Please follow http://martijn.van.steenbergen.nl/ for my latest pictures and journal entries. See you on the other side!

Hallo!

I am participating in a photography contest. I can submit up to 5 pictures. They will look for the single best photo, so I have 5 chances, so to speak. The pictures have to be taken in Portugal.

Will you please help me decide which pictures to submit?

The pictures are spread out over several journal entries of which you can find a list here:

http://martijn.van.steenbergen.nl/journal/2006/

Any recommendations are much, much appreciated.

As some of you already know, I moved to Braga, in the north of Portugal, to study Software Technology at the Universidade do Minho. For those interested I keep an online journal with pictures at:

http://martijn.van.steenbergen.nl/journal/

As always, your comments and critiques are much appreciated!

Today was graduation day. I have my BSc degree now. I'm happy. After graduation we went out for dinner and I had the most delicious chocolate pie I've ever had.

Past week was fairly busy. On Tuesday I went out for dinner at an Indian restaurant with Niki. We spent a lot of time talking; it was very pleasant. On Wednesday I saw Miami Vice with Shamni, after which we cooked vegetable wraps. On Thursday I went to Amsterdam with my parents and sister, where I bought a game called Pylos which turns out to be very fun and challenging. On Friday I went to Joachim's (a friend from CGU) and played Quoridor and Pylos.

Tomorrow I'm probably going to work -- haven't done that in over a month now. This Wednesday morning I'm seeing Nynke, another CGU friend, then I'm going to give uni a quick visit to make some photocopies of a book, and then in the afternoon I'm seeing Joris, a former colleague.

So basically I'm just seeing a lot of people before I'm leaving. Portugal is getting closer and closer. The flight has already been booked; I'm leaving on Sept 9th. I've bought my own set of awesome black-and-white plates and cutlery.

I also bought two Symphony X albums in the past few weeks: I bought the self-titled album on the market in Lorgues back in France, while I picked up The Divine Wings Of Tragedy last Saturday in Utrecht. The latter I like a lot more than the former; the former is really old and has a different singer than Russell Allen, although it's very fun to hear the differences between Masquerade on that album and Masquerade '98 on the newest album.

That's pretty much it for now. Take care.

Hello.

Le Thoronet — We're going on vacation tonight! We're leaving at 4 AM. We're going to stay in a house near Le Thoronet, just like last year, only for four weeks instead of three. We're leaving so early because we're going to drive the 1200 kilometres in one day, so we'll arrive in time for dinner. I will try to check email, mudmail, dA notes, text messages and voicemail at least once a week.

Sleeve — I've bought a beautiful sleeve for my MacBook (Tucano, black/grey), to protect it. Too bad they didn't have any earlier — it's already got a lot of small scratches on it.

Bachelors — I think I've taken care of most things to be able to get my Bachelors degree in August: I've filed the request forms, taken care of my portfolio and got the grade for my software project course. The only thing left to do is write this paper.

Conscious software — Yes, I still have to write a paper, for my Philosophy of Computer Science course. It will be about whether it's possible to create software that has consciousness. Your thoughts and suggestions about this are much appreciated.

Portugal — I also think I've taken care of most things to be able to go to Portugal after the Summer: sent the application forms to Portugal, requested permission from the examencommissie and applied for the Erasmus scholarship.

Take care, everyone.