Gerko's Weblog

Thursday, October 30, 2003

Back in Vlissingen for today. Still sick, but hanging in there. Heading home in half an hour again. Was just here for driving lessons this morning. It went pretty well, concerning the state of my health. Next lesson a week from now, as usual.

Anyway, Gerko started another weblog. For no other reason except to keep this one a bit clean. See, I'm going to keep you all updated on my November Project, a.k.a. the National Novel Writing Month.

http://gerkowrites.blogspot.com

It looks pretty plain (Though I like it plain). Very standard and well-known and seen everywhere nowadays, though. Fleh. I'll see. I'm in no real mood to mess with colors now. May have to mess with the font type, as it is a bit large. (Especially if it's going to hold 50,000 words). Might fiddle with it later.

Wednesday, October 29, 2003

Movie nice.

Going sleepies.

Argh. Tomorrow. Driving. Argh.

No matter. Sleepies first.

Sleepies nice.

I know I said I'd write about my novel-to-be, but I'm postponing that, too. Or just not going to write about it at all, and just keep you all occupied with other rants, and then make you read it yourselves once I upload my written pieces.

Anyway, a very good movie is on TV tonight. On the Belgian channel, no less. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is one of those movies everyone talked about when it came out 3 years ago, it being so very good and all that stuff. Gerko, however, once again managed to somehow miss going to the cinema to see it and all that kind of interesting stuff. All I know is that it is an asian production instead of an american one, and that it was compared with the Matrix, for some reason, because I don't think it's going to include fake realities brought upon man through machine. Probably has to do with the fancy special effects/moves/choreography. Anyway, Gerko's going to see it tonight, and with that, shorten his long, long list of "movies he still needs to see someday" by one.

As for my illness, it's still sucky, my face droops even more. But the headache is down, surely. So that's always a good thing. Also, I'm back in normal clothing since an hour or so, for the first time since friday night. I'll live through this.

Tuesday, October 28, 2003

Okay, what did we have ?

• General Sick Feeling
• Possible Fever
• Headache
• C-C-Cold ...
• Cough

• Running Nose and Sneezes

1. Used in indirect questions to introduce one alternative.
2. Used to introduce alternative possibilities
3. Either

1. male sheep, esp. a castrated one.

Monday, October 27, 2003

I figure it's high time for another update here. Well, as you know it, Gerko caught a pretty bad fever. Or whatever it is. Headaches, cold, and just feeling weak and sick. Oh, and since yesterday, a nasty-sounding cough, too. Started being bad friday afternoon, was worst on saturday. Still at home-home, and I hope to be fit enough to move back to my student-place-thingie tomorrow. (And go back to work wednesday.) But I guess I'll find out tomorrow, eh ?

In other news, Nanowrimo is starting to scare me just that little bit more, considering I haven't quite advanced on any of my ideas and characters yet. I had better hurry, or run into a major "Now what !?" wall halfway through the very first day. I'm starting to 'get there' with ideas about how to structure the novel, though. But not the characters. And again, no plots. AGH. Any ideas are more than welcome. (Though I suppose it'd work better if I'd write out my plans as they are so far. I'm a little pressed for time at the moment, though, as I'm going to watch TV in a couple of minutes, and after that I suppose I'll go hit the sack. So I'll postpone that to tomorrow.

Thursday, October 23, 2003

Speaking of that Nanowrimo thing ...

(Who was speaking of it ? No-one ! ... Well, not at the moment. But I'm going to. ... Like, right now.)

Elise still outright refuses to join. How dare she ? ... She said she'd think about joining next year, though. ((Ooooh. Now it makes sense. She was being nice and helpful because she felt guilty about not signing up, hum ? Yes, yes, that must be it. Muahahahaha ! I have figured her out.)) (please ignore stupid rant in italics, it's not true.)

But over the course of the last week, I managed to get some other people signed up. Somehow, they're all dutch.

• Holland, (one of the) site managers of the FDA.
• Sander, from The Order, and joined the FDA not too long ago, as well.
• Some Guy I Don't Know But Replied On The Thread I Made About It Over At The Order And Said He Would Sign Up Too. I don't think he's dutch, though.
• Larissa, who somehow stumbled on this blog site thing and thought it would be cool to sign up, too. I suppose you can replace "somehow" with "through Elise's blog." We've been talking over MSN a bit, and one of these days I'm going to feel obligated to put her link in that list over there on the right.

Flargh. Haven't been feeling too well last couple of days.

