Its going to be all over the news for weeks so I might as well mention it here.
Michael Jackson has died...apparently, still waiting to hear the official news but it seems to be pretty certain at time of writing.
50 yo...eek I'm not that far from that.
Certainly a strange and possibly dodgy bloke but in his pomp an amazing artist so it is quite a shame.
All those poor buggers who paid a fortune for tickets to the O2 will be upset...hell the O2 management will be well out of pocket too...there will be ramifications of this for lots of people.
Ah well, I think the bloke lived in a total fantasy world his entire life so maybe in death he'll get some normality. And I have to thank him for the Thriller album, which btw I can probably recite word for word, since my brother Colin played it repeatedly non stop for weeks when he bought it...at least he never tried to do the dancing....or the singing :D
Ahthankyew
Thursday, 25 June 2009
Wednesday, 24 June 2009
So Tired
Its 1.44am here in NL, and I'm having a 10 min break to make a coffee and rub my aching bum which I have been sat on for most of the last 7 days. I tried to get Bina to rub it for me, but she refused...nicely, but still... (if she loved me she'd do it)
Of course I'm crunching, the thing I hate most about programming, especially as I spend so much time advocating for an end to it in commercial planning, here I am doing it on my own projects. I'm also fitting in exam marking and prepping where I can too.
I'm desperately tired, having got by on 5 or so hours sleep and an evening nap (getting old y'see), am prone to bouts of code blindness* even with my big whopper in front of me :D and did I mention my bum hurts.
When I tell my students all about the long hard hours, the lack of social life, the frustration the sore bum and even bouts of panic that come with this kind of working, they can't wait to try it....they must be mad..I must be mad to still be doing this.
But its nearly done, I've fixed a few massive errors that will reduce my bug count considerably (currently standing at 71) and hopefully soon we can submit this bugger and get on with the summer.
Anyway kettle has boiled, time to unstick myself from the bum groove in my chair and get some caffeine in my system,
Ahthankyew
*mum, its when you stare at the screen and simply can't read what the code is doing, bit like writers block.
Of course I'm crunching, the thing I hate most about programming, especially as I spend so much time advocating for an end to it in commercial planning, here I am doing it on my own projects. I'm also fitting in exam marking and prepping where I can too.
I'm desperately tired, having got by on 5 or so hours sleep and an evening nap (getting old y'see), am prone to bouts of code blindness* even with my big whopper in front of me :D and did I mention my bum hurts.
When I tell my students all about the long hard hours, the lack of social life, the frustration the sore bum and even bouts of panic that come with this kind of working, they can't wait to try it....they must be mad..I must be mad to still be doing this.
But its nearly done, I've fixed a few massive errors that will reduce my bug count considerably (currently standing at 71) and hopefully soon we can submit this bugger and get on with the summer.
Anyway kettle has boiled, time to unstick myself from the bum groove in my chair and get some caffeine in my system,
Ahthankyew
*mum, its when you stare at the screen and simply can't read what the code is doing, bit like writers block.
Sunday, 21 June 2009
Bina's Birthday
Today is Bina's Birthday
It is very very important that I do not forget that it is Bina's Birthday,
because today is Bina's birthday, and I must remember to go out and find her a card in English for her birthday which is today.
I must never ever forget that it is Bina's Birthday, having done so once before and been reminded of it every goddamn year ever since
So today its Bina's Birthday, and I am writing this Blog so I won't forget.
Thats it...Today is Bin.....oh....wait....today!!!!
That explains the silence!!!!
Ahthankyew
It is very very important that I do not forget that it is Bina's Birthday,
because today is Bina's birthday, and I must remember to go out and find her a card in English for her birthday which is today.
I must never ever forget that it is Bina's Birthday, having done so once before and been reminded of it every goddamn year ever since
So today its Bina's Birthday, and I am writing this Blog so I won't forget.
Thats it...Today is Bin.....oh....wait....today!!!!
That explains the silence!!!!
Ahthankyew
Wednesday, 17 June 2009
I've got a big one!
