Yay... :(

Dad dead, mum dead, no work, no income, non-existent.

Whatever.

Geachte ANWB/ Wegenwacht

Geachte ANWB,

Via deze weg zeg ik mijn lidmaatschap ,van de ANWB en de wegenwacht, en het lidmaatschap van mijn vrouw op!

Uw telefonische medewerker heeft mij en mijn vrouw zaterdag 24 september met panne langs de kant van de weg laten staan.
Mijn pasje was nog thuis, ik heb familie moeten opbellen voor het wegenwacht-nummer. De medewerker vond dat geen probleem en stelde mij een aantal vragen, naam adres, geboortedatum, telefoonnummer. Kenteken van de auto, model, merk en kleur. Adres waar we staan.
Het was niet voldoende omdat ik (zo dom was) vertelde dat ik mijn beurs thuis had laten liggen. Nu werd plots de aanvullende eis gesteld dat ik een document bij mij moest hebben waar zowel mijn naam als adres op zou staan. Mijn vrouw liep door haar handtasje, ze had bijna niets meegenomen omdat ik zou rijden. Wel had ze haar ziekenfondspasje en bankpasje. Een handvol rekeningafschriften met naam en adres. En alles wat een vrouw in haar handtasje heeft.
Het was niet voldoende. Uw medewerker weigerde ons te helpen!

Het duurde even voor ik van deze schok bekomen was. Familie bleek te ver weg of niet het materiaal te hebben om ons te helpen. Gelukkig had ik een navigatiesysteem bij mij met POI's waaronder garagebedrijven. Bij het derde telefoonnummer was er iemand blij ons op te halen en de auto mee te nemen voor reparatie. Hoezo bankpasje en bewijzen? Hij kon de auto niet repareren maar bracht ons wel naar huis toe, het uitwisselen van naam en telefoonnummer was voldoende.

Ik ben IK! Deze mail is het ultieme bewijs!
Mijn naam staat onder deze e-mail en ik zeg het lidmaatschap op! Van mij en van mijn vrouw. Wat heb ik er aan als jullie niet willen komen?
Oh, en mijn lidmaatschapnummer weet ik niet meer, de pasjes zijn doorgeknipt en dat blad is op de vuurstapel verbrand.

Onmiddellijke bevestiging van ontvangst van deze e-mail. Het zou leuk zijn als u deze mail zou publiceren, ik zal het helaas niet kunnen nalezen.

Gegroet

eta: geen e-mail adres op de website. Wel een contactformulier voor klachten. Ingevuld als niet-lid (dus zonder lidmaatschapsnummer). Er is een mogelijkheid voor het opzeggen via de website, daarvoor moet je wél eerst een account aanmaken... Hahaha.

Flightgear VCCK

Flightgear LMML 32

Youngest and unemployed

Being the youngest in the family, despite my age, and being unemployed (still) has pushed me into a place I did not enjoy. Taking care of my parents. It sort of became a full time job since they needed much attention.

My goal was to keep them together as long as possible. For that I went there, washed my father, shaved him, make dinner, cleaned etc. All with the wish to have them together as long as possible.
I failed.

Things have happened. I took my dad downstairs and there I had him select a vacation suitcase he has used before on holidays. Back upstairs we packed the suitcase. Took him by the hand and we stepped into my car. My mom joined us and we went away. I had him placed into a nursing home since mom and I could not care for him any more.

Things went from bad to worse. With his condition he has huge problems speaking but has sparckles of presence and will. They drugged him from a walking alive man into a wheelchair unable to walk and talk. The protest I started has eaten me. All my energy was gone.

My family stepped in to help me out, get some distance.
My dad is doing better now. Still drugged, still a PITA at the nursing home, but able to walk, reason and understand.

Trying to find a new balance. Mum, dad, my wife, me.
I know one thing. If I ever feel nearing his stage I'm damn sure I won't get into a nursing home. I'll do what ever it takes to prevent that including leaving early.

Something first

Not found a job. Somehow it's not the right time to find new jobs...Have some applications running so I'm hoping.
Parents are doing ok. It's about the same as half a year ago. They need some special attention and help. It's stable for now.
I discovered that I can drink 3 bottles Grolsch Kanon and not fall down. During the test I had 4, yes at number 4 I could not walk a straight line anymore.
I might even stop beheading rodents.

