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It was again Stille Disco time at Tivoli Oudegracht this Friday. Obviously, I could not resist given the memories of the superb sound selection and the ecclectic mix of people I have encountered during my first visit.

For those not familiar with the concept of Stille or Silent Disco, here's the wrap-up: Ever seen or used wireless headphones? Imagine a regular club setup with all of the lights, smoke, DJ, and party people. Where is the sound? Did we miss anything? No. Examining the people more closely, everyone is wearing wireless headsets and enjoying the sound. As a visitor, YOU can select your preferred volume and if it is really sophisicated like at the first Stille Disco I visited, you can even switch between two channels and listen to two differen DJ sets. When you take off your headphones, you face a comfortable atmosphere with unobtrousive ambient lounge sound in the background. Ideal to have a conversation without yelling.

So, what awaited me this time?
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Since today, my photo gallery is back online. While it still needs to be filled with content and the format is yet not 100% satisfactory, it is enough to be considered a good start. So far, I uploaded the pictures I took during my trip to Berlin in 2003. Expect more from around here in the Netherlands soon.

In addition, I made some minor adjustments to the site design. But that's enough for today as it seems as if it is going to be a nice day and site design is better left for rainy days anyway. So, just enjoy your weekend, that's what I am about to!

So, today the season finally arrived in the Netherlands. This is the first day to really be considered summer. We started off with heavy fog here in Utrecht but in the late afternoon, we hit 28 degrees celsius with sunshine like in the mediterranean. It was amazing. Best was that I already could leave work at 3:00pm because of the overtime I had accumulated over the week this far.

While some people claim that the weather has only a negligible impact on your mood and others probably complain today that it is way too hot, I just feel alive. Leave the sweaters and jackets at home and wear your specks that you purchased a year ago but never really got to use. The time is now. If the weather stays like this, I am going to hit the beach this weekend. Probably every person in the Netherlands is going to be at the beach as well and it will be terribly crowded. Then again, I don't care. There are rays of sunlight and waves of water waiting for me.

Well, the weekend is almost there. The stage is set, let the play begin!

Finally. Today, I found a way to have floating images in articles displayed within Internet Explorer without problems. I tested it quite extensively and to be quite honest, it really was a pain to get it work properly. Essentially, I now have absolutely no floating or positioning information in the image tag specification in my CSS stylesheet and include the images in a floated box.

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Just discovered a cool instant messaging application: EasyMessage. A co-worker recommened it to me a while back and I decided to give it a try.

Here's the program in a nutshell:

- Small program size: Download is 200k, installed 570kb.
- Connects to all major networks: MSN, AOL, Yahoo!, and ICQ
- Allows multiple users for the same network at the same time
- E-mail notification for Hotmail and POP3 accounts
- Free download without obtrusive banner advertisements in the program

Overall, it's a pretty basic program. No bells and whistles such as e.g. in MSN Messenger 6.2. However, most of the time, it is everything you really need. Just a nice little application for chatting, nothing less, nothing more. If you really want to use the more advanced features of the specific networks (webcam chat, audio, and file transfers) you can always install a specific messenger application and exit EasyMessage. I figured that apart from EasyMessage, I only have MSN Messenger installed, which is more than adequate for my list of contacts and purposes.

You can download and check it out on EasyMessage.net

This article will appear online only after I have my Internet connection at home back in the hopefully not-so-distant future. For the full past four years, there was almost no time when I had no access to a broadband Internet connection. At first, I was introduced to this perfect type of Internet connection at my university. Later on, in early 2002 to be precise, I installed a DSL connection at my family’s home in order to continue with distance education at an affordable rate. When I moved to the Netherlands, my current place featured a broadband connection as well. The possibilities with such a connection, however, do not only have advantages. On one hand, such a connection is a very powerful productivity and communication tool. It allowed me to research articles, learn about website programming, stay in connection with my friends and family in Germany and around the world. On the other, I sometimes wound up spending entire evenings researching and reading on the Internet when I would have better done other things. Most of them are pretty much mundane tasks typical for a household but I also had no time lately to read books. This has changed in the last week. Also, with the absence of e-mail, I was able to reflect a bit about what I want to achieve. It can be compared to a weekend-retreat, the type that business people usually participate in. Well, it sure was cheaper to have such a retreat at my place instead of going to a far-away place in the Alps to reconsider where I am in life.


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So, today is the fifth day for me without Internet access at home. Sure we have access at work but I never find the time to even check my personal e-mail.

Actually, I have updated my blog content for quite some time now. However, as you probably have noted, the layout and color scheme was updated a bit. I'm glad I got this covered before my DSL connection at home died. Hopefully my landlord will repair it until Monday. I have so much correspondence waiting and all my drafts are on my harddrive. Thus it is impossible to bring them along here and continue working on them in the Internet cafe. Well, as usual, this has taught me a valuable lesson: I have to create an online interface for all of my site administration, personal files, and e-mail access to my real inbox. Whenever I have access again.

Other than that, quite a few things have happened in my life and it was not all bad that I did not have Internet access. After all, I had time to reflect on my present status quo and the options available to me. This can be quite revealing and I have now a much clearer picture of where I want to be. Also, my cooking makes some progress. While it took me almost an hour to cook a decent meal, it tasted much better than the prepackaged food I usually eat throughout the week.

So, over the next few weeks, I will keep you informed what I found as new direction and also where I intend to end up. It is all still vague but as we all know, the farther you look, the shallower the details get. Plus, having detailed personal strategic plans for a time period of more than a year is quite pointless. I have learned this lesson over and over again over the past years.

More to come!

Chris

At first, I realized that economic globalization would become a decisive factor in the then-coming century. Thus, I wanted to make sure that I can benefit from this development and consecutively sought an international education. This was a plainly utilitarian decision and only intended to secure myself a viable future.

When you set out for a journey, you always carry your own personality with you but as it is exposed to different places and people, it begins to change. This is why you won’t be the same person on your return.
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