2008-10-31 21:07:00
One thing I have to be wary of are the small hours of overtime that sneak in every day. With our very busy schedule at the office and a veritable deluge of incidents, tickets and projects there is never an end to work. This week I prolonged three out of five workdays without even noticing it!
On the upside this means that I'm actually enjoying my work and the challenge that it gives me. On the downside this means that it's way too easy to accidentally forget the -other- important things in life. I mean, there's a reason why I get up every morning at 0530 and why I start work at 0630! I was supposed to be home every day before 1600, so I could spend some time with Dana before it was bed time! And here I am, hacking away at work, meaning that I'll arrive just in time to prepare dinner. :/
So I have to quit that! Besides, I already realize that I could be putting in three hours of overtime every day and it still wouldn't put a dent into our ticket queue. There's only so much work that one man can do...
kilala.nl tags: work,
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2008-10-31 21:03:00
*sigh* ^_^
It's Friday evening, around nine... Dana's fast asleep in her own bedroom, without so much as a peep over the baby monitor. Blackie's asleep on the furnace and Marli's in bed, relaxing to a few tunes. The living room's dark and only the lights over the dining room table are lit. There's some light classical music playing softly in the background and I have my big, steaming mug of Douwe Egberts Black. And in the meanwhile I'm folding four baskets of laundry ^_^;
There's something oddly relaxing about folding laundry. The monotonous operations allow me all the time in the world to just let my mind roam freely... And that coffee really is pretty good!
kilala.nl tags: relaxing,
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2008-10-29 09:55:00
Things have been pretty frantic the past week! I've been so busy I couldn't even post a quick blurb to my journal ;_; So, let's quickly run the list of things that have happened before I have to run to a meeting.
As I mentioned before, Dana has changed her daily routines. She's sleeping less and she's crying and sulking more at night. She's also changed her feeding habits which has confused the both of us to no end. Of course Dana's only been with us for six weeks, but it's very easy to lose confidence. Seriously, how the heck do you know if you're baby's fine if you haven't even gotten to know what each mode of crying means? *sigh* Of course it's all a learning experience, but it can sure get exasperating at times.
The household is running fine, though I've cut myself a little slack. With Marli still recuperating from her surgery and me back at work I'm not -that- keen on running a perfect household anymore. Sure, the first three weeks were fun, living in a spick&span house but these days that's just not a realistic goal anymore. Once Marli's recuperated things should start looking up again.
Work has been very busy. Last week I finally got access to our ticket system, only to stumble on a queue of over a hundred and thirty (>130!!!) tickets. Ouch. It doesn't help that there's only two of us working this queue and that the other queue (we use two ticket systems) has a comparable amount either. The good thing about this is that I haven't been bored for one minute, simply because there's just so much to do ^_^ The work's interesting and challenging, the people are nice and diverse and I'm just enjoying the heck out of myself :D
Finally, I've started the BoKS Access Control users group on LinkedIn.com. I'm trying to build a global network of BoKS admins, users and developpers so we can finally start sharing some information. Until now it'd been very hard to get answers to your questions, which will hopefully get easier from now on :)
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2008-10-29 09:44:00
About a week ago I opened up the BoKS Access Control users group (LinkedIn) on LinkedIn.com. My goal was to unite BoKS/Keon admins from across the globe in order to build a tightly knit network in which we can all share our knowledge of BoKS.
The thing is, the way things are right now, there's hardly any information on the web about BoKS/Keon. First off "BoKS" is a four letter word, which makes it hard for Google to look for anything useful (especially since it keeps correcting it to "books"). Second, there's not that much on the web anyway! There's my website which has some real info and then there's the Fox Tech site which has general sales info. For some reason Fox Tech decided to hide all the manuals and in-depth stuff so only paying customers can get to the docs.
By building a professional network of BoKS users we finally know who to turn to for questions! LinkedIn allows us to post discussions inside our group and since folks from Fox Tech are also joining, we're bound to get some good answers!
Right now we're at 31 members but, since Fox has started advertising the group to their customers, I'm assuming we'll see a steady rise in members RSN(tm)!
kilala.nl tags: boks, internet, sysadmin,
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2008-10-23 08:05:00
About three weeks ago we started her on a regular daily schedule with feedings every four hours and a strict beddy-bye time after the 1900 feeding. This worked out wonderfully with a minimum of fuss.
