update...

Wow, this blog is very slow lately huh?

I guess the rainy weather here is affecting my blog-writing-activities! Still don’t have much to say actually.
But, an update of things that have been and that will be:

* am waiting to hear back from a job interview. Finally! Some people who recognized my CV as coming from someone who has something good to offer. And it was even fun to do. Yay. To be honest, I’m not sure yet if I want this position, but I do hope I get through to the next round... *fingers crossed*

* the same evening I raced away all my nervousness at the largest indoor cart track of Europe!. Had never been carting before, and I was now one of only two girls in a group of fifteen extremely competitive male engineers... You’ll not be surprised to hear that I was somewhat bruised the next day but this was SO much fun! Unfortunately it appears to be quite an expensive hobby...

* my mum came down for some Christmas shopping and I made some gorgeous food: steamed seawolf (?) wrapped in fennel and a tomatosauce with honey and garlic. Hmmm. I love my new kitchen.

* tomorrownight I’m hanging out in Amsterdam with some friends to go to a jazz evening organized by another friend. Looks like fun. It's been too long since I was in the city, and too long since hearing some live music anyway.

* and for some culture I’ll be going to The Art of News, an exhibition of a photojournalist, on Saturday. It looks quite cool, very curious what the photo’s will be like.

* for some more live music: Saturday night will most likely be spent in Delft at WolPop.

So, a boring rundown of my activities. No wonder I don’t blog. I don’t do anything…

Why I love my house: part 2

Kitchen things: Kitty-chan and the Kikkoro&Morizo-duo

Music!

With my renewed connectivity to the internet I have rediscovered my favourite online radiostream: JungleTrain.
A lot of live drum'n'bass all day. Yay :)

Hopefully this will give me the inspiration I need for my next batch of job applications...

Travelsites

I'm bored out of my mind at work, and I decided to start researching a bit about Barcelona. I'm going there in about two months, early January, for just a weekend. Can't wait!
It's raining and getting cold here, I have no money, and well... I just needed something to look forward to.

Barcelona is a city where I have wanted to go for years now. All my friends who've been have come back to tell me that it is a city I will absolutely love. So now I'm off to see for myself.

I'm looking around some of the travelsites but I hadn't expected this much of a difference between them. It's funny to see that some sites (think: Rough Guides) are really really good with the information that they give about destinations but that their interaction with travellers is crap.


Alternatively, others (think: Lonely Planet) have hardly any actual travel information - e.g. about Barcelona art it just mentions that '[it] will beckon you from museums and streetsides'(but exactly from which museums or streets it conveniently forgets to mention). That is corrected though by a travel forum with 'high traffic', so to speak. You want to know what the best pubs in Osaka are? You'll have an answer within hours. What bus you should take when going from A to B in the jungle of Guatamala? Again, you won't have to wait long for this.

It's kind of weird that LP is not able to offer better information on the official part of the site, especially since they are one of the largest travelbook companies around. It would actually also improve the forum as it will not be clogged up with the same easy google-able questions. Maybe the philosophy is that it will decrease guidebook sales? I will now probably look into buying something else than LP more seriously considering the huge differences online, so maybe they should rethink this.

But who knows, maybe there is a place which has both? Suggestions anyone?

Warning: [jobrant]

So I just got called back about why I was rejected without even being asked in for an interview for this amazing job. A job with which my cv matches for about 95%. The best match (on paper, and in real life) that I've come across so far. Okay, that sounds too theoretical. Aside from all the theorizing, this is the job I want.

But, it's what I was afraid of: too little work experience. My six months in a highly relevant organisation doing highly relevant work is not enough (they ask one year minimum). I don't have enough experience in a policymaking field/organisation/whatever.

Okay, fine. Can't say it really surprises me - although I was surprised that they wouldn't give me the benefit of the doubt even this early.

But, how am I ever supposed to get this experience if no one is offering junior positions in this type of work? I fear I'll end up being stuck in this dumb administrative job for most of the coming year which will not give me anything extra if I decide to apply for this or similar work again. (Speaking of which, still undecided about a possible formal extension of work here. I don't want it. But, it would be sensible to take it.)

Gah.

(And of course I forgot to ask the person on the phone if she had any additional tips or suggestions about my application strategies...)

I sooo much hate this jobhunting stuff. I want it to be over. Now.

[/jobrant]

Okay, I'll shut up now. Don't want to be going on about this but it's difficult to not be bothered about it...

