Meegolandia

Just a snippet on something I'm getting more involved in.

Meegolandia Open 2011 will be in Tampere, April 15-16, 2011. It's a national MeeGo summit targeted towards developers/hackers. E.g. there'll be a "Meegathon" (à la hackathon). For info and updates, follow @meegolandia on twitter and join/like our Facebook page. There's also an irc channel #meegolandia on irc.freenode.net.

For MeeGo news and happenings in general (in Finland), feel free to join our MeeGo Network Finland group on LinkedIn.

More specifically, in Tampere, you're welcome to our monthly TMN meetups. They are usually on every third Tuesday of the month. The next one is shaping up to be a special Christmas/sauna meetup, unfortunately I can't attend as I'll be thawing in Taiwan :) Here's the FB page for Tampere MeeGo Network. Check out what we're doing / have done, pics and all.

(I help admin some of the pages mentioned :))

P/S. If you don't know what MeeGo is, there's a short intro on meego.com, or the dependable wikipedia. I'm not an expert either, I'm learning as I go along, and enjoying the surf on the MeeGo wave (which I think is only going to get bigger)!

Land of a thousand lakes*

... whose language is 1000x more difficult than any others :P

Skipped Finnish class yesterday, was just too tired after spending 3 evenings out in a row: rehearsals (mon), Meego meetup (tue), dinner & stand-up comedy with friends (wed). Felt a bit bad because it was the last class for this semester. I think I learnt (retained) quite a lot more this semester, but progress is still painfully slow. I can pick out even more words and their conjugations when listening to people speak, but still not enough to understand much details. For e.g. while watching the stand-up, I heard something about vacation, Thailand, wife, 2000 euros, then hahahaha... What was the punchline now? Luckily there were a couple of American comedians who did their acts in English, as well as one English lady whose act was in Finnish but she spoke slow and clear enough that I understood a few jokes from her! Few... but still :D Jos puhut oikein hitaasti, ehkä voin ymmärrä! Ja myös helppo sanoja, olkaa hyvä :)

According to an article on yle.fi, we'll be seeing more record-low temperatures for this time of the year: "The next few days will be unseasonably cold, with temperatures this chilly nationwide seen only about once a decade". Let's see what's in store for Tampere:

Brrr. Staying below -10C for the coming week. At least it's sunny!

And at least we're not at -31C like in Lapland (northern Finland)... although when it gets below a certain point (maybe -15?) I can't tell much difference anymore because I can't feel anything anymore.

Had my weekly sauna just now. ("Sauna" is a Finnish word btw.) Usually I'll start off with about 10 minutes in the sauna, come out and cool off for a few minutes before going in for another round. But today when I stepped out after the first round, I immediately did an about-face and went back in. Wasn't thawed enough from walking home in the cold!

Speaking of freezing lakes and saunas, I wonder if I'll muster up enough courage this winter to attempt avantouinti (ice-hole swimming). I've got to try it at least once, right?

*) Finland is known as The Land of the Thousand Lakes (actually there are 187,888 lakes in Finland, of which 60,000 are large). -Source: wikipedia

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Update 27/11/2010:

Yet another record cold temperature in Lapland (seems like daily news now), this time -34C in Utsjoki, where the long arctic winter nights have also begun (they won't see the sun again until 16/1/2011).

It must have been... musicals!

A few days ago on FB, Gloria linked to a video clip of Les Misérables 25th Anniversary Concert. All hell broke loose. I spent hours checking out all the other 25th Anniv videos I could find, then onto the 10th Anniv concert, and then Les Mis in general. It's such an incredible musical. I can vividly remember the feeling of seeing it in London's West End, sitting in the first (or maybe second) row, staring into the eyes of Marius...

So yeah, after singing along to all the songs (especially "On my own", the many different renditions that I could find) and probably disturbing the neighbours (this went into the wee hours)... I really really wanted to go see a musical again. While Dallas was no Broadway or West End, the Dallas Summer Musicals showcased many excellent touring productions which I got to enjoy yearly when living there. Here in Finland we're blessed with tons of rock concerts and festivals but a dire want for broadway-style musicals. And English ones are just non-existent.

