Finnish formula one driver just won championship and it was sort of interesting race as Kimi Räikkönen was several points behind others. But also interesting was that most Finns did not watch it live. MTV3 channel has rights for F1 broadcasts in Finland and they decided to place live F1 races on the pay channel. And people have not subscribed such.

Creating a 3D game with Java used to sound a really stupid idea some time ago. But then several brave minds started to work with the idea and now, after four years of development, jMonkeyEngine reached version 1.0. This framework provides tools for developer to create a game without inventing wheel again with core functionalities.

I have been playing around with it a little bit and it does not seem to be too complicated to get started with. I just checked out the latest version from the CVS, ran two ant targets and set up my project in Eclipse. Nothing too difficult.

Now I just have to learn this framework a little bit better and start implementing my first game. I already have very clear idea how it should work and look, only implementation is missing. Normally I work with J2EE applications which follow more or less same pattern. There is a DB, some services and then the presentation layer. Compared to that writing a game will be a new experience.

Heh, it is not uncommon for me to have absurd dreams. Last night I had a dream where I was camping in the forest. And there was a bear in my tent. But the bear had stomach ache because it ate wrong plants or herbs. So I gave some paprika spiced tree twigs for it. And the poor bear said it likes them!

Good start for the day!

Solving a Rubik's cube is tricky enough for most but these guys make it in a flash.

I spotted news about this man and his lecture some time ago from dzone.com. Today I then sat down and watched this lecture. And it was worth of watching.

The idea of watching terminally ill man having his last public lecture felt a little bit awkward. But he was not dying on the stage and he performed very well without giving any clues of his status. I have to say that it was not a sad lecture at all, even though there were some touching points.

So, why anyone should watch this specific lecture? He talks about reaching your childhood dreams, shows how he has reached his and shares some lessons learned. Despite his illness he is in some sense lucky because he has reached so many of his dreams.

He also mentioned a very good quote and advice about luck:
- Be prepared: "luck" is where preparation meets opportunity

And I think that is so true. Fulfilling a dream requires both. Without preparation you wont realize the opportunity or you fail to utilize it. Without opportunity there is no use for preparations.

But isn't opportunity same as luck? I think it is not. Luck means when things just happen without any effort. Like finding money from the street. Opportunity is something you build yourself. You make yourself available for opportunity because it wont come to fetch you from home.

And when you are prepared and the opportunity arises you know exactly what to do to fulfill your dream.

Reserve one and half hours and watch this lecture.