OnlineEducation.net created an interesting image that tries to put into perspective the size of activities on the Internet every day. Click on the picture for a bigger size. (via TheNextWeb.com)

Created by OnlineEducation.net

A couple of weeks ago I decided to give Farmville a try. Farmville is an online game developed by Zynga in which you have to manage and build out a farm. The game can be played on Facebook and on Farmville.com and is extremely popular, it’s currently the #1 online game in the world. The game has over 65 million players worldwide, which makes it the biggest online game in history.

When I started playing it, it was more for professional reasons than because I really wanted to play the game. I did not expect the game to be as addictive as it turned out to be. The first days I just planted some strawberries and let them die again, but once I connected to some friends I wanted to grow my farm and beat them. That’s not so difficult if you have a lot of time on your hands, but that’s exactly what I don’t have. Of course you can ‘cheat’ by spending real money in the game, but I did not want to do that either. So I had to come up with strategies to plant the most money- and time-efficient vegetables to grow your revenues and the size of your farm.

It was fun to do and I learned a lot about how to get people addicted to a game or how to persuade them to spend money. But after a couple of weeks of spending about 15 minutes every 2-3 days in the game, I now decided to call it quits. The game just takes too much time and actually also gets a bit repetitive. I now understand pretty much why this game performs so well, important to know and something that can be used for Spil Games’ business as well. The picture above is what my farm in Farmville looks like, my final action was to grow roses in the form of the word Bye.

Yesterday my grandmother’s funeral was held and I had flown to Holland the day before to attend it. My parents, two cousins and me arrived at the funeral home attached to the cemetery in Nieuwleusen around 9:15 AM. We first had a chat with the master of ceremonies, the same person who had also been in charge of my other grandmothers funeral about 6 months ago, about the details of the funeral. Between 10 AM and 10:30 there was time for condolences and then the guests were asked to sit down in the chapel. The direct family then closed the casket after taking one last look at the deceased, always a bit of an emotional moment. Some of the children and grandchildren (including myself) then carried the casket into the chapel.

A church service of about one hour then followed, with the singing of psalms and prayers. The minister held a talk about my grandma’s life and also some of the grandchildren and my uncle Ernst talked about their memories of oma. Especially the personal stories were very touching, but the minister’s talk was quite disappointing. He made it all far too religious to my liking and he did not follow the guidelines that my mom and uncle had given him a few days in advance. A pity, but the families personal stories more than made up for this.

After the service we carried oma to her final resting place, next to her husband who had passed away over 50 (!) years ago already. The coffin is not so heavy if you just carry it for just a few meters, but we had to carry her quite far and I was glad that we could change sides halfway! At the grave we put the casket down and after a few words by the minister the coffin was lowered into the grave. We all put some sand on the grave and some of us put a rose on the casket. We then went inside again for a cup of coffee and a sandwich with the guests. This is a tradition in my grandmother’s village and it was an interesting experience. I hardly knew any of her acquaintances and friends, but quite a few knew about me (several even read this blog they told me), so I talked to a lot of people there.

Around 1 PM most people left and then the direct family had a lunch at Mooirivier in Dalfsen, a restaurant next to the Vecht river. After the late lunch we all went back to the grave during sunset, to say a final goodbye to our grandmother.

Because most Chinese don’t celebrate Christmas, there are not that many places in town where you can buy Christmas trees. I still remember that about 3 years ago my wife and I spent a whole Saturday afternoon trying to find a decent Christmas tree and eventually ended up buying a fake one. But times are changing, and it seems you can now also get them online. A fellow Dutch entrepreneur, Nic Pannekeet, sells them through his company rosagallica.com.

How does it work? Very simple, just send an email to info@rosagallica.com with the size you want, your name, address and phone number, and the company will contact you for delivery. You can also call them at 021-2821 2241 or mobile 158 2171 1221 (Camille). The available sizes and prices:

Available sizes            Price ex transport
80   –  150 cm              180 RMB
150 – 200 cm               350 RMB
200 – 250 cm               450 RMB
250 – 300 cm               600 RMB
300 – 350 cm               800 RMB

I did not try out the service myself (our gardener already provided us with a tree before we even thought about buying one), so feel free to let me know your experiences in the comments.

My dad just called to inform me that my grandmother (from my mother’s side) passed away. A week ago she suddenly fell ill with pneumonia and was hospitalized. But she seemed to be recovering well on Friday and was supposed to leave the hospital today. But this morning at 3 AM my parents got a call that her situation was deteriorating fast and they were advised to come to the hospital quickly. They were by her side when she passed away about an hour ago.

During my last year of high school I actually lived a few months with my grandmother, but when I started university I did not see her very often anymore. During the past years in China I tried to visit her at least a few times per year. The last time we met was in September this year during a holiday in Holland, and the picture is the last one that we are on together.

Rest in peace oma.

This morning the 2009 edition of the annual Shanghai Marathon took place. This year a group of 15 Spil Games Asia staff had decided to run the half marathon (21.1 km), and of course I also joined the race. Because of my ankle injury in early October I could not practice a lot (I had to stop running for 5 weeks), and I did not have high expectations of the run. I told myself I would be content with a time below 2 hours, and happy with 1:50-1:55. But even though the race was a lot harder than previous half marathons, my final result of 1:43:51 was much better than I had hoped for. As a comparison, in 2007 I ran 1:42 with about 6 weeks of practice, and that race went much more easy.

The marathon started at 7:30 AM on Nanjing Road, but most of the Spil Games Asia crew met at 6:15 already for a final briefing and for some pictures. Shortly after 6:30 I went into the start area to secure a good starting position. Because so many people participate in the Shanghai Marathon (about 20,000 this year, according to yesterday’s Shanghai Daily) you can lose a lot of time at the start if you’re not in the front of the pack. I decided to stand on the side so I could talk to my wife a bit and so I could give her some of my clothes. It was quite cold this morning (about 8 degrees) so I was wearing some clothes over my running clothes. Only when start area got really packed around 7 AM I took them off, because the body heat of all the people raised the temperature a lot.

