f.houwink

2007-04-12T15:26:00.000+02:00

Evander & Tony Bennett?? LOL. Gareth made me curious to see who I looked like... Bigger post coming soon!

Bi-annual update?

2006-05-05T10:45:00.000+02:00

So it's been another age of silence. Apparently I'm not very good at updating up my blog. Life in the 'fast lane' has left me with little energy to do so. Hardly the fast lane, but still neatly occupied with mostly my last 10-week case-study for econometrics, which started when I came back from my Christmas break in Houston. I have to admit that it was pretty tough to combine with my work, but I managed to get a decent grade. I'm just glad that it's over. I now have 3 subjects left for my Bachelor's, which I'll be focusing on this trimester.

In my last post I mentioned my intentions to upgrade my RAM, which I did with the friendly assistance of Santa. My PC is now running with a comfortable 768 MB of RDRAM. On a sidenote, I also was wondering about how long NASN would still be on the preview channel. The correct answer to that question turned out to be: two days. Two days after that post they changed it... just my luck.

In other news of a completely different nature, I recently broke my nose on the rear windshield of a car... I was on my bike around midnight coming back from a dinner with a bunch of friends. I was ahead of the rest and was distracted by somebody shouting something at me. So I glanced ahead, the road was clear, and then turned to look behind me. When I turned back, there was a black car blocking my path. Unfortunately for me I didn't have much road left to brake, so I ended up hitting the left rear tire of the car and smashing my face into the rear windshield. Which as you can imagine is combined with considerable bloodloss. Later I was told that there was actually a puddle of blood on the ground... Anyway, I set my nose myself while lying there. It just needed some work the next day to pop out the right side, which had caved in ever so slightly. Oh, I only broke the car's tail light, so that wasn't too bad. I guess I could consider myself pretty lucky. And don't worry, I still look as crazy as I used to!

Coming up is more work, classes and chores around the house. I'm trying to finally make my apartment look like I actually live here as opposed to looking like I just moved in... I'm getting there, but I still need to do some stuff for it. More on that later.

Change was in the air

2005-11-01T12:45:00.000+01:00

It's been a busy time since my last post and a lot has happened! I had just started working for Deloitte and had finished up my exams a week earlier. I still have my job! While my congrats go out to Gaz and Hanne for moving into a new place, I also moved house! That kind of just happened in September. No real planning on my part, but the opportunity presented itself and I took it. So after five years of living with my bro, I now live on my own in Rotterdam! It's a street-level apartment, with a bedroom which is seperated from my living room by a LARGE window. I also have my own front door, bathroom and kitchen. And I even have a small backyard...really small...I think it can fit two chairs or so. But still very cool! I'm far from settled in. The essentials are present, but I haven't put up any posters yet and such things. So those pictures might take a while...

My thesis had a good grade (extremely good relative to the quality) and my August exams went pretty well, so I got to start my Master's program: Quantitative Finance. Not that I'm done with my Bachelor's yet, I still have 4 subjects left for that. It just means that by combining the classes and the assignments with my work, things tend to get a bit hectic. Thus, I have less time for fun stuff... Like BF2! I unfortunately don't have the game and I wonder if it'll actually run on my current configuration. Although I did upgrade the video card and I added a 120 GB HD not too long ago, I still need to add some RAM to get this thing up to speed.

In other news, I'm proud of the Astros, too bad they couldn't take it all the way. But kudos for their accomplishment. I could actually watch the games on tv here (not live), since they are temporarily showing the North American Sports Network here on the cable company's preview channel. So I also get to watch hockey and football!! Good stuff. I wonder how long it'll last...

And last but not least: I'll be in Houston right before X-mas! Just for two weeks, but it's better than nothing!

All work and no play...

2005-08-23T23:00:00.000+02:00

makes jack a dull boy..., but I have a to admit that my first two days working for Deloitte are quite interesting. I basically learn something new every two minutes, well either way, it's challenging and very much worth it! I just had dinner with my boss (JB) and a colleague (that's you, Sebas). So that's always a good thing.
Anyway, I promised news about my thesis and that's only good news: I passed! I also found out that I had a composite passsing grade for two of my exams today (i.e. I passed one and failed one, but put together I passed both...ye dig?)
Apart from that I have to mention that the NHL is back....finally. The first national sport to lose a season to a labor dispute, but they finally resolved it. And now we're back on ice! Also the Astros are doing quite well after mucking about the first part for the season. They have a decent record over the last couple of weeks (months by now). So, go Houston!!
Also, I met up with Hesam, Gaz and Hanne a few weeks ago, but check their blogs for more info and pics. The important thing is that I had a good time seeing them again. It'd been way too long. Hopefully, I'll find some time to look Gaz and Hanne up this fall somewhere... Considering my track-record that's not likely, but in the end hope is all you got, right?? Either way, it probably won't be until x-mas that I'll be in Houston.
My apologies for the brief update, but in short it's what's been going on in my life recently, but I have to get up early again tomorrow...

P.S. I hate when I publish a post and realize right after, that I've made a massive error....

Monkey Nuts

2005-08-11T00:52:00.000+02:00

Caught your attention? good. I'll update soon, I just have to sort some things out first, so I can give you a proper update! In the meantime, I think Gareth has a recap of our rendez-vous in Rotterdam and The Hague a week or two ago... good times!

4th of July

2005-07-04T12:54:00.000+02:00

Happy birthday to Lina! Many happy returns! This is the first time in quite a few years that I'll miss her birthday, but I'm sure Hesam has something set up for the occasion. As I understand it Gaz has taken my place this summer, hope you have a good time over there! I'm sure you have gathered by now that I won't be in Houston this summer or any time soon for that matter. The way things look right now, it'll be around the winter holidays before I'll be 'home' again.

In the good news section this week, I passed that exam I did a few weeks ago with flying colours. The 'touch of easy' in it was apparent from my grade. Anyway, in the meantime my thesis is kind of a problem child. But I'll figure something out for that... and it better be quick: 2 weeks left!

I also went to see Batman Begins at the IMAX theatre in Amsterdam on Saturday with a couple of friends. It wasn't too bad, but I liked it better than the more recent batman movies. I especially liked the car or 'tank' as it was called by a cop in the movie. It had some of my favorite actors in there: Morgan Freeman, Christian Bale, Liam Neeson, Michael Caine. So that helped it's succes considerably. The whole batman thing had a bit of a creepy side to it though, but that was probably the best part. They gave it a bit of horror to it, crooks suddenly dissappearing into thin air and that kind of thing. Of course the mindaltering drug boosted the horror bit. Not too shabby really.

On Sunday, I didn't bother watching the men's finals at Wimbledon as it was apparent to me that Federer was going to win again. I don't like his face, but the boy sure can play tennis! So kudos to him for winning again.

And thus it begins...

2005-06-22T10:54:00.000+02:00

Summer is here!! It's been nice and toasty around here the last couple of days, so the nights start balmy and end cool. Took my one and only exam yesterday. It was a fair exam with a touch of easy in it. I don't want to jinx myself so I'll just label it as "it couldn't have gone too bad". So that was the first step in a long series of academic hardships I'll have to suffer this summer. Now that this exam is out of the way, I'll start serious work on my thesis... four weeks left! EEEEK!

I believe congratulations are in order, Filiz and Jon got married last Friday! I hope you will enjoy a lifetime of happiness together. I regret not being able to attend, but I'm sure they managed without me! I wonder who's next in line to get married....Hesam? Gaz? Maybe I should start a pool for this...

If it pleases my fans

2005-05-31T19:50:00.000+02:00

An update does seem to be called for at this point in time. It's been TWO months since my last confession... ehm... post. I'll take a moment and guide you through the last few weeks... this could become a lengthy post! Warned, be you!

Academics

After taking my three exams, we had to start work on the case-study again. Obviously, there was a rather strong absence of motivation. Btw, I passed just one of the three exams. Although it was the most annoying one of the three, you can imagine that it was a bit of a disappointment. And that didn't help the will to work on the case-study. Anyway, after some last "minute" (read week) pressure, we wrapped things up. Leaving two weeks to prepare for an oral exam about the other reports. Meanwhile, a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to retake an exam. There was to be an unplanned make-up exam for Time Series Analysis, as you might recall I just missed that one in December. So I figured it would save me time in August if I passed it, if not, no harm done. Of course this retake had to be planned the day before my oral exam for the case-study.
Sure, make it easy on me. I ended up doing some hard time in the library preparing for those two exams: 5 days of 9AM to 10 PM.... bleh. But it payed off, I passed both. Ended up with a higher final grade for my case-study than I expected. So that was a good week.
Now, I left out one thing. Two weeks before those two exams, I had to decide what to write my Bachelore Thesis on. They gave us three days to choose between two subjects. I forget what the first one is, but the second is the one I chose: "Investing based on volatilities". I didn't start working on that until after my exams. Result: I now have one week left for a first draft. I'm sure I'll manage *cough**cough*...

Football

Meanwhile, I've been to all the Amsterdam Admirals home games. They won all of em! Received a couple of free tickets and discount offers for some of those games, so I could take some friends along. Good fun. What's even better is that they're in the World Bowl (cheap knockoff of the Super Bowl, but awesome nonetheless).
While on this topic, my brother and I took advantage of the nice weather we had last week to throw the pigskin around a couple of times. Leading to a small game we threw together last Saturday with 4 amigos of mine. Unfortunately the teams we made weren't completely thought through... kinda like the beerlifters vs the athletes. You can imagine the which team I'm on (and don't say athletes). Anyway, it was awesome. Funny thing happened while we were playing that's worth mentioning. There was some sort of sorority picknick or something. One of girls came over with melon slices.... pretty cool. (Although, the first thing I thought was whether or not there was something wrong with em... tasted ok.) I don't think everybody came out of that game unscathed even while we didn't play full tackle. Some sprained fingers, scrapes and bruises methinks. Awesome day.

Knopfler

Of course Knopfler kicked ass! Even though you can tell he's getting old, he's still one hell of a performer. Apart from playing his own songs, he also played a couple of Dire Straits songs. So I'm really glad we went, especially considering his age.

Job!

In light of my promised job-related announcement, which should've been posted an age ago. I have signed a contract for a part-time job with Deloitte Pension and Actuarial Consultants, member of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. I will start work at the end of August. And fearing a premature termination of my contract I will say no more!

I'll try to be more regular with my updates from now on.

Exams, football, Knopfler...

2005-03-31T19:44:00.000+02:00

After 20 days of silence, I can tell you that I'm a busy, busy man. Currently exams are hogging my time. Although my second exam (out of three) won't be til april 6th, proper preparation dictates that I have to spend days on end studying for it. The last one is on the 8th. So essentially one more week before I can start killing myself with my case-study again. Oh yeah, I also have to come up with a subject for my bachelor thesis.

To find some relaxation I'll be attending my first Amsterdam Admirals game this Saturday evening as a season-ticket holder. The Admirals play in the European NFL... American football... you know, that game with the oval ball and a bunch of helmet-wearing guys trying to take each other's heads off... Unfortunately, my football buddy Vincent, read: season-ticket holder number 1 (with me being number 2), is misbehaving himself in New York City at the moment supposedly on a job-related basis (you know you just wanted to party!). So he won't be attending the first couple of games with me. This Saturday, my brother will be accompanying me, to his delight I might add.

Speaking of my brother, I bought him a ticket to the Mark Knopfler concert on April 18th in Rotterdam. Of course I will be attending as well, along with two of his friends and two of mine. Now before you think I'm a darn nice guy to just randomly buy my brother a ticket to a concert, which as you probably know is a rather expensive undertaking. It's his birthday present. And for those of you that don't know who Mark Knopfler is, he was the lead singer/guitarist and co-founder of Dire Straits...if you don't know them...look em up.

In other news, you can expect a job-related announcement within two weeks... I have told some people about it already, but until everything is squared away I'll be keeping the news to myself... come to think of it, I already told most people I know...oh well, hopefully at least one person will be left guessing at what the news might be!

Rambled on long enough...

P.S. I've been told that Holland hasn't lost yet under coach Marco van Basten (referring to the other type of football now), yay for us.

A kilogram anyone?

2005-03-11T16:26:00.000+01:00

This is a perfect story to break the silence that has gripped my blog with an iron fist. I've been reading an article (in Dutch) on the 'Noorderlicht' site about the definition of a kilogram (and other more precise definitions). Yes, that's right, I'm a nerd. Nevertheless, these official definitions are pretty brilliant. But compared to the definition of a kilogram, I can see why they want a more precise definition. I'll translate a couple:

meter: the distance light travels in a vacuum in a time-interval of 1/299.792.458th of a second.

This one's rich too:

Ampere: the constant current between two straight conductors of infinite length and negligible cross section placed parallel and 1 meter apart in a perfect vacuum which creates between them a force of 0.2 micronewtons per meter length. (you still with me?)

And now the kilogram:

kilogram: the mass of the international prototype (a metal cylinder) of a kilogram, which is kept in Paris.

Hm... maybe that last one wasn't that good. Incidentally, the official definition for a meter was the distance between two scratches on a piece of platinum... Now the real problem with the prototype is that it's mass changes... hm... that means the definition changes too. They did make copies, but these differ from the prototype after a while (and probably from each other). So they adapt the copies to match the prototype again, which will change mass again in the future... So tomorrow, I think I'll weigh less than today...YAY!! And I don't even have to do anything for it either.

