$500 Fine To Miss Parent-Teacher Meeting

Texas State Legislature has introduced a bill that will fine parents $500 if they miss of choose not to attend a meeting with their child's teacher. I could leave it at that, but it's just so ridiculous that it needs clarification...

The bill was introduced by Republican Wayne Smith, stating that the law would help in creating better bonds between teachers and parents, which in turn would be beneficial for the kids. But threatening parents with a 500 dollar fine AND a criminal record? First California introduces a bill to ban the spanking of kids, now Texas wants to continue the Goverment trend of telling parents how to bring up their kids... I'd love to see what's next in line... A bill making parents accountable for their children's bad grades? Or forcing parents to attend their child's Little League game and cheer with genuine enthusiasm, or face time in jail?

Naturally, there are people contesting this bill, including teachers who see it as telling parents that the schools are out to get them, putting extra, unnecessary pressure on the parents. The law would also be difficult to enforce, suggesting that the bill would not pass. But, you never know anymore. We'll see what happens...

Source: http://www.homelandstupidity.us/2007/02/03/skip-a-parent-teacher-meeting-get-a-fine/

Dealing with Shoplifters on Drugs

Just another fantastic day at work in your neighborhood convenience store. One can always tell the deprivation of a neighborhood by the delinquents and the people who stand out of the norm, and not in a good way. Working the evening shift at Alepa Kivenlahti in Espoo (undoubtedly you might know that place, but if you do, you know what kind pond scum mill around there...) today, there was a large number of people purchasing alcohol. (Note: it's a Monday...) And I'm not talking about the alcoholics who frequent the store on a daily basis, but the people aged 25 and below. (one girl aged about 21 or so was boasting to her friend that she'd been drunk the whole last week while on sick leave from work, bitching about having to go back to work the next day, while buying two 12-packs of beer. Her friend suggested she call in sick tomorrow on account of her impending hangover, much to the delight of the first girl, who seemingly thought this to be a good plan...) Then, to top off the night, at about 7pm two guys and a girl walked in, with intention to shoplift (I didn't notice them enter the store as I had guite a line of customers at my cash register. Had I noticed them, I would have sent them straight out as atleast two of them are known to shoplift, having done so before.) My co-worker noticed the girl filling her handbag with cider cans (and we're not talking of a few cans, but 10ish) and confronted her as she was walking towards my register. Seeing this, guy #1 emptied his own bag (which he had filled with beer and cider) and proceeded to the cash, looking all innocent, as if he had nothing to do with the girl. As the two of them were ushered to the exit emptyhanded, guy #2, who at this point was standing in line, holding a 12pack of beer, started to move past my cash register (still carrying his loot). I managed to stop him before he reached the door, taking hold of him and the beer. Naturally, he didn't really like being caught, and began wrestling to loosen my grip on him. Thankfully, another customer came to my aid in holding him, and getting him to the ground, whilst another helped by holding the door closed as the girl and guy #1 were coming back for their friend, protesting that he hadn't done anything (nevermind the unpaid beer he was holding whilst heading for the door...). The girl and guy #1 finally took off as my co-worker called the cops to come get guy #2, who was still persisting in trying to escape, even while me and the customer were holding him on the ground. The dumbass was also bleeding from the lip as he'd hit his face on the ground whilst trying to bounce up, trying to catch us off guard, and was now complaining that I had punched him in the face. The fun continues; calming down for a minute of two, the guy I was sitting on started to threaten me and the customer, saying that it would take him all of a minute to kill us... After some 5-15 minutes (you tend to lose track of time when your body is pumping adrenaline through you) the cops finally arrived, put the struggling guy in handcuffs, sat his ass down on a chair, started asking us about just what the hell really happened here. After passing our information to the cop, along with a rundown of what happened, and descriptions of guy #1 and the girl. He then radioed the descriptions to another patrol car in the vicinity, noting that they seemed like old friends, mentioning a few names which sounded familiar to me under earlier, similar instances. (the other patrol car radioed back a few minutes later, asking for clarification on the descriptions, after which they informed us that they'd caught the other two.) Then, after watching the security camera tape and getting some more info, the cops left with guy #2 in handcuffs, and it was back to work as usual for the last few hours.

