October 2002 Archives

I'm watching The Blair Witch Project on TV... for the 3rd time or so, although it actually is the first time I got this far. First time I saw the movie, it was on a ripped DVD, on a laptop with 3 other people... while we were camping out in the woods. Talk about picking the right setting to wath TBWP :)

Everyone loved the movie... I fell asleep before we switched to the second CD. Later on I tried watching it again at home, and didn't even get that far before I got so bored I turned it off. Right now it's halloween, and I'm going strong to actually watching it completely, even if it's only to see what is so special about it.

Off now... commercial break is over!

Update: I did it! Yes... I finally watched the Blair Witch Project completely! Well, what can I say about it... it leaves you kinda "in the dark" about what really is goin' on. Or maybe... the end is left "hanging" in the open, for you to decide which (or witch?) way to go. Is it true? Was it all faked?

I think I sprained a muscle yesterday, as I wrote in the last post, and I haven't been able to sleep all night. I went to bed very early (around 23h00), finished a chapter in No Logo (took me till midnight) while having a hot bag pressing against my back. It felt a bit better, but soon after 2 'o clock I woke up, and have been turning around, in pain since.

I was already pretty tired yesterday, not being able to sleep last night will not help me at all. I don't have to go to the office tomorrow, so I could try and sleep a bit longer and/or get that damn muscle fixed (if that's possible?), but I was intending to do ICT maintenance all day. This injury does mess up things bigtime. I'll see how I feel tonight.

Shelley : Unfortunately, the article didn't include the scientific explenation of exactly why or how headaches can be caused by having sex. If you search around on the web, you should be able to turn something up though. And regarding the sex drive/sexe/age differences, all studies make generalisations - as you as a scientific person yourself know very well - but I'll see if I can get my hands on those charts again. I did however lend the book to someone, who's reading it at a whopping rate of 20 pages every 3 weeks ;)

I just downloaded and have run Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer to check for pachtes, fixes and updates I might have missed. Some turned up, although I'm pretty convinced they were either installed but detected incorrectly, or not needed.

Anyway, M$ lured me into installing Internet Exploder 6 SP1... download and install went OK, rebooted (zillionth time today) and when I connect to windows update and select a patch, it comes up with some freaky ass javascript error, no allowing me to accept the end user agreement. Yes, somehow the fucking thing broke!

I already reinstalled/patched the scripting stuff, but to no avail. Also reverting to the perfectly working IE5.5 SPx and tons of patches doesn't help much. Thanks for breaking your own shit Bill. Really great move!

A female officer arrests a drunk.

"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say will be held against you."

The drunk replies: "Tits..."

"Women who don't want to have sex, often use might fake a headache to make sure they can get to bed undisturbed. However, scientists have discovered that men have a valid reason to say they have a headache, so they "don't have to perform".

Neurologists Achim Frese and Stefan Evers of the university of M�nster (Germany) explained on a congress in Vienna that men - and to a much lesser extend women too - can experience severe headaches during sex. The pain can be so serious and unexpected that all traces of sex drive are evaporated, and medication is in order to prevent a real migraine attack.

About one in every hunderd people - according to the german scientists - experiences it at least once in their lifetime. Some suffer constantly though, and they can only be helped with medication."

Wow... And I hardly ever suffer from headaches! However, that is not due to medication, as I never take any, but more to the fact.... never mind.

Note : I slightly rewrote the entry after reading Kiffin's comment. I translated the article from Dutch to English, and my choice of words probably was not totally correct and/or limited due to my knowledge of the English language, which is not my mothertongue.

In order to be complete, here is the 'original' article on which I based my translation.

"Vrouwen die geen zin hebben in seks, zouden nogal eens hoofdpijn verzinnen om gewoon rustig te kunnen gaan slapen. Nu hebben wetenschappers ontdekt dat mannen een echte reden hebben om hoofdpijn aan te voeren om 'niet te hoeven'. De neurologen Achim Frese en Stefan Evers van de universiteit van het Duitse M�nster vertelden op een congres in Wenen dat mannen - en in veel mindere mate ook vrouwen - zeer zware hoofdpijn kunnen krijgen tijdens seks. Die pijn kan zo erg zijn en zo plotseling opkomen dat de zin in seks er door kan verminderen en er medicijnen aan te pas moeten komen om een aanval te voorkomen. Ongeveer ��n op de honderd mensen krijgt volgens de Duitse onderzoekers minstens ��n maal in zijn leven te maken met het verschijnsel. Sommigen blijven er echter last van hebben. Zij zouden zijn gebaat bij medicatie."

Had fun enjoying the little Alex, but I'm beat now. Will head off to bed kinda early, after I entertained the ferrets.

Bought new stock, and will test the 'more' function of MT to see if I can keep this blog interesting, and still give some extra info about Atmel.

Here we go : "Atmel Takes Lead Position in Secure ICs for Smart Cards with Introduction of High Density CryptoMemory..."

Steph just told me about a site where you can vote on the name of 'the new Europe'... Yes, that's right, I didn't believe it either! These guys are serious... apparently Val�ry Giscard d'Estaing (who the fuck is that???), head of the constitutional Convention on the future of Europe (ah, this clears things up... ) has made some proposition on the future name of Europe.

