Moem's Journal
It's not Myspace...wait, it's not even LiveJournal.
Recent Entries 
readme.txt
Hi! You've found me. This is kind of an experimental / placeholder journal, since the way LiveJournal has been changing recently worries me.
You can find me there under the username m03m. That's m-zero-three-m.

Since I'm (for now) primarily an LJ user, these entries have been copied from there. Some have even been copied from MySpace first!
That causes some problems with linkage. And if there's something about site changes and other ongoing events that makes you go 'huh?' because it doesn't seem to make any sense, it's probably about LiveJournal, not Scribbld. I apologize for any confusion and other kinds of inconvenience.

Oh, and copying the entries from elsewhere means losing all comments, as well.
21st-Oct-2009 11:00 am - Why I don't mind that my sweetie never brings me flowers
foto
Look at what he got me yesterday... this gorgeous, vintage-as-anything, cute-as-can-be little electric heater from the '30s or '40s. He took a train for Amsterdam after work, just because I told him about this sweet little thingie I saw in a second hand store there last week... and didn't get. And it was still there.

Who needs flowers anyway? They're so overrated.


Click makes big
26th-Jul-2009 04:58 pm - Squee! New fishies
avatar met molen
I've bought a couple of blue rams for my one-metre community tank. The camera sees them as bluer than the human eye does, but I can assure you they're gorgeous in real life, too. Just not as blue.

blue rams
Click makes bigger
6th-May-2009 12:41 pm - A neat little trick not everyone may know about
avatar met molen
How do you try on a pair of pants if there's no fitting room?

Around your neck.

Seriously! In almost all grown ups, the size of the neck is half of the size of the waist. So you can simply close the button and see if you can wrap the waist band of the pants around your neck, and if you can't, you can be pretty sure they're too small. If it fits easily, with a little overlap, there's a good chance the pants will fit you (when worn the normal way, haha) as well.

It looks a little silly, but not nearly as silly as buying a pair of pants from the market or a charity shop and then coming home with them to find that you cannot get into them no matter how hard you try.

(I'm getting a bit of déja-lu here... have I posted this before?)
24th-Feb-2009 06:52 pm - Feel free to laugh
motor in wadi
...but I've just ordered a SheWee.
It's a plastic device that allows women to pee standing up, while keeping their pants mostly on. Yes, I guess you could call it a substitute penis. Only for one of its functions, though, obviously  :-)
I thought it would come in handy while travelling. Especially when out on a bike ride: there's always so much clothing you need to take off before you can get to the bare essence, so to speak.


Being Dutch, frugal and not inclined to buy the first thing that comes along, I did a little research and found several similar products, all with really silly names:
the P-Mate is not reuseable, the Whiz Freedom (also known as Whizaway) and the Freshette were fairly expensive especially with postage, and the GoGirl, while cheap at a modest 5 dollars, isn't even available outside the North-American continent. [insert really smart pun on 'continent' and 'incontinent' here]
The SheWee, however, could be mine for a mere £11  (about  €12  or $16) which seemed fair.
So that's the one I ordered.
I can't wait for my newly bought freedom to arrive so I can, pardon the pun, give it a go.
13th-Feb-2009 02:40 pm - Yay new tea mug
avatar met molen
I found another tea mug exactly like mine... after [info]gummihuhn  took the trouble of going to a very good Chinese shop in Amsterdam and was told they were sold out, and not going to get any new ones in stock! That may well have been true, as I couldn't find any in the wholesale store of the same chain, either. Why yes, I do have a card for the wholesale instant noodle soup store...
The one I found was in a shop in Nijmegen, where I went yesterday because of a BookCrossing meeting... always a good reason.

This mug is slightly darker, the characters stand out a bit less.. on the other hand, the glazing is thicker (which may well cause the other two differences, yes) which results in a lovely craquelé pattern.
Anyway, I'm happy.  Bcuz tea r srs bsniz.
Here it is.



click makes big
15th-Jan-2009 01:25 pm - It's odd, it's useless and it's cheap
kladderkatje
What's not to love?
The picture is obviously 'shopped (badly). But yes, the water does glow blue or red depending on the temperature. And it's fun. The only downside is that it makes me want to run the tap needlessly.

nonsense with leds

15th-Jan-2009 01:25 pm - It's odd, it's useless and it's cheap
kladderkatje
What's not to love?
The picture is obviously 'shopped (badly). But yes, the water does glow blue or red depending on the temperature. And it's fun. The only downside is that it makes me want to run the tap needlessly.

