Blog from Poland

T3 purchase: SUCCESS!

2006-08-01T09:50:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I finally bought a Volkswagen T3, the camper. :D

The car was made in 1979, and had 1.6 gasoline engine, air-cooled. The guy who owned it bought a second T3, with diesel 1.6 naturally aspirated engine and installed the engine in the camper.

The van is equipped with: gas stove, gas/electric (12/220 volts) refrigerator, a sink, many cupboards, a bed and a table.

The most pleasant experience with the camper -- yesterday for the first time I bought diesel fuel, not the gasoline, which is more expensive.

After the Woodstock

2006-07-31T09:29:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I came home to Warsaw from the Woodstock Stop festival (which is said to be the largest open-air music festival in Europe). There was 150,000 - 200,000 people, rock and metal music and many litres of beer.

If there were my friends and the music I like to listen to, I'd be happy with the festival. But I wasn't, since I don't like the rock and metal enough to listen to it all the time. And the only people I knew there was Ania and couple of her "friends".

I used quotation mark, since they first acted as her friends and on sunday morning went home couple of hours before us, without waking us up, as if we were complete strangers to them.

If I go there next year (I think about it, Ania said she's fed up with Woodstock but I'll try to work on it) we'll sleep in a van and go there by van, not by train. The return by train took 9 hours in very uncomfortable EN57. I don't believe it was built for long-distance travels since it's rather slow and has seats made of plastic and not enough toilets to handle many drunk young people...

Tomorrow to the Woodstock

2006-07-28T15:34:00.000+02:00

So my girlfriend asked me to go there and I agreed. I am a simple man, who almost always agrees to do what his girlfriend asks. This is the first time for me to travel with EuroCity train (Warsaw-Berlin, I'm using it to get to Rzepin and from there with another train -- to Kostrzyn).

One might ask why did I agree to go there while I didn't want to. It's simple -- I'll do anything to be close the girl I love.

So she went there...

2006-07-26T11:16:00.000+02:00

I don't know why she had to go to the Woodstock Stop today, but she did. This makes the next four nights very difficult...

I hope she doesn't do anything stupid... If she does, I will just leave her and then I won't care.

The most difficult week

2006-07-23T22:47:00.000+02:00

Tomorrow starts the most difficult week in my entire life.

Let's start with the monday. I told that I'll be at work at 6 AM, because we need to prepare a very important Power Point presentation that'll be shown at the Brussels to some very important people. After that is done I have another large thing to work on. I was given a large project to handle and I'm the only responsible for the success or the failure. This means that there's noone else to authorise my decisions or to save me from doing something wrong. That kept me awake last night.

The second thing is my B.Sc. thesis I need to finish until the end of july. This is only difficult in the mean of finding time for doing it.

The third, probably the most important and difficult problem is my girlfriend Ania going to the Przystanek Woodstock on thursday. This festival is the place to be for the people like Ania, who like rock and metal music. I don't like those genres and will not be able to leave work at thursday so I don't go there with Ania (I don't want to ruin her fun with my bad frame of mind). And because of that I am afraid that she'll find there someone who's more interesting for her than I am. This will keep me awake at thursday, friday and saturday nights... I hope that she'll agree that I'll phone her twice a day and she'll send me two smses when she gets up and goes to sleep, and that she'll not say that I'm trying to remote control her.

I don't know how I'll handle the end of the week. To keep my thoughts away from the Woodstock Stop I'll drink a lot of alcohol and work my ass of... At the moment I'm listening to A State Of Trance #240, by Armin van Buuren. I think that this tune with an addition of vodka will heal my pain...

The trip for VW T4

2006-07-21T11:05:00.000+02:00

Yesterday we went to Włocławek to buy Volkswagen T4 bus. The car was supposed to cost $3,000 and because of that was in the range of my savings. Tomek talked to the seller on the phone, we were going to meet him at 7 PM. We were about 20 minutes late, to late to buy the car.

There were three people standing next to the van as we arrived, we asked them if one of them was the guy Tomek spoke to. As we were told, they also wanted to look at the car. We waited for the owner for a few minutes and when he finally got there there were two people with him. They bought the car. The guy was kind enough to give us $30 for the fuel (we spend about $50 :( ).

Tomek said that he'd encourage me not to buy this car. In that case we'd have to go home for free, since he sold the car we got a part of the money we spent -- better this than nothing...

The third purchase failure

2006-07-20T09:35:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I went with Tomek to Kielce (a city 180 km, 110 miles from Warsaw) to buy a VW T3. I phoned the guy who wanted to sell it at noon, we decided to meet there at 8 PM. At 7:45 PM he calls me and asks me if we left Warsaw already. "Yes, we're 32 km (20 miles) from Kielce at the moment", I replied. Why did he call me? Because he sold the car.

I don't know if I am trying to buy the car from idiots. This one is surely an idiot. He could tell me that someone is going to see the bus, I'd leave Warsaw later or stay at home if he sold it. Now I guess he needs to refund me the trip costs since diesel fuel in Warsaw is not free.

Only 68% evil?

2006-07-19T09:50:00.000+02:00

You Are 68% Evil

You are very evil. And you're too evil to care.
Those who love you probably also fear you. A lot.

How Evil Are You?

Seat Belts Suck?

2006-07-19T08:58:00.000+02:00


I was told by parents to fasten my seatbelt everytime I drive a car. And I'm glad I got used to it. Now I don't feel safe without it.

After the vacation in Sopot

2006-07-18T22:48:00.000+02:00

On the last thursday, Ania and I went to Sopot for a four-day vacation. I took my fiat 126p, a tent and we drove north, to the Baltic Sea shore. After long 7 hours in the small car (which had only one breakdown -- the ground cable disconnected itself from the battery and the car was only powered by the generator) we finally got to the campsite (you can see it on Google Maps) and got to sleep.

One interesting thing to mention was a thunderstorm we had to go through. The rain was pouring so heavily I couldn't see for more than 50 meters (150 ft). I had to drive very slowly, around 50 km/h (30 mph). But in one moment I looked around the car to see that there are not many trees next to the road. I changed the gear and accelerated, very soon Ania shouted at me to slow down. I replied that if we stay in the storm for a moment we'll probably be hit by a lightning. You won't believe -- not more than 30 seconds after I said so a lighting struck a tree not farther than 200 m (600 ft) away. That ended this argument we had.

The following three days were very nice, we were going to the beach to sunbathe and swim (only possible on the first day, on the other two days the wind was to strong and the lifeguards didn't allow anyone to go into the water) and doing something else in the evenings. We argued much, but that gave me the nice feeling of being married. ;)

Weather in Ursus / Warsaw

2006-07-10T14:49:00.000+02:00

What is the weather in Ursus, Warsaw? Check the internet meteorogical station in Warsaw. It shows online the temperature, wind, precipitation and other interesting stuff. Unfortunatelly, the temperatures are only in Celsius degrees, not in Fahrenheits.

You can also see my webcam in Warsaw. :)

YouTube - Vw Bus Crash Test

2006-07-07T18:49:00.000+02:00

This is VW Doka (doppelkabine -- double passenger compartment and open space for cargo) crash test. Doesn't look nice...

The senseless trip to Kraków

2006-07-07T13:48:00.000+02:00

The first T3 I mentioned last time(Vanagon) was sold very quickly, before I got a chance to meet the guy and see the car. I tried to phone him but his phone was offline. I checked the ad the next morning just to see that it was sold. No wonder he turned his cellphone off.

Yesterday we went with Ania and Tomek to Kraków. On the internet the car looked very nice, but with rather unfortunate photos:

The outside, front:
The outside, back:

Inside, you see almost nothing. I don't know if the guy who made this photograph was an idiot, because it shows nothing important. Or maybe it was made this way on purpose?
The front seats:

When we saw the car it looked a bit less interesting. The bumpers were painted without removing the license plates. The engine was wiped with a cloth in the places where one could put his hand, I guess to hide the oil leaks. The front dampers and the rear tires need to be changed. The engine makes some strange noise, like some metal parts are hitting each other while they're not supposed to do so. I asked the owner how much oil the engine losses and he said that it leaks the oil through the turbocharger but didn't answer my question. The engine was said to be used only on a distance of 35,000 km (something around 17,000 miles) so it is very interesting why the turbine leaks oil. Tomek drove the car for a moment and after that the guy asked me to decide.

"2.3", I said.
"What?"
"$2,300", I replied.
"Good-bye then".
"Good-bye".

So we went home. We had to stop on a petrol station and Tomek tried once again to discuss the matter with the guy. He spoke to him for more than 10 minutes, trying to convince him to sell this car for no more than $2,600, with no success. The guy did not want to change his starting price for a bit!

This leaves me with $100 charged on my credit card for fuel for Tomek's mercedes vito and with 10 hours of my time used for nothing.

Since I will not buy the car before the summer vacation (it started week ago), I will have to use my prescious fiat 126 for all the trips we (Ania and I) plan. I'll try to save another $1,000 or more and check if I can buy something better. Now there's now rush since I'm already late. :)

T3 purchase: failure

2006-07-04T10:28:00.000+02:00

On friday the guy who sells the T3 called me to say that the car was towed to a police parking. His friend borrowed the car to go somewhere and was halted by a police officer. As the car was not registered in Poland yet (and was brought from Germany), they towed the car to the parking and the guy was asked to visit the police station for questioning.

Seems that I won't buy this car. The guy said that he'll send me the money I left him back, along with some cash to cover the trip.

At the moment there are two T3s I want to see.
* First is a Vanagon (version of T3 for american market), with 2.9 liter engine, 200 HP and a lot of rust. It costs less than $1,500. The car is somewhere near Warsaw. It has LPG autogas tank and installation.
* Second is a camping version of T3 -- along with bed and table it has a sink, stove and few cupboards. The guy wants to sell it for $3,000. The car is in Kraków, 300 km (180 miles) from Warsaw.

I guess that I will go and see the first one, if I'll like it, I'll buy it. It'll be a very frightening experience to drive a car with 200 HP after using a fiat 126 with small, 24 HP engine...

The Incredible Machine

2006-06-26T11:38:00.000+02:00

Do you remember an old PC Game -- The Incredible Machine. Now you can see it in real life. :) Take a look, worth seeing!

So I'm finally buying the T3

2006-06-26T08:46:00.000+02:00

We went with Tomek and my girlfriend Ania to Gostynin, to see the Volkswagen T3 Multivan I mentioned earlier. The trip took two hours in Tomek's VW Vito, I was very glad that it has air conditioning because it was very hot that evening.

The car we saw was astonishing. It was so beautiful that Tomek asked if he should take off his shoes before getting inside. You couldn't find any rust on it. It has a 1.6 liter turbocharged diesel engine, a parking heater, curtains in windows, comfortable and large bed (but I'd prefer not to use it as a passenger), one of the front seats can be rotated to inside the car.

The T3 has few minor faults. The belt that drives the injection timing needs to be changed and some other things need to be done, but that doesn't affect the price since I'll give the car to a friend who'll repair those things for a few dollars.

The price, the most important thing. The guy wanted to sell the car for PLN 7,500 ($2,500). I spoke with Tomek that he should be the one discussing the price because he owned in his life more than 50 cars (he's 24 years old) and bought more than 40. So he said that we'll buy the car for PLN 6,000 ($2,000) and the guy who wanted to sell it will not have to change the injection timing. And he agreed. Tomek said that he was surprised the guy agreed that fast, because he always negotiated the price to the last PLN 50 ($17).

Since the car was brought from Germany now I need to get license plates for the car.

The second try to see the T3

2006-06-23T11:55:00.000+02:00

Last week, on sunday, I was unable to go with Tomek to Gostynin, because I had to stay at work to 12:30 AM. I was supposed to leave work at 6 PM and go there, but had to stay much longer.

I called the owner of the car, I'm going to meet him on saturday. Tomorrow I don't go to work so nothing will stop me this time. :)

T3 closer than ever

2006-06-16T22:55:00.000+02:00

On sunday I go with my friend Tomek to Gostynin (100 miles / 160 km from Warsaw) to see the T3 multivan he found on Allegro (polish internet auction site). I hope the car will be okay and I'll buy it, because I like the way it looks and the stuff it has inside. :)

Difficult VW T3 hunt

2006-06-11T19:31:00.000+02:00

I thought that the only thing that keeps me from buying a VW T3 is lack of money. So i waited patiently to earn and save enough money to look for something interesting, not a total wreck that will be useless very soon after purchase. At that moment there were many different T3s to choose from.

When I finally have enough money to buy a nice T3 (at the moment I have about PLN 8,000 -- a bit more than $2,500), there are no cars to buy.

At the moment I found only wto interesting transporters.
One is near Warsaw, for $1,500, but only 1.6 liter diesel.
There was one in Gdynia, about 400 km (250 miles) from Warsaw, for $1,600. The one had multivan insides (foldable table, bed) and 1.6 turbo diesel engine. But the guy that posted the ad didn't post his phone number and doesn't respond to emails. So I can't ask him what's wrong with the car. Something must be wrong -- it should cost about $2,300 at least, so the guy doesn't know it's value or the car is not fully operational.

czujny przechodzien - Google Video

2006-06-08T21:54:00.000+02:00

"Czujny przechodzień" = "aware pedestrian". LOL.

Airsoft posts moved to Airsoft blog from Poland

2006-06-04T21:48:00.000+02:00

Today I have split my blog into two parts -- one about airsoft, second about everything else. If you want to read about airsoft, go to Airsoft from Poland blog.

What is that threaded barrel?

2006-06-01T20:05:00.000+02:00

This post was moved to What is that threaded barrel?

No airsoft game this week :(

2006-05-26T21:54:00.000+02:00

This post was moved to No airsoft game this week :(.

The weight of mG36 at phase II

2006-05-24T21:56:00.000+02:00

This post was moved to The weight of mG36 at phase II.

The day of returning BBs

2006-05-22T21:57:00.000+02:00

This post was moved to The day of returning BBs.

Quick photo of mG36 at phase II

2006-05-21T21:59:00.000+02:00

This post was moved to Quick photo of mG36 at phase II.

Want to see place where I live on Google Maps?

2006-05-07T22:02:00.000+02:00

Thanks to Google Maps API I could put a Google Map onto my Warsaw webcam server. It opens in a map mode, which is not a good idea since maps of Warsaw show only streets. But one can switch to satellite or hybrid mode.

If you'd like to see where I live, check out the where in Warsaw is my webcam page.

Counter-Strike: Reactivation

2006-05-07T22:01:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I downloaded a good bot for my Counter-Strike v1.6 (it's a ZBot, it took me much time to find a bot that's downloadable, since many sites about CS are no longer online, eventually I had to search for this bot at ED2K network). It was very pleasant to run through the dark hallways of as_oilrig, my favourite CS map. Another good way to waste few hours of my prescious time. ;)

A trip to Glen Coe

2006-05-06T22:11:00.000+02:00

A friend of mine, Wotan, posted on his blog Emptiness is Form - unknown artist journal (unfortunatelly written in polish), photos from his trip to the scotish valley of Glen Coe. The photographs impressed me very much, I need to wait for the rest that will be posted soon, I hope.

Wotan spends his free time doing photos and making movies. You can see his website Well-Known-Artist.com. You'll find there some of his movies to download and watch. Unfortunatelly, the movie Littleboy, in which I had a small role, is not placed there. :(

Picasa -- photo software by Google

2006-05-05T22:12:00.000+02:00

I downloaded Picasa some time ago when I needed a software to slideshow my photographs. I found that feature inside, but later on I had a legal ACDSee from CD I got with a computer magazine, so Picasa was left alone.

Now I use it often to look inside my collection of photographs from airsoft events I attended and all the other digital photos I gathered for many years. My first contact with digital camera took place in high school, 8 years ago, it was a 640x480 Sony Mavica, equipped with a floppy disk drive. ;) You can imagine how many photographs I gathered since that moment. :)

But I am not sure whether the Google's advertisement is justified... It says that "it's what should've come with your digital camera". Maybe...

The required repairs for my fiat 126

2006-05-01T22:16:00.000+02:00

Today I spent 4 hours working around my fiat 126p. I finished what the mechanic started on tuesday (I mounted three lights on the rear bumper and the license plate on the front one), changed the front pair of tires from winter to summer set and painted few spots I expect to rust soon with something called "Elaskon". It's like a tar that never dries and protects the surface from water.

Since the car was not used for more than two months it was a nice change to carry my butt with it, not with public transportation.

Clicking the link will direct your browser to my fiat 126 fan page, where you can read more about what had to be done today.

Colin McRae Rally 3

2006-04-30T22:15:00.000+02:00

I bought that game yesterday for the silly amount of around $7. It came on 2 CDs in DVD case, with $1.5 credit for buying another game in the CDProjekt online shop.

I am dissapointed. The game was supposed to run on a Pentium III @ 750 MHz, with 128 MB RAM and GeForce with 32 RAM. I have Duron 1600 MHz, 768 MB RAM and the game does not run appropriately. I had to turn the details to low, set the resolution to 640x480x16bit, and even at that point the game every 10 or so seconds "freezes" for a very short moment. Probably it takes less then 0.3 second to "unfreeze", but during that time the keys pressed are being remembered so it might happen that the car will "suddenly" start turning left or right. In that moments I often end up on some tree, rock or in river.

I liked the Colin McRae Rally 2 very much, 3 is (I guess) supposed to be an upgrade of some kind but I think that it's not as good as the previous version. Too bad I lost the CD with CMR2 somewhere. :(

The longest weekend in Poland

2006-04-29T22:17:00.000+02:00

Since the first and third of may are national holidays in Poland (may 1st - labor day, 3rd -- Holiday of the 3rd May Constitution), the following weekend lasts for 5 days. That's the best time to go anywhere and rest until summer.

One day at Wojciechowskiego Street in Warsaw

2006-04-26T22:18:00.000+02:00

This movie was made yesterday with my webcam in Warsaw. It's almost 10 minutes long which makes 8,5 hours of real life (10:25 AM -> 6:55 PM). I uploaded it to Google Video yesterday. :)

Isn't it a river valley?

2006-04-23T22:23:00.000+02:00

If someone told me that this is a part of Earth I'd bet all my money that it's a river valley. Unzoom the image and scroll down, you'll see somethin even more interesting...

Google Mars

2006-04-23T22:20:00.000+02:00

At the moment I am reading for the secont time the Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. The possibility to take a look at the surface of Mars is the thing I believe is missing in the books.

Webcam - Warszawa (Warsaw) - Poland

2006-04-23T22:19:00.000+02:00

This webcam shows the view through my window. A friend of mine gave me a link to a quite nice webcam-managing program, I installed it and added the webcam to my personal Apache web server.

At the moment you won't see nothing interesting since it's dark outside and the camera doesn't see much. Nevertheless I hope that you'll find it worth taking a look. The photo is being refreshed every 30 seconds. :)

The software also saves all the photos in an uncompressed AVI file, makes a separate file for each day. This way you can see the entire day in single movie, 24 minutes long (2 frames per second, which makes one minute of real life -> one second of movie).

Less and less weekend traffic each week.

2006-04-22T22:30:00.000+02:00

Intelligent explanation on why during weekends web sites get less attention than on weekdays.

More than one week ago...

2006-04-21T22:36:00.000+02:00

...I posted here. That's because I work from 8. to 6.-7. PM and when after another hour I am finally home I don't want to do anything that requires using my brain. ;)

The work is not very challenging nor exhaustive, but after more than 12 hours spent outside my house I don't feel like thinking too much.

