For last couple of weeks, Rotterdam is my work basic. I decided to spend weekend to catchup with local friends and turned out to be great weekend.
Visited Kinderdijk windmill complex- It was very impressive specially after knowing the history and science behind it. as many might know nearly half of nederland is reclaimed land which is under sea level and making it more vulnerable to floods. Since periodic flooding become problem, in 13th century canal were built to get the water out and in 14/15th century windmill were built to power(energy) to drain the excess water to reservoir. Only during 19th century these windmills went into retirement due to diesel powered pumping stations. But during WorldWar2, again windmills came back from retirement for short time since diesel became scarce. It is beautiful site especially on sunny day.
Sunday with friends, we drove to his mom’s place at North Country side close to Friesland. 90mins drive from Amsterdam thru 30km Dike separating lake on one-side & sea on the other. It’s wonder. 30km road built to separate lake & sea and connecting two parts of Holland.
Reached his mom’s home, which is a beautiful house with garden in-front & yard connecting with canal/water way behind. Meet his grandma 96yr old women, who knew Einstein from her working-years in Berlin per-world war era. Grandma & mom can speak perfect English.
Had wonderful collection of Holland cheese and packed some selection of sandwiches & cheese went out on boat ride. Yes they had own boat. House on river side with boat, that’s dream land. We took ride thru canals & lake. I was driving the boat. With food & drinks in aboard did some pirate acts..;) It was great.
Athens-Friend-reunion dinner planned at Greek restaurant but ended-up in Italian restaurants.In all it was great weekend and once in life time experience. Thanks to lovely Dutch duo(S & E).
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Dutch weekend
Saturday, April 11, 2009
PhotoWalk
with beautiful spring sun shining- it would criminal to stay indoor. so took my DSLR went on Photowalk.
Wednesday, April 08, 2009
in Nederlands
Currently in Nederlands for work reason with very limited(/no) connections. That's my excuses for not being here for a while. but atleast its help me with 20books in 2009 challenge.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Carnaval
I went to Arlon(Belgium) Carnaval last weekend. It was great to see pretty gals, kids, crazy people all dressed up to express themselves. I was standing next to this cute gal(photo below) she was not bored of shoting spiderman web on me and laughing out loud. as soon as i cleanup she shots again. It was cute for a while then for 2hr. but anyways i dont want to disppoint her.
Its the cavalcade through the streets of the city with groups of 50+countries conducting a mini tour of Europe carnival traditions, with a parade set with great music.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Kick A*s: Jon Stewart vs Jim Cramer
Jon Stewart vs Jim Cramer: It was fun to watch and it was very honest both side (I think).
Watch full unedited interview (with strong language).
I don’t think there’s any way Stewart is more knowledgeable than Cramer on markets, he’s just in the position of not being caught spouting garbage for the last several years. I like the fact that Jon made it a serious episode of it and hats of to Cramer for comming on and exposing the whole fiancial debacle. There would’nt have been a better way to handle the feud in which jon has repeatedly said that it was about the whole system.
and Impact of this-- to early to tell but already some noise about this on CNN
Remember Jon stewart's role in throwing CNN's Crossfire
Friday, March 06, 2009
Book Review: 20books in 2009
Status update on my 20books in 2009: 3 done 17 to go
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
House of Stairs by William Sleator
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Monday, March 02, 2009
That's what happened
2008 has been another memorable year and so far 2009 has be quite and confusing. Since my DNA designed to be opmistic and don't really know how to complaint, looking forward to glorious future and all the horror I escaped in past.
Sometime you have so much to do and you end up doing nothing..! that's me. much happend but I end-up posting nothing and I don't blame my lazyness but my slow internet connection.
anyways-- Chronical of few interesting happenings in 2009...so far:
>>> Horrible Market condition eventually reached me..well almost. some colleagues got fired but not me not yet. but then it's just work, I stopped worrying too much about it. Don't want to worry about things which I can't control or I can't change. If i can then i dont need to worry either.
>>> Luxembourg resident permit process...after 4month of waiting, countless calls,visits to foreign office and going thru emotional trauma since I was told my application & all original documents were lost,.. finally I got my visa renewed, valid 2012. I have no intention to stay here beyond that so I hope I don’t have to go thru this again.
