Wine and dine

Where to look?
This is my favourite. You ought to know by now.

Saturday 2

There was another Saturday when the world was young.
When everthing was an open promise, when .... well, if you put your mind to it, everything is possible!

1918

Haven't been blogging the last 6 days. Why? The flu got me. Not as bad as this story. If i lived a century earlier I probably wasn't here to tell the tale. Here another "nice" link.

Dutch election 2006

What an election it was here in the Netherlands. It was a non-issue election.

No discussion about our troops in Afghanistan, global warming or a discussion about the problems in the Dutch “banlieus” .

Dutch TV really put the icing on the cake by putting on TV the most cramped, bourgeois, confined, petty, petty-bourgeois, narrow minded, parochial, provincial, narrow-mindedness, lower-middle-class* etc. boring presenter of Holland. I hate her small-town appearance and I hate these no-brainer elections.

@#$#(*&^^%%#$^%%..................F%@#

*thanks to interglot

The weekend

It goes to fast there a to many parties.













Friends are discussing who to vote for next Wednesday. I really don't know and those who say they do ..........

Heineken - home of the stars!

And it's Pink 6 and 7 December.
Most of you will know where it is and all you smart internet tigers will find out within 30 seconds.

Friday

It's coming!

An inconvenient truth

It's hard to believe global warming is here. Outside our office is a tree that colours brilliantly red each year. We're in this office 6 years now and it looks like the tree adds and extra week each year before it's finally drops it's leaves. It's now 16 november and I'll bet next week there are still some leaves left. Global warming? No way? Well the tree tells us different. I showed a part of the the tree yesterday. Here is the tree with yesterdays paper. It's mid November!!!
Go and check out an inconvenient truth.

Media connect inferno

Slim, Twonky and whatsitsname server. Media connect. You name it and I wasted a great deal of my free time on them the passed week. So no nice pictures. Yes I'm a fool and should be going out more. Well here it is. Autumn nice red leaves. Outside my office.












Inside my home it's a media disaster zone. The SLA 5520 Philips, nice for internet radio but very picky when you got a lot of mp3s on your server.













A black Iomega Network HDD. Nice manual guys, oh boy does it states crystal clear how to share music files (this is ironic) and "Hey, it's getting a bit warm. Anybody with a spare hair dryer? The customers won't notice the jet-engine noise until they're home. Yep that's Iomega for you.











My own server contraption really works and makes no noise. Why am a such a sucker? Why did I buy this stuff?

Good PR for rail

What are they thinking?
Next to the A1 the rail people parked a burned out train.
They're trying to get the people out of their car and into the train. Well all the folks who are stuck in the traffic jam each day sure are gonne take the train.
New slogan: ride us and burn less.

Big sister is watching big brother

For you to find out!

Total mess

No way out. This week first our visit to Haarlem. After that been busy with porting our website into a content management system. Hopefully everyone will be, after this, busy writing and producing content. So even at home my desk is a mess. While I'm busy with our site, I'm listening to an internet radio, downloading an old seventies album, burning a backup disc, on my desk is my watch, my voice recorder, 256meg ram, a penlight charger, old glasses, extern hdd casing and so on and so on. Downstairs my son is playing a new version of "Where only making plans for Nigel". I'm glad they're recycling these old song at least I know the words but apart from that I think I'm going crazy.

I sincerely apologize for the fact that I haven had the time to make a real nice photo.
We must stop meeting like this!

Haarlem, urban renewal or old times

What shall it be? An old centre or a futuristic urban renewal site? Both pictures are taken in Haarlem (near Amsterdam in Hollland).

Nightdrive home

Another night on the road. Everywhere there's light. Everywhere we are burning fuel. Tomorrow I 'll ....

Look Ma, no hands! Architecture in Holland

Second day in Amsterdam-West. It a strange kind of hobby the architects have in Holland. The trend is that they're outbidding each other with building over air, other buildings, water and so on. It's kind of kindergarten here. Look Ma, no hands. Look Ma, it doesn't touch the ground. Like yesterday . I bring you more samples of this phenomenon.

