After receiving a comment recently that I don’t update my blog often enough (I don’t, apologies), I figured to try to write a tidbit about the winter holidays. They were great!
Winter Holidays
January 2nd, 2011Lux -> Ehv: 11 hrs
December 24th, 2010Yesterday, Ton and I travelled to Eindhoven together. We decided to have an early start, as the weather predictions were rather bad. So around 12:45 we took a bus to the station, to catch the 13:15 direct train to Liege. And then, our woes commenced.
The train to Liege was only running until Troisvierges (last station in Luxembourg before the Belgian border). There was a problem beyond Troisvierges on the tracks, no telling when it would be resolved. Luckily, there are two default routes from Luxembourg to Eindhoven, so we took the one departing 5 minutes later, which ought to take us to Namur (and there change to Liege).
Note the “ought to take us” there. We got in the train, it rode for about 15 minutes, crossed the border, our tickets were checked, and then we were in Arlon. First Belgian station across the (western) border. And there we were. And were. And were. For about 2hrs, that’s where we were. The announcement? “There’s a problem around Libramont, the tracks are blocked, stay seated and we’ll let you know as soon as we know more.”. A funny side effect was that after about 50 or so minutes, some people came running to our train, trying to catch it. Well, they needn’t have worried — after 2 hours, they announced it was heading back to Luxembourg. At that point, Ton and I decided to take our chances and get out. About 30 (or so) minutes later, they announced a way to get to Namur/Brussels: take the ultra-slow train to …, there change for the ultra-slow train to Dinant, and there change for the train to Namur. We did, and spend the next 2.5 or so hours in an ultra-slow train. The first stop was in Rodange — a village in Luxembourg. Imagine our surprise: after about three hours of travelling, we found ourselves in a frontier town of Luxembourg…
Nevertheless, our luck turned a bit, and we didn’t have to change in … (forgot the name). Eventually, we ended up in Dinant, of which I can tell you very little except that it’s rather white this time of year and that you can’t see much more beyond the station in the dark there. We switched to the train heading to Namur, and then life slowly started improving on us again. We found an almost empty compartment, and there I finally got to playing a bit of guitar. Frustration evaporated. In Namur, we even had time to grab a bite at the Quick. Not healthy, admittedly, but it was about 8 by then… it seemed to make sense to grab something at that point.
The trip to Liege was non-standard. I hardly ever travel that route, but we managed to catch a slow train again (I guess having dinner ment we were in karmic debt or something like that :). In Liege, the first train to Maastricht was due in about 55 minutes, which gave us time to catch a drink and visit the gentlemen’s. Which turned out to be an extremely frustrating experience. All the urinals were off limits, supposedly because they were being cleaned, as were almost all sinks. The only place to wash your hands was in the handicapped toilet, which was being used by others, who left the door open since the light didn’t work in there. All this joy was to be had for a mere 40 cents.
Yes, it was a bit much after 9 hours of travelling to feel subjected to such chicanery. Anyway, from there on out we took the train to Maastricht, and then a stop-train (slow again) to Eindhoven. Maastricht-Eindhoven took about 1h30, but by that time I was pretty sure I’d get there, and that lightened my mood.
Finally, my dad picked me up at the station. When we drove away, I noticed the clock in the car was at 23:45…
All in all, it turned out alright. I’m glad I travelled with someone though, I think I would’ve exploded at several points otherwise. I guess that this’ll make a nice story to look back upon later(?). For now, some breakfast/brunch and then off to the city to check on the glass house :)
Eating spruitjes (Brussels sprouts) again
November 21st, 2010
Part I
Does the following sound familiar to you: your meals this week are roughly the same as last week. Probably, huh. And not just because stuff with potatoes seems similar (up to a point) to other food with potatoes (ditto for rice, couscous and pasta). Naah, we also all get lazy and fall back on the easy-to-cook stuff. Possible escape routes: invite someone(s) over for dinner (pushes me to make a bit of an effort), or just buy something in the shop and see what you can make of it.
Part II
I was in the shop the other day, and brussels sprouts (spruitjes) were on offer. Now seriously: when is the last time you had some?? Not that you hate them (well, can’t speak for you, but I don’t), but it’s just that… well… they’re boring.
But, since it had been ages, I bought a pack. A kilo-pack at that… that was the one on offer. That gave me a new problem: I know one way to prepare them (boil, add potatoes and meat, sprinkle some nutmeg (nootmuskaat), and enjoy. No way on earth that you’re doing that more than once a week, if that much. (I did say “boring”, right? Should’ve said “booooooo-ring!” :). Luckily, the boss came up with a good suggestion: just stir-fry ’em with some onions, leek, bell-peppers, carrots, etc. and add rice. Sprinkle some curry powder to finish.
Seriously, you wouldn’t believe how yummy a sprout can be, if it is a tad crunchy. Yummy enough to have more than once a week — a good thing, because I managed to finish before they went bad on me :)
So here I am sitting, after a medium portion, wondering if I’ll have another round or not. Had you told me this 10 years ago, that I’d voluntarily cook spruitjes myself, and that I’d ponder seconds, I’d’ve laughed in your face.
I guess we all grow up — a bit at least ;-)
Movie galore
November 2nd, 2010We’ve been watching quite a bit of movies lately, and I wanted to give you my/our view in a nutshell.
- The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Extraordinarily disappointing.
- Shoot ‘Em Up: Exactly what it promises. I’ve seen it twice now in a week. This is a movie that defies explanation. Watch it. Watch it and be a different person from hereforth.
- Howl’s Moving Castle: better than I remembered. Good to watch again.
- Blood & Chocolate: not as bad as expected. It’s more about werewolves than chocolate though. But watching it with chocolate is good anyway :)
- Iron Man 2: More of the same — which, in this case, isn’t bad. Lighthearted and lightweight entertainment
- Prince of Persia: a movie that takes itself too seriously, which ruins it.
- Ocean’s Eleven: a movie that doesn’t take itself too seriously, which saves it.
Actually, those final two remarks apply to more of these movies. All of these are very lightweight films. Nothing deep going on here. The League: takes itself too serious. Shoot ‘Em Up is laughing at itself almost as hard as it is laughing at the audience. Howl’s… okay, that isn’t so lightweight entertainment (though it isn’t that deep either, but compared to the rest…). But the difference was painfully obvious between Iron Man 2 and Prince of Persia. Neither has a story worth a damn. Both have the obligatory hot chick, the hunky lead character, and action aplenty. One is good, the other one really isn’t. Why?
Not only because in the one the hero is an arrogant c..t where you can’t help feeling good if the bad guy hits him (but trust me, that helps). It’s also because in the one movie, you feel as if they’re not taking themselves too seriously. Iron Man gives you the impression that they realise they’re making the equivalent of a popcorn meal. No pretense there. Prince of Persia, on the other hand… it’s like they’re trying to make it into a big action-adventure thingy a la the old Indiana Jones movies. Well, fail.
To conclude: see everything on the list (again if already seen recently), except Prince of Persia. Avoid that like the steaming pile of manure it desperately struggles not to be.
Guitar fun
October 30th, 2010The band “Nine inch nails” is not everyone’s cup of tea — but let’s be honest: if Johnny Cash can play their music, it can’t be all bad.
My guitar teacher came up with that version of the song. I vaguely recall the original. This is probably a better version. Enjoy!
Busy few weeks
October 24th, 2010It’s been a while since the last update, it seems. And with good reason, lots of things have happened. But, now I am finally at home, relaxed, recovering (fingers crossed) from a slight illness, so time to type up some events :)
Les Miserables
My parents celebrated their 60th birthdays at the beginning of this year. Us kids thought long and hard to come up with a nice gift. It wasn’t easy, but then we hit upon a good idea: we’d take them to a musical of their choice.
Of course, in the Netherlands, a choice means either Scheveningen or Utrecht. Ow, or the Efteling theatre (and I’m probably doing a disservice to some travelling musicals in NL, but the point is clear, methinks). In short, there is no real “choice” in NL. However, we’re not bound to the Netherlands. In fact, the musical capital of the world, London’s West End, is only a short flight from Eindhoven airport. So we offered them a trip to London, and dinner and a show on West End.
As we’d all join, we had to juggle five calendars, which meant this trip was postponed till after the summer (and planned long in advance). My parents opted to go by train, and Anke and Rogier joined them. I’ve done the train journey before, and while it is nice, it takes so long, I prefer to fly (direct connection London-Lux). Since I left roughly at the same time as the others, I was in a London bookstore, shopping and browsing to my heart’s content, when their eurostar train was about to leave. Which gave me another few hours in the store… yummy!
At any rate, we all spent a few days in London, and had a blast. We went to see Les Miserables, which was a fair deal more upbeat than the trodden, steaming pile of desolate despair that I thought it would be after reading the story on Wikipedia. The day before that, Anke, Rogier and I chanced upon the Royal Albert Hall. We browsed the programme, to see if anything interesting would be on. There was — at least if you’re my mum :) So we surprised my mom&dad with tickets to that too, and they greatly enjoyed it :)
Hoopje weekend
Two days after coming back from London, it was time for the (somewhat) annual Hoopje weekend: a weekend for the group of friends from Eindhoven. Ever since we finished studies and got ourselves jobs, we’ve drifted apart a bit. Different calendars, even harder to juggle. So someone had the bright idea to suggest a weekend to ourselves. And so we have, for a few years now. It is a great opportunity to meet everyone again. And things (people) have changed: couples came, got married, got kids. I drink less beer than before — hell, we all do (we took 10 crates, 8 remaining at the end… hmmms.) But it was good to be there and to see everyone, and to catch up some bits and pieces. Which reminds me: I ought to phone them more often. I played a bit of a PS3 tower defence game, and a lot of guitar. All of which was fun, but not as much as seeing everyone there and seeing them go about their business, but happy to be there.
Ronald’s visit
Fast forward one weekend, and we’re at today and Ronald’s visit. Ronald called me at one point, with the goal of picking a date for a visit. We managed, and so I called him on Wednesday eve to arrange final details. During that call, he let it slip he was off from work on Thursday and Friday as well, so I promptly invited him over for those days. I was lucky, in that his plans could be done on Thursday, and so he arrived Thursday evening. He bravely joined for my dance/sports/aerobics class (we were doing the part from 00:16-00:40 — and no it doesn’t look anything like that when I attempt to move my body). That was quite brave of him, since we were in week 5 (not that I informed him beforehand though ;-). Other than that, we had a very good time with a cheese fondue evening (yummy) and we even played a bit of Super Mario Galaxy 2 (long time no play! Fun!). Of course, we also went shopping and almost bought yet another: guitar (me) and a playmobil Christmas nativity set (him). In the end, we constrained ourselves because we both had these toys already. However, we might still succumb to seduction :)
Before he left, Ronald even managed to (1) fix my couch (Rogier: take note, it doesn’t slide anymore — you’ll love it) and (2) fix the rack in my garage that was wonky. So now I have another set of happy memories, good discussions (cheese fondue was fun :) and a better couch and more storage space. Very happy me!
Arguing with books (pt. 1): Libertanism is wrong!
October 3rd, 2010As you know (if not: what are you doing here? ;-), I like reading. One of the books I am reading is “Justice: What’s the right thing to do?” by Michael J. Sandel, a Harvard professor. It’s apparently based on his course, which you follow online.
I’m now at page 70, and I keep having this urge to argue with this book. I experienced it first during the introduction/motivation part (on Purple hearts for psychically wounded soldiers). It was less strong in the first chapter where Utilitarianism was discussed. Now I’m reading on Libertarianism, it’s getting too much to keep in. So I’m arguing with it here :)
And thus ended the introduction
Libertarianism is (in the book explained as) based on individual freedom, which is considered sacrosanct (in all three meanings given here). Thus, rules of a state (or, for that matter, any organisation) are only allowed if they do not encroach upon these individual freedoms. In particular, the book lists:
- No paternalism — no laws forcing me to protect myself from harm.
For example: no laws to wear helmets while driving a motorcycle, because: I have the right to take whatever risks I want with my own body. - No moral laws.
E.g. no laws against prostitution, because I have the right to choose if I want that or not - No redistribution of wealth or income.
So no taxation of the rich to give benefits to the poor, because I have the right to my earnings.
