and I feel fine.
I'm off to New York in 9 days to begin my MA studies in Political Science at The New School, and hereby declare this blog euthanized. Feel free to check out it's younger, more attractive replacement here.
Saturday, August 09, 2008
Friday, August 31, 2007
They got a point
If you think growing up is tough
Then you're just not grown up enough
(Barenaked Ladies - Babyseat)
Holy man said; "Son, there's a light ahead"
But it's nothing like the light from Maria's bed
(Bruce Springsteen - Maria's Bed)
I've been uptight and been made a mess
But I'll clean it up myself I guess
Oh, the sweet smell of success!
(The Travelling Wilburys - Handle Me With Care)
Who's gonna love you when your looks are gone?
(Paul Simon - Outrageous)
She told me again she preferred handsome men
But for me she'd make an exception
(Leonard Cohen - Chelsea Hotel 2)
It ought to be easy, it ought to be simple enough
Man meets woman and they fall in love
But this house is haunted and the ride gets rough
We've got to learn with what we can't rise above
If we want to ride on down, into this Tunnel of Love
(Bruce Springsteen - Tunnel of Love)
Then you're just not grown up enough
(Barenaked Ladies - Babyseat)
Holy man said; "Son, there's a light ahead"
But it's nothing like the light from Maria's bed
(Bruce Springsteen - Maria's Bed)
I've been uptight and been made a mess
But I'll clean it up myself I guess
Oh, the sweet smell of success!
(The Travelling Wilburys - Handle Me With Care)
Who's gonna love you when your looks are gone?
(Paul Simon - Outrageous)
She told me again she preferred handsome men
But for me she'd make an exception
(Leonard Cohen - Chelsea Hotel 2)
It ought to be easy, it ought to be simple enough
Man meets woman and they fall in love
But this house is haunted and the ride gets rough
We've got to learn with what we can't rise above
If we want to ride on down, into this Tunnel of Love
(Bruce Springsteen - Tunnel of Love)
Friday, August 24, 2007
I am Un-Zen because...
- the woman from the temp work agency refuses to mail me the info I need to get to work this monday. Since the University of Amsterdam in its wisdom decided that, despite my brilliance, they'd rather not spend money on US-related studies I need a temporary (again, I repeat, temporary) job to pay the rent, food, cd's and that New York trip I've been drooling over the past few weeks.
- I am drooling over a possible New York trip the past few weeks. I haven't been there since october 2001 and since I utterly fell in love with the place back then, it's been torture (yeah, yeah, I could've gone back earlier but there were trips to Italy to make and degrees to be earned). But now all the stars are lining up: 1) My buddy the squirrel is studying in NYC and I can crash on his floor 2) Zucchero is playing Carnegie Hall 3) I'm not expected to be anywhere study or work related. Soooo, fingers crossed - but until I decide for sure I'm definetly unzen.
- I am somewhat stuck at what I want to do next. First, I was sure I wanted to get a PhD position. Then I got screwed and figured f--- you (you being the university world in general). But now I'm aching to try it again, maybe in the US. Can't get a whole lot un-zen than that.
- I am drooling over a possible New York trip the past few weeks. I haven't been there since october 2001 and since I utterly fell in love with the place back then, it's been torture (yeah, yeah, I could've gone back earlier but there were trips to Italy to make and degrees to be earned). But now all the stars are lining up: 1) My buddy the squirrel is studying in NYC and I can crash on his floor 2) Zucchero is playing Carnegie Hall 3) I'm not expected to be anywhere study or work related. Soooo, fingers crossed - but until I decide for sure I'm definetly unzen.
- I am somewhat stuck at what I want to do next. First, I was sure I wanted to get a PhD position. Then I got screwed and figured f--- you (you being the university world in general). But now I'm aching to try it again, maybe in the US. Can't get a whole lot un-zen than that.
