Since I left Tampere, my sports activity lessened to a great extent. Moreover, I had many problems all around. I have been thinking to start sport activities to recover from mental agony as well as to maintain physical fitness. That is why I contacted the responsible guy for Ericsson badminton club and became a member last week. Good that the new round started from this week.
Today was my first match. We went to the sports hall straight from work. My opponent gave me a ride. He is also a new person who, as he said, hasn't been playing badminton for 10 years. So I didn't have any problem to win today. I won all 3 matches of best of three set. It took only 20 minutes to finish the match. Since the reservation is for one hour we continued as long as we had time. It was a good exercise. I sweated a lot also. It was quite refreshing playing badminton for an hour after a long time. Hopefully I will have one game every week.
Programming Solution
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Joined Ericsson badminton club
Monday, October 25, 2010
Just finished Harry Potter
For last few weeks I have been watching Harry Potter movies. Surprisingly I couldn't manage to watch any of Harry Potter movie earlier. I put those in my watch list for a long time. This time I have downloaded all six (1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, 2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, 3. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, 4. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, 5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and 6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ) and started watching from the beginning.
All the episodes are around more or less two and half hours. So it took me many days to finish. Actually I watched it slowly because I wanted to have something in my hand to watch :P I liked the first one most. As Harry and his friends started getting older I kinda started liking them lesser and lesser. Still it's a very nice sequel and recommended for anybody from my part :)
Programming Solution
Friday, October 15, 2010
First snow of the year
Here comes the snow again :( Well, I like snow but for sure I don't like excessively long winter. Today around 3 PM, while I was working in office, suddenly one of my colleagues said "ohhh, it's snowing". We have a huge window beside our team. We looked through it and found that it was really snowing. It is very light snow because the temperature was 3 degree. It lasted only for 10 minutes. This year it is earlier than the previous two years I have been in Finland. It reminds me that the long cold winter is coming, dull days are ahead of me, and last but not least, I cannot roam around in streets for a long time anymore for the next 6 months :( I just hope winter will be followed by a nice summer next year.
Programming Solution
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Innovation session
Today we had an interesting innovation event in our team. Our innovation coach, Peter, arranged this session. It was actually playing a game together. To him, you need to think a bit out of the box to innovate, and this game helps people to think out of the box.
We, 8 persons (7 team members and our manager), gathered together in a conference room at 9 O'clock in the morning. Peter gave us a short speech about the session at the beginning and then we started playing game. The name of the game is Karoshi. It is developed in Japan. In Japanese language Karoshi means DEATH FROM OVERWORK. The objective of the game is to kill yourself. In every stage you have to find out a way to do so. Some of the stages are really puzzling, you have to think a lot to figure out the way to kill yourself. And, when you figure out the way, you will just say YESSSSSSSSSS. At least that's what I was hearing in the conference room today. There were people aged from 28-58 but everybody expressed joy when he/she figured it out.
It was a two hours session, it was fun. To me, this kinda session adds team spirit to people. I liked the game also, at least it makes your brain think to solve something which you might like :) If somebody wants to try it, here is the link for online flash version which is not good as the desktop version but you can at least try to see how it is :)
Programming Solution
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Casino experience
Today, at the end of office hours, my colleague, Peter, told me he and his wife is going to Helsinki downtown to have dinner followed by casino trip. If I want to come I can join them. I noticed earlier today that he was looking for table reservation in a restaurant website. A restaurant where you have to reserve a table earlier obviously will be expensive. I was hesitating but finally I decided to join them.
Around 05:30 PM we got out of office. Peter picked her wife from home and then we headed towards Helsinki. We reached the restaurant, Elite, around 7 PM. It is small but cozy. We were guided to our reserved table. When the menu came I realized that it is expensive. I took smoked reindeer and grilled chicken which cost me 35 euros :( They served different kinds of bread, butter, juice and milk. I liked the reindeer but the grilled chicken was just ordinary. Nevertheless, we had our stomach full. After dinner, we went to this casino called Grand Casino.
