Applelane

So much happened recently. Been extreme busy. Hi mom!

The Easter I spend in Ylläs (a Finnish skiing/slalom centrum in Lappland) with two friends. We skied 62km in two days, did sauna and all that. It was extreme great trip, thanks fellows!

I’m busy with two jobs (one is making the young students swimming competition results service database and another one making a web site for the gynegology department of the Oulu university) but also school is going hectic these days. Therefore I have no time even for sport nor computer.

My heart rate is about 55 / 1 min. I just measused it. I have Polar m22 clock and bought a battery for it today. I think I will go running some night soon. Skiing term is over now, hardly any snow left. Fortunately I managed to break the 500km limit right before the snow defreezed.

I’ve got the Nokia 7110. It has that navigation rull which broke down a few days ago and the phone didn’t function correct. I wasn’t able to check clock or read SMSes for example. Then I also realized that I have clock avaiable only in computer, stereos and cell phone (that’s why I bought the battery) at home. So one day I lived without a clock which was weird but also interesting. I almost bought a new cell phone but then my friend gave me his old 7110 and I merged all the unbroken parts and whip I got a working cell phone again. No need to waste money for the new one. I haven’t found a good IRC device yet…

A new member of the kuski bloggers family: Sathy

http://mindseas.blogspot.com/

I wasn’t in good mood in the weekend. I didn’t have energy to do much sport (only the compulsory 90mins walking per day). I read through the Mopolauta topics which were created when I was in the army. This has been in my Elma todo list for long time and finally got it done. Moreover I almost ordered the GAA04 prizes. And also wrote my army diary. I still have about 180 days to go. I write something about each day of my army year. I don’t remember the days by heart but I did some notes back then.

I drank eight beers yesterday. I don’t drink often anymore and thereby I got pretty wasted. Had fun playing the Carcassonne (board game) and Uno with three friends (two of them drove over 200km for that, one of them walked 10 meters). Later today I will participate the skiing competition of the Oulu university.

Also watched Bad luck love, a Finnish drama. Wasn’t good at all but I had burned it into a DVD so I sort of had to watch it anyway. In my case watching a movie means that I have been very unenergitic.

I woke up at 7:07. Walked 6km to swimming hall in -21 degrees. Swam for a while. Had a job meeting. Walked back to campus via the centrum (bought a bus card of 40 trips). Had two hours lunch break with three friends (not same than yesterday). Met the lecture. Sat two hours in circuit theory class. Saw exam results and got two credit units. I have 23/180 of the master degree ready now. At home I ate the rest 200g of candies immediately. After that I felt free, they are gone now! Later I put a “No ads!” poster to our snail mail box. Fixed a bike.

That’s what I did today.

I have problems with candies. I can’t restrict eating them. When I got them I eat them immediately. Some years ago I was addicted. I ate 500g candies minimum everyday. That’s why I never was too thin boy eventhough I did lots of sport everyday (so much extra energy in sugar). Money, health, teeth… Other guys had problems with tobacco, alcohol, snus but my problem was sugar.

One day I decided to stop buying lemonades, candies, chips, chocolate. Unfortunately my mother didn’t stop. She wanted to get me happy and bought sweets for me. She hid them but that wasn’t a good idea because I found them everytime. After a year my mother realized too that I shouldn’t be eating them that much. Since that day I was in break for over eight months.

In the army I got hooked again. Some ex-smokers began to smoke again but I broke down to candies. I ate maybe 200g everyday in the army for a year. Now it’s been nine months after I left the army and I haven’t stopped eating them. Fortunately it’s much less nowadays, maybe 300g in a week. I must get the sugar in some form after lunch. Maybe a cup of tea with four sugar cubes, or a chocolite tub or just pure honey from bottle.

Yesterday I saw a plagat in a supermarket telling that 900g Haribo candy box is on sale. I bought it. I didn’t open the box yesterday but today after school. Guess what, my stomach is hurting terrible now. I have eaten 700g of them. I’m feeling sick and all that but I still walk to kitchen now and then to get my portion. I really hope that the rest 200g would be gone already. Damn why did I buy it!

This box got me memorizing the bad old days when I got 2.7kg candies for present in the Christmas 1998 (not absolute sure of the year). Actually I got three exactly the same Haribo boxes then (900g * 3 = 2700g = 2.7kg). And oh my goodness I ate them all in the same evening. 2.7kg candies in about 6 hours! I was using a ladle. I was very sick after that. Luckily didn’t end up to hospital.

I’m pretty sure that after those 200g I have got enough of candies for a while. But the sugar has to be got somehow everyday. Lollipops are good ones because you can’t eat many of them in a day. Also Turkish peppers are good for me.

All this might sound unbelievable and hilarious but I’m serious.

I just cruised Bumpy Journey for five minutes and saved a replay. Just random driving. Then I watched the replay about five times analysing my braking, accelerating and turning techniques. I was amazed. I’m great to control the bike - at least when comparing to normal player (total time 1h). I remember when Champi0N was playing, I loved his replays (I had played only a year or two back then). Nowadays I like Zweq’s control. He adjusts the front wheel angle so well by spacing.

Ask some amateur guy (your friend for instance) to play battles. Watch him playing for a few hours and then try out the levels yourself. You can beat his times in a few tries. At least I was pretty amazed. I thought my friend’s 18 seconds in one level was quite nice time and I was wondering if I can beat it in 10 minutes. One attempt and I made 14,88.

Six years practicing must give some skills. But was it worth it?

I’m wondering if this post is inspired by skint0r… My days are more different than his but I still got a few routines.

9:30 Cell phone’s alarm is ringing. I need 35 minutes for morning routines. I prefer taking shower in the evening.

9:31 I turn on my screen and walk to kitchen.

9:32 I’m back to computer with a cup of yogurt and muesli (easy and fast to do, taste is good enough and it has lots of energy)

9:45 Ready of reading the logs of the irc channels, checking mail, food lists and temperature. Also have eaten the breakfast.

10:05 Toilet done, bag packed up and worn clothes.

10:12 At school in the right class. The bike trip isn’t too long, maybe 500 meters. Most of the time goes to locking (I use extra chain). My bike cost 550e so I wouldn’t be happy if it was stolen.

10:15 Random school stuff.

12:30 Lunch (the rush is gone after 12:15)

13:00 Random school stuff.

16:00 Back to home. Back to computer. Check snail mail if I bother. There is only spam filling the box.

In the evening I might do some homecraft, talk with my room mate, do sport but mainly I sit in front of my computer. I never do school stuff at home. At least not alone.

01:00 Turn off the screen.

01:01 Read some papers/book/magazine.

01:15 Sleeping (I’m good at falling asleep).

I’m not sure if I should write this as a diary. Because I have such boring days that no one is interested in. But on the other hand I find out these posts interesting myself. Better to do how I feel.

On Sunday I skied 38km which is only 1km less than my current record. px has skied 53km earlier this winter which would be nice to beat but I think that’s way too much for me. The total amount of kilometers is 404 now. I definately want to break the 500km limit at least. On Monday I walked 90 minutes and was 7h at university (math and circuit theory). Today I was playing badminton and only 4 hours in school. And actually 2h out of that 4h I was in lunch with my three friends. We love those midday 2h lunch breaks. Lovely food (I prefer vegetarian, salads, bread), cup of tea, talking and having fun. The best part of the school day. Today in the evening I’m going to struggle the major dishes and walk some hours.

Tomorrow I will walk 6km to swimming hall, swim there for 45 minutes and then go to work meeting (planning the upcoming swimming competitions) which is in the same hall. After walking back to campus and eating lunch we (by us I mean me and one of my good friend with whom I do almost everything in school, we have exactly same courses etc; it’s much easier and more fun to study together) will meet a lecture of the Laboratory exercises on digital techniques course. We must ask him a few questions about the exercise which is about to design a circuit logic of the digital clock. 00:00:00 -> 23:59:99 and there must be a feature to set up the time.