No NHL

2005-02-16T23:42:00.000+01:00

Well, it's official, there won't be any pro hockey this season. Gary Bettman announced that all hope of an NHL season is gone. So now the NHL is the first pro-sport to lose a season due to a labor dispute. Dammit, out of all the sports we have, it had to be hockey. The best sport in the world. Anyway, negotiations will continue ... but if they keep going the same way as before we won't have a 2005-2006 season either...

In other news, I had dinner with some guys from Deloitte tonight, basically about a possible future for me in their organisation. We'll see how I performed in a couple of weeks after all the potentials have had an opportunity to present themselves. Until then I'm not going to jinx myself by making any projections about it. Either way, the lads at the pension division at Deloitte seem to be a good bunch of people to work with. Hopefully I'll be able to join them in September.

Meanwhile, I'll be concentrating on my academics. We'll just go ahead and focus on that pressing matter...

Vintage games

2005-02-07T17:47:00.000+01:00

Remember those good old days? With the old Indiana Jones, Leisure Suit Larry, Prince of Persia and Wolfenstein 3D? Well, I recently stumbled upon www.abandonia.com, which just happens to have these games and a lot more of those golden oldies. They're not all freeware, but most of em are. Wolf unfortunately isn't.

Anyway, lately things have been kind of hectic for me and everybody around me apparently. Case-studies, jobs and god knows what is keeping us rather busy. Too busy as far as I'm concerned. We don't get to do enough fun stuff, like play some pool or grab a beer. Nevertheless, we shall persevere and see it through to the end...which should be somewhere in 2006! I see that our lives have taken control of us when I look around at the other blogs listed here... *wink wink nudge nudge*. Not that I've been keeping up or anything. I was just surprised that the rest wasn't either. Usually they're so diligent!

As for the superbowl ... I'm quite grateful that I got to watch it. We found out last monday that SBS6 would broadcast it. So that pretty much made our week. It was a live broadcast, so it started at midnight and ended at about 4:15 AM ... you can imagine that monday was kind of lost on me. Luckily, I received an e-mail sunday evening that my monday class had been cancelled, because we are ahead of schedule. It was a good game, a bit messy but sometimes it just can't be pretty. GO PATRIOTS!!!!!

Can you read it??

2005-01-27T01:22:00.000+01:00

Obviously my intentions were to post the fact-sheet so that everyone could actually read it, but nooooooooo. Supposedly the Hello program would automatically resize it and stuff... and it did. So if you actaully want to see the figures, you'll have to save it and view it with picture preview or anything with which you can "zoom in". Bastards. Anyway, it should be pretty clear already what the trend is.... tell me if you're surprised or not.

Classes

2005-01-27T01:15:00.000+01:00

Well, looking at the date of my last post, I've been a bad, bad boy, hehe. Just kidding. I've been occupied with my classes. Especially my Case-study is taking up at least 2 days a week. It's about the valuation of lookback options. These are path-dependent options; basically, the option-value depends on the maximum and minimum of the path the underlying stockprice follows during the maturing of the option. Never mind, I think everybody quit reading at lookback option. Nevertheless, it's a good subject and I'm having fun with it, even though we are kinda stuck right now. Anyway, I'm also looking for a new place to live. We already have some things lined up, but I just don't have the time to take a look at them. So I have to think of a cunning plan quickly, before my opportunities have withered away.In the meantime there's nothing special going on. I just got back from dinner and drinks with my friends. Of course it was a good fun again. My calender filled up nicely in the short period of 30 minutes or so. A thing tomorrow, a formal on feb 10th, a weekend (which I already knew about, so it doesn't really count) in march, a b-day on feb 11th and there were some other things as well. Happy days!On a sadder note, I learned that my great-uncle is in a chinese hospital (he's in China quite often) with a severe lung-infection (no, not SARS). So I wish him much strength and I hope he gets well soon.

Btw, I received this e-mail from Rik Klerkx with an interesting fact-sheet of the IQs and majority votes of the United States. Notice anything?

2005-01-27T00:20:00.000+01:00

2004 election and each State's IQ.

Tsunami

2005-01-09T19:14:00.000+01:00

I just realized that I had not really commented on the natural disaster that shook the world and myself. We won't be allowed to forget that we're living on moving plates on a sea of magma. Too bad that these reality checks take such a toll on human life (and resources). But its nice to see that people seem to care by giving (A LOT) of money to help out. Or is it just a way of buying off a feeling of guilt? Well, either way it'll help the people that are there. So that's worth something.
As hypocritical I am, I have a warm meal on the table now, so I'm going to enjoy it. Tomorrow, my classes start again, so I hope I can get enough sleep.

Jetlag anyone?

