2013-05-17 06:24:00
In many aspects our girl is showing that she's a growing kid. Not two weeks ago I looked at her eating dinner and thought to myself "That's not a toddler anymore, that's a little girl".
She's eating dinner with knife and fork now, not just a fork or a spoon anymore. Sure, she'll still wave that thing around or hold it like a pen, but she's also using it the way she should. Cutting meat or potatoes, putting some sauce on her food. A while ago we even let her make her own sandwhich for lunch; we should do that more often!
Two weeks ago she achieved her first diploma in swimming class. In my day we used to have the A, B and C diploma's for profficiency, but in Dana's case it's Kikker (frog) 1 through 7 I believe. Number 4 will be equivalent to what I know as A, meaning that you're capable of swimming by yourself and that you're completely safe in the water. For now, Kikker 1 means that she can paddle along with a surfboard and with "wings" on, that's she's making good "frogs legs", that she's swum with some clothes on and that she's not affraid to jump into the water by herself. Awesome!
Finally, she's still enjoying gym class and last week she walked the beam 100% by herself for the first time. She was so proud! And so are we by the way. She really wanted to show me during class, so she ran out and came to get me from where I was reading. She got up on that beam, spread her arms for balance and put her feet down in precise steps. That was great to see :)
Sleeping is going pretty well these days! We're still doing the sticker posters and she's still enjoying that. She goes to sleep without much hassle, though she sometimes wakes up way too early in the mornings. In general she's doing fine though.
We bought a clock for her bedroom on Queen's Day, to get her up to speed on telling time. For now, we're posting a sketch of the time that she's allowed to get out of her room. During the week and on Saturday the drawing on her closet will read 0715 and on Sunday it'll change to 0800. During last week's holiday it was 0830. She's been a champ with that and it really is like clockwork when she gets up to wake us. A few times now I've heard her open her door at the precise time, to pitter-patter to our bedroom to inform us that "mommy, the clocks match!".
Yeps, she's growing up :)
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2013-04-29 11:26:00
Or as the dutch proverb goes: "a drop of water on a hotplate".
Last week we made our first mortgage payment, after years of simply paying interest. In retrospect we should have started doing this much sooner, especially given today's financial climate, but that's a bunch of could've-would've-should've. We could've started payments the day we got the mortgage, which is almost seven years ago. But up until two years ago, the thought never occured to me because at the time I thought our savings plan had it covered. I'd conveniently forgotten that the savings cover 50% of the debt, not 100%.
Rest assured that we haven't been sailing into a storm unprepared. We already had a second savings plan building up to a nice amount, due in a few years. We also started a third plan last year, which will build up into another respectable amount. But aside from those we will also look into making annual payments to slightly affect the monthly interest fees.
As I said it's a drop in the ocean, but every little bit helps. And it feels good.
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2013-04-07 20:10:00
Last month we started a new experiment: using sticker charts in a reward scheme to improve Dana's sleeping.
Following a night in which she'd earned two or more stickers, we'd get the family together to play games. As you can see from the photograph that hasn't happened too often yet. It's actually pretty rare! But that doesn't mean that the experiment is failing, it's just succeeding in another way.
The most important thing that it has achieved so far, is that the nights have become a lot more relaxed for all of us. Dana is aware of what we expect of her, as she is reminded of it daily. And she does try to adhere to the rules, it's just that she doesn't always think about it at night and thus she does keep waking us up. But when she does wake us up, we don't get hugely angry anymore. We stay in bed (don't budge!) and tell her that she needs to go back to bed (which she does).
When she does get two stickers we make sure she knows we're very proud and happy. And obviously we enjoy the game time together :)
So far, the charts have brought us together as a family.
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2013-03-26 06:57:00
The artwork on the left was created by Zen Pencils, a website full of inspiring quotes and comics. Here is the original: 51 - Albert Einstein.
I'm posting it in relation to yesterday's blog post regarding a "bible-vs-science" pamphlet. Said blogpost may be misunderstood as being critical of the Bible, or of Christianity, while I am in fact only trying to fact check something that is being passed the Internet as truth.
The pamphlet in question has been copied numerous times and the copy I saw had no less than 3500+ Facebook shares (I have no clue how many "Likes") it garnered. It was accompanied by the message, to paraphrase: "Science keeps changing its standpoint and the Bible was always right. Don't believe me? Check it for yourself!". Said message seems an attempt to claim authority ("It's true! Don't worry, I'm sure!") instead of an actual invitation to verify the claims made. And thus the image makes the rounds of the Internet yet another time, without it being challenged or verified.
... Which irks me. Hence my love for the quote on the left: do not stop questioning. Verify facts, ask for clarity, ask for corrections and do your own research. The Discordian Pentabarf draws it into the absurd: "V - A Discordian is Prohibited of Believing what he reads.", which of course includes the Pentabarf itself.
Why does it irk me? Because many of the people sharing the image as truth are in roles of authority or education. It makes me wonder how these people would handle other inaccuracies. How does the manager deal with an employee pointing out a bookkeeping mistake? How does the teacher handle a student pointing out an error in a textbook? Do the teachers actually verify that what they are teaching is in fact correct?
Of course there is the line of practicality. It is impossible, or would border on obessions, to fact check every single thing in life. Now, where to find the balance? I'll be mulling that over for a bit :)
kilala.nl tags: life,
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2013-03-24 09:09:00
One of our acquaintances often posts images and texts to her Facebook page that she hopes are inspirational or educational to others. These include the parable of Albert Einstein humiliating an atheist professor, and so on. While I do not find myself swayed by the intended message, I do find these posts a source of continued education. Unfortunately, the person in question was not inclined to discuss the philosophical backgrounds, so the Facebook posts were very much one-way-traffic without further discussion.
In the case of the Albert Einstein parable I found myself learning about St. Thomas Aquinas' Summa theologiae and the Quinque Viae. I've also explored the various philosophical views on how evil can exist in the face of a benevolent deity, including St. Augustine of Hippo. For a very easy introduction to these philosophers I heartily recommend Van Lente's and Dunlavey's Action Philosophers! series.
Recently a new post appeared with another image that has been making rounds on the Internet: a "the bible was right after all!" comparison of Bible-vs-Science. This graphic appears to be a summary of some points made by the Evidence Bible book. Here is the original graphic.
I thought I'd educate myself a bit more on both the bible and on the history of the various subjects touched on in the graphic. In my research I discovered the wonderfully helpful Bible.cc website, which offers dozens of translations of each verse and often includes analysis of the hebrew originals.
This blog post is part 1 of a series, as I couldn't possibly discuss all eleven claims in one blogpost.
It turns out that my day of study is not original, as Rational Wiki have already deconstructed all the claims made. Doesn't matter, I like to spend time learning as I am broadening my own horizons. I love to see how science evolved over time and I have to admit it's very interesting to read the diversity in the various translations of bible verses. It's a shame I can't read hebrew, to go closer to the original sources.
Unfortunately the graphic's creator did a few things that make the claims rather hard to work with:
A: The earth is a sphere
Isaiah 40:22 could be translated as: "It is he that sits upon the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are as grasshoppers; that stretches out the heavens as a curtain, and spreads them out as a tent to dwell in:". Barnes at Bible Commenter offers that "The word rendered 'circle' (חוּג chûg) denotes "a circle, sphere, or arch"; and is applied to the arch or vault of the heavens, in Proverbs 8:27; Job 22:14. The phrase 'circle,' or 'circuit of the earth,' here seems to be used in the same sense as the phrase orbis terrarum by the Latins; not as denoting a sphere, or not as implying that the earth was a globe, but that it was an extended plain surrounded by oceans and mighty waters.". Isaiah 40 stems from roughly 600 BCE.
The belief that the earth is flat has existed in many civilizations and has changed over time. Greek philosphers had postulated a spherical earth by 600 BCE, although actual mathematical proof was only delivered in 300 BCE. The idea that "science" believed the earth to be a flat disc is commonly refered to as the flat earth myth, which appears to stem the late 19th/early 20th century when the science-vs-religion battles got stronger because of the theories regarding evolution.
TLDR: The wording of Isaiah 40:22 does not appear to suggest a spherical earth. The "science then" column differs per global region, with Europe's beliefs changing from 600 BCE onward.
B: The amount of stars
Jeremiah 33:22 promises that "I will make the descendants of David my servant and the Levites who minister before me as countless as the stars in the sky and as measureless as the sand on the seashore.". The book of Jeremiah dates back to roughly 6 BCE and is supposedly written in poetic form. This makes me wonder whether the word "countless" in this case is perhaps a literary structure used to simply indicate a huge number.
The amount of 1100 stars as claimed by the "science" column apparently stems from Ptolemy's Almagest. Dating back to ~200 CE, the Almagest is a mathematical and astronomical study of the motion of planets and stars. Books VII and VIII provide a catalogue of 1022 visible stars, which does not discount the existence of numerous invisible stars. Ptolemy states that sense perception + reason = knowledge and that sense perception is limited in exactness. Thus it's logical that there would be more, currently unseen stars. An 1898 edition of Heiberg's edition of the Almagest can be read in its entiriety over here, as PDF.
Apparently the graphic limits itself to Greek/European history. To compare, the Chinese astronomer Zhang Heng had catalogued roughly 2500 stars by 100 CE. And there are many more star catalogues, of which the linked Wikipedia article provides more background. As it goes with scientific study, progress was made once the tools improved (e.g. telescopes).
By the way, these days the amount of stars are not "countless", as there is a very real numerical representation of their current, estimated number: 9 * 10^21.
TLDR: The graphic refers to one specific historical document for its scientific number, Ptolemy's Almagest. To my understanding this book did not claim that there would not be more than 1100 stars, but simply that more had not yet been observed.
C: The weight of air
The translations of Job 28:25 differ greatly, from "He decided how hard the winds should blow and how much rain should fall", to "When he gave to the wind its weight and apportioned the waters by measure". I would not read this as the literal "weight of air", but instead as the metereological subjects of wind and rain. Greater minds than mine have pondered this subject and they also differ in opinion on what this verse means. Some think it's about how strong the wind blows, some read it to indicate that God has planned every single detail of this earth and some take it to actually refer to the weight of air and the measure of atmosphere.
The modern study of atmospheric chemistry only got to a real start in the 18th century. An excellent read on the subject is Gaston, Subramanian and Zauscher's "The History behind the Discovery of the Earth’s Atmospheric Composition" (full PDF). In 350 BCE Aristotle hypothesized that air included water (vapour), which was finally proven by Nicolas de Cusa in 1450 CE. Only in the late 1700's did scientists learn to capture and study gases.
In the classical and medieval eras, the understanding of our atmosphere was understandably rather limited. The sublunary sphere (sub luna, e.g. "under the moon" but above the earth) was thought to be composed of the four classical elements: water, earth, fire and of course air. Beyond the moon, the region that contains the stars, was thought to consist of aether. In medieval times many of the Christian church's philosophers, including the aforementioned St. Thomas of Aquinas, also believed in the classical elements of water/earth/fire/air.
The classical element of air was discussed by Plato in his 360 BCE Timaeus, a monologue on various subjects including the famous "golden ratio". Supposedly, he "said of air that its minuscule components are so smooth that one can barely feel them", suggesting that both Aristotle and Plato considered air to consist of various components.
TLDR: Opinions differ on Job 28:25 and many translations refer to the metereological force of wind, not to the constitution of air. The study of atmospheric chemistry only became possible in the 18th century, due to advances in technology and science. I have found no historic sources that refer to air as "weightless", so I would love to know the source cites by the graphic's creator.
D: Each star is different
This is certainly another one that's hard to trace! Again I would very much appreciate a source for the graphic's creator's claim that "science" said that all stars are the same. You know what? I can completely wipe this one off the table, because of Ptolemy's aforementioned Almagest. Not only did the document include a catalogue of the 1022 stars visible to them, it also classifies each star by it's trajectory, by it's position and on a logarithmical scale of luminocity. So in 200 CE: stars are definitely NOT the same. I will need to look into Hipparchus' works and the other catalogues to see how they thought about it before that.
The cited bible verse, 1 Corinthians 15:41, could be translated as: "There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory". I like Barnes' explanation: "[Paul] here says [that] in the heavenly bodies themselves, there was a difference. They not only differed from those on earth, but they differed from each other. The sun was more splendid than the moon, and one star more beautiful than another. ... The argument is, since we see so great differences in fact in the works of God, why should we doubt that he is able to make the human body different from what it is now, and to endow it with immortal and eternal perfection?".
TLDR: The cited bible verse hopes to provide confidence to the reader, regarding the afterlife: if God can create this huge diversity, then don't you believe he could also make you immortal? So yes, the bible says that many/all stars are different. However, the image's creator is dead wrong in saying that "science" denied this.
Right... That's it for now. I'll continue with the remaining seven subjects later. So far, it's been an interesting read! I've learned a lot! :)
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2013-03-13 19:52:00
About a month ago we decided that we'd need some professional help with Dana's sleeping issues. This is why we visited the local healthcare association, to have a chat with a guidance counselor. We're allowed five consultations free-of-charge, as a service provided by the government. Very cool.
The lady in question was friendly and patiently listened to our story, one she's undoubtedly heard many times before. We explained what's happening and our theories on why it's happening. We also described the battles we go through at night and all the things we'd tried to get Dana to cooperate.
One of the most important take-aways was that the whole thing had become shrouded in negativism: everybody in the house knows it's a bad situation and we're all very stressed out. So her suggestion was to turn things around: spread positivity. We should give Dana compliments for stuff she does well during the day, thus providing the attention she appears to be craving at night.
Another important point was that children are nigh-on incapable of learning during their bedtime. This explains why we often have the feeling of talking to a brick wall when trying to get her to stay in bed. Dana's mind seems to be stuck in a short loop, while we're talking and explaining and pleading and ranting and raving. Well, now we know why. So we are told to explain everything regarding bedtime and sleeping during the day, as she won't be able to catch on at night.
One way in which we would be combining these two learning points is by setting up a... well, a reward scheme :)
Every week, we make a poster with three columns for each day. Each night, Dana can earn up to three stickers and if she gets two or more, we will play a game (or do something else) with the three of us. The categories in this case are: 1) go to bed without quarrels and don't make a fuss at night, 2) go to the toilet by yourself, without waking mom and dad and 3) close your bedroom door yourself.
Category #3 is the easiest, after we've taught her how to close her door. One easy achievement every night is a good motivator, so she sees that 2 or 3 stickers are attainable. Categories #1 and #2 are where the challenge lies, as she's prone of seeking our attention by wailing or by walking into our room. That's what the swirls in the middle column mean right now: "good job on going to the loo, but you still came to wake us up".
Ironically, tonight she walked into our bedroom: "Mom! Dad! Wake up! I went to the bathroom without waking you! Great huh?" *facepalm*
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2013-02-25 19:41:00
At home Dana's sleeping appears to be ever so sloooowly improving. She's going to bed with less of a quarrel and she stays asleep longer. Just last night she only woke up once, around 0246 and then she slept until 0700. Her sleepover with her grandparents was a different story though! A bit of ruckus at bedtime and she woke up at least five times. Poor grandma! Then she woke at six and didn't go back again. So yeah, mixed bag.
She's been home all week, as the school's closed for spring holiday. Dana didn't like that very much, which showed because she's had quite the mouth on her these past few days :(
We've started teaching her to cycle without the training wheels on her bike. That's been going pretty well actually! I just grab her by the back of her jacket to balance her, while she paddles along.
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2013-02-25 19:38:00
Just got the results from my test, the operation was successful.
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2013-02-24 20:52:00
For the past few months I've been undergoing personal coaching, by Menno. Today we simply spoke about the successes I've booked over the past few weeks. All of them were brought on by actions I undertook based on the coaching i've been receiving. Each of the following was an 'action point' or 'todo' item from our sessions.
kilala.nl tags: coaching, work, life,
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2013-02-10 11:54:00
One of the recuring themes in my coaching sessions with Rockover are "structures": things you put in place to act as reminders of something that you need to (or want to) change. I've talked about one of'm before. In order to solidify my new motto, I've given it the same treatment as the previous one that I took in: both adorn the inside of my dou, the torso armor worn in kendo.
Sure, my kanji look crappy, but it will serve its purpose: to remind me of what I want to achieve at the beginning of every training session, class and seminar.
EDIT:
That photograph reminds me: the Agyo omamori in my dou is officially way overdue on being returned to the shrine it came from. We bought it in Nara in october of 2011 (photo of the temple), meaning that we were supposed to return in three months ago. Since I'm not religious I don't believe I'm calling down any bad luck upon myself, but then again I do value tradition :) Maybe I should drop another email to the dutch shinto shrine.
kilala.nl tags: life, work, kendo,
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2013-01-12 13:45:00
Quite a while ago my dear friend Menno started a career in personal coaching. He's still a civil engineer, but as a side business he runs Rockover Coaching which is based on the co-active coaching formula. It took a lot of hard work, but he's now ready to start working with clients. As part of his startup year, he asked me whether I'd like to be a 'victim' and I gladly accepted. I may have an ingrained mistrust of coaches, but I know I can trust the guy who's been my best friend for 27 years ;)
Over the past few weeks we've used a lot of different techniques to explore various topics, such as:
So... After almost three months of weekly coaching I have to say it's a lot more fun and interesting than I thought before starting with Menno. I had a few other touch-feely courses (through work) before this, but none of those were as comfortable as this.
kilala.nl tags: life, work, enryo,
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2013-01-03 05:43:00
Another year has come and gone, time to look back. It's not every year that my brother gets married ;)
Careful, that's a lot of links down there :D
After twelve years together and eight years of marriage, Marli and I are feeling as good as ever about our relationship. Actually, we're feeling better than a few years back when things were slightly bumpy. Between our life together, our lovely kid, my job and all of our other activities, things are looking pretty good <3
After Marli had her gastric bypass operation in 2010, her weight had dropped considerably. While the loss has slowed to a trickle, she lost a further 7kg in the course of 2012. This is no doubt at least partially due to her starting running, something she'd always hated. All in all the results are awesome and a photoshoot she did late last year led to this six-year photo retrospective. Another reason for the continued weightloss is that Marli has been planning all of our family meals ahead of time, allowing for efficient shopping and proper portioning. She now has a binder containing all of 2012's meals and that'll keep on growing through 2013.
Dana, my other favorite girl, has had a very busy year :) She's drawing up a storm and keeps on getting better, and after watching her first anime with me she visited the Anime 2012 convention with us. Like her mother, Dana had a photoshoot and like her father she's had a few cases of anxiety. Even before starting school she learned to write her name and now that she's started primary school (where she's making lots of friends) her writing is expanding rapidly. And now that we're taking her to swim more often, it's time for swimming lessons!
As a family we had a great holiday in Austria.
As for me, I first got rid of my beard, then grew that out again and got rid of my long hair. After holding out for years, I finally got onto Facebook and I made some progress with my anxieties. I completed my therapy sessions and have learned a lot, but I still get some setbacks. Speaking of improvements, I've been learning a lot about professionalism at work and I've buckled down to retain my CISSP certification. In the health department, I've had a vasectomy (ow!) and I've had yet more wisdom teeth pulled (OWOWOW!)
Did I mention we met two additions to our household this year? Their lovely and we've really grown to love them. They also like to pretend to be my assistants whenever I work from home, but all they ever do is sleep in my lap blocking my keyboard. Oh well.
As for my kendo, it really is a red thread running through my life. Not a week goes by that I'm learning something new or I'm working on related projects. At the beginning of the year, Ton-sensei invited me to start wearing bogu and I'm loving it. Marli really is my biggest supporter in kendo as she's always making arrangements for me to attend tournaments (my first and second tourneys) and lectures. She's also the one who kicked me into taking two trainings each week, allowing me to join in with the Amstelveen group. In Amstelveen I met a great group of people and I've made some very nice acquaintances.
As I said, not a week goes by without kendo and it shows in all of my projects. I've designed clothes for our dojo, I've designed patches for our uniforms. The shirts came out real nice. I've also built a completely new website for our dojo and I'm making regular updates, writing short articles.
In the little time I had left, I geeked it up with some games and anime. I've watched Sakamichi no Apollon, Serial Experiments: LAIN, 5cm per second, K Project, Sword Art Online and House of Five Leaves. I've also played a lot of Shadow Era (both online and at the table), C&C TA, Galaxy on Fire 2 and Ticket to ride. I'm also enjoying the heck out of my seventies hifi setup.
It's been a great year :)
kilala.nl tags: retrospective, life,
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2012-12-21 06:01:00
Last night was the first time Dana attended a church gathering. It's not the first time she was in one (marriage of Marli's cousin), but this time she's old enough to understand what's going on.
It was a nice service, with plenty of singing and stories. I liked that they brought children to the front repeatedly, to get involved with the proceedings: it wasn't one-way traffic. Dana certainly seemed to enjoy it and we were impressed with how well behaved she was, sitting up front with her class. It was also a bit nostalgic, hearing songs from my own childhood again :) It says something about the duo, that Elly and Rikkert's songs are still being played and sung in schools after all those years. Dana's class sang Een koning is geboren (A king was born) in 2012, which we also sang in 1985-1990 and I don't even know when it was originally written :D
Was there anything I didn't like? Sure! For one, I'm used to alms bags like these where one is offered a bit of privacy. They entice people to give a little money, while not shaming them for giving "too little". And even if you gave nothing, you could still fake it. At yesterday's service however, collections were gathered using two open tupperware boxes. For another, I disliked the way other people (mis)behaved. While I'm agnostic/a-religious, I do behave respectfully in a church: I shut up and sit quietly, giving others the peace they might need. But whoa Nelly, was that church a ruckus. Plenty of parents filming, talking, laughing, sometimes walking around. Sure, I know it was "just" a school's christmas celebration, but still... it's someone's house of worship. Behave :)
Friends and colleagues will quip: "So, didn't you burst into flames stepping over the threshold?" because yes, I'm fervently a-religious. While I can generally be labeled an apathetic agnostic ("there is no proof of a deity's existence or nonexistence, but since this deity (if there is one) appears unconcerned for the universe or the welfare of its inhabitants, the question is largely academic") there is no love lost between myself and any religion. Yes, I believe that many religions contribute some good to the life of their followers, but I also believe these same religions also have negative effects on these same lives.
