Alef Arendsen

No, those are not the essential things in life… It’s what kept me busy today though.

I started out today by doing lots of stuff in front the computer, from reviewing documents, to setting up training material, to preparing presentations and more stuff like that. At 4.30 I kind of was a bit tired of it and went out for a while. I figured I should get some books. I’m starting a world tour in a few days (well, that’s maybe exaggerating it a little bit, but I will be traveling quite a bit the next few weeks) so there was a definite need for some reading material. I got myself the following books:

• The Lost Diaries of Adrian Mole – by Sue Townsend
• The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao – Junot Díaz
• Gentlemen of the Road – Michael Chabon
• The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas – John Doyne
• The White Tiger – Aravind Adiga

Then as I walked home, I decided to take a different route and came across a new take-out place creatively called the Food Shop. It’s on the Oude Gracht opposite the Rembrandt Cinema. I’m eating the food they prepared for me as we speak (still busy reviewing some documents) and it’s quite good. There was some potato gratin, beef stew with onions and tomotoes and some mixed grilled veggies and a salad. Pretty edible

Last but not least in about an hour, I’m heading towards Laren, to have one of my kites repaired. Tomorrow the winds are blowing again (about 20 knots) and although I won’t be able to use my 8sqm I guess, I still have to have it repaired after I ripped it a bit… The place I’m heading is called Kitereparatie.nl. It’s just a guy who’s good at fixing kites…

In the meantime, Boards of Canada started playing, which reminds me of the last few songs I heard on Last.FM. I subscribed to Last.FM by the way. It doesn’t bring you a whole lot, apart from your loves songs now being a radio station you can listen to, but well, I think the service is really useful, so I’ll gladly pay up.

Tonight I’m not going to do a whole lot. I’m going to have a few beers with Jack (a friend of mine). Tomorrow it’s kiting day. I’ll also drop by at my parents. They just got back from a holiday and then I’ll be going to Amsterdam to have a few drinks there… On Sunday, I’ll probably do some kiting again and later in the day, I’ll fly to Copenhagen. Denmark and Sweden, that’s what it’s going to be this week.

• Electric President – Hum
• Piana – Winter Sleep

– cool Japanese ambient music

• John Afterglow – Raw Like Sushi

– some really cool Swedish electro!

I finally finished reading One Big Damn Puzzler by John Harding. It’s about a lawyer ending up on a tropical island where he comes across a native tribe. Some of the tribespeople have lost legs, arms or are otherwise disabled because of mines, left by American and the lawyer is there to start getting the tribespeople compensating. The tribe didn’t ask for compensation and it’s not clear whose doing it is to send the lawyer there and arrange for compensation. The book starts off quite funny, but along the way it’s all more of the same I think. Not highly recommended…

Then on to some other books. A friend of mine works in a shop selling books for kids and since my nephew and niece are celebrating their birthday tomorrow I dropped by to get some books. Unfortunately Geertruide wasn’t there, so I had to phone here up to get some advice. She told me first of all to read the Gruffola. This book is simply great. It’s about a mouse, an owl, a snake a fox and the gruffalo.

The second book I got for my niece is a priceless one. It’s ‘written’ by Thé Tjong-Khing. The book is titled ‘Where is the Cake’ (’Waar is de Taart’ in Dutch). In the book, a cake gets stolen en then a hunt begins for the two animals that stole th cake. The great thing about this book is that it doesn’t have any words at all, it’s just drawings. Along the way, a lot of stuff happens in the drawings, and that’s what makes the book very special I think.

For my nephew I bought ‘De grote kleine kapitein’ (literally translated as the big small captain), about a boy setting sail with a boat he built himself. Fun stuff for Mas, who’s spending most of his holidays on the boat of his daddy (my brother).

In the meantime, some music to finish the day with (the ones via Last.FM are in the recommendations in my profile).

• Death in Vega – Hands Around My Throat (via Last.FM
• Ian Dury – Spasticus Autisticus (via YouTube)
• MGMT – Time to Pretend (via Last.FM). It’s the song the movie ‘21′ starts off with

I’m at home for two weeks and this has been a while. In the past six weeks, I’ve had trips to Malta, Malmo, Israel, Stockholm, Milan and Cairo, so I’m glad to spend a little bit of time in Utrecht.

Yesterday I spent some time working / hanging out in Rotterdam with Arjen. We went by the bookstore and I bought Ed Burns’ Rock Star Programmer book. I ran into Ed in Cairo and he showed me his book. I like the idea and I think a lot of other people will too. It’s a book in which Ed Burns interviews a bunch of the most influential and famous software engineering gurus / programmers to see what they have in common. I also bought Kent Beck’s Implementation Patterns, a book about communicating through code. On my way back to Utrecht from Rotterdam, I ran into a .NET developer that was looking at the books I was reading. I ended up giving him the titles and although the Rock Star Programmer book does have a lot of Java guys in it, it sure is interesting for .NET programmers as well I think.

I also bought a few other books, which I’ll probably post about when I’m done reading them. I first have to finish One Big Damn Puzzler by John Harding.

Arjen and I had dinner by the way in restaurant Stockholm in the Oude Haven, which was very good!

Today, I did some shopping for clothes. I ran into a ex-classmate of mine a few weeks ago and we decided back then that we were going to do some shopping together, so that’s what we did today. I bought some very cool-looking jeans by Kato, a pretty exclusive Japanese brand. I also bought a jeans by Blue Blood, a little more mainstream Dutch brand. A pair of sneakers from Maison Martin Margiela, whom I still think has one of the coolest websites ever. I also bought a few dress shirts, because one can never have enough of those . My shopping partner didn’t buy anything, she is going to the US pretty soon, so she’s saving up some money to do shopping-galore in NYC.

We had lunch in Broodnodig, a nice place on the Mariaplaats.

Well, with all that, and some stuff I already have, that should certainly get me through some of the parties that I’ll be having in two weeks, when I’m heading to the Salone del Mobile, the international furniture design exhibition in Milan with a few friends.

In the meantime, I’ve started looking for a new house. I’ve always wanted a house where walls where (almost) non-existing and ever since I bought Taschen’s Big Book of Lofts when I was in NYC last December, I’ve been thinking about really getting myself a slightly bigger place and tear down all the walls. If I’m moving, I’ll probably keep my old house and rent that out. I need to figure out how that’s going to work out financially. I’ve created a few Excel spreadsheets that should get me a bit of insight.

(although this is in English, it’s probably only relevant for Dutchies)
I live in Utrecht these and whenever I’m in Holland, I usually work from home (that’s only about 25% of my time, so that’s not much). Before I moved to Utrecht, I’ve lived in Amsterdam and Ermelo. My studies (before Ermelo) were in Utrecht also, so essentially, after 8 or 9 years, I’ve moved back to Utrecht.

During those times, I’ve had a few jobs (well, mostly in the context of my own ventures), so you can’t exactly call them jobs I guess. Anyway, some of those were out the door, meaning I had to commute. A large part of commuting is done by car in Holland. If you would know the situation on the roads in Holland (the road are 100% jammed from 7 in the morning until 10.30 and from 3.30pm until 7pm), I guess you’d be surprised. I commuted as well, first between Utrecht and Amsterdam, then between Ermelo and Amsterdam, then between Amsterdam and Utrecht and after a while between Utrecht and Amsterdam again.

As commuting happens by car, most people listen to the radio. This is why morning radio shows are very popular in Holland. These days I do not listen to the radio a lot anymore, but every time, I’m in my car between noon and 2pm, I’m reminded of the days I spent in traffic jams on the Dutch highways (never, never again!!!). That’s the slot Rob Stenders in filling in.

Rob Stenders is one of the three or four big DJs in the Netherlands and he just published the autobiographical Stenders Leesvermaak. I read it yesterday in one go and it’s simply hilarious.

Ranging from him marrying his sidekick Fred Siebelink (yes, he’s male as well, it was a stunt to promote the putting out of a law that allows gay marriage in Holland) to his sidekick imitating Chriet Titulaer. Some of the lesser periods are also covered such as the times he was fired or quit his job after day because he didn’t agree with the musical direction of a radio station.

To me, it also finally cleared up the move Stenders made to Yorin FM. He transfered from government funded 3FM to commercial radio station Yorin FM, so it seemed entirely for the money. Reasons were a bit different a turns out however…

A good read for people that’d like to know more about Stenders and the radio scene as a whole. Oh, and they’re going to make a movie about it too…

p.s. I figured I could read this book when I’m in Israel next week, but I finished it already. Well, then I have to drop by at the Schiphol bookshop again I guess, to get some of the Airport Top 10 books…

Another one of those Schiphol Top-10 books. Well, actually, I bought this one at Malta Airport right after I noticed my flight was delayed for two hours.

I didn’t get a chance to read a lot though as I met a Dutch guy at the airport that was a pilot for the Libyan oil company. Quite interesting chap it was.

Anyway, in Malmo, I finished reading The Good Guy by Dean Koontz. It’s a nice thriller of a guy (Tim) that is mistaken for a hit man. When the hit man finds out, he starts to chase Tim.

Nothing too spectacular. It’ll get you through a flight though…

I finished reading This Book Will Save Your Life by A.M. Homes today in the breaks that I had while in class. The book is about a guy who’s stuck in his house and because of some strange pain he all of a sudden has, has to the doctor. After this event, a series of strange things happen to him that doesn’t fit him at all, but do pull him out of his normal context.

A very funny read and in the meantime, giving a very good perspective at what’s going on in Los Angeles. Other than that it also it a bit of eye opener on the important things in life.

I had a fun two days with it (yes, I finished reading it that quick).

p.s. Arddjjen, if your reading this, I’m not sure you can find this on in the Schiphol Top 10. I bought it at Selexyz a few months ago…

(listening to Skalpel – Theme from ‘Behind the Curtain’ while writing this… highly recommended)
I saw Joris Luyendijk for the first time in a talkshow called ‘De Wereld Draait Door’ with Matthijs van Nieuwkerk. Joris has written two books on his visits to Cairo that lasted for one and two years respectively. Both books are best sellers and challenge some of the common thoughts about Islam culture. For some reason, I didn’t like the guy very much. He came across as arrogant, all-knowing about the Islam culture and Egypt, just because he had been there for a couple of years or so.

I had just been to Cairo myself and to be honest, I got back with mixed feelings. Good feelings about the country and the people being so hospitable, but also weird feelings because I simply could not understand a whole lot about the culture. Had Joris Luyendijk done a better job at explaining that his book really is a good one to read if you want to know more about the differences between the western world and for example the Muslim culture in Cairo I would have definitely bought and read his book(s) earlier. For some reason though I didn’t do that and I promised myself to put Cairo on my ‘places-to-visit-again-list’, just to find out more about those differences that I didn’t understand back then (and of course to enjoy the country). I wanted to do that myself, instead of having this seemingly arrogant guy learn me something about it.

Don’t worry, Cairo still is on that same list, but in the meantime I did read Joris’ first book titled Een goede man slaat soms zijn vrouw (literally translated as: ‘A good man sometimes hits (or slaps) his wife’) and I have to be honest here: this book is nice and helped in my understanding of the culture in Cairo, Egypt! Of course the title is very provocative and that’s one of the reasons I didn’t like it a lot at first. I can’t help but get the impression when I see a provocative title that the book is bad and that the title is still trying to attract readers to the book.

Only in the end does Joris explain why he chose the title. I’m not going to explain that here. It’s not that the book would be any less interesting if you would know already. It would however be silly to try to explain the reasoning of the entire book in a single blog entry. If that would have been possible, reading the book would be a waste of time and it’s not!

On the contrary, how much I disliked him on TV, Joris is a good writer, has an entertaining style and seriously makes you think. The book is not a page turner, sometimes you’ll have to work your way through a couple of pages because some passages are a bit boring, but then again, sometimes skipping one of two paragraphs is not such a big deal–the book doesn’t have a plot whereby you cannot miss a single page.

Concluding: I’m glad somebody (can’t remember who) has recommended this book to me. It made all things Cairo a lot clearer. I’m looking forward (even more) to going there again!

I didn’t know Denmark had that much of a beer culture. People looked very weird at me when I told them I had been in Copenhagen for the past four days and I hadn’t visited a beer pub yet. The immediately started pointing me in all kinds of directions to what in their opinions were the better pubs.

I also didn’t know Denmark had that much of a Christmas culture either. Christmas beer, Christmas lighting, Christmas everywhere (at least, more than in Holland that is).

I like the city (haven’t been here since I was 5 or so). Too bad it’s raining and getting dark very early. Oh well, I have three books with me, I won’t get bored

Which books am I reading now? Well, I’m just starting in Mad Dogs, from James Grady. I’ll let you know if I like it or not.

That was the recipe for the Life of Pi a book written by Yann Martel.

I’ve just finished reading it and if you haven’t read it yet, I highly recommend it. All in all a definite page turner that keeps your attention until the very last page. Using a highly unusual scenario (a 16 y/o boy gets trapped on a life vessel with a Bengal tiger, a Chimpansee, a Zebra and a Hyena), the author does a very good job at building up the tension until the end of the book, although the outcome is already known (the boy survives).

Interestingly, I came across a guy last week that had lived in Pondicherry. He could not confirm if there had ever been a zoo there.

[update - november 28] The more I think about this book, the better I like it. It has stuck all this time (well, it’s only been a month anyway, but that’s enough). I think this is going to be my 2007 favorite.

I got a comment from Ardddjjeennn a few weeks ago that every time he saw an entry on my blog that had something to do with books it was about a book that I picked up from the Schiphol Top 10. The Schiphol Top 10 of books are the most popular books sold at the airport’s book shops (psssst, such a list actually doesn’t exist, it’s just a figure of speech). You can always find the latest Dan Brown book there, the latest Nikki French and a selection of books that talk about the new techniques for effective negotiations, getting things done or making ideas stick (in other words, business-type books).

This time however I’m writing about a book that you won’t find in the Schiphol Top 10. I don’t think you’ll find this book on any airport actually. It’s a book about a boy who lost his dad in the 9/11 attacks on World Trade Center in New York. The author, Jonathan Safran Foer has managed to turn this book, about a depressed boy that lost his father into an incredibly funny, engaging page turner that makes you want to stay up all night to finish it. Unfortunately I couldn’t do that as I’m currently in the middle of a training session i Stockholm, Sweden, but I did manage to finish it while here.

After the boy has lost of father he finds a key. Then, he begins to search for the lock that the key will open and the whole thing turns into a big adventure. It’s funny and sad at the same time and combined with the fact that Jonathan is incredibly creative with words, make this book a great one to read.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer