Scary Monster's Scary thang

over 2 months ago, Scary (see blogroll) did an interview and asked his many readers if they were interested in answering five of his questions and i agreed, so here and now, with some delay are Scary's questions and my answers.

Scary: English is not your milk tongue. What are some of the problems you encounter with an English language site?

Blogkabouter: Well English is indeed not my native language but i'm confident in saying that i understand no less of it than the average educated native english speaker (and probably more). Because of my biology studies i have to read a lot of english (and some french and german) specialised scientific literature and i rarely have to pick up a dictionary to translate something. I guess that local dialects would form an obstacle but i really can't think of recent problems i encountered with English language sites. I like your monster-english bye the way, it's very down to earth!

an anecdote: Years ago when i was visiting Paris with my parents and sister, some american tourist asked me for some information and afterwards they asked me "What part of the states are you from?" (yeps, they had no idea where Belgium was :)) So it's also safe to say that my active spoken english is also at an average level for a native speaker.


Scary: How determined are you to follow your course of studies into the “real world”? What Me means is, when after you graduate from university and you get the chance to choose between two jobs. One pays less money, but the work is doing what you like to do, the other pays considerably more, but has nothing to do with your studies. Which one would you choose?

Blogkabouter: First of all my graduation has been postponed for another year because the master's thesis didn't get finished in time. And now i'm combining finishing the thesis with working 3 and 1/2 days a week for a friend of mine who is an MD PhD leading a research project about the immune response to the influenza vaccin of old people in retirement homes. My job consists mainly of going to the homes and interviewing the people and making sure the requirements for the study are met. This has nothing to do whatsoever with biology or the environment (which i obviously am very passionate about) but i find this very interesting, the paycheck is ok and i get to spend allmost all of my working hours talking to other people or performing small harmless tests on them, something i don't mind doing at all.
I'm not only passionate about biology, i'm passionate about life and people!
So it really depends if the job that pays considerably more but has nothing to do with my studies, is interesting and morally defendable. Especially in the coming years, with a substantial loan payment that has to be paid every month, financial security is somewhat of an issue.
In the end i'm happy doing anything that helps to make the world a better place, be it the management of a natural reserve in Costa Rica or being in an information department helping people figuring out how to file their taxes.

Scary: What is the strangest/ most dangerous situation you have ever been in?

Blogkabouter: Traffic is dangerous. In Belgium it kills about three people every day and many more around the world.
The two incidents that come to mind right are:
Some A-hole running a red light when we were on vacation in Florida some 7 years ago, he almost chrashed right into us.
And the other one is in Tanzania, a little over one year ago. Picture yourself a narrow road in the mountains, one lane for every direction and naturally a canyon on one side and a wall of rocks on the other. I was sitting in the first bus of our 2-busses convoy and we just nearly missed a 10 ton truck rolling down the mountain who was passing another vehicle.
In Belgium there also have been several dangerous moments but i can't really remember any. Maybe i try to forget about them as soon as possible because after all, that's the traffic i venture into every morning ..

Scary: Your favorite food? Were talking about eatin it almost every single day and not gettin sick of it.

Blogkabouter: Chinese Dim sum's (ok they have over 100 kinds at our local chinatown so it's hard to get tired of them :)). I've learned to choose good ones from my Sifu, so if anybody is interested in buying me dinner in exchange for my guidance through the menu, you're most welcome!
And if i'm not too busy i'll probably join you for free if you ask nicely ;)

Scary: What is the dumbest thing you have ever done/said?

Blogkabouter: Well one thing i've never forgotten is a vivid discussion with some friends of mine about having to perform a tracheotomy in case of an emergency. The problem is that i had started it with a tracheotomy in mind but somehow i was using the word "vasectomy".
Some of them had to understand quite well what was going on but I was talking so enthousiastically that nobody dared to intervene and correct my mistake


Thank you scary for the questions and my apologies for the late reply, i could have gotten around to doing this a lot sooner.

Okay here is YOUR chance!!! Do YOU fear an interview by De Blogkabouter?

Interview rules:
1. Leave me a comment saying “Do me Blogkabouter".
2. I will respond by commenting back on your blog with your five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with a post containing your the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

what time-zone am i in anyway ???

let's see, right now it's almost 11 o'clock in the morning and the timestamp of this post is ...

6 fracking 15 am

oh dear,
can someone please take the needles out of my "sleeping late at saturday"-voodoo doll, this time it was my stomach that woke me up and i still have a headache (okok, there was some alcohol consumption yesterday-evening, but nothing excessive: 2 glasses of white wine, a mojito and a long island ice tea)

anyway, at least now i have some time to spend in the blogosphere, so i'm not complaining (complaining doesn't do any good anyway, AHA thank you paul for yet another wise life-lesson :))
There's just always so little time: working (yeps, i'm working for 70% as technical personnel for a research project @ the university), finishing the master's thesis and painting walls and ceilings and ceilings and walls, and corners, whenever i get home.

soooooo let's post something that should have been posted a few months ago and see if i can hang around here a few more times a week!

8 fracking 15 am

there's this cool online store,
www.megagadgets.nl, where i ordered a few items on monday (gifts, so i won't mention what they are until they are received by the future owners)
this morning they were delivered ... on a saturday @ 8.15 am ... let me say that again: on a SATURDAY @ EIGHT FIFTEEN in the MORNING

sigh, ofcourse i'm making the best of it and using this extra time to write something here while i'm listening to my brand new cd by Milow my good friends of "The Flash (c)" bought me last week, and thus getting more out of this new and wonderful day :)

it's just that i kinda needed the sleep, this whole week has been a sleeping disaster (waking up in the middle of the night, disturbing dreams, etc)

so next week i'm going to pay extra super special attention to sleeping and will get enough sleep for a change, i need it

LIO

Hehe, LIO is a funny comic,
somehow i think i would have gone for the lion though

Update: Well it seems the comic is no longer available ...
As far as i remember, Lio emptied a stuffed animal (not a lion, but there was a stuffed lion in the cartoon) and put himself inside, so that a girl he liked would use the stuffed animal and hug him indirectly.
Why the lion? I just happened to know a girl who has a lion as a stuffed animal :)

horse and carriage

another nice thing i did today:
thank you Isabelle for the ride you gave me and Joris & Goedle through the city-center of Antwerp this morning, it was fun!!
And it's certainly an idea to keep in mind !!

