Hello future Conventioneers,
The most important update is of course that since October 14 the tickets and t-shirts can be ordered through our website! http://www.bcconvention2010.nl

Furthermore we are obviously very busy with the preparations, and it's all starting to get exciting. The contract with the venue will be signed next week, we are busy thinking of and collecting nice thingies to go in the goodie bags, for the tombola and the raffle (contributions still most welcome!) and we are also seriously thinking about the lunch on Saturday.

We managed to find a few sponsors for some of the things we need and we're very happy about that! Please sneak a peek at the thanks page: http://www.bcconvention2010.nl/11-Thank_You.html
The flying Dutchman and New Amsterdam (publishers) are donating some books which we can raffle off, cheese for the lunch comes from Cheese Farm Clara Maria, and TTY Internet Solutions provides our Internet site... great stuff, and we thank them all most cordially!

The programme for Saturday is taking its final shape: we have confirmation from Rob Ruggenberg, an author who writes historical children's books, and some of his work has been translated to English. See his website http://www.ruggenberg.nl.
Another author gave us the yes-word a long time ago, her name is Karin Spaink, see http://www.spaink.net. She will be speaking to us concerning the ins and outs of internetcommunities.
Furthermore we have storytellers Sahand Sahebdivani and Rik (surname not yet known, sorry) who will tell us splendid tales from the east. And finally there will be a writer from the Middle East, who has been living in the Netherlands for years, and will speak of his experiences with writing in another culture, and being an author in and between two languages.

Contributions continue to trickle in. The Internet site has been updated extensively, and much information has been added. Please take the time to look around, a lot has changed. A list of restaurants and hotels in the surroundings is in the making.

That's about it for now. At the time of writing this, 72 people have registered as attendees. Get your ticket while they last!

...is more than just a buzzword. Or so I hope.
Recently, I've been working on doing it better. I've not been very busy this year, work-wise, and I've had plenty of interesting, non-work related things to to; all very nice, but I figured it's about time I invest a bit of energy in getting some nice projects in the future.

( Here's what I did... )

...is a beautiful day here. It's been sunny all day, and the right temperature for wearing a T-shirt and sandals. So that's what I'm wearing.
It feels a bit like autumn already, though; even though the temperature is almost summer-like, the air is starting to feel different. I love this Indian summer we're having.

I went into the city by bike, left the bike near the city centre and continued on foot. That allowed me to release some BookCrossing books, of course, and to see things that I might otherwise have missed.
Like this bunch of mushrooms in the city park. There were many more of them.

Pretty, aren't they. You can also eat them. But I figured that it would be best to leave them where many more people could enjoy them.


Click makes big

Remember when gummihuhn , aka_phoenix , Raffizack, stoneshop  and I went to the Chaos Communication Camp in Finowfurt, in 2007, and set up a temporary OBCZ there?
Well, maybe not. Here's an article on the BookCrossing site to refresh your memory.

We had a wonderful time, handed out a lot of books and made new friends and members from all over the world. So this year, we're doing it again.
This year's version of the conference is called Hacking At Random 2009, and it's going to be held in Vierhouten, the Netherlands, from August 13 to 16.
We're likely to be with a smaller group of BookCrossers this time, but Raffi is coming, so that's good. And we'll be bringing our laptops, lots of obsolete-but-fun hardware, and plenty of nonsense with LEDs on it. Oh, and books.

Ticket presale is open until July 20th, so if you want to get in for the lower presale price, you'd better start packing. The event's website can be found here.

Real postings, I mean. For now, here's a tiny little NZ anecdote I just posted to Chit-chat on BookCrossing.com:

I read that Dunzy (a fellow BC member) was not well, and wanted to send him a card... so I picked a nice one, and had Stoneshop and Rubberchicken sign it too.

I meant to post it at the airport before going to New Zealand, but forgot... and found it in my bike jacket pocket, after riding through half of the South Island. So I decided to stick an NZ stamp on it in addition to the Dutch ones, and mail it from there.
A hundred kilometres later, it was still in my pocket!
Eventually, I left it on a table in the communal kitchen of a motorlodge in Haast, with a note that said 'Please mail this, thanks'!
I thought, since things like the honesty box system seem to work here, I may as well give this a go. Someone may well mail it.

Looks like someone did. Because yes, my friends, that card got to Dunzy in Canada.

We arrived in Christchurch safely. I'm a bit sad that our bike trip is over; on the other hand, the Convention is going to be great. In fact it already is (we just had a lovely pre-Convention dinner).
It's all a bit confusing. I'll sort it out later and go to bed now.

Tomorrow is the day! I can hardly believe it.
Bye all, I'll do my best to be in touch.
See some of you soon!

I've recycled some of my used greeting cards into magnetic bookmarks, using some magnetic tape, Tiny Stickers from the BC Supply Store and a bit of packing tape for extra shinyness and durability. See what you think.
The nice thing about these is that the magnetic tape makes them snap shut (ever so slightly) around the page so they never slide out of your book.

I found another tea mug exactly like mine... after gummihuhn  took the trouble of going to a very good Chinese shop in Amsterdam and was told they were sold out, and not going to get any new ones in stock! That may well have been true, as I couldn't find any in the wholesale store of the same chain, either. Why yes, I do have a card for the wholesale instant noodle soup store...
The one I found was in a shop in Nijmegen, where I went yesterday because of a BookCrossing meeting... always a good reason.

This mug is slightly darker, the characters stand out a bit less.. on the other hand, the glazing is thicker (which may well cause the other two differences, yes) which results in a lovely craquelé pattern.
Anyway, I'm happy.  Bcuz tea r srs bsniz.
Here it is.

...and I don't even own one.

Why is it that people seem to think that getting an e-reader involves signing a contract that states that you'll never read, hold, buy or gift another paper book?
If I got a euro for every time someone on the BookCrossing forums says 'Oh no, I could never get used to using one of those, because I like holding paper books' , '... I don't want to get rid of all my books', or '... when I'm giving books as presents I want something to wrap', I'd have a nice sum. And if I got another euro for every time someone says 'Oh no, I could never read an e-book because I dislike reading off a computer screen for longer times, the flickering makes my eyes hurt' or something similar, I could probably afford one of these by now:


This is a nice-looking, simple, very portable e-reader I saw in a store yesterday, priced at 300 euros. I could definitely see uses for it. And no, the screen does not flicker anymore than paper books do.

But seriously. E-readers do not flicker. They read like paper, only you can make the font bigger. Is that a Bad Thing? And no one will come to your house and take all your books once you get one.
It's like people are saying 'Oh no, I would never get one of these newfangled telephone thingies, I like talking to people face to face.'
Why are people so afraid of new options?

Three things that happened lately:

- I went to Belgium with aka_phoenix  to be present at yellow-star's goodbye ceremony / funeral. Like Phoenix, I didn't know her personally; yet I enjoyed her very positive presence in the forums, and I have a fond memory of the time when she won a 10 kg box of release fodder in my Newbies prize drawing. Since someone was kind enough to deliver the box to her home address in Belgium I could send an even bigger box so she ended up winning 20 kgs of books, and her surprise and happiness were so great they were contagious.
I'm still glad she won that prize drawing.
Yellow-Star, even though you're gone forever, you'll always be a winner to me.

Phoenix described the ceremony quite well in her journal so I don't have much to add. It was a bit strange for me to be at a religious service, but I'm glad I went. I'm pretty sure that our presence meant a lot to Yellow-Star's father and that alone was a good reason to be there.

