New Year in Holland

As a Dutch School Kid, I want to explain to you what New Year is like in Holland.
I'm working in a mall, so I had to work this morning, from 8 till 10. New Year in a mall is CRAZY. It is just FULL of people, and empty of products.
Hell.
Everybody's asking 'Don't you have any ..' 'I think we do ma'am, I will look for you.'

The day itself. We can shoot our own firework, so as a teenage boy, that is what I do during the day. Buy some firecrackers and fire them! That is fantastic. But also there are many people who bake their own OLIEBOLLEN. (I prefer to eat them :))

New Years Eve. We spend time with our family or friends, play bordgames, or have nice conversations. Test some firework maybe.
Then, half an hour before midnight, we turn the tv on and watch a new years show. A couple of minutes a clock comes in, and your father grabs the champagne, ready to open it. And then. 12 o' clock. HAPPY NEWYEAR!! (We say 'Gelukkig Nieuwjaar') and the champagne will be opened and everyone congratulate each other.

Then we go outside and shoot firework, and watch. The greatest things you will see.
And then I grab my bycicle and go to my girlfriend, have a drink over there, 'congratulations, happy new year'.

The day after, the first of januari. I, and a lot of others, go to do a 'newyearsdive' (nieuwjaarsduik). Everybody runs into the water! And then, run out and grab a towel, and go home to have a shower, cause it is really cold. But it is a really cool tradition!
After the shower, we go to family and have dinner there.

I love New Year. The end of a fantastic 2008, and I hope the beginning of an even more fantastic 2009.
Happy New Year all!

Quoting: Epicurus

The greater the difficulty, the more the glory in surmounting it. - Epicurus

This are the quotes which really motivates me.

The difficulties where I run in to are most of the times related to school, homework, projects, choises. And that glory, yeah there is some glory when you have the highest mark in the class, but I prefer calling it 'personal glory'.

When I read this quote, I do think 'hmm.. if I make my homework now, I will overcome this difficulty, and personal glory waits for me.'

How important is personal glory? For me, it is a motivation to gain it, but when I have achieved it, it keeps me doing more to achieve it again.

Personal glory keeps me going. That is why I love those to-do lists. Everything I have done something, I feel good. Everytime I achieved some personal glory. I only have to look again on it 'I can do more, to achieve more, yeah, let's do something.'

Yes, personal glory is important to me. So when there are greater difficulties to overcome I will gain more glory, the motivation is bigger.

Well said Epicurus, well said.

Every monday I tell something around a quote, before: Seneca and Huxley. Subscribe to my reader to keep up-to-date!

iPod Studying #2

A couple of weeks ago I posted something about iPod Studying with the promise that I would test it.

Well, I did.

I found some pro's and cons.

Pro:

• You can relisten it whenever you want. Like me, I listen to it when I am on the bycicle.
• You check your notes again. When there is something which doesn't make sense, you see it immediatly, cause you have to record it. If you read it, you wouldn't notice.
• You practice speaking. I talk to fast some times, and don't articulate good enough. Now I hear it myself.

Con:

• I takes a lot of time. It does, if you are not normal to make summary's, that will take a lot of time (well, that is a good thing actually ;)). And recording take also much time.
• You can not rely on it. When you listen to it on the road, you can be distracted. So studying on your iPod is not enough.
• I am a visual learner. So I can't just listen to it. But because I already looked at it, understood it, it is more like a repeatition of what I already know.

Conclusion

Yes, it is a good way of studying. But you can not study just on your iPod. You have to see it first, and repeat everything you learned in your ears.

I would recommend it!

How are your experiences with studying with your iPod?

I will try it more, and come up with more problems, or ways to use it better! Stay tuned!

What to do on Christmas Day?

Only one day to Christmas! But what to do on Christmas day?

Here are some tips!

• Sing Christmas songs! So here it is, Merry Christmas!
• Give presents
• Watch good Christmas movies. Like 'A Christmas Carol', you know that one, with Ebenezer Scrooge? I would recommend the muppets version! I played it in on school! I was 'The Spirit of Christmas Present'.
• Do not turn on your computer. Just don't.
• Spend time with your family. Christmas is the perfect time to spend some time with your family. Have a fantastic dinner, enjoy seeing your family again.

Christmas, it's the most wonderfull time of the year.

Stay tuned for tips with boring family! ;)

Did you read my guest post on Liz' Succesfull Blog?

Quoting: Seneca

I shall never be ashamed of citing a bad author if the line is good. - Seneca

Do you know that feeling. You have read a book, and someone asks you if it was a good book and you said "Yes! It was one of the best books I have ever read!" And than the other will ask why, and you don't know.

I know that feeling.

And I think that feeling comes from that what Seneca said. There are a couple of very good lines in the book, which you enjoyed so, that you won't think about the rest anymore. I have had that. I couldn't read that book, and had to make myself read it, but a lot of times I laughed and quoted it to my surrounding.

