Childhood Memories

[Thorin]

I found the house I grew up in on Google Street View!

http://g.co/maps/vb9fa

It's the brown one on the right that says "KLEIN CANADA", which means "LITTLE CANADA" in Dutch.  I wonder what the story behind those signs is.

[Mr. Analog]

That's pretty cool...

I'd pick a house I used to live in but I've lived in so many...

[Darren Dirt]

http://g.co/maps/vb9fa

http://g.co/ just visited that, wow and I thought "goo.gl" was a short shortener...

[Thorin]

From how I understand it, g.co can only be used by Google, while goo.gl can be used by anyone to shorten their URLs.

URL shorteners are great, because now URLs fit in Twitter.

URL shorteners are horrible, because now people have no idea where they're going to go when they click that link.

Ah, Social Engineering, how easy you make malware distribution.

Anyway, it was fun reminiscing about my childhood.  And man, streets are narrow in Holland, and kids play right next to water all the time with no railings!  Also, we learn to swim at four and have to pass a swimming test where we jump in the deep water fully clothed (with rubber boots as these are the typical Dutch footwear due to all the rain) and have to not drown for 60 seconds.  Yeah, try swimming with rubber boots on.  I remember when The Test was planned the instructor made sure to call two lifeguards over with poles in case they needed to scoop us up off the bottom of the pool.  Oh, and we had to dive back in afterwards to retrieve our boots, since you kick them off so you don't drown.

At 7 my mom would help me carry my boat across that road, put it in the water, help me get in, and tell me to stay out of trouble.

At 8, I was sailing my boat on the nearby lake (Braassemermeer), but only if someone was along in another boat.

At 9, I didn't need anyone along anymore and would do whole afternoons on the lake.  I was late for supper once because the wind died and I didn't have oars so I actually had to "milk" my boat back home ("milk" meaning swing the rudder back and forth to make the boat move forward).  It took forever and my mom was pissed.  Like a 9yo can do anything about the wind!  Although I did always take oars along after that.

That lake was awesome because they had ice cream boats the way you see ice cream carts here.  Seriously, a boat with a large freezer on it would anchor itself in the middle of the lake, and you could sail up and tie off and buy ice cream.  And they made enough money selling ice cream in the middle of the lake to be profitable!

Some of you may have heard these stories before.  I think I should just reminisce quietly in the corner over here.

[Darren Dirt]

Some of you may not have heard these stories before.  I think I should tell more stories like this.

FYP!