The Amsterdam Post

15-18-54 - Rocking Birthday Party @ Rockcafe De Wurft

2010-12-13T14:54:00.001+01:00

It is now a bit over two weeks ago, so perhaps to somewhat late for this post but who cares.

26 November 2010 we celebrated Leon's 18th and Martijn's 15th birthday (and mine 54th) at Rockcafe De Wurft in Noordwijk. With two bands: Nevermind Us and Flock of Angels. Needless to say it was an excellent great and superb party with friends, family and some stray dogs.

Many thanks to the De Wurft for helping making this happen, both bands for their great performances and all guests for their presence, good wishes and presents.

Pictures! Pictures have been uploaded to Picasa. To view follow this link.

Stralingsbelasting

2010-11-15T23:06:00.001+01:00

Atlanta, GA Nov 21 - Nov 23, 2010: Farewell

Barcelona, Spain Nov 30 - Dec 4, 2010: EBF 3rd Open Symposium

Paris, France Dec 12 - Dec 14, 2010: SoFAQ meeting

Dijon, France Dec 15 - Dec 17, 2010: C'est bon

Slimpie

2010-10-30T22:56:00.001+02:00

Wauw, die is slim! http://users.ox.ac.uk/~kgroup/tools/movies/bending_trial7.mov

Ultimate Coverband Contest - Flock of Angels

2010-10-03T17:22:00.000+02:00

Flock of Angels @JobPop 2010

2010-09-02T22:18:00.000+02:00

Donderdag 2 september is het weer zover. De Oranje feesten van Noordwijk Binnen zullen spetterend afgesloten worden met het Job-PoP festival. Vanaf 17.00 uur zal er op twee podia non-stop live muziek geserveerd worden. Een ander zal plaats vinden in de Heilige Geestweg ter hoogte van Café Thomas. De toegang is geheel gratis.

Om ongeveer 17.00 uur zal de Amerikaanse rock-a-billy act The Saddle Tramps met een weergaloze rock and roll show het festival openen. Naast muziek valt er ook veel te zien. Laat u verrassen door de go-go act van Suzy Switchblade.

Op podium 2 zal vanaf 18.15 uur de Noordwijkse rockband Flock of Angels de meute eens flink wakker schudden waarna het op podium 1 vanaf 19.45 uur een waar feest der herkenning zal worden met de vrolijke Ierse noten van het welbekende Noordwijkse ensemble Proost. (tekst gecopieerd van http://www.poppodiumnoordwijk.nl/)

Meer over Flock of Angels op Hyves

Flock of Angels @JobPop 2010

2010-09-02T21:55:00.001+02:00

USA 2010 - San Francisco

2010-05-24T19:56:00.001+02:00

Man man man. Took some time this time to recover from a bit less then one week San Francisco. As I said to my sons the last time we went to an Iron Maiden concert: "I am getting to old for this shit". It sort of all adds up together: the nine hours time difference, the long flights, the short nights, the long days with a busy program, everything in another language then my mother tongue, food and drinks.

But it was well worth it. Going to the AAPS National Biotechnology Conference 2010, that is. Very nice always to meet a bunch of friends/colleagues, see a couple of interesting presentions, join some good discussions, but above all our own symposium. Without any hesitation I can say we, is Margarete + Marian + Michaela + Jan and me, had the best symposium during the entire NBC 2010. We scored big time with our EMA draft Bioanalytical Method Validation guideline.

It was not 24/7 conference activities, we also went outside a few times for a couple of hours and I have uploaded the pics taken with my cell phone (a bit crappy quality, sorry) to my space on Picasa: http://picasaweb.google.com/Peteronium/USA2010SanFrancisco

Aardbevingen en ander ongemak

2010-04-25T20:48:00.002+02:00

Altijd al gedacht: het zijn onzedig geklede vrouwen die aardbevingen veroorzaken. En deze week werd het bevestigd door de Iraanse schriftgeleerde Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi: "Veel vrouwen die niet bescheiden te kleden ... leiden jonge mannen op een dwaalspoor, corrupt hun kuisheid en verspreiding overspel in de samenleving, die (dus) verhoogt de aardbevingen" (of woorden van die strekking). Hij schoof hiermee in een preek ook even alle verzamelde en onbetwiste wetenschapelijke kennis over aardschollen aan de kant, maar alla een kniesoor die daar op let.

De gebedsleider reageerde hiermee op eerder gedane waarschuwing van president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dat de Iraanse hoofdstad Teheran zeer waarschijnlijk door een aardbeveing getroffen zal worden in de volgende twintig jaar. Dat de president zich daarbij wel op de gegevens van seismologen baseerde was de schriftgeleerde ontgaan of te ver gezocht geacht.

Vrouwen zijn tot grootse en schokkende dingen in staat, maar aardbevingen veroorzaken zie ik ze toch niet 1, 2, 3 doen. Hoewel als ze allen, 3 miljard, nu eens obese zouden worden en dan met zijn allen tegelijk ritmisch gaan springen? Zou dan niet ergens een heel klein bevinkje onstaan?

Wie/wat zou nu vulkanen veroorzaken?

The world's ugliest statues

2010-04-25T10:24:00.007+02:00

When bad art and bad politics meet. Eleven photo's of rather grotesque statues can be found on Foreign Policy. My 2 favorites:

The first one is truely extremely ugly. It shows Peter the Great at Moskva River and it is hard to imagine that no one not even someone from Chechenia (out of pity) blew up this thing.

The second one I like because it makes me so much think of epic movies like 'Conan the Barbarian'. And indeed it is Genghis Khan overlooking the great Mongolian steppes.

Thanks to @legalnomads

Copytijgers.nl <-> Miracle Moon

2010-04-22T16:37:00.000+02:00

Waar een handje suffe taalfouten al niet in kan resulteren. Lees het bericht en de vele commentaren op: http://copytijgers.wordpress.com/2010/04/12/tel-de-fouten-bij-miracle-moon-nl/

Cataclysm VR

2010-04-18T13:05:00.003+02:00

OK Bliz. Time to hurry hup. Real life is catching up

Silent spring

2010-04-17T21:20:00.002+02:00

Check out EU airspace on Thursday afternoon - evening using this pretty cool tool: http://casper.frontier.nl/eham/

That is Thrusday 14 April 2010; the day the EU skies went silent

Thanks to @PastoorPoncke

Cataclysm RL

2010-04-17T21:12:00.003+02:00

Excellent picture of the erupting vulcano on Iceland.

From Skapi's photostream
Thanks to @dutchcowboys

Ragnarok

2010-04-17T21:01:00.005+02:00

Bron: http://www.swisseduc.ch/. Met dank aan: @teylers & @govertschilling

A world without airplanes

2010-04-17T14:33:00.006+02:00

Coming Tuesday I need to fly to Montreal...
Two years ago an eruption of the same vulcano lasted 2 years...

In a future world without aeroplanes, children would gather at the feet of old men, and hear extraordinary tales of a mythic time when vast and complicated machines the size of several houses used to take to the skies and fly high over the Himalayas and the Tasman Sea

Read more: BBC news Saturday 17 April 2010

Octopus steals video camera

2010-04-17T11:46:00.004+02:00

Iceland legalises Marihuana

2010-04-16T18:54:00.004+02:00

Duitsers ontdekken reden aswolk http://www.titanic-magazin.de/uploads/pics/0416-island.jpg

Met dank aan brusselmans

The piano cat goes iPad

2010-04-14T16:27:00.002+02:00

... and some are more equal

2010-04-12T17:56:00.003+02:00

Zoek de verschillen! Had Obama ook niet een poster die errug veel leek
op omslag Labourmanifest? Met dank aan Lia van Bekhoven

One Sandwich To Kill You All

2010-04-11T21:34:00.003+02:00

Behold, the KFC Double Down sandwich. It is, if you really want to know, two slabs of fried chicken intersliced with two pieces of bacon, two slabs of cheese, and the Colonel's "special sauce." It comes in the form of a sandwich, with the fried chicken where the bread used to be. It's sort of hilarious. It's sort of perfect. And then it'll probably make you vomit....

Did you notice? How in one pseudo-food item, you are consuming not one, not two, but the mutated, chemically injected flesh/byproducts of fully three different distended, liquefied, industrially tortured creatures? Feel the love, pitiable animal kingdom.

You got your chicken-like creature, your pig-like creature, your dairy cow-like creature, all wrapped in a $5 fistful of nausea, ready to strangle your heart and benumb your brain. God knows what's in the "special sauce." Maybe some sort of fish byproduct, just to round it all out. It's like a wild kingdom in your mouth! It's like a toxic zoo in your colon! It's like a suicide note from what's left of your brain! "If you eat this, you are a complete and total idiot, and we're through. Signed, You."

Special deal! Eat two of these nausea bombs in a row and receive a coupon for a free surgical stent for your coronary artery, and 10% off an XXL casket at CoffinTown! Or eat three and die almost instantly and save us the postage. While supplies last!

Read the full article: San Francisco Chronicle

Premature birth

2010-04-10T17:18:00.007+02:00

(thanks to @RowdyBass)

Google Hits

2010-04-08T09:50:00.005+02:00

Sometimes people use google's number of hits stats to illustrate to what extent a topic is relevant or discussed. Recently a colleague did it on Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) and I did it as well. We came up with totally different numbers of hits!

Strange and after some playing around I discovered that apperently the 'interface language' setting (under preferences) has some major impact.

Good laboratory practice hits in google. Interface language:
- english: 3270k
- dutch: 9820k
- german: 9760k
- chinese: 9930k

Weird is it not? And on top of that "Good laboratory practice" (with the quotes) gives 191k hits regardsless the language........

Testing something completely different: lovely dress. Googling on these two words gives about 35M hits regardless the interface language.

So what do we learn form this?

lovely dresses are more important then GLP
far more people do GLP in some random order (3 - 10M hits) then in the correct order (191k hits)
google seems to be censoring google for the anglosaxon world; at least as far as GLP is concerned

Epilogue

2010-04-06T00:28:00.002+02:00

Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build the big bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks

Lees verder: Pastoor Ponckes slotakkoord http://spapens.blogspot.com/2010/04/pastoor-ponckes-slotakkoord_05.html

Collateral Murder

2010-04-06T00:26:00.004+02:00

Zet even een koptelefoon op, zodat je in alle rust kunt kijken en luisteren.

Lees verder: http://spapens.blogspot.com/2010/04/collateral-murder.html

Satire op het celibaat

2010-04-04T17:48:00.003+02:00

Een monnik en een non aan het vrijen op een rieten mand met stro in een tent bij het licht van een kaars. De paus bespiedt met een lantaarn het paar. Het vrijend paar broedt op een nest van eieren waaruit monnikjes kruipen, onder een stoel zit een kat met een mijter op de kop.

Rijksmuseum Amsterdam - Nationaal Museum voor Kunst en Geschiedenis

Vrolijk Pasen

2010-04-03T16:13:00.004+02:00

(thanks to @dexbob)

Jan Rot: Dit land is jouw land

2010-04-02T21:41:00.005+02:00

Woody Guthrie hertaald

Happy Easter

2010-04-01T17:32:00.005+02:00

Cat owners are more educated then dog owners. See: http://short.to/167uh.

Uncopyrightable

2010-03-30T18:50:00.004+02:00

The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter
is "uncopyrightable".
#trendfacts

http://twitter.com/trendfacts/status/11312113172

Bijbaantjes

2009-11-02T17:16:00.003+01:00

Recent tijdens de val van Harry Borghouts was het weer een nieuws item: bestuurders met teveel bijbanen. Ik ben geen bestuurder en mijn aantal bijbaantjes kan ik nog steeds tellen op de vingers van één hand dus ik voelde mij niet onmiddellijk aangesproken. Toch begon ik eens na te denken hoeveel tijd er mee gemoeid is, maar ook hoe zinnig het nog is om sommige te blijven doen. Zinnig voor mij, voor mijn omgeving, voor mijn werkgever, maar ook voor de organisatie waar ik mijn bescheiden bijdrage aan lever. Zou het niet beter zijn enkele op te zeggen en anderen, nieuwe mensen het te laten overnemen?

En als je daar zo over nadenkt dan valt het op dat het moeilijk loslaten is. Bijbaantjes zijn gewoon leuk! Een keerzijde is natuurlijk het beslag dat zo’n extra tijdsbesteding op de uitoefening van de reguliere baan kan hebben. Het is vrijwel onontkoombaar dat je niet ook af en toe wat zaken afhandelt onder werktijd. De baas is daar niet altijd blij mee, maar daar tegenover staat een positieve spin-off zoals bijvoorbeeld: verbreding en/of verdieping van de werknemer en extra informatie bronnen en een positieve uitstraling voor de werkgever.

Afbouwend bestuurslid, penningmeester, webmaster FABIAN
Stuurgroep lid European Bioanalysis Forum (EBF)
Stuurgroep lid Interest Group Macromolecules van het EBF
Redactieraad lid Laboratorium Magazine

DL 838

2009-07-15T23:41:00.004+02:00

It can not be my post of 25 August last year and the few subsequent posts, but sort of ever since that time I seem to have seen some improvements flying Delta on the AMS <-> ATL route.

But most substantially since the merger with Northwest. The plane is newer: better seats, better video displays - which even seems to work all the time - and a younger and more agile crew. Suddenly the average age of the flight attendents is below 40 instead of above 50! And they even know how to serve a decent wine or a glass of port.

So earlier this week I was enjoying all those improvements and silently praising Delta for reacing a higher level of sophistication. That was untill we landed at Schiphol airport. "Welcome to Amsterdam ... blabla .... blabla ... and thank you for flying Northwest Airlines."

Hurray for Northwest! (must be the KLM influence :-))
Oops. Sorry. Thanks Delta, for improving.

Het is (bijna) zomer

2009-06-04T11:35:00.003+02:00

Zodra de eerste lentezon zich laat zien probeert bijna de halve bevolking elke gelegenheid te nemen die er is om haar benen lekker te bruinen voor het zomer is. Ok.....

Maar waarom trekt dan de helft van die helft prompt een witte broek aan zodra het echt mooi weer begint te worden?

Dunglish

2009-06-04T10:11:00.003+02:00

This is to make a correction to the name Steve Xxxxant. backname is Xxxxance

= Dit om een correctie door te voeren in de naam Steve Xxxxant. De achternaam is Xxxxance

> This to correct the error made in Steve's family name. Correct is Xxxxance, not Xxxxant.

Dunglish

2009-05-22T14:08:00.008+02:00

Expanding the collection:

I broke the heater button from my car
= Ik brak de verwarmingsknop van mijn auto
> I broke the heater button of my car

Thanks, P, for sending me in the weekend with a big smile.
= Bedankt P om mij met een grote glimlach het weekend in te sturen
> Thanks, P, for sending me into the weekend with a big smile

I'll set myself left now.
= Ik plaats mijzelf aan de linkerkant
> I will put (place) myself on the left now

It is 5 minutes for eleven
= Het is 5 minuten voor elf
> It is 5 minutes to eleven

I was very pleased with the information of X and will deal this with my colleaques as well
= I was zeer tevreden met de informatie van X en zal het met mijn collegaas delen
> .... will share this ...

Bronze Drake Mount

2009-03-03T23:43:00.004+01:00

Dunglish

2009-02-24T13:39:00.007+01:00

Weer enkele zinnetjes met frapant engels om aan de verzameling toe te voegen:

We are a little bit still at X
= We zijn een klein beetje stil bij X
> We are a little bit quiet at X

You are married with Jérôme?
= Je bent getrouwd met Jérôme?
> You are married to Jérôme?

I phoned up the guy
= Ik heb hem opgebeld
> I (have) called the guy / I (have) phoned the guy

I am looking you
= Ik hou je in de gaten
> I am watching you

Announcement

2009-02-09T13:16:00.003+01:00

"Attention please! We remind you that for security reasons it is forbidden to accept any luggage from anyone!" (Basel/Mulhouse airport 23 Jan 09)

I have been thinking a lot about this announcement. There is something terribly wrong/illogical about it, but can not really put my finger on it. If everyone at the airport would adhere to it, no piece of luggage will can be checked, moved from the desk to the plane or put onto the plane. Or do they mean that when you buy something at the Duty Free (=no taxes, but triple profits) you are not allowed to accept your purchase? So the announcement can not refer to these kinds for inter-person movements of luggage.

Thus we have to conclude that when you are traveling with a friend, family member, colleague or whatever other relation, you are not allowed to accept any suitcase or bag they want to hand over. Imagine you traveling with your grandmother. According to Basel airport officials you are breaking the law (who's law btw?) when you accept her luggage while walking to the gate. The Swiss may be conservative and xenophobic, but they love their grandmothers, so also this can not be the reason.

Ils sont fous, les Helvetians.

EuroAirport

2009-02-06T15:32:00.004+01:00

Ja zo hebben onze Zwitserse continentgenoten de luchthaven van Basel gedoopt. En dat zal wel zijn omdat je van de luchthaven zo Frankrijk, Duitsland of Zwitserland in loopt. Maar het staat ook vreemd. Zwitserland zo'n beetje nog het enige land dat zich niet bij de EU wilt aansluiten heeft een vliegveld genaamd EuroAirport. En bedenk, je bent een wat naieve en onschuldige zakenman uit bijvoorbeeld de VS en je gaat op reis naar Europa. Hij komt aan op EuroAirport - mocht dat toevallig mogelijk zijn - en denkt "WTF, what is this place? EuroAirport? The airfield of our county crop duster is bigger!"

Nog leuker is dat er nog steeds, januari 2009, posters hangen die leunen op het EK voetbal: "your gateway to football". Met daaraan toegevoegd: "a bien tout. bis bald". Gaan we het EK overdoen? Ook grappig is dat de wervende tekst in het Engels is, terwijl het "tot ziens" alleen - of juist? - in het Duits en Frans is. En geen Italiaans. Blijkbaar tellen de Tessiniaren niet mee.

Rare jongens die Helvetiers.
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Sent from my iPod

LX 707 -> LX 729

2009-01-21T15:49:00.007+01:00

For the background story see my previous post.

Did I end in stating that from now on I would avoid Swiss as much as possible I now realize I was to mild. What happened? What happened was that the replacement flight to Zurich was not operated by Swiss but by this 'price fighter'/charter Edelweiss Air which was founded when Swiss Air went down. Sort of phoenix that rose from the SA ashes. Is Swiss out of airplanes? Out of money to pay for the fuel?

Funny thing is that there was an article in EA's flight magazine 'sunflyer' (I told you it was charter company: airplanes smelling of sun lotion and cheap disco booze) in which Edelweiss Air was showing off to Swiss how good they are. As if they were prepping haughty taughty Swiss personel for their future new job. Me not flying with Swiss again? Chances are that pretty soon Swiss won't be flying anybody anywhere anyway.
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Sent from my iPod

Veilig vliegen

2009-01-21T15:36:00.005+01:00

Een mijner grootste ergernissen is al die veiligheidsprocedures waar je je aan moet onderwerpen voordat je zelfs maar in de buurt van die vliegende buis komt. Alstublieft ondernemers richt "fly at your own risk airlines" op. Kortweg: FAYORA, klinkt erg goed vind ik.

Dit keer vroeg ik mij af tijdens de onzinnige "Please turn of all electronic equipment" of dat nu ook gold voor electronische horloges? Is best wel eng. Er kunnen wel 50 mensen met e-watches in een vliegtuig zitten!

Gelukkig gebeurde er niets. En dat terwijl ik ook nog eens mijn telefoon en iPod Touch aan had laten staan. Pfoei, dat ging dus nog maar net goed....

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Sent from my iPod at 25,000 feet

Swiss Crises

2009-01-21T14:24:00.006+01:00

Switzerland well known as freehaven for large piles of money and for that same reason home to many and large banks and insurance companies got and did his part of the credit crises as well.

Today I had to go to Basel (Basle?) and best fitting with my time schedule would be the Swiss flight of 13:10. Arriving at the airport at around 12 it again struck me how quiet it was. Like last week Monday morning. And again I was the only one at the check-in counter. Killed some time inbetween before walking to the gate. And there was a nice surprise waiting for the passengers: CANCELLED. WTF as my kids would say.

At checking-in, less then half an hour ago, nobody said anything and there is no plane at all! They should have known that. Either they are to stupid/badly organized to warn the passengers or they do it on purpose. Anyway a 5 minute walk to the transfer desk only to find out we had to go back to the gate and wait for someone to take it furter. That person showed up shortly after 1 and the solution provided was to transfer all the 40 odd passengers to the 14:55 flight to Zurich. Same gate she said. Of course it was not. Another nice walk was the consequence.

So 40 passengers could simply be added to the Zurich flight. That must mean that that plane was only half full. Which leads to the conclusion that Swiss has become cheap&mean: just cancell a flight if there is another one some time later going to somewhere in the region of the original destination. That a large portion of their passengers will be missing appointments and are in no way interested in an extra train trip Zurich-Basel is apperently of no concern.

Well, dear Swiss if I can avoid it in anyway I will not be travelling with you again. Second time out of 3 trips! And, dear Lufthansa, shape up! Story I hear from fellow travellers is that you are not an inch better.
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Sent from my iPod

Crises, what crises.

