2006-11-30 12:05:00
Sweet merciful Freya... This is just.. just.... Augh! Stupid fear mongering... =_=
"[Leet-speak] is morphing into a dangerous dialect, foreign to parents. ... It gives criminals, kids, whoever another way to communicate."
Thanks to Ananth from Applegeeks for telling us about this news report.
kilala.nl tags: annoying, internet, holy shit,
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2006-11-30 08:48:00
"Ain't she sweet? See her walking down the street? Now I ask you very confidentially, ain't she sweet?" |
It has been a long ways in coming, but she's finally here: my new Volkswagen Fox. |
But not me. For one, I don't really care that much about cars (as long as they're cute and I can take along at least two three passengers). And second, there's the much nicer price tag on the Fox. Lease cars are counted as part of your annual income over here in the Netherlands, and thus you have to pay extra taxes. The difference between the Fox and the Golf is at least a hundred euros a month! o_O
The Fox was originally designed and manufactured for the Brazilian / South American market, but VW Europe also deemed it a worthy replacement for the Lupo. They thought it'd make a great "first car" for people to buy, by making it cheap and skimping on luxury. And IMNSHO they're quite right! The Fox offers great value for money.
Snow being Snow (wanting the best for their consultants) they _did_ set me up with the nicest model :)
* 1.4l diesel engine
* Good set of winter tires
* Volkswagen Klimacontrol air conditioning
* Various other niceties, like sliding front seats for ease of entry to the rear seats.
I also asked Snow to add the following two gizmos:
* Dension ice>Link iPod carkit.
* Parrot 3100, bluetooth cellphone carkit
As you can see in one of the photographs, both carkits were installed very neatly! Van den Udenhout (Snow's relugar VW dealer) couldn't have done a better job installing them.
The ice>Link provides great sound through the iPod dock connector and the model that was installed in my Fox is suitable for _all_ iPod models! It was originally made for my G3 clunker, but Marli's 5G also fits (tightly). The only downside to the ice>Link is the user interface: it sucks. It's slow, unwieldy and cumbersome. Luckily it allows you to use the iPods own UI instead. That's ensured my total happiness with the carkit.
The Parrot 3100 is a basic bluetooth carkit for your cellphone, that works with most modern cellphones. It really is as simple as binding your cell to a new audio peripheral and presto! The 3100 allows for voice commands and up to five separate cell phones (so it's not tied to one person driving the car). Sound quality in the car is great, although on the other end you'll hear a bit of background noise from the car itself.
All in all: I'm oh, so fscking happy! :3
kilala.nl tags: car, work, other tech,
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2006-11-29 14:06:00
"Wow. I can't believe they're actually animating this crap..." |
Well now, this is interesting news: apparently the web comic PVP (Player versus Player) is being made into an OVA animation series released straight to DVD. |
kilala.nl tags: comics, cartoons,
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2006-11-29 10:46:00
Daddy needs a new pair of threads!.. |
It's funny how dangling a freebie in front of people's eyes can make'em do stuff. In my case I've spent at least five hours the past two days learning about Technorati, tagging and all things related. And of course making sure that all the relevant PHP pages and the RSS feed have been modified to take full advantage of these features. |
kilala.nl tags: dieselsweeties.com, internet, website, studying,
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2006-11-28 17:13:00
Good lordy, is my brain fried! It's been over seven years now since I left college and over two years since my last exam cram and I have to say studying isn't getting easier D:
I spent the full day banging on my LPIC-1 material, which according to most people should come quite easily to me. But for some reason cramming everything into my brain just won't go that fast. I do believe it's my own fault though :) I don't think I got enough sleep and proper food today.
My usual method of studying is thus:
1. Get one or two very good books on the subject.
2. Read both, while making notes of the important stuff that's new to me.
3. Write a summary, based on said notes. Make it available through the web, to other students.
4. Acknowledge flaws and weak points in my knowledge.
5. Fill the weak spots.
6. Trial exams.
7. Real exam.
8. PROFIT!
For both LPIC exams I'll split the studying into two parts (in this case 101 and 102) and right now I'm still working on the first half (101). Half of the day was spent on phase three, but I just couldn't concentrate. I managed to write the full summary of the first 101 book, which leaves me halfway the first half. Ugh... Unfortunately, forcing things usually doesn't do any good either so i'll just have to relax a little and try again tomorrow.
*sigh* When it comes to studying I wish I were still a young'un... I could've hammered this in easily when I was around 19. *sigh*
Ah! But enough with the moping and whining!
Tomorrow's another day and I'll have plenty of time to study then! I'll just get enough sleep, ace my intake with a new customer in the morning and then hit the books after lunch! Go for it! Ganbatte, Cailin-san!
kilala.nl tags: work, studying, rhythm, meh, relaxing,
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2006-11-28 10:14:00
Why didn't I do this earlier? :)
Technorati Profile
kilala.nl tags: internet, studying,
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2006-11-27 22:24:00
Bluauauargahgha!! |
This evening has been wonderful. Simply wonderful. :) |
And tonight, while watching BBC Four's Science Fiction Britannia, I was ever so pleased to see the exact same episode that I had remembered!
The episode in question was Ark in space, which tells the story of a great space station built to restore mankind after the earth's destruction. A strict selection was made from all of humanity and all other flora and fauna of the earth, in order to rebuild what once was.
Unfortunately there's a big, green problem called the Wirrn, a wasp like race that births it larvae inside mammals. Humans, in this case. A those larvae are what scared the crap out of me as a kid. Slimy, green monsters that infect you with a simple touch.
Funny to see that the monsters I was afraid of back then were made of green bubble wrap :D
Also, while on the subject of British science fiction, I will most definitely need to read and/or watch the following books and stories:
* "The purple cloud" (1901). Free eBook.
* "The world, the flesh and the devil". Hollywood version of Purple Cloud, at IMDB.
* "Deluge" (1927). A review.
* "The day of the Triffids" (1951). Wikipedia entry.
* "Death of grass" (1956). Wikipedia entry.
* "The drowned world" (196?). A review.
* "Threads" (1973). IMDB entry.
* "28 days later" (2002). Official website.
The concept behind "The purple cloud" sounds awesome to me: only one man has survived a world wide cataclysm that has wiped out all of humanity. Driven insane by loneliness he proceeds to burn every city he travels through to the ground, to wipe out any memory of humankind.
"Death of grass" seems compelling insofar that the author and I see eye to eye on one thing. On humankind he has said: "We really are a bad lot". When things get tough, humans will only look out for their own well-being. Something that also makes J.G. Ballard's "The drowned world" seem very interesting: the hero actually seeks out his own destruction by moving into the heart of the catastrophy.
All very good stuff. Now I just have to find the time to read it all :)
EDIT:
One of the authors featured on "The Martians and us" this evening actually made a _very_ good point. Writing science fiction about the destruction of our earth has gotten a lot harder these days. Why? Because there are already five or six processes hard at work doing so! If you want to write about the end of the world you'll either have to solve these problems, ignore them, or include them in your story.
kilala.nl tags: doctor who, tv, childhood, reading,
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2006-11-26 18:36:00
Apologies to the Ars Lounge for double posting, but I think this is such a wonderful scientific development that I just have to post about it. Just to make sure all my friends know about it.
Rawcode linked to this YouTube clip of a fully functional cyborg exoskeleton. I am seriously excited about the possibilities that HAL provides! Not only in the field of heavy, manual labour, but also in medicine where it should be able to help disabled people to regain lost bodily functions.
This really is yet another piece of science fiction brought to life! I can't wait to see how stuff like this will be used in The Real World(tm) in a decade or two.
kilala.nl tags: awesome, other tech, japan,
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2006-11-26 18:13:00
This weekend, aside from me being busy with the household and preparing for Sinterklaas with friends, was quite heavy on movies. I've watched four of'em that I really want to tell you about. Some of these you will probably know, while one or two at least should be new to you. Mind you, I'll do my utmost best to leave out any spoilers.
Let's start with the biggest hitter: X-Men 3.
Definitely the best part of the trilogy with _huge_ things happening to the Marvel-verse. I was happy with literally every decision that was made story-wise. I think most people reading my blog are at least moderately familiar with the Marvel universe, so I won't have to explain about the X-Men and their continuing struggle for mutant rights in a predominantly human world. Once again Magneto is pushed forward as the prime antagonist, with humanity playing second fiddle... Again. The only disappointment came at the very end of the movie, where it's shown that Marvel and/or 20th Cent.Fox are too chicken-shit to stick to their own story developments. Those last twenty seconds (ten before and ten after the credits) actually have ruined part of my appreciation for the movie :(
/me shakes his fist at spineless writers
Next up, one of the Netherlands' sleeper hits from 2005: Offers.
I'd heard on the radio that Maryam Hassouni, the movie's leading lady, had received an Emmy for her performance in Offers. After watching it last night I can only come to the conclusion that it was well deserved. Imagine if you will that you are a police officer of mixed wester-arabic decent and that your mother is killed in a suicide bombing by Islamic extremists in Paris. What if you were approached by a secret organisation (CIA? Mossad? AIVD? They're not telling!) who want your help in investigating the cell responsible for your mother's death? This is exactly what happens to Haron Nasrallah, who finds himself deeper and deeper ensnared in the ongoing War on Terror. Some of the storyline is slightly dodgy, but only ever so slightly. In the end a few things go unexplained, but I believe they're meant to remain thusly.
But all in all a very good show that I'd recommend to all dutchies! I'd also recommend it to my foreign visitors, but they're going to have to search for a subbed DVD.
Next! The film that made Steven Spielberg's career: Duel.