I found that Les Mis is showing in Turku (in Swedish) and Wicked in Helsinki (in Finnish) -- which comes highly recommended by Evana and Keidy, my musical-loving/attending buddies back in Dallas. While the language is an issue, I thought I'd go for the experience anyway. Besides I know the story and music of Les Mis quite well, and I know some Finnish... so I asked around if anyone would like to go with me. Unfortunately the only ones who responded are my dear friends who are NOT in Finland :( Are Finns generally not interested in musicals?

Then I thought, perhaps I'd go by myself. I'll still have a great time, just like I thoroughly enjoyed the Kölner Philharmoniker when I was traveling alone in Cologne earlier this year. That was possibly the biggest catalyst for me being in TASO now. However, with the uncertainty of my job situation, I'd rather not spend money unnecessarily right now. In addition, I wasn't too impressed with the trailers - well, Wicked is still ok and I don't have a previous experience to compare it to; but the singing and the acting in the Swedish Les Mis are too... comical! Yet not funny! Last I checked, Les Mis isn't a comedy. Oh well, let's see what happens. They're both running for a while longer. Maybe I'll find someone to go with after all, or do an impromptu trip and get tickets at the last minute.

Besides, I went ahead and ordered the Blu-ray for the 25th Anniv concert and the DVD for the 10th from amazon.co.uk :D Oh, did I mention something about saving money? In my defense these are a lot cheaper than the show tickets (plus travel expenses since they're not in Tampere). And free shipping to Finland.

From musicals to... a Roxette concert! Sheba emailed me asking if I was interested to go see Roxette with her. They are still around?? It must have been puppy love time when I was listening to them 20 years ago! I quite like their stuff and Sheba made an offer I couldn't refuse - we'll meet in Cologne next summer to see their concert there :)

Spent the weekend catching up with a few friends - Jessica, Ismo, and Mikko. Mikko is now into martial arts, senshido in particular. I'm kinda intrigued... maybe I'll take a course when they have new sessions available. Also watched Harry Potter 7.1 which had some really great parts although I found it slightly draggy on the whole. I mean it was almost 2.5 hours, which can be considered long for a movie, and it's only part 1!

Back to reading Harry Potter again. Finally got started on book 6. Well actually I've started on it a couple of times but couldn't get past the first 2-3 chapters for some reason. A bit more success this time, now I'm on chapter 14.

OMG, I just discovered A Very Potter Musical and its sequel!

Plane crash

I was jolted awake a few minutes ago with my heart pounding hard and fast. An extremely realistic dream. My sister and I were driving along a highway... initially I thought we were in Dallas but it was more likely to be in Singapore due to the side of the road we were driving on and the airlines involved. There weren't many cars on the road (hmm, in Singapore??) and there was an open field along the highway (again, in Singapore??) to our right. Anyway somehow I sensed that something big was going to happen and I asked my sis to pull over at the side of the road. We stepped out of the car and a few seconds later, right in front of our eyes, two Boeing 747s nose-dived and headed straight for each other and onto that open field not 2 km away from us. One was a China Airlines jet and the other Qantas. I remember thinking to myself "Thank goodness I'm not on that flight, I'm flying out only tomorrow." and immediately regretting the selfish thought. Everything was happening in very slow motion, but felt very real. Upon impact the explosion was deafening and fiery. I shouted to my sister to get in the car, and both of us got in, slammed the doors shut just in time as smoke and flames washed over our car like a tsunami wave. Miraculously we (and the car) were ok, and we couldn't help but fixate our gazes on the balls of fire so close to us. Yet so far... we could only watch helplessly as people, in flames, jumped out of the plane into even bigger fires below. We started the car, thinking perhaps we should try to get some help or do something, somehow... and barely drove a few hundred meters when (I suppose) a main fuel tank exploded. That eruptive force slammed into our car and... well I don't know if we survived because that's when I woke up.