Although this morning wasn't particularly romantic (not at all if i might add), this post qualifies none the less as romantic idea #00003 (allright i'm almost at #10)

Annual pai-party

Today it was the annual birthdayparty of the Kungfu-school and of our sifu.
As usual the menu was impossibly good for the mere €30 we paid!
sweet sweet chinese culinary highlights :)
There was a cool acrobatic performance of the unicorn-dance and several funny sketches by the older student, one sketch looked suspiciously like this one:



the only difference was that our moose took revenge :)

Absynthe Minded vs. Milow

This Friday I went to a concert at the Openluchttheater Rivierenhof,
(together with Wouter, Joris, Goedle, Steven & Karo and my sister)
Absynthe Minded and Milow were playing, Milow was better, MUCH better!
Their bis-song was a translated version of Mia by Gorki, VERY nice !!

Played at Rock Werchter:


and their hit-song You don't know


Before friday i hadn't even heared of Absynthe Minded and now i know why, after Milow's happy tunes they managed to get me all down with their melancholic depressing wishy-washy music, there were nice songs, but overall i didn't like 'em

in the break between the two gigs we could enjoy the fireworks they were shooting very nearby at the annual fireworksfestival, this international fireworks contest continues for another two weeks, so friday 14 and 21 sept 2007 there will be more fireworks, the best in the world ;)
if anybody wants to go, i might have time to go so just let me know !!

This contest is an annual event by the way, something to keep in mind !!

right, i was also disgusted

First of all,
Transformers started 27 minutes later than the time printed on my ticket,
27 minutes of my life wasted with commercials and trailers of movies I don't want to see
From the early days of Metropolis i remember the movies strating late, but somehow i thought that in recent times they started to show more respect for the viewers, or maybe that's because i usually went to the UGC were the movies approximately start when they are supposed to,
anyway, frack you metropolis for stealing my 27 minutes, and goodbye, unless i have some more free tickets, ill be seeing my movies at UGC

And before i talk you to sleep, there's more, some of the trailers they showed were inappropriate according to myself,
agreed i may be more sensitive than average, but the trailer of Disturbia and some other movie with mutated zombies and bruce willis in it, were in my opinion absolutely NOT suitable to be viewed by the two 10 year old children sitting in the row behind me who came to see transformers

but just now i did some searching and from the description of disturbia i translate:
"It's an uneasy thriller who doesn't hesitate to end up as a raw slasher-movie. People who don't like blood splashing aroud are warned."
And here in belgium it's rated "all ages" ...
It's probably because the age limit stopped applying for me around ten years ago that i didn't pay attention to it ... but how is it possible that such a movie doesn't have a +16 rating ...
I felt uneasy during the trailer .. i don't even want to think about what a 13 year old goes through when he sees the entire movie

waauw, i AM getting old here :-) turning 26 last tuesday apparently has it effects ;)

The good old days - Transformers

I am both delighted and disgusted,
here comes the delight, the disgust is for the next post

i remeber very well playing with transformers when i was about 8 years old (and maybe a little older), they where obviously amzing and fantastic things AND you could see them on television

and for a few months now, the movie they made of it has been playing in theaters all over the wordl
today i finally went and saw it, i just had to see this movie but had postponed seeing it because of my master's thesis

i think the movie was .... supertransformitastic!!! i was completely swept away by it (and maybe just a little by megan fox... pffff), subtle references to the series and just awesome special effects!
just WAAUW, i was delighted

if you haven't seen him yet, go and see him! you have my personal guarantee that i liked it

and here you can find the theme from ye olde days
via notes to myself

i'm back

waauw, somehow i found the discipline to stay away from blogging and almost from reading other blogs, to work on my master's thesis,
the deadline was 38.5 hours ago..
and i didn't make it,
which means that i'm going to work on it some more and finish it but it will only be evaluated in june 2008 ...

so or i'm going to use this year to or get an extra degree in environmental sciences or work in a lower payment level ... money isn't everything, but it sure helps to pay them bills

scary, grunt and pinks, i'll be stopping by real soon to comment my ass of so hold on to your fiery breath, health and pinkiness!

PZ

Pharyngula is the blog run by Paul Myers, also known as PZ.
I started reading his blog on a regular basis around november 2005.
He describes the blog as "Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal" and if you automatically asume that a liberal is funny it's a complete and correct description.
He posts about biology and the latest insane stuff the creationist have repackaged and are trying to sell to the world once more (unfortunately their actions are welcomed by many).
His blog definitely makes an interesting read and i find myself most of the time greatly appreciating -but not always agreeing with- his viewpoints on many things.
So go and give him a try if you have the time, if you don't, here's an idea to ease the pain:
Regularly he also posts funny things that i sometimes put up here.
Starting right now (and especially foy you, you, me and you) i'm going to make a category out of it, just another place on the web were nice links are to be found.
So here you have a few recent ones (with comments ;)):

#1 I'm no expert on religion but what i personally find very disturbing are religious suicide terrorists ...
Throughout history millions of people have put their life on the line to defend protect or save their family, home, city and country. Or at times even more noble, to simply help another human being. And i obviously respect that and hope that when it is needed i will have the courage to take part in it.
But here you have a segment of people who are fighting/killing in the name of their God and don't mind dying because there's always the afterlife...
Once you believe in it, i can understand that they go through with it, it's the ones who stay behind and make the promises about the afterlife that are the real evildoers!! And they probably even have ulterior political (power hungry a-holes) or financial motives.
Anyway, here's the link
(The ending might be a little tasteless, blaming the accident on the victims is well .. a special kind of humor.)

#2 Pie doesn't have tentacles!!
Well ok .. i agree, but here's a funny story anyway :)


#3 a special kind of science...
If i tried anything even remotely like this in a paper or in the masters' thesis i'd be in BIG trouble, luckily reporters don't have to measure what they do against any kind of standards (nor common sense)

what to do with your brand new i-phone ??

why not try and make something tasty out of it?


from the guys/girls at http://www.willitblend.com/, they've blended a few other things, you can go and go check it out, i didn't
personally i think it's one of the more original ways to promote a product :)
most commercials just make me feel .. well .. ashamed for the makers and for those influenced by it, but maybe also for the network stations who ultimately could maintain high standards for commercials ...

via PZ

Destination - EXTREME Japan

Sadly i'm going to need too much time for the master's thesis to be able to go to Spitsbergen this summer ...
sigh,
we even had a website about our trip
But finishing my year is simply a million times more important, i really have to finish the mater's thesis, it's really sad, but it's the right thing to do

Anyway, where should you go on a holiday ??

