A certain number of people will have received a mail from me regarding a little event in March. Please go check your mailbox and reply before March 2nd 2005. I know it's short notice, but such is life :)
I'd like to have ALL of you people there together, coz I love you all.
As I got home this morning, I had two options : go to bed or do some small chores first. I decided to do the latter and thus at 7AM I was washing my work sweater by hand because the bloody thing can't be machine washed, nor tumble dried. I need it tomorrow night (and it's expected to be incredibly cold) so I had to wash it this morning. I know from last time that it needs close to 2 full days to dry.
I'm gonna hang around a bit now, then entertain the fuzzies, have something to eat before I head off to work again. One more night after this and then I'm off for a day and a half. I might head off to Batibouw on wednesday, but I ain't sure yet.
Lots of drama at work, even though I think we all saw it coming. On the one hand I'm quite relieved that it's resolved, on the other hand I'm still convinced it could have ended differently. Well, the past is the past and we'll have to move on, don't we?
Those recent changes do have quite an impact on next months working schedule though, making my shifts "bounce" all over the place. I'll be spending almost as much time adjusting my sleeping schedule as I'm spending on actually working. And that's only March... starting April we head off to a *very* busy period that'll possibly last till somewhere in November.
I managed to finish the draft of that paper on thursday and am now up to version 1. I think it only needs another read and possibly some slight changes before I send it off for review. It'll be posted online at one of my other sites as well.
No explenation needed I suppose :)
This entry will contain various bits and pieces, unrelated to each other.
Tonight I should be getting my schedule for the coming month, so I'll know for sure what days and nights I have to work. Which is good because there are some things I have to plan.
West : In the state of Alabama, selling sex toys remains illegal, based on a law dating from 1998. The Supreme Court refused to consider the appeal against the law, as filed by some users of these toys as well as salesmen. According to Alabama legislators, the free sale of sex toys would lead to prostitution and other "undesirble sexual acts". ACLU backed the people appealing the law, based on the assumption that the law interferes with acts committed between consenting adults in their private and intimate life. The Supreme Court apparently owns you in the USA.
East : In the Dutch city of Tilburg (The Netherlands) sex toys can now be purchased through a vending machine in the wall of a pub. At first the council advised against it because it wouldn't fit the neighborhood, but after the vending machine itself was altered to fit in, they approved. The machine disperses vibrators, sex toys, lingerie and lubes. In order to prevent minors purchasing articles, the vending machine only accepts bankcards.
I wonder who leads the healthiest sexlife? The people of Tilburg or the Alabama posse?
The Google ads that I've been serving in the navigation menu on the right side seem to match my content quite well. At first there were tons of ads for ice-cream machines (I wonder where they got that idea) but lately they've shifted to spy and adware removal tools, green energy, ecological resources, wind and water power and such. Which makes me happy as I consider it an easy way for readers to find out some more about things that I write about. The web is complex and often hard to navigate, but there is so much information out there...
Oh, I almost forgot : Firefox 1.0.1 has been released. Go grab a copy, as it contains mainly security patches and some bugfixes as well.
If you're running windows XP (Home or Pro) SP2, install the http.sys hotfix that prevents your machine from crashing with a Stop 0x05 (INVALID_PROCESS_ATTACH_ATTEMPT) error in some cases. The following versions of windows are affected as well : Windows Server 2003 (all editions), Windows XP Media Center Edition SP2 and Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005.
Oh my. I went out shopping today and came home with more than I went out for. I got the new Barbara and Allan Pease book on body language (in dutch, I couldn't find the original english copy) and a Live DVD from Natalia. As I was walking around in Fnac, I just knew I had so much items on my wishlist, but I couldn't remember the authors of some books, so I didn't find them :(
Next time I go out shopping, they should either provide internet access so I can look up my wishlist instantly, or I should remember printing it off in advance.
I was having dinner while watching TV and stumbled accross "Niki's secret", a bachelor like program that I usually don't follow at all. However, as I was watching, somehow I just got sucked into it and I watched it till the end. I suppose you'll know The Bachelor (or The Bachelorette)? Well, Niki's Secret is more of the same, but this time the main character, Niki, ain't gay or straight, but a bit of both. She's bi, and both dates a group of lesbian females as well as a group of straight males. Neither group knew about the others, but in todays episode the guys were told about her secret. I think they all reacted quite well after the initial suprise, but I think things may change along the way, as both groups start realizing that one can't "compete" with someone who plays in another league. Sure, love is not about competing, I do know that, but we all want to be our best when trying to win someones heart, don't we? I think the key to success will be to be who they are and not compete at all. Men and women are totally different after all, and cannot be compared.