If I was not as greedy as I am I would work only for 8 hours each day and leave work at 4. PM. But I want to earn the money to buy myself as quickly as possible, so I have to work more to earn more. As we were told that working on weekends equals more money, tomorrow I will go to work. This will leave me only the sunday to rest. It'll have to be enough. ;)

Bunker and abandoned chemical plant

2006-04-09T22:49:00.000+02:00

Today I went with some friends to Tomaszów Mazowiecki, a town about 100 km (60 mi.) from Warsaw. Near the town during the II World War were built two large bunkers, each more than 300 m (1000 ft) long. They were built for trains with generals and their staff, who went to the nearby Spała for vacation, hunting and stuff.

But when we went there we saw some abandoned factory or CHP plant and decided that we have to see it from the inside. We were going to see both bunkers but checked only one of them and went to what was said to be a chemical plant.

This was my first opportunity to go inside the smoke-stack. The view from the bottom of it to the top is one of a kind...

Bus Selecta

2006-04-09T22:48:00.000+02:00

Tune your own VW T1 Bus using your web browser. Too bad you can't tune T3 I want.

You can choose from various models with different window placements, colors, tyres and wheels and some accessories (like safari windshields).

Counter Struck

2006-04-09T22:35:00.000+02:00

Airsoft replicas - 200$ each.
Video camera - 200$.
Having a friend who's guarding a warehouse - 10$.
The movie - priceless...

Bunker and abandoned chemical plant

2006-04-09T17:56:00.000+02:00

Windows online for 15+ days

2006-04-08T22:56:00.000+02:00

I started this session of WindowsXP 365 hours ago which means it's working for more than 15 days without a crash.

I am very glad that I bought this OS some time ago. Windows98SE was nice, but couldn't last that long.

My computer hosts a web server for my photographs and also has ED2K started to upload the files I want to share (mostly commercial ebooks). That's why I don't turn it off.

If I didn't have water cooling I'd probably shut it down from time to time to have healthy sleep during silent night, but water cooling and fan in the power supply are silent enough.

Working for the government?

2006-04-07T22:58:00.000+02:00

It seems that I'll be working for our government for the next few months, until june. That kind of job is steady, but only until nearest elections. If you're important enough, you should then be afraid that someone might want to fire you because you were hired by their political opponent.

YouTube - Reppin the {PL}

2006-04-06T18:35:00.000+02:00

If you read some of my first posts you already know what is fiat 126. If not, check my website I linked in the previous sentence.

If you want to see how someone put in fiat 126p an engine (and front wheels, suspension, steering) from some BMW or alfa romeo (I'm not sure) and how this car can be driven with two steering wheels -- check out the link I gave here.

I love the "Blog this!" in my Firefox. ;)

Small, Medium, Large

2006-04-06T16:59:00.000+02:00

Size does matter. I always was wondering, why at my favorite pizza place one can't buy a small pizza. You can only get large or medium. There are no small pizzas. I thought that being medium means that you're larger than one and smaller than other. But when there are only two sizes the natural choice would be -- small and large.

This flash movie explains everything, why small is not small.

Tech-Support

2006-04-05T23:33:00.000+02:00

Tech-Support
This flash movie describes why the tech supports are being moved to third world countries like Poland or India.

But here the smallest wages are about $180/month. For that amount of money many of Poles will not move their asses from home to work. That's why we have 20% of unemployement.

Webcam down :(

2006-04-05T22:14:00.000+02:00

I forgot to start Apache web server and webcam software so since yesterday evening my webcam in Warsaw was down. :(

Good advice...

2006-03-27T19:01:00.000+02:00

...I heard today.

"Stick to the people who listen, not to the people who talk."

Wise. Worth remembering.

Is it the spring already?

2006-03-27T10:00:00.000+02:00

If not the snow laying around, fog and rain one might think that we finally see the spring. Today the predicted air temperature is said to be +15°C (59°F). Being sick and tired of this long and strong winter I am happy to announce that. :)

The unpleasant sunday

2006-03-26T18:43:00.000+02:00

Today, during the night, we switched the time. We do it every year to save the daylight during the winter. Now we moved our clocks forward, so we lost one hour of this sunday.

I wanted to ride a bicycle today, to start season 2006, but it is raining so I'll have to do it the other day.

The half-anniversary

2006-03-25T19:37:00.000+01:00

It's been six months since I started posting here. Since september 20. 2005 I wrote here 66 post, which makes it 11 each month, something like one every three days. I enjoy blogging very much, but often forget what I want to write here before I get home and log in.

I went through my photo archive and found one photograph that you might find interesting. I call it "fun with radioactive materials". ;)

I took this photograph at my university, at the classes where we were told how does the Geiger-Miller counter works. To show that, a source of radiation is required. So we "played" with the radioactive Cs-137. Nothing to be afraid of, really. :)

Kosmonauta - zawód poszukiwany

2006-03-24T18:52:00.000+01:00

Kosmonauta - zawód poszukiwany
An article in polish about how on my faculty astronauts are being taught. Of course the journalists who wrote that article don't know anything about my faculty nor about astronauts and astronautics. They wrote that the best 90 of 260 that started studying last year are able to be taught to be astronauts which is not true, because any one who wanted to study that could do so. My institute of heat engineering has also many very good students.

There's another one important thing -- to become an astronaut you must be somebody more than just BSc, preferably a jet pilot or scientist of some kind.

Or just be rich enough to buy yourself a place on the space station.

Summer + Winter = Spring?

2006-03-24T00:04:00.000+01:00

Two days ago the spring has begun, according to the calendar. But today, in the morning, the temperature outside was chilly -5°C (23F) and at 1PM the sun was shining and it was pleasantly warm. Winter in the morning, summer at noon. But that doesn't make the spring.

If you have time and some wire, check this out

2006-03-21T21:27:00.000+01:00

Fishki.Net - ??? ????? ??????? ?? ?????????, ???? ??????? ?????????? ??????? (40 ????) | ??????? ????????
I have no idea what does it mean since it's probably in russian and I don't use that language, but you'll find there a illustrated how-to make a soldier action figure with a wire and a small help from pliers.

The reason why I don't like being sick

2006-03-11T21:35:00.000+01:00

Of course there are the "default" reasons like: one has to stay at home in bed and has fever, cough, headache, backache, throatache. But this time my flue has improved and it's given me something new: insomnia.

For the last four night I couldn't fell asleep. It took me few hours lying in bed, with eyes closed, beying frustrated, to get some sleep. Yesterday I fell asleep at 5. AM.

Fun with WhatPulse

2006-03-05T18:35:00.000+01:00

WhatPulse is a software that "keeps track of keystrokes". It counts how many keystrokes and mouseclicks you make, and sends it to the server. Since I started pulsing 16 months ago I typed over 10^7 keys and clicked more than 1,8E6 times, proof can be found on my online stats.

Over 10% of all keystrokes is the space and 3% -- backspace. It shows how much mistakes I make while typing.

My water cooling failed

2006-02-27T09:21:00.000+01:00

Today I had the first failure of my Water Cooling since I bought it about 4 years ago. This year, about few months ago, I bought me a new set since the last pump I had started working very noisy and the idea of substituting loud fan/radiator with silent pump was not working anymore.

Yesterday I thought that I'll turn off the computer. And I did turn it off, and also the pumps of water cooling. I opened the window to sleep in a fresh and cold air (it was something below 0°C (32°F)) and somehow all the water from the hoses went down to the tank in which the pumps are submerged.

I started the computer, it worked for a while and then just turned off. It took me awhile to figure out what was wrong, I tried to start it several times but it stopped in different places (sometimes after trying to load Windows, sometimes at the very beginning). I opened the case, touched the heat exchanger (which is on the processor) and felt that it's very hot. For over 30 minutes I tried to make the pumps fill the hoses with water and finally succeeded, otherwise I wouldn't be writing this post now. ;)

Sudoku frenzy

2006-02-26T14:08:00.000+01:00

Today I scrolled through an internet bookshop I like. I was looking around the "home" section, especially inside "guides -> hobbies". I found so many books about Sudoku that I thought that this shop is only about that game.
On first two pages (20 titles) I found:
Sudoku: Matematyczne Puzzle,
Sudoku: Kultowa Łamigłówka,
Sudoku: 170 Łamigłówek,
Sudoku: Strategie,
Łamigłówki Instytutu Sudoku,
Pocket Puzzles. Sudoku and
Amazing Sudoku Puzzles (yes, two of the books were also in english which means that people must buy all the titles about this game).

At this moment I decided that it's enough and closed that web site.

Snow is melting, sun is coming

2006-02-01T16:04:00.000+01:00

Today the temperature is somewhere around the freezing point so the snow finally started to melt. With some help of that salt which was spread on the streets during last, very cold days, after snow. Now is the worst part of every winter -- the dirty and ugly mud is all over the city, on streets and sidewalks. There are many puddles so it's very easy to have water in your boots or on your trousers (if a nice driver go next to you through a large puddle).

I felt summer in the air. You may laugh but I am certain that the smell in the air reminded me of a hot but rainy summer day. I have a good memory when it comes to remembering the scents.

Dreams about T3 getting more precise

2006-01-29T22:09:00.000+01:00

After scrolling through the internet I found out that I want a VW T3 "Multivan". The latter is a name of inside furnishing -- the car has on the back a three-seat couch which is a folding bed with compartment for storing bedding, blanket, pillows and stuff. It also has a small fold-out table and a lamp in the ceiling above it.

I heard that it's wise to set yourself a goal with a deadline and write it down. So I write down that I want to buy a VW T3 multivan, 1600 turbodiesel, before the first of august. My birthday is on 02.08 so it'll be a nice birthday present for me.

There's of course a difficulty -- I get from my parents about 85$ each month. The car will cost about 3,000$. So I'll have to find me a job. Or tune-up my AdSense earnings.

VW transporter T3 -- the car of my dreams :)

2006-01-27T20:13:00.000+01:00

So I have now a dream car -- a car I want to have in a future. It's a volkswagen transporter T3. For those of you who don't know how this car looks like I put here two pictures from Wikimedia Commons (they're on GNU FDL license).

The photographs show the earlier version of this car, manufactured in early 1980s (yellow), the second -- the late 1980s version (blue). They differ in price, and look slightly different, because of those lights.

I want to buy a car with 1,6 liter turbocharged diesel engine -- it has 70HP and is said to use only 5 liters of diesel fuel per 100 km (about 40 miles per gallon). I like also the idea of converting it to rapeseed or any other vegetable oil by putting another fuel tank, electrovalves and fuel heater. This volkswagen has engine in the back, I'd like to find a one with 5 speed gearbox.

I hope that I'd be able to buy one before the first of august to be able to use it during summer holidays -- this is a very nice car to travel for a vacation. :)

Winter struck back

2006-01-21T12:52:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I drove with my friend Tomek to Sędziszów, he was told to buy there 25 pallets. The town is known to energy industry in Poland because there's the SeFaKo (Sędziszowska Fabryka Kotłów) -- a boiler manufacturer.

As it was forecasted, the winter struck back. It was cold (-25°C / -13°F) and there was a thick layer of fresh, clean snow. As you can see, the main roads were easily passable.

Today we have lots of snow incoming, so I guess in the evening I will drive somewhere to slide. :)

Achtung, Winter!

2006-01-19T00:10:00.000+01:00

As I saw on the ICM Weather Forecast for Warsaw, tomorrow the temperature outside (the red line on the first chart) will drop to -20°C (-4°F) and the windchill (the blue one) to about -40°C (-40°F) in few days. On sunday we have the weekly airsoft games, so I guess it'll have to be moved to some other time -- noone will want to freeze themselves to death.

But I will have a rare opportunity to try if my fiat 126p will start at that temperature. I guess it won't, but it's worth trying. :D

A course of the Polish language

2006-01-15T13:25:00.000+01:00

Since it's over a week since I last posted here, I thought that I should give you something to keep you busy for longer time than usual. Today I came across a course of the Polish language which will probably give you some idea of difficult is our language. ;)

Somewhere under the rainbow

2006-01-07T11:51:00.001+01:00

This rainbow was photographed with my Nokia 3650 during one of those beautiful, warm and sunny autumn days. It was made from inside of a bus, on a route to my home. :)

I borrowed a bluetooth dongle from my father and downloaded all the photographs I made with my cellphone to the computer, so probably I will post some of them in the next few days. :)

When nature meets technology

2006-01-06T13:22:00.000+01:00

I took this photo with my Nokia 3650 somewhere around middle of june 2005. I was sitting in my fiat 126p parked outside an McDonald's restaurant, that sparrow landed on my rear mirror, probably because he thought that I'll give him something to eat. It seems that people often eat in their cars and feed the birds at the same time, so the birds think that all the people sitting there in their cars will feed them. :)

2005-12-24T22:18:00.000+01:00

The main Christmas tradition in Poland is the Christmas eve supper. It's supposed to be consisting of at least 12 dishes, and every person at the table should try at least a bit of every one of that twelve.

There's also one spare plate for any stranger that might come unannounced. I don't know what is the cause of that, probably because Poles like to think about themselves as generous and hospitable people.