Now, this is not the first time I've had to go through this bullshit at the same store. Daily one deals with these idiots, and on one occasion before I've physically caught several guys running past my cash register with beer under their jackets. (On that occasion, they finally managed to push past us and run away. This time I'd learned my lesson and instead of "politely" asking the perp to shut up and sit down, I needed to get this guy off his feet, on the ground, so he wouldn't get the chance to run away.) All the shoplifters we've encountered are in their early 20's, so they're old enough to buy the beer themselves, but, alas, they're narcs. And it's always the same group of people. (One of the guys who I almost caught the first time I went through this is the boyfriend of the girl we caught shoplifting tonight, and I swear each and everyone of them in that group has been to jail atleast on one occasion, either for shoplifting or drugs, or both.)

All in a day's work in the lovely world of customer service! Hell, it's just a job... If any of the people I've caught or anyone else in that group ever threaten me outside of work (the only time I'm in that neighborhood is when I'm going to or coming from work there), I'm never going there again, for work or anything else. It's just a job, and it's not worth endangering my health and wellbeing for. Do have to admit that the whole thing kinda scares me cuz we're not dealing with normal, sensible people, but rather with narcs with nothing to lose, so fucked up on narcotics that there's no telling what they can or will do... The only reason I've tried to stop them is to give them what they deserve, and that is punishment to the fullest extent of the law. But, hell, it's just a job...

The Beer List

(as of 27 Jan 2007)

Beer Name/Alcohol %/Country of Origin

1. Koff III / 4.5% / Finland
2. Lapin Kulta III/ 4.5% / Finland
3. Olvi III / 4.6% / Finland
4. Karhu III / 4.6% / Finland
5. Karjala III / 4.6% / Finland
6. HB / ?% / ?
7. Dreher Classic / 5.5% / Hungary
8. Heineken / 5.0% / Holland
9. Singha Draught / 5.0% / Thailand
10. Tiger Beer / 5.0% / Singapore
11. Stella Artois / 5.2% / Belgium
12. Rolling Rock / 4.6% / USA
13. Kronenburg / ?% / ?
14. Desperados / 5.9% / France
15. Ottakringer Pilsner / 5.2% / Austria
16. Foster's / 5.0% / Australia
17. Coors Light / 4.0% / USA
18. Carlsberg / 5.0% / Denmark
19. Tuborg Classic / 4.6% / Denmark
20. Miller Genuine Draft / 4.7% / USA
21. Gösser Gold / 5.2% / Austria
22. Hoegaarden / ?% / ?
23. Kilkenny Draught Irish Cream Ale / 4.3% / Ireland
24. Murphy's Irish Stout / 4.0% / Ireland
25. Borsodi / ?% / ?
26. Puntegammer / ?% / ?
27. Budweiser / 5.0% / USA
28. Kaiser Bier / 5.0% / Austria
29. Smile / ?% / Slovenia
30. Amstel Lager / 5.0% / Holland
31. Bitburger Premium Pils / 4.8% / Germany
32. Arany Asznok / ?% / Hungary
33. Leningrad / ?% / Finland
34. Tsingtao / 5.0% / China
35. Boddington's / 3.8% / England
36. Beck's / 5.0% / Germany
37. Leffe Radieuse / 8.2% / Belgium
38. Staropramen Lager / 5.0% / Czech Rep.
39. Zipher / ?% / ?
40. Saku Original / 4.6% / Estonia
41. Legenda III / 4.5% / Finland
42. A. le Coq Premium Extra / 5.0% / Estonia
43. Sandels / ?% / Finland
44. Norrlands Guld / 6.5% / Sweden
45. Cerveca Sol Especial / 4.1% / Mexico
46. Zhujiang / ?% / China
47. Red Stripe / 5.0% / Jamaica
48. Oxoma / ?% / Russia
49. Guinness / 4.2% / Ireland
50. Budejovicky Budvar / 4.5% / Czech Rep.
51. Pilsner Urquell / 4.4% / Czech Rep.
52. Corona / 4.5% / Mexico
53. Palm / 5.2% / Belgium
54. Grolsch / 5.0% / Holland
55. Twisted Thistle / 5.5% / Scotland
56. Spitfire / 4.5% / England
57. Blanche de Namur / 4.5% / Belgium
58. Barbär / 8.0% / Belgium
59. Holsten Pils / 5.5% Germany
60. Liberty Ale / % / USA
61. Kukko Lager III / 4.7% / Finland
62. Cannabis Beer
63. Light Beer / 4.1% / Finland
64. Saaremaa Tuulik / 5.2% / Estonia

This list is still incomplete, but I'll be updating it regularly, seeing as I drink beer pretty much every day.