2009-01-17T14:45:00.006+01:00

I had to make the cross of the Atlantic again this week, so Monday morning I headed towards the airport. It was cold and chances were there could be some ice and snow so I did not want to go by public transport. Even in 2009 the train is still pretty unreliable under non-standard weather conditions. Non-standard being anything outside a calm dry 10 - 25 C day.

I was a bit late getting to the airport as traffic was unusually bad at a couple of spots. Nevertheless still pretty much well within time I arrived about 70 min prior to departure at the check-in. And nobody was there! Was I at the wrong desk? Was the flight cancelled? Was I much to late?

Luckily I found a lady behind one of the counters who was sort of sorting out her stuff. And she even could check me in! While I wandered through the airport it became more and more apparent to me that this was actually a very quiet Monday morning. Could it be that the looming crises already had so much of an impact on air travel?

The thought did not leave me and I came to the conclusion that it really was much quieter then on any Monday morning since nine-eleven. The business class of the airplane was full, but peeking into economy revealed some empty seats. OK, not a full plane, but still far from ‘empty’.

Atlanta Hartsfield airport and the boring burden of the slow immigration process is always good for ruining my mood of being happy to walk on solid ground again after a 10 hour flight. The only nice thing about the whole process is that you can study your fellow travelers. This time it struck me that there were actually a lot of backpackers in the queue. That was new. A few are always there, but 10-20% of the few hundred people long queue, that is something different.

I guess the financial crises leads to cheap coach airfares and the declining dollar (70 cents to the Euro) makes staying and traveling in the US quite affordable. If this is true and if it progresses along these lines then soon we have another ‘cheap labor’ country in the world. Off-shoring to India or China? No, set-up your next call center in the US. Cheap and some of them even speak decent English.

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Sent from my iPod

Dunglish

2009-01-07T00:40:00.006+01:00

Enkele recente nederlands/engels hybride zinnetjes die ik oppikte:

"Can I see inside" (kan ik naar binnen kijken)
"What a fine time I picked for it" (ik heb hier weer eens een mooi moment voor uitgekozen)
"I am going to try something out on my warlock" (ik ga iets uitproberen op mijn warlock)
"No flight behaviour" (geen vluchtgedrag)
"They come over as noobs" (ze komen op mij over als noobs (beginnelingen))

Merry Christmas !

2008-12-24T11:19:00.003+01:00

Euro FAIMS

2008-12-19T11:40:00.003+01:00

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

2008-10-31T12:02:00.010+01:00

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

2008-10-08T16:57:00.004+02:00

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

2008-10-08T16:10:00.004+02:00

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

2008-09-30T00:08:00.002+02:00

Dangerous Gadgets

2008-09-17T13:18:00.003+02:00

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

2008-09-16T10:37:00.005+02:00

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

2008-09-02T23:45:00.005+02:00

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

2008-08-31T12:51:00.012+02:00

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

2008-08-30T19:01:00.005+02:00

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

2008-08-28T03:57:00.007+02:00

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

2008-08-25T16:24:00.003+02:00

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

2008-08-25T15:54:00.003+02:00

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

2008-08-19T22:35:00.005+02:00

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

2008-08-18T10:33:00.004+02:00

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

2008-08-05T22:34:00.006+02:00

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

2008-08-05T22:14:00.006+02:00

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

2008-08-01T10:19:00.003+02:00

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

2008-07-29T22:58:00.002+02:00

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

2008-07-26T23:05:00.003+02:00

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

2008-07-25T18:58:00.005+02:00

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

2008-07-22T18:59:00.003+02:00

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 ongelijk 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

2008-07-16T18:21:00.006+02:00

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

2008-07-15T13:27:00.003+02:00

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

2008-07-11T01:02:00.004+02:00

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

2008-07-08T14:44:00.007+02:00

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

2008-07-08T12:04:00.004+02:00

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

2008-07-06T13:25:00.004+02:00

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 particilar 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

2008-07-06T13:15:00.004+02:00

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

2008-07-05T15:33:00.012+02:00

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

2008-07-05T12:52:00.006+02:00

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

2008-07-05T11:56:00.004+02:00

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

2008-07-03T17:43:00.006+02:00

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

2008-07-03T16:17:00.000+02:00

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.