2007-02-27 06:12:00
Well crap, my whole daily rhythm is blown to pieces. Remember how I've been riding my bike to work every day? Well, for the past six weeks that challenge has amounted to nothing, due to my irregular working hours. All those nightly shifts really screwed up the regularity I'd built up in my daily schedule.
The end result:
* I haven't ridden my bike for six weeks.
* I've come to sleep irregularly, usually waking up around eight after oversleeping grossly.
Meh :(
So here's the plan!
* Start sleeping regularly again immediately: sleep at 2200, 2230 tops and wake up at 0600.
* I've asked for three days off at the end of either this week, or next week. Those days will be spent relaxing, stretching, riding my bike and generally working up to the daily 28 kiloms again.
Sounds good to me, now I need to stick with it!
kilala.nl tags: rhythm, meh, sports,
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2007-02-27 06:10:00
o Marli's back home again! /o/
Picked her up at Schiphol airport last night, in good health and well rested.
kilala.nl tags: awesome,
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2007-02-25 02:33:00
Not many people know this, but if it weren't for my bad eye sight I would not have gone into IT. I'm not even sure if I ever told Marlijne, because this was way before her time. Right after leaving high school I looked into one option that I have left eschewed.
You see, I would have pursued a maritime career as first officer or as shipboard engineer if I had the chance. I have no logical explanation for this, but I feel some odd, deep draw to the sea. It's not like I've lived anywhere near the sea, or that I've been involved with Her in any way, but still that feeling exists deep down in me. Heck, I might not even be that suited for a life at sea!
And the engineering role brings me to another thing that has a strange draw to me, one that I've also left completely ignored: heavy machinery. I love the scent of diesel and oil and find lure of huge engines enticing. I think I would greatly enjoy a line of work that will allow me to maintain beasts like those.
But *sigh* For now those are two career tracks that I'd better leave alone. The first would take me away from home more than I would like, while the other would require such strenuous re-schooling that it is currently unfeasible.
What brought all of this on? Ah! I just sat through the director's cut of Das Boot, on ARD-1.
I leave you tonight with a wonderful quote from the movie (some background to the quote).
Aber wir wussten auch dies:
Einmal vor Unerbittlichem stehen,
wo Gebete entrechtet, Gewinsel zu Gott lächerlich ist,
wo keines Mutter sich nach uns umsieht, kein Weib unsern Weg kreuzt,
wo alles ohne Liebe ist, wo nur die Wirklichkeit herrscht, grausig und groß,
solches macht sicher und stolz.
kilala.nl tags: movies, career,
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2007-02-24 21:58:00
*sigh* Thank Goddess for comfort food. Today's been a very busy day for me, running around for groceries, some indoor deco, shopping for birthday presents and even a little bit of cleaning. So by 1630 I collapsed on the couch to watch some TV. About half an hour in I dozed off, only to wake up over two hours later in a darkened room.
By then I felt tired and mopey, so I didn't feel much like cooking a normal meal. Thus my stir-fry fish went into the freezer and I opted for easy and wholesome comfort food: lentil stew. A dish very well known to me and my brother Mistoffelees from our days in the SCA. I can tell you this much: it did me much good and I feel much better :3
The recipe, if your curious, couldn't be easier and came from the back of the box of lentils ^_^;
* 200gr of dried lentils
* 1l of water
* Two onions, finely chopped
* Two potatoes, finely diced
* 150-200gr of mixed, soup veg
* One smoked sausage, sliced
You start by boiling the water, lentils and onions for forty minutes. Then add the veg and potatoes and sausage and boils for another twenty minutes. You're free to add some bouillon/stock cubes or spices.
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2007-02-24 00:27:00
This evening I've been banging on my CMS code again, this time implementing the popular and awesome Flash audio player so I can easily include music previews in my blog posts.
And what better way to kick off the use of this new "plugin" than by doing a light review of my newest acquisition? The audio stream below contains three excerpts from the album Cinquieme as (the fifth ace), by MC Solaar.
You will hear snippets of Solar weeps, Hasta la vista mi amor and Le cinquieme as.
The first and last time I'd ever heard of MC Solaar was way back in '94 when I was still in high school. The video for Nouveau western (from the album Prose combat) was played semi-regularly on MTV and I remember liking it, despite the fact that back then I still loathed the french language.
I have no clue what it is that spurred me on to check out Solaar's albums on iTunes, but I guess I arrived at this point thusly:
* These days I love the french language.
* I enjoy some flavours of hip-hop and rap.
* I was feeling the need for a new album with relaxed music to play in the car.