I don't even remember what channel I saw this on (might've been TCM). Anyway: I saw Duel for the first time years and years ago. Maybe over ten years even! Back then I thought the concept was pretty cool, but that the pacing was waaaaaay too slow. Now that I've matured a wee bit, I've come to change my opinion. Now it's all positive! Great concept, good pacing, solid acting. Dennis Weaver plays weakling annex office worker David Mann, driving along a desert high way. David runs into a menacing truck that initially only pesters him, but later on actively makes attempts at his life. The movie is basically one big cat-and-mouse game between the feeble David with his equally feeble Plymouth Valiant and the monstrous Peterbilt 281 with its invisible chauffeur.
I love two things about this movie:
1. It makes you wonder whether David is just completely insane and whether he isn't imagining the whole affair.
2. It manages to portray the Peterbilt as a living and positively evil creature.
Finally, a geeky classic: Johnny Mnemonic.
In which stiff actor Keanu "Whoa, I know Kung-fu" Reeves plays a data smuggler, running for his life. Not only is his life threatened by both the Yakuza and one of the world's largest corporations, he's also fighting his own brain. I seriously love cyberpunk settings like the ones portrayed by "Blade runner", "Mage: the Ascension", and William Gibson, so I knew the story would appeal to me. It's just that the acting isn't that good. Well, it's horrible really. I have a fervent dislike of Keanu, so I really had to focus on the scenery and the story itself to enjoy the movie. Truthfully, I'd rather have been watching part one of the Matrix again.
kilala.nl tags: movies,
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2006-11-22 21:28:00
Heckling geriatrics. What beats that? |
If you ever want to know how Statler and Waldorf would be in real life go watch The sunshine boys. I've always loved George Burns as an actor and this movie is one of his better ones. In this movie, George and Walther Matthau play the vaudeville duo Lewis & Clark who are reunited for one final show after eleven years out of show biz. |
Thing is, Lewis and Clark hate each others guts after breaking up in a fight all those years ago. This makes for some interesting dialogue between the two, with the two snapping at each other like the grumpy old men they are.
I'd recommend it :)
Also... I'll be gone for a course the next two days. Unfortunately Marli's fallen ill, having caught a cold. Hate to leave her like that, since I'd rather stay at home to take care of her. But since it's a rather expensive course and I'm one out of a group of nine we can't simply postpone it, nor can I cancel my attendance.
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2006-11-22 15:46:00
I don't know how many of you have seen this already, but this clip on YouTube shows that the Wii sensor bar is in fact _not_ a sensor bar!
In reality the "sensor bar" contains ten IR leds and the Wii-mote contains an IR receiver. So the roles of remote and sensor are effectively reversed!
This is truly an awesome find, basically due to the fact that it's so simple noone else thought of it :D
kilala.nl tags: wii, games, other tech,
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2006-11-20 00:01:00
Torchwood really does in fact rock. In case you were still wondering.
That is all.
kilala.nl tags: torchwood, tv,
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2006-11-19 21:28:00
Game consoles, DVD player and my SVHS deck have always been connected to our TV through a bog standard composite SCART cable. The image isn't beautiful, but it's definitely not horrible.
Now, all the talk online about the Wii has gotten me interesting in component video leads. Apparently, going from composite to RGB for example gives you a huge boost in image quality.
Right now I'm trying to find out which cables to replace. It'll probably come down to this:
* Lead for our DTV set top box.
* Lead for the Gamecube.
* Lead for our DVD player.
And I'll have to find out whether the SCART divider box I have is good enough, or whether I'll need to get a new one. Does it even matter? I doubt it.
If anyone has any thoughts on the whole matter, they're more than welcome! Please leave some comments, as I'm still learning about this stuff. Just so you know though: HD is out, since we have a pretty normal CRT TV.
EDIT:
Wait... I'm making the same mistake a lot of other people are. I don't _need_ special cables, as long as they're one-on-one SCART :D So, the only cable I'll need to replace is the Gamecube one, since that one is composite. I just need to switch all my equipment to RGB/Component :)
kilala.nl tags: other tech,
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2006-11-19 20:16:00
V2.0, both better and worse than v1.0. |
Damn, let's try that again. I'd written most of this blog post, when I pressed a wrong button or something that made it all disappear. *grr* |
This time around, instead of sticking to a recipe, I went with my gut feeling and my experience from the last time. Here's the few changes I made:
* Less ingredients. I stuck with lean slices of beef as the only meaty ingredient.
* Higher cabbage-batter ratio.
* Used plain onion and garlic for added flavor.
* Per Kaiju's tip I took a lot more time in frying: around twenty minutes, at a lower gas mark.
It turned out pretty okay, although there were some problems still. Here's the pros and cons:
+ Not too rich and fatty. The lean beef was a good choice.
- Some of the batter was still undercooked. Need to take even longer.
- I need to use spices or herbs, or use some kind of stock instead of water. Parts of the finished okonomiyaki had way too little flavor (also due to the fact that the beef didn't have that strong a flavor).
Anyway... I'm quite happy, but there's still a lot to learn. I'm actually thinking of dropping by that okonomiyaki restaurant in Amsterdam (see the Archives), to study their procedures.
