centrale verwarming — lek — boren — kanalisering — overstroming — vereniging van eigenaren — kerstvakantie — dons — wol — dekking — kruik — slaapmuts — washandje — vorst — isolatie — afzondering — verkoudheid — longontsteking

… but which another man would:

• Honey, you look tired! take it easy, open your fly and just relax…
• When you’re close, just let go! I can take it all!
• Shopping? What for? Beer is enough!
• Honey, your colleagues called and they want you at the bar in 10 minutes …

In other news:

• The world’s richest nation only barely failed to elect a talking corpse now irrelevant in politics and the dumbest potential state leader in the history of modern democracy.
• In other views “The U.S. is the only country in the world where the major candidates for …

• Maurice (1987)
• Torch song trilogy (1988)
• Butch camp (1996)
• It’s in the water (1997)
• The talented Mr Ripley (1999)
• Borstal boy (2000)
• Happy Feet (2006)

Werk, werk, werk. Tussen negen en tien uur werk per dag, met weinig thee-pauzes. Elke dag minder energie daarna om wat anders te doen. Behalve de weg naar Albert Heijn, het station en de universiteit ken ik nog bijna niks over mijn buurt en Amsterdam. Geen tijd ervoor.

Nog niet …

Vandaag heb ik een paar nieuwe dingen gekregen:

• nieuwe kantoorsleutel en UvA chipsleutel,
• nieuwe werkkamer en bureau,
• nieuwe schrijft en pennetje,
• nieuwe werkplek computer en netwerk aansluiting,
• nieuwe collega’s,
• nieuwe bibliotheek van technische literatuur,
• nieuwe kantine,
• nieuwe eindeloos stapel van werktaken,
• nieuwe wanorder in de organisatie van mijn afdeling …

Vandaag (zondag 31/08) ben ik wakker geworden in mijn eigen bed. Het was de eerste keer sinds eind juli. Ik sliep uit, ook voor de eerste keer sinds lang geleden.

Om twaalf uur begon ik uit te pakken, op te ruimen en op te bergen. Na een paar dozen …

The goal was simple: bring the stuff I need to Amsterdam, the rest to a storage space (courtesy of a friend).

Initially I contacted several moving companies. The high price they asked for caused my attention to shift to the (well-intended) advice I was receiving from friends: organize the operation …

As far as the stereotype about urban gay men approaching their forties goes, Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren do not deceive while adding a pinch of seriousness to their worldly concerns by means of glasses with thick black frames.

I have never been a fashionista myself, and will probably not …

The ability of social networking sites such as FB, Plaxo or Hyves to display information from RSS feeds is an easy way to broadcast to many people.

But then comes the question of where should more personal stuff stay and how can it be communicated. Obviously it cannot be broadcasted …

Imagine.

Imagine you meet someone. This person wears an eye mask on both eyes, and uses a white cane to find their way around. It does not take long for you to figure out that this person is blind.

Then this person comes up to you, knowing that you have …

Today a friend pointed me to the documentary Earthlings which seems to be already known of everyone but me. A half-enlightening experience: while I was already aware of the issues, and I already knew some facts, the images made my understanding more vivid; an unpleasant but refreshing enhancement.

But still …

Today’s conversation added to the list of concerns evolving around my mind at the moment:

• will China invade Siberia when oil becomes scarce? or Iran?
• what will be the form of the next conflict between Japan and China?
• who will end up controlling North Korea?
• why doesn’t the …

Evidence shows clearly that we will not be able to eat fish in the future unless strong global policing action is taken now. We know already that future generations will never enjoy cod as a popular and usual dish. Still, even so-called “developed” countries make irrational political moves about fishing …

In a blog entry a professional photographer from Colorado wonders how same-sex weddings impact his business. The author crams his foot in his mouth very effectively:

Put aside for a moment your own values. Would it hurt or help your business to photograph same-sex commitment ceremonies or weddings?

Regardless of …

One of my favorites pastimes when procrastinating: looking up unusual ways to travel by train. Using the journey planner with the largest database that I know of, I set myself imaginary goals and I search:

• the longest journey that can be achieved within a day: Marseille-Malmö
• the longest journey in …

Removed from the daily reads: Dilbert, Daily WTF, UF. Added: PhD Comics.

An interesting feature of several languages is the impact of negation on the meaning of verbs.

Technically, a negation makes true things false, and vice-versa. This is different from a change in meaning.

More specifically: many verbs reflects concepts that can be put on a scale of meaning, ranging from …

But before we go there, a reminder:

stupid, adj

lacking or marked by lack of intellectual acuity

Now, enjoy:

if homosexuality is such a sin, why did god make them that way? believe it or not, sexual orientation is not just a matter of preference, it is biologically proved to …

Quote:

You scored 36% I to E, 10% N to S, 23% F to T, and 52% J to P!

You are more introverted than extroverted. You are more intuitive than observant, you are more feeling based than thinking based, and you prefer to go with the flow rather than …

Here is an exercise for the linguistically-inclined — try to find in your native language a single word that carries the following meanings:

• menen: to give one’s opinion about something (ik meen dat dit waar is = I give my opinion that this is true)
• opvallen: to make oneself easily noticeable …

1. surprise, curiousity: “oh, you can speak Dutch? How nice!” Hidden meaning: it’s surprising; unusual for foreigners to be interested in our language; but I really can’t understand a word of what you’re saying.
2. condescension: replying in English. Hidden meaning: ok, you’ve shown you can make yourself …

A thought emerged from the conjunction of several pieces:

1. reading a study about our expanding digital universe (via UF),
2. considering our daily amount of spam e-mail received and processed by spam filters,
3. decaying a mixture of thoughts about memes, urban legends, and so-called not-for-kinds pranks ,

and the thought was: given …

לֹא תַחְמֹד בֵּית רֵעֶךָ. לֹא תַחְמֹד אֵשֶׁת רֵעֶךָ, וְעַבְדּוֹ וַאֲמָתוֹ וְשׁוֹרוֹ וַחֲמֹרוֹ וְכֹל אֲשֶׁר לְרֵעֶך …

… as an annotation in issue #1845 of Irregular WebComic!.

As a fan of Hofstadter I recognize that this explanation work is truly a mastery of pedagogy. It introduces Gödel’s theorem and its impact smoothly and clearly, making it understandable to anyone with a basic understanding of science.

Instead of …

In 1793, as it just overtook power in France, the new government decided to open the tombs of the French kings in Saint-Denis and throw a thousand years of history into a pit as a celebration of their victory.

In 2001, the Taliban destroyed the two gigantic Buddhas of Bamyan …

• fact: an Italian word spelled “ciao” is used in many latin-based languages in Europe with a similar meaning. It is used as an interjection when people part, or as a sign of surprise.
• fact: in several European languages other than Italian, this word is actually used in writing by speakers …

Not knowing how to organize my thoughts on the topic, I called for De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats :