Photo Jodi Cobb

Oh and I realize some of the ideas listed below are ridiculous. Please forgive me. Have a good laugh about it. And consider this quote from Timothy Ferriss’ book:

Having an unusually large goal is an adrenaline infusion that provides the endurance to overcome the inevitable trials and tribulations that go along with any goal. Realistic goals, goals restricted to the average ambition level, are uninspiring and will only fuel you through the first or second problem, at which point you throw in the towel.

1. More in-depth stories on nrcnext.nl

Screenshot of nrcnext.nl

2. Write a book

As you might have noticed in the top menu, I’m writing a book about blogging. It will be published by Thomas Rap (part of De Bezige Bij) in September 2010. I’m writing about all the blog adventures I’ve experienced the last couple of years and will also interview some remarkable bloggers. It’s probably gonna take up all my vacation days (and we have a lot in Holland).

3. Turn Times Square into Art Square

Project description by Justus Bruns

Sure, it’s a ridiculous idea. Too ambitious, not realistic at all. How’s a twenty-something from a small Dutch city going to take over New York’s most famous square? Yet that’s what I like about it. Because I think this project will show how our societies have changed. We’re a networked society and we’re gonna prove it.

I’ll help Justus with media connections, planning, and some good ol’ project management. We have six other folks on board. Our launch date is February 15th. Check out our temporary website and follow us on Facebook.

4. Scoring a number one hit with Christina Five

Ok, here’s another ridiculous idea: scoring a number one hit with a band whose members have hardly any musical experience. Oh well, why not give it a try? At least I have a good excuse to rock a small studio with three friends every Monday night. We came up with this idea in the summer of 2007, yet our drummer Peter Evers left for London and our guitarist for The Hague. Back then, there were five of us.

Now the drummer is back. There are four of us now. Our name is still Christina Five. Peter has always considered drums as a hobby, our bass player Rob Simon just got started, and I’m not a terribly good singer (to put it mildly). Anyhow, our guitarist Ridzert Beetstra is quite talented, so there’s hope. If we hit number one, it will be with Rocket Money. Here’s an old recording of the song. I wrote it on the subway, Ridzert and Peter came up with the music, and this was the third time we played it (in august 2007). After watching this video, you’ll realize the idea is really, really ridiculous. Follow our adventure on Facebook to see how it works out. Thanks.

(Oh and the guy doing the solo is not Ridzert, he’s the one who left for The Hague)

Click here to view the embedded video.

5. Watching Thomas Duste turning OverheardinAmsterdam.nl into a success

Overheard in Amsterdam banner

So there you have it. These are my five goals. Please, do make a fool of me when I won’t be able to make them reality.

I wanna wake up in a city….

Retrospect

Nov 3rd: So, the vacation has ended. Here are the stories I’ve blogged:

• The discovery of a great band
• Back to a sober yet pumpkin spiced life
• New York doesn’t allow you to relax
• Postmodern tourism
• How Edial got himself a NYC date
• Let’s talk about sex, and newspapers, baby
• Tattoo your mouth
• Halloween in the dirtiest hotel of the USA
• Snap shots

Oct 22, 09:57: This is a test post from the train. Almost missed the train, which is always good sign when traveling. It means adventure is on its way. You think I’m kidding? Watch The Darjeerling Limited to see what I mean.

The discovery of a great band

Oct 23, 06:29: Freaking jetlag. After fifteen hours of traveling, checking six hotels across Manhattan for a room, having drinks and singing with the pianoman at old speakeasy Bill’s Gay Nineties (54th, Park Av), beers and bands at The Suffolk (Suffolk & Rivington), two dollar beer from a can in Welcome to the Johnsons and lounging in the lobby of The Rivington – after a 30 hr day -, I’m still awake at this point. So yes, that’s when the blogging comes in. At your service. We’ve seen one of the most upcoming bands by accident: Surfer Blood (see video), our armpits were sniffed by a Spanish t-shirtdesigner and we’ve got a ridiculously expensive suite. I guess that only means one thing: welcome to New York.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Back to a sober yet pumpkin spiced life

