A butterfly floats on the breeze of a sun lit day
As I feel this reality gently fade away
Riding on a thought to see where it's from
Gliding through a memory of a time yet to come
Smoke paints the air swirling images through my mind
Like a whirlpool spin beginning to unwind
And I stand at the edge cautiously awaiting
As time slips by carefully navigating
By the stars in the sky and I sit and I think to myself
And on the horizon the sun light begins to climb
And it seems like it's been so long since she shined
But I'm sure it was only yesterday
A cold chill of fear cut through me
I felt my heart contract to my mind
I brought the image of light and I expanded out of it
My fear was just a shadow and then a voice spoke in my head
And she said
Dark is not the opposite of light
It's the absence of light
And I thought to myself she knows what she's talking about
And for a moment I knew what it was all about

 


Oh boy, it has been extremely busy lately. I've been working on a huge bigger-than-life campaign for the new Pioneer Kuro plasma screen. Pioneer is redefining black with this beauty!
I have made a new skin for the Bikkembergsfootball website (will be online pretty soon). Been working on the Nokia Xperience 2007 event and the Nokia Business to Business Xperience Event (sites are not public, sorry).

And lots and lots of stuff for Microsoft! To start off we have made the Wow Wat Een Vrouw website for Microsoft NL. Been designing the Windows Live Mobile Hub for Microsoft UK (being deployed as we speak), and last but not least we're in the middle of a very cool project for Microsoft Belgium. More details soon...

By the way, have you been to Eeklo City lately?

 


I went pro! This is all Karen's fault...

 


News from downtown Gantoise: B-boy buddy Baloji (ex Starflam) just released his first solo-album: "Hotel Impala ". The first single, Tout ceci vous ne rendra pas le Congo, was filmed by Caviar. Artwork by Sozy One and MySpace pimpin' by The Artists Formerly Known As Rubber Duckie! Keep it up, Balo!

 


Dear Frank Deboosere,

July was pretty boring right? Cloudy days, the wind at 8 beaufort, raining cats & dogs, ... And my backyard is already flooded with domestic mammals. So, why don't you have a little chat with a couple of fine blokes and arrange something for August? Let us settle in for some good old tropical heat (32°C is ok)!

Anyway, bought me some books to get me through that rainy summer so far. In no particular order: De Helaasheid Der Dingen, Gold, The Alchemist and Het Parfum. I recently finished Papillon, a great story about bagnards escaping French Guiana. Prison Break avant la lettre. If you haven't heard about this story, make sure to check the classic motion picture Papillon, starring Steve McQueen & Dustin Hoffman.

 


Hot news from the RSS department. After the launch of the These Days Official Company Blog and the Make Code Not War Labs Blog, it's finally time for the much anticipated These Days Design Cartel Blog. For your information: the "Design Cartel" is the designing team at These Days. Still in beta, probably remaining in beta, but hey, these days it's all about XML baby! Subscibe to our feed and start rollin'. Still looking for a good RSS reader? May I suggest NetVibes. With Ajax code so heavy they're feeling vibes on Mars!

For those who missed our first podcast (aka DC Radio), you can still download the MP3 file here (right-click, save as). It's an in-depth out-of-the-box interview which might need some visual guidance...

More online novelties: hadikmaar.be and shirtmania.be

And Nike+ has some very nice new feautures: you can share your workout data on any blog/page/site/... How about that!

 


SuspiciousMinds is getting an awful lot of visits from Beijing, China. Probably originating from offline media, because I can't see any referrers...
Dear China people: we love you, but who are you? And why are you visiting this site? Enquired minds want to know!

What else is new? The Nokia N95 Experience website is live! These Days Labs is hitting hits! Stimorol Freshzone is splashing! And Barcelona was utmost charming! Ge Maakt Wat Mee!

Meanwhile working on some Nokia projects, the new Mobistar guidelines are almost fininshed and we're finalising a game for Chiquita. Should be online very soon.

 


Spring is in the air. Winter birds begin singing their rites of spring, trees are blossoming and my little cousin is in love. Granted, she’s almost 22, but the love bug has bitten her.

