November 28, 2002 -- Thursday

Quicksilver, die slowly
Sometimes you just get a clear insight into something. A way of thinking that has surely changed you in a way, or at least you think it did/should. Anyway, I forgot what it was so for one I can't write it here like I had planned, and second I wonder that the thing apparantly did not change me, otherwise I would have remembered it. On the other hand now that I don't remember it, I can't say that I feel like I really miss the thing I do not know anymore. Instead I am just listening to Pachelbel's Canon . I recommend this one. It must be the most soothing classical music there is, it is highly melodious and just keeps on going.. like I said it is soothing! The Boy's Choir version is very nice but top of the pop is the 30 minute version including sea-shore-sounds. Delightful!!

I keep seeing more of that stuff
Signs
Serious doubts was what I had before I watched this movie. But I must say I enjoyed this movie very much. The story is not incredibly new and some situations: 'a few people together in an attacked house' are not original. But what makes this movie so very exciting is the cinematography. The feeling of the crop fields, the constant cricket-noise and the colors are great. Although the story covers the world it remains cozy and small because only a few people in a secluded area are followed. The 2 children are endearing by the way. lol.. no Mel Gibson is not one of them.

Vidocq
One could say that this is just an ordinary spec.FX movie. But it is more, it is French, it is weird. Okay, it might not help that I saw this one dubbed in Italian. lol Pitof made an absurd looking Paris 1830, which can only slightly be compared to the world of
Moulin Rouge . It is recorded with a digital camera and every shot is heavily composited using a grand arsenal of digital filters. European filming: extreme close-ups, wide-angle lenses. And the main evil dude produces some nice action/fighting scenes without resorting to Matrix-isms.

What I also saw, but on Nov 25
Festen
The first Dogma-manifesto movie. Uncreditedly directed by Lars von Trier, and not by chance the movie was Danish. It is about a family dinner that goes hay-wire. A sort of 20-year-worth-of-soap-opera-episodes squished into one hour. It is quite funny and cool to watch but I must say that Danish is the ugliest language around.

Harry Potter
I really liked the living paintings and mirrors and the photo album. I also liked the potions teacher. Ok, now that that is out of the way. lol I disliked the children, it was too long, the story only started after 1.5 hours, the adventures were not really adventurous, the jokes not really funny. But then again.. I was already a bit biased. lol

Classic!


November 27, 2002 -- Wednesday

Speaking is Silver, Silence is Golden
I'm not supposed to chat about my personal life here. It was some sort of pact I made with myself. But it was a mental agreement and well if I will sue myself for breaking a contract there is no physical evidence available for court. Ehm, yes, well all I wanted to say is that I had a vvery nice time yesterday.

Would you guess what I saw?
Red Dragon
I msut confess my judgement may be a bit skewed due to the lovely company of one I saw this flic with. Thinking about the failure of Hannibal I had my doubts. But all in all quite a good movie for its genre. After a few minutes I discovered that I had already seen this movie. Manhunter, a movie from 1986 produced also by Dino de Laurentius, is based on the same book and well, basically has the exact same story..except for the ending hehe. Manhunter had nicer symmetric images and I liked the main character better.. for some reason when I see Edward Norton I think of the goofy he played in Primal Fear. Red Dragon has a much better way of telling the plot and was way more thrilling than Manhunter which was quite boring really. lol And yeah of course, Hopkins makes the best Lecter.

Hollywood Ending
A Woody Allen movie about a neurotic (what a surprise) film director who has to make a movie without his eyesight. I'll let you in with a surprise.. Woody gets the girl in the end who is in most movies Helen Hunt, but not in this one. And I can say that this movie is not only not very funny but also annoying. lol. Nah, some of his movies are quite cool; FI i liked
The Jade Scorpion .

From Hell
Another Jack the Ripper story? Yesss, BUT this time with Johnny Depp which means the story takes a turn to the occult, which makes it quite enjoyable to watch. Although it isn't really a grand plot I enjoyed the 19th century world, whereas that usually strikes against my goodwill.

