Personal

2011 Wrap up

Posted by Theo Heselmans on January 13th, 2012

Let's start by wrapping up a weirdly busy (last) year, since it's been some time this blog was updated (no apologies here, follow me on my blog @theoheselmans, where I got more to say): 2011 was wei

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Unexpected Email

Posted by Theo Heselmans on February 5th, 2011

When I was at Lotusphere, I got a very unexpected email from my mother. Why unexpected? Well, to start with, she's turning 81 soon, and she has never used a computer in her life. We, her children, g

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Lotusphere backpacks are packed

Posted by Theo Heselmans on November 7th, 2010

Alex, a former colleague of mine is helping out people in Gambia. Every year he collects stuff to ship to them by filling (part) of a container. He goes there (with his family) to distribute the goods

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In the Newspaper again !

Posted by Theo Heselmans on October 20th, 2010

2 weeks ago, my family in law surprised me by telling I was on the back cover of the local newspaper 'Nieuwsblad van Geel'. And indeed, I was, together with my classmates from the 6th Latin-Science cl

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When Abraham meets Petrus

Posted by Theo Heselmans on February 15th, 2010

No, I haven't been to the pearly gates, but I've been close to heaven and met Saint Peter (Petrus). Let me explain. Last Thursday evening I organized a party for my 50th birthday. Over 80 customers,

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Major Milestone: turning 50 !

Posted by Theo Heselmans on February 7th, 2010

Yes it's true: I've turned fifty today, and the world kept spinning :-) It might be a milestone for me, but a non-event for most of the galaxy. Nevertheless, reaching 50 started me thinking (a but m

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Please don’t twitter on LinkedIn

Posted by Theo Heselmans on November 28th, 2009

Since a couple of weeks twitter has an option to publish tweets directly to LinkedIn. I don't mind that your LinkedIn status get's updated, as long as it's suited/useful for a business social network

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Out of touch, but LinkedIn

Posted by Theo Heselmans on July 24th, 2009

I know I've been out of touch for some time. No apologies ! My mind just wasn't set for it. A quick update: Our garden has been redesigned We went on holiday to Sicily for 2 weeks, and thoroughly

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Getting famous :-)

Posted by Theo Heselmans on January 7th, 2009

A couple of days after Christmas, I got a call -out of the blue- from a journalist (I do not know) of a national newspaper 'Het Laatste Nieuws' (=The Latest News). We chatted for 15 minutes about the

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(Un)expected flying visitor in my white garden

Posted by Theo Heselmans on November 24th, 2008

November is (in the north of Belgium) an unusual month to have a decent amount of snow. Yesterday however about 12 cm (5") of snow covered everything and turned the world in a idyllic place. As we usu

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Each blogger needs to pay 25 EUR !!

Posted by Theo Heselmans on November 18th, 2008

Can you imagine this (it knocked my socks off): Each blogger (in Belgium) is legally obliged to register and pay 25 EUR to a privacy committee ! This is almost literally translated from the follow

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Golf Initiation

Posted by Theo Heselmans on October 11th, 2008

For some time now I've been thinking of giving golf a try. I never got to it until a couple of weeks ago, I was invited to a 4 hour golf initiation course. Yesterday, a most splendid sunny autumn day

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My Home Office

Posted by Theo Heselmans on October 4th, 2008

As everyone is sharing their working 'habitat', here's mine: and Yes, it's usually this tidy! And this is what's behind my back: 1. Wine-events coming up 2. Some holiday pictures 3. My belov

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Wedding Photography

Posted by Theo Heselmans on August 3rd, 2008

A couple of months ago, Evy -a niece of mine- asked me to take their wedding pictures. I (tend to believe I) got a good eye for taking pictures, but I'm just an amateur, with amateur equipment. My big

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English Pronunciation: Chaos

Posted by Theo Heselmans on June 23rd, 2008

When I was around 17, our English teacher (remember, English is my third language), gave us this hilarious poem to read. It never got out of my head. I was referring to it only yesterday. Instead of

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My 1st Blogoversary

Posted by Theo Heselmans on June 16th, 2008

Yep, can't believe it. I've been blogging for a whole year now. I know I'm still rookie compared to some, but still, I never thought I would get this far, and blog relatively regular (on average twic

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Ducklings abound

Posted by Theo Heselmans on May 21st, 2008

Every year a (different?) pair of ducks visit our pond. Every year they enjoy us with a herd of ducklings: 16 of them this time. Unfortunately only a couple of them survive (after a month or so). I wa

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Visit to NYC

Posted by Theo Heselmans on May 10th, 2008

A New York City trip was high on our agenda for some time, and we just returned after having enjoyed 5 days in the Big Apple. We know now we needed to be in better shape as you sure 'walk' a lot in th

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Speaking Nightmare

Posted by Theo Heselmans on April 18th, 2008

I was once given the opportunity to do a demo/presentation about 'Development in Notes' for a group of around 50 Microsoft/Oracle minded programmers of an IT consulting firm. As I was expected to ente

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Off-Road Land Rover Experience

Posted by Theo Heselmans on April 7th, 2008

My wife and I successfully 'graduated' from a Land Rover 4x4 off-road driving course this Sunday. After a technical car session, and a theoretical off-road do's/don'ts overview, we had the opportunity

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My Worldmap

Posted by Theo Heselmans on March 19th, 2008

Stephan Wissel and Kevin Pettitt found a great site called World 66, were you can create your own map of the world, with the countries you've visited marked in red. This is my map: I'm glad there's s

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How I got into: Wine

Posted by Theo Heselmans on February 17th, 2008

I used to be a Beer-drinker. Never Seldom in large quantities, but preferring quality, enjoying the incredibly big selection of Belgian Beers. I was a member of 'The Objective Beertasters' for many ye

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My Album Cover

Posted by Theo Heselmans on February 13th, 2008

I thought it to be a great and fun idea, so I join in. Here's my album cover. The band' name is rather hard to pronounce, let alone understand, but I rather like the album title. Read 'it' as 'IT'

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How I got into: Excel

Posted by Theo Heselmans on February 13th, 2008

Around 1980 I played with my (and the) first spreadsheet called VisiCalc, on an Apple II. This was one great piece of software, finally showing the full potential of personal computers. Lotus then dev

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Lessons in Modesty

Posted by Theo Heselmans on February 7th, 2008

What happens when you are presented 5 white wines and 5 red ones (all covered up) and you need to make an educated guess about country of origin, grape varietal, year, alcohol and price ? A serious l

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25th anniversary

Posted by Theo Heselmans on December 10th, 2007

Today is our 25th wedding-anniversary! I would love to thank my wife Hilde for putting up with me for so long. Being the wife of a wine/computer/gadget/notes freak can't be easy. Seeing me go to Lotus

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Hades is dead, next please

Posted by Theo Heselmans on November 10th, 2007

Remember I told you some time ago I was playing an RPG called 'Titan Quest' (with extension 'Immortal Throne'). After have some technical troubles initially, I picked it up again last month, and final

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Crime Scene

Posted by Theo Heselmans on November 3rd, 2007

Last week we've visited a local Art Club's exhibition, as a friend of ours is one of the artists contributing every year. We have been looking for a nice piece of art for our living room for some time

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Supper with Da Vinci

Posted by Theo Heselmans on October 9th, 2007

Yesterday we were invited to a lecture in the Da Vinci museum in the Abbey of Tongerlo. As I knew they owned a replica of the 'Last Supper' painted by Leonardo da Vinci, I was rather exited. It seems

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Golden League: Memorial Van Damme

Posted by Theo Heselmans on September 15th, 2007

When I was 12 to 16 years old, Athletics was my sport. Actively that is. I particularly loved discus throwing. What I lacked in strength, I made up with my technique. I still might be club-record hold

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Viva Mexico !

Posted by Theo Heselmans on September 12th, 2007

We've just returned from a 2 week vacation in Mexico. The first week was a guided tour called 'Mundo Maya'. We've visited 6 major sites: Chitzén Itza Uxmal Palenque Tikal (Guatemala) Xunantunich

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I’m Game

Posted by Theo Heselmans on August 19th, 2007

I'm hooked again! Ever since I played the original Prince of Persia, a long time ago, I've had it for 'well-designed' games. I got these periods in my live I seem to spend every spare hour to gaming.

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3 weeks to go...

Posted by Theo Heselmans on August 5th, 2007

3 weeks from now, I'll wake up in Mexico. Finally a well-deserved well-needed vacation. We (my wife and I) are having a 1 week tour around the major Mayan cities in Yucatan: Chichén Itzá, Uxmal, Palen

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Hot Air Balloon Show

Posted by Theo Heselmans on July 22nd, 2007

Every year, and this weekend was the 11th time, the local Hot Air Balloon club 'Icarus' organizes a wonderful 3-day event. Sometimes they get over 30 balloons, some of them in very cute shapes. I'm a

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Mac Jef

Posted by Theo Heselmans on July 21st, 2007

My nephew Jef turned 19 a couple of months ago, and just finished school as a welder. He's really good at it too, but his passion is Macintosh. He maintains several Mac-networks from relatives and doe

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Design in real life

Posted by Theo Heselmans on July 14th, 2007

I'm a UI design geek. I can't stand it when e.g. 2 buttons are not aligned correctly. This also reflects in real-life objects (or is the way around). A couple of years ago we bought 2 armchairs from

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My view

Posted by Theo Heselmans on July 8th, 2007

My home-office window view currently is OK (it's not that fantastic, but at least I can see the sky). This will change in the near future, as I will have new neighbors by the end of the year. The

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The last mortal man

Posted by Theo Heselmans on June 27th, 2007

I'm a big fan of SF and Fantasy, and read quite a lot of them. Besides ordering them on-line, I also tend to buy a big pile, whenever I'm in the States. I went to Lotusphere last January, for the 12t

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Finally did it !

Posted by Theo Heselmans on June 16th, 2007

After months of doubt, I finally started my own blog. No idea who's going to read it, but that's not important now. At least I made a start. I got some topics I thought about talking, but I'll just se

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