Month: May 2004

Now that mosquito season is quickly approaching, it has become a mad rush for me to get all of the screens around the house repaired and affixed properly to the appropriate doors, windows and other openings. A number of screens are torn and/or have holes in them, one whole sliding door has fallen completely off of its hinges, and another hangs crookedly producing a gaping space on the right side of the window.

If I am not quick enough, droves of those gregarious creatures will be streaming in and searching out innocent victims and undeserving fools.

This is not one of those activities that you would place near the top of the list of favorite things to do. But it must be done, and when it has been completed, your life experience (sans mosquitoes) is improved immensely.

In my spare time (whatever I've got left lately), I played around with my blog and ended up creating a most visited option.

In the left margin you should see a new sidebar item appropriately called "Most visited" which lists the top twenty blog entries which have been viewed/read (starting say about a week ago). If you prefer to see the complete list, then just click the show all button.

Later on, if I have more time left on my hands, I will try to write a short tutorial on how I managed this amazing feat of programming lore.

Ideally, my goal would be to enter it in the Plug In to Movable Type 3.0 Developer's Contest. But I only have a couple more weeks.

Alright, there was no stopping me and I had to get it, the new Movable Type 3.0 Developer Edition.

Since I was part of the beta testers group and have donated money on a regular basis, I got a 50-percent discount.

What a bunch of really kind folks they have at MovableType.

[Warning: for those using the MT-Blacklist plugin by Jay Allen, you're in for a little trouble as it is incompatible with the new comments. You'll have to remove it.]

Just imagine what would happen if a jetliner crashed into a nuclear power plant because of some maniac terrorist who thought that he was dying for an honorable cause. Thousands if not millions of poor unexpecting souls would be gone just like that.

According to a recent ABC announcement:

Officials say there is disturbing yet unspecific intelligence that al Qaeda cells within the U.S. plan an attack this summer. The national alert level remains at "elevated."

These warnings pop up so frequently that we easily become numbed by the reality (or should I say unreality?) of the potential threats.

Just to be on the safe side, I decided to sit with my back facing the direction that the train was going. While I prefer to sit facing the direction I am traveling, you never know when an accident might happen. That way, if there was a head-on collision, I would not be flung across the aisle and get smashed into the front wall of the wagon. Hopefully the wagon would not be smashed like an accordion, and I would be able to escape by climbing out of the window.

In eastern cultures cracking your joints is a way to release negative energy from your body. Link.

Fortunately for me, I decided to leave work one hour earlier yesterday afternoon. Had I heeded to my usual predictable routine and left sixty minutes later, it could have been a whole different story.

Treinbotsing bij Amsterdam CS

Try to be careful out there. The mistress of fate is not always as forgiving as you might hope she would be.

On Friday, May 21, 2004 at 14:23:26 (PDT)
the hit-count for Gibberations is: 38000.

People often try to escape the truth by complaining all of the time and doing nothing about it, as if they are the poor suffering souls who cannot do anything about it. Little do they know that the blame lies purely within their own attitudes and blindness. Simply looking the other way will never change things.

Over there in the distance there was that guy again walking just beyond the spot where the trees end. You know, next to old cabin which has been falling apart ever since anyone can remember. When my father was alive he had told me on several occasions about seeing what I was seeing at that exact moment, except that time and reality had been changed ever so slightly. As if I were somehow expected not to notice the change, which I knew would happen anyway.

isp

/I-S-P/ Common abbreviation for Internet Service Provider, a kind of company that barely existed before 1993. ISPs sell Internet access to the mass market. While the big nationwide commercial BBSs with Internet access (like America Online, CompuServe, GEnie, Netcom, etc.) are technically ISPs, the term is usually reserved for local or regional small providers (often run by hackers turned entrepreneurs) who resell Internet access cheaply without themselves being information providers or selling advertising.

(Not so sure I agree about the hackers part.)

This cannot be true. Or can it?

English  Dutch

Matala Beach front.

Alright then, after a difficult and sometimes stressful previous year, we decided this time around to splurge a little and have more fun in life. As a kind of celebration of life and how thankful we are that everything is going so much better.

So for summer vacation, we will be spending a couple weeks in Matala, Crete.

Back in the romantic days before the arrival of our kids, Thea and I had the times of our lives there. We feel that it would be nice to go back and show the children.

Hard to believe that that was some twenty odd years ago.

anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different, we would not be here to observe it. Think about it.

Today the first Dutch soldier was killed in Iraq.

Some terrorist threw a grenade at a convoy while it was crossing a bridge. This is a terrible shock for The Netherlands, but for some reason the majority of the people still support the military presence there.

When compared to the hundreds of American soldiers killed since the so-called end of hostilities ("Mission accomplished!" according to president Bush on that aircraft carrier), this may not seem like much, but for the family in friends in the small Friesen village of Franeker it will probably be the biggest sacrifice of their lives.

It is all relative when you think about it.

"But if the universe is really completely self-contained, having no boundary or edge, it would have neither beginning nor end: it would simply be. What place then for the creator?"

- Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time

Never thought that I would appreciate my free weekends as much as I do now. Just the simple things, that's what really counts. Letting all those things from the recent past settle in, like dreams collating the days events in some mish-mashed mental shapes and movements. Waiting and preparing for the next round of events which will come before you realize it, and then again.

Alright then, I survived my first full five-day work week in the real world with flying colors. So far so good. Great company this is, lots to do as well as pleasantly dynamic and challenging.

There was this lady sitting behind me in the train and she was yelling and screaming. So what could all that ruckus be about? Messed up my time trying to relax by gazing out the window and thinking about nothing. Turns out she was talking on the phone. Aggravating how some folks think that just because they are using a mobile phone they have to raise their voices a hundred decibels or more. As if they are shouting to someone standing on the other side of some immense canyon three miles across.

I recently recieved the following email from a visitor of my web site:

"I have recently moved to Redding and was wondering if Redding is famous for any particular foods. I am from San Diego (a native) and am a recent Redding transplant. I was thinking you might know a little about what Redding is famous for food wise. Thanks for taking the time to read this."

My answer was short and to the point:

"I am sorry, but I haven't been to Redding since 1963. So I'm afraid that I cannot help you with that one."

More about Redding.

Normally I have alot of patience, but now I am raising my hands and giving up, that's it, I've had it.

"... lose weight while you sleep, pharmacy with smart prices, hydrocodone and vicodin, software cheaper than cheap, buy viagra lowest prices, horny teen girls, save hundreds of dollars, mortgage at even lower rates, make your penis bigger and harder, you won't believe it, no pumps, weights or exercise ..."

As of today there will be no more kiffin@gish.demon.nl email address. Close it down, see you later, oh well.

I have decided to remove this fine email address, because it is completely drowning under spam. I have now reached an all time high of more than 250 spam mails a day and am completely unable to swim through it and filter out the "real" messages for me.

Thanks alot all you abusive and inconsiderate jerks!

[Note: Family and friends can still contact me via my personal email of course. For those others still wanting to contact me, you can always send me a message via my email page]

There are more chickens than people in the world.

More info.