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#    02'01'31 14:11    link

Hitherto unknown, now found out: the relationship between Eiffel, Perl and Apach...

# A Royal PITA, or: how to piss an Amsterdammer off    02'01'30 16:42    link

It has been dominating the headlines in our small country by the sea for a year now (only interrupted briefly, and reluctantly, in september) but if you're from anywhere but the netherlands, i doubt that you've heard of this it. Literally, 'it': that's what it's called here. 'Het Huwelijk.' The royal wedding. This saturday, PWA, heir to the throne, does the vow thing and grand style, and Amsterdam is suffering.
I am pissed off, and judging from the atmosphere on the streets, i'm not alone. Amsterdammers are known to be fiercely independent, and the safety measures are so extreme, that the mood on the streets seems to be, 'what the fuck are they doin?'. All the bike racks have been removed along the route and environs, weeks ago already - a guaranteed way to piss the dutch off. There's lots of police on the street already, looking all important and nervous, in cars or even jeeps, rather than on cycles or on foot. traffic will be totally disrupted for days (no public transport, a rather busy cycle path close), and a special law is in place that makes the places where it all happens a warzone. And a Big Brother-set as well: the police has set up a system of at least hundreds, but more likely around thousand cameras whose stream is recorded. it is so over the top.

Indymedia is buzzing with activity, and the official Republican Society (not our local GOP charter, just in case you were wondering) has a stage along the route where they'll be hosting a full day of anti-royal activities: Het Witte Plein. If i dare go into town - it will be totally swamped with people, i'm afraid - i'll be there.
so far, so good. now about my other main gripe (yes, i am really irritated). The prince, PWA, is a bit of a dumb guy, or maybe just not very sussed. What to do, you can't choose when trusting heritage to come up with an ideal candidate can you? He managed to win over a woman who has the brains to make up for him. From Argentina, with a rather discutable father, minister during the horrendous regime in the 70s. About which she's in denial.
damnit, i can't come to the point. here it is. This maxima is definately sussed - she's worked in NYC for a few years in high finance, citicorp i believe. There are a few pieces of footage from 'before' she hit the spotlight, showing a latin party-animal. Since the couple's gone public though, she's dressed in the kind of characterless, soulless and sexless luxury clothing that are more fitting to a politician's wife in her fifties.
and i think she knew this would happen. she's sussed enough for that. i do not believe that she is another diana, as if that'd be possible after her whole story unfolded anyway. in other words, she knew what she was getting into and i think she likes it.
so, she doesn't mind to sell out. She doesn't mind to play a role the rest of her life - she seems to like it. What is she getting out of it? what is she up to? and that's going to be our next head of state?

links for the day:

# meanwhile, people talk about cameras    02'01'24 00:58    link

meanwhile people all around me are crazy about digital cameras. despite editing handwritten letters with vi (yes, vi), i feel so lovely analogue: i just bought a nikkormat FT3 and splashed out on some nice Agfa paper!

# on writing    02'01'24 00:47

i've been busy writing a letter for a couple of days now. not that i'm staring at the paper continuously, but my mind keeps grinding in the background.
there are people who focus, think, then write, and i'm a tad jealous of them, really. i'm not one of them. writing is a tool to focus, to think aloud, so i write, shed new light, and then i have to edit what i wrote above it. after a few A4s, the frustration got too much - and i'm back to my ibook for the draft.
and when it's finished, i'll write the whole letter out by hand, on paper.

# charlie on tour    02'01'22 14:54    link

charlie divorced his wife, sold his house, quit his job and left last week for his trip around the world. which nowadays means a lot of weblogging and stuff.
[in dutch]

# "Would you like to supersize your meal?"    02'01'22 13:35    link

when i was introduced to the expression "would you like to supersize your meal?" this summer, i thought it was hilariously funny. Unreal. truth stranger than fiction (MeFi link)
(every day, every day)

# can it be?    02'01'13 01:05

i saw in the stats that this page gets visitors from interesting places... the Southern Methodist University, Dallas ? i'm getting really curious. And Slovenia. What is it i wrote that made someone come all the way from there (insert: i remember my dad phoning to his family, who lived in the south of holland - that was so far away, that he would talk A LITTLE BIT LOUDER SO THAT THEY COULD HEAR HIM. the sheer innocense of the days when the world was still big) ?

But what really struck me, and the reason for writing this, is the hit from Brazil. Cause I know a few people from there, including someone that i would love to hear from. hello, dear A.R.C. (or M, if you don't use your sannyas name), is that you? i hope you are doing well. and i remember so much of the time we had. i still have your book of poems.
drop me a note if you want ok? this goes out of course, to whoever you are! i should put a link to the contact page somewhere in the templates - that's the page where i've hidden my emailaddress. it's too obscure right now.

# photos from madrid    02'01'13 01:00    link

here they are.

# fitting    02'01'13 00:27

some people complain about the holiday season. personally, i dread the week after new year's initiation much more - cause i will find myself in a familiar scenario. which goes roughly like this:

today i transferred from last year's to the new one - copying the appointments, noting the next dentist's checkup in may, that kind of thing - and i realised it immediately when i put my pen in the paper. it sucks balls (been watching too much south park lately). it doesn't fit. the act of writing is not joyous: wrong paper surface. Colour's just a bit off, with an irritating shade of green, the kind that you don't see under fluorescent lights.
ah well. it'll grow on me. it's the same dance every year.

now i have to take you back into time (timmy!). my grandma used to knit jumpers for the whole family - grandchildren included. she loved it! but i *hated* new clothes. i'd have a favourite jumper and would not part (think that peanuts blanket bloke). so my mom would take it away in the night, and sit through the mayhem in the morning, presenting me with the new jumper. it would take a *lot* of patience on her side, but i would put it on eventually, or rather, i would allow her to put it on me (i was 3 then, or 4).
after a day or two... i would not part with the new jumper, and i would be as attached to it as to its predecessor. hm. i see a pattern.
(insert a glorious grin here)

# Madrid    02'01'08 01:51

and i hardly wrote anyting about Madrid yet. I loved that town. Spent five days there with my sister who's living there for a year - and luckily, is studying spanish.
I loved the vibe of the nightlife there. On the streets, in the pubs, clubs. In the Metro (last trains leave half past one). So many people - of very mixed age, strangely seeing that made me realise that i miss that pretty much anywhere else i've been. It's nice that the teen crowd don't dominate. And very little real drunkenness on the streets, therefore, no vibes of violence. Of course i only had a little taste of the city, but my sis told me that my impression was quite accurate.
(met two very nice girls that i could not exchange half a sentence with - no english, no french, only spanish. and dancing and common hand-and-feet language. they told me to learn spanish and come back, in a rather demanding tone... not a bad idea...)
i grabbed some photos, will put them online tomorrow.

# observations    02'01'08 01:47

... people look very funny when they have to climb a non-moving escalator ...
... iPhoto is very cool (but I won't use it)
... iMovie is very cool (but I can't use it)
... and the new iMac is, well, think I'll have to wait to see it.
and then, probably, falling very much in love with it. Well, what a day that was. Watching the keynote in quicktime while cooking dinner, Jobs reality distortion field in full swing. Aaah.

# ...not to forget...    02'01'03 10:06

dear internet: happy new year!

# nice photos    02'01'03 10:03    link

nice series of shots - must be made with a digital camera - while looking at them it hit me that photographing people without drawing attention might be much easier with one of those, cause though the lens is aimed, the eyes of the photographer aren't. bit like the old periscope jokes we played as kids.
(still, i'm happy with the Nikkormat i only recently acquired. analogue rules.)