Call for work

I have to wonder sometimes about the records the bureaucrats have.

Agentur für Arbeit (employment agency) from Hagen called me the other day, out of the blue. They wanted to make sure I was available for the meeting taking place on Thursday for which they had sent an invitation on Monday, which I hadn't received as I was travelling in Finland already.
I got to explain to them that I had become self-employed almost a year ago and moved to a different city out of the jurisdiction (which they knew) and didn't need a job right now. They were happy to cancel the meeting.

I've always said that bureaucracy might be slow but it is sure.

Peace and quiet

For the next four days, Qualiteers will be flying under the radar in the woods of Finland, enjoying the winter weather and peace and quiet.

Season's Greetings to everybody!

The truth about "pikkujoulu"

This is the truth about the little christmas.

But first there are some basic things you should know about the traditional Finnish "pikkujoulu".

First: You get very, very drunk.
Second: You let your boss know what an #¤*&%**! he is.
Third: You try to hit on your secretary.


And now the true story about the Qualiteers "pikkujoulu".

First: We got very, very drunk. (Actually we didn't but none of our Finnish friends is going to believe that anyway, so I just say we did.)

Second: Quite soon I got to the point when I had to let everything out and I told my boss what an #¤*&%**! he is.

Third: Later in the evening Miska was getting a bit too friendly with his secretary and now he's very worried that his wife will find out what happened around midnight back at the hotel.


And finally I have to confess that we had reindeer for dinner. This might come as a shock to all "Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer" friends. We ate the liver, tongue and some other parts. The food was excellent and delicious.

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Suomennos: Totuus firman pikkujouluista. Nautimme normaalit ruokajuomat. Haukuin pomon. Miska vokotteli sihteeriään. Poro on parasta.

Little Christmas

Qualiteers' Traditional Little Christmas Party took place on Friday for the first time as always before Christmas. All of the personnel was there. The Boss and the secretarial staff appeared first, the marketing department had booked a fancy restaurant in the middle of Helsinki as the venue, customer care somehow had managed to NOT invite any customers (more for them, they thought, I guess), the trainers had prepared a presentation on the successes and failures of 2006 and of course I, your lowly blogger, was there to keep you updated.

As always, the smallest Little Christmas Party in the world started with a mixed sauna with mixed feelings. All the staff went, and the six-person steam room proved just about adequate. After some refreshments the evening continued with a brisk walk in the Christmas streets of Finland's capital city. All personnel followed their leader, this time without Nordic walking sticks. The fancy restaurant (thank you Marketing Manager!) turned out to be Saaga, a restaurant with Lapland as theme. As program there was a magician, a quiz and a fight. The marketing department has truly internalized the cost saving mantra, as all the program was for free. They had ingeniously reserved such tables that all the program could be overheard. Thank you Uponor for paying for the entertainment. The fighters were so spontaneous that it might have been a spur of the moment thing and didn't seem to come from the Uponor group. The performance group was possibly a pair of aged art students, who decided a frisky wrestling match on a restaurant floor was going to get everybody's attention.

I'll leave the food criticism to our nutritional team to discuss (yes, they were present, too), they will be better at describing the state of the reindeer meat, the setting of the plates and the service attitude of the waitresses. All I can say is everybody was satisfied after the meal. A brief walk on the art street of Helsinki (Bulevardi) lead our happy and culturally enlightened workers to an Irish pub with a welcoming doorman for one last drink.

Overall, I think this tradition will continue, most likely before Christmas 2007.

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Suomennos: firman pikkujoulut Helsingissä. Ei raportoitavaa.

About Finnish customer service

Greetings from Finland!

Today I want to tell you about the Finnish customer service. I won't go too deep into that, even if this is a subject I could write lines and pages about. This time I will give you one example only.

I was at a kiosk at the railway station here in Helsinki. I was thirsty and my sweet tooth was aching (and don't you dare to mention the dentist!) so I bought a bottle of water, a lemonade and some chocolate. I got everything I wanted even though by watching the lady behind the counter yawning at my face and answering my questions with a really bored voice, I was worried for a while she might fall asleep in the middle of this customer service situation. Lucky me, she stayed awake and I managed to get my shopping done.

So, shopping's done, my drinks and chocolates are waiting on the desk and yes, the lady behind the counter is clever enough to offer me a carrier bag. BUT does she ask if I need a bag? OR if I would like to have a bag? MAYBE how about a bag? PERHAPS if I want a bag? NO! She looks at me with her sleepy eyes and says: "You don't need a bag?!"

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Suomennos: Suomalainen asiakaspalvelija huomaa, että asiakas saattaisi olla vailla kassia, johon pakata ostoksensa. Niinpä tämä asiakaspalvelija toteaa: "Et sä kassia tarvi?!"

Helsinki, Day 2

Didn't post on day 1. Don't search and complain, please.

Winter hasn't arrived to Finland yet, but we have. Second day in Helsinki turns to night and it is still raining. Not much, but almost all the time. There's no snow, temperature is too warm for that. It isn't warm, don't get me wrong but it is too warm for snow.

The taxi queue - or better said the queue of people and no taxis - surprised me in the morning and made us fifteen minutes late, which is what I hate. There was nothing to be done. The short meeting with a potential customer turned even shorter and by ten thirty the work obligations for today were fulfilled. When the taxi brought us back to square one, the amount of taxis made us laugh. You could have fed some to the sheep and there would have been many idle taxis left. The time between 8 and 9AM is hopeless, though. Spent some time translating a Finnish writing into English. Got halfway through it waiting for the modem in our hotel room to be fixed or exchanged. Also the neighbouring room and the after that had the same problem. Strange.