Singapore Announces Contest To Build Urban Warfare Robots

Know how to build robots? Wanna earn $600k? Singapore's Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA) is offering 1 Million Singapore Dollars (US$ 652,000) to anyone who can "build a robot that can operate autonomously in urban warfare conditions." The list of requirements is, well, slightly idealistic, to say the least. The DSTA wants to create a robot that "must, on it's own, be able to navigate both indoors and outdoors in an urban landscape and accomplish a set of assigned tasks within a stipulated time." The robot must also be capable of negotiating stairs and elevators, opening and closing doors, all without the aid of satellite navigation, and "search and destroy targets like a human soldier".
Engadget, Gizmodo, and NewScientistTech have the story in more detail.

Now, I understand the benefits of having a small fleet of robots capable of achieving all these things (who wouldn't want to have in AI warfare robot with the ability to move about anywhere, attending to your wishes and needs...), what with the safety implications, being able to infiltrate, safely, efficiently, environments which are becoming too hazardous and costly in human lives in the war on terror. In the right uses, it would be a priceless asset.
But seriously, this kinda scares me. It reeks of "those-things-only-happen-in-movies-we-won't-have-any-problems-like-that". Every movie with robots that possess artificial intelligence, what can go wrong, will go wrong. What especially concerns me is that in order for there robots to be self-reliant and able to navigate everywhere without the use of GPS is their need to be able to visually engage environments and the humans they come in contact with. Is it just me, or does "search and destroy targets like a human soldier" sound like it'll end in tears? As magnificent as the idea sounds in theory, there are still numerous hurdles to overcome.

Nevertheless, if you're interested, the deadline in admitting your entry is May 31st, 2007, after which elimination trials take place until the final winner is announced in August 2008. Get to work...

Sources:

Defence Science and Technology Agency Website

Contest Website

Engadget Article

Gizmodo Article

NewScientistTech Article

[Published on Blogger and Bloglines]

CIA Recruiting on Facebook

Whilst browsing online the other day I ran into an article about Facebook on the Wired.com website. It appears that the Central Intelligence Agency is reaching out to the networking youth of America through Facebook, in an attempt to recruit American college students. The CIA has had a NCS (National Clandestine Service)-sponsored group on Facebook since December 19th, 2006, where it will stay for two months. Although it's not news that companies advertise on Facebook and other networking sites such as MySpace, using them as pools of potential new employees and customers, this is a new strategy for a national agency in an attempt to recruit "increase the human intelligence capabilities" of the agency and and hire more officers that can "blend more easily in foreign cities." (Wired.com)

Although (apparently) the CIA group is strictly a gateway, an invitation to find out more about the possibility of a career on the CIA payroll (you need to be a U.S. Citizen and have a GPA of atleast 3.0 to apply), and the CIA can't access anyone's profile on Facebook, keep in mind that this is an agency which infiltrates peace groups in the US (um... why? for kicks, maybe?). As the American Civil Liberties Union ponders, what exactly stops them from gathering information from online networking sites? Maybe paranoia and conspiracy theories are just getting the best of us...

[Read the full article]
[Check out the CIA Facebook group(login required)]

Sources: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/internet/0,72545-0.html?tw=rss.index

[Published on Blogger and Bloglines]

Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer

Truth be told, I had my doubts about this movie before I saw it. With a name like "Perfume", naturally the first thing that came to mind was that I was faced with a chick-flick/thriller. Well, I wasn't completely off the mark. It is a thriller. Based on a Patrick Süskind novel of the same name, or Das Parfum originally, the movie is about a man born with an profound sense of smell who creates the world's finest perfumes, but at a deadly cost. Starring Ben Whishaw, Dustin Hoffman, Alan Rickman, Rachel Hurd-Wood, and directed by Tom Tykwer, the movie is set in 18th century France, quite the smelliest place in the world at the time. Not having read the novel before seeing the movie, I had no idea what I was in for. My girlfriend, who had read the novel earlier, told me that in the novel, the author describes the world of smells as it is seen (or rather, smelled) by Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (Ben Whishaw) in such a vivid manner that it might be tricky to replicate this onto the big screen. Even the late Stanley Kubrick, who had been interested in adapting the novel abandoned the project because he considered the novel unfilmable. Needless to say, the tricky task of portraying smells in visual form is a daunting task, and for an adaptation of a novel written around the world of smell, the portrayal of smell in this movie is an element which the success of the movie depends upon. If Kubrick deemed it unfilmable, Tom Tykwer is a visual genius. Watching the movie, at times it was as if the audience could smell the visuals, putrid and sweet alike.

