Need to stop and shop for food, then off to work early because some colleagues are stopping at noon instead of two, and their shifts have to be covered. Ferrets need fresh food and water, I still need to get dressed, and I have no clue how bad or do-able traffic is today. Need a shave too.

Tata!

I was just cleaning out a cupboard, looking for a bunch of books that now should be moved to my brand new bookshelves, when I noticed two maps full of paper that didn't rind any bells. One of the maps was full of old installation reports from back in the days when I used to work in IT and install banking software all over Belgium.

Most reports were from the year 1997, and while browsing through them I realized one thing : that job thaught me how to cover my ass. Write things down, no matter how insignificant they might seem at the time, for they can come in very handy later on. Back when I started that job, I ran into problems with the coordinators and helpdesk quite frequently, but as I cleaned up my act, became one of their "specialists" and documented each and every intervention in detail, I gained their respect and trust. I recall one time when they called me on my mobile as I was with a client, to request "immediate" action to produce missing service orders of interventions I had done over the past week. If I wasn't able to do so before 4PM, they'd not pay me until every last piece of paper was in.

I was quite infuriated and told them to stop fucking up themselves, as I did file everything as requested. Luckily, I also had my personal copies of those service orders with me in the car, as I hadn't had time yet to file them away at home. I asked for the customers permission to use his fax and bombarded the office fax with the service orders they lost. A simple note on top said something along the way of "Here are my service orders AGAIN. Stop annoying me with errors you make and then blame on me. I've got copies of every single service order since "date" and if you fail to pay me as stipulated, I'll come right over to the office and clear your mess up for once and for all. I've had it with the way this organization runs."

I was paid every cent I was owed, and from that day on, never again questioned on whether or not I "forgot" to file my service orders. I did still get some calls when they "couldn't find" some, but they never again said I was to blame. Why would they, they knew I kept a close eye on everything myself. That's how I learned how good and up to date administration - even if it's not really required to do so yourself - can save your ass.

The second map contained bills, also dating back to 1997, with handwriting and notes from my ex, Sandra, attached and written all over them. I did a quick check through it all and removed some warranty papers as well as some official stuff, and threw the rest in the paper bin.

My kind of spring clean.

Now... has anyone seen my Kevin Mitnik book, titled "The Art of Deception?" I recall reading it at the office, yet can't find it anywhere now. It simply has to be somewhere... Search, Think, Think!
Found it... on my bedstand under a pile of magazines.

I just finished Nickel and Dimed - On (not) getting by in America (author : Barbara Ehrenreich) and it was certainly an interesting read. The one problem I had was accepting it as real - not that I doubt the reality depicted in it - but it's so far from the world I know and live in, that it almost seems impossible. But apparently it's not and millions of people live that life day after day. A couple of things struck me though :

- a job is not always a guarantee for a better life. In fact, often jobs are sometimes even used against the mass, to keep them poor. That's because the money earned does not compare to the investements needed to work the job (housing, food, travel expenses) and while not setting people back each day, they stay at a standstill or very slowly improve their situation until something trivial knocks that improvement right back again. They are truely slaves to the system and giving up the job(s) they have is not an option, yet not a way out either. The future doesn't look bright.

- employees do evertyhing in their power to prevent social powers to gather and work together. Unions are not forbidden but presented by the employers in such a way that they seem to work against the employees instead of for them. This is only possible because the employees become totally dependent on the corporation they work for, and are indoctrinated by those same corporate powers. As long as they can't step out of the corporate grasp and reach, they are unable to see the bigger picture and rise up against it. Allow me to quote from Nickel and Dimed :

"I was baffled, initially, by what seemed like a certain lack of get-up-and-go on the part of my fellow workers. Why didn't they just leave for a better-paying job, as I did when I moved from Heartside's to Jerry's? Part of the answer is that actual humans do experience a little more friction than marbles do, and the poorer they are, the more contrained their mobility usually is. Low-wage people who don't have cars are often dependent on a relative who is willing to drop them off and pick them up again each day, sometimes on a route that includes the babysitter's house or the child care center. Change your place of work and you may be confronted with an impossible topographical problem to solve, or at least a reluctant drive to persuade."

