Aquaman's missing blue suit found

Here.

Books I have read recently

Alien Earth by Megan Lindholm.

You might better know her from her work under the alias of Robin Hobb.
Alien Earth is a scifi story, written in 1992, probaply before Lindholm got famous with her Assasin-books. The story of the book in nutshell;
Earth is dying. And with Earth, humanity. While humankind has advanced in technology, it is not far enough developed to move the species to new planet. And then come the Arthroplana in their living Beastships. They transfer humans to knew planet, where evolution is based on co-operation instead of fighting for the place in the sun. The planet's ecosystem welcomes humanity, giving it its own niche in the grand dance of the world. But humanity is just visiting. To ensure that they would not damage their new planet, the population dwindles to several thousands; to minimize the resource usage, people become smaller and smaller.
The largest rule is; you should not cause impact on the planet. People should not walk the same path repeatedly in case they leave too big a tract; and walking outside the designated areas is illegal.
John Gen-93-Beta is a person who dosent really like where humanity is at the moment. Captain ing the Beastship Evangeline ensures he is sleeping years at a time, while the ship is traveling from one place to another. He is the leader of crew of one, Connie, who has once been mentally "adjusted". Not even Connie herself knows why she was adjusted for, but she is pretty sure whatever it was, the adjustment didnt really work.
Also on the board is the owner, the real captain of the Beastship Tug, who is obsessively interested in Earth-literature, and a stow-away, who has been in hibernation since he left Earth, thousands of years ago.
After getting comission from Earth Affirmed, Evangeline and its passangers head to Earth, to see if its still habitable. But things dont go as planned, and captain and crew are stuck on planet that is very foreign from the friendly planet where humanity has lived hundred generations, and to which humanity has been trying to adjust.
The book has a message on it, and more twists you can imagine. This is surely the best book from the author I have read. I couldnt make myself give the book a rest.


Mister Monday by Garth Nix

I have previously read from this author the Abhorsen-trilogy, as well as Across the Wall, which I thought was collection of short stories about the Kingdom, where where trilogy takes place. Instead it had one longish short story about Kingdom, and lots of older stories from Mr. Nix' career.

Anyway, Mister Monday is the first book out of seven, in series named Keys of the Kingdom, which dosent have anything to do with the Kingdom mentioned earlier.
The books are very fastpaced. On the other hand, something is happening all the time, but there isint much time for conversation. His books handle like action films, lots of action, little talk. This makes them breathtaking, but not very deep.
Relationships between characters aren't really built; in this book the character Leaf appears exactly twice in person and once via email. Still the reader has to think that Leaf is a close friend of the protagonist.
To the book. At the beginning of time, there was the Architech. He built the House, and after the House, he built the Secondary Realms, aka the Universe. The House is millions of levels high, and its function is to record what happens in the Secondary Realms, to smallest detail.
Then the Architech went away. Before leaving, he left behind The Will, which tells how things should work from there on. He left seven people to take care that the Will be done, but instead they tore the Will apart and inprisoned the parts on the far reaches of Time and Space. Then they split the House and the Secondary Realms to their own domains; each one would get certain parts of the House, and authority over Secondary Realms on one given weekday.
The book starts when one fragment of the Will escapes. It fools Mister Monday to give the Minute Key, one of the fourteen keys to the House to Arthur Penhaligon, who is just about to die of asthma attack.
Then Arthur has to start running, because Monday wants his key back.
The book is very orginal in its execution, and while it draws parallels between Architech and God, there is no religious message, though one who knows of such things will probaply find the book even more interesting read. The House, where Arthur has to travel is very orginal, and does not really follow the rules of normal fantasy. Its very fast paced, to a fault, as some characters are introduced and left way too fast, only to come back hundreds of pages later in their designated function.
It is very hard to think will someone be trustworthy, when the decision has to be made from few impressions. Reader has to trust into the judgement of the main character, as he spends time with the people much longer than Nix bothers to tell us about.
All in all, good book, but little sketchy on times.

Bartimeus-trilogy (Amulet of Samarkand, The Golem's Eye, Ptomely's Gate) by Jonathan Stroud.
I started reading this last summer, when I encountered the translation at the library. I finished the last part in english last month, and finally Im going to write something down on the subject.

After Gladstone, a mighty magican, took over Great Britain in the 19th century, England has been the world's greatest empire, the home of the greatest magicans, who form the government and backstab each other to gain more power.

All of the power of the magicans is based on demons they summon and command; sometimes they infuse objects with them, trapping the demons inside, and thus greating powerful objects. Great care is to be taken while dealing with the demons, as they would very much like to get their hands on the summoner. The summoning is based on the true names of the magicans and of the demons, and with the magican's true name in his hands, demon can do much to rip control from him.
The books are written from the perspectives of the young magican Nathaniel and his demon, djinn Bartimeus. Unfortunately for Nathaniel, Bartimeus finds out his true-name, and so he must put his faith on the demon, who can sell him out for the other demons or to other magicans, everyone wanting his hide.

In the first book, Nathaniel, who is only 12-years old and goes by the name of John Mandrake, summons Bartimeus to gain vengance against high-ranking government magican, and bids Bartimeus to steal the Amulet of Samarkand, incredibly powerful talisman that makes its wearer safe from all magic. Things dont go as planned, and soon Nathaniel and Bartimeus find themselves homeless, trying to prevent the goverment falling into the hands of a conspiracy.

In the second book, Nathaniel, now 14-year old, summons Bartimeus as the policeforce he is operating cant seem to solve what causes destruction at London. Bartimeus finds out for his disapointment, that while he has been away, Nathaniel has grown more and more ruthless. However, he is but a slave, what can he do to change that?

In the third book, Nathaniel, now 17-years old, is at the top of the game. He is the propaganda minister, one of the most powerful magicans and politicans of the Empire. However, war is on at the colonies of America, and it isint going well.
Bartimeus is nearly at the end of his rope. Since the second book, he has been constantly on the mundane world, a tiring thing for a demon. Dimished in size and strength, he can barely open a doors anymore. And the conspiracy, long thought finished, is still around, and ready for the final move.

When I first saw the books, I thought "another Harry Potter-clone". But the cover (see above) was very intriguing, and I had nothing better to do, so I started reading. It ended up not being anything like Harry. For one thing, its very dark. Nathaniel, in the beginning quite innocent boy who wants to get to the top, progressively rises higher and higher by walking over other people. On the same time, Bartimeus, a very uncommon personality for demon, despires how boy he quite liked turns more and more into the sinister magican John Mandrake.

I quite recommend this.

Other books to come later on. Hopefully I get more interest in updating this blog - it deserves it..

Star Wars: Devilworlds 1 ja 2

The post to come is in finnish, seeing as how I wrote this at finnish forum. I however think its worth saving here as well.

Sain juuri luettua Dark Horsen Star Wars: Devilworldsin. Kyseessä on kaksiosainen minisarja joka julkaisi parhaita, alunperin 70-luvun lopussa Britanniassa Britannian markkinoille tehtyjä Tähtien sota-sarjakuvia. Kummassakin numerossa oli useampia lyhyitä tarinoita, joista yhteensä viisi oli Alan Mooren, tuon sarjakuvajumalan, käsikirjoittamia. Mukana on myös Alan Davisin varhaisia tarinoita. Jännä katsoa miten herrat ovat kehittyneet vuosien saatossa. Mooren tarinat ovat runsassanaisia, mutta harvassa niistä on sitä twistiä joista Moore nykyään on niin tunnettu. Davisin kuvitus on selkeästi nuoren miehen kuvitusta, eikä se ole niin sliipattua ja juoksevaa kuin ne esim. Excaliburin ja Ryhmä-X:n tarinat, joista hän myöhemmin tuli kuuluisaksi.
En ole aiemmin lukenut vanhoja SW-tarinoita -- niitä joita julkaistiin Suomessakin 80-luvulla -- mutta osa näistä tuntui erittäin tutuilta. Muistin jopa yhden tarinan lopun, mutta mulla ei ole mitään muistikuvaa siitä missä olisin näitä lukenut...