There are 6 possible choices and I'll list them from most popular at this moment, to least likely.

1. United Europe (33%)
2. European Union (24%)
3. United Nations of Europe (18%)
4. European Federation (9%)
5. Europe (7%)
6. United States of Europe (6%)

So... what do you think about it? Should Europe change it's perfectly good name to United Europe, or - heavens forbids - United States of Europe. If we pick the last option does it include a dumbass president as well?

Get bloody fucking real, will you? Changing the name alone will cost zillions of euro's, and everybody will just keep on calling it Europe. If it really needs to be changed, I'd vote for European Federation, but only if I really really need to. I think it's a bloody waste of time and money.

Doesn't have that wicked Val�ry pisshead have anything else to do? Shouldn't he be fucking roomservice up the ass in his expensive permanent hotelroom in Brussels, sniffing coke and declaring costs for travelling all over the world... probably to Bali, Indonesia and Bangkok? Shouldn't he be conducting a study about European porn networks, or guarantee the quality of porn DVD's released in various parts of the European Union? Wipe your hands before you count my vote, will you? Wanker!

I gotta go and babysit little Alex tomorrow. I'm already looking forward to playing with the young hooligan :)

I never ever watch Vitaya (a television station) but since some woman whom I met at the tattoo studio on saturday told me that there was a documentary on about bodypiercing, I switched channels. Actually, the show is still running for a few more days so I suggest everyone interested in it to check it out. I'll list broadcast details at the end of this post.

When the program started, I didn't really have any idea what to expect. After all, there are various ways you can approach a topic like piercing, and none of the ways would be untrue. However, it seems the production team chose not to focus so much on the 'mainstreamed' piercings, but rather on the people and how they experience the spiritual effects of lesser practiced piercings.

I was very glad that a very large part of the show had information about suspensions, the O-kee-pa and even some info about the sundance. All in all a very very interesting show, wether or not you are into, or interested in bodymodifiation.

Nowhere during or after the program there were people saying that this is abuse of the body, that it is bad, or that western people are 'stealing' the culture of other races. The only thing the program offered was an insight on how western people get involved into it, and how other races and tribes - who have been doing bodymodifications for a much longer time - grow more distant of it. Everyone has to think about what they (can) learn from the documentary.

I have not learned anything that can be measured (direct useable knowledge), although I have once more gotten a (better?) insight to how bodymodification is looked upon, and what it can mean. I know - and this is something that I've been feeling for the past months - that I am definately not ready to do a suspension myself, even if I had the chance. I am simply too scared, and I don't know how I would react when I'm lifted off the ground. I always want to be in control of things, and letting go, clearing your mind is something that I either can't, or will not allow to happen at this point in my life.

Broadcasting schedule (for the documentary on bodypiercing @ Vitaya) :

- Monday 28th : 06h00, 13h00 & 20h00
- Tuesday 29th : 03h00, 10h00 & 17h00
- Wednesday 30th : 00h00, 07h00 & 14h00

This afternoon, Jess & Johan picked me up as they were driving over to my dad and Hilda. Later on it turned out Nadia was coming over too. After about an hour or so of chatting along, we went off to a chinese restaurant where we had even more fun and laughs. It's really a very enjoyable bunch of people to hang out with.

When I came home, I immediately took care of the new tattoo, as the saran wrap I used to cover it had shifted a bit during dinner, and a very small part of the tattoo had been rubbing against my t-shirt. That caused it to dry out slightly, so I washed up, and covered it with lotion again. It now looks good, and I don't think that it'll cause problems in the end. I'll just need to use a slightly bigger piece to wrap it tomorrow as I'll be in the office all day long. Good thing is though that since we have a fully equipped bathroom there, I'll be able to check on it around noon too. That'll make things much easier.

Note : Have you adjusted to daylight savings time yet?

On october 22nd, a 22 year old man was beaten to death in Venlo (The Netherlands) by two 18 year old males, because he dared to comment on their reckless driving, which was endangering elders. Apparently, later on the parents of one of the suspects declared in a dutch television show called Netwerk, that their son was an instrument of God, and thus only God was to blame for the fact that the young man died.

Right... when I do something awful, drive too fast, rob a bank, kill innocent people in a fullscale firefight, set fire to a retirement home or rape multiple women, I'll blame Allah. After all, the young suspect, as well as his parents are morrocan, and I suppose they should be blaming Allah if their religion is Islam.

Actually religion doesn't have anything to do with all of this! Stop blaming "supreme creatures" for everything that goes wrong and learn to fucking deal with reality.

YOUR SON FREAKED OUT AND KILLED SOMEBODY!

There is nothing else one can say about it. Don't try to find a scapegoat, but accept the fucking truth. I hereby sentence the two suspects to :

Death by hanging in the townsquare

You can say or think whatever you want, but I'm getting really fed up with all of this. Sure, things have improved and the judicial system has worked fine for a few years, but the midieval way of handling things would often produce a more valid result.

Sure the suspects don't get a second chance, but did the victim get one? Hanging them would also put less strain on the community, as it would be cheaper. I don't know what hanging somebody costs, but I'm very certain it's less as keeping them in jail for the next 25 years, feeding them, guarding them, and letting them abuse the judicial system by requesting hearings, parole and such.

I really should go into politics, shouldn't I?

Right now a 'storm' is making it's way through belgium, although it really doesn't look stormy to me. There's a nice blue sky, the sun shines brightly, but I must admit that it's pretty windy... according to a local news bulletin just about an hour ago wind speeds of up to 130 km/hour are being reported. For the non-european peeps : that's just over 80 miles an hour.

I just love wind... It's great to feel the strong breeze pull at your hair clothes, trying to push you over, and it always carries scents that make you wonder. All kinds of things that usually stay put fly through the air, leaves and dirt, it all becomes a spinning around mix. Winds are great.

You can stop farting now though.

Instead of just making an appointement today, I ended up getting inked sooner as expected! When I arrived in the shop, Mieke was working on another customer and I made an appointement for tuesday the 29th. However, when she heard that, she told me that if I returned in 30 minutes, she'd be done and I could get in the chair right away.

Fine for me, so I drove home, grabbed the digital cam, some extra cash, and I was back in 40 minutes. After todays session here's the final result (I compressed the files and lowered size to 400x300) :

Tonight I finally drove over to the tattoo studio and I arrived just a few minutes after 8 'o clock. I knocked on the door, and it was opened just a second later. John was just about to leave the studio, and he explained that since it was a calm night, he decided to close early. Damn! Mieke was already gone too, so I'll go back tomorrow around noon, and make an appointement... finally.

Soccer competition again, lost 11-7 while we could have the other team to forfeit as they didn't have enough players. But no... we decided to allow another player to play along, and the result of being fair and good is that we lost. Hell, fuck that, we had fun :)

Took the car to the self carwash, cleaned it - while in some kind of storm - and I think I got about the same amount of water on myself as I got onto the car. Yeah... I'm a dumbass.

I asked somebody to join me for a movie this weekend, but she declined. I can understand her though, but I'll ask again, and again and again. Not in a stalking way though, don't misunderstand me. More like in a concerned way. Yes... I've got a good heart, even though it doesn't show always. I can be evil and mean too. Take it or leave it, but I don't come in parts.

A man arrives in the office every day, walks over to a female colleague, stands very close to her, smells the scent and tells her her hair smells good.
After about a week of constant repetition, the female colleague grows tired of it and decides to file a complaint with Human Resources.

Without releasing the identity of the man, she explains what her colleague does every day, and that she'd like to file a complaint for sexual harassement.

The Human Resources colleague is quite surprised by this official complaint and asks her : "what is so intolerable about a colleague telling you your hair smells good?"

To which the woman replies : "It's Eric, the dwarf".

I don't remember what I was gonna write here. Damn!

MailWasher 2.011 beta (yes, keep that in mind... it's BETA!) was released today, and Elftor needs a hand.

All you Elftor fans out there - and I know there's lots of them! - don't hesitate and give him a hand if you can. Remember all the LOL you've had when reading the new comics, believe me, it's worth it!

I'm gonna take a refreshing bath, and then hit the bed. I'm tired.

Today I received a letter stating that I sold 1285 shares at a price of € 0.73, while I only bought them 5 days ago at € 0.48. Yes, that would actually mean I made a profit on them, even while taking all costs into account.

What's even better.... the JDSU stock I bought about 2 or 3 weeks ago for USD 2.06 a share, was sold today at USD 2.49. Yes, again I made a profit. I'm wondering if I finally understand how the stockmarket works?

Sure, it's not 25 percent net I make on those purchase/sales, but it does add up nicely. If I can do it a few more times this year, I might still reach the goal (amount of cash in a savingsaccount) I've set earlier.

Note : I fixed some minor bugs in this post. However, the content itself has not been altered.

This morning I made an appointement with one of our technicians to meet him on site to verify some details. It's not that I don't trust the results he submitted to me, but the outcome of solving these installations is pretty important, so I just wanted to check and double check. After doing some measurements myself, it turned out the results he gave yesterday were correct indeed. Which I didn't doubt in the first place.

Before I left to go on site, I managed to drop in at the administration and file the correct forms for a new passport. It'll be ready for pick up on november 14th. I didn't request the international drivers license after all. Why make more costs if it's not needed?

Got photographs done tonite, as I'll need them tomorrow for my new passport. According to someone who's been to the States several times, an international drivers license is kinda unuseful. I might drop requesting one.

Played the lottery, didn't win. I'm not surprised though. I would have been too nice.

I just got off the phone with KLM booking services : I booked the flight! When my CC is charged I'll receive the tickets, and I already got a confirmation code. Looks good to me...

I was actually trying to book thru the internet, but apparently you can't book a flight from Amsterdam (Schiphol) when you log into the belgian KLM site, and when you log in to the dutch KLM site you can only pick The Netherlands as a residence. Doesn't make sense to me, so I just called booking services.

Update : Ignore the "I'm looking for transport" mails I've send out to some people. Joco has already volunteered to drop me off. Thanks a lot mate!

