Darthy.net

Archive for September, 2007

Good news ! They will start construction on our new house next week. I added a gallery specifically for this. Check it out here. I will add more pictures as the construction moves forward, so check back often

It’s been a busy but fun week ! On Tuesday there was the monthly poker game with some friends. Unlike last time I managed to come out ahead, so that was a nice change. Paul joined us for the first time, let’s hope we’ll see more of him at future games.

Katrien’s pc arrived and I have to say, it’s a beauty, especially at that price. If the Aldi computer doesn’t turn out the way I want it, I might consider getting this one instead. And maybe throw in a new graphics card when the next generation comes out. We’ll see. But I’m getting anxious

For the weekend I had planned to go to Valery in The Netherlands because there was a fantasy store that was closing down and they usually have some awesome stuff that we both like. This left Katrien home alone though, so I entered a 24 (the series) contest and I won. She could go to the marathon where they show the entire new season in a day. Unfortunately the season wasn’t as new as they claimed so she passed. I couldn’t find anyone else who wanted to go, wish I had won the space trip instead

So on Saturday I left for Valery and arrived there after 3 hours, including being stuck in a traffic jam for an hour. Soon after we left for the fantasy store. Let me just say it was a good thing I had visited the store once before like 5 years back, because Valery got us lost Luckily I remembered more or less where it was, and if you are reading this Val, I told you I’d never let you hear the end of it, didn’t I ?
Unfortunately all the cool stuff like swords and costumes was already gone from the shop but I did manage to get 2 books for less than 6 euros total. Still I was a bit disappointed, I was hoping for a good piece of leather armor. However I was comforted by the gadget store we walked by ! It was this neat little store with all sort of stuff from thinkgeek.com. I didn’t know what to buy first, so I had to hold myself back a bit In the end I walked out with several things, including a Bullshit Button. It’s a red alert looking button which says different things when you push it like ‘WARNING bullshit detected’ or ‘BEEP that was bullshit !’. Kinda neat for at work The other thing I bought was a PicooZ, a remote control helicopter, which is kinda cool ! A bit hard to control though, but I’m hoping I’ll get the hang of it soon I’ll definitely go back to that store, I want more of that stuff !

In the evening we (Valery, Chris, a friend of him and myself) went to see The Simpsons Movie, which was very entertaining. It was cool to go with a bunch of people since it’s not something you should watch alone at home It had a neat trailer of the movie Stardust, I think I’ll be seeing that one soon too.

Sunday was a bit more quiet, we mainly played Killer Bunnies and the quest for the Magic Carrot. It’s really a fun and hilarious card game. I went home a bit earlier than usually, since I was pretty tired from staying up till 5am Sunday morning As always when I go to visit Valery, it was a great weekend That’s it for now, until next time !

Robert Jordan, author of The Wheel of Time novels (one of the best fantasy book series), has passed away this weekend. Robert’s books are what got me started into fantasy, and I will always look back on them with fond memories. Robert, as The Wheel turns, may your legend never fade to myth.

Let me start with some bad news, I didn’t make it for the Q-Music contest I was talking about earlier. Needless to say I was a bit disappointed, I had pretty high hopes I was going to be selected. I guess I’ll just have to win the lottery then and buy my own ticket Good luck to everyone who made it, and I hope someone who is actually interested in space wins.

Earlier this week Katrien’s computer broke down. It started to smell really burnt so that was a bit scary. It turned out to be the power supply unit. With the pc being rather old (not to mention crap :p) she decided to get a new one. Normally I’m not a big fan of brand computers, but Dell had a really good deal going so we ordered that one. Her WoW experience will be going through the roof ! I’ll be sitting here, starting at it and counting down to my own new pc probably

