Robert asked me to take his busted iPhone in for service, so I figure I might as well widen the call: does anyone in Amsterdam want help with an iPhone, whether buying one or getting one repaired? I’ll be in Silicon Valley from December 14 to January 8 and would be glad to help out.
A test from www.mobypicture.com
“Can you recommend something?”
“No.”
It’s the weirdest thing, but each time when Ville has asked for a recommendation, the server refused. The first time the worker at the La Place cafeteria at the new library refused to recommend something, saying he couldn’t because he worked there. Forgive me for being slow, but isn’t that normally the reason why someone would ask your opinion? However, he is not alone, as our waitress at Brasserie Harkema also refused to give an opinion. Now, it’s one thing to say, “No, I can’t recommend anything, it’s all good,” she didn’t even offer that cop-out. Then again, another worker at the restaurant recommended the venison and, despite it being the most expensive meat dish on the menu, it was a disappointment.
So, now you know, don’t bother asking for recommendations at Amsterdam restaurants.
Last night I attended the opening Wallen Salon, an exhibition by the Kattenbak collective. It is a pretty unique setting, as the group had taken on a grand old house in a pretty serious state of disrepair in the heart of the red light district and set up their artwork in all the bare rooms. Most of it wasn’t that interesting, to be honest, but there was one exception. On the top floor, right next to the DJ, was a series of posters for The Raven. The designer (should I say artist?) had the whole poem across the bottom third of the three posters and then three different striking woodblock prints of ravens perching on barbed wire on the rest of the posters. What I really liked about the posters is that they preserve the darkness of the poem, yet, thanks to the design, make the poem feel contemporary and not dated at all. Because of that, I think the designer was making a sly statement when he or she put the date of the poem’s original publication in the top left corner.
I just looked at the Leidseplein in Google Maps. Interestingly, the entry shows all the trams and buses that stop there and links to 9292ov.nl, the main Dutch mass transit information website. Google Transit doesn’t include the Netherlands yet, but if Maps is linking to 9292ov, my guess is that they’re going to deal for the whole country, like they did with Japan.
I’ve now been in Europe for two weeks. On one hand it feels like I just left California and on the other hand I feel like I’ve been here for months. I guess that sort of confusion is bound to happen when you’re in four different countries in almost as many days.
In these two weeks I attended a wedding in Tours, visited friends in London, Paris and Brussels, and moved to Amsterdam. I have been really fortunate to arrive in Amsterdam last Friday and hit the ground running. Through friends I had a large room lined up (a freestanding building in the garden!) and since then I have dived right into my web design and Stirred Up work. Today I bought a used bike, signed up for Dutch language courses at one of the universities, and went to an OpenCoffee meeting.