Snake

One day in the year 2000, my brother phoned me saying he had seen a Toyota Celica at our local dealer. My family had been loyal to them for decades. Every open-door day they would loyally pick up their free present: a thermos, a panorama film camera, a watch, an alarm clock, etc. All showing the toyota emblem. I can't exactly say why my 10-year younger brother thought I'd like a Celica, but right he was. I took the train straight away to my home town and went to look at it. Perfect in my eyes! 9 years old, but I didn't care. I bought it there and then, not having passed my theory nor practical test. I asked if I could pay a deposit, and pick it up in 6 months time. No problem, they said. And over the next 6 months I did manage to get my theory test and temporary driving license. When I picked it up at the police office at the age of 24, the lady said "you're a late bloomer". Maybe... I just never had the time nor money. But at least I paid for my driving lessons and got it done the decent way. It was fast too. Two weeks of lessons, 18 hours, and I was found fit to drive.

For 6 years, that car was ok. But now, at the age of 18, it had been costing loads to keep it one the road. And recently, an extra repair (caliper, break discs/pads, cooling pump, steering column, ...) finally made me decide I had to change it.

The new old car is a year 2003 Toyota Avensis. It looks awesome, it drives great, and I hope it will stay that way for many years to come. A new car feels like the start of a new era. After all, we do live in it for many hours a day. I'd be scrubbing the pavement without it. Not that it bothers me to scrub pavements. It just doesn't pay the cost of living. If your job doesn't pay for the basics... The care gets me to work in 1.5 hours, compared to the 4 hours public transport takes. I know it's supposed to be bad for the environment, but 13 hours a day at work, 8 hours sleep.... there is just not much left. There is always an excuse to ruin the environment.

Joined Twitter with above name. Of course the work-internet blocks it. It's not work-related. How about my mental health?? The company's future depends on it! How's that for Twitter being work-related!

Nevermind... next one. Twitter's mobile thing requires you to sign: It’s okay for Twitter to send txt messages to my phone. Standard rates apply.

Sorry but... I don't actually want to receive txt messages, just send ones. And I don't generally get charged for receiving, so I certainly don't want to open the door for Twitter to not only clutter my phone's inbox, but also charge me at standard rate for the privilege. I'm overreacting, yes, but I really really would have appreciated to see "Twitter will not send you txt messages unless you thick the option to allow this to happen, in which case you will be charged your operator's standard rate. Txt's to Twitter will be charged at your operator's standard rate."

Doesn't matter really, because my phone's keyboard suffers from Homer-Simpson-syndrome: my fingers are too fat to dial. And there is only so much you can do with 9 keys, including predictive text input. Plus, it never guessing my next word anyway! I know, it's hilarious ^_^.

To continue last post: I got rid of McAffee's virus products. Contacted them through an online chat session, got connected with someone in seconds. Refund and cancel of my account, no problem. Still a hurdle which took me 4-5 weeks to jump. Lucky they allow 60 days for cancellations now ^_^. And back on the Mac thing: I enjoy the cheaper price and still wider compatibility of the Windows machines. As for virusses, they have never bothered me. The AVG free scanner is fast and light, but hasn't detected one virus yet. Neither did Norton and McAffee. Is this online robot network virus trojan worm threat overestimated? What do people do to get infected? Only trouble I ever had was trying to find cracks for programs, but then you're really asking for it aren't you. Mac's are fun though! Don't have anything against them. (But in my opinion, Mac is an even greater monopolist than Windows, they just don't have enough of the market to be noticeable. Also, monopoly has given us standardisation, that is important too. Take the BlueRay HDDVD battle, we're back to a monopoly there, but it suits us as a consumer; otherwise we'd have to buy both.)

My website is still very bare, but I have posted a little javascript I wrote. I'm so busy studying these courses that I don't have time or energy left to put more effort into the site. My second assignment received a 96.5% score, which is fantastic. I still get so nervous about it. Haven't felt that in ages.

Yes! My second assignment came in today at 97%. Reminder: the first one was 89%. Just a couple more to go. You'd think you'd need 60% to pass a Uni course, but it's only 40%. And still I fear something will happen and I won't pass.

The new Mathematics course is coming scaringly closer. Alot of prepping to do before I can even start.

Other than that, I'm off sick today. Back to the sofa to see "Watchdog".

With xmas and newyear over, it's back to work tomorrow ;_; I had a good time, but it's such a strange period; the family visits, days are out of synch, waking up at 11am every day regardless of when I go to bed, etc. I'm already looking forward to my next holiday, whenever that may be ^_^.