And for something lighter (or maybe heavier, depending on how you look at it), would Ryanair's 10kg carry-on restriction include or exclude this: the carry-on coat? Should I get one? :D

One Thousand and One Nights

Couple of TASO concerts coming up! Our main events for this season. Here's the poster and more detailed info:

TASO concert! Wed 1.12 at the University of Tampere. I'll be performing!! Hope to see you there :)

Jämsä concert:
- Seppolan koulu (Seppola school hall)
- su 28.11 klo 15 (Sun 28.11, 3pm)

Tampere concert:
- Tampereen yliopiston juhlasalissa (University of Tampere Hall)
- ke 1.12 klo 19 (Wed 1.12, 7pm)

Works we're performing at both:
- Mendelssohn: The Hebrides Overture, Op. 26
- Strauss: Horn concerto No. 1 in E-flat major, Op. 11
- Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade, Op. 35

Tickets are 15/5 € at the door!

Here's my "performance record" since joining the orchestra in early May this year:

May 21 -- my first time performing with TASO. No "audience" as we were up in the balcony of Tampere's City Hall, playing background dance music for University of Tampere's (Doctorate?) graduation ball.

Sept 2 -- first time with an audience, although not a public concert. It was for University of Tampere's 50th anniversary celebrations. We played some excerpts of Sibelius' works plus Maamme (Our Country).

Nov 13 -- yet another private event, but my first "concert trip" ever (i.e. more than an hour away, and traffic-jams in Singapore doesn't count). We premiered a symphony at KNL's assembly for their chairman.

Nov 28 -- this will be my first public performance with TASO! People will buy concert tickets to hear us play. Also another road-trip, but a shorter one compared to Kouvola.

Dec 1 -- if some of my friends are willing to attend, this is going to be my first time playing in front of people I actually know! At least in Finland... although it's been so long since I've done this, I hope I won't get too nervous and make stupid mistakes. It's really easier to perform in front of people you don't know. Then again it isn't as rewarding :)

So please come and support us and enjoy a lovely evening of beautiful music! You haven't lived if you haven't heard Scheherazade at least once live! It's just a magical piece... I get stirred with emotions by it almost every rehearsal! Hopefully I can keep it together during the concert and save the tears-bursting for later :D

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Update 27/11/2010:

Created a FB event page here, please RSVP, would be nice to know who's coming!

Mr. Nobody

Nothing too exciting over the remainder of the weekend. Did two large loads of laundry yesterday, attempted to clean the apartment but only got the dishes done, and daydreamed ... well, mostly thinking about the movie I watched the previous week with Jessica. A movie about making choices - Mr. Nobody.

Choices. There are probably several distinct turning points in our lives when we are faced with major decisions that affect our lives drastically. How do we go about making the "right" choice when the outcome is so hard to predict? Then again, if we knew exactly how each choice will turn out, would that make it easier to decide? This movie explores the idea of choice (and even "not choosing", which I think is still a choice) with interesting references to the butterfly effect (just a small, seemingly minor choice/action/deviation can lead to unexpectedly different result), the big bang/crunch theory and even string theory. In other words, awesome movie for a geek like me who happens to be pondering choices in her life too.

The side effect from the above exercise was that I spent quite a few hours googling / wikipeding / reading up and refreshing my mind with the theories of Quantum mechanics, parallel universes, etc. etc. Now I'm reminded as to why I didn't pursue theoretical physics. As much as I am interested/intrigued by all these, just some "light reading" on a weekend is enough to make my head spin and feel 10x as big (as if it's not big enough already).

But back to the movie. So this Mr. Nemo Nobody recounts the 3 lives he seems to have lived, each resulting from a different choice/decision. I won't give away too much of the plot here, except to say that the interweaving between the different realities/lives is very well executed. Both cinematographically (is that a word?) and musically effective. And overall very thought-provoking, a big plus in my book, for I'll remember this movie much longer than some big-bang-boom blockbuster. I'll definitely revisit it sometime. The only thing I didn't really like was how he arrived with his choice of the life with the Asian wife, and how disinterested he was in her and their kids and even his own life in that alternative timeline. You don't know what you're missing dude! Well of course it wasn't her fault or anything but more due to the events leading up to that decision. Still, a somewhat stereotypical play - boring asian, neurotic blonde, leaving the brunette to be pretty much his "true" love.