The Grand Casino is just in the heart of down town in a big building. While entering, I didn't have to show my passport in the reception since I have my Finnish ID card now in my wallet. Peter has a permanent membership in that casino, so he can offer his friends to have a membership card for a year only for 2 euros. I just took the chance. They took my photograph and gave me 1 year membership card.
We sat on a couch and relaxing but since I entered into the building I wanted to walk around. I just told Peter and we started walking. We went to the slot machine section first. Peter's wife Niken played for 5 euros but she didn't win anything. Then Peter put 20 more euros and spin the machine for 5 mins and he got 30 euros. From that machine he took the receipt and went to another machine and put that receipt there. He played 10 minutes in this machine and finally when he took the receipt i saw 44 euros. So, he make 19 euros in 15 minutes. I was wondering.
I was not much interested about slot machine games. I was looking for the place where people are playing poker, blackjack and roulette with real chips. From the slot machine game section we went to that place where people were playing those.
I stood beside a poker table for a while and I even saw the pot goes over 300 euros when only 2 persons are there and everybody else folded. I was excited to see it in front of my eyes. After standing there for around 10 minutes the dealer was looking at me with a suspicious look, so we just left that table. We stand beside a blackjack table as well but there was only one guy playing against the dealer and he was playing kinda stupid (according to Peter's opinion), so we just left. Then we went to a roulette table. Peter bought 10 chips for 20 euros and suddenly gave me 3 of the chips and told me to put those. I said I don't know the rule of roulette. He told me just to put the chips randomly. The girl already started rolling the wheel. Peter and Niken already put the 7 chips. I just choose prime numbers and put my chips on 17, 19 and 23. When the wheel stopped and the ball fell into one pot ( well, I didn't see it by myself, I was still rattled to get those chips to play ) I heard the girl saying 19. Peter looked at me, laughed and said CHEERS. I didn't get what was happening. I just saw that the girl gave me 34 new chips from her bank ( I don't know what it is really called :P ). Peter split those chips, saved most of those, each of us took 3 chips again and put those in place. This time one of Niken's chip won which she put in between two numbers. So she got 17 new chips. Again Peter split the chips to save most of those and 3 chips again for each of us. This time I put on 3, 11 and in the middle of 7 & 8. When the wheel stopped the girl said 7. This time I got 17 chips again. At that time Peter said let's stop here. He just returned all the chips we won and the girl gave us a single 100 euro chip. OMG, we just played for 5 minutes and we won 80 euros. I couldn't believe it. Peter was laughing and saying "that is called beginner's luck". Peter went to the cash booth and changed the chip. He was telling me that we need to split it. I didn't want to because I didn't buy the chips. It's him who bought the chips and borrowed me 3. Moreover, I didn't have any intention to play. But still he insisted and gave me 20 euros.
We were walking around for few more minutes and then we left. It was quite fun to go there for an experience. I was so eager to take some pictures inside the casino but Peter said it might not be allowed, so I couldn't. It would be nice if I could share some pictures from there.
Programming Solution
Monday, October 11, 2010
Few facts about myself
11 days back I passed my birthday. I turned 28 on that day. This post should be written on that day but it didn't came to my mind at that time. It just came to my mind today and I want to write it here. I am going to point out 28 facts about myself. I will try my level best to be neutral.
28. Eamon is a neat and clean person. He likes his house (specially kitchen and toilet) clean always.
27. He likes to cook. He tries new dishes from time to time.
26. Eamon has a bald in the middle of his head.
25. He is slender but has a slight fat around his belly and waist.
24. He has nice shoulder and chest, just a bit workout and those would be awesome.
23. Eamon is punctual. He keeps time if he gives any.
22. He keeps promise if he made any.
21. He likes to buy gift for people whom he likes.
20. He loves to amaze people with surprise.
19. Eamon likes to analyze human character.
18. He is annoyingly strict. Sometimes people just hate him for that.
17. He never shouts to other even if he is very angry.
16. When he gets very angry or became so irritated to somebody, he stops talking to him/her.
15. Eamon can catch the tune of any song very easily, but, since his voice is not so good he cannot sing it well.
14. He is tactless. If he doesn't like something he says it straight. Sometimes he tells it very harsh and people just don't like him for that. He can hardly tell sweet words.
