Beamdown to Root-Ville.
Sep 28
The one downside in having a 256 megabyte memory-card in ones digital camera, is that it takes some time to fill up. So even at 2 mega-pixel per pop.. One still does get the “ow I forgot I had that picture” syndrome from time to time. Like last years holiday pictures still snuggled up nicely in the forgotten movie-roll on in the kitchen drawer.Holiday pictures are actually a nice analogy when it comes to the picture below. Although the “beam-down to Rootland” only lasted one afternoon… It did feel like a little bit of a holiday. A holiday in my own home town of Rijkhoven. A rustle with the bustle back home at the annual scottish festival on the castle of Alden Biesen. It was a glorious day, the first weekend of September of 2006 was like a warm summer patio where the last warmth of august refused to depart.
And then we went down south. So me and the missy went back down south to have our “wee bit” of annual Scottish atmosphere. This being the first big bad beam-in since we “kinda secretly” got married we where anxious to get some “shifty” remarks from the townies. So we walked around the castle, not running into anyone we actually knew and just savoring the whole spectacle. But after an hour or two we had probably seen what there was to see and headed back home.But as we walked up the street, we passed one of the local pubs and suddenly heard our names called out. .. Well , not ‘our names’ but something along the line of “ Well well .. the townies !! ‘
Before I go on , let me explain what the big picture is here. I was born in a small town , I was born in this little town, and have moved away to the city of Hasselt two years ago. To some people of “Rural Rijkhoven” Hasselt is to Rijkhoven , what new York is to Alabama. That is in fact the perfect analogy. To anyone who has EVER seen the movie.. I’m no Reese Witherspoone , but I came close , story-line and everything. On with the story.“Well well .. the Townsies” we heard and froze in our tracks. Afraid for some comment where we where to be asked if “Rural Rijkhoven was not to small for our High Hasselt Taste” .. But what came next was a pleasant surprise “ Hey .. Come on .. have a seat ! “ So a few minutes later we where sitting together with some wonderful locals , old friends. Stefan, Gerry , Dirk and his wife .. Peace by peace these people are the strong fragrant colors in the painting of the town itself. People who make up the atmosphere.. Who with their wonderful personality .. make the town into what it still is today. “ We”re goin down to the Castle , Want to come along ? “ they offered us.
Back down. We of course did not say no and found ourselves amid the same surroundings we had left an hour ago .. but now surrounded by the warmth of the people of my home town . We drank, we talked , we laughed , we told tall tales of days gone by and reminisced on “how the town used to be” It was my own personal “sweet home Alabama” and I loved it. It felt like we got hugged by ancient arms, shook of the digital lifestyle and tasted the ale of how things used to be. Perhaps the small town is no longer what it used to be. A lot of new people have moved in and the warm soul of the little town is getting watered down by the anonymity of the new arrivals. So when the “old ones” , who spiced the salad of the taste how things used to be , now get together .. we remember how great things used to be. It was a picture perfect moment, Nyana, my lovely wife together with my dear old friend Stefan ( Fellow Dj in the DYSC DJ squad for eight years) and the legendary “ Wild Gerry”
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Back from Vacation.
Jul 25What is Vacation ?
“Vacation : va·ca·tion : period of time devoted to pleasure, rest, or relaxation, especially one with pay granted to an employee.” “A fixed period of holidays, especially one during which a school, court, or business suspends activities.”
Yep 🙂 Thats the one and the only explanation why it has been a little quiet here at the Knightwise.com website. I’ve taken a vacation. And when I say Vacation , I do mean : Vacation. For somebody tuned into the net and a tightly warn net of communcational devices this means : Unplug from the big ‘dub dub dub’ (internet), Turning of the ‘IM’ communicational tools, letting the mails que up nicely in my inbox and get my callers and my voicemail re-aquatinted.
Zen Med for Cybergeeks.
In the first week : this was very very true : Trekking out to Wissant France for our honeymoon meant traveling to a beautiful rural area by the coast that unfortunately housed NO FREE WIFI. The entire survival kit that I brought along ( Laptop and gear ) became its own Robinson Crusoe when no internet connectivity was available. Sure , I lugged the laptop around for the 2 first days , looking for an open wifi, but then (understandably) my lovely new wife pointed out the utter uselessness of the act and the fact I was painting a sad picture of the ‘geek in despair’ for the rest of the world. So I took up the challenge and remained disconnected from the internet .. The whole week. And that was pretty cool you know. Working on my laptop in the evenings meant an undisturbed session of writing and being creative. No internet to overflow one with information , no IM’s to disturb you .. Just the ticking of an old coo-coo clock and the wrapping of my fingers on the keyboard. For all cyber-citizens out there , getting your machine off line is like some kind of ZEN meditation exercise. What appears useless at first becomes very relaxing and helps you focus. And besides that : It was my freaking honeymoon ! So I was a little tied up in enjoying the company of my new and lovely bride to be bothered by the fact I was missing out on AMD buying ATI. All the pictures of our holiday are HERE.
The week after that ?
The week after that , when I got home , some 80 emails awaited me ( including some spam) but the wave of ‘This is the information you have missed’ was enormous. Being tied in to the throbbing pulse of the net feeds me more info then I think at first. Just a quick chat with Seb & Dave (the Soul men from the Global Geek podcast) led me to believe I had become an informational Retard in just missing out 7 days of net-related information. I’m still catching up to get back in the saddle. It amazed me to see , just how much information – communication and content creation i process every week. Am I really an information-junkie ?
We will resume our normal programming in 5 4 3 2 1 ….
But to close that all up , let me reassure you in saying that normal programming shall resume starting today and all will be hip and fine and dandy again. So the Knight is back in the informational saddle. But I do wonder if I’m driving the proverbial internet Horse .. or if i’m just a passenger with no control … Who knows ..
