It's 18:30 when I walk through the desolate streets of Den Helder. Wind blows the leaves around me in peculiar patterns, while the dusk of the evening is setting in. It's then that I realise – I love this season. Just before leaving the train, I put Absolution by Muse in my diskman again. I think I love this album even more than three years ago when it just came out. While I continue walking, I leave the shopping area. There's more space here. Parking spots, trees, channel and such. The trees bounce around under the influence of the wind. Rain starts to fall. It hits me in the face, given extra power by the wind. Autumn is great. Temperatures dropping? Not a problem. It was cozy yesterday. First we watched The Breakup. Then Pulp Fiction. The atmosphere is candles, yellowish soft light and rain softly ticking against the windows cannot easily be rivaled. Sometimes I get the impression that I'm the only person who loves this weather – who would not rather be someplace warmer. It's incredible how much (sea)wind gets lost if you live a bit further inland. I'll certainly try to move closer to the sea again in a couple of years.
I'm in the train. There's something in my eye. My right eye. I squeeze my eye shut. Open it. Squeeze it shut again. Thank God, no need to walk around with a sucky feeling in my eye, or to endanger it with the bacteria which probably got on my hands after touching stuff in the bus and the train. I smile at that thought. A guy looks at me, with an uneasy look on his face. He shifts a seat and seems to specifically look away from me. He must have thought that I winked at him, twice, and then smiled, at him. I was looking at his direction when I squinted my eye, I just didn't see anything. I enjoy the little pleasures in life. This is certainly one of them. He peeks in my direction again just while I'm enjoying this and I smile at that thought. I think he caught the smile. He seems to have hidden behind a seat now. The train arrives at a station. I was studying the landscape passing by, but when the train isn't moving, that's not very interesting. My attentions swifts towards the people leaving the train. I see that guy, standing up from his seat. He seems to start walking in my direction, to leave the train. I wink at him, once, and smile. He flees the train in the opposite direction. I grab pen and paper out of my bag and write down what just happened, while listening to Stockholm Syndrome by Muse. Hysteria just begins to play while I write down these last sentences. Typing would have been so much faster. I skip back a few tracks. Stockholm Syndrome. I love that song. More volume. More bass. Now the only thing missing is wireless internet in the train.
Yeah, I had forgotten how fun it is to talk to complete strangers for a bit there. Or well, I hadn't, since you do so automatically, but like at a birthday party where you know almost nobody. In the meantime I've been trying to think of the perfect (wooden) toy-tank to draw. I've been looking at real tanks to get an idea, but I still haven't quite thought of my third drawing (I've made two so far). I should write more. Chat less. Or something like that. Perhaps I'll create a new design for my weblog, that would probably also give me an incentive to write more. :P
So most of my time in the past few weeks has been in learning to draw like an industrial designer. For the rest I haven't been doing very much, but that will change in a week. Yesterday one of my new housemates held his birthday party here. I didn't really know any of his friends and just talking to a bunch of strangers is always fun. I also met a girl who was really small, only 1,50m. Perhaps I'll finally watch V for Vendetta this evening. I know that I enjoyed the comic books.
Yesterday we drank eight different kinds of Grolsch beer and gave it marks in various areas. I don't particularly remember the details at the moment, but it was fun to be extremely critical and give really low marks to everything. The Grolsch Weizen got my highest mark, a 7,5 overall. We almost made a video to put on YouTube of a mate peeing in his glass and then drinking it, but he decided to get out of the drinking part the last minute. We do have some nice shouting videos though. In other news, I realised that if I create stuff I should just throw it on my dA account for for future reference and such. So check out the fish I drew for Lin. It should be on its way to Portugal right now...
