Balance of life

About iPhone

mikko — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 12:49:36 +0000

Everyone knows that last Friday, 11.7. was once again a historical day. Apple iPhone 3G selling started and luckily for me, also in Finland. Oh yes… I was signed up earlier when our operator was collecting name lists who are interested, I reserved phone as soon as it was possible and on last Friday I was 10am in the store and buying my iPhone. And now I am happy owner of black 16Gb model.

I have been playing it now for few days and I have to say that it is quite close to perfect phone. I have iPod Touch so there was no wow-effect anymore in the UI or operations, but iPhone has everything that Touch was missing, all the time connectivity. Touch was nice but its biggest problem is that it needs Wifi for working, with iPhone, I can access Internet anywhere I want.

But the iPhone mania doesn’t end here. Because we are now talking about me the next step was quite expected. In the weekend I was accepted as iPhone Developer (and had to paid for that) and now I am able to develop nice programs for iPhone, test them on the real devices and publish them to App Store (or even sell them). Now all I have to do is just finish my codings and actually make some programs

About studies

mikko — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 20:37:43 +0000

It is already in the middle of July and sooner than I can imagine, the studies is going to start again. And once again it is time to think what I am going to study… And once again I decide that this autumn is going to be different from earlier ones, this time I will study more and better…
Expect this time this autumn is really going to be totally different. In the end of last year I started to think about my studies and in the spring I really started to think what I would like to do, or better, what would be nice to do… So, how all that thinking ended? Well, I decided to apply for Computer Science in Tampere University of Technology and Scandinavian Languages in University of Tampere. I was accepted directly to Tampere University of Technology based on my success on matriculation exam and in the end of May I was taking apart of exams for Scandinavian Languages.
The results for TUT came already in the May (for paper selections) and I was accepted. But I was still waiting for my expected failure on UTA and last Friday I got results from there also. No, I wasn’t accepted, which was very expected, with that reading and with my luck (the whole exam was just multiple-choices…).
So, after all this I am going to start study on TUT in about a month I will still study interesting courses on UTA also, so this autumn is going to be, well interesting and quite full of studying.
Good question is why I applied for Scandinavian Languages? Well, to told the truth, I am not quite sure myself. I had that mandatory Swedish course in the spring and that was very interesting so I thought that it would be nice to read some more. And… Why not? Well, I don’t have that problem anymore, expect I am still going to try to have rights to read Scandinavian Languages as my secondary subject but there is again an exam that I should pass… And I think that this time I should maybe read a little bit better…

Back to gaming

mikko — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 20:10:29 +0000

It has been a while since I have been last playing but this week I got a new sparkle. I don’t know why I haven’t played more this year, I just guess that I felt that I have no time, that I had something better things to do… And of course, playing has always been very varying for me, sometimes I do nothing but play and sometimes I have a long time that I don’t play anything.
But on Wednesday I decided to put my playing to the next level… I have been dreaming on purchasing racing wheel for my Xbox 360 for a while and now I finally decided and bought it. And the gaming begins… again And it didn’t took a long time to remember why I liked playing on earlier so much. Specially racing games. It is actually very relaxing when you have no choice but concentrate on driving. All your thoughts are nothing but driving, all you think is just when you need to brake, how you are going to get past the car in front of you etc… And the racing wheel makes it all just a little bit better, the gaming experience is just something great. It almost feels like you are driving a real car…

Fox and the City

mikko — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 20:25:11 +0000

I was just playing a few moments ago when I just happen to raise my sight from monitor to outside and what I saw… In the middle of the city there was a fox running through our yard! That was something that I didn’t expect to see. That was actually a first fox I have seen in the wild and it was beautiful animal. Too bad that it was so busy running away that I didn’t have a opportunity to take a photo Have to hope that it wasn’t only visiting shortly but would come again someday; and this time I will be waiting with my camera…

First day

mikko — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 18:45:54 +0000

Today was my first day at the real company. It was interesting to notice how things can be so much different from previous experiences that I had starting working in the university or my friend’s company. Well, all little things that made me think that I was welcome and expected to start working there. And it is really nice that everything is already ready (or almost ready), I will get my laptop tomorrow and the work phone should be available in the next week… Something totally different than when I started to work at university now the last time, I had to talk myself to get a really old computer that I could use to working… Or in my friend’s company where I never even got a computer which I could use to working, I had to use my own laptop…
After all, and after one day, this job seems to be a really nice place to work. Well, of course we have to get back to that after I know better what I should do during this summer but at this point, this just feels so much better than previous working experiences. Right from the start.

Summer…

mikko — Thu, 29 May 2008 14:09:05 +0000

It really starts to feel like it is going to be summer soon… There is really warm now outside, sun shines and it is getting so green when I look around.
A month ago, in the end of April my work in the university ended, once again. At that time I was told that there might be some more work to do, but like it is easy to guess, I haven’t heard nothing since… So I had to try to find something else to do in the summer. I was quite certain that I fould not find anything for a summer because it was already May and all summerjobs are usually already assigned quite early. But for my big surprise Nokia was still searching for a few summer trainees and I actually applied for a one job. But for my even bigger surprise, I was selected to come to interview for that job… And even bigger surprise was when I was notified that I got that job!
So, now in the Monday morning I will take a bus (actually two, but details…) to Hervanta and start working there… I am not quite sure still what actually my job will be but I am quite sure that I will have interesting times ahead.

Jogging

mikko — Tue, 20 May 2008 19:00:33 +0000

I always start jogging in the spring. I don’t why but for some reason I just had to go out and start jogging. But, again for some reason, I’ll just leave it during the spring and in the begin of summer I just go jogging very rarely. This year hasn’t been exception.
But today I got again inspiration to go jogging and it was nice again. I really should make it a regular habit, it was fun and I think that I should do something else than just bicycle to university and back. And specially now when studies (and working there) has ended I only go there now and then.
Kinda funny thing is that jogging is another way for me to organise my thoughts. In the spring I also wanted to go for a jog when I had too many thoughts in my mind. It isn’t exactly the same thing when I go to think in the nature but it is almost as good as wondering in the middle of the forest or looking the sunset on the lake. There is something therapeutical when you try to think too big thoughts and try to jog or run at the same time. And the good thing is that when you get too tired from jogging, you just can’t think too much, you are just too tired to think too much. Well, I had fun with my jog but I still have too many thoughts in my mind that I really need to solve at some point. But luckily I have one wonder less now, finally I know what I am going to do in the summer. One though down, about a million left…

Smells

mikko — Mon, 19 May 2008 15:51:26 +0000

I went today to local Arboretum to take some nice photos from plants and overall from the place. And of course because it is always nice to walk in the nature, or in this case, in the park. In the park there was a small cape where lead a path. And what was waiting for me in the cape… There was few huge trees of European Bird Cherry and that smell… I always forget during summer and winter how Bird Cherry smells but every time in this time of year I remember, it is so strong smell that it just can’t be missed. And luckily it is a good smell.
I have always liked to walk in the nature and in the park, specially in the middle of nowhere, in the real nature has always been a relaxing affect on me. And it is the best place to just to think about everything, for some reason I just manage to put my thoughts in the right perspective while I am in the nature, specially when I am near a lake. Well, it is just relaxing. And this time was no exception, I had in the morning feeling that I had again just too many thoughts and worries in my mind and I just had to left o photograph and walk in the park. And it was a little help, no, I didn’t miraculously solved all my problems and worries but I managed to get something in to order.

New toys…

mikko — Sun, 18 May 2008 19:31:22 +0000

A little update about my dear hobby, photographing. In April I came across a little bit too good offer and in the result I bought a new camera, Canon EOS 5D. And now I have been playing with it for over a month and I just like it. It is just a great camera, and so much better than my previous body, EOS 350D, naturally. And specially in the macro shootings, I like when I can see something through finder.
And in Thursday I finally managed to upgrade my tele-zoom lens. I should have been upgrading it a long time ago, but luckily I haven’t, because a friend was selling his Sigma 70-200/2.8 lens and I got it with a nice price. And with Sigma’s 2x extender. And I have to admit this also, that is a wonderful lens also. Now I finally have a good tele that I can actually use to take some photos. And in Friday I got a really good reason why I bought this lens, the photo in this post, I don’t think that I could have managed to take that with any other lens (that I currently have).

After fifth year…

mikko — Sun, 18 May 2008 19:22:09 +0000

It is again almost summer and like always, it means that again one academic year is behind, at least for studying. And it is time again to think about what I have managed to achieve this year.
Well, not much. In the autumn I had big plans, I decided to concentrate studies more and really try to push my studies a little bit further than so many previous years. But like always it seems to be with my plans, not everything went like I planned.
Like I wrote in November I got a job from our departments and started to work in nice project which was also a base of my master’s thesis. Well, that job was a full-time job and in the end it took pretty much of my time and my studies, once again, was delayed a little bit. And now when that job ended in the end of April I still haven’t my master’s thesis finished, my studies are only a little bit further that they were in the begin of academic year and currently I have no idea what I am going to do in the summer.
I really don’t know what happened to my motivation during this year, honestly I had quite a good motivation in the autumn but I just lost it in the way. Well, I have to admit that our departments courses are not so interesting that they can be and lectures are quite boring but still… Well, I just guess that I have to try better and harder in the next year. Maybe…