Oct 23, 15:48): Quick update from the overcrowded yet beautiful Apple Store on Fifth Avenue. No luxurious lifestyle for Edial and me the coming four days. We said goodbye to the suite and hi to a hostel on 118th street. And we’re sharing the room with eight other people. Oh well, it’s probably the kind of traveling we’ll miss in a few years. No crazy stuff happened today, although we did meet some people who fish in the Hudson to feed their families. And Edial drank pumpkin spiced coffee this morning. Other than that, just the regular tourist stuff. I won’t bore you with that and make it up tonight. In the crazy nightlife of the Lower East Side (120 blocks from our hostel). Oh and for a great lunch in Soho, check Bread.

New York doesn’t allow you to relax

Oct 23rd 17:29: So while Edial is fixing some stuff for his company back in Berlin, I’d like to share a thought about NYC. I remember when I got here in January 2007 for my internship at the UN, I had a couple of days reserved for leisure. Man, those days sucked. I came to NY to live there and suddenly I was some sort of tourist. NY doesn’t allow you to relax. She wants you to participate. To work. To have coffee meetings and lunches. To walk fast. To hold cabs. To have take out food. Nights out with friends. NY doesn’t want you to just wander around. Just work. That’s the most efficient way of getting to know the city.

I’m thinking about that while strolling the streets with Edial. We can’t just walk around. We need action.

Postmodern tourism

Oct 26 (11:32): Having a BBQ with live music, weird people, a homeless ‘Nam veteran offering you a bite from his hotdog and a couple of Budweisers is a great way of spending the Sunday afternoon. Especially when that BBQ is taking place on Coney Island. Finishing the Sunday with a pre-Halloween party (pumpking carving) in a girls-only dorm of Bernard University is also something I’d recommend.

Coney Island BBQ

It’s kinda weird though, having a BBQ with raging alcoholics, hobos, and some Keith Richards look a likes. In a derelict themepark. The whole situation was so messed up that it became beautiful. As if we were in movie. There was even that one pretty girl – that everyone liked. Postmodern tourism?

(This situation still makes me laugh: on the 1 train, in Harlem. A middle aged man sings along with his iPod for ten seconds, than sort of wakes up and starts apologizing.)

How Edial got himself a NYC date

Oct 27 (15:07): As Edial and I are running down the stairs, we realize that we’re gonna miss our train. We don’t want to be late for our movie, so we’re descending so fast that it almost becomes life threatening. And useless, since it’s a mission impossible. Then, out of nowhere, two indie girls emerge. One looks willing to sacrifice an arm for getting the subway, as she holds it between the closing doors. With success. The doors open again. As we get in, the girl realizes she lost her ring during her heroic action. ,,I’m such a dick”, she shouts – with a British accent. Another traveler points at the door, saying – with a Spanish accent -, ,,your ring’s right there.” It shimmers between the rubber doors. The girl gets her ring back with a key, ignoring an angry MTA employee. Edial and I get out at West 4th street, still impressed by the scene we just witnessed. Then, as we’re about to get on the A train, one of the two girls – not the British one – makes her way to Edial. She hands him a note with her number on it – ,,for whenever he’d like to get some coffee.” ,,What the fuck, dude”, Edial exclaims – the gentleman.

That was Sunday. Now it’s Monday evening. We’re having PBR for 2 dollars in our favorite bar, Welcome to the Johnsons. Edial texted the girl a little earlier that day. Her name is Berit, yet she still accuses Edial of having a rather uncommon name. After an awkward phone call, Edial choses for the ‘fuck it’-strategy. He sends her text, inviting her to come to the Lower East Side. She doesn’t reply. Of course. Edial is pretty, sure. But it’s 11pm on a Monday night and the girl lives in Brooklyn. We continue our talks about the Velvet Underground, girls, Talking Heads, girls, and even write our own song.., about girls. Then, out of the blue, the girl emerges. SHE GOT ON THE TRAIN! I know my job, I leave. Edial got himself a NYC date. Oh what a night.

Let’s talk about sex, and newspapers, baby

Oct 28 (09:50): Last night, Edial and I had a discussion about the future of newspapers and online news. Again. We agree on a lot of points, yet there are two differences. Edial wants everything open. And I accuse Edial and the likes of not adding value to news. Luckily, we had a great discussion partner last night: Freek Staps, US correspondent for NRC Handelsblad & nrc.next. I’m afraid he was expecting to just have a beer with a colleague, yet the whole night became a succession of thought experiments. From whether you can compliment a girl with her eyes (without looking like a guy who wants to get laid) to why it feels so good to have a story in an actual newspaper (note: paper). Earlier that day I had that newspaper discussion with Robert Kloos, whose the head of the culture division of the Dutch consulate. Oh and yeah, I introduced Edial to the lovely UN ladies over dinner. All they wanted to talk about was sex. And that is, I’ve learned from a specific tv series, a very New York thing to do.

Tattoo your mouth

Oct 29 (13:37): Let’s start with some good old trendwatching. That’s exactly what Edial and I did yesterday, and something struck us as peculiar: tattoos in your mouth. It’s sort of cool, since you can decide who sees it. Yet it loses a lot of the coolness when you choose for the text: ‘I’m rat’ – like one of the girls we met yesterday did.

Tattoo in your mouth

Halloween in the dirtiest hotel of the USA

Looking back on Nov 3rd: Ok, so at some point Wordpress couldn’t handle the mobile blogging anymore and it crashed. So that was about if for my blogging adventures in New York. Anyhow, the last couple of days were too hectic to blog anyway. We found some Italian friends in Williamsburg, rode the subway with morning commuters – while under the influence and smelly from a night’s out -, visited gorgeous exhibitions – from Kandinsky to Rock Photography -, had a light saber fight, stayed in the dirtiest hotel of the USA (seriously!) and penetrated the security to join the Halloween parade. The last thing made us feel like rock stars. We were dressed as Jokers, carried machine guns and scared everybody by shouting ‘why so serious’ in their cameras. Many pictures were made that night, we’ve found some back on Flickr. Later that night, we joined an illegal Caribbean parade and a rooftop party in Williamsburg.

Joker on Times Square

Click here to view the embedded video.

Snap shots

Here are some photos I’ve made with my iPhone.

It’s just after five ‘o clock in the afternoon when the first kite surfers hit the water. They’ve escaped their cubicles to jump over San Franciscan ferries. I’m on the run as well. After the three-day conference Supernova, I’m about ready to admire a red structure I’ve only seen in the movies so far. I got rid of my infamous white suit, but still wearing the shiny white shoes. This doesn’t go unnoticed by a forty-five year old All-American woman. “Those aren’t your average beach shoes, right buddy?” is her conversation starter. She has lost her job a year ago, spent some time in the Philippines, and just got back in the States. “I’ve gotta go”, she says, “have to go home, just across the bridge”. “I can give you a ride over the Golden Gate if you want? The view is amazing“.

Seven weeks later. My girlfriend and I hop on a late Zürich – Amsterdam flight. We’ve spent two weeks in Chioggia, a small fishermen’s town 35 kilometers under Venice. I decide to check my mail before the captain asks the cabin crew to prepare for take-off. “Quite an airplane toy you’ve got there”, a healthy and bright-looking 60-year old man tells me. We wind up in a duet, a hymn for the iPhone. After a short chat, I grab a book and start reading. I’m tired. The last thing I need is a two-hour talk. My conversation partner gets the hint and starts reading The International Herald Tribune. After a while I feel sorry. My intuition says this man is not just somebody. Shall I try to pick up the conversation again?

A rather old woman offering me a ride? What’s that all about? Thoughts are racing through my brain. I’m tempted to say yes, since my Wallpaper travel guide says everybody should drive over the Golden Gate bridge in a convertible. But what if the woman hands me over to her boyfriend, who will either want my digital SLR camera or my life? I decide to tell her about my travel guide’s convertible. “What a coincidence”, she laughs, “That’s exactly what I was gonna drive you in”. What the hell. I accept her offer. What times do we live in if you can’t even trust a nice lady? She’s happy. “My friends will kill me though, offering a ride to a stranger”.

