If you want my advice … why don't you take it ?

Helpdesk Saturday. Being in the IT field I get a lot of phone-calls. I must say, if I don’t “accidently” leave my cell phone at home from time to time .. Saturday afternoons, rainy days, and holidays would turn into some kind of private on line help-desk sessions. It used to be even worse, being

The pro

The word alone sounds repulsing to me. Proprietary : The word alone sounds repulsing to me. Being an open source – cross platform fetishist, anything that is locked into the boundaries of a certain manufacturer is probably comparable to the used toilet paper of satan himself. Anything that veers away from open standards and locks

Back from Vacation.

What is Vacation ?  “Vacation : va·ca·tion :   period of time devoted to pleasure, rest, or relaxation, especially one with pay granted to an employee.” “A fixed period of holidays, especially one during which a school, court, or business suspends activities.”Yep πŸ™‚ Thats the one and the only explanation why it has been a little

Digital Diary of a wedding day.

One only gets married about one time in his lifetime. Indeed a special occasion. Its a time of romance, of love, of family, of white dresses, people throwing rice (Condolisa ?) and more. But what happens if 2 cyber citizens get married ? What happens if you get a ceremony that had an intense digital coverage AND is connected to the internet about 24 hours a day ? Well .. Then you get this : An extensive digital diary .. Of a wedding.

  • Groom to be6.00 AM  : Good morning Groom-To-Be. After burning the midnight oil to get all the preparations done last night , my alarm clock rings. I'm amazingly chipper and drudge downstairs for the complementary cup of cappuchino, just so my morning mood does not feel lonely. The cat complains extensivly because I can't let him go outside. As we leave on our honeymoon tomorrow, he will have to check into a cats – hotel. To prevent him going "AWAL" just before we have to check him in.. I'll just ground him for the day. The first task of the day is : Uploading a long overdue podcast ! Its a shame how the preparations for the wedding have screwed up my podcasting schedule. Oh well. At 7 am the podcast is live and I am relieved to have another show out. My bride to be is amazingly calm. She got up about half an hour ago and is in her morning routine of doing some ironing and stuff. Aside from all the fancy glasses standing on the counter .. you would not realy say its a special day today πŸ™‚ My first digital bump occured when my cellphone died. Battery deprivation syndrome never comes at a good time. So a mad dash for the charger and some power forcefeed should help that out. Next up is checking the digital camera(s) and preparing the Iriver (mp3 recorder) for the event. Make sure everything is nicely wired away into the background but ready to fire at a moments notice. The first guests should arive in about two hours and i do still have a bit of stuff to do (sign some 30 something wedding cards). But .. first its cappuchino time !


  •  tables8 Am : 0.0.0.0 destination host unreachable ! : Oh Oh ! Trouble in Lalaland. TODAY (of all days) my adsl router is acting up BADLY. Dropping connection with the internet , not reconnecting, not responding to pings. Its NOT good ! Thanx to the neighbours free wifi i'm able to get this up. Darn ! Of all the days WHY today. I'm not nervous about the wedding, its just my digital coverage that is lies in the balance. Live happily ever after : Sure . but not without a broadband line ! Meanwhile the tables are setup outside. Yes I know our concrete deck looks like a scene straight out of Armageddon , but we are going to fix that up this summer. Meanwhile Nyana is being the celeb-of-the-day as se is sighning the great wedding cartoon cards to pass out to people who come and have a peek at city hall. After I sign the cards of I feel like a celeb too.


  • dadIn loving memory of those not here. As I ramp up the gear in firing mode and double check all the battery levels, its time to pause and think of those who cannot be here today. My dad died about a year ago after losing the battle with "captain Cancer" and I know he would have loved to be here. But knowing him his spirit will probably be around all day. Just in case i'll put the tour de france on on TV and leave the remote on the couch. It used to be his favorite passtime and he would not miss that for the world.  So have a seat and enjoy dad :).
 
 
 
 
 
 


  • Beamer9.00 Am : Here come the paparazzi : After I dive into the shower I rush upstairs to put on my wedding suit. As I ravage through my underwear drawer a sly smile creeps across my face. What boxer-short or briefs do I get married in ? The answer screams me in the face. Big black letters saying : “ Looks hot but Feels cool “ printed on a bright orange silk underground. Yep : The boxer-short from hell, once bought for me as a prank gift by Nyana and her sister. It is so hideous that Nyana swore I was never allowed to wear it again. I think they are perfect for the occasion. So a few minutes later I’m in my very formal and serious wedding suit with a bright orange secret underneath πŸ™‚ Nyana will have kittens on our first night as man and wife :). I’m barely done when the doorbell rings. Nyana’s youngest sister and her boyfriend are the first to arrive. Rudy who volunteered to be the official wedding photographer promised he would be the first to get there. He also doubles as the provider of the ceremonial car that the happy couple can drive to city hall. As he is the owner of a very nice BMW Z3 convertible AND a black belt in tae Kwon Do … I know better then to object. As i open up the door I'm amazed at the beautifully decorated car that he drove all the way from Leuven to Hasselt. On the freeway He and Anneleen got a lot of thumbs up and happy hunks from people who mistook them for a married couple. Hilarious !


  • thegang9.30 Am : Here comes the gang. As family starts to pour in, I get the distinct feeling our house would not be big enough for 20 people, thank god only two of them are the actual residents. Nyana’s mom arrives with the wedding bouquet and I have to make sure to apprehend it myself before she (in all her eagerness) gives it to the bride to be. My best-woman arrives and I give her the frodo-esque task of being the ring-bearer until we reach the city hall of mordor. Time is pressing and my bride is waiting at the top of the stairs. As photogs take tactical positions at the top and the bottom of the stairs … Nyana comes downstairs and makes her formal entrance. She looks beautiful and we have to kiss at least three times before all the shots are in the can πŸ™‚
 
11.00 Am : Traffic control : Tower is clear. We rush everybody outside and I start directing everybody into their cars. My next important mission is : lead this caravan through the heart of Hasselt. I wish I had a siren and some flashlights , but a Beamer convertible with red roses all over the place does attract enough attention as it is. With the precision that would make the traffic controller at LA-X blush I wave and shout and before it know it .. we are off.
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
  • arrival10.15 AM : arrival ! We run at least ONE red light in the process but arrive on time at city hall. Parking the par
    ade is proving to be a tad difficult thanx to some semi autistic public servant that insists the cars be parked in a certain (but impossible) fashion. As I point out that the laws of physics do not allow a 1.5 meter wide Jag to be parked in a 1.3 meter wide space between two solid concrete blocks, he foams at the mouth .. and agrees with me. We rush everyone into city hall and wait for Nyana’s grandmother to levitate to the appropriate level using the wheelchair elevator at the back of city hall. Thus she makes her entry a little later then the rest and I swear , it makes her look like the emperor from Star wars πŸ™‚ everybody is standing when she is being rolled in. quite majestically !
 
 
 


 
  • Cruch10.16 : Crunch time. Before you know it .. its over : Before you know it .. its over : Two very eager and nervous members of the town council preform the ceremony. We sit down and they start right away , droning down the formal text with their own personal improvisations along the way. As they wish us  lots of offspring the entire city hall snickers and wait for me to make my classic ovary joke. ( Luckily I don’t) . As we exchange rings I go for the bigger ring to give to Nyana. The council member tries to correct me , but she is ignorant to the fact that my fingers are thinner then Nyana’s. So the rings go on the right way round and its a very touching moment. We are declared man and wife .. applause and the classic : “you may kiss the bride” As I kiss my wife for the first time, Rudy feigns a misfire with his camera and lets us kiss FOUR MORE TIMES until being satisfied with the shot.  As we all congratulate each-other the council member looks at her watch .. cause the next happy couple is loaded in the chamber.

  • Listen to the wedding ceremony (MP3.)


  • Picture
  • 10.30 : Man and wife. We go outside for the formal picture – taking of everybody and its a very chaotic scene πŸ™‚ As we walk to the car , the next happy couple is already waiting in line. The brides puffed face, the grooms claustrophobic expression and the two bridal-brats cramped up on the front seat , make me realize we where lucky to have a convertible all for ourselves. Suddenly another paparazzi jumps us , notebook in hand , to ask us some questions. Its the reporter for the local ‘good news” section in the paper. Very official and all that. He asks us some questions and wants to take a picture… only to come to the conclusion .. that he has been hit by battery deprivation syndrome : No juice in tha caboose ! I offer him our website where he can download plenty of shots of the event, but he insists on coming by LATER to  pop the official shot.
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

  • kiss10.45 : Hey everybody ! We are married. Hey everybody ! We are married. As we leave city hall under the fuming glaze of the next couple in line, a little mistake in Nyana’s infallible GPS sends us through the heart of Hasselt, the very heart ! So we have to take our Beamer through the main shopping street, the main restaurant corner and all around the causeway. Many many people almost hang out of their passenger window to catch a glance of bride and groom to be. I’m proud to have such a lovely wife .. but feel like a dressed up version of Ken in his Z3. Come on barbie ! Lets go home.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


  •  x
    ma

    kara
    ete

    d
         
         

      

The Rest of the pictures can be found HERE. 
 

 

  • And after that : A great party with a select group of people. One of the greatest things is mingling people around across a table , that never met each-other before and see how well they get it off. My mother in law, sisters in law and the two of us spend a lot of time in the kitchen. Getting everybody drinks, food and so forth. Meanwhile my ‘please dump smartcard here’ setup of the Macbook starts to work. As people give me their digital camera’s we upload the pictures straight away to Flickr and let get them posted on the site too. A local copy of the pictures is used as screen-saver and before you know it : Instant gratification. A Skype call from Sebastian and Dave of the GGP brings us best wishes and the sitestats show that nosy people are already checking everything out on Flickr..At about three o’clock the newspaper guy comes back with a ha
    ppyly charged digicam. He  asks us the standard questions where we mett and stuff like that , because he needs some padding for the picture. So its time to take ANOTHER formal wedding shot and let the dude plug the site in the newspaper. Meanwhile my little idea of letting everybody dump their digital flashcards in my macbook and uploading them straight to Flickr is doing very very well. You can find all the pictures of the event on the flickr site. And thats about it. Before you know it the day is over and I must say : Its been wonderfull. My eagerness to cover the event digitally has left me with a ton of pictures video and audio to get through .. So i hope you enjoyed this little snippet so far. I'm off to pack my suitcase and dive into my honeymoon with my ever so lovely wife ! 

 

Related Posts

  • No Related Posts

The Knightcast Episode 33 : Virtualisation.

The Knightcast Episode 33 : Virtualisation Direct link to the show : https://knightwise.com/podcasts/kc7706.mp3  Summary. In episode 32 we talk about my upcoming wedding, but most importantly look at the power of virtual machines. Learn how to tune tech into your way of life and 'virtualise' your entire computerlab to just one machine. By using free

Its not what you add .. its what you leave out . Practical pointers in simplicty.

Does your office look like a Borg hive ?  One of the biggest challenges in the daily life of a cyber-citizen must be .. Simplicity. Simplicity in using technology , simplicity in integrating technology , simplicity in hardware and software .. and most importantly : Simplicity in thought.Just think of the classic example. Somewhere along

A salute to spacemusic, a letter to a friend.

Letter to a podcaster, letter to a friend. This week marked the final episode of the Spacemusic.nl podcast. A show I loved and enjoyed .. Its time to step up and salute its creator.   Beaming out to eternity.   Time rushes by in an ever fasting moving world. We are always busy , always

Virtual insanity : Xp in Linux or Linux in XP.

A whole new deal.Β  Very soon we will see a culture shift, A change how people interact on the computer scene. My prophecy is nothing less then the end of the almost religious β€˜ OS- Wars β€˜. From newbie to web-lord, we have all played the paralympic game of β€˜ what’s the better OS’ Wether

Windows Genuine Advantage Phone Hoooome….

Windows genuine .. erm … Genuine ? A few days ago, it was discovered that the Windows Genuine Advantage program (that little tool that checks if you have a real or pirated version of Windows) actually 'phoned home' to Microsoft. Although this was far from a big surprise , it still caused a bit of

hot weather + Airco = No show :(

Hot hotter .. Haaaatchoo !   Just great ! One day of hot and steamy weather and guess what ? I have a cold. A cold ? yep ! My voice sounds like Barry White the morning after his bachelor party. My throat feels like the inside of a death star trash compactor in full

No propper MSN clone for the cross-platform community.

A lot of Chitchat.  As a slider ( somebody who moves swiftly between operating systems like Windows, Mac and Linux ) I am often confronted with the question : What tool do I use for what  ? There are of course plenty of ‘switcher tips” out there to help people out who decide to jump

Google Sync: your bookmarks everywhere.

Google Sync : Your house is my house. Just got up and running this morning and only 5 seconds into my morning surf-wave when already found my little snippet of news that kind of makes my day. Google has just released a firefox extension called 'browsersync'   that lets you synchronies your bookmarks between several

The Knightcast Episode 32 : My Macbook.

 The Knightcast Episode 32 : My Macbook.    Direct link to the show : https://knightwise.com/podcasts/kc060606.mp3 Summary. This week we do an in depth 'Knightcast Style' review of the 13,3 inch tinkerbell of technology called "The Macbook". Is it all that its cracked up to be ? Is it realy that great or is it all

The Knightcast Episode 31 : Tips for the mobile Geek.

    The Knightcast episode 31 : Tips for the mobile geek. Direct link to the show : https://knightwise.com/podcasts/kc290506.mp3 Summary. An episode jam packs with tips for the mobile geek. How to carry and organize your tech equiptment as easy, light, convinient and efficient as possible. What to take with you, where and how to

Is AIM Pages a MySpace Killer? No Way!

Sometimes is wierd to say how story's evolve on the internet. One would think, that between thousands and thousands of voices, blogs, websites and podcasts it is hard to seperate the songs from the static. But still. Sometimes a story is written in just the right key that it chimes out and resonates through the

Letting Windows XP do its own maintenance.

I don't know about you .. but i am out of here. Computer maintenance can be a tedious task, and somehow Windows Pc's can't get enough of it. Wether I open up a computer magazine or listen to a podcast about Windows its always spyware this and scandisk that etc. Now as for spyware and

Star Trek – On the Brain – MLSWIQST

"Star trek on the brain"  by Sebastian Prooth.

I think this entry needs a bit of an introduction. The following is an excerpt from the book that I am writing, it is a section from the chapter about Star Trek on the Brain, a condition which I have decided to make a real illness and as an illness I had and got over, I can perscribe some treatment methods. Check it out, tell me what you think…its just a little section from what I have written. Those who have been reading my blog for a while know I have been writing a book for a while now, here is your chance to see some of it! -Sebastian Prooth

 (Please note that this is a total work in progress – spelling mistakes and errors are due to it being a draft.)

Related Posts

  • No Related Posts

Eurosong : We've gone bonkers !

Eurosong CoocooLand !   Just a quick post before I leave today, thanx to Codemonkey Rob for pointing this one out. As you might know the eurovision song contest was held in Greece this weekend. We Belgians got the boot at the semi finals so I was not very interested in watching it. But after Codemonkey

The Knightcast Episode 30 : What operating system to choose.

  The Knightcast Episode 30  ' What operating system to choose ' Direct link to the show : https://knightwise.com/podcasts/kc200506.mp3 Summary. Join us for show number thirty where we triple the normal crew of the Knightcast and have a globe spanning discussion with two more experts about what operating system to choose.  Windows ? Linux ?