Wednesday, January 31, 2007
You learn something new everyday. Yes. I get it. It happens. Take today for example. Today I learned that my new boots don't track as much dirty snow into the house. They seem to get cleaner on the mat than my other shoes do. See, that's something new that I learned today. But is that interesting? Well, let's just say that if one were to find that interesting then... well, you'd be pretty dull. It takes a couple of days to learn something interesting. It takes life. You have to live it before you can learn it. So with that as today's theme, here are a couple of interesting things that I learned over the past few days and more.
First, it is not easy to walk in a snowstorm. I thought it would be a good idea, and it's not to say that it was a wholly bad idea altogether, it's just that there certainly were aspects of it that weren't good. I mean it was a snow-storm. Not just snowing, but really coming down. But whatever, it sounded like a good idea in my head and so I went.
When I got outside I immediately slipped. Not fell down or anything but did a little slide, and there are a lot of those little slides in the winter. So I knew that this could be a hard walk. I walk around town at night for an hour or two a couple times a week. It's a good way to get out of the house, listen to some music and see the city as it is. It's usually a brisk walk, but long. But in a snow-storm? Man it is tough to walk on all that snow. And then the snow. It was coming down small and hard and from all directions. It's not like postcard crap. Big, fluffy, fun, dogs running around, that kinda shit. It wasn't that. I was just glad I put my contacts in; my glasses would have hated me for taking them out in that kind of weather.
Hmmm...What the hell else did I learn? Oh yeah! Basketball games in Helsinki are much rowdier than basketball games in Joensuu. Tonight I watched my first Topo match and it was against Kataja, my team from J-town. I can't root against my team, but I watched the game with an objective eye and an open heart. After all, this gym is a five-minute tram ride from our house. It's in the old sports hall that they built for the Olympics when they had them here in 1952. So it's pretty old. In Joensuu they had just moved into an unbelievable building, Areena, that housed two indoor soccer fields and two regulation size basketball courts, plus a sandpit for track and field, pole-vault (seriously the first time I ever typed that word - something new! Today's theme! Just like that! Play some music or something.) And it had a boxing ring. Huge. Well this place was rough and so was the game and so was the crowd.
Back in Joensuu I sort of was the cheering section. But I liked to cheer against the other team more than for my own team. I guess I feel like they need me to hate on the other team more than love on them, since they already know that I like them and stuff. You know, yelling stuff like, "You got no game...Your mama got know game!" Pissing them off so they screw up. Just doing my part for the team. I'm not going to paint my face and go shirtless or anything, but a fair level of support? I can give that. So Kataja won, but I enjoyed the game and I think I'll give the Topo guys another go.
One more thing. Today I got to complain to the man about his abuse of my time. I was in a workshop about exploring the future of the digital cinema experience. In other words, how movie theatres are trying to get their audiences to spend as much money in their theatre as they possibly can. The workshop was almost exclusively with theatre chain owners and distributors. The man in this scenario. And I got to tell them what I thought. I did it diplomatically and at the right moment, but it happened.
Here's the deal. When you go to a movie in Finland they have ads and previews, just like any other place. But in Finland, the order is reversed. The previews start before the ads. So by the time you take your seat - assigned seating by the way, which is great, because it totally takes away the need to get to the theatre so as to claim the best seat - by the time you take your seat, you have already missed all the previews and get stuck watching the same damn commercials that come on television all the damned time. They even show a commercial with a woman shooting a home video and her husband is working on the roof and the kids are playing in the yard and, all of a sudden, the husband falls off the roof and dies and she's recording the whole thing. It's for some insurance or health care company. But talk about kicking the suspension of disbelief to the floor. "Hi, before you escape into the world of the film you are just about to watch, I want to remind you all that YOU ARE GOING TO DIE. Enjoy the show."
So in this meeting I got to complain that I feel totally used when I go to the movies and this inhibits me from going. And I like going to the movies. But I don't do it nearly as much as I used to. So I got to say to them that what we were discussing walks a very fine line when dealing with the customer. Too much pushing and you'll push me away. I have no idea if it will have an impact, but at least I got to tell it to the man.
First, it is not easy to walk in a snowstorm. I thought it would be a good idea, and it's not to say that it was a wholly bad idea altogether, it's just that there certainly were aspects of it that weren't good. I mean it was a snow-storm. Not just snowing, but really coming down. But whatever, it sounded like a good idea in my head and so I went.
When I got outside I immediately slipped. Not fell down or anything but did a little slide, and there are a lot of those little slides in the winter. So I knew that this could be a hard walk. I walk around town at night for an hour or two a couple times a week. It's a good way to get out of the house, listen to some music and see the city as it is. It's usually a brisk walk, but long. But in a snow-storm? Man it is tough to walk on all that snow. And then the snow. It was coming down small and hard and from all directions. It's not like postcard crap. Big, fluffy, fun, dogs running around, that kinda shit. It wasn't that. I was just glad I put my contacts in; my glasses would have hated me for taking them out in that kind of weather.
Hmmm...What the hell else did I learn? Oh yeah! Basketball games in Helsinki are much rowdier than basketball games in Joensuu. Tonight I watched my first Topo match and it was against Kataja, my team from J-town. I can't root against my team, but I watched the game with an objective eye and an open heart. After all, this gym is a five-minute tram ride from our house. It's in the old sports hall that they built for the Olympics when they had them here in 1952. So it's pretty old. In Joensuu they had just moved into an unbelievable building, Areena, that housed two indoor soccer fields and two regulation size basketball courts, plus a sandpit for track and field, pole-vault (seriously the first time I ever typed that word - something new! Today's theme! Just like that! Play some music or something.) And it had a boxing ring. Huge. Well this place was rough and so was the game and so was the crowd.
Back in Joensuu I sort of was the cheering section. But I liked to cheer against the other team more than for my own team. I guess I feel like they need me to hate on the other team more than love on them, since they already know that I like them and stuff. You know, yelling stuff like, "You got no game...Your mama got know game!" Pissing them off so they screw up. Just doing my part for the team. I'm not going to paint my face and go shirtless or anything, but a fair level of support? I can give that. So Kataja won, but I enjoyed the game and I think I'll give the Topo guys another go.
One more thing. Today I got to complain to the man about his abuse of my time. I was in a workshop about exploring the future of the digital cinema experience. In other words, how movie theatres are trying to get their audiences to spend as much money in their theatre as they possibly can. The workshop was almost exclusively with theatre chain owners and distributors. The man in this scenario. And I got to tell them what I thought. I did it diplomatically and at the right moment, but it happened.
Here's the deal. When you go to a movie in Finland they have ads and previews, just like any other place. But in Finland, the order is reversed. The previews start before the ads. So by the time you take your seat - assigned seating by the way, which is great, because it totally takes away the need to get to the theatre so as to claim the best seat - by the time you take your seat, you have already missed all the previews and get stuck watching the same damn commercials that come on television all the damned time. They even show a commercial with a woman shooting a home video and her husband is working on the roof and the kids are playing in the yard and, all of a sudden, the husband falls off the roof and dies and she's recording the whole thing. It's for some insurance or health care company. But talk about kicking the suspension of disbelief to the floor. "Hi, before you escape into the world of the film you are just about to watch, I want to remind you all that YOU ARE GOING TO DIE. Enjoy the show."
So in this meeting I got to complain that I feel totally used when I go to the movies and this inhibits me from going. And I like going to the movies. But I don't do it nearly as much as I used to. So I got to say to them that what we were discussing walks a very fine line when dealing with the customer. Too much pushing and you'll push me away. I have no idea if it will have an impact, but at least I got to tell it to the man.
// posted by Howard @ 10:31 PM 
