2009-06-30 17:39:00
As described earlier I got one of those new Airport Extreme base stations for our new IT setup at home. I have to say, it's really something!
Of course the setup was a snap and I easily set it up like our old AExpress. Connecting to the new 5GHz network was a snap as well, and the old Kilala network's still there for my iPhone and Kaijuu's laptop. But what's astonishing is the range of the new 5 gig net! I'm typing this up in the attic, where (according to Speedtest.net I'm getting a 12.2 / 1.7 Mbps connection. One floor down in the bedroom we're at 27.3 / 2.5, just like downstairs. That's pretty damn good! The old 2.4 Ghz net would not have reached up into the attic.
Now all I need to do is worm the cat5e cable through the house, to get full 1 Gbps upstairs for backups, file sharing and printing.
kilala.nl tags: other tech, geeky, apple,
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2009-06-29 21:09:00
One of the things Marli and I differ in greatly is my love for classic, musical movies. I for one love flicks like High society and The wizard of Oz, while Marli's the one who starts retching at the first sight of them. I guess she let me watch tonight's movie because it's my birthday. ^_^
Recently TCM aired Meet me in St. Louis (Wiki) at a rather inopportune time. Luckily we now have a DVR and we're using the heck out of it! Anywho, with Dana beside me on the couch I finally got to watch it to the end. All the cliches were there! The coy behaviour towards the naive love interest. At least one uber-camp song+dance. The misunderstanding between lovers. The big disaster that breaks them up. The sudden surprise that brings them together again. Yes, it was all there!
And then it struck me: it wasn't cliche! It was the -source- of the cliche! Everything that we know and love (and groan about) originates from these classic movies :)
So yeah, not all cliches are bad.
kilala.nl tags: movies,
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2009-06-29 07:06:00
Hmm, I -do- feel a bit older today. I feel a bit sickish and my legs are wobbly, though this may be cause by yesterday's barbecue and the jog to catch my train ^_^
So, yes... Thirty. Three-O. Threeeee Zeeero... I play like in my teens, I work like in my twenties and luckily I run the rest of my life true to my age. Seems like a healthy enough combination to me.
Xander van D, if you happen to read this: happy birthday to you too :)
kilala.nl tags: life,
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2009-06-27 09:34:00
Well, they're new to us at least...
Thanks to UPC's cable setup we now have access to the dutch versions of 13th Street and Sci Fi Channel. Both show a lot of reruns of old shows (Star Trek:tng, Sliders, Law&Order), but they also have some relatively new and cool series.
One I particularly like (though it's only six episodes) is the BBC's Jekyll, starring James Nesbitt. That's a good story and some great acting right there! We've also found that we enjoy A town called Eureka, which is pretty hilarious :)
kilala.nl tags: tv,
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2009-06-27 09:13:00
This week it was "back to work" for me. I really needed to get back into it the first two days; couldn't really get the hang of it. I wasted most of my Monday, which is why I didn't bill any real hours that day. By wednesday I was back to normal though, so that's good. As people have been reminding me, moving is one of the most stressful occasions in these modern times and I've lived to prove that yet again ;)
Anywho... Stuff!
All of the rooms are unpacked, with the exception of the attic. Some thirty-odd boxes of books are waiting to be unpacked, sorted and stored. Ouch! I really hope those shelves are going to hold up. Aside from that there's another thirty boxes left with "miscellaneous" objects. You know the kind: things that you need or want to keep, but don't use in daily life and have no clue as to where to put them. Well, we've got three more weeks to unpack each and every box if we don't want to get billed for them.
In the mean time Dana is doing fine in the new house. She's seems to like her bedroom and learnt a few new things while staying over at her grandparents' place. She loves sitting on the couch with us, in her little "fortress" (ie: behind our legs, while we're sitting sideways) and she's taken to eating a sandwich for lunch.
What else? Oh yes! Thanks to this new site I'm reading (The daily WTF?!) I've also learnt a new word: appellatio. According to one member of tDWTF it is derived from "appellation" and "fellatio", and means "the art of calling someone a c*cks*cker, especially in a non-obvious way". Shiny :D Anywho, love the website for all of the programming and IT "WTF" situations it describes.
