Cogs can think.

Jesus Christ. Jesus tapdancing Christ.

In Heerenveen, near the world’s most famous speed skating ring Thialff, there’s a new ice skating ring. Only this new ring is a product of the climate hype, so it isn’t an ice skating ring at all.

You see, the climate control systems and other devices needed to maintain a cold climate inside an artificial ice skating ring devour boatloads of energy. Thialff alone uses as much energy as 2000 households, and, of course, since everybody these days wants to cuddle with fluffy animals and drive pointless hybrids, something needed to be done about that. So, what did a few clever Dutch scientists come up with? A soft plastic mixed with lubricants, on which you can ice skate as if it’s real ice. It costs no energy to maintain, and all you need to do is sweep it.

Fcuking blasphemy.

Speed skating is a sport very close to my heart - I practiced it on a few levels above recreational skating for years (lessons and such). It’s a noble sport, where the players live for only one thing: ice skating. They don’t make boatloads of money, and need to train extremely hard to be able to compete on an international level.

Speed skating is what baseball or American football is to the US: a people’s sport, practiced by just about anyone. Basically every Dutch boy and girl have been thrown onto the ice by their parents, with a pair of Friese Doorlopers and a few prepared sandwiches - and don’t dare to come back before supper. Images like the one below make my heart skip a few beats.

Our ice skating heritage is rooted deep into our culture, and everyone here knows the ‘koek en zopie tent’, the Elfstedentocht, ‘ijs vrij’, tourtochten op natuurijs, marathonschaatsen, and so on. It almost touches me to see Jan Bos speed skate - his technique and skills are so well developed it’s almost hypnotising to see. It’s something I simply cannot explain because the English language doesn’t have the proper nouns and adjectives to describe the feeling ice, ice skating, and its symbols evoke. It’s similar to Eugenia blogging about Greece; she can try her very best to word the feelings she has for her homeland, but we non-Greeks will never be able to fully comprehend what she means - even if we were to live in Greece for 30, 40, or ten billion years.

This is the same thing. Ice is sacred, and you don’t mess with it. And this is exactly what these scientists are doing.

Ice is ice, not plastic.

My dream operating system would have BeOS’ kernel, responsiveness, and soul. Mac OS X’ attention to detail and polishedness. Windows’ industry support. Linux’ price tag. VMS’ stability. OpenBSD’s security. My nightmare operating system would have the Linux kernel. Windows’ attention to detail and polishedness. SkyOS’ industry support. Vista’s pricetag. Windows 98’s stability. BeOS’ security.

Just saying.

• I ordered the entire DVD collection of Absolutely Fabulous a few days ago, and it arrived in the mail yesterday. Been watching ever since. Great stuff.
• I bought a new, shiny tap for my bathroom’s sink. After removing the old one, and fitting the new one onto the sink, I realised the flexible tubes that connect the tap to the water pipes are 3mm too short. Two of these (or similar, the 3/8″ matters) ought to fix it, but it’s Saturday eve, so shops will be closed until Monday (incl. the DIY I work at). A few mm too short? Ten pounds of suck, that’s what it is.

Hey, look what I fell in love with today.

The Volvo 1800S Coupe.

Today was the last day of this year’s summer. This summer started last Friday, and ended at the end of today’s afternoon.

Anyway, it was also the last day of my vacation. I spent it at the beach in Hargen aan Zee, and we were treated with a very nasty sun - it spent most of the time behind some faint shrouds of cloud, but every now and then it would pop up with a fierce intensity. And it shows, as I’m burnt all over. But hey, we were treated to a nice display of topless sunbathing.

And that makes it all worthwhile.

In the state of Louisiana, pro-deo lawyers are paid with the money the state collects via parking tickets. This means that if there aren’t enough parking tickets, you get a lousy lawyer. In fact, during the whole Katrina thing, when of course no tickets were collected, the poor people in the judicial system who cannot afford their own lawyer (90% of the people in the judicial system cannot afford their own lawyer), were basically defenseless. And remember, these states are run by barbarics, and state-sponsored murder is still used there. In Texas, it’s even worse. Like many other southern states in the US, Texas is basically third world material. Here, there is no system at all to fund lawyers for people who are too poor to afford one.

Fit motto…

In other words, your life may be on the line, but you’ll get a lawyer who is drunk, sleeps during the trial, or - the worst case ever - a homophobic lawyer representing… A homosexual. If you’re black poor and accused of murder, you’re fcuked. If you’re white rich and accused of murder, you’re not so fcuked.

It’s so sad. The US is such a beautiful country, full of friendly, open, and helping people - but its governmental system, its constitution - they have proven themselves to be unfit for modern times. The American government cannot feed its citizens, nor can it provide proper freedom and equality like we in The Netherlands enjoy. Their judicial system is medieval, at best, and an abomination to the western world.

How such a beautiful country and such a good people can be undone by such a crap governmental and judicial system.

Yesterday was the turn-around.

A few days ago I was talking to me mum on the phone. She said me dad and her would be going to my grandma’s Saturday by bike. That’s 35km… and back. So, 70km in total. Since I seriously needed to get more workout, she asked me if I would tag along. And I said yes. It was a very nice tour, straight through the old dunes and forests that top them. I live in such a pretty country.

Anyway. During high school, I had to cycle 30km a day, five days a week, for six years. That’s quite normal in this country, so please don’t pity me. It was good for me, it kept me in tip-top shape. However, when I finished high school, about four years ago, that workout ended. I got my driver’s license, had to go to university by public transport, and as such, I barely got any workout. And it showed, obviously.

Now, I don’t really care all that much about my physical appearance. What I find important is that one looks well looked after; decent clothes, well-groomed, you know. Hair done, properly shaved, all that shite. The fact I have a ‘belly’, as we call it, is irrelevant (it’s not that I’m fat - I have a belly but I’m not fat, as in, American). It’s not like I’ll suddenly be all Brad Pitt without it. However, health is important, and having a decent stamina ain’t all bad. And the fact that having a decent daily workout might reduce my belly size is of course a nice by-product.

So, after yesterday’s 70km, I decided I would go back to cycling daily. For 30 to 60 minutes a day, I’ll cycle.

So, now the Wall Street Journal is owned by the same guy who owns Fox News.

Right-o.