busy week with a happy ending?

It's been a hectic week. Only one important thing remains on my to-do-list and it's the most important. I have to convince one company that I'm their man. I already know I'm good for the job. Hopefully in 3 hours time they've come to the same conclusion.

EDIT:
The jury is in and it all comes down to money. I have a bad feeling.

US-CANADA border

"An oral declaration of citizenship will no longer be enough for U.S. and Canadian citizens to cross the border. A passport, combination of a driver's license and birth certificate, or a trusted traveler card is now mandatory."
(Time, February 18, 2008)

That country really doesn't want people in. Or should I say they don't want to let people out of the country. In a longer run I think that is their master plan. I could say that country is going to be a police state in 30 years but that would make me communist or hippie or radical-anarchist-dude who just dislikes the fact that they represent the ultimate democracy. So I'm not going to say that U.S. WILL BE A POLICE STATE IN 30 YEARS.

I mean it's not like USA can be compared to North Korea where people don't know the Capital of Germany or that EU isn't a country or Elvis is really dead.


(some of you readers might remember this video from my previous blog.)

Still don't believe what I'm predicting?! More facts:

"18.4 million. Number of U.S. passports issued in 2007, an all-time high, due in part to new rules requiring them for travel to Canada and Mexico; 30% of Americans now hold passports."
(Time, january 14, 2008)

Only 30%??? What do you think happens when/if shit hits the fan in U.S and people want to leave the country? Do you really think they'll let people leave the greatest country on Earth?

My Portfolio

In short notice I had to make a portfolio site for myself. I'm glad it's finally ready. Now I might even get a job for this summer..
Go and check it out nestorivirtanen.com. All feedback and job offers are welcomed. I'm still working with little details but other than that I'm pretty much done with the site.

Oh, and sorry. At the moment I only have it in Finnish but when I have some spare time I'll translate it to English as well.

History lesson IRAN vs. USA

Sometimes I feel like a Jedi warrior from Star Wars that got tricked into defending the wrong side.

tips for all you workaholics STRESS STRESS!

I'd say I'm under some pressure and suffering from small stress with my all the work I've got. A month ago when I really started working hard I tried to use these small tips that are suppose to improve your productivity.
- Clean your desk
- Clean your computers desktop
- Change the email so that it only checks email every 10min/1h/4h (which ever you prefer)
- Stop using Messenger
- etc..

After a month I've noticed these things work. Well my desks aren't clean anymore. They look more like Pearl Harbor in 1941.

But the thing is these things only minimize the distractions. They don't help when your head isn't working anymore. Too much LCD-display staring really melts down your brain. I really can't think strait anymore. I can concentrate 30min to something and then my brains stop obeying my commands.

Last autumn my head was crystal clear. Now I can really notice the difference..

So After one month I realized that I have to do something else than just work 14 hours a day. Unfortunately I realized all this too late and now I have only 1,5 weeks before I go skiing. This means now I really have to just work.

You see where I'm going? Once you step into this circle there's no backing out until you really tell yourself that this will be the last time I treat my brains and body like shit. I'm not going to promise that just quite yet. But I sure as hell know I'm not going to stay in that circle for the rest of my life.

Fuck circles! I like squares with no corners.


I'm going to leave you with this little piece of text from the latest issue of Time Magazine:

"Stress puts into motion a biological cascade involving hormones, glands and neural circuits, all activating one another in a complex feedback loop. When you are stuck in traffic or overwhelmed at work or worn down by the kids, the hypothalamus--a structure buried deep in the midbrain--tells your adrenal gland to pump out a supply of the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol, in turn, tells your body to stop worrying about its basic metabolic needs and instead to "do the things you need to do to save yourself from whatever created the stress," says University of Virginia neuroscientist James Coan.

That's great if you're fleeing an attacking bear, since the things you need to do to save yourself require boosting your heart rate and respiration, tensing your muscles and generally cranking up your body's alert level. But such an energy-intensive system is designed to be used only in brief bursts; you either escape the bear or you get eaten by it, but either way the crisis ends. The daily stresses of the modern world can throw our bodies into emergency mode and keep us there. That takes a toll through high blood pressure, tension headaches and a lot of gnawed pencils. "If you're chronically releasing stress hormones, your body starts to fall apart," says Coan. "Ultimately, you're going to live less long--and you're going to be miserable.""

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1704686,00.html

Henry Rollins, Serj Tankian and Tom Morello. Now we're talking!

Superheroes and superhumans

What does a hardcore activist and superman have in common?

- They both can't be themselves in public. Did you ever wonder why Superman is by far the most popular superhero? His normal day to day FAKE identity is the Average Joe not the other way around. Superman is really from the planet Krypton and all the other superheroes are just normal human beings from planet Earth who by some strange bio-hazard accident became superheroes.

People want to be like superman, man who is unique in every possible way. People can't except the fact that they are nothing special. Without other people you would be nothing. With other people around you are the center of the world and at the same time you are nothing. Unless you would be from Krypton.. But you are NOT!

What does Shawn White and Gisele Bundchen have in common?

- They both are rolemodel's and make money from the fact that they are better than the rest of us. The other is better looking than the rest of us and the other one, well certainly not better looking but better snowboarder. Still they both make money from the fact that people want to be like them and they are willing to spend hole lot of money to get even one tiny step closer to that illusion. It's like people think these stars are from Krypton. But their NOT!