Leuven Fat

All done, bye bye...

2009-08-19T08:03:00.000-07:00

I write this email from Sultanahmet, Istanbul. After four trips to the Chinese consulate, I finally got my 'Z' visa and so I'm of to China. I would post a triumphant photo, but I'm not sure that would be legal :-)

I've spent the last four days decompressing, and doing some touristy things around Istanbul with my family (see photo above). Fitting that I'm at the gateway from Europe to Asia as I leave for China on Saturday.

More photos coming soon on my Istanbul travel blog at: http://www.istanbulfat.blogspot.com/

What I've Been Doing

2009-07-18T18:40:00.000-07:00

Another big gap in between posts, what have I been doing? Well getting lots of medical test for my job in China, which has been relatively painless due to the excellent Belgian health-care system. Oh, want to see my lungs?...

I've also been setting up a test-bed for our middleware. We're currently working on 7 papers, which is a bit of a stretch, but it would be great if they were all accepted of course! You can see the test-bed below, currently 9 nodes, soon to become 16.

Graspop Metal Meeting

2009-06-28T08:10:00.000-07:00

I just got back from an excellent weekend in Turnhout for the Graspop Metal Meeting with my sister. Great music, great time... pics follow:

Antwerp Train Station

A Leffe Bruin in the Sun

Summer Sunset

Kath + Leffe Blonde

Journey

Korn

Slipknot

Another Day, Another Visitor

2009-06-24T14:14:00.000-07:00

The day after Kev left, another old friend and colleague Jo Ueyama arrived to plan some of the work we'll be doing at USP in Brazil next year. We worked on Saturday and Monday, but we had time for some sight-seeing on Sunday. I finally did some exploring of Brussels Upper City:

Fly Costumes for the Summer Solstice in Leuven

Brussels Cathedral

Parc Du Cinquantenaire

Arc Du Cinquantenaire

FP7 Meeting with Kevin Lee

2009-06-24T13:49:00.000-07:00

You know its great when you're friends are also potential project collaborators. In this case Kevin Lee, and old friend of mine was in Brussels coordinating an FP7 project, which K.U. Leuven (my University) may be involved in. We managed to fit in a few drinks too (see below)...

Dinner on Rue De Bouche, Brussels

Skull Mugs and Coffin Tables in Le Cerceuil, Brussels

Photo # 107 in the series 'Danny looks miserable while having a good time'

A Kriek in the Sun at De Wharf, Leuven

Kev Enjoys a Kwak in the Blauwe Kater, Leuven

Weddings, Visits... Long time, no post!

2009-06-12T13:15:00.000-07:00

So its been a long time since my last post. What's happened since?... well Ben McCarthy and a couple of other guys visited me for a few days on their way to watch the Champions League Final... too much partying meant they didn't make their flight, but we had a blast :-)

After that my family visited on their way back to France and I took them on a quick tour of my favourite Lueven and Brussels bars.

Then it was also Jo and Jamie's wedding, which was really nice. I'm not the kind of person who gushes over weddings, but I enjoyed every minute. In the end it rained, but it really didn't matter. Everyone was too blissed out to care. I didn't screw up my best-manly duties either, I managed to hand over the ring without losing it and people laughed at all the right places in my speech... here's some photos of the bessed event (I'll post some better ones as soon as I steal them from my friends)!

Notice the one photo of me, I didn't smile even though I was having a great time. That's how I roll.

Jamie's Stag-Do

2009-05-11T08:37:00.001-07:00

Last weekend, as Jamie's best man, I hosted a stag-do here in Leuven. We hired a pedal powered pub (see below) and after a big BBQ, spent Saturday afternoon thundering around the Leuven countryside while drinking draft beer. That evening we had a big night out in the Oude Market in Leuven, and spent Sunday afternoon recovering in the Delirium Cafe in Brussels. It was great to see old friends and it was an *awesome* weekend.

Visitors / Westvleteren / Brugge

2009-05-11T08:27:00.000-07:00

Credit: all photos in this post are by Paul Watkinson or Jon Dobson.

Robbo, Jon and Wockie came to visit me in Leuven a couple of weekends ago, and we had a great time. I showed them around Brussels and Leuven before a big BBQ dinner and, on the evening, we tried each of the Belgian trappist beers (except the elusive Westvleteren):

Then on Sunday we headed over to West Flanders, first visiting the Abbey of St. Sixtus, where I finally got to buy some Westvleteren, and then on to Brugge, which was lovely:

I have the most fun when people visit me!

Why No Posts?...

2009-05-11T08:20:00.000-07:00

I know its been a while since I updated my blog and I thought I should say a few words about why... first off, I've been pretty busy with my research here at K.U. Leuven, which I'm pretty excited about at the moment.

The other reason is that I've had some administrative overhead from my next job... In case you don't follow me on Twitter and Facebook, I'll be moving to Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in Suzhou, China. It also looks like I'll be a visiting fellow at Universidade de Sao Paulo in Brazil in Spring 2010, but I have a few things to finalize with this.

On top of this, Jamie's stag-do took a fair bit of organizing last weekend.

OK... now, on to my post back-log.

Missing the Obvious

2009-04-21T03:42:00.000-07:00

OK, its been a while since I've done an editorial-type blog post, but I can't resist... and the subject of today's opinionated screed? Money.

Phantom Bank Rallies and Obfuscation
If you follow the stock market, you may have been surprised over the last few weeks as U.S. banks, which had previously been in dire straits began posting profits. If you get your financial news from the likes of the BBC, CNN, CNBC or Bloomberg, you will have seen financial analysts earnestly receive this news as a sign of better things to come. Perhaps this commentary encouraged you to think about buying stock in these companies? If you had, you would now have lost a lot of your hard earned money... and turning on the television this morning you would have seen the same financial analysists puzzling over why the rally crashed and talking about vague issues such as 'trust' and 'confidence', some even speculated that it was because the US government was being too demanding to the banks that have crippled the global economy. These people are either liars, or too stupid to be allowed on television.

Why Bank Stocks Rallied (and Crashed)
So what was the real reason for the recent bank rally? The reason for the rally was simple. The US government changed the rules on how these banks could value the toxic assets (mostly dodgy mortgages) that they hold on their books by suspending the mark-to-market rules for banks, which demand that assets are accounted for at their market value. By valuing toxic assets above market prices, the banks were thus able to rewrite their balance sheets and declare significant profits. On to the obvious reason for the share price collapse... everyone in the know realises that these were phantom profits and, fearing that gravity would reassert itself, took the rally as an opportunity to dump their shares.

Why 'Normal People' Should not be in the Stock Market:
So this is a great example of how popular news sources present completely midleading information about the stock market (and economy). I'm not saying that there aren't excellent news sources that provided timely and accurate warnings (in this case the FT, WSJ and Independent did just that), but you make financial decisions based upon the advice of the monkeys on TV at your peril!

Maybe I'll torture you all later with another post about how the media is obfuscating the causes of the bank crisis and likely effects of our response to it.

GROEZROCK

2009-04-20T01:15:00.000-07:00

I spent the weekend at Groezrock with my sister, who was visiting from the UK. The music was great all around, but NOFX, Rise Against and The Living End were all a cut above. Belgian festival food sucks just as bad as English festival food, though the beer is a lot better... I'm laying off the Jagermeister for a while though!

Website Update

2009-04-19T07:56:00.000-07:00

Its easy to forget that one has a website with twitter/facebook/blogspot, but I do(!) and its finally been updated and moved to my new host. Check it out if your looking for my work, travel diaries, reading page and links: http://www.dannyhughes.org

Weekend in Costa Blanca

2009-04-13T11:09:00.000-07:00

My family spent their Easter vacation in Benidorm on the Costa Blanca in Spain and I flew down to join them for the Easter Weekend. I had a nice time, but Benidorm was very quiet compared to the family holidays I remember from being a kid. Still, the weather was lovely and it was nice to see everybody. Below are some photos of Benidorm's new town (concrete jungle, or beach paradise -- you decide).

Benidorm 'old town' is a little more aesthetically pleasing than the English-centric new town.

Tuscany

2009-04-13T10:35:00.000-07:00

I had an interview at the IMT institute for advanced studies in Lucca, Italy on Thursday. Unfortunately, after a slightly chaotic journey, both my blackberry and my phone's battery ran dead... so there are no photos, except for this non-descript shot out of the computer department window.

I left Leuven by train on Wednesday evening, heading to Dijon via Paris and from there to Bologna on the night train. I prepared my slides in the dining car while indulging in a nice three course meal and a bottle of red wine before getting a pretty solid six hours sleep on my couchette.

Unfortunately, my train arrived into Bologna more than an hour late, which threw out all of my connections, reducing my planned half day in Lucca to just two hours, and that with an expensive taxi ride to make one of my connections. I can see why the Italians have made some questionable leadership choices in an effort to 'make the trains run on time' :-)

Still Tuscany was beautiful and I hope to go back soon.

Snowboarding at Snow World, the Neatherlands

2009-04-06T09:44:00.001-07:00

Today, Bert, Karen and I skipped work and went to the world's biggest snow-dome, which is just accross the border in the Netherlands.

Snow World is a lot bigger than the UK snow domes with two gentle 0.5KM tracks, a kick ass snow park and even a beer hutt on the slope :-)

We all had a great day practicing our boarding and skiing:

It went pretty well...

Except for a couple of falls:

After a fortifying Duvel, Grandpa Hughes even managed a small kicker and a rail in the park (click to enlarge):

Weekend Bike Ride to Everburg

2009-04-04T10:48:00.001-07:00

I was nearly out of Irn Bru, so I hopped on my bike and rode to Everburg and the Stone Manor english supermarket to buy that and a couple of other english 'essentials':

All very unhealthy, but I do have to cycle 20K to get it!

First BBQ of Spring

2009-04-04T06:39:00.000-07:00

The weather was a balmy 20 degrees on Friday, so I had a BBQ to celebrate at my appartment complex... it was a good night, fuelled initially by BBQ meat (and veggie burgers for me) and then by Pisan and jagermeister. Here's a couple of pics:

Here's what I learned: Dave is a funny when he drinks, Nelson is a giant, Rehan is a great cook and Javier is a slow drinker :-) Don't believe me that Nelson is a giant? Here he is on my mezzanine floor:

Sunny Weekend

2009-03-22T05:49:00.001-07:00

Its a beautiful weekend. I spent Saturday riding along the bike paths through the Oud Heverlee forest... Along with the gentle tracks like the one below, there's some pretty challenging stuff. Kind of makes me wish I'd bought a mountain bike instead of a hybrid.

Sadly, I have to work today -- no rest for the wicked!

Beer Plan 9

2009-03-20T09:51:00.000-07:00

I just got back from the DRADS workshop, which was really cool. It was held in this awesome former abbey called La Forresta in the woods about half an hour away from my appartment.

We stayed in the old monk's rooms. I guess it was pretty sober, but I had a lovely view of the grounds on a sunny spring day.

There was a mix of presentations from K.U. Leuven and also by a couple of invited speakers. My favorite presentation was by Sape Mullender from Bell Labs, who worked on Plan 9 Unix. Sape talked about the importance of consistant, simple abstractions in Plan 9, which has a novel threading, RPC and networking implementation (no sockets)! I think some of Sape's presentation combined with the inspirational effects of trappist beers led us to some interesting ideas for the STADiUM sensor network middleware.

As always at Leuven, the social activities were awesome. We spent Thursday night (and into the wee hours of Friday morning) competing in a blind tasting competition of Belgium's trappist beers, which after just 6 weeks of experience... I won (beating 20 native drinkers). My prize? A bottle of Achel!

Mission Accomplished

2009-03-14T12:07:00.000-07:00

I was having a nice lazy Saturday afternoon, when I happened to come accross the one place in Belgium that sells Irn-Bru... the 'Stone Manor' supermarkets, and there was one just 20KM away. With just two hours of light left I checked the map and grabbed my bike...

Everberg is a nice little country village, the last place I would have expected to find a specialist supermarket, but sure enough, there was Stone Manor selling all things English (and more importantly Scottish) and there was my precious ambrosia:

I managed to fit a month's supply in my bike bags :-)

Orange Alert

2009-03-13T07:51:00.000-07:00

I have a slight addition to Scotland's favorite soft drink, Irn-Bru, so when I moved to Belgium, I brought a whole case. Now, one month in, my supply is running out..

...and panic is setting in!.. I can't go cold-turkey man! Does anyone know where you can buy Irn-Bru in Belgium?

Snowboarding in Zell Am See

2009-03-10T04:59:00.000-07:00

I just spent an awesome weekend snowboarding in Austria with Adam and Jon!

I caught a train after work on Friday evening from Leuven to Cologne and from there the sleeper train to Munich. After a good night's sleep, I continued via the Alpine Express, arriving at Zell Am See before 10AM on Saturday morning. After dropping my gear off at the awesome youth hostel on the shore of the frozen Zeller See lake (Junge Hotels Am See, single en-suite @ 22 Euro / night, 1KM from the lift)...

...I hit the slopes, spending the rest of the day exploring the Zell Am See trails, while stopping for a beer every three or four runs. Snow conditions were great above 1000M with great fresh powder on the top of the mountain (though the resort runs were a bit slushy). It didn't take me long to get my snow-legs back and I even tried a little off-piste near the summit as well as the black run back down to the resort. After boarding I met up with Adam and Jon in the town center and we caught up over a couple of beers and traditional Austrian dinner.

The night-life in Zell was pretty good, ranging from quiet traditional pubs to trendy little bars and clubs. On Sunday, I awoke to a beautiful day and an amazing view of the Zeller See and the Alps from my window.

We spent Sunday morning on the Zell Am See runs:

In the afternoon, we moved to the bus connected resort of Kaprun on the 3000M Kitzsteinhorn glacier. After three long Gondola rides to the summit we found beautiful powder and amazing terrain, especially the natural pipes and off-piest runs from the summit to the mid-point (beware though, the bus connection is at least 30 minutes and Kaprun closes its lifts half an hour earlier than Zell). Here's a photo of Adam stuck in that awesome powder:

After dinner, it was back to Munich for the sleeper train to Cologne, and from there home to Leuven. By 10:30 Monday morning I was back in work sitting in a meeting... tired but very happy.

Mad Ducks / Weekend Away

2009-03-04T11:42:00.000-08:00

I've noticed that things are a little bit different here in Belgium. The cars wait for the bikes, rather than the other way around and the bikes wait for the ducks... a couple of times I've been riding to work through the park and had a duck stop dead in front of me, staring me down. It's spooky!

Also, on Friday, I'll be catching the night train to Zell Am See in Austria for a weekend snowboarding with some mates. Pictures to follow.

Also, I have an appointment at the police station on Monday for my citizenship interview, but I think I'll be OK, because if you scratch out one letter, the Belgian word for 'police' reads 'polite' (see above) :-)

Bar Hopping in Brussels

2009-03-01T09:09:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, I went for an evening out in Brussels (just 15 minites and 5 Euro on the train). I had a great time hopping around the famous bars of the grand market and lower city. It's so nice to know I can go for an evening out there whenever I like... I see lots of evenings bar hopping around Brussels in my future :-)

Around Leuven

2009-03-01T08:58:00.000-08:00

People have been asking me to post more photos of Leuven... below you can see the Town Hall (Stadhuis), which was built around 1450, shortly after the founding of Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.

St. Peter's church is also historic, dating back to the 15th century:

What I really like about Leuven though is all of the lively, atmospheric bars and restaurants, some of which are in buildings almost as old as the town hall and church... these are a bit harder to photograph well, but I'll try :-)

Another New Start

2009-02-24T12:25:00.000-08:00

So I started work in Leuven (Belgium) last week. The city of Leuven is famous for two things: Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, which is one of the country's best Universities and, more importantly, beer (I'm drinking a cold glass of Leffe Bruin as I write this).

I've settled into my little half-duplex studio in the city centre (below)...

And I have some cool new toys to play with. Below you can see two of the new generation of Java sensor motes. On the left is one of Sentilla's Perk motes (8MHz / 10KB RAM) and on the right is a Sun SPOT (180MHz / 512KB RAM)... Very different beasts, but both running standard Java - how cool is that.

I'm hoping to get out and shoot some photos of the city on Saturday and (if I'm feeling energetic) I may take a trip to Antwerp for some sight-seeing and to watch Teenage Bottlerocket's gig.