Sweeeeet Dreams!


November 23, 2002 -- Saturday

The way things are set up in life:
I present to you, my new set-up. I'm using the black table I used in Utrecht and at a way too high cost I just HAD to buy stuff so I could try if I could connect a second monitor. And to my surprise it works! So now I can finally move all those annoying windows that I want to see but NOT on my screen on the other smaller cute little monitorlet. I am of course talking about WinAmp, ICQ and MSN. But now I can also watch a movie AND chat or keep an eye on my stock bonds. Weeeeee! look at them go down.

Oh the movies I've seen PART 2:
Practical Magic
Another Bullock movie. It is a rather dragged out version of Charmed. But without Brenda Walsh playing in it. Frankly I don't know what kind of movie I should call this. It is not a romantic comedy, not really a drama.. At 3/4 of it it caught my attention. Then it let me go again lol. Well maybe it was because it was on tv. Sometimes it was quite funny.. but iI don't really go for the Harry Potter approach to witches.

Blue Velvet
YES!! YES!!
She wore bluuuuuue veeeelvet This was the coolest movie I have seen in months! and surely one of the coolest I've seen ever. It is quite useless to tell anything about the story, but that is usually the case with David Lynch's films. The atmosphere was tantalizing, the hairs on my back were firmly risen at all times, except for the first half hour where I had to grow those hairs first. Every next second of the movie was a mystery. Very nice view on how goodness is drawn to the shadows. And hear hear for Kyle MacLachlan and Dennis Hopper.

Fragments of a rudimentary soul:
Tom Jones sang in Miss Congeniality and HOW could I forget to mention that William 'Kirk' Shattner was playing in it!! He is a lousy actor. I him. He lets me call him Billy. I dreamt that the main mast of my model ship broke.. and broke again, and when I tried to mend it.. it broke again. I dreamt that someone from Uni saw my website and told me how it changed his view on my life. (oh please lol) I had a fragment, where I was really happy. According to GoStats a mexican visited my website 14 times on the exact same moment, being sent from a spanish Robotech forum. I spent all day correcting my brother's grad paper.

Let me slide... back into my dreams.


November 21, 2002 -- Thursday

Keeping my promises:
Did I keep what I said was mine? Yes, my hair is cut, although the definition of short is not the same for me as it is for most barbers. My computer table is altered, It has more space is lower but gave me not so much room to wriggle my legs under sooo.. instead of the hammer and sickle this time a big SAW was used to saw out a big piece from under the table so Pudge with his thunderthighs could fit under the table. I mailed all I could. I left out one but she will forgive me, my sore arms did not allow more email writings.

Oh the movies I've seen:
Notting Hill
Usually referred by me as 'Nothing Will'. Everybody claims this to be a witty, sweet and nice movie, and even despite all that it really is that. lol. Well I shouldn't overreact. It can only be a real romantic comedy if it contains Meg Ryan, nonetheless it was quite sweet and witty. Especially the first hour.. but after the last few commercial breaks it went on a very slippery steep downhill slope which was a shame really. Basically what these movies come down to is that boy likes girl, girl likes boy; but instead of licking each others eyeballs out they are constantly screwing up everything. Which is of course a lot of fun if the setting is original, but after the novelty passes .. what is left?? lol. Oh yes.. Dear old chap Hugh Grant. I don't know, to me he can only seem like a real person if he plays an 19th century Jane Austenian character. So this was like watching back to the future lol.
Miss Congeniality
Another comedy with alleged content. I must say I kind of liked this movie, it had some really cool jokes and the story wasn't all boring and they went right in the middle of the action. I hate it when they have such a long intro for such an empty story. But this was good. Remarkable is the way they made all the Misses look good of course BUT they achieved in always making sure that Sandra (or as they'll call her in Britain: Saaahndrah) Bullock actually was the purtiest on stage. Hmm well although Miss Vermont was looking good. And the director knew that because they only had 3 shots of her during the entire movie. (yes, I counted, shut up and read on)

On the gossip note:
It should be a truth generally acknowledged (God again with the Hugh Grantian Jane Austenisms) that a human owning a mouth will gossip. With gossip I mean talk bad about people behind their backs. To say things even about the closest friends which you wouldn't say in front of that person. This is not a bad thing. However more care should be taken in preventing people to read, hear or find out exactly what they are saying about him behind his back. This is because there are few hurts as hurting as hearing that. I say this out of experience, not one recent don't worry. It just got to me seeing Notting Hill lmao, and a story of someone I talked to.