Something second

Secondlife is not dead, nowhere near. It's alive and kicking.
Info about Secondlife and how good or how bad it's doing can be found here. (it's going great tyvm)
There are between 40.000 and 70.000 people on-line any-time during the day as you can see on this chart. (hope this charts opens)
What I do there? I'm building and selling. Just enough to pay for a small patch of land that I own.
Am I enjoying myself? Hell yess!
Can you find me? Don't know, try it and search. Small chance you find me.
Time? I don't have time, I'm soo busy!
Addictive? If you survive a day, you won't be able to quit any more.

ok, I lied

Have things to report.
The Usenet propagation search machine is now maintained by William Bagwell and has moved to his website. Didn't have time (then) to maintain it.
Lost my job few moths ago and been looking around for something new.
Grandkids still ok. Parents are a huuge worry for me. Still deep into Secondlive.
That's about it.

I'm still alive

Just for the record, I'm still alive and kicking. Not much to report tho

Pneumonia

Oftwel longontsteking. Feeling, er, not to good. On and off bed all the time.
Fever comes and goes.
I fired up Usenet for a while so to follow discussions about the move the groupseacht is making. Using Google to post worked but the tread that I started is hard to find using Google.

I'm still alive

Just so you know :)
The Xantia has been replaced by a Xsara, the job is doing well, the maintenance on the propagation machine is poor, my website is still up, no more Usenet for me, hooked on Secondlife, grandkids doing great (er...). I'm ok :)
2Rowdy waves to the visitors.

Break open a bottle !! Gotta Job !1!

Starting April 2nd I'm on the job securing quality and safety for installation projects. I'm not sure what that all means since I've never done something like this before but if I understand correctly it will look something like this.

The employer does installation projects regarding pipes and cables at building sites. They deliver turn-key projects, i.e. complete delivery, hardware, software, employers 'n all in a complete package. Someone has to make sure that deadlines are met, that the stuff works and that no one gets injured during installation. The project leader has total responsibility but nonetheless someone has to overlook the process.

During project definition there has to be a clear quality definition and points need to be planned so to be able to measure progress on the project, someone needs to check it's all inbuilt. Someone needs to draft up quality and safety procedures. During the build someone needs to check ever so now and then that rules and regulations are applied correctly. At project closure the situation needs to be checked by someone so to assure it's all according to the quality standards agreed with the customer and national regulations.

Well, that'll be me.

Whoohoo!

2Rowdy dances, 2Rowdy twirls, 2Rowdy laughs.

So I'm gonna pop open some bottle with bubbles inside. Could be beer or spoiled grapes, not sure yet but I'm a gonna get extremely drunk soon.

Sick before stress together with plaster

I was having a bad cold. Isn't over yet. My nose was running faster my legs could walk. My coughing rearranged the furniture so hard was my blow.
Everything hurts, specially around my chest. I've had a few nights I left the bedroom so to avoid waking up my dear one. Had it bad.

Tomorrow and the day after tomorrow (there is a film title in here somewhere) I've got job interviews. The one on Wednesday has received blessing from far away. So I'm counting on getting that one. and tomorrow is just an exercise for Wednesday.

I have been reading some of the things I have written, in the recent past. I'm amazing y'know. (LOL) I wonder how I will do in the future. /me complements /me
If there is a fire, will I add a log or leave it to die? Either way. It's warm now.
The above is prolly a total mystery for ya, so it should be. Some mysteries should be just like that.

Something completely different.
My oldest grandson (5yo) has got one leg in plaster. One of his 'friends' pushed him of his bike. That must have hurt like hell, total hell. It was his lower right leg. Nonetheless, the kid is just like his dad, a small expression on his face shows he's hurting but he doesn't say it out loud.
The end of this week he get's a different type of plaster and they have gotten him a kiddy wheelchair since he can't walk and for the time being the leg must be in an upwards position. Strong kid.

Menu: Brick and sliced ham

Ever so often my wife allows me to cook. Though she likes my cooking she always has remarks on how I leave the kitchen behind when I am done. For some reason it resembles a warzone afterwards. Naturaly I clean up the next day but most of the time I'm to late with that, she did the cleaning already.

Yesterday she had pulled a (one inch) slice of ham out of the fridge so with a smile I offered my magic cooking services to prepare that.

Had me a big cooking pan on the fire with some oil in it and dropped the slice in it. I didn't want it to bake too fast or else the meat would become dry so turned down the heat and drank some coffee.

Looked into the pan and the ham was nice and brown on one side but the beast was all curled up. After turning it over I tried to push it down but that didn't work.