I will start calling my friends by names or nicks if I get their permission.

I didn’t know that tijsjoris had also been blogging.

http://www.gofietse.com/blog/index.php

What a stupid way to descripe some period. By weeks. At least I never know what week is going and if I have to know for some strange reason I must check it on my calendar. Can’t they just use “March’s second week” or just the exact days?

The week has been quite busy as I forecasted. I didn’t see the band on Tuesday because I was too tired but instead of that I went earlier to home to meet my mother. I ate some cheeses with bread and other fantastic food. It’s always great to eat outstanding food at home cooked by mom. I am not the worst cook myself either but there is still quite huge gab between us.

But I saw the band yesterday. They played in the wedding of my very good friend. Actually one of the band member was the groom. There were lots of good friends present. People are moved to other cities and are busy so we don’t see each other much anymore, which is pity. The married coupple seem to be happy and I’m also happy for them. Now the coupple is in a one-week-honeymoon to spend great time together. After that their stress should be gone and nice to return to normal life. I really hope that our friendship will last forever.

On Wednesday I was in the job interview. Me and my friend got the job and we will be in the results service of the Oulu young swimming competition. The work is about 40 hours at total so not a big deal. On Saturday I also was in a math exam about mathematical tools (signal processing, Fourier, Laplance etc.) I didn’t do any good but that was planned so I’m not down of that.

I have nothing special in calendar for a while. I feel quite relieved. Right now I’m waiting for my mate to wake up and then ask him to ski. It’s great weather, sun shining from clear sky and -8.5 degrees. In the ski track we are going to talk about yesterday (it’s always cool to analyse some events with him later on). Maybe he won’t be willing to ski and then I will suggest walking. If that’s not good either I will go to ski myself. Later today I must go to school to study with my other friend. We have some homework left and the best place to do them is school (by school I mean university but I like the school term more).

Room cleaning is needed and after that I’ll be thinking of the next todo-row. Most likely that won’t happen today though.

I’m speding my two hour free time and of course blogging. This is getting more fun all the time. In 45 minutes I should be at my friend’s calculating math and practicing to the next Saturday’s exam (yea, you read right, we have exams on Saturdays which sort of ruins the whole weekend but that can’t really be done otherwise so we must live with it). I’m having some trasnport problems (and blogging isn’t helping at all). Bus, bike or walk? Bus costs 2.5e so that’s not a real option. Walk would give me one sport point but I don’t really have time for it. Bike will take place most likely.

At 22:00 or something I will be helping my friends’ band, carrying their instruments etc. After it they will play a gig and I’m going to watch it with a beer or two. Then moving to my sleep place will be my mom’s home this night. She wants to see me and also I will have a job interview in the morning near to her home.

The homepage of the band is made by me (except the graphics). I’m not too proud of it and I want to upgrade it to the better system. Anyway the address is http://www.luminapolaris.net

I’m taking part in to the sport contest. People of one irc channel decided to have a competition in which the target is to gather sport points. You get one sport point everytime when you do a 45 minutes sport. The different events variate from active sex to walking, aerobic and skiing for example. In the end it’s up to oneself; the point is that you go in for some kind of sport for 45 minutes. It’s very easy to cheat but there is no point of doing it.

I’m very rivalry orienteted person so I was immediately hooked. The contest began on the 1st Jan 2005 so it’s been lasting 67 days now. px is leading with 183 points (his average is almost three points per day), I’m second with 135 and third one has 102 (he or the rest of people are not Elma guys).

We have an automatically updating system where you just submit your latest results. We are going to code better statistics and stuff like that later. Maybe I will show the page then.

The contest will end in the 31st Dec 2005 but the second part will take place right after it. In the other words the main idea of the contest is to get physical activities to our lives permanently. A good shape is healthy and better-looking (I’ve lost weight several kilos since we launched the contest). We also feel more energic, mind is freshed and many other positive aspects. Recommended.