Now! Back to work! Boxes to unpack, household to be kept and all that.
kilala.nl tags: life, house, internet, geeky,
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2009-06-23 22:17:00
A Japanese fellow going by the name of Mujaki has created a wonderfully cute robotic girl that's programmed using his laptop. Among others, she can make your coffee... As long as you help her out and are veeeery patient ^_^
Via Tokyo Mango.
kilala.nl tags: geeky, internet, awesome,
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2009-06-23 06:48:00
Today's the first time that I travel to the office from Almere. Luckily I don't have to get up any earlier, though the trip last 15 minutes longer. It's interesting to se how packed the trains from Almere are at 0615; coming from Utrecht the trains were always nearly deserted...
Ah, my connecting train's here...
kilala.nl tags: work,
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2009-06-22 22:16:00
Gawd, I'd love to sleep for more than ten hours! This long weekend was killer =_=
Thursday = moving everything from Utrecht -> Almere
Friday = unpacking and cleaning in Almere
Saturday = unpacking in Almere, cleaning in Utrecht
Sunday = unpacking and my father's birthday
Monday = unpacking, lots of paperwork and one ungodly task
The aforementioned "ungodly task" was the extraction of the previous owner's broken dish washer from our kitchen. Supposedly the thing was declared a total loss over two years ago, but they never replaced it. Fair enough. We decided to cough up the 600 euros for a good, new dish washer that would last us another ten years.
Part of the delivery deal with BCC is that you remove the old machine by yourself, or they charge you 90 bucks an hour for the job. They'll hook it up for you for free, but getting rid of the old one would cost you. So I set to the task which sounded so simple when my colleague Wim explained it to me... Ya...
I found out that, like many other things in this house, the kitchen had been built around the existing stuff. In this case the cabinet for the sink had its bottom plate adjusted in such a way that it neatly fit around the hoses of the washer. It however did NOT allow the auto shut-off on that same hose to pass through >[ In the end I had to tear a 10x3 cm hole in the side of said cabinet to get the shut-off out.
Oh well... At least it's out now.
Tomorrow we'll get the new dish washer, which will get installed so I won't have to go through that crap anymore. Brugman will also be delivering all the materials for our bathroom, installation of which should proceed next week. Unfortunately the delivery men will carry everything -except- the boxes of tiles into the house. This means that Marli will have to schlepp a lot of heavy boxes with her bad back. I worry about that a little bit.
I'm sorry if it sounds like I'm complaining a lot. It's because I am and that's because I'm tired, we're both tired and we're both... tired. :)
kilala.nl tags: house,
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2009-06-18 20:50:00
The movers came at 0800 and were done at 1515. Not bad, not bad, especially given that we spent at least 45 minutes getting their truck parked at the flat. All manner of cars were parked in such a way that they couldn't get in, including one van that the movers decided to move themselves. Apparently the owner'd left the keys in the ignition ^_^
The move went fine, with two minor spots of damage to our more expensive pieces of furniture. Everything went fine and to our (happy) surprise the living room is actually a bit larget than we'd expected. Everything fits! /o/
Now, I'm off to put up the shelves in the store room and after that I'll probably go to bed. Tomorrow will see The Great Unboxing(tm) and on Saturday I'll need to spend a few hours cleaning the Utrecht apartment. Sunday's my dad's birthday and monday we'll sign over the old flat. Then it's back to work for me.
*ponders* It might be wise if I found some time tomorrow to register us as inhabitants of Almere, at city hall.
kilala.nl tags: house,
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2009-06-17 22:54:00
See? See? I knew it! It's almost midnight and I'm still preparing for tomorrow's move to Almere. I knew it! I spent half the evening gathering all kinds of kruft into boxes (packed at least a dozen more boxes!), and the other half on tearing down lamps and fixtures. *sigh* Now all I need to do is disconnect the washer and dryer once they're done with their last runs. I also need to figure out how to completely drain the washer, in order to reduce weight.
Speaking of water, I've also spent half the evening (a third half?!) mopping around the freezer, since that was turned off around 1900 as well. Stupid us, we'd never defrosted it before, in all the three years we've had it. So there was a lot of ice to get rid of.
Now... Marli and Dana have gone to spend the night at Mar's mother's place. She and her husband will be taking care of Dana for two days, while we move into the new house and make the house habitable. That leaves me alone for the night, in a house that looks awful, with a few crappy jobs left to finish. ^_^;
Oh well... Where do you guys reckon I could get some ice cream at this hour?
kilala.nl tags: house,
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2009-06-17 07:29:00
When we started preparing for the move to the new house I signed up for a triple play deal with UPC. We'd be getting ( 10 Mbps + phone + TV + DVR ) for 43 euros a month, plus 17 euros for basic cable (which is unfortunately still a required fee with them). All in all that's not a bad deal, since we were paying about 15 euros less at Ziggo for that same deal, but at 1.5 Mbps.
The past two days various fora in the Netherlands have been in happy turmoil about the fact that everyone with a 10 Mbps sub at UPC would be getting a "free upgrade" to 16 Mbps. And you wouldn't have to do anything to get the upgrade. Nice deal, right?
Then another little tidbit made it to the web: if you -do- actually put in a little effort and phone their service desk, they can upgrade you to their newest subscription model. You'll be stuck with a completely new one-year contract, but you will then have a whopping 30 Mbps at the same price you were originally paying for 10! O_O
So yeah, I spent fifteen minutes on the phone ^_^
kilala.nl tags: geeky, other tech, internet,
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2009-06-15 17:59:00
Now that we're actually -this- close to moving into our new house I've taken to planning ahead on its IT infrastructure. We've been fantasizing about what we'd like for a few months now and now I've drawn up a little "planning". Things actually look feasible, assuming that my bonus stays unchanged for Q3/4-2009 and Q1/2-2010. Of course, the costs in the table below are only estimates.
So... Here we go!
Starting point:
* Airport Express
* Our two Macbooks
Asap:
* Airport Extreme (replaces Express)
* Samsung LCP-610nd printer
* CAT5 cabling + switch
-> E 600
Q3/4 2009:
* GDB Design Vegas Evolution desk
* Two office chairs, probably Ikea
* Dell 20" monitor
* Belkin Firewire + USB hub
* LCD monitor swivel arm (desk mount)
-> E1400
Q2/3 2010:
* Samsung LCD television
* Home cinema set
* Mac Mini (living room media center)
* Logitech DiNovo Edge
-> E 2000
The plan is to quickly move in there and to get the basic infrastructure in place. 802.11n networking on the ground and first floor, with UTP snaking its way into the attic. There we'll install the switch to hook up my desk, the printer and the hobby table. Once that's done and we're actually settled in, we'll set up my home office.
Next year we'll focus on modernising the living room. The clunky TV will move upstairs, along with the DVD player (putting the VHS into storage). A new Mac Mini along with a nice receiver+speakers will take care of all of our music needs, DVD playing, slideshows and such. Following one of Digitist's suggestions we'll get a wireless keyboard+trackpad from Logitech for the controls.
Later on, possibly in 2011, I'd like to look into -real- backups for our systems. Now everything's done using my LaCie external hard drive, but that's both cumbersome and not reliable enough for my liking. Instead, I'd like to set up a second Mini in the office, with an LTO4 library attached. The bi-weekly backup tapes can then be stored offsite, as opposed to inside the house. But that's just way, way, way into the future (and would set us back an estimated 2500 euros).
kilala.nl tags: house, geeky, apple,
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2009-06-14 15:41:00
*tosses THHGTTG out the window* Panic!
Only 88 hours to go before the movers get here. 30 of those will be spent working and travel, 30 more will be spent on sleep and food. That leaves 24 hours to make sure everything's ready for the move to Almere. Luckily Marli's done tremendous work on the packing, leaving only a number of last-minute things. I reckon I'll spend a good part of Wednesday night on removing fixtures, paintings, electronics and so on.
The new house's been cleaned and is ready for our arrival. Unfortunately I never did get around to installing all the plinths, which means I'll have to fight our furniture in the near future. That sucks a bit, but whatchagonnado?
kilala.nl tags: house,
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2009-06-14 14:57:00
Every year I buy one or two records that get played completely ragged. I never actually realized I do this, but there you go :) In general I buy loads of music (though it's only a tiny amount when compared to Marli), but only one part of this becomes my personal "hit record of 200x".
This year it's Ein kleines bisschen Horrorschau by Die toten Hosen (Wiki). As the Wiki page will tell you they're a German punk bank from the eighties that's managed to keep on playing for well over twenty years.
My first exposure to their music was in '93 when I was still in high school. Their Kauf mich! was stuck in my head for days, but back then I lacked the resources to find more of their music. Rewind to earlier this year when Menno and I unlock the Hier kommt Alex! bonus track on Guitar Hero 3 and my memory gets jogged.
Good music ^_^ Their lyrics also provide an interesting glimpse into the state of eighties, european politics and such. Something I never knew much about back then.
