2009-03-31 21:23:00
I follow at least three dozen RSS feeds on a daily basis, which seep into my iPhone through NetNewsWire Light. It provides me with some fun stuff to read on the train. :) Here's a bunch of stuff that's recently tickled my fancy.
* Kappabashi-dori in Tokyo, a shopping street I'll definitely visit.
* Lego space shuttle, an awesome 65.000 piece project.
* Extroverted like me, an interesting look at what anti-depressants do to you.
* Q2 2009 anime season, a preview of the titles coming out in spring.
* Samsung is coming out with the Papyrus, they're eBook reader.
kilala.nl tags: internet,
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2009-03-30 07:16:00
I've been on a self-imposed "holiday" for a week, though give its nature it's better to call it "sick leave". Last Monday I'd had enough of my RSI as it wasn't getting any better, so I called in sick for the rest of the week. I hoped that being away from computers for a full week would help me get better. So far it seems to have helped a bit.
Of course this leaves a big list of blog posts that are waiting to be made. I'll fill in all the blanks later this week. Let me just say that this week has been very stressful, but that things are actually quite well.
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2009-03-29 12:51:00
Wow, that didn't turn out the way we expected at all!
* House 1: not as pretty as in the pictures and was already sold.
* House 2: Marli ran away screaming, though I like the architecture.
* House 3: getting there sucked and it wasn't as good as expected.
* House 4: not so hot either and needed a LOT of work.
* House 5: I loved it, Marli hated it. I'd've bought it if I was single ^_^
So... We've decided to go with the house we visited last Wednesday, which is in Almere. It's from the eighties, comes at a decent price and is perfect for a young family :)
kilala.nl tags: house,
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2009-03-26 07:23:00
I guess the stress is getting to me. Tonight I woke up hyperventilating again, my skin burning with that familiar pain. Luckily I managed to fall asleep again immediately. My RSI is also not going away, which might have something to do with tension in my body/muscles due to this week's goings-on.
kilala.nl tags: health, body, hyperventilation,
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2009-03-24 18:52:00
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Today, at approxately 18:35, Blackie went to sleep, never to wake up again ;_;
Her tumor had kept on growing at a steady pace, making it nigh impossible to eat or even drink. We'll miss her terribly. Were I to believe to an afterlife I'd be comfortable in the thought that she's now being looked after by Henk. But since I don't I'm at least happy that she lived a good life, wanted for nothing and went peacefully.
Goodbye Blackie. I'll be sure to train Dana to pester me while I'm at work, just like you did :)
kilala.nl tags: cat,
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2009-03-24 14:13:00
Awesome-cakes! /o/
Since yesterday things moved reaaaal quick! The flat's been sold at 155k, which is 4.5k under our original asking price. Not too shabby! We're especially glad since we haven't gone over the projected loss on the sale, which we were willing to take.
After deliberations it's been decided that we are to exchange keys on the 30th of June, leaving us little over three months to find a house, buy it, redecorate it and to actually move in. Exciting! Luckily next Saturday is the annual day for NVM realtors to hold "open house". We'll quickly make a shortlist of houses we would like to see.
Unfortunately our dream of moving to the country appears to have been a pipe dream. We really, really wanted to go, but unfortunately Unixerius can't get me jobs that far east. Sure there's IT work over there, it's just that it's outside the reach of our network. And while we might be willing to buy a house during this recession, we're not ready for me to leave Unixerius. It's too great a company anyway!
So instead we've turned our sights onto the province of Flevoland again. We'll be checking out places in Almere and Lelystad. On the one hand it kinda sucks because we won't be moving closer to "Nature" (tm), but on the other hand it's close to work and those cities do actually offer affordable housing.
kilala.nl tags: house,
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2009-03-24 11:54:00
I'm worried about Blackie and fear that she may be going downhill faster than we thought. It looks like she's avoiding eating and she actually refuses to drink from her fountain. I think the water might be too cold for her and thus it may be too painful to drink. I'm calling the vets to make an appointment RSN.
