Infrequent Musings

Infrequent Musings

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Below are the 10 most recent journal entries recorded in the "The BondageWoodElf" journal:

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June 14th, 2009
07:09 pm [Link]	My aikido black belt grading exam It was tough, whoa! I had to do both the exam for the grade before black belt and the grade before that. The latter meant I couldn't watch how alexilian was doing (she was going for 2nd kyu) and if you want to know if she passd you should read what she will write about it on her LJ. It took about an *hour! I was totally ready to fall over and crash at the end of it. I feel quite accomplished right now, and alexilian* and I will be enjoying a nice meal together tonight to celebrate. Current Location: Utrecht, The Netherlands Current Mood: hungry Tags: aikido (What you said (7) \| What you say?)
07:06 pm [Link]	Black belt! I passed my grading. The 5th dan in the committee who isn't my teacher (the other is my teacher) even said he was 'pleasantly surprised'. I am now an officially recognized beginner ;-) That's what 'shodan' means, the first black belt, it means: "Beginner's Grade" Current Location: Utrecht, The Netherlands Current Mood: accomplished Tags: aikido (What you said (5) \| What you say?)
June 13th, 2009
10:43 am [Link]	Grading for aikido black belt tomorrow Well, this is it! Tomorrow will be attempt #1 for black belt. Sensei (and fellow students) seem pretty confident I'll pass. I'm not so sure myself, but I'll give it my best... Current Location: Utrecht, The Netherlands Current Mood: nervous Tags: aikido (What you said (22) \| What you say?)
January 16th, 2009
09:25 am [Link]	Sick, but getting better This week I've called in sick (since Wednesday). This has been such a typical attack of seasonal lurgy that I decided to document it. Usually I have it earlier (end of November, early December), sometimes just in time to coincide with my birthday party (that I've, incidentally, not thrown yet, but I intend to!) like last year (which wasn't such a big success at the time urgh) The total time-span of a typical flu-like virus sickness for me is about 2 weeks. It starts off with more sneezing than normal, and a slow build-up of sore throat. Then it goes away for a day or two. Then I lose some energy and start to feel a little feverish (just a little, not even enough to warrant some medicine). Then the sore throat comes back and I develop a nasty cough deep from my lungs but not all the way down (I know the difference from the 2 times I had pneumonia, that was a quite different cough!). I guess it's now an acute attack of bronchitis. This all takes about 7-10 days. Then the lurgy sets in earnest! I get a real fever, my nasal passages and cavities start to clog up, the cough continues badly and my intestines join the party, occasionally followed by my (weirdly) ear canals (I develop a minor ear ache, I guess that's from the swelling in my head and the fever). I then have to take sick-leave. I have to start taking paracetamol (because the cough hurts) and, if it's really bad, sudafed (because else I can't breathe) to be able to sleep. This takes 3 days. The first 2 days are the worst. The third day is my body purging itself: I am still coughing and sneezing but it feels like clearing up. I am now in that day 3. I think I can train aikido tonight (I even think the exercise will be a boost to my immune system, I usually feel better after training) Current Location: Utrecht, The Netherlands Current Mood: sick but getting better Current Music: Vito - Welcome the lightning \| Powered by Last.fm Tags: aikido, body (What you said (7) \| What you say?)
09:18 am [Link]	2009 'Elf Update #1 So, the holidays were very restful: we didn't do a thing apart from visiting our parents, see a movie, went out for dinner lots of times, had dinner at home together and generally fiddled around. There was a spot of stress when the student association I run a server for decided to migrate the disks to a new machine (which had my data on it, the disks I mean) and I didn't have an account yet or my software on the new machine. Also, I still had my doubts on the stability of the new box; I didn't want it to eat my TV series and music archive. Also, I got together with Aaron (who commented anonymously on my previous post and is a friend from secondary school). He came visit at my place, and we had dinner at LE:EN together with alexilian . It was good to talk again after more than probably 10 years of face to face (and a handful of E-Mails in 2001). We made a deal to have a look at his house which has apparently been in a state of being rebuild since he bought it in 2001 when we go ballroom dancing again in Deventer (which will be accompanied by the usual visit to my mother and having dinner at the excellent Chinese restaurant across the street from the ballroom dancing club). His house is apparently just around the corner. Maybe we can even get him and his wife-of-six-months (he still has to correct himself not to call her 'my girlfriend') to join us for a spot of dancing. Last week was the first full day at work again. Some contracts with a few external employees have apparently not been extended. Some internal people are moving from the project side of the department (who will have a surplus of people in a the next few months) to the operations part (our middleware group does both). As a result at the end of January 3 externals will be gone from the middleware group, 2 internals are effectively gone soon (one is on a long-term sick-leave and one is leaving to work somewhere else) and 2 internals are moving to us. For the time being my own position at KLM is allegedly safe because I am apparently indispensable (not my own words!). This week I've been ill (see next post) Current Location: Utrecht, The Netherlands Current Mood: sick but getting better Current Music: Vito - Arrested by these Phenomena Tags: body, computers, dancing, dinner, friends, work (What you say?)
