A Busy Week

This is me eating haring, it's raw fish. I went to the Anne Frank Huis later.

What a busy week it has been. They have good public transport here in The Netherlands and Ive used it everyday to trip around the country for meetings, see friends, go to career expos and to get home. Well I'm working hard at getting a job, it's like a full time job trying to get one, with all the emailing phoning and making meetings. It's just a matter of time before I'm stepping in the door of a company to have a chat. Thats the next stage.

Well I'm of to Utrecth now with Fons (Pauliens Dad) to see the Rabo bank building that he is in charge of being built.

This is a new wind mill that mills flower. Thats Pam.

This is inside the wind mill. We are looking at the grinding stone housing.

Liz, Me, Paulien and Pam being cool!

This is having a good time at carnival.

This is also a good time.

What a week. It started off last weekend in Oeteldonk with carnival which was one big party with one whole town. we all dress up in the town colours and dance to some great Dutch music.

On Monday Pam turned up at the Baarn station where I was waiting. We had a fun time touring the streets of Utrecth and Amsterdam. On the way I got more Paper work done, which is an on going process to live and work in The Netherlands. Liz came on Friday and on the Saturday we went on a Dutch adventure to a mind mill in the area and to a Porffertje cafe which are mini pancakes. Then in the evening we had a Kiwi BBQ. I cooked outside in the cold. It was worth it though. The Kanes left on Sunday and I picked up my bike, if only it was that easy. I had to go to three offices and take numerous amounts of paper before I could actually get my bike. Got it now though. Today Monday, more paper work to do, but that should just about be the end of that. Well fun times in The Netherlands.

Doei.

The Netherlands

The back yard

A Dutch dinner

On Tuesday morning Europe time I arrived in the Netherlands where i was greeted by Paulien and her family. It was a great relief to be off the plane and on some firm ground. The first week has been good but a little different as there are many things that I have to get use to. For instance they speak Dutch here, so I got some children's books out from the library and have been learning as fast as I can. The temperature is very cold here too, thats something to get use to. This weekend we have carnival Den Boosch which is big party, but I'm going to find out more. Pamela my sister is coming over on Monday and Liz my cousin is coming over next Friday. So many things to do. Will be on the hunt for an Engineering job next week too. ok so far so good. Oh and I got a hair cut, it's short.

Last day in New Zealand

Well its been a fantastic week catching up with friends and a good last day helping Dad build a deck. This week my adventures had me going to one of the biggest concerts in NZ ever, AC/DC. It was a blast, it couldn't have been better. Well worth the trip up to Auckland. It was even better being able to hang out with my cousin mark. So anyway this is it, I'm leaving tomorrow to live in Holland. It's the start of a new beginning. I'm moving out of home, I going to find a new job, I'm going to learn a new language, Meet new friends, Catch up with old friends, probably one thing that wont change is that I'll continue to have fun where ever I am and share it on this blog each week.

So see you in The Netherlands.

Rage Against the Machine for Christmas

The time has come to bust thought the strong hold of the music lords that manufactured Pop.
Reunited for a special interview and live performance on the BBC 5 morning show to topple the X Factor monopoly. The X Factor is a song written by a group of overpaid song writers. Rage Against the Machine is competing for the number one position this Christmas with their song " Killing in the name of" in a bid to take back the charts from the music lords that monopolise the industry. Rage wrote the song in the slum of Los Angeles and it reflexes some of the tensions people are feeling. Its a liberating revolution and there is going to be a break in the chain of control.

More at http://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/rage-against-the-machine-perform-killing-in-the-name-uncensored-230139

End of November

Well its been a long hard year but its all paid off. My research went so well I published my findings in the ENZ conference. Last week I was in Dunedin giving a presentation on the slot cars I have been working with all year. This week I finished my 400 hours at Gallaghers Research and Development. I learnt a lot there and also was able to contribute to the company with experiments that will advance some of the products on the manufacturing line there.
I have joint a gym over the river so have also been keeping up a health routine there. So whats the plan from here? This week I start on my placement report for Gallaghers. Then I guess I have a bit of a Holiday at the beach, surfing and relaxing in the sun.
I am getting very excited about February coming up and getting organised for my move to The Netherlands. I always thought I'd take off somewhere and live an adventure, so this is it. The opportunities that lay are in front of me are endless, I just have to grab them. Well looking into jobs now.

Have fun.

Artificial Intelligence in Slot Cars

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5FI-cyGsBg

This project involved programming a PIC16f684 micro processor to learn a slot car track by reading barcodes and then racing the track to the full potential. I succeeded at doing this and am finishing off my reports and presentations on my findings. There is an engineering day on the 21st of October and my slot car track and prototype will be on display. From what it sounds like, its going to be the feature display on the day.

Check out the small video I made on you tube. Hopefully you can understand the difficuilty on this project. the silver Ferrari is driven by a human and the other car is my A.I. car. If your wondering if there is magnets in the car, there is not. The project is about skill. being able to push the accelleration and braking speeds to a limit.

Any Questions Im happy to answer.

Oh and these are not toys!