Just cheatin'

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P.S.A.

Okay, so, this is cheating. This post was ready and waiting by 20:00 last night, but circumstances didn't allow me to post in time. But, since I didn't want to make too long an entry for today, here it is anyways.

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One last day 'till work starts. They're over here, in case you wondered. I took it easy today - a lot of time was spent messing up songs in Daigasso, which is a type of game I should have gotten myself into much sooner, I realize.

As for the guests; their plan was to go swimming, but when it turned out the pool closed too soon, they went someplace else instead. So I had some time to myself, and gladly used the opportunity to put on some music, which a lot of people don't want to be around when it's played.

My dad popped up today as well. He had forgotten his keys when walking the dog. He didn't have his phone on him either. So, he had to come across town to get my keys. Needless to say, Gaia wasn't too thrilled to have Yoki around.

Other than that, well, today was pretty calm. Like I said, easy going. I need to be in form tomorrow.

See ya!

By popular demand

Start off on Friday, then. One last visit to the gamestore, it seems my vacation is over. I finally got down to buying myself a new game - at oooh, 19:50, 10 minutes before closing. After having spent the whole day there yet again. I got myself Daigasso Band Brothers, for the NDS. Known to the Americans that have a knowing of stuff like that as Jam with the Band. I think I best describe it as DDR-DS, and it's shown me one thing - I have to work on my sense of rhythm. Now, the wait is for those rumoured "expansion GBA cartridges" that contain extra tracks. I'm slowly getting the hang of it, doing pretty much nothing else today (Saturday, for those that missed the date written on top of this entry.

Yesterday morning (my chronology sucks once again) there was also some woman from local tv, interviewing a couple of youthes about gaming. It was nice to see how, in the final tv-report, some stuff got left out for, you know, "dramatic effect", i.e. just making the point they wanted to make, instead of giving them the opportunity to actually make their own point. It's easier to say that gamers stay in the same position for hours on end, after all, if you don't show 'em doing Dance Dance Revolution. Imagine, showing gamers engaged in some physical activity. Isn't that a no-no...

Anyways, onto Saturday. Otherwise known as 'Today', unless, of course, you're reading this tomorrow, in which case the previous 'Today' should be seen as 'Yesterday', for "today" tomorrow would be Sunday, and not Saturday. But you get the general idea, right?

But before I start explaining the previous paragraph in a way so that it won't make sense to anyone but me anymore, let me continue on today. I did not go to my VG-store today. I visited their forum several times, but I was never physically present in the actual shop today. I did go to town for a spin. I bought a couple of DVD's, bringing along a full stamp-card of the store as it was previously known. But, since the guy working there is also a regular at my VG-store, I could ask him last Thursday if that would be a problem. Glad it wasn't. I also had some fun asking questions about Daigasso in another gamestore where they don't sell import. Just for the hell of it, that was. "Say what? No, I don't know that game..." The little joys of life, eh?

Also, I got a couple of mags and did some grocery-shopping. STILL NO CASHIER! This is getting bad. It'll be two weeks on Monday...

I can't tell you about tonight quite yet, as it's currently still only 14:00 over here. I'll see if I can manage something, since the plan was to go eat out tonight. Otherwise, I'll have to post on tonight tomorrow, and make it an extension on what will then be known as yesterday, if you follow. We'll see.

Yes. I made it back in time. So then, tonight we went to get some pancakes and visit some of the area around Zeist & Austerlitz. Those general touristy things aren't quite my bag, though, so it wasn't exactly what the doctor ordered as far as I'm concerned. What I did notice, though, is how some of those Daigasso tunes keep running through my head, even though I have only been playing it since yesterday. That must be a good sign.

I would also like to take this opportunity to officialy apologize to VB for cocking up. I hope you're not angry! It just slipped my mind... I'm sorry!

Also, I should thank PM for the smileys. I will now use them whenever appropriate. There were some pretty good ones that cracked me up in there. I just hope I'm never in the right moodset to use the best ones there, if you catch my drift.

Other than that, I guess that about covers these last two days. So that's the end of this post, then.

See ya!

Emergency Blogging Spot

Here I am than, at jzz's place, calmly writing my blog-entry for the day. The first thing I did when I got home today was watch my blog, and finding his comment, I was glad to oblige. But before I get to the end of the day, how about the start of it, hey?

Well, actually...

Does "I went to the VG-store"sound familiar? I'm taking full advantage of my last days of freedom here, I was there from, ooh, was it 10:30, 'till, well, 20:00... Gamers are nice people to hang out with, you know. It's pretty easy. Just plug in something remotely entertaining, and they can keep on going on for hours on end. I can be one of them when I want to. And now that I have the time, I use it to my advantage. Tetris Attack is one of those games that can keep you going like the Energizer Bunny, especially in multi-player. Whereas last week, I totally sucked, now, after a mere week of training, I can survive for quite some time and even take the occasional win! See what extensive training regimes can do for you?

Although now, I also have that dreaded "coloured-blocks-before-my-eyes" syndrome. Chains and combo's galore! Now, if only I could use this in-game, that would be nice.

But my game-talk must be boring you. I promise, starting next week, when I start working again, there will be some other stuff, too. Although, I can still go to the VG-store after work hours, they're open 'till 20:00...

Nah, not a good idea.

But hey, this is all you're gonna get from me today. It's not much, but it's all I really have to say. Deal with it.

See ya!

Busy people

Okay, so it's not going to be all that hard to post two days in one post now. Today was almost a carbon copy of yesterday. Both days saw me spending a load of time in the usual gamestore - although today was more crowded and slightly more interesting.

Other then that - yesterday morning I first went to the Observatory to inform myself some more on the telescopes thay have on offer. The Lense at 179,- seems most interesting in my price-range. That's my Birthday-project for this year. I also inscribed myself for the lecture on NEO's, in September. All very exciting, but I'll get into that when the time is ripe.

I also did some insurance stuff yesterday, that was done rather quickly. They should be sending some money my way, soon, as well. Things just keep getting better!

If you haven't received any comments from me lately - don't cry. Our visitors arrived last night, and they were tired. Going to bed early, that pretty much ruined my chances of getting online last night. Today is speed-writing as well. I'll try to visit each and every one of you as soon as I can, don't worry. I might just take a while.

Anyways, I'll get slightly more detailed when time allows it. I hope you can hold on 'til then.

See ya!

We've taken the beach, Captain!

Okay then. I bet you're all curious about how everything went today. Sit down. relax. I'll tell you all about it!

This morning, I left for IJsselstein. Reading my book in the tram, all relaxed and stuff. I got there in time. I say in time, I mean it. Let me illutrate. My appointment was at 13:30, and the door-phone-thingy conversation I had went about like this: "Yes, it's [simply not edible], I have an appointment at 13:30 with [boss]." "Ehm... You did say 13:30, right?" "Yes, that was the appointed hour." "My watch says it's 12:20 now..." "Congratulations! It's on time!" "Ehm... O...kay... Come on in."

So I sat there a while, waiting to be summoned, reading my book (ha, still working on impressing them!). At around 12:45, we got down to business. It was all pretty straightforward, actually. My salary is gone down slightly, only 40 Euro's, so it's not the end of the world. It's because of my age - under 23, you basically slave for naught in this country. Even so, they could have given me even less 'till my birthday, but they signed me up on a 22 year-old's minimum from the start, as compensation.

It was also nice to hear that the people there saw great potential in me. "You're still young, and seem very bright. You like books, too. We could be using you in the future." It's all up to me now. I just have to prove my worth to them. But that shouldn't be a problem.

So then what? My appointment was at 13:30, but I was already done there by 13:15... So, I had time to go to, yes, you guessed it, my gamestore! Last Saturday, manece (store-manager) told me they'd be busy, and asked if I wanted to bother them. So I did. For a couple of hours, at least. I had to leave at around 17:00, for there was still some shopping to be done, and I didn't want that to happen too late. Sadly, once again, my cashier wasn't in sight. It's been a week now... It feels like something important is missing...

She must be on vacation.

Ah well, anyways, the visitors from France are arriving tomorrow. Yippee! I'll have to find some excuse to get out of the house often, the coming days. At least starting Monday I can say I have to work. Ah well, we'll see what happens, right?

See ya!

Recuperation

So then, Sunday passed by in all it's Sundayness again. Every week it's the same story - nothing to do.

We spent the afternoon cleaning the house for the visitors that are now coming on Tuesday, apparently. Nice, one whole day extra! Woohoo! They could have, I don't know, considered our schedules before making decisions like that, don't you think? Ah well, I'll probably just go hide from them anyways. But this means my blogging will be disrupted for longer than I thought it would be. And that's no good, is it? I have an audience to please.

So, other than cleaning up, I for one didn't do all that much. I had a headache - coming and going - for a large part of the day, so I took as much rest as I could - after all, I do have to sign that contract tomorrow, I can't miss that. I'll have to be there at 13:30, so I can sleep for a bit in the morning, but I still need to be fit enough while there. I just hope I feel better then.

So then that's another short entry for today. I didn't go to the gamestore, for they were closed. That's a shame, it would be nice to be able to go there on Sunday's as well. Ah well, maybe they just had enough of me. If not, they should tell me. Here. Post a comment. That means you! I know you're there, you lurker! Even if my stats say you come from someplace else, I know you're there.

Oh, wait, I'm losing track here. I should focus on the important things for tomorrow. Contract. Signing. I'm glad I had lots of opportunities to perfect my signature over the past month-and-a-half. I had to sign everything everywhere, it was almost as if I did nothing else at some point. Letters all over the place, inscribing here, all the paperwork. Glad it's finally over. Or, well, almost. I still have to go by the insurance company and send one last letter to the major employment-agency, but that will then, finally, be the end of it. Whew!

Anyways, I guess this is it for today. Besides this, all I did was read, so not much else to tell you, then.

See ya!

Oh, Saturday already?

Today was a bit messy. It started out with me waking up this morning. It's strange how that somehow became an activity I do almost daily, since waking up is not really something I enjoy. But I keep on doing it, so I have to make the best of it, right?

After breakfast I left for the shopping centre, to get some vacuum-bags. Now, the thing is, we had one box which was empty, but in the shop, they had an entire wall full of different brand bags. So, puzzled as I was, I had to bother one of the employees there to let him figure it out for me.I gave him the empty box, he looked to see if he could find what I needed, and when he did, he gave me back th empty box, and handed over the new one too. I obviously wasn't at all awake at that point, seeing how I then went on to both boxes in my rucksack. When I saw the face he pulled, I realised my mistake, and corrected it immediately. Anyways, the box is payed for.

Getting the bags back, I left for town, this time to my comics-store, which I hadn't been to in a while. I had a good catch-up talk with the shop-owner, whom I had warned in advance of my leaving my old job. I told him last time that I would come by when I got my new job, so today, I took the opportunity to tell him about it. He seemed thrilled - though that might just be because I can start buying manga there again, once I get my first paycheck - new style.

After that, since I was already in the neighbourhood, I walked over to my Gamestore, again. I say I was in the neighbourhood. The walk is actually about 25'. I got there at around, what was it, 13:00 I think. I hung out 'till, what was it, oooh, 20:00. It's my vacation, basically. Some people go to tropical islands, I hang out at a game-store. Talk about super-nerd! Monday I'll probably pass by there again, after my contract-signing gig. I'll see if I can find the time.

Once I got home, I was pleasantly surprised to find one last paycheck from my ex-employers. They handed me another E 90,- Apparently, I still had some hours left. I thought I had taken them all up, but it seems they still owed me. Hurray for that pleasant surprise!

Now, seeing as how I don't want to bore you with the details about my stay at the gamestore once again, I'll leave it at that for today.

See ya!

Tetris Attack

Today was a re-run of yesterday. It all started in a forum-discussion I had last night with the a couple of others - including one of the employees of the store. At some point, at 01:42, to be exact, she pointed out that she had to be at work at 09:00 this morning. Since she's from out of town, that meant getting up early. So, at 01:46, after a bit of conversation, I somehow posted asking her if she needed moral support in the morning. Doh! This means, what with me being a man of honour, that I had to show up. After all, I was dealing with a lady here, can't let them down, can we?

Anyways, at 02:46, post 999, I left the forum and went for bed. After all, I now had an appointment requiring me to get up at 08:00...

