Amat victoria curam!

Next time I will help him and make the picture for him ;-)

I thought it would be good to update my french movie collection a little - so I bought at amazon these titles:

La Gloire De Mon Pere [1990] - with Phillippe Caubere
Le Dîner De Cons - with Thierry Lhermitte
Apres Vous [2005] - with Daniel Auteuil
Mon meilleur ami [2007] -with Daniel Auteuil
Les Témoins [2007] - with Emmanuelle Beart
Hors de prix [2007] - with Audrey Tautou

I have only seen Les Témoinsin the cinema - so let's hope the rest is at good as that one!

Orders taken before the launch for Windows 7 by Amazon were the biggest in the online retailer’s history, grossing more than even the latest Harry Potter book. So it seems that everybody wants to have a part of the fun.
But what about those 800m PCs still running Windows XP? - Like my HP mini note book? Remarkably, Microsoft has not provided a simple upgrade path for them. We are forced to do what is euphemistically called a “custom install”. That means copying all the data on the XP computer to an external hard disk, installing Windows 7, copying the data back again, reinstalling all the applications anew—which means finding all the old software CDs and their serial numbers—and reconfiguring their settings and find new drivers...
I think I will wait till Microsoft pulls the final plug on XP in 2014 (and buy a new Apple iTablet by then)

In his fascinating study, The Secret History of Georgian London, Dan Cruikshank, an authority on Georgian architecture, removes the bland facade to expose one of London's biggest and most lively industries - its trade in sex. Throughout the 18th century, London had more prostitutes openly plying their trade than anywhere else in Europe - several thousand of them. The forces of law pursued them all with fierce penalties: convicted bawds were pilloried and sodomy and rape were capital crimes. But without any effective police force, the sex trade burgeoned untill the sex trade was chased underground by the Victorians and the British all became prudish like hell. :-)

Years after I ripped my entire popular and jazz music CD collection, I am finally ready to start working on my biggest challenge and project ever: putting my classical music collection to MP3.

This may sound easier then I actually is - tagging the tracks, finding the right recording information, the original art work and merging several CD's back to one piece takes some serious effort.

I set up a separate iTunes library on a separate Hard Disk and started today with Mahler.

I hope that I can finish this somewhere in 2010...

One of my most beloved Kees van Dongen's "Jeune Arabe" is at auction at Sothebys, New York November 4th. The estimate is $7 - $10 million - to bad I don't have that amount of cash available right now...

At the London Automobiles auction of RM I found this nice Dodge Challenger for a mere 70.000 pounds. The Dodge Challenger and its Plymouth Barracuda stablemate were the last entrants to the “pony car” club already occupied by the Chevrolet Camaro, AMC Javelin and Ford Mustang, but it has that unabashed muscle car character, especially in this Sublime Green color.

Almost two years after Marijn and I started the company we thought that the name Zomoto isn't really representing what we actually are doing - so starting from today we are calling the firm "Motomedia".

Motomedia is a online automotive network and consists of sites like (zomoto.nl, autoblog.nl, auto.nl, carwoman.nl, and hopefully many more in the near future). To celebrate this event we had dinner at Restaurant The Goudfazant - which was very tasty and nice :-)

While I am still waiting for my Kindle to arrive - I must say that maybe, just maybe the Nook would have been a better option. Wifi, Epub, color display, Micro SD slot, swanky design: it seems the Nook as got it all. You can even lend ebooks to en from friends...

My iLiad definiately is complety worthy for museum purposes only. They only thing that keeps me happy still with my Kindle is that outside of the USA you cannot order a Nook. So in the end, the Kindle is the best (read: only) option!

Thanks to the nice people of blurb I received the first copy of my first book - an account of my blog which I started way back in 2003. The first couple of years I didn't post everyday yet but only when I was traveling. So the first volume of my collected Blog posts book is covering 2003 - 2005. I am very very happy with the way it turned out and the easy with which burb "slurped" my blog post and compiled it into a book. Although every single post is still online and print is completely something form the past - I do like to have so many sweet memories in a book :-)

I am currently editing my blog 2006, part I - so when this is finished I"ll show you the end result.

Julie & Julia, the movie about Julia Child and Julie Powell has actually one hero: Julie's husband Eric, played by Chris Messina. It is absolutely awesome what this guy accepted of and did for Julie Powell. This woman is really a big mess, dropping things, being hyper and depressed at the same time. But everytime there he is, comforting her and suporting Julie: My buddy Eric...

Roland and I joined our buddies of the motor cycle club for a weekend in Zeeland. Although the weather wasn't that great (rain and wind), it was fun to meet everybody and to make a tour around the islands in search of windmills - of which they have more then plenty!.
At some we stopped and had a little chat with the local miller. Usually strange, eccentric blokes, like these two.

Gay Icons, a new exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery opens in the week of the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots. A couple of famous (British) gays were asked who their icons were. Not a lot of surprises - but a couple of nice pictures. My favorite Sir Ian McKellen included heroes like Edward Carpenter and Walt Whitman.

In our local post office today I noticed that you can celebrate every birthday you want, but when you turn 6 - you probably will not receive any congratulations...

This engraving by Durer plays an important role in Dan Brown's new novel - the lost symbols. The symbols here are a magic square in the right top corner of the drawing. If you click on the picture, you can see that the numbers 1 to 16 are organized in such a way that every row or column sums up to 34, even if you divide the square in 4 smaller squares - the sum of that square is 34 again - sweet! Unfortunately Dan's book isn't that great. Professor Landon is over and out I am afraid!

