No more LECTRIC

Yesterday was my last day at Lectric in Zaltbommel. It was very strange, because on one hand you are happy to be done with transferring projects to collegues and having to explain why you are leaving, on the other hand I felt quite strange to be leaving and pulling the door shut behind me for the last time (professionally, I will most likely be showing my face every now and then).

I am looking forward to work at Interactive Studios, but for some reason it still seemed a bit careless and casual until it was yesterday afternoon and I had to start deinstalling my laptop and making back-ups. A final chat with the guys in Minsk was a strange thing to do too.

Today and tomorrow are my last two days off, in which I have some time to prepare the whisky tasting I organized at LECTRIC for my ex colleagues tomorrow. That will be fun to do, and a first self-organized tasting. I hope to be doing such things more often in the future.

Whisky?

Last Friday, because I am leaving LECTRIC, the company organized a party after work. A lot of colleagues were there and they had a small speech for me, mostly regarding some situations in clubs in Minsk (no details...).

After the speech they also had some gifts for me:

• Whisky cake
• Whisky coffee
• Whisky fudge
• One mini blended whisky
• Three mini Bruichladdich Single malts!!!
• and, to finish it all, whisky condoms.

Of course, all whisky related things, since I only talk about whisky, apparently. Do I really?

But anyway, I love it! The cake was incredible and didn't even make it through the weekend. The whiskies are going to be great, but since I have been away this weekend, I have not had the time to open them up. The condoms are going to something different, I guess... Too bad Anneke is not too fond of whisky :D

Thanks a lot guys! I really appreciate it.

Saying goodbye

From September 1st, I will no longer be working at Lectric. I have accepted a job offer from good friends of mine. I will start next Monday at Interactive Studios, in Den Bosch.

A bit closer to home, working on their products. This means several things, like no more visits to Minsk, Belarus. No more vodka with my colleagues there, no more visits to dubious clubs and hotel bars.

It does also mean that I will be programming again. In my current position I am mostly coordinating the guys in Minsk and making sure the projects keep running more or less on track. Programming is something that I really like doing, at least now I do. It might be that I would prefer the coordination part of my current job in a few years, but that is something for the future.

Exciting times! I am looking forward to my new job, but I do regret having to leave Lectric and the guys there.

LOWLANDS!!!

Last weekend it was time for my sixth edition of the Lowlands festival. Not too many huge names and headliners, but since it is Lowlands, we went anyway. I have not regretted it for a second.

We went on Thursday to have a lot of fun on the camping and get us a good spot. Of course, with 55000 people there, each spot is as good as any.

On Friday the festival started and we went to see several bands in full, and others for just a couple of songs:

• Henry Rollins (spoken word)
• Tom Baxter
• The Presidents of the USA
• The National
• The Flaming Lips

The top of the day has to be The National. They started of a bit insecure and messy, but after some songs it began to come together. It really rocked.

The Flaming Lips put on a great show, and the music was quite cool too. I am just not too familiar with them yet.

On Saturday we went too see a few more bands. In contrast to Friday, I didn't start the day with a slight hangover...

• Ane Brun
• Laura Marling
• N*E*R*D
• Tunng
• British Sea Power
• Iron and Wine
• Underworld

Ane Brun was Saturday's top. Underworld let down almost everyone, except the few that wanted to face the wall of noise in the front of the stage. Apart from right in front of the speakers, it was boring as hell. The other acts were pretty cool, except N*E*R*D, which has nothing to do with music, apart from marketing. Completely without any meaning or content.

Sunday was the best day for me. We had to see several bands and chose not to go and see Editors, which was the biggest headline of the festival.

• We are Scientists
• Hercules and Love Affair
• Yeasayer
• Fratellis
• MGMT
• Elbow
• Sigur Ros
• Dresden Dolls

We saw only a couple of songs of We are Scientists, and that was good, since after half the show they really sucked, according to many other reviews. The other bands were cool. MGMT really popped out as the festival's surprise and could have played on a much larger stage.

The top two artists (can't choose the top one) were Sigur Ros and The Dresden Dolls. I really enjoyed both shows and they really performed incredibly.

The festival area itself was decorated pretty awesome again too. A lot of things to do with surprises around every corner. Like the massive tower with tape art.

Every night we walked around the festival area to dance around at several DJ's and parties, and after a few hours of that we always ended up drinking beers at the camping. I guess I'll just have to be there again next year.

Indian Whisky!

Last year, in a blind tasting I tasted an Amrut. That is a whisky brand from India, and tastes incredible. Fruity, sweet and strong. I got my hands on a bottle of its cask strength version.

Then, in November at the festival in Leiden, I tasted the peated version of Amrut. Even better than the original! So, when my local dealer updated his site with a peated Amrut, I had to get myself one. That is exactly what I did yesterday.

Of course, I had to taste it right away, and it is great. It is peated, not too heavily so, but still it is right where it is supposed to be. It is bottled at almost 62% ABV, which is a bit heavy and combined with the taste it makes for a very solid drink.

It took me over an hour to finish one glass, but I am damn happy with it! When searching on the Internet for an image, I found out that a bottle I bought last week, Penderyn from Wales, has a peated variety as well. One for the wish list!

Whisky tasting

No, I have been to a whisky tasting before, quite a lot actually. But at the end of August, I am going to organize one for the first time. I will organize the tasting at work, since I know some people there that can appreciate a dram every now and then.

This is somewhat more complicated than I imagined, since there are all kinds of things to take in account.

• The amount of people
• The type of people
• The season (only heavily peated whiskies will not do in summer)
• The whisky knowledge of the attendants
• and so on...

This all means that I have been looking around for some (hopefully) good ideas. The plan now is to taste a blend for starters, and then switch to single malt to know the difference in blends and single malts.

After the blend I will do three pairs of whiskies, all of them the same brand. The differences will be in age (e.g. Highland Park 12 and 25), then in finish (Glenmorangie Original and Lasanta) and peat and no peat (Caol Ila Cask Strength and Unpeated, this one is just a guess).

After that, my guess is to make the fat lady sing with a kick-ass independent bottle (Blackadder Raw Cask or something like that).

Looking forward to it, and if reactions are good, I might try do organize tastings more often...

New TV!

Last week our TV stopped displaying tv channels. At first we thought the cable was unplugged for some reason, but that was not the case. Maybe the internal memory...

We tried resetting it, but since it is a second-hand, we never had the original remote control and always used a universal one. For some reson it was impossible to reset the channels or search for them. Maybe a new tv? Ours was about 10 years old, small and ugly anyway.

We went to a local electronics shop and walked around for a bit. After we got some info we decided to buy one that was in the discount, since it was model from last year.

So now we have the biggest tv I have ever had, flatscreen and all that. Really cool. We just had to watch a movie yesterday. 32" widescreen kicks ass!

This one is able to be hooked up to my laptop as well, which means I can watch all my downloads properly... Real nice as well.

The Dark Knight

Yesterday we went to see The Dark Knight. Since it is the best movie ever, according to IMDB, I had really high expectations.

Before going to the cinema, however, my friends and went for a big ass steak at Gauchos, in Eindhoven. After that it was time for shopping at the local supermarket, since one coke in the cinema costs about the same as half a dozen 1,5 liter bottles at the supermarket...

The movie is great. It is a bit long, 2,5 hours straight is quite a while to sit on your butt. Apart from that, I do not think it is the best movie ever. It is the best Batman movie ever, and maybe the best super-hero movie ever, but that's about it.

The very very very best thing ever to happen to Batman is Heath Ledger playing The Joker. He makes the guy look like a mad terrorist, without any cause. Before, The Joker was just some random criminal that dropped in acid (acid that makes your skin white and your hair green, for some reason).

Now he is simply insane, and can't really be held responsible for anything he does, or that happens because of that. I loved it.

What is wrong about the movie? Harvey Dent's two face should only have appeared in the third movie. I didn't think it added much to the film. Apart from that, I really disliked the way they made his Two Face look. The entire two new Batman movies are not really comic-like, make it more realistic and dangerous. Then he comes along and we are right back at the comic super hero. They should have made him look scarred, but not some anatomic dummy with a rolling eyeball.

The thing that was most annoying about the movie was the way Christian Bale uses his voice when he is dressed up. His dark and throaty voice is cool, but he can hardly move his mouth when he is doing that. That really got on my nerves after an hour... Too bad, but better luck next time. 4.5 Stars (out of five) will do nicely...

I really loved the Joker...