I only have one thing to say:

I absolutely love love LOVE my new house!

I hadn't realized how much I missed all my things, after having had them in boxes for nearly a year now. Plus, I have my own kitchen and an actual bedroom and a real living room!
Well, I can go on but I think you can guess that I'm very very happy with my new place. Yay!

Happy anniversary!

To my blog!

It's been a year since my first blog post (although that one is incredibly unremarkable). Yay :D

I've got about 85 posts over a year. That sounds like very little, but not too bad really. Better than I was expecting at least!

Some things (I think) I should try to do more:

- pictures! (but I need a digital camera for that, or at least my J-phone which causes technical complications)

- images! (translation: I need to learn more code....)

- either stop the randomness, or find a way of categorizing or something so that it becomes less random

- .... (I'm sure there are plenty more improvements to be thought of...)

Japan and China:oil policy in Japan Focus

Japan Focus is definitely paying a lot of attention on energy security issues in East Asia recently. The newsletter contains articles on related issues almost weekly.

In this week's issue two articles on respectively Japan and China are included:
Is China to blame for the rise in oil prices? by Niu Li.

This is the JF introduction:
Many news accounts of surging oil prices have pointed at China, and to a lesser extent India, as culprits given the rising thirst for oil to fuel their high growth economies. This survey of oil demand and consumption by Niu Li challenges these assessments by showingthat China’s oil imports are only one-fourth those of the U.S. Equally important, China is far less dependent on oil for its energy than is the U.S., and in 2005 its oil imports increased only slightly in line with Chinese efforts to conserve energy and favor non-oil energy sources. The problem of spiking, and long-term high oil and energy prices lie above all in two realms. One is the fact that we are fast approaching the tipping point at which world oil production begins to decline, or Hubbard’s Peak in the theory of peak oil explained in several Japan Focus articles. If this is correct, we face long term high and rising oil prices. The other is the failure, above all by U.S. policymakers, to make even token moves toward conservation through the use of tax and other policies to curb the rampant increases in oil consumption that distinguish the U.S. from virtually all other economies. The U.S. is not only by far the world’s largest oil and gas consumer; it is also the largest importer. And in contrast to many other nations, there is no sign of policy-driven efforts to control consumption. Japan Focus.

The second article:
The roots of the Japanese oil victory in Libya by Michael Penn.
This discusses the recent activity of Japanese oil companies in developing Libyan oil fields.

[am at work, so haven't read either of these yet... hope they're interesting]

Purple!

Hmm, I'm not too sure how they got to this result:

Your Blog Should Be Purple

You're an expressive, offbeat blogger who tends to write about anything and everything. You tend to set blogging trends, and you're the most likely to write your own meme or survey. You are a bit distant though. Your blog is all about you - not what anyone else has to say.

What Color Should Your Blog or Journal Be?

I think I only agree with the second part of the first sentence... And oh yes, I do love purple. The rest isn't particularly correct I think. Anyone else want to try it and tell me whether or not their colour is more applicable to their blog?

Weekend [updated]

To balance out the nerdy oil/gas talk on this blog:

It's the weekend tomorrow and I'm going here: Amsterdam Dance Event!
Weekends are good. It's been weeks since I have been out dancing so am very excited.

Slight problem: too much choice.
We haven't quite figured out yet what club and/or dj to go to...

[update]
We ended up at the Sugar Factory for some 'world grooves', whatever those may be. I think we were there much too early, but by the time we left at about 23:30 there was still nothing going on except a DJ playing fairly relaxed, lounge-like tunes. The stage was packed with instruments, which were mostly decorative. For part of the evening, one guy used some of the various percussion instruments in turn. Nothing actually happened though.
We left to go to the More which was okay, a night of general house-type of music. Good enough to dance to, but nothing too exciting.

Maybe I'm too picky when it comes to good dance music but I hardly ever find anywhere that makes for a fantastic party. If any Amsterdam readers are out there (I know you are...), recommendations please?

All in all it was nevertheless a fun night. It's always fun to catch up with my friend, and as usual we started the evening with good food. It was also some much-needed distraction... I heard back from amazing-job-nr-2; it looks like I'll have to start looking for new fabulous-sounding vacancies again as these guys don't even want me to come in for an interview. Pretty frustrating... my CV is a near-perfect match to the vacancy, but still it's not good enough. I know, I'm way too impatient.... This is not fun though.

Oh well, I will think about that again after this week, which will be packed with painting & wallpapering & unpacking in my new house. Yay :D