Or rather, I've been okay, but not great. Mentally I'm at ease. My body's at ease, too. But way too much.

I guess it started monday afternoon, when I decided to walk home from work instead of taking the train. (See, my bike was still at the train station in Vlissingen. Not at work in Middelburg.) So that took some 1½ hours. No problem. I'd eaten my lunch that day, my stomach was a little empty, but no problem.

Once at home, I just got online and all. Did my thing, check forums, webcomics. That stuff. Time passed. Forgot to watch that new Star Trek series that evening that's on nowadays. No big loss, since this new series (Enterprise) sucks anyway. No-one was cooking that night, so I thought I'd just have some bread rolls with cheese or what-have you. Some more time passed, though. And I wasn't hungry. And so it happened that Gerko went to bed without eating.

The next morning I woke up. Headache, but calm. Could not get out of bed. Did not want to. ... Needed the calm. Or something. So I called in sick for work. BAD Gerko, I know. Still not hungry, though stomach was definatly empty. Around 14:30 decided to eat something anyway (muesli + yoghert + apple), which was some 26 hours after my previous meal. That evening, I had a mug of instant soup, and went to bed fairly early. More-or-less same story goes for yesterday. Actually, very the same, though I dragged myself out of my room for some groceries, and had some of steamed bread rolls with fillings for dinner. You know, the student food kind.

Today, it was my day off, and thus I did not need to call in sick. I had driving lessons, which went okay. Better than last time. Should be able to get there next time. Which is November 25th, by the way. Set that date today. So wish me luck in advance. Had another appointment at LétÉ, which ... well I don't think it was very helpfull. Still not hungry, but managed to get two bowls of that muesli + yoghert + apple inside of me, anyway. Might eat some more tonight, but I'm not counting on it.

Tomorrow, I decided to go back to work. I feel a bit unjustified about staying home the last two days. I mean, sure, I was sick. But not that sick.

But I had a good rest. I think I'm ready to face the music again.

Mmmmm ... music.

Hum. Hum.

Mmmm...

What to write about ?

Right. Elise has been my personal saviour last weekend.

She kind enough to borrow (though I don't think she'll ever see it back. Unless she asks, ofcourse.) me some milk, because me and my sis wanted to make lasagna, but had forgotten to buy milk. Yes, we're a very smart bunch every now and then. But, after a short MSN conversation, Elise came to the rescue and I hopped for half a minute or so and gratefully accepted that milk carton.

But if that wasn't enough, I also managed to arrive at work monday morning, only half an hour late, thanks to her. Got to drive along with her and her father, since she had to go to the train station as well that morning. So once again, I was quite grateful.

Yet she claims that there's nothing to repay, that she still somehow feels or felt that she owes me. I asked "whatever for", to which her reply was something about me messing some nights with her blog template, in a long, long forgotten past. ... *shrugs* ... You know, I liked messing with that template, you know. Heh.

Anyway. THANKS.

(And yes, I realize this is just normal stuff friends do for each other. But you know ... I didn't really have that much else to write about.)

Sunday, October 19, 2003

Okay, so that didn't go as planned.

Gerko :

• Leaves home around 20:35, walks to bus station.
• Arrives at bus station.
• Looks at schedule.
• Realizes last bus headed for the train station left an hour ago.
• Feels bummed.
• Isn't sure what to do, begins walking towards home again.
• Changes his mind.
• Has to go to train station anyway.
• Might as well walk.
• Starts to walk towards train station in the next town.
• Gets offered a ride, about 5 minutes later.
• Thankfully accepts.
• Arrives at gas station very near train station.
• Thanks driver again.
• Walks to train station.
• Arrives at the same time he would have arrived if the bus had still been going.
• Thinks this is very cool.
• Waits at train station.
• Listens to the announcer.
• Hears that no trains will be headed towards Vlissingen anymore tonight. Due to some people working on the tracks.
• Realizes there is no alternative public transport available in that direction.
• Feels bummed.
• Isn't sure what to do again.
• Decides to buy a cab ticket.
• Goes home with "Train Taxi", which is a cheaper kind of Taxi, but only goes to or from train stations.
• Arrives back home where he started around 21:45.
• Is really quite amused.

Oh, hip, hip, hurray.

Was home-home for the weekend, together with my sister. Was nice enough, even though we didn't quite get to spend all that much time together because I'm just like, this guy with an internet addiction. *rolls eyes* ... Sorry sis. I know you said I shouldn't worry about it, but ... I feel a little bad anyway. I'm sure you can imagine. Rest of the family is to Belgium for a couple of days. Having a "Vacation", or something silly like that.

