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When I started this blog I thought I could manage to post once every two or three days. Seems I was wrong. I recently attracted some more work to create a bit of a change of scenery from my daily programming routine. So this meant I had to fill a few more hours a week with work. Nothing wrong with that in essence, but it seems there’s more work there than the original amount of hours can cope with. This means I had to hand over some spare time for my work to be done. Well I enjoy this new project, so I can live with the less spare time.

I’m now in charge of design and development of a CRM environment with loads of financial stuff in it. With design I mean functional design, not graphics. I can do a bit of graphics, but I’m not really an artist/designer. So now I have to work out a complete CRM and lead a small development team for this project while still working on my desktop product at the same time. Gives a bit of stress, but I like it. Especially since the CRM is meant for a few big companies (which I won’t mention by name) that are global even. Good for my resume/portfolio.

So this all leads to… having no time - or little time - to spend on other things. My week is packed with work, working out, meeting friends and trying to get some sleep. At least gives me something to do. This weekend I’m off to my parents. We’ve got this thing for ‘Sinterklaas’ (Saint Nicolas it would be in English), which basically is a similar thing like Christmas, but without the whole baby Jesus thing and the tree. More like Santa Claus bringing presents only. It will be nice. It always is. I know I’m getting a bottle of liquor so I’m sure I’ll be perfectly happy this weekend. I’ll let you know how it works out, provided I’m sober.

Finally it arrived. Wednesday evening I finally got my Limited Edition copy of Assassin’s Creed for the PS3. Highly anticipated, expected a whole lot of goodieness (not a word, I know) from it. First disappointment was that my metal case was dented. The transport probably caused it, as the dent neatly fits the hardcover art book accompanying it, which was packed alongside the metal case instead of inside the case. I set this aside, ignored the extra content and went on to put the game into my PS3.

Everyone who’s into games probably has seen one (or more) of the game itself and even bought the game on release. The hype around the game makes you expect a lot of things. One of the things you expect is the free roaming system. The entire world is at your feet (or arms, depending on your style) and you can go anywhere. Of course you have to unlock parts of the cities first, but that’s fine. After having run around long enough to get the hang of the movement and the map-system you start going on about the missions themselves. While it’s nice to have a goal, a reason for a kill, it’s boring to gather the information. After two times you’ve had it with it. Pick pocket that man, eaves drop on those people or ‘interrogate’ that man. Rather boring actions to do. So after a while you wish you could skip those tasks.

Killing people is fun enough though. Sneaking up to someone and stealthy kill them or just jump down from the roof on top of your target, it’s all very nice to do. The combat system is a bit boring as well though. Once you get counter-attacks you can just block and counter to kill everyone. There are quite a few moves you can make, but it’s all timing and opponent based. So you have no real choice besides timing the counter correctly. Once you know how to counter all attacks it’s just a matter of time, doesn’t matter how many opponents are against you. The AI lacks a bit in groups versus you.

Most of the time you’re running around through the cities. Either exploring them or trying to find one of the 400 flags in the game. There aren’t much random kills to make, besides the occasional guard on the rooftops - I’m not one for the streets much. Killing civilians isn’t really appreciated.

So, to conclude on Assassin’s Creed I’d say that it’s worth the money. Even though it gets a bit monotone in actions, it’s so much fun running over rooftops, killing some guards and climbing around. The storyline is o-kay. Nothing really fancy and to me the real story wasn’t that much of a surprise thus far. (I’m not gonna spoil it for you guys if you haven’t played it yet.) So go climb some towers and enjoy the killer views available.

Finally I got out of the house for some fun. My brother was in the neighbourhood for some work project and because he was done fairly early yesterday he went over to my place to have some fun. We decided to go out and that I’d show him Eindhoven’s finest entertainment.

