In-joy freddkay: March 2011

Second hand Helsinki

"Hey! You're not allowed to take pictures without permission!" ...so I grunt and delete the snapshot of brand new shoes and stereos.

Just the typical reaction when trying to document a nice environment at Valtteri flea market in Helsinki. It makes you think which illegal technique was used to obtain the goods. Whatever, at least a pair of Adidas sneakers are cheap as soap. And oh, I know a friend who lost a phone just like this the other day!
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Media sexy employers looking for employees

Ever heard the phrase "I don't want to graduate, I want to be a student for the rest of my life, it's so fun!"?

Being a 24 year old prick finishing my bachelor studies I hear it on a daily basis. The want of continuing studying (for some people: fuck around) and live off benefits and loans is undoubtedly a pleasant calling that many of us want to pursue. Unfortunately this mentality is not sustainable development. Learning by doing and also getting paid is certainly a more intriguing path to take.

I'm not becoming a doctor, nor am i becoming an engineer in nuclear physics. I'm soon to be a BBA majoring in marketing. Therefore all of the jobs might not interest You. Still, here are a few interesting jobs from around the world.

SPOTIFY
Your friendly neighborhood music player with streaming music available for everybody in Finland, Sweden, UK, France, Spain, Norway and Netherlands. No invitations needed.
Apply to Spotify

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Photography - Places in my heart

Random photography provided from places such as Berlin, Cassis, Grenoble, Helsinki, Los Angeles, Lyon, San Diego, Wroclaw, Zürich, Marseilles, Stockholm and Kirkkonummi. All pictures taken by the author between 2009 and 2011.

It's been a privilege to be able to visit all these places. By giving you a sneak peek of each place, I hope you'll get the inspiration to travel to these places as well. In-joy! By clicking on the links, you'll find something interesting to do in each of the cities.

Berlin, Germany - The 'Be stupid' campaign of Diesel going Big

Street photography: Snapshots of People

An intriguing street photography project taken from a 'background noise' point of view capturing life as it was and is every day and every minute between 2009 and 2011. Project environments are the West coast of USA, Finland, Sweden, France, Switzerland, Poland, Norway and Estonia. In-joy!

Click on the pictures for a better view and a deeper caption.

LA, CA - Venice Beach

EighthInch Scrambler V3 - post #1

Helsinki will have to make space for an old rival of hers; Me. Because The building of a new fixed gear has begun. I've never done this with only new bits and pieces, but because of the sky high prices of used frames, I'm making a compromise this time.

The mail man brought me the first goods which I ordered from Charlie the Bikemonger last Thursday. It's Tuesday today! Charlie, your shipping time is unbelievable considering you send it from Swanage, UK. Check out the store, they also have their own website (off ebay). Fast delivery, cheap prices and always a pleasure to do business with them.

Gusset saddle

Sturmey Archer 170mm, 46T cranks and chainwheel

epic stickers

I built this wheel for my first fixie; VisaMaestro, but decided not to use it because I had a lightweight 5€ wheel from the 90's for it instead. Luckily now this pearl comes in handy.

Mavic CXP22 32H front wheel with a Suzue Promax hub

The building won't actually begin until I get the frame and I suppose it's the last part to arrive, as it always is. I'll give it two weeks. Still, I will have this bike assembled before 3,000 pageviews according to the little counter on the page is exceeded. I'll keep you posted about this sleek maniac!

Labels: Eighthinch project, fixed gear

Layout updated

Hello there, I decided to make this site a bit more user friendly. So i brought in some colors a search option and unfortunately google ads here and there. The blog goes better together with the Twitter account too. I also added some pages that will be worked on in the future.

Hope you like it better! In-joy!

Why Finnish doctors are awesome.

Having difficulties to put any weight on my right leg, feeling like my rib cage would explode when coughing and having an increasingly worse head ache after my little incident yesterday the doctor gave the most wanted diagnose:

”Eat painkillers and walk it off. Sporting is a bitch. NEXT!”

This is probably a means to get Finns statistically healthier so we can compete on the same level with the rest of the Northern countries. Nice!

