Day 6, Friday

Laundry day! Well, I can hold out for tomorrow if I feel lazy. But I really need to do the laundry soon. The meeting didn't go as planned yesterday. Only Tommi and Jyri arrived there. I tried to arrange another meeting for today, but I have a feeling that it's not going to work either. If it doesn't, I just have to start calling people tomorrow and get a shared flat. Instead of trying to get a group so we could get a flat of our own.

Day 5, Wednesday

Last night is a bit of an blur. Was drinking with Tommi and Jyri.

Hopefully today, I'll go on a visit to the city center.

Update: tried to get in contact with the two, but with no success. So I'll be heading off by myself.

Update2: I met the guys at a bar near the opera house. Had a pretty nice evening. Drunk again, but still. Went to McDonalds for a couple of times too. Dunno what to do today (Thursday). Maybe we should try to arrange another meeting. Because more Finns are here now.

Day 3 & 4

Not much to write about Monday. Got word through Brennan that Cate wasn't at the school so I didn't go there. Went shopping and walking. Came back here. Watched some TV. Of course I woke up for breakfast too in the morning and went to dinner also. Woke up again a bit too early (it's Tuesday here). Should try to call Cate today.

Update: just got back from school and stuff. It was fun wandering around. Would have been more fun if I wouldn't have had to wandered there alone :)

Anyway, I now have to think about what subjects I want to study. I need to know those by next Tuesday. The next "wave" of Finns are coming in tomorrow, according to Cate. The shitty thing was that I forgot to ask her the time. So dunno when to expect 'em, but they're coming here to Glenferrie, so hopefully I'll see 'em during the breakfast or dinner.

Now to drink some cold Smirnoff Ice...yummy...

Day 2, Sunday

Morning started off fine. Slept a bit too long, and pretty much missed breakfast. Went on a walk to see what all is happening near here. After a couple of hours of walking, I went to a shop to buy some stuff (mostly drink stuff, I was thirsty). And when I was on my way walking here, I noticed that I've been walking too much without any socks. So I decided to take a little break before going somewhere again. But then the problems started. I tried to look at the map, so I'd end up at the school. The program I had, didn't work. Been trying to fix the problem or find another map, but no luck. It's getting dark again, and without knowing where to exactly go, it'll have to wait again.

Anyway, it's not the end of the day yet. But I just wanted to write some of this down.

Update: went to pick up the Finns with Brennan. But because of some freaky luck, there was a relative of theirs waiting for 'em as well. So we did a trip to the airport for nothing. But I did manage to exchange some info with 'em. Nothing really important though. Oh, and Brennan is coming by tomorrow, and I'll show him some pics of Finland. And he'll throw me off at the school, and I'll find my own way back here.

Day 0 and 1

Ok, so day 0 was yesterday when I left to Australia. On the 23rd of September '05. And after being stuck in two different metal tubes for about 24h, I finally ended up in here. Luckily Brennan was waiting for me, so that helped me a lot. And I'm going with Brennan tomorrow to see the 2nd and 3rd Finn emerge from the airplane.

Oh, and I noticed that my necklace is gone. It was kind of expected, and that's why I didn't want to bring it here. But I forgot to take it off. It's somewhere in Kuala Lumpur now. Not that it had any great value to me, although it was golden.

Anyways, day 1 went mostly in planes. I ended up here at about 15:30 local time. After I managed to get pass the customs and such, it was about 16:00 I believe. It went pretty fast, which was nice. When I got to the lodge (here) there weren't any single standard rooms available. So I got a free upgrade :D. Double bed is nice. Australians are nice and helpful people.

Too bad it came dark so early. I don't want to go wander off to a new city when it's dark. So I'll have to do that tomorrow. But I have to remember to be back here in time so I won't miss Brennan.

Oh, and during the flights, Austrian and Malaysian men did a body search on me. But no cavity search! Luckily.

What else did I want to write...I can't remember. I'm getting tired...

Last blog post from here

This is my last blog post from here. The next time I blog, I hope to blog about some of my daily stuff in Australia. So this blog would change into a "diary", instead of just doing some weekly ramblings.

Anyway, I don't really have much to add. I hope everything goes fine, and I'd be able to post next week, if not even a little bit sooner.