Damn. Although the advertising states that on october 23rd the new KLM Flying Dutchman Frequent Flyer program would be launched, and the website states "we are currently reworking our frequent flyer program, please try again after october 22nd", and my clock tells me it's october 23rd 00h40 it is not yet possible to log into the new program. I guess I'm a little bit overstressed.

The only reason is though that I don't wanna miss booking that flight coz leaving 1 day earlier, or one day later adds at least another € 250 to the price. Get the damn thing working, will you? If it's not working in the morning, I'm gonna make reservations by phone, just to be sure.

Wow... it seems more people are joining up for the BBQ... As far as I know up till now, I'll be meeting with AEK (aka Ashley aka SlutPuppy), Krystina (aka SatanTheCat), MarmaladeFlesh (aka Katy), Dia (aka Ashley), Adam (aka Adam) and Lynn who I only know as Lynn.

Yes... it seems like the party is starting! Ashley promised to : have me make snow angels, stuff snow down my shirt and pants, sled racing, seeing the worlds largest weather vane and more weird things, while SatanTheCat promised to show me the mall, the playground and the backyard. I sure hopes SatanTheCat is not an insane cereal killer. You know... the one that makes you watch cereal commercials till you die of shock.

I already found the information I need concerning a passport, where to get it and what it'll cost me. Typical administration though... opened every day from 09h00 till 15h00 and on thursdays from 17h00 till 19h00. Great! Some people do work, you know?

I'm now off to check how to obtain an international drivers license, I may not need it, but it could come in handy when were "hopping over" to Toronto - it's only a 10 hour drive :)

I hope the techo's at KLM are done messing around with the frequent flyer program tomorrow, coz I wanna book my flight as soon as my boss approves my request for leave. Woot!

Update : Good news! My leave has been approved, I've got the addresses and phone numbers of the Belgian Embassy in the USA and Canada. To (possibly) drive in the USA I won't need an international drivers license, but it is required in Canada if my information is correct. I can request one on thursday when I'm over at the administration.

Does anyone here know whether you need a passport (or reispas) to enter and travel in the USA and Canada? If anyone knows, let me know asap...

Rofl... I was cleaning up in the kitchen while the three carpetsharks were loose and roaming the livingroom and kitchen. Suddenly I heard a "phsssstttt" but I couldn't really say what it was. However, since I know every sound around my place, I immediately realized that it was out of the ordinary, and with those three monsters at large, I never take any chances. I dropped everything and stepped out of the kitchen to see what was causing the noise.

That's when I spotted Max. He was standing next to a plastic bottle of sparkling water that he knocked over, and looked very suprised. He had bitten in the bottom of the bottle, and was now being showered with sparkling water.

I quickly picked up the bottle and that's when he looked up to me and sort of said "Hey human... it seems this carpet is completely wet! Shouldn't you be taking care of that instead of taking away my toy?"

Yepz... one never knows what's up next with ferrets ruling the house...

According to the The Prior-Art-O-Matic friedkitten.com is "a personal organiser that bounces up and down and is built and maintained by tiny nano-robots."

There you go... the secret has been divulged! This is NOT a blog. These are not the insane ramblings of someone who has no life. No... this is much better. It's a personal organiser maintained by nano-robots!

And as everyone knows, nano-robots are hip.

I re-enabled the bloglet subscription service for friedkitten.com - something I should have done a long time ago, but I kinda forgot about it after moving from the old server and CMS (content management system for those willing to learn a new acronym every day) to the new one.

So... for all of you readers that want to be and stay up-to-date : subscribe by entering your e-mail address in the left hand column, press submit and watch the updates flow right into your mailbox. The update should contain the first 200 characters of each new post, and will be send out only once a day. Even if multiple entries are made during a day, it'll never flood your inbox.

I also made the subscription code XHTML 1.0 compliant but that just took me a few seconds and is of no real importance to anyone who actually has a life.

I can easily prove that I have no life :

1. it's past 3 at night, and I'm coding XHTML 1.0 and proud of it too...
2. I've been to Ice's birthday party, and there were some very nice ladies, foxes, wet beavers or however you want to refer to the female species.
3. I'm no hunter, so I just looked but didn't hunt.
4. I discussed technical stuff with Michael, who doesn't have a life either I suspect.
5. I used a "I 'heart' girls with tattoos" t-shirt to make conversation (but hey, it worked!)
6. Unfortunately, it only worked with people I knew before :(

Need more proof? Keep on reading this blog!

I added a custom site icon to the address bar. I had some problems with it at first, but in Mozilla 1.1 it now shows up correctly. However, for some very strange reason, it does not yet in IE 6 and Opera 6.05 doesn't seem to support the function at all.

So... if you're browsing this blog, and you see something like this in your address bar at the top, and you're using IE 5.5 or 6.0, let me know!

Damn... it's 3 at night and I'm still up. Just returned from tablesoccer competition, lost (again). Hey... we had lots of fun, and that's what counts for me. Also played cards and had even more fun there.

I don't know yet what I'll be doing tomorrow, but sleeping till noon, doing some additional tests with the copperjet (got updated install wizzard and instructions) and go to a birthday party in the evening will certainly be part of it. And how about finally go over to the studio to get an appointement for the new tattoo?

