Ice speedskating

The first goldmedal in Vancouver.

DVD

Well weekend is almost over. Saturday I saw Kill Bill volume 1 on DVD and vol. 2 at BBC. It was broadcast on the same day I bought volume 1. The man in the store said to me "you better buy volume 2 too. Don't you wanna know the end?"
"Yes, of course" I said "but 110 minutes is quite a long sit. Next week the other part."
At midnight it happened when I quickly watched BBC (the English BBC), Kill Bill vol 2 was on. These kind of coincidences happen often in my life.

I could have stick to my plan and watch part 2 next week.
The reason that I watch part 2 is also the fact that I neighbor's downstairs were loudly partying and celebrating. I could have gone for a walk. It would be a very late and long walk because between 8 pm and 1 am the noise came through the floor.

13 Years ago I wrote a story. I found it back on a 3.5 disc and made a nice Word-document of it. Today I opened a blog to publish it on the Internet. It's about a young man who had an accident. In hospital it appears that his parents were taken hostage by people from another province in my country. It's a kind of uprise among the farmers and civil population againt Government because of public expense cuts.
After fifty pages it's all a dream, a nightmare, when he wakes up. Time stood still.

What's happening in the EU is reality and those countries have to cut public spending drastically. Maybe IMF has to help the countries affected out of their problems. It makes clear that the European Central Bank is powerless. The reason why the new memberstates could enter the EU were political that´s why IMF has to monitor those countries till they´re sound and save again.

wake up-call

In 2008 I cycled to the Mediterranean coast and back. I met a former director who told me his pessimistic view on Europe. The Mediterranean countries like Italy, Greece, Spain might drag the EU-economy down because of their bad bookkeeping.

I realized what he said, the accounting principles in the south are very poor regarded to the German-Dutch principles (Dutch former Finance Minister G. Zalm, had his own rigid and defensive accounting principle) The Anglo-American principles are after the crisis too lush in my opinion

Greece and Portugal are the first countries who can give problems and could damage the EU economy. The Stock Markets are responding to that uncertainty. a 2 days plunge of almost 3%-points a day.

The Euro compared to the US Dollar is falling this time. Export can gain of it. That's good for our exporters.
Some hold on the Euro-value isn't bad of course. 1.5 USD for 1 Euro is much, almost too much.

economy

The 4th quarter of 2009 was extraordinary in terms of economic growth. More that 5% on a year basis. Will the US citizens feel the better conditions? I'm interested because some time ago I said that the situation for the ordinary man in the street won't get better as the economy show signs of recovery.

Is the economic growth a sign of recovery? The State has built up enormous debts while the supposedly -to big to fail- banks return to "normal" with bonuses for people who don't do their work very well.
I can point to Fidelity, BlackRock and others. The crisis, it ain't over yet. At least we haven't learned really from it.

Amsterdam

As weather is the talk of the Dutch, this is a video of cold Amsterdam.

Do

Weekend, groceries. Much to do... and I'm so happy with my new internet setup. So much to see and to learn. Much to do.

work

Some specific persons irritate me at work. They are not real, they play a role and irritate me because they interfere with my work. When such a person asks me a question about something concerning my work, I can react a bit annoyed.
It's time that my colleague and I go to another department. Tomorrow I might be informed with more details.
Tomorrow I can expect a report to the works council. It's about a reorganization which is past and about the coming reorg. of the 2 of us. As I am member my boss thinks I should know it first to answer questions about the report.

Of course my boss's goal is make me defending her resolution's. I cannot see how the counsil will allow her and the director to make a statement afterwards about the reorg. This is denial of the counsil and that counsil has to make steps to avoid minimizing it's role. Will be continued.

Freedom

Today Geert Wilders faced court. It's a process about freedom of speech. Mr. Wilders is a Member of Parliament. It might be a political process. In my opinion he ought to say whatever he wants to support his opinion. That includes making statements that might be offensive to others.

Naming and blaming doesn't hurt as long it isn't physical. If it goes on and on and on, hopefully there is a majority in the community who can stop it.

change

The last weeks I didn't feel very comfortable. I am a bit worried about what's going to happen. In December I visited the dentist for an ordinary check. Everything was OK but an appointment was made with a orthodontist. As a consequence of that appointment I now have to make a digital scan of my head. After that the Orthodontist will discuss the options.

I didn't feel very comfortable. So I decided to buy me a laptop. After 6 years it's time to chance things. I hope this gives me more opportunities than with my old PC. I didn't even have DVD/rom on it anymore. Several years ago it stopped.

I also face a change at work. Management thinks that my colleague and I should integrate in the finance-department. It's time for it. Not really different work, but in a more professional setting.

carcheology

I heard about the combonym carcheology; digging out your car after a snowstorm. Thanks to Caren Lissner.
No problem for me having no car. But up north, I come from, loads of snow has been fallen the last days. It's icy now, temperatures of -15 C tonight. We are hoping for the Elfstedentocht. The last one was in 1997.

New years eve

In my country it's usual to spend the evening with oliebollen and appelflappen. A picture says more than a few words.
So I wish you a happy New Year.
And keep your resolutions. I try too!

Snowy

It's winter. The north of the country can't be visited by public transport. Trains are cancelled. Buses too. In fact The Netherlands has come to a halt.
Doesn't matter on a Sunday.

