Like most Dutch people, we pay for our utility bills up front. The utility company estimates how much it should be and divides it into twelve monthly payments. They generally check if the amount is correct only once a year. We found out today that we've been paying almost three times the amount we should have been paying since we moved in in June. ( Read more... )

We can haz printy!

This would have been a lot easier if hplipopensource.org hadn't been offline for a while. If anyone's even remotely interested: cups needed a filter/plugin and the version of hplip I was using didn't include it. I had issues earlier with backwards compatibility, so I was pretty sure using the very latest version wouldn't help. Heh ( Read more... )

I'm generally happy to be using Ubuntu Linux. It takes up less space and hogs less memory and I can generally find help online when I need to do something arcane ( Read more... )

Hey everyone, it's my usual somewhat last minute birthday announcement. My birthday is on the 7th of February and I will be celebrating on Sunday the 6th. If you could come in between 10-18, that'd be great and, for the love of kittens, please let me know if you're going to come so I can buy enough food/drinkies.

Gifts are optional, but I will not ( Read more... )

I found this linked on metaquotes: http://joyful-molly.livejournal.com/297995.html

A little over a week ago, I made some clotted cream for a bring-your-own-food afternoon tea. It was pretty easy, mostly requiring patience and a bain marie so there would be no cooking or burning. Most 'recipes' you find have you mix up mascarpone and sour cream for a surrogate. I was amused when I saw a girl at the Viva Magazine forum elect the ( Read more... )

We tried to make it through the snow to Utrecht for the last performance of the Dorestad 1493 play. We'd originally asked for a ride from janestarz  and nokey , but they didn't want to brave the snow when the traffic was already pretty bad. The buses were actually running on time and so was the first train, so we were feeling pretty optimistic at first. Then we ( Read more... )

CabFabLab, where I volunteer, is currently closed for the holidays. I'd like to show you something that one of our visitors made on the laser cutter though.

It's stop motion animation, meaning that every frame is set up, shot as a still and then they move it slightly and take another shot. You can see why this needed various trips to the laser ( Read more... )

You know, I need to work on just being grateful. My parents just dropped by and my mother left me almost two weeks' worth of groceries. Apart from bafflement (where are we going to stick all this stuff? How are we going to finish it in time?) and relief that we're going to have a cheap couple of weeks, there's a very persistent voice in the back of ( Read more... )

Well, we're not having a good month when it comes to our means of transportation. Somebody kicked in the wheel of my bicycle, necessitating a 70 euro repair. We sank an additional 1000 in keeping the car going and then the battery was low and we couldn't start it anymore. And then some some jerk smashed in the side window and rifled through our ( Read more... )