Guus Bosman

software engineering director

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dailylife

At Jonathan & Irena

Wed, 10/12/2005 - 10:00pm

Saturday morning we woke up late. It had been a busy week and an intensive evening, so we slept in which felt excellent. Check-out was at noon so we left our luggage at the counter when we went for breakfast.

We found an amazing place nearby -- Crestanello . The sandwiches were outstanding... great juice and of course Italian coffee, an excellent breakfast.

In the afternoon we went shopping. We went to Macy's, "the world's largest store", where we spent quite some time. I bought two pair of jeans.

In the late afternoon we took a bus from Port Authority to Secaucus and we visited Jonathan and Irena. They have been remodelling a part of their living room and it became really nice (of course -- Jonathan is an architect). They basically took out a stone wall and replaced it with a semi-transparant one; it's nice and bright.

We spent a very nice evening there -- long talks and great food. Sunday morning we slept it again, and after a lazy day we took the bus back home. The bus didn't stop for dinner (it often makes a break at Burger King) but we were prepared and had a late lunch. We were home around 23:00 o'clock.

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theater

U2 in Madison Square Garden

Tue, 10/11/2005 - 11:20pm

U2 in the Madison Square Garden, October 7th 2005.We were at the Madison Square Garden around 19:00 o'clock -- a bit early but we didn't want to miss anything!

We had electronic tickets that we bought back in March, so we used a printed piece of paper to get in the theater. Our seats were on the second ring, looking at the stage from the back side.

It was very nice to enter the main theater of the Madison Square Garden. We took some drinks and at 20:00 the support act started: Keane, a British band. They played a number of their hit-singles, including Somewhere Only We Know and gave a very nice performance. Their piano player was extremely energetic.

The lead singer, Tom Chaplin mentioned a number of times how happy they were to be the support-act for U2, and everytime he mentioned the name "U2" the audience started cheering.

After Keane left the stage, a large crew came on stage and moved everything around. About 10 people climbed upstairs, to the lights and cameras, and after a while they left the stage and the lights went off.

U2 came on stage! The show started with City of Blinding Lights, a song from How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, U2's latest album. It's a very powerful song and a great way to start the concert.

There were so many great songs... a lot of songs from the latest album, but also many "oldies" such as Elevation and Where The Streets Have No Name.

There were two songs that I thought stood out: Stuck In A Moment, in a beautiful acoustic performance, and Fast Cars, at the end of the concert.

Suffice it to say that it was an incredible experience and we had a great time. We were singing and dancing pretty much throughout the entire concert (so was the entire audience). The concert was over around 23:30 o'clock.

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travelling

Bryant Park Hotel

Sun, 10/09/2005 - 4:05pm

Bryant Park Hotel.Around 13:00 o'clock I arrived in the hotel, and even though check-in didn't start before 15:00 they gave me our room right away. That was great because I needed to catch up with my e-mail as I had been off-line all morning.

The room was awesome! It is probably the nicest hotel room I have ever stayed in; very large and luxurious.

At 16:30 o'clock I went to pick up Sasha who arrived at Penn Station. It was raining a little bit, but it wasn't cold and we had a big umbrella. It very nice to see each other again like this after a week, and with a great weekend ahead. We brought the bags to the hotel.

We had dinner in a nice bakery nearby, not a long restaurant-type-of-dinner, because we wanted to arrive early for the concert.

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travelling

To New York

Sun, 10/09/2005 - 3:27pm

Ionscan Sentinel II.Friday morning I left from San Juan to New York. The plane left at 7:30 o'clock so I got up really early. My alarm went at 5.15, and so did my cellphone and the wake-up call: I didn't to miss this flight.

There was a new machine at security in the airport, an Ionscan Sentinel II. It looks like a typical airport metal detector but it uses an new technology called Ion Mobility Spectrometry (IMS). This performs a chemical analysis and identifies a "fingerprint" of a target substance, such as explosives or narcotics.

You step in the machine for a few seconds, and it blows small plufs of air to you, Then the gate at the other side opens and you can leave. Someone in front of me got surprised by the pluffs of air and the screener guy laughed at her.

The moving side walk to the Starbucks terminal seems to have been fixed, but apparently they don't switch them on very early in the morning. I was glad to see that Starbucks was open already.

The plane was not as full as the afternoon flights that I usually take when I leave. I worked on the plane, and had some time to refresh my Spanish lessons. I arrived at 11:00 o'clock in JFK and took a bus to Manhattan. Originally I thought to leave the bus at Penn Station, but when I had to transfer at the Grand Central Terminal I realized that our hotel was very close and I walked to there.

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dailylife

One year Holiday Inn

Thu, 10/06/2005 - 10:07pm

Tonight there was a party in the Holiday Inn because it has been open for almost a year. I never really realized that the hotel was so new (although it certainly looks good) but it was a nice occassion for some entertainment.

On the invition it said "techno party". I wasn't sure what to expect but "techno" turned out to mean "related to technology" and it was just a buffet with drinks afterwards. The music after the speeches was actually DJ Tiesto. Of the 350 nights that the hotel exists I have been a guest around 50 nights.

Today was my last day in Puerto Rico, I'm leaving tomorrow morning early... a 7:40 flight to New York. Really excited about that, Sasha and I will meet each other there in the afternoon, and in the evening we'll go to U2!

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dailylife

Crema de calabaza

Tue, 10/04/2005 - 1:27pm

This afternoon we went for lunch in San Patricio plaza, a shopping mall nearby.

Puerto Rican food tends to be a bit heavy and to compensate I had a salad for lunch. It came with a really nice soup, creme de calabaza.

Work goes well, UAT testing started and we're making good progress. It's nice to see everybody here again.

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dailylife

Crossing lights

Sun, 10/02/2005 - 9:20pm

On the street in front of Court House Plaza a couple of new pedestrian stopping lights was installed.

The other day I was crossing the street, and wondering: "hey, have I been ignoring that light for the last year?!"

Tomorrow morning I have the 7 am flight to Puerto Rico -- setting the alarm for really early. I just called Blue Top to reserve a cab, these guys are amazingly efficient in how they deal with phone calls, in about 15 seconds you can reserve a cab:

"Blue Top -- phone number?"
"What time do you want it?"
"Where are you going?"
"All right, you're all set."

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Work Arlington 2006

To UAT

Sun, 10/02/2005 - 12:06pm

Friday we finished the integration testing of one my projects. There's some complex interaction with a back-end system, and I'm glad to see that everything works. This weekend the code will be deployed to the user acceptance test servers, and Monday morning the UAT team will start testing.

I'm flying down tomorrow with a colleague. It's been a while since I was in Puerto Rico; I'll stay for a week.

We're having an easy weekend. As always, there is some work to be done from home, but it's not as busy as it has been the last few weeks.

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