Fancy a good protest?

If you're mad about the economic crisis, this handy map (created especially for the G20 summit in London this week) tells you who is responsible for the world's current problems and where their offices are located.

Click to enlarge...

Just had to share

how lovely are my parents? (and my lil nephew Jack, of course)

The Fountainhead

So the other day I decided to prove my libertarian bonafides and pick up a copy of The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. It seemed like a very imposing book (it's so famous and, of course, it's 700 pages long) but, 200 pages in, I confess to finding it very readable and very interesting.

There's something sort of odd about this book, though: it doesn't really have an "atmosphere." With many books, during the period that I'm reading them, I feel like I inhabit their world. I recently spent several days in the South African desert while reading Doris Lessing's The Grass is Singing. I stayed in an English country house in the 1930s with Evelyn Waugh's A Handful of Dust. The Fountainhead, though, doesn't really stick with me in that way when I close its pages. I sort of feel like this is deliberate on the part of the author.

I'm interested if any of you have read The Fountainhead and if you agree?

Ok, back to reading now...:)

Quote of the day

He that useth many words for the explaining any subject, doth, like the cuttle fish, hide himself for the most part in his own ink.

- John Ray

Useful information for your everyday life

How to Knit an iPod Cover With Button Clasp

link

From the sound to the stillness

It's been a crazy 1.5 days. Friday night I went to a surprise party for my colleague Bruce. I had a lot of fun. It was interesting to note that Bruce has two distinct sets of friends. The first group is his college friends and colleagues who are all clean-cut, career types like me. Then there's his 'drinking buddies' who were dishevelled-looking and congregated on the balcony smoking pot. One really stoned English bloke introduced himself to me saying, "I heard your American accent." I smiled and said "I'll take that as a compliment."

Saturday I trekked out to Rotterdam to hang out with my friend Moniek. We lunched at a nice little cafe near the Coolsingel, chatting and laughing about careers, friends, church, bosses, etc. all the things that occupy the mind of a twentysomething young professional. Then we did some shopping, with the obligatory stop at the huge second hand bookstore, and enjoyed some hot chocolate at a Starbucks-esque cafe before parting company. I confess I am rather forming an attachment to Rotterdam. I really like it as a city. It has a certain vibe.

I then took a 2-hour train ride to Kampen where my brother Nick was celebrating his 24th birthday. I ended up staying for about 3 hours (if you know me, you know that that's pretty unusual.) I got to catch up with my family, meet some of Nick's friends and play a few rounds of a very typically dutch game called Sjoelbak.

On the train ride home, I was musing that this had been one of the most enjoyable days of my new Dutch life. Unfortunately, the day was not over yet. Due to an earlier delay, I missed my last connection (from the main station in my city, to the smaller one near my house.) So I had to take a cab. The driver was talking on his cellphone in some Arabic language the whole time (hand held, which is illegal in this country.) I was pretty sure he hadn't even listened when I told him where I wanted to go, and I got increasingly concerned as we drove into a part of town I'd never in been before. And yes, at a certain point, when the amount on the meter was already very high, he hung up his phone and said, "So what was the name of your street again?" If we hadn't been in an unfamiliar neighborhood, I would have just gotten out of the cab and walked home at that point.

Tja...what can I say? I am still glad I spent the evening at my brother's party. As the Beatles once sang, "I don't care too much for money, cuz money can't buy me love."

What money can buy, however, is aspirin. And I needed a large quantity of that this morning when I woke up with a splitting headache. I stayed in bed and watched an online sermon by Mark Driscoll, a pastor from Seattle who Nick recommended. I was very touched by his sermon and maybe I'll blog about it another time. Right now, I think I may step out and catch an evening service somewhere. I need to stock up on grace before the work week starts again.

Cloak and Dagger Internship

Remember back in 2006 when I blogged about how I was "interning" with the EU in Brussels? That was an alias. I was actually spying...

EU warns of "pretty blond spies"

Quote of the day

"To write well is as difficult as being good." - Somerset Maugham

Transformers: Medieval Cathedrals in Disguise

This is the catheral tower that is visible almost anywhere in my city of Utrecht. It's quite lovely. Just don't make it mad....