Tag Archives: english

Birthday presents (came a bit early)

My birthday is not yet here (though it is not that far either), but DHL was too fast and delivered my presents already on Friday :) But there is no problem, because I am sure that I will not be able to use them before the real date. I am afraid, that I will even have to wait quite some time before I can really use them :(

Yeah, they are pretty cool :] It is a new wheel-set for my racing bike, a Mavic Cosmic Carbone SL. And they will not only make the bike look better, but also faster, as these wheels are much more aerodynamic than (my) normal ones (thanks to mainly the 52 mm deep carbon rim, bladed spokes and integrated nipples – as it can be seen below). That’s why they are called “aero wheels”…

And the reason for not being able to ride these? The weather. There is still one month left from winter (hopefully not more), and it is very cold these days. I really don’t want to ride outside in temperatures below 5°C… (And today it was between -6°C and +1°C…) So until then, I will not even install the new wheels, because for the indoor trainer, there is no difference :D But then, I hope they roll as good as they look ;)

By the way, I was very lucky with this purchase. The original plan was to buy such wheels somewhen during the spring, but I had the link to its product page on Rose Versand (I basically order all my cycling stuff from this on-line shop) for months now (since summer), but the price was 799 €, which is a “bit” over the limit for a wheel-set. (Back in Hungary, the first bike which I bought was a quite nice Merida trekking bike, perfect for every day commuting between our place and the university, and it costed 1/3 of this price…) So I thought I would just wait with this, and that’s what I did for more than a half year. Of course, once in every week, I checked the price on the site, and then on the 18th of January, it suddenly dropped to 479 € (it meant a 320 € reduction!), so I placed my order almost immediately. One day later, it was already out of stock, so I was very lucky :) I can’t wait to try it!

It’s too late to be a pessimist!

This evening, one and a half year after it had appeared on YouTube, I finally watched “HOME” (during a low intensity recovery session on my indoor trainer). Climate change and overpopulation are known problems for the planet and its citizens. And among them; for us, humans. Independent of skin colour, country, origin and religion. It is our problem. A chain of problems which were and are caused by us…

It should be obligatory to watch this movie for all of us. You have one and a half hour for this. You must have this time, and now, not later. Because then it might be already too late… Watch the full movie on YouTube. And then think about how you live, and what do you do for our Home. And then think about the most important question: What are we waiting for?

2 Replies

Nothing special is happening…

The number (density) of posts here has recently fallen to previously unseen depths, but there is really nothing special happening these days. And it is a bit boring to write about the normal days. From 2011, I will publish only when there is something truly interesting (or if I have too much free time, but that is very unlikely to happen). Sorry. Or if you really can not live without my (sometimes useless) thoughts, then follow me on Twitter (and it’s usually the same stuff on Facebook too)… In the last weeks, I saw the partial solar eclipse on the morning of the 4th (for like 10 seconds from the ring while I was riding to work), we started to play badminton again (twice a week), we had our usual fancy Christmas Dinner in the Faculty Club (and I got and gave chocolate :D), I went ice-skating, I played FIFA11 on-line with a colleague of mine (and I won :D), I have bought a digital scale (to track my weight), and the weather was so nice and warm last Sunday that I could go and ride my racing bike outside (to Mechelen and back of course). Oh, yes, and I drank some beer (Boon Oude Kriek 2006, Cantillon Kriek 100% Lambic Bio, Tumulus Magna, Boon Framboise 2008, Pannepot Reserva 2008), and ate some amasing pralines ;) This week I will spend two days (4×4 hours) with supervising (a.k.a. sitting there) on exams (as part of my teaching duties), so finally I will have some time to read a non work-related book. Preferably a novel. Or two…

1 Reply

My first “first-author” paper is accepted!

After months of work, uncountable iterations, and one round of revisions, the first scientific article in which I am involved as a first author is now accepted for publication in an international journal (Astronomy and Astrophysics)! It is not yet printed (that will take probably some additional months, but we do not really care about that anymore, in the age of the internet…), but the accepted version – before the language editing – can be found on arxiv.org already. I know this is not the most interesting paper ever, but I can assure you, that the star I am working on now will be a much bigger shot ;) Just wait for it… Anyway, as this is a very important step along the road which leads to a PhD degree, we have a tradition at the Institute, that one who publishes his/her first first-author paper, gives a reception to celebrate this event. So on Thursday afternoon, I served my colleagues with cakes, chips, 1 kg of Leonidas pralines (this will be a a tradition on my receptions ;D), champagne and wines. Among which there were two bottles of Royal Tokaji Aszú 5 Puttonyos from 2006 (Tokaj is the region, Aszú is the type, the number of “puttony” is a measure of sweetness), a special Hungarian sweet dessert wine from the list of the World’s Top 100 wines of 2010. And at the end, we also opened a bottle of Pálinka (with honey and sour cherries). As far as I can tell, everyone was very happy with the reception ;)

2 Replies

2010 – a year in review

2010 was a bit more relaxed than 2009, but it was a very interesting and exciting year. Now for the third time in a row, let me sum up the year in a long post (but not many words on work, do not be afraid), so grab a good Belgian beer, some leftover cookies from Christmas or New Year’s Eve, and enjoy! :)

January started with a really nice New Year’s party at Roy’s place, where we had lots of food and rinks – we also tasted one of the top Hungarian vines, which I brought from home. I managed to arrange my international transfer to a Belgian floorball team, so I started playing for FC Tigers Kraainem. Winter was strong, with freezing cold and snow – not really typical for oceanic climate… I published my video-review on the Knog N.E.R.D cycling computer, which is my most popular YouTube video since then (3400 views this year), though I do not really use it nowadays. I went climbing every Friday, and we usually ended up with a waffle afterwards :) I took pictures of my colleagues playing badminton, but I did not join them yet. I got into contact with the Bikemag cycling magazine (of Hungary), and asked them if it was possible to get accreditation for the Tour de France… I saw Mr. Nobody in the cinema, one of the best movies I have ever seen (and the best Belgian one) so far. Continue reading →

1 Reply