Yup, my new toy arrived today and its a whopper, its massive, it makes your eyes go wide when you see it.
Its a new 30" monitor...with a res of 2560x1600. hehe
My old trusty dell was starting to show signs of dead and dying pixels so it needed to retire, and a hunt through ebay found this reconditioned monster, only a few months old and in perfect condition.
The pic isn't great I'm afraid, as the rooms a bit too dark, but here it is in all its desk hogging glory.
ohhh size really does matter.
Ahthankyew
Sunday, 14 June 2009
Phew..nearly there
So that's it..I've survived a year of teaching, I gave my last lecture last Thursday, and aside from some meetings and a few exams to mark. I got through my 1st year unscathed and enjoyed it. I've been told my contract will be renewed (are they mad) and I can now look forward to the long summer holidays.
Bina and Jodie are busy surfing the web for cheap holidays, it seems like the prices have shot up from last year, but it'll be nice to get away for a break.
Project Work is nearing its end at last..Had a couple of shocking bad days though where I almost punched the screen in frustration..I hate the last part of a project, its when most of the work gets done but also when you've reached your limit of endurance and concentration starts to wander. I've been a bit "grumpy" of late and I need to review that.
I've made a decision not to do any more freelance work (well at least not on this scale) next school year. As much as I enjoy it, it eats at my free time and sometimes also affects my school work ( you try being perky and interesting after 3 hours sleep cos you were working till 5?) So thats it. No more. I "retire" from full time freelance programming.
Instead I'm going to develop a Master Class at school where I will work on a project for my academic year and encourage other staff and students to join in and take it up to commercial standards. That will allow me to limit my work time to office hours and also give students a chance to learn by doing rather than hearing me drone on all the time.
Anyway..back to work, those bugs won't fix themselves!
Ahthankyew
Bina and Jodie are busy surfing the web for cheap holidays, it seems like the prices have shot up from last year, but it'll be nice to get away for a break.
Project Work is nearing its end at last..Had a couple of shocking bad days though where I almost punched the screen in frustration..I hate the last part of a project, its when most of the work gets done but also when you've reached your limit of endurance and concentration starts to wander. I've been a bit "grumpy" of late and I need to review that.
I've made a decision not to do any more freelance work (well at least not on this scale) next school year. As much as I enjoy it, it eats at my free time and sometimes also affects my school work ( you try being perky and interesting after 3 hours sleep cos you were working till 5?) So thats it. No more. I "retire" from full time freelance programming.
Instead I'm going to develop a Master Class at school where I will work on a project for my academic year and encourage other staff and students to join in and take it up to commercial standards. That will allow me to limit my work time to office hours and also give students a chance to learn by doing rather than hearing me drone on all the time.
Anyway..back to work, those bugs won't fix themselves!
Ahthankyew
Sunday, 7 June 2009
Anal Bleaching....why?
So I've just had my first ever experience of anal bleaching. It wasn't intentional I hasten to add, I'm not trying to entice any of my gay friends with my nicely lightend ring piece thanks..
No this is instead a sad tale of mis-identification.....y'know those wet wipes..which MEN (thats men in capitals and pronounced with a low loud voice.) never use. But that women (no capitals) always tend to buy and put on the shelf so they can keep their bits smelling nice...for no earthly reason I can imagine!!!!!
Well... After a particularly unpleasant toilet experience I'm giving the old backside a good rubbing with the dry soft strong and very long (or at least Dutch equivalent) paper and not getting to the clear state (MEN..you know what I'm talking about).
So rather than risk some skiddies on the clean undies (only a week old this side out, after all) I thought I'd have a go with the old wet wipes. And remove one of the nice man sized, sorry MAN sized, thick moist towelettes from the nice blue wrapper on the shelf.
Ah yes that's the stuff, before I know it, the old sphincter is shiny and new....and come to think of it stinging a bit. Hmmm...odd, but not to worry, maybe it was the strange but suitably Man-ly pine freshness that was just a bit too fresh, but as I'm washing my hands I'm starting to notice the stinging levels are rising a little....we're now at mild nipping.