And after I read it, I'm happy I finished it. But I read another book from that author, and I had the same feeling. I was really happy I read it, because there were some great lines in it!

Yeah, that is a funny thought. Do you share it with me? Let me know if it ever happened to you!

The Chocolate Man

I work in a hospital.

No, I ain't a doctor (yet). And I ain't even a nurse. I'm giving the food to the people and just do the stupid chores. But I don't care, I haven't finished high school yet, so this is a pretty good job, and it pays pretty good!

I had to give the people their drinks today. "Ma'am, what do you want to drink?" "Sir, what do you like to drink at your breakfast?"

Almost everybody drinks coffee or tea, and some, elderly of course, drink hot milk (blegh).

But now there was a man who asked for hot chocolate. Something I love, especially with tiny marshmallows. (Thanks to Marelisa) So I made it for that guy, and asked 'So do you like chocolate?'. "Yes, hot choco please." Asked again, same answer. Deaf, of course.

At lunch, I had to do the same. More tea and (cold) milk, less coffee.

And when I asked that man again, he wanted hot choco again! And when I heard what he ate, I smiled. 2 sandwiches with chocolate spread.

In the afternoon, when I had to bring drinks to the patients again. He wanted hot choco again.

From now on, he is 'the chocolate man'.

I thought about it again when I went home, I smiled again. And when I visited the ice cream bar where my girlfriend works, I asked for a chocolate ice cream. And I enjoyed.

Room number 2, the chocolate man. Sounds good.

I'm dutch, so my English is pretty good, but not perfect, please correct me when I'm wrong!

Top 10 Christmas songs

Christmas is coming! I have already written something about Christmas presents, and now I will post the Christmas song top 10.

I have questioned some of my classmates. I wondered which songs definitly should be in the top 10. So together we made a top 10. The feeling you get if you listen to those songs, it is wonderfull.

10. Stop the cavalary.  Not that Christmasish. But a great song!

9.  Lonely this Christmas - Elvis Presley it will be cold so cold!

8. Driving home for Christmas. The ultimate song when you are on the road!

7.  Feliz Navidad. I loved this song last year! Such a happy song!

6. Jingle bells rock. Briiiiiight tiiiiimes! Jingle beeeeeeellls time!

5. Let it snow. 10% chance that there will be snow in Holland with Christmas. That means there is a chance!

4. Last Christmas. Can't be missed in this list.

3.  Rudolf the rednosed reindeer. The most famous reindeer of them all!

2. All I want for Christmas. Is yooooooouuuuuuuu!! All my classmates can sing it. And 10 million views on YouTube..

1. I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus - Jackson 5. I want this on #1, but my classmates said I couldn't do that! But I can! I love this song so much. Absolutly my number 1 this year! Don't watch the vid (it's crap), just listen!

So except #1, a completely independent list.

Do you miss any song? Don't you agree? I would love to know!

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School Hacks: 7 things to do in an intermediate hour

In the list of school hacks, here are some tips to use your time between your lessons good.

I got 6 of them in a week. Scheduled.

6 hours between my classes. Plus the hours I get when a teacher is ill.

So during this year, and last year when I had 7, I learned some things to do during that hour.

• Make homework. The one who will be praised by the teachers. "But you will have so much extra time, you can do so much homework!" It is true. It is good spending of that time.
• Going to the market and buy chips. Just great. Say to your classmates "Let's go to the supermarket" and they will join. Buy chips, eat it outside and feel good the rest of the day.
• Making your callings. If you know you have an intermediate hour, and you know you have to do some phonecalls. Schedule them then.
• Read your reader. This is where I put most of my time in. Read the items on my reader. Read all those blogs!
• Write a blog! I don't do it, but I do write ideas and work them out. But if you have acces to a computer, you can do it.
• Driving lessons. I want to do it in a couple of weeks. I just turned 18 (the age when you may start lessons) so I will try to plan lessons in my intermediate hours.
• Assemble with some persons in whatever kinda project. If all the other projectmembers also have an intermediate hour, it's the perfect time!

So you can use your time usefull in intermediate hours. I think it is a important thing to use your time on school usefull, it is a good way to getting things done!

What do you do in intermediate hours? Share it in the comments!

Christmas presents for your teenage kids

Christmas time, mistletoe and wine.

If you don't have your Christmas presents bought yet, I should consider to do it! And why don't do it on the internet, now you are here anyway!

If you search a present for your, teenage, son, I think I can give you some advice. Cause I know what I, and actually every teenager, would like to get.

Movie

Buy a dvd! The perfect way to relax, is to watch a good action movie.

