Rob: Life's a test.

Househunting

2008-07-18T09:51:35Z

Over the past years I've been looking at quite a few options when it comes to finding a new house. It's not easy, and luckily there's no rush since I have a shared apartment right now, but still it's nice to have a place of your own. Sadly I need to win the lottery first or marry a rich widow before I have decent options.

Leiden? With current budget I end up on the third or fourth floor of a 1960's flat without elevator, or at the outskirts of town. Or in a 24 m2 studio.
Schiedam? Affordable apartments, linked to Rotterdam by metro and rail. Too far down south though for my current job.
Zoetermeer? Affordable apartments, linked to The Hague by bus and rail. Little closer to work than Schiedam, but still tricky because of nearby highway traffic bottlenecks.
Hilversum? Bit of both: same old flats like Leiden and also big bottlenecks (A1) from there to Amsterdam
Alphen aan de Rijn? Affordable apartments, but all at the very edge of town, far away from the access to the motorways.
Amsterdam Zuidoost - Bijlmer region? Affordable apartments, close to work but has a bad reputation (crime, deterioration, high unemployment rate). City is trying to invest in everything that helps to improve the area, but word is you still don't want to be out after dark.

So everything has its pros and cons. Then this week I heard some good stories about another part of Amsterdam Zuidoost. Motorway nearby, close to work, affordable, nice area, lake, hospital nearby, subway to city center nearby. Think I'll keep an eye on the area from now on. Which area? Gein/Gaasperdam. See below for visual reference. CLICK TWICE to get the full picture.

Any thoughts?

Bunny rescue fund in need of donations

2008-07-16T20:29:43Z

A sweet bunny could really use a little help, no matter how small. Read her story by clicking on the image.

Hobbyserver LAN weekend, the deluxe edition.

2008-07-14T09:05:40Z

This one goes out to jonesybunny and damanique, but everyone else: keep reading.

Hey Dutchies? If you've ever wanted to go to a LAN party weekend, but were afraid of sweaty gamers in a sportshall who can only stare at their screen: think again! This one is totally different:

Date: August 15-17
Venue: AINSI in Maastricht, a former industrial building at the limestone quarry of ENCI.
Location: Satellite picture, Lage Kanaaldijk 113, Maastricht

BONUS! During that same weekend there's a cultural festival on the AINSI grounds with music, theater, film, dance, visual arts, sports and shows!

There's room for 40 people at the LAN, right now there's 17 people registered. This LAN *needs* more people, it is going to be so much fun. I am also hosting a little show (Cheetah's Freakshow) with one hour of the best/worst internet videos. No gaming experience required, just a decent PC and/or laptop.

Costs: 12,50 euro if you pay before august 1st, 17,50 after. That includes 2 breakfast buffets with the legendary Hobbyserver cheese toasties. Everything else you need to know (about registering and what to bring) can be found HERE (in dutch).

Come one, come all. Historical venue, festival, Limburgse Vlaai, and me as your host. What more could you possibly want? :P

Hashshashin!

2008-07-14T08:19:58Z

It could have been such a productive weekend. Same as with previous weekends. But the XBOX 360 has me in its clutches. I finally finished Mass Effect last week, then I was so foolish to borrow bander's copy of Assassin's Creed. And that's what ate up this weekend (along with an awesome Mystery Visit to Restaurant Woods in Leiden. So after three days of furious climbing, stabbing city guards, eavesdropping, pickpocketing and interrogating, five of The List Of Nine have been slain by my hand, and the sixth is moments away from meeting his doom (Second mark in Jerusalem: the executioner). It's been a while since I've been sucked up in good storylines and visually appealing games. I don't mind the repetitive quests or simple button bashing as much. And you know what? I don't miss World of Warcraft one single bit.

Mmmm, gaming. Procrastination at its finest. And I still have a few cars and gates to find in Burnout Paradise. If only I didn't suck so much at Stunt Runs.

Summer in the Netherlands.

