Back in the Netherlands

Well, that was a little embarrassing. Six days in Ireland and I by the end of it I'd ended up dropping my push-ups, my sit-ups and my blog. I'm fairly sure it was down to nestling back into my old comfort zone more than any kind of lack of time or busyness. I intend to get back on top of them all this week, but if this is the way it's going to be, I'm going to have to join a gym or something when I get back permanently.

Phoning Home

Yesterday, I finally arrived back home in Ireland. I've been away since the end of May, it's great to be back. When I arrived in Dublin Airport, after a long wait in Schiphol and a short flight, the sky was completely blue and the sun was beaming down. The weather was fantastic. A couple of short bus journeys later and I was home.

Coincidence?

Yesterday I afternoon, I ordered a new phone. Yesterday evening, my Walkman randomly switched off in the middle of a song. Today, the capacitive controls wouldn't light up, preventing me from stopping the music or changing tracks. In short, my phone is beginning to act up. has this been some act of divine providence or is my phone phone suddenly decided to make my remaining days with it a constant annoyance?

Ring-Ring

So I bought a new phone. That phone I've been talking about for the past four months? I bought that one. It's an Android smartphone, a little unique compared to most on the market. Rather than being half a grand worth of Snapdragon processors and SuperAMOLED screens like the Samsung Galaxy, the iPhones or any of HTC offerings, the phone I opted for is a small, light device with a sliding keyboard. Though Sony have heavily customised Android to run nicely on the smaller device, meaning that it's a couple of versions behind the current release.

Jet-Set

Next Monday, seven days from today, I will be visiting Ireland, for seven days. I'm looking forward to it, I haven't been home since I set off two and a half months ago with just a rucksack of clothes and a laptop in tow. Hopefully I'll be able to have some fun during my brief stay. Arranging a cinema trip just in case.

Ring-Ring

I think I was a big generous when allocating my hours for this sprint. I sat down to do what I thought was a 16 hour job this morning and had it finished by lunchtime. I managed to do this while reading the tech news on Google reader, though it was a slow news day. As a result I was left with essentially nothing to do for the rest of the day, as the rest of the jobs on my list involve working with a digibox that hadn't even been unwrapped and flashed yet. Hopefully tomorrows jobs will take a bit longer.

Smartie-Pants

Work has been a bit less boring the past few days. As I've said before, I'm scripting actions for a set top box. This is two fold, half of it is scripting user interactions with the box and checking the screen for movement and error codes. The other half is scripting the server to add and remove entitlements to the box's smartcard, and make sure that the TV scrambles and descrambles with it should.

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.

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.

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.

Boxcar Racer

So, I finally did what I promised and nabbed a shot of that boxcar racer that fellow comes to work in. It's purple, as you can plainly see. The pictures are in my gallery so you can take a good look at the slightly scarred beast. I'm finding it hard to cope in this humid sticky weather. I get up, shower, change into fresh clothes and by the time I get down the street I feel like I could do with another shower.

Adventure Time

I figure, this Saturday or Sunday, I may finally visit Amsterdam. I've been in Holland nearly a month and I haven't gotten around to taking a train in yet. I've only a few errands to run this weekend, so I figure I'll use the extra time to catch a train in and have a look about. I don't know what I expect to find, I don't exactly have a lot of spending money, though I do like browsing high streets and electronics stores.

Back in the Sun

Second weekend here in Holland. I had intended to go into Amsterdam today; However I have only enough funds left on my travelcard for two bus journeys. So I think I'll leave it until next weekend. Instead, I went back into Heemstede today, to see what the town looked like on a busy day. It was surprisingly busy considering how dead it was every other time I've passed through. Puppets and human statues were attracting crowds of onlookers. I was nearly run over by a bicycle, during a lapse where I checked for oncoming traffic in the wrong direction.

Work, work, work

Finally getting to do stuff at work. I've got myself a task list and everything. I am now officially productive. I'm told there was drinks in the office after I went home last Friday. Apparently it happens every couple of weeks, but someone forgot to mention it to me. Oh well, at least I got invited to the next Irish worker meetup.