"Great income does not matter - small expenses do". I have heard this many times and I believe there is a truth behind it. People having several times bigger income than I complain that their money just disappears somewhere.

It is not that difficult to avoid spending everything and despite that have good time. But it requires some self discipline. Making a list of your expenses helps a lot and shows where money goes. Most people know accurately how much is their rent or mortgage payment. But then there are numerous smaller expenses like newspaper and magazine subscriptions, membership fees, credit card monthly payments and so on. Even though those are sort of visible expenses they are usually neglected.

One way to control money usage and save some is to reduce amount of free cash in the account. It is usually possible to make an agreement with bank to deposit certain amount of monthly salary right away when it arrives to higher interest saving account. Then after some time that amount can be used to finance bigger things like holidays instead of taking an expensive loan.

I have had two plants in this flat because I rented it furnished and they were included. They looked rather ugly and they took lot of space so I didn't really take good care of them. Well, after I returned from Switzerland they looked even worse than before. Today I took a better look what is wrong with them.

The other one had lost almost all green leaves and also the body felt soft. So I took a knife and chopped all dead parts away. The other one seemed to be in a little bit better condition but it faced same treatment. Then I remembered that if you cut parts away from jucca plants you should cover the cut with wax in order to prevent drying.

So, I tried to pour some wax from candle but it was too difficult. Then I decided to heat up pieces of candle in a tea spoon with a lighter. That reminded me movies like Trainspotting but instead of finding a syringe I placed some wax on the cut of the plant.

I think those plants are gone anyways but let's see...

I have been observing my Internet usage for some time. As soon as I get bored I have tendency to start checking news sites, blogs and discussion forums. Following forums is a good way to keep up to date with various things. But when you are checking some forum more than once or twice a day you might be somewhat bored or even addicted.

So, how to get rid of such habit? Being bored is pretty natural sometimes but you might think why refreshing digg.com or similar is more interesting than work, for example. Is the work really that disgusting or are you just becoming addicted? The word addiction is here a need to see news or latest postings just because you feel that otherwise you will become outsider or outdated.

If you think you really have to be updated with latest events I suggest you to take a look at RSS. It is nice way to follow several news sites and blogs without actually going to the page itself. You will see just the latest topics and if something gets your attention you can follow the link to the actual page. This might prevent you visiting numerous sites separately just to see whether anything has changed.

Being a finn is not too difficult. It is hard to find out really bad things from our history and we are not about to start any wars. Finns are usually considered to be pretty silent so it is totally ok just sit and not to take any part to conversation.

But what sometimes annoys me is that finns are considered to be the ultimate drinkers of the world. Leaving from pub before last person is considered to be a sign of weakness. "Are you finn at all?" Well, that is just annoying and doesn't bother me that much.

I wonder how it would feel like to be born in Asia or Africa. Pretty different stereotypes then, huh?

This excellent posting contains pretty nice amount of tips and shared experience related to software engineering projects. As it is from 2005 you might have already read it but in any case I recommend to take a look even though you were not too interested in engineering.

...when you feel you have to hear some old song from your past. I just had an evening with my colleagues because it was my last Friday in Switzerland in this year. I had pretty good time and some insightful chats about future plans but when I returned to this empty flat I felt I needed some finnish music.

So... I have good dose of finnish music but I realized I am missing one special song. It was not anyhow a great hit or such but I just manages to be one of my all time favorites. It is from CMX and it is called Aamutähti.

I think the first thing getting my attention in that song was those horns. They dominate the whole song and make it different from all the other songs from the Discopolis record. I wouldn't call it anyhow happy or cheerful song. But I just realized I haven't heard it for two or more years. It takes me back to my high school years, somewhere to 1996-97... Ah, I have some many nice and also frustrating memories from those years.

CMX

If you happen to follow Javalobby regularly you might have already spotted this page:

http://www.javalobby.org/java/forums/t83984.html

Java is also usable language for entertainment even to implement a performance demanding 3D engine. I have been thinking about kicking my own jMonkey Engine based hobby project forward but after spending eight hours working with Java in business project I don't really have motivation to continue development at home. Maybe I should have a holiday to code at home :-)

I am flying back to Budapest on next Friday morning and I am looking forward to it. Next time I'll be here with Dóra while we are attending company's ski weekend. That will be in mid January but before that I'll make a x-mas visit to Finland.

It has been nice here but it is also very nice to return.