raymondpoort.com

“Als je beseft dat je liefde niet moet zoeken
maar het kunt herkennen in jezelf
herken je het ook in de ander
en maak je ‘t samen tot iets groots”

“Hvis du innser at du ikke trenger å søke etter kjærligheten
men å enkjenne det i deg selv
du gjenkjenner den i den andre også
og sammen gjør du det til noe stort ”

So, Thank God It’s Friday everybody!!!

Robbert is coming over for the weekend and I am about to pick him up from the airport, yayyyy! Haha, he will actually be the waiter at our Ode2Love party (the Norwegian edition) tomorrow ;)…Sshhhh, don’t tell him, he doesn’t know that yet! 😉 😉

Nah, it’s just great to have him over…already the sixth time this year, wow!!

A sunny vacation in Costa Rica makes great photos including the one below that I’ll use as Profile picture for the various Social Networks. It’s not too sunny, or?

Scott Westerfeld: “What you do, the way you think, makes you beautiful.”

Everyone knows Ryanair as the true price fighter when it comes to flying el-cheapo. Recently they came up with the plan to introduce ‘standing-seats’ to even bring down their rates further, it almost seems as if they are operating a ‘free’ public service instead of running a commercial organization?!?

One has to realize though that there are many hidden fees that gradually increase their incredible low advertised rates, so they are not always the cheapest. Their service level *is* however, according to some, very ‘cheap’…check www.ihateryanair.org for some good stories! 😉

And if you really want to know how they make their money after they lure you in with cheap rates, check out the YouTube clip below! 😉

Kissy bought the second generation Apple TV when she was in Canada last week, so the geek has a new gadget to play with hehe!

Despite the fact that the feature of renting TV Shows and Movies is not available (yet?) in Norway, this nifty device is already giving me lots of pleasure…it is simply a great way to stream my music, photos and movies from any computer at home to my TV and stereo (no DivX yet, but with a jailbreak on its way that will come sooner than later 😉 , next to that I expect Apple to take the  App Store route since the Apple TV is iOS based…VLC will definitely be there!). Next to that it provides instant access to YouTube, Flickr, MobileMe, Podcasts and 100’s of Internet Radio stations. So far, so good, but the most amazing feature is AirPlay; the setup, ease of use and (future) options are many…it’s very cool to see it live in action (check out this video to get an impression).

And all of that in a really, really tiny box (less than 10x10cm)…you can see that it is small from the photo below, but I didn’t realize how tiny it really was until I took it out of the box.

Unlike the previous generation of Apple TV, I expect this one to be a hit, it’s already a great addition to my Apple gear at home!

Truly a mystery to me why Apple still doesn’t sell this nifty gadget with its relatively low price point in more countries (despite the lack of TV Show / Movie content!)…iHappy! 😉

Yay, Sinterklaas found the way ‘up North’ and passed by the house tonight! 😉

We celebrated it just with the two of us, so there was no long guessing of who got what from whom. 😉

Kissy got her Hunter boots, and I got Avatar on Blu’Ray’…finally a movie to unleash the stunning features of the HDTV!

It’s December which means the evenings are long and dark…a good moment to start watching Season 8 of ‘24‘!

Hahaha, it’s couch potato time!!

Tonight we have the traditional Xmas dinner/party (‘Julebord‘) with work and it is gonna be different than all the earlier Julebord’s I had; the dinner will be in a barn (haha, and still behave like pigs so that stays the same 😉 ). I just heard that it is currently -10C there, so no fancy clothing this time, just layers of warm cloths, gloves, scarves and a hat!

It’s going to be quite special although I do think that we all will continuously remind ourselves that we’re doing this for fun! 😉

PS. No blogpost tomorrow means I froze and am still stuck in that barn! 😉

Some time ago I signed up for Foursquare (wiki), a location based Social Network (and game). Initially this gave me an alternative to the disappeared ‘Facebook Status’ RSS-feed, which I used to ‘disclose’ where I was enjoying my life on this globe (the ‘Where am I‘ section on the column on the blog-sidebar).

Yesterday was my 100th day on this Social Network and the game-side of it has given me 14 badges and 13 mayorships already (home and work are the most obvious ones, the Subway restaurant in Jaco, Costa Rica is the funkiest 😉 ). It’s fun, a little addictive and it easily became my habit to check in whenever I arrive somewhere. Other users might have left some useful tips for that venue, or there could be a special offer for foursquare users (such as 20% off the Oslo Pass, or a free ticket to a game at the Ullevaal Stadion).

I expect Foursquare to  become even more interesting when your friends sign up too; you will receive a ping when they are in the same city that you’re in, so you can meet in real life…ha, who said that internet would decrease real contact, eh? 😉

Similar as last year, the UNDP Human Development Report 2010 shows that Norway is the best country in the world to live in! The Netherlands ‘lost’ one place (ranked 7th this year, and 6th last year), check it out.

There are three dimensions taken into account to come to this conclusion:

• A long and healthy life: Life expectancy at birth
• Access to knowledge: Mean years of schooling and Expected years of schooling
• A decent standard of living: GNI (Gross National Income) per capita

The report is released since 1990 and Norway was ranked first in eight of the last ten years…pretty impressive!

Yeah, I already knew that it is quite good to live here! 😉