Cogs can think.

Tomorrow is my birthday. December 1, 1984, is my date of birth. So yes, I am turning 22 tomorrow.

I already got my birthday gift from my parents (my heartfelt gratitude to my parents). Something I have been wanting for a long time. I am now a member of the Nespresso family. I now own a Magimix m100 Nespresso machine. The machine was expensive, and yes, so are the capsules (29 Eurocents per capsule), but it is worth it. This is the real thing.

I love to go shopping for high-end and premium products. The service you get, the attention, the detailed explanations and answers to your enquiries, I just love it. I am very happy with this machine.

A student with an Espresso machine. God I feel decadent and rich.

I went to see the new Bond film yesterday eve in Amsterdam (Pathé De Munt, 21:00 show). I am no fan of James Bond (James Bond is cheesy), but this one was simply a really good movie, and I enjoyed it a lot.

I like the actor who now plays Bond; he is very cool and cold, just like Bond must be.

Oh the pointless and age-old debate about violence in computer games…

If kids go violent there are only two people to blame: the parents. They are responsible for their kids, not violent games or films. It is the parents’ responsibility to teach kids right and wrong, not that of the entertainment industry. If you, as a parent, blame violent games and films for the actions of your child, it is you who failed in properly raising your child (excl. children with mental disorders, of course). I remember that great line from the Southpark film song “Blame Canada”:

We must blame them and make a fuss
Before someone thinks of blaming us!

And that’s all there is to it.

Other than that, what is more dangerous to a child, telling it going to war, killing people is okay, and having guns is okay too (Iraq, death penalty, no gun control), or a violent game, of which you can explain it is all fake?

And even other than that, what is violence, and what is not?

When a man buys gloves in a women’s clothing store.

Sales girl: You want me to wrap them for you?
Me: No thanks, I have small hands.
Sales girl: *confused*

Really, I have very small hands, and as such, I need to buy women’s size gloves. I answered ‘no’ to her question, and felt I needed to offer an explanation for the fact a guy was buying gloves in a women’s store.

What?

Up yours, Bill o’Reilly.

Unbelievable. Un-fcuking-believable.

This makes me so angry. So fcuking angry. I have no words for this deed. Seriously. What the fcuk?

Why would you vandalise and destroy a monument for cancer patients? Especially when there’s a big memorial planned for the day after?

As far as I’m concerned, this is a direct insult to my mother, my aunts, my uncle, my grandfather, my neighbour, and every other cancer patient on this planet. I hope for the ones responsible they don’t cross my path, because I will personally rip their heads off their necks.

My Queen has power. And then some.

After election results are in, the Queen is visited by each party’s political leader. They all give their own respective interpretation of the results, and they give advice as to what kind of cabinet should be formed. After this, the Queen counsels her advisers (mostly members of the Counsil of State) and staff. In the end, it is the Queen who selects the person who will either form the cabinet and government (basically the new prime-minister) or who will only try to find out what parties want to cooperate to form a coalition. The latter will happen after this week’s election results. Today, the last political leaders went to visit the Queen. It’s common, although not by law or anything, not to speak in public of conversations you had in private with the Queen, and hence we never really know what she thinks.

So, yeah, she has quite the power. Luckily.

Oh god.

Those poor children.

That’s one fcuked up UI.

What a great song by The Cardigans. A song that took a few weeks of listening to grow on me, but now, it might be one of their best. Chilling, just chillingly cold.

Slow dancing tight
My barring heart and I
Your name used to taste so sweet
Then you beat the love right out of me

It’s a mystery how people behave
How we long for a life as a slave
When he kissed me I gladly gave in
To a fight nobody could win

Man, he left me blue
And if I could I would do it too
I tell you now like I told you before
Love is a powerful force

And it’s a mystery how people behave
How we long for a life as a slave
And tumble into any open arms
That will only ever do you harm

Oh, you you it’s always you
The best kisser that I ever knew
True love is cruel love
Not much to be proud of

Nerve-wrecking acrobatic backwards bend
All for a happy end

It’s a mystery how people behave
How we worry ourselves to the grave
When he kissed me I lost everything
Then I got up and did it again

Oh you you, it’s always you
The hardest hitter that I ever knew
True love is cruel love
Not much to be proud of

Ass-kissing mercy-missing faithless friend
All for a happy end

I’ve never seen a song tell so well the powerlessness women victim of husband agressions must feel. There are two especially chillingly direct rhymes in this song (I made them bold). However, the song is also filled with less obvious hints at the subject; for instance, the man, he left me blue/and if I could I would do it too is especially subtle and telling; women in this situation often want to leave, they see that what their husband is doing is wrong, but they still cannot leave (if I could I would do it too), because they still feel a lot of love (Love is a powerful force).

Great song. Go listen to it. The Cardigans, “And Then You Kissed Me, II”.

And how we stirred up The Hague! Partij Voor De Dieren has won big time! They (we?) have gained 2 seats in parliament! They (we) started at 0, and now they (we?) are at 2! Congratulations to Marianne Thieme and her team, and of course everyone who had the guts (like me) to vote for something truly different.

Twiek is going to The Hague, baby!

Anyway, we are in a bit of trouble in The Netherlands at this point. You see, there is no easy coalition to be formed. In any case there is no possible combination of two parties, meaning any coalition, in order to have a majority (76 seats), must consist of at least 3 parties.

The most logical coalition at this point is CDA (41, -3), PvdA (32, -10), and ChristenUnie (6, +3), which is a centre-left coalition. CDA has remained the biggest party despite the 3 seat loss, so it’s CDA who gets to form the government; however, the coalition as just described consists of two parties who have lost, so whether or not this makes any democratic sense is debatable. At best.

The big winners of today are the Socialist Party (26, +17!) and the Party for Freedom (anti-Islam far-right nutjobs, 9, +9). We can forget about the Party for Freedom, but we obviously cannot disregard the SP. A complete left cabinet (Groenlinks [Green Left], SP, PvdA [labour party]) is impossible, since they do not have a majority.

Any other combination leaves great difficulties ideologically speaking, and hence we can look forward to a very interesting formation period. What intrigues me the most is that no matter what cabinet forms, many hot issues now can be pushed through the lower house. For instance, there is a majority now who supports a general pardon for asylum seekers stuck in our old, previous immigration law, and yes, there is even a majority of potentially-relatively (boy do I feel smart) animal friendly parties, meaning my party of choice might be able to make some serious progress in reducing barbarism in the animal world.

To sum it up: Partij Voor De Dieren comes into parliament with 2 seats (very good thing), CDA remains the biggest party (good thing), SP wins majorly by making the PvdA smaller (good thing), D66 (a sort of anti-royalist party wanting to change our political system into that of the US) is almost dead (very, very, very good thing!), Party For Freedom gets 9 seats (very, very, very, very, very, very bad thing).

Weird election eve.