Guus Bosman

software executive and technologist

You are here

Home
dailylife

Graduation weekend

Mon, 05/14/2007 - 6:01pm

This weekend was graduation weekend for Duke university, and when I came home Friday evening the parking lots near our apartment were full with cars of parents and families visiting students.

Over the weekend a lot of undergraduate students started moving out of their apartments so there were a lot of rent-a-trucks, helping parents and goodbye parties.

I played with Antlr, a parser generating tool this weekend. It may sound nerdy, but writing parsers is a lot of fun.

»
northcarolina

The beach at Kitty Hawk

Thu, 05/10/2007 - 10:31pm

The beach.When we were at the beach in North Carolina the weather wasn't great. That didn't stop us from having a great weekend.

Saturday afternoon when we arrived we went to the beach. The hotel had a long pier into the sea.

»
northcarolina

To the Outer Banks

Tue, 05/08/2007 - 11:07am

Map.We had a great weekend. We made a road trip to the Outer Banks.

The Outer Banks is a string of beaches and barrier islands on the east coast of North Carolina, and it's about 4,5 hours driving from Durham. We took more time than that, with various breaks and enjoying the journey.

Around 5.00 pm we arrived on Kitty Hawk, one of the barrier islands. It's a really narrow patch of land, with at one side a sound and at the other side the Atlantic Ocean. A long bridge connects the islands to the main land.

»
travelling

Traveling back from New Jersey

Mon, 05/07/2007 - 9:11pm

Traffic in New Jersey.Thursday I traveled back from New Jersey.

I left the office around 4.00 pm to catch a 6.30 pm flight. I was glad I took plenty of time, because the afternoon traffic was pretty dense.

When I arrived at the airport and heard some people talking in the elevator I noticed the southern accent more than I usually do, after hearing the New Jersey accent for a few days.

The Raleigh/Durham airport had a nice surprise... Starbucks coming soon! There is no decent coffee place at the airport so this is very welcome.

It was nice to come home; Sasha and I had a late dinner together.

»
driving

All turns

Wed, 05/02/2007 - 9:08pm

All turns sign.So I learned a new traffic sign today.

I was recommended a restaurant a few miles from the hotel. I took a good look at Google maps and remembered how to drive. It wasn't hard: a few miles down the road, make a right on Kennedy, and it's right there.

It was a busy 4 lane road, and I saw an interesting sign: "All turns from right lane". Once I approached Kennedy street, I realized that I should move to the right lane, which looked like a highway exit. I took the exit and came on Kennedy. So far, so good, but somehow I missed the entrance to the shopping mall where the restaurant was and I decided to make a loop, go back over the 4 lane road and just try it again.

However, left turns weren't allowed. I figured I'd just take make a U-turn a little later on the 4-lane road and then go back. But every time there was a place to go left, there was a sign "No U-turns", "No U-turns". It got really annoying and it was almost 10 minutes later before I had a chance to make a U-turn. It was only when I stopped at a traffic light that I realized I could have used any of those "All turns" exits to make my U-turn...

I reached the restaurant, a New York style Italian place and had a great lasagna for dinner.

»
dailylife

In New Jersey

Tue, 05/01/2007 - 9:56pm

Avis car rental.I'm staying in New Jersey for a few days this week for work.

I flew in this morning and while I was rather worried, I made it well on time to check in. Curb-side checkin is great -- there's never a line. Not that the lines in RDU are long at all, compared to the D.C. airports.

The rental company gave me a huge Suzuki, with a broken tire pressure monitoring system so my warning light is flashing all the time. I discovered that on the NJ Turnpike and stopped at a gas station, but the technical service I called said that it was a malfunction of the sensor, not of the actual tires so I shouldn't worry about it.

»
dailylife

A walk through Durham

Sun, 04/29/2007 - 8:41pm

Walk through Durham.Today I went for a walk through our neighborhood.

Last week when I went to the supermarket after work, I locked myself out of the car at the parking lot. I had forgotten that I had put my keys in shopping a bag, so I closed the trunk with a satisfying "bang" sound and realized right away that I wouldn't be able to get into the car.

It was a beautiful afternoon so I decided to walk home. And so I did, and I realized how rare it had become for me to walk from the supermarket to home. When we lived in Arlington we didn't have a car, so we would do all our grocery shopping on foot. Not always convenient but at least we would walk and see the neighborhood.

So today I went for a walk again, to explore the area. A few months ago I had seen an interesting stone formation not to far from our house, and I thought that perhaps it's a monument or something historical, so I decided to walk to there.

»
movies

For The Bible Tells Me So

Fri, 04/27/2007 - 11:01pm

For the Bible Tells Me So.The week before the festival I bought a ticket for the Sunday afternoon re-screening of the Award winners, obviously without knowing what the winners would be. When I arrived Sunday around noon I was curious to see who had won, and I read on the posters that For The Bible Tells Me So had won the Kathleen Bryan Edwards Award for Human Rights, and I saw it in the same session as the award winning short.

Wow... what a movie!

This documentary by Daniel Karslake describes the various attitudes of different Christian churches in the United States towards homosexuality. Some churches condemn it as the worst sin possible, while others see no difference between homosexual and heterosexual relationships and allow gay people to become priests.

The intolerance shown by some in the movie was amazing and shocking and the movie was incredibly moving. Not just due to the struggle of the homosexual main characters but also because of the struggle their families went through, in various ways.

This was the best documentary I've seen at the 2007 Full Frame Festival. A very deserved award winner.

»
movies

Cross Your Eyes, Keep Them Wide

Fri, 04/27/2007 - 10:48pm

Cross Your Eyes, Keep Them Shut.Cross Your Eyes, Keep Them Wide is a short documentary on a group of artist in New York with developmental disabilities.

It was the award winner of Full Frame 2007, it won the jury award for best short. Personally I didn't think it was the best short of the festival. I liked A Son's Sacrifice better.

More about this movie by Ben Wu: http://www.benwufilms.com/page3/page3.html

»
movies

Greensboro: Closer to the Truth

Fri, 04/27/2007 - 8:28pm

Greensboro: Closer to the Truth.Greensboro: Closer to the Truth is a documentary by Adam Zucker about the Truth and Reconciliation committee that was set up in Greensboro in 2003. The committee's goal was to analyze the killings of communist activists in 1979 by members of the Ku Klux Klan. I saw it on the fourth day of the Full Frame Festival, now 2 weeks ago.

It was the first time this movie was screened in North Carolina. The large Fletcher hall was full and the Q&A session afterwards was very interesting. Many people in the audience had personal memories of the original trials and publicity around the events.

The Ku Klux Klan is something I've only read about, when I was younger, in the "far, far United States". It was really strange to see them in a documentary. I liked that the movie focussed on the work of the committee, and didn't try to assign blame to one of the two parties specifically. I didn't know anything of the Greensboro incident and the movie had a good introduction for people like me -- it isn't just for 'insiders'.

After seeing the movie the report of the Truth and Reconciliation committee is fascinating read .

»

Pages

Recent comments

Recently read

Books I've recently read: