Speech-recognition

I'm trying out this speech recognition software which is pretty awesome. I had no idea, that this kind of software is so advanced already. In fact, I'm not touching the keyboard at all while writing this blog entry. We're going out for pizza right now, but I will have to try this again very soon. Man, this thing is awesome.

Poor cat

Our Sigvard got neutered today and he's been pretty weak. I sympathize with the little fellow. Just the thought of that happening to me makes me nauseous. Anyway, it had to be done and I think he's already forgiven us.

The snow is finally gone and the temperatures are around 10 C. Makes me happy. The Finnish labour day is coming up, and rumour has it that we'll be attending a party and watching quality ice hockey on TV. Finland is playing Denmark in the first game. Looking forward to it.

I'm back, baby!

It's been three months since I last wrote here. I could say that I've been too busy to write, but I'm not going to. Because I really haven't.

A lot has happened in the last months. Here's a quick look at the past few months:

I quit working for the Internet marketing company at the beginning of December, and was going to concentrate on getting my final thesis done asap. Well, that hasn't happened, as I'm only halfway done. I'll finish it...by the end of March...someday.

Christmas was nice. I spent most of it at my parents place, eating ham, drinking beer and working on some web sites. My siblings were there, so it was just like when I was a child. I love the holiday season. Even the commercial aspects of it now, since it makes me a few bucks on the side.

After Christmas we spent the Christmas in Helsinki at my sister's place, and prepared for the two-week trip to Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. It was a great trip, though the vacation spot wasn't as sweet as I had thought. We did plenty of snorkeling and I even had a decent tan after 2 weeks of laying in the sun. The water is incredibly clear and calm, and there are so many different kinds of fish in the Red Sea that it is the perfect place for underwater activities.

Sadly, the vacation was soon over and the reality of cold and dark weather kicked me right in the crutch. The past month has gone by very slowly and the anticipation of Spring is finally upon us. Spring is almost here...almost.

We're visiting Maria's parents for a week as Maria has her winter holidays now. Yup, it's just another week of slacking off. It's nice to be on the country-side and we are (read: I am) planning to go cross-country skiing tomorrow. Or maybe I'll just sit in the front of the computer all day, just like today. And yesterday. And the day before. I could go on forever, I really could. But I won't. It'd be too sad to notice that I have no life. Instead, I lie to myself and try to forget the day-befores. Life's smiling at good ol' Sami-boy.

Maria's blog

Almost forgot. I talked Maria into setting up a blog for herself. Maria's blog also has a picture of our cute little kitty, Sigvard.

Awstats finally working on 1and1

I have been struggling to get awstats to work on 1and1 and today I finally cracked it. A stupid little mistake that I made months ago kept me from getting the correct stats for my websites. Oh well, after hours and hours wasted on this, it is finally working and I have a peace of mind. A big thank you goes to Ravi's Tutorial: Installing AWstats at 1and1.com, couldn't have done it without that tutorial.

Need to get some work done now.

Hosting

I'm trying to decide what hosting plan I should go for. Currently, I'm only using 1and1, which I've been using for free since January 2004. 1and1 may not be enough for me anymore, because I'm building more sites and the capacity of that hosting plan isn't quite sufficient.

I also need to decide whether to go with shared hosting or have a dedicated IP for each of my sites. HostGator seems to offer pretty nice deals on shared hosting, but I don't know how reliable they are. A friend of mine uses Pair Networks, which seems to be highly recommended by several webmasters.

Money is a bit of an issue for me, so I don't want to spend more than $30/month on hosting. If somebody has hosting recommendation, please let me know. Thanks.

Traveling & US Presidential Election

I've been roaming around Scandinavia for the last 1, 5 weeks and it's nice to finally sit down and relax. First we visited my sister and her fiance at their new apartment in Helsinki. They had a housewarming party with a lot of booze and food. It was good. I'm not a big fan of the city of Helsinki though, especially in the fall. Everything there looks, feels, smells and tastes somewhat depressing after the summer is over. I think it's the grey and brown buildings and the general unhappiness of the people after they realize that the long winter is ahead of them. Again. Having said that, I did have a good time. It's all about the people you're with (and the alcohol in your bloodstream).

After we got back from Helsinki, it was time to back our bags again and head for Stockholm. I attended a Search Engine Strategies conference, while Maria walked around in the city and did some shopping. She fell in love with Stockholm and tries to talk me into moving there all the time. I'm not excited about the idea. New Zealand sounds much better...

The ferry to Stockholm felt strange. There was a handful of young couples and hundreds of elderly people going crazy with the slot machines. I've been on the ferry at least 15 times, but it has always been full of drunken teenagers and some pathetic old farts who are drunk out of their mind and who desperately try to find some young bird to sleep with. It's a sad sight. Anyway, this time it was very different. It's a good thing that I didn't bring my party shoes with me.

The US presidential election takes place today and I'm afraid of the outcome. Well, it's not like we're going to know the results until weeks of debating and re-counting. I'm pretty sure there has never been an election that receives so much attention from other nations. The Finnish media, for example, has been following the election for several months and YLE sends a live broadcast of the election starting at 2 am. It seems that the Finnish media is more concerned with this US presidential election than the any Finnish presidential election. Frankly, so am I. If W gets re-elected, it will be a very dark day for the entire world.

Terrible backpain

I woke up this morning at around 9 am and I could barely move. No position seemed to be comfortable. Everytime I moved a muscle it felt like someone was stabbing me in my upperback. After a few minutes of constant pain I tried getting up. Huge mistake. Felt very dizzy and almost threw up.

Maria got my a couple of strong painkillers and after a while I could get up. I still look like a Frankenstein when I walk but it's gotten so much better. Because of the pain, I've had such an unproductive day. Even missed a meeting with my thesis supervisors.

I plan to have a normal day tomorrow: write my thesis, go to the gym, and work until I'm exhausted. As for my back, I plan not to feel a thing.