what happened?

Right, so all of you are wondering what I'm always blabbing about on the index page in the first paragraph? Well have I got the solution for you both! Here, I will keep a little archive of what I've written in exactly that paragraph. For your reading pleasure, I will try to put everyhthing on here one month at a time. The oldest post of the month will be at the top. When you have no idea what I'm talking about, go back a few days and everything should become clear. Whenever I think it's worth it, I'll add a link to the more interesting things I mention. Try to expect not too many links.

May 2004

1 - Saturday - 23:59
Queen's Day is always good, you know that. There were many many people in Amsterdam, the weather was good, there was food, there were drinks, there was music, it was difficult not to have a good time actually. Wouter, Marije, Haiko, Lan Lan, Justus and I spent most of the day in Amsterdam's Vondel Park. Everyone was dressed in orange, the color of our country's royal family. I took a lot of pictures, all day long. I just wonder where the rest went when I headed home. Perhaps, time will tell.

3 - Monday -20:00
Unusual. Mostly, I find the time to update this site late in the evenings, as you might know. Now though, as I'm waiting for the coffee to attain completion, I find myself in a 5 minute break from everything, just enough to make an update. Marije was here just now, we made and had dinner together. For starters, there was Japanese miso soup, and our main course was a simple yet effective pasta, with a tomato sauce and quite a lot of vegetables. We didn't really have a dessert, but after Ad joined us, we had Corona beer. Not too bad.

5 - Wednesday - 23:59
Marije and I had dinner yesterday, and Ad was there also, but it didn't end there. You see, Ad had bigger things in mind. The plan was to move some of his computer equipment. Now it's not often that you'll see Ad's room with no monitor in it, which for me was as good as a reason as any to take a picture. And while I was at it, I didn't pass the opportunity to take some more shots, and Chantal didn't mind to be in a couple. Well, that resulted in a bunch of nice pictures, but after a while the both of them had enough, this being the result.

6 - Thursday - 01:48
I spent most of the day with Chantal, not at all a bad way to spend a day. Even though she didn't feel quite well (aww!), we went looking for a digital camera. And found one we did, though not in one of the five or so stores we went to. We ordered one thru the internet, exactly the same one as I have, and the one which most of the pictures were taken with you see on this site. After that, we had dinner with Tjitske, with a fine dessert - strawberries. The evening was lost tapping along to Project Number 03.

6 - Thursday - 17:33
You know, take a random object, put some electronics into it, and you can make a guy happy. It's like remote controlled cars. Most people who like these things are of the male variety, always happy with something that can be controlled from a distance, and has an engine in it. Today, I've bought a headset to use for internet-chat and the likes, and I think this kind of thing falls into the same category. How cool is it to put it on and look like someone from space while talking to people over the net?

8 - Saturday - 02:30
Jasper was here today, but I want to talk about something else. You see, I went to see the movie Van Helsing today. Based on the Dutch vampire slayer Abraham van Helsing, it's an adventure movie with vampires, werewolves, other creepy things, and it's all highly entertaining. I liked it a lot. The only thing that bothered me quite a bit were some other people in the cinema. They were all bitching about it, comparing it to LOTR, but more on that later. First, here's my OWR.

9 - Sunday - 01:40
Ah yes, the case of fanboys. While watching Van Helsing in the cinema yesterday, I noticed people sighing and clearly be annoyed by some scenes. Later