Joka tapauksessa. Tarinat olivat hyvin outoja verrattuna niihin useisiin nykypäivänä kirjoitettuun. Kun nämä uudet tarinat tuntuvat olevan scifiä pienellä fantasia-silauksella, niin nämä vanhat tuntuvat olevan fantasiaa scifi-silauksella. Tarinoissa pyörii demoneita, jumalia, mutantteja, aikamatkustusta ja vanhoja sivilisaatioita.

Luettelen tarinat:
Devilworlds 1:
Dark Lord's Conscience. Alan Moore ja John Stokes. Vader on kutsuttu pelaamaan jotain shakin tapaista vieraalle planeetalle. Hänen pelatessaan rakennukseen murtautuu mutantti joka kykenee nostamaan ihmisissä niin syvän epätoivon pahojen tekojensa tähden, että nämä tekevät itsemurhan.
The Flight of Falcon .Steve Parkhorse ja John Stokes. Millenium-tehtaan valmistamat Hawk-alukset ovat salakuljettajien suosiossa. Niinpä Imperiumi "pyytää" että tehdas valmistaisi Falconin - prototyypin tulevasta aluksesta, jota Imperiumi sitten tuunaisi salakuljettajajahtia varten.
Dark Knight's Devilry. Steve Moore ja Alan Davis. Luke ja Leia ovat aavikkoplaneetalla, etsimässä timanttia jonka avulla aikaa voi kelata takaisin ja tapahtumien suuntaa voi muuttaa.
Blind Fury. Alan Moore ja John Stokes. Luke törmää matkoillaan hätäsignaaliin, joka johtaa hänet muinaisen velhon linnaan. Linnasta löytyy vanhoja jedi-ritarien haarniskoja ja sieluja, krystalleihin vangittuna. Ja velhokin on vielä hengissä.

Devilworlds 2
Rust never sleeps. Alan Moore ja Alan Davis. R2D2 ja C3PO ovat saapuneet robottien hautausmaalle, järjestämään kapinaa Imperiumia vastaan joka aikoo louhia robottiromujen vuoria raaka-aineita vastaan. Planeetalla he tapaavat ikivanhan robotin, joka kertoo että planeetta on itseasiassa robottien romuista muodostuva elävä jumala.
Tilotny throws a shape. Alan Moore ja John Stokes. Leia pakenee aavikolla, perässään iskujoukkojen sotilaita. Paetessaan hän törmää ensin tuhansia vuosia vanhaan iskujoukkojen sotilaan kypärään, ja sitten outoihin, todellisuuden ulkopuolelta tulleisiin olentoihin.
The Pandora Effect. Alan Moore ja Adolfo Buylla. Paetessaan paikallista mafiaa Hellhooppiin (eräänlaiseen Bermudan kolmioon) Leia, Han ja Chewbacca löytävät joukon sadistisia velhoja jotka ovat vanginneet demonin kristalliin.

Tarinat ovat aika outoja, niissä ei ole kovinkaan "SWmäisiä" piirteitä. Tarinat ovat fantasiaa, jossa silloin tällöin vilahtaa avaruusaluksia.
Hahmojen kasvojen piirrustustapa ei ole vakiintunut, ja niinpä Luke ei näytä yhtään Mark Hamillilta eikä Han Harrison Fordilta. Piirtäjien lahjakkuuden huomioonottaen kyse ei ole kuvittajien kyvyttömyydestä, vaan tietoisesta päätöksestä.

Ennen muuta ne ovat katsaus aikaan jolloin Imperiumin vastaisku ei ollut vielä ilmestynyt, ja käsitys siitä millainen SW-universumi oikeasti on oli vielä aika hatara, varsinkin Britanniassa missä ei ilmestynyt niin paljoa oheiskrääsää kuin Yhdysvalloissa.

Tunnistaako joku muu kuvattuja tarinoita? Julkaistiinko niitä Suomessa? Onko kenelläkään tietoa minkä takia osa näistä tarinoista, varsinkin Tilotny throws a shape ovat niin tuttuja että tiesin loppuratkaisun vaikka minulla ei ole mielikuvaa aiemmasta lukukerrasta?

Challenge

I challenge you to pick ten wierd books out of your bookshelf and explain why you havent gotten rid of them. So wrote Tekno-Kekko at his blog, after he had been challenged to answer to do something quite different. However, I found this one particulary amusing, so I think Ill do it. Not ten, however. Tekno-Kekko is probaply over 50, and Im little over 20, so I dont have as much wierd stuff as he does. Plus I moved only year ago, so most of the stuff I could not explain to myself were left behind. Such as my mormor's (mom's mom) old schoolbooks. Im going back to get them, however, one of these days. They are very entertaining.
So I will settle for five entries. Can you, dear readers (all two of you) do the same?

Helene Schjerfbeck - Piirustuksia ja akvarelleja (drawnings and akvarels). I loaned this from my farmor (dad's mom), who has since lost her ability to read or hold books, so I havent bothered to return it. The name of the book is quite misleading. I thought it would have her best art, but it mostly has stuff that "hasnt gotten the attention it requires". In other words, most of those pictures are shit. And Helene S. was very talented woman. I would hope to have tenth of the skill she had! It also has lots of stupid text about said artist's life and why she did the art shown.

North American Indians by E.S.Curtis. Photos from early 20th century. They are pretty funny and depressing at the same time. I think my dad gave it to me as a keepsake, when he moved and couldnt take it with him. I think he thought it would be of interest to me.

IKEA catalogue. I have never even visited IKEA. I have no idea why I have this in my bookshelf.

Dezra's Quest. Dragonlance. I think I got this dirtcheap somewhere. And thats good reason to get anything. Now, I do have other Dragonlance-books on my bookshelf, but this one I couldnt even finish, and I have finished some really sucky books earlier on.

Dragon Knights. Few years ago, when I was still new to manga, I bought the first ten books in this series. I think I was confident that the book was the highest peek of civilization or something.
Its rubbish. Complete shit. I dont know what I was thinking. I however, did use 150 euros on the books, so I cant just throw them away.

Batgirls everywhere!

In livejournal, there is going this boom of drawing Batgirls. Go take a look, they are very well drawn, I think most of those dudes are professionals. Anyway, even tho I arent professional, I drew one too. If you wish to see what I did with it, just change the number.

This is the only picture I link here; you can see more on my webpage, but I kinda think this was worth a post.

And no, I am not all that happy with the colours I ended up with. But I did draw this from first line to last mouseclick myself. Didnt even use a model.

Best Blonde Joke Ever

Im ashamed to admid but it took me awhile before I got it.

Matti

In the eighties, there was a ski jumper named Matti Nykänen. He wsa said to be the very best jumper in the world; he won olympic gold five times.
I remember vaguely, that when I was in daycare* that we made gold medals to honour him. I brought it home, and showed it to my mom. I was very happy.
Then I went to Africa for few years**. When I came back, no one of my peers in the class remembered him. While I had been in media void for two years, they had seen new things and forgotten the man, the legend. There were new ski-jumpers, and thought they tried to be like him, not one had that "something" that made them interesting. I have the impression that back in the rich eighties skii jumping was something cool, and Nykänen appeared in commercials and whatever; I returned to Finland during the depression of early nineties ****; there were "promising future stars" appearing in few commercials, but after that, nothing.

