April 12, 2012 by Nocpan.

For past 6 months I have been swimming on regular basis. Doctor’s orders. In the city its hard to find a public pool that isn’t overcrowded. I found a solution to that, I drive out of the city, about 25km from where I live is a nice 6 lane 25m long pool. Been going there all winter long. Maybe its because of the extreme winter we had, maybe because of shorter days… the pool was always empty, at 8pm on thursday night I had the pool all to myself. And I loved it.  Yesterday I drove there, it was little before 8pm. Changed, showered entered the pool and what do I see? 2 lanes occupied by aqua areobics… old fat freaking ladies in colorful swimming suits flop in the water like walruses. Ok so I see that the two last lanes are more less free, they were… because they were reserved. So people who wanted to swim had 2 lanes in the middle… and there was 8 and 7 people per lane. I left… took a long shower, dried myself, got dressed and left… went to the reception and asked why? why was is so crowded and why isn’t it on the schedule? The aerobics was there, but the other want… I really wasn’t happy… the lady claimed that 4 lanes are free… so I told her to go and check… she went… came back with some guy, he smiles and said that they had kids swimming lessons and normally they have them until 8pm but this time they stretched it but its finished now… great, its 8:45! and I’m suppose go back change again and shower again, and go back… fuck that… the guy didn’t even apologize! fucking kids!

And that’s when it occurred to me, when I was 9 - 11 yo, I had to be in bed around 8pm, 9pm was like tops… so what are those kids doing in the pool at 8pm??? what the hell is wrong with parents? what changed over those 20 years that its ok now to let a small kid sleep about 7 hours a day? As I remember it I needed about 10 - 12 as a kid, went to sleep at 8pm woke up at 7am to goto school. Another question is, when do I as an adult get to enjoy this public pool funded by my tax money and still a fee is collected per hour? I work 8 to 5, I need to get home, eat change… just like most office workers, so when is it time for regular white collar folk to enjoy some swimming? How come little totes who piss to the pool, are loud and get in the way have a priority over me? This is very frustrating.

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April 8, 2012 by Nocpan.

Very recently a friend who I haven’t heard from in a long time (8 months since his wedding) contacted me. As pleasantly surprised as I was I suspected something is wrong, and it was. Seems that after 8 months of marriage his wife decided its over. Worst part is that my friend (lets call him J) is actually a good guy, doesn’t have any bad habits or particular behaviors, is quite calm but acts on an impulse, sorta geekey with this 10th century reinactment but he’s ok. Very helpful, would go out at 1am because his wife would want a bottle of coke zero. He’s taking it very hard. I’m worried about him. Big problem is that his wife blames everything on him. I don’t know Agnes (that’s her name) too well, but apparently she was ready for marriage and seemed to be a classical wife to be. And yet it turns out that she’s not ready and blames J for it. And once again even despite holy vows in church, promises and all the ceremony it didn’t last. Makes you think why people do it? I mean being together is great, having someone to love and care for is amazing. But there are times when things go bad, and things fall apart. Now while some might think that marriage will cause the relationship to go to another level, the truth is that it will not. It is in your head. If you love someone you will love them with or without the wedding band. And if it falls apart no matter if you have it or not (i’m missing mine) it will not keep the two people together. It is sad. I rather swear to a person I love that I will love them and protect them, quietly, in some secluded place where noone can disturb us rather than do it in church. And if it is meant to be - it will last, and if its is destined to fall apart it will anyway.

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March 25, 2012 by Nocpan.

I am a social person. I like to have people around. I’m a person who will do more when with company than without. There are times when I need to catch my social breath and spend some time alone, but that usually is counted in hours not even days. That’s why it is really hard for me to be alone. Today of all days, I really could use someone to love.  Why is it so hard to find a person like that?

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March 22, 2012 by Nocpan.

…i’m sitting at the doctors waiting for my ultra sound, right beside me is the child doctor, and all the screaming a crying kids are here too. i hate it, when i got to rule this plane i will make everything child free, a child free enviroment! but it also amazes me how idiotic parents look, act, talk when handling the kids. just now w mom went one way chasing after a runaway 4 year old, comming back she keptsaying in this childlish voice “oh look at the pretty colors, look at the squares on the floor, comon follow the pretty squares…” the floor here is made out of lavender, navy blue, lime green tiles spread out in random order… i wasn’t buying her prettty squers story, apparently the kid didnt either cause he had to be draggen one way screamming and then back. but the mom was trying her best to make a fool out of herself. i really hate that. grown people making fools trying to swoop down to kids mental level.