Since we (my parents, me and my brother) moved 8 years ago to a larger apartment, every Christmas eve we invite my grandparents (four of them) to us for that supper. My mother with help of my grandmas is always preparing at least 12 dishes, she makes most of them. This year we had (in order of appearance):
1) herring with olive and onions (salty, very tasty),
2) herring ala marshall (in sauce made of mayonnaise, carrots, paprika and something else),
3) boiled carp with raisins and stewed onions (sweet and delicate),
4) fried dried mushrooms,
5) vegetable salad,
6) sauerkraut with peas,
7) barszcz z uszkami,
8) pierogi (dumplings) with sauerkraut and mushrooms,
9) carp -- fried with rosemary and some other herbs,
10) makiełki -- pasta with poppy seeds, almonds and honey
11) cheesecake,
12) poppyseed cake
and
13) compote, which was served at the beginning.

A bit about the weather today

2005-12-24T13:35:00.000+01:00

In Poland we are accustomed to the fact that we have snow on Christmas. If not snow, at least there's frost. So when I was in primary school every year we went to my grandma (then she lived in hills) and we had much fun with snow.

Today the weather outside is not pleasant. It's +5°C (41F), almost all the snow already melted. And it rains.

Tomorrow I am going to visit my godmother, she lives in Kielce, that's 180 km (112 miles) from here. That's why I'd prefer the weather to be nicer. I hope tomorrow at least the rain will stop...

I bought me an antifog spray, to handle the condensation of water vapor on glasses in my fiat 126p. It says to use it on a dry and clean glass, I don't know how to achieve it -- I guess that in Kielce, after 2,5 hours of driving I will use that spray -- the windscreen should be dry by then.

Warsaw under snow

2005-12-20T13:34:00.000+01:00

Warsaw covered in snow looks much...tidier. Unfortunatelly the snow melts very fast on sidewalks and streets are rather clean (wet, but clean). I prefer when they're also under snow. :)

My first check from AdSense

2005-12-14T22:40:00.000+01:00

Today I received my first cheque from AdSense. I am very glad because that's my first real income from my web sites (actually...only from one site). I earned 100,09$ between june and october. I hope that those cheques will come to my mailbox on a regular basis. :D

Wikipedia power

2005-12-14T01:16:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I started writing articles on Wikipedia, the internet encyclopedia, on it's polish edition. I like the concept of many people editing the same article, I like watching how my parts of articles are being developed and corrected.

I started with articles about energy industry, because that's what I'm interested in. I created two pages -- one about gengas and one about PWR reactors. I hope my enthusiasm will be high enough to allow me to write some articles from time to time...

the first day of my first job

2005-12-05T22:58:00.000+01:00

:::: 22:58:42 @ 2005-12-05 ::::

This is the first day of my first real job. I mean the first job where
I'm gonna be paid by somebody that's not my relative. Washing my
grandma's windows doesn't count. ;)

The work I found (well... to be honest the work found me with a little
help from one of my friends) is something my dictionary calls
"stock-taking". I don't know if this is a precise term, I never used
it before.

We work in two-man teams, with a list of stock in store house, take
boxes out of shelves, see what's inside, mark it on the list and put
back on the shelves. Not very difficult in both physical and mental
strain, so I'm very happy I do this. During this week I hope I'll earn
some 100$. :)

This post looks a bit different than the others, because I use it for
testing bloggin with email. :) This way you can also see how my
tweaked TheBat! new mail template looks like. ;)

--
Best regards,
Krzysztof Lis
lis(at)lis(dot)vel(d.t)pl
http://lis.vel.pl

international difficulties

2005-11-27T23:39:00.000+01:00

Because I try to make this blog easily understandable worldwide (hoping that it'll aid me in advertising it), each time I write any unit of lenght, volume, temperature or so, I must translate it from SI (metric) system to english inch-BTU-fahrenheit system. This is rather easy when it comes to simple units, I just open a freeware software called "convert", and do the conversion.

It's much more difficult to convert our "litres per 100 km" to "miles per gallon", since I don't have any simple factor to multiply nor divide by. One is a reciprocal of the other, of course needs to be multiplied by something.

I must say that english units for me and for most people from Europe aren't intuitive. That's because we don't use them and are not familiar with using inches and mulitplying it by 12 to get foot and multiplying it by something else to get mile. We have plain centimeters, 100 of them makes a meter, 1 000 of them makes a kilometer.

I also think that fahrenheit temperature scale is not very easy to understand. In celsius scale we have zero at the freezing point of water and 100° when the water boils. Fahrenheit put his zero to "a temperature during one winter in Gdańsk" (BTW -- Gdańsk is now a city in Poland) and 100° to "temperature of his wife's body". Since our life is strongly connected with water, I believe that celsius scale is more intuitive than fahrenheit.

But, as mentioned before, that's probably because I don't use it very often.

Every government has it's idiot(s)...

2005-11-22T23:57:00.000+01:00

Our minister of national defence (something like secretary of defense in U.S.) decided that no non-soldier is allowed to wear polish military clothing. This way my field jacket mark 93 is no longer legal and I can't wear it in public, since I'm not a soldier. Now it's only a rag, though it costed me more than 30$.

There seems to be a good solution to that nonsense -- to alter that jacket a bit. Removing one or two pockets (I don't use all three pockets on the sleeves so two of them will probably be removed) and / or changing buttons to a different colored ones will make it just an ordinary jacket, that doesn't comply to "field jacket mark 93" description.

Our army sell much surplus clothing very cheap. Now they will have to do it even cheaper, who will buy a rag for more than 1$?

another sunday I spent at home

2005-11-20T19:01:00.000+01:00

That's not very unusual since I spend most of the time at home, surfing the net, reading news and doing nothing of importance. But today I was supposed to meet with a friend of mine and go with him to Pruszków to take a look at a deserted heat plant. It was never finished and probably is a very nice post-industrial (pre-industrial) place. But my mail with question about where and when we'd meet was not answered thus I sit at home.

Second snow this winter

2005-11-19T20:58:00.000+01:00

Of course I won't announce every next snow that will happen in Warsaw. I was very happy that a thin layer of snow covers my car, but before I had to use the car it melted.

I also have a very tasty recipe for you, just tested minutes ago. This is a recipe for banana coctail -- you take three bananas, 500 ml (17 oz) of natural-flavored yoghurt (without any fruits added) and five tablespoons of sugar. Blend together, if to dense add milk.

At the end -- a link to my just-launched website about my fiat 126p.

This winter's first snow

2005-11-17T15:06:00.000+01:00

I just looked through a window in my room and saw that it's snowing. The temperature is about 2°C (35°F), so the snow melts as soon as it reaches ground. But the weather forecast says that the friday's night will be cold enough for snow to gather.