Of Matti, I didnt know what happened to him. Then I grew older and mom judged we kids were old enough to read rumour-magazines she liked to read, but didnt earlier dare to leave to us kids; and therefore I learned that Matti had become a stripper. That didnt last long. Even later, I heart that between his Golden Days and strippers, Matti had been a singer. A very bad one. mp3's of his songs are still common laughing stock on the hard drive of nearly every male teenager on this country.
Even later, he stabbed a friend of his while drunk, as he was leering on Matti's woman (who he has married three times, I think). Got him jail, and was freed after two years. I heard that few months ago he had repeated this deed. Did he go back to jail, I dont know, I only read the headlines.
I think he has some arrangments with the journalists; he seems to be the equivalent of Royal Family in UK. Thats the regularity he appears in covers. It has been statistically proven that his name in the cover rises sales as much as 20%.

And now Matti is back. They made a movie out of, telling of his later days as a jumper till the time his life starts to fall apart. I havent personally seen the movie. I only write this post as huge intro to the Matti merchantise shops are full here, these days. You see, Matti had this habit of making deep philosophical remarks by mixing finnish and english;
"Elämä on laiffii" (Life is life"), "Jokainen mahdollisuus on uusi tsänssi" (Every oportunity is a new chance) etc. And of course "Ehkä join, ehkä en" (Maybe I was drunk, maybe not).
And there was one thing he made so popular everyone forgets he said it first; "putki päällä", literally "pipe on", meaning everything from getting thru Pac-Man without dying or doing many things succesfully one after another. The orginal meaning, of course, was drinking without pause for days.

I so want one of those black t-shirts or headgear, one of those phrases above printed on it on big white letters.

*I can remember so little from those days, I think I was like three then. Mostly impressions.
**My childhood is divided into parts "before Africa", of which I remember very little, "during Africa", of which I dont remember much more, and "after Africa" which is my life till I was 11***.
***This is when I moved to where I grew into adult.
****Soviet Union fell, and with it most of foreign trade. And after that came the bank crisis. Nineties was not a good time to be in Finland.

Sicky

Short post.
Im sick. Dunno why, but my throat has been REALLY painful the past few days. Started Tuesday night with little itch. Wednesday I couldnt even breath without it being really painful. Today it didnt hurt as much, but I could only get whisper out of my mouth.
Oh, and I couch like a chainsmoker.
Which gets us to the point where I decide to drink hot glög* to help my throat... and then I go to calculate the temperature wrong, causing my mouth being very very tender.

All this would be pretty reasonable, I would just stay home and wait to get better, if not this were the end of the period and all my assingments need to be finished and returned. Its quite nice to do teamwork when other teammember has bad couch and cant really talk...

*Heavily spiced hot wine or berryjuice.

About eternity projects

(Yes, Im still yet to finish my last post, to which I promised sequel, this isint it, though)

Around this time each year, I have a tradition.

Checking out Duke Nukem Forever webpage. And each year I have great laughs on that subject. I remember Daikatana, and laugh heartily again .

Dosen't say anything to you, does this? Yes, Im fastily becoming an old fart, and I know it well. So, I thought I would tell you the story of these two games, as they are very funny indeed.

John Romero was a superstar in videogames (does anyone know why the are called thus? Videogames?). One of the founders of id Software, he was a leading force behind Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Quake. Each of these games was groundbreaking, and more importantly, financially very, VERY succesful. They developed the First Person Shooter, and to this day, new Doom and Quake can be assured to revolutionarize -or at least, bring something new - to the genre, to what is possible to do with the graphics.

John Romero thought to strike it on his own. He created a new company, named Ion Storm, got Eidos (the company behind Tomb Raider) finanzing it, and announced he would do a game named Daikatana. Now, this would be HUGE. Im quoting wikipedia;
Romero's initial game design, completed in March 1997, called for a huge amount of content -- 24 levels split into 4 distinct time periods, 25 weapons, and 64 monsters. Despite this, Romero believed the game could be completed in seven months, just in time for Christmas 1997. Expect he couldnt. The date got slipping farther and farther into future. And while the game was in develoment Romero lived like a rockstar. He got office for the company in the toppermost floor in a skyscraper (I heard somewhere that the doorknobs there would have been gold), raced heavily modded Ferraris, got interviewed by several periodicals; Time wrote that "Everything that game designer John Romero touches turns to gore and gold." Underlined by the fact that they had things like (again, from wiki;) an infamous [...] advertisement for Daikatana [...] with large black lettering proclaiming "John Romero's about to make you his bitch" [...]nothing else [...] but a small tag-line reading "Suck It Down" and an Ion Storm logo.

In the end the game came out in 2000. The AI of the game sucked, the graphics looked three years old (even six months was "old", thats how fast the industry developed), and many of the salepoints of the game were, infact, its weak points. Did I mention it didnt sell that well?
John Romero was one of the jokes of gaming community back on its day, for examble in Megatokyo, back when it was still good.

Now, to Duke Nukem Forever. There are two Duke Nukem-games in the early 90s, they were pretty run-out-of-the-mill games, where character jumped up and down like Mario and shot aliens (not like in Mario). Then, in '96 Duke Nukem 3D came out.
It was cool. There was multiplayer, you got to shoot aliens (and other players), there were dirty phrases and you could go to toilet to piss or pay strippers so they showed you their tits (thanks to the graphics of that time, it wasnt that special, though). Playing DM3D multiplayer is one of my best memories, back when I was 13. We played it at school on multiplayer (I sucked, I had no idea how to do evasive action and always got shot. I was much better in Quake). Now, DM3D sold really well, really well indeed. And so sequel was announced, in early '97. It would be published by Christmas '98, and it would be huge. It would be better looking, cooler, gutsier &c than any other game in the market.
There was Hype, oh, how there was hype. Back then there was PC Gamer being published in Finland, too. It was rather expensive magazine, as it came with two demo-CD's (back when the topspeed in net was 36k (that is, 3,6 kilobytes per second).. our computer had 28k modem). Me and bros, we gave the magazine as Christmas and birthday-presents to each others, as it was the only way we could justify to each other the price. But thats off the topic. Anyway, it had big hypes on the game, and we bought it all. Even thought it was wrapped in stupid story about the reporter crawling into high-security building stealing peaks on the plans (as opposed to taking part in tour and copypasting from mediafile). And we waited for the game. And waited.
The game was developed by 3D Games and thanks to money from Max Payne (another eternity project) and its sequel, the company floats very well still. Infact, it floats so well that the game is still in develoment. Nine years after they started programming, eight years after it was supposed to be finished. And after nine years, the game still dosent have any screenshots to be shown. Imagine that.
Oh, and in case you are not familiar on the subject, today, game is made in one to three years, depending on the subject. Nine, however, must be the record. The game is still in production, there are people who are still paid to write the code. Would think that employers would notice they dont get anything done.

That is my dream job. To get paid continually for nine years, for the job of one or two, and employer still keeping faith in me that I shall finish it.. one day. And not fairing me.

