I am very tired at the moment, could hardly get out of bed this morning. Not very surprising since I've just had a week of Pandora (on which Matthijs has made a nice report here) and a study weekend with Musilon.

Right before all that we went to visit my mother in Apeldoorn again. Hadn't seen or talked to her for about 2 months, so it was about time. We visited the soon to be new house and went to the city to find me some thread for a waistcoat I was making at the time. (It's finished now, I'm actually wearing it at the moment). We also entered a little second-hand store and there I found a video of Ferngully! I was so happy! It's one of my favorite videos from my childhood, and it was only 1 euro. Quality is still ok, as far as videos go.

After the visit to my mom we went to Deventer for the housewarming of Theo and Jessie, two ex-Musili. Some hour past midnight we took Rob back with us to Enschede, dropped him off, and happily went to bed.
Sunday was spent sleeping in, packing stuff for Pandora and preparing HeadQuarters at Matthijs' old flat. Then a week of morning sleep started. Although we finished the puzzles very early every night (00:05, 02:15, 02:06, 02:40) we always found some excuse to postpone sleeping until some hours later with Thursday morning holding the record (for me) at 05:30.

Puzzles were easier this year and I even managed to solve or help with a few. I even made 3 kills during the week, something I'm rather bad at because of lousy aiming skills.

Thursday we went to bed on time and on Friday I had to get up 'early' to start unpacking the car (lots of Pandora stuff) and pack things for the study weekend. I was to meet Rob at 13:00 at the station, but he decided to come over to my place and was an hour early. Fortunately I was already finished then. Drove Matthijs to his flat and went home to pick up Rob, who had had to wait - that's what you get for coming early. Then went to do the shopping for the weekend and went to the location in Holten. Arrived at 14:30, unpacked and did some more shopping there. Then sat and waited for the rest of the people to arrive.

I was the first to go to bed at 00:10 on Friday, but didn't fall asleep as early because of the singing downstairs. Woke up at 08:00 to prepare the breakfast table.
Went to bed after the night game, which ended at 01:30 and had puzzles that were decidedly Pandora-like (which doesn't mean I was good at them). Woke up again at 08:00 for the breakfast ritual. Some more singing, which went very bad because everybody was tired, cleaned up and went home. Dropped of some stuff at the Vrijhof and dropped of Rob somewhere near his work (and bike) and went home. Was home at about 15:15, did some washing and finished my waistcoat. Also repaired a vest and put together a costume for my Symbols backup character.
Went to sleep at 22:30.

Woke at 08:00 feeling like I could sleep for ages, but got up anyway. Another work day. Fortunately this working week is a short one, with Queens Day and Ascension day. Took the Friday off, I'll be at Symbols then. Weekend after that is Aon 3. I don't have the vibes yet, for either of those events. I'm just too tired...

Seriously, sometimes I wonder why I even studied 'Interaction Design' when I always get overruled or over shouted by graphic designers who think that hiding some user friendly piece of information makes the site look better.

Again the quote:
Anyone can create a usable website. It takes a graphic designer to make it slow, confusing, and painful to use.

And I'll add that it makes programmers seriously pissed now and again for there goes 'generic' right out of the window.

On the other hand there's something that makes me want to say 'no' way too often to those 'unreasonable designers/project managers' even when some more thinking it through will give a reasonable enough solution. It's just that too often I get the feeling that being a web programmer means 'doing what the designer says', even if you just know it is not the most user friendly way. Perhaps that makes me want to try getting it my way, more often.

I got offered a new (permanent) contract, but I'm not sure this is the best work for me... For now it'll do nicely though. It brings in money and the fringe benefits are relaxed. If only people would listen to me once in a while...