Hugo 67

inspirationone follows the other

16 March 2012

introduction

To commemorate your sixty-seventh birthday, Pepper and I have record-ed a few of the ways you have considerly influenced our lives for the bet-ter. Almost all of the entries in this booklet describe the activities you’ve inspired us to do. We hope to show that in passing down your passions and hobbies, you’ve also communicated the admirable qualities of your character: your focus, reliability, sense of humor, and stick-to-itiveness.

The passages I’ve written are in black.

Pepper’s passages are in gray.

sailing

Our time sailing together made me comfortable with the elements: water, wind, and rain. I have a lot of fond childhood memories of sailing on de Kaag and ‘t IJselmeer and in Friesland, Sweden, and former Yugoslavia. Because you taught me a love of sailing, I continue to sail today. I became a member of the Cal Sailing Club when I first moved to the Bay Area, and I rejoined as soon as we moved back. I enjoy seeing the San Francisco Bay from the water, teaching others to sail, fixing boats, hanging out with wacky sailors, and improving to the club house.

music

After you exposed me to the Eagles, the Beatles, Bodewijn de Groot, Pink Floyd, and Stravinsky, I started to explore music independently and dis-covered Tom Waits, Radiohead, the Knife, die Antwoord, Terry Riley, John Adams, and many more crazy-awesome musicians. I have inherited a healthy appetite for challenging music. Every day, we listen to the music you’ve passed on to me and the music your recommendations led me to discover.

Since we’ve lived most of our lives with a sea between us, I’ve benefited from your influence mostly through the trickle-down effect. For that rea-son, most of my stories have to do with how Jorrit has transferred some of your loves to me.

You might be surprised to know that Jorrit has exposed me to more clas-sical music than my parents ever did. Through him, I first listened to Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, Palestrina, Kronos Quartet, Mitsuko Uchida, Reich, Glass, Britten, and Pärt, to name a few.

And I’ll never forget seeing Le Sacre du Printemps with you, Tonny, and friends in Groningen. I know you weren’t impressed with the show (the acoustics were bad, you said), but it impressed me very much.

hiking

Sunday afternoon hikes were not my favorite, but they got me familiar with the gross Hollandische Frischluft. Later, our Sunday walks inspired me to go hiking in Scotland, England, Wales, Ireland, France, Switzer-land, Germany, California, Tennessee, Indiana, Sweden, Norway, New Zealand, and Iceland. I also re-introduced hiking to Pepper, and we’ve had many great hikes close to home and in far away places.

Jorrit’s last sentence is a bit of understatement; he more than re-intro-duced me to hiking. Before him, I’d never backpacked before; I’d never owned real camping gear; and I’d rarely slept in a tent. I remember our first real camping trip to “beyond” Yellowstone; my poor little academic body was broken afterward. My knees were so sore, I could hardly walk the steps up to my room. He’s gotten me back into shape since then.

Our backpacking trips have been some of our most important times to-gether. Hiking and camping have become our way to meditate and reas-sess our life paths. Our trip to New Zealand was crucial for us to decide what our next steps would be, and whether those steps would be taken together.

road trips

I believe that my first big road trip from Oman to the Netherlands in-spired me to enjoy not only arriving at a destination but being on the road. I’ve shared many road trips with Pepper, friends, and family. Also, Pepper and I have developed a car-less road trip by bike touring; our first trip was from Daly City, CA to Santa Monica, CA. Our second was from Concord, CA to Mammoth Lakes, CA.

I’m convinced that your road trip through the United States in the nine-ties was what eventually brought Jorrit to me. Once, I asked him when he first considered living here, and he said it was that road trip.

Jorrit was really the first person to take me on a road trip, too. When I traveled with my family, we were usually driving to get to a specific loca-tion and stay there. Jorrit exposed me to the immense freedom of being on the road without a rigid plan. I remember how thrilled I was when Jorrit and Manuel surprised me at the end of one summer by picking me up from the airport in a rented car and taking me on a trip. I hadn’t even expected them to greet me at the airport. And our road trip from Berkeley to Inglewood was also indescribably thrilling. You should have seen Jorrit and Manuel raking the sand in the desert to get rid of our tire tracks and avoid a hefty fine from the ranger.

maps

You taught me to treat maps with respect. As a result, my heart hurts a little when I see a map that is not properly folded. I have collected many maps over the years, and I try to treat them delicately.

I’ll be honest: I’ve made Jorrit whimper a few times with the way I’ve treated maps. But he’s made me more sensitive, and I’ve adopted his fe-tish. When Jorrit suggested lightening our load by donating our stack of maps in the hutkoffer, I wanted to keep them. They’re one of the few souvenirs I like to keep now because they capture memories, but they also promise future adventures.

computers and visualization

An early exposure to Acorn’s BBC en Baas’ PC Turbo XT taught me a flu-ency in computers that, today, helps me create digital art. On those early personal computers, I played games like Elite, Paratrooper, and Leisure Suite Larry. These games improved my English and my hand-eye coor-dination.  

You took me to the NAM, Maersk, and KSEPL offices, and showed me a world of data: squiggily lines and 3D graphics created by Silicon Graph-ics Computers, such as IRIS Indigo. This early exposure to rich, colorful, computer-generated images inspired me to create video projection art for music with [moos] and other artists. I have also used many data visu-alizations on projects to gain insights into massive amounts of informa-tion that otherwise would have been buried in Excel sheets or databases.

My proficiency with computers will never match the Pooks’s, but his vi-sualizations have inspired me to learn some graphics software. In fact, photo editing and vector graphics software has opened up a whole new world for me creatively. I was beginning to lose interest in making visual art because figure drawing wasn’t getting me anywhere. Now, with the help of my friends at Adobe, I’ve tapped into a wealth of creative ideas around images.

rowing

You exposed me to rowing early on—not just the activity, but also the life-long friendships that you made through rowing at Charon and de ARC. Although I wasn’t quite ready to join in the activities at the ARC in the eighties, I later joined de Laak, GSR Aegir, and URV Viking. Re-cently, I joined the Lake Merritt Rowing Club in Oakland to row, help others learn how to row, and make friends. Your introduction to rowing inspired me to push my limits and work with others.

As you know, I don’t row, but I do think I’ve absorbed something of the athletic mindset that Jorrit learned through rowing. He’s shown me how how to deal with the physical challenges of endurance sports.

living abroad

Many active holidays abroad and visits to Copenhagen and Aberdeen sparked my interest in traveling and living outside of the Netherlands. You inspired me to take the leap and live in Edinburgh, the San Francisco Bay Area, Berlin, Salt Lake City, and Chicago.

When I first befriended Jorrit, I was unspeakably jealous of all his travel stories. At the time, I’d only traveled to just over the border into Mexico and to Sweden (once for Gunilla’s sixtieth birthday). Compared to the Poelen/De Lange clan, I felt like an unworldly nincompoop. My envy and admiration of all of Jorrit’s travels led me to study abroad in Lon-don, which, in turn, spurred me to travel throughout Europe and Central America and live in South Korea.

physics

Your passion for (geo-) physics got me interested in the sciences. Your involvement in my scientific pursuits were mostly scientific storytelling, but you helped me at crucial times to overcome hurdles. One such criti-cal time was in the first trimester of my first year of physics at the Univer-sity of Groningen. I was struggling with my first course, “fouten analyse” or error analysis. You showed me that taking small, clear steps makes it easier to complete seemingly impossible tasks. This advice helped me pass the first exam, and, after many small steps, I earned a master’s of science in experimental physics.  

the rock

You are stubborn, focused, and reliable. If something seems impossible, you try it anyway, and you keep trying until you’ve figured it out. You spent ten years in college, spent many long nights building a computer-ized time registration system for regio-roeien in Assen, and realized your geology-with-computers dream in your thirty-plus-year career in geo-physics. You are a stubborn dreamer, and this is an inspiration to me. You and Tonny helped me to not give up something that I love even if others tell me to give it up. You helped me believe in myself. My first year in college, I was advised to stop. I continued and successfully completed my degree. My last year in college, I got advice to quit the sciences. I earned, but rejected, an admission to the vision science graduate program at UC Berkeley that same year. This and other examples make me think I am pretty stubborn too.

Amen!

Hugo, you continue to inspire us.