friedkitten.com - insanity included.

Maybe it's the sun finally really being present that has given me extra energy, but as I wrapped up a full day in training, I decided to pop round the shop to get new soil for some plants that could do with a larger pot and new nutrition. I also picked up a new pot and plan to get them all changed tomorrow.

Then, as I was watching TV, I sifted through a stack of papers that had somehow organically grown to a huge pile and shredded what I no longer needed and gathered those still of some value. Why now? Because they'll be picking up scrap paper in the morning and I may as well get rid of it today, right?

Don't know how long this bout of energy will last, so I better do something with it now!

Spent the weekend cycling in the region of Lommel, where we had booked a hotel for the night with the kids. We rented the bikes and were very impressed by the quality of them, so we had a ton of fun cycling in the area and near the canal. After a 3 hour trip we returned to the village for some drinks and ice cream, and then it was time to check in at the hotel. After freshening up - we did, not too certain the two girls bothered, lol - we headed out for dinner and had a very nice meal at 't Stadhuis if I recall correctly.

Unfortunately, a good night's rest was a bit hard to get since a bunch (around 20) of young German girls that were staying in the hotel as well found it fitting to run around and be noisy till 23:30 and even louder and more noisy when they got back up at 06:30 and gathered their stuff and headed off to breakfast. A stern warning in fluent German by my girl didn't do much to change their behavior, so we decided to just ignore them altogether. Unfortunately, I woke up with a pretty painful back, so I skipped the "blotevoetenpad" walk in the afternoon. The three of them enjoyed the walk though and I had refreshing brinks ready when they returned, which was very welcome going by the time it took to finish it.

A quick bite along the route later we arrived back home, having enjoyed a superb weekend away with the kids, whom really behaved themselves very well (apart from occasional "I'm tired", "I'm hungry", "Can we go now?", "Can we stay?" whines, grin).

Making the best of my day off, I've cleaned up most rubbish on the building site and truth be said, it looks much better now. I've also requested pickup for the big bag filled with another 1.5 ton of construction waste, and with that out of the way, I think I'll pick up another empty bag for the rest of the work that needs to be done, which would then bring the total weight moved out in waste and rubbish to 4.5 tons. Rather impressive, ain't it?

I don't even dare think how much material I've bought and used so far, let alone what I'll need over the coming months, grin.

Next on the (still long) list : install floor and heating, build supports for the bathtub and raise shower wall, wire the complete bathroom, install drains and water and probably a ton of other things.

It's been way too long since I pointed out that on the internet, everyone (well, almost) knows who you are, no matter how hard you try to be "anonymous". Instead of writing up all concerns, I'll opt to provide a couple of links to articles by Bruce Schneier, one of the top security researchers of which the world has not enough.

Whether you read all of it, part of it, or none at all : don't come crying later on that you didn't know. That no one told you that your search queries would be stored, analyzed and shared. That Facebook would know who you are and what, where and how you buy offline, even though you are not a facebook user (by choice).

"Surveillance and Security Lessons From the Petraeus Scandal"

Facebook tracks you online even after you log out

I'm Being Followed: How Google--and 104 Other Companies--Are Tracking Me on the Web

If that's scary, I agree. Can you do something about it? Yes. Be Vigilant. Don't click on everything you see, read or get shoved in your face. Think twice. Think again.

Install some third party browser add ons that help you get rid of some of the trackers, web bugs or beacons. Here are a few worth considering.

noscript
priv3
Ghostery
Adblock Plus

And if you're really interested in privacy and concerns : Crypto-Gram

Yep, it has indeed been a while since I last updated this blog. I don't know if I've lost interest in it, or I just don't feel like sharing anymore, but the lack of updates hasn't been due to a certain dullness in my life. In fact, quite some things happened in the past weeks.

One of the major happenings was a birthday celebration, which was quite a surprise thanks to my girl. She had arranged for us to meet up with friends so it was a nice 8 person party as all the kids were there too (yay for all hanging out!). I've already said thanks to her, but really, I have to thank everyone for the very nice birthday I had. I enjoyed it very much and will enjoy it again soon when some the gifts are put to good use.

What else is new? Well, I have continued working on the house a bit more - in fact I'm only writing this update because the wireless screwdriver is recharging as it had run out - and I've finally solved a technical issue that needed resolve. Actually, that's not entirely true. I was just plain lazy and the cold and rain didn't really allow for much work to be done. The theoretical solution to the issue was found weeks if not months ago, but only yesterday and today I've started putting that into a practical solution and guess what : it works :)

I had planned on completing an essential part today, but due to some issues at work yesterday, I wasn't able to do as much as I wanted, so it was mainly preparation for today. Today proved to be too cold to build using glue, so that another set back, but since (almost) everything is now ready to use, once the weather picks up I can finish and make a phone call to get a window installed (finally, right?).

Why the sudden burst of activity? A certain large female pussycat has been whispering in my ear that she wouldn't mind taking a bath in a brand new bathroom someday. Well honey... I can't promise it'll happen this year (lol) but progress has been made, grin.

On a totally different note, the links below all have something to do with occurrences since my last update. Feel free to browse them.

taxonweb - skoda - Lampiris Coop - NewB.Coop

You know, getting woken up at 4AM because an employee calls in ill, sounds bad to most, but I'll try looking at it like this : I've got a long day still and plenty of time to get things done. Or so I thought.

Ready to leave for work, the car won't start. It makes an attempt, but they the display throws up a failed injection pump error. Nice, exactly what one needs on a Monday morning, especially since a visit to the garage was planned anyway later this week. Guess I'll be wasting my time at the garage earlier. While waiting for assistance to arrive, I'll be updating my mobile phone with new firmware (yes, jelly bean 4.1.2 is finally available here). I definitely hope that doesn't break either.

Oh, on a side note : it's bloody cold! I rarely suffer from being cold, but really... it's insane today. I feel as if I'm freezing!

Apparently, all the issues I wrote about in the last post, are invalid for now. With all the figures and dates I managed to overlook that the mortgage rate review is not this year, but in 2014. Ah well, with that out of the way, everything's back to normal.