Category: The Life Quotient

Real Life outside the computer. Personal issues and events.

I do need to remember the small stuff…

Db0

Ευτυχώς που υπάρχει και η Anath να μου θυμίσει ότι ο αρχικός σκοπός αυτού του ιστολογίου ήταν για να κρατάω αναμνήσεις από την ζωή μου πρίν επέλθει το…Αλτσχάιμερ. Έχω κολλήσει τελευταία με τα φιλοσοφικά/υπαρξιακά/αθειστικά και δεν καταγράφω καθόλου την ζωή μου.

Φυσικά και τα περισσότερα θα γραφτούν παρά κλειστών των θυρών (μη χαίρεστε παλιοτυροβρωμίκουλες) αλλά έτσι και αλλιώς, ο σκοπός τους δεν είναι τόσο πολύ η κοινή κατανάλωση.

Αντε να δούμε εαν θα το καταφέρομεν.

Τι μου έχει συμβεί τελευταία στην ζωή μου λοιπόν;

Well, είμαι πια στην πρώτη σχέση που έχει κρατήσει σχεδόν ένα χρόνο μετά απο την πρώτη μου σχέση και που πάει αρκετά καλά, μπορώ να ομολογήσω. Δεν υπάρχουν τριβές, καυγάδες κλπ αλλά δεν βαριόμαστε. Γενικά σαν σχέση έχει βοηθήσει να σταθεροποιηθώ αρκετά εν Γερμανια.

Παλέυω ακόμα με το ADD μου για να συνεχίσω με τα διάφορα projects που έχω ξεκινήσει. Αυτή τη στιγμή δουεύω στο Wesnoth campaign μου και στο ανάλογο site, αλλά η προσοχή μου τείνει να διασπάται εύκολα. Ελπίζω να το τελειώσω πριν τα τινάξω…

Η δουλειά πάει μια χαρούλα και προβλέπεται καινούργια αυξησούλα. Περισσότερες (πικάντικες) λεπτομέρεις δεν λέω για την ώρα για να μην πάρω κάνα πόδι.

Αυτά για την ώρα.

Candles and Smoke

Db0
Disclaimer: This is mostly a test to play with my wpg2 enabled lightbox plugin as well as display photos rather than a normal blogpost 😉
2875

So last Sunday, as always me an Vio visited Sam’s place as has become the normal for the group in the last few weeks. I don’t usually joing as I just can’t understand shit of what they are saying in German. It’s not just that they talk fast, but they tend to just eat half of the sentences while replacing the other half with slang I am not familiar with. Meh!

2863

This is actually the reason why I do not join such excursions that often. I just know that I’ll not be able to take part in the discussion, will miss all the jokes and generally, other than being in the presence of friends, miss the rest.

2884

Thus it needed a specific incentive to get me to join, and this was Munchkin. I was actually hoping to play a game or two this time since it’s been a while since last I did. So I took my handy bag (which is doing a disintegration act due to the sheer weight of the cards) and my new shiny camera, and headed there.

2896

Unfortunately it didn’t happen after all. It pretty much evolved as I assumed, with everyone talking except me 🙁 Fortunately I had hugs and a nice gadget to keep me occupied. I wasted my time playing with the camera settings and taking pictures of whatever. I still haven’t managed to discover how to take nice long-exposure photos (Too many options of photo stuff confuse me), but I’m getting there.

2893

In the end, I ended up falling asleep in Viola’s knees for, from what they tell me, 1.5 hour. I woke up late enough that nobody really was interested in playing Munchkin anymore.

Oh well. At least I got to show you all my new photos 😀

New Camera

Db0

Finally, after quite a long time of using my crappy mobile phone’s camera, I’ve decided to buy one that can take a picture worth a damn.

True, part of that decision was my girlfriend finally getting too exasperated with me always complaining about the crappy pictures I took with my mobile.

Anyway, generally I am pretty ignorant about digital photography or photography in general. I’ve never actually owned a camera and before I came to Frankfurt and bought a new mobile, most of the pictures I had where from one-use disposable cameras who’s quality just might have been worse than my mobile.

Not knowing anything though, all those features and option just confused me. I just wanted something that is good at taking pictures at low light and I don’t really care about the Megapixels provided (Mostly because I’ve read that Megapixels do not necessarily equal with quality)

Fortunately, Planet atheism came to the rescue and I happened upon the blogpost of Geoff Arnold who was impressed with a specific model. Fujitsu FinePix f50fd. Now even though I didn’t plan to buy a camera back in July when I read it, I was wise enough to save a bookmark for the time when I would want to buy it.

