2009-08-29 21:45:00
For my birthday, Marli signed me up for the 5 voor 50 course at GMG Golf Academy. After a bit of back-and-forth I finally got confirmation of my booking, with the first lesson taking place on Marli's birthday. That of course sucks, but the class itself was a lot of fun!
Unlike what the booklet mentioned we only focused on the basics of the swing today. Stance, grip, axis of movement, swinging instead of hitting and so on. Glen, our "Pro", admitted that an hour really isn't a lot of time to teach us stuff in, so he was adamant that we should put in extra training if we actually want to get clearance for the PAR3 range. Oddly, I was the only one out of our class of ten who actually stayed at the driving range after class was over. About an hour after class I decided to head home, after sinking around 130 balls into the lake (the driving range uses "floaters" and you actually -aim- at the lake).
I learnt something extra today! I may be a lefty in daily life and I practice lefty archery, but in golf I'm a righty. That's going to make shopping for a set of clubs a lot easier.
kilala.nl tags: sports,
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2009-08-29 21:43:00
Hey dear wiffums! Happyhappyhappy birthday, to you! :)
You're 26 years old now and it's actually almost ten years ago that we met. I'm glad that we've stuck together, ever since day one ^_^
kilala.nl tags: life,
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2009-08-28 22:48:00
Yes kids, it's that time again: time for me to get hooked on new anime! Despite the change to my daily rhythm (which admittedly has been slipping) I -have- started watching a few new anime series. I mean, I've got to have -something- to do on the train to work, right? So, once again I've taken hints from the good folks at Ars Technica about which series might be worth watching.
First off, there's two that I scratched pretty quickly: Needless (scifi martial arts story, drawn in the style most will know from Yu-gi-oh!) and Chrome shelled Regios (another scifi fighting show). Both left me with a bit of a "meh" feeling, though both definitely have some good qualities. For example, I get the idea that folks who did work on Cowboy Bebop are now involved with Regios, given the chara design.
Anywho...
Umineko no naku koro ni ("When seagulls cry") is a murder-mystery story with a supernatural twist. Apparently it's based on both a series of light novels and a video game in which the main character needs to work out whether certain murders were committed by a human or some supernatural being. I'm watching this mostly for the story, as I find most of the artwork too harsh.
Bakemonogatari ("Monster tale") is in all senses sheer fscking awesome. The music, the designs, the artwork, the execution, the storyline, the writing / dialogue: awesome. It's a very slow story and not much actually happens, but it's all so very well executed! The dialogue is -full- of wordplay, of which I'm lucky if I catch 20%. The whole show has a very surreal feel to it, which is rather hard to explain. I once described it as "doing weed, without the weed".
Basquash! is art in motion. The visuals are awe-inspiring. Seriously. It also helps that the story is entertaining, that there's a lot of action and that the characters are actually likable. Like One outs before, this is my "sports" series for this season (though this time it's basketball with robots ^_^).
And finally there's Taishou yakyuu musume ("Taisho-era baseball girls"), which is more shoujo-series than sports. So far it's a very sweet and light-hearted show about a bunch of high school girls from 1925 who've decided that they want to play baseball. This'll be my happy-happy show for this season. :)
EDIT:
Just found a very interesting read: TYM history lesson, which goes into the historics behind Tiashou yakyuu musume.
kilala.nl tags: anime, tv, japan,
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2009-08-28 08:11:00
It's a shame to see the english version of AkibaBlog closing down (partially NSFW). I've been subbed to their RSS feed for nigh on two years now and love their constant stream of information on new doujin and manga releases. I've bought at least two or three books based on their suggestions, with two or three more still on my wish list. I also find their website design rather attractive and the blog posts with images are very user friendly.
As they say: all good things come to an end. I'll definitely sub to their Japanese RSS feed, even if I don't understand the writing.
Thank you very much Mr. Geek and the rest of the AkibaBlog staff.
kilala.nl tags: geeky, internet, japan,
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2009-08-27 05:40:00
*groan* This isn't going to help on Saturday's golfing class: I'm stiff as a board and have been unable to properly flex or bend for almost two weeks now. It all started when I attacked those horrible vine hedges in our yard with a heavy electrical hedge trimmer. Should've thought of doing some stretching exercises a week ago :/
*stretch* Ow! *stretch* Ow!
^_^;
kilala.nl tags: body, health, meh,
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2009-08-27 05:35:00
No, not that annoying-yet-funny guy from Friends, I'm referring to Microsoft's search engine.
On Google my website scores very high on subjects like BoKS and Nagios, two subjects I've covered in-depth on my Sysadmin pages. I do try to get really good content in there and the past two months I've also upped my SEO to make sure I'm not pissing off any search engines. But no, there's no love from Bing and even Yahoo is not giving nice results.
For example, search for something like "unix BoKS" or "FoxT BoKS" on Google and BAM! there I am: page one, somewhere in the first five entries. Try the same on Bing and I'm nowhere to be found in the first -ten- pages! WTF Bing? I've already gotten an account with their webmaster tools and I'm doing my best to fix whatever problems there are, though one of them is quite inexplicable: Bing lists my domain as untrustworthy, with a score of 2/5. Meanwhile, the domain for Open Coffee Almere which I opened not half a year ago is getting a 5/5.
Weird.
kilala.nl tags: internet, meh, work,
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2009-08-25 12:46:00
Thanks to buddy and fellow Arsian Durf for posting this in the Ars "anime/manga" thread. Yeah, when you put it that way it -does- seem weird, doesn't it? ^_^;
Luckily I'm not weaboo enough to actually believe that I could fit in, living in Japan, just because I watch anime :) I guess it also helps that I love cartoons and movies be they Asian, American or European.
No clue where Durf got the original strip though...
kilala.nl tags: japan, geeky, life,
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2009-08-21 20:49:00
Since Dana's learnt she can stand up she's been using her legs like crazy. Yesterday I said that she "putters about happily", but really: when she goes, she GOES! She's got awfully strong arms, hands and legs ^_^
kilala.nl tags: baby,
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2009-08-20 17:49:00
As per Menno's suggestions in my thread about that rut I was stuck in I've changed my daily routine.
Since last Monday I've forgone TV and the Internet during my spare time (this past hour being an exception for Dana's photos) and have instead busied myself with "real", tangible activities. So far it's had its effect, because I'm feeling happier and more energetic. I also have less to no trouble waking at five anymore. Mind you, this is probably for a large part due to the mental shift I needed to make to change my routine to begin with :)
Since then I've taken care of many small things that were left after moving, like putting up the smoke detectors, installing lights, fixing curtains and so on. This is of course a good thing because our house warming is on the 17th.
Anywho, I reckon I'll keep this up for a few weeks more. It feels good to have changed my ways.
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2009-08-20 17:46:00
Amazing! Three weeks ago Dana learnt to sit up by herself. Since then she's become quite proficient at it and she happily putters about in her playpen and on the couch. Today she progressed.
Dana has learnt how to stand up! Something that was deemed impossible thanks to her being in a Camp spreader, but there you go!
Mind you, she's still holding on to the edges of her pen, pulling herself up, but it's nonetheless pretty awesome ^_^
kilala.nl tags: baby,
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2009-08-17 11:37:00
The past four to six weeks I've overslept more days than I care to remember. Every morning my alarm clock goes off around 05:15 and I invariably wake around 06:30 thanks to Marli's alarm. This means that I very regularly miss an hour at work, which in turn has its effect on my paycheck. I also regularly come home in a bitchy mood, kind of similar to the funk I was in after returning home from Japan in Jan of 2008.
I think that the biggest factor in this is the lack of any sense of urgency at the office. The summer season is always very slow and there aren't many interesting projects around either. The fact that every day is the same routine sure doesn't help.
To put a positive spin on this Meh! blog post: I need to break through this. So, let's think of ways to get motivated again! It's situations like these that always remind me of Kiki's delivery service, because a crucial part of the movie revolves around Kiki going through something similar: what do you do when something you love to do becomes more than ordinary, becomes boring?
* First off, let's make sure I wake up at the -proper- time again. Getting an early start always makes me feel better about my day. I'll move my alarm clock away from the bed again, so I -have- to get up.
* Then, I'll have to invent a few interesting projects at work. I have -many- cool projects at home, but it doesn't help to dream about those at the office. I'll make a list of three cool projects right after finishing this post.
* I want to find something that breaks my day-to-day routine, because right now it's almost set in stone: wake, travel, work, travel, feed dana, some cleaning, cook dinner, feed dana, TV/programming. In the afternoons we've taken Dana out for walks and I enjoy those, so I suggest we do that more often. And maybe I'll need to get myself a solo, out of the house hobby *cough*golf*cough*
So... I'm motivated to get myself motivated! *fighting stance* Now let's see if I succeed!
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2009-08-12 22:04:00
As I mentioned before I'm putting together a proper web interface backend for my ramshackle CMS. So far I've come a long way in building the basic interface, after which I'll proceed with the SQL code and database connections.
Things are going to get a bit tricky because of a decision I made today: I will implement the wonderful TinyMCE text editor in my CMS. This will allow me much greater flexibility in editing my articles and blog posts and will make things virtually painless for Marli to operate.
Unfortunately there's one thing that's going to hurt: all my blog posts so far are in a different code format than what TinyMCE produces. This would mean I'd have to convert and re-import all my current posts if I want everything to be perfect. Of course I -could- technically work around this situation in a very nasty way, but I'm trying to -improve- my code, not make it worse.
So yeah, before I can actually start using the back end software, I will first need to convert both all my current content and my front end (presentation) software. "No pain, no gain", as they say...
kilala.nl tags: website,
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2009-08-10 22:16:00
The past few days I've spent a lot of time behind my new desk, programming for my website. I've finally started work on a proper backend for the entry of blogposts and such. No more hacking things into the database through PHPMyAdmin! I reckon I'll need a few more days to get version 0.1 up and running on my staging area.
Tonight I did something else though, both out of necessity and for a change of pace. Like every year I spent an evening behind my sewing machine to fix some clothes. And just like last year I spent most of my efforts on fixing a pair of jeans that cost me less than ten euros ^_^ Another pair of jeans got converted into shorts and I've also hemmed some fabrics Marli bought recently.
kilala.nl tags: creative,
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2009-08-08 21:54:00
For my birthday our friends Peter and Wendy got me a bonsai tree kit for a Japanese maple. The Acer Palmatum Atropurpureum to be exact, which is a tree that has red leaves. Now that my desk is here and I've set it up completely I've finally unpacked the kit.
Following the instructions enclosed I spent an hour searching the garden for tiny pebbles and then meticulously cleaning them. Well, the instructions didn't say that I should spend an hour yadda-yadda-yadaa, but they did mention that "it is advisable to provide a top layer of gravel to prevent early loss of moisture". So that's what I did... Supposedly it'll take the seeds four to ten weeks to sprout, after which I'm supposed to leave them alone for at least a year. Sounds boring? Maybe, but I like having a small rock garden on my desk which will hopefully be home to one or two tiny maples some day. I just hope they'll fare better than the fully grown bonsai tree I bought a few years ago.
EDIT:
Now that I think of it, I believe we have a smallish Japanese red maple in our backyard. I may pot it and put it inside before we have the landscapers take out the whole garden.
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2009-08-08 17:10:00
Our backyard in its current form is highly architected and would be a thing of true beauty if we spent four to five hours each week performing upkeep. However, seeing how we -don't- the garden feels cramped, looks messy and I don't like venturing out further than a few meters because of weeds and dozens of spiders.
A few weeks ago we decided to get rid of everything in the garden, except for maybe one or two tress. Everything else will go. The three dozen conifers, the rock garden, the pond, the borders filled with beautiful plants. Everything. Instead we want an easy garden, with low maintenance needs and with a very child-friendly design.
In order to get things rolling we requested quotes from a few different landscapers. One never replied, one dropped off the face of the earth after his first email, one we just plain didn't like and one seemed way out of our league. Ironically we're opting for the last one, because under the high class veneer and the impressive portfolio he's just a regular guy like us.
Jeroen from De groen decorateurs really impressed us with the way he handled our request. He responded to our first email within 48 hours, came to look at the garden that same week and then asked us some in-depth questions. Then today we had an appointment to go over his offer, which included a nicely drafted design and atmosphere sheet (see above). Of course I'm aware that such things have little effect on the actual gardening itself, but it does indicate a certain level of professionalism.
