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Diary, June 1997


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Monday, June 2, 1997

The same

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: 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)

Michael Chang

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.

Cleaning of the Whitehouse

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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