Van Gils Blogs

This week we celebrated Koen’s birthday. 3 times to be exact. On Monday I worked from home so that I would be there when he got back from school. Inge came over and we had pancakes in the evening In that sense Koen can be quite predictable at times!

Wednesday Koen had a party with 7 of his friends. In terms of parental guidance, it was only Eva and myself. We decided to take the kids to the “speelgoed and blik museum” (a toy museum) in Deventer. Walking over there was a bit of a challenge as it is not that easy to keep 8 kids on check. All in all it went rather smoothly though. The museum itself was quite fun. I think they particularly enjoyed the miniature trains.

Saturday, as an intermezzo, I took Koen to Drente to celebrate Sunne’s birthday party out in the woods. It was nice to see them reunited. Walking in the woods with a big group is always fun, especially with good guidance. Either way, it was worth the trip

Last but not least, Sunday we had family and friends over for Koen’s party. More presents for him! Looks like I’ll be building LEGO stuff for a few days with him…

P.S. I started biking again, more on that soon I hope
P.P.S. bathroom is almost completed! Pictures will follow when we’re done

Over the last 9 weeks I’ve been busy teaching the course enterprise architecture in practice. Next Tuesday the students will be taking their exams and, hopefully, hand in their assignments. I’m pretty pleased with this course, even though I still have a lot of grading to do I’m convinced the students will do well. When all the results are in, I’ll write a new posting on the strategic archtiecture blog. I was triggered to write this post by an E-mail from one of my students:

Het eerste vak dat wat mij betreft gedurende alle weken op master niveau is gedoceerd. Interessant, soms te veel onderwerpen, en een zeer inspirerende docent. De workload van dit vak is groot, in ieder geval voor mij. De manier waarop bepaalde onderwerpen werden belicht vanuit heel andere definities dan ik gewend was zorgden ervoor dat ik veel tijd nodig had om de schakeling van “oude” naar “nieuwe” definitie te maken (als dat al helemaal is gelukt). Daar moet je dus gewoon een tijdje op broeden voordat er weer werkstukken kunnen worden geproduceerd. [...] Bas, ik heb met zeer veel plezier gekeken naar jouw bezieling. Jouw didactische vaardigheden zijn erg goed. Het was dan ook merkbaar in de groep dat het enthousiasme oversloeg op de studenten. Het is ook erg motiverend om te zien dat een docent ook elke week weer inspanning heeft gepleegd om de lesstof aan te passen wanneer hij ziet dat hij zijn doel nog niet helemaal heeft bereikt. Er wordt niet alleen inspanning geëist, maar ook gedaan [...]

In short: this student was very content with proceedings and stated that this is one of the first courses that actually had the desired level (Master students) and that the course had many new / interesting viewpoints, and that the students were inspired by my teaching style. Lots of compliments!

In my opinion, a great course consists of more than good material (which, of course, helps a lot). Two other ingredients for success are great students (motivated) and an inspiring teacher. Looks like we made that happen for this course.

Since he was born, Koen has had a small discoloration on his left eye. We never really worried about it as he is able to see things clearly. However, when I was at my favorite optician I noticed a new device with which you can take very detailed pictures of the eyeball. I dragged Koen over, just for the fun of it, and to figure out what is really going on with his eye. Here’s the result:

the discoloration is nothing to worry about indeed. Just some pigment dots that happen to be cluttered together. Good to know, fun to see.

November certainly had a busy start this year. We’re still in the process of fixing out bathroom after several weeks. We sort of divided the work, so that I get to do most of the sandpapering while Eva does the painting. That works relatively well, even though it does require a lot of planning over the weekends. Hopefully we’ll get to finish the window frame and the door frame this weekend, and put the first layer of paint on the door. Shouldn’t be long before we can call the project ‘done’!

Another development is the fact that Stijn has been ill the last few days. Nothing serious, just a big bad, nasty cold. The poor bugger has been coughing his lungs out at night It seems that the rest of the family manages to avoid a serious cold, even though neither Eva nor me feel tip-top these days. Burning eyes, bit of coughing in the morning. Oh well, we live a healthy life so things should look up soon. Hopefully the cold ‘ll help kill some of the germs!

