Joran strikes again. Or should I say that that crime reporter Peter R. de Vries struck again? Another sting operation, this time in Thailand, Joran's current residence, has revealed that Joran is now involved in trading women. He arranges prostitutes for Dutch tourists. This to fund an apparent gambling addiction, or so rumor has it. Another piece of evidence that he really doesn't care, and another reason for me to believe in his guilt in the Natalee Holloway disappearance. You'd think he'd be more careful after the first sting operation, though. Not trusting everybody he meets in casinos, etc.
I was robbed this morning. I know, I should go to the cops and let them know what happened. After all, they stole from me, and they would steal again from other people, but it was so silly... I think I'll let them off the hook this time.
What happened? Well, of course, I too get a lot of junkmail delivered to my house, and along with old newspapers, etc., it's collected every two weeks. Sometimes, however, there's so much of it that if I have half a chance to get rid of it (legally, I might add), I do so. There are no paper collection bins where I live, but this morning I had to be someplace where there are some, so I took it with me on the train. I set the bag next to me, and in no time I am surrounded by four kids aged 13-16, as far as I can tell. They were upto something, which I could tell by how they acted, and how they were looking at me. At Hoorn Kersenboogerd station, they suddenly got up, and made off with my old newspapers and junkmail like lightning, thinking they'd robbed me of something valuable. It's an interesting experience. I have never had this happen to me before. I would have loved to see their faces when they saw what they had stolen.
The World of Jazz, that is. Two days ago, in the heart of the city, the Jazz Walk of Fame was revealed to the public. It's a square with stars representing legends from the world of jazz. So, what makes Enkhuizen (the city I live in, for those who don't know me) so important to the jazz world? Well, we have an annual jazz festival...
However, that's it. It isn't even a very important international event. It has some importance, but in this country I believe we have two jazz festivals that are bigger, and I know of jazz festivals across Europe that are bigger than 'Enkhuizen'. Besides, I've seen the lineups from the past few years, but those consist mainly of Dutch bands. Beyond our borders, only hardcore jazz fans who listen to anything they consider jazz might have heard of them. Also, in Hollywood it is the custom that the celebrities are there when their star is revealed. No jazz legend came to Enkhuizen this weekend.
I don't even see the Jazz Walk of Fame drawing many more tourists to the town. It is lovely, and if you're a German tourist who comes to the Netherlands every year, it's one of those places you have to have seen, but for people who come from farther away, it can't compete with the likes of Amsterdam, The Hague, Maastricht, Volendam, etc. Still, I don't mind a bit of megalomania, so it's lovely to have such a place in town.
Some 18 years after the cold war ended we have an actual espionage scandal in this country. For some reason the Moroccans are spying in the Netherlands. A Moroccan policeman was fired recently after his role in the espionage scandal was confirmed by internal affairs. A while ago the Moroccan government called back two diplomats. Strangely, I don't see what's wrong with the Moroccan operations. From what politicians, etc., are saying, I can only come to the conclusion that the spies are mostly spying on Moroccans living in the Netherlands, who might pose a threat to the Moroccan government. If there are terrorists among them, who are we to blame the Moroccan government for wanting to fight them. Anyways, if it turns out that the intentions of the Moroccan government are more evil than that, I'll keep you posted.
The past few days I keep hearing anti-terrorism announcements during commercial breaks on the radio. They're really quite silly. I can't remember exactly how they go, but here's how they sound to me:
I'm the owner of a paperclip company. It's quite risky. What if someone who works for you plots a terrorist attack, and uses my paperclips to keep the plans together? I make sure that everyone working for me is extra alert, and together we will prevent evil deeds from happening. TOGETHER WE CAN BEAT TERRORISM.
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Here's a Dutch word for you all. I know I have done little blogging this past summer, but I am back now, and it's all down to this one word: "komkommertijd." It literally translates as "cucumber season", or if you wish to be really really literal, it would be "cucumber time".
The etymology of the word is uncertain. I could find no explanations myself. What it stands for however, is the lack of news during the summer months. As for myself, I couldn't think of anything to write about, even if I wanted to, therefore blogging was a slow process.
