Konichiwa!

Upstairs Neighbours

2008-06-06T17:35:00.002+02:00

I guess I'm down to one blog a month.. Meh, works for me.

So I'm slowly getting into that state of panic again, when everything comes hurling at me all at once. It's almost three months now that I'm basically getting paid to sit at home. The recruiters still haven't found anything for most of us, and I'm also hearing sounds of others about not having their contracts extended. I've already been looking for something else anyway, the job keeps sounding less and less wonderful. I have some leads, but for now they're still just leads..

I also have to find a new residence in a month or so, and there's not much progress in this area either. Turns out that Utrecht is the most expensive place to live, at least concerning renting a place (since my work related future is as clear as last New Year's Eve, buying is not an option). Not just expensive-expensive, but overpriced-expensive as newspapers and politics say. And of course they don't just say-say it, no, they disaster!crisis!fire!!-say it as usual. Still, any possible solutions have to be discussed to death for decades before something finally happens, so I'm just gonna keep on looking myself.

It's become a rather long post, I originally just wanted to introduce you to my upstairs neighbours.

Supermarket Shananigans

2008-05-05T19:54:00.004+02:00

I've been talking and thinking about taking a vacation for a while now, since I don't really have anything to do now (they still haven't found an employer). Since today was a sunny day, I thought I'd explore the city a bit more and go look for a different supermarket (Albert Heijn practically has a monopoly in the city center).

And since I'm feeling wild and crazy (well, as much as you can be on a blog), I'm doing the story IM style!

Jax: "So I looked up a Jumbo supermarket and headed over there. When I got there, it was settled somewhere in one of those roof-covered malls"
Jax: "The first thing I noticed, was like: have I crossed the border to another country?"
Jax: "About 85% of the people there were like Arabs/Muslims/Turks, Morrocans. Then there's about 7% of other foreign people (AzNs RePrEsEnT!!!!11!1 Or something like that. And people from Africa, Suriname, etc.) And finally some 8% being native Dutch people"
Jax: "I know that there are a lot of non-Dutch people here, but I've never seen them so concentrated before. It really feels like I'm in a foreign country"
Jax: "Anywayz, on to the Jumbo"
Jax: "I'm doing the groceries"
Jax: "Then head over to the check out register"
Jax: "The cashier there is probably bummed because she had to work on such a sunny day"
Jax: "Or it might simply be PMS"
Jax: "(I love how we get to blame everything on PMS :P)"
Jax: "But whatever it was, she wasn't exactly full of life"
Jax: "Which became very apparent when I wanted to pay. First off, she didn't even state the amount to pay. But that didn't matter, I always look at the screen anyway (since I usually have music plugged in my ears)"
Jax: "She just stared off into the distance"
Jax: "So I'm thinking: ehhhhhh.. eeehhhhhmmm.. helloooooo?"
Jax: "Still no respons.. So I'm gently trying to shove a 10,- bill in her face"
Jax: "Nothing."
Jax: "Well I might not have any work to do yet, but I don't have all day..."
Jax: "So I just start to load up the groceries in my backpack. I mean, if she doesn't want my money, fine by me"
Jax: "And then she finally starts to show signs of life. She deftly stops me as I try to take the veggies. And it becomes apparent why she's acting like a zombie (well partly anyways). 'It has to be weighed', is about all she says. And after a few (long) seconds more, she requests for someone to come get it and weigh it"
Jax: "Some teenaged stockfiller comes up and takes the veggie away to weigh it"
Jax: "Meanwhile, the wheels in my mind start to turn. She probably saw me coming a mile away, another spoiled Albert Heijn yuppie, where you don't need to weigh anything! (they have a built-in weighing scale in the register scanner). Which is why she rolled her eyes and stared off in far, far away-land"
Jax: "Well excuuuuuuuuse me for not having other supermarkets close by to my disposal. But then again, she wasn't exactly full of life before she got to the veggies. Guess it's PMS after all..."
Jax: "Dude comes back with the veggies, cashier finally takes the money, I put all things in my bag and take off. I've had enough vacation for now..."

Welcome To The Rat Race

2008-03-29T20:24:00.000+01:00

You know that you're in the rat race when:

1) You have to get up so frikkin early in the morning (especially when commuting from one place to another
2) You and thousands of others try to cram their way onto the escalator to the trains
3) You and thousands of others have to wait for hours (well it seems like hours) before the passengers that are already on the train have disembarked; and after which we try to cram ourselves into the train
4) You drink coffee before you start, and then during every break or whenever you get the chance to

Well the 4th one I've managed to avoid so far, I do my best to avoid becoming a coffeeholic, maxing at 2 cups a day. I see others though, that do 2 cups per break O_o

And despite how chaotic the traffic sounds, it's still only when commuting between cities. I still shudder at the total anarchy that happens every weekday in a city like London or New York.

But anyways, I probably should start at the beginning. I recently moved from Groningen to Utrecht, where I found a job as a trainee in "effecten administratie" or securities administration, basically processing everything that has to do with stocks, obligations, etc. Not exactly my area of expertise, but close enough. At least (or I should say "at last") I'm starting a fulltime job, hopefully with enough growth potential.

Now the first thing we get is a training, after which our recruiter finds us a company to work for. The training itself is held in Amsterdam, which means I'll have to commute there every day of the training. Which is fine by itself (it's not really that far, 20-30 or so), but not when every-frikkin-body else has to do the same thing. After about a week of information cramming, we'll be starting our new jobs. I can hardly wait.

*Update*

I'm not sure whether it's the reorganization of our rectuiter (which recently got taken over by another company) or whether they just don't know what they're doing... Either way, I'm still sitting at home enjoying my freedom, as they haven't found anything for me yet. That's right, I'm getting paid to sit at home doing nothing. Alright, there's some studying to do, but student mentality has worked for me so far (cramming everything in the last couple of days before the exam). They say the average time before dispatch is about 2-4 weeks. I'm at three already..

Old Skool Chinese Parties

2008-02-16T20:12:00.004+01:00

It's been quite a while since I last posted any party-related stuff.. Not because there hasn't been anything going on, but actually because there's too much going on. The last couple of months have been pretty hectic for me, and now that I've found a new job (oh yeah, I got a new job. More on that later :P) and have to move to another city and everything (bureaucracy is killing me!).

So anyways, with the current Chinese New Year festivities going on, I thought it'd be nice to shed a little insight on the way parties were held when I was a kid. For me it's been a long time since I had such a party, because I rarely have time to go back to my hometown during the weekdays, where and when such parties are held.

But this time I had some days off, and chan asked me to come along because his mom turned 50. And that's of course reason for a BIG party.

In the old days these kind of parties were pretty fun. You've got your 3-4 dozen parents, all spread out over their favorite pastime: Mahjong and Big 2 (Chinese Poker), a.k.a. gambling.

When you invite that many people (I'm not even counting the kids) and they all need tables and seats and such to play, how is that going to fit?

Well, it's quite simple actually. First, you fill up the entire living room with Mahjong tables and such, until there's no room left to even move anymore. Use up whatever saloon/coffee tables and couches you have for the men to play poker.

Once the living room is succesfully stuffed, proceed to any other room in the house that you have available. Here's a nice bedroom we can use, and here's another one. Well, that seems to be sufficient for most people, the rest will just have to wait their turn.

Now, what about us kids? That's pretty simple as well, find a spare bedroom and stuff em all in there. At this specific party there aren't many of us anymore, since we all moved out and many don't have time to come here anymore, so we have plenty of room for ourselves. Unlike the old days, where I was always astonished about how much the bed could tolerate.

While the parents gamble like they always have (and they always have..), we entertained ourselves with video games (ranging from ye olde NES to the Playstation, Xbox and currently the Wii), card games, and the occasional Japanese horror movie.

But as we grow older, the gambling gene starts to kick in, and next thing you know we're playing a Texas Hold 'Em tournament. Which I won, of course.

Since these parties start pretty early (probably as soon as they get up), they'll need a lot of food. And cooking for 50-60+ people no walk in the park. Unless of course you've been doing it all your life, and wouldn't you know it, that's exactly what all our parents do for a living. And then it's not surprising that dinner looks like an open buffet at a Chinese restaurant.

With the slight difference that this food is soooo much better ^^

I never put much more thought into it, because I figured that this is how Chinese people did parties, but since then I've met different kinds of people, including Chinese people, that are just as amazed as other people about these kinds of party (both go like "whooaaaah so many Chinese people here!"). I guess it's just the tight community we have here.

Which I'm beginning to miss, actually. Now that I think about it, the second generation (us) have all been scattered across the land, and unlike our parents we don't have the super asian cooking skills nor the mahjong gambling gene, so the chances of such parties in the future are pretty slim. So I guess it's true that in the old days things were better...

I'm getting old :/

Duo Neurotic

2008-02-04T13:29:00.000+01:00

So this one time I was still at work, Jessica called Harmi over to hang out. And of course they went through my stuff, as do all people do when they're at someone else's house >_<

Anywayz, Harmi made a cry of joy when she found my Duo Penotti, that chocolate paste stuff that comes with two colours, which we use to put on our bread. Not exactly my most favourite spread, but it goes great with a cup of coffee (which I definitely need if I'm to stay awake at work).

Why was she happy, you ask? Well, I have this peculiar way of getting some Duo Penotti out of the jar, namely scraping it from the top and twisting it around so I always get the desired amount I want, instead of jamming the knife in and taking a big chunk out of it (which normal people do, or so I hear). It's how I always done it and never thought more about it, but apparently it has made me a fellow with neurotic tendencies. I guess it does give the impression that I'm too careful with it, making sure that the colours don't get mixed up but stay seperate and intact.. Which is good for Harmi, because now she's not the only one in our group.

Although everybody has their quirks, it would seem. At least I don't have to eat all the brown M&Ms first, because that colour doesn't complement another colour, and then the green ones, so I end up with the primary colours (blue, red & yellow).....

Two Households

2008-01-14T20:47:00.000+01:00

both alike in dignity, in fair Groningen, where we lay our scene..

Okay, since Jessica boosted the current feud between me and Sander, which I'd like to call the Mailbox Affair, to a public level, I guess I should lay down my side of the story. I had planned on starting the new year with blogs of parties of the last year, working my way back as I go along, but things seem to crop up. So, the Mailbox Affair:

At New Year's Eve we had a party and an afterparty (of which a blog will appear later). The next day, however, my mailbox had become quite naked: both the 'no-no' sticker (which indicates that you don't want to receive unaddressed advertisements nor regional papers) and the central sticker (for deco purpose, replacing the non-existant name tag) were gone. Now I don't mind the deco tag, but the no-no sticker is quite important.

I suspected it was him, since he was one of the last people I saw that night and he's the kind of guy to do such a thing, but I wasn't sure. Luckily Jessica managed to get him to confess, and relaying that info to me enabled one of my favorite pastimes: revenge ^^. Whether he had some principial motives of whether he was just drunk, I don't know, but actually I thought it was a pretty cool move. Like I said, I revel in revenge, so maybe that's why I was glad with it :P

Anywayz, the plan was quite simple: he removes my sticker, I dump all advertisements at his place. I don't really mind getting the ads, it's cool to see whats new and stuff. I don't however like to get stuck with heaps of old paper, so this was actually a good thing. Unfortunately, I still didn't get much ads, so I couldn't put much pressure on Sander, so I mixed a little of old mail in there as well. To stop this, it was up to Sander to replace the sticker with a new one. And seeing the possibility of future disasters, I cut him off by stating that it should be just one sticker, at the same place as the old one, no more and no less.

After the second week he still went ahead with it. I now currently have a no-no sticker covered mailbox. What's even worse is that he also tore off another sticker I had put up to replace the old deco one, one that Jessica gave to me and which I quite liked. Jessica did, too, seeing as she is also getting ready to join the war.

So, now we enter Level 2. I'm holding off what Level 2 actually implies, because I don't want to spoil the surprise before Sander gets it :P. He also thought that because my mailbox is now covered with stickers, I won't get any more ammo supplies. Guess again, smart guy. I have plenty of ways to get ads easily.. He might also think 'what can Jessica do, living so far away?' My guess is that he'll soon learn not to think like that anymore..

But I am getting weary of it, as I know he is too (at least, he's getting annoyed of not being able to pull off a stunt like that without getting punished). So instead of raising the retaliation level each time he does something, I think I'm gonna raise it a level each week regardless of what he does, until my mailbox is restored to normal order. Meaning just the one sticker in it's rightful place, and no other junk (that includes no leftover torn stickers or sticky stuff when he cleans my mailbox). I do hope he makes it to Level 3 though, I have something wonderful stored at that level :P

***UPDATE***
Well, for those of you waiting for an update, the war is over. Sander did just the only thing possible that could get me: denial of revenge. He conceded, and quite fast at that. Just a day after the second desecration of my mailbox (when he covered it up completely), my mailbox has been restored to it's original status. Which is quite a shame, because I had started to collect more ads for Level 2, which would be delivered in his mailbox. Shredded.

Not to mention I also couldn't carry out Level 3 either, which I was really looking forward to. Sander had become quite tired of stickers, even hearing the word made him agitated. So for step 3 I had planned on planting stickers in his house, in the oddest places. Like the underside of a table or chair, the side of a TV, the bottom of a glas, the inside of the fridge, etc... Maybe I'll just do it for kicks anyway.

Now for Level 4 I just had a brute force method in mind, because by then I'd be quite tired of it as well. Sander lives in an apartment block where you have a patio and your own front door (whereas mine is inside a building complex, so there's no getting inside unless I buzz you in. So no retaliation here :P). He's got a large window next to the door, where he can look out from the kitchen. Level 4 would be covering his entire window and door with ads and stickers. Plain and simple, but with a grand effect ;)

Maybe I like revenge a bit too much.. Hmm....

Crap ISP's

2008-01-09T22:40:00.000+01:00

I can't say it often enough... Cheap ISP's (Internet Service Provider) are TOTAL CRAP! Fortunately it's not my own PC, but my parents'. Still, guess who gets to clean up the mess?

> Subject: [TISCALI] Officiele waarschuwing onveilige proxy 195.241.113.217
> From: abuse@tiscali.nl
> Date: Wed, 9 Jan 2008 11:43:02 +0100
>
>
> Geachte heer/mevrouw,
>
> Naar aanleiding van klachten hebben wij moeten constateren dat er op uw computer/internetverbinding een onveilige open proxy is ontstaan. Een open proxy is een vrij ernstig beveiligingsprobleem welke zodra aanwezig ook op flinke schaal wordt misbruikt voor niet toegestane activiteiten. Kortweg gezegd komt het er op neer dat andere mensen (kwaadwillenden) in staat zijn om via het internet uw computer te benaderen, en te misbruiken voor onder andere het versturen van grote hoeveelheden ongewenste e-mail (spam). Wij gaan er natuurlijk vanuit dat er geen sprake is van opzet aan uw kant, maar het is uiteraard wel zaak om verdere overlast voor andere internetgebruikers te voorkomen.
>
> De meest voorkomende oorzaak van dit probleem is een bot die zich genesteld heeft in het besturingssysteem van uw computer. Deze bot zal van tijd tot tijd enorme hoeveelheden spam verzenden. Doordat de bot zijn eigen mailprogramma aan boord heeft, ziet u hiervan niets terug in uw postvak uit of verzonden items van uw mailprogramma. Doordat een bot geen virus is, zal een virusscanner ook niets vinden. Doordat er veel kennis benodigd is om een gecompliceerd probleem als dit op te lossen, raden wij u aan het systeem te formatteren, zodat u zeker van het probleem af bent. Vervolgens is het belangrijk te zorgen dat uw nieuw geïnstalleerde besturingssysteem wordt voorzien van alle windows-updates en servicepacks. Tevens raden wij u aan een goede virusscanner en anti-spyware programma?s te installeren. AVG heeft voor particulieren een drietal programma?s die u gratis kunt gebruiken om kwaadwillende software buiten de deur te houden. Deze programma?s (AVG Anti virus Free, Anti Spyware Free e
> n Anti Rootkit Free) kunt u vinden op de website van Grisoft: http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1
>
> Mocht u gebruik maken van een Zyxel 2602 of Zyxel D1A, dan kunt u de firewall van de router dusdanig instellen, zodat uitgaand emailverkeer enkel nog via smtp.tiscali.nl verzonden kan worden. Hiermee voorkomt u dat er spam via uw computer verzonden wordt, doordat de router dit blokkeert. Dit profiel kunt u downloaden op http://home.tiscali.nl/abuse/ZyxeL. Meer informatie vindt u op deze website.
>
> Zodra u alle stappen gezet heeft om het probleem op te lossen is het helaas niet mogelijk voor ons om te kunnen testen of het probleem dan ook daadwerkelijk opgelost is. Een open proxy is een proces op uw computer welke niet altijd actief hoeft te zijn op het moment dat u uw pc aan heeft staan. Tiscali baseert incidenten op basis van klachten en daarbijbehorend logverkeer om te kunnen vast stellen of dergelijk misbruik op een datum in het verleden daadwerkelijk heeft plaatsgevonden.
>
> Zoals gezegd is het formatteren de veiligste optie om het probleem op te lossen. Na formattering is het verstandig om met een account te werken met beperkte rechten. Zie de pagina van Microsoft hierover waarom dit belangrijk is: http://www.microsoft.com/belux/nl/athome/security/online/logoff_admin_account.mspx
>
> Ook surfen en emailen via alternatieve oplossingen draagt bij aan de veiligheid. Doordat Internet Explorer en Outlook (express) vaak slachtoffer zijn van veiligheidslekken, is een alternatieve oplossing wenselijk. Op http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/ kunt u Firefox en Thunderbird downloaden in de Nederlandse taal. Beide programma's zijn in staat favorieten en adressen over te nemen.
>
> Indien u geen gehoor geeft aan dit bericht bestaat de kans dat wij opnieuw klachten zullen ontvangen. Indien wij 48 uur na verzending nog klachten binnen krijgen over dit probleem zal dit ook voor Tiscali als provider zijnde gevolgen gaan hebben, en zijn wij helaas genoodzaakt uw internetverbinding tijdelijk te blokkeren tot het probleem is opgelost. U zult hier niet verder vooraf over bericht worden.
>
> Met vriendelijke groet,
>
>
> Raymond Teunissen
>
> Site Security and Internet Abuse Team
> Tiscali
>
> http://www.tiscali.nl
>
> Postbus 8071
> 3503 RB Utrecht
>
> Mail: abuse@tiscali.nl
> Tel.: Tiscali: 0900 - 9990900 (30 ecpm)
> Tel.: 12move ADSL: 0900 - 0490500 (13 ecpm)
> Tel.: 12move DIAL: 0900 - 0490498 (50 ecpm)
> Fax.: Tiscali/12move: 030 214 9654

So basically: "You have a bot or something on your pc that sends spam. It can't be found by antivirus programs (or so we think), and it is too difficult to explain how to solve to someone who doesn't know anything about computers, so just format everything, k? Even if you do know about computers, we don't really want to explain. But we do expect you to know how to format your pc. Maybe look it up somewhere if you don't.."

"Now once you've formatted everything, here are some nice free antivirus and firewall programs made by other companies we don't know ourselves to help you protect your pc in the future." [Wait, didn't you just say that anti-virus programs DIDN'T HELP against these things?]

"Unfortunately we cannot see if the problem is resolved once you've formatted your pc (so it's not even certain formatting will help, but just try anyway, k?). But if it does happen, we'll have to shut your connection down without any warning until you solve it (by yourself, of course)."

"Oh and if you do want to speak to someone (and by that we mean some callcenter tech support nerd who doesn't know anything except how to turn the pc on and off) about it, you can reach us for just 30ct/min. Yeah you are a member with us, but that doesn't include help. Fork over the money."

...

A#%&*#&!!_@$#@*^%!@$@!%*#%#@!@$(#(*#&!*#es

Update

2007-11-28T20:55:00.000+01:00

Just to let people know I'm still alive. On the one hand, I don't feel like going through the whole routine of writing a post (and trust me, with me it takes a while), but on the other hand I do have things I find interesting enough to mention..

So, I've decided to take a break instead. These couple of months are busy as hell (why does everybody have their birthday at the same time??). It should provide enough stuff for me to write about as well.. So let's say, at the start of next year? That'll be enough time to pick up the slack again (I hope).

Till then! And happy holidays!

In Between

2007-10-15T12:28:00.000+02:00

I feel like I'm stuck. I don't want to go forward just yet, but I can't turn back to the way it used to be. Simple and happy. Unfortunately as you grow older, life gets too complicated to be happy without much effort. Currently I'm between a college life and working life. The prospect of working until I'm old and aged doesn't really appeal to me, but there's not really any other choice.. It's not just a change of lifestyle, it's leaving my current life behind entirely. The kind of work I'm looking for (or rather: 'qualified for') is not in abundance here. So I'll probably have to relocate to bigger cities. I don't really mind leaving my life here behind, but I just settled in a comfortable place of my own, and the job offers I got so far require lots and lots of travelling, so even if I find a similar place there, I won't be able to enjoy it much..

On the romantic side of my life, things aren't easy either. No longer the meet & greet, fall in love and see where it takes us.. With everyone around me getting engaged and others being in long-lasting relationships (and absolutely no pressure at all from my parents...), a casual girlfriend is not much an option anymore. Well, maybe it could, but even I will be looking towards future options soon. All of this is of course assuming I can even find someone that I like en vice verca. I like to say it's all in the future, but the future is catching up quite fast..

If you're wondering what happened to the Road Trip blog, I scratched it for now. I just don't feel like putting all of it on paper, it takes forever. If someone invented a way of putting thoughts in writing, you can expect many more posts from me, but right now my mind just jumps from one thought to another and it takes a lot of effort to put it in writing in a way that other people can understand it :P Maybe later I'll pick it up again.

But it's not like I did nothing at all with it, after having sorted all those pics (the final count is 2.025), I got the urge to photoshop a few, like last year with Athens. You can find them here, or just click on the images below

Road Trip pt. 2 - Ye Olde Edinburgh

2007-09-16T20:45:00.000+02:00

Yea it's been quite a while. Normally I write a bit when I'm at work, in between calls. It's been quite busy though lately, and I've also started looking through job sites there. Plus of course the drag in blogging, haven't felt like writing in a while. But I guess I have to get this sucka out of the way first, before I can move on with other topics..

The best small country in the world.

We definitely need to get a funky slogan like that, too. When we got to Edinburgh, it looked like they weren't kidding, the city looked awesome. We arrived at the road that divided the Old and New Town, and the Old Town district simply looked liked it hasn't changed at all since the Medival era.

After gawking at the scenery for a minute, we made our way to the hostel (also in Old Town), which wasn't easy since the Old Town district was on one of the hills in Edinburgh. Going uphill with a heavy backpack is no fun, especially if the hill is steep. The hostel was cool, but hard to find, being crammed up between all kinds of shops. After settling in we strolled through the neighbourhood, it was already late afternoon, so there wasn't any time left to see the sights. We went looking for a supermarket, trying to even out the budget for food after last evening, and a Lidl seemed perfect for that.

We explored the area a bit, of course visited ye olde weapon shops and noticed that the hen parties are also quite popular here. And it's not just the girls, either...

For the night we decided to go on a ghost tour, walking around the city and reliving Edinburgh's horrific past. We had a lively tourguide, who guided us through all the places where not only crimes and murders took place, but also the circumstances in which people used to live in. I for one, am glad to not live during the medieval era, where people would throw out all their 'bathroom waste' out the window at night. Imagine being a tourist there, walking down the street and suddenly people shouting something from above at 10 o'clock, looking up surprised with mouth wide open and, well, you get the idea. Horrifying, indeed.

The trip took us through most of the Old Town, where at a certain point the tour guide selected someone as a witch to show how people dealt with witchcraft and alleged witchcraft. Or rather, with people whom they didn't like, seeing as witchcraft doesn't exactly exists (except at Hogwarts!) One guess who she picked.. That's right, yours truly. Probably because I was standing at the front next to her, but still, I don't look much like a witch do I? Anywayz, I've been accused of all kinds of things, and seeing as I don't have any proof that I didn't do any of it, found guilty as charged. Well, I wasn't entirely without options.. I could prove my innocence by being tortured, hung, drowned, torn apart and of course the old crowd favourite: burned. If I was truly a witch, these things wouldn't hurt me. What better way to prove my innocence than by roasting on a spit? The tour ended with an excursion to an 'underground dungeon', including creepy ghost stories and the usual big scare at the end.

After the tour we met up with some people that were staying in the same hostel, apparantly they were Dutch too, so we decided to hang out together. They had some sort of aquantence here, so they (and we) got together in a pub.
I was a bit wary of where we would go, seeing as they were into the metal/hard rock/goth scene, and well, I wasn't. But the pub was alright, just like any other pub, except with an adjacent building where the hardcore music was audible. We just stayed in the pub though, so all was cool.

Next day: Edinburgh Castle. In contrast to Dublin Castle, which was more like a big house or mansion, Edinburgh Castle was more like an entire medieval village, complete with a moat, 4 defensive gates, cannons, barracks, churches, etc. I think pictures say more than words in this case, so here they are. Occaisonally accompanied with some info that the tour guide gave us, he was excellent.

The entrance to the castle. At the front of the entrance, there were two statues. On the right, Sir Robert the Bruce, and on the left (see picture), you probably guessed it: Sir Mel Gibson.

Or rather, Sir William Wallace, whom Gibson was playing (if you haven't seen Braveheart, you have no business here)

Cannons! And lots of em. I guess they had a lot of defending to do from invading enemies (*cough* the English *cough*).