It seems so real. So harsh. It forces me to do things. I must get up early tomorrow? What are you talking about? I have a cold and a tad of a fever? Why now? I must make extra effort to get enlisted in the sketching and concept drawing class? Damn you, life. Life is great, life sucks, life is temporary. Oh that's right, did you notice? I implemented my sidenotes here basically when I created this layout, more than half a year ago. But guess what, I never used them until now! Why not? I don't know. Sidenotes are exciting! Contrary to what the text might tell you, sidenotes are geeky and boring. What's that? The washing machine stopped spinning. I will put my wet laundry on the lines now. They shall dry. Be smoke-free. That's right, the past two weeks there was the introduction for the freshmen. The introduction mainly consists of lots of drinking, general partying, dancing and such in, sadly, smokey environments. Of course I had to catch a cold just near the end of it. Great combination with a lack of sleep. So I slept, or at least stayed in bed, for 10 hours today. I have to be at something at 10:00 in the morning tomorrow. Consequently I'll start going to bed at around 22:45 today. My early record of the past week was 2:30, which was last night because I didn't feel very well. Luckily that way I only have to get up between 8:30 and 9:30, depending on how much I want to hurry. But my wash is done. I must put it up to dry, I want clothes to wear, don't I? I have to clean my desk. I need to be able to study. Solve mathematical equations, think of solutions to statical problems. Sketch and draw. My desk is covered with papers. It's a mess. Dust all over. I need to fold my old laundry. My vacation is technically not even over yet and I already kind of long for more? How lazy does that sound? Bye, I'm off to do the laundry.
You have invited Kevin to start viewing webcam. Please wait for a response or Cancel (Alt+Q) the pending invitation. Kevin has accepted your invitation to start viewing webcam. Kevin: ? Frenzie: the fucking frog sneaked in Frenzie: it's on my bed now Frenzie: look Kevin: Ewww maaaan Kevin: XD Frenzie: the green dot thing on the cam Kevin: I see him Kevin: and he's gone Kevin: XD Frenzie: OH SHIT Frenzie: WHERE DID HE JUMP TO Frenzie: fuck Kevin: Go get him! Kevin: To the left I think Frenzie: THERE ARE TWOWOOWOOWOWOWOW Frenzie: fuck we have 4 frogs in total x.x Kevin: lol Kevin: someone leave a door open? Frenzie: yeah, me Frenzie: for like fresh cool air Frenzie: how could I know they'd hop in my room x.x Kevin: That might explain that then Frenzie: ONE OUT Frenzie: one to go Kevin: xd Frenzie: crap Frenzie: I lost it Frenzie: it might have jumped outside Kevin: orrr it might be snuggling down under your sheets XD Kevin: </cruel> Kevin: Sorry Kevin: :P Frenzie: Frogs are hermaphrodite right? Kevin: umm... no, I think not Kevin: some might be Frenzie: I dunno Frenzie: one was bigger and jumped higher Frenzie: and appeared more male Frenzie: the other smaller and... cuter XD Kevin: I think the males are smaller Frenzie: really? Frenzie: hmm Frenzie: well whatever Kevin: :P Frenzie: either way Frenzie: one was a real bitch Frenzie: the huge one Frenzie: the more normal sized one was reasonably easy to get out Frenzie: god I must've looked like a fucking idiot Kevin: probably Kevin: ^_^ Frenzie: luckily NO ONE WAS WATCHING Frenzie: MWAHAHAHAHA Frenzie: except the frogs x.x Kevin: Pity that, would have made an awesome anecdote to annoy you with Frenzie: haha Kevin: ;) Frenzie: I'm thinking they might actually have gone into my room to HAVE SEX Kevin: I tihnk they don;t have sex... Kevin: The male ejaculates onto the eggs after the female lays them in water Frenzie: so you think that if I'd have the door to the toilet open it'd be filled with frog eggs and sperm now? x.x Kevin: unliekly Kevin: They wouldn;t be able to jump out probably Frenzie: I just attempted to catch the big one and it FUCKING JUMPED ON MY DESK Frenzie: the toilet is like so much easier to get out of :P Frenzie: I now have... Frenzie: frog fingerprints Frenzie: on my printer Frenzie: cuz it's dusty Kevin: Nah, there's no purchase onm the bottom, all the water... well maybe Frenzie: I dunno, if they dive first and jump through the water perhaps? Frenzie: and they could also just be stupid and jump in there Frenzie: and then there'd be eggs, sperm and two frogs in there Frenzie: :P Kevin: yush Kevin: time for a flush methinks ;)