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March 19, 2012 by Nocpan.

Today I stumbled across this link:

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120312.html

I its a nice simple informative thing. But what got my attention was the Japanese Spider Crab. Apparently they go to be 3m in size! Its a scary picture, something that you get in Red Lobster for $25 now big enough to have you on its dinner plate.

Google produced this composite picture:

http://1.yukozimo.com/no/4732-2.jpg 

Terrifying ain’t it?

Thank again for you sea food lovers, this is a lot of crab meat. Better have you bib and butter ready

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March 11, 2012 by Nocpan.

March is very full of birthdays for me. Today happens to be one of those birthdays. She’s a sweet tiny girlie, who likes country music, reads books about dead monarchy, likes Campari - i really don’t know anyone ones else who likes that alcohol, loves sea food. Always wanted a house with a winter garden, a little bulldog and having a family of her own. Happy birthday! I really hope your dreams come true. I really would like to help you but unfortunately I failed to win the lottery again… I guess someone else is enjoying those 40 millions.

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January 26, 2012 by Nocpan.

This was one of the better gifts I ever got for christmas, along with electrical grill and ceramic knife, they are in the top 3.

Picture dates to Dec. 26, 2004 5:01pm and this is my giant beer mug which needed to be filled with 3 bottles of beer… how awsome is that?

Unfortunately when we split up with my ex. she didn’t give it back now I got a similar one, but its not the same.  I miss those days, that kitchen, not every aspect was that life was good, but I felt that I belonged. I felt I was happy, and to balanced it out there had to be a great deal of sadness at the end of it all.

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January 22, 2012 by Nocpan.

You know, sometimes when you think of someone for a long time, it works like telepathy, that person somehow contacts you, runs into you or just lets you know they are there.

Recently I keep thinking of two people from my past that I pretty much lost all contact with, i think of them a lot, i miss them, I regret that I didn’t keep in touch. Maybe they think of me as well.

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January 5, 2012 by Nocpan.

There was a hair dresser on Queens Blvd. near Queens Mall. We went there twice with my ex. First time she was so pleased, a cool asian guy with a rounded belly did a *fabulus* job,  he might have been gay… but then again, who cares?

Next time we went there, the guy wasn’t there and some latin chick took his place, she did a really short style, I mean shorter than I usually have on my head (and I’m very much in favor of buzzing my head once a month). It didn’t look bad, but than again I remember her looking much better, when you are with someone and you love them things like a hair cut don’t really matter. You could joke around a bit, and fool a bit, but in the end you really had to be shallow to think less of a person you are with because she got a different hair cut. Never the less she cried, cried all the way home and at home. I realize that my jokes and cheering her up did not help. Sometimes you are in a hopless situation where you cannot do anything to cheer the other person… it was a long time ago in something that seems to be a different world now. I can’t remember if I finally cheered her up. I guess telling a person that it grows back doesn’t remedy the present situation.

Eh this memory was brought by my conversation with a friend who is stressing before going to a hair dresser today… lets hope they do her right since I’m no better at cheering someone up after a bad buzz than then.

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December 16, 2011 by Nocpan.

Yes, yes it is.

And I got a 2.5m tall tree two days ago, its sweet, big and green and makes the apartment smell like a forest. Christmas party is on saturday. Can’t wait.

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December 6, 2011 by Nocpan.

Mikołajki is a Polish pre-christmas tradition where kids get small presents like candy and chocolate Santas as a sign of upcomming christmas holliday.

I got a bottle of Pain hot sauce… its my kind of candy

And I treated myself to an hour of Batman: Arkham City in 3D

What you see here is ASUS ROG CG8565 desktop with ASUS VG236 3D monitor.

It is one powerful, impressive and overpriced desktop, along with watercooling, lighting, SSD drives in raid 0… quite amazing. But the proce of 3500 EU seems too high.

Arkham city is decent, creates a good mood, control is smooth, maybe too smooth, it compensates a lot and doesn’t let you do something stupid. Figting really requires a good mouse and fast index finger. The city at first makes an impression that it has no limits, but after several hours of game play you quickly find out that you cannot do many things and you see constraints left and right.

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December 5, 2011 by Nocpan.

Depressing season is beginning. I wake up before 7am, and its dark, I step out of my apartment and its dark, I step out on the sidewalk and in the yellow light of the street lamps I march on to work. When I leave work 9 hours later it will be dark again. I will return home without seeing an ounce of sun light all day. All work week like that, then the weekend will come and I’ll party my head off and sleep till late afternoon hours still just to wake up and see the sunset.

Who ever figured out day light savings, got it completely wrong.

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December 1, 2011 by Nocpan.

Yesterday I went perfume shopping to Sephora store chain. There was some promotion… show your card get 15% off and stuff…. when I walk into a store where 4/5 of the store is perfumes I get lost in the scents and fragrances.  I tried some stuff that looked nice, not all smelled nice, I guess the shape of the bottle does not reflect the contents. Didn’t find anything I liked, but at the same section where I couldn’t decide on what to pick arrived our polish pop super star - Doda (aka Dorota Rabczewska)… escorted by two very gay and very fat looking guys that looked like a wall street lawyer - circus ringleader hybrid. The shocking thing was that she looked so fake and so artificial, I mean yes, you should wear makeup but not the entire package at once… reminded me of some close up photos of Amy Winehouse, terrible, if all stars look so bad up front then I want to settle of a regular, ordinary, generic girl who looks like a girl and not a painted doll with unnaturally puffed up lips.

I also took a stroll through womans perfume section, tried Poeme and Samsara. I haven’t smelled them for the longest time, they are very nice, sweet and warm. I had nostalgia carry me away a little. All the way home I could smell Poeme on the back of my left hand and Samsara on the right one. Even after I got home and took a long shower, Poeme washed off and vanished, but Samsara stayed on and I went to sleep still smelling it off my hand laid across my eyes.  There were endless memories that surfaced and eased me to my sleep and lead me into dreams.

Now several days have passed, the sweet smell faded and its gone, but I still have the dreams of what seemed to be a completely different life.  In some other time.

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November 25, 2011 by Nocpan.

About 3 months ago I completed Cisco CCENT course. We were promised early exam dates as part of the package (all sponsored by the EU, YEY!). Well a week and a half ago I got an e-mail from the person who organized this training course, saying the tommorow I have an exam scheduled. Great, most of that knowledge evaporated from my head, I stopped reading the material after couple of weeks of completing the training course and now I got less than 2 week to prepare. I even took a day off today to study, my head hurts, i’m surrounded by notes trying to remember how to configure DHCP and NAT on 1850 cisco router… damn I’m half way ready to fail… people keep calling me asking if I want to go out and I’m sitting in my kitched with the laptop going over chapters about IOS and DNS and networking protocols… I hate to study, my ADD is not helping… tommorow at 9 am it will all be decided… wish me luck…

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November 18, 2011 by Nocpan.

The rule “if it doesn’t fit use a bigger hammer” does not apply to motherboards.

Here we have ASUS P9X79 Pro, 4 days after initial release on the market.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131800

Very nice motherboard, with pretty high price of $330.

    Yes sir! 4 bent pins in the socket, this equals to = CID (Customer Induced Damage) and the motherboard looses warranty

Some people should not build computers.

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November 16, 2011 by Nocpan.

You know, every once in a while I get this jaw on the floor feeling when I see people throw their money away at something just because its new and trendy. Its like with Mac products, I donno what I does but it has the apple logo on it so I’ll buy it. I got used to that behaviour but when I see someone buy 2 routers which are top of the line products, but why the hell do you need 2? You need just one, if you got problems with range you buy an access point for 1/3 of the price.

ASUS RT-N56U is a very nice router. It quite functional. It supports piracy by having integrated torrent client which can download movies and music straight to connected HDD on USB. It is not the best router, quite frankly it works better on alternative software like DDWRT and some claims made by the company like directional radar are just fiction.

