Merry Christmas !

Euro FAIMS

About 2 months ago I received an e-mail from Thermo Fisher, proudly presenting the outcome of the first Euro FAIMS meeting organised by them.

"This past month, European FAIMS users met for discussions about selectivity and how to improve results. The expectations were to establish an open dialogue between users and factory research representatives. The end result was that users feel more connected to each other, and to Thermo Fisher Scientific, than ever before."

I do not want to comment on the meeting or Thermo equipment or anything like that, but what I find funny is that the meeting was called EuroFAIMS whereas about all the participants are German. True Gemany is in Europe and an important country, founding member of the European Union and an advocate of a united Europe, but calling it EuroFAIMS while it principly is a German meeting is stretching it to far.
Ah well, it was the first meeting so they will do better next time.

Dunglish

Ongeveer een jaar geleden kreeg ik het boekje getoond links kado. Leuk en leerzaam, soms zelfs hilarisch*). Recent kwam er een nieuwe, uitgebreidere, versie op de markt: "I always get my sin too" en natuurlijk kon ik de verleiding niet weerstaan die te kopen. Het zit wat beter in elkaar en is handiger in gebruik met de uitleg en tips hoe het wel te zeggen.

*) Hilarisch:
- "I fock horses." "Pardon?" "Yes paarden"
- "How do you do and how do you do your wife?"
- "I am the first women state secretary for the inside and I am having my first period"
- "May I thank your cock for the lovely diner?"

Wat er natuurlijk gebeurt als iets dergelijks leest is dat je extra allert bent op versprekingen. Dus bij deze voor de verzamelaars:

- Een mijner collegaas: "You should contact [name], she is the spin in the web"
- Op de radio (nieuwsuitzending): "What do the Pakistan Government for the victims of the earthquake?"

Brabantse Logica

Sinds maandagavond/nacht woedt er een grote brand in een grote loods bij the Veghelse veevoederbedrijf Cehave. Blijkbaar veel rook en lastig uit te krijgen dus zijn de woningen in de nabije omgeving ontruimt. Op Radio 1 was er een impressie van het gebeuren en de verslaggever vraagt aan een der buurtbewoners waar haar huis staat. Dat kon ze zo aanwijzen. Het was het huis op een hoek, aan het eind van een rijtje andere huizen. "Nou," zei de reporter "dat is nog best dichtbij. Dat lijkt maar 50 m of minder, misschien maar 20.""Nog veel dichterbij," zei de vrouw "want onze tuinen zijn vrij groot."

Ik heb de zin 5 keer in mijn hoofd herhaald. Briljant! Helaas ontgaat de logica van de redenatie mij, maar briljant is het.

Niet zo Smart

Sinds enige tijd is er reclame van Smart op de radio die gefingeerd 10 jaar oud is. Een soort nieuwsbericht van 1998 over de Smart van de toekomst. Leuk, maar ook een beetje nodeloos ingewikkeld denk ik dan. Ook flauw, zoals uitlegen dat je in 2008 met euros betaalt "een soort monopoly geld dat de gulden heeft vervangen". Smart heeft dat niet een (deels) zwitserse basis? Juist, die van die euro snappen we dus. Zei ik flauw? Pathetisch is misschien een beter woord. Maar laten we niet stil blijven staan bij de frustraties van de Zwitsers.

Het gaat mij meer om wat ze verder zeggen. Dat de nieuwe Smart, die dus in oktober 2008 op de markt komt, dat die is uitgerust met start/stop technologie. Je stopt en je motor slaat af. Je wilt weer gaan rijden en je hoeft enkel de gaspedaal aan te raken. Dat is het idee. Het voordeel zit hem dus in het feit dat tussen stoppen en rijden geen druppel benzine verbruikt. En dat zeggen ze dan ook. HET voordeel van de nieuwe bijzondere Smart is dat hij dus minder CO2 produceert; "iets waar ze het in 2008 nog veel over zullen hebben" of woorden van die strekking. Daarom moet je een nieuwe Smart kopen: het is goed voor het millieu.

