Well now, visitor #2178
, behold, my
daily adventures.
Not for the faint-hearted! (but excellent
if you have trouble sleeping
![[image]](http://michai.dyndns.org/pic/wink.gif)
)
![[image]](http://michai.dyndns.org/pic/kat.gif)
and I can draw as well!
Captain's log, stardate 8729521. Today, the fleet was provoked by a vicious
specimen of Danish origin, demanding what he/she/it called
Continuity of the Blogs. - To be continued.
After work, I visited some
colleague to pick up some
hardware he
was getting rid of. Always glad to be of service!
My plan
was to disassemble PC,
fast, then sod off. Estimate total time: 15 mins.
However, beer tastes good, so we had a nice talk; eventually sodded off
(with hardware) around 23:00, got some greasy food on the way home, and
went to bed after eating it.
Had a
nice day at work (I
suppose, since I have no unhappy memories
of it
), and at the end, watched a nice
BBS documentary. I never
actually owned a BBS myself, but a mate of mine did, and so I got a bit
acquainted with them. Wrote many,
many small 386-demos for it.
![[image]](http://michai.dyndns.org/pic/smile.gif)
But those days are
gone now.
![[image]](http://michai.dyndns.org/pic/unhappy.gif)
In the evening, didn't do anything
worth while.
After the almost traditional
female-unit talk at 10:00, listened to some
Roy Orbison, saw the last of "
Nuit Noir", a
very weird yet
captivating movie (
why? - I don't know!
![[image]](http://michai.dyndns.org/pic/tongue.gif)
), had some
beer,
read some Wikipedia stuff, mainly about
drugs, politely excused myself
from an IRC
nethack competition, hung some
decorative curtains
(although noticed a bit too late that there was a
colour mismatch ![[image]](http://michai.dyndns.org/pic/hmmm.gif)
), but ok. Had another
fish, then went to bed at a reasonable time.
In the morning, talked with the
female unit a bit. After that,
got a call from my
dad which took quite long, but nice anyway
Not a clue what I did the rest this day, in fact.
![[image]](http://michai.dyndns.org/pic/notsure.gif)
Well... not too much to tell; normal day at work, albeit, still,
stinking hot. In the evening, my mind was set to
pizza - however,
settled for a lovely
fish instead.
Talked with someone about accuracy of measurements, about accuracy
of the (god-like) Tektronix DPO3012 on my desk at work (10ppl), accuracy of
a 10.0000 MHz oscillator I found, and so on, and so forth. Nice.
And that was about it - went to bed around midnight.
Things were
hot at work. I mean up to the point of me actually
having trouble
breathing
. But ok, could be my vivid
imagination, or just
snot in my nose.
After work, ate at the wonderful Asian
food place where it's always
nice, then went to the supermarket to fetch some
goodies, and noticed
the cash register girl could actually sing quite well
-
apparently she wasn't actually
aware of singing, until I mentioned it.
Or perhaps she
was - you can never tell!
At home, enjoyed a
beer or two (in fact,
two, of course
), then
indulged in some very minor
coding effort (10 mins max, works now), not
really worth mentioning (and yet,
here you are, reading about
it!
) Then,
sleepy time, after watching the 16582th 5-minute
segment of
Star Wars 4.
![[image]](http://michai.dyndns.org/pic/DarthVader.jpg) |
| "Ja, det er smuk, men hvorden er Døds stjerne?!?!?!" |
| ("Yes, that is nice, but where is the Death Star?!?!?!" - I think
) |
OK. At work I had quite a productive day; after work, rushed home to talk with
female unit - it's
almost as if I'm already married...
But
anyway!
After the talk, finished and tested aforementioned
macro-language a bit, and also
spent a fair amount of time
toying with it. "
How easily the minds of men are corrupted",
or how did it go...
Typical story though: finishing something, then
basically
toying and fingerf*cking about for much too long
. Oh well.
Actually, a visit to my mom and my aunt from
USA was planned; I noticed
around 20:00, and figured it was too late
. I like the aunt in question;
she is very nice and
direct, in a
nice way.
Gave them a quick
phonecall,
and that was it for now.
Well! Another exciting day: at work, things went very well; did some work
I had
postponed for a long time (for various reasons). Afterwards, cleaned
up my
desk finally, then went to return and get new CD's to/from the
library.
Once again,
randomness played a major role in selecting the new batch - I have
still
no friggin' idea what I got!
But we'll see.
In the evening, watched '
the Butterfly Effect', which
more than made up for previous
movie (which is in fact not
that hard to do...
). It's very nice IMHO.
Later still, did some minor
programming: made little macro-oriented language...
Program ::= Macro*
Macro ::= 'def' NL Statement* 'enddef' NL
Statement ::= Hi | Lo | Emit | MacroInstance | Repetition
Hi ::= 'hi' <pin> NL
Lo ::= 'lo' <pin> NL
Emit ::= 'emit' [<count>] NL
MacroInstance ::= 'do' <macro_name> NL
Repetition ::= 'rep' [<count>] NL Statement* 'endrep' NL
NL ::= '\n'
...like this. Ended this day of excitement with some Star Wars 4, which is always a winner when
sleep is required.
| I do not like Ewoks, I do not like Wookies, I basically don't like anything very much in particular, although Darth Vader is a mean bastard. I do not like C3PO, although I half like the conversation between him and R2D2. Or rather, C3PO's monologue
. In fact I don't think I like anything in particular about the SW saga, but the story in itself is sort of nice - it is coherent, at least, and I can appreciate a coherent story. And I don't like Luke either, btw. What I'm basically trying to say/type here, is that I can't really identify with anyone in that movie, at all. Need this be a problem? I think not. |
What can I say. At work was nice yet
hot. In the afternoon, visited some other company.
I actually
like this a lot; discussion is mostly
tech-oriented yet occasionally
fluffy.
In the
post-afternoon, went back to the office, did some work, sodded off home, basically
watched "
the Number 23", which I can most definitely
not recommend to anyone
. I mean
really. What a
POS. But ok, I am no movie maker.
Bleh. Didn't do that much, mainly because it was
stinking hot. Watched some movies,
programmed a bit (on
paper, my favourite platform
), then basically
ate a
pizza, watched some more movie ('
Fracture', very nice), then went to bed around
midnight. Oh, also 'set up' SSMTP again (what a milestone!
), and mailed a
lot
of schools, regarding
female unit's diploma's, and evaluation thereof. We'll see.
The plan:
1 : get up at 07:30 or so
2 : convert Miffy-story from audio to .txt/.html
3 : talk with female unit at 08:00
4 : do a lot of work
...but
of course, reality is far,
far different. Got up in time for
female unit talk alright,
but not early enough to actually get Miffy-story into
readable form. Which meant, I had to play/rewind
sound all the time as well.
After that, went
back to bed, and didn't come out before 14:00, when my stomach began protesting.
The nice electronics-store was open until
16:00, so I ate, showered, then went there. Unfortunately,
they were
closed due to circumstances. Oh well, try
alternate store then
. They did
have what I wanted, sort of; there was still a
month-old outstanding order, but I could "
please wait a bit more".
I decided to go to the office(tm) for a bit, to try out something. On the way there, looked around in a
nice 2nd hand store I had never visited, and got me this nice cat pic:
![[image]](http://michai.dyndns.org/thinglets/26-07-08_1801.jpg) |
| Meeeeeeeooooww.
|
After work, saw there was some festival of some sort going on; ate at the Asian food thing,
then sodded off home. At home, didn't do so much more except watch movies and basically do nothing.
![[image]](http://michai.dyndns.org/thinglets/26-07-08_1557.jpg) |
| A very odd building. I can stare at one for a long time, and let imagination run wild. Or at least, semi-wild. It's not that exciting. |
At work, had (partial)
success optimising some stuff; it will need a bit more rigourous work to get it
actually
right the way I want it, so ok, To Be Continued in the very near future
... At home,
finished my nice amateuresque
pulse-generator:
![[image]](http://michai.dyndns.org/thinglets/25-07-08_2017.jpg) |
| Wahnsinn! Voll porno! |
In the evening, talked to the female unit using wonderful Google Talk, enjoyed another couple of
beers, and went to bed at a reasonable time, considering tomorrow I'd have to get up at 08:00
again to talk with the very same female unit.