Any which way, I ended up picking up the album from iTunes and I was not let down. Even though iTunes would only let me buy the CD on an individual-track basis since it's a "partial" album (thus costing me $17) I still feel that it's money well spent.
Here are some points that I feel speak for the album:
* It's not just plain rapping over a beat. Several tracks include orchestral accompaniment that add a lot of warmness.
* Overall the album has a relaxed feel that reminds me of summer and of my high school days. This is what hip-hop used to sound like before it got all angry and gangsta.
* The lyrics sound like poems. You know how there's rap and there's rap? Well, this is rap ^_^. The lyrics flow like a river and form a smooth whole.
* Solaar's lyrics seem to cover rather serious subjects, as opposed to just being about girls, sex, summer and/or dope. So it's music, with a message.
kilala.nl tags: music,
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2007-02-23 19:43:00
Being home alone for a week has proven to be something I can take without too much trouble. Time seems to be speeding by and the only big difference around the house is that it's very quiet and that it feels empty.
I'm sure though that, as I discussed with my colleague Frank over lunch, things would have been a lot harder if I wasn't keeping myself busy this much. I've basically spent every free hour at home on work. Not my job, but on chores around the house and on preparations for the festival. The little time that wasn't expended in this way I was engrossed in cartoons on TV (most probably Foster's home ...).
I'm rather sure that, if I were to spend more than a week alone, moments would crop up where I would be painfully aware of Marlijne's absence. But for now, there's work on my website to be done, some blogging to do, groceries to shop for and a cake to bake.
kilala.nl tags: life,
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2007-02-22 10:24:00
I don't care if this makes me the biggest, fscking nerd there is, but I want this shirt. I really, really do. It combines cherries, pi and cherry pie, all of which I am completely mad about. I can just taste a piece of cherry pie right now! I think I'll drop by the baker's this morning ^_^
Anyway, thanks to RStevens for always coming up with these great, geeky t-shirts :3
EDIT:
Now that I have the Flash audio player working, I just have to add another thing to this mix of things I love: Ed from Cowboy Bebop. The show's soundtrack contains a track called 3.14 and yes, half of the track involves Ed "singing" the first N digits of Pi. ^_^
kilala.nl tags: awesome, comics, geeky, clothes,
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2007-02-22 00:54:00
Please excuse the odd sounds coming from my appartment. I did not mean to wake you up, or to scare you children. I'm working overtime because my scheduled change needs to be rolled back (darn you Oracle! why dost thy relink hang?!) and right now I'm running on a mixture of adrenaline and cocktail sausages.
So go back to bed. I promise I won't wake you up again.
In the next five minutes ... :D
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2007-02-21 12:47:00
I've never been overly fond of HP-UX, mostly sticking to Solaris and Mac OS X, with a few outings here and there. Given the nature of one of my current projects however, I am forced to delve into HP's own flavour of Unix.
You see, I'm building a script that will retrieve all manner of information regarding firmware levels, driver versions and such so we can start a networkwide upgrade of our SAN infrastructure. With most OSes I'm having a fairly easy time, but HP-UX takes the cake when it comes to being backwards :[
You see, if I want to find out the firmware level for a server running HP-UX I have two choices:
1. Reboot the system and check the firmware revision from the boot prompt.
2. Use the so-called Support Tools Manager utility, called [x,m,c]stm.
CSTM is the command line interface to STM and thank god that it's scriptable. In reality the binary is a CLI menu driven system, but it takes an input file for your commands.
For those who would like to retrieve their firmware version automatically, here's how:
...
Uhm... FSCK! *growl* *snarl* What the heck is this?! For some screwed up reason my shell keeps on adding a NewLine char after the output of each command. That way a variable which gets its value from a string of commands will always be "$VALUE ". WTF?! o_O
I'm going to have to bang on this one a little more. More info later.
kilala.nl tags: unix, work, annoying, sysadmin,
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2007-02-21 10:31:00
Recently I decided for myself to add a sort of wishlist to the database behind this website, possibly making it readable for others as well... Makes birthdays much easier ;)
But that's besides the point. What is the point though, is that Eternal sunshine ... is -so- going on the DVD part of that list. The idea behind the story (people being offered the choice of erasing their memories of a person or an event) might not be very novel, but the execution is excellent.
