Darthy.net

Archive for September, 2008

As I mentioned in my previous post, the Queaso Mazda Class Starship USS Darthy – F has arrived (yes I’m a geek I know ). She’s a beauty and drives like a dream. It’s the full option. Integrated GPS, dual zone airconditioning, automatic lights, leather heated seats with memory, she has it all. The only downside is that the bluetooth carkit doesn’t use the address book from my phone. It’s completely voice controlled, which is cool, but not handy when you have to give in all your numbers accompanied by a vocal name. But you can use the telephone to dial the number and then just pass the conversation to the carkit, so it’s ok

Let’s not keep you in suspense any longer, here she is !

Last week I bought Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning.

First and foremost: finally, an MMORPG that is comparable in quality to World of Warcraft. While waiting for the expansion for WoW I’ve tried several other MMORPG titles to keep me occupied: Eve Online, Lord of the Rings Online and Age of Conan. None could capture my attention for more than 2 days.

Warhammer Online however is a different story. I’m not going to say it’s as good as WoW, but I’d rate it close. It’s a bit less user friendly and is a bit rough around the edges. I’m sure things will improve with patches to come though. However, it has some really good new stuff as well. Public Quests (no more looking for group !), leveling through pvp, more classes, etc. An added bonus is that I’m playing in Europe which is a bit more convenient time wise. Also a couple of real life friends are playing also, including Arwen of all people. Didn’t think we’d convince him but he seems to like it so far

Am I going to stop playing WoW ? Not a chance I’ll probably alternate a bit between these 2. But it’ll definitely keep me occupied until the WoW expansion comes out.

Another tidbit of news, I have my new car Actually I’ve had it since before we left for Turkey but I’ve been pretty busy (playing Warhammer ). She’s a fine vessel, I’ll try to upload some pictures tomorrow or something

Back from Turkey. And not a moment too soon ! To get straight to the point: the trip really wasn’t all that great. Both Katrien and I were pretty disappointed of the so called 5 star hotel. The food sucked, it was almost the same every day (lamb). Katrien didn’t get anything else but salads to eat on most days since she doesn’t eat meat. There usually wasn’t even fish. The covers of the seats by the pool were dirty, the promised wireless internet wasn’t present, the staff was rude, etc. All little things that add up. If you paid extra for a 5 star hotel this really isn’t something you want happening. The result was us counting down the days to coming back home.

We did make 1 excursion though, that was pretty nice (but hot !). We were also going to meet up with Els & Kristof in a town nearby (they were also in Turkey at the same moment) but Katrien got sick from the salads (and the water they were washed with probably). So there really isn’t much to tell unfortunately.

In any case, the pictures can be found here.

2 more days until I have to go back to work. I bought Warhammer Online today so that’ll probably keep me occupied till then

You would think I’d have more time to update my blog now that I’m on vacation. Unfortunately, it’s quite the opposite. Well ‘unfortunately’ might be a bad choice of words, since I’m busy having fun

Last Monday Efrat arrived from Israel. I showed her the sights of our small country. We started out with Ghent, since it’s without a doubt the greatest of Belgian cities I gave her a short version of my famous tour, she was pretty tired so didn’t want to give her the long one.
The day after we went to Brussels. Efrat didn’t believe me it was the capital of Europe, so I proved her otherwise. I also introduced her to the wonders of a true Belgian Waffle, she was impressed. The last city we visited was Bruges. Not one of my favorites but it’s sort of a ‘must see’ when it comes to tourists.

On Friday Efrat left for Groningen in the Netherlands to join some friends there for a few days. This gave me the opportunity to focus completely on the wedding of Isabel & Tom9 that was going down on Saturday. They were really lucky with the weather, the sun was out and they had rented a convertible for the ceremony.

After the ceremony we went to their house for some mischief. Tom9 is usually the guy who is the most evil to the other people getting married so they wanted payback All in all we were pretty nice. We wanted to wrap their entire house in a big cloth but the wind was too strong. So after a failed attempt to do just that and Geert & Kristof ending up on the roof, we decided to just wrap the sides of the house. We also wrapped their cars completely so that was cool
The really neat thing is that we managed to get inside, we took a picture of us in their bedroom and showed it at the party later that day. They went “Oh no”, hehe We also filled their bed with crown caps.

In the evening there was the wedding party at an old mansion. It looked quite nice. After the main course Kristof and I gave another one of the famous wedding quizes. This time it was with video footage which was only slightly manipulated It was great fun. We also gave them a small preview of all the mischief we did to their house. Great times.

We had also made a nice little present with empty cans which we used to put the money in. They’ll have quite a bit of work getting it all out Here’s a picture:

On Sunday I had to get up early to drive to the Netherlands to an entertainment park there called ‘The Efteling’. Efrat was heading down there with the guys from Groningen and Valery was also coming. We all got to know each other on a forum about the author Eddings so it would be some sort of meetup even though the board died years ago.
Valery was the first to arrive. We both had a feeling of deja vu since that station was the place where we first met. In fact I was waiting for her at the exact spot where I almost ran into her that time. Nostalgia anyone ?
Jan Willem arrived next and we left for the Efteling. Efrat and Peter had overslept and joined us there later. We had a great day and tried not to let the bad weather bother us too much.
To conclude the evening we went to a nice little restaurant we found somewhere in Tilburg. I had spare ribs, which had been AGES ago. They were excellent
We then said our goodbyes. It was nice meeting everyone after all this time. Efrat drove home with me and I put her on the train to Brussels this morning from where she is leaving for London.

As you can tell, I’ve been busy, but it was all great fun

Pictures of Efrat visiting can be found here. The pictures of the wedding are viewable here.

Leaving for Turkey on Friday so I’m not sure if I’ll be able to post before then.