My Score: Extreme Japan
I scored 51% culture, 61% social, 63% activity, and 69% adventure!

You want it all. The great thing is, in the Land of the Rising Sun, you can HAVE it all. Japan has a rich culture that goes back thousands of years. But did you know that along with enriching your mind, you can also get your adrenaline going? How about climbing Mount Fuji, sea kayaking around the Noto Peninsula, surfing, diving, rafting, paragilding, horseback riding or cycling among unique scenery and terrain. If you go in a group, this will give you a great chance to form relationships easily with others on the tour and having more friends around will make the whole experience all the more rewarding and memorable. You can then balance out your adventures with some Japanese theatre or exploring the exciting markets and city streets. You may have never considered such a destination, but maybe you have learned something. If you had fun dreaming about where you might go, don't forget to rate my test. Thanks!

Link: The Where Should YOU Travel Test written by thinkandcome on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

If only i knew someone from Japan to tell me where to go ... ;)

This explains a lot

PZ links to this,
maybe i should print it and hang it on my wall ...

weird plants

Happy Birthday Johan!!
May your life become even better than is already has been!
And thanks for the tip that lead to this post!

The movie is made by http://www.1st-ave-machine.com/
It's their project named "sixes last" and if you click on it you can choose "view quicktime"

for those who are afraid of looking for the right link on the website, here's an easy shortcut to the same footage albeit in poor quality

but eyes and rotating elements in plants ??
exobiology or computer animation ..

well eyes aren't that impossible in living things but evolving something like that in earth plants ... not very likely in any reasonable time-frame and probably a few evolutionary re/constraints are going to prevent it
but recalling the evolution-course i followed once, rotating things are quite impossible because the wires would snap: veins, nerves etc ... would not survive it

Do you want to know more? An article by Richard Dawkins on the subject

Here are a few shorter remarks about the lack of wheels in animals, but the Dawkins piece is much better.

and that's that

yesterday i had the last exam-thingie, i think everything went well (the entire series) and now all that's left is the master's thesis ...
let's just say it's going to need some work, a small massive amount of mork to be more somewhat exactly precise

while i go work on it some more,
maybe you and you and you can take a look at some of Weird al Yankovic 's song on youtube, his parodies are so cool :) !!
like this one i just saw:

update: embedding has been disabled

he has much better parodies that which i euhm ... certainly do NOT have downloaded in mp3 format in my criminal past, so I well .... well i just now they exist ;)

sorry tom

especially for the grunt who's not feeling all to well, some funny t-shirts that can put a smile on your face

this one's really funny if you show it to someone named tom

they have many other funny ones, these are the funniest in my humble opinion:
evolution of life painfully true
no strings eum .. true
dikfore :)
shit happens tetris is cool
beards also true
amish driving causes global warming
second amendment the best one :)

Patient is the mother of the carefull porcelain rhinoceros

just trust me on that quote,
it's a translation of an aggregation of several dutch proverbs that came to be in my mind this morning, just trust me on it

especially for this post the posting category 'weirdness' was established,
want more weirdness?
try this wwweirdness
or maybe this webweirdness
or possibly even weirdness.org
some semi-random google results for weirdness,
i really really really don't have any time to check out those websites right now so unlike my other posts i'm not really taking responsibility of what may be found there, seems weird? well it is
have a nice week!

Why France is better that the US

but Belgium is even better, just too small to get noticed :)



Via Pharyngula

Old forests are cut down and turned into toilet paper ...

... and still all the toilets are always out of paper ...
this and many other sad or silly stuff are things we all complain about sooner or later in this amazing life.
Some of the complaints are absolutely justified and should really be dealt with, but in the mean time, why not make a song about it?
I just love the concept :)
PZ links to this: The Helsinki Complaints Choir

It's not an all to new concept (a few years at least), but it's the first time (that i can remember) that i encoutered something like this.
First i thought that maybe it was a 'normal' song in finnish and that someone had placed clever subtitles underneath it, with a different meaning (who would notice but the Finnians?)
But apparently they really are a 'complaint choir' and there are others:
Birmingham:

Canada:

and even more but you'll have to look for them yourselves
(post them in the commments if you want)
have a nice day!

be really carefull what you wish for ...

One more day
a Puppy for my soul
exactly the kind of humor needed to get that previous post as most recent post
zarflax, a few post ago was also from The Perry Bible Fellowship, there are many very funny comics to be found over there
sweet irony :)
i don't get this one though ... but maybe that's because I already have an X-wing

have a very good day, every single one of you

What can I say?

She's every minute of my everyday.

Next to becoming bearable, it's also almost a line from Everything, by Michael Buble, the song I woke up with this morning (thank you 4FM) and of course it's stuck in my head now.
It's nice, listen to it, if you can handle that much romantic atmosphere :)
or watch it! Apparantly Bono and Whoopie Goldberg are featured in the clip (so what? ;))

This is romantic post #00002 by the way, but putting that in the title would have ruined the rhyme between the title and the first sentence :)

ok back to reality, this must be the craziest day in months!

bye bye bad-boy-reputation

You Are 74% Pure

You're pretty pure, and you have no plans on changing that. You do have a devilish side though... and it will probably get the better of you.

The 100 Question Purity Test

but i do have plans to change at least a few things, if i'm not too busy that is

The Convenientest Truth

Just now i found a parody by Stephen Colbert on 'An inconvenient truth'
An excellent opportunity to pull my post on Stephen Colbert out of the drafts and into the realm of visible posts.

Feeling down, in need of a laugh (I know i am from time to time), looking for a (short) break away from work, ...
I've already pointed out Ricky Gervais and Eddie Izzard and if you encounter any more names, there must be dozens of great stand-up comedy acts available online, give me a sign!

A minor problem with the ones i've already shown to you is that reasonably quick you've seen everything there is to find from them on youtube, googlevideo, ..
(but some of them i can watch over and over again)
If you're looking for a virtually endless supply of funny and at times absolutely hilarious videoclips..
(he/she who has the time to see them all needs to get a life or a job or a girl/boyfriend, or when you girls are tired of boyfriends, a manfriend like me ;))

I know at the moment of only one place to send you:
Go to www.comedycentral.com and search for Stephen Colbert with his show "The Colbert Report"

I think he's fairly unknown here in Belgium, some extra info:
His personality, insight and overall rightness could only lead to The Colbert Report, a half-hour nightly platform for him to give his take on the issues of the day, and, more importantly, to tell you why everyone else's take is just plain wrong.

