Monthly Archives: May 2013

Thursday night – a very good cheese sandwich !

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Still in Amsterdam..good day at work today ..  siting in a different hotel tonight. this one much, much nicer.  my friend Djeevan dropped me off here .. we had a beer then he headed home.. I doidn’t feel like talking to anyone so i just headed up to my room. Luckily I found a cheese sandwich from breakfast still in my briefecase so thats what I ended up eating for dinner…   i know that sounds like a weirdway to spend my last night in one of the worlds most exciting cities.. but it was a very good  cheese sandwich !

 

My work day was busy and fulfilling.. several very productive work meetings then some great meetings with journalists.. This guy Adjit was really amazing.. a futurist writing a book on water.. He told me that Hindus are not allowed to drink recycled water.. I asked if it might be better to call it reincarnated water.. he was going to check on it !.

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Then I did a really good  roundtable..

 

and finally then a talk with almost 400 folks (!!!)IMG_0116

Here’s my host Arlette.. (she gave me salted licorice !)

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co-host PietIMG_0113

 

 

some great fellow nerds there as well.. including several folks from the local hackerspace.. IMG_0112  IMG_0109 IMG_0108 IMG_0106

 

 

This guy was so amazing.. he’s building his own 100 watt Co2 laser cutter, has made his own 3d printer and is creating a 500meter long led display (yow !) .. I hope to visit his makerspace on my next trip here. IMG_0105

Its about 1 am and I’m not even halfway through my email for the night.. .. and I have an early client meeting tomorrow morning.. Gonna be a long nigtht.. but thats ok . I like it here …

 

-nite all, nite sam

-me

ps.. two cool things to listen to..

1. my friend carolyn sent me a great NPR peice on the ‘bug in the urinal’ thing I posted yesterday.. have a listen .

2. my good freind gary just posted a song he wrote.. I really like it.. check it out !

Wednesday night – delft

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I spent the day today in the beautiful city of delft. The town synonymous with that cool blue and white tile we all know its a lovely place the city center is full of old buildings , churches and green spaces. Like many parts of the Netherlands , The town is crosscrossed with canals. Im hear talking to the folks at the university about water….. and Water is part of everyones life in the Netherlands… Theres so much i can learn here.

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Forgive this obsrrvation,but i think its fascinating: The dutch are truly ingenious…i first noticed this many years ago during one of my first visits here .. They paint small insects inside their toilets as an aid to aim (i think) how cool is that .
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Wenhadna great discussion with the folks from TU Delft at an indonesian place…
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Then they rode off into thie sunset.. No wonder everyone here is so fit !
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I love the dutch people.. They are so funny and so direct.. There' never any need to guess what they a thinking… I really like that.

Ok.. Time for sleep.. More tomorrow..

 

Night all, night sam

-me

 

Tuesday night – the end of the runway

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Greetings from the end of The runway. I'm here at a Really nondescript airport hotel somewhere near Amsterdam. Let me stress near because it's not really near at all… It's like a $50 cab ride to Amsterdam. The only restaurant within walking distance is a McDonald's. I kid you not. Staff is indifferent, the wireless sucks, there's no food anywhere and the rooms are uncomfortable… But it's my home. And I kinda like it

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I said that it was the only hotel room available because its a europa cup football game here every single hotel room in the city appears to be full. At least the ones that charge for a full night

A Lousy hotel was actually a good thing today because I got a lot of work done. I didn't talk to anyone, I only had a few calls and I just worked. I didn't eat either and since I arrived at 8 AM I had not had a bite. Since So around 8 PM I decided it was time to go out foraging.

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I took the hotel shuttle back to the airport and took a train into town. Not as bad as it sounds. I walked around Amsterdam kind of lost. It was a beautiful night, raining a little, sort of cold. But it looked so Amsterdam –ish. full of tall beautiful people everywhere speaking a language that i suspect they even don't understand

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. There were canals … there were restaurants. There were head shops… And sex shops… And lots of Turkish places. I opted only for the Turkish place. No make that two Turkish places. I had a falafel at one place at the beginning of my walk and some sort of other great vegetarian wrap at another Turkish place at the end of my walk.

 

I barely made my train home and got to the hotel just before 11. Noticing it was still a little light outside. How cool is that?

 

Now Time to sleep .. more tomorrow
Night all,night Sam

–me
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Monday evening – on my way

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Just about to board my flight to Amsterdam. Not much time to blog. Busy day today.. High ooint was dropping in on lunch at the company's new distinguished engineer event. So proud of these folks.. And so good to see so many friends in this years class !

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Oops ..boarding.. More from the netherlands

 

Nita all, nite sam

-me