Summer in Amsterdam...
Woningnet supervisory board
Today I was elected member of the board of supervisors of WoningNet, an IT and marketing data company for housing societies. I hope I can contribute to make this great company even better. :-)
Sunday's best: Top ten Detective TV shows
What is it with Detectives that they are almost always single elderly men? Most of them have problems with their (ex) wives. Hardly any of them have children. And most of the times the seem very unhappy in their private lives. Maybe that is necessary to fully concentrate on the job (or it makes a better story ;-) ). While watching the Dalziel & Pascoe series, I was wondering what the best Detective TV shows were:
- Foyle's War - because of the stories and settings.
- Dalziel & Pascoe - This is one show where it is difficult to guess who done it right from the start (it takes me about 10 minutes :-)) )
- Wallander - because it is swedish...
- Morse - Because of John Thaw, and his car of course
- Columbo - Nice stories
- McCloud - Who doesn't want to be Sam McCloud?
- Frost - Nice social settings
- Midsommer Murders - Because of its English county sides and festivals
- Tatort - still going strong after almost 40 years. I like especially Hansjörg Felmy as
Kommissar Haferkamp - Poirot - Little outdated, but nice Art Deco settings
A computer for $49?
Marvell introduces the SheevaPlug, a
development kit that is basically a Linux-based plug computer. The
SheevaPlug is powered by Kirkwood Series SoC with a Marvell Sheeva
1.2GHz procesor, 512MB RAM adn 512MB flash memory. It has gigabit
Ethernet and USB 2.o ports.
The SheevaPlug supports many standard Linux 2.6 kernel
distributions. It is priced at $99, and the company expectes a price
drop to $49.
Nightmare at the Museum II
The first NatM was sometimes amusing. Unfortunately the makers made an exact copy full with clichés. The film is boring, not funny and way to long...
Finally: Crystal Quest on my iPhone
On of my favorite games on my Apple MacIntosh II was Crystal Quest. It started very simple, but Oh boy: it really was tough a couple of waves later. The sound FX were great too. And now it is on my iPhone :-)
New Gare du Nord - Love for Lunch sucks...
What's wrong with the Gare du Nord guys? I really liked their previous 4 albums, but their new release "Love for Lunch" sucks. It is a collection of tracks that all sounds familiair, but in the wrong sense of the word. It is a dull, bland album...:-(
Why they are FAT!
The website "This is why you're fat" shows what ordinary americans are eating. You cannot call this food anymore.. It is disgusting, sickening, nausea causing FAT rubbish. Don't watch this if you don't have a strong stomach...
Sundays' best: top ten Dutch Euro Vision Song Festival
Now that The Netherlands lost again - you wonder whether it makes sense to compete at the EuroVison Song festival
at all. The televote system doesn't seem to help our candidates. I myself haven't watched the show for 10 years or so, so I can only remember the good old days... These are my favorite entries:
- Teddy Scholten - Een Beetje
- Ruth Jacott – Vrede
- Edsilia Rombly - Hemel en
aarde - Maggie MacNeal - Amsterdam
- Marcha - Rechtop in de wind
- Teach In - Ding-a-Dong
- Greetje Kauffeld - Wat
een dag - Lenny Kuhr - De
troubadour - Therese Steinmetz -
Ring Dinge - Ronnie Tober - Morgen
A gay collection
A funny report in Volkskrant Magazine about the collection of Frank Schallmaier of similar profile pictures on gay social websites. It seems that everybody thinks the same.
Warp 10! The new Star Trek
It's funny, high paced, has a great story and likeable characters: Star Trek, the movie. The actors remind you of the original cast, but then again have a magic of their on. The story about Spock is probably the best of all the Star Trek movies. I really hope that this is a fresh start of the franchise. FOr me this is one of the best movies ever...
An update from wounded knee
I have been in & out The Andreas Hospital these days. The really super friendly and helpfull staff there are taking my injury very serious indeed. I have now a plastic surgeon to look after my middle finger and the speed with which things are improving is great. It will take about 6 weeks before I can start the rehabilitation process with my already assigned nurse. In the mean time everybdoy is very suporting and helping me out. thanks! :-))
Panorama
I made this 360 pano on a mountain at Rudolf, near Weimar, Germany. I shot it just by hand (about 18 pix) and then stitched it with PS CS4.
The day I crashed with my motorbike and ended in hospital
I went to my mumm this afternoon for mothersday and on the way back thought that I could get through a traffic light. Eddie who was driving in front of my thought otherwise and stopped just in time. I tried to make an emergency stop, but blocked my front wheel and slighed with my bike a couple of meters over the (hard) asphalt. My left leg is wounded and right hand a little bit broken. the ambulance came quickly and I was repaired in no time. Luckily I was wearing my full faced helmet and a motor jacket with protection - stupidly I was only wearing (white) jeans in stead of my special motor trousers. Bike was scratched - but was OK! It will take a week or 4 to recover...
Sundays' best: top ten paradise stories
Touring through Germany and seeing the landscape and space I wonder how it would be when we moved to this place and lived here. It reminds me of the stories I read of people who moved to their paradise, just to find that it doesn't exists... :-)Here are my favorites
1) A year in Provence
2) Under the Tuscan Sun
3) Shirley Valentine
4) The matchmaker of Perigord
5) My house in Umbria
6) A good Year
7) In Maremma
8) Tea with Mussolini
9) Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis
10) Mr. Blandings builds his dream House
1) A year in Provence
2) Under the Tuscan Sun
3) Shirley Valentine
4) The matchmaker of Perigord
5) My house in Umbria
6) A good Year
7) In Maremma
8) Tea with Mussolini
9) Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis
10) Mr. Blandings builds his dream House
I am a Liberal Democrat
With EU profiler I tried to figure out which party to vote for at the European Elections June 4. Nationally I keep my Democrat / Liberal preference with D66, but the party which most resembles my views is the Liberal Democrats of the UK.
A letter from Barack...
A couple of months ago Sandy Tsao wrote to Barack Obama that he should fulfill his election promise to change the "Don't ask - Don't Tell" policy. She wrote hime that she told her superiors she was gay. Barack sent a hand written note back (that's actually awesome knowing that he has a serious schedule each day (and night)). He writes: "It will take some time to change the current policy" - to long for Sandy, because she was dishonorably discharged last week. Now I understand that Barack doesn't want to make the same mistake Bill Cliton made in his early weeks on this ridiculous policy, but he really have to act and set something in motion...
Wartburg Cars
The Eisenach car factory has an old history. They were part of BMW before and during WWII. After that the Russians deported all the cars and machines to Russia. After a trademark battle the factory continued as Eisenach Motor Werke (EMW) and build Wartburg cars, mostly based on ancient BMW technology. The last Wartburg 1991 model was the same as introduced in 1967 ;-)
Now they are building Opel cars in a brand new factory (as long as Opel exists that is)...
Now they are building Opel cars in a brand new factory (as long as Opel exists that is)...
Sergio Marchionne
I really admire the style of Sergio Marchionne. While everyone is moaning he is trying to create something new. In a forceful energic optimistic manner, And what I definitely like about him is that he always wears a sweater no matter what. Even when he was talking to the German Government about taking over Opel and all the Germans were dressed up - he just drove his Maserati and ste[[ed out in a....sweater (OK: probably his sweater alone is way more expensive then all the suits of the bureaucrats he is talking with :-)) )
Wartburg
Wartburg Castle is one of the most important places in Germany. The legend of St. Elisabeth started here, Luther translated the bible in German and Wagners' Tannhauser is based in the song contest at Wartburg. And in town Bach was born. We are lucky to sleep at the hotel at the Wartburg and so have a great view from our room of the surroundings.
Radisson SAS Hotel Leipzig
The Radisson SAS hotel chain is getter better and better. Their new concept is really good and there is no better example of this then the RS in Leipzig where we stayed. It has huge designer rooms, rain showers, big flat screen tvs, free wireless high speed internet, very comfy beds and a great breakfast. The location is right in the centre of Leipzig and we paid just 90 euro. No wonder why everyone at tripadvisor is raving about this hotel.
Escape from Colditz
Colditz is just a couple of minutes away from Leipzig and so we rode to have a closer look at this famous WWII prison Castle. We got a private tour of the place and saw all the famous spots. It was good to learn that the Dutch prisoners were the most successful in escaping. Funny that the movie was made in Scotland at a complete different castle...
Sundays' best: top 10 German food
You would have thought that a hamburger or frankfurter was the national dish here in Germany - but it is the schnitzel. You simply cannot avoid it. It is served everywhere - and most of the times all other food is just a variation of the basic stuff...
So here it is: the best German food:
1. Schnitzel Natur
2. Wiener Schnitzel - with lemon
3. Jägerschnitzel - with mushroom sauce
4. Zigeunerschnitzel - with a spicy
paprika sauce
5. Rahmschnitzel- with cream
6. Schnitzel mit spiegelei - with fried eggs
7. Schnitzel „Café de Paris“
- with herb butter
8. Hawaiischnitzel - with pineapple and cheese
9. Schnitzel „Florida“ - with peach
10. Cordon Blue - folded schnitzel with cheese and ham
Weimar: the classic art city
Weimar was around 1800 the place to be. Goethe, Schiller, Liszt and countless others lived here. Luckily not a lot has changed so we could visited their homes and go back in time. Bauhaus, van der Velde, Nietzsche - the amount of famous residents seems endless. Nowadays Weimar still lives in the past - not a lot happens here ;-)
Buchenwald
Just above Weimar lies Buchenwald a concentration camp from WWII. It is very moving to walk through the camp especially the mortuary is an example of gruesome efficiency. Although it was warm and sunny - we both got a cold chill from the experience.
The Harz
This was the one day when I saw more bikes on the road as cars; the Harz is really bikers heaven ;-) Motorbikes everywhere! Lots of curves, empty roads and nice hills are the recipe for perfect riding...
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