You have to love the opinion

 

people knowing me well, know that i love a good debate. Below i want to share an article i used to challenge myself to find ways to make social media relevant. I love this article because it does stretch even teh firmest believers in finding the right arguments to counter the below article.

now fellow digital marketers: read and feel challenged :-)

 

I Hate Social Media<http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=lcUS22086209>
Cushing Anderson<http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=PRF000009>
November 17, 2009

uugh - I hate social media!

Social media (and many other phenomena including informal learning) is facilitating a culture where everyone's opinion is considered equally valid. Regardless of background, topic or complexity of the subject, blogger, talk show hosts and loudmouths on the bus can complain into their phone (or whatever medium) that the coach is an idiot, the government is out to get them and their kid is too smart for school and within moments their opinion can be treated as authoritative because its "published". But, as an observer of things and an analyzer of futures, I would like to put my staff of knowledge in the ground, stick my tongue out and blow "phthewt". (Though my wife would complain, I have no sense of the irony of that action.)

The Patriots lose a game against the Colts because the Patriots' coach decided that an unconventional strategy gave them a better chance to win than a more common strategy. Some/many/most of Patriot Nation blames the coach for a bad decision on the basis of the "fact" that they absolutely lost because of failure to execute that play, and yet they might not have lost if they had done something (anything) else. When presented with statistical evidence of the "odds of winning", a talk radio hosts this morning disparaged "odds" and relied on his own observations to say what works. (BTW - In that situation, the Patriots had a better than 70% chance of winning that game no matter what they did; They had a 79% chance of making the first down, and winning, and a 70% chance of punting and winning - or something like that<http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/articles/2009/11/17/belichick_had_the_numbers_on_his_side/> ) But they had a 30% chance of losing no matter what they did. So why are we spending so much time talking about this? I hate social media for giving every opinion a megaphone.

This morning the news is filled with the "controversial" recommendations by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force against routine screening mammography in women aged 40 to 49 years.  "The benefits are less and the harms are greater when screening starts in the 40s" according to the co-chair of the task force. As the husband of a woman impacted by these recommendations, I thought this was worth looking into.  According to one local TV announcer turned pundit on the TV stations' blog "Pardon me if this Doctor's daughter is more than a little skeptical about this "Government Panel.<http://cbslocalblogs.prospero.com/n/blogs/blog.aspx?nav=main&webtag=wbz_morning&entry=1032>"" The TV announcer/now commentator goes on to imply that this is a cost decision and over-stepping of government bureaucracy - "Should a Government Panel be over-ruling scores of physicians on this?" she asks.

I absolutely don't know the math on this, but I am sure context is important: With very little effort, I found the panel's recommendations<http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/uspstf/uspsbrca.htm>. The very next words following the "controversial" recommendation were: "The decision to start regular, biennial screening mammography before the age of 50 years should be an individual one and take patient context into account, including the patient's values regarding specific benefits and harms."

If a procedure hurts more than it helps, patients and their doctors should know that - and should choose based both specific circumstances and the broader "recommendations".  If insurance companies use this as an opportunity to stop reimbursements where doctors and their patients believe earlier screening is justified, the blogosphere, pundits and egomaniac analysts should complain about that - no one but a patient and her doctor should be dictating treatment options. But disparaging the research because it doesn't agree with past recommendations, or because we disagree with health care legislation in Congress, or because one can cite many examples where early detection and treatment were successful is ignoring the far more numerous cases of false positives and complications that come from misdiagnosis. Its easy to incite discord when talking about a "government panel" and "health care" in the same breadth, but a knee jerk reaction doesn't seem to be warranted in this case. Unfortunatly, an "anchor-pundit" is free to imply whatever misdeed has gotten her hackles up, claim authority because she is the daughter of a Doctor, and doubt these recommendations without reading past the first sentence of the home page. I hate social media (with the emphasis on either word) for facilitating indignation without understanding.

Also this morning, a respected colleague sent me a link on the learning styles of "digital natives"<http://www.zefrank.com/explicit/2009/11/digital_natives_complete.html> and rhetorically asked if our university model of education was passe? I read the piece, thought for a nanosecond and let my head fall noisily to my desk. [BTW digital native<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_native> is a phrase coined by Mark Prensky to describe people of a certain age - younger than me, but not necessarily kids, who have always known and used digital tools.]

I can't conclude that education as we know it is done for from this blog post - there are 76 million students (K-college) in the US - 17.6 m in college.  Our education system is designed for "mass education" and it has many problems - funding, inappropriate measurement and objectives, poor stakeholder prioritization, however its biggest problem is it has very little variation in the model. (Words are getting in the way - "very little" meaning limited distribution in the overall population amongst the wide variety of options that are available.) The digital native blog post reflects the observations of a learning environment that expresses nearly the exact opposite of the most populated form of our instructional model: no structure, low kid-count, no instructors. However, in no way does it suggest the more common model is invalid. It also is very reflective of both the environment and the wonder of a school called "Summerhill" that was opened in the 1920s. Summerhill operates<http://www.summerhillschool.co.uk/pages/basics.html> on a principle of "free school" - a decentralized network in which skills, information, and knowledge are shared without hierarchy or the institutional environment of formal schooling.

Selecting a set of 30 "young-ens" who have gotten themselves noticed for one reason or another - putting them in an environment where they are expected to interact without structure is not an experiment or a naturally evolving system - it is a clever marketing "tactic" (aka gimmick) for Deutsche Telekom to get bloggers to write about their more traditional event. The observations of one "young-en", Max, may suggest areas of investigation for improving both the "classical model" of education and possibly seeds of ideas for creations of new models. However, one observation does not a downfall indicate. I hate social media for what often is a lack of context.

On a positive note, taking observations seriously reminds me of a medical site dedicated to facilitating the exchange of observations<http://www.sermo.com/> about drugs, devices and clinical issues. These aren't presented as "facts" - but as observations that can be validated by others and ultimately investigated by researchers who will take the time to understand the issue and its complexities. When you put 110k doctors in a room and can organize the cacophony you can get some really good insight. But one expert making an observation out of context and who broadcast to the world leaves a lot to be desired.

The reason my head hit the desk so loudly is because even "experts" can fail to consider the broader context and complexities interwoven with existing processes before claiming some magnificent insight. I have recently returned from the Elliot Masie's Learning2009<http://www.learning2009.com/> event [if you time it right, you will see my picture on the right side]. On the main stage, in front of 1300 people and in reponse to a question from Elliot, an economist turned education observer claimed the "old model" of instruction will be dead in 10 years. Access to information will eliminate the need for extensive study and every one could be functionally an "expert". Nice thought, very little supporting evidence for the conclusion. Then we heard from Chesley Sullenberger - the pilot who landed the plane in the Hudson after his plane's engines failed right after takeoff. He believes that years of conscientious training, a deep passion for getting better at his profession, and tremendous effort at improving the work culture and leadership capabilities of airline pilots were each critical to the successful resolution of that mishap. He has even written a book<http://www.amazon.com/Highest-Duty-Search-Really-Matters/dp/0061924687> about it. Not an education expert, but some valuable, experience based insight worth considering. (See,  I don't mind taking advice from a lone voice, but I prefer the lone voice to have some credibility, expertise and, OK, I'll admit it, grey hair.) I hate social media permitting us to elevate opinions to authority.

Speaking as a pundit, egoist and blogger, I have to say that I hate social media. To uncover truth, trends or the "future", current observations can be valuable inputs ('"The future is already here - it is just unevenly distributed" - William Gibson<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Gibson>) but MUST be placed in the broader context of (more) complete understanding, circumstance and with consideration of the opinions and conclusion of informed people. The increasing prevalence of social media, talk radio and loudmouths on the bus, makes it too easy for ill-considered opinions to drown out more reasoned thought.

For social media to live up to its transformative potential it should

  *   Amplify the collective opinion - wisdom of crowds works.
  *   Facilitate understanding and if that leads to indignation, OK
  *   Faciliate ever increasing context - the story is endless, and the web can help us organize it
  *   Ensure we understand where the opinion comes from.

Caroline Dangson, IDC's collaboartive applications/social media analyst has reseached corporate guidance <http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?sessionId=UKQUSR331O0YQCQJAFICFFAKBEAUMIWD&containerId=220235> for participating in social media. She adds items like

  *   Support opinions with facts
  *   Add value, not noise
  *
Be transparent about who you are

I will now retire with my staff of knowledge.

a week in New York

our week was off to a good start. As usual the busy running around before you leave. It is as if almost one feels guilty going away for a week. Guilty versus the ones you leave behind and most of all towards the professional environment.

You feel like you have to apologize to colleagues and bosses to be away for a week. At the airport i came across 2 colleagues of Microsoft and i felt a bit wierd to say: i’m flying out to New York for pleasure. Not that they gave me that impression, but i felt a bit strange … but anyhow.

Apart from that my “favorite” airline is treating me like royalty. I’m seriously considering never to fly Brussels airlines again due to their repetitive disrespect and lack of customer orientation. This time it was with the frequent flyer service. Despite having booked my private flight directly with Brussels airlines they are not wanting to put the flight on my air miles since they outsourced the flight to American Airlines.

The mere fact they do this is not that serious, although i feel if since they offer the service and i booked with them, they should deliver upon their service agreement. But most annoying is the way they treat you at their customer service desk. First they make you wait because they are in a heavy “social” conversation with their colleague and do not wish to be disturbed when manning the front desk. Once you are finally able to talk to them the simple answer you get is: “sir, this is normal”. Asking a little more explanation on why it is that if you buy a ticket at Brussels airlines and use their service , you can not get points and short snappy response: sir i told you it is not possible.

So we started the trip under a nice mood :-), but we will not let this break our spirit. On the contrary we are contemplating to use the force of social media to force them to be more customer friendly …

for now: happy travels

 

Toon

a day in stockholm…

Yesterday i was at a workshop in Stockholm and had a wonderful day, had the pleasure to share a cab with old colleagues and friends from Sony Ericsson to the airport.

It was most enjoyable day, got the work done and caught up with the likes of Sophie-Kim, Mats, Magnus, Lisa, Camilla, Frederik, Anna, Cecilia ….. and of course if forgot a few.

going to Stockholm was like looking forward to seeing back the girl you fell in love with in your first grade. Full of excitement and anticipation you were picturing everything through the eyes of youngster whose hormones are troubling his view.

But once you are there you feel after 5 minutes like you are on a date with your ex-wife. Fun the first 30 minutes, but immediately you start to know why you got divorced.

I love Stockholm, i really do and I'm still in my heart a digital marketer. When doing the workshop i felt the vibes coming and really felt the excitement. I really want to thanks Mats for this opportunity and it was good to talk with people about what we should be doing and the path along which we need to go there. But i left with the knowledge that my frustration when i left the pure digital play are still there :-).

but going back to the journey home. After very nice conversation in the taxi we got to Bromma airport where i came to the conclusion my booking was not for 11th of November but for 11th of December. So an extra night in Stockholm in a very small hotel close to the airport are my reward for going back to me roots :-)

Happy travels

 

Toon

ok .. no excuses any more

 

is it purely being lazy or is it lack of energy and time. Well i guess it is about a combination of factors. But i have promised myself: i will pick up again. So what have i been doing since May. Well:

1. Riding a bike and dreaming of a next one:

 

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2. Seeing the kids grow

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3; Learning a new business

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4. Plunging myself into art-marketing.

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5. Travelling to all different places

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6. Making the most out of life

 

 

…. and loads of more things . But need to keep some stuff for later :-)

 

happy travels

 

Toon

it’s itching ….

my father in law just got back from a wonderful trip to China and India. He mainly travelled Tibet and visited places like Lhasa, Chengdu and Katmandu.

and you know what : this road has my name written all of over it …

 

…..

 

Happy travels

 

Toon

nice reminder to take the time

 

i do not need to say a lot of words to make the point for this ad : a thoughtful reminder for our children …

Happy travels

 

Toon

mud mud mud .. glorious mud …

 

life has it’s surprises and in a way boys will remain boys, they jus love playing with their toys. This week-end Michael and myself decided to go and play, not in at the beach, not in a bar or a sports hall but in the mud.

On our BMW GS bikes we decided to make a little stroll around the farmers roads in Brabant (a province in Belgium). Fully equipped with our bikes with renewed tires (for the knowledgeable ones amongst us i was fitted with Conti TKC 80 tyres because my beloved Dunlop has not yet managed to deliver knobbed tyres for the BMW, but living on hope).

with the weather being wonderfully sunny but freezing cold it already announced to be a tricky ride. The sun was defrosting the top layer of the unpaved roads we selected creating a very slippery mud on top of a stone hard frozen under layer. You can image that our bike riding looked more like ice skating than riding. Consequence of this all was: slippery slides. First one was me to go down with a broker gearshift as result and a broken ego of off road champ. But i was not alone for a long time, soon after my slide Michael went off the track into the fields.

Lifting heavy bikes like outs gave us the muscle training for at least two year. Once we found our easy on the slippery tracks we only got into problems when Michael rear brake blocked and caused a little fire :-) .. but by removing the brake we continued our journey …

But in the later afternoon we took a track to far .. with the sun having defrosted most of the track giving us a muddy clay that was as sticky as toffee pudding to our wheels it became apparent we got more and more stuck into the last track.

we had to turn back in little stages. Every 5 meters we had to get off the bike because the rear and front wheel blocked due to an excess of mud between the tyre and the front protector. After struggling for one hour Michael decided to get help after he got completely stuck and gave me a mud shower

however i refused to give up and finally managed to get myself out of the rather awaked situation, restoring my pride as off road champion :-) whilst Michael had to loose his pride to a farmer girl having to pull him out.

but today we are licking our wounds but are very proud of what we have achieved. Now we are planning for a new trip under better weather circumstances.

From my side I'm planning also my trip to Istanbul end of May, beginning of June. If anybody wants to join: more than welcome

happy travels

 

Toon

They were reading my mind

ok I admit it is not really the nicest angle for a picture, nor is it really flattering for me to present myself like this, but it is after all a thing I had to endure to make sure I can look better.

no , not plastic surgery but research to make me sleep better. I must admit I have never been the most vast sleeper in the world. Waking up a lot at night, kicking in my sleep (sorry for the ones who shared a bed with me) and above all snoring. Even that bad that I sometimes woke up myself or got out of bed with a terrible headache.

The stress of snoring is with me so high that I sometimes even refuse to go to sleep on a plane in order not to upset my fellow travelers. And if I do I can see on their faces after I wake up that they did not really like my soundtrack to the trip, nor did the flight attendants love the fact they received complaints of additional turbulence along the way.

So between Christmas and New Years i finally decided to go the “sleep clinic” to get examined and to find a solution for my uncontrolable humming and singing during my sleep.

Hardly entered the room of the hospital or they started to glue me up with all sensors to track during my sleep every single movement and every single event. I had sensors for:

• heartbeat: two on my chest. removal fear factor: high with all my chest hair
• Eye motion: two; one under the eye; one above … machine went tilt when i started winking at the nurses in the evening
• Leg motion : two , one for each. For the record: having scars of achilles is not a nice spot to have the sensor glued to
• Brain activity: two on the head and two on the face, wonder if they tracked something during the night
• Nose breathing: microphone and oxigen meter below nose
• Lung function: straps around chest and belly
• blood: needle in finger with tape

all of this with wires to a central box they hang on your chest, ready to proof you have trouble sleeping and snor like a bear. The evening came and after having read some articles done some mail and looked at the tele .. time to sleep …

one little problem: with all the sensors, tapes and wires sleeping almost becomes impossible .. so let’s wait and see for the result.

Happy travels

 

Toon

hello again

well, agree i admit: it has been a long time, but you know, just did not feel like it anymore for one big reason: the internet is overrated. I went into an online identity crisis.

I felt the whole world was only a click away, in my mind i travelled the world clicking away on Live Earth, browsing new destination on Lonely Planet or dreaming away on the pictures on Flickr of people who actually went to the place i’m dreaming of. Or just even bringing up memories of the gang in Amsterdam, feeling the vibrant buzz again of a team of digital freaks changing the world about almost 10 years now … meeting up with friends in a virtual space, not even dressing up for the occasion.

The texts we create, the mails we write , the images we see; they all become faster, shorter , snappier all on the soundtrack of clicks and sounds of phones and computers …

Not that i think or dream that we will become intelligent joysticks or that we get born with USB slots for downloading all information and projecting the environment we would like to be in; but still: i just had enough for a couple of months: i gave priority to walking over sitting.

My leg is back alright and my arms are doing fine; so i walk to the newsstand from time to time and buy myself a newspaper and use my arms to fold it open and start reading it over a cup of coffee. My legs bring me to the bistro where i meet up with friends for the coffe we are so used of having on saturday market day ….

I even took the time to go and see some art this week-end with my partner in real life , without exploring it first on the web to make sure we really just went without prior visions.

although we still do not have enough time to do everything, i feel i can enjoy some little things more because the bits and bytes are not giving me the false sense of proximity … a proximity i prefer to be physically close so i can touch, feel and hear the breathing …

So for 2009 my slogan is going to be : BALANCE the walking and the sitting with for me a superiority of walking over sitting …

Happy travels in 2009

 

Toon and family

the rollercoaster

 

well it has been a bit of a rollercoaster lately in my life. When people told me that life begins at 40 i thought you started to be more relaxed, calmer, more thinking about the things you want to do and not want to .. in other words: you are getting old.

having had the party now alredy more than a month ago my life has been put upside down and back again . Not really stable yet, but we are working on it and enjoying every minute of the hectic times i’m living in.

i feel again that i’m alive and am so happy …. but more is to come soon … still want to savour the pleasure in a little cocoon :-)

happy travels

 

Toon

It's my party

and I cry if I want to .... Not that I feel suddenly sad and depressed, but one can also cry out of joy, or when emotions are coming up to strong. And this is a period of very strong emotions for me.  It's a fact , last Friday August 22nd around 16h00 I have finished my 40th year on this planet. Officially my life is spanning over 4 decades now , so time to celebrate with friends.

I love bringing people together in a relaxed atmosphere, letting them enjoy the last week-end of summer. what I expected to be an easy ride turned out to be a little rollercoaster for me. I was a bit overwhelmed by the amount of people that showed up and the warmth I felt from people’s wishes and attention.

From my son and daughter coming to sit on my lap and wrapping their arms around me whilst I was being prosaic about how big and brave the are becoming to friends and making me wish I just had more hours in a day and days in a week to see them grow ; over a gentle pad on the back from my father in which lay a feeling of pride that I have become who I am and a feeling of forgotten despair of a unmanageable rebel to the hug of my mother who whispered in my ears: you look happy with the undertone of I love you.

Or the way my brother and 3 sisters looked at me amongst the busy group of people forgiven me that I do not have enough time for them again but giving me the nod of: good to see you happy.

Or the way Emmanuel my old school buddy was bringing back the memory of old days as if it was only yesterday we were there dancing in front of the huge from ceiling to floor windows on the 5th floor in the gym showers at school, give the ladies of the elderly home across the street an glimpse of the Chippendales to come.

Or the way people looked back at the time they worked or studied together and put it into the perspective of today. Or the way Piet and I already made plans for a next dinner of which we know it will be just fine .... and forget to mention my new glasses, the memory of holidays with friends or even the phone calls and sms'es I received ... (Mats I am coming over before the end of the year) ....

Or the way we could slowly and in the most wonderful company could close down the party .... It just makes you a little bit wee.

And now all is quiet again, tomorrow is another day . Or maybe not, because I’m officially in a new age group.

I'm in the age group now that can try to fit again in the clothes his father was wearing when he was born because they are being considered as style icons.

I'm at an age that people have tendency to enlarge their rear view mirror and shield more and more the view that lies ahead of them.

I'm at the age that a scale becomes like a distant friend you never visit because you do not want to talk about the old times.

I'm at the age that it is just lovely to behave like Staler and Waldorf with your even older friend on the terrace of our favorite bar. 

I'm at the age that I still try to fit in fashionable clothes and glasses , but the love handles are giving me away.

I’m at the age I am, nothing more nothing less; but above all grateful for all the moments I lived with all of you and full of joy for what we are today, looking forward to tomorrow because I know you will all be there ...

Happy travels

 

Toon

It's the end of the world as we know it

People, who are close to me, or even in this case distant, know that I have been having a very international life. Flying in and out European and global cities, being the sophisticated modern globetrotter, considering a plane to be the today’s bus or train.

