New Year's Eve

08:18 mareku 1 Comments


We celebrated New Year's Eve with my mother and brother (and his girl friend) in Koekange way out in Drenthe (in the east of The Netherlands). We expected a quiet evening but were in fact treated by the local farmers at the most and loudest bangs in my life :-)

The secret lives of Arab men...

16:25 mareku 0 Comments

The photographer Jeroen Kramer has done a "study" on how Arab men interact with each other and guess what? They are far more intimate then we Western guys are... :-)

Leo Vroman

14:19 mareku 0 Comments

One of my favorite writers and poets is Leo Vroman. Even now in his middle 90's he writes and makes jokes as usual. He is also a famous biologist in the USA, where he and his wife Tineke (whom is a character in many of his books). My favorite book so far: "Het carnarium". But now he has published his biography which as many ingredients to make it a sure winner. E.g. Vroman fled as a Jew the Netherlands before WWII to the Dutch Indies only to fall into the hands of the Japanese a little bit later...

Tribute to Joe Barbera: Tom & Jerry

19:55 mareku 0 Comments

I really like the cartoons of Hanna & Barbera. Most of all the Tom & Jerry ones. Great humor and a lot of gags in a fast tempo. This is one of my all time favorites where they actually make up during Xmas...

All time Box Office

16:54 mareku 0 Comments


According to the boxofficemojo website if you adjust the box office top ten of all time with inflation you get a surprising different chart.

Time website top 50

14:49 mareku 0 Comments


Of all the best 50 websites of the year lists, I think that the Time's list of coolest websites is probably best. I liked yelp, The9 and Burb as new websites on this list that I did not know yet.

Last Xmas dinner

14:45 mareku 0 Comments


Yesterday we had the last of the Xmas dinner series: with "the girls". We had an excellent dinner at The Grand (yes again...). Mother Mien is getting a new hip in April and she is already starting to worry about that. I guess that when it is done she forgot what the worry was all about :-)

Xmas dinner

12:39 mareku 0 Comments


After a quiet day we had dinner with No&Go and kids. I had prepared traditional fare with a modern touch (Lobster warp with cocktail sauce, Turkey burgers with cranberry sauce etc.)
We had a great time. We had bought little presents for everybody: here you see Mike with his new Abercrombie T-shirt.
Unfortunately I have the cold right now, so things are not running as smoothly as I want them to... :-|

Mickey

14:12 mareku 0 Comments

While watching the Jane Mansfield DVD collection, I keep on thinking of her husband: Mickey Hargitay, former Mr Universe... I don't know why :-))

Xmas with funda

12:24 mareku 0 Comments


Last Thursday we had Christmas dinner with the funda team at The Grand. It was a great dinner, good food and even better company.

Hate Crime in Arizona

14:44 mareku 0 Comments

Detectives continue to search for as many as seven men suspected in the Sunday beating of Jean Rolland, 28, and Andrew Frost, 19, as more people voiced their support for the victims of the hate crime. The couple were leaving dinner at Frasher's Steakhouse near McDowell and Scottsdale roads when they were assaulted by a group of men shouting an anti-gay slur, police said

Marque Renegade

13:12 mareku 0 Comments


On secondlife my nick is Marque Renegade and usually I am wandering around in Amsterdam and surroundings. Funda is building its own ski hut fro our new years reception. It's almost finished.

Good old Matt

13:49 mareku 0 Comments

We thanks to emule, I just got my hand on the ultimate Matt Bianco MP3 collection. With all my favorites but some new tracks as well.

Will it blend?

13:46 mareku 0 Comments

Watch this video in which the guy from blendtec demonstrates how to "blend" an iPod... Great way to get free PR for a blender...

It;s Xmas time (again)

17:16 mareku 0 Comments

So the funda offices are swamped with good intended "presents"... Here Joost is showing our latest addition :-)

Dessert in La Rive

17:15 mareku 0 Comments

OK I admit: I did photoshop it a little, just to make it even more tastier...

I remember Robert Long part II

14:39 mareku 0 Comments


I was a little surprised when I opened The Telegraaf this morning. Apparently Kristof found my name in an old archive and added to the list of mourners.. I am not happy that Bob is dead, but not sad as well, so I rather was not in the list... :-)

Josine van Dalsum

14:10 mareku 0 Comments

Is it Marijn or Josine van Dalsum, recovering of her cancer radiation therapy...?

Stars again

14:08 mareku 0 Comments

After Savelberg, Bokkedoorns it was time for yet an other star restaurant: La Rive in Amsterdam. We had partridge which was unfortunately not more then reasonable...
The atmosphere however was perfect thanks to Evert and his dedicated team.

Twenty Years Eddie& Marque!

14:05 mareku 0 Comments


Together with No & Go we celebrated today that we are twenty years together (and 5 years married) The Bokkedoorns prepared a wonderful meal and we received nice presents.

CS3 magic

09:29 mareku 0 Comments


Adobe just made available the Photoshop CS3 beta preview. It has some very pretty amazing features like auto align and auto blending which I used to put Noelle and me finally right with the VCV statue at Nijenrode. A trick that would have been almost impossible and very time consuming with CS2. Look at the details and you will not be able to see that I blended Noelle into my picture... scary stuff! :-)))

New workplace

16:27 mareku 0 Comments

With the new HP xw4400 Workstation with dualcore processor, two 21"screens and a wacom tablet (work)life is getting a lot easier - and faster!

I remember (the car of) Robert Long

10:42 mareku 0 Comments

The famous Dutch gay singer/composer Robert Long died yesterday. I immediately thought back of the time that I was 15 and a couple of friends and I went to Amsterdam for the night. Kees (Long's boyfriend of 18) was the driver and the car was a huge Mercedes (Longs')
When we returned Kees took a very sharp corner and crashed the back of the car... :-) No one was hurt except we had to go by train next time...
For the rest I have only bad memories of Long (He kicked Kees out of his house when he was to old - 19 and his songs were terrible... )

Three restaurants and a boat

10:32 mareku 0 Comments

I had to eat in three restaurants at a row today. First a perfect lunch at Henk Savelberg with Marianne whom I had worked with 15 years ago and who is now responsible for KPN communications. Then a light meal in the CasaBlanco then on a boat through the Amsterdam channels and last dinner at The Waag. When I crawled home (to) late that evening I could see any food anymore...

New dutch movie

10:22 mareku 0 Comments

A new movie went in roulation today: Een beetje verliefd. (A little in Love)This is a sort of a sequal to "the schnitzel paradise" It could be a funny movie.

New Toy

10:18 mareku 0 Comments

The Jabra bluetooth headset so I can listen to my Mp3s at work at pick up the phone when necessary.

Louis de Funes is the king of comedy.

10:00 mareku 0 Comments

Today I received the movie box of Louis de Funes which contains his best films other then Le gendarme de St. Tropez.
It is amazing to see how fresh this films are even after 40 or so years. So the dark days before Xmas won't be so dark after all...

Strange Soviet Buildings

15:50 mareku 0 Comments

There were some pretty strange buildings being build in the Soviet period....

Shuttle launch

15:45 mareku 0 Comments

Sam Fisher is back as double agent

10:44 mareku 0 Comments

Thanks to emule I got my hand to the new Splintercell game Double agent. Luckely I have no social obligations this weekend so I can play as much as I want.

NEW LOOK II

12:46 mareku 0 Comments

Oops, the new look was not the big success which I hoped it would be. So back to the basics again...

Family reunion

10:38 mareku 0 Comments

At the reception of my niece Henriette to celebrate her new company van der Pal Recruitment I came across my nephew Hans and Ruud. Here you see me in a picture with Ruud.

10 minute mail account...


Did you ever find yourself wanting to register an account somewhere, and that somewhere asked for your e-mail address to confirm something? You know you’re gonna get spammed by doing it, but you don’t have any choice - you need that account now!
That’s where the 10 minute mail comes in handy. Go there, register an account (a random one will be provided), the confirmation will come, and you won’t have any problem registering your account. After that - the e-mail is just deleted, no questions asked... :-)

Huysegems

17:00 mareku 0 Comments

My new hero in soccer is called: Stein Huysegems.

Santa Claus visits Funda

18:56 mareku 0 Comments

Today, as always Santa Claus was visiting the funda Amsterdam office. Everyone got a present, a surprise and a poem. The black Peters were not that black at all this year... strange...

Sorry Jan, but you are not an underwear model...


Jan Smit, Hollands favorite torch song singer started his own underwear line with C&A. He's on posters all over town. Dear Jan: please leave that sort of stuff to the professionals, like Troy (hmm...)

NEW LOOK

14:47 mareku 0 Comments

I already migrated my blog to the new beta blogger website and today I added a brand new template...

Please look after this bear(s)

18:17 mareku 0 Comments



On December 4th the yearly Teddy Bear Auction will be held at Christies, London. Some of these guys have an estimated price of more then 20.000 pounds...

Interview with Trulia

10:40 mareku 0 Comments

Barbell incident

13:54 mareku 1 Comments






Finally we can shop freely!

21:17 mareku 0 Comments


Beginning 2007 the tax regime for stuff you bring with you after a trip to the USA is much better. You can take for $570 of goods with you. That's more then twice the amount of what it is now. I guess a lot of iPods and Playstations will be bought...

New Year Card

18:29 mareku 0 Comments

Trough the photo service of good old Albert Heijn I am trying to arrange cards to wish our friends and family a happy New Year. I am using this picture of Eddie and Me at Disney World, Magical Kingdom. I am anxious to see what they can make out of it....

Side effect

18:19 mareku 0 Comments


After a very funny and wicked "Running with Scissors"and a moving but still attractive "Dry" I am running into trouble with the new books of Augusten Burroughs: "Magical Thinking" and especially: "Possible Side effects". We know by now what kind of youth Augusten has had, so why bother and exploit it again and again? I think I will stop with Augusten for a while and try something else instead.

James is back!

18:16 mareku 0 Comments


Went to the new James Bond this morning with Eddie and Ingo. It is one of the best Bonds ever!
Judy Dench is a perfect M and about Daniel...He is my 007... :-)