One of the cannons, named Mons Meg, was quite large, given as a gift from someone I don't remember. Anywayz, it turned out to be quite impractical, being so heavy (weighing 6 ton!) it couldn't be taken anywhere and it wasn't easy to aim either. Powerful though, it's not everyday you see cannons that can fire 180kg cannonballs..

Did I mention it was big?

The top of the castle offered a spectacular view as well. I put 2 pics together for that panoramic look ^^

The tour took most of the day, the rest of which we spent cruising through the New Town part, bit of shopping around and seeing others sites, like a huge cathedral with amazing frescoed windows.

Some more nice views

The hostel had a (perhaps weekly) Sunday cook-off, where they would make dinner themselves for the guests for just F2,-. They also made one of my favourites: oven-grilled chicken, with veggies and a mashed potato salad. Good eatin'. Especially when the leftovers were up for grabs (at first everybody got one serving, but they made much more). Very good eatin' ^_^.

Next day packing up already, but our flight went in the evening, so we had some time left. I went to the National Gallery, Oene wasn't such a fan of art, so he went shopping around some more.

Train > bus > plane > Stockholm!

Road Trip pt.1 - The Temple of Dublin

2007-08-23T14:48:00.000+02:00

Doesn't mean I've finished sorting all the pics, I'm still working on that -_-"
But I needed a break, so I thought I might as well get started on the blogging thing. It's going to be in 10 parts, 1 for each city. I'm just gonna post them here this time, thumbnails and all. If you don't have broadband, now's a good time to get it.

Dublin, or Baile Átha Cliath, as the Irish call it (as well as Klingons), was our starting point. Well, after we first went on a 3 hour trip to Eindhoven, where the plane would take off. Not even halfway there I was already sick of it.
Yeay, only 25 days to go... Oene brought some stuff to read (almost every bit of magazine he had accumulated for about a year), but there weren't many interesting things in it after all. Anywayz, we went to Eindhoven earlier because I could not pass this opportunity to get some Dim Sum :P That and meeting an old friend I hadn't seen for a while.

The Ryanair flight was, well, uneventful. Low cost equals low quality, I guess. Dublin welcomed us with a bit of rain, some sun, more rain, sun again, rain, sun, etc. I guess being a small island, the weather passes by a lot quicker. We got to our hostel, which was really more of a maze than anything. We had to go through the hallway, left up the stairs and then the other smaller set of stairs, through the door, turn left, at the end to the right, through another door, make an s-turn to the end, not one but three doors in a row turning left, left, left, down the stairs, to the end, and turn right after (yes you guessed it) another door.

Didn't help that we missed the smaller set of stairs and went up the first one. Took us about half an hour to find our way through the hostel and even then we still didn't know the way back. But it's all part of the trip. You want to travel on a budget, you need to be able to adapt. Like staying in a 20-bed dorm.

Since we were pretty tired from all the travelling and got quite hungry, we went into the first place that had food. And of course, we encountered a fast food place. Aside from the really bright, toxic orange colour in my Fanta and the absence of mayonnaise on the fries (yes, Samuel L Jackson was telling the truth), all went well. We even saw a bit of action when some guy tried to get in with his own drink or maybe he was drunk, I forget the details. He was stopped by the security guard (seriously, a security guard at a fast food joint? Although this time I guess it was appropriate). I expected some action, a brawl in the big city, but the guard did his job well. He managed to calm the dude down, although now he was starting up a whole conversation about God knows what. I dunno about the security guard, maybe he liked a bit of distraction, but I've had enough people nagging at me at the callcenter to last a lifetime.

Anywayz, continuing our journey we just walked around a bit, exploring the city. We came across some old cool buildings,
interesting landmarks

and stuff, and a place that probably hasn't had any gardening maintenance in a while.

We celebrated our first day of the 'road trip' at the Temple Bar, the place where all the popular pubs and bars are located. Oene instantly fell in love with his newfound treasure, Guinness, while I craved sweet heavenly cider. Like the ad says:

Even though it's not our home. Whatever.

We didn't make it too late, since we had a long journey ahead.. The next day we went to look for the main attractions. We headed out to some kind of Chimney, the look-out tower of the city, only to find out after a long walk that it was closed. I did manage to snap a pic of an original way to clean buildings.

We made our way to another site, called Dublin Castle (even though it didn't really resemble a castle). They had timed guided tours, so we waited until the next one. When the next one started, everybody just walked in, even though the entrance fee is E 3,-. Apparently they were a group. There was also a sign that we had to check in our bag, but Oene just said "Keep walking" and so we did. Free tour whoooo ^^.
The castle had some antique-ish decorated rooms, a big ass throne chair (a castle can't do without one, after all), but the conference room was what really stunned me. The ceiling of it was covered in beautiful fresco's. Me like.

After the castle we went for a snack, there was a kind of 7-11 store which made delicious fresh sandwiches.
I also saw something interesting though. Lots and lots of candy!!

Uh huh... So far it's 3 out of 4 guys and 0 out of 3 girls. Let me know what you think of it! ;)

Having been thoroughly fed, we made our way to Trinity College, where the famous (well, Ireland famous I guess, never heard of it before) Book of Kells are kept. It's somewhat like the Irish Bible I think. The college itself was fun, we saw a couple of graduates who were dressed a lot more cheerful than our boring black. Although the colours might've been chosen more carefully, they kinda look like they've graduated from McDonald's College..

The museum was pretty cool, more like a kind of exhibition. Unfortunately there was no way of sneaking in for free here, with all the ticket checkers at the entrance.
They had enlarged a couple pages and put it up in a lighted display, there were stories of who/what/when/how things came to be, and further on they also had some original books which had awesome writings in them.

From there we were led to a sort of old library, which had the (mainly military) history of Dublin, with some really cool banners of how they recruited soldiers during wartime.

After the museum we walked around the place some more, and then made our way to the park. As luck would have it, it became sunny again and quite warm, so we had a nice stroll through the greens. After that we made our way back by going through the main shopping street, which of course was full of street performers.

For the evening we wanted some 'authentic' food, so we went looking for the cheapest place to get some (on a budget, after all). About the only authentic thing that was available in the restaurants was Irish Stew, so that's what we ordered. Didn't exactly look like much (especially when accompanied by a bowl completely stuffed with condiments, but it was a pretty good stew.

The rest of the evening was again dedicated at the Temple Bar, where this time we discovered the mother of all bars: the Hard Rock Cafe. Well, actually, Oene did, I usually try to avoid things that are too popular or hyped. But it turned out pretty cool, we even saw a couple of hen parties (bachelor parties for the ladies), they seem to be quite popular here. I especially liked the group that started singing loudly (and off-key); at a certain point the bartender had enough and hosed them down with the soda spray. Some time later they did it again (just to taunt the bartender I think), this time with their umbrella's up. Some people..

Next day, off to Edinburgh. First a quick breakfast, which wasn't much, but at least it was included. Took a regular bus back, which was a lot cheaper.
Although the right stop was rather difficult, the stop only consisted of a single pole with a logo and the word 'BUS' on top of it. Without any information at all like destination or times we were a little worried, but it turned out to be the right one.

1st city conquered!

This.. Is.. Aftermath.... :S

2007-08-04T21:31:00.000+02:00

Been back for a couple days now, trying to sort out all the pics so I can write stories around them ("a picture says more than a 1000 words".. 'Course, everybody whose ever read a book knows that ain't true). But yeah, it's been keeping me busy for a while, arranging about 3000 pics in an orderly fashion is no picnic. No, that's not a typo, with my friends' pics included we have nearly 3000 pics together. I'll be trying to limit it to 2-2.5k though, since there will be lots of doubles in it as well. But in the meantime, here's a quick update, in the form of a, well question form, since everybody's been asking the same kind of questions.

1) Which places have you been to? Dublin, Edinburgh, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Berlin, Prague, Florence, Rome, Barcelona and Madrid (I have it copy+pasted as a shortcut by now)

2) Which place did you like the most? This is a surprisingly hard question, since a lot of places were awesome. Dublin was cool for it's 'homey' feeling, a bit like Groningen but larger. Edinburgh was really cool, since it had castles and other old stuff. Stockholm was just fun because we were together with our group again, it was more like visiting a friend. Copenhagen we didn't see much of (due to certain circumstances, which you'll hear a lot more of soon :P), but I also thought that there wasn't that much to see of either. Berlin was also really worthwhile, reliving bits of WW2 and the Cold War. Prague was almost like a fairy tale, old classical neighborhoods and cheap alcohol! Florence was an art-heaven while Rome was famous-landmarks-ville. Barcelona was really refreshing as a 'major city' type city, without all the ancient stuff, finally a place to really relax. Madrid was as well, but a bit more cramped together. That answer your question?

3) Which places did you really like the most? Thought so. My top three would have to be Edinburgh, Rome and Barcelona, in no particular order (except chronological maybe).

4) 3000?!?!?! I'm Asian and I have a cam. What more can I say? And I did say I was cropping them down to about 2000-2500, didn't I? I believe I did.

5) How much time did you have per city? Well, I'd figure we would be pretty beat at the end of the trip, so I took out more time for the last couple of cities (which also partly explains why those are in the top three). We had about 1,5 day per city for the first half, and about 2 days per city for the last half, with Rome being the longest one (3 days). The rest of the trip was spent on traveling, so that's about 5-6 days as well.

6) On a scale of 'raw' to 'scorched black', how much of a tan have you got? I'd say medium. We didn't have that much sun until Berlin, where someone must've pushed the 'Summer On' button (I think we went from 15*C in Copenhagen to 25*C in Berlin. And we weren't even down south yet). I stayed in the shade as much as possible, it was hot enough as it was. Luckily I'm Asian as well, so I don't get burned fast like Dutch people do :P Really, they're almost like microwave meals, you push the 'On' button and they're done ^^

7) When are you gonna show some pics (and the stories as well)?? And don't hold back! Do I ever? I'm working on it as much as possible, hold your horses.

So yeah, I'm gonna go back to work again. See ya soon!

This.. Is... ROAD TRIP!!!

2007-07-05T08:20:00.000+02:00

Aaaaaand we're off! 25 days of backpackin' fun (probably followed by 25 days of recovering from a hernia...). If possible, live updates will follow. And a birthday party blog will follow as well, somewhere in October/November probably.

*waves byebye*

Snippets Of My Life

2007-06-22T18:27:00.000+02:00

You've got times where nothing happens for months, and you've got times where everything comes crashing at you at once. Guess what time it is.

Only two more weeks to go for my road trip! Woohooo! I still have a lot of things to do for it. Yipes... Besides that, my bday is also coming up fast, which I also have to do stuff for. Yipes again. Did try out my backpack, filling it up with weights and a blanket.. Heavy! I don't know how long I can manage it, I guess I'll have to pack as lightly as possible.. Maybe just one of each thing: one t-shirt, one pair of pants, one pair of socks and briefs..

I seem to be getting the newspaper. Not that I subscribed to one or anything, but there it is, every day in my mail box. Started about last week or something, there's also no name or adress on it to check if it's supposed to go to someone else. I guess it comes with being the top mailbox in the building; when in doubt, just put it there... Too bad it isn't tomorrow's paper, like Early Edition, at least then I might've had some more fun with it, but I read the news at work or online as it is, so it doesn't add much (except more junk in my house..).

In other news, I HATE OLD PEOPLE. Some are okay, well, i'd still rather avoid them altogether, but today actually had me throwing things in the office... The target at the callcenter is an average of 4 minutes per incoming customer. Leave it to fate to give me a couple of senile old folks that have nothing better to do than to talk about their incompetence for half an hour.
Each. Honestly, I explain to them what is what, but each time they go temporarily deaf and don't get any word of what I'm saying.. Or even if they do hear what I say, they want more explanation about each and every word that I explain. And then of course they question every word I explain about the explanation. I've heard about people being (what's another word for "anal" here...) about things, but this is just too ridiculous. Also didn't help that my last call of the day was one of those calls.. In the end I just had to mention that I was already off duty for half an hour, or she'd go on for another hour.. At those times I wish I were mentally unstable and would just snap and do all sorts of crazy things. Maybe next time...

Hot Hot Hot!

2007-06-13T17:13:00.000+02:00

Since the weather has been very sunny the last couple of weeks, we decided to have a little barbecue. That was of course the day where the sun stopped shining, but it was still quite pleasant outside and at least it didn't rain. Kirstin bought a new portable barbecue for Frans, the host of our little soirée, as a belated birthday present (somewhere last December, but who's counting...).

We started off with some of us assembling this nifty little device, while others made a salad (a delicious one, I might add. My compliments to the chef :P). After putting the bbq together, it was time to light it up. None of us were exactly bbq specialists, but we managed to get it going.

While waiting for the charcoal to get hot enough, we indulged ourselves on the salad and other foods. When thirty or so minutes had passed, we decided to go and burn the meat.

Literally.

As I said, we were no experts in barbecueing. Apparently leaving the meat alone on the grill while having a fun conversation inside is not a good thing to do. But no worries, the damage wasn't that extensive. (The plate was for everyone btw, not just her, I felt I had to state it to avoid a whack in the head. She's not a glutton at all. Really!) Anyhoo, we scraped off the outside layer and enjoyed the first batch of meat.

We were down to the last pile of meat when someone noticed something strange coming out from under the table. After a short bit of confusion, it quickly became clear that once again we fail as bbq'ers. The bbq was placed on the table outside, since it was a portable small one. The table, however, was made of plastic. And that doesn't mix with heat very well..

The table was also new, he just got it, I think the day before the BBQ. Talk about bad luck... Well, the table hasn't become useless yet, it just has a.. 'beauty mark'. Well, we couldn't do much more about it, so we went back in and finished off whatever was left. It was still a good meal.

And of course after dinner, there are drinks ^^. Sander and Kirstin thought it'd be a good idea to gulp up a 3-liter box of wine... Yeah good luck with that :P But there were other things to drink as well. Mixmaster Kirstin (see the Hawaiian party) whipped up something yummy, which went well with the cool 'bar' that Frans has.

Good times.

Bloggers Meet

2007-05-21T22:49:00.000+02:00

If you can call two bloggers getting together a meet... Anywayz, I met Taraa a couple days before the Hawaiian Cocktail Party, and of course you all know how swift I am with writing blogs... (this one even took about 10 days >_<)

Taraa and her friend arrived in Amsterdam sometime in the afternoon, which was unfortunately too late for Dim Sum. Every time I come near the Big Cities, I try to get to a Dim Sum place as much as possible (sometimes even just to eat there.. :P), seeing as we have no such thing here up north. Well, there ís one, although they use pre-made dishes.. Even I can do that; just go the the local toko and get some of those deep-frozen ones. No, there's no substitute possible for the real thing. Luckily a friend of mine was also in for a bit of chow, so I went there up and early (the train ride is about 2.5 hours. The things I do for good food... Uhm, and meeting friends of course) and had a good lunch.

After that, I explored a bit of the city, since I was also quite unfamiliar with it (having only been here like once or twice, mostly getting drunk instantly and having hangovers the next day). Mostly I just looked for points of recognition, to know where in the city I was. Then I returned to the station to wait for my 'guests'. At a certain point I became a bit worried, because it was about time for them to show up, but since there were two different tracks where trains from the airport came in, I didn't know where to go. I couldn't reach them either on the number she gave me.

As it turns out, their plane was delayed, and their phones weren't on until they landed. When they finally arrived, it was also on a completely different track than the ones I had been given.. Thank God for cell phones :). When we finally got together, it felt strangely familiar. It was the first time I met Taraa, and even on the Net we hadn't known each other for that long yet (or do we? I don't really keep track of things :$). Maybe blogs give away more of ourselves than we think...

Aaaaanywayz, we got on a tram to the hostel where they were staying, which was quite nice, as far as my experience with hostels goes (not far :P). There were even a bunch of kids, playing around a tiny pooltable, which we thought was pretty odd: why are there little kids in a hostel, and apparently without supervison? Taraa's friend, Anshu (is that spelled correctly?), was kinda tired from the trip, so she took a nap. Me & Taraa strolled around for a bit, grabbing a light bite to eat (with the plane's delay and all, they were starving when they arrived at the airport :P. As for me, Dim Sum is good enough to fill me up for the entire day ^^).

Took a picture together of course, what good is a bloggers meet if you don't take pictures! The three of us met up again, and when it became dark, we made our way to Amsterdam's main attraction: the Red Lights. Amsterdam doesn't really offer much else, I think (well, that, and drugs of course). It was of course packed with tourists, and I think I even saw someone go into "a lady's workplace" once or twice. I mean, besides the fact that you're actually going to a prostitute, who would want to do that with a whole crowd outside? We walked around for a bit, trying to make some sneak peeks with our camera's (the residents don't like it, and will usually show it by physical force). We walked until we had seen enough of it. That was kind of it for the day, there's not much else to do when everything closes at 18:00.

We walked around town some more, and finally settled down outside a bar, having a drink. Unfortunately I didn't keep enough track of time, and had to leave pretty soon. And none too soon, either. I had to run for it halfway to the station, Amsterdam turned out to be larger than I thought. Also unfortunate was that I don't have much of a condition.. I stayed longer than I planned as well, so this was the last train home. I barely made it, too, as soon as I got in and sat down, the train started moving. Painfully tired, but the day was worth it. Maybe next time I can convince them to come to Groningen instead :P

Yes Sir Can I Have Another Sir

2007-04-29T16:30:00.000+02:00

Another question list, easy to do without hurting my brain, and it fills up my Sunday afternoon..

1. Pick out a scar you have, and explain how you got it.
Two dots on my right chest. No, no vampire marks or anything, although it was a blood-sucking fiend.. Mosquitos bit me, and I couldn't stop scratching it. I know, it's a dissapointing tale, but I'd rather have no pain and no scar than some heroic tale..

2. What is on the walls in your room?

Courtesy of the previous occupant, who made it herself!

3. What does your phone look like?
Like a standard Nokia 8310. Yes, the one with a tiny black/white screen, no camera, no bluetooth or email or whatever (were there such phones?!). But hey, it's nearing it's 4th birthday, which is like 300 in human years. I'd like to see the new phones hold out that long..

4. What music do you listen to?
Whatever mood I'm into. Right now I'm listening to trance, because the people outside are throwing a party on the roof terrace

5. What is your current desktop picture?
I can't explain it.. Well, I can, but it won't make sense. "A digital image of a round little guy carrying a cube of transparancy, probably heading over to pile it on top of a pile of other cubes of transparancy". Told ya. I guess this might be a bit easier

6. What do you want more than anything right now?
A soulmate

7. Do you believe in gay marriage?
I don't even think my beliefs have anything to do with it at all. The government decides whether it's allowed or not. As for whether I'm for or against it: I'm neither. I have no problem with gay's marrying, but you won't see me protesting either if the government prohibits it.. I'm more pro-NIMBY (Not In My BackYard)

8. What time were you born?
around 07.10 I think.. Imagine my mom having to pull an all-nighter for me...

9. Are your parents still together?
Immigrated Chinese people divorcing? *GASP*

10. What are you listening to?
Trance, like I said. Well, this question scores a few points on redundancy

11. Do you get scared of the dark?
Only after watching a Japanese horror movie.. Those movies freak me out

12. The last person to make you cry?
I don't remember

13. What is your favorite perfume/cologne?
Does aftershave count? Axe Unlimited vitalising aftershave. It's the only thing I have that comes close to it.

14. What kind of hair/eye colour do you like on the opposite sex?
When I was young, I always liked blond hair a lot. Then again, I also liked how Goku could turn into a Super Saiyan.. Anywayz, I prefer dark hair now, and intense eyes that have that naughty twinkle in them

15. Do you like pain killers?
I prefer toughing things out rather than taking pills. Unless of course it's a considerate amount of pain, like a broken leg our pulling out a tooth.

16. Are you too shy to ask someone out?
I think I'm more afraid of rejection. But I keep trying. Optimism has it's uses ;)

17. Favorite pizza topping?
Ham and salami. Other meat optional

18. If you could eat anything right now, what would it be?
Dim Sum. Always Good. But never near.. :(

19. Who was the last person you made mad?
I make everybody mad.. I guess working 2,5 years at a callcenter has made me a bit cynical, grumpy, making snappy retorts and being a real smart-ass. Or it could just be me.

20. Is anyone in love with you?
I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Party Animal

2007-04-25T17:31:00.000+02:00

Almost three weeks without a blog! Guess I'm slipping a bit.. Well, I have been a bit busy lately, the blogger's meet (just me and Taraa actually, but if was fun ^^), and of course El Cocktail Fest. The party went quite well, and of course I have pics of it to accompany the story. Check my pics page for details!

Seeing as Kirstin was in town, we went clubbing the Friday before the party (one of the very few friends that doesn't feel too old to go clubbing anymore.. Maybe I need to find more friends...). Not too late of course, we still had a party to host :P. Seeing as she was still in town the next week, we went clubbing again the next Friday, and this time we went all-out.

Well, she did. After Ritmo closed, we moved on to &zo, and when that one closed she was still looking other places. Well, by that time I was pretty done for, and seeing as there aren't that many good places to go to after 5, I convinced her to call it a day too. With the hangover the next day and the headaches the days after, I realised that I might not be that young anymore either..

..nah. I'm still good. Party on!!

Party Quirks

2007-04-05T23:06:00.000+02:00

Recipe:
- People
- Booz
- More booz
- A bit of a theme

Shake it up, add some ice, and you've got yourself a party! I've been busy with the preperations for the next one, due soon, and it's no picknick. But it will be!

As you can see :)

I've borrowed the image from Deviantart, and changed it a bit to suit our party.

As for the theme, I thought an exotic colourful one would make a nice change (I think I've used my suit in more parties than for work-related things :P). And what's more colourful and exotic than the beautiful beaches of Hawaii?

If anybody got any suggestions for cocktails or food, they're more than welcome! I just hope I can keep the lid on all those drinks before the party starts :P

Weather Malfunction part deux

2007-03-20T16:34:00.000+01:00

Try going out in a T-shirt like this! :P

Just when looked like it would finally become warmer weather, we get snow! But for those coming here for a holiday, don't worry, the sun came out later in the afternoon again.

After all, this is March: the month where we get snow, sunshine, rain, clouds, sleet and hail all at once. Apparently.

Weather Malfunction

2007-03-14T16:10:00.000+01:00

Sometimes I don't get you Dutch people. As soon as a little sunshine appears, people go outdoors, wearing nothing but a t-shirt, like it's the summer season already. The summer isn't even that hot, except for maybe two weeks in the whole year (at least, that used to be the case before all that global warming stuff happened).

But honestly, it's not even officially spring yet, and I see people shedding their clothes, ice cream trucks popping up everywhere and people going to the beach (okay, I shouldn't be the one to talk, since I went there in the middle of winter, but still). I mean, it's only like 11-13 degrees outside, that's like winter temperature in countries like Spain and Australia, and it's freakin' cold there during that time!

I'm exaggerating a bit of course, not everybody does that. But a little sunshine in cold weather seems to be enough to get people feeling like it's summer already, which I find odd.. Maybe it's also because the people that do go out in just their t-shirts are so hairy that they wouldn't feel cold even in the winter season.. All I can say is: people are weird!

Journey Of A Lifetime

2007-03-01T15:57:00.000+01:00

It's been pretty quite here, mostly because I just can't think of anything worth while to mention. Lately I've gotten in a bit of a drag, making no progress in anything whatsoever. Perhaps it's a winter depression of some sorts. But I thought I'd get busy again for the few readers I might still have..

Anywayz, I have been planning some things for the summer vacation. Since I was a kid, i used to go on holiday almost every summer. That's what summer vacations are for, aren't they? But the last couple of years have become more and more dull. Granted, last year I went off to sunny Greece, but that was only a week, and before that, my last official vacation was in Taiwan, 2001. Yes, I was also in London in 2003, but there's a difference between a vacation trip and living there for 6 months. The other 200x years I've been sadly stuck here in this tiny, boring country. And with my current part-time job and my future jobs to come, it seems almost impossible to go on long, luxurious holidays.

So last year in Greece got me thinking. The maximum vacation available now is about three weeks. And I'm just going to get the most out of it as possible. Me and my bro have always been planning on going on a road trip through Europe someday. So this year, we're going to do it, no matter what. Whatever problems we encounter, we'll find a way to deal with it..

No car? Take the train
No money? Start saving
Not enough time? Cut down on locations
No gorgeous chicks to accompany us? We'll find them on the road

After looking over several drafts, we've narrowed the list down to the following places: Dublin (Ireland), Edinburgh (Scotland), Stockholm (Sweden), Copenhagen (Denmark), Berlin (Germany), Prague (Czech Republic), Vienna (Austria), Rome and Milan (Italy), Monaco (Monaco), Barcelona and finally Madrid (Spain). As you can see, it's mostly a capital city tour.

Going clockwise, it looks kind of like this:

It's a lot to do in three weeks, and I'm sure we'll be near dead when we get back, but we're going to pull through this!

I hope.

If you've been to any of these places, or can recommend some alternative route to take which is more efficient and worthwhile, let me know about things to see!

To be continued...

The Must Haves

2007-02-11T22:33:00.000+01:00

Another tag coming up. This one I got from Taraa, returning the favor, I'm sure :) It took me a couple of days to think of the things to fill in, usually I have pretty standard answers for those standard question forms, but leave it to Taraa to come up with something unusual ^^.

But I like it very much, so here goes: the Must-Haves in life.