Endings

Comicbooks (and tv-series, I suppose) can end several ways. And you realise Im talking about series that arent mini- or maxiseries. First one is that, thanks to publishing or deal problems the next issue goes farther and farther to future, until its outright stupid to continue. To average reader this means that the story ends with "to be continued". Examble of this would be Stormwatch: Team Achilles, of which I was huge fan at one point (I own both TPBs).

The second way is that the writer has finished the story, and has enough creative control over the result that he can make definite ends. Such as Sandman, Starman, Transmetropolitan and Preacher.

The third way is that, thanks to bad sales the book will be canceled, and the writer has one to six issues (depending how good the writer is, and how much goodwill towards the company editors want the writer to have) to tie the threads and give some sort of conclusion, similary leaving the characters into situation where new writers can take them and twist them into something that might actually be profitable. Sometimes the new writer and the twist never comes. But lets examine several endings of comicbooks. Spoilers ahoy!

Impulse (read my post from before the last one) ends in issue 89. Max Mercury is meditating, when something attacks and possesses him. It is the evil anti-Flash from the 40s! Max runs away, possessed. Instead of consulting help from the superhero-community, Impulse is moving to Jay Garrick's place (first Flash) in Keystone. Impulse promises to visit his friends but never does. Of Max, nothing is heard, and he ran away nearly ten years ago.
When Bart is seen again, he is immediately shot into the leg, which causes him to lose his illusion of immortality. He becomes very serious and thoughtful character, even taking the name Kid Flash.

Generation X, was about mutant school, its a spin-off of X-Men. Its about the schooling of young mutants, most of which want to become superheroes, X-Men when they graduate. The (spelling?) school has been several times under attack during the last months. The teachers dont seem to have anything to teach anymore, and nobody knows when they would be graduating. All the remaining students decide to quit school. They promise to talk to each other, to call, to have class reunions. They never do. Most of the characters are "kills of the month" during next ten years.

Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E was about teenage superhero and her step-dad, who is sidekick from 40s but is still relatively young thanks to timewarps and whatnot. The comicbook ends after just few issues, into promise that someday Star Spangled-Kid (Girl?) would be great hero. Nowadays she appears in JSA, which is written by the creator of the hero.

X-Man ends when the maincharacter, a telepath of nearly unlimited power sacrifices himself by saving Earth of alternative dimension from being destroyed. The last page implies he is still alive, thru all the people he saved with his heroic action. After seven or eight years, he is no longer mentioned. Ever.

Soldier X was reimagination of Cable. He was very much like X-Man, even shared the same first name and powers. Only he is in his late fifties, and his powers were cribbled by disease that was changing his body into metal. The series was about Cable wandering in Russia, playing Messiah and doing miracles, now that he was healing from the disease. The book has infact two endings; when the writer quits with story how in 2000 years, Cable is remembered as messiah who saved the human race; it is followed by two mediocre stories that dont really connect into previous continity; Cable is again cribbled by his disease, and he is now back in America. The series ends in issue that could end nearly every story. The last two issues didnt really have place in the book.

Spider-Man 2099 was exellent book about future Spider-Man, who is banner in rebellion against corporate rule. He is more extreme than the normal Peter Parker, and his powerlevel and skill is several levels downwards. The first thirty issues are really good writing and art, and then the writer and artist both quit as statement because of the way Marvel was managed. The series then survived two dozen more issues, during which the status quo changes ever more (the alter ego becomes the CEO of the company he was rebelling against; the old CEO is his biological father and Spidey becomes the banner of the company). New villains are introducted, each worse than the previous one. In the end the whole world is flooded. The 2099-universe ends in miniseries which were so crappy I couldnt finish them even thought I got the issues for free.

Superboy was a book about character who thought he was clone of Superman, but wasnt really. After fifty issues on Hawaii and then twenty on Project Cadmus (which was trip down the memory lane back to old Kirby stories), Kid of Steel tries to make it on his own in the big city. New people are introducted during the span of few issues, until Superman appears and takes Superboy to Kent farm. Several of the villains also decide to move to Smallville, but of them nothing is ever heard again.

...

I think its time for me to go to bed; clock is 2:30. I shall continue on this subject later, on a new post.

Rex Mundi

Rex Mundi is a comicbook, from Image, its homepage can be found here. Check it out, the gallery has some very cool wallpapers - that is, if your screen resolution is 1024x800 or under.

Rex Mundi is latin. Apparently it translates into "King of the World". When I opened the first issue - or the zero issue, as it is - I thought Rex Mundi was the name of the character. Indeed, when I heard the name, I had the impression -- dont ask me why -- that this was DC-title, and that the maincharacter was so named and adventurer.

Could I be more wrong?

Julien Sauniére is a doctor. Year is 1933, and the location is Paris. This Paris is capital of Kingdom of France. It is one of the Great Powers, along with United Kingdom, Prussia (read: Imperial Germany), Holy Roman Empire (read: Austria-Hungary) and Ottoman Empire. The Great Experiment of United States didn't work. What was once United States, rising continental power with dreams of greatness, is now divided into Federal Republic of America, Confederate States of America, the lawless Nebraska Corridor and City-State of New York. FRA and CSA are locked into never ending border skirmishes, and the nations can barely keep themselves together. Only New York fares well. And so, Europe is still ruled by the feodal system, as adjusted to the modern world.

In the world of Rex Mundi, the old magics really work. A man who has studied hebrew or armenics can well cast spell of great power. And while Pope, the undivided ruler of Christian World (Luther got killed before reformation got really rolling), dislikes sorcery, it isin't exactly forbidden. The nations are policed by the Inqvisition and they arent happy punch.

Anyway, Doctor Sauniére is a doctor, who late one night is called by his friend, Father Marin. An manuscript has been stolen from secret library he takes care for the Church. If Church finds out that the manuscript has been stolen, Marin is sure to lose his head. And so he begs that Sauniére, whom he knows to be a resourceful man, would look into the matter. But things aren't that easy, and soon bodies start to pile and what looked like simple theft starts to be ever more complicated. It involves Knights Templars, and secrets they left behind, after King had dispanded them, so many years ago.

The story is limited series; in three years, 16 numbers have been written and gone out. I have no idea how many issues for this is planned. Two TPB's have been published, the second came out on the second half of 2005; they are both 176 pages thick, and very reasonable priced; Amazon says about $14, and Suomalainen kirjakauppa €15,70. I am going to order them come Saturday (tomorrow, Friday, shops are closed thanks to some holiday, but bugger me if I know why the day is holy).

To my eyes, the book seems very nicely written and the art is quite beatiful. But dont take my word on it; the official webpage has the Rex Mundi #0 in PDF form, to be downloaded for your use. Also, spin-off comicbook (which, I admid, I have not read) of Brother Mathew can also be found on the page. Apparently, the whole story (as long as the story is) can be found on the wetpage. I frown to the fact that it is in PDF, but you don't look gift horse into the mouth...

Go on, browse the netpage. If I should whine about something, it is the map of Europe. Why is it, that everytime alternative version of European map is drawn, the east border of Finland is all wrong? In the Red Alert game from Westwood Studios, the European map was that of 90s, even thought the game was about World War II (in alternative history); in Rex Mundi, Lapland belongs wholly to Sweden, and I have nothing against it; its part of the story. But why does Finland's east border go where it is today? It is set so thanks to reasons going back to World War II; the borders of both pre-WW2 and Grand Duchy of Finland, as well as Eastern Sweden before that were somewhat more to the east from those shown in this map.

Impulse!

