AND DAD SAYS TO HIS SON....

09-09-09,... NINE NINE NINE

Today is the last set of repeating, single-digit dates that will appear on the calendars before January 1, 2101. Well... I am sure WE won't be there to witness it.
The real date-freaks should mark their calendars on January 1, 3001 of course.

Apple swithed its iPod release day from the traditional Tuesday to a Wednesday; new films were released today, ... all in all a much anticipated date!
Lots of couples got married too today. Las Vegas, known for drive-through wedding chapels saw one of its hotels offering a special marriage deal as well. The Stratosphere hotels/casino offers quickie weddings. It was angling to marry off 99 couples at 9:09 p.m. for $99.09!!


Oh,.. and digitally remastered versions of all of the Beatles studio albums were released today too! I was given a chance to sit behind one of the original 60s Beatles drumset which is on display at the Zildjian factory in Massachusetts. How about that for a brass-player...



Do I think it is a special date? No, not really. It sounds nice though.
My students in school enjoyed writing 09-09-'09 on their test papers today.

I wonder if my maths colleagues talked about this date at all.
I know they're teaching Pythagoras in some classes now. Well,.. I read that it was Pythagoras who realized that there was something special about the number 9.
If you multiply nine by any single-digit number you will get a two-digit number of which the sum will equal nine again. (9x4= 36; 3+6=9 or 9x8=72; 7+2=9)

Or how about this one: Multiply nine by any two, three or four-digit number and the sums of those will also get you back to NINE again! (9x254 = 2286; 2+2+8+6=18; 1+8=9)

Another year until October 10, 2010. I think I'd prefer November 11, 2011: The date we celebrate the beginning of the Carnaval season!

Enjoy,

HK

NEW YORK CITY,... COULD STILL HAVE BEEN DUTCH

New Amsterdam (Dutch: Nieuw Amsterdam) was a 17th-century Dutch colonial settlement that later became New York City. This week the city of New York is celebrating this great moment in history, exactly 400 years later.



The harbor and the river had been discovered, explored and charted by an expedition of the Dutch East India Company captained by Henry Hudson when he first sailed by what is now Manhattan on September 11, 1609 on the Halve Maen. Through 1614, the territory was surveyed and charted by various private commercial companies on behalf of the States General of the Dutch Republic and operated for the interests of private commercial entities prior to official possession as a North American extension of the Dutch Republic as a provincial entity in 1624.



The town developed outside of Fort Amsterdam on Manhattan Island in the New Netherland territory (1614–1674). Provincial possession of the territory was accomplished with the first settlement which was established on Governors Island in 1624. A year later, in 1625, construction of a citadel comprising Fort Amsterdam was commenced on the southern tip of Manhattan and the first settlers were moved there from Governors Island.

The town was founded in 1625 by New Netherland's second director, Willem Verhulst who, together with his council, selected Manhattan Island as the optimal place for permanent settlement by the Dutch West India Company. That year, military engineer and surveyor Krijn Frederiksz laid out a citadel with Fort Amsterdam as centerpiece. To secure the settlers' property and its surroundings according to Dutch law, Peter Minuit created a deed with the Manhattan Indians in 1626 which signified legal possession of Manhattan. He was appointed New Netherland's third director by the local council after Willem Verhulst returned home in November 1626.

The city, situated on the strategic, fortifiable southern tip of the island of Manhattan was to maintain New Netherland's provincial integrity by defending river access to the company's fur trade operations in the North River, later named Hudson River. Furthermore, it was entrusted to safeguard the West India Company's exclusive access to New Netherland's other two estuaries; the Delaware River and the Connecticut River.

Fort Amsterdam was designated the capital of the province in 1625 and developed into the largest Dutch colonial settlement of the New Netherland province, now the New York Tri-State Region, and remained a Dutch possession until September 1664, when it fell provisionally and temporarily into the hands of the English.

The Dutch Republic regained it in August 1673 with a fleet of 21 ships, renaming the city New Orange. New Netherland was ceded permanently to the English in November 1674 by treaty.



