Yesterday started the G8 summit in Japan, where the world leaders come together with their private business jets, driving limousines through the centre of Hokkaido during rush hours, to discuss global warming, fuel prices and reduction of the carbon footprint, where they kick-start the meeting over a 6 course lunch. They will also discuss the world food crisis, food wastage and hunger in Africa over an 18 course dinner.
By the way, for those who didn't know, Bush's private jet is Airfarce 1, which is a full sized 747-100 (no, not the more efficient -400 version), but Gordon surpasses him by flying a fully restored Vulcan nuclear interceptor!
In the mean time, governments worry about obesity under house pets. So better stop feeding your goldfish so much food!
In the mean time, the Dutch government raises taxes and increases financial pressure on the population under the motivation of relieving the lower incomes. Also, they decided to abandon support for single women with children under the age of 5, in an attempt to get those single mothers to go back to school or get a job. Maybe they think that as a result those single mothers will abandon their babies at donor institutes, so these medical facilities don't need to clone embryos for spare parts for people that get lung cancer from smoking, or loose a liver due to excessive drinking.
It all makes sense...
July 15, 2008
April 17, 2008
Disgrace
We have all seen the news, and the stories on the olympic torch.
I'd like to just say I totally disagree with these actions!!! It's disgraceful and tasteless!
Although I am interested in China and it's culture, I do disagree with their politics from time to time. So too with the Tibet and Taiwan issues.
However, this link:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7347821.stm
shows us how bad things have become.
The article tells how a DISABLED WOMAN carrying the torch for the paralympics, got beat up by a pro-Tibet protester!!!
It is one thing to protest against China's actions in Tibet, but the attack on the most important sporting event in the world is just outrageous!
People actually try to steal the olympic torch from decent honest athletes! In this particular article a disabled woman was hit by one of those disgusting creatures. How can you talk about oppression, when you yourself attack a disabled woman!
Be ashamed! Be very, very ashamed!
Let everyone know that I cannot support any pro-tibetan protesters any longer until they have PROPERLY apologized and atoned for their despicable behavior!
Also, I think the guy who hit the woman in this article, should be hang on the highest tree, split into fours, beheaded and burned in a pile of poo!
Let the olympics be held, let it be a joyous occasion, and let us all come together as good and fair sportsmen. This is what the olympics is about: uniting people form all corners of the world, with all kinds of religions and cultures. This one event binds us all together. Lets not destroy this last bit of common good we have left in this world...
As if this is not enough, British police is clearly not up to speed with the law.
In the UK it is the law that the police is not allowed to take any action in ANY shape or form against people filming or photographing in public. Increasing numbers of amateur photographers and professionals alike are being threatened, searched, and even robbed of their equipment by police, because of "suspicious behaviour" (read: making a photograph with an SLR type camera). Although their suspicion is understandable with the current threats of terrorists and pedophiles, there is still something called "the law" and the police is supposed to UPHOLD the law,not BREAK it.
More in this article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7351252.stm
I'd like to just say I totally disagree with these actions!!! It's disgraceful and tasteless!
Although I am interested in China and it's culture, I do disagree with their politics from time to time. So too with the Tibet and Taiwan issues.
However, this link:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7347821.stm
shows us how bad things have become.
The article tells how a DISABLED WOMAN carrying the torch for the paralympics, got beat up by a pro-Tibet protester!!!
It is one thing to protest against China's actions in Tibet, but the attack on the most important sporting event in the world is just outrageous!
People actually try to steal the olympic torch from decent honest athletes! In this particular article a disabled woman was hit by one of those disgusting creatures. How can you talk about oppression, when you yourself attack a disabled woman!
Be ashamed! Be very, very ashamed!
Let everyone know that I cannot support any pro-tibetan protesters any longer until they have PROPERLY apologized and atoned for their despicable behavior!
Also, I think the guy who hit the woman in this article, should be hang on the highest tree, split into fours, beheaded and burned in a pile of poo!
Let the olympics be held, let it be a joyous occasion, and let us all come together as good and fair sportsmen. This is what the olympics is about: uniting people form all corners of the world, with all kinds of religions and cultures. This one event binds us all together. Lets not destroy this last bit of common good we have left in this world...
As if this is not enough, British police is clearly not up to speed with the law.
In the UK it is the law that the police is not allowed to take any action in ANY shape or form against people filming or photographing in public. Increasing numbers of amateur photographers and professionals alike are being threatened, searched, and even robbed of their equipment by police, because of "suspicious behaviour" (read: making a photograph with an SLR type camera). Although their suspicion is understandable with the current threats of terrorists and pedophiles, there is still something called "the law" and the police is supposed to UPHOLD the law,not BREAK it.