I left home around 09:00 - I take about 45' to walk over there (remember I enjoy a walk? I take that to the extreme sometimes). It was raining. Or, no, rain is not the right word. There was a downpour, the proverbial cats and dogs were at it again. Imagine that. The only thought going through my head: "Why the hell am I doing this again? I'm not going to buy anything. I'm tired. It's raining. That settles it. I'm crazy!"

Gladly, the rain stopped when I was nearing my goal. I arrived a bit before 10:00, so I even had to walk a quick tour of the block to waste some time before opening.

Now, the day was mostly calm, and I gladly served as cannon-fodder in Tetris Attack (SNES) for, ooh, 6 hours. Hey, I'm entering my last week as a free man, totally carefree as I know I got my job. I'm enjoying it, okay? It was fun. I may have had my buttocks booted most of the time - I never played that game before today - but it was fun. Besides, she's only used to defeat, if what I heard is correct. Now, she got her revenge on little old me. Who am I to not give someone that pleasure? In the end, though, I had to leave, as my mother was coming by tonight to bring along some mattresses for next weeks visit - my sis has her dad coming over. Which reminds me, starting next Wednesday, my updates may become slightly irregular, but it will only last a week.

So then, mum visited. She wanted to take some pics of Gaia, but her battery was not charged up, so no pics today, sadly. She and her husband congratulated me on my new job, we talked for a bit, my mum kept on waking up the cat, the usual protocol. They stayed for longer than planned, though, and now have to go all the way back home, walk their dog and everything. I hope they get back in time.

This though, brings us to the end of today's entry. I know that it's not much in the special-department, but I'm now taking some time to enjoy my last moments of liberty. So basically, it's a matter of "I like it, so that's good enough".

See ya!

Visiting the Gamestore

Today, I spent a bit of time at my VG-store. I told them I'd pass by when I got a new job, last Monday was from an order I had placed a while ago. I brought them some cookies as well, we talked a bit, jumped around playing Dance Dance Revolution with Mario - which I suck at, by the way - and I looked through a couple of the books they have in their store. It was also fun to be continually adressed by my net-ID, which doesn't happen a lot in the "real world".

I also had the opportunity to watch a video of the recent E-3 show, which featured some very interesting looking games. I won't get into titles here - that could go on for a while.

Other than that, my day was pretty uneventful. So there you have it. A short post.

See ya!

Victoly!

Wow. I actually managed to wake up this morning, and even more surprisingly, I managed to do so at the required hour for me to be present at the workplace in time. I had a nice day of arranging, counting and labelling books, which may not sound inspiring, but I enjoyed it. The colleagues were great, too, which definitely did help. I even got a ride to a tram-station - one a bit closer to home - so I didn't have to walk all the way back to the station I came from in the morning. This got me home about 25' ahead of schedule.

I'm signing the contract next Monday. I start on August 1st. I got the job! And I even have a couple of days off to boot - which is just as handy for them, as it saves them some paperworks which would have been more complicated if I started before the 1st of the month.

So then, with that out of the way (notice how casually I'm passing by?), I got home to find the cat running up to me, meowing as if she had been chased by some giant monster. I guess she doesn't like being alone...

I went shopping afterwards, but sadly, my cashier was nowhere to be found today. So I don't have a lot to say about that either, then. Which leaves me with not much else to say, really. I guess I'll leave it here tonight, and see what happens tomorrow.

See ya!

Here goes nothing!

Okay, first thing first. I managed to track down Rick S., however, his blog is a new one - he apparently had an older blog from where this thing came. Now if only...

Wait a minute... I found it!

It includes rule #6, which dissapeared suddenly after that...
6. I will answer reasonable follow up questions if you leave a comment.

I wonder how that happened.

Anyways, the archeoblogy seems to end at Mr Hibbity Gibbity, on February 10th. Then again, he claims it to be "a relic of blogdom", so maybe, it can be traced back even farther. Hmm...

So then, what else did I do today?

Well, I spent the afternoon in town with my father and his visitor. Which was, well, boring, actually. No offence to either of them, but I would have been able to do some more interesting things on my own. Ah well.

Before that (why am I writing in reverse today?), I tried playing my new games some more. I say tried, for sadly, Gaia was awake today. When she wasn't climbing into the TV-cupboard, walking all over my Nintendo's Reset-button (which happened thrice), she actually managed at one time to cut the power of that entire corner - she flipped the switch of our extension cord. It was rather tiring, as you can imagine.

Go figure. While typing this past passage, I ran accross a little problem. I couldn't think of the English for "extension cord", verlengsnoer in Dutch. I figured to look online for translations, but couldn't find anything quickly. However, I did fill up some form at some website, for them to translate it for me. They sent me a nice little mail. Highlights:

"If you could kindly e-mail your text for translation for the weblog to us[...]we will respond with an exact quote and estimated turnaround time"

I told, you - it's 1 word, I even gave you the word already. Don't you read your request forms?

"I will contact you upon receipt of your material [...] so that you will know we have received it and have started the quoting process."

Like I said before, you already have the material. Start "quoting", if you mean translating by that!

"For just a general idea of pricing in the meantime [...]. We would be happy to provide an exact price and estimated turnaround time [...]."

What the... You expect me to pay for 1 lousy word? I'm shocked.

Needless to say, I have in the meantime just grabbed my own dictionary. Remind me never to ask for help online ever again, as far as these things are concerned.

I mean, if they have that "team of translators" ready and waiting, surely it wouldn't be all that much trouble to just let one of them shout out "extension cord", and just sending me that by mail, without further ado, right?

Anyways, I have to end this now - I need some rest for tomorrow.

See ya!

Side-quest

So then, the plan was to place that meme over here now, but then it would stay on the front page a full one day longer, and we don't want that, do we?

I felt like tracing it back, but I only got as far as Marykay's Much Ado about Nothing, on February 22nd. She refers to a certain Rick S., but I couldn't find any links over there. I'll have to dig deeper. See how badly I need a job? I'm wasting my time here...

Then, I now have to think up 5 questions for Paul Sholly. This is going to be hard as well. Here goes.

