all things me

I have a Whirlpool washing machine that has “6th sense technology.” It’s supposed to be able to determine how full the machine is and then adjust the washing cycle, water etc. accordingly.

I don’t know if it’s doing a good job or not (in the 6th sense stuff; it does make clothes clean which is enough for me), but today I noticed it’s a bit too smart. Either that, or there’s someone living in my washing machine.

I put a small amount of clothes in the machine, including a small zipper bag with a clothing item in it. I zipped up the bag, of course.

After the cycle was done and I went to unload the machine, I noticed that the zipper bag was open — and empty. Whoever it was, they hadn’t stolen the item, so at least I don’t have one of those sock-stealing creatures in there.

I’ve also noticed they enjoy turning huge duvet covers inside out!

A local pizza delivery car got pulled over by the police this Tuesday evening. The driver was on his way to a customer when a patrol car suddenly gave chase. The brief pursuit happened during a peak hour, which resulted in a considerable crowd of people with their groceries, right outside the store. “The guy was following the speed limit. I don’t know what the problem was,” a puzzled on-looker told our reporter. The lady, identified only as “Nan”, was waiting for her bus at the time of the unexplained commotion.

The driver was promptly questioned in the glare of the flickering emergency lights, and finally, the two boys in blue were witnessed leaving the scene with three steaming pizza boxes. Guess there’s someone getting their delayed pizzas for free — but receiving nothing in return.

(Notice the category)

For some reason my hands get cold very easily. I’m rarely cold overall, just in the hands. That is why I can be seen wearing gloves (without fingers) indoors even after winter — usually at work where there is air conditioning (and my fast typing probably creates little tornadoes around the fingers, too ).

I can’t remember if it’s any better in the summer so I suppose I’ll soon find out. I do remember that last summer it was really warm in the office, even with the air conditioning, so maybe I can take off my gloves soon.

I wouldn’t be wearing gloves at the tiniest of finger-freezing if it didn’t have an unpleasant side-effect: If I’m at all cold, my body turns on the central heating system full blast! And that causes first a red nose (embarrassing) and then a red face. At least it feels like it; it may not — and hopefully doesn’t — show. So annoying…

I have to start following a game decluttering policy: finish one game before you start another.

The reason I’m thinking about this is that I bought Spore on Saturday and now I’m itching to install it. Luckily I have the patience to wait for the price to drop on the newest Splinter Cell until at least this Christmas because I haven’t even finished Double Agent yet.

There are so many games I’m “currently playing”:

• Tomb Raider: Underworld
• Indiana Jones: Emperor’s Tomb
• The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena
• Fallout 3

And loads more I have installed on my old computer (Fear, Half-Life 2 episode 2, Fable, Splinter Cell Double Agent (which I’m going to install on the new computer and start over), Morrowind) and some I cannot even remember.

Thankfully, I finished Prince of Persia and Lego Indiana Jones a while ago. I still have well-hidden treasure chests to find in Lego Indiana Jones so I haven’t got it 100% finished yet. Also, TR: Underworld is advancing nicely now once I got past some monsters that killed me and my motivation in January (hey, I was completely out of medikits!). Thank you, vacation.

I better get at it, this is my last day off!

This morning I got some tummy workout on the bus as I was doing my best not to laugh out loud at two guys sitting on the back seats. They were speaking very loudly — sitting on the opposite sides of the bus (why?!) — about computers.

They talked about graphics cards (one had melted a card by playing Crysis Wars on highest quality setting), CPUs (AMD vs. Intel), and video formats.

One said he was thinking about getting a new computer and told the other that he’d seen a good-looking deal in a web store. He said it was an HP Pavilion.

The other replied, “I have an HP Pavilion as my secondary computer. It’s crap.” The other then started listing the specifications for the computer he’d been looking at: 8 GB RAM, Nvidia GTX220 graphics card, 3 CPUs, 1.5 TB hard drive…

You won’t believe what the other one said! “Oh, I see they’ve evolved since 2003.”

The other, very knowledgeably said, “Yeah, with desktop computers it’s not the name that counts, it’s the components.”

I was trying my hardest to focus on the book I was reading but after they got on the bus, I didn’t manage to read a single paragraph.

I’m tired and freezing! Let me tell you why:

I left work a bit after 6:30pm (started at 9am), having had a headache for a few hours by then, and when I got to the bus stop it said 6 minutes to the next bus. Great!

6 minutes went – the bus didn’t.

Next it said 20 minutes to the next bus. All right, I’ll wait.

20 minutes went – the bus still didn’t.

Next I decided to take any bus that would take me closer to home. I only had to wait for 4 minutes more.

The next problem was figuring out what next: It was around 7:15pm at this point. I wouldn’t make the train at 7:30 and the next one went at 8 (and then I’d have to stand on it for 7 minutes and walk for 10-15). I was also thinking about going to the very last stop of the bus I was on, which would’ve taken 30-40 minutes and then I would’ve had to wait for 15 minutes at worst (if I was lucky) for the next connecting bus or just walk straight home for 20-25 minutes (but do I have to mention I was freezing at this point).

Luckily right before the train station I realised I have several possible trains to get to a station where I could take a bus that should run at 10-15 minute intervals. I quickly checked the trains on my mobile and there was one going in 3 minutes, so I jumped out and ran to the train.

During the 4 minutes on the train I checked when the bus might be going next: 2-3 minutes after the train arrived. Excellent! Again, I jumped out and ran to the stop.

The bus was late — but only for about 7 minutes, so after a while I was at home. Home!

Boy, I feel like sleeping in tomorrow… (not going to happen) Well, at least it’s Friday then.

I’ve been quite busy — to put it mildly — at work for about a month now. It all escalated when I received a massive project to finish in half the time that was originally scheduled for it. That was because I received it a month late…

I’m usually good at forgetting the stressful work stuff outside of 9 to 5 (or 9 to 6/7 which is often the case) but when I’m extremely busy (“don’t know if I’m going to manage this” kind of busy) I find myself thinking about schedules when I’m trying to fall asleep. I suppose it’s not all bad since I often have good ideas then. (During the day I only have time to do not think.)

But last night I had apparently had enough: I dreamt about working! It was as if my hectic day continued all through the night. If that’s not a sign of proper stress I don’t know what is.

This story has a happy ending, though. Just this morning (perfect timing! Although I could’ve done without the dream…) I received a message letting me know that the schedule had been extended by a month. Finally!

I’ve been taking extra vitamins every morning in a fizzy tablet form since last autumn (I think I started just before I was leaving for Australia – in August). Not sure if it has done anything good but it can’t hurt. I haven’t had any long flu episodes but I can’t remember how I was before…

The other day I got to talking with some co-workers about fish oils and one said that she’s noticed a benefit in taking them. I’ve been thinking about trying some for a while so now I thought, why not?

The fish oil tablets contain vitamins A, D, and E. And the fizzy tablets fill the gaps nicely with vitamins B and C.

Now I’ll just have wait and see what the benefits are. Maybe it’ll enhance my memory.

Home sweet home, indeed. I’m getting so tired of this.

Last summer they started fixing things around the building according to what people had reported. (Well, except for my balcony.) One day I got a note that they’d be fixing my balcony door (I hadn’t reported it but I’m glad they caught there was something wrong with it).

After a while I got a note they’d be checking that the balcony door is ok now. Well, it wasn’t, so I got a second note that they’d be fixing it.

It was at the beginning of this winter, I believe, when I got a note that they’d be checking that the latest fix had fixed it. (It needs to be cold for a while to take the measurements or whatever.) Well, it hadn’t been fixed, so I got a third note that they’d be fixing it.

Last Friday I got a note saying that they’d check the door again on Monday. They checked it today and guess what — I got a note saying that they’re fixing it again, tomorrow!

Sigh. I’ve been living here soon for 2 years and I still have builders marching around my apartment when I’m not around.

Ever since I got my new computer my old one has been understandably neglected. It’s been such a hassle crawling under the table to switch the monitor cable back and forth that I’ve just left it be. (I do have 2 keyboards and 2 mice but not really space on the desk for all 4 peripherals.) At least I have an access to the files on my old computer so I’ve been able to move what I want over, but I still want to keep on playing with old I went to pick up the switch last night — after an hour of queuing — and picked up a fresh Nokia battery and Chronicles of Riddick Dark Athena while I was waiting.

This morning I hooked it up. The guide says to turn off all power from the computers, hook everything up and then turn on the computer(s). Well, I did that and nothing worked. I figured it was the same situation as when I’d hooked up my special keyboard and mouse for my very first start-up of the new computer — and the screen kept being black, and nothing lighted up on the keyboard and mouse. So, I plugged my keyboard, mouse, and screen directly to the computer and surfed to Aten’s site to look for a driver. None available. Isn’t this nice.

I read the manual a bit further and it mentions a hot-key for quickly switching between the ports (2 x Scroll Lock). I put everything back again (except for the screen), and pressed Scroll Lock twice. Lo and behold. It made the lovely little chime and started installing a driver. Phew.

I suppose pressing the Scroll Lock would’ve worked the first time around (without having to plug in the switch while the computer was running) but it was actually supposed to detect the computer that turns on first and switch to using that port. Oh well. Now it’s working and after adjusting the resolution back to 1280×1024 everything seems to look the same as before.

Welcome back Sullivan! (I haven’t tried this on it yet, though.)