Daar is toch niks mis mee zou je zeggen. Nee, maar wel zodra de reclame boodschap verder gaat: "... een liter brandstof kost dan meer dan 1 euro 50, daarom geven wij de eerste 10.000 km gratis brandstof" Pardon?! Ze geven 10.000 km benzine verstoken weg zodat je kan beginnen met lekker veel en hard rijden? Dat is goed voor het millieu? Zijn ze nou helemaal van lotje getikt daar bij Smart?

Kodo Mount

Dangerous Gadgets

Last week I was on a AirFrance-KLM flight happily listening to Within Temptation on my iPod when the whole blabla about electronic equipment was announced as usual. And of course I was instructed to switch off the iPod as it might interfere with the sensitive electronics of the airplane... Sigh.

After so many years, after so many millions of people that were transported with active gaming devices, laptops, cell phones and whatever not one single plane crashed because of that. I can imagine that in the very early days of the GSM airlines and safety regulators were cautious. But that was more then a decade ago - almost 2 it must be by now! Have they still not figured out that it is impossible to overtake the controls of a Boeing with a PSP? That it is only in SF movies that you can override the computer system of an advanced alien society with a laptop?

Or turn it around. You are a baddie and you want to crash a plane. Bummer: security! Can not get any explosives on board. What to do? Think think think. Suddenly you got it, you buy a gameboy at the airport and a cell phone you already had that. Security could not care less and you enter the plane with your deadly devices. You go to your seat and secretely you switch on both. But you keep them in your pocket. Nobody can see the toys of death! And when after a while the plane is on the runway speeding you simultanously press the dial button on your cell phone and the A button on the gameboy: BOOOOM!

Stupid story right? So then why the *beep* are we subjected to those stupid instructions concerning turning off electronic equipment?

Just kidding

Beijing, Friday 12 September 2008,

An enormous explosion was the wake-up call for almost all of the proud hard working people of Beijing.
The chief of police Mr. Ma Tian stated that he had never seen such a terrible scene in his whole career. Further he announced that the person(s) responsible for this horrendous deed will not go unpunished.
The police did not want to comment on the remains of two bottles of hazardous chemicals found at the rim of the crater. According to a reliable source know to our journalist, these chemicals: sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid are used to make home bombs. Continued on page 2 of this issue

Just Kidding. We were having some trouble in getting a specific assay set-up in China. Nothing to complicated, in a sense it is very basic old analytical, or if you wish clinical, chemistry. It involves some extraction and hydrolysis in which sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid solutions play a role; just mL amounts. Chemicals so common that I would not think twice before using them. In fact you can probably buy them at any decent hardware store or whatever equivalent to that you may have in the neighbourhood. Agreed, sodium hydroxide (caustic soda) in pure form is not innocent and neither is concentrated hydrochloric acid. But hey, we are talking about a laboratory. People who are trained to work with chemicals etc.

Anyway the lab in question commented to us that they could not set the method up within the next couple of weeks/months because they would need a special permit for these 2 chemicals. Special permit? Yes. Yes, because these chemicals can be used to make a bomb. A bomb? From NaOH and HCl? Sure if you mix them it becomes pretty warm and you get hydrogen gas. And if you pour concentrated hydrochloric acid on sodium hydroxide pellets there is certainly some serious heat production with the boiling and splashing that goes with that. But other then getting a couple of serious alkali and/or acid burns there is no true danger. But a bomb? LOL. There is more explosive power in a liter gasoline!

Irritating, but what can one do? So we made some fun about the whole issue. The faked newspaper was my way of dealing with the frustration. Take care.

Flight Attendants

Flight attendants, or stewards / stewardesses, have a very praiseworthy job. And I am always amazed how efficient and good natured they do their work. Especially on these long distance flights in which they have to stay alert and energetic for 10 or more hours.

For years there has always been this magic ring to it. A nice, exiting, traveling to exotic places kind of connection in a lot of peoples minds when they think or talk about stewardesses. And there must have been a billion young girls that wanted to become a princess or (in case that could not work out) at least a stewardess. But is that still true nowadays I have started wondering. One reason is that I, and a lot of other people who also fly both US based as well as EU airlines, repeatedly observe that the nowadays American flight attendant is on average many many years older then her EU colleague and often, let's say, far from fashionable. Hence the joke of attaching a pic of a good looking lady in a sexy fantasy flight attendant uniform to my previous post. And to stress it a bit further (and running the risk of being called a male chauvenist pig for the rest of my life), EU flight attendants are on average much better looking and dresssed then their American counterparts. Now why is that?

I did a little bit of googling and one of my first hits was Ellen Simonetti. The photo at the top (which I 'stole' from the New York Times website) is her. She was a flight attendant at Delta. Now surely, this undermines my suggestions above that the stewardesses on US airlines are old(er) and not good looking. But there is something special with Mrs. Simonetti. Apperently she got fired for posting to liberal photo's of herself in her Delta uniform on her blog. To liberal? Nudes you mean? No. Nothing indecent. But if you like you might call them sexy.

I am not going to write about this case. Many others have commented on it and you only have to google her name to find it. She actually has beccome somekind of celebrity: there is even a Wikipedia entry on her. Look it up yourself or buy her book or check out her blog: Diary of a Flight Attendant. But what strikes and bothers me is the over the top reaction of her employer. Why would they do that? Was it realy that 'out of order' what she did? Damaging to the company? Is Delta run by conservative dinosaurs? Or is it the in the States omnipresent christian puritanism? I am afraid that it is mainly that.

Strange contrast is it not? The country which speaks so highly about the freedom of speach, of choice. Gives so much room to individuality. That has the biggest porn industry on the planet. Gives their kids at the age of 16 the right to operate a deadly dangerous tool: a car. Has perhaps the highest number of teenage pregnancies in the developed world, but at the same time prohibits their youngster from drinking even the weakest alcoholic beverage before the age of 21. All these aspects are substantially different in Europe while at least up to the late 1900s almost all the imigrants are of European origin. Not a contrast you would immediately suspect. Did we Europeans evolve further with our more liberal society or is the US ahead of us and soon christian conservatism will set the standards here as well?

Afterthought. At least now I understand why on the whole US cabin crew is not among the better looking ones: they fire the pretty ones!

Security while you fly

It never struck me before, but they have adopted some weird procedures at Delta. And maybe it is even a nationwide regulation. The strange thing I noticed during my most recent flight is a flight attendent placing her trolley in such a way in the galley that nobody can go to the lavatory anymore. Blocking the way.

Why the beep is she doing that I was wondering. Untill a pilot left the cockpit to visit that mini restroom himself. Could it be that was the reason? It was. Everytime the door to the cockpit had to be opened, the trolley was moved from its 'parking position' in front of the exit door, turned 90 degrees and positioned in 'blockade position'. And it was guarded! Yes it was.

What must have been the oldest flight attendant still in active service put herself behind the trolley, crossed her arms, made her face grimlooking (not that that was necesassary, she was already pretty scary while trying look normal) and staired down the rows: "You ain't no passing me". LOL.

How useful is this? A 12 year old very junior terrorist trainee could jump over the trolley, kick the stewardess in mid-air and be in the cockpit before you could say "Watch out". So what is the sense of it? Beats me, but then again I am not in the security business.

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Sent from my iPod

Nevermind Us - Field of Joy

Vanmiddag was het grote moment voor de jongens daar: hun eerste betaalde optreden. Trots maar ook wat voorzichtig begonnen ze om 2 uur met 'Start me Up' gevolgd door vijf eigen composities. Ze speelden sterk, met name hun eigen werk gaat ze goed af. Als afsluiter gooiden ze er nog even een andere Stones klassieker er tegenaan: 'Satisfaction'.

WoW & iPod Touch / iPhone

An iPhone loving and World of Warcraft playing cousin told me about it: there is a WoW application for the iPhone. And with the new version 2 software it also runs on the iPod Touch. The application is called Characters. Cool. Realy cool. I stole the pic from Rudi's website/blog. Saves me time from trying scan my own iThing. What is there to say other then to praise the creator? It is so nice, you can show off your fully epic geared char's to other WoW players. You can quickly check up on the gear of players in the PUG you are considering to enter. You can ... I do not know, but in a way it is a bit like being able to carry the pics of your children with you in your wallet (I know I am somewhat addicted to this great game).

Delta 39

A couple of times per year I cross the Atlantic. On an airplane. Mostly it is Amsterdam <-> Atlanta and that is either by KLM or Delta. Depends on which of the two has the cheapest business class ticket. (I have great employer, but they are not crazy) Unfortenately that is mostly Delta. Not that there is anything wrong with DL039, but their plane is somewhat older then what KLM puts in the air and thus (?) also a little bit less comfortable/luxerious. And I like the Delft Blue houses!

I already noticed it the last few European flights I made, but had not expected it would also be the case flying intercontinental with an American airline. Security stopped fuzzing about the liquids! Quietly without any explanation - which make sense, as they were making damn fools of themselves anyway by enforcing a totally useless and rather clumsy safety measure.

But what had remained the same was the interview: "Who is the owner of the bag? Who packed the bag? Has the bag been in your possesion since you packed it?" etc etc. What they want to accomplish by asking this kind of nonsense is beyond me, but then I am not into security. Funny thing is that if I would have boarded the KL flight, same trip, same departure time, same everything (except that KLM has the better plane and cuter flight attendants) nobody would have asked me anything.

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Sent from my iPod

Lauren Harris

In my previous post I wrote that we went to see Iron Maiden perform in Assen. The first support act on stage was Lauren Harris, daughter of Maiden founder and bass player Steve Harris. I liked it very much. Not only the music but also the performance of the musicians, not to mention the mesmerizing hot presence of Lauren herself.
So what do you? You get yourself her CD: Calm before the storm.

And..... Is it as good as expected? Well, I guess it needs a bit more getting acustomed to. It is not as sizzling hot as on stage, that is a bit of a disappointment.

Perhaps I need to turn up the volume a bit more...

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Sent from my iPod

Nevermind Us

Na enkele publieke optredens tijdens Plug & Play avonden in Rockcafé De Wurft en Open Podium op het Rijnlands Lyceum krijgen ze nu hun eerste betaalde optreden: Field of Joy festiviteiten in Noordwijk op het skatepark. Het berichtje op de site van de Stichting Jeugd en Welzijn Bollenstreek:

Band: Nevermind
Om 14u00 begint het evenement deze middag met een jonge Noordwijkse rock/hardrockband Nevermind. De band is in 2006 ontstaan en na een periode van roekeloos jammen en zoeken naar een zanger hebben ze uiteindelijk de band gekregen tot wat hij nu is!
Geïnspireerd door bands als de Rolling Stones, Red Hot Chili Peppers en Nirvana zijn de jongens van Nevermind dus uiteindelijk uit hun schulp gekropen en gaan de jonge honden voor het podium. Na een eerste optreden tijdens Plug&Play in De Wurft bijten zij dus het spits af op Field of Joy.
Nevermind is: Lars Spierenburg – zang, Barry Barnhoorn – gitaar, Leon van Amsterdam – gitaar, Mark van de Belt – drums, Martijn van Amsterdam – bas.

Iron Maiden - Assen 16 Aug 2008

Saterday was the great day. We, me plus my 2 boys and cousin Barry went to Assen to see and experience Iron Maiden. The youtube vid linked was not shot by me, but by a person happening to be standing very close to where we were. For that reason I am presenting it here. You can find us directly in front of the blond curly haired guy.
It was a very good concert and we enjoyed it enormously.

Fort Boyard

Another all time summer hit on the French television: Fort Boyard!
Also something I have seen once or twice offered by others, but nobody can cope with more then one season. Except the French! Twenty seasons it must be by now. There even once were Fort Boyard toys at McDonalds.
We like it. But at the same time I am sure that we only like it while on vacation in France. As with that simple wine you drink on that sunset evening in a small cosy restaurant in the Provence. It is great! But do not take a couple of those bottles home with you.

Rognons de Veau

WTF is rognons de veau? We were out for diner and the rest of the party was having steak in some kind of variation. So I decided to be a bit more original and explorative. The 'de veau' part I understood, and what could possibly go wrong with veal?
When the dish arived it looked a lot like a pile of mushrooms; champignons. Quite tasty actually.... Untill I took a first few pieces into my mouth. Strange taste, bitterish, earthy, dead old blood. Not a faul taste or anything, but still far from tasty. OK I ate about 1/2 of it, but that was all I could master. Politely enough.

Now I need a dictionary to look up what it was I put into my mouth.

La Carte aux Tresors

Something else that we think we only see in France: La Carte aux Tresors. And that is every summer we spent a few weeks vacation in France. I guess they only make this program in the summertime, but it must be for maybe 20 years already. For those who do not know the program, the concept is actually pretty simple: two teams need to find a treasure using a series of clues they receive from the program lead.

And French television would not be French television if it did not add a number of cultural things to it. So the clues are given within context, you will get a backgroud story, see some footage etc.
Lots of shooting is from a helicopter presenting the countryside, the whole scenery, to you. And the teams have a copter to their disposal as well. So as a viewer you may learn a lot about some specific unique kind of task the fishermen of Britany perform while watching the 'treasure hunters' running from one place to another. Who wins in the end is not so important. It is the roads leading towards the final stage where it is all about.
Vacance en France? La carte aux tresors!

French television

There is only French television in France. I know there must be more, but we were never lucky or smart enough to find it. France 1, 2 and 3 and then there is Canal+ behind the decoder and Arte and M6. That is it.
I think we have been going to France on vacation for at least 20 times or so, can not remember ever being able to watch other channels then the ones mentioned. And, obviously, everything is in French! And that is a lot of strain on the brain. To understand while watching a movie, the news or whatever.
I know that more channels is certainly possible; I have seem it many times in various hotels. From CCN to German light porn commercial junk. But why the heck is it not viewable on the average home TV?

iPhone

Few weeks ago the great moment was finally there for many gadget lovers. The iPhone entered the Dutch market. Not that I wanted to buy one, I am perfectly happy with my iPod Touch and regular Nokia phone. It does not have camera, it can not send color pictures, but when it drops on the floor it stays in one piece and nobody wants to steal it :-).
I must admit that it is a damn handy thing; the iPhone that is.
Anyway after being on the US market for more then a year I think, it was Europe's turn. Last time I was at an AT&T, the 8 GB was $399 and the 16 was $499. What would they be sold at in the Netherlands?
Huh there is only an iPhone 3G version in the shops. Three! 3 GB? I did not even know those existed. Isn't that sad? Criminal? First the market introduction is one year later so that everyone who would want one becomes more eager. And if they were not that lucky to have a friend or relative who could take one from the US for them, they would not have much patience anymore. So they buy a 3GB version. And next year the 8 or 16......
And something else, why in heaven's name does an extra 8 GB need to cost a hundred bucks? I can by a 250 Gig HD for that kind of money!
Damn those Apple marketeers! But man, did those engineers make a slick looking great piece of wonder.
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Sent from my iPod

Cultural Diversity

It is funny but also incomprehensible how you move from one culture to another to again another during half a day driving. From the Randstad (agglomeration of the cities, towns and villages in the western part of the Netherlands: Holland) south through West Brabant towards Luxembourg. The countryside already changes in Brabant. And more then just the view. It is also the crops, the houses, even already the style of driving. Less then 50 miles from home and you can detect a few things indicating that there could well be cultural differences between you and them.

Obviously differences are increasing when entering Belgium. The northern part is Flemish (Dutch speaking), the southern part is Walonian (French speaking). Coming from the NW going to Luxembourg you go from one language/culture to another significantly different language/culture; still one country.

Luxembourg small as it is and squeezed between Belgium, Germany and France is so different from Belgium you think you are in a totally different place. Differences are in the people. So much more 'European'. The official language is French, but most of them speak just as easy German and a third language.
And you know what was realy funny? When we turned on the TV we had the Simpson subdubbed in German dealing with aliens. Talking about cultural diversity!

TAMOE

Iemand heeft het verzonnen. Een ambtenaar die interessant wilde doen? Een stukjesschrijver die een grapje wilde maken? Geen idee, maar er lijkt weer een wansmakelijke afkorting aan het Nederlandse taalgebied te zijn toegevoegd: TAMOE. En dit moet dan staan voor Tijdelijke Arbeidskrachten uit Midden en Oost Europa. Getver! En dan die nadruk op Tijdelijk en het gebied waar de mensen vandaan komen. Brrr. Zou het trouwens per ongeluk zijn dat het lijkt op Tamil? Toch wel handig zo'n associatie met een beweging die je weer met terreur zou kunnen associeren.

Trots op certificaat taalcursus

Vandaag in het "Witte Weekblad", een Noordwijks suffertje, de foto links op de voorpagina. Trots op certificaat taalcursus, het staat er echt boven. Ik heb het niet verzonnen. Maar kijk eens naar de foto. Zit er ook maar iemand trots bij? Misschien de vrouw helemaal links, maar de rest lijkt zich eerder te schamen dan ergens trots op te zijn. En dan staat er ook nog 'Deze moeders geven het voorbeeld voor hun kinderen'. Voorbeeld? Welk voorbeeld? Dat je je bijzonder ongemakkelijk voelt als je op de foto moet? Wie verzint zo'n tekst?

En dan de overige gefotografeerden. Die lijken wel blij en trots te zijn. De juffen en zeker de man op de achtergrond, die blijkens het artikel de wethouder is. Maar ach de arme cursisten. Marokaans of Afgaans zijn ze, wonen in een land waarin alles anders is en je de taal niet (goed) spreekt. Jullie hadden het echt verdient als er een iets intelligenter persoon met meer compassie over jullie prestatie had geschreven. Had ook zonder foto gekund.

En die muts die het stuk in het Witte Weekblad (ook die naam heb in niet verzonnen) had geschreven kan voortaan beter thuisblijven. Ik adviseer WII Brainpower. Wel op 'easy' beginnen hoor!

WoW: Maggy Down

Got him. This time, last night it was, we realy got him. The start was not optimal, even got wiped by the trash but the rest was much better then last week. OK, it took a few training runs, but already in the second we got his HP down to 29%. And what went especially well is killing the 5 warlocks. For a good run you should get 3 and the 4th almost down before Maggy roars, we got them all within the time limit + a few seconds. Fantastic!

OK 29% in the 2nd run, 90something in the 3rd (oops). But in the fourth run we got his big corpse on the floor. It was close, maybe only 5 players still standing, but the guild made it. I am happy to be part of such a great team.

Tip: If on teamspeak or ventrilo or such: turn down the volume just before the killing blow.

WoW: Gruul

Gotcha! We got him down again. In one go, no wipes no nothing. And sweet old Gruul was so kind to drop the Leggings of the Fallen Hero which I was happy to win. Finally accept for trinkets I am full epic. Partly T4, partly PVP: (Merciless) Gladiator set.

Silly thing was that for some time we do not have any real problems getting High King Maulgar and his aids down while Gruul was still a challenge. Wednesday evening it was almost the other way around: not optimal pulls and very quickly there were dead healers and/or the tanking mage on the cave floor. Run to save your life - and gear!

Well, having 25 ppl coherently and consistenly doing the right thing in a synchronized way is clearly not easy and takes quite some training.

Having Gruul on farm, focus is now turning towards SSC. First challenge there: The Lurker Below.

WoW: Maggy

Maggy is the sweet nickname given to Magtheridon, a boss in Hellfire Citadel, Outland. I do not think I have to explain that Maggy is not realy a sweety; a picture is worth a thousend words.