His somewhat biggest thing is his speech at the White House Correspondent's Dinner in 2006, making fun of President Bush when he's just sitting a few metres away !
I couldn't find the whole speech in a separate movie but it's a part of this movie which contains the entire dinner.
Don't let it load completely, just jump to:
a) Stephen (begins at 50 minutes)
and b) Bush's speech with Steve Bridges (impersonator) saying what bush is thinking is also very funny (begins at 38 minutes, see this first if you'll watch both of them)
It's worthy of your time!

Evolution, or is it evilution?

The Simpsons



Family Guy


South Park

Hmm, the south park movie doesn't work and i can't find a new link, too bad

Silly me, worrying about not getting STD's

this kinda put's them in perspective:
sex in space

Not to belittle STD's, certainly not but well this is just ... damn
Just be careful where you put your thing in :)
(STD's = SOA's for the dutch-speaking non-native english speakers amongst my many readers)

Eddie Izzard and language

Someone who can always bring a smile to my face, simply great stuff.

Practical REpost # zero zero one - Cheap books

Went to the www.boekenfestijn.com this beforenoon, if you didn't already know about it and whish you could have joined me there (or just go by yourself because you actually don't like me and spend your time searching this blog for things to (ab)use against me), i'm not to blame
so I bought only one book for myself, the rest were gifts or general household usefullnessies
anyway, hurry up if you haven't already been there,it closes at 6 and tomorrow there's another chance, for next year is an eternity away from today

sigh, just to make sure: i know 'beforenoon' isn't an english word, but ist should be!! Just like beforemorning (sleepy-time) and afterevening (again sleepy-time) already are.

PILLOWFIGHT !!!!!

So last tuesday there was a Flash Mob Pillowfight in Antwerp, where I of course went to, last week's post was no bluff.
I went there with my sister and Nathalie who we joined at the scene, not only was Nathalie there to have fun but also to promote herself as a candidate for miss belgian beauty (VOTE!).

Me and Nathalie, ready to fight



hitting girls ... no problem (women are people too!)



but only if they are prepared to strike back of course



my sister was very happy by the way for getting the chance to hit Axel Daeseleire, a very famous belgian actor :)


(picture from www.kussengevecht.be, by Goldface)

man i can hardly wait untill the next pillowfight!!
as soon as I know of one i will post it here so next time you can all join me :)

update:
another pic by Goldface,
my sister's left of the middle, looking down

The good old days - MacGyver

Wandering through youtube i encountered this:
(don't worry, he smiles when he's finished)

yes i certainly was a fan of MacGyver, 'intelligent' en not all too violent, like programs for children should be
and i'm now looking foor the sheet music, so i can learn to play it on the piano of course

also found this

and this

you can always count on the simpsons and family guy to bring down your idols down to earth :)

One word answers - meme

Via Jules,
where i went because she commented @ Grunt Ahoy!

You can only type one word answers. Sometimes not as easy as you might think. Suit up, people! Challenge is ON!! And everybody is tagged.

1. Where is your cell phone? Here
2. Your boy/girlfriend or husband/wife? missing
3. Your hair? brown
4. Your mother? Warmhearted
5. Your father? Old
6. Your favorite thing? missing
7. Your dream last night? early
8. Your favorite drink? woodberries
9. Your dream car? environment-friendly
10. The room you're in? dark
11. Your ex? forgiven
12. Your fears? intimacy
13. Where do you want to be in 10 years? Rainforest
14. Who did you hang out with yesterday? sister
15. What you're not? indifferent
16. Muffins? many
17. One of your wish list items? love
18. Where you grew up? Antwerp
19. The last thing you did? email
20. What are you wearing? Jammies
21. Your TV? flat
22. Your pet? dead
23. Your computer? slow
24. Your life? moving
25. Your mood? improving
26. Missing? Sex
28. Your car? clean
29. Your work? student
30. Your summer? adventurous
31. Like someone? yes
32. Your favorite color? Blue
33. When is the last time you laughed? yesterday
34. Last time you cried? Thursday
35. School? humongous workload

learn the rules and then break at least one ;)

update: did another one in the comments

creationist madness

this is just sooo wrong on so many levels


(via Mike the Mad Biologist)

and yes, arguments like this are used in churches to convince people evolution is wrong

The conditions and timeframe of the peanutbutter jar, or anything else produced by the food industry, are nowhere near the conditions of primordial soup where life could evolve (although i bought this one thing in the chinese supermarket a few years ago that got pretty close).

And even if life would have evolved in the jar ... something no biologist that understands anything about the theory would ever consider saying ... you wouldn't be able to see it, it would be microscopically small and you'd eat it without ever knowing it (like those eight spider a year in your sleep).
So may i now suggest an in depth examination of everything found in all the stores around the globe, at x hours per item ...

sigh

here's another one (or are they joking, don't know)
that's debunked quite easily

update: why do i torture myself in watching things like this
feeling sick

Beauty - sea creatures

David Attenborough rules!
"The vampire squid .. from Hell", nobody uses sentences like that only to say "bioluminescent bacteria" a few seconds later :)

via the park bench
where i took a seat thanks to N@ked under my lab coat
where i ended up thanx to PZ

sometime i feel sad, there are just so infinitely much more things to discover in blogs alone than I will ever be able to discover,
but it's ok, i'm gratefull for what i do discover
meeting real people is important too :)

Wanna hit me with something?

if you're anywhere near Antwerp, Belgium, on the first of May 2007,
bring a pillow and you will have your chance, only if you're prepared to except a pillow beating in return of course ;)
a pillow, why?
because there will be a pillowfight
spread the word and see you there

update: ok i should really start spreading the adress of this blog to some friends of mine, not too many (local) readers yet

human evolution

allright, nice one (scroll right)
wouldn't it be nice if some more stuff like this could be found in city's
i wouldn't mind
(and it doesn't have to be science related, just nice)

via Pharyngula

Romantic ideas #00001

It's all about emotions, sharing strong emotions creates bonds between people.
Now beware, this one might not be a good idea on a first date, and it's not for the weak-minded, but for the average western european (or member of other "civilised" country) it should be a strong experience :)
so you go a restaurant and order this:

ok, maybe you won't find this in that nice place around the corner, i'm guessing you'll have to find your local koreatown/chinatown

via Pharyngula

not convinced??? apparently all you have to do to like it .. is try it


and as an extra bonus you can speak korean instantly, so what are you waiting for!