First thing we did was go to the movies. We saw Resident Evil: Extinction. While not worlds best movie it was still worthwhile to watch. The storyline, as with previous two films, wasn’t the strongest and most captivating, but it’s nicely action packed and the two female characters (Milla Jovovich & Ali Larter) sure brighten up the screen (hey, I’m only a guy, whatcha expect?). What makes you wonder though, is the make up used by Alica (Milla Jovovich), it’s probably everlasting, because it stays perfect through the entire time. I’m no expert on make up, but running around through the desert the entire time should cause some dirt or smear.

So after watching the movie we went on watching and experiencing Eindhoven’s ‘Wildlife’. At first it was a bit boring as there weren’t many people yet. But at about 0.30 things started to get alive. We went to a few places, but at a certain point we were in a place that was so crowded you couldn’t even get to a bar to get a drink. But we had fun. We enjoyed the nice view. One of the things my brother said was that he was gonna move to Eindhoven as there are more nice looking girls here than there were near him.

And so the weekend ends. Another week of work ahead of me, with a few meetings and a presentation even for a big company. Ah well, next week there’ll be a birthday of a friend of mine if everything follows through. Something to look forward to.

I’ve been busy lately, especially with work, but also with my new game Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction. I bought the game last weekend and I’ve had the chance to play some odd hours. So far I’m very happy with it.

It’s the first time I bought a Ratchet & Clank game, but given the limited amount of interesting games on the PS3 so far I had to look for something else. I liked the demo so much I decided to buy the full game and thus far it has delivered. The graphics are very pleasing, though there are some minor glitches at some points. Power ups sometimes don’t display properly and seem to get stuck mid air and start blinking. Luckily this doesn’t occur to often, so annoyance is limited.

I won’t give any spoilers as I hate that myself, but the storyline thus far is very captivating. It’s not like reading Lord of the Rings or Wheel of Time, but it’s not bad. It has a decent portion of humor in it (as to be expected) and there are enough cut-scenes and characters to give you a break from the wrench-wielding parts of the game. Ratchet, being the last Lombax, is the target of Percival, and evil guy with intentions of ruling the galaxy (when DON’T they have such aspirations?). After escaping the initial attack on your furry ass you start looking for clues and such, you know the drill. With a huge arsenal from a simple blaster to intelligent weapons that target enemies by themselves, to disco-balls (which make the enemies dance), you start working your way through the galaxy.

As it is a PS3 game, the sixaxis is used as well. There are some parts in which you have to navigate using the turn-and-move-capabilities of your controller. This isn’t to hard as soon as you get the hang of it. It’s quite relaxing to do, as it’s just moving the controller entirely. Quite the opposite is the space-fights you’ll encounter. This requires you to have two brains to operate simultaneous, or at least be female, because it’ll be hard for the male population (which lacks the ability of multitasking in general) to get through these. The left analog stick moves your ship, the right analog stick is used to aim, and the L1/2 and R1/2 are used for shooting and barrel rolls. No worries though, pratice makes perfect and you’ll get through this as well in time.

All in all, quite worth the money and time spent. I guess I’ll have to keep at it, because Assassins Creed will be arriving on my doormat soon.

Four things that get me through my week: friends, games, school and work. Not all of them in the same quantities of course, though it’d be nice to have some more time for gaming.

Unfortunately most of my time is consumed by working. Now you don’t know the least of what I do in daily life, so I’ll tell you that first. As you might have understood from my first post, I’m a bit of a geek. This applies to both my hobbies and my work. I’m a software developer / architect. For the past two years I’ve been busy with a desktop software application concerning user safety/security. We’re nearing our release slowly, but steadily now. Together with my friend Maarten (a.k.a. JointFillah) I write the software in C#. It’s a very neat project with good expectations. Unfortunately due to a NDA I can’t tell you much more about it. So to break my two year nearly non-stop work on this I wanted to have a small side job. Last Friday I had a talk with a web development company that had to much work and wanted to attract either more personnel or hand over some work to other companies. So I had a talk with them, which went good I think. Because of some personal problem one of the two directors couldn’t be there during the meeting, so the other guy told me he wanted to talk with his partner first and then let me know. He’d let me know either the same day or directly after the weekend. By now it’s Wednesday, which isn’t considered directly after the weekend anymore to me.

