American Urinal issues

Looking at the front page of the Telegraaf (Dutch USA Today) online this morning I noticed the following picture.

source: ANP

This is the urinal of the newly opened McDonalds in Heerlen (city in the south of the Netherlands) which I think is very creative. Apparently, an American visitor was so shocked that he wrote a letter to the headquarters of McDonalds complaining about the urinal apparently not realizing that he was not in his own sexual neurotic country but in free spirited Holland. The very sad thing is that McDonalds is going to take the urinal out. My thoughts on the matter are: “stay at home if you cannot have an open mind!”.

Florida Keys

Wow, a month went by since my last post while I was planning to send friends and family a link to this blog (which still hasn't happened). It is all about execution

I'm in (not very exiting) Cincinnati, Ohio right now for PDS '06 to give a workshop on "Viewing Project Strategically: Key Project Management Choices in Software Product Development". Last weekend, however, we were in Florida at Key Largo for some nice relaxation and some awesome diving. We saw barracudas, sharks, a 400 pound grouper, turtles, eagle rays and unlimited sea fans. The most amazing creature was a ramora (shark sucker fish) that was approx. 4.5 feet.

Our next big diving trip is to Cocos Islands, Costa Rica: a lush uninhabited island 375 miles off Costa Rica's Pacific coast. The rocky pinnacles surrounding Cocos are beacons for big animals: schooling hammerheads, countless white-tip sharks, mantas, tuna and even whale sharks. We can't wait!

The smaller world

In the weekends, one of my routines is to workout, enjoy a nice pot of green tea and then read up on the news online. First the US news sites, then some Telegraaf to top it off with Dutch "screaming' headlines. The first Telegraaf headline this morning was about the Calypso cruise ship catching on fire off the coast of England. There are about 430 Dutch people on board, which reminded me that my parents were off on a short cruise this weekend; as my mom said "going nowhere". After some additional web searches, I almost know for sure that my parents are on The Calypso. Luckily nobody is hurt (at least according to the newspaper). I haven't reached them yet since they most likely didn't bring their cell phones (different generation). It did trigger the thought that nowadays with all the information readily available, the world is a small place. When I was traveling through South East Asia in the early 90s, I would maybe call home once a week if I could find a decent connection. There were barely any internet cafes and my parents would easily go without hearing from me for 2 weeks, having no clue where I was or even if I was alive.

Yesterday morning when I signed on, my friend Kathy pinged me on chat. Nothing special you would think except that she was about 10 kilometers in the air on a plane to India. Her first class cabin provided her with a wireless connection, so nowadays even in (some) airplanes you can no longer escape from the wired world. People who know me, know that I seldom go anywhere with out at least my cell phone but in general also my computer. Knowing that all lives have hardships, I always have to think back to the Nomad family I met while traveling through Tibet. Their existence is around finding new pastures for their cattle and food for their children. They have barely anything and still share their home and food with perfect strangers. I sometimes wonder "which life is less stressful"…….

A new try!

Early 2004 I decided to start a Wiki to share information with friends and family. After the initial page and setting up a photo gallery nothing more happened. Millions of execuses kept me from keeping it up to date. Today is a new try to see if a blog lowers the treshold for excuses. Life is still as hectic as always, but we all have wasted "demotivated" time periods. My objective is to use those time periods and ramble a bit on anything that might come to mind.

In addition, I want to use the blog to maintain a small community of Bay Area diving friends so we can come together now and then to blow bubbles in the cold California waters. When I figure out more about the blog capabilities, I will create a "diving area".

Oh, and for those who wonder about the blog name, that came from Rand's creative brain. Must have something to do with his perception that Dutchies have a tendency to exaggerate