I gladly noticed that Kopaka has also launched an Elma blog. I’m especially waiting for Luther’s. This is a good way to systematize your thoughts, learn the language and produce some cultural heritage so think twice.

http://kopalame.blogspot.com/

I’m happy. I want to tell and write this now when I realize it. When I was skiing last night (26km) I was thinking all kind of things and then I realized that I’m happy. I think most people are not or at least they don’t realize it which is very sad. I haven’t been happy always, actually most of time it’s been opposite. After some years when I am unhappy I will come back to read this and remember the day I was happy.

What makes me happy? I don’t have many problems, actually the biggest problems of my life are that I would like to be able to speak fluent English and maybe have a girl friend (I will write more about this later) if I had extra time to deliver.

I’m studing information engineering which isn’t too hard but still challenging. The subject is interesting and the future seems very good in this area of life. I have all the devices and material I need. Of course a new cell phone, own laptop, tft screen would be cool but I wouldn’t appreciate them if I got them too easily. It’s nice to plan, save money and then buy the product you want.

I love my hobbies which are all kind of sport (skiing, walking, badminton in winter time), Elma stuff and web sites. I have so many projects that I could spend next 10 years among them. And many new ones are appearing to my todo list everyday. The Paprika is currently the biggest passion of mine.

I’ve got great friends and I have usually good time with them. We don’t just drink beer (actually I drink only once in a month, more about this subject later again) but play board games, do sport, discuss about life and latelly been planning own board game.

Elma is a perfect opportunity to get more friends and I have already (well can you say “already”, when we are talking about years) got some good ones. I’m not sure whom I can call my friends but I’m pretty sure that at least px and mr. I would like to be able to meet them more often (px lives about 500km from here and mr over 400km) but also meet people I don’t know so well in real life: psy, emps, Tisk, Karlis… This subject is very sensitive because I’m not sure if they want to know me better. Anyway at least you know that I want. I’m willing to get to know people better and even meet people I have never seen before so all you please come to FEM05, visit my city or invite me to your place.

I’m happy.

Ps. I’m about to go for a walk right after I post this. We will make a moon walk with my room mate who is my good friend too. 20km sounds a good distance. Badminton will take place in next morning so I can’t be tired then.

I recommend you to use Firefox. There will be one, Elma related more serious reason to have it in the future but for now you could use the Live Bookmark feature of the Firefox. See the right bottom corner when you are reading this. There should be an yellow box which allowes you to Live Bookmark this page.

http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

MC Studios second recording session was held in summer 2000 and px was visiting us and playing piano there. He had Nokia 7110 cell phone. Maybe that’s why me and Tuska (you should know him, check WR stats) bought the same cell phones for ourselves. It was and still is a nice phone but now, after almost five years, I’m thinking of buying a new one. Maybe Nokia 9300 (communicator), 6600, 6630… can’t really decide.

What I want is a rather large screen and ability to use IRC through SSH. Also would be extreme cool to be able to write this blog and check emails via the phone. Communicator allows all this but it’s quite big and expensive (over 600e). Also it’s not the best device to irc a line now and another after a while. There isn’t a stand by mode in the phone and you have to restart the operating system (Symbian 7.0) everytime again and that takes one minute.

But then again a normal phone keyboard (1-9) isn’t the best way to write. Maybe ircing would be bearable (at least it is for Karlis) but writing long stories (blog, emails) would be too difficult. Why can’t they invent a 1-15 keyboard? I mean the buttons would be ab, cd, ef, gh, ij, kl, mn, op, qr, st, uv, xy, zå, äö. The phone would guess the written word more easily that way (you know the new system, called T9, when you write a SMS; not the ancient one where you have to press the button as many times as the letter appears in the button, for example letter “c” needs three presses of the number “2″; by the way I’m still using the ancient way because I have never bothered to learn the faster style). Not the easiest thing to descripe but I think you got the idea. I guess most people would have hard time to learn to use the 1-15 keyboard, which must be the main reason why we don’t have it in the phones. Maybe in the future… And hey! If someone decides to make this after reading this post I demand 10% royalties.

