Another One

Kickapoo?

20 Sep 2009 22:39:28 +2

So apparently there's an Native American tribe named Kickapoo. According to Wikipedia, the real name of the tribe is "Giiwigaabaw" which is pronounced more like "Kiwikapawa", and that\'s where the word Kickapoo comes from. I pity them. The name Kickapoo is obviously an insult the settlers made up a few hundred years ago, and you'd think they would be called Kiwikapawa by now...

Jonathan Coulton

20 Jul 2008 21:50:54 +2

There's this awesome singer/songwriter online. His name is, obviously, Jonathan Coulton, and he's great. Funny. He's got most of his songs free for listening on his own website jonathancoulton.com and some are free for download as well. My absolute favourites are, in a particular order:

1. Re: Your Brains
2. Code Monkey
3. Skullcrusher Mountain
4. I Feel Fantastic
5. Ikea
6. You Ruined Everything
7. That Spells DNA
8. Drive

All above can be found on his website. One of his creations though, "Still Alive" is not there, probably because he's not singing it himself. It's sung by Ellen McLain, and it's in the end credits of the game Portals. To put it on the above list, just give it position 0.5 because it's even better than Re: Your Brains.

Since I've been listening to these songs non-stop for two days I thought I'd share them with you. Now go listen! ^^

Successful demonstration

29 Jun 2008 13:04:17 +2

On June 28th 2008 (yesterday) we had a demonstration in Gothenburg with more than 1,200 people protesting against the FRA law.

Without too much detail I want to let you know that the demonstration would not have been even close to what it was, if it weren't for Roze's organising. He's my personal hero right now.

Here's for those of you who weren't there, but still want to see what happened:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4_Q5sZpfXY
Video, 6:24, showing all the people on the move.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGglXTDyNUA
Video, 6:51, the speech of Max Andersson (Swedish).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lHos9waVQU
Video, 4:05, the speech of Josefine Malmgren (Swedish).

Political activist

24 Jun 2008 23:19:55 +2

I think most of you know by now that I am strongly against the recently accepted surveillance bill, called by the regular people the "FRA law", FRA in short.

The bill - which is explained in English by The Local at http://www.thelocal.se/12370/ - is about monitoring every phone call, every email, every chat, every digital traffic passing the borders of Sweden. Due to technical reasons, pretty much all national traffic passes the borders, which means that everything will be monitored. And again, due to technical reasons, even traffic that has nothing to do with Sweden will quite often pass our borders and thus be monitored by our government.

I've been making flyers and me, my boyfriend and 10-15 people he's been able to get together have been putting these flyers on poles and walls in public places, daily ever since Friday. Trying to spread the word and make people realise this is actually happening and it's bad.

I had the most wonderful encounter today. As I left work I met up with my boyfriend and another friend, and we were about to walk from the tram to get our flyers onto poles in a new area. This random woman suddenly approached me and handed me my own flyer. We had our material hidden in bags at the time so she had no idea who we were, and the shock of seeing my own flyer in someone else's hand reaching for mine just made me say "thank you" and walk on. As she handed a flyer to my boyfriend he said with a smile "thank you, but we're handing those out as well", and then reality struck me and I explained to her that I was actually the one making the original PDF of what she's got in her hands.

It was an amazing encounter, and for half an hour we discussed the politics behind it all and it felt.. almost religious. Not quite like meeting Jesus (or Buddha or whatever name) himself, but at least like meeting another apostle. I was so happy to finally meet someone else actually doing something rather than just talking about it. When we explained to her of all that we've done this far she told us how much more ambitious she felt, and how she's going to keep on fighting much harder and much longer because of the inspiration we gave her. I admitted to her that seeing someone else being active was also an inspiration, or motivation, to me - especially the fact that she was twice our age and the first person over 30 I've actually seen give a damn about it. I regained some lost hope because of this meeting. It's not over yet. It's not too late. People do care.

We did reach a few frightening conclusions though.
1. None of us have a TV at home.
2. Everyone we've seen active is unemployed, besides me.