Like:

1. The Dark KnightThe movie of the year.
   
2. Jeff Dunham: Spark of Insanity or Very Special Christmas Special I can really, really recommend these. If you haven't seen them, it is the most fantastic ventriloquist.
3. Mamma Mia! The Movie A movie for the whole family!

Book

Yes, we do read. You may think we only play on our computer, but there are some teenagers who actually do like reading.

1. The Tales of Beedle the Bard The newest book of JK Rowling. The authors name says enough!
   
2. The Twilight Saga. Twilight; Book 1, New Moon; Book 2, Eclipse; Book 3 or Breaking Dawn; Book 4 or every part in one: The Twilight Saga: Slipcased!

Wii

Of course, you can buy a complete Wii but maybe you need an extra Wii Nunchuk Controller or Wii Remote Controller. It is fun to play with more people!

So, with these ideas you will make it. Your kids will like these christmas gifts, I am sure.

Merry Christmas.

Internet Goals 2009

I need to have a goal. It will inspire me to work harder, try harder and make more happen.

So I have to set some goals for 2009, which I hopefully realize.

1. Reach 500 visits a day on my blog. I am not sure what to expect, but if I can reach this, it will be good!
2. Reach 25 RSS subscribers. Something which is very low at the moment, I will work on this!
3. Get an income from blogging. It doesn't have to be big, but it would be nice.
4. Reach 50 followers on Twitter. Something I would have to reach! @DutchSchoolKid
5. Post 3 times a week. At least

Well, this are my 5 goals, for now at least. There are some other things, like switching to wordpress, get my own domain name etc. But those things are things I can achieve within an hour also, so not relavant to put in the list.

Quoting: Huxley

Try to learn something about everything and everything about something. -- 

I like this quote, I really do.

Knowing about everything something, that would be great. So if you read a book, and there is some tough material about a tough subject in it, you will understand. You won't understand it completely, but you will understand enough.

And the know everything about something is even better. Don't try to know everything about everything. You will not make it. But know everything about something is good.

I think that highschool is the base of you knowledge. So in highschool, and primary school of course, is where you learn something, about everything. But at the university, there you will learn everything about something.

You will go deeper into the subject. Seek every little piece of information about a subject. You will get to know everything, about that, about something.

I'm looking forward to go to the university, I really do.

iPod Studying

I have read something about recording the stuff you need to learn.

Call it mini-lectures.

After I have read that, I started to think. How can I use this, and how to apply.

I am actually a more visual student, I think. But I will definitly try it.

I have to cycle to the swimming training, every week. Then I have to cycle for a half an hour. So that is the perfect moment to relisten some mini-lectures. The perfect studying.

I will start the recording this evening. Just like the girl in the article did, I will start with biology. Things like math is hard to record, and to understand without any visual support.

How I will do it:

• Make a summary of the text. I will do this for biology. It contains over 90 pages, which I can reduce to less than 20. So that will be a good start.
• Add your notes to the summary. I will add the notes I took during class to it. So it will be complete.
• Record it. Record it in pieces. So you can choose the subject you want to listen, later. I will record it with my mobile phone, that is good enough.
• Play it, and learn. Cause I recorded it on my mobile phone, I will also play it on my phone. That will work. I will play it when I am on my bicycle, cause that is the time I am looking for something to do (without falling).

So, starting this evening! I am curious if it will work.

If it does work, I will defenitly use it with other classes also!

I will write another blog about it, next week I guess, when I have tried it!

I have tried it, and wrote something about it! Here are some pro's and cons

10 other things to do during class

I have already written about the boring teachers and how to stay awake.

But if the lessons are really boring, and you think they are useless, try to fill the time with usefull stuff.

Here is my top 10 to do during class, when I am not that interested.

On 10: Make the most fantastic drawning. And then upload it and show it! On 10, cause I can't draw..

On 9: Work out your notes, colour them, write them again, to make it more clear

Make the notes more clear to yourself. So if you look to them 5 weeks later, you will still understand them.

On 8: Think of a good deed you want to do. Good deeds make you feel good. So think of one you can do. Things like 'cook, so my mom won't have to do it'.

On 7: Play games with your neighbour. Allright, not that usefull. Only on the social side. And you neighbour has to be bored also.

On 6: Plan your day. Think of what has to be done today. Make a to-do list, you won't have to do it at home anymore!

On 5: Make homework. Pretty tough cause the teacher won't like it. But it is a very usefull thing.

On 4: Think of subjects you can blog about. Make a list of subjects where your next blog will be about.

On 3: Work on those subjects. Make a mindmap, start to think about the lists. Work those subjects out, it takes creativity, and it will make me enthusiastic. I love this one!

On 2: Read a book/reading assignment. Read read read!

On 1: Play games on your calculator. The most useless in this list, but the best. I love it. Compete with your classmates, play games. (755 at snake, beat me!)

