Efteling Theme Park

Friday this week I will visit the Efteling Theme Park with my housemates from Hoogeveldt. I can not wait to see this park that everyone is talking so much about!

read more:
Efteling on Wikipedia
De Efteling homepage

Photo courtesy: wikipedia and moving-eye.be

Broken Tamron lens

I think I have solved the mystery of the low-quality photos I have been getting with my camera lately (underexposed and grainy for the most part): my standard 28-80mm Tamron lens is broken.

Last week I picked up my camera as usual, and the lens simply fell off! The plastic thread for fixing it to the camera had almost completely broken off. Either I have screwed it on rather inexpertly last time I changed lens (some time late 2004 I guess), or it must have gotten a heavy bash on the side. Either way, it no longer fits the camera, and I do not think it can be fixed.

Until I can afford a new lens, or buy a new (digital) camera anyway, I only have a 80-210mm Tamron lens. That will give a new perspective and some challenges for me when I take shots at Koninginnedag next weekend.

Never 'Work from Home'

Ever wondered what kind of company is making up those 'Work From Home'-schemes? Yesterday I saw yet another one of these adverts as a banner add on mail.com (they are not picky about their advertisements) and I once again wondered who made this thing up? It is an obvious scam, but the adds never reveal the name of the company behind this before you have contacted a sales representative and paid for the introduction package. So why are they still around? Did anyone ever make a dollar by entering this scheme?

My questions got answered by an old but excellent article (2002) by Rob Cockerham from cockeyed.com. In short: Save your money, get a real job, never respond to 'Work From Home' adds.

Home activities

Due to the continuous and unpleasant nature of my cough, which has lasted for a week now, I will try my best to stay indoors this weekend. Luckily, the excellent videoshop Cinematheek helped me to find some very good reasons to stay at home:

• Subway (1985)
  
• Straw Dogs (1971)
• Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

The unsettling story and the cunning narrative of Straw Dogs is discussed at length by Dana Knowles. The article also features some photos from the film and extensive spoilers, so you might not want to read it before you have watched the film.

Dreadful cough

Yesterday I learnt two things:

1. If your throat is irritated because you have been coughing for a week, a falafel with loads of chili dressing is not a good idea. I had a coughing fit for about five minutes before I could recommence consuming my meal - this time with lots of garlic dressing to alleviate the irritation from the chili.
   
2. Even if dancing feels good for you, dancing in a stuffed room with dry air and considerable amounts of cigarette smoke really has a way of irritating your bronchial tubes. I had to leave the dance floor during a dance because I was coughing so hard I could hardly breathe. After recovering, breathing fresh air at the entrance, I went home.

Høvringen 2006 photos

Once again I have assembled my stack of photos from the annual trip to Norway into an online gallery. Please enjoy the pictures from Høvringen, Dissen, Norway 2006.

Please note: the gallery is slow to load probably because of the large number of pictures...

Nice in Venice?

This weekend plus Monday to Wednesday I spent in Venice. "Wow, great! Nice!" you'll say. "But, " I'll say "I did'nt really see much of Venice".
I was at the annual Recomb (Research in Computational Biology) conference, and the talks of the conference were scheduled throughout every day starting at 8:30 in the morning non-stop untill 7:30 in the evening. So I only caught a glimpse of Venice on Tuesday when Lene and I skipped some talks to go for a walk in the town.

Yes, it is nice in Venice. I hope to visit properly some day.