Sandun and Chamari, the Srilankan family just had a boy !!!

Well, I cannt ignore the fact that I dont like eggs, I looove eggs!! Shanila brought one "egg" for me when she came to Finland.

Its a perfect egg-shaped, egg-looking "egg" !!!
But you are supposed to hatch them!! And it appears the egg is "from" water-side-living creatures (turtles, alligators etc). So you hatch them by keeping the egg in a glass of water. So did I!!


It took about one night to start getting cracked. Next night we saw the head coming out and the second night it was a complete alligator.

I stumbled on his blog... while searching for something...
He wrote about one of his days in Bangladesh...

... Anyway, I kept ignoring this little boy while he kept saying, “boss, boss”. Finally I told him, “tumi, eidike asho (come over this way)” and I beckoned him to this small store that I knew. The store is a unique one in Dhaka in that it has a lot of imported products like doritos and or course chocolate. I picked out and bought a 40 Taka Kit Kat Bar (~60 cents), opened it, took a small bite then gave the rest to him, just so that he couldn’t sell it, and would have to eat it himself.

I then got on my bus, and I looked out the window and saw him with a huge smile on his face, eating this chocolate bar and dancing in the street. He came up to the bus to wave while I left. It was a really special sight. At first I felt content, that I had done something good, but as I thought more it really struck me that a chocolate bar doesn’t change anything. He might be dancing on the street today, but what about his future? Before I could catch myself I was fighting back tears while I was sitting in my seat, and I wrote a few words down:

“my heart is so full of emotion, surprised at myself that I’m fighting back tears on a bus ride I take every day. Screaming through my mind is the question, ‘Why?’…I’m shocked at the disparity in the world, How is this fair Lord? when will your justice reign on earth? when will you give strength to the week, bless the poor? I just bought a little boy a kit-kat but that’s not enough. How come I grew up in excess when there is so much lack in the world? Lord, where are you in all of this?”

I know there aren’t any easy answers to the problem of poverty. I just hope that when I leave Bangladesh and re-enter a western world I won’t commit what seems to me as the worst possible thing. To forget that they exist, to ignore that there are fellow people suffering, to not care.

Taken From blog Lincoln in bangladesh


About Lincoln:

I am currently on an internship funded by CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency) through SIM (Society of International Ministries). I will be a Health Support Intern from August of 2007 until July of 2008.

Lincoln's experience is just as true as I am alive. It brought me hundreds of memories, cruel true memories of watching helpless people. I probably did something little to help someone sometimes, but compared to the enormous number of sufferers who did nothing wrong except just being born there, it didnt make any difference. I wish I could know how to !!

For many last weeks, I have been drowned by the enjoyment of living a peaceful life, where nothing seems to be wrong, nothing seems to unfare. But the truth is out there!

At least I got a bit relief knowing again that not all living in the west feel disgust looking down to the third world. At least not all deny the truth... the baby did not choose to be born in the third world.

Now I even feel shy to see my wedding pictures in my blog... thinking of the expenses there and how much difference that amount could make to someone else!!!

I am gonna end with another quote from Lincoln's blog

When I first got here many of the beggars and people in rags really got to me, and the shock is starting to wear off, but I pray that it never will.

- Lincoln in Bangladesh

Nokia has started a quite nice service in Malaysia. Here is how it goes

- You drop your old phone into an "INK" (Integrated Nokia Kiosk) - a booth with touchscreen that takes your information when you drop the phone for recycling.


- You will get a tree planted in your name !! This is part of NEWTrees Project. Nokia has pledged the planting of 100 000 trees in Sebangau National Park in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia

- Soon after dropping off the phones, Nokia will contact you with the exact coordinates of the tree planted and instructions on how to view the tree via Google Earth TM.


Oh, this offer is for a limited time ! Quite echo friendly and sweet idea ! A plant in my name in exchange of a recycled phone! Plus the exact co-ordinate to see from your computer!! Hmm!!

What an invitation !!!!