Money. You think I have 600e extra for phone? Yes and no. I’m hoping for a cool summer job to earn money so it would be more safe to buy such an expensive devide. I must talk more with cell phone experts and test different phones. After the summer I will have a better cell phone, that’s pretty clear now.

I worked the entire Saturday to get my Elma folders project ready. I had everything so messed up; there were Elma 1.11a, 1.11h, 1.11hb, 1.2 all mixed up and all kind of random files here and there. I also renamed my internal level replays from format Abula01E.rec, Abula01F.rec, Abula02E.rec to 01Ab1404.rec, 01Ab1405.rec, 02Ab1517.rec. When there are same time twice I mark it 01Ac1405.rec and also minutes are not written so my Labyrinth Pro replay is named 35Ab3122.rec.

I had 40055 files before the cleaning up. I got it down to 33055 (I didn’t remove anything, just moved to different place). The files take about 2.4GB (web sites not included to this).

The below pic shows the default view of my Elmas. I tried to minimize the number of files in the folder. If needed I have made some extra folders (for instance “stats”, “stuff”).

All my own internal level replays. Took for a while to rename but it was definately worth it. I recommend!

In the next picture we see the Elma folder strucure. I have 33 different Elmas (there are FEM2002, FEM2003, FEM2004, FEM2005 under the Meetings folder). If mr wasn’t so kind and updating the replays on Moposite I would need five more Elmas (Professional, OLP, Multi, Slesk, Old WRs). We can also see what contests I have downloaded, played and stored. I should try to collect more of them though.

The last two pictures are Moposite stuff. The first one showing the files under the Records section updating program and the other showing some WR replays. Hopefully someone finds these pictures interesting.

Aah. One very old row removed in my todo-list. What’s next then? There are only three Elma rows left anymore: GAA04 prices (half done), Read Mopolauta General section (because of army) and Paprika. I’m so happy that I have got the Elma mood on again. The next week will be pretty free so I’ll probably be with Elma stuff.

Normal life? I didn’t go to ski yesterday eventhough it was nice weather but did this Elma folder project. I’m a bit worried, am I lazy again? Well I cleaned my room, washes the dishes, went for biljard with my mate so I wasn’t total nerd on Saturday. Today I will study and hopefully ski. One of my best friends, old Elma player, member of MC Studios, Ultra, will get married on the next Saturday. Strange and fascinating.

It’s been between -15 and -20 degrees the last days so I have had some extra time in front of the computer. I also cleaned my room and organized the book shelf. I figured out that I have got Arto Paasilinna (a Finnish humoristic) book every Christmas in last five years but I’ve read only one of them. I think I have had better things to do.

A few months ago I finally decided to check the Elma 1.2. Is it any good, can I use it and could it be published on Moposite. I contacted Hibernatus and asked if he had a bug-free version made. You ought to know that the public 1.2 final version has an editor bug (the game crashes if you press ‘g’ in the picture details in the editor). Luckily Hibernatus actually had fixed that and even some more. Actually even the famous XP lag is fixed! I think this version should be published for the public?

In the day before yesterday I picked up the next row from my todo-list: “organize Elma folders”. I’m pretty sure that I would have skipped this row again if I didn’t have this clean, private, 1.2 version. I made a clean copy of it with empty ‘lev’ and ‘rec’ folders with my current ’state.dat’ and replaced the ‘default.lgr’ by ‘highq.lgr’. The last night I was creating the Elma folder structure. There are 38 different Elmas in the current system which is way too many and therewhy I will try to decrease it to 30-35. After the structure is ready I copy the right level and replay files to the new folders from the old Elmas. After that prosedure I will clean the folders. And that’s hell lots of work.

I have 40 455 files in my Elma folder and a lots of that is pure rubbish which has to be removed (after taking back ups of them, of course). All this work will do my own Elma playing much easier, more comfortable, systematic, organized and logical (all those are important to me). But also after this project I will be able to make a one secret step of the Moposite and the bigger project (which will be called ‘Paprika’ since this moment) is again nearer to be published.