As movie adaptations of novels go, the rule of thumb is that the movie rarely follows the novel that well. 'Perfume', seems to be an exception to the rule. True, I haven't read the novel, but I've been informed that the only real difference between the two is that the movie leaves some of the narration out, but is otherwise true to the novel, beginning to end, birth to death.

'Perfume' manages to gross and even scare at times, but most of the time the viewer is mainly mesmerized by the visual splendor and the overwhelmingly menacing manner of the lead character, even when he does nothing or says nothing. That's exactly what makes him so bloody creepy... It's not really a lead character that the viewer can emphasize with. The character Grenouille rarely speaks, spending most of his onscreen time silent, lurking in the shadows, or silently yet efficiently going about his 'trade'. When he does speak, he seems so innocent and humble.

At first, in the portrayal of his miserable, yet satisfying childhood, the viewer feels somewhat sorry for his sorry state, yet is vaguely hesitant of liking him, because of his weirdness.

As a person, Grenouille is at times a nobody, a part of the mass, and at other times he is so weird, creepy and seemingly inhuman. Yet he has this mystical air about him which keeps one captivated as he slaves away at the leathery, or as he is lost in his own world smells. This phenomenal sense of smell and his ability to use it to his advantage amuses and amazes, especially in the scene when where Grenouille meets the out of date perfumer Baldini (Dustin Hoffman) and impresses him in his lab with his acute skill at composing perfumes.

The movie follows the life of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, born in a fish market, through him finding his passion of life to learn how to capture smell, especially the fleeting smell of virgin beauty, and in doing so create the world's best perfume, albeit through socially unacceptable methods...

In conclusion, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is a passionate and visually impressive thriller, set in a meticulously well recreated 18th century environment between the putrid stench and miserability of Paris and the picturesque landscapes and element of beautiful Gasse, with it's vivid colors, dark corners and (initially) carefree life, all which gets turned upside down with the arrival of a prospective perfumer with a incredible talent and a secret, murderous dark side, and a passion and goal in life that crosses the line between normal and perversely insane.

I strongly recommend this movie to pretty much everyone, fans of thrillers, of drama, and of really great stories. Now go see it and tell me what you thought.

Sidenote: There's more nudity in this movie than in all the porn movies I've seen to date. I'm not kidding.

For more information on the Author, the Novel and the Movie, see the sources below. (Note: The official website for the movie incorrectly describes it as a movie "...about a man born without a sense of smell...", when he has an inhumanly acute sense of smell, but possesses no personal odor himself. Oops...)

Sources:
IMDb.com

Official Website for the movie

Wikipedia entry for the Movie

Wikipedia entry for the Author

Wikipedia entry for the Novel

[Published on Blogger and Bloglines]

Funny Sites

Here's a few really funny sites on the real world stupidity of humans. Although most of them are from America, we shall draw no conclusions...

There three sites contain overheard sayings or conversations in several environments, and are updated all the time. The sites are also available in RSS, just add /index.xml to the end of the web address.

Overheard In New York ( http://www.overheardinnewyork.com )

Overheard At The Beach ( http://www.overheardatthebeach.com )

Overheard In The Office ( http://www.overheardintheoffice.com )

Sober Week, pt. 2

And Sober Week lasted all of 44 hours... Just some half an hour after I posted my last blog, I'm at a bar with my girlfriend and some friends, having a beer and a Crowmoor... Go figure.

It's kind of annoying that when you go to a bar/restaurant/cafe in Finland, your choices of drink are limited to coffee (2e), juice (2-4e), soda (3e), beer (4.50e), and Cider (5e). There's always water, but fuck me if I'm paying a euro for a small glass of water. Of the other choices, the juice is ridiculously overpriced, I've already had 4 cups of coffee today, and I quit drinking soda a bit over a year ago. (traveling to America this summer and drinking a gallon of Dr. Pepper each day for 2 weeks doesn't count...). What does that leave? Alcohol. And no fucking way am I paying any ridiculously insane sum for a tiny cocktail (try 15 euros for a Long Island Ice Tea, half the size of something you'd get in Budapest for 7 euros...) So, with no other options available to me, (going home didn't appeal to me at all), I enjoying a nice, cool beer. Why do I make plans and resolutions which I can never hold up for longer than a few days? Oh well, I love beer. End of story.