My newly found Open University craze goes on. If I am to get a degree in 6 years, I have to study two courses per year. One from October till May, the second from February till September. This at least gives me some breathing space during the months I only have to concentrate on one course at a time.

The first course, being M150 Data, computing and information, is now about halfway through. I submitted my second assignment yesterday. Expecting good grades again. Not due to a lack of modesty, but simply because this course is very basic. Nonetheless absolutely necessary. Understanding the roots is something I will never ever need again in an explicit way, but it adds to the natural understanding of everyday concepts.

The second course is MST121, Using Mathematics. To be honest, I'm only doing this course because it is required to get enough points for my degree. But also because I have an interest in mathematics. I'm using it every day after all. The one thing inhibiting me is that I need logic to function, and most "advanced" mathematics is about tricks. How to solve a quadratic equation?? O, you just use this formula. That's a trick to me. I don't understand the formula, and I don't need to, but it means that instead of applying logic, I have to memorise a random formula. How to calculate the surface of a circle? You use a formula, again relatively random and to be memorized. That said, the course doesn't need me to memorize, I can write them down and keep them handy. But I am a logic person, not a magician.

All that aside, I am very much fascinated by maths that I haven't done for 16 years. It is rusty, but not foreign. The same frustrations as with M150 apply though: ambiguous questions. My answer is wrong because the question is not clear enough. Is it me or the question? It does make me doubt at times, but I can only give in to the fact that the question did not specify clearly what was required and as such my answer isn't wrong, just not what the original composer expected.

I have no idea what MST121 really is about. I kinda hope that it will show more practical examples of how this kind of maths is applied in the real world. 16 years ago it was all very theoretical and so far I have never needed to use any of it.

What will have to suffer because of this studying is: Japanese language. Claire, you're gonna have to do that for me and I swear I'll take you to Japan! XD. To be fair, I have not been studying Japanese because there is no pressure to do so. Sitting on my arse is far more easy.

O yes, I now well and truly HATE them. Not only do they automatically renew my subscription. Not at all for their own pocket lining, of course. Simply to protect me from my own supidity. Heaven forbid I might go without their bloated fuck of an antivirus program. But I also CANNOT cancel it. "click here if you did not wish this renewal" "click here to cancel your subscription". No, no, none of that. Just contact their lovely customer services. I will try that. But even if I did not want to leave them, I do want to now! You won't let me cancel???????? It should be as simple as a press of a button!!!! Not a matter of life and death requiring a human intervention. Or is there a worm on the loose cancelling peoples accounts? Hell I'd love to be infected!

THE worst experience has been Norton. But I must say, before renewal, they asked me. And I rightly said "no". Because in 2007 you forced me to upgrade to the 2007 version of your program, charged me extra for the privilige, AND made my computer start up like a slug. For good or bad, the extreme amount of lag just starting up my computer, the endless rattling of my harddrive while I was looking at my desktop waiting for me to be allowed control, minutes, after minutes, after minutes.... As soon as I threw Norton off, it ran like a kitten. And you know what's worse? The regular advise was: remove and reinstall. WTF??? I downloaded it from your website which placed the installer in an extremely obscure location, and after a year (around wich time your account usually has expired) you require me to PAY to download again!!!! Can you at least not ask me WHERE I would like to install your installer file? So if I EVER need it again, I can at least just simply double-click on it? It was kept in some temp folder which gets wiped if you ask Windows to get rid of temp files.

Both program's services STANK! I like monopolies, but this is just pure abuse! I am a PAYING CUSTOMER! Not a piece of shit. Well, I WAS a paying customer which you turned into a piece of shit. For heaven's sake!

Hah! It took me 1.5 hours to figure out how to access my webspace using the IP address (waiting for the domain registration to come through, it is not even approved yet.. I thought these things would go in an instant these days).

You use the IP address/~username, in my case 75.126.158.24/~xaja
Don't go there though. It is literally a learning and testing ground. Right now the index page is some JavaScript I wrote today. The lessons start with the beauty of irritating pop-ups!

It's all about knowing the tricks isn't it?

The slump.
I've had idea's for posts to spare. But been too busy really!
And this time it's actually true! I started a course with The Open University (OU). Having been frustrated with my Belgian education meaning little in Britain (turns out it's equivalent to a Bsc), I've also got myself to blame, and my history. I have only worked in the field of my Bsc degree for a year, and that was in 1999. When I came to Britain 4 years later, that degree had expired long ago. That's not to say I had no skills! They were just not recorded in a degree, but merely in experience. On top of that, I decided it was a god idea to work in a call-centre while a look for a serious job. That got me typecast. And frankly, I'm still just sort of a call-centre guy, so overqualified for the job that I get compliments handed on a gold platter year after year. Figure of speech.

