Diabolus ex Machina

It’s over now.
I won.
Even though a bloodthirsty first lieutenant tried to probably murder me a couple times, I made it.
165 days of military service behind, the university studies right ahead.
Yay?

It’s been a while since my last post (even though not as long while as was from the post before it). I’ve been busy being dead. Yeah, pretty much that. Finland, the marvelous country that I live in, has this little obscurity called military service. And unfortunately it’s, goddamn, obligatory. Every man between ages 18 and 60 has to go through either military service (either equipped with weapons or not; this leaves room for those who will not touch any weapon for various, usually moral, reasons) or compensatory-ish civil service.

Well, our military service can take up to 347 days of our time when it is our time to serve our country. Yay. Fortunately only thirty percent of military servants have to serve 347 days. If I remember correctly, twenty percent of us serve 255 days. And the rest have to cope with 165 days.

I’m going with military service just because I have a chance to get away with just 165 days, as civil service is always 347 days. Of course, there is an option of total objection – that is, to refuse to do anything – but that leads to imprisonment so it’s not really an option for me. Even though… your judgment would be, like, six months, so it’d be faster to get away with total objection than with civil service.

Fortunately, I received a 165-day-service job – to be more precise, a placement as a bookkeeper. I can forget the horrors of basic jäger service. That’s what I’ve been going through for seven weeks now. Awful, crawling on the ground and in the snow piles with battle gear on, skiing 30 kilometers with the same quite heavy gear and a backpack et cetera…

Something positive for a change: I released my EP, Infinitely Irrational, about… three weeks ago? Yes, I think. Six individual tracks for you, related by… the fact that they are on the same release. If you didn’t like my single Quintessence, I still recommend you check out the other tracks of Infinitely Irrational. My personal favorite might be Gods of the Complex Space.

If you do like it, you can always download it for free from my Bandcamp. You can aaaalso pay for it. I don’t mind. :3 Also, if you are a Piste Gamer, you might like the final track which is a remix of a song from the game called Pekka Kana 2. It’s an old-schoold platformer with an old-school tracker soundtrack. If you are not a Piste Gamer (a fan of Piste Gamez, the indie game dev group that created the game), I suggest you take a look at the game (and the music, of course).

Anyway, you will hear of me again this spring, or at least next fall when I start my studies at the University of Helsinki. Mathematics, hell yeah.

From the cold, dark backwoods of Lapland,
Sincerely With Love
Crudelis Diabolus

Good day, mortals, and Happy New Fear.

I finally have my new website out on crudelisdiabolus.com. You may also notice that I’m going to release a new single called “Quintessence” tomorrow (3rd January 2014). Well, actually, it’ll be out in 35 minutes…

The song will be included in Niko Saarela's science fiction movie "Cased", so check it out too: casedofficial.tumblr.com

And here, listen some Lordi for your late New Year.

Many times have I wondered why American punctuation has to be so illogical compared to our way to punctuate here in Finland, more accurately around quotations. Other differences in punctuation are just differences in grammatical punctuation rules, although English punctuation is much more intuitive that Finnish punctuation. I did some research and found out our Finnish way is pretty much the same as the British way to punctuate around quotes, also called the logical quotation, while the other one was indeed the “American style”. In that previous sentence I used the British style while an American would probably have written it like this:

The other one was indeed the “American style.”

Now you might ask why it is more logical that the period or full stop comes after the quotation mark. I tell you why. It is more logical to put the period outside the quote because it is not part of the quotation! Do you see, people? You should put stuff belonging in there only in the quotation. Most often in the American style, they don’t put only the quoted punctuation marks in the quote but also the marks separating the quote from the text around it. I’ll provide you with some example sentences.

I told him, “Man, the riff is a killer but the rest is a throwaway.” (Lordi – The Riff)

In both styles of punctuation, the period will be in the quote since it is part of the quotation! If the main clause is after the quotation, the punctuation differs between styles:

“Man, the riff is a killer but the rest is a throwaway”, I told him. (British)
“Man, the riff is a killer but the rest is a throwaway,” I told him. (American)

You see how the Americans put the comma that separates the quotation from the main clause. What I think is that it’s illogical to put it in the quote as it is not part of the quote but separates the quote from the main clause and therefore should not be in the quote.

Sorry to explain it in words of one syllable but I want to make sure everyone gets my point. In my opinion, you should only include the original quotation in the quote and leave other stuff out. Of course, if you have the main clause after the quotation, you’ll have to omit the period if it was there but that’s not a valid reason to replace it with a comma, is it?

Again, there is no real problem if the quote includes an exclamation mark (!) or a question mark (?) since they always belong in the quote and therefore are put inside. Even in the American style, you should always exclude a semicolon (;), gods only know why.

The American way is in a way simpler, as you don’t have to use your brain. The only thing you are required to do is to put everything inside the quotation. That’s it. All the punctuation marks just go inside. This is not the more logical way but the easier-to-remember way. I have never actually liked this kind of stuff that Americans do to English, make it simpler and at the same time more illogical because they can. No offence, Americans! It’s just natural that languages change when spoken. Personally I just think I’d like to be rational rather than make things “easier”. In my case, it’s not actually easier to put the fucking comma inside the quotation as it makes my head hurt.

Conclusion: it’s all about logic. I’m very much into logic so… it’s nice to be, say, logical. Of course, this is just my opinion. You can still punctuate however you like. Logically or illogically. :3

PS. In Finnish, we separate the main clause with a colon (:) if the quotation comes afterwards.

I told him: “Man, the riff is a killer but the rest is a throwaway.”

I understand the logic of using comma there, as it is more symmetrical to the case where the main clause comes after the quotation, but still, I think it’s reasonable to use colon too since that’s what colons are for: they are for this sort of use. In a way, quotes are the same. If you know what I mean. If you don’t, then whatsoever. There is no counterpart for colon to be used when the main clause comes after the quotation so that’s one reason to use comma.

Hello creeps and happy end of the world, the end that didn't come. To honour the doomsday that is yet to come I finally released my long-late extended play, Fragments of Space-Time. It can be downloaded for free at my Bandcamp.

In other news, Gangnam Style has reached 10⁹ views, which is cool. It's actually a good song althought I'm not very much into that kind of music. What I am into (a few bands for ya):

• Lordi
• Nightwish
• Turmion Kätilöt
• Teräsbetoni