Why snowboarding is awesome.

”It’s kind of windy today, the circumstances tend to change all the time, just go full speed” – Alright, if you say so, this adrenaline rush of mine is pumping blood into my heart at decent rates anyway.

The breeze flushes into the open ventilation holes in my pants as I rumble towards the lip of the biggest jump in SerenaSki, a local skiing resort. Being a bit uncomfortable with the high speed I make one little turn. Bad move, as noticed on the lip, but it was too late.

Although being up high among the birds it’s obvious that this flight is going to turn into a some kind of crash. Landing a meter before the actual landing onto flat ground makes your body automatically go airborne again like a spring as a result of the deep suspension your legs are exposed to. So I was in the air again. Damage control gone wrong.

After what seemed to be an eternity in air I land a good bit into the landing with my side first, fly a bit more flipping somehow hitting my head as well. Thank you Mom for making me always wear a helmet in the slopes.

Collecting myself on the snow, mumbling Finnish swear words about nailing it on the next run I realize that my head aches, my neck aches, my ribcage aches and while I finally get up, walking is incredibly difficult and painful. Radical. Time for a pause, it seems like I’m done snowboarding for the day.

1200mg of painkillers and a hot chocolate with Kosken Minttu takes the pain away for a while so I was able to enjoy cheese fondue with Pille, but the next morning... Wow.

Sitting in the waiting line at the hospital waiting to show off my damaged body. Hopefully they employ pleasant nurses.

Of course I In-joyed every bit of this adventure.

Climbing in Helsinki

Hunting for motivation for your everyday chores is an exciting path to take, because the adventure takes you into new places and experiences that might become new hobbies in the end of the day.

This time a new experience for me was climbing. After calling my brother Dick if he's up for it, he was staggered, not because he wasn't up for it, but because he actually thought of the very same thing an hour earlier. We've never climbed together and never talked about doing it either. That's what you get for being a twin; great minds think alike. A call to Pille and Örse later we had 4 motivated guys doing something new.

So we headed to the new climbing arena of Salmisaari in Helsinki where you can try it out on a wall with an automated security wire and climb difficulties of up to 6c (while writing this). In order to be able to climb the other walls you have to have a certificate of being able to secure another person, which none of us had. By the way, with a 30 meter tall climbing wall, the arena holds the record of the tallest climbing wall in Scandinavia (Finland included). This of course was out of the questions for us newcomers.

I've never climbed before. I'm kind of scared of high places. I found new muscles in my body that ache today. My fingers were crippled afterwards for many hours. Still it was such an experience of proving yourself what you can do if you really want to that I'm definitely going to climb again. Being halfway up there thinking how to get to the top, how to leap to the next piece in the wall and pull and push yourself up, using your head and body and determination to prove what you're able to achieve. Priceless.

Not really, it does have a price tag on it. If you're a newbie (=everyone who hasn't got a certificate of securing) then it costs you 20€ to get in (incl rental of shoes and harness, normally 5€). If you have your own gear and certificate you get up there for 12,50€ and between 9-17 for 7€.

See a 360 degree panorama of the climbing environment out here

It's quite of a breathtaking view. Behind the guy with a blue t-shirt and dreadlocks is the wall with an automated security system.

So, as I told you about winter swimming; if you haven't tried this already, what are you waiting for? Go in-joy it!

Winter swimming in Helsinki 17.3.2011

Swimming in the sea is really the last thing that comes to mind when thinking of what to do in Finland during the winter, but because it's possible, I had to give it a try. It's just -1 Celsius degrees anyway, almost summer time.

In Helsinki there are 15 organized places available (in two of these there isn't even a sauna available). The place names are links so you're able to get more info by pressing them.

Rastila

It's actually such a culture for the worthy and hardcore that in most places (14 out of 15) you have to pay a membership fee to be able to enjoy swimming in a freezing hole in the ice. This fee is everything between 30€ and 150€ per season.

