Geek_a_boo

It's been long enough since my last entry, so here's a big one:

2005-08-28T16:02:15Z

Stolen from saminz.

(1) Your gender: male
(2) Straight/gay/bi?: Straight
(3) Single?: No.
(4) Want to be?: Less fat.
(5) Your birthday: Apr. 05 1975
(6) Age you act: Depends on the company.
(7) Age you wish you were: 30
(8) Your height: 1.89m
(9) The color of your eyes: brown
(10) Happy with it?: yes
(11) The color of your hair: Brown
(12) Happy with it?: It could be a bit easier to tame in the mornings.
(13) Left/right/ambidextrous?: Right.
(14) Your living arrangement?: New flat in a suburb.
(27) Your family: Still alive: One wife, one father, one brother, one sister, one grandmother, one grandfather.
(29) What's your job: Geophysicist
(30) Piercings?: No
(32) Obsessions?: Gadgets, my wife, some might say food.
(35) Do you speak another language?: Yes
(36) Have a favorite quote?: There's a couple I like, but I'm not much of a quote user
(37) Do you have a webpage?: Yes, mainly online photo albums

DEEP THOUGHTS about life and you in it

(38) Do you live in the moment?: I'm still living AT the moment, if that's what you meant.
(39) Do you consider yourself tolerant of others?: Mostly tolerant. There are some things I have trouble with, like religion.
(40) Do you have any secrets?: Depends on from whom. From my wife? No. From you lot? One or two...
(41) Do you hate yourself?: No.
(42) Do you like your handwriting?: No. Haven't seen it in a while now.
(43) Do you have any bad habits?: Overeating, procrastinating, and I have a mess on my desk.
(44) What is the compliment you get most from people?: "You're a quick learner."
(45) If a movie was made about your life, what would it be called?: "Do we HAVE to do that now?"
(46) What's your biggest fear?: Theocracy
(47) Can you sing: No. At least not while observing the Geneva convention.
(48) Do you ever pretend to be someone else just to look cool?: No.
(49) Are you a loner?: Not really.
(51) If you were another person, would you be friends with you?: I have no idea, depends on who I'd be.
(52) Are you a daredevil: No.
(53) Is there anything you fear or hate about yourself?:My laziness might cause some trouble someday.
(54) Are you passive or aggressive?: Depends on the situation.
(55) Have you got a question for me?: Don't you have anything better to do than ask all these questions?
(56) What is your greatest strength and weakness?: Strength: I enjoy learning. Weakness: Laziness. Trouble keeping deadlines.
(57) If you could change one thing about yourself?: Find the energy to do more sports/lose a ton of weight.
(58) There are three wells, love, beauty and creativity, which one do you choose?: Love.
(59) How do you vent?: Either online, or during coffee break, or when I get home.
(60) Do you think you are emotionally strong?: Yes.
(61) Is there anything you regret doing/not doing in life?: I regret my time in the army, Should have got out earlier.
(62) Do you think life has been good so far?: Yes.
(63) What is the most important lesson you've learned from life?: Be careful who you talk to when you're drunk/stoned/tired.
(64) What do you like the most about your body?: Height, strength (yes, I consider myself naturally strong)
(65) And least?: Weight
(66) Do you think you are good looking?: I guess I could look ok, if I lost some weight.
(67) Are you confident?: Yes.
(68) What is the fictional character you're most like?: None I know of.
(69) Do people know how you feel?: Sometimes.
(70) Are you perceived wrongly?: Sometimes.

DO YOU...

(71) Smoke? No. At least not cigarettes, and I haven't had anything else for while now.
(72) Do drugs?: Occasionally, meaning once or twice a year. Used to be more often.
(73) Read the newspaper?: If I get a chance, yes.
(74) Pray?: No.
(75) Go to church? Not if I can avoid it.
(76) Talk to strangers who IM you?: Depends on my mood.
(77) Sleep with stuffed animals?: What are you calling my wife? (No.)
(78) Take walks in the rain?: Sure, if I have to go for a walk, then the weather really doesn't matter.
(79) Talk to people even though you hate them?: Yes, but passively.
(80) Drive?: If i have to. I prefer the train.
(81) Like to drive fast?: It can be fun, but I try not to.

HAVE YOU EVER...