2005-01-09T18:53:00.000+01:00

What to do when you're awake at 3 am in the morning? Find another jetlagged individual. Good thing my brother's around. We thought it would be a good idea to toss around a pigskin (an american football for the uninformed). While it doesn't sound too bad, our immediate proximity included two computer screens, a mirror and two large windows. While we were doing this we discussed whether or not it could be potentially lethal to our possessions. After 30 minutes we decided that it would be wise to stop....
As it turned out it was a temporary stop. Today we thought it was a better idea to throw the ball down the length of the apartment instead of the just the living room. But we did realize that our accuracy would be impaired due the distance. So we cut this session short while everything is still in one piece. What to do, what to do??
Back to watching 'Friends' episodes.

Meanwhile, back at the manor...

2005-01-07T02:16:00.000+01:00

Yeah, that's right, I'm back at the ... ehm ... manor in rotterdam. Got back Wednesday, had a quiet flight as I uncharacteristically slept through most of it. It was about an hour shorter than the planned nine and a half. Landed at Schiphol at 10:50 AM and after collecting my suitcase, I was unexpectedly searched by Dutch customs. Now I gotta tell you that I was kind of worried about that, because I had quite a lot of stuff in there that amounted up to and over the tax-free import-limit. But the guy that did the searching was from Rotterdam and noticed how neatly I had packed. So he didn't search it that thoroughly, just kind of poked around for DVDs and such, then sent me on my way to R'dam. Where I found my apartment in a relatively good state. My brother had to deal with some leakage of one of the drains upstairs, which wasn't repaired until after he left. To his girlfriend Gemma: Thanks for looking after the place until it was fixed! This did mean though that there were some garbage cans, pots, pans and a bucket that had been put to an alternative use, which I had to clean up.

Since I hadn't mentioned New Year's yet, I'd like to wish everyone a new year full of happiness and prosperity. By god al lot people could use some of that (think Asia). There have been A LOT of donations for the tsunami victims in Asia. Tonight there was a collaberation between tv-stations to collect money and they received 112 million. I think we could call that quite succesfull.
As for me, I had a nice time at home. Got in some quality time with the folks and got to see my friends. The latter have been "begging" me to come back to Houston, but I just can't leave Europe in the hands of the evil imperial force we so lovingly call Gaz...it just wouldn't be wise. hehe j/k. Time will tell where I'll end up, but Houston would be nice.

Alright, I have used up enough insomnia-time for this and hope to get some sleep after all. I hope everyone is well and has had a good start of the New Year. May your good fortunes last a century. In either case work hard and stay focused on your goals. If you don't have any goals, spend some time and think of some. It's worth it.

Merry Christmas

2004-12-24T17:29:00.000+01:00

Merry Christmas to all! I hope you get to spend it with your family. In the high-speed world of today we spend less time with each other and this of course is the perfect excuse to make up for it. Despite the nauseating sounds of commercial christmas songs ringing in my parental house I have to say that it's good to be home. It's definitely a time to cherish. Anyway, I hope everyone will have a great time.

Away we go!

2004-12-12T23:04:00.000+01:00

Tomorrow afternoon yours truly will be on Continental Airlines flight 47 from Amsterdam to Houston. I just got notice from OnePass, the frequent flyer program, that I am now a Silver Elite member and automatically an Elite Skyteam member! Bring on the good news: I get my own check-in line, priority bagage handling and a lot more benefits. Although not access to the lounge. You need to be a Platinum member for that... not gonna happen any time soon. So if things go as planned I will be arriving in Houston around 7 pm after an 11 hour flight. Eleven hours...*sigh* that'll be interesting. According to my brother, my in-flight movies will be Shark Tale and I, Robot, so that's not half bad. I hope I'll have a quiet flight. Those are the best.

The next post will be from Houston. Home.

all done

2004-12-09T01:42:00.000+01:00

well, Tuesday was my last exam. As I'm writing this, I'm pretty enbriated, as it should be. Anyway, my last exam was pretty difficult. Honestly my major shouldn't be easy and it wasn't. Otherwise it wouldn't mean anything. I have to admit though that I don't think I passed anything this trimester. This in fact pisses me off!!! I was hoping to pass at least 2 out of 3 subjects. But I'm still hoping it will be graded in an adjusted way. We'll see what happens, otherwise I'll start looking for a job for next year. Something that will keep me busy until my next exam round.
I'll be in Houston next week, so this makes me feel better. Life is better in Houston. I can't wait.

