January 2009 Archives

Taking a look at tomorrow I already know it'll be a busy day : Early shift means I'll be getting up at 4AM, starting work at 6AM till 2PM. Directly after there's a work related meeting which will probably run till 4PM, and then I should really stop over in Doel 5 for a drink with some colleagues that have recently quit working at our site.

However, can't make that all too late as I've got a dinner date with two women in the center of Antwerp (restaurant Mostar) at 6PM. I carefully picked the word dinner date and not "date" which could otherwise signify romantic involvement, which there is not. If I were to go on a "date date", I wouldn't take 2 women at the same time either, as that would mean I've got to divide my attention between them. Seems like a bad idea :)

Hope to feel better tomorrow as well, the quick nap in the afternoon today did help a bunch so I can only hope to wake up in the morning all shiny and new.

Note : Today I finally received my schedule for the upcoming month through snail mail. Last month we got it on the 30th so technically speaking, they're making progress by getting it to us on the 29th this time. Can't say I'm all that pleased with the extreme delay though, especially since we used to get it on the 25th at the latest while working for the previous employer. Anyway, it's up there for those who wanna take a peek or need it.

I woke up rather early this morning, taking into account that I'll already start doing early shifts tomorrow and thus need to get to bed at a reasonable time tonight. After popping another synutab - most should know I dislike meds - and loads of hot tea, I felt better for a while but have nothing but a blazing headache, snotty tissues everywhere and a cough to boost it all right now.

I can barely keep my eyes open and my head feels like a balloon. I'm back off to bed to sweat it out, and hope to feel better tomorrow. I had planned to reply to some mails, but I'm pushing it back till I can focus more, maybe later this afternoon.

I've managed to go from having just a sore throat to sore throat, cough, headache and snot running from my nose, yet I'm heading out to work again today. To me it doesn't really matter where I am when feeling ill, as it won't change a thing.

Yesterday afternoon I got so fed up with some stuff going on at work that I called someone of the union and informed him about what the current problems are. While I've never met him in person nor ever talked to him before, he got back to me within the hour with an answer.

Later that evening, one of the managers from my employer turned up at work to come talk to us. Coincidence? Who knows... Definitely to be continued.

The UK was just scrapped from list of countries to possibly live one day, all because of this : Extreme Porn Law.

I don't think anyone has the right to decide what others should distasteful or illegal. It starts with laws such as this, then broadens to frowning (even more) on two men or women making love to each other and ends with the morality police standing next to your bed making sure that you are only getting your groove on with your (different sex) partner in missionary position with the lights out and as little pleasure as possible.

If I have sex, I want it to be as pleasant, dirty and messy as possible, with the full consent and approval of my partner of course.

So... there is only one answer to all this :

My throat hurts so I already knocked back two mugs of tea with honey and a good squish of lemon juice to grease the inner workings. Skipping sleep Saturday to Sunday probably only contributed to it, though I slept quite well last night. Got up early and went to the post office to pick something up and finally mail out Nogi's Vexillium Praetoriani shirt. It was supposed to be sent out last year but I kinda forgot, oops.

In between my busy work schedule I'll be redesigning my dad's network on paper so I can start redoing it all (hopefully) early February. That being said, it's the 26th today and I ain't got a schedule for next month yet. Will take a note and blame some people for that on Friday during a mandatory meeting after I finish work. Scheduled at 16h00 is a medical checkup (also mandatory) and then I'll be off for food with a couple of girls from work. Won't make it all that late because on Saturday an early shift is planned.

My alarm clock went off around 16h00 after which I turned it off, rolled around and promptly fell asleep again. I just got out of bed a couple of minutes ago. Tonight I'm off with a group of current and ex-colleagues for food and bowling. Tomorrow is birthday party with family, on Sunday I'll try to catch up on sleep. Monday is work time once more.

Today is what many people would describe as "an important day". In that regard, they are quite often referring to the - as this post is written, upcoming - inauguration of Barack Obama as 44th president of the United States of America on January 20th 2009.

However, let's not forget that the man has become more of a symbol then anything else. He personifies the change that can be achieved, but he can't do it alone. He'll be fighting against huge expectancies and will most likely fail just because of what people expect him to accomplish overnight.

Symbols and Icons are very powerful aids in accomplishing goals, but they are easily taken down and disregarded. A realistic point of view would be to see that Barack has accomplished something extraordinary, but if you want to see actual change for the better, now it is your turn to step up to the plate and give it your best shot too. Change is slow and steady process, which has to be supported by a mass, not something that happens at the flick of a switch or the snap of a finger.

