Archive for June, 2010

Happy Birthday Bro!

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

Yo bro! it’s your 36th today, hurra for deg! Hehe, Legoland in Denmark was a great way to celebrate, eh? πŸ˜‰

QOTD June 29 2010

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010
Pema Chodron: “It’s also helpful to realize that this very body that we have, that’s sitting right here right now… with its aches and it pleasures… is exactly what we need to be fully human, fully awake, fully alive.”

Worldcup NL-SK, the Pohoda dilemma

Monday, June 28th, 2010

Right at this moment the Worldcup match between The Netherlands and Slovakia begins and that gives me a dilemma: my love for Slovakia, the people and THE festival of the year, Pohoda (in 1.5 week), against The Netherlands, my obvious first choice this Worldcup! πŸ˜‰

Oh well, the game is ON so I’d say; let the best team win!!

(and Pohoda will be terrific anyway! πŸ˜‰ )

Javazone 2010: Java 4-Ever Trailer

Sunday, June 27th, 2010

I’m in the South of Norway together with Per who is part of the Program Committee of Javazone 2010, Scandinavia’s biggest (and one of Europe’s most important) meeting place / conference for software developers.

They released a short film: Java 4-Ever Trialer, a great movie for techies (there are a lot of inside jokes hidden in this one!). It was put on YouTube on Friday and got more than half a million views within 2 days! That version is taken off though ((c) issues?) so I hope the link below works. πŸ˜‰

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1zySeNpW20

QOTD June 26 2010

Saturday, June 26th, 2010
Shantideva: “If you can solve your problem, then what is the need of worrying? If you cannot solve it, then what is the use of worrying?”

Michael Jackson Tribute

Friday, June 25th, 2010

Today it’s one year ago since Michael Jackson died (/was murdered?), looking at the news and amount of blogposts on it, he seems more alive today than ever before.

The video below is 11,5 month old, it’s a flash mob Tribute to Michael Jackson, King of Pop in Stockholm (relatively close for me πŸ˜‰ ).

Next: South of Norway

Thursday, June 24th, 2010

After exploring the North of Norway last week, we are now in the South in a place called Holmesund, close to Arendal. Friends have a summerhouse here and invited us for a week of sun, fun, sailing and discovering the South of Norway…coolio, and I’m really looking forward to it!

Getting here was was already a fantastic experience, the trip was filled with kodak-moments!

Facebook Status – RSS feed gone?

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

Hmm, this post might be a bit techy. πŸ˜‰ Anyway, the RSS-feed with Facebook’s Status Messages that I included on my blog sidebar seems to be no longer available. πŸ™

I used it for almost two years to share where on this globe I enjoy life, which worked quite nice, and now the feed is broken. I guess Facebook changed something on their back-end (again) and this time I haven’t been able to find an alternative to get it back…anyone??

iOS 4 on myPhone

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

As announced some weeks ago, Apple released iOS 4 (the new iPhone OS) yesterday evening and I couldn’t hold back so as of last night ‘myPhone’ is upgraded! πŸ˜‰

So far everything runs smooth, everything feels snappier and there are some very welcome new features; digital zoom for the camera, the ability to create folders for Apps, unified Inbox, threaded email messages and of course the long awaited multitasking! Hehe, I’m a happy geek! πŸ˜‰

Midsummer night

Monday, June 21st, 2010

Summer officially started today and since weather is as beautiful as yesterday we enjoyed another BBQ dinner tonight, I *love* that! And since today is the longest day (at exactly 11:28h UTC today the sun reached its northernmost position, a.k.a. Solstice) we plan to enjoy the bright night to the fullest…a warm campfire, good wine and great company make it a perfect Midsummer night!

BBQ Season 2010 open!

Sunday, June 20th, 2010

Weather is absolutely splendid today and since summer officially starts tomorrow I can’t think of a better moment to officially declare the BBQ Season 2010 open!

This years edition starts roughly one month later than the past two years, so I guess we’ll get a long and hot summer in return! πŸ˜‰

WordPress 3.0: installed

Saturday, June 19th, 2010

As mentioned yesterday, a new version was released for WordPress (see the changelog) and I just upgraded to v3.0. The upgrade process itself was beyond easy, it took just 1 minute with the automated upgrade process…ha, the ‘safety’ database backup process took me *much* more time.

There’s nothing much to see right away for you, blog-readers, since most of the new features are on the back-end, but I am considering a new blog-layout using some features available in the new WordPress 3.0 default theme (‘Twenty Ten‘).

Magic number 3

Friday, June 18th, 2010

Today is filled with the Magic Number 3;

It’s June 18 2010 (18.06.2010), adding up numbers this comes down to 1+8=9, 0+6=6, 2+0+1+0=3, or 3×3, 2×3, 1×3 (=3×3+3×3)…that’s a lot of three’s! πŸ˜‰
I also have a problem with my blogging tool, WordPress, and I just noticed that version 3.0 is available now, which will solve all of this…how convenient!

I actually started to write this blogpost when I realized that it is June 18 today, which means that three (indeed, 3! ;)) years ago on June 18 2007 (crap, that’s again a LOT of three’s! 3×3, 2×3, 3×3 ;)), I started my new job / adventure in Norway…something I never regretted!!

And there is a Magic Three once more; it looks like I will go through a third phase in my ‘norwegian’ career (following some announcements earlier this week and a phonecall I received today).

QOTD June 17 2010

Thursday, June 17th, 2010

Oprah Winfrey: “The whole point of being alive is to evolve into the complete person you were intended to be.”

In the Artic Circle

Wednesday, June 16th, 2010

As you might know, Lofoten is lying within the Artic Circle, an area that I always thought to be too friggin’ cold to go to, ever, period! πŸ˜‰ Later I learned that this circle of latitude has not so much to do with the cold, but all with the fact that it marks the southern border where the phenomena ‘polar day‘ (24-hour sunlit day, aka “midnight sun”) and ‘polar night‘ (24-hour sunless night) occur at least once a year.

It’s my my first time this far ‘up North’ which is exciting in itself and the amazing nature of Lofoten makes everything even more special, see the pictures below!

The special thing about this last picture is the time it was taken; 2am last night!!

Happy Birthday mom

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010

It must be the most Northern Birthday wish ever ‘all the way from Lofoten’!

Happy Birthday mom! Have a great day, we’ll have an extra prosecco on you tonight, cheers! πŸ™‚

Lost in Lofoten?!?

Monday, June 14th, 2010

A title like this could mean many things;

That we lost the way and are not sure where we are?

That Denmark unfortunately lost its match to Holland with 2-0? (well, nothing unfortunate about that; we followed the match via an internet stream of the radio report with Jack van Gelder and cheered the orange lions to the victory! πŸ˜‰ )

That change is all around and we should be open for ‘losing’ things we know and are o-so familiar with?!?

Nah, nothing of all this; I took the final Season 6 of the TV series ‘Lost‘ with us, and as we all know that means we’ll be low on sleep for some days…haha, I actually proposed to watch it until it gets dark, but that ain’t a very good idea in Lofoten with 24h light! πŸ˜‰

Day 1, Γ…

Sunday, June 13th, 2010

I slept half of my first vacation day and still it didn’t feel like I lost any daytime, perhaps the fact that it is light 24h here has something to do with that! πŸ˜‰ We went to see Γ…, a picturesque village located at the most Southern point of Lofoten that we will see (and also; Γ₯ is the last letter of the Norwegian alphabet, nice to visit it on the first day in Lofoten! πŸ˜‰ ).
Absolutely stunning postcard picture views of nature and the Γ… village; one big museum surrounded by red wooden houses (rorbuer) and drying stockfish.

Halfway, in BodΓΈ

Saturday, June 12th, 2010

An early wake up this morning (at least for a Saturday πŸ˜‰ ), made it possible to spend some time in and around BodΓΈ today, somewhat halfway our Oslo-Lofoten trip; the 1.5h flying part is behind us, and we getting onboard for a 4h ferry trip now.
Besides sitting on a terrace ‘downtown’ BodΓΈ, enjoying a beer in the sun, we went to see Saltstraumen, the world’s strongest maelstrom! We were a bit unlucky with the tide, so no speedy water, but the surroundings were splendid!
Yeah, this feels like vacation!!

Ready for Lofoten

Friday, June 11th, 2010

Terrific! Work is done and the bags are packed; we are SO ready for Lofoten!!

Weather is a bit on the chilly side (8 dgr), and we hope for sun, or at least no rain. πŸ˜‰

After all, the sole objective of this trip is to take a picture of me drinking a beer with sunglasses on…at uhhh 3am (!!) in the night. Ha, I want to experience that 24h sun everyone speaks about, magical!