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2009-03-23 16:33:00
I'm taking the rest of the week off from work. For the past three weeks my RSI's been bugging me awfully. Despite the fact that I'm avoiding my PC at home it's still not getting any better. Expect no blog posts from me for at least a week. Just like last time, I'll save them up and post them retro-dated.
Due to these health issues (and because of the added stress involved with our houses) I also feel the need to cancel my lecture at Anime 2009. I know I still have over a month to prepare everything, but I just can't take the extra load on my shoulders right now.
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2009-03-23 09:17:00
Marli just called me to tell that we have a potential buyer for our flat! It seems that the fellow who visited us twice is interested in actually buying the place! Glee!
kilala.nl tags: house,
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2009-03-20 19:10:00
On the up side of things our insurance company came through on the claim for my TZ3 that I dropped a few months ago. After deduction of my own risk they transferred about 180 euros. The camera was originally around 300 euros, but it's successor the TZ4 is actually close to 190! <worms>Success!</worms>
On the down side, this morning I happened to stumble upon a house that would have been absolutely perfect for us! However, when I called the realtor about it I found out he'd just sold it an hour ago. Damn :(
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2009-03-17 20:11:00
1. I'll be a guest speaker at Anime 2009.
2. I got an OV chip card and changed it to look like a Suica card.
3. I paid a visit to Yama Foods and bought some curry sauce and udon.
kilala.nl tags: japan,
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2009-03-14 13:50:00
Today Marli's shiny, new Macbook arrive. It's an absolute beauty! The new anumilumlum housing feels very slick and the keyboard's just a touch heavier than the previous model. Very nice.
I had the laptop installed and set up with all of her data within an hour or two, so now she's happily surfing away on her lappy. It'll probably last her for four to five years, so that's good value for money.
Unfortunately I did my RSI no favours because after finishing her Macbook I went on to reinstall my own, white one. Unfortunately I made a wrong choice in file systems somewhere along the way which made it impossible to run File Vault. So basically I reinstalled twice and then I fiddled, I fiddled and I dabbled some more. Basically I spent yet another whole weekend behind the computer, which will probably come back to bite me in the ass.
On the up side of things we now both have wonderfully working laptops ^_^ I've also decommissioned the Powermac that I mentioned earlier. For now it'll just go into storage. Speaking of, would you believe that Marli herself actually suggested getting a Mini for file serving purposes? o_O
kilala.nl tags: macbook, powermac, apple, health,
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2009-03-14 13:39:00
It's awesome to see how Dana's rhythm and body keep evolving and adapting. Aside from the eating habits that I mentioned earlier, she's also changing her sleeping pattern. The past two weeks she'd been staying awake longer and longer during the day, so today is the first time we're putting her to bed in the afternoon.
Her days now look something like this:
0700 Wake up
0800 Get out of bed for breakfast
1200 Lunch
1230 Go to bed for afternoon nap
1600 Wake up for afternoon dinner
2000 Evening dinner
2030 Go to bed for the night
kilala.nl tags: baby,
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2009-03-14 07:37:00
Back in November, I received some complaints from school about my website. You may remember that some teachers weren't too happy about me posting all my term papers on the web because some of their kids were now plagiarizing my stuff.
This morning I did a search on the web and lo-and-behold: I found a whole bunch of new weblogs with schoolwork! Like this one, or this one. It seems that a few of the teachers that were like me (IT nuts to the bone) decided to turn things around and actually integrated blogging and Wikis into their teaching approach! Students are now encouraged to write about their work and to share what they know :)
So my worries are over with regards to my own site and it's great to see that I may actually have influenced the school a tiny bit.
kilala.nl tags: school, internet,
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2009-03-11 23:26:00
I hate the side effects that Blackie's health issues are causing for me. The idea that we'll soon be losing her has seemingly turned me a bit manic.
I'll go from happy and carefree, to mopey and uncaring, to angry and hateful. Unfortunately the latter usually occurs at home when I'm tired and worn out after my workday. This means that Mar and Dana get the full brunt of my crap, because frankly that's what it is. I don't like being a tool to them, far from it. And I'd much rather be it to someone else, or of course rather not at all.
So, for up til now and for the near future, to everyone involved: I'm sorry for being a d*ck. It'll take some time to blow over.
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2009-03-11 09:13:00
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Later today, waaaaay at the end of the afternoon, we'll have a meeting with some head honcho from $CLIENT. There's talk that we'll be moving a few teams between different branches of $CLIENT and thus folks from on high will come down from the mountain to spread the word. |
EDIT:
Well, that was a letdown. Instead of a rather private meeting with the director and my department it was a huge briefing with >100 people. So, nothing to see here folks. Move along :)
kilala.nl tags: clothes, work,
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2009-03-10 12:55:00
Seeing how we recently ordered Marli her new Macbook, I'll get full use of my own Macbook back RSN(tm). This has led me to debate whether I will finally put my Powermac G5 to sleep, or not.
I bought the G5 back in October of 2003 and it's served me well ever since. That's almost 5.5 years now! However, even the lowly Macbook runs circles around the Powermac when it comes to sheer processing power and frankly, these days the G5 is a bit noisy as well. Switching to the Macbook as my desk and couch machine will also save a bit on electricity since its consumption is much lower than the Powermac's.
So that leads me to wonder about the G5. I don't want to toss it, since it was my first Mac and it's still a beatiful machine. I don't want to sell it because we really wouldn't get much for it (probably around 350 euros). I don't want to run it as a file server, since it's too big and noisy.
So, what does that leave? I could keep it as a spare system in the case Macbook every craps out. That would actually make sense. I could also lend it to my sister who can always use a backup system, what with the laptop problems she's had in recent years. Menno doesn't have much use for it, since he plays a lot of sh'm'ups, so that's out the windows.
Anyone else have any interesting ideas?
kilala.nl tags: powermac,
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2009-03-09 18:33:00
Well fsck. :(
That lump we found? Yeah, it's no abces. The vet only needed one glance into Blackie's mouth to tell that it was a tumor. Fsck! The stink on her breath was from an inflammation and that lower-left canine wasn't covered but had probably snapped off or had fallen out. Oh man. I'm a sad puppy.
The tumor itself isn't lethal because of it's location on her lower jaw / chin. However, it will start to pain her leading her to forego food and thus she'll start to get worse. We'll need to be on the lookout for that kind of behaviour since that should be the end. *sigh* According to the vet it could be weeks, or months. She gave Blackie some antibiotics for the inflammation and some painkillers to help her eat.
Man, this news broke me yesterday! I see Blackie as a companion, a little buddy who's always around. She's not just a black furball who makes funny noises, she's someone I can talk to and someone who disturbs my attention when I need it :) At least I'm getting to say goodbye beforehand.
kilala.nl tags: meh, cat, health,
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2009-03-08 14:03:00
Blackie just hopped onto the couch with me and Boy! did her breath stink. Seriously messed up! So I checked her mouth again, like a few days ago, and now I'm worried. I don't know how I missed this earlier, but her lower-left canin appears to be covered by skin or her gums. I called the vet's weekend shift and he said it sounded like it could wait until tomorrow.
Now I -am- worried.
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2009-03-07 17:55:00
It's been pretty quiet over here due to my bouts with RSI. Technically speaking I shouldn't even be writing this. My neck, shoulders and hands are pretty crappy these days. At home Marli's taken away my keyboard and stylus, out of protection. She's of course completely right but that doesn't change the fact that I'm bored and want to do some programming.
In the meantime I'm saving up a number of blogposts. I'll write them later and will backdate them to the relevant days.
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2009-03-07 12:34:00
As I'm now bored stiff I decided to dig an unread book from the pile. So I picked one of Tom Clancy's NetForce books (the Hidden Agendas one). Computers, hackers, crime and cyberstuff, that ought to be good, right?
Wrong. I threw that thing aside after the first chapter because it's written like one of those dime romance novels from Bouquet or Harlequin. Only this one's for men instead of women.
In 'silat' you didn't merely defeat an enemy, you destroyed him. [...] Toni leaped at him [and while blocking] his right thigh slid between Toni's legs and pressed against her pubis. His concentration on protecting himself just kind of...evaporated. He'd blocked the punch, but now he just stood there. He didn't follow up. He was very much aware of the warmth of her crotch astraddle his thigh, even through two sets of sweat pants. "Damn! Sorry, I drew a blank."
Indeed. If this is what modern action novels are supposed to be like, count me out.
EDIT:
Ah! The first line of the Wiki page actually cleared up a lot for me. It's only Clancy's name on the cover since he thought of the premise. The actual writing's done by someone completely different. And here I was imagining the Splinter Cell's ninjas and guardsmen hugging each other under the showers.
kilala.nl tags: reading,
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2009-03-06 17:55:00
A few weeks back Marli asked me "Does it look to you like Blackie's growing a goatee?". And at the time it did and we didn't think much of it. Today, when petting her, I happened to scratch her on her chin and noticed that in fact it was not a goatee but a very big lump. What the?!
I called the vet's for some advice in this. Knowing that Blackie can be hell to examine (she'll claw your eyes out for sure!) we went over a quick list by phone. She's eating and drinking fine, she hasn't lost weight, she's happy and attentive, she's not bleeding or anything. We concluded that it could be an abces and that I'd need to check the insides of her mouth for inflammation.
Now it definitely shows that Blackie's been mellowing down because she let me check her mouth without any fight after picking her up by the scruff. Couldn't find anything weird though... Which is weird... I'm hopeful but still a bit concerned.
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2009-03-06 15:45:00
We just got back from the hospital for another checkup on Dana's hips.
The doc was moderately happy about things were developing and mentioned that it looks like the femoral bone is at least in the right spot now. Unfortunately there's no telling if the bone's head will actually go into the socket, or whether it's blocked off by tissue grown into the socket. He admitted that Dana's case was actually more severe than he'd originally let on. :/
Thanks to the progress made by her hips, Dana's "graduated" from the Pavlik harness to a Camp spreader. The Camp is a lot easier to put on a kid, since it's worn completely over her clothes and is a one-part device. Basically it's a pair of plastic shorts with a metal rod stuck between the legs. Her thighs go into the pants (which get locked up by velcro) and the rods force her legs to lie flat and outward.
Yet again, like with the Pavlik, Dana shows no objections at all and seems fairly happy with the new arrangement. She was also pretty damn happy about all the attention she was getting :D
kilala.nl tags: baby, health, body,
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2009-03-06 06:01:00
The Siemens SL78H DECT cordless phone sports a very nice mobile-like feature set, including Bluetooth vCard syncing. Unfortunately this doesn't work with Mac OS X out of the box, but there's a work around.
Before you start off, pair your Mac and the SL78H in the usual fashion. Turn Bluetooth on for both devices, then on the Siemens go to Bluetooth > Find device. Go through the usual song and dance. Be sure to set your Mac to be discoverable.
Here's how you go from there.
1. In Address Book, make a new list of the contacts that you want on the phone.
2. Export this list of contacts as a group vCard (File > Export).
3. Make a backup of your Address Book (File > Export > Archive).
4. Remove all of your contacts. Then import the group vCard (File > Import).
Your Address Book is now empty, except for the contacts you want to transfer to the SL78H.
5. Download vCard blaster for Mac OS X.
6. Run vCard blaster and choose to send one vCard at a time, WITH acknowledgement.
7. Click Go and acknowledge each transfer.
You're now set and all your contacts are on the SL78H. You can turn Bluetooth off again.