Unfortunately Dana's changed her rhythm which has resulted in her crying a lot more than before. Now it's like clockwork that she'll cry and cry after her 0700 feeding unless Marli gives her complete attention. No pacifiers will help for long, nor will ignoring the crying. Nope... She needs to be in bed with mommy until 1100 for her to remain relaxed and quiet. A similar thing happens when I come home around four-ish. She'll wake up and remain restless until 1900.
I wonder what brought these changes on. Hmmm, could it have to do with the fact that I started work again last week? I guess that -is- a big difference in her daily schedule... *ponders*
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2008-10-23 08:03:00
Nothing to see here... It just happened again last night, that's all. Luckily I managed to fall asleep again quickly.
EDIT (24-10-2008):
Damn... Two nights in a row. That's a first :/
kilala.nl tags: hyperventilation,
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2008-10-19 20:11:00
When growing up as kids we had a number of books that we really, -really- loved. A number of these were finnish books by Mauri Kunnas (Wikipedia) and at least two of them were works of Richard Scarry.
Both authors created illustrated story books featuring anthropomorphic animals which are heavy on the drawings. Actually, most of each page is filled with artwork with just a bit of text. Both Scarry and Kunnas also have a knack for filling each page with small, hidden jokes. All in all, this stuff is great for kids!
Things is, I still love these books! Now I could always use Dana as an excuse to buy these books (No no, it's for my daughter! ^_^;), but why would I? So far we've gathered Kunnas' reworkings of the finnish epic Kalevala, of King Arthur's story and of Santa Claus' factories. We only recently bought a Scarry book, which is actually an omnibus of three of his books.
*glee* I just love these books!
kilala.nl tags: reading, baby, childhood,
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2008-10-17 09:49:00
I've been at $CLIENT for a week now and slowly things are getting in motion. I've received a number of my login accounts, so I can at least help a few of my colleagues with their work. For now I'm mainly answering project-related questions and helping where I can with BoKS.
It's nice to see that some of my old habits die hard though :) It used to be that I was an ace at planning my work and scheduling all of my tasks. Unfortunately I got out of this routine after a few years with a smaller workload. However, now that I'm back in a demanding environment I've automatically reverted to my old methods. Though my list of real work is still small I am again actively using my calendar in Outlook to make room for them and I'm also using Outlook's ToDo lists for all the small things that need to be done. One thing that I love about both iCal's and Outlook's ToDo lists is that you can split tasks across various categories/projects, thus making things a lot easier to keep organised.
Ah yes... It's good be back ^_^
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2008-10-15 08:44:00
Overheard at the office yesterday:
Colleague: You have a pretty good British accent on you! Mind you, that's not much of a compliment coming from a Scotsman.
Me: ... Thanks! ^_^
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2008-10-15 08:36:00
The first week at any given assignment is always interesting and with each assignment it's completely different. Usually it's mostly spent on getting to know people and trying to get all kinds of paperwork done. Because yes, us in IT may gripe about it when others do it, we make the same mistakes when requesting new user accounts :)
So far my week's been pretty good and better than some other First Weeks(tm). So far I -do- have a desk of my own and I even found out whom I'll be working for. Now all I have to do is actually meet the fellow :) I even have a PC on my desk, which is a lot better than at $OTHER-PREV-CLIENT where I never had one and was expected to bring in my own laptop each day.
It's nice to be back in a familiar environment. The building hasn't changed at all and most departments are even still in the same spot. I trekked around the building yesterday and kept running into people I knew from before, so it's an odd feeling of coming home.
Now if only I could get all my user accounts set up so I could get to work! In the mean time I'll just bug people for manuals, documentation and I'll work alongside the team to help them where I can.
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2008-10-12 20:53:00
I spotted this nugget of wisdom on our jar of peanutbutter:
May contain trace amounts of nuts.
Fascinating!
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2008-10-12 16:54:00
Years ago during my first internship in IT I was introduced to funny websites as Computer stupidities and Tech tales. Both are filled with horror stories from the IT helpdesk and Tths time I contributed a few :)
Today I discovered a similar website with stories from retail and customer services. I promptly wasted four hours reading this stuff, some of which is quite scary. Really, the level of egocentrism or closed-mindednesz in some people! *shudder* If you're bored, go see Not always right.
kilala.nl tags: annoying, fun, internet,
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2008-10-11 16:04:00
Today we had a few hours to kill, so we decided to do something that's both fun and yummy: playing with chocolat! /o/ No, not that way! Get your mind out of the gutter! No...