One thing that struck me as very honest and true was when Niki announced her being bi : "I'm not looking for a man or a woman. I'm looking for a person I can love and be together with. Their sexe doesn't matter."
Impressive words, wouldn't you say? Especially since quite some people in this world have not yet gotten past the fact that gay people exist. I think they'll be totally confused when they hear about bi-people.
A.nnie Lennox
B.jörk
C.ure (The)
D.ead Can Dance
E.minem
F.ront 242
G.od Module
H.uman League
I.nkubus Sukkubus
J.ohnny Cash
K.ate Bush
L.aïs
M.issy Elliott
N.eikka RPM
O.MD
P.ink
Q.ueen
R.ammstein
S.kinny Puppy
T.he Crüxshadows
U.2
V.NV Nation
W.ithin Temptation
X.-Marks The Pedwalk
Y.ello
Z.Z top
If you post this on your blog, lemme know! I'm always interested in getting to know new bands.
Today was good and interesting. Stuff I gotta do tomorrow : find a shop that carries sea salt and buy some, work out a draft copy of a paper, shop for food and stuff.
Sounds simple enough, wouldn't you say? Let's hope so!
I just received the new Electrabel Energiek magazine in my snail mail box, and after reading their "Electrabel Green" section online, I must admit they've outdone themselves. The amount of advertising, marketing and pressure they are currently throwing at it is quite impressive, but that is just about it. I think they jump on the ecological bandwagon because it sells, period.
They present themselves as the biggest supplier of green energy in Belgium, yet in 2004 Electrabel Green Products Flanders (EGPF) sold 4 of their waterpowered powerstations, because "these small scale waterpower stations don't fit our production" to Ecopower. I don't have current production figures for these stations, but the waterpower station of Rotselaar alone produces close to 500.000 kWh/year, good to cover the energy need of about a 150 families.
I can accept that it may economically be not too interesting to keep those stations running, but then please don't shout that you're doing whatever one can do, for the good of the environment. I welcome everything that takes off pressure and gives the environment a break, even the smallest break, yet I do have quite some distrust when it comes to their "Green Power" marketing campaign. Especially because it'll lead to people thinking that Electrabel is the only/best/biggest producer of green energy in Belgium, while there are lots of alternative small scale solutions, often better suited to ones needs and much more responsible when it comes to green energy production.
Ah well... capitalism and marketing at it's best I suppose. Which reminds me : is anyone going to Batibouw this year? Maybe we can hook up and all go together?
One could assume that I'm writing about the city of light, in France, but that would be a bit too cultural for this blog, don't you think? No, instead I'd like to share some thoughts on Paris Hilton, the high profile "babe" you see do stupid things and generally show off the fact that she knows little about the "real world".
Beyond all the glamour and glitter is a women, just like you and I though. Well, not like me, obviously, but like most women I guess. She likes to get freaky and hit it off with her partner. That sounds quite normal to me, but then there is the thing that most women or couples don't videotape their rolls in the hay, and then have them leaked. Which is exactly what happened to Paris.
As I was looking for some more info on the recent T-Mobile Hack that left thousands of sms messages, photo's and personal data profiles of it's users vulnerable, I stumbled accross the good old Paris Hilton Sex Tape. How the T-Mobile Hack and the Paris Hilton Sex Tape are related is quite simple : Paris was one of the people affected by the hack, and amongst other things, her phonelist of friends and contacts has been made available on the web. Much to the joy of many, but to the disgust and annoyance of people on Paris' list.
But let's not get distracted. I studied the tape closely - hey, the job needs to be done - and have reached the following conclusion : Paris likes sex. Her boyfriend (?) likes sex. They fuck, suck, lick and play, and generally enjoy themselves. Which is totally great if you ask me. In fact, everything they do on tape differs little from what Joe and Jane Average do every once in a while. With the exception that they don't have the tape become public, or the fact that they're "worth" several million dollars. However it seems that exactly those two things was all that was needed to create a scandal around something as great as two people having sex.
So, for all of you out there, wondering and not having seen the tape yet, I'll tell you exactly what is on the tape. And when you know it all, think to yourself : "Was going through all those words really worth it? Did I really *need* to know that? Has my life improved in any way now?". It seems to me that there is little (f)actual value into it all, and it's usually the tabloids that profit from it.
Now, before we get graphic, I'm sort of stuck with one question : "Did Paris leak the tape herself (or did she have it leaked?". Honestly, I don't know, but I wouldn't be suprised about it. It created a buzz of media attention, but there are several catches to this kind of media storm : it fades fast and in order to make it work the next time, you'll have to top last times performance. Where will we end up?
Short wrap up of the Paris Hilton Sex Tape : Paris tapes herself in the bathroom, evaluating her boobs (which are small but nice by the way). Guy plays with cock and teases Paris in bedroom (nightvision). Paris plays with her pussy while getting filled missonary style. They move to a doggy style position, and after quite a few minutes, they switch to a woman on top screw. Back to doggy, this time heads facing the camera. Her face looks as if she's watching cartoons while he fucks her. Back to missionary and finally she sucks him. We're about halfway through the tape now and the rest is basically more of the same, but this time taped during daylight, resulting in better lighting conditions.
So... was that worth reading 646 words? I doubt it. Stop focussing on others and deal with yourself first.
Unrelated : I'll be doing a short extra shift tomorrow, filling in for a colleague for a couple of hours. Should be able to leave around 17h00 and then off I go for a visit to bodymetals in Sint-Niklaas.
While I was having a nice and warm bath, I was called twice. I refused to let those calls interrupt my bathing, so when I finally got out of the bath, I dialled 1919 to know what number tried to get in touch with me. Sure enough, it was Joco & Eef's number, so I called them back.
Sheer coincidence - what else can you call it - made me interrupt them as well, while they were erm... doing a little number of their own (Going at it like rabbits? Doing it doggystyle? 69 anyone? Who cares? I interrupted.), but that I couldn't know. Well, if I had turned on the webcams maybe I could, but I didn't*.
Joco's PC somehow got a little infected while Eef was browsing images on the web last night, and he couldn't remove one of the files because the system didn't allow him access. My first idea was that the virus was planted on the system using a GDI+ exploit that I wrote about months ago, although I'm not sure. It's hard to diagnose virusinfections over the phone. I told him to get back to work on his lovely lady and that I would send him a mail explaining how to please her turn off system protection and get rid of the infected file.
* I'm kidding about the webcams, really. Webcams are so last years' news. Streaming high quality video is the thing you're looking for, if you're not invited to the party. DSL or a Cable connection with some clever setup will usually deliver nice and crispy images for your viewing and other pleasures.
No, serious. They don't have webcams in their bedroom. I think. Even if they did, that's their business, not yours or mine. Really. Think about it.
Note : Everything that was written down in this post is the truth, but some parts may be slightly exaggerated, mystified or added for effect. It's all in jest, I tell you! Enjoy this FK entry.
(Kindly borrowed from Tine)
1. What is the furthest you've ever travelled?
From Belgium to the US and Canada
2. Which meal is the one you cook best?
Wok. I'm a wok artist :)
3. Where do you buy most of your clothes?
Clothes? Who needs clothes? Bare skin, I tell ya!
4. What is your home town famous for?
Chocolate, diamonds, it's harbor and the Red Light District. Oh, and the rise of an extreme right party :(
5. What was your best subject at school?
Biology, I think.
6. What sort of music would you never listen to?
Schlagers are not really my favorite, but I listen to a lot.
7. Is there anything you would never eat?
Hm... I'll try anything once.
8. How many languages can you speak? What are they?
Dutch, English, French
9. Which sport do you like playing or watching the most?
I like doing some bowling, and hardly watch sports.
10. Can you play a musical instrument? Which one(s)?
My mouth. But that can hardly be considered musical :)
11. What is the worst illness/injury you've ever had?
Broken arm, lots of years ago.
12. Which blogging tool do you prefer?
Movable Type, although I alse experimented with WP, and set up WP blogs for others.
13. What was the last charity you gave to?
http://www.centromujeresmexico.org
14. How many romantic relationships have you had?
Hardly enough. I don't run from one to the next.
15. Where was the last restaurant you visited?
Oh, that's a hard one. Renteniershuis, last month.
16. Have you ever seen a band live? Which one?
I've seens lots of bands live. Front 242, Metallica, ...
