Tuesday 14 August 2007

Obituary

Leander was a modern version of the Renaissance man. His interests were far-flung, and he sought out and found connections among disparate areas of study. The enthusiasm he brought to each new subject was genuine and infectious. Who else might be able to speak extemporaneously on mercenaries, politics, and the latest Ajax transfer?

Leander thoroughly enjoyed learning and always included educational experiences in his schedule. After graduating college in law, Leander's indomitable curiosity led him into other areas of study, acquiring several academic degrees and professional designations. He continued in education from the other side of the lectern, teaching at Harvard, USA and Oxford, UK. Leander was a gifted scholar and communicator, in short, a great man. He was at home in front of an audience, large or small, and always put on a wonderful show, effectively telling his tale and explaining his views.

Leander saw work as an important avenue to achieve meaning in life, and he was proud of being a field hockey player. He thought about how to promote the profession to make sure it survived. He was concerned that we were not sufficiently careful in attending to our roots, studying and expanding our scientific and physical approaches. If we did not add particular value to problem solving, why did there need to be athletes at all? When our education and mental system strayed from rigorous attention to sports, he worried that athletes would be supplanted by other disciplines. Leander was a person who loved finding a better way and tirelessly sought new and better solutions to problems.

This passion was effectively applied by a brilliant field hockey player whose ideas lead to many innovative approaches using techniques to address various strategic problems. Creative and forward thinking, he did his best to engage the profession in these new areas of intellectual inquiry. The spirit that moved him was both adventurous and sportive. If someone had a problem in need of solution, it was, "Leander to the Rescue!" Leander was there, super field hockey player, an in-the flesh representative, showing the way to approach questions and think through issues.

As a natural outgrowth of these convictions, Leander did his best to lead the profession into new areas of intellectual inquiry. And, he identified new issues earlier than most of us. Countless Society of Athletes' conventions and committees benefited from his contributions by his presence and through his papers and lectures. Often recruited as a speaker at Society of Athletes' sponsored meetings, he was always ready to help out, as an entertaining and informative addition to the program. He was the moving spirit behind so many research projects, symposia, and papers. (A library search under Leander's name on the Society of Athletes' Web site results in 265 matches for papers and articles.) He was a person who loved new investigations, research, and tirelessly sought new and better solutions to problems. His many contributions stemmed from his conviction that sports and work brings lasting satisfaction. All these many works led to his being awarded the Society of Athletes President's Award by Anna Rappaport in 2006.

Consulting for Goldman-Sachs on matters of investment integration using new methods led the way for building relationships with those in the political, diplomatic, and international community. For example, at Harvard in collaboration with Ed Altman, Leander organized conferences providing an opportunity for exchanges among athletes, coaches, professionals, and anyone else concerned about emerging methods for developing and tactics for the sport. Analysis of risky fixed field hockey instruments, extrapolation of power rates and corner data to offensive tactics, player analysis, performance measurement, and asset and liability valuation are some of his impressive output. In reflecting on Leander's contributions, Professor Altman said, ". . . in tactical applications of corner techniques, no one can compare with Leander . . . (he is one of the) best examples of someone who bridges the gap between scholarly inquiry and pragmatic application of athletes . . ."

Perhaps Leander's most unique contribution was the use of quasi-Monte Carlo scenarios for developing tactics for defensive measures and maneuvers and corners. This work led to his obtaining a patent with collaborators at Columbia University. I had the good fortune to work with him, applying this technique, using Game Breaker (a modeling program) to evaluate different allocations of players’ skills and moves. Leander saw a way to calculate a deterministic distribution of ways more efficiently than using the usual random tactics generators.

Leander leaves behind 3 wives, 4 mistresses, and 6 kids; all fighting over his $3 billion inheritance. He will be missed.

Thursday 9 August 2007

Home

After 6 weeks of coaching camps in Vermont, New York, New Jersey, Connectticut and Michigan, spending 3 days shopping in New York City and a rides in planes, trains and busses, I'm back home again. Full of stories, full of memories. With new friends, 862 photos and short movies, an empty bankaccount and a pile of bills to pay. Isn't life great sometimes?
But on the bright side: I have seen a lot of the country and obtained my 47th country-point: Canada! :-) Don't ask me about the 17hr Greyhound ride though. I did get the opportunity to visit some friends in Washington and NY though and it was a blast.
To all of you who have hosted, transported or entertained me: thank you!

Wednesday 27 June 2007

EIDP Logo

Tuesday 26 June 2007

Holidays

Dear friends,

This Friday, 29th of June, I’m flying to the US of A and will only return the 7th of August in the Netherlands. You can always send me an email, but during the period I will not be answering my emails that frequently. I have my Dutch cell phone also with me, but I hope it won’t be necessary to call me during my “work.”

If I have your address, you might get a card, if I’m in the mood to send cards (last summer in Namibia I sent 62 cards…)! :-) Hope to see at least some of you in the USA or in Europe this summer; do give me a ring if you’re around or want to meet somewhere.

Take care and enjoy the sun!

Yours,
Leander

Friday 22 June 2007

Wednesday 20 June 2007

Piano

Glasses

I'm pissed, frustrated, angry, silly and broke. I broke my glasses... I'm leaving next week to the US and I broke my glasses beyond repair. Crap. Just had to buy new ones and they are ready, just the day before I fly, so I'm lucky with that. Sadly it will cost me a lot of money again (which I don't have), but I need them, so my bad luck.. :(

Sunday 17 June 2007

New phone

I finally have a new phone. My old HP Ipaq 6915 broke down, the sound stopped working, Windows crashed all the time (what's new...), and the keyboard wasn't too happy to respond on all the buttons as well. Since I have to renew my contract at Vodafone and I'm a high-volume customer, got this nice Blackberry 8800. It's shiny, it's fancy and I can hear people again! :-) Not only that, but I can als receive my email on it as well.

So far, I have only run into a few minor points of the telephone. It needs a micro-SD card if I want to listen to music on it and I don'nt have one (yet). Furthermore, I canot sync my Outlook inbox and folders with it. Which is a major drawback for me, as I always liked to have my EIDP folder with me with the emails and documents. It doesn't come with a cradle, so I am syncronising the BB with a cable and lying next to my laptop. Finally: the GPS is crap: TomTom doesn't work on it and it's not as smooth as the Ipaq.

It is however a fabulous phone. It looks good, it works perfect (amazing enlighted trackball), sound is perfect, easy to navigate within the programs, email and sms are easy to write (although I am still used to the qwerty-keyoard of the Ipaq and make mistakes between Shift and Ctrl) and it came standard with a nice leathery case. My additional Bluetooth headset also worked perfectly with the Blackberry, so up till now, I am a very satisfied BB-customer.

I just need to work out how to deal with my greasy fingers on the shiny screen... :-)

Friday 15 June 2007

Slight Cold

I'm having a slight cold. Have been sneezing like hell lately and not a clue why. Looks like I have such a summer allergy, but that can't be, as I don't have it (or at least never had it). Hope it stops soon as it is rather annoying when I'm studying in the library... :-)

Thursday 14 June 2007

Travelers' Century Club

While surfing over the web I came across a website of a club where people can become a member of when they have traveled 100 countries or more. These countries are not like the UN-list, but also small independent semi-states which are hardly known or usually seen as in integrated part of another state. This club is called The Travelers' Century Club and for those of you who know me a little: I would love to become a member, so I downloaded the application form and started checking boxes... I was able to check the boxes of 68 countries... :-( Ok, I admit: I'm 28 and who has visited 68 countries already at this age? I'm privileged and I know that and I am grateful that my parents were able to show me most of Europe. I am grateful that I was able to earn a enough to explore the former USSR and Asia and am able to work in the US during summer. I know that it sounds tacky, but I want more. I love to travel, I love to explore new cultures, meet new people, see new things, smell new things and enjoy the experiences and adventures. I'm 28 and I hope at 56 I have visited 150 countries. It will be hard as most of the not-visited countries are far away, but I will try. Traveling is my rush, my kick, my drive. I need it and it makes me happy. Am I strange?

