Ylliks

Today it’s been exactly a year since I’ve joined Twitter with this tweet (courtesy of MyFirstTweet). When starting I didn’t know if and how I would be using it because I was just wondering what all the fuzz was about. But as said before, I’m using and enjoying it on an almost daily basis, whether to see what people I know are up to, as a way of getting information or broadcast some of the things I find interesting. Twitter has become a big part of my web experience and to be honest, that was not something I expected when I started.

I also realized that I’ve become interested in the company itself. I read blogs that talk about the company and try to keep up with where it’s heading. Maybe the fact that the valuation of the company is so high, without them really having a source of monetization, is part of that lure too. People seem to be trusting that Twitter is the biggest thing on the web. They do they have a point with their 100 million plus users but Facebook (which I don’t use) is even bigger and some are talking about about a Twitter vs. Facebook showdown (on a side note: the tech industry seems to love these showdowns: Microsoft vs. Linux, Apple vs. Microsoft, Google vs. Yahoo, Google vs. Apple, Facebook vs. Myspace to name just a few from recent history). How it all plays out and what the future brings is still anybodies guess, fact is though that Twitter is a very interesting company and its management has a different outlook on business than many others. Maybe that’s why it’s so interesting to me because I love people/things that are somewhat different than usual.

I still believe that I don’t “get” Twitter like some others seem to do and am pretty sure there are many ways to get more out of it that I don’t know of. But I don’t care about that to be honest since I seem to be getting out of it what I want and enjoy it without it taking too much of my time. I’m guessing there will be many Twitter anniversaries in my future.

Winning is everything. Especially in sports where the difference between being a champion or just an also-ran can be the difference between earning millions or scraps. I thought it was sprinter Dwain Chambers who said that the endorsement he had with Adidas paid out 100.000 dollars more if he placed in the top 3 during the World Championships. This has lead to people looking to get an edge on their opponents, many times taking to performance enhancing drugs.

Look at the world of sports and see how many athletes have been tainted by some form of dope scandal. Baseball has their Barry Bonds, Jose Canseco or Mark McGwire. Athletics has Marion Jones and Dwain Chambers. 11 Greek weightlifters were suspended from the 2008 Olympics. Then of course there’s the world of cycling which seems to be drenched in people who use performance enhancing drugs. Former Classics winners Rebellin and Di Luca have been caught and former Tour de France winners Riis, Ullrich and Landis have either been caught or have admitted using some kind of doping. The list goes on and on.

This not only tainted their achievements, but also takes away alot of the things athletes achieve nowadays. An example from last sunday. In the morning I saw Patrick Makau win the Rotterdam Marathon. Probably because of the rush of the win he still was able to jump around and run a sort of victory lap afterwards. In the afternoon I saw Fabian Cancellara (who I have to admit is one of my favorite riders today because of his riding style and he seems to be an all around nice guy) ride to an impressive win in Paris-Roubaix. I enjoyed both performances, but afterwards a thought crept into my head: I hope this is not because of some form of dope.

And there’s the rub. Even though both athletes have never been caught and probably compete within limits, there’s always this nagging doubt because of all the cheating that has occurred before. And no matter what sports associations say about how they are going to enforce strict rules and be more vigilant, the fact of the matter is that governing bodies will always play catch up to the violators.

It’s not that I enjoy watching sports less or see people perform to the best of their abilities. It’s just a shame that whenever an athlete does something remarkable, there’s this little voice in the back of my head that questions if it’s all fair.

Spring is the season that a lot of people are looking forward too. The sun peaks out a little more after his winter absence. You hear the birds start whistling more. Days become longer and hotter. You just get that overall feeling that people get a little happier just because spring is in the air. But when you’re like me there’s one part of spring that isn’t attractive: pollen.

Like many others out there I suffer (well, more inconvenienced for me) from hay-fever like allergies. I’m pretty fortunate to just have to take a pill and use some eye drops to take away much of the problem, but some have to take several pills or use inhalers a couple of times a day just to clear their airways. These allergies can cause a real hassle, even if it’s just for a relatively short period of time. So many aren’t really looking forward to spring.

Don’t get me wrong: I like the spring time. But trust me: when you wake up with a snuffy nose and goo in your eyes in the morning the joy of spring loses some of its luster.

I like to eat meat. Let me rephrase that: I love to eat meat. I haven’t met a piece of meat that when prepared well I won’t eat. So the decision I made to try and be a vegetarian for a week felt a little strange. It’s not that I suddenly hate the meat producing industry or refuse to eat meat. I decided to do this because I try to lower my carbon footprint (and producing meat does tax the environment quite a bit) and I was curious if there were ways of doing it without compromising my eating habits too much. So how did it go?

As for replacing the meat I have to tell you surprisingly well. All it really took was cutting the meat out of my daily eating habits and just replace it with something different (it helps if your eating habits are fairly healthy to begin with and not based on say fast food). For breakfast and lunch I would replace the meat on my sandwiches with cheese, jam or soy based meat replacements (which nowadays taste a whole lot better than the ones I tried a few years ago). For diner I just tried out a few vegetarian dishes (some I’d tried before) or again replaced the meat with soy based meat replacements.

And as stated the taste of the substitutes was surprisingly well. That didn’t take away the fact that for me the dishes would be better if it would’ve contained meat. It’s not that the spaghetti with soy based meatballs tasted bad; it’s just I think it’s better when the meatballs are really meatballs. And that’s all a matter of taste I’m sure.

It wasn’t difficult to change to an all vegetarian diet nor did it produce awful or tasteless food. It went well enough and because I also read more about the advantages of being a vegetarian and cutting down on my meat consumption, I’ve decided to join the Meatless Monday movement and from now on make my mondays meat-free. That way I’m helping to reduce my carbon footprint while I still can enjoy something I love to eat the rest of the week.