IRC-Galleria

... since the US election results became clear Wednesday morning here... people have been coming up to me congratulating me on the results... even people I've never even met, who hear me talking to someone in public, have come up to me to talk about the election.

Good thing I didn't vote for McCain, eh?

Anyway. I didn't vote this time out. There was no candidate that really stuck out to me. Yes, I wanted Obama to win more than I wanted McCain to win, but my party really is the Libertarian party (I've been a financial contributor to them in the past), and their candidate for President this time out was someone I don't believe in (he was a Congressman from the state I lived in when I lived in the US and... I can't support him). I don't believe in voting for "the least worst candidate," or feeling confined to the US' de facto two-party system. I vote for who I believe in, even if they belong to an insignificant party with no chance to even get publicity, let alone victory, in an election. No such candidate stood out to me this year.

But for the past three years, I've had numerous people speak to me about how awful America had become, how disgusting George Bush is (good thing I never voted for him, haha), and similar things. Amazing that feelings run so high about such things to approach a complete stanger like that, and it's certainly odd from an American perspective seeing so many people interested in a foreign election.

But the reaction - to me, of all people, in Finland, of all places - these past two days really made clear something that I'd known for some years now... America somewhere along the way, in my lifetime, became the bad guy. And Obama, for all the things he's going to do that I disagree with (just like Bush had done a great many things that I disagree with, with my greatest concern being his domestic policies, and just like McCain would have done things that I disagree with), now has people believing that the US can be the "good guy" again... a lot of Americans are more proud of their country than they've been for a long, long time, and everywhere on the internet that I frequent, people the world over are breathing a sigh of relief. And strangers are approaching me on the street to congratulate me.

It's a weird feeling. But a good one. I'm very glad Obama won. Right now, it's possible to believe that America is (or can be, at least) what America has always said it was supposed to be, without having to ignore a great many things in order to have that belief.

... but sometimes you guys make me think I'm actually living on Mars.

You don't know Gilligan's Island here?

Seriously?

... modern television...

I enjoyed the fact that TV stopped being so episodic and began embracing more of a serial format. You know what I mean, where stories are continued from episode to episode throughout the season and the series. 24, Lost, Battlestar Galactica, Dexter, etc.

The annoying part is... "Previously on..." You know. "Previously on 24..." "Previously on Lost..." This isn't such a problem if you're watching on TV. Really, there should be a little reminder of what came before so you don't forget some details, and there should be a quick up-to-dater for people that missed an episode or two.

But I really don't watch television when the shows are broadcast. (especially since many of the shows in Finland are airing a year or two after they run in the US... annoying!) I watch the DVD.

"Previously on..." gets really annoying when watching a marathon of, say, 24. The rental place just gives you a couple days... so 24 episodes of 24 in two days... and every episode (even the first episode in a season now, since it recalls past seasons!) has a couple of minutes or more of "Previously on..." That's just about a full hour of flashbacks. I recently watched the first season of Dexter on DVD. Only 12 episodes, so only a half hour lost to "Previously On..."s. But still.

OK. I understand that the DVD should present the show exactly how it aired in the first place. But... uhh... why isn't there a chapter stop right after the "Previously On..." ends? And after the show introduction (which admittedly isn't a problem on things like Lost or 24, but I don't need to watch Dexter shaving and having breakfast 12 times in a row...)? "I'm watching a bunch of episodes... oh, new episode, *skip skip* OK, new stuff!" You'd think they'd take advantage of the technology they have to make the viewing experience as pleasant as possible.

But they don't. Because they're tossbags, cads, simpletons, mooncalfs, and just all around monkey fuckers because they engage in these shenanigans and tomfoolery.

To take advantage of this issue, I really want to become a television series developer. No, I really don't want to come up with great concepts and characters and actually make a TV show. That seems too much like work and most TV is shit and I don't need to contribute any more shit.

What I want to do is come up with concepts that fuck around with the whole "Previously On..."

For example. I want to name a television show Previously On. And at the beginning of every episode the first words would be, "Previously on Previously On."

Or name a show Your Tits. Obviously that one would be European-only. "Previously on Your Tits." A plethora of body parts can be used for this one. "From the makers of Your Tits... coming this fall... My Cock."

Previously on My Cock...

Or, if we wanted to stay away from vulgar humor and avoid jokes which work only one time... we could really play with the concept.

Make a show that's completely episodic. No real connection from one episode to the next, like your average sitcom. Begin every episode with a "Previously on..." But the stuff in the Previously On will be stuff that was never in an actual episode, and has nothing to do with what will happen in the current episode. Maybe it doesn't even include the same characters. Maybe it'll have clips from another show entirely. Or some movie. Make it a little gag every week.

Or... this one is evil... end an episode of a show with a big cliffhanger. OHMYGODWHATHAPPENSNEXT? Then begin the next episode with a "Previously On..." that reveals what happened in the most unsatisfying way possible. Make people think they missed an episode or the TV station accidentally skipped one. Really piss people off with it. But of course, the actual episode will then be the expected follow-up, having no connection to the material in the "Previously On..."

Or, one time, one of these shows can start with "Previously on... THE SHOW THAT IS A CONTINUING STORY SO WHY THEY HELL DIDN'T YOU WATCH IT LAST WEEK OR IF YOU'RE NEW TO THE SHOW OR COULDN'T BE IN FRONT OF YOUR TV AT THE SCHEDULED TIME LAST WEEK, THERE'S THIS THING CALLED THE INTERNET WITH MANY WAYS BOTH LEGITIMATE AND NOT TO WATCH THESE DAMN SHOWS SO WHY ARE WE WASTING TIME CATCHING YOU UP WHEN YOU OBVIOUSLY DON'T CARE ENOUGH TO KNOW?"

I hate television.

OK. I'm saying this because I want discussion. I'm sure I'm going to misunderstand Finnish cultural issues and such, but hell... here's my opinion. Arguments are very welcome.

Another school shooting. "Second one in a year!" Horseshit. One was last year. Stop making it sound frequent.

"What do we do now?" is the current topic of conversation in many places.

Here's what you do:

NOTHING.

Don't change any laws. Do not punish the large amount of people here with guns, that don't shoot people, because of a couple of maniacs.

Yeah, it's shocking and it really sucks for the people involved, but... really. I was shocked to learn there are so many guns in private hands in Finland. I think it's cool, because it shows a spirit of freedom and independence.

(No, not a gun owner, never was in the States, but I believe in unrestricted gun ownership, and I believe the 2nd Amendment of the US Constitution was put there to allow ordinary citizens to combat their government... not for hunting or sporting rights. Governments are implicitly corrupt and take away the freedoms of their citizens. That's all they do, and they continue to do it, because if they didn't... what would their purpose be? They regulate and control and change their regulations and controls in an effort to seem important. Politicians will invent "problems" so they can "solve" them and seem relevant and important. If the populace is armed, there is only so much they can do at a time. V for Vendetta shouldn't be science fiction... governments should fear their people.)

So there are a lot of guns in private hands, but shootings are not a common happening. There is something about the culture here that is just fundamentally different than the US... which is good in some ways... not good in others. In this case, many people with guns, not many shootings... excellent.

So one guy last year goes apeshit, and one guy this year goes apeshit, and suddenly people are calling for all the guns to go away?

If the guns are here, and they are, they won't go away, and criminals and maniacs will still be able to get them. All you do is punish the law-abiding citizens by cracking down on gun ownership...

I also think that in a country that requires conscription of all males, most of which I guess choose military service instead of civil service, things like this would happen more often. It's weird. You require all young men to be trained as killers and to use all sorts of munitions... and a couple go all Full Metal Jacket and there's a surprise? Why hasn't this happened more often, I'd wonder... but this is one of the real cultural disconnects I have here. How can a population tolerate conscription as a matter of course, especially in peacetime? And if women are so equal here... why is it male-only?

And a big deal is made about the Youtube videos the guy made, and the fact that the cops questioned him the day before. I haven't read the details of the case too closely (read: I'm about to talk out my ass), but really... how many metal bands have a violent or militaristic image? Should the authorities strip such musicians of the rights that others have just because they point guns and wield swords and have a lot of "die die aarrgghh" lyrics? How about horror (or action, or military) authors and screenplay writers?

Of course the guy's music taste is already making headlines, as if that makes a bit of difference. Especially in FUCKING FINLAND. Let's suspect and round up every metalhead in the country and see if they're mentally ill... yeah... that'll work. "75% of our population is a high-risk!" I can imagine it now. That's a lot of politicians that are going to be able to say they're employing a lot of people, that's for sure...

I wonder if the police questioning could have given this guy the idea that, "Oh shit, I'd better do this now or I won't get the opportunity later if the cops are on to me!" If left alone, is it possible that his thoughts would have never gone from the "I'm gonna... I'm gonna..." stage to the actually doing it stage?

So then there's the factor of identifying at-risk people for real and issues of mental health. Now, when I was searching for a bit of help for a bout of depression a few months back, nobody would tell me where to go (sorry I wasn't born with knowledge about how the health system here works...), and even got a little "Ha ha Jim's crazy!" in response to my asking for help. That's great. But I think actual Finns are a bit more connected to the system.

But you know... I suppose it's possible that a real biological mental illness is a cause of this behavior. But my gut feeling is that all this "fuck the world, I want to kill everyone" mentality isn't based on mental illness, but in the inability to connect with other people around them. There is some point where people are unsuccessful socially and just decide that it isn't worth it anymore. They become disconnected, and their attempts get more desperate, which causes people to say "No fucking way..." And I guess some people reach a point of no return. This guy had no regard for his own life or the lives of other people. Somebody made him this way, and I think one tragedy of the situation is that the people responsible, probably many years back, will probably never know. Or perhaps they have thoughts of "Yeah, I remember that freak trying to talk to me... fucking idiot..."

Maybe this guy was simply an idiot, and maybe his brain worked in fundamentally different ways than most. But maybe he just gave up at some point, and here is the end result of having no hope in being happy.

Either way, if you leave it alone, the problem won't go away... but it won't go away if you try to deal with it intensely, either. But you will bother the fuck out of a whole lot of people that aren't a problem in the first place.

Seriously, is there some Finnish cultural bias against HAVING DRY GODDAMN CLOTHING?

Seriously. YOUR DRYERS SUCK. THEY FUCKING SUCK. It's like they're manufactured to not dry anything if more than two pieces of clothing are placed in them. In my latest laundry odyssey, my clothes were WETTER from being steamed up in the dryer than they were when they came out of the centrifuge (why the fuck don't the washers here spin the clothes? Do people here really like spending ALL DAMN DAY in the laundry room?)

And the drying rooms... what a wonderful invention that is. I've never heard of such a thing before moving here. What a concept. It's a clothesline, indoors, and to fool people into thinking anything dries there, there's a "heater" and a fan there. Now, the clothes directly under the fan, they get dry... eventually. Any clothes that are not in front of the fan, well, sucks to be you, especially when you only have a 5 hour slot in the drying room. More fun are the clothes that are dry on the side facing the fan, but still all damp on the other side.

In the first place I lived when I moved here, there was no drying room. Or dryer. So my ex set up this clothes rack in one of the rooms and draped the clothes over that. That would take a couple days, so there would be a room half-filled with wet clothes that just made the entire apartment humid. It seemed like the apartment was never without a drying rack of clothes making everything humid.

And it's not one place. I've lived in 5 different places now during my time in Finland, and none have had any easy laundry situation. When I lived in Atlanta, laundry would take less than 90 minutes from the time I gathered my clothes to the time I put them away, completely dry. And that wasn't in just one place - I lived in over half a dozen apartments in that city, and none of them provided a laundry nightmare. In Florida, it took about the same time but sometimes I let things sit because it wasn't an apartment building and I didn't have to worry about people dumping my stuff on the floor so they could do their laundry.

How do people with jobs do their laundry in this country? I don't see how it would be possible unless they wanted to devote one of their rare days off to it. Or is this why people wear the same set of clothes 2-3 days in a row? Because doing laundry is too much of a pain in the ass? My new goal is to make enough money so I can buy enough clothes so instead of washing clothes after I've worn them, I can just throw the fuckers out. Cleaning them is really not worth the effort.

Seriously, of all the things I need to worry about in my life, encountering major stress because of laundry, all the time, every time it needs to be done... it's really stupid. There has to be a better way. This isn't the third world. Why doesn't this work right?

Alone

by Edgar Allan Poe

From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were---I have not seen
As others saw---I could not bring
My passions from a common spring.
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow; I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone;
And all I lov'd, I loved alone.

Then---in my childhood---in the dawn
Of a most stormy life---was drawn
From ev'ry depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still:
From the torrent, or the fountain,
From the red cliff of the mountain,
From the sun that 'round me roll'd
In its autumn tint of gold---
From the lightning in the sky
As it pass'd me flying by---
From the thunder and the storm,
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view.

Where will you be tomorrow?
Really I don't care
I have seen the future, rising everywhere
Look into the mirror, tell me what you see
Piece by piece you'll vanish
Until you disappear!

Now I'm doing what I say
No more fooling anyway
Beyond this hell, there is a better life to lead
You're all undone, emotionless
It's not the way for me

Now I know there's a better way
Let my heart ride out for a brighter day
Now it's time to breathe in the open air
With a mind so free, anyway
It's time for a change...
It's time to break free!

Had enough of fooling, had enough of lies
Hypocrisy, intriguing, right before my eyes
Had enough of hound dogs, barking all the time
I agree with Elvis, you ain't no friend of mine

Apart from this there is a better life I know
You're all undone, emotionless
It's time for me to go

Now I know there's a better way
Let my heart ride out for a brighter day
Now it's time to breathe in the open air
With a mind so free, anyway
It's time for a change...
It's time to break free!

Now I know there's a better way
Let my heart fly free to a better day
Now it's time to breathe, it's the only way,
let my mind ride out, anyway...

Now I know, there's a better way
Let my heart ride out for a better day
Now it's time to breathe in the open air
With a mind so free, anyway
It's time to break free!

It's time to be me, free.

-

Gamma Ray (Land of the Free, 1995)

... would anyone actually care (and read, and comment) if I started using this?