Life as a future father is filled with anticipation and change. Suddenly you feel the urge to protect your family, but how do you protect your loved ones as an IT professional???
Well, that is of course easy, you get a big gun!
Category Archives: My life
Design a coin
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the euro coin a design content has been started to get the new design of a future commemorative coin. All citizens of Europe can participate and if you present the best design of the 731 million potential participants you win a set of coins and of course some honor. You have two more weeks because the design needs to be submitted in the 20th of May.
The design needs to be related/inspired by the 10 year existence of the euro, but the number 10 cannot be used. Using the number 10 would be confusing when you need to determine the value of the coin. A 2 euro coin with a 10 on it could easily be used to rip off non Europeans, and that should of course be avoided. It’s also prohibited to use any written text on the coin.
I’m going to have a brainstorm session about this theme this weekend, and maybe I’ll try my luck with a simple design.
Hello?
Lantarenpalen, electriciteitskastjes, verkeerslichten, reclamezuilen. In Spanje is het normaal dat je op allerlei plekken berichten aantreft waarin iemand zijn diensten aanbied. Dit zijn zaken als taalles (engels, duits, italiaans, etc.), lessen in een muziekinstrument (piano, fluit, gitaar, viool, etc.), iemand die zich aanbied voor schoonmaak werkzaamheden, oppassen op kinderen of ouderen, klusjesmannen, etc.
Meestal zijn dit velletjes papier waarvan je aan de onderkant een telefoonnummer kan afscheuren. Dit nummer bel je dan om in contact te komen met de aanbieder van de dienst.
Vandaag trof ik op internet een erg vermakelijke variant van zo’n persoonlijke reclame uiting aan. Het betreft het nummer ‘Hello’ van Lionel Richy, maar dan in reclame formaat, compleet met afscheurbare stukjes uit zijn liedje (pdf).
Ik vond dit gelijk een erg leuke manier om een onbekende een glimlach te bezorgen. Ik heb er eentje geprint en deze opgehangen bij mij in de buurt.
Photos La Gomera
The most stunning think about La Gomera was the beautiful nature we encountered. Ancient forests with Laresilva trees and a huge amount of walking routes crisscrossing the island. In the forest we could at times clearly see the horizontal rain. These are clouds that are hanging low over a track in which you can see the wind moving. The wind makes the little drops in the clouds move horizontally of even upwards.
A lot of the mountains contained lots of terraces. These were created by the old Gomerians to cultivate all kinds of plants. Surely this must have been a lot of work. Still at times you can see banana trees, potatoes or grapes in some places, but the vast majority of terraces is not being used any more. The locals must have moted that working for the tourists is much more profitable than working with plants. A sad loss of tradition, but very good for providing beautiful imagery.
The boat trip to the island was like a roller coaster ride. I enjoyed it a lot, but Ana was less pleased with the trip. To see a typically shaped cliff you needed to get another boat trip to have the best view, but this was out of the question after our experiences arriving at the island. Anyway, there were really a lot of these typically shaped rocks visible all over the island.
In my photo album you can find some more images of our trip to La Gomera.
Pek in 3D
Vandaag weer langs het ziekenhuis geweest voor een check om te zien of alles goed is met onze Pek.
Alles bleek gelukkig in orde, en de vriendelijke arts maakte van onze afspraak gebruik om ons gelijk de 4D mogelijkheden van het echo apparaat te demonstreren.
De 4 dimensies die we te zien kregen waren breedte, hoogte, diepte en tijd. Op de fotos ontbreekt uiteraard het tijdsaspect, maar toch blijft het indrukwekkend.
De voorlopige statistieken:
· 21 centimeter
· 319 gram
· 20 weken en 3 dagen
· hij heeft mijn grote teen
Android update April
After a long wait finally all the pieces are falling into place. I expect I will be able to finish the game soon. As always the final details and polishing up take the most time. Last month I already introduced the entire cast of the game. I also showed you one of the specials you can find in the game. The rest I leave for you to find out playing the game.
I enjoyed creating this game a lot. It is my first Android program, and it was very useful for me to get some hands-on with this new media, and with programming for mobile devices. I expect the announcement for this new game ‘Cats and Dogs’ to appear on this blog, and the android store, somewhere in the next few months.
Dropbox
Meer en meer gebruiken we de computer alleen om een verbinding te leggen met het internet. Mail checken, bankzaken regelen, betalingen, bellen, videobellen, eventjes iets opzoeken, muziek beluisteren, films kijken, series downloaden, een boek lezen, een recept nakijken.
Wat nog ontbrak voor mij was een harde schijf die ik overal kan gebruiken. Ik stuurde wel eens bestanden naar mijn eigen email, zodat ik ze altijd bij de hand had, maar het kan toch gemakkelijker. Met Dropbox kan je gratis een harddiskje van 2GB maken, die je vanaf een willekeurige plek kan benaderen. Zelfs vanaf je smartphone!.
En extra leuk is dat je met allerlei zaken extra diskruimte kan verdienen. De tutorial doorlopen is goed voor 250MB extra. Zorgen dat iemand anders zich aanmeld via een referentie zorgt er ook voor dat de nieuwe persoon en ikzelf 250MB erbij krijgen. Erg goed bedacht.
Nesting urge
Things are going quite well with little Pek and also his mother and father are doing well. Recently however Ana developed a strange treat. Nesting urge! I’m not sure how it started or where it came from, but I have a strong suspicion that it is related to some pregnancy hormone. Ana has a strong need to buy, improve, clean, paint and renew. More specifically, Ana want me to do all these things. This is how I ended up constructing an IKEA-box for our little baby 6 months early. Still waiting for me are a children’s cupboard and a special table to change babies.
Nesting urge
A strange behavior that becomes obvious because a pregnant woman starts to spend much more time with things like cleaning and re arranging. Usually this behavior start during the third trimester of the pregnancyAccording to experts the behavior is intended to handle the stress that is sensed in relation to the upcoming birth of the child, or a way to prepare for the birth. The behavior is aimed specifically to the desire to control the situation. The behavior comforts and introduces a sensation of easy and trust to the mother.
Our landlord also got to experience the new Ana mentality. The balcony needed to be renovated and we needed a new postbox and the buzzer to open the gate also needed to be fixed. Some friends have already been convinced to help paint the entire house. In addition we are spending some afternoons looking for different apartments, because who knows… maybe we’ll be better off somewhere else.
The strange things is that I as a future father don’t notice any urges. Even more so, I try to calm Ana down and put a brake on all her desires. My first comment was that breathing fumes from cleaning products, IKEA furniture and paint is not the most healthy occupation for a pregnant mother. It is also very curious to be painting the home we currently rent and at the same time invest time and effort in looking for another place to stay.
Ana agreed in park with my comments which resulted in the deal that Ana will go shopping with friends next weekend. I will be accompanied by some other friends to paint the apartment.
Toch leuk, statistieken
Twee gezegden zijn vandaag van toepassing.
‘In het land der blinden is eenoog koning’ en ‘Een plaatje zegt meer dan 1000 woorden’. Om te begrijpen waar dit op slaat moet je onderstaand plaatje maar eens bestuderen.
In vergelijking met die spanjaarden heb ik als nederlander toch een goede 2 cm meer. Uiteraard is dit slechts een klein onderdeel van een overzicht van alle landen.
Android update March
Time to introduce the entire cast of the game.
Cats and Dogs, Boys and Girls.
There are still quite a lot of details to work out, but things are progressing. Maybe in a few months there will be a big announcement. One detail more that I will reveal in this post is the name of the game. The name will be quite simple: ‘Cats and Dogs‘.