Leave me a dream, girls...


November 20, 2002 -- Wednesday

Pageal update:
I picked up my toolbox and went to it with the hammer and sickle; with Mao in my heart! lol No, I made everything smaller really. Pictures became smaller and also the text. It looks more subtle now, especially for people who don't have a 1600x1200 resolution running.

I also used some new HTML trick to get to use mark-up language here in this box. So now I can for instance use colors. But very proudly I can announce my newest gimmick lol, which is the use of small MSN emoticons!

Scholastic Oralisms:
I'll keep you up to spin-speed by telling you about my latest achievement. After surviving the peril and peristalticlisms of the pre-examinal hours I was able to throw out all that is Magnetic Resonancy and was able to let a 9 out of 10 squirt from the prof's BIC ballpoint onto the examination slip.

Music recommendation:
Tatu - All The Things She Said
Ok, 'an sich' nothing special. But this song is quite catchy. And who am I to pass negative judgement over 2 cute Russian lesbians who have nothing in the closet anymore. I listened to some of their other songs and I thought
Propaganda Melom to be quite cute, for the rest I wasn't really impressed though. Of course I have no clue what the songs are about. lol
Paolo Conte - It's Wonderful!
A famous classy catchy jazzy tune with lyrics to die for; this charming disgusting Italian can make it happen. To help you understand:
It's wonderful, it's wonderful, it's wonderful; good luck my baby, it's wonderful, it's wonderful, it's wonderful; I dream of you... chips, chips, doop-ie-doop-ie-doo
Paolo Conte - Max
How can you go wrong with a title like that! lol I have again no idea what the lyrics are about, probably.. about Max. This is actually a quite beautiful song, especially the enchanting synthesiser solo, which hangs close to cheesiness.

Lingua Fantastica:
You have to excuse me, because I won't apologize. I hope I can keep this up, the thing you may have noticed in the last few paragraphs. I love to make up words. Words that I don't know if they exist, but have such definite and undeniable meaning (to me) that they should exist, if only in my writings.

Promises of a better beckoning:
Tomorrow I will first commit barberide and let myself be cut loose from my long but not lost hair then I will change my computer table because for Muhatma 'Christ' Ghandi's sake this table is giving me RSI, tennis elbows and a license to kill. If all is well and settled.. then I will pursue in my promise that I had made to myself to send all who I owe one, an email. I hope I can live up to it.

Good Night all!


November, 18, 2002 -- Monday
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My first time:
Yes, I did it!.. I saw ER. On accident as it may (very fitting). I think the show has been on the air for decades and I can also say that there has not been a program on tv that I have not seen at least once. ER was the glorious exception. Not that I had anything against it, not at all, that only started tonight. lol.. No, well, it's not that bad, but it's not very special or great either.. nor did I recognise George Clooney (is he still in there???).

That feeling inside:
There are few things that I hate as much as oral exam, and luckiliy I've chosen a study that has plenty of them. My next performance will be upcoming Wednesday. Please read the reviews, people, let's hope it will be a box office hit.

Buddhist act of the day:
I am a proud anti-insectite. I am known to keep my cript free of bugs and other things crawly (just the ones I can see or hear of course). Sine a few days my room has been inhabited by a cheery flock of house flies. Unfortunately I do not have a house gekko that can gullop them down. But, and listen to this dear Pax Illuminae, instead of swatting them like the flies that they are, I openened my window and spent 15 minutes in cold windy weather conditions to get the poor creatures out alive! (where they will probably die soon because of the bad weather.)

