D A L I F . C O M

You get asked all kinds of questions from all kinds of people working in the hotelling business. 90% of the questions have obvious answers that people could figure out in less time than it took them to ask it in the first place. If only they actually realized that just because you pay for a hotel room, doesn't mean you automatically have people doing ALL your thinking. 9% of the questions are the same as each other, and are what you can expect from people staying at a hotel. Tell me how to find my way to this and that, how much is your currency exchange rates and can I exchange here, is it possible, can I, would you etc. etc. It's standard, and you just set your brain on standby and let the conversation unfold by itself when these bright stars roll around. 

But once in a blue moon you get that rare breed of guests. That diamond in the ro... no not really a diamond. Just.. a rock in the rough. A guest that takes you by surprise by asking a question you hadn't anticipated in a million years. Today, one such guest visited my hotel, and I just so happened to be the lucky guy she asked. The question? Steady on now, friend. Let me give you some more back story first. Do read on!

Got this bad boy running for about 30 minutes, managed to make a new entry, and change one thing in the admin section before the database decided it had just about had enough. It cut me off, and closed down dalif.com effectively. Again, I contacted my old sysadmin, and once again we were able to restore the page to it's full glory. 

So back in black. Or orange as it were. Made a few changes to the page, as you probably won't notice. The footer (bottom part of the page) was updated with the Terms of Service. I also removed the syndication sidebar plugin and put an RSS link in the bottom line. Removed a few other plugins too, and, the largest change, finally I fixed it so only one entry will be displayed on the frontpage. Admittingly, I'm not a big fan of this, but I've been annoyed for quite some time with the way the sidebar was a lot shorter than the entries section. Granted, it is like that with most pages. But I just like it neat and clean looking. So for now, I'll have a minimum of sidebar plugins, and just one entry on the front page. It removes the pesky scrollbar in the side of the browser window too, which I enjoy immensely. Can't stand that bastard.

Ok. I think that's it for now. I'll try and do more work in the skin itself. I like the layout of this, but I'm not too happy about the colors. So I'll be customizing it. Since I'm only semi-adequate when it comes to css and php stuff, I can't guarantee anything. But at least the system is up to date, and looking somewhat swell atm, so with that as my basecamp, I'll work my way up. Oh, and also, I'll try to add entries once in a while. Mostly, I suspect, rants about the hotel life. But hey... can't get enough of those, now can we?

Yeah, I dunno what the hell. I wanted to update serendipity because I got some trouble in the admin section. Of course it interspersed with the usual mixup between me and the guy in charge. And later on, I had some problems with the permissions. You know, the usual stuff. But we got it sorted in the end, and now I can proceed to type out all the stuff I've been saving up over the past 4 days. So... first tho, I'll eat some lasagna and drink a coke. Then perhaps I'll have time to write you a note or two. 

As you'll probably know, I was riffling through boxes today, trying to tidy up in some of the crap I've got around. Well I did manage to sort 5 years worth of opened and unopened mail. Bank letters, all kinds of official letters, letters from various agencies... that sort of stuff. Boring, but I'd rather keep it sorted in case I needed a specific letter one day, I'd be able to find it, instead of, as usual, having no idea where stuff is. Anyway, in the box with the mail, I also found a bag of misc stuff. Some gamepads, old receipts, a few manuals for different electronic gadgets, a small piggy bank with foreign coins... I also found a pair of handcuffs. That costs me nearly 3 hours of productive time spent in agony.

I used to have two pairs. They are essentially playthings, but whereas one of them has a small mechanism for unlocking the cuffs, the other pair does not. That pair was always the most fun, seing as getting out of them actually constituted a challenge. I spent many an hour picking the cuffs in all kinds of scenarios. Locked to a chair or a table or whav have we. I managed to pick the locks of both cuffs behind my back in 11 seconds flat, with just a paper clip. Cool, I thought back then. I had the same thought for a while today. But I knew just tossing the cuffs on willy nilly would probably be a mistake. So I found a paper clip, and picked the lock of one side of the cuffs. Was easy. Cool, thought I. I must still have my mad skillz of yesteryear. So I toss the cuffs on, and start picking. But they aren't coming off as easily as I had imagined. In fact, they aren't coming off at all. I pick away, but can't seem to get the technique down properly. An hour passes where I'm focused on getting the cuffs open, without success. I consider briefly looking for a key that's bound to be around somewhere. But it'd take me forever to find one, provided I even have one still.

Another hour passes, and I'm still not getting them open. My paperclip is worn thin at this point. Has already broken once, and I'm not sure where to find another. I start prowling the apartment for items that can be used. But I come up empty. Not gonna say I panicked at any point, but.. it was starting to get pretty annoying. Also, my wrists were turning red. Finally, the left side popped open, and I went to town on the right side with renewed vigor. My dad was supposed to visit during the evening, and I slowly realized I probably wouldn't be able to get the cuffs all the way off before he came around.

And I wasn't. So I presented the problem to him, and he tried to pick the lock for a bit. But he had less understanding of the locking mechanism than I had, so I decided I'd just keep trying idly, while chatting to him. So I did. 30 minutes later, they popped off, and I could rub my burning right wrist and once more smell the clean brisk air of freedom. The cuffs are now on the kitchen table, and while I think it'll be a while before I give them a go again, I can't help but admit it was fun with a bit of a challenge. I'll need more paperclips first tho :)

Back to work and normal life after a week of unabridged relaxation and gaming. Yep yep. Found out the painter, who's going to paint most of my apartment won't be able to make it here til October. At first I was a little miffed, but then I figured, what the hell. I mean, besides one or two walls where it looks a little scruffy due to shelves and stuff being taken down, everything is pretty much as it has been for years. So no skin off my nose for waiting another 6-8 weeks. Only real problem is, I don't have a lot of space to put stuff yet. Still have about 5 boxes of stuff just idling on the floor. Today, however, I decided to finish some of them off. I figured, if I could boil the contents down to like.. one or two boxes, I could stowe them in a different room, and they wouldn't take up space in my living room. So that's what I decided to do. And boy, all kinds of stuff turned up.