Last but not least, a whole series of interesting events have to be planned for November: birthday parties, baby shower (my buddy Ton just had a baby called Sebastian), the famous Sinterklaas party, Eric’s birthday party and so on. Should be an interesting month.

Today I received my copy of FD.OUTLOOK (a magazine that comes with “Financieel Dagblad”). This second issue again has an article written by Bob de Wit and myself. This time we tackle the strategic issues surrounding the battle between Microsoft and Google. The article can be found on my publication page.

Another bit of news is the launch of a new weblog called Strategic Architecture. I’ve decided to start this new weblog to be able to make a better separation between my work-related posts and private posts. I might invite guest editors to the new weblog when the time is there. Stay tuned!

P.S. Does anyone have inspiration for a nice logo for this new weblog?

It has been a while since our last post …. again. We’ve simply been too busy to sit down and update the Weblog. In short, here’s what we’ve been up to. First of all we’re in the middle of finishing our bathroom. Today I’ll do some painting work and hopefully we’ll be done in about 2 weeks time. On to the next project then, I suppose At work I’ve been busy with a relatively large consulting project, and preparing more material for lectures. I have a nice idea for a case that I hope to be able to post here soon. Stay tuned! 

As for the kids, things are going well. It seems that Stijn is on the verge of a cold and whines a bit now and then, but that’s the time of year I guess. A while ago I went for a long walk with Koen (Eva already posted the pictures,check the photo blog!) in the woods and he’s doing great. He’s looking forward to the birthday party that we’re planning. Just a few more weeks!

I’ve also been buisy playing bridge. Things have not been going too well I’m afraid. Last week I played with Paul, an experienced player, as Tom couldn’t make it to our regular bridge game. Unfortunately Paul and I don’t understand each other too well at the bridge table, leading to disastrous results. Horrid. Admittedly I wasn’t too sharp either and made some blunders. My biggest frustration was this hand:

 ♠KQJx ♥x ♦ AKxxxxx ♣ x

My RHO opened 1♥. With Rom I could simply overcall 1NT, showing exactly a 4card in ♠ and a long minor. I had the option of doubling to show ♠ and bidding ♦ later but figured I might get stuck if partner started bidding ♣. Having a good alternative, the bidding went:

A while ago I posted here that an article by Bob de Wit and myself was published in fd.outlook about the Philips Lighting case. I’ve just received word that I can publish the article itself on my website. It is in Dutch. If you’re interested, have a look at my publication page.

Last weekend I went to Groningen with Eva for a concert by EmmyLou Harris. We left rather early on Friday morning after dropping off the kids at school / daycare. Taking the train to Groningen was a breeze and we had plenty of time to chat on the way over. Unfortunately we couldn’t check into our regular hotel (Martini Hotel) yet. Instead we dropped off our luggage and went shopping.

After checking in later that day we went out for Mexican food and then went over to the concert hall for a great show. The show started with a few tracks by Kimmie Rhodes who had an excellent set. She even played some Townes van Zandt songs. After she left stage, EmmyLou came out with her new band. She played old songs and new, as well as some covers. I haven’t been able to find the tracklisting online yet, but I’ve heard songs by the country gentlemen, memphis bluegrass band, Gillian Welsh, Townes van Zandt and many more. She even sang a gospel song a capella, without amplification. Awesome!

Unfortunately my grandmother passed away last week at the age of 84. She had been in and out of the hospital for a while, yet still seemed very positive on the future. Therefore we were unpleasantly surprised to hear that her health was going for the worse so rapidly. I hurried back to Tilburg last week (20th) to say my goodbyes. Just in time as it turns out as she passed away on the 21st.

Last Thursday we went back to Tilburg for the funeral. Pastor van den Berg (see this website) held an excellent ceremonie which really touched our hearts. The church was full of people, the music was well chosen and the sun made it a pretty day to go. We hope oma ‘ll rest in peace.

I was pointed to the Peter Principle today… better get a hold of that some time