Wednesday 13 June 2007

Ben Harper

Just discovered the artist Ben Harper. Superb songs, although a bit gospely (if that is even a word)... Just downloaded his whole discography and a DVD. Just very relaxing to listen to, but sometimes swinging and rocking. It's nice. Try it.

Food

I survived the day on Winegums. Is that healthy?

Monday 11 June 2007

Facebook

I was never really into the profiles on the web, except for this weblog than. I don't have a MySpace, I don't have a Hi5 etc. I do, however, have a Facebook since last week. Ludmila added me and I just had to join. Have quite a number of international friends on there now already and it's fun. Some long lost acquaintances and friends are now in my friends-list and am in contact with quite a number of girls from the Nike Field Hockey Camps of the past 2 years. If you have a Facebook: search for me and ad me as your friend! :-)

Tuesday 5 June 2007

Hockey

My field hockey team was very succesful this year and with only 3 draws, 0 losses and 15 wins, we won this years comptition in our league. Next year we will promote to the highst league and hopefully will get some decent sponsoring. I will not try forthe 1st men's team anymore as it take too much time and you have to train 3x a week for sure, else you will end up on the bench and that just is too much for me. I will just play in the 2nd team and get my minutes, once in a while not being able to show up fro training. I had a blast this year though.

Monday 4 June 2007

KPN

I am still working for KPN, but in a different position now. I no longer need to call, but am a trainer. Well, I'm not allowed to say I'm a trainer since the company that does the trainings isn't aware of the fact that there is someone that needs to be trained, so they might get upset if they know I am training someone. I am however very cheap and the company asks around 500 / day, so I know why they have asked me.
I am training someone who worked for KPN 38 years already. She comes from a different task force and they didn't findher suitable anymore and she needed to find a different job within KPN to finish the last 2 years before her retirement.
The good thing for me is that I can plan my own hours and don't have to worry abut handling times, speed, etc. I can just relax, take 1 hour break etc, as no one will notice. :-) The downside is that she is old and not very capable anymore to comprehend the system and methodes very fast. It takes hours and she is sometimes so slow and does things 10x wrong after another, but it's fine. I am praised for my patience (which you need...) and am still enjoying it, so no worries there.

Sunday 3 June 2007

The whole family

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Brothers


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Dad

My dad celebrated his 60th birthday last Sunday and the whole family was at home to have dinner. My 2 brothers with their girlfriends and Joao's newborn son. I had to say that it ws a nice meeting and we had a lot of fun. As Redmer and Ingrid live in Eindhoven and Joao and Diasy in Rotterdam, we don't have a fmaily gathering that often, so it was good to have all around. Downside: I got teased that I was the oldest and the only one without a girlfriend, not living together and not a daddy already.

It was strange to see my mother and father behaving like a grandmother and -father. It made me laugh a lot as I totally didn't expected it and I don't know that childisch side of them. It was fun though and I can only say that we have a nice family.



Boring me

Well, more than 2 months and no post on my blog. I got some criticism on that already from some friends, but quite frankl I wasn't in the mood to write.
I read an article last week about blogging and the fact that most blogs die after an average life of 3 to 5 months. At least my blog survived that period and is still alive, although not as active as it used to be. Not only did I stop writing for quite a while, but I stopped reading blogs as well. I haven't read HotTamale's blog, Tabletray's blog and others in months. Not a clue why, but it suddenly didn't appeal to me anymore. It's not only the reading and writing of blogs, but also he playing computergames, watching TV etc. Things I used to do at night all more or less stopped. I go to bed early now. I know: frightening, but true. I guess I'm getting old, very old...

 

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Visited Countries
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