As for pronunciation... The stress is on the second "kom", and "tijd" sound somewhat like the word "tight", while you can pronounce "komkommer" as you would in English.
A rather funny thing that happened in my country this week. A Transavia plane headed for Turkey was halted by the police. The passengers were trapped on board for hours, and eventually the police made two arrests, a man and a woman, on suspicion of wanting to hijack the plane. Someone had called the police, to prevent it from happening.
Of course, there was no act of terrorism in the making. Weapons were found at the home of the arrested man, but if you intend to hijack a plane, you don't leave your gun at home. The arrested woman did know more however.
Apparently the man and woman were in a relationship, and the two went for a vacation in their native Turkey. The woman was having an affair however, with the man who called the police, and she didn't want to come on the trip. At first she tried delaying the drive to the airport, so they would miss the plane. She succeeded, but as luck would have it, another flight was available from another airport, about an hour's drive away. She then tried to sabotage the car doors, but failed. She and the other man, then decided to call the police, accusing the two of wanting to hijack the plane.
The innocent man has now been released, and the two lovebirds are facing charges.
After the sudden newspaper induced realization that something is wrong with our local youth, a lot of people in Enkhuizen had to wake up to the fact that all isn't well with some adults either. One in particular, a V. de K., angered quite a few people I know. As you all know, the city I live in depends largely on tourism. On local television, which is written local news and information, and still advertising, he wrote a passionate piece telling how he'd like the tourists to stay away. He says he works from home right in the heart of the Old Town, and that the tourists are nothing but a nuisance to him.
I don't subscribe to his points of view either, but some people are just enraged. Earlier this week, I even helped someone at the library with no knowledge of the internet, setting up an email account just so this person could respond to the editor. Small towns, eh?
It's official. I live in the region of my country with the highest teen alcoholism and drug addiction rates. As a result of this I also live in a region with a high teen suicide rate. The epicenter of this problem apparently consists of two highschools (in the Dutch system that's kids ages 12-18), the RSG in Enkhuizen, and the Martinus in the neighboring municipality of Stede Broec. A handful of people I know are already refering to these schools as Sodom and Gomorra.
Since a free newspaper reported on the situation last Monday, the mayors of both municipalities have talked of intensifying their efforts to fight it, and the mayor of Stede Broec has described the situation by saying that the mafia has penetrated the school walls. The talk is of trying to find and stretch the limits of the law to expose the drug dealers, and to punish them.
It's nothing new to me that something about this region's youth isn't entirely aas it should be. Already in 1999 or 2000, the police rounded up a gang of almost 60 12 to 18-year-olds, for crimes varying from breaking and entering, to drug crimes, and assault. The weirdest thing about that is that they all went in hiding within the city, and if you realize that at the time the city had less than 17,000 people, you wonder what drugs they must have been on.
In 2003 Enkhuizen made nationwide headlines for weeks, when a gang of teens terrorized the train station and surroundings. After the authorities forced them away from the station they simply popped up in other places around town, only to continue terrorizing people.
When I sit down for a bit in the middle of town, and hear the conversations of teens going by, I also hardly ever hear any of them say anything that makes sense. When they're talking about school, for instance, few would mind dropping out, girls around the age of thirteen often talk about how they like boys who have already spent time in juvie, etc. Oh well, for all the people who make a false start in life over here, people living in China and India are more than happy with the extra jobs.
An interesting case for those who wish their country would legalize euthanasia. In my country it is sort of semi-legal, and there still are some teething problems. We now have a case that could clear up some of the legal problems.
A young man was recently attacked with a screwdriver, because he greeted someone in Frisian, and the person he greeted misunderstood. The young man, first name Niels, ended up paralyzed from the neck down. The media reported in unison that Niels had requested his life to be ended, while the district attorney said that the treatment was merely stopped, because Niels would have died anyway. That's one issue... how does one define euthanasia?
