Home Improvement part 1

To all man out there, you shall understand the satisfaction of doing something for your home. For a while I have been thinking about all the improvements I could make to make better use of the space in my European kitchen (read small).

First I moved the fridge and installed a table, in effect giving us a new counter. Then I graduated from light school when I installed my first halogen lights under the cupboards, providing us with light for our European kitchen (read dark, at night).

Today I graduated from drill school and installed on the wall a knife rack (from Ikea, of course).
The hardest part was to do the holes. In the wall of my house, it is a strange combination of plaster and brick. Walls have always mystify me a little. I am just no so sure on how to fix anything into them so that it holds. But the key here was that my friend Marta, an engineer frankly more versed in those tasks, bought an electric drill. The wall stood no more chance, I thought. After some trials, I got it right.

Now, we can sucessful reach our knives without them unsharpening in the pêle-mêle of my drawers. (actually, are they even sharp...)

My first map!

Today I have created my first map. For months I have been fascinated by my buddies from Quebec city working on their internet startup called Poly9.com. They have been, especially a great guy named Greg, a the frontier of the 'web 2.0', developing interactive maps working with Microsoft, Google, and others.

Google just recently launched a new service called 'My Maps' that is associated with their brilliant 'Google Maps'. Basically it allows anybody to create a simple map with information such as text, URL, and images. Well, it is very modest compare to the technologically creative ways of the Poly9 folks, but it is fun!
I did my map for an upcoming conference with my job with ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability. I am in charge of the website content and thought this could be a great addition to the pratical information. In fact, I manage to put information about all the hotels and links to our online booking website. To me, that is like the first time I used email. Wow. So simple, so useful, so great. Google really deserve to read my emails (well, and this blog since they own Blogger).

More from nerdland in some time.

Take care,

j.o.