I’d like to reply to each one of these in-depth. But, while I would try to do so to illustrate that the entire premise is faulty (in my opinion), that is not a correct reply. I reject the entire premise, not merely the individual points that follow from it.
You see, you are living in a community. And libertarianism fails to recognise that as an entity in its own right. If I want to be part of a community, I have to abide by the rules set forth by the community — whether I agree with them or not. Now I will not gainsay anyone’s right to leave a community. You are allowed to leave, never forced to abide by the community’s rules — but then you’d also have to leave its sphere of influence.
The book has a motivating example for a libertarian view on taxation. Consider Michael Jordan, a famous basketball player from the 90s (did I need to explain that? Am I getting that old? Ouch). Libertarians could argue that the state has as much right to tax his (luxurious) income as the state has to force him to labour (rough paraphrasing of the book), that he deserves what his skills are getting him, that the state has no right to help others because he happens to be good, that he doesn’t owe his teammates (they’re getting compensation themselves), etc.
But the way I see things: if Michael Jordan wants to be part of a community (e.g. an American citizen), then he has to abide by the rules of that community (e.g. taxation). He’s free to argue for a change of the community’s rules (using whatever process the community agreed upon for changing its rules: voting, rule of the strong, etc.). But as long as that isn’t successful, he has to abide by the rules set forth.
He’s free to leave. He can go to Europe, and play for a club here. He’d have to take a paycheck cut, probably… I don’t think European basketball clubs can afford $13 million a year for one player. And that is because the community here does not value basketball players that highly (take up football, Michael! ;-). But if he wants to be there, and reap the benefits of his skills there, fine. But you get to abide by the rules of the community.
And that is where libertarianism fails. The community is an entity, a power structure, and it has powers. You don’t like ’em? Fine, you can move. You don’t want to? Fine, abide by the rules.
I’m curious as to your thoughts on the matter!
Note: I am aware that in some cases this comes dangerously close to support for dictatorship/totalitarian rule. And I abhor totalitarian rule… by anyone who isn’t me ;-)
Streetdance4fans
September 25th, 2010
First lesson of street dance was yesterday. It was fun again. My body still doesn’t move the way I tell it to, though. It’s especially annoying now that we have two pregnant girls in class, and both of them are better at it than me :)
The song we’re now learning a choreography for is “Carry Out” by Timbaland and Justin Timberlake. It’s quite a bit more hiphoppy than the previous songs we practiced to. We practiced it once at slightly-above-terribly-slow speed, and damn – my body is not listening to what I tell it to do :)
So, on top of the successful guitar lesson, this week is turning out well. Dancing was canceled though (by the prospective dancing partner, through no fault of mine), but there is supposed to be some French lessons. And Lindyhop upgraded to twice a week. So it looks like I will have yet another uber-busy semester — evening-wise at least.
Then again, you’re never too busy to have fun, no?
PS: Thought occurred to me while talking to Matthieu: One might think it’s awesome to be a single guy in an aerobics-class full of pretty women of roughly the right age to date. Think again — I’m sure you can come up with some of the reasons why it isn’t.
Guitar lesson #1
September 22nd, 2010I could say a whole lot of positive things about it, and I still wouldn’t do it justice. Suffice to say that my one hour lesson started at roughly 19:20, and the guy left just now (10 to midnight). Says it all, really.
OpenOffice 3.2 in Ubuntu
September 21st, 2010OpenOffice is a nice product. It provides a working alternative to MS Office, is for free, and is constantly improving (unfortunately, it needed lots of improving and it still needs some improving). Best of all, it can read those nasty MS Office files… until Microsoft changed the format again.
Yes, my current ubuntu installs are a bit behind the times. No biggie, but when someone sends you an XLSX file (Excel 2007) and your OpenOffice 3.1 chokes on it… meuh. I googled and googled… OpenOffice v3.0 and above should be able to open XLSX files. Well guess what Sherlock, it no worky work.
So after a short while of fruitless googling for solutions to my problem, I decided to google instead for how to update your OpenOffice to the latest greatest. See here. Caveat: it uninstalls some packages, including ASpell — you’ll probably want that back.
And that fixed the issue. Hoorah for OpenOffice, the latest version does what was promised a few versions ago ;-)