In my home
- Personal affections that make me feel like home
- A comfy couch, lazy chair and soft bed to relax on
- Spacious rooms for entertaining guests and a kitchen that has everything

In my partner
- Joyfulness and enthousiasm that will light my spirits
- The ability to make me smile no matter what
- Beauty on the outside, brains on the inside and a sense of humor on any other side

In a day
- Peaceful weather, a warm sunny day or silent snowfall, to ease my mood
- A friendly conversation
- Music, for the same reason as the weather

In my wardrobe
- Lots of comfortable, casual clothes that fit me well
- Formal attire, for whenever I need stylish clothes (for work, or more likely, for parties :P)
- A pair of sneakers, formal shoes and fluffy slippers for at home

In my car
- Lots of music in all kinds of genres
- A/C, electronic windows, remote locking, the works
- A sporty build that allows me to enjoy driving to the fullest

In my heart
- Being able to see things with a sense of humor
- A secret crush, which I can drift off and daydream about
- The ability to accept things the way they are, and to make the most it

In my old-age
- Friends and family to grow old with
- Good memories to reminiscence about, and people to share them with
- No past regrets or wishing things would be different

In me, today
- The willpower and perseverence to continue with whatever I'm doing
- Planning my future, as well as my present
- Knowing the limit to things and stopping when I reach it

A Head Above

2007-02-02T00:27:00.000+01:00

At times like this, I wish I were Dutch.
[edit] Hurray for links that don't work... Must be a great news site 8-). Anywayz, here's another one (although less fun to read), and also some bits posted below here in case this link goes wacko too.

The New World has lost its superiority over the Old - at least in terms of physical stature - and John Komlos has the evidence. His records, including files on runaway slaves, indentured servants and West Point graduates, bear testament to the US decline.

"Americans have stopped growing while Europeans are increasing in height at quite a pace," said Professor Komlos, a leading anthropometric historian who studies such development.
He has discovered, for instance, that American men were nearly eight centimetres taller than the Dutch in the 1800s. Now the tables have turned, and the Dutch - the tallest people in Europe, with an average height of around 1.85 metres - stand eight centimetres above Americans.

They're not kidding either..

And this guy's take on it is simply hilarious

In yet another blow to its global ego, the United States must now face the fact that it no longer grows the world's tallest people. The news from Europe is that Americans have been overtaken by those cheesemakers, the Dutch.
.
How can this be? Their country is barely watertight. They live hedonistic lives and even smoke marijuana at will. Eveyone else has to hide it. Let's not even talk about their language. Researchers are now trying to figure out how they got to the top of the tree.

Road Trip

2007-01-30T22:47:00.000+01:00

(this is my 100th post on this blog btw, woohoo!)

So a friend of mine recently got his driver's license, and of course what's the first thing a guy does when he gets his license? ROAD TRIP!!! He even got some wheels for himself. Not some race monster or a classic roadster, somehow we Dutch people aren't that spoiled as those American teenage kids, who can buy a car for a few pennies or even just get one from their parents.. No we get to choose between the old lower end models, like this one.

The Toyota Starlet baby!! Well, it's got 4 wheels and it drives, what more do you need?

At least we can make a cool pose with it. Makes the car look much better, doesn't it?

Though the car may be old, there's always one thing that youngsters cannot do without.
That's right, things that make you go boom!

No matter how old the ride, there's always room for a massive soundsystem

So we've been planning a trip half-way across the country

(Serves us right for living in one of the most faraway places in this tiny country)

So, our first destination: Rotterdam. Bright lights, big city. Or so we thought.

Rotterdam is a nice place, but we didn't expect to see the saddest Christmas tree in the world (the trip was sometime during the Christmas holidays, you know how fast I am with blogging).

The initial idea was to go to Scheveningen, the most popular beach of the country, where also the only known arcadehal was located. There might be one or two other in the entire country (talk about a boring country...), but I've never been there yet. So Scheveningen it is.

At least, if it were up to the other two geeks.. I didn't feel like making a 250km trip just to hang out at the arcades all day long, so I suggested the best thing to do while in the West: Dim Sum! It's a little sad that we have to drive halfway across the country to enjoy this marvelous food, but then again it adds a little more to the experience.

Plus of course it's fun to see how other people handle the chopsticks, not to mention the strange food they've never seen before.

We first started with a quick stroll through the shopping streets, to see if there was anything worth while. Although all the stores were fitted with huge SALE signs, I didn't get anything. Probably because those signs are up there all year long.
Because it was still early, we went for a cup of coffee and a snack..

Well not that one, tempting as it might be, but we're still on a student budget (and we also need to save money for the arcades, it's hard to get rid of our geeky nature). After that some more strolling, and then food, glorious food!

When we were stuffed, it was time for the second part of our trip: going to the beach in the middle of winter!

Yes, it's obvious we're
always full of good ideas.

So, with a temperature of about 4 degrees Celsius and Wind Force 7 in our face we made our way to the boulevard. Despite the weather there were still quite some people making their way to the beach, but of course I would too if I lived near it. We made our way to the shopping mall and started our gaming marathon. At long last I finally got to play Time Crisis 3 again, aaahh sweet gaming bliss. Besides that there was some racing, some weird (obviously Japanese) plaything, and I even got Oene so far as to join me in a DDR session.

Steppin' to the groove, dancing the night away! Which it was, when we were finally done.
Of course it was winter, so it was already dark by 5 or 6 'o clock. Still, we walked down the peer (the thing that stretches out into the sea, see pic above), with the wind blowing yet more mightier. At the end we stopped for some coffee, not very hungry yet (Dim Sum really stuffs you up, plus dinner was pretty pricey, especially after a day like this).

And at long last, returning home.

Where we made a wrong turn somewhere and ended up going to Noord-Holland (the northwest bit of NL).

And stopping at Burger King because the hunger finally kicked in.

..When's the next trip?

+40 experience
+6 in yummy yummy food!
+2 in gun-slingin', quicksteppin' mad skillz yo

A Little Joke

2007-01-23T11:29:00.000+01:00

So here's a little joke for those of you who have absolutely nothing to do right now. And I mean absolutely nothing, this might take a while.
And DO NOT scroll down to the end if you're planning on reading it.. it'll spoil everything!

So, there’s a man crawling through the desert.

He’d decided to try his SUV in a little bit of cross-country travel, had great fun zooming over the badlands and through the sand, got lost, hit a big rock, and then he couldn’t get it started again. There were no cell phone towers anywhere near, so his cell phone was useless. He had no family, his parents had died a few years before in an auto accident, and his few friends had no idea he was out here.

He stayed with the car for a day or so, but his one bottle of water ran out and he was getting thirsty. He thought maybe he knew the direction back, now that he’d paid attention to the sun and thought he’d figured out which way was north, so he decided to start walking. He figured he only had to go about 30 miles or so and he’d be back to the small town he’d gotten gas in last.

He thinks about walking at night to avoid the heat and sun, but based upon how dark it actually was the night before, and given that he has no flashlight, he’s afraid that he’ll break a leg or step on a rattlesnake. So, he puts on some sun block, puts the rest in his pocket for reapplication later, brings an umbrella he’d had in the back of the SUV with him to give him a little shade, pours the windshield wiper fluid into his water bottle in case he gets that desperate, brings his pocket knife in case he finds a cactus that looks like it might have water in it, and heads out in the direction he thinks is right.

He walks for the entire day. By the end of the day he’s really thirsty. He’s been sweating all day, and his lips are starting to crack. He’s reapplied the sunblock twice, and tried to stay under the umbrella, but he still feels sunburned. The windshield wiper fluid sloshing in the bottle in his pocket is really getting tempting now. He knows that it’s mainly water and some ethanol and coloring, but he also knows that they add some kind of poison to it to keep people from drinking it. He wonders what the poison is, and whether the poison would be worse than dying of thirst.

He pushes on, trying to get to that small town before dark.

By the end of the day he starts getting worried. He figures he’s been walking at least 3 miles an hour, according to his watch for over 10 hours. That means that if his estimate was right that he should be close to the town. But he doesn’t recognize any of this. He had to cross a dry creek bed a mile or two back, and he doesn’t remember coming through it in the SUV. He figures that maybe he got his direction off just a little and that the dry creek bed was just off to one side of his path. He tells himself that he’s close, and that after dark he’ll start seeing the town lights over one of these hills, and that’ll be all he needs.

As it gets dim enough that he starts stumbling over small rocks and things, he finds a spot and sits down to wait for full dark and the town lights.

Full dark comes before he knows it. He must have dozed off. He stands back up and turns all the way around. He sees nothing but stars.

He wakes up the next morning feeling absolutely lousy. His eyes are gummy and his mouth and nose feel like they’re full of sand. He so thirsty that he can’t even swallow. He barely got any sleep because it was so cold. He’d forgotten how cold it got at night in the desert and hadn’t noticed it the night before because he’d been in his car.

He knows the Rule of Threes - three minutes without air, three days without water, three weeks without food - then you die. Some people can make it a little longer, in the best situations. But the desert heat and having to walk and sweat isn’t the best situation to be without water. He figures, unless he finds water, this is his last day.

He rinses his mouth out with a little of the windshield wiper fluid. He waits a while after spitting that little bit out, to see if his mouth goes numb, or he feels dizzy or something. Has his mouth gone numb? Is it just in his mind? He’s not sure. He’ll go a little farther, and if he still doesn’t find water, he’ll try drinking some of the fluid.

Then he has to face his next, harder question - which way does he go from here? Does he keep walking the same way he was yesterday (assuming that he still knows which way that is), or does he try a new direction? He has no idea what to do.

Looking at the hills and dunes around him, he thinks he knows the direction he was heading before. Just going by a feeling, he points himself somewhat to the left of that, and starts walking.

As he walks, the day starts heating up. The desert, too cold just a couple of hours before, soon becomes an oven again. He sweats a little at first, and then stops. He starts getting worried at that - when you stop sweating he knows that means you’re in trouble - usually right before heat stroke.

He decides that it’s time to try the windshield wiper fluid. He can’t wait any longer - if he passes out, he’s dead. He stops in the shade of a large rock, takes the bottle out, opens it, and takes a mouthful. He slowly swallows it, making it last as long as he can. It feels so good in his dry and cracked throat that he doesn’t even care about the nasty taste. He takes another mouthful, and makes it last too. Slowly, he drinks half the bottle. He figures that since he’s drinking it, he might as well drink enough to make some difference and keep himself from passing out.

He’s quit worrying about the denaturing of the wiper fluid. If it kills him, it kills him - if he didn’t drink it, he’d die anyway. Besides, he’s pretty sure that whatever substance they denature the fluid with is just designed to make you sick - their way of keeping winos from buying cheap wiper fluid for the ethanol content. He can handle throwing up, if it comes to that.

He walks. He walks in the hot, dry, windless desert. Sand, rocks, hills, dunes, the occasional scrawny cactus or dried bush. No sign of water. Sometimes he’ll see a little movement to one side or the other, but whatever moved is usually gone before he can focus his eyes on it. Probably birds, lizards, or mice. Maybe snakes, though they usually move more at night. He’s careful to stay away from the movements.

After a while, he begins to stagger. He’s not sure if it’s fatigue, heat stroke finally catching him, or maybe he was wrong and the denaturing of the wiper fluid was worse than he thought. He tries to steady himself, and keep going.

After more walking, he comes to a large stretch of sand. This is good! He knows he passed over a stretch of sand in the SUV - he remembers doing donuts in it. Or at least he thinks he remembers it - he’s getting woozy enough and tired enough that he’s not sure what he remembers any more or if he’s hallucinating. But he thinks he remembers it. So he heads off into it, trying to get to the other side, hoping that it gets him closer to the town.

He was heading for a town, wasn’t he? He thinks he was. He isn’t sure any more. He’s not even sure how long he’s been walking any more. Is it still morning? Or has it moved into afternoon and the sun is going down again? It must be afternoon - it seems like it’s been too long since he started out.

He walks through the sand.

After a while, he comes to a big dune in the sand. This is bad. He doesn’t remember any dunes when driving over the sand in his SUV. Or at least he doesn’t think he remembers any. This is bad.

But, he has no other direction to go. Too late to turn back now. He figures that he’ll get to the top of the dune and see if he can see anything from there that helps him find the town. He keeps going up the dune.

Halfway up, he slips in the bad footing of the sand for the second or third time, and falls to his knees. He doesn’t feel like getting back up - he’ll just fall down again. So, he keeps going up the dune on his hand and knees.

While crawling, if his throat weren’t so dry, he’d laugh. He’s finally gotten to the hackneyed image of a man lost in the desert - crawling through the sand on his hands and knees. If would be the perfect image, he imagines, if only his clothes were more ragged. The people crawling through the desert in the cartoons always had ragged clothes. But his have lasted without any rips so far. Somebody will probably find his dessicated corpse half buried in the sand years from now, and his clothes will still be in fine shape - shake the sand out, and a good wash, and they’d be wearable again. He wishes his throat were wet enough to laugh. He coughs a little instead, and it hurts.

He finally makes it to the top of the sand dune. Now that he’s at the top, he struggles a little, but manages to stand up and look around. All he sees is sand. Sand, and more sand. Behind him, about a mile away, he thinks he sees the rocky ground he left to head into this sand. Ahead of him, more dunes, more sand. This isn’t where he drove his SUV. This is Hell. Or close enough.

Again, he doesn’t know what to do. He decides to drink the rest of the wiper fluid while figuring it out. He takes out the bottle, and is removing the cap, when he glances to the side and sees something. Something in the sand. At the bottom of the dune, off to the side, he sees something strange. It’s a flat area, in the sand. He stops taking the cap of the bottle off, and tries to look closer. The area seems to be circular. And it’s dark - darker than the sand. And, there seems to be something in the middle of it, but he can’t tell what it is. He looks as hard as he can, and still can tell from here. He’s going to have to go down there and look.

He puts the bottle back in his pocket, and starts to stumble down the dune. After a few steps, he realizes that he’s in trouble - he’s not going to be able to keep his balance. After a couple of more sliding, tottering steps, he falls and starts to roll down the dune. The sand it so hot when his body hits it that for a minute he thinks he’s caught fire on the way down - like a movie car wreck flashing into flames as it goes over the cliff, before it ever even hits the ground. He closes his eyes and mouth, covers his face with his hands, and waits to stop rolling.

He stops, at the bottom of the dune. After a minute or two, he finds enough energy to try to sit up and get the sand out of his face and clothes. When he clears his eyes enough, he looks around to make sure that the dark spot in the sand it still there and he hadn’t just imagined it.

So, seeing the large, flat, dark spot on the sand is still there, he begins to crawl towards it. He’d get up and walk towards it, but he doesn’t seem to have the energy to get up and walk right now. He must be in the final stages of dehydration he figures, as he crawls. If this place in the sand doesn’t have water, he’ll likely never make it anywhere else. This is his last chance.

He gets closer and closer, but still can’t see what’s in the middle of the dark area. His eyes won’t quite focus any more for some reason. And lifting his head up to look takes so much effort that he gives up trying. He just keeps crawling.

Finally, he reaches the area he’d seen from the dune. It takes him a minute of crawling on it before he realizes that he’s no longer on sand - he’s now crawling on some kind of dark stone. Stone with some kind of marking on it - a pattern cut into the stone. He’s too tired to stand up and try to see what the pattern is - so he just keeps crawling. He crawls towards the center, where his blurry eyes still see something in the middle of the dark stone area.

His mind, detached in a strange way, notes that either his hands and knees are so burnt by the sand that they no longer feel pain, or that this dark stone, in the middle of a burning desert with a pounding, punishing sun overhead, doesn’t seem to be hot. It almost feels cool. He considers lying down on the nice cool surface.

Cool, dark stone. Not a good sign. He must be hallucinating this. He’s probably in the middle of a patch of sand, already lying face down and dying, and just imagining this whole thing. A desert mirage. Soon the beautiful women carrying pitchers of water will come up and start giving him a drink. Then he’ll know he’s gone.

He decides against laying down on the cool stone. If he’s going to die here in the middle of this hallucination, he at least wants to see what’s in the center before he goes. He keeps crawling.

It’s the third time that he hears the voice before he realizes what he’s hearing. He would swear that someone just said, “Greetings, traveler. You do not look well. Do you hear me?”

He stops crawling. He tries to look up from where he is on his hands and knees, but it’s too much effort to lift his head. So he tries something different - he leans back and tries to sit up on the stone. After a few seconds, he catches his balance, avoids falling on his face, sits up, and tries to focus his eyes. Blurry. He rubs his eyes with the back of his hands and tries again. Better this time.

Yep. He can see. He’s sitting in the middle of a large, flat, dark expanse of stone. Directly next to him, about three feet away, is a white post or pole about two inches in diameter and sticking up about four or five feet out of the stone, at an angle.

And wrapped around this white rod, tail with rattle on it hovering and seeming to be ready to start rattling, is what must be a fifteen foot long desert diamondback rattlesnake, looking directly at him.

He stares at the snake in shock. He doesn’t have the energy to get up and run away. He doesn’t even have the energy to crawl away. This is it, his final resting place. No matter what happens, he’s not going to be able to move from this spot.

Well, at least dying of a bite from this monster should be quicker than dying of thirst. He’ll face his end like a man. He struggles to sit up a little straighter. The snake keeps watching him. He lifts one hand and waves it in the snake’s direction, feebly. The snake watches the hand for a moment, then goes back to watching the man, looking into his eyes.

Hmmm. Maybe the snake had no interest in biting him? It hadn’t rattled yet - that was a good sign. Maybe he wasn’t going to die of snake bite after all.

He then remembers that he’d looked up when he’d reached the center here because he thought he’d heard a voice. He was still very woozy - he was likely to pass out soon, the sun still beat down on him even though he was now on cool stone. He still didn’t have anything to drink. But maybe he had actually heard a voice. This stone didn’t look natural. Nor did that white post sticking up out of the stone. Someone had to have built this. Maybe they were still nearby. Maybe that was who talked to him. Maybe this snake was even their pet, and that’s why it wasn’t biting.

He tries to clear his throat to say, “Hello,” but his throat is too dry. All that comes out is a coughing or wheezing sound. There is no way he’s going to be able to talk without something to drink. He feels his pocket, and the bottle with the wiper fluid is still there. He shakily pulls the bottle out, almost losing his balance and falling on his back in the process. This isn’t good. He doesn’t have much time left, by his reckoning, before he passes out.

He gets the lid off of the bottle, manages to get the bottle to his lips, and pours some of the fluid into his mouth. He sloshes it around, and then swallows it. He coughs a little. His throat feels better. Maybe he can talk now.

He tries again. Ignoring the snake, he turns to look around him, hoping to spot the owner of this place, and croaks out, “Hello? Is there anyone here?”

He hears, from his side, “Greetings. What is it that you want?”

He turns his head, back towards the snake. That’s where the sound had seemed to come from. The only thing he can think of is that there must be a speaker, hidden under the snake, or maybe built into that post. He decides to try asking for help.

“Please,” he croaks again, suddenly feeling dizzy, “I’d love to not be thirsty any more. I’ve been a long time without water. Can you help me?”

Looking in the direction of the snake, hoping to see where the voice was coming from this time, he is shocked to see the snake rear back, open its mouth, and speak. He hears it say, as the dizziness overtakes him and he falls forward, face first on the stone, “Very well. Coming up.”

A piercing pain shoots through his shoulder. Suddenly he is awake. He sits up and grabs his shoulder, wincing at the throbbing pain. He’s momentarily disoriented as he looks around, and then he remembers - the crawl across the sand, the dark area of stone, the snake. He sees the snake, still wrapped around the tilted white post, still looking at him.

He reaches up and feels his shoulder, where it hurts. It feels slightly wet. He pulls his fingers away and looks at them - blood. He feels his shoulder again - his shirt has what feels like two holes in it - two puncture holes - they match up with the two aching spots of pain on his shoulder. He had been bitten. By the snake.

“It’ll feel better in a minute.” He looks up - it’s the snake talking. He hadn’t dreamed it. Suddenly he notices - he’s not dizzy any more. And more importantly, he’s not thirsty any more - at all!

“Have I died? Is this the afterlife? Why are you biting me in the afterlife?”

“Sorry about that, but I had to bite you,” says the snake. “That’s the way I work. It all comes through the bite. Think of it as natural medicine.”

“You bit me to help me? Why aren’t I thirsty any more? Did you give me a drink before you bit me? How did I drink enough while unconscious to no be thirsty any more? I haven’t had a drink for over two days. Well, except for the windshield wiper fluid… hold it, how in the world does a snake talk? Are you real? Are you some sort of Disney animation?”

“No,” says the snake, “I’m real. As real as you or anyone is, anyway. I didn’t give you a drink. I bit you. That’s how it works - it’s what I do. I bite. I don’t have hands to give you a drink, even if I had water just sitting around here.”

The man sat stunned for a minute. Here he was, sitting in the middle of the desert on some strange stone that should be hot but wasn’t, talking to a snake that could talk back and had just bitten him. And he felt better. Not great - he was still starving and exhausted, but much better - he was no longer thirsty. He had started to sweat again, but only slightly. He felt hot, in this sun, but it was starting to get lower in the sky, and the cool stone beneath him was a relief he could notice now that he was no longer dying of thirst.

“I might suggest that we take care of that methanol you now have in your system with the next request,” continued the snake. “I can guess why you drank it, but I’m not sure how much you drank, or how much methanol was left in the wiper fluid. That stuff is nasty. It’ll make you go blind in a day or two, if you drank enough of it.”

“Ummm, n-next request?” said the man. He put his hand back on his hurting shoulder and backed away from the snake a little.

“That’s the way it works. If you like, that is,” explained the snake. “You get three requests. Call them wishes, if you wish.” The snake grinned at his own joke, and the man drew back a little further from the show of fangs.

“But there are rules,” the snake continued. “The first request is free. The second requires an agreement of secrecy. The third requires the binding of responsibility.” The snake looks at the man seriously.

“By the way,” the snake says suddenly, “my name is Nathan. Old Nathan, Samuel used to call me. He gave me the name. Before that, most of the Bound used to just call me ‘Snake’. But that got old, and Samuel wouldn’t stand for it. He said that anything that could talk needed a name. He was big into names. You can call me Nate, if you wish.” Again, the snake grinned. “Sorry if I don’t offer to shake, but I think you can understand - my shake sounds somewhat threatening.” The snake give his rattle a little shake.

“Umm, my name is Jack,” said the man, trying to absorb all of this. “Jack Samson.

“Can I ask you a question?” Jack says suddenly. “What happened to the poison…umm, in your bite. Why aren’t I dying now? How did you do that? What do you mean by that’s how you work?”

“That’s more than one question,” grins Nate. “But I’ll still try to answer all of them. First, yes, you can ask me a question.” The snake’s grin gets wider. “Second, the poison is in you. It changed you. You now no longer need to drink. That’s what you asked for. Or, well, technically, you asked to not be thirsty any more - but ‘any more’ is such a vague term. I decided to make it permanent - now, as long as you live, you shouldn’t need t drink much at all. Your body will conserve water very efficiently. You should be able to get enough just from the food you eat - much like a creature of the desert. You’ve been changed.

“For the third question,” Nate continues, “you are still dying. Besides the effects of that methanol in your system, you’re a man - and men are mortal. In your current state, I give you no more than about another 50 years. Assuming you get out of this desert, alive, that is.” Nate seemed vastly amused at his own humor, and continued his wide grin.

“As for the fourth question,” Nate said, looking more serious as far as Jack could tell, as Jack was just now working on his ability to read talking-snake emotions from snake facial features, “first you have to agree to make a second request and become bound by the secrecy, or I can’ tell you.”

“Wait,” joked Jack, “isn’t this where you say you could tell me, but you’d have to kill me?”

“I thought that was implied.” Nate continued to look serious.

“Ummm…yeah.” Jack leaned back a little as he remembered again that he was talking to a fifteen foot poisonous reptile with a reputation for having a nasty temper. “So, what is this ‘Bound by Secrecy’ stuff, and can you really stop the effects of the methanol?” Jack thought for a second. “And, what do you mean methanol, anyway? I thought these days they use ethanol in wiper fluid, and just denature it?”

“They may, I don’t really know,” said Nate. “I haven’t gotten out in a while. Maybe they do. All I know is that I smell methanol on your breath and on that bottle in your pocket. And the blue color of the liquid when you pulled it out to drink some let me guess that it was wiper fluid. I assume that they still color wiper fluid blue?”

“Yeah, they do,” said Jack.

“I figured,” replied Nate. “As for being bound by secrecy - with the fulfillment of your next request, you will be bound to say nothing about me, this place, or any of the information I will tell you after that, when you decide to go back out to your kind. You won’t be allowed to talk about me, write about me, use sign language, charades, or even act in a way that will lead someone to guess correctly about me. You’ll be bound to secrecy. Of course, I’ll also ask you to promise not to give me away, and as I’m guessing that you’re a man of your word, you’ll never test the binding anyway, so you won’t notice.” Nate said the last part with utter confidence.

Jack, who had always prided himself on being a man of his word, felt a little nervous at this. “Ummm, hey, Nate, who are you? How did you know that? Are you, umm, omniscient, or something?”

Well, Jack,” said Nate sadly, “I can’t tell you that, unless you make the second request.” Nate looked away for a minute, then looked back.

“Umm, well, ok,” said Jack, “what is this about a second request? What can I ask for? Are you allowed to tell me that?”

“Sure!” said Nate, brightening. “You’re allowed to ask for changes. Changes to yourself. They’re like wishes, but they can only affect you. Oh, and before you ask, I can’t give you immortality. Or omniscience. Or omnipresence, for that matter. Though I might be able to make you gaseous and yet remain alive, and then you could spread through the atmosphere and sort of be omnipresent. But what good would that be - you still wouldn’t be omniscient and thus still could only focus on one thing at a time. Not very useful, at least in my opinion.” Nate stopped when he realized that Jack was staring at him.

