Amsterdam On the ISO Setting of My Digital Camera



A house is on its last legs.




Random street fair.




Random street fare.




Operation Tardis notebook has commenced Doctor.



The Tardis with her first coat of paint and an "odd" plant...




I love how this turned out like a painting almost.




Shop girl.




Cure song maybe?




That's a 16 letter word.




Gay club.




Look up. It's the moon over Amsterdammy.




One last canal pic.



Liberace's childhood photo.



Fishes!

They were singing Hallelujah and projecting a b&w film on the buildings in front of the boat
they were all standing on. I stopped thinking it was some type of memorial service. It was
a birthday party...

Letters.



The statue in the wall on the Prisengracht.



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Books, Tea, Time, and The Droste Effect in Amsterdam

Day two in Amsterdam was recovery day. I did a little grocery shopping at the Albert Heijn, made sandwiches, and did a lot of napping. I blogged about finding a copy of The Olympia Reader and the famous scandal surrounding Lolita. Day three however after enough rest this wicked girl was ready to hit the town a little bit.

So I headed to Centraal Bibliotheek. It's located between Centraal Station and the NEMO Science Center in front of the massive floating Chinese pagoda restaurant. You can't miss it. It is afterall the biggest library in Europe.

Inside I managed to discreetly snap photos for the purpose of this blog. See the world's best reading/writing chairs are inside the Amsterdam central library. I tried to find online who designed them and how to get my hands on one, but so far nothing has turned up. Here are some pictures, if you know who made them or where to buy them I would be most thankful for the tip.

I headed up another level to take a look at some of the books in the Centraal Bibliotheek's "Amsterdam" collection and ended up finding a book (in Dutch, English, German, and French no less) about the pews of the Oudekerk (The Old Church, Red Light District) and learned a new word in the process.

miserichord: (sometimes named mercy seat, like the Biblical object) is a small wooden shelf on the underside of a folding seat in a church, installed to provide a degree of comfort for a person who has to stand during long periods of prayer.

I also had a seat to enjoy the view, another reason besides books to visit the Centraal Bibliotheek.

One last snap of possibly Satanist magazines in the religious magazine section, and I was back out on the street.

I wandered around and fell upon this creepy, creepy thing I had made a note in my notebook to try and pass by again for the purposes of getting a photo for my blog. Isn't it horrible and yet quite amazing in it's own way? It's in the window of a Dutch restaurant on Zeedijk.

Another random Amsterdam window, this time instead of taxidermy there's a tiny world beyond the glass.

I had lunch again at Thaise Snackbar (Zeedijk) and it was as delicious yet again. I will eventually eat at another restaurant and possibly one day vacation in a different city. Until then, the pad thai was too good for words.

The plan was to first go to the Waterlooplein market to find an old Droste Dutch coccoa tin. I saw about seven the other day and could barely find one when I went back specifically to find the damn thing. I finally found one and a cute little milk jug and sugar bowl set. Total for everything was 5,00 euros.

I wandered back up towards Nieuwmarkt towards a secondhand bookstore called The Book Exchange because I wanted to browse for some books, but I found the passage of books again (on the same street at TBE, but before Ruusland street) and bought some there first. Then I went to The Book Exchange and bought some there too.

The new plan was to find an art store and buy the supplies necessary to make my Tardis themed notebook while having tea and Dutch brownies. I planned to make from scratch meatballs and spaghetti sauce for dinner. I found the supplies (less than 30,00 euros and will probably be enough materials to make several Tardis themed notebooks) and then it started to rain so I popped into The Bushdoctor Coffeeshop to have a smoke and wait it out.

Once home I did have tea and brownies and homemade spaghetti and meatballs with foccacia bread and I did watch Monty Python and The Holy Grail, but didn't get to the Tardis notebooks. Tonight I suppose will be leftovers and Tardis. Will have to watch some old episodes of my favourite Doctor (I guess it's probably David Tennant).

Enjoy some random A'dam photos:

Swans and bicycles on a bridge near Waterlooplein.

Near this bridge. (See above.)

Postcard I personalised for a friend.

My moleskin pages from yesterday with my spirograph.

Another postcard (Nirvana) to send to my neighbour's son.

This might be a bad translation, but "Bread has a point"? Please help if you speak Dutch!

From under my umbrella...

Yes Pizarro, what have you done??

Odd car.

Books bought. A few Tardis supplies.

Tea, books, Droste tin, tea set, Tardis supplies.

Yummy.

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The Newest Museum in the World - The Museum of Me

If you have a Facebook account you must visit Intel's "Museum of Me" - which may just be the most brilliant Internet/web marketing/PR ideas EVER. I mean how many Facebook users are there in the world who every day click on the various little Facebook quizzes or games? Who wouldn't want to see their Facebook come to life?

Step One you authorise the Intel site to access your Facebook page. While it does that proceed to Step Two, which is to see what kind of privacy issue Facebook has snuck into this. Adjust accordingly. Personally I removed the ability for Intel to post to my FB page or access my News Feed.

Update: After having performed Step Two, I couldn't get Intel to upload the catalog of my museum to FB. So I ended up having to go back, remove the app entirely, and then remake my museum through the Intel website. So no going around this privacy invasion unless you don't care about posting your museum. If you want the privacy issue sorted, just remove the Intel app entirely.

So it gathers data (which includes the data of your friends too, interestingly enough). Then it begins.

I love the "Share yourself on Facebook". Not only is it appropriate to its medium, but it's also New-Age enough to prepare your brain for the music to come. The video starts - here is the quick tour through the gallery of your (Facebook) life.

I was quite pleased to see that an album cover of Gil Scott-Heron, the legendary beat poet in The Museum of Me. You can read a great article about him, his work, and his massive contribution to music, poetry, and the Civil Rights Movement here.

When it's over Intel offers to post your Museum and a catalogue of some of the images to your FB page. I wanted an image from the catalogue, so I went through with it.

Here are some images from the catalogue.

There's been less than 1,000,000 galleries created so far, but it is well worth a look. There is something about "visualising" your social networking life. Mine apparently involves posting pictures of food.

Visualise yourself.

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