That's a depressing commentary on the activity level on this site.

(When did the friends feed become only 4 pages deep? It used to go on for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of posts... dozens of pages, at the least)

Somehow, this doesn't really feel like a G+ topic (although the discussion afterwards might be).

I have reserved a seat (in the seat directly right of the middle line, which does not have any seats directly on it, 6 rows from the front, *exactly* where I prefer sitting) for the 12/12/12 17:10 opening day showing (they do midnight showings, but, really, midnight is also when the trains stop running that I need to get back home.. so no.) the Hobbit in my local Imax.

Bring on the dwarftossing jokes.

So, err, hi! I feel like I should be titling another post "I Aten't dead", but I probably already used that one.

So I've been trying to follow along here for a little while again, and occasionally commenting, but it turns out there's this "dreamwidth" thing now and while I can log on with OpenID, some of you have it set to not accept comments from openID users. And dreamwidth anoys the fuck out of me by only telling me that, not when I hit Reply, but after I write it and hit Post. So that sucks.

So, 's anyone got a spare invite code lying around?

As context, I am currently in a hotel in Berlin for a slightly ill-planned week's vacation.

Those of you who are still paying attention to the World Cup may know that Oranje (as the Dutch team are usually referred to) placed themselves yesterday for the first spot in the final on Sunday (earlier, they managed to make a friend of a friend's wish for Brazil to lose the final fail to come true). Happened twice before, in the golden decade of the seventies, with a rather famous loss to Germany among the two near-misses then.

Today, Germany and Spain played for the second place in the final. Turns out, my current host country lost. I've closed the windows... Too much honking of car horns and various fireworks bangs.

A week before last Friday, I finally managed to get my hands on one. 32G, the WiFi model. I was going for the 3G model, really, but they are still entirely unavailable so far. Out of my 5 reservations, not one has called me back.

I still haven't regretted it. I haven't regretted the jailbreak either, though, mind you.

I was watching a DVD this afternoon (_I am Legend_, following up on _Bolt_ in the morning), and it force-showed me a trailer for Sweeney Todd. Being the mindless consumer-slave I am, I immediately thought "Oh yeah. I meant to order that.", and hied myself to my favourite website for mindless media consumerism, and while there, I think I got a little carried away:

( The exact extent is behind a cut, because, it's a slightly large image.Collapse )

I accidentally managed to find myself at a local video rental place, and naturally, I was going through the ex-rental bin. Scored from the 4-for-7,50 bin:

- Driven
- Extraordinary Rendition
- Hot Fuzz
- Blazing Saddles (in a rather old and worn copy).

These 4 discs appeared to be the absolute highlight of said bin. Also scored for slightly larger sums os filthy lucre:

- Jumper
- The Incredible Hulk
- Stargate Continuum
- Night at the Museum

Yeah, okay. Not exactly high culture. I just can't resist those shiny discs...

That is, they won't be renewing my contract.

Seems the recruitment agency (my employer-of-record) and the people actually giving me work to do had a bit of a spat: They're not extending temporary contracts through that agency any more. Now, the recruitment agency apparently has a deal where their client (ie, the people I'm working for) has to let you work at least 1000 hours through them before you can go work directly for 'em. So far so reasonable. But apparently the buyout fee for that is large enough that the people I mwork for have decided as a matter of policy not to do that.

Time to update the ol' CV and find myself something better than first-line techsupport.

On the plus side, they'd already approved my request for a week's vacation time (this week), which I desperately needed. Even at 24 hrs/wk, going for very nearly a year without anything more than a long weekend (and that usually in the middle of a week, since I mostly work weekends & evenings) was starting to get to me.

With the vacation time owed me (another 2-3 weeks worth) and the 1000-euro bonus for getting out of the welfare system, I should be able to get some extra quals/certs that might help with finding a better job, too.

I don't know if y'all heard.. last week the Dutch Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Dick Berlijn, retired from the top slot. Two days after the festive and formal transfer of command authority to Peter van Uhm, General Uhm's son Dennis was one of two Dutch soldiers killed by a roadside IED in Afghanistan.

Ouch.

Just out of curiosity (and to make cheap political hay out of a personal tragedy[1]).. how many of the Joint Chiefs have children in harm's way?

[1] I'm not a politician, so maybe I'm allowed.