Archive for August, 2008

QOTD August 31 2008

Sunday, August 31st, 2008

Dag Hammarskjold: “The longest journey is the journey inward.”

I am a birkebeiner!

Saturday, August 30th, 2008

Yay, I made it!! I just crossed the finishline of the crrrraaazy mountainbike race called ‘birkebeiner’, hmm, I guess that makes me a birkebeiner in a way, eh…;)
I’m pretty pleased with my time too, 4h54m, and that includes the time I took some rest. Woohoo, not bad for someone who hardly trained! πŸ˜‰
Kudos to Kristel, who has been driving the whole day; bringing me to the start this morning, meeting me halfway for a kiss and a picture and making it (just) in time for a finish photo!!

We’re on our way to Willy’s Birthday party now, he turned 40 two weeks ago, hehe, I’m in the mood to party!!

Big day, big ride

Friday, August 29th, 2008

Well, tomorrow is the big day; 91km mountainbiking through the forest from Rena to Lillehammer, I’m really excited about it…I will be a birkebeiner! πŸ˜‰

You can track my progress during the race via the sportsim site, just do a search on my name.

Now, it’s time to hit the hay ;)…I have to leave EARLY tomorrow morning!

iPhone s/w 2.0.2 – not yet

Thursday, August 28th, 2008

I wasn’t able to update my iPhone to version 2.0.2 yet, I lacked time to go through the complete process at first and by now I read some reports of (minor) issues with the release…since there ain’t that many new features in it, I’m holding off, waiting for v2.1 in September…;)

Car problems

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008

Hmm, a not so nice coincidence;

Today exactly one year ago our car (the infamous family-car) decided to break down with a failing thermostat house…this year it decided to fail on the power steering pump. πŸ™ πŸ™

We’re not really lucky with this car, and Norway is certainly NOT the country you want to be in, at least in case of car repairs; prices here go through the roof! So, I bought a new pump in NL where it’s almost half the price and am now searching for a decently priced workshop to build it in.

Ehh, perhaps i should just buy an old Volvo and say byebye to costly (/any?) car repairs?!?

iPhone software 2.0.2

Tuesday, August 26th, 2008

Apple released new iPhone software last week Monday (version 2.0.2) and the iPhone Dev Team included support for this new version in their Pwnage tool yesterday…I’m gonna give it a go tonight, from what I read it is supposed to speed up some of the applications!

…things come in 3’s?

Monday, August 25th, 2008

Some say that all good things come in threes…in other words, when something good happens, it will be followed by two other similar, good, things.

I have heard people in aviation say that airplane crashes come in threes (not so good, eh?)…we’ve had Madrid last Wednesday and Bishkek yesterday…uhmm, did I miss one or will there be another one soon?!? And if so, would that mean that all BAD things come in threes??!?

Some belief that the rhythm of the world is based on the number 3, it’s a magic number and it is good.

Hmm, confusing…;)

One could argue that ALL things come in threes?? Good or bad, who decides on that anyway?? Perhaps all things just come? And they just are…

QOTD August 24 2008

Sunday, August 24th, 2008

Marie De Vichy-Chaconne: “It is only the first step that is difficult.”

iPhone & Google Maps

Saturday, August 23rd, 2008

Just for the record; I LOVE Google Maps on my iPhone!

I was biking today (a nice total of 60km) and climbed up the Grefsenkollen hill to stop at a small restaurant owned by some fellow dutchies, Robbert and Trine. I knew that it should be possible to take a shortcut home through the forest from there, instead of following the main road, and decided to go for it (hey, I have a mountain bike, right? ;)). The only challenge was to find the right way…and THAT is where Google Maps comes in! (built in standard into iPhone, no GPS for me since I don’t have iPhone3G)

See the map below (and click to enlarge) for the difference between the main road and forest:

It worked perfectly, I occasionally had to stop to check for a left or right turn on the map, but found the way easily, yay!

I’m pretty knackered now, but enjoyed the trip…it was a great! And a perfect practice for next weeks Birkebeiner. πŸ˜‰

Birkebeinerrittet 2008

Friday, August 22nd, 2008

I signed up for a crazy mountainbike race called ‘Birkebeinerrittet’ which is held next weekend, August 30. It’s one of three related Birkebeiner events; the Birkebeinerrennet (a 54km ski race), the BirkebeinerlΓΈpet (a 21km cross country running race) and the Birkebeinerrittet, a 91km mountainbike race through the forest…uhmm, that means rough, off road terrain, with some steep climbs along the way, brrr! πŸ˜‰

The course (click for the pdf):

Besides the fact that this is one hell of a trip, there is a great story behind the Birkebeiner event:

Way back in the 13th century there was a civil war in Norway.Β  Two groups were fighting for the throne, one of them was called the birkebeiners. Their leader died and the birkebeiners wanted to find safe haven for his son, then still a baby. Because of the difficult winter conditions, two of the birkebeiners had to go ahead with the little boy and were able to save him by taking a heroic shortcut via a mountain trail. The boy later became King Haakon and ended the civil war.

Read the full history on the Birkebeiner side or WikiPedia.

Wow, this certainly gives an extra touch to the race, I feel it’s a great way to integrate more into the Norwegian culture…I am honoured to take part in a race based on this historic expedition.

Chasing a rainbow

Thursday, August 21st, 2008

This evening, on my way home, it felt as if I was chasing a rainbow; I noticed it from the moment I left the office and it stayed up in front of my car, acting as a guide home. πŸ˜‰

I came closer and closer to the pot of gold and just before I came home even a second rainbow showed up, great picture, eh?

Rainbows, I have always been intrigued by them……and the pot of gold? Unfortunately not today…

Coastal ‘dead zones’

Wednesday, August 20th, 2008

I just read an article on costal ‘dead zones’ spreading globally. I was pointed to it via Adam Curry’s Daily (actual weekly ;)) Source Code #783, first thought was: “should I be worried for my home country, NL??”. Reading the article and remembering that the North Sea is (/was?) one of the cleanest seas around due to the constant flow of ocean water, I came to the conclusion that NL is safe…yet, are we? With a nearly 100% increase of these ‘dead zones’ every decade, I’d say we need to have a close look at our behaviour against mother nature!

Google Fight

Tuesday, August 19th, 2008

Last year I wrote about the use of Google as a spell checker, today I found a website related to this principle; Google Fight. It gives you the option to have two keywords fight each other, the outcome of the fight is based on the number of Google search results for those specific keywords…NICE!!

I just used it for ‘seperate’ and ‘separate’, I always mix those two up. (the obvious winner is ‘separate’…I knew that, ofcourse! ;))

MGMT

Monday, August 18th, 2008

I saw a tv-registration of yesterdays MGMT concert at the Lowlands festival in NL, a great new band. They describe themselves as a future band playing 70’s music which is spot on!

Their biggest hit sofar is ‘Time To Pretend’ (also used in the movie ‘21‘)…have a listen (this is an alternative version, with lyrics…where would we be without YouTube? ;)):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BawPtpdaO3E

BTW. the ‘official’ music video can be found here (all MGMT videoclips on YouTube have embedding outside the YouTube pages disabled), the bands YouTube channel has all the vids!

Back home

Sunday, August 17th, 2008

I just came back home after a quit intense week in NL.
The weekdays were what they normally are; filled with shitloads of work…it keeps you busy, eh? πŸ˜‰
Then Friday, while I was at my parents, the phone rang with the news of the birth of my second nephew, Jurre! A beautiful baby boy…I’m so happy that I was able to see him this fast (nearly 2 hours after the birth)!!

Yesterday was a guys day out; Robbert and I planned to go to the Bavaria City Racing event in Rotterdam…major disappointment since it turned out to be held today instead of yesterday πŸ™ (why check the date on a calendar, eh?)…but hey, at least I got to enjoy a beer (still cheap compared to Norway ;)) in Rotterdam and a nice dinner in Delft, it was great to be back in my old city!
We moved on to The Hague and after a terrific movie (The Dark Knight), we hit our favorite pub ‘De Paap‘, never disappointed there! We topped it of with a visit to ‘De Pijpela’, one of the few places still open after 4am, actually a place you don’t want to be. πŸ˜‰
Going home wasn’t all that straightforward; a friggin’ flat tire!! Hehe, I guess it was the first time I changed a tire at that time of night/early morning…we finally came home around 7am! Yeah, I guess you can say we had a great day/night!

Some things never change, and today my struggle with luggage between Amsterdam and Oslo reached another chapter; instead of wrecking the suitcase, KLM decided to leave it in Amsterdam…hey, they’re not taking chances, eh? Damn!
Anyway, it’s always good to come home and see that the cats missed me, running around in circles around me, or is it just that they were hungry? πŸ˜‰

I’m off to bed a bit early, catching up on sleep while another working week is coming up!

Bavaria City Racing

Saturday, August 16th, 2008

I’ll go to a special racing event today; Bavaria City Racing in Rotterdam!

Three Formula1 teams will race their cars through the streets of the second largest city in The Netherlands, Rotterdam…earprotection is a must! πŸ˜‰

UPDATE…it turns out that the actual races and Formule1 demonstrations are tomorrow, around the time I fly back to Norway, DAMN! πŸ™

I am uncle, again!

Friday, August 15th, 2008

Willem-Jan and Patricia (my brother and his girlfriend) just became dad and mom of a healthy baby boy, Jurre, born at 20.45h!! And that…makes me uncle for the second time this year! Amazing!
Great timing too; today was the due date, AND I am still in NL (am actually on my way to them now!!)

QOTD August 14 2008

Thursday, August 14th, 2008

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross: “There is no need to go to India or anywhere else to find peace. You will find that deep place of silence right in your room, your garden or even your bathtub.”

Olympic Games – Beijing 2008

Wednesday, August 13th, 2008

You can’t miss the Olympics these days, they’re literally EVERYWHERE! I have to admit; the games have a tendency to suck you in…I just can’t stop watching, so I’d better not switch on the tv. πŸ˜‰

The Netherlands have won one medal per day so far, not bad, eh?

Confessions Of A MultiMedia HitMan

Tuesday, August 12th, 2008

Wow, wow, wow!

I just finished listening to last Fridays Daily Source Code; Adam starts a new item called ‘Confessions of a Multimedia HitMan’. Believe me, this is visionary stuff…MANDATORY to listen to!

So, give it a try, it takes just 26 minutes of your day…you won’t be disappointed!