My wife was sitting on the couch and looked puzzled when I went into the garden and came back with a big brick.

.

Cleaned it and wrapped tin foil around it. My wife stood up from the couch and looked into the kitchen to see the weird things I was doing.

Placed the wrapped brick onto the ham slice and continued cooking. The eyes of my wife appeared to pop out.

The result was a perfectly cooked thick piece of ham.

Tasted good.

For once I threw the brick back into the garden immediately after use. My kitchen cleaning job for that day was done.

Pathetic looser

I was writing a piece for this blog, in relation with my secondlife experience, revealing what a pathetic looser I am.
Now, the fact that I am a pathetic looser should remain a closely guarded secret.

So, instead I have cleaned up my blog a bit and made this entry.

Long voyage South and back

As announced yesterday I went towards a jobinterview today. Packed my backpack with some food and drinks, a bundle of useful papers and my wife had prepared me a suit to wear. The planner on the internet told me it should be a 2:20h trip, and since I have a floating car (not farting) I name it a voyage. Left with a 40 minutes reserve. Sufficient to tackle most unexpected problems during the voyage.

The voyage went just perfect. I was well ahead of time and the most jam-packed town (Zwolle) had been taken so I took me some time for a cop of coffee at a truckstop. Bought a present for someone dear.

Just after Arnhem, back on the A50, complete gridlock for about 30 minutes. Just after that another traffic-jam and nearing South it was back bumper-to-bumper. Gave me a good chance to make a call telling I would be about 20 minutes late.

That estimate was just about perfect. 20 minutes late.

The interview went good however they were quite clear they were willing to hire me provided they wouldn't have to pay for me for half a year. My competition would be a fresh from HighSchool kid. I tried to make clear that, er, that's not a fair comparisation. Decided I would pull as much info from that consultancy firm as possible and ponder on it for a while.

After the interview I went to a dear friend of mine I have never seen before, christinA. My mission was to hand out hugs from across the ocean (Zoë). I added some of my own. I was offered a sandwich and a few good cups of coffee. We have talked and shared well over two hours. Oh, and I gave her the present, a white cuddly bear cub. Thank you for your warm welcome and when I'm near I'll drop by again furrsure.

The way back went much faster, no traffic-jams this time. But I have seen TWO C6 Citroëns! Alive and floating! (<sniff> I want one, just one<sniff>)

At home I noticed my backpack was wet. No so strange as it has been raining all day but, er, turned out my drinks were spilled all over the inside of my backpack.

I'll write a rejection note for the job tomorrow.

Wish me luck

Got a job-interview tomorrow. However it's a two and a half hour drive away from here so I'm not looking forward to it, the long drive that is. It's a consultancy-firm that operates all over The Netherlands and perhaps they have got something useful for me to do.

My last two interviews didn't work out. For the one they felt I was over-qualified and the other went completely bad, so bad I send them a ty note.

Could do with a break now. I mean, a good bottle of luck, so pls gimme some now.

Backdoor to sl permanently closed

I still had my alt and the programs on my HD giving me a sort of a backdoor to sl.
Today I have given my avatars (in a box) and last camping fees to someone else (don't mess with them Maryld). Modified profile reflecting status, unsubscribed groups, edited preferences so avoiding receiving IM's to e-mail. Canceled the sl account for my alt.

And with a deep sigh uninstalled sl from my HD.

The door is definitely closed now. No IM and chat is possible.

I've never been told why I was poofed and I'll prolly never will know. It still has me confused to be poofed without notice, without an explanation afterwards and without any reason. It at least closed the place I was addicted to permanently, making it hostile, ending most the fun of sl for me.

Yesterday I had the golden opportunity to say farewell to someone very special in sl. With that I'm able to have some sort of a feeling of closure. I hope you find your way and make the right choices. *hugs* and pls let me know how you are doing.

Echo's from the past

Yesterday I have tried to make a rather neutral observation on my activities, life, in secondlife (sl).

Reality is that I'm in the middle of detox/ cold turkey. A lot of things that I do make me remember my time in sl. I'm surprised that a life of just two months can have such an impression on me.

I wished I could go back, back to the warmth and fun and I honestly miss some people I have met in sl. I can't contact them without starting up sl. But I know starting up sl means also being drawn back into the game.

I've had to handle some heavy emotions during the past few days, it isn't over yet.

