Ridiculously snowy Friday afternoon in Fladungen -- one of those days where you shovel the walk for the third time, turn around and realize it's all to be done again, and go inside and lie down for a while.
I've been telling the boys "monkey stories" for years now: stuff adapted from the Journey to the West. Since these always involve Monkey beating someone up with his magical iron cudgel, they're popular. Recently I was noodling for more material online. That led me to things like this, but on the other hand also to this.
I am now on Facebook. Not quite sure what to make of it. I mean... what does it do, exactly? Once you've looked up all your friends from high school, and fretted a bit over all your unanswered friend requests, what happens then?
There are a lot of good biology blogs out there, but I am particularly fond of the Catalogue of Organisms. Any blog that regularly has posts with names like "More Giant Larvae" is likely to be good, but this one just covers all sorts of interesting ground. I was moved to mention this by the most recent post, which tackles the question of how modern insects evolved metamorphosis. Apparently one broadly accepted theory is that larva are, in evolutionary terms, embryos that have hatched early and gone off on their own, free-range and voracious. Yes, it's an interesting image. Also, Things I Did Not Know: there are insects whose pupal stage is mobile... coccoons with legs. Insects. Just damn.
Speaking of biology, nobody who smiles all the time can be quite right.
Why are a lot of credit card companies based in South Dakota? That and so much more in this article.
...then what would have been an appropriate medium for the last inauguration?
I love Facebook for keeping in touch with distant friends. You can "waste" a lot of time with FB apps (mostly games), but I mostly use it just as a networking tool.
Unfortunately, Doug Muir is rather too common for me to be likely to find you.
Christine Forber
Posted by: Christine | January 24, 2009 at 02:01 AM
Heh. Time suck..............
Posted by: Natalie | January 24, 2009 at 04:09 AM
It's good for us expats but only if it's got good penetration in the home base. For me it works well because Toronto is a big facebook city.
On the other hand, I'm one of three people on the site who isn't listed under his own name. This is because I have no desire to be found by old high-school or university acquaintances, or, worse, my firm, which has the indecency to have its own page there. Stupid tech-savvy junior associates.
I must say I'm completely unsurprised by the dolphins, whom I've long considered the Eddie Haskels of the ocean. I've got my eye on the bonobos too.
Posted by: James Bodi | January 24, 2009 at 10:15 PM
is it just me, or are all your links messed up?
Posted by: Carlos | January 25, 2009 at 03:02 AM
The links are messed up.
Posted by: Natalie | January 26, 2009 at 01:05 AM
Aw, and here I sent you a friend request and everything. I have Internet sadness!
Sincerely Yours, [j/k]
Mike "Still the 21st President" Davis
Posted by: Mike Davis | January 26, 2009 at 09:44 AM
Chet! You live!
Posted by: Bernard Guerrero | January 28, 2009 at 03:56 PM
For what it's worth, I just don't get the Facebook concept, either. I've asked the same question, "but what does it actually _do_?" from my acquaintances, and the best answer that I've received is that "well, there's always that random chance that someone just might look you up and then you can feel special and wanted for a few minutes".
... that pretty much determined my opinion of how useful this medium would be for me. But anyway, de gustibus. I'm sure that there are people for whom it's important and even beneficial. It's OK, but I just don't think that it would do anything for me.
N. B., that "Jussi Jalonen" personality in the Facebook is not me. Likewise, that another "Jussi Jalonen", who's in the Netlog community is not me, either.
Cheers,
J. J.
Posted by: Jussi Jalonen | January 30, 2009 at 02:25 PM
Jussi, how common is your name in Finland?
(I have noticed a few "David Tenner"s on the Web who are not me--including at least one fellow-lawyer...)
Posted by: David_T | February 01, 2009 at 02:53 AM
"Jussi" is a pretty common name. It's the Finnish diminutive of "Juhani/Johannes/John", i.e. similar to the English "Jack". It's not one of the most popular names, but still pretty common.
"Jalonen" is a very regionally limited surname, pretty much all of them live in Western Finland, most of them on the coast. There's another cluster around Vammala and Huittinen, where the Lower Satakunta merges with the province of Pirkanmaa, and my father was from those parts of the country.
So, the combination "Jussi Jalonen" should not be _that_ common, but there seem to be many namesakes. A quick Google search does reveal that man in the Facebook (who's not me), that other, out-loud-and-proud bloke in the Netlog (who's not me), some sales manager who has a profile in LinkedIn (still not me), the chief of the fire department in Tampere (not me), a guy who plays American football in "Turku Trojans" (definitely not me), and so on, and so on.
On the other hand, the "Jussi Jalonen" who's mentioned in those book webstores and Finnish newspaper reviews - that's me:
http://tinyurl.com/ar2qu5
http://tinyurl.com/6nukdj
http://tinyurl.com/alg5mq
Cheers,
J. J.
Posted by: Jussi Jalonen | February 02, 2009 at 03:34 PM