The only place where you can try it out in recreational and spontaneous madness matters is Rastila Camping area. There's nothing more obvious than paying 6,50€ to get the privilege of throwing yourself in a hole in the ice and enjoy a public sauna in the middle of the winter, right?

Rastila sauna - can also be rented for private occasions

After sitting in the sauna for 15 minutes with other beloved Helsinki residents it was time to pull on some socks, take a towel and walk out in the sub-zero (celsius) weather towards the dark hole in the sea about 50 meters away. So what do you do when you're there? You surrender to your adrenaline, shut down all your instincts of self-defense and walk in and enjoy the about 3 degree water. It's crazy, still at the same time so refreshing. After pulling a few swims you get up again, freeze for a while, until the air doesn't feel that cold anymore and climb back into the sauna. The air is literally colder than the sea so when you're covered in above zero degree water, it's really nice. Repeat according to what your body tells you.

Jumping around in this environment in only shorts and taking a swim is e-p-i-c.

But alas! We weren't the only first timers. We witnessed Erasmus students from Malaga, Spain who were absorbing everything from the Finnish culture trying winter swimming out as well. That's definitely something they can brag about to their friends, considering it's about 20 degrees Celsius there at the moment.

Anyway, three times swimming and an hour later of new experiences it was time to go home and sleep like a baby. How did it feel then? Like something you've never done before but certainly will in the future!

Moreover if you don't have a car you still get there very easily by metro. The sauna is about 300 meters from the Rastila metro station. What are you waiting for? All you non-Finns who reads this, when you pay me a visit in the winter, you're going to try and in-joy this epicness of epicnessness! I did forget my swimming shorts there so I have to re-visit Rastila tonight.

What am I doing?

Helsinki in March as a 24 year old:

Playing with kettle balls - ongoing process
Working out - ongoing process
Snowboarding - not many days left!
Eating porridge - ongoing process every morning
Munching on vitamins - whenever possible
Nailing school work - until I'm done
Planning on winter swimming - tomorrow, might become a routine
Enjoying sauna time - tomorrow, should be a routine
Going to go climbing - on Friday, new hobby?
Eating all sorts of healthy food - whenever possible
Not drinking alcohol for a while - ongoing process haha
Exploring Helsinki - a limited process
Building a bike - once the perfect frame is found
Walking on the sea - watching the sun set
Hanging out with friends - whenever found from the streets
Finding new cafes - with friends

In-joying life in new ways - because Helsinki is actually a really nice town to live in.

Visual material of all of the above incoming in the near future!

Unique designs at El Perro Bizarro in Helsinki

My brother's birthday was knocking already on the door when I realized I don't have anything for him. Usually I moan about these things for ages, except this time when I knew what I wanted to bless him with the moment the thought struck my mind. He was going to get a t-shirt with a unique design. But who does this?

Apparently El Perro Bizarro does on Eerikinkatu 1, behind Forum. A very nice and clean street wear store with an incredibly friendly and laid back atmosphere. The staff (who I met) Jaakko, Jaakko and Jenni are more than eager to help you out and Jaakko was definitely one of the coolest shopkeepers I've met so far in Helsinki, very helpful and very talkative. We need more of these people!

The shop's been around since January and you can get yourself some really interesting t-shirts, jeans, accessories, sweaters and hoodies from brands like White Moment, Sala-J, Mount Zion, Wemoto, Lee and Volcom. Then if these designs doesn't fit your visions of uniqueness, you can get your own design printed with hi-tech technology in no-time. Just provide Jaakko with a vector image (from Illustrator for example) and he'll do an A4 print on a t-shirt for about 27€ (t-shirt and job included).

Here's the process:

The final design - (first time using Illustrator!) - Gold print on a black t-shirt is the vision.

The tools of El Perro Bizarro - the heat press on the left and the cutter/printer on the right

Jaakko the pro in the making

Making sure everything is as it should

Pressing the Dick on the shirt.

The product - radical!

Thank you very much J&J&J @ El Perro Bizarro! Visit the Website and like them on facebook!

Oh yeah, Dick loved it (in-joyed it) and wore it with pride the same night!

