Tulips in January

It's winter, but then again not really. It has not been 0 degress (Celsius) at all yet. It's January 10, 2012.
The flower in front of the house is blooming ever since we bought it in June. At the market, the prices of tulips are at their "March level". But in March it's high tulip season.
Don't get me wrong, I love flowers. And that's an understatement - I am crazy about them! But I think they also deserve some time to rest. Some time to hybernate, ignore their surroundings, recharge their energy and make a new debut in full beauty!
Hm, it will be even worse for trees, if they start blooming and will freeze afterwards. But what's even worse, are the animals! They also need their rest - in this weather they cannot fully switch off. Same goes for us humans, unless we have a couple of weeks of cold, even our spring awakening will be low on energy and enthusiasm.
I miss the option of a snowballfight, of being cold outside and having hot wine at home, watching the snow fall in the night through the window. Snowflowers are most beutiful when you see them breaking through some white, melting snow!
You can only really appreciate spring if it comes after a cold winter! Let's hope we still get our fair share of cold this year!

Webmaster tools

I am getting computer savvier by the hour. I innocently googled my name last night. And found that my entire CV is online (in considerable detail)!!! Ok, this was not a pleasant surprise, where is my privacy? And where did they get my up to date CV from?

I never heard of Yatedo before and I just found a website I already wished didn't exist. So I searched my LinkedIn and Facebook profiles and try to maximize my privacy settings. After an hour of trying to get myself off the web, I searched my name again. It was still there.
I went to work. I worked all day. Came home, vacuum cleaned. Went to jive class. Came home had dinner. And searched my name again. STILL THERE!
I changed all my Google Account settings. Still there.
I did something I never did before. I googled "how to remove myself from the web" and consulted Google's Webmaster tool to get my CV off the web (or at least make it not come up in a Google search).

I am by now somewhere in between bursting in tears, wanting to sue someone and giving up caring.
I also found some online discussion about Yatedo being illegal. Either way, this Free People Search reminds me of everything from 1984 to all dictatorial regimes.
I even emailed Yatedo's customer care to ask them to remove me from their database. Or whatever it is called.

Give me my privacy back! I cannot locate any more the place that my CV is sourced from.
I want to worry about the rain, about my friends and family, about tangible stuff, not about my virtual profile that I don't know how to delete!!!
But the good news is, that my blog's page views went up like crazy. Ok, but the visitors are based in a country that is very high on the hacking list. So should I worry now? Can I a good night sleep tonight or should I never buy anything online again?
I would like to get more respect. More space, less intrusion. Leave me alone, please, delete me from everywhere, especially from search results! Let me worry about the rain!

News of the day - inside vs. outside

2012 is already looking heavy to me. There was a big storm that hit the Netherlands today - but this is the least of bad news. There is a new Constitution in Hungary that infringes the independence of the judicial power in the country - quite seriously. And the Euro crises is very far from solved, most countries seem to be interested in either borrowing the currency or leaving the monetary union. Kind of confusing, isn't it?

Every country, every person has their "cross to carry". So far, there are still roses, good food, soft beds, warm hugs, happy music and great ideas. But "the world outside" seems to be getting tougher by the hour. Why?

I am not sure. If I know how is this happening - and why - maybe I could come up with a viable solution, at least for myself and those who might be interested. But maybe it's just the side effect of the storm today and tomorrow everything will be good again. It's like the "make everything OK" button I have seen on Facebook the other day. If you find it, don't use it.

Everything is what you make of it. - this is my wisdom of the day, it popped into my mind today while it was getting boggled and I wanted to find a way out. I love my brain's defense mechanism. I wish my brain remained at least this active forever!

Everything is what I make of it. Taking responsibility for positive thinking is difficult. Maybe I can at least not let things affect me. By the way, everything is awesome, I am sitting comfortably on the sofa, feeling warm, drinking freshly squeezed orange juice and looking a a bouquet of roses. So things are really OK. At least in here.

Access to Blogger and expectations of 2012

I cannot help myself. I need to start by saying that the virtual world is getting to me. I should be comfortable with information technology (according to my age), but today, again I am stuck in limbo. On one hand, I am being told how exposed my online presence is, how pricacy is gone, how we need to protect ourselves better.
On the other hand, it took me about 10 minutes and over 20 attempts to sign in to my blogger account. I never changed my blogger password and it used to be different from my gmail one, but now for some reason they became intelinked. It feels like trying to stick the wrong key to your post box and being convinced that you have the right key. But now I managed. And here I am.
I also wonder why the new gadgets need to be constantly updated (their sofware). My old Nokia only needed to be charged once a week and the new iPhone keeps telling almost every day that it found an update for one thing or another. Why are programs not developed to their final version before being released? I am a slightly traumatized user. I do not want updates. I want it to work for once and for all. Can app developers please do that?
And now something about the future: I got this awesome magazine called The World in 2012. It's the best read in the beginning of each year. It says that the world will not end on December 21, 2012. And should they be wrong, they will refund the price of the magazine to all readers. Gotta love their sense of humor.
The World in 2012 also writes extensively about the new parts of the technology lanscapes still unconquered  and about data flooding the planet. Fair points. What will we do with these oceans of digital data that become outdated so fast? What are exabytes anyways? Just because we're expected to have 2,720 exabytes of digital data globally in 2012.
I feel very that the invisible world (as I call information technology) will continue playng an ever increasing role in our life in 2012. I hope that my interaction with it will become even more efficient, but also simpler. Hackers, please stop bothering people, respect their privacy. And accounts, please stop asking me for all those passwords, it's just simply too much to remember.