>>> Thanks to local law, got my local driving licence(valid till 2022) by submitting my indian driving licence and without having to take any driving test. So all I need now is some driving lessons..;)
>>> Got hooked to some good music(like Tracy Chapman) which I wasn't exposed to before (thanks to uptowngal's playlist from downunder).
Went to Nitin Sawhney Live Concert...great night with awesome east-meets-west music.
>>> a friend, who I knew for 12+yrs and from whom I haven't heard from many years after his marriage(which is usually for first 3/6month not after)), got in touch after all those years to inform that he is coming to visit me. and he did. Had fun time taking him around to whatever little place-to-see in luxembourg. It was nostlogic weekend taking about all old days, bubbies,.. I have very high regards for him. he was one of those who's not idealogs, with all good intentions, habits & very highly flexible and yet another urban adult with simple hopes & aspirations. which is why i felt tiny earthquake when he told me, he is divorced now. that was a complete shocker. ofcourse he wasn't comfortable talking about it for any length and i guess that's also part of the reason why he was out-of-touch. I don't know how to react or what to talk about that subject. I dont know what happen but that's kinda confirms my fear/belief- marriage is random act of luck. not much a rational process/act can do to make or break it, atleast not always. anyways, everyone cannt be good to all and he is good to me. I will be his friend without any judgements.
when talking to someone else who knew about this, he was trashing ‘her’(mrs…ex) I don’t why we indians designed to think broke marrriage is broken character.!? Cannot two rational good individuals can come together and go part without anyone been cast as ‘bad-person’.!?
>>> all of us will have few things we bought for ourself, which we chearish for years, attach with personal memories and treat those items to be milestone/achievements. for me- it was a Timex watch, which i bought with my career-starter income & Pentax SLR camera from my time in tokyo. Strange as it might sound; I dont think, I felt such high even I bought a house..;) I don't why & cannt explain why those items gave such excitment and why i still save a broken Timex watch and Pentax SLR.! Such excitment came back again. Photography has been my interest for many years. for long I wanted a DSLR and was doing research, research, too much research on what to buy, good deals on price,..etc.. finally wait was over. I treated myself with Canon E450D (thanks to G for being my US proxy).
photo collections @flickrs
>>> Got to be friends with sweet German couple who I meet via random social circle during my early days in luxembourg and recently get invited for all German food & drinks night. Ofcourse food was nice but I must say I was surprised by the variety. Good long night with excellent food & drinks. Thanks to Birgit.
>>> manage to complete 4/20books in 2009, will post book review soon.
>>> song for current mood--
Traveling Thru by Dolly Parton
Friday, February 13, 2009
Connect with our own geniuses
I always envyed someone with any creative talent be it author or artist. And my belief is part of it is by birth. sure you can improve it but some part of it is given(by God or by DNA design depending on your belief). As a civilian, I often wondered about creating process - brilliant novel, speech, articles or a nice song,lyrics, music... how its made? how it comes to them and not others(or me).
We appreciate their work and elevate them- a mortal begin to this immortal status. To our disppointment they come back with not-so-good follow-up to their earlier work so we throw them to ground to face reality. Iam convinced that this emotional journey of ups(god-like) & downs with few trustworthy allies make the performer/authors into junkies leading to their personal problem, ego wars, realtionship/drugs problem, etc. so I like you & others always assummed creativity comes with its own price.
I watched this recent TEDtalks(which Iam great fan off) from Elizabeth Gilbert, an author who I haven't heard before. She delivered this funny & interesting speech about connecting & managing self-geniuses of creative minds.
Elizabeth Gilbert: A new way to think about creativity
Ok Iam no creative talent but I find this speech very interesting and remains me a line from Bhagavath Geetha-- 'Do your duty without expecting rewards'. But is it possible for a person to delink self from his/her work? and Is it possible for us fans to delink performance & performer?!
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Wikiality, reality (un)defined
I am crazy fan of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert . they are smartest funny man.
Stephen Colbert's 'The Word' highlights many interesting thoughts including Wikiality.
"any user can change any entry, and if enough other users agree with them, it becomes true."
"let's bring democracy to knowledge"
- Stephen ColbertIsn't Religion is wikiality? enough people believes things to be true without having any credible evidence (for or against).
then why cannot we believe "we have more elephants in africa then anytime in the past" if its makes us happy.!?) what do you think!? let's all agree and make it a reality.
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