The conspiracy theories would say that making people work so many hours a day that all they want to do when they get home is watch TV is the most effective way of keeping the people away from their constitutional rights. It makes them not care. They'll let the government do almost any kind of stupid shit, as long as their TV shows still run. It makes me upset, angry, afraid and sad.

We exchanged phone numbers with this woman, and we told her to be at the big square tomorrow evening wearing black clothes and bringing a candle. Tomorrow evening at 9:21 PM it's been a week since they accepted the bill, and we're going to mourn the death of democracy, the death of integrity, the death of freedom of speech...

And four hours a day of spare time to spend on political activism is way too short. I've got no time at all to do all the things I need to do. What everyone needs to do. Why isn't anyone else doing anything at all?

Him

10 Jun 2008 07:33:30 +2

We met online.

He's technically interested and has a lot to teach me.

He's got a strong sense of what's right and wrong.

He has a habit of pointing out grammar and spelling mistakes, and doesn't mind anyone correcting him back.

He has a way of making me happy, making me laugh.

He knows about my silly childish side and he finds it cute.

We both trust in the other one to be there in times of trouble.

His mere existence inspires my creativity like no other.

He likes licorice, and really enjoys to cook.

He doesn't smoke.

Coke and mentos update

24 May 2008 22:38:34 +2

Sorry to say the sun disappeared and we didn't feel as enthusiastic about going outside anymore. Didn't continue our experiments today, but it might still happen another day since we've got the stuff just lying around now anyway. We'll just see about that I guess.

Coke and mentos

24 May 2008 16:05:24 +2

We've been experimenting today with different kinds of diet cokes (anything including the ingredients caffeine and aspartame) and different kinds of mentos mint chewies. This far all our experiments have been disappointing, probably because the third ingredient you'll find in American Diet Coke, E212, is unavailable to us because EU decided it's a health risk.

We're still not finished though. Experimenting with vitamin fizzies and water as well. We forgot to film the first three experiments, but since they were slightly disappointing anyway you didn't miss out on much. I'll bring the camera for this fourth experiment, and maybe I'll have silly things to show you later on.

To see professional Diet Coke and Mentos Mint experiments, go to Eepybird.com - they're awesome.

Bot protection

20 May 2008 22:19:16 +2

Scroll down. No, really, scroll down. See anything missing? No? If I mention the word spider, ring a bell?

Yes, that's right. I have now changed the bot protection system to no longer be visible to regular people. We'll see if it works out.

I think a bot found my email subscription. Or someone just filled it in manually with mumbo jumbo. I can't do much about people manually filling in crap, but at least bots won't be able to come through now. Unless they're really really clever, but I'm hoping they're not.

Thanks for the tips, Jason ^^

Email subscriptions active

18 May 2008 20:25:56 +2

I have implemented yet another feature to Another One. Email subscriptions! If you go to the front page you'll be able to fill in your name and an email of your choice, and whenever there's a new post you will receive an automated message with the new post's title and direct link.

This means you can keep track of this blog both by RSS and through emails. Try to find a good reason not to read now, bwahaha. **imghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v369/zachriel/da/nillemotes/evillaugh.gif**alt*evillaugh***end

There's currently no automatic function to remove yourself from the email subscription, but I'm only an email away and I can manually remove anything from the database.

Four weeks

10 May 2008 09:16:26 +2

It's been a month since my first day at the new job. What can I say? I love it still. The job consists of routine tasks where I do the same thing over and over again - as well as exciting new tasks where I am to do things I've never done before. Strange as I am, I enjoy both parts of that. So what do I get to do?

First thing in the morning I check the order list to see if there are any new orders since yesterday. If there are any (most likely there are) I forward the orders to the corresponding warehouse or pack the items myself. See, the company keeps their products in three different places; a warehouse in England, a warehouse in Germany, and a few items at our office. I also check my e-mail regularly, where I find messages from customers, co-workers and occasionally even magazines wanting to feature our products. During the day I also pick up all Swedish phone calls (got two co-workers picking up every UK phone call) mostly from customers.

Now, when I get some time over from doing the main tasks above, I do all kinds of different things. Sometimes I photograph new products using really neat photography toys like an expensive camera, two huge lamps, and a light box. Sometimes I spend the time trying to make a proper inventory of what we have in stock at the office, since the only inventory they had before I got there was inside the heads of the two ladies. Sometimes I re-pack returns to make sure they're good enough to be re-sold.

But most of the time I try to take care of the website I have been given. They have at least 10 web shops, and one of them has been given to me to take care of. There are so many coding errors in it that I really do have things to do. But besides upgrading the code, I also have to update the site with new products. New products means downloading huge source photos and editing them to be of proper sizes for use on a website. Hopefully I'll get to rewrite the entire website some day, but it's going to take quite some time to do it and they seem to have other plans for me. I'm not sure they realized what a code freak I am when they hired me.

The best part of the job is by far how everyone at the office has made me feel like an important part of the team. It feels like they've been wanting someone at my position for a really long time. Like I was the missing piece of the puzzle. And they're all so friendly. I thought of me to be shy, but I have no difficulties talking to these people.

One month done and two months to go, according to the current contract. I really hope the contract will be extended.

Spring Fever

19 Apr 2008 09:31:20 +2

Being ill is no fun. On Wednesday my throat was hurting. On Thursday my throat was still hurting, and my nose was running. Thursday evening I went to bed three hours earlier than usual, because I was tired (and I was hoping that the extra rest would cure me), but it didn't work. I was sweating all night even though the window was open and I should've been cold.

Friday morning I woke up early to have a shower and breakfast, to see if I was feeling better, but I realized that I was probably having a fever and called the office to let them know I couldn't make it in. I spent an hour after the phone call on the couch, playing a few video games and watching an episode of Deathnote. Then I went back to bed because I was too tired, and I spent the rest of the day there sleeping most of the time. It was really a boring day.

As I woke up this morning I thought I was feeling better, because I wasn't sweaty and my nose was behaving. But no, I've been up for an hour now and I definitely have a fever. Dammit.

Three-legged cat

17 Apr 2008 18:39:37 +2

Yes, that's right. There's a three-legged cat living nearby, and it's one of the most friendly cats I've ever met outside. I've met it twice now and all you have to do is crouch and call for it and it'll basically come running (or, skipping). I don't know what's up with the missing front leg, but the cat doesn't seem to be in pain so it was probably removed by a veterinarian. I was thrilled first time I met it and I've been looking for it ever since. When I found it in the same place today (weeks later) I was even more thrilled. It's beautifully pitch black, shimmering like silk.

The NY Resolution

14 Apr 2008 19:40:09 +2

So, I have a new years resolution. It has been in power since January 1st already, just figured I'd write the details somewhere.

I am not allowed to buy sweets or snacks or ice cream or cookies or soda or anything I feel is considered "unnecessary sweets". There is one exception, and that is in case of bad weather.

The reason why I can't buy sweets in the first place is not because of a weight problem (on the contrary, I belong to the group of people in need of gaining weight), but rather an economical issue. I spent way too much money on buying sweets almost daily, which affected my mental health in several ways. First off I had a constant high level of sugar in my body (or so I assume) which resulted in me being tired most of the time, and definitely gloomy. Second, it resulted in not enough money to buy proper food or anything at all, and if you can't even afford to put food on the table it's really difficult to not be worried.

Too much sugar = gloomy.
Not enough money = even more gloomy.
Increased levels of female hormones = catastrophe.

So, now to the reason why I can buy unnecessary sweets in case of bad weather. You see, if you notice a pattern of how the gloominess sometimes go worse than normal, it's logical that you try to do something about that. I noticed me being 100% gloomy during rain, or otherwise dark days. And since sugar makes your body produce.. things.. to make you feel good, I figured it would be a good way to tell my body to feel good during rain rather than the opposite. So when it's raining I get to feel good because of the mere fact that I can allow myself to buy something tasty, and I also feel good when the tastiness enters my system.

