To the pacific northwest

Leaving tomorrow to the pacific northwest - for business and pleasure - hope to check out Vancouver and ski Whistler during the weekend. As an appetizer, here's a pic from our Tahoe skitrip two weeks ago: the Wave in Kirkwood...

Unearthing the magic of desmodromic valves

Have been quite busy, adjusting the desmo valves of my Monster. Many hours of labor, in a cold and dusty parking garage, but, oh the satisfaction of knowing you won't get ripped off at the dealer any longer - of learning a new skill along the way - of being excited at the thought of buying more tools - of doing something more or less useful- of going for a test ride after the job and not seeing the bike immediately fall apart - of getting a well-deserved beer afterwards. There is some risk involved of course, but you should have confidence in your work - if done with the proper amount of zen and some understanding of what is going on.

Presidential biker

A long time ago, I had the naive conviction that great artists, musicians etcetera couldn't possibly be bad or stupid in any sense - of course this turned out to be nonsense, you will find morons everywhere if you look for them (often times also if you're not looking). However, I think I'm still going to subscribe to the following statement: a windsurfer, kitesurfer and Ducati-rider can't possibly be a bad US president! Initially I seriously disliked him, but presidential candidate John Kerry seems to know how to live life and have some good fun on the way. Seeing him on a Duc would definitely beat Bill Clinton playing the saxophone (unfortunately he doesn't seem to have it anymore). But in the end I'd still go for Dean: first, I'm so looking forward to a direct debate where he meatgrinds Dubya, and overall I think he has the best chance to make a 'regime change' happen. We should know about the New Hampshire primaries soon. Note also how almost every candidate hires armies of bloggers to get his online campaign gain momentum (Dean of course being the pioneer here).

Year of the Monkey

Hopefully it won't be the year of this monkey...
Rachel cooked us some great steamed chicken to celebrate the Chinese New Year; it's good to have multicultural friends - you get many more excuses to have parties!

Afgelopen weekend was een Tahoe ski weekend (daarover later meer). Zat zonet wat te lezen in de online editie van De Standaard: failliet Sobelair, paarse strubbelingen, de belevenissen van Kim en Justine in Australie - maar wat mij vooral opviel was wat voor ongelooflijk lelijke mens Johan Weyts is! Ook straf is dat Leuven vandaag de 'destination spotlight' is op Yahoo...

Runner's high

Het begrip 'runner's high' blijkt voor een meer letterlijke interpretatie vatbaar te zijn dan ik ooit durfde vermoeden! Ik kan getuigen dat ik mij na het doen van een zware sportieve inspanning - bijvoorbeeld een serieuze klim met de mountain bike of, jawel, een eind hardlopen - inderdaad ongemeen euforisch kan voelen. Ik zou zelfs durven stellen dat de roes soms een stuk beter en intenser is dan deze opgewekt door respiratorische inname van cannabinoiden (link gestolen van metamanda).

Het Gedrocht uit Redmond slaat weer toe

Het Mike Rowe verhaal (die een bedrijfje en website runt geheten 'Mike Rowe Soft' - hebt ge'm Hugo?) is bijzonder hilarisch - zo hilarisch dat ik een hoax vermoedde. Maar warempel, het blijkt een waar verhaal te zijn - het Veelkoppig Monster uit het Noordwesten wil de 17jarige Rowe inderdaad 'suen' - wegens inbreuk op de 'trademark' wetten (en niet 'copyright' - foei, The Register) - zij het dan in een fonetische gedaante. Indien Rowe de zaak verliest, betekent dit een precedent waaraan Kiekeboe-auteur Merho ongetwijfeld ernstige nachtmerries gaat overhouden.

Dubya on Mars

Mars is - besides a planet and a snack - the god of war, so I guess it's an inevitability that it would be George W. Bush who'd become the US president wanting to make his mark on the planet and in history. A unique thing happened however: I almost entirely agreed with what he was saying.
From CNN:

"the desire to explore and understand is part of our character"
"The vision I've outlined today is a journey, not a race, and I call on other nations to join us on this journey, in the spirit of cooperation and friendship."
"Along this journey, we'll make many technological breakthroughs. We don't know yet what those breakthroughs will be, but we can be certain they'll come."
"The human thirst for knowledge ultimately cannot be satisfied by even the most vivid pictures or the most detailed measurements. We need to see and examine and touch for ourselves, and only human beings are capable of adapting to the inevitable uncertainties posed by space travel."

