Thursday may 6th, I had been alone at home with the cat for nearly a week, programming on a website without a clear deadline...

within 26 hours from first phonecall to 'you're hired'

Dear diary,

Wellwellwell... the consistent updating of my blog isn't working. I guess I'll always keep the habit of "first finishing a few things, and blogging afterwards", but things never really get finished

I did do more work done than before, from the end of january to the end of april. Or at least the first part of that period I've been constantly busy -- if you count 'compulsively reading newspapers and other internet sites' as 'being busy', that is

Eindelijk, eindelijk, na meer dan 12 maanden brieven schrijven en gedoe met incassobureaus en mijn huurster... heb ik de huur van mijn appartement (in de periode oktober 2008 - maart 2009!) die Rots-Vast Amsterdam Zuid voor me geïnd heeft, op mijn rekening gekregen.

Waarom moet Rots-Vast deaud? Niet zozeer omdat ze geen enkele toegevoegde waarde hebben, maar vooral omdat ze systematisch liegen. De wereld is beter af zonder ze. Ik had het al eerder genoemd, maar hier is het volledige verhaal.

So...

In case anyone was wondering: yes, I'm still alive...

Last time I said (though it was in Dutch) that I had two and a half website assignment still lying around, and really had to get to work fast. Well: it took two months to get one and a half site finished.

Ofcourse, in this manner I will never make a full income for myself. It's my own fault; I'm just distracted too quickly when I'm contantly working alone at home.

Zo!

In het 'dagboekbericht over oktober' schreef ik dat ik wel een paar veelbelovende sollicitatiegesprekken achter de rug had (en zelfs een contract getekend had), maar dat er uiteindelijk niets uit was gekomen, behalve een klein opdrachtje van mijn 'half-vaste werkgever'...

Nou, inmiddels is dat behoorlijk veranderd!

Note: this is not a tutorial on what XDebug is and how it exactly works, or an install howto. If you want that, then please read this post on box.net. This post is more like a 'declaration of awesomeness'. I just wanted to blog about it - and I think this things needs more 'advertising'. Maybe this illustration will give someone who's googling for 'vim' and 'xdebug' a still better idea what this is about.

My story:

I have my own 'ShortURL service' now!

But, very much in the Roderik spirit, when investigating this one task, I discovered that it could be done better if I tackled another task first. But I wanted that other thing done right, so I had to do another thing at the same time. Etc.

Lief blogboek,

Ik zei in mijn vorige bericht (van 28 september) dat ik dit weblog normaal zou gaan bijhouden, he? Nou, dat is er dus nog niet van gekomen

Oktober is zomaar omgegaan, zonder dat ik veel aan mijn bestaande 'lijstje dingen die ik nog af wil maken' heb gedaan. Ik zat nog steeds in het 'thuiszit-ritme', waar er zo ineens 2 of 3 dagen om kunnen gaan met 'helemaal niets' (iets te lang internet-kranten lezen, boodschappen doen, mail bijhouden, wat systeembeheer doen, dingen op Internet opzoeken, TV kijken... dag om.)

Continuing on the 'battle with technology':

First of all: I've stumbled over a recent much-commented blog post from Jason Kasper titled "I think I'm tired of Desktop Linux". Which airs the same sentiments I uttered in my last post here. He also knows he won't ditch Linux - but is really tired of stuff breaking all the time.

[ Dear diary.... Yeah, I know. This is another way-too-long pointless blog. But I can't stop writing when I start. And I might find it funny to look back in a few years, at how my 'battles' have evolved... ]

Technology is wonderful.

Trying to get technology working exactly like I want it to, is a whole lot more frustrating.