About Me
You have just landed on the homepage of Markus Aurala.
Without further ado, a few facts about me:
I am a mobile enthusiast. You hardly ever see me without my phones. I have one in every pocket and I keep test driving new applications and services all the time, sometimes even developing something small by myself. My special interest lies in mobile gambling.
At work I am “Head of Games”. I get paid for managing people, processes and projects in a company that operates Internet and land/ship based casinos. We develop our platform, site and games (most of them) internally applying more and more agile (Scrum) and lean thinking in everything we do. It keeps people like me busy learning new tricks, inspecting and adapting day after day.
I enjoy reading books. I rediscovered my love for books when I moved from Espoo to Siuntio in January 2007 and since then have spent approx 1.5 hours on a train per day. Being a “jack of many trades, master of none”, I try not to limit myself to any single topic. You can find some book recommendations on these pages.
I love travelling. Currently my travelling is being limited by two small kids but I have travelled a lot all around the world, for business and pleasure. My all-time favourite destinations are China, Thailand, London, Amsterdam, California and Las Vegas. Las Vegas especially has always a special place in my heart as I was married there (by Elvis himself, of course) in June 2004. My next big plan in this area is to take a train from Helsinki to Shanghai. Since this requires a lot of research and I have already been involved in many discussions regarding this project, I’ll open a specific section on these pages for sharing information.
I take a lot of photographs. I have taken thousands and thousands of digital photographs. My pictures are no masterpieces but some I have dared to put online. I hardly ever leave the home without my cameras, Canon EOS 450D and IXUS 850IS. For specific reasons, like underwater photography, I have special gear.
I am a very casual gamer. In fact, I spend much more time following the games industry than I spend time playing games. One of my biggest dreams ever has been to set up a game studio and in my current position I have come pretty close to that. Strategy games (both real-time and turn-based) are my favourites, but occasionally I spend some time playing Guitar Hero and Xbox Live Arcade games. And of course the Christmas tradition has been to play through the latest Call of Duty.
If you want to be in touch with me (no special reason required), here is my contact information:
Mail
Säästöpankintie 23
02580 Siuntio
Finland
E-mail
markus . aurala (at) gmail . com
Phone
+358445800173