(For those who dont know about Toni, he is our CEO, for those who know nothing, Codemate is the company I work for)

Ahoy, Codemateys! Avast ye!

Capn' Jokke Redbeard and Toni Scurvy Clunk had planned some activity for Codemate's Summer Seduction party, however, after singing "99 bottles of beer on the wall" using unsigned integer, Toni got lost somewhere at the Oulu's marketplace(Kauppatori) with our tickets for the evening.

Capn' Jokke then drunk several bottles of rum to sober up and shouted "Shiver me timbers!" and gave orders to all Codemateys to go on a treasure hunt on Saturday morn around 11:00 to search for Toni somewhere near the Kahvila Makasiini, next to the anchored pirate ship at Torinranta.

So, ye be thar or yer be walking the plank, savvy?! Yarrrrrr!
(Seriously, be there!)

Here be the treasure map to help those who don't know where to look from: Some link to an image which is shown below

--
Weigh anchor and hoist the mizzen!

Jyrki Laurila
Codemate Ltd, Rowing Division & Part-time Cannon Cleaner

The tickets that have been mentioned here are for Rock festival http://www.qstock.org/

NASA needs urine to test new spaceship toilet. A contractor has been hired to supply nearly 30 liters of urine a day as part of a program to build a better space toilet.

"you can't make fake urine," said John Lewis, NASA's head of life support systems for Orion.

Funny !!

Source: NASA to workers: Go boldly (in cup) for science

Last week (Ups, quite late post) we were invited by Kaisa. Interestingly she was the first colleague in Finland so far to invite at home. Actually I had been to some of my colleagues' homes but always with some todos, not like this.

It was a superbly warm welcome for Shanila as well! Kaisa and her boyfriend were both amazingly nice. Her boyfriend told right ... after visiting their place, Shanila is done with Finland, nothing more to know.. they had treated us with traditional food (potato-salmon), salmiakki (check below), fresh finnish strawberries, icecream, coffee and lots of history and culture chat.

But hei, guess what? I forgot to take pics of the great dinner :(
Something is wrong with my shooting. As I told before, I am not now-a-days carrying my cam all the time. Even when I carry I am not shooting all the time !!

"Goga emergency pls call me right now"

This was the exact sms I received from UK from my sister. I had a panic immediately. An emergency situation cannot be worse if it happens in a foreign country. I left my desk and started dialing. Number busy. Again...number busy..again.. number busy. I felt my face getting warm in tension. I smsed my sister "Calling..." so that she knewI was trying to connect. Many worse situations which I dont want to think about started peeping in my mind...

Finally the connection was made..and I heard my sister..

Translated:

Sis:"I got my final semester result of my department. I stood second"

A complete relief ! I should be happy, really happy, but I could not help throwing anger "Why on earth you said emergency! I was panicing..."

Sis "What can I do? I was almost having a heart attack. And I would have burst out if I cannt tell it to someone. I am crying..."


My sis.. Kaniz Fatema Shetu,
Studying second MS in Sheffield university (In something related to computer science? Cnt remember exact field :P)
Today got CS department result after the second and final semester and secured the second highest score.
That's a hell good score, specially when she works in parallel to pay the fat tuition and housing fees.

Of course there are other dept result pending..but still that's a hell good news.

Hei Shetu, pat ! pat on your back! well done!!
But I thought (and I still think :P) you do know nothing !! Hehe!!

Gagan

If u are interested about gadgets, you might have already noticed about "openness" in mobile phones. Android, Nokia's buying Symbian and make it "open", etc etc.. But hei check this openness !


Newcomer openmoko's Neo Freerunner said on it's website

we’ll give you a screwdriver and a plastic guitar pick to make opening this device even easier. Go ahead, open your Neo.

Ahaa !! That's "OPEN"

Did I tell you, now a days, I dont keep my camera all the time in my pocket like before. I dont know why ! Laziness? But today I missed it. It was such an interesting shot! But fortunately I have my cell phone all the time with me and even more fortunately it comes with a lens :D

Ok, check this out!