Food for thought

The right measure of frank peculiarity, the unexpected, makes any fictional character or cover-story feel instantly more real.
- William Gibson

Stuff.

At first glance: cheesy. In aggregate: brilliant. Gives Me Hope.

-

Completely artificial French popstar Josh Gosfield. Gibson says she looks the way he always imagined Molly Millions. Now that he mentions it, same here pretty much. I never, ever, ever imagined her as Liv Tyler. Or Haydn Christiansen as Case. Was hoping this latest attempt at filming Neuromancer had been stillborn like the others. Looks like not. Might pretend it was. For the rest of my life.

-

Russian kid killed by exploding chewing gum. After dipping it in explosive.

-

Of interest to the web-savvy and those who admire them: 10 Web Trends to Watch in 2010.

-

First audiences rave about Avatar. Fingers crossed. What I find telling is the one viewer toward the end who comments that he'll probably like it less once he has time to think about it, but loves it now. Which is what happened with Episode One. Test audiences - high on the sense of having been taken to the bosom of their idol and ambushed by camera crews - raved, only to find enthusiasm withering by the time they hit the car park.

-

For a long time I've been interested in the historical truth behind the life of Jesus Christ, but never got around to properly reading Josephus or any other historian who was in the area at the time. Nonetheless, this article intrigued me and I'll get around to reading it when I've got the time.

(no subject)

At the moment Helsinki is a bunch of stuff that might happen.

- This film school is around the corner from where we're at.
- Got talking to kits_the_dm at txxpxxx's party last night, and he recommended this guy for fencing training. He's on the outskirts, which'll add to my bike miles, which is great, and is a hard-arse about physical competence before he'll even let you in.
- There's a Moomin museum in Tampere I want to check out on drjon's behalf.
- I want to check out Tampere because J loves the place.
- Half the city is a goddamned forest, so I'd like to match J's 100km a week biking.
- J speaks a handful of languages, and teaches them for a living, so it looks like I'll hopefully have a better grasp of Finnish before I become effortless with French. Same with German, probably. Which is absolutely fantastic. Seems like most people over there speak at least three languages, and I'm determined to keep pace.
- Finnish Lapland in 2011 for the northern lights.
- GWT in May (Leipzig).
- 5 days in Berlin with a view to getting a better feel for the Berlin scenes in Fateless.
- Paris for same, and because Dmetri sells that city so damned well.

I just wanna gogogo.

If things play out ideally I'll have a place of my own or shared in either Vantaa or Espoo. So if you know me and you're in the area, mi casa es su casa. So far Helsinki looks like a great staging point for inexpensive (by Australian standards) forays into other countries.

And if that doesn't lure you: we get to vote in Eurovision.

Hard to believe I got here from being broke in a world full of maybes two months ago. I love my goddamned friends.

I know kung-fu.

Online language self-instruction stuff:

- http://www.byki.com/
- http://www.livemocha.com/

Thank to tyggerjai for the last. Gonna see if I can shape up a grasp before I get there.

(no subject)

This is probably where I'll be writing for three months at least.

Cute coffee joint at the top of the hill. Acidic coffee, but I'm told it goes well with the pulla, which is apparently extraordinary.