I don’t have the guts to pick up the conversation. I’ve brushed the man off too harshly. A typical example of a rude boaster of the new generation. Though I’m pretty sure he has interesting things to say, I keep reading Hunter S. Thompson’s Kingdom of Fear. The plane hits the ground and taxies to the D gate. When the seatbelt sign goes off, the man reaches for his hand luggage – which appears to be pretty big. He grabs a huge package and leaves the plane, leaving me wondering.

The ride over the world-famous bridge is great. San Francisco, my third favorite city, smiles at me in the last sunbeams that will make it over the hills that day. My camera is working over time. I also take a pic of the woman who has just removed an item from my bucket list with her black Chrysler convertible. When she drops me off, I thank her a million times. Then I start walking back, enjoying the stunning view – glad that I’ve conquered the ridiculous fear the media have planted in my mind.

The man who stands in front of me at the passport check queue, is my former neighbor from the airplane. I wish him luck with the large package, hoping he will tell me what’s in it. “Thanks”, he says, “I’m just glad it survived the flight”. “Is it a piece of art?”, I ask him. He nods, and remarks, with a unbelievable sense of nonchalance, “a Karel Appel“. The customs officer waves at him and one of my greatest missed opportunities for an interesting friendship walks away.

It’s unnecessary to elaborate on the moral of these two stories. I’m pretty sure you’ve found that out by now. Just try to live by it. How scary it may be. Here are 51 tips to break out of your comfort zone.

• Too personal – although this is my personal blog, I still want to offer more information that is relevant for every reader. Thus I’ll post more blog tips and less personal stories. Moreover, I’ve highlighted the last blog tip by featuring it on the frontpage
• The frequency of posts – sometimes I wrote two posts a day, yet there were also weeks that nothing was published. I’ve decided to look for a standard frequency and hereby promise to post two blog tips each week.

I took these two changes in account and added the ebook and blog conference I’m working on. These developments called for a new and more professional design.

A new design

Hope I didn’t freak you out with launching this new design all of a sudden. I wasn’t completely satisfied with the old one, as it felt I was trying too hard with all the purple and yellow. During a bright moment, I decided to leave the designing to the designers and start focusing on the content. So when I met Odilo Girod at the “Don’t Do it Yourself” days – an agreement on making a new design was made quickly. Here’s the result: unconventional, a bit on the edge, and uber stylish.

From now on, this blog will be a place where I post unconventional and daring blogging tips you surely haven’t read on other blogs before – plus some personal stuff. I hope it will inspire you and I’m looking forward to your comments, criticism, and ideas.

Thanks to Anne Helmond, Peter Evers, Polle de Maagt, Jerry Houtman, Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Patrick de Laive, Stephan Okhuijsen and Renato Valdés Olmos for reviewing the new design.

Supernova is a conference that really digs deep in the theories behind the network age. That attracts an interesting crowd and I got to meet some people who I only used to know from their excellent blog posts. Like Hugh MacLeod from Gapingvoid, a blogger, cartoonist and thinker I really admire. I had an interesting conversation about creativity with him, together with Scott Beal from Laughingsquid and Lori Dorn.

Scott runs a really unconventional blog about the web, arts, philosophy and plain weird technology. The variety is fascinating. Scott revealed his secret last night when he told me he just blogs about “whatever he finds interesting”. I’ll keep that in mind when I’m blogging for this blog.

• You can read my Supernova coverage on The Next Web.
• Here are some pics from this exciting week:

So yesterday I left a comment on a Marketingfacts article about the most important Dutch blog sites. I mentioned About:Blank and the blogging category of Marketingfacts, but also said I was working on an ebook and conference. It stirred quite a reaction, as I’ve received some emails and Twitter messages from people who wanted to know more. Ton Zijp from About:Blank even blogged about it. I figured I might as well share some info on this blog, so here we go.

The Conference: BLOG08

Let’s face it, blogs are booming. Although some people from the new media industry say the trend is over, Edial Dekker and me certainly disagree. Blogging in Holland has not reached its tipping point yet, as the masses still have to embrace it. If everyone blogged about his passion, craftsmanship or specific knowledge in a blog collective, this would create a wealth of information and creativity. Moreover, people with similar interests can find each other and start a lively community. Several Dutchmen have already discovered this, especially the marketers, but when is your gardener starting a blog about growing the perfect flowers?