But when some pimply geek buys two and tries to configure some crazy network with FTP servers, streaming downloading, multi accesspoints, I have to ask… why? How big is your apartment? generally even if you have a house and buy something that is not low-end then it should be enough, in some cases additional access point can be needed if you have a 2nd floor or deep basement. The only reason to justyfi why you want to buy 2 quite expensive routers that recently surfaced is vanity and need to show off in front of friends and on internet forums. Grown men would buy a good sports car like Porche or Jaguar, geeky boys will buy a black slab router with glowing blue LEDs on fron panel. Same goes for all the geeks who bought motherboards based on Sandybridge chipset just as they came out, before Intel admitted to releasing a faulty chipset, same type of people will buy the new Bulldozer CPU by AMD and are waiting with anticipation for new Intel X79 chipset based motherboards.

I don’t understand people who want to buy something that just entered the market. You cannot trut initial reviews because for one they are paid for by the product manufacturer, two most websites and magazines make money off super reviews, noone wants to read about how bad SandyBridge is, and how its another budget approach by Intel, noone wants to read about how weak AMD Fusion is. It won’t sell.

You have to remeber that anything that came out today, will potentially have a lot of bugs to be resolved by firmware/software updates in upcomming months, and might have some hidden issues. Why be a beta tester when you can sit comfortobly, relax, read up on what is happening, wait 3 months and then decide wheather to buy the product.

By that time it will be cheaper, and have much better support.

But some people never learn.

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October 26, 2011 by Nocpan.

After several Intel meek and weak chipsets finally comes something worth mentioning.

It is the X79 chipset. With two full x16 pcie slots and two x8. Supporting 3-SLI and Quad CrossFireX. 2 SATA 6Gb/s and 4 SATA 3Gb/s with additional Marvell andASMedia controllers featuring powered eSata. Intel and Realtek Gigabit LAN, 6USB 3.0 on the back IO and another 12 on midboard.

Up to 64Gb of RAM DDR3 ECC and non-ECC.

With ASUS UEFI BIOS, ASUS SSD Caching allowing for faster SSD operation, DIGI+ Power Control… and much more… looks like finally something worth writing about after 1156 socket which was pathetic and Sandy Bitch 1155 socket with was plagued but many issues from the beginning to this day…

By far I love the BIOS flashing feature which doesn’t require RAM or CPU to be present. Its an excellent tool which comes in handy when ignorant people purchase a board and a CPU without prior checking if the CPU is compatible with first release of the BIOS. Now you can be as oblivious to MB specs as you want…

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October 12, 2011 by Nocpan.

… and its super cool, powerful and surpasses intel in most ways.

Unfortunately Bulldozer cpus right now have stepping of B2G, this revision makes them incompatible with anything below 970 chipset, anything like 890GX or older chipsets are unsupported!

On top of that, in Turbo mode bulldozer requires 140A, yes amperes, a motherboard with weak power management will fry, the VRMs will be smoking like hotdogs on bbq.

Which kinda makes me happy, all the fan boys and so-called overclockers will be so outraged, and they will blog and complain and claim to never purchase anything AMD based (until next big product).

Its the little things in life.

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September 22, 2011 by Nocpan.

Check this ASUS UX20 out

ux20

 Full aluminum case, very high quality finish,

ux20_2

Powerful intel i7 cpu and Windows 7 ultimate

ux20_3

Lightweight and extremely slim design

UX20_4

Full size chicklet keyboard with large comfortable touchpad

ANd yes it has USB ports!

Avreage battery life is about 5 real life hours… meaning it will last a whole day if you hibernate it and power don when not using it.

ASUS keeps making really nice products, innovative and unique.

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September 14, 2011 by Nocpan.

Sometimes I get really random flashbacks. I donno what triggers them, something painful or maybe because I feel strange…. my left hand hurts and its swollen, elbow and left side are more less ok, considering getting hit by a car and skidding on the road for several meters… i think i was lucky and didn’t destroy my new bike which is an added bonus.

I remembered deliverying papers to courts in Newark, NJ, I’d have to hop on the train leaving from WTC station, walk through some really questionable neighborhood, up up hill to the courthouses and then back down to the PATH. I remember it to be sunny and hot, streets filled with litter and really ghetto like people. Strangely I was comforting somehow. Maybe because for a little bit I was away from the office and didn’t have to see or hear my boss again. But usually I was going there last minute, courts closed at 4pm and my boss would send me out at like 3:30pm.  Hated that office, hated the fact that I had no time for anything and no time for for anyone. I wonder, if I didn’t work there, could things be different?

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