Monthly Archive for March, 2010

Down to 75 feeds

Published on March 26, 2010 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , .

One of the ways I keep up on things that interest me is a daily read of my RSS-feeds (another is keeping up with the people I follow on Twitter). After discovering RSS feeds I pretty much subscribed to every blog I came upon that took my fancy. Having done that for a couple of years lead to having 200-plus feeds in my Google reader about 6 months ago which in turn lead to having to sift through hundreds of posts a day. I realized I had to put a stop to that because a) it took up way too much of my time and b) not all the information I got was valuable.

So I set myself to a limit of a total of 75 feeds.

In order to get there I didn’t want to weed out just the excess feeds all at once, but take a look at every feed and see how much value it provided me. The first hundred or so weren’t that difficult: those were the ones that were always late with news I got from other blogs or blogs that were virtual identical to others. But going down from say 120 to 75 proved to be more of a challenge. One of the last to go for instance was Engadget, a site I have been following for pretty much as long as I know there are blogs out there. Don’t get me wrong: there’s nothing wrong with Engadget which is by far the best gadget blog out there. But I’m not interested in every trinket that comes out any longer but more on the big stuff (say the Nexus One or Apple iPad of late). Those are also covered by sites like Mashable and Techcrunch, who also provide news on social media and web related business, something that isn’t covered (much) by Engadget. So Engadget had to go.

That did feel a bit like saying goodbye to an old friend though.

But all in all I’m just happy I reached my goal. There are probably still some feeds that could go, but for now I’ll just keep it the way it is. What this exercise has taught me though is being more picky when it comes to subscribing or keeping feeds. That’s a good thing because I don’t want to waste my time on things that don’t hold any value to me.

The joy of cycling to work

Published on March 20, 2010 in Uncategorized. 2 Comments Tags: .

Despite the fact that I live in a country that still has frost (sometimes) and rain (most definitely) in March, I started cycling to work after returning from my week in Lebanon. Us Dutchies have always been a cycling nation and with the roads clogging up around the city I work in and the obvious benefits of cycling to work, I thought it was a good idea. The fact that I enjoy taking a Spinning class and ride my mtb didn’t hurt either in making that decision.

And so far it has been a good experience. There has been some frosting on my coat after an early morning ride and I’ve been soaked riding back last monday, but I feel I get to work more invigorated and awake. Round trip is about 25 k (16 miles) so I do some 100 k a week in an average to fast tempo, which of course is a plus in the exercise column. And now that it’s getting a bit warmer it’s an absolute joy cycling home with the sun shining and a light breeze in your back while you look at the cars who are piling up in a traffic jam.

Depending on where you live (there are thousands of bike lanes in the Netherlands, in other countries they are non-existent, which doesn’t help the safety factor) it might be a good idea to take your bike to work. I can highly recommend it.

A new look and some changes for the blog

Published on March 12, 2010 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment Tags: , .

It’s been more than a year since changing this blog to its own hosting form and I thought it was time for a new look. So last weekend I changed to a new theme and have been doing some small tweaks during the week. The change in looks also entails some small changes about how I approach this blog.

Although I like the former minimalist look it had, I decided I wanted a bit more without going overboard. So I took some inspiration from around the web and created the new design. Being no designer whatsoever I’ll be the first to admit it’s not flawless, but I think it looks pretty decent overall. The design is a tweak of the K2 theme which is highly flexible and customizable. Being more tech curious than tech savvy it’s great to have someone to turn to with coding questions and luckily I have a great friend who’s been kind enough to let me muck about on his own server with the designing and coding and has been a true help. So Graham, once again, thank you very much for all your help and advice.

Now what about the changes. As of last weekend the lifestream has now been moved to its own page and will not be displayed as singular posts anymore. However it’s still displayed prominently on the front page in a widget which you can find on the right. Furthermore I’m still going to post at least once a week but I’m looking at ways of expanding that tally. I keep saying that I want to be a better writer, so it’s time that I do some actual writing.

I hope you enjoy the changes.

Things noticed in Lebanon

Published on March 5, 2010 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment Tags: , .

The opinions I had about Lebanon were mostly formed in my childhood with newscasts full about the raging civil war. A guy I knew went there as a peacekeeper for Unifil and came back with all kinds of horror stories. The region has always been a hotbed and just a few years ago things headed up again between Lebanon and Israel. But when 2 friends of mine went there to live for a while I decided to go and visit. Not only to see my friends, but also to see for myself what the country is like. Here are some of the things I noticed.

As it was the first time I visited the Middle East I had some predispositions about the region and Lebanon lives up to a few of them: regular power failures, chaotic traffic that seems to have no laws, not the best of roads, constant haggling about prices with vendors and taxi drivers and no “green thinking” whatsoever. But there’s also the friendliness and hospitality of the locals, the slower pace of life and the beauty of its nature. As with many countries it seems the politicians and its opponents create a unfriendly atmosphere (as is portrait on the news) while the local people are great to interact with.

Lebanon seems to be a place that want to gets back to its former glory with Beirut sometimes looking like a giant construction site. But it’s not trying to get away from its (sometimes horrid) past (the Hilton Hotel in Beirut which was completely shot in the civil war still stands untouched), preserving archaeological sites and I got the feeling people are proud to be Lebanese.

Especially in Beirut perception is everything. There’s a large difference between the haves and don’t-haves and the haves want to show it by buying big cars, flashy jewelry and designer clothes. Plastic surgery is also commonplace with women leaving the bandages for their nose jobs on even after it’s healed, just to show they can afford it.

Then there’s this thing that in my western views almost looks like modern slavery. Those who can afford it get nannies/maids from Bangladesh or the Philippines who have to take care of the household/clean/look after the kids. There seem to be agencies around Beirut where you can look in a brochure, pick the one you like and “order” one and pay them about 200 dollars a month (I’m told minimum wage is about 300, but for those women it’s a huge sum of money and for instance pays for the education of their children). I’m sure not all are treated like crap, but one time we were in a large supermarket getting some groceries for dinner and I saw this woman, maid/nanny with large cart and 2 kids in tow, who just pointed at the items and signaled the quantity. When it took the maid (this was a petite woman) some time to put 4 large 5 liter water bottles in the cart (balancing one kid on her arm no less) she definitely got an earful from her, well let’s call her employer. It was something to behold.

The countryside in Lebanon has beautiful mountains, valleys and various colors. Some of the sights are quite spectacular. Some of the historical venues in Lebanon are definitely worth seeing, especially the ruins in Baalbek.

Despite having soldiers with guns on almost every corner and having my passport checked at various check points, I felt completely safe there. Even in Baalbek, which is Hezbollah’s (now a legal political party) capital (again, some predispositions there) there was nothing to worry about. The southern part near the border with Israel can be somewhat scatchy, so make sure to check the safety advisory for the region.

All in all I had a great time there. Of course this has much to do with my friends Mark and Laura who have been the best of hosts. But Lebanon is a great place to stay with its friendly people, great atmosphere and interesting sights and sounds. It’s surely worth a visit.

For some impressions of my holiday you can also check out my Flickr photo set.