(82) Liked your voice?: Yes, when I've got a cold, and it gets a bit deeper and rougher.
(83) Hurt yourself?: Who hasn't?
(84) Been out of the country?: Lot's of times.
(85) Eaten something that made other people sick?: Tadpoles? Stick of butter? Jar of spicy oil? Yep, bring it on.
(86) Burped?: Burp? Belch is more like it. But only if I'm not in the company of people who'd be disturbed by it.
(87) Been unfaithful?: No, never. Hope I never am.
(88) Been in love?: Yes, still am.
(89) Done drugs?: Yes.
(90) Gone skinny dipping?: Yes.
(92) Had a surgery?: No.
(93) Ran away from home?: No.
(94) Played strip poker?: Yes.
(95) Gotten beaten up?: Yes.
(97) Been picked on?: There was a year in school, right after we moved, where I was the 'new kid', but not that bad.
(98) Been on stage?: Yes.
(99) Been so drunk that you know you're supposed to go out on a date with someone, but you can't remember with who or when and that you faint when you look at yourself in the mirror in the morning, not to mention your breath?: I wouldn't describe it that way, but I've certainly had that level of blood alcohol, yes.
(100) Slept outdoors?: Yes.
(101) Thought about suicide?: Thought about it, yes. Read about it, yes. Wondered how it'd feel, yes. Seriously considered it? Not yet.
(102) Pulled an all-nighter?: Yes.
(103) If yes, what is your record?: 2 nights, almost three days.
(104) Gone one day without food?: Yes.
(105) Talked on the phone all night?: No.
(106) Slept together with the opposite sex without actually having sex?: Yes.
(107) Slept all day?: Yes.
(108) Killed someone?: No.
(109) Made out with a stranger?: Who's a stranger? One girl I knew only by name before that evening (she went to the same school).
(110) Had sex with a stranger?: No.
(111) Thought you're going crazy?: No. Everyone else seems to be losing it though.
(112) Kissed the same sex?: No.
(113) Done anything sexual with the same sex?: No.
(114) Been betrayed?: I hope not. I don't think so.
(115) Had a dream that came true?: No.
(116) Broken the law?: Several times.
(117) Met a famous person?: Smudo (Fanta 4), Omar Shariff, Tina Turner.
(118) Have you ever killed an animal by accident?: Yes, ran over a frog in my car. Squashed some bugs that I wanted to catch. Hit a bird with the car once.
(146) Stolen anything?: Yes.
(147) Been on radio/TV.?: Yes, both.
(148) Been in a mosh-pit?: Yes (I had to look that up).
(149) Had a nervous breakdown?: No.
(150) Considered religious vocation?: Definitely not.
(151) Been criticized about your sexual performance?: Only by myself :-P
(152) Bungee jumped?: No.
(153) Had a dream that kept coming back?: No. I rarely dream anything, or at least I don't remember it in the morning.

Beliefs

(166) Believe in life on other planets?: Yes.
(167) Miracles?: Define a miracle.
(168) Astrology?: No.
(169) Magic?: No. Illusions? Yes.
(170) God?: No
(171) Satan?: No.
(172) Santa?: No.
(173) Ghosts?: No.
(174) Luck?: Yes.
(175) Love at first sight?: Maybe, I've never experienced it though.
(176) Yin and Yang?: No.
(177) Witches?: Not like in the stories. Old women with knowledge of herbs and poisons? Sure.
(178) Easter bunny?: No.
(179) Believe it's possible to remain faithful forever?: Faithful to what? Your SO? Sure, make it to your death, and you're home free.
(180) Believe there's a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?: No.
(181) Do you wish on stars?: No.

LOVE, and all that

(182) Did you get frightened or uncomfortable seeing that as a section title?: No.
(183) Do you remember your first love?: Yes.
(184) Still love him/her?: No.
(185) Do you consider love a mistake?: No. It can be a nuisance, but it's worth it.
(186) What do you find romantic?: Glas of wine, looking at the stars, visiting a concert.
(187) Turn-on?: The smell of my wife, her quiet snore at night, other more obvious things.
(188) Turn-off?: Emotion jerking, some smells.
(189) Do you base your judgement on looks alone: No. Prejudice happens, but I try and ignore it.
(200) If someone you had no interest in dating expressed interest in dating you, how would you feel?: Flattered.
(201) Do you prefer knowing someone before dating them or going "blind"?: Doesn't matter.
(202) Have you ever wished it was more "socially acceptable" for a girl to ask a guy out?: Yes.
(203) Have you ever been romantically attracted to someone physically unattractive?: No. Maybe others considered them unattractive, I didn't.
(204) Do you think the opposite sex finds you good looking?: Not usually.
(205) What is best about the opposite sex?: They smell nice, feel good to cuddle up against, and there's nothing better to hold you and cheer you up when you're feeling bad.
(206) What is the worst thing about the opposite sex?: No appreciation for cool things (fires, snakes, dragons, explosions etc.) or for computer games involving the above mentioned things.
(207) What's the last present someone gave you?: My mp3 player from my wife and a couple of friends combined. Coolness!
(208) Are you in love?: Yes, most definitely.
(209) Do you consider your significant other hot?: Ooooooh yes! She can make me drool just by breathing.
(210) What would you do if you were walking down the street and saw some hot guy standing on the sidewalk?: Probably I wouldn't notice.

WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON...

(211) That haunted you?: Nobody.
(212) You wanted to kill?: The guy who blew a firecracker right next to my wife's head on New Years Eve 99/00.
(213) That you laughed at?: My wife, today.
(214) That laughed at you?: My wife, today.
(215) That turned you on?: My wife.
(216) You went shopping with?:Does MediaMarkt count? Dani.
(217) That broke your heart?: Nadia, 1995.
(218) To disappoint you?: Co-worker, by means of a really cheap rascist comment.
(220) To make you cry?: Another co-worker. Told me his life story. The guy has had a lot of bad luck. I cried that night when I thought about it.
(221) To brighten up your day?: My wife, this morning, when my sound card wouldn't work.
(222) That you thought about?: Well, I thought about my wife while I was writing that last comment.
(223) You saw a movie with?: Monika, Ursi, Dani.
(224) You talked to on the phone?: My Step-mom.
(225) You talked to through IM?: Arivia from UF (strangely enough. I've never talked to her before).
(226) You saw?: My wife.
(227) You lost?:My mother.
(229) You thought was completely insane?: Pat Robertson, the american TV preacher.
(230) You wanted to be?: Nobody really.
(231) You told off?: My wife, and she told me off in turn.
(232) You trusted?: My wife, completely. With my life if necessary.
(233) You turned down?: Dani. "Nah, don't really feel like pizza tonight, maybe another time."

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU

(234) Smiled?: Just a few seconds ago.
(235) Laughed?: Today, around lunchtime.
(236) Cried?: Few weeks ago.
(237) Bought something?: Yesterday.
(238) Danced?: June. At the greenfield festival.
(239) Were sarcastic?: Yesterday?
(240) Hugged someone?: About an hour ago, my wife.
(241) Talked to an ex?: Ages, probably back in 2001 or 2002.
(242) Watched your fave movie?: About two years.
(243) Had a nightmare?: Years, can't remember the last one.
(245) Talked on the phone?: Yesterday evening.
(246) Listened to the radio?: Friday morning (alarmclock plays the radio)
(247) Watched TV?: About an hour ago.
(248) Went out?: Last week.
(249) Helped someone?: Last week, helped our secretary set up her ADSL account.
(250) Were mean?: Friday.
(251) Sang?: Also june, Greenfield festival
(252) Saw a movie in a theater?: About a month, maybe two.
(253) Said "I love you"?: This morning.
(254) Missed someone?: Friday, at work.
(255) Fought with a family member?: Physically? Never. Otherwise? with my step-mom, years ago.
(256) Fought with a friend?: Last year, over a stupid decorative chistmas angel on the dinner table.
(257) Had a serious conversation?: Friday evening.
(258) Got drunk?: Friday evening.
(259) Had Sex?: Friday evening.
(300) Last Question,Who do you wanna marry?: I hope I'm not going to marry any more. I happy with the marriage I have right now.

Saminz really exists

2005-05-25T06:45:50Z

Up until now, I wasn't quite sure if saminz was an actual person, or just a phenomenon experienced in a certain swiss pub. But over the last five days, I have experienced the 'saminz' phenomenon three times, on all occasions outside of the hereto known 'saminz-zone', and in the presence of unbiased witnesses. As three datapoints is enough to allow statistics (at least for chemists it is), I now claim that 'saminz' is very likely a real live person, and a very nice person too.

Btw, we finally did find that shop we were looking for, and it's definitely worht a visit if you've never been there.

I have created the ultimate ninja

2005-05-13T18:50:04Z

I dare anyone to challenge the mighty ninja '---'

http://www.ninjaburger.com/fun/games/battleninja/ninja.pl?att=geek-a-boo&def=---&a=S

12-12-13 when defending.

Upcoming meet in Zürich, Switzerland

2005-04-22T10:57:11Z

It has been mentioned and discussed a few times lately, but I'll go ahead and post an official thread nonetheless:

So far, I think we have agreed on the location, Zürich.
The date should be either the 18th or 19th of May, because this seems to fit most of the potential participants so far.

I imagine we'll meet up somewhere, have a couple of drinks, look at the local sights, etc. The usual UFie meet routine.

Suggestions? Comments?

Looking for an awesome birthday present for my brother

2005-04-22T08:16:20Z

Ok, so he's 20 years old on May 9th. Quite geeky, but more of the online gaming kind (currently obsessed with World of Warcraft). Not so much of a mobile gadgets junky as I am. Very smart, sometimes almost too smart for his own good, but also fairly shy, not much of a party-goer.

Financial frame: 150sFr (which is what? 20000$US by now? No, seriously, more like 120$US/100€) +/- 30%

Please let me plagiarize your ideas and present them to my wife as my own inspiration, thus garnering eternal admiration for my resourcefulness. Please?

DSiMC - The LJ thread

2005-04-22T07:44:42Z

DSiMC is the official acronym for 'Dipping Stuff in Molten Cheese'.

We're having some freinds over tonight, for that all time swiss classic, cheese fondue. I quite like fondue, but because I've recently restarted reducing my carbohydrate intake, I'm looking for alternatives to bread. So far this is the dippable list I've come up with:

Broccoli
Cauliflower
Chicken (unmarinaded, lumps of roasted chicken breast)
Mushrooms

the 'maybe' list consists of:

Sausage (cervalat)
Bacon cubes
Lumps of non-molten cheese

If you have any further suggestions, "bring 'em on".

Dip-candidates should have rough or porous surfaces, in order to absorb and hold viscous fluids like molten cheese. Also, they should be firm but not brittle, to enable me to spear them with a fondue fork. Further, anything that releases strong flavours or colouring into the cheese is not very suitable. Finally, low sugar content is also advisable, so no bananas or pinapple lumps.

Wooo, way to go little brother of mine!

2005-04-21T05:16:10Z

My younger brother is currently doing his best to avoid his military term in switzerland. He's chosen the same route out of there as I did a couple years back, namely the 'psychologically not suited' trick. There's a number of psychologists who are known to come to that conclusion pretty quickly and reliably, so all it takes is a couple of sessions with one of those guys, whining about how much you hate the military, how hard your childhood was (yeah, sure), maybe even how you can't sleep because of anxiety about your military service etc.

So he had his first session a while back, and as usual (old school psychologist) he was first asked to draw a tree. Psychologists assume they can get a lot of information from how someone draws a tree, depending on things like including roots or not, leaves, details, summer/winter etc.

What did my dear brother draw? This, or at least something very similar. Pure Genius, thats even better than the dead log (in high detail) I sketched back then.

Something for the cat owners

2005-04-19T18:45:57Z

I guess every cat owner thinks his/her feline is the cutest there is. Even this one, this one and probably even this one.

New shiny plaything, shiny, shiny, geeky gadget, hahaha ... bounces off

2005-04-10T06:41:15Z

As I was suspecting, my dear wife had organized a late birthday surprise for me last night. I must admit she had me fooled for a while. Told me we were going to have dinner at a nice restaurant, just the two of us. We just had to 'quickly stop at $friends_place to pick up something' ("Aha, so that's where you've been hiding my present"). Sure, the door opens, friends are there, 'happy birthday balloon', decoration, table set etc. This evolved into a fabulous evening.

But they didn't leave it at that, I was the victim of yet another evil conspiracy. While receiving various gifts, my wife put on an Oscar-earning performance, handing me a gift wrapped CD of 'Schni-Schna-Schnappi', and something along the following lines: 'I know you wanted a nice new mp3 player, but with the moving and all, we just can't afford it at the moment. I hope you're not too disappointed.' She even managed to get tears in her eyes somehow, so I actually believed her.

A couple hours later, there's suddenly a mystery gift on the table. Of course, my new toy, exactly the one I wanted. Much laughter at my surprise occured.

All in all a very nice birthday surprise. Time well spent with people dear to me.

Oh, and besides the mp3 player, I also got a seriously nifty pocket grill.

Havink a leeetle prroblemski?

