Quiet Drink

Now, in the Irdeto headquarters, there is a bar. A general recreational area with a pool table, table football and pinball. Along with beers and soft drinks. This was installed to cater for a coworker get together which was to happen every two weeks. There's a dutch word for it, but I couldn't pronounce or spell it. When I started work, the bar wasn't open yet. It was a new building, and they were still preparing it. Even now, its not finished, one of the pinball machines doesn't work and the dart board hasn't been put up.

Grounded

So, throughout this month and last, I spent a lot of time looking at various gadgets that I had my eye on to purchase for one reason or another. Phones, electronic readers, parts for my computer, all sorts of nice, expensive luxury goods like that. I spent time weighing up these products, looking at reviews, checking alternatives and pricing them in various stores. Then I shortlisted them all on my Amazon wish list. The past few days however, I'm suddenly wondering if I even want any of them.

Lazy Days

I still haven't recovered from Friday. That late night was a shock to the system after I've become accustomed to going to bed and getting up early. One all nighter and three days later I'm still falling asleep at my keyboard.

To The Hague

Tomorrow night is another meeting for the Irish Mafia. Which is what they say here in Irdeto when all the Irish workers get together and head for food and drink. It's a semi-regular thing, most of the Irish workers being managers and directors who spend every other week flying to odd corners of the world makes organising these things difficult I guess. Even tomorrow, one fellow has already pulled out because he suddenly had to fly to Australia.

Distributed

The Android book I've had my eye on was published today, though it's still not available through Amazon. Which isn't an entirely bad thing I guess. While I've worked my way through my small intro book, I'm only getting started on Head First Java, which is a lot bigger and a lot denser. I may be at it a while. When I'm a bit further into it, I guess I might buy the other books I have my eye on, Hello Android and Head First C#. It'll be another while before Head First Python gets a release.

Electronic Ink?

So, ereaders and ebooks. People have been asking me why I would consider some gimmicky electronic alternative than tried and tested paper and ink. Well, actually, that's a lie, nobody's asked me. But I have been thinking about this for a while. Partially due to not having a lot to do with my time but mostly because I like gadgets.

Stumble

I don't know if you noticed, but yesterday, I missed an update. I didn't even realise until this morning. Probably distracted due to the week of things not being entirely peachy. From my bus card not breaking to my saddle getting stolen, not to mention the curse of the fatal death which struck some of my virtual machines in work.

Deliveries

I finally got my books today. Not seeing them in my mailbox, I emailed the people in charge of post in Irdeto to ask if they'd gotten anything. Sure enough, they had, and asked me to come up and sign for it. Up I went, got my package, and signed for it. Only then did I notice that the package had been marked received by them last Friday. I could have been reading my books all weekend!

Setbacks

Today, my bus card didn't work. I have no idea why. I stepped onto the bus, swiped it and nothing happened. So I swiped it again. Nothing happened. The bus driver was looking at me impatient, so I got off and went to the ticket machines. Swiped the card, card registered, €18.36 credit. Back to the bus, swipe card, nothing happens.

Literary

In case you missed it, Netherlands are through to the World Cup Final. I was watching it of course. But even if I wasn't, I couldn't have missed the cheers and the vuvuzelas sounding all over town. There's going to be a lot of celebration here if they can put up a show and beat the German juggernaut. Lets face it, it's going to be Germany in the final with them.

Friday Night Heat

It's 26 degrees outside. Humidity is at 56% and I don't have any kind of fan or air conditioner. Not wind to speak of, the air is hot, sticky and not moving. I find this difficult to tolerate. I wonder if I could ever survive a Japanese summer if I can't take this. It's nearly worse here than it was in the office, and we didn't have air conditioning there either.

No Cameras

Went for a video conference today, though it turned into a conference phone call at the last minute. I was a little relieved. The camera kept spinning around and surveying the room while the system was supposedly off. It was a little creepy.

High Hopes

I am now a fan of Amazon. Well, strictly speaking I've been a fan of Amazon for some time. On-line shopping near perfected. I started a wish-list, as I find myself wanting things but lacking a means of income to support the purchasing of these things. Only when I had finished compiling it did I realise that of the seven items on my wish-list, one is a duplicate, two are yet to be released and four of them are textbooks on programming and development. What happened to me? When did textbooks become my number one item of yearning?