This time I thought to talk a little about a comic book, named Impulse. The backstory to the book was as follows; the Flash is the fastest man on earth; but Flash is not just one man; indeed, three men have used the name. Apart of these three, several other people also share the power. Living at 30th century, Bart Allen is the grandson of the second Flash and the cousin of the third one. Unlike his relatives, Bart was born with superspeed; the ability to run near the speed of light. Somehow his powers didnt work normally, and Bart aging was accelerated. Aging in three years from month-old baby to teenager, he was plugged to Matrix-like computer environment, that teached him how to talk, to write... and that life comes with experience points and the chance to save and load if you happen to die accidentally.

Bart came to 20th century to be healed, and after the aging was halted, he was given to Max Mercury, 200 year old superspeedster to rise and train. (This happened in The Flash #95-102 or so).
The comicbook starts when Max and Bart move to Alabama, to small community where Bart starts going to the ninth grade. The comic book revolves around laughs; much jokes are taken from the fact that Bart thinks the whole secret identity is just one of the ways for Max to torture him; he also has problems to understand that he can die on line of duty.
The comics revolve mainly on Bart trying to cope with normal reality, playing video games and wrapping his thoughts around one idea or another, as Max tries to keep him from killing himself or blowing his secret identity. While he is feeling particulary adventurous, he tries to teach Bart about his powers and about world...
The villains Impulse now and then meets arent that serious either; in the world of Impulse, you can find supervillains location because they have the adress of their secret hideout on their webpage.
The book is not drawn in the normal "realistic" style of american superheroes, but rather in iconic way, that sometimes reminds of manga or grafitis. The book had a run of 100 issues, and near its end it tried to find more readers by having the book to have shares stories with Young Justice, a group in where Impulse was a member (YJ was also rather comical by nature).

After Impulse ended (after 89 issues), most of the supporting characters just vanished. Bart Allen himself continued his adventures in the comc book Teen Titans. And while the book is exellent read, the character (now using the name Kid Flash) dosent have much in common with Impulse.

Pilot episodes

In America, one extralong episode is made, and based on how small group of people react to it, it will be shown on television.. and if people still like it, tv-series will be made. The first episode is known as pilot (just in case you didnt got that).

This short post is about pilots. Wikipedia also has exellent article about the subject. Read it. It's not that long...

...

Done yet? OK! Now, as you could read from that article, most pilots wont last that long. At least here in Finland, there is one whole slot in the telly for failed pilotes. They are quite depressing, all ending with questions of "what happens next". For a person that dosent know these were made are pilots (they are always advertised as "TV-movies") this would be rather shocking. And some of the so-called movies are so sucky that you wonder how they even got that far. And some were so good you wonder why they didnt go farther. In the first category, probaply, there would be Justice League Live Action, that looked rather like Power Rangers; and Generation X, which I thankfully dont remember that much about, but that it was so sucky.

Should the pilot get attention and decision to make real series be made, there can be some time, say, year or two, between the filming of pilot and the first episode (or the third episode, as pilot would be shown as two parter to begin the first season). Of course, during this year much might happen to the people of the shows. They might get forward in their career, and consider television series a step back; or the actor might die.

It is then very amusing for new viewer to wonder why Flash's girlfriend mysteriously vanishes between episodes two and three, and why the style of clothing changes from over-eighties comedy look to something more modern (and less radical)... or why the character is potraited by different actor.. or there is new character that has taken without explanation the place of older character...

People from Turkey

You know them. Every year, usually around the change of the year, they come to IRC, ICQ or maybe MSN. I have no idea where they get your screen name, but there it is. They say "hi", and after little chatting (showing that they have about two years of english studies under their belt, maybe), they will ask if you know turkish (even thought its established that you are American, or North European or maybe Australian). Then they ask to be your pen pal.
There are variations, and sometimes this problem grows bigger... I once remember three turkish people hitting one channel at the same time (without knowing of each other). They started talking in turkish, and after few ignored prompts, it was they who were ignored.
The end result is, that many channels in irc have banned Turkey ip's outright.

So, I have been asked at least three or four times to be penpals by people from Turkey. And they always specified that they meant real letters, not emails. Do they have some sort of school study program down there, that means that they have to have a pen pal from abroad? Because I dont get it.
Nowadays, each time an unknown person starts talking to you in MSN or IRC, and his language/input skills are severly lacking, changes are very good the guy is sitting somewhere in Turkey.

Happy 2006

New year, new tricks, as they say here. Would it be true; 2005 was quite dissapointing. Its amazing, how a thing that is actually quite long can seem so short. In my personal life, what happened?

I got my first "true" summer job, that is, without using family connections.
New computer.
This blog.
Still in school.

So, nothing special. Hope this year happens something good, something big. I would hate to find out the big thing would be someone in my family dying or me being kicked out of school...

Some idle thoughts;
Spent new year with my friends. We burned some rockets and other explosives at pre-Great War trenches*, mostly with "what happens if I do this?" and "is this cool?" mentality (as opposed to "lets shoot things up in the air, to see how beatiful they are"). Spent the turn of the year at bus, while going from one friends home to the next one; saw some great and cool explosions from the (dirty) windows.
We were the only people in the bus (there were three of us), and the bus driver talked to us, and he wasnt exactly happy about his situation, of being working while year changed (thought he did crack some jokes).
Walked home (mom's place), was here half four. Other bro came home soon after, and my youngest brother at five. Today met and had lunch around 1230-1300 with uncle and aunt (my godparents, thought in this family it dosent really mean anything, I suppose), whom I met at Helsinki, after getting there by public transportation (which remainds me I have used over 20 euros this Christmas in transportation... ugh). So didnt sleep that long or well.

Saw my greatmom, who has been very jolly after getting some new medication. She had become ever more angry and depressed during the past ten years, thing she tried to outsource to us. Anyway, is happy now, which I find great. Its actually cool to visit her again, something that had started to be rather a chore lately. Now she seems more like the granma I remember from my early childhood.
However, I cant help but wonder, how much under that happy smile still remains; shes dementic and loses little more of herself each day. I assume that the pills dont improve her status, nor even stop the progress, only makes it more pearabable. And how it feels like to be drugaddled all the time? Would the woman she was, twenty years ago, choose to go without her happy-pills now, rather than live in the cloud all the time? And what exactly does it feel like...
Of course Im happy she has that medication now (she actually calls me and talks to me without complaining about something, which she hasnt done in nearly ten years), but at the same time I feel guilty Im happy about it. Confusing?

* * *
Year 2006. New copyright-law this year, which is very confusing, and dosent make difference between rightful and malevolent copyprotection (its as illegal to remove from the computer copyprotected virus as try to get your CD's play on computer). The law defines "circulating copyprotection" so, that every DVDplayer in this country is, by definition, illegal, even thought it would be nonmodded, and you would be playing legally bought movie. Illegal. It is left to courtrooms and police to determine, where the line of legal and illegal goes. This is something never before seen in Finland, and I would tend to blame the culture minister. Im not going to this more deeply; there are surely enought rants about this online, even in english, if you wiki or google it.

* * *

While using metro today, I saw this guy who was maybe in late fifties, early sixties. I noticed him because he and his pal were blocking the electric stairs, and I couldnt walk past. Very impolite. Anyway, he had this big leather jacket, with big USA Rebellion flag in his back, an eagle over it. And Finland flag and the word "FINLAND" in the jackets arms. I assume he was one of those "racial purity" and "Finland for Finns" people, which makes it so awesome that he has very grand FOREIGN flag on his back, and very small Finland-flag in his arm. Real geniuses, wouldnt you say?