I like winter, when it's snowing, because my city looks cleaner when it's covered with clean, bright white snow. It covers the brown lawns (they'd be green if people wouldn't ruin them with their shoes) and broken sidewalks, and the city looks like it was not touched by human untidiness.

I hope I'll be able to post some "Warsaw covered in snow" photos soon...

How I'd like this blog to be advertised

2005-11-17T10:13:00.000+01:00

Today I dreamt of having my blog advertised on some newsletter. I dreamt that one of the authors of this newsletter (which was sent to many subscribers) posted a link to my blog just because he liked it. And he said that it's very interesting and people should take a look at it.

I guess this won't happen, so if I want to encourage visitors to come here I'd have to do something. Anything... For now I am only posting here, even not on a regular basis.

The usual boredom

2005-11-08T17:39:00.000+01:00

Staying at home almost every day means that I'm bored all the time. Except for wednesdays when I have classes and saturdays, when we play airsoft.

Today I started launching my new e-business. This will be my second site with AdSense ads, as the previous it'll be about something I'm interested in. This site will be about ASG. Today I created an address, MySQL database and installed CMS (PHP Fusion). That was the easy part. The next thing to do is to fill the CMS with content. I know it'll be difficult... But to earn money in most cases one has to work. So I work. :)

"colors are victorious over the gray"

2005-10-26T13:50:00.000+02:00

For now they are. This is the main reason I like this part of autumn -- the multicolored trees. Red, brown, yellow, dark or even light green. Depends on the species. This is the view from my apartment's kitchen window.

In a few weeks those colors will fade, and the world will turn gray, brown, and finally -- all will be white.

My new water cooler

2005-10-21T00:37:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I had a free hour which I was waiting for since the monday. On monday I returned to Warsaw and found a package with my new water cooler set I ordered last week. I wanted to install it in the middle of a day to have much light in the room, in order to make photos of the process.

I had a free hour about 4. PM, unfortunatelly the weather was nice but my camera had not enough light.

On the photo you can see my computer with water cooler installed. You can see a heatsink on the processor, the pipes going to the connector on the back of the case. You can also see that I have one heatsink which is supposed to cool the hard drive installed in the mobile rack. Unfortunatelly, the sink is too long and doesn't fit inside the rack -> it doesn't touch the hard drive so it doesn't absorb heat from it.

Back in Warsaw

2005-10-18T20:24:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I returned to Warsaw. Three hours in a eight person compartment in a train with four old ladies was not a problem because I had a very good book, unfortunatelly I had only about 100 pages to read and I went through it in about an hour. It's not that I read so fast -- I like this book and it is the second time I read it so I don't have to do it thoroughly.

The autumn is in its most unpleasant stage. It's not very cold, today the temperature was something about 8°C (46°F), but the wind chill temperature is close to 0°C (32°F). I heard that in one week it'll be snowing here...

You probably don't know anything about climate in Poland, so I'll cite here what's written in Wikipedia: "temperate with cold, cloudy, moderately severe winters with frequent precipitation; mild summers with frequent showers and thundershowers". It means that during winter the temperature rarely gets below -30°C (-22°F) and in standard summer day with nice weather it's something above 30°C (86°F).

Is it still summer?

2005-10-11T21:08:00.000+02:00

Unfortunatelly, summer is over since 23rd of september. But the weather in Warsaw is very nice. Everyday the temperature reaches 20°C (68°F), we have much sun and it looks better than many days in july or august. But in a month or so we will have here temperatures close to 0°C (32°F), the snow will fall and the winter will begin. I like every single time of year -- the spring for its greeness, smells, and rising temperature, summer because often it's quite hot (30°C -> 86°F) and most rainy days in Poland occur in july (I like when it rains), autumn because it's very colorfull, winter 'cause I like snow and cool temperatures.

One friend of mine says that there's no such thing as a bad weather. You can only wear inapropriate clothing. In my car I have a big umbrella (large enough to cover three people), so I might say that I'm prepared. ;)

No post yesterday...

2005-10-08T09:28:00.000+02:00

I forgot to post yesterday. I almost forgot something even more important -- out weekly fiat-126p-fans-meeting. It starts usually at 9 PM but until 10:20 PM I forgot that it was wednesday yesterday and I want to be there. I was a 'bit' late but didn't miss anything important.

Sudoku -- numbers singly

2005-09-30T23:17:00.000+02:00

Sudoku (Japanese: s;doku), sometimes spelled Su Doku, is a placement puzzle, also known as Number Place in the United States. The aim of the puzzle is to enter a numeral from 1 through 9 in each cell of a grid, most frequently a 9×9 grid made up of 3×3 subgrids (called "regions"), starting with various numerals given in some cells (the "givens"). Each row, column and region must contain only one instance of each numeral. Completing the puzzle requires patience and logical ability. Its grid layout is reminiscent of other newspaper puzzles like crosswords and chess problems. Sudoku initially became popular in Japan in 1986 and attained international popularity in 2005.

The info above was taken from article Sudoku in Wikipedia. This is the game I came familiar with about three months ago, at the end of june. Anything written here will not be easy unless you take a look at what Sudoku looks like. For a demonstration of this puzzle I suggest going to this page.

So now you know how it looks like. Before you start solving, you need to know what are the rules:

in every 9x1 column or 1x9 row there must be nine different numbers (from 1 to 9)
in every of nine 3x3 squares (they're marked with bold borders) every number may appear only once.

Sounds easy and is easy. Well...on the site I linked above you can choose from three different difficulty levels. I didn't try to solve the hard ones yet, I'm not that good at this moment.

I read somewhere that there are several ways or methods of finding the proper number to place in a cell. I know only two of them.

Finding the proper place for a number inside region (subgrid, column, row) -- you find a region you want to solve and try to fit a specific number into cells within this region.
Selecting the number for a given cell -- you try to find which number will fit into the specific cell.

On medium difficulty level you are able to place at least one number somewhere in the grid. In some cases you have to assume something. For example -- you know that 3 must be somewhere in the lowest row of the top left region. This way you know that you can't put 3 nowhere in the third row. Perhaps it will require more time to find the exact place for 3 in the top left region, but even without it you'll be able to make a step forward.

Sudoku = fun. :D

Fiat 126p -- the car for beginners

2005-09-29T23:00:00.000+02:00

I thought that posting here would be...easier, that I'd have something to write everyday. Unfortunately -- it looked this way until I started. :)

Today I'll write something about the car I own, Fiat 126p. The photo on the right shows how it looks. It's small, cheap and economic when it comes to buy gasoline. We can also buy parts in every shop, every car mechanic in Poland can repair it. If you are somehow unable to buy the parts you need, you then go to the local blacksmith and he'll make this part for you. ;)

Perhaps I am exaggerating, but it is a well-known fact that the first car for young people is usually fiat 126p, the "maluch". It allows the young driver to practice his driving skills (it's small so it's easy to park it anywhere, so the risk of damaging some other car on a parking is also relatively small), it also teaches him the importance of proper automobile maintenance. You can buy a fiat 126p even for 100$ (I paid 1100$ for mine, it was manufactured in 1996 and I bought it in may 2002).

This car has also it's disadvantages. As I mentioned above, it's very small. There's very little place for passengers on the back seat (it was designed for four people but unless the back passengers are young kids they're unable to sit cosily), the trunk has volume of ony 100 litres. In mine I carry: spare wheel, 5l gasoline can, a box with tools, a pair of trousers and a blouse for emergency on-the-road repairs, few spare parts, a blanket, an air compressor for tires, cables for starting the car when the battery is dead and that's about it. There's no place for nothing else. This way I have to put my things on the back seat and I have only one seat for passenger.

About 20 years ago whole families (with 2 or 3 kids) used fiat 126p's to go for vacation, carrying a tent, sleeping bags and mattresses, food and clothing, but they packed all this stuff on the roof (onto a roof carrier) and inside the car in every place they could. Why they did so? Because the fiat 126p was the only car we could buy. Unfortunatelly 20 years ago we had communism here and the average salary was about 5$.

You probably won't believe it, but in Poland we still have people that believe that life 20 years ago was nicer than now. It's sad but true. :(

If you want to read a bit more about fiat 126p's history, I suggest reading an article on Wikipedia about this car. You can also take a look at my fiat's web site, but you won't find there any info in english (if I see there are people interested, I'll translate the site).

The day after elections

2005-09-26T18:19:00.000+02:00

So we have some election results. Because the party PiS (Law and Justice) won we will not have in Poland 3x15% taxes (VAT, CIT and PIT -- the latter would have flat rate. This way we'll not be able to chase (in the means of GNP increase) countries like Ireland or even Slovakia.

I have to start seriously thinking about moving abroad...

september 25th -- election's day

2005-09-25T22:04:00.000+02:00

Today in Poland we are going to elect deputies and senators for our parliament (you can see the photo on the official Sejm's website and on Google Maps). We are a 38-million country but we have over 450 deputies and 100 senators. In two weeks we have elections for a president, and if no candidate will have over 50% votes then, we'll have a second round (only with two candidates who got the most votes first time) two weeks later.

I hope that this will change something, instead of being a social country our government will promote low taxes and increase of gross product. Otherwise in few years I'll have to move abroad.

Warsaw in Google Maps

2005-09-22T12:41:00.000+02:00

Today I'll show you the city I live in -- Warsaw. I'll show you satellite photos of the places important in my life.

First -- my home. I live in this weird shaped building. It has a shadow cast by a cloud over it, I wish there was a better photo...
As you scroll a bit south you'll find a bus stop (you can see there two ikarus 280 buses). This is the place I start my ride to university.
At the third photo you can see one of my faculty's buildings - Institute of Heat Engineering. I spend there most of my school time.
This is so called 'Warzywniak', a place where our weekly 126-fan meetings take place.
In this place we had our favorite asg-shooting-arena. We call it 'Halinka'. It is located inside an old tractor factory Ursus. The factory still exists but doesn't use most of its buildings, some of them were given to the city because the factory was not able to pay taxes. I tried to find photos of this factory, but didn't succeed at the moment. I'll get back to this idea later...

Today about things I like

2005-09-21T22:08:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I wrote something about myself. Now it is a good time to write what I like and what I do in the free time.

First of all, I am a happy owner of Polski Fiat 126p. It is a small car that you will see everywhere in Poland. We have (I guess) over a million of them so they're very popular. This is because they're cheap. My is also cheap when it comes to paying for the gasoline. It uses about 5 liters of unleaded gasoline per 100 km -- about 47 miles per gallon. That's because it has very small engine (0,6 liter, 36,6 in³) and because I try to save gasoline.
I not only use this car but I also meet other 'maluch' (it is a common nickname for this car) owners every week and try to attend the international meetings in Zvolen, Slovakia. I guess that I can think of me as of a Fiat 126 fan. :)

My second hobby worth mentioning is Air Soft Gun. My interest started three years ago, when my half-internet friend Wotan asked me to buy myself a cheap gun replica and to come to use it with him and his friends. Since that time I owned a cheap Glock 17 spring replica, Cybergun's Auto Hardballer II (spring shotgun replica), electric MP5 SD3 submachine gun by ICS, S&W M6904 (gas powered pistol) by STTI. At the moment I have and use scoped M15A2 Rifle manufactured by Classic Army.

The last but not least: holzgas / wood gas. It is a fuel that is made by gasification of solid fuel (in this case -- wood). I got hooked two years ago when I was searching for documents about 'nuclear war survival'. I found then a book on 'how to build a wood gas generator', I translated it and started selling in Poland (with all the required permissions of course). Later I created a web site called Drewno Zamiast Benzyny which stands for Wood Instead Of Gasoline. I plan to build a gasifier and to translate the entire site to english. I guess that translating of the current site is not a goog idea since every bit of info I put there can be found on the internet. As far as I will not create something new (e.g. photos and news about my gasifier) there is no sense in doing it.

There are of course other interesting things I like doing. I spend entire days using my computer, surfing the net, reading and writing emails and bulletin boards, playing computer games (favorites: Fallouts, Diablo ][) and wasting time in many other ways. :)

First post -- information about me

2005-09-20T22:06:00.000+02:00

This is my first post here, so I guess I need to introduce myself and write few words about why I started this blog and what will be posted here.

My name is Krzysztof Lis (later I will show you how to pronounce my name). I am 22 years old, currently I am student of Warsaw University of Technology, Faculty of Power and Aeronautical Engineering. I live in Warsaw, Poland.

This is my first blog, I never thought that I'd want to have one. So why is it here? In two years from now I probably will finish studies and will have to find me a job. In Poland unemployment rate is quite high so competition between people in need of work is also high. This way one needs to speak foreign languages to have chances in that 'race'.

During first three years of my studies (now I just finished fourth year) I had many courses in english, but since that moment I had no chance of using this language. I want to change it by posting my thoughts here in english, in order to practise the use of english.

As you probably noticed -- I'm not english native speeker, so I surely will make many mistakes, hopefully you'll be able to read what I wrote. :)

The second thing which caused me to start blogging is simple boredom. I don't have many interesting things to do, so this will be my new hobby. :)