Socrates

Been very busy at work. Today I did everything what was on my list. So my year at the office has almost come to an end (6 day's work).
Today was the last day working with GWS4All, Centric-software for municipalities.
That means the last moment to make some payments with this system. It also means that I saw the birth, rise and fall of software used in an organization of 5,000 men/women.
Quiting GWS4All also means that all people from the Centric-organization leave our's. Less external-staff in our business, that's what we want. Next week on my department a few people have to leave. The necessity has been questioned by some people.

Sometimes I have a feeling that managers do things to favour others. With my manager I also feel that she tries to do what's best for herself.

I hear an inner-voice calling:

examples, examples or you ought not to write this down.

Oops

GWS4ALL will be replaced with SOCRATES, software for the 4 largest municipalities in the Netherlands and also developed by them.
Hopefully the name is wisely chosen, because Centric built software which couldn't completely satisfy user-demands. Socrates can? On January 4 the new system will be operational.

Next year will be an important year:

- my work and how will it be organized;
- works council and the restructuring of some departments;
- cycling Paris-Roubaix in June;
- vacation.

I really have no resolution for next year. I hope that I will pick up my cycling again to be able to ride Paris-Roubaix.

So hopefully Twenty Ten will conditionally be a better year.

Of course twenty-ten will give us all hope on a great future. (however the Copenhagen Climate conference makes me shiver (politicians talk, leaders act))

May 2010 bring the best for you and us.

Die Mauer

In 1983 I visited Berlin on occasion of a school-trip. In fact we travelled by bus from the Dutch-German border, through the federal republic of Germany to the German Democratic Republic. In the GDR, I remember a long road paved with concrete. We, all children, didn't see any people in the gloomy and grey landscape we crossed. Arriving in West-Berlin was like arriving at an oasis after being in the desert for a while. I felt exited.

The most impressive thing was the memorial for a few people who tried to escape from East-Berlin but were shot in their attempt (`auf der flug erschossen'). It was situated on the left corner of the Reichtag facing the river Spree. When I was there I saw Vopo's (Volkspolizei) or guards in their watchtower looking over the mined and wired field to the Spree. (in fact it wasn't mined because of the noise it would make. How cynical!) And I looked at the memorial and watched the Vopo's.

Walking along the Spree to the Brandenburger Tor I had a first view of the concrete Berlin Wall. It was on the right corner behind the Reichtag facing the Spree. Some classmates touched the Wall. I didn't, reading the signs. Can you believe it; I stood there face to face with the monster called Berlin Wall and I didn't touch the Wall. I was to impressed and afraid of things what might happen when you wake up the monster. What I felt was the Cold War! But I missed a once in a life time opportunity.

Some days later we went on a trip to East-Berlin. In the Pergamonmuseum a doorman, who was in fact a woman, told that she has never been in the west, but she told that she knew a lot about Holland. When I remember the sadness in her eyes I feel the pain in my heart back in 1983, because she was prisoned in that system without being guilty. Of course they will have laughed. For me it didn't feel good. At the Fernsehturm in East Berlin we stopped also to have a view from the television and radio tower. Walking in the December cold on the Alexanderplatz I stopped to buy a warm sausage. It was so cheap and I felt such a pity for the boy who sold the food that I gave him much more than the actual price.

On our way back to West-Berlin we visited checkpoint Charlie. There I bought a poster of Solidarnosc, the Labour Rights Movement of Lech Walenza in Poland. In fact the fall of the communist dictatorship started with that movement of Lech Walenza and others in the early ninetheen eighties.

In 1992, only 9 years later, I went back to the places I went before. The memorial site for the man and woman `auf der flug erschossen' behind the Reichstag had disappeared but the Watchtower of the Vopo´s was still there. I walked to the other side of the river to the field where the watchtower was and I climbed on it. I had the same view of the Vopo´s in 1983 but I saw a complete different world. The world can really change in nine years.

Now, 20 years and one day have past since the Berlin Wall fell. Step by step this Cold War disappears, but we got to be alert for new wars like these.

The German movie "Das Leben der Anderen" is an example of life in East-Berlin.

The extreme control of the East-Germans is made clear in the plot of Das Leben der Anderen

Thoughts

A week ago I had a meeting with the Works Council. We talked about matters I can't remember immediately. That means how important it is. In fact the decisions are already made by management. Management of a Municipality controlled by politics. The Works Council can only slowdown the process. In fact that is what we did.

The Council has to agree with a proposal of management to reform some departments. Management gave us a 50 pages report which doesn't give a clear view of what the management wants. That's why the Councils chairman decided that a new brief report of 2 pages has to be sent to us. Not a 50 pages bookwork.

After one month of being part of the Works Council I can say that it's a lot of paperwork, a lot of invested hours, even time outside office hours and not much effort. The only advantage till now is that I see more the organisation as a whole.
Of course I know the organogram, but now I can fill it with real people. And they all got the same problems, like the vertical and horizontal mobility of people to other functions. Management is supposed to know that the quality of an organisation depends also the learning possibilities of the employees.

My employer uses people for it's short term benefit. The benefit should be mutual on the long term. So there should be development programs for every person and not for a few.
So there must be more possibilities to grow. One of the goals of management is that young people should take the municipality into consideration as a employer. The way it works now isn't one to think about my employer.

If management only think in short term benefits they are like the banking system and their management. Greedy people, only thinking about their own sake. But the Dutch and the British Government know what to do with their banks.