about carrying and reading bumper stickers...

I'm heading through a killer weekend to the church children camp on monday morning - and off to one month vacation thereafter. So, no blogposts, email, and even phone calls, for a good bit of time - say, the first two weeks of the holiday, anyway.

so, happy summer break for anyone reading this. hope you didn't have yours yet...

I just heard of an incident that I find hilarious. A friend of mine happened to stop in the traffic lights beside an older VW Golf with one of those fishy bumper stickers. A young guy was driving it, and my friend - who's an easy going fellow - wanted to connect with him. So, he opened the window and straightforwardly approached him asking which church the young man was attending. The guy look puzzled for a while until he replied - oh, you mean the thing in the back bumper... I've been wondering what the f*** it means.

(sorry 'bout the explicit language) but I just laugh and wonder how long will the sticker stay in that bumper. My bet is... taking that, he was probably driving to attend the huge festival in town, the sticker stayed until the next bus stop - the longest.

cheers
Antti

PS. a couple of summery shots by sarita here.

Olivia 1 Year Old

Olivia had her first birthday 17.7.07. The year has gone very fast.
We celebrated it on Sunday the 15th. Grandparents and most of her cousins, aunts and uncles were celebrating with us. Here is two pictures of the birthday girl. She was a little bit confused what to do with the candle, but the brothers were happy to help her.

Sarita

A sneak view - strange things happen when the masters' are gone

Just a couple of lately pics: Olivia loves the boys' tiny toys. Baby toys are all huge and round and boring, so whenever she gets a change she sneaks in. Boys freak out when she does it, but how I could stop her when she looks at me like this. Dad's unarmed.

The Tall Ships' Races at Kotka

Some enermous and amazingly beautiful tall ships are filling up the harbors at Kotka with The Tall Ships' Races 2007 Baltic. We went to see a couple of first ones and they are absolutely mind blowing. Here's some pics.

In case you're dreaming of sailing one... here's some strings and butt cheeks to figure out... (in the last pic, note the fellow chilling out on the second crossbar) Just terrific.

amazing light painting

I once locked they boys and I in a toilet with a small light. I set camera to expose for 30sec and during that time Joonatan drew up in the air. This is result. It looks amazingly like a car. (amazingly so, that's what he wanted to draw) Anyway, it's a simple technique that can be a lot of fun with, especially when digital cameras provide shots for free.

However, I´m just amazed at what you can do with it when you put a couple of more thoughts and a lot more time to do it and practice hard). Here's a clip from Japan.

I dig about Jesus - a challenge pick

Christoph, my 1st year's roommate from CTS, before Sarita came and embraced and rescued me from boys dormitory - challenged me to write 5 reasons why I dig about Jesus. Admitting himself that he hates stuff like that, I have to pick it agreeing (not the least hating the phrase "I dig about..." in this context...) But thanks Chris, anyway, and here we go...

1. I dig about Jesus because of what he did for my (and anyone else's stepping on the earth) sake. In the world I'm living, there's one God, who is personal - holy and righteous. That God is willing to engage with me in relationship that's founded on true spiritual union between us. That Spiritual union can only be true if I share the holiness and righteousness of God - which would not be that case, if Jesus had not provided the grounds for the forgiveness. That's quite serious stuff - because he had to die for doing it. So, well worth of scoring as the 1st of why i dig about him.

2. I dig about Jesus that he said what he believed. In the business I'm working as a pastor and preacher it's not uncommon to be faced with commonly accepted point of views that I personally find problematic - more often in minor issues, but occasionally in major things as well. The reason why number 2 of me digging about Jesus, is that he said what he believed. In many ways, he believed different to those who controlled the public opinion, but spoke out anyway.

3. I dig about Jesus that he - said what he believed - and lived out accordingly. It's one thing to say what you think - even if it's not according to the public mind. You just wrap it nice enough and spit it out, no worries. It is another thing to live it out, because what you do is what people see, and once you cross the line of common acceptance, you might not be able to cover it up with any words. Jesus got killed for that, but I dig him for doing it, because that's the only way to make the difference.

4. I dig about Jesus because of the comical incidents he set up. Like in John 6. - i find it hilarious - reminds me of the insane bewilderment that hit me once in the school time. I had chased a friend of mine to the toilets and blocked his way with benches. however, while I was sweating with moving the benches around, the guy escaped from the window and waited for me in the hall. I did not remember the toilets' had windows and nearly had my brain shut down seeing him. (it was the time before David Copperfield; and so, for the first minutes i could not come up with any explanation of him being there.

Jesus set it up for the crowds like this: After a long and tiring day Jesus pulled out from the crowds and went up to the mountain - alone. The apostles took a boat over the lake - but Jesus caught them up walking on water. Next morning the crowds were puzzled - where is Jesus. They had seen the apostles leaving without him, and he certainly wasn't with them. They finally met him at the other side of the lake - certainly more puzzled than me... The gospels don't tell us how many of them faint that day, but I think I would have.

5. the last, like Christoph, I dig about Jesus that he digs about me... woah - so deep so true.


my dear fellows that I thus challenge are:

Markus Kivistö - the webmaster for our church youth program.
Masa - fuel kotka youth leader
Jonne - fuel kotka youth leader

make your living through www

A year ago, David Hobby created a blog on off- camera- lighting - technically like ours, running on Google's Blogger - but that's all about the similarities. His site is called the strobist, and he started out by a-simple-to-him/pro-to-us lighting stuff called lighting 101, and on assigment - light like a pro sharing some of his basic techniques on taking photos with a flash unit(s) apart from the camera. Currently his running a lighting 102 a second grade to those who followed though the previous workshop. And this is all for free to any web user. The heart of the site has been sharing ideas on how to learn to light well, with minimum costs on equipment.

David is a professional photographer to a newspaper, and respectively his basic stuff has been found profound, inspiring and certainly worth reading by many, and within a year he has gathered base of over 100,000 readers, and a community of 11,000 (and counting) flickr members who post and view photos with lighting info - help and cheer one another. And this is all for free to all web user.

Besides photographers, the site got viewed by some suppliers too, and a couple of weeks ago David posted about taking a year off from his regular job, to live on the money his making through the site, and workshop/seminars his doing around the world - which too are boosted by his reputation as a skilled off-camera-flash guy.

don't know what you're thinking, but I find a story like this amazing. It's a real life example new ways the money flows with system that's practically free for all users. One makes his living solely on it- couple other's sell their stuff by the one's reputations (making them living partly on it) and people like me get to enjoy life better by inspiring hobby - all for free.

simply fascinating.

(to those into kids more than web2 money flows - The pic above is of olivia 7months old - she's gain some hair more since then:) )

Big J and brotha B - and the chauffeur

I asked boys for a photo... they came - via bathroom where they did the hair and planned the posing. This is the result. They must have been watching MTV too much...


Olivia has taken first few steps some time ago- I'll post the photo/video evidence here, as soon as I get it captured. Here's she still figuring out moving on wheels.