I’m Addicted

I think I’m addicted… to games and coffee… You see, I have this new game and I have to play it each and every day for an hour or more. It’s relaxing in a way although I still need to use my brain and think hard *hehe*. It’s Sudoku, well actually it’s Sudoku Master and it’s for my Nintendo DS. I just had my New Super Mario Bros. phase but I gave up on it because I can’t get to the next level. I’m stuck each time at the first four worlds and keep jumping into an abyss, so for the moment I can’t be bothered to eat mushrooms, kick Koopa shells or climb into clouds and jump through hoops. I’d rather use some brain power and logical thinking, it’s challenging and relaxing. I’ve finished 80 easy ones and 10 of the normal ones… I must say, the normal ones are hectic and at times it takes me 25 minutes to solve one. So if you ever need a mental challenge and you own a Nintendo DS I would say: go for it! 😎

So I ended up playing games because I really needed to relax a bit over the last week: I have been busy contacting recruitment agencies, writing emails and adjusting my CV. I also designed and built a separate online portfolio in Flash that I could show when needed. And in between jobs, I’m trying to help out Farfallina from ‘A Roam to Rome’ with some problems she ran into. Today I was called by one of the agencies and I have an appointment with them next Wednesday. They sound like a nice bunch of people so I’m happy that I can go there for a chat and register with them. I hope things will be picking up soon now and I have to admit it’s not as easy as I thought it was but I’m getting there. I guess my patience is tested once again but it feels good so I trust the process to work out just fine.

I also received a really cool gift from Christiaan and it’s sitting on my desk right next to me within reach. It’s another amazing gadget: an awesome USB cup warmer slash USB hub. I don’t know what made him think of this but I remember when I was still working at the Rietveld academy we had rules and one of them was that the students weren’t allowed to bring any kind of food or drink in. This was to avoid having to clean up the mess after them and to protect the IT facilities that we were managing. It also meant that we had to set an example so often I would have to leave my coffee at my desk, help out a student and by the time I was finished my coffee would be cold.

I have the same problem here because I just tend to forget that it’s there when I’m busy. I guess Christiaan knows me too well… 😛


Finally I can have hot coffee all day! *yay*

Blog Action Day 2007 – Environment

Today is Blog Action Day I ran into this website by accident about a week ago and I’ve decided to participate and write an environmental post…

Last year October I went to MacExpo here in London and ran into a girl near the entrance of Olympia, Kensington, who kindly gave me a leaflet and a green apple. I had no idea she was representing Greenpeace back then but after my visit to MacExpo I read the leaflet and decided to write a post about Greenpeace and their ‘Green My Apple’ campaign which was launched in September 2006. Ever since I read about the campaign I have had my Green My Apple logo published in my sidebar to make more people and especially Mac users, aware of this problem.

On the second of May this year Steve Jobs decided to publish his message on the front page of Apple’s website saying ‘Today we’re changing our policy’:

Snippet:

Apple has been criticized by some environmental organizations for not being a leader in removing toxic chemicals from its new products, and for not aggressively or properly recycling its old products. Upon investigating Apple’s current practices and progress towards these goals, I was surprised to learn that in many cases Apple is ahead of, or will soon be ahead of, most of its competitors in these areas. Whatever other improvements we need to make, it is certainly clear that we have failed to communicate the things that we are doing well.

Read more here –>

Today Greenpeace published another story about one of my favourite gadgets which made me think twice about whether to buy it or not. Scientific tests done at Greenpeace’s Research Laboratories in the UK revealed that the iPhone contains two types of hazardous substances: toxic brominated compounds and hazardous PVC. An independent scientific laboratory tested and confirmed the presence of these substances in half the samples including the phone’s antenna. Next month the iPhone will be released in Europe, but I don’t think I will be buying one unless I would be offered a much greener version…

Sources:

Watch the iPhone slideshow

Read the Greenpeace Amsterdam article about scientific findings

Read article about the Green My Apple campaign