2010-12-28 20:51:00
On Christmas eve we stayed over at my dad's place, who'd set up one of the attic bed rooms for the Sluyter family. It was my brother's old bedroom, which is still chockfull of boxes and stuff that he left behind when he moved to Finland years ago. I'm used to seeing those boxes, but this time one of them caught my eye because it was labeled "Thomas + Niklas: check!". Why would there still be stuff of mine lying around?
As I suspected, the box was mostly filled with my brother's old toys from our childhood days. And just as I was about to put the box away there it was! My 1980s Japanese bootleg pencil case!
I asked around on /r/anime to see if anybody knows the serie(s) used for the graphics on the box. Never underestimate the power of the hive mind, because a few hours later I had my answer! The "cool" looking robot+dude are from Metal Armor Dragonar, while the chibi robot is from the comedy show Choriki Robo Galatt. Seeing how Flomo, the company that made the pencil case, is from China and seeing how both series are not at all connected I'm pretty sure it's a bootleg :)
Putting that aside, it's Grade A childhood nostalgia! We bought these pencil cases when we were on holiday in Finland. I don't remember when it was, but I was still in primary school and I think my brother'd only just started going. So I was probably in fifth grade, maybe sixth. I had this mecha case, my sister had something that looked like Candy Candy and I believe my brother has a "normal" Grand Prix pencil case. Ah, nostalgia!
I'm thinking of fixing the case. Who knows, maybe I'll use it for something! :)
EDIT:
To take away any doubt that I'm a geek, here's the original opening of Dragonar. It really does have all the cliches, doesn't it? ^_^;
kilala.nl tags: japan, childhood, geeky,
View or add comments (curr. 3)
2010-12-23 21:02:00
The 24th of December is traditionally when we celebrated Christmas dinner. It's a Finnish thing :)
Like always my dad's arranged for a huge ham to be bought and prepared, which we'll finish tomorrow. And while we're deviating more and more from the traditional Christmas dinner I have tried to return a few key elements. Between the heavier bouts of my illness I have been baking in preparation for tomorrow: fourteen karjalanpiirakkat and a number of lihapiirakka pies.
The recipe for the former isn't very complicated and it's almost set in stone, but the execution is (as that Wiki Recipes page suggests) something that requires your full attention. The dough needs to be rolled thin as paper, the rice porridge needs to simmer down over at least twenty minutes (I burnt my first batch) and the folding of the pleats is something else as well!
The recipe of the latter varies depending whomever you ask. Like so. In our case it's a pie (resembling a calzone) from the oven, instead of the deep fried doughnut-affair described on Wikipedia. It was pretty easy to make, though the recipe from my cookbook created waaaaay too much filling so now I have two larger pies and four smaller ones. O_o
So, Finnish pastries and pies abound!
kilala.nl tags: cooking,
View or add comments (curr. 7)
2010-12-23 20:54:00
Ah, winter time, when all of us usually get sick. This year's no different: Dana caught a flu, then I did, then Marli did. Then I got better and Dana's coughing never stopped. Then Dana got antibiotics and I got ill again. All of it, exactly like last year. WTF?
At least this year we have a real winter to blame for it all, as you can see from the weather report on the left. It's been a while since we had a real winter like this :)
kilala.nl tags: health,
View or add comments (curr. 0)
2010-12-23 20:53:00
It's been a few months since I last thought about my anxieties and such, but I am confronted with them again this week. Again I am reminded that I should go have a chat with a pro, to see what can be done about them. It's odd though, how holidays that are supposed to be fun and relaxing always manage to bring out a lot of stress.
kilala.nl tags: health,
View or add comments (curr. 1)
2010-12-14 21:29:00
Tonight, after weeks of waiting and finally getting fed up with it all, I finally got the liberating email from ISC2:
"Dear Thomas Sluyter:
Congratulations! We are pleased to inform you that you have passed the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP®) examination - the first step in becoming certified as a CISSP."
As predicted they never mention anything about my passing grade, but I made it. The six months of studying and cramming paid off! Also congratulations to my work buddy Patryck, who's also passed. Both of us, on our first try. /o/
Image blatantly ripped from Super Effective, which is awesome ^_^
kilala.nl tags: work, sysadmin, awesome,
View or add comments (curr. 7)
2010-12-09 20:27:00
It's certainly been a while since I last stayed up past midnight! Usually I'm in bed by 2200, because I rise at 0500 to go to work. Not last night though, because I've started my work for Anime 2011 in earnest. I'm currently preparing the information booklet for all of our prospective dealers, which will inform them of our processes, our regulations and of our tariffs and such. By pulling a few late nights I hope to finish the whole package before the weekend, so I can send it out on Saturday.
Last night I got to bed around 0045, meaning that I've had 4.5 hours of sleep. I actually feel a lot better than I should :)
kilala.nl tags: anime 2011, anime200x,
View or add comments (curr. 0)
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.