Peter Driessen, Spil Games co-founder and CEO, had flown over from Holland for the race and we stood next to each other before the start. It was his first half marathon today actually, but he did not seem nervous about it. Around 7:15 Shanghai TV started its live coverage of the marathon and next to overview shots of the runners they also had a camera with an interviewer walking around. For some reason the TV presenter walked up to me and put a microphone in front of me. She asked a couple of questions (where are you from, why do you run the SH marathon, what do you think about the event etc.) that I answered in a positive way. Not long after that there was a Haibao dance (Haibao is the mascot of the 2010 Shanghai Expo) followed by the Chinese National Anthem (everybody sings along loudly in China, very different from Holland) and finally there were some obligatory speeches. At exactly 7:30 a gun was fired and off we went.

My wife was back at home already by that time to pick up Scott, and she watched the start on TV with him. And guess what? The camera showed me again! The first few kilometers of the run were quite difficult. I was cold and I could not really get into my running rhythm. I did not know exactly what my pace was because of all the others around me, but after 5 km my time was about 23 minutes, so it seemed I was well. I did not feel well though, my shin splint was hurting a bit and I still felt cold. Some sports drink at the 5 km point helped a lot though, maybe I did not drink enough before the start. From 6 to 12 km it went fairly easy, and I passed the 12 km point in 56 minutes. Much faster than I had expected, and probably a bit too fast. I also met my wife and Scott around 11 km, Scott was so happy to see me that it gave me an extra boost.

After 12 km I suddenly did not feel as good anymore and I had to slow down a bit. Around 13 km my colleague Joop Dorresteijn (Twitter: @joop) overtook me, but I was not able to keep up with him. If I had been in good shape I would have stayed with him, but I just could not speed up. From about 15 km onwards running was not fun anymore, all my muscles were hurting and my body told me to stop. But of course I did not do that and tried to think about nice things, such as the food I would eat after the run. I was so tired that I did not even see my wife and Scott at the final turn into Minhang Stadium! I finished in 1:43:51 (net time), much faster than I had hoped for and I was happy about that. At the finish I saw Joop, who had only finished about a minute earlier, he also slowed down a lot in the last kilometers as well apparently. Congrats with beating me Joop, you were stronger today. See his blog post about today here.

After getting my certificate, medal and gift bag (no running shoes this year, just a pair of socks) I went out again to watch the finish of the full marathon. The winner finished in 2:10, not a top time, but not too bad either. Surprisingly he didn’t seem very tired after the run. Soon after some more Spil Games Asia staff came in, and some colleagues had quite impressive times. Several of the girls had never run a half marathon before and had also not trained sufficiently for a good time, but still came in with times between 2:15 and 2:20. Almost everybody finished within 3 hours (the cut off time), just one or two were stopped and had to end the race in a bus. We all had some snacks and drinks after the race and took one final group picture before going home. Thanks to all the Spil Games runners and also to the group of 25 supporters that followed us from 6 AM onwards and who took a lot of pictures. It was a fun event and also good for Spil Games Asia’s team building.

This afternoon I took a hot bath followed by a Chinese body massage, and I now feel like reborn. Too bad there is only one long-distance running event in Shanghai per year, I would not mind running more often without having to first take a plane or a long car ride. 

For more information about the Shanghai Marathon see also my blog posts from 2005 (full marathon) and 2007 (half marathon). I just realize that during both races I had just recovered from an injury as well, I totally forgot about that already.

Today I received my t-shirt for this weekend’s 2009 Shanghai Marathon. In previous years the t-shirt was white with a logo and the text Shanghai Marathon in black, but this year the organization had the luminous idea to experiment with colors. The result: a plain ugly light blue shirt with the text in even uglier colors…

Luckily we Spil Games Asia made t-shirts for all our runners (in total 15 colleagues will participate, we’re a sportive company!), so we won’t be tempted to wear the official t-shirts. Our shirts are white with a big orange/black Spil Games logo on it, so if you plan to watch the race you will be able to easily spot us in the sea of light blue marathon shirts.

One of the things I always try to do when traveling, is to spend some time in a bookstore. In Hong Kong last weekend my wife and I spent about an hour at Dymocks. Some of the books that I bought there include:


China Cuckooo – Mark Kitto
I know Mark (I even blogged about his 40th birthday party) and therefore the story about how he built and lost his Chinese media ’empire’ and how he ended up at Moganshan is one that interests me a lot. I already started reading the book and it’s written in a very humorous style. I look forward to continue to read it tonight.

King Hui, the man who owned all the opium in Hong Kong – Jonathan Chamberlain
Not sure how real the story is, but it seems like an extraordinary tale about life in Hong Kong in the early and middle of the 20th Century.


Cityboy: Beer and Loathing in the Square Mile – Geraint Anderson
I expect this to be a modern day version of Liar’s Poker, set in London. Bought it based on the title, without knowing anything about the book itself.

The Accidental Billonaires – Ben Mezrich
A book about the founding of Facebook must be an interesting read for me, even though I know the book had mixed reviews. The book will be made into a film as well.


What the Dog Saw – Malcolm Gladwell
I like to read Malcolm Gladwell’s books, not necessarily because all the information is correct, but they are highly entertaining and some of the anecdotes make for good dinner discussions with friends (who have normally also read all his books). The NYTimes review wasn’t too positive, but I bought the book anway because of the author.

If one of them is particularly good I might review it here. Work is quite busy these days, so likely it will be a few weeks before I can finish them all.