Thursday, 30 April 2020

hearing is...almost back

Tinitus has not gone away sadly,  I hope it does, hearing is coming back though, maybe 70-80% what it should be but a big improvment on 0-10%. I can hear both sides of my headphones again which is a big relief. And my guitar sounds like a guitar again which is even more of a relief.


Ahthankyew

Wednesday, 29 April 2020

bloody earwax

Dammit, I have too much wax in my ear and its clogged it up, so I'm effectively deaf in my right ear, which is deeply irritating, added to that the tinitus that causes and I'm officially going crazy.

Tried all kinds of things, ear wax disolving fluid, suction, nose holding swallow/pumping even orderd some corkscrew ear wax digging things to clear it out...arrghhh

Tried to play some guitar and was really fruestrated by my inability to really hear, even with one ear it just sounds horrible, and weak. I think I've mentioned my bandmate Jelmer 1 who is deaf in one ear...I really understand how frustrating it is for him. Mine should be a temporary thing but he has o deal with it all the time. I have a much better appreciation for his issues.


Ahthankyew

Wednesday, 22 April 2020

I just cant fathom the levels of stupidity

I've said this before, but the levels of stupidity, on Social Media are staggering, and I do mean stupidity, uttter utter mouth breathing, my name is Mr Gumby stupidity.

This isn't opinion, or new "woke" thinking, its just stupidity, a lack of basic understanding of the most basic science that should have been taught in school, social and medical concepts, replaced instead with meme's and confirmation bias from the internet.

It matters not how idiotic your view is, if you state it on the internet, you'll get a dozen people following you and spreading it....and so it quickly gains speed.

Anti vaxx, flat earth, illuninati, 911 truthers, lizard men, covid19 hoax, chemtrails, 5g mind control, Bill Gates bio tracking vaccines,  the works....its utterly amazing.. It dosn't take more than a moments rational thought to go, wait, what? huh, Do you actually understand science, to see the crazy in it?
But its easier to believe a man who says Covid 19 is a hoax because it forces you to stay in to make you compliant and miserable, than consider the fact that same man thinks the queen of England is literally a negative energy feeding lizard..... no I mean it. People BELIEVE this shit??

And whats worse, when it starts to gain some utterly unjustifed momentum it gets picked up by minor celebs who endorse it to their adoring fans, and then to top it all of, some defrocked doctor or other disreputable and discredited scientist will see a chance to sell a book and get on telly to make it a cause celebre and have smart people questioning if they might have a point?

Its fucking insane, it really is.

Ahthankyew

Sunday, 5 April 2020

ohhhhh low interest rates is good


I don't always understand the Dutch mortgage system, its beyond me a bit really, since I had to buy the house again when Bina went, it was bloody expensive and has remained so, but I get to reset the intereste rate every so often. last time was 5 years ago and it saved me a couple of hundred, that was back when interest rates were around 2-4% and since the mortgage itself was taken out at about 7 or 8% I save a lot. Dropping down a good 300pm.

Well its that time again, 5 years later I get another chance to change and with interest rates currently being....pretty much 0, I was offered very low rates and chance to lock them in for 10,12,20 years

tempting to go the minimum for the 20years, but I locked in a middle 10 year option they provided, because when all said and done its an endowment based system, so if I don't have enough cash in the pot when its time to cash in, I have to sell up or fork out.

Even so, with the low rates, I'm going to be a whopping 250 euros a month better off... thats awesome....might reduce the credit card debt a bit for a year or 2 with that.

Cant' recall if recessions raise or lower interest rate though, becuase when the ecomomy dies after corona, its going to be uncertain times so that 250 a month will help put some food on the take or take the sting out of any other debts I aquire to stay alive.


Ahthankyew

Friday, 3 April 2020

Its nice when they start to get somewhere

My students are doing their Block C programming assignment which is of course to make a game on RPi

Its an interesting block as it really challenges them, doing something they may never do again but that can produce some really interesting results and show them some of the challenges and skills they have to master. 
Its nice when they start to click and this is a really nice short demo from one student, who's not quite as far ahead as the others but has really taken the time to make a nice looking demo from the start


Their task is to create a solar system and fly around it to reach a space station they have to dock with , then transition to an FPS view. There's a bit of z-fighting on the spacestation to investigate but he's doing really well. Done on a Raspberry Pi3B+ with no overclocking, and only using C++/OpenGLES2.0, no engines of any kind.






Ahthankyew