What's with Houston?

I check my sitemeter about once a week. It's just interesting to see where people are when they look my site. For a couple of months I was getting a lot of hits from Italy, people looking for the lyrics to Billy Joel's [title of song Deleted for purposes of taste and quality.] I usually get hits from NY, Pittsburgh, a few from Madrid, Massachusetts, a few from Korea--places where my friends are, and then the occasionally random places like Stockholm, Argentina, or the Philippines. Weirdly, there's always a hit from Houston, specifically the University of Houston server. Who's down there checking out the weirdness? Come on out of your spiderhole!

Btw, did I mention that not only am I perfect, I'm Finnish too. (I still don't know what that means.) Being half Finnish, half Jewish, I can't imagine one saying, "Not only am I Perfect, I'm Jewish too." It's definitely a weird Finnish thing.

Oh yes, in other news, Laogzed's world has been plunged into chaos in recent months, but it seems that things have settled down for the time being. It has to do with Gormo, collectivism and Christianity. All will be illuminatingly elucidated by Laogzed podcast in the near future (I hope!)

Ask an ICEBERG: Not only...

This is an extremely odd novelty mug that was procured or gifted or somehow obtained by some person in my family. What is the message of this (the mug, not the picture)?

Not ONLY am I perfect, but I'm FINNISH too.


It only makes sense to a Finn, not an Iceberg.

The Search for the Perfect Nephew

Well, I've arrived at last. Here are a barrage of photos. They are a pain to upload. But they should be up for the record. What follows is a roughly chronological series of photos with my Elder Cousin Antti, some of his sons, a trip to some very deep roots on my father's side of the family--to an old relay station that the Vainenens come from, my own trip up to Rovaniemi, and then past the arctic circle to Inari (actually at a hostel a bit further north), and then my whirlwind trip south back to Helsinki, farewells to my cousins, my arrival in NYC and a few photos of friends there, and then to Pittsburgh to see Jason and Wendi, and then back home to Denver! That's it! The circumnavigation comes to a close! Keep in mind that if you click on a picture it enlarges--making the pretty ones prettier and the blurry ones blurrier. And, yes, I take lots of photos of myself. Partly to practice taking photos, partly because there were many static moments to do nothing but take photos of the subjects at hand.

































The next photo is myself with my extremely distant cousin Reino, a jolly fellow. The man in these photos with the big camera is my elder cousin Antti, who is a photographer, as well as a violin maker.
























































Lots of sunrises and sunsets in the middle of the night. It never got completely dark, it was a perpetual transitory stage of sunsetting and sunrising that lasted from midnight to about 4 in the morning. It got damn cold, though.


























These are Antti's sons and grandsons and etc. Above is Antti jr, and his fresh new baby.







Onwards to New York:


































Homebase.










Here's a link to some of the music I made with my pals in NY.