*threnches=around 1913, when Finland was still a Grand Duchy (and the Grand Duke also simultaneously being the tsar of Russia), the ruler became nervous of the news coming from the continent; war was coming. He was nervous of the idea that some enemy power might choose to attack Finland, that didnt really have an army (only small force to keep the peace), and then march thru wilderness to Finland-Russia border and from there to the captial (only 50 kilometres off or so). So, order was given that trenches and security lines should be build, to halt and tire the enemey forces as they land. Now, I don't know how things are where you are, but Finland is entirely made of solid rock, on which valleys there are water and land... So, the trenches had to be made by using dynamite, and then trenches made were from one meter to five meters deep, there were bunkers and all kinds of desings to protect strategical hilltops etc, so when the enemy army would march forward, they would encounter defence line after defence line, that would wear the enemy thin until it could be compeltly destructed.
Now, Finland didn't take part in World War One; Russia fought in central Europe, but the enemy powers never did come to Finland. And then the war was over, and Finland became monarchy, and only months after, republic. The trenches were never used, but being build with stone and beton, they dont vanish. Nearly hundred years have gone past, and at some places trees have grown over the lines, and at some places the stone dosent allow trees to grow; but be it so or not, everywhere where they were build, they can still be seen. And "everywhere" being seemingly every even little higher hilltop in Southern Finland (as opposed to Lapland). They are seen when Im dead, and they are probaply still very visible in two hundred years.
Testament to tsars folly. Building them was very expensive, and they never saw any action.

EDIT 6.1.2006: fixed some typoes and edited for readiblity.

Ajasta (about time)

Wrote this at IRC-Galleria, short translation to follow this longish message (if you cant understand, trust me, you dont lose anything), also I might add some more material if I feel like it, to the english version;

Ja Doctor Who Christmas Invasion tuli katottua. Oli jännä. Tässä sitä kattelin 900 mhz:n koneella, ja nykitti niin että piti kattoa isot mustat palkit ympärillä. Tuli mieleen että hyvä että kotona on ainakin kunnon kone nyt, ei olisi vanha 600 mhz enää tätä pyörittäny, ei edes palkkien kanssa.

DW:tä katellessa tuli mieleen, kuinka aika muuttuu. Sarjahan on siis pyörinyt päälle neljäkymmentä vuotta telkkarissa, ja pyörii siis aikamatkustuksen ympärillä (mm.). Katellessa tuli mieleen että tulevaisuus on nyt. Enkä tarkoita edes sillä "vanhat scifisarjat sijoittu aina meidän aikaa" fiiliksellä, vaan yleisesti siten, että moni uneksittu ja villi asia on nyt arkipäivää tai jopa vanhanaikaista. Tai muuten vain kadonnutta. Menneinä vuosikymmeninä ihminen hallitsi säätä, pystyi lopettamaan sairauden kuin sairauden parilla ruiskeella ja kaikkeen oli olemassa ratkaisu. Ja nyt, vuosikymmeniä myöhemmin, sääkontrollista ei puhuta (luin jostain että hurrikaanin pyyhkiminen tai sateen luominen häiritsi pienemmässä mittakaavassa säätä suuremmalla alueella, josta naapurivaltiot eivät tykänneet), bakteerit ovat saaneet immuniteetin (ja aina on vielä HIV) ja DDT oli sitten huippumyrkyllinen jne.
Nyt on esim. bluetooth-kuulokkeita, näköpuhelimia (jota elisa taas vaihteeksi markkinoi, eikös tää ollu tulossa langallisena seiskytluvulla? Jetsonit..) ja mitä kaikkea.

Mutta toisaalta; emmekö me aina elä tulevaisuutta? Uudet high-tech (tai sellaisena myytävät) tuotteet muotoillaan ja markkinoidaan aina tulevaisuutena. Jos automuotoilua katsoo, niin ne ovat kaikki tulevaisuutta, 20-luvulta eteenpäin. Mennyttä tulevaisuutta. Aina teollisesta vallankumouksesta lähtien. Joskus tuntuu että kaikki hieno on jo takana. Kaikkein fantastisimmat rakennukset tehtiin 60-luvulla, ja silloin oli kaikki (ainakin hypen mukaan) hienoa.

Mutta ei kaupungeista koskaan tule sellaisia futuristisia ihannepaikkoja kuin scifissä. Onnistuin äsken jopa selittämään itselleni miksi. Scifissä kaikki on aina uutta, kaikki kiiltää ja on uutuuden karheaa. Todellisuudessa uusi muuttuu normaaliksi ja kuluneeksi hyvin nopeasti, ja jokaista "tulevaisuuden taloa" kohti kaupunki on täynnä vanhoja taloja menneiltä vuosikymmeniltä. Tarvittaisiin sota, joka tuhoaisi koko kaupungin, ennenkuin tulevaisuuden kaupunki voitaisiin rakentaa. Se on ainoa tapa rakentaa kaupunki joka on selkeästi yhdeltä vuosikymmeneltä (tai tietenkin perustaa uusi kaupunki; kuinka usein kaupunkeja vain perustetaan? Ainakin Suomessa ne vain tulevat jostain ja jossain vaiheessa valtuuston puheenjohtaja sitten sanoo että "täs ois sit kaupunki valmiina".) Joku Berliini toisen suuren jäljiltä voisi olla jotain joka näytti, ainakin hetken, yhden vuosikymmenen lapselta.. tai kenties Hong Kong, missä historiaa ei ole varaa säilyttää, ja hallinto pitää huolen että sentimentaalismi ei saa kamaa museorekisteriin, jos sellaista ylipäänsä on olemassa.

Ajattomuutta on paljon helpompi etsiä. Tiedäthän, sitä ajatonta kaupunkia? Menneiden aikojen Pariisia, jossa kaikki ei välttämättä ole uutta, mutta aina kaunista, ja ihmisillä on aina aikaa kävellä kaduilla, jotka kimaltelevat auringossa, viime öisen sateen jäljiltä... Joskus kun kävelen Keravalla, Tapiolassa tai Helsingin keskustassa, voin melkein nähdä sen. Ajattomuuden ja kauneuden. Kuinka kaupunki on täydellinen Juuri Niinkuin Se On. Ja sitte huomaa kuinka rakennus jos toinenkin on peruskorjauksen tarpeessa, eivätkä kadutkaan ole ihan sitä mitä ne voisi olla.

I watched Doctor Who Christmas Invasion. Was pretty nifty, and got me thinking. About future, and more specifictly, how we are living it, right now. And I dont mean like "all the old scifi was situationed to our time". No, I mean technology. Jetsons, apart of the flying car (they stopped developing that after it became imminent that state would want you to have licence for four-engine aeroplane to be allowed to fly, even thought computers make it only slighty more difficult than normal cardriving) are modern day. Sometimes, we are even forward in the curve. Video-conversations thru mobilephones are of this day (thought they probaply cost an arm and an leg, and only CEOs of big companies can afford them), as are handsfree bluetooth-gadgets (worth mentioning because every selfrespecting scifi has them, starting from Star Wars and Star Trek) and really powerful homecomputers, that double as television sets (also items of every science story worth its money). Robots arent there yet, but give it a few more years. I hear they have gotten the AI to the level of five year old.

But then, is not future always now? Sure, we have all the stuff mentioned above, but much has been lost. Weather Control is also something in every scifi, as is the fact that diseases are either all extinct or easy to take care of, no matter what. All mastery of nature. We lost that during the way. We could take care of huricanes, but the big-level, short-area distortion was changed into small-level, big-area distortion, and it usually went over countryborders; neighbors didnt like taking part of your problems... the dream of diseases vanished with developing resistance of bacteries, and with HIV. And mastery of nature vanished with DDT. And cars, they are always of the future, by their design. A cool, streamlined Ferrari looks futuristic now... but no less futuristic than the model of -61, or -34. It's just a different future. I tried to google something definite on the subject, and found this. Fascinating stuff, eh?