Speaking of love… This spring, I am seduced by the übercool technology that is called Nike Plus. Thanks to the unique partnership between Nike and Apple, your iPod nano becomes your personal coach. Your favorite workout companion. Your Nike+ shoes speak, your iPod listens. While running with Nike+, you get spoken feedback trough your iPod’s earbuds. After the workout, you synch with the Nike+ website and your stats are displayed in graphs & figures, all looking very slick & neat.

Competitors like Garmin and Polar have excellent workout tools too, but they’re missing that one thing that makes Nike the nec plus ultra of the runner’s world: a community. As a runner you can challenge your friends online. It doesn’t matter where they live. Nike+ tracks their distances, speed or any other criteria you have setup. Nike+ also helps to burn those calories by defining personal goals.

And perhaps one of the greatest apps ever is the Map It feature. Based on your location you can draw routes by using Google Maps technology. You set intervals on the map and the distance is calculated live. A 5K run around the park is one of your favorites? Tag it and share it so others can run your runs. Routes can be assigned to workouts, keeping track of your progress.

My Nike ID is Lenzz. Challenge me, buster!

 


The more, the merrier. New work from These Days : Lu Prince, Grany Extra Fibres , Mobistar atHome, Predictor, Wartner, Thomas Cook Istanbul game , Nokia Nsights, Nokia L'amour.

And to top it off, a couple of faux sites: The Stella Artois Hacking, Wartology, Wart Art & Finger Jackets.

 


Lovely, is the feelin' now. Fever, temperatures risin' now. Power, is the force the vow. That makes it happen, it asks no questions why. So get closer to my body now. Just love me til you don't know how. Keep on with the force don't stop. Don't stop til you get enough...

 


Mobistar FreeFriends just launched! This is one of the first projects reflecting the new Mobistar brand. Connect your mic and get verbal at the WK Blabla pages! Hello! from Mobistar is also live (Mobistar's newsletter).
Bikkembergsfootball.com received its third award: silver for Best Starter at the BeCommerce Awards 2007. And SuspiciousMinds is listed in the new Webdesign Index.

You've got to wonder if we ever need a relief... Well, we taste some fresh powder snow, from time to time!

 


After the Second Life mass hysteria from the last couple of weeks (Koppen, Humo, Corneel), and the fierce rage and anger it sometimes depicts amongst its youngsters, it's time for some real action! Johan is prepping up. SuspiciousMinds is prepping up.

Week 3: 1250m swimming:

And we're just getting started (and sponsored!). Back to you, Johan.

 


Let's talk about people's retirement plans for a change. One can have challenging activities in select service clubs, like Kiwanis or the Lions Club International. That's just fine, but my dad ain't the type of guy to meet up with some blokes at some international convention at the lake of Genève.
When my dad retired, he joined the Flemmish Caledonian Society. It is a non-profit association, which pursues to consolidate and develop the cultural bonds with Scotland. Which makes a perfect excuse to drink the best Whisky's in the world.

Care for a drink? The Flemmish Caledonian Society is having Whisky masterclasses, tasting & nosings during the International Malt Whiskyfestival in Ghent. You can see my old man at work during the masterclasses, defining all characteristics & flavours of single malt Whisky's.

SuspiciousMinds has 1 ticket (valid for 2 persons) to offer. Simply reply to the following question:

Whisky has to age in wooden casks for several years. There's a trend to speed up that aging process while keeping the rich flavours of the cask. How is that technique refered to? Tell me!

 


Uber-connected & totally wired colleague Peter was interviewed by Humo about Second Life. Read all about it!


Every single radiostation is playing "Driving home for Christmas" from Chris Rea. This can only mean one thing: it's the end of the year. Chris Rea's warm & deep voice apart, the end of year also means busy days. Busy, like in "extremely busy"!
In a true list format, here's what I've been working on for the last couple of weeks:

But wait! We have more! Here's a list of things I like, nice to haves and oh-you-shouldn't-have:

Merry Xmas!

* as quoted by my collègue Bruxellois, the famous Mr Gillouze.

