I don't think any of us are old enough to remember them David... ;)

But my father has one, it's good fun to use but the records are so fragile.

However, the run would be more effective if he dragged an old crank gramophone with a funnel on a cart.

Doing mixtapes for friends was good fun too... :)

The artwork alone was a nice hobby...

Oh yes... I remember doing that. Gosh. Now I feel ancient all of a sudden...

Yes... ah, happy memories.

There was a gameshow called Shooting Stars where the host told Jarvis Cocker (of band Pulp): "Jarvis, I liked your song so much I taped it off the radio."

I hate maksalaatikko too... ;)

Apologies for going off-topic, I'll stop now.

Well, I will try to stay diplomat and say that "my french cultural background doesn't allow me to find such a dish appetising".

Maybe we should start a project on culinary differences between Finland and the rest of the world. In the same ironic style as Roman Schatz when he wrote Suomesta rakaudella... In the meantime, this topic is supposed to be about Griffin going to the post office every morning... :D

Did you try maksalaatikko? :P

You have no idea!

Hee hee, I can see you fell in love with Finnish sweets when you were here... ;)

Is it?
Is Griffin also condamned to eat only salmiakki for the rest of his life?

Delphine, this is secretly a horror film. ;)

I've just realised that Timo was cruel enough to forbid Griffin to use a cellphone...

When I think I was sure Finns couldn't even imagine life without it... Damn!

SMS but on an old Nokia 3410 (the best) because it shouldn't be able to access the internet...

I mean, even the last iPhone cannot survive swimming, or falling on the pavement... my old Nokia does!!!

...and make a lot more phone calls, too! :)

In libraries, you can find those books for travellers (Lonely Planet, etc) and there is most of the time maps and plans, sometimes even schedules in it.

Otherwise, you can find in most big bus- and trainstations booklets with all national/regional lines and schedules in it.

I tend to refer to my coworkers by their 8-character account names. :P

A paper-based list of phone numbers is a good thing. It may happen that you arrive to a remote destination and the cellphone won't work, will be dropped, runs out of battery, gets stolen or lost... Having a backup of contacts in a way accessible with any phone is an important safety measure. Especially in the world where we don't have to remember them anymore.

Jack, I think he'd know his friends but certainly those he didn't know as well might be just numbers to him.

How about the following scenario:

-Griffin picks someone up in a club in a drunken haze, they leave together.
-Cut to the morning after the night before, they wake up together in bed. His companion looks grumpy and says "you don't even know my name do you?" and Griffin replies "Sure I do, you're 555-1234"

Perhaps, this may be a funny 'tick' about Griffin,
calling his co-workers by their tellephone number instead of their name...

Ahaa... I don't. :D

So, maybe this could be an interesting plot point for Griffin, the contrast between people who have physical backups and those who just assume that "the cloud" will stay intact?

Although I have to say that no matter I am an internet addict, I do have a physical phone book where I keep people's addresses, phone numbers and e-mail info. Some times even MSN accounts info etc. Just in case I lost my computer/mobile phone and I had to start from scratch. And I know a lot of people doing that. Probably these would be the ones having the least problems of all at the time of the outbreak...

There was a scene like this in the Simpsons, Marge manages to get itchy and scratchy banned and all the town's children suddenly rediscover playing outside. (Then the ban is lifted and they end up like couch potatoes again...)

Ohh yeah... ham and CB radio used to be really big in the 1970s I think, in the days when phone calls were really expensive and the internet wasn't available to ordinary people.

That makes a lot of sense, it would be the place to go and chat if you can't use an internet connection.

Internet server's geographical positions, ten years old maps:

http://www.cheswick.com/ches/map/gallery/index.html

Those maps really are like star constellatios, today it is more like a map of milky way.

Perhaps he really goes star gazing, keeping in mind what he remembers of those maps he used to know so well.

Maybe he was secretly an Animal Crossing addict and this is his way of continuing that without access to a computer or console.

There should be an UFO passing by as the nazis survey Earth prior to the invasion....

Yup, no computer = no mp3 player. He would have to build up a huge physical collection of records and videos.

I like the bit about the board games and paper RPGs, if you didn't have a computer but you wanted that kind of game you would definitely be going back to the paper stuff.

I started also to think about the encyclopedia. Since Google and Wikipedia hijacked our knowledge there has not been any business for enclopedia type of stuff and those you find are hopelesly outdated. Even so oudated that they start to sound hilarious.