Finland, part 2

Just a few quick thoughts...

• I enjoyed playing the game mölkky. I think part of the reason was that I know about 1020 Finnish phrases, and 999 of them are the numbers 1-999. So at first I thought I would be able to understand everything people said. Imagine my surprise when I heard how people actually speak numbers, as opposed to the "official" way to say numbers... it would be like in english if instead of saying "twenty-seven" you said "twe-sev" or "thir-fo", except even a little more abstract than that. But I did manage to catch on fairly quickly for the most part.
  
• The game of Finnish darts is different than American (English? Irish?) darts. I think you throw from farther back, and the board looks different (concentric rings).
  
• San Francisco is trying to place a tax on plastic bags at grocery stores to cut back on bag waste. Finland already has the problem figured out - when you get to the check out stand, you actually have to pull down the bags you want, place them on the conveyor belt, and pay for them. The bags are higher quality too, so you don't need to double or triple bag.
  
• I missed blueberry season by 2-3 weeks... there are some green ones but nothing ripe. But we were able to find a few ripe wild strawberries. While they are very tiny, they are packed full with flavor! Yum!
  

Hyvä paiva

Greetings from Finland. Some quick thoughts:

• The 24 hours of day light (the sun actually does set below the horizon where I am, but it's still light outside) is pretty amazing. But what is even more amazing is how the people who have lived here 20,30,50,70 years still get so excited about it. Their excitement speaks volumes about how different the dark winters must be.
  
• Lordi, the recent champions in a European music contest, may look like they are demons from Hell, but they are played on the radio in between Ashlee Simpson and Kelly Clarkson. 12 year olds love Lordi.
  
• My aunt-in-law could not understand why in Germany you had to ask someone's permission to pick berries from their yard. In Finland, it's in their constitution that 15 meters away from your house is public land, and anyone is allowed to pick the berries or mushrooms that may grow there. When we mentioned that in the U.S. you might be arrested for tresspassing, she was even more confused.
  
• When you combine strong governmental control of alcohol with months of darkness and snow, you end up with a lot of home-brewed alcohol. But, due to their strict law enforcement, drunk driving incidents are extremely low.
  
• The sauna isn't just a place where you sweat, it's practically a religious experience here. More on that later.
  
• There is a region near by where there are a lot of glass factories. Some of them are larger companies, and some of them are small houses with 1 artist. In a way, it reminded me of driving through Napa and visiting wineries, but instead of drinking wine, I got to look at glass products, and when my timing was lucky, got to see someone making something.
  
• Don't call Finland part of Scandinavia, or call a Finnish person Scandinavian. They'll correct you, and might be a little angry by the common mistake.
  
• There are green forrests everywhere. It's amazing. I joked that perhaps half the world's oxygen was produced here there are so many trees.
  

World cup babble

All the criticsm of Ronaldo sort of irks me. Yes, he's not as good as he used to be. And yes, he's heavier than pretty much every other player on the field (thus earning him the nickname "Fatty"). And perhaps it's true that Brazil should be starting Robinho instead.

But hold on.

Isn't Brazil winning?

And wait... wasn't the opening goal in the Brazil-Australia game the result of Ronaldo drawing three defenders to him, allowing him to pass it to Adriano for what turned out to be the game-winning goal?

Yes, yes. Brazil isn't living up to their reputation right now. And neither is Ronaldo. But if I were coaching a team, and could put someone on the field that drew that much attention from the defense, leaving other players open to do their thing, I'd certainly put him on the field too.

Brazil might fall out of this tournament, but so far, it hasn't mattered if they aren't executing up to their potential, they are still winning.

As for the U.S. - they've still got a chance to make it to the next round...

In cold blood

I just finished reading Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. I haven't seen the movie Capote yet, and actually hadn't heard anything about the movie or this book. I just picked it up due to a recommendation from a friend.

The most interesting thing to me in this book is how the criminals in this book are humanized. They committed horrific crimes, but Capote also goes into great detail describing the personalities and histories of the two criminals. In most fiction, the bad guys are presented as 100% evil. But here, even though the criminals are still evil, we also see them partaking in daily activities along with everyone else. It's a chilling feeling to think about how the world is not all clear cut as most fiction makes it out to be, and to think that sometimes horrible things happen to completely innocent people, and that sometimes the people committing these horrible acts are humans too.

I believe this was the first "true crime" book I have ever read (which may be appropriate as this one is credited with starting the genre), but it'll probably be awhile before I pick up another. While Capote's writing was amazing, and the story very captivating, knowing in my mind that everything in this book actually happened made it difficult to get through.