I love the ending, with Joel and Clementine realising that it's perfectly alright for a relationship to have its flaws. That's something I've always believed as well: -every- union has and should have imperfections... it adds flavour to something that otherwise might grow stale and overly familiar. You see, at times I may get exasperated by something Marli does or doesn't do, but in the end that doesn't matter :) I love her for all that she is and that includes her quirks. Without them, she just wouldn't be "Marli".
kilala.nl tags: movies,
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2007-02-19 22:28:00
No not the movie, but literally: Marli's off for a short holiday in the UK with a friend of the family. She deserves it too since she hasn't had a real vacation for over two years now while my last trip was last year in April. And with her out of the country for a week that leaves me home alone, $EXPRESSION.
I really couldn't think of a proper expression to insert above.
* "Free as a bird" would have made it sound like I was happy to be alone and that I'd treat the week as if I was single. Which I most definitely will not.
* "To my own devices" would make me sound like the simpleton husband who can't do anything around the house. Which I most definitely am not.
* "Free to do as I please" would make Marli the oppressive wife who restricts her husband's movements. Which she most definitely is not.
Any suggestions as to a proper maxim are more than welcome. ^_^
What it boils down to is that I am utterly unencumbered in my schedule, with one less person to take into account. That sounds way more egotistical than I mean it to sound, but yet again I'm lacking for better words. I have to say though that it's a very fresh feeling, one that I haven't had for years.
So at the end of the day I feel that I've been very efficient about my schedule. I've achieved things while remaining unstressed and in a comfortable manner. I've folded five baskets of laundry and have laundered three baskets more. I've cooked a good meal, I've run a few errands, I've taken care of some festival work, I've done my ordinary job (night shift), I've been restoring an antique buffet and I even found enough time to fit in an hour or two of relaxation.
But, now that the day is coming to a close and I'm lying here in bed, alone, I wonder whether I wasn't just keeping myself occupied. Because right now the house feels a little foreign, like it's not mine. And I pay attention to all kinds of noises coming from outside that I usually ignore. And I can't help but notice that her blanket smells of her. *huggle blanket*
This is going to be a very interesting week.
kilala.nl tags: life, holiday, relaxing,
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2007-02-18 13:16:00
Digging around Wikipedia, following link by link by link I've come across some other (comic) books that I really need to add to my To Read list.
* The collected works of H.P. Lovecraft. Duh! I've read some of his works and repeatedly find myself amazed at the man's skill of conveying horror and fear.
* The most notable works of J. Verne, specifically 20.000 leagues... and Around the world.
* The League of extraordinary gentlemen. The comics are reportedly much better than the movie was (even though I actually enjoyed that one).
* The five fists of science, another steam punk comic book.
* I've been told repeatedly to give V for Vendetta a try. Both the comic and the film.
* Necronauts.
Boy... That's going to keep me busy for a long while!
kilala.nl tags: reading, comics,
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2007-02-18 12:15:00
I'd been wanting to see The Prestige ever since Wynk put me on the track of this movie back in October. Finally the movie's made it to the Netherlands, so me and Menno drove to our regular theater Cinemec in Ede (about forty kiloms from Utrecht) last night.
The trailer had already made us -very- excited about the movie, expecting a fantastic story with a lot of scary moments. We could not have been more wrong... in our expectations regarding the story that is! Scary moments there are none, but the story twists and turns leaving you to figure out what happened when and where until the final conclusion explains everything. Almost exactly like Memento. While this makes for a confusing first twenty minutes, it does make for a great aha Erlebniss in the end.
Actually, counting from the top of my head we experienced maybe three aha Erlebnisse over the course of the movie, the first being the moment that you find out exactly what Tesla has achieved. Speaking of old Nikola, that's a great role by David Bowie!
I don't know whether it's a credit to myself or a debit to the movie's writing but I figured out the other two twists about ten minutes before they were fully explained. Which brings me to the following: I'm debating whether it'll be worth it to get The Prestige on DVD when it comes out. As is the case with all the magic in the movie, the fun lies in the secret! Knowing how the trick works takes away the awe and thus spoils part of the experience. I reckon I'll end up buying the DVD anyway because the imagery is just awesome and the special effects are flawless.
I'd seriously recommend this movie to anyone interested in 19th century horror, steam punk or illusionism.
In conclusion, I've discovered that the movie is actually based on the novel The Prestige by Christopher Priest, which I think I'll need to acquire sometime soon. The same goes for The Glamour, also by Priest.
kilala.nl tags: movies, awesome,
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2007-02-16 17:59:00
How's this for childhood memories? I remember that, when I was a kid of maybe five years old, I was in love with the song My baby just cares by me by Nina Simone. Aside from the catchy bass and piano lines there was also the fact that the video featured my favourite animals (ZOMG cats rule! :3) doing cute stuff. I'm sure my mother will remember my infatuation with this song as well.
