Prombron

If you are looking for an exclusive truck, stop looking; you have found it. Look here. Whale penis leather interior, yes you read that correctly. Can it be more macho? Go check out their website. No more words needed.

Something to make you smile

Click on the picture for slide show

The Birth of Mozilla

Writing my previous post I remembered the "Code Rush" documentary, a very interesting one on the birth of Mozilla, I watched this years ago on, I think, Discovery Channel. Some time ago, when trying to obtain a bachelors degree on computer science at the HU (failed due to our Canada move), I tried to find it, but was unsuccessful. It seems the movie was put online somewhere in July of 2009. It's really worth, and fun, watching it. Also for the recently graduated ICT boys, if they didn't already, as to know how software engineering and deadlines work.

Finally Developments......

At last we received a request from the Canadian Embassy to do our medical tests. And this is very good news, it probably means we are approved to stay in Canada as Landed Immigrants pending the results of the medical. And me being a project coordinator ( ;-) ) I had anticipated this request; we were already tested on December 23rd of 2009, so we gain a couple (6-8) of weeks. And to be honest its about time. Next week February the 4th it is exactly 3 years since we lodged our stage 1 application. Truthfully I never expected it to take this long. When arriving in September 2008 I really thought I would take like 8 months or so to finalize. We are not there yet, but the dark cloud lurking at September 2011 is just a bit less dark now. The medical should pose no problem as the doctor is obligated to tell any major problems that might occur as a result of the test. It looks like we are pretty healthy at age 50 and over. Good to know. And yes nurse Penny is very wishful thinking. You gotta have dreams, right.

What's wrong here......

Antoni Gaudi

Once, a long time ago, I lent my Antoni Gaudi book to someone, no clue as to whom. And you guessed right, it was never returned. It has some memories attached. Anybody have my book? If so, please be so kind to send it to me.

Marco Schriek

#50 49228 Range Road 234,

Rolly View, Alberta, T0C 2K0

Canada.

It would be highly appreciated and there are no hard feelings.

En Van Seumeren als je dit ooit mocht lezen, stuur dan ook eens mijn Gaudi scriptie terug die je 27 jaar geleden van mij hebt geleend.

Oops

Regularly I receive email with series of accidents, whether it be on cars, buildings and stuff like that. If it's extreme somehow it shows in my In-box. These ones I share with you. I am not aware of any casualties, the pictures speak for them selves I guess. Click on the picture for the series. Have fun.

Thesis Joost

This is an occasion or happening that triggers a downside feeling of emigrating to another country. Joost has to do his defence on his thesis in 41 minutes and we are at the other side of the ocean wishing to be a bit closer. On the other hand there is nothing much you can do other than give him support and a reassuring pad on the shoulder. Which I now did by phone. Probably won't catch any sleep the next few hours. Knowing him he will be fine and the next hour pretty nervous. That was a stupid question I asked "Are you nervous?", "Of course I am, what do you think". Anyways he will do just fine. 31 minutes to the the start.........

07:02 MST: He made it and is now a bachelor of ICT. A very wanted profession, also here in Alberta, Canada. I'm told pay is high and working conditions are excellent. They will go a lengthy way to get you to work for them.

Asphalt...

Last Friday we had to go the top brass of Waiward Steel Fabricators to have a conference call on Firebag 4 (Waiward-M&D-Jacobs Canada), yep my first project with M&D that got cancelled 3 months after my arrival. What gave a lot of worries on my part. We went there in a small Toyota Ralley... something. I have to confess; I am not used to small cars anymore. I had a hard time getting in, felt like a folded handkerchief, and I was bumping my head against the posts; that hurt. It was a strange feeling looking up to those trucks and have your butt so close to the tarmac, or asphalt if you like, you could almost feel it. Eerie. Yes I know, spoiled to the bone in a short period of time. But anyways, finally some real positive news, we got the go ahead on detailing for Suncor's Firebag 4. Its a start, maybe 5 and 6 come into the picture too the next few months. The steel-structures we detail and fabricate are only some 5% of the total cost, I think Suncor is spending like 3 billion in 2010. Hopefully they will increase this number at the next board-meeting. The next conference call we will take my truck for a comfy ride.

At the vet's

Unfortunately I had to go to the vet this morning with Mac. She has been eating reluctantly the last couple of weeks, and loosing weight. Yesterday evening she threw up and had a blood strain in it, all in all she did that 5 times last night (it turned from yellow, quite normal, to brownish, which is not good). Fuck, that can't be. The advantage of the Internet is that you can find any information at anytime on almost everything. I found a veterinarian hospital in Leduc that opened Saturday morning at 8 am and Joka found a possible cause of what could be wrong, and she was pretty close if not spot on. So of to the vet this morning to have Mac examined. It turned out pretty good as she has no pain spots anywhere, temperature is ok, no lumps and bumps. So most likely she ate something wrong, has an infection where the stomach and the bowel system connects or she has the flu, even H1N1 is possible according to vet Ed Doornebal. Yes a dutch-man from Maartensdijk who emigrated to Canada in 1952, his parents had a farm and his primairy language, until age 6, was dutch. So he could understand me when I was talking to Mac, it turned out later, when paying the bill ($120). In the mean time Mac is on medication to ease the stomach, a penicillin cure (just to be on the safe side) and a acid re-leaver, the last one I had to get at a pharmacy. Before spending dollars, how dutch indeed, on blood samples and X-rays; lets see how it goes the next couple of days. If there is no progress we will dig deeper and take it from there, she is a geriatric (10+) dog and you never know what going on in the liver and pancreas, Ed told me. Luckily there is progress and the meds are working, Mac is already more cheer- and playful and wants to eat (looking for her bowl), which she is not allowed until Sunday morning. All is going well, she wears her party-hat and looks very happy. Yes?

Update 01-18-2020: This one, a Rhino fight in South Africa, I got from Niko Reijneveld

Oilsands again

Positive developments by a small energy company Excelsior as posted today in the Edmonton Journal. The Oilsands are the lifeline for many here in northern Alberta. Like today. I was going to get Emma from her work at 7 pm. A truck stops at our entry road, drops his window, sticks an arm out indicating me to stop, so I did. "Hi I'm Frank your neighbour, most of the time I work up north in Fort Mac". A typical Canadian encounter? Two trucks, windows down, shaking hands and having a conversation at minus 11. He is and was busy working on projects M&D detailled and Waiward fabricated. All oil related, and a small world after all. We agreed on a beer at better temperatures.

"And now for something completely different"

A very old unix remark on the so called power of unix: U-nix , We-nix. So now are we levelled again, and no I do not know one for/on Apple other than it being a fruit and some believe it has to do with The Creation. And I leave it at that.
Here is another reason to like unix.
Not a very original title, but if you ever have a chance go look at Monthy Phytons "Ministry of Silly Walks" episode. Here it is on YouTube, hilariously funny.

"Life Without Walls (tm)"

The latest Dell slogan is "Life Without Walls", it's even TradeMarked. But why? If there are no walls, you don't need Windows. But you had seen that one coming from a mile away, right. Probably they argue one big window. And that's even worse, you can see the outside world but you cannot touch it. Any thoughts?

Cucumbertime

January, its the time of the year with a low profile. After the build up to Xmas and the New Year things go slow. All the coziness is slowly stripped from the rooms and the houses. Literally, the lights go out. Hence cucumber-time. No English word I guess, but you know what I mean. There is not much to tell, work is slow. I started up some automation projects for the company on my own account. Show them real automation, indeed with Delphi. Plain simple fast desktop applications using MySQL. But as always it's the ideas and experience with processes that generates powerful automation; Delphi, Java, C#, CBuilder are only tools. The snow here just stays until March or something. There is no salt problem; they do not use it over here as extensively as in Europe, like in hardly anything. Just drive carefully in 4x4 mode and you're good to go. Every once in a while however, on roads with black ice, a couple of cars slide of the road, some of them wrecked. They leave them abandoned until they are towed away the next day or so. The last month temperatures fluctuated between -43 and +4, last Saturday. We noticed we are growing winter-hard, -4 seems like a comfortable temperature nowadays. Got some unexpected Xmas cards too, that was a nice surprise. People have not forgotten me, yet. Good good, like they say here.

Thanks to Anke I learned the following:

Cucumber time in German is Saure-Gurken-Zeit and that in English is Big Gooseberry Season.

Sea Of Snow

This night the wind was blowing fiercely from the east, and the snow being pretty light over here, the adjacent fields, unprotected from the wind, look like the bottom of the sea. Almost like waves. Could not withhold to show it. The photo is the view from our backside, wide open and nobody close. The outside temperature is only -18, actually rather pleasant. Unfortunately I have to redo all my thrower tracks, they filled up overnight. Most of them that is.

Snow Thrower Tracks

To put our snow-thrower to good use, I have created a set of snowfree tracks on one half of our estate. The other half is still my nature reserve, as I like to call it. That way it is maintenance free for the now. I just criss-crossed our lawn with the snow-thrower and thus created some nice walking tracks, and the dogs use them; beats plowing thru the snow I guess. All in all it takes about 10-15 minutes to walk them fully. BTW we've got a new thrower, the first one had a difficult rotating blade. Exchanges her in Canada are as easy as one-two-three. "This blade is stuck" I said at the return-desk @ Canadian Tire Leduc. "Okay, you go get a new one, I will do the paperwork"; 5 minutes later we left with a bright and shiny new one, an upgraded and newer model too. I'm working on a upload to Youtube, regrettably it takes forever and has been aborted twice for no reason at all. The upload to Youtube failed, you have to do with the picture.

Happy New Year

 

May prosperity be with you in 2010,

personally and business-wise.

Happy New Year to all.

The Newyears Campfire