Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Indian Idols


Indian Idols
Originally uploaded by tormave.
9. tammikuuta 2010 6:39:51 If you put an ad in the paper in Finland to search for senior Java programmers, you don't have to be prepared for a tidal wave of applicants even in this economy. Nokia in Bangalore put a half-page ad in Times of India and 5 000 people arrived over two days for interviews. In Finland the only try-out that would gather such a crowd would be for the Pop Idol contest and the chance to become a famous recording artist.

New blog phase: Expat in Bangalore, India

5. tammikuuta 2010 9:55:31 Next 2 years this blog will mostly be about Southern India and how it feels for a middle-aged North European guy to live there with the family. I think this picture is the perfect starting point. India has a very optimistic vibe to everything. Given how traffic is in Bangalore, by no means is one safe just by wearing a helmet (especially the helmets they do wear, but more on that later). To be really safe you shouldn't be on the road or anywhere near it. On the other hand for me, the safety of my family is the most important thing during the next 2 or so years. Maybe we should just wear helmets...

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Warming up by the ice fire


Warming up by the ice fire
Originally uploaded by tormave.
29. joulukuuta 2009 15:58:38 One more snap from the Lapland visit. Ice arm chairs in front of ice fire in an ice room in the ice hotel. If you've followed this blog (unlikely, I know), you know I've been to the same place two years priot. Except that it wasn't the same place as they have to build a new hotel every winter...

Polar bear scare


Polar bear scare
Originally uploaded by tormave.
30. joulukuuta 2009 13:57:35 Mock stuffed beast horror in Arktikum museum in Rovaniemi. The museum is definitely worth the visit for anyone visiting Lapland - much more so than the different Santa Claus attractions.

Winter wonderland


Winter wonderland
Originally uploaded by tormave.
31. joulukuuta 2009 6:49:17 Rental car in front of the rental cottage in Pello, Finnish Lapland. Snow flakes slowly floating down in the nippy early morning air.

Heat escaping


Heat escaping
Originally uploaded by tormave.
22. joulukuuta 2009 10:29:27 It's been really cold for a while, but a couple of warmer days in between decorated out backyard views quite beautifully.

Unbearable darkness of being


Unbearable darkness of being
Originally uploaded by tormave.
28. joulukuuta 2009 10:41:54 Taken on a recent trip to Lapland, this is as light as it got at any time. Most of the day and of course the night time too were pitch black dark. Kinda weird to plan the day around a few hours of some kind of visibility without artificial lighting. The difference to southern Finland even is big.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Neste Rally Finland, 2009


This is something we already did a couple of weeks ago when there was a World Rally Championship event in Finland. We drove some 300 kilometres (200 miles) northwards into a forest to watch cars slides and jump through narrow gravel roads at speeds close to 200 kilometers per hour (120 MPH+). When I was a kid we lived nearby the annual event and went everytime. 25 years later the cars still seem travelling at warp factor 9...

... until things don't go as planned, like in the end of this video of a Russian driver Evgeny Novikov. His co-driver must be the bravest man in the world.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Dolphins jumping



Here's some more material from the Särkänniemi dolphin show. I must say I was positively surprised after not really expecting that much going in. I've seen such shows in e.g. Orlando Sea World and I think this smaller-scale Finnish version more than held its own.

Amusement animations


Our trusty Panasonic digicam has this handy burst shooting mode for capturing image sequences. Maybe the old cams had this as well, but I just never figured how handy it is.

Here are couple of examples of what you can do with that. Both are from Särkänniemi amusement park in Tampere, Finland. The first is of two young dolphins high jumping and the second shows a water ride splashdown in one of the parks oldest rides. I remember queuing for ages to that when I was just a little kid. Somehow the years passed since have severaly shrunk the height of the last drop...