13. He maintains formal socialization but doesn't like it much.
12. He likes English movies and humorous tv series like "The Big Bang Theory".
11. He doesn't like to show his sorrow to others, he usually buries it within himself.
10. He doesn't face any problem to talk to new people, but doesn't get intimate soon.
9. He loves his family, specially his mom, so much.
8. He hates it when he hurts others' feeling but he does it frequently.
7. His luck doesn't usually favor him.
6. Eamon is kinda lazy about educational stuffs.
5. When he says "I LOVE YOU", he means it.
4. He likes to walk around.
3. He loves rain.
2. People like him if they get closer to him, otherwise not.
1. Eamon loves himself more than anything.
Programming Solution
Probation period is over
I didn't notice that the probation period in my new job is over with the end of September. This morning I remembered that it's already October and so I am not in probation period anymore. It made me feel a bit better after being so down in last couple of days.
Programming Solution
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Early winter this year
Looks like winter is coming earlier than usual this year. This afternoon I saw many trees with yellow leaves when I went out for a walk after being bored in home. I noticed that many trees lost many leaves already. It's only the second week of October and winter is showing her arrival signs in nature. I don't remember about last year but last last year it was November when I saw this kind of change in nature. I also heard from Gagan that this year it might be the coldest winter in 1000 years. They say if the winter is very cold, the next summer gonna be a very nice one. Still I wish if I could postpone the arrival of winter this early. It's difficult to stuck inside home for 24 hours alone. I wish winter will give me at least one more month before shackled me in home.
Trees look nice in afternoon sun while the leaves are yellow.
Few trees are totally out of green leaf.
Just in front of my home, lot's of fallen leaves.
Programming Solution
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Nice weekend with few Tamperelainen
It was last weekend when few Tamperelainen came to visit my place in Kirkkonummi. In total four guys came from Tampere, two of them, Saad and Rubel came on Friday night and the other two, Tareq vi and sagor came on Saturday early morning. Wali, who previously lived in Tampere but started living in Helsinki since September, received Saad and Rubel on Friday night and came to my home with them. I fetched them from Kirkkonummi railway station around 12 O'clock at night. We took dinner and started playing cards. We continued until 0330 am and then went to sleep.
The next morning Tareq vi and Sagor were on their way to Helsinki. We agreed previously that we would meet them in Helsinki railway station. We took our breakfast and prepared some sandwiches for our lunch and then started our journey to Helsinki to meet the other two guys. We reached Helsinki around 10 am and they were waiting for us in McDonalds. We bought the daily ticket for everybody and started walking towards the harbor since we planned to go to Sumenlinna island.
On the way to harbor there is one nice park and two nice churches. We took few pictures in the park and then went to the white church. I haven't been there previously. It is a very nice church. In the yard in front of the church they put many statue of bears, each represents a country. We took pictures in front of the one representing Bangladesh. Then we entered into the church to have a look inside. Here goes few pictures.
In the train, on the way going to Helsinki.
This is the nice park, there are many statues like that.
From the yard of white church.
Closer shot
Scattered on the stairs
From this white church we went to another one, a Russian church. This one looks very old but nice though. We couldn't enter into this one because the gate was closed. Here is the picture of this one.
From there we went to harbor to get the ferry. Unfortunately we missed the ferry for 5 minutes. The next one was after an hour. So we had nothing to do but wait. So we just roam around in the open market beside the harbor, looked at different things and ate fried fish. Finally the next ferry came and we got into it. It was around 15 minutes journey in ferry to reach the island. The weather was really nice. We visited different places in the island and took lots of pictures. We took our lunch on a rocky shore. We were in the island for more than 3 hours. We came back in the same ferry. Few pictures from the island are here.
After coming from Sumenlinna, we roam around in the downtown and then decided to go to Vuosari beach. We took metro to go there. It is located on one edge of Helsinki. We were in the beach for an hour and then came back to Helsinki again by metro. Few pictures from afternoon:
We went to Wali's place to take dinner. We met some friends there who are studying in Aalto university. Then around 11 O'clock at night 6 of us came back to my place. We gossiped and played poker for a long time and slept very late again.