Friede, Freude, Eierkuchen
heisst das Wahlprogramm,
das immer noch am besten zieht
in diesem schönen Land.
Now, -that- is certainly something that has changed. These days there's much less trust and apathy towards politicians among the general public.
kilala.nl tags: music,
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2009-06-09 20:32:00
In the new house we'll be making the attic into a home office slash study slash guest room. Because I'll be spending a lot of time over there Marli told me to get myself a good desk. A by "good" I mean "good", not "better than average Ikea". I mean, nothing against Ikea, but I'd like something a bit more :)
So... I'm looking for a nicely designed desk that's easily adjustable in height. I don't want to fiddle with screws or bolts and have to take stuff off the desk to change it. Instead, I'd like something with a winch or an electric motor.
For now I'm eyeing the GDBI Vegas Evolution, which fits the bill. The price for a 180x80 desk actually isn't that awful, at 480 before tax. I'm not counting the taxes, since I can probably buy the desk through my employer.
If anyone has suggestions for another desk, I'd love to hear about it :)
kilala.nl tags: house, sysadmin,
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2009-06-08 18:59:00
Hmmm, I'm puzzled... Two years ago I wrote that medicine based on cetirizine was doing a deal of good for my allergies. I'd forgotten about that discovery and bought Reactine this year, which only seems to get rid of 70% of the problem. Now I come to fine out that Reactine actually -is- cetirizine, just with a company brand.
So... Was my view in 2007 skewed? Or could it be that in 2009 the medicine's less effective for me?
EDIT:
By the way, cetirizine is also the active ingredient in Zyrtec which is what best-buddy Menno was popping in the early and mid-nineties. To my knowledge it's also the first anti-histamine I got a taste of, because I had my first allergy attack on a sleep-over at Menno's place. Ahh, memories ^_^ Back then the stuff was still on prescription basis.
Maybe this year I should try something based on levocetirizine, as was suggested by Raimond in 2007. According to Wikipedia it's in the same (3rd) generation of H1 anti-histamines as fexofenadine, which is what Menno and Iain are taking these days. The Fexo stuff's on prescription though, so I'll have to check of that goes for levocit as well.
EDIT2:
Damn, yes it is. I guess I'll have to make a call to my GP.
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2009-06-08 05:45:00
Tonight was the worst attack (by far) in a long while. I woke up around 0300, thinking it was because I had to go to the loo. It was only after walking a few meters that I noticed that familiar tingling and I started to get light in the head.
Not having a bag close at hand I rushed into the kitchen, emptied a bag of bread on the counter and then rushed back to the loo. I was just in time, because I almost fainted and fell down in the hallway. Man, this was a heavy and scary attack.
Lessons learnt:
* Double check that I always have a bag at my bedside.
* Find a way to communicate with Marli in the new house.
Currently, the john is right across the hall from our bedroom. In Almere, it'll be at least twenty meters away from our bed, with a few bends and doors in between. Why is this a problem? Because Marli didn't even wake up from my yelling across three meters tonight :/
My guess is that tonight's attack was caused by the fact that I finished the house today. Sure, there's still a huge amount of small things to get done, but all the big work's been done and technically we're ready to move into the house. That's a big load of my shoulders. I also think that my allergies, which were awful yesterday (and still are), also played a role.
And now it's time to go back to work. My "holiday" is over and I need to get back to my job in IT. That feels really weird, because for the past two weeks it felt like interior deco was my job ^_^
kilala.nl tags: health, body, hyperventilation,
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2009-06-06 18:56:00
While browsing through Akiba Guide I found a doujin that I'll definitely order from Japan: Guidebook to true Japanese culture (partially NSFW). Contrary to the book's title, the "guide" actually offers a completely skewed (and screwed) look at Japan's culture. It's great to see stuff like this where they start seriously, only to go off into Lala Land completely ^_^
Similarly there's the Japan Culture Lab video project, by Rahmens. Their videos offer a hilarious look at some of the things we in the west have to come see as "true Japanese culture", such as sushi and geisha. Each video combines over-the-top seriousness (there's diagrams! /o/) with complete and utter lies (like the wonderful "chef's special" in the sushi clip below).
I haven't laughed this hard in a while :D I'll definitely order the DVD.
By the way, I immediately spotted one of the actors from the clips (and apparently one of the two people behind Rahmens) as one of the actors from Udon.
