Berlin - Online Educa

Next week I will be at Onlin Educa in Berlin. I have been there now 6 times in the last 8 years and beside the conference itself is very interesting business-wise, Berlin is a great city to go to, especially i December. In December many Chrsitmass markets are taking place giving Berlin (and many other German cities) a very relaxing atmosphere.

From a Christmas market website:

Anyone who wants to experience the incomparable charm of “WinterMagic” has to come to Berlin! Berlin is the capital city of the German Christmas Markets.  Whether you prefer a contemplative and magical Christmas market or a lively and urban one, this year Berlin offers you a choice of sixty Christmas Markets.

Allow yourself to discover the vendor booths’ magic, charm, and unique items along the large boulevards and squares as well as on the small side streets and even in several museums.

This year marks the second time a Christmas market will be held in front of Charlottenburg Castle. The Christmas Market will feature the Biedermeier period. Historic carriage rides, theme exhibits in the palace itself, and specialized lighting will feature the fascinating era between 1815 and 1848. 

WeihnachtsZauber on Gendarmenmarkt is another classic Christmas Market that deserves a mention. The Gendarmenmarkt is one of the most beautiful squares in Europe and is the exquisite setting for one of Berlin's many Christmas markets - the historical Berlin Christmas market - which will whisk you away to a magical Christmas world full of scrumptious treats and fairy lights.

A new Christmas market, in which the nearby embassies of Great Britain, France, and the United States will be featuring their Christmas customs, will be opening again between the two Christmas markets at the Brandenburg Gate.

The heart of “WinterMagic” beats particularly strongly on the Potsdamer Platz and in the Sony Centre, where there is a Christmas Market on the Sony Centre’s 4,000 square metre event area. “Boccia on Ice,” in an area protected from inclement weather, is another new attraction for the adults, while the kids can enjoy themselves in the neighboring Legoland Discovery Centre.  

There is another small and subdued Christmas market along the Alte Potsdamer Strasse, but the main attraction in the middle of Potsdamer Platz is Winterwelt, featuring Europe’s largest mobile toboggan run.

 

Great escape

Moodle training

I finished the second Moodle training at Moodlerooms. Will start tomorrow the third, no rest ... It will be about administrating the server/installation.

Traffic chaos

It is raining a bit and see what happens in the Netherlands, almost 450 Km of traffic jams :-(.

The iPhone Is Now the Best Selling Phone In the U.S.

From Techcrunch:

When the economy takes a hit, so do cell phone sales. Last quarter, mobile phone sales in the U.S. dropped 15 percent to 32 million units, according to market research firm NPD Group. But in hard times, the strongest brands also take share. And that is exactly what Apple did. The 6.9 million iPhones it sold last quarter catapulted the $200 device into the top spot among all cell phones, even beating out the much cheaper and still-popular Motorola Razr. (Yes, they still sell that thing. They just don’t make any money off of it.) Here are the top five phones sold last quarter, according to the NPD Group:

1. Apple iPhone 3G

2. Motorola RAZR V3 (all models)

3. RIM Blackberry Curve (all models)

4. LG Rumor

5. LG enV2

Note that the BlackBerry Curve is No.3. Who says expensive smart phones are only for geeks? Everybody is getting one.

Looking up

We're doing fine the last few weeks, today again we won, now 1-5 against de Kraaien. With the next weeks also possibilities or additional wins, we might be in the top 4-5 over the next weeks.

Standings, we are Pinoke C.

Boerengolf

With the opening of the new office in Hardenberg with very nice cold weather we played Boerengolf (a rather nice pastime):

Using an ‘iron’ with a wooden shoe as a head, and a leather ball the size of a small soccer ball, people now can enjoy a rural variety of golf. ‘Boerengolf’ is the invention of local cheese maker Peter Weenink as an alternative to the elite sport. Boerengolf is played on farmland, sometimes amid the cows and their inevitable patties.

Besides the difference in equipment - the hole is a sunken bucket - boerengolf can be described as a fun, simplified and shorter version of the more elitist sport. Rules are simple and, for example allow for repositioning the ball when necessary. A typical Boerengolf course has eight to ten holes. Obstacles include the ever-present cows and other farm animals, ditches and barbed-wire fences.

To keep with the rural theme, the wooden clubs have a 15-centimetres long solid wooden shoe as a head, all made by an area klompenmaker. Weenink, who this fall will organize a first Dutch Open on his fields, wants operators of other boerengolf courses to adhere to common rules, including equipment. His organization has ten farmer-operators, from Wester-geest (Friesland) to Kessel (Limburg) and from War-mond (near Leiden) to Radewijk (near Hardenberg) at the German border, with others considering to join as well. The new sport allows farmers and camping owners to develop other sources of income.

More information (in Dutch) about boerengolf, its rules and the location of the courses, can be found at www.boerengolf.nl.

The Dutch who already played a form of golf (they called it kolf) in the 17th century, can enjoy the sport at about twenty golf courses.

 

Blue Man Group

Tonight I have been to the Blue Man Group in the Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam, together with Christine one of my co-workers.

Blue Man Group is a creative organization dedicated to creating exciting and innovative work in a wide variety of media.

Blue Man Group is best known for their wildly popular theatrical shows and concerts which combine music, comedy and multimedia theatrics to produce a totally unique form of entertainment. The blissful party atmosphere created at their live events has become the trademark of a Blue Man Group experience.

Congrats with Obama

Americans, congrats with your choice of Obama, I think this was by far the best and will hopefully change the way the USA will work with the rest of the world, or better will work again with he rest of the world.

Hockey update

The first few games we played ok, but did not win. For the last 3 games we even played better, but it was against the the top 2, lost 2-3 and had a draw against our younger brothers, that is we are around 50, they around 40 :-).

Yesterday we played our neighbours for Amsterdam and we won rather easily 5-1. This results and the others but also our next opponents will give us a good standing.

I have to say it's fun ....

This says it all ....