14 November, 2007

and so it begins...

1 PCI video card that output on S-video €12 at Market
2 USB game controllers €8.99 each
1 RCA audio Hackjob, RCA and S-video cables €6.50
1 S-videos to SCART converter €3.50
1 SCART turnaround €8.00
1 Old n' Busted PC

still missing:
one PCI wireless card
some windows bootsequence hackZ0rs

but you can expect to see the phrase...
"every SNES game ever created from the comfort of my living room.... priceless"
to appear on this blog very soon
:)

10 November, 2007

Update...

I mus admit I've been pretty lousy at updating this blog, but for those of you who still read it (or at least check back once in a while) here is whats been up.

I've gotten into a pretty stable routine in terms of school work. Having finished (and passed) my Linear Algebra course I am down to a manageable load of 3 courses. and things are looking reasonable. Still a lot of work but I am confident that I'll pull through.

Life at home is good. I'm getting along well with my flat mates and have a bunch of little fix-it projects on the go all the time. These make me very happy :)
last week we had a fire inspection of the building and people on all floors threw out a bunch of stuff to "de-clutter" the escape routes to prevent our eviction, so I scored a bunch of free stuff including: a table, some speakers, a hanging organizer thingy for my clothes, and some cabling.

I was sick this week, since Wednesday I think... but I'm better today. Just in time to enjoy a bit of weekend.

Ah yes the project... I think I'm going to blog on this a bit more as I do it. The general Idea is to use an old PC wirelessly networked with all the computers on our floor (thats 19 if you count mine) hooked up to an old TV so we can wirelessly stream any movie off anyones PC to be watched in the common room. As an added bonus I plan to have the PC auto-boot into a Super nintendo emulator so I can place EVERY super Nintendo game ever made, in the living room.... planning proceeds, I'll post more on this project later.

I got to wander around and shoot a couple of rolls of film yesterday. Found a heron by one of the canals and it made for an interesting subject. We'll see how they turnout. I'll post those pics to http://www.flickr.com/photos/apothecary/ when they are developed and scanned.

In the boredom inducing grip of illness I managed to do some really boring but necessary maintenance on my computers... looks like my little MAC laptop might be salvageable after all (fingers crossed). Also cleared up some space so I can resume listedning to the BBC top 100 billboard songs every week (its good to keep on top of what crappy pop people are diggin' as time passes:))

I've applied for a job at a sketchy pub near my place... I still dont have any real documentation allowing me to work or even be in this country, Thank you dutch beaurocracy, but the pub in question hardly seems the kind of palce to care. They dont actually have a permit to operate.

Well, I'll try to be better at updating this page more often... with photos...
promise.

cheers form holland,

Martin

13 October, 2007

thanksgiving...

Its been a while since my last post. If anyone actually reads this, I apologize for the lack of novel content.

Whats going on? well in light of that fact that Thanksgiving came and went and I had no idea, I'm having a late thanksgiving dinner at my flat today. Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, the whole nine yards.

pictures to follow.

--m

21 September, 2007

School is crushing my soul...

too much school work, not enough time.
If you havent heard from me its because I am soo swamped its insane.
I could fill pages bitching about how it but i dont have time

oh, and my laptop is dying...grrr

--m

07 September, 2007

little tin man


little tin man
Originally uploaded by Martin of doom
This is the best piece of art in the whole world!
it is placed off in a corner in the courtyard of the Castle DeGracht in Ghent Belgium. I just got a bunch of my film developed and this is certainly one of my favorite pictures from Belgium. hope to see more of this kind of stuff at RoboDoc this year.

04 September, 2007

into the breach once more...

school has started...
and while the program I'm doing here in Amsterdam is exactly what i wanted to study (MSc Artificial Intelligence - Intelligent Systems track) a part of me is terrified. Yesterday was my first day of classes and the course load is insane! The material is challenging and my schedule is soul crushing. regardless, it is all fascinating material and i look forward to my project courses. But party time in Amsterdam is most certainly over. At least until next term once i get into the swing of things. aside from my Monday and Thursday penance the things seem manageable. I must have done something REALLY bad to deserve those solid eight hour chunks of class :(

Living in the dorm on Weesperstraat is good. The dutch girls have been really nice. I'm still getting to know all my new roommates. I'm settled into my room pretty well. The door is almost completely covered with my prints, ill take a picture once it's done. Also, I met a fellow at the orientation for this program, who graduated from ubc in the same department as I did. We never met in Vancouver... heh small world.
And after three months of fighting with the IND (dutch immigration) I still have nothing to show for it, no residence permit, no sofi number, no nothing. well, they DID say from the very begining that it could take anywhere from four weeks to four months, I guess someone has to fill out that third standard deviation :(
cheers to everyone who actually reads this blog... keep in touch.
--m

01 September, 2007

slow colour film...


_20_0080
Originally uploaded by Martin of doom
I've mostly been using faster films until recently.
I'm really happy with the results of my last roll of 200 iso fujitsu. I think ill through in a roll of 100 next. in the mean time here is a faris wheel.

--m