Book Review: Freakanomics

Freakanomics is a book by Stephen J. Dubner based on economic articles by Steven Levitt. Subtitled A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, the book discusses the economics behind why certain things are the way they are. Levitt provides interesting arguments using data for why Sumo wrestlers and school teachers are similar in that both are cheaters, how experts who are meant to help us really help themselves, why it matters more who the parents are as opposed to what they do when it comes to their children's successes, etc. One of the controversial arguments also made, repeatedly, is how legalized abortion played a significant role in reducing crime. I thought it was a plausible theory and if the statistics he used were valid, even better. (Yes, I'm pro-choice.) Anyways, no deep thoughts in this book, but a lot of interesting theory and statistics.

Haugesund, Norway

This entry is a bit late 'cuz I haven't had internet connection at home until now and I didn't want to hang around late at work just so I can blog.

Yeah, so I went to Norway from 12-15 Aug to hang out with a friend who is from Haugesund, which is on the West coast in the fjords. His family owns a cabin there by the sea and a small boat. Fortunately the weather was better there than in Holland (summer is already over here) so we were able to ride around the water on the first day. My friends also did/tried wakeboarding but I had to watch as I did not have a wet suit. What I saw of Norway was really beautiful. I bet there are more beautiful places though, and I've found couple of places I would like to visit next time I am in the country again. One is called the Pulpit and the other is 'Kjeragbolten' - the big rock wedged in between two cliffs (same rock seen in the video of the dancing dude). Both were actually within a few hours of where I was staying! This time around though, we spent too much time drinking and recovering to see much. We did make it to Bergen though on the last full day there. If you ever go there, take the cable car up the highest mountain there for a great view. There are also some trails you can do a bit of walking on (we only did a short one around a lake though).

Pictures here.

How To Piss Off the Dutch

The Dutch people that I've met so far have been pretty nice people, although I still maintain that they are cheap. Yesterday, though, I had a very unpleasant experience of getting yelled at by a Dutch person. And this is not the first time either. In the last 2 or 3 weeks, I got yelled at 3 times by a Dutch person while I was on my bicycle. The first time, I was riding on a sidewalk since I had just come out of my house. I went past a guy that was walking out of his house and I guess he wasn't happy that I nearly ran over him so he yelled something along the line of "garble garble garble fietspad!!!". At another time, this idiot stopped at a corner so I went to go around him to turn on to that street and I guess he was unhappy since he was just about to get going again and I was in his way. So, he yelled at me. Finally, yesterday, I thought I was doing everything right. I was on the bicycle path, or fietspad as they call it, going straight. Then a guy comes from the opposite direction and yells something to the line of "garble garble garble fietspad!!!" The only thing I could possibly think that I was doing wrong was riding on the wrong side of the street. However, some bicycle paths are two-way, and this one had plenty of room for such traffic. I saw no signs to indicate it was a one-way bike path. Unfortunately, since I have no way of verifying these people were being assholes. For all I know, they could have been saying, "Hey! I hope you are having a pleasant day and enjoying your bike ride on our wonderful fietspad!" Highly unlikely, but I restrained from telling them to fuck off. Anyways, if you are going to cycle around in Holland, it's best to learn the rules of the road... which I obviously haven't done yet. (Someone wanna help me out here?) If you do want to piss of the Dutch people though, cycle only on the sidewalks and try to come within inches of every person walking by. Or cycle going only in the wrong direction. Better yet, just set up a road block on their precious fietspad.

Dutch Service

The title of this blog is probably an oxymoron. The Netherlands is a relatively fun place to be if you don't have to move here. If you do move here though, prepare to lower your expectations as far as service goes in this country. Getting settled in here has been a frustrating experience for me, so I'll share with you some examples of the kind of things that happen here:

• Wanna follow-up on an order you made on-line? Be prepared to pay 10 cents per minute to 0900 #s. There is no such thing as 'toll-free' here.
• ABN Amro (one of the international banks here) is an exception and do have toll-free service desk. And a good thing at that because you will need to call them a lot probably. For starters, they lost my application for internet banking so it took me almost a month to get this service. (I had to keep calling to follow-up on this.) Meanwhile, when it came time to start paying bills, I had no way of making bank transfers (this is typically how payments are made). It took me about 2 hours on the phone and 3 visits to my local branch office before someone realized they could immediately provide me with a code that allows me to make bank transfers over the phone. Then my credit card application was denied because they did not have a pay slip from me. Apparently my work contract which clearly states my salary wasn't enough. So yet another trip to the bank to reapply. Oh, and no on-line address changing either. You need proof of residence and sign any requests for address changes, which means it has to be done by mail or in person. So much for convenience.
• So you need new furniture and did some shopping at IKEA? Be damn sure when you want your delivery because if you want to change it - yep - you have to call the 0900 #. Even if you don't mind paying the toll to change the date, chances are, you will confuse them and they will not even come on the day that you want. This was my case. I rescheduled a Monday delivery to Tuesday over the phone. And they came on Wednesday - unannounced. I was very lucky that I happenned to be home at the time they came.
• The movers on the otherhand, came when they said they'd come. But they almost left without unpacking anything even though I had paid for this service on the U.S. side. And they even wanted me to pay some sort of 'terminal delivery' fee!!! We had already paid the U.S. movers lots of money and I was not aware of any other fee to pay. I live on the first floor so they shouldn't charge me for having to go up stairs. They were in and out in 30 minutes, even after I made them unpack. I'm still trying to figure out what this is all about.
• Want internet service? Telephone? Cable? Well, Cassema is this great one stop shop where you can get it all. You can even order it all on-line!! That is, if you know Dutch. Btw, don't expect them to get things right. I waited a while, after receiving my confirmation e-mail, for my modem and such to arrive. It never did. After calling yet another 0900 #, I found out they never received my order. To boot, they said there is no service for my address!! Yet, their website says I do!

I still have no internet, telephone, or TV. My only form of entertainment at home is this cheap radio that ABN Amro gave me for all the troubles they caused. This is probably the most valuable cheap thing I ever received. Anyways, did I ever tell you how great Holland was? Well, if I did, I lied - it sucks!!!!! I did not come here for the weather, food, or the service - that's for sure.

(On a brighter note tho, had a fun game of volleyball yesterday afterwork. Also getting into my PS2 games now that my shipment has arrived. I have DDR Max 2, Karaoke Revolution 3, and Katamari Damacy. Went for a nice swim this morning in a lap pool 5 minutes away by bike from home. Things ARE fun here - but I had to vent for all the frustrating stuff that goes on.)

Lago di Garda - Verona - Annecy - Luxembourg

I just had a nice mini-vacation from the 13th to the 16th. A friend was in Italy for the week so I joined him mid-week and we drove back together through France and Luxembourg. The first day was spent in the Lago Di Garda (Lake Garda) area. We mountain biked up this big hill all morning and most of the afternoon. It was my first time mountain biking, so it was a bit of a challenge, but it was worth it for the views from above. We also spent some time relaxing by the lake. There were many tourists from all over Europe, too. The water was a bit too cold for swimming, but it was clear and beautiful. The second day was spent in Sirmione, South part of the lake, and Verona, the place where the story of Romeo and Juliet takes place. We walked around a bit and saw Juliet's balcony, but to be honest, I prefered the beauty of the lake area. On the 3rd day, we had to start heading back to Holland. It was a long drive back and we decided to break it up into 2 days. We stopped through Alba, France to get my friend some wine, and then stayed the night in Annecy, France. Annecy also boasts a beautiful lake. The French on this night was also celebrating their Independence Day so it was a busy night out. On the last day, we drove through Luxembourg City on the way back. It was a dead city, with the only people around being mostly tourists. It was beautiful though, and perhaps warranted more than a 2 hour stay (but a day is probably enough).

Pictures here.

Book Review: Adam's Curse

My US copy of Adam's Curse is subtitled: The Science That Reveals Our Genetic Destiny. However, the UK version is more interestingly and appropriated subtitled: A Story of Sex, Genetics, and Extinction of Men. In the book, Bryan Sykes discuss the science behind the male's Y-chrosome and the need for sex. You might have covered some of these topics in your high school biology class, but what makes this book interesting is the author's theory of male extinction. The Y-chromosome, which lacks the advantage of sexual recombination, is doomed as the level of infertility amongst men increases over time. No worries for us women though. Technology has been able to, at least in mice, create a viable embryo from two eggs, instead of 1 egg and 1 sperm. This means someday there will be a world of only daughters. I suppose over the long run the women will adapt to life without men. In my life though, I can't imagine a world without them. They can be a pain in the ass sometime, but without them, who would build my furniture, carry my shopping bags, buy me dinner, etc. etc. And who would do all those stupid things that make me laugh? I'd also have to turn into a lesbian. But homosexuality is genetic, so how would I do that? I guess I better enjoy them in my current lifetime.

Happy 4th of July!!

I had almost forgotten today was Independence Day... until some colleague I'd never met went out of his way to find every American in the office to invite them to a bbq. I was going to be out of the office a lot these two weeks, so my initial plan was to put in some serious overtime, go grocery shopping, and get an early night's sleep so I can be good to go when I'm up 0430 to catch a 0600 bus to Brussels tomorrow for induction training. Instead, I found out in the afternoon my office hasn't applied for my alien registration card yet, which could delay custom clearance of my goods shipped from the U.S. My office has already contributed to other delays in my shipment, so I was already unhappy about the idea of living in an empty apartment for weeks. So the idea of a further delay annoyed me a great deal so I said 'screw work'... and I took off to the BBQ. There I met more Americans, and some even seemed close to my age. I had a good time eating burgers and chatting with these people. I will be looking forward to hanging out with them again. But now I am going back to the European thing for rest of the evening and catch a World Cup match at a friend's. Anyways - Happy Birthday, America!!