Present Perfect

This week on the way to work I was waiting to cross a road when the traffic light for the vehicles turned to red and mine turned to green.

Wait, it gets better.

A bus started braking at the latest possible minute to not pass the red light, ending up a bit over the white demarcation line and almost hitting some woman in the process.

Next thing that happens, the driver jumps out of his bus, runs into a bakery on the corner that has a self-service coffee machine, fiddles with the thing, and runs back out with his coffee all before the light turns green again. And then drives off.

How many people would drive off with the bus ?

out

Kristien and I were planning to go snowboarding in La Masella yesterday, but the Friday forecast mentioned snow storms and -13 C, so we ended up not going. Just as well - the vaccinations Kristien got on Friday for her trip to China had left her with a slight flu and a very sore arm all weekend.

So instead we went out to Gracia at night. There was a Witches festival - though I didn't pay attention or notice anything - as well as a whole week of Island parties - people from Mallorca and Ibiza coming over to sing and celebrate. It was nice to feel a little bit like a local among locals and speak a lot of Spanish through the night. I wish I could have more practice.

chocolate

Went to the chocolate museum today. Was a bit skeptical, being Belgian and all, but it was great. They had some amazing chocolate statues on display, and the smell was divine. And apparently the Aztecs used cacao beans as a form of currency. The service of a prostitute is worth 10 beans.. The same price for a live rabbit. Coincidence ?

After the museum, we'd gotten such a taste for chocolate that we went to a great desert specialty store called 'El Bubó' and treated ourselves to some yummy brownies and pastries. They also had a bar close by, where we ended with some steak chunks with violet (flower) oil and blood sausage potatoes. Divine. And we haven't gone through their whole menu yet...

This week on the way to work I was waiting to cross a road when the traffic light for the vehicles turned to red and mine turned to green. Wait,...

Once in a while I come across something that makes me laugh while doing stuff that is serious business.

One of the patches in the X.org rpm builds from Red Hat is named "xorg-redhat-die-ugly-pattern-die-die-die.patch". Not too hard to guess what it does.

Here's another thing that had me rub my eyes in an otherwise dry info manual:

For instance, this definition of macros:
...

     AC_DEFUN([TRAVOLTA],
     [test "$body_temperature_in_celsius" -gt "38" &&
       dance_floor=occupied])
     AC_DEFUN([NEWTON_JOHN],
     [test "$hair_style" = "curly" &&
       dance_floor=occupied])

     AC_DEFUN([RESERVE_DANCE_FLOOR],
     [if date | grep '^Sat.*pm' >/dev/null 2>&1; then
       AC_REQUIRE([TRAVOLTA])
       AC_REQUIRE([NEWTON_JOHN])
     fi])

with this `configure.ac'

     AC_INIT
     RESERVE_DANCE_FLOOR
     if test "$dance_floor" = occupied; then
       AC_MSG_ERROR([cannot pick up here, let's move])
     fi

will not leave you with a better chance to meet a kindred soul at other
times than Saturday night since it expands into:

...

Once in a while I come across something that makes me laugh while doing stuff that is serious business. One of the patches in the X.org rpm builds from Red...

I'm putting off reminiscing about last year's end and my stay in Belgium. Putting it all down implicitly decides what matters and what didn't and until I do everything still has an equal chance of mattering.

When I was 18 I made a top 20 cassette. I spent some time picking and put together an order of my favourite songs. One of them was Underwhelmed by Sloan. I passed by the FNAC yesterday to pick up a birthday gift for someone because I was invited for dinner, and apparently they had a singles collection out. Picked it up but didn't have time to listen to it, but Underhelmed still packs the same punch, wit and drive it did back then.

Tonight I was staying at home to recover from my week of sore throat and illness, and did some surfing. I had actually never ever seen Sloan live, and once in a while I wondered if they ever tour. So after some websurfing (Sloan is surprisingly common for a website term), I find the site, check for tour dates.

WTF. They are playing tonight in Barcelona. It's 11 PM, and they were opening (no honor among thieves), so there's no point in going anymore.

I think out of the top 10 off that cassette, Underwhelmed is the only song I haven't ever heard live. At least, not played by them - Metal Molly gave a stellar rendition of it at some show way back when.

I hope there's another time.

I'm putting off reminiscing about last year's end and my stay in Belgium. Putting it all down implicitly decides what matters and what didn't and until I do everything still...

Ross, for a man of your caliber there is only one true yardstick to decide if you qualify as a treehugging leftie.

Things like food, whether you kill animals, take care of animals, are nice to your girlfriend/loved ones/wife are not important. Only one thing matters: is your complete music collection in Ogg/Vorbis or an equally free format or not ?

If you encoded any of your CD's in mp3 and are using them to actually listen to them, you're obviously a capitalist swine :)

Here's a drawing to help you decide

tree-hugging leftie                                       capitalist swine
using free formats < -----------------------------------> using proprietary formats

Thomas                                                    rest of the world
(and possibly one more person)

                                     ??? Ross ???

Ross, for a man of your caliber there is only one true yardstick to decide if you qualify as a treehugging leftie. Things like food, whether you kill animals, take...

Our dishwasher is one we bought in Gent back when
four guys were living in a big house. We got it from a couple who had had it for a year, and when the house in Gent blew up, Kristien and I offered the dishwasher a ride to sunny Barcelona, which it gladly accepted.

Now, our dishwasher had the peculiar ability to leave streaks of residue on glasses in very specific locations. Over the years I've slowly uncovered more and more potential hiding places for dirt. Each time, after uncovering a new hideout, I was sure to have found every little nook and cranny, and from now on, all our glasses would end up clean. Invariably, I'd be disappointed again after a week or so when my desire to believe they were clean was overruled by reality.

So a few weeks ago, I decided to sit down and look at every square inch of the thing to make sure I wasn't missing anything. I dismantled the whole thing, ran my fingers everywhere and felt inside holes (after unplugging it from the mains, because our flat's electrical wiring is such that we regularly get little shocks from washing machines, dishwashers and computers), until I ran my finger underneath the rubber band all the way at the bottom.

Youch. I've never seen this much black sticky gunk, or smelt this foul a smell, inside any kitchen, ever. It smelt worse than the worst poop I've ever managed to produce, and I went through a whole fresh roll of paper towels before I ended up with a clean one running it under the rubber. This gunk was worse than any of the other gunk I've ever uncovered in any of the nooks inside.

Of course, this time I am again convinced I've found the last hiding place for gunk. Feel free to pop my bubble by giving me hints on where to look next...

And if your dishwasher has a rubber band, now is as good a time as any to go clean gunk from underneath it !

Our dishwasher is one we bought in Gent back when four guys were living in a big house. We got it from a couple who had had it for a...