This weekend the Americans came over. One of them (Monique) is a friend of Katrien she met when she went horseback riding in Portugal. She had also visited her in Seattle last year. Monique and her colleague were in Holland for work and stayed a weekend longer that they spent with us
Katrien went to pick them up in Antwerp on Friday and showed them the city. Saturday turned out to be quite a busy day for them as Katrien first took them to Brugge and afterwards I gave them my famous Tour of Ghent. It was a bit different than usual since we had to start out with the castle because it closed at 5pm. We only just made it, they were closing the gate as we arrived. People who work at the governement sometimes really amaze me with their ‘not working a minute longer than necessary’ mentality. Luckily my charm on the woman at the gate worked and she let us in After the castle I managed to show most of the interesting parts of Ghent. We concluded the day by having dinner in a nice little restaurant in the city centre. Sunday was mainly a horse day, when Katrien showed them the place she rides at.
All in all we had a great weekend, it was nice to be able to speak English again, even though I did notice mine isn’t always as good as I would like it to be. I guess I’ll have to go back to the US for some practice soon They are now on their way back to Seattle, probably pretty tired from the filled weekend

Here’s a picture of Monique and Michelle:

The first work week after my vacation is over, phew. Glad it’s weekend, but then again, aren’t we all ? It was a bit quiet at work the past week but that’s ok, it gave me the opportunity to play around with WPF a bit. For you non-computer people out there, it’s basically a new programming technology. Tom made quite a few of nifty looking things with it so far, so I thought I’d give it a shot. It’s nice to try something new for a change, keeps me motivated

Here in Belgium there is a radio station called Q-Music, it’s the one I always listen to. Well this week they started a contest: you can win a trip to space ! Yes you heard it right, space ! Needless to say I just had to participate, I’ve been dreaming of something like this ever since I was a little boy. I entered the contest and got a whopping 30/30 score, so that in itself is pretty good. However, I’m sure more people will have that (with the internet it’s not that hard you know ). In any case, the 20 fastest people from my province go to the next round, so keep them crossed. Jorn in space, it has a nice ring to it
The trip is not really to outer space by the way, you go to Singapore most likely and you begin a training of 4 days. On the last day you get put into a small craft that they launch from ontop of another aircraft at around 6km altitude. Then you go up to about 100km, technically that’s space You’ll be weightless for a short period and can see the curve of the Earth. It might not be completely like the astronauts, but it’s close enough for me

Other exciting news is that we have 2 Americans coming to visit us next week. A friend of Katrien from Seattle is coming (along with her boss) to The Netherlands, and after that they’ll spend the weekend here. Looks like we’ll have some entertaining to do I plan to give them my famous Tour of Ghent, it should be fun

There’s also a bit of WoW news, Bouw started playing again, and we’re all keeping them crossed he won’t go super hardcore again (we’ll be watching you Bouw :p), but in itself it’s nice he’s back in the game, I always enjoy talking about it with the guys. I also did Kara for the first time, great dungeon, we got to the 4th boss, not too bad for a first visit.

Well that’s almost it, but I thought I’d entertain you with 1 more item, namely a picture of today’s rollerblading excursion. Katrien took me out today to where she usually goes and we made a short trip. Here’s the picture, don’t I look great in my new gear ?

I’m going to cheat a bit and reuse this post since I have a bit to add I’ll use the opportunity to correct some of the typos that Dana pointed out (:p to you !).

It finally had to happen … my vacation has ended. 3 weeks of laziness … argh, why couldn’t it be 4 ? Today it was back to work. It took quite a bit of getting used to. They moved us all to a new spot, and me being absent during the move of course resulted in me ending up with a not so great seating arrangement. Oh well, it can’t be helped, better luck next time.

I made the most out of my last days of vacation. On Saturday evening we visited Kristof & Els, along with Dimi & Chan for a quiet get-together. Unfortunately Kristof was out of Cointreau (so if you’re reading this, better stock up for next time ! ).

Yesterday evening I went to Ertvelde to meet up with the guys. We had a friendly game of poker. Everyone won … except Bouw who lost it all But to make it all alright we had some of the most delicious icecream … EVER ! Oh man, the caramel one is just … heaven ! You should really try it !

On a side note about the site: I’ve fine tweaked some stuff, uploaded a few more pictures here and there. Not that you’ll be running out anytime soon with the 1700+ pictures that are currently on here Next up is the friends gallery though, still need to get some pictures from a few people, and for others I just need to upload them. Most likely I’ll do that in 1 go. So stay tuned