But I am already there

 It is a sad day indeed when a thing that comforts me most about my future and life and important decision making stuff is a video about mathematics, that I don't necessarily fully get, but I am smart enough to realize there is something pretty awesome going on here and there's plenty more of it at Viharts Youtube channel.

Practical Handbook of Bee Culture, with some Observations upon the Segregation of the Queen.

Am I late from the Elementary train? And for those who don't know, Elementary is new Sherlock Holmes show by CBS which got a lot of attention by being obvious BBC Sherlock rip-off and by casting Lucy Liu as the doctor John (now Joan) Watson. Despite there being some very wordy critics in the blogosphere, I decided to see for myself and downloaded the pilot.

After seeing the pilot I can say yes, there were some very obvious parallels between the Elementary and BBC's Sherlock and personally I think it is obvious that CBS is riding on BBC's coattails. It doesn't mean that the Elementary can't be at least moderately good show on it's own anyway. In both shows we see younger, more unhinged version of detective Sherlock Holmes in a modern setting. We get to see scene where Watson meets Holmes for the first time in both adaptions - something that has not been portrayed in earlier TV-shows. Both has the Holmes deducing Watson scene, admittedly with different outcomes. It was very hard for me to watch this show without comparing the two all the time, but I do that for every single adaption. And of course there will be similarities - they are based  on the same books. Duh. I will keep my eyes open for plagiarism while watching this show, but at least the pilot passed the test well enough. 

I don't deem it necessary to even comment on Watson being a woman or Watson being Asian or Watson not having military background. If Disney can replace the tenants of Baker Street with mice, CBS can do whatever they please with their casting. I was worried before watching the show that they would use femWatson as an excuse for ridiculous flirty banter between Holmes and Watson, and was pleased to see that this wasn't the case. I am actually rather interested in following if the series can keep it up - it's regretfully rare to see plain friendship between a man and a woman in the media. I liked that Watson had more active role in solving cases in Elementary than in most adaptions, and Holmes acknowledging that he doesn't really need her for solving cases - he just works better when she's there.

Johnny Lee Millers Holmes was... not very Holmesy. I am quite keen on the original stories as well as Granadas Holmes, and one thing I hate to see being taken away from the Holmes' character is his gentlemanly habitus. I think that Holmes is supposed to have that snobbish, upper-class-private-school sort of feeling to him, which is in no way diminished by his eccentricity. That is why I've never really taken with R.D.J-Holmes, and why I wasn't as thrilled about Elementary as I could have been. I don't like my Holmes all rugged and gruff. He is supposed to be sharp, precise, intelligent and ruthless, not some sort of action hero puppy who runs around kicking bad guys, damn it! But I love that they included the bees. Bees were great.

All in all I will be following Elementary with interest and a moderate amount of scepticism, and recommend checking it out for those in Sherlock withdrawal. It's not the best adaption out there but it could be a lot worse. 

A tourist in the waking world, never quite awake

For the lack of better things to say, here's amazing short animation by Zealous Creative

And I'll be home in a little while

I'm back from my five day trip to London and life is getting back on tracks. It's highly surreal how quickly I became attached to a new city, how much I miss the metropolitan atmosphere already. I won't go into any detail about what I saw and experienced: my test audience, mainly my family, showed clear signs that my anecdotes are not as amusing when you weren't there, witnessing them while they happened. Needless to say that I will go back to London some day, to see if I see it differently once the novelty has worn off, if it is a place I could make into a home. It of course might be that London is such a glorified place in my mind that the reality falls short... Anyway! As a souvenir of sorts:

4 things in London we could really use here in Helsinki

1. The Subway

I cannot express with words how much I loved and needed the tube in London every day. It's size surprised me: first by being so small, then being so all-encompassing. In Helsinki the Subway (Metro, as we call it) is heavy caliber. Way too big and clumsy and slow for a small town like ours: that, mainly is the reason it expands very rarely: It's expensive to build rails for such a beast of a thing. London tube is small and agile, old and vast. I didn't get lost but once: the direction boards at each station were very clear, making the navigation easy.

I live maybe 10 minute car drive away from the city center in Helsinki, and yet it takes both buss and subway and 30 minutes minimum to get there. I can only dream of a subway that some day could take me home by the fastest route.

2. The Bookshops

As is made clear by my previous blog writings, I live within a realm of literature as much as in a living world. No thanks to local bookshop culture. Only high quality bookshops are small, private enterprises few and far between. It takes effort to find even cult classics with a reasonable price tag. Not so in London. I can't claim to have expertise in the matter, as I only visited a few bookshops in considerably small area, but those few experiences I had made me very envious of bookshops in London. One place we visited is called the Waterstones. Despite it being store chain, the atmosphere was the same as in the small venues back at home, repertory included graphic novel classics (very rare in Helsinki), and when asked after a specific book the staff offered to order the book from States for no additional price to the buyer (This in Finland happens only in Academic Bookshop, which has a price level not suited for students purse). And no readers digest on sight!

3. The High-Quality (and cheap!) fast food.

Right next to our hotel was fast food venues EAT and Pret A Manger, both of which are designed a student or young worker in mind. Both offered cheap food made on location from fresh ingredients every day. As a reasonably new enterprises, all the services kept sustainable development and green values in mind, thus providing quilt-free dining. Also, warm take-away soups! How great would that be here with our horrible cold winter! 

4. The Museums

I mostly have no complains about Helsinki's museums. They are really, really great when you take the size of the city into consideration. It's just that they pale in comparison to Museums in London. Tate? Free entrance. The Natural History Museum? Free entrance. The National Gallery? Free entrance. It just goes to show how much more London invests in culture and science. I know this is a unfair comparison to make: There is no way a small nation like Finland could really put that much money and effort into a culture. Especially when there is collective outrage among the people every time someone suggests bringing new culture into Helsinki: I mean, look at the Guggenheim-conversation. But I still think we could develop these great venues we already have. In museum in London the entrance was free, but for some special exhibitions that were there for a limited time, you had to buy a ticket. I went to see Damien Hirst in Tate and Animal Inside Out in Natural History Museum, and I truly felt that I got the worth of my money. I can see similar mechanism working in museums at Helsinki. 

I used to write letters / I used to sign my name

Apparently it is possible to create your own font that is actually usable for free, with very little effort (unless you want your own font look better than my pathetic squiggles) I am very excited about this if you can't tell. Not that I'll use my font anywhere. Or do anything at all with it. But it is nice, knowing I could. Behold!

Yeah, my actual handwriting looks more or less like that. I'm not proud of it or anything, and I kind of pity my penpals who have to decipher my writing on a monthly basis.
Anyway, if you want to make your own, you can do so here.
And if you want to download mine for some reason, you can do that by clicking here.

But the Lord said / go to the Devil

I found quite interesting online Flash-based game yesterday evening called The End.
It is basically ordinary puzzles and mazes-platformer, but what makes it different from the rest gazillion similar games out there, this one makes you think of your views about death.

Levels are not terribly difficult and the whole game can be passed in a few hours. (took me about 6 hours, because I'm not really PC gamer at all.) Some of the puzzles were very clever and towards the end levels started to get genuinely challenging. At the end of every level there is a philosophical Y/N question.

Game collects your answers, compares them to the answers of well known thinkers, the world, and your Facebook friends. It tells you who is closest to your views (I was closest to Machiavelli almost for the whole duration of the game. )

I liked the avatar maker very much, because it didn't force you to choose the gender of the avatar and yet was more diverse than most similar avatar makers. All in all game's visual outfit was consistent and appealing, and I liked that the different worlds had their distinctive outlooks.

Pros/Cons

+outlook
+avatar maker
+philosophical questions were well researched and interesting, game also directs you for further reading about every subject.

-occasional bugs and glitches, levers didn't turn/ character didn't always run or jump.
-it was fairly easy to break some levels

Altilis-738

I really like window shopping. Even more so when I have money and the window shopping has the potential to turn into actual shopping. Today I was pleasantly surprised by one of my impulse purchases. And so it happens that

I have a tasty piece of comic review on the menu today (puns fully intended) 

Chew, Volume 1: Taster's choice is bizarre in a way you rarely see published. The events take place in the alternative reality where bird flu pandemic was so bad that government prohibited chicken. Eating chicken, buying chicken, owning chicken is illegal. The black market for poultry is blooming. Conspiracy theorists are having a blast. Oh, and some people have inexplicable abilities that more often than not relate to food. Other than that life is pretty much as it is, which only makes the few oddities in the Chew funnier in comparison.

Our protagonist is a copper called Tony Chu. He is Cibopathic. He eats stuff and gets psychic impressions from what he ate. His ability comes in handy at detective work, as long as he doesn't mind tasting murder victims and their dogs every once in a while. (He does mind, but he'll do it anyway) It takes only one case where Chu bites suspect's face off and he is enrolled into government's Special Crimes Division and the rest is stuff of the legends. 

I really enjoyed Rob Guillory's art, his bold lines and caricaturesque style. His style also goes really well hand in hand with John Layman's bizarre humour. Chew: vol 1 has left me hungry for more, and I'm only a bit miffed to be hooked on a comic that is next to impossible to find from stores in Helsinki. Do I have to (gasp) order something from internet?!