[source: Librarything]

Prayer for Israeli soldiers

Invoking God’s protection for the members of the Israel Defense Forces.

He Who blessed our forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob — may He bless the fighters of the Israel Defense Forces, who stand guard over our land and the cities of our God, from the border of the Lebanon to the desert of Egypt, and from the Great Sea unto the approach of the Aravah, on the land, in the air, and on the sea.

May the Almighty cause the enemies who rise up against us to be struck down before them. May the Holy One, Blessed is He, preserve and rescue our fighters from every trouble and distress and from every plague and illness, and may He send blessing and success in their every endeavor.

May He lead our enemies under our soldiers’ sway and may He grant them salvation and crown them with victory. And may there be fulfilled for them the verse: For it is the Lord your God, Who goes with you to battle your enemies for you to save you.

Now let us respond: Amen.

(source: OU and Aish)

[It is the first time since 1 1/2 years that Israel responds to the rockets hitting the cities around Gaza. It is a sad thing, but needs to be done...]

Fireworks in Gouda

Wishing All of You Lots of Happiness, Love but for All a Great Health!
The photographers between you always get an extended wish ;-) : Wishing You the Most Beautifull Light You can Imagine!

Obama Change

I am not talking about Obama being Martin Luther King. No, I mean a real king! Maybe even an emperor… With all its pro’s and all it’s cons… ;-)

I am really happy that Obama is becoming the next president of the United States of America. It is about time that the leadership of the USA is changed, after these years.

Is everything Obama says to be happy about? I am not sure. I have doubts about his ideas on the Middle East. Not because I think he is a muslim. He is as much a muslim as I am a christian, I think.

But I believe that he, more than a republican, can see things differently. We need a new way of looking at the world and a new way of thinking. We need a man with his own passport and stamps in it!

Can we change the world?

YES, We Can!

iPhone 3G

Thanx to the WordPress plugin WPTouch your favourite blog ;-) Dutchclick.com is iPhone ready from now on.

I could wait in line and be lucky to catch one, but the war is over here in The Neterlands for more than 60 years now and I really don’t like soup kitchen lines. Not for food and for sure not for something else than food.

Next to that I refuse to sign a 2-year contract with a gsm operator. In The Netherlands this is T-Mobile, here known for its poor in-house reception, due to the used frequency. The iPhones you get are also simlocked, something I also don’t like for something that is mine.

I made my hands dirty and drove to our friendly southern neighbours in Belgium. Brussels to be more precise. Two hours to go and two hours back.

In Belgium a simlock is illegal and so gsm operator Mobistar has to sell the phone to anyone, with or without a 2-year contract. It wasn’t easy to get one and I will not get into details (unless you really ask me), but I got my iPhone 3G. It has a big and when I say big, I mean BIG WOW factor.

Am I a fanboy? Yes and No.

I was getting sick and tired to walk around with and a Nokia E61i (connections) and Palm Centro (calender (Datebk6!) and contacts infomation). I have everything in a bigger, but ONE device. Finally…

But do I like Apple and the operators to grap me by the b*lls/n*ts? I don’t think so!

Goal of this stay in Israel is a wonderful vacation and next to that to come back with a few great series of photographs.

For that reason I bought myself the greatest tripod and tripod head I could find for a decent amount of money. I have been buying tripod the last years, but all were not that expensive. In fact, not at all… That’s also why I bought more tripods. Never very satisfied about it. Not stable enough for portrait pictures, parts falling off or is just just wobbly.

Not this time. Advised by a fellow photographer (that’s you, Johan ;) ) I bought the Manfrotto 055XPROB tripod with the 804RC2 head…

Oh my G_d… This is finally a piece of equipment…

(sturdy, but extremely flexible – you can’t imagine, seeying it here standing just there)

Today this peak was a little to much for me…

The weather in The Netherland in no more than 5 degrees celsius…

Check This!:

Yesterday I have been shopping for presents for the little daughter of my best friend. While checking some little things, I saw some things that didn’t ring a bell and I went on.

While moving a meter away I saw a hair stye that I did recognize, even from behind. But I could not directly place it. The head did turn around and a friendly smile met my eyes. I couldn’t believe it, but the eyes belonged to the Queen of The Netherlands: Beatrix.

I am not a fanatic royalist, but I am happy to live in a country where it is possible that the queen can go to a shop and buy things for her grandchildren and that she does that too!

Good for You, Bea!! ;-D

For me it is interesting to see that the terrorist is counted in in the amount of killed people. Next to that the header “Israel violence” gives me a biased taste. Am I wrong?

In another report there is an interview with a certain Jerry Lewis. The interviewer states that the students at the yeshiva are learning about zionism. He is corrected by this Jerry Lewis, who says: “No, there are learning about judaism. They are reading scriptures and discussing them”.

There are no critical words about Gaza, where people are celebrating the newest killing of innocent religious students, by shooting in the air and kissing the soil.

The first report I saw, was followed by a commercial of World Travel & Tourism Council in Dubai 20-22 april 2008. Is this lack of critical questions caused by this?

The repairs of my car are expensive and take too long! That hurts, but I can live with that!

To park my car in my own street I need a permit between 18:00 and 00:00. I don’t like that (at all), but I can live with that!

Last night I had my garage rent car standing in my street. Permit displayed and a small note that this was a rented car.

I got a ticket of 50,50 euro, about $76!

It is very good that I didn’t see the guy, because I would kicked his ass, probably more!

My car is still at the garage… Another night…