iPod, the choice of composers :)

couldn't resist to post this one.

Team APS

My ex-colleagues posted the picture of the whole team on my last working day. That's great! now I don't have to upload it myself :)

http://apsadvertising.hyves.nl/photos/148682530/0/4M2I/

Cubicle wage slaves unite! :)

It's not that busy on my new job at the moment, so I took the time to take a picture of my desk. Yup, it sure looks a bit like a cubicle. Only 2 more walls to go. Than it will be just a matter of time until Agent Smith will show up for another sequel of Matrix :)

Oh, and please take notice of that peculiar piece of hardware next left to my keyboard. That's my new gadget and a true companion each day in the train: it's the iRex Iliad. For those who are curious: here's the Iliad in action on YouTube.

But back to my new job: as I said it's not that busy for me now. The real work will most likely begin next week. Right now I've been more busy reading documents about how to make websites for the government and setting up a new, personal code library on my USB-stick. I must say: it looks promising. Well, I must say: as promising as all other programs that I installed on my 4GB USB-dongle. I really need it because I can't install anything on my computer. That's a whole step back from what I was used to...

Anyway: the interior of the building looks fair and nice. the exterior of the building is less fancy as you can see by the picture on the bottom of this post. I took that picture from the part of the building where the main door is located. By the way: it's a large building and a lot of companies and organizations reside there, so I'm not working behind one of these gloomy, pigeon-filled windows. Our windows look better than that :)

But besides that little thingy: I like what I see, the atmosphere seems fine and the companies' philosophy sounds good. I think I'm going to like this company (if I didn't already). Oh yeah, one big plus: 2 of the 3 colleagues next to my cubicle seem to share the same deviant musical taste, so I'm hoping to discover even more music!

ultrashort post

For everyone who wants to know about my new job: I had my first day and it went well, but I got sick in the afternoon and had to throw up round 1700. This Tuesday I had a sick day. I hope to work again Wednesday. Really love to be in a big city again.

Chapter closed

Well, that was it then. That were my almost 7 years at APS Advertising. Today was my last day in Heeswijk-Dinther. From now on I will travel a lot more miles to get to my new employer in Tilburg. Man, I'm dead-curious to know what I'm going to find there at Estate.

But that's for next week. This week I was trying to get as much data as possible in my brain transformed into text. That way I hope my collegues have at least something that will help them to understand what I created the last 7 years. I wrote a +-7500-word document and tried to cover as much as I could without getting too technical. I hope it will suffice. But hey, Esters' book is still 14 times larger in words.

At the end of the day there was a little surprise arranged for me: biological juices and vegetarian snacks. All food was prepared by a cook from The Hague. Got a book of my collegue who did my first job interview at APS. The book is about wall painting, since coloring walls is still a high priority at our place in the Fratershof. And there was of course a speech of my -now former- boss. It's always good to hear people say good things about yourself. Makes you wanna switch jobs more often :)

Saturday I'm going to buy a bike, Sunday I will put it in Tilburg and Monday I'll go to my new work for the first time. creeeeeepy......

Amidala's dead

I just finished burying Amidala. She passed away this morning after a relative short period of illness. Our other rabbit that always has problems with her health, Leia, is still alive.

HELP: webdeveloper/ flasher needed

OLD content! goto http://apsadvertising.hyves.nl for vacancies at APS Advertising.

It seems hard to find a good web developer/ Flash developer these days, so i'm now trying to recruit myself for this wonderful company called APS Advertising. If this looks just faintly interesting, just have a look at www.apsadvertising.nl and click on the "jobs"-icon.

we're moving

for those who didn't reach the news (and i really write posts for you, folks!): we've got a house and we're moving (yeeha!). yes, after 3/4 year of searching we're done. we found it, we're going to live there and we're going to stay there!
we got a lot of help from our parents and we couldn't make our new home in order on time without their help.
saturday the 29th will be moving day!

Sorry, text in Dutch.

I bought Little Nemo!

Well, Little Nemo in Slumberland to be exact. Don't get me wrong, I've got nothing against fish, but this is something completely different. As a child I found a reprint of an old comic. It was Little Nemo in Slumberland and was published in a newspaper between 1905 and 1913. Even though the comic strips were very dated it was still very entertaining and even fascinating. It's about a young boy that has these weird dreams and almost always wakes up at the end of the small story. Most of the time he tries to get to Slumberland but it takes him ages most of the time to get there because he wakes up all the time.

I included a few images to give you an idea of how special this comic is.

ps. for those who gave money for my birthday: this is what I did with it.

Last.fm: just what I was waiting for

As most of you know: I've become an avid user of the website Last.fm. Last.fm is a website that keeps track of the music that you play on your computer. With that data it can do all kinds of statistical things, like suggesting other music I might like, introduce me to other people with similar musical taste and suggest concerts. Just to name a few.

The website is a great tool to find music and I'm searching and reviewing songs even more than ever before. Thanks to the wonders of p2p networks and libraries I'm able to get hold on virtually any music I'd like to hear. I'm lavishing myself in this lush musical environment, because you never know how long it will last. Either way: I've got already enough material to make an interesting compilation to follow up my Oblique Strategies Everywhere 2006 compilation cd.

The end of the internet

Sometimes I wished it was true

The end of the internet

Things my kids won't learn in school

Years ago when I learned that I didn't need to sleep 8 hours a day, I also learned that there are lots of important things you don't learn in school. So when I was Stumbling on the internet, I found this article: 27 Skills Your Child Needs to Know That She’s Not Getting In School (bloggers just love making lists) and it lists lots of stuff I agree with. Here are some stuff I really want to teach my children well.

• Positive thinking. While critical thinking is an important skill, it’s also important to have a positive outlook on life. Sure, things may be screwed up, but they can be changed for the better. Find solutions instead of complaints. And most of all, learn to believe in yourself, and to block out negative self-thinking.
  Now that's a skill I miss with a lot of people: the inability to think positive. I must say: I get better in that all the time
  
• Motivation. Learn that discipline isn’t the key to achieving a goal, but motivation. How to motivate yourself, different strategies, and how great it feels to achieve a goal. Start them with small, easily achievable goals, and let them develop this skill.
  Work is not dull. It's all in your head.
  
• Passion. One of the most important ways to be successful is to find something you’re passionate about, and do that for a living. Your child won’t know the answer at a young age, but you should show her how to find her passion and how to pursue it, and why that’s important.

There is also some stuff I have get get a grip on myself:

• Be present. For some reason, this extremely important skill is never taught to us when we’re kids. In truth, the younger we are, the more natural this skill is. As we get older, we start thinking about the future and the past, and the present seems to slip away from us. Some skills for living in the present would go a long way.
• Enjoy life. Kids don’t have much of a problem with this, but some awareness of its importance and how to do it, even as an adult, would be helpful. Set a good example of this, and your kids will follow.
• Find purpose. Whether this is a higher religious purpose, or the purpose of making your family happy, or the purpose of finding your calling, having a purpose in life is extremely important. Teach your children the importance of this and show how to do it yourself.
• Develop intimate relationships. The best way to teach this is to develop an intimate relationship with your child, and model it with your spouse or other significant other (within appropriateness). Teach them the skills for developing these types of relationships, talk about the importance of it, and how to get through the bumpy parts as well. There are bad times in every relationship, but with the right skills of communication, empathy and compromise, they can get through them.

Butchered

For those who haven't noticed: i had a few small warts on my hands. I tried to remove them multiple times, but wasn't successful. Since it's caused by a virus infection it should eventually go away when the immune system eradicated the virus. But I waited for a long time and nothing happened. So I went to the doctor knowing that removing the warts will not be painless. And man did that hurt.

Since the warts were relatively small the doctor chose for cutting instead of freezing the warts away. He gave me a way out to do only one hand or one finger, but I wanted them all gone. So I got 8 needles poked in my fingers (2 in each one). It was a bloody, painful mess, but I got rid of the larger warts. I just hope that the scars aren't that visible. I like my hands with those long, gentle fingers...

Organized. part 2

I was forced by Ester to recall the visual of a previous article about Remember the milk. So here it is, approved by the millitant breast feeders cult:

Making waves

The floor is Isabel's stomach

As you can see on the floor: Isabel's not eating much now. 99% of all the food (I don't exaggerate) falls on the floor. Our rabbits are really glad with this habit and if we don't act on it, they will wait under the chair until there falls something interesting. This way we know that they like spagetti :)

Still in search for a new home

For those wondering if we've found a house by now: no. We're still searching. Between changing diapers, we're still searching websites like Funda. Do we have a house we've got our eye on at this particular moment? Always some house, but it always turns out to be a disappointment. But I think we're getting there. I don't say that we will find our house this week (although it just might), but we're getting there. We maybe have to cut our wish list a little. Our wish list at the moment:

• A better, quieter district (where parking your car in the middle of the street is not a ubiquitous habit)
• A garden...
• ...and it would be nice if it's facing south
• At least 4 rooms
• A large living room
• 2 toilets
• Place to park the baby carrier in the hall
• A storeroom. Big enough to keep the vacuum cleaner there.

Shouldn't be hard, right? :) Well, I'm sure we will be able to find a nice home this year. We sure are fed up living in the Duivenstraat.

The sheep is shaved

Sorry, no picture today but I shaved my head again. So no irritating long hairs in the way while eating or kissing the baby. And that are just 2 annoyances caused by long hair. This time I did the shaving myself mostly, instead of Ester doing all the work. Now she only had to fine-tune. Now I'm not that dependent of Ester I just might shave my head more regularly :)

Not willing to eat...

We've started to learn Isabel how to eat. As you can see. We still have a long way to go. She rather puts non-food items in her mouth than real food. She even gives us the finger as you can see on the picture! If you're asking why she's not eating mushy stuff from a spoon: we're trying something different (duh!). This way the food is not forced on her and she's learning to chew.

But I must say: it's getting better since I took this picture. She eats tiny bits of apples and carrots, so she will have a full meal before 2017 :)

"Do you really think she has enough toys?"

...and it has gotten worse since we took this picture :)

Organized.

Did I said in my lst post that I'm getting grip of my time? Well, almost. I cheered a bit too early.

But what is getting better is my personal organization. I'm doing the Getting Things Done (GTD) time management for a few months now and it's great. There's a lot to tell about GTD but in short it just means that you have to put everything in a specific system. A very important part of that system are the checklists and inboxes. I did not realize that there is such a difference between using checklists en using checklists correctly!

The getting out it out of your brain and into a system gives a lot of peace because I don't have to think about all the stuff I have to do. It's now all organized in a system and I can do everything one thing at a time without being distracted by other "stuff". With that said: there's for me still much room for improvement and GTD doesn't help make a baby stop crying :)

The checklists are handled in my Palm, but for my work I use Remember the Milk to keep things seperate. It's one of those websites that are more an online application that a traditional, Web 1.0 website.

Back in the land of the living

Just want to say that this blog is not dead. As you might understand: the birth of Isabel Sakura Ammilay Bos asked for other immediate priorities. I'm getting enough grip on my time to do an occasional post again.