We spent a bit of time "cooking", making awesome snacks. We started out with Marli's favorite festival food, chocolat covered grapes. We both love this stuff to death and always try to get some when we're at an amusement park or a fair like Munich's Christkindl market.
After that we proceeded with what is sure to guarantee me a ticket on the bus to hell: bacon chocolat! Inspired by various threads on Ars Technica (like this one) I just -had- to try this once in my life. Making it is of course friggin' easy! Just melt a few sticks of chocolat, fry and shred your bacon, mix the two together and pour into something like an ice cube tray.
I'm sorry to say that this stuff is bloody awesome. I'm doomed. ^_^;
kilala.nl tags: cooking, awesome,
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2008-10-10 16:22:00
I've been using Apple computers and software for almost five years now. Since then the OS X operating systems has gone through a lot of changes, becoming nicer and nicer along the way. All kinds of nifty features were added, most of them without becoming bloatware. The fact that I've seen five years of this stuff has had its effect though and I find it hard to become enthused by most of the new stuff. It's great and all, but you won't catch me dancing down the street.
But sometimes, sometimes a little nugget of gold comes out of Apple and I'm completely in love with their software again.
Case in point: the Genius function that was added to iTunes recently and the Remote application for the iPhone.
Genius will take any song in your library and, given a few circumstances, will create a new playlist containing 25 songs that ought to go nicely with the selected song. This selection of tunes is based on data gathered from the iTunes libraries from thousands of users world wide. This doesn't work out perfectly each time, but usually it gives me great results.
Let's say that I pick the Beastie Boys' Sabotage. iTunes will almost instantaneously suggest songs that go with it. In this case I got (among others):
* Wu-Tang Clan, Gravelpit
* Black Eyed Peas, Pump it
* Outkast, Roses
And so on. I reckon that the quality of iTunes' selection depends wholly on the amount of songs you have from a given genre. I can imagine that a Genius playlist for German Schlager music would be quite impossible on my computer ^_^; The great thing about all of this though, is the fact that I am constantly re-discovering songs that I'd even forgotten I had!
Combine this with the Remote application which runs on my iPhone and I can have a very nice evening on the couch. Using the app I can control all of iTunes' operations without ever touching my Mac. And because I'm re-discovering music I can immediately assign rankings to these "new" songs, or just skip past them if I really hate them.
kilala.nl tags: apple, iphone, awesome,
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2008-10-09 22:57:00
I've had the chance to take a few drives in the Honda Civic hybrid and I'm getting the hang of this thing now. I've always driven stick, so having an automatic at my disposal is something new. At least I've learnt to keep my left foot firmly planted to the floorboards when going into reverse ^_^;
I have to say that I really do love the CVT (continuously variable transmission) on this machine! On the one hand it's making me into a more relaxed and conscious driver and on the other it's just a very smooth ride. You see, most cars when accelerating will either jump through a bunch of different gears to get to the desired velocity, all the while revving the engine pretty hard. The CVT on the Civic hybrid on the other hand will very happily rev at a continuous 1500 RPM while speeding up to 50-60 km/h. Or 2000 RPM if we're talking about figures around 80 km/h. The acceleration is very smooth and you'll hardly notice the speedup, especially since you won't hear the engine roaring. Once you're used to it, it's very slick!
Another part that I like about the Civic... Well, there are many because it's just such a damn good car :) But one that stands out is that little sweet spot between 30 and 45 km/h; speeds that are perfectly alright while driving around town. If you find yourself traveling at a speed within that window for a while, you'll notice that the combustion engine will cut out, leaving all the work to the electronic one. Thus the Civic has switched to EV mode. It's a pretty cool feeling, realising that you're floating about nearly silently :)
More to follow later...
kilala.nl tags: car,
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2008-10-09 10:45:00
Dana's three weeks old now, tho it seems like two months. I may have spent each day since her birth at home, but "well rested" is not a term that I'd use to describe my current situation :)
So far Dana is behaving quite nicely! She's grown about five centimeters and has also surpassed her birth weight. She sleeps a lot and doesn't give us too much grief during the nights. On average she'll have one night a week that she refuses to sleep and just goes on crying, but all the other nights she'll allow us around five hours of uninterrupted sleep. Of course, this may change at any given moment given the fickle nature of a newborn baby.
Unfortunately the head cold that I caught last week has gone around the house, passing to Dana and Marlijne. Dana'd been snotty and coughy all day yesterday, but one of Gramma's traditional remedies(tm) helped tremendously! Just cut an onion in half and leave it near her bed. The slime cleared right up!
