Cogs can think.

I think I just fell head over heels in love.

I so want to marry this Amy Walker. Call my crazy, but there is something so uncannily sexy about this woman and all those accents - this is such a total turn-on.

Speaking of sheep, I just sat down and watched last night’s debate between Clinton and Obama (all of it) - and I must say, it was a good debate. It was what I call a ‘table debate’, where the debaters are sitting down around a table, close together, instead of standing before choir stands like they do in some other debates. Table debates tend to be more focused on content, while also being looser and more intimate. Last night certainly confirmed that.

I did think Clinton ‘won’, but not by a huge margin or anything. To me, she showed her experience and deep knowledge on several key issues (especially foreign policy is what is important to me), but Obama wasn’t far behind. On two key issues they both reflected my feelings properly and strongly: Putin, and Iraq. They were both firm about condemning the undemocratic actions of Vladimir Putin, and did not tiptoe around that matter at all. I found it very encouraging to hear that - it’s something Dutch politicians can learn a lot from.

On the issue of Iraq, I was stunned and very pleasantly surprised about how much they both valued the concept of sovereignty - the question was, if the sovereign government of Iraq asks you, as potential president of the United States, to retreat all troops from Iraq, even a residual force, will you do it? Both were crystal clear: yes, we will. Sovereignty needs to be respected.

This meant a great deal to me, as sovereignty is a very important element in world politics; not only is it a concept, but it is also a feeling that people living in different nations around the world have. Sovereignty must be respected at all costs, and I’m very, very pleased to hear these two Democratic candidates commit themselves to respecting, and protecting, sovereignty around the world.

In the end, they’re both darn good candidates for the presidency of the US, and I believe both of them can give some much-needed change to not only the American people that need it the most, but also the rest of the world. It’s going to be a breath of fresh air to have an American president that is not, well, a total idiot.

Clinton-Obama. Clinton running for president, with Obama as vice-president. One may dream.

It’s official. People are like sheep.

But, did we really need to investigate that? I could’ve told them this without spending so much time on research.

I mean, the climate hype, UFOs, Lost, Geert Wilders; people are sheep alright.

I’m in a Dead Like Me period again. I’m watching the series for, I don’t know, the tenth time or something. I can basically lip-sync the entire show.

Episode 5 of season 1, ‘Reaping Havoc’, is probably my favourite; it also happens to split the series in two. Part one, with Betty, and part two, with Daisy. In this episode, Betty ‘piggy back rides’ along with a dead soul into the afterlife, right after becoming George’s only real friend, leaving George devastated.

Betty - “a real pistol” - is probably the most mysterious character in all of Dead Like Me (as George puts it, “mysterious and reassuring”). She appeared in the first five episodes only, and she spent one of those locked in one of those drawers at the morgue (”She’s incapacitated.”). Apart from Rube, Betty was definitely the most skilled reaper of them all. The ease with which she reaped souls was stunning, and she always tried to put a smile on the face of the person she was about to reap. Her Polaroid camera was invaluable - “happy thoughts”, she’d say, right before taking a picture of the soon-to-be dead person. The photo would go into one of her many sacks.

Betty disappears, and nobody knows what happened to her. Reapers can’t go to the afterlife like the souls they reap can. When Betty jumps into the afterlife, we see her turning into lights, that circle around one another right before they explode. We don’t know if she’s in the afterlife, or just plain ‘gone’.

This episode is filled with nothing but brilliant and beautiful quotes, but I think the final voice-over by George is the one that touches me the most.

When you can’t make sense of someone leaving, you try to make sense of what they left behind. And it makes it a whole lot easier when what they left you was beautiful.

After our first class, Marco and I went down to the basement of the university’s main building, to the cafeteria which is located there. It’s noon, so the cafeteria is filled with students foraging for their favourite food (croissant naturel, in my case), and while Marco goes to the fridge to get some milk, I notice a goth-looking girl with a friend of hers scouring around. The goth chick was pretty. Quite pretty, actually.

Marco and I agreed: such a shame to see such prettiness wasted by all-black clothing, piercings, and more of that goth weirdness.

Look, I’m all for freedom of expression, and it’s not the goth style in and of itself that bothers me (we live in a free country, people should be allowed to wear whatever the hell they want), but that doesn’t mean I can’t say it’s a damn shame to see such prettiness hidden by that goth nonsense. Let’s fcuk the system, be non-conforming by dressing and acting like all the other millions of goths out there. Makes total sense.

When Marco and I were eating our lunch outside, I noticed the same girl sitting a few tables down, directed towards me. She had a beautiful smile.

What a waste, what a waste.

CBS must die.

Ok, I’m glad I got that off my chest. I just finished watching the only season of Threshold, and oh yes, it only got better during the 2nd half of the season. Many new elements were introduced, and character development was excellent. The vigilante, Allenville, the baby, Cavennaugh’s emotional side, and so on. The show had so much more in it than just one season. Something interesting I read was that the show was even supposed to change it’s name - from Threshold, to Foothold, to Stranglehold, indicating the amount of infectee presence on earth. Very interesting.

Now we don’t get to see any of that, thanks to those fcuk-ups at CBS. Apart from Dead Like Me, I now have two TV shows that need to be resurrected.

Crud.

While we’re on the subject of Garbage, you really can’t, uhm, die, without having seen the video for Garbage’s “Push It”, one of the most critically acclaimed music videos ever made. If you have any kids, please cover their eyes or, I don’t know, shove them in a cupboard or something, as this video can be very disorienting and upsetting (not gross, just… Messed up).

And now, you’re probably wondering, what the fcuk was that about? Trust me, you won’t know. There’s a strong schism between the video and the actual lyrics in the song, so that won’t give you many hints. There’s a viewer’s guide to the video, but while comprehensive, it doesn’t catch everything seen in the video.

“This is the noise that keeps me awake, my head explodes and my body aches…” A line that I will never forget, a line that will never be far from whatever train of thought is scheduled in my head. Eery.

It’s a difficult decision, but I think I settled on what Garbage song is the best.

This song is so incredibly fragile and powerful at the same time - I don’t think there is another song out there that so well captures the feeling of unanswered love - except for Fiona’s “I Know”, maybe.

This song reminds me of a certain someone. She definitely looked fine - and sadly, still does. I wish she was ugly as sin or something, would’ve made it all a whole lot easier to digest.

Oh well.

I’ve been really enjoying “Threshold” this week. They started airing the show a few months ago on Dutch TV, but since I missed the first few episodes, I decided not to spend any time on it - despite the promos tickling my fancy. One of my best friends did get to see it, and he liked it.

So, I downloaded the entire season (the only one made) and I must say, I really enjoy it. Sure, it’s no Dead Like Me or even Lost, but it does its job of entertaining me, with enough suspense and development that make you want to watch the next episode. There are a few really good things about the show - for one, it’s not a soap opera like Lost is. It’s more like Dead Like Me in that each episode has a beginning, a storyline, and a conclusion - while also having several storylines that span all episodes, storylines that help you solve the mystery. I like such a structure better than I like the soap opera structure of Lost.

Another good thing about Threshold is that contrary to what is usually the case in alien invasion Hollywood stuff, there’s no Will Smith here that discovers the aliens, and learns how to deal with them and kill them in 90 Hollywood minutes, in a slick and stylish fashion. In Threshold, I’m now about 20 days into the start of the story, and they have learned only a few things about how to deal with this - and they learned these things in a way that I would think resembles real life: a bunch of weirdo scientist anti-heroes that by means of luck and gut-feeling find answers to their questions, through weeks and weeks of work. This gives this whole story a very authentic feel (insofar a story about an alien invasion can be authentic).

Another good thing is that the cover the Threshold team has fails numerous times. They are a small top-secret government team, but they are not invincible, nor are they ghosts. They are normal people, and make a lot of mistakes that lead to their covers being blown quite a few times, contrary to numerous similar Hollywood flicks where top-secret government agencies can do whatever they want, without anyone ever blowing their covers or making mistakes. Again, this failing on behalf of the Threshold team adds authenticity to the whole thing. Additionally, the political part of Threshold is also very interesting.

A final upside is the excellent humour in the show. The humour doesn’t come across as forced or scripted, but feels natural, and is generally used during moments where any stress needs to be relieved - like right after a dangerous situation. This, again, feels very natural, as using humour to blow off steam is a very common thing among humans (trust me, I know a thing or two on stressful situations - more than I bargained for in any case).

There are the usual crappy things in Threshold too, of course. Especially all the technological, computer and software stuff sounds ridiculous to someone like me, who knows quite a lot on these matters - but if I switch that knowledge off, and stoop to the level of normal people, I can easily see how even the computer and software stuff would make sense to normal people. Apart from that, you can also see that the budget wasn’t as high as on some other shows, but still, they seem to have managed pretty well.

So, definitely not the best show out there, but really, I have seen a lot of much, much worse shows that have continued for much longer than Threshold. Give Threshold a go, I’m sure you’ll like it.

Oh, and I totally dig Carla Gugino.

Well have I ever.

My new proposal for my bachelor’s thesis has found a home. I’m so happy right now, even Twiek was all confused. “Ey, I’m the one supposed to be jumping around aimlessly, running up walls, and climbing the couches, jumping onto tables and knocking over cups of coffee. You are upsetting the delicate balance of power here.” Sorry sweetie, normal service will resume in a minute. Or two.

Anyway, I’ll be diving into the attitudes people have towards minority languages. I’m going to compare the attitudes people from England (as in, England-proper) have towards Scottish Gaelic and Welsh to the attitudes people from The Netherlands have towards our very own minority language, Frisian.

The reason I want to dive into this is because in the past few decades or so, there has been a worldwide surge in interest in these minority languages, as people (rightfully so) realise that without the proper measures, these languages, and all the cultural information they have inside them, will vanish. Various governments have started promotional programs and the likes to promote the use of these languages. In The Netherlands, the use of Frisian has been promoted heavily since 1956, resulting in Frisian being a compulsory subject in schools, various cities and municipalties officially changing their names to the Frisian variants, and even the province of Friesland itself officially changing its name to Fryslân, the Frisian variant. The Scottish government has done similar promotion of Scottish Gaelic.

Now, if it turns out that the attitudes towards minority languages of people speaking the majority language are similar cross-culturally, then language unions can share methods of promotion on a cross-cultural level.

That’s the idea, in any case. It’s going to be a hell of a lot of work.