Gerko's Weblog |
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My words of Zen-like wisdom : Vacuum cleaners suck because they blow
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Monday, January 05, 2004 Wednesday, December 31, 2003 A little under two hours of 2003 left. Hum. Oh well ... other news : New shiny PC has arrived. On the 20th. AMD 3000+ Processor, 512 Megs RAM, 80 + 20 Gigs HD, 15" TFT screen, Geforce FX 5600. WinXP Professional and Office XP gotten through brother's school for 20 bucks or so. Legally (!) Shiny. Not really 'my' PC, though. More like my siblings' and mom's PC. I get to supervise it during the weekends, and solve any problems that arise due to their computer illiteracy, but I don't get to take it with me. Not that I mind, I don't think I have pushed my own PC (1.6Ghz, 256 Mb RAM, GeForce2) to it's limits yet. Though it could use a clean up after two years. My brother especially is happy with this new thing. He's been meaning to play new games for a while now, and he just went on a new game binge. He wants to play my copy of Temple of Elemental Evil, has been playing Morrowind that came for free with the graphics card. Also, a few days ago, he bought Half-Life. Why ? because he's excited about Half-Life 2 that's going to come out sometime next year. Let's completely skip over the fact that Half-Life would have worked perfectly on the old PC. But I don't mind at all, since I had never played it before, either. It's legendary, but I never played it. Playing it now, though, and it is pretty good. Also, about twice as far into the game as my brother. YES ! I am still the better gamer ! ha-ha. 0wn3d. Rewind : "[...]an ACC, a SACD, and a KV. [...]" An Arthur C. Clarke, a Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and a Kurt Vonnegut. Finished Timequake by Vonnegut, and it was good. Weird, it being half fiction and half real life anecdotes. But good. Very nice. I think I'll try and find some more stuff of this guy. Slaughterhouse Five is supposedly good, but I can only find the shortened version of it. And I despise shortened versions. Hah ! I've been trying to start on A Study in Scarlet, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The very first Sherlock Holmes novel. But there's an intoduction of 67 pages at the beginning, and an explaining text of about 80 pages at end. Together, that makes about 20 pages more than the actual story is worth. But no worries, I'll get started on it. Maybe tonight, even. And then there's the Motherload. Coming in at 1100+ pages, is a collection of short stories by Arthur C. Clarke. Starting with his earliest published stories, and going on from there. Some of the earlier ones are an ... well ... how should I put this ... unpleasant read. It doesn't flow nicely, or is just too wild//chaotic. But it's getting better. Not that far into it yet, so I'd better go read some more of those stories, too. I'll re-update the book counter as soon as I feel like it. And not a moment sooner. Sinterklaas Well, hum. Was nice enough, I think. Been a while ago already now, and nothing too extraordinary happened. Got a nice little game called The Temple of Elemental Evil, but I haven't been able to get past character creation because of creative difficulties. (Such a "Gerko" thing to do, really. Not playing the game because one can't decide with what kind of characters to play it with. Horrible. Hah !) Sunday, December 28, 2003 For all bloody excuses I could write for not blogging earlier and skipping over oh-so many subjects (I do intedn to come back to 'em soon) ... here's a short little message : Gerko's going swimming. I haven't been to a pool for years. I haven't swam for ages ! So remember, If I don't come back, I probably drowned. Friday, December 05, 2003 So, I kinda wanted to blog some more stuff, but I'm not really sure what about. PC at home-home is near-death. This weekend, it's going to be put out of it's misery and salvaged for useable parts. That means no internet for Gerko until sunday evening. Will he survive ? ... probably. I went to the library yesterday, and got my hands on an ACC, a SACD, and a KV. (What are those ? Oh, hush. Just wait for the book counter when I update it after the weekend) There's a Nanowrimo gathering in Utrecht next sunday, but I don't think I'll make it. Quite a bunch of people I've gotten to know a bit over MSN have said there weren't going either, and it's bloody expensive to take the train there and all. Also, long trip and ... *shrugs* Hum. Heading for home-home now. "Sinterklaas" tomorrow. Well, actually today, but we celebrate it tomorrow since my sister won't be home-home till saturday. Will fill you in about all that, too, when I get back online next time. Saturday, November 29, 2003 Back on my way home. Spend a nice afternoon//evening at my grandparents's. Think that might've been the first time I ever visited them on my own, and it was ... well, a little odd. But good nontheless. So we had some chats, dinner, and I also watched a bit of the movie Notting Hill together with my aunt. Which was nice, too. (Realisation that handwriting sucks. I blame the train for not having a proper place to write on and for rocking so much. Also might not be trying to write nicely because the NS has provided me with such a lovely scapegoat.) As for my thoughts on going to Leiden next year ... I'm still bloody clueless. The "Practical Courses" class this afternoon