17. Which famous person would you like to meet? Why?
I think I'd like to chat with Björk, and date Tanja. Why? Because both of them are incredibly interesting and lovely women!
18. Have you ever been on television?
I think I might have, but I don't recall what it was about. It was waaaay in the past though.
19. Have you ever stayed overnight in hospital?
Yes, when I was lots younger and had some concussions. I've had a few over the years ;)
20. What is your ultimate ambition?
I don't have an ultimate ambition, because I change and adapt my goals to the situation and reality. Todays ambition is to get laid. Wait, that's my goal every day...
As you might have noticed, the president of the United States will be visiting Belgium starting tomorrow, for three days. He's scheduled to leave on wednesday, after having met with various "important people" (my choice of words, not his).
At least three different protests are planned to show him that his politics don't fly here, and that most people would like to see him take a less egocentric path, and take into consideration that there is more to this world than just the USA and it's policies.
According to a recent article in GVA - one of the major newspapers in Belgium - at least 2500 policemen will be dispatched to keep the thousands of protesters away from Bush and NATO as wells as EU headquarters. I think the way politicians and governements handle protests says a lot about their democratic values, doesn't it?
Shelter those who can make a difference on the highest level from every kind of protest and different opinions, and you're doing well... or so it seems. To me it seems those are the tactics of chickens, running. If you are certain about your policies and open to criticism, one doesn't run nor does one keep protesters confined to guarded areas far away from the actual summits. Sooner or later some people will decide they've had it with all those limitations and sneak through, break through or take up different forms of protest, possibly less peaceful. Remember the saying : back a dog into a corner and he'll bite. Democracy is nothing different and as soon as a critical mass is reached, changes cannot be stopped anymore. In the best case one can try to guide them, gently.
I'm working on sunday, monday and tuesday, but I might head off to Brussels on tuesday afternoon, depending on what info I can find in regard to protests going on.
Links : www.bushwanted.org - www.stopusa.be - Greenpeace Belgium
I went to bed quite early, so I would get enough sleep to last the day. I laid awake most of the time, watching every minute pass by. I feel - and probably look - like I've had 15 minutes of fame sleep instead of the close to 6 hours I actually spent under the covers of my warm bed. This bears bad news when you have to work a 9 hour shift.
Just by leaving 1 comment on a blog. I agree it was a slightly "evil" comment, but it was partially in jest and partially because I was irritated with the "shiny happy people mood" around the world that day. However, I don't feel like I attacked anyone personally, what can hardly be said about the owner and some of their friends replies.
(from karma, the blog owner) 'ServMe': who is interested in getting anything from you? - you are definitely more pathetic than me - or else why would you be a lowly security guard while I am a senior executive? Leave your shit in your own doorway, asshole (or in it).
Well, dear Karma : I actually chose to be working as a security guard, after a career in IT. It seems you, as a "senior executive", should know better as to judge people by their job, but appartently that quality is absent from your book. Namecalling never helped anyone, and only looks bad on those participating in it.
I deal with higher and top management on a nearly daily base, and I agree that there are assholes amongst them, but most don't look down on people working for them and those that assure they can perform their management job without worrying about other things.
While you may find your job as a "senior executive" more important than mine as a "lowly security guard", I can assure you both are needed and neither of them are possible without the other. Do you also look down on mailmen, garbage collectors or the people filling bags in the supermarket? None of those jobs might be desirable or high profile, but they get done and need to be done. "Fire them all" I'd say but please, be prepared to collect your own garbage, stuff your own bags and let's not even think about reading, writing and sending out letters.
A *full* day off tomorrow (friday) and then I start the (way too) early shift on saturday. Which of course means that friday will be a terribly short day anyway, but it's better than nothing I'd say. This also means I will *not* be attending the wedding of my cousin, or the reception I was invited to. Sorry, but with work and switching from late to early shifts I really don't see any way to make that work.
Most activity tomorrow will consist of hunting down virusses, erasing spyware and conquering adware - not on my computer, but on that machine a colleague from work brought in.
Late last night, I got SP2 for XP installed on it, which luckily got rid of quite a few annoying windows instabilities, I got Norton AV up to date and got rid of some more spyware and virusses. Only 17 or so files left that are tagged as suspicious and can not be removed, most likely because the virus/spyware is still active somewhere in memory. A bit of searching on the web should take care of most though.
