About changes..

I added word-verification in comments. As much as I like getting comments (hint hint), I would rather have them come from people who honestly [hated/loved/read], not from people who just want to plug their own AUTO INSURANCE QUOTE page. I have not bothered to erase these posts, but hopefully with this addition, I wont get them anymore.

I know I comment on other people's blogs, but I also try to make it so that I dont refer to my own writings at all; if people are interested, they can track my blog down with my username. And I think they apriciate it more when its clear that Im not writing to blug my own blog.

On other news: I also changed the comment-thingy to go in popup. Is this better or worse?

Alfred J. Kwak

Remember Alfred? I remember. When I was kid, roughly 7-10 years, this came out from telly. The story was strange; the first ten episodes were about his childhood, and the next episodes - I dont know how many, but there were many, maybe around 40? -about him as adult. I have faint impression that Alfred would have been journalist by trade. He lived in Waterland (Vesimaa, in finnish), which was fashioned to be like Netherlands. From there, he traveled to around world, and even got to visit space. Maybe he timetraveled as well? Or am I thinking the later Moomin episodes? Can't remember. Episodes that have permanently been burned on my mind, included one where he visits oil-trilling comblex in the middle of the sea, and finds that the ancient civilisation of dodos lives in the bottom, encased in glass-domes. Or the episode where he visits Egypt and is lost in a pyramid... I would have impression that there lived an ancient (goodlooking) honest-to-god female pharaoh there too.. but I may remember wrong.

Or how Alfred's old classmate ends up as dictator.. If I remember correctly, he is a crow, and damn proud of the fact. Sadly, he has a secret; he is only halfblooded, and his mouthpiece is infact not black, but dyes it to make it look so..
I also remember he would have visited in Africa, in country with apartheid going on, and would return from there with his new girlfriend (picture).

The mole in the picture is the man who raised Alfred, after he was orphaned (I think his parents got swept in the sea).

Great show. I wonder, would the animation still be as cool as I remember it, the storylines as daring? As I know remember some of the plots, there might be good change that the show had political agenda going on. It wasnt Disney-program; it was japanese production based on some storybooks made in Netherlands. Would be really interesting to see some episodes again.

Recomendatons on Blogsphere

Just Like That. Jokes and amusing pictures. If you are bored, this is a good way to spend your time. The jokes didnt even seem to be of the boring variety, these were inventive, and not so many times used you can see the light coming thru.


...


I actually browsed for two hours, and only found this one. Hope you enjoy it, though.

EDIT: Found the kippledrome too. Looks something like my own blog, I think, with interests that are not really mine, but cool nonetheless. I think he has some belief in aliens and finds pictures of yesterday fascinating (me too of course).

EDIT2: AMERICA the Blog. Has all those newspieces from America that are so much fun to rant to your friends. No "this happens everyweek" stuff here, but all that stuff that makes America-bashing so much fun.

Will probaply add these links to the right later on.

Found this...

Carl Barks made some really cool cartoonboxes. Check this and select something under the OBJECTS AND IDEAS. Some really funny stuff.

Still about Flags

I have been hitting that NEXT BLOG button again. Now most of the blogs that came out were actually people who put thought in what came out. No more printer-adds or whatever. Still, most of the blogs were pretty uninteresting, but that could be expected.

Vast improvement.

Flag?

Notice that "Flag?" button up there? You see it, next to "Next Blog"? It feels like its tailormade for my "Walking the Blogosphere" posts. Apparently I wasnt the only one with these thoughts.

Now, just hoping I dont get flagged..

Valerian and New Orleans

I remember, years ago, reading a french comic book (in finnish, of course), named Liikkuvien vetten kaupunki, if I remember correctly. Translation would be around the lines of "The City of Moving Waters". It was about two time travelers, who come back into past, into the year 1986, soon after catastrophe that makes the timelines nearly impossible to walk during the next few hundred years, a time which separates the modern world and the future, where time travel is possible and Galaxity is the peak of human civilization, culture that knows how to travel both in space and time, and have agents around both.

Anyway, in the beginning story Valerian is looking for his partner, who goes by the name of either Linda or Laura -- I forget. They are in New York City after the catastrophe, evacuated after the waters rose about ten meters over the street level.

Anyway, thats what Im thinking about now.

The parallels with today should not be too hard to see.

Was watching the news, and it occured to me how similar the footage was between NO and Baghdad. The reporters used nearly the same words. The story used nearly the same "plots". There was a person who hadn't eaten in a week, a man nearly mad because he had seen so many bodies float past him etc. The only difference that really hit me in the eye between NO and Bagdad was how welleaten these people looked. Sure, they were probaply really hungry, but its hard to stay serious when woman that appears to be around 100 kilos in weight goes about her dying because of lack of food.

Sure, these people are in need of help. But it wasnt like they didnt have oportunity to step into a bus and take vacation upstate or something, when the weathermen went - probaply in several channels, all at once - "FUCKING GET OUT OF THE CITY" to the viewers. These people thought they could do just fine back at their home sofa. Lousiana (thats where the city is located, if I remember correctly?) is pretty warm place, and you could probaply survive out in the wilds a week or so without depending on food store or anything. Plus the government offered their own staying places as well.

Oh well. Darwinism at work here.

That sounds so cruel. I hope the people will be ok - at least those alive - but of course its just one of the many tradegies in the world today. Concentrating on this one just dosent sound so... right. As it would be cheating. But of course, if you dont have friends or family there, its not really that real to you ,and you can go back to killing those people on computer, and hope you find the Final Bad Boss soon.

What Will You Drive When Petrol Costs One Mark Per Litre?

"Millä ajat kun bensa maksaa markan litra?"

The translation above. These words were in some old add, probaply in seventies. I remember seeing it scanned and in net, about year ago. I know I dont really have any readers, but in case I have one, and you know of this, and have the url, please paste it in the comments.

Anyway. Thanks to some world-market thingy that I fail to understand, Huricane Katrina, that leveled New Orleans the past week, causes the petrol price to up. This is pretty wierd, as America (USA/Mexico) dont import gasoline to Finland, and the problem is, anyway, in the fact that Katrina also leveled the docking bay of the oil tankers. So, Americans can't get all the petrol they need. Logically thinking, this should mean that one market for petrol is closed and there would be surplus of oil, that has to be sold somewhere else in the world, effectively pulling the price down.

But thanks to world economics, the price just climped to 1,5 euros per litre. That's nine old marks, fellows.

And the Americans dare to whine when they have to pay one dollar per gallon.

So, what will you drive when petrol costs ten old marks a litre? Thats what the question would be, if the add would be published today in the backcover of Tekniikan Maailma, or some other magazine of similar inclination. And the answer would be, of course, "bicycle".

EDIT: I remember there would have been one mark version, but this popped in net few hours ago: