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Monday, June 2, 1997
Everything is the same: We are sitting at the same table again, and
have just ordered (almost) the same dishes.
I am very hungry, maybe because I did not drink
one litre of orange juice, like the last two times.
I did bring my camera this time, and took some pictures
of the castles along the Rhine. It is hard to take pictures
from a moving train. (footnote)
There are some Dutch men sitting a few tables away.
For some strange reason, I keep on listening to what
they are saying, but not being able to follow what
they are talking about. Maybe because I do not
expect Dutch here in Germany, that my mind is attracted
over and over again by the Dutch they speak.
Tuesday, June 3, 1997
Olli's writings
Olli wrote the following:
We just experience that it's hard to take
pictures in general!
Frans tried three times to do that in pizzeria located
in Darmstadt. Oh, arre we here again? What makes us
love this place so much that we return here again and
again. Yes we have this important project - you see?!
So we sit in pizzeria and are not waiting for
Susan
with her meal :-). Three of us have made a right
choice with the drinking and got `Thurm & Tarus'
Hefe Wiegen. (I must admit that `Maisel's Weigen
is better choice if possible to get.) Susan said
I should write in Finnish. However, somehow
after speaking English the whole day it is difficult
to put things down in my mother tongue.
Susan tells that they have free minibar in their hotel
but what kind of minibar? Is it
worth to mention if you have only soda water and coke
in that bar?
I am horrible frustrated because I just lost my
fountain pen. I should say: I just discovered
that I do not have my fountain pen with me anymore.
I think I left it in the restaurant (below the hotel)
yesterday. Or otherwise it must be somewhere at GMD.
(follow-up)
Of course, I am also a little upste about an absurd bug
in the software I have to demonstrate tomorrow. It's not
a fatal bug, but the fact that I cannot locate the
source of it is most upsetting.
Olli is suggesting that the above remark about the bug
is so boring, that it must be some kind of subconscious
thought about one of the other persons at the table.
Susan suggested that maybe it is some secret code I
was using. Now they are suggesting I should drink
beer instead of coke.
Wednesday, June 4, 1997
Fountain pen
I found my fountain pen again. I am happy!
You usually only find out how much you are attached to
something when you lose it. But that is not the only
reason why I am happy. I found it on a desk where I had been
working, on a `save' place. I am not losing my sanity yet.
Pizza Hawaii
This night we ordered some Pizza Hawaiis and ate them at
the office. We Got the impression that our German
colleagues are doing this quite often, and also that they
always order the same as they did not know the name of
any other pizzas you could order, except `Pizza Hawaii'.
Friday, June 13, 1997
Carisma
These days you can find
red posters
with the word `Carisma' behind at least half of the houses in the Netherlands.
You might wonder what the reason is. These days 80 `Carisma' cars will be given away for free. But if your home address is picked,
you only get the car if the poster is behind the window.
When I came home on Wednesday, I was a little surprised to see
that Li-Xia had also put a poster behind the window of our kitchen
(which is facing the street). The chance that you would win one
of the 80 cars is very small (about 1 on 200000), but on the otherhand,
it would have been rather dumb if you had won one and not having put
up the poster.
That they give away 80 cars, might sound surprising, but it would
not surprise me if they only have to give away about 40 of them.
Sending all the posters probably costed more. Marketing is still
big-business!
We get a boy !?
If you would believe the Ancient Chinese Birth Chart, then we get a boy. The chart is
correct for Annabel, but it looks like it is incorrect for me. I am
afraid it is only correct in half of the cases. I also found out
that the name we have in mind is not very common (at least not in
the U.S.A.) according to the
Popular Baby Names
page.
Flying
The last days I have been trying to plan my trip to the
DBPL conference held in
Estes Park. I am still
doubting whether I should fly with KLM
or with Delta Air.
Finally, I booked my flights with KLM:
| Amsterdam (seat) Minneapolis (seat) Denver
-------+------------------------------------------------------
Aug 16 | 11:05 --(42A)-- 12:55 16:40 --(12A)-- 17:48
Aug 21 | 17:45 --------- 20:43 21:35 --------- 12:20
Tuesday, June 24, 1997
From the Rosarium to the Whitehouse
I had to say goodbey to the rosarium.cs.utwente.nl machine,
a Sparc Station IPC with black/white monitor. I got the
whitehouse.cs.utwente.nl machine
in return, which is a Sparc Station IPX with a colour monitor. Going from the Rosarium
to the Whitehouse sounds like a promotion, yet I have to admit I was
quite fond of the Rosarium machine, and not for the last because of
the black/white monitor. In my opinion, black/white monitors are
still beter. But at least, I will not have problems with all those
WWW pages, which were not designed for b/w.
The previous inhabitant of the Whitehouse,
now has the fastest machine, a Ultra Spark 2 with 2 processors,
called Kermlin. The first inhabitant of the Whitehouse was the
head of our group.
(follow-up)
I saw the last part of the live broadcast inwhich Michael Chang was
defeated by Todd Woodbridge. When I entered the game it was 3-0 for Woodbridge
in the fifth and final match. I saw how Michael made it into 5-6, but
finally lost.
Wednesday, June 25, 1997
Joyce
This morning Joyce with her two kids arrived in Amsterdam from New York.
We know her since 1980 when she came over for a year with a student
exchange program. She is currently staying with one of my sisters.
I am looking forward to meet her next Saturday, when we have a barbeque
to celebrate the birthdays of one of other sisters and her husband.
(follow-up)
Friday, June 27, 1997
How things can go wrong...
This morning my sister phoned to tell that they have decided
to cancel the barbeque for tomorrow, because
she is has caught some very infectiuos stomach flue. Nothing serious,
but she does not like the idea of all of us getting ill after
the barbeque, which is quite understandable.
We will have it next week instead.
This afternoon, some man came to clean my machine, the
whitehouse.cs.utwente.nl. It looks very clean now,
but now the fan inside the machine is making more noise.
Strange noises sometimes.
Card?
Today I was faced with the question of what kind of card
you send to someone who is going to die soon. You cannot
send a `get well soon' type of card, can you?
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