(my) life on a bicycle

source: xkcd.com

Aril Brikha – Live set pa electronic festival

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That’s the bridge of doom i cross twice a day to reach the center with my bike. It links iJburg to the north of Diemen. Necio, in latin, means “i don’t know”. Did they pick that because they were short on ideas? answer here (dutch culture inside).

Database administrator humor, the ones concerned will get it :p

Will summer last a bit this year? This shot was only ten days ago, now back to clouds and rain showers.. snif. Btw the flags remind me of this.

Asio Kids – How do you feel

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I re-installed Hugin, an awesome (and free) panorama builder! I used this software for quite a long time (see my flickr) and i have to say it’s still my favorite. It automagicaly creates control points and merge the pics, all you need to do is to crop the ouput! Being in a photo mood these days, i’ll hopefully have time and inspiration to build more panos in the upcoming weeks…

Just wanted to point some parking issues going on in this city:

Do you see anyone familiar on these posters? This is an ad campain put in place by the city of Amsterdam to attract international visitors for Queen’s day. These ads will be up everywhere in the city until the party and 160.000 postcards will be distributed in pubs and bars… the city expect to see over one million folks on the streets this year…. anyone have room on a boat?

Back from Schruns in Austria, i would like to introduce you to one of the tradition taking place in the Montafon valley: burning down the Funken. This event takes place at the end of the Carnival week.

In the past there used to be several Funken put up and burned down on nearly every hamlet. Today the Funken is skillfully build by the Funken guild of Vandans. Their Funken maybe isn’t the biggest one, but it’s the only original Montafon Funken. It’s made of one-metre long pieces of wood, no nails are used and it’s build crosswise around a fir tree which is 15 to 20-metres long.

On top of the tree there is a Funken witch. It’s filled with gunpowder and it’s the highlight of the festival when it explodes with a big bang. Burning down the Funken on the one hand leads to the thaw and on the other hand, according to old traditions, burning down the witch drives out the evil. In Vandans the Funken is already build on the previous day (on Saturday) above the church and it’s closely guarded all night long so nobody is able to burn it down just for fun before the actual event.

On Saturday from 4.30 p. m. the Funkenblättle (Funken newspaper), issued by the Funken guild, is sold from door to door. In the newspaper last year’s village events are commented on in a funny way.

On Sunday at 7 p. m. the Funken is burned down during a ceremony accpomanied by the music of the Vandans Harmoniemusik and ironic carnival speeches of the Funken chancellor. Children with torches are also part of this nice traditional event.

A short overview of Trance Energy in Utrecht last saturday. You don’t leave this show only deaf, you’re also blind ^^ Video credits goes to Mona!

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