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What nobody expected, happened. The Greek beat the Tsjechs and will face the Portugese this weekend in the 2004 European Soccer cup finals. Its amazing because the Tjechs so far had won every game and the Greek never ever before even got into the quater finals, let alone the semi finals! Its going to be an interesting match for sure: the Greek who have nothing to loose and the Portugese that are organizing the tournament and are playing for their own countrymen. I don’t dare to do any predictions for this match… We’ll just have to see

A dream has ended… Portugal beat us 2-1. We didn’t even score ourselves (a Portugese player scored for us)… It was an exciting game, I was on the edge of my seat, but they were to strong for us. Portugal, who is hosting the European Soccer tournament really had the benefit of playing in their own country. Almost every decision the referee made was in the advantage of the Portugese 🙁 Oh well, back to normal again. The Portugese will face off with winner of the match between the Tsjechs and the Greek…

Wow, another barrier taken: we beat Sweden! After a breathtaking 90 minutes we still had a Mexican stand-off. So we had 30 minutes more playtime (extension). After that it was penalties. If there is one other trauma in the Dutch soccer history, its taking penalties. The last 4 times we had to do this we lost. Basically our team sucks at penalties. So everyone in Holland was holding their breath when we had to continue. But this time we we kept it cool. Cooler than ice. Our goallie, Edwin van der Sar, was undoubted the hero of the match when […]

It’s been a stormy day here in Holland. Literally: a rare summer storm sweeps across our nation today. Just as our Dutch soccer team swept the Latvians of the field: 3-0. But, as I mentioned before: this time it was not in our hands: if the Germans would win from the Tsjechs, we would loose anyway. But today the impossible became possible. Even though the Tsjechs played with, what is considered a complete B-team, they beat the Germans 2-1! It could not be closer than this. And to tell the truth, it was a nervewrecking match. As always the Germans […]

Today is “our” last chance as a soccer nation to go for the title of European soccer Champion of 2004. After a 1:1 stand-off against our German “friends”, we played a good match against the Tjechs. Even though we started with a 2:0 advantage, we managed to loose the match 2-3. Mostly due to a very questionable player change from our Dutch coach “Dick” Advocaat. So today we need to win big from Letland if we want to proceed to the quarter finals. However, if the Germans win from the Tsjechs, we still loose because we won’t have enough points […]

Haha, a collegue just send me this great Harry Potter spoof from Saturday Night Live:“Horny Potter”. You need Windows media player to see it 😉

Ok, this is NOT a joke, I repeat: this is NOT a joke! Remember Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak? Well, a professor at the University of Tokyo has created an optical camouflage system that makes anyone wearing a special reflective material seem to disappear. Here’s how: a video camera records the real-life scenery behind the subject, transmits that image to a front-mounted projector, which then displays the scene on the reflective material. It’s the darnest thing I ever have seen: It’s like the special effects you see in movies for real! I admit I thought it was a hoax or a […]

Let’s face it: Microsoft Internet Explorer is the standard browser for 98% of this world. But there are a lot of issues I have with MSIE in regards to what other browsers have to offer. For instance: I’m completely addicted to tabbed browsing (something I started to like once I tried out Opera). Also, built-in ad-blocking and pop-up blocking (also something Opera offered years ago) is a nice option. For those looking for an alternative to MSIE, look no further: just download Avant Browser, a tabbed browser with Flash Filter, Popup Stopper, Cleaner, Web Search and more. It just does […]

With the European soccer cup in full swing, some memories pop up about the famous – or should I say: infamous – World soccer cup final of 1974. Ever since WW II there has been some animosity between the Dutch and the Germans. It’s the same kind of animosity that exists between the British and the French (although their history goes farther back then ours). Back in ’74 the Dutch soccer-team definitely was the underdog of the tournament. We never got far and usually we stranded way before the semi- or quarterfinals. But that year it was different. We had […]

I just spend another weekend being totally absorbed by my computers. It all started when I wanted to upgrade my main game computer to Norton System Works 2003 and also installing Norton Internet Security Professional. Now, I have had my fair share of computer problems with Norton (if you can’t remember check the March 26 blog called Norton Goback, Go Away) and this wasn’t going to be any different. First I just tried to upgrade. This didn’t work well. Then I tried to uninstall all Norton stuff. That didn’t work well either. After going to the usual registry hell, I […]