Cogs can think.

I’m not really into ‘art’. I consider music to be the only true art, the rest is irrelevant (for me). All the weirdo hippie crap surrounding traditional art forms just annoys me. Just, like, get a job.

‘C’est une Hek‘

Build an automatic gate for cars to pass through, in the middle of the desert, where no car has ever come and where probably none will ever go.

Now that is art, with a twist. Brilliant.

Why can’t things just stay the way they are?

At Sloterdijk Station (Amsterdam-west), where I transfer from the Intercity to Nijmegen to the line 50 Metro to Boelalaan/VU, there is this shop that sells all sorts of sandwiches; from baguettes to paninis to chiabattas. It’s right there en route to my proper platform.

Anyway, they have this sandwich of a certain piece of bread (with a very hard crust) with what we Dutch call ‘old‘ cheese; this type of cheese has a very strong and intense flavour, with a very sharp aftertaste on the tongue (not unlike certain hot spices). The cheese is topped off with (what I believe is) thyme and tauge. This sandwich is a very delicate balance of tastes.

Since it’s quite expensive (3 EUR for crying out loud, that’s Hfl. 6.30! For a sandwich!), I rarely buy it. I really, really, really like it, though.

How surprised I was today to find that the shop had completely fcuked up the recipe by smearing a large blob of French mustard across the cheese. Have they lost their sanity? The delicate balance of flavours is now completely ruined due to the fact that the French mustard now totally dominates each bite you take. I was appalled. Stunned. They ruined the best sandwich in the world [insert sad smiley-face].

Why can’t things just stay the way they are?

Marco, Levi, and I had a presentation today. As always, we did not prepare. An hour before we were scheduled, we quickly read up the material, I made a PowerPoint, and we did the presentation. Even though there was no evaluation done after the presentation, I can summarise it fairly well.

Our humour could not conceal the total lack of a scientific basis for what we were claiming.

Oh well, at least we made everybody laugh. Which is not bad considering our audience had already had two other presentations, on the same boring subject.

Right.

For the life of my I cannot figure out how you would get pleasure from inserting your penis into a piece of software. Or, from inserting a piece of software into your vagina. Or both.

Well, anyway, this is why Digg is pointless.

Sometimes, a day comes along that is just so good, you can hardly believe you’re actually living it.

Today, my mother had a photographic check up of her remaining breast. Comparing it to the previous, ‘cancer-less’ photo, they found nothing. This means that the doctors are 95% sure that my mother is ‘clean’. The remaining 5% will be investigated in the coming week (a careful examination of the photo). After having so many setbacks in 2005, getting the phonecall from my mother that all was ok just brings instant tears to my eyes. Fcuk manliness, I cry when I get news like this.

I am so happy. Seriously. You cannot imagine how news like this feels.

And to make the day even better, my digital TV kit arrived today. I now have television via DVB-T to my brand-new 17″ widescreen HDTV, which Geeks.com sent me for review (expect it next Monday). And to top it off, the Vista review kit from Microsoft NL arrived today, containing 32bit and 64bit copies of Windows Vista Ultimate (expect a review on a low-end desktop soon).

I love days like this.

Over the weekend, Renate said something to me that really made me feel very, very good.

Whenever I get married, you’re gonna be one of my two best men.

I can assure you, I don’t wany any other to be mine than her.

I took a walk through the coastal dunes and forests today with Renaatje. The following set of pictures is the result. Especially the one seen below is just awesome. I am amazed at what my fairly low-end 5mp cam can do.

Duinen

As always, the pictures have not seen any form of post editing. They are taken straight from the camera and put online (just resized for PicasaWeb). Fcuking raw, baby.

This morning at work.

This extremely cute girl walks in, with a toddler by her side. They walked up to me, and the lady tells me what they need; I got it for her, handed it over. We walked to the register, I tell her the financial damage. She forks over the cash, I close the register. I ask the toddler if he wants a balloon. I take his outstretched arms as a ‘yes’. I hand over the balloon; he accidentally drops it on the floor. The lady looks at the toddler, then takes a quick glance at me. Clumsily, she then says:

Don’t drop it, Max. You can do that when you’re here with mummy and daddy.

I get the message, girl. He’s not yours, you’re available. God you’re really pretty.

I never quite saw the purpose of Valentine’s Day. I just don’t see the point in sending anonymous cards or flowers; if you don’t know who they’re from, how can you value them? I see this day more for people who already found each other than for people still trying to find each other.

So when Marco asked me if I sent a Valentine’s card to anyone, I answered with a resolute ‘no’.

Anyway, for me, there’s only one justification for Valentine’s day: you can legally indulge yourself in dreary love songs and ballads. I wouldn’t be myself if I did not have a certain song in mind for today, so here it goes. This is a song by A Camp, whose leading lady is none other than Nina Persson from The Cardigans. It’s called “The Bluest Eyes In Texas”.

The lonesome Texas sun was setting low
And in the rearview-mirror I watched it go
I can still see the wind in her golden hair
I close my eyes - for a moment i’m still there

The bluest eyes in Texas are haunting me tonight
Like the stars that fill the midnight sky, her memory fills my mind
Where did I go wrong? Did I wait too long? Or can I make it right?
The bluest eyes in Texas are haunting me tonight

Another town, another hotel room
Another dream that ended way too soon
Left me lonely way before the dawn
Searching for the strength to carry on

The bluest eyes in Texas are haunting me tonight
Like the stars that fill the midnight sky, her memory fills my mind
Where did I go wrong? Did I wait too long? Or can I make it right?
The bluest eyes in Texas are haunting me tonight

For every heart you break
You pay the price
But i can’t forget the tears
In her blue eyes

The bluest eyes in Texas are haunting me tonight
Like the stars that fill the midnight sky, her memory fills my mind
Where did I go wrong? Did I wait too long? Or can I make it right?
The bluest eyes in Texas are haunting me tonight

The bluest eyes in Texas are haunting me tonight
The bluest eyes, the bluest eyes
Are haunting me
The bluest eyes… Tonight

It makes me want to go to Texas again.

As a gift to Renaatje, I’ll be taking her to the The Police reunion concert in The Netherlands, to be held somewhere coming fall.

I predict a night in a sleeping bag in front of the ticket office. I generally am way too arrogant for that sort of thing, but hey, when it comes to my best friend and once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, I’m just about willing to do just about anything. I will kill, if nescesary, to get what I want.

And oh boy do I want to go to that concert.