So yeah! So far we're a happy, healthy (enough) family ^_^
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2008-10-09 10:37:00
About a week ago my contract with Snow ended and my new contract with Unixerius took off. My friend and new boss Dirk had been making arrangements with $NEW-CLIENT a month in advance and so far things seems to be coming together. There's just a little more paperwork and a wad of political red tape to get through. If everything works out I'll start my new job on Monday.
It's nice to make a fresh start though. Slowly I've seen things gather that all imprint the idea in my head that, yes, this -is- something new and exciting!
Yesterday I got my first box of business cards. I've been buying new (and decent looking!) shirts the past few weeks. I got a stack of stationary with the company logo on it. And of course I also got a shiny, new company car. Hooray for that Civic hybrid! /o/
Officially I spent my first week on the contract on paternity leave, to take care of Dana and Marli. This second week was spent on the clock, waiting for the paperwork to clear. And next week I'll finally be able to sink my teeth in! Rawr! ^_^
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2008-10-07 21:28:00
I wore them over three years ago when I left $NEW-CLIENT to go work for Snow and now I'll wear them when I set foot over $NEW-CLIENT's threshold once more. Out of all my equipment and clothes, these boots have been with me the longest.
My bestest buddy Menno will recognize them, as they are the same type of boots that we bought together when we were fourteen (or was it thirteen?). They're leather boots that Alpina makes for the Slovenian army and which somehow make their way to dutch army surplus stores. They're nigh on indestructible as this is only the third pair that I've bought. Three pairs of boots in fifteen years! That's a pretty good track record!
These ones are still going strong, but I'm thinking that it might be a good idea to buy one or two pairs to put in stock. I have no clue if they're even sold in the Netherlands any more and I haven't been able to find them on the Internet either. For some reason they don't have a model name or number mentioned in/on the body.
Anywho... I love these boots. They're much more comfortable and much better looking than the standard dutch army boot. Their supple, unadorned leather makes them presentable even in a business setting.
EDIT:
I just remembered. I think the model is called Alpina Combat. I've e-mailed the surplus store where I bought my last pair to see if they still have them.
kilala.nl tags: clothes,
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2008-10-03 18:11:00
While we're waiting for our new Honda Civic to be outfitted, we've been supplied with a rental Honda Jazz (Wikipedia) which is otherwise known as the Fit.
The Jazz/Fit is marketed in Europe as a small and cheap car, that's affordable for the masses. You could say that it competes directly with our previous lease car, the VW Fox. They are priced comparatively and they have the same level of luxury: they're both rather spartan.
After driving the Jazz for a few days I have to say that it's a pretty good car! While there's less space in the back seats, the trunk is friggin' huge when compared to other minis. The handling is also unexpectedly supple, with even the 1.2l engine being a bit feisty :) The only downside to the Jazz is that, IMHO, the interior looks ass. Not the seats and upholstery mind you, but the dash and console. Like many of Honda's other cars The Plastic is strong with this one. But seriously, at around 13k euros this car is pretty damn good!
kilala.nl tags: car,
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2008-10-03 18:03:00
This week saw the first real chill of this year. While the weather may be quite nice out, with lots of sun, the wind is cold and wet. I've already managed to catch a cold from the sudden switch in the weather. It's also probable that our nightly schedule with Dana helped out a bit ^_^
I find it remarkable that this first chill came at almost exactly the same time as two years ago.
kilala.nl tags: winter,
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2008-10-01 21:15:00
So far Marlijne has been showing a miraculous recovery since her operation! We got home almost two weeks ago and she's already up to little trips outside. She can even drive the car for over an hour! On Monday she came with me to the Snow office (to help me get back home after returning our lease car) and today she got a few groceries by herself. I'm truly impressed by her fortitude.
Actually, I wanted her to make the short shopping trip today because I thought she could use some off-time. She's been at home and with Dana 24x7 since the 17th and she hasn't been alone at any one moment.
Dana is doing fine as well. She'll let us get a few hours of sleep every night, so we're doing alright. Dana's very healthy so far and only cries and bickers for a few hours a day.
So far things are going pretty well! :)
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2008-10-01 21:14:00
Guest: Mmm, smells nice! Cooking a pot roast?
Me: ... Actually, I'm baking a cake.
kilala.nl tags: weird, cooking,
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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.