Then I happen to glance to my left and spot a small green packet of wet wipe towels..
Odd thinks I (I'm good at noticing odd things me...after the fact), two sets of towels...
This one with nice pretty pics of flowers and birds and stuff, and on the other side...
Bum now starting to burn a bit...
On the other side...
Blue packet, with nice pictures of ..toilet seats and rubber gloves...oh..and also a little, irritant symbol.
hmmm better look at this a bit closer, bum now officially burning...
Sure enough..it wasn't a wet wipe...it was a disposable hygenic toilet bowl cleaning towlette, cunningly disguised as a wet wipe.
Thats it, trousers and pants down, running tap...you get the picture..
So dear reader, there are 2 things of note to consider here.
MEN, or even men, don't confuse wetwipes with disposable hygenic toilet bowl cleaning towlette..no matter how similar they look.
Women, don't put the disposable hygenic toilet bowl cleaning wipes where they might get confused with wet wipes...
And no...reading the packet is not an option here...
When there's a risk of skidmarks and reasonable unsoiled undies, MEN just want to get the job done, we have no time for reading the instructions.
I haven't checked if the bleaching as produced a nice result....lets just leave that little mystery for now.
Ahthankyew
No this is instead a sad tale of mis-identification.....y'know those wet wipes..which MEN (thats men in capitals and pronounced with a low loud voice.) never use. But that women (no capitals) always tend to buy and put on the shelf so they can keep their bits smelling nice...for no earthly reason I can imagine!!!!!
Well... After a particularly unpleasant toilet experience I'm giving the old backside a good rubbing with the dry soft strong and very long (or at least Dutch equivalent) paper and not getting to the clear state (MEN..you know what I'm talking about).
So rather than risk some skiddies on the clean undies (only a week old this side out, after all) I thought I'd have a go with the old wet wipes. And remove one of the nice man sized, sorry MAN sized, thick moist towelettes from the nice blue wrapper on the shelf.
Ah yes that's the stuff, before I know it, the old sphincter is shiny and new....and come to think of it stinging a bit. Hmmm...odd, but not to worry, maybe it was the strange but suitably Man-ly pine freshness that was just a bit too fresh, but as I'm washing my hands I'm starting to notice the stinging levels are rising a little....we're now at mild nipping.
Then I happen to glance to my left and spot a small green packet of wet wipe towels..
Odd thinks I (I'm good at noticing odd things me...after the fact), two sets of towels...
This one with nice pretty pics of flowers and birds and stuff, and on the other side...
Bum now starting to burn a bit...
On the other side...
Blue packet, with nice pictures of ..toilet seats and rubber gloves...oh..and also a little, irritant symbol.
hmmm better look at this a bit closer, bum now officially burning...
Sure enough..it wasn't a wet wipe...it was a disposable hygenic toilet bowl cleaning towlette, cunningly disguised as a wet wipe.
Thats it, trousers and pants down, running tap...you get the picture..
So dear reader, there are 2 things of note to consider here.
MEN, or even men, don't confuse wetwipes with disposable hygenic toilet bowl cleaning towlette..no matter how similar they look.
Women, don't put the disposable hygenic toilet bowl cleaning wipes where they might get confused with wet wipes...
And no...reading the packet is not an option here...
When there's a risk of skidmarks and reasonable unsoiled undies, MEN just want to get the job done, we have no time for reading the instructions.
I haven't checked if the bleaching as produced a nice result....lets just leave that little mystery for now.
Ahthankyew
choking!!!
Oh I hate that when a little bit of spit goes down the wrong way and you spend 30 mins harrumphing and coughing trying to stop the irritation....oh how odd, the spell checker actually knows what harrumphing is!
oh sorry I digress.
We went to Rotterdam yesterday to meet some friends of Bina's brother who had moved over there. All part of our getting to know people and learn from their experiences. which was quite useful. Anthony and Nikkie have 2 kids including a daughter around Jodies age so it was useful to compare experiences a year on for them.