Last full week

Yep, the last full week in Finland started. Next week, on Friday, it's D-Day (which means Departure Day. I'm not going to Normandy, and it's not even June 6th 1944 ;) ). Anyway, I should do all the shopping I need to do this week.

Dunno what else to tell. I'm waiting for DHL to pop by this week, to pick up a package which needs to find its way back home, to the States.

Oh, and I did buy one new (well it was used, but it's still "new") phone last week. Just noticed that it would have all the features I need, so I don't have to carry around more than one phone. And I bought some SkypeOut time, so I can make cheapish calls with the lappy :)

But I guess that's all for now, unless you're interested in Shawdow Warrior's long lost add-on named Wanton Destruction. Although I do have to say that if you use JonoF's Shadow Warrior port, you will apparently not get all of the new levels and such. At least at the port's current state. But I'm sure it'll be updated sooner or later. I haven't tried the swtrek code yet though, which let's one to choose a level. It might be the key to start that 2nd episode, if there really is one (people say there is).

Update: at least swtrek21 gives you something new. As swtrek20 takes you to the last level when using JonoF's port. But It might be just a hidden/bonus level.

Update2: ok, due to some spam, I've updated the commenting thingy again. Anyone can comment now, but you have to verify that you're a human being by typing up a word which is shown in the picture (don't worry if you don't see it now, it'll appear when you comment). So hopefully this will keep the spam bots out.

And again it's Monday

Where does the time go. It feels like it was yesterday when I wrote the 29th of August blog entry. Oh well, it's getting pretty late here, and it's already Monday like you have probably noticed. Time for work, time for school, or like me, time to...I don't know. Do stuff to pass the time. Anyway, I might not have much to say for today, but I just wanted to make a Monday blog post. The Star Wreck guys will hopefully send my copy of Star Wreck: In The Pirkinning soon :)

Oh, and here's a nice HL2 map. I haven't finished it yet, it's actually pretty difficult at normal difficulty.

And my condolences to anyone in New Orleans who have lost somebody close to them. The ones that have died, aren't the only victims. Those of you in New Orleans that have survived, are victims too. It has been a terrible catastrophe. But these things happen. If not in the States, in Asia, where similiar natural phenomenons happen. And of course there are other kind of natural disasters which happen all the time.

So New Orleans is just a drop in the ocean, but one would have thought that the US government would have been appropriately prepared for it, as it wasn't a surprise for anyone that the hurricane was coming there. I hope heads will roll in the government for this, as these problems with delivering help has costed lives and lives cannot be bought back with money (at least in this period of time, who knows what's possible 100 years from now). Some people have been suffering for a whole week, in the country where prolonged suffering like this shouldn't happen, even when the disaster was as big as this.

Monday morning update: due to spam by anonymous users (or spam bots in this case), it's no longer possible for anonymous users to comment. If this doesn't help, I'll turn on word verification which requires the user to write the word on the screen before the comment is added. Word verification is a bit annoying, so I don't want to turn that feature on if I can avoid it this way.

PIN codes, security or insecurity?

A little while ago, I didn't have even one credit card. Now I have two, and a debit card. And the biggest problem is to remember all of the PIN codes. Really, there should be something done about PIN codes. They cause trouble when you have to remember more than one. Everything requires a PIN code or a password nowadays. It needs to be made more simple.

I like the idea of fingerprint scanners, but I guess they still have that security issue that was noticed some years ago. That the fingerprint can be spoofed easily by taking it from a coffee mug or something that the owner used. Hopefully if and when they get it secure, it will replace PIN codes.

Or you could use a iris scan, that should be pretty reliable. Or just insert a small chip under the skin, although it wouldn't be too hard to cut it out. Of course doing that without the owner noticing it, is pretty difficult. But cutting out a small chip from under the skin is still more of a security risk than someone cutting off your finger or eye(s).

But all in all, we need to find a better replacement for those damn codes. No matter if they are passwords or PIN codes, they have to go. In this world where people have all kinds of devices and services that require a code, it is impossible to remember them all. Yet, you still must have a secure access to the services and devices, so your neighbour can't buy a new car using your credit card and browse through your collection of kinky porn on your PC. It is not secure by any means of the word when you write down some of the codes. That is, and always will be, a security issue. We need a replacement, period.