Oh well.
Exactly as it says there, nothing spectacular.
I have fallen asleep about
3 times now watching Star Wars 5 (which a
colleague was nice enough to let me ... erm...
backup
).
It's a nice movie. Also, I was
happy to see the
Miffy-story I prepared for the female unit actually
had a bit
more content than some of the stories on the previous CD's we encountered.
Yay!
Today I had planned to visit my lovely
mother after work; however, today turned out to be not a
good time, and therefore, I went for a
beer instead. And
where else to go than to the
brain-reset suite, commonly refered to as the
railroad cafe. It was, once again,
excellent
and
adequate.
You watch the fish/people, the fish/people watch you.
After that, went home.
The
Internet. On the
one hand, it's
great, but on the
other hand, it
SUUUUUUUUcks.
"
Why?", you may ask - well... for one, every idiot with write-access to the Web(tm) can
publish crap.
On the
one hand, this is
good, but on the
other hand, suppose he/she
makes a page with RS232 DB-9 connector pinout, thereby
swapping Tx and Rx. Now, suppose
some
other idiot comes along, takes the info on the page for granted, and makes a
circuit
based on it. Now, suppose only at the final stages of debugging and pulling-hair-out phases,
the 2nd idiot verifies his so-called '
information' using a 2nd source...
| Needless to say, I am the 2nd idiot. If you are the 1st one, you are no longer my friend.
|
Anyway!
After finding and fixing the problem, talked/typed (on IRC) to some guy about
jobs, cats, and some
other things, and that was it.
Bedtime, albeit
much too late.
Well... what can I say; not so much going on. At work, there was
work to be done; at home,
there was
work-related toying going on
- behold:
![[image]](http://michai.dyndns.org/thinglets/22-07-08_2157.jpg) |
| The component-placement-king at work. That being me. |
Until I have a scope for myself, testing of this thing will be very cumbersome:
1 : flash a number of chips with different timings
2 : take them to work
3 : try them
4 : remember which one worked (best)
5 : ?REDO FROM START
Oh well. So be it!
At some point I'll
have to invest a bit of $$$ and get me a scope.
Really.
Today was a bit
drowsy at work; too bad. Nevertheless, got some work done. After
work, went to the store to pick up some groceries (oh, the
excitement), went home to
talk with the
female unit, then finished some simple
pulse generator I was making
.
Behold, a proto to test with:
![[image]](http://michai.dyndns.org/thinglets/21-07-08_2149.jpg) |
| We has beer. We has semiconductors. What more do you want?! |
After that, not that much was done. Both me and
female unit were pleased
I finally got off my lazy ass to
book tickets for upcoming (albeit far-distanced)
trip to .my. Prices for air-travel seem to go
insane, btw
!
In the evening, had a few beers, watched a bit of movie (
Chicken Little, a.k.a.
mental chewing-gum),
then went to bed. Tomorrow I'd have to visit some company to deliver and pick up some
things; let's see if I can actually get up early enough to do so
.
For me, it's often very simple: if stuff *has* to be done, I do it.
Even if I myself am the one putting that constraint there in the first place.
w p
kiddo
l w w
l emulation
r r
ok.
s
The
semi-plan was to go on a train
trip today, but of course, that never happens,
and today was no exception
. Instead, talked with female unit, then went
back to bed, watching LotR 1. After that, slept until about 13:00, then, whilst
still in bed, watched a bit of
Broken Flowers (featuring Bill Murray, who is
IMHO a very tolerable actor), then
hunger reared its ugly head, so went downstairs
for something to
eat.
In the afternoon, talked with female unit
again; on Monday there would be a
funeral ceremony there
(was planned to be on Tuesday), and everyhting was being made ready for that. What was
also not very
nice, was another fr*ggin'
power outing (albeit about 1/4 second long), causing many,
many fsck-runs,
and
strong determination to finally pay those outstanding EUR12 and get my
UPSes here
!