The washington based sniper comes home, late at night, after a long hard day.
His wife asks him how his day was, to which he replies : "I missed you".

Grin!

I'm suffering from a headache again, and there apparently is no identifiable source . I've been tying up loose ends once more, and send off some offers to clients. Businss dinner for tomorrow is cancelled due to someone being ill. Steph is singing weird songs, and just noticed it's ten to five... almost time to sign off for the day.

I can't really blame lack of sleep as I've slept quite long and good last night. Oh... already 268 BME scrapbooks have been pre-ordered, but since shannon calculated the price on a 500 pieces print run, I can only hope that sales pick up before november 1st. If you're still interested in getting one - remember the hardcover is a truely limited edition! - do so as fast as you can. If you pick airmail as the delivery method, you should get it in time to shock some people with a "freaky" christmas gift...

and I probably look like it too. I guess the 3 hours of sleep last night is starting to have it's effects on me. I remember that I drove home, but I'm certain some parts are blank. I've got a headache, my right elbow hurts for some reason totally unknown to me and I fall asleep where I sit, stand or am.

At least the racekak, spetterpoep or diarrehea chachacha is gone I believe. Am I abusing my body, should I listen to it better? If so, why didn't the crappy thing tell me to fall asleep last night? Duh!

Fire.... tadadaaahhh... Fire! Damn. I think I've slept about 3 hours or so tonight. Went to bed, couldn't get to sleep, read some pages in a magazine, then I felt my eyelids were about to drop. Unfortunately, that was close to quarter past 3!

I blame all the people at BMEzine, as somebody started discussion the value of money yesterday, and I just dived right into it. Well, it wasn't just money, but also how humankind evolved on a social level compared to the technological advancements. Timezones kill, believe me.

I'll probably crash around noon today ;)

Even though I've got a day off from work, that doesn't mean there's nothing to do. Yesterday I stopped by at Mike's place, and I promptly got one of the brand new CopperJet 822 in my hands to do some tests.

The 822 has evolved from a "simple" ADSL modem to a complete solution, incorporating an ADSL modem and a 4 port 10/100 switch in one box. I've been testing with it this morning and my conclusions have already been passed on to development. I suspect I'll receive a new version soon. The webinterface used to configure the CopperJet 822 looks great by the way.

I'm gonna call the old sucker now, wish him the best and then I'll be off doing things. I got a whole load of laundry to finish later on as well, and I'm not really looking forward to it.

Yupz... this is the day my best mate Joco adds another year to the pile. This is where he officially becomes an old sucker.

Happy birthday dude!!

I'm a dumbass... while I was relaxing in my bath today, I was just thinking about all kinds of stuff. And suddenly I remembered that today is the 14th of october. The 14th is not a special day as far as I know, but it made me remember that I forgot to call my ex to congratulate her for her birthday... which was on the 8th. Well... it was less as a week too late, so it ain't that bad, is it? I called her and explained... she was not really surprised ;)

Oh, something else that was weird... I received a postcard in my mailbox today. Not the e-mail box, but the real world snailmail box. Nothing fancy I hear you think, but this card came from Japan! And, as far as I know... I have no relatives or friends living or visiting Japan. Pretty weird... especially since the home address was correct, there was no sign of reference to any website that I run, or know.

Have I got Japanese readers on this blog? Have I got a - preferably female - Japanese stalker? Who knows... Help me solve the mystery!

I'll put a small photographs of it online, and write what's on the back (as it might be unreadable):

Today's soundtrack: (02.10.06)
That Dog - That Dog
They Might Be Giants - Mink -Car
The Cure - Greatest Hits
Cirque du Soleil -Quidam
Brian Dewan ~ The Operating theatre
Mix CDs from friends.
P.S. I can't read French, so I suspect this postcard has gibberish on it... like my bag that says "Don't mind your little failure!) with a smilie face."

This morning I got a call just before 9 o' clock... it was Suzana & Esther, who asked if they could come over for breakfast. Lol... You two can come over anytime you want! I only serve breakfast in bed though :D

I should have seen that call coming, as Suzana and I called Esther a while back when she had a week off from work. Unfortunately, when we called her she was still asleep, and not even at home.

Funny funny... I'm home and my little sister is out for the first day at her new job. I'll have to call her later to see how everything went, and if she liked it. Tomorrow is Joco's birthday if I recall correctly, so I must remember to call him. Preferably not at 8 in the morning :)

I've spend waaay too much time online - again. I'm off to read some more in Naomi Klein's No Logo. I'll be back later...

I read on the internet today :

"I have a brain. I have a cunt. I require stimulation of both."

No, I won't be telling you where I read it, but some of you might guess correctly. If you do, there's no need to tell me :)

I like those short lines that capture it all.

I was planning on getting at least 2 new books, but I ended up with one book (Naomi Klein : No Logo) and one CD (Lisa Gerrard : The Mirror Pool). I already kinda knew Lisa Gerrard as she's part of Dead Can Dance, a band of which I got a few CD's and their music always relaxes me.

I'll be starting to read in the new book as well, and although I have never heard of Naomi klein before, I sure hope it's an interesting book.