Friday, August 03, 2007
I am
but then again, I'd probably be stripped of my degree if I wasn't
| You Are a Smart American |
 You know a lot about US history, and you're opinions are probably well informed. Congratulations on bucking stereotypes. Now go show some foreigners how smart Americans can be. |
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
PG
I realize this blog is - for all practical purposes - dead, but I would like to do a little experiment. See, according to this website thing:
my blog has a PG rating, meaning that kids should read this only when their parents (both, or, if that can't be arranged, I suppose one will do) are present. The reason for this is the following:
"This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:
death (2) and dead (1)"
I am shocked! In the past years I have been writing about Satanic worshiping, Republicans, annoying blonde women who should die and (most hidiously) Michael Bolton, and all I got was PG? Fuck!
my blog has a PG rating, meaning that kids should read this only when their parents (both, or, if that can't be arranged, I suppose one will do) are present. The reason for this is the following:
"This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:
death (2) and dead (1)"
I am shocked! In the past years I have been writing about Satanic worshiping, Republicans, annoying blonde women who should die and (most hidiously) Michael Bolton, and all I got was PG? Fuck!
Thursday, May 10, 2007
All Things Must Pass
Personally I am not a big Beatles fan (we had a music teacher in first grade that made us sing "I wanna hold your hand" endlessly, you do the math), but occasionally one is asked which of the Beatles is your favorite. A lot of people will answer Paul McCartney, but unfortunately these people are just plain wrong: Paul McCartney is an annoying twat who wrote "Yesterday", which is the musical equivelant (sp?) of what Pol Pot did in Cambodia.
John Lennon then is a logical option, but while Lennon was exceptionally cool and wrote "Imagine" and "Jealous Guy", he could also be an extremely annoying junk. The correct answer to the question is, obviously, George Harrison. Although disgraced radio host Don Imus might not be the most "in vogue" person to quote these days, he was absolutely right when he said "if you don't think George Harrison was the best Beatle you're an idiot". And George Harrison put the problem of life and death very well indeed in "All Things Must Pass", a song he wrote after the death of his mother:
Yesterday was the cremation of my Tracksuit Wearing Friend, Vince. The cremation itself was, for obvious and highly understandable reasons, limited to only his family and best friends, but I was able to attend the service before, and it was a very emotional, very graceful, and a very fitting tribute to this guy's way too short life. There were speeches by both of Vince's parents, his brother, his aunt, his nephew and his three best friends, and each and every one of them brought almost everybody present (the place was packed, another tribute to how Vince was with people) to tears. But it's all, perhaps, best summed up by a line written on his dark red coffin, which read in Dutch:
God should still be fired, by the way.
John Lennon then is a logical option, but while Lennon was exceptionally cool and wrote "Imagine" and "Jealous Guy", he could also be an extremely annoying junk. The correct answer to the question is, obviously, George Harrison. Although disgraced radio host Don Imus might not be the most "in vogue" person to quote these days, he was absolutely right when he said "if you don't think George Harrison was the best Beatle you're an idiot". And George Harrison put the problem of life and death very well indeed in "All Things Must Pass", a song he wrote after the death of his mother:
All things must pass
All things must pass away
All things must pass
None of life's strings can last
Yesterday was the cremation of my Tracksuit Wearing Friend, Vince. The cremation itself was, for obvious and highly understandable reasons, limited to only his family and best friends, but I was able to attend the service before, and it was a very emotional, very graceful, and a very fitting tribute to this guy's way too short life. There were speeches by both of Vince's parents, his brother, his aunt, his nephew and his three best friends, and each and every one of them brought almost everybody present (the place was packed, another tribute to how Vince was with people) to tears. But it's all, perhaps, best summed up by a line written on his dark red coffin, which read in Dutch:
Quitters don't win
Winners don't quit
God should still be fired, by the way.
Sunday, May 06, 2007
God Should Be Fired
I have returned! I realize that I have been awol from this blog for a few months, and I would like to stress that rumors of me joining a Satanic cult are wholly untrue. As are those of me watching De Gouden Kooi. However, 2007 so far has been a very hectic period, which included a lot of thesis and application writing, and also moving to a new appartment. That last thing occurred thursday, and since I'm very pleased with my new surroundings, friday seemed like a great day. That is, until at 9:something I got a call from My Friend From The North that a mutual friend of ours, Vince, had passed away the night before.
I've known Vince since we both began studying history in 2002, and since we shared both our historical interests and a sense of humor, we spent the next four years sitting next to each other in a couple of courses each semester. Although we never had an in-depth conversation about it, and I therefore don't know all the inn's and out's, Vince had had a heart condition since his birth, which basically meant he could do very little physical activities, and so he crossed through the university halls in a electrical wheelchair (of sorts).