2008-07-12T07:35:40Z

My dad has a saying: "We were lucky that summer fell on a weekend this year." My father is wise. This weekend is clearly not the weekend of summer. It was pouring like crazy this night and morning. Did I mention I sleep under a flat roof?

Here's a pic of 6:20 a.m. this morning. And yes, I live along the coast, somewhere in the middle.

Hell yeah.

2008-07-11T05:45:47Z

Max Payne movie trailer finally released! Checklist:
- Bullit time: check
- Mona Sax: check
- Valkyr: check
- Original theme: check
- Aegir: check
- Gritty monologue: check

Can't wait for this one!

Have a lolcat

2008-07-09T13:46:48Z

Artist needs advice

2008-07-09T07:47:22Z

Hey all,

First: a request for all the artists who read my LJ: charreed needs advice on making a portfolio to send out with job applications. Read here and help her get a cool job!

In other news:

- Finished Mass Effect, it was a very nice game, great story. steelhelix, if you ever get your paws on a copy (it's available for Xbox360 and PC), I think you're gonna love playing the commander of a revolutionary starship trying to save the galaxy from total destruction, where you get to choose if you're a goody two shoes Paragon, or the whatever-it-takes Renegade. Next game on the list: Assassin's Creed.

- Went to a pub quiz yesterday. Colleague asked me for help, since one of his regular teammembers couldn't make it. I came, saw and we conquered. Especially the music intro round, I was throwing out the artists and titles left and right with everyone else at my team going WTF!?! Mwahaha. As first prize, we got to choose from a collection of bargain bin DVD's, I picked Needful Things for Roomie Rick's Stephen King collection.

- Phoned the cardealer yesterday to ask if there was any news on my new ride yet. So far I'd been under the impression that it would arrive somewhere at the end of August. WRONG! As far as the salesman can see it now, the car is expected to arrive in the last week of September, then needs a few days in the garage for upgrades, so currently I'm looking at October 1st. 12 bloody weeks to go.....

That's all for now. Back to work!

T minus one year.

2008-07-07T10:47:37Z

Dear Rob,

Thank you very much for applying as a working guest volunteer at the Cheetah Conservation Fund facility in Namibia for 1 month between June and December 2009. I will forward your information to Dr. Laurie Marker for her approval. It seems that she already gave you approval by asking you to bring over equipment but I would still like to check with her and then get back to you.

In the meantime, feel free to review our website - www.cheetah.org - for more information about the types of research and educational programmes we are currently implementing.

We will be in touch soon and we appreciate your passion and interest in helping the cheetahs.

Kind regards,
Heike Stackmann
Cheetah Conservation Fund
Volunteer Coordinator

The waiting game

2008-07-04T14:31:54Z

My application form and resume have been sent out to the Cheetah Conservation Fund for their 2009 Working Guest program. I'm pretty sure I won't be turned down, but still, I'm giddy and nervous at the same time!

Went to the Hard Rock Karaoke yesterday with hiryu and thaily and fun times were had. YOU GOTTA FIGHT.... FOR YOUR RIGHT .... TO PAAAAAARTAYYYY! *cough*

Today is also filled with awesome, despite the news of Michael Turner's passing. bander knows the right people and so he and I are going to see Roni Size and Reprazent in Amsterdam tonight. Jazzy Drum and Bass, here we come!

Rest in peace, Michael Turner.

2008-07-04T07:58:41Z

This happened a week ago and if thaily hadn't mentioned it, I probably wouldn't have found out for another few weeks. Comic-book artist Michael Turner dies at 37.

Damn, damn, damn, Michael was my favorite artist. It was known that he had cancer, but he went into surgery a couple of years ago, so I thought they managed to get rid of it. Guess I was wrong. 37, far too young. Rest in peace, Michael. Your legacy, Aspen Comics, will live on. The talents that you trained will make you proud.

Thank yous!

2008-07-03T07:40:24Z

Thank you jonesybunny for helping me on my quest for bumwine! He'll be bringing MD 20/20, Thunderbird and Wild Irish Rose home for me. Now I will finally taste the horror that is american bumwine, the worst of the worst of wines. The stuff that makes you want to crawl up on a heating duct under a bridge with a brown paper bag. Mwahahaha.

Thank you charreed for your written letter. I got it in the mail yesterday, I'll write back this weekend. Your handwriting is cool! As a matter of fact, I'm just gonna steal your idea and do the same:

If you want a genuinely handwritten letter from me, in a real envelope with actual postmarks, then leave your address here (comments are all screened) and what you want me to talk about. In return I expect to get a letter back from you after you receive mine.

In totally different news, I tried my first glass of soy milk this morning. Mostly out of curiosity and because people say it's better than cow's milk (tried goat's milk as well, but ... ew). It was .... interesting. Sweeter than normal milk, leaves a bit of a 'film' on your tongue, the first association I made was 'rice pudding'.

Tonight another installment of Live Hard Rock Karaoke. About time I picked a song to sing. Already done: I believe in a thing called love by The Darkness, No One Knows by Queens of the Stone Age, The Pretender by Foo Fighters and last month Paradise City by Guns 'n Roses. I think..... it's gonna be Bon Jovi tonight "SHOT TO THE HEART AND YOU'RE TO BLAME!" :D

One day I'll fly away...

2008-06-27T12:28:08Z

Just daydreaming a little. Thought I'd check and see how much a ticket to Namibia would cost me. Well, from Amsterdam they're horrible expensive. So I looked around a bit more. Were I to fly from Germany, a ticket from Dusseldorf would cost me around 930 euro, and from Frankfurt around 840 (both with South African Airlines, cheapest rates). But that would mean a four hour drive to the airport. OK, Belgium next. Brussels - London Gatwick - Windhoek, with Air Namibia.... 802,15! Nice... and quite doable. So costwise a ticket would cost me around 800 euro (barring more fuel tax on top of the ticket price) and the fee for 4 weeks of working at CCF would be US$ 5250 (used to be 5000, but is now with 5% processing fee. D'oh.).

Now I know I can get a discount on that fee because I'm an adoption parent for one of the resident cheetahs (Klein), I just don't know the exact amount of the discount. Plus: the chairwoman of the dutch Spots foundation has connections with Air Namibia, so with luck even a discounted plane ticket MIGHT be possible. But still, if I had to pay full price for the plane ticket AND the stay, it'd be:
802,15 + (5250*0.5865) = 3880.79 Euro. Oh, plus 47 Euro for a Namibian work permit, plus 85 euro for shots (Yellow fever, Hepatitis A, DTP). Let's make it an even 4000 euro max. Wow. One year to save for that. Should be doable with a bonus here and a 13th month there plus vacation pay next year. Yeah, I think I'll be good :) Got a good camera already, now just for a fancy telelens with image stabilisation somewhere around Xmas.

Damn, pre-vacation jitters. And it's still over a year away.

It took me 10 tries.....

2008-06-26T15:01:19Z

In 7m 51s

Click here to Play

Failed a couple of times on one lousy state or getting spelling wrong. This time Kentucky finally popped up after 3 minutes of blank staring at the last open state.

Music for the soul

2008-06-26T12:10:53Z

I overslept this morning for the first time in ... uhm ... can't even remember. No harm done though, I'll just work a bit longer today and tomorrow to make up for it. And so I sit here, trying to juggle paychecks and hoursheets in our internet testing module, seeing if everything still works with the latest update installed. Pumped everything I have by Jamiroquai on a USB stick, plugged it in, headphones on and zoooom. Ah, bliss. In my own little world (not entirely true, I only keep one ear covered with my headphones. To block everything out would be considered rude and ineffective).

maartje's graduation party tonight. Think I'll shock everyone and take the bike into Leiden. Hoping for no rain tonight. Then tomorrow: work, squash, Kung Fu Panda on the big big screen. Saturday: haircut and the Mount Everest of to-iron shirts. Sunday: Watch final 3 episodes of Heroes season one and do radio show. And jog.