But nevertheless I have always been very fond of returning home to Belgium. Is there something special about this country? Of course not, we are only 11 million people, but we speak 3 different languages, fight about who is superior above the other and are incapable of forming a government. At first sight it would be even horrible to live here. But for me it is just home, or let me re-phrase. It is more than just a country or a place: it's my home.

Especially Mechelen is my lovely city which feels more like a mix between a Tuscany village with a Provence mentality and the London weather :-).

And that atmosphere is always filling me with joy the moment that I get out of a plane in Brussels airport. Back to normality, back to things I love, back to the real flavor, the taste of the best beers in the world, the origin of French cuisine, ..... A moment that always brought the best out in me.

But today during my glorious homecoming my dreams have been shattered, my illusion of perfection and sweet harmony with my environment is blown to pieces.

I felt like that last Saturday morning when I was waking up after the Friday night celebrating my birthday with a night full of dark rum on the rocks. It felt as if the hammer that was with a constant rhythm of a swatch watch was again beating in my head, but a hammer that had gained force by training one week to show the world that Belgium is still a nation worthy of a gold medal..

I felt like that time that I took a girl I fancied to dinner in an expensive restaurant and we were eating a brilliant piece of Pre-salted rack of lamb on a bed of gratinated courgets , surrounded by tempura courgette flowers when she suddenly asked the waiter: can I have some ketchup.

I felt like ... well I felt so devastated and disillusioned; obscure forces have invaded my paradise and are sweeping the floor with genuine and authentic atmospheres.  STARBUCKS has entered Belgium.

It already starts when you go in, the so inviting sofa’s that my American colleague describes as the only place he can get away from it all, look to me like the home smudges and stains having a party on the pants that are squeezing in. At the counter awaits my barista with a professional smile, trying to convince you that she is just coming from the coffee burning place where she handpicked the nice roasted beans, evoking the image that when she was 6 her grandfather Salvatore learnt her the secrets of the man handled espresso machine. Reality is, she is a Chinese student trying to make a living to pay for her studies at the University of Brussels who far more enjoys a jasmine tea and in a sense cannot stand the smell of coffee. Even that bad that at night when she comes home her boyfriend forces her to undress in the basement and put her clothes in the washer right away.

And than the choice, the paradox of choice. Do not ask for a coffee, but you should ask for a dry single shot soya latte with cinnamon topping and a sprinkle of vanilla or in other words: how to ruin a decent cup of coffee in 1 sec. The choice my god , I wished there would come and end to the endless combinations they are making and with every ingredient they add the take you further away from the essence of what coffee was meant to be. They take you with one slap in the face from the corner coffee shop in Pienza where Salvatore behind the counter was grinding the beans for the double espresso that would make my eyes light up by the first smell of the sent of heavenly black gold. With in the background the quarrelling butcher and baker shouting at each other : que volo. Let’s get the rules here right: there are only two ingredients in a decent coffee bar: coffee and milk, use both in any proportions you want and that’s where the story ends: ristretto, espresso, machiatto, capuccino, latte. Basta.

My homecomings are spoilt by the sight of the mass customerization of individuality and fake sense of authenticity. I never liked Starbucks, I even hated them when i found out that they had like a thief in the night nested themselves in the courtyard of the forbidden city in Beijing. I dislike them because they are the icon to me of loss of identity and false pretence.

This is a call for everybody of you to restore a bit of authenticity into your life. Go shopping to those neighbourhood stores like i have in my street. There is a cheesemaker who is the 4^th generation , he can talk for hours about the cheese that would best fit the meal that you are preparing. He smiles when you enter and comes to you to let you taste a new cheese of which he believes you will love it. And than the bakery, it has been going from son to son and still today the bread tastes so wonderfully uncomplicated natural. She remembers the names of my kids and wishes even me happy birthday. And the grocery shop owner who holds back the last bottle of that special beer I love so much because he know that i come to pick it up almost every two weeks.

Ask yourself the question: every time you go into that Starbucks near your office or on your way to work. How many times did they greet you by your name and knew what you needed. How many times did they put up that song for you in the bar when they saw you were down r cheerful ...... it all happens just around the corner in those little villages within the cities, you just have to look for them ....

With Starbucks putting a stain on my homecomings i feel like It’s the end of my world as i know it and contrary to what REM was singing and i don’t feel fine with it.

Happy travels to just around the corner

Toon

taking the jump

as you all know maybe we have a landmark in belgium: the atomium. the remains of the Expo 58 , and now 50 years later there is a big party ongoing.

It is by far a nice structure to go and watch and who ever would come to the idea to make an atomium to the scale of this.

The whole construction is over a 100 meters high and could remind people of the Eifel tower. Although i always say: at least we took a form and shape that meant something :-). for more info look at http://www.atomium.be/

so that was 1958, but today the world needs more thrills .. and we got them. Riens and myself went to visit the Atomium just for fun as we do on a regular occassion, but now we really needed to get our minds of everything that surrounded us and went for a motorbike to brussels.

Arrived there we saw ropes hanging from the highest sphere of the atomium for a death ride. At first we hesitated and decided it was too stupid to fall for such a thing ... but time worked on us and did its best: de decided to take the jump.

Step 1: climbing up the Atomium is very nice. The elevator takes you quickly to the highest sphere, but we still had to climb through stairs and ladders to the highest point. You put your head out of the round opening in the highest ball and you go : wwwwaaaaaaauuuuuuww, this is high and also the feeling: why am i doing this :-)

Step 2: climbing out: ok: i admit i was scared and asked rapidly to get hooked up to the secured. You can i guess see on my face that i was not really confident in the operation;

Step 3: getting ready. Now securely fastened to the life ropes; Riens was the first to be ready, i followed and got next to him to take the leap of faith.

Step 4: here you go. As you can see the top sphere was just like a giant slide. The first 5 to 10 meters you just slide of the top sphere and suddenly you loose contact with the sphere and dive to the end point. Fear one: passing the sphere in front of us, felt like i was going to crash into it (maybe a warning that i have to loose weight). Fear two : once passed the second sphere it is still a long way down and everything looks so small ...

Step 5: arrive and start shaking on your legs and telling yourself: you really need to grow up now you are almost turning 40. but ont he other hand tell yourself: how many people can say that they did a death ride with their son from the Atomium.

Happy travels

Toon

Holiday is over

... a bit strange feeling that the holiday is over .... and also a rather hard one ...

but let me recap the events for all of you. We left for the south of france on Friday August 1st and spent a nice period in a wonderful villa in the south of france.

they finally found out the truth about me: (for the non french speakers, the plate says: "that one is not beautiful, but he is gentle and beautiful on the inside" written in very childlike french

 

The food was wonderful, both Jan (we went with friends of ours) and i made the best out of our cooking skills and gained at least 4 kilo's

but most of all: we were very lazy. Recuperating from a hectic 2008 so far ()

and the kids enjoyed it as much as we did

  

Our plan for next year: make it two weeks and invite even more people, because being around people you love makes it all so much more enjoyable.

Happy travels

 

Toon

2 out of 3 : just perfect

just wanted to let you know that this week-end i have a score of 2 out of 3 on my "most wanted, desired, wanted, loved, admired, cared for, ...." list  ..

1. The kids are back in town. After having travelled a bit too much lately they finally made it to my place, staying with me till August 12th.

2. My bike

i finally made it, first trip on my bike since 4 months. My god finally the feeling of wind in my face, the gentle speed, the balance, ... i just loved it so much . It may seem little to all of you, for me it was just heaven ....

all the dreams of travelling to Beijing, the adventure to Petra, going along the coast to Bangkok .. all things that were spinning through my head .... if only you could feel the dizzyness it brings ... better than any drug ...

on the number 3 i will not comment, just that it is sometimes so hard not being able to share with someone you love ...

anyhow: happy travels

 

Toon

life lesson

well, we are about to start the holiday here. Nothing really planned, just an option to go with friends to the South of France or go to the Wadden Islands in the north of Holland ... but nothing set yet. A bit the general tenure of today: nothing planned, just go with the flow.

on the life lessons: well one just has to learn the hard way. i was hoping that experience and dedication would be enough to push trough some opportunities, but seems that this is not the case. More and more it is important to have the connections to get a job instead of experience. Had a really interesting comment on that when i was discussing the interview process with one of my colleagues for a role in our team: the areas asked to probe seemed more experience and knowledge related instead of competency

Maybe that is the reason why some business fail, they put people without experience but with the right attitude. For me it is too easy to do this and opens up for too many mistakes. But maybe it is just me ...