I recently had a discussion with Menno about this topic insofar that I did have strong doubts about sending Dana to a denominational primary school. This discussion was of course a continuation of multiple talks I had with Marli before signing Dana up for schoo. "What if", I feared, "they instill in her certain values and thoughts that I strongly oppose?!"
After all these talks I concluded that:
It'll be fine :)
kilala.nl tags: life,
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2012-12-16 08:46:00
The fact that I haven't even written about it yet means that we were a bit underwhelmed. After seeing Afrika! Afrika! and after seeing Corteo earlier this year, I guess Alegria just couldn't match. A!A! was our first and we were very impressed, Corteo's acts were a bit less exciting but the music and storyline pulled it all together. But with Alegria it was mostly just the music that we really loved, because the lack of a storyline made for a "normal" circus show with fancy costumes.
I reckon it's best if we lay off the circus for a few years :D
kilala.nl tags: awesome, life,
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2012-12-07 19:37:00
Kids hide stuff in their beds, it's a given. Under their mattress, under their blankets, or in this case: under her pillow.
Ever since she's been sleeping badly, we've been letting Dana sleep with her room lights on to their lowest setting and with a book in bed. In this case, a book from the Mr Men series. It was getting crumpled a bit, but tonight it was missing. Or actually, hidden. Apparently Dana had torn it up sometime last night (or this morning) and then decided that it was a bad thing that she did.
So she hid it.
Under her pillow.
Which is a 20x20x20cm cube. *facepalm*
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2012-12-04 19:47:00
Don't mind me, I'm just sulking and moping. ... With this terrible ache in all the diodes down my left side.
Either way, as the title says: when it rains, it pours. When sh*t goes down, it goes _down_.
Ahh, it's not all bad!
Luckily, our good friend Michel comes to the rescue and he'll come babysit Dana while we visit Cirque. Kaj and Natalie would've come, if they were sure they'd already had chickenpox; but they weren't. Awesome friends! /o/
Dana is fine with the chickenpox, just coughing a lot.
Tomorrow we'll need to get a guy in to finally fix our plumbing. Which in turn should fix our heating.
kilala.nl tags: meh, life, house, health,
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2012-11-22 07:12:00
And as promised, here's the collage of Marli from 2000 through today.
She was very much looking forward to seeing all the different hair styles she's had through the years. Natural blond (before I met her), various purples, followed by braids, followed by a shockingly red pixie cut. On through various shades of aubergine and a short fling with bright pink/purple and then back to a natural blond in 2008, followed by bright blond highlights starting in 2010/2011. :)
Speaking of 2010: that picture was taken by our dear friend Kaijuu, on the night before Marli's gastric bypass surgery.
kilala.nl tags: life, body, retrospective,
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2012-11-21 21:51:00
After seeing our recent retrospective of Marli over the past six years, a few of my colleagues asked for something similar of myself. So I did a little digging and found a representative photo for every year dating back to 2000. Overkill? Maybe. Fun? Sure! :)
An interesting thing to note: while the 2007 photograph suggests I was at my heaviest back then, I wasn't. In 2003, while working at ING, I recall being almost 110kg because I then took a crash diet. In 2007 I weighed in around 98 kilos. I then started running in 2009, dropping me down to 85 kilos and our changed diet since Marli's operation in 2010 took me down to my current 75 kilos (with 72 being my all-time low in late 2011).
And yes, I'll make a similar compilation of Marli as well.
kilala.nl tags: life, body, retrospective,
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2012-11-18 16:02:00
A few days ago, I posted a retrospective of the past two years with regards to Marli's weight loss. I thought I'd add to that a retrospective in images, of the past six years. All photographs were taken at Glamour Vision Fotostudio in Lelystad, which we first visited in 2006.
The middle set of photographs was taken a bit more than a year before Marli had her gastric bypass surgery. It reflects her physique at the time of the operation pretty well. In the 2006 photographs she was a bit lighter and obviously the rightmost set is after losing 68 kilos. The difference in the photographs is quite stunning!
I have to admit that I love the cuteness of the 2009 photographs, but honestly there are no regrets! I still find Marli awesomely attractive and the operation certainly was for the better!
It's very funny, the difference that a bit of makeup and a good stylist makes! This is how I know Marli in daily life and her face is _SO_ different in the photoshoot!
kilala.nl tags: life, body, health, awesome, retrospective,
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2012-11-02 20:46:00
Dana's been in school for about a month and a half now and she's having a blast! Aside from loving school itself she's also making some friends, whom she really likes.
Obviously she was already friends with Levi and Matz from across the street, but since going to school she's also gone to visit Gracia from down the street a few times. She also came to our place a few times and there's even been lunches shared :) There's also Naomi, who is just about the same age as Dana and who came to her birthday. And there's Iris who has two years on Dana, to whose birthday she was recently invited. Glee! Our daughter's first birthday party invite.
kilala.nl tags: baby, awesome, life,
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2012-10-28 08:29:00
Mmmm... So, the past two weeks I've been feeling off. Weird. Tired and stuck. At first I thought it might've been a flu, because I was dead tired and because I kept having these muscle aches. It was messing with both my work and my kendo. The prior because I had to take a sick day, the latter because I had to cut two classes short.
I wrote off the notion of flu after the first week and thought a bit more. Putting a few things together I now reckon that I'm in the process of slowly burning out. I've been pushing myself a bit too hard at the office, trying to fill the void of two colleagues who were off. That didn't turn out too well, I guess.
Course of action:
kilala.nl tags: life, meh, work,
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2012-09-29 16:02:00
Today's been great. Class was good exercise, we had a nice lunch and now I'm just hanging around a bit with Dana. Reading, writing, cleaning a bit. The weather's glorious too :) And now it's time for a bath with Dana!
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2012-09-15 16:53:00
Just a few small things :)
kilala.nl tags: life, baby, cat,
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2012-09-08 20:59:00
I'm very grateful for how Marli accomodates my kendo aspirations. Tonight we cancelled not one, but two family gatherings so we could attend the Renshinjuku season-start buffet. At Renshinjuku it's tradition to hold buffets for festive occasions, like christmas or the end/start of a kendo season. Tonight's party followed a big training session with about three dozen kendoka having at eachother. There was a lot of energy in the room :)
Marli, Dana and myself arrived about twenty minutes early, so we got to watch the last part of the training. We were also in time for Heeren-sensei's speech to the group. Four of our members graduated their exams at the recent seminar. Our two dojo managers were thanked for their hard work and their new replacements were welcomed. And I was thanked for my work on the website.
While the kendoka were showering and dressing the rest prepared the buffet. There was a lot of great food!
Despite the fact that we were the only ones from the Almere dojo, we enjoyed ourselves. I'm very glad we went :)
The food in the photo is what we'd prepared for the potluck. And when I say "we" I mean "Marli". She slaved away in the kitchen yesterday, making Nigella Lawson's maple chicken&ribs and a wonderful cake with the RSJ logo. She's awesome ( ^_^).
kilala.nl tags: awesome, life,
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2012-09-04 13:43:00
... and back home again. :)
When we went to go get Dana from school yesterday she was absolutely knackered. She had trouble holding a conversation and looked like she was ready to keel over. On the way home she couldn't do much more than cling to mommy and reply with short sentences. Luckily an icecream at home woke her up again! ( ^_^)
Marli tells me that, on her second day in school, Dana was already completely worn out when she came home for lunch. "She could've fallen asleep in my lap if I'd let her!". And she still had two more hours in school left for the afternoon! Poor girl :)
She's loving school, but boy does it tire her out!
Sadly our problems with her at night are no longer lessening. It's gotten worse again after I handled sunday-monday night in a wrong way. Putting her to bed now takes half an hour again because she refuses to stay put. Similarly, when she woke up around 0200 this morning, it took us an hour to get her back to sleep again. Meh :/
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2012-09-03 10:14:00
Today is Dana's first day in primary school. She's been excited about going for quite a while (maybe a bit too excited) and was rearing to go this morning!
I'd stayed home to witness this special day, preparing breakfast and her ten o'clock snack. Dana was very cheery and when we got to the school she was quite curious about the other kids. She was the second kid inside the school once the doors opened, said hi to juf Marjolein and hung up her coat and rucksack.
She immediately set to playing with a counting puzzle and wasn't depressed at all about us leaving :)
I'm very curious how her day is going! I'm at home, working in my office, and she's already been there for almost two hours.
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2012-08-28 09:32:00
Well, tonight wasn't much better. She might've fallen asleep pretty quickly at 2030, but that was just about all that was good about tonight.
I went to sleep around 2215, but was woken at 2345 by a whimpering Dana who had positioned herself on the loo again, like before. It took many returns to her bed and until 0115 until she was asleep. The same thing happened around 0245 and I got to bed around 0330 again. And then again at 0600-0700. Frack! :(
So, like my colleague Marcel who also had a child-ridden night, I'm working from home powered by a liter of Finnish coffee.
kilala.nl tags: life, meh, baby,
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2012-08-27 07:13:00
EDIT: A follow-up was posted. An epiphany.
In many people, the image of a child sleeping on a toilet bowl will elicit a chuckle, maybe a "Daww!". But for me it will remind me of those nights in 2012 when my perfectly reasonable and sweet daughter turned into a shrieking hellion.
Saturday night, I put Dana to bed with her usual routine. Go to the toilet, brush teeth, read a story, one quick more toilet stop and then off to dreamland! Or so it usually goes. But saturday night, Dana wouldn't lie down for two seconds before crying out and whining that she needed to potty. Mmm, okay? Odd. So we went through that spiel no less than four times, with every time turning out that there's really nothing coming out and that, no she doesn't need to pee. But every time she lay down, she cried and jumped up again.
So we turned to denial: no, you can't go to the toilet anymore, it's bed time now! Screaming ensued. Fist pounding, stomping her feet. And she persisted that she did need to go potty. Marli held her in her arms trying to calm her down. Wow, it was like she was torturing Dana because she screamed, she kicked, she begged and pleaded. Yelled that she was in pain, that mommy should let her go, why wouldn't she let her go?! Et cetera.
My thoughts quickly turned to a UTI, but she had no fever and she also said she didn't have any pain at all. Also, during the day she'd been fine. But we took her to the doctor's anyway: wrap her up in her bathrobe, put her in the car (she was suspiciously quiet), get her examined. The doctor confirms: she does not appear to have a UTI or anything, she's fine! No pain, no tension, nothing. On the way home Dana falls asleep in the car without a peep.
But when it's time to get her from the car and put her into bed again: BOOM! Crying! Yelling. The only way to quiet her down, was to put her in bed and stay with her.
That should've been my first clue. When I got up again, she cried and yelled. By 2330 I was worn out and fed up and told her to scoot: I'd be with her when she fell asleep. That got her to sleep finally.
Last night was confirmation that I'd fallen for it yesterday: right after the usual routine, she says: "Look daddy, I scooted! Will you sleep in my bed again?". Yep, this is nothing but attention seeking and trying out boundaries! So I told her no. Queue the screaming.
Same thing as last night, her constantly claiming that she needed to go to the bathroom and me telling her no and that she'd already been twice. After that, I did nothing but put her back into bed and close the door again. That went on for fifteen times, over about twenty minutes. In that timespan she escalated through whining and wimpering ("I want to go to the doctor again."), to crying, to screaming, to kicking and pounding the door. And of course she also tried escalating from pee, to poop and finally to puking. "Daddy! I'm sick I need to puke! Listen!" and yes, she proceeded to puke. Motherf*@#%! And that's when Marli took over.
She didn't get much further, sadly. And Dana proceeded to dry heave herself into two more rounds of puking. Which is when we broke and gave in. "Fine, go to the toilet all night. Here's toilet paper. We'll be downstairs. Goodnight." An hour later I come upstairs to find her sleeping on the toilet, doubled over as in the sketch (of course I'm not posting the real photo).
And would you believe it?! When I pick her up to put her to bed, the same g%$#@@damn thing starts all over again! She'd been on the loo for an hour and still had the audacity to cry "I need to go to the toilet daddy!". Told her, "nope, now it's my turn" and just sat there for half an hour.
And she actually went to bed by herself. WTF?
It goes without saying that I'm dreading tonight. This shit is straight from Super Nanny.
kilala.nl tags: baby, meh, life,
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2012-07-27 20:14:00
The changes that I've started noticing in Marli are both interesting and brilliant. Here's a bunch of stuff I noticed during our holiday.
... maybe I can think of more later <3
kilala.nl tags: life, awesome,
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2012-06-17 11:21:00
Marli and Dana are at the Dolfinarium in Harderwijk, with our good friend Nathalie and her son Lucas. I was supposed to come along as was Nathalie's husband Paul, but where Paul was indisposed with a head cold and work, I let my anxiety get the better of me. That's the second time in a month's time that a social occasion got spoiled. Meh :/
Luckily there are also plenty of occasions that -are- successful (I'm keeping track of everything, as part of the post-therapy work), but stuff like this always stings a little. I'll just make sure not to beat myself up about it. :)
Recently Marli did make an interesting observation: "Sometimes I think that the therapy only made things worse, because you're now very aware of the problem. Now you're expecting it and preparing for it even in cases where you never had issues."
Along similarly interesting lines I remarked: "One thing I really hate about my anxieties is that you (Marli) can't fully trust me anymore: is he really sick, or is he anxious and is he trying to get out of something?"
EDIT:
Pfew! Turns out it wasn't completely bad that I didn't go :|
The Norit I took this morning held the wolves at bay until roughly 1330, then they reprised their attach with a vengeance. I'm not used to activated coal passing through my system in under twentyfour hours, so four is a new record. Yikes. I'm definitely staying home from work tomorrow; I'd hate to infect colleagues with this bug.
kilala.nl tags: life, meh, anxiety,
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2012-06-16 20:01:00
It's not often that Marli gets excited about cleaning commercials. While I was making tea in the kitchen, she excitedly "Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!"s me back into the living room and rewinds the PVR. It was an ad for HG's detergent for sports clothing.
As we all know kendo stinks. Kendo armour gets a bit smelly, kendo gloves can get pretty bad and my keikogi (the jacket) is godawful every single week. Hence Marli's enthusiasm. Let's give it a shot then :)
kilala.nl tags: sports, kendo, life,
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2012-05-25 20:44:00
This weekend is reason for celebration.
Next Monday, on the 28th, is the twelfth anniversary of the day we met. That was before I even started this website and when I was still deeply vested in the SCA (hi Esther and Remco!). Roughly four years after meeting, on the 24th of May in 2004 Marli and I were married in Nieuwegein by my mother-in-law. Yesterday, that was eight years ago. It was a great day, with friends and family, one we'll cherish for years to come.
For the celebration, Marli took the wedding card I'd designed and went to Taarten van Suus. They copied my design onto a big, heart-shaped cake. The drawing's made using marzipan and I have to say I'm impressed with the way they added detail. I can learn a lot from this! Marli suggested that I take one of Suus' classes and, while at first I was sceptical, I am definitely warming up to the idea!
kilala.nl tags: life, family, awesome,
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2012-04-18 10:34:00
Over the past few days my mood had been getting increasingly bad. I was on edge, tired and just not relaxing. I think that a lot of that can be attributed to my recent interest in CC:TA. In my earlier blog post I wrote the game was addictive and it is: it'd become too easy to just waste a whole evening staring at that screen. "Let's raid a camp or two. Okay, I'm through my CP, so let's do base maintenance. Okay, now what? 45 minutes before I can anything else. Okay, let's read the forum and do some diplomacy!" And so on. All the reasons why I never got into WoW.
Then, last night I was this -> <- close to skipping kendo practice again, because of my foul mood. And as I sat there, watching the CC:TA screen, already five minutes late for leaving, I decided to quit the game. I'll set up my base so my alliance mates can raid it and then I'm out. Fsck that, I've got plenty of better things to do.It's a fun game, but nothing more than that.
Marli helped me greatly! "Do I need to push you to go?" And so she did. She quickly helped me pack all my gear and sent me on my way to Amstelveen. Gotta love that girl! ( ^_^)
Luckily I was only a few minutes late and I was just in time to join in with the warming up. After that followed kihon, followed by geiko and more geiko. The group was smaller than usual, but there were many high-level kendoka, including three from the dutch national team! I bowed out from the second round of geiko (the last twenty minutes of class) as I was feeling exhausted and was afraid I wouldn't make it back home.
Pointers I received from several of my sempai:
Thanks to Chung-sempai I now also know what a mouse feels like, when toyed with by a cat. During geiko, with every strike of mine, she darted aside and retaliated with two quick strikes and a giggle. I couldn't help but smile, while getting my ass handed to me.
Also, I don't think we've ever introduced ourselves so I don't know his name. One of the young guys who started in bogu only three weeks ago. He clocked me on my elbow with his tsuba. Twice. Hard. Man that hurt! ( ^_^) Arm's fine today, no worries.
kilala.nl tags: kendo, life, sports, meh, games,
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2012-04-16 09:18:00
Yesterday Marli and I had a rare day off :)
Kaijuu and his lovely lady Natalie came to babysit Dana, while we spent the day in Amsterdam. We had a crappy lunch, after which we went to Cirque du Soleil's "Corteo". The music was great, the show was a spectacle, but for some reason it didn't captivate me as much as Afrika! Afrika! did. It could be that A!A! was a more immersive experience, where the area outside the rink was also nicely dressed up. It could be that CdS's sound mixing is just too good. Whatever :)
Our favourite, as always, were the strap acrobats whose show was given all the more power by the wonderful music. The ladder walker, accompanied by the cute robots came in close second. Yep, money well spent! It was a nice afternoon!
The reason why I mentioned the sound mix being "too" good is because I frequently had trouble discerning which parts of the music were performed live and which came from CD (so to speak). So every time the fiddler gave a great show and it sounded crystal clear I just kept thinking "are you really this good, or are you syncing?". It's a stupid thing to get distracted by, but I did :p
kilala.nl tags: life, awesome,
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2012-04-14 19:09:00
It might not be the famed, Japanese cherry tree, but it still looks great. Our common, European cherry is in blossom right now showing its pretty, white flowers. I ought to drink a beer under its leaves tonight ( ^_^)
Let's just hope those darn ants (and their lice) leave it alone this year, so it'll stay healthy and actually grow some cherries for us.
kilala.nl tags: life, house, awesome,
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2012-04-09 15:16:00
By now Dana is on her way home, with her grand parents. That means that 2012's spring cleaning has officially come to an end.
We finished just about everything we wanted to, with only two minor chores left to do.
The only two things left are re-applying kit in the kitchen and washing the car.
What a great weekend! But now I'm beat! Up next, fix a pancake dinner for five ( ^_^)
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2012-04-07 21:32:00
Last year we started a new tradition: a big spring cleaning weekend.
Like last year, Dana's gone to her grandparents in Friesland for a long weekend of fun. We dropped her off last night, after dinner. This morning we woke for breakfast at eight, starting our work around half past eight. All in all it was a very productive day!
It's interesting to see that we got rid of a lot less stuff this year. It's not that we decided to keep more, no, it's that we're still reaping the benefits of last year's spring cleaning ( ^_^)
The rest of our three-day weekend will also be a bit more relaxed. Tomorrow we'll do the living room and kitchen, followed by a nice dinner. On Monday we'll mostly be doing DIY stuff: fix up some drapes, install cable gutters in the living room, apply matte foil coating to the kitchen windows.
kilala.nl tags: family, life, house,
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2012-03-28 17:06:00
It's not often that we encounter children as outgoing as Dana. Usually, when she walks up to complete strangers and happily announces "Hiiii! What names you?" the kid will look at her slightly bewildered and stay quiet... maybe mutter a little. But today was different ( ^_^)
Over ice cream at Paul's Ijs she randomly walked up to a girl her age and as usual curiously greeted her. And the young lady immediately chatted back at the same pace <3 We were actually ready to go home at that moment, but the girls quickly started playing and running around, so we stuck around for a while longer. The similarities were fun to note: both moms are stay-at-home, both girls are now 3yo and turn four in september and they seem to have similar personalities. And while they won't be going to the same primary school, the school are actually right next to eachother :)
So there we are! It was nice meeting you Quinty (and mom and grandparents)...
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2012-03-11 19:45:00
It seems like all I write about these days is kendo. Kendo practice, kendo gear, kendo philosphy (also in the work place). Is there really nothing else going on?
To be honest: not so much :) We're just living a nice average life.
Dana's growing up steadily, getting a bit more cheek and talking back more often. Marli's health is great and her weight appears to have stabilized for now, at 64kg loss. Who knows, maybe in a months or two it'll start going down again! But overall, our life's good :)
Even my anxiety appears to be going well. I've been going out of my way to get into situations that would have been awkward before. Last week I randomly changed my route home from work, by getting on a bus with my colleague. And yesterday I made no fuss about going out for lunch in town, nor about having to entertain Dana while Marli shopped for softwear (not software). And even when funds had run out and we were stuck with goods that we needed to pay for, nothing bad happened. Huzzah!
So... Sorry if it's been just kendo the past few weeks. :)
kilala.nl tags: life,
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2012-02-20 17:55:00
EDIT: There has been an update to this blog post.
Today was a heavy day. One that signals, hopefully for the last time, a need to make a big change in my personality.
In my written communication I often come across as highly arrogant and as if I have a god complex. I also tend to make decissions without confering with colleagues who may also be involved with the area involved. This has gotten me a few professional successes, but it's also gotten me a few reprimands, because people feel I was overstepping my bounds. This attitude also gives off the notion of a lack of confidence in others.
Today this climaxed in a meeting with my boss, two colleagues from other teams (teams A and B, us being C) and their respective bosses. Over the past year the relationships between our teams had been pretty difficult, so my boss and I went into the meeting thinking this was about clearing the air between our teams and on forging the way onward. However, it turns out that it was a meeting solely intended to discuss my attitude and my influence on our three teams. That was rather unexpected.
What was even more unexpected is that colleague R (team B), whom I've known and worked with for at least six years, now refuses to work with me. One of my emails apparently drove him into a red haze state, for which he visited his GP. I mean, seriously! That's not good! All the while I'd thought that me and R were just being the way we'd always been: sometimes friendly, sometimes sparring rather angrily. But I never expected this! It was slightly reassuring to hear from colleagues that I'm not the first one to trigger this condition in R, but it still makes me feel awful! Of course I don't want to be responsible for such an event!
The roles of two of the teams were clear in the meeting. Obviously R and his manager (team B) were very displeased and most of the hour was spent determining my failings and asking how I was going to change them. And obviously I was there to answer for myself and to hear them out (team C). I'm very thankful that my own manager backed me up fully, agreeing that things were bad, but also indicating that all of this is not a lost cause and that she saw more good than bad in me. In all this team A were rather passive. Our two departments have had a strained relationship, but we've ascertained that those troubles are not actually tied to my person.
I readily admit that I have a large ego and that in some situations I exude (over)confidence. But I also posit that a lot of the problems discussed today were due to bad communication. Specifically: due to a poor choice of words. My language is often crass and "street". I also speak in absolutes, even if I'm not actually trying to convey that. For example:
I think we can all agree that my choice of words does not match the message I'm trying to convey.
I have also re-read the email message that sent my colleage R into his bad state. And I can see where it went wrong: because of a bad choice of words and because I didn't convey the full message, assuming that the left-out parts were clear. My boss also read through the email and agrees that that's how it went. Where my email was supposed to add to an already large email discussion, suggesting that R's suggestion was sub-optimal for my team and that we would prefer another one and that we would need to discuss it further, he read the message as me putting him down in front of at least four high-placed managers.
So. Where do we go from here? Most of the points were discussed with my manager.
This will be part of my study goal of enryo (遠慮): reservation in communications and in decissions.
After all the negativity, R gave me one parting message, which stood out in its positivity: "You need to learn to open up and to trust others. Rely on them to do their thing. You cannot deal with everything yourself and you will find yourself needing their help". The reason why this message touched me so much, was because it perfectly matches the thing I need to learn to cope with my anxiety: the wellbeing of others does not depend on my effort alone.
kilala.nl tags: life, enryo, meh,
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2012-02-12 16:21:00
Ahhh :) My wonderful wife!
Years back Marli and I went through a rough patch, where I was troubled by her lack of involvement in our household. Since then she's gone through a huge change and she's now an awesome "stay at home" mom. For the past few years our work's been evenly divided and these days she's actually doing more than I am.
One of the most recent changes in her daily routine is that she has started planning ahead our meals.
Until recently we would simply buy staples and meats in bulk and rather haphazardly. This made our evenings a bit stressful, because we'd either spend half an hour going back and forth trying to decide what to eat, or we'd simply eat the same stuff all the time. But now, Marli plans on what to buy ahead, or she plans meals based on what we have available.
As a bonus, this new approach means that Marli can start preparing dinner during the day, which in turn means that we can have more elaborate dinners! Caseroles, brittish pies and other stuff that takes a lot of time to prepare are now a weekly reality! I love it!
kilala.nl tags: awesome, life,
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2012-01-05 21:38:00
It's that time again! A week into the new year it's time to look back at the past and see what happened.
First, let's have a look at Dana's 2011!
Then, all the other stuff :)
What a year!
kilala.nl tags: life, retrospective,
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2011-12-06 16:51:00
Last week I travelled to The Hague to give a presentation about BoKS. Because it's quite a trek between The Hague and Almere I took the train. Better to have myself driven back and forth, than to be stuck in numerous traffic jams and return home worn out. Now, it could have everything to do with the fact that I was re-reading Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, but I got to thinking about my past a little bit.
By train I passed through three stations that I have quite a bit of history with.
First up there's Station Haarlem. Not that I've traveled there often, but I've always loved the architecture of it all. It still retains many of the original buildings from the early nineteenhundreds, including the waiting rooms, the public lavatories and the station master's building. Absolutely beautiful and I'm sad that it's all fallen into disuse. None of these stunning buildings are being used, at all!
Then there's The Hague itself. I came here on a daily basis three years ago, working for T-Mobile. And would you believe it? I hardly recognize the place at all! Of course, they've been renovating the building for some time now and they're not nearly done. But man, it's weird to see the transformation that place has gone through.
And finally, there's Leiden Central. Way, way back, around 1998/1999 I came to Leiden every week to visit my then-girlfriend Saskia. Even two years after our breakup I still dreaded traveling to that place, thinking I might run into her. Weird huh? But what's weirder is the fact that I do not recognize the station nor its surroundings at all. It's worse than The Hague, there's really not a landmark in sight that I remember! What's weirder is, now that I started thinking about that time, I don't even remember where Saskia lived! To my mind I never even knew her address, but that's of course not true. Based on her landlord's name and entry in the phonebook (weird that I remember -his- name, right?!) I think I've found the address, but I really don't recognize anything about the neighborhood. That's the tooth of time, I guess.
EDIT:
Speaking of times past, let's see if I can't rake my mind and remember some of the stuff I used to be very big on. $DEITY it's hard to recall all of the years properly. I might've made plenty of mistakes.
In 1992-93 I dated the Pallada sisters in turn. Marieke was two years older than me and Bea a year younger. I was as inexperienced as they come and really had no clue whatsoever (^_^ ;) In 1997 I met Maya Deva (through my college's MUD), on whom I had my first college-age crush. That one went unrequited :D Then in 1998, on my first Shire gathering in the SCA, I met Saskia with whom I started a relationship a few weeks later at Polderslot's Knick Knack 1998. That lasted until sometime in 1999, with a tumultuous breakup. In 2000 I met Marli's father in Germany and Marli herself a few weeks after that. Funny story: Marli attended Knick Knack 1998 as well and back then I'd already eyed her, but decided to pursue Saskia instead.
You know? Trying to recall all of this stuff makes me wish I'd started keeping a diary much earlier in my life. Even including this website in all of its shapes and forms one could say I only started in earnest sometime in 2003. Of course, I'm sure that my teenage diaries would've been horribly angsty and melodramatic, but still... They would've made some interesting reading for the adult me.
Being in a nostalgic mood it's nice to see how some of the people from my past have turned out. Maya Deva has worked for Wizards of the Coast, designing D&D modules. She now lives in Groningen and has kids. And the Polderslot SCA group is still going strong, with many of the people I met back in the late nineties. All of them a bit older and many of them with one or two kids. Out of my college buddies, Rene is the last one I've spoken to and that was years ago. I sincerely hope that he's doing well, as he wasn't too well a few years ago. Of Saskia, I have absolutely no clue, though her friend Dineke whom I met in Rotterdam a few times appears to be doing well artist and dancer. Bas, whom I met through archery, will probably still be living in Germany, working as IT consultant. I'm told he also competed on the German national bobsled team for invalids. Ah life... Time races on, don't it?
kilala.nl tags: life,
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2011-11-11 21:03:00
Another year, another Sint Maarten. Luckily, unlike last year, we had good weather.
We took Dana past a few doors, only a few, then went back for dinner and to hand out candy to other kids. And now? We're watching Ink Heart, which I'm enjoying quite a lot :)
kilala.nl tags: life,
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2011-10-23 21:37:00
So... A week after returning home from Japan things are mostly back to normal.
Also... Yeah, I'm a brony =_= I thought I'd give the new My Little Pony show a download, for Dana's enjoyment. I'd seen a few 4Chan jokes left and right and was curious. The artwork's nice and apparently it's written/adapted by someone who was also involved with Powerpuff Girls and Foster's Home for imaginary friends, so it can't be all bad. Right? Turns out it's quite tolerable, or actually fun. Dana was hooked within five minutes. When I turned off the YouTube preview of the show she loudly exclaimed: "No! Watch horsies!" ^_^
As can be expected with anything that attracts the attention of 4Chan and other Internet geeks, MLP-FIM has its share of memes and jokes. Prime examples are PONIES - The Anthology (which is similar to the classic AMV HELL videos) and the PONIES Kanye West crossover shown below. As is pointed out in the top YouTube comment for that clip: "Even if you HATE ponies with all your soul, you gotta admit that the editting skills here are superb".
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2011-09-25 17:31:00
Aaahhhhh ^_^
On the day before our holiday mother Nature decided to grant us good weather. Nice :) I reckon this was my last chance at sun bathing this year. Marli was off to a market in town, Dana was over at a friend's house and I had an hour to kill. I love our yard ^_^
kilala.nl tags: life, awesome,
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2011-09-25 17:16:00
To speak with the parlance of today's youth: FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!
Tomorrow we'll ship off to Osaka and beyond, by ways of KLM's 14:40 KL867. Just like our flight to Kopenhagen we thought we'd do the early Internet check-in to get a jump on the crowds. Based on advice from seatguru.com we were shooting for seats 40A-C or 40G-J, since they provide a little extra legroom for zero extra euros. So, exactly thirty hours before our flight (as indicated by KLM) we hop online, check in and... wait... no, we don't check in! :(
Instead, we are thrown the ever-so-generic error: "U of een van de reizigers in uw groep kan wegens een incheckbeperking geen gebruik maken van internet check-in. U wordt verzocht op de luchthaven in te checken". Or in plain english "We can't let you check in and we're not telling you why! You'll have to check in at the airport desk". There go our hopes of grabbing some good seats, which we really kind of need, what with Marli's length and weight. It's not often that airlines encounter people over 1.91m!
So! Hop on the phone with their customer support not once, not twice, but three times!
So. Three phone calls, two unhelpful ladies, one big moment of "FFFUUUUU!", one very helpful gentleman and 720 euros later we're set up with a return flight on "comfort economy" seats for the three of us. Of course we could've gotten one EC seat for Marli, with me and Dana back in Economy, but where's the fun in that? :(
That'll teach me to properly read my airline's website for a few hours. I'd wrongly assumed that the procedures for intercontinental flights were the same as for continental.
kilala.nl tags: life, travel, meh,
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2011-09-04 21:15:00
Last Friday, the 26th of August, my sister got married to partner-for-more-than-ten-years Davy. I've got a good feeling about this: they've been through a lot together already, which is a good basis for a long-term relationship in my book. A lot happened on the wedding day, most of which was in such a flurry that I don't even remember it. Let's just say that it was a great day and that my sis is beautiful ^_^
Also, since we had a bit of a family reunion going on that day, here's a picture of my brother looking like a sway, FLC mutha ^_^
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2011-08-14 10:26:00
From Dilbert, of course.
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2011-08-12 20:33:00
Woohoo! Lovely flowers, as a thank you note from Dutch railways. I recently made sure that a fellow traveler got his laptop and medicines back, after he left them on the train. I interupted my own trip and got off at Amsterdam CS to bring the Vaio and pills to lost&found. Also, thank $DEITY for frequent flyers membership cards on bags :) A quick phone call to the airline's members service and fifteen minutes later the guy was reunited with his valuables.
So there you go :) Apparently the guy was very happy and dutch railways also found out about the story.
kilala.nl tags: life,
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2011-07-14 07:34:00
Ever since I was a young teenager, I think I was twelve or thirteen, I've been banking with Postbank (which was rolled into ING Bank a few years back). Menno and I opened our bank accounts roughly at the same times, or actually: he did it first and I followed suit, how it went with many things back then :)
So for almost twenty years we've been with Postbank / ING. They handle our bank accounts, they handle our insurance, they even have our mortgage. But now we're leaving, not because of bad service or because of bad products (though they're not stellar), but because of a gut feeling. So now we're consolidating things at Rabobank, the bank where I had my first children's account :)
I've also very recently done something that I should've done at least six years ago. When we got our mortgage, I should've immediately figured out how often we'd be allowed to repay parts of the debt and to which amounts. Turns out that we're allowed to repay up to 10% on a yearly basis. So that's been a missed chance! :(
So... Because we're now expected to actually be responsible adults (we've had a few years of practice now, right?) we've rethought our financial planning. We now have two long-term saving plans (one time deposit and one savings insurance) and one short-term savings box for expenditures and emergencies. The long-term plans will be left mostly as they are, while the short-term box will need to remain at roughly 12k. Anything available beyond that will be used to repay our mortgage, thus lowering our monthly interest (and slowly freeing up more money).
kilala.nl tags: life,
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2011-06-13 21:00:00
Man! For a national holiday, our day sure was packed!
This morning, Menno arrived at 0800 for a hearty breakfast and some chatting. We then headed out to Ikea in Amersfoort to buy Dana her first real bed. For the first 2.5 years of her life Dana's slept in the same bedstead we bought for her when she was born and now it's finally her turn to switch a "big girls' bed". We decided to switch now, so she can be prepared for the experience of an uncaged bed -before- we travel to Japan.
Today being second whitsunday the whole country got a day off which means that many families get of their asses and do some DIY. As a result, Ikea was packed! We spent the better part of two hours shopping for bed linnen, some stuff that Menno needed and finally searching the storeroom for the parts of Dana's bed. Evernote came in very handy, me having snapped some quick shots of the info tags in the showroom. Being 300 euros lighter we managed to escape mostly unscathed towards home.
In the mean time Marli and Dana had gone out with my sister and brother-in-law. Those two are about to get married and they were looking for some decorations and such for the party. While they shopped, for decorations and for toys for Dana, Menno and I put together the bed. No problems there! For some reason the two of us never have any real problems putting furniture together :) Sadly I cannot find the relevant Donald Duck comic on INDUCKS, but there was many a mention of "meneer Okea" today, because surely he knows best!
Afterwards we spent more time preparing the upstairs floor for Dana's uncaged days, which will probably involve roaming about the house. I took down the two gates downstairs (which blocked the back yard and the kitchen) and installed them on both stairs on the 1F. Not too much trouble with that either! Menno spent about 45 minutes zipping back and forth to the DIY store to get a 100x16cm board to block the opening under the lowest step of the attic stairs (which could not be blocked with the gate). He zipped back and forth, because I'd failed to measure both sides of the opening and thus he needed to go back and get the board sawed down to 100x15,5... *groan*
We had a great, awesome, but also very tiring day. I'm beat!
In the end, Dana was very excited about her bed! She came up the stairs at eight, slightly confused by the new appearance of the gates she knew from downstairs. Then, upon looking into her bedroom she gasped "Oh! Daddy, pretty!" and jumped on the bed. She was also very excited about mommy telling her about her new, big girls' bed.
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2011-05-27 09:05:00
Last wednesday tuesday was the seventh anniversary of our marriage. How time flies! Eleven years together, seven years of marriage and two-and-a-half years of a cute kid running around ^_^
Thanks for everything honey! <3
kilala.nl tags: life,
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2011-04-24 20:25:00
This weekend's been huge! A few weeks ago we'd planned for Easter weekend to be our big spring cleaning. Dana's grand parents were asked if a sleepover would be possible and I made sure that we had three days available for our work.
Dana's grandparents had been looking forward to the Easter weekend! They'd planned all manner of fun activities for her, like baking cookies (pictured on the right) and a nice breakfast including a chocy easter bunny (left) ^_^ Their SMS updates tell us that Dana's enjoying herself a lot and that she's completely worn out by 1900 :)
Meanwhile, back at the farm...
Last week we sorted out Marli's clothing, taking out all of the stuff she's shrunk out of now that she's losing so much weight. Aside from completely unwearable stuff we were left with three trash bags of clothing that were going to be donated to her mother and to goodwill. Then on Saturday morning Dana and I got in the car at 0700 to drive to Friesland, where she arrived right in time for her 0830 breakfast with grandma and pa. When I came back home I started on the ground floor, while Marli worked on the first floor. By the end of the day we'd cleaned two thirds of the house. Every piece of furniture had been cleared out, dusted and cleaned and all cruft had been moved to the city recycling dump. Today we tackled the attic which doubles as storage space, library and home office. Here the biggest job was getting rid of all the cruft we'd amassed. It's amazing how much stuff you can build up in two years' time.
The final score:
kilala.nl tags: family, baby, life,
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2011-04-02 22:03:00
Well, it's been a bit quiet recently. It seems that all I write about these days is my weekly kendo ^_^;
But yeah, there really isn't much else to write about right now. Just small stuff, left and right.
These days I'm taking things easier. Most of my volunteer work has quieted down, as have my studies and my trainings. Right now I fill my evenings with yard work, relaxing and kendo practice.
kilala.nl tags: life,
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2011-03-16 15:18:00
Today something rather rare happened: I had a panic attack in the middle of my workday.
I'm happy that I recognized it as such because that helped put things in perspective, which in turn aided in a swifter recovery. The timeline of my thoughts and the snowball effect was something like this:
So, that's a small irrelevant thought that combines with a move outside of my "safety zone" to make a snowball of doubts leading to a panic. Heading back to the office immediately signalled that I was working to "fix" the problem and the walking also helped burn off the adrenaline. I still felt sick an hour afterwards, but by lunch time I was perfectly okay again.
kilala.nl tags: life, health, anxiety,
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2011-03-11 17:42:00
Lately I've been getting crankier, more stressed and I've even been sleeping worse. All this because I've been feeling packed into a corner by work and escalations (where managers step in to change priorities), both real and unjustly perceived as such. As I said, a part of this workload and of the perceived escalations were my own doing.
Factors that have weighed in include:
As you can see a lot of this stuff is down to perception, assumptions and interpretation. All things that are notorious weak points in my person. Hence I'm always happy when colleagues help me out by holding up the proverbial mirror, so I can "see" what I'm doing. Thanks for that Carlos and Patryck! You'e helped me out quite a lot this week! ^_^
So... After bunkering down for two weeks, after two weeks of being bitchy, after two weeks of coming home exhausted I've sent my team mates and email. I've obviously apologized for my snippiness, but I've also invited them to take their pick from the list of shiny projects which I've hoarded. Instead of sharing the fun stuff I've made like a seagull and gone "MINE! MINE!" all the time. But no more :) So that's a dozen of projects, both large and small, that'll hopefully be redivided between the four of us.
kilala.nl tags: life, sysadmin, work,
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2011-02-18 16:14:00
Aptly called Panic Party.
Call it a forum, slash support group, slash source of information and tips. A few things I've learnt so far, though not all of it was news:
I'm gonna hate cutting back on the coffee, but then again that's just my attitude regarding coffee which I need to get over. Imagine that, from someone who started drinking coffee only five years ago.
kilala.nl tags: life, health, anxiety,
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2011-02-14 12:12:00
I wonder why not everybody does this: carry a small booklet or card in their wallet with relevant medical information. I'm sure that it'll be helpful if the proverbial sh*t ever hits the fan.
In preparation for our next trip to Japan I've made bilingual booklets for the both of us, with our personal information, emergency contact info and our medical history (blood type, medication, illnesses). Making the booklet with Pages was a snap, because of its wonderful layout capabilities.
In the case of Marli it'll be important for emergency crews to know of her gastric bypass. Similarly, it'll also be helpful to know about my hyperventilation and my panic attacks.
Speaking of which, last night I had another one again without any particularly obvious reason and the effects lasted for well over an hour. This prompted me to take a day of sick leave to recuperate and to have a chat with my GP. He agrees that it's highly likely that what I'm experiencing are indeed panic attacks and that it's best if I have a few sessions to learn about cognitive behavioral techniques. Like I discussed with Menno a few months ago I certainly recognize the agoraphobic aspects that usually accompany panic attacks. Our upcoming 1-day trip to Kopenhagen with Dana will certainly be an interesting challenge.
kilala.nl tags: life, health, body, anxiety,
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2011-01-27 05:37:00
... especially if you're letting go of something that you've proudly built over a few years time. Case in point: I have just transferred full ownership and mangement of the Open Coffee Almere LinkedIn group to two of its most involved members.
I haven't visited an OCA meeting in months, if not over a year. And these two fellows have always been very involved, visiting every single session and also volunteering good ideas. So with a slight twinge in my heart I just clicked the "Change owner" button, followed by a "Change role to member" on my own account. The OCA LinkedIn group is now fully out of my hands.
Now to find a way to transfer both the website and the domain name to them as well.
*sniffle* (;_-)
kilala.nl tags: life, open coffee,
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2011-01-23 09:25:00
I have to say that starting something completely new is very thrilling. Though I have to admit that sometimes it's exciting to the point of panic.
Case in point: we will be soon taking Dana on her first airplane ride ever. In preparation for our long vacation in Japan we wanted to make sure that Dana doesn't go nuts on a plane, so we thought we'd try a day in Copenhagen which is only a one-hour flight instead of twelve. For some reason the idea of taking Dana on a plane fills me with dread, even going so far to giving me a real panic attack. I have absolutely no clue why, because it's all very safe and sound. I need to go over my own thoughts to try and find out what the heck is up.
Putting that particular case aside, I really do love starting new things from scratch. It's quite refreshing to be a blank slate, being forced to learn something from the utter and complete basics. This is why I loved going back to college, why I loved learning golf and now it's why I greatly enjoy kendo.
It's interesting to see that in kendo I tend to make the same mistakes I did in golf: I cramp my arms and I still try to put force on both of my arms instead of only on my left arm. As is explained on this terrific website:
"Perhaps the most common mistake of beginners is to use the muscles of the right arm to swing. Ask any golfer what happens if you try and use the muscles of your right hand in a golf swing. The swing will go wild, you won't hit your target, and you'll hit very hard with no self control. This not only looks terrible, but will piss off your opponent as well."
I do admit that for the first time in learning something new I am actually daunted by the task at hand! The journey to learn kendo leads up a huge mountain and right now I can see the whole trip I'm supposed to take. I should really only focus on the first few steps though, because the enormity of the task may lead me to two of the four shikai: doubt and confusion.
kilala.nl tags: life, sports, kendo,
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2011-01-12 21:03:00
I recently read an article in The Economist entitled "Field of tears", regarding migrant workers in America. It makes you think, though as the title suggests it is also something that most people will prefer not to think about. It can be read online, complete and for free. For a well-off middle class westerner it's hard to imagine the life of these Mexicans "without papers" as they'd rather call themselves. I can really recommend reading the article.
Obviously it's a downer and it makes me wonder what the heck could be done to solve this unpleasantness. But then it all starts spiraling out and it goils down to "how the heck do we end human suffering?".... Which will be nigh impossible, for ever and ever. Sadly.
One other thing -really- stood out from the article though. Everybody will know the cliche of "Dey tuk our jerbs!!!" (thank you South Park!), with right wingers clamouring for the expulsion of immigrants who supposedly "took their jobs". Well, I guess they were wrong:
"At a time of high unemployment, many Americans are convinced that these aliens take American jobs. As a test, this summer the United Farm Workers (UFW), the main agricultural union, launched a campaign called “Take Our Jobs”, inviting willing Americans to work in the fields. In the following three months [three million] people visited takeourjobs.com, but 40% of the responses were hate mail. [...] Only 8,600 people expressed an interest in working in the fields, says Ms Machuca. But they made demands that seem bizarre to farmworkers, such as high pay, health and pension benefits, relocation allowances and other things associated with normal American jobs. In late September only seven American applicants in the “Take our jobs” campaign were actually picking crops."
Emphasis in bold print is mine. So out of 8600 applicants only seven people ended up taking the jobs. Which would once again reinforce the notion that immigrants are only taking jobs nobody else would want.
kilala.nl tags: life,
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2011-01-02 10:15:00
First and foremost, 2010 was the year in which Marli got her gastric bypass operation. After years of different failed attempts at dieting a harsh decision was made. In April the decision was made, followed by many tests and intake meetings. Then, in October the operation was performed successfully. In the past months Marli lost roughly 30 kilos (66 pounds). 2010 was also my year of presentations.
I did a few presentations about BoKS, including one at the big NLUUG conference in May. I also taught my first class on BoKS to a group of eight. Finally, I also did a presentation on collecting rare Japanese toys at the Anime 2011 convention.
2010 was yet another year in which our household caught up with modern technology. We've moved our contacts, our calendars and our notes/brainstorms into the cloud using MobileMe and Evernote. We got two iPhone 4s, with my sister, my b.i.l and my best friend also getting iPhones. We moved our in-house data onto a mirrored NAS attached to our Wifi network and we also started using proper backup software for all the computers in the house.
Speaking of modern technology, I already expressed my belief in the future of digital publishing. Right before the end of 2010 I also get an account at Zinio, for access to hundreds of international magazines. They're legible on my iPhone, they're perfect on my boss's iPad and they're very good on my Macbook as well. I've said it before and I'll say it again: digital publishing has the future :)
2010 was yet another year in which we really, really wanted to go to Japan, but didn't. I've been investigating all manner of new fun things to do, my sister+father went to Tokyo for two weeks and we've been talking about a new trip with Kaijuu. We originally planned on going to Japan this Christmas (the boys from Shiranai are there now), but we weren't sure if Marli's operation would allow for it. In retrospect we could've gone without any problems, but we didn't. So now we're shooting for fall 2011. There's also a good chance that my sister and her fiancee will travel with our group.
Speaking of! 2010 is the in year in which my sister got her long hoped-for proposal! ^_^
2010 was a year of gardening for me. We started the year with a newly renovated garden and now it was up to me to fill it up with smaller stuff. The back yard was filled with fruit bushes and trees. During their first year they didn't provide much (though the raspberries were wonderful!), but I'm hopeful for this year. The front yard had a few problems with bushes dying, so I needed to make another new start with that one.
Over the summer I ran for little over two months. I re-started the Couch to 5k program and managed to complete it; in the end I was able to run for 30 minutes straight. However, I then quickly got bored with it all and quit. I did feel guilty about quitting though. Maybe I'll re-do it all in the next summer.
2010 was a year of study. I spend a few months studying and preparing for my CISSP exam, which I then aced in November. I'm still waiting for my endorsement to come through, but I'm certain that won't take much longer.
In 2010 my hyperventilation did not go away and I actually had a panic attack or two. It's been a learning experience, both on how to deal with it and about my own psyche. Let's call it a mixed blessing.
And like last year, Dana's been busy, busy, busy! To summarize...
EDIT:
In the beginning I mentioned Marli's weightloss, but there's also mine. I believe I started the year at around 90-93 kilos. Over summer I went down to 85 kilos by running the Couch to 5k program. Then after Marli's operation we changed our eating habits at home, which resulted in another 9 kilos (I'm now at 76 kilos). So by 2.5 months of running and changing our food intake I lost roughly 17 kilos (37 pounds). I hadn't even realized that until I gave it some thought today. Whoa!
kilala.nl tags: life, retrospective,
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2010-11-15 09:07:00
At any point in time I'm juggling all manner of tasks and "to do" lists. Sometimes it gets a bit hard to keep track of, so I've made a .plan file which will be always be there to stare me in the back ^_^
I'll limit this to semi-work related things because, despite having a young kid, our private life really isn't that hectic :)
kilala.nl tags: work, sysadmin, geeky, life,
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2010-11-11 20:04:00
Today's the holiday of St. Martin. In many dutch cities young children and their parents take to the streets with lanterns, going from door to door to sing songs and gather candy. We didn't go out with Dana just yet, planning to do that in either one or two years. And my $DEITY I was glad we weren't out there. Those poor, poor sods! From 1730 to 1930 it was pouring with rain and the wind was awful! All in all we saw roughly thirty kids pass our door, with some fifteen parents tagging along. And they were wet. WET!
And you know what's ironic? Now that it's 2000 and the kids have gone to bed, the weather is perfect! It's dry outside and the wind has died down.
Poor, poor sods... I'll join you in two years. ^_^
kilala.nl tags: life,
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2010-10-24 09:13:00
Strange how it takes something like Marli's operation for me to change my cooking and eating habits. And I'm not just referring to the sizing of portions either.
Ever since Marli's come home from the hospital I've been trying out different different recipes that I didn't make before. Stuff like filosoof and shepherd's pie (kind of similaro), various asian stirfry dishes and new preparations of stuff I used to make. I've also taken to trying various dairy dishes that most dutch will be familiar with, but which I myself have never had before. Stuff like semolina (griesmeel) or barley (gort) porridge, both of which I turn out liking a lot :)
We now also have more fish stocked in the freezer than we've ever had before. It's a miracle, but Marli is much more open to having fish for dinner these days, mostly because A) her portion will be small anyway and B) because she trusts that I can make it taste nicely :) So, now we're stocked up on tilapia, paice (schol) and fish fingers. Yes, fish fingers, I've always loved those ^_^
EDIT:
Oh yeah, since the operation Marli's now down by 17 kilos (37 pounds), or 6kg (13lbs) since 15/10.
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2010-10-15 09:08:00
Yesterday was killer! ^_^
Marli went to the hospital to get her first post-op checkup. The doc's were happy with her progress and everything's proceeding as planned. Compared to the last time we checked her weight (a few weeks before the operation) she's lost roughly 11 kilos (24 pounds). A lot of this loss is of course caused by the stressful operation itself, but it's also the result of the gastric bypass.
So yeah, Marli's recovery so far looks excellent! Coming monday she's allowed to transition back to solid foods, thus getting rid of the all-fluids diet. Huzzah!
While Mar went to the hospital I went to $CLIENT's office in Amsterdam with Dana. Today was the deadline for September's hour sheet and if I didn't get it pulled out of the mainframe we wouldn't get paid for that month (or even the quarter!) in time. Not good, so I tucked Dana in her stroller and we took the train to Amsterdam. Dana behaved wonderfully and even at the office she gave no trouble at all!
However! No less than two minutes before I'd walk out the door, $CLIENT held a fire drill! Whoop! Whoop! Whoop! Everybody out of the building! Dana wasn't scared at all and even hung through the 30 minutes we were stuck outside without entertainment. On the way home she fell asleep on the train and only opened her eyes again when I opened the door to our home <3
What a great kid!
kilala.nl tags: life, health, work,
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2010-10-11 20:22:00
In case any of you were wondering about what meal time will be for us from now on: here you go! On the left is my portion, on the lower right is Dana's dinner and at the top right is Marlijne's dinner. Yes, it's tiny. And for the next year she'll have six of those meals every day.
For the first two weeks after Marli's gastric bypass surgery she's stuck on a 100% liquid-ish diet, so she won't stress her newly created stomach too much. Most food tastes just fine when it's ground up, but the desire to actually -chew- on something is getting bigger and bigger. Next week she's up for her first checkup, after which she'll soon switch to solid foods. She's looking forward to that -very- much :)
Over the years the size of the new stomach will gradually increase by a small amount, though Marli will never eat another big meal again.
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2010-10-10 14:49:00
Wow. I have a lot on my mind these days and it's very tempting to just try and ignore them and have fun with Dana instead.
I'm a stay-at-home dad all of October, taking care of Dana, Marli and the household while Marlijne recuperates from her operation. I'm glad I was granted the possibility of doing this without risking my job and it's a very thankful part-time occupation. However, at the same time I also need to prepare for two very large tasks at hand:
1. The first week of November I'll be teaching a four day class.
2. The second weekend of November I'm scheduled to have my CISSP exam.
The prior is something I've been looking forward for a long, long while. At one point in time I desired to leave IT for a teaching-career and now I'm finally getting a chance to teach! The challenge in this matter is that I have these four already busy weeks to study the materials, to brush up on those items that I'm a bit iffy on and to ensure that, in general, I'm ready to teach class. There's quite a bit of money riding on this class as well, so I'd better make sure I do a good job!
The latter task is something I've been working towards for months already. The biggest challenge in this case is that I -was- ready a month ago! And now I need to fill yet another month trying to retain all the information (1200 pages worth, plus additional research). It's a struggle and with each week's passing I grow more and more doubtful about a successful outcome :(
*sigh* Let's go outside, into the bright sunshine, to have a walk with Marli and Dana. That'll clear my head a bit and brighten my mood. After that I can return to my studying of the course materials. Then tonight, back to my CISSP studies!
EDIT:
It's definitely not a case of me having too little time! Had I spent the whole month working at $CLIENT I would've had considerably -less- time to prepare for both tasks. It's a matter of me not following my own rules and thus getting confused and swamped in something that's easily tackled. I need to get organized and get a proper overview!
TLDR: Thirty-something dude struggles with personal insecurities.
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2010-10-08 06:34:00
Thank you surgeons, for doing a good job on my wife.
Thank you nurses, for taking good care of her.
Thank you Marli, for having the courage to go through with this.
Thank you Elke, for welcoming Dana and me into your home.
Thank you $BOSS and $CLIENT, for letting me take four weeks off from work.
Thank you Anneke for, well you know ;)
Thank you Dana, for bearing through the hassle like an angel.
Thank you friends and family, for your support.
EDIT:
Wow, how could I forget to write this down?!
THANK YOU Kaj, for babysitting both Dana and me on Monday, during the operation.
kilala.nl tags: life,
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2010-10-02 20:45:00
So. In less than 36 hours Marli will be up on a table being operated upon. An interesting if not scary prospect really. A few small cuts for entry, followed by roughly two hours of specialized and detailed handy work. The hospital she's going to is reportedly the best in the Netherlands and her surgeon's got a great rep as well.
But of course in the end my wife could end up as a statistic.
We have gone over the worst case scenario, though oddly enough we seem to have skipped over a few of the less-than-worst scenarios. Focusing on the practical aspects in lieu of the emotional parts we've come to a pretty good plan in the case of "what if". The bottom line: sell the house, live cheaper, work a little bit less, be there more for Dana. We've chosen to skirt around the emotional aspects, reckoning we'll see about that if we ever get there. But yeah, Marli's working on "the letter" right now. That prompted me to put some thoughts down as well.
Let's not linger on that too long though. The best thing to do is to remember why we're doing this and to stay positive about the whole undertaking. Confidence, optimism, trust and other such things that I usually suck at. Practice makes perfect, so I'd better get my optimism on!
In 48 hours she'll be alright and in that hospital bed.
EDIT:
For those of you trying to do the math. She's expected to be there at 0730, she's probably the first operation of the day which will take about two hours. Then the recovery will take four to five hours, after which she'll go up to a room and I'll be allowed to see her again. So, in 48 hours I'll be back in Almere getting ready for bed after a long, long day.
kilala.nl tags: life, health, body,
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2010-09-15 17:52:00
Ars Technica has an article that surely gives rise to some thought.
Ninety-seven percent of the members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science accept the evidence for evolution, but at least 40 percent of the public thinks that major differences remain in scientific opinion on this topic. Clearly, the scientific community isn't succeeding in making the public aware of its opinion.
So why is it that the general public either:
A. refuse to accept things that scientists have accepted as fact
B. think that scientists are not as largely in agreement as they are
B would possibly be a case of a lack of proper PR on the side of scientist, A could be caused by many things like utter pig-headedness in the general public.
Read it here: Skeptics discount science by casting doubts on scientist expertise
EDIT:
Funnily enough forum member Squidz leaves a comment which explains what the article just couldn't make clear to me:
To keep things in the terms of [marketing], when the question is asked of two economists, how will policy A affect market B, one economist says there will be a large increase in economic activity and the other says there will be a moderately large increase. [...] However, the two essentially agree, there will be a non-trivial increase in activity. They merely disagree on specifics of the scope (say $100 million versus $125 million). However, the public sees the disagreement between the two and interprets it as the question being open for debate.
In a world of sound bytes, and "telephone game" style information transfer, the essence of the story (economists agree policy A is beneficial) gets buried in the noise (economists do not perfectly agree) and [thus people believe] that there are experts who agree with their personal [...] beliefs.
This makes a lot of sense to me and I see it in my job every day. A group of techies are working on a problem for their customers. By each email and each hour the conversation between the techies will get more heavily laden with technical terms and discussions, leaving the actual customer confused. It's much better to keep the tech discussion away from the customer and then to only inform him of the final solution.
kilala.nl tags: life,
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2010-09-10 23:03:00
The above snippet is taken from the newly released first paperback volume of the Mathematics Girls manga. The manga combines maths with stories of the daily lives of four female maths students.
I immediately recognized the algebra described in the page above as stuff that I'd learned in college over ten years ago. Sometimes I really miss being able to do stuff like that, though I don't even have any practical application for it these days. *sigh*
kilala.nl tags: life, japan, manga,
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2010-09-05 20:58:00
Busy, busy, busy!
Saturday we were very busy around the house: shopping, cleaning, gardening, playing with Dana and Marli folded no less than five baskets of laundry (around eight loads). Very productive!
Then today we'd decided to go to Ouwehands Dierenpark zoo in Rhenen. On the way there we picked up my father and had coffee with him and his SO. While Dana didn't pay much attention to the animals themselves, she still had a blast and was worn out at the end of the day. I have to say though that Ouwehands really is a great zoo: looks lovely, roomy areas for the animals and plenty, plenty of playing areas for kids. Really great!
Afterwards we had lunch at the hotel that used to be ran by my best friend Menno's family. It was fifteen years ago since I last walked into the place and I have to say that it's turned very nice since then. Food was great too! :)
A good, good weekend!
kilala.nl tags: baby, family, life,
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2010-08-10 21:14:00
Last weekend we spent four days in Canterbury, Kent, England. Aside from fun times and less-than-fun times we also found a plaque in Canterbury cathedral that reminded me of a certain someone :D
We traveled to the UK by Eurotunnel which IMNSHO is friggin' awesome if you need to be in the south of England. It's very, very cheap, it's fast and it's efficient. We stayed at Clare Ellen guest house (Trip Advisor), which really was worth the money! A good room, a nice house and absolutely great service. The people who work there are very helpful and friendly!
Oh! And I'm uber-proud of both of my girls. Marli drove in England all weekend and she put up with some stressful crap. Dana on the other hand was a perfect angel and handled all the car rides and the sightseeing quietly and friendly.
The high point for me was taking Dana to the Rare Breeds Centre farm near Ashford. Dana got introduced to more farm animals, I got to see some cool raptors and Dana spent at least an hour running around their play barn. The aforementioned cathedral was lovely in all of its churchy glory and I've always been a fan of attractions like Canterbury Tales.
Our first international trip with Dana certainly was a learning experience! We need to plan our days in more detail, that's one. Now that she's still young we also need to keep her daily nap into account. And when going on long drives we know she'll be fine, but we must certainly also keep in mind that we -must- take breaks (which we neglected on the way home).
A short vacation of many highs, a few lows, stress and relaxation.
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2010-08-03 21:12:00
As Menno remarked in an SMS today: I've been terribly quiet on my blog because I've been terribly busy. The past few weeks every day has been: wake, work, dana, household, study, sleep. Between the studying and online courses for my CISSP examination, my daily job and my family I just haven't been busy with anything else at all. Due to scheduling conflicts and such I've even had to cancel my presentation at the ETH0 conference...
Today was very stressful. Yesterday I made a big change to the IT admin landscape at $CLIENT, which led to a rather tempestuous day today. Harsh words, a flurry of emails and misunderstandings and a few hours of overtime. Ahhh, fun times. Either way... *shrug*
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2010-07-04 20:14:00
Thursday 1/7: 18 minutes, 2.8 kilometers, 9.3 km/h average.
Despite making good progress and having an average speed better than usual, I quit.
For the past two/three weeks I've been forcing myself to go out and run (or cycle), knowing that I'll be bored stiff all the way. I made the first goal I'd set myself and finished the nine weeks of C25k, but now I quit.
Writing it like that it seems so easy, but I actually had a hard time coming to terms with it. But in the end it boils down to the fact that I had no internal motivation for running, at all. My whole run I'd think: "Why the heck am I doing this again?!". Originally I started on a whim, both inspired by Marli and hoping to inspire her to keep up her sports. When she indicated she doesn't need me for that, this motivation fell away. In the weeks after finishing the ninth C25k week, there was only one thing that kept me running. My best friend Menno.
He's always been a great support and motivator for me, including with my running. I did not want to be a quitter in his face after all of his support. We had a good discussion about it and after declaring LOVE & PEACE! (i.e. he was fine with it and I was fine with it) I'd decided that for now, enough is enough.
There are many things in life in which I aspire to excel. Sports however is not one of them.
kilala.nl tags: sports, life, running, c25k,
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2010-06-29 23:13:00
So... 31, officially a year after the so-called "big three oh"... *shrug* Doesn't feel different or special or weird. And unlike the past years, this year we're letting it pass quietly.
Marli got me two beautiful gifts: a silver ring (which I've dubbed the pater familias ring) and a nurses' watch. I've been wanting one of those watches for years ^_^
kilala.nl tags: life,
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2010-05-15 22:04:00
It's hard to believe that a year ago we got the keys to our house. Time flies and so much has changed! Almost not a day goes by without me noticing something new about Dana :)
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2010-04-19 21:24:00
I can get very grouchy at those kind of remarks ^_^;
Them: Hey, your hair line's receding...
Me: NO IT'S NOT!
Them: Hey, your hair's going grey...
Me: NO, I'M NOT GETTING OLD!
Them: Hey, that tree you planted's askew...
Me: NO, IT'S JUST OUT OF PLUMB!
What was that saying again? Denial is not a river in Egypt.
kilala.nl tags: life,
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2010-04-19 08:35:00
Really, what are the odds?! Little over a year ago, my friend Floor moved to Scotland for a job at IBM. Then this morning I came out of the Amstel Station, turned a corner and bumped into a perplexed and wide-eyed young lady! ^_^
We both had to look twice, but then quickly made with the laughs and the hugs. It was quite surreal. It seems that she's moving back to Amsterdam, with her flat being about fifteen minutes away from my office.
Either way... What are the odds? :)
kilala.nl tags: friends, life,
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2010-04-16 05:52:00
... not because I'm going to work in Japan, but because even in the Netherlands it would be quite, quite helpful.
Quoting Hiko who is giving tips to survive in the Japanese workplace.
There are times in our lives that we have had the joy of letting rip with a phrase of self righteous condemnation like [this is bulls**t!]. Look back and remember those times. Savor them, and cherish them knowing that so long as you are in Japan and wish to remain employed and an unstigmatized non-social-outcast, you will never be able to have memories like ever that again, unless the story ends "and so then I was fired, and left Japan and overall I was a better person for the experience". Japan is a pathologically non-confrontational culture. All that bottled up indignation and rage tends to get released as passive aggression, or internalized into digestive-tract disorders. The best solution is to learn to undo your reflex to want to butt heads and learn how to resolve conflict the Japanese way.
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2010-04-10 07:49:00
As I mentioned two weeks ago I'm posting less these days, which has to do with the fact that I'm actually avoiding my laptop. About six weeks ago I'd decided that I'd been spending way too much time on fora like MacFreak or Ars Technica, which even started to show at the office. Now -that- is something you don't want.
In order to get rid of that, shall we say "addiction", I decided to just get rid of it all and focus 100% on other stuff: work, family and the garden. So far it's working out quite nicely and I've found that I can easily take small trips to the web, without going overboard. Good!
kilala.nl tags: life,
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2010-03-28 22:18:00
As the title says I've been spending less and less time with the intertubes the past few weeks. You may have noticed the frequency of blog posts has gone down. I've spent most of my time working the gardens, playing with Marli and Dana and basically relaxing.
But now it's time for me to pick up steam again! Starting tomorrow I will continue my preparations for my presentations at NLUUG and Anime 2010. I will also start on the many programming items on my ToDo list. And so on, and so on.
But now it's time for bed :)
kilala.nl tags: life,
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2010-03-14 21:34:00
What a great day! I didn't do much housekeeping, despite my original plans, but it turned out to be a wonderfully productive day nonetheless.
* We worked out a design for our gardens
* We went to a garden center, to get inspiration
* I made a yummy steak pie
* We filed our 2009 income tax.
All in all our taxes took about an hour and we'll be getting back an additional 1600 euros. Score! ^_^ Today was the first time we did our taxes together, which is also great: Marli wants to be more involved with our finances, so she can pick up the slack if something ever goes wrong.
kilala.nl tags: life,
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2010-03-09 19:07:00
So, apparently a pizza delivery guy got robbed in our street last Saturday night. Around nineish so by no means "late at night". Two hooded guys made off with his money, phone and scooter.
So much for my squeeky clean image of our neighborhood.
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2010-02-08 07:42:00
When the 29th of June pops around I never know what to tell people when they ask me what I want for my birthday.
Ironically, throughout the whole year I think of -loads- of stuff that'd be cool to have, of movies that are so awesome that I just -have- to have them in my collection and of books that I really ought to read. I've started tracking all of these items in my website's database. This page represents the contents of said database. This way I can give the URL when I forget what I'd like. Again... ;)
Of course, all the prohibitively expensive stuff are things that I put on there because I intend to buy them myself one day. I do not put them on this list because I think someone may buy them for me (I really don't want them to). I put them on this list to serve as goals for myself to work towards to.
Really, really want ^_^
Film
Book
Around the house
Video games
Music
Clothing
kilala.nl tags: life,
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2010-01-01 22:06:00
2009: a retrospective
A few years back, right around new year's, I started doing retrospectives by reading through my weblog archives. This year's no different :) We left 2009 the same way we entered it: in the company of close friends, with dinner and games. Last night was great and everyone enjoyed themselves. Dana and Marli were both ill, but luckily that didn't get the mood down too badly. Dana actually managed to sleep through 100% of the fireworks going off right outside her window!
Over the course of 2009 I became more and more of a Japan-geek. I have become engrossed in a large number of Japan-related weblogs and news feeds, I keep a keen eye on the anime TV seasons and I've learnt a lot more about Japanese culture itself. We're also rearing to go on our next trip, which is slated for the winter of 2010. I also became an avid fan of Haruki Murakami.
In 2009 our monetary situation has also continued improving, mostly thanks to my new job at Unixerius. After leaving Snow my base salary increased by 30% and I've also received a considerable quarterly bonus based on the income I generate for the company. My new salary has allowed us to finance our new home, while the bonuses have consistently financed two big projects around the house, as well as rebuilt our savings. In general I'm much happier working semi-freelance, being employed by a good friend of mine. I also recently came to the shocking realization that I am now earning on an annual basis what my dad was earning when he was Compaq's CTO in the Netherlands in the late eighties.
In March I was plagued by heavy RSI, which caused me to shun any and all computers for a few weeks on end. Since then my RSI's been "OK".
Unfortunately we lost our beloved cat Blackie to cancer.
We sold our house within three months after putting it on the market. Then, a few weeks later, we signed the contract on our own new house in Almere. We finally got the keys in May. I took a two weeks holiday in June to completely redecorate the new house from top to bottom, sometimes aided by professionals or friends and family. My brother-in-law Hans got zapped in the process and we're very lucky that he's still with us.
After acquiring our new house we sunk quite a lot of money in a number of projects to bring it up to the 21st century. It's safe to say that we spent around 20.000 euros on the bathroom, my office and the garden.
After moving to Almere I thought I'd give professional networking another try and started something new. Jumping on a trend that'd been developing across the globe I started the Open Coffee Almere group. Unfortunately it seems that enthusiasm has been dying down and I'm going to give it one more hard try before calling it quits.
In 2009 my hyperventilation did not leave me and I had a number of attach with most of them appearing to be tied to the stress surrounding the selling and buying of our houses. In total I had seven attacks, divided as follows: Q1 2, Q2 3, Q3 1, Q4 1.
Over summer I took golf lessons at a nearby range and passed my exams. Unfortunately I haven't played a round ever since :( I really should get back to playing golf, because I -loved- it!
haven't played since :(
In fall my final grand parent, our beloved Nonna, passed away. The event was far from unexpected and it provided closure to a long path of deteriorating health. Having had almost five years to prepare myself for this day I didn't cry and have only warm memories of the woman :)
Obviously, Dana's been an ever-present source of change in our lives. Here's the quick summary of her 2009:
* In february we started feeding her solid foods
* In may she learnt how to flip back and forth between lying on belly or back
* In june she started teething
* In july she learnt how to upright herself into a sitting position
* In august she learnt how to stand upright
* In september she turned one
* In november her hip dysplasia was deemed fully cured and she started walking around the house
* In december she showed signs of learning how to stand without support
So... That's our 2009.
kilala.nl tags: life, retrospective,
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2010-01-01 22:05:00
The title says it all: happy new year everybody! :)
kilala.nl tags: life,
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2009-12-27 09:42:00
Yesterday Marli cooked up a wonderful meal for us and her mom/stepdad. An entree of chicken salad, a shepherd's pie for the main course and a white chocolate mousse for desert. The shepherd's pie was absolutely wonderful and Marli can definitely make that more often! :9
I had to go to bed early though, because the stupid whatever-it-is-illness is still with me. I reckon it could be a form of flu. Might not be a good idea to go to the office on Monday. I don't want to go infecting my colleagues, nor do I want to remain ill for New Year's :/
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2009-12-17 05:43:00
If there was any doubt about the fact whether winter has arrived, it has now been obliterated. Winter is -definitely- here!
This morning I woke to a mute world, with no sounds from the outside reaching me at all. Only my own breathing and movement could be heard. The windows were also bright with orange light, brighter than usual as if it had been refracted by something big. Could it have? ... Heheh, it -must- have! And it did. It had snowed overnight. Not a piddly snow like we had back in Utrecht, but an actual 2cm layer of snow /o/
Lovely! ^_^
kilala.nl tags: life,
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2009-12-15 08:18:00
Winter has definitely arrived: I've overslept tremendously the past week.
Thursday: torrential rains @ 0500
Friday: bed was nice and warm
Saturday: woke at normal time /o/
Sunday: exhaustion from the weekend
Monday: first frost of the year
Tuesday: more frost
In all cases I overslept by an hour to finally get woken by Marli's alarm clock, which is a good thing. I need to snap out of this though, because it's eating up my overtime :/
kilala.nl tags: life,
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2009-12-10 20:59:00
I'm a lucky, lucky otaku ^_^ While Marli might not be as big a geek as I am she's definitely got a geeky streak running through her. What's even better is that she actually understands many of the visual gags that occur in anime and manga. This means that I will never get confronted with a list of confused questions like this one.
Some examples from the list that Japanator compiled:
* Why are their eyes all scribbly?
* Why are their eyes sparkling?
* What is that one sweatdrop/tear/etc...?
* What's that mark on their head?
* Why did her boobs bounce for no reason?
* Why is he on fire?
* Why is that nose blood spraying?
* Why is snot coming out of his nose?
* Why is he slithering like a snake?
* Why did the art style just change?
And obviously:
* How old is that girl supposed to be?!?
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2009-12-06 10:10:00
My oldest piece of clothing currently still in use is my LA Kings hockey jersey, which is virtually indestructible. Save a few details it looks exactly the same as when my mother bought it for me fifteen years ago. I was fourteen or fifteen at the time and she'd made a trip to Finland with my brother. As a souvenir I'd asked for a jersey of the Finnish national hockey team, but apparently they were prohibitively expensive. Instead, the LA Kings shirt was more affordable and still good looking
At the time the shirt was way too large for me and the sleeves reached well beyond my wrists. The hemline also reached below my hips. These days the shirt still looks fine, though obviously I've grown in all directions making it a much better fit
So here's to you, fifteen year old jersey! May we be together for fifteen years more!
kilala.nl tags: life, childhood,
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2009-11-23 11:49:00
It'll be just me and Dana at home tonight as Marli will be performing her duty as a Twimom in going to see New moon. I'm very glad she gets to share her love for the books and movies with her best friend who, as luck would have it, is coming down from Germany to the Netherlands today.
EDIT:
Obviously I meant "Twimom" in the most straight-forward sense: a mom who's also a Twilight fan. I find the current entry in Urban Dictionary to be somewhat... lacking...
kilala.nl tags: life,
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2009-11-20 19:39:00
Today it was exactly five years ago that Marlijne gave up her cigarettes.
Early that morning, before going to work, I removed all ashtrays, put away all lighters and hid her last packet of cigarettes (inside my old Linux PC). The night before she'd asked me to do all of this, so the 19th of November 2004 was the time she'd smoked a cig.
She quit cold turkey and never looked back. Within a year her senses of taste and smell had improved a hundredfold. These days she hates the scent of smoking and our house is completely smoke free. Obviously this is also good for Dana.
Personally I'm the one tiny exception in the house: I haven't gotten rid of my pipe yet and I've actually dug it up recently. The next time I'm raking the yard I intend to smoke one bowl, after which it'll probably go back into storage again. I am adamant that I'm not making it into a habit... One pipe a year should be alright :)
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2009-11-06 20:35:00
Dad, where is grandpa right now?
kilala.nl tags: life,
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2009-10-08 18:31:00
IMNSHO paper companies such as Xerox are doing things wrong. Why am I paying thirty euros for a box of 100% recycled paper, while eco-unfriendly, bleached paper can be had for under ten euros? Personally I'd greatly prefer it if things were made the other way around for a while: make eco-friendly paper cheap while taxing people for buying the "bad" paper.
Anywho... A box of Xerox Recycled Pure is on its way to us.
kilala.nl tags: life,
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2009-10-08 16:55:00
The other day I'd filled up my notebook and it was time to get a new one. Instead of getting a bulky hard cover one I got a bunch of Moleskine smaller ones. They're pretty nice, though I like my paper to be a bit smoother.
To go with the new notebooks I decided to get myself a fountain pen. It's been years since I've written with one, even though I used to write with one on a daily basis. All through K3-12 and for a few years during high school as well. I reckon it was about ten to fifteen years ago since I last used a fountain pen. Anywho, because I wasn't sure whether my writing'd still be okay I got a cheap-ass one that's intended for school use. Well, I still -love- writing with a fountain pen, that's for sure! My cursive writing sucks (it's really awful), though my own handwriting looks as good as ever.
I reckon I'll quickly replace the six euro doodad I bought with one that looks a -bit- nicer. Criteria for me are: cheap, slender/straight with a medium nib. I don't like fine nibs as I tend to scratch with them.
Ideally I'd get a wad of the pens we used when I was in primary school. I -think- they were made by Heutink, but I just can't be sure. I know they were slender and straight, came in three colors (dark red, dark blue, dark green), had a silver tip at the end and had a metal cap without clip. *sigh* I don't think they make those pens anymore though, because I've looked all over.
EDIT:
Haha! This took me back! Collecting the tiny balls from ink cartridges was definitely a hype in primary school.
kilala.nl tags: life, childhood,
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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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2009-08-25 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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2009-08-20 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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2009-07-26 12:55:00
Realizing that we'd actually never taken Dana out for a proper stroll, we checked this weekend's weather report and decided to go out. We've lived in Almere for about a month now and I was very eager to see a little bit more of the surrounding area. So off we went, to the Oostvaarders Plassen.
The Plassen are a rather famous reserve quit near to our house. They're right next to the Markermeer lake and stretch all the way between Almere and Lelystad.
Dana was quit happy in her stroller and getting out in the sun and wind did us all a lot of good. For some reason I really love going to lakes and the ocean, so I enjoyed getting up on the dyke what with the wide views and all.
*sigh* What a great way to spend the day. Now I need to rope Menno into going for a swim at the IJmeer beach before summer ends.
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2009-07-20 18:40:00
That's a few more quiet days than usual. Since we've moved into the new house I've been spending less and less time behind the laptop and more with Marlijne and Dana. Seeing how my office is way in the attic and they're usually downstairs, I've been less "involved" with computers. Especially since I finished work on the website update.
Life is coming along nicely. We broke our speed record by moving in and unpacking -everything- within three weeks. All 140 boxes were flat and gone almost exactly a month after the 18th of June, which is pretty damn impressive. Last time we still had untouched boxes after half a year! The bathroom's also 99.9% complete, with only three tiles that need to be installed (back order from Spain) and a faucet that needs to be replaced (DOA).
Work's been quiet, what with the season and all. The boys and I finally have enough time to handle projects that usually wouldn't get to see the light of day. Unfortunately I find it hard to focus on the task at hand, due to a lack of real deadlines (and thus pressure). That's pretty ironic: I finally have time to do what I want and now I can't get enthused by the idea. *shrug*
Dana's doing fine, though we're going to see our GP in a few days. She's recently started making this bronchial wheeze that we want to get checked out.
kilala.nl tags: life, website,
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2009-07-10 12:53:00
Apparently you'll need to do it twice; at least in this new house...
* The movers damaged a few things, so they'll have to come back for restoration.
* The new dish washer was busted, so they had to bring a new one.
* There new toilet bowl for the bathroom was the wrong model and was replaced.
* One had ordered too little tiles of one colour for the new bathroom -> back order.
And today I found out that the lovely desk I bought is actually NOT height-adjustable by crank. The website said it is, but that was an error. So that thing's going to go back and I'll have to search for a completely new one. Meh.
kilala.nl tags: life, house, meh, annoying,
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2009-07-06 07:14:00
Yesterday we celebrated our house warming and my birthday with our friends and family. We received some outstanding pressies, all of which we are very grateful for. All the potted plants and the new cushions add a really nice touch to the living room... Some extra colour, that's it :)
The house held up well, both to our visitors' scrutiny and the rigors of playing host to a small party. Obviously everyone loved the huge photograph of Dana making a silly face that adorns our upstairs hallway and the living room layout felt familiar and probably a bit like coming home to some (it's near identical to our old house). All in all things went swimmingly. Unremarkable, but swimmingly.
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2009-07-02 22:19:00
I'd taken the day off today, thinking that after my morning's schedule I'd get some programming done at home. Things turned out a little bit different.
First off, this morning we had the second Open Coffee Almere meeting and it was a great success! The first meeting had only five or six people turn up and today we counted fourteen! That's awesome! One of our already-regulars was pessimistic and only expected three ^_^ A bunch of us managed to pry ourselves from our seats twenty minutes after the "official" end of the gathering, so you can assume we had a good time.
It was great meeting all these new people from Almere. First off it's a great opportunity for me to get to know the town, but there might actually be a few business opportunities around the corner :)
In the early afternoon I made two trips to the city dump to get rid of refuse from our bathroom. Ten bags of tiles and gypsum and all manner of crap needed to be brought there by car because the city's dumpsters aren't allowed to pick stuff like that up from your domestic address. Oh well, at least I got to flex my meager masculinity in a sleeveless shirt ^_^;
I did get a bit sunburnt today though, so if I keep it up a bit I may actually get a -little- tan this year :)
Today is also officially the day on which we've finished moving in. <Mario Kart>New record!</Mario Kart> We managed to unpack and store -everything- in three weeks. That's brilliant! Last night I also finished the cabling of the house, with Marli's help. Cat5e now runs up to the attic, hooking up my office and the printer to the home network.
Yep... Today was a good day!
kilala.nl tags: life, work, open coffee, awesome,
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2009-07-01 09:59:00
Since moving to Almere our lives have changed noticeably in a few ways.
For starters there's a short-term change, which luckily will only last two to three weeks: we need to go to the local swimming pool to take a shower. A contractor's currently renovating our bathroom and it'll take him about fourteen days. :/
Then, there's the big stuff...
Since moving in we've started separating our household garbage. In Utrecht we used to dump everything into trash bags, resulting in three to four bags of crap each week. These days we have separate boxes for paper, glass, plastics and chemicals/metals in our store room, resulting in only one bag of "misc" trash actually making it to the truck. Of course, it does mean weekly trips to the recycling station, but that's only half an hour each week.
Speaking of cleaning, the move has turned Marli into a veritable house mom! We used to share things pretty evenly, but now she's really taken charge! I'm very proud of her and also happy in the fact that I can focus more on other things now.
What else? Oh yeah, cooking! With the house came a Whirlpool induction hob. We had it serviced yesterday because it was a bit flaky, but I have to admit: cooking on induction is an absolute win :) I thought I'd be pining for a gas hob, but no. It's fast, it's responsive and there's less heat spreading into the kitchen and the rest of the house. Lovely.
kilala.nl tags: life,
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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 09:13:00
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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2009-06-06 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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2009-05-24 19:11:00
Today is our fifth wedding anniversary. ^_^
Yesterday we had dinner at Sazanka, which is the teppan yaki restaurant of Amsterdam's famous and hella-expensive Okura hotel. Awesome food and a great evening! <3
kilala.nl tags: life,
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2009-05-19 22:36:00
About an hour ago a big-ass truck entered the communal gardens of our apartment building. Noisy and unwieldy it was, laden with a huge open container. I had no clue WTF was going on, but it was backing up right against the flat across the garden. There even were two coppers keeping an eye on everything.
Then, around 2230, loud crashes and bangs were heard across the greens. Yup, people were throwing stuff from the forth floor balcony into the dumpster. Big, shiny, metal things. Overhearing one of the neighbors outside my window mentioning something about "flower power" it became clear: someone'd built a weed plantation and'd been busted.
Now there's something you don't see every night! Thank $DEITY, because the ruckus is awful :/
kilala.nl tags: life,
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2009-04-25 19:38:00
I'm a stereotypical geek when it comes to toys and neat stuff from my childhood. I still very much appreciate the things that were cool when I was a kid and I suppose it's true what they say: men will always remain children.
This means that, on occasion, I'll get the urge to buy toys just because I know I would've found them awesome when I was younger. In the past ten years I've bought Transformers, a race track (kind of like slot racing), trading card games and even a few gadgets. I'm not counting my anime/manga addiction because that actually only started in earnest when I was nineteen.
Unfortunately there's -something- that spoils it for me. I've noticed in the past that, once I actually owned the object of my obsession, it'd lost its sheen and I was less excited about it. I've heard people say before that some wishes are best left unfulfilled because the wishing is what makes it worth it. This is one of the prime reasons why I don't actually go on eBay and -buy- the Arrow Emblem toys on there. I have way too much fun hunting them down, finding pictures and learning about them! Actually owning the toys would mean the hunt came to a finish, which'd only make me sad.
And would you believe that the Japanese actually have a word for this concept? It's Otonagai (partially NSFW!), which literally translates as "adult buying". The Akiba Blog article sums it up very nicely:
[...] buying a lot of cheap sweets that we could only buy little when we were kinds is called Otonagai. As a kid, we could only buy little of that fascinating snack. Wanted to eat heartily! Right now, such a dream comes true easily, becoming an adult.
But most of the time, that disappoints us. [...] Otonagai is people's dream, but at the same time, it destroys our dream, too.
kilala.nl tags: geeky, life, japan,
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2009-02-27 07:55:00
This week's been mostly run-of-the-mill: we're tired, we're busy and we're doing okay :)
I took Blackie to the vet for her annual checkup (which is quickly becoming a bi-annual checkup because we keep forgetting) on Tuesday. The vet finally decided on a good way to handle her, which is great. Usually Blackie gets all stressed out by the vet and fights her tooth and nail! This time around they just plopped a towel over her head and went about their things. No problems at all! :D Worked a damn sight better than trying to actually -wrap- her in a towel. That's about the only time I've seen murder in our cats eyes ^_^;
The good new is that Blackie's completely healthy! We were a bit anxious about her health, what with friends and relatives repeatedly asking if she'd lost weight. But no, she's consistently been at three kilos for the past three years and she still is, so no problems there. *phew*
Dana's doing great by the way. Her cold's completely gone and the Pavlik harness looks like it's really doing its job! Her left leg has a much large range of motion these days! Dana also keeps developing her vocal chords and discovered the high tones this week. A month or two ago she went for volume, shouting HEYAHEYAHEYAHEYA at the top of her lungs and now she keeps on singing <3
She actually started doing that one night after her midnight feeding. I told her "Shh, no... Now is sleepy time and tomorrow you can sing for your mother all you want." She promptly went to sleep and from the next day onward she hasn't stopped singing :D
What else is there? Hmm... Work's been a bit heavy, with us being understaffed for two weeks. One guy's been on sick leave for three weeks now, another went on a short holiday and then I got ill as well. That's been a week with an average of 1.5 people on the job :( We've built up a bit of a backlog now. Oh well, we do what we can.
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2009-02-15 14:38:00
Thanks Edmond, for wondering about our health :) I know it's a bit weird for me not to post anything for over a week, but don't worry: we're still alive.
The past week or so has been a bit "weird". Dana got her Pavlik bandages, then she got the cold, then I got cold, then our daily schedule got screwed up a few times and then we were all just crappy. Not crappy in a bad way, just ... crappy. We're fine though (am I confusing you yet?).
Nothing much's been going on, that's all. The little spare time that I did have left got spent on research. Speaking of: thanks to Digitist, for sending me a PDF of that medical article I'd been wanting to read. It gave me some useful background info on the stirrups Dana's wearing these days.
kilala.nl tags: life,
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2009-01-01 21:06:00
Since I skipped my retrospective last year, it's about high time that I do another one. So... I've read through the complete archives of 2008 and here's the really big, noteworthy stuff that's happened to us this year...
As I mentioned below, Dana is surely the biggest event of the year! We were completely surprised by the pregnancy, after we'd been trying to conceive for two years. Quite frankly we'd given up hope for the time being and we'd decided to try something else with our lives. And then she appeared :) We went through a bit of a scare halfway through but finally, on the 17th of September, Dana was born.
Dana's appearence had some rather profound effects on our lives.