Insurrection!
No matter how hard I try, I do believe that learning gives life meaning. It used to be God, and Jesus, and the Pope. But knowledge is the new religion! Many people have influenced me. And I can almost pinpoint the people and moments that heralded a personal kakumei: I want to learn, it is my purpose.

So in October I started a course in computing with the OU. The 6-year aim is to obtain a Bsc in Computing. If I can do more after that, then great. And I do hope to one day do something with computers, be it service, repair, support, programming, teaching, anything! Doing JavaScript at the moment. The course is finally taking off. This prompted me to get my own domain and hosting to try out my very silly skills. Just got it all arranged today. So some time in the future, look out for the xaja.be domain. Waiting for the registar and host to "do their stuff". Design is NOT my forte, and at the moment I'm too busy studying to put much time in it. The mechanics! That's what it is about.

For some time I have been toying with the idea that our tounge does more than just kissing, swallowing, licking metal poles in winter, or tasting our 4 basic needs.

Yes 4 is probably not a coincidence. We need salts of all kinds to regulate osmotic pressures in our blood and cells, they tend to taste salty, and most of us like that. O the joys of a salt sprinkled tomato or potato chip. Although I prefer mayo myself. It contains sour lemonjuice, another thing my tounge can sense. It is often an indication of vitamin C, anti-oxidants. And who knows that vinegar or yoghurt is good for? It's not bad for you so I hear. The next thing is bitterness. Poison is bitter. Although I do like a good cinineated tonic drink or a pomplemouse (grapefruit? no no, grapes or like *this* size, besides, pomplemouse is a funny word ^_^). And the latter? Sugar! Often an indication of instant energy. And so it seems our tounge knows what we need.

Now, it is my theory that our tounge prepares our body. Depending on what it senses, it will make saliva of a certain composition optimal for the food eaten. It will prepare our digestive tract in its entirety. Hence why sweeteners are so bad for you! It tells the body that sugar is coming, so put that excess sugar already in the blood into storage, or put that liver-held glycogen into fat storage. Sugar is on the way! Alas, it's just sweetener, but by the time your body notices it is too late, your blood sugar has dropped and you crave more food, reaaaal food. So, is it true that sweetener makes people fatter? Would it be better to use one small sugar cube instead of two sweeteners in your tea? Or am I just talking bollocks? I've wondered about this for a long time.

Web 2.0 is crap. We all know that. Hurray for wikipedia. It's not my god, but I have enough common sense to decide when they are right or wrong. And so do millions of people online. So, now that's clear....

I just started a parttime course with the Open University (OU). It's about time I give direction to my life at the age of 32. Although apparently I have a bachelors in medical lab technology, I ended up as a slave of the Honeywell empire, after being a loyal servant of the Sykes dinasty.

Well, I've had enough of it. I want to be part of the technological junkyard. I want to be a progammer. I have started a parttime course with the OU in computing. It will take me six years, but I do hope I will grow into software progamming one way or the other. I love computers. I've lived with them. Found love through them. Purchased, modified, and got to know them. It's about them I master them! Even if all I get in the end is a Bsc masters bla bla in computing, it will feel as if I attended uni. And for some reason, it's what I need before I die. Walle that!

Ok, I have to admit. I do miss FFXI. The graphics galore of AOC or Oblivion can't compete. But do I want to go back?? Probably not.

Just built a PC for £500! As in... I've selected components from ebuyer.com. My confidence in them has been growing over the years I must say. I just think that this price is great for a PC that has a massive potential, and will probably do me as long as the components last. 4G 1066 memory, 700W power, 2500Mhz bus, ATI HD3870 512Mb graphics, AMD quad Phenom 9950 2.6Ghz, 720Gb harddrive, transparent case with front fan built-in, sony DVD-RW drive. For some reason I tend to go for AMD processors, and recently ATI cards. Must be my backwards nature. Now, it does not include a screen, as my 32inch tv makes a fantastic monitor. Not to brag or anything, I did save up for it for 9 months instead of taking it out on some random credit card.

That brings us to the credit crunch. My arse! This guy at work bought his PS3 and TV on a credit card, counting on paying it whithin the 6-month interest-free period. I don't get why for this kind of thing you don't just save up for it?? Nevermind...

So what's this Oatibix all about???? Wheatabix is wheatabix. But oatabix is oatibix?? Why not just call it "not-made-from-aots-but-made-from-wheat-instead-a-bix"?? Yes "a-bix", not "i-bix". I just don't get the "i" in oatibix. Those with me.... don't touch that piece of gravel until they fix the name!

