i summon one kim

I have new versions of Firefox running on my computers, and I was busy adding block images rules on each one. I thought this was less than ideal, so I decided to give Privoxy a new try. I saw that a new version is out, so I updated the www/privoxy package as well. Apart from getting more up-to-date filters, there’s a memory leak fix and I could also enable threads for parallel request handling.

While people are commemorating the tragedy of 9/11/2001 today and certainly for years to come, this year it is also more “business as usual” regardless of the date. I’ve just finished setting up network connectivity to the NASD for a new application, and for this afternoon I’m on standby for (of all things) a Disaster Recovery Test conducted by ADP Brokerage Services Group. Since I was to be working today anyway, I also scheduled some hardware maintenance of my own.

I think this is a good development: things do move on — it doesn’t mean we would forget about the past.

Hannu visited me for a few days, on his way to San Francisco. Also a member of the “people not seen often enough” club, it was great to have him. I just wish Teija would have been with him.

The great thing about visitors is that I get to play tourist, too, in my home town! We went to several places I had never visited before:

• The City Quilter — Hannu was picking up some fabrics to bring back for Teija. The staff at the store were absolutely wonderful, and really knew their product selection.
• Cathedral of St. John Divine — I even used to live nearby, but never got around to visit back then.
• The Bronx Zoo — Lots to see, but I’d recommend visiting during cooler weather. Not just to save yourself, but the animals won’t be hiding as much either.

The other great thing about visitors is that it is a great reason to arrange for some time off from work…

Yet another vacation is over, and I’m returning home. It’s been a relaxing two weeks, even with all the traveling. It has really been great that I had enough time to visit all over Finland (in Helsinki, Ylivieska, Kauhava and Lappeenranta).

Unusually I took a bus from Lappeenranta to Helsinki. I would have taken the train but it turned out that there is track construction going on, so no early trains were running. On the bus I had this woman, Anu, sitting behind me with (as I was to find out) her recently adopted dog. I thought it was overly demanding for the dog to sit so close to other people so I thought I’d let it sniff my hand. Since we were in Eastern Finland, it should be no surprise that a conversation between me and Anu continued until she got off the bus in Porvoo. And we seemed to arrive there in almost no time at all.

Back in Helsinki I had lunch with my friend and business partner Panu. He also qualifies for the “Top 10 People I Don’t See Often Enough” list.

So here I am at the airport hotel, waiting for tomorrow’s flight. As a nice surprise, the hotel has a WLAN for its guests, so I can chat on IRC and IM. However, it is going to be a long day tomorrow with a 5-hour layover at Heathrow, so less chat and more sleep is in order.

On Monday it was off to Lappeenranta. My parents took me here on the RV, and then had some vacation of their own driving back to the west side of Finland. I’ve been staying with my dear friends Hanna-Kaisa and Tapio, whom I haven’t seen in just too long. Hanna-Kaisa took me on the “usual” tour around town, visiting book stores and other places (like the new phenomenon called Lidl). And after a long (or short) day at work, Tapio would be in the kitchen (or by the barbeque) with Hanna-Kaisa, putting their secrets about Italian cuisine to work.

Otto also took me for a quick visit to the university to see a telecomms closet (the home of irc.lut.fi, no less). It happened that everyone I was planning to visit at the university turned up at that closet. Go figure… it is not next to the cafeteria or anything. Well, that just left more time for a relaxing drive around the nearby islands of lake Saimaa in Otto’s vintage Cadillac. I took some pictures about another ferry being obsoleted by a bridge.

Another frequently visited spot in Lappeenranta is the marina, with its floating beer bars. Lahi took me there — not for a beer, but for ice cream — on one evening. Next time I have to remember to go there for lunch to enjoy a vety (and perhaps a beer).

On Wednesday I took a train to Ylivieska to visit my parents. The great thing about being up north was that it didn’t get hot or humid. In Helsinki the humidity got to be a bit much at times, but in Ylivieska we would just lounge on the balcony, safe from rain (not that there was too much of that), sunburn and mosquitoes. We did leave the balcony a couple of times to walk around the town, for instance to the store for some new potatoes and smoked salmon and sourdough rye bread — Finnish delicacies at their best.

For the weekend we drove here to Kauhava, but surprisingly (at least to myself) I didn’t really feel like I would have to visit here anymore. It has always been more about visiting my parents anyway, than visiting the house where I grew up.

Helsinki was mostly rainy, but I managed to spend some time outdoors with the Selonen family. It is always great to see Arto, Laura, Katri and Karita, who keep welcoming me to their home time and again. Karita had become even more outgoing than what I remember last time — she didn’t hesitate a minute that first evening to announce that Kimmo was going to read her a bedtime story. :-) And if running about outside wasn’t enough, they also got me jumping around indoors (well, once at least) with this weird dance game.

Thanks to the organizational skills of Antti alias “Pooka” I also got to meet all the Finnish NetBSD developers one night over a dinner at La Bodega.

Well, I had never spent a week in Frankfurt before. I thought there’s nothing there (sorry). However, I was somewhat wrong, I guess.

During the days, Mark — a colleague of mine from NYC — was helping me find my way around the offices of the mother bank and to communicate with the colleagues in Frankfurt. In the evenings he was showing me that there is something to the city of business. You just have to spend some time looking around (as he has in the past) and have friends like Kirk who know these esoteric venues that you wouldn’t think to visit just by looking at them from the street (yeah, what was that about the book and its cover).

We also visited Mainz and Mark introduced me to some very welcoming friends of his, Karen and Helmut, who took us to a small village restaurant with excellent food and wine. Maybe it should be counted as an advantage of Frankfurt that you don’t have to go far outside to find some really nice places…

After all the flying is over today, I should be in Helsinki.