Cogs can think.

I’ve had a seriously good weekend. This weekend, me, Marcel, Oscar and Evil Baby (Fabian) went to the university of Leiden– to crash it.

So we did. And we did it die-hard style.

In our high school days, we went to school by bike. This meant 15km to school, and then 15km back to home. To accurately recreate the atmosphere of high school, we went to Alkmaar Central Station by bike. So, at 9am, Saturday, we hopped on our bikes. 45 minutes later, we arrived, and Oscar was already there. While we were locking up our bikes, Fabian (the older brother of Oscar’s girlfriend Daphne) arrived– Marcel looked at his face and said: “Fabian looks exceptionally Evil today.” A few moments later, Marcel started rambling about some TV show in which an evil baby tries to kill his mother– and so, Fabian became Evil Baby. Forever.

We took the train to Leiden, had a lot of fun at the university introductory days. We behaved like children. And by god, we were annoying, and it felt good. I won’t go into details, to uphold this image of me somehow being worth my age of 20 (almost 21, people). It was fun.

We wanted to go out all night. But, Leiden sucks ass. There’s barely anything to do, and the places to go out are scattered across town. We eventually found a good place, but we first went off to a Argentinian restaurant, were we had an expensive but really good dinner. We concluded our dinner with Irish coffee.

We then went to a few places, but ended up in… Well, forgot the name of the place. All I do know is that it was fun, lots of alcohol, women with attitudes (I hate those women, you just *hear* Destinity’s Child “Independant Women” in the background while talking to/dancing with them), and more odd stuff. Really good.

Sunday morning we went home. Amsterdam Central Station was fcuked up (you’re not allowed to sleep there anymore! Fcukers). It was a good weekend. We got our new stories.

Peter R. de Vries, known in the Netherlands as ‘crimereporter’ (he investigates cases the police cannot solve, and he has done that extremely succesfully, with major cases being solved due to his work) has today presented the programme for his new political party, “Partij voor Rechtvaardigheid, Daadkracht en Vooruitgang” (Party for Justice, Drive and Progress). Now, I was actually waiting for that– there is no political party in my country which I support, so a new party with a prominent leader could become my party of choice.

However, the PRDV is a no-go for me. I’ve read the first 20 points of the programme, and I read it in disgust. Basically, this party wants to destroy my Monarchy, our proven governmental system, and much more. A selection:

1. They want to degrade the Crown’s role to a strictly ceremonial one, like in Norway. They want to take away the Crown’s power as defined by the Dutch constitution (the Crown appoints the informatuer/formateur who will ‘create’ the alliance between the parties that will form the government, and appoint secretaries. The Crown follows the electoral results by appointing the (in)formateur from the biggest party; the formateur most likely becomes our prime-minister; this is very similar to how it works in the US, where the electoral vote *always* differs from what the US people have voted);
2. They want the people to directly elect the prime-minister; effectively turning my country into a - gasp, ugh, barf, urgghgh - republic. Now, as I just said, the biggest party will deliver the PM;
3. They want to abolish the Senate. The Senate isn’t directly elected by the people (our directly-elected Lower Hose does that) so it must go, according to them. The Senate’s role in my country is to shine a critical light on newly proposed laws; the Senate is made up of older, more experienced, and more careful politicans who have already proven themselves in the past;
4. They want to increase the barrier of entry for parties willing to join the Lower House. Now, all you need is one seat and you’re in. They want to increase the percentage of votes needed for a party in order to be accepted into the Lower House. This way, they want to decrease the amount of parties in the Lower House (about 9, currently). Effectively taking the first steps towards a - gasp, ugh, barf, urgghgh - bi-party system;
5. They somehow think the people need to directly elect the town mayor. Why I’m against this? For the same reasons why I’m against directly electing the presi… err, prime-minister: read here.

Those are not all their points. They have other, good points too; but the above mentioned mean I won’t be voting on them. They are on their way to ruin my country with all that crap. We have a governmental system, a constitutional monarchy, that has ruled this country for more than 170 years in a very succesful manner, making my small nation one of the richest countries in the world, even an economical force to be reckoned with.

Abolish my Monarchy? Over my DEAD FCUKING BODY.

