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50 books a year
I read an article in De Standaard yesterday from their journalist Jan-Frederik Abbeloos about how he finally managed to read 50 books in 2022. Like me he uses goodreads to keep track of his progress and almost apologises for it (but not really) as it is part of the Amazon evil empire. JF lists some other qualitative and literary gripes people seem to have with goodreads but for him the app is mainly a a means to keep track of his reading progress. I started using Goodreads for the same reason before it became part of Amazon and never left.…
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Mathematical Scandals
Short little book by an American math teacher for people (teenagers) who think mathematics is dull. The idea is to do this by bringing the human side of mathematicians to the forefront. 21 mathematicians are covered in 136 pages. Each chapter starts with a fictitious dialogue to outline the ‘scandal’. If you are interested in the lives and work of mathematicians this book is not for you as it barely scratches the surface. Not surprising considering there are only about 6 pages available for each mathematician and almost haf of that is used for the fictitious dialogue. If you believe…
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La Royale
Today we went looking for a student room in Leuven for our daughter and we had time to lunch between visiting 2 rooms. As the second place was not far from Leuven central station we decided to eat at La Royale. This is part of The Lodge group but it is definitely better than the original Lodge in Heverlee from this group. It was a gender separation lunch with the women going for a Greek salad and a salad with scampi and the men going for a burger. We arrived around 12:30 which was early so we could. pick a…
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Bowling Berkerijs
Since the beginning of 2023 we were saying we should go bowling with the family. Now with the easter holidays and no hockey training or matches going on we finally managed to find an evening to go and play a few games among the four of us. We went to bowling Berkerijs as it is nearby. We know the owners but this doesn’t play a big role as this is simply a very nice bowling alley. We went early Friday evening which was a good idea as it was not completely crowded and there were no birthday parties going on.…
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No Ordinary Genius. The Illustrated Richard Feynman, Christopher Sykes (ISBN 978-039331393-2, W. W. Norton)
I came across a reference to this book in another book I read about Feynman and it ended up on my list. I bought it last year and then decided end of 2022 to start reading it while I was also reading The Discoverers to add a bit of light reading in the mix. Christopher Sykes is a documentary film maker and he made 2 documentary films about Feynman. For these documentaries he interviewed Feynman, his family and friends and colleagues. The book has the structure of a biography and is similar to Genius by James Gleick but content wise…
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Jan de Volksschilder
Last week our daughter was away with school so we took the opportunity to go to Jan de Volksschilder in Keerbergen. The restaurant is known for its variety and quality of spare ribs. As our daughter is vegetarian this is not the first choice to go for dinner with the whole family. But as she was away and because our son loves spare ribs with thought this was a good occasion to go for dinner here. It was in the middle of the week so there was room even though we had made a last minute reservation to be sure…
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Pizza at Luciano
To celebrate the end of the indoor hockey competition of our son we went for Pizza at Luciano in Keerbergen with the team. We come here every now and then when we want to eat pizza. From the places in the neighbourhood this is our favourite pizza restaurant. And they also have other Italian food in case you are not in the mood for pizza. We were with a large group and we started with Antipasto della casa which has a nice mix so especially for a group of people it will always have something for everyone, meat, calamari, vegetables.…
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Die Hard 2
Watched the second Die Hard movie a few weeks ago again after a long time. I really liked it when I watched it originally in 1990 or so. It is really Die Hard 2 in the sense that is again taking place on Christmas Eve and more or less confined to 1 one building. In this case it is Washington Dulles Airport. So less confined than in Die Hard 1 where all the action really takes place in one skyscraper. McClane is picking up his wife at the airport so this is also very similar to the first movie. And…
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Karl Marx
Who rushes behind with wild bluster ? A swarthy fellow from Trier, a vigorous monster. He walks not, he hops not, he leaps on his heals And raves, full of rage, as if he wanted to seize The broad canopy of heaven, and pull it down to earth, His arms extended very wide in the air. With angry fist balled, he rants ceaselessly, As if ten thousand devils held him by the forelock. ― Friedrich Engels
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Knowledge
‘The known is finite, the unknown infinite; intellectually we stand on an islet in the midst of an illimitable ocean of inexplicability. Our business in every generation is to reclaim a little more land, to add something to the extent and solidity of our possessions.‘― Thomas Henry Huxley
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