Ok guys & girls. This post is a full-blown rant aimed against Google and the annoying way they do their offline advertising! Why is it that I can’t open up *any* magazine here in Holland without this annoying piece of paper falling out of it? WTF! It’s 2011 and Google uses PAPER to spam us! I am talking about the 50 Euro credit advertising for Google Ads. Literally for months and months now I am getting annoyed with this! It is just as bad as back in the 90’s when both CompuServe ad AOL where spamming us to death by […]
What if: Steve Jobs and his iPad in Dragon’s Den
Here in Holland (and in many other countries) we have a series of reality television programmes called “Dragon’s Den“, featuring ‘wannabe’ entrepreneurs pitching their business ideas in order to secure investment finance from a panel of venture capitalists. It is quite a fun format: the contestants always (think they) have a very profitable business idea, but just lack funding (one can wonder why). So they pitch their idea to five (very) rich, successful entrepreneurs: aka the “dragons”. Before each show the contestants name an amount of money that they need to get, and the rules are that if they do not raise at […]
2011 here we come
Here we go again: yet another year has past us by and we’re all still here. Given all the problems we had in 2010 it’s a small miracle I would say. Hopefully 2011 will be the year of recovery. Recovery from the economic crisis. Recovery from the natural disasters. Recovery after a year in which Holland suddenly turned into a right-winged, prejudiced, short-sighted country bringing a frustrated nut-case to power. So, on the threshold of a new year it is good to leave all that was bad about the past year behind us and move on. So, to all my readers: a happy new […]
Dutch Skies
Yesterday I had the privilege to hop along with our CEO in a Lancair Columbia 300 airplane. Together with two fellow co-workers we made a very fun trip from Lelystad Airpoirt to Eelde (doing an instrument approach) and then flying back – on visual navigation – to Lelystad Airport via the city where I work: Purmerend. The weather was pretty nice, although we had some low clouds and overcast on the way to Eelde. However on our way back we flew towards clear skies and enjoyed the whole experience. Man, there is nothing cooler than seeing our own country from above. It’s so interesting […]
A heroes welcome
Holland may have lost the World Cup Soccer, but that’s not how the 800.000 people perceived it when they gave our National Soccer Team a heroes welcome this Tuesday. As I wrote before, the national team that won the European Soccer Cup back in 1988 received the same kind of welcome. To be honest: it gave me – and many of my fellow countrymen some closure. It also showed that we backed up our team, no matter what. And like in 1988 it also gave us some unique footage of literally hundred thousands of crazy Orange fans celebrating 🙂 As […]
National trauma number three
Normally three times is a charm, but for Holland it has become more like a curse: again we failed to win the Holy Grail of Soccer, the World Cup. After ’74, ’78, now 2010 goes into the Dutch history books as the third national soccer trauma. We all knew it was going to be a tough match against Spain – the ruling European Soccer Champions – but nothing in this world could have prepared us for this match. Until the final, the tournament went very well for Holland: our National team won 14 straight games, counting the qualifying matches and […]
Election day
Tomorrow it’s election day in Holland. I have been voting since I was 18 (legal age to vote in Holland) and this is the first time in 25 years that I will not vote for the political party that I like, but I have to vote for the most likely political coalition I want and trust to be good for Holland. What? Yeah, that was what I was thinking too. But the reality for the 2010 elections is, that coalitions need to be formed to get a majority in parliament. And this election the voters are so divided that you […]
Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated by the Orange Fever!
There is no escape. If you live in Holland you will get caught by the “Orange Fever” that currently sweeps our country. It happens every year on Queens Day, but even more so during any national or international sporting event that involves fellow Dutchmen. May it be soccer, cycling or – our national pride – skating. The phenomenon manifests itself very visually as people start wearing orange clothing, like T-shirts, hats, shawls etc.. Some people even paint their hair orange and decorate walls, rooms. Even whole houses and or the streets are adorned with orange beams. What most people do […]
Hope for Haiti telethon vs Holland Helps Haiti
Ok, what is wrong with this picture? €83 million euros equals $117 million dollars. That’s the amount of money raised in Holland with a the Holland Helps Haiti telethon this Thursday Jan. 21st. This Friday, there was a telethon in the USA (and some other countries) organized (among others) by actor “George – do good – Clooney”. The telethon was aired simultaneously on more than 25 networks, including CNN. So far that show raised… $58 million dollars… What? That must be wrong? Let me get this straight: Holland with only 17 million people, raises $117 million dollars and the US (and other countries) […]