My real life isn't all that fun. sl gave me a break from that but returning to reality means that life hurts double as hard. Also there are some unresolved issues in sl and I'm unable to resolve them, even if I would return. I'm missing the feeling of closure.

Secondlife, Firstdeath

O.k. The title sounds a bit drastic but it sort of sums up my secondlife during the last period.

After trying some 3d games, ActionCube and Nexuiz, I remembered some Dutch publications about SecondLife so, since it's free, I went for a massive download and an account.

Before I knew it I was completely drawn into the game almost forgetting that it isn't reality.

The game is extremely popular. I've tried to identify why.

The game incorporates a neat way to create 3d objects, houses and other things. You can own land. There is money. You can buy things. There is shopping. There is free stuff laying around. You can look great. The others look great. You can earn money by providing services. The game is filled with erotic pleasures. You can be anyone you want to be. There is chat.
The game plays in a 3d environment that has some physics inbuilt. There can be weight. Things can move. Most of the environment is build by people playing the game.

Oh, and you can fly.

Most gameplayers, residents, are completely addicted, like Usenetizens are, and are completely drawn into the game. I've been there.

I won't write about how the first stages of secondlife are, other blogs are better at that.

In the beginning I was continuously looking for free stuff. Tools, clothing and other stuff.
Next I visited the sites, the places you need to see. There are some great looking buildings and islands to explore.

After that I examined the erotic world of secondlife. It's huge. People can do anything with their avatars (the characters they play). Males can be females and vice versa so all erotic fantasies are lived out to the extremes without attracting dangerous diseases. Though you are 'born' without the essentials (male and female) you can pick them up at various places for free. From a visual aspect. their usage looks rather realistic. I didn't try the extremes, somehow I had the feeling that my avatar could get dirty by it, at least in my mind.

Earning cash is difficult and there are so many things you just need to buy you just want to have cash in your pocket. One easy way of earning some cash is camping. Camping means sitting in a chair as long as possible with your avatar. A flatfee internet comes in handy so you can leave your avatar overnight on a chair and get some cash for it.
That sitting is a service. With it a region-server can be tested with the max amount of visitors. Next to that, places that have visitors attract visitors. The amount of visitors is scored and will place a region to the top of the list when searching. Also I suspect it is used to force people out of areas but I am not sure about that, but if I were a landowner I wouldn't want a massive amount of campers next to me since it would slow down the speed on how a server operates.
Another service many people provide is fulfilling erotic fantasies, the escorts. The escorts need to be able to be good erotic speedwriters so to provide a service and they need to have good looks, naturaly.

Somewhere during my exploits I found an erotic danceclub and that place somehow became my favorite place to visit, and a good reason to camp a lot.

Though there are good gatherings of people where they chat I found that the best place for me was just that club. The reason, erotic chat, normal chat, beautiful ladies (most escorts), interesting bodyparts and just a lot of fun. I spend most of my camping fees there by tipping the ladies on stage and though the value of my tips wasn't high they appreciated my tips.

One of the ladies made me realize that secondlife can cause a brain mixup. I was unable to separate real life from secondlife for a while. Thank you Lady for making me realize I had to take a step back. Another Lady gave me some good hints on how to deal with the game, without her I would have been lost fursure.

Two coincidences collided. I was poofed somehow and my real life started to have cracks. Heh, just look at my blog with the last entry in December last year, or my postings on Usenet.

I have ended my secondlife, so that is firstdeath. Hence the title of this entry.
I canceled my account 21 February.

My secondlife is over. I'm completely exhausted by all the impressions I had.

I didn't put my life on a hold during the game so I lived two lives simultaneously. Tiring. Now that the game is over I can go back and concentrate better on my life. I take the experiences with me and will always look back with a smile on my face and warmth in my heart.

If someone asks: Is secondlife addictive? The answer is: Yes, absolutely, give it a try :-)

Time, time, time

Yeah. OK. I can see it.
Furrgot to update this blog for a century or so. Shame on me.
Not that I didn't do anything in the mean time.
I'll update you soon. Need to put some things aside first and then I'll update.
For the time being, look at some of my older pictures at http://johan.aacity.nl/ .

Wishes rev.2007

Fortgeschrittener

Volgens de ORF Ski Challenge ben ik inmiddels een fortgeschrittener.

Goed hè?

Software that creates software

The Generator Blog is a handy list for lazy webbies..

Musical House

This is a house at christmas time going with the beat of the music.

Nog even vol houden

Nog even vol houden en dan is de radio weer vrij van kerstmuziek en is de tv weer verlost van kerstfilmpjes. Was het maar zover.

I stole me an X-mas card,,

from the internet specially for you,,

Groupsearch hits 60

The Newsgroup Propagation Search Engine aka Groupsearch now lists 60 newsservers.

Yesterday I have received a login on the uiuc.edu server. Thank you Tim.

All the servers are polled daily so that proponents of newsgroups can follow the creation of their newsgroup all over the world.

With this number of servers the groupsearch gives a representable reflection on newsgroup propagation.

New version of the Newsgroup Propagation Search Engine is out!

For a week now I have had a redirect towards William Bagwell's test machine for the NPSE.

He has introduced a few counters. With that it's a lot easier to see how well propagation goes.

It gives a total of servers, total of found and a percentage between them.
Next to that it checks moderation status and gives a count of that.

During the week of testing there were no negative responses, a suggestion of change the colour of a found element has been included.

The new engine is stable so I have removed the redirect and have included the new engine.

Also I have included some additional servers making a total of 58 servers checked.

I wished I could include Giganews in the search but they don't want to help us yet.

Veilig verkeer Midden-Delftland

Rij je rustig achter je voorligger aan,,

House cleaning

I want this,

HouseATTACK_!
Uploaded by lowmax

Project status

According to the program there should be a dual trajectory now. Three days consultancy and two days of masterclasses.

The masterclasses are there but I haven't seen a consultancy mission for me yet. From the class three people have dropped out. The bar was set to high for them. The class consists now of about 25 people.

From those people about 5 have a consultancy job and the rest has three days a week to find a consultancy job. Inspiring.

I guess there will something for me next January, I hope.

The classes are interesting. In depth ICT management, financial management and general management. Other types of masterclasses will follow later on. Somehow I have managed myself in the position of teaching ICT skills to my fellow classmates. In the process I'm updating my ITIL knowledge.

For the ones that missed my original postings on this subject. I'm in a project "opportunities for knowledge workers" and we have a month of assessing behind us. Knowing what we can do and where we want to go.

The result is a bag full of businesscards and a (locked) website containing parts of my resumé. I'll continue towards Quality Assurance and Project Management. Got a job? Mail me! I'm good.

I have reposted the start of the project in this blog for you to read.

De vliegende hollander

Ja, 2Rowdy heeft het te pakken. Sneeuw.

In Nederland een nogal onbekend geworden fenomeen maar daar hebben we het volgende op gevonden.

De ORF SkiChallenge.

Vorig jaar was ik te laat om echt mee te doen maar het gratis spel was voldoende interessant om het te downloaden en te spelen.

Nu is de 2007 versie uit en kan ik mijn tijden on-line bekijken. Ik doe zelfs mee met de Worldcup!

Ok, ik sta niet bepaald hoog in de ranglijsten (37380) met mijn tijd (2'03'') maar toch, voor een Drent niet slecht. Ik vrees dat ik niet beter zal kunnen worden en de wijn naast mijn PC helpt niet.

Drenten zijn knieperts, het spel is dus gratis. Probeer het ook eens en versla mijn prachtige tijd.

Hahaha. Lukt je toch niet.

The blog is dead, long live the blog

On November 27, after a long and exhausting week, I opened up my blog to report the things that had happened in my project.
I discovered that my Wordpress blog had been changed drastically. My content was gone and had been replaced with the content of another blog.
It still looked like my blog but posts, comments and pictures were gone.

After some digging in my logfiles I discovered that someone behind a probable proxy (IP 88.233.124.164) messed around.

The SQL database had been replaced with the content of a blog belonging to one of the developers of Wordpress. Quite obvious that he didn't have anything to do with the hacking.

I did know there was a security leak somewhere since there was an update for the program available a week before. I had the intention of updating the next week but, well, removed the blog before that.

I copied all en removed all and placed a little note on the blog for the hacker to see.

So, now I'm looking around this Google thing. I have FTP setup towards my webspace and I'm still using Livewriter to post. It works.
I have lost most postings and the ones I have are incorrect. As a good sysadmin I don't have an up-to-date backup so I won't be able recreate the blog.

I have setup the old URL to forward to this one and I'm starting a new.

Test

Ja, ja, ja.
Ik zal d'r mee gaan spelen.

A new beginning of a start

(repost)

After two interesting careers both starting from scratch and ending with a load of responsibilities I am home pondering what to do next, motivation is dropping.

A month ago I was discussing this with