raymondpoort.com

Robert Louis Stevenson: “There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy.”

It was a pretty tough ride yesterday mainly due to a shitload of mud on the track (we even had to walk considerable parts because of it!), but I MADE IT…I can call myself a birkebeiner, once again!

Coming back from the area was a bit cumbersome, since my car was at the start in Rena and I ended in Lillehammer, dirty and tired. After a refreshing shower I managed to hop on the bus bus back to Rena, a 2h drive. There I had to wait another hour until my bike arrived with a truck and could only then drive back home, arriving 1:15am…totally knackered!

Needles to say, I slept like a baby and am feeling pretty good today; no musclepain (although that normally comes the second day after), a tired feeling in the lower back and a sore butt. 😉

Not too much time to relax today however; my brother will arrive later today with Patricia and Jurre, so I am cleaning da house!

Well, the decision is made: I’ll give it a go for this years Birkebeiner!

I had trouble finding my shoes (!), but I got that sorted out late last night. The weather forecast has improved a bit (no rain in the afternoon!) so I a’m actually looking forward for this years 93km mountainbike track through the forest from Rena to Lillehammer…as you can see below it should be easy, uuhhh! 😉

You can track my progress via the sportsim site, just put in my last name in the box on the lefthandside and you’ll where I am, I’ll start around 11:30h!

My preparations for this years Birkebeiner have been far from optimal; a total lack of training, the last time I sat on my mountain bike was last years Birkebeiner…oof! Besides that, there are some extra challenges; the weather forecast shows rain (and I am a good weather cyclist! ;)), I have difficulty finding all my cycling stuff (some of it is still in ‘a’ box, but which one?) and I am dead tired due to crazy times at work…

I have to be realistic and am not afraid to make a tough decision; the final go/no-go will be made when I wake up tomorrow early in the morning…

I love performances that have a lot of energy in them, like this one:

UPDATE: shit, embedding any of the versions available on YouTube has been disabled so the clip below doesn’t work…click on this link instead.

Damn, I guess I have been flipping the Ring/Silent switch on my iPhone too much and it broke, leaving the iPhone in Silent-mode…AAARRRGGGHHH!!! I hope there is a software work-around that enables me to set the iPhone back to ring, because besides that it’s not ringing when I receive a call, all other application sounds are muted…no more piano playing on my iPhone! 🙁 🙁

Oh well, every disadvantage has its advantage (to quote Johan Cruyff ;)): it’s time to finally get the new iPhone 3GS! 😉

Leonardo da Vinci: “Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against cold. For if you put on more clothes as the cold increases, it will have no power to hurt you. So in like manner you must grow in patience when you meet with great wrongs, and they will then be powerless to vex your mind.”

I will go hot air ballooning tonight which we gave my mother as a present for her Birthday in June. It’s supposed to be pretty spectacular…am looking forward to fly high in the sky without wings!

Yeah, this is how a or any festival should be: sunsunSUNNY! And besides the splendid weather, the music also is terrific! Miss Montreal, Elle Bandita and De Staat were THE dutch bands today. Snoop Dogg pumped and upcoming are the Eagles of Death Metal, Bloc Party, Grace Jones and the Artic Monkeys, a great evening to close the festival with, eh? Oof, I have to admit, 50000 people is a lot, even when thr festival terrain is as big as it is…then again, everyone is having fun and getting along which is cool and as it should really! Lowlands is great!

We’re halfway through the festival, time IS flying when you’re having fun! We’ve been lucky with weather, a tiny drop in the morning followed by blue skies and sun making everything and everyone shine. 😉 A great festival atmosphere, especially when the mistery act ‘Them Crooked Vultures’ played, they ROCK!

It is time to leave, three days of sun, fun, music and more; Lowlands here we come!!

I have been doubting a bit whether or not to participate in the Birkebeinerrittet this year, the house move and everything around it prevented me from having a proper preparation…uhhh, understatement; I haven’t used my bike at all!!

Anyway, I made my decision and WILL participate! It’ll be a bit more recreational this year, so I probably won’t beat last years 4h54…:(

I wrote about the Real-time Dot from the Global Consciousness Project before and since I think it’s that interesting I decided to add ‘The Dot’ to the sidebar on the blog.

In short, the Project collects data from random number generators placed around the world and uses the data to measure ‘the’ mass human consciousness. It’s a quite complicated process with a rather simple result presented in the Real-time Dot. If the Dot is blue or green then everything is ok, with a yellow or orange Dot we should be careful and a Red Dot means that we’re screwed! 😉

(click on the Dot for an explanation, oh, and a grey Dot means that it can’t connect to the server 🙁 )

Hugh Macleod: “The creative person basically has two kinds of jobs: One is the sexy, creative kind. Second is the kind that pays the bills. Sometimes the task in hand covers both bases, but not often. This tense duality will always play center stage. It will never be transcended.”

We have received the gift of angels tonight, we welcomed them in and are very excited to have them living with us the coming 5 days!

think love, live in love, be love

The second big festival I’ll be going to this year is Lowlands in The Netherlands, coming weekend.

The full name for the festival is ‘A Campflight to Lowlands Paradise‘, so I’ll be in paradise for a weekend ;)…I guess it means that weather is gonna be stable and dancetents won’t fly away like with the disaster at Pohoda in Slovakia.

My list of must-see bands: The Prodigy, Artic Monkeys, Bloc Party, Beirut, Eagles of Death Metal, Miss Montreal, De Staat, Faith No More and Kaiser Chiefs, as well as the bands I saw earlier at Pohoda; The Airborne Toxic Event, Basement Jaxx and Razorlight.

Besides music the festival also offers a huge variety of other amusement such as literature, cinema, stand-up comedy, street theatre, etc. and unlimited access to the next door theme park/rollercoaster park Walibi World…hehe, I’m not gonna be bored! 😉

My nephew Jurre has his first Birthday today!

We unfortunately could not be in NL to share some cake with him, I hope we’ll see him soon again though!

My ex-colleague and friend Edwin and family visited us tonight. They’ve been on vacation in Norway for the past two weeks and also got the Norway ‘virus’; a big ‘WOW’ after every turn, nature in this country is magical! 😉

Weather was nice, so I smoothly moved into my role of Mr. BBQ and grilled some great burgers, chicken wings and salmon.

All in all yet another great evening; really nice to see them again and catch up.

Adam Curry: “There Are No Secrets, Only Information You Don’t Yet Have”

I was invited to see the Norway – Scotland soccer game in Oslo tonight. It’s heaps of fun with the Scottish, they are great soccer fans…even when they loose! And they lost, oh man…BIG time; 4-0!!

And not because the vikings where playing THAT good, mainly because the referee missed all the fauls and gave yellow cards (as well as a red card for Scotland) when nothing big happened. Someone told me that the guy was from Luxemburg…perhaps he should buy some goggles and go back to be a handball referee orso. 😉

Anyway, the result was as-is, giving Norway still a (small) chance to qualify for the World Championships in South Africa next year.

As said, the Scottish were great and came with many (2500 people!), all singing, cheering, grieving, yet still keeping their great sense of humor!