Sober Week

Some make this clear for me: what defines alcoholism? For the last month I've created a habit of going to a bar almost everyday of the week, especially after work. (I work in customer service, I need a beer afterwards...) Would one consider that alcoholism? Even the tiniest bit? Ok, to be fair, the last two months in Budapest before I moved back to Finland are a haze cuz Erik and I got drunk pretty much every single day, so my situation does not compare to that. At all. Shall I just call it a work-related activity, as I REALLY need to wind down and complain about the nuisances, the bitches, the wiseguys, and the nutcases I have to deal with on a daily basis. (I work 3-7 days a week, between 25 and 55 hours a week...)

It's not that I worry about becoming an alcoholic. I don't. There are no instances of alcoholism in my family used, so by genealogy alone, I should be fine. It's just, Finland is not the country you wanna go for a drink every day, less so with my wages. Let's see: 1 beer = 3.50 euros to 6 euros, and you can never have just one, can you?

That times seven equals a lot of money. (2 Schools of Beer Mathematics: 1. You start thinking how much money you've spent on drink, and all the wonderful things you could've bought with that money. 2. You start counting the cost of things in the amount of beers you could've bought with that money...) This spending of money has led my girlfriend and I to spend a Sober week this week. Time will tell how long that lasts, as yesterday, monday, day one of Sober Week, after work, I was craving a beer and my girlfriend had the same primal urge for a Crowmoor Cider... Keep your fingers crossed for us, and if you're at a bar this week, drinking, have one for us, won't you? =)

A Lovely Day At Work

To really stretch your patience, go visit your local neighbourhood supermarket, situated in the not-so-nice area, with 3 bars, and low-income, government sustained housing right next door. Better yet, go work there. That's what I did today, and do every now and then. Every day is the same; you have the grumpy people who'll complain about EVERYTHING, the grandmas you insist you be their butler, the neighbourhood drunks (and there's a lot of them!), the narcs who every now and then are so fucked that they don't realize that someone will notice them trying to walk or run out with a sixpack of beer under their arm, the kids of alcoholics who think they're really tough and rules don't apply to them, and and any other group of fucking nuisances who I might have forgotten to mention. Let's son, on today's schedule we had several men too drunk to talk, trying to buy A LOT of beer; several narcs who had to be followed around the store, in case something just miraculously ends up in their pockets; a few people too fucked up to realize that having no money on your account means you cannot buy anything;several little 10-14yr old kids of alcoholics threatening to beat me up, calling me a faggot cuz we wouldn't let them play on the slot machine (which is restricted under 15, and anyone under 15 playing on the machine is breaking the law).

That was merely today's happenings. It's like this, and worse, EVERY SINGLE DAY OF THE WEEK. I'm only an extra, which means I move from store to store, 3-7 days a week. Of course, this isn't what all little supermarkets are like, but quite a few. Everywhere you must deal with threatening customers, whiners, people complaining about the most mundane shit, alcoholics, brokeass motherfuckers trying to haggle with you about the cost of beer, last minute shoppers who aren't in a hurry to leave, little babies crying and screaming, narcs misbehaving or being threatening, leaving you to worry about what they may be capable of doing in their fucked up state, social outcasts shoplifting (several times a week, 6 days in a row the police were called to the store this summer to catch shoplifters, ranging from a loot of 1.05 euros to 150 euros. I even managed to physically catch 2 of the regular narcs running past my cash register carrying beer under their jackets one lovely monday evening...), kids on the slot machine, kids trying to buy alcohol or cigarettes, swearing at you for not selling them cuz they "forgot their ID in the car" or "home", just to mention a few of the fucking annoying shitheads who one must deal with all the time in this line of work. And hey, I'm an extra. Atleast I can choose where I work. Imagine the regular workers who deal with this same crap 37.5 hours a week.

So the next time you're in a supermarket, and see any of this shit I've just mentioned, take a minute to think about the workers at the store. And please, if you see someone shoplifting, tell someone who works there. It's not too much to ask, is it?

As a final thought, remember that the person sitting behind the cash register serving you is also a human being, possibly a student just like you, trying to make ends meet. They're not that low is society; atleast they have a job...