Category: Delft

Night Store

My friendly neighborhood night store will gladly give me a plastic bag for every item of shopping I buy from them1. This is pretty thoughtful and at the same time also pretty short-sighted.
Now there seem to be some places in the world that have banned plastic bags though I’m not sure which ones. It is a pretty contentious issue. It seems to be difficult or something but it’s not exactly clear why that is. We’re one of the technically most advanced societies in the world and we can’t live without plastic bags?

I wasn’t very hungry so instead of my regular döner I got some green pistachio baklava. This stuff is so ridiculously delicious it explodes into pure sugar and pistachio in your mouth and it fills you up pretty fast. I don’t get why you would buy mass-produced candy from the supermarket. If you want to get fat, why not get fat eating good stuff?

Now if  only I could find a place around here2 that sells künefe, things would get really crazy.


Picture by elifayse

  1. As well they should if you see the markup they’re charging. [↩]
  2. Den Haag or Rotterdam will do. [↩]

Wireless typing

A lot of raves for the new line of Apple Keyboards also from me. Cris has been so kind to import one for me from London1.

This keyboard has improved my workplace conditions massively. It’s a pleasure to sit down at my desk and start typing on it. I’m currently pairing it with my old Logitech MX500 mouse but that is bound to go wireless as well. I may be tempted to haul the whole installation on the road but I don’t want to end up looking like this.

Package

Now I just need to find something to prop up my Macbook much much higher. I’m currently putting it on a pile of UX books, which could be a sign I need to increase my reading speed.

About the sizing issue. The Bluetooth keyboard’s size is perfect. The layout is nearly identical to my Macbook keyboard’s layout, which means I have no switching costs going back and forth. A numerical keypad I would hardly use anyway, and the six buttons above the arrows are easily replaced with the Mac key chords.

  1. Something to do with Apple Store discounts. [↩]

Pre holiday wrapping up

The summer may not have brought the best weather but still good times are around. This week finishing off some work before we’ll be going on an ill-prepared week long surftrip somewhere along the French Atlantic coast.

Seasoned travellers as we deem ourselves and busy as we are, we have dispensed with most of the preparation one would think would be necessary. We have some camping equipment, surfboards and roof carriers and lots of good humour to go around. That should be enough for any holiday.

iPhone Queue

That’s also a reason I won’t be getting my iPhone 3G right away like a lot of people are. I’m planning on travelling some more and this device is more of a hindrance1 and a risk than it is a benefit on the road.

I’m still debating whether or not I should take my laptop. Odds of us finding solid power let alone WiFi are slim and 7GB of CF memory should be enough for a week’s holiday: 1GB/day. And a week of disconnection will probably do me more good than I realize.

  1. €30 per MB of data consumed abroad!? [↩]

Fast Portraits

Last week we had the batizado for our group with people coming in from Amsterdam, Norway, London and Portugal just to celebrate this event together. The batizado with associated parties and barbecues is a highlight of the year and this year proved to be a great amount of fun.

Traditionally the batizado ends on Sunday with a churrasco and having everybody together and mellow is a nice opportunity to shoot some pictures. For this set I took gnomo‘s Nikon with 50mm f/1.4, a splendid lens if ever there is one and I ambushed everybody for their portrait within 10 minutes.

Here’s a small selection:
RatinhaDelaGraunaCarapeta

Mooi Weer Spelen

“Mooi Weer Spelen”1 is the title of the annual street theater festival that takes over the city center of Delft. This year, I’m living in said center and it’s much easier to see the events.

Unfortunately this year the amount of people attracted by the free street theater shows has exploded and the weather has been great so every show is completely packed and it’s nearly impossible to watch it let alone take any decent pictures.

So here are a couple of pictures of the mobile acts:
IMG_0588.jpgIMG_0586.jpg

An insect troupe did set up camp in the courtyard behind my house, and from atop the wall I could get a nice perspective on their preparations:
IMG_0591.jpg

  1. Nice Weather Games [↩]

Clinic Middag

Volgende vrijdag houden we hier op kantoor een unconference-achtige workshop (beschrijving) middag om kennis uit te wisselen. Iedereen vertelt of laat iets zien wat hij kan ter lering ende vermaek van de anderen, dit mag alles zijn. Nu wilden we het aanvankelijk doen met ons vieren, maar het leek ons nog leuker om het open te stellen voor onze vrienden en kennissen.

Eelke heeft een viral geschoten om het event te promoten:

Workshop 13 juni from Eelke D. on Vimeo.

We denken aan interactieve sessies van ongeveer een half uur van 1:30 tot einde van de dag afgesloten met borrel en barbecue. Leuk en gezellig, kom je ook?

Fiesta Brasileira!

Het is weer zover! Het jaarlijkse vetste Braziliaanse feest in de grootste disco van Delft komt er weer aan. Vorig jaar was het al een bijzonder geslaagde editie met een vol huis en adembenemende capoeira en afro-brazil acts, dit jaar belooft minstens net zo cool te worden.

Data: Zaterdag 31 mei, 20:00, Speakers Delft

De flyer staat hieronder:

Brazilian Festival Liberdade

Een feest is natuurlijk niks zonder leuke mensen. Vandaar dat we al begonnen zijn met het verkopen van kaartjes. Kaartjes in de voorverkoop kosten €7,50 en zijn verkrijgbaar bij mij. Stuur me een mailtje of een direct message om te boeken.

Mis het niet, het wordt zeker weer erg vet.

Update: Niemand dan een kaartje kopen?