Now to his attacker. He has been charged with murder, and in case murder can't be proven, he's also been charged with manslaughter. This is also a very interesting situation. If Niels' doctors ended his life, can the 18-year-old suspect even be considered to be directly guilty of Niels' death? What if by miracle Niels would have somehow recovered enough to continue living? There are other people in this country who are paralyzed from the neck down who still go on living, despite the hardships they have to go through.
This could make for some interesting jurisprudence. Time will tell.
The games are over, so it's time to recap. The Netherlands finished twelfth in the medal table, with seven golds, far behind countries like the US, China, Japan, Russia, but... ahead of countries like Canada, Spain, and Greece. Most of our medals were won by women, including six of the gold ones. The only golden boy on the Dutch team was a 10K marathon swimmer, by the name of Maarten van der Weijden. He's a leukemia survivor, who is already being refered to as the Dutch Lance Armstrong. Other gold medals were won in water polo, field hockey, rowing, dressage, the points race in cycling, and the 4x100m freestyle swimming.
Especially the swimming medal was gratifying. In press conferences the day before, the Australian, and American swimming coaches were only talking about eachother when it came to gold medal chances in the race, completely forgetting about the fact, that the world record was held by the Dutch women. The most surprising gold came in water polo, while the field hockey and dressage golds were entirely expected.
The most disappointing performances by Dutch athletes were the fourth place of the men's field hockey team, the lack of medals in track cycling by one Theo Bos, and the poor performances by one Marianne Vos in the two road cycling events. Ms. Vos however, made up entirely by winning the points race on the track.
Something that struck me about these Olympics, was the un-American behavior of American media. Whenever I visited a US news site, and looked at the medal table, they didn't follow the official medal count, where gold is all-important. Instead they simply counted the number of medals, regardless of color. It's one way of beating China, but wasn't one of the most important commercial slogans surrounding the '96 games in Atlanta (I believe it was Nike), "You don't win silver, you lose gold"? There is a certain undertone of let's say hypocrisy about all this.
The most annoying thing about the games, was that all TV directors had been ordered to focus entirely on the events, and to avoid filming the spectators, and other things happening on the sidelines as much as possible. Commentators made interesting observations, images of which were never shown on TV. This did lead to one interesting situation with the 110m hurdles, however. Everyone in China was counting on one Liu Xiang to win the distance, but even before the heats he was injured. Commentators on three TV stations I could watch the games on had already seen him limping in the catacombs, but since no pictures of this were shown, nobody in China knew about his injuries. When his heat was on, a false start immediately revealed he couldn't run twenty yards. Disappointed fans started leaving the stadium immediately.
The fact that all the medal races in the swimming pool were held at primetime in the US was also very annoying. I had to get up at four in the morning for that, while all the other medal events were held at pretty normal times. I had lots of other things to do in daytime, but I always had a radio, or a small window on my computer screen handy to keep track of everything. Had the swimming finals been held in daytime, I wouldn't have missed two entire evenings thru sleep, nor would I have missed any event I cared about.
There's this publisher of magazines in my country. The name of the business in Sonoma, and their most important publication is Donald Duck magazine, which is a magazine for children aged six and older. The publisher has met with some bad weather however, and now they have to come up with a new cash cow: a second Donald Duck magazine, for children aged six and older. Apparently Donald Duck magazine is also very popular with university students, so they thought, that if they take out all the difficult bits, and print it on heavier paper, they can sell an entirely new magazine. Isn't that brilliant?
Now, even with the old version a normal person would grow out of it by the age of ten, yet somehow they don't. What if the students decide they like the new version better?
The neighbor I have referred to as psychotic is still alive. He looks to be in bad health, and instead of the walking he did, the city government have given him a three-wheel scooter to get around. He still is as sensitive to sound as he used to be however. A new couple who live around the corner from me have installed a birdcage, with tropical songbirds, just a week ago. Whether birds are meant to be caged is a good question, but that's not my neighbors problem. Even though the birds only sing by daylight, and start over an hour later than the birds that live in freedom, this led to a huge shouting contest yesterday. My 'psychotic' neighbor has rallied for the support of several neighbors.
I myself have no problem with the birdsong itself. It's completely natural and in nature ugliness does not exist. There is no ugly birdsong the same way there are no ugly flowers, eh? The same way that I can't think of wrinkled old people as ugly, while old people who try to look young through surgery and botox look horrible. If there is anything I'm not too happy about it's the christmas lights they have installed on their balcony. They tested it three days ago at 12.15 AM, and it shone straight into my bedroom for half an hour. That's settled however. As long as they inform me beforehand that they are having a party, I'll be happy to tolerate it. Still, if Rinus is disturbed by singing birds, the light is going to drive him insane.
I know how to deal with this legally, although I'm not sure whether I should tell this to any of my neighbors. The birdcage has been here for a week, and so everyone who is disturbed by the sounds has one more week to complain, in a registered letter to the Mayor. They have to say that they weren't informed that these songbirds were coming, and that they can't live with the noise any longer. That way the local government will order the birdcage removed. It'll be even worse for the owners if they didn't have a license to build it in the first place, but I'm sure that that's not an issue here.
You have an extraordinary character - moral, responsible, and disciplined. Your sincerity and honesty shine through in almost every situation. Driven and focused, you rarely let your emotions get the better of you. You're level headed and rational. People count on your to look at things objectively.
I like to consider myself a relic from the 1990s. I still listen to CDs, even audio tapes, I only carry a cellphone, when I'm expecting important calls, etc, etc. This past week I've dropped back another few decades, if not more. First of all I finally bought a turntable, so I can listen to my collection of vinyl records again. Something which I hadn't been able to do for nine long years. Also, I've taken on the challenge of translating old German hand-writing. Someone reading this will know the details. It's proving quite the challenge. The writings date back to 1932, and are likely to be from someone who learned to write in the late 1900s. I can make out a few words here and there, but mostly it's a hand-writing the likes of which I have never seen before. Just take a look at http://www.suetterlinschrift.de, and you'll know what I mean. I have decided that the only way for me to get the job done, is trying to master this antique style of writing. Earlier this year I already took it upon me to learn how to write with my left hand, which is still quite challenging. I have got my work cut out for me.
Something I never realized until earlier this week. When you find a wounded owl in your Dutch backyard, you can't take it to the vet straight away. It's a protected animal. You have to take it to the police first, so they can check whether or not you're guilty of its wounds. Only after that you are free to get it the veterinary attention it needs. The owl could have died during this bureaucratic diversion...
An interesting piece in one of the four free daily fishwraps we have in this country. Up until a few years ago, and this used to affect the income of at least three people I know, when you were disabled and couldn't work, the authorities simply said, hey, but you can still fold eggrolls. If the victims didn't apply for that job they would lose substantial parts of their benefits.
The fact of the matter was, however, that in this country, only a handful of people were actually needed for the job, and on top of that, it was a job that required tremendous skill. You would not only have to be able to neatly fold eggrolls, but you'd have to be able to kep an eye on 21 pans that were cooking at the same time. If a disabled person actually were to apply for the job, they wouldn't stand a chance.
Fortunately all this is over now. The biggest producer of eggrolls in this country, Beckers, have fully automated the job, and all the living souls it takes now is a maintenance crew. With the machines they produce 700,000 eggrolls a day.
The eggrolls I am talking about, are slightly different from the ones I have eaten in the States. Those ones (that I ate in the US) are referred to as "Vietnamese eggrolls" over here, and are cyilindrically shaped. The most popular eggrolls over here -we do love both kinds- are rectangular, and I believe them to be of Chinese or Indonesian origin.
Yes, we have it too, in the Netherlands: a smoking ban in bars, restaurants, and clubs. The ban commenced yesterday. It's nothing new of course. Many other countries have such bans in place. Still, knowing the country I live in, the coming months could be interesting. Will the ban be upheld at all? I mean, we don't fight the use of certain drugs, slavery in the world of prostitution goes largely unnoticed, if you report the theft of items like laptops and bicycle the police laugh at you instead of taking you seriously... Why would they go from bar to bar to uphold a smoking ban? If the restaurant, bar, or club owner allows it, what can the police do?