"But there are no Palm Pilots, cable channels or Web sites to advise the low-wage worker. They have only the Help Wanted signs and the want ads to go on, and most of these coyly refrain from mentioning numbers. So information about who earns what and where has to travel by worth of mouth, and for inexplicable cultural reasons, this is a very slow and unreliable route."

I suggest you pick up this book if you've got the chance and the time to read it. Why? Because there is only one solution to improve living standards for everyone, both low-wage and (the quickly vanishing) middle-class workers : information and education. One cannot benefit and make rational choices if one doesn't know about them.

Mind you, this is not a rant against America - even though this book specifically deals with the situation in the USA - but many of the situations depicted in this work are occuring internationally as well. Maybe a little less extreme, but unless we open up and allow ourselves to see what is happening, we will not be able to prevent them and end up in a similar world where our economies are basically running on slave labor.

I'm giving away 2 copies of "Nickel and Dimed" to people that would otherwise not have the chance to buy and read the book. Since I'm fully aware that low-wage workers usually have no internet access, hence they don't read this themselves, my regular audience is not the target group for this giving away of books. However, I'll be using you to do the work for me. Apply for one of the 2 copies I'm giving away, by sending me your full name, address and country. Let me know when you've received the book and when you're done reading it. Then pass it on to someone else - preferably someone who otherwise wouldn't have access to this book. Ask them to pass it on when they're done reading it, etc. Sounds difficult? It's not, believe me.

I've been dreaming things that are quite disturbing if you ask me. I'll try to give you a peek into the dream I just had, just be glad I have no way (yet?) to transfer the images during the dreams to another form, so I can post them on this blog. If you're easily grossed out, I suggest you stop reading now. Remember that these were dreams, and characters fade in and out, sometimes remain quite vague.

I'm together with my dad and we're checking out why a dog is limping his front paw. Rover obviously has some sort of pain, so we pick him up and check the paw. Nothing is visible, so I squeeze the paw, which suddenly becomes my left hand. When I push, a very small layer of loosens up and there is a white head in the center. As I think it's just some infection that I didn't notice before, I squeeze harder but nothing happens. My dad gets a needle somewhere and we prick the layer of skin. Junk comes flowing out and the more I squeeze - to get everything out - the more seems to appear.

The initial tiny spot has by now become an area of about 1x1 centimeter at the top of palm of my hand, just below where my fingers are attached to my hand. This doesn't hurt at all - probably because of my leather like skin, I think - and I realign my fingers to squeeze from another angle. This goes on and on for a couple of minutes, each time squirting new yellow pus onto a paper towel that my dad is holding. Neither of us are grossed out, but instead just dealing with the situation. The more comes out, the larger the infection seems to get and soon enough I'm pushing puss out from the edge of my palm towards the middle. This thing is getting large.

After a while we get less puss, so we think we're almost done. One last squeeze to get the final bits out and then we see a whole new consistency of puss appear. Shiny even, as it were wrapped in cling film, and it has gone from yellowish to darker red. We look at each other, wondering what is going on. A nod and we both figure out there's more vile stuff in the palm of my hand, underneath the now very loose skin.

When I push again, the skin ruptures in the middle and a tear appears and with the next squeeze we get a mixture of maggots and puss. Weird, I think as I push the maggot onto the paper towel. Maybe this is a bit worse as it seemed at first, but we continue our work. The rupture grows larger and soon enough the top 50% of my palm is one large open - raw - wound, covered here and there with patches of skin under which I can look. Only to see more larvae in there, some even crawling around. Some have the regular black head, white michelin guy type body, others have a reddish skin. We start pushing each one of them out from under the skin, while saying things like "Look at that one at the left, and over there, near the top". Seven, ten, I don't know how many we remove but then I realize that I'm getting close to getting the last ones out. I look up to my dad, as he's handling some paper towel, and when we both look back down, the next thing that falls out is a dried - cocooned - maggot. Soon followed by a spotted lady beetle with a maggot in it's front paws, obviously eating it.

The last one is out and there I am, a completely messed up hand, but there is little to no blood to be seen. Quite the contrary as one would expect when things like this happens. I ask for my dad to get some some disinfectant while I try to open my hand completely, to test mobility and to see how much the raw flesh is pulling back after all this exposition to air. It doesn't hurt, but I feel a clear tension when trying to stretch completely, but I know inside that it won't pose a problem in the long run. Dad comes bak with disinfectant and I ask for something to clip off the patches of skin that hang around, with red and bloody flesh beneath them, covered with black spot here and there. Dad tells me to leave the skin alone and disinfect it as it is, whereas I think it would be better to cut it all off to nice and clean edges, to facilitate healing.

Both options have their pro's and con's we agree, so it's really up to me, and it doesn't matter as long as we can get my left hand cleaned and fully disinfected. I never know whether or not I cut away the layer of skin, because I woke up at this point. Disturbing enough for you?

is 66.67% Female and 33.33% Male (according to this "What gender is your brain?" quizz)

My brain leans female - I think with my heart, not my head. I'm sweet and considerate, a giver. But I'm tough enough not to let anyone take advantage of you!

So there you go. The one thing my brain is right now, is tired, so I'm heading off to bed because I'm working an early shift tomorrow.

I just finished the final episode of Niki's Secret (or Niki's Geheim as the show is called in Dutch) and I've got mixed feelings about the outcome. Not as much as to whom Niki picked as her future partner, but I can't put away the feeling that there's more to it.

Right from the beginning, Sabriena was very present and it was totally clear they developed feelings for each other, pretty much from day one. Kjelle on the other hand, "grew" into liking Niki very much and vice versa. I don't know how real and true his feelings are though, and there is no way to find out, but Kjelle seems like the production team candidate to me. Orchestrated and manouvered as the plot thickens and unravels.

The one question that remains for me is this : would the creators of this show dare to alter or direct the outcome to match the moral majority of their audience? I think there is little doubt they must at least have considered the possible feedback and outcry of the viewers for each possible candidate. Is Kjelle really Niki's choice? Going by the episodes and magic I've seen on screen, I'd say it wasn't, and that she would be much better off being a couple with Sabriena.

Ah, well... I'll leave it at that and let everyone think whatever they want about it. I just hope two people end up happier as they were before, because I have to admit it : what do I know about love?

As I woke up and headed for the mailbox - don't worry, I got dressed first - I knew in advance the new Humo would be waiting for me. When I opened the box, it also had a letter from the Federale Overheidsdienst Financien - Belasting en Invordering - Administratie van de Ondernemings en Inkomensfiscaliteit. What's in a name, wouldn't you say?

Since the envelope wasn't the all too familiar brown color, nor the regular envelope they used over the past years, I was really wondering what was up and why they mailed me a letter. While going back upstairs, I ripped it open and peeked inside. Phew... good news! i'm not being asked to come in for a verification, nor do I have a ton of extra money to pay. In fact, they're giving back money, which is always welcome. And much to my suprise, that amount was about 30% higher as previous years - no doubt due to being out of a job most of last year, as well as optimizing a number of things that offer tax benefits.

The "extra" money is quite welcome, and I'm thinking about either just saving it (boring but wise), spending it all on myself (fun but a waste), looking further into investing it in property (not likely, as the investment and possible return are too high/too low) or do some home improvement around the apartment. The latter would - if considered carefully - also lead to taxcuts coming year.

Or I could just buy a digital videocamera and use that to tape hot chicks having crazy kinky insane sex with me and each other. What? Hot sexy chicks are not included when you buy a digital videocamera? Then what's the point?!

They've only just started closing down highway exits in preparation for commencing the maintenance on the ringway around Antwerp, and already they managed to close down the wrong ramp for a couple of hours. I can't stress how much I'm looking forward to 6 months of traffic insanity. Joy joy.

Off to work I go - If I still have a way to get there that is...