The next day we didn't go to visit any specific place. We roam around Kirkkonummi city center for a while in the morning and had some grocery. Tareq vi and Sagor were supposed to leave in the afternoon but Saad and Rubel were telling them to stay and everybody will leave at night around 9 O'clock. At first Tareq vi was reluctant to agree but finally he agreed. But, at night Saad and Rubel said that it's already night, so better spend the night and then leave the next day when I will go to work. We were laughing but finally everybody agreed to stay for Sunday night also. The next morning all of us left together. I went to work and they started their journey towards Tampere.
After a long time we guys gathered together and do things like this. It's very rare to get this kinda chance. All of us enjoyed it much. Thanks to those four Tamperelainen for coming to my place this far and also to Wali to give us time. After they left I started missing good old Tampere life again :( I am hoping to visit Tampere soon.
Programming Solution
Thursday, October 7, 2010
A day full of events ended with "3 minutes in -110 degree"
The day started with late-wake-up. I was in a hurry to catch the 0859 train. I just walked so fast and managed to get into it on time. When I reached the office the review for last sprint has been started already. I joined right away. After 30 minutes of review the planning meeting for next sprint started. It was a long meeting. After half way we had lunch break and had subway sandwich with the whole team. Actually it was arranged by Peter, he picked those sandwich in the morning for the whole team.
The planning meeting continued after the lunch. At around 1200 we just took an hour break. At that time I accompanied Peter while he was going to Kirkkonummi center because I needed to pick my Finnish ID card from police office and visa electron card from Bank. I got the ID card without any problem.
Unfortunately I didn't get the visa electron card. It's not yet ready to deliver. The lady said she will send it to my home tomorrow. We came back to the office and continued our planning meeting. There were many misunderstanding but finally, I think, we managed to come up with a good plan for the next sprint.
In the afternoon I heard that Peter is going to cold sauna today. I heard about it earlier. It is staying in a room for 3 minutes in -110 degree Celsius temperature. I was quite amazed how can a person can survive in that low temperature for 3 minutes. Today I just wanted to experience this thing. I was not quite sure if I can really survive for 3 minutes but I wanted to see. So I went with Peter after work.
Actually we, 5 colleagues, went there. It's a luxurious hotel. They have this service. We had to sign a paper with all our address and contact information (may be because bad things may happen anytime) before starting. Then they gave us woolen socks, rubber shoes, woolen gloves and woolen earmuffs. We were only in shorts and just put on those things that they gave us. After getting ready, they were giving us instruction how to move the body continuously and how to ask for help if somebody feels dizzy or sick. After the instruction the girl opened the door and let us enter the room. It was full of white smoke, may be nitrogen gas or whatever which made us totally blind and OMG, it was damn cold. Damn unbelievable cold. Within few seconds my nose became numb. We were moving our legs continuously. After one minute the girl announced "1 minute" and asked if everybody alright. Everybody said yes. From the very beginning of second minute my nose was totally frozen and my eyes were getting frozen as well. I was scared and I just closed my eyes totally and didn't opened until I came out of that room. Peter was continuously shouting to make fun but I was not in a situation to enjoy the fun. The girl announced "2 minutes" and asked again if everybody is alright. I wanted to say I want to go out but finally controlled myself and said I am OK. The third minute was ticking. I was stamping my feet on the floor and counting. It was getting unbearable. Every second seems so long. My ear was waiting for the announcement from that girl but it seemed that she was not going to announce it ever. My thighs were getting numb and I was having hard time to move my feet. My elbow was kinda frozen and I was afraid to straighten my hand. I couldn't think of anything else but the announcement from that girl. I almost asked for help and at that moment the girl announced "3 minutes". She opened the door and we came out of the room. It seemed that somebody just put fire on my nose. It was hard like ice. I was even afraid to touch it thinking that it might break. My eyes were teary, I couldn't see well. The girl took us to a salt room full of easy chair. We sat there to relax. My nose was still burning like hell. Peter told me to move it a bit. I started touching it and the burning was lessening. It took almost 15 mins to get some feeling on my nose. We were in the salt room for 20 minutes. After that we just dressed up and left. It was an experience for lifetime even though very difficult to endure :)
Programming Solution
