There, I fixed it.

After many trials-and-errors with our new rainbarrel, I finally have fixed it. Yesterday I was really tired of the thing not filling up properly so I pulled it from the drain pipe, turned the thing around and found out that there were two points where we could have put the tap but we had gotten only one tap to plug these two gaping holes with. No wonder it wouldn't fill up.

Ample amounts of montage glue were used on the damn thing and I basically re-installed it from scratch. I re-installed the tap on the front and glued a wooden peg into the hole in the back, smearing so much montage glue in the hole it can never ever get out again. ^*

I finished the final bits of installing yesterday when I plugged the small PVC pipe, on both ends covered in montage glue, into the drain pipe and the rain barrel and everything was connected again. Right in time for this morning's amazing thunderstorm. I took a bus to work to avoid it.
As I returned home the rain had passed and imagine my surprise when I took the lid off the rain barrel and was nearly doused in water because it is filled to the brim!

We have a large expanse of flat roof in the back of the house, so we do gather a lot of water, but now I'm thinking one barrel might not suffice and digging a hole for a 200 gallon tank may be a bit too ambitious. But there, I fixed it. Finally.

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*) Of course, evidence to this fact is still being gathered by independant scientists, but one can hope.

"Write what you know" for photographers

While reading the complete guide to digital photography I ordered from the National Geographic shop, I was struck not only by inspiration but also gained some valuable insights.
For writers, one of the golden rules is "write what you know" -- you can never write about something if you don't know how exactly, it happens. Don't write about driving a car if you've never done so. Don't write about sex if you don't even know what goes where.

For photography, there's such a rule of thumb as well. It goes "photograph the things that interest you". See the light reflecting off a puddle in the street? Can you capture it just as beautiful as you can see it with the eye?

If anything, this book has once again opened my eyes to the beauty of the world around us. I lost ten years of my life and again gaze in wonderment at the world. I get lost in colours and shapes and patterns.
With smartphones, a new world has opened up and everyone has a camera in their pocket. I decided to use it. Tonight saw me in Rotterdam and I finally captured the one picture I've been wanting to make for a while. An update of Rotterdam CS -- and no, the city isn't becoming any more beautiful by the addition of this grey lump of steel that looks like a prop from the Men in Black movie.


The facade of the new Rotterdam Central Station rises amidst the chaos of building equipment while the towers of Nationale Nederlanden reflect the summer sky in the background.

(I take pictures that are zoomed in far too often. With phonecams, there's no such thing. You only have a digital zoom so your best option of zooming in is stepping closer. It's good to practice not to zoom in.)

Take pictures. Take a thousand pictures. Look at each one critically, and decide whether you really want to share them with the world. But above all: take pictures of the things that interest you. You might not succeed every single time, but you'll never look at things the same way ever again.