September

Think fluid

If you're in the webbusiness, check out Peter-Paul Koch's article Keep It Simple: Fluid Thinking. Think fluid. The WWW isn't a fixed medium. It's unpredictable. It will do unexpected things to your site, and the best you can do is go with the flow.

Keep it simple. The fluidity of the Web is not the problem, it's the solution. If you accept that your site will never be viewed exactly as you want it, you understand the spirit of the Web and its standards.

ColdFusion MX

I'm trying to make an inventory of ColdFusion MX related sites, and though there are more popping up every day, it's hard to find really useful ones. The most recent one I found is dcCom, which is an Open Source framework for building reusable ColdFusion components. Then there's CFzone.net, which I'm not that impressed with. For one it's completely done in ASP, which I don't understand. And last but not least is the excellent Common Function Library Project (CFLib.org), purpose of which is to create a set of user-defined function (UDF) libraries.

In Tyler Durdan we trust

Just finished Lord Of The Rings. Ofcourse the library is closed on a sunday, so I had to find something decent in the house. Came across The UnDutchables, which seemed nice. Made a start, but it's a bit negative. And I wasn't really in the mood for something like this. Perhaps a movie. I'm thinking Fight Club.

Seminar

Got back from the Macromedia Dreamweaver MX seminar about half an hour ago. One of the speakers was Tim Green, writer of Dreamweaver MX: PHP Web Development. It was okay. Tim knew what he was talking about. But I'm not convinced. I just want more control. So I will continue to use ColdFusion Studio, but I am going to tinker a bit more with Dreamweaver.

Glad it's weekend though. I'm so tired. Thinking about renting a movie, but can't really be bothered to put on my shoes again. Sigh. Maybe I'll pull a DVD off the shelf or just watch some tv.

Friday Five

Since I haven't answered them in ages, I thought I might give the Friday Five a go this week.

  1. What are your favorite ways to relax and unwind?

    Watch tv, read a book, listen to some music. The usual.

  2. What do you do the moment you get home from work/school/errands?

    Check my e-mail. Needy isn't it?

  3. What are your favorite aromatherapeutic smells?

    Mostly opium and sometimes lavender.

  4. Do you feel more relaxed with a group of friends or hanging out by yourself?

    By myself.

  5. What is something that you feel is relaxing but most people don't?

    Listening to loud eighties metal. Like early Slayer or Megadeth.

Nerves

Only 2 more hours, then I have to take the bus to Central Station. Then I can drive for half an hour befor I have to take my exam at 14:00. Getting a bit nervous already...

I got it!

the official Dutch drivers licenseHurah!! I'm so happy. Though I was quite nervous, everything went well. I received my certificate and went to the townhall to get the official ones right after it openend at 17:00. Now I only have to borrow a car to keep in the swing of things.

Mozilla

I'm impressed with the many features of Mozilla. Here's a Guide to the DOM Inspector. And if you really don't want to leave Internet Explorer, here's an IE skin. Don't know if I'll switch 100%, but I am using it more and more. Don't have a driving lesson today. Yesterday's went great. Have to take the exam tomorrow at 14:00. Fingers crossed. Well, not whilst driving ofcourse.

I've just installed ColdFusion MX on my PC, and am currently testing out a bunch of the new features. Getting quite enthusiastic about the possibilities, actually. But I'm not switching to Dreamweaver. Which is my the Macromedia ColdFusion Studio - ColdFusion MX Tag Updater came in quite handy. Oh, I just received a link for the American Psycho script. Thought you might like it. Try getting a reservation at Dorsia now! I wonder what the sequel is like.

Dentist

Got back from the dentist about half an hour ago. Everything is numb. Had one cavity in an old filling and some problems with old root canal work, which had to be repaired. Because of the theme, I want to include a link to my favourite Blind Melon song, which is Mouthful of Cavities. Do you see the irony? Anyhow, I'm reading up on ColdFusion MX in the book Developing ColdFusion MX Applications with CFML. There are loads of cool new features available. Can't wait to install ColdFusion MX on my PC this weekend, so I can do some experimenting.

Ziek!

Ik denk dat ik ziek ben. Verkouden in ieder geval, maar ook behoorlijk ziek in mijn bolletje. Zoals we dat dan zo mooi truttig uit kunnen drukken. Soms zie ik iets op Kazaa wat ik gewoon niet kan negeren. Terwijl ik weet hoe erg het is en eigenlijk gewoon door moet bladeren. Maar soms is de impuls om te klikken gewoon sterker. Daarom ben ik nu de eigenaar van een vijftal kinderliedjes, gezonden door een kinderkoor. Randstad-accent bijgeleverd. Binnenkort kan ik dus Alle eendjes zwemmen in het water, Hoedje van Papier, Op Een Grote Paddestoel, Schipper mag ik over varen en Boer Wat Zeg Je Van Mijn Kippen uit Winamp laten galmen. Ben ik erg, of ben ik erg? Laten we het er maar op houden dat de slechte gezondheid mijn denkvermogen heeft aangetast. Okay?

