I write in margins

Finnish gaming industry has got lots of publicity recently after successes by Rovio and Supercell. But this is not about the gaming - this is about other great Finnish applications which have somehow affected my life and working in digital world. My personal history of digital drawing I have drawn comics and illustrations commercially since I was fifteen. Already early in the home computer era I nomaded in to the digital drawing and I am still on that journey. During the past 20-30 years I have used the most graphical tools there are and many times desperately seeked free solutions to do the basic graphics stuff when the expensive proprieraty solutions were out of reach. Sumopaint is in the cloud Some years ago I was on the road and needed to have an graphics application for my digital illustrations. I like to keep my presentations visual and I hate to snatch and use images which are made by someone else than by me. So what to do? I did not want to use the crappy Paint in the...

Christmas in London. Reuniting with my daughter, who studies in the UK, after four months separation. And escaping from the Yule stress. Due to longer stay and the special reunion, I wanted to have more homely lodgings and rented out a 90m2 penthouse apartment from Marlin Apartments. More space and more freedom. A roundtrip through the lodgings (also video at the end): The master bedroom with en suite bathroom with spaceous shower cabin. Living room with the dining area. Living Room with the dining area. Our apartment is on the 15th floor (16th in a Finnish way). Scenery is spectacular. Also on a rainy & foggy English morning. Dining area in a living room. Having a breakfast. En suite bathroom. Anotherone is with a bathtub. The second bathroom. Kitchen with all necessary equipment, though metal & Teflon do not fit together and a frying pan is scratchy. In Aldgate, a stone throw from Brick Lane. Nicely situated. ...

Table and Chair shelter for horses was a troll. Yesterday I asked my students whether they had seen the fake Facebook postings of "Facebook copyright disclaimer" and "lottery winner giving 1 million $ away for a random liker" . Everyone had seen these and many had seen those distributed by their friends. Many had been trolling. There has been three big trolls out there within just a week. Generating millions of repostings and thousands of blog postings. Most of them believing the fake story behind them. The third one was the posting of horses sheltering under a giant table and chairs claiming that horse owner built them because he was denied the building permission to build a traditional horse shelter by a city council. Sorry to say but the posting was untrue. The photograph is real, these chairs and tables do exist, but they were originally built by a German furniture manufacturer in order to advertise their products. The photo was first published by TIM...

Chicken Breast with Root Vegetables. Easy, Fast & Tasty! Photo: Jarmo Röksä Today's dinner was easy to make but tasty at the table. Taken away time in the oven it takes just few minutes to prepare chicken breasts on a root vegetable bed. I like to keep my recipes simple and easy so here won't be any measurements. Chop potatoes, carrots & chunk of turnip to a big pieces (mix veggies according to your personal preference) (1) Peel onions and cut them half and throw in to the casserole. (1) Spice it up with rosemary, thyme, salt & peppar. (1) Pour in generously with olive oil (1) Place chicken breasts (with bones!) on the top of the roots. (if you wish marinade it first with olive oil, lemon, garlic (just a little!), basil, salt & pepper, or just put salt & pepper on the top) (2) Put it in the ovet at 175 ° Celsius and wait around 1 - 1.5 hour depending on the size of your chicken.(3) Serve with fresh salad.   

Yesterday evening I published a photo from my local pub in Facebook. It was a photo from a sign announcing a new drink called StarWars (Tähtien Sota in Finnish) made up by Hugo's bartender. Ja llu, a.k.a Jaloviina is Finland's Jack Daniels. Known as a drink for rockers, poets and bohemians. A real classic. Jaloviina won Finnish hearts in 1932 when the Prohibition was abolished in Finland after 13 years in practice. Jaloviina (noble spirits, free translation) is cognac blended with grain spirit. Blending ratio is expressed with the stars. One star Jaloviina's blending ratio is 1/4 of cognac, two stars' (came back to the market this year due to 80th Anniversary) 1/2 of cognac. So, the loving relationship and the cultural roots of the plausible succesful image sharing were existing. I published the photo in my Facebook account yesterday around 8 PM. Now, 19 hours later it has become viral. Through my account it has 550 shares, and when some people adopted my phot...