In Ylivieska

So, now it's been almost a month again without me writing anything. I can only say that I have had a lot of things going on. Most notably, I have temporarily moved from Ireland to Finland in order to help out with a software project for about three months. I have joined University of Oulu, at its Southern Institute locate in the small town of Ylivieska.

I will try to write down my thoughts on my stay in Finland a bit later. This post will just be an attempt to catch-up. Leasure-wise, I have had time to go through a couple of books:

Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss , and A Devil's Chaplain by Richard Dawkins . I enjoyed them both.

Eats Shoots… is simply the best book about English that I have ever read. Well, to be honest it is actually just about punctuation in the English language. While this may sound boring, the book it self is hilarious! I feel so kindred to the almost zealot-like soul of the author. Well, maybe not when it comes down to English grammar (although I nod my head and do my best to follow what little I have learned), but in other areas, that I feel I know well! Two friends borrowed me the book during a weekend in Wicklow, and I think I shall always be grateful. Learned a lot. Did I mention that it is funny? Not only that, it is quite easy to read. Love it. Recommend it!

The other book, A Devil's Chaplain, is the first book I have read by Professor Dawkins. I picked it up by just by chance, and decided it was time for me to read something by this famous scientist. Why hadn't I done so before? Well to be honest, a few years back I was holding in one of his other books (I can not remember which), and when I flipped through the pages I was taken aback with the sheer amount of anger and emotion that I thought filled them. I put the book back. I am fairly certain that most of the reaction was in me and not in the text.

Devil's… does not show that much emotion. Sure, Dawkins can be angry, and he despise religion as much as any disease, but the essays in the book are mostly told with the sound voice of a researcher. I call them essays, but they are more a lose collection of forewords, chapters and reviews. It is not bad, Dawkins writes well, and there are a few treasures in this collection. I found it really interesting, and more, that I probably do agree very much with the basic ideas here.

I have also finished the second episode of Sam and Max Series 2, and enjoyed it (of course), but have had no time to play more games this spring. Too much other things going on. Most of it I will write about in separate posts, given the time.

-L