 


Another great moment in Science Fiction: I have met HAL9000! Hal who? HAL9000, the AI unit from 2001: A Space Odyssey. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, take a look at this page or check the almighty Wikipedia. HAL9000 is just one of the artifacts displayed at the Stanley Kubrick's retrospective in Ghent. The expo has tons of facts & figures on Stanley's life and movies. I was quite amazed to discover that Full Metal Jacket was entirely shot in England. Vietnam war scenes inclusive! An old abandoned glass factory was transformed into a fullblown Vietcong city scene. Stan the Man made it happen!

Don't miss this retrospective if you like Kubrick's work! And if someone asks you a password at the entrance, just say Fidelio, ok?

More news: I've joined the Fireworks CS3 beta programme. When Adobe acquired Macromedia last year I was a bit frightened about the future of Fireworks. Since the dawn of the web, Fireworks has been my favourite webtool. I only use Photoshop to colour correct pictures or to make advanced photo composites. But no worries, Fireworks CS3 is a go! I've been testing it for a couple of weeks, and I love it! Thank you, Adobe!

 


News from the Platinum Department: the Bikkembergsfootball website was awarded with 'Best Fashion Site' by the Web Marketing Association! And the annual Night Of the Internet awards handed over a silver for Bikkembergsfootball (Best Business Site). Big up to the whole These Days crew! Those lonely nights in freezing Fossombrone actually made a difference!

And now, something completely different...

 


Leave the gun. Take the cannoli. And off we went, into the vast Sicilian grounds & hills. San & me on a journey in Sicily.

Special report: Catania, the second largest city in Sicily. People told me it would be a nightmare to drive into the city. Now I've been quite some places, and drove them with ease (Paris, Milano, Barcelona, ...), but driving through the city of Catania was one hell of an experience.

It's total chaos. Cars & busses everywhere. Scooters everywhere. People everywhere. Motorcycles mashing in between! Nobody wears helmets. Red lights: ignore them. Stuck? Try the sidewalk. A two-way lane is 'naturally' devided into four lanes. Bump & Hustle. Every street in Catania is one-way. Crossroads almost give you a nervous breakdown. If you hesitate for a split second, you're a dead man. Did I mention the smog coming from thousands of exhaustpipes? Do you really think Kyoto has any meaning here? There are no public parkings. It takes hours to find a parking spot. Once you have one, pray, so that by the next morning you're not surrounded by other (badly) parked cars, leaving you no way out.

Anyway. At night, around 3am, things cool down. Not! But besides the traffic, Catania is a great city. We went to the local fishmarket, one of the greatest things I have ever seen. Fishermen present their loot: fish, clamps & octopi. Everyone is shouting and yelling and negotiating... Great experience!

More highlights: Pollina is the cosiest city I've ever seen. It's on a lonely hilltop, just a few miles from Cefalu. The ride to the top is long, and few people actually do the climb. But the reward is great!

The Mount Etna is also very fascinating. There was a huge eruption in 2003. Tons of lava covered the surrounding woods and roads, creating mysterious odd landscapes and forms.

Grazie a voi, alla Sicilia. Ciao ragazzi!

 


Kiss all the pretty ones goodbye. Summer is almost gone, days begin to shorten, albeit the weather's still great.

So what's up? We went to Marbella with the entire These Days Crew. These Days In Effect! Speedboat racing, Jeep safaris, clubbing and the traditional bedroom bashing. My fellow colleague Nicolas made it to the frontpage of bedjump.com with this extraordinary leap. Word up, Nico!

From sunny Puerto Banús back to reality. Kris & Tom share their opinion on web2.0, the offline blogging phenomena and the future of the web. All very... promising!

Meanwhile I'm working on Pioneer, Mobistar & some cool stuff for the upcoming Nokia event. Mobistar Corporate just launched. I really like the idea of having content available as RSS feeds! More These Days creations: Visitflanders.co.uk and its minisite 72 hours in Flanders.

SuspiciousMinds Coffee Guide is updated (new entries: Bikkembergs & Piranna). Currently reading: Midnight Express. Listening to: Air - Late Night Tales & DC Recordings Presents Death Before Distemper.

And now, back to you Jim!