Kung Fu Panda, the IMAX experience

2008-06-26T09:36:11Z

4 tickets have been booked for Pegla, o_kill, Storm and me. There's still tickets available, so for those of you who missed the initial invitation, you can book at pathe.nl or just show up tomorrow night, there's no seating plan.

Kung Fu Panda on IMAX screen, friday 20:00 at the Amsterdam Arena Pathe. Wax on, wax off.

Your wednesday giggle

2008-06-25T11:24:00Z

Source: BNN Calender.

Strange laws in the US!:

- Illinois: It is forbidden to feed lit cigarettes to dogs, cats and other pets
- Connecticut: It is forbidden to cross the street walking on your hands
- Michigan: A woman is not allowed to visit the hairdresser without her husband's consent
- Florida: It is obscene to shower in the nude
- Massachusetts: It is forbidden to defecate on your neighbour
- It is not allowed to cross the border between Minnesota and Wisconsin with a duck on your head
- New Mexico: Women are not allowed to appear in public unshaven
- Oklahoma: Making faces to a dog is punishable by law
- Colorado: Women are not allowed to wear red dresses on the public road after 7pm
- California: It is not allowed to ride a bike in the Baldwin Park swimmingpool
- Jesper, Alabama: It is forbidden to hit your wife with a stick thicker than your thumb
- Blythe, California: Wearing cowboy boots is punishable by law, unless you own at least two cows.

Fast replies needed (Dutchies)

2008-06-25T10:46:07Z

Date: Friday 27 June
Time: 20:00
Place: Pathe Arena Amsterdam

What: Kung Fu Panda on the big IMAX screen.

Reply here by midnight if you want me to book tickets. (12 euro a piece).

Something in the air?

2008-06-19T07:45:06Z

Colleague getting married....
Colleague expecting baby....
Friends getting married...
Friend GOT married secretly two days ago...
Lots of friends buying houses and moving...
Old friends from long ago supposedly hooked up and just became parents...

I'm having a hard time keeping up with all the news!

Anything else I missed?

Download Day

2008-06-17T20:02:15Z

Wanna be part of a world record? You still have a couple of hours to download Firefox 3 :)

http://www.mozilla.com/firefox

More fitness stuff

2008-06-15T23:16:08Z

OK, besides from my new 'fitness' filter, thaily also came up with the idea of starting a community here on LJ for our friends and their friends where we can all get together and support each other on our way to a healthier body.

So, without further ado, I invite everyone who wants in on this fun little community to join flabs_of_fury!

Membership is by approval only, and all posts there are going to be locked (remember that!), so we can all be honest to each other without outsiders poking fun at us.

New fitness filter

2008-06-15T13:35:19Z

Hey all,

Today I started my first day of the rest of my life. < / cliche >

No, really. I made time and starting doing workout things. Now, I can understand that not everyone would want to read about a guy trying to lose weight, eating healthy and sweating a lot along the way, but those of you interested in the numbers, leave a comment here that you'd like to be added to my fitness filter. Everything related to the topic of me trying to exchange my moobs for a sixpack (mwahaha) will go there from now on. Any and all support there is welcome too. If only to keep me sharp and prevent me from turning this into failed attempt number #umpteen.

Edit: The first post is up, so once you've been added, you have some reading material.