I wonder how many more of these 'jokes' my modem can handle before it
shits itself again.
| I go to the library, usually on a weekday evening, and get audio-CD's there. They have a vast collection, and while at first I mostly picked out CD's from artists I knew (of), recently I have been applying Michai's Random Acquisition Algorithm more frequently. It goes roughly as follows: 1) walk past the shelves/boxes with CD's and wait for a vibe 2) if the vibe is good (or it takes too long), fetch about 20 CD's, hardly looking at the cover or artist. I say 'hardly', because there are limits - one does really not want Britney in ones pile of CD's. Ever. 3) take CD to counter, pay the lady, try to look smooth while more and more people with only 1 item are queueing up while your CD's are being 'processed'. And that is how one picks CD's while keeping an open mind!
|
So
anyway,... In the evening, did some minor
programming for some simple
pulse generator
I want to make
. Everything went in fact
super-smooth, and
in fact, it should work
now, with a little tuning for timing. I am now left with the choice of
hand-crafting some cunning
assembly, or just buying a faster crystal - they were out of those.
Oh well, we'll see.
Finally,
IRC'd a bit, payed some
bills that were due, then went to see some more movie, and
zzz'd.
OK. In the morning, talked with female unit using the wonderful (and
free
)
Google Talk service. Although it would be her
birthday the next day, we agreed to
exchange gifts and what not only the next visit. In a way, this is
convenient, meaning
I could shop this day, fetch
electronics goodies, and drop by the 2nd hand
computer store
to see what's new.
At the
electronics store, when it's time to
pay up,
I am always amazed at how much one
can spend on such little things. But ok, one needs a hobby.
The owner
of the store is in fact very nice, and I would hate to see this store go down as
result of
competition, as have some other electronic-stores in town already.
Ate in town, then sodded off to the
computer store;
this one
is pretty close to where I live, and it's always nice to
browse whatever there is to browse.
The owner is, in fact, also very nice. What was
also very nice, was the fact I found a PCI-X
3Ware Escalade 7500-8 8-way ATA RAID controller for EUR5
! And to think I was only looking
for
sound cards, tsk tsk.
Bagged it, went home, googled
some info about it, plopped 2 disks on there, and
sito presto, was recognised and
worked right out of the box.
Excellent!
![[image]](http://michai.dyndns.org/thinglets/3ware_ata_raid.jpg) |
| The card in question. What a beauty. |
In the evening/afternoon, talked with the female unit again, watched some movies,
drank some beers, and eventually called it a night around midnight. How very exciting.
At work was a
very productive day. It's lovely to see a deadlock
resolved, time after time.
Also ordered 2
UPSes, and
right afterwards, found out I could have gotten similar ones
much
cheaper at another store.
Bummer. For after work, I recently found
the
railway restaurant/bar to be excellent for a
brain-reset,
and therefore went to get a beer or 2. In fact,
2.
![[image]](http://michai.dyndns.org/thinglets/12-06-08_1819.jpg) |
| Behold, mental chewing-gum. You watch the fish, the fish watch you. |
At home, translated a nice
Miffy-story for the female unit, who had the
flu
at the moment. After that, made soup, and to top off this day of excitement,
watched a tiny bit of
Star Wars III. This is the one where Darth Vader
becomes...
Darth Vader!
| This is | ![[image]](http://michai.dyndns.org/thinglets/nijntje.jpg) | Miffy! |
Right on. At work, all was well, although not much was actually
done, except
thinking how to do the stuff I
should be doing
. Oh well. Went to the
video store to drop off old, and get some new,
movies. Finally got home around 20:00,
where I found out a lovely
power outing had taken place, according to the occasional
floppy seek "
bzzzzzzzzzt"s my router emitted.
Lovely.
Rebooted stuff, and started browsing for a
UPS or 2, since this is not my
idea of fun. Funnily enough, my
modem, being the sturdy
SMC7204BRA (the same
as the original - ran into a 2nd hand specimen at computer store
-
replacement-modem is now backup modem) insisted on going back to factory-defaults;
either that, or I forgot to save options again.
Indeed. I suspect previous power outing(s) didn't do the previous unit much
good, so time for a UPS, I spose.
Ok, I
knew this was about to happen sooner or later, but today I finally managed to
lock myself out of the house
. Called female unit around 10:00, then sodded
off around 12:00 to exchange my
modem for a model that
did have a matching power
adapter. When I wanted to park my horse/bike in front of the store, I already knew
something was
wrong, because my keys weren't there. Kept an eye on the bike during
my shop-session, no worries.
![[image]](http://michai.dyndns.org/thinglets/31-05-08_1228.jpg) |
| nice wallpainting (if it's visible) of puzzle-pieces with decorating fluff at De Bunker |
However, I was also stupid enough to drive all the way home, and
only then
figuring out I couldn't get in
. Spent the time until my
mom was so kind as to
bring the spare key on a bench near the Eindhoven
airport. I have driven past
this particular bench a lot of times, but never actually
sat on it. So there.
![[image]](http://michai.dyndns.org/thinglets/31-05-08_1240.jpg) |
| sometimes I like to sit at Eindhoven uni ground, and do nothing. Behold, a Tree. |
By 15:00, everythign was sorted; modem powered on, but didn't connect - I didn't
expect it to, out of the box, so
no problem. In the afternoon, called female
unit again, all was well; after that, ripped ... I mean
backed up
some
movie DVD's, and noticed PC power consumption was getting
nasty (167W).
In the evening, read some
immigration stuff, so that was that.
Female unit and me
had agreed on one more call, 02:30 time here, but unfortunately, I went to sleep, and
slept through the
alarm clock or somethin
. Oh well, better luck next time.
Well!
During this period I didn't bother writing anything down;
mostly because I was too lazy, and also
partly because...
- my computer was down for a long time, because I was upgrading/testing stuff
- in the evenings I don't really do anything anymore, except watch movies and be lame
- some other personal stuff
So
ok! But, kind readers, didn't I do/see
anything then..? Well, not quite. A quick summary
using pictures
***BRACE FOR PICTURE-FLOOD!***:
![[image]](http://michai.dyndns.org/thinglets/25-02-08_2125.jpg) |
| painted/finished some doors on 1st floor I was working on |
and...
![[image]](http://michai.dyndns.org/thinglets/27-02-08_1843.jpg) |
| they are building a massive appartment building near my home |
and (in March)...
![[image]](http://michai.dyndns.org/thinglets/08-03-08_1705.jpg) |
| I got my first ever flatscreen (or LCD, or what's it called) monitor, yay!
|
and...
![[image]](http://michai.dyndns.org/thinglets/16-03-08_1426.jpg) |
| did some minor work putting wooden thingies against wall (1st floor) |
and (April)...
![[image]](http://michai.dyndns.org/thinglets/04-04-08_1246.jpg) |
| signed what should turn out to be the last contract for new mortgage
- for that, I went to a building with a view on my former company, sort of. (It's there somewhere...
) |
and...
![[image]](http://michai.dyndns.org/thinglets/13-04-08_1928.jpg) |
| unfortunately, my mother-in-law passed away, so an unplanned trip to .my came along |
and (May already)...
![[image]](http://michai.dyndns.org/thinglets/01-05-08_1712.jpg) |
| for playing with Xen, got me some cheap 10Gb IDE-disks; unfortunately, one b0rkened soon
|
and...
![[image]](http://michai.dyndns.org/thinglets/02-05-08_0130.jpg) |
| went on a visit to mate's place, where an abundance of farm animals greeted me
. Behold, the cow. And a big one it is. You don't want to get into a fight with this one. |
and...
That's it, basically
.
Workday turned out to be a
productive one, although a
meeting
right at the end of the day is always an energy drain. Oh well.
After that (18:00), it was time to attend a Birthday &
Bye-Bye Borrel at the university area.
A small delegation delegation of our company went there, namely
me and a colleague. It was nice. The hardware was nice as well:
![[image]](http://michai.dyndns.org/thinglets/15-02-08_2153.jpg) |
| wtf is that sticker doing there, I wonder now...
|
Around 22:30 or thereabouts, me + aforementioned colleague went
for a
bite in town, which was quite nice as well.
Arrived home around 00:00, watched some
LotR in bed, and went
to sleep around 01:00.
Perhaps there would be a train trip
tomorrow..?
![[image]](http://michai.dyndns.org/thinglets/15-02-08_2154.jpg) |
| ...und another machine. I always thought Indigo and Indy were the same! |
This was valentine's day. It was also the day my female unit went
to see the dentist; all went fine.
The missing bag had been sent to my lovely mother; she was so
kind as to drop it off at my place in the evening. After she left,
went to bed pretty soon (old feeble man that I am), around 22:00.
How very interesting; a day where (next to)
nothing happened.
At work I was
slightly less sleepy, still did quite a bit of work,
found out about
multiuser screen(1) sessions, very
very nice!
![[image]](http://michai.dyndns.org/thinglets/13-02-08_0825.jpg) |
| university woodwork looks nice in the morning (sometimes) |
Today and yesterday I had been
walking to/from work (1 hour one-way),
mainly because my bike is
b0rken beyond belief. Next week they'll
(hopefully) fix it; approx EUR100 and it will be like new (they say).
Oh well, still cheaper than a new/2nd-hand one.
Went to
bed around 21:00,
still dead tired.
Righto. Needless to say today was a
sleepy one at work, although
I did quite a lot of work anyway.
At home, was informed
Scatman John is
dead (since 1999 or so), had some beer, and
went to bed. I missed beer a bit when I was away.
![[image]](http://michai.dyndns.org/thinglets/11-02-08_0021.jpg) |
| 'twas a big plane (sitting approx. 5m from the end) |
The morning of this day was
ok; arrived at Amsterdam around 06:00,
ate some
healthy breakfast at burger king (the King of Burgers),
then proceeded to Eindhoven by train. The journey was fairly nice
as well, with
Joy Division and
Radiohead (
radiohoofd) into
my ears, and the rising sun shining into my face or upon my head,
depending of direction in which we were going.
In the afternoon, a(nother)
taxator (is that a word?) came by
to do his job; I explained to him this was not my usual mood, but
I was a bit
wasted due to lack of sleep. He seemed to understand.
Good man.
Unfortunately, because of the rush, my
backpack was still in KL.
. No worries, it would be here in a few days.
Ok then.
At home, had an excellent
shower, updated this excellent Blog(tm)
a bit, and in the afternoon, went for an
extended walk, fetching
paint, basically.
Red paint. There would be painting.
In red.
![[image]](http://michai.dyndns.org/thinglets/11-02-08_1631.jpg) |
| back in .ehv again - relaxen und watchen das Autobahnen! |
Early start as was becoming
usual by now; arrived at gf's place
around 09:00. Sodded off again almost immediately to town. The idea
was to go on a
short ride on the "Kuching Free City Tram" (or
something), but unfortunately, the service was
discontinued because
the costs were too high
.
Instead, took a walk along the (nice)
riverside, sat there a while,
then went for
lunch at some restaurant we had been on previous trips.
After that, back to the hotel, to watch
LotR 1 a bit more.
![[image]](http://michai.dyndns.org/thinglets/10-02-08_1208.jpg) |
| could this be the car owned by Optimus Prime..? |
It was
forbidden for me to fall asleep today, since it was the last
day there.
. In the afternoon, went for a few games of
pool
in the
hotel (or actually, the internet cafe there), very nice.
When hunger reared its ugly head, went accross the street for a bite.
Around 19:00, checked out, sodded off to female unit's house to say
bye, and then proceeded tot he airport.
![[image]](http://michai.dyndns.org/thinglets/10-02-08_1046.jpg) |
| and remember kids... |
The plane was
late. This is
not a problem
in itself, except I'd
have to
hurry (technically, even go
backwards in time
) to
catch the following flight to Amsterdam. Oh well.
| but wait, there's more boring comment..! |
In Kuala Lumpur, had to run run run to the next plane;
I was on time,
perhaps because they had
delayed it for unfortunate
travelers not unlike
myself.
How nice. The long(er) journey back was sort of
ok, having an
empty seat next to me, and a
non-talkative passenger
next to
that.
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