Accordion Cleaning

Here are a few pictures of the cleaning process, and the unending filth coming out of my poor old accordion.

I have the keyboard detached now. I must have spent almost seven hours cleaning, yet am barely half-way done.

The detached keyboard and the inside of the front of the accordion, caked in grime:



The pads that prevent the air from flowing into the 'giant harmonicas' when the keys are not pressed:


Some of the keys still stick and it is hard to tell what is causing it as the springs seem ok. The springs are just wire, with a loop in it, to make a kind of sprung hinge. The stiff keys do spring back far enough to, perhaps, just close the holes but I'm not convinced the pressure is enough to prevent air getting to the reeds when it isn't meant to. I'm concerned that there's something stiffening the actual pivot of those keys, but there does not seem any way to take them out.

Here's a pile of dust and rotten loose felt extracted from beneath the keys:



These are just a few of the cotton wool buds I've got through. Great tools:

Overused Topics in Finland

I've been in Finland nearly a year now, and I socialise with a lot of ex-patriots from around the world. There are some topics of conversation that occur over and over, with just about every one you meet. It's a nice safe way of conversing with people and building bonds, so I don't expect to be free of these conversations at any time, but I think they should be avoided where possible for the sake of everyone's sanity.

1. Finnish Social Habits
2. Alcoholism
   
3. Finnish Men/Women
4. Those Little Functional Differences
5. Everybody Speaks English
6. The Finnish Air Force
7. The Swedish
8. Weather Preferences

Now if it is the first time you've heard of any of these topics, they can be pretty interesting. Yet once you have had the conversation 50 times you can boil them down to just a few basic lines. So that you never need to discuss these topics again, except as the aforementioned small talk technique, here they are:

Finnish Social Habits

Finns are said to be shy, but to be honest they often seem pretty rude. It's not that they are not nice; if you actually talk to them they are perfectly pleasant. However, you might wonder if they are being artificial, because they rarely follow up on it by inviting you out for a drink, to a party, or round for a visit. On the other hand, Finns sometimes complain that they think people are being false if they show friendship immediately.
You can see the cultural difference here, and it's a big problem for people who come to Finland late. Finns can build relationships in school that they stick to loyally for the rest of their lives, without questioning it or wanting more. Other people do this too, but it's very common in Finland. When you don't have that advantage, then you are stranded in a community where people don't reach out to you and view any attempts of you reaching out to them as suspect.
If you are lucky enough to be able to socialise with Finns, there will probably be alcohol involved. This does mean that they may not remember you.

The advice with socialising in Finland is:
Be patient, things worth having are worth waiting for. If you struggle with that, hang out with ex-pats. Making no effort to make Finnish friends and just being around for a long time is a good way to make Finnish friends.

Alcoholism

It's a huge problem, and there are drunks everywhere.

However, the drunks that stink out the tram and search bins are just the extreme. Your average Finn gets a worrying gleam in their eye given the opportunity to drink alcohol and it's just a little bit too much a part of the culture. You can only get alcohol from state-run stores at certain times of the day and this is often lamented. It's sometimes used as a crutch in social situations.

Finnish Men/Women

The women in Finland are domineering, but beautiful, where as the men are more often plain, and submissive. This is the overwhelming first impression and stereotype that forms, and often barely, or not at all, true.
Finnish women in particular have an uncanny knack of luring foreign men to Finland, and though the men tend to stay in Finland, they don't always stay with the woman more than a few years (this is what I call 'the usual story').
Men and women alike can be seen losing their social inhibitions in bars by getting drunk enough to actually talk to each other, but it is still usually the woman who has to make the moves.

Finland was the first European country to give women the vote, they have a female president and they have some of the most equal child care laws you can find, however despite the culture being one of the most favourable towards women that you can find in Europe, the statistics still show them being paid less than men in the same job positions and occupying less high-profile jobs.

Those Little Functional Differences

• Keys turn in the locks the wrong way
• Bathroom locks are often built into the handles, in stealth mode
• The light switches' on/off positions are upside-down
• Doors open outwards
• There are no carpets on the floors
• The washing machines are kept in the bathroom
• Built-in showers are far more common than bath tubs
• There's a cool dish-draining cupboard above every sink
• The top drawer in the kitchen is a built-in chopping and breadboard
• People take the entire light fitting with them when they move
• You have to weigh and price your own fruit
• Cars can still turn the corner when the pedestrian light is green
• Apartment blocks come with flawless central heating, plumbing, and a caretaker

Everybody Speaks English

Finnish learners, myself included, often complain about this fact. It's easy to blame it for a lack of progress and it certainly is frustrating. Other people use it as an excuse not to bother learning Finnish. It can reinforce what is probably an unhealthy impression that everyone in foreign countries speaks English and if they don't, well, they should do. For those that don't believe everyone should speak English, it is almost disheartening to see how widely it is used in Finland: but don't worry, Finnish (or Finnish-Swedish) is still the language of choice when you are not listening.

The Finnish Air Force

The title of this point does not refer to the pilots of Finland, but rather to the mosquitoes that characterise Finnish summers. If you go to a lakeside cottage, or visit Lapland, you are especially at risk. They will always win, no matter how extreme your method of defence. They bite, it itches, they make a whining sound and it is very annoying. There really is not much more to say on the matter.

The Swedish

The stereotypes claim they are, on average, better looking than most people. Swedish accents can also sound pretty funny, and there's a rumour that you can cause a Swede consternation by failing to maintain a smile in their presence.
The neighbourly in-joke is to claim Swedish guys are gay. The usual tactic is to make your Swedish friend the butt of some kind of joke and then to sympathise that 'they must get that all the time'.
Sweden used to be the ruling class in Finland, and nowadays they are better known internationally despite being next door and, in some ways, still intertwined with Finland. People claim this causes some jealousy and consternation and an underlying rebellion against a feel that 'they are better than us'.

Weather Preferences

Everybody loves the sunshine, though the larger you are the lower your temperature threshold.
When the sun isn't shining it had better be -20 with a foot of snow on the ground, because it feels drier and makes the long nights darker.
In midsummer, the long hours can keep you awake all night, but you may still feel less tired than in winter.
Rain is good for the berries and mushrooms, in moderation.



These views are not all my own, but are derived from numerous conversations and observations. I love Finland.
There are also numerous stereotypes here. I take all stereotypes with a pinch of salt so I hope anyone reading this will do the same. I tend to find that any general traits I've observed never really apply to any individual I get to know.

My first accordion has arrived

So, I got a German piano accordion with Italian reeds sent from England to Finland.

It was my former step-father's father's instrument, which probably dates it to some time in the first half of the 20th century at its youngest. Boy does it look its age righ now. In fact, probably older. My not-quite-grandfather died before I was born, so for at least as long as I lived, this accordion has been stored in attics, under beds, and who knows where else. It's full of dust, but that's the least of the problems.

Here's a few things I have to fix:

• Replace the leather straps
• Clean the dust out from behind the grates (yeuch)
• Reattach/replace the bass reeds, which by the rattling and lack of sound, are loose.
• Solve the problem of the sticking keys
• Replace the gauze behind the grates
• Replace the metal screws and hooks that are missing or rusty
• Get it tuned
• See whether the scuffed bellows can be perked up

On the plus side, it is light and the reeds that work are making a nice sound. I'm not sure it is even worth it's postage at the moment, but perhaps. I'm not going to be able to learn much on it.

Now, some pictures (hopefully the 'before' of a 'before and after):

Careers in Writing

I'm linking up a worthwhile article for anyone who reads this that has recently come to the realisation that they like to write, have some talent, and may actually try to do something with it:

So you wanna be a writer?

There's more than one way to be a writer, and to practise your trade whilst getting paid for it.

Accordion News

It's amazing what you find out once you start talking about different topics of conversation with people.

I just found out that my former stepfather has an old piano accordion gathering dust at his place. It used to belong to his father, who I never had the privilege to meet. It is funny how you can grow up in the same house as someone and never know so many things about them. Whenever I talk to him on the phone, we talk about a huge range of topics for a couple of hours, and still there are stories I've never heard before - and this guy has never even had a passport.

Still, back on topic. The accordion should arrive in a couple of weeks. Mum was going to ship me a few things anyway, so I've asked if she can ship that too.

He says it's a German accordion, but may have some cracks in the bellows, so I don't have any expectations of it being playable. I'll see what I can do to bring a little life back into it, though, and give it a more reverent place than under a bed!