Now I'm curious, if you will be bored in class, what will you go do!?

So I decided to become a hippy

Saturday I had to compete in the Dutch Championships debating for students, in Leiden.

Debating is something that is extremely underestimated in Holland, but it is coming up.

There were three kind of debates on the championship.

1. The Parlement Debat, the 'real' debate. 3 vs 3. Debating about a thesis.
2. The trouble speech. You get a situation, and you have to speech yourself out of it.
3. The balloonspeech. You are a person, and you are with 4 others in a balloon, which is descending. Four have to jump, you have to say why you aren't among those. The public has to decide who is going to jump.

I did the balloonspeech.

The first round I had to be Barack Obama. Not that hard. "Change we need", "I have hope" and "Yes we can". Ended third out of seven. It was a bit different than I expected. There was a jury who decided who had to jump. Pretty weird.

Second round, I had to be a medicinemaker. With thick glasses from my father (from the '60) on my head, I ended second! Yeah.

The parlement debaters won 1, lost 3, the trouble speecher ended 5th and 7th, bummer.

So we were in the great auditorium to watch the finals. And suddenly I had to compete in the finals! Wow! Great!

I had a half an hour to prepare myself. Now you can choose your personality for yourself.

I decided to be a hippy. Got my shoes of, some kind of ribbon on my head and put the two fingers in the air. Peace!

But I had to prepare my speech. If I wanted to have the public vote for me, I had to be funny. But I couldn't make up any jokes. I thought (after reading all those blogs about creativity) I just sing a hippy song in my head, the jokes will come. They didn't came. So I decided to sing the song. On stage. In front of an 500 heads counting audience. And with one handicap. I can not sing.

Just do it, with the nike slogan in my head I stood there. "Yo, I, euhm, decided to sing a song for you. "Here is a little song I wrote. You might want to sing it, note for note. Don't worry.. come on.. Be happy!"

And everybody sung with me! That was a great feeling!

But, unfortunatly, after a close call I was voted out of the balloon. Ended 4th. 

Nobody sung in that debate before, I heard afterwards.

I was satisfied. And happy. Don't worry.

I'm dutch, so my English is pretty good, but not perfect, please correct me when I'm wrong!

Why should you like deaf people

People are always mocking about their deaf grandparents. But you can also like deaf people, it is hard, but try it!

I'm telling this in a point of view like you are working in a hospital ;)

Spend not that much time

This is the key to keep it good. Just don't spend that much time with them, five minutes is already too long.

Enjoy the screaming

With our hectic lives everybody wants sometimes to yell. Now you can! "Ma'am! Do you want something to drink!?"  "What?" "DO YOU WANT SOMETHING TO DRINK!?"

Wow, a lovely feeling, screaming, and it is allowed!

Enjoy the screaming, of other

It is just wonderfull to hear others scream. Especially if they don't talk that loud normally. You hear from a room. "SO HOW ARE YOU FEELING TODAY, Mr JOHNSON?"

How can you not enjoy it!

Practice your mimic

This is the best way to practice your mimic. It's almost like a game of charades!

Love the person who is deaf

Deaf people are normally pretty old. I think it is just cute to see such an old lady saying: 'Sorry, I can't hear you, I haven't got my hearing aid in'.

Or when you have asked (yelled) if they want another glass of water, and you are walking away to get it, they suddenly scream "Cause I have to take my medicins!"

Lovely.

I think point one is the most important, don't spend to long talking with deaf people. Then it will be annoying. But for a couple of minutes, you CAN enjoy!

How do you deal with deaf people?

5 easy tips to make the teacher like you

I am not someone who naturally hates teachers. I do think it is important to be some kind of 'friends' with your teacher.

If your relationship with your teacher is good, he is more likely to help you. And eventually, he is the one who gives you your marks!

So here are some tips to make your teacher like you.

1. Greet every time. "Good morning sir". It sounds really simple, but the teacher does notice you 'That is nice he said that'. Simple, and it works.
2. Make your homework. Of course, you already should be doing that, but sometimes, you just can't do it because.. But you SHOULD do it. Cause if he asks 'who did do their homework' and you can raise your hand, he will notice you positively again!
3. Ask how he is doing. Just an extension to number 1. Also simple, but you have to do it in a 'later stadium'. When you said 'good morning' a couple of times you can do this. Ask how he's doing, how was his weekend, vacation, whatsoever.
4. If you want to know something about the stuff you need to learn, and you won't see him the rest of the week, email him! You show interest, and he will notice that.
5. And the last, and maybe the least, cause you might be busy enough. Ask for extra work. Say you want to improve yourself, and the work that is given now isn't enough.

These tips are not hard at all to use, and it does work. You don't have to put a lot of work in it, but you do get something from it. A better relationship with the teacher means that he is more willingfull to work with you, and that can only be in your advantage!