—

Now, over to the good points:

1. The PRDV wants to create a nation-wide DNA database, which contains the DNA profiles of all Dutchmen and women. Good point, I’ve been a proponent of that for a long time as it will make solving crimes a lot easier;
2. More money to development aid;
3. Less money to the EU. We Dutch pay the most per capita; more than ie. Germany, France or the UK;
4. Social service (a sort of militairy draft, but then youth must help in hospitals, elderly homes, etc., much as in Germany and their Zivildienstleitung (probably spelt that wrong)).

But still, the bad points make the rest useless.

I have absolutely nothing with motorbikes. I have absolutely no idea why anyone would give up the comforts of a car and fit himself in a leather suit on an unguided missile on wheels. People that drive motorbikes must be or suicidal, or crazy, or both.

However, there’s one type of bike that I do appreciate: the chopper. And the coolest choppers - of course - are form Orange County Choppers. Now, why do I like choppers? Because they radiate relaxed-ness. I just love the way they look, the way they sound. It’s just awesome.

My day has just officially been made. For starters, I don’t have to work this evening. Secondly, and much more importantly, I just ordered Fiona Apple’s “new” album, “Extraordinary Machine”! Woohoo!

Why new between q. marks? Well– to cut a long story short: the album is already quite a few years old. Sony refused to release the album because it didn’t have a “marketable single”. This is the result of illegally downloading music, you bunch of thiefs: record companies, already greedy bastards, are now even more greedy because there’s less money to be greedy on. STOP THE ILLEGAL DOWNLOADING OF MUSIC. GET OFF OF YOUR WHITE SUBURBIAN ASSES AND GO THE THE FCUKING RECORD STORE. There, I’m all done.

Anyway, some songs leaked onto the web early this year, and were so heavily downloaded, that Sony made a handbrake turn, and on 4th October, the album was released in the US. So, STAY ON YOUR WHITE SUBURBIAN ASSES AND DOWNLOAD MUSIC THAT ISN’T RELEASED BY RECORD COMPANIES BECAUSE THEY ARE GREEDY BASTARDS. There, I’m again done.

To celebrate this joyous moment, here is a reprint of one of the songs of the lovely and mentally disturbed Fiona Apple (she was raped at age 12, she threatened to commit suicide before age ten, told friends she was gonna kill them, got put into a mental institution at age 11, and to complement this, developed a serious case of annorexia nervosa during puberty), Paper Bag:

I was staring at the sky, just looking for a star
To pray on, or wish on, or something like that
I was having a sweet fix of a daydream of a boy
Whose reality I knew, was a hopeless to be had
But then the dove of hope began it’s downward slope
And I believed for a moment that my chances
Were approaching to be grabbed
But as it came down near, so did a weary tear
i thought it was a bird, but it was just a paper bag

hunger hurts, and I want him so bad, oh it kills
Cuz I know I’m a mess he don’t wanna clean up
I got to fold cuz these hands are too shaky to hold
hunger hurts, but starving works, when it costs too much to love

And I went crazy again today, looking for a strand to climb
Looking for a little hope
Baby said he couldn’t stay, wouldn’t put his lips to mine,
And a fail to kiss is a fail to cope
I said, “honey, I don’t feel so good, don’t feel justified
Come on put a little love here in my void,” - he said
“it’s all in your head,” and I said, “so’s everything” -
But he didn’t get it - I thought he was a man
But he was just a little boy

hunger hurts, and I want him so bad, oh it kills
Cuz I know I’m a mess he don’t wanna clean up
I got to fold cuz these hands are too shaky to hold
hunger hurts, but starving works, when it costs too much to love

hunger hurts, and I want him so bad, oh it kills
Cuz I know I’m a mess he don’t wanna clean up
I got to fold cuz these hands are too shaky to hold
hunger hurts, but starving works, when it costs too much to love

This song is so extraordinary because even though the lyrics are quite depressing and dark, she sings it with joy in her voice, and the music accompanying this sing also sounds very happy. It really sends chills down your spine.

a few more quotes from her songs:

You feed the beast I have within me
You wave the red flag, baby you make it run run run
Standing on the sidelines, waving and grinning
You fondle my trigger, then you blame my gun

I’m gonna fuck it up again
I’m gonna do another detour
Unpave my path

I wouldn’t know what to say to a gentle voice
It’d roll right past me

I may be soft in your palm but I’ll soon grow
hungry for a fight, and I will not let you win
My pretty mouth will frame the phrases that will
disprove your faith in man

The following just slices right through your heart, knowing about her rape:

Is that why the call me a sullen girl- sullen girl
They don’t know I used to sail the tranquil sea
but he washed me shore and he took my pearl-
And left an empty shell of me

She just… Strikes a chord. I don’t like being all mushy and stuf, but she just does. She’s an extraordinary machine.