Not much planned for tomorrow or monday, I guess I'll do some more shopping. I noticed some nice jewelry in a shop today, and I'll head out on monday to check it out again. It's not like I need to buy it, but it was something that just grabbed my attention and didn't let go.

How much brains does it take to be a terrorist? Apparently not too much...

After the explosion of the oiltanker Limburg (under french flag, but owned by CMB) in Yemen a few days ago, a statement on thursday from a militant Muslim group, the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army, claimed it carried out the explosion to avenge the execution of one of its leaders for the 1998 kidnapping of 16 Western tourists.

Later on I heard on the news that they were actually targetting an american battleship that was in the same region as the oiltanker. According to my sources the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army commented that hitting the oiltanker instead of the battleship was no real problem as it did carry non-believers as well.

So... you make up a plan, you get a boat, load it up with explosives, get it close to a ship and explode it? Sounds pretty easy, but apparently these people were too fucking stupid to verify their target. Correct me if I'm wrong, but even a blind man would be able to spot the difference between an oiltanker and a battleship.

I'm not saying that attacking a battleship is ok, and attacking an oiltanker is not. I just was under the impression that even extremist muslim terrorists were smarter than that.

I had the intention to put this quote online a long time ago, but I always forgot.

"Some studies have shown that men who don't consume alcohol prefer women with small breasts, that women with large breasts prefer men with small noses, and that men with large noses usually hang around with women who hardly have breasts at all. Extravert men prefer women with very large breasts."

I don't know how large my nose is compared to other noses, but I do prefer small breasts over large breasts. Maybe it has more to do with the fact that I don't consume that much alcohol, as it has to do with me being an innie instead of an outtie.

Right. Last night we won our first tablesoccer competition (11-7) and we had lotsa fun.

I'd love to go out right now and buy some new books because I'm craving for more knowledge. I have read hundreds of books when I was younger, then lost lost interest in them, but the past months I feel the drive for knowledge getting stronger and stronger. Hell, fuck the shopping mass and high price of most books, I'm going out and will return with at least 2 books.

Since I'll be off a grand total of 2 complete days (monday & tuesday) I made sure everything is up to date before I leave. Updated the virusscanner, patched the firewall and run backup procedures for the server. Everyone should be able to survive till wednesday.

Just called my sister - who starts working on monday, and she's pretty nerveous bout it too - and told her that I may not join the team to play tablesoccer tonight. I thought the updates & backups would be completed sooner, but apparently, they did not :)

I'm off now. Chill peeps, and this is a message to Stephke : try to stay awake on monday. Lol :p

Ok... this is NOT for tight assed american who think the world revolves around them, that I'll tell you in advance. But like they say, humor overcomes the worst, even if it's dark and sarcastic.

Are you prepared? Then head over to Elftor and check out the Elftor goes to Maryland comic. 'Xcuse me, but I found the episode absurdly fabulous. Yes, it's blunt, hard and mocks good taste, but still... I love Elftor!

Yeah... the BME scrapbook has been released for preordering and I instantly secured 2 hardcover versions and 2 softcover versions. Yes... 4 in total! That means there's gonna be 1600 pages on an airplane flying to me in november.

Guess what : someone might be getting one of the softcover versions for his/her x-mas present. Who, I don't know yet... it'll all depend on the situation. I've got some people in mind though, but as I only have 1 or 2 to give away, I can't please everyone... besides, some might find the images, content and appearance to be of an offensive nature - although it is not of course. We are healthy, normal people, let that be clear.

Waking up this morning was caused by David calling me. I'm glad he called, as he was trying to open some file with a weird extension (.tsv) - well, I couldn't connect it to a program anyway, so I gave him some first aid basic advice - and when I left my apartement, I ran into the person who's responsible for the building.

I chatted with him for a short while, and it turns out the insurance company has kicked us out for waterdamage coz there was a small leak in the roof. What kind of crap do they think they're pulling? Anyway, that probably means the complete roof has to be repaired or replaced and it's gonna cost me quite a lot.

Went off to pick up Suzana, and when I pulled into the gas station some hot lady asked if I didn't remember her. I was completely unaware that I knew her at all, but that could be due to some factors : I wasn't totally awake yet, and she looked quite different since the last time I saw her, about 4 years ago. That's how I got to chat for a while with Jessica, who is an old colleague of mine. We exchanged business cards and off we both went. Pretty bizarre coincidence though, as I usually don't stop at that station, and neither does she.

Arrived at the office and suddenly David tells me I got a meeting with a potential customer that has been having some PC related questions and is looking for solutions. Nice to know that in advance... but since I didn't I just left right away and arrived in time. I think we'll be able to help the customer out in a fair and honest way.

I'm also trying to tie up some loose ends of a project we finished, and when that's all done, we're all set for new things. It's a good feeling to be able to wrap up things, and finalize projects.

is blasting through the speakers right now.... I love that CD. This one is a live album but I still can't find my 'best of' CD :(

Anyways... While I was checking the rough edit of the BME scrapbook I suddenly noticed my GFX on page 296. Awsome... I'll need to reserve me some copies when presales open.

I'm off to have some food now, guess I'll have salmon and chinese mie (I doubt it's the correct english name, but what the heck) and I noticed that Movable Type 2.5 has been released. I already got an upgrade copy, but won't be upgrading in the next week. I wanna check out if bugs and fixes will turn up in next days, and then get a new copy at once. Besides, I'll have to hack up the templates again since I did modify quite a lot in the ones I'm using right now, and I don't feel like doing it today. Maybe during the weekend.

No, I'm not on a diet. Those that have been following the stuff I've been eating over the past few days might think otherwise, but I can guarantee you that I'm still eating as (un)healty as before.

Yes, I've been eating quite some cereal (Fruit & Fibre thingies) the past few days. Yes, I still continue taking the stairs instead of the elevator (3 floors up/down) but I'm not on a diet. It's just some things that happen to coincide, that's all.

I've made the elevator promise 2 weeks ago (hey, I can't even remember...) and I've been cleaning up closets in the kitchen, where I happen to find all kinds of healthy stuff. I guess I just grew tired with the food I have on a regular base. I was planning on having salmon in a cream sauce with noodles tonight, but when I came home, I logged on and forgot about the time. When I realized what time it was (somewhere past 20h00) I didn't feel like cooking anymore. So I had cereal & milk.

I can still have the salmon tomorrow, but it's possible that I'll be having a business dinner tomorrow, and grab something lighter tomorrow as well. Time will tell.

I'm off to take a shower - would anyone want to see a showercam? - and then check for activity on BME for a last time. It's been rather quiet lately, so if nothing interesting has been posted, I'll head off to bed again. Not quite as early as last night, but still kinda early for me.

Fact : men with a goatee are way cooler as men without one.

Yesterday I bought two things for dinner, and I remember only one... chicken, which I ate yesterday, but I can't recall the other thing I got. Damn... anyway, it'll be a surprise!

Went to bed real early last night (21h40, that's VERY early for me), tucked myself in very close and comfy and fell asleep like a log. Slept all night till 07h15 when the alarmclock woke me up.

I suppose it had been doing it's thing since 06h46 but I didn't notice :)

I'm not sure if this long rest will be enough to keep me going for the rest of the week, but it sure was a good thing. Maybe I'll even do it again tonite. Yes... I'm an animal!

Note : According to some "which asian action super star are you?" test I am "Jackie Chan! You like to take risks. You live for the moment. You are a thrill-seeker. At heart, you're a really nice person. You're funny, charasmatic and full of energy. Although sometimes your goofness gets you into trouble, your drunken boxing skills are fabulous! Just bring a pot of rice wine with you."

Right... another fact that noboby knew about me... I'm Jackie Chan :)

and it ain't love (well, maybe a bit of love too?) but rather some kind of virus. Last week David got struck by it, and I'm having one heck of a headache right now.

I don't know what hit me, but I can't get ill this week, no point in even thinking about the option. I'll be off 2 days next week, I can be sick then.

Anyway, I'm off to bed early and hopefully I can somehow sleep it all off. Chills and talk to all of you later!

PS : My sister called me today to say that she's found a job. Great move sis, but I still wonder why the hell I studied that long? :(

Just returned from a day hanging 'round with Joco & Eef & little Alex in Domburg, Holland. Had a very good time, but I'm damn tired now. Was it the fresh air, the seabreeze, or the fact that I've been entertaining Alex all day long, I don't know... but I'm gonna do some laundry, and hit the bed. Yes, this early!

Shot some nice pictures, and I'll turn some of them into wallpapers I think.

Update : Here are some nice sea, clouds & sun wallpapers for those who like things like that...
1600x1200 : wallpaper 1 (260 Kb) - wallpaper 2 (315 Kb) - wallpaper 3 (202 Kb)
1024x768 : wallpaper 1 (102 Kb) - wallpaper 2 (123 Kb) - wallpaper 3 (75 Kb)
800x600 : wallpaper 1 (63 Kb) - wallpaper 2 (74 Kb) - wallpaper 3 (47 Kb)

Copyright www.friedkitten.com, personal use encouraged, all commercial or other use prohibited unless granted in writing by me.

I've just finalised some GFX to submit to the BME scrapbook. However, I don't know which one to use, as I do like the red one quite much, but the scrapbook itself will be in black & white. I suggest when you drop by, you state wich one you prefer in a comment to this post, will you?

Joco called me a few hours ago, to check if I'd like to go to Domburg in Holland with them tomorrow. They're planning a relaxing day off, strolling around the beach, fighting the elements...

I think it will be a good diversion and something totally different, so I said yes. Earth, Wind and Water : here I come!

Note : While checking the Missy Disdemeanor Elliott CD out - ...so addictive - I noticed that there is an unlisted track 30 on the CD, while the jewelcase only lists 17. Actually there are 2 extra tracks, but track 29 only lasts 1:47 so I'm not too sure that is a real track. Track 30 runs 5:01 so that seems like a true bonustrack. Cool :)

Woke up around 09h05, left to go worm hunting on a computer. Found, deleted and updated the pc. Charged him for it too.

Drove to my dad's place to pick up some computer parts, brought breakfast with me (bacon and eggs), so we had breakfast, left to install a modem elsewhere.

