WYRMLOG

Kolfinnia Kokokoho?

Saturday June 28th 2008

Ah, busy week, busy week.

Not only have I been co-ordinating our efforts to go to the Supanova convention tomorrow (I have four tickets in my hot little hands right now which mean we'll be able to go straight in rather than queuing) but we've got a new employee at work. His name is Lasse and there are a number of interesting things to note about him...

• He's from Finland
• His birthday is February 29th, making him only 6 years old
• Ummm...

Well he's only been with us for a week so there are no doubt plenty of other interesting things that shall be revealed in time.

(Oh, and I know he's not really 6 years old, but it's such a common joke about people born on the 29th that it shouldn't really require any explanation).

We asked him about the Estonian message from last week. It turns out that as similar as Estonian and Finnish may appear to us Indo-Europeans they're actually mutually incomprehensible - although there are a few well known similarities such as the Estonian for "milk" meaning "sour milk" in Finnish, and the Estonian for "Wedding Day" meaning "Trouble Day". This is no doubt a great source of amusement among Finns, probably of much the same calibre as the Australian/Kiwi "Fush and Chups" :)

I was tempted to ask him about the famous "Kokoo kokoon koko kokko" but figured it's probably as annoying to Finns as "You chop a tree down then you chop it up!" is to English speakers, so I let it be.

I also caught up with Katie over dinner on Thursday night. We wandered around Subiaco looking for somewhere to eat, but everywhere was either stupidly expensive, closing or Indian (I have nothing against India, but I just can't abide Indian food). We ended up at Cafe Ecco where we had a potato and rosemary pizza - which is a lot more delicious than it sounds. We then adjourned to Gelare for ice cream. A good night overall.

Today I headed over to the Galleria for groceries and a haircut. I figured I could do with a haircut before tomorrow as while the odds of Jewel Staite spotting me in the audience, falling madly in love with me and us living happily ever after in a flying castle are 'round about fifty billion to one, they're bound to be slightly better (say forty billion nine hundred and ninety nine million nine hundred and ninety nine thousand nine hundred and ninety nine to one) if I've got a decent haircut. Or at least any kind of haircut at all as opposed to the rather unorganised mess that was sitting on top of my head. So I got one. Any kind of haircut that is. I don't know if it makes me look any less geeky, but at least it looks a bit neater.

Continuing with preparations for tomorrow I've spent the last hour or so fashioning a Pringles can into an insulated Red Bull can holder. You know, if I feel the need for a quick caffeine hit. The only problem (apart from my apartment now being littered with styrofoam scraps) is that it looks a bit like a pipe bomb, so I'll need to be careful with it. Hope there won't be any bag searches :)

Finally a FreakAngels Google Earth update. After the interlude last week the story is back in full swing, with Jack seemingly about to get into serious trouble. The GE file has been fully updated - including the exact location of "Camping Etc.", which I managed to track down by dint of a lot of zooming around studying intersections (I could tell you where it is, but you'll just have to download the file and see).

That's it, early night before tomorrow's festivities :)

True Tales of the Gallery Benches

Saturday June 21st 2008

Many years ago (around the early nineties) I was meeting up with a couple of friends in the city. We'd arranged to rendezvous outside the State Art Gallery, which is just across from the main train station and linked to it by a wide pedestrian overpass. It was a bright, sunny day and (as is usual on bright, sunny days in the city) the whole parade of human life was passing back and forth between the gallery and the station, the public benches opposite the main gallery doors being an ideal location to both meet friends and discretely people-watch at the same time.

I arrived first and took a seat. After a short while one of my friends turned up. We sat around talking our usual brand of nonsense while waiting for the third member of our group to arrive. He was running a bit late and we had ample time to study and comment on the people passing back and forth about twenty metres in front of where we sat.

One passer by in particular caught my eye. He looked like a typical businessman with his well pressed business suit, designer sunglasses and briefcase. What particularly caught my notice however was the wire running from his briefcase up to a pair of earbuds. This may be a common sight now but in the early nineties it looked slightly eccentric, so I drew the attention of my companion to him and facetiously commented "You see that guy? I reckon he's got a microphone in that briefcase and he's listening to everyone's conversations".

The man stopped dead. His head swung around and he gazed at us for a few moments with a look of barely concealed horror before rushing off at an extremely brisk walk, glancing back at us once or twice before vanishing around the entrance to the gallery carkpark.

My friend and I looked at each other in mute shock for a few seconds before breaking into gales of hysterical laughter.

True story.

You learn something new every day

Friday June 20th 2008

I had no idea that Estonian was Finno-Ugric!

(Discovered after someone sent a flower order through our system this morning with a message in what I initially thought to be Finnish)

Quite busy at the moment co-ordinating a trip to the Supanova convention next weekend. There is the possibility that I may be able to get some free tickets which (along with the fact that Jewel Staite is going to be there *g*) seems to have motivated the guys to want to go. What'll happen if I can't get any free tickets will be interesting.

One odd thing I've noticed over the last week of emailing back and forth about the event is that I have terrible trouble typing the word Staite. I always seem to type statite instead. The fact that I even know that "statite" is a word is slightly worrying.

Later: Water ice on Mars! W00t!! :D

Siz Degrees of... I dunno, Elvis?

Thursday June 19th 2008

Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin sang Twenty Nine Palms about Alannah Myles. Alannah Myles sang Black Velvet about Elvis Presley. Elvis Presley sang (covered) Killing Me Softly about Don McLean. Don McLean sang American Pie about Buddy Holly...

This could go on for hours.