Bygones!
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November, 16, 2002 -- Saturday
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Excuse:
My excuse for my great disappearance was that I spent the late nights studying or doing something else which lead me to have no inspiration anymore to write in here. And clear is that I only write these things at night.

Read:
I finished reading Maya, by Jostein Gaarder. She is Norwegian but for sake of speed and the bother to learn yet another language I picked the English translation. And it was a very cool book. It is full of philosophical mumbo-jumbo which is in the beginning a bit bothersome but becomes mighty fascinating later in the book.. near the end I felt terribly deceived by the book. But well.. that means it at least got to me.. haha.. I recommend it, yeah! It shows some nice ways to look at the universe and our place in it.

Music Recommendation:
* Björk - I miss you
A song you have to .. learn to appreciate I think. It has some weird sounds and rythms that makes you go 'Hooo horsie, easy boy.' But in the end it makes you wanna dance like Elaine in Seinfeld... which although shown as such, is not really a bad thing.

Upcoming Exam:
NMR/MRI * Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and Magnetic Resonance Imaging

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November, 11, 2002 -- Monday
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Discovery:
To fully enjoy or enjoy Wagner at all you _must_ play it as loud as possible! lol

Moment of hate:
The Spanish Trainer CD-ROM I bought at the cheapo bookmarket does not work! Grrrr!!

Movie recommendation:
* Wasabi (Luc Besson)
Typical Besson, feel-good comedy movie. It's full of an absurd kind of French humor. But it's very fun, cool, and touching even. I am quite surprised though; I did not know how many people in Japan can speak French fluently lol.. in that way the French are even worse than the Americans. It stars Jean Reno (of course! lol) and he's a French cop that suddenly has to put up with a daughter from Japan who is all tangled up in a conspiracy.. well hardly original but luckily Besson is a good story-teller.

Ggggggoood night..
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November, 9, 2002 -- Saturday
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New additions: (due to a cheap bookmarket)
* 'The Complete Works of William Shakespeare', by an unknown author lol
* 'The Mating Mind', by Geoffrey Miller; How sexual choice shaped the evolution of human nature
* 'Dictionary of Classical Mythology', by Brockhampton Reference
* 'Maya', by Jostein Gaarder; by the author of Sophie's World
* 'Everything About Drawing Portraits', by Simone Robbers
* 'Symmetry, Art and Computers', by Hans Lauwerier
* 'Spanish Trainer', by Academic Service

Cinema experience: (in one night)
* Ramses, by Peter Fleury;
Documentary about a dutch singer/song-writer. Quite moving and just all-over joyful to watch.. though I completely HATE Liesbeth Liszt! lol. Recommended.
* Nueve Reinas, by Fabian Bielinsky;
We saw the exciting and dynamic and mysterious trailer for this movie right before Ramses started and that's why we went for a double cinema night. However this movie turned out to be Argentinian. It meant that the dialogues were long and supposed to be witty. There was no atmospheric music, or any music at that. The story was based on dialogues. The climax didn't grab you, nor did the surprise ending. Nice to watch.. but the last Spanish speaking movie I'll be watching in a while. lol

Late night movie experience: (still that same night)
* Fucking Åmål, by Lukas Moodysson;
Very sweet, infuriating and nice movie. The main character Agnes is vvvvvery cute; the other; Elin is not so bad either. Her cries of boredom, grieve and hypochondrites are familiar to me hahaha.. en appeal to me even. lol. Recommended!