On the other hand, there is such a thing as the militant non-smoker, who will try and stop anyone from even trying to light a cigarette. If enough of those call the police, they will have to show up at that particular venue to stop the smoker. I wonder who will win out, eventually.
Of course, small businesses are already busy taking legal steps, because this smoking ban will kill them. The slightly bigger establishments, however, expect to thrive under the new law. Their income is usually hampered by people who occupy tables all night drinking only one beer. The ones who smoke will lose the table as soon they go out for a fag, hopefully to customers who drink more than one beer. Anyways, those are the cliche expectations that were seen the world over, wherever the ban popped up.
As for me, I don't smoke, and I never did, but I'm not at all hostile to smokers. I don't mind if people want to smoke around me. I used to feel slightly different about smiking when I was younger, but then I saw a woman asking a militant non-smoker for a light, and he gave her a lecture that made my head spin. I felt my sympathy towards smokers grow right away.
To those who drop EntreCards on my blog: I'm going to change the way I drop my EntreCards. From now on I will ONLY drop cards right after I post new entries. I will continue reading my favorite EC blogs, but without dropping. The same goes for ads. I will only approve new ads when I have posted new entries. I also expect of you that you only come dropping your EC when I have dropped first. I know this will severely reduce my blog's traffic, but I'm not here to separate you from your money. I only need the traffic when there is a reason for it to exist: a new entry. I do promise that I will continue reading those blogs that I always read.
Mass hysteria. It's always an interesting phenomenon. Especially when it's crushed. This country has been in such a state for the past two weeks, and yesterday it was all over. Streets, stores, people's outfits... The color orange reigned supreme for two weeks, and some streets are still orange, but only because the garbage truck hasn't been yet.
The hysteria was caused by the successful start of the Dutch team in the European soccer championships. People called what they saw magic, and on Saturday the magic was all gone, and the team crashed out against a far, far superior Russian team. True, it's sad that we're not winning the tournament, but the joy I get from seeing the sheer disillusion far outweighs it.
Take the so-called "welpies" for instance. Those are small toy lions in the colors orange, red, white, and blue, that were given away by a supermarket (the same one that had the wuppies two years ago). They were very popular among Dutch soccer fans, and only last Friday the stores ran out of all 24 million welpies that were made. Saturday morning two women at their store in my town lost it completely when the store manager had to disappoint them. Right now you only have to go looking on the sidewalks in certain streets and you can find all the welpies you want.
I won't easily forget the kid next door either. After he came back from the pub with some of his mates he stood swearing outside the front door for almost half an hour. His parents probably didn't let him in until he changed his tune.
The best laugh I get however, is from the 100,000 Dutch people who all traveled down to Switzerland in support of the team. Only 20,000 of them got into the stadium, with the rest of them pressed together on town squares to watch the game on large screens, in temperatures well over 80 degrees, few public toilets, no hotel or campground accomodation afterwards, and a very poor performance by the team they sought to inspire.
The Dutch fans were unrivaled in their mass hysteria, mostly because other countries simply don't sell the hide before shooting the bear. They got what they deserved.
No, I haven't returned to MySpace. This acquaintance goes back eleven years.
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The translation this generates is poor, but intelligible
Google searchbox
Unword of the Year
nominated for 2009:
YAWN RAPE
Previous winners
* 2008 - Dog grooming porno
* 2007 - Autism community
My top 3 of favorite search terms that have directed visitors to my blog
1 How to tell North American venimous snakes from n0n-venimous snakes
2 Counter bad luck from shoes on table
3 Vietnamese eggroll machine
4 Alarm clock smurf song
5 Pets for sale Sandusky Ohio
Needless to say you're not going to find anything useful on my blog, using these terms.
Please first express a desire to chat with me (PM, email, comment), and then be here during my 'office hrs'. I'm unfamiliar with English text message lingo, so bear with me.
Blogthings
You are Sandusky, OH
Loser! You are boring, have no sense of adventure, no sense of humor, you have no friends, in fact you're no good to this world. You are definitely Sandusky, OH!
Famous Sandusky, Ohio, residents: probably a few hockey players, but no one worth a second glance
* Soraya
