licht... tegenlicht

The golf lesson was a slamming success with the superkid. We even managed to hit a couple of balls, one of mine must have made 50 meters, I just couldn't exactly track in which direction. For reference, the pro did about 240 easily.

The superkid loved it. Fortunately the weather cleared halfway the afternoon and it wasn't raining any more when we walked there. Unfortunately I had miscalculated the time it would take to walk two kilometers.. Google maps had erroneously told me that if we took the long route of 5 km that would take 9 minutes to walk. Windows Live sent me in completely the other direction. None of the walking tracks between here and the golf course are even on there. I knew that it would be around 2 kilometers taking the short way, calculating with the sk's lack of exercise I went with Google maps estimate of 9 minutes. We left 20 minutes ahead of time. Only when I looked at my clock 10 minutes later, I realized Google maps had been way off, and 9 minutes might be what it would take to travel a distance of 5 kms by bike, not foot, unless you are a very fast runner. That's what I get for following directions.

the code

The superkid doesn't want to wear jeans to the first golf lesson, because the dress code is "no jeans on the greens". I told him it's ok, we're not allowed on the greens yet, we don't have to follow the dress code. But he will not be convinced. He is wearing his blue sunday trousers. I will tell the school, if they had a dress code that said "no open fly", "no untied shoelaces", "no wearing your shirt inside out and upside down" that might save them and me a lot of trouble.

boss over boss

I had a call today. On my new xperia that I got for 1 Eurocent at the phone shop and which has Aboriginal didgeridoo ringtones ok that's enough of that, stop licking the xperia I got a call from the porn boss I've been bombaarding with threat letters (one threat letter) (read "threat" = "registered"). The porn boss... the guy who owns the number the superkid called to access the website with the scarce clad females... he was very sympathetic. I told him that the sk basically wanted to involve the girls in conversation, that he told them his name and his age and stuff like that.

In fact I questioned the sk and asked him if he had talked about their bodies or said that he would like to make love to those girls. He said no... "I might have been thinking that, but I didn't actually say it" and "we just talked about who we were... etcetera" *shrug*

The prn boss has to take my complaint back to his client, the owner of the website, but he gave me hope that they will straighten the bill out with us. He said that they are going to filter out the conversations that have sprung from my IP number and if they really only contain material such as the above, that will strongly work in our favour. I almost got to like the prn boss. Imagine that. Nevertheless, I would like to see some rulz changed. Seriously. Kids should never be made to pay for porn.

Strangely in this country at the age of 16 kids are judged old enough to see porn, but not untill the age of 18 are they judged mature enough to pay large amouts of money. If applied with some care, that set of rules could work out well ... it gives give young adults the space of two years to get used to the stuff and find out whether or not it's worth paying the price.

Top Secret

Freedom

abandoning the premises

I am leaving it like this for the moment. Be honest, there must be plenty over-educated overpaid underemployed academics out there willing to lay down tons of money for this stonewashed look in interior decorating. Very modern. Sanding causes a terrible mess, but as you can see, it is worth every bit of it.

Out. Goodbye!

I <3 Ffox

This morning I have cleaned out the superkids computer entirely. After gathering and storing in a safe place all the incriminating evidence I could find and had the stomach to look at. I was appalled to find web addresses of sites advertising services like: instant access without credit card, (to either game sites or porn sites) anonymous online payments no credit card needed, (for example students can buy goods like condoms in this way, which in itself is not a bad thing, but why should the students feel the need to stay anonymous while buying the condoms, I ask...) ... etc.

I installed Ubuntu and Firefox with parental control in the form of an add-on named WOT. I am happy to find that I can still access my own blog, even though it is now full of porn and sex, and even the blog of Eveline Blondeau, which in addition has nudity but which I personally love to visit nonetheless and which I am not afraid to recommend to other adults of any age even the young ones (understanding the French language helps but is not always required to enjoy her exquisite sense of humour.) But to my relief Firefox now blocks acces to some of the links the author of that site may not have full control over and that I do not care to stumble upon.

For the moment the SK will be surfing safely. Now I shall be waiting in fear and anxiety for the day he discovers Opera....

a compelling urge for porn

It has been a few days now, that I am having this irresistable urge to write about porn. In Dutch preferrably, but maybe I should practise a bit in English first and then try to get it right before I lash out at my government with irrefutable arguments that will not be ignored and succeed in changing the law (like that will happen). (Something like this would be nice, does this only apply in UTAH?)

My beef is with the accessibility of hard-core porn through the interweb by minors. Also with the ease minors can pay for internet porn via telephone.

I have heard several arguments proving that the fault is really mine:

1. I neglected to block 0906 and 0909 paid "information" phone services. People, I never asked for these paid information services in the first place, never used them. No paid information service was ever called from my phone line before Saturday a week ago. Am I being accused of negligence for not blocking a service that I was hardly even aware I had access to?