Bjarne Koek and Neddo Siebum are two students who set up a Gay-Straight Alliance at their schools. Their aim is to make homosexuality something that can be discussed at school among fellow pupils and to make clear that they live their life just as everyone else is doing. They really set an example - and look cute :-)

Anna Wintour is not the hero of RJ Cutler's documentary "The September Issue,"about the September Issue of Vogue but Grace Coddigton, Vogue's Creative Director. After being a model herself she now works more then 40 years for Vogue and she is both likable (unlike Anna) and highly creative.

President Obama told LGBT Americans that his commitment to ending discrimination in the military, in the workplace and for loving couples and their families is ‘unwavering. Do not doubt the direction we are going and the destinations we are going to reach. An other stunning speech- but no mention of gay marriage though...

Anne Frank has her own Youtube channel - have a look!

I am very happy that Barack won the Nobel peace prize- I am sure that this will encourage him and so many others to continue on the road he has been going. My line up for this year was:

Morgan Tsvangirai - If one man symbolizes change through peaceful actions he is it. He really needs more recognition from the world to end the brutality in Zimbabwe.
Václav Havel - as a salut for all the work he has done for peace in the Czech Republic, Central and Eastern Europe and the world.
Barack Obama - I still don't know how but somehow this guy can listen, make people listen and act.

A nice collection of "nude male" photographs on sale October 22th at Swann, New York.
Photo's from Avedon, Von Gloeden, Bianchi, Hine, Forbes, Seidner and McDermott

Amazon made a very interesting offer with their new kindle 2 - international version. For $279 (plus shipping and tax) you can download books ($11.99) almost everywhere in the world within 60 seconds.
Although I already own a iRex Iliad, I thought this was an offer I couldn't refuse and so pre-ordered my kindle. It will be delivered in two weeks :-))

A hilarious new HBO comedy with Zach Galifianakis (Hangover) and Jason Schwartzman.

The conservative party will win the next elections - no doubt about that. But the way they are organising themselves is pretty good. Have a look at their campaign website: myconservatives and see how they are using web 2.0 to mobilize volunteers and voters.

The Ugly Truth is that this movie totally SUCKS. It is a mindless, foul, formula movie without any nice moment (or pretty people).

Some people are not satisfied enough with the usual stuff you can make out of the DIY IKEA packs and create whole new things out of standard IKEA. Like this miniature train coffee table or dozens of other ideas...

From the catalog of the danish sperm bank company Cyros: Cliff always shows up in a very good mood and is always up for a little chat with the staff. He is a very well spoken and charming donor who loves to travel and has a special affection for Germany. Cliff is also an intelligent and ambitious guy with a very good sense of his surroundings. He is definitely a guy that our male staff would wish to have as a brother-in-law and that our female staff wouldn’t mind using as a donor. Cliff has a round shaped face with large round blue eyes. The staff agree that he bares a striking resemblance to the cyclist, Lance Armstrong.

The Danes are the biggest sperm exporter in the world because of their relaxed (anonymous) regulations...

An English company, Omlet has found a new niche market: it seems that more and more people are keeping chickens in their back garden. They make a new kind of chicken houses and even sell chickens online. If your more into bees, ducks or rabbits: don't worry they have them too!

Just by looking at a person’s online friends, you can predict whether a person is gay two MIT students found out. They did this with a software program that looked at the gender and sexuality of a person’s friends and, using statistical analysis, made a prediction. So people may be effectively “outing” themselves just by the virtual company they keep.

Their project is called Gaydar - and I would loooove to have a copy of that software :-)

The stereotype that gay people are more affluent than heterosexuals appears to be just that — an (other) stereotype. In a worst case scenario, a gay couple’s lifetime extra costs of being gay is $467,562. Nearly all the extra costs (social, medical, tax) that gay couples face would be erased if the federal US government legalized same-sex marriage...

Just take a 'normal' Moto Guzzi Griso V8 and bring it back to the essentials and voila: the firestarter - sweet :-)

If you want to do fitness while being a Muslim girl - sometimes you have a problem. I really admire all those girls who swim, surf and work out in their (high tech fabric) Burqini, Hijoods and even do Nordic Walking in their Burqas. But I wonder: what's the point to be in shape when nobody will ever notice?....

The new cash cow of many US newspapers could be you. Whenever you drive to fast or do something illegal (which by US standard is almost everything) The local Sheriff will take you mugshot and publish it. Because it is free information newspaper collect these mugshots and make nice websites out of them which are a hit by their readers. It is their main traffic driver...

An interview with Vincent Evers about auto.nl

At the Ogilvy boat trip - I couldn't help myself and told my vision of the future of Internet to the people aboard (They couldn't escape - so had to listen - except for the captain that is as you can see ;-) )

I was trying Moonit and test my compatibility with Eddie... Here's what I got:

He's defenseless against the really strong pull you've got on him. In fact, his friends are probably teasing him right now, accusing him of being whipped. But you'll both have the last laugh. That's because you were put on this earth to make sure he achieves his true potential. So he can continue being himself, only better. Don't get us wrong, things are going to be intense whenever you're together. With two forces as powerful as both of you, it's not going to be a cake-walk. Especially since his temper has a way of flaring every now and then. But any disagreements and drama along the way are a small price to pay for him becoming a more mature and evolved person. It's important for both of you to make the most of this relationship because something like this doesn't come around too many times. That means he needs to take any constructive criticism you offer in stride and not let petty jealousies and rivalries get in the way. You've got too much at stake here for him to let his temper mess it all up.

The canal in front of our house (The Prinsengracht) is under siege of a huge building project - to reconstruct the walls of the canal. It more looks like a site in Baghdad...
(click on the picture to see the full size pano)

By far the best actor of the funny movie Inglourious Basterds from Quentin Tarantino is Christoph Waltz. He is believable, funny, knows his languages and is just Hans Landa. I never heard of him before, but hope to see him very soon again.

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