theQuicky.net - Tijl Kindt's Blog

Reflecting on life and death

Quicky — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 23:53:25 +0000

This evening, I was casually browsing some art on deviantart.com, where I’ve been posting my pictures the past half year. When one photograph mentioned the death of a member of deviantART, I became curious. Surfing for more info on his death, I eventually came upon the journal by his life’s partner Wendy who also is a photographer on deviantART. And when I read her story about him and how she felt about his death, I started to cry. I don’t know him or her, but her story touched me and made me reflect on my own life.

“[…] The only things left that I can do for him are to honor him, make him proud, and make sure he is not forgotten. […] What did I ever do to let him know how much he means to me? Not enough. […]”

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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Quicky — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 18:48:46 +0000

Nerd Sniping

Quicky — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 11:33:01 +0000

This cartoon by xkcd.com really applies to my brain. Unfortunately scientific problems aren’t the only interesting things that distract my mind :|.

Freaking Postbank!

Quicky — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 15:23:05 +0000

@#$&!@)#$!$!@#$!@#$%!!!!! Aarghhhhhhhhhhh!! **steam blowing out of my ears**. I’ve so had it with the Postbank. Incredible. The online banking account of my volleyball club - where I’m treasurer - has been blocked for almost 3 weeks now because of the theft of my bag. I had to block the account because there were some codes in there for online banking. And now I finally received the paperwork to get the new codes, and guess what? They never bothered changing the owner of the online banking account, even though the steering committee changed twice since in the last two years.

So they don’t want to give me the codes, even though I’m owner of the account, I’m representative of the club, and the guy who’s name is on the paperwork hasn’t been in the steering committee for more than a year! So… now I’m going to have to fill out another form to change the name of the contract, after which I’ll have to ask for paperwork to get the new codes again and only then will I be able to use online banking. I’ve totally had it. That means I won’t have had access for a month at least. And that’s for a business account for christ’s sake! Can you believe it???

W00t! String Fantasy

Quicky — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 17:11:26 +0000

Yay! Today I received a package in my mailbox from my dear friend Susanne. Yi-Jia Susanne Hou is a Canadian concert violinist that I met online a little over three years ago and have been friends with ever since. Enclosed in the package was her second CD called Fantasy, personally signed of course ;). I wonder if it will reach the top 3 of my Album Top 25 just like her first CD Fire & Ice did.

Four years ago Susanne won the Canada Council for Arts Instrument Bank Competition and was given the loan of the 1729 “ex-Heath” Guarneri del Gesù violin. Last year she might have had to part ways with it as the competition was held again, so she intended this CD to be a ‘momento’ of her time spent together with it. I’m glad that last year she won the competion again, so she retained the loan for another three years. I hope that she will be able to play on this wonderful instrument that she calls ‘the love of her life’ for a long time to come. You can find out more about Susanne and her music on her website, where you can also buy her CD.

Tijl’s Album Top 25

Quicky — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 22:36:51 +0000

Now that the latest update of iTunes (7.4.1) has Album ratings, I thought it was a good idea to see which albums I actually ‘like’ most. They actually made it smart enough to use the average of all the songs as the default rating for an album. Too bad it doesn’t have fractional ratings though.

Anyway… Tijl wouldn’t be Tijl if he didn’t use some kind of algorithm to calculate the more accurate ratings in order to make a ranking ;). So basically what I did was making a selection of all the albums with a default rating of 4 or 5 stars. Then I calculated their real ratings by taking the average of the song ratings. In the end I let my heart pass the final judgement in order to make the final ranking.

So here’s what I got out of that… 25 albums that I actually should buy ;). Be aware though that three of these albums are actually not albums at all, but ripped audio from dvd’s (Solidarnosc Live, Fantasia 2000, Jarre in China). The links bring you to the respective webpages on allmusic.com, unless there isn’t one, in which case it brings you to another relevant page about the album.
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Life Update: Artistic

Quicky — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 17:38:28 +0000

They can steal my camera, but they can’t prevent me from buying a new one, and they definitely can’t hold me back from enjoying, editing and publishing my art.

As you may have noticed, I’ve been working on a new gallery system that uses Flash for the eye-candy, but also embeds into my website really well. I make these galleries using SlideShowPro. You can see the result in my Photography section. My travels to Italy and Finland this year have resulted in thousands of new pictures, thanks to the wonders of digital photography. Weeding through them and getting out the best ones has been a time consuming task, but I’m really happy and proud of a lot of them.

In time, I’m hoping to incorporate all of my earlier galleries and travels into this new gallery system as well. I have already added a portfolio section that holds 20 pictures in each of the following themes: people, nature, and structures. There’s also a separate SKC section for all pictures that I took as a member of my volleyball club SKC, including pictures of trainings, competition evenings, parties, and activities.
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A Black Day

Quicky — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 23:03:12 +0000

What should never happen to anybody, just happened to me today. While I was hovering between a state of being awake and being asleep on the train to the Netherlands, some guy took my camera backpack that was sitting in front of me on the other seat and jumped off the train right before it left again. Over € 2.000 of photographic material, a number of books, including an expensive academic one, my picture of me with the pope, ~~but also my notebook from Italy which had some writings and drawings from my girl friend for me, as well as the journal she wrote for me in Europe~~… all gone.

I want to cry, and yet I can’t. I guess it still has to sink in…

I hope tomorrow my mom will tell me the insurance will pay me back a big chunk of those € 2.000. If not, then I just lost those 5 weeks I worked in the chocolate factory.

[EDIT] I found Sofia’s journal in my other backpack and my notebook from Italy is still in Belgium. **phew** :)

Top 25 Songs

Quicky — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 20:56:14 +0000

Work in Progress…

Oxygene II - Jean-Michel Jarre
Tubular Bells, Part 1 - Mike Oldfield
Theremin Memories & Chronology 2 (Live @ Solidarnosc) - Jean-Michel Jarre
Secrets & Far Above the Clouds (Live) - Mike Oldfield
After All - Delerium
Venus - Dj Tiësto
Eerste Sneeuw - Jan de Wilde
Ommadawn - Mike Oldfield
Oxygene VIII - Jean-Michel Jarre
Frozen - Madonna
In The Beginning & Let There Be Light - Mike Oldfield
Cursum Perficio - Enya
Gangsta’s Paradise - Coolio
Is Dit Nu Later - Stef Bos
Omnia - Dj Tiësto
Beloved - VNV Nation
Téo & Téa - Jean-Michel Jarre
Stewards of Gondor - Howard Shore
Why!… - Enigma
La Valse D’Amélie - Yann Tiersen
Streets of Philadelphia - Bruce Springsteen
Music - John Miles
American Beauty - Thomas Newman
Angel - Sarah McLachlan
The Rite of Passage - Igor Stravinsky

Life Update: Academic

Quicky — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 20:31:23 +0000

Well well… It’s been ages since I actually posted something about my life here. So I think it’s about time that I update all of you guys that are actually interested in me, and not just getting linked here through Google Images :).

So… as the post title says, I’d like to update you on my academic career. Some of you will probably know that in March I finally was given my Bachelor’s Degree in Astronomy at Leiden University. It took me almost two years longer than it was supposed to be, but still I was very happy to finally have a piece of paper that says “I’m smart! Hire me!” :D. Anyway… (more…)