0:17 GMT

The computer seems to be ok now… although – poor thing – it is running Windows 98.

So I went to the post office again and – sure enough – no new payment. We did get one already, last week, that I didn’t write about. Things are looking brighter now, but I’m not convinced yet. Then again I’m the realist, not the optimist (I think).

Apparentely I’m continuing my role as a computer teacher. There’ll be a meeting at the school next friday but it’s more or less understood that they want me back for another year of teaching design students about PhotoShop, Illustrator, FreeHand and Xpress.

It’ll be another whole year for me around iMacs, trying desperatly to understand why the reset button is actually a reset hole, inside a case, that you can only press with a thin rod or needle.

It’ll also be another year of steady extra income, which is very welcome. Here’s something that just occured to me: “I’d like to be rich, but I can’t, so I’m the next best thing: happy.”

Is it true? Is being happy the second best thing after being rich?

Could it be that it is true what I believe that money does help a whole lot to get hapiness… I mean, I have all sorts of nice thing in life, like family, friends, work, love and friendship… If I had money… get my drift?

I wouldn’t need a lot, but I’d do such cool stuff.

The thing I hate about people who actually have money is the fact that they seem to lack everything else I mentioned. So they go around stupidly trying to replace everything with money… and the taste! Man, the taste…

Oh well… who knows, maybe when I have more money I’ll also drive around in huge pathetic jeeps in the middle of the city, showing off my hair implants and bad shirts. Maybe money changes people… or maybe not.

Are money and bad taste connected?

stay tuned.

15:55 GMT – np: Senser – “Switch”

Victory! Windows is really really stupid!

I’d noticed that it was assigning my SB Live a different IRQ than my BIOS was. So when I booted up the BIOS would report a Multimedia Device on IRQ 10, and then Windows would happily report a SoundBlaster Live on IRQ 12.

Eventually I found my Via motherboard CD and installed the minport IRQ routing utility, forced Windows to read the IRQs supplied by the BIOS and… voilá! It now works.

I wonder when the reply from Creative support will arrive…. “Too late”, would be my guess.

22:01 GMT – np: my wife on piano

Red alert! Quake 3 test for PC is out now! I didn’t know yet!

Of course I’m downloading it.

I also downloaded Neoplanet today. I love it! It’s pretty cool although you must meet some pretty strict requirements, like haveing a PC running Windows and IE… check out Neoplanet’s Site. In case anyone’s wondering, Neoplanet is an Internet Browser.

Ok, so, here goes dinner: Cut the chicken breasts into small pieces and put aside. Chop the pinneaple into chunks and set aside also.

In a soup bowl, mix half a bottle of Ketchup or a pack of tomato pulp, two table spoons of vineagre, two tablespoons of water, four teaspoons of sugar, a cup of pinneapple juice and a tablespoon of corn flower (“Maizena”, for those of you at home). Set aside after mixing everything down pretty well.

Now, mix one egg and one tablespoon of corn flower, mix it in good until it’s smooth. Get a plate with ground bread (sim, pão ralado). I bet you guess what comes next… get the bits of chicken through the egg and flower mixture and then into the ground bread. Move it around a bit and you’re done.

Now… heat up a wok or large frying pan with a bit of peanut oil (two tablespoons should do it), let it heat up and throw in half of the chicken. Stir fry it.

Stir frying means you fry and you stir the whole time. Don’t stop frying! Don’t stop stirring!! Ok, it should take you around 3 minutes to get th pink colour out of the chicken. Take it out and do the same to the rest of it.

Cool down the frying pan (lower the fire and pass some cold water on the pan) and throw in the tomato mixture… let is start bubling, cook for about 3 minutes, stirring so it won’t burn.

OK, time to throw the chicken in there and the pinneapple chunks as well! Mix it all in, you want that meat and the pinneapple to get all involved in that yucky tomato mix… nice!!

Serve with some rice.

This can also take in all sorts of vegetables, which you stir fry after the chicken and then throw in at the end as well. Onions are nice and so are peas. It’s up to you, really…