Friday, July 02, 2004
Thursday, July 01, 2004
The other day, somebody called me who I hadn't seen in a long time. He was in Munich and why shouldn't he come over and visit? Long time no see after all. I wondered a little because we hadn't been real close but hey, why not? Then he arrived and we really didn't have much to say and it was rather awkward. Then he started talking about how it was really important to have good insurance these days...
Aha. That's why you came over. To sell me insurance. Bah humbug! If you can't make money without pestering your old "friends" maybe you should choose some other profession. I wouldn't even buy insurance off him if I thought he was competent (which I don't). And I sure as hell won't make time for meeting him again.
Also: One shouldn't get up too early as it was pretty nice weather when I got up. I dressed for sunshine. For warmth. For dry good weather. Toddled around in the apartment, humming merrily (cats cowering under the couch), but then the weather got nasty, I had to change clothes and my bright mood dimmed considerably. That's where I am now. Sitting at work, waiting for rain, mood = dim.
Aha. That's why you came over. To sell me insurance. Bah humbug! If you can't make money without pestering your old "friends" maybe you should choose some other profession. I wouldn't even buy insurance off him if I thought he was competent (which I don't). And I sure as hell won't make time for meeting him again.
Also: One shouldn't get up too early as it was pretty nice weather when I got up. I dressed for sunshine. For warmth. For dry good weather. Toddled around in the apartment, humming merrily (cats cowering under the couch), but then the weather got nasty, I had to change clothes and my bright mood dimmed considerably. That's where I am now. Sitting at work, waiting for rain, mood = dim.
Wednesday, June 30, 2004
By the way, I just remembered I wanted to recommend Cryptonomicon to y'all - I read it on the beach and really enjoyed it.
The blurb says it's three books rolled into one - a spy novel, a war novel and some tech stuff thrown into the mix and I totally agree with the blurb. And although I do not usually like spy and war novels I thought they never went too far into their respective fields to not be enjoyable. It's basically three separate stories that are intertwined somehow - at the beginning you're not sure how exactly, but the stories are merged at the end. I like that.
Also, I thought the story would be bogged down by a lot of crypto stuff; you know, formulas and the like. But while those are incorporated, they're usually explained so well that even I would get them and if not you can skip them without any further detriment to the story (I thought at least). But then again I am somewhat interested in crypto stuff and bought Enigma by Robert Harris (of Fatherland fame, a great novel BTW) which really sucked because there was absolutely NO crypto stuff in it which I considered cheating. Boo.
The blurb says it's three books rolled into one - a spy novel, a war novel and some tech stuff thrown into the mix and I totally agree with the blurb. And although I do not usually like spy and war novels I thought they never went too far into their respective fields to not be enjoyable. It's basically three separate stories that are intertwined somehow - at the beginning you're not sure how exactly, but the stories are merged at the end. I like that.
Also, I thought the story would be bogged down by a lot of crypto stuff; you know, formulas and the like. But while those are incorporated, they're usually explained so well that even I would get them and if not you can skip them without any further detriment to the story (I thought at least). But then again I am somewhat interested in crypto stuff and bought Enigma by Robert Harris (of Fatherland fame, a great novel BTW) which really sucked because there was absolutely NO crypto stuff in it which I considered cheating. Boo.
Tuesday, June 29, 2004
A couple of useful sites that I've run across:
Want to read but don't want to register? Fear no more and go to Bugmenot.com where they'll give you a handy login and password.
Want to have mail delivered to you but no spam? Again hold your horses and visit Mailinator. When asked for an e-mail, all you have to do is type in whatevercomestomind@mailinator.com and instantly a mailbox is created. Now you enter that at Mailinator, take your e-mail, the mailbox vanishes and voilà! No spam, no hassle.
Want to read but don't want to register? Fear no more and go to Bugmenot.com where they'll give you a handy login and password.
Want to have mail delivered to you but no spam? Again hold your horses and visit Mailinator. When asked for an e-mail, all you have to do is type in whatevercomestomind@mailinator.com and instantly a mailbox is created. Now you enter that at Mailinator, take your e-mail, the mailbox vanishes and voilà! No spam, no hassle.
Monday, June 28, 2004
Today I had to lie to somebody and I discovered I don't like that. It wasn't really bad - I had to pretend to want to buy a car´, which didn't really hurt anybody, but still I felt I was cheating the sales guy. He now thinks I'm interested in buying the car for which he probably gets a bonus when all he did was waste his time driving around with me.
And once you tell a lie you need to make up all those other lies to go with it. Why do you want to buy a new car? What car do you have now? Where is it parked? What color do you want? Do you have time to go over the configuration? I hate that. Didn't like the car either. Then again, he lied to me, too. It was an SUV and he asked whether I drove more in the city or more in the country. The answer "city" prompted him to say that an SUV was IDEAL for that because of the high seating position. Huh? SUV? Ideal for the city? As in "Off-Road"? As in "Forget about EVER finding a parking space"? As in "Never ever see a cyclist again"? I don't think so, Mister.
But you might like to read what Dave Barry has to say on the subject of SUVs, gas-guzzling unsafe behemoths of Hell that they are.
By the way, I am still trying to decide on a new car (unrelated to the story above which was for reasons purely business): I've decided on three candidates at least:
The Mazda and the Fiat are both nice, little convertibles, seating two each. They are virtually indistinguable, but I am tending vaguely towards the former, as I fondly remember my little Mazdy (God rest his little soul driving around in Poland et al.). The Peugeot seats four people but is the most expensive and also rather new, hence not available in an used version...
Decisions, decisions.
And once you tell a lie you need to make up all those other lies to go with it. Why do you want to buy a new car? What car do you have now? Where is it parked? What color do you want? Do you have time to go over the configuration? I hate that. Didn't like the car either. Then again, he lied to me, too. It was an SUV and he asked whether I drove more in the city or more in the country. The answer "city" prompted him to say that an SUV was IDEAL for that because of the high seating position. Huh? SUV? Ideal for the city? As in "Off-Road"? As in "Forget about EVER finding a parking space"? As in "Never ever see a cyclist again"? I don't think so, Mister.
But you might like to read what Dave Barry has to say on the subject of SUVs, gas-guzzling unsafe behemoths of Hell that they are.
By the way, I am still trying to decide on a new car (unrelated to the story above which was for reasons purely business): I've decided on three candidates at least:
The Mazda and the Fiat are both nice, little convertibles, seating two each. They are virtually indistinguable, but I am tending vaguely towards the former, as I fondly remember my little Mazdy (God rest his little soul driving around in Poland et al.). The Peugeot seats four people but is the most expensive and also rather new, hence not available in an used version...
Decisions, decisions.
Sunday, June 27, 2004
Greece is neece
Rhyming-Mon has spoken.
Why did D. and I choose Greece? Because Africa, where we had planned to go originally, turned out to be rather expensive and my car expired two weeks ago (a sad story, by the way). Yes, it's no good form to start a sentence with because but that's just how I went about it, so deal.
Anyway, Greece it was. And it was really fun and relaxing. I can heartily recommend it. We went to Rethymnon, which is a small town in the North of Crete. Booked it on the internet (hey, we're Generation X, we have to). Last minute, too and it was rather on the cheap side. The price of the vacation, not the hotel. The hotel was great: The Minos Hotel. It was clean, the food was good, and there weren't too many German tourists - I reckon if I want to spend my vacation among Germans I might also stay at home.
Instead, there were lots of European tourists, nationality of which to be recognized by the various pieces of football apparel worn. There was a marked prevalence of English people, but that might also be attributed to the prevalence of English football fans within the English population.
We spent most of our time at the beach - relaxing WAS the aim of our vacation, after all. Once we planned an excursion to Knossos (Minos Palace! Highly historical!!) which was timed rather exquisitely as that happened to be the only slightly cloudy day. Knossos wasn't worth it, though: there's really nothing there to see, so the Greek have put up a couple of plaster pillars and some fake vase. Not really exciting, that.
At least we could gladly spend our days at the beach, the only other things we did was visit the local fortress (more spectacular than Knossos, in any case) and then do a trip to the Samaria Gorge. That was rather sporty of us: 16 kms, 1200 metres downwards. On the day itself we managed that in 4,5 hrs and were rather proud of us. On the next day, however, that had changed to excruciating pain; there was no way we could manage to move any slope that vaguely sloped downwards, let alone walk down stairs.
As I type this, I still vaguely feel cramps in my calves - whoa! Good thing we went home the day after, though I could have stayed on the beach for another couple of weeks. At least I got a lot of reading done. That and crossword puzzles. I always do crossword puzzles at the beach.
I really don't want to go to work tomorrow. Blech. Work includes lots of travelling around at the moment and I'd rather not. Oh well, at least I have work.
Oh, and regarding the vacation, if you'd like to see pictures, click here!!
Rhyming-Mon has spoken.
Why did D. and I choose Greece? Because Africa, where we had planned to go originally, turned out to be rather expensive and my car expired two weeks ago (a sad story, by the way). Yes, it's no good form to start a sentence with because but that's just how I went about it, so deal.
Anyway, Greece it was. And it was really fun and relaxing. I can heartily recommend it. We went to Rethymnon, which is a small town in the North of Crete. Booked it on the internet (hey, we're Generation X, we have to). Last minute, too and it was rather on the cheap side. The price of the vacation, not the hotel. The hotel was great: The Minos Hotel. It was clean, the food was good, and there weren't too many German tourists - I reckon if I want to spend my vacation among Germans I might also stay at home.
Instead, there were lots of European tourists, nationality of which to be recognized by the various pieces of football apparel worn. There was a marked prevalence of English people, but that might also be attributed to the prevalence of English football fans within the English population.
We spent most of our time at the beach - relaxing WAS the aim of our vacation, after all. Once we planned an excursion to Knossos (Minos Palace! Highly historical!!) which was timed rather exquisitely as that happened to be the only slightly cloudy day. Knossos wasn't worth it, though: there's really nothing there to see, so the Greek have put up a couple of plaster pillars and some fake vase. Not really exciting, that.
At least we could gladly spend our days at the beach, the only other things we did was visit the local fortress (more spectacular than Knossos, in any case) and then do a trip to the Samaria Gorge. That was rather sporty of us: 16 kms, 1200 metres downwards. On the day itself we managed that in 4,5 hrs and were rather proud of us. On the next day, however, that had changed to excruciating pain; there was no way we could manage to move any slope that vaguely sloped downwards, let alone walk down stairs.
As I type this, I still vaguely feel cramps in my calves - whoa! Good thing we went home the day after, though I could have stayed on the beach for another couple of weeks. At least I got a lot of reading done. That and crossword puzzles. I always do crossword puzzles at the beach.
I really don't want to go to work tomorrow. Blech. Work includes lots of travelling around at the moment and I'd rather not. Oh well, at least I have work.
Oh, and regarding the vacation, if you'd like to see pictures, click here!!
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