Wednesday, March 1
The House of Science, 19:00
I got up first and then Irma. Naa continued sleeping. I left the house to find the paths almost clear of snow and ice.
I spent the morning reading, writing, and shuffling Powerpoint sides around. Irma phoned with a very interesting offer for a small group of students.
At lunchtime I spoke with Jutta about the possibilities that Irma had outlined and we started to think about how best to find the students. We did this while walking to Arabia so that I could stretch my legs and Jutta could buy lunch. We then went to Tokmanni for Jutta to buy toiletries. I looked to see if they had a cheap plastic fruit bowl but, to my horror, they now stocked crockery by ittala. When they traded as Tarjoustalo I bought all sorts of plastic plates, bowls and boxes there. Now I will need to stop at Tiger, the only place left in town that sells honest to goodness crap.
In the afternoon I discussed the meanings of the word connective with Nathalie, which I had found in some old notes of mine from when I had tried to think of a better term than digital media. Any term involving the word digital always seems to devolve very rapidly into a discussion about technology, whereas I want to have a discussion about the social aspects of the new world that people allege they will create any moment now.
I then carried on preparing my courses although, technically, the conversation formed part of the preparation. At 15:40 I left for Pixelache for the special Microtasking meeting.
Antti, Mikko, Steve and I talked with Aga, Andrew and Nathalie somewhere in Germany, and Ulla somewhere in Finland. In less than an hour we had sorted out all the issues on the agenda.
I headed for the centre in pouring rain, got out of the metro at the station we no longer call Kaisaniemi, and discovered I now had to to walk through pouring snow. I found Kirkkokatu and the House of Science just in time to watch Sanal start his talk to the Sceptic Society. Irma had stayed home because she has too much to do to have the head cold that she has got.
Sitting at the back I can hear Sanal perfectly and see him clearly enough. He talks about the lure of oriental magic, including astrology, ayurvedic medicine, meditation and yoga within his definition of fake magic. By the end I remain uncertain that I would agree with his take on meditation and his desire to link it to an unexamined spiritualism. I do however like the fact that I now have to think about this.
I will walk back to the metro through a three star snow storm while listening to a copy of the new DeadMau5 album and realising that, contrary to what I previously thought, DeadMau5 and DangerMouse do not in fact share the same body, or even the same nationality. This will remind me that I should listen to The Gray Album again.