all things me

Don’t know if you’ve noticed but I’ve added a Jaiku flash thingamabob in my sidebar. A guy at work asked me if I wanted an invitation (we always talk about all things mobile) and I thought “sure, doesn’t hurt to try.” (Jaiku is originally Finnish, hurraah! But now they’ve been acquired by Google.)

Jaiku describes itself: “Jaiku’s main goal is to bring people closer together by enabling them to share their activity streams. An activity stream is a log of everyday things as they happen: your status messages, recommendations, events you’re attending, photos you’ve taken – anything you post directly to Jaiku or add using Web feeds.”

I don’t see much use in posting activities all the time (especially as I’m not doing much — at least nothing interesting). So, in my Jaiku stream you may see me stuck on a packed bus for days on end. I think it’s going to be a note-taker/blog-this list for me but why would I use it instead of the memo feature on my mobile. Ah well, we’ll see.

During the installation Jaiku asked for my phone number to activate the phone feature. (I didn’t see any way around it but I guess I could’ve skipped it somehow. The activation is needed only for the SMS service and I’m definitely not going to pay for something like this.) I installed the mobile application but after it pulled up my phone book (and the names in parentheses that I’d rather have kept at the end of the list), I didn’t want to use it anymore. Who knows what it could do! Instead, I’m using the Jaiku Widset.
When I realised the phone activation was of no use, I wanted to remove my phone number from my information at Jaiku website. No way to delete it. I tried entering space, nothing, or just the country code — it wouldn’t stick. Then I entered the example number under the form field and now it’s pending for an activation code for all eternity. Ha! (Not very elegant, but I really don’t want my phone number there even though no one (?) will see it.)

Do you use Jaiku or Twitter or other similar services? To what purpose are you using them?
(Sorry Kory, I promise I’ll send you an invitation to Jaiku if I ever get those — if you want one then.)

Today at work we had a brief phone conference with a project manager in our other office. When one of the guys heard who was at the other end of the phone line, his eyes lit up, speech quickened and he leaned forward on his seat. The others chuckled that “we got his attention now.”

I wish I had that kind of an effect on someone.

Waking up is not so hard to do after all.

This morning I had to wake up at 5:30 am (we had to leave for a faraway meeting). That is really early for me; even 6:30 when I normally wake up (or 6:43 more accurately) is really early for me. I tried to be the good girl and went to bed at 11 pm but what good did it do: after playing some mobile sudoku, remembering I’d forgotten to set a timer for that night’s Lost episode, I was still up after 12 am — leaving barely 5 hours of sleep.

But, I jumped up at 5:30 and, really, only the first 3-5 seconds were difficult. The biggest problem is how do I stay up for the rest of the day. (Luckily, I don’t really have to, I got off work early.)

You know, it’s probably like a sugar rush: you quickly get high but then you crash suddenly.

I have miscellaneous recipes all over the place: saved from the net, cut out from a magazine, written down on a tissue.

So, I had an idea: I should start collecting them in a cookbook. But what is my first thought how to implement this? WordPress on a USB stick!

I didn’t think of a plain old notebook, binder or a card index. Nope, not I. I was already checking out USB sticks when I decided that maybe I’ll just make it a local installation of WordPress for now.

But I think it’s going to be great! WordPress 2.3, which should be released tomorrow, is going to have tags. Categories and tags will make for excellent browsing. Categories for appetisers, main meals (maybe divided into vegetable, meat, fish, soups, special e.g. Christmas), desserts (this might need subcategories, too), and drinks (coffee, fruit drinks… all non-alcoholic of course). Tags for the ingredients. So, whether I need a certain type of food or feel like a certain ingredient, it should be easy to find inspiration. A search box finds the ingredients of course, but sometimes it’s easier to pick from a limited list.

My recipe collection isn’t extensive yet but I think it’ll have to be unless I want to eat spaghetti bolognese (let alone tv dinners!) every single weekend…

I’ve decided I want a splash of colour on my (to-be) brand new white walls. I haven’t yet decided if it’s going to be one wall in one colour or some sort of pattern.

I’d like it to be a pattern but the next hard question is, what pattern? I don’t want any nature themed patterns — flowers, leaves, trees. Boring and, not to mention, in fashion!