Another side track... I didn't really notice this before, but Jared Leto is hot! Oooh those eyes. A couple years ago someone mentioned that Jaakko (guy I used to date) looks like him. I don't quite see the resemblance, nonetheless both of them are extremely cute :) Toby Regbo as young Nemo looks yummy too; and he'll be portraying the teenage Dumbledore in the next Harry Potter film. More eye candy, yay!

Crushed

Boo. There's a ring. He's taken. Now I need to find another target for my infatuation.

That was the realization from earlier on today. No, I'm not crushed by my crush. I haven't gone in that deep yet :P The crush was actually a diversion for me. I realized that I haven't properly dealt with the raw emotions from my recent break-up. I thought I was "handling it well". I thought wrong.

It wasn't even that long a relationship. What was it, 6 months? And with us living in different countries we didn't get to see each other that often either. But if you know me, you'd know that there's no loving "just a little" for me. Once I'm committed to a relationship, I'd give it my all. I can't hold back, I don't know how.

I should have pulled in the reins much earlier. The warning signs were there, including some that reminded me of my ex-husband. Then again, nobody is perfect. So second chance, third chance... No more. I made a promise to myself when I got divorced that I will not let someone else treat me like that again. I broke that promise. Now it's time to fix it.

Except it still hurts. The reins were still pulled too late. Getting busy helped - traveling, best friend's wedding, hanging out with friends, work issues, orchestra (filled with cute musicians), volunteering for Meego community, Finnish lessons... - up to a point. I even fooled myself into thinking I'm ok, that I can have a crush on someone else already. When that didn't work out (see first paragraph), what did I do? Listen to sappy love songs during the ride back from the Kouvola concert. Big mistake. Or maybe not... well I mean I have to deal with these emotions sooner or later, although in a bus with 40 other people was probably not the best time and place to do it.

Anyway, I'm still waiting for the tears to fall (as I had to hold them back just now). Hopefully I'll feel better then, coz I'm definitely not feeling good now. I want to believe that I deserve better, but it seems all the good guys are already taken (esp those around my age). Then again what does that say about me, since I'm also "left on the shelf", so to speak?

Received an sms from a friend just now, saying he misses the smiling and happy Carol. I miss her too. I don't like this Carol with the fake smile. How can I help bring her back?

For now the more pressing question is: who shall I have a crush on next? (another diversion wouldn't hurt, right? right?)

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Update (30 minutes later): writing is cathartic indeed. Maybe even more effective than tears. I feel somewhat better already.

Linja-autossa on tunnelmaa

We spent almost 6 hours on the bus today. Not quite Kummelin tunnelmaa, but it wasn't too bad (for me at least). I napped most of the way there (since I had to wake up around 7:30 to get ready and stuff) and listened to sappy love songs on the way back (more on that maybe in next post).

These orchestra kids love to read! I saw many of them with books on the bus journey. Even during rehearsals I see some of them with paperbacks, consuming a paragraph here and there during appropriate breaks. Or is it true of Finnish kids in general? I suppose they talk less and read more?

We arrived at Kouvola city hall slightly ahead of schedule, only because at the last minute our chairman told us to meet (in Tampere) half an hour earlier than previously planned to account for winter driving conditions and speed limits. There was enough time to warm up a bit and even for some people to change. I didn't want to risk having to rush so I was already changed and ready. Was a tad little nervous about the timpani because we didn't bring our own. Needed to familiarize myself with the borrowed ones...

Fortunately we were allowed a run-through beforehand. The timpani was nicely in tune, although it sounded flatter the louder I played. I didn't have the luxury of time to learn the nuances of the instrument so I just had to make the best of it. The run-through went very well, perhaps even slightly better than when we had an audience later. Nerves maybe? I know it wasn't my best rendition of the pieces during the actual performance, but at least I didn't make any mistakes. Nonetheless the composer (KNL's chairman) seems pleased with our performance of his work and arrangements. And his symphony kinda grew on me a bit. Parts of it, not the whole piece, yet still interesting.

