Since this will be my last entry for some time (yes, my holiday will be very low tech) I thought I could share a few random thoughts:

The “Writing a blog post every day for a week”-experiment went rather well I thought. With the incentive to need a subject every day to fill that commitment it was easier than I thought to come up with one. Still not the easiest thing in the world for me, but easier. I do have to say that I think the quality of the posts were somewhat lower than usual, but reason for that could easily be the lack of time I had to write/edit them because of work related issues. Thing I’ve learned though is that if I want to write more often I need to come up with a process that generates ideas.

The last couple of months I’ve been drawn to Mark Sisson’s website and I like what I’m reading there. So much so that I’ve ordered his book in order to see if his advice on eating and exercise habits could be something that works for me. This may turn into some experiment I’ll write about later.

Since I’ll be out of the country for 2,5 weeks I’m bound to miss a lot. Hell, maybe us Dutchies will even get a new government (it has taken them quite some time already). But there’s no reason to feel sorry because I will be doing something I enjoy tremendously: travel a part of the world I’ve never been to and try to enjoy myself doing it as much as possible.

See you in a while.

..to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; from this day forward until death do us part.

All in all there’s nothing wrong with these, but it seems that these promises have lost their value. Because despite this spoken commitment to each other, many marriages end in divorce. So how much value has a ceremony with promises that are so easily broken?

I can understand the fiscal reasoning behind a marriage (although, when you live in my knack of the woods there are other arrangements that can be made) or when children are involved.

But the biggest gripe I have with this whole marriage thing is this: why should you need a piece of paper or huge ceremony to show someone you love them? Shouldn’t that be something they should know from your actions and how you share your life with them?

Don’t get me wrong: if people want to get married they should. By all means. I’m all for people doing the things they want to do. It’s just not something I would do, because of the above reasoning. I’ve been called unromantic, a chauvinistic male and cynic because of my stands. But the thing is that I do believe in commitment in a relationship. I believe that when you’re in a relationship with someone you love you should do your utmost to show them that. I just think you don’t need elaborate weddings to prove that.

And it won’t stop me from enjoying the wedding (and party afterwards) between two good friends of mine which I’ll attend today.

Let’s say your a musician. Before yesterday Myspace Music was the best choice. Sure, they may have lost the battle with Facebook when it comes to total users, but when playing music was your job, they were a safe bet. But with the addition of Ping by Apple, which is tightly integrated with their iTunes business, you might want to jump into that as well. When you’re a multi-national having a presence on Facebook is never a bad idea. But what do you do with your customers in Brazil (where Orkut is the largest) or the Netherlands (where Hyves has the biggest presence)?

And it’s not just the number of social network/media sites you can choose from, it’s also a matter of whether your actions lead to generating leads or sales. Just getting into social media because “everybody is doing it” is not a sound business strategy. You want to reap the benefits of your efforts. So it’s no surprise that consultancy in social media is growing as a business.

Most businesses have realized that they should have a social presence but don’t know how to go about it. And with the ever growing aditions in social media, making the right decision isn’t getting any easier.

It’s an interesting way of generating ideas. Of course his examples are more business related and is probably not something you would do for a personal blog. Unless of course your personal blog is more in relation to a personal brand you want to build. Then it’s a different matter. But when it comes to generating ideas for writing for your established readership or the type of readers you want to attract this will work like a charm. And let’s be honest, generating 6000 ideas for a blog is 20 years of daily postings.

The downside of course is that you already have to have a fair amount of readers. Not only that, they should be the type of readers that take action and are willing to fill in a survey. So having an established blog helps in this case. If you have a readership of 5 this wouldn’t be the way to go.

What I found is that the people that have exceptional blogs (like the one Darren has) have a knack of coming up with a proces that generates ideas. Combine that with their ability to write in an engaging way that pleases readers and you have a winning combination.

When packing for travel everyone has their comfort zone. I don’t mind washing some clothes during my travels and I buy my travel clothes accordingly (quick dry, non-wrinkle, light, multi-usable). But if you don’t want to do that your only choice is to take enough clothing with you to last the duration of your stay. I also don’t pack for all eventualities. Some people like to take enough with them so that no matter what, they’ll have clothing for the situation. Although I wonder if it’s possible to pack that much.

What goes for packing also goes for how you spend your holiday/travels. Some are happy going to Egypt and stay in an all-inclusive resort. I would go to Egypt to see the pyramids and other historic landmarks. Some go to Bali to lay on the beach for 2 weeks, I would travel the country. None of the possibilities are either good or bad, it’s all about what you want out of your travels.

I’ve seen both sides of the story when it comes to travel. I come from a family with a mother who’s all about packing for every situation, while I now try to pack as little as I’m comfortable with. I did the laying-at-the-beach holidays and the ones where I went exploring. And for most of my travels I had a blast.

Being comfortable in your way of travel is important. For many of us a holiday is a way of letting of steam and relax. There’s no sense in having any stress then.

To give you a bit of a background I now speak 3 languages well (my native Dutch, English and German) and a little bit of French. That knowledge has helped me on earlier travels, but since I’m now going to a part of the world where Spanish is the main language I do not have a real fallback when it comes to communicating. I looked at different courses, but the traditional ones don’t offer much because even with an increased learning speed it will take you several months to learn the language.

Then I remembered reading an article by Tim Ferriss on how he learns languages quickly. As he mentions in the article it’s not so much about mastering the language but knowing enough about it to put it to good use. So I put his methods to the test to find out if it would work for me.

Pretty soon I started to understand what was being written (Engadget Espanol helped me with that one). When it comes to actually understanding to what is said (I watched some football and basketball with Spanish commentary) it’s another matter. Maybe it’s because of the difference in phonetics or the fast speed with which they speak but I was able to understand maybe 5-10% of what was being said.

Despite that fact I’m pretty impressed with how his method worked. I’m sure that if I have time to put in a little more effort to perfecting my way of working it (which sadly will be after my holiday) I’ll be able to get the hang of it. For now I’m just happy with the way I understand some thing and I’ll just ask them to slow down a bit when they go to fast. And if all else fails: a friend who will join me is an interpreter so he can do the talking for me.

In order for this to be a bit of a challenge I’ve set up a few rules:

1. Articles have to be at least 300 words: This would stop me from writing a sort of tweet and consider it a post.
2. No writing on how hard this experiment is: So no post about “I have no inspiration today/I find it hard to write today” etc. etc. No, these posts should have a subject not related to the experiment.
3. No multi-parters: It would easier to find one subject and talk about it over a multi post spread. Nothing of the kind.

I know these are not the strictest of rules, but I think they well be quite a challenge for me as it is. If readers of this article have suggestions for other rules (open to interpretation from me of course) you’re welcome to add them in the comments.

I’m wondering how this experiment will work out. To be honest I have no idea. But I’ll soon find out.

Take Chris Brogan. He’s a guy I started following on Twitter some time ago and subscribed to his blog soon after that. He’s one of those guys that writes great content on a daily basis (sometimes multiple times as day) and he has no trouble finding inspiration to write. The opposite it seems. So how does he do that? Is he just more perceptive towards possible subjects? Does the fact that he thinks he has to write all the time force him to come up with them?

Maybe when there’s a need to write all the time you’re more open to subjects to write about.

It’s been a while since I did some experimenting (although results of the experiments are still going on) so maybe I should do a writing experiment. I don’t know how I’ll set it up exactly, but I think it could be a nice challenge. Let me get back to you on that one.

Just to give you another example, last night I met up with a few friends in Eindhoven for dinner and a movie (Salt really isn’t good btw). As is custom in many city centers there’s paid parking. So after finding a space I trotted towards the ticket machine to find that I couldn’t use coins (there went my preparation of having enough spare change in my wallet) but only our debet card system called ChipKnip (Dutch link). Well, no worries there because mine is usually loaded up with some money. So I took out the card and got a ticket. But here’s the rub: there’s a maximum charge of 6,30 euros a day. This works when using coins, but not with using the ChipKnip. This meant for me that I only had to pay 40 cents more to cover my parking time, but imagine having to park there the entire day. I quickly calculated that would set you back an extra 18 euros (Disclaimer: I haven’t checked if it’s possible to claim back your money) if you had to use a ChipKnip.

You would think that a system that is used in so many cities and is mandatory for so many people to use would have things like this covered.

It’s problems like these that makes me dread the day that our Milage Tax is introduced where a system registers the amount of kilometers you drive in your car and then taxes you accordingly. The system isn’t even build yet but is planned for implementation in 2012. Let’s just hope they have it all figured out before they start with it, because otherwise you will have some 8 million angry drivers.

I know that Nokia isn’t perceived as the leader in mobile phones any more and that their phones are a little behind when it comes to technology. But frankly: I don’t care. Their OS is stable, their build quality is excellent and it does what I want my phone to do: crisp and clear calls, messaging, occasional web browsing and tweeting, take a picture now and then, use it as an alarm and watch and navigate from A to B. And all that without a fuss. Simple. I like what they offer and although I felt a need for change every now and then (I switched to a Sony Ericsson a couple of years back and the HTC Hero last year) I always came back.

This got me thinking about other brands I’m loyal too. And it seems there are a couple. I only buy for need these days, but still there’s Geox when it comes to my shoes because of my…erhm…warm feet. Canon when it comes to my digital camera. Samsung when it comes to PC monitors. HP when it comes to printers/scanners. Bol when it comes to books. Pathe when it comes to seeing movies.

The reason for this is simple: these brands make products/create services that fill my needs. That doesn’t mean that I won’t buy any other brand when the need arises or when a better alternative comes along. But as long as that isn’t the case, these are preferred.