Yesterday evening I went with my guild on a 25 ppl raid to down Maggy. First time for us as a group. Of course while the strategy was discussed someone pulled one of the warlocks: wipe! The second time, same kind of accident: wipe! The third time we were better and got 4 locks down before Maggy entered the fight. Should I mention that the whole cube turning thing was not neatly synchromized? Wipe! After the fifth wipe we stopped.

As it was still a bit early after our Maggy trials, I went with 4 to do Arcatraz (heroic). We got all the bosses but it took some damage by death :-). Anyway a good way to finish the evening.

Culture Vulture

At my work I am involved in a project on cultural awareness. We have the intention to make a video, some brochures and a website on the corporate intranet. In preparation of these we obviously do some reading of books, articles and browse the internet. Today I came across the site of Kwintessential with a lot of valuable information. Have fun.

Cultural Awareness Tip of the Day

Digital Camera

Early 2007 we finaly gave up and bought a digital camera. Compared to digital the good old chemistry had become rediculously expensive and slow. Still being frustrated with the fact that I am sitting there with my Canon SLR bodies and nice collection of lenses and there is hardly anybody selling good quality of color negative or slide film I did not feel like making a to large investment. So we bought a simple family camera: a Canon Powershot A540. Very nice and handy and by now we have shot some 5000 pictures with it. If you like you could check it out at: http://picasaweb.google.com/Peteronium.

Last week Thursday I bought a second digital camera, a Konica Minolta Dimage Z3. It was second hand for only 15% of the price of 2004. Good deal. The camera is still reasonably up to date, pretty good lens and 4M pixel is not to bad. One particular reason to buy this one was that I like the way it looks so much. Good thing is that it also uses SD cards, same as my Canon.

After trying it out the last couple of days I came to the next phase: uploading the pictures onto my hard drive. Surprise! It uses another type of USB cable then any of the types I have lingering around....

Language - Taal

Yes / Ja. Which language to use when writing my thoughts, stories and experiences to this blog? Should I be internationally/globaly orientated and write in (American) English? Or stick to what my mother tought me: Dutch? Obviously being born and raised in the Netherlands makes me far more fluent in Dutch then I am in English. On the other hand writing in English should mean reaching a far larger audience and there is value in that as well. We will see. I just started doing this and who knows where it may lead to. Perhaps even a bilingual blog. Take care.

WoW: PetraMag

A little bit more about World of Warcraft.

I started playing the game about 2 years ago. My first character was a human mage: PetraMag. Actually I still play it. It is difficult to say why playing a mage apealed to me that much. Part of the explanation is of course that I very much liked the sorcs when playing Diablo II. But that immediately brings the follow-up question: why a sorceress? I guess it must be that combination of great (fire) power combined with the fragility. Mages kill & die quikly. An other factor could be that as a caster you work from a distance, from an overview position: see, think, act. Fits more with my nature then sneaking up to someone and then backstab him/her (rogues).

White leg

The reason for going to this Vegro place is that my son broke his leg. That was now a little bit over three weeks ago. The picture shows him when we just got home from the hospital.
Anyway we went to the Vegro again to try to change the wheelchair. From the old fashioned heavy thing to something more modern, fresh colors and lighter.

Vegro

Vegro is one of the Dutch organizations providing equipment, materials and aid for selfcare. You could e.g. buy or borrow a wheelchair. And that is exactly why we were there. Financing is done via the AWBZ (general law special healtcare costs), an aspect I will not go into right here and now.
We went to the regional main center and what struck me was the large number of people working there. Must have been around at least 20. Add to that the number of ppl working at the smaller branches multiply that times an average gross anual income and then you discover that we have an overhead costs of a couple of million for a few 100k people. Would be cheaper to close them and just give every family a high quality wheelchair!

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Sent from my iPod

World of Warcraft

One of my vices: I am a mildly addicted World of Warcraft junkie. In some later posts I will explain a bit more and give other WoW players a chance to see which chars are mine.

Me2

Yes, me to. There must be millions of people who have already started a blog, so you could think: "rather late mate". But then again there are billions of people who did not. So on a scale of 1 - 1000 I should still be in the top ten. Now that ain't bad.