null's journal

Well, what happened today. I'm still feeling a bit sick (since Saturday), but it might have gotten a little bit better. Since Orchid is in Zürich and my neighbor doesn't appear to seek my company / technical advice / weed tonight, I've finally found the time for another round of house (or apartment) improvement. Today this means fixing the (more or less) new carpet in the hall and installing another shelf & more power plugs in the kitchen. (The amount of power plugs in my apartment is amazing. A quick count shows that there are approx. 16 non-computer-related devices permanently connected to electricity!)
All that's left now is installing a second closet in the bathroom and painting part of the hall white (it is now a strange kind of grey). And I'm sure our next Ikea trip will give me plenty of new ideas! :-)

The thing that made my day:
A little more than two weeks ago I sent a packet of Swiss chocolate to my ISP to thank them for almost 5 years of outstanding (sic) service. Today the thank you mails have started pouring in, and I'm pretty sure even their CEO is among the writers! Talk about proximity to customers. :-)

What's that white stuff doing out there?

Well, another year is over and I'm 2.5% closer to retirement. (Only 39 more years to go - yay!)

Stats so far (11am):
People who happy birthday'd me so far - 8
People who called early - 3 (it's appreciated nonetheless!)
Earliest call today - mum @ 08:15 (*yawn*)
Most distant call so far - Orchid from Hiroshima
Most surprising felicitation - my telephone company wishing me a beautiful day (!)
Presents received so far - 1 (IKEA Family gift certificate)
Presents promised but not yet picked up - 2
Birthday party - will be seriously late because of several reasons.

Wow, all of a sudden I feel so grown-up.

More than 10 years old, but so true with what's going on now - and one hell of a good song. :-)

Guns N'Roses - Civil War

"What we've got here is failure to communicate.
Some men you just can't reach...
So, you get what we had here last week,
which is the way he wants it!
Well, he gets it!
N' I don't like it any more than you men."

Look at your young men fighting
Look at your women crying
Look at your young men dying
The way they've always done before

Look at the hate we're breeding
Look at the fear we're feeding
Look at the lives we're leading
The way we've always done before

My hands are tied
The billions shift from side to side
And the wars go on with brainwashed pride
For the love of God and our human rights
And all these things are swept aside
By bloody hands time can't deny
And are washed away by your genocide
And history hides the lies of our civil wars

D'you wear a black armband
When they shot the man
Who said "Peace could last forever"
And in my first memories
They shot Kennedy
I went numb when I learned to see
So I never fell for Vietnam
We got the wall of D.C. to remind us all
That you can't trust freedom
When it's not in your hands
When everybody's fightin'
For their promised land
And

I don't need your civil war
It feeds the rich while it buries the poor
Your power hungry sellin' soldiers
In a human grocery store
Ain't that fresh
I don't need your civil war
Ow, oh no, no, no, no, no

Look at the shoes you're filling
Look at the blood we're spilling
Look at the world we're killing
The way we've always done before
Look in the doubt we've wallowed
Look at the leaders we've followed
Look at the lies we've swallowed
And I don't want to hear no more

My hands are tied
For all I've seen has changed my mind
But still the wars go on as the years go by
With no love of God or human rights
'Cause all these dreams are swept aside
By bloody hands of the hypnotized
Who carry the cross of homicide
And history bears the scars of our civil wars

"We practice selective annihilation of mayors and government officials for example to create a vacuum then we fill that vacuum as popular war advances peace is closer"

I don't need your civil war
It feeds the rich while it buries the poor
Your power hungry sellin' soldiers
In a human grocery store
Ain't that fresh
And I don't need your civil war
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no
I don't need your civil war
I don't need your civil war
Your power hungry sellin' soldiers
In a human grocery store
Ain't that fresh
I don't need your civil war
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no uh-oh-uh, no uh-oh, uh no
I don't need one more war

I don't need one more war
No, no, no, no uh-oh-uh, no uh-oh, uh no

(What's so civil 'bout war anyway?)

Having started my two and a half office-free weks on thursday (was about fscking time), I finally find the time to do some stuff around the house, or in my case, around the apartment. After sorting and labelling all of my CDs, I've decided to pick up a far greater challenge - sorting and labelling my floppy disks.

Before

After

Modern technology is wonderful, isn't it. Anybody cares for a copy of Duke Nukem 2? :-)

Today I'll have to clean my kitchen, and on Monday we're flying to Greece for a week. Yay! :-D

Code for the following 7 days:

void Crete()
{
  while ((location==beach)||(location==poolside)) {
    do_nothing() ;
    if ((sun==hot)&&(idle_time>=3600)) turn_around() ;
    if ((hungry)||(thirsty)) {
      wait_for(waiter) ;
      lift_hand() ;
      request("menu") ;
      sql_query("SELECT tasty_food,cold_drink FROM menu") ;
    }
    if (bored) {
      switch(random(5)) {
         case 1 : sql_query("INSERT Orchid INTO pool USING force") ;
                  while (Orchid.screaming==true) have_fun() ;
                  break ;
         case 2 : read(book) ;
                  break ;
        default : watch_bikini_girls() ;
      }
    }
  }
}

This post was edited by null on Jul 19, 2003.

Got myself a 19" monitor today because the old (17") one was starting to act funny.
Damn, everything is so big now.