Hiring Testers: What skills to choose?

I work in a good environment for a quality engineer, or software tester. My company has enough size for there to be variety in teams, yet is no so big that we are out of touch. We have a particularly good sense of community among quality engineers who would not have reason to meet if it were not for the fact that knowledge sharing is actively encouraged.

We share knowledge sometimes by sending a few testers to a conference and listening to them present the things that, essentially, caused them to have the biggest emotional reaction - a moment of epiphany, a feeling of disapproval, a change of heart.

In the latest, a bit of a 'war of presenters' was mentioned. One of them went into great detail about how all quality engineers should be made to be as technically knowledgeable as a good developer. The other was very passionate about hiring people based on the more intangible aspects, such as whether they could solve problems, rather than looking for someone technically proficient.

I was hired on the latter principle, general ability, experience, and attitude over intense technical training. I had doubts that I was going to get the job, and honestly responded in the interview that if they were looking for someone with extremely high levels of technical literacy, I was not the right employee for them at this moment in time. I felt I needed to say it, because I had seen the lengthy requirements lists on job advertisements that I had hunted through. I'll admit, it made me feel a little inferior.

However, my employers do something that did not seem to be accounted from in this war of presenters at the software testing conference. They take both approaches, depending on what is more appropriate for a given team at a given time. They seek balance.

We have both technical testers, as well-versed as any developer, who write automated scripts, analyse performance of products on every level, who find complex bugs and proceed to drill down to the root of them so that the developer need only write the fix into the code. We also have testers who use black box testing, who rely on internal tools to capture logs that developers can use for investigations and who unearth any annoyance that may assault an end-user's eyes. Both types of tester are useful and it is rare that you will find someone truly talented at both things. Even if you do, they probably cannot cover everything (unless your product is very, very, small).

The different types of testers can be used in different ways. They can work together pair-testing and passing knowledge to each other. This enables them to become more rounded in experience. They can work separately, one testing the interface and another performing load testing. This enables them to become experts in their specialised areas. Which of these is best is a topic for other discussions.

Essentially, I don't see what the fuss is about. You hire people based on what fits the needs of your team and your specific company culture. Preaching that one type of tester is better than the other is completely illogical to me. Testers are not all the same, and the field of quality engineering is not all that small.

I work in an agile environment, so I will talk more about the effect that has on quality assurance and how it is performed another time.

Why the accordion?

Many people from the UK consider the accordion to be a comedy instrument, if indeed they think about it at all. It is not something that is often portrayed in the media and it is certainly not trendy. So why do I want to learn it?

Well, I played violin, piano and treble recorder as a child and had the usual school music lessons. As usual, my ability to pass academic studies without too much thought was the source of an apathy that led me to let the chance to really enjoy learning music slip by. Later, with little money and other things on my mind, I further failed to make any effort towards music.

Now that I am a fraction older, living comfortably and surrounded by musical talent I have been reminded how much I do love music. It's frustrating to me that I cannot talk the language that I want to with my more learned friends. I notice how much I sing and how often I seek out music. I know myself well enough to know how to focus on the root of my enthusiasm and use it to achieve a useful outcome - in this case, learning more.

I have known for some time that I need to really get a buzz for something to be able to follow up on it continuously and get through the rough spots. I thought about various instruments like the piano, the guitar, the drums, violin and realised that while I love them, I did not want to play them. I'm the person who thought they were bad at languages, then decided to learn Finnish. I like to explore things I know nothing about, things that are slightly unusual and things that take a little more effort in general. I knew I wanted to play an unusual instrument, but had no idea what it was going to be. I supposed it would be an obscure ancient Asian instrument and made a mental note to bear it in mind if I ever went to Asia.

Thankfully, lightning struck rather closer to home. There I was sitting on the tram, when I saw a shop full of accordions. I wanted one. I don't usually care for things in shop windows. It was a total eureka moment, true Melody-Jane style, but just to be sure I did some research. The more I did the more excited I got about it and the more certain I became that this was an instrument I actually wanted to learn. If I were anyone else I'd not have been so sure, but as I mentioned earlier, I'm the person who decided to learn Finnish on a whim. Now I've relocated to Finland permanently and have a basic level of spoken Finnish that I am continuing to improve on.

I want more accordion. And I'm going to get it!