2005-04-08T06:40:25Z

Saw this yesterday on my way home. Railway station in Baden, AG, Switzerland to be precise. They're so proud of their pretty LCD screens showing the next departures.

Hmm, am I now employing a double standard myself?

2005-04-07T12:26:21Z

As most of you probably know, I have a strong dislike of the gun threads on the UF board. I feel distinctly unconfortable with people glorifying weapons in that way, and have also often commented in this direction.
Today however, i'm having quite a lot of fun with this thread, which is about aircraft identification and discussion, and has now turned mainly towards military aircraft, which I have always found fascinating.

But just now, the following thought entered my mind: These jets are also nothing more than weapons, designed for one purpose, to kill people. Are there maybe people on the board who feel as bad about this thread as I do about gun threads? Does consistency call for me to also not participate in this discussion? Do I even care? Should I?

After all, it's not like I own a F-16, and we're not discussing weapons capabilities of these machines, just areonautics, but still...

I just love this new MS add

2005-04-04T14:06:29Z

It's old news in switzerland that the Swiss Dept. of Foreign Affairs is doing adds for Microsoft, but now it seems they've also moved to Moscow. (Yes, I nicked this from The Register)

So is this fake, or just scary?

2005-04-04T09:15:31Z

Encountered while LJ-surfing clicky.

The further down you go, the weirder the stuff gets. This may be a sign of (slightly) improving sanity, or of waning humor, I can't decide.

My little brother is TEH K3WL!!!11oneone

2005-04-04T08:06:13Z

My dad and my little brother showed up this weekend, with advance B-day presents for little old me. Much happiness occured as I unwrapped one of these (60GB, USB 2.0, no additional powersupply needed). I must find him an equally nice present for his upcoming 20th next month.

EDIT: Oh, and it's got a blue LED, which obviously makes it even cooler, right? Thanks again 'Brüederherzli'.

What a suprise!

2005-04-03T14:23:06Z

The Atheist
The results are in! You scored 3%!

You generally do not believe in the existence of a higher power. Actually, you are pretty damn sure that there is no such thing. Religion has no place in your life, and you want it to stay this way !

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 3% on freaknuts

Link: The Religious Nut Test written by megascargot on Ok Cupid

Thanks to Chaotic Lady for the link to this one.

Ok, it's time to try out one of these thingies

2005-03-31T06:59:34Z

create your own visited countries map
or vertaling Duits Nederlands

Oh, and for those who wondered why I selected 'annoyed' as my current mood:

2005-03-29T14:42:42Z

Fact is, my wife and I moved flats over easter. This was necessary, because my darling spouse starts a new job on April 1st, and it's on the other side of the world (from a swiss point of view), namely in Uster ZH. Travelling to work would have taken her 80mins by train, and probably about an hour by car, which is just not feasible for a medical nurse (soon to be aenesthesic nurse) who has to be at work at 0640 every morning. So we moved, after having lived at the last place for just over a year. So far, everything is fine. However, when we moved a year ago, we fully expected to be staying there until we a) were both earning enough to afford a house somewhere, or b) had our first kid. So we had no qualms about signing a rental contract binding us to stay there for at least a year, in addition to the standard three months 'Kündigungsfrist' (Warning time before moving).
With these contracts in effect, we basically had to provide a suitable new tenant if we wanted to leave early. We've been having some trouble finding such a candidate on short notice, and by now we're into those three months, which enables the landlord to choose his own new tenants if he likes. This basically all standard procedure in swiss rental law affairs. So last week, we finally found a couple ready to move in on April 1st. Today, I informed the Landlord that we might have someone, and he in turn informed me that I could stop looking, as he's already given the apartement out to someone starting from June 1st. This means, we'll be paying double rent for two months. It's legally solid, nothing we can do about it, but I would have appreciated it if he'd informed us before, if only so I could have pulled the ads I've got running.

So? What this LJ thingy all about then?

2005-03-29T14:07:19Z

Hey, guess what. I finally got round to setting up my LiveJournal.

First, let me thank saminz for pestering me into taking the time for this.
According to several reliable reports, several people I know from the UF comment board are said to haunt this place, among them also the 'unmentionables' that have fallen from grace with the allmighty Illiad. If this proves to be true, I'd be most delighted to resume contact. Of course, anyone else is equally welcome.

So, that's all at the moment, I'm sure there'll be more once I've gathered some more LJ experience.

- Geek-a-boo (Control)