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Got a call from the tempur sales lady…apparently the factory is not able to deliver the bed we ordered in 2.20m long (WTF??)…need to decide what to do next; take the 2.10m version, the other (older) model in 2.20m or, uhmm, cancel the order? 🙁

Hmm, last nights entry didn’t get posted as it normally should?!? I’ve got no clue why, it probably got into sleeping mode…;)

I corrected this, so it’s up again!

We have been in need of a new bed ever since we left The Netherlands…the luxurious 1.80m x 2.20m box spring bed didn’t make it in the moving van and ended up at my sisters place.

Since we *love* sleeping (despite the fact I am a nightcrawler :)), we decided to go for one of the best beds out in the market these days, a Tempur bed. Last weekend, on our way to the Xmas fair in the Oslo center with my parents, we stopped by the Tempur store and…uhhh, bought it ‘just like that’!

Don’t ask me how much it costs…it EASILY covers the top 3 items on my Apple geek-wishlist (17" MacBook Pro, 24" iMac *and* iPhone)…aahhhhh! 😉

Delivery will take roughly 10 weeks, which has to do with the ‘oversized’ 2.20m length of the bed (a must for my divine 2m body hehe).

My dutch ex-colleagues gave me the first three seasons of ‘24‘ at our farewell party in September…they said it would be nice for the long, dark evenings in Norwegian wintertime. Well, those evenings did come and got us hooked to the series! 🙂

Interesting cultural mix today;

Am suffering from fylleangst on this day after Julebord…uhh, not really actually since I managed to behave (oh, behave! 🙂), well, except from being back home around 7 this morning, oof! 🙂

After just some hours of sleep we went to a Xmas fair in Oslo City, HO-HO-HO…and this evening we celebrated the traditional Sinterklaas event.

Loads of fun!

Tonight is ‘Julebord’…the traditional Norwegian Xmas party with work. Litterally the word translates to ‘Christmas table’, the actual meaning however is: ‘drink till you drop on expense of your boss’! 🙂

The day after is apparently followed by ‘fylleangst’, in other words…the hangover and fear of what actually happened the night before (did you really yell at your boss?? How will the response be the first day at work?? :))

Am excited to learn more about Norwegian culture again, I’m outta here!!

Yesterday I got ‘hit’ with what I will call Twitter spam. It was the first time, at least for me, worth a blogpost. 🙂

Twitter, as other Social Networking apps, lives by enlarging your friend-network and growing the circle (or bubble? :)), while putting (semi-?) interesting stuff on it.

All fine and OK so far, until the moment you start seeing ‘people’ following you (on Twitter) who haven’t put any tweets up (ever) and are following 1000+ people…the site listed in their profile then turns out to be linking to an ad-page, persuading you to buy toys for your kids for Xmas…yeah, that sounds like Twitter spam to me…pity. 🙁

I really hope that Sinterklaas will find the way to our home tonight.

It’s a pretty long way from The Netherlands all the way up north to Norway…it would be great if we can continue this dutch tradition of exchanging presents! 🙂

Actually, I’m pretty sure he will find his way as I just finished my rhymes! hehe

Darn! I’ll be in NL for work in the week of December 17…normally no drama, only joy, this time however it means that I’ll miss out on Marilyn Manson’s concert in Oslo…and was so looking forward to this one! 🙁 🙁

Timing is really off; the week before he will perform in NL…that is coming week, when I’m still in Norway…damn again!

My ‘kransekake‘ was delivered today…I was told this is a typical Norwegian traditional dessert for the Xmas Season.

I couldn’t resist ordering one since I need to be part of this culture one way or the other, right? 🙂

It looks like this:

Just noticed that the ‘last 10 Tweets‘ script in the sidebar is apparently broken…will try to fix it again!

UPDATE: ok, guess I’m seeing ghost here…the updates are up again, and I didn’t touch a thing?!? WEIRD stuff for a Saturday afternoon!  Please comment if the updates are not shown for you…there’s something fishy going on here…

Some iPhone news this week:

– successful iPhone launch in France, it’s a nice mix of Apple(s) and Orange(s) in the country of pain, vin et Boursin :). There is also an unlocked, carrier independent iPhone!

– the dutch Crown Prince Willem Alexander (Wim-Lex for friends :)) bought an iPhone, as did his wife princess Maxima. The iPhone is not yet released in NL, so they will face some roaming costs (or hack it ;))

– AT&T confirms the 3G iPhone to be released somewhere in 2008…heyhey! THAT was the sole reason for me to hold of to an iPhone when I had the opportunity to buy one mid November!

Small site update:

Just added a Twitter-script showing the 10 tweets preceding my current Twitter status. It’s nicely put under the Twitter badge in the sidebar, handy for everyone who’s not reading my blog every day! 🙂

The Facebook hype reached close harmony already end 2006, can you imagine what it is like at the end of 2007? 😉

Am running Devicescape on my Nokia E65, a pretty neat application that makes the usual complicated WiFi connection process on mobile devices a lot easier…it does it for me, so give it a try too!

An alternate use of Google’s search engine; use it as spell checker!

Think about it…have the spelling of (obscure) words verified by Google’s ‘democracy’!

How?

Easy as a, b, c…whenever you’re not sure about the spelling of a word, just feed your best guess into a Google search box and see what it comes back with.

You might see a ‘Did you mean:’…with your suggestion, but then spelled correctly! If not, chances are pretty high that the initial suggestion was spelled correctly in the first place, especially when there are a lot of search results.

And, if you can’t choose between the initial suggestion and the ‘Did you mean:’ alternative, just pick the one returning the most search results! 😉

(in the top right: ‘Results 1 – 50 of about 122,540 for ….’)

Pure democracy…or? 🙂

Visited iFactors, the Apple reseller in Zoetermeer, yesterday…ultimate geek time: played with the 24" iMac, 17"Macbook Pro and the iPod Touch! 🙂

Then saw a 102" plasma tv at the MediaMarkt across the street, on sale for only EUR 79.999,-…ouch!!

As I said…geek time in NL!

Since I’ll have a business meeting in The Netherlands coming week, I decided to fly back to NL already tonight!

Looking forward to spend some time ‘home’ again (will actually be working a lot in our house, to prepare it for renting it out from January!).

Our norwegian teacher Maja surprised us with a homemade cheesecake this week!

Actually her mother made it and since they originate from Bosnia, there was a Bosnian twist to the cake…she put pomegranate on top:

It was delicious, thanks Maja and mother!

Jason Calacanis: "The case for the community CEO… …someone who polls their user base openly, asks for feedback constantly, and engages their audience… …CEO 1.0 was defined as the all-powerful God-like CEO. That’s been over
for a long time–with the exception of Steve Jobs who is, in fact, God."

Excellent blogpost Jason, thanks for bringing this to the table.

This so much follows my ideas on leadership, CEO’s, managers, it’s a must read for people with CEO 1.0 / 1.5 mindsets…just imagine what can happen if they’re able to open up after reading it!! Society and organizations have clearly changed these days and being a teamplayer / people manager is key in moving an organization where you want it to go…it all comes down to;

Lead with passion and be INSPIRATION!