The time came this week so this was the first thing I researched. Turns out that it was exatly what I was looking for as this specific model series are actually praised for their ability to take low light pictures. Seeing that the price had dropped to almost 200€ I decided to just bite the bullet and get it.

So I did. And now I’m gleefully playing with my new shiny gadget 😀

Here’s some samples I took in my gf house 😀

2348232723302357

The pain. TEH PAIN!

Db0

All I have to say is that this week has just been a bundle of pain. Certainly not as much as some others but enough for such a small operation which left me with two gaping holes in my mouth.

I think, this week alone, I must have downed 3 full packages of painkillers easily. Ibuprofen is now my new best friend, while I truly learned to hate Paracetamol which did fuck-all for me (Although that is probably related to the fact that it does not help with inflammation).

In any case, almost every day in the last week I have woken up as a direct result of intense pain and more times than I’d like to, I woke up once or twice in the middle of the night (Fuck you Paracetamol).

Hopefully, eventually this will pass soon, only to start again from the 1st of April.

2 little bastards down. 2 little bastards to go

Db0
2316

So here I am, typing one handed because the other hand is holding a block of ice on my cheek to keep the swelling low (No, that’s the real reason. Now go and wash your brain). As you may have guessed by noticing my wonderfully blurred pic on the right, I have pulled out two of my wisdom teeth.

Yes, I wisened up at 27.

After I managed to go to the dentist 9 months later than what I wanted, I was convinced by Viola in coordination with the Dentist to get rid of these worthless pieces of bone. This was generally never high on my list of things to do as they never bothered me much but apparently, at least according to my dentist, they were partially to blame for the grinding of my teeth.

So I took the plunge and today my total sum of teeth has gone from thirty…errr…has been decreased by two.

Unfortunately for me, the roots of these damn things were horribly crooked and/or deep and/or many, leading one to need excessive force to pull out and the second a bit of an operation.

Now I really know what blood smells like, as well as how it feels to really hear a drill in the inside of your head as a piece of tooth root is being excavated, and I’m not joking…

Aaanyway, at least the good to come of this is that the dentist assumed that I would not be able to speak decently and also need some rest so he wrote me 3 days off. Which means the rest of the week is off for me. Kinda like a free and painful vacation.

I hate it when they do that…

Db0

Me: IT Servide Desk, Konstantine speaking.

User: Hello, I have a problem.

Me: Alright, how can I help.

U: I changed my password this morning, and then I went to have a coffee. I returned and worked on my outlook for a bit and then called you about my internet problem…

Me: And the problem is…?

U: Well, after you solved that, I had to go away for a while, then I returned and I couldn’t login anymore

Me: Because…?

U: My account is locked.

Me: (Silently) Aaaaargh!

Couldn’t you just skip your day story and just tell me the last sentence from the start?

Seriously people. Don’t do that. Unlocking an account is usually a 10 second job. By explaining what happened before, you make it a 5 minute job and annoy the hell out of me.

Just tell me the problem initially.

This goes along with another classic

Me: IT Service Desk, Konstantine speaking.

U: I can’t login.

Me: How do you mean? What does it say?

U: I just can’t login.

Me: Well, can you tell me what is the message you get?

U: What does it matter? I can’t login, just fix it.

Me: Look I have to know if you’re locked out or if your password is wrong. Can you just read me the error message?

U: *Sigh* Alright, wait. It says to make sure my password and username is ok but I’m positive that it is. It was working until now. Just reset it for me.

Me: *Rolling my eyes* Unfortunately as per standard policy you’ll need to come to our office to reset your password…

This is such a classic conversation that it is annoying. Even though it has been this way for like 5 years, users will still demand that we reset their password remotely. They will also keep us on the phone for 5 minutes for what can be achieved in 10 seconds.

Arrgh!

Το ιστολόγιο του Panhas

Db01 Comment

Ένας συνεργάτης για λίγο καιρό όταν που δούλευα στον Φωκά, ο Παντελής, μετά απο μια μικρή μου παρότρυνση άνοιξε δικό του ιστολόγιο. Εκεί απ’οτι φαίνεται θα γράφει τις δικιές του οδηγίες και βοηθήματα με ότι έχει να κάνει με MS Windows.

