A bird in your hand is worth more than a thousand in the air. So they say.

Conventional wisdom says one must not quit before having landed a new job. I guess this is even more so when your legal status in a country hinges on that very job you ought not quit.

However, I’ve decided to be stupid and do the opposite. After much consultation with my wife, we’ve opted to roll the dice and follow an unsure path towards what we consider to be a better future.

Unfortunately, this decision has taken its first casualty: our life in The Netherlands will come to an end in January.

Its not easy to leave three years of your life behind, the friendships and even the culture you’ve grown to adopt a bit of. 

But we’re still young and now is the time. 

Interesting times ahead, my fellow flying birds.

@1 month ago

@7 months ago
#cat #views #catfight 

Maturity (through the absence of)!!!

Recently reviewing my TimeLine on Twitter, I have noticed that, unlike my early years of the writing on the Internet (in the typical digital playgrounds of forums, chats -IRC or otherwise-, and others) there is a significant lack of triple exclamation points or triple question marks.

This used to be a staple of my, ahem, style (?). Well that and the (still present) ellipsis (…), though at that time it was far more exaggerated in both length, rarely being contained at three, or use, abusively invading territory where a simple coma or period might due.

I wonder if this moderation is merely grammatical evolution or does it say something about the passion/exuberance that naturally gets curbed as years go by.

Whatever the reason, I do hope to find some content soon that merits some triple exclamation point (!!!). Don’t we all (???)

@7 months ago
#grammar #youth #maturity #content vs. structure 

@7 months ago

Stuck in motion

To get to work I have a two hour door-to-door commute (each way), from my apartment in the center of Utrecht to my office in the university in Breda.

I (generally) go to the office three days a week. I’ve worked in this position for a year (not counting the 4 month project before).

I’ve taken, roughly, about 5 weeks of vacation.

This means (brace yourselves… it’s back of the envelope time):

2 hours x 2 times x 3 days (a week) = 12 hours a week.

52 weeks (one year) - 5 weeks vacation = 47 weeks.

12 hours a week x 47 weeks = 564 hours of commuting this year.

In other words I have spent (approximately) over 23 days in trains and buses for work purposes. Or about 6 % of last year.

@7 months ago
#commuting #wasted time #work-life balance #back-of-the-envelope