Archive for January, 2011

Poopy-Time

Monday, January 31st, 2011

Check this out: with Poopy-Time Fun Shapes, you make the bathroom fun again! Just stick the SafeGlide adapter up your kid’s butt, sit back and watch them poop stars, or uhh, hearts! πŸ˜‰

Haha, it’s about to get Poopy!β„’

MUBI – your online cinema

Sunday, January 30th, 2011

I recently signed up for a MUBI account. MUBI (formerly The Auteurs) is an online film website that integrates video streaming with social networking. It is your “online cinematheque”, anytime, anywhere. It will give you the latest buzz from the Cannes Film Festival or a restored masterpiece personally chosen by one of MUBI’s members, Martin Scorsese!

An interesting concept, check it out for yourself!

Saturday’s Song of the Day

Saturday, January 29th, 2011

This song marks an era in my life: underground houseparty’s in the early nineties…WHAT AN EXPERIENCE!!

Kristine WFeel What You Want…WHAT a song!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-6-50Yo4GM

Birds and WiFi

Friday, January 28th, 2011

Hehe, a funny cartoon for the Friday…WiFi makes life harder and harder for birds, eh? πŸ˜‰

(click on the picture for a larger version)

QOTD January 27 2011

Thursday, January 27th, 2011

Jeremy Taylor: “Love is friendship set on fire!”

London baby YEAH!

Wednesday, January 26th, 2011

I’m in London for business meetings these days and last night was actually my first night ever in London! It’s actually crazy when you think of it; I traveled to many exotic destinations all around the world (Bali, New Zealand, D.R. Congo, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Libya, USA, Costa Rica to name a few πŸ˜‰ ), and yet never stayed in London before…wow!

The first night was rather slow, I got out for a walk to sniff up some London air, so no all-night out in town this time (no can do sir, important business meetings today! πŸ˜‰ )…anyway, it was all good, streets are crowded even on a Tuesday night, so there is enough to see; you really feel the energy in this city!

Now, let’s see what the second night brings me!

Angry Birds – top 10.000 score

Tuesday, January 25th, 2011

The first and only App I purchased so far for my iPhone is Angry Birds, quite an addictive game that is topping the ‘Top Paid’ section in the App Store already for a long time.

There are currently over 6 million people playing this game (6.505.448 and counting πŸ˜‰ ) and I made it into the top 10.000, that’s in the top 0,15%!! My total score at the moment is 17.079.170 giving me a sweet 9.812th place in the ranking!

Hehe, quite some hours of gameplay, but fun! πŸ˜‰

Happy Birthday sis and nephew!

Monday, January 24th, 2011

My sister and my nephew Tygo have their Birthday today: Happy Birthday to you two!!

It is the first time in three years that I have not been in NL to personally say congrats, but nevertheless: Hurra for deg!! (of eigenlijk hurra for dere! πŸ˜‰ )

Below is (a rather lame) version of ‘Hurra for Deg’, the typical Birthday song in Norway:

(I am posting this clip as a bonus since I just found out that this Birthday wish was for some unknown reason not posted this morning)

Geek time! ;)

Sunday, January 23rd, 2011

Kissy got stuck in NL as she can’t fly because of terrible back pain. πŸ™ So I have been home alone this weekend and that means: geek time!! πŸ˜‰

This week the XBMC team released a full XBMC iOS App that also runs on the AppleTV 2G…and *that* is exactly what I have been waiting for why (and why I bought the AppleTV!)

It requires a jailbroken AppleTV, and there are currently only tethered jailbreaks available (meaning that you need to have the device connected to a computer when it boots). No problem I thought, enough computers in the house πŸ˜‰ , but…unfortunately no-can-do for me at the moment. πŸ™ πŸ™ The jailbreak is only available for Mac OS X and my good old Mac Mini is too old (G4 processor running Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard) and cannot complete the jailbreak process…DARN! πŸ™

Luckily there was another geek thing to do: now that Kissy has her iPhone4 I got my old 1st gen. iPhone back and wiped it so I can use it with my dutch SIM, a huge upgrade from the old Nokia 6110 that I was using as ‘dutch phone’, especially for sending sms’s!! (writing an sms the old fashioned way causes ‘thumb’-RSI) πŸ˜‰

QOTD January 22 2011

Saturday, January 22nd, 2011

Henry David Thoreau: “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler.”

Call center terror

Friday, January 21st, 2011

I believe that everyone has at least once in their life experienced call center terror; a computer answering you when all you really want is to speak to a real person to explain your urgent problem. Instead of a friendly person asking you how he/she can help you, you are forced into a bunch of unclear menus, and when someone finally picks up, you often get transferred back to…the same bloody computer!!

The guys of ‘Basta’, a Belgium tv show, decided it was payback time for Mobistar, a Belgium mobile operator with a questionable call center reputation.

The original clip is in dutch/flemish, but I found a YouTube clip with english captions, one of the best pranks in its kind, hilarious!! πŸ˜‰

Car got fixed

Thursday, January 20th, 2011

I just picked up the bimmer, the engine problems turned out to be cylinder and camshaft related which got fixed for a small fortune. πŸ™ I guess it’s the drawback of driving a 14 year old car that drove a little over 250.000km…then again, it’s a great drive, I love it! πŸ˜‰

Taxi Terry!

Wednesday, January 19th, 2011

I have a two day Sales training this week and the trainer showed us a YouTube clip in which a cab driver (‘Taxi Terry’) teaches everyone a lesson in Customer Service…an eye opener!

See you in court!?!

Tuesday, January 18th, 2011

Short after we bought the house last year July we discovered that there was no floorheating present in both bathrooms (and trust me, that is *needed* during wintertime!! πŸ˜‰ ). It should be there according to the brochure, so we claimed it with the buying insurrance. The dispute between our insurance and the sellers insurance has dragged on for 1.5 year now and I was todayinformed the we are going to court with it…WTF?!?

This seems a more than straightforward case…amazing that both insurance companies couldn’t find a settlement! (and trust me, we have been reasonable!)

Two cheeseheads involved in a courtcase in Norway…March 1 is the date, wish us luck!

Home sweet home

Monday, January 17th, 2011

What a nice way to come back home; knackered from an intense weekend in NL, driving a car with potentially serious engine problems, 20cm of snow in front of the garage giving me a nice outdoor exercise before entering the house and cats that left a shitload (literally πŸ™ ) of presents in the basement…oh well, I am HOOOOME, and that feels goooodddd! πŸ˜‰

A Birthday Sunday

Sunday, January 16th, 2011

The weekend in NL is as usual *packed* with visits to family and friends. It is great to see everyone again, especially as it has been quite some months since the last trip to dutchland. πŸ˜‰

The available time is used to the max, we’ve been going out in Rotterdam on Friday and partied the night away in De Paap in The Hague yesterday (big fun!)…hehe, there were not too many hours dedicated for sleeping! πŸ˜‰

And still time for some more partying today; Carlo’s 40 year Birthday party this afternoon and a dinner to celebrate Jaap’s 60th Birthday…a true Birthday Sunday. πŸ˜‰

QOTD January 15 2011

Saturday, January 15th, 2011

Nin Sheng: “Love is not a relationship, Love is a state of being.”

Enough wood to burn?

Friday, January 14th, 2011

Heating up the house is (obviously) an extremely important thing during Norwegian wintertime, and while we have (some) electrical heating in the house, nothing beats a good old fashioned log fire!

In order to get to the nice part, the warmth and joy of romantic flames coming from the fireplace, some physical work needs to be done. In my case it meant moving two big pallets of wood from the trailer to the wood storage, almost piece by piece, so quite some work!

Oh well, at least I didn’t have to cut a tree and chop the wood myself this time! πŸ˜‰

BEFORE:

AFTER:

<a href=”http://raymondpoort.com/images/wood_pallets.jpg”><img class=”alignnone” title=”Pallets with wood to burn” src=”http://raymondpoort.com/images/wood_pallets_small.jpg” alt=”” width=”400″ height=”300″ /></a>

Song of the Day

Thursday, January 13th, 2011

De Dijk with ‘Groot Hart’…this is *my* song, I love it! πŸ˜‰

QOTD January 12 2011

Wednesday, January 12th, 2011
Mother Teresa: “Joy is prayer – Joy is strength – Joy is love – Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.”