It seems the Scott Wills breakdancing load on my blog is slowly diminishing, either because more people have the video file, or because it is a few entries down now. It is possible though that a new influx of people will start happening as more people become aware that they should be searching for B-Boy Junior instead.
A quick look at some stats seems to affirm it :
I haven't slept much last night, which means I'll probably feel like shit as the day progresses. To be honest, this has been going on since the new work schedule was introduced where we go from graveyard shifts to sunset, instead of from graveyard back to sunrise. I just can't seem to adapt to the gentle change in sleeping patterns, whereas with the hard change (night to morningshifts) I only suffered for a day or two every 21 days or so.
Currently I've got trouble sleeping for 3 to four days, every 2 weeks. If this keeps up, and I can indeed pinpoint it to the new system (I hope it's not the reason though, since there is little chance it'll be changed) I'm in for serious trouble.
As I couldn't sleep I got up earlyish (8AM) and just hooked up a computer that a colleague brought along last night. It suffered from some kind of error and it was powered down hard (ripping the powercord from it) now leading to a bluescreen with a UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME error in windows XP. A quick search leads me to believe I should be able to fix it with a chkdisk /p, so let's see what happens and whether or not I can access it at all.
Box analysis : I got the box running again, a chkdisk /p did indeed solve the main problem. After booting into XP Home though, I instantly noticed that it was severely plastered with spy and adware. A first check with Ad-Aware (an up-to-date version) returned no less that 856 hits. Of which 8 were running spyware processes, and I had already killed off some manually. Off to do a cold boot, run another check, then run SpyBot SD over it, hook it up to the net to update on patches and the latest virus definitions and then I'll see how far we get.
It's "love everyone around you and spend lots of cash or you won't be the true lover" day again. Go forth and replicate, multiplicate, procrastinate or whatever you feel like, just don't irritate me with your fuzzy feelings.
Yes, I know I'm not rational or objective about it. Yes, I know I'm probably just frustrated and jealous. So, what's your point?
update : I'm usually a shiny happy people person, but today I don't feel like it. My ISP seems to be having mailserver problems (again) so even the constant stream of spam has been diminished to just a drop. When I opened the snailmail box, there were three letters and a bunch of advertising in it, and two of those letters ain't even for me. Why the mailman always picks out my mailbox to drop off everything he doesn't know where to deliver remains a question though. It also makes me wonder where *my* mail ends up on a bad day...
Letter number 3 was for me, and once again contained proof that my employer seems unable to add 1 and 1 and get 2 as a result. In short : they fucked up the hours I worked again. I'm getting used to it though, but I must say that they got my hours of December 2004 correct, and it only took 1 recalculation. Joy Joy.
Off to grab something to eat and then off to work. Be back in a couple of hours.
I just edited and checked close to a 150 older posts of mine, changing some URL's around and putting them all in the correct category. While I was doing so, I came accross this old joke :
A penguin is driving through Melbourne on a hot summer day when he notices his oil light is on. He gets out of the car and sure enough, it's leaking oil all over the road. The penguin drives around the corner to a service station and asks the mechanic to take a look at it. The mechanic says he has a few others to look at first, but if he comes back in an hour he can tell the penguin what is wrong with his car.
The penguin agrees and goes for a walk. He finds an Ice cream shop and thinks a big bowl of vanilla ice cream will really hit the spot since he's a penguin and its Melbourne in the summer, after all. He sits down at the Counter and starts on his ice cream. Of course the poor bastard has no hands so it is rather messy. By the time he is done he has ice cream all over his flippers and his mouth - a total mess.
He waddles back to the service station and says to the mechanic, "Did you find out what is wrong with my car?"
The mechanic replies, "It looks like you've blown a seal."
"No no", says the penguin. "it's just icecream!"
Does anyone have more information about this Trust? I did take a look at the Dutch site (www.terravitalis.nl) and I noticed they also have a UK branch (www.terravitalis.co.uk), but none of my "regular" environmentally friendly sources come up with interesting data.
I first noticed an ad for them in the National Geographic magazine of February 2005, but apart from that and the facts on their own site, there seems to be little information out there. In short, they invest in teak wood and allow people to participate in an environmentally and socially sustainable project. The investment is rather steep (+8000 euro minimum) and very long term (20 years), which makes me quite wary.
Apart from that, I ask myself what is so good about converting (large pieces of) land into basically one type of tree woods? What happens after the woods are cut and sold? Is the land still fertile, can it be used to do the same again, or is it unusable for anything for a number of years? Should that be the case, does the Terra Vitalis project just move on to the next lot, or are there procedures to prevent this?