didn't help too much with providing me an anwser, but one of the possible courses of that one does seem to offer something a bit more 'meaty' - technical. Though I'd have to say I'm already quite capable of about half they'd want to teach me in that set-thingie, too. Well, maybe not half, but, like, one third, at least. (Computers, webpages, databases, programming. Sorta) ... So it's an interesting choice. Worst part about it is that is it a "Practical Course", and thus somewhat aimed at the job market. And the described role in those occupations would be pretty close to the things I do NOT want to do for a living. Descriptions that get close to some of the reasons why I quit Electrical Engineering. ... Okay. Maybe it's not that bad. I can see it happen. Also, there are 52 possible choice options, and this is just one of 'em. I really could invision myself here, following this. But as I said, I'm having a bit of a harder time imagining myself sitting here with my heart in it. And I'm going to need that. So I wonder if taking all that trouble for that Colloquium Doctum is worth it if I decide that this course is "not for me", either, after another half year or so. Just switched trains. Should be set for a while again. Where was I ? Oh yes. I'm on my way to Leiden, and it has practically nothing to do with "the girl half way across the street". Gerko's going to an "Open day" at the Leiden University, to see if the "English Language and Culture" course they have there is something I might be interested in. -Okay, that's bull. I am interested in it. That's basicly the entire point. To see if my interest in it justified. ~blah-blah-blah - you know the deal. There's a college (class ? - example lesson) that starts at 10:30, so you can see why I'm itchy about being late. If all goes well (and it has, so far), I might still make it. If not ... well, bummer, but at least I'll still be on for the general "Well now we're going to you what this study is all about"-thing, which starts at 11:15. If I can't make that; well, curse you, NS, for you messed up above and beyond the call of duty. But as I said, things seeem to be going alright for now. Just gotta keep my fingers crossed. [Imagine really ugly handwriting] Did you know it's a real pain writing while having your fingers crossed? - it sucks, so I'm like going to uncross 'em now in a bit. (No spelling errors though, Just fugly writing which is different from typing with crossed fingers, which produces loads of typos. HAH [/End of really ugly handwriting] Back to normal now. There was also an entry I wanted to write about how my handwriting changed, a while ago, almost at once. I think it reverted to it's old self again now, though. With the exception of the 'rounder' W's and Y's. Well, here I am. I made it. Just in time, too. Well, I was one minute later, I suppose, but there were a few otheres who arrives at the same time. So there. No problem. What could be considered a problem is that I still don't know if this is what I want. I'm not *truly* interested in any of the main fields this course offers. And well ... most would be pretty tough on me. Nothing I couldn't learn, ofcourse,but I doubt if my heart would be really in it. Good grief, did I just waste €30 on a train ticket ? - Well, it's not that bad ... But still. Annoying. There's another 'class' or so in ... 10-15 minutes. Not something I'm truly interested in either, but it might help and give another bit of a push. One side of me says to just do it, while the other side screams out and asks for something a bit more 'meaty'. Exciting parts parts I could sink my teeth in (Something "Beta" sided, probably) There's some "Okay, Now We're Going To Tell You How Computers Work" thing in the second half of the first year, but that's bound to teach me nothing new. But if not this ... then what else ? In effect, I did not learn much. ... Okay, that's not really true. I did get a lot better view on what "English Language and Culture" is, but it didn't really change my, rather apathic, opinion. (But I already said that. Well. Let's see. Hum. What ELSE. uh ... ~flargh) Five more minutes left beofre I can go to that room. So, what else is new ? let's see.
Well, wahooey ~! Overslept this morning, so now I'm in a train about 30 minutes later. Going for some stops and switches though, so that's going to suck, and I just hope I might still be on time. It ... should be possible, though unlikely. So, another hand-written entrym hum ? It's abeen a while, surely.I started on a few before, but finished none. (And thus never uploaded any, either.) One I did almost finish was one at a party//'family gathering'. Early summer, three of my grandmother's (Dad's side) grandchildren graduated High School that month (including my sister), so it called for a celebration of sorts. It was nice enough, and maybe I need to topy over that entry and put it up anyway, even if it's 6 months overdue. Some other entries were going to be about apologizing for not blogging, sending June another package, and the proof on my theory of having Magical Facial Hair of Depresssion, which has the amazing ability to depress me up until the moment I shave it off. Anyway, Gerko's in a train right now, heading for ... Leiden ! But alas, I won't visit Elise, since she decided to come home-home this weekend. (Why? Why !? - I still haven't seen her room since she moved internally. Which was ... uh ... a long time ago.) |