Let's see what has happened since the last time I was here.
Jan-Erik and I went to see the movie "The Adventures of TinTin". I won't even attempt any deep(er) analysis on the movie as it goes, for me, into the category of light entertainment, but! This was an excellent example of very good light entertainment cinematography (perfect for Sunday evening), unlike good bunch of other big screen films (the fans of "Pirates of the Caribbean" might want to lynch me at this point). The movie was three-dimensional, and I am not a big fan. Give me the good ol' flat films :p The first reason is purely practical - I am short-sighted and need to wear glasses to see objects farther away, so using 3D glasses + my normal glasses is a bit inconvenient. Secondly, as Jan-Erik also noted, 3D glasses make the image a lot darker than it would otherwise be. I have seen two 3D movies and it has been the issue in both cases. Also, I think (and have read) that it is possible to make completely pointless 3D movies, to which the extra dimension does not give any additional value. The last "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie I think is a good example. (Well, it was a bad movie anyway.) Soooo I think I will possibly be skipping the 3D stuff in future, in most part.We have another 3+3 free movie vouchers for November (thanks to kind parents), and there are a couple of movies I would like to see, namely Aki Kaurismäki's newest "Le Havre" and a Finnish movie called "Kotirauha", but other than those, I have no idea if any of the "mainstream film art" is worth seeing or not. I know it sounds pessimistic, but it seems the Hollywood production does not bear any attraction for me personally. At least those that aren't Christmas movies, as Christmas movies can be as stupid as they want, I can still go "awwww" now and then :p
I have finished reading my very first book in Finnish. (Ovations, fireworks and applauding.) It took only about a year or so :p, because I left the book for months at times and then went back to it, and then left it again... (Needless to say I have managed to read numerous other books in parallel with this one, in Estonian and in English.) The book is the one up there, "Alkemisti" ("The Alchemist") by Paulo Coelho. I didn't like that book (Coelho-fans can now join in with the "Pirates" fans in lynching process :p), I don't think it's a good book, but then again, I knew that already before starting with it. I think this book has a good point (although absolutely nothing new or original, but what is in today's world anyway?), but it was not well written. In the sense of enjoying the way of writing, like I enjoy the way of writing of Haruki Murakami, or John Fowles, or Ray Bradbury, Coelho gives me zero, nothing. He writes in short sentences, repeating the same words and phrases over and over again. I, as a reader, feel like the author does not take me for a thinking, intelligent human being. For a moment there in the very last pages, there was a glimpse of hope - reaaallly? Are you doing that twist now? Can it be that there is at least something in this book? And then, in the epilogue, he just blows towards the card house he has been building, and it falls over. However! This is a perfect book for someone who is reading it in a foreign language. It's almost like a children's book, only not as simple. By the end of the book I had learned good bunch of words in Finnish just because they had been repeated on almost every page :D (shepherd, desert, sand, treasure, soul, dreams, magic, etc. etc. etc) It made me feel good because I could actually read it, and not have to ask for the translation of every other word. So, it was not a completely useless read. But I can't say I have much respect for Coelho as an author, and it has nothing to do with personal taste, even. Seeing in which pace he has given out books between 1988 and 2010 (24 - that is more than a book a year), it reminds me of a recent Family Guy episode that we watched (S9E6: Brian Writes a Bestseller). I can't take seriously someone for whom writing seems to be prodiction line work.
Enough of that. There was also a birthday, and I'm older than I used to be now. Jan-Erik gifted me the mega, giga, tera, peta, exa, zetta awesome camera Canon EOS 600D. This new vauva is one of the reasons I didn't hate my birthday this year, but not the only one. I actually had a nice day. That has not happened for some years :) I was taken care of, pampered, taken to a train ride, taken to a restaurant somewhere high up on 10th floor with nice view to the city. I really felt it was a special day :) Thanks, Jan. Bad thing is, it is getting really dark really early now, and the weather is generally quite gloomy all days long. These are not good conditions for photographing, at least not for an amateur. I personally need a lot of natural light to get the results I am happy with. I try to avoid the flash function on each camera for as much as it is possible. Maybe on the weekend I can take the vauva out for a spin and get some good practice.
This is the most brilliant, ingenious, cleverest cat toy I have seen. It is a plastic mouse with red laser beam (the button on the back of the mouse). Cats go MENTAL when this gets taken out, they are willing to climb up the walls and cross any obstacle to get to the red dot. And how convenient is it for the owners :p Just lie on the couch like Homer Simpson, and direct the laser beam around. Feeling like fed up with your cats in the living room all the time? Just lead the red dot to the kitchen and switch it off, and enjoy the 15 minutes of holy silence that follows while the four-paws are trying to figure out in the kitchen where the h... did that thing disappear to again :p
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