Labels: flying freedolf

The Owl from Helsinki

Depending on where you're from I bet you've seen city animals such as rats, raccoons, foxes, polar bears and aliens walking on the streets. As I said, depending on where you're from.

Helsinki has one little cute mascot; an owl. More specifically a Eurasian Eagle Owl. The owl is known among us citizens as Bubi, a name that has very cleverly been extracted from the species' Latin name Bubo bubo. The rather big fellow in Helsinki earned the respected title of "Resident of the year 2007", a title usually given to human beings. It was also adapted as the mascot of the Finnish football team after it showed up during a game between Finland and Belgium which we won 2-0.

Bubi tends to hang around at the Olympic Stadium because lots of small bewildered bunnies usually run around without knowing where they're going = food.

This time he appeared at the Scandic hotel next to the Kamppi shopping mall. In-joy.

Bubi - the chilling owl

What might the "reader's picture" in the Metro magazine be tomorrow?

"What's up there?" was the most common question among people

Labels: photography

Vienne vs Stockholm in February - Comparison vol. 2

In-joy the difference.

Lyon vs Helsinki in March - Comparison vol. 1

What is the fundamental difference between Lyon, France and Helsinki, Finland in March? Let me show you in numbers and pictures. In-joy.

Weather:
Today in Helsinki: 0°C - 1°C - sun
Today in Lyon: 13°C - 15°C - sun

Visual material:
Today in Helsinki:

The department store Stockmann and the Railway station clock tower - you don't even want to see what the people are wearing

Töölö - quite dry roads already

A year ago 13th of March in Lyon:

Bowls at the Rhône - notice the t-shirts

By Rhône - Sun is setting, still without jackets

PORN crazy foursome!

No explicit porn here! Haha, tricked you. I hope somebody searched for porn and walked into my little juicy trap. Haha. Hahahaha. Suckers!

These pictures are as good as porn, so dig them through anyway!

Fran & Fred, Fran & Fred, Fran & Fred, Fran & Fred

"....." -packing my old bike into shipping condition towards Finland (May 2010)

Nuits Sonores 2010 - Lyon

Did it! Shipping cost: 68€ Lyon-Helsinki - Monster, DVS, Halo and Volcom sponsors of course

Fran, I miss your cooking!

Pasi Perkele! Good times haha

Alba & Fran - totally sober

Don't play if you can't take the consequences!

Alba paid a visit, after party in my room 8AM, wake up call in 30 minutes

Fran, are you Hindi?

Omelette the hardcore way

Anyways, why posting these pictures? Because I happened to find an old memory card from my bag that had pictures taken in May 2010 which I haven't seen before! Talk about nostalgic feelings.

And you folks who got here by searching for porn. Still reading? Go on, keep reading and follow this blog. In-joy!

Labels: photography

Shrove Tuesday 2011

So that's what it's called: Shrovetide. The delicious buns are therefore called Shrove buns. One more word added to my minimalistic vocabulary.

Spain and France celebrate some kind of carnevals now, right? Anyway, in Finland this day is all about sledding in parks, eating Shrove buns and feeling fat. It does have a religious meaning; the first day of fasting, but who does that anyway these days?

Take a look at these buns and make up for yourself if it really is about fasting anymore.

Yes, Shrove Tuesday is Fastlagstisdag in Swedish. Laskiaistiistai in Finnish. Delicious day.

The Legendary 40 Students!

As told in the last blog post, I made an educative set of 40 students back in January 2009 while studying to a CRM exam. I also lived with Dick by the time and he was on a month long trip to Australia so I had the apartment all for myself. If he was allowed to have fun then I was too. This album is found on facebook, but as I know there are people who are not blessed with a 'socialnetwork' account I'm making the album available for everybody, right here right now!

All I needed for the pictures was a camera, a tripod, a reading light, an hour and a half, a remote control and some 40 different outfits. For you skeptical people, yes, I passed the exam with rather good results. Good times!

It's time to file in your application letters to schools anyway, when you're done with that, you can identify yourself from these pictures.

In-joy the result!