So let’s give the art of blogging some more attention and start a little hype. On BLOG08 we ask Holland’s top bloggers to share their best practices and visions. So experienced bloggers and people who are interested in blogging both find the relevant info they need. But it’s not just the speakers worth coming for, as we’ll organize a blog market where group blogs can scout new blog talent. Edial and me will also invite blogging artists, dj’s, and vj’s to show off their skills. In Pakhuis de Zwijger on October 24th, we want to show you that blogging can be an enrichment of both your private as your business life.

The ebook about blogging

To give the potential attendees of BLOG08 some background about blogging, I’m currently writing an ebook about blogging, based on my experiences with Spotlight Effect and The Next Web. In six chapters, I’ll explain why blogging can be useful for you:

• Evaluate your work
• Develop a vision
• Your (online) reputation
• Stay up to date
• Meet like-minded people
• Personal Archive

For every chapter I’ll also interview a blogger whose work I highly appreciate. As soon as I’ve completed a chapter, I’ll post an excerpt on this blog and ask for your comments. After these discussions, I’ll rewrite the chapter so it represents the opinion of more bloggers than just me. Some bloggers I’ll be interviewing for this book are Carlos from Sargasso, Edwin van Mijsbergen from ZB Digitaal, and Marco Derksen from Marketingfacts. I’m not sure yet who the other two bloggers will be, so please contact me if you have any suggestions. (Update: I’m glad to tell you that Erwin Blom from The Crowds has also accepted my interview request.)

What are your thoughts on these plans?

Edial and me are excited to hear what your thoughts on these plans are. Please share them in the comments, so we can you use them to organize one rocking blog conference.

At the end of last March, I received an email from Masaru Ikeda. He’s running a system integration company in Tokyo and writes a weekly column about Internet innovations for the Sankei Newspaper. Masaru mailed me that he’d love to come to the Next Web Conference – which my partners from The Next Web Blog organized – but he had to stay in Tokyo for “business reasons”. Therefore, he asked me to write a column that he would translate in Japanese. And so it happened. It wrote the story, Masaru translated it, and he was so kind to sent me some copies.

But that’s not the end of it. Our overseas journalistic adventure ended with a grand finale in San Fransisco last week, where we met during Web 2.0 Expo. At moments like these, I take every word from McLuhan’s Global Village for granted.

So why do I report about this? Because I witnessed the victims of this drug myself last week in San Francisco? Because I love to romanticize stuff, including drugs? Not really. I write this post because I think Internet is the new LSD. It’s a theory I came up with when I visited the exhibition Summer of Love: Art of the Psychedelic Era in The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York last June. Read “My inspiration: Internet is the new LSD” for an explanation, which you probably eager to hear by this point ;-).

Hoffman’s death inspires hundreds of writers to cover the history of LSD again. I think especially John Walsh from the Independent has done a great job with his artice “Trip of a lifetime: How LSD rocked the world – Features, Music – The Independent”.

Now before you think I’m some tripping-on-acid blogger, let me conclude with a quote from Hunter S Thompson’s book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas:

All those pathetically eager acid freaks who thought they could buy Peace and Understanding for three bucks a hit. But their loss and failure is ours, too. What Leary took down with him was the central illusion of a whole life-style that he helped to create…a generation of permanent cripples, failed seekers, who never understood the essential old mystic fallacy of the Acid Culture: the desperate assumption that somebody-or at least some force-is tending the Light at the end of the tunnel.

Keep an eye on Boris’ photoset, The Next Web Blog and this one to see what we land into in San Francisco.

Boris and me want to put our European Web 2.0 blog under your attention and discuss the European start-up scene and its influence on the technology industry.

It’s 00:50 there right now, so I guess we’ll act like it’s night in the airplane and throw a small party. I hope the flight attendants have cold beer available. In the meantime, consider reading this post by Boris about our promotion plans in the Valley.

If you’d excuse me now, I have a plane to catch.

Update: turns out the flight is delayed with 30 minutes, so I’ve made a short playlist to distract me from the crying babies here: