raymondpoort.com

Raymond Lindquist: “Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.”

Madeleine L’Engle: “The great thing about getting older is that you don’t lose all the other ages you’ve been.”

…an angel was born at 05:21h on September 29 2011: Misha has his first Birthday today……Happy Birthday Misha!!

His birth has been the most wonderful experience in our lives, a magical moment followed by many more in a very intense year…

No longer a baby, though still and always an angel; it is truly fantastic to be his daddy!

Check out Misha’s first year in pictures below:

(click to enlarge)

Wow, what a year this has been; one big roller-coaster with ups and downs that created a kind of twisted balance in life that is both a-typical and ‘as it should be’ at the same time. Reflection on the past year, the evening before Misha’s Birthday makes me realize that all of this has to do with the process of birthing; both literally and figuratively…it ain’t easy, is not straightforward, extremely intense, with peaks and lows and yet an experience that fits and matches the energy flow of the time we live in…

Mary S. Calderone: “I truly feel that there are as many ways of loving as there are people in the world and as there are days in the life of those people.”

Conan O’Brien: “Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.”

So, since I would be traveling these days *and* there was a deadline coming Friday for a project that I am working on, I worked through the night last night in order to have everything prepared for my colleagues (Mr. Nice Guy… 😉 ).
Well, today in the late afternoon the customer sends us an email informing us that the deadline is postponed until next week Wednesday…darn!!! That’s allnighter down the drain! 🙁
More of these weird things going on the past days (flight reservations gone wrong, delayed flights without a good reason, and more)…I wonder what the cosmos is trying to tell me here, guess I will find out over a good night sleep, Ray-out!

W. Somerset Maugham: “One cannot find peace in work or in pleasure, in the world or in a convent, but only in one’s soul.”

This hilarious video of a man gobbling at a bunch of turkeys just made my day! (it is midnight and I am still in the office…yeah, I could use a laugh! 😉 )

Neale Donald Walsch: “Life has nothing to do with what you are doing,and everything to do with what you are being.”

You might have seen the official iPhone 5 promo video that Apple showed during last weeks iPhone 5 release keynote (check it out) where three of Apple’s Senior Vice Presidents take you through the design process and various new features of the iPhone 5. Using the same approach, there is a hilarious video out which shows the alternative iPhone 5: ‘A Taller Change Than Expected – Proving that size does matter. The feature upgrade you don’t want to miss!’

LoL!!!

Watch the official iPhone 5 promo video first so you get an idea how Apple’s promo videos are done.

Harriet Martineau: “You better live your best and act your best and think your best today, for today is the sure preparation for tomorrow and all the other tomorrows that follow.”

I like to live (LEAF 😉 ) on the edge; tonight I tested the  battery charge indicator of my electric car to the edge; I left my friends place after a nice dinner for a 42km trip home with only a battery capacity to drive 46km…*and* knowing that most of the road would be uphill, I expected a less efficient drive than normal…brrrrr!

With my 11100km LEAF driving experience in just over 8 months (still FANTASTIC!), I pretty much know how to gain on battery efficiency (basically drive like my granny 😉 ) and…I made it home having at least ‘some’ juice left (< 5 km)!! Oof, a close call!
Haha, luckily the ‘nearby charging station’ was only 5 meters away!

The battery level indicates EMPTY, and the driving range indicator jumped from 5km to ‘—‘ some kilometers before home…

Henri Matisse: “What I dream of is an art of balance.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.”

When you woke up this morning you noticed that something was different; the air seemed less dense and more clear, the sun was brighter, the sky more blue and everyone you met was friendly and helpful. The day went on and instead of arguing, people around you collaborated and were able to build things up instead of breaking them down.

…

You might wonder why the world seemed such a better place today…

Well, it is World Peace Day today…so no wonder! 😉

My suggestion to you: spread the LOVE and make every day a World Peace Day!

(and obviously the Global Love Project takes part in the event 😉 )

PS. You can also sign the Global Truce 2012 campaign at: www.peaceoneday.org

Takayuki Ikkaku, Arisa Hosaka and Toshihiro Kawabata: “Feelings are like toes! They have to breathe free or they’ll stink to high heaven!”

I participated in the yearly ‘Elvelangs i fakkellys‘ (walk along the Akers River by torchlight) in Oslo tonight.
A wonderful experience where the entire trail is lit by living and electric light, creating magical moods in the September darkness. My first time even though I live here for over 5 years now, great to catch up with fellow dutchies and experience Oslo in a way I have never seen before!
Pictures say more than a thousand words, though I could have used a better camera… 😉

William James: “Human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.”

Yesterday I wrote about acronyms and today there an event somewhat related to this: Smiley turns 30 years!

On 19 September, 1982 Scott Fahlman, a computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon University, suggested to use the emoticons 🙂 and 🙁 to express emotion. He was the first person, at least documented, to make this suggestion, here is the original message posted by him. The rest as they say is history as, similar to acronyms, emoticons are used everywhere these days and able to express virtually any emotion. 😉