Kitchen

Posted: February 6th, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: cool, home | No Comments »

My kitchen was finally installed today. Or almost completely installed as there is one piece that still needs to be replaced. 

It looks superduperhypercool and I am very very pleased with the outcome. Hopefully it will be as great to use as to look at.

Kitchen


There’s an Estonian in every Apple Store

Posted: January 15th, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: cool, united states | No Comments »

So, I am buying Apple’s new earphones from Apple Store in Green Hills, Nashville, and had this conversation with the salesperson:

Me: “I’ll have these”

Salesperson: “Do you pay with credit card?”

Me: “Yes” Hand over my Hansapank MasterCard Gold

Salesperson works with the machine, it shuts down, gets a new battery, asks my e-mail address, I give it to her.

Salesperson: “What’s your Zip-code”

Me: “I don’t live in the US”

Salesperson: “Oh, where are you from?”

Me: “Estonia, it is in Europe”

Salesperson: “Are you with these guys there, they are also from Estonia?”

And there was a couple from Estonia in the Apple Store in Green Hills mall in Nashville jsut before closing time buying a MacBook. We had a brief exchange, I told I was here for to visit Vanderbilt and they said they were just visiting as well. So, you can really meet Estonians everywhere in the world…


New Orleans

Posted: January 8th, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: cool, new orleans, united states, university | No Comments »

I have arrived in New Orleans, Louisiana, the United States of America. After a gruelling, but quite problem-free 20+ hour flight and 20 hour sleep in the coolest hotel I have ever been to, I must say that I feel great about being here. Yesterday we (I am travelling with a colleague) did nothing except walking around the Vieux Carré a bit and had alligator and shrimp Po-Boys and local beer at the Pierre Maspero’s Restaurant.

We will be in New Orleans until Monday morning, after which we go to Nashville, Tennessee. I will write more soon.


Time Person of the Year: Barack Obama

Posted: December 17th, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: cool, obama | No Comments »

obama_cover

I agree wholeheartedly, Barack Obama is the most significant person of 2008, and hopefully he will keep up the good work. 

TIME: Person of the Year 2008


I want this

Posted: December 5th, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: cool, michael jackson | No Comments »

I want this:


Meresuu Spa

Posted: November 21st, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: cool, travel | No Comments »

I was yesterday and today at Meresuu Spa and Hotel in Narva-Jõesuu for a seminar and I really liked the place.

The Spa has all you need for relaxation. There are a number of different pools and saunas and some I really liked. The buffet food was exquisit, the rooms are spacious and included a small minibar filled a few free(!) drinks. There is a nice cafe in the basement.

Highly recommended.


Change has come to America

Posted: November 5th, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: cool, obama, politics | No Comments »

Barack Obama winning the US elections is a good thing it seems. People need hope in difficult times and Obama provides this. Now all that remains to be seen is how President Obama fulfills the high expectations and whether he is able to motivate and inspire people to make what he talks about a reality.

Hopefully Obama’s election has a world-wide impact and it inspires new kind of politics all over the world, including here is Estonia.

Heal the world, make it a better place, for you and for me, and the entire human race.

Flashback from 1992:


Election Day in America

Posted: November 4th, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: cool, obama | No Comments »

Hopefully Barack Obama will be elected and he will be able to push everyone to make the world a little better place.


In the pocket (Taskus)

Posted: October 26th, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: cool, films, personal, travel | No Comments »

I have been in Tartu yesterday and today. I had quite a lot of spare time, which I mostly spent in the brilliant new shopping and entertainment centre Tasku. I found some great things: the Rahva Raamat bookstore, where I bought two books (in order to learn French I bought Michel Houellebecq‘s “Les Particules élémentaires” and in order to satisfy my abnormal craving for Michael Jackson related information I bought Randy Taraborrelli’s “Michael Jackson: The Magic and the Madness”. The café at the bookstore, called Cookbook also serves great Chai. Tartu also has Estonia’s only Celio shop, where I bought a fedora and some other things. Celio is great, as it only has clothes for men and those clothes are relatively cheap. If you are after more expensive stuff, the centre also has Pepe Jeans, Levi’s Store, Blend of America, Guess, Esprit and others. There is an Apple authorised reseller iDream as well.

But the best thing about Tasku is the multiplex cinema Cinamon, which has reasonable prices and where I saw 2 great, but diametrically different films. On Saturday I saw “High School Musical 3: Senior Year,” which was wonderful, although perhaps for me already a bit too fast-paced. It used the same formula that worked well for the wildly successful made-for-TV previous intalments and it translated into the movie screen rather well. Kenny Ortega is a genius. The songs perhaps could have been a bit better, but on the whole it was great.

Today I saw the Estonian film “Detsembrikuumus (December Heat)“, which I actually liked even more. Estonian films have gone a long way, and I really think the film was brilliantly done and acted. I especially liked Tõnu Kark, but the whole experience was so good. The film is about the attempted Soviet coup in Estonia on 1 December 1924, but there were references also to today’s challenges throughout the film.

I used to dislike Tartu, but now I cannot wait before I can return here. The Tasku centre is a worthy addition to the magic of Tartu.


Corporations for Human Rights

Posted: October 25th, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: apple, cool, human rights, politics | No Comments »

Usually when large multinational corporations are referred to in the area of human rights, it is mostly related to abuses of these rights (or rather businesses putting their immediate profits ahead of other issues). However, in this instance two companies have publicly come out in support of human rights in the matter of gay marriage in California, where a vote will be held together with the presidential elections on whether to amend the State Constitution to eliminate the right for same-sex couples to marry gay. On Friday Apple announced that: 

Apple is publicly opposing Proposition 8 and making a donation of $100,000 to the No on 8 campaign. Apple was among the first California companies to offer equal rights and benefits to our employees’ same-sex partners, and we strongly believe that a person’s fundamental rights — including the right to marry — should not be affected by their sexual orientation. Apple views this as a civil rights issue, rather than just a political issue, and is therefore speaking out publicly against Proposition 8.

Google had announced their opposition to the constitutional amendment last month. 

By conventional wisdom, it is usually a tricky thing for corporations to be involved in what may be perceived as political matters, as there is the worryl that potential customers may be put off by this. However, I think that this paradigm is changing and people want to consume products by companies that have a positive brand value. Apple and Google have generated a lot of good karma for themselves, hopefully more companies will follow suit and step up for what they think is right. In the long run it brings more loyal customers and therefore also profit.