A selfish post

2008-06-14T22:38:09Z

- Two more months for my new car to arrive. The waiting is painful.
- Tax refund should be getting in any day now. Once it does, it goes straight to my debt. After that: only 500 euro's to go!
- It's hard for a capitalistic gadgetfreak like me to think about saving money. I can't remember the last time I had money stowed away on a savings account. Last year I kicked myself and got my finances sorted, getting rid of my debt (5000 Euro) bit by bit. I could've been out of debt by now, but I made one final purchase: my digital camera. But still... I want a new computer because my old one is over two years old. I want an iPhone because I had one in my hands last week and had to admit it was a cool gadget. I want a HD TV just because my little brother has one. Notice the fact that I don't really NEED any of those things. It helps that I have a long term goal to look forward to. It's become a mantra: "Save your money and you can go to Africa next year."
- Tomorrow I'm gonna start the jogging schedule. I'm getting more exercise now, also playing squash ball once a week and doing a staircase-walk at work twice a week, climbing the stairs to the top (11th) floor and back with two colleagues. Had a chat with pegla and I might try his diet recommendations. I need to cut down on soft drinks and beef up the water consumption again. Oh, and crunches.
- Saving the money for Africa also has the drawback that I can't do much in terms of vacation this year. Have two weeks off planned mid-august. I'll spend a few of the days in Maastricht, attending a friend's LAN party weekend as semi-staff. Still can't help but feel a little jealous when I hear about holiday destinations from colleagues and friends.
- With regards to gaming: I've put all my MMO gaming in the freezer. WoW account is frozen since last week. I ordered myself to stay off the Warcrack and do less online until Spellborn comes out, which is expected in a month or three. Thanks to the XBOX and Steam I can bridge the gap with Mass Effect, Half Life 2 and Burnout Paradise.
- Argh, I also want to get back into the series I'm following. Need to finish Flikken Maastricht season 1, Lost season 4 (first half), Heroes season 1 and 24 season 4.
- Highschool reunion at the end of september. More incentive to at least shed a few pounds :D
- Househunting sucks. The housing market is way too expensive at the moment, unless I want to live three stories high in a 50's building in a shabby neighborhood of The Hague, Rotterdam or Amsterdam. I just want a decent apartment in Leiden, is that too much to ask? Well, yes it is. I couldn't even afford anything NICE there if my salary doubled. And no, I don't want to live in Almere either. So at least for the next year and a half you can still find me in Katwijk.
- Grandma's getting REALLY forgetful now, asking mom three times if she wanted coffee.....
- Aunt's considered 'clean', all cancer having been removed and no additional treatment deemed necessary. Only bi-annual checkups.

There, I emptied my head. That's everything for now. Enjoy your sunday, folks.

Over and out.

Euro 2008, match 2.

2008-06-13T21:22:52Z

NETHERLANDS 4
FRANCE 1

Mwahahahaha! \o/

For those who don't really follow football/soccer: Italy is the current reigning World Champion. France is the runner up, having lost the last final to the Italians. Current European Champion is Greece, but no one expects them to repeat that. I think the Dutch will be top of the bookies' lists tomorrow :D

[Dutch] Games in Concert 3!

2008-06-13T12:14:27Z

* Games in Concert 3 op 15 november in Utrecht, Kaartverkoop start zaterdag 14 juni *

Vanaf zaterdag 14 juni start de kaartverkoop van Games in Concert 3, dat 15 november plaatsvindt in Vredenburg Leidsche Rijn. Tijdens dit concert wordt muziek van topgames als World of Warcraft, Heavenly Sword en Duke Nukem uitgevoerd door het Metropole Orkest, en bekende nationale en internationale artiesten. Games in Concert 3 vindt plaats op zaterdagavond 15 november in Vredenburg Leidsche Rijn. Kaarten voor dit concert zijn te koop via Ticketservice

Meer informatie is te vinden op de speciale Games in Concert-site, www.gamesinconcert.nl.

Games in Concert heeft zich als evenement inmiddels bewezen. Verleden jaar traden tijdens de tweede succesvolle editie van Games in Concert de Portugese fado-zangeres Christina Branco, rapper Brainpower en de band Intwine op. Bij Games op Concert 1 waren de Nederlandse band The Sheer en zangeres Floor Jansen van After Forever te gast. Tijdens Lowlands 2006 vond Games in Concert plaats in een overvolle Alpha-tent, voor meer dan 15.000 enthousiaste bezoekers.