I do question how Capote was able to obtain so much research in writing this book, but maybe the movie will help to answer that question.

Sardinian food, and I don't mean plates of sardines

One of the joys of living in San Francisco (or any large city) is that there's always a new restaurant to try (though it's also a little depressing to see how often restaurants close down...). Last night's adventure was the first time I've been to a "Sardinian" restaurant: our neighborhood's own La Ciccia.

La Ciccia's menu (small but very enticing) features a lot of seafood (which I guess you'd expect from an island), and pizza. Normally I would have immediately gone for the pizza, but the special sounded too good: they were featuring porcini mushrooms in several dishes, and for an entre they were offering a fresh-spaghetti dish with porcini mushrooms cooked in some light oils and spices (I don't remember the details, I just remember saffron and lemon being in there...). I don't get to eat fresh pasta that often, it's quite different from the normal store bought pasta, and I think the texture is a lot more pleasing.

For an appetizer, I went with the Casisceddu cun Pibaroni e Croccoriga (Mozzarella with Roasted Peppers and Zucchini). The roasted peppers were great - placing them in the same bite as the mozzarella created a good mixture of tastes.

My wife went the seafood route with the Inzalaredda de Mari cun Patata a Buddiu (Seafood salad with boiled Potatoes) - which had fresh calamari and squid. And for an entre had another special, which was the prawns.

For dessert, we both went off menu again towards the specials - one was a blood orange sorbet, the other was a chocolate dessert (some sort of tart) with an espresso-based topping. The cholate dish was great. Side story: the person from the kitchen who delivered the desserts started putting the chocolate down in front of my wife, but when I corrected her, she said "ah, usually it's the woman who orders chocolate!".

In general, everything on the menu seemed very simple and pure. There were only a few ingredients in each dish, and everything was presented in a very natural way. I have no idea if this is typical of Sardinian food or if this was just a Noe Valley restaurant trying to be hip. Regardless, it was a good dining experience.

One of the reasons we were excited to go to La Ciccia was because we had read about the owner's passion for wine. Unfortunately, they had discountinued their wine flights, so we weren't able to sample as much as we would have liked. Although I'm finally starting to understand California wines, when it comes to identifying Italian (or Sardinian) wines, I know next to nothing. Our waitress kindly helped us pick out a few glasses. I ended up with a glass of Carignano del Sulcis "Grotta Rossa" Cantina Santadi 2003 and a glass of Monica di Sardegna "Perdera" Argiolas 2003. I actually felt they tasted extremely similar (not a bad thing, but was surprised a bit). I'm no wine connoisseur, but the wines definitely tasted different from the California wines I'm used to drinking, which was a nice change for me.

Enjoying food and wine is still a relatively new experience for me, so I'm just learning how to talk about the experience of eating. Bear with me for awhile as I search for the right voice to use when describing a dining outing...

The other jogo bonito

Nike might be telling you that soccer/football is the jogo bonito, but today, like most Thursdays, I took part in Brazil's other jogo bonito, capoeira.

The simple way of defining capoeira is "a Brazilian martial art" or some people say "dance-fighting", but really it's hard to define capoeira with words. After a year of classes, I'm still learning about what it is. You might have seen capoeira-inspired movements in movies (recently Catwoman or Ocean's 12), but as the Mestranda at the school I go to says, those moves alone are not capoeira. Capoeira is the combination of fighting, dancing, singing, clapping, instruments, tradition. It's the entire package.

The particular style of capoeira that I do is called abadá. I'm not sure how it compares to other styles yet as I haven't been to other schools (yet). Essentially the hour and a half class usally goes like this: 45 minutes of warmups and technique training, 10 minutes of ab and arm strength training, 10-20 minutes of couples work, and 10-20 minutes of the roda. It is an extremely thorough workout, and each time I leave feeling exhausted.

I've been taking these classes for a year now, and I try to go twice a week. Although it sounds odd, I think the thing I enjoy most about capoeira is that I am absolutely horrible at it. It tests me physically (I don't have the flexibility or strength needed), mentally (getting past that "maybe I'll just sit out the next 10 minutes..." phase each class), and socially (playing with strangers can be difficult). I am getting better, but not nearly as fast as the other people in class that go 3-4 times a week, or the people who came into the class with better physical preparation. But despite the difficulty, it's improving my physical strength, flexibility, and even my mental and social outlook on things. And on top of that, it can also just be a lot of fun. How often does a grown man get the chance to practice doing cartwheels? And how often do you see two people that are trying to kick eachother smiling or laughing when they are done?

The first tuesday of every month is a "fundamentals" class geared towards first-timers. Anyone wanna come out and join me?

