Guus Bosman

software executive and technologist

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U.S. Elections 2008

Mon, 11/03/2008 - 11:25pm

U.S. Elections 2008.Tomorrow, after a long campaign that we have thoroughly enjoyed, is Election Day 2008 and tomorrow night we'll know who'll be President for the next four years.

The first results will come in in about 20 minutes, when a small village in New Hampshire with 20 registered voters will be the first in the nation to open the polls, and quickly after that to pronounce the results.

Of course, the real interesting results will come in tomorrow evening, starting at 7.00 pm EST (1.00 am Dutch time, 2.00 am Bulgarian time) when the first states, including Virginia, will close the polls. North Carolina's polls will close at 7.30 pm and around 8.00 pm a large group of states will complete their voting.

It's been a wonderful experience to see over the last two years, up close, a great democracy in action.

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sports

City of Oaks Half Marathon

Mon, 11/03/2008 - 10:29pm

City of Oaks Half Marathon. Yesterday I ran the City of Oaks Half Marathon in Raleigh and shattered my personal record. My result was 2:03, a full 15 minutes faster than my previous record at 2:18 in San Diego.

The weather made a big difference; it was pretty cold yesterday and that's easier to run in than the weather we had in the spring and summer in North Carolina and in San Diego. Two long training runs that I did at speed in the last 6 weeks helped as well.

The race was great. When I arrived at 6.00 am it was still cold, so I waited in my warm-up suit for a while. I started fairly close to the front and I just ran with the crowd in the beginning. My goal pace was 10 minutes a mile, but I wanted to get some extra time in the first few miles.

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dailylife

Halloween 2008

Mon, 11/03/2008 - 9:23pm

Halloween.Friday was Halloween and there was a big party in Alex' and Justin's house.

I was dressed up as a Dutch soccer fan. A few people carefully asked me why I was wearing a French flag but I explained things to them.

Thanks Angelo, for the picture. Angelo is the gentleman with the drink in his hand.

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politicsnews

Sarah Palin in Raleigh, NC

Sat, 11/01/2008 - 10:33pm

Gov. Sarah Palin.Governor Sarah Palin was in Raleigh today for a campaign event. I went to the State Fairs grounds to see her in person and experience an GOP event. It was an interesting afternoon.

A couple of weeks ago I attended an Obama-Biden appearance in Greensboro.

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dailylife

Vanilla yogurt

Thu, 10/30/2008 - 10:00pm

Vanilla yogurt.In the supermarket the regular yogurt is located right next to the vanilla yogurt. The regular yogurt, which I like, also looks exactly like the vanilla yogurt, which I don't like.

If you don't pay close attention, you end up with the wrong yogurt in your shopping basket.

By the way, vanilla yogurt is different than Dutch vla.

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politicsnews

Elections in a week

Thu, 10/30/2008 - 7:16am

Synchronized presidential debates.With one week to go to the elections the amount of political ads on TV is getting spectacular.

Not only are Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama on air all the time (Obama had a special 30 minute add on 7 networks last night), but there are lots of other political races as well.

There's Ms. Dole versus Ms. Hagan, running for the Senate, in a race that is seeing increasingly nasty ads, for example about "godless" Ms. Hagan.

There will be more than 25 votes to cast next Tuesday, for President and Governor of course, but also for Commissioner of Agriculture and Commissioner of Insurance, among others.

Here's a nice movie about the Presidential debates:
Synchronised presidential debating.

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dutchusa

Renewing my passport

Tue, 10/28/2008 - 6:59pm

Dutch Consulate in Raleigh, NC.My passport is about to expire and I went to the Dutch Consulate to renew it. There is a honorary consul for the Netherlands in Raleigh, a friendly Dutch business man who provides consular services. I'm glad he's here, otherwise I'd have had to go to Washington D.C., a 5 hour drive from here.

The Dutch, American and North Carolinian flag stood next to each other in the hallway, and the office had pictures of Dutch landscapes and of Queen Beatrix.

This year's bureaucratic experiences have made me cautious but it looks like this passport renewal will be fairly quick and efficient; it should be about 3 weeks.

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dailylife

Busy

Tue, 10/28/2008 - 7:53am

It's busy at work; there's a release coming up and that always brings long hours with it. It's a fun release though; the first one after 1.0 so there's finally some time to put in features that I had to postpone in 1.0 release a couple of months ago.

This Friday it's Halloween, this weekend I'm running a half marathon, next Tuesday are the elections and then it's my birthday.

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Bulgaria

Bulgarian lesson 1

Wed, 10/22/2008 - 10:20pm

Two weeks ago in Bulgaria I decided I want to pick up Bulgarian language lessons again. I can read and understand Bulgarian reasonably well, but I want to work on my grammar and conversation skills in a more formal way.

I found a good teacher and once a week I'll have a private lesson. We're using "Bulgarian for Foreigners", an book that is very good on grammar explanations and has nice exercises. Tonight was the first lesson and it was fun and useful.

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politicsnews

No McCain

Thu, 10/16/2008 - 7:12pm

This morning I heard on the radio that John McCain will be in North Carolina near Charlotte this Saturday, and I was considering to attend.

However, when I read the announcement I saw that the system is more complicated than with Obama's rally. You have to get tickets in advance, and the only offices that have tickets are in the Charlotte area. Plus, the doors open at 8.00 am on Saturday and that would mean I would have to leave Durham before 5.00 am to get in.

I would have liked to attend a McCain or Palin rally after seeing Obama and Biden three weeks ago, but this one is not for me.

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