I, Object

Amber Fluid

2009-09-06T09:26:00.001+02:00

Amber Fluid
Originally uploaded by supercooldave

I've now been in Belgium for just over a year and I must say that I find it very agreeable. I've made some good friends, fit well into the new work environment and have found some good students. I switched from ride a road bike to a mountain bike (which I ride fairly often on the road). In contrast to the places I'd lived in in The Netherlands, I found a good sized apartment (still renting) and populated it with furniture to suit my tastes so that it feels more permanent. And the beer is wonderful.

100km #7

2008-08-17T16:31:00.002+02:00

This time I went riding with Dennis and his evil friend Super Dennis. The plan was to ride 120km, extending our previous ride with even more hills. I was keen, as always, to do hills, so I prepared myself as usually by riding on the two days before, drinking a beer and some schnaps, and smoking a cigar on the night before, and eating too much breakfast too close to the ride. (I'm starting the think that the Bootleg Lance Amstrong Training Guide I'm using is a bit of a dud, but I like the cigars.)

Anyway, we started out at a reasonable pace of 27km/h to warm up our legs. Then it crept higher -- we were still in chatting mode, so it did not pass 30km/h. Then I thought that I should ride at the front for a while, so I lifted the speed to 33km/h and did my turn. And the speed never came back down. Dennis did turns at 35km/h, I struggled to keep that pace when I did my turn, but Super Dennis lifted to somewhere between 37 and 40km/h, depending on how evil he felt. I could barely stay in our 3-man peleton.

After about 40km and a few hills, I knew that I had no chance of keeping up, so I told them to ride ahead, instead of waiting for me all the time. Yes, I admit it I am unfit!. Instead of doing the 120km ride, I turned around at the 50km mark to head for home. At this point, my average was a little over 29km/h, so I decided to try to keep it there. So for the remaining 50km, without Dennis and Super Dennis assistance, I pushed and pushed my little leggies, spinning that damned chain around and around, counting every metre as it passed, every long minute, every tortuous hill, trying desparately to keep my speed at or above 30km/h. And, well, it worked! I arrived home totally wasted, but managed to beat my own personal best time -- I even beat my maximum speed record too, for good measure:

distance: 100km
time: 3h 26m 09s
average speed: 29km/h
maximum speed: 62.5km/h

So the plan was to do a 100km ride at 30km/h or above. I think this is doable, if I choose a route with no hills, instead of 10 or more hills. I may not even need Dennis or Super Dennis to ride with me. Oh! And no wind!

Fast 100km (new record) - #6

2008-08-03T14:18:00.005+02:00

Finally, I found the time and energy (and determination) to complete another 100km ride. This time Dennis came along to drag me around, making it somewhat easier. I started out feeling very sluggish as I'd written 50km on each of the previous two days. It was also very windy, but most of the time the wind seems to be behind us. We rode the Ledig Erf club route, until the end of the hills, and then turned around and did the route in reverse, skipping one bumpy-road hill. At the end of the ride I needed to find another 14km to complete my ride, without the help of Dennis. This was the hardest part of the whole ride, but I knew that I was looking at a good time, so I pushed and pushed and counted every 100 metre as it passed by.

The result:

Distance: 100km
Time taken: 3h 29m 29s
Average speed: 28.6km/h
Maximum speed: 61.5km/h

I was mighty proud of myself. It makes the 100km at 30km/h goal look feasible.

Intermediate fast ride

2008-07-23T23:02:00.002+02:00

Ok. It's not that I haven't been riding. Just that I've been to conferences and the weather has been quite crap. So I haven't managed to break 100km, and so didn't feel that my minor achievements were worth reporting. I've been training hills and doing a bit of interval training, and I've been seeing progress, I'm starting to feel stronger.

Today's ride with Dennis was witness to this progress, and also encouraging if I'm to ride 100km at 30km/h. This evening I rode 67km at 30.2km/h, including a rather fast 50km at 31km/h with Dennis. I still have a long way to go to reach Dennis level of fitness, but I'm reaching new heights of Dave fitness. (I can't wait to meet the Belgian hills next year.)

Two PhD Positions

2008-07-18T10:12:00.005+02:00

I'm offering Two PhD Positions in Secure Software and Languages as a part of my new job at the Department of Computer Science at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium.