The 1625 date of the founding of New Amsterdam is now commemorated in the official Seal of New York City (formerly, the year on the seal was 1664, the year of the provisional Articles of Transfer, ensuring New Netherlanders that they "shall keep and enjoy the liberty of their consciences in religion", negotiated with the English by Petrus Stuyvesant and his council).

(source: Wikipedia)

Enjoy,

HK

WE NAILED IT !

(photo: marsenshow.nl)

Yesterday evening were the annual Drum Corps Nederland national Championships.
With the great season we have had so far we knew we had pretty good chances of winning that title back this year.

And so it happened! Eventhough last night's performance wasn't the best we could have done and the crowd was absolutely dull.
We kinda need them to get us hyped even more! Corps need crowd response!

Here's two video clips of last night's winning show:
PART #1
PART #2


And the show still leaves room for improvement. Lots of individual mistakes can still be corrected easily and a lot of uncertainty can be taken away in some of the forms.

We topped all cations except for auxiliary (colorguard), but with only 0.15 point difference with Beatrix' the guard came awfully close in their caption as well.

We'll have four more performances on our agenda. This afternoon we will be doing an exhibition performance at a tattoo in Venray, where the local band is celebrating its 50th anniversary. I just woke up, so I don't really feel like it all that much (yet!). The bus is leaving in less than an hour.

Then next weekend we're in Hilversum at the Media Music Festival, organized by our closest "rivals" Beatrix. That will be an excellent event, for they have an impressive line-up of performing groups.

Unfortunately there are no performances scheduled in the weekend of September 19, so we can spend time on making the last adjustments to the show.

September 26 it's party time: the Drum Corps Europe Championships in Kerkrade.
I bet you we'll be more ready than ever before!

Enjoy,

HK

NATIONALS TOMORROW

photo: Jubal/Theo Vink

Tomorrow night we'll be taking part in the Drum Corps Nederland national Championships, right here in our hometown. There are going to be 17 corps in competition, 6 of which in Open Class.
We're on last!
Let's just hope the weather will be OK. It wouldn't be the first time all corps are drenched at Finals.
All day rehearsal first though. Unfortunately no chance to see our feeder corps Jong Jubal, since they're on when we're doing our runthrough. These kids would have so much enjoyed being cheered for by their "big brothers". Oh well,... will have to wait until DCE for that then.

Enjoy,

HK

WEDDING EPIDEMIC

Two of my colleagues at school are getting married this week. No, no,.. not with each other, but I am talking about two separate weddings.
Kids in school are talking about a true epidemic and wonder "what's wrong".

Wilco, our Physics teacher got married today. I went to the ceremony at our beautiful city hall in Dordrecht. It was pretty crowded. It was a gorgeous day today, so that was great. I hate it when it rains on wedding days.

Tomorrow our Economics teacher George is getting married, and we're all invited to the party in the evening. Should be a fun night.

I love weddings! Great to see HAPPY people!

Enjoy,

HK

FLIP !

I bought this very cool handy little video-camera called FLIP.
I saw it being used as a member-cam when I was on tour with Blue Devils.
It's a neat little device that fits right in your pocket and records in HD !!! How'bout that!
With the exchange rate of the Dollar versus the Euro being EXCELLENT, I got a very good deal.

The camera is absolutely GREAT. Obviously it doens't match the quality of bigger camcorders, but for computerscreen (youtube/myspace/facebook or websites) or small HD TV is perfect.

It's the FLIP ULTRA HD model I got. It comes with a rechargeable batterypack via USB Built-in flip-out USB arm, and records up to 2 hours of video on its 8Gb internal memory. It has a 2.0" lcd screen, a frame rate of 30 frames per second, built-in wide-range stereo microphone, MP4 file format, f/2.4 so a fast lens for great results in low-light environments!

The New York Times wrote about the FLIP: "One of the most significant electronics products of the year”. Hey,.. I am not arguing with that!

Enjoy,

HK