Total War Rome + Barbarians
Carmageddon 2
Football Manager 2005
Championship Manager 4
Sim City 3000
Desperados
Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2
Cycling Manager 3
(Return to) Castle Wolfenstein
Railroad Tycoon II
Project IGI
NBA Live 2000
Fifa 1996 / 1999 / 2000 / 2002
Half Life / Counterstrike 2.0
Sim Golf / Tower
Theme Park (World)
Rollercoaster Tycoon 2
F1 Championship 2000
Dungeon Keeper
Theme Hospital
Age of Empires II + The Conquerors + III
Transport Tycoon (Deluxe)
The Godfather
GTA 2 / 3
The Movies
Caesar 3
City Life: NY
Sim Tower

To be completed! I will also be adding some order in the list (genres and/or ratings)..

Since then, things have continued to be great. I can honestly say I love my job, and I really appreciate the company I’m working with. Deloitte has proven to be a great choice; it’s so much different from the big name that wrongfully exploits its employees in pursuit of its capitalist goals.. Sure, it requires dedication and flexibility, but if you’re ready for that, it gives you so much in return. It’s a fast environment, where knowledge is king. And that’s exactly what’s so great about it, you are continuously challenged to learn more, to improve yourself and to deliver your best. I already knew I had some good stuff in me, but Deloitte pushes me to develop it, and I actually feel like a pro.

I’ve been working for about 6 months now, and all that time this blog was certainly not forgotten. I have some stories I want to share (with my future self), because looking back at things, the past year has been amazing. A year of pushing boundaries, but at the same time, a year of stabilization.

So, you might wonder; what was the question? The question was certainly not how to be happy.. I just did what needed to be done (to graduate, to get installed in my appartment, etc), and more importantly, what I wanted to do. The shortest answer really is just doing the thing.

He has basically 2 kinds of videos:

Funny Picture Songs

Epic Rap Battles Of History

REALLY AWESOME concept. This video is called “Nom Nom Nom Nom, Babies!” :p

Find more on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/nicepeter

UPDATE (18 July): fear has been given an name http://blog.last.fm/2011/07/18/library-and-streaming-services-outage

Findings:

1. The generated HTML in these blog posts is fugly and will need correcting
2. Leaving the WP->Twitter plugin activated was not a good choice
3. Twitter completely fails after deleting about 100 tweets manually (“507 tweets” vs. “You haven’t tweeted yet”)
4. All Blogger Labels were converted to Categories instead of the more obvious tags

Other findings might follow.. After all, I will need to fix that all Blogger Labels turned WordPress Categories are changed to tags and stuff..

“Is this the line? Is this the line between heaven and hell?” — :Noah and the Whale: – The Line (see at the bottom of the post)

It’s pretty funny, looking back at it. I had planned to travel from Lokeren to Brussel (a trip of 1h45) in the morning, yesterday, but due to circumstances (sleeping in) I took the train at 5pm.

Normally I travel via Dendermonde (the shortest route), but there was no airco in the train and it was around 35° inside, so when the train to Gent arrived on the other track (a double-decker with airco) I chose to quickly change trains to travel in slightly better conditions. It also supported my trip because the train to Dendermonde was running late so I would miss my correspondence to Brussel via Dendermonde..

Little did I know that I would land in the middle of one of the blackest days in recent Belgian train history

The Gent Sint-Pieters station was overwhelmed with people when I arrived; the corridors were full with people staring at the screens (at that moment, I just thought it was simply due to rush hour), and I thought myself lucky because the train to Brussels was running 10 minutes late (from the information on the screen) so I had about 5 minutes to go to the right track and continue my journey.
When I arrived at the track 2 trains were waiting, at side A & B. It slowly but surely became clear there were some MAJOR problems; hasty but extensive communications through the speakers, a lot of people asking around for information, police agents checking up on people helping where they can, etc.
When the 2 trains finally got the green light to leave, the train attendants actually cried victory: “finally.. let’s go before our window of opportunity closes again” they uttered. And so, the track was empty..

It only took 20 minutes for the next train to come: the “one and only” train from Gent to Brussel. It was full. Really full. Only about 10 people disembarked per door, and about 25 were queuing. Do the math.. And this is the point of the story I really wanted to share here: how dumb are people?

Ok, the NMBS (aka SNCB, the national train company) didn’t communicate well, but just figure: one of the most important routes of Flanders (Gent – Brussel) would certainly get priority on other trains, with 3 trains per hour.
So smart people (me and about 60 others) figured the next train (that was also running late) would follow swiftly (within 20 minutes) with much more space and air to breath (remember, it was about 30° outside). And yes, 15 minutes later the train arrived with plenty of free seats.

Arriving in Brussels, it was still chaos, but I was again in luck: my train had (again) a 10 minute delay, but this time it actually was really only 10 minutes, leaving me 5 minutes to get to the train and embark. 30 minutes later (instead of 15, due to the right of way of bigger / more important trains) I arrived in Etterbeek station (at the VUB). Time: 19h50. Only 3 hours, not that bad, looking back at things.

1 part of the story I deliberately left out: what was the cause? If you had asked 100 people in Gent Sint-Pieters I would guess only 5 would have known. I was not one of them, and so weren’t the people around me..
It all started around 15h30 when a power line broke at Oostkamp (at the coast, still far away from Gent); all trains going via Gent to Antwerpen or Brussel actually come from the coast. Go figure what chaos that could cause on its own..
17h10, Brussel: a defect train blocks the narrow North-South connection that runs through the hart of our capital for about 1h30. Again, go figure what chaos that could cause on its own..
Shortly after another train (to Gent) fails leaving Brussel South, probably blocking “only” 1 track.
Adding 2 other minor incidents (one blocked bridge at the coast (for 1h), one defect train near Brussel (for 2h) caused by the warm weather. Another train breakdown in Tielen: the passengers actually had to walk through the fields to get to the nearest road for alternatives.

All that would have been sufferable 2 weeks ago, with temperatures around 20°. But now a lot of passengers actually had to sit in trains with temperatures up to 45°. The mayor of Gent actually started the city disaster relieve plan. Common sense with 3-4 overheated trains arriving within 1 hour carrying up to 1000-1500 passengers per train. But the problem with that was the lack of information: NO communication from the train company because they simply didn’t know what was happening themselves. At around 23h30 the train system was still recuperating. The spokes person from the NMBS on the late news actually made me laugh: “We will get the people to their destination. We will even commandeer taxis to make this happen.” … “Commandeer”. Ha!

To get the full story, check this report (in dutch): http://www.deredactie.be/permalink/1.1054456. Remark the brilliant editing (the violins in the background ).

Btw, creepy how fitting these lyrics are: (I was listening to the album while writing this blog post)

She looks out her window,
And the stars don’t feel that far away,
She watches the wind blow,
Blowing all her problems away,

But then she’ll ask, as she cleans up the glass,
“Is this the line?
Is this the line?
Is this the line between heaven and hell?
Is this the line where I get up and walk out?”

The first single, Same Mistake, took me 3-4 times to get used to but after that it quickly became one of my favorite CYHSY songs.. Awesome!

(On life & music) We missed the point the whole way along. It was a musical thing. You were supposed to sing, or to dance, while the music was being played.

On a side note: “You’re Getting Old” (South Park s15e07) did seem like an ending; it all points to Matt & Trey getting tired of South Park, realizing that they are more and more producing shitty episodes. Just sayin’:

Sharon: “I’m unhappy too…we both are, obviously. How much longer can we keep doing this? It’s like the same shit just happens over and over, then in a week it all just resets until it happens again. Every week it’s kind of the same story in a different way, but, it just keeps getting more and more ridiculous!”
Randy: “I don’t know if I’ve changed or you have, but I just feel like I don’t have a lot of time left. I want to enjoy it.”

1. Lacks cliff hangers so I don’t have the urge to go to the next episode
2. I have seen before (same reason as 1.)
3. Isn’t too brilliant (same reason as 1.)
4. Is 20 minutes (or 30 max.)
5. Is funny and doesn’t require too much attention, so no “dramedies”, etc.
6. Keeps me interested so I don’t go to Facebook / other sites during the episode (risking getting sucked in the social network for the next hour)

Only a few shows answer to these criteria. The one I’m watching right now is :Friends:. It wouldn’t amaze me if I had actually seen some episodes 3-4 times already (thanks to VT4 and a boring childhood .
I just watched s01e03 and came to the following realization: :How I Met Your Mother: is a huge rip-off. I don’t blame them for copying the format that made Friends so big, but I do blame them for this:
One of my favorite scenes/episodes of :HIMYM: is the one where they point out the irritating habits of each other. Well now.. Friends s01e03: the group points out that Chandler’s smoking is bothering them, on which he replies that:

• Joey’s knuckle-cracking is annoying
• Ross over-pronounces every single words
• Monica snorts while laughing

This game goes on with all the other characters targeted: see for yourself (halfway in the video): http://youtu.be/hM2UV_KAmls.

Just compare it to this: http://youtu.be/DdRkZcWsRM8. I really loved this scene, but now that I (re)saw the Friends episode I do prefer the subtlety of Friends.

P.S. Other shows that are pretty good as study breaks: :The Simpsons:, :Futurama:, :Arrested Development: and :That ’70s Show:. Good sitcoms basically.

:House: used it twice (s01 & s04), and more recently also :Californication: s01 & s04, :Glee: s01 (fall finale), and the series finale of :Secret Diary of a Call Girl: (although I haven’t seen that one yet .

Whether it was on purpose or not, we will never now, but Californication used the exact same pattern as House:

• the pilot episode
• season 1 finale
• season 4 finale

Talking about Californication. I actually hoped for a moment that this “perfect ending” to season 4 would also mean the ending of the series. It would have been an excellent addition to the “great series that were canceled at the exact right time“-list. ‘Unfortunately’, it was renewed for a fifth season soon after the s04 finale. I guess you can’t always get what you want..