as a circus, a touring carnival wandering about the sun for a record season of four billion years and producing new monsters and miracles, hoaxes and bloody mishaps, wonders and blunders, but never quite entertaining the customers well enough to prevent them from leaving, one by one, and returning to their homes for a long and bored winter's sleep under the dust? Then, say, for a while at least, that I have found an identity as ringmaster; but that crown sits uneasily on my head (if I have a head) and I must warn you that the troupe is small for a universe this size and many of us have to double or triple our stints, so you can expect me back in many other guises. Indeed do many things come to pass."

From the first pages of: Illuminatus! - The Eye in The Pyramid, by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson.

Yesterday I read, that Robert Anton Wilson returned to his home for a long winter's sleep under the dust. He died in January this year, but I did not get aware of it till now.

For many years I would have said, that there was never a book in my life, that influenced me like Illumniatus! did. Lots of things Wilson wrote and thought might sound strange or stupid, but there is one thing that he taught me, that there is nothing that cannot be followed by a pair of brackets which hold the sentence "do you really believe this?"

Thanks for the script, RAW - the rest of us now please back on stage.

The White Stripes - Icky Thump or: What the hell would you want in Hell?

Georg Mayer — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 13:23:00 GMT

It's my third day of listening to the new White Stripes Album "Icky Thump". From finding out that it will come out to finally finding it in my mail it took over three weeks, during which I was wondering whether Jack and Meg would manage to make some sort of step forward after their last album "Get Behind Me Satan". I will save you from my praise for the band as such and the music they made so far - I'll maybe come to this at another point in time and space. Let's go through the new album.

The Songs

You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You're Told) sounds like a song from the good old 80's that was pushed into a puddle of mud, kicked from all sides and finally got stripped off all unnecessary effects. The song did not get any more intelligent lyrics due to that, but most likely we should not ask for that and just let the music let have it's turn. A good song - but it makes me a bit afraid: is that all, that they will do on this album? Enriching existing styles?

From a song titled 300 M.P.H Torrential Outpour Blues one would not expect to start soft and gentle and basically going on with this for about five and a half minutes. There are sequences when Jack gets serious, which usually he does by avoiding singing and letting his Guitar do the work and Meg hits on the drums and the world is just a good place. Here we have a true blues, that makes his way straight to the listeners nervous systems and rattles it around. Other bands can do that as well, but the style is really White Stripes and the lyrics are touching and rich of metaphors that never miss the point. Well done.

Well done, indeed, that becomes even more clear, when Conquest starts. Even after listening to this for several times, I cannot stand this song. It is in a not acceptable style pathetic and overdone and anyhow it seems to be a cover, at least I think I know the song. Just jump to the next song and use the joker on this.

Bone broke is wild, confused, hard - a good rock song, no doubt about that. But we are not here to listen to everyday Rock'n'Roll, we want to know whether Jack and his sister are worth to play high up on mount Olympus or whether they are already on their way down from there.

So next song: Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly Worn. Don't listen to the lyrics - they do not help at all, at least not in the first place. The song just open the windows to the meadows and hills of some Sunday morning country, over which we can jump and la-la-la sing and the angels, in which we do not believe anymore, fly around us, together with the fairies and the air is fresh and everything, just everything is so intensive and green and lai-di-lai-oh-ho. Listen to it twice and your brain will be in this half-retarded, half-childish state, that everybody needs every now and then and then just go on and read the lyrics. Yes, right, they do not surprise you anymore. Lai-di-Lai-oh-oh. I like it - some may hate it.

Prickly Thorn fades over into St. Andrew (This Battle Is in The Air) in which we hear a piper (he most likely comes straight from the green hills of the last song, but he must have sniffed something strange inbetween) and Meg talks stuff and then there is the drum and every time we hear the guitar, we somehow understand, that the friendly Lai-di-lai-oh-ho has turned into a severe nightmare. It only lasts 1:49 minutes, but it leaves you with something to chew on.