nonsense with leds
8th-Jan-2009 03:18 pm - It's freezing and this is the Netherlands...
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So what am I supposed to be doing, traditionally-speaking? Ice-skating, of course.
In the real world, though, it's been at least twenty years since I've been on the ice. I don't even have my old skates anymore. Not that they were any good... or maybe I wasn't.
However, my friend [info]konstanzerb  invited me to go skating with her tomorrow, and that sounds like fun. So I headed for the charity shop across the street to check out the stack of ice skates I remembered seeing there, about two weeks ago.
Oops! Not much left of that stack by now... after all, it's been freezing for a while. But I did find these:


Très vintage, aren't they? And I'm told that these should work better for me than my old skates. Those where the kind with a white leather boot attached, that never fit well and would give me blisters; also, the blades were short and the shoes high above the ice, which made them unstable. Suitable for ice dancing, if you knew how, but not for gliding along for longer distances.
Besides, I can wear these with my own hiking boots, which are nicely warm, waterproof and very comfortable.

I have no idea if I'll be able to ride these. I'm hoping my Dutchness will take over and tell me how.
If I live to tell the tale, I will be letting you know how it went soon!
26th-Dec-2008 01:30 pm - Writer's Block: A Bargain at Any Price
avatar met molen
[Error: unknown template 'qotd']That's a hard one, because I hardly ever buy something at the full price. Most of what I own was either bought second hand, bought on sale, or found on the sidewalk. I guess I'm just a cheapskate.

However, one of the best bargains, and one that I enjoy on a daily basis, is my current living space.

6th-Dec-2008 08:39 pm - On buying art
kladderkatje
I bought a painting today.
It was just one of several more or less silly things we bought today, but by far the most unexpected. I mean, buying a christmas tree can hardly be called unexpected this time of year. I buy a christmas tree every year but I think this is the first painting I ever bought.
One of the reasons why I bought it was that I wanted to support the charity shop that had it on sale, because they're Good People who allow us (a small group of local BookCrossing members) to haul away six or more boxes of books every two weeks, rather than to have them recycled. The shop has recently been renovated, because the roof beams were rotting away, which has obviously cost a lot of money. So I was looking for something to buy.
Another reason was that it cheered me up when I looked at it. It's sort of a Mirò or Kandinsky imitation, done by an amateur (or so I think), quite gaudy and full (in fact, a bit crowded) of decorative elements, and I really like the colours.

So here it is. Click the pic for a bigger version.

Herstellende dood

It has a title, too; the title is Herstellende Dood, which means Healing (or Recovering) Death. It's signed with the name Benno and the year '86.

The frame is hideous and badly damaged, but I think I really like the painting. I'm going to paint the frame black with a narrow silver stripe and then hang it above the couch.
Buying art can be fun, especially if it costs only 10 euros, all of which go to a good cause!

Oh, and [info]stoneshop  spent 2 euros on an electrical footwarmer. It's lovely.

2nd-Dec-2008 10:36 pm - Okay, call me shallow and materialistic...
avatar met molen
...which is how I feel when I read [info]aka_phoenix ' latest entry and then compare it to what I'm going to write about.
But still, here it is: [info]stoneshop just got me some stuff we bought off Marktplaats, and I'm insanely happy about it. Because it's all really neat.

First, there is this delightfully tacky fake open fire, made in England and called Magicoal:


The picture doesn't do it justice. It has moving fake flames above the fake burning logs. They look very nice and actually fairly realistic.

And then, from the same seller I bought another item:

kan

Pretty, aren't they? And not a chip or a crack to be found.
All of this cost just 25 euros (and it cost Stoneshop a couple of extra hours on the train to go and pick it up, but he said he didn't mind. I'm very glad he did it, though). What a lovely bargain.
It's strange that stuff can make me so happy. But it can. And it doesn't have to be expensive; in fact, knowing that it's not only makes me happier.
So I guess I am materialistic, but in a weird way!
29th-Oct-2008 01:13 pm - New geek toy coming up!
motor in wadi
As some of you know, I'll be travelling to New-Zealand in April, to be at the BookCrossing Convention 2009. Of course, it's silly and a waste to go to NZ for just a weekend, so I'll be going earlier so I can rent a motorbike there (yay!) and do some exploring. All very nice indeed.

I've been thinking about what to bring. Going without any kind of computer at all doesn't sound nice to me. I'm an internet junkie after all. I might want to e-mail or blog every now and then. But bringing my laptop... well, if it's packed well enough to be shock proof (as it needs to be while on the bike) it takes up a lot of space. Almost an entire pannier. Also, it's another thing to worry about; it could get stolen or damaged. And I wouldn't want to have it for just the Convention weekend, and leave it somewhere during the bike trip.

So I'd need something smaller if I wanted to bring anything at all. Okay, the new Eeepcs look like they could do the job; but I haven't got one and frankly, they're too close to my laptop and there would be functional overlap. They're... too much of a computer I guess.

So I thought about the Africa trip. I had a nice little e-mail device then: a HP 320 LX palmtop. It's still in working order, and it's a neat litle machine. No colour screen, but it's OK for text; runs on two penlight batteries, which is utterly practical.
Only trouble is, it was outdated when I got it almost ten years ago, and it's pretty much obsolete now. It's got a PCMCIA modem that allows it to dial in; but in NZ, where would it dial in to? It might be possible to get a normal network card or a WiFi card for it, but is it really worth the trouble?

However, the 320 has a sibling: the Jornada 720. It was almost available when I made the Africa trip (it came out a few months later), but would have been way too expensive for me to consider. Now I can buy one used, with all the accessories I'll need (and even some that I don't ) for a price below 100 euros.
It's still small: about the size of a book. it's still got that familiair rugged clam shell exterior. And it can still dial in (built-in modem, no less). But it's got a nice colour screen, more storage space (and it still takes CF cards like my old 320 does, which makes it really easy to get software on to it), a faster processor and new connectivity options.
And we're picking it up this evening. I can't wait.Go on, you know you want to see them. )
19th-Sep-2008 01:49 pm - Had a good hunt today
motor in wadi
...or, in LOLcatspeak: Yes I can has discount!

I like luxury foodstuffs. Luxury prices, not so much. Luckily many of our supermarkets will put discount stickers on food that needs to be sold today or tomorrow. So I like hunting for those stickers when I go shopping for food.
Today was a good hunting day: everything I bought had one of those lovely stickers! Yay!
(Okay, so I did buy some of this stuff *because* it had the sticker.)

They make everything taste 35% better.


discount!

Click makes big.

 

30th-Aug-2008 11:02 pm - The stainless steel cow had run out of milk
motor in wadi
...but otherwise we had a splendid afternoon.
We needed a few important things (like a new battery for one of [info]stoneshop 's bikes) so we headed out to Germany today. It was a wonderful summer day; we took the Hondas.
Useful shopping and a wonderful ride with my sweetie all at the same time; does life get any better? I'm not sure I care if it does.

We mainly took the small roads and the dike roads that we both love so well. There were some cyclists but not too many. The twists and turns in the road took us exactly where we wanted to go, as if they knew. The river shone bright blue and the cows and sheep all seemed to smile.

Except for one: the stainless steel cow. The slot machine that you can buy fresh, raw, cooled milk from. But not today, because there was none left when we got there. Oh well... we had such a nice day that I don't even care.

click for full size

27th-Jul-2008 10:27 pm - Okay, so here's a bit about the jacket I bought
motor in wadi
It's the most expensive article of clothing that I ever bought. And I would never have considered buying it at the original price. Not because it's too expensive, but because it's too much money. (Not the same thing at all!)
But [info]stoneshop had been singing the praises of this particular type of motorcycle jacket, in the most powerful way possible: by demonstrating how comfortable they are, how he never gets too hot, too cold or wet wearing them, and how they last him 200.000 kilometres.
(The durability of motorcycle gear is best measured in distance.)
Furthermore, there was some money coming in.
And to top it off I found one on the internets that was 50% off. So I decided we'd at least go and look at it in the shop, and try it on. I could always decide it didn't fit or that I didn't like it all that much after all. Or that I'd try and find a used one, now that I knew the right size.

So we went to the BMW store, as yes, this is BMW gear. We parked our scruffy looking Honda dirt bikes out in front.
The store looks very shiny, lots of glass, everything looks immaculately clean. You could eat your lunch off any of the bikes in the shop. There was nothing in there that I found desirable at all.
Except for the jacket.



Savanna 2 suits being presented on a fair

It's red. That was one of the reasons I wanted it: none of that drab all-black gear for me.
It's nifty all over. It's full of zippers that allow you to cool off when it's warm. This is the kind of jacket that you can actually wear all year round because it's got all those nifty features. And it's really well made.

To say that it felt comfortable would have been an understatement.
It felt like a second skin. No, heavier. It felt like home. It felt like 200.000 kilometres of lovely roads. It felt like it had my name on it.
And the price was, at 50% off... acceptable.

But there was another issue. Jackets in this series are not waterproof by themselves, they need a Gore tex liner. And the liner is not included in the price of the jacket.
In fact it turned out to cost almost as much as the jacket itself.
So, the deal was off.

Of course, I went back two days later and bought it anyway. Plus the liner.

And now there's a pair of gently used Savanna 2 trousers up on E-bay. Grey (the same kind of grey that the jacket has) with small patches of blue! Wouldn't that look wonderful with the red jacket, on my red-white-and-blue bike?
Keep your fingers crossed for me!
15th-Jul-2008 10:58 am - My latest T-shirt
kladderkatje
This one just arrived from Vistaprint.
I was wondering how their prints would look on black shirts, the answer is: not great. It's not a big deal because the shirt was cheap (one of those 'try one free' deals, where you have to pay for postage and handling and end up paying a reasonably low price, which does not equal 'free', but still equals 'reasonably low') but it's not something I would gladly have paid more for.
Still, I'm wearing it today.
The toothless tiger (nothing a bit of correction fluid couldn't fix) is one of their standard designs; the text was found in many places on the internets and goes: 'I can only please so many people a day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow doesn't look good, either.'



In other news: I'm recovering from a bad cold and will finally be able to start my latest project tomorrow, if the weather permits. I hope it will.
4th-Jun-2008 10:26 pm - Found it! ...and now what?
avatar met molen
I found one.

Some of you may remember this entry about my Goblin Teasmade. (The rest of you may just smile and nod and pretend they do.)
It's a teawaker, a wonderfully British contraption that came forth from the unholy union of a teapot, a kettle, an alarm clock and a bedside lamp.
Here's a pic of mine. Click makes big.

teasmade

Now here's the thing: the teapot is badly cracked. In fact so badly that it leaks. So I went looking for a replacement teapot.
But where would I find one? Ah, on E-bay of course!
Since I myself do not E-bay, [info]gummihuhn did me an enormous favour by bidding on this one for me, and winning the auction for ten pounds fifty.
*insert happy dance here*
So I found one! Now, how do I get it here, in the Netherlands?
Of course, I can ask the seller to send it by mail, and if I can't think of anything else that is what I'll end up doing. But honestly I'm a bit afraid it will break on the way and I'll end up with two leaky teapots.
So I'm using my network (yes, you!) to see if there's anyone around who can lend a hand.

I'm thinking of coming over to the UK next september. It would be great if someone could collect it for me in Bournemouth, Dorset. I can pay for it by PayPal, so no money would have to change hands. Just my precious teapot.

I'm just throwing this out there, to see if anything will come up. LJ is a big world. You never know.

teapot
My present teapot. Click makes big. Yes, it is badly cracked.
1st-May-2008 12:03 am - Queen's Day in Arnhem
avatar met molen
Today was Queen's Day. If we have a national holiday, this is it: it's a celebration of our Queen's birthday, only it's not her birthday, because that's in February and we'd have awful weather. So we celebrate it on her mother's birthday instead.
29th-Mar-2008 06:37 pm - T-shirt design
kladderkatje
Stoneshop and I just went into town to order some nice T-shirts. After all, spring is upon us, and T-shirt weather will soon be here.
We went to a nice little shop that has opened recently and is run by a young couple. We'd been there before, for a different reason: I spotted a sewing machine through the shop window, that was identical to one I wanted to get rid of (even though there probably isn't anything wrong with it, we're just not getting along), and I went inside to ask whether they'd like mine for parts or as a spare. The girl said they'd like that very much.
So today we brought them the machine, and ordered shirts for [info]stoneshop  , [info]gummihuhn  and me, with a design based on a book cover.
Click to see it. )
Neat, huh. The bike in the picture looks a lot like my old Jawa, and the guy in the shop thought the man riding it was Stoneshop. But in fact I found the picture on an old cloth-bound book, printed in red on black. The book is called 'Een Vuist Tegen De Hemel' ('A Fist Against Heaven') and appears to tell the story of a rebel who's up to no good and destined for a miserable ending.
I might even read it.

We had to get the shirts ourselves because they didn't have any in stock, but that wasn't a problem. They quoted us a very nice price for printing the three shirts, I think we got a Free Sewing Machine discount.
Sometimes, it's more fun to buy stuff in the Real World instead of online.
And I'm glad my sewing machine found a loving home.
15th-Mar-2008 12:26 am - Don't you get fresh with me!
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I know... water is supposed to be fresh. But is it supposed to be as smart-assy as this?
(Spotted in a, you guessed it... supermarket.)
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