Anywho... As expected the quote was pretty steep and originally added up to more than double our original budget. However, with some bargaining and opting for a few cheaper solutions Jeroen managed to bring the quote down to a reasonable amount of money. They're set to begin on the seventh of September and things should not take more than a week. I'm impressed, because I thought it'd definitely take at least two.
kilala.nl tags: house,
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2009-08-08 09:59:00
Yesterday I finally took delivery of the furniture for my home office in the attic. After fighting the Madeko logistics department for two days the truck finally showed up at 1700, Friday afternoon =_=
Putting my annoyance with the logistics team aside, I'm quite happy with Madeko. They have a huge range of products and their drivers/techies/salespeople are very friendly. A few weeks ago I spent an hour on a Saturday morning going through their warehouse in Maarsbergen and it was a blast. Arjan was a great fellow and really helped me out in my choice of a desk.
He finally steered me towards the desk shown above, a Gispen Work desk which is height adjustable (with a crank) and which comes with a custom made desktop. The top is not made out of MDF like most desks are these days, but instead it consists of eighteen layers of plywood (multiplex in dutch). This makes the top bloody heavy (over forty kilos), but it's also sturdy and I can always sand it down and re-lacquer it if I feel like it.
The frame itself is rather oddly shaped, but is pretty nifty. It's actually not the legs that extend when you crank the desk, but the desktop itself is lifted on a jack-like mechanism. Very nifty and with no wobble at all.
The chair's a Comforto System 70, which is the same kind of chair we use at $CLIENT. It's been reupholstered and restored and, while a little bit wobbly, it's a good chair in the ergo department.
Both pieces of furniture are secondhand, the desk setting me back 150 euros and the chair 250. With delivery and taxes I ended up a bit over five hundred euros. That's a sight better than the near seven hundred euros I originally paid for the GDB Vegas desk.
Now, things left to do:
* Get rubber wheels for the chair so I don't damage the floor.
* Cannibalize a small coffee table to make a shelf for my Macbook.
* Get a Samsung 24" screen with a Flextronic LX swivel arm.
Putting it all together I actually stayed almost four hundred euros under budget!
kilala.nl tags: house, sysadmin,
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2009-08-07 22:22:00
Recently my father bought me the His dark materials trilogy, by Philip Pullman. Things started off real well with Northern lights and I got hooked into a fantasy series for the first time in a long while. It's pretty good and I'm looking forward to moving on to the second book.
In the meantime I've watched the movie based on the first book, The golden compass and I must admit that I didn't care for it too much. It had the same effect on me that Stardust did, which funnily enough is from the same year. I liked the portrayal of the world as it's part of the story and I loved seeing certain parts of the book in motion (Panserbjorne are awesome), but overall it felt like it was lacking something. It was rushed and a lot of important stuff was ignored or rushed through. Now I know what Marli feels like with her Harry Potter movies :)
kilala.nl tags: reading, movies,
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2009-08-07 21:50:00
With many thanks to fellow GoT member KoffieNT for posting the Weakest Link screenshot. Supposedly it was on TV just now...
kilala.nl tags: geeky, funny, tv,
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2009-08-06 21:05:00
Excellent... You cannot begin training them too early in life.
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2009-08-06 07:27:00
Lately I've been learning more and more about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and about online advertising. It's been an interesting ride and so far I'm loving it: there's always something new to learn and I am brimming with new ideas!
First off, I am now subscribed not only to Google's webmaster tools, but also to those of Yahoo and of Microsoft's Bing. The latter two show me that, while I've been pandering to Google, my current status for non-Google search engines sucks. In both cases I've now spent a few hours making sure that they both know what and what not to crawl and what to expect when doing so.
Then I've also re-learnt a few lessons that my buddy Dirk had already taught me years ago, but which I'd sort of forgotten :) I've gone over the PHP code that generates the <head> section of each page and made a lot of improvements.
* Title tags are now unique for every page.
* Description meta tags will be unique for every article, but not for blog posts.
* Keyword meta tags will not be unique, but -are- dynamic and based on the article/post tags.
* Robot meta tags will prevent indexing and archiving of duplicate content (archive & search pages).
Now all I need to do is to go over the hundred or so articles I've put up and fill out a proper summary for the description meta tag. That ought to help my standing with Bing a bit.
Finally, I recently got a fifty euros coupon in the mail from Google to try out their AdWords (advertising) service. I should've checked out my Gmail before registering, because there I'd received a hundred euros coupon (and you're only allowed one) ^_^; I've set up a few ads pertaining to BoKS that'll point viewers to my consulting page(s). I'm not expecting business to come from it, but it might spread some word of mouth.
kilala.nl tags: website, sysadmin,
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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.