Archive for April, 2013

Byebye Queen’s Day…hello King’s Day

Tuesday, April 30th, 2013

It has been a special Queen’s Day this year, the last! 😉

The Netherlands welcomed its first male monarch since 1890: King Willem-Alexander! One of consequences of it is that one of the biggest public holidays in Holland, Queen’s Day, will change name and date; King’s Day will be celebrated from coming year on April 27, Willem-Alexander’s Birthday.

As you can see in the YouTube clip below; the country can expect a new style of ‘royal leadership’ from the King (monarchy 2.0? ) )…a dancing King instead of a dancing Queen, nice!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pHgXQ4rv8c

QOTD April 30 2013

Tuesday, April 30th, 2013

W. Beran Wolfe: “If you observe a really happy man, you will find… that he is happy in the course of living life twenty-four crowded hours each day.”

Misha 19 months – Happy Birthday daddy

Monday, April 29th, 2013

I picked up my 19 months old (/young) angel today, oof, he has *grown* in the past 2,5 weeks!

Misha didn’t have a chance to personally congratulate me with my Birthday last Tuesday, and he did so now; look what he made me! Sweeeettttt! 😉

Daddy is happy!

 

(click to enlarge)

QOTD April 29 2013

Monday, April 29th, 2013

Max L. Forman: “Always hold your head up, but be careful to keep your nose at a friendly level.”

iTunes Store 10 years

Sunday, April 28th, 2013

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the iTunes Store (originally iTunes Music Store). Only 1,5 years after the introduction of the first iPod on November 10 2001, the Store turned out to be another game changer introduced by Apple.

Despite many people ‘in the industry’ doubting if an official online music store could ever turn around the declining music sales, the concept (/lock-in?!) of the best mp3 player and a seamless way to legally purchase music for it via an online store turned out to be a big hit (thank you Steve! 😉 ).

The iTunes Store has been the biggest music vendor in the United States since April 2008 and the biggest music vendor in the world since February 2010, and despite the increased competition it still has a 64% market share in the USA.

The iTunes Store contains over 26 million songs, and became a full-blown digital content store with the addition of Books, Movies, TV Shows and Apps to the Store. Especially the Apps made the iTunes Store fly high; while in 10 years an impressive 25+ billion songs have been sold, in less than 5 years 45 (!!) billion Apps have been purchased/downloaded!

Wonder if it will still be around 10 years from now…

QOTD April 28 2013

Sunday, April 28th, 2013

Sydney Smith: “Live always in the best company when you read.”

QOTD April 27 2013

Saturday, April 27th, 2013

Voltaire: “…the safest course is to do nothing against one’s conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death.”

QOTD April 26 2013

Friday, April 26th, 2013

Seneca: “Nothing deters a good man from doing what is honourable.”

My father the knight!

Friday, April 26th, 2013

This is a very special day today for my father; this morning he was awarded the honour of Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau! It is a royal honour which he received for everything he has done (a LOT!), voluntarily, for society in his life, a true appreciation and recognition from society for the special way in which he has carried out all his activities…WoW!

A very special day for a very special man…PROUD!!

 

 

QOTD April 25 2013

Thursday, April 25th, 2013

Sharon Salzberg: “If we fall, we don’t need self-recrimination or blame or anger – we need a reawakening of our intention and a willingness to recommit, to be whole-hearted once again.”

QOTD April 24 2013

Wednesday, April 24th, 2013

Sarah Ban Breathnach: “Every time we remember to say “thank you,” we experience nothing less than heaven on earth.”

QOTD April 23 2013

Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013

Takayuki Ikkaku, Arisa Hosaka and Toshihiro Kawabata: “There is nothing better than birthday cake. It’s like a slice of concentrated love with buttercream frosting.”

Happy Birthday to meMeME!! ;)

Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013

Yay!! I had to wait a whole year for it, but we are here now; that one special day of the year that makes me a whole year older, aarrggghhh! 😉

Oh well, age is just a number (an expression mostly used by ‘older’ people 😉 ) and half of the day has past already…so uhhh, no time to waste; I’m gonna enjoy every minute!!

 

Genius in a fish bowl?

Monday, April 22nd, 2013

Education always had my interest and being a parent that interest has only increased. I have said it before; I believe that education is broken (watch the video in this link), and it couldn’t be illustrated any better than in the drawing below. Just think about how long ago Einstein made his comment on education…and then realize that not so much has really changed!! It should be no surprise that I am a strong believer in new, alternative ways to educate people. More on that soon… 😉

 

 

QOTD April 22 2013

Monday, April 22nd, 2013

George Washington: “It’s wonderful what we can do if we’re always doing.”

Longgggg days have arrived!!

Sunday, April 21st, 2013

Yayyyyy…from today on, the sun sets later in Norway (Oslo) than in NL so, let the lonnnggggg hot and sunny summer nights begin! 😉

The start of spring a month ago (on March 20) is the actual moment that days are longer in OSL than NL, though that is due to earlier sunrise. The sunset ‘break-even point’ is today, which matters as I happen to like long evenings/nights way better than earlier (way too early) mornings! 😉

It will all be over coming August 20 when the sunset ‘breaks-even’ the other way around and from September 25 days in NL are longer days than days in OSL, bbrrrr…

See for yourself at timeanddate.com, pretty nice.

QOTD April 21 2013

Sunday, April 21st, 2013

Sir Winston Churchill: “Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.”

LEAF in reverse

Saturday, April 20th, 2013

I never realized it, but my sweet electric Nissan LEAF is a World Champion, w00t! 😉

The LEAF is World Champion driving in reverse, achieving the fastest time over a one mile distance, in reverse. The LEAF, driven by Stunt driver Terry Grant, raced the 1.16-mile Goodwood hillclimb backwards in 1m 37.02s at an average speed of 88.5km/hr (55mph). Ha, the theory ‘a direct drive electric motor can go as fast in reverse as it can move forward’ has been proven, nice!

Oh, and even if I wanted, I couldn’t try this at home folks…Nissan installed a reverse speed limiter, darn! 😉

 

 

QOTD April 20 2013

Saturday, April 20th, 2013

G. E. Lessing: “One single grateful thought raised to heaven is the most perfect prayer.”

QOTD April 19 2013

Friday, April 19th, 2013

Peter McWilliams: “To use fear as the friend it is, we must retrain and reprogram ourselves…We must persistently and convincingly tell ourselves that the fear is here–with its gift of energy and heightened awareness–so we can do our best and learn the most in the new situation.”