And then Jack counts "1, 2, 3,4" and Little Cream Soda starts. Here we go - there is no doubt left anymore, these are the White Strips and we are in the middle of some kind of war or something similar. Nothing talks about the good things in life, besides when telling us, that they are over. Jack does not even try to sing here - he just sermons about the misery in his life, he complains about getting older and still keeps a straight attitude, without ever going into whining. Mount Olympus, they are coming!

Rag And Bone just goes on with being great. The two siblings have a little conversation and first it was not clear to me, what happened, but once I understood that they are breaking into peoples homes, I got the rest. Jack offers all the stuff that belongs to other people to his sister and they keep ranting along. It ends with a friendly recommendation to all those people owning stuff: "so lock it up, whatever you still want to own" - better do that, the White Stripes are coming and they are breaking in - no doubt about that anymore.

I'm Slowly Turning Into You is another love song that starts acceptably normal, offers a psychedelic chorus and then gos on to be a typical White Stripes song, including some guitar strangling, till it ends (slowly turning into you) in another "a-la-la a-la-la" repetition, a very different one from the lai-di-lai of "Prickly Thorn".

A Martyr For My Love For You is a sad song that knows it has to stay quiet, even when it lets out rage in some hard riffs. A well told story, a good piece of music, a blues that doesn't try to be anything more than a blues. Jack and Meg know they territory very well - there is not a single step out of it, they fully obey the frame that music sets them - but within these borders, they do everything possible.

Did I say Blues? Here's another one: Catch Hell Blues. They take 45 seconds to agree on what to make out of this song and then it rolls like a train on hard drugs. Jack finds it appropriate to start to "sing" after one and a half minute and he does things to the guitar that you better do not try at home, at least send the children to bed first. And back to the beginning, finding the way into the song again - and boom da da boom boom - let it roll. Another song to close your eyes, listen to it and play it again and afterwards you most likely just stay on "repeat song" for a while. Catch Hell, it's worth it.

And with Effect and Cause the album ends already, another blues - straight from first to last second, with Jack singing and nothing special happening. Perfect ending.

Did I miss something? Of course, the first song. Icky Thump - that is already played all over the charts. Breeding, aggressive, wild, dirty. Guitar, drums, voice - and in-between excursions to strange musical realms that are bordering to unacceptable noise. Also here, in all this hard driven, dark composition, Jack puts in his "alalalalala" and - how the hell did he do that? - it works. Icky Thump not only gave the album its title, it is also a blue print of it. It opens the door and shows you everything that you can expect. But you have to experience it all to really get it.

Conclusion

So what about it? Are the two siblings from Detroit now playing in the league of gods? Well, who cares? Jack and Meg obviously do not think at all about making their names live forever - they just hit drum and guitar and let the need for being special far behind them. Whatever they are, they are definitely divine.

Their sound does not give cheap elevations for a few moments of pleasure. Their lyrics are not comforting and more than once Jack finds it terribly uncool to get older and besides just getting on with it he has to offer no solution. Here's finally the guy who admits it: it's pure shit, so what?

The White Stripes rip open spots where the skin of music anyhow was thin and vulnerable, they play their heart blood into it and whatever was itching before, has lalalalala gone away afterwards. The retarded lalaling shows itself in different shapes and offers no stupid escape, it is the way to kick back on the world.

Icky Thump is no hippy sound, no intellectual high-fly and is for sure nothing easy to swallow for generation-E(soteric). Last time, they left Satan behind them, now they conquer his realm and if you do not want to go there after this album, you never were into Rock and Blues in the first place - so what the hell would you want in Hell?

poetrypublishingpride

Georg Mayer — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 20:21:10 GMT

There was a little parcel waiting behind my entrance door today. I just came back from a bit more than a week in Amsterdam and Lisbon and was not immediately looking through the mail that loitered on the floor - usually I only get advertisement, credit card bills and other not very personal things.

When I finally flipped through it, I saw the said parcel, that had hid under the other papers. It contained a thin green book and when I read the title, a good shot of happiness and pride went into my system.