He's sounding a bit like Jean-Luc Picard, I know, but still, I'm a sucker for space exploration stuff, so I like to hear this.

I said I almost agreed:

"We do not know where this journey will end, yet we know this -- human beings are headed into the cosmos. Mankind is drawn to the heavens for the same reason we were once drawn into unknown lands and across the open sea. We choose to explore space because doing so improves our lives and lifts our national spirit."

This is bollocks of course; the correct answer is: "we choose to explore space because it is there".

Trip back home

Time to do some reporting on my trip to Belgium during the holidays: weatherwise, it was rather interesting: I didn't get to endure too much of the grey, rainy, dark and depressing stuff we usually get around this time of the year; instead a couple of nice, cold, snowy, blue sky days (the pic features my parents' garden on New Year's Day).



Did lots of family stuff, visiting old friends, checking out the newborn kids of old friends, cooking, having great food (why o why are US bakeries and sandwich joints so horrendously inferior to any randomly picked Belgian baker). My faithful Muskiet got me around, though she had her deal of suffering from the elements, as demonstrated on the picture.



Visited my old Oak Creek roommate Nathalie who now lives in downtown Brussels, close to the Beurs and the Archiduc bar. Wandering around at night, high on Duvel, getting 'oliebollen' on the Kerstmarkt nearby, ... it was all bliss and something I definitely miss here in CA, with the anal retentive 2am alcohol laws (I do not miss the indoor smoke clouds that welcome you in every bar and restaurant though).

Antwerpen. De Metropool... strolled along the waterfront on a very cold day, and noticed someone was climbing the tower of the Kathedraal (see picture); it turned out to be Muriel Sarkany, world champ indoor sport climbing, who was making some footage for a tv show.



A huge succes in Belgian movie theatres the past year was 'De Zaak Alzheimer', quite unusual for a Belgian film - I checked it out and it's indeed a well crafted and excellent adaptation of the Jef Geeraerts novel, which I've read many years ago - the acting in the movie was outstanding, especially the Ledda (Jan Decleir) and Vincke (Koen De Bouw) characters, though I had problems with Verstuyft (as I'd portrayed him quite differently in my mind). I also wanted to see the Tom Barman (of dEUS fame) movie 'Any way the wind blows', but there was only one show at midnight and my friends preferred to go drink beer and eat pita. Too bad, since I had a gut feeling the movie would be great; so I got the soundtrack instead and it contains some real gems: a track by Magnus, which is a new Barman project (with ao CJ Bolland) - some 80's classics - a brilliant and sinful track done parlando style by Max Berlin - intoxicating breakbeat and drum'n bass (?) by ILS and DJ Aphrodite - etc.
I guess waiting for the DVD is in order...

Of course, Los Hombres al Borde de un Ataque de Nervios convened in appropriate manner, at Hombre's place in Bierbeek - unfortunately there were some absentees, though rather decent excuses were offered (giving birth was among the more valid ones). There was also the semi-annual TeamBuilding Workshop, aka Feest van de Wrede, aka Quake LAN fest, which I did skip however, since I spent some time that day with my dad mountainbiking around Overijse and conquering the (in)famous Moskesstraat.

Spent New Year's Eve with Leuven friends; Ann prepared an excellent kangaroo stew, I contributed creme brulee and bread pudding to the event. At midnight, there were even semi-serious fireworks in the Bertem sky...

Air France didn't give me too much headaches and so I arrived well in the Bay Area again (though a one hour transit time from the TGV station at Charles De Gaulle, still having to check in and go through security, proved to be somewhat stressful).

B-day

All right, it's that day of the year again, where I'm supposed to feel a year older than yesterday - I'm with Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin here, as well as Lee Van Cleef and 'Tricky Dick' Nixon...

Taoist motorcycle wisdom...

...synthesized here in elegant one-liners. My favorite one: "Riding without leathers is like sex without a rubber. It may be fun, but, oh, the possible regrets..."

Back in business

Back in the Valley since yesterday; here's an interesting story (it was on slashdot) about a guy acting as some kind of Repo Man for the VC's in Silicon Valley...

2004!

Long time no update, I know - but I've been in Belgium the past week and didn't have much online time.
The new year took off in style here: it started snowing the past night and everything now looks beautiful and white. Still working on the new year's resolutions (one good candidate: procrastinate less!).