-- Some of my other interests --
  • Bi-cycling (leasurely) : in nearby woods (Geldrop, Heeze, Grote heide, ...)

  • Surfing (the Net) : with my PC (Pentium/90MHz, Win3.11) - 17" monitor - 'fast' 28.8k modem

    . . . Upgrade: (jan2000) Windows-95, Cable/ethernet modem ;-)
    . . . . . . . . . . . (jan2003) Windows-XP, AMD-Athlon/1.67GHz

  • Gliding : would love to take up flying again (like in Canada, long ago)

  • The secrets and symmetries of Numbers : Primes & Powersums (Fermat - Goldbach - Waring).

  • History of Math and Science : to see how we got into this (fascinating) mess. . My favourites:
    . . - E.T.Bell: "The Development of Mathematics", . . A.Renyi: "Dialogues on Mathematics".

  • Visit Italy, birth-place (for Europe) of 'modern' science, especially Toscany.

    -------- Some favourites --------
  • Food : Indonesian - Chinese - French
    . . - Ind.Cooking course - Authentic Indonesian Cooking
  • Books : The intuitive edge [P.Goldberg]
    . . - The Orion Mystery [R.Bauval]
    . . - Man and his symbols [C.G.Jung]
    . . - I am that [Nisargadatta]
    . . - Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance [R.Pirsig]
    . . - Conversations with God: an uncommon dialogue [N.Walsch]
    . . - Impossible Minds [I.Aleksander, IC-Press] : On Conciousness ,
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . the Internal State & Learning Neural Nets
    . . - The Wholeness of Nature [H.Bortoft] : Goethe's way of Science
    . . - Sources of the Self [Ch.Taylor] : The making of the Modern Identity
    . . - Oeroeg [Hella Haasse, 1948] : Her first novelle (about her, and my, birthland Java)
  • Wide-ranging conversation ( " an open mind is a joy forever" )
  • All kinds of music (Classical till Strawinsky, Jazz till the 50's)
  • Chinese brush painting: [bamboe.jpg]
    . . . I-Ching : the oldest (~3000 yrs) binary coded State Machine: yin/yang, even/odd
  • French Impressionists ( merging color / light / and the discrete )
    . . - E.Manet: 'Bargirl at the Folies Bergere' - 'Chrystal Vase' 1882 - Chrystal clear)
    . . - Johan B. Jongkind 1819 - 1891 ('Father' of the impressionists, teacher of Monet)
  • TV : 'Cheers' (Bar bonding, Boston US)
    . . - 'Frazier' (Psycho-babble: analist Frazier Crane & brother Niles, Seattle US)
    . . - 'Yes minister' (Civil Service vs Cabinet Minister, London UK)
  • Films : ET [Steven Spielberg] 'Stranded on Earth', making the best of a bad situation.
    . . - Rain man and Tutsi [Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise] Autistic vs. Go-get-it brother
    . . - Crocodile Dundee [Aussy in NY] 'Mugging'in NY: "You call that a knife? "
    . . - The man who would be King [Sean Connery, Michael Caine] from book by R.Kipling
    . . - See no evil, hear no evil [Richard Prior, Gene Wilder] as the blind & the deaf,
    . . . . . . . . gaining on the pro's.
    . . - Kolya Small lost Russian boy and Czech cellist in Prague.
    . . - The Natural [Robert Redford] A baseballer's comeback after 16 years]
    . . - Dead Poets Society [Robin Williams] Literature teacher vs. Establishment,
    . . . . . . . Talent vs Convention, "Deltawing vs Supertanker", guts vs reason]
    . . - Groundhog day [Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell] Caught in repetition day-by-day,
    . . . . . . . untill the clue of being a more helpful/pleasant person is learned.
    . . - Michael 1997 [John Travolta, William Hurt, Andy McDowell] Sloppy angel
    . . . . . . . Michael (John T.), with wings and all, does a good job when it counts;-)
    . . - The Shawshank redemption 1994 [Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman] Bankmanager,
    . . . . . . . for life in jail, but innocent (accused of murdering his cheating wife + lover)
    . . . . . . . after 20 yrs - when the warden had a jailed witness to prove his innocence
    . . . . . . . shot 'when trying to escape' - performs a clever escape, with a sweet revenge.
    . . - Contact 1997 [Jodie Foster] SF film on 'contact' via signals from VEGA
    . . . . . . . (only 50 lightyrs away;-) with sharp psychological insight into
    . . . . . . . motivations and (mis)understandings/prejudices of scientists, managers, etc.
    . . - Meet Joe Black 1998 [Anthony Hopkins, Brad Pitt, Claire Forlani] Drama:
    . . . . . . . Op z'n 65-th birthday party the mysterious Joe Black (mr.Death) appears to get
    . . . . . . . Bill Parrish, but Joe falls in love with daughter Susan, so some delay is in order,
    . . . . . . . during which much happens, among others saving his Newspaper company from greedy investors.
    . . - Crouching Tiger, hidden Dragon 2000 Chinese film-version of Excalibur
    . . . . . . . (King Arthur 'sword' epos) Ang Lee (dir.) After book by: Du Lu Wang.
    . . - SimOne 2002 [Al Pacino] Virtual Reality Ref
    . . . . . . . A producer's film is endangered when his star walks off. He creates digitally
    . . . . . . . a computer-animated actress as substitution, becoming an overnight sensation
    . . . . . . . that everyone thinks is a real person. (Simone = Simulation One;-)
    . . - Heaven and Earth 1993 [director: Oliver Stone] On war (Vietnam) and peace (in the Heart),
    . . . . . . . A view of both sides, in retrospect.
    . . - Bi-centennial man 1999 [Robin Wlliams] A househelp robot turning more human than
    . . . . . . . most people. About the magic of the 'internal state' as learning device...

    • -- N.F.Benschop (n.benschop@chello.nl) sep'97 -- may'05