I've written a User JS with enhancements for AvidGamers. However, GreaseMonkey automatically wraps the entire script in an anonymous function. To create functions in your User JS, which are accessible in the page itself (by elements you inserted), you need to attach it to the window object. All of that would be great, but it didn't work. Digging through the GreaseMonkey website I eventually discovered that this had to do with some kind of security bug (the link to Mark Pilgrims guide as the way to learn about GreaseMonkey didn't help much). To make a long story short, I used the following to create Opera User JS and Greasemonkey interoperability. // for GreaseMonkey compatibility if (typeof unsafeWindow != 'undefined') window = unsafeWindow; // how to add variables window['some_variable'] = 'Some text'; // how to add functions window.some_function = function (var1, var2) { // do something } To keep your code clean it's a good idea to add in some extra variables for reference inside your code. var some_variable = window[some_variable]; Regardless of security issues which removed direct access to the window object, it seems a tad weird to me to always wrap the code in an anonymous function. Should that not be up to me, the script author, to decide? Opera's implementation appears to be just perfect…
Today I noticed Muse's new album is available in "the cirquit". I do think that whoever misuses trust by leaking stuff like this should be shot, but anyway, on to the album. The first track, Take a Bow, starts of as a classic Muse song, but then somewhere along the way the electronics kick in. While it starts promising, there is never a sort of climax and the song doesn't stick to my head like with Apocalypse Please on Absolution. The second track, Starlight, sounds a bit on the poppy side. The vocals never get truly interesting. Overall an enjoyable song, but no feeling of euphoria just yet. The third track is Supermassive Black Hole, the first single. You might have heard it already. While I do like it, I noticed that it works far better as background music (to put up loud while doing the last Grand Prix in Burnout 2) than as actual listening to music, if you get what I mean. However I did notice that I put this track up more often. The fourth track, Map of the Problematique, is different. It does sound a bit poppy, but contrary to the former tracks it doesn't feel forced on Muse's generic style. Perhaps I just got more used to it by now? Regardless of that however, it's possibly the best track on the album. Later on in the track they go even more all out with the electronics and that's good. The fifth track, A Soldier's Poem, is just some kind of intermezzo in a more classic style. The sixth track, Invincible, doesn't sound very good at all in my opinion. I suppose it sounds a bit like Absolution, but then... well, less interesting and on top of that not very new of course. The seventh track, Assassin, was pretty good. It was almost metal-like at times, but the vocals were generic. The eight track, Exo Politics I liked a lot on first listen. A catchy guitar riff to start off with, getting better and better towards the end. After listening it a few more times my opinion stands, however I now think it starts off fairly boring and repetitive. The ninth track, City of Delusion, I really like.,It's something really different and possibly therefore cool, but it just sounds good on all fronts. The tenth track, Hoodoo, sort of continues the previous track (in feeling only) and therefore even the quite measly 3:42 seem too long for it. The eleventh and last track of the album, Knights of Cydonia, is very nice and bombastic. The vocals sound Yes-like here, which is definitely not a negative thing. In conclusion, I think that overall I'm slightly disappointed. But you should realise that when your expectations are high, it's easy to be disappointed. I certainly welcome the change in style. Perhaps it is a forebode that if Muse decides to go further down this route, they will produce an absolute masterpiece in the future?
I just thought I should mention that Opera often gives very useful error notices. Sometimes Firefox gives more useful one's, like in this case missing : after case whereas Opera only informed me of a parsing error on the same line. Internet Explorer doesn't add much useful information in it's "error-console" (which doesn't even exist in a similar sense which makes it even harder to use). I wonder how I can forget a : and not even notice it. I guess I was just convinced I didn't forget something that simple. Ah well... If you're wondering what this is about, I'll probably write something about it when it's all over, which is in about two weeks. Essentially it's a UI demonstration which I wrote in HTML+CSS+Javascript, which most people would probably have created in Flash. Why do I post this if I actually said nothing at all? I don't know, I think I just needed a break. Should I have taken it away from the computer? Yes. But in 30 minutes, that's exactly what I'll do. Besides I got gold on the first race of the last grand prix of Burnout 2 about 1.5 hours ago.
Most of the spam I get (which is of course intercepted automatically) seems to focus on hot Swedish babes. Do they have a reputation in the US? Other than mostly being blonde, I don't see anything particularly special about Swedish babes. Right now I'm SOG-ing, which means studie ontwijkend gedrag, or in English, study evading behaviour. That can range from posting on a weblog to going out to take a bike-ride in the nice weather (with a stop by the supermarket on my way back), all of which I'm going to do. In other news, we're on to the quarter finals. Kick-ass. :P Anyway, I may work something out with a girl from the US to send her a mega-wuppie, as she saw them on a picture of me with a mate and fell in love with it. The last CD I bought was Kiss Me (EP) by Clayborn. You should check them out once they release an album, which is planned for later this year. Except one song you can get them all from their website in 128kbps mp3. I just discovered that summer vacation is only a few weeks away, yet I haven't really made any plans yet. Perhaps I should work out the going to Romania for a week thing, where I'd stay at the place of some guy who lives there. Internet is sweet for international relations.
Today I will introduce you to possibly one of the coolest toys ever. Melantrys took it with her from this mythical place where she lives. She passed it on to me before we went to Brussels. If you ask why she lives in a mythical place, I just ask you, can a place which is abbreviated to the sound a barking dog makes be real? But enough of the chit-chat. On to the toy itself. It is blue. It is flexible. In a strange way it feels alive. If you hold it in your hand you can caress it. Or you can throw it around like a ball. Do whatever you like. You can squeeze it and then it will emit different psychedelic colours of light. In short, it rocks. Thanks babe!
Go to the music player of your choice and put it on shuffle. Say the following questions aloud and press play. Use the song titles as your answers. Don't cheat. ;) 1 - How does the world see me? Song: David Bowie - (Segue) "Ramona A. Stone / I am with Name Comment: I am with Name? Too bad I don't know whom I'm with then. 2 - Will I have a happy life? Song: Korn - Here to Stay Comments: I'm here to stay? That's nice to know, but it seems to answer the question "will I have a long life?" :( 3 - What do my friends really think of me? Song: Eminem - R.A.K.I.M - Rakim Comments: They think I'm some ancient rapper? Hmm... interesting, I thought they saw me more as a somewhat metallish person. :P 4 - Do people secretly lust after me? Song: The Dandy Warhols - The Coffee And Ten Wrecks Comments: I guess not then. 5 - How can I make myself happy? Song: Korn - Justin Comments: I guess this means I'll have to take off in space as the lyrics suggest. 6 - What should I do with my life? Song: No Doubt - End it on this Comments: That doesn't sound too good. 7 - Why should life be full of so much pain? Song: Radiohead - Creep Comments: I'm a creep. Oh crap. Ah well, too bad. *headbangs on heavy guitar part* 8 - How can I maximize my pleasure during sex? Song: Tenacious D - Friendship Test Comments: Do a friendship test during sex? Hmm... kinky... NOT. :P 9 - Will I ever have children? Song: Rage Against the Machine - Freedom Comments: I will have freedom. So I might just leave my kids behind and be an asshole or choose not to have them at all. That sucks in a way. :P 10 - Will I die happy? Song: Dr. Dre - Nuthin' but a "G" thang Comments: Doesn't sound like it. 11 - What is some good advice for me? Song: Samael - Telepathic Comments: Yeah, reading other people's thoughts would always be a good idea I guess. 12 - What is happiness? Song: Anouk - Who Cares Comment: Indeed, who cares what happiness is? 13 - What is my favorite fetish? Song: Robbie Williams - Tripping Comments: Oh yeah baby... tripping is shaggadelic! 14 - How will I be remembered? Song: Die Fantatischen Vier - Bring it Back Comment: Hell yeah, they'll want me back. :D Well, that was that... sadly the answers weren't very funny for the most of it.
I decided to download Paint.NET today and early in the installation I got the following screen: The inherent flaw? Selecting an installation directory is not advanced. The Paint.NET installation comes out on the positive side however, because it warns you beforehand that choosing quick will not allow you directory selection. There are many more things an installer can do wrong, but with the standardised Windows installer, nowadays that's usually not much of an issue, except this one. To all who don't get this right: your installer sucks.