Oklahama, Amsterdam-West

Today I had to take a survey in this building.
"Would you like to come in?" A friendly invitation I had to decline. I'm afraid of heights. No solid ground under my feet make me feel very uneasy. The last time I let myself endure that sensation was on la Grand Arche de la Defense in Paris.















The elevator delivered me in the middle and in no-time I was on one of the "solid" sides.

Report a spammer

Do you know somebody in your vicinity who is a spammer, please report him/her to your vicar, priest, village elders, you think of something.
The spammers are transforming the internet from a friendlly place were people meet to a gridlock warzone where it becomes harder and harder to communicate with each other.
Do you know somebody in your vicinity who is a spammer please tell him/her that they're bad and losing you as a friend. Oke we will start friendly and we'll see how they respond.

My first and last 35mm film camera

Minolta 7s.
It was a great camera. I bought it in a time when SLRs where very expensive and digital cameras non-existence. This was a camera that could be upgraded by buying a new film.
When I first used it, it was about 4 mega pixels. I barely had enough money to buy a East German ORWO slide film. My film scanner shows nothing but grain over 4 mega pixel.
The last time I used it with a Ektachrome E100G. I squeezed 10 mega pixel out of it.
Not bad for a camera that's 30 years old.















Voigtlander Bessa-L
And this is my last camera. In between there were lots of SLR's.
I never used this Bessa-L that much. Around 2001/2002 the digital camera's over took them all.

Goodbye and hello

Oke?

Dripping faucet

Inspired by the Strobist I made a study of my leaking faucet.
Strange how the bigger droplets take on a pearshape. The air apparantly creates friction. I'll have to look into that.

Fuji superccd

In times of need there's always the Fuji SuperCCD. My F10 never fails. So now it's going to Fira in London.
Nina is ready to take off to London to visit Fira. The story of the camera is told here.
Nina takes this temporary replacement tomorrow to Fira in London and hopefully the two will make wonderful pictures in dancehalls and cafés.
Hurrah for Nina.

Amish country

Is this a movie set or what? It's Holland. It's right under my nose. Next to our Amsterdam office there is a horse and buggy company. Early morning it looks like I'm living in Amish county. It seems that the problem isn't limited to Amsterdam. Brother-in-Law Koos and blipfoto contributor also witnessed this phenomenon in Delft. Back to the future I fear. Or is it full speed ahead to the past?

Nikon SB-800

The original story went a follows:
Thomas just returned from a stay with his sister in London. In his hands he holds a museum piece: it's the camera with which Fira made the great pictures for her blip Fira goes London. The sad little camera has taken a tumble and won't retract it's lens anymore. It won't take pictures either. Bohoo. Fira has to beg and borrow camera's from her friends as long as the Caplio R4 is in repair. Let's hope the quality of the pictures don't suffer to much. Fira, as they say in France: courage!

All true. But thanks to my Niko D70s and SB800 flash it was a piece of cake to make this story come alive. OK, I tried a few angles. But I didn't worry 'bout the lightning 'cause I-TTL did the trick. I love it.

More fun and ideas with a flash off the camera? Look at:

New housing estate in old drawer

More than forty years ago I lived in The Hague. Like so many Dutch towns after the war they were building as fast as possible. For about twenty years people made these flats into happy homes. Then came the time that they weren’t good enough anymore. The last twenty years they are being demolished. Whole neighborhoods are gone and with them the physical evidence of the people living there. It’s nostalgia in it’s purest: knowing your way in a house that doesn’t exist anymore.

There’s no going back.

Up close

To wet to wander out.
Intrigued by the raindrops I decided to come closer. I noticed that the spiders have left their alpine gear on my windowpane. As soon as possible I will try to clean it. It won’t be easy the window is three stories up and I will have to perform death defying trick to get the work done. I think I’m go and dig up my own alpine gear.

Fun in the Carwash

No deep thoughts today.

working at the carwash
working at the carwash yeeh
come on and sing it with me
carwash
sing it with the feeling now
carwash yeah

Silent PC

Now and than I'm having a bit of fun with old computer parts. This Asrock motherboard is ideal. The fan is almost silent. Add a CDrom and a small live Linux and you get one hell of an Internet radio. I like these projects. In 2004 when the computers got noisier I also made a silent Internet radio on the fly. See music for the brain dead. It still tucked away in a corner on one of my websites.