Plastic

Science has found that there is 6 times more plastic by weight in some areas of the ocean than naturally occuring plankton. There is a lack of investigation on the effects on hormone disruption and the endocrine system of marine life. If there are disruptions in the reproductive cycles of certain fish for instance, this could be a devastating extra pressure on economically important fish species that are already being overfished.

So...consider the implications each time you take a plastic bag at the shop....
where does it end up .. why are we using plastic packing that lasts for decades to transport things we're going to eat within days ??



And here's a nice educational website for children on keeping the oceans clean.
http://www.keepoceansclean.org/home/

ducks, without the u and then backwards ...

get's you to www.xkcd.com
i've mentioned it before,
this one just cracked me up :)
check out more of them!

update:
no really!!
check out more of them
AND don't forget to hover over the picture with you mouse, extra commentary appears!!

Animusic

a wonderfull combination of computer animation and nice music

and there are several others to be found on youtube

Newest playlist additions meme

Nickelback has a new cd out there, "All the right reasons", you can see a few of the vid's on their site
"If everyone cared" is somewhat in the same area as "The world is on fire"
which i've already mentioned twice, here and here
it's not just about nice chords (but they help), an important or strong message in a song is what really convinces me

the other music video's are also nice, go check 'em out,
"Far Away" (love is important, and so is putting out forest fires)
"Savin'me" (just a real cool idea for a musicvideo)
"Photograph" (i like photographs)

do the moonwalk

I admit it, every now and then i practice moonwalking,
luckily you just have to enter 'moonwalking' in google or youtube to encounter too many links to people who are willing to teach you how, so that part was easy, but don't ask me to show it, yet

but almost being a biologist, the following video is of course something for which i can only have the greatest form of admiration .. !

(and it's funny too)

Let's dance into the sunset

That i'm an excellent danser is such a big secret that at parties people don't even believe it after they've actually seen me dance ... but i like it, so i don't care.
Next time you go dancing, take a look at these moves for some extra inspiration!
'The evolution of dance'

Planetary defence assault platform ???

It's called a Schaufelradbagger or Rheinbraun bagger and it's big!
Bagger 288 for instance weighs 13000 metric tons (no really, 13000 tons, that's 13000 cars!!), is 240 metres long, 96 metres high and planetary defence is probably one of it's secret functions.
These Bucket-wheel excavators are the largest vehicles on this planet and they can be seen at a pityfull 140 kilometres from where I'm sitting right now !!!
If not soon then I'm certainly gonna see them with the kids (that will be around 2025, be patient and i'll blog about it when the time comes).

Things this big can of course be seen from the sky, if you're familiar with google earth you can go see them @ 50°53' N and 6°20' E and in a few other mines more to the east, you really can't miss these mines, they can be seen from at least 150 kilometres eye altitude, just go the the Belgian/Dutch/German border, and then into Germany.

The ultimate picture,
some more pictures,
and some action pictures

I bet these are the reason the martians, the decepticons nor the borg don't dare to attack us

Newest playlist additions meme

I'm working real hard trying to get the first draft of the paper "The impact of management on the development of plant communities and the relationship with light" in such a state that i wouldn't sink into the deepest caverns of the earth out of shame for how bad it looks, so that it can be mailed to prof J.

But maybe i just have to share with you the name of the song that i very recently added to the "really good playlist" and is now on some kind of a manually enforced repeat because i'm using the screen of the pc that's playing the music as a second screen for my dad's laptop on which i am merging 2 versions of the paper into one ultimate draft version (the keyboard is still connected and repeating the song manually has been succesfull for now (i don't know the shortcut for 'repeat' (and i use too many brackets (i know))))
and before you pull me through the adsl-cable to hit me in the head for procrastinating, it's:

'One Word' by Anouk

naturally to be found on youtube

try to get your hands on it if you can,
and you can listen to it on her 'myspace' (whatever that may be), you might like it,
I know i do, the music is good
& the lyrics are good 'cause (just pointing out one of more than one) today:
I hope that at the very absolutely least, when the awkwardness/heartache is over, there will be a beautifull goodbye with my star in heaven.
and why not, naturally i'd prefer a beautifull '(a lot) more than goodbye'!!
but that's not in the song

My typical day at the office

Well since i'm a student of a traditional chinese kungfu school, it's only natural to have some appreciation of stuff like this:

Ways to Abuse Shaolin

Ok, i admit they'll probably never teach me how to ignite the cheese, that knowledge is preserved only for the few chosen disciples who train more than i ever will be able to.
I'm working on the Meditation part (patience is the key),
but that thing by the watercooler .. that's just easy ;)

Easter is ...

.. tradition
.. waking up before the 8 o'clock alarm (WTF ???)
.. for some reason shedding a few tears while watching the videoclip of save tonight
.. looking for the eggs my sister has hidden in the garden (still wearing my pyjamas :) + sweater)
.. hiding them again so she can go on a quest of her own
.. eating chocolat eggs
.. family discussions about mindfullness
.. eating chocolat eggs
.. not being able to go out for lunch because some blind µù$^="ç%&"éé parked his car in front of our garage
.. eating more chocolat eggs
.. really not caring about that car in front of the garage (remember the point about mindfullness)
.. doing the dishes
.. eating some more chocolat eggs
.. still not caring that by now the car isn't in front of our garage any more, but someone else (also a blind #éµ%%^$&@) has replaced that car with a car of his own, just waauw
.. doing all kinds of family stuff related to amongst other things our general quest to get rid of the junk spread around our place = bonding :)
.. messing up the work schedule (not really caring about it right now, some extra caring is scheduled tomorrow)
.. listening to music from Anouk
.. not finding any more chocolat eggs on my desk :(
.. going out for dinner (bbye)
.. (back from dinner) finding the eggs again :)
.. now doing some thesiswork anyway

xkcd and science

xkcd.com is a fun place, it's a daily comic and i like it,
PZ attracts attention to a nice scientific one and ads something,
good lab practices :)

beyond all believable bounds

Oh my (insert magic man of choice),
What happens when you try to use explosives to solve your problems ... exactly, usually things just get worse!
It's a classic (happened in 1970) but that's what, among other things, this blog is for. Enjoy and be gratefull you weren't around when they pushed the button.

oh my, sorry, still laughing :D
and now I'm wondering how those internet-scent-thingies (you know, to smell the roses before you buy them from an online shop) would represent this ..

Naturally there is also an entire website dedicated to this event and many other wales that exploded in recorded history, like the one in the streets in Taiwan (go see the pictures !!)
Whales are really cool by the way.

The Flintstones, fact or fiction?