Happy Travels

 

Toon

what a week

well, there is some stress relief after last week. Riens and Lauran passed the exams with excellent results.

It was so nice to set next to Lauran when were have the meeting with her prinicipal and hear him saying that she is a very lovely person always willing to help and not afraid to speak up when things go wrong ...

and of course seeing riens performing in hte schoolshow for the lastyears of primary school ... he rocks

and than this week-end: some excellent MotoGP, but above all seeing Brenda and Sandy : feels so good to see people and just talk abot life over a glass or two (or more) in the sunshine ... can't wait to go to NZ with the kids now ..

and now : back to reality: a flight to Moscow and now here in a gray rainy environment .. but we still shine of all the experiences of last week ..

happy travels

 

Toon

Love your own city

it was a wonderful sunday in Mechelen and the kids and I had a wonderful time.

Saturday the usual market day with a nice terrace in the sun with friends, eating our pancacke, drinking our coffee. Finishing up the grocery shopping at the market and eating a summerish lunch at home.

Sunday after the kids went to scouts and so on i took the bike - oh yes baby, i'm allowed to go around on the bike, even with my brace - and strolled in the city ...

maybe nostalgic, but admit it just looks wonderful. One of the things i really enjoyed of being home so long: enjoying the city in all its beauty.

  

Happy travels

 

Toon

I'll blame it on ...

the sun would be too easy and totally not fair now she is always there and makes the day a whole lot nicer . So on what can i blame it that i have not writen on my blog for a while ...

nothing happend ? come on . we had the gathering of the old gang at Dell computer, which started slowly with a BBQ, but ended as usual with a late night . OK admitting, having a party on crutches is not ideal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It brought back some really nice memories of working with a smaal team and really "work hard - play hard" .

Of course all the stories were hitting the tables, from the days when we were taking out the fire hoose to the Friday evening contest of bag running; roller blading; rope pulling and beer drinking ... or the stories around the adoption of lyrics of a song to the work situation ..

all of this was nicely balanced off against a genuine interest in what people are up to today, what their little worries are and great smiles .. what their happiness is and sorrow in some cases ...

and above all what struck me : they haven't changed that much. Apart from the rough edges being taken away

so what is the next thing we can blame it on: work ? maybe it is has been very busy with the next fiscal year at Microsoft and a lot of changes for our teams, but you know me, i kind of like the thrills and excitements of changes. We even went to Krakow for an offsite meeting.

Maybe i could blame on the time ? yes of course that is a very reasonable thing to do since time is passing by so fast i had to realize that my daughter has bought her first pair of heels. My god i had to admit: it was hard realizing she and he are getting into a new phase in their lives

so last try: let's blame it on the leg. In a way maybe, because i'm really getting sick of it. Getting around on crutches is not the ideal way to move around and the travelling i had to do is just not easy.

but all in all, i think i just was running to fast and not taking in enough what has happened the last six months with me personally .... So summer is here and feel i will take some time for myself ....

happy travels

 

Toon

it runs in the family ...

good and bad news for this week. after my excursion to paris i went to the doctors and got the good news that everything is fine and that i will be without crutches in about 4 to 5 weeks. i can start putting pressure on the leg . in the first week he said no more than 10 kilo's and than increase till you can support your full body weight. my god i hope that he does not have in mind 10 kilo's more a week, this would mean a freakin x weeks ... :-) ... so far the good news

the bad news: it runs in the family. Riens my son was at the boy scouts this sunday, building a huge raft for the complete group, about 20 of them. you can imagine that a raft of that size needs to be rather big ... well he managed to get his leg under it when they were putting it to water : result: 3 rather big and deep cuts in his lower leg. because it happened at the bank of a river that was full of stones and rocks, combined with the deepnes of the cuts he had to go under narcosis so they could mend everything perfectly ... i felt so much pain when i saw him and before he left for the operation room ...

but he's back now and doing fine, a bit dizzy of the operation (i will now know how he looks when he is drunk the first time), but for the rest all ok ... so now the men of the family are cripple ... we will hold each other up rigth since for me it is my right leg, for him it is his left ...

what a family , anyhow: happy travels

Toon