Thanks Mish. Didn't feel too good that day. Even cried to the sound of Richard Clayderman. Would make most people go deaf, but I enjoy him. Got famous with "balade pour adeline". Quite a nice piece that my dad used to play on the piano.

So, a few things.

- have been to France on holiday. Near Fayence in a "rustic" villa. The Cannes film festival was on, the Formula 1 grand prix in Monaco, and a Harley Davidson convention in Saint-Tropez! How lucky can one get!! And that wasn't even planned. We found the loveliest family restaurant (boy was the reception bad, but eventually, it was so good we went again on our last day). I had a flight in a glider which was awesome. The villa came unexpectedly with a kitten, must have been just a year old and she was lovely. And I swam in the pool for the first time in donkey's years.

- on the computer upgrade front: so far I have enables SATA on the motherboard and added two harddrives, installed more memory, it's a dual socket AMD mother board so I upgraded the processor from socket 757 to 939 (or some kind of numbers like it), added 3 fans because that 939 socket processor gets extremely hot, and I installed two new graphics cards. The first one I got about 10 months ago was a mistake. Nice card, but inferior and expensive. Of course I'm still on a 4-year old AGP motherboard, and Sapphire has made an AGP version of ATI's HD3850 card. All of a sudden, Oblivion comes to life with grass and all! And rain, and water reflection, it's pretty amazing! Equally amazing is that it still works! The whole computer. I yea, and I upgraded the power supply to 700W. It now heats up the room, which is great in winter, but not right now *sweatdrops*.

- I was quite sad in my last post. I do need to let off steam every now and then, which generally condenses into tears. It's like a woman: cry for no reason XD. Or at least no obvious or known reason, but it "recharges" my batteries as featured in one of Murakame's books. That put aside, I do have positive experiences: When I first go this HD3850 card from ebuyer.com, it worked for two days, then simply stopped giving output to my screen. I had to, as they say, "RMA the bugger", and in all honesty, ebuyer handled it exceptionally well. Filled out the online form which told me to phone which I did and 5 minutes later my RMA was approved and I arranged a pick-up time myself online and lucky I was at home when city-link collection (sheer luck) and because our doorbell doesn't work had to post a note on the door saying to ring twice and I'll be down. The only thing I can fault the whole thing on was that he let the phone ring three times. So it got posted back to ebuyer, and 3 days later I had a new card in my hands, which to date still works. Now I've got all I can get out of this machine. Next step is to build one myself, with up-to-date technology.

- I'm quite interested in starting a course with the Open University. I would like to obtain a degree in Computing. Although it sounds very general and costs about £4600 for all courses involved, it would be a lifetime achievement. Hopefully opening some doors. Especially object oriented programming and Java catch my attention. Let's hope I will manage to go through with it. I really want to, but no doubt I'm also quite lazy. What are my job prospects? How the hell do I know! The degree can go in many directions. The main thing is, I've done something to be proud of.

I guess that's it for now.
I yea, my car has been needing repairs at a rate of £1000/year. I really need trade it in. It's a lovely Celica with about 200.000 miles, 300.000 km on the odometer. 17 years old. But it's my dream car. They just don't make 'em that way anymore. You think I can flog it to some Celica fanatic? It's extra special in the UK, left-wheel drive!

Heh, my friends page is empty. I guess that's it. I've finally fallen off the earth. My own lazyness is killing me. Empty pain consumes me for no reason. I want to do something, be something, and I can. I expect it to be handed to me. But why should it? Nello and Patrashe had to die to have any meaning. Soothing pain of death. Release me. You know what really makes me cry.... My grandmother died. I never went to her funural. I live in the UK, she was in Belgium. When I see her after life, I hope we can share the memories. If only I would have asked her when she was still alive.

If you're ever renting a flat (or buying one for that matter), get some sort of liability insurance! Sadly I would never have foreseen that Scottish Water would shut off our mains supply because of a burst pipe. And believe me, without water coming out of the tap, you might actually not realise that when you close it, it is still every so slightly opened. Enough to flood your flat in a few hours time and cause damage to the neighbours. Result: we are most likely going to be held liable for the damage. Let's hope the bill will be reasonable. Or that a solicitor can do something for us.

I've been toiling with the idea of writing my memoires. When I reached 26, every day has been a "boldly go where no man has gone before". As a teenager, I could never comprehend what life would be like beyond the age of 26. The number coming from a cousin who was 26 at the time. I was probably about 16. Having gone beyond this unimaginable age of 26 means that every day is new to me. And somehow that makes childhood memories come to the surface. Now, what does one need to write memoires? And most importantly print memoires?? You guessed it, a printer. I was shocked to see color laser printers drop down to the £100 mark. Although it will cost you £200 to replace every cartridge, supposedly lasting about 2000 pages on average. Realising I only really print in mono, I went for a £50 black only Canon Laser Shot LBP2900i. The installation was appalling. A foldout instruction with ONLY pictures. An intellectuamal like me can't read pictures. "so this goes up your arse"??? Yea, I was lost. Believe me, the toner does NOT go up your unmentionables. In fact I would have deemed it impossible if it were not for this henta..... Switching on the printer right now. Lets just say, you go ignore the installation instructions. Just go to Canon's website, download the 12Mb driver (wtf?? Isn't it just a driver?), install it, tick meaningless boxes as you go along since the printer will do its own thing when you turn it on. Restart the computer, even though I'm on Windows XP which has demonstrated it can install drivers without restart... After restart, plug in the printer and watch it go. According to the documentation, it takes 10 seconds for the first page to print. The dirty bastards! It took only 4 seconds!!! I was totally WTF'd. That's faster than our printer at work which is 10 times bigger and also just black.

Anyway, so far the experience is fantastic. One day I'll get a color laster printer for £50. That is if we don't run out of fossil fuels and extremists don't nuke the Canon factory. I cannot help but think that if a mono laser printer costs £49.99, and it's replacement black cartridge costs £54.99, then some children in some part of the world must be exploited to make this possible. I'll write a letter of protest and print it en masse right away. (I probably won't, but I remain shocked)

As Michelle mentioned some time ago she was celebrating a year away from FFXI. Quite an achievement I must say. Myself, I have been clear of the game since about September 2007. One day I was fishing lvl 35, determined to get myself a Lu Shang fishing rod. The next day, I just didn't log on.... neither did I every day since. I must apologise to the people I left behind and never said goodbye to. Logging on would probably tempt me back so it's just not a good idea. I miss the beautiful perfect world. I still daydream about the lovely sights in Qufim. A Beastmaster really gets to explore every corner.

So what have I done instead? Nothing. Frustratingly nothing. So I might as well have kept playing hm? I have plunged myself into watching star trek, the next generation and currently Voyager, also finished season one and two of Stargate Atlantis, and hopefully one day I'll get through my pile of anime. But the bottom line is: I'm not using my time any better. I don't really mind, but other's might.

I love fantasy and dreaming. Hook me up to a library and I'll read fiction till the end of time. I don't think there's a way to change the fabric I'm made of. Bring on the taylors!

Who goes first? Xbox360? We got the 3 red rings problem. Was kindly repaired for free (apart from two trips to the UPS depot to hand-in and collect). We got a free gift. I hope it's going to work now ^_^.
And I must say, we got a Samsung 32" flatscreen tv. It does look every soooo crisp with HD content (which only applies to xbox games for now.

A kind person managed to compare my Belgian qualifications to the UK system. It's an ordinary/foundation degree. Although I do think the Belgian education system is quite thorough, I might have more credit than this. At least this gives me a chance to profile myself better when looking for jobs.
I am quite happy with my current job though. The only problem is the lack of interest of Honeywell in their employees, the distance I need to travel (35 miles one-way), and possible the lack of chances to progress. And as to true Honeywell tradition, promotion only means more responsibilities, not a bigger salary. Money is not everything of course, but it helps.

Yes that network drive... still on my list. I worked 12 days in one row, maybe the extra cash will help. That mentioned, our XBOX 360 showed its first red rings. Have turned it on OK since, but not actually played it. Nevermind, I'll get a Samsung 32 inch S86 flatscreen and PS3. TV first, PS3 in a... year or so?

But nevermind all that. I baked a very interesting looking piece of bread today which I am about to enjoy. Topped with opium.... poppy seeds that is.

And now I forgot what is that I wanted to talk about....

What do you think of this? WDG1NC7500E
Network harddrive. 750Gb. I will need it. Will have to buy it. Have been working this weekend which will help me get it. It will actually serve me very well. I can hook this harddrive up to my routers, and make it available to both the PC and laptop. And whatever other device capable of using network storage.
At a push I can fit one more harddrive in my computer, and then it's finished. So network storage is a nice solution. I have two routers to spare. And I'm more and more learning how to make routers work with me, instead of against me.
But I'm a money-pincher. So make it cheap!
I do refuse to buy a USB external harddrive. Simply because USB, even the 2.0 version, is slow technology. Of course I will buy it if everything else it outside my reach.
Strange though that 750Gb can cost me £131. But 1Tb can cost £210 or more. For just 250Gb more. Now that's out of my reach.