We decided that Marli was to be a stay-at-home mom, to always be there for the young lady. This would mean that she'd have to leave her wonderful job at the dutch railways, of which all of us were so damn proud. All in all she's only seen half a year's active duty at the NS, but in that short period of time she managed to make a lot of friends and a lasting impression on her superiors.
All of this however also meant that I had to postpone my college education. I went back to college in the summer of 2007, studying to become a maths teacher, because I'd become fed up with my career in IT. I had even reached the point at which I'd started interviewing for teaching positions. I've learnt a lot in that one year and it's a wonderful feeling to know that I was able to handle both a fulltime job AND studies at college at the same time! In the end I finished my first year with a 100% scorecard and a great experience to look back on. The one event that has left the biggest impresion on me would be the first time I taught a class.
Knowing that I was "doomed" to stay in IT for at least the next five years I took a long, hard look at my career and, like before, decided that I didn't like what I saw. After about two months of job searching and interviewing I decided to go and work for Unixerius. The breakup with Snow wasn't without its flaws and I went through a bit of a quarrel with one of my superiors, but so far my decision seems to have been a good one. We come out of the deal with a solid financial position and with good prospects for the future.
This newly improved solvability has led us to search for new housing. Specifically we're looking for a larger and more modern home that will last us at least ten years (and maybe a second child). Since houses like these don't come cheap in the west of the Netherlands we're even considering a rather ballsy move: moving to the countryside. We're still checking out all of our options (as well as all of the downsides) and, while things might get tough, we're hopeful that we'll manage to get a nice house.
Since I quit school I've been spending most of my free time with Marli and Dana. What little time I have left is mostly spent on Japan. I've been very interested in the country for more than fifteen years now, and last year I finally managed to spend two weeks in Japan. I made the trip with a few good friends (apparently leaving a few days after conceiving Dana) and my love for the country has only gotten stronger ever since. Even if this was the only time I'll ever visit Japan I'm still overjoyed because I got to meet one of my heroes: Haruo Suekichi.
So... That about sums up the big stuff that happened to us in 2008 :)
Here's a few more tidbits:
* Apparently I'm going to hell, either for this or for this.
* I've started donating blood.
* We've gotten confirmation about the cause of my hyperventilation.
* I paid my first visit to Anime 200x as a visitor since 2002.
* Over the course of last year I made little over three hundred postings to this website ^_^
kilala.nl tags: life, retrospective,
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2009-01-01 18:31:00
I'm working on my retrospective for 2008, but I reckoned this picture merited a post of its own. That was truly the biggest news in 2008 :)
kilala.nl tags: baby, life, retrospective,
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2008-11-19 21:24:00
This new job at $CLIENT sure is a huge change from my previous position. Of course there's the higher pay which is great and all, but there's also job satisfaction! I'm no longer coming home tired from boredom. These days I'm dead beat from hard and intensive work.
At $CLIENT I'm in a highly responsible position, being one of the few experts on BoKS that people can turn to. Due to our current constraints in the field of personnel our workload is high and we're constantly shifting priorities. I also frequently run into rather intricate problems that require a lot of puzzling over a prolonged period of time. All in all this new job is a challenge!
I also find myself doing stuff that I dreaded a few years back; I guess it comes with age ^_^ These days I enjoy roaming among managers (whom I lovingly referred to as suits not too long ago), trying to find solutions to organisational problems my team runs into.
I guess I like the feeling of having real responsibilities, accountability and a mental challenge. It also helps that my colleagues are awesome people :)
kilala.nl tags: career, work, life,
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2008-09-25 10:53:00
Of course it speaks for itself that becoming a parent brings on a lot of changes. All of a sudden you're responsible for another person who's wholly dependant on you! However, the past few days I've also noticed a lot of subtle changes, a lot for the better and some for the worse.
+ Our cleaning regimen has never been this good. We're washing dishes every day, as opposed to every two/three days. The lavatory, kitchen and bathroom get daily sanitation and I'm using our nightly awake-time to run laundries during the nighttime tariff.
+ Our eating habits have improved. Marli has taken to drinking at least three liters of fluids every day and I'm cooking whole meals again (as opposed to just meat and some veg).
+ I've become a lot more friendly in public. I don't know why, but these days I'm very polite and rather chipper around strangers :)
- Unfortunately the both of us can get a bit grouchy during our nighttime bouts with Dana. Luckily we know -why- this is happening and we can deal with it, but it doesn't make it more fun.
- I'm still a bit more hyperactive and forgetful than usual. I keep forgetting small stuff like my car keys, my wallet or closing up Dana's romper suit.
- Waking up in the middle of the night is confusing for me. It's happened a few times that I wake up from a dream that involved Dana or Marli and that I got confused and agitated that neither was where they were in my dream. I'd get up from bed and wonder where the heck Dana went, because "I was just holding her". Of course this is rather annoying to Marlijne as well...
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2008-07-22 15:55:00
In light of my departure from Snow I've had a few chats here and there, not all of them brimming with positivity. Of course some of my colleagues aren't happy to see me go, but there's also some other stuff that I hadn't given thought.
When asked for a reason why I chose to leave for another company (where I'd essentialy be doing the same work), my knee-jerk reply was that I was missing personal contact. The company has grown rather large over the past two years and I was supposedly missing the personal touch. The reproach that I received was that I myself am responsible for this situation. My lack of motivation for IT, coupled with my ambition of teaching have led to my isolation within the company. Apparently some colleagues even avoid me because of this. Of course, that's a bitter pill to swallow.
Now that I've mulled over this a little bit, I agree with the senior who expressed these thoughts. I agree that I've secluded myself from my colleagues and that I've shown little interest in the company as a whole. I also don't particularly care for all the IT/Linux conversations that happen at each compulsory meeting. Due to my changing ambitions I feel alienated from my colleagues, yet I also feel little drive to connect with them. I guess it's safe to say that Snow isn't the company for me anymore.
I've always been a bit of a recluse, choosing close contact with a tightly knit group of friends over casual and abundant contact with acquaintances and colleagues. Does this make me anti-social? Maybe. But I've also shown on many occasions that I can fit right into any social undertaking and that I can even -lead- on such an occasions (Anime 200x anyone?).
So... Do I feel safe switching from one IT company to another? Of course not! I'd much rather be teaching :) But in this case I think I'm making a rather safe switch, because i will be working with a close friend of mine. Someone I -do- definitely care about :)
Raimond, thanks for making me think. I needed the nudge to wake me up ;)
EDIT:
Let me add my personal conclusion. No, I am not anti-social. If I were, why the heck would I choose to become a teacher?! Teaching, in high school, IT or otherwise, requires social involvement and I am all too happy to give it. It's just that I will now need to re-find the delicate balance at work.
kilala.nl tags: life, work, snow,
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2008-07-21 18:31:00
Today's been a big and busy day. Not just because of my mom's visit and all the baby stuff, but more.
Today I submitted my letter of resignation to the directors at Snow. I had decided a few weeks ago that I wanted a new job to fit this new era in our life as a family. Not only should this job offer something new wrt work, but it should also offer enough money for me to take care of my wife and child.
After a few weeks of e-mails, phone calls, interviews and secrecy, I've chosen my new employer. Earlier this month I already dropped some hints, about boning up on virtualization and on a possible business deal with a friend. The latter is the option that I've gone with: starting in a few weeks I'll be a consultant for Unixerius.
Exciting times!
kilala.nl tags: work, life, career,
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2008-06-26 19:04:00
Today I got the results of the exams I took on Monday. Geometry 1 came back as an 80%, which is much higher than I'd expected. History 2 came in lower though, at 60%. Ah, I don't care that much since the other grades I got for the course means that I'm still at a solid 70%.
So... There's only one grade that I still need to wait for, the didactical part of Geometry 1. I'm sure that'll come in at 70% or higher, so I reckon it's safe to assume that I've successfully finished my first year in college. These grades will remain valid for seven years, so I can start my second year at any time I'd like.
*sigh* So that's it... :)
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2008-05-05 11:17:00
Oh darn... I forgot that today all the shops in town would be closed, due to a national holiday. And I didn't get any groceries before we headed off to Anime 2008 either. This is going to be troublesome, 'cause tomorrow I'm expected at the office... How're we gonna do this? *ponders*
EDIT @1240:
My bad... Bevrijdingsdag (Liberation Day) isn't a day off -every- year. I got our groceries :)
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2008-02-28 13:17:00
About a year ago, I wrote about my romantic view of the graveyard shift. I loved the idea of hacking at night and sleeping under my desk, since it rang back to the times of the TTY and the PDP10. The time that "real hackers" were still "real hackers" and that sleeping under your desk was still normal.
Well, no more. These days it's become more of a nuisance to me. Is this a sign that I'm getting older? Is it a sign that I'm fed up with IT? Is it a sign that I like my bed more than the couch or floor at the office? More importantly, do I care?!
No. ^_^ I've come to dislike working at night and I prefer staying in bed thankyouverymuch. *sings* The times, they are a-changing *sings*
kilala.nl tags: work, geeky, life,
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2007-12-16 11:46:00
For the past few months we've been thinking about what we're going to do once I land that teacher's certificate. That's still three years away, but a little planning never hurt anyone.
One of the things we'd been pondering is to move away from the urbanised west of the Netherlands. Don't get me wrong, I really -love- living in Utrecht, but housing doesn't come cheap over there. Let alone in the bigger cities, like Rotterdam and Amsterdam. And at one point in time we will want to move to a bigger place. Again: I love our apartment, but wouldn't mind have a two, or three storey house.
Which is why Marli's been drooling over the Funda housing website since last night. She's been going over houses in Friesland (one of the Netherlands' rural area) and she's been falling in love :) For same amount of money that we paid for our 85m^2 apartment, we'll be able to afford a nice house with a garden! If that doesn't sound good, I don't know what does!
Thing is: in Friesland there's next-to-no call for ICT specialists at all. So we'll have to put off moving there for at least three years. And when you're already browsing through all these neat looking houses, that's not what you want to hear :)
kilala.nl tags: career, life, house,
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2007-11-28 20:50:00
kilala.nl tags: comics, life, fun,
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2007-11-21 21:15:00
Damn. I hate doing this, but I'm skipping out on Analysis 1 - Maths. That's the course I wrote about earlier, with all the long calculations to prove that math works bitches.
The course is on my list of "free" courses: I already received all the ECTS beforehand, because I have already studied this stuff before. In essence this means that I didn't have to take the test to begin with. I was just taking this class to freshen up my maths.
Thing is: I wasn't just visiting lectures, I was also doing all of the homework, which eats up a tremendous amount of time. Also, making all my notes look good using LaTex takes up about an hour each week as well. I could spend all of that time on work that actually earns me more ECTS.
I'll still be visiting each lecture, because A) the subject matter is cool and challenging, and B) I enjoy spending time with my classmates. I just won't be partaking in the homework, nor in the exam.
kilala.nl tags: school, work, life,
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2007-11-11 10:03:00
1. I love living in Utrecht for many good reasons. One of them's the scent of coffee that permeates the morning air when I ride my bike to the train station. One of the little perks of living in the city of Douwe Egberts' breweries.
2. I love Blackie and her built-in clock. She never fails to wake me at an acceptable time, if I've overslept. Usually my alarm clock goes around six and she starts scratching the doors and meowing loudly at seven, but only if I'm not up yet. Now that's what I call a wake-up service ^_^
kilala.nl tags: coffee, life, cat,
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2007-09-27 21:54:00
Feh! I hate it when I feel confused, angry and sad at the same time. Throwing one of my tempter tantrums just cost me a thirty euro stylus. For that one split second the explosion feels great, but the seconds leading up to it and the hour after it suck.
This isn't the first time I've busted things either. At least one cellphone and a keyboard have suffered at my rage. I'm just glad it doesn't happen very often :)
Screw homework. I'm going to bed, since apparently I need my sleep. I'll catch up tomorrow.
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2007-08-31 11:40:00
On the 30th of August 2007, Stef Heinsman opened the new academic year at Instituut Archimedes. All freshmen for the tweedegraads docent course attended an introductory meeting, welcoming them to their new school.
Surprisingly, our director/rector Stef Heinsman had some interesting tidbits for the crowd. It wasn't the expected, useless ramble :)
The three most important lessons from his own past:
By attending lectures you build a solid relationship, both with your teachers and your fellow students. You will also remain emerged into the whole spirit of school and teaching, ensuring your continued enthusiasm.
By not postponing your work, Stef is convinced that you will build confidence in your own competences. By taking the same tests and projects as your fellow students, at the same time, you will realize that they're in the same boat. Things may be hard for you, but there are other people in the exact same situation.
At times you'll be convinced that your own approach to a certain situation is the best one. Don't feel forced to take the teacher's approach and verify your own opinions. Become autonomous, allowing you to do your own work when you need to.
Combining these three factors will help you with your motivation. It's what you're going to need when things get a little rough around the edges.
In conclusion, Stef also asks us to take care of our selves. Don't lose your health, don't burn out and make sure that things are fine at home. Because the people at home are your strongest foundations.
He also suggested that you should teach something that you enjoy. By doing that you'll not only convey knowledge, but also enthusiasm!
kilala.nl tags: school, life, summary,
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2007-08-26 23:14:00
When the 29th of August pops around I never know what to tell people when they ask me what I want for my birthday.
Ironically, throughout the whole year I think of -loads- of stuff that'd be cool to have, of movies that are so awesome that I just -have- to have them in my collection and of books that I really ought to read. I've started tracking all of these items in my website's database. This page represents the contents of said database. This way I can give the URL when I forget what I'd like. Again... ;)
Of course, all the prohibitively expensive stuff are things that I put on there because I intend to buy them myself one day. I do not put them on this list because I think someone may buy them for me (I really don't want them to). I put them on this list to serve as goals for myself to work towards to.
Film
Music
Book
Around the house
Video games
Gadgets
Clothing & Jewelry
kilala.nl tags: life,
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2007-08-21 14:37:00
Oh dear ^_^;;
Right now I'm at school, waiting for my 1500 appointment with the course coordinator. My $DEITY, am I nervous!
I left work around 1230, handing over my operational shift to Edmond. I quickly rushed home, 'cause I still needed to get pictures taken as well. The plan was have to that done at city hall, while Marli got her passport renewed. We left around one and I was already feeling my nerves :D I was tense and my stomach was playing hell on me! It only got worse when I left city hall around two to catch my bus. In my book that's cutting things rather close, since I like to be about half an hour early for big meetings. I had no clue how long my bus ride would take.
Well, turns out everything was fine. I got here half an hour early, took a trip to the john and found the office I was expected at. And now I'm here, typing up this little thing. Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out.
This is -so- funny ^_^ This is the first time in -years- that I've felt nervous to the bone! The hour before our wedding was even easier than this! As I mentioned earlier I believe that this is down to the fact that there's a real possibility of me failing at this endeavour.
*shudder* Well, here goes!
kilala.nl tags: school, life, career,
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2007-08-14 22:22:00
Last night, as I was trying to fall asleep, something suddenly dawned on me. I was feeling anxiety, or even fear about making my career switch!
This is the first time in years that I've felt anxious about an undertaking, because I might actually not be able to do it. I know that I love maths and I know that love teaching people. But there's no guarantee for me that I will actually succeed at my college degree.
And you know what?
It feels great!
It's been years since I didn't feel like I could easily tackle a task! Or knowing that I could at least wing it. Nope, this is for real! I love it :3
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2007-07-20 22:56:00
I've always been of the opinion that I'm a level headed and open minded fellow. I certainly hope that my list of beliefs reflects upon said opinion. Most notably the ones about all being and religions being equal. Thus I choose not to consider a person by his/her background, but by their actions.
Well, tonight I ran into a rather interesting quandary... It's all fair and fun to proclaim that I consider all religions equal and that I believe that all opinions should be heard. But what happens if I happen to run into something that really goes against my own beliefs? Is it closed minded of me to discount the other's beliefs because they are contrary to mine?
I think that these contrary opinions could be split two ways: beliefs that are generally considered to be atrocious and beliefs that are generally unpopular.
The first category would contain such beliefs as racism, racial supremacy, nepotism and the need for war or violence. Most people in this world have come to the conclusion that these things are really kind of bad and that they offer no positive contribution to our world. I have no qualms whatsoever discounting these beliefs as stupid/awful/not good.
The second category however becomes tricky. It contains such things as oddball religions and other unpopular beliefs, like conspiracy theories. People who follow unlikely religions get my vote! Do you follow the Jedi religion? Then may the force be with you! If there's even one true follower of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, then more power to him! In my early twenties I followed a pagan religion for a few years. At one point in time I even exchanged the Norse pantheon for that of Meerclar Allmother. To me it doesn't matter which face you stick onto your religion, as long as you feel comfortable with it.
So why is it that I have problems with the church of Scientology? Aside from religions worshipping people still alive (think "small cults worshipping their leader"), I can honestly say that Scientology is the only religion I'd steer my kids away from with a stern hand.
Is it their beliefs about Xenu and his galactic empire, 75 million years ago? No... Did you catch the part earlier where I said I once held a pantheon consisting of cats?! If that's what the Scientologists choose to believe, then that's fine by me.
Is it because they contribute nothing to this world? No... I've been checking around the web and I was startled to find that they have set up a rather large network of volunteers. These volunteers seem to honestly want to help out where they are needed.
So what is it? Well, I just can't get myself over all of the hub-bub that surrounds the religion/church. There's thousands of people bickering back and forth across the Internet about Scientology. Proponents claim that the religion's helped their lives and has brought happiness and wisdom. Detractors claim that the church uses brainwashing, extortion and harassment.
The old proverb tells that when two parties fight, both parties usually are at fault. My own added wisdom tells me to steer clear of the whole darn mess and to stick to my own path. In this case I'll advocate worshipping outside of church. Fine if you believe what they believe, but do it outside the group...
kilala.nl tags: life,
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2007-07-18 06:49:00
Most men never give their libido much thought, let alone about their hormones.They have no clue to what extent these two important parts of your person define yourself. Author (and doctor) Ivan Wolffers has found all of this out, because he had to. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer back in 2003 and was immediately given hormone treatment. Among these was chemical castration, since the male hormone testosteron plays a crucial role in prostate cancer. For about one and a half years, Ivan went through life as an emotional wreck, with mood swings and depression. His body changed (no body hair, sensitive breasts) and his libido was all gone.
I cannot imagine what it would be like, to live like that. My libido has a slow sinus rhythm, so at least I know how frustrating it is to have low periods for weeks on end. But all of that comes and goes! I'm not stuck like that for over a year! And being stuck like that Ivan was forced to ask himself: is it better to live, than it is to survive?
Weekly diaries. Heimwee naar de lust (Longing for lust) describes years two through five of his cancer. Just like its predecessor Walvis spelen (covers the first year) it's a book written week-by-week. This results in chapters that, on average, last about two pages. Each week Ivan tells you what's on his mind. How's his treatment going? How's his work going? What is his body up to? How are things with his wife and family? Sometimes a chapter is just brought on by something that's sparked Ivan's poetic mind. It makes for easy reading, knowing that you can quickly snap off another chapter or two.
Writing style. Ivan's style changes from time to time. Most of the weeks his writing's very easy on the brain, with short sentences and a friendly tone. Other weeks he becomes rather loquacious with sentences running over thirty words. In general though, it's a very easy book to read through, putting aside the subject that may make you think a few times :)
Cancer. Luckily the book isn't just about Ivan and his cancer, else it would've been a rather depressing and short book. Ivan's goal was never to teach the reader something, he just wants to write about his frustration to get rid of it. Which is why he tells us all about his travels (he goes around the world -a-lot-), about his newly born grand child, about his Iranian urologist, about his wife's work for asylum seekers and so on.
I'm very happy to have bought this book and I've never sped through a book this quickly. I actually intended to finish it last night (reading about 200 pages in one day), but unfortunately I fell asleep on the couch ^_^ Since I haven't finished the book just yet I'm still to learn what Ivan decides to do: take his medicins or take his libido. In his situation, I think I'd go for the second option...
To finish up, here's a few quotes. I've translated them into english to my best ability, but unfortunately I'm not much of a writer. Hence, some of the oomph to the writing's gotten lost.
Week 23 2004. It never gets easier, even when you've been together for thirty-three years. We used to fight because my hormones were so reliable, but these days it's because they've left me altogether. Us men are fools with, yet soulless husks without our testosteron. [...] Despite all of the unrest they create, hormones are the wood in the hearth of a long standing relationship. I'm sad that I had to make that discovery.
Week 31 2005. Will I be reasonable, prolonging my life a few years to survive longer than [my father] did? Despite of the crying, the hot flushes and a body devoid of male hormones that provides me no pleasure. Or shall we keep things short yet powerful, fucking as much as we can, and saying my farewells in time like a young hero grown too old, now being called to the gods by an unavoidable destiny?
kilala.nl tags: reading, life,
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2007-07-10 23:47:00
I can heartily recommend anyone considering a career switch to go and have a chat with people who work in their aspired field.
I made a little visit to my old high school this morning, to talk to their HR guy. He gave me a lot of valuable tips and suggested that a part-time study would indeed be the best and safest option for me. He indicated that it would be nigh on impossible for me to get a zij-instroom position, due to my lack of experience.
He also suggested that I go have a talk with the CWI (Centrum voor Werk en Inkomen), the part of the dutch government charged with work and job security. He reckoned that I might strike a lucky deal with them, getting a subsidy for hours I didn't spend working for Snow. In order to make time for my education I'd need to cut back on my working hours (and thus my monthly wages) by about 40%. This grant might help cover for at least part of the money I'd miss out on.
Tomorrow I'll also make a phone call with the CO of another high school. His number was given to me by my father's girlfriend who happens to work with the fellow. I'm curious if he has some other useful tips for me :)
kilala.nl tags: career, life, money, school,
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2007-07-10 23:34:00
Now that I'd decided to become a teacher, it left me with even more questions (duh). Which subject would I teach? At what kind of school? What kind of education do I need? Where do I study? How will this fit in with my job? Will I even be able to keep my job? OMG, will we be able to pay our mortgage and still have food on the table?! ONOZ!
Stuff like that.
Well... I quickly decided that I'd like to teach english or math at a high school level. I can wax lyrically about both subjects and both fields offer me with loads of new stuff to learn and explore.
So... How do you go from having a completely unrelated job, to being a teacher? Here's how... (mind you, all of this applies to the Netherlands).
You start out with two options:
1. You take up a part-time or full-time college education. (deeltijd or voltijd in dutch).
2. You take up a part-time teaching position and follow additional classes to become a real teacher.
This second option is called zij-instroom in dutch and really is only an option if your ambitions lie in teaching the same field you worked in. So for example, I could get a zij-instroom position teaching Comp Sci at high schools, whereas a biologist could start teaching Biology. Zij-instroom however requires you to have real and provable experience in said field, including the degrees that come with it. You will also need to take an entrance exam because they won't let just everybody start teaching. Should you be accepted for zij-instroom, then you'll get a two-year teaching permit, which is directly connected to a contract between you and the school in question.
Anywho... What with zij-instroom not being an option for my two chosen fields (I have neither a degree, nor work experience in english or math) I have to opt for the longer path. Getting into a full-time education (voltijd) really isn't an option for me anymore: I wouldn't have any income, I'd be bored stiff and I'd be in a class full of eighteen year olds. Which automatically guides me towards a part-time education.
Luckily every college in the Netherlands offers deeltijd educations for professionals looking for a career switch, or an upgrade to their knowledge. The Hogeschool Utrecht offers teachers educations that are actually reputable and it's close to my home as well! Now all that remains is to convince my employer to let me work either three or four days a week. *gulp*
kilala.nl tags: career, life, school,
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2007-07-10 23:25:00
This blog post was made invisible initially. It has now been made available to the Internet at large. Sorry for breaking continuity :D
Actually... I didn't decide to go into education right from the get-go.
On the 27th of June I first had that breakdown, followed by a lot of talking with Marlijne. After that came a lot of soul searching of what I'd like to do and what I -could- do. While I wanted to do something radically different, I also needed to stay realistic.
So I started reading up on career switches, visiting the Ars Openfora and various dutch websites dedicated to the subject. And then I started to think of career options... I'd repeatedly expressed interest in becoming a craftsman, building furniture or getting into metalwork. Big, mechanical machines turn me on. I enjoy gardening and being outside. I considered becoming an office assistant. I even thought about joining the military!
And then, one evening, Marli reminded me of aspirations I'd harbored a few years ago. Back then I'd thought of getting a part-time teaching job at the local college, educating the next generation of sysadmins. This little nudge made me remember that, yes indeed, I do enjoy teaching! I love explaining stuff to people, making sure they understand all they need to and want to about the subject. This made me browse the Gathering of Tweakers fora, to search for stories about IT folks studying to become teachers. Well, I found these stories and they enticed me even more.
So the decision was made: I'll become a teacher!
kilala.nl tags: career, teaching, life,
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2007-07-10 22:25:00
This blog post was made invisible initially. It has now been made available to the Internet at large. Sorry for breaking continuity :D
Back in April, I felt like crap. Then, in June, it came back. Now, with the start of July I've made my decision:
I'm getting out of IT.
That day in June something snapped inside of me and I decided that I could no longer carry on working as a sysadmin. The work no longer motivates me, nor does it offer me some shine of glamour. I know that, while there are still endless, uncharted seas for me to discover, this field no longer holds a challenge for me. I know that whatever I'll need to learn, I'll be able to do so in a few days. Lather, rinse, repeat, until I grow old.
No thank you.
No longer will I be shifting bits and bytes around, being a faceless peon in a huge corporation. No longer will I be burning midnight oil at the altar of Unix.
Instead I will make difference in this world and I will be of use to the general public. I will try to educate this world's children, nudging them into directions they might otherwise ignore.
I have decided to go into education and become a high school teacher.
kilala.nl tags: career, life, school,
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2007-07-09 09:02:00
When I'm not busy doing my best to ignore the world I actually enjoy digging a bit deeper into the scary stuff that's going on around us. Reading gathered news posts from here and there it does once more become clear that George Orwell wasn't far off. A lot of the horrors he described about communist countries decades ago are now becoming apparent in our oh-so-free western world.
If you have the time for some nice conspiracy theories, start your digging at:
* 1984 Comic. Combines a comic book rendition of 1984 with news gathered from around the Internet.
* Thought Criminal. Gathers news on the government, the military and the snoops.
* Students for an Orwellian Society. More gathered news.
And this is just something cool I found as well: Post Secret. People who have a secret create an artsy postcard about it and send it in to be posted on the web. There's some really touching stuff in there.
EDIT:
I've had that INGSOC logo as a background on my laptop for ages and last Saturday was the first time someone knew what it was. Naturally it was Robert who's rather well versed in english lit. We shared the Shiranai booth at Chibi Con and he noticed the background while I was switching slide shows.
kilala.nl tags: life, reading,
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2007-06-27 18:37:00
Damn. It came back.
There was desperation, there was shouting, there was crying and finally there was consolation. This time I'm doing something about it. No matter what the outcome is.
This has started to affect my professional life, so maybe it's time to have some changes.
kilala.nl tags: life, rhythm, meh,
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2007-06-06 14:41:00
Yesterday Willow blogged about insecurities and a dutch documentary called Beperkt houdbaar (which roughly translated as Contents liable to expire). This doc poses the question why women are so obsessive about their image, how the media and industry affect their self-image and to what lengths people go to be accepted. The title itself refers to the fact that apparently people don't keep indefinitely and that they became more and more unattractive with the years.
I don't agree with all of the viewpoints from the documentary, but there's one that I back fervently: An aging body has led a long life, has born children and has worked hard for years. An aging body should be respected for its experience and not be loathed for its looks.
The discussion with Willow also got me to thinking what it is that I am overly insecure about. Thing is, while I may not be a veritable Adonis, I don't feel bad about my body (with maybe one exception). For some reason I've never cared very much about what people think about my appearance, unless a certain situation calls for it (eg "formal dress" situations).
So... What -am- I horribly anxious about? Cleanliness. I hate a dirty or messy home and I abhore the thought of letting someone in my house if it's messy. So... In order to break through this insecurity a little bit, I present you our living room in all of its post-convention glory. Quite the disaster area, wouldn't you say? *shudder*
Thankfully, everthing was cleaned up again in three hours.
kilala.nl tags: life,
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2007-05-05 11:30:00
It's no secret that I've been down in the dumps for about a month now. No motivation at work, no energy to enjoy stuff at home, no libido worth mentioning... stuff like that. Let's call it a depression. Not clinical depression mind you, just an ordinary depression.
It's obvious to me that this moping around is being caused by me not being happy about the state of my life. One of the most important factors I believe is that I'd like to do creative work as opposed to the maintenance and upkeep that I'm doing right now.
I found it awfully interesting to read something on Freud's ideas about depression and the process of self improvement. The snippet below (from Wikipedia) supports what I already knew, while also suggesting that this rut is going to last until I've changed my life sufficiently.
The depressed mood is adaptive in that it leads the person towards altering his thought patterns and behavior or way of living or else continues until such a time as he does so. It can be argued that depression and clinical depression is in fact the refusal of a person to heed the call to change from within his own mind. [...]
Depression appears to have the effect of stopping a person in his or her tracks and forcing him or her to turn inwards and engage in a period of self reflection; it is a deeply introspective state. During this period, which can last anywhere from days to years, the individual must find a new way to interpret his thoughts and feelings and reassess the extent to which his appraisal of his reality is realistic. [...]
Some psychologists have speculated that the depressed state more accurately reflects reality than normal perceptions due to reduced self-image, a theory known as Depressive realism.
The way I read this, it means that:
1. I'm feeling crappy because I am not happy about some thing(s) in my life.
2. This crappiness allows me to find out what the heck is bothering me, by stripping me down to the bare essentials.
3. This crappiness will linger until I have changed the thing(s) that I am unhappy about, or until I have changed my opinion on the subject.
Or to put it succinctly: put up, or shut up!
Well, I've decided to put up simply because I'd like to do something useful with my time, instead of lying down and taking my days as they come. In order to get a good hold on things I'll need a plan. So let's start by making a list of all the things that I need to do and that I want to do.
Anime 2007: I have less than a month to finalise the Dealer Room paperwork and designs. I'll then run the festival with my friends and afterwards I'll spend some time documenting my work so it can be transferred to my replacement. I expect to have finished my work for the festival by half July.
Assembly 2007: I'm organising a trip to the Assembly demo-party in Helsinki. I'll be going to Finland for a week with a few of my colleagues from Snow. This means that I'll need to get together with our lovely girls in Operations, to sort out things like hotels and flights. It's not much, but it's still something weighing on my shoulders. ASM07 is over by the first week of August.
LPI 201 and 202: My employer requires me to get certified on multiple subjects, including the Linux Professional Institute stuff. I need to pass two large exams before the end of the year. Instead of spending free time on this in the evenings I will take leave from work for eight to ten days, to spend on studying. I expect to have all this out of the way by January.
Physical condition: Remember how I started riding my bike to the office back in December and how I flunked out by February? On the one hand I want to stop beating myself up about this, since such negative vibes are rarely helpful. On the other hand I'd like to start getting back in shape again... By riding my bike, by taking my best friend Menno up on his offer of going climbing together (in spite of my vertigo) and by trying my hand at the couch-to-5k plan. My biggest challenge will be twofold: to get that ass off the couch and to not let myself get distracted by the idea of leaving Marli alone at home. My goal? I'd love to nail that running the three miles within two months deal.
Also, thanks to Wynk for telling me about the couch-to-5k plan at just the right moment.
Getting creative: As I've said earlier, I would like to start doing something creative. I'd love to get started with etching. This requires that I build a proper workshop first, which is more creative stuff. Yay! I would like to have a complete workshop by the end of August, then I'd like to start etching sometime in September.
Thankfully I have some good friends and colleagues who're already rather busy with woodwork and such, so I know where to go for advice on the workshop.
Now... *sigh* ... I've done this whole here's the plan deal before and it didn't amount to much. So this time around I'm going to have to try my best and stick with it! Any tips on how to go about that would be greatly appreciated. I do think that I'll ask some of my friends to help me out in this...
/me reads it all back... Wow! That's some blog post! Typing it all out took me thirty minutes o_O Now I'll go and get dressed and go out to the shops! It's time for groceries!
kilala.nl tags: health, life, meh, career,
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2007-04-26 15:57:00
There's something about myself that rather confuses me. You see, I get embarassed about public speaking at the weirdes times.
I have absolutely no qualms about holding a presentation for forty people and I'll happily chat away about the subject at hand. It all depends on proper preparation and having a "feeling" for the story I'm about to tell.
On the other hand, doing a roleplaying exercise with seven people there with me completely blocks me up. Not just stuttering or searching for words, but drawing a complete blank: not thinking straight, not making sense and feeling like there's a knot inside that keeps me from moving. Seeing how roleplaying relies purely on improvisation as opposed to preparation this could be a clear indicator that I don't deal well with improv situations (which is at least partially true).
The odd thing though is that I had a "blocked" experience yesterday -at-home-! o_O
Someone had written something flattering about me and Marli asked me to read it to her. Playfully I went "Noooo, I'm embarassed!", followed by some more "nonono's". But for some reason (I have no clue why) this actually turned into a real block. As in: picking up the paper, reading the first few words and then getting an almost physical reaction to put the paper down again. Weird!
The human psyche is a wondrous thing!
kilala.nl tags: life,
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2007-04-15 22:17:00
Hmmm... That was a good weekend and it's helped me on my way a little bit.
People always say that, when you're down in the dumps, it's great to work hard on something. Doing something useful really does make you feel better. Well, yesterday I spent all the time between 0900 and 1700 running around frantically preparing our house for our two guests for the night: Jimmy and Jasper. Groceries, market place, more groceries, cleaning, cleaning, more cleaning and folding five baskets of laundry. Marli really isn't someone for housework so I was -very- happy that she helped me out!
Jimmy (MK) and Jasper had rode their bikes from Den Bosch (60km) and Veldhoven (100km) over to Utrecht as part as a bet shall we say? They made it in one piece and they actually seemed pretty healthy at the end of the trip ^_^; We watched a great Korean flick called Marrying the mafia 2 and went to bed around 2300 since I was really broken :D
Today I was supposed to meet my dad in Lemmer around 1200, so we kicked J&J out of the house around 1100 (which made me late). Fred and I were going to take his boat out on the IJsselmeer to relax a little. Since there was nearly no wind we just putted around on the engine for a few hours, getting sun burnt :D That was a -great- way to spend the day because we really didn't do -anything-. That is, until getting back to port which was when we needed to stow everything away neatly, including all the sails etc.
All in all, a weekend spent very well!
kilala.nl tags: health, life, friends, sports, relaxing,
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2007-04-10 06:35:00
* Family
My mother and her husband had flown over to the Netherlands for a long weekend, so we went to see them at my sister's yesterday. It was very nice to see them again since it'd been at least a year! I'm sorry to say that we had to leave early, in part due to the crap I described in my previous blog post.
@ Anu: we're sorry for leaving so early, we really -do- miss you you know? :)
* Website
I've been cooking up ideas for a completely new build of Kilala.nl. Most of the content will remain the same (although some parts will be taken offline) and the change will be mostly visual. I plan on finally -really- learning CSS so I can implement some nice, graphical trickery.
In order to get to a point where I can start working on the new code I'll first need to get some things sorted. I'm already working on moving all archived blog posts into the database (only 2002 and 2003 remain) and I've set up MySQL + PHP on my Powermac so I can run a local version of the website. Still, it'll be a very long road 'till I finally get to the end result and I hope that the creative process involved will keep me a bit happier.
* Doubts about work (see yesterday)
One of the doubts I was talking about earlier, about work, is that I would love to do something more creative than systems administration. Of course I "make" stuff now as well, but I can never go: "This is me! This is what I've built! Marvel at my handiwork!". Scripts and proposals and solved incidents just aren't tangible like that.
I think this website is here to at least partially fill that gap: I'm trying creative processes that I never would get to use otherwise. Thing is though, jobs with tangible, creative processes start to sound more and more enticing! Jobs like gardening, cooking and carpentry where you make something and people care.
That's something jobs in IT are renowned for: most people outside your sphere of influence, but inside the same organisation, don't really seem to care about what you do. So if you're part of a team of sysadmins the "we care"-level drops steadily once you moved outside your department.
For now I'll stick to my current job and get more creative hobbies. There's still that sewing project lying in the corner and woodwork sounds rather relaxing by now :)
kilala.nl tags: family, website, career, life, relaxing,
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2007-04-09 20:49:00
You know? I don't think I'm doing too hot :[
The past few weeks I've been feeling stressed out, constantly tired, overall mopey and to top it off there's some doubts and confusion. I'm doubting about life, about work, about decisions I've made so far. Thinking about how different things could've been if I'd made a few different choices here and there. Thinking about what-ifs and what-nows in general.
Unfortunately this has had its repercussions on my environment as well: I've been a dick to Marli for the past few weeks (less attentive, more bitchy), I haven't had that much oomph! at the office and I've let my work for Anime 2007 go down the gutter :(
What makes things worse is the nagging voice in the back of my head that's telling me that all of this is nothing and that I should easily be coping with it all. Guilt++.
I've known about these feelings and doubts all along, but I've only realised just now how deep things are getting. While on the phone with my friend Kaj, who's just come back from Japan (glad that your back!), I noticed a tremble in my voice and some moisture cropping up in my eyes... That ain't no good sign as far as I'm concerned.
I think I need to think things over...
kilala.nl tags: health, meh, life, career,
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2007-03-08 09:51:00
Thanks to a tip on Ars Lounge (thanks DrFaulken) I sauntered by the BBC What am I like? test. It's a sort of Myers-Briggs Light if you will. Apparently it's part of some new TV show they're running: answer twenty questions and you get some insight into your own psyche.
Well, my outcome had no surprises as you can see in the image above and the verdict was: realistic. Although there is the excellent remark made by DrFaulken:
A shortcoming with any of these tests is that people sub/consciously select answers that matches to their perceived lifestyle, and not always their actual self.
So, maybe I've just been answering the questions in such a way to reaffirm my own mental image of myself. Not entirely unlikely and there's also the fact that I really do have a horrible brain when it comes to remembering things! One day I think I hate X but two months later all of a sudden I love X, for example. My brain often does weird things and doesn't remember interesting/important stuff. Sort of like an inverse colander, where the big, important things fall through and the grit is caught.
Also, I just love saying colander ^_^
kilala.nl tags: career, life, internet,
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2007-02-23 19:43:00
Being home alone for a week has proven to be something I can take without too much trouble. Time seems to be speeding by and the only big difference around the house is that it's very quiet and that it feels empty.
I'm sure though that, as I discussed with my colleague Frank over lunch, things would have been a lot harder if I wasn't keeping myself busy this much. I've basically spent every free hour at home on work. Not my job, but on chores around the house and on preparations for the festival. The little time that wasn't expended in this way I was engrossed in cartoons on TV (most probably Foster's home ...).
I'm rather sure that, if I were to spend more than a week alone, moments would crop up where I would be painfully aware of Marlijne's absence. But for now, there's work on my website to be done, some blogging to do, groceries to shop for and a cake to bake.
kilala.nl tags: life,
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2007-02-19 22:28:00
No not the movie, but literally: Marli's off for a short holiday in the UK with a friend of the family. She deserves it too since she hasn't had a real vacation for over two years now while my last trip was last year in April. And with her out of the country for a week that leaves me home alone, $EXPRESSION.
I really couldn't think of a proper expression to insert above.
* "Free as a bird" would have made it sound like I was happy to be alone and that I'd treat the week as if I was single. Which I most definitely will not.
* "To my own devices" would make me sound like the simpleton husband who can't do anything around the house. Which I most definitely am not.
* "Free to do as I please" would make Marli the oppressive wife who restricts her husband's movements. Which she most definitely is not.
Any suggestions as to a proper maxim are more than welcome. ^_^
What it boils down to is that I am utterly unencumbered in my schedule, with one less person to take into account. That sounds way more egotistical than I mean it to sound, but yet again I'm lacking for better words. I have to say though that it's a very fresh feeling, one that I haven't had for years.
So at the end of the day I feel that I've been very efficient about my schedule. I've achieved things while remaining unstressed and in a comfortable manner. I've folded five baskets of laundry and have laundered three baskets more. I've cooked a good meal, I've run a few errands, I've taken care of some festival work, I've done my ordinary job (night shift), I've been restoring an antique buffet and I even found enough time to fit in an hour or two of relaxation.
But, now that the day is coming to a close and I'm lying here in bed, alone, I wonder whether I wasn't just keeping myself occupied. Because right now the house feels a little foreign, like it's not mine. And I pay attention to all kinds of noises coming from outside that I usually ignore. And I can't help but notice that her blanket smells of her. *huggle blanket*
This is going to be a very interesting week.
kilala.nl tags: life, holiday, relaxing,
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2007-01-01 19:23:00
My memory is truly horrible: I usually cannot remember what I had for dinner two days before, let alone remember what I did last week. To jog my memory I thought I'd go through all my old blog posts and through my calendars. Just to make a list of all the big stuff that happened to us in 2006.
The year was started at Peter and Wendy's new year's party. The traditional get-together couldn't be held at our place, since we had only just moved into our new house. We didn't have any real furniture yet and were sleeping on the ground. That didn't leave much room for dinner guests and sleep overs :)
We took dance classes (ballroom and latin), both for fun and for exercise (which the both of us really need). The classes were a lot of fun and most of people we met were actually rather friendly. Unfortunately we dropped out close to the end of the year. Partially due to restricting agendas, partially due to laziness and a lack of discipline.
We learnt that we will not be having children any time soon. Doctor's noticed a few things in our health department that will be detrimental to our chances of having kids in the near future. Naturally, this diagnosis came as quite a shock.
The law suit revolving around Marlijne's father's inheritance dragged on, with the judges finally making the call near the end of the year. The whole matter is now only weeks away from being completely resolved, but in the end it means that both we and Marli's brother will be losing quite a lot of dosh.
Halfway through the year I completed favorable negotiations with my employer Snow, which resulted in me landing an indefinite contract with them. This means more stability for us since I will not have to plan for possible unemployment in 2007.
Around the same time we celebrated our two years marital anniversary. God time flies! :)
Over summer Marlijne decided to drop out of college, in favor of dealing with our personal issues. These will take up quite a lot of time and effort, which would take away a lot of concentration from school work. So instead of studying, Marlijne's taken up a part-time job at the local branch of Ulla Popken, a fashion store for plus-sized ladies.
At the end of summer we ran Anime 2006 with our friends. The festival was a _huge_ success and I have to say it was our best festival to date! While organising the festival is very gratifying it also puts a huge load of responsibility on my shoulders. After A2006 I decided that it had become too much to bare for me, so I accepted another position within our organisation. At the end of 2006 we also greatly expanded our staff which should help us a lot in organising A2007.
Getting DTV (digital television) has greatly expanded our "TV experience". This sounds horrible, like we're always watching the boob-tube, but that's not what it's like :) Anywho: DTV has returned TCM to me and also gave us access to BBC3, which has introduced us to both the modern-day Doctor Who and Torchwood. We've started following these two series almost religiously since they are so totally great!
Over the course of 2006 my love for coffee has kept on growing. I started the year only liking the dark, bitter liquid but these days I _love_ the life-giving juice :D We've been experimenting with all kinds of different kinds of coffee and we received a wonderful coffee maker from my dad as a birthday gift.
I entered our apartment building's Board Of Owners as a staff member. This has given me a few responsibilities when it comes to caring for our building and it ensures that I get to have a proper say in how the maintenance will be handled over the next few years.
I've developed three interesting friendships: I had become much closer to a colleague of mine at $CLIENT (trying to support her through a rough patch in her life), I've met and gotten closer to Floor (a lovely girl I met through Animal Crossing) and I like to believe that I've re-found my friendship with The Saint (with whom I shared my college years).
Through my employer I've been taking part in a course targeted at developing stronger communications skills. Through this course I've learnt of a few of my character's short comings that I hope to ameliorate over the next few months.
I've become more active with work-related issues outside of working hours. I've started visiting meetings at Sun and I've started going to conferences on UNIX and sysadmin topics.
After thirteen months I left $CLIENT to go work at another client of Snow's. The two to three weeks that I spent at the Snow office waiting for an assignment taught me one important thing: there are boatloads of work out there for a proper UNIX sysadmin and I've have more than enough marketable skills. That should give me a little back-of-the-head support, should things turn sour :)
My best friend Menno has taken up a job abroad, leaving us separated for at least four months. Now we've gone without each other for such a long time before, but it's still not something we particularly enjoy :) I greatly respect Menno's efforts though, since he has gone out there to live his dream.
Thanks to the tips of a few fellow sysadmin bloggers I'm reading Time management for system administrators. While I have always taken great care to work in an orderly fashion and to plan my work meticulously, this book has helped me to schedule my work in new ways. By applying only a few of the tips from the book I've already improved the way I work each day. I feel much more relaxed!
Now that I work relatively close to home I've decided to ride my bike to work. While this inconveniences the colleague that was car pooling with me, it gives me a chance to get in some much needed exercise. So far I've only done it for one week, but it already feels great!
Over the course of 2006 we've seen way too little of our respective families. We should really try to meet up with them more!
And finally, there's this website of mine :) At the beginning of 2006 it was still a hoky mix of HTML and CSS working in horrible frames. The past twelve months have seen this site go through the following phases: HTML + CSS -> PHP + CSS -> search engine optimization -> XHTML compliancy -> mySQL database for all blog posts -> commenting feature for blog -> RSS feed for blog -> tagging -> more flexible archiving.
Going back through the whole list and seeing all these things placed in a calendar perspective makes me realize how weird time flows. On the one hand a year seems oh-so-fscking long, while on the other hand blog posts from three months ago seem like they were only made yesterday.
Now... On to 2007!
kilala.nl tags: life, retrospective,
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2006-11-10 19:16:00
Growing up with the BBC I was often exposed to British classics like "The young ones", "Dad's army", "Fawlty towers" and "Porridge".
Another one that I kinda liked, but that was also a bit confusing to me was "The good life". I never did quite understand why that silly man and his ever-so-cute wife had put all those plants, vegetables and animals into their back garden. I always figured they were rejects from the hippy era, come back to haunt the late seventies.
That is, until this evening when I saw the first episode of the whole series.
It shows that the "silly man" (also known as Tom Good) is actually a technical draftsman who is completely fed up with the futility of his daily work and the rat race in general. He convinces his wife Barbara to take a gamble and go back to "the good life".
"The good life" in this case being a self-sufficient life, where they will not have to rely on jobs and money for their daily sustenance and where they sell part of their produce to get what they cannot make themselves. And would you believe that this is _exactly_ what I've been dreaming of for the past few months?! Quite an eye opener :)
And it's not just me! Several other colleagues at Snow have confessed to dreaming of a simple life, living on a farm, being completely self-sufficient. We've always concluded that this would be quite hard to get off the ground and that you probably couldn't do it alone. But in the end it is _not_ unpossible!
Get together with a few people you can really trust, pool together your resources, find some good property and a roof over your head... It'd be hard work and no doubt you'll run into problems, but aren't those sprinkled through life to make things interesting?
Who knows! Maybe in a few years?...
kilala.nl tags: tv, life, career,
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2005-12-20 15:11:00
Wow! The brunt of all of the heavy work for our new house is finally done! o/
All of the walls and ceilings received a fresh coat of paint, most of the doors and window sills got a new coat of lacquer and a completely new floor is finally in place. Last weekend we dumped one and a half truck loads of garbage at the city dump and we moved almost exactly the same amount of stuff from the old house to the new one :) It's amazing how much crap two people can amass over three years.
Unfortunately most of our new furniture won't be arriving until February, so we'll spend two months living out of boxes :( But I'm very happy that we've now moved in.
I'll still be spending a lot of time fixing the new and old house, so updates to the website will be _very_ sparse for the time being.
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2005-08-24 12:16:00
In her last Podcast Mur Lafferty mentioned that, while she's 32, she still feels like a teenager and that, despite that fact, she could simply not relate to modern day teenagers. She tells of the moments where she'd gone "Why, back in my day!" and that that kinda scares her :3 So I guess I have more reason to be affraid, since I'm seven years ahead of her!
I have experienced _many_ "back in my day" moments and I'm only 26. And, like her and many other twenty- and thirty-somethings, I also feel detached from these days' kids. But unlike her, I think I know what's going on ^_^ You see, we might all still feel the same way like when we were teenagers, but therein also lies the "problem". We feel like teenagers from back _when_ we were teenagers! So while times are changing we haven't changed with them :) And thus today's teenagers are completely alien to us.
All in all I really don't see a problem with this, since this is the way it's been for centuries I guess. Hmm... Now taht I think of it, I may have also found an explanation for the dreaded mid-life crisis :) I guess you could perceive that as an old-timer teenager trying to catch up with modern day teens because they feel some need to do so.
Completely unrelated to that, I really love Mur's latest intro on her Podcast: Mur! The official beverage of the American Dyslexic Pirates Association!.. Simply wonderful! I love word play :3
kilala.nl tags: life,
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2005-08-18 07:47:00
A peculiar thing happened on my way to the office this morning. First off I'd have to admit that switching to the VW Golf has changed my driving style somewhat. These days it's become easier to cross the speed limit and just comfortably cruise down the high way. So this morning I was beaming down the highway and I decided to cut through some B-roads which also lead to the office. So five minutes onto the B-road (yes, I was driving too fast yet again) I grind to a halt, perplexed by the fact that the road has been closed off for maintenance.
So I turn backup around and just as I'm about to hightail it out there "Say anything" by X Japan starts on my iPod and this wonderful sun rise comes across the horizon. "Say anything" is a bit of a melancholical song which went very nicely with the surrounding scenery. I took it as life's way of telling me to cool it a little :) So instead I chugged back to the highway at a leasurely 60kmph and took my time. Life can be good :3
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2005-07-31 18:14:00
Once every five years or so I get the urge to re-watch a number of "deep" movies I've had in my collection since I was a teenager. This time around it was the movie based on that Orwellian classic Nineteen eighty-four. It has to be one of the most depressing movies in my collection, and also one of the most sobering ones.
Watching that movies really makes me hope that such a future will never come to be... Or actually that such a history will not be repeated. Yes, I'm well aware of the Stasi, the KGB and the other organisations who function in their way. However, technology has advanced in many astounding ways since then, so it really is frightening to think how effective such organisations will be today! I mean, even back then they had miniaturised cameras, microphones and so on. But these days you have all kinds of computers, networks, and all kinds of other sci-fi crap!
And naturally there's also human nature. One thing that has not changed and will most probably never change is the fact that one part of humanity will always wish to rule over other parts of humanity. And that they will go a great variety of measures to reach their goal.
Scary shit that. So I'll just go and grab some hot cocoa, my stuffed tiger and curl up in a corner with a comic book ^_^
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2005-07-04 07:03:00
Currently at the office, so I'll make it a quick one :3
I never thought of myself of someone who's really into gadgets and high tech stuff, like PDAs and the likes. That's why this morning's realisation was quite a shocker! I really _do_ carry around a lot of high tech crap every day!
* My cell phone
* My iPod (either with earbuds, or the iTrip for in the car
* My eMate 300
* My Nintendo DS
To most of you that may seem like a normal (or even little) amount of trinkets to carry around, but to me it still feels a bit odd! I always frowned upon people who had so much gadgetery going on and now it turns out that I'm one of them! *eek* And the annoying thing is that I can't go without any of them during my day! Well... Technically I could do without the NDS and I don't always take it with me... But that still leaves me with three items!
So much for technology being in service to man!
In other news: I would like to thank _everyone_ who joined us at my birthday celebration on Saturday! You guys made my day :) It was nice to see our respective families again and naturally dinner with our friends was a blast!
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2005-05-25 16:15:00
Currently listening to "Maximum wave" by Two-mix.
Well, today was interesting :) I'd made an appointment with an account manager from Snow, so we could go to $CLIENT in Schiphol for an intake / interview. The account mgr was nice enough and we had an enjoyable chat. The same thing goes for the guys at $CLIENT: their environment (three test labs for digital television) seem very hectic and don't seem to be much of a challenge UNIX-wise. However, they've got loads of work to be done when it comes to documentation and basic management tasks (monitoring, patching, security, etc).
Yesterday was our the first year's anniversary of our marriage :) We'd arranged a couple of nice things (among which the opportunity for Marlijne to drive around in her dream car), but unfortunately the day turned a bit sour due to our irritability and general sleepiness. We'll do better next time! Yay!
What else is there? Not much really. Tomorrow I'll be visiting the NLUUG conference in Ede. The whole conference focuses on e-mail, so most of the topics covered will be new to me since I've never had to setup an e-mail server myself. I glanced over the agenda for the conference and a few of sessions jumped out as interesting. I'm sure I'll have a nice day. And after that I'll finally have a couple of quiet days. Friday we'll take a look at a house we could end up buying, Saturday will be filed with mostly household work and Sunday we'll be paying the Airforce a visit. They've organised an info day to tell us how our family's doing (for those not in the know: my brother-in-law is a Chinook engineer in the Airforce).
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2005-05-12 17:56:00
Currently listening to "Seventh moon" by Fire Bomber
So, here's Cailin and Marli's sure-fire plan to Post Con Depression (PCD) prevention:
* On the first (and possibly second) night after the con, get as much sleep as possible.
* When you can, listen to some J-Pop, J-Rock, or whatever reminds you of the convention and our community.
* Read all the manga and watch all the manga you bought at the con, but try to spread it over three to four days. Break down the amounts you take in each day. So on the first day read at least three to four pockets and watch the same amount of DVDs. On the second do two of each and so on..
As you can imagine by the numbers mentioned above we went a little crazy when going through the Dealing Room ^_^; Yah... We brought home at least fifteen TPB manga's, three DVDs, a video game and a few plush dolls (Inu Yasha!!!) and a couple of wall scrolls. I guess we're silly that way ^_^;
kilala.nl tags: anime 2005, anime 200x, meh, life,
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2005-03-07 07:17:00
Currently listening to "Ride on shooting star" from the FLCL soundtrack.
Life actually feels pretty good right now, although it might not be. The last couple of days have been filled with tension and it wasn't the right kind. There was even more crap regarding the legal case against us, which of course is never much fun. There was some shitty business going around in the family and there was etra stress from Mar's school. As I said: life kind of feels good, but that probably only means that I'm coping better than Marli is :( She's pretty shook up by things, which is only natural. I'll try and give her all the support she needs!
Regarding her school work: it may sound odd, but I really enjoy helping her out! She's learning all kinds of stuff that I never had in school but which does touch on my profession. Things like project management and database (and interface) design. So it's fun to stick on the side lines and get a good view of what they're up to.
kilala.nl tags: life, money, problem, school,
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2005-01-13 21:51:00
It's strange how the scale of problems differs across the world. While people down in Africa are worried about the question whether they will be getting any food this week and while people over in Asia have lost everything they had, here I am worrying over hard drive space.
To us over in the western world life is so completely different to lives of people who live no further than a few thousand miles away. And sometimes I feel a bit guilty about that... I mean, when comparing some of our dialy problems to theirs it hardly seems fair, does it?
Personally I think that most of us have a realisation like this at least every now and then. I also think that most of us, myself included, try to blissfully ignore these differences so we may go on withour daily lives. As I said: sometimes I feel a bit awkward about it. Let's just say that I am quite happy that there are people out there who _do_ care.
So, what got me started with a rant like that?
I've been busy working on the Events for the Anime Con and for one of these events I need to recode a shit load of video so I can compile them into a set of DVDs. In order to do so I need massive amounts of hard drive space, as you can imagine. However, this morning I found out that my Media drive (the one I use to capture all of my DV files to) only had about 4GB free, which posed me a nasty dillema:
* Do I go out and buy an extra hard drive, be it S-ATA or Firewire?
* Do I start using my system disk for the video work?
* Do I try to delete as much of the already captured files, without losing any real work?
* Do I try to finish as many projects in one day as I can, so I can free up space on the Media disk?
* Do I temporarily store the other projects some lace else?
Unfortunately option 1 is out of the question, due to the lack of funds; hard drives may come cheap these days, but it still ain't nothing!. Option 2 has always been a no-no to me. Option 3 I had already tried a week ago and option 5 would require the aforementioned option 1, since DV files tend to be a bit larger than what a DVD can store.
So I went for option 4 and have been churning out DVDs since ten this morning. Mix that in with some groceries, a visit to the store for blank DVDs and some random household stuff and that's a surefire recipe for not getting any bloody usefull work done :[
So round about now I really _should_ be in bed. While I've almost recuperated from the flu, I'm not all the way there. But instead of turning in and falling into a cozy and warm, deep slumber I sit here under fluorescent light, waiting for my computer to finish encoding a DVD.
kilala.nl tags: life, problem,
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2005-01-08 09:24:00
Currently listening to "nothing" by "forgot my iPod"
I wrote the following rant while on the bus home and thought it would merrit some discussion. Please go to this thread at Ars Technica to see how things turned out.
When I read "The naked truth about Macintosh" a couple of months back I was still snickering about that one line which read "Be carefull though, because Macs have been known to break relationships". I might have been snickering, but there was a voice in the back of my head which told me that it could be true and actually, I already knew.
I knew it then because I've had complaints in the past about the amount of time I spent with my computer, which at the time was a Linux box. I know it now, because I get the same remarks (and more) about my Mac. Comments about me "loving my Mac", about "should have married my Mac" and "being obsessed with Apple" seem to ring true to home, although I absolutely disagree with the "marrying" one.
I'm wondering though: does my love for all things Apple not count as a harmless hobby? Yes, about 50% of the magazines and 60% of the books I read are Mac related. Yes, about 70% of the time I spend on the Internet is related to Apple and Macs in some way. Yes, I get excited about cool new Apple products and I get giddy about Steven Jobs's keynotes.
And yes, I do spend quite some time behind my Mac, but not all of the time I spend there is Apple related. A lot of the time spent behind the computer is being used for my volunteer work with the J-POP Foundation.
Also, in my experience there are far worse cases than mine. I've known people who really don't get out much because of their PC's. I've known people who are definately more obsessed with Apple than I am. And yes, I have seen people break up because of their computers.
But in all fairness, I will admit that each case is of course not alike. As the dutch saying goes "If your friend jumps into the Rhine for fun, why should you?" (the Rhine of course being a rather heavily trafficed river close to where I was born -> it's dangerous to jump into for fun). Or in normal terms: the fact that person A does X, doesn't mean that it's OK for you to do it as well.
Reading all of that you will probably realise that I am well aware that I'm over-doing things a bit. And maybe I'm indeed trying to make things seems a bit better than they are. Right now I'm just a bit curious how other people think about situations like this one. And I'm even more curious about people who've been in situations like this and how they dealt with it.
kilala.nl tags: life, problem, meh,
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2004-06-01 12:20:00
OMG! The last month has been packed full of goodness!
First off, me and Marli got married on the 24th of May!!! We looked absolutely smashing! No doubt about it and we had a great time. I have to admit that it's still sinking in a bit and sometimes, just out of habit, we still refer to eachother as the "boyfriend/girlfriend" instead of "husband/wife" :) To announce our wedding to all of our friends, family and colleagues we made two wedding cards with personal drawings. I'll put the drawings up in our personal spaces on this website.
Also, we visited the Anime Convention 2004 (A2k4). This was an awesome experience (yet again) and I'll try and make a swift writeup of our experiences. Be prepared though: you won't get a visitor's view of things, but one from the eye of the gophers/staff/stewards.
kilala.nl tags: life, awesome,
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2004-04-17 17:15:00
Busybusybusy! That's what we are :) Marli and me're being kept nicely occupied by our respective daytime jobs (Marli recently made a switch to telemarketing because her previous contract wasn't renewed), but gladly it's all still more than bearable. Our spare time gets divided by our many hobbies and of course we're also busy preparing for our wedding! ONLY SIX MORE WEEKS! *eek* Most of the stuff has been taken care of, although we do still need to go and have a chat with the restaurant people about dinner.
Hobbywise things're shifting a little bit again. Retro gaming has come to the foreground again (we re-discovered the joys of Bomberman, Colums and Sonic), while drawing comics and painting have jumped to the back burner. Marli's decided to take up needle point (she's actually quite good!) and I've started work on more computer related stuff again. I'm helping out Ian of IGG Software in translating iBank into dutch which leads me to learn all kinds of new stuff and I'm also looking into redoing my website. The look and feel will remain the same, but I'll be shuffling sections here and there and trimming a few things.
Well, that's it for now! I'll go fire up the ole barbecue, cause it's almost time for din-din ^_^
Cheers!
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2002-10-20 10:11:00
Boy, it's been a while since I've worked on this website! /me looks down... :eek: It's been more than three months already!
I've finaly found out that nasty CSS bug that was causing my page to look b0rked in Opera and Mozilla.. I'm definately _not_ a CSS wiz, so it took some fiddling with random parameters in the stylesheet I once downloaded and apparently it worked :) From now on you friendly Linux users (I'm one myself, so you can understand my troubles with this page) won't have the problems of the header's contents dropping down into the text ^_^
In local news: About two months ago (as per the 1st of September actualy!) me and Mar _finaly_ moved into our new house! Yay! It took a couple of weeks, but now we're settled in nicely. Everything's great actualy :) The house is really neat, we decorated it nicely, we don't have any money shortages (/me drops down to his knees..."Thank you Gaia!") and even Blackie found her own little spot in the house.
In the work department things appear to be picking up. After a couple of dreary weeks/months at the office I'm finaly getting back into the groove, setting my teeth into some really nice projects. Marlijne's been busy trying to find a job too... She mailed two letters of application a couple of days ago and the employment agency's trying to get her a job as a delivery driver.
Re: the website. Well, as you see I've finaly taken a look at the site again after a very long time. In the near future you can expect some new pictures of my case, a load of info on the new house (pictures are sure to follow) and hopefully I'll get around to writing some stuff on anime and manga too.
Cheers!
kilala.nl tags: work, house, life, website,
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2002-10-20 09:53:00
/me looks up... Wow! That was a long time ago!! That story needs some serious updating!
First off, I bailed out of Spherion a while ago. Halfway through August I made the jump to ING and it looks like I'll be employed over there for at least a couple of years. It looks like a pretty nice company to work for: nice people, the pay's good (a bit less than Spherion, but at least ING guarantees stability!) and I learn a _LOT_ more over here than at any of the other customers of Spherion. ING put me in a team of seven guys (both internals and externals) who're in charge of supporting the sixty-something Sun boxen which hang around at two major locations of the bank. Architectures vary from the small and humble Ulta-10 to the big iron Sun Fire 6800. It's rumored that there's even an 10K hanging around!
Aniway... What else? Of course I'm still very happily living together with Mar and.. What? Yes, living together! As you may have read on the front page, we started living together in our own little house in September :) So not only do I have a girlfriend who runs around the house like crazy and who drinks from the tap, but I've also got a lovely cat (Blackie) to cuddle up to at night... :eek: or was it the other way'round? :p
In the hobbies department you can scratch Warhammer 40k off the list, since I haven't played that in years... Same goes for Roleplaying Games (though I'd like to get back into the habbit though).
But everybody still keeps me busy; rest assured! ^_^ That, and paying the bills is a lot of hard work! :3
EDIT:
/me takes a look at the picture he just took of himself
:eek!: I reckon I'm in dire need of a hair cut! Remind me to drop by there on wednesday!
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0000-00-00 00:00:00
Someone's likes and dislikes tell you a lot about that person. Naturally you'll know what not to serve for dinner when they come around, but you'll also get to know the person bit-by-bit.
Over the course of the next few months you'll see a list of my personal likes and dislikes appear over here. The list will be very random, since I'll be adding and removing items whenever I feel like it ^_^ All items come unsorted, so there's no priority within each list. Yes, I know it's slightly messy, but let's just imagine that I'm brainstorming, okay?
At first the lists will be short and it'll seem like I really don't have an opinion about anything. Rest assured: the opinion's in there! It just needs to find its way out...
Me
Likes...
Dislikes...
Movies and TV
Likes...
Dislikes...
Food
Likes...
Dislikes...
People
Likes...
Dislikes...
Countries
Likes...
Dislikes...
Work
Likes...
Dislikes...
Music
Likes...
Dislikes...
Books
Likes...
Dislikes...
kilala.nl tags: life,
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0000-00-00 00:00:00
Even stronger than someone's "likes and dislikes" are his beliefs. A person's essence is built on the individual building blocks that are the facts that he believes to be true.
Over the course of the next few months you'll see a list of my personal beliefs appear over here. The list will be very random, since I'll be adding and removing items whenever I feel like it ^_^ All items come unsorted, so there's no priority within each list. Yes, I know it's slightly messy, but let's just imagine that I'm brainstorming, okay?
The items on this list represent my personal truths. I do not in any way assume them to be universal truths and I realise very well that I might be _very_ wrong in some cases. I was prompted to make this list by a realisation I got on the 12th of July, 2006. After watching the movie "What dreams may come", I figured that I'd better have some answers for our future progeny.
Fundamental beliefs
People
Politics
Work
Religion
Ethics
kilala.nl tags: life,
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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.