After playing we were fed some food. The food wasn't bad but there was barely enough for all of us. I was one of the last ones in line and had to scrape the tray for the last bit of rice. When we were done eating we just packed up and left. No idea how the KNL assembly was going (it's all in Finnish anyway so makes no difference to me). Got a window seat on the way back, was hoping to see a little more of Kouvola (stopped by here last year for food shopping before heading to friend's summer cottage in Jaala) and scenery along the way, but it got pretty dark pretty quickly. It wasn't even 4pm!!

Ride from Kouvola to Attila was uneventful. However on the bus from Attila back home, a creepy old guy who smelled weird (don't think it's alcohol, not sure what...) got on and sat next to me. There were so many available seats! Why me? He seemed to be inching his way closer to me as well. Luckily my timpani sticks were sticking out of my bag far enough to prevent him from getting too close, but still he kept nudging against my sticks. Why? Why? If it's uncomfortable, go sit somewhere else! There's plenty of room!

Now resting my feet (that have been in high-heeled boots all day) and burping pizza. Contemplated going out again, but only briefly. Right now I'd rather hear the rain/snow hitting my window than hitting my face.

Wait, I think this is my first concert trip as a performer! As in traveling and performing in a different city than the ensemble's home location. I mean, Singapore is so small, different "cities" don't count. And I don't remember having performed outside of the Dallas area. Well, another concert road-trip coming up in 2 weeks - shorter one to Jämsä. Looking forward to it!

T.G.I.F.

Had Finnish class last night. I am making improvements but need to study more by myself instead of just flipping through the book right before class. Yesterday we went through some present perfect and past perfect tenses, as well as pronouns. There's this Chinese guy in class who didn't speak much English. I tried to explain the stuff to him but my Chinese skills are insufficient. Or is it that Chinese grammar is in fact insufficient to explain the above? There are no tenses, so how do I explain the perfect tense? And pronouns... how do you translate "whom/whose" to Chinese? Or explain the "which" in this sentence - 'The car, which I drive, is old.'

Apua. (Help.)

Typing this in a new browser - RockMelt. Pretty nifty, clean interface, based on Chrome. Haven't found it extremely useful, plus there's no Linux version yet so I can't run it on my home laptops. Will probably just use it as a light social browser on my work laptop.

So, Friday is here. Sauna soon. Might go for the "International coffee house" meetup after that, but not staying out too late as I've to be up early tomorrow for the road trip to Kouvola for the performance.

Have a good weekend!

Shopping for percussionist's accessories

Thomann cyberstore is dangerous!! Just a few clicks and see what I ended up with 10 days later:

Early Christmas for Carol

Big box but luckily not too heavy. Had to pick it up from the post office and lug it back home myself. And now let's take a peek at what's inside:

On the left we have 2x timpani damper pads, a cute drumsticks key-fob, and a Meinl drumsticks holder; all on the Meinl percussion tray. On the right is an electronic snare practice pad (Millenium SPP-3). In total about 150€ including shipping. Before this another 100€ or so for 2 new pairs of mallets (since joining TASO) and a music stand. All these and I haven't bought any instruments yet!

In addition, since the black top and pants I've been wearing for performances are pretty old, I thought I'd treat myself to a new outfit (or a new top at least). Went shopping a couple of times this week and here's my loot:

Hehe :P I really tried to focus on just looking for a black top! But the purple items are so distracting. In my defense the sweater + dress combined is still slightly cheaper than the blouse (which is 35€ - saved 5€ with a coupon). However I'm not too sure about the ruffled sleeves... not my style. Might return it after all. But I'm keeping the purples!

Need to find cheaper interests/hobbies... between my lust for cameras & other gadgetry, my craving for exploring all corners of the earth, my desire to learn to fly a plane etc. => I'll never have any savings! Might as well die early so I don't have to worry about retirement. Oh I'm not even done with music yet, I still want a grand piano and a (maybe electronic) drum set.

