Righteous Driver

Having spent the better part of this weekend driving, I was once again confronted by a highway vigilante. These are the dumb f*cks who think it's their job to enforce speed limits on the road by doing stupid and dangerous sh*t, like hopping on the brakes and making unpredictable moves. Too bad I was driving, I should have taken a picture of that ass, who almost got four of us into a nasty accident. I was following a van on a highway somewhere in France, at a decent pace, when we came up to two other cars: an Audi A3 with German license plates (SLS something or other) and a slower vehicle. The A3 was overtaking the slower car when the van, obviously much faster, arrived from behind. Before pulling over to the slow lane, the German found it appropriate to express his outrage by stepping on the brake pedal. Lucky that the driver of the van was unphased by this unexpected little manoever, othrewise it could have killed all of us. Would that have been worth getting his point across?

When you drive, keep it neutral. If you see something you don't like, pull over and call the police or something, but don't put the lives of others in danger just because you think you're right, man.

Mad as sh*t

May God strike down upon Coditel SA (my ISP) with great vengance and furious anger and kill them with death and other nasty things. These motherf*ckers are supposed to provide me with broadband internet access, what I get is 15Kbps since last Friday. It's virtually non-existant. I phoned their "technical assistance" team two days ago. It took three separate calls for them to make the effort to check whether something was wrong on their end. They had me make modifications to my start-up procedure in msconfig twice, told me to turn off any P2P app I had running (I only use one, Skype, which made it seriously doubtful that this would be the cause). It's only after having spent 3 hours calling them back repeatedly (about 10 EUR in phone-charges), that they admitted that it was due to their mistake and promised to rectify the problem within 48 hours. Those are now almost up and there's still no change. If the connection is not up and running as agreed in contract by the time I get home today... I'll have the opportunity to spend another fortune calling them tonight. Man, I hate these situations when I'm absolutely powerless. I mean, what can I do? Anyway, I'm going to deduct a week's fee from next month's bill. I ain't gonna pay for service that was not delivered. Coditel, go to hell and die!

It's been a while

...Yeah, like about three weeks since my last entry. Spent one of those in London, had a great time aside from the weather. Got me a new England jersey. Suppose I chose sides for the World Cup :). Otherwise it's the same-o'. Enjoying the sunshine (endlich!). Also visited Aachen over the weekend. Paid 2 euros a piece to have a peek at the medieval Town Hall and the Cathedral. Lots of bones in the cradle of feudal Europe. Idolatry... Oops, I mean artifacts meant to remind the faithful of saints' virtues. They also have the "Virgin" Mary's belt. Exciting stuff :).

I'm having a great time with my new camera, taking loads of pictures. Yours truly just turned 30 (ouch!). I got it as a birthday present, and been loading my laptop with gigas of photographs. Love it to death. Not that I'm any good at it, but lots of fun.

On the music front, I'm pretty much stuck in a rut. Nothing new coming out. The band sucks, it's just not fun right now. I hope this feeling won't last or I'll have to draw the consequences. Been listening to some new stuff: Tool's 10,000 Days got me hooked. This morning I streamed some songs off Sonic Youth's new record. Awsome. Record out on the 13th, a must buy. (When will I be able to do this sort of stuff, man!?)

Also, I haven't received an e-mail from friends back home in ages. It's now more than 2 years since I moved out here and ties are beginning to fade. Szahl (the band I played with in Budapest) is dying slowly. We're still supposed to play at a friend's wedding in September... But we didn't get together at all the last time I was home this spring.

Ah well, it's not all doom and gloom. Been doing lots of work for a change, which is good. Had a pretty lousy time in the office in May (little to do). Looks like it'll be much better this month. And, like I said, the sun is out.