Jarno's Personal Page
Here's a continuously evolving snapshot of my more personal aspects (updated
30.11.2010):
Hobbies and
Interests
When I have the time to spare I like to dabble in the following:
Boffer
fighting. My #1 hobby, currently. Myself and
a couple of friends crafted our first boffers in the Summer of 2002 and started
bashing. Since then we've formed a group called the Assasins of Alberga (Albergan Assasiinit) and met
many others from the Finnish
boffer-fighting community. I organize weekly training sessions on
the Alberga Castle lands. If you are interested in boffer fighting or in how to
make decent boffer weapons, check out e.g. our own pages, Sotahuuto 2006
or Lukrain's Guide to
Boffers.
Misc. budo
& swordsmanship. I've been studying Tai Chi in Tai Chi Chuan Finland since 2001.
Here are some pictures from a display
we had in Helsinki in October 2004. Also, check out the videos on some high class
practice (no, not me) on the Tai Chi Chuan website! However, at present, boffer
fighting fills my martial arts quota quite fully. In 2003 I took a basic course
of Kendo
in Ki
ken tai icchi to gain more understanding of the basics of swordplay
(for boffer fighting purposes, naturally :-). I try to do some suburi practice
daily by myself, and occasionally with a friend who trains Aikido on a regular
basis. When possible, I attend weekend seminars at Guy Windsor's Swordschool.
Not to mention the continued contemplation of Go Rin No Sho...
Music,
making. Not waiting to get too old to rock and roll but
too young to die, I'm realizing my rock n' roll volare in Beatific Division, Brighton Beach and Liquid Wolf.
Check out our pages to hear the stuff out! I have also taken up delighting
& surprising my friends, colleagues and students with occasional troubadour
performances... If you play guitar, check out the one-page summaries of
pop songs (handy for quick reference) and tabs
I've done.
Music,
listening. This is dear to me, and I like
many kinds of music, ranging from hard(ish) rock through more ambient,
progressive and/or obscure sounds to reggae, and on to the kind of pop that
plays on the radio. I'm always looking for to expand my musical tastes, so feel
free to tip me off if you think you have heard something pretty good
lately.
RPGs. Role-playing games have been a great source of enjoyment
for myself and a group of close friends. Although, thanks to our inspired game
master, the rules used have changed several times, our current campaign has
been going for quite some time now. If you are a gamer yourself or just want to
get an idea what this is like, check out our RPG
campaign pages.
Reading. In addition to the stuff related to my research, I am a
heavy user of the local library - and used to have a tendency to spend a small
portion of my earnings for equipping my own shelf with copies of some of the
favourites. Nowadays, the shelves are full, and there's less time for
reading...but I have taken up mp3-audiobooks to fill the gap. It is perfectly
learnable to listen at +50% of the regular speed, though at first it takes some
getting used to :-)
The following are currently more or less on the backburner:
Computers. Varying in the time spent and focus (the usual work &
writing-related stuff vs. games vs. other hacking), I have been involved with
computers since the age of five. While nowadays computers seem to serve as the
main tool in earning my living, I try to reserve the time to have some fun as
well, for example by playing a game or two of NetHack.
Some of the "more recent" games (yep, these are getting pretty old as
well) I've taken the time to complete are Icewind Dale I & II and the Baldur's Gate series. A
year back I had some fun with experimental anti-war Civilization campaigns. When
I get around to gaming the next time, I'll probably be tackling the Temple of Elemental Evil,
which has remained unopened since I got it in Summer 2004...
Other sports. For a while, I complemented Tai Chi also with Astanga Yoga, but
again, decided to focus on Tai Chi only. I've been an enthusiastic player of floorball in high scool
and through my undergraduate years, and most likely would be a happy
contribution to your not-too-serious floorball team. I can also be spotted
roaming the local countryside with my bicycle. And, if you want somebody to
beat in badminton, I'm your man.
Photographing. Ever since getting a digital camera in late 2001 I have
been collecting a trace of the places I've been and the people I've seen,
sometimes to their discomfort. Here is some of the more recent scenery.
The pages are password-protected, email me to get access.
Mind mapping. In 2002 I ran across an easy but powerful tool to do this, and have since then
been using it for almost everything. As a side-effect, I've probably during the
last years generated some license sales revenue for Mindjet through being an
inspiring example :-)
Travelling. During the past few years I have begun to notice that
travelling in addition to being lots of fun, helps keep your eyes and mind open
even in more 'familiar' surroundings.
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