1. What was your first job? How did you like it? Why did you do it?
   
2. What's the farthest you've been from home?
   
3. What do you mean by saying "I didn't know you were male"???
   
4. Why did you start blogging?
   
5. How do you like being interviewed by a person you've never met?
   

Anyways, onto the rest of my day. This morning, I left for my VG-store. Yesterday, I got a message from the people there that they found the game I asked them to keep apart for me - it was in stock, they just couldn't find it in the mess after their move. Now that they found it, I went to pick it up. I ran into one of the clerks while on the way, he was getting some shopping done. I joined as I have nothing much to do 'till Wednesday anyways. I spent about an hour and a half in the shop, and boy, was it calm in there. It's nice to be able to take your time there, talk to the shop-people etc.

Then, back home. I spent a bit of time wading through the Japanese menu's on my newly acquired games - I have enough gaming experience to manage, but it's not easy - and had a quick spin on them. Notice, also, how I suddenly moved on to plural.

I also went shopping - it's Monday, after all. I zigzagged through the shop as I always do, but suddenly, I noticed I couldn't track down my cashier. Going back and forth some more, I decided I had to pay somewhere eventually. So I picked someone else, and got in line. Then suddenly, I spotted her - she was standing behind the counter for batteries, smokes and other stuff like that. What the hell was she doing there?? *Panic* Now what?

I was never so glad to realise that I needed to get a bus-ticket for Wednesday! I had an excuse to get in line! Woohoo! Sadly, the counter there didn't allow for a lot of time to chit-chat, and I had to leave faster than I had wanted. *sigh* Oh, if only...

There you have it. It would seem that I actually did something else than read today. I feel my current reading material - Richard Dawkins' The Ancestor's Tale - is going to last me a while, and I don't want to rush it too much. On top of that, I'm reading some other things at the same time, so it tends to get slightly confusing. There was a time when I didn't do stuff like that, but I seem to have lost that ability. Then again, it's sometimes just that a book starts to get too complicated, and I feel the need to get through a slightly simpler book before continuing. For example, 'the Ancestor's Tale' is probably going to help me getting through 'the Descent of Man' and 'the Display of Emotions in Man and Animals', because Darwin has a more technical and analytical approach than Dawkins has. Dawkins is easy reading, as far as evolutionary biology goes.

Ah, but I'm rambling. I'll have to stop now, before it gets out of hand.

See ya!

No milk today

Today, I did nothing.

See ya!

I'm planting this over here for the time being. It'll get to it's rightful place later today, okay?

Someone somehow actually managed a comment on my last post. Now, that must be a miracle.

Okay, let's get the official things out of the way before going on to the rest of the day.

1. To participate, leave a comment below saying “Interview Me!” “Do Me” is not acceptable
2. I’ll respond by asking you 5 questions, each person’s will be different, posted in my comments on this post- so check back.
3. You’ll update your blog with the answers to my questions.
4. You’ll include this explanation and an offer to interview others in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you ask ‘em 5 questions.

Right, then. Now, in advance - don't make me think up too many questions. Please.

Here are mine, brought to you by PM:
Q1-Have you visited the US? If so, where’d you go? If not, where would you like to visit in the US?

Well, so far, I haven't left the European continental plate (I've been to Scotland, so I left the continent - as in mainland). So that take care of the first part of your question. The second part is where the trouble starts. I never really felt the need to visit the US, but now that I get to know some of the people, it does make me want to meet some of you. The problem is - whenever they interview Americans for tv - they always seem to me so stupid. I know we only get to hear a couple of people - George Dubya, and that guy that loses his trailer at every single tornado - and they are not a good presentation of the general population, but it's a horrifying idea running into these people that are apparently so important over there.

Having said that, in a protected environment, it might be okay.

Q2-What’s behind your username - I actually like it, it’s uncommon… but wonder how you came up with it and if there is a reason for it.

Being uncommom is the main thing about my username. I always went to extreme lengths to get a nick without any numbers in it - at one point even using, at Yahoo!, ijustwantanamewithnonumbersinit. simply not edible (no capitals) got first used in a Dutch Anime forum. However, barely visiting there (about twice a year, actually), it didn't really get used much. This changed when I got to the other forum, to which I linked again a couple of posts ago. Since then, I really grew into the name. I started using it all over the place (MSN, Y!M), so if you run into it somewhere, it's me.

So, there was not any particular reason to use that nick to begin with, but once I did, I liked it enough to use it all over the place.

Q3-Have you enjoyed being off work the last few weeks or has it made life really boring and you look forward to getting back ASAP?

A short one here. Yes, I did enjoy being off these past weeks. And yes, I am looking forward to picking up work again. Also, I was indeed bored for a big part of my time off, but I enjoy that somehow. I can spend hours doing nothing and then say I had fun.

Q4-How long have you had a crush on your cashier and do you ever expect to ask her out?

Why then, here is the dreaded question. You just had to, didn't you?

How long? Ooh, I don't know exactly. It's been a while, I can tell you that, but how long... That would depend on when exactly you can call it a crush. As for asking her out - I hope to be able to someday, but sadly, I carry along my bad history with girls, which is a big handicap in that area.

Q5-Why the quote: “Burn their Women! Rape their Houses!”?

I didn't even know someone noticed that one. It's totally hidden from regular view - at normal length, my posts don't go that far down. Why? Because I think it's funny, in a twisted kind of way. It makes me smile everytime I see it, even though I put it there myself. It's just one of those things I did for no apparent reason. I have a lot of those, don't I?

See ya! - again!

Posts from the void

Getting up early is, so far, being reasonably nice to me. I didn't feel anything this morning, I'm glad to say. I woke up with sufficient energy to haul my arse over to town early - before the crowds get there. I got myself some magazines while I was there.

I was back home pretty quickly after that - I never really learned how to window-shop. So I spent the rest of the morning reading.

So then, activity rate is low right now. I'm taking a final chill to get ready. And, you know, I enjoy following the Tour. I don't know if I'll be able to follow it again next year. I wasn't able to really get into it at my previous job, and, probably, at my next job, the same will apply.

This, sadly, also mean I don't have a lot to tell you about today. So I'm going to use this space for a message from our sponsors.

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BUY NEW AND IMPROVED GOMZORS !
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See how bored I am right now?

What's new, then? Ah - today is the first wedding-anniversary for my mom and her husband. I heard they had dinner at the Euromast - which is also where they had the wedding reception. I hope they enjoyed themselves. Well, I'm sure they did, actually. They always seem happy together.

Other than that, what can I say? I'm really struggling to fill this blog today, maybe I shuld just give up.

Ah yes. Some guy from Portugal found me by IJsselstein on AltaVista. I didn't even know people knew IJsseltein over there. You'd be hard pressed to find it in most non-Dutch atlasses.

Then I have this visitor from this forum. Leave a message - make yourself known. I know you're there.

Well, I'll leave it at that right now. I'll try to find back my inspiration for tomorrow.

See ya!

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This blogpost has been brought to you by Spam-mail
Better Pneis-enarlgments for you!
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Good news.

I got up early today, again. I didn't want to miss any possible phone-call, and I got one at around 10:00. After asking me how I felt about our conversation yesterday, I got invited for a test-day next Wednesday! So then, it seems we're getting somewhere!

Now, the man told me yesterday that they'd contact me on Friday or Monday. I feel the fact that he phoned so early on the Friday is a good sign. At least I'm glad I can now get into the weekend without having to worry about them calling. I'm all excited now.

I spent a large part of the morning after that sharing my excitement with friends and family in all possible manners. Phoning, TXT-messages, MSN, you name it, I used it. Just spreading the word to everyone as soon as I could.

Untill, that was, my phone-credit ran out. Which meant I still had to get out to buy a new card, to be able to contact my father as well. Sadly, my cashier wasn't present to take my day that much closer to perfection. But I shouldn't complain.

I don't know yet what I'll do for the weekend. I guess it'll be some improvisation. I need to rest up and get my bio-clock ready for Wednesday, that's for sure. I haven't had a day's work for the last, ooh, four weeks, and I haven't gotten out of bed before 11 'till yesterday, so I have my work cut out for me. But it's going to work. It has to.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank PM for her willingness to waste some of her important time on my little avatar. I think the official thing to say is "you shouldn't have", but anyways, thank you for your trouble.

And now I seem to have run out of things to say. So I'll leave it at that.

See ya!

Interview etc.

This morning, then, I got up nice and early to go to IJsselstein. Now, since I had been there yesterday already, I got to where I had to be early. Like, 45 minutes early, in fact. However, the man interviewing me was actually late, so I guess it wouldn't have made all that much of a difference if I had been a bit later.

We had the talk, it lasted a bit over an hour, and I have a good feeling about it. I'm now hoping to hear from them soon, they managed to get me even more excited about it when they told me about the things involved. But like I said, the details will follow when I get the job.

Back at home, I took the rest of the afternoon to watch the Tour again. Hey, I can, I'm enjoying it. I've barely been able to follow it these past years, so I'm taking advantage of my situation.

Once my sis came back, she realised she had forgotten something at work. So then, together we went to pick up her stuff, ate in town, got some ice-cream, generally taking it easy.

Also, I got a message from Blogger-support concerning my little avatar-thing.

Hi [simply not edible],

Thanks for pointing this out. I'll pass it along to
our engineers to see if we can get it fixed. It will
likely end up being a fairly low-priority bug, though,
so if it's bothering you, you might want to try using
a larger version of the image for your profile picture,
or adding some padding to it. I'm sorry about the
inconvenience.

Sincerely, [e-mail sending person]
Blogger Support

I figured this would be about what my answer would look like, but at least I got it off my chest. Eventually, maybe, in the future, there might be a possibility of there being a remote chance of someone looking if he can do anything about it. Yay!

All of this, though, pretty much covers my activities for the day, so I'll make like a tree now.

See ya!

Preparing for tomorrow

Okay, so I had no problem whatsoever getting up early this morning. I'm glad to be able to tell you that, it means that I'll manage to do so tomorrow as well. I also checked out the road to get there. Taking the tram to IJsseltein, I printed out one of those free maps upon arrival (always handy), and followed the road that seemed shortest. The map was a bit confusing, though. At one point, I had to get into a street that wasn't clearly marked i.r.l. It wasn't marked at all, actually. I found the street preceding it, I found the street following it, but the one I was looking for just wasn't there! And to top it all, that was the address they gave me!

So, I decided to walk in on another company - a garage - and ask them for directions. Thanks to them, I managed to find the place after all. I'm now fully prepared to get there tomorrow. All I need as a last preperation now is a copy of my last paycheck, but I'll do that later today (yes, I'm writing this early, but it guarantees my presence at the required hour).

Okay, then. I got my copy on the trip to the shop, which also had to be done, since it's Wednesday today, and that means my cashier has duty! Although, in my enthousiasm, I left for the shop too early, so I had to waste some time in order to visit the cashier I want. I witnessed a fight with some other cashiers over the desk she was sitting at, but luckily she remained where she was. It would have been awkward to get my stuff off the band!

After that, my sis and I went to pick up my dad and his visitor, for we were going karting. Sadly, our guest couldn't be convinced to join us, and on top of that she had the whole plan sabotaged in advance, due to not wearing the right shoes. I owned! My best lap time was over 3" faster than my dad's, and my sis didn't even manage to point in the right direction on the bends!

Now, then, we're having dinner, and I think that'll probably cover most of my day, so I'll have to keep you posted tomorrow, it's a big day. I need to get some rest.

See ya!

Excitement all over!

Well, then. Waking up this morning, I was greeted by a pleasant little e-mail. It was from the people I mailed to yesterday, asking me to phone. Apparently, she tried calling, got my voice-mail, and then fucked up her message by pressing the wrong button! Go figue. She asked me a couple of questions on the phone: "Would you mind working weekends?" and "Would you mind working extra hours?". I have no problem with either of those, it were things I realized when I saw the job-offering. Now, I have an interview next Thursday, at 09:30! Woohoo! It does mean wking up early, I know, especially since it's in IJsselstein. But I'll do my best, that's for sure.

I'll give you more info on the job when I get it - no use getting you excited already, is there?

I phoned my mom immediately. She's always complaining that I never call, but I always tell her that I'll call when I have news. Today I have news, so I called. She told me she'd keep her fingers crossed. Also, she revealed it was her that googled me with "simply-not-edible blog", at the office, not managing to find me off the top of her head. She should be working at the office, but never mind all of that, right?

I called my father after that. He didn't answer, but retaliated by calling me while I was watching the Tour, bathing in my joy of the upcoming interview. If I wanted to come over. Ehm... Okay, I'll be there. Grabbed my stuff, took the bike, and left for Overvecht, which is on the opposite end of town from where I live (once again, for those overseas, as my local visitors are better acquainted with this town). When I was almost there, my phone rang again. I had to grab it out of my rucksack, so that meant pulling over at the next traffic-light. It was someone from an employment agency, having found my resume online. If I was interested in a job she had. Now, it sounded less interesting than the one I'm shooting for on Thursday, and she wanted someone she could present as a definite guy, which I couldn't guarantee her, so I kindly declined her offer, agreeing that if I couldn't fully commit from the start, it would be better to look for someone else.

Getting at my father's place, I was greeted by Yoki - the dog. He seems huge - especially compared to our little kitten. Now, it's only a terrier, so it's not a big dog. He's old, and fat, but not big. Still, I think compared to the young kitten at our place, he's huge.

Also, the place was cleaned up! This was almost a miracle, but when he came back from the shop, I realized why this was. He has a friend over, from Greece.

We struck a deal to go karting tomorrow, which is always a nice thing to do. I always enjoy doing that, it's quite a rush racing along at those kinds of speeds.

My father did have a meeting tonight, though, so his two guests were left to entertain themselves. Now, what we me being a mostly introverted person (yes, I know, it doesn't make sense from someone telling everyone in the world his daily adventures), this did lead to quite some problems, But the both of us are still alive. I checked.

Now, it's past 11:00, and I still have to get home. I want to get up early tomorrow, something I haven't done since Freedom. Tomorrow morning, I'll go check on how to get to the location of my interview - I want to be well prepared - and, on top of that, I just have to get used to waking up early again.

So I'll leave you at that. I still have to get home.

See ya!

Vet-day, and I don't mean veterans.

Ah, today. Today was a day of sending e-mails, browsing websites and scanning the newspaper. I took my time to get the sent e-mails as flawless as possible, re-reading twice to remove all those pesky little typo's, editing my choice of words, making the phrases sound better. If you have the time, use it!

Today I realized - I knew for a while, but today I realized - that I wave my hand Jedi-style when approaching an automatic door, inorder for it to open. It's just one of those odd things I do. I know you probably don't care, or you think that I'm crazy (you'd be right), but I just wanted to share.

Shopping was today to. So, celebrations aside, I got myself my regular Nintendo-magazine, which, of course, was immediately grabbed by my cashier for her usual "just leafing through your stuff here" action. Obviously, this also caused her to make some remarks that I could easily answer, causing some confusion. She knows of Zelda, obviously (probably from those siblings of her that also introduced her to DragonBall), but she doesn't seem initiated enough into the world of videogames for the finer details about it all - especially as far as future releases go.

On a side note, the customer preceding me asked if he could PIN some extra cash - 50 Euro's - and the forgot to take the money. Luckily for him, we were able to get his attention before he left, otherwise he would have robbed himself. It would have been like leaving your money in the ATM.

After that, it was the first trip to the vet for our little Gaia. We had to get her vaccinated, along with some other things - medicine, etc. - so it was necessary. We went at 19:00 - visiting hours - but, alas, it was f-ing busy in there, with dogs, cats and rats everywhere. Well, not everywhere, but you know what I mean. Eventually, after a wait that was, I think, 35 minutes, we got to meet the vet. He was a nice man, very easygoing. The cat was weighed in at 0.5 kg, we got a kitten starter-set, got her a passport, with her birthdate, which was unknown to us ("about 8 weeks ago") set at the 5th of May - the Dutch national holiday (liberation from Germany after WWII, for those from overseas).

That, I guess, covers today.

See ya!

Whoops *giggle*

Right, so, about yesterday, then. Yes - I was busy. This hasn't happened to me for a while, but, I completely forgot the time while playing a game. Yes, jzz, it's working. When I realized what time it was, it was already 01:30, time for bed! So, then, no update yesterday.

It's a nice little game, though, so it's not all wasted. I actually played it when getting back last Friday as well - a nice marathon 'till about 05:00. Sometimes I just get carried away like that. So waking up on Saturday, just in time for the Tour de France stage, I had the time to wake up watching the race. All the while, of course, continuing the game on my little laptop.

After the race, I went to do some shopping. I was lucky enough to run into my cashier. While I was in line, another customer was complaining about the price of lightbulbs. So then, she wasn't exactly having the best time of her life right then. She was relieved to be able to tell me she would be done in fifteen minutes. I kicked myself for not asking her if I should pass by to help her relieve some stress. Like I said before, I don't know how to keep my cool around girls I like.

It seems I'm one of those people who always know what to say 5 seconds after they should have said it.

Getting home, then, since I had nothing better to do, it was back to my new little game. Sometimes, this happens when you have a new one. You play it to death for the first weekend. That's what I spent my post-Tour Sunday doing as well. So then, maybe it was just a little boring to the outsider. I really wish I had had a better reason for not posting yesterday (you all probably know what I mean), but alas.

So then, with that, I guess that pretty much covers this weekend. It's back to hunting tomorrow, though, so maybe this little bit of rest was needed.

See ya!

More problems

Friday, apparently. So then, what did today bring? After the mess of yesterday, I feel like I should at least tell you something. So here we go.

Today. First off, last night, I was on-line 'till about 03:30, after watching that always fantastic flick π - more movies like that should be made. It's just one of the best movies ever, and it probably didn't cost a lot to make, either.

So, after managing to get my rump out of bed, I had to do something useful. However, mr. Rain was once again rearing his ugly head, totally devastating my hopes of using mr. Sun to go hunting. I had to use the little bit of solar presence to run to my local shopping centre, browsing about. I picked up an interesting looking game there. However, running it on my laptop is causing absolute hell. This is why I usually stick to console - plug and play, baby!

So here I am at jzzzzz's place, we're trying to figure it out together. He's more knowledgeable about this computer stuff than I am. Problem is, we still can't get it to tango.

So then, the electronical problems are stacking up. First, it was the avatar being messed with by imposed and unnecessary code. Now, it's my game refusing to dance. May I say poo? Yes I may.

Other than that, my keyword activity seems to get more outlandish everyday. My latest Keyword-activist? On Yahoo!, some guy typed in, and I quote, "Oman fuck". He found me. Why do I attract the weird ones? I checked it myself, you actually have to skip the first page, including lesbian-porn and the such, to get to my blog from there. Don't you think that, looking for it thusly, the things you want may be somewhere else then on my blog? What the hell is going to be next? "Edible shit"?

Sadly, though, this once again covers it for today. I'll have to leave you at that.

See ya!

London Bombings

Right. Fireworks in London then, this morning. I - and with me probably 99,99% of global population - am getting pretty damned tired of these terrorist fucking up the lives of innocent people just going about their daily business. Indications are that, once again, a group of so-called Muslims is claiming responsibility. I say "so-called Muslims", for, as far as I know, Islam is not a religion that condones the slaughter of innocents. I don't know of any serious faith-group right now that does tolerate murder. So then, no person commiting an act like this can truly be religious.

I just hope the people there don't lose their heads and manage to react rationalle rather than emotionally. If the reactions in England are going to be the same as after the Van Gogh assasination in the Netherlands, where Dutch youthes went on a retalliation spree burning Islamic schools and Mosques, things will likely escalate even farther in the region, exposing the rest of Europe to an even greater threat.

Personally, I don't need that kind of shit right now. I don't think anyone does.

Excuse my foul language, it just had to be said.

Anyways... My day. What about it. Ah, I don't really feel like saying anything else right now. It all seems so... So useless. Unimportant.

So there you have it. No personal news today, then. I'll see what I can do tomorrow.

See ya!

Much apost about nothing

Well. I was planning on hitting the town today, but what with the excessively wet and rainy conditions, I reconsidered. So, I just stuck to sending e-mails and attempting a phone-call. I say attempting, because I couldn't seem to get an answer, which was weird. Oh, by the way, I'm still talking about hunting here, in case you lost track.

So, tomorrow then I'll have to see what the sunny-man brings. I hope Mr. Cloud doesn't get in his way too much, as I really want to get to where the action is again. *Sigh* If only I was some kind of magical being that could control the weather. Or, like, made of lotus-leaf-like material, so that water would just flow right off me and I wouldn't get wet. That would be practical in this Country of Water. These past few days rain has fell as if the continuation of our planet depended on it. Now, I have no direct problem with our planet surviving. I just wish it would involve some more sun.

Don't get me wrong now. I realise that water in it's fluid state is necessary to life as we know it. Most people will say it's necessary to life per se, but I don't believe us to be special in any way (i.e., life should be manifold throughout our universe - if it happens in one place, it's only a delusion of grandeur to believe it doesn't happen elsewhere). Therefore, I'm also not prepared to conclude that things that are vital to us, such as liquid water, must be vital for all forms of life.

But that wasn't my point. I was saying liquid water is necessary to life as we know it, but I could do with a lot less racing downward in a gravitationally induced manner. In other words, I don't really feel like I need all this rain.

Again, don't get me wrong. I don't mind a slight spell of downfall every once in a while. It's just these absolute torrents of the past few days that make the ocean seem like a dry place. I've had enough of those to last me a lifetime. And then some.

Still, all this staying in has made for some great bonding with the cat. Or some great scratching by the cat, both are equally true. I got some scratches on my face now, for your information. Nothing major, but they're there. I'm just glad her batteries don't seem to work for more than an hour straight quite yet. She can be both insanely active and actively insane when she feels like it.

I just realised today's post isn't going anywhere. Ah well, that's one more day wasted. Even I can't keep up the high info-level in my posts. As if there ever was a high level of info in my posts to begin with. Still, it's nice to write down whatever springs to mind, so that's what I'll keep doing here. I never made sense, and this post is turning into great proof of that. You'll just have to sit through these days of random musings hoping to find something of interest. Who knows, maybe I'll actually make a point some day. If that ever happens, though, don't blame it on me. It's just the laws of statistics. You see, my making sense has a chance of about .00037843, which means that, given sufficient posts, eventually, there will be one that might actually be useful.

On a positive note, though, today was one of those joyful days where I got to visit my cashier at work. That is, at her work. I really have to find a way to get some more done than just seeing her there. She has this way of making me smile with the minimum of effort, and I feel like I'm fluttering whenever I've seen her. Like I've said before, it really sucks being able to post it here, but not managing to tell her these same things.

I guess I'll have to leave it at that for today. No more bullshit from me for the day. I've wasted enough of your time for the day, right?

See ya!

Hello from Oman!

Some strange things from StatCounter lately. Apparently, I have someone from Oman passing by regularly. Leave a message, please! I don't bite! I know there's only one of you, I can check the IP.

I also had some strange keyword-activity of late. Now, the googling of "orpheus collision" puts me on the front page, at 7th place, to be exact. It's a bit strange you'd click a link named Who the fuck needs a title?: Pre-celebration post, when you want to find out about lunar forming, but I'm not complaining on this one. And that particular Californian was gone pretty soon when he (she?) realised I wasn't what he (she?) was looking for. I can live with that too.

Then there's someone from Amsterdam, apparently, who found me 4 times by the search for "simply-not-edible blog". Googling that, obviously, gets you a page that seems totally comitted to me. But if you're looking for something, knowing exactly what it is you're looking for, why the *bleep* do you Google it? That stopped now. Now I'm a "No referring link". Finally got the hang of it, then?

Biggest surprise to me, though, is having people from Ontario, Canada, and Virginia, US. They managed to track me down on Technorati using the word "array". This is the first time I used that word in this blog. It seems almost miraculous. I don't get it, anyways.

Having the public service announcements out of the way, it's on to the rest of the day. I made a phonecall to the centre I visited last Thursday. Getting the same lady on the horn I had then, she told me about finding out just this morning that they had selected someone else, but continuing her search for me. I also sent a couple of mails to some people from the other centre, reacting to some offers they had. I'm going to keep on spamming them now, untill they're so tired of me they'll have to get me something!

On another note: I think our cat is crazy. She just keeps running all over the place. The peace in our little place is definitely a thing of the past... She even tries to climb onto the bar when we're eating. There's no stopping that little kitten anymore.

Well, that covers most of my activities for the day. Not much, I'll admit. Better luck next time, right?

See ya!

By the way, some of you must have noticed the immense avatar-size in my comments. I'm currently looking for a way to make it more, well, normal, like it is on this here blog. If anyone has any ideas... HELP!

Jobcentre

Wow. I barely woke up this morning and was already greeted with exciting news. Deep Impact was successfull. I can't wait untill they're done with their spectralreading. I can't help but be excited about the possible finds they're going to make. Speculations should be running wildly already, I'll try to track some data down later - I just wish I could be there when the data hits the fan! By the way, I also heard some Russian astrologer claimed $300.000.000,-, for messing up her predictions. Yeah, right.

This afternoon was for my trip to the jobcentre. A very helpful lady there. We had a talk about what it was I wanted to do. She gave me a couple of vacancy's to react to right there. One of them was rather interesting, I'll tell you more about it later. For the fun bit is about to come!

You see, I had to head back home after the meeting. Luckily, I landed in the middle of a monsoon. When I got home, I was totally soaked. And I mean to the bone!My jeans weighed twice the normal weight when I took them off again. Well, when I managed to get them off, it was quite a struggle.

Taking a bit of rest later, watching the end of the Tour, Gaia spent more than an hour sleeping/sitting right before my face. She really is getting the hang of living here. I'm afraid the quiet days are definitely over. She managed to wreak some havoc last night as well, getting a piece of string from the back of a cupboard and, well, making a big knot of it all. She still manages to hold onto it if taken off the ground.

I also went shopping today. I didn't feel too fantastic when I left, probably due to my earlier exploits in the rain, so, sadly, I wasn't able to get any convincing work done for my cashier. I was happy just to see her. Better luck next time...

After that it was Man in the Moon for a movie tonight. It was an interesting piece of work, not like the usual Hollywood-dribble.

I'm sorry to tell you then, that today is not a long entry either. Alas, the weather today didn't allow me any other expeditions. So, then, I'll try again tomorrow.

See ya!

Pictures of Gaia

So here we go again. Today, though, will be little text. My mum passed by today, and so, we have PICTURES! HOORAY!


That's our Gaia, sitting on the bench!

Full close-up picture.

Asleep on my sister's sweater.

This is both the cat and your's truly. She has quite a grip, I can tell you.

Playing with a piece of string has never been this much fun!

Gaia running from my sister. With a grimace like that, who can blame her?

As you can see, Gaia seems to feel right at home here. What with my mum visiting, I didn't do all that much else, so this is about as much as is interesting. I'll leave you with only these pics, then. Tomorrow will probably be a better day as far as blogging is concerned, so 'till then.

See ya!

Reorganizing

So then, today was for the reorganization of my room. Well, I made a start anyways. Let's call it a work in progress. My videogames and DVD's are set. I still have to finish off my manga-collection, though. That's a big part of it all, so I have my work cut out for me. Ah well, it's gotta happen at some point, right?

Still, it was pretty damn tiring to do. It just seems like there's no end to it all...

Ah well. Back to business. Today being Saturday, I didn't get a hell of a lot done, outside the bedroom, that is. Except for a short shopping spell (sadly, without the wished for cashier), getting the newspaper and some nice magazines, the day seemed to revolve about getting better acquainted with Gaia. She seems to be soing quite well. Most succelsful toy so far has to be the mouse on wheels. She really loves running after it. It's fun watching her jump all over it.

In the evening (see how eventful today was?), my sis' boyfriend came by (he's still here, btw), quickly followed by my favourite couple from across the street. It seems today was to be our kitten-shower. Tomorrow our mum and her husband are coming to visit. She has a digital camera, and might be able to help getting some kitty-pics online. We'll have to see about that tomorrow, though.

So, today's post is a lot shorter than the previous ones. Like I said, not much happening today. Here's to hoping tomorrow will be longer again.

See ya!

Stats, kittens and unimportant stuff.

Today I did some final preparing for the arrival of our little kitten tonight. Getting rid of some stuff lying around. I'll have to totally reorganize my room again, pretty soon. I guess I'll do that this weekend. I hate it when that happens. You get everything in a logical order, then you accumulate some more items, and have to change the order you had in order to logically postition your new acquisitions to their required relative position. Ah well, it's a part of life, isn't it?

I also installed some useful stuff to help the scientific community on the PC. It's a data-analysis program for the SETI-project; the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence. Who knows, maybe our little PC here will actually locate something!

Also, I wanted to share with you my pagehits for the month of June.

As you can see, my 585 hits since the 1st of June (I installed my StatCounter-code around 23:30) have been unevenly spread. The 1st can be ignored totally. Also, forget about that peak on the 25th - that must have been a glitch. My one hit on the 5th, though, is something I'm not glad about. My daily average was around 20 hits, with 11 unique visitors daily.

My visitors have so far been coming from 21 different countries. In no particular order except for an alphabetical one:

• Argentina
• Australia
• Belgium
• Canada
• Denmark
• India
• Ireland
• Japan
• Kuwait
• Malaysia
• the Netherlands
• Peru
  
• Portugal
• Singapore
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switserland
• Turkey
• the United Kingdom
• the United States
• Uruguay
  

If your country's not listed: Get your arse over here, now! You'll be added on my next update\ego-trip.

As you can see, I'm growing to be an international celebrity! Hah, no, that's not true. StatCounter is also perfectly able to inform me about most people spending less then 5 seconds on my blog, so I have to find a way to draw people's attention. Maybe actually writing something remotely interesting would do the trick.

So then, what do I mention next? Ah yes. I went shopping too (actually, I'm just now back form there, but I'm keeping up the impression of looking back). While I was running through the shop in all directions I saw in the corner of my eye, much to my delight, that everyone's favourite cashier was starting her work for the day. So, after I grabbed the last item I needed, I headed there, so I could bask in her presence for slightly longer while she was setting up for work. I just wish I could go beyond the usual small-talk. It really sucks that I'm able to post this online for the whole world to read, but am still unable to tell her.

Heading back home I ran into jzz once again. He was going shopping, having forgotten his juice. We talked a bit about stuff (like why it is his blog doesn't get updated lately), and then we both went our seperate ways. I would have liked going back there with him, but I had a bag full of stuff to unload. And, my sis should have been getting home around that time.

Which brings me to the next part of this post: The introduction of our new little kitten, Gaia. All white except for a small gray spot between her ears. Both me and my sis already have our first scratches. We went to get her in de Bilt, and the poor little kitty was meowing the entire duration of the trip. She seems to have settled into her new environments rather quickly, though. We're hoping she'll enjoy herself and gets the hang of living with the strange people that we are. But for now, she's resting. After all, it was a rather exciting day for her.

So now it seems like I have another bit of regular posting material to annoy you with. I'll tell you more as time continues onward.

See ya!