Arrived and it turned out the modem had already been replaced by the vendor and worked OK now. Reinstalled some cd burning software, updated windows, installed mozilla, eudora and ws_ftp for him. Did not charge him, but I'll get some free stuff when I need it, mostly food for the ferrets. Just arrived back home.

Bought 2 lottery tickets, and hope to win € 2.500 later tonight. Should go shopping, do laundry and iron too much clothes. Don't feel like doing those last two things.

Back off now, no plans yet on how to spend the evening/night.

I'll have to get up early tomorrow as I got a mail from a (sorta) former customer that he's apparently experiencing quite some problems with his computer. The fact that it's installed in german doesn't really help though, as I totally suck at german.

Played soccer competition today, but I really didn't have fun. I was just not in the mood I guess. I got a nice long IM from Ash, so I'll know how to spend about an hour tomorrow replying to it... I'm looking forward to it already! I could have done it just now, but I'm actually too tired to keep my eyes open, so I guess I'll better hit the bed and get some rest.

And now, for some completely random : Can you delete life, and then undo it by pressing ctrl-ZzZzzzz?

Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn't seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other guy takes out his cellphone and calls the emergency services.

He gasps: "My friend is dead! What can I do?" The operator says: "Calm down, I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead." There is a silence, then a gunshot is heard. Back on the phone, the guy says: "OK, now what?"

It seems a new virus (well, not that new anymore now) has hit mailservers. BugBear is spreading fast, and infecting computers all over the globe. It's also capable to 'infect' printers, resulting in lots of wasted pages.

However, protection has been available since september 30th (afternoon) and the worm itself attempts to exploit a MIME and an IFRAME vulnerability in some versions of Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Outlook Express, and Internet Explorer. These vulnerabilities allow an executable attachment to run automatically, even if you do not double-click on the attachment. Microsoft has issued a patch which secures against these attacks. The patch can be downloaded from Microsoft Security Bulletin MS01-027. (This patch was released to fix a number of vulnerabilities in Microsoft's software, including the ones exploited by this worm.)

In case you are infected by BugBear I suggest you download the standalone Sophos BugBear disinfection tool here (Be advised, this is a direct link, resulting in an exe file being downloaded immediately. In case you'd like to read some more information in advance, check here).

Today, october 4th is world animal day. I'll be posting some pictures of my carpet sharks later on, but first I've got a loaded working day ahead of me. I'm really glad it's friday though....

You tend to speak in riddles, and getting a straight answer out of you is indeed a notable moment. While you may act a little crazy, you are actually quite lucid and tend to be the voice of reason. your sanity is in a good balance with your insanity.

Wow... That is so correct...

Google launched it's Google News and I took a look today. It didn't really rock my boat, but I suppose it could be interesting. Of course it's cheaper to index the news stories as they are published by others and use those links to build your own sites context, opposed to hire people to do so.

Yes indeed... Google News is completely automated and stories are filtered through "computer algorithms, based on how and where the stories appear elsewhere on the web. There are no human editors at Google selecting or grouping the headlines and no individual decides which stories get top placement."

People have searched for the following and somehow found it on friedkitten.com :

"make love to his mother" (!Yahoo, rank :8)
worlds weirdest tattoos+pics (Google, rank : 1)
"Erotic Fair" Pictures (Google, rank : somewhere on page 5)
"wrist piercing" (!Yahoo, rank : 18)
tribal tattoo designs (Google, rank : 6)
studio 54, red & blue, sportpaleis (Google, rank : 10)
free e-card birtday (Google, rank : 13)

My readers are wicked :)

I've read this on the BME page of twwlwyth :

I got the cutest little bunny rabbit. I named it Lunch.

Yesterday the boss send me off early 'coz I had some things to pick up before the shop closed, but when I arrived they seemed out of whatever I needed, so I was home early. Anyway, it seems getting home early is NOT a good idea for me, as I went to bed earlier too, and the result was that I overslept today. Luckily Suzana woke me up and we arrived at a sort of reasonable time at the office.

However, when I came in, it was like entering some warzone again : everything that could have gone wrong did somehow, but right now everything is cleared up and things are smooth again. I'm really not a morning person... can't we just work at night? Less people to give you crap too :)

Fresh from her shower, a woman stands in front of the mirror, complaining to her husband that her breasts are too small.

Instead of characteristically telling her they are not, her husband uncharacteristically comes up with a suggestion. "If you want your breasts to grow, then every day take a piece of toilet paper and rub it between your breasts for a few seconds.

Willing to try anything, the wife fetches a piece of toilet paper, and stands in front of the mirror, rubbing it between her breasts.

"How long will this take?" she asks.

"They'll grow larger over a period of years," he replies.

The wife stops. "Why do you think rubbing a piece of toilet paper between my breasts every day will make my breasts grow over the years?"

Without missing a beat the husband says "worked for your butt, didn't it?"

He lived, and with a great deal of physical therapy, may even walk again.

This proves it... I'm an idiot. It seems the post of friday was misinterpreted by some people, although it had NOTHING to do with them at all. Hey, what can I say : I'm an idiot :)

I know the way things were written down might lead to believe otherwise, but this post really was not referring to the talk I had with J on friday. Actually, the post was written before we had that talk. She must have missed that :(