Cogs can think.

Our Prince-Heir, Willem Alexander, turned 40 years old yesterday, and this was celebrated by a very rare close-up interview with him. It is very rare that members of the press get to interview members of the Royal Family; when they do, the Royal Family selects the journalist of the NOS who gets to perform the interview. Remember that in The Netherlands, the government is actually responsible for anything any member of the Royal Family says or does. Willem Alexander, in an earlier interview, said that this “Secretarial Responsibility” is what annoys him the most about being Royal; it effectively means he has no freedom of speech.

So, in any interview, there is a slight feeling of tense since members of the Royal Family have to choose their words very carefully. They do have a veto over the interview before it is broadcast, but still.

In any case, the most interesting bit in the interview yesterday eve was about the possible abdication of his mother, the Queen (d’oh). While in many kingdoms monarchs tend to reign until death, the Dutch Royal Family has a history of abdication; while on a really high pedistal, the people here recognise the fact that the ‘Oranges’ are just people - like everybody else, who have their right to privacy and a relatively peaceful and worriless old age.

In any case, many experts and royalty watchers expect Queen Beatrix to announce her abdication in 2008 or 2009. Some, however, think it will be much later: they think the Queen wants to give Willem Alexander and his family the time to properly raise their children. Passing the thrown on to Willem Alexander means his wife Maxima gets the title ‘Queen’, which will all obviously mean they won’t have enough time to properly raise their three daughters. Contrary to i.e. the Scandinavian monarchs, the Dutch ones have a lot of power and therefore a lot of work to do. Being King or Queen is a full-time job, much more than just cutting ribbons.

Personally, I tend to agree with the latter: let’s give Willem Alexander and Maxima’s children the time to grow up outside of the media storm. They have every right to experience childhood in relative peace, just like any other child in this country.

We Dutch all agree on one thing though: Prince-Heir Willem Alexander is ready to become King Willem IV; he is an eloquent, intelligent, and strong man, perfectly well capable of running The Netherlands, Inc. I am sure he won’t let his people and his heritage down.

_hugo: i remember when i wrote an image thumbnailer just to better organize my porn
_hugo: those were the days

For years now, I have been wondering why it always appears as if Dutch people have this strange connection to their homeland. And I mean ‘homeland’ in the literal sense of the word: land, as in dirt, sand, clay, mud, you know. Why is it that us Dutch generally despise what foreigners refer to as ‘Dutch culture’ (those cheesy clogs, windmills, ‘traditional’ clothing, that sort of pointless crap), but still tend to have such a deep bond with the dirt they grew up on?

The first thing to note is that not everyone in The Netherlands appears to have that same bond. Roughly, you can divide the country up in two areas: the west, where this special bond is prevalent, and the east and south(east), where this bond appears to be less prominent, but instead replaced by a connection to the local culture and heritage of those areas.

And then it becomes obvious for anyone in The Netherlands that we have this special bond because unlike just about any other country in the world, we Dutch actually built half of the land we live on. We claimed it from the sea, we built the dikes to protect it, we built the mills and pumps which keep the west of our country (including my hometown and surroundings) dry to this very day - my ancestors fought for this land not a in a bloody-and-violent kind of way, but in a we-need-to-bloody-hell-keep-pumping-or-else-we’ll-drown kind of way.

Which in turn, if you ask me, has created this special feeling that I have when I’m driving through Noord-Holland, my home. I would be perfectly well capable of living in other countries with a culture very similar to ours (Scandinavian countries, mostly), but I’d miss the actual soil I made my first steps on. There’s a reason I’m never all that joyous to go on vacation.

In the end, all I’m trying to say is that I, in all honesty, don’t give a rat’s ass about clogs, windmills, loose drug policies, euthanasia and all that nonsense - seriously - all I really care about and feel attached to is this glorified swamp I call ‘home’.

[8:07pm] Thom_Holwerda: if i hear one more person saying “xyz should be ported to the ps3″ then I will personally shove a ps3 up his bottom.
[8:07pm] Thom_Holwerda: so there.
[8:07pm] Thom_Holwerda: as you were.

Boris Nikolajevitsj Jeltsin, 1931-2007

Infamous as he may be, and as many mistakes as he may have made, Jeltsin was such a relief to see on the international scene. I have thoroughly enjoyed his humour, his craziness, and his dancing. He played an important role in the downfall of the USSR (for better or worse, that is debatable), and he will go down in history as a guy we Dutch describe as ‘joviaal’.

