Browse stuff I've written here. You can find some serious articles as well as silly fiction. Caution: Mimu-Sues abound.
But please be careful. Some of the hyperlinks are old and fragile, and must be handled with loving care.
The small print:
I don't much care to use references to printed materials for two reasons:
online references are more usable for everyone, and they are free. The
American view propagated by certain authorities seems to me unethical;
printed books are not automatically any more trustworthy than material freely
available online - just because printing costs money doesn't mean printed
works are more reliable, it just means whoever wanted to get their words in
print had enough money to do it. Free flows of information for the win!
These works are available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Fiction
a Comfortless Computer's Chronicle
or,
Toivottoman Tietsikan Tarina
A short absurd thriller in a modern setting, featuring an inept detective,
his two competent colleagues, and a murderous computer driven by a need for
vengeance and an infinite loop in the determination subprogram.
Interview with a Beholder
Tonight you can enjoy the Stick Talk Show, featuring a special guest:
a Beholder! Stick Guy will ask him all the questions one could ever
think of, and more. Backing the show is the most talented band our money
could hire. We also have an innovative live audience with a great
sense of humor and an enthusiastic approach to dumb show hosts.
Rhymery
Dumping ground of a sensitive soul. Doesn't include any particularly
depressing poems.
Adventures of the Avatar
ja sama suomeksi:
Avatarin Seikkailut
Some fan fiction based on the Ultima games. I first started writing this
sometime around 1996, in Finnish. This is a long story which remains for the
time being unfinished. At some point I translated two thirds into English,
enhancing various bits and pieces on the way to make it more interesting.
The story is set in a timeline where Devon did not fish the Avatar up at the
beginning of U8: Pagan, so he drowned and returned home by using the handy
automatic resurrection system Lord British set up long ago. Later a new quest
arises in the form of a mysterious ultimate shrine, which LB would much like
to socialize. Guess who gets sent to find and retrieve the thing?
Musikal English Revision
&
Musikal - The alkuperäinen
As the name implies, this is a sort of a textual musical. I put little bits
of song lyrics into this quite silly story. Can you tell which the songs and
respective artists are? The Finnish original text is written in an odd
combination of Finnish and English -- something for everyone! The completely
English rewrite was done in far better taste.
The Secret of the Lost Diary and the Stolen Seal
Originally a story my mom wrote. I then remixed it in Finnish, taking quite
a few artistic liberties. Even later I rewrote the thing in English... and
here you go. One Story Remix, shaken and stirred beyond recognition.
The story is basically a quest of two youths to recover items important to
them, having to travel through a weird fantasy world on the way.
Psychotic Discussion
In order to remain mentally stable, a session with a computer psychiatrist is
in order now and then. Two sessions are merged together and dumped here.
These are with dr. Sbaitso, apparently by Creative Labs although I wouldn't
be too sure. The good doctor needs help more than I do.
A Haxxorer's Tale
I wrote this in a forum and a few days later rewrote parts of it, producing
an excitement-filled story of a programmer questing for the Amulet of
Yendor in the Dungeons of Doom, with some Ultima, Monkey Island, Discworld
and Middle-Earth thrown in. The occasional comments are from other
forum-dwellers who were kind enough to listen in.
My Visit to the Underworld
A sequel to the above, first told in an IM chat, then retold in a forum,
and finally rewritten into a relatively readable story. The programmer-adventurer
visits the underworld and barely makes it out with his life. Maybe not as
funny as the first story but should be worth a read.
Fiction
Non-fiction
Effect of Financial Markets on Economic Growth
This was published on March 16th, 2006 in a collection of economics essays to
go with the conference, "Economics: Current Affairs and Development Prospects".
My essay was printed, through sheer luck, on page 69.
I'd give exact publishing data, but I'll be buggered if I can figure out the
Ukrainian way of printing that. It's a kind of little, light blue book,
and probably available from European University in Kyiv.
Not one of my better essays, but gets the job done. My presentation clarified
a few of the more obscure points in the text. This essay is a tightened
version of one I wrote earlier, and was reviewed and edited in collaboration
with my scientific advisor and favorite former lecturer, Mr. Alexander Haponiev.
A student's view on UAHI-WIUU
This is what I think of the Ukrainian-American Humanitarian, or maybe Liberal
Arts, they're not quite sure, Institute, Wisconsin International University
(USA) Ukraine.
Business Writing: the Ponce-Harold Bosson trilogy
While assisting with running the Business Communication class during my last
university year, I wrote these three horrible letters. Students were then to
rewrite each, using acceptable business style, appropriate tone, good
spelling and grammar, applying the you-viewpoint, de-emphasising the negative
points, and so on. These letters try to catch most mistakes non-native
English speakers tend to make. I sincerely hope managers like this don't
really exist.
Making Decisions is Hardly Easy
One of the first courses I took was Principles of Management, under the
kindly guidance of Mr. Edward O. McPherson. This is my final essay for that
course. It got 75/75 points and an honorary mention or two for the amusing
expressions. The essay considers difficulties of managerial decision making.
The Tigress
I finally learned how to write in English Composition classes under the
jovial authority of Mr. Clark Lassen. A two-page essay every two or three
weeks is quite a lot to write, but at least we had plenty of variety in
topics. I think this essay was my retort to the requirement to write about
a person, real or fictional, in an indirect manner. While the essay itself
seems farely simple fare, trying to decipher the underlying symbolism and
potential references to my pretty peers may be a mighty challenge.
Active Nights
We also did classic poetry analysis in English Composition. Here's my effort.
I picked a short but sweet poem about wild nights by Emily Dickinson. I take
a slightly alternative view than my spectacle-fogged reference sites did.
Kitty Kibble
I also finally learned how to hold presentations in Business English classes
under the iron will but golden heart of Ms. Tetyana Nizhnik. This was my
final presentation for Business English; while small groups were allowed, I
figured my default partner (a Business English competition winner herself)
would not accede to my plans, and went solo. My choice of material was, for
once, a full success (our class consisting primarily of young females), and
the presentation was rather well executed and received.
Containing Risks of International Trade
Moving on to Mr. Haponiev's classes, this is my first essay for Introduction
to International Business, and the first I wrote for him. Happily he
appreciates my particular writing idiom. This essay considers ways to
safeguard international business operations against a bazillion dangers.
Multiple International Reports in Triplicate - Why Bother?
This is my final essay for Introduction to International Business. Twice as
funny as the first one, while retaining some semblance of serious thought.
It is about the necessity of accounting by the various books.
Differences of Global Companies and Multinational Enterprises
A fairly serious essay that does comparing and contrasting between companies
whose operations are centered in one country and which do lots of exporting,
and companies which have semi-autonomous tendrils in several parts of the
globe.
Crazy Little Thing Called Core Competency
My final Multinational Enterprises essay, delving into the importance of
recognising and exploiting your core competency. I got some rare insights in
this along with a few real-life examples of corporate core competency control.
What Good Are These Cards?
Monetary Theory and Banking Systems are difficult to figure out, and tough to
write amusing essays on. Undaunted, I picked a topic dealing with electronic
payment methods, in particular plastic cards. By this time I already got
lightly admonished for the good bits... but grabbed an A grade anyway in the
end. Later I rewrote this essay for Computer Science I and made it twice as
long, twice as informative, and half as amusing. (You see why I put up the
original and not the rewritten version?)
How to Choose Your Hordlings?
Human Resources need very careful Management, especially if your goal is as
lofty as, say, taking over the world. That's the angle of this essay, which
considers selection methodology.
Herding Cats
Motivating people is like herding cats, really. They all want to do their own
thing, and somehow management must get them all padding in the approximately
same direction. This essay looks at a number of well-known theories of
motivation, with suggested application for a fictitious Ukrainian university.
Kiasma Revisited
Harkening back to my high school days... This is a poorly written but
imaginative retelling of three high school students' visit to Kiasma,
a museum of modern art in the center of Helsinki, conveniently next to the
central railway station. I spiced up the story a bit by starring a party of
three adventurers, otherwise no one would read this. I mean -- modern art!
What is there to say?
A Misacrope's Guide to Yoot Tower
A strategy guide for and more or less helpful thoughts on Yoot Tower, a fun
tower-building management game.
Non-fiction
Technical
Various Innovative Ideas
Discover descriptions herein of some algorithms I have invented. No, really!
Anyway, some or all of them may be rather useless. Just in case something
isn't, I'm keeping this online.
Maki-chan Graphics format
Proper specifications for this format are in Japanese... here is
a description of the format in English as best as I can make out.
` * ~ , _ , . - ~´,¨,` '~ . , . ¤ . , . ~' ´,¨,`~ - . , _ , ~ * ´