Yesterday I went to school again, my new semester started; or so I thought. Being there alone with my lab-partner and a third person got us to wonder. Apparently there was a mistake in the agenda. The school agenda said another week of exams, the course agenda said lessons started this week. Guess which one was correct?

A part of my time I spend gaming as you may already have noticed. Downloaded the Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction demo (for the PS3 of course). After having played it I can only say I want more, so I’m gonna get the full version soon (hopefully today). Also played the first three minutes of the Folklore demo, which is a bit of a weird game so far. Weird in the sense that it has a strange storyline and the graphics are a bit different from what I expected. Other than that I can’t say anything as I’ve seen only the first three minutes. I’m going to let you know how these work out.

Lastly of course a paragraph on my friends. I don’t have that many close friends, quite a few not-so-close friends though, but most of my time I stick with just a few people. We hang out at their or my place, play some games, drink some, smoke some, talk some, whichever everyone feels like of course. Other evenins we go out in the city (that’s Eindhoven - The Netherlands for those of you wondering where that is), but lately nothing much happened. The usual group I go out with hasn’t been out for weeks now. We’re made up of 2 guys and 5 girls most of the time. A nice group, though the male-female balance is a bit off. Lately though the ladies didn’t have time or had other plans, so us guys haven’t been out for quite some time. To my friend it’s not that big of a deal I think, cause one of the girls is his girlfriend, so he gets some attention/interaction/etc. However I sometimes have had it with sitting around home alone, but I’m not the kind of guy to go out alone, not as fun. So last weekend odds seemed good that we were about to do something, until we had a last minute cancel. Thus I spent the entire Saturday watching movies. Not sure what I watched, but not all of them were as great. Well, another weekend coming up soon again, let’s see if we do something then.

Lastly I wanted to share with you a nice video I found on the web. Some may already have seen it or think it’s old, but I’m sure everyone with a cat can relate. This is exactly how I wake up nearly every morning.

Life’s full of surprises. Small, big, funny, annoying, entertaining or whatever effect you can come up with. One thing they all have in common is that they disrupt your daily life. Some in a very moderate way, others change the course of history - or so I would like to believe. I’ve had a few of these this week, unexpected surprises that is.

Some weeks ago my pocket watch started acting funny, sometimes it was ahead, other times behind. So I went to the shop to get it fixed. They told me the clockwork mechanics were broken so it had to be replaced. I asked them as to what it might cost and they told me somewhere between 50 and 80 Euros, but they would let me know as soon as the manufacturer had taken a decent look what the actual price would be. So besides the fact that I had to go back to the shop twice to get a status report on that, which was annoying enough, I finally got a price tag for the repairs: 150 Euro. That’s quite the surprise if you’re expecting half of that. While it’s not history changing, it does have quite the effect on my bank account. Given the fact that it only yields so much warranty I’ve decided not to get it repaired and a buy a new one instead.

This morning I had yet another very entertaining surprise. I got up fairly early, given it’s a Saturday of course, to go to the gym and work my ass off. So when I arrived at the gym at about 9.15 I got my surprise… it was closed. They had decided to change the opening hours without a decent notice. So instead of being able to work out I had to wait either 45 minutes (as it opens at 10.00 now) or just forget about it. I chose the latter, picked up some fruit from the market on the way back home and decided to be bummed out a bit.

So now I’m bummed out, didn’t get to exercise, have to buy a new watch and a day of programming ahead of me. Well at least the seem to be plans to do something with friends tonight with a fairly big chance that they’re coming to my place. Which means I have to go and buy some food & drinks and clean up a bit. So far a relaxing Saturday…

Last night was filled with some bad game play. Not necessarily on my side though, but in general. I got a last minute request on whether I wanted to join in for a raid in World of Warcraft (which means a large group doing a specific boss or group of bosses, for those of you not familiar with the term ‘raid’). We went to Gruul’s Lair, an instance we frequently finish in about an hour or less and poses no real threat to us even, as we can even do it with less than 25 players. So there we were, I was helping out with my tank (Thunderhorn), which isn’t exactly the best geared tank, but he’ll do as an off-tank for Gruul’s Lair. So we were working through the instance with no real problem until we actually started working on Gruul himself. I’ve lost track on how many times we wiped on him. We usually take six healers, last night we had eight and still the tanks were dropping like flies attracted by a zapper. We even had a few near-kills, but having two extra healers means two less DPS, which means slower killing and thus we couldn’t finish the job. At some point - we were at it for about two and a half hour already - I switched out for our guild MT. So I don’t know how the evening ended at this point, but I hope having our best geared tank with them helped getting the job done.

In other gaming news I heard that NFS Pro Street won’t be released until somewhere around the 22nd of November. This kind of sucks, cause I finished Heavenly Sword about a week ago and needed something new for my PS3. Of course, by the time NFS Pro Street gets here I’ll have Assassin’s Creed as well. So that’s two neat games, with only time to play one. Life’s full of choices… hard choices.

Last three days I spent most of my time getting ready for an exam. The subject is (computer)networks. The book used for our lectures is called ‘Data Communications and Networking’ by Forouzan. It’s quite an interesting read actually. Most of the stuff in the first part of the book I’ll never look at again, but interesting none the less. It’s about how networks send data and how bandwidth and such are actually calculated. Or about analog and digital data and conversion of both into another. There’s network topologies, physical components, limitations on wires (both copper and fiber) and everything related to this matter. So as I already said, very fascinating information… but I’ll never look at it again.

So there I was, spent all this time getting ready for my exam, then the whole bloody exam only took like 10 minutes to complete. Yes, that’s right; 10 minutes! So I took my time to go over the questions again. It was all multiple choice and two normal questions and it only took me 10 minutes to complete the whole test. The teacher must be a lazy guy I guess. Multiple choice questions are easy to go over. Check, check, check, check, wrong, check, check, wrong, … and … done. Ah well, at least it doesn’t leave me wondering whether I answered everything correctly. Most of it was pretty easy. So now I’ve got two more weeks without classes, which means a bit of relaxation in the evening. I’m doing only evening courses, because I have a daytime job, just so you know.

So that leaves me with an evening unspent and unplanned so far. That either means I’m going to hang out with a friend of mine, or go to the gym if he’s unavailable. Adventure awaits!

Being a bit of a geek myself I’ve opted to keep the title of this post. I’ll explain to you non-geeks what it is about.

First thing you do when trying to code something with a new programming language or development environment is the ‘Hello World!’ script. It’s a piece of code that, when executed, displays the words ‘Hello World!’. It’s just that. Nothing fancy to it. It’s only to test whether what you did was correct. It’s also frequently used in other environments related to software as well. Like installing this blog. It put a dummy text in here which indicated it works. Anyway, enough about the Hello World! topic.

I’m not sure what you’re expecting to read here as I’m not even sure what I’m going to post about. As you may already have noticed I still have the basic WordPress layout and all. Just thought I’d put up the blog itself and write something before changing to much. Did manage to remove the default blogroll on the right and put up some links I wanted to be there. Nothing fancy so far. You may want to check out  Vivi Trixibel which is the blog of my friend Pytrik. Don’t bother trying to understand or even pronounce the name; it’s Dutch. To be even more exact, it’s from a weird dialect in the northern part of The Netherlands. Anyways, if you head over there, bring some salt, most of it needs to be taken with a pinch of it… or a bucket.. depends on your mental capacity.

So what might you find here in the (near) future? Not sure yet. Guess I’ll rant about work a bit… or maybe a lot. You’ll probably find stuf about the guilds I’m involved in and most likely things about programming as well. Maybe I’ll throw in some personal information as well. Here’s a free bit of personal info; I’ve got two cats who I’ll probably talk about some time. Perhaps I’ll discuss games or movies I’ve watched and played or played and watched… whichever. Ah well, we’ll see what comes to pass. Until we meet again!