Sauna planned for tomorrow.

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Suomeksi: Normipäivä Helsingissä.

History lesson

I don't know if it's a sign of Christmas Market overdose, or excitement because of the dear friends' visit or just genuine suspense because of Christmas or stress about the business, but I've been having slight problems with my stomach the last few days. When my stomach hurts it seems to draw all my attention to itself, and now it is doing it almost constantly. It is hard to concentrate on anything else. Or is this just another excuse (Ausrede)?

We were even invited to 6 liters of Finnish peasoup, and I was meaning to call to cancel, but I completely forgot driving yesterday from Münster to Bochum, about 60 km, with slight grumbling to accompany me. The backseat and the seat next to me were quiet and peaceful, though. They could go to a restaurant and were even hungry. So thank you for inviting us, Pascale, Ralf, Hilkka and Sauli.

On Friday and Saturday we kept guard at the Bochum Christmas Market and enjoyed (?) the Glühwein. Sedat, Meike, Jarno, Stefan Junior, Julien, Sascha and Katrin, Stefan, Yrjö and Petra and of course the guests from Finland, Juha and Aina kept us company.

The Münster Christmas Market is apparently the second best in the whole of Germany and as Dresden is a bit too far, and Juha and Aina had never been to Münster, so that's where we headed for Sunday. Stefan Junior gave us expert tour guidance and showed us all the three separate market areas. 'Aegidii' was a strange word for everybody and Zwingerkirche had a gruesome history. For the Zwinger, he wasn't completely correct, but it seems to originate from Neuzeit (possibly end of the Middle Ages) and has been a part of the City Wall, a mill, a prison and a place of executions during the war. The church we were looking at at the time as Stefan explained about the Zwinger is the Lambertikirche. In the church tower there are three baskets were some bodies were kept as a warning and reminder. Other torture equipment is available in the City Museum. There are numerous museums in Münster for history buffs.

The word 'Aegidii' could be a form of a Latin name 'Aegidius', for example this war chief.

Münster is a city well worth visiting.

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Suomeksi: Tervon tytöt, isä ja äiti ovat hyvissä voimissa ja nautiskelevat olostaan vanhassa kotikaupungissa ja sen ympäristössä. Toivottavasti te olette nauttineet myös. Terveisiä kaikille täältä sateisesta Bochumista! Keskiviikkona Suomessa sataa lunta, laskeudumme näet Helsinkiin iltapäivästä.

Stormy Friday

A storm closed the Christmas market in Bochum last night earlier than usual. All the stalls closed up at around 8PM, as they normally serve food or Glühwein until 10PM.

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Suomeksi: Myrsky iski Bochumiin eilen ja kaduilla näkeekin tänään paljon irtonaisia oksia, niinkuin aina vähänkin tuulisemman yön jälkeen. Harmi ettei tällä jälkiviisaudella oikein ole asiaa sääennustajaksi.

My First Article!

My first article has been published! "Happy Are the Software Developers" has seen print!

The postman delivered today an envelope with five samples of the December issue of Better Software magazine. The magazine only appears in print, but the additional material is in the web on StickyNotes.com. Just like my article was the Last Word in the magazine, my additional material is last in the list.

The article shows how you can be happy at work with Tick-the-Code. You being a software professional, of course. One of my inspirations was Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, whose books on Flow are extremely interesting and relevant regardless of your area of expertise or work. So far, I've read two of his books, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience and Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life.

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Suomeksi: Olen ihan innoissani! Ensimmäinen oikea artikkelini on julkaistu oikeassa lehdessä! Ja vieläpä ammattilehdessä! Oman ammattini lehdessä jopa! Kaikki onnistui kerralla. Eikä siihen mennyt ideasta kuin puoli vuotta. Toukokuussa lähetin ehdotuksen, kuten hämärästi tässä postissa mainitsenkin. Tuolloin olin muuten kirjoittanut 10.000 sanaa kirjaani, tähän päivään mennessä luku on viisinkertaistunut.

Wie wird man neugierig?

Finalized this morning a short writing called "Learning, Job Satisfaction and Tools". Once it goes through the review board (=Virpi), I'll probably post it on the Downloads page.

There's another short story in the works called "Focus of Code Inspection". In it I try to ponder should you really check functionality in a code inspection. So far I don't have a definite answer, although I am leaning towards a negative answer. I'd like to hear from all you software professionals reading this. What do you think? Does it make sense to look at code and try to see if it does what it is supposed to do? Tell me and help me write a good story.

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Skype log for November tells me I made 90 phone calls and spent €39 for it.

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I added to the right a new section called "Communities". If you want to see my profile in LinkedIn or join Xing (former openBC), click the respective button or link. Both of these communities are free and offer you a chance to connect with old colleagues or current ones and possible even future ones. I''m using the communities in the search for new clients.

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Suomeksi: Keksisköhän Tuulan viihdyttämiseksi jonkun jutun tähän? Hmm. Ainakin sen verran voin sanoa, että askartelimme tuossa pienen yllätyksen, mutta se saa odottaa joulun jälkeen vierailuunne. Tulipa mieleen se ikivanha vitsi siitä miten hullun saa uteliaaksi. Enpä kerro vastausta vielä.

Kalenterissani on kaksi tiedemiestä, joista toinen sanoo keksineensä koneen, joka imee kaiken kaupallisuuden joulusta, johon toinen tokaisee innoissaan, että "rakennetaan niitä oikein paljon ja myydään ne isolla rahalla!"

Ja nyt pizzan tekoon!