These positions are devoted to research on secure software and languages, including, but not limited to:
* modelling highly adaptable trustworthy systems
* types and models for software families
* logic and type systems for security; ownership types; pluggable types
* programming languages for secure software

I'm looking for students with the following profile and skills:
* Clear interest in and knowledge of the subject, based on education, work or research experience
* Masters in Computer Science or Informatics
* Team player; capability to work in an international research team
* Proficiency in English and excellent communication skills, both oral and written
* Prior knowledge in the areas of type systems, security, programming languages and/or formal methods is an advantage.

The research will take place within the DistriNet research group. The "Distributed systems and computer Networks‚" (DistriNet) research group was founded in 1984 as part of the Department of Computer Science at the K.U.Leuven. DistriNet's research focus and scope is twofold: distributed systems and secure software. The group works on a wide range of topics including computer networks, middleware, internet architectures, network and software security, embedded systems and multi-agent systems. DistriNet's research is generally application driven and often conducted in collaboration with industry partners.

Currently DistriNet counts 60 members (8 professors, 12 post-docs and 45 junior researchers) and participates in about 30 national and international research projects. The annual budget amounts to approximately 5MEuro. More information on projects and publications can be found on the DistriNet web pages:

http://distrinet.cs.kuleuven.be/

Requests for further information and other informal enquiries can be sent to:
Dr. David Clarke
David.Clarke at cs.kuleuven.be

Applications will be considered until the position is filled, but those received on or before 15 August 2008 will have priority.

The PhD positions are for 4 years.
The start date is negotiable, 1 October 2008 at the earliest.

150km (or 5th 100km)

2008-06-21T18:52:00.004+02:00

I claimed that riding 150km was simply a matter of riding far enough. It's true, but it hurts a lot and is just a little bit boring. Sitting for nearly 6 hours in one place is somewhat tedious, and certainly a pain in the ass. However, I didn't do it to see how it felt -- I don't really do things just to see how they feel -- and I knew it would be bad. I did it to see whether I could do it. I can't say that I'll do it again in a hurry, but I'm glad I did it, glad I could do it.

The stats, for what it's worth: distance 150.52km, time 5 hours 47 minutes and 39 seconds, average speed 25.9km/h, and maximum speed 48.2km/h. A world of pain.

This incidentally was one of my goals for the season -- and I'm half way to achieving my 10 times 100km for the year.

Fourth 100km with Crash

2008-06-15T15:16:00.003+02:00

After a two week break due to a conference (DISCOTEC in Oslo) and a visit to see my brother, his wife and their new baby Mia in Germany, I finally got out on the bike for a ride with Dennis.

We again did the same route, but needed to deal with a little cold this time. Fortunately, my stomach was sufficiently devoid of sandwiches and the two week hiatus had done its work on my muscles; I was fighting fit.

The first 30km were quite quick, at above 30km/h (though I forget to reset my cycle computer until after the first 5km). Nothing much of interest happened, though I managed to stick with Dennis over the 3rd hill (hills 1, 2 and 4 were different stories). Unfortunately, I missed a turn in Amerongen and we lost each other. After waiting for a while, I continued onwards. A cold headwind pushed impeded my progress along the dyke, but that soon stopped as I headed away from the river.

I decided to add some extra kilometres to my ride, so I turned towards Maarn for some hills and forest. As I was riding through the forest on a single track, it started to get darker and began to rain. I had in my mind to avoid a particularly nasty bump in the middle of the single track. That was all I was thinking about as a wove through the trees. Then I turned a corner close to the end of the track, at the 88km mark, and I changed gears. At that moment, with one hand on the handlebars, I hit that bump, and the bike took a sharp turn to the left. I quickly grabbed the brakes, but the bushes were too quickly approaching. As stinging nettles pieced my thighs and blackberry thorns scratched my skins, a log sprung in front of me and I flew over the handlebars, landing on my back. In true Tour de France form, I quickly jumped back on my bike, deciding to check for injuries as I rode along. Nothing serious, apart from raised white bumps from the nettles, all over both legs. Fortunately, the hail that came moments after quelled any pain....

After the hail stopped, the ride ended uneventfully. I managed to maintain a decent speed, indicating that any injuries were not serious.

The uitslag: Distance 100.11km (recorded), time 3h41m42s, average 27km/h, max 50.1km/h.

