VL

The last month has been rather politically active in Finland, due to presidential elections. Tarja Halonen's last term ends next month. The president-elect is now Sauli Niinistö, a former finance minister of the 1990's who lost to Halonen six years ago. In that respect Finnish media's comments for the last couple of years have been turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I voted beforehand, before the voting day, as I usually do. In my opinion the worst candidates were dropped off during the first down, including two of three larger parties, Center Party and Social Democrats. That also included the candidate for the (True) Finns party and the so-called Christian Democrats - fortunately, in my opinion.

The second round of the election got especially interesting because facing Niinistö was Pekka Haavisto, a Green party politician, diplomat and a gay man who is living in a registered partnership (Finnish equivalent to civil union) with a man. There was bit more than usual amount of mudslinging, especially in the social media sites between the supporters, even if both candidates condemned it. One of the main tabloids even tried to make a story of two supporters of the candidates to hurl insults to each other in the paper; Haavisto's supporter refused to do so and asked others to refuse as well. Candidates retained the election numbers they had had in the first round to avoid confusion.

Haavisto still did relatively well, getting around 38% of the vote, which is quite a lot. There were bunch of homophobic comments thought HAavisto himself said that many people had refused to vote for him because he was Green (presumably he meant those that approached him personally). Still, getting over million votes is quite a bit for someone who media thought was a fourth-rate contender as best.

One interesting detail was the support of veteran politician Paavo Väyrynen of the Center Party, who ended up third during the first round and even in the second round some people still wanted to vote for him in some areas (ballots were now disqualified because he was not a candidate are more). Väyrynen has had presidential aspirations for decades now and he blamed the media, as usual.

Brad Warner – Zen Wrapped in Karma Dipped in Chocolate

This is less of a guide to buddhism and more a biographical note about Warner's life – how he handled the breakup of his marriage, deaths in his family and the fact that his mentor pushed the leadership of the organization to him, against the wishes of many senior members. In the process he makes some sensible insights that life isn't what you want - it never is - get's two/i> girlfriends after getting one divorce and continues to play with his punk band.
Warner is as irreverent as ever – and about as irreverent as life. Stuff happens, deal with it. Recommended only for those with sense of humor.

David Grann – The Lost City of Z
( Walking the well-beaten path of a missing explorerCollapse )

Catherine Merridale - Ivan's War
( Blood of Russian soldiersCollapse )

Eric Hobsbawm – Bandits
( Robin Hoods of yesteryearCollapse )

Terry Jones / Douglas Adams – Starship Titanic
( Almost a computer gameCollapse )

(I noticed this "meme" in DeviantArt a while ago and althought it is meant to be illustrated, not written, I decided to try something different. Anything to restart my writing gears)

Select 12 of your characters in random.

1. Sylvan Delsaux, French-Bretonian man with longs claws for fingers. Member of a French Resistance group during the War.
2. Walter Ingham, later known as Walter Fort; wallwalking street kid from the 1920's who broke into libraries. Was later adopted by Charles Fort and his wife and effectively continued his work afterwards.
3. Aarne Mäensivu, Finnish aerokinetic and former circus performer. Also one of the rare second-generation exotics. Romantically involved with Mary Carless.
4. Mary Carless, Canadian Amerindian clairvoyant and detective. Romantically involved with Aarne Mäensivu.
5. Andrew Casgrove, British Commando officer during the War. Fell in love with Dorrington when they were in the same mission.
6. Janet Dorrington, British working class girl, farseer and SOE member during the War. Agreed to marry Cargrove 1948.
7. Humam ibn Hakim, founder of an exotic Bedouin tribe and the enemy of the Wahhabites and the Saudi who helped the Mecca to stay free of Saudi influence. Has considerable influence in southern Arabia.
8. Petras Prukteinyte, Latvian size-changer and defector to West Germany.
9. Janni Ostler, Dutch "atavic" (exotic with animal features) and an attractive one at that.
10. Ryoko Iwasaki, Giant Japanese policewoman.
11. Bogomil Stoiler, Bulgarian-trained ex-assassin who killed his bosses and torched the records before fleeing to Africa.
12. Xabier Saralegi, Basque "atavic" (this time with goat's features).

(Yes, characters I come up are strange, so sue me).

( As for the potential plot pointsCollapse )

(To be quite exact, this even happened a while ago but I decided to write about it anyway)
( Night Of the MuseumsCollapse )

( Discussion of a disgrace in a tavernCollapse )

“Meme” via sir sacha3791

What games have influenced my roleplaying? I found it hard to think about 15 games in short notice which is one of the reasons why this was so delayed.
( Games and charactersCollapse )