Yes I made it so far..

Dear reader,

A few days ago I succeeded to get a start position at the most famous jogging-events in the Netherlands. On Sunday September 20, 2009 I will run 10 English Miles (16,1 km) from the centre of Amsterdam to the centre of Zaandam. Both cities do have a big square in the centre called "The Dam". From this fact the name of the run originates; "Dam tot Dam"-run, see link.
In order to control the event the number of runners is limited to 35.000 people. And guess runners are like cattle, they all go for the same run, on the same day, etc... At April 1, 2009, 00:00 hrs the run opened up for subscribing. In less than 2 days 35.000 people did and the run was closed. Alright it's the 25-th edition, but still I find it incredible that so many runners in so short time do subscribe. A quick calculation shows, that from the 16 million inhabitants of The Netherlands, 50 % is either too young, too old, too sick or no runner at all, 0,5% is joining this run. Still amazing to me!!
AND.... many of the runners styad up until after 00:00. I didn't, but......... I got up at 6:15 in the morning and was lucky to find no overloaded, slow and unreliable website. I finished my application in 5 minutes.


At the start of my 1-st Dam tot Dam-run sept 2003


Start of the 2004 edition. I'm the runner in black short & shirt in the middle passing the start

So here I am to prepare this run carefully and most important stay healthy since I missed the 2007 and 2008 runs due to injuries.

I keep you updated about how things are going, stay tuned, Oculus

It has been a while ago

Dear reader,

It has been a while since I've posted new items. The remaining of 2008 has been a very busy time. Both privat and professional. And to be honest my expectation is that it will remain the same for the coming time.

However I feel that I really need to take up issues, write about them and discuss them with you. The fact alone that issues are discussed helps me to generate new energy, views and help maybe in the end to help people to start thinking about our world, because I sense that due to all economic and human missery people stop well thinking. And this is dangerous, since my believe is that when people stop thinking, small, medium and large scale conflicts will escalate and end is fighting.

And the result of fighting has no positive influence on the world population. Old fights are never forgotten and might lead to new ones.

So, I promise to be back soon and share my thoughts, ideas and observations, stay tuned, Oculus

Chaos in the middle

Dear reader,

Last week I travelled back by plane from my business trip to Sweden. Since I was in the south of Sweden, Copenhagen was the most appropriate airport. The flight from Copenhagen to Amsterdam is short, just over 60 minutes.

While descending to Amsterdam I looked out of the window to catch a view from the Dutch landscape in springtime. What I saw was a well organized structure of fields, roads, water way’s, offices, greenhouses, houses, train tracks, etc.

At that point in time my thought was: “what a great order” But how come that once you as human being are in the ground again the order is gone for the most part. People are running around, cars are driving in all directions, small road in the county side are not smooth, no they are full of bumps and holes. In fact it’s complete chaos!!

The following though was, if magnifying all I see around me things get structured again. Everything is build up according the rules of molecules. And molecules are build of a very limited set of atoms. And atoms themselves are build out of only 3 elements, neutrons, protons and electrons.

So the conclusion is: that once you are on a much bigger level (in the sky) every thing looks organized, neat and in a way simple. When being on a very low level, things start to become organized and neat again. What remains in the middle is chaos….so on our personal level, when we are look at entities with a dimension close to your own dimension it’s chaos that rules. Interesting thought, because mankind lives and survives in the jungle of chaos….I find that a very positive idea.

Have a nice day and take care, Oculus

Sentiments.....

Dear reader,

Today a short post about how I feel....well kind of sentimental....the weather is great, finally after a long, I say too long winter ending. Outside it's finally more than 15 degrees Celsius. You might imagine that I don't long after work...instead my thought run away with me in fact all day.

The picture I took this afternoon visualizes want I really wanted to do. Let me tell you:

1. The bottle is a small plastic bottle with syrup. Soon, in 1,5 hour, I start a 90 minute jogging run.
2. The bottle is of the brand Perfekta, a Swedish company making bottle belts for runners. Sweden reminds me of my 3 yrs stay in Småland, lond and winding roads and endless forests..wow what a country........I would love to move there again...
3. The clear blue sky in the back of the picture shows how beautiful the weather is today, it's too much of a pity to stay inside
4. The phone on the right is an old GSM phone from 2001 or so.... as I work a lot with phones (telecom industry) it's museum part right now, however only 7 years old..

How about your thoughts?

Have a nice day, Oculus

View from my office

Dear reader,

I managed to connect my Sony Ericsson W710i phone to connect to Blog directly. Let me explain how it works. You take pictures with your camera phone and choose the option send to Blogger.
A new screen pops up where you can add post title and a more complete description. After you are done, you just push the poblish key and there it goes directly to you blog.
If you do this operation for the first time, you need to access the net and complete the setup of the blog. If you like you can choose to send you pictures to an existing blog. Easy, smart and for me a real wow factor. Finally something that works as a consumer likes to.

The picture than, it's a poor one, I agree and I promise to make better ones with another phone I have. You can see the reflection of the phone and even in the back some reflection of my office. What you can see, is that I have a great view from my office. A view over a new quater under construction. The rest is agriculture area, forest etc.

Finally my thoughts go back to my teenage time, the time only some main frame computers by IBM, Sun, HP and Digital exist. So the pre-PC time. Realizing how pictures were made, printed, distributed at that time, compared to the online publishing gof the above picture, makes me proud of the ability of mankind to be extremely innovative. My hope is that mankind uses this ability not only for technical stuff, but also to cope with today's world problem like ending wars, solve problems in the 3-rd world and take care of our environmental crisis.

Take care and have a nice weekend, Oculus

Jogging

Dear reader,

Like many others in the (Western) World, I like to keep in a good physical shape. So I care about my nutrition (healthy and too much), don't smoke, drink alcoholic only occasionally and try to do my exercises, mostly jogging.

When I was young I started with speed skating, later cycling and as a student (already 30 years ago) jogging/running. Upto 2003 I ran 1-2 time a week, for about 5 - 10 km (3,5 - 7 miles). During that year many things happened in my live and I looked for a way to not only stay healthy, but also stay mentally well. And from the past I knew that lond distance running felt good. So I increased the number of training sessions and the distance as well.

So from 2003 I train 3 times a week, steadily increasing from 7,5 (5) to 10-11 km (7,5 - 8 miles)per training. Summing up the total during 2006 I made over 1500 km. In 2007 I was not able to do so much, because of an injury. I have/had heel spurs and nowadays I can cope with that and I'm very glad about that fact.

At some occasions each year I like to run events. From 7 - half marathon distance. On Dec 31 there is always a run close to my home town called the “oliebollen race”. 7,2 km cross country running. I have been participating 4 times in a row now and due to the changing weather conditions this time of the year, each year was different. Snow and ice, wind (almost storm) and rain, frost and warm temperatures.

The Dutch landscape

At the start

Cross country

Oculus

Happy New Year

Dear reader,

I hope 2008 will be a successful and healthy year to all of you. And may bad things happen; I hope you have the courage, braveness and wisdom to overcome these.

Oculus

Christmas crib

Dear reader,

Still my relatives, my wife and myself are dealing with the loss of my father and mother as well. They both passed away this year. On top of that my 47 year old brother had a heart arrest beginning of November. Due to his wife's perfect and very quick reaction (she is a hospital nurse) we saved his life. He recovers greatly and so far there are only signs he will recover completely. Only a matter of time and rest.

Back to the subject, the Christmas crib; my parents bought a ceramic (clay) Christmas crib about 50 years ago and I was privileged to possess it since 2 years. As a tribute I pictured the crib last week and we send it as our internet season greetings e-card.

I add some more pictures to show you how beautiful this crib is and I'm sure the crib will last many more years.


Happy new year, Michaël

Oculus-senior passed away.....

Dear reader,

Lately I haven't been posting anything. Beside many busy hours at work, home, trips, there was very sad news 2 weeks ago. On December 10, 2007, my father Ernst in the age of 82 years passed away.
As death is a fixed and no point of return, it is always a sad moment for relatives, friends and others. However, like my father was really suffering from disease, both mentally and physically, it's a relief for him in the first place and for other in the second place.
At the cremation I held a speech looking back on my personal memories of my father. I picked out some very dear and worth full events he and I participated in. For instance, the fact that I travelled through The Netherlands late 60-ties when my father as asked to take pictures for the annual report of the AKZO company. He and I in a week time from north to south, east to west, 2 locations a day in summer time, waiting for the correct clouds, light, shadow etc, was an unforgettable experience.
As I mentioned in my first post, I inherited some of his passion for language writing and most of all observing things. I’m not as good and experience on the writing part, but I coming quite close to his ability to observe, listen and analyse my environment. That’s why I used his writer name “Oculus”, because his work is continued in some sense and through the eye, people watch the world.
My conclusion was that my father made out the best of his life. After the cremation we had some coffee and many supported me that Ernst lived the live he wanted to live. He experienced a lot, was always busy, never a dull moment, always looking, seeking for new things. He lived his life, and I'm sure he rests in peace, together with my mother, his wife, who only passed away 7 months before him. They would have had there 50-th anniversary last October.
At the end of my speech I took a phrase from a song saying that a person is really dead when people don’t share memories anymore.

Michaël

Ernst as photographer

Trelleborg (Sweden)

Last week I had a course in the south of Sweden. To be more precise in Trelleborg. The course was interesting (indeed and not just because my boss thought I had to go there), but that this of less interest for you blog reader. No I like to tell a bit about the town Trelleborg, the hotel I stayed etc. In this post I start to tell about the place Trelleborg.

Trelleborg is a rather small town at the real south edge of Sweden. Trelleborg is harbour city with several ferry connections to Germany and Poland. There are living about 25 thousand people in the community. The term "borg" as part of the city name means in Swedish "castle". Being at the coast and south tip of the country, it's clear that Trelleborg was of strategic value in history. Already the Vikings around 1000 used Trelleborg for trading and defense.

Walking around in town, I came along the remaining of a old monastery. The monastery was founded in 1267 by Franciscans.




















"Franciscan monastery"

Being and old city there are not many real old buildings left. I came across an older building from 1867. I guess many buildings have been taken down from before.

As in many Swedish town and cities there is a main street (often called "gå gatan" and a street free of cars, only allowed for pedestrians and bicycles) and a main square (called "stor torget" in Swedish). Typically for Swedish houses are the different colours of the facades.















"Main square"
















"Main street"















"Colourfull facades"

Next post I tell you about the place I stayed Dannegården.

Oculus

Oculus

Dear reader,

This is a new blog called Oculus. Oculus is the Latin word for "eye" see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oculus. I took the name since it was the alias my father used when he was writing articles for his work and for many other occasions, in the 80's and 90's. Right now he is 82 years old. He has dementia and not able to write anymore. Even worse it's very hard for him to express himself by speaking.

As a tribute to him I choose this name for my blog. Like my father is like to make this blog an outlook to the world, even more precise an outlook of what I experience in my daily life. My posts will tackle the issues I like to highlight, give my opinion about, things that strikes me. It's also a document on what is occupying me at this moment. I'm open minded and looking forward to your comments and reaction. On my blog and other subject, you like to highlight.

Let me introduce myself. My name is Michael Hoonakker, I'm a Dutchman, 48 years old. Daddy and grandfather, living an active life full of work and hobbies. I'm married to Bianca. We live in a semi detached house in the north of Holland, officially known as The Netherlands. I work for an international telecom company and thereby do some travelling.

My main hobbies are jogging/running, playing guitar, photographing and taking care of house and garden. Normally I publish in English, however Dutch and Swedish are no problem for me.
My slogan for live is: carpe diem ("pluck the day"). I enjoy today and look forward to the future with a lot of faith. I'm optimistic, some people say even too optimistic, judge yourselves by reading my blog.

Hope to see you seen back on my blog, Michael