Driving back home the other day, giving my colleague Casper a ride home as well, I played one of her albums on the stereo and naturally this song comes by. We got to thinking about the video and were sure that YouTube would have a copy of the video. Well, YouTube turned up short but Casper did manage to find a rather nice, 24MB AVI version of the clip instead! I'm so happy! This clip is never leaving my hard drive again <3
kilala.nl tags: music, childhood,
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2007-02-11 15:42:00
Many would declare me mad upon hearing that I've started yet another project for my free time. Thing is: most of the currently running projects offer me little to no relaxation! The VVE and Anime 2007 are indeed fun and challenging to work on, but they also place quite a burden on my shoulders: responsibility for a great deal of money and people. Also, studying for my LPIC exams I can hardly count as a hobby either! Who's ever found homework to be an agreeable pass-time?
Of course I'm vegging away in front of the TV a lot, with DVDs and a few series that I'm following. But show me one man who declares such a pass-time as valuable or worthy! Now, thanks to a fellow Ars Lounge blogger I've found a project that is both useful, educational and it helps clean out the house as well! I'm gonna keep quiet as to what it is that I'm making, save to say that I've picked up sewing again :)
In the past I used to work the ol' Pfaff Synchromatic 1215 quite often, making garb for my bouts in the SCA. When I left the SCA my trusted sewing machine fell into disuse, only being pulled out to make repairs to clothes, or to modify some jeans for Marli.
But that's changed now! I still count the Pfaff as one of my best birthday presents ever and I'm going to see to it that it gets good use during this new project!
EDIT:
Thinking about the SCA got me to search YouTube since they're bound to have some clips about the Society. And they do :D Looking back I realise that the Anachronists are a well-meaning bunch but that most of the stuff that goes on is about as realistic as Jack-shit. Still, it was a big load of fun while I was still in.
kilala.nl tags: creative, relaxing,
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2007-02-11 13:59:00
Over the past year a career in the military has started to sound pretty good to me.In the past I was always very much against the idea of joining up, mostly because of my distaste for anything related to war, which is what makes me so surprised about the change to my inclination. It's been a gradual process mind you, fed in part by my brother in law who's in the airforce, by Menno who tried to get into the commandos and by getting glimpses into dutch military life (televised they may have been, yet still they were glimpses).
As I said I'm rather opposed to the whole idea of war and I have no particular fondness or pride for my country, but there are other parts of a career in the military that attract me. Now I'm not saying that I'm going to make a switch at the drop of a hat or that I'm even going to. It's just something that I'm adding to my list of possibilities if I ever get tired of corporate IT. In case you're curious, other items on the list include carpentry, cooking and gardening/landscaping.
This blog post was brought on by one of JeffX's buddies suggesting a military career to Jeff, knowing that he's not that interested.
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2007-02-09 18:51:00
Ah yes, more stupid fear mongering (like a few weeks ago). This time Nintendo's successful handheld console is the target.
Why? Because, reportedly, child molesters can use their own NDS to chat with your kids which makes them an easier target. Aside from the fact that the video is horribly sensationalistic, there's also the fact that not -one- soul I know actually uses Pictochat. Seriously, who's going to hang around in an empty chat room, waiting for someone to come in, when instead they could be playing that awesome video game they brought?! That's right: noone.
Love the quality of the video though! That's pretty damn crisp, for an online viewer thingy...
kilala.nl tags: games, internet, fun,
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2007-02-08 13:03:00
It's been a while since Blackie had last seen snow. Last year I believe she thought it to be intriguing, but not much more. This year she actually seemed stumped by the white flurry, wiggling outside her windows. She even got up on her hind legs to tap against the glass, trying to catch a few flakes :3 She's never done that before! She's given up though, returning to her huge beanbag in front of the gas fire.
I'm just glad that I got to see a little snow before winter is over! I was -so- jealous of my family in Finland getting their usual fluffy whiteness, leaving me out in the cold. I'll have to go outside for a bit later on to play in the snow ^_^
Speaking of snow: I found it fitting to watch the Tiny snow fairy Sugar special episodes today, after finally watching the last two DVDs of the series this week. Now, at long last, I've finished watching an anime that I started following in 2000! I have to say it was worth the wait :) The ending to the story was good and actually had an unexpected turn of events for me. I'm so glad I decided to buy those 20 Geneon/Pioneer DVDs at a discount...
kilala.nl tags: winter, cat, anime,
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2007-02-08 07:34:00
*yawn* *stretch*
This morning we were done installing the patch kits at around 0100 and I was too knackered to drive home. Since all of the hotels in the close vicinity were already fully booked I opted to sleep on the couch in the office lounge. In the end, this turned out to be a pretty good choice! I'd set my alarm for 0400 to drive home by then, but I guess I was enjoying my rest 'cause I finally woke up at 0600 :)
I'm just glad I wasn't woken up around 0800 by the first people coming in for work :D
*yawn* Now... To finish up some work, wait for the application guys to come test their crap and then to go to bed... And since that darn cat refuses to fetch me breakfast, I'll have to go make some on my own. What a night...
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2007-02-06 23:31:00
Back in November I'd gotten interest in old science fiction. I'd started reading "The purple cloud" (the world's first -real- science fiction novel from 1901) through the miracle that is Project Gutenberg, a group of volunteers dedicated to creating ebooks of as many works as possible.
These ebooks are free as in freedom, though also free as in beer, meaning that in most cases you can take each book freely and use it in almost any way you want! These guys have gathered over 20.000 books whose copyright has expired and have put them to plain ASCII for everyone to read.
Reading through their philosophy and history I have to say that this is a true hackers' attempt at improving the world! My respect for the producers and proofers involved with PG is boundless and it encourages me to join in the effort. Unfrotunately I'm quite tied for resources this year, but soon I hope to find enough time to commit to proofing a few pages each week.
Seriously, project Gutenberg deserves our support and our respect! Now go and leaf through their catalogue! There's hundreds of timeless classics waiting for you to be discovered! Just now I've already found ten that I'll save to disk to read over the next few weeks.
I think that finally I'll start reading books and literature again. It's been too long! :)
kilala.nl tags: reading, internet,
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2007-02-04 13:21:00
Last Thursday PVP the animated series kicked off their first, subscription based season. Since they allow you to end your sub each month I thought I'd spring the $1.95 for the first ep. My final conclusion: no master piece, but not bad either. I'd say it's worth the two bucks, but only just.
The episode is rather short at six minutes, the animation is rather basic, the timing is a bit off and the writing isn't at the same level of the webcomic. Still, it's rather cool that Scott got this off the ground and I have nothing but praise for him about that.
I'm curious how the second ep will turn out and I may buy it at some point.
kilala.nl tags: comics, cartoons, fun,
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2007-02-01 15:49:00
Last night I was leafing through one of the Games TM issues on my To Read pile. In it I came across an article on the final installment of the Command & Conquer series, Tiberium wars. I really can't believe it's been twelve years already!
I remember like it was yesterday, sitting in my high school bench, discussing the Tiberian Dawn trailer that came with C&C Covert Operations. We had such high expectations of C&C 2 and it all seemed so close! We felt as if the game was just around the corner and that we'd be playing it before we'd left high school!
Well, that one didn't come true as C&C 2 came out when I was just about ready to leave college. But it didn't matter: back in 1995 we loved C&C to no end and I spent many a weekend and night with my best friend Menno, playing the game over a serial null-modem cable. Many a game was interrupted by unstable serial comms, but that didn't make the nights any less fun!
And OMG, Menno do you remember the very first time that we encountered a visceroid in one of our multiplayer games?! We had no clue what it was, but we were enthralled by that little, grey blob moving around the playing field. We were also quite horrified to find that it would happily eat our men! So whenever one of'em appeared, we cease the war to attack The Blob! :D
Ah those were the days!
So... Now the third and final installment of the series is out. I seriously doubt whether I'll be playing it. I've never been that good at RTSs and these days I play mostly console games anyway. Besides: I never played part 2 of the series either, so I have no clue about the backstory...
Ahhh... Memories... :3
kilala.nl tags: games, childhood,
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2007-02-01 12:02:00
Aww man! I want to move to a new universe where grammar is less fscked up.
Halfway through 2006 I ranted about bad spelling and grammar. And today I learned that two of the four items I mentioned are now valid dutch! D:
So it's perfectly normal for someone to call you "paranoia", because it no longer is just a noun. No! Because everybody's been using the word incorrectly it's now also a valid adjective! *grr!* WTF?!
And then there's my pet peeve "hallucinating mushrooms". Someone just informed me that this is in fact not incorrect usage of the word, but a grammar style called hypallage.
*sigh* Now I have less things to gripe about. ;_;
kilala.nl tags: meh, annoying,
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All content, with exception of "borrowed" blogpost images, or unless otherwise indicated, is copyright of Thomas Sluyter. The character Kilala the cat-demon is copyright of Rumiko Takahashi and used here without permission.