New Alcoholic Endeavors:
* 'Nobeltje' on the rocks. Can't really express how it tasted.. a bit cinnamony maybe? I don't know. The plus was that there were 'rocks', and that the waitress was very cute.
* Baileys. Again, can't really say what it tasted like.. lol.. alchol seems to be giving memory problems. Probably tasted like chicken lol. The plus was that it was creamy.
* Aberlour 10yr Scotch Whiskey. Woody smell.. and a throat flush that feels like what you would suspect if you see flames gush through a pipe in action movies. Maybe it could use some rocks.. though I think that will be the death of me if Scotsmen would see me drink it like that. Hehe.
(Ratings: 3/10 ; 4/10 ; 3/10 ; well what do you expect?? it's alcohol.. ewwwgh.. lol)

Unexpected Train Conversations:
A Polish man, that lives in Greece and whose girlfriend lives in Cuba and who will visit his lost relatives in New Zealand, and I had a conversation about languages. He spoke 7 of them.. I boasted about my experience. But it was a nice talk about how it is all connected.

Music recommendation:
* Billy Holiday - The Way You Look Tonight
Very playful combination of piano, bass and trumpet. Playful is the word. Play.. Play!! lol You gotto love Billy's vintage voice talent. An allover.. PLAYFUL nice old record.

Have a good one people!
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November, 7, 2002 -- Thursday
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Pageal update:
I added a 'Projects' section, in which I just show some other stuff I've done. Also, every page now has a link back to the main page. Just click on the image header of every page.

Music recommendation:
* Sting - Shape of my Heart
A cool song, mainly because it is used in the final scene of my favorite movie; Léon: The Professional. I'm not a big fan of Mr. Sting, but this song is very very sad and nice.

Astonishing conversations:
Chatting with a girl that knew just as much of me in 2 minutes as I do in 21 years.

New additions:
* 'Latin for Beginners' by Peter Jones.
ad aquam - in aquam - in aqua - ex aqua

Good afternoon..
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November, 5, 2002 -- Tuesday
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Declaration:
I declare today to be international 'ne'-day. One of the most endearing German words in history is 'ne'. It is frequently used by youth in sentences like 'Ist gut, ne?' and cracks the living daylight open for me.

Construction update:
The masts are erect.. but because of the paint job they are bending to one side or the other. This ship is becoming quite the spectacle.

Painful discovery:
Eating a mint is nice. Putting your finger in your mouth is joyful. Combining that and then rub your eye HURTS!

Music recommendation:
* Stan Getz/Astrud Gilberto - The Girl from Ipanema
A famous song.. I don't know who sung it first. Old Farth Sinatra has had a hit with it I think. Anyway this is a nice laid back extended 5 minute version of the simple but atmospheric song. Stan takes it away in Spanish and after that Astrud sings it off in English. Very nice one, much better than any other version I've heard of it.

Rest Right Tonight...
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November, 4, 2002 -- Monday
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New additions: (due to sale de irresistance)
* CD; The Pogues - the very best of...
* CD; Björk - Post
* CD; Manu Chao - Clandestino
* CD; Gjallarhorn - Sjofn (YES!! they had it!! unbelievable lol)
* DVD; Don Juan De Marco (Jeremy Leven)

Frightening experience:
A man in suit finishes urinating and tells me in the men's room when I look in the mirror: 'You look decent, boy...'

Three negative things:
1. I attended a class that ended last week.
2. It was thundering and raining at that moment.
3. I hate going on room search.

Three positive things:
1. Because the class wasn't there I could work ahead on my homework for tomorrow.
2. The rain ended when I went into town for shopping and Mac'ing.
3. I could find the room, and the trains were on time to bring me home.

Time wasted asleep: 4:45am - 9:35am | 9:40am - 10:50am
   *---
   |   Manutar maan emäntä
       nostele oras okinen
      kannon karvanen ylennä
      kun ei tuskihin tulisi   |
                            ---*
Pleasant dreams...
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November, 3, 2002 -- Sunday
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Pageal update:
I considered the background to be a tad on the empty side of the half full glass and therefore scanned some sketches, that purposely state my sexual preference and make this page longer to load.