I almost was about to end this entry with a seemingly mandatory "god" reference when it comes to speeches in the USA, but I'm not. I can think for myself, thank you.

Even though I went to bed rather late (around 4AM'ish) I was out and about at 1PM, so tonight may prove a challenge as I'm working the night shift. Over the weekend I went pussy sitting for a friend - this kind of pussy, you pervs - and I had quite some laughs while doing so.

I've been eying a storage space (garage box) for sale a bit further down the street, for which apparently there is no high demand as the "for sale" sign has been up for quite a while now. At first it was for sale for €15,000, then the price was lowered to €13,500 so I wonder if they'd be prepared to lower it even more? I've got some money set aside but I'd rather not use it to purchase very long term investments such as realty. On the other hand, if I don't need the money, it may be better to put it to good use. How about I put about 5k to 7.5k into it myself and then find a partner (or my bank) to finance the rest? Guess I should just check whether it's still for sale, maybe the sign should have been taken down long time ago?

Funny thing is that I've been thinking about this particular "opportunity" for weeks now, but I've not yet reached a decision. Any of my readers out there that has advice, or wants in on the purchase/loan? Lemme know :-)

Incredibly hot, arousing and probably not safe for work... which of course depends on what line of work you're in, lol. Does anyone know where I can order one of these?

Mara, Italian Cowgirl.

Note : it gets a tiny bit too explicit at the end though. I don't mind explicit video's nor explicit girls, but it just doesn't fit the "tease" in the rest of the video. Feedback welcome :)

Another thing of beauty is the Tesla Roadster Sport, expected to ship in Europe at the end of 2009. If anyone got €99,000 to spare, order me one, please? Drool at Tesla Sport Photo Gallery

This morning I got up at 07h15 after working till 22h00 last night and getting home around 22h30. To add to it all, this is my one day off, as I'll start early shifts again tomorrow.

You may wonder why I got up this early if I had the chance to sleep in? The car was due for a mandatory technical checkup on the 17th of the month and today was the one day I would be able to get it taken care of without spending hours waiting. No real hiccups in the results apart from an initial concern that my front brakes had a 35% difference in breaking power, but as I had those replaced at the same time about two months ago - which I explained to the inspector - he ran the test a second time and it came out fine.

Before I headed off to the inspection, I verified the expiration date on my fire extinguisher and it turned out to have ran out in 2007! Luckily it wasn't checked, but I'll have it replaced today anyway. Those of you think that mandatory checks are nothing but a way to make people pay can take the above as an example : if I didn't need to take the car in, I'd never have thought of checking the date.

That's all of the updates for now. Remember that it's Patch Tuesday, so expect some Microsoft Windows updates fixing various errors and vulnerabilities later today or early Wednesday depending on your time zone.

Funny how I also managed to forget to take the tea and the honey to work. My throat does feel better though, lol.

I get out of bed and notice my throat is aching a little, so when I go shopping I gotta buy some new lemon juice to put in my tea (whenever I'm feeling a bit ill I revert to some hot tea with plenty of lemon juice and honey, combined with just sweating it out. Works quite well).

I still have an empty glass bottle at home that I need to get rid off, so I put it in my coat and head off to the store. I get back home and still have the empty bottle on me and no fresh lemon juice (or lemons) to be seen. Go me. Guess it'll be tea without lemon and just honey :)

I spent my new years eve quite relaxed at home, watching 4 episodes of The Shield on DVD, drinking Ice-T and nibbling on some candy. Suddenly I heard a lot of noise outside and when I glanced over at the clock it turned out to be one minute past twelve. The year 2009 had started and people were shooting of fireworks to celebrate. I continued watching my show.

Either I'm getting old(er) or I realize that most of these festivities are nothing but commercialized mass events where everyone is supposed to love each other, be all happy and joyous and things like that. Even though I think it's pretty much a day like any other, I did send out some text messages to people, and intended to call others personally, which I promptly forgot about later. I may do that today.

Not entirely unexpected but a little shocking nevertheless is that two of my text messages were answered with "thanks for the wishes and happy 2009 to you too, but who are you?". One of those came from a colleague that only left the company 3 months ago and the other came from someone I've spent 5 years of my life with. Guess it's time to clean up the address book and move on.