2007.11.03
They've had a few introductory events to get us use to both big company life in general, and the idiosyncrasies of Nokia in general. It's a Finnish company by its origin and its heart, though I suspect its tempered somewhat by being international.
One chestnut from yesterday is "the Finnish don't have a word for please". That sounded a bit like an urban legend, and this page of 'Please' in many languages has some possible counter-examples, but I don't know if they're widely used, or not a direct vocabulary map, or what.
Googling for that I found a fairly convincing article that the Finns do have over 40 words for Snow and then a piece by an Australian on how laconic the Finns tend to be.
Quote of the Moment
Why is it that our memory is good enough to retain the least triviality that happens to us, and yet not good enough to recollect how often we have told it to the same person?Man, I was worried that was just me!
Sports Trashtalking of the Moment
At the risk of sounding like I'm looking for another Boston bandwagon to hop on - the Celtics finally show huge promise, but I don't think I'll ever really dig basketball or any constant movement sport like that, Hockey, Soccer etc - the following bit of trashtalking was on the TV at a bar last night. Looks like the show was quoting Washington Wizards'* Gilbert Arenas'** blog:
So anyway, since everybody is back on the Boston bandwagon it brought back old memories. So listen here. On November 2nd, we're going to go into that building, we're opening up Boston. Right now I'm telling the Boston fans: You guys are going to lose. It's not going to be a victory for Boston. You might as well just cheer for me, because Boston isn't winning in Boston for the season opener. I'm sorry.Oddly enough, he did look pretty sorry on the floor. Celtics, 103. Bullets, 83. Next time, Arenas, try to pick a night when your team isn't setting an NBA record for failed three point shots (0 for 16) and you yourself aren't 5-for-20.
* man, they were so much cooler as the Washington Bullets -- Wikipedia cites David Letterman as saying if "Washington Bullets" sounded too violent, couldn't they just be "The Bullets"?
** what a confusing last name for an athlete!