I'm thinking of taking skydiving lessons next year. They're not cheap but still cheaper than the pilot route. If I don't get to fly a plane, at least I still get to fly. Gotta let my dream take flight!

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Update 20/11/2010:

Black top returned to Vila store. The search continues...

Dark November - revisited

Well, ok, yet another post about the weather. But at least this time with some pics :) We've had quite a bit of snow over the past couple of days (mostly in the evenings/overnight), at least more than I remember for the month of November. Plus still seeing a bit of sun in the morning, so the initial one-third of November hasn't been too dark yet. Although this can quickly change...

Anyway, enough words. Onto the pics. First one from two nights ago:

Car on life support

Next one from yesterday on my way to work - I even needed sunglasses!

Sunny and -3C. Pretty blanket of fresh snow. If only every winter's day is like this!

Lastly, here's one from my way home just now from the city center. The snow was coming down pretty hard, and sideways, thus hitting my face giving me a free facial. My footprints on fresh snow:

H is for Haughty Horn

We had a full day's rehearsal yesterday (Sunday) and then our regular rehearsal this evening. I'm enjoying every minute of it. A big reason is of course that it's been my dream for a long time to play again in an orchestra. And while I know I won't be able to play in a professional one, this is a really good amateur orchestra and I'm so thankful they accepted me :)

This weekend, we're going to Kouvola to perform at the opening ceremony of some assembly event for Kokoomuksen Nuorten Liitto (Youth League of the National Coalition Party). It's not a public concert, KNL hired us to premier a symphony composed by their 24 year-old chairman Wille Rydman. While we're not a professional orchestra (i.e. the players don't get paid, in fact we have to pay membership fees), the orchestra still need operating expenses (salary for the conductor, purchase of sheet music, transporting instruments and people for events, renting instruments and players when needed, refreshments for rehearsals etc. etc.). So it's great we can get paid gigs like this. And I'm happy because the percussion section is benefiting quite a bit from all these. When I joined in April, we only had a set of timpani (which was also just purchased last year). Now we have a snare drum, bass drum, cymbals and a few auxiliary instruments. Maybe more to come!

Another reason (for enjoying the rehearsals so much, especially recently) is - and I surprised myself upon realizing this - that I think I have a crush on someone in the orchestra ;) What to do? I've always had a thing for musicians. And now I see this group of wonderful musicians every week... it was only a matter of time! Heheh...

Oh I've only just learned the details of this Northern European Note system (originated from Germany). For a while there I was wondering how do I play note "H" on the timpani?? In my many years of making music I've never heard of an "H" note, only A to G. I listened to the recordings and figured out for myself that H = B, and B = B-flat. Confusing, right? And they use -es and -is to indicate flats and sharps, e.g. Fis and Ges. A couple of times I heard the conductor asking some player to play the Es note, and I thought -- what? "S" note? yet another note I've never learned??

This wiki entry cleared up the confusion for me. Should have checked it earlier. Felt inadequate for the longest time due to this :P

We'll be playing a horn concerto by Strauss in the upcoming concerts at the end of the month. The horn soloist came to rehearse with us these couple of days. No denying that he's a good player, but I didn't care much for his attitude. Even though I didn't understand too much of the Finnish he was saying, it seemed that he was trying to tell Kimmo (the conductor) how to conduct and the players how to play the piece. That's not his job!! When you play in an orchestra, you respect the music director! Sure, different people have different interpretations of a piece, but if you want it played your way, go find an orchestra to conduct! I happen to like Kimmo's interpretations. If the horn soloist really had strong objections, he should have voiced them to Kimmo during a break or something instead of taking over and directing the orchestra what to do. Not sure what the conductor thought, perhaps he didn't mind as they are colleagues (both play for the Tampere Philharmonic), but at least to me it looked very disrespectful. I don't think I've seen another soloist do that.

Anyway, I simply adore the pieces we'll be playing for the Jämsä and Tampere concerts. If you're coming to those concerts, I hope you enjoy listening to them as much as I do playing them!

To share or not to share?

Recently (past couple of weeks) I've had several of my pics on Ovi Share flagged as inappropriate by someone (or more than one person??). For example this one:

I need a bigger hand!

(What can I say? I like taking pics of shiny gadgets :) Especially those that I have some part in creating.)

The other flagged pics are also of/about Nokia devices. Does that person(s?) have something against Nokia? Or against me?? :( Or perhaps against me working for Nokia? :P

Transposition and transformation

Spent the evening tuning the timpani. Only managed to tune 2 (out of 4), partly because it's been a while since I balanced a timpani head. The other reason is that another band was practicing down the hall, and there's no soundproofing whatsoever. Their playing was a hindrance to my tuning, and probably I was disturbing them as well. Unfortunately the only "free" evening in Attila from any practice sessions is tomorrow (Thursday) and I have Finnish class then. Well, at least I took care of the 2 most used ones (for the pieces we're playing this season). I'll just have to find another time slot to do the other 2.

The band mentioned above is Torvikopla. They are a big band consisting of mainly students from the two universities in Tampere (similarly for the orchestra I'm in). I almost joined them last year when I was looking for a band/orchestra to play in. I emailed them in June or July and received a reply saying I was welcome to join them when they resumed rehearsals in August. But between celebrating my birthday, nursing a broken heart, getting sick in Greece, and falling out with a good friend, last August went by in a blur. For some reason I decided not to pursue it... having more pressing issues to deal with in my life then I suppose. It's a good thing I waited though, for I'm to hear about TASO from a friend only this year. While I do like big band music and will probably have lots of fun playing in Torvikopla, I simply *love* the music that I get to make with TASO.

And to think they both rehearse in the same premises - Attila, an old shoe factory now university library! Perhaps not too surprising, since they are both student music groups. In fact, the Tampere University Singers also practice here. Maybe I should just join all of them and spend all my evenings making music :)

Check out the following possible new skyline of Tampere. I hope this "facelift" plan gets approved! It'll be another reason to be proud to call this lovely city my home.

Tampere's Cityscape May Get Major Facelift

(photo source: yle.fi)

Dark November

First thought that came to my mind when I stepped out of the office yesterday: wow, it's dark. Partly due to the end of daylight savings time over the weekend which reduced daylight in the afternoon by an hour. Another part is of course the rapid shortening of days towards the winter solstice. So while now there's still light for my morning walks to work, in a week or so (definitely less than 2), my weekdays will be sans daylight. (The precious few hours of daylight will be spent in the office, and now without a window view at my new desk.)

Thus this morning's sunny walk to work will be treasured for a while. Even at -4C, it felt warmer than yesterday's cloudy and windy +8C morning. Well, ok, probably my thicker jacket helped too. Although the days will be shorter next month, there's usually (hopefully) more snow in December, that can help brighten things up a bit. Which is why November is generally considered the dreariest month in the northern hemisphere, and things like NaNoWriMo happens.

I've thought about NaNoWriMo-ing for the past couple of years but never got started. Will I start this year? Hehe, probably not. I plan to blog more though, now that I've kinda resumed blogging. The posts on here before today are imported from Google Buzz from around July when I decided to try blogging again. It wasn't really successful, but my excuse is that Google Buzz isn't optimized for blogging. Now with Blogger I should have no excuse. :P

I'll be uploading more pics too... still have stuff from earlier this year and last year (and even before that) which I have to sort and upload. "Have to"? More like "want to". To share with family and friends, and even for my own viewing pleasure. I find that I'll look at the photos more when they are on Facebook or Ovi Share, rather than just sitting on my hard disk.

November is also TASO month. I'll be busy with rehearsals and performances. We have three concerts coming up within the next few weeks: in Kouvola (13.11), Jämsä (28.11), and Tampere (1.12). Should be lots of fun :)

With words, pictures and music to fill my days, November doesn't seem too dreary after all.