“Well, anyway,” continued Nate, “I’d probably suggest giving you permanent good health. It would negate the methanol now in your system, you’d be immune to most poisons and diseases, and you’d tend to live a very long time, barring accident, of course. And you’ll even have a tendency to recover from accidents well. It always seemed like a good choice for a request to me.”

“Cure the methanol poisoning, huh?” said Jack. “And keep me healthy for a long time? Hmmm. It doesn’t sound bad at that. And it has to be a request about a change to me? I can’t ask to be rich, right? Because that’s not really a change to me?”

“Right,” nodded Nate.

“Could I ask to be a genius and permanently healthy?” Jack asked, hopefully.

“That takes two requests, Jack.”

“Yeah, I figured so,” said Jack. “But I could ask to be a genius? I could become the smartest scientist in the world? Or the best athlete?”

“Well, I could make you very smart,” admitted Nate, “but that wouldn’t necessarily make you the best scientist in the world. Or, I could make you very athletic, but it wouldn’t necessarily make you the best athlete either. You’ve heard the saying that 99% of genius is hard work? Well, there’s some truth to that. I can give you the talent, but I can’t make you work hard. It all depends on what you decide to do with it.”

“Hmmm,” said Jack. “Ok, I think I understand. And I get a third request, after this one?”

“Maybe,” said Nate, “it depends on what you decide then. There are more rules for the third request that I can only tell you about after the second request. You know how it goes.” Nate looked like he’d shrug, if he had shoulders.

“Ok, well, since I’d rather not be blind in a day or two, and permanent health doesn’t sound bad, then consider that my second request. Officially. Do I need to sign in blood or something?”

“No,” said Nate. “Just hold out your hand. Or heel.” Nate grinned. “Or whatever part you want me to bite. I have to bite you again. Like I said, that’s how it works - the poison, you know,” Nate said apologetically.

Jack winced a little and felt his shoulder, where the last bite was. Hey, it didn’t hurt any more. Just like Nate had said. That made Jack feel better about the biting business. But still, standing still while a fifteen foot snake sunk it’s fangs into you. Jack stood up. Ignoring how good it felt to be able to stand again, and the hunger starting to gnaw at his stomach, Jack tried to decide where he wanted to get bitten. Despite knowing that it wouldn’t hurt for long, Jack knew that this wasn’t going to be easy.

“Hey, Jack,” Nate suddenly said, looking past Jack towards the dunes behind him, “is that someone else coming up over there?”

Jack spun around and looked. Who else could be out here in the middle of nowhere? And did they bring food?

Wait a minute, there was nobody over there. What was Nate…

Jack let out a bellow as he felt two fangs sink into his rear end, through his jeans…

Jack sat down carefully, favoring his more tender buttock. “I would have decided, eventually, Nate. I was just thinking about it. You didn’t have to hoodwink me like that.”

“I’ve been doing this a long time, Jack,” said Nate, confidently. “You humans have a hard time sitting still and letting a snake bite you - especially one my size. And besides, admit it - it’s only been a couple of minutes and it already doesn’t hurt any more, does it? That’s because of the health benefit with this one. I told you that you’d heal quickly now.”

“Yeah, well, still,” said Jack, “it’s the principle of the thing. And nobody likes being bitten in the butt! Couldn’t you have gotten my calf or something instead?”

“More meat in the typical human butt,” replied Nate. “And less chance you accidentally kick me or move at the last second.”

“Yeah, right. So, tell me all of these wonderful secrets that I now qualify to hear,” answered Jack.

“Ok,” said Nate. “Do you want to ask questions first, or do you want me to just start talking?”

“Just talk,” said Jack. “I’ll sit here and try to not think about food.”

“We could go try to rustle up some food for you first, if you like,” answered Nate.

“Hey! You didn’t tell me you had food around here, Nate!” Jack jumped up. “What do we have? Am I in walking distance to town? Or can you magically whip up food along with your other powers?” Jack was almost shouting with excitement. His stomach had been growling for hours.

“I was thinking more like I could flush something out of its hole and bite it for you, and you could skin it and eat it. Assuming you have a knife, that is,” replied Nate, with the grin that Jack was starting to get used to.

“Ugh,” said Jack, sitting back down. “I think I’ll pass. I can last a little longer before I get desperate enough to eat desert rat, or whatever else it is you find out here. And there’s nothing to burn - I’d have to eat it raw. No thanks. Just talk.”

“Ok,” replied Nate, still grinning. “But I’d better hurry, before you start looking at me as food.

Nate reared back a little, looked around for a second, and then continued. “You, Jack, are sitting in the middle of the Garden of Eden.”

Jack looked around at the sand and dunes and then looked back at Nate skeptically.

“Well, that’s the best I can figure it, anyway, Jack,” said Nate. “Stand up and look at the symbol on the rock here.” Nate gestured around the dark
stone they were both sitting on with his nose.

Jack stood up and looked. Carved into the stone in a bas-relief was a representation of a large tree. The angled-pole that Nate was wrapped around was coming out of the trunk of the tree, right below where the main branches left the truck to reach out across the stone. It was very well done - it looked more like a tree had been reduced to almost two dimensions and embedded in the stone than it did like a carving.

Jack walked around and looked at the details in the fading light of the setting sun. He wished he’d looked at it while the sun was higher in the sky. Wait! The sun was setting! That meant he was going to have to spend another night out here! Arrrgh!

Jack looked out across the desert for a little bit, and then came back and stood next to Nate. “In all the excitement, I almost forgot, Nate,” said Jack. “Which way is it back to town? And how far? I’m eventually going to have to head back - I’m not sure I’ll be able to survive by eating raw desert critters for long. And even if I can, I’m not sure I’ll want to.”

“It’s about 30 miles that way.” Nate pointed, with the rattle on his tail this time. As far as Jack could tell, it was a direction at right angles to
the way he’d been going when he was crawling here. “But that’s 30 miles by the way the crow flies. It’s about 40 by the way a man walks. You should be able to do it in about half a day with your improved endurance, if you head out early tomorrow, Jack.”

Jack looked out the way the snake had pointed for a few seconds more, and then sat back down. It was getting dark. Not much he could do about heading out right now. And besides, Nate was just about to get to the interesting stuff. “Garden of Eden? As best as you can figure it?”

“Well, yeah, as best as I and Samuel could figure it anyway,” said Nate. “He figured that the story just got a little mixed up. You know, snake, in a ‘tree’, offering ‘temptations’, making bargains. That kind stuff. But he could never quite figure out how the Hebrews found out about this spot from across the ocean. He worried about that for a while.”

“Garden of Eden, hunh?” said Jack. “How long have you been here, Nate?”

“No idea, really,” replied Nate. “A long time. It never occurred to me to count years, until recently, and by then, of course, it was too late. But I do remember when this whole place was green, so I figure it’s been thousands of years, at least.”

“So, are you the snake that tempted Eve?” said Jack.

“Beats me,” said Nate. “Maybe. I can’t remember if the first one of your kind that I talked to was female or not, and I never got a name, but it could have been. And I suppose she could have considered my offer to grant requests a ‘temptation’, though I’ve rarely had refusals.”

“Well, umm, how did you get here then? And why is that white pole stuck out of the stone there?” asked Jack.

“Dad left me here. Or, I assume it was my dad. It was another snake - much bigger than I was back then. I remember talking to him, but I don’t remember if it was in a language, or just kind of understanding what he wanted. But one day, he brought me to this stone, told me about it, and asked me to do something for him. I talked it over with him for a while, then agreed. I’ve been here ever since.

“What is this place?” said Jack. “And what did he ask you to do?”

“Well, you see this pole here, sticking out of the stone?” Nate loosened his coils around the tilted white pole and showed Jack where it descended into the stone. The pole was tilted at about a 45 degree angle and seemed to enter the stone in an eighteen inch slot cut into the stone. Jack leaned over and looked. The slot was dark and the pole went down into it as far as Jack could see in the dim light. Jack reached out to touch the pole, but Nate was suddenly there in the way.

“You can’t touch that yet, Jack,” said Nate.

“Why not?” asked Jack.

“I haven’t explained it to you yet,” replied Nate.

“Well, it kinda looks like a lever or something,” said Jack. “You’d push it that way, and it would move in the slot.”

“Yep, that’s what it is,” replied Nate.

“What does it do?” asked Jack. “End the world?”

“Oh, no,” said Nate. “Nothing that drastic. It just ends humanity. I call it ‘The Lever of Doom’.” For the last few words Nate had used a deeper, ringing voice. He tried to look serious for a few seconds, and then gave up and grinned.

Jack was initially startled by Nate’s pronouncement, but when Nate grinned Jack laughed. “Ha! You almost had me fooled for a second there. Wha does it really do?”

“Oh, it really ends humanity, like I said,” smirked Nate. “I just thought the voice I used was funny, didn’t you?”

Nate continued to grin.

“A lever to end humanity?” asked Jack. “What in the world is that for? Why would anyone need to end humanity?”

“Well,” replied Nate, “I get the idea that maybe humanity was an experiment. Or maybe the Big Guy just thought, that if humanity started going really bad, there should be a way to end it. I’m not really sure. All I know are the rules, and the guesses that Samuel and I had about why it’s here. I didn’t think to ask back when I started here.”

“Rules? What rules?” asked Jack.

“The rules are that I can’t tell anybody about it or let them touch it unless they agree to be bound to secrecy by a bite. And that only one human can be bound in that way at a time. That’s it.” explained Nate.

Jack looked somewhat shocked. “You mean that I could pull the lever now? You’d let me end humanity?”

“Yep,” replied Nate, “if you want to.” Nate looked at Jack carefully. “Do you want to, Jack?”

“Umm, no.” said Jack, stepping a little further back from the lever. “Why in the world would anyone want to end humanity? It’d take a psychotic t want that! Or worse, a suicidal psychotic, because it would kill him too, wouldn’t it?”

“Yep,” replied Nate, “being as he’d be human too.”

“Has anyone ever seriously considered it?” asked Nate. “Any of those bound to secrecy, that is?”

“Well, of course, I think they’ve all seriously considered it at one time or another. Being given that kind of responsibility makes you sit down and
think, or so I’m told. Samuel considered it several times. He’d often get disgusted with humanity, come out here, and just hold the lever for a while. But he never pulled it. Or you wouldn’t be here.” Nate grinned some more.

Jack sat down, well back from the lever. He looked thoughtful and puzzled at the same time. After a bit, he said, “So this makes me the Judge of humanity? I get to decide whether they keep going or just end? Me?”

“That seems to be it,” agreed Nate.

“What kind of criteria do I use to decide?” said Jack. “How do I make this decision? Am I supposed to decide if they’re good? Or too many of them are bad? Or that they’re going the wrong way? Is there a set of rules for that?”

“Nope,” replied Nate. “You pretty much just have to decide on your own. It’s up to you, however you want to decide it. I guess that you’re just supposed to know.”

“But what if I get mad at someone? Or some girl dumps me and I feel horrible? Couldn’t I make a mistake? How do I know that I won’t screw up?” protested Jack.

Nate gave his kind of snake-like shrug again. “You don’t. You just have to try your best, Jack.”

Jack sat there for a while, staring off into the desert that was rapidly getting dark, chewing on a fingernail.

Suddenly, Jack turned around and looked at the snake. “Nate, was Samuel the one bound to this before me?”

“Yep,” replied Nate. “He was a good guy. Talked to me a lot. Taught me to read and brought me books. I think I still have a good pile of them buried in the sand around here somewhere. I still miss him. He died a few months ago.”

“Sounds like a good guy,” agreed Jack. “How did he handle this, when you first told him. What did he do?”

“Well,” said Nate, “he sat down for a while, thought about it for a bit, and then asked me some questions, much like you’re doing.”

“What did he ask you, if you’re allowed to tell me?” asked Jack.

“He asked me about the third request,” replied Nate.

“Aha!” It was Jack’s turn to grin. “And what did you tell him?”

“I told him the rules for the third request. That to get the third request you have to agree to this whole thing. That if it ever comes to the point that you really think that humanity should be ended, that you’ll come here and end it. You won’t avoid it, and you won’t wimp out.” Nate looked serious again. “And you’ll be bound to do it too, Jack.”

“Hmmm.” Jack looked back out into the darkness for a while.

Nate watched him, waiting.

“Nate,” continued Jack, quietly, eventually. “What did Samuel ask for with his third request?”

Nate sounded like he was grinning again as he replied, also quietly,
“Wisdom, Jack. He asked for wisdom. As much as I could give him.”

“Ok,” said Jack, suddenly, standing up and facing away from Nate, “give it to me.

Nate looked at Jack’s backside. “Give you what, Jack?”

“Give me that wisdom. The same stuff that Samuel asked for. If it helped him, maybe it’ll help me too.” Jack turned his head to look back over his shoulder at Nate. “It did help him, right?”

“He said it did,” replied Nate. “But he seemed a little quieter afterward. Like he had a lot to think about.”

“Well, yeah, I can see that,” said Jack. “So, give it to me.” Jack turned to face away from Nate again, bent over slightly and tensed up.

Nate watched Jack tense up with a little exasperation. If he bit Jack now, Jack would likely jump out of his skin and maybe hurt them both.

“You remember that you’ll be bound to destroy humanity if it ever looks like it needs it, right Jack?” asked Nate, shifting position.

“Yeah, yeah, I got that,” replied Jack, eyes squeezed tightly shut and body tense, not noticing the change in direction of Nate’s voice.

“And,” continued Nate, from his new position, “do you remember that you’ll turn bright purple, and grow big horns and extra eyes?”

“Yeah, yeah…Hey, wait a minute!” said Jack, opening his eyes, straightening up and turning around. “Purple?!” He didn’t see Nate there. With the moonlight Jack could see that the lever extended up from its slot in the rock without the snake wrapped around it.

Jack heard, from behind him, Nate’s “Just Kidding!” right before he felt the now familiar piercing pain, this time in the other buttock.

Jack sat on the edge of the dark stone in the rapidly cooling air, his feet extending out into the sand. He stared out into the darkness, listening to the wind stir the sand, occasionally rubbing his butt where he’d been recently bitten.

Nate had left for a little while, had come back with a desert-rodent-shaped bulge somewhere in his middle, and was now wrapped back around th lever, his tongue flicking out into the desert night’s air the only sign that he was still awake.

Occasionally Jack, with his toes absentmindedly digging in the sand while he thought, would ask Nate a question without turning around.

“Nate, do accidents count?”

Nate lifted his head a little bit. “What do you mean, Jack?”

Jack tilted his head back like he was looking at the stars. “You know, accidents. If I accidentally fall on the lever, without meaning to, does that still wipe out humanity?”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure it does, Jack. I’d suggest you be careful about that if you start feeling wobbly,” said Nate with some amusement.

A little later - “Does it have to be me that pulls the lever?” asked Jack.

“That’s the rule, Jack. Nobody else can pull it,” answered Nate.

“No,” Jack shook his head, “I meant does it have to be my hand? Could I pull the lever with a rope tied around it? Or push it with a stick? Or throw a rock?”

“Yes, those should work,” replied Nate. “Though I’m not sure how complicated you could get. Samuel thought about trying to build some kind of remote control for it once, but gave it up. Everything he’d build would be gone by the next sunrise, if it was touching the stone, or over it. I told him that in the past others that had been bound had tried to bury the lever so they wouldn’t be tempted to pull it, but every time the stones or sand or whatever had disappeared.”

“Wow,” said Jack, “Cool.” Jack leaned back until only his elbows kept him off of the stone and looked up into the sky.

“Nate, how long did Samuel live? One of his wishes was for health too, right?” asked Jack.

“Yes,” replied Nate, “it was. He lived 167 years, Jack.”

“Wow, 167 years. That’s almost 140 more years I’ll live if I live as long. Do you know what he died of, Nate?”

“He died of getting tired of living, Jack,” Nate said, sounding somewhat sad.

Jack turned his head to look at Nate in the starlight.

Nate looked back. “Samuel knew he wasn’t going to be able to stay in society. He figured that they’d eventually see him still alive and start questioning it, so he decided that he’d have to disappear after a while. He faked his death once, but changed his mind - he decided it was too early and he could stay for a little longer. He wasn’t very fond of mankind, but he liked the attention. Most of the time, anyway.

“His daughter and then his wife dying almost did him in though. He didn’t stay in society much longer after that. He eventually came out here to spend time talking to me and thinking about pulling the lever. A few months ago he told me he’d had enough. It was his time.”

“And then he just died?” asked Jack.

Nate shook his head a little. “He made his forth request, Jack. There’s only one thing you can ask for the fourth request. The last bite.

After a bit Nate continued, “He told me that he was tired, that it was his time. He reassured me that someone new would show up soon, like they always had.

After another pause, Nate finished, “Samuel’s body disappeared off the stone with the sunrise.”

Jack lay back down and looked at the sky, leaving Nate alone with his memories. It was a long time until Jack’s breathing evened out into sleep.

Jack woke with the sunrise the next morning. He was a little chilled with the morning desert air, but overall was feeling pretty good. Well, except that his stomach was grumbling and he wasn’t willing to eat raw desert rat.

So, after getting directions to town from Nate, making sure he knew how to get back, and reassuring Nate that he’d be back soon, Jack started the long walk back to town. With his new health and Nate’s good directions, he made it back easily.

Jack caught a bus back to the city, and showed up for work the next day, little worse for the wear and with a story about getting lost in the desert and walking back out. Within a couple of days Jack had talked a friend with a tow truck into going back out into the desert with him to fetch the SUV. They found it after a couple of hours of searching and towed it back without incident. Jack was careful not to even look in the direction of Nate’s lever, though their path back didn’t come within sight of it.

Before the next weekend, Jack had gone to a couple of stores, including a book store, and had gotten his SUV back from the mechanic, with a warning to avoid any more joyriding in the desert. On Saturday, Jack headed back to see Nate.

Jack parked a little way out of the small town near Nate, loaded up his new backpack with camping gear and the things he was bringing for Nate, and then started walking. He figured that walking would leave the least trail, and he knew that while not many people camped in the desert, it wasn’t unheard of, and shouldn’t really raise suspicions.

Jack had brought more books for Nate - recent books, magazines, newspapers. Some things that would catch Nate up with what was happening i the world, others that were just good books to read. He spent the weekend with Nate, and then headed out again, telling Nate that he’d be back again soon, but that he had things to do first.

Over four months later Jack was back to see Nate again. This time he brought a laptop with him - a specially modified laptop. It had a solar recharger, special filters and seals to keep out the sand, a satellite link-up, and a special keyboard and joystick that Jack hoped that a fifteen-foot rattlesnake would be able to use. And, it had been hacked to not give out its location to the satellite.

After that Jack could e-mail Nate to keep in touch, but still visited him fairly regularly - at least once or twice a year.

After the first year, Jack quit his job. For some reason, with the wisdom he’d been given, and the knowledge that he could live for over 150 years, working in a nine to five job for someone else didn’t seem that worthwhile any more. Jack went back to school.

Eventually, Jack started writing. Perhaps because of the wisdom, or perhaps because of his new perspective, he wrote well. People liked what he wrote, and he became well known for it. After a time, Jack bought an RV and started traveling around the country for book signings and readings.

But, he still remembered to drop by and visit Nate occasionally.

On one of the visits Nate seemed quieter than usual. Not that Nate had been a fountain of joy lately. Jack’s best guess was that Nate was still missing Samuel, and though Jack had tried, he still hadn’t been able to replace Samuel in Nate’s eyes. Nate had been getting quieter each visit. But on this visit Nate didn’t even speak when Jack walked up to the lever. He nodded at Jack, and then went back to staring into the desert. Jack, respecting Nate’s silence, sat down and waited.

After a few minutes, Nate spoke. “Jack, I have someone to introduce you to.”

Jack looked surprised. “Someone to introduce me to?” Jack looked around, and then looked carefully back at Nate. “This something to do with the Big Guy?

“No, no,” replied Nate. “This is more personal. I want you to meet my son.” Nate looked over at the nearest sand dune. “Sammy!”

Jack watched as a four foot long desert rattlesnake crawled from behind the dune and up to the stone base of the lever.

“Yo, Jack,” said the new, much smaller snake.

“Yo, Sammy” replied Jack. Jack looked at Nate. “Named after Samuel, I assume?”

Nate nodded. “Jack, I’ve got a favor to ask you. Could you show Sammy around for me?” Nate unwrapped himself from the lever and slithered over to the edge of the stone and looked across the sands. “When Samuel first told me about the world, and brought me books and pictures, I wished that I could go see it. I wanted to see the great forests, the canyons, the cities, even the other deserts, to see if they felt and smelled the same. I want my son to have that chance - to see the world. Before he becomes bound here like I have been.

“He’s seen it in pictures, over the computer that you brought me. But I hear that it’s not the same. That being there is different. I want him to have that. Think you can do that for me, Jack?”

Jack nodded. This was obviously very important to Nate, so Jack didn’t even joke about taking a talking rattlesnake out to see the world. “Yeah, I can do that for you, Nate. Is that all you need?” Jack could sense that was something more.

Nate looked at Sammy. Sammy looked back at Nate for a second and then said, “Oh, yeah. Ummm, I’ve gotta go pack. Back in a little bit Jack. Nice to meet ya!” Sammy slithered back over the dune and out of sight.

Nate watched Sammy disappear and then looked back at Jack. “Jack, this is my first son. My first offspring through all the years. You don’t even want to know what it took for me to find a mate.” Nate grinned to himself. “But anyway, I had a son for a reason. I’m tired. I’m ready for it to be over. I needed a replacement.”

Jack considered this for a minute. “So, you’re ready to come see the world, and you wanted him to watch the lever while you were gone?”

Nate shook his head. “No, Jack - you’re a better guesser than that. You’ve already figured out - I’m bound here - there’s only one way for me to leave here. And I’m ready. It’s my time to die.”

Jack looked more closely at Nate. He could tell Nate had thought about this - probably for quite a while. Jack had trouble imagining what it would be like to be as old as Nate, but Jack could already tell that in another hundred or two hundred years, he might be getting tired of life himself. Jack could understand Samuel’s decision, and now Nate’s. So, all Jack said was, “What do you want me to do?”

Nate nodded. “Thanks, Jack. I only want two things. One - show Sammy around the world - let him get his fill of it, until he’s ready to come back here and take over. Two - give me the fourth request.

“I can’t just decide to die, not any more than you can. I won’t even die of old age like you eventually will, even though it’ll be a long time from now. I need to be killed. Once Sammy is back here, ready to take over, I’ll be able to die. And I need you to kill me.

“I’ve even thought about how. Poisons and other drugs won’t work on me. And I’ve seen pictures of snakes that were shot - some of them live for days, so that’s out too. So, I want you to bring back a sword.

Nate turned away to look back to the dune that Sammy had gone behind. “I’d say an axe, but that’s somewhat undignified - putting my head on the ground or a chopping block like that. No, I like a sword. A time-honored way of going out. A dignified way to die. And, most importantly, it should work, even on me.

“You willing to do that for me, Jack?” Nate turned back to look at Jack.

“Yeah, Nate,” replied Jack solemnly, “I think I can handle that.”

Nate nodded. “Good!” He turned back toward the dune and shouted, “Sammy! Jack’s about ready to leave!” Then quietly, “Thanks, Jack.”

Jack didn’t have anything to say to that, so he waited for Sammy to make it back to the lever, nodded to him, nodded a final time to Nate, and then headed into the desert with Sammy following. Over the next several years Sammy and Jack kept in touch with Nate through e-mail as they went about their adventures. They made a goal of visiting every country in the world, and did a respectable job of it. Sammy had a natural gift for languages, as Jack expected he would, and even ended up acting as a translator for Jack in a few of the countries. Jack managed to keep the talking rattlesnake hidden, even so, and by the time they were nearing the end of their tour of countries, Sammy had only been spotted a few times. While there were several people that had seen enough to startle them greatly, nobody had enough evidence to prove anything, and while a few wild rumors and storied followed Jack and Sammy around, nothing ever hit the newspapers or the public in general.

When they finished the tour of countries, Jack suggested that they try some undersea diving. They did. And spelunking. They did that too. Samm finally drew the line at visiting Antarctica. He’d come to realize that Jack was stalling. After talking to his Dad about it over e-mail, he figured out that Jack probably didn’t want to have to kill Nate. Nate told Sammy that humans could be squeamish about killing friends and acquaintances.

So, Sammy eventually put his tail down (as he didn’t have a foot) and told Jack that it was time - he was ready to go back and take up his duties from his dad. Jack, delayed it a little more by insisting that they go back to Japan and buy an appropriate sword. He even stretched it a little more by getting lessons in how to use the sword. But, eventually, he’d learned as much as he was likely to without dedicating his life to it, and was definitely competent enough to take the head off of a snake. It was time to head back and see Nate.

When they got back to the US, Jack got the old RV out of storage where he and Sammy had left it after their tour of the fifty states, he loaded up Sammy and the sword, and they headed for the desert.

When they got to the small town that Jack had been trying to find those years ago when he’d met Nate, Jack was in a funk. He didn’t really feel like walking all of the way out there. Not only that, but he’d forgotten to figure the travel time correctly, and it was late afternoon. They’d either have to spend the night in town and walk out tomorrow, or walk in the dark.