Αρχικά ο Παντελής έστελνε τα κείμενα του μέσω email σε διάφορους (φαντάζομαι) γνωστούς του, συμπεριλαμβανομένου και του εαυτού μου. Δυστυχώς αυτός ο τρόπος είναι αρκετά περιοριστικός καθότι

  1. Δεν μπορείς να κάνεις πραγματική συζήτηση με όλα τα άτομα στην λίστα χωρις να αρχίσεις να ενοχλείς αυτούς που δεν ενδιαφέρονται
  2. Το αρχικό email μπορεί να μην είναι ενδιαφέρον σε όλου που το παίρνουν αλλά δεν έχεις τρόπο να το καταλάβεις αυτό χωρίς να στο πούνε.
  3. Μετά την αρχική αποστολή του μηνύματος, το έχεις χάσει. Κανείς άλλος δεν μπορεί να το βρεί έυκολα και δεν είναι αρχειοθετημένο πουθενά στο διαδίκτυο.
  4. Έχεις πολύ περιορισμένο formatting. Δεν γίνεται να βάλεις συνδέσμους μέσα στο κείμενο. Δεν μπορείς να έχεις rich text, κλπ.
  5. Δεν μπορείς να κάνεις διορθώσεις. Εαν συνηδειτοποιήσεις ότι αυτό που έγραψες είναι λάθος, πρέπει να στείλεις ένα email ακόμα με διορθώσεις.
  6. Εαν επιθυμείς να ακολουθείς τα γραπτά του, μπορείς απλά να χρησιμοποιήσεις κάποιο feed reader που κάνει την ίδια δουλειά με ένα email, απλά…καλύτερα.

Γι’αυτό τον λόγο χαίρομαι λοιπόν που έκανε αυτή την κίνηση και προτείνω ανεπιφύλακτα μια τουλάχιστον επίσκεψη σε όποιον δουλέβει σε οποιοδήποτε επίπεδο υποστήριξης σε περιβάλλον Windows. Ο Παντελής είναι πραγματικός γνώστης της πλατφόρμας της MS και αυτά που λέει έρχονται απο σημαντική εμπειρία. Όχι μόνο αυτό αλλα γράφει μόνος του τα κείμενα του σε δυο γλώσσες (Ελληνικά & Αγγλικά) για να διευκολύνει και αυτούς που δεν κατέχουν καλά τα αγγλικά αλλα και αυτούς που προτιμούν να διαβάζουν τα τεχνικά άρθρα στην γλωσσα του IT.

A Totally Mr.Bean Moment

Db0
  • Open the sugar-cup one handed and manage to drop a spoonful of sugar on the table.  √
  • Put three teaspoonfuls of sugar in your to-go cup quickly which spill even more on the table. √
  • Panic √
  • Gather the sugar in your off-hand and wonder what to do with it. Decide to put it back in the sugar cup. Spill most of it. √
  • Realise there is still quite enough sugar on the table. Try to wipe it off and manage to spread it all on the couch. √
  • Leave quickly before anyone notices. √

I know…I rule…

Slow days

Db0

It’s been a while since I’ve posted hasn’t it. Fortunately it was not because of any dubious legal action against me (although I have taken steps to protect myself from any such actions from terrorizing estabilishments). I don’t really know why I have not been writing more this month but I guess I was simply not in the mood for it.

Various stuff have been going on then in December. Mostly I’ve been spending time with [tag]Viola[/tag] and helping her get her house in order (Fortunately that is over with). Other than that I’ve been using the rest of my free time reading for my upcoming Vista exam and playing The Witcher. This game is pretty much to blame to totally ignoring the blog in the last two weeks (as well as ignoring other unimportant stuff like, cleaning the house, exercising and bathing). It’s just hooked me.

It’s not so much that it’s revolutionary or unique or anything like that but it seem to have the correct combination of storyline and combat to keep my interest held. I especially liked how you seem to end up getting mixed up in politics and diplomacy without even wanting to. What really annoys me however and is also a reason why the game takes so long is the loading times. It is just horrible. Every time that enter a house or a small area, the loading time is quick enough, but as soon as I want to go out to the main part of the map it takes up to 30 seconds each time. It might not seem much but if you consider that it takes me about 10 seconds to go into a house and search for loot, and 35 secs to load the map, well, it starts to build up, especially if you consider that I have to enter a lot of houses for the various quests I take on.
I tried a defrag on both my main hdd and the game installation hdd but none worked so I guess I’m just stuck at this situation. Oh well, at least I can enjoy my new VGA 🙂

Other than that, I’ve spent the last few days configuring a laptop to play nice with Ubuntu and after some headaches I think I’ve managed to bring it up to a stable level, but I’m planning to write about this in a different post.

As for the Holidays, as always I did not bother to really get into the spirit of [tag]Giftmas[/tag]. I was happy that people decided to present me with gifts but I would appreciate it more if they felt like doing this outside of this celebration of consumerism. I was especially glad however that my sweet girlfriend gave me a gift she created herself. It consisted of a little booklet with a short comic story she drew herself (incredibly cute) and a gift of chocolate (along with a biscuit house). Great stuff 🙂

Now, new year is approaching fast and it just serves to remind me that the third decade of my life will not be long coming…