Gerko's Weblog

Sunday, May 23, 2004

 A little story.

Earlier today, I was a little bored and started writing a little story on a bit of scrap paper. It's quite the fairy tale, I must say. Here it is :

Once upon a time in a suburban area of Los Angeles, big men ate their dogs. Then, they lived happily ever after, except this one guy who died of stomach cramps.

Wednesday, May 19, 2004

 2nd bloggerversary.

Jipes. I almost forgot. But I made it, with 35 minutes left on the clock till the end of the day.

Today, two years ago, I wrote my first entry on this weblog here. It still exists, though my posting habits have been going downhill since the start. Readership, too isn't what it used to be at it's high point. But, well, I hope I can change that again. Start updating a bit more reguarly, rework the lay-out again.. that sort of thing. I know I've said it before, and it never really worked out ... but. egh. I'll get it back, someday.

Hum. Most people I joined in blogging over these past two years have stopped, or are updating very sporadically. Maybe I'm a bad influence. Elise has been busy-busy with everything and hasn't been updating much the past few months. June seems to have stopped altogether, after changing blogs around a few times. Larissa has been without inspiration and time for a while too, now. Alique, I don't thinks she's been writing anything lately, either. But I couldn't know since, as I've said before, she keeps her blogs secret to everyone.

Looking at my life of the past two years since I started this blog, I can't say I've gained all that much. I've bummed around, and then later I worked for minimum wages, just making ends meet, and not really learning anything substantial. *sigh*
But let's not end this on a somewhat downish note. Looking on the brighter side of things, I have become a bit more social in real-life. I've become acquainted with June, who indirectly got me started with this blog, and I'm quite happy to have her as a friend. Also, maybe, partially, thanks to this blog, I've gotten over my 8-9 year lasting unrequited love for Elise. I joined up with Nanowrimo last year, and though I failed horribly in that attempt, I did meet another friend thanks to it (Larissa). Also because I participated in Nanowrimo, in a sort of roundabout way, two couples formed somewhere in the netherlands. Isn't that nice ? Just because I signed up for that thing, 4 people are quite a bit happier now. Haven't mentioned it before, have I ? Maybe I'll get back to it someday, since it's fairly interesting and makes me feel like my existance is worth something, even when I'm not actively trying to do be my best or anything. Y'know ?

Yeah, well, that's it. Better not drag it on, or I'll go past midnight and foil the anniversary date scheme.

Tuesday, May 11, 2004

 Driving

Had my driver's lesson again this morning. Went pretty well. Exam date has been set for Monday, 7th of June, 14:55.

Now I'd better go and make it this time. Getting too bloody expensive. 'specially with my job ending one month later, and I don't have a plan on how to get some income for the time after that. (until september, at least. Then 'study-financing' should start up again)

Monday, May 10, 2004

 Augh. What *am* I going to do about this ?

Moan, groan, mumble and moan some more. Blogger has new stuffies. Some are quite cool. But I ... *ugh* ... what am I going to do with it ? WHAT !? I mean, sure it looks fine right now. But it'll be outdated soon. *ugh* Comments ... stay with YACCS or move on to Blogger's system ? Can I make blogger's system act like YACCS ? Partially, I think. But not completely. But maybe I shouldn't even try that and just keep it full paged. But I spent quite some energy in making that YACCS thing look proper. And what am I going to do about this profile business ? Big sigh. Big, big sigh.

 Probably a very common subject around the blogging world today.

Blogger updated itself. Or rather, the people at blogger did some serious reworking on the layout and structure of their tool, and it looks as though it's grown into quite a bit more than what it used to be. Comments, profiles ... I'm going to have to go check this out and update my template again. I mean, sure, YACCS comments are cool, but if blogger can have it's own ... Anyway, things to check out. I think it also wants to put the author's profile on the main page and ... Hmmm

Well, I'll see. I'll see.

 Back, with recap.

Ugh. About time I started writing again. I wonder, though, why I choose to do this at a quarter past midnight, when I have to get up in measely six and a half hours.

The past few weeks have been pretty well, I suppose.

I signed up for the gym across the street. Yeah, it took me two years to figure out there really was one and that it might be a good idea to check it out and get some workout every now and then. Been there four times now, at about a twice per week schedule. I can feel my muscles aching gently the next day, but they haven't hurt yet. Maybe I need to push myself more, but I'm not sure how. I really do think I'm close to my max when doing all the weight pushing, pulling and whatnot things, and I can't go all the way on the X minute endurance things because my heartrate would be getting too high. (according to some graphs) Oh well, I'll see, I guess. I'm not sure if "fun" is the right word, but at least say that I don't dislike going there. So's good, and I'll try to keep it up. (my body needs it)

As said in the last entry, I got my bike back. Getting it fixed back up didn't go without a hitch either, though. At first they only fixed some external damage, but left the gears and back wheel alone, with the suggestion to place in a ... back-peddle break ? - no gears. Didn't quite like that suggestion too much, though. I kinda need those gears. Well, 'need' is perhaps too big a word, but let's not forget that in effect, it wouldn't turn out any better than my new/old bike. Which I got for 50 Euros. (Quite a bit less than what the repairs are costing. Good thing Dad's paying for it in return for me helping him out with his proggies at work.) Oh, and let's not forget some problems Mom had with paying for the repairs, ending up overpaying some 220 Euros or so. But she got it back, took a while, but the store admitted their mistake.
(Don't ask me how my mom ended up paying for the repairs while Dad was supposed to do this. I'm not entirely sure, and just writing out what I do know about it is would be quite boring.) Anyway, the stolen bike is all fixed up now, and is currently at home-home in the garage, waiting for me to give it a test ride. Stupid me forgot to do so this past weekend. Oops.

In other news, I bought a webcam early last week. My PC wasn't too happy about it, though, and committed suicide. Five system restores, re-installation of drivers and a borred webcam from a housemate made me give up my attempts of getting it to work. This PC is up for a complete clean out, and soon, too. On a side note, the 'cam works just fine at home-home. Yarr. So if you want to catch my mug on some IM service, try the weekends.

Okay, so it's getting pretty late now, so I'll quickly sum up the rest of the newsworthy things.

There's a new housemate in the ... euh, house. Named Tom. Seems like a nice guy. Don't think he has any affiliation with Jerry. Doesn't have quite the same musical tastes as I do, but he's quite considerate with the volume. Think I'm going to like having this guy around.

Had a phone call with June again last thursday. It was really nice, maybe mostly because somehow I had the ability to talk naturally without that all-too-often-dominant taciturn cover. Also, just because talking with June is nice. (Oh, and did I mention she might come over here for a while to the netherlands in the forseeable future ?) I'm not sure what caused it myself, but June had some theory about my sudden surge of talkative behavior. I quite disagree with it.

Leiden University finally came through with their requirements for my entry exams, "Colloquium Doctum", and it's pretty much what I expected, even though it is quite a whole lot, and I'm not sure if I can actually make it in so short a time. The search for an alternative study continues.

I got a haircut saturday morning. Last one was in the first half of March, if I recall correctly, so it was high time again.

Saturday afternoon, I went with Dad, his girlfriend and my siblings to the circus that was performing close by. Was nice, though Alique was suffering quite badly from menstrual cramps. Poor Sis' ... :(
We brought her home after the performance, and then the rest of us left again to eat out somewhere. I keep being reminded how child-like my dad's gf can be in some situations. Incredibly clingy, absolutely no patience, and any courtesy would be hard to find in her. Tough case of ADHD, it would be called by many. Though not by herself or my dad, since ADHD doesn't excist (or something like that, anyway) according to Scientology. *rolls eyes*
But ah, she's not a bad sorts, and it's Dad who has to deal with her most of the time. Guess I just have to be glad she's not my girlfriend. Heh.
Oh, and during that dinner, dad also attempted some father-son talk and asked me when the last time was when I'd "gotten some". My answer was (quite truthfully) that it must've been in a past life.