Shopping in Rotterdam was fun, compared to Breda its a huge place, akin to Manchester really with lots of familiar shops. Jodie was really pleased to hear there was a Primark there so I expect she'll be making plans for visits.
We did have a downside though..Toward the end of the day as we were heading to the station to come home, we decided to stop for a cuppa and a cake.
As always there's loads of small cafe's and we picked one and ordered tea and apple pie.
Nice...Huge great big slab of apple pie arrived with big dollops of cream and we tucked in...at least until Bina noticed that her pie was slightly discolored and on closer examination the apple was distinctly hairy with mold.
Arrghh instant appetite suppressant. We called over the waiter, who to his credit, was equally shocked and took the pies away. He later came back to offer us anything on the house. But we decided against a big plate of Lobster and caviar and just finished our tea's and left.
I guess H&S Dutch style is not quite so strict here. It's kinda put me of apple pie's for a while.
In other totally unrelated news (my life must be very very boring) the train service to Rotterdam was disrupted due to work on the line so we had to get a bus part of the way. Bina found someone's phone on her seat though so we kept hold of it and phoned the owner (listed as Thuis in the contacts ) later that night.
I've never heard anyone scream with joy down a phone so much. The owner was really pleased that we'd found her phone, but sadly she was nowhere near Breda, she'd lost it on the way to Tilburg that day and had returned home to discover her loss.
Not to worry, I said we'd mail it to her, and she was overjoyed, could not believe her luck and said I'd made her day.
Nice to make someones day. Karma is a funny thing (My name is Earl...go watch it if you've never seen it) and despite being a total atheist and skeptic about almost everything. I do think that what goes around comes around....so bring on the good stuff.
Ahthankyew
oh sorry I digress.
We went to Rotterdam yesterday to meet some friends of Bina's brother who had moved over there. All part of our getting to know people and learn from their experiences. which was quite useful. Anthony and Nikkie have 2 kids including a daughter around Jodies age so it was useful to compare experiences a year on for them.
Shopping in Rotterdam was fun, compared to Breda its a huge place, akin to Manchester really with lots of familiar shops. Jodie was really pleased to hear there was a Primark there so I expect she'll be making plans for visits.
We did have a downside though..Toward the end of the day as we were heading to the station to come home, we decided to stop for a cuppa and a cake.
As always there's loads of small cafe's and we picked one and ordered tea and apple pie.
Nice...Huge great big slab of apple pie arrived with big dollops of cream and we tucked in...at least until Bina noticed that her pie was slightly discolored and on closer examination the apple was distinctly hairy with mold.
Arrghh instant appetite suppressant. We called over the waiter, who to his credit, was equally shocked and took the pies away. He later came back to offer us anything on the house. But we decided against a big plate of Lobster and caviar and just finished our tea's and left.
I guess H&S Dutch style is not quite so strict here. It's kinda put me of apple pie's for a while.
In other totally unrelated news (my life must be very very boring) the train service to Rotterdam was disrupted due to work on the line so we had to get a bus part of the way. Bina found someone's phone on her seat though so we kept hold of it and phoned the owner (listed as Thuis in the contacts ) later that night.
I've never heard anyone scream with joy down a phone so much. The owner was really pleased that we'd found her phone, but sadly she was nowhere near Breda, she'd lost it on the way to Tilburg that day and had returned home to discover her loss.
Not to worry, I said we'd mail it to her, and she was overjoyed, could not believe her luck and said I'd made her day.
Nice to make someones day. Karma is a funny thing (My name is Earl...go watch it if you've never seen it) and despite being a total atheist and skeptic about almost everything. I do think that what goes around comes around....so bring on the good stuff.
Ahthankyew
Tuesday, 2 June 2009
Sorry mum!
I did promise to keep this blog up to date more, but things have been quite hectic this month, work, family, work again.
But...we are all slowly starting to settling into life as a family again. Jodie is beginning to exhibit the 1st small signs of rejoining the human race, starting to make friends at her new school and exploring the sights and sounds of Eindhoven and Breda.