I'm also fairly sure that I was right earlier. I don't think that it's Worcestershire Sauce that everybody's using, but HP Sauce instead. It has the same sharp flavor, but is much thicker and has added spices.
kilala.nl tags: cooking, japan, okonomiyaki,
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2006-11-17 19:40:00
I've no clue why, but instead of the ~950 blogposts that should be aggregated at Ars Lounge, there's only four of them. Three of which date back to August.
Okay, fess up: who broke our sweet little website?
EDIT:
Please don't tell me this happened because we broke some 1000-post limit. That would suck. A roll-over would be nicer than a complete clear of all cached posts.
kilala.nl tags: internet,
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2006-11-17 13:17:00
If we had a euro for every time Marlijne was asked that question about me... Well, we could have a nice burger meal at Burger King, but that's besides the matter.
Is it so weird for a guy to cook, clean, iron and sew? To care about the way his house looks to others? To be orderly and to dislike chaos? To openly say that he thinks certain guys look cute and to (honestly) compliment women on their clothing/hair/shoes?
I'm just asking, you know? Cause last time I checked I still fancied women.
/me goes back to cleaning the house for the weekend. Guests are coming over, you know?
kilala.nl tags: holy shit, fun,
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2006-11-16 16:51:00
Well shucks. ;_; |
I've had my glasses for three years now and they've given me quite some trouble. After about a year they broke at midframe, leaving the pair quite useless. Getting replacement parts apparently was hard for the store, as they had to come from Italy and the first replacement midframe came in the wrong colour as well. After getting a new replacement the store also managed to break my left lens, resulting in more delays. |
So we were forced to go on a shopping trip that wasn't very easy on the bank account ;_;
* My current glasses are going to be soldered as a stopgap solution. Luckily that'll only set us back around eight euros.
* My current, temporary glasses are in the wrong prescription so I shouldn't wear them too long.
* We bought a new pair of glasses of the Diesel brand (DS0014/U). Here's the same pair for sale at Frames Direct. Don't know how long they're up for show. Anyway, we got those in shiny black. That'll set us back around three-eighty.
* We also got a new pair of temp glasses, just in case. We were very happy that the salesman at Pearl gave us a stiff discount on that one, as it still comes in at one-twenty.
Yea... Lenses don't come cheap at my prescription ;_; The new values? -9.5 on the left and -9.0 on the right... I think I ought to go see an eye doctor at the hospital some time soon. It's been over fifteen years since I went to see one.
The horror... The horror... The last doctor I went to see was quite horrible, and couldn't stand the fact that I do _not_ accept eye drops. They needed three people to get the drops in my eyes (one to restrain me, one to peel my eyes open and one to put in the drops). Geh! I'm tearing up at the thought D:
Hopefully, this time around things'll be a bit better.
kilala.nl tags: glasses, snafu, meh,
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2006-11-15 17:17:00
Seven super markets throughout the Netherlands. |
qI'm one happy camper! |
Well, lemme tell ya... I was _not_ disappointed! They have a huge selection of rices, various noodles from China and Japan, dozens of sauces and chutneys and a big range of other interesting looking things :) I will most definitely go back there again for some groceries! Especially since their prices are also _very_ affordable.
Oh! I finally managed to get some dried mochi cake slices at only seventy-five cents for a packet of four hundred grammes. Told ya they were cheap :)
We also went shopping for clothes yesterday, since I was running low on stuff that looks decent on me. Since these days I refuse to shop for clothes anywhere but at Jac Hensen we drove to Amersfoort and spent an hour and a half at their wonderful store over there. Seriously, I cannot recommend this store enough! They've got good clothes (both trendy, casual, business and formal), their staff is very knowledgeable and their prices are around 10% below average street price.
One of the t-shirts I bought is shown on the left. I had to ask Wapiko and Kaiju what the print means though, since I really don't read Japanese. Kaiju put things together and originally came up with "closed" or "no access". But then he put things in context with the english below it and thought it might as well mean "shut up" :D
Durf? If you're reading this... What's your take on the translation?
kilala.nl tags: cooking, japan, china,
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2006-11-12 15:49:00
Thanks to Kaiju for pointing out that my RSS feed wouldn't work with Firefox's live bookmarks. This was due to the fact that my feed was not 100% valid RSS2.0 with a few nasty errors still left in there. Luckily fixing the problems took about an hour, but this has also resulted in some buginess with regards to the times and dates of the front page posts. These were catapulted back to 1969, thanks to a PHP mistake I'd made.
For a list of fixes made to rss.php, please read the comments on the blog post originally announcing my RSS feed.
Once again my apologies for any inconvenience.
kilala.nl tags: website,
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2006-11-12 13:32:00
[Homer]Hmm.... Poffertjes[/Homer] |
While there are bunches of useful things that I could or should be doing, it feels kinda good to simply ignore them for a while. I'm on vacation after all. So instead of studying, writing code or stuff like that I chose to make poffertjes for breakfast, which is always fun. |
I remember one time when I was fifteen or sixteen (you know, the age that you're trying hard to prove that you're grown-up) that I ordered a large portion of poffertjes, with Boeren Jongens (lit. "Farm boys", the dutch nickname for rum raisins). Sweet Jeebus was I full! And I just didn't want to admit that I didn't like the rum raisins (cause of course I was trying the prove the whole grownuppedness).
Ah well :) These days I just make'em with powdered sugar + butter + cinnamon, or with a bit of syrup. Damn tasty and makes for a yummy breakfast. I should get a cast-iron or copper skillet though, instead of this stainless steel one. This one just doesn't seem to spread the heat right...
Speaking of breakfast at 12:00 in the afternoon, I think you can guess that I went to bed quite late :D I watched all four DVDs of the Rumiko Takahashi Anthology in one sitting (twelve episodes of around twenty-five minutes).
I'd originally expected a series that focusses on comedy, silly situations and such but I was dead wrong as it turns out. The series seems to be targeted at adults and covers the more serious aspects of grown-up life. Yes, there are some silly twists and turns, but the episodes mostly cover situations like:
* What if you're stuck in a marriage that leaves you neither happy or unhappy? With a wife and son who just don't seem to care about you that much.?
* You've dedicated the last thirty years of your life to your corporation and are now without a job. How do you go on from there?
* You're a housewife in an apartment building where all the other housewives pick on you, thanks to their nasty ringleader?
* You've been asked by a good friend to help cover up for his extra-marital affair.
* Your mother-in-law is trying to drive a wedge between you and your husband.
All rather serious stuff. Doesn't make it less enjoyable, but it's not what I had originally expected. Made me think a times too. Think about some things in my relationship that I really _should_ be doing. Things that I shouldn't put off.
/me saunters off to let Marli know he loves her. <3
kilala.nl tags: cooking, childhood, anime,
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2006-11-10 22:04:00
Pure, geeky goodness! |
This is so bloody awesome! This is exactly what we always wanted when we were kids! Lego Factory allows you to design your own Lego kit, after which you can actually order the custom kit! It'll include all the pieces from your design and comes in a box with your custom design on the front. |
Very nifty! Also, their pricing ain't half bad either! The Lego catalogue shows a few examples, including a Spitfire fighter plane (780 pieces, around fifty euros). Check the gallery to see kits designed by others, or download the _free_ software (both PC and Mac!) to start designing your own!
kilala.nl tags: lego, toys, geeky,
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2006-11-10 19:16:00
Running a farm in your backyard. Not quite as far as I would take it. |
Growing up with the BBC I was often exposed to British classics like "The young ones", "Dad's army", "Fawlty towers" and "Porridge". |
It shows that the "silly man" (also known as Tom Good) is actually a technical draftsman who is completely fed up with the futility of his daily work and the rat race in general. He convinces his wife Barbara to take a gamble and go back to "the good life".
"The good life" in this case being a self-sufficient life, where they will not have to rely on jobs and money for their daily sustenance and where they sell part of their produce to get what they cannot make themselves. And would you believe that this is _exactly_ what I've been dreaming of for the past few months?! Quite an eye opener :)
And it's not just me! Several other colleagues at Snow have confessed to dreaming of a simple life, living on a farm, being completely self-sufficient. We've always concluded that this would be quite hard to get off the ground and that you probably couldn't do it alone. But in the end it is _not_ unpossible!
Get together with a few people you can really trust, pool together your resources, find some good property and a roof over your head... It'd be hard work and no doubt you'll run into problems, but aren't those sprinkled through life to make things interesting?
Who knows! Maybe in a few years?...
kilala.nl tags: tv, life, career,
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2006-11-10 14:47:00
Nothing like a cooking experiment to get you through the afternoon ^_^ |
This afternoon, after hanging a painting, cleaning and mailing some important stuff I still felt an itch do do something useful... something creative. |
And the recipe's pretty fscking easy as well...
* 125gr flour
* 2gr dried yeast
* 2gr salt
* half an egg
* 150ml milk
And for the filling
* apple or pineapple in slices (the latter in half)
* sugar
* cinnamon
You mix all the ingredients for the batter and then let it rest for about an hour in a warm environment. Me, I just preheated my oven to about fifty degrees and then turned it off... Works a treat.
Once the batter's done and the slices of fruit have been sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon you can start frying the beignets. Roll a slice of fruit through the batter a few times, covering it completely and gently slip it into the hot oil (180 degrees Celcius).
As a tip: if you aren't sure whether the oil is hot enough, drop in a piece of white bread. If it turns golden brown within a minute the oil's hot :)
Each beignet will need about a minute in the oil, after which you should let it dry out on some kitchen paper. Trim any funky shoots of batter and presto: yummy beignets!
God, these things are good when they're still warm!
Lessons learned:
* The recipe calls for 150ml milk, but I needed around 200ml. The batter was too stiff in the end.