8. Restore your Address Book from its backup (File > Import > Archive).
kilala.nl tags: other tech,
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2009-03-06 05:51:00
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As far as I remember we started using DECT phones somewhere in the nineties. Actually, before that we had a clunky RF cordless phone, but soon after followed the first DECT model. They started out clunky, but got better and better over the years. |
I knew someone had to have something better! So, stopping by at MediaMarkt one day I decided to head over to the cordless section. Lo and behold, most DECT phones actually do still suck! Most that is, but not Siemens' new models, like the SL78H.
* They look like a mobile.
* They work like a mobile.
* They have the feature set of a mobile! /o/
So... That crappy Philips is going back to the store (hopefully for some store credit) and we snapped up the SL785 home set, which includes a digital answering machine. The SL78H is awesome! Its menus are logical and easy to navigate and best of all: it allows me to transfer vCard (.VCF) contact information through Bluetooth! I even found a way to make that work on the Mac /o/
kilala.nl tags: other tech,
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2009-03-04 16:39:00
It's too awesome to see my daughter actually open her mouth "saying" that she wants some more of that orange crud I'm feeding her ^_^
Today's the first time she's downed a whole pot of baby food in one sitting. She's developed quite a taste for the stuff. She likes the mushy apple and apple+banana stuff, but screams bloody murder at carrots. Oddly enough she seems to love the stickier potatoe+cauliflower+carrots paste.
Nomnomnomnom <3
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2009-03-04 05:38:00
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Crawling on her back that is... |
Here's one for my mom, who doesn't get to hear Dana that often :) She's learnt how to laugh a month or three ago and does so when "flying" or when getting tickled. And now she's discovered the "peek a boo!" game. ^_^
kilala.nl tags: baby,
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2009-03-03 10:36:00
$DEITY! All I'm trying to do is to hook up my Lacie Firewire speakers to my Powermac. The Lacie's come with a non-detachable 1m FW cable, while my Mac is about 3m away.
This should of course be easily fixable with an extension cord or a hub. Right? Were it not that this is not USB, which is the VHS to Firewire's Betamax and thus there is next to nearly nothing usable out there for Firewire. Oh sure, Belkin has a USB/FW hub, but it rings in around 40 euros. And there's -one- extension cord available in the Netherlands, but it's a whopping 27 euros o_O
I'll go trawl eBay/Marktplaats now... See what I can come up with on the secondhand market. *sigh*
EDIT: Thank $DEITY for Kleinspul.nl who have a 6P F-F adapter which will let me hook up two cables. At about five bob apiece, that's pretty good...
kilala.nl tags: other tech, annoying, apple,
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2009-03-03 05:20:53
I was in a pretty pissy mood yesterday :/ My RSI's been flaring up again, so I have to take it slow on the old keyboard and mouse. Just while I'm in the middle of dev-ing on my site, with two excellent ideas for improvements, I can't continue. Man, that's frustrating.
Oh yeah, I had a bit of hyperventilation again in the middle of the night. Funny thing is that I knew it was coming half an hour in advance. I woke up with this hard and heavy feeling in my gut, making it hard to breathe like I usually do. I wonder if my weight's playing a role in this, or whether that tight feeling was caused by stress or even simply by dinner. Hmmm.
kilala.nl tags: health, body, meh, hyperventilation,
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2009-03-01 09:39:00
Hey there bestest buddy! I just wanted to wish you a happy birthday ^_^
kilala.nl tags: friends, birthday,
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2009-03-01 09:35:00
This weekend I spent an hour or five re-tagging all of my blog posts. As I mentioned back in November I'd never standardized these tags, so it was one huge hodge-podge. It was impossible to find posts that went together. I've now gone from 800+ tags to a little over 50. That sounds like an improvement to me :)
I still need to go over the list a second time, to make some more fixes, but that shouldn't take too much time. For example a category like other tech really isn't that useful, so I'm going to split that up into more descriptive labels.
The other stuff I'd talked about in that post are on the back burner. I've made a number of fixes to the site's code, but that's still running in the staging area. I still need to move that stuff to the production area.
kilala.nl tags: website,
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