Happy Dashain to you

"Dashain", the longest and the most auspicious Hindu festival in the Nepalese calendar begins today, celebrated by the Nepalis of all caste and creed is being observed throughout the country on Tuesday.
The 15 days of celebration occurs during the bright lunar fortnight ending on the day of the full moon.
Dashain is celebrated with great rejoice, and goddess Durga is worshiped throughout the kingdom as the divine mother goddess.
Dashain commemorates a great victory of the gods over the wicked demons.
The first nine days signify the nine days of ferocious battle between goddess Durga and the demon Mahisasur. The 10th day is the day when Mahisasur was slain and the last five days symbolise the celebration of the victory with the blessing of the goddess.
The first day of Dashain is called Ghatasthapana, which literally means “pot establishing”. On this day the kalash, (holy water vessel) symbolising goddess Durga often with her image embossed on the side is placed in the prayer room.
The Ghatasthapana ritual is performed at a certain auspicious moment determined by the astrologers. At that particular moment the priest intones a welcome, requesting goddess Durga to bless the vessel with her presence.
Interested in more… click here to get a google search on ” dashain”
May this great festival of Dashain bring good fortune & prosperity in your life. May the blessings of Goddess Durga always be with you and your dear ones.
Happy Dashain!!!
Andre

testing Qumana - offline blog editor

Why test an offline weblog editor when I'm online 99% of the time ?

Since our friend Coleen is in Kathmandu and doens't have a reliable internet connection I;m tryin our some offline weblog editors to send here the best one. So, this is the first test with Qumana. Lets see how it will go....

UPDATE - This offline blog editor does not work for me. I've tested a few more but none of them made it easier for me to blog then just typing it online and press publish. My next step of investigation will be to run my own blog using worldpress. Will keep you updated....

Powered by Qumana

Things I want .... Digital Dawn

This is a design from 8 years ago but I just found it and need to find out if it's available somewhere...it's just a great concept:

A light reactive window blind inspired by photosynthesis, 2000

DigitalDawn is a reactive window blind with a surface that is in constant flux, growing in luminosity in response to its surroundings. It digitally emulates the process of photosynthesis using printed electroluminescent technology. The darker a space becomes the brighter the blind will glow maintaining a balance in luminosity. A natural, botanical environment appears to grow and evolve on the window lamp.More here.....

It looks like this :

back to the garden

Autumn is about to enter the garden and I've invested a few days to get everything in shape for the colder seasons. The last week we've paved the rest of our city garden and rearranged some of the flowers in pots to be planted in the ground. Main reason being moist for the plants and us forgetting to water plants frequently. Here are some pictures of the result:





















Hope you like the results....
Andre

addicted to word clouds

and yet another word cloud... this time from this site's content.

the secret of love

It's amazing! In march 1996 I got to know Frans and never looked back. Now, after TWELVE AND A HALF year I can tell you the secret of love:

Never give up, never surrender and you'll always find your way to love !!!

It maybe interesting to know the statistics of this life we spend together:

I could tell you all kinds of good advise or nice tips about staying in a good relationship but there's a song text that describes it all:

L is for the way you look at me...
O is for the only one I see ...
V is very very ....
E like extra ordinary ....

Love is meant for you and me :-)


Hope you may experience the same :-)
Andre

wonderful wordclouds

Being lucky twice in one night doesn't happen often... but it does !
Just looking for some animated gif's I stumbled on this amazing wordcloud generator.

The pictures on both sides are random creation with the content of this weblog.

Next to having random wordclouds you can edit them online in the applet menu. Adjusting color, font and basic layout. Even maximizing the amount of words. All by entering either words or websites adresses.

If you like graphic design then you will get addicted to this wonderfull wordcloud generator !
Enjoy http://wordle.net/create

children stories

Just by accident I found bluebison.net
There are wonderfull children color pages and stories there. You can download 2 stories there for free and dozens of coloring pictures.
The stories are

confessions of a technical kind

Today something very interesting happened. Our friend Colleen has arrived in Kathmandu and we had a Skype video call. Now, that might seem very usual in the connected digital age but talking to friends face to face that are almost 4 timezones away just gives me a big smile in my face :-) ...
Just the fact that we have come so far that we finally can see our friends and family when talking to them is enough to amaze me. Maybe because I still know that this was just a very futuristic idea when I grew up. I welcomed the idea but was more concerned with the available digital devices like my digital wrist watch with calculator.
Having video-called Colleen when she was in the United States, Dublin and now in Nepal is just a wonderful way of staying in touch. So I must confess that I have become quite impressed about all the new ( and improved) ways we have connect to each other and hope that this development will go on so maybe someday you can beam yourself towards the person you want to speak with. Who knows what we think of next :-)....
Never tried a video call ?.... Just test it for yourself = http://www.skype.com

Regards,
Andre

adding a world clock

Did you ever wonder " what time is it in Kathmandu at this moment ?




Well, I did. Since our friend Colleen is in Kathmandu I've tried to remember that the time difference between Amsterdam and Nepal is GMT +5:45 . To make it easier I've added a world clock that just gives me three local times. Kathmandu , Ithaca ( NY time - where Colleen comes from and most of her fanbase is) and Amsterdam ( where we are). Hope this helps....

Andre

autumn has arrived

The time of saying goodbye to the summer memories has come again to prepare us for the colder time that ends the year. For me that means starting to clean up all of those summer plants and collect the last harvest of berries, fruit and tomatoes. The nice thing is that the clematis hasn't given up just yet and still gives some nice flowers to admire.

It has been a good harvest this year:

around 12 glasses of jam from the grapes
about 1.5 kilo of tomatoes
a small bowl of raspberry
a big bowl of strawberries
and one small cucumber


For the first test of what to grow in our garden it has been very clear that the cucumber will not return. The rest has tasted delicious and I'll start studying how to improve the amount of fruit I grow with organic fertilizers.

My goal was to find easy fruit and veggies to grow myself and I think this year was a good start to get even more addicted to my gardening ambition.

Andre

In need of good news?

As for a lot of people around the world my day starts with a quick scan of the news around the internet. Most days that means that I start my day with death, distruction and other bad news.
Of course there is other news around thats report about the good things happening around the globe but that news is harder to find.

To make it easier for you I've found a site thats not about religion ( most good news pages seem to be about happiness and god). This site will give you a cheer in the morning rather then a panic attack.... enjoy :-)

http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org




Andre

My friend Colleen will save the world

Attention all decks !

My dear friend Colleen Boland is on the verge of departing to Kathmandu, Nepal to help the
"house with a heart" . That house is a wonderful initiative of a women helping abandoned children and their mothers. Or better said helping mothers so they don't have to abandon their children.
Click here for the " house with a heart " website.

I know that Colleen will help that initiative in Nepal and maybe even find the time to write about it.
Are you interested in reading about her stay?... there then click HERE.

I wish the house with a heart and Colleen a wonderful and productive time together.

Andre

I'm stil alive ... hope you are too!

Dear reader,

Should you ave missed me the last 3 month then please accept my deepest apologies.
I've been busy with the rest of my life and didn't make any time for this blog.

That will change and I'll start updating this site at least 3 times a week now.... promise.


Thanks for staying with me....
Regards,
Andre