Month: January 2015

As if I didn't already have enough stuff to learn, that's when I hit yet another jackpot and discovered life's new elixir.

"By being immutable, Elixir also helps eliminate common cases where concurrent code has race conditions because two different entities are trying to change a data structure at the same time..."

And it doesn't stop there either. The deeper I delve into that morass the more there is to discover.

Good old erlang shows up around the corner, the phoenix arises from the ashes.

There's that cowboy living on the ranch that also tempts me.

You're never too old to learn new stuff.

The following book passage touched me so much and struck a deep chord within me that I decided to take the liberty to include it in my blog.

"Why an angel? Because I believe that, in time, that is what we become in sobriety, if we last long enough, to the end. Not the winged type, no. Not some haloed cupid or sword swinger but a kind of flawed angel, without wings, that belongs to no religion but rather to a species of human heartbreak unlike any other known.

Alcoholics and addicts are unlike any other people I've ever met. I am unlike most people. A blazing mutant of some kind. A wondrous freak. In my mind lurks an urge that will be with me to the end, to put a bottle to my lips and drink myself to death. A judge and jury that I wake up to each morning has pronounced a verdict of guilt on me for no crime that I have committed, just for being alive, and has sentenced me to death, not by guillotine or rope but by a single drink.

It is the strangest thing, this sentence of death, this disease I have which tests me to the max and each day holds my existence accountable to the very universe, a god no religion can know as we drunks know it.

A god of drunks who goes with us into our prisons and gutters, bedrooms and businesses, flophouses and alleys, hospitals and mansions, and patiently waits with hand on our shivering shoulders as we groan through yet one more night of near death, waits to see if maybe this time we've had pain enough, loss enough, enough hangover, illness, fear, to ask for help....

Because when death sits on your shoulder each day, whispering, urging you to your end, there is no time to lose, so much light to grasp for, struggle to embrace. We are struggling with light. And yet we are only human after all, so terribly flawed and foolish, selfish and ridiculous. Sobriety can be messy. At times, I have seemed to myself the most awful of persons. But even then I am ascending, even then I am going up the ladder of light with eyes wide open and hands outstretched, to clasp the next rung up. And I climb."

Taken from "Drunken Angel" by Alan Kaufman.

Decided to nuke my facebook account and get out of there before it was too late. Obliterated every last remnant of my mind and soul from that evil place. Hopefully, at least. The idea that they can freely abuse my personal information, chop up my DNA and redistribute it randomly, and then make money off of it behind my back is not only unfair but in my view unethical as well. The sad part is that so many poor souls out there still do not realize what they are getting into. Like giving candy to an unknowing and naive kid. Tracking my behavior, saving information about me and analyzing who I am is a repugnant thought. Maybe I am exaggerating and sounding overly emotional, getting slightly paranoid in my old age, but I feel much better now. What a relief, it feels as if I've been liberated just in the nick of time from some entangled web of doom. Good riddance facebook ...

Permanently delete your Facebook account in four easy steps.

"You should begin moving your app to Ember CLI as soon as possible," writes Tom Dale in The Road to Ember 2.0 RFC #15. My future famous Ember HAL Client has been migrated successfully, thanks.

Have you ever wondered how many methods Object has in Ruby? Well, here it is.

$ irb
>> Object.methods
=> [:allocate, :new, :superclass, :freeze, :===, :==, :<=>, :<, :<=, :>, :>=, :to_s, :inspect, :included_modules, :include?, :name, :ancestors, :instance_methods, :public_instance_methods, :protected_instance_methods, :private_instance_methods, :constants, :const_get, :const_set, :const_defined?, :const_missing, :class_variables, :remove_class_variable, :class_variable_get, :class_variable_set, :class_variable_defined?, :public_constant, :private_constant, :singleton_class?, :include, :prepend, :module_exec, :class_exec, :module_eval, :class_eval, :method_defined?, :public_method_defined?, :private_method_defined?, :protected_method_defined?, :public_class_method, :private_class_method, :autoload, :autoload?, :instance_method, :public_instance_method, :pretty_print_cycle, :pretty_print, :pretty_print_instance_variables, :pretty_print_inspect, :nil?, :=~, :!~, :eql?, :hash, :class, :singleton_class, :clone, :dup, :taint, :tainted?, :untaint, :untrust, :untrusted?, :trust, :frozen?, :methods, :singleton_methods, :protected_methods, :private_methods, :public_methods, :instance_variables, :instance_variable_get, :instance_variable_set, :instance_variable_defined?, :remove_instance_variable, :instance_of?, :kind_of?, :is_a?, :tap, :send, :public_send, :respond_to?, :extend, :display, :method, :public_method, :singleton_method, :define_singleton_method, :object_id, :to_enum, :enum_for, :pretty_inspect, :equal?, :!, :!=, :instance_eval, :instance_exec, :__send__, :__id__]

I don't know what we're afraid of
But I know, I don't mind
Oh no, I don't mind
If I fall in love to the sound of birds

Short movie - Laura marling

Also highly recommended: When Brave Bird Saved

Here is an interesting neuropsychiatric disorder which I think that everyone suffers to one degree or the other, some poor souls worse than others.

Bothersome sounds include: slurping, throat-clearing, people clipping their nails, brushing their teeth, chewing crushed ice, eating, drinking, breathing, sniffing, talking, sneezing, yawning, walking, chewing gum, laughing, snoring, typing on a keyboard, coughing, humming, whistling, singing, saying certain consonants, repetitive sounds ...

Not that I break out into a cold sweat, but getting pretty irritated about something so very trivial is something to be careful about.

Remember these guys? Planet Claire, Rock Lobster, Private Idaho, 6060-842, Dance This Mess Around, Lava ...

Driving around town and the countryside in my little red Datsun racing car I would crank up their music and feel great singing along. I don't want to go to the devil.

All in all fantastic numbers.

I was honored to witness their very first performance on Saturday Night Live way back on 26 January 1980, and have been hooked ever since.

Here are some More videos for your late night entertainment.

On the road again, looking around ...

Some call it bad luck, but for me fate is calling.

Nowadays at the gas station you cannot just fill up your tank and pay for it at the checkout counter without getting flooded with a barrage of questions and entreaties to purchase extra stuff, even though you don't feel like it and just want to get away.

"Do you have a discount card? Would you like to buy one? Would you like to take advantage of our special deal today two candy bars for the price of one? Do you collect stickers to buy gifts? Would you like the receipt? Thank you sir, and have a nice day!"

It's pretty predictable and I always answer the same, "No, no, no, no, no, you too have a good day." Until yesterday, when I answered, "No, no, no, no, see you later."

Wait a minute, what's happening? Something very fishy going on here. Rewinding through my recent memory and scanning the events of the last thirty seconds, my mental analysis pinpointed the anomaly.

I smiled and asked the young lady in a serious voice, "Aren't you going to ask me about the special deal today two candy bars for the price of one?

The poor person blushed and started to speak nervously, "I'm sorry, I forgot to ask you. Really, I'm very very sorry. Please take two for the price of one if you will. Please."

I was just joking but she took me very seriously, like I was going to get her fired. I was some kind of secret agent spying on her for her supervisor and I would report her misconduct immediately, yes I would.

I told her, "Don't worry, I'll try and keep my mouth shut and not tell your boss." Trying to look casual and relaxed, so she would realize there was no danger here at all.

When I left and drove away, I could see her through the glass still looking pretty flabbergasted with a flushed face. It was obvious that I had inadvertently ruined an otherwise pleasant evening. Sorry about that.

Prijzen en winnaars van 2014

Tijdens de nieuwjaarsreceptie zijn er diverse prijzen uitgereikt op basis van behaalde resultaten in 2014. 

Nogmaals van harte proficiat aan al deze winnaars! 

Golfster en Golfer van het jaar 2014
* De winnaars zijn Lotte Hoekstra en Kiffin Gish. Zij ontvingen volgens traditie een greenfee van Serge Ray.

Birdie klassement 2014 
* De winnaars zijn Annemiek de Langen en Kiffin Gish.

Hans Kruis Bokaal 2014 
* De grootste verlaging in handicap is gerealiseerd door Lotte Hoekstra.

Now researchers are claiming that more than half the cases of cancer are purely bad luck and have absolutely nothing to do with eating habits, lifestyle or heredity.

The majority of poor folks have absolutely no way of influencing this unfortunate outcome of nature playing with dice. You will be unlucky and just get it or you'll dodge it and follow your fate as it was intended.

To be honest, it's hard to believe one way or the other as scientific research which provided fashionable results a decade ago are replaced by more modern techniques of applied research and statistical mumbo jumbo.

Live one day at a time and you will reach your end just as quickly, or slowly for the others. The roll of nature's dice will be fairly unpredictable so just get on with life and happiness or else.