Pouring rain during a motor trip

16:53 mareku 0 Comments

Roland - not super happy
High level discussions...
A nice tour through Northern Holland with the Guys today - It was pouring rain - but that didn't stop us :-)

Eday 2011

16:46 mareku 0 Comments


Ousama Itani of Al Jazeera told a very interesting story about the role of social media during the Arabic Spring Uprising at Eday 2011. To bad that the food at this lunch was to awefull for words - some apricot jelly with couscous... To make it not to bad for you guys, I will present it only in Black&White...

hmmm...

16:54 mareku 0 Comments


At the death of Richard Sommers

13:13 mareku 0 Comments


I am still shell-shocked by the sudden death of Richard Sommers. I have known him for 10 years and just last week while on his journey through Europe we were planning for a dinner in Amsterdam. The first date was cancelled and we were texting and calling about a new date later that week. He never returned my last call – now I know why…

I first met Richard at the Homestore office at Westlake Village when I just set up a Real Estate Classified website. We clicked immediately – both very passionate and ambitious about our work. He was tremendous intelligent and gave me al those years crucial advise. You could feel his presents and when he laughed (which he did a lot) it was a real laugh, a thunder :-)

Over the years we keep on seeing each other all around the globe at different events a couple of times a year. Next to that he was coming over to Amsterdam and I to San Francisco at least once a year. Always having dinner at the very best restaurants, drinking the best wines and he most of the times ordering a double main course. At Acquarello, Michael Mina, La Rive, Le Ciel Blue.

During his tenure at Classifieds Ventures he ask me to join the Board of Advisors which I did gladly and after I was fired by my board at my own company years later he directly offered me a job at Zip – which I declined – but not after contemplating how much fun and interesting that would have been: being in a team with Richard.

The following years we keep on making plans of starting a business together somehow. Last time about a web based Health Company. It a pity that we never could make that happen Richard – it would have been a blast!

So full of sweet memories I think of you Richard, I will never forget you – you really changed my life. Thanks.

WWII with the best soundtrack...

14:24 mareku 0 Comments

This weekend was WWII movie teletron weekend. Thanks to the nice people of De Telegraaf we had a box containing these great movies:
Von Ryan’s Express
Battle of Britain
A Bridge too Far
The Dessert Fox
The Longest Day
Patton
Sink The Bismarck
Tora Tora Tora

All very good films, highly watchable - even after so many years.
Extra nice was that in The Battle of Britain the score "The Battle in the Air" from William Walton is played with no sound effects of aircraft engines or gunfire, giving the "Battle" sequence a transcendent, lyrical quality.

Dam to Dam run 2011

14:30 mareku 0 Comments

Today was the last chance I had to prepare for the Dam to Dam 2011. I have two start tickets - one for the 4 mile and one for the 10 mile run, courtesy of Nike+ running. Since I never ran a 10 mile before I guess I will go for the 4 ... ;-)
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