Last month, I presented a paper at the ASCE Structures Congress 2011. The full paper is published in the conference proceedings, as well as online in the ASCE library. The abstract of the paper is: When assessing the capacity of…
Keukenhof might be one of the largest tourist attractions in the Netherlands.Sure, it is packed with tourists.Sure, it is overly busy.Sure, it might be pricey.But... it is stunning.The Keukenhof features the outside tulip gardens. These are of the finest gardens…
Admittedly, I've not been regularly practicing the breathing and meditation exercises lately. I've noticed that whenever I'm stressed out and should get enough rest and sharpen my brain, I slack off, talk on the phone to rant about whatever is…
I just finished reading yet another book about PhD research, and I really enjoyed reading this book. After reading around the internet tons of valuable information contained in blogs and reading a few books about doctoral education, I have the…
Last Thursday was one of those horrible days again in which the fear gremlin was on my shoulder and made me procrastinate. (I forgot in which blog I read about gremlins sitting on your shoulder and whispering in your ear…
I'm getting ready for this spring's round of conferences (only two, I still need time for research of course) and I was thinking about the time a conference "really" takes. So, while I was in the gym today, I listed…
In roughly two weeks I'm leaving for a conference, and then a holiday, and suddenly it seems as if I'm overloaded with work with so many tasks waiting to be finished before I can leave with a peaceful mind.At a…
One of my resolutions for 2011 was to start meditating and practicing mindfulness. Soon, one quarter of 2011 will be gone already (time flies!) and so I thought it was time for an update on my trials.FactsThe first 1,5 months…
Last Saturday, I celebrated my previous roommate's birthday together with my current roommate in Amsterdam. I don't live in Amsterdam, I don't know the city at all. I've been to Amsterdam about 5 years ago during a summer camp, and…
This afternoon, the network connection of my office computer suddenly broke down. I spent a lot of time first trying to figure out what happened, rebooting a few times, then calling the service desk and finally having two technicians trying…