Nanowrimo, Travis Barker remixes and more

I won't be blogging next month, because I've decided tot join Nanowrimo. The plan is to write a novel of 50.000 words, starting on November 1st, and finishing on November 30rd 23:59. It's all about setting goals for myself and even though I'm worried I won't even make it to write 5.000 words, I think it will be a wonderful experience, so why not?

I will take it serious, so I can't afford to spend energy on blogs, reading books or watching too much television.

You can follow my progress here.

To let you not completely uninspired. Watch this movie of one of the best drummers in the world: Travis Barker. Lately he's remixing a lot of hip hop songs. I'm stunned every time I see him drum. It sometimes looks like he's holding 4 sticks. It must be a sign of his incredible talent.

Last, but not least, let me show you a view from my house

Don't worry, I will be back.

Conserve (1947)

I started to read the complete works of W.F. Hermans. His first novel Conserve was somewhat unexpected. The story takes place in the U.S. and starts with the history of complete different characters, a few from the mormon community and one is a descendant of the American indians. Quite ambitious choice, but when you read on you'll know why W.F. Hermans is considered as one of the greatest writers in the modern Dutch (or even European) literature.

When I started I got the impression the story was all about critisizing the way religions act as a authority over people lifes in a quite cynical way. As I read on the story seemed to be more about individuals that are being judged (and even being hospitalized) for being different. Individuals that are questioning everything, even the purpose of their existence. In this context, considered his great style of bringing a lot of irony and absurdism to the table, the book really has a great story.

Here's a nice quote that reflects it's theme, roughly translated: "We're both lonely and weird. We both don't really know on which things we still may hope. What is it we still want? We've left almost nothing untried. Why did we try like that? We haven't told the half of all that we've done, but it's clear we've tried to get results that weren't really results."

But even though W.F. Hermans is known for revisioning all of his stories until the end of his life, some story lines start really messy and feel somehow incomplete compared to the rest of the story.

Nevertheless I can really recommend this book if you simply want to be blown away.

More about Conserve can be found here (in dutch).

Death With Interruptions (2005)

I've just read Death With Interruptions (As Intermitências Da Morte) of José Saramago. I have to say I actually wanted to read The Stone Raft, but since that book wasn't available and the story on the cover of Death With Interruptions was really intriguing I bought this one. Just be honest, who wouldn't want to read a book that started with "The next day nobody died".

This picture perfectly fits with the picture I had of Saramago when I was reading the first half of the book. It's full of really playful humour as he seriously describes the way the government, the church, insurance companies and hospitals handle the situation in a country where suddenly nobody dies.

There is a real turn in the book when the reader actually meets "death" as a character. From that moment on a bit more drama takes place.

I don't want to spoil your fun by telling the whole story, because I really enjoyed reading this book.

For more info, you can read this post.

Bye Bye, Fish Bowl

I don't have to give constant support on location to the Fish Bowl anymore. I'm thankful for the nice pictures I can share with you now.

I've been there fulltime since February. I had to start 7 o' clock on the location. It gave me a nice opportunity to shoot these pictures. Of course the low clouds made it even more special as they reflected the lights that were coming out of this fish bowl.

And one more of another greenhouse in the neighbourhood to show you how much light gets out of a greenhouse at night.

So the next weeks I'm back on the office working on the next (a much smaller) project. I probably won't make more beautiful pictures than these.

W(p)GtR

Like I tried to say in my previous post. It's a shame most scientific (or technological) books and articles are way too boring. So when I know a book, that's interesting, funny and very creative, I should dedicate a post to that book, don't I?

Here's a piece of the first chapter of "Why's (poignant) Guide To Ruby".

Pretend that you’ve opened this book (although you probably have opened this book), just to find a huge onion right in the middle crease of the book. (The manufacturer of the book has included the onion at my request.)

So you’re like, “Wow, this book comes with an onion!” (Even if you don’t particularly like onions, I’m sure you can appreciate the logistics of shipping any sort of produce discreetly inside of an alleged programming manual.)

Then you ask yourself, “Wait a minute. I thought this was a book on Ruby, the incredible new programming language from Japan. And although I can appreciate the logistics of shipping any sort of produce discreetly inside of an alleged programming manual: Why an onion? What am I supposed to do with it?”

No. Please don’t puzzle over it. You don’t need to do anything with the onion. Set the onion aside and let it do something with you.

I’ll be straight with you. I want you to cry. To weep. To whimper sweetly. This book is a poignant guide to Ruby. That means code so beautiful that tears are shed. That means gallant tales and somber truths that have you waking up the next morning in the arms of this book. Hugging it tightly to you all the day long. If necessary, fashion a makeshift hip holster for Why’s (Poignant) Guide to Ruby, so you can always have this book’s tender companionship.

You really must sob once. Or at least sniffle. And if not, then the onion will make it all happen for you.

Why's (poignant) guide to Ruby is worth mentioning, even if you don't care about Ruby programming or software at all. Besides the fact you can read it for free, you will get a little smile when you read the cartoons or the anekdotes of the writer.

I wonder if I could write like that. Most of my articles about programming would be quite boring too. That's why I avoid the topic as much as possible.

Imagination To The Utmost

"Our imagination is stretched to the utmost, not, as in fiction, to imagine things which are not really there, but just to comprehend those things which are." - Richard Feynman

What more can I say? It makes me think about dealing with real life when we find solutions to our own little problems or about how easy it is to make up things, but so hard to really describe the real world.

I knew a professor that was a huge fan of Richard Feynman, not just because he was an brilliant physicist, but more because he was a real good teacher and writer that knew how to reach out to his students en how to express himself. Of course as a young student, I was too busy having fun instead of really trying to find out more about Feynman.

But now I appreciate this quote only more as I read a lot of boring scientific articles. It's a real shame he's an exception in the scientific world.