Bina and I are loving the freedom living here gives us, not just in terms of our day job work load just being able to walk the dog in the park without fear of intimidation or stress. Cafe culture is definitly suiting us.
The apartment is filling up, more shelves, chestofdrawers and other cubby holes are appearing daily as more and more boxes get unpacked. TV's are plugged in, don't even ask about the hassle I had trying to get Jodie's TV to work (no socket in her room). I had to go out and buy a DVD recorder so that I could get a scart output to use a transmitter system I brought over with me.
Was just planning to buy a simple VCR to do it, but these are not so easy to get hold of now, so a HDD DVD recorder was the next best thing..Bloody noisy thing though, dirty great big fan inside cooling the system...I used to build silent PC's for fun, there's no excuse for such a noisy bit of kit.
Both Jodie and Bina and I, have been out to concerts in town (not the same ones I hasten to add) and we're just loving it, so easy to just go out and have fun.
Work wise...oh boy have I been busy, the DS project is in the home straight now so its been constant late nights, especially in the run up to E3 trying to get a demo done for the show. Slightly less pressure now thats done but we're all trying to get it knocked on the head so we can enjoy the summer.
Speaking of Summer...the weather is stunning, for the last 3 weeks we've had pretty much constant sunshine with only a few cloudbursts to speak of to keep the grass green.
But last week we did have one almighty storm at 4am (I was working) that I watched coming from miles and miles away as the lighting was constantly flashing. Stunning to stand on the balcony and feel the air pressure drop before rising into an incredible near hurricane force gale with sheets of rain which eventually forced me inside soaking wet. Only lasted 20mins or so but it was quite impressive.
I tried to take pics/video on my phone but the phone simply would not record...Don't by an LG Shine...rubbish!
Anyway..thats about it...will be mad busy for the next 2 weeks or so, so don't expect much but I'll try to update things as I go.
Ahthankyew
But...we are all slowly starting to settling into life as a family again. Jodie is beginning to exhibit the 1st small signs of rejoining the human race, starting to make friends at her new school and exploring the sights and sounds of Eindhoven and Breda.
Bina and I are loving the freedom living here gives us, not just in terms of our day job work load just being able to walk the dog in the park without fear of intimidation or stress. Cafe culture is definitly suiting us.
The apartment is filling up, more shelves, chestofdrawers and other cubby holes are appearing daily as more and more boxes get unpacked. TV's are plugged in, don't even ask about the hassle I had trying to get Jodie's TV to work (no socket in her room). I had to go out and buy a DVD recorder so that I could get a scart output to use a transmitter system I brought over with me.
Was just planning to buy a simple VCR to do it, but these are not so easy to get hold of now, so a HDD DVD recorder was the next best thing..Bloody noisy thing though, dirty great big fan inside cooling the system...I used to build silent PC's for fun, there's no excuse for such a noisy bit of kit.
Both Jodie and Bina and I, have been out to concerts in town (not the same ones I hasten to add) and we're just loving it, so easy to just go out and have fun.
Work wise...oh boy have I been busy, the DS project is in the home straight now so its been constant late nights, especially in the run up to E3 trying to get a demo done for the show. Slightly less pressure now thats done but we're all trying to get it knocked on the head so we can enjoy the summer.
Speaking of Summer...the weather is stunning, for the last 3 weeks we've had pretty much constant sunshine with only a few cloudbursts to speak of to keep the grass green.
But last week we did have one almighty storm at 4am (I was working) that I watched coming from miles and miles away as the lighting was constantly flashing. Stunning to stand on the balcony and feel the air pressure drop before rising into an incredible near hurricane force gale with sheets of rain which eventually forced me inside soaking wet. Only lasted 20mins or so but it was quite impressive.
I tried to take pics/video on my phone but the phone simply would not record...Don't by an LG Shine...rubbish!
Anyway..thats about it...will be mad busy for the next 2 weeks or so, so don't expect much but I'll try to update things as I go.
Ahthankyew
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