What the hell!

A new film based on Showtime’s supernatural series Dead Like Me, written by Steven Godchaux and directed by Stephen Herek.

Godchaux has worked on numerous Dead Like Me episodes, so he knows what he’s doing. Nothing is known on the cast at this point, so I can’t tell for sure if Ellen Muth will reappear as Georgia, alongside the rest of the original cast. It is very well possible that MGM will simply create a ‘new’ team of reapers, disconnected from Georgia, Rube, Mason, Daisy, and Roxy. Which would be kind of sad. Instant update: The actress who played Crystal*, the mysterious Happy Time receptionist (at the end of the 2nd season, she does something very intriguing), says she has received a call from her agent about this project, “asking [her] to be a part of it”. This could be a hint that they might have contacted the entire original cast!

Update II: It is rumoured Ellen is in it too!

* The poster of the linked post is Crystal Dahl herself.

As some of you may know, every now and then, I change the tagline of my blog (it’s underneath the big title). There’s no method in that, i just sometimes change it, at will. It was “I can buy you, but I can’t make you do what you don’t” for quite a while, though (it’s from A Camp). You could say each tagline kind of refers to the general state I’m in, but you didn’t get that from me.

I’m in a Dead Like Me period at the moment. For the 38947238957th time, I’m watching all 29 episodes of the two seasons - I can basically lip sync them but I’m still amazed and inspired by it nonetheless. Like I said, it’s not TV, it’s art. Anyway, that’s where my current tagline is from.

For me, it sums up ‘life’. Life is one big consideration: is whatever the hell I’m doing right now, or the things around me, worth sticking around for? Do I drive by Renaatje’s exit when we are talking in the car, continuing the drive so we can talk some more? Do I continue to watch this film, or do I turn it off so I can go make some espresso? Do I continue writing this txt msg, or do I quit because I’m afraid of its consequences? Do I take another Martini, or do I leave for home? Should I take one final chocolate chip cookie, or do I put them away for tomorrow?

And the list goes on. All we basically do in life is consider.

Maybe Rube was right. Smell some fcuking roses already.

As I was driving from Zwolle back home today, during Dutch rush hour (which is actually a euphemism since rush hour lasts about three times as long) it struck me how astonishing it actually is that you can have so many deadly projectiles crammed in such a limited set of space without everything ending in chaos, death, and destruction. Apparently all there’s needed to avoid all this are some driving lessons.

Yet we are unable to divide the land properly between Israel and Palestine, preventing chaos, death, and destruction. Intriguing.

This has to be one of the most brilliant emails I have ever seen.

> Hi,
> The attached is a patch to gnome-about.c in libgnomeui
> for your consideration. It adds a line “GNU Network
> Object Model Environment” to the “about GNOME” dialog
> box, as well as a hyperlink from the word “GNU” to
> www.gnu.org. I think it is a good idea to show
> explicitly what “GNOME” stands for.

I thought it was generally considered that “GNOME” was really “Gnome”
and that the acronym was silently being consigned to the
“Really awful acronyms” chapter in the history books.

> Right now no
> where is the full name of GNOME displayed and that can
> be confusing to the new user. Tbis additional display
> also helps promoting the concept of Free Software.

How is it confusing to users?

As opposed to the confusion arising from seeing
“GNU Network Object Model Environment”
and thinking “WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT ABOUT????”

(Bear in mind, I’m in no way a ‘new user’
and I still think “WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT ABOUT????”
whenever I’m presented with
GNU Network Object Model Environment)

iain

What’s funny is that I sometimes get in misunderstandings on mailing lists because especially Americans are offended by my traditional Dutch approach– get right down to business, no sugarcoating, no sweet talking, and maybe throw in a little (biting) sarcasm here and there. This email has the exact same style, and I like that.

If all OSS m-l’s were like that, they’d be a lot more productive.

Overpopulation is not a problem.

The uneven distribution of resources is a problem. The way we live is a problem. The way we exploit our planet and flora/fauna is a problem. War is a problem. Guns are a problem. Mugabe is a problem. The United States are a problem. Putin is a problem. Religious extremists are a problem. Nuclear weapons are a problem. The unwillingness of politicians and oil companies to commit to hydrogen-based fuel cells is a problem. And so on.

But overpopulation is not. Get your priorities straight. Overpopulation is remedied by spreading resources equally and fighting poverty. Not by immoral and inhumane restrictions on how many children people can have.