I’d marry her.

Note: Eugenia put it best:

On our own playground, we have our own rules that you either follow, or you won’t play.

—

I’m going crazy over Kelly McNeil and his good-for-nothing, crappy, unreadable, always-late ‘news’site OSViews.com.

He keeps going on this crusade to put me in a bad light, to discredit my work, to simply piss me off, and ruin OSNews in the process. We, the OSNews team, already had to act when he created multiple user accounts to abuse our system and get more mod-points– and thus pushing his own opinion by moderating down anyone who did not share his opinions.

After that, we got the whole story I explained here.

And now, we get this:

Good point. It’s important to look at which news editor is cherry picking these stories.

When you don’t have the commmunity dictating news links… you end up with a certain individual pushing a certain issue in an effort to get others to adopt his way of thinking.

I simply do not understand how he sees the world. At his site, you can’t even see who submitted what! At OSNews, you can clearly see who submitted a newsitem, and even who submitted a newsitem to us. This way, OSNews makes very clear where the news comes from.

At osV, you cannot see this. Kelly can keep on squealing on how osV posts “what the community dictates”, but there is no way in hell we can check up on that. For all we know, he finds/submits news himself (which is probably the case– especially since many items posted on OSN, appear on osV a day later).

—

I’m close to reinstating the complete ban of Kelly on OSN. He is ruining OSNews, and I simply will *not* tolerate someone discrediting the work of the OSN team in public, on *OSNews itself*, without any sane logic behind his reasoning.

That guy belongs in a mental institution.

Here’s an update on my RSI problems: I went to see a therapist today, and she immediately saw wherein the problem lies: my right shoulderblade (the aching one) is twisted slightly, so that the lower tip faces too much outward. A few simply movements in front of the mirror made it *scaringly* visible.

So, we’re gonna do a lot of things to improve my posture, the way I stand, etc. Odd, really.

There was kind of a turmoil in our lower house yesterday. Members of the lower house were asking questions to our secretaries– yesterday, the growing energy costs that households are facing was the primary issue.

One of the energy companies in my country, Nuon, has said that they expect energy costs per household to rise by E140,- next year, due to the increasing price of oil. Two parties in the lower house, CDA and PvdA (of which the former is in the government, and the latter is not) want the government to somehow ‘catch’ that rise in costs (obviously because the government gets *a lot* of taxes from selling gas, since we have a *huge* gas bubble in the ground in the northern part of my country, and the price of gas is linked to the price of oil).

I find that to be appalling, actually.

Why should the rich people in this country be given anything extra because they have to pay a lousy E140,- extra? It is not as if the biggest part of my country can’t afford that extra money, hell, we’re one of the richest nations in the world!

It is good if the people who are at the bottom of society are given compensation, that is normal and should be done by any self-respecting government. But, why, for instance, my parents? There’s absolutely no need to give E140,- to us. We are rich enough, goddamnit.

Give it to the people who *really* need it.

Other than that, increasing energy prices may actually draw attention to the fact that oil is not here to stay, and that we, as the EU, should invest heavily in the alternative (hydrogen). It is really needed to start constructing plans to create an infrastructure for hydrogen, similar as we now have to deliver oil/petrol/gas. If we do that *now*, it will give us a head-start over the US in the coming few decades.

John Gibson, one of the two Pravda editors who bashed my country using lies and misinformation, has started his own blog! Yes! And whaddayaknow… Thanks to GeenStijl linking to his sorry ass, the website went down shortly after it went live :). Childish, I know, but who gives a fcuk. You gotta fight fire with fire.

If you want to make comments, you need to register. GeenStijl gave us a username/pass: (Dutch_hope/41b6d324)– however, the account has already been deleted.

Long live GeenStijl!

Now playing: Pink Floyd, Another Brick In The Wall

I wish I could apt-get myself into a state of total awareness in the morning.

apt-get install coffee doesn’t work :/

I just saw on TV that Marie Fredriksson has been officially declared cured from cancer. She had a near-fatal brain tumor, but the treatments were succesful, and now she is already thinking of continueing her important role as the female half of Roxette. Let’s hope that in the near future, Roxette will be able to make a new album– if it were only to prove that cancer isn’t always the end.

You can understand how much this means to me. One of my favourite singers survived the battle with cancer. Just like my mum.