You know, wheni first started talks about coming to the netherlands, the P-bomb was dropped. Plaxis. it was mentioned...you should learn it before you come. but then no one was really sure what i was going to be working on here, so it got pushed on the back burner while i went crazy trying to finish all the CSUCI things before i left. looking back, actually, i think i really was close to a nervous breakdown between all the work things and getting the condo subletted and my car and my cell phone suspended and shonna moving and halloween and the APWA golf tournament and my swim class and tutoring and YMF and and and and........
anyways, back to plaxis. so i tinkered around with it before i left but didn't really get too into it. it wasnt even for sure if i would be using it, and its a very tough program. so now that i've been working with it for a few weeks, i'm really starting to get the hang of it, but dammit if one little thing is wrong or needs to be changed, the whole thing needs to be re-run. running the calculation can take anywhere from 20 mins to over an hour. changing the initial conditions or the geometry not only requires you to re-run the calcs, but also to change all the calculation input steps, which can be easily 20 or more steps for staged construction. ben says the plaxis manufacturers are working on eliminating the need to change all the input steps, but for now, it must be done. for example, my calculation wouldnt run and i just could not figure out why. i kept getting an error message that one of the materials or loads were undefined. but they all were, all were colored (they are assigned colors based on material or load type). it was driving me CRAZY! it turns out there was a line hidden underneath another line that shouldn't have been there. i found it by accident by clicking over each point and each line individually (i was looking for a hidden line). so i run the calculation and it fails after the first step. hahah! you just have to laugh at that. so i keep playing with it, finally it runs all the way through and is stable. success! its a freaking amazing feeling when all the steps have little green check marks next to them. who knew a little green check mark could make a person so happy. poor annemiek thinks i'm crazy. i'm pretty sure she's regretting her relocation decision. i've done more swearing at my computer in the last two days than anything else.
after work on thursday we were supposed to have round 2 of the den haag poker tour, this time moved to voorburg, so it would have been a true VPT! it got moved to next wedensday, and its more of a general game night. i think people had enough of one poker night :) this time it will be at suzanne and martijn's house. so instead i went to the lisenhage and got a bunch of stuff to make my scrapboook. i want to have it done before i get back becuase i know everyone will want to see it right away. i organized all of my things i wanted to put into the book and did the first 2 pages. i'm going to try to do a few pages each night and it should be done by the time i get back.
so friday during lunch i go for a walk with the hydrology group. its really cold, but sunny and its really crisp out. my favorite weather. right next to the Fugro building is a wide canal, and we see a bunch of kids ice skating on it :) it was so cute i had to take a picture!!
Claartje tells me that if its cold enough that the canals freeze, the schools let the kids take longer lunches and then they just keep them longer at the end of the day. seems simple enough! in the US, there would be WW3 if kids were kept an extra half hour. the PTA would go nuts. the bus schedule and after school sports schedule would be all messed up. so, we are walking back in this wooded area near fugro. its me, claartje, imke, arnoud, and volkert. volkert crosses a narrow canal becuase otherwise we would have had to walk way op and around to the little footbridge. so volkert imke and claartje go across. i'm not feeling too good about this. the ice looks pretty thin and and there's a big crack in it already. i'm saying no, you guys are nuts. so volkert comes back across to get me, and when he's about halfway, there is a big *CRACK* sound and the ice starts to really crack and he scurries back across to the other side. HAHAH we all start laughing and i'm like.. see!!! that's why i didnt want to cross!!! so me and arnoud walked around via the bridge and it was all fine.
friday after work i did my usual grocery shopping and some cleaning. i've been avoiding doing the dishes. the sink is full. so i'm just keeping the kitched door closed right now so i can avoid looking at them. i love cleaning but jesus i hate doing dishes. who knows why. some kind of aversion i can't explain. it could stem back to when i was a kid and my brother pushed me and i fell on the open dishwasher door and broke it and my dad was so pissed. remember that jeremy! punk!!!
by the way i'm really deep into my hot chocolate addiction. its getting really bad. i think i had 4 or 5 cups on friday. maybe even 6! i even thought about buying a bigger mug so i could put two cups in at the same time! its not looking good for me. i weighed myself and i'm 3 pounds heavier than when i came here. not too bad considering we just got past the holidays, but pretty bad considering i've been eating soups and sandwiches for 2 months. i'm thinking there must be about 150 calories per cup of hot chocolate, so thats probably an extra 500 calories per day plus all that extra sugar. yeesh.
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