If you look at the “classic” Dutch art you will notice that they focus a lot on the sky.. sometimes it is being given more attention than the rest of the picture.

compare that to “nowadays”

It seems that the people here have always been obsessed with a) the powers of nature and b) the amazing play of light and shadow in the clouds. (sure thing, if the country is that flat you get the feeling that the sky is falling on your head)

But now that I came back from vacation I had to witness the hard way how painfully true this is.. the aircraft passed through 3 layers of clouds before landing at Schiphol airport. the last of them so low I actually feared that we’d never get out of it.

I landed on monday, about 0900 CEST and since then it is basically raining.. occasionally interrupted by a hard wind or an occasional glimpse of sun.

But on the other hand it really felt like “coming home” – as crazy as it is but I feel at home in this wet, grey and unpleasant piece of land that has been snatched from the sea hundreds of years ago. :)

Guess I will have to live with wearing rubber boots and raintight clothing :P

Sooo.. nachdem ich jetzt Vater geworden bin, einen tollen Job in Amsterdam gefunden habe und letzten Montag noch “Cisco Certified” geworden bin denke ich, dass es höchste Zeit für Urlaub ist.
Ich in daher bis zum 25. Juni im schönen Bulgarien und habe mir vorgenommen, das Internet in diesen 14 Tagen nicht zu benutzen, quasi als “Therapie” (auch wenn’s wehtut)

Malsehen wie ich das hinkriege ;)

I just realize that I wrote in German so I’ll make it short:

– am Cisco Certified since 4 June 2007
– will be on vacation till 25 June
– no internet access till then (as a “therapy”)

Siepke is with Onno and Marie for the time.. I hope he’ll let them live :)

men at work ;)

Tomorrow is my first exam since I quit university.
If all goes well I will be Cisco Sales Expert tomorrow, the qualification that my boss wants from me if I want to start pursuing a Cisco certification and become a network engineer/designer/whatever.

I am stressed, I admit but I like it, nobody forced me to say when I want to make the exam, nobody told me how much and how fast to study, I had it all in my hands.
I like the principle.

Vincent makes it difficult to focus on studying by being demanding and noisy but today I leave it all to Anna.

If you carry a newborn (or very young) baby around the city in a sling instead of a stroller, so that he can see the world, this has another effect: The people can see him how he tries to see/understand them. :)

During a walk through the city I was seeing so many people smile at him that I almost felt uncomfortable and started looking elsewhere in the end. Too much attention, didn’t think that I might feel like this one day. (on the other hand, it was Vincent, that was given attention, I merely carried him) :P

It is getting more and more rewarding being with this small guy, the speed in which he develops is amazing, every day something new or something that grew or changed shape or some habit or action.. I could watch him all day long.

He recently started “communicating” with us, meaning he listens to us talking and fixates us concentrated while giving feedback to the emotions that we put in the language. That smile cannot be described with words. :)

The downside (as usual) is that I seem not to have any power left for anything. He is just “draining” us (especially Anna) sometimes. A whole day of being unhappy and squirming and complaining or a day where he only eats, everything else can be cancelled on such a day… not that I regret anything but I really miss my private moments sometimes ;)

4 of June I will attempt the “cisco sales expert” exam for my employer, the first step towards a carreer in network management and engineering. It is the first exam that I attempt since my days when I tried to study and I hope that I will not fall back into old “patterns” now – like cleaning windows and waxing the laminat floor instead of learning :)

Yesterday was Vincents “first Month on this world” anniversary :)
And he is really lucky: today is the first day that is not sunny and summer-like since he was born!

And only one month has passed but he looks much more like a boy now.
He follows you with his eyes actively for short moments and begins to make some noises other than cries.

Speaking of them, I seem to have a talent to ignore any distortion once I decided that
I want to sleep. Anna wakes up 2-3 times every night, sometimes for hours.
I just sleep through :P
Probably some ancient mechanism to get me some sleep and go hunting again the next day ;)

Anna is still trying to get a rhythm into her life with Vincent (which slowly begins to gain some structure apart from eating and sleeping)
Nevertheless we enjoy the small guy a lot and are extremely happy that he is here.

Today is 5 May, the day the Netherlands were liberated from the Germans 62 years ago and it is a wonderful day for me to prepare for my birthday tomorrow – it really gets me “in the mood” (did I mention I dislike birthdays? especially the 30th :P

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_Zelda_(series)

Somehow he got inspired for the game partially by watching his children play in Kyoto’s forests, partially by exploring the forest..

now, 20 years later, children are inspired by Zelda and go exploring the forest dressed up as Link.

fantastic, how a whole generation turns and the ones that live in fantasy become the ones that create fantasy in others.

It’s incredibly beautiful in Amsterdam at the moment. Everything is getting a fresh green colour, the sun is shing brightly and warm, what a beautiful day to get your mother and spend it in the city with her while your husband stays at home and watches the small one. Oh well. ;)

To be honest, I am sitting here, reading the newspaper and science fiction, I don’t mind at all. After the last weeks I appreciate some silent moments where I can just idle and “unstress” myself.

This weekend will be > 20 degree, lots of sun, monday is “Koninginnendag” – the queen’s birthday, tuesday is labour day, it looks like we are going to spend a long weekend and a lot of time with the small guy :)

Other people perceive spring in a different way:
The peasants in the villages round Amsterdam are putting cow shit on the fields to nourish their fresh crop.
The neighbours thought it’s cool to barbecue on the balcony on the 11th floor, smoking us on the 13th.
The sewage pipe system of our building did not survive the sudden activity of its users and decided to burst.

As I write this, it smells of cow shit, human piss and barbecue. Lovely!
Vincent only produces small amounts of production (on both ends) but they add to the sensation.
Plus: 6th May i’m going to turn 30 and my parents are coming over, too.

It can only get worse, eh? ;)

Continue reading →

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/FindInfo.html

this is a nice tutorial how search engines work and that shows that there is a world beyond Google :P

Nevertheless, Google is doing a good job in trying to become the one and only, many people do not even know that there is something else (or they even think that google IS the internet.)

Google apps loaded on your domain are cool, by the way.
be sure to check google.com/a – that is definitely the end of hotmail.
I wish I had registered a domain back then when there were domain names available :(

Since recently I am experimenting with google apps, sharing calendars, contacts and mail and I seriously think about migrating – the concept of not having to delete mail anymore, just to archive it and to have web-based applications that can collaborea

I don’t sleep much, I get stressed by crying babies, I miss surfing the
www. But I am the happiest man on earth.