Sunday, April 27, 2008

This American Life

Kakee sent me this link from NPR. It is pretty interesting.

The Sanctity of Marriage
Divorce Predictor

Now I am running through all my parent's conversations in my head...

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Spring updates

I've been doing a bunch of things lately but haven't had time to record them or reflect on them. Here's a list. Maybe I will go into more detail later.

1. Motel Mozaique 2008. Unfortunately I could only go Friday because I left on tour the following Saturday morning at 6am. My plans to volunteer again, get a free tshirt were not totally foiled though. I did get to watch Holy Fuck in Rotown, and some dude in Schouwburg. Lisa had some chance performer wristbands for us (Inga, Jorn, I) as we left the 1upToys 2 year party round the corner at 10pm.

2. Krashna tour (Saturday 12 - Friday 18). Four concerts in Hamburg, DUT (Denmark Technical University), Malmo, and Copenhagen. Numbers in the audience ranged from 15 to 1,200. It shows that good publicity helps. Also, I think Copenhagen is the most beautiful big European city that I have seen so far. Every nook and cranny is beautiful and filled with character. I performed for the last time in the Aula of Delft this past Tues, playing Rachmaninov's 2nd Symphony.

3. Plants! This is the part I get most excited about. My plants are doing great. When I came back from tour, my basil had sprouted and my jasmine had bloomed. Apparently Vaniek did a better job watering than I would have expected.

4. Beginning of graduating. Yes, I am officially graduating now. I had my kickoff meeting with everyone official and everything. I am excited but feeling a bit overwhelmed by everything.

Movies watched: Species 1, Into the Wild
Books read: Art of Innovation, Debt to Pleasure

Upcoming: See Lanna walk or 1 week in California; koninginnenacht bbq at my place.

Monday, April 21, 2008

Some videos

Some product demonstration videos recorded by Ronald with Robert, Jorn, and I for the AirDrums and AirGuitar developed by 1uptoys.

Spielwarenmesse adventures: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

White Stripes - Seven Nation Army



Nirvana - Smells like Teen Spirit





The Cure - Boys Don't Cry

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

7 days

Here is finally a summary of Naomi's awesome visit to see me (now with pictures). Quickly, before I forget the details! I will definitely not forget biking Naomi around or our awesome power naps. YEAH winterbreak 2008!!!!

Friday
I pick Naomi up from the station. It has been snowing and raining intermittently all morning. I drop her at my house and situate her in Sierd's room. We then bike to Jvb 15 and proceed to fall asleep to the Balls of Fury (really bad movie). By the time the movie is done, the weather has improved. We wander around Delft in the rare sunny moment. We spy Meike and Pieter drinking white beers on some scaffolding outside Pieter's room on the Brabantseturfmarkt and joined them. They are wearing summer clothes to encourage the weather.





We then walk to Marieke's house. She is hosting a sexy tupperware party. Naomi does not need much help with translation. A lot of words are decipherable even in their Dutch form, i.e. penis, erectie. Also the ladies are pretty good at demonstrating. Afterwards we go to Tessa's apartment and soon after call it a night.

Saturday
We go to the market in Delft. I keep skirting the haring stand because I am not ready to eat raw fish yet, so we go to the Vlaanderen at the Beestenmarkt to eat mustard soup and a sandwich first. We are the only idiots sitting outside, but we are well equipped with a blanket spread between the two of us and a heating lamp. Naomi experiences the power of haring.

We go home and curl up on my couch to watch Becket. This time I fall asleep. You can guess what happens next. Nap. We nap until nearly 7pm. We get up, stumble into our dresses and catch a ride from Jorn who is actually here to pick up a crippled Vaniek.

Christmas dinner at Jvb15. Yummy appetizers, cucumber and dill soup, roast beef entree, whisky, cigars, etc. We eat so much we can't get drunk and pass out totally stuffed.




Sunday
Is Easter morning/Christmas morning. We wake up to snow. We run outside with winter wear on, but the snow stops. Everyone eventually wakes up and we have an egg hunt outside. We then make an effort to clean the kitchen a bit. Michiel sets out the butter lambs and we have breakfast. Kakee joins us, and shortly we leave to go make custard and meringues at Kakee's house. We stay for dinner and then return to 15 to watch Black Cat, White Cat.

Monday
Second easter in Dutchland, everything is still closed except grocery stores. Hoi-Kee takes us to a nomadic architectures exhibit in Den Haag. We ride around in old people carts, eat tostis out of trucks, color blocks, and wander around the parking garage turned exhibition space. As we get progressively colder, we decide to leave. We wander around Den Haag, drink tea in a tea-room and then wander some more. We walk by the palace and we buy groceries from the Albert Heijn in the Hague. We eat fish, bok-choi, and beet salad for dinner.

Tuesday
We wait for the weather to get better and head to the market at Rotterdam Blaak. There, we find the second hand market and we browse for granny sweaters and boots. We both get awesome sweaters. Before that we buy some fish and one of numerous stands. Naomi gets yelled at for touching tomatoes, and we stock on for provisions for dinner. It is Inga's birthday so we invite her to dinner with Pieter from the scaffold. We bake the fish with paprika, garlic, and herbs stuffed in the stomach. It's delicious to eat fresh fish from the market. Inga goes home to conduct and interview and get ready for her birthday, pre-birthday celebration. We go to Inga's house to celebrate. I fall asleep on the couch.

Wednesday
Naomi and I decide to make a cake for Inga who we will see later in the day. After browsing for 2 seconds on Epicurious, we decide on carrot cake. We then spend 30 min looking for a recipe that only involves baking powder and no baking soda. On the way to buying supplies we climb the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft. We hastily make the carrot cake and head to poker and guitar hero at Vishalls. Naomi makes funny faces while playing.

Thursday
Jorn and I have an AirGuitar and AirDrums presentation at school. It totally fails. I won't go into details. I am sick and in a bad mood, so we watch an afternoon of Beverly Hill's Cop I and II. Because Thursday is Meisjesavond, we make boullion and onion flavored rice for the burritos theme. We eat huge burritos at Ambika's house with Katrin, Kakee, and then drink beers in the Locus Publicus. Naomi packs, and we watch a movie before sleeping.

Friday
We ride the train together to Schiphol. I have a meeting in Amsterdam and she has to catch her flight. Goodbye Naomi.

Naomi really made me miss America. Compared to the others in our now fragmented group, she has really found a place that she likes and hangs out with Tom and Matt often. I was inspired by her visit to finally go see how she, Tom, Matt, Mike are living on the Westside. Coincidentally, Lanna will be graduating and I will have to go there anyway.