Don't Panic

Yesterday evening I went on a mission to get the new Harry Potter for my aunt (and of course I want to read it myself too) First I went to Target in Tigard, but it was sold out. Yeah, they had some special collector's items left but at about four times the regular price.. So I went on to the mall to discover there was no book store in the mall. Later I was told there was a book store but it was located in the food-corner (don't ask me why) so I didn't look there. I was already on my way back home when I passed a Barnes and Nobles; a big bookstore that was open till 10pm and still had the book I was looking for in stock. Then it happened again. Why can I never leave a bookstore buying just one book? I don't know, but this time I once again walked out with four books. I got my aunt the new Harry Potter, bought the Ultimate Hitchhiker's guide to Galaxy for my uncle (can't believe he has never read that, it's one of the funniest books I know. Still curious about the movie, has anybody seen it?) and for myself I bought The long and dark tea time of the soul, another Douglas Adams book, starting with the promising sentence; It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on earth has ever produced the expression: "as pretty as an airport" . Airports are ugly. I also got myself the chronicles of Narnia, since I was talking to my aunt about it and I remembered I read it when I was about 12, but did not remember much more then that it involved a magic closet that was a port to another world, a huge lion which had to be sacrificed on a stone table and an evil witch... and that I liked it. So I decided to re-read it.

In the lab everything is going steady but slow. Designing a complete new setup for an experiment involves a lot of thinking, construction and looking up possibilities. We have e long way to go but we're on it. Today we celebrated my colleague Tim's birthday and went to a Mexican restaurant called Chevy's for lunch. The food was good but a bit heavy on the stomach for lunch. We had a good time though and that's most important.

Tonight after dinner I went for a swim again. I did 1500m this time since I was later and the pool closed. It went way better than last week. I adjusted my starting speed so I could go on longer without resting. It's still not even remotely like it used to be but it's getting better. I hope I can keep up my weekly kilometers in the pool. It's a nice workout, altough at the moment my arms feel like lead and I'll probably pay for my efforts tomorrow.

Also today I found out that the Osdorp Posse released a new dvd-box. For those of you that don't know the Osdorp Posse; they were the first hiphop band in the Netherlands to start hiphop in dutch, the so called "Nederhop". They started out translating NWA lyrics literally at the end of the eighties but soon started writing their own lyrics. I used to love them when I was 13 till 19 or something, but didn't listen to it since. Now there is this dvd-box with documentaries on the origin of "Nederhop" some live footage and a new album. I asked my brother (who turned 22 yesterday, happy birthday Bo!) to buy the box for me in the Netherlands and I downloaded the new tracks as a preview. I must say that I am not as enthousiatic about them as I was back in the nineties (ough...that sentence hurts) but it's still pretty okay. I also got a copy of the new Queens of the Stone Age, that is definately worth listening to. I haven't really "listened to it" (like in focussing on the music) but in the car and during work it sounds good... By the way, if anyone has any music they recommend me to listen to; I'm always curious to discover new sounds so share your enthousiasm and tell me about it!