By the way..

.. I GRADUATED, with "een grote onderscheiding" (magna cum laude aka with great honor),
mostly because of the dissertation, i got 17/20 on it wich is pretty good.
Anyway: YAY
Anybody got a job for me? :-)
I'm an envrionmental biologist, specialised in environment, did my dissertation on protist colonisation (Testate Amoebae) and i'm interested in doing:
research, communication, working with cradle to cradle, ..
Most important is that i'm helping in bringing the world closer to a healthy and sustainable place!

Oops

hmm, this might be even a longer break than before,
anyway, i run this blog and not the other way around, so if i dont have time, i dont have time :)

Almost a year ago i mentioned a book about genetic programming that i wanted to read, and its downloadable for free, so double thumbs up for that :)
But its still on my reading list i'm afraid, too much other things to read for now.

Anyway, its this comic by the wonderfull XKCD that reminded me of it so i decided to post something, not sure if i'm going to pick up posting again..

Have a nice day!

Another rotting corpse, more cheese and a bigger fish!

A few weeks ago i blogged about my visit to the nationial botanical garden to visit a large and stinky flower, we were too late but hurray hurray, there's another one coming out!!

The progress can be followed here!

This is what the website shows right now:


Maybe this time we'll be lucky and be on time to actually smell the flower!
(lucky ? well maybe not lucky but it will definitely leave an impression :-))

Nothing interesting ever happens in Antwerp ...

...untill today!!

A sperm whale (Physeter catodon) was pulled ashore on Antwerp's beach (Sint-Anna).



Of course me and my dad went to have look!


Here's the series of picture's i took.

This is fun!

I tried the world challenge twice

This Traveler IQ was calculated on Monday, August 11, 2008 at 03:59PM GMT by comparing this person's geographical knowledge against the Web's Original Travel Blog's 2,927,022 travelers who've taken the challenge.

The first time i did the world challenge i got up to level 10 with 357601 points;
the second time up to level 11 with 444278 points.
Have fun :)

A rotting corpse, cheese and fish!

As a biologist, i have an interest in nature ... D'UH
A very inspiring voice is that of the naturalist Sir David Attenborough
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHaWu2rcP94 (watch the clip, its short but important to understand the rest of this post)
The flower in this movie clip has just been flowering in the National Botanic Garden of Belgium
This i a picture of their page about it (a picture because the page probably won't stay there)


Today I visited the plant, together with Steven (one of my bio-buddies) and Karo.
But as you can see...


We were too late! Better luck next time.
Fortunately there are lot's of other beautifull flowers to be found there.




And Venus Flytraps


A mammoth tree


A castle


And also ... something dangerous ???


Steven seems to like it though ;-)


have a nice day!

Good morning from Chicago

I woke up this "morning" at 3pm, because i didn't went to sleep untill 7 am,
working nights in stead of days on the dissertation,
and somehow xkcd found out what's going on in my life AGAIN ... i really like his comics!! Check em out!!

It's easier to be an asshole to words than to people

I've done it, especially when things get a bit emotional, losing touch with reality because of words on a screen and what i made of them in my mind, and i'm sorry!

so as usual, xkcd is right

INTERNET ARGUMENT


Please keep in mind you're dealing with real people.

from: http://xkcd.com/438/

What does an adversity mean to you ??

Well to Napoleon Hill it means this:
"Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit." – Napoleon Hill (1883-1970)
And if I can give you one advice about your mental attitude, it is to incorporate this advice into your character.
I've been working on it for at least half a year now, it's not easy but holds tremendous power when used!
So in stead of tossing and turning and getting upset about spontaneously waking up at half past 4, when i'm trying t get enough sleep to stay awake during studying, i'm using this time to post this here (and satisfy my evergrowing group of fans ;-)), send a few important emails, and come back here to post at least 1 cool thing!
So dear friends, stay tuned, be delighted, and find the good in every bad!

The Ironman Widget

Watching this movie will be my reward when i hand in the thesis, looks supercool!

This i want to read ...

http://www.gp-field-guide.org.uk/,
Genetic programming is cool!
And someday i hope to use it consciously to fix a problem.
This has just enormous potential to benefit mankind in general!
So it's on the "must read-list"
i'll try and post that list sometime soon because there are really interesting books on there through wich anyone could have a mindexpanding experience!

