Darthy.net

Archive for October, 2009

I’ll start where I left off On Saturday evening Katrien and I went to the Greenday concert here in Belgium. Now first and foremost, the music was good. But the rest of the evening … I had quite a few annoyances. The most important one being the volume of the whole concert. Sure you want to hear the music and enjoy it, but does it have to be on a volume that you get a headache after 5 minutes ? Especially the group that played before Greenday (Prima Donna) was far too loud. The teenage girls standing next to me screaming in my ear all the time weren’t helping either. But as I said, the music was good so I guess that’s the main thing. Maybe I’m just getting old

On Sunday I went to Facts, which was pretty cool. For the first time it was held in Flanders Expo. I’m not saying it was bigger than last year (probably wasn’t actually) but it did feel less crowded, so that was nice.

Arwen and I browsed the shops a bit and went to the session with Christopher Judge (Teal’c from Stargate SG1). He was over an hour late, apparently the guy is seriously nicotine addicted and needed his fix (long fix but anyways). He was chewing what I’m suspecting to be nicotine gum all the time. Other than that it was nice meeting him though, he’s a pretty funny guy, not at all like Teal’c (not that I was expecting him to be anything like the character he plays). He had some funny anecdotes so that was cool. Took a picture with him so mission accomplished !
There were also other actors/actresses present, from series such as Heroes, Battlestar Galactica and others. Rumor has it that Robert Picardo (doctor from Star Trek Voyager and Woolsey from Stargate SG1) will make an appearance next year. Would be awesome !

We ran into Bouw who was playing a Warhammer session there as demonstration. Oh and we also found a neat present for Jan’s birthday, but not revealing what it is on the site here because we haven’t given it to him yet
I also bought a toddler Darth Vader suit. So if I ever have kids, I’m prepared

Pictures of Facts can be found here.

I spent most of the week in London for work. Can’t go into details here though. The trip was fine but I am happy to be home again There wasn’t time for any sightseeing though, which is a shame. My hotel was located quite far from the city center. Chances are high I’ll have to go back soon though, but then most likely not alone but with Kristof, so that’s always more fun

Well I have been on the job for 2 weeks now at Thomas Cook. It’s quite different than my previous jobs as a consultant / developer. It’s fun and not to mention diverse, and I’m a lot more involved in projects from a higher level which is cool. Next week I have to go to the UK for 4 days to check out some stuff there. It was also great to see all the people again that I used to work with, more people remembered me than I would have thought (I guess I left a lasting impression)

Today I’m going to my grandmother’s, it’s her birthday today. And tonight I’m going to a Greenday concert with Katrien. They’re not my favorite band but they are ok To conclude the weekend, tomorrow it’s time for the yearly geek marathon at FACTS (SciFi / Fantasy convention) here in Ghent. Christopher Judge (Teal’c from Stargate SG1) is coming so that’s pretty awesome. I’m hoping for a photo opportunity

Well I have a zillion things to do so I’m going to have to cut this post short, until next time !

Big news. Some of you already know, but for those of you who don’t: I changed jobs. I’m not longer a consultant at Queaso Systems but I’m back at Thomas Cook. Not as a developer though, more architectural work, which is stuff that interests me more than plain programming. I’ve been welcomed back by all the people who I still know there, it was a fun first day yesterday.

Things went really fast. I only heard while I was on vacation that I got the job and at the same time my contract at Queaso’s customer where I was working came to an end. Because of that, Queaso had no problem letting me go quickly, resulting in me going to work at Thomas Cook the first day after my vacation. It’ll definitely be a challenging job, but I’m looking forward to it

Wish me luck !

Oh yeah, one more thing: I have a new phonenumber. So if you don’t have it yet, be sure to ask me for it !

I’m baaaack ! It was an awesome trip ! Saw a lot of cool places, did a lot of awesome stuff (like a helicopter flight over Grand Canyon) and spent a lot of time in the car. I’m not going to give a detailed summary of the trip, I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. They can be viewed here. Fair word of warning though, there are over 500 They are sorted by day.

Some highlights of the trip though:
Riding a cable car (again) in San Francisco (scary stuff downhill)
Seeing Dana again after about 10 years and going to Lake Tahoe with her and Thomas
Finally going to Yosemite after having had that background on my desktop for ages
Going to the forest where Endor (Star Wars) was filmed.
Visiting Zion park, the only place where we saw a decent waterfall
Hiking down to the bottom of Bryce Canyon
Flying over the Grand Canyon in a helicopter (no Airwolf theme though)
Going to the world famous San Diego Zoo and seeing a hyppo float around (was so funny)

Some (minor) disappointments:
Not getting in to the Blizzard campus (darn security guard, he was prepared by all the attempts of geeks before me !)
Hiking back up Bryce Canyon
Having almost all of the food fried (I mean, I like fried like the next guy, but every single thing including the rice ???)
Los Angeles was kinda boring … but still, we saw what we came to see there

Enjoy the pictures, and if you want more info, I’ll be glad to tell you all about it … as long as I don’t have to type it out !

Now excuse me while I go and hang in the couch while continuing my jetlag