Some people, no wait, millions of people believe something very similar to the Flintstones to be absolute and genuine history and science.
Pffff, the previous post isn't cold yet, and PZ points out
a very disturbing article about the creation museum in Kentucky.
That's the museum where you can find displays with a vegetarian T-rex living side by side with Adam and Eve in the garden of eden and many other fairytales.
Unfortunately they're saying that's what really happened @ the beginning of earth, you now, roughly 6000 years ago...
Very depressing, sad and just plain: "WHAAAAAAAAAAA i cannot believe this sh*t"
Don't be mistaken by my very polite reaction, this is by far real "news" to me, I've known quite some time about this mass-brainwashing and blatant denial of science, I just can't get used to that kind of 'truth' being out there.

First there was creationism

and then they called it "intelligent design", unfortunately they only changed their name, not what they believe in, one of the magic men worshipped by one of the many contradictory religions (who are all absolutely true of course, otherwise why would they say so themselves)

It's about time something about the evolution-creationism debate showed up here.
In that pretty powerfull country accros the Atlantic ocean (no i don't mean Costa Rica, that's the beautifull one), many millions of people believe the Bible to contain the true history of the creation of our planet, and those people have power, not the magical kind in which they believe but the worst kind: Political power and lot's of money to put where their beliefs lie.
@ www.scienceblogs.com/pharyngula a lot of interesting stuff gets posted about the latest maddness, but also about science, fun stuff and squids(!), so take a look if you have the time.

Where the Hell are Matt's Outtakes??

remember Matt?? Suuure you do!
He's got another one online and again it's amazing ;)

Genuine beauty ...

... lies within
Evolution by Dove

Mentos and diet-coke

What happens is you mix those two together ???
You don't know ?? Great then you will be forever gratefull for this post :)
I haven't tried it myself, but i'm going to someday, in the meanwhile we can all enjoy the movies from the heroes at eepybird..
http://www.eepybird.com

And the guys from Nobody's Watching have their interesting version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJsDfLndlKU

Now you go and try it!!
And let me know all about it!!

Eddie Izzard on Physics & Pavlov's Dog

Intelligent humor, ... but the vid is no longer available :-(

more of this please

via Pure Pedantry

here's a working one, supermarket psychology

Tha joy of givin'

The world isn't just on fire...
www.worldonfire.ca
(yes i know it's a repost, but oh so important)
...here's a very nice initiative that can help you help en feel GOOOD ;)
www.feelgoodgift.be
here's my page for giving me a feelgoodgift
I must admit it's a strange feeling, deciding you don't need all those expensive computer accessories or that cool piece of high tech outdoor equipment...
But as i've been taught in enviromental economics (and even more so in real life), wealth creates happiness, but only up to a certain level, happiness comes from other people, altruism etc...

Like this months qoute from "Movement without a name" (Bond zonder naam dus :))
The most important things can't be bought with money (accompanied with little pictures of hearts)!

Newest playlist additions meme

I bet that somewhere it's a meme. Mostly I play mp3's, no radio for me, although if not for the radio, new songs wouldn't be discovered. These are the newest fine/beautifull/fun ones.

Yevgueni - Als Ze Lacht (sigh)
James Morrison - Wonderful World (yeps)
Fixkes - Kvraagetaan (just amazing)
Pearl Jam - Alive
Pink - Who knew
Razorlight - America
Daniel Powter - Bad Day

hmmm, this looks pretty accurate

I took a Enneagram-test and apparently i'm a 9, but before I go "waauw this is such a good test" maybe i should check out the other possible answers, chances are half of them apply, but still :)


9 - the Peacemaker

Thanks for taking the test !

you chose BX - your Enneagram type is NINE (aka "The Mediator")

"I am at peace"

Peacemakers are receptive, good-natured, and supportive. They seek union
with others and the world around them.

How to Get Along with Me

If you want me to do something, how you ask is important. I especially
don't like expectations or pressure.

I like to listen and to be of service, but don't take advantage of this.

Listen until I finish speaking, even though I meander a bit.

Give me time to finish things and make decisions. It's OK to nudge
me gently and nonjudgmentally.

Ask me questions to help me get clear.

Tell me when you like how I look. I'm not averse to flattery.

Hug me, show physical affection. It opens me up to my feelings.

I like a good discussion but not a confrontation.

Let me know you like what I've done or said.

Laugh with me and share in my enjoyment of life.

What I Like About Being a Nine

being nonjudgmental and accepting

caring for and being concerned about others

being able to relax and have a good time

knowing that most people enjoy my company; I'm easy to be around

my ability to see many different sides of an issue and to be a good
mediator and facilitator

my heightened awareness of sensations, aesthetics, and the here and
now

being able to go with the flow and feel one with the universe

What's Hard About Being a Nine

being judged and misunderstood for being placid and/or indecisive

being critical of myself for lacking initiative and discipline

being too sensitive to criticism; taking every raised eyebrow and twitch
of the mouth personally

being confused about what I really want

caring too much about what others will think of me

not being listened to or taken seriously

Nines as Children Often

feel ignored and that their wants, opinions, and feelings are unimportant

tune out a lot, especially when others argue

are "good" children: deny anger or keep it to themselves

Nines as Parents

are supportive, kind, and warm

are sometimes overly permissive or nondirective

you wanna know MORE?

so check out, what Wikipedia says about your type... ...even more you'll find in Google

The Quick & Painless ENNEAGRAM Test (click 'next' @ the bottom to start) written by felk on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

and I need a hug

it might not be possible with the one person I have in mind,
but if I'm not mistaken it's a biological fact that just hugging anyone can help!
And let's face it, everybody needs one from time to time :)
mine are absolutely free by the way and apparently so are Juan Mann's
enjoy!


and just typing "free hugs" @ google may just give you a whole lot a links,
some of them even to somewhere nearby

I'm torn..

..but whichever way it goes, somewhere in time the sadness is expected to end,
with thanks to my many friends for their kind support!
Nathalie and David also seem to be torn..

If you think the camerapositions are stealing some of the good views, a shorter version of the same act but without nathalie can be seen here
If the youtube links aren't working properly, please give me a sign, you should also be able to find them very easily just looking for "Torn" @ www.youtube.com
enjoy!

that poor snake

Ricky Gervais on the bible,

a fading blog? or maybe just doing real things

well well not much activity on this blog,
but just maaaybe that's because I'm very busy

sunday-evening the first meeting of the group "svalbard 2007" was a fact,
a fine bunch of people, some are ofcourse still a mystery to me but that will change soon enough
in order to get some of the equipment or food sponsored we decided to clean up svalbard, at least a part of it, we'r going to participate in "clean up svalbard" and are counting on outdoor-stores to support us for this.

A website of our own is being built as i write here
www.cleanupsvalbard.be

and I'm going to restrain myself a bit concerning personal information, especially in the area of 'not posting stuff that's too personal', everybody can come here after all, i'll find plenty of interesting other stuff to post, don't worry :)

Dreams dreams dreams

pfff, lousy night, woke up too early and afterwards ofcourse too late,
and then Pieter tells me how is one year old son woke him up, 3 times, and things are back in perspective
But trying to go to sleep at a decent time isn't working, at least not for now pff
My mother seems to know it's because yesterday I spent 3 hours in the middle of the 'parade' of the kungfu school celebrating chinese new year in our local chinatown, because of all the noise that goes with that ... well it was really loud, I agree that even with ear-protection-thingies the firecrackers made a lot of noise, but I dont think that's it
weird dreams by the way, something about this blog and then there was also this kind of college dormroomhousething where some of my friends were living next to me, weird make-up, and the rest is just too weird :)

The longest day

For a reason still unknow to me I woke up around 20 hours ago, not being able to fall asleep again, so I got up.
I have among other things: studied, emailed, worked with cement on our terrace, listened to all the recordings made with the dictaphhone on the Vercors-trip (HILARIOUS!!!), taken a sample from and measured the characteristics of our pond (no.3 for the masters thesis), eaten spaghetti with a very nice sauce that my sister made, pdf-ed an article that was requested from entomo-info, blogged, watched an episode of stargate and attended the chinese new-year demonstration from my school just an hour ago and naturally throughout the entire day brainstormed about the future course of action concerning that person that not so long ago managed to take my breath away.
And now onwards to the dream-realm, good night and good luck!

Practical post # zero zero one - Cheap books

In dutch, if you're not from belgium or holland, you won't have any use for it anyway.
Al vele jaren zijn ze er mee bezig en ze lijken niet van plan ermee te stoppen:
http://www.boekenfestijn.com/
volgend weekend in Leuven en van 10 t/m 13 mei in Antwerpen,
het hele voormalige bouwcentrum overvol met boeken aan spotprijzen
gewoon een kijkje gaan nemen, het is quasi onmogelijk er met lege handen buiten te gaan, iedereen vindt er wel iets om te lezen !!
Als je je inschrijft op hun site dan krijg je tijdig een herinnering voor de festijnen die je aanvinkt.

what the bleep

My my, yesterday (not sooo long ago) i managed to go to sleep @ eleven, which for me is early, this usually only happens when i'm ill. But being really tired  i thought i'd take a shot at that 'sleeping before midnight'-thing.
And then ofcourse i wake up at 3:30 am ... and I just won't fall asleep again  ... so now I actually slept less than I normally do, great, just great  pff
So i took my dictaphone (one of the best things I ever bought myself!) and started making the list of things I'm going to do today, ofcourse blogging was the first thing on it :)
but then after a few items i just maybe started to realise why i woke up so early, man have I got stuff to do today ...   let's get started, onwards, for glory and breakfast in a few hours!

Happy anniversary ...

to myself and Tith Ngaw Pai,
february 15, 2000 AD I had my first lesson of traditional south-chinese kungfu (see link at the sidebar).
Unfortunately one year later I had to take a break because of some stuff in my knee of which I don't know the english term.
so in February 2002 I started again but then with Tai chi, or Tai Ki Kune. It's incredibly tempting to return to the kungfu-lessons, but I just don't have the time,
our tai chi is actually very difficult so combining it now wouldn't be very wise,
 maybe in a few years ...
but 7 years in the school, not bad!

Vercors 2007

Brave as they are, five young people set out on a walk in the snow, leaving civilisation behind (ok, I'll cut the drama-part)
Joris and Willem spent the previous months preparing every little detail of this trip what resulted in a very smooth journey! In my name as well as most likely Goedele's and Tess's, THANKS GUYS!

Some of Willem's pictures can be found at the link the following location:
www.flickr.com/photos/wvdoorne

Nothing to do but walk in the snow, gaze at the scenery, eat, drink, sleep and take care of the others. Who offcourse also took care of me, we had a very mutualistic relationship going on there, thanks guys/girls, let's do that again!

No internet, no cellulars, nada, nothing, just a few people against the elements, if that doesn't charge the batteries, I need to get myself a new battery.
Man am I looking forward to Spitsbergen 2007, I can hardly wait!

Precious Time

Since this is the third time blogger is making me type this post, the irony of it's title is becoming very agitating gromgrom 

It's been what ? ... two weeks since the last post, this can only mean that I:
1) just wasnt in town and
2) I've been veryvery busy
 
Saturday while packing for the Vercors I was also finishing an assignment for the Ailo, my god did that s*ck, ok I brought it upon myself postponing it but GGRRR
Luckily the following 7 days were just AMAZING! More on that in the next post.

Sunday 11/2 I attended one of the returning Flash-birthday-parties, this time @ Chris & Lotte's place, they did a very fine job having us all over and the food was good!
The flash is a group of highschool students that decided to give their group a name and subsequently succeeded in keeping that group together for over six years !! And hopefully for many years to come.

And offcourse on monday classes and school-work hit me straight in the face, only 2 mornings of classes in the entire week, but there's a masters-thesis that still needs an insane amount of work, so still no blogging on monday/tuesday/wednesday.

How about the evenings ?
Monday: Tai Chi  @  www.tith-ngaw.com
Tuesday: hmmmm + waauw (more on that maybe later ;))
Wednesday: Swimming, 2 km, then I got bored (not tired), stopped swimming and went home to see the final episodes of season three of Stargate Atlantis, (nerd alert!) finally they get their city in the air, only to get stranded in the middle of space with the oxygen-supply falling ... will they live or die ... let's find out whenever the next season gets broadcasted.

Thank (insert deity of choice here)

or not
i WAS going to take samples for my master's thesis, but in stead I just spent the afternoon fixing the oxygen-probes (and waxing my boots for next week), better luck tomorrow
I guess i'll just have to comfort me with this big piece of rice-pie with cream on top that i'm smikkeling-up (again not real english, not even close, don't care).

Waaauw

what a truly nice day, no?
The exam could have gone better, and I say that quoting prof Ivan, and he's right, but at least it went better than friday :)
Now having finished the series of exams I've come to that moment in time when all the things I kept putting in the closet untill 'after the exams' just fell on top of me when I took a look ('took a look' is that even english?) inside that huge closet.
So excuse me while I go and dig myself a way to the surface.

