I haven’t been doing nothing in the meantime. Not at all. I was here, moderating a huge mobile battle,  here, learning about how to get married web 2.0 style, here, challenged to think about how to change the world, and here, enjoying a warm summer night with the best tweeps ever . I haven’t stopped learning or enjoying my life either (taking my first sailing lessons, waw!) . I HAVE stopped blogging, though. For quite some time.

The reason : there is a new man in my life. Alexander. 10 months old at the moment. So here he is, staring at the sea with my other man.

I cherish our moments together. I love to watch my son grow up. Bottom line .. Important things first. Of course.

Having more or less found this difficult-to-find-balance-between-work-and-family, here I am … back to blog.

Ready steady Go

Imke Dielen shared the link on Twitter, stating ‘finally some positive news again about Belgium’. I couldn’t agree more, that’s why I want to highlight the article here. Go go read it .

And we liked it: The exposition is very interactive.  All kinds of installations make you experience or learn about the extreme conditions yourself. Which gives the exposition an extra touch, not only for children but also for adults. Discovering a dark cage, feeling the ice cold polar winds, measuring how much water your body contains, playing an exciting quiz…: you could do it all.

Most amazing, though, was the ‘heath sensor’, which shows the warmest (and less warmer) parts of your body using colours. Those colours totally changed after feeling the polar winds.

The exposition runs till the 30th of August. I don’t have to mention anymore to pass by (when you’re in the neigbourhood). Moreover, I made the cutest film of my boy friend and our nephews reaching a mountain’s summit and doing -uhm- funny things:

Eternal Moonwalk is an initiative from the Belgian radio channel Studio Brussel. The idea is Belgian as well. Behind it are Group 94 and Mortierbrigade. Proud to see a Belgian initiative conquer the world.
PS Don’t forget to try the buttons below with the ‘s’, ‘d’, ‘f”… Brings your experience even a galaxy further .

We were out of bananas, but I’ll give it a try once we have bananas in the house :-).

In short: the Belgian tax agency is said to watch people on network sites like Facebook and Netlog. Information that is found on the web, cannot be used as evidence, but may lead to further controls.

Main aim is to catch people whose lifesytle doesn’t correspond to their tax declaration. According to the article, the BBI (Belgian Special Tax Inspection) has already confirmed the story: “It is possible, it is allowed and it happens. Now and again information is gained via social network sites, but especially via eBay.”

After posting the link on Twitter, some people thought it was a hoax. Yet, I don’t think so. Somebody also wonders “how do they know my Ebay username”? I suppose they’re not just following anyone, but I’d like to know some more about it as well..

Simple and therefore (probably) very succesful: the current campaign of Belgian’s youngest mobile operator Mobile Vikings: Choose your favourite cellphone and spread it on Facebook. Consequently you might win the cellphone of your choice.

A viral marketing campaign like another, you might say. Indeed. Except for the fact that you can see how popular the cellphone of your choice is. The smartphone I chose, the LG KP500 Cookie is not that popular with only 5% of the people interested in it. With 33%, the Iphone 3G is the top choice at the moment, followed by the HTC Touch Diamond 2 (14%) and the HTC Touch Cruise 2 (11%). Very interesting for Mobile Vikings (and also other mobile operators …) as well, since it shows what smartphones people dream of.

Oh yeah, and here’s a competiton you can’t win anything with unless virtual fame forever. I found out that somebody put me on the list for Ms Twitter Belgium. However, I have been on holiday, the competition closes tomorrow and I thus have not enough time to organise a proper campaign ;-). Yet, a warm appeal to vote for me (my Twitter name is theonehitwonder). Always nice for a girl And if somebody knows who put me on that list, let me know, I’m curious…

At 7pm there will be a twunch (short for Twitter lunch) at the festival, with already more than 35 subscribers. Googling for ‘twunch’ I found out that this is a Belgian invention. The (Belgian) Twitterati love to share their thoughts not only on the micro blogging tool Twitter, but in real life as well. So when you are into lunch at a certain place at a certain time, you launch it on Twitter. Other people, in the neighbourhood at that particular time, can subscribe and join. A great idea. And to be honest, the initiative just hàd to be Belgian, since we can’t get enough of lunch and dinner and beer and wine and … There is even a twunch website, with an overview of future and past twunches.

For my sister it will be the first meet-up with my ‘online’ friends and followers. Curious what she’ll think of ‘the bunch at the Werchter twunch’. And as for the twunch initiative: I hope it will have a long national and international life.

The duck announces the beginning of a challenging art project in Limburg, called ‘Zoom Out’. The project wants to unfold the borders of art, architecture and landscape. Moreover, it wants to find out in which way art can be used in public spaces.

The duck will travel through the region of Limburg and is created by the Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman. It is entirely made out of polyester and doesn’t know any borders or political and cultural preferences. In other words: whoever you are, the duck will welcome you with a kind nodd – if the weather is a bit windy that is .

I’m curious what else the Zoom Out project will bring. More information, also in English, on the website of the Hasselt art centre Z33.

Picture by reinsafe.