But anyway, the time has come to go back to my student-place in Vlissingen. So in about half an hour or so, I'm going to leave the house, find a nice bus stop and hope a darn bus will show up to take me to the train station. At which point I'll wait for a darn train to take me to Vlissingen, where I shall find my darn bike which I parked there. It had better not be stolen or vandalized, or I'm going to be in a whole load of trouble for work tomorrow. No, walking is not really an option. I know I did it once (Walk to Middelburg, that is), but the weather was better, and [ insert excuse which is really, really good ].

I'll give a chirp back here when I get there, even though there's not a whole lot of other news to tell. Perhaps except that I don't want to. Agh ! Work. *sigh* ... WHY WHY WHY !?. Meh. Better stop whining, no good for anything.

Saturday, October 18, 2003

Okay, back in action, I hope.

I'd better be able to keep up with this, since ... well, last wednesday I signed up on a rather ambitious project. And as the hours and days pass, I'm getting more excited, and more worried all the same.

You see, Gerko is not going to be available for ... well, almost anything next month. He's got a job to do, aside from his regular 8-4:30 job. Gerko is going to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days, or try to do so anyway. So that means no more free time, and even more importantly : no slacking. No procrastination.

So what's all this about you, ask ? Write a novel ? And in 30 days ? Whatever for !? I'm not entirely sure, you know. But it's intrigueing. And I think it'd be good for me to actually get something done for once. So yeah.

Read all about it on NaNoWriMo.org, which stands for National Novel Writing Month. It asks you to write a 50,000 word novel in month of November. If you can manage that, you win. What you win is pretty much ... well. Self-esteem. Bragging rights. That's about it. But it's good stuff.

And I am so going to bug Elise into joining, you wouldn't believe it. Heck, if I feel up to this (NO I DON'T ! I'M DOOMED), then Elise should be able to waltz through it.

...

So ... yeah. Hum. 50,000 in 30 days. 1,667 words a day. Minimum. And I'm a slow typer. And an even slower writer. Let's not forget that I never really wrote fiction before, if you don't count those roleplaying posts I made every now and then. Also, let's not forget that I have NO PLOT, very little ideas, and really just one fleshed out character (that still needs work). And that I have a stupid job which prohibits me from working deep into the night.

But I'm not fazed. (YES I AM !) I'm just going to do it. I'm thinking about setting up another blog before I start, so you can keep up with my progress while I work on those words. Besides, the site says you don't have to write something good. Just write something. Anything. Heh. Oh man. I'm so scared. I'm doomed. I'm never going to make this. But, oh well. I'll see.

Writing this post took 14 minutes, and consists of 422 words according to MS Word. Is that enough ? AGH ! I don't know.

Thursday, October 16, 2003

Oh, some other tid-bits about the job which I completely forgot to mention in all the mess :

Gerko works from 8:00 to 4:30, with one half-hour break. (and various shorter not-really-breaks-but-doing-nothing-anyway-because-there's-nothing-to-do periods) He needs to bicycle about 20-30 minutes to and fro.

4 days a week, with thursday as my day off. Which makes 32 hour weeks. Which pays just over 600 Euros a month, which is really, really crappy.

Maybe I should try to look for something else myself. Outside of this "LétÉ" company. (Ah, yes. That's what it's called. "LétÉ", after "Luctor et Emergo", which, aside from being Latin and meaning something to the effect of "I wrestle and emerge(from water)", has been the Province's "Tag Line" for some centuries. (I think, not sure. Maybe shorter) LetE mostly works with/for those mentally challenged 'misfits' of society. Not exactly a pleasing description, but true enough, so I don't know how else to say it.

Anyway, more than 600 bucks/month ought to be possible to find, right ? Right ... !?

[No excuses]

So, what has Gerko been up to ? Loads, I tell you. I almost had another entry ready about two weeks ago, but then shortly before finishing it, I had to leave the computer so I saved it as a draft. And haven't looked at it since. Reading back over it, I don't really see what I wanted to change about it anymore. Odd. Anyway, I put it up as it was.