3rd 100km

2008-06-01T17:39:00.003+02:00

Keeping up the tradition of hard cycling (relative), Dennis and I did the so-called ledig erf fietsclub route (the green one on this map). On top of that, I rode the 14km to Dennis' house both to pick him up and drop him off. Dennis rode like a man possessed, as the expression goes, and I rode like a man with a hangover and an undigested sandwich in my belly. I performed terribly on the hills. Nonetheless, with the help of Dennis, I improved my time since last episode:
* 100.35km (I actually did 106km, but I stopped the clock early), total time 3h37min29sec, average speed 27.6km/h, and a maximum speed of 47.1km/h (mainly because I used the downhills to rest).

2nd 100km of the season

2008-05-25T15:19:00.000+02:00

100km in 3h44m49s at 26.7km/h with max 50.8km/h. Lots of dijk and lots of wind.

Goals (cycling related)

2008-05-05T16:25:00.003+02:00

It's good to have goals, I've heard. Here are my cycling goals for 2008:
* Ride ten 100km rides.
* Ride one 100km ride at 30km/h or better.
* Ride 150kms.
The second one will be the toughest. The others are a matter of just sitting on the bike and peddling for long enough.

First 100km of the season

2008-05-05T14:58:00.003+02:00

Somehow we Netherlanders managed to have a 6-day long weekend. It was brilliant. And for the most part the weather was fantastic. Somehow the weekend snuck up on me, so I had nothing planned. This too was brilliant, as it meant that the whole weekend could be dedicated to cycling (and to reducing my humongous belly).

Wednesday started with the stock 50km standard through Maarn and Doorn. Then Dennis tortured me with an 80km ride, through wind, over hills, and just plain faster than my little legs could go. Dennis introduced me to the hill to end all Dutch hills (at least in this area). The next day I managed only 10km, partly because of rain, but mostly because I was just plain trashed. Then came a 75km ride, where I tried out the hill again. Then a much slower, much flatter 65km. I woke up this morning feeling totally wasted, so didn't expect to do very much. But I knew in my heart that a wee 120km would give me 400km for the weekend (my heart is good at maths too, I must say). With such an unreachable goal dragging me forward, I knew (again in my heart) that stopping short at 100km would hardly be a source of shame. (Though, I do wonder what the Belgians would think.) I chose one of the simpler routes: the Lekdijk, into the wind; the hill and the two hills required to get to it, twice, and then a few of the smaller hills to round off the tour.

The result: 100.57km, 4h 7mins in the saddle, average speed, a respectable 24.3km/h, with a maximum of 55.7km/h.

Total for the 6-day weekend: 380km, unless my summin' ain't good.

BTW. I got a job in Belgium and will be moving there towards the end of the summer.

Cobweb-Clearing Ride

2008-02-10T14:35:00.000+01:00

The weather is terrific here, relatively, so I got my first chance of the year to go for a ride. After spending two hours in the morning fixing up my bike and degreasing the chain and getting all the grit off from last year, we (little e and I) went for a cobweb-clearing ride. No records were broken, but it's damn nice to be on the bike again. Hopefully, weekends like this will come more frequently so that I can get my fitness up quickly. I need to be extra fit to ride with Dennis: he bought a new bike last year.

Now I have to write a talk for Tuesday. I'm glad that I did manage to get outside, even though there's work to do on the weekend.

Trip to Australia (and new Camera)

2008-02-04T22:09:00.001+01:00

A bee eating
Originally uploaded by supercooldave

I went home to Australia for the first few weeks of January, with a small stopover in Tokyo on the way there and in Hong Kong on the way back. Little e joined me for the journey. I bought a new camera on the way out of The Netherlands. Just look at the stunning tricks it can perform at the mere press of a button.

Australia was great. The weather was super. My sister got married at a wonderful and modest ceremony. My sister-in-law had gone and got herself pregnant. She was virtually splitting at the sides. My folks were in good shape. Mum even went for a little tumble down a mountain, worthy of Jackass, without a scratch, I might add. Having little e with me meant that I acted as a tour guide and saw a lot more of the country (and a lot less of the cricket) than I normally would. Check out my flickr photo stream for an account of these adventures.

Political Irony

2007-12-14T18:03:00.001+01:00

The conservative party in Australian politics is called the Liberals. I'm sure I'm not the first to observe this fact.

Democracy

2007-11-28T18:14:00.001+01:00

Democracy differs in each country. The contrast between the election process in a little country like Australia and a big country like the USA is stark. I have no long idea how long ago Hillary and Barack et al started their campaign, and I have no idea when the actual election is, but the duration of the whole process and its cost seem grotesque to me. I know that Americas love their democracy like they love their hamburgers: BIG! And who doesn't love a big hamburger? We love them big Down Under too. And we put all sorts of crazy shit on our hamburgers: beetroot, cheese, onions, lettuce, tomato, pineapple, bacon, eggs (at the same time). On the other hand, our democracy is small. In October the election was announced. In November there's a new government.

(We also use preferential voting Down Under, which is more democratic for my tastes, but that's a whole different kettle of fish.)

Erdös number drops to 4

2007-10-09T21:41:00.001+02:00

I just recalculated my Erdös number. David Clarke(4)-Frank de Boer(3)-Nissam Francez(2)-Shlomo Moran or Shmuel Zaks(1)-Paul Erdös(0). I will continue searching.

Slow 100km

2007-09-16T17:58:00.001+02:00

After a party on Friday night, 65km yesterday, a party last night, with 3 bottles of wine between 3, I attempted to do another 100km. I wasn't aiming high, but I was surprised with my poor performance. I could blame the wine, or cycling yesterday, or the high winds. Who knows.

Distance: 100km. Time: 4h etc.

The Wrigstad

2007-09-10T19:03:00.001+02:00

My former student Tobias Wrigstad of Stockholm and External Uniqueness fame has left the nest and flown out into the wider world. He has taken a post-doc position in Jan Vitek et al's S3 group at Purdue University. The position looks really exciting, doing some programming language design and development. The work will be sufficiently different from Tobias' thesis topic to broaden his knowledge, without throwing him in the deep end. I think it will be a great opportunity for him to embiggen himself as a researcher.

100km (again again)

2007-09-06T18:01:00.001+02:00

The 9-hill route.

Distance: 103km.

Duration: 3h 52m 45s.

Average speed: 26.5km/h.

Maximum speed 60.5km/h

100km

2007-09-01T19:20:00.001+02:00

New 7-hills route. Distance of 102.12km, lasting 3h 52m 34s, at 26.3km/h, with a maximum speed of 59.8km/h. The last 15km were extremely hard. All that walking in Norway didn't help my cycle fitness. Or perhaps it was the 7 hills. I usually do at most 2 for this distance.

Vacation in Norway

2007-09-01T19:13:00.001+02:00

Lake Gjende
Originally uploaded by supercooldave

We just got back from our vacation in Norway. After a few days in Oslo, where we visiting the beautiful Vigeland park and the Munch museum, and had differ with Einar, we took the bus to Gjendesheim in the Jotunheimen national part. Gjendesheim lies at one end of the Gjende lake (pictured). The area was surrounded by mountains which rose between 400 metres and 1300 metres above the level of the lake. We spend 7 days of walking and did our best to climb them all.

Jotunheimen is a fantastic place to go walking, if one has pistons for legs and no fear of heights, not to mention decent equipment (including proper non-cotton shirts and Gortex raincoat and rainpants). I thoroughly recommend it, though must admit that due to the varying weather conditions contrasting with the spectacular scenery, we experienced both "I hate Norway" and "I love Norway" feelings.

We finished off our holiday in Bergen, which was a very attractive town that I'd recommend to any visitor to Norway. The fjords are magnificent.

ECOOP, Berlin

2007-08-09T11:19:00.001+02:00

Potsdamer Platz
Originally uploaded by supercooldave

Last week I went to the European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP) in Berlin. I enjoyed the conference quite a lot, mainly because I got to meet up with old friends and colleagues and supervisors, but also because I met many new people and was quite inspired.

The week started with the IWACO workshop organized by Tobias Wrigstad, James Noble, Sophia Drossopoulou and myself. We had quite a turn out: 15 papers, plus an invited talk by Vijay Saraswat, and audience numbering about 30 people. This was the second time we'd organized this workshop. The last one was 4 years ago, though there was a related workshop 8 years ago. I wonder whether we should have them more frequently.

The talks were quite interesting, mostly exploring variations of existing type systems. Perhaps the most interesting talks described new tools for extracting ownership information from existing programs (either statically or dynamically) and using this information to annotate the programs. Ownership inference is certainly an open question, though this workshop presented solid progress in that direction. Issues such as immutability, uniqueness, and permission control were discussed as crucial elements of ownership types systems.

