dutch marginal

david brooks, columnist of the new york times, recently wrote about the happiness of elders. while we fear the elderness because of the disabilities, the old body and mind, it seems we have nothing to fear and worry. because at that time we do not fear and worry so much anymore, but will just feel happy. ok, i thought. i have to act like a elder and be happy. the tips: 1. bifocalism: look at live from different perspectives 2. lightness: be at ease with the downsides of life. anxiety is a waste of time. 3. balance tensions: the difference between the severe parents and the relaxed grand-parents. act by wisdom from many experiences. 4. intuitive awareness of the landscape of reality, empathy and pattern awareness: this is only acquired by a lifetime of intellectual effort. so. to conclude. tips 1 and 2 i should be able to manage now. but for 3 and 4 i really have to age and wait for the ultimate happiness when i am eighty. wow. that is something to look forward to and not to fear.

why would only christmas be associated with love and peace. it is the everyday essence of life. let us not forget.

zelf heb ik al eens van zelfgebreide te klein geworden sokken zo'n heerlijk paar wanten gemaakt, maar kijk eens naar dit patroon voor wanten van een oude trui:  diy oude trui naar wanten (in het Engels) en van zo'n oude trui kun je ook een spencer maken en armwarmers van de mouwen. of een leuke tas. niet weggooien dus. en is de trui nog heel mooi, maar niets voor jou dan kun je hem ook gewoon weggeven aan de kringloop of het goede doel.

je hebt vast wel wat gelezen of gehoord over de tegenprestatie voor een uitkering. nu stond in de volkskrant een interview met socioloog Thomas Kampen, die door onderzoek tot de conclusie kwam dat verplicht vrijwilligerswerk de kans op een baan zeker niet vergroot. moet het vrijwilligerswerk niet meer een stage zijn, als opmaat naar betaald werk en zouden werkgevers niet geprikkeld moeten worden die mensen die voldoen, dan ook aan te nemen. laat de laagbetaalde banen gecompenseerd worden met lage werkgeverskosten bijvoorbeeld.

ik ben niet goed in mezelf warm houden, dus moet ik me warm maken. lekkere armwarmers, beenwarmers, sjawls en natuurlijk een pittenkussen. maar wat ik net ondek is nog veel meer warmtemogelijkheden om zelf te maken. warmteknuffels, -kussens, -sloffen etc met granen, lijnzaad, rijst of pitten gevuld. en dan nog eventueel wat geuren met lavendelolie erop of gedroogde lavendel erin. let wel op de stof die je eromheen doet, deze moet warmtebestendig zijn en magnetronbestendig als je het kussentje daarin warmt. maar een tijdje in de oven op lage stand of op de verwarming kan ook. hierbij een link naar een beschrijving voor een diy kussen van rogge (schijnt lekker lang warm te blijven), maar je kunt ook zelf zoeken naar jouw ideale patroon.

ben ik gehandicapt door een flinke dosis non-conformisme bij traditionele rituelen en opvattingen, zoals iemand feliciteren of condoleren? inmiddels probeer ik mij wel aan te passen, maar als kind vond ik dat heel naar. en dat gaat ook niet weg, ook al ben ik inmiddels al heel wat jaar volwassen. het gekke is dat dit non-conformisme niet in alle situaties de overhand heeft. ik heb bijvoorbeeld nooit de neiging gehad om lessen te verstoren omdat ik daarvoor teveel sympathie voelde voor de mens in de docent en omdat ik graag leerde. ik kwam dit project tegen van de kunstenaar Pilvi Takala tegen op het IFFR van 2012. en ineens voel ik mij een stuk minder gehandicapt, want wat ben ik ontzettend conform vergeleken met haar experimenten. een gezonde dosis non-conformisme kan geen kwaad en ik ben oud genoeg om op te letten dat ik er andere mensen niet teveel mee voor het hoofd stoot.

voor mij worden boekenlijsten voor de middelbare school weer actueel. je vraagt je af waarom het grootste deel dat daarop staat zo ontzettend serieus en somber is. natuurlijk, het is een weerspiegeling van de maatschappij en van de vogelgriep en alle dode kippen, de ebola-epidemie en de acties van is en boko haram wordt je niet blij. maar zou je met je boeken niet invloed kunnen uitoefenen met een humoristische visie op de wereld. voor kinderen doen schrijvers dit namelijk wel. kinderboeken maken je vaak blij. en blije mensen zijn het halve werk voor een betere wereld. dus schrijvers, zie de uitdaging, maak jezelf en anderen blij. zoek de humor in het leven en schrijf erover. nu ik erover nadenk zou er toch eigenlijk zeker een prijs moeten zijn voor het beste boek met humor elk jaar. misschien ga ik daar eens sponsors voor zoeken, want je wilt pubers toch niet meer somber maken dan ze toch al zijn soms. gelukkig zijn er, als je je erin verdiept, al vele boeken die humoristische literat

i was reading a calvin and hobbes book yesterday and recognized a lot now, while before, i just enjoyed it. so beware, before you have children, read calvin and hobbes and remember to enjoy it, realizing that you will recognize it later. do not loose your sense of humor and keep your patience. and if again, your house is a mess remember this funny quote from phyllis diller on children: 'cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the sidewalk before it stops snowing.'

as my aunt is finishing her live this evening because of cancer, i am reasoning about death. without death, the world would be overpopulated or birth should neither occur. death is nature but a very sad part. at such moments you search for wisdom on life in religion, books or philosophy. i found this comforting quote by George Elliot

whenever you feel down, you feel like never getting up again. i can be jealous about the religious people who always have their religion at such periods. but recently, i read an interview with eric kaplan and read his philosophy. a quite comforting philosophy for the atheists in a dip. his theory says that we, humans, need a purpose in our days and in our lives. you have to know why you want things or not, often being just experiences you have. being a atheist does not mean you do not believe in something, mayby in santaclaus or just the flower fairies, a story, a myth, something your make up yourself. why not even though you know rationally it is not a proven fact. what is truth for a philosopher; only read sophie's world by jostein gaarder and you realize how surreal the world could be and is. philosophy in this world can be a survival skill with which you can find your intellectual and moral balance. it gives you tools.

did you ever read any book of jules verne, or do you just know the stories from childhood? anyway, i decided to read the two books on captain nemo, travelling 20,000 miles under sea. i had difficulties finding the motivation to read through the first half of the first book, but then i got caught by the verne fever. the books are filled with future, considering they have been written in the 19th century. they remind me of the drawings and sketchings of leonardo da vinci. and, what a coincidence. i just read an article in the newspaper on plagues of jellyfish, while verne already predicts that plagues will occur in the future due to the overfishing of other fishes and whales for example. the balance will become disturbed and so it is. how can we ever say now, that we did not realize the consequences of our fishing and hunting, if even more than 100 years ago it was already predicted.

when live is a burden and you are not religious, how to survive? politeness and love, i just read, are important. and do not force your philosophy on others. ok. let us try.

ever wondered what to do with all those old books, you once read, or got through heritage maybe? i just saw this idea at the etsy website: vintage books as an interior art decoration a fantastic idea. and you know, recently i took such an old book, and loved the old-fashioned way it has been written in. how time changes.

ever heard of it? fairchain, radically good coffee. moyee. it is delicious, absolutely worth the extra price only by taste already. and than knowing that you support the fairchain of coffee, it gives you a good feeling. try it too. and probably you will want more. click the logo if you are curious.

if you are super sensitive for motion, you probably already tried a lot of cures. as i do not like to take medicines and would like to enjoy travelling more, i renewed my search for a cure. last week i made candied ginger, as ginger still seems to be the best way to feel as less sick as possible. my son tried out. it is delicious and really diminished the sickness a lot. the only disadvantage was the ginger being really hot. now, after a week, it has become somewhat softer in taste. so try it out yourself. use a more healthy sugar like raw cane sugar or another sweetener if you prefer. the recipe i used: 1 ginger root, peeled and sliced add water (1 cup per 100 mg of ginger) cover and cook for 35 minutes or until tender drain the ginger, keeping the water weigh the ginger and add as much sweetener reheat the ginger, water and sweetener and keep stirring until the sugar (re)crystallizes (20 minutes) transfer to a cooling rack with backing sheet underneath and let dry the res

did you ever hear of regrowing new vegetables from the scraps? i just came by regrowing carrot tops into new plants and discovered that you can regrow so much. of course we tried out seeds from vegetables and fruits before, even grew our own date palm but from scraps is something new to us. check out the internet if you are interested in doing so too.

at the canals in my home town you can find a lot of lime trees (tilia). beautiful trees with healthy fruits to use for tea and flowers that bees make delicious honey from. but as i was biking under the trees this week, my tires got stuck to the street a bit. i remembered the car being parked under it would turn into an dirty old car, as if parked there for a long time, in a few days. so i decided to exactly find out if the sticky street and dirty cars came from insects in the trees or from the trees itself. it seems that in particular, aphids are attracted by the rich supply of sap of the leaves. in turn, they are "farmed" by ants for the production of the sap which the ants collect for their own use. the result, a dripping of excess sap (honeydew) onto the lower branches and leaves, streets and cars. and as this honeydew is often covered with a black mould, a black sticky layer is the result. happily enough this sticky layer is only annoying to us while the trees do not

even red wine seems to be bad for your health. all the stories on red wine being good for the heart, seem to have been made from misinterpreted research. alcohol is poison. and that just now, when after years of not drinking a drop, i recently started with drinking a small glass once a month or so. i stopped years ago when i became ill for three days after drinking bubbles after a hard days work when i was very tired and short of breath. the first advice for those with any physical defect is to quit with alcohol, coffee and black tea. so i stopped with alcohol, coffee and black tea. the coffee came back when i was just permanently too tired but mixed with caffeine-free coffee. now red wine came back. but with the news article i just read, it seems to be as stupid as smoking. so i will just drink raisin juice instead of wine again. it is delicious though and relaxing, but i can think of other relaxing things.

i hate spoiling food so i always buy carrots without the greens on though then the greens probably have been thrown away anyway. but now, my daughter brought a big bundle of carrots with the green leafs from her own garden. reason to find out what to do with the green tops. and guess what. a world of recipes opened up, like pasta sauce, pesto, salad ... take a look yourself on the internet. and then to know it is very healthy, full of vitamins and minerals and even proteins. by the way, did you know you can also use the green leaves of cauliflower?

around this time, you wonder why the sweet chestnuts are delicious and the horse chestnuts, that almost look alike, should not be eaten. i promised my daughter to find out, so now i understand that sweet chestnuts come from the castanea family of trees while the horse chestnut comes from a totally different aesculus family. the horse chestnut is very bitter to us humans and even poisonous, while squirrels and deers love them. the horse chestnut tree is beautiful though, while flowering and during autumn. and the chestnuts we can use in crafting, like making a spiderweb, while eating the delicious sweet lookalikes. both chestnuts have medicinal properties. maybe in a next post more on that topic or just google yourself if you are curious.

making beautiful things, or seeing beautiful things can lift you up with a boost of energy. as we all can use positive energy from time to time, during days, during periods in live, i searched for more background to this phenomenon. i found definitions of emotional energy, the energy that makes you feel young and connected to the and hope in life., an aliveness of the mind, happiness of the heart, combined with an energetic body (physical energy). and for those with physical limitations, don't despair, the physical side is the less important part. if you have a dip, free up this energy by not only living for others, by not living in the past, by talking to positive people, by looking at beautiful things, by adding adventure to your live, by adding things on your agenda to look forward to. without doubt, a lot more things can boost your emotional energy.

aged 44, i do have difficulties reading labels on jars and packages in the shops, especially if the light is not very strong. so i wondered, should i get used to reading glasses or not, because it would worsen the farsightedness and make my eyes lazy. the answer is: doing exercises for your eye muscles cannot hurt, but wearing reading glasses will not worsen the aging of your eyes. you will become more dependent though on your glasses, just because you will get used to the clear sight. Link to some exercises on eHow

who does not know stonehenge, the legendary neolithic stones in the south of england. in the third book of michael scott on the immortal nicholas flamel it is the location of important power and in many other books and films it is an mysterious historical powerful monument. and now, researches discovered remains of chapels that indicate that the stones were not in splendid isolation but part of a bigger structure. these mysteries of real life indicate for me, the importance to keep on dreaming, because real life has too many layers to be exactly clear. dreams can give you a peaceful feeling within this noisy and restless world. so go on and dream or read (often the same as experiencing someone others dream). more on the books of michael scott .

living is about balance. balance for our body to stay fit. balance in our relations to stay happy, free and loving. balance in our lives to have enough love, beauty and goodness to counterbalance the pain and uglyness of our world. just because nature gives us no longlasting happy end but keeps on going. our challenge, to keep our balance.

fairy tales are real life. maybe your happy end is just still to come. fairy tale people have rough times before the happy ending and maybe after the happy end they have new rough times. maybe seeing your live as a fairy tail will get you better through rough times.

doubting about having children or not? don't if: you are very sensitive you can't handle unfair critics you don't like injustice you don't like grumbling you love peace you prefer to be friendly you love to dream away you hate the wrongs in the world

some parents are lucky to have a child that loves doing homework and do it in time. some parents, like me, have a child that loves to dream, play, know every conversation in the house (and in school), cook, invent etc, but does not love to do homework and if he does, not in time. some tips therefore: put on some studying music on you-tube (easy to find) sit besides your child, available for questions or to remind him/her of the work put a kitchen timer at 10 or 15 minutes to create sense of time and what you can do in that time when you work concentrated try to make the work interesting by telling stories that matter, or showing movies at dinner time or in the evening if your child does not comprehend the stuff he or she has to learn, try to consider it from another point of view; for example, math matters can be explained in several ways (visualization, storytelling, or real-life examples). or bring history to life with a book, a piece of art or real life examples (because his

being a fanatic in reusing as much as possible, i searched for more ideas for my fabric and thread scraps more than enough ideas can be found when you search on fabric scraps patterns more than 50 ideas for example  here and the smallest pieces i keep to fill up cushions and the like

did you already notice the new project from greenpeace:  GREENBEES sign the petition if you feel like we really have to help the bees adopt a bee perhaps ( this link for dutch people) use organic seeds, buy organic food and make your balcony or garden bee-friendly guide to make a bees paradise (in dutch):  bees paradise and more tips (in english):  happy bees

i was wondering if all the little pieces of fabric i finally throw away after reusing as much as possible could serve a purpose. see above. quite some challenge. inspiration came from  this website .

also enjoying the graffiti paintings in your neighborhood? nearby my house regularly high school students get lessons in working with graffiti. if they learn it as an art, maybe they will not so easily use it illegal. two dutch brothers made their hobby into a business: i want graffiti .

microsoft is producing smart chips by building a datacenter besides greenhouses. the datacenter needs to be cooled and the greenhouses need to be warmed. bell pepper growers work with energy from cogeneration. the datacenter uses the extra cogenerated energy for cooling and gives its residual heat to the pepper growers. chips with pepper and tomato  (in Dutch)

worried about the smog that is taking over the sun in crowded places? check out this project by a Dutch artist and his partners: studio roosegaarde but rather then need an ion cannon for some clean air in parks, prevent the uprising smog, by cycling as much as possible and living sustainable. force industry around you to be as clean as can be.

more and more you read about companies reusing trash (from the oceans too) pharell williams will work with Adidas on a new collections, using his bionic yarn, from ocean plastic: to the bionic yarn website willeke nugteren is starting up 'bali plastik recycling'. at more and more beaches they collect old nets you can reap and put there to be reused. be sure to use as less plastic bottles as possible and otherwise reuse them and then let them be recycled. some ideas: urban vertical garden and many more ideas

an informative website regarding living more green, fair and fine. in dutch though:  www.hetkanWel.net nice articles like the change that everyone picking up one piece of litter everyday would make. or all kind of recipes for using old bread.

most people love to drink coffee. but how sustainable is that in these times. here  you will find an article on it. it supports me in investing in more expensive coffee. to drink, but: arabica, organic, rainforestfriendly, birdfriendly, fair trade. it is investing in plant earth and still enjoying the moment.

op de ranglijst van duurzame energieleveranciers, samengesteld door o.a. Greenpeace staan de kleine leveranciers Raedthuys en Windunie bovenaan. Eneco is met de vierde plaats de beste grote duurzame energieleverancier. Iets om te onthouden als je weer mooie aanbiedingen voorbij ziet komen. Greenpeace artikel over de ranglijst

also worried about the plastic problem in the ocean? fortunately, experts are busy with solving the problem. did you already hear about this project of Boyan Slat?: THE OCEAN CLEANUP knowing that problems like this are being investigated to be solved makes you more positive for the future ea rth, don't you think so?