Music recommendation:
* Bad Religion; The Defense
Phat lyrics for phat people. Bad Religion has the ability to just not be the ordinary punk rock band. Like in another recommended song American Jesus, it critisizes modern society, or at least how some people now perceive it. Another thing these two songs share and which makes them both very cool to me is the way they work to a climax in the last verse where all registers are thrown open and where the empty spaces of the lead singer are completely filled with backing vocals singing a different verse altogether. You have to be in the mood to let this sound have its fullest effect. When you hear it as tantrum, a tear will come in your eye.

* Flairck
I probably should have discussed this one yesterday. It is ..or was.., I don't know, a Dutch group that combines a folk sound with jazz. A song can sound like Irish fiddlers one moment and like St. Germain the next. A nice rediscovery this band is. René used to play this and I remembered that, though I had never heard it myself.

Surprises:
My weekly horoscope has not arrived in my mail-box yet!
Five weeks worth of school work can be done in a few days, it is just .. very .. stressful.

Sleep well..
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November, 2, 2002 -- Saturday
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After a few weeks of rest, albeit online, the legacy continues! Of course like usual it will change its course. Since I've been absent for a while I have quite some time to catch up. So let's go!

Music recommendations:
* Philip Glass; Metamorphosis 1 to 5
This is a long piano solo that remains captivating only because of Glass' hypnotic style. Though they are 5 seperate pieces they all share the often recurring themes. Now Philip may not be that much acclaimed by the Old Farths For Classical Music Association but he can convey an atmosphere by ordering simple recurring chords, which most other composers can't.

* Värttinä
Quite a discovery this. Finnish folk music as it seems. Absurd and repetitive lyrics, which of course I understand shit of, if it weren't for some translations I found. In summary it is a big group of girls that sings in snappy Finnish style on cheery and melodious folk music. I love it.

* Gjallarhorn
Also Finnish folk music.. though I think I heard some Swedish as well in some songs. This group doesn't use a big group of singers, but solists instead. She doesn't sing snappy and hangs on syllables when needed which sounds awesome. The music is less folky folky and also uses non-Finnish instruments like the didgerydoo but is equally if not more melodious. Needless to say, I love it too.

No movie recommendations.. the new movies I've seen; The Hole, Minority Report, The Stoneraft were not very great, although The Hole was carried by Thora Hubba Bubba Birch. Seeing Eyes Wide Shut again made me realize it is not only very boring and long but also intriguingly boring. The Rock was on tv last night and so remains to me (one of) the coolest action movie around.

Surprises:
I bought the Santa Maria on accident. It's a plastic model you have to build yourself. I forgot how much fun it is to be covered in glue and paint and to be high on their fumes. Status of today: I got new paint and an A-10 Tankkiller. The boat (Santa Maria, Columbus') is now in a stage that it could float.

Opposed to SMS as I am, I discovered that sending at least 5 and receiving at least 5 of the buggers a day is not only expensive but also pretty cool. It is hell on your mobile's battery though.

Opinions:
Filosophy sucks, chat channels about it suck even more, people who love going there can produce a perfect vacuum.

Oprah's be-thankful-for-3-things-a-day list:
1. Thanks mom for buying me all that coke and chips so I start getting zits in all the wrong places again.
2. Thanks for the bike I have again to ride around.
3. I am thankful for having a stable background.

Night night..
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Astrocenter.com November forecast:

Romance may dominate your journal entries for November, dear Gemini, as Mars, the planet of action and attraction, moves through the area of your chart associated with romance and creative self-expression. All pleasurable activities are likely to be enhanced by the enthusiastic energies of Mars, as it moves through Libra, the sign of partnerships. You are also likely to be quite directed to your work, and may be on the verge of a significant breakthrough, or step up, in your career. In fact, it could come quite unexpectedly! This could result directly from an idea or an innovative approach that catches the eye of superiors, and helps resolve a personnel problem. With transiting Jupiter moving through the area of your chart associated with communication, and Mercury focusing on close relationships, this is a time that you are especially persuasive. In fact, your efforts may result in an important agreement being reached at the end of the month. You are at your best, dear Gemini, when you can apply your logic and ideas to solving problems. November will provide some wonderful opportunities for that.