- I joined stoneshop  in helping out at a motorcycle trials event. They always need so-called observers to watch the participants closely and see if they touch the ground with their feet, or make other mistakes while riding through the course. They get penalty points if they do.
It's a fun type of event because the sport is not based on speed but on balance and control, which makes it interesting to watch. For a competition sport, it has a decidedly relaxed and non-competitive atmosphere; riders will congratulate each other on good results, or point out tricky bits of the course to each other while exploring the course on foot before riding it.
Each course has different routes for different skill levels, marked with arrows of a specific colour, so each rider can ride at his or her own skill level. It's typically a parent-child event where fathers compete against their sons or daughters. Mothers, not so much; maybe in time we'll see that too.
I managed to punch my finger with the punching pliers that we used to mark the participants' cards to show the results. I'd never thought that was possible, but it was. Apart from that, it was a really nice way to spend a day outdoors.

- Last night I dreamt I found my Leatherman (which I hadn't been able to find for a while, and I was obviously starting to miss it). Then when putting on my working clothes this morning, I found it in one of my safety shoes.

My, this entry sure needs a lot of tags.

As some of you know, I'll be travelling to New-Zealand in April, to be at the BookCrossing Convention 2009. Of course, it's silly and a waste to go to NZ for just a weekend, so I'll be going earlier so I can rent a motorbike there (yay!) and do some exploring. All very nice indeed.

I've been thinking about what to bring. Going without any kind of computer at all doesn't sound nice to me. I'm an internet junkie after all. I might want to e-mail or blog every now and then. But bringing my laptop... well, if it's packed well enough to be shock proof (as it needs to be while on the bike) it takes up a lot of space. Almost an entire pannier. Also, it's another thing to worry about; it could get stolen or damaged. And I wouldn't want to have it for just the Convention weekend, and leave it somewhere during the bike trip.

So I'd need something smaller if I wanted to bring anything at all. Okay, the new Eeepcs look like they could do the job; but I haven't got one and frankly, they're too close to my laptop and there would be functional overlap. They're... too much of a computer I guess.

So I thought about the Africa trip. I had a nice little e-mail device then: a HP 320 LX palmtop. It's still in working order, and it's a neat litle machine. No colour screen, but it's OK for text; runs on two penlight batteries, which is utterly practical.
Only trouble is, it was outdated when I got it almost ten years ago, and it's pretty much obsolete now. It's got a PCMCIA modem that allows it to dial in; but in NZ, where would it dial in to? It might be possible to get a normal network card or a WiFi card for it, but is it really worth the trouble?

However, the 320 has a sibling: the Jornada 720. It was almost available when I made the Africa trip (it came out a few months later), but would have been way too expensive for me to consider. Now I can buy one used, with all the accessories I'll need (and even some that I don't ) for a price below 100 euros.
It's still small: about the size of a book. it's still got that familiair rugged clam shell exterior. And it can still dial in (built-in modem, no less). But it's got a nice colour screen, more storage space (and it still takes CF cards like my old 320 does, which makes it really easy to get software on to it), a faster processor and new connectivity options.
And we're picking it up this evening. I can't wait.( Go on, you know you want to see them. )

We had a wonderful time there but typing it all in feels like homework! So I'll just tell you a tiny bit about it and leave the rest to the imagination. ( Under a cut for your friends page's sake )

Now that I know I'm chosen to be sent to New Zealand for the 2009 BookCrossing Convention, fundraising for that has my renewed interest... after all, there's nothing that motivates quite like self-interest.
So here's what we're going to do.
We're offering people the change of deciding whether or not we (discoverylover and I) shave our heads.
That means, we're accepting donations both 'for' and 'against', and depending on the amounts that have been donated, we will or will not lose our hair!
So much more interesting than your everyday, run of the mill sponsored head shaving, isn't it. We're hoping this way of doing it will add some more excitement and suspense to the whole event, and possibly a spot of competition, allowing us to rake in more dough.

Read all about it here.
And if you feel strongly either way about the two of us keeping or losing our hair, please vote with your wallet!

As a teaser, here are some pics representing us with or without hair. It's really up to you!

OR

I woke up this morning to find an unexpected message from discoverylover (unexpected because I thought the voting would not be over until tonight) saying that I'd won the vote for representing the Dutch Convention Team at the BookCrossing Convention in Christchurch next April !!! *deep breath*
And now I'm bouncing around the room because I can't believe that I'm actuallly going and I have no one else to tell. So that's why I'm posting here.
*boing boing boing boing boing*
*makes nice calming cup of tea*

Okay, the next thing to do is fundraising. Because I'd really, really like to see if we can raise enough money to send aka_phoenix over there as well. I know she wants to go as badly as I do.
So here goes: www.bcx.bounce.com.au
There's a Donation page in the The Second Adventure submenu. It has PayPal.
Any and all donations, no matter how small (they start at 2 kiwidollars, which is close to 1 yankeedollar or 1 cloggydollar) are very, very welcome. Thank you!

Spite makes a wonderful pet.
Just feed it every now and then, and it'll keep you company for a lifetime.

(Inspired by this.)

Okay, this one is really hard. Maybe all y'all can help me think.

See, gummihuhn, stoneshop and me were going to visit a biker's meet on Dartmoor (*waves at miketroll*). And on the way we would stop to meet a BookCrosser or two, and pick up a teapot for my Teasmade, which I bought on E-bay (or actually, gummihuhn did the buying on my behalf).
But there's a problem. stoneshop cannot get many days off from work, so his time is restricted. And he figures it's a lot of kilometres in rather few days, to meet a group of people he's not all that involved with. We'd be on a rather tight schedule in order to make it to the ferry on time.
I can see his point, and even if I couldn't: if he doesn't want to go, I can't make him go, and I wouldn't want to if I could.

So if he stays home, why shouldn't I go? After all, I've been looking forward to this trip for quite some time.  Therre's going to be campfires, and greenlaning, and lots of biker's stories being swapped. It sounds like a lovely outing and I know that gummihuhn and I make fine travel companions (everything went quite well on our trip to the BookCrossing convention in London).

Well...
it's just that stoneshop and I haven't been on a proper holiday since I don't know when. I'd really enjoy a few days out and about together. Doesn't have to be just the two of us, can be in a group; but I do want him to be there or it wouldn't be the same.
Are there other things I'd like to do with those days off? Well... I've always wanted to go to Prague together. It's my favourite city in the whole world and I'd love to show it to him. Of course, that's about the same distance... but there are no boats involved, so we wouldn't be on such a tight schedule. We could even travel by bus and sleep on the way.

So what's a girl to do? Go for the fun bike trip, get down and dirty on the moor, drink lukewarm beer around a campfire with total strangers and probably have a whale of a time?
Or go for some quality time together with the big guy, in a city which I know I really love, and he may well love it as well?

Dear LJ, I know I've not been around much lately, but don't forsake me now that I come to you in my hour of need. Please advise.

I just went to the recycling centre / second hand shop across the street.
I took the shopping trolley that we keep in the Book Room as a receptacle for books that are falling apart, or that we can't possibly imagine anyone being happy about finding. The trolley was half full (although some people would say it was half empty).

I used the available space for pizza boxes from the kitchen, and empty glass jars and bottles. By the time there were none left in the kitchen, the trolley was more than full. This is a wine, peanut butter and pizza loving, four-person household (I use the term 'house' loosely).

While throwing the books and boxes in the waste paper container, I happened to find some books that were not falling apart, and suitable for BookCrossing purposes. So I took them home.

They were:
Room at the top (John Braine), Penguin, decent condition
A twist in the tale (Jeffrey Archer), paperback, decent condition
Serenade (Leon de Winter), a Dutch National Book Week gift, good condition
The incredible journey (Sheila Burnford), Dutch translation in reasonable condition
Brave new world (Aldous Huxley), nice tacky '50s Bantam pocket, rather brittle.

This last one goes straight onto Mt. TBR, no matter what miketroll says.

Inside the shop I bought an aluminium strainer, sieve or possibly a steaming dish, suitable for washing engine parts in a part washer such as stoneshop has.

All in all quite a useful little trip.

I found something odd in the boxes of books that I'd gotten for BookCrossing recently.
A book in Esperanto! I'd never seen one of those before.