Three month ago I sent one of my (German) poems to a competition, just to give it a shot. The competition is the "Jokers Lyrikpreis" and it is held once a year. One of the nice things about it is that the jury choses 100 of the received poems and publishes them in a book.

So, my little "Gewitterdichtung" (thunderstorm-poem) made it: from out of about 8000 participating poems it is one of the 100 that was published. Ok, it did not get among the first 14 ranks or one of the special-prices - but seeing it printed on paper is already more than expected.

So I am having a smile in my face today and that's worth writing an entry here.

If you are not speaking German but still would like to read a poem by me, just click here and forgive me the mistakes - I am not a native speaker.

My dear readers: sit back, open a book of your favorite poetry and a bottle of wine and dwell in language and imagination. Cheers!

J. K. Rowlings Homepage

Georg Mayer — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 00:41:58 GMT

I tried to read Harry Potter several times, but I never got into it. It is not the type of literature that fascinates me, which is a pity as my daughter loves the books and it would be nice to talk with her about them.

Nevertheless, by clicking around this evening, I came across the text version of homepage of J. K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter books. I admire this page, honestly. It has the same appearance as most websites had 12 or 15 years ago.

Everything is plain text, there are no pictures, the navigation is very simple, no section (not even "news" or "diary") offer an RSS feed, there is no CSS or tables and the colors are yellow, cyan and blue on black background. All entries are short and entertaining to read, there is no unnecessary text and Rowling always keeps to the subject.

Again - I am honest about this. I like her page. And no: I do not want the whole internet to look like this (again), but it is a nice feeling to see a reminiscence to the days of limited bandwidth, ASCII layout and focus on the texutal content.

Restricted access to flickr for users from Singapore, Germany, Korea and Hong Kong - flickr censorship discussion

Georg Mayer — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 05:07:12 GMT

Flickr introduced a new service: they localized their site for different languages. Part of this service is, that pictures that are marked as "medium" or "restricted" will not be displayed anymore to users who indicate that they are from Germany, Singapore, Korea or Hong Kong.

That kicked off a huge debate about censorship and especially the Germans, regarding themselves as citizens of a free country in which people and arts are free, raise their voice.

It is not clear yet, why these restrictions have been applied. The flickr staff made a statement, that brought as much light to the discussion as a broken lamp during a Finnish Winters night. There are assumptions, that the restrictions in Germany apply due to a German law that forbids showing of so-called "Nazi-Symbols", i.e. symbols that are related to the third reich. Other people speculate that the German government might have had a say in that.

It is all speculation. It is not known why these restrictions are applied. Most likely flickr just wanted to be super-save and put the new mechanism there due to anticipatory obedience. One can understand that, but it could have been made clear from the beginning that this will happen and what are the reasons.

I would not go so far as to call this censorship - not yet. Give flickr a few more days to get themselves informed and to clear things up.

This discussion already hit German newspapers (at least heise and Spiegel), but it seems no English / American paper so far has woken up on this. This shows where the focus is.

23 Online Services

Georg Mayer — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 23:47:09 GMT

I am currently working on a presentation on data- and telecommunication history and in the last part I dwell on all kinds of online services and give an overview of Web 2.0.

Whilst doing that work, I developed the desire to highlight those services that I really use on a daily basis - and out of which I also get the most benefit, be it in efficiency, entertainment or the feeling that I did something useful. So below you find my personal 23 favourite web applications. Whacky nerdy techy stuff - I know.

And yes - for most of the people who regularly spend too much of their office hours by browsing through the online parts of the local galaxy, the below list might be a bit boring. Sorry for that - maybe there are nevertheless some new things, such as the Hunger Site or LibraryThing.

In any way: Enjoy the summer, spend less time in front of the screen and don't try every link you find in a blog - it only costs time.

Hans Wollschl�ger died

Georg Mayer — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 10:36:16 GMT

On May 19th 2007 Hans Wollschl�ger died.

He translated James Joyce's Ulysses to German.

He gave me the possibility to read the Philip Marlowe novels, when I did not dare yet to read them in English.

His way of using the German language was unique and never pretentious.

I never saw a picture of him, until I recently read about his death in a German magazine. He only existed for me in words - in the words of other writers, which he translated.

He will never translate again.

Woha! She's online!

Georg Mayer — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 13:34:46 GMT

Children become people, Offspring become personalities, kids become permanently online. And so she did and it is my pleasure to welcome her online on flickr and at the German social network of localisten (profile only visible if you have an account and logged in).

Welcome Theresa! And may you bloom and blossom in reality and virtuality!

Antiquity - the Birth of Pop Art

Georg Mayer — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 09:03:17 GMT

The "Museum f�r Kunst und Gewerbe" (Museum of Art and Trade) in Hamburg finally shatters all my dreams in a new exhibition on "Bunte G�tter - Die farbenfrohe Welt der Alten Griechen" (Multicoloured Gods - The Colourful World of Old Greece), in which the buildings and statues from the age of Antiquity are shown with their reconstructed colours.

After reading (not yet seeing) Frank Millers graphic novel "300", I was sure that the guys from Sparta looked like he depicted them: brown-pastel shades with red being the only statement that could be made in this great time.

Now, after this exhibition, can anyone imagine the staging of a Greece tragedy in such costumes? Does anyone want to see Oedipus, cutting out his eyes, in a turquoise robe with light yellow spots? Was there any way to avoid the take-over of this culture by the Romans and later on by the Barbarians, who for sure were dressed in proper grey and earth-coloured stuff?

Ah, that's the downfall of Western civilization.

Downplaying Europe

Georg Mayer — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 09:30:22 GMT

"I have a gut feeling that the way many of us report the European Union rather downplays its impact outside its own borders" writes Mark Mardell in his article on European foreign policy. I can only recommend his weekly entries in his Europe Diary at the BBC Europe News page.

A Maze Of Death - by Philip K. Dick

Georg Mayer — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 15:59:27 GMT

It's the 32nd century, mankind has spread out all over the galaxy and the existence of God is no longer a question, but a proofed fact. People can radio their prayers to one of the three incarnations of God and some of them get an answer.

"A Maze Of Death" is the story of thirteen people, who prayed to God, as they were unhappy with their jobs and their lives. They get the same answer: to go to the planet Delmak-O, where they will get further instructions. After introducing two of the characters in more detail, the story gets into motion when the group comes together in a small, lonely settlement on Delmak-O.

From the first moment on things go wrong. They cannot receive the instructions, that they were promised and find themselves captured on a strange planet, without a task to do, alone with themselves. One of the two leading characters gets killed on the first evening, strange mechanical insects appear and slowly the defects of the group members become apparent.

The story gets more and more mysterious. It is not clear, why the people are on Delmak-O, whether they are part of a bigger experiment or simply lost. Some group members are confused, others afraid and they drift apart, though they should stick together to find out more about their situation. They find a building, that appears different to each of them and meet a creature, that can answer their questions, but the answers sound like given by an ancient oracle and therefore do not help them any further. And whilst all this happens, more and more group members get killed.

After 150 pages it is hard to believe that Dick will be able to make any sense out of the story. There is too much mystery going on, too many people around and it is not clear, what the role of those group members was, that are already dead. It is the character of Seth Morley who keeps the story going, who has the most developed personality and to whom the reader can easiest connect to. And it is also the doubt about the religious mumbo-jumbo, the so bluntly stolen bits from all kinds of religions, that makes one turn to the next page, hopeing, that at some point their believes get revealed as illusions.

Dick puts the reader in the same state as his protagonists - the story seems hopeless and there is not much sense in going on. And then he lifts the curtain, puts a bit of action into his creation and voila - there is the answer.

"A Maze of Death" is not a common science fiction story. Dick does not care about the technological gadgets, he instead puts a sword and an old gun into the hands of his characters. Space ships and unknown planets are just used to create a scenario that is totally strange but, due to the futuristic setting, still in a way possible.

Philip K. Dick struggled in many of his books with the nature of reality and the idea of imaginative worlds. In "A Maze of Death" he draws a picture of human reality that is so sad, that the escape to a unreal place of uncertainty, fear and confusion seems to be the more desirable option, compared to living in a hopeless world.

The book gets a bit lengthy in the middle, but compensates for this in the end, although the expectations, that the reader might have in the beginning, will not be fulfilled. There are too many characters in the book and most of them stay one-dimensional. And: I read the German translation, which I can only recommend to avoid. I don't know whether the original version is written in a better way, but it is hardly possible to get any worse than what Uwe Anton (the translator) did to the book.

All in all, it is a readable book with a good attack on reality in the end. I give 6 out of 10 points to it.

Happy in the End

Georg Mayer — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 12:04:31 GMT

I thought about giving a short review of the last year here. But not today. I cannot be bothered with thoughts about the past today. If I have anything to say about 2006, then that the last six weeks gave me the roughest and most wonderful time I can think of. And the outcome is, that Georg is a happy little Bavarian.

And then - there is one thing that I want to mention and say Thank You for. So I say thank you for the link of the year and hopefully even more. Big big Thanks to Jukka for putting a link to this blog of mine. That link caused everything that I am so happy about now.

No no, I am not drunk. I am not on drugs. Later maybe. I can write confused stuff here, this is my personal arena.

I wish everybody who reads this a happy, healthy and wonderful year 2007. All the best for you.

Georg

Answering Kirsty's Book Challenge

Georg Mayer — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 13:56:13 GMT

Kirsty, now in Amsterdam, has challenged me. Thanks a lot for that and don't believe what she writes about me. It took me too long (as always), but here is my answer:

1. The book that changed my life

Kassandra (Cassandra) by Christa Wolf.

Cassandra is the daughter of king Priamos of Troy and she has the ability to see the future, but she has also the problem that nobody ever believes what she foresees. The god Apollo cursed her with that. The story starts at the very end, when she is brought to the home of Agamemnon, the leader of the Greece army during the Trojan war.

It is the story of a woman, who is forced to get rid of all illusions and to look beyond all the lies around and inside her. This sounds great, as I wrote it here, but it is painful and that pain is expressed on every page.

At least in German the language of the book is simply amazing. Wolf writes cold but never boring. She writes the words of a person, that has left her whole life behind her, who saw the destruction of her home, but had to destroy everything inside her before.

2. The book that I have read more than once

The long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler.

A story about friendship and love.

Ever from reading "The Big Sleep" I was a fan of Philip Marlowe, the great detective, whose ability in solving cases is surpassed only by his bad luck with women (they are either the victim or the perp - sometimes both), his loneliness and his cynical humor about himself and the world. Chandlers language is very poetic without being at any point pretentious or pathetic.

This is the best Marlowe story that exists. It is beautiful and grabbed me from the first sentence to the very last. It is a true work of art, not just a simple detective novel. I think I read it three times and I will for sure read it several times again.

3. The book I would take on a desert island

Also sprach Golem by Stanislaw Lem (original Title: Golem XIV)

A machine that develops higher intelligence than humans and then starts giving lectures to humans. This is not funny, this is amazing - it deconstructs mankind to a mental level that is close to subatomic.

But as this wonderful work is not available in English, I dare to chose another one:

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles � by Haruki Murakami

I will never understand this book. I cannot say anything about it, as I, as said, did not understand it. It is a perfect story, one can follow it from A to Z, but everything in it makes no sense at all and you need to re-invent logic to come to some clues. A fantastic book in the true sense of the meaning - but be careful, it is very dark and depressive. So don't read that during Northern Winters.

4. The book that made me silly

The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea.

If you have never taken drugs and you read that book, you will know how it is on LSD. It is such a big lie, with too much truth in it to not completly confuse you. Since this book I love it when a story plays tricks on me. Oh, it is good to be silly!