Sometimes, when I watch classic movies from the fifties, I actually feel that that time was more of the future than is today. Think of it; the future is over.. And one reason one gets this feeling, is that the movies concentrate around buildings that were then brand new. Still rough around the edges. The reason why no modern city cant reach that standard, is that the cities only renew themselves one building at a time. The time to update each and every building (worth changing) takes so much time that the style between the first building and the last building makes them of different style again. And even thought they would be of the same style, the first ones would be quite worn by the time the last ones would be finished; and where would people live if the change would be done all-at-once (and where to find the people to do the labour?). There should be a war, or a brand new town established, for the city to look about of the same time period. Also, future never arrives without bugs, of the technical kind. Modern solutions are often untried, and engineers and architechs and try to crasp the now. On the subject; I miss bathtub. I havent lived in an apartment with bathtub since I was six, and used an small movable one last when I was about ten. Bathtubs arent modern no more, bathrooms are build with showers instead, and even buildings WITH bathtubs are repaired, and the tubs removed (suddenly I ache for an b-tub).

Something to go to, and wait for, instead of city of the future, is, perhabs, an city without time. To be tied to certain time, is to be limited by the limitations and customs of that timeperiod; either there are no vaccines, or hot water, or no bathtubes... or perhaps its impossible to get clothes or shoes in certain size because you vary too much from the average? A timeless city, would have no such limitations. It is Paris of dreams, where everything is romantically, and curiously, at the same futuristic and old (but with vaccines, bathtubes and horsecarts (without shit on streets). And while that Paris dosen't exist, and truly, there exists no city like that, sometime, for a brief moment, sometimes even day or two, it might be your hometown. The consist rush hour might vanish, and the clouds of pollution might disapear; and sun might bring light down just SO, making everything look new and glorious (partly thanks to the rain during the night, that stopped just before you woke up). And birds sing, and you can actually hear it because there are no cars or other machinery going nearby. You feel like you could dance yourself... have you felt ever like that? Like everything is perfect? That must be, surely, what heaven is all about. Maybe its as close as we ever get.

OK, if you can read both finnish and english, you will find these texts to be quite different in nature. Lucky you. For those who cant; be content that it talks mostly about the same things, with some different variations and points.

BTW, Happy Christmas and Merry new year - or was it the other way around?

About dogs.

While I was coming back to home from my mother today, I saw a woman with very interesting hair-do, with very short hair expect just in top of her eyes, where she had big patch, greased to go upwards. It had also been dyed yellow (rest of her hair was brown). She was dressed in wierd jacket, pants and boots. She wasn't very slim, but not fat either; she looked like she had bought that chocolate bar few times too often, but not like she would have been swimming in it.
She also had a dog. I dont know much about dogs, so I cant well identify it; but it was about three fourths of meter high, it was very brown, very slim and very agile looking. In other words, it didnt look much like it's mistress.

From seeing this, I remember the old saying about dogs and their masters (or mistresses, as it is), and about how they end looking like each other. And I started thinking, if this was so, why was it? Was it because, after having had a similar lifestyle for years they started to look like each other? Or maybe it was only the company?

And from this, my train of thoughts jumped to the obvious conclusion; what if people actually bought dogs, to make themselves LOOK like dogs? "I would like to look little more masculine, I think Ill get a bulldog." "I wanna look little more official, I think I take the wolfhound." "I think I want to look cute, Ill take the pudel." And so on.

While writing this, it occured to me that people really do this. They take animals they want to highlight they lifestyle, or give certain image; dalmatians, for examble, are animals that can and should run 100 kilometres each day (read this from somewhere), so they are perfect animals at farms; but people who want to look avantgarde (and thus live in urban cities) get them. Not good for the pet, is it?

So, maybe I wasn't so genius as I thought, eh? But it's a nice thought. To get slim and younglooking by getting one of those dogs that chase bunnies at competitions..

Comicbook logic!

Comics are a great thing. There are several reasons, and one of the most coolest thing about particular brand of them is the continity. Yes, Im talking about superheros.

Continity - that is, things from past storylines affect the future ones - is a cool thing. Sometimes it also causes problems. Things are made for one particular storyline, that become obvious hinderstones in later ones. Or some machine (usually weapon) has some really obvious beneficial uses, but the heroes (even if they have resources, and even if they themselves are in need of the beneficial use) never get around doing it.

The most obvious examble, of course, is Professor Charles Xavier, the founder of X-Men. As you might remember from the movies (in case you dont read comics), the man is a cripple; he moves around while sitting in a wheelchair. This is quite strange, while we remember that the man teaches and houses people of great healing power under his roof. Several times, these healers have been shown to cure battlewounds that would cause death inside minutes; mending bones, removing holes thru the stomach and what have you. And still, Xavier has not asked, nor has of the healers suggested, that Xavier himself could be healed.

Or Cyclops. The man can shoot conclusive rays from his eyes (eg. he shoot beams that have the same effect as by being hit by cannonball). Thanks to brain damage as a kid, he can never turn his rays "off", and therefore he has to use visor that makes his rays harmless when not fighting people. He could be healed, as detailed above, but there are other solutions. X-Men have fought villains, and sometime they have lost. And the villain has chosen to imprison them by using "Inhibitor Collars". In short, it makes using superpowers impossible; shorts them out. They are well tested - in Marvel Universe, there were a whole islandnation full of mutants who were made to use them - so research in the technology is well betatested, and quite safe for users. So, why hasn't some company reverse-engineered the technology and built, for examble, bracelets with on/off switch? Cyclops wouldn't need those glasses, Rogue could touch people without taking their memories and so on. And thats just in the X-Men. Worldwide, there must be thousands, if not hundred of thousands, who look pretty normal and would like the comfort of knowing they dont accidentally, say, level a house. And people whose powers make normal life impossible. Naturally, it wouldnt help always, but it would help SOMETIMES. And even if the bracelet would cost tens of thousands of euros... goverment might help with the fees (it would limit damage to buildings), and even if it wouldnt - how much would you pay for item that would let you touch people without killing them? It should cost very much indeed that I wouldnt get one. There are loans, you know, and item like this would probaply have lifetime waranty.

Other things well known in Marvel U, but not used by anyone outside hero/villain community: time machine (with "ghost mode", where you can observe past but not affect it - ideal christmas present for any archeologist or historian!), alien civilisations with very advanced technolgoies and benevolent mindset (eg. ready to share, not trying to invade), Asimovian robots, force fields, 3D-technology, VERY advanced computers, flying cars, get-superpowers machines (several, most quite safe for the user) and so on. Seeing as some superheroes and villains are also involved in business, not seeing these things in the market is quite amazing (Fantastic four is financed by patents, Iron Man and Iron Fist own tech companies, Black Panther is the head of state, X-Men has several millionares and company owners and Batman is one of the richest people in the world).

Then there are those very absurd things, such as in DC's Flash. One of the villains is Dr. Alchemy. "Ha Ha Ha! After years and years of research, I have finally invented the Alchemist's Stone! With it I can change any material into another! Let's go rob some banks, instead of making copper, silver, iron, platinum, aluminium or some other very valuable and/or rare metal that is used in machines!" And of course, the men who just happen to discover how to make power armours, freeze guns, stilt legs (allowing you to rise to hundreds of meters, while keeping your legs on the ground), power sources and what have you. They could make millions if they started selling their inventions instead of trying to rob the bank down the street!