As you can see, there's still a lot of questions and I hope some has either made an objective study about it, or can point me to one. Not that I'll be investing in it right away or even in the near future because my resources don't allow that, but I would like to know more about it.
I don't know what you've done this morning, but here is what I did. I stopped working at 05h45 and left work at 06h05. Arrived at the technical check-up station at 06h35 and they openend at 07h10 (yes, they were 10 minutes late, bastards!). Left the station with a clean bill of health for the car at 07h35 and stopped at the bank to pick up my statements. Got home just 5 minutes ago, and while I took a long overdue piss and dump, I checked my statements and verified recent payments. In the mean time I was thinking out this entry and my PC was connecting to the internet.
Now I'm off to bed - see you all in a few hours. Preferably at least 7 or 8.
There is little more that pisses me off than false or misleading advertising. Let me give you an example. Yesterday evening (around 17h00) I find the new promo folder of Carrefour Hypermarkets in my mailbox, and I notice something that interests me : a cupboard of pretty much a nice size that I could use to store my books in my "office". Mind you, this leaflet contains promotions that are valid from 09/02/2005 till the 15th of February.
On the 10th - today - I go to the Hyper Carrefour of Borsbeek and check the complete store for that cupboard, but I can't find it anywhere. Upon verification with someone of the store staff, the answer is quite stunning : "Oh, we're out of those and they won't be coming in anymore". To which I reply "Oh, they're sold out quite fast, wouldn't you say?" and the answer is a sheepish grin. Last time I checked, a store had to have a "reasonable" amount of stock for promotions, and if that stock is sold out in less than 48 hours, I doubt that was the case.
In the mean time I still have no good way of storing my growing collection of books :(
I think I'll have to write myself a little mail to the management, coz right now my conclusion is Hyper Carrefour sucks!
If you're - at last - fed up with the irritating Schnappi song, maybe you'll not want to hear this Rock Version : Schnappi Rock FK (MP3, 1.25MB).
I just added two new books to my Amazon Wishlist : Brass by Helen Walsh, and Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich. I came accross the first one while reading an interview in Humo, and the second book was reviewed in a newspaper, and it sounded interesting enough to add.
It seems as if a gazillion patches (MS05-007, MS05-008, MS05-011, MS05-013, MS05-014, MS05-015, MS05-012, and more...) have been released for Windows and Office XP. Some are rated important, others critical, so better go update your windows-based computers right now - windowsupdate.microsoft.com and officeupdate.microsoft.com for those wondering where to turn to.
Just got a wad of money and spent a lot as well. Not on sexy things, but mainly bills, bills, bills and (slightly overdue) payments. Wait, some of the cash was also set aside to pay for upcomming bills.
How much? By friday € 855 will have disappeared from my account, and that's only based on expenses I'm aware of today. It's quite possible that new bills arrive over the week, and they'll be dealt with as time and resources allow.
One thing I don't understand is how people can complain about bills though? If I pay for something, I get something I want, need or require in return. So I don't mind paying for it. I tell you, if you see bills as a compensation for things you already have enjoyed, or will be able to enjoy in the future, they almost become a "Good Thing". It all just depends on your perception of it :)
Did some shopping for food, finished a bowl of spaghetti, exchanged a powersaving lightbulb for a watersaving showerhead in the post office (don't ask) and now I'm off to wash the car. I noticed I can take it in for its mandatory yearly technical checkup tomorrow starting at 07h00, so that is good.
Just got a call from Joco, who was looking for either the performers or the title of a song, and then he played it. It was a song that I immediately recognized, but I couldn't name title nor performer. I was certain I had it somewhere though! After asking him to play it again, I recognized some words, googled for those and it turned out to be Ameno from Era. I knew I knew the song and have it on CD somewhere. I'm the best :)
Tomorrow I gotta pay some bills, transfer money to my sis for the weekend off in april, and do some other crap. However, all of that will have to wait till I'm done sleeping!
Off to wash the car.
According to The Personality Test, I am :
a Leveller.
Well done; you've a healthy and balanced approach to life. You are strong at both thinking and feeling and, as a result, can spot problems and solve them quickly, easily and effectively. Just carry on as you are!
Who are you - and why?