10 seconds of aural entertainment

One of the benefits of working downtown and getting out at the Montgomery Muni/Bart station is that on most days I am treated to a free concert by a street musician. Even though I wisk by and only hear them for 10 seconds, they have become an integral part of my day and I miss them when they are not there. I don't know too much about them; I suspect that some of them earn their money this way, some of them are students practicing, and others just stop and play a bit before work to make some extra latte cash.

At my particular station, I'm often entertained by:

• The Steel Guitar Guy - Singing songs like "Why Do Birds Suddenly Appear"... this guy has one of the purest-toned voices I've heard, which sounds pretty cool in the reverberant station hallways.
  
• The Large Johnny Cash Guy - You wouldn't know it from his image, but man, he does a mean Johhny Cash impression. Those low notes are great.
  
• The Weird Asian Instrument Guy - I have no idea what that instrument is that he plays, but its a nice break from the usual street performer routine.
  
• The De Colores Guy - It seems that everytime I pass him by, he's playing De Colores. The mariachi outfit makes up for it though. (By the way...maybe look into tuning your guitar more often?)
  
• The Crazy Flamenco Guy - I can never decide if this guy is so passionate about playing that it comes off a little too frantic, or if he's just lost some of his skills over the years, but it's still a great flamenco guitar performance.
  
• The String Quartet - This is my favorite. I think it's a group of students. They don't play very often, but when they do, and I hear that classical music as I ride up the escalator, it's hard to not forget about all the stressful things I've thought about on my commute and just relax and enjoy life, even if it is only for 10 seconds.
  

Summer television

I watched way too much TV this last year, so I was actually looking forward to the summer season and having nothing new on tv to watch. But the evil television networks have already started sinking their claws into me...

On my list for this summer:

• Entourage - At first I didn't like this HBO series, and didn't really watch it until the 2nd season. But now it helps justify my HBO subscription.
  
• Rescue Me - Another show I didn't tune into until after the first season. This series (along with the amazing but cancelled Over There and the also cancelled Starved) really surprised me. I never really thought I'd be excited about an FX original series.
  

I'm on the fence about:

• Hell's Kitchen - It's way too easy to get sucked into this show, even though it's so forced and fake most of the time.
  
• So You Think You Can Dance - Given that I live in a 1-tv house, if one of us watches it, it pretty much means the other one does too.
  

I guess 2 shows isn't that bad...

Mocha with love

It's the little things that count.

Today's little thing began when I gave in to temptation and decided to try out the new espresso joint across the street from work (Café Amici I think is the name). I normally don't drink coffee during the week, but whatever, it was one of those days.

So I ordered the decaf mocha with soy milk. And when I went to pick it up, I looked down and noiced that on top of the drink, the barrista had made a white heart with the soy milk and foam.

I thought that was pretty cool.

5 ways not to respond to a vegetarian

5 ways you should not respond to a vegetarian when they first share this fact with you:

• Do you eat chicken? No, chickens are not vegetables. Asking someone if they eat fish is not as bad, as there are so many people that are pescatarian I can understand the confusion. Someone who says they are a vegetarian but then answers yes to this question is greatly confused. Give me the benefit of the doubt that I know what I'm saying.
  
• Really? How do you get protein? If you are asking this question with the genuine intent of discussing nutritional philosophies, then its a great conversation starter. But more often than not it's said more as a statement of disapproval. Are you ready to answer the return question of how you get your fiber? Your calcium? Your various vitamins?
  
• That's cool. Sometimes I eat veggie burgers instead of real ones. It's funny to point out that despite the fact that your meals most likely contain a large number of non-meat ingredients, it's really the almighty veggie burger that defines vegetarianism.
  
• I'd like to be a vegetarian, but I could never give up [fill in meat product here]. If you really wanted to be a vegetarian you'd find a way to give it up. This statement is almost always just a space filler until the next conversational topic comes up.
  
• But your shoes have leather in them. First of all you are confusing veganism with vegetarianism. And secondly, yes, I am quite aware of this fact already.
  

Bonus round! Good ways to respond:

• How long have you been vegetarian? Why? I actually hate to answer the why question, because I'm not a militant vegetarian and don't want to come off as one. But at least its a good way to start a dialog.
  
• I don't believe in vegetarianism because... It's interesting to hear different belief systems, and I'm always open to new ideas/research/etc.
  
• Interesting! Anyway, about that other thing...If you're not interested in talking about my vegetarianism, that's fine with me. I rarely tell people I'm a vegetarian unless the situation necessitates it or if it fits in the conversation. By all means, feel free to change the subject.
  
• In what way do you obtain vitamin b12? Ah - you know what it means to be a vegetarian. You may have been one for awhlie or at least read about it before.
  
• Awesome! I've been meaning to try out this really interesting recipe that has no meat in it. Come on over for dinner! Sweet, free food for me!
  

Futbol in the U.S.

Of course with the 2006 World Cup going on, the question of "why isn't soccer popular in the United States" is asked again and again and again. And now it's my turn...

It's not that soccer doesn't exist in the U.S. Many people claim that more U.S. children play soccer than do little league baseball (I've seen this stat mentioned a lot but haven't seen a valid source for it yet). But at some point, our attention turns to the NFL, MBA, and NBA.

The first answer the usual American sports fan gives is, "Soccer is boring! Any game that ends 0-0 is a boring game!" I definitely think the lack of goals takes away from some excitement, but is soccer really that much more boring than baseball? Soccer is 90 minutes of non-stop play. Does baseball even have 90 minutes of actual action in a 3-hour game?

I think the issue is a little deeper than this.

If you look at the NFL, MBA, and NBA, it is often about individual champions. I'm not saying that an individual can win a game, these are all team sports. But in baseball, people go to games just to see the 4 at bats that Bonds will take (well maybe not anymore, but still...). In the NFL, we put so much attention on the quarterback (and if it's not the quarterback, it's the runningback, and if it's not the runningback...). And I personally think that basketball is the ultimate in celebrating the individual star. But take a look at the NHL - which doesn't do quite as well in the U.S.. Sure you have your stars, but the star might only play for 1/3rd of the game. Maybe this is part of the reason the NHL isn't as big as the other sports in the U.S. I think soccer is similar - just because you have a superstar on your team doesn't guarantee that you'll get to see that person shine in any given game.

Another thing about the NFL, NBA, and MBA is that it's easy to know when to pay attention. In soccer (or the NHL), a goal can happen at any time, requiring constant attention or you might miss the game's (possibly only) highlight. In the NFL, if all you want to see is your team's offense, you can tune out of half of the game. In the MBA, the offense/defense split is explicit, and you know exactly when your hero is going up to the plate. And while the NBA is less scripted, you know that if you miss the 1st or 2nd quarter, you're still guaranteed to see some points in the rest of the game.

Perhaps a final issue with soccer in the U.S. doesn't involve fans but does involve money and corporations. When else on TV can you watch 45 minutes without being interrupted by an advertisement (the only thing that comes to mind for me is a Presidential Address)? What incentive do television channels have to put on these 2 hour programs when they can't pull down major ad revenue? And if there's no money for the TV companies, will it ever really catch on in the mainstream media? One twist in this scenario: with all the television companies freaking out about people no longer watching television ads because of Tivo, soccer may provide the perfect opportunity to really perfect the in-program advertising idea.

As for me - well, I'm just bummed that the U.S. World Cup team kicks off their journey on a Monday while I'm at work.

4 influential albums

As a guitar player, I began playing along with Hendrix, Van Halen, and all the usual guitar heros. But when it came time to forming a band and writing my own songs, these 4 albums really shaped the kind of music that I created over the last decade. They might not be my favorite albums, but I can't deny the mark they've left on me:

• Dance Hall Crashers - "Lockjaw": When I first heard the song "Enough" on the radio when I was in high school, my first reaction was "Oh my gosh. Someone has made what I want to create." The super simplistic guitar solos and the dual vocals would forever change my songwriting style.
  
• NOFX - "Punk In Drublic": This isn't even my favorite NOFX album, but it is the one that really hooked me. I can't count how many times I've played "Linoleum" on my guitar. This album taught me how to play pop-punk.
  
• Sublime - "40 oz. To Freedom": The funny thing about this album was that the first time I listened to it in the store I didn't like it. It wasn't until several years later that I picked it up, learned every song by heart, and even ended up covering several of the songs in one of the bands I played in.
  
• Skankin' Pickle - "Skankin' Pickle Fever": Skankin' Pickle was an independent band, but in my own 16-year-old-world, they were the ultimate rockstars. They introduced me to a world of music that I couldn't hear on mainstream radio. And, if nothing else, the fact that I often write silly/simple lyrics is a tribute to them.
  

Hopohopo

I guess I'm several years late to the party, but I've finally started a blog. Just a place to share some experiences with my friends and family, or maybe just to share my thoughts with myself.

I'm not Finnish, but in trying to learn Finnish, I came across a word that may end up describing this blog quite well:

Höpöhöpö - nonsense.

At the very least, it's fun to say.