Oh, and it is shown that Batman's company, Wayne Enterprises, had in the middle eighties a machine that allowed people with broken backs to walk again. Problem was, back then the machine weighted 20 kilos or more, and must have been used all the time. It was 20 years ago, and surely the tech has evolved. And/or, Batman could have pushed more money in the technology, seeing as his friend, former Batgirl and current hacker and manager of Batman's information, happens to suffer from just this condition. Pretty indifrent, isin't he?

While, obviously, some of these things may have violent uses, and some heroes may want to keep their heads out of the workings of humankind - such as Superman - I cant really see why Iron Man, who owns a high tech company with army contracs, would hesitate to put into the market such things as 3D-projector (seeing as he wants to develope the company more to the high tech, consumer market). And time machines (which cant be used in Marvel U to change present) could and should be owned by at least several universities, however ridiculously expensive they were.

So many heroes could help so many more people than they do, if they just would think a moment more of the technology they smash and broke in every issue of their comic books. Sure, they are malevolent, but cant the underlining technology (and applications of physics) be used for GOOD? And why wont villains, that are are shown to be only concerned with money (and not say, world domination) sell or licence their patents instead of robbing banks?

But of course, these are comic books. But some technology could be incorporated into the the universe without making it look very foreign from our own; and that which cant could easily be explained away. But they dont do either, and this makes the heroes look very stupid indeed. Even if some of them are Nobel-winning scientists or supergeniuses.

Happiness!

This post is update in my life, which consists of report about my life during the past few days. About how Salo was at school and kept a presentation; about how he got his permanent driving licence and lastly some ponderings about internet relationships.

On Thursday I had presentation (ten pages plus powerpoint) at school about Japanese culture. It was group project, there was four of us.. and I admid, we took Japan mostly out of my suggestion (I had done several presentations of the subject already, and I knew stuff without having to look up, which is always a bonus). As it goes, one person of the group stopped school 20 hours before the presentation - something about how he had studied too long and he couldnt continue, law said so. He didn't give us his notes, tho I know he had them, so suddenly we were short several pages.
Somehow making the powerpoint and collecting and editing the papers from the group became my task... We made some last minute modifications, but things really didnt go as we had planned, because second group member decided to drink alcohol the day before presentation and had a hangover (and therefore didnt come to talk at his cue). The presentation went just fine with only two of us, I was amazed how much I actually knew of the subject. Teacher asked a curve-ball question about employment (I dont think she hoped for an answer), and I think she was quite suprised that I could, after little thinking,give essey answer on the subject!
And then I had, at the same day, that driving lesson stuff (more of that later), so I gave the nearly-complete paper to the fourth group member, who promised to see it thru (there were some incomplete sentences and stuff like that yet to be edited, thanks to small changes we had done earlier in the morning). Felt like I was escaping from a sinking boat - only one person left, after me! But yeah, I did do my part, I feel. Most in the whole group, but I wonder what the fourth member feels..

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So, the driving stuff. The second stage (as its called) consisted of class in "How to drive during dark?" (read: nearly always on wintertime outside cities), of "grading drive" (where teacher put me driving around and wrote up my mistakes, what I should try to correct in the future), four hours of testdriving at arena, with road iced and water thrown over, hour or so watching two wrecked cars scraped from the road, also testing some Volvo-gadget which simulated (on low speed) how it feels like when car goes over three times before settling on its roof, and how hard its to get out thru window if this happens.
This morning had the last theory class, which was quite ridiculous, and I dont think I learned anything new; expect that getting driver's licence will be getting even harder at future; they are going to double the compulsory driving lessons! It isint like Finland wouldnt have one of the hardest driving schools in the world as it is! Well, that dosent really have anything to do with me, but my sister will be so pissed off when she has to go thru this "all new driving school" in seven or eight years.
So, got my studies for permanent driving licence finished and gave it to police. Said I can come to get it after seventh of January next year. After getting it to my hands, I can use it till Im 55 (my current one is ok only till next July). Also, I wont lose it after my first speeding ticket or bad parking.

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Bordering on my personal life; talking with a great personality (belonging to a female) always make me feel incredible happy for days after. Even if we talked via computer.
This also borders on pathetic; I think of her way too much even if Im not on computer. Definetly not good. Hope this rubs off. Though I have to admid, usually Im very gloomy this time of a year. Now I feel like I could dance.

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Should draw more, but somehow I dont seem to get anything orginal on paper. Just faces, and Im good enough with those already. Maybe should take some photos and practice drawing more from a model? To make art that is actually good enough to recongize the model from. Yes, that is definetly something I should practice more of.

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On other news. Do you know how it feels to hear that someone actually reads my writings? Without prompting? [HINT: so very good].

K. J. Parker - Scavenger trilogy - Pattern and Memory

Continuing from the earlier post (see below). Probaply spoils stuff, but not too trastically, I hope. I might spoil pretty badly part of the man/god riddle, so beware. The books should be interesting even after reading this, though. Pattern is mostly an inbetween book. In Shadow, Poldarn gets the first clues of his identity, and in Pattern goes back to the house where he grew up; and finds out what kind of person he is. Because while memories are gone, the man under those memories is mostly intact. Pattern wasn't as good as Shadow; few times I actually had problems carrying on. My friend said he had tried to read this aswell, but couldnt keep on going.

Memory is better, and starts three years after Poldarn found himself at battlefield without clue to his identity. He has more or less found out what kind of person he is, and isint really that enthuastic in reclaiming his memory anymore. He works at a foundry, helping in casting bells for churches.
Then things start to roll. An old schoolmate finds Poldarn, wanting to - if not reclaim his memory, at least telling him the story of his life. But should he trust the man? He is not the first one who claims to know his past -- but previously, people have always lied. And then military seizes control of the foundry. They would be making something never seen in the world before - Poldarn's Flutes, huge metal tubes that shoot fire and rocks.

And while Poldarn is working in the project, he starts to remember the dreams that plague his night... and closing to Poldarn, is the man known as Monach. Like Poldarn, Monach dreams, and in his dreams, he sees the past, the present and - maybe - the future.

It is said that when the god known as Poldarn comes to earth, he dosen't know who he is, but travels from city to city in a cart, doom following. And there are things that Poldarn is said to do in his travels. And nothing can kill a god; only when Poldarn has driven thru the whole world in his cart, and sees himself coming back from the other direction, can he die. And then the world ends.
Story after story, the man Poldarn has filled. But it has all been accidents, mostly in the realms of possible. To the very end the reader has to guess is he man or god... and the solution dosen't hit like lighting bolt from the sky.

The most interesting part of the story is maybe when in the first book Monach comes to Cien investigating Poldarn, and finds an old man who claims he witnessed the god returning people back to life. He back his story very well, and even has something on the line of proof going for him, and so certain magic is backed to the character of Poldarn. In book two, Poldarn is killing ravens, and for a minute he meets, in the foggy fields, a young guy he teaches how to kill ravens. And in the book three; Poldarn remembers how as a young man, he met someone who clearly was not from this world... something divine. These few pages are the only ones that clearly go out of ordinary. Poldarn also gets few dreams about future, but they are easy enough to explain away.

I would recommend you at least browsing the books thru, if you find them in Library. They might be somewhat slow at times, but completly orginal. And books like that dont happen in Fantasy that often.