Aardvark

So set myself up as a mine of useless information over at Aardvark (http://vark.com/).

 

Its one of those social sites that you hope makes enough critical mass to work.

 

To test it out I asked a question by sending an IM. Of course it was a real question I cared about " where can I get good sushi in Brussels?". It seems strange that in a town with so many foreigners in it I have not managed to find any decent Sushi yet.

I got an immediate answer from the Bot saying:

Aardvark says:

Got it. I'll find someone in your network who knows about **Japanese food**, and send them your question now.

I'll send you an answer in a few minutes!

 

True to its word quickly I received:

From Charles F./29/M/Brussels,BE, Re: **Japanese food**)

 

frankly, i haven't found anyplace truly great. samourai is well reputed, but i've never been. also rather pricey.

 

(Type 'thanks', or write back by starting with 'Charles:' -- like, "Charles: tell me more...")

 

I of course did send my thanks to Charles. Especially as I have been to Samourai (http://www.tablefinder.com/eng/Restaurant/samourai/) a resturant that delivers decent basic Sushi, while charging for a level of artwork it fails to diliver.

However, it was a real person providing real answers is real time.

 

Now I have to see if I can return the favor to someone else!

 

Tell me what day it is and I will tell you where I am

Official mine of usless information

 

Road away from the Sun

I've been waiting for these shots since we changed to daylight savings and the nice volcano put the dust into the air. The church is Zaventem.

Tell me what day it is and I will tell you where I am
Official mine of usless information

Travel Trials

OK so generally not a good week for my commute to Brussels.

The first issue was as I was checking in at LCY airport I received an email from the carrier VLM saying they had rescheduled my flight for the following week.

This did not particularly faze me as I had plenty of time to discuss any issues with the client. In fact, I was very happy with VLM for the electronic advanced warning.

Unfortunately when I landed I received a similar message for the following three weeks flights.

At this point I called the as usual fantastically helpful customer service people to see what was going on.

The bad news was that they had decided not to offer the early morning flight any longer. Now this did not cheer me up, but I am constantly advising and helping businesses to make hard decisions so I cannot really complain (much).

So in the end I have had to cancel the flights and am back to traveling to Brussels by Eurostar. Not a complete killer, despite the four am get up on Monday, but it means I will get home an hour and a half later on Friday. I get little enough time with the family that this is painful.

Well I got over that as I had a good work week on project, as the system was being belligerent and the team hit it head on and won. (Sounds so much better than we found a work around for a bug)

My next trial came today as around lunch I was informed by one of my coworkers that the local bus drivers had just gone on strike. The issue for me is I needed to get from one side of the airport where I work to the other side where the passenger terminal was. Of course you may have guessed the only way to do this is to get one of the shuttle busses! After much consideration (and panic) the issue was solved by another very kind coworker that drove me around the airport.

So at least the drama’s are over for the weekend, and I’m home to recharge for next week's issues!

 

 

Tell me what day it is and I will tell you where I am

Official mine of usless information

 

Diplomats

Well diplomats are somewhat a dime a dozen in Brussels du to the number of Embassies, Missions and Delegations based there. Also as I reside near the BRU airport and actually work there, you get used to the convoy's of police cars and motorbikes picking them up and dropping them off. These occurrences along with the semi random huge jumps in local security, are just part of the day to day.

However, this mornings one was unusual enough for a double take. So diplomat x, fully kitted out in their speed riding gear on their bicycle completely blended in with the area, even with the neon outfit. The very large SUV (4x4) police car with blue flashing lights and trailing car with diplomatic tags both doing the same 15kph as the bike made everything just a little bit obvious.

 

I really felt sorry for the diplomatic protection police who are normally the byword for discreet protection for their foreign visitors.

 

Tell me what day it is and I will tell you where I am

Official mine of usless information

 

Fond Memories

Well I came across the link below via Twitter today (http://twitter.com/Paul_Hartrick ) and nearly fell off my chair laughing!

http://paulhartrick.com/where-is-the-mens-room

 

Japan really is the place for culture shock for Europeans and Americans and the article brought back some great memories. I really want to go back for work as I love the place and the people.

 

Tell me what day it is and I will tell you where I am

Official mine of usless information

 

Reply on Twitter

OK so in reply to the comment from Q1999

"still not sure about the whole twitter thing. it has proven its right to exist, but - ok, let me own up - my days are too boring and I have to few friends to hop on board"

That is part of what I love about twitter. You really only need to know 1 or 2 people and just have buckets of time! You can then go look at their friend list. You then click on the friends name and read their Twitters if interesting click follow, if not move on to the next person or look at this persons friends. You can burn a LOT of time this way so don't do it at work!

Another way of finding interesting people/tweets is twitscoop (http://www.twitscoop.com/ or set up a column in TweetDeck) This gives you a view of what is "Buzzing" and what topics are "Trending". As any particular Buzz or trend grabs your interest, just click on it. You will then be taken to a list of tweets about that. Guess what, if you find a tweet interesting click on the users name and you can see all of their tweets. Again if you like the tweets follow the user, if not move on.

Basically some of it is gossip on a global scale, some of it is brilliant insight (i.e. they agree with my preconceptions) and some of it is pure sales pitch. Follow what looks interesting to you. If you make a mistake in following someone you can also unfollow just as easily by clicking on your following link then just click on remove for that tweeter!

I try and add new people regularly by these methods, so I am constantly getting interesting input. If you tweet regularly (mine is just a stream of consciousness), you will get followers. You can use the same methods to look at their posts and friends and add as you wish!

The final think I would say is if you think something about someone's tweet, tell them. You can reply to a tweet easily and most people like feedback. A few of my (I hope) humorous replies have turned into very interesting conversations and mutual following.

Just remember best not to do all of this while you are supposed to be working!

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Official mine of usless information

Zaventem in the Morning

Feeling Arty on my walk to the Bus this morning :

Tell me what day it is and I will tell you where I am
Official mine of usless information