2 down

2004-12-03T16:51:00.000+01:00

So today was Time Series Analysis. Everyone had a bad time. I don't know what's up with this, but all of a sudden all our profs decided to make our exams harder than last year's. So no good news on that front. As predicted, I didn't go to combi and I'm glad. Jurgen went and failed it miserably, another example of the strange increasing trend in difficulty. Hm, well, one more to go: Option Pricing. I'll be cramming this damn subject til I drop. I must pass at least two!! So things aren't looking very good right now. Four more days and it'll all be over.

I'll try to keep my eye on the prize: vacation.

Prince Bernhard 1911-2004

2004-12-01T23:30:00.000+01:00

Our beloved Prince Bernhard passed away at 18:50 this evening. Dissemination of cancer in his lungs as well as intestines was the cause. He will be missed.

1 Down: Game Theory

2004-12-01T22:46:00.000+01:00

One exam down, 4 more to go. Well, that's only if I decide to make all of em. I actually don't plan on doing so. Today was Game Theory and it was a real hoot. Dr. Bauke Visser decided wrote this beautiful exam in English. Apparently this was not for the best. I'm not sure if it's because his English isn't adequate or if he just doesn't know how to organize an exam question. Either way, the exam was difficult to understand. Furthermore, I feel that we weren't properly prepared for the type of questions he asked. They didn't look like anything we had dealt with during the trimester. The only question I had seen that was of the same style was an old exam question he was kind enough to hand out. But this was only 1! problem, how can we properly prepare for an exam like that?
Anyway, I have 4 left and I'm only going to make Time Series Analysis and Option Pricing & Hedging. Only if I have time left I will have a look at Combinatorial Optimization and Macro 1, but it's not likely. Apart from that I can tell you that according to Merriam-Webster, the #1 Word of the Year for 2004 was "BLOG" (based on everyone's online lookups). I particularly like this year's selection of the word 'defenestration' to the tenth spot. I always liked that word....

The Fashion Review

2004-11-21T13:19:00.000+01:00

Presenting the brand-spanking-new "The Fashion Review" by Lina Aranovich. Read a more extensive introduction by Hesam or simply go get your fashion pointers straight away. Kudos to Lina and a warm welcome to ye!

15,500 and change

2004-11-18T14:35:00.000+01:00

Unfortunately the news had to reach me via tv and newspaper that the list of endangered species is 15,500 plus change large. Well, at least the birds aren't alone.

I also decided that I'm not going to make at least one and at most two of my exams, leaving a more managable amount of three exams. I can compensate one (Combinatorial optimization) with another subject (Simulation), meaning that in the end I'll receive the credit for it anyway. And the other (Macro economics 1) I'm not sure about yet, I'll let the surplus of time decide whether or not I'm going to bother showing up for that one. If I have a lot of time left after studying for the basic three (game theory, time series analysis and option pricing & hedging) I'll even consider making combi, but I'm not counting on it. I pretty much finished studying for Game Theory already, so that leaves less than 2 weeks to study for Time series analysis and option pricing. Odds are I won't have time for the other two. We'll see.

In other news, I had the other family day last saturday. My other grandma turned 80, so we had the Houwink clan together again. Which is a surprisingly small number of people. Either way, I had a good time again and more importantly my grandma had a really good time. She was really enthusiastic about the whole thing and that's what really counts. My cousins, brother and I gave her a picture of all of us. Cheap you say? Economically speaking yes, but methinks she appreciates this more than a bottle of perfum or something. The emotional value lies higher.

Back to Time Series Analysis...(google 'Cointegration' to see what it's all about)

Houston

2004-11-14T22:23:00.000+01:00

After seeing the painful Texans score on Espn.com, I'm not so sure I really wanna come home after all. Just kidding. For those of you that are interested, I'll be in Houston dec 13th through january 4th.

To hell in a handbasket??

2004-11-12T15:28:00.000+01:00

Had a family reunion thing last Sunday, my mom's side of the family. All these people I'd never met or if I did I was too young to remember. But I had fun anyway, it's always good to see my grandparents having a good time. They're really starting to get old and I don't mean just of age (granddad is 85 and my grandma is 82), but also in their ways. So they don't get out much, mostly because it's a hassle as far as they're concerned, but of course they have fun as soon as they get there. So that was good. I talked to my cousins most of the time and someone dared to opened that can o' worms labeled 'U.S. Election'. Which as we all know by now was won by W (kudos for the buckle you can buy on his website. It's engraved with, you guessed it, a "W"). Not sure where that's going now with the republicans in control, but I'm sure it'll be interesting to watch.

In the meantime the world hasn't become any better. I'm sure you've heard about the murder on Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh (I know Hesam has a related link). Unfortunately for our safe little Dutch world it was someone with an Islamic background. This has triggered an inferno (literally) of retaliation on Islamic schools and mosques. It's no wonder that the website(s) of emigration consultants received three times the hits they usually do. Also Dutch police and military anti-terrorist teams raided buildings in Amsterdam, Amersfoort and The Hague. Quite succesfully I must add as they managed to foil another terrorist attack. Meanwhile this entire mess obscures the stories in the news of fathers killing their children and children killing their parents in Germany and Holland. Anybody else thinking that this isn't going very well?

Which reminds me, I read this article (it's in Dutch but here's the link) on a science-oriented website about the North pole's demise. It's melting faster and faster (mainly because it's self-accelerating process) which'll cause the weather across the globe to change more radically. The North pole is warming up two to three times faster than anywhere else on the planet. Of course the real problem will come when Antartica starts melting which when it's all over will cause the sealevel to rise 60 meters. Let's just hope we think of something before it gets to that. Also on the same site there was an article about the imminent extinction wave that's headed for animal life everywhere. They made a particular case for birds: about 43% of the birds in Europe are in trouble. And it's not even about birds you don't see very often to begin with, but regular birds you see every day. Or won't see every day if this keeps up... everything seems to be going to hell.

More personal news is that I'm starting to feel the pressure of my exams building up, 2.5 weeks to go. To 'aid' my misery some profs were forced to bump up the deadlines for some assignments to the beginning of January. They can't help it because they're being fired or forced into retirement due to the ongoing reorganisation. It's really causing the best profs to get axed. It really sucks.

Ok, I just needed to get this off my chest. And now for something completely different: I noticed that my Hotmail inbox has increased to 250 MB of absolutely free space. And this only days after bitching about how they promised to increase the size and never did. It hasn't been changed here in Holland, but because I have an American account I reap the benefits anyway.

Happy days.

(Sorry about the long post and any spelling and grammar errors.)

no real news

2004-10-20T14:15:00.000+02:00

It's been a while since my last post. I apologize for that, but frankly I don't have much news. I dare not say anything about the Astros right now in fear of jinxing them. I did acquire a new couch though! Two meters of black leather bliss. I picked it up at a friend's house last friday. On saturdayevening I already fell asleep on it. For those of you that have seen my last couch and have had the displeasure of sitting on it, this is quite an improvement. So my brother and I are finally getting somewhere with our furniture. We have 2 good chairs and a good couch now. Life just got a bit better!

I had a golf lesson yesterday and found out that I had been doing some fundamental things wrong in my backswing. I honestly can't say that I was surprised. Nevertheless, 'unlearning' my former swing will prove a bit of a challenge I suspect.

In other news...ehm...wait...there is no other news. You'll have to make due with this post, sorry!! ;)

Broken streak

2004-10-12T13:08:00.000+02:00

Like Hesam said, now it's getting tense. I said to my brother last night that we had one of the worst streaks in baseball (just can't beat the BoSox though....). I didn't get the chance to follow the game, considering it wouldn't start til 3 am or so over here not mention what time it would end. So I had to go to sleep with the tension. When I woke up I literally ran to my pc to turn it on and check the score...thankfully we won. Gives me a good excuse to wear the jersey today. Up next, the Cardinals...that'll be interesting considering are excellent bullpen. Of course Oswalt and the Rocket will do their thing. And like my brother said this morning: I'm not even worried about Backe...it's just Munro and Hernandez that really make my hands sweat. We'll see what happens.

In other baseball-news, I was saddened to read the Ken Caminiti had died from a hearattack at the age of 41...of course the cocaine addiction probably didn't help his health much.

I bet it hasn't gone unnoticed that Superman kicked the bucket. Guess the man of steel wasn't as tough as we were lead to believe... most of the steel was in his wheelchair. Ok, sorry about that, just had to make that joke. Perhaps a bit harsh.

Ok, back to wrestling with java...

WE WIN, WE WIN!!!

2004-10-03T23:00:00.000+02:00

Woohoooooo!! We're in the playoffs. What an amazing second half of the season. Schade Giants, alles ist forbei!! Haha. I think I deserve a beer now. Of course now we're up against the Braves again...

Astros

2004-10-03T22:55:00.000+02:00

The wild card battle is a real nailbiter. I'm trying to follow the Astros final game on MLB.com's gameday applet... The updates just aren't quick enough!! All we have to do is win... the Texans won, so I think it's only right if the Astros win as well. Of course the Texans game isn't near as crucial as this final game, but still. MUST WIN!!

I have the plague...

2004-09-28T09:43:00.000+02:00

Ok, it's not quite that dramatic. But I've definitely been sick since last thursday, hehe. That's basically why I haven't posted in a coupla days. But I'm getting better, hence this post. Unfortunately, I don't have much news. Just that I had three weekends in a row planned for me at the end of october and beginning of november. One wedding to attend, not sure what part of this harmonious day I will be attending, but I'll be there somewhere. It's someone from my childhood, and when I say that, think around the time I was a baby. In other words, I wouldn't know to greet her if she'd pass me in the street. But I met her briefly a couple of months ago when my brother (who knows her better) and I ran into her on our way to the grocery store. Anyway, she's getting married and I'm going and so'll my mom and perhaps my brother (if he can find time away from his girlfriend's family-weekend bonanza).

The other two weekends are in fact family day's due to birthdays of one grandma who turns 80 and the other grandma that turns 82. Though I'm not sure whether or not the second weekend is in honor of her birthday, but it's supposedly for that entire branch of the family. So that'll get big. Further info will probably be givin to me by my mother. She's kinda my oracle when it comes to family business.

Well, that pretty much wraps it up for now.

B-day

2004-09-22T01:25:00.000+02:00

Well, another year has passed. Now I that I'm 22, I really feel so much wiser... riiiiiight. Anyway, not much went on today. It was a typical tuesday, the 1100 to 1800 classes. I did go out for dinner at this Italian place with my brother. It was decent. The funny thing there is that the appetizers are more expensive than the main courses... I guess it's the "I-hope-that-you-go-away-quickly" theorie or something. Afterwards I went for a couple of drinks with friends.
Good fun.

public transport

2004-09-20T19:59:00.000+02:00

Woke up this morning, grabbed a quick bite to eat and got ready for class...suddenly realizing that that all public transport would be paralized from 1100 til 1600 because they decided they needed to demonstrate today. Luckily for me I had a class at 1100, so I had to leave at 10:30 to make it one time. But getting back would've been more difficult if didn't have some matters to attend to at the uni. My last class ended at 1500 and as it turned out they started up again at 15:15, lucky me... Not so lucky Rik, his last class was at 1300. Leaving him stuck at the uni with nothing to do.

The thing that irritated me is that they put up a notice in the tram saying they were doing it for our benefit as well... I wonder if they'd care to elaborate on that, because so far they're only pissing people off. But looking at things from the bright side, I guess they also could've started at 8 AM and ended at 6 PM completely messing up the corporate world. Now only us students are screwed.... as usual.

On a happier note, I rediscovered GTA III... I'd forgotten how much fun the game is. Which reminds me, I was playing True Crime on Jurgen's PS2 and noticed that there are a couple of celebs that loaned their voices to the game, such as Christopher Walken. I was quite pleasantly surprised.

Anyway, back to having fun with JBuilder...

Grand Theft Bike...?

2004-09-19T11:24:00.000+02:00

A good friend of mine was telling me about how his brother woke up in the middle of thursday night only to discover that his girlfriend's bike was being stolen from outside his window. They live at street level in one of the better parts of Rotterdam ... go figure. Anyway, he ran outside to chase the guy down. In the meantime his girlfriend started tapping the glass in an attempt to distract him or something. As I understand it, the brother was about to go after the guy when he heard the glass breaking. Apparently his girlfriend hit right through the window. She has a pretty mean cut on her wrist, but she's ok. Obviously the bike is gone and now they have a broken window too...so, did you sleep well last night?

There's something seriously wrong with people that go around stealing bikes. For one, it's incredibly annoying. But the bigger problem seems that everybody encourages it in a way. Because the reasons those bikes are stolen are limited to a way to get home and then dumping the bike or to resell the bike for a small price. They usually sell it to students who don't want to spend money on a bike that's going to be gone in a week anyway. So these homeless people have found a way to make money in a way that's pretty lowrisk. Considering the fact that it's damn easy to steal a bike and sell it without being caught. How screwed up is that?!

Just thought I'd share this with you.

Links

2004-09-18T15:51:00.000+02:00

As you can see, I successfully added some links to other sites. More stuff will be added when I get around to it (and of course when I figure out how to do it).

First post

2004-09-18T14:10:00.000+02:00

Obviously my first post. I'm using up valuable time that should be spent on studying, but I really felt the urge to set up my blog. I still have a lot to learn about (X)HTML before I can actually set things up the way I want to.
By the looks of things, I won't have a whole lot of time to tinker away at building my website. I'm taking 6 subjects this trimester and pretty tough ones too. So I'm afraid I'll be dedicating most of my time to trying to keep up with things. But at least I'll still have time to post.