Redecorating Annabel's bedroom (Part 1)
Yesterday, we decided to redecorate Annabel her
bedroom. We did not do anything about the room when we moved in
seven years ago. Yesterday, Annabel returned
from staying one week with my mother
and two weeks with my sister. The coming
two weeks I will have my holiday. This afternoon we spend emptying her room.
We moved all her stuff to the attic, except for a cupboard and the frame of
her bed.
Redecorating Annabel's bedroom (Part 2)
This morning, Annabel and I worked on removing
some wall paper. We decided to paint the walls over the wall paper. She has
two kinds of wall paper in her room. The bottom half is a blue kind of wall
paper, while the top half is light yellow. In the middle there was a band
with "Belle and the Beast" drawings. It was this part that we removed.
In the afternoon we looked around some shops for some new furniture. We saw
a lot, but could not make up our mind. It was also getting hot. We did buy
some white latex paint and some stuff to repair holes in the wall.
In the evening, I started repairing the holes.
Redecorating Annabel's bedroom (Part 3)
This morning, I continued with repairing the walls with the plaster.
Then in the afternoon, I put the first layer of white latex paint on
the wall. We went to the shop again to look for some paint. But we could
not decided on the colour. After we arrived home, I put the second layer
of paint on the wall. Then Li-Xia did some
shopping with Annabel and Andy. They went back to the shop where we looked for the paint, but
again did not buy anything because Li-Xia was confused about the amount
of paint we needed. In the evening, I went back to the shop and bought
two buckets, one large (2.5 liter) and one small (0.75 liter) from different
batches. We finally decided on a lighter shade of pink then the one that
Annabel wanted, after I convinced her that it would look much more pink
when on a large wall.
Redecorating Annabel's bedroom (Part 4)
Today is the big day, with respect to the redecoration of Annabel's room. I painted two of the walls from the paint of the
large bucket, and used quite a lot of paint. I decided to mixed the
contents of the small bucket with what remained of the large bucket,
and started with the third wall, which was opposing the other two walls
and on the other side of the door. The paint in the smaller bucket was
a little thinner, so it went easier. When I started with a little part
of wall besides the window and close to one of the walls I did first,
we discovered that it was a little darker shade of pink. But we were
going to put the cupboard in that corner of the room, so we figured out
that nobody would notice it anyway. When I finally was done with all the
painting, there was still some paint left.
In the afternoon, a package arrived with inside a
Palm m100 that I bought
second hand after seeing a small ad on www.marktplaats.nl (market place). It included a synchronization cable,
but the CD-ROM with the software for the PC was missing. So, I had to
download it from the PalmOne site.
After, I installed it, it worked perfect, and I downloaded a small Go program by Adorjan Kiss. In the evening Annabel and I
went to the Go club. I played two 13x13 games against Martijn with a four
stone handicap for him. I lost both, although the margin on the second
was smaller than the first. Later, I played a third game against Rob,
also with a four stone handicap. I lost that one with two stones, although
I could have won it with two, as Henny, a third Dan player, remarked when
I made the wrong move. Annabel also played three 13x13 games. The first she
lost, the second against Martijn (with a nine-stone handicap) she won, and
the last game with white against another beginner (with no handicap) she
lost, while she was clearly on the winning hand when in the middle of the
game. Annabel plays very quick on intuition, but when things get a little
more complicated, she is often too lazy to think it through and resorts to
playing a move on the other side of the board. Anyway, it was also getting
late, so maybe she simple got bored. I did not use the Palm m100, but
Annabel did play with it.
(Follow-up on Palm m100)
Redecorating Annabel's bedroom (Part 5)
In the morning, I spend some time on the finishing touches, and
removing all the tape. I also decided to fill a crack in the ceiling
with the left over plaster (really nice stuff, I have to admit).
And then it was time to remove all the newspapers from the floor.
We moved the cupboard into its new position, and the bed where it
belonged. In the afternoon we went to look for furniture again.
Annabel was very interested in a corner
computer desk, but I did not consider it so pratical, as the actual
desk space is rather small. She liked it also because it had a drawer
with a lock. We looked at some desk and bookshelves, but could not
make up our mind. This was also due to the high temperature and
because of Andy going round and shouting
"happy meal", "Robin Hood", "nieuwe video" (new video), "ballenbak"
(a place filled with balls for children to play in), and "Muppet show"
all the time.
Actually, it was not so bad that we did not make up our mind, because
when we measured the available space again, we discovered that the
desk and the bookshelve we had in mind and thought would not fit,
actually did fit. At the end of the afternoon, I went back to the
shop, and bought the desk (141 by 80 cm), the bookshelve (77 cm wide,
36 cm deep) and a small cupboard with three drawers for under the desk,
which did have a lock on the top drawer. After dinner, we spend some
time putting everything together.
Redecorating Annabel's bedroom (Part 6)
Now that the redecoration was finished and Annabel got some new furniture, we could start bringing all
her things down from the attic, because I did not want her to
sleep another night in the attic. I did go over to the shop with
Annabel to buy an office chair.