As Jack was afraid that if he waited one more night he might lose his resolve, he decided that he’d go ahead and drive the RV out there. It was only going to be this once, and Jack would go back and cover the tracks afterward. They ought to be able to make it out there by nightfall if they drove, and then they could get it over tonight.

Jack told Sammy to e-mail Nate that they were coming as he drove out of sight of the town on the road. They then pulled off the road and headed out into the desert.

Everything went well, until they got to the sand dunes. Jack had been nursing the RV along the whole time, over the rocks, through the creek beds, revving the engine the few times they almost got stuck. When they came to the dunes, Jack didn’t really think about it, he just downshifte and headed up the first one. By the third dune, Jack started to regret that he’d decided to try driving on the sand. The RV was fishtailling and losing traction. Jack was having to work it up each dune slowly and was trying to keep from losing control each time they came over the top and slid down the other side. Sammy had come up to sit in the passenger seat, coiled up and laughing at Jack’s driving.

As they came over the top of the fourth dune, the biggest one yet, Jack saw that this was the final dune - the stone, the lever, and somewhere Nate, waited below. Jack put on the brakes, but he’d gone a little too far. The RV started slipping down the other side.

Jack tried turning the wheel, but he didn’t have enough traction. He pumped the brakes - no response. They started sliding down the hill, faster and faster.

Jack felt a shock go through him as he suddenly realized that they were heading for the lever. He looked down - the RV was directly on course for it. If Jack didn’t do something, the RV would hit it. He was about to end humanity.

Jack steered more frantically, trying to get traction. It still wasn’t working. The dune was too steep, and the sand too loose. In a split second, Jack realized that his only chance would be once he hit the stone around the lever - he should have traction on the stone for just a second befor he hit the lever - he wouldn’t have time to stop, but he should be able to steer away.

Jack took a better grip on the steering wheel and tried to turn the RV a little bit - every little bit would help. He’d have to time his turn just right.

The RV got to the bottom of the dune, sliding at an amazing speed in the sand. Just before they reached the stone Jack looked across it to check that they were still heading for the lever. They were. But Jack noticed something else that he hadn’t seen from the top of the dune. Nate wasn’t wrapped around the lever. He was off to the side of the lever, but still on the stone, waiting for them. The problem was, he was waiting on the same side of the lever that Jack had picked to steer towards to avoid the lever. The RV was already starting to drift that way a little in its mad rush across the sand and there was no way that Jack was going to be able to go around the lever to the other side.

Jack had an instant of realization. He was either going to have to hit the lever, or run over Nate. He glanced over at Sammy and saw that Sammy realized the same thing.

Jack took a firmer grip on the steering wheel as the RV ran up on the stone. Shouting to Sammy as he pulled the steering wheel, “BETTER NATE THAN LEVER,” he ran over the snake.

THE END

You've Been Tagged

2007-01-06T13:16:00.000+01:00

Well, not you, more like me. Guess there's a new 'thing' going on in weblog world. Apparently this is how it works: Someone tags you on their own blog, in this case, Linda tagged me. So now I have to mention 5 things about myself. Sorry, 5 positive things (yes, makes it a lot harder already, doesn't it?). And once I've done that, I'll have to mention 5 or something other people (with blogs of course) who are then tagged. Rinse, cycle, repeat.

I dunno, sounds like a cheap way to get people reading your blog (or even finding out if other people are actually reading your blog or not :P), but here goes anyway. Five positive things about me.

Okay...

Uhmm...

Right.. Well, modesty is always a good one. Yeah, let's go with that. That's one.

Funny? More like smart-ass. But that's probably not a good thing. At least, that's what people are saying. I used to be pretty patient, but now I lost my temper pretty fast (the occupational hazard of working at a call-center). Why couldn't it be a list of five bad things? Okay okay, I'll just cram out what comes up in my mind.

1. Modest (really! I am! Girls dig it)
2. Funny (Look me in the eye and say that the above sentence didn't bring a smile on your face)
3. Sensitive (which of course invites countless cold-hearted wenches to pound on me. I'm not a punching bag!)
4. Easy-going (I can't say that I can stretch as much as that dude from Fantastic Four, but I'm pretty flexible)
5. Loyal (I wasn't born in the Year of the Dog for nothing. And I should've probably checked the properties for Dogs before thinking of things to list.... -_-")

So that's that. As for the referring thing... First, I can't wait to see what Boss Stewie makes of it, of course :P And I'm pretty curious how Taraa picks it up, too.. If you feel like doing this too, just pick one of the three remaining slots.

So uhm, "tag". You're it.

New Years Party!

2007-01-02T13:17:00.000+01:00

For a first time in New Years Eve history, I'm not spending it with the entire Chinese clan. Usually we get together our restaurant, with other friends and relatives and such (see pics last year). Each year is the same: we get together, have a grand dinner buffet, then go out and light the fireworks. In the meantime the mothers are playing mahjong, the fathers are playig Big2 (Chinese poker) and the elders are singing karaoke at the top of their lungs.

But people have started celebrating it elsewhere, with other friends or even simply at home. And since our old restaurant was burned down last August, there's been a lack of a central point to go to. Luckily for me, there were plans for a party at Kirstins old pad. And some party it was ^^

Check the pics page for more pics and the story! The party was really awesome, we started out with a poker tourney, which I of course won (who else?) :P Mostly luck though.. After that, we got the party really started, getting drunk as hell, popping off the champagne at 12'o clock. There's a roof terras on the building, so we went outside where we came across people from another party, also out to watch all of the splendid firework around us. There was a bit of wind and rain, but that didn't spoil the festivities one bit.

I had been downing drinks one after another, and forgot to keep track. At a certain point the room didn't stop spinning, so I went to lie down for a while (which turned out to be a couple of hours). Then again, no party of Kirstin is ever complete without at least one casualty :P The party kept going on, I think about 5'o clock the rest decided to call it a night as well (after loitering on the staircase outside my door for another while).

Next morning, cleaning up everything and also coming across things that I forgot. Crap, I'm stuck with 14 oliebollen.

+ 50 experience
+ 1 very Happy Newyear!
+ 4 knowledge (don't drink too much!)

Twelve Days Of Christmas

2006-12-26T12:13:00.000+01:00

On the first day of Christmas,
the holidays gave to me,
one middle-aged woman that hit on us while sitting in a pub.

On the second day of Christmas,
the holidays gave to me,
two poker-addicted friends starting to develop a gambling habit,
and one middle-aged woman that hit on us while sitting in a pub.

On the third day of Christmas,
the holidays gave to me,
three days of insanely boring work during the holidays,
two poker-addicted friends starting to develop a gambling habit,
and one middle-aged woman that hit on us while sitting in a pub.

On the fourth day of Christmas,
the holidays gave to me,
four main dishes and four side-dishes during the Christmas dinner extravaganza,
three days of insanely boring work during the holidays,
two poker-addicted friends starting to develop a gambling habit,
and one middle-aged woman that hit on us while sitting in a pub.

On the fifth day of Christmas,
the holidays gave to me,
five pounds gained in weight because of the Christmas dinner extravaganza,
four main dishes and four side-dishes during the Christmas dinner extravaganza,
three days of insanely boring work during the holidays,
two poker-addicted friends starting to develop a gambling habit,
and one middle-aged woman that hit on us while sitting in a pub.

On the sixth day of Christmas,
the holidays gave to me,

...

aww, forget it. This song takes waaaaaay too long.

Merry Christmas and a Happy Newyear!

Chinese People And The Freezer

2006-12-07T22:48:00.000+01:00

I should make a blog entirely about this kind of stuff... plenty of subject to last me a while :P Anywayz, I've moved home for two weeks, since I'm between rooms at the moment. Now, I myself don't have much use for a freezer, at the most I'll keep some bread in there, although I've learned to do without that as well (since my last room didn't even have a freezer section in the refrigerator). And since the 'lettuce incident' I've also learned that not everything can be put in the freezer... Sometimes I also keep ice-cream there, but overall, I don't use it that much.

Still, a freezer can be useful. In the hands of real Chinese people, however, the freezer becomes a necessity. No Chinese household is complete without a freezer. Whereas most people suffice with a fridge/freezer combo, where they have a small section for the freezer like this

Chinese people actually have a seperate fridge which is always stuffed with food. And when I say stuffed, I mean stuffed

There's not a single area of space to spare, to keep my 5 slices of bread. You might ask: "Is all that food really necessary?" But you'll give up asking eventually, since the Chinese are always prepared for the unexpected, like closed stores (at nights or on Sundays), sudden parties (although even more food is brought in the house whenever a party gets planned) and of course World War III (can never be too careful).

Of course, some people take it over the top when they get The Big Box

You know the types, freezers large enough to hide a couple of bodies, or even more if you chop it up into limbs. Remind me never to piss off any Chinese people that are obsessed with freezers.

Ninja Says

2006-12-03T19:44:00.000+01:00

Thought For Food

2006-12-03T15:56:00.000+01:00

Yes, I do mean thought for food, not the other way around..

We've been planning a dinner for a long time already, but somehow it just kept on being postponed. Finally we've been able to settle on a date, but by then our 'regular' restaurant was booked pretty full, so we had to find another place. We even had a conference call ("Wow, we can do that? Wheeeee, this is cool! Wait, who's paying for this?"), although that only added to more confusion than finding a solution... Waga's got a couple of votes, but as it has a pretty modern/minimalistic setting, it probably wouldn't be suitable for an entire group. A long time ago a friend took us to a mediterranean restaurant which was quite cozy, so we decided to try that one again. So when we got there, we were seated in a large tent, which felt more Arab than mediterranean, but it's all in the same general area I guess. And of course pics are included:

Although I wasn't the only one. Now that phones with camera's are the new standard in phone technology, it's pretty easy to take pictures everywhere you are.

But of course, no phone cam can be a proper substitute for a real cam, no matter how advanced the phone is.

As I mentioned earlier, I knew we had to pick a restaurant which had a more 'comfy' atmosphere, because I knew two people wouldn't be happy unless they could snuggle up like this

Bet you're glad we didn't go through with Wagamama's, eh?

The restaurant also provided these beauties:
But we didn't make use of them, since not everyone likes them. Besides, they used some kind of fruit- tobacco stuff instead of the real deal, so we didn't miss out on much anyway :P

Ants In My Pants

2006-11-26T15:03:00.000+01:00

Last Saturday me n my bro went to a semi-new place to go clubbing. Groningen is a pretty awesome place for students, most of the going out places are grouped together so it's easy to get everywhere. The downside however, is that a lot of it consists of pubs. There are plenty that have a dancing-bar combination, but if you really want to get jiggy with it, there's nothing better than a real club. But as far as clubs go, we're rather limited in our choices. There are about three or four places where you can get your groove on, but only one is really suitable for us. The others either have 16 year old kids running around, or are such an alternative, underground theme that they're actually underground.

So when news about a new place arrived, it stirred our interests. But we never really got around to it, until now. This place wasn't exactly a club either, just a building that could be rented out for events, like a gallery or exhibition and at nights of course as a club. Besides that, it would probably also be more like the alternative scene, since they would be playing electro music there. Still, having a monotonous diet dulls the mind, so we finally went there last Saturday. Although it wasn't that crowded yet (apparently it was more of an afterparty, most people showed up at 2 or 3 am), it was definitely clear that this was the most alternative place we've ever been to. People dressed in all kinds of black (gothic black, S&M black, you name it, they've got it). I even saw a couple (two guys, of course) that could give Boy George a run for his money...

That's right, worse than this

Or this

Or even this

Okay, well maybe not that last one, he looks even creepier than that clown from It in that pic, but you get the idea..

Oh well... Creepy though those people in the club might be, at least they didn't dance like they had ants in their pants:

Chinese People And The Bill

2006-11-13T17:07:00.000+01:00

[I know, I would try to keep the blog updated at least weakly, but I already failed... What can I say, it's a busy season. Holiday's a comin! ^_^]

If you have Chinese parents, then you'll probably know what I'm talking about. Every now and then my parents go out to dinner with some friends, and since I'm in the neighbourhood I tag along (what can I say, it's free food). If it's a Chinese restaurant, it's usually very rowdy (a real Chinese restaurant, where Chinese people come. Not the takeaway Chinese where you'll never see a Chinese person eat..). People chatting away at the top of their voice, bursts of laughter, a great mess on the table (who needs table manners if you've got so many delicious food to eat!). But even if it's not a Chinese restaurant, they're still loud.

Nothing, however, gets as loud as the explosion when it's time to pay the bill. When Dutch friends go out to eat, it's pretty easy: you go Dutch. As it says in Wiki, it's pretty easy. Everyone pays for himself or herself (they also have a list of some other Dutch phrases). Chinese however, go on a battle frenzy. Not that they have to fight about who has to pay for it, but rather who gets to pay for it. Eeeeverybody wanna pay the bill. Letting someone else pay is like a deadly insult to honour or something. I've seen people actually fighting over the bill, trying to grab it, the waiter that held it looked as if he were facing two crocodiles fighting over a piece of meat.

This particular time my parents went to dinner with one friend, and thought to outsmart her by paying before they had finished dinner. It was a buffet, and she was just getting some more food. But the friend had already outsmarted them by paying before dinner even started! Outrage on the faces of my parents, I swear they looked as if gambling had been made illegal. Down, but not defeated, they called one of the waitresses which they knew personally, and had her retrieve the money our friend had already given. (The waitress could see the storm clouds already...) Then they paid the bill themselves, and snuck the money half under a plate, so it wouldn't be directly obvious.

When the friend discovered it, my mom had come up with a great story: "Yeah, one of the waitresses came by and just handed the money back, said it was no good!"

-_______-

I'd like to see the day when paying for something and they say, "Sorry, your can't pay here, here's your money back"

In the end the friend gave in, well she was outnumbered 2 to 1, I tried to stay away from all this as much as possible. Arguing about who gets to pay the bill is one of the stupidest thing I've ever seen. If someone wants to let them pay, let them! If they're insincere, then haha! it's your own fault. If they are sincere, however, don't squash their good feeling of picking up the tab by declaring war on it. I can understand arguing for it, if someone pays all the time it's only natural for the other to try to pay for it sometime. But arguments that rival street riots are way exaggerated.

+40 in annoyance intolerance
Gained 1 level in annoyance intolerance!

Bollywood in Groningen!

2006-11-05T00:02:00.000+01:00

I finally got those pics I promised last time! You can find the pics and the story on the pics page, and there's of course that totally awesome cool looking preview slide thingie below.

This party's theme was Bollywood, you know, the major movie industry in India (I don't wanna say 'Hollywood rip-off', especially now that I have a reader from India :P, but still.... ^^). This was a pretty hard theme, since I don't usually have a lot of clothes that are India-style.. So, it was a lot of improvisation. The party itself was very cool!

Not as cool as this maybe, but still very fun!

+3 shaking my ass

Niiiice

2006-11-01T11:25:00.000+01:00

So we finally got around to see the movie my buddy had anticipated for a long time: Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, a.k.a. Borat. We'd been to another sneak peek a couple weeks ago to see whether they would show it, but when we were seated and waiting for the movie, suddenly an usher showed up and announced that they could not show Borat as they had originally planned for this sneak peek (probably legislation rules), but they would show it in advance before the international premier (2 Nov). Instead they showed The Devil Wears Prada, at which there was a collective moan throughout the room by all the guys, and some applause and screams by girls, obviously the guys' girlfriends who couldn't be happier... We decided not to stick around and snuck out to another room to see Snakes on a Plane; a genuine healthy, action-packed, 2nd rated B-movie type, Samuel Jackson starring guy movie. Which was entertaining as B-movies are.

Anywayz, Borat. We went to see it yesterday.

For those of you who don't know him: Borat is a character done by Sacha Baron Cohen, but most people know him better as another of his characters: Ali G. If don't like Ali G, not to worry, Borat is a completely different kind of character. Well, not completely, since it's the same style of comedy as Ali G, but without the annoying little things.

In the movie he sets out to go to America, to learn about it's culture and pick up things to improve his own glorious nation.

So we got in the line at the theather, and at the register we received a surprise: a genuine Borat Seksy Moustache.

I can feel the new sex appeal flowing through my new facial hair already

It niiiice. Feel really good, I ready for make the sexy-time now!

Of course, in Kazachstan they always more use than one for items. Moustache not only use for moustache, but also other things:

High Five!

R0flma0

2006-10-09T22:52:00.000+02:00

If blogging was a class, I'd fail it.

Lately I've become too lazy to write anything, as some of my readers (or simply "reader") have noticed. It doesn't really help that Blogger has become laggy as hell, either. Took me about 3 minutes just to get to the writing new posts area. I guess that's one way of 'persuading' everyone to change to the new Beta... Sooo anyway, since I find it harder to post lots of stuff, I thought I'd just put up some stuff to keep you guys busy as well :P

There's a Dutch saying that goes "Het beste vermaak is leedvermaak", meaning: there's no humor like painful humor (watch Jackass and see if you can keep a straight face). It's not just pain but simply bad things that happen to others. Well, I can tell you that my current habitat is getting really annoying to live in. I'm only here for three months, but exactly during this time the city has decided to do some maintenance at the streets in front of our house. Not only are they extremely noisy in the morning, but the streets are a mess too. But that's nothing compared to the pipe they hit a couple of days ago. The pipe that provides our shower with hot water.. Not only that, but the light in there got busted too a day earlier. Taking an extremely cold shower in the dark is no fun, I can tell ya.

There's this mosquito problem as well, they just don't seem to understand to stay away from me. Unfortunately, this current room provides enough hiding places, so I can't do a proper inspection before I go to sleep. Add to that a loftbed (a bed you have to climb up in to) and you'll find me falling off the stairs sleepily occasionally while trying to get the mosquito zapper.

But it's not all bad. I've recently discovered Whose Line Is It Anyway, the show that our Dutch program de Lama's was based on. It's an improv comedy show which is extremely funny, it takes some getting used to, but once you're familiar with how they do things, it's simply hilarious, especially the games that require singing. Just look for 'Whose Line' on youtube and don't forget to take the rest of the week off. There's a sample below: someone from the crowd is selected, and Wayne has to make up a song about her in a certain style. He doesn't know what topic it is about or what kind of style he has to sing it in, so he has to make it all up as he goes. Talk about adaptability.

+40 experience
+3 future wrinkles caused by excessive laughing

Sardines In A Tin Can (2)

2006-10-05T20:36:00.000+02:00

So yeah, the main point. As the title originally suggested, it was quite crowded then. We got there a bit earlier than the rest (somebody forgot to check the time...), but it resulted in prime seats. What surprised me was that as it got busier, people started sitting right next to us. And I mean right next to us. Normally you'd leave a seat in between empty, right? People need space, everybody knows that. Space so I can have the arm rest all to myself, space to put my coat and other stuff, and so on.. So why did they sit on the adjacent seats then, I wondered. And not just these few people, there was hardly an empty space left in the entire room. When I saw an usher appearing, surveying the room, I thought that perhaps the audience were told to do so, closing the ranks so more people could fit in. Well, they won't have this problem when the movie goes into its actual premiere...

Afterwards I started thinking about it some more... Why do we (or at least me then) want to have space to ourselves? And not just in the movie theater: in public transport, people always choose empty seats, without anyone sitting next to them. Sometimes, if there are no two adjacent empty seats, people will just choose to stand instead!

I don't really know why other people act like that, but for me it's pretty simple: I don't wanna come across someone who's annoying. And since it's hard to determin who's annoying when you just see them for 5 seconds, I'd rather not take the chance and find and empty seat instead. I wrote about it some time ago, about annoying people in public transport. I guess it's the same for all situations, like classes or movie theaters. In case the person next to you is annoying, at least you have some distance between each other.

And of course, the guy next to me just had to be annoying. Not that he could do anything about it, but he was the type of people that could not breathe without making any sound. You know the type, you can hear them exhaling through their nose so loudly as if they were rhinos getting ready to charge. So yeah, next time I'll just keep the seat next to me occupied, thank you very much.

Sardines In A Tin Can

2006-09-28T21:30:00.000+02:00

Last Tuesday my bro called me to got to the Sneak Preview. It's a special thing that the movie theather has, on Tuesday nights show a 'random' movie that isn't out yet for a reduced price. Random as in they don't tell us which one they'll show, which is one of the reasons it's cheaper than usual (the other reason being the day, I guess Tuesday's is usually the slowest day for them). I usually never go to the sneak peek, because you never know what kind of junk you can get. But since Snakes on a Plane would soon show, and my bro had already seen TFATF:Tokyo Drift in one of those sneak previews once, I decided to try my luck.

They showed An Inconvenient Truth. A movie about Al Gore's fight against global warming. People actually walked out during the movie. I'm not saying it's a bad movie, on the contrary, it's a great movie. For a documentary. I don't even mind it being a documentary, they make really interesting ones nowadays. I (and with me the rest of the audience of a fully packed room) just didn't set my expectations on watching a documentary when going out into town in the evening. There is one funny thing about this though. Even though it's meant as a serious documentary and the movie layout is basically a college class, the trailer makes it look like it's the newest Terminator movie... Talk about creating fake expectations :rolleyes:

But that's beside the point I wanted to make in this post (by now, you'll probably know I tend to side-step before I get to the main point :P). However, it would become quite a long rant, so I'll just save it for another time. to be continued I guess...

+25 experience
+3 wisdom

Updates & Upgrades

2006-09-23T16:59:00.000+02:00

The Athens bit took a while to write, so there's some things I haven't got around yet.

First of all, I moved again, I'm currently residing in the Oosterpoort area. My cool plan of looking for a few temporary (and easy to get) rooms during the rest of my studies isn't looking that cool anymore, now that I'm already taking longer to graduate than expected. Getting a new room gets harder as well, the current one is only for three months, and then I'll have to look yet again. Maybe I should put more effort in writing my thesis than in looking for new rooms... >_<

Also, I've changed my phone number. Except being cheap, Debitel doesn't have much to offer let alone service. So, since I'm unable to keep my number, I've yet again changed that as well. Much to the annoyance of everybody else (really, how hard is it to change a number in your cell phone once a year?), but I refuse to pay that much extra (not to mention just the trouble of getting it right) just to keep a number. Plus, I also get rid of unwanted callers :P

Oh yeah, before I forget, I've also put the comments in a pop-up page, rather than on a different page (which I used to have). It's more convenient to see both the comments and the blog. So if you don't see the comments page appearing anymore, turn off your pop-up blocker ;)

And lastly, I've also finally put up the pics from the Caribbean Carnival in August. Which brings me to my upgrades:

I found this nifty little thing at another blogger's page. I thought it'd be a better way to announce new pics. So next time you see this, you can either just click on the pics to view them in large, or head over to the pics page for the full story and all of the pics (I'll only put a couple in the slide to keep the overview)

+150 experience
+4 blogging skills

Athens DVD Bonus Disc

2006-09-12T00:36:00.000+02:00

I love taking pics. I'm guessing 600 pics in 8 days pretty much proves it. I love the stuff people put up at DeviantArt, and I can't resist to try to make some of those beautiful shots myself. Unfortunately, I don't have a professional camera that allows me to do so, but once in a while there are scenes that are great no matter what the quality of the shot. And seeing we used Chan's cam (a very nifty Sony Cybershot P200, 7.2 megapixel sweetness..) they were pretty good. Still not as spectacular as the pro's, but that's where Photoshop comes in handy.

You see, next to taking pics i also like to tweak them. For the Athens pics, I took a couple that were looking artsy, and I messed around a bit with things as saturation and brightness, as well as cleaning up blurry parts. I thought I'd put a few of them up here as well, so you can see Athens in an even prettier aspect. Some are pics that I've already put up before, so you can even compare them :P I've uploaded the pics on Imageshack, so the white border on the pics is visible as well.

Childhood

Fly By

Frozen in time

Pidgeon Man

In need of space

Ocean Blue

OK, enough about Athens already, back to business as usual.

Athens, part 4: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Zoo

2006-09-03T17:03:00.000+02:00

I'll just limit myself to the highlights of the last three days, becausy frankly I'm getting tired of writing this stuff :P

Back to the same hotel again, another half a day gone. This time not so much sunbathing on the ferry anymore, I had soaked up enough sun for the entire trip already. With all the important stuff already done and three days left to go, it was a lot of improvising. One day would be reserved for the zoo, but the rest we just made up as we went along.

The first day back we went to Olympic Stadium which were held there in 2004. After the Olympics were over, there wasn't much use for them anymore. And with not much I mean none at all. The grounds were open for public, but aside from someone on a bike and the employee at the entrance, it was pretty much deserted. Probably because it was a weekday (the start of it even), it's far from central Athens (it was about a 20 minute metro ride) and it was during the late holidays (when tourists are back home already and Greek people start to go on holidays). The buildings were closed unfortunately (with chain locks on every doors... What do you people need to protect in there if it's not being used?), so after walking around a bit we were done.

After that we went back, visited the Temple of Olympian Zeus (which we skipped when doing the Akropolis thing) and came across some fellow Dutch speaking people. We tagged along when they were going to the original (as in first ever, ancient) Olympic stadium, a bit south of the temple. And ancient it was, it consisted of just one track.. There was a gate in front of it, so no one dared to go on it. Well, almost no one...