But while he was extremely funny, and very talented, Vince was definetly not someone anybody should have felt sad about. With his usual wardrobe of a trainingsuit (is that an actual English word?) and baseball cap, and his blue fingers and lips, the first thing you might have thought (politically incorrect as it is) when you saw him for the first time could be "Aaaaha." But then he would just win you over completely with his jokes and personality.
Since we mostly hung out at the university, I saw him very little last year when he dropped out of the history research MA and I went to do an internship and worked on my thesis. From what I know, he wasn't doing any worse than normal lately, but last Thursday, while sitting in a movie theatre, his heart just stopped working.
So basically, if there is one (which I doubt), God is an incompetent bastard and should be fired. 2o-something year olds should never die, and certainly not 20-something year olds that I count among my friends. I'm not saying I have all the solutions to our religious problems but maybe we can replace him through open auditions, I'm sure Simon Cowell is more than willing to be a judge in Divine Idol, and it would make some brilliant tv: "That miracle was pathetic. What the f### are you doing here? You make me want to throw up!"
As a historian (in training), Vince was mostly interested in foreign affairs, and particularly in the life and times of homicidal maniac Henry Kissinger. One running joke we had was that he should focus his entire studies on Kissinger, so that when Satan would finally call Henry home, Vince could then make his one and only appearance on NOVA (the Dutch Newsnight), where, when the host would ask him to talk about Kissinger's career, Vince's analysis would just be "Kissinger was cool." To add insult to injury, Kissinger is still alive and drinking his daily dosis of fresh puppy blood to this day.
So, Vince, wherever you are: it's been an honor and a pleasure to have known you, and to have studied, ridiculed and joked with you. Rest in peace, man.
I've known Vince since we both began studying history in 2002, and since we shared both our historical interests and a sense of humor, we spent the next four years sitting next to each other in a couple of courses each semester. Although we never had an in-depth conversation about it, and I therefore don't know all the inn's and out's, Vince had had a heart condition since his birth, which basically meant he could do very little physical activities, and so he crossed through the university halls in a electrical wheelchair (of sorts).
But while he was extremely funny, and very talented, Vince was definetly not someone anybody should have felt sad about. With his usual wardrobe of a trainingsuit (is that an actual English word?) and baseball cap, and his blue fingers and lips, the first thing you might have thought (politically incorrect as it is) when you saw him for the first time could be "Aaaaha." But then he would just win you over completely with his jokes and personality.
Since we mostly hung out at the university, I saw him very little last year when he dropped out of the history research MA and I went to do an internship and worked on my thesis. From what I know, he wasn't doing any worse than normal lately, but last Thursday, while sitting in a movie theatre, his heart just stopped working.
So basically, if there is one (which I doubt), God is an incompetent bastard and should be fired. 2o-something year olds should never die, and certainly not 20-something year olds that I count among my friends. I'm not saying I have all the solutions to our religious problems but maybe we can replace him through open auditions, I'm sure Simon Cowell is more than willing to be a judge in Divine Idol, and it would make some brilliant tv: "That miracle was pathetic. What the f### are you doing here? You make me want to throw up!"
As a historian (in training), Vince was mostly interested in foreign affairs, and particularly in the life and times of homicidal maniac Henry Kissinger. One running joke we had was that he should focus his entire studies on Kissinger, so that when Satan would finally call Henry home, Vince could then make his one and only appearance on NOVA (the Dutch Newsnight), where, when the host would ask him to talk about Kissinger's career, Vince's analysis would just be "Kissinger was cool." To add insult to injury, Kissinger is still alive and drinking his daily dosis of fresh puppy blood to this day.
So, Vince, wherever you are: it's been an honor and a pleasure to have known you, and to have studied, ridiculed and joked with you. Rest in peace, man.
Friday, February 23, 2007
Tidbits
It turns out I have only blogged once this month (on this blog that is, my new American politics place http://primaries2008.blogspot.com has had my attention, but keep it quiet for this one, she might get jealous). See, generally speaking I write with what consumes me (most of the time annoying people or things that amuse me) but lately I've been busy with some housing problems that I shan't (or can't) go into yet... then again, most people who read this have been personally informed and have been very sympathetic and/or helpful so thanks for that! (To be on the safe side I am also including among these, the "oh blegh" reaction by a certain friend of mine. Still, I'm fairly sure it falls way beneath the socially accepted definition of sympathy and is clearly on its way towards "DoIlooklikeI'mbothered?")
So, in lieu of an actual blog post with a beginning, a middle, an end, a morale and a few jokes. Just some random thoughts that occured to me yesterday:
- Walking around in Amsterdam with headphones on is great fun. Yesterday it felt like spring (which is good because it feels like spring, but bad because it's bound to be snowy and cold in March) so I walked the biggest part of the way to dinner at my friend Merel's place. Now, I'm a big fan of walking but I don't use my headphones a lot because I'm afraid of going deaf.... DEAF! YOU KNOW, CAN'T HEAR.... HEEAAR! WITH YOUR EARS! Anyhoo, yesterday I was junking music and the walk was even more fun with my music selection of pure perfection as a soundtrack. It made me very happy, but it also made me almost walk under cars three times. So; happy vs. dea(d/f). It's a tough choice, I agree.
- "Get Real" is a very good movie. It's mainly good because some parts of it aren't as they should be in romantic teen movies, but that's what makes it more realistic: the school hunk (and I excuse myself for using the word "hunk") is really not that attractive, but most school hunks aren't. The dramatic speech given for the entire school was pretty incoherent and not at all brilliant, but those things never are. I have only one complaint; the ending. (EXPLAINER: Boris will now write about the ending of the movie "Get Real". If you haven't seen Get Real and think you might want to - which you should, cause it's a very good movie!-, and you don't want to know the end of the movie Get Real, which you might want to see at some point or another, do not read any further. End of the explainer). What's the frigging use of having the school hunk fall for the school dork, and then them not ending up together? How is that gonna restore my faith in humanity? Come on "Get Real" people! You've seen "Beautiful Thing" as well, you know how it should be done!
- Why can I write really fast about Robert Kennedy (4 pages a day), but only very slowly about Howard Dean (1 1/2 a day)? I like them both, I know practically the same amount of stuff about both of them, and I know what I want to say. And yet, my Kennedy chapter was done in a few weeks, while Dean just drags on, and on, and on (and on etc.). Maybe I should hire a ghostwriter, preferably somebody blond and muscled.... (if anybody has any suggestions, feel free to mail me... does anybody know the school hunk from Get Real?).
So, in lieu of an actual blog post with a beginning, a middle, an end, a morale and a few jokes. Just some random thoughts that occured to me yesterday:
- Walking around in Amsterdam with headphones on is great fun. Yesterday it felt like spring (which is good because it feels like spring, but bad because it's bound to be snowy and cold in March) so I walked the biggest part of the way to dinner at my friend Merel's place. Now, I'm a big fan of walking but I don't use my headphones a lot because I'm afraid of going deaf.... DEAF! YOU KNOW, CAN'T HEAR.... HEEAAR! WITH YOUR EARS! Anyhoo, yesterday I was junking music and the walk was even more fun with my music selection of pure perfection as a soundtrack. It made me very happy, but it also made me almost walk under cars three times. So; happy vs. dea(d/f). It's a tough choice, I agree.
- "Get Real" is a very good movie. It's mainly good because some parts of it aren't as they should be in romantic teen movies, but that's what makes it more realistic: the school hunk (and I excuse myself for using the word "hunk") is really not that attractive, but most school hunks aren't. The dramatic speech given for the entire school was pretty incoherent and not at all brilliant, but those things never are. I have only one complaint; the ending. (EXPLAINER: Boris will now write about the ending of the movie "Get Real". If you haven't seen Get Real and think you might want to - which you should, cause it's a very good movie!-, and you don't want to know the end of the movie Get Real, which you might want to see at some point or another, do not read any further. End of the explainer). What's the frigging use of having the school hunk fall for the school dork, and then them not ending up together? How is that gonna restore my faith in humanity? Come on "Get Real" people! You've seen "Beautiful Thing" as well, you know how it should be done!
- Why can I write really fast about Robert Kennedy (4 pages a day), but only very slowly about Howard Dean (1 1/2 a day)? I like them both, I know practically the same amount of stuff about both of them, and I know what I want to say. And yet, my Kennedy chapter was done in a few weeks, while Dean just drags on, and on, and on (and on etc.). Maybe I should hire a ghostwriter, preferably somebody blond and muscled.... (if anybody has any suggestions, feel free to mail me... does anybody know the school hunk from Get Real?).
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