Cogs can think.

Yesterday, my parents and I were back at the AVL cancer hospital.

I’m not going to say much about it, but there is this one thing.

Does anyone else find it unnervingly funny that dozens of people are frantically smoking cigarettes in front of the cancer hospital’s entrances?

PowerBook:~ thomholwerda$ sudo lsof | grep ExplainingBBLeadership.pdf
Password:
Finder 94 thomholwerda txt REG 14,2 82162 2482912 /Users/thomholwerda/.Trash/ExplainingBBLeadership.pdf

What I dont understand is why the goddamn “File in use” error dialog doesn’t tell me WHAT process is using it.

“The world’s most advanced operating system” MY ASS.

I think my 6-7 year-old x86 finally kicked the bucket. A few years ago, I was able to extend his life thanks to the ide=nodma boot parameter, which somehow allowed the faulty IDE controller to still install Linux, albeit grudgingly. Windows never complained, it just ran and chugged along fine.

Until a few days ago. I started getting blue screens (page faults in non-paged area, to be precise) completely at random, not linked to any specific action or application. I didn’t add any new drivers or applications to the system - in fact, I am very strict about what goes and doesn’t go on my Windows installations. I install a selective set of applications, applications I’ve been using for ages, that I require for OSNews, but mostly for Focus Shift; my scanner only works properly on Windows, and Paint.NET only runs on Windows reliably.

I did a thorough RAM check (I let it run 23 times), but it didn’t find anything. The drive in the machine is brand new. Those are the two key elements that can cause page faults in the non-paged area. Just to be certain, I’m running memtest86 right now. My guess, however, is that the IDE controller finally decided to end it FOR REALSIES this time, seeing the ide=nodma trick doesn’t work anymore either.

So, I’m kind of in trouble now. I already lost an OSNews story and a Focus Shift comic to the page fault errors, and I’m not keen on continuing to run through this minefield. I guess this means postponing Focus Shift (again) for a while until I come up with a solution.

I love that machine like a member of the family, for god’s sake. I have spent an insane amount of money on the thing in total, and I hate to see it go down like this.

And it’s been like this all week. I hug global warming!

You’d think that, at one point, someone has gone through enough crap. That at some point, nature or god or luck or whatever says, hey, look, let’s give these people a break for a while. Let’s, like, not fcuk them for THREE DAYS.

Well, turns out that’s not the case.

Millions of brainless gutter sluts get breast implants every day, without a single complication, without a single problem. Yet, the one person that actually kind of really needs those implants gets screwed over. My mother’s left breast implant got infected. During emergency surgery, it was removed, and it was concluded that the infection was too strong to put anything else back in. This effectively means we’re back to square one.

They say that what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger. In that case, my mom must be made of diamond right about now. SUCK ON THAT, DE BEERS.

Would the following qualify as a religious experience?

Right, so there we all were. Marco, Martin, Robbert, Gemma, Robin, Thei, Levi, and I. Onno and Annemarie had left a few minutes earlier. We just had a barbecue on a roof terrace in the middle of Amsterdam - the weather is 20+, lots of sun, really nice. The table had mostly been cleared, except for a large bucket of potato salad, which was just screaming at me THROW ME INTO SOMEONE’S FACE.

Naturally, I felt obliged.

So, what do I get from you guys if I smack a spoonful of this stuff into Levi’s face? I ask. Marco takes out his wallet, and pulls out a twenty Euro note. I act quickly. Let’s split the profits, I say to Levi, and the spoonful of potato salad comes hurling towards his face.

Marco hands me the twenty Euro note, Levi hands me ten, and I hand Levi the twenty Euro note. Easy profit, or what? I tuck the ten Euro note away in my empty wallet.

Fast forward a few hours later, about 00:30. I’m in my car, about to turn onto the A10, when I notice I need to go to the petrol station to fill her up. A petrol symbol appears on my satnav, so I take the exit, and I put 15 Euros’ worth of petrol in my car (about 10 litre). I think to myself, that should be enough for the week, I’ve got no plans whatsoever.

I’m in the little shop, grabbing a bag of liquorice, when I flip open my wallet, and feel the rug being pulled from underneath me. The little slot that carries my bank card is empty. I realise, god fcuking damnit shit ass bitch ho, I left my bank card in another pair of jeans, because I needed to quickly pay for something while at work yesterday, and didn’t want to carry my entire wallet through the shop. My bank card was still at home, 60km away. That’s what you get for failing to check for your important stuff before leaving, just for one time. You know, IT’S NOT A COMPULSION WHEN IT’S NECESSARY.

And that’s when I realised I had the ten Euro note. Thank you potato salad.

But that still wasn’t enough. The guy behind the counter doesn’t really know what to do about it, and nor do I. That usual gutty type of panic comes crawling through my intestines right about now. Then I noticed someone else who wanted to pay for his petrol. I let him pay first, since I was still busy trying to find the reset button ON REALITY.

I had no alternative. Sir, may I ask you for a small favour? The guy, middle-eastern, I think, smiles - he noticed my fumbling around and had already realised what was going on. He took five Euros out of his wallet, and gave them to me. Thank you so very much sir, you’re a hero. Thank you ever so much. My hero leaves the shop.

So, it’s either god, or potato salad is sentient. Your call.