And if you're looking for a really nice song, try to get your hands on this one:
"Somewhere over the rainbow"   and more specific, the version by Israel Kamakawiwo'Ole
that's what I call a very fine piece of music!
cheerio

This is just in ..

I'm in, I'm one of the lucky 9 who will get to spend 20 days on Spitsbergen this summer.
I've already been there in the summer of 2005, which proved to be a lifechanging and inspiring journey, so the hopes for "Spitsbergen 2007" are high.
This time it's going to be a hiking-trip, the better part of the 20 days will be spent walking through low- and high-arctic tundra, truly a wonderfull scenery. A small group of men, facing the elements (well at least some of the elements), and most likely, polar bears ...
Am I excited? One could say that :)

(Spitsbergen ? Where the hell is that anyway??)

Where the hell is Matt?

On the blogroll I just added Matt Harding's blog,
his blog at www.wherethehellismatt.com.
Just another guy who went out there and did something amazing,
and then once more!
On his website you can find the 2 wonderfull movies he created under 'dancing'.
For those who need some encouragement ...
the second one is very close by, just one click on the YouTube thingie below.
But please also check out his first one at his site!!



The background music is also very nice by the way!!

("Sweet Lullaby Dancing Remix” by Deep Forest, this is the internet,
more information about it is all around you.)

So who's joining me on a trip to kjeragbolten ;-) ??

panic

bijna een dag voorbij zonder een post,
en toch zat ik hier redelijk wat aan de pc
oops there I went in dutch again,
almost a day wihout posting, we can't have that in the first week now can we?
Why panic?
Because there's an area in France (Vercors) where I'll be spending a very fine week
with some very fine people, walking through the snow ...
but this damned climate change just might cause some problems here ...
and not enough snow means no pulka's (sleigh to be pulled along)
and EVERYTHING in the backpacks,
no probs there, but that means we actually might get tired :)

ooops

Hmmm, this exam of animal ecophysiology reminded me
a bit too much of the one from animal physiology,
which I had to do again in the summer vacation of 2005 ... damn. 
This time there's also the grade of the presentation I gave
to maybe compensate, but even if that will suffice,
shame on me anyway!
Onto the next one, vegetation ecology on wednesday,
and let's please make up for the previous one!!

zelfrelativering

oftewel de grapjassen te snel af zijn 

Het loopt door het bos en is goed verzekerd? ... Polis de Boskabouter.
Het loopt door het bos en het is misselijk? ... Paulus de Kotskabouter.
Het loopt door het bos en het is hartstikke zat? ... Paulus de Wodkabouter.
Het rijdt door het bos en is snel? ... Paulus de Crosskabouter.
Het rijdt door het bos en het is lomp? ... Paulus de Botskabouter.
Het loopt door het bos en het weigert over te stappen op Windows? ... Paulus de DOSkabouter.
Het loopt door het bos met z`n twaalfen in een dozijn? ... Paulus de Groskabouter.
Het loopt door het bos en het is te zien op journaal? ... Paulus de NOSkabouter.
Het loopt door het bos en het is aan het vechten? ... Paulus de Bokskabouter.
Het loopt door het bos en het is chagerijnig? ... Paulus de Norskabouter.
Het loopt door het bos en het is kwaad? ... Paulus de Booskabouter.
Het loopt door het bos en het is erg ingewikkeld? ... Paulus de Kloskabouter.
Het loopt door het bos en het bezorgt een hoop brieven? ... Paulus de Postkabouter.
Het loopt door een bos in Israel en het lijkt op een palestijn? ... Paulus de Bomkabouter.
Het loopt door het bos en het heeft immer geluk? ... Paulus de Bofkabouter.
Het loopt door het bos en is groen? ... Paulus de Moskabouter.
Het loopt door het bos en is niet zo aangenaam? ... Paulus de Rotkabouter.
Het loopt door het bos en is gek? ... Paulus de Knotskabouter.
Het loopt door het bos en heeft hulp nodig? ... Paulus de S.o.s.kabouter.
Het loopt door het bos en explodeert? ... Paulus de Plofkabouter.
Het loopt door het Duitse bos? ... Paulus de Mofkabouter.
Het loopt door het bos en glanst niet? ... Paulus de Dofkabouter.
Het loopt door het bos en is weer grappig? ... Paulus de Mopkabouter.
Het loopt door het bos en voetbalt? ... Paulus de Kopkabouter.
Het loopt door het bos en eet pinda`s? ... Paulus de Dopkabouter.
Het loopt door het bos en houdt iedereen voor de gek? ... Paulus de Fopkabouter.
Het loopt door het bos en eet een dwerg? ... Kauwdus een Boskabouter.
Het loopt door het bos en je kan er op drukken? ... Paulus de Knopkabouter.
Het loopt door het bos en is zwart? ... Paulus de Dropkabouter.
Het loopt door het bos en brouwt bier? ... Paulus de Hopkabouter.
Het loopt door het bos en kapt er mee? ... Paulus de Nokkabouter.
Het loopt door het bos en heeft immer schone tanden?... Paulus de Floskabouter.
Het loopt door het bos en het stinkt? ... Paulus de Bosbouter.
Het loopt door het bos en het is misselijk? ... Paulus de Kotskabouter
(via 'Made on planet Lane')

en aanvullen via de comments hier is toegestaan!

(sorry folks, no translation here, way too much work and it wouldn't be funny anyway, some things just aren't ment to be translated)

Goed beginnen, is goed begonnen.

Voila, blog opgestart, momenteel geen tijd om veel te typen,
want naar het schijnt heb ik morgen een examen af te leggen.
Wat me gemotiveerd heeft om na de vele maanden van 'geen tijd nu' is het volgende:
www.worldonfire.ca,
als dat je geheel onverschillig laat, blijf hier dan maar ineens weg.

While typing the above I also realised I was typing in dutch ... ok, 99.4% of the people that mean anything to me or are going to read anything at all around here, do understand dutch (or is it flemish). But somewhere in the fase where I was planning/dreaming about blogging I kinda decided on writing in English, not 'just in case' but as a practical tool for improving my English writing.

ANYway, what finally started this blog is the link that can be found above, if it doesn't touch you at all, you might as well stay away from here, or explain yourself further, it might prove te be an interesting debate..

And now on to the syllabus of animal ecophysiology, 26 hours to the exam, and counting ..