Work

Taste of Code

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My work sometimes organises cool events and things to do. Today was Taste of Code. An introductory one day workshop teaching basic HTML, CSS and JavaScript. They had one last year, which was popular, so they did one again. I signed up for it as it sounded like fun. My HTML is pretty good, my CSS is rusty as I haven’t used it in years beyond the occasional tweaking of my template here. But JavaScript is 95% new to me. So I figured I could only learn from it.

Only downside, it was in Amsterdam, and started early. With the program slated to start at 9:00, I had to leave Groningen with the 6:04 train. But there’s no train to Groningen until 6:22… So my poor Mom got chartered to drive me to the city so I could catch the train. We left here at 5:15, which meant I had to get up at 4:45 and was pretty short on sleep. Fortunately that didn’t bother me too much today.

I was nicely on time for the train so I could get some breakfast and coffee to go. No hick-ups along the way this time around, so I arrived exactly as scheduled. There I met up with one of my team mates who had also signed up. We made our way to the building and found where we had to be.

The day seemed to go pretty fast, but it was also intense in a good way. The workshop was given by some people from Codaisseur. The idea was for us to build our own functioning rssreader by the end of the day. The presenter would tell us a little bit about something, along with slides. Then we’d take the things shown, along with extra info and code samples on their github and code. They had several coaches present to help people with questions.

The first parts were easy for me as they were just the HTML base structure and the CSS to go with it. Then we got into JavaScript. We first learned some basics and made a greeting to go at the top of our page that would change depending on time of day. Having thus gotten our fingers wet, we moved on to using YQL to pull up the JSON-object based on the rss feed urls we’d chosen. And then more JavaScript and jQuery to turn that into an actual list of the most recent items in that rss feed.

This was very fun to do. I grasped what we had to do pretty quickly and have built an okay looking and basic functioning rss reader. But there’s still plenty left to learn 😀

 

Amsterdam Pride

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20150801_120205I spent the day in Amsterdam yesterday on the KPN boat during the Canal Parade of Amsterdam Pride. It was a fantastic experience, I’m so glad I got this opportunity to go. When I got home last night I was exhausted, but it was so, so worth it.

I drove to Amsterdam with two of my colleagues, Cindy and Thomas. All of us neatly in white pants as required by our organisers. We parked near the station and took a bus to the meet-up point. There we were given our company t-shirt and various decorations.

After waiting until everyone was there, we headed to the embarkation point. Our boat was not quite as large as I had imagined, considering we were about 60 people total. Once we were all on board, it turned out to be roomier than it looked. The boat had a middle catwalk of sorts and underneath were stored boxes of iced drinks. We each got a lunch box and after eating the boat slowly moved out.

20150801_140543We first headed for out waiting spot. There we met up with the other KPN boat. This was a boat without people but filled with screens and cameras. People from all around the world could tune in to a special website and watch the parade live from the camera’s on that boat. They could also leave video messages on the website which were played on the screens during the parade.
Then, when it was time to move out, we took our place in line and the parade started. It was immensely impressive to be there on the water and see the hundred of thousands of people on the streets and on smaller boats along the edges of the canals. All of them happy, cheering, waving. Some throwing beads (I even caught one) or flowers or shooting at us with water guns.

IMG-20150801-WA0022As part of a boat you’re expected to be lively. Each boat generally has their own DJ both to entertain, but also to keep their people motivated to move. I’ve never been much of a dancer, but I never danced this much in my live as on that boat.

The whole parade took about two hours and was, at times, risky. There’s over twenty bridges that we had to pass. None of which can be raised. And some of those are so low that we all had to drop to our knees and duck our heads to not lose our heads.

And every time we got to one of those bridges, we also had to tilt our confetti cannon. Which was a fairly unwieldy thing. I happened to be positioned near it most of the time so I would assist the boat steward with the cannon.

At the end of the parade we were at the other end of the city. While disembarking we ate some finger food that was served and had some group photos taken. After that some people remained in the city, but for us it was time to head back to the North. We took a train back to the station where the car was and headed home. We stopped in Lelystad for a quick McDonalds dinner and made it back to Groningen in a very respectable time, thanks to Thomas’ driving.

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Bring On The Tequila, Whoahoahoahoa

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This was a looong week. I had the Monday off, which was nice seeing as how I’d been away all weekend, but from Tuesday on I’ve had a stretch of five days in a row with work and appointments, and I have tentatively agreed to work an hour or three tomorrow as well to cover for Nienke as she’s still sick. I’ll make the final decision on that when it’s actually tomorrow and there’s daylight. It is kinda tempting though, as Sunday work is 200%. 

To celebrate the end of the official work week Kim came by tonight for chats, some Buffy watching, and the drinking of light booze (I really like red Jillz :D). 

Tomorrow I’ve also planned to finish the music swap for my pen pal club. I have the music selected, I just have to get it on the, very appropriately shaped, USB drive and write the accompanying letter detailing why I chose these songs. I received the swap for me this week, but haven’t had time to listen to it yet, so I have left it closed. I don’t want to let it influence me too much in writing my own. 

I backed an interesting  IndieGoGo campaign this week, also. It’s called Con Man, and its a comedic web series written and developed by Alan Tudyk and Nathan Fillion. The basic premise is that Alan and Nathan play two actors who used to be in a scifi tv series, Spectrum, together. The series was canceled early, but was a cult success. After, Nathan’s character became a succesful moviestar, while Alan’s character didn’t and now traverses the Con circuit doing panels and signings and of course weird shit happens because Cons. 

It is definitely based on reality somewhat, as the parallels with Firefly are obvious. Nathan and Alan’s characters even played the same parts in Spectrum as they did on Firefly (captain and pilot). 

The campaign hit its goal of $425.000 within 24 hours and now, about three days in (it runs until April 10), they are on $1.750.000. It’s going to be huge and fantastic and I can’t wait for it to be ready.    

Next week promises to be fun! Wednesday I’m going to see Kingsman: The Secret Service with Gert. Since Kingsman is shown so late, we’re doing a double feature and seeing Cinderella before. And then on Thursday it’s time to see Insurgent with Kim, I’m looking forward to that very much. I am really curious how the movie’s gonna be and if it lives up to and matches the book. 

In Sickness, Chicken. In Health, Stay Away Until Next Year

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Had another of my every-couple-months check-up of hormone levels and general health. As usual, everything was peachy. Since I’ve now been on hormones for more than a year, and everything’s always been good, I don’t have to come back until January 2016. Yay!

Now I only have to wait for my appointments with the anesthesiologist and the plastic surgeon at the end of the month for the pre-op consults. I don’t have a surgery date yet, but I expect it to be around mid april. We’ll see.

After that, Mom and I decided to go to Paddepoel for a wee bit of shopping. I got new toothpaste and mouthwash and checked out the spring/Easter decorations at the Xenos. I didn’t find anything that particularly struck my fancy so I left with just some tea and the cutest little jar of orange marmalade. I checked out my usual stores, but didn’t buy anything.

Now, Nienke’s been sick for a few days now, and for the last three or so, she’s been craving half a grilled chicken… I’d offered to get her one from the snackbar the other day, but she declined. Being in Paddepoel, though, I decided to bring one anyway. The butcher at the mall is amazing, and not expensive either. I bought a small, whole, grilled chicken to take home. I also got Mom and myself a cookie from the baker next door.

We ate the cookie in the car and then drove home, where Nienke and I ate the chicken. It was glorious! It didn’t end up agreeing with Nienke (not thát weird considering how little solid foods she’s had over the last few days) but it was worth it 😀

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Today was also the first day in many months that I worked on Wednesday. As of this week, the company is no longer permitting the 9-hour work days I’d been doing for the past 9 months or so. I miss them a lot, as the 9-hour days allowed me to work four days and be free on Wednesday. I contemplated going back to 32 hours, but I like my current money. So now I work four hours @home first thing in the morning on Wednesday from 7:00 to 11:00 so I still have as much of the day to myself as I can.

Off With His Hair

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Yesterday I shaved my head again. My hair was getting waaaaay too long. In the afternoon we went birthdaying at my aunt’s birthday. It had been a while since I had seen them on their turf. Usually I see them when they come over here for Mom or Dad’s birthday. It was fun to see their house, which was new to me, even though they’ve lived there for quite some time now.

Today was funday 😀 That time of year again, Fire Drill! Fortunately the sun shone so it wasn’t too bad being outside for an hour or two.

Remembrance

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Friday I worked from home again. This time I tried out the bedroom so I could watch more 7th Heaven in the background. I’ve made it to the seasons where I care less about the show because of all the added characters and less of the originals. And more repeats of themes. Not too weird considering many milestones are the same one kid after the other, but it does get old. Especially as the twins are kind of wooden and uninteresting. Ruthie and Simon were much more fun and alive at that age. Anyway, while that was fun for the background, the bedroom itself is not a handy work space, so that was once but never again 😀

When Nienke came home, she had brought Kim with her. So we had dinner together and then watched Frozen. I love Frozen <3

Yesterday was a busy, but good, day. Got a lot done while still feeling relaxed. Slept in, did some cleaning up, unpacked the dish washer. Then went for coffee at the Parents. I suggested we go to the cemetery to bring some flowers to grandma and grandpa. We’d been to the cemetery for my grandparents on Mom’s side recently, but it had been a while for the other side. And that grave gets a lot less visitors to begin with. They thought it was  good idea, so we decided to go later that day.

First, however, I went with Mom to the store to assist her in buying an Actifry and getting a mini vac for myself. Then I went home for lunch after which I repacked the dish washer and then went grocery shopping with Mom. After getting the groceries home, we went to the florist for a nice little bouquet to place at the grave.

Then the three of us went to Mensingeweer where we cleaned the head stone and placed the flowers. We walked around for a bit, where, as usual, my parents point out the various relatives and tell anecdotes about all these people I never met but am connected to, through time. I dig cemeteries.

The rest of the day I spent downloading, filing and archiving. Sorting out computer stuff can be so relaxing 🙂

Today was mainly more of the same. Slept in, watched a movie (Now You See Me, good film), downloaded and filed and archived some more, watched more 7th Heaven, did the administration and played iPad games. Good day 😀

 

Passion

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So… Tuesday my new manager, who I’ve had all of two weeks at the most, announced they’re stepping down. No word yet on successor, but that might take a while. Interesting to see what happens with a power vacuum like that.

Yesterday I went to the movies with Gert. We watched Divergent first. He hadn’t seen it yet, and I didn’t mind watching it again. After we had a little break and then went in to see Yves Saint Laurent. That was a very good film. Insofar I’m familiar with the fifties and sixties it seemed to me a fairly realistic film that gave a good picture of who YSL was and how he was shaped by his life and experiences.

We had dinner at Pappa Joe’s and then went for ice cream at Toscana, they have the best selection of flavours ever.

Tonight, The Passion was in Groningen.  A huge musical show and parade to play out the passion of Christ. Various singers played the key biblical figures singing contemporary songs to symbolise the emotions and events of each sequence. Meanwhile a huge group of people carry and follow this huge shining cross to the center of the celebrations. This is the third time or so they did this, and since I’m not a Christian, Easter has little meaning to me in this sense. Since, however, it was Groningen, I did watch it on TV. I tweeted some comments during (and really, they had the stupidest hashtag: tp14…) but in short: the guy playing Jesus had the right vibe going, especially beard-wise. The guy playing Judas is a musical star here and it showed. His voice was by far the best for an event like this and he had this brooding vampire vibe going which worked well.

Capture

Gone With the Wind

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gonewiththewindYesterday I started at Webcare. Spent the day watching various people work to get a feel for the systems and the work. Today I actually got to do work. Since I’d done it before it was very well doable. I mostly did the stuff I knew and picked up questions about other departments as I went along. I don’t know as much about them as my “home” department, but that’ll come with time. I’m excited, it’s gonna be fun.

After work today, I met up with Ingrid for a night out. I’d bought tickets to a musical theater piece based on Gone With the Wind a month or two ago on a whim. I asked Ingrid if she wanted to come along, and she did. We ate at Satéhuis (yum!) and then headed for the theater.

The stage was fairly sparsely set. A piano on the left, cotton bales along the back and sides, and a sort pyramid-like thing with a giant metal horse on it on the right side. Since the film is rather long (I never read the book) I was expecting them to whirlwind through parts and that they did. The main narrator of the story was Mammy. She spoke about Scarlett and told her life’s story, where the key parts where then played out. The story is familiar I assume, Scarlett (played by Anna Drijver) is in love with Ashley Wilkes except he gets engaged to Melanie. Scarlett sees Rhett Butler (played by Nasrdin Dchar) at the engagement party and is intrigued by him. After being turned down by both men, she accepts a marriage proposal from Melanie’s younger brother Charles and so the trouble starts. The play then takes us through Scarlett’s life where she is privileged to all hell but never manages to be truly happy and inevitably loses everything including the man of her dreams, Rhett.

I really enjoyed the piece. The mix between the scenes, the songs, the set was really good. Plus Mammy’s narration brought the poignant points of that time’s culture and friction (civil war, slavery, the Klan) to attention and reformed them to something still very valid in the current day and age. The actors played well, but the supporting actors had a tad more life in their performances than the main couple did. Their chemistry was okay, but it felt a bit too stiff at times. Even taking into account the period it takes place in. In the end, though, it was definitely a show worth seeing and I’m glad I went with that whim to get the tickets.

Monday

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Is when I start at Webcare, woohoo!

I’m off work tomorrow, but I think I’m gonna go in briefly anyway. Webcare is located elsewhere in the building, and I do wanna say goodbye to my teammates (beyond the e-mail I sent today), leave them something tasty and such 😀

Minutiae

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Spent the last two days on more handover related stuff. Finished off this week’s reporting, still working on the master template/database., also some e-learning crap that still needed to be done. Ended up working some extra hours to compensate for the leave I have tomorrow. Also sent off an e-mail to the Webcare manager to ask about the how, what and when.