2. I neglected to block access to adult websites on my computers. But who would have thought, if there is a wireless access point in the house, kids can watch porn on their PSP through WiFi ? I bet they never told you about that.

It must be clear that in this day and age, parents are not capable of shielding their kids from seeing porn. The only ones who can do that are the porn business. By law however, they do not appear to be held to do so. I would like to see that changed.

we've got balls

On the little bicycle ride I forced the superkid to join me (I was on skates, he on his bike) we discovered that the surf spot has a new neighbour, a golf course. The superkid hates surfing because he gets wet. But he likes golf. He played minigolf once and he's a champion on the Wii. It is a very fitting sport and not too physical for him. I decided that it would probably be cheaper than keeping him home on the couch so I signed us up. I love it already. They gave us each a nice relaxation pack, it has a ball (to squeeze?) a set of giant toothpicks and a minimalistic bottle opener. Those dudes rock!

Ignorance is not bliss

I just found the phone. I didn't know that I had lost it, but at some point I became aware of a small voice repeating the same sequence over and over again, and a search of the talking mouse led to the phone that was lying under the couch, and from which a voice came that chimed the ominous mantra: "Your code has been accepted. You now have access to the site untill you break the connection". It had been singing this song for 40 minutes already, and who knows how long and how many times it had sung this before.

Who was it that said it is easier to raise boys than girls?

The perpetrator had already gone to bed. Needless to say I have given him the scare of his life and he is paying this phone bill out of his own pocket money. By the looks of it he will still be paying it off when he turns 21. I am also filing a complaint with the phone provider and with OPTA, because this seems to me a far too easy way for semi legal businesses to rob unsuspecting people of their money.

Here I am

What the internet does not tell you about Zelliges - oh wait, here it is

If the website says bumpy, they mean top, side and bottom, and they forgot to mention the indentations.

If they say thickness may vary by 1.5 mm, they mean thickness will vary by 5 mm occasionally plus your tile can be flat, curved or hollow.

If they say try to minimize sharp edges, they mean there will be sharp edges whatever you do. Do not expect baby-smoothness and take extra care while placing them. Zelliges are tricky.


But you may still love them. I certainly do.

I helped the tiler because he wished to spend this Christmas with his family. Easter too, if possible. So I pasted while he cut. Pasting isn't that difficult if you take it easy, but I tried cutting a few as well and failed miserably in spite of what the tilerman said about all those other people who complain about the difficulty of cutting tiles "they probably don't have this cutter" pointing at his machine. Well I tried, and it really wasn't the cutter making the difference, it was Himself.

My tiler is old, and he rocks.

copy prerogative

An interesting bit of news: Copyright and blogs.

A Dutch team of lawyers investigated the policies of blog providers regarding copyright claims. They opened an account under a fictitious name with seven different blog providers, and placed a copy of the book 'The Little White Bird', on it. Then, posing as a fictitious lawyer working for another - non-existing - firm, they sent each of the blog providers a letter claiming copyright infringement and demanding the post to be removed.

Five of the seven blog providers, Web-log.nl, Netlog.com, Hyves, WaarBenJij.Nu and MySpace, remove the posting and even the entire account, without checking if there is any legitimacy to the claim. Blogger.com does not comply and refers to the American legislation for taking blog posts offline, which the Dutch investigators do not further look into, because they are primarily interested in the workings of the Dutch legislation. Only Punt.nl squarely protects its blogger by stating they refuse to take any postings offline without a direct court order.

None of the parties discover that because the writer has passed away in 1937, his works have been copyright-free since 2008.

1658

I made and uploaded this photo with my phone when I was skating. Don't worry, I have eaten a lot of chocolate biscuits since, I am not getting skinnier.

The quality of the photo is a bit disappointing. This is the same photo made with my camera.




Today: second time skating this year.

First bumblebee - that should probably make me happy but instead it scared the crap out of me it was huge like a helicopter and it was dragging something long and white, if it was an insect protest slogan of some sort I did not stop to look what it read, insects probably use writing that humans can't comprehend anyway, I bet they write in pollen or something unimaginable, anyway, it didn't even occur to me to take a picture and blog it. I just wanted it out, asap. I had to get real close to it in order to open the window and help it to get out, but my fear of the monster made me overcome my fear of it, if you know what I mean.

And: I got a new cap for the side mirror of my car. It got knocked off by a passing driver over a year ago, and had to be replaced now to pass the motor vehicle inspection. A blue one would have had to be ordered and cost 150 Euro, an unpainted one (base grey) would be 20 Euro ... I chose the base grey, but then they found me a redundant nice white painted one instead. The paint should have cost extra but instead they gave me a discount because it was the wrong colour. Actually I love it and plan to get a red one for the right hand side.