More in this article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7351252.stm
March 21, 2008
A new beginning
Last week was my first week at GE.
I started off by arriving too early! I arrived at 8, normal starting time,or so I thought... Turns out all starters normally begin at 10! This was actually in the letter, so I felt a little silly...
The lady from HR who picked me up was dutch, like me. Though she has been in England a little longer than I have I suspect. She had a little difficulties speaking dutch, just like I have. Nothing major, but enough for us to switch to english when it came to going through the official stuff...
Later my, I believe resource manager, picked me up. Friendly chap. He also interviewed me at the time. He introduced me to the team I am working with now. The first person I met was James. James and I know eachother from a long time ago when I was still working on extension retraction for the A380. So it was nice to see a familiar face. Later on I spotted Nick, who also used to work for Airbus (IMA team).
All my new teammembers are all very nice and helpful. A real social bunch of chaps! I feel quite welcome with these guys! They are all very relaxet, social and they apply rules quite flexible, which I appreciate!
Ofcourse the first day there were some issues with getting a PC, and email, but next morning I was able to email again! Having said that, they use the latest version of outlook, and I have not yet been able to get my old address book imported. I may have to start emailing myself contact cards from home... Manually is not an option, because as always with Microscum, the printout of my address book, only shows the alias of the person, rather than the actual email address, so all my Airbus addresses are useless!!!
The week was also a bit rocky, because my "reliable" toyota, is in the garage. 2 weeks now!!!! They can't find the parts easily because it is an import... So that car is out the door once it is done...
Anyway, as a result I was forced to borrow Chris' Cinquecento, and drive Berit to and from work every day. Bless them!!!
I'm alreay looking for something better. I hope I can afford something in the 2500 GBP class. I was considering quite a range of different cars; Mercedes A-class, Nissan Almera, Peugeot 406, maybe Passat again, Audi A3, VW Bora. But no more japs! (other than the Nissan perhaps). These cars are all quite different from what I previously was looking for (a sports car), but then again, now I am commuting quite a bit, so sensibility asks for a 1.0 l diesel... hehehe. Ok, no speed or acceleration, but will do 100000000000000000000000000000 miles to the gallon!!!
I started off by arriving too early! I arrived at 8, normal starting time,or so I thought... Turns out all starters normally begin at 10! This was actually in the letter, so I felt a little silly...
The lady from HR who picked me up was dutch, like me. Though she has been in England a little longer than I have I suspect. She had a little difficulties speaking dutch, just like I have. Nothing major, but enough for us to switch to english when it came to going through the official stuff...
Later my, I believe resource manager, picked me up. Friendly chap. He also interviewed me at the time. He introduced me to the team I am working with now. The first person I met was James. James and I know eachother from a long time ago when I was still working on extension retraction for the A380. So it was nice to see a familiar face. Later on I spotted Nick, who also used to work for Airbus (IMA team).
All my new teammembers are all very nice and helpful. A real social bunch of chaps! I feel quite welcome with these guys! They are all very relaxet, social and they apply rules quite flexible, which I appreciate!
Ofcourse the first day there were some issues with getting a PC, and email, but next morning I was able to email again! Having said that, they use the latest version of outlook, and I have not yet been able to get my old address book imported. I may have to start emailing myself contact cards from home... Manually is not an option, because as always with Microscum, the printout of my address book, only shows the alias of the person, rather than the actual email address, so all my Airbus addresses are useless!!!
The week was also a bit rocky, because my "reliable" toyota, is in the garage. 2 weeks now!!!! They can't find the parts easily because it is an import... So that car is out the door once it is done...
Anyway, as a result I was forced to borrow Chris' Cinquecento, and drive Berit to and from work every day. Bless them!!!
I'm alreay looking for something better. I hope I can afford something in the 2500 GBP class. I was considering quite a range of different cars; Mercedes A-class, Nissan Almera, Peugeot 406, maybe Passat again, Audi A3, VW Bora. But no more japs! (other than the Nissan perhaps). These cars are all quite different from what I previously was looking for (a sports car), but then again, now I am commuting quite a bit, so sensibility asks for a 1.0 l diesel... hehehe. Ok, no speed or acceleration, but will do 100000000000000000000000000000 miles to the gallon!!!
March 14, 2008
Elvis has left the building!
D-day has arrived.
Today was my last day working for Airbus.
The past week was very hectic. I was working my ass off to sort out the last bits of work, and prepare data for hand over.
Then on tuesday afternoon, I was told I had to go to Toulouse to do some testing with the supplier.
So I was struggling sorting out my trip. Actually it was quite a horrible day when I went over. As always I had to get up before 5 to get the flight to TLS, then I was waiting for the supplier to arrive. He didn't listen to my instructions and was at the wrong gate after getting lost. It took quite a while and lots of misunderstandings before we found each other. Anyway, we could finally do some testing. We tested on 2 aircraft, but the schedule was soo busy, that we hardly had time for lunch, and didn't even have dinner! Both "meals" comprised a sandwich from the wall, stuffed down our throats in 5 minutes time.
All in all it took until midnight to perform all the testing we needed to do.
Luckily I was able to fly back on the Corvette. The corvette is a small business plane with about 8 seats. It flies from TLS to Bristol in the morning. Since I wanted to be back in Filton in the morning because of the shit load of work I still had to do, I was very happy I managed to get a spot on the Corvette. It turns out that usually it is only for executives, and Airbus UK people usually don't get to fly it.
Today was hectic as well. I had soo much to finish off and hand over, and all these people kept walking bye to say hi and goodbye etc (well, they had to have an excuse to get some cakes that I brought in, heheh...).
Of course there was the traditional goodbye speech, card, etc.
Its funny, it's like it hasn't sunk into me yet. I'm looking forward to starting my new job, But I am also sad to leave Airbus.
It's been my home for 7,5 years, and I will miss all my colleagues a lot:
The crazy talks with Mark G, always reminding me of "german helmets".
The adventures Andy and I have had in Belgium and in Toulouse: Going to obscure dodgy clubs in Brussels, chasing phantom turtlers in hotels, observing Messier's finest climbing onto landing gears in rather arousing positions...
The conversations I had with Mark B over a cup of coffee,
The chats with Martin H about cars and DIY (He mentored me in my first year at Airbus)
And all the others of course.
I will miss that place, and all its people. I wish them all the best, and I hope we will meet again!
Today was my last day working for Airbus.
The past week was very hectic. I was working my ass off to sort out the last bits of work, and prepare data for hand over.
Then on tuesday afternoon, I was told I had to go to Toulouse to do some testing with the supplier.
So I was struggling sorting out my trip. Actually it was quite a horrible day when I went over. As always I had to get up before 5 to get the flight to TLS, then I was waiting for the supplier to arrive. He didn't listen to my instructions and was at the wrong gate after getting lost. It took quite a while and lots of misunderstandings before we found each other. Anyway, we could finally do some testing. We tested on 2 aircraft, but the schedule was soo busy, that we hardly had time for lunch, and didn't even have dinner! Both "meals" comprised a sandwich from the wall, stuffed down our throats in 5 minutes time.
All in all it took until midnight to perform all the testing we needed to do.
Luckily I was able to fly back on the Corvette. The corvette is a small business plane with about 8 seats. It flies from TLS to Bristol in the morning. Since I wanted to be back in Filton in the morning because of the shit load of work I still had to do, I was very happy I managed to get a spot on the Corvette. It turns out that usually it is only for executives, and Airbus UK people usually don't get to fly it.
Today was hectic as well. I had soo much to finish off and hand over, and all these people kept walking bye to say hi and goodbye etc (well, they had to have an excuse to get some cakes that I brought in, heheh...).
Of course there was the traditional goodbye speech, card, etc.
Its funny, it's like it hasn't sunk into me yet. I'm looking forward to starting my new job, But I am also sad to leave Airbus.
It's been my home for 7,5 years, and I will miss all my colleagues a lot:
The crazy talks with Mark G, always reminding me of "german helmets".
The adventures Andy and I have had in Belgium and in Toulouse: Going to obscure dodgy clubs in Brussels, chasing phantom turtlers in hotels, observing Messier's finest climbing onto landing gears in rather arousing positions...
The conversations I had with Mark B over a cup of coffee,
The chats with Martin H about cars and DIY (He mentored me in my first year at Airbus)
And all the others of course.
I will miss that place, and all its people. I wish them all the best, and I hope we will meet again!
February 12, 2008
Go-Large please...
Last week I decided I wanted a professional Large Format printer. Having looked at Ebay, the cheap contender would be the Epson Pro 4000. Any other options would be too nw and therefore unaffordable. An advantage (yes, I call it an advantage, because I can clean it and others cannot, so I can drop the price and get a bargain!), is that some amateurs don't use the printer often enough, with the resukt that the print hads get clogged. Heads won't get clogged as quickly when you constantly use this particular printer, but if it sits still for a while, the heads get blogged up pretty good. The printer is basically the bigger brother of the Epson 2100. However, it is comparing a dingy with a mammoth tanker!
Anyway, i found one on the internet, with all its flaws described. Seeing that others were going for over 400, an dthis just started at 1 GBP, but had the blogged heads in the description, I decided to put in an offer and the guy accepted.
Problem; The guy lives in London. Well, only 2 hours drive from Bristol, right? Wrng! The guy lives just north of Canary Warf, so an extra hour through the city!
Still doable. However, the guy works hard and therefore late. So in teh end I ended up there around 23:00! I had to borrow a friend's satnav (don't bother going to london without unless you know the way at heart!). I called my friend to tell her I would be back very late (or early) so I would drop the satnav off in the morning. In the end I was back home at 3 am in the morning. My friend panicked as she needed the satnav for her relocation to Ipswich. I promised to have it back in time, so after a few hours sleep I get up, and go to her house... She wasn't there... So I call her, and she says she is waking up. So I ask her where the hell her car is, and she says taht she is with her boyfriend. Apparently she stayed the night there. Interestingly, she didn't have a boyfriend!!! Well, now she does apparently... I was a little pissed off because she made me come over and it seemed all for nothing. The whole thing (lack of sleep) left me with a splitting headache. As it turned out, she came back at 8 and she left at around 8.30, so not totally wasted...
Back to the printer... I was looking for cleaning fluid to clean the heads; isopropyl alcohol... Used for cleaning electronics amongst others. This stuff is very strong but also very neutral. It seems to be chemically neutral, meaning it won't affect paint too much, and certainly not electronics. Ideal for cleaning printer heads. Apparently you are supposed to be able to get it at any chemist... Except that you can't! Chemists just don't seem to have the stuff at all! Screwed!! until I found a flask of lens cleaner. I was thinking lens cleaner-printer cleaner-lens cleaner- printer cleaner... Lenses have coatings... coatings are sensitive... so any lens cleaners have to be neutral as hell... So should do the trick... After that murmering of the mind I spotted the back; "caution: contains isopropyl alcohol!"... Well... need I say more...? So I went to Jessops and bought all their lens cleaning fluid (2 flasks... so not that much...)
Anyways, I'll be cleaning my printer soon and afterwards I will try some 17" high panoramas!!!
Anyway, i found one on the internet, with all its flaws described. Seeing that others were going for over 400, an dthis just started at 1 GBP, but had the blogged heads in the description, I decided to put in an offer and the guy accepted.
Problem; The guy lives in London. Well, only 2 hours drive from Bristol, right? Wrng! The guy lives just north of Canary Warf, so an extra hour through the city!
Still doable. However, the guy works hard and therefore late. So in teh end I ended up there around 23:00! I had to borrow a friend's satnav (don't bother going to london without unless you know the way at heart!). I called my friend to tell her I would be back very late (or early) so I would drop the satnav off in the morning. In the end I was back home at 3 am in the morning. My friend panicked as she needed the satnav for her relocation to Ipswich. I promised to have it back in time, so after a few hours sleep I get up, and go to her house... She wasn't there... So I call her, and she says she is waking up. So I ask her where the hell her car is, and she says taht she is with her boyfriend. Apparently she stayed the night there. Interestingly, she didn't have a boyfriend!!! Well, now she does apparently... I was a little pissed off because she made me come over and it seemed all for nothing. The whole thing (lack of sleep) left me with a splitting headache. As it turned out, she came back at 8 and she left at around 8.30, so not totally wasted...
Back to the printer... I was looking for cleaning fluid to clean the heads; isopropyl alcohol... Used for cleaning electronics amongst others. This stuff is very strong but also very neutral. It seems to be chemically neutral, meaning it won't affect paint too much, and certainly not electronics. Ideal for cleaning printer heads. Apparently you are supposed to be able to get it at any chemist... Except that you can't! Chemists just don't seem to have the stuff at all! Screwed!! until I found a flask of lens cleaner. I was thinking lens cleaner-printer cleaner-lens cleaner- printer cleaner... Lenses have coatings... coatings are sensitive... so any lens cleaners have to be neutral as hell... So should do the trick... After that murmering of the mind I spotted the back; "caution: contains isopropyl alcohol!"... Well... need I say more...? So I went to Jessops and bought all their lens cleaning fluid (2 flasks... so not that much...)
Anyways, I'll be cleaning my printer soon and afterwards I will try some 17" high panoramas!!!
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