Last check

Magazines, brochures etc. All produced in-House thanks to Indesign CS2.
It amazes me each time that when the pdfs are made there is almost no worring anymore. Boy let me tell you. Fifteen years ago it was a different story. You had to morgaged the house to buy an Apple and insanely expensive software and still you had to pray. So buy a PC and get yourself a longer vacation as bonus.

Art or fooling around

I don't know what it is, but it’s a great conversation piece. The girls were happily chalking away making and discussing the arts. The boys of course were fooling around. Well that’s life.

Fashion Fusion in Amsterdam

I hope that the event on the 9th of September was all right. But the fact that this sign is still hanging here on 17 October makes you wonder. Good project- (or party-) management means also that you clean op your mess afterwards. Make sure you have a list what to do when the party is over. This is bad publicity. It's also a fine example that nobody else feels responsible. Oh, oh, I think I should mail them this picture. Let's feel responsible.

Midnight again

Guess from which bar I took this picture.
I was all fake but wasn't cheap. So what was it?
I really don't know anymore.

Montessori

Almost ten years ago my firm designed logo's for primary schools in Amsterdam East.
I had forgotten all about them. Today we needed a picture of this school for one of our publications. And look here, our design was still on the side of the school. It's still black and green, those were the restrictions in the nineties. Today everything is printed in full color. The school is a primary school on Montessori principle. Want to know more? Look here: Maria Montessori
And take a look at the sky. This is global warming. It's october and again 20Celcius.

Where is it?

Ahha............ look between the leaves.

But do not eat!
Moist woodland and some late October sun, that's all it takes. Ok it''s an obligatory autumn picture but nothing much else happened.

I'm still standing

No deep thoughts here. Just a nice dinner with wife, friend and friends wife. The latter is not in the picture and of course I'm not in the picture. Bring out the blip-robot-photographers so we could all be in the picture. Damn.
And thank you japs for giving us the F30.
Kubrik would go beserk at the thought of filming every thing with candles.
Looking for better shots with candles? Go and take look at Barry Lyndon. Yeah, Kubrik was and still is the man. I bet god loves him.

Manhattan on the Amstel

The skyline of Amsterdam is barely visible in the distance. But who is the real Manhattan on the Amstel. There are three locations were Amsterdam is building. It's mostly office space. And yep nature is on the run. But who cares? Nobody, it's not a real discussion anymore. You gotta make money. And volume means money, so build, build and build. For what? Besides more money I don't know. I think it's Friday the 13th that is bothering me. Am I bovverd, you bet I am. And what is this Google Analytics crawling over my page. Yes, I am bovverd.

I see a red door ...

Isn't this boring and I know the yellow car should have been red. But I'm an honest guy and put this one out in the world. If it's red everybody wil go for it. I hate this tunnel vision.

The days fly by with tedious jobs and each day ends with this view. It's Holland longest tunnel. It's called the Piet Hein tunnel and is it's of course in Amsterdam. You're not allowed to phone and drive in Holland and I'm wondering how long it will take before photograph and drive will be forbidden. It's quit dangerous and I'm wide awake now!

I see a yellow car and I want to paint it red.
Well that's only five minutes nowadays.

Presse-papier aka paperweight

Before we installed an airco in our office this Ice bear was the real thing. As the head paperweight it could withstand winds up to 80 miles an hour. But now he's a bit sad. The windows are rarely open and the only breeze he gets is when our financial director whizzes past him with the latest figures. You can see his legs in the background. The airco doesn't produce arctic temps so no relief there. What am I to do with this lonely bear? Well, he won't end up in the trash that's for sure. This bear is a genuine work of art made by Fira. It is more likely that he will end in a museum.

Mama ran off with a trucker

I don't like Itunes. But sometimes it comes in handy. I like the radio station chooser. I fiddled around late this night and as a being a bit bored I searched Americana radio and there on Boot-liquor they played a song by Drive-by truckers. It was 18 Wheels of Love. They're fantastic. So listen to them. Their picture is in the middle of the screen. Go and find them.

Sunset over Amsterdam