The field is quite young---it only 9 years since our original ownership types paper---and it seems that there is still quite a bit of competition between parties. Due to this, I feel, there was little discussion about unified research goals for the field. Perhaps it is too early for this. Maybe we still need to explore the design and problem spaces. (That said, in his keynote talk, Jonathan Aldrich did give an outline of his thoughts on ownership types and other issues. Ownership is a key ingredient in architectural assurance, that is, expressing a software system's architecture to the programmer and ensuring that the programmer preserves the architectural invariants.)

The rest of ECOOP was much more general, but mostly quite interesting. I started a few little projects with Johan Ostlund, Tobias Wrigstad and Einar Broch Johnsen, as well as with Klaus Ostermann, and had some discussions with Sophia Drossopoulou which might lead somewhere. I'll keep the topics of these discussions under my hat for the moment.

The other cool part of ECOOP was that I got to meet and hang out with some of the Scala people, specifically, Adriaan Moors, Philipp Haller, and Philippe Altherr. Scala is an extremely interesting language, and it was great to talk about it with some of the guys working in the trenches. Foolishly, though, I didn't find time to talk to the Big O. Maybe next time.

And, finally, Berlin is a great city. Very photogenic. A pity that my camera died during the trip.

Last short ride before holidays

2007-08-08T18:13:00.001+02:00

My 4-hills Maarn-Doorn route. Distance: 53.4km. Duration: 1hour 56minutes. Average Speed: 27.4. Maximum Speed: 53.0km/h.

Tomorrow little e and I are heading to Norway to do 10 days of walking in the Jotunheimen area. I plan to write something about my visit to ECOOP in Berlin last week, but I don't know whether that will happen.

Another 100km

2007-08-06T15:10:00.001+02:00

I rode pretty much the same route as last time, though I felt much stronger this time. The only major differences were that little e came with me for the whole trip and that it was about 30 degrees, perhaps even hotter at road level. So the stats are: distance 101.14km, average speed 24km/h, maximum speed 61.5km/h, and total time 4hours and 12minutes.

We plan to ride 150km after we get back from our vacation in Norway.

A faster 100km

2007-07-28T16:42:00.001+02:00

Little e and I set out again to see how many kilometers we could get under the belt. We started out following a standard route, leaving Utrecht towards Bunnik, passing Houten, going through 't Goy, and then crossing the bridge onto the Lekdijk. The Lekdijk is an unpredictable beast. Sometimes there is a killer headwind, but today we had a handy tailwind. At Wijk bij Duursteden, little e and I parted company, she headed back towards home to compete 47km, whereas I continued along the Lekdijk to Amerongen. My average speed was creeping up to 30km/h.

My initial plan was then to take the hill to Overberg and then heading home (77km) with the option of extending my ride to 90km or even 100km. I felt strong by the time I'd finished the hill, so I decided to go for 100km. The problem was that I needed to invent a sufficiently long route, more than 50km, without going to far, and without the help of a map. I also had to be wary of the handy tailwind, which was going to be a brutal headwind on the way home.

I decided to head towards Barneveld and then to Amsersfoort, reversing part of last week's ride. This decision turned out to be quite a good one. Somehow I managed to reduce the fight against the headwind to 15km, at a speed of around 25km/h, so my average wasn't drastically damaged. I struggled against the Laan 1914 hill leading into Amsersfoort, but didn't lose too much time. The run home felt like it was downhill and I managed to keep my speed somewhere between 28 and 30km/h. The problem was that I was getting quite tired and it didn't look like I had enough road in front of me to make it to 100km. With 90km gone, I didn't feel like doing little loops around Utrecht.

At de Bilt I turned towards de Uithof, and cycled through the university, my old stomping ground. As the remaining minutes passed by, my average was starting to drop. I turned towards Bunnik briefly, and then started heading home. There was no headwind anymore. The cycle path was new. I had a new burst of energy. I was certainly going to make the 100km, and with a good time. Totally trashed.

The final statistics: distance 101km, time 3 hours and 44 minutes, average speed 27km/h, and, due to the descent of the hill in Overberg, maximum speed 57.8km/h.

Next week, I want to do it again. But first, I'm off to Berlin for ECOOP.

100km+

2007-07-22T18:08:00.001+02:00

For the first time this season, we cycled over 100km. To be precise, we did 108km in 4 hours and 36 minutes--well off world record pace, but not too bad. It was little e's first century, and only my fourth. Future travel commitments may prevent me from doing this again, for a while, unless we can do it next week.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

2007-07-20T16:45:00.001+02:00

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Originally uploaded by kathalijne

Last Monday I had the opportunity of seeing BRMC again. It was about 18 months since last time I saw them play, in Melkweg, Amsterdam, and I rated it as the best concert I'd seen in 2005. Their voices were true, the energy was high, and they played superbly. How three guys make so much noise amazes me? How do they produce that wall of sound?

This time they played at the larger venue, the famous Paradiso, also in Amsterdam. Paul, my drummer, little e and I found seats on the second floor balcony. We were away from the action, by the view was superb. The gig started out fantastically. The first two or three songs sounded almost exactly like they came of the album, as the guitar sounds were spot on. The gig lasted for more than 2 hours, and BRMC played all of my favourite songs. They ventured through the wall of sound numbers, past the folk/country tunes, and got the crowd slamming into each other with some high energy classics. Let's not forget the morbid and depressing songs either. These guys played them all. There may have been a little dip in the amount of energy in the middle, but they ended in true style, taking requests from the audience. Quite a contrast to last time, when they hardly spoke to the audience.

Thanks to kathalijne for this picture (used without permission). Pity you didn't make it.

The Grand Scheme of Things

2007-07-19T16:28:00.001+02:00

The Grand Scheme of Things
Originally uploaded by supercooldave

Where do I fit in the grand scheme of things? Presently I'm a researcher in computer science. Most of the time I find this satisfying, though sometimes I find that research is a little too far detached from reality. Sometimes I am completely happy with that idea, whereas at other times `meaning of life' type questions arise.

Now I'm at the point where I need to find another job. I'd like to continue researching, but it is very difficult to find a pure research position which is at a higher level than my present position. I'd like to do something more real, so going and working for a research company is certainly an option, but where? I could get a position at a university and maintain, to some degree, my research tragectory, while also gaining the opportunity to work with students. I've always enjoyed teaching when I've done it, but I have not yet developed a passion for it and worry whether I will, particularly given the level of apathy and unreasonable expectations of present day students.

This photo reflects what's going on in my head as I plan the next step along my career path.

Cycling

2007-07-17T17:10:00.001+02:00

In the last four days, I cycled approximately 200km. I'm finally getting my fitness up towards its previous level, though this is nothing compared to how it was 10 years ago, but I've come to accept that it probably never will.

A cool thing I recently discovered is that I can use google maps to plan rides. Basically, I just draw the route on the map and it will calculate how far it is. Here is a link to the route we plan to do on Sunday. It's 100km and ventures into new territory. Specifically, we'll pass through the Veluwe national park. Nice.

Cycling

2007-07-16T08:46:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I did my longest ride of the season so far. Though it doesn't sound like much to those who cycle a lot, it tends to sound quite large to those who don't cycle at all. I completed a route, from Utrecht to Narden-vesting via the forest near Laren and back along the Vecht river. In total I (we) cycled about 90km. I feel a little tired now, but I was surprised how good I felt at the end of the ride. Next week we are planning a 100+km ride, perhaps to the Veluwe.

Although yesterday was a good day in the saddle for me, it wasn't so good for the Australians in the tour. O'Grady crashed and was taken away in an ambulance. McEwan, who crashed earlier in the tour and was struggling, failed to cross the finish line within the time limit. And Rogers, who was looking like he could obtain the yellow jersey, crashed on a corner while descending from one of the category 1 climbs. He got back on his bike and pressed on, regaining his strong position. But during the next climb, it became apparent that he was not in good shape. He stuggled, but dropped off the pace. Every following group passed him, and he eventually was overtaken by the first peleton. He was so far off the pace, his race was over. Undoubtably he shed tears of anguish and disappointment as he stepped off his bike and quit the tour.

Marriage

2007-07-15T16:29:00.001+02:00

I called my parents today, because it's my birthday, and they gave me some wonderful news. My sister is getting married. She's been together with her now fiance for five years already, but my sister is so sweet and naive, I'm sure, that she was totally suprised when he proposed. In fact, she hyperventilated. Of course her fiance did the right thing and asked my father for my sister's hand. How traditional! Now I'm hoping that they choose a date that will enable me to head home for the wedding. Most likely that will work out fine.

In any case, I wish them a very happy life together.

Test Two

2007-07-12T15:08:00.001+02:00

I'm testing again. I don't know why. It's a habit, I guess.

Test Post

2007-07-12T15:04:00.000+02:00

This is a test post. It contains no interesting information. No WMD. No terrorists. No cocaine. It is not at all interesting. There are no literary references. No animals were harmed during the making of this page.