December 24th, 2008
08:49 pm [Link]	Dinner Christmas eve (well, not especially for this, but it -is- Christmas eve) Tonight I cooked dinner for alexilian and me. If all is going well she's on her way here now. It's: Tagliatelle verdi with egg, steamed fennel, vegetarian grilled fillet (supposed to resemble chicken, I think), with a gorgonzola/cream/white wine-sauce with fried seasonal mushroom-mix served on a large portobello mushroom cooked in the oven (rubbed with a little olive oil and a little pepper). Desert is going to be tropical fruit mix (mango, pineapple, papaya) Current Location: Utrecht, The Netherlands Current Mood: satisfied Tags: dinner, food (What you said (3) \| What you say?)
December 23rd, 2008
04:23 pm [Link]	The continuing story of a ... ... bike repair that's gone to the dogs! Well, it broke spokes again, over the last 3 month. 6 of them. When I brought it back in Saturday morning about a month ago (with only 2 broken spokes then) they told me: "Sir! It's a big job! We have to take it all out, and replace it all, if you bring it in now, you can come pick it up Tuesday before 6 PM". I'm usually on the way back from work at 6 PM. So I decided to wait a bit, but with 6 broken two weeks ago I brought it to the repair show at the train station for a fix-up (they replaced the 6 broken spokes). I brought it to the regular shop last Saturday (with 2 broken spokes already again) and they told me to 'pick it up and the end of the afternoon on Tuesday' That's what I just tried to do. But apparently they "had all forgotten about it. We're so sorry, sir!". When I offered to come pick it up tomorrow I was surprised by the statement they'd be closed until next week Tuesday after today. But, "we'll rush it! We can probably do it before 6 PM!". So, why can't they do it in 90-120 minutes when I bring it in Saturday morning? A secret! Will that rush job make it a bad job? Nobody knows! We'll hear all about it on the next episode of "Bike"! Current Location: Utrecht, The Netherlands Current Mood: mightily annoyed Tags: bike, rant (What you said (4) \| What you say?)
December 7th, 2008
05:33 pm [Link]	Clbuttic Windows fuck-up! Must stop using Windows some time soon for my home PC. It insist on trying to kill itself. This morning my PC decided it was a jolly good idea to cross-link the disk blocks of the following files: - My Firefox browser history (history.dat) - My Firefox browser cookies file (cookies.txt) - Some file of Excel that I can't remember the name right now (something XLMAIN) - My Outlook .pst mailbox file and last but not least, the real cincher: my Windows Swap file in (C:\) Result: - really bad crashes when the swap file was intermixed with the other data (like, the processor turning off power to the hard-disk, which makes a rather disturbing very recognisable 'PLUNK sound on my PC) - I had to re-download all my mails since last year november and re-sort them in the correct folders again (I must remember to make backups more often, at least since I have a DVD writer it fits on a single disk these days: yep, I still have all my mail delivered in that .pst file since November 1999, if you think that's overdoing it, you've not yet seen my Eudora central mail-boxes store that still has mail from April 1996 in: I'm a pack-rat, sue me! ;-) ) - Firefox lost logins to all my sites (had to relogin, fortunately it's only a handful) - Firefox browser history lost (who cares...) I am one of the lucky few in the world that has enough technical savvy to know how to fix all this myself. I wouldn't know how Joe Average would be able to cope. Oh yeah, and it did this on the day that I planned to do my taxes for 2007 (AHEM, a bit late, I got a mail 2 weeks ago from "The Revenoo" about it). alexilian gracefully gave advice and mental support today while I was repairing my Email and doing taxes. Current Location: Utrecht, The Netherlands Current Mood: aggravated Tags: computers, rant (What you said (2) \| What you say?)
October 20th, 2008
10:51 am [Link]	sigh I knew I shouldn't have done that OK. Don't tell me I shouldn't run Windows (even Windows 98). Don't tell me I shouldn't use Outlook 98. Don't tell me how to fix it (I already did). ( Geeky rant ) Current Location: Utrecht, The Netherlands Current Mood: annoyed Tags: computers, internet, rant (What you said (12) \| What you say?)
October 14th, 2008
01:30 pm [Link]	A poll about colours. I suddenly was wondering about this... (edit: damn I misspelled 'foreground' as 'fireground' once) Poll #1278288 Friends Colours Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All Do you have your friends in your Flist view colour coded? (ie different from the default colours) View Answers Yes 6 (25.0%) No 17 (70.8%) I want to complain about the lack of choice 1 (4.2%) If 'Yes'. What have you coloured? View Answers Background default, foreground changed 0 (0.0%) Background changed, foreground default 4 (66.7%) I accidentally put 'yes', but I meant 'no', so: both default 0 (0.0%) Both fireground and background changed 2 (33.3%) If you changed the background, how did you choose the colour? View Answers based on their personality 2 (33.3%) based on something they were wearing when I met them 1 (16.7%) random 2 (33.3%) can't remember 0 (0.0%) other. please specify 3 (50.0%) Other? View Answers If you changed the foreground, how did you choose the colour? View Answers based on their personality 1 (50.0%) based on something they were wearing when I met them 1 (50.0%) random 1 (50.0%) can't remember 0 (0.0%) other 0 (0.0%) Other? View Answers Current Location: Schiphol-Rijk, The Netherlands Current Mood: productive Tags: lj friends, poll (What you said (6) \| What you say?)

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