I could do something like the pattern in Jafer’s living room which looks really nice, but I suppose if I did something like that I’d have to do the whole foyer + living room+ kitchen area because it’s all one big space. It might not look good if there was a continuous pattern that was restricted to one wall — but my patience might run out if I took on decorating the whole room.

Of course, it would be nice if I had a favourite game, book or movie which could serve as inspiration, but I don’t think I’d like to have Sam Fisher peeking from behind the couch.

I could do something silly in the bedroom, like an alien or something computer-themed. I did think I’d frame some of the alien posters for the bedroom, though. Painting there would lose the purpose.

A coloured wall behind the bookcase could be nice if I bought a bookcase that shows through — and if I put the bookshelf on the short wall in the living-room. Or how would it look if I had flying books on one wall? Or a bookmark peeking from behind the bookcase!

I’ll have to visit a paint store where they have all kinds of stencils. Maybe I’ll get an inspiration there.

Update, October 8
Here are some colour palettes I’ve stumbled across/sampled:
– Black, grey, brown, and bright red at ColorCombos.com
– “Rojo” at ColorHunter.com
– Purples

I signed up for COLOURlovers, because I wanted to save a combo I picked. (Of course, I could’ve just saved the hex codes… But maybe it’s good to have the plans in one place.)

(The image looked better in the theme with a purple background but I’ll leave it be. This is an old post anyway.

While we were sitting on the subway, a colleague of mine said I should throw a house-warming party when I finally get to move into my new apartment. A really good idea, but I have a problem: I’ve never been to a house-warming party!

What do people do at a house-warming party?
What should I serve? (I’m not going to serve alcohol.)
Do I need to have seats for everyone or are people prepared to stand around?

And most importantly: Should I hide my alien collection?

I think I should at least have a sofa and kitchen table + chairs before I invite anyone, but I don’t know how long it’ll take for me to find them! Also, I would hate to see my brand new sofa ruined by food or drink. (Or am I being too obsessive?)

I’m thinking I’d have it on a Thursday or so. Friday nights most people want to go out and get drunk because they don’t have work the next day; and my house-warming party wouldn’t be the best place to spend a Friday night…

Luckily, I have more than 6 months to think this one, too, through.

(What’s up with that misaligned window?)

Human Brain Cloud.

It’s so easy to keep adding words there instead of doing something mandatory, like writing an essay on localisation — due tomorrow.

I sit down in the train after speeding in a hurry through the town on a mission – I need to get something for my godson. Suddenly a noisy flock of finnsvenskarna, Swedish-speaking Finns, comes trampling down the corridor. Oh no! They sit in the 4+4 seats smack in front of me.

I start digging through my backbag – I must’ve brought my earphones, I must’ve! (I had to make a quick switch of bags in the morning when I realised I couldn’t fit everything in my other bag.) I finally found them in a pocket I didn’t remember having.

I have nothing personally against Swedish-speaking Finns, but because the language is “foreign” I can’t block it out as effectively — the Finnish words in the middle make it worse.

And let’s be honest: they’re loud.

Anyway, I hope you have a nice weekend. I’ll be in the middle of dogs, horses, kids, and a donkey.

Luckily among the dozens and dozens of dirty spam comments that are caught in the blocks, and just drive me crazy, there have lately been these gems from “Daniel.”

I couldn’t understand some parts of this article Disappointment, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.

I couldn’t understand some parts of this article Movie Meme, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.

I have to say, that I could not agree with you in 100% regarding Defeating Sudoku in five simple steps, but it’s just my opinion, which could be wrong

Oh, Daniel. You’re a moron.

I was standing on the escalator coming from the subway. Listening to music on my mobile. All of a sudden the music stopped and I thought I’d accidentally hit the pause or stop button on the remote. I kept walking, thinking I’d fix it when I get to the bus stop (I was in a hurry).

Suddenly I realised the music — Sexy Back by Justin Timberlake — was playing on the loudspeaker!! It took me a few fumbling moments to shut it up.

The phones should definitely refuse to play music from the loudspeaker unless it’s specifically activated by the user.

Or maybe I should just listen to less embarrassing songs…

Do you have an artist, a song, or a music style you like, which you rather keep to yourself?