Guus Bosman

software engineering director

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dailylife

Spring weather

Sat, 03/18/2006 - 10:27pm

Spring weather.Although the last few days it was colder again, spring is definitely in the air. Especially last weekend was very warm -- I went for a walk in my shorts & T-shirt, pretty amazing for early March.

Now it's colder again, but the trees and flowers are showing signs of an early spring.

This weekend I'm working on a presentation which takes quite some time. This afternoon I went to the library, for the first time on my bike. It's so quick, took only 15 minutes to get there -- it's faster than by metro.

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dailylife

American images: All may park...

Wed, 03/15/2006 - 10:10pm

All may park...The parking meters in Arlington have a nice slogan:


All may park, all must pay.

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bicycling

Bike trip

Tue, 03/14/2006 - 10:45pm

St. Patrick's Parade in Washington.Sunday I went for a nice bike trip to downtown D.C. About a month ago Sasha and I bought two bicycles, and although we've made smaller trips before today was the first time I went on a long tour.

It wasn't as sunny as the day before but the weather was very nice and around 1.00 pm I left for Georgetown. I made a short stop at Revolution Cycles. We bought our bikes from the same shop at their Arlington branch. I bought a small pump, lights and most importantly a bike map of the area. Bicycling here is quite different than in the Netherlands, where you can travel by bike pretty much everywhere. In D.C. many streets are not really meant for bicycles though, and drivers are not really used to see bicycles on the street.

I spent a couple of hours touring around, from Georgetown through the C & O Canal trail to the Tidal Bassin and then to downtown Washington. In the city I came across the St. Patrick's Parade.

I brought my camera on the trip and took some pictures.

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movies

Lord of War

Sun, 03/12/2006 - 9:45am

Lord of War.Last night we saw Lord of War, a movie about international arms trade.

The movie was made as if it were a documentary about Yuri Orlov, a trader in arms or "gun runner" played by Nicolas Cage. Orlov grows up in Little Odessa and slowly becomes the world most successful arms trader. His big boost comes when the Iron Curtain falls and he starts trading huge amounts of weapons between his native Ukraine and other countries to West-Africa.

The movie had an interesting, if at times cynical plot as it deals with the conflict that Orlov faces between his drive for success and the immorality of his work.

Some of the scenes were cruel to see, which was part of the movie's message of course, but over-all it treated the subject with a mixture of moral analysis, reporting-style objectivity and humor.

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dailylife

Beautiful weather in early March

Sat, 03/11/2006 - 7:34pm

It's early March and the weather is just amazing today. It's in the 70s -- more than 22 degrees Celcius.

We went to Ballston where there was the Shamrock festival but when we arrived around 3.30 pm the line for entrance was about two hours and we decided not to wait that long. Instead we went for a nice walk and got some of the special top Grolsch bottles that we drank on our balcony in the sun.

St Patrick's Day is only next week, anyway.

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travelling

Found bag

Sat, 03/11/2006 - 9:29am

Luggage being loaded on an United aircraft.So, when I called United on Wednesday evening, they told me that my bag was lost and that they would send me the reimbursement forms soon.

We left San Juan Thursday afternoon, and I was wearing all my belongings in my laptop bag and two plastic bags from the hotel. At least I had no luggage to check in this time. When I asked at the counter if there was any news the representative said they had found the bag, and that it was in D.C., waiting for me.

When I arrived at Dulles it turned out that my bag was actually just arriving from Charlottesville, another airport, and had made quite a trip in the last few days. Apparently there had been a problem with the tag attached to my bag, and it had two instead of one barcode. It arrived practically at the same time as our flight, so all I had to do was to go to another carousel to see my bag arriving, safe and well.

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washington

Ice skating ring at the Archives

Thu, 03/09/2006 - 8:35am

Ice skating ring with the National Archives in the background.Two weeks ago we went to the National Archives.

This picture shows the ice skating ring just in front of it. The brightly shining sun made for a relatively warm day.

We saw the Constitution and Declaration of Independence again and spent a nice time in the museum (National Vaults).

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sportstv

Puerto Rico - the Netherlands

Wed, 03/08/2006 - 10:36pm

Puerto Rico welcomes Netherlands to the party.This week there is a series of baseball games in Puerto Rico.

Baseball is a very popular sport here and somebody pointed me to tonight's game between Puerto Rico and the Netherlands. Apparently this is the first time the Netherlands are joining the World Baseball Classic tournament. I was working in the bar of the hotel tonight and the game was on.

In the mean time, it seems like United has lost my bag (it took them more than 24 hours to get a phone call from the airport) and I bought some clothes here. Travelling back tomorrow, I wonder if the plane will be on time.

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travelling

Lost bag

Tue, 03/07/2006 - 1:04pm

I justed arrived in Puerto Rico with the 8.30 am flight from Washington and United Airlines lost my bag.

I was waiting for my bag at the carousel but it was completely empty, and when I checked at the office it turned out that my bag never boarded the flight in the first place. So, my poor bag is still somewhere on the cold airport in DC right now. I hope I'll get it soon because I'm here for some important meetings.

It's the second time I'm flying with United, the previous time the flight back had a 5 hour delay (luckily I was able to get on an American Airlines flight instead that day).

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theater

Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares

Mon, 03/06/2006 - 9:15pm

Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares.Saturday evening we went to a concert of an amazing Bulgarian women's choir: The Great Voices of Bulgaria, or Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares in French.

The event was in The Church of the Epiphany, a church in downtown D.C. We arrived early because we weren't able to get tickets online. There was a line inside but luckily there were still some tickets available and we quickly got inside the beautiful Anglican church. We joined Stratsi and Lozana in one of the front rows and had a good view of the stage.

The show was really beautiful and the music amazing. The choir members, 25 women and 1 man, were all dressed in traditional Bulgarian costumes. I had heard the choir before on CD recordings, but hearing them acoustic was even better. They didn't use any microphones, and no musical instruments. The choir brought the show with a lot of humour, and it was a real pleasure to listen and watch.

The evening was organized by the Smithsonian, as part of a serie of French cultural events. Except for the name there is nothing French about the choir so it was a bit strange that the Smithsonian Resident Associates choose it as their kick-off event.

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