In the evening we finally found the best thing to eat in Greece: Souvlaki!! It's basically just a sort of Greek fast food dish, an extra thick pita bread wrapped around gyros meat and added ingredients like onion, lettuce, tomato and even some wedged potatoes. Makes me drool again just thinking about it ^^

At night once again we ventured out into the city nightlife, but like the first time there wasn't much to do except walking around a bit. The next day we went to the zoo. Getting there was an adventure in itself, much to Chan's aggrevation. The zoo was near the outer edge of Athens, and anyone that's ever been in a capitol city knows how far that can be. The map said a certain bus went to the zoo, but it was already hard to find that bus. After asking around a bit, we took a bus that went to the area where the zoo was located, but not quite there. For a moment it seemed as if the bus was going to the middle of nowhere. Needless to say, we didn't get there at once. It took three buses, a gaziljion times asking for directions and finally a cab to get there. But even the taxi driver didn't know where to go. Finally he managed to find it (asking directions in Greek is a lot more effective when in Greece). Mr athensguide wasn't joking when he said the zoo was pretty unknown, almost nobody even knew it existed.

The zoo itself was pretty cool, although the hot wheather made the larger animals a bit slow and dull. I made some 'looking good' shots, and also a 'looking silly' shot. When we were done, we found out that since it was a national holiday, there were also fewer buses. And how. Where there is usually a bus every two hours (are you kidding me?), today only has one every five hours (Joy... >_<) So, back to the nearest metro station with a cab again. This trip turned out to cost more than expected, but it was a fun day out. Day three. Lykavittos Hill, the highest place in Athens. You could view every part of the city there, all the way to the hills and sea surrounding it. We could even see the throng of people milling around at the Akropolis from here. From there we went south through the eastern side of central Athens (or rather, the less touristy side). Today would be a cultural day, we visited a couple of museums (The Byzantine museum, which also had an exposition about the Tang Dynasty in China) and went for some last-minute souvernir shopping at the Plaka again, although we didn't get much (guys and shopping don't mix).

Back at the hotel things have begun to get busy. This second part of Athens had backpackers pouring in, some of them fun: one of them had a bottle opener on the bottom of his sandal. My first thought was "Cool!"... My second thought was "Uhmm, that's pretty gross actually". Some of them less fun, there were two guys hogging 2 of the 3 PC's there for a loooong time. Very unhelpful if you just need to check the train times for tomorrow... After a while I decided to see what they were doing. One of thos mofo's was actually playing poker online! The other one was basically doing nothing besides chatting on MSN. Yeah, great way to spend a vacation, losers. The poker player noticed me, at which he opened his email to appear genuinely busy. Sure buddy, sure. It helps when you actually do something on that page instead of clicking back and forth on it every two minutes. Eventually I just told him to shove off (in a nice way of course. I'm a nice guy, after all), and after a couple more minutes he and his friend did. We spent the rest of the night playing some cards and were joined by a couple of Asian American girls from Detroit (well there's a place I didn't expect to find Chinese people... Well no, Detroit is still possible. Something like Alabama or Texas, now those are places you don't expect to find Asians, although the Chinese really are everywhere these days. Divde and conquer :P)

Anyhoo, lots of packing to do as well, since we had to check out the next morning already. We left our luggage there so we could go into town for one last time. We visited yet another museum, which we missed yesterday (it's only open till midday). It was the war museum, a great collection of ancient weaponry used all over the world, displaying the development of weapons over time up to the World Wars.

Lots of time to spare (our plane was scheduled for around 5-6 o clock), some idle browsing around at the airport, playing cards and a bit of sleep to kill time. No trouble this time about our luggage, and we soon lifted off. We luckily arrived on time, although we still had to move quickly to catch our train home, so we ran for it as soon as we could finally get off the stuffy plane (sitting somewhere in the back does not help). As we arrived at the station, we heard the whistle go and jumped on it just in time. Although... We made good time and the train wasn't supposed to leave for another 10 minutes. As the train moved, we passed by the destination sign: Lelystad.

Great.

Being all tired from the journey, we just sat down and took a rest. Just get off at Amsterdam and get another train. Eventually, we reached our final destination: home.

Total trip's worth:
+2000 experience
+6 knowledge
+1 charisma
+600 pics
-800 gold (€)

All in all, very much worth it ^^

Athens, part 3: Intermission

2006-08-31T14:10:00.000+02:00

[I hope you're comfy. I did both days on the island in one post]

Good thing we didn't pack that much. So, off we go to the tiny island called Aegina, which is conveniently opposite Athens. Away from the chaos! We took a ferry from the port, and with not much to do on it, I got a little more sun. Tanning here was a whole lot better, since there is a constant breeze to help you cool off.

Once we arrived at Aegina Town, it took us a couple minutes to get to the hotel, but we were soon settled in with a room that had a questionable view out the window (the white stuff is a wall and as you may notice it's pretty close to the balcony), but made up with a fridge (yay!) and a door for the bathroom!

Since we spent half a day getting here, we decided to take it easy. First we went towards one of the small beaches, soaking up some sun (that would be me) and going for a swim (that would be the person that did not bring a large towel). After a while we explored the coastline a bit. Even though it's a tiny island compared to the other Greek islands, it was still huge for a couple of people on foot. We headed back for one of the restaurants opposite the hotel, sitting about 5 meters away from the sea. I wanted to try some of the fish here, but the regular fish was listed by Kg and prety expensive, so I settled for a plate of small fried fish instead. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't that great either. In the evening we walked a bit more, from the coast line towards the inner city with all kinds of narrow streets and cozy shops. We also took some shots during sunset: here, here, here and here. There were still cars coming through those streets, though, which was pretty annoying (those streets were really narrow). At a certain point we arrived at a real supermarket (not those 7eleven shops, which actually do close at 11pm here instead of being open 24h/day). We browsed around for some drinks and food, and came across (of course) beer. It's a fun thing to see that a place has more Dutch beer than native beer. We closed the night with getting a drink at an enchanting restaurant/bar.

Next day we rented some bikes to expand our exploration range. And by bikes I mean crappy old, worn down mountain bikes, but they did what they were supposed to do. We first went along the north coast, through a couple small villages. It was both relaxing and exhausting, there were roads going uphill and downhill. Then we decided to go back in a diferent route, going south a bit and along the top-center of the island.

Boy was that a not well-thought decision. With us being two Dutch fellows, we don't really have to deal with any high hills or mountains, especially not when riding a bike. The first hill with about a 30-40 degree angle made its point very clear. Each time when the decline decreased and we thought the worst was over, guess what was lurking behind the next corner... We sighed everytime someone in a moped or a car passed us by.

Still, after about an hour of challenging nature, we emerged victorious. And celebrated by having a good lunch at a small restaurant alongside the road. Being in the trying-new-stuff mood, I ordered some tzatziki, a cucumber-yoghurt salade thingy. Pretty bold for someone that doesn't really like yoghurt that much. Sour, but refreshing.

To avoid any more unexpected surprises, we asked the waiter what the road ahead was like. Some uphill, some downhill, nothing very extreme. Well, it didn't have to be. The uphills were just as tiresome, since we already used up a lot of energy in the first stage. But we saw a lot more of the island, and that made it worth while. Finally our hard work also paid off. At a certain point, more than halfway back, we could put ourselves in cruise control and slide down the hill, sometimes at speed we could never make ourselves. Sometimes it even became dangerous, forcing us to break a lot. So about the last 5 km's we rolled down the hills in crashing speeds, getting back to Aegina town in less than about 15 minutes.

We had some time to spare, so next we went down the west coastline of the island, towards a swimming pool. Swimming in the ocean can be fun, but I'd rather have a clean pool to swim in. In the evening we went to the restaurant which we had already marked as our next dinner place, the same one where we had some drinks yesterday. Since my previous encounter with fish wasn't that mindblowing, I settled for a pasta dish. Cheap and lots, and I was hungry. Chan decided on fish this time, going after the swordfish. A good choice, too, it appeared later on. In a normal restaurant you'd pay twice as much and get only half of the sizable chunk that Chan got. If you ever go to Aegina Island, eat at Avli. You will not be disappointed. The rest of the night we walked around some more. We walked a lot on this trip.

Next morning it was time to go back to Athens again.

Athens, part 2: Ich Bin Ein Tourist

2006-08-27T17:26:00.000+02:00

[I've combined part 1 & 2 together at the pics page, where you can view the post with thumbnail previews. Combining them here would mean loooong posts, so that's why they're in seperate posts here]

Oh yeah, the hotel. I almost forgot about it. We had a private bathroom (it was optional). See the door that leads to the bathroom?

Me neither. That provided some akward situations...

So, well rested we went off to see Athens' main attraction: The Akropolis.
At the entrance we saw that it was possible to get a student discount. Unfortunately, neither of us thought about bringing along our student cards (when do you ever use it at all?). I did however bring my OV kaart (public transportation card for students), and after some supsicious glances at the card (which is in Dutch :P) and a few more attempts at enquiring where I was from, they decided to grant me a free entrance! Chan unfortunately left his OV card at the hotel, but we split the cost afterwards.

As it turned out, the student discount was for European students, which is why they kept asking me where I was from (a couple more checks were held in various places). Anyways, we started our ascent where the fun stuff was: lovely views, cool Kodak moments, a great place to get a tan and stray dogs.

Yes, stray dogs. They a big problem in Athens. Well, not so much a problem, but they just seem to be everywhere. Even at the top of the Akropolis they were present. The strays here seem to be much more 'civilized' though. They don't bother people or get in their way and they seem pretty healthy (for a stray dog anyway). And no, the above one is NOT at the verge of dying, as someone pointed out before. It's hot there, very hot. And what do animals do when it's hot? That's right, they avoid moving as much as possible.

At the top it also became clear where all the tourists had gone. Chan does not like big crowds (or even small crowds), which accounts for his facial expression on this pic.

The Akropolis wasn't just fun for tourists and students like us, kids also seemed to enjoy themselves there..

There was also a museum there. Now most museums will either allow or prohibit the taking of pictures. The museums in Athens, however, have some strange rule about not having any people in the shots, so we were only allowed to take pictures of the object itself (without a flashlight as well). I had been meaning to ask why, but I never got around to asking somebody.

Since most of the day was spent at the Akropolis, we headed back to the hotel to get some rest, so we would be able to go out at night again. Nightlife was okay, but nothing very special. There were people selling things on the streets, but all of it was touristy things. I did get something there, and fueled by my enthousiasm Chan also got one. I still had the 'being a tourist' in my mind, so I figured I could try some things I would usually never do. I got a henna tattoo. Just having something painted on me with black henna, which will stay on there for a couple of weeks. It could've been painted on better, and it's already gone by now, but it was a lot of fun to do it.

We walked some more in the places-to-go-to-at-night area, but after finding out just a beer cost 6 Euro's already, we decided not to stick around long, but instead seeing more of Athens at night and then head back to the hotel and got a couple of beers there for a much cheaper price. And that ends the second day.

Ατηενσ, part 1: The Exploration

2006-08-21T16:20:00.000+02:00

[Due to the loading time of the thumbnails, I've put the story up here with links instead of pics. Just click on them to see the pics. If you prefer preview thumbnails with the story, then go check the pics' page]

I've been looking forward for this trip very eagerly, it's been quite a while since I last went on a real vacation. In the previous post you can see that it didn't start out too well, having received some very bad news.. But we decided (that is, I decided and told Chan over and over) not to let it spoil our vacation, the adults could take care of it.

So, the airport. Besides the bad news, the trip to the airport went without much problems. Which means we got there with a lot of time to spare. When we finally got to the boarding, however, some pushy guy came towards us and said there was a shortage of space on board, so they had to put our luggage in the luggage bay instead. We travelled with small travelling suitcases (the ones on wheels) specifically to avoid the wearysome luggage troubles, and here comes this guy just before we step into the plane to take it away! We were also one of the first to board, so how the hell would he know about any storage shortage? But we were a bit taken by surprise, and with him talking fast like sneaky salesmen do, our suitcases were gone before we realised what exactly happened. After that, there was also a delay in the flight, because some people cancelled their flight, AFTER checking in their luggage.. So that had to be hauled out as well.

I was pretty pissed then, but since there was nothing to do about it, and noting to do on the plane as well, the only thing left was to catch up on some sleep, like most people did. After we arrived there, things got a little better. No sense in grudging what's been done, and we had finally arrived at our vacation destination. Although the luggage claim sort of confirmed the troubles of putting luggage in the cargo bay... I couldn't resist grinning when I thought about the stormy weather back in Holland and us being here.

We took a train to our hotel, and after we settled in, we looked around for things to do. First of all, there are of course pictures to take of the scenery.

(Note: If you're a religious Greek, these were just taken for fun, they are not inteded to ridicule your religion. Please do not come down here and hijack airplanes or go suicide-bombing or anything)

Further on, we came across a lot of cow/bull statues, apparantly some project for kids to paint on... It was kinda hard to tell whether they were cows or bulls, but since I'm wearing a red shirt, I thought I'd better not chance it.

The main means of transportation (in the beginning) was the metro. Seeing as it was pretty new (the digging process got delayed frequently because they kept finding new old stuff), it was nice to travel with. They also incorporated some of the findings within the metro stations as well, making it a very pleasant and informative way to travel. Later on we switched to walking, because we could see more of the city, and because the (inner) city wasn't all that big after all.

Walking also had the advantage of seeing places that tourists usually don't come across. A street were fruits and vegetables are sold in trucks along the street for example, is something you don't come across everyday. A little girl on top of the truck shouting advertisements (just as good as those people selling flowers, fish, etc. on the market) even less so. Must be pretty hard if a little girl has to help out, I guess living in the big city isn't all that what it seems to be..

We then made a visit to the National Garden, which is basically a natural jungle within the concrete jungle. Undisturbed by the chaos around them, the trees reached up into the sky and flower fields were a lovely sight.

We got hungry, so we decided to look for a place to eat. Unfortunately, we were at the Plaka area, where food is quite pricey. Since this was our first night here, we didn't know how much something should cost. The waiter was also very smoothtalking, almost like a devious businessman, knowing exactly when to talk and when to pause to let us think.

To make most of the trip, I decided to try some of the Greek kitchen whenever possible. Which meant also trying stuff that I usually didn't like, for instance mousaka. I'm not particularly fond of eggplant, but I thought what the hell. As it turned out, it wasn't that bad at all, basically just like lasagna, but with eggplant instead of the layered dough. And I do like lasagna :P

The rest of the day we didn't do much, instead deciding to go to bed early to regain some sleep.

So They Have Internet Here

2006-08-11T17:35:00.000+02:00

I already knew that, but I didn't plan to make much use of it. After all, I am on vacation. But the trip didn't start as smooth as planned...

Jasmijn Garden burned down
We were on our way to the airport (Chan's parents drove us there), when Chan's dad got a call about 5 am (we had an early flight) with the news. At first, we couldn't believe it, after the shock wore off a bit, the details were still blurry, it was a big chaos. Luckily no one was harmed, but to think that the restaurant is totally gone now... www.assen.nl/smartsite21174.htm
It sort of squashed our holiday spirit...

The airport and flying part wasn't very pleasant either, but more on that later. Now that almost two days have passed (actually just one, since we arrived in the afternoon yesterday, and we still have the night tonight), we covered more ground than I could imagine. I think we've gone through almost all our planned things, leaving us to sit behind the Internet looking for new things to do... Ah yes, that was what I was supposed to do. I can see Chan glaring at me already, I guess I gotta go. That's all for now.

Off To Athens

2006-08-10T04:05:00.000+02:00

I'm gone for the week, finally having a well-deserved holiday, off to

beautiful

mmm, yes, beautiful

errrm...

Well, you get the idea. Athens.

Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This

2006-08-03T12:12:00.000+02:00

I used to keep a dream log where I would write down whenever I had strange dreams. Or rather, really weird dreams, since all my dreams were strange. But I wrote down the ones that didn't make much sence at all. I've found that I usually dream about things that have happened on that day or rather the day before (since you can mostly only remember the last R.E.M. part of sleeping, just before waking up the next day). But it still seems to be unclear what the exact function of REM is.

I haven't remembered any dreams in a long while though, nowadays the alarm clock wakes me out of my dream, which I forget as soon as I get up. Or else, I just wake up, go back to sleep a little longer, causing me to forget my dreams as well.

I do recall some dreams where I'm falling down through the sky. But instead of feeling frightened or scared, I get this exhilirating feeling. Normally falling down is associated with a fear of failing something. I'm not sure whether I was afraid of something on that day or period of time, but in the dreams it's always been a great feeling. It was like being weightless, without any worries at all, speeding through everything, the feeling of air gushing by. I have no idea how 'accurate' this feeling is compared to the real thing, but one of the things on my List-of-things-to-in-my-life is to skydive, so maybe that is influencing my dreams on a subconsious level.

Well that's about it. Much as I'd like to discuss more about it, I really can't recall anything more to discuss.. Maybe I should start a dream diary again.. But then again, there's really no point in reliving your dreams... I should just stick to day-dreaming only.. -_-

Project CHP :: An Epic Quest

2006-07-21T21:49:00.000+02:00

(I hope that wrist of yours is RSI-proof. This is gonna be a loooong scroll down)

So, this bro of mine came over once and said: "Yo check this bro, I got sum'n here that we gotta try, it's teh shizzle!" He showed me a kind of treasure map, where a prize of unimaginable size was waiting for those who could master the secrets and instructions on the map. And thus we started an epic quest for action, adventure.. And pie.

----------------------------------------------

PROJECT CARAMEL.HAZELNUT.PIE

"Two Guys Making a Cake??"

----------------------------------------------

Yes, the treasure map was cunningly disguised as a cookbook. But we knew the true worth of the CaramelHazelnutPie, and embarked on an adventure of the grandest magnitude. Having broken the code language used in the book, our first destination was shopping centre Paddepoel, a metropolis of the best markets, blacksmiths, armories and other enterprises that would provide us with the necessary material. Reading carefully, we not only set out to find the necessary ingredients, but also the tools with which we would be able to craft the ingredients into valuable minerals. It was not easy. Only a few of the many stores offered what we needed, and their price was high. The quest for one of the most fundamental ingredients, the Caramel, was the hardest to get, but our perseverence led us to victory!

With all of the gear complete, we began the much more difficult part of our quest: constructing the treasure. It was very delicate work.

A mistake could spell the end of our long voyage. It was very dangerous as well. Some ingredients wouldn't go willingly, so we had to use a lot of force to get the ingredients to co-operate.

The old aged Butter did not resist long. Despite all our precautions, even the most prepared heroes will sometimes face unexpected turn of events. At a certain point we had to use grinded Hazelnuts. We only had stubborn whole Hazelnuts, and without a trusty grinder

to help us out, we had to improvise a little.

The Hazelnuts swiftly fell to our mighty swings.

Unfortunately, this quest would also require some sacrifices. In order for our treasure to be completed, we would have to use some innocent Caramels as well.

Our hearts pained to sacrifice them, but our nothing would stop us from reaching our goal.

Nothing.

Some hearts showed less pain than others...

The Hazelnuts were to be used in the Ritual Of Baking The Cake. This process took quite a while, leaving us with a shorter timeframe than expected (other people were expected to show up later on, and this damn thing just had to be finished so we could show off our treasure. Once the cake part was ready, it was time to join it with the Caramels and also the whipped cream that Oene gave life to.

The whipped cream however, became rebellious and refused to be used in our scheme. Obviously Oene needs some more skills in parenting before we try to give life to anything else again.

But then again, Oene is not the kind of guy to stop at a little setback.

Now that the Caramal Hazelnut Pie was complete, we also needed to do a little something to really make it shine. And what better thing to bling bling your pie than with sugar coated Hazelnuts?

Following the rule of the Sport of Posing, we also had to make some shots with us looking cooool. Well, at least one of us..

<- "What the pie was supposed to look like" ".........................." V

After our victorious voyage, our adventure ended with presenting our beeaaautiful pie to our guests and dividing the spoils among us. Oene kept a weapon at hand, in case the pie would try to escape unexpectedly.

(note the people on the side also trying to do the art of posing, too.. PUT DOWN THE CELL PHONES AND ENJOY THE CAKE!)

With this adventure coming to an end, all that was left was to erase any traces of our treasure, in case someone would try and steal the formula from us.

My bro was suddenly nowhere in sight anymore...

~fin

I Need An Agenda..

2006-07-09T19:07:00.000+02:00

It's kinda strange how the summer holidays bring more need for an agenda then during the school season.. If this keeps up, I won't even have time to go on holiday anymore! But then again, if the vacation is filled with parties and other fun things, it's not so bad.. I will have more need for an agenda though, with all the busy stuff going on.

I don't even have time for my usual organizing of things. I usually keep an eye out for the storage of text messages on my phone, I hate it when there are so many messages on it.. At a certain point, you don't remember what they were about and you have to read all of them over again. Plus it's a pain in the ass to delete them, since I can only delete them one at a time. I usually keep around 10 at most, but when I checked my phone moments ago, there were 58! I didn't even know my phone could hold that many.. It also sort of indicates how busy it's been these last couple of weeks and also how much I actually use SMS (when I see the number of texts on other people's bills I always roll my eyes, but I guess it really does stack up fast).

Well, aside from all the partying and texting, I didn't really have anything important to say.. Just letting people out there know I'm still here. And Germany won the consolation match of the WC! I don't know why, but I'm kinda happy for them ^^

I've also been busy with deleting the abundant text messages, I started at the same time when writing this post (and I can tell you, I take a loooong time to write things). Still only halfway....

Age +1, Mental Health -30

2006-06-29T14:30:00.000+02:00

Whoooooo it's my birthday!! Well, actually it was yesterday, but as of today (and yesterday) I'm officially 24! And I say officially, because I tend to sink back to the wonderful age of 18-21. Ahhh, those were the days... Now I'm just.. old. It starts to show as well, with all the partying going on and almost no real excercise (I still do some sports like capoeira, systema and occasional others, but that's just once a week) to get my body in shape. I'm starting to get some lovehandles too, I think, but everytime a conversation comes up with that word I always say I only got one lovehandle (prompting lots of "Eeeeeuw" comments from girls... hehheh).

But anywayz, I had a party last Saturday to celebrate my birthday in my astrological year, the Year of the Dog. I like the description on this site a lot ^^. Well, just the first two lines, anyway. So far this year has been pretty ok, although I probably need to get planning things more thoroughly. But I'm getting sidetracked yet again.

So this party, right? It was pretty fun, one of the few times I actually organised some things for it as well (mostly it's just invinting people and getting lots of booz.. Works too, of course). I'm currently living at a place with a large grass field in the back, so I wanted to use it at least once, preferably with a BBQ or something. I was busy all day with buying and prepping the food, restructuring (and with that I mean demolishing) my room to fit in as much people as possible, and of course getting that BBQ grill ready. You can find the rest of the story at the pics page (follow the link at the Links section), along with pics, obviously. Most left at around 11-12, which was a good excuse for the rest of us to get up and head into town. There were supposed to be a couple more people that would arrive some time later, but since everybody already left, we just met in town as well. All in all it was one of the best birthdays ever!

Summertime

2006-06-13T22:02:00.000+02:00

I haven't been on for a while, mostly because

IT'S FREAKIN HOT!

Usually I don't even get that red, unless it really is really really hot, or on some ocasions when there are parties with lots of alcohol... But man, today was just too hot. And icky too. Bugs all over the place: tiny spiders, creepy bugs with wings, It was like an army out there and we were the targets.

I can still feel the itchy movements of them over my body, the annoying webs they spun around my body, the crawling all over the towels.

No, summer is definitely not my most favourite season

Sweet 26!! Uhm...

2006-05-28T23:53:00.000+02:00

Well, something like that. Just a short in betweener, it's my sisters birthday tomorrow (well, tomorrow being 8 minutes away..) So Happy Birthday in advance! Now the real gift you have to come and collect, but here's a present in advance. I know you'll enjoy this ^_^

I've got something else in that same category as well, but I'm not sure whether this one will be received that well as the previous one.... Oh well.

Fun For The Family

2006-05-28T11:54:00.000+02:00

And here I thought gaming was hot.. Poker, it seems, has become the national sport of college students. And yes, I'm guilty of it myself as well. I was introduced to it some time ago, and we sort of lost contact at a certain point, but my hand has been itching to feel the poker chips rustling through again. So I got a couple of friends together, bought a poker set to play with and Friday's has once again become Poker Night!

It's fun to play, although there are some things that could be improved. Example, as much as I would like it to be like this:

but alas, the reality probably comes closer to this
and even then without any chicks (I'm still working on that one.. :P).
[you know, even though I plucked that from a random site, the dude in the left bottom does look freakishly the same as me... I guess it's true what they say: Chinese all look alike ^^]

But that won't stop the fun. Sometimes, other people join is as well, which of course is always a good thing. I'm glad to say that my poker skills have improved over time, although it's still on little league level if you compare it to the rest of the town. The poker scene here really is pretty hot, aside from tourneys in Holland Casino and poker championships on tv, the students here also have their own matches, where things can really heat up. But I'll just stick to playing for a couple of bucks, it's much more relaxing and fun.

I don't know how to this post to an end, so I'll just finish with some random stuff

And some stuff you could put on a shirt

Blog Crisis (.... what number are we at now?)

2006-05-23T00:24:00.000+02:00

The more I see of those web-log.nl layouts, the more jealous I get... Neater layouts, polls, calender archives, categories for posts.. On the other hand, they're practically all Dutch, and I guess it is kinda weird writing an English on a Dutch-based blog... Still, weirder things have happened... Then again, on web-log.nl I wouldn't feel that akward to write a Dutch post for a change. If I ever feel like it, that is.

Anyhoo, I can't decide yet again whether I should move or not.. The move from my old site to an actual blog has saved me from the tedious HTML updating hassle, and then from Livejournal to Blogspot has indeed provided me with a decent layout, but I guess there's always room for improvement.. On the other hand, I've also noticed people getting annoyed already when I change my cell phone number (it's only like, once a year or so... Al you have to do is replace 10 numbers in your phone address book, sheesh).

