maart roert zijn staart

iiiits snowing!





last week it was almost summer, but in retrospect it was a bit early for that summer haircut... (the title means: march wags its tail - i think the ducth have a joke about the bad weather for every month actually)

2 quick things

(1)i just read something on the MIT OpenCourseWare site (http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Science--Technology--and-Society/index.htm - if you enjoy the site youre also a nerd!) regarding sociology of knowledge... you see now iv been wondering just how is knowledge created - more specifically: how are objects of knowledge formed? - and it was put so simply that i feel a bit stupid for wondering: by experiments, by theories and framing questions and by ethical presuppositions...
(2)but back on earth iv also been thinking about how to wash my bike living on the 6th floor of a building without a garden... just how angry can a landlord get if he catches you washing your bike in the shower (or a girlfriend for that matter)? at least the grease seems to leave a slightly sticky layer on the floor rather than a slippery one... anyone got a good recipe for bike wash from common household cleaning products?

why stress?

in all my stressing about writing a masters thesis i have forgotten to write anything here about it, which is stupid cos seeing your own words on a subject most of the time allows you to think about it more clearly, or realise that you are completely stuffed and need to start again, what ever the case, write it down, it really helps... i have been thinking off adding guest writers to this blog, anyone keen, just post a comment and ill contact you. So the one thing I have realised while stressing about thesis writing (you see i decided to force myself to finish by the middle of july by buying a flight back to SA) is that interesting topics are not hard to come by, there are plenty of controversies in science and loads of inconsistent policies in the political and scientific arena, but how (the big H word) on earth does one approach it from a science dynamics or sociology of science point of view? ok ok i can almost see all the engineers cringing at the use of the 's' word (sociology) but its not all up in the air here, there is some wild hugely computer intesive quantitative research going on even in the realms of the sociology department, i could recommend a paper (have u read it yet dave?) but im not sure ud read it... back to the plan: i have meetings with two potential supervisors today and im not going to leave their offices until i have 3 examples of great methodologies that will work for a 4 month thesis projects in my hand! oh an i maxed out the credit card and bought lots of xtr too...

a new day

having a laptop, especially a shiny silver one, is very cool, but with each new technology seems to come new problems... has it satisfied my consumer tendencies? i think not, it seems merely to have wet my appetite! well im not going to go on much more about this, but i would never have thought that having a laptop would actually exaggerate the lack of internet connectivity frustrations, its kind of like getting buyers remorse before youve even paid... is it?
but really, i have thought about white picket fences for a while and im not sure they can make a come back, things have changed (just read steve's comment) and thinking whether it is for the better or not is irrelevant...
now im thinking about what to write a masters thesis on... i started out being totally sure that i want to write about health and food and maybe even specifically sugar, but then climate change and political rhetoric just got more and more interesting... (heres an interesting article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6335899.stm) the important thing to consider is that i am not to investigate specific technology but rather how a specific technology is interpreted by society, we all know that sugar was invented pretty recently (do we?) and some of us know that it is present in larger and larger proportions in all our food, even few of us know that it may be this sugar presence that causes grumpiness, lack of concentration, diabetes, obesity to name but a few... but what does this mean? why do i react differently to this information to you? again, no better or worse distinction implied, im just finding what is truth for me... any ideas? its gotta be done by july so i can race the imana again!

something other than bikes and pancakes

you want to know a little more about what im doing up here in the north west of europe do ya? well i just finished a marathon of 5 essays in 5 days! nope thats not how hard they work you here in amsterdam, thats just how hard i made it for myself by having a holiday at an inappropriate time... but all that writing (it was somewhere near 6000 words) did make me think just a little bit, and there was one particular thing that i felt was share-worthy... its a concept that a guy (actually a really famous british sociologist) called anthony giddens came up with that just keeps bouncing around in my head, it may do the same if you're one of the 'just-about-everyone-i-know' people in a relationship, well, actually i think it affects all of us but here goes: he talks about how the institution of family is becoming more flexible, how we are increasingly free to choose our mates and how we relate to them, sounds good huh? in fact he goes on to say that this creates unparalleled opportunities... but and its a big butt... it also creates a lot of work, because a relationship becomes a reflexive project which has to be interpreted, maintained and at times worried over... no those arent all my own words, but you get the point, no? cant we go back to the simple days, i want a white picket fence... i think... you happy now, davo?

the italy experience

start with cold pizza in the park... then walk along a big old river



to a reaaallly famous old building (or is it a reaaallly old famous building?)



but make sure u watch out for the italian traffic...

shiny things

aah i nice shiny apple laptop sure keeps you warm at night... nope its not mine, although i should have mine in a day or three, im just house sitting for a friend and in return for taking care of the kittens i get to play with her laptop, and wireless internet, and that has taken up just about all of my time! well, apart from it being 2 degrees outside, actually that has something to do with it, it might snow... i was going to say that apart from that, things are looking pretty peachy up here in north western europe, the sycip is on its way back home, all shiny and new, they even fixed the dents, those nice men at the bike factory are quite something huh..? pictures to follow

is it too late to say 'happy new year'?

so we're back from italy feeling over pizza-ed and a little broke, what a cool experience tho! new years eve was spent with a bottle of champagne (and thousand or so other people also with bottles of champagne) on a hill overlooking rome watching the fireworks, then we were prevented from going to a party a long way away by the diabolical taxi system in rome, we just couldnt get one... but all ended well cos i got to eat a donut that was to big to hold with one hand! well anyway, its a new year and i wish you all well! i got an appointment with a coach at the university of amsterdam sport centre, its time to get back into shape!

blingle bells

who else wants some pink chris king parts for christmas? well im busy negotiating some as we speak... with myself that is! so its been a busy few weeks with school and work, but its all going to pay of because its holiday time! first stop is a farm in a place called... um waldrighem? ok i know the spelling is completely wrong, so anyway its a friends parents farm somewhere in the netherlands. christmas is going to be spent there, then its off to somewhere else for first christmas day (the dutch have 3 christmas days, the less important the person the later they get visited... jees no pressure) and then its off to rome!!! woohoo bring on the pasta pizza and icecream... see you all in the new year!

almost christmas

and all i want since i have some front teeth is a flight to somewhere warm... and a macbook pro... and a nice tasty snack right now... actually what i want is not to want... does that make sense to anyone else? it seems im affected by the christmas spirit... although i would like to complement the dutch on the fact that it is already december and im not completely sick of the christmas spirit, i do think the fact that they have a whole seemingly separate tradition of Sinterklaas on the 5th of december has a large influence here tho... look it up on wikipedia, get to know a dutch person today! i think im going to go get that tasty sinterklaas inspired snack right now!