Well, so much for that promise in my last entry... But I've got an excuse: I just got back from a two week holiday, and I wasn't going to be doing any computer work on those two weeks (only checked email once in that time!). Holidays were fantastic as well, for all the obvious reasons. Oh, and the weather helped a lot. I'm jumping back from a good 20+C back to 6-8C. Jeez, it's freezing out here!

Work's still the same since I left it two weeks ago, so I can sort of just jump in and get going again. Slowly picking up some pace again, had to get all sorts of annoying stuff (organizational things) out of the way first, cleaning up two weeks worth of business emails, you know the drill. Sometimes it almost doesn't seem to be worth the effort, but then again, I had a good time the past two weeks, and as the Mastercard commercial says, that's Priceless.

Nothing much to say, just that I'm looking forward to Harry Potter and LotR: The Two Towers. I'll probably go out and watch James Bond and stuff.

Till the next time!

A long time since my last entry. A busy time anyway, with heaps of work to be done, so there was little time to write in the journal.

So, what has happened lately: a new computer, pay rise (yes, possible even in the current economic climate) and a nice sailing trip. All in all, a good first half of the year.

Prospects for the second half: a slow-ish summer, but I will be taking a few days off now and then to see a bit more of life and enjoy the sun a bit. No big plans for summer holidays (will be taking advantage of lower amounts of traffic on the roads instead). Reading heaps of /. and earning my pay check. A man has to eat!

I'm hoping I'll be able to keep the journal a bit more up to date from now on!

So, another year has gone, and it has gone with a blast. Not as spectacular as last year's in Sydney, but great nonetheless, since I spent it with people more close and dear to me over the whole.

Christmas was of course filled with decadent amounts of shopping and food, but getting a whole lot of loot in return, so I shan't complain about it all. In fact, I had great fun with heaps of strange pressies, sometimes bordering on the absurd.

But the year 2002 brings an end to a piece of cultural identity to the people of Europe: the loss of the national currency. At least, to some of the European countries. The new money is new, shiny and all crisp, but it lacks in the emotional attachment to it. I suppose it will change in a year or so, when people start to realise how convinient the common currency is. I regret the loss of our 1-2.5-5 system though (The Netherlands is one of the few countries that have a 2.50 coin), it is handy and set us apart. Oh well, can't have it all, can we...

For the rest, well, happy new year, and hope the year will be at least as good as the last one!

Had my first days at the customer this week. I also had to install the server, a Win2K + SqlServer machine. *yawn* Installing machines is not an activity that inspires me much, I have to admit. Fortunately, I could do other things on my laptop while waiting for the server to finish up.

On a more personal note, I'm severely sleep deprived these days, but annoyingly enough, I don't notice it in the evenings, but only in the morning and in the early/late afternoon, especially in the hour or so that I happen to be driving... Still, I manage to get home safely enough, so I guess I'm ok.

I also have a few things which aren't really helping. For starters, there's this annoying book I have which seems to be compelling me to be read. Oh, by the way, the book is "Rise of Endymion" by Dan Simmons. It's the last volume of the Hyperion cantos, which is simply brilliant. For those who don't like to read long series, you can keep it to "Hyperion" and "Fall of Hyperion". The first volume is especially a great read.

The other thing which keeps my from my well deserved and highly needed sleep is Robocode (see robocode.alphaworks.ibm.com. We at the company are going to have a small competition, and obviously I'm going to win this one, but that will mean loads of hard work...

Speaking of which, there is work to be done at the office. Till the next time!

*sigh*
Got out of bed late again. Oh well, as long as I do my job properly (which unfortunately doesn't include hanging about on Slashdot all the time) and help my projects meeting their deadlines, I'm fine and a happy worker. And I even got a positive performance evaluation last week, where I showed a remarkable amount of growth in my roles here at the company.

Anyhow, I'm starting to come down with a flu, not too pleasant, especially when you take into account that tomorrow's a big day with a kickoff meeting for my new project with the customer. Not good to shake hands filled with goo... Ewww...

But enough about that, had a good week in spite of it all. Even had a small gift at Sinterklaas (the Bishop bloke who comes from Spain in his steam boat and gives presents to the kids. And no, it's not the same thing as Santa!), but no big festivities on the day.

Have to get back to work now!