I remember listening to the Walkman for the first time on a school picnic in 1985. I was 11 years old then. We were in the school bus and this classmate of mine proudly started flaunting his Walkman that one of his uncles' had got him from the US. I had absolutely no idea what it was until he asked me to put on the headphones. With me in anticipation he then pressed "Play". I swear I can never forget what my first song on the Walkman sounded like. The song was Michael Jackson's "Wanna be starting something" and the way I could appreciate different sounds in spatial, 3D clarity was amazing. I begged my classmate to let me listen to one more song but he was a shrewd businessman. Before he hit the play button again I had to pay a fee for the liberty of listening to his prized possession!

A manager brings a dog into a nightclub to work. The dog is a brilliant piano player -- plays all the standards. He's sitting there pounding out the notes when all of a sudden a big dog comes in and drags him off the stool and out the door.
The nightclub owner asks, "What happened?"
The manager says, "That's his mother. She wants him to be a doctor."

When your girlfriend really needed to talk to you during the game, she'd appear in a little box in the corner of the screen during a time-out.

I've been listening to Keane for some time now and I think they are getting better and better with each album.
Doves, I think has been the most underrated band. Hope their new album Kingdom of Rust changes that.

I've had the pleasure of visiting Paris and Helsinki last year. I'm sure everybody's heard about how romantic Paris is: city of lights, lover's paradise...I could go on and I don't want to bother you with cliches'. It's Helsinki that came as a bit of a pleasant surprise. To begin with, it's very 'untouristy': usually young European backpackers frequent the place. I found that a welcome change: no crowds, no mad rush. Finland, I guess has not yet opened it's gates to immigration. While i noticed people of all nationalities in Paris, it wasn't so in Finland. The first thing that strikes you about the demography of the place is... now where in Gods' green earth are the people?? Speaking of people, so far, in my travels Finnish people were the most cultured and immaculately decent. I havent met nicer people anywhere else!
Compared to major European cities, Helsinki is a small capital. You might want to start your itinerary from Helsinki, travelling to Tallin (Estonia) or Sweden on a cruise ship. Yes, Tallinn has recently joined the Schengen agreement and you can be there in less than three hours. Then ships leave for Sweden as well. There's the Nordic Jet Line (Smaller, faster vessels) and then, among the heavyweights there are the likes of Viking and Silja line (big cruise ships, understandably slower speeds). You might as well go anywhere (the majestic city of St Petersberg in Russia is just round the corner!.
You might have heard that Helsinki is expensive. Apart from food in restaurants pretty much everything has a price at par with it's European neighbours.
The architecture is great so are the museums (albeit small: obviously we're not expecting the Louvre here!) Even the airport looks like a boutique airport having ease of navigation and a modernistic 'chic' feel to it. The best part is that everything is close together so you don't have to slog distances and see things piecemeal.

Couldn't go to Lapland: wish I had the time..that's the one thing I missed; especially around wintertime.