A few days ago I got the first payment of my new job. Next to the fact that the amount is nice, it is also a very nice feeling to have earned the money myself again and with a positive feeling about the work I have done and will do.

Can’t wait for the next month check! ;-)

My favorite shop for buying electronics, Mediamarkt, will maybe lose a customer. I am not sure about this, because I have no idea of the impact this will have, if I stop buying there.
The prices are not always that low, but they have a big choice of products. And important, they have quite a good guarantee… [With is anyway a matter of at which branch you buy, as the [dutch] MediaMarkt shops are all franchises.]

A dutch/belgian journalist, Hans Knoop (dutch only), did find out (okay, repeated after some German journalists), that it’s founder, Otto Beisheim, started his company with SS-money. Money that was confiscated and stolen in WWII, mostly from Jews.

Question is whether my not buying at MediaMarkt contribute to stop this company? If I would succeed, together with others, to bring that company down, how many people will lose their jobs?
I am sure that about 99,99% of the personel didn’t know anything about it’s founders dark past.

And: IBM wasn’t very clean too. Maybe not that personally dirty as this Beisheim-guy, but still…

Am I judge, or will the Almighty be their judge?!

LINKs : Otto Beisheim Wikipedia EN / Wikipedia DE

LINKs [german] : MediaMarkt / Metro / Makro NL / Saturn / Hansa / Kaufhof

About two weeks ago I have been in Disneyland Resort Paris and it was okay.

I would never, never have spend a € 53 to go there myself, but with my girlfriend and three young kids I had to go (= € 191,- for entrance, € 8,- parking).
Far from the longest day of my life, but not really my cup of tea to be honest. I did buy a great t-shirt over there: “I am a surviver of Disneyland Resort Paris.”

[okay...I am lying! They don't sell these overthere...]

Good news for the [German] greenies…

The coming World Cup Football will be the first that did take a great deal of environmental measures for the games.
Goal of this is to organise the first big “climate neutral” sports event. A great initiative to my opinion.

Targets are set for refuse, the use of transportation, energy and water.
The lights (floods?) that will light the games have new lamps that only use half of the energy of the older ones, the big signs with advertisements will be recyclable and the rain water will be collected for further use for instance.

I think the Germans are making a nice start with this, but shouldn’t win the games…[hey, I am still dutch... ;-) ] Next to all of that I am so glad that I don’t have too look at these games!!!

LINK : GreenGoal
LINK : UNEP

As you might know the french find food very important. I always envy the french for their big choice in this ‘hypermarché‘, real big supermarkets we just don’t have in The Netherlands.

As I love different kids of food, and especially chocolate and dairy (yogurt!) products, france is a good place to be.

What I am very surprised about is the fact that products sold in france don’t have an ingredient declaration on the label. So you know nothing about its nutritional value. No way to know how much fat, sugar, carbohydrate, and so on are in the products.

I think that it is, in this time of increasing number of potbellies, important to know how much of what you are getting out of your food.

It is time to get the European laws on one line concerning this matter. The really stupid and patronizing laws they can keep!
[and yes, I know the french seem to be more slender in general ;-) ]

I started working at a public library in The Netherlands this week. And I love it.

After having been working at different sorts of libraries through the years I think I will like this the best. The direct contact with all kind of people, the direct contact with books, that is what I want!

A lot of people think that being a librarian is dusty. But it is a dusty as you make it! Just like a lot of other jobs.

[photo: the sun coming through the window in our library (= bibliotheek) - (c) conan the librarian with Palm Treo 650]