5. The book that made me cry

Betty Blue by Philippe Djian

Djian is one of the greatest writers that live on this planet. He makes no fuss, his books are driving you forward without a paragraph of hesitation - there is always something happening, most of the time it is about women and sex, but there are also the normal cruelties of life. It is highly unfortunate that his books are not all translated into English language - in fact Betty Blue, which is without doubt his best novel, is the only one.

In a way, this book tells the perfect late 20th century love story. It is charming, gentle and seductive. And then again it is wild, furious and brutal. And if the reader�s heart does not stop during reading, she or he will cry at one point - that is for sure.

6. The book I would like to see written

...challenges reality.

7. The book I hoped would never have been written

The Fifth Mountain [no link provided for this] by this Pauolo Cohello or however you write this overblown adjective-thrower. This is the book I regret every single movement of my hand, while reading the first third of it - after that I gave up. Every author should be forced to read his or her work at least once again after five years. I hope P.C. does this and suffers like I did.

If somebody gives this to you as a present, treat the person as your enemy.

8. The book I am currently reading

The Book of Illusions by Paul Auster

I read this again, it is great, completely self-contained. From a certain perspective I regard this as the perfect story. I can only recommend to read this, it is good entertainment at first sight, but the longer you think about it, the deeper you will get confused and will be left with nothing.

9. The book I�ve been meaning to read

The Feynman Lectures on Physics by Richard P. Fenyman

Jukka took the Bible (without stating the author of that book), I take the other side of the medal, that explains the Universe. I cannot count how often I tried to read and understand this, it all sounds easy, but it is not possible to follow Richard. When I am old, I will be wise enough to just not care and will read it for fun. For sure I will! And until then, I will try to read it again and again.

10. I challenge the following five bloggers

Andreas Winterer - http://www.senfblog.de
Lewis - http://www.lewism.org
Anja Millen - http://www.corrupted.de
James - http://thefinnishgambit.blogspot.com
Sreehari - to finally establish a blog (it's about time) and to write about his readings

This and That

Georg Mayer — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 22:29:51 GMT

There was a long break now and I am not really sure how to go on with this blog.

First of all I want to give a live-sign to all those people who did not recieve anything from me during the last months. I am sorry for being such a bastard when it comes to keeping contacts. There is no real apology to that, I hope that you are able to accept this apology.

During the last weeks I wrote a lot of stuff, that I did not publish here, as I did not see it as fitting to this blog. Some of these texts are posted already under http://www.fragmentspuren.de, some more will follow there. But still I am thinking of putting some of the texts here as well. Let's see.

I see that this blog needs more attention also on the technical side. A new version of the blogging-software came out, the spam comments need to be deleted, the links updated. It will happen, most likely during the next months.

Autumn is hanging around in Helsinki and it is - to my eyes - very beautiful: not too chilly and with a lot of weather that makes me feel ok when staying inside.

There would be a lot more to say, but enough for the moment. I'll be around, maybe somebody reads it. :)

Cheers
Georg

ungh

Georg Mayer — Sat, 12 Aug 2006 10:28:50 GMT

http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/literatur/ ... 33,00.html

Then and Now - a Reaction on Overreaction.

Georg Mayer — Sun, 06 Aug 2006 11:07:39 GMT

Six centuries ago,
Serbia heroically defended itself in the field of Kosovo, but it also defended Europe.
Serbia was at that time the bastion that defended the European culture, religion,
and European society in general.
Slobodan Milosevic's 1989 St. Vitus Day Speech

About four weeks ago, Israel was attacked by Hezbollah. Two Israeli soldiers were kidnapped, five others were killed.

Today Israel is in the middle of a war, which is understood by some as an act of self-defence. The Lebanon gets destroyed and faces a major humanitarian, social and political crisis. The good, the bad, the civilians - people die every day.

Five years ago, about 3000 people died in the World Trade Centre attacks. Since then we had bombings in Madrid, in London and several other attacks and attempts. The Western World, the free World is under attack by terrorists, who have a fundamentalist Muslim background.

Today US and European troops are in Afghanistan and Iraq. Both countries are staggering towards civil war. People get killed every day, by fanatic believers, by panicking and cracked-up soldiers, by people who are afraid.

In 1989, Slobodan Milosevic held a speech in which he linked a battle, that took place in 1389, to the political situation in former Yugoslavia. I remember that everybody in the rest of Europe shook heads about this reference. Milosevic was already then a shady figure and not long after, he was stamped as a war criminal.

And today? We talk about defending our values, the clash of civilization and the spirit of the free world. We are afraid of the Muslims. We do not only have the right to defend ourselves - we have the obligation to defend ourselves even without being attacked. And if we are attacked, then we do not only have the right to overreact, we are forced to overreact. We have to put fear into them. War is the only language they understand.

Doesn't that sound as if Vienna would be under siege again? And that we should consider to march to Tours and Poitiers once more?

Or does that sound more as if it is time to shake our heads again? To hold our weapons. To prevent us from becoming the beast, that we think the others are.

Stop taking our values as an excuse to betray them.

Stop manipulating us.

Stop the war in Lebanon.

Cycle Trip Through South-Eastern Finland

Georg Mayer — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 21:52:48 GMT

The trip

I kept a very short log of last weeks cycling trip with the camera and flickr-posting function of my mobile phone. Below you find the entries and some more pictures re-posted.

It all worked very well, also due to my bike, which at no point gave me any trouble or problems. It just stayed with me for six days and about 580 kilometers. The main reason why I ended the trip then was, that my sitting organ could just not be convinced anymore to have further contact with the saddle of the bicycle. Going further was a very tempting thought, but I was strong enough to resist it.

The Road

Day 1: Tuesday, July 25th 2006 - from Helsinki via Porvoo to Loviisa

Today I started on a cycling trip towards Eastern Finland. I started at 13.00 from my home in Helsinki, with two fully loaded bags at the back of my bike.

Already last year i went by bike to Porvoo. It is a very beautiful city and they built some modern wooden buildings there since then, which really fit in very well with the old ones.

I arrived in Loviisa, which is about 90 kilometers East of Helsinki, around 20.00. It's a nice town too.

For the moment i am just exhausted and tired. I have not done a longer bike trip for quite some time, so my body keeps telling me that it needs a bit more training. We'll see how the next days turn out to be.

Anyhow the route was very beautiful. I followed the kings road (road number 170) and it was not much traffic there. The temperature was quite high, around 27 degrees. But the landscape was just fascinating. Still i could not convince myself to stop and take pictures. The cycling was just too good and i could not stop. Anyhow, once you stop, sitting on the saddle again is pain (at least from a certain distance on).

The last longer cycling trip i did was in 1999, through all of Austria. Quite a while ago.

Sunset in Loviisa

Day 2: Wednesday, July 26th 2006 - from Loviisa via Hamina to Virolahti

Hamina is for sure one of most beautiful towns i have seen in Finland and i can only recommend visiting it. It has a lot of impressive buildings and a great seaside. I regret a bit that i did not stay there for a night.

A perfect place. A perfect moment. Close to Hamina

I am very tired now and will keep this short. I went from Loviisa to Kotka and on to Hamina. After a break i went on to Virolahti, where i stay this night in a hut. Seems there are no hotels around here.

The next day, when I awoke, I layed for at least 20 minutes under both blankets and did not dare to move. It was unbelievable cold in the hut. From that on I only took hotels for the night.

Sky, Trees, Land

Wooden House in Hamina, Finland

Day 3: Thursday, July 27th 2006 - from Virolahti via Lapeenranta to Imatra

That's what my map calls an unsurfaced bicycle road. They did not indicate that it means to push the bike instead of riding it. Did an 11km detour to see the Russian boarder. It was not visible, maybe Russia joined Schengen without me noticing it. Or the map again promised too much. Cheers :)

Today i followed the Via Karelia, first North to Lapeenranta and then North-East to Imatra. It was just great cycling, easy and good. The landscape was nice, but today i was more concentrated on moving on.

After more than 9 hours and nearly 120 kilometers i arrived in Imatra. The day was not so hot, which made it easier to cycle. Nevertheless there was a lot of wind coming from the North, but it did not manage to block me.

Seagull in Imatra

Alvar Aaltos Church of the Three Crosses (Kolmenristin Kirkko) in Imatra

Even before I started the trip I had in mind to visit this building. It was maybe the only goal I had for the trip. It is located outside of Imatra, along a quiet road, sorrouned by pine trees and birches. I came there on a Friday morning and everything was absolutley silent.

One of the most impressive things I ever saw in a church is how the altar receives light. The window in the ceiling is a hole for light, that falls onto the altar. Like in some pagan places of worship, where the light fell on a specific point at the day of midsummer or midwinter.

The whole Church of Three Crosses seems to be built only to emphasize one thing: Light. Every window is different, the light has so many different sources. Most likely the light falls even during the dark and long Finnish winters through that hole in the ceiling. Imagine a cold day in February, the nights are still longer than the days and then the altar gets enlightend.

And then - the window is not straight - that makes the shadows also uneven. The shadows of the crosses look different than the crosses themselves.

I have no clue about architecture, I do not believe in God and yet I stood there and could not grasp it.

All my pictures of the Church of the Three Crosses can be found here.

Day 4: Friday, July 28th 2006 - from Imatra via Ruokolahti to Sulkava

I started at 11 and took it slowly. For nearly an hour i visited the church of the three crosses in Imatra. An amazing building, one of the most impressive i have ever seen.

For more than 90 percent of todays route i say no sign of civilization, besides cars and the road. No town, no filling station, no coffee place. It was wow!

The last 35 kilometers were only hills. Never before in my life was i that happy about growing up next to the Alpes. Finally, after 107 kilometers, i arrived in Sulkava.

Day 5: Saturday, July 29th 2006 - from Sulkava via Rantasalmi to Varkaus

Today i was close to giving up. Shortly after Sulkava came another 12 kilometers unpaved road, my right knee started to hurt and shortly after i got a cramp in my right leg. So i decided to take a hotel in Rantasalmi. But when i arrived there, the town did not really attract me. So i took something to eat, a coffee and a beer (for muscle relaxation) and went another 45 kilometers to Varkaus. It was then again much easier than thought.

My sitting organ emits pains that i never thought possible. The easiest is to just stay on the saddle. The moment i get off it, all hell breaks loose.

The landscape today was beautiful again. I was happy that the hills got less steep. I say cows today and there was fresh cut grass - i have not seen that form of earning yet in Finland. It reminds me very much of my home.

Most of the time on the bike i was singing all kinds of songs and had conversations with me. There was nobody around. As it was saturday there were even hardly any cars. So i sang along and entertained myself.

Varkaus has the bigger building that i remember in Finland. It is this hugge factory, that you can see on the picture. It supplies the whole city with a certain sour smell. At least i assume that the smell comes from the factory. Or maybe i started smelling. :)

It was a good but also a hard day.

A nice weekend to all of you.

Industrial Building in Kuopio

Day 6: Sunday, July 30th 2006 - from Varkaus to Kuopio

I sit at the market place of Kuopio, the sun is shining warm, after it was cloudy and fresh most of the day. When i started in Varkaus it even rained for a while. Although i only went 82 kilometers today, i felt them quite heavily. But it still was fun to just go further. At the moment i am not sure whether i will go further from here or back to Helsinki by train. At the moment the sun is the best thing.

Juha Leivisk�s M�nnist�n Pyh�n Johanneksen Kirkko, Kuopio

In a way this church was the ending point of the trip. I learned from the travel guide that it exists and walked there on Monday morning. Also here the impression was overwhelming.

All my pictures from the M�nnist�n Pyh�n Johanneksen Kirkko can be found here.

Day 7: Monday, July 31st 2006

On the seventh day God rested and I decided to go back. I spent the day in Kuopio and took the train back to Helsinki in the evening. The train ride took over 5 hours and my bike and I arrived save at home around 23.00.

Market Place in Kuopio

All my pictures from the trip can be found here.