Interesting link: Compatibility of Weblogs and ISSN

For those people who might (or might not) read my blog (and any other blog for that matter), and who wonder what a weblog/blog is:

What is a Weblog?

A Weblog is defined by Blood (2002) as “a format: a Web page with new entries placed at the top, updated frequently.”

In practice, we find two broad categories:

links-and-commentary
The original Weblog format. The author uses the basic function of the Web, the hyperlink, to annotate another page with his or her original writing

diaristic
Also known as journals. More autobiographical in form; memoirs

Many Weblogs combine the two forms. Note that it is exceedingly difficult to find Weblogs that merely link and do not also comment. The vast preponderance of Weblogs are set up specifically to give voice to open-ended quantities of original content, usually writing.

(from Compatibility of Weblogs and ISSN)

possible interesting link: Pulling FBI's Nose Out of Your Books

"Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it,
unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense."

The Great Buddha couldn't have said it any better.

When a colleague at work gave me the link to truthout.org I wasn't sure what to expect. According to him this website showed the 'real' news of the world, and the not the news the papers and tv-channels would have us believe.
An amazing website with the harsh cold truth of our world as it is today.

Are we all going crazy over supposed terrorist movements that we (read: the governments of some/most 'western/civilised' countries) should be guarded against the reading material out there?

When I was growing up, my parents would let me read anything I wanted, and if I didn't understand some things, they would do their best to explain them. Whether it was about sex, politics or history. I've always found that reading about something, possibly even from a point of view not my own, I was another step closer to understanding.

I read because I love reading

I read because it helps me try to understand people

I read because of the escape

and I read because it increases my knowledge.

Not very unusual for someone who's blog is called Mind of Knowledge.

Reading about a certain topic (alright, let's call it the Islam* because that is what people seem to fear at the moment) will only increase your understanding of the followers of that topic.

That doesn't mean you agree with their ideas (another link: Christianity*), but it does mean you have taken the effort to try to come to grips with people's points of view.

Tracking the 'reading-habbits' of people, which the USA is doing right now - under the guise of a 'law', will not help you stop terrorism. It will only add fear where it is not supposed to grow.
Not to mention the fact that you take people's universal rights away.

I'm mad.

Mad at the world we have created for ourselves.

And mad at the people in power who make it worse, instead of making it better.

* link is for the Encyclopeadia of Islam and the Encyclopeadia of Christianity - amazing works of academic expertise which is published by Academic Publishers Brill, where I happen to work

more on McCarthyism
(since I haven't looked at the site in great detail, I do not know their point of view, and by posting this link, I do not automatically agree with them -- just more info)

do I give into temptation? do I want to make an entry today, when it's 03.03.03?

I guess I do!

Dates have always fascinated me, especially when I realized that on February 20, 2000 I'd be 25 at 4.44am - how numerologically cool is that?
Of course, last year my birthday had an awesome moment too:
20.02.2002 at 20:02
this trick only works if you live in a country where you put the day before the month. Since this was the last occurrence of a synchronisation of both time and date, I actually checked my alarm clock (one of those fancy-schmanzy atom-clock controlled machines) to know exactly when that moment was. Luckily the others didn't mind me doing that ;o)

This year, as wilwheatondotnet so aptly put it, is celebrating its second coolest date so far.
01.02.03 (that's January First for me, February Second for the rest of the world) was fairly awesome too.
It kinda makes you wonder, if, with all these numerological seemingly interested dates, something big is going to happen this year.

Whatever that is, I hope it will make us happy.
After all, isn't that what we all strive to achieve? Happiness?

On this note ...

and to know I used to religiously pick up their in-store magazines!

Royal Ahold Confirms U.S. Inquiries Into Its Accounting (you need to subscribe to the NY Times online version for this article)

It's been a while since I was a loyal customer of Ahold's Albert Heijn stores -- mainly because their fresh vegetable selection didn't appeal to me (they still have the best peanut butter in the world!), now however with the big scandal in the US, you can't help but compare the financial confuzzlement with Enron.

l-rs.org has made a great new logo for Ahold, just for the occassion.

I guess this makes me a Digros fan even more!

<?RANT

right -- as you must have noticed, I like (dare I even say 'love') doing quizzes.

and, as you know, once you filled out a quiz, you get a nice image and the chance to copy&paste the code into your own page.

wonderful, don't you think? such thought went into making the quiz, and now the creator also offers you the chance to show off your results by providing you with a piece of HTML-coding --- all ready to use.

then why in frell's name, have I spent the better part of today checking and rechecking my frelling stylesheet, only to discover the creator of the HTML-coding for my 'myth result test' left out one teeny-tiny-tag!?!?

o no -- HTML is so simple -- all you have to do is type the opening tags and END them with a closing tag --- easy peasy right?

then frelling why would someone forget to close a <font size=1> tag??

anyways -- my apologies for the fact my page must have been heard on some people's eyes -- all is back to normal now, I think.

I did change the font from Verdana to Trebuchet MS --- if you don't have the latter, you'll see my page in same old Verdana --- except this time it's more suitable for the hard of hearing.

till next time .... I still want to change the layout of the SETI@home page -- I might even drag some coding into this site --- just to keep you up to date on life in outerspace.

?>

Half a bee, philosophically, must ipso facto half not be.
But half the bee has got to be, vis-a-vis its entity. See?
But can a bee be said to be or not to be an entire bee,
When half the bee is not a bee, due to some ancient injury?

Who in her right mind defrosts her fridge when it's -8 °C??

Yesterday our landlord's mother-in-law paid our house a visit (together with a cleaning crew it seemed), and she left a note telling me to defrost my fridge, or else ...

Now I totally agree with her, it's just that this might be the first time in a looooooooong while that my fridge is devoid of anything perishable.

The reason for this little in-home-Antartica is a missing thingy-ma-bob for the door to properly close, so I have a chunk the size of a ancient compaq pressario waiting to melt.

For my housemate's sake, I hope it melts quickly ... and in such a way that I'm able to clean it up before it hits the ground.

Woman against iceberg! it's a modern day Titanic!

Dvorak International

*typing this entry using the dvorak layout*

it's different .... very different
I've never taken typing lessons and I can't consciously remember learning to type.
Now however, it feels as if it's going to take me all night just writing down what I want to say. According to various sources Dvorak is The Way to type, because where QWERTY was designed back when you needed all your strength just to press down one key, Dvorak was designed with our modern (and fast) computers in mind.

Thanks to my friend Michiel I became interested in Dvorak.

(small thought - I really shouldn't have edited this piece -- the typing mistakes were numerous)

Ever since I can remember I have had problems with my right wrist (somehow I'm missing the end of a bone) and I'm trying out Dvorak to see if it helps alleviate the pain.

If you want to try out Dvorak too, here's some tips:
- Hooleon Keyboard Stickers
- ABCD: A Basic Course in Dvorak
- Installing Dvorak by Don Reed (Linux)
- Installing all other OS

Alweer een dag aan het raam gestaan;
Een bloempje open - en dicht zien gaan.
Een bloempje open -, een bloempje weer dicht;
Een dag zo vol indrukken vergeet men niet licht.
~ Levi Weemoedt

(read to me by my sister Marianne - who insisted I buy the pillow case with this poem)

For the first time in a very long time, I shocked myself today.

As I was browsing the web, I came across a mention of the 'Endless' (see the quiz in the previous post), and I looked up the Sandman books on amazon.com.
I read through the list there, and I decided to see which book I had again (you see, I keep forgetting the title - not very smart of me, don't you think?). Now I know, I have 'Brief Lives' (Sandman book 7).

Anxious to read it again, I walked over to the wall lined with my bookcase.

At first, I looked in my RPG/Comic book section (I'll insert a pic of my wall at a later date, just remember it's at the top right hand corner, right above my Star Trek book collection), but it wasn't there!
Further perusal of my shelves didn't produce it either.

A couple of weeks ago I decided to rearrange the furniture in my room, and I have a feeling that if I really put my mind to it, I'll find my book, but right now I'm too appalled and shocked that I'm rooted to the spot.

Maybe this is a sign to tell me I should reorganize my books - it's not as if anyone understands the system - not even me!

Thanks to Caffey, Jemima and Seema, I've just spent about 30 minutes 'sloganizing' myself. Pray tell, why would I do this?

Sloganize Yourself - try is out yourself.

Here's a selection of mine:

It's the Bright One, it's the Right One, that's Leonieke.

We Do Leonieke Right.

Happiness is a Cigar Called Leonieke.

I Like the Leonieke in You.

Thank Leonieke It's Friday.

What Can Leonieke Do For You?

Snap! Crackle! Leonieke!

Moving at the Speed of Leonieke.

You've Got Questions. We've Got Leonieke.

*small sigh* it's addictive!