5 o'clock
This morning, I got up at 5 o'clock, only so that I could open
all the doors and windows to let the house cool. Yesterday, the
temperature went up to almost 32 degrees Celsius and today it
will be the same, I am afraid.
Temperature profile
Inside Outside
5:42 26.4 19.7
6:00 25.1 19.8
6:30 24.6 20.0
7:00 24.5 20.4
7:30 24.2 21.2
8:10 24.5 22.8
8:40 25.7 23.6
9:10 25.7 23.8
9:40 26.0 24.3
12:20 27.1 27.7
17:15 30.1 27.8
18:45 29.6 28.3
19:55 28.3 28.1
23:20 27.6 24.4
Temperature profile
Inside Outside
5:10 26.7 20.5
5:20 25.6 20.6
6:00 25.1 20.3
6:35 24.6 20.4
7:10 24.4 21.2
7:30 24.7 21.9
8:10 25.4 23.0
9:00 26.1 23.6
9:55 26.4 24.9
12:12 27.1 28.2
18:40 28.1 30.0
Temperature profile
Inside Outside
4:30 27.0 21.1
6:00 24.3 20.2
7:35 23.8 21.8
10:35 26.2 25.0
17:15 27.6 30.5
Shortage of boards and stones
Tonight, Annabel, Daniël (a friend of
Annabel), and I went to the Go club. Because not
everything was open and the place we just last time was occupied we had
to look around for a place where we could play. But there was another
problem that we had a shortage of boards and stones, because one of the
persons bringing the playing materials was on holiday. Luckly, I had brought
our 13x13 board and a 9x9 board. Now people had to find creative ways of
playing. Annabel and Daniël first played some games on the 9x9 board, and
then they played against Erik, by taking turns playing black, but before
the end of the game, the gave up, and ran away to do some other things.
They met Martin Medema and he took them to
university library to borrow some books about stars and planets, because
Daniël was very interested in the coming Perseid meteor shower.
Ton wanted to play against me, because we did not play against each
other. We started with a game (SGF,
PS), where he got a nine stone handicap,
but he soon had to realize the bitter way, that I had become stronger,
because his usual tactics of playing against me failed horrible, and
he had to give up rather soon. With the second game
(SGF, PS)
he started with an eight stone handicap. This game went much slower,
and in the end he won the game with about twenty stones.
I used my Palm m100 to record both games with
the Go program
by Adorjan Kiss.
It went very nice! I did not feel at all distracted by doing it. Some
people felt that the screen is too small, and that you have to point
very carefull, but I only had two or three times when it went wrong.
It happened more often that I forgot to record a move, which was
immediately noticed because I placed a stone of the wrong colour,
and easily corrected. Only two or three times at the end of the game,
I lost track of what moves had been played, and needed some time to
think about it. The program is perfect for recording games, also
because it can export the whole game to a Memo is SGF format. Because
of some remark in the readme file, I thought that there was a 1024
character limit on the size of the export file, but at home I discovered
that the whole game record is exported. Now, I only have to write
a small program to export them to PostScript.
(Follow-up on Palm m100)
When we arrived home just before midnight, Annabel wanted to watch the annual
Perseid meteor shower
from the back-garden, which is produced by the debris left by the comet
Swift-Tuttle.
After applying some protection against mosquito,
we switched of the "automatic" light, and set down on some chairs.
After about five minutes we saw the first meteor with a short bright trail.
Then another three minutes later we saw a real bright one, leaving a trail
that glowed for half a second. Then we saw a long but thin trail (I am not
sure, whether Annabel really saw this one). Then I went in, and told Annabel
that she had to come in after she had seen five. Just after a few minutes
she came running in to tell me she saw the fourth, and yet another minutes
after she had seen five. This is the first time, that I did see any
meteors when I went outside watching for them. In April Annabel and I saw one, when we went outside to look for the ISS.
From SGF to PostScript
Today, I developed a small program to convert SGF files (as produced
by the program that I use to record games on the Palm m100)
to PostScript. Because the SGF files do not contain information about
which stones are beaten by a certain move, I had to determine these
myself. And that is not such a trivial problem as it seems.
Here is the program. Probably not very
elegant, but it works for me.
Connection game
It took me about six tries to win this connection game. Interesting.
Science and faith
In the past weeks, I have been several times confronted with high educated
Christians who were putting faith above science.
One example was a person believing that God created the universe 6000 years
ago. He did not deny the fact that the universe appears to be much older,
but simply said that God created it as such. This is about the same
as stating that God created us yesterday including with memories of
the days before yesterday. Almost no normal person would believe this.
And for the same reason, the idea that God created and "old" looking
universe some 6000 years ago, is as silly as this. Neither of these
claims can be proven or disproved in a scientific sense. And even the
book of Genesis does not state that nothing existed before the "first
day", and thus does not speak about the moment of "creation".
Last weekend, I heard that according to the www.jesusreturn.net the pastor described in the best-selling
book "The Heavenly Man" is telling lies for the purpose of raising
money in the West. When I made a remark about this to a person who
read the book, he said that Christian leaders have been attacked
before and that there was no honour seeking in the book at all. Of
course, I realize that I have no means to find out whether any lies
have been told or not, but simply assuming that because someone gives
all glory to God makes him speaking the truth, does not work for me.
It is simply a fact that some people are very good at telling lies,
especially if they can profit from it. One should also realize that
lying and keeping things hidden has been very prominent in China in
the past hundred years. The book is full of the most amazing miracles
and wonders, such as the mentioning of a 75 day long total fast, that
is no eating and no drinking. Extraordinay claims require extraordinary
evidence.
Going to the Go club
Annabel and I went to the Go club to play
Go. I played my first game against Henny on
a 13x13 board with five stones ahead, and I lost. Then I played, a
little more serious game against Rudy on a 19x19 board with nine stones
ahead. I lost with 49. But when you realize that he is the strongest
player of our club, it is actually not so bad. He could have played
more agressive, he said. I recorded this game with the Palm m100. Annabel played two games. The first one on a 9x9 board
against Henny, and the second one against a beginner. She lost both
games. I recorded the second game, but when I tried to syncronize
my Palm at home, something went wrong and the memory was erased and
both games were lost. I felt rather sad about it, all the recording
work had been for nothing. This is really a drawback of the Palm m100,
that its memory is rather voilatile, and that you will have to syncronize
everytime when you change batteries. The stange thing was that the
batteries were still okay this evening. Hopefully, it will go better
next week.
(Follow-up on Palm m100)
Picture bingo
Yesterday, Andy won a teletubby with a game of
picture bingo. It seems that he is rather good a picture bingo, at least
that is what the people from the holiday activity that he has been
attending for some days in the past two weeks. This week they joined the
Viva summer
activities at De Roef.
Battery problem
This morning, the Palm m100 resetted itself again.
When I made a closer inspection of the batteries, I discovered that
one of the batteries had a small plastic ridge at the contact side,
and that the m100 had flat contacts. That could well be the cause of
the resetting. I removed the ridge with a knife.
First school day
Today is the first school day in our part of the country. When
Annabel woke up, I suddenly hear her scream.
Her left tooth had broken off again during the
night. I immediately started to search for the missing part. For a moment
we thought that she made have swallowed it, but we did find it back. It
looked very dry. We did put it in some quark (with a little water added),
although I was afraid that the dentist would not be able to do something
with it.
Around ten, Li-Xia took Annabel to the dentist,
and he glued the broken part on top of the tooth again. Tomorrow she has to go back, because he wants to do some more work on it.
New front tooth
Annabel had to go back to the dentist today.
We arrived around 11:30 at his office. He explained that yesterdays fix was only temporary. The top of the tooth had broken
off because of another crack at the back of the tooth that might have been
caused by the car accident. That broken
piece had to be removed, and because the basis of the tooth had become to
week to clue the top onto, it meant that he had to make a whole new tooth.
Also the root channel needed to be cleaned. It took him almost two hours
to do all the things and to give Annabel a new tooth.
(follow-up)
Swim goggles
This afternoon, Annabel went into the city
all alone for buying some new swim goggles that Li-Xia had seen earlier this
day. This is the very first time that Annabel went to the city on her own.
She parked her bike in
the free guarded bike parking under the V&D apartment store.
Going to the Go club
Yesterday evening, Annabel and I went to the
University to play Go. It appeared that the Vrijhof
were we usually play,
was rented by some school for a party for their students. We went to hall
of the Bastille, where they were showing an episode of Friends on a large
screen, while nobody was watching it. I played against Rob who got a six
stone handicap (the estimated difference in our strength is seven). Finally,
he had to resign because of me going to kill one of his groups
(SGF, PS).
Annabel played one game on a 13x13 board against Ton. She lost with ten
with Ton having a six stone handicap. Ton at the same time played against
Taco, who also at the same time played against Marco.
Annabel afterwards went to the Fanaat
room and did some dancing game with some students, where you have to
dance on floor contacts according to what is shown on the screen.
And yes, of course, she did discover a way to scopidoo with a single string, without cutting it into pieces.
Swimming with my head under water
Yesterday it was the first time Annabel
and I went swimming again after the summer holidays. I started with swimming
the usual 11 meter stretch, and did it about thirty times. After eating some
cucumber, I tried the water slides. I did some racing with a young German
boy. To really go fast, I just go down the water slide on shoulders and my
ankles. Then I did some more swimming on the 11 meter stretch. I discovered
that I could easily swim the stretch while keeping my head under water, and
that I only needed a few breaths to continue doing it again. Doing this I
did get into this very relaxing "flow" mood. I think that next week, I
am going to put on the old goggles from Annabel.
This months interesting links
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