EDIT: There we go, his name's Jin Katagiri and apparently he's also the brain behind Japan's "Get a Mac" commercials :)
kilala.nl tags: japan, awesome,
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2009-06-06 00:30:00
Yesterday I had my electrician, Peter Philipsen, come in to upgrade our house's electronics and to get rid of all the dangerous crap left by the previous owner. All I can say is: Peter gets the job done! He's a pleasure to work with, his work's good, he knows what he's doing and he bills fairly. If you're in the Almere area and ever need an electrician, I can heartily recommend him.
Today (and tomorrow) the guys from Kern Parket took care of our birch floor in the living room. Stripping off the 10 year old lacquer revealed a -beautiful- floor. It really is damn awesome! <3
kilala.nl tags: house,
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2009-06-06 00:23:00
Last weekend, as a treat to both herself and me, Marli had another pro photo shoot at Glamour Vision. As always the people there were great and she had a great time. You can see a few of the results over here.
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2009-06-06 00:13:00
Dana started teething a few weeks ago. Quite unexpectedly this little, hard bump formed on her lower jaw and since then a beautiful, little, white ridge has come through. It's real cute and she knows how to use it! (Ow, my cuticles). The first tooth never gave her any trouble and she was just as happy as always.
Her second tooth (we expect) isn't going to be as merciful though :/ We put her to bed around 2030 and she's been crying ever since. Marli took the first two to three hours and then it was my turn. For now I've found that it actually works quite well to give her something to play with, with just a bit of light flowing into her room. She's been moaning a bit, but she's been generally quiet for half an hour now. Phew!
Tomorrow I'm getting those drops or a rub or something, that will ease the pain a little.
EDIT @0034:
Damn... She slept for half an hour, then woke up screaming again =_= Marli's about to break too, since she keeps on getting woken up by Dana even though I'm with her.
EDIT @0618:
Well fu... Starting from 0100 she started sleeping for an hour in a row, then waking up again. Then from 0400 she slept until 0600. *groan* So her and me both got about 5.5 hours of sleep in four intervals (though she had hers in a bed and I mine on the couch). I don't think it's a good idea for me to drive to Almere today, but I -have- to be there at eight for the floor-guy. *sigh* We'll figure something out.
EDIT @1040:
Apparently the teething is also giving her cold symptoms, such as a very stuffed nose and couching. All of a sudden I'm getting flashbacks to our three months old baby, with a head cold and crying in bed. I don't know whether to smile or to be sad :)
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2009-06-01 18:01:00
... and to rub and punch the insides of my head... D:
Yes, it's that time of the year again: hay fever! /o/
=_=
My Reactine was pretty successful in keeping my allergies at bay for the first two weeks, but since yesterday it's been out in full tour de force. At least I knew that Allerfree does jack-sh1te for me, so I didn't "suffer" up until now.
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2009-06-01 16:51:00
The second day of Whitsun is a national holiday in the Netherlands. This means that, unlike last week, I'm no longer one of the few that's busy around the house instead of working :) I had to drop by at Gamma (local DIY store) and there were about fifty people queueing outside at 1000. Holy carp!
Anywho... The progress I'm making makes me hopeful that we can actually make it in time, finishing the house before we move in on the 18th. That's less than three weeks from now! Zoinks! o_O
Progress report:
* All ceilings on the ground and first floors have been whitewashed. They look good.
* All walls on the ground floor have gotten their off-white-reddish-purplish coat of paint. They look good as well.
* This means that downstairs is ready for the floor man to come in and do his thing. Also, after the electrician's done I -may- have to do a few touchups.
* Tuesday and Wednesday I'll paint the upstairs rooms and hallways.
* Thursday the electrician will come and do His Thing (tm). I'll first need to prep the attic and then I'll probably move on with painting over there.
* Friday and Saturday the floor guy'll be in so we'll have no access to the kitchen and we'll be stuck working upstairs. If at all. Yikes. I hadn't realized that, especially since I've also asked Menno to come and help me out. Meh... I guess we'll focus on the garden instead.
* Sunday my brother-in-law Davy will come'round to help me out. We'll probably be applying plinths in all the upstairs rooms.
That leaves me with the plinthing that needs to be done downstairs. I guess I'll have to come in one or two week nights, after work, to get that done.
EDIT:
Initially the paint I'm using on the walls gave me flashbacks to Operation Petticoat, but in retrospect it looks pretty good. Our living room's now the colour of cherry ice cream :9
kilala.nl tags: house,
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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.