Now, since I never know when it'll rain next time, and I never know when I'll get to stock up on sweets, I am very careful of how much I eat during the bad days. Most often I end up buying more than I eat up. Back in the good ol' days I would've eaten what's at home now within an evening, probably within an hour or two, but now that I don't know when I'll get to stock up I avoid eating anything unless I really feel the need to cheer up.

This has been a few successful months. I buy much more vegetables now that I can afford it (the money I would've spent on sweets is now being spent on vegetables). I know that I feel much better now than I used to, most likely because I don't eat as much bad stuff anymore and much more of the good stuff. It's amazing to see such a result. And there are still three quarters of the year left!

Does anyone else have an interesting story to tell about a new years resolution? A successful or failed year? Either send me an e-mail at anotheroneblog at gmail dot com, or make a comment on this post.

No music

28 Mar 2008 22:21:02 +2

I've been banging my head into a wall for an entire evening, trying to create PHP functions in order to make my coding easier. Yes, it sounds rather silly, doesn't it. Trying to learn something advanced to make something simple even easier. Some of the functions are working, so well that you won't even notice any difference from before. Other functions just won't do what I want them to do, and that's where the headbanging comes in.

So I figured I'd do something else to relax, before trying again. First I just laid down on the bed trying to shut off all thoughts. Didn't work. Realised there's a pile of dishes waiting for me, so I remembered that with half an hour of good music and a set of dishes I usually feel a lot better.

Now to figure out how to get music into the kitchen. I usually turn the music on really loud on my computer in the living room, but since Roze is at home (he really doesn't like my taste in music) and has a friend here too, I can't do that at the moment.

How about just taking the laptop into the kitchen and playing a CD? Nope, won't work. Grub error 21, can't boot the computer.

How about putting a set of speakers into the server under the kitchen table? Nope, won't work. It's a server, there is no media software installed in it, and even if there was something, there is no support for audio at all anyway.

How about just using a simple mp3 player? Nope, won't work, it broke down a few months ago.

How about.. hm.. oh, right! Now that you finally, after 4-5 years, have all your stuff where you are (instead of at your mother's place), how about finding an old portable CD-player? Sure, I can do that. Then how about finding a set of headphones? Yup, I know where they are. And how about finding batteries? Batteries.. Good ol' AA batteries. Y'know those big ol' heavy batteries you used to have tons of before all your devices needed AAA instead. Remember those? Think you can find any?

No. And I'm all out of ideas. There will be no music in the kitchen, and therefore no dishes will be taken care of, and there will be no smiling Nilli for probably the rest of the evening. Stupid #%!@& PHP. Hmpf.

Code logic

28 Mar 2008 09:27:01 +2

I display journals and comments on lots of pages as it is now, and right now I'm trying to figure out if I can make functions out of the code to keep it in one place, instead of changing a minor detail in 300 places every time it is needed.

So changes are being done, you just won't see any as I'm working with txt files and brain waves.

Btw, site is finally back available to the big crowd again. Our modem was dead, and a technician was here 10 minutes ago switching to a new modem.

Few updates

26 Mar 2008 16:28:45 +2

Sorry about the few updates lately, but I've reached a point where the things I want to do have become complicated and there is a lot to learn. There will be some updating today, hopefully, going to see if I can create accounts and log-in sessions.

My current ideas for accounts are:
1. No more bot protection system, so posting journals and comments will be a lot quicker and easier.
2. Ability to post and view secret journals.
3. Eventually a system for personal messages (PM) between accounts.

That's about it, really. And different account privileges, so that accounts can post journals, comments, edit and delete stuff, all depending on their privileges. Some accounts might be read-only.

This all might seem a bit ambitious, but you never know when it'll come in handy.

Oh, and we have some connection issues right now, so you probably won't be able to read this until Friday. The modem is dead, so we're using the cell phone as a modem and for some reason it won't accept requests from the outside. I can only access this page when I'm at home and in the local network, and last time I checked, you weren't in our local network.