So to my very few readers (if there's still one left): should I change or not? Take your time, I got all day.. Although, not this day though, I'm gonna go sleep soon.

Playtime

2006-05-14T20:01:00.000+02:00

Gaming is hot.

For those still doubtful, scroll back up again. Anyhow, where gaming used to be for geeks and nerds some years ago, now it's almost a common activity as watching TV. Or so they want us to see it... I'm not that much into it anymore, game consoles are starting to become like movie sequels, the more you produce, the more redundant it gets. Playstation 3, Xbox 360 (notice how they cleverly bypassed the 2? What's next? Xbox 129600?)... It's more of the same. Nintendo, however, takes a different approach. Once the king of game consoles (try and find anybody, anybody at all, that does not know who Mario is), they have become the underdog ever since the first Playstation stepped up. But with their latest console, things may change. A lot.

Granted, the name requires some getting used to (especially for the die-hard gamers, who have gotten used to the code-name "Revolution" when it was still in development), but man, Nintendo does know the true meaning of 'innovation'.

There's way too much I want to say about it, but then again I'm guessing not many of my readers are that interested in this particular topic. But at the very least, check out the two videos in the middle, and you'll see what I'm getting all excited about. Nintendo will definitely make a comeback.

Rolemodels

2006-05-08T00:01:00.000+02:00

Sometimes I come across other people's blogs, sometimes somebody points them out to me. One thing's for sure, though: There are some seriously hilarious bloggers out there. The latest one is from a couple of Asian dudes trying to out-funny the other (read their description). Especially these ones cracked me up:

Durex Global Sex Survey
Because I Got High
Crazy Hong Kong Man
Semen from masturbation causes blockages at Durham University

*Edit: looks like Boss Stewie even managed to take this very post and make something funny out of it... *sigh* My hero~~!!

It's Summer Again. Whoop.

2006-05-02T23:22:00.000+02:00

I just remembered why I didn't particularly like the summer season again. A mosquito apparently thought it was warm enough to show itself again. It hasted joyfully to my pink to let me know. I'm not sure whether it appreciated the pat on his back in return, but then again I didn't enjoy the news as much as it did.

If I go on vacation to a warm country, then ok, I might understand that they're around.. It's just part of the country. But here? It rains, it freezes.. it's hot for like two days in a year. Mosquitos don't have any business here. Maybe i can appeal to the politicians to have mosquitos outlawed, I see Verdonk is doing a fine job on unwanted guests already.

Well, I could go on about this for some time, but the final episode of Prison Break has just reached my hard drive, so I'm outta here. But there'll be something waiting at the pics section right after, so check back soon!

Expressing Your Life

2006-04-25T23:08:00.000+02:00

I like to do those standard things, like watching TV (well, not so much anymore nowadays, but a few shows are still awesome), going to the movies, reading books, etc. For me, it's the story that attracts me, watching or reading about other people and how they struggle with their problems. I guess their lives just seem more interesting, or rather they don't have any periods of boredom.

Since the discovery of the Internet, it's become possible for everyone to let themselves be known. Everybody can express themselves in countless ways, and in case there is a lack in interesting things to express, they can look for other people and their stories.

The latest thing I found that moved me, was a Flash movie. For those that like to make a movie or animation, Flash has become the most widely used and appreciated tool, simply because the maker can express himself the way he wants to. The movie is about two students and their wishes. I wouldn't go as far as to list 1001 wishes, but the story has gotten me to think about things. Not really a surprise there, I know, but still... I guess I'm a real sucker for these kind of movies, and Asians really are the best in making them :) It's not a high-definition movie with mindblowing animation, but then it wasn't meant to be anyways. It's about the story, and that's what also what I appreciate the most.

Happy Easter

2006-04-15T17:10:00.000+02:00

I'll update with a real post soon...

Movie Madness

2006-04-09T21:21:00.000+02:00

Last Saturday I went to "V for Vendetta". I've seen some teasers, and heard people say it was good, but not much else, so I was pleasently surprised at how well the movie was done. At first, I thought it'd be yet another comic book being splattered at the white screen. But it turns out to have a well-thought story-line. I also thought it'd be a standard action flick, seeing as it's a movie "by the makers of The Matrix". The first one was awesome, but 2 and 3 were made for the video-store. (You might say that the first one was actually "The One".. Ha ha, wow, I bet that joke has never been done before..). But the Warchowski bros seem to have reached the level of The Matrix 1 again after all.

But I've been derailing ever since the second sentence of this blog. No, this post is meant to be about the annoying things people seemingly need to do when going to the movies. First up: this dude standing behind us in the line. We had reserved some tickets, and getting them/paying for them is always a bit of a hassle, seeing as there is a whole group of us. This time though, that dude I mentioned let out the most audible sigh I've ever heard.. Like he was crying out to the world for treating him in the unfairest way he could imagine. I mean really dude, what is your problem?! We're at the register where you get things, where you ask for information, where you pay for things. If I do these things, then what is the problem? Honestly, people stand in line (it's quite busy on Saturday evenings, perhaps he didn't know this as welll), they stand in line for about 15-20 minutes. No complaint at all, at least not to the person in front of them. 10 mins left, they're still standing, maybe chatting with their partner or looking around, but no complaining. 5 mins left, they can see the ticket booth already! No complaints, on the contrary, almost there! 1 person/group in front of them: "That damn slow moving jerk, come on! Get a move on! It's almost my turn and you're delaying me!!" You'd think people would get upset by having to wait for so long, but no, it's just that one last bit of a minute that gets them all freaked out. LIKE IT MATTERS. Get a life, people. No wait, make that get a decent life. I'm going to print this post out and keep it, the next time I encounter somebody like that, he'll have something to read during that abismally terrifying last minute of waiting in line.

So that's one. No the other thing that annoyed me. Don't worry, I'll make it a bit shorter. People that show up after the movie has already started. They'll miss all the wonderful commercials and trailers, but their entertainment is not my concern. My entertainment is. Apart from disturbing the viewers that are decent enough to be on time, apart from the light outside that shoots inside distracting even more, why oh why do people also have to talk out loud?!
"Wow, it's quite full here..." NO DUH, it's because you're late!!
"Gee, I wonder where there's any place left to sit..." Don't talk, LOOK! You won't find any seats by talking to them!
I don't mind 1 or 2 people that are late, but a constant freakin' stream of annoyingly talking people that keep on coming in at about 5-10 minutes into the movie... Ghraaaaaaaaahh!

Phuh. I'm done.
What else is on?

Good Morning

2006-04-04T17:18:00.000+02:00

And in other short news:
- I went to see De Lama's (improv comedy group) yesterday, they were 'on tour' in the Stadsschouwburg. It was pretty fun ^^
- Last Saturday my housemate had his birthday, lots of people came, lots of food came too :P. That was a fun night, too
- The city webcam I mentioned 2 posts ago has gotten a new one! This one is more interesting: it's located in one of the bars of De Drie Gezusters (the Hoppe, to be precise). So, want to know if your boy/girlfriend is cheating on you? Recommend this cafe to hang out :P
- Blogger is having fun again, I guess:

Addendum: Well, I finally got my cam back, although I forgot to bring it to De Lama's on Monday. I've been to the main hall before, which looked cozy, but I'd never been inside before. So I was slighty surprised to see how small the "stage room" was. We had 2nd rung, with 1st rung being the best seats and 3rd the cheapest (well there was a 4th too, but I was told nobody got tickets for that ^^). My friend is way into De Lama's and still only managed to get 2nd rung, so at first it seemed like they were beyond popular. But after viewing the room, there were just about 100 seats for 1st rung and the second were already in the back. His little bro had tickets too for 2nd rung, but they were seated at the balcony. Which made us wonder: where the hell is 3rd rung?? Turns out later that there was not just one balcony, but several stages, so the seats weren't going backwards in rung, but upwards. Now backwards I can handle, you still see the faces of the people on stage, but upwards all you can see are their receding hairlines. Joy. They really need to restructure that building, honestly. But for now I know: never get the cheapest tickets. It will spoil a lot of the fun.

Me Take Picture You, Yes?

2006-03-22T01:24:00.000+01:00

I've noticed a decline in my picture taking moments.. Well I haven't noticed it so much with myself, but when I see how many pictures other people make all the time, I can't help to think that I'm somewhat neglecting my cam. Deep down I think that a part of it has to do with the fact that I have an ancient model, a slow working cam with limited possibilities and without even an optical zoom lens, yes those kinds of cam exist. Or rather, existed. I heard they had a sale at Mediamarkt with a cam that I had been looking for. Or rather, ogling over.. I had been waiting for it to drop in price, since I didn't want to buy another cam that would be outdated in a few years. But finally, the Canon Powershot A52 (at least I think it's that one), or something similar, at least something with optical lens and manual focus ability, is at an affordable price.

Still, I haven't been there to check it out yet. Perhaps it's the fact that I don't shoot that many pics anymore.. Why buy a new cam when I'm not using it much anyway? On the other hand, a new cam might inspire me to get going again. Well, whatever it'll be, for now you people can enjoy the last couple of pics that I took. Gotta keep this blog entertaining, eh?

*photoblogger not working. so much for entertainment huh...

*up again! so here we go:

Left: I got a new mirror again! Well, not so much a new mirror, more like I have a mirror again! Well, not so much one mirror, more like a collection of shards... Well anywayz, I can see myself again!
Right: Only 1.99!!
Below: Fussball, 1 vs 2? No problemo!

City Webcam

2006-03-14T12:52:00.000+01:00

I didn't think they would ever improve anything about it, but the webcam on the Grote Markt has finally changed to a streaming feed! Although it's only about 2 or 3 frames per second, it's still fun to actually see things moving, instead of having a single screenshot that refreshes once every 30 seconds... I guess they finally managed to get to the new millenium. Now all we need is sound too, and maybe we can actually have something better than most other city webcams.. Perhaps the next level would be a controllable webcam, with rotation and zoom :P But they'll probably save that for the next millenium.

So, if you ever come across the Grote Markt, give a small wave up (the cam is near the top corner of V&D I think). You never know who's watching ^^

En tot zo ver de nieuwswaardigheid

2006-03-08T00:08:00.000+01:00

A Dutch post, because it involves the Dutch regional elections.

In de Volkskrant(.nl):

Allochtonen stemmen massaal PvdA
ANP

AMSTERDAM - Ruim 80 procent van de allochtonen heeft bij de gemeenteraadsverkiezingen op de PvdA gestemd. Dat blijkt uit een onderzoek van het Instituut voor Migratie en Etnische Studies van de Universiteit van Amsterdam onder 3332 Turken, Marokkanen, Antillianen, Surinamers, Kaapverdianen en Molukkers.

Van de Turken stemde 44 procent op de PvdA, van de Marokkanen 40 procent. Van de Antillianen en Surinamers stemde 30 procent op de PvdA. 35 procent van de Rotterdamse Kaapverdianen stemde op de PvdA, van de Molukkers in Breda 26 procent.

Zowel rijke als arme kiezers kozen voornamelijk voor de PvdA. Bij mensen met een inkomen meer dan twee keer modaal ging de strijd tussen PvdA (24 procent) en VVD (23 procent). Bij de lagere inkomens kwamen de lokale partijen op de tweede plaats.

De PvdA is ook de grootste partij onder krantenlezers. De lezers van alle regionale dagbladen zetten deze partij op één. Bij liefhebbers van De Telegraaf en Het Financieele Dagblad is de VVD het meest populair. Lezers van de christelijke kranten Reformatorisch Dagblad en Nederlands Dagblad kiezen massaal voor de ChristenUnie, de SGP en het CDA.

Jongeren en kiezers die vier jaar geleden op lokale partijen hebben gestemd, hebben het bij de gemeenteraadsverkiezingen laten afweten. Meer dan de helft (53 procent) van de jonge kiezers tussen de 18 en 29 jaar is niet gaan stemmen. Ook een groot deel van de achterban van de lokale partijen (38 procent) bleef thuis. Dat bleek uit een opiniepeiling van Maurice de Hond onder 6000 stemgerechtigden.

De jonge kiezers die de gang naar de stembus wel maakten, stemden voornamelijk op een lokale partij (21 procent), op de PvdA (18 procent) of op de VVD (17 procent). Het opkomstpercentage was met 72 het hoogst onder de 50 tot 64-jarigen. Zij stemden vooral op de PvdA en de lokalen (respectievelijk 26 en 22 procent).

Bijna de helft van alle stemmers zei met hun stem een signaal te willen afgeven aan het huidige kabinet. Met name stemmers op oppositiepartijen deden dit, maar opvallend is ook dat een derde van de VVD-aanhang dit deed.

De helft van alle kiezers koos voor de nummer één op de lijst. Met name SP-stemmers kozen voor de lijsttrekker, de CDA-aanhang bleek het minst trouw. De kiezers op kleine christelijke partijen gaven bijna allemaal hun stem aan een man (80 procent). Bij GroenLinks koos meer dan de helft voor een vrouwelijke kandidaat.

Vrouwen bleken iets minder naar de stembus te gaan dan mannen. Het opkomstpercentage was respectievelijk 58 en 62.

Nou heb ik wel meer een wat meer skeptische blik op gepresenteerde statistieken sinds ik het vak methodologie heb gevolgd, maar dit is toch het meest onzinnige stukje tekst wat er bestaat. Laten we beginnen bij het begin: de titel geeft aan dat allochtonen massaal hebben gestemd op PvdA. In de eerste alinea wordt al gelijk duidelijk dat het niet gaat om de stemmen van allochtonen, maar om een of ander onderzoekje dat waarschijnlijk door eerstejaars studenten aan de UvA is uitgevoerd. Ik zeg eerstejaars, omdat zij waarschijnlijk nog niet zo goed kunnen rekenen (tja, die tweede fase met haar ultra-hyper-mega grafische rekenmachines hebben al die kindertjes veel te veel verwend). Of anders zijn zij zo briljant dat zij een superingewikkelde berekening hebben kunnen maken van de tweede alinea en zo op 80% zijn uitgekomen. Misschien dat elke Turk en Marrokaan voor twee telt, je weet maar nooit.

Maar we dwalen af, wat het artikel zelf ook doet. Na de eerste twee alineas trouw aan het onderwerp van de titel te zijn gebleven, mag het artikel lekker uitwijden over alle andere interessante 'feitjes' van de verkiezingen. Als ik het woord 'voornamelijk' lees, denk ik toch wel aan een verschil van méér dan 1 procent.. Gaan we naar de dagbladen. Ook weer massaal PvdA'ers. Welke bladen dat precies zijn (behalve de regionale, ja die geven een representatief beeld weer...) en hoeveel 'massaal' dit keer is, is niet van belang. Zal wel weer een procentje meer zijn.

Jongeren laten het afweten, vergeleken met 4 jaar geleden. Hoeveel er toen zijn gaan stemmen, tja doet er eigenlijk ook niet toe. Dit jaar is het meer dan de helft, dus dan moet dat wel minder zijn dan 4 jaar geleden. Blijkt uit een opiniepeiling van Maurice de Hond.

Aha.

Daar komt de aap uit de mouw. Elke keer als ik die naam hoor, moet ik intern kreunen van frustratie. Hoe speelt die man het toch keer op keer klaar om de meest onzinnige peilingen te houden en daar ook nog es 'presenteerbare resultaten' uit tegensprekende gegevens aan te kunnen toevoegen? Hij zou zelf politicus moeten worden. Met zijn bizarre krachten om iets totaal irrelevant en onjuist als een feitelijk gegeven te kunnen presenteren, zou hij zo de hele wereld kunnen overnemen.

"Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall...

2006-03-07T21:53:00.000+01:00

... Who's the fairest of them all?"

*CRASH*

"Well, it didn't have to be that explicit..." But anyhow, the mirror I recently got for my room did came crashing down from the door I stuck it to. I guess using that foamylike double-sided tape wasn't good enough after all, although it seemed like the previous owner did manage to make it stick (judging by the leftover sticky marks on the back of the mirror). Then again, the mirror was kinda heavy...

Anyhoo, while I'll be looking for a new mirror to gaze upon my exquisite beauty (*ahum*), anybody got any ideas on how to hang it easliy without it falling? I know it normally goes by drilling some hinges in the wall and placing the mirror in them, but that's a bit too much trouble. (Although buying a new mirror can become quite a hassle too of course... hmm). Well anyways, ideas are welcome, as well as any leftover mirrors that you might have :P

Merry Christmas!

2006-03-01T22:39:00.000+01:00

I told you it would snow in March.. Wheather gone all kookoo! Nothing really surprises me anymore though, the weather has become pretty unstable the last couple of years. Still, today was one of the more interesting ones.

First came a thick rain of hail, not really hard, but steadily trickling down. It stopped for a while, then it fell even softer, which made it look like it was snowing. It went on for quite a while, turning the construction site across my work pretty white. Afterwards, it turned into real snow, noticable by the almost 90% horizontal line in which it fell (or rather blew) past. Thankfully it diminished again, so much that it didn't trouble me when I went to do some healthy activities (aka sports, if you can call climbing a sport that is). When finished, I came across a couple of snowmen, shaking all their excess luggage off at the entrance. By the time I exited the building though, it had stopped again. Father Winter must be kind to me :)

I don't mind the snow, I like it. It's so pure and peaceful, nice to look at and fun to play with. It's just too bad that it has to be that cold :P. But then again, it does provide us with another oppertunity to make-a-flake again! ^^

Eating the Trail of Breadcrumbs

2006-02-25T10:27:00.000+01:00

The discovery for this week: people are greedy. Not really something new, but this time I've noticed a different aspect of the greediness that makes people do silly things. It started with a friend of mine that kept on texting (SMS) while we were playing pool. Upon questioning, he answerered that his contract would be over soon, so he had to use up all the minutes he had left. Had to.

He did it so compulsively, that I started to wonder. Why? I mean, you have to pay the monthly fees regardless of whether you use it or not, and why should you put so much time and energy just to send some meaningless messages to people that you otherwise wouldn't even consider? After all, the main reason for ever starting a mobile subscription is because people want a new phone. The subscription fee is just a monthly payment for the phone, and unless you're one of those cell phone freaks, you'll mostly end up with minutes that you're not using at all.

I've heard the same stories at work, people that have leftover minutes from the previous month, and upon hearing that they state "Oh I'd better call a lot more then".. Calliing back the next month of course, because they have called too much and are now stuck with a higher bill than usual.

It's like food, let's say you make too much each time. How many people pain theirselves by stuffing down the leftovers when they're already full up? I agree that it is kind of a waste (I mean, think of the hunger in third world countries! Yet how many people do you see donating money, food or their cell phones?).. But still, no need to make it harder for yourself to feel a little better for not wasting it.

But hey, to each their own, and if you want to make the most of what you have (or have left over), be my guest. Just don't annoy me with it.

Who's Up For A Second Date?

2006-02-25T10:26:00.000+01:00

I'm guessing March will be a noodle month..

mmmmmm.... *drool*

The Dating Show

2006-02-18T10:48:00.000+01:00

A post this early in the morning on a Saturday, something must be wrong with me... Especially with the last couple of days, parties and get-togethers to spare. I think I said somewhere earlier that January was an expensive month.. Well, I can add February to that as well, although the expenses in this month have been more for pleasure than business. Which is fine as well of course, who doesn't like pleasure? :P

I do see somewhat of a problem in writing posts in the morning, I can't think of anything to write about... But with Valentine's Day fresh in mind and people bugging me about it constantly, I might as well elaborate on that a bit further. Ok, first of all, it's not a date. It was fun when I teased her about it, but less so when people keep asking me what happened with those smirks on their faces. But I suppose I should start at the beginning. So she went on vacation to China during the Christmas holidays and a bit longer, me of course being jealous cuz I was stuck with exams and assignments. I kept bugging her about getting me lots of souvernirs to make up for it, which she would if I in turn promised to treat her to lunch sometime. Done deal. So she got back, I got some cool thingies and we had to set a date (as in time, not "date").

Me: "I'm pretty busy during the week, maybe it's better to have dinner instead?"
Her: "Uhm, yeah sure... What did you have in mind?"
Me: "I know this Italian restaurant, it's in the centre, across the Hema"
Her: "Alright. When do you want to go?"
Me: "Mmmm (very nonchalant ^^), how about Tuesday?" *grins*
Her: *checks agenda* "Well, I have to get up early on Wednesday, Monday's would be better.."
Me: "Awww, I had my 'heart' set on Tuesday" :P

Her (later again): "O wait, I already have something on Monday. I guess it's Tuesday then."
Me: "Are you sure? Check your agenda again :P"
Her: "Yeah Tuesday's fine. I just won't make it late then"
Me: "No I mean seriously, check your agenda again ;)"
Her: "... .... ......." "OMG! No waaaaaaaaaaay!"

She was so busy with her schedules that she totally forgot about it.. But in the end it was still Tuesday, so that was fun ^_^

And Here I Thought Monday's Were Stressful

2006-02-11T21:15:00.000+01:00

So last Friday, yesterday, was kinda busy, seeing as I had to hand in a deadline which I kept delaying and delaying until of course there was no more time left and I had to work pretty late on Thursday, about 2 in the morning and then getting up early again for work or classes and having to work on my assignment again the rest of the day, until the time came when I absolutely had to hand it in, because I also had to go back home to pick up my OV-kaart (public transportation card), which I of course couldn't get because I once again forgot my "pasfoto's" (what's that? Framed pictures, document picture or something?) and since I already had to go through all that hassle to do it once (the previous week, for my driver's license, which they found again, so I didn't need the pics after all), I didn't feel like doing that again and besides I probably couldn't switch it to a weekend card directly anyway (this would become my ' 2nd' card, so I'd have one during the week and one for the weekend :P), I decided just to skip it and instead move some additional stuff at home to my room since I was home anyway and also had promised to meet with some friends in the evening, which of course meant that I had to leave pretty soon after dinner, driving to my old room again to pick up the leftover stuff, which turned out to be a lot more than I thought and a lot heavier too, meaning I would be running a bit late since I also had to move everything back out again in my new room (which is three stories high without an elevator), but in the end that didn't matter because they were still waiting for a table (we went to Q-Action to play some pool), it turned out to be quite busy as always, but finally we managed to get one and played for a while until some of the guys got hungry and we decided to get some grub at one of the shoarma joints, from where we decided to go to Santana's (for a change of scenery, it's like a bar with pool tables.. go figure), but as it turned out it was quite busy there as well, so we decided to play some fussball where things got pretty wild (as far as you can go, playing a game like fussball) and after a few games decided to call it a night.

Until I had to get up early again to go to work and, well, having yet another busy day after that... But that's another story.

Well?

2006-02-06T21:59:00.000+01:00

Is the auto-blog working? :P

Some Year Of The Dog

2006-01-29T19:44:00.000+01:00

Chinese New Year today, it's 2006 the Year of the Dog. That's right, it's "my" year. Or so they say. January hasn't exactly brought me fame and fortune yet...

The good part is that I've finished those horrible exams, so I've got some time over to chill and handle my other business.

The bad part is that moving out to my new room has become quite a hassle, there's a lot more stuff I need to buy then I anticipated. But that's still positive compared to other events, like losing my driver's license, my bike giving up on me, already failing one of the exams and my work schedule that seriously gets in the way every time I want to plan something. I think I said December was an expensive month, well it aint nothin' compared to January...

I wish I could hibernate for a whole year

Arming the Maggots

2006-01-20T21:27:00.000+01:00

Now that the horrible period called 'mid-terms' are over, I finally have some time to relax again. The only thing left is a thesis and some minor courses, but it'll mean less time consuming schoolwork and more time for leisure activities. Which leaves me with too much time too spare.

Since I have the habit of fanatically starting something, but never really finishing it (or if I do, it's usually called 'good enough'), I have decided to resurrect my old Worms the Boardgame. Most of my (2 or 3) readers will remember what I'm talking about, the old project I started in high school when I was delirious about Worms. (Maybe I should contact my old supplier of drawings, the cartoon company called "E"... ^^ *insider joke*)

I've redesigned the layout and gameplay, and I'm hoping to finally be able to finish it. Of course, help is much appreciated, so if anyone is interested in making some cool sketches that I can use, send me a "Yeah BaBy, CounT me In!!" For starters, I could use (comic style) drawings of worms holding various weapons, funny scenes containing landmines and also for sleeping worms, sheep that can explode, a holy grenade, something to do with old grandma's pie, etc. Here's what the Worms originally look like

Help Me Furnish My Room!

2006-01-16T16:42:00.001+01:00

So yeah, I'm moving to another room yet again (I know what you're thinking.. "how many is this?" :P) But anywayz, this room hasn't been furnished yet, so I'll have to do it myself. And you can help!

Now, how does this work? I've made a rough blueprint of my room below (Click to enlarge) and the furniture that has to be stuffed inside. I need your help to decide how to fit everything in it. You can take the picture and edit it (I love cutting and pasting ^^) then send it to me or upload it yourself, you can also just describe how you would do it. Now, the drawing is just a sketch, so keep a small margin in case it's a tight fit. The arrows at the tables mean I can stuff things underneath from those sides, so I'd like to keep them clear of the wall. I don't have a couch or extra closet yet, but I would like them as well, so maybe you can plan that ahead, too! The table at the bottom (as well as the table on the right, now that I think about it) is optional, but I would like to use it if possible. Oh FYI: The bottom table is a low one, like a salon table. The top one is sort of a desk, the left one is medium height, just right for my TV, and the right one is also medium/low, like a nightstand.

So get going, be creative!

More Quirks

2006-01-13T17:49:00.000+01:00

I came across a city bus today, with Line nr. 600.

It was heading to Schiphol.

I Wonder If There Are Feet Transplants

2006-01-12T17:47:00.000+01:00

The good thing is that the wound from last week's ice-skating is healing up, or doesn't hurt anymore at the very least, but now I'm off my feet again due to yesterday's Capoeira lesson.. Two hours of swinging around bare feet has a certain unpleasant effect. Especially the big toes, I really should learn not to rotate on those anymore...

As for other things, well, not much news actually. I've been making some more of those snowflakes to get through the boring hours, but I guess I also ought to start learning for my mid-terms... Oh yeah, pics of NewYears are finally up to. Check out the pics section

How Was Your Vacation?

2006-01-06T13:03:00.000+01:00

So I guess it's time for another blog already.. It's nog gonna be that long, Januari is a busy month. I got mid-terms to study for, reports to write, yet again a new place to find.. And still, all I do is party. Vacation pretty much brings out the slouchy side of me (even more than usual I mean). I keep telling myself I'm gonna change, I'm going to start early with stuff so I don't get all stressy, but I guess that's just the nature of a student.. Although I do know some people, they're just like workhorses and content with it too. Everbody's got their deviations I guess.

So anywayz, I've got some pics of Newyear's Eve that I'll upload sometime this month, it wasn't that spectacular, but hey, it's something to do. I went clubbing in Leeuwarden with some friends (yeah people go out in Fryslân, they're not entirely weird). I went ice-skating last Tuesday for the first time in around 10 years, needless to say I didn't go very fast. But I did manage to skate for a while, and I only fell twice! ^^ Unfortunately they used those icehockey skates (the ones that look like rollerblades) and they kind of chafed on my foot..

So yeah, that's a quick update of what I have been up to. Awesome huh, bet you can't top that :P

The Good, The Weird And The Annoying

2005-12-27T22:42:00.000+01:00

Christmas was alright, we don't usually do anything special with it.. This time just a small dinner with some family and friends. I also went to see King Kong with some friends the night before, it was pretty good except I didn't expect it to be so frikkin' long! Well yeah, I expected it to be long (seeing Peter Jackson's previous works *rolleyes*), but still it was looooong.. But Christmas is usually not that booming. It's New Year's Eve that gets us to party :P

So yeh, that was good.

I came home from work today, and it was hella cold! Finally some snowfall, I love it when I'm either warm and cozy inside or out there having snowball fights and stuff ^_^, but it's anotherthing to drive into the stinging cold and over slippery, frozen roads. Anywayz, on my way home, I passed a dude who was getting into his car. He tried to open the door, but suddenly the handle just broke off! O_0 I heard a loud cracking sound and also drove over a piece as it was heading my way...

So yeh, that was weird.

And for the completely useless information bit today, I need to get a new toothbrush. The one I use at home (which for some reason they don't sell anymore...) has been totalled by my father. He doesn't just brush his teeth, he wages war on them. With the result being that the tootbrush hairs bend over like a cocktail umbrella.

So yeh, that was annoying.

Red vs. Red

2005-12-18T21:30:00.000+01:00

No, not some cloning mishap between the Red vs. Blue crew, but good old Saint Nicholas vs. jolly Santa Clause. There always seem to be a power struggle between the two, since they're both celebrated in the same month and people that favour Saint Nic get mad when people that like Santa already put up Christmas decorations.. Sorry, I mean Happy Holiday decorations.. Yep, it's basically like the dogfights between Christmas vs "holiday" that they have going in the US. And here I thought Dutch people were a bit more sensible...

Anywayz, here's a sneak peek at what I got from Saint Nicholas. Story follows later on..
Hokay, so I guess the surprise is a bit gone now, but anywayz, it was a cool party. One of the girls here always likes to organise these little get-togethers, and of course Saint Nic was one of those times. So we wrote names on pieces of paper, threw them together and then picked one for whom we had to buy a gift. Sort of like a secret Santa, only with Nic instead. With the gift there also had to be a poem, because Nic is just so cool that he adds poems with the gifts (or something like that). Below is the poem and the gift that I got.

Roses are red, voilets are blue,
I didn't know what the f*** to get you,
I don't know if you have a girl or two,
But in any case this will do

__

Yeah it was one of the guys... Now the really funny thing is that he got the same gift ^^

Fashion Passion

2005-12-15T12:10:00.000+01:00

Not that I'm a total fashion junkie, far from it. Usually I just have normal stuff, nothing that really stands out or anything trendy. I just don't feel like spending that much money and time on clothes.. But during my last adventure in Rotterdam, I felt in the mood for some shopping. After all, there's a lot more to do there than back in lill' old Groningen.

So anywayz, I got me those pair of slacks, a pair of dark brown pants with a slight bit of blue-ish glow (pretty weird actually :P), and a pair of simple black ones, sort of a mix between those neat kind of trousers (pantalon?) and jeans. Now the black one isn't an issue, I can match that with lots of things. It does feel a bit weird, because it's all stretchy and stuff. I recently learned that girls jeans also have that kind of stretchy ability (which is probably the reason for those 'too-tight-to-fit-properly-but-I'm-gonna-squeeze-into-it-anyway' looks that the girls always seem to have), and although it fits just fine with me, I'd still rather have the normal jeans that are just, you know, plain jeans. No size manipulation that make you think you can wear a size smaller, no tight jeans clinging onto your legs for dear life, just plain old jeans that fit loosely around your legs.

No, the problem is those brown jeans. I thought it was a cool thing to have, after all, I don't usually wear brown. But now that I have it next to my wardrobe, my lack of fashion begins to show. What do I wear with dark brown jeans? I'm not all that fussed about looking like a fashion model, but these days sort of demand that youngsters have at least a bit of sense what you can and can't wear. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Just don't tell me to wear it with a clown-suit or anything like that.

Finally, My Ramen Has Arrived

2005-12-11T14:18:00.000+01:00

Now that the requests for pics of my Rotterdam adventure are out of the way, I can finally focus on writing a post that is actually relevant to the title of my blog. I'm of course talking about Wagamama, which after the UK and New Zealand also has expanded to other countries, and The Netherlands being one of the proud few! And what's even more, besides having a Wagamama in the capital city (the most logical place), now we've also got one in Groningen too!!! So if you're ever around, gimme a call and prepare for yummy food ^^

You might ask what Wagamama actually is (being too lazy to follow the links...), well in short it's a noodle bar/restaurant. Or, as it's described in Japanese, ramen! Yes, ramen, that delicious noodle soup that comes with a variety of food to top it off. It may be a bit pricey for lunch, but it's well worth it! Maybe I can subscribe to it for a discount or something.... Mmmmmmm ramennnn

On Lonely Blogger Heights

2005-12-09T17:36:00.000+01:00

Another blog I occaisionally read, had a post recently as to why so few people leave comments. May (a different one than from the post below) had an insight as to how much traffic was generated in a period of time, which would be an indication for how many people read her blog. Turns out she does have quite a few readers. I won't be calling out everybody who reads my blog to post a comment, because well frankly I'm scared there won't be much difference.

But there is something I have noticed though. After browsing around a bit through random personal blogs, one of the first things is that most of the bloggers are female. And why wouldn't they be? After all, a blog is much like a diary that other people can read, too. And guys, well, they're normally not known for talking about their feelings, let alone writing about them (now I never said I was normal, so it's okay for me). But perhaps I should make it more manly, more butch, although I don't see much use in that: female bloggers just keep talking and talking about their own things and ignore others (not you Lin, you're swell ^^) and guys usually just comment on blogs of girls in the hope of getting her attention 8-)

So there's only one thing left to do: become a transsexual and turn myself into a girl. Like they say in showbizz: Anything for ratings!

Girls Should Not Game

2005-12-06T21:04:00.000+01:00

December 4th, 2005

May: "guess what!"
Me: "what?"
May: "I played on an Xbox 360 today!"
Me: "whoa!! those just came out like two days ago.. Apparantly they're all sold out already!"
May: "Ronnie (bf) bought one! ^^"
Me: "That's pretty awesome! So what did you play?"
May: "Bejeweled!"
Me: "...."

You Win Some, You Lose Some...

2005-12-04T23:57:00.000+01:00

...But Dim Sum Always Good.

Short story: Me and my homie Oene, racing to catch the train (guess who's late again) in the morning, introducing Sudoku to a new victim, arriving 250km further on in Rotterdam, navigating through the totally demolished Central Station (restructuring or something), Dim Sum at the Grand Palace (yummmmmmm), shopping spree until closing time, chilling out at Holland Casino, then club hunting although not so succesful (man this place is big), eventually 'stranding' at the Baja Beach Club (totally clueless.. hey it played good music, no?), finding out why they charged so much entrance fee, switching to a real club after a while, ended up in Hollywood and going all out. First morning train back, home, dead. 2 hours later zombified to work.

Long story: You don't wanna know. Trust me

Still deciding whether or not to put the pics up...
And it looks like they are. Clickie!

A Quick In-Betweener

2005-12-03T21:26:00.000+01:00

I love those people... be sure to watch the videoclip too!

Maybe I should make a seperate blog for this stuff as well.... ^_^

Let's Get This Party Started

2005-11-25T09:05:00.000+01:00

Whooo Harry Potter was fun! Doesn't compare to the books, of course, but Mike Newell (director) has done a great job compressing over 600 pages into 2,5 hours.. I think this one may also be the best one yet, although nothing can top the initial exhiliration I felt when I first saw Harry Potter (the first one, hadn't heard of him before that). It was fun going with an entire group, too, though I did not expect so many people to turn for it (since the premier was on Wednesday and there also is a Dutch version of it showing. AND there was a gruesome rain falling). Luckily we reserved some tickets, because upon entrance of the theatre there were signs all over the place posted up "Harry Potter has been sold out today". A crowd of women standing before a store with a supersale stunt wouldn't even come close to the masses that were lined up before the movie room! They also enlisted the help of ushers this time, to make sure that we all close ranks and don't keep empty seats. What surprises me most is the type of audience, mostly all students like myself. It surprises me because I normally don't see the Potter mania like when I was in London, when everybody on the street was either carrying or reading Part 5. But then again the bicycle/"other transport" ratio is kind of reversed compared to here...

Anywayz, with the few people that we had left after the movie, we went to a cafe to enjoy the rest of the night. And as promised, I'd post up the freaky ads that I get here from time to time.

Honestly, some people are just freaky. And others, they're just weird. Here's a pic of somebody using stamps to send a letter.

You'd think they were wizards using Muggle equipment for the first time or something, like Ron did.... Oh well... at least they give me a laugh...

Winter's Coming!

2005-11-22T16:41:00.000+01:00

As mentioned in the previous one, it's going to be a pretty busy season. Apart from the national holidays, there are quite some people that have their birthday's around this time as well.. Meaning I'll be living on bread and water for a while to pay for all the gifts. But then again, this is the time of the year that I look forward to the most, plenty of parties and holidays to keep me busy.

But that's not the only thing why I like this season. Lots of people say the like spring or summer the best, because of nice weather and of course vacation breaks, but I'll take winter any day. The days may be short and the nights cold, but there's nothing more enjoyable than to watch a movie, sitting on a warm and cozy couch, and a girl wrapped in my arms. Now, if I can just get that last part, I'm set. But besides that, I just love snow, it's the most fun precipitation there is! (= "neerslag", that was a hard one, I actually had to look it up). I also enjoy gazing at the stars and the moon, they have something mysterious yet peaceful to ease my stressful mind.

It is sad though, that lately there hasn't been much snow anymore. At least not during the time it should be... The weather has been really messed up these last couple of years. Despite that setback, the season makes well up for it in holidays and parties. We've got Sinterklaas coming up first, which is somewhat of a personalized Santa Clause, and then of course Christmas itself, followed by New Year's. Let's hear them jingle bells!

Fear

2005-11-17T23:01:00.000+01:00

Despite the workload I had the last couple of weeks, there were a couple of parties I had to attend to. Well actually it doesn't really matter what the occasion is, partying in general just has an higher priority (still, I managed to resist a lot of temptations). Anywayz, the first was a birthday of an old friend, we went to the new Chinese sort of multi-restaurant. It's basically a buffet with a stir-fry ('wok' in Dutch) section, a Japanese teppanyaki section and lots of other parts, like soup, appetizers/salads, traditional Chinese/Indonesian food (like nasi, babi pangang, foe yong hai, that sort of stuff) and desserts/fruits. All in all, pretty much to choose from. It was lots of fun, since it made me sidetrack from my original point.

Namely the second party, which was also a birthday from another friend. We first chilled at her place, watching "Saw", a refreshing horror movie. It had one moment in it that scared the hell out of me even though it was sort of predictable. It didn't help that the others were engaged in some conversation either.. They were looking at me like I was some kind of freak (well, I did freak out then), but they were the ones disctracting me! After that we went clubbing, which was also good.

I've noticed people noticing me for being jumpy in horror movies, especially in the parts where scaring moments are meant. Sometimes I react more than others do, and they don't understand why I'm scared of that fragment. I don't understand why they are not. A horror movie is meant to be scary, okay you can have afwully bad movies, but I generally watch good ones. There's no point in watching them though, if you're gonna sit there like a potato sack and predicting when and when there will be scary moments, or just thinking the movie is boring and not paying attention to it. When watching a movie in general it's already more fun to just put your mind on zero and get sucked in the story. And horror movies are best enjoyed when being scared.

So.... Booga, booga, booga!
And I'm off to another party... busy season O_o

Stress

2005-11-06T13:05:00.000+01:00

Mid-terms have started, which is why I haven't updated in a while.. they'll last about another week or two, so there won't be much to do here until then. But you can always, I dunno, go play outside or something? Be sure to come back though ;)

Party at Chow's Hoekie

2005-10-26T15:58:00.000+02:00

I made a new page for the pics, so I wouldn't be cluttering up my blog with and endless list of pics. For some strange reason, it doesn't really work that well (Internet Explorer and Firefox even have different problems), but at least you'll be able to see the pics.

I posted up pics of a party we had last Monday and I've also put the other pics of the bowling thing from SNT there.. Click on the "My Pics!" link on your right to go to the pics page

Coming Soon

2005-10-23T09:19:00.000+02:00

*drool*

Skip the commercial and TV spot, they're not that super. Watch the others from top to bottom, and you'll be drooling as well :P.

I was a bit concerned that th 4th Harry Potter movie would be like the third one, too much focused on wanting to be different and flattening the storyline to a minimum, but seeing the trailers I think the old magical excitement will return again. Still, it's a big book to squeeze into 2-3 hours... I guess I can only give my opinion after I see it. One thing's for sure though: I really, really love them trailers ^^

The only thing I don't understand is why The Philippines and most other South-Asian countries get to see the movie before us, before even the UK.. But at least it'll show here, I'd hate to be a Harry Potter fan living in China.

25 days to go, 15 hours, 56 minutes, 27 seconds...

Of Strikes And Spares

2005-10-10T23:29:00.000+02:00

There was a little get-together with the people I work with last Saturday. Well little, about 30 or so of us went bowling, which was a hoot. Pins were flying around, and in my case, bowling balls too..

The group of people I worked with thought it was time to organize a teambuilding activity again. After some voting and discussing we decided bowling, the good old solid activity (it's almost like KTV in Asia) that companies embark on so often. The first pick was to have a BBQ though, but since the weather is never reliable, we opted for the second one instead. After deciding on an optional friend to bring along, we managed to get most of the bowling centre for ourselves.

The lane that I was playing at had a weird malfunction, in which two pins were swept away each time after the first throw (for those oblivious to bowling: you get 2 throws, after the first throw the pins that weren't knocked down are being lifted up by some sort of grappler and a sweeper comes along to wipe away any pins that may have still been lying there). For some reason, the grappler kept missing 2 of the pins. Which made my score increase very nicely with 2 points each time...

After the first round, the second one went a lot better. I finally figured out that it wasn't the hard throwing, but rather aiming was more important (it did feel good to act like a jackass, though.. but I thought it'd be best not to screw up the team's average score again). Since the bowling balls varied in size and weight, it was important to pick a good one and stick with it... Seeing as we shared a set of balls with the team in the next lane, many catfights ensued. The lane all the way on the left seemed to have bowled enough, judging by the looks in which they threw the balls... It was more like playing marbles.

We had only around 10 minutes left when we started the 3rd round, so I wanted to do the jackass routine again. Only this time, the ball seemed to hit the mark correctly. That's right, three strikes in a row. "Turkey" Jackson, on a roll. Some were questioning my methods (get a heavy ball, leave it dangling from your arm, walk towards the lane, swing it forward with your hips when you get to the line and turn around back before it hits the pins), but it got the job done.

We finished with saying goodbye to one of our colleaugues (she was starting a new job elsewhere) and went out in the city to spend the rest of the night in good drunkness.

Some eye-candy ^^:

A pic of two of the teams, I was on the right one.. the J somewhere on the bottom of the score screen is mine, you know, the one with the turkey. And of course it's so very exciting to see how well the others are doing! Well, that and this was the only good pic with me on it...

See the rest of the pics on the "Pictures!" page!

The First Step Is To Admit

2005-09-29T19:14:00.000+02:00

I've recently found some new things to waste my time in those "I-don't-wanna-study" hours (which are many). The first one is Sudoku, apparently a new hype of which I don't exactly know where it comes from, nor does anyone else around me. It's a really cool puzzle, since you don't need any knowledge of any kind, but still hard enough to make you think. I could explain how it works, but that would take too long, I can spend my time much better (like doing the puzzles). It's being published in Sp!ts, one of the free papers that you can get with publice transports (although it's also branched out to schools, work offices, etc). The stack of papers nowadays is already gone by lunchtime, or else all the puzzles have already been filled in, so it's a real struggle to get one of them in time. Well, at least I'm not the only one wasting my time..

Another thing I've been doing is Hexic, one of those MSN games. A friend of mine always bothers me with 7 Hand Poker, and I thought another game would be nice for a change. Big mistake. If Diamond Mine was an addicting game, this one will cause you to get withdrawal symptoms. The difference with other games is that you can actually finish this game, although it'll have to be done in one session, which will take a looong time. And when it comes to that, nobody plays games like the Japanese. But being a true gamer, I just can't leave a game alone until I've finished it, so there goes another part of my life.

I'm kinda surprised I even had time to write this

Old Friend

2005-09-25T13:28:00.000+02:00

I recently bought a new bag, a backpack, since my old one finally gave way... It's strange how people can get attached to things like that, I've had the bag for about 5-6 years now and even though it was deteriorating for a while now, I just never felt like getting a new one. I guess it's the familiarity of it that makes it hard to part with it. I got a similar backpack, one of those standard Eastpack bags (my old one was basically the same, except it had a "Lowland" label), but the difference is really noticable. Well, there are some actual differences of course, but still it doesn't feel I can get used to it the same way as my old one. I guess I'll have to wait 5 years again for that same feeling to appear...

Help Wanted

2005-09-15T20:42:00.000+02:00

Just to illustrate how gross it can get over here: a letter from the board

For the non-dutch: we got mice in the flat. Mice. I mean seriously, do we live in 1673 or something? Haven't seen one yet, but I can only imagine how worse the other floors must be if they're having mice problems... It also says we can get traps to set it up ourselves, which highlights the other great things they do around here (being cheap bastards and doing as little as possible for the maintenance of the building). Well, screw that, I'm not going to share my cheese and I could use a new pet anyway.

Although I can't say I'm very surprised about it, junk just keeps piling up and no one thinks it's necessary to take responsibility. Our bicycle stall even has a graveyard: old, forgotten or plain broken bikes get thrown on a heap when it gets in the way, sometimes even when the bikes áre still used (like mine was one time... damn assholes. It wasn't even in the way).

At least I'll be a little more motivated to find a good room next time I move again.

Quizmaster

2005-09-05T23:50:00.000+02:00

The fastest way to get to know someone is by taking those online quizzes. Well, maybe not that fast for you guys, but for me it's easy since I only have to check boxes from mupltiple choice questions ^^. Anywayz, I came across one from a friend and decided to do that one as well. It's about dating and stuff (*hint, hint*).

Your dating personality profile:

Big-Hearted - You are a kind and caring person. Your warmth is inviting, and your heart is a wellspring of love.
Romantic - You know exactly how to melt your date's heart. Romance comes naturally to you and is an important component of any relationship you have.
Shy - You are often timid around others, though you will open up when the right person comes along.

Your date match profile:

Practical - You are drawn to people who are sensible and smart. Flashy, materialistic people turn you off. You appreciate the simpler side of living.
Big-Hearted - You want someone compassionate, someone gentle and kind. A loving, nurturing person will fill that hole in your life.
Romantic - You need someone with a traditional understanding of romance. A true romantic is a must-have in any potential date.

Your Top Ten Traits

1. Big-Hearted
2. Romantic
3. Shy
4. Practical
5. Traditional
6. Adventurous
7. Funny
8. Liberal
9. Sensual
10. Intellectual

Your Top Ten Match Traits

1. Practical
2. Big-Hearted
3. Romantic
4. Sensual
5. Adventurous
6. Conservative
7. Athletic
8. Traditional
9. Funny
10. Outgoing

Take the Online Dating Profile Quiz at Dating Diversions

Public Transport Protocol

2005-09-01T23:43:00.000+02:00

Public transport has it's ups and downs. It gets me places, sometimes has nice girls to accompany me during the ride, but once in a while you come across a person that does not belong there. Especially in trains, when it's a long ride, you don't want these kind of people next to you.

Last time, it was a big fat black dude. The seats aren't that spacey already, and now I'm even more cramped. But that's not the worst. He had a very distinct odour of MacDonalds around him, and it's really hard not to smell that stuff when you're next to him. Take a damn shower before you go travelling, sheesh. But even that's not the worst. No, he also had to be annoying. Being annoying gets you on the top list of things I hate the most (well duh), and he came very close to it. The dude just couldn't stay still, oh no, he amused himself by humming tunes, sometimes mumbling stuff, talking to nobody in particular and patting or drumming his knee while shaking it, too. If there ever was an official definition for the words 'spaz', this would be it.

Another person did it with sounds too. A middle age Chinese man sat behind me once, and kept making the most annoying sound ever: the tjirping sound when you use your tongue to clean your mouth. I think he didn't even do it to clean up, but just because he liked to do it. And if he did, well seriously, if you can't do it in a couple of tries, don't keep trying it! He kept it up for about half an hour, when luckily I reached my destination.

So here's my plea: stop being freakin' annoying. I've set up some pointers that you can follow:

1. Don't keep slapping your knee or any other body part. It's not your bitch.
2. Also don't keep shaking the body part by itself, it doesn't have an attention deficit disorder.
3. Stop making the same noise that comes out of your mouth if it doesn't have any real purpose. You're not going to win a talent contest with it.
4. Don't make so much noise when you're riding with your buddies. We're total strangers, who don't give a damn how popular you are with your boyz. And unless they are deaf, they don't need to hear you shouting either.
5. Don't accept cookies from strangers. Unless they're from me and you're a cute girl.

That last one doesn't really fit in there, but hey, it never hurts to try.

Hit Me

2005-08-28T23:22:00.000+02:00

I guess it's time for a new post already. I keep coming up with new things that I want to write, but I never get around to writing them and uploading them here. As you might have seen with previous posts and this blog's information, I keep editing stuff over and over again. That's something I'm trying to do less, since it's confusing and all for readers. But anywayz, I'll post something worthwhile soon. In the meantime you can have some fun with this: http://www.urbandictionary.com/

where everyone can give their own definition to words! Comes in handy too, for slang words and other things like that. And of course, it's funny to read what people think about it. Take this for example.

I've also come across some cool stuff about Le Parkour, better known as the city jumpers, where people do almost stunt-like moves to sprint, jump and climb their way through urban buildings. They even made a movie starring one of the founders of the movement, who of course showed some of his awesome moves. The movie is called Banlieue 13 and is well worth the watch!

Clean Up On Isle 6

2005-08-18T13:35:00.000+02:00

First off, my Internet connection is up and running, yay! Turns out I should've just gone to the university and ask if they could hook me up in the first place and get the right settings from them. Meh.

In a desperate attempt to clear my face, before the threat of increasingly looming zits become reality, I've decided to cut back on meat, having a dinner without it for a change. Really, how vegetarians manage to live in this world is beyond me. Meat is good. I like it. I enjoy it. I crave it. I have just had one dinner without meat and already I'm getting side-effects like being restless, easily distracted and cranky. Well, more than usual that is. It's not even like I haven't had meat for an entire day, but only dinner in the evening! And the worst thing about it is that I have to go on another dinner without meat, since I always have to buy food for two or more days (most of the food is too much to finish in one day and food that was made specifically for one day is too expensive). Ack.

I'm also really starting to miss my old place more and more. Since there are a lot of foreign students in this buidling, they don't tend to stick around for very long. As such, the level of responsibility is a lot lower than my previous place. Add the fact that the cleaning crew only comes by once a week, and the fact that the kitchen / living room (or community room, if you will) is also much smaller, it's no surprise to find myself longing back to my previous room. That place was more of a guys place (there was a smaller building behind for girls only) and I thought since there were more girls at my new place, things would be tidier. Of course I forgot they were foreign, making all sorts of exotic food and messing up the place in the process. But those are just a few, most of the people here are still on vacation. Guess I'll just have to make the best of things, as usual.

On a sidenote, KEI-week is starting today! It's a week where new students from all over are introduced to student life in this city, meaning frat parties, drinking booz until you throw up, pub crawling till it's light and some silly things to do in the afternoon when you're still recovering from a hangover. See you next week ^^