Autumn

Today is the start of a new season, autumn. From the Middle English autumpne, from Latin autumnus; the season between summer and winter comprising in the northern hemisphere usually the months of September, October, and November or as reckoned astronomically extending from the September equinox to the December solstice -- called also fall.

Also, my cold has gotten worse. I feel awful. Going to plant myself in front of the television in a minute and try to move as little as possible, as everything seems to hurt. Poor me.

My parents called yesterday, they're having a good time in Barcelona. Except for the fact that their passports got stolen and they had to go to the Dutch embassy and the police to deal with all the paperwork. I'm not exactly sure what happened, but I'm sure I'll hear it in full detail when they get back tomorrow afternoon.

Goodies

My goodies have finally arrived. The second package took a bit longer than usual. But it's here now and that's what matters. My Large package came first, and contained my Immortal t-shirt and a pair of beautiful earrings by St. Justin (similar to these, only mine are amethyst). The second package (from Displeased) arrived today, and made me the owner of a Borknager t-shirt and the latest On Thors I Lay album, Angeldust, and Shifting Realities, by Dakrua.

SVG

If you liked the links I mentioned last week on VML, check out the SVG Zone at Adobe, which contains loads of cool SVG demos.

Flu season

My parents left for Schiphol airport early this morning, to go to Barcelona for a few days. Good timing, because I can feel a flu coming on and I can wallow in selfpity in peace. I do hope things clear up soon, though, because I don't look forward to taking my driversexam when I'm feeling awful. Anyhow, enough already. Back to work.

More driving

Had the first of four driving lessons this morning. The others are this friday, next monday and tuesday. I have to take the exam next thursday. Things went well. Better than I expected. I just have to learn to slow down at intersections and round-abouts, and I'll hopefully be fine next week.

I was surprised to see Peter Stormare plastered all through the city, for a H&M campaign. Don't think I get it.

ADSL

If all goes well, I'll get ADSL this November!

ADSL availability

Photo album

Grandmothers
This is a rare photo, I even think it's the only one, of both my grandmothers. It was taken at my parents engagement party, which must have been sometime around 1973.

On the left you can see my paternal grandmother, Marijt, who was born on March 5th 1918 and died June 21st 1999. On the right my maternal grandmother, Everdina Petronella (Nel for short), born April 2nd 1912 and died June 16th 1985.

I sometimes envy people who have known their great-grandparents and who have grandparents for a longer period than I did. Well, at least we can still look at the photo's and reminisce.

Purple Onion

Colonel Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade will release it's new album, Purple Onion, on the 24th. According to the site the 12 all-new songs are sometimes light, sometimes dark, lyrically thought provoking, and rhythmically compelling. Look forward to hearing it.

Dave Gorman

I taped Dave Gorman's Important Astrology Experiment last night. Dave spends 40 days and nights living exclusively according to the advice of his horoscope and measuring his happiness on the kind of cod-scientific graphs familiar to fans of the previous show. Can't wait to watch it when I get home. You can read more at Dave's own site.

XML & genealogy

I have dabbled with the wonderful world of genealogy a while back, but my actions have stagnated. I have been curious for a while to check out the advanced in XML and genealogy. There is lots to be found, but I was most pleased with the Gedcom to XML Converter. I must remember to play with this is the coming week.

IMDb

I was watching The Limey, and as I often do, decided to check the trivia at the IMDb. Using the great concept of hyperlinking I ended up at the info for director Steven Soderbergh, where I found out he has also done Yes: 9012 Live. Quite strange. This is why I love the IMDb. You never know where it'll lead.

SMS & Colour

Check out the Color Calculator, which provides the user with the ability to identify color schemes or harmonies for any design project, by controlling a series of menus and tools. I'm also quite impressed with Simplewire: PHP SMS SDK, which provides a way to send SMS text-messages in the PHP scripting language.

Obsolete

99.9% of Websites Are Obsolete by Jeffrey Zeldman. Microsoft won the Browser Wars but all of us temporarily lost something more important: the chance to create a usable, accessible Web built on common industry standards. We lost it when designers and developers, scrambling to keep up with production demands during the short-lived Internet boom, learned non-standard, browser-specific ways of creating sites, thus bringing us to our current pass whose name is obsolescence. (via Five Beans)

Modeling

I'm reading up on CASE Studio 2, which is a database modeling tool. You draw an ER diagram and the program generates SQL scripts for you. Plus it features loads of possibilities to document your structure. I'm impressed. Also nice to hear the HTML frameset feature is under review by the folks at the W3C. Read more at WebReference's article on XFrames. Can't believe it's thursday already. How come some weeks seem to fly by and others take forever? It must be a cosmic joke of some sorts, which isn't shared with mankind.

Candlemass

CandlemassI just found out that Candlemass is playing 013! I want to go. I have wanted to see them live for age, but they had split up. Untill now. I have to get tickets! If you don't know them, here's their website.