But now i'm off for a three day seminar to get some issues handled! (Excited!)
To quote David D. "The boy must die in order for the man to live."

May your day be wonderfull!

Chaos, the way of the future.

Today I had a very interesting conversation with Robin Rowley,
I was introduced to him through Leen, a friend of mine, as her lecturer at the Plantijn Hogeschool. Some time ago, when i was talking with her and Tom about my plan for my future, she mentioned him as someone who I should talk to, and she was right.
He's an expert on Communications, Organisation Behaviour & HRM, Entrepeneurship, Strategy and Change Management. And this is exactly the field that's been calling to me for almost half a year now, drawing me away from my present career in biology.
He has also written a book, "Organize with chaos", available at Management Books 2000, of which he was so kind to give me a copy of the previous edition, the new one is just out.

A man's mind stretched to a new idea never goes back to its original dimensions. And this hour he gave me today was certainly a mindstretching experience!

I'm kinda very busy finishing this neverending masterthesis so i'm right now not able to do a lot with the new idea's and insights but this will come soon enough!

As a preparation for this conversation i read this introduction on Chaos and Complexity:
http://complexity.orcon.net.nz/index.html

It's by Victor MacGill, a very interesting person who's website i will discuss soon, but this link from his website was too nice to keep from you:

So many lessons to learn

http://www.gocomics.com/nonsequitur/2008/03/14/

And if I don't learn this one soon, i'm going to be in a lot of trouble.

AdSense

Hmmm, blogger has been telling me i can make money with my blog if i put banners on it, being curious by nature (and facing a huge mortage) i clicked on it, and for now, as long as i don't really register, "non-commercial" ads are being shown..
I don't make any money of it, but a seemingly worthy cause is drawing attention to itself .. not a bad thing i think!
Let's try it for a while.

Tired

This morning something (probably myself) woke me at a quarter past 5 and apart from some lingering and turning around, i couldn't sleep anymore so I got up (and posted the previous post among other things)
in the afternoon i slept a few hours because i was just wasted, and now i'm still tired..
Anyway, maybe i should stop whining, bitching and complaining and make some stuff happen!
As Og Mandino says: Those who are weak, wait for opportunities. those who are strong, make them. Opportunities! Your life is full of them.
(i'll post some more thing about Og in the future)
I think i'm going to use this oppotunity of being tired to get some sleep :)

Have a nice day!

Let's walk

Because of the course in mindfulness i'm following, i'm experimenting with mindful walking.
Focussing on the legs, the shift of balance that accompanies every step, focussing on the hips, sometimes using a mantra to accompany the different steps, etc

But sometimes i just walk like these guys ;)

So that's how it works ..

Just recently a few friends (Chris, Zeno, Lotte and Karo) explained to me the game that when you see a yellow car, and if you see it first, you can punch the person next you you ...
I thought it was a silly game ... but that's just because they didn't explain it fully !!

Luckily xkcd comes through once more

Bodyscan ... just another way for falling asleep ??

Wednesday i think i actually fell asleep before i started .. it's all a bit unclear.
Thursday i tried it twice, didn't get past the left foot (the very beginning after the "slowing down"-intro).
Yesterday i tried it with my eyes open but again somewhere at the left foot I fell asleep ..
Today I'm going to try it in the afternoon, with my eyes open, maybe that will get me farther into the excercise.
Needless to say it's going to need a lot of practice!
Or maybe i really need to sleep more :)

Viva Pachelbel

There's a song that i can almost play on the piano,
it's the Canon by Johann Pachelbel.
Rob Paravonian has made a funny standup act about it,
go to http://www.youtube.com/user/paravonian
and then click on "Pachelbell Rant"

his "The Friends Theme and Sugar Ray" is also great!

october --> february

Some main points that have happened since last time.
Hopefully i'll find a time in the future to elaborate on each of them.

For now i'm still working with people in retirement homes for the University project.

When that's over i'm going to finish my teacher's ed, i still have to do the practical part, 20 hours of actual teaching.

From 3/2/2008 through 10/2/2008 i've been hiking through the French Jura.
It was great!
a report (in dutch) with some pictures can be found here

Last tuesday was the first session of a training in Mindfullness i'm following. Very interesting sofar!

And today is the first day of the rest of my life!