As a leveller, you've got your life together. While other personalities major too much on thinking or feeling, you are in perfect balance. You respond to situations with clear-sightedness, taking your cue from your feelings, but using your mind to help you make decisions and action plans.
The positives:
You're very together. You really take life by the scruff of the neck and do what you want with it. You make and achieve your goals because you have all the bits of the lifestyle jigsaw.
The negatives:
There aren't many other people like you. You might sometimes feel you're the only sorted person in the world!
The leveller at work:
You are a good colleague and team member able to support but also keep people on task. You're particularly good at management roles where the need is to balance out different sets of needs without getting swamped by your feelings.
The leveller in love:
You are a great partner because you rarely get hooked into the sort of destructive patterns that many of the other personality types do.
Your love match is:
Your ideal pairing is with a leveller and you'll both live happily ever after. With any of the other personality types you risk doing all the giving, simply because you are more together than they are.
What should you do?
Carry on doing what you're doing and make sure that your friends, relatives, colleagues and partners are duly grateful for your having you around.
Crap, on March 26th construction recommences on the ringway around Antwerp, and it'll last till somewhere in September 2005. 6 months of fun trying to get from point A to B, I'm looking forward to it, not!
Got back from a really enjoyable evening today, where we went out for dinner and fun with the family, celebrating Jess & Dimi's birthday. Thanks, I enjoyed it!
An official Front 242 DVD will be released shortly, under the title Catch the Men and it's exclusively available from Alfa-Matrix. If you're a Front 242 fan, you should have ordered your copy already :)
I've been mailing back and forth with LWW about the concert, but so far I don't have a final answer yet. Maybe I should forward all those positive feedback and comments to her (I just did) and see what happens. My hopes are up, I'd LOVE to finally enjoy a wonderful night out with someone I care about a lot.
I just read this article on SecurityFocus and they grabbed it from AP :
The FBI said Friday it shut down an e-mail system that it uses to communicate with the public because of a security breach. The bureau is investigating whether someone hacked into the e-mail system that hosts some accounts that end with fbi.gov. The e-mail service is provided by a private company, the FBI said in a statement. "These accounts are used for non-sensitive, nonsecure communications and do not impact secure internal and external FBI e-mail accounts," the statement said. The FBI's computer system that is used for case files, classified and sensitive information is unaffected, the statement said. The e-mail problem has no apparent connection to other FBI computer problems, including a $170 million Virtual Case File project that FBI Director Robert Mueller acknowledged Thursday might have to be scrapped because it is outdated and inadequate. (source : The Associated Press Feb 4 2005 1:13PM)
If wonder how much my Special Agent Philip Snow experience is related to it? Those mails appeared to come from the fbi.gov domain after all - it's not too hard to forge though - and I filed a complaint with the Feds on January 27th. They close down a public mail system on February 4th, about a week later. It does make sense, you know?
I just got home after helping Nadia move between places. It all went pretty well, but I've got one thing to say. It's not wise pissing off people when they've just spent 5 hours on their (rare) free weekend helping you out. Honestly, I came *this* close to just saying "Fuck it bitch. If you know and can do it all better, what am I doing here? I'm off.", but the situation was slightly defused after I decided to let it rest and we were pretty much finished anyway.
Whether or not I was right, or you were right doesn't even matter - it was up to you to just say something like "oh, yes that might be it, I'll just call someone and have them take a look at it, don't worry about it". You don't start arguing with people that go out of their way to help you, and you certainly don't snap at them.
That's it, it's off my chest now and I don't need or even expect an apology. It just bothered me for a while but is forgotten now.
Imagine the golden oldies meeting a new and rising star. For instance The Pointer Sisters (Fire, ...) meeting Natalia (Rising, Fragile not broken) in a unique concert. Am I a Natalia fan? No, I wouldn't describe myself as a "fan" but I do very much remember her songs and especially her "drive" while she was a contestant in Idool 2003. The power, the joy, the presence, it gave me the chills.
So, I just mailed LWW and asked if she'd join me for a fun night out. I can only hope she doesn't come up with some (valid) excuse that ain't truely valid. You only live once so don't let the past bite you in the butt. I feel like doing some things this year that I thought about before, yet never did for some dumb reason. No more, I've had it with excuses and scapegoats. I'm not getting any younger, you know?
Friends, family, feel free to leave your comments and support here. Maybe LWW will decide to go with me when she reads all your positive feedback of why she should ;)
Quite hungry, waiting for my pizza to arrive, I hope it doens't take too long. Went to bed for an hour or so as I just felt too tired to stay awake, and of course I feel like crap now. Maybe I should just have skipped the rest of the evening and stayed in bed altogether?
My sis has been trying to get her hands on some U2 tickets for most of the day and finally succeeded to get some a couple of minutes past 14h30. One ticket is available for sale and can be found here : U2 ticket for Stade de France on July 9th 2005. And not even for an excessive price either if you know it selled for 69.20 euro (official). Go take a look if you feel like seeing Bono, The Edge, ... perform live in the city of Paris. Yes, the concert is completely sold out, and if you don't have a ticket yet, this might be your chance.
Now... where the fuck is my pizza?!
Very tired and suffering massively this morning. Felt like just turning around and sleeping in for once. Luckily this is my last sunrise shift today and tomorrow it's saturday, which means that I can sleep in till 07h30 or so. Coz I agreed to go and help Nadia move her stuff to a new place.
Maybe sunday I can get some more rest?
What's the hype about U2 tickets??? People seem to go crazy about their new tour, way before it even started. My sis tried getting tickets on saturday but failed. She'll be attempting again today, either for the Dublin concerts, or their gig in France. Sure, they're good, but come on!
I was about to write all kinds of things, yet I don't recall any of them right now. I got a call from Joco, and was so focussed on what he had to say, that anything else really didn't matter anymore. I think it's something he'll have to learn too : you matter, nothing else matters as much. Yes, that sounds harsh and even a bit strange, but look at it like this : If you're doing fine and feeling good, you can have a positive impact on the lives of those you love. If you put other things on top, you'll personally suffer from it (in either the long or short term) and thus will be unable to give what you deem important to those you love.
It sounds like a catch 22, but it really is not. Don't think about it though, it'll only confuse you and stress is the last thing you need right now. It'll come to you one day, and then you know.
Worked a bit on the blog of lilfunky1, but it was mostly behind the screens, so there is little to show off. She'll need to upgrade it herself :p
Lots of people were looking for "No More Bush Girls Video" according to my search engine referrals, and the video I posted was funny, but not by the NoMoreBushGirls. By the way, those babes had a site at NoMoreBushGirls.com, but it seems to be gone and was replaced by some advertising/link farm. That's why I don't link to it, see? Search google for the term in quotes above, and you'll probably find what you were looking for.
Ah... Dimi asked about Mr. Snow. Well, let's just say that after I got back to him, he became quite silent. In other words : it must have been a scam after all and the fact that I informed him about the complaint I filed probably scared him away for once and for all. I guess that's the end of the story so far, but if something happens, I'll post about it for sure Dimi!
To finish this long-assed post that had a bit of everything and lots of nothing, here's another video : Will you ask for directions, please?! (Apple Quicktime format, under 2MB)
Oh, and listen to the hot accent the lady got... wonderful!
I just came accross this little advertising clip that I really enjoyed when it was first aired on TV. Hope you enjoy it too!
Blondes have more Foon (TMF)(3.6MB, MPG)
For readers that don't understand or read Dutch, the text message on her mobile says "don't forget the cat".
Tomorrow I'm having a total of 1 day off from work, and I've got stuff to do. I hope I get around doing most of it :
- work on .htaccess file for blog (partially implemented - removed again)
- run errands (semi-successfully)
- do laundry and ironing (didn't even come close)
- cleaning (didn't even come close)
In other news, Google was accepted as an ICANN accredited registrar for domain names. This could turn current domain pricing and everything that ties into it (hosting for instance) completely upside down. I might take a shot at reading Basic Cryptanalysis although I doub't I'll understand a lot of it. Maybe I should start with remembering my GPG passphrase first?
An interesting interview with a comment spammer appeared on The Register. Go read it, and you'll start understand why I have to spend so much of my time making up for all the idiots that get on the web, yet don't understand a bit (or was that byte?) about it.
Note to self : add Larry Flynt's book Sex, Lies and Politics to my Amazon wishlist (due to be released April 1st 2005)(Done!).
Update : Why do people (friends, family,...) always pick gifts that are hard to get? It almost seems as if they plan on doing so! I got note that a certain gift that was ordered a while back will be (even more) delayed. So today I set out to get a little something to waste time till the intended gift arrives. Ah, at least I'm sure this little something will be enjoyed as well.
