12.31.04
Posted in Uncategorized at 3:28 pm by GaZ
Another year has come and (nearly) gone and for once i’m actually going to sit down and record what’s been going on in my life this year. Note that this is just a selfish view and i’m ignoring everything that has happened in the world at large (because it’s not as important as me).
Ups
The highlight of the year, personally, has to be that I earned my BSc. (with honours ;-)) and, while I may do some futher education in the future (such as an MSc), those care-free student days are gone. But at least i’ve got the memories, from the early days of living in halls, of getting a little too drunk a little too often, of minor run-ins with the po-po, and of way too much stress towards the end of it all… at least until senelity sets in.
Another big moment was getting my first ever full-time job, working for Perceptive Informatics! Working the 9 - 5 for “the man” isn’t as bad as some people make it out to be… the work is fun and stimulating, the co-workers are a good laugh, and the pay isn’t bad either. Now to initiate my plan for global domination 
Downs
All in all this has been a good year, however one of my biggest regrets is that i’m now worse than ever at writing e-mails… I wish more people would write blogs as I always read those and I believe them to be a great form of communication (sure, it’s mostly one-way communication, but that just makes it easier to speak your mind and censor anyone who rebukes!), but I can understand how some people just don’t have the urge to publish the monotonous everyday happenings of their life. I wear my anorak with pride!
Arounds
I’ve done a fair bit of travelling this year, starting off 2004 in China with Hanne, Dave and my parents. Then, after my half-term exams I went to visit Hanne and do a bit of cross-country skiing. During the summer I first went back to Norway, then a cycling holiday in southern France.
After the summer, once Hanne had moved over to England, we moved to Birmingham. This was my third house-move of the summer… well, to an apartment, if you want to be pedantic (which some people always are ;-)). Hanne and I got our place in Birmingham city centre, which is brilliant! Unfortunately it could be a LITTLE better for Hanne since she now has to commute 30 miles to and from work every day, but i’m proud of her for doing it!
This was also the first year that I didn’t spend Christmas with my family… in the end it turned out to be quite a seperated holiday season, with mum in Wales with my grandparents, uncle and Tequila, my dad and brother on the island of Borneo (which was, thankfully, spared from the recent catastrophe), and myself and Hanne in Norway.
Well, I think that’s the year, in a nutshell. Roll on 2005! We’ll be spending New Years Eve with Hanne’s friends, before heading over to a party in Oslo. What’s everyone else doing?
Going off on a tangent… I was sitting down looking through some norwegian gossip magazines while Hanne was getting her hair cut, and who whould be featured in the magazine but none other than Philippe Starck (yes, that was a bit of an Internet faux-pas, linking directly to the images on his site, but I think the man can afford the bandwidth)! The man is everywhere! This time he’s been redesigning the Baccarat Crystal Room in gay Paris. Mr Starck has also recently designeda stylish new mouse, but I have yet to try it out.
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12.30.04
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:45 pm by GaZ
As Michael Crichton points out in his latest novel, “State of Fear”, words such as “catastrophe” and “disaster” are sometimes bandied about a little to freely these days, however the effects of the earthquake off the coast of Indonesia a few days ago can not be described as anything less.
As far as I know, I don’t personally know anyone who was affected… my father and brother are both on the island of Borneo at the moment, but it was protected from the tsunamis by Sumatra (where the death-toll is nearing 80,000).
More information, including links to sites where people can make donations, can be found (as usual) at Wikipedia.
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12.24.04
Posted in Uncategorized at 3:25 pm by GaZ
Merry Christmas, everyone! I hope you and all your families are well, and have a great time this holiday season!
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12.22.04
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:22 am by GaZ
Damn… maybe it’s just been a while since I’ve driven, or the fact that European cars are so much smaller than their US counterparts, or the fact that the road plans for Birmingham were drawn out by a 2-year old child struck with severe case of A.D.D., but driving around this city is MENTAL compared to my previous experiences. There are cars going in all directions (occasionally including up and down), roundabouts, traffic lights, and roundabouts with traffic lights every couple of hundred yards along the way until you manage to get out of Birmingham, and that’s not even counting roadworks, detours, and other unplanned distractions.
Oh well… we’re slowly getting used to it. Anyway, we’re off to Norway tomorrow, so the next entry might be from over there! woohoo!
Btw, did you hear the one about the dyslexic devil-worshipper?
He sold his soul to santa!
Ho Ho Ho!
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12.21.04
Posted in Uncategorized at 8:48 pm by GaZ
FIFA finally made a decision regarding Spains punishement for the racist abuse during last months England - Spain match. The verdict: a measley £44,750!!!! What the hell?!? They (the Spanish FA) will have undoubtedly made way more than that from just having the match. The bodies that govern football these days (FIFA, the FA, et al.) all seem to be run by idiots. If they were serious about “kicking racism out of football” they’d ban the team from international matches, or at least make the fine something substantial.
To quote someone on the BBC 606 messageboards (excessive commas and all):
“Strong violence in the 1980’s led to Liverpool being excluded from European competition for years. Although, some would say, not as damaging as then, the current issue is so vital, not just in the world of football, but morally in life itself, that it deserves to be treated with a little more thought and action than the pathetic “naughty-boy” fine that is the result of some people being highly made to make a decision that even a school kid could have made better.”
The fans guilty of the abuse aren’t going to give a diddly about this farce of a fine, and I bet the same chants happen again next time round.
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12.19.04
Posted in Uncategorized at 12:18 pm by GaZ
Some people have too much money… I read about this game in a recent issue of Edge, and it does sound quite interesting. Given a few more advances in V.R. technology and I bet this would be more addictive than crack hot-cakes.
Hanne was away training in Reading all week, put up in an all-expenses paid hotel by her employer, leaving me to cook and clean for myself (oh the humility of it all!). Fortunately she came back right on time, just as I was making my toastie-potato special (though it took some effort to fit the potato into the toaster…). On Saturday we went out and bought a car for her to use to get to work! Yay! It looks great, parked downstairs in our space next to the neighbours Porsche. Pictures coming soon.
On a low note, my grandfathers condition hasn’t improved since he and my grandmother visited us last weekend. He’s now in hospital on a dialysis machine. Mum decided to fly in from Borneo, arriving on Saturday morning, just as my brother was setting off to that side of the world (he got on to the plane she got off… oop. One shouldn’t end a sentence in a proposition… “he got on to the plane off which she got”…). So hopefully she will improve my grandfathers mood and aid him to a speedy recovery. Get well soon, Taid!
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12.08.04
Posted in Uncategorized at 8:28 pm by GaZ
Urgh… we’re scheduled to get a big release out the door from work this week, so things are getting a little stressful (especially as more and more things go wrong), so today I’ve been working for almost 12 hours! Ok it’s actually more like 10… which isn’t that much compared to Hanne. She had her first day at work today and having left the house at 6:45am she has only just now (7:15pm) heading back to Birmingham, so she won’t be home until 8pm at best. Wow… hardcore. I tip my hat to her.
Since I can’t think of any news of my own to write, here are some other links:
That anti-spam attempt by Lycos came to a grinding halt… doh! So much for that…. what we need is more vigilante justice!
You may have known that September 19th is Talk-Like-A-Pirate-Day, but do you know what December 5th is?
Porthmadog, near where my grandparents live, made the news (though not for a very nice reason).
I haven’t been using my Gmail account much lately, but some people are coming up with imaginative alternative uses for all that spare space!
And now to dust off my chefs-do-it-in-the-kitchen apron and make mah girlie some quality home-cooked dinner… ahem… maybe just “dinner”… uh… where’d I put that Dominos number?
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12.06.04
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:39 pm by GaZ
Well, I heard back about the “big” news to which I was referring last time, but unfortunately it wasn’t the answer I had hoped for. A few weeks ago at work we were asked if anyone would be interested in going to America for a few months to start developing a product that we’re bringing to Birmingham (UK) next year. They were looking at sending a few testers and a couple of developers over there to start the ball rolling, and I volunteered myself (after discussing it with Hanne, of course). Unfortunately, I was told last week that none of the other developers had volunteered, and since I don’t have much experience at the company yet then I wouldn’t be too useful on my own over there. Oh well… there’ll be other chances.
My grandparents came down to visit Hanne and I last weekend. Unfortunately my grandfathers leg was giving him grief the whole weekend, so they weren’t up for much site-seeing, but it was nice to see them again. Hanne and I went to the company christmas do on Saturday, where the wine was flowing free and fast… but I can’t remember much of that evening.
Other big news recently was, of course, that Hanne got a job. We’re now looking for a car, but unfortunately there’s only one model we want, at one particular dealer, and neither of us can haggle to save our life. The package is quite good though so it’s not a completely bum deal or anything. Bleh… I just need to get it over with and spend the money. 
All this grey, cold winter weather + work is starting to get me down… roll on, holidays! T-minus 2 weeks!
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