Happy new 2007! :)

CAZ!, the ones “responsible” for the party made a Video which captures the party nicely! :)
Windows Media Stream

What to do to warm up and start the weekend? Here some suggestions:

1) Jagertee (advanced)
Put one part red wine, one part orange juice, one part strong black tea and one part Slivovica (I used Rum, though..) in a pot.
Add cinnamon-sticks, cloves, (lots of) sugar and one slice of lemon/some lemon juice.

Heat _slowly_ to not more than 65 degree or the alcohol is lost.
Enjoy hot while the night is falling, then go have fun (we danced till 4:30 – sono managed to locate some underground dnb club – yay! ;)

2) Glühwein (easier)
Heat red wine with cinnamon sticks and cloves in a pot, add some lemon juice and sugar. Don’t make it too hot (see Nr. 1)
Use high quality wine to avoid nasty hangovers. ;)

3) Grog (easiest)
Heat water, add Rum and sugar.
Easy, isn’t it? ;)

Old saying from Northern Germany: “Rum muss, Zucker kann, Wasser braucht nicht.” (Rum is essential, sugar may, water is not neccesary.)

Looks like we can drink from 1 > 3, as the recipes are getting easier while progressing ;)

This December I donated to the WWF, to SomaFM, my favourite (listener supported) radio station, today I gave some money to Wikimedia Foundation…
That’s just.. I don’t know, probably because I life exactly like that.. I pay for what I think deserves to be paid money to. And I refuse to pay for things which I would not miss if they were not there anymore, tomorrow.
Something good, something that works without gouvernemental control, without economic pressure.. free stuff!

It’s amazing how many things are out there that are entirely free.. and not “free of cost” – free of any intellectual property, free of charge, free like freedom.

the list is long.. The Wikipedia, my favourite music stations on the web, Linux..
If more people start thinking out of the box, look away from mass consumption and entertainment, TV and cheap music.. maybe we have a chance to turn this mess into something that can be called “civilization” again.

(Ok, I pay my taxes because I accept the system that we have as it is.. all the alternatives are worse, to be honest :P )

The Wikimedia foundation managed to raise 730000 Dollars of foundations in mere weeks.. all individual donations by… people. People that want to help sharing the knowledge of the world.. for free! Move your ass and give money to them. One beer less next weekend or buy less firecrackers for new year and help the knowledge of the world to remain freely accessible for everyone.

God, how I love to see that I am not alone with my terribly naive optimism. ;)

Sometimes I just love to be a part of this crazy world.

featuring lots of cookies :D

and I brought to the neighbours.. judging their reactions they are not really used to such acts of random and undirected friendliness.. odd.
On the other hand there are children running around all day and trying to sell things for dubious organisations.. I can understand people look at you suspiciously when you knock on their door…

This morning I got up at 14:00 :P

Well, I spent the last night drinking wine, watching “Arizona Dream” and then reading about Drizzt Do’Urden again.. nevertheless, I think I really needed the rest.

However, after getting up I began working in the kitchen producing dough for cookies.. after not managing to do this in the days before christmas I thougt I do them now and excuse myself by making them “new years cookies” ;)

I got physical and moral (moreorless) support from Ben, who came to visit over the holidays, and we succeeded in making a total mess of the kitchen, despite his efforts to keep it structured/organized; my chaos-potential is just too high :)
(It really is too small for 2 people there, I realized, as Ben periodically freaked out over me being too uncontrolled or him feeling cornered – next home will have a big american kitchen where 5 people can dance and cook ;) )

After we had played enough in the kitchen, we started doing exercises, as we both felt we need to do something to compensate for all the tasty food and the sweets. So it was a genuine kung-fu warm-up and stretching session. Felt really good to do something again.
Now of course, one should shower.

Suprise, suprise, there is no water anymore. :P

And not just no warm water, no water at all. Nice to know if you are full of soap and standing there.. ;)
Good for me that that I am so polite and let Ben go in the shower first :D
I finished his shower by using the tea-water that was left in the kettle and I had to shave with oil instead of water (which works surprisingly well!)

Now we are going to leave the house and have a look how the rest of Amsterdam is celebrating.

Anna, I wish you and your family all the best, and whoever is reading this, I wish you a merry christmas (or alternatively a happy winter solstice, for the non-christians :P
(Joke is stolen from SomaFM, my favourite Internet radio station)

just nice to see that the guys that (wasted) spent their youth with similar things as we did made it into business, too…

if you smile at this ad you know what I mean.
If you don’t, you probably never will… ;)

Indigo, I’ll never forget you!

Now that I work for a global network provider, I thought (credits to Da5id for the idea) to make a geeky christmas joke:

The Backbone Team wishes you:

Less packet loss.

After my rear wheel overtook me today on my way to work, destroying a pair of jeans in the process (apart from causing pain to my leg, creating a lot of scratches on my bike and leaving a dent in my pride) I hereby announce the motorcycle season of 2006 has ended.

I’m so pissed…

UPDATE:
This morning I was wise, used the bus, and while waiting for it to arrive, I saw a street cleaning team of the city of Amsterdam, brushing the street with motorized iron brushes and hot water, apparently cleaning the dirty smear that caused me to slip… seems it wasn’t ice after all.
I had to calm myself down to prevent jumping their necks immediately.

Well, my timing has always been perfect, hasn’t it?

Jesse is the baby of Alex and Patricia, friends of Anna (well, of ours, it seems)
He is 7 months now and has a smile that is more than contageous.. he makes the coldest iceberg smile when he does. I so much hope our son is going to have a smile like that.
We are taking care of him today – it makes me realize how it’s going to be when we have our son around. He demands lots of attention – to Siepke’s disgust who has a new enemy now. :)
Using the laptop instead of paying attention to him is punishable already.. but caring for another living being in the house gets him really jealous. He is all around and tries to get himself in the center of attention.
I pity him for once we get our son here he will be permanently Number 2 in the house. (just like me) :P