So, for a recap of sorts :

Gerko has had a job since mid summer or so. First about a month and a half of production line work, making rooftop boxes for cars. (Eh. Plastic boxes one puts on top of cars to carry stuff in.) My co-workers were, pretty much without exception, of the mentally challenged type. And no, not the "Agh ! They're all stupid idiots !" variety. Just low IQ. Very low for some. "Stupid" and "idiot" doesn't apply, because those are more of a state of mind than relevant to one's IQ. I know my IQ is pretty high, but I can be a pretty stupid idiot at times too. (I just hope it doesn't show too often) So that doesn't fly. ... Eh, I'm just not sure how to put this without sounding offending or whatever. I think "mentally challenged" is the best I can do. So there. Depending on how high my IQ is, I think I doubled quite a few of 'em.

Work itself wasn't really that bad. Sure, it was very, very simple, but the pace was fairly low, breaks were long enough, actual working hours were pleasant. And they had about the best soup ever in the cafetaria. Well, I don't know about 'best ever', but it was self-made, and costed a mere '2 coins' a bowl. '2 coins' translates to approx. 12 cents. So that's was a very nice deal I got there. I miss that soup. Or soups, since it pretty much changed every day. Then, some 6 weeks later that was over. It had been a temporary job, no chance to prolong it. Aside from the soup, though, I wasn't sad to go.

No other job for a while. Not entirely sure how long, but a couple of weeks anyway. I got that first job through some government-funded "We put people to work" company, and got paid through them as well. So I still got paid during those weeks of not-working, as I was technically still working for 'em, just not 'doing' anything. Or something to that effect. Then, that company found me a better job. At the Province. (That's "Local Government", people) Semi-big builing, with loadsa offices. Around 220-250 people working there. Gerko gets to do the internal mail. And check the towel rolls in the toilets, and refill the paper for the copy machines. Sort, deliver and pick up mail. Apply postage to outgoing mail. My self-describing title would be something to the effect of "Mr. Mail and Miscellaneous Maintenance" ... hum. "Assistant", even. Still far from a high-profile job, but a lot more varied than the previous one. And though still not taxing on the mind, it's not exactly dulling it too much, either. Direct co-workers are mentally more apt as well. Still think I might be the smartest of the bunch there, but what's to be expected ? No real complaints, though. Hours are longer, the cafetaria is quite a bit pricier (but still within reason), and the soup's a lot 'less good' (still good, but not really comparable). Are those complaints ? I don't know. Actually getting out of bed on time every morning is still a problem, but I've been on time without hitches for a week now, so I should get by. Also, in some related to that job news ; about three weeks ago, I did something fairly stupid there, and as it turns out (quite a bit later) that it had some not-really-great repercussions. I might write more about that affair later. But from my point of view, my conscience is clear.

My apologies for the noncoherent rambles. I'd like to get more in-depth about some things, but not now. So that probably means 'never' ... but ah well. At least you're sort-of up to date on Gerko's job thing.

Friday, October 03, 2003

Okay, so there's something seriously wrong with me.

I mean, gee, didn't we know that already ? But I just re-realized it again, and perhaps figured it might be worse than I imagined.

But really, how many people do you see smiling while failing their driver's exam ? How many people do you know who have their best day in weeks on that day ? Why am I not pissed off ? Why wasn't I nervous ? (Not in the least.)

And why did I do 'okay' in the pre-exam lesson, but rather messed up the actual exam ? It certainly wasn't the nerves. It was just a 'down'. I have ups and downs like that in my capabilities all the time. Not just driving.

I figure it might be my 'split' again. It's not schizofrenia (or whatever new fangled name they thought up for it nowadays), but I do certainly have two sides. A passive and an active side. And just to make it easier, let's just call 'em that : Active and Passive. And for the sake of making me sounds stupid, let's refer to these two sides in the third person.

Passive has the upper hand most of the time. Passive isn't a bad guy. Just a little slow, checks things a couple of times even when he knows it's right. Doubts about stuff that he knows that he knows. Isn't 'afraid' to take action, but just very hesitant. Understands and feels well, though not very quick, and unable or just unwilling to act on it. Can't have real-life conversations worth donkey poo. Silent as a brick. Master Procastrinator.

And then there's Active. Active is a rarer side of me. But generally the better one. Active is a great guy. When Active is in charge ... well, there isn't much he can't do.

Sometimes Passive tries to imitate Active, but usually fails at it. I get kinda messy when I try to push Passive into action. As was more-than-evident during my exam.

Haven't found the magic formula to change into Active, though. If he's really needed though, he's always around. Somehow, (possibly through lack of nerves !?) Active didn't feel he was required during the exam.