* Pineapple really _does_not_ need the extra sugar! Cinnamon is enough...
Also: this is the very first time that I actually did a perfect deepfry in a normal pan. The previous times that I attempted this I was too afraid of thoroughly heating the oil, leading to very greasy food (it basically tasted of oil *yuck!*).
But this time around I was patient, calm and unaffraid. And lo! Things went perfectly!
kilala.nl tags: cooking,
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2006-11-09 12:54:00
Thanks to Punkwalrus for bringing up a discussion on LSD and linking to a Youtube movie with two eight year olds describing their trip.
I found a more interesting clip through that though: one where the British military conduct LSD experiments on their troops. I love this quote:
One hour and ten minutes after taking the drug, with one man climbing a tree to feed the birds, the troop commander gave up.
It's wonderful, the stuff you can find through the Internet!
kilala.nl tags: internet, holy shit,
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2006-11-09 11:36:00
Would you believe this lies in the middle of a city with over 280k inhabitants? |
I've been riding my bike around Utrecht for a while now, just trying to see as much of the city as I can. Usually I take my camera with me, just in case I run into some interesting or shiny object. |
kilala.nl tags: photos, fun, sports, netherlands,
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2006-11-08 10:12:00
An angry, remorseless, homicidal robot should _not_ be our voice of reason! |
This Diesel Sweeties comic is all too true. And is once again proof of R. Stevens' sharp mind and clever writing :) |
Like a lot of Dutch people who don't trust eVoting machines, I'm considering taking the day off on the 22nd of November to go vote in Amsterdam. That'll be the only city in the Netherlands that'll take your ballot with pencil and paper. All other districts will use the inherently stupid voting machines. See here for instructions on acquiring the required piece of paper to vote outside your local township.
kilala.nl tags: politics, meh, annoying, netherlands,
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2006-11-07 21:56:00
A few key moments of the day. |
Today was the day that I _finally_ went on a sailing trip with my dad. We'd been discussing it for over a year now and at last had decided on a date :) |
Anywho: rigging the boat and refueling it took us about 1.5 hours, after which we headed out to open seas. Well... Open lake. :p
While the reports for the day had been favourable, with loads of sun and calm waters predicted, things turned out a little bit different. Gray, gray, gray, with loads of wind and choppy water! While sailing at six knots (around 10km/h) at a 45 degree angle is a real blast, it also had its effects on me :) Due to queasiness and extreme cold we had to cut our trip short after about five hours of sailing. We could've gone out longer, but we were there to have fun, not to put ourselves to the test.
Putting the boat away and cleaning everything up took us another 1.5 hours, after which we went to an Italian restaurant in Lemmer that offers you a choice of one-hunred-and-frigging-four different pizza's! I had penne, cause I felt like having pasta :p
Anywho, a day _very_ well spent. I had a lot of fun and will definitely go on another sailing trip next spring! Now I'm knackered, so I'll head off to bed *yaaaawn*
kilala.nl tags: family, awesome, sports,
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2006-11-06 16:37:00
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For those of you who have never seen Potter Puppet Pals before, he's the complete collection so far. Most of you will probably find these quite lame, while the uber-geeks will probably get a blast out of them :) |
It's funny to see that a few of the one-liners (such as "Uhm", "Get off me" and "Bother!") from the animations have made their way into our daily life. I guess those scores of 37% and 15% on the geek-test were well deserved XD
kilala.nl tags: internet, geeky, fun,
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2006-11-06 14:30:00
Don't you just hate not being sure whether you have a certain DVD, when you run into it at the store? I know we do and it happens a lot because it's hard to keep track of our extensive collection.
For now, I've hacked together a nice solution that will allow me to check a DVD from my cellphone. Sweet! It's real simple, mind you: just loaded all the DVD titles into the MySQL backend of this website and kludged together a clean and simple search page. Works a treat, it does!
Thanks to Marli though for entering most of our titles into the computer. She did all the western/Hollywood movies, which only left the anime and Asian stuff for me (which is only about a third of the collection). All in all, we're at a whopping 482 titles now (counting boxes as one title). Wow! o_o
kilala.nl tags: website, studying, movies,
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2006-11-06 00:12:00
We can upgrade you. Become human.2. |
[SPOILER ALERT] |
Well now! Tonight's episode was quite good! Noticed another very clear difference between the Doc series and Torch: the Doc is usually quite heavy on humour, while Torch takes a more gritty approach. Gritty is to say: gruesome and cruel at times. Quite refreshing really.
There's one thing though, about this whole universe: it filled with giant holes in continuity. If you're the kind of person that _hates_ plot holes and plain errors, these series aren't for you. Want an example? Sure!
How is it that Jack knows so much about Cybermen, how they are created and how they operate? There's no way he could! Unless he met up with the Doctor after "Doomsday". Why? Because:
1. Until "Army of ghosts" the world had not seen Cybermen before.
2. All Cybermen were pulled back to the parallel earth, through the rift.
3. All Torchwood London personnel had already been assimilated, so they couldn't have retold the story.
Of course, there's an error in point 2 as well: why would the rift pull _all_ Cybermen through? It should only have a grip on those that had come through the rift to our earth. The rest should have been left behind.
Of course, it could've been that Harkness was already part of Torchwood Cardiff by then and that he was part of the cleanup and investigation crew. But would that really give him all of the knowledge he showed tonight?
Ah well... I'm happy I don't really care about plot holes that much. The Doc and Torch are two series for which I happily turn off my scepsis. :3
[END SPOILER HEAVY BLOG POST]
kilala.nl tags: tv, torchwood, doctor who,
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2006-11-05 21:13:00
Every second chance starts with a first step. |
After seeing the trailer for Step up the very first thing that came to mind was Save the last dance, followed closely by The cutting edge. All three are about female dancers wanting to make their dream happen and who acquire the help of "unacceptable" men (resp. a juvy criminal, a black kid and a former hockey star) to get there. And the cliches don't stop there. |
Anywho... The first half of the movie (before the nightclub scene) didn't do much for me, if not grate at me a little. Tyler looks like a reject from a Vanilla Ice video and he and his buddies act in an overly cool fashion. I guess that's kids these day... Or I'm getting too old :D
Speaking of ole Vanilla Ice: did any of you know that he's _still_ performing? Ick! *shudder*
As I hinted before: about halfway through the movie got a lot better for me. The music started getting better and so did the overall flow of the story. I've said it before: hiphop and classical music can form a very intersting mix! From here on the movie was actually able of conveying some enthusiasm towards the viewer. And of course the dancing scenes were quite good!
So... Filled with cliches, quite unoriginal and some twists that you can see coming a mile away. But at least it was amusing :) I don't think that it was a waste of my night.
Oh, as a final thought: what the heck is up with studios putting up their official movie websites on fscking MySpace?! Seriously, what the heck is the bonus to having thousands of teenaged kids put up their "I LOLed" or "Step Up FTW f00l!" comments on the front page to your movie?
kilala.nl tags: movies,
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2006-11-05 14:58:00
The idiots responsible for a Cybermen invasion. Way to go! |
[SPOILER ALERT] |
So... Torchwood, the BBC's spin-off to the Doctor Who series. The series's been running for a few weeks now, but I never managed to catch a full episode until Beeb3 did a rerun of all three episodes last night.
After watching these few eps it's become obvious at which point in the Dr Who continuity the story takes off. I have no clue how (yet), but Jack Harkness got back to earth somewhere between 2000 and 2005 after being left on Game Station Five by the Doctor and Rose. After being resurrected by Time Vortex Rose, Jack's become immortal to a degree, although we still don't know how. Now that he's back in 2005/2006 he's employed at Torchwood to manage the Cardiff office. Obviously, London's office had been destroyed in the battle between the Cyberman and the Daleks in the Dr Who episode "Doomsday".
Fervent followers of Doctor Who will remember that the Torchwood Institute was originally founded by Queen Victoria in the Tooth and claw episode. The institute stands outside and above the government and law, in order to protect England from alien and occult threats. And that's exactly what Harkness and his mates are doing: investigating alien activity in and around modern day Cardiff.
Since the show's limited to earth, or actually Cardiff and the UK, the stories are quite different from regular Doctor Who episodes. Instead of going to far-off places and seeing extraordinary things, Torchwood takes the "extraordinary things" and puts them in a world we have come to know quite well. So it's more X Files, than Farscape... Or whatever :)
So far I enjoy the story telling and the acting ain't half bad either. I'm looking forward to the fourth episode a lot, since that brings the return of Cybermen technology. Apparently some loon's stumbled upon a Cyberman facility and has started using it for his own purposes.
[END SPOILER HEAVY BLOG POST]
kilala.nl tags: tv, doctor who, torchwood,
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2006-11-04 15:08:00
Way back when I'd just converted this site from static to dynamic (PHP+MySQL) MK was hassling me about adding an RSS feed as well. At the time I didn't have enough spare time to start learning about syndication, but I did this afternoon :) And MK was right: it only took me about an hour to hack together the code for the feed.
So... Your browser should have alerted you of the RSS feed (e.g. Safari shows an RSS icon in the address bar) and as far as I know basic functionality is up and running. Now I need to find a nice way to fix the layout of the feed contents. For some reason line-breaks are ignored and I haven't thought of a nice way to include graphics.
It's not that I seriously expect anyone to subscribe to my feed. Let's just call it an exercise in IT and web design.
EDIT:
I'm also finally coming through on my promise of moving other parts of the site into MySQL. The Sysadmin blog posts are in the DB now as well, which means that they will get included in both the RSS feed and the Archives. Naturally this required me to make a number of changes to the code, which's been educational as well.
kilala.nl tags: website,
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2006-11-03 23:48:00
I told you! I told you Cats would turn out to be our Overlords! |
*sigh* This vacation-deal sure is great! |
The shop's spread out across six floor, all connected by small staircases and winding passages. The interior _really_ smells of books (doesn't it amaze you how many bookshops _don't_ smell of books?!) and is filled with piles and piles of books.
I for one love digging through the second hand stuff, since that's where the interesting old books pop up! For example, I bought a _lovely_ book on Japanese woodcuts, that is bound in a very peculiar manner. Instead of having a hard cover that's attached to the pages themselves, you have to untie the hard cover after which you can take the bound pages out. Very nifty. Another fascinating book I ran into (but didn't buy) was a book from the 1920s, describing the Rosecrucians take on human evolution and how it fits in with the bible.
Speaking of God... I mentioned Ceiling Cat weeks ago, right. Just half an hour ago I ran into the picture above. I thought it to be pleasing in all manner of fashions <3
Now... To finish my whisky-cream and to get some cuddles and sleep. See you lot tomorrow.
kilala.nl tags: holiday, netherlands,
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2006-11-02 02:24:00
I know Pi to a thousand places ... |
And while we're on the subject of cool videos, Marli recently tipped me about the new Weird Al Yankovic video White & nerdy. |
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2006-11-02 01:17:00
A system this sturdy should last you for years! |
Hmm... This blog post is going to be something new, insofar that I've never talked about women in general before. Let's see how this turns out. If you guys don't like it, just say so and I won't do it again :) |
I've never made a secret of the fact that I prefer women of a "stronger" build. While I can most certainly understand that a lot of men fancy slender women, they're just not my cup of tea. Which is why I absolutely _love_ the music video Skinny by Lo-Rider. The song itself ain't half bad and I actually enjoy listening to it, but it's the subject of the song that really interests me: men with a love for big women. I'm really happy to see a video on TV that actually portrays BBW in a positive, humorous sense.
Watching the "Behind the scenes" video by Vanessa Reece (the woman in the black corset) really shows that the cast of the video were having a lot of fun during the shoot.
To paraphrase Jayne: "I could stand to see a little more."
kilala.nl tags: music, holy shit, bbw,
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2006-11-01 21:07:00
Just so's you guys don't think I'm a total recluse: of course I won't stay cooped up in the house for the whole twenty days. I'll also be getting plenty of fresh air and exercise... Not something you get often in my line of work. Bike rides, a bit of walking and probably even a day of sailing with my dad :)
I'll also be getting back into my old 22-05 rhythm: sleep at ten, wake at five. I know that the structure and discipline required for that help me a lot...
kilala.nl tags: holiday, rhythm,
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2006-11-01 12:20:00
The selection has been made. The consoles have been connected, dusted and polished. Copious amounts of coffee are at the ready. And my extra fluffy, stuffed tiger is on the couch to keep me company.
I'm set! Let the gaming begin!
As I told you guys before I'll be spending the better part of my holiday playing console games that I should have finished a long time ago. Games that I dearly love, but that I never played till the end. A veritable crime against gaming -_-
Here's my selection for the next twenty days, in order of preference.
The very first console RPG that I owned, Grandia 2 on the Dreamcast. A good story, decent voice acting and a beautiful battle system make for a great title. My favourite game out of the fifty-something that we own.
Wind Waker is a beautiful game to look at. Parts of it may get repetitive, but I really would love to see the story play out. And I just love the sailing around the world that you have to do.
Ahh, Secret of Evermore! The action RPG that I grew up with. My brother owned this game for his SNES and we both loved the game. Not quite as good as Secret of Mana or Chrono Trigger, but still very enjoyable (and a lot more affordable). Now finally, after thirteen years, I will finish this game to the end!
Another classic that I grew up with: Ocarina of Time. Although I won't be playing it on the Nintendo64 like my brother used to, I'm sure it'll still be as enjoyable as it was the day that it came out. Back then I let my brother do most of the playing, but this time around I want to be the one that kills Gannondorf!
The seminal SNES platformer. I've come a long way in finishing the game, but I got stuck in the damn forest where you need to find the secret exit. *grr* I'll beat you yet Bowser!
A great platformer for the Sega Megadrive. I've heard loads of good things about this game and would love to play it for real. As opposed to the two levels I tried once after buying the game.
The same thing goes for Sparkster. A great Megadrive game that I never played in ernest. Now's the time to do so!
And finally, another platformer that I grew up with: Castlevania 4. A fscking awesome sound track and nice visuals make it a treat. The later levels can be rock hard though.
Looking back this list does tell you something about my gaming preferences. The top four is completely comprised of RPGs and action RPGs. The latter four are all platformers. Only when you start sifting through my backup pile do you find stuff like shooters, fighters and puzzlers.
Also, most of the stuff on the list is what we'd call Retro stuff. Wind Waker is definitely a next-gen title and some would say Grandia 2 is one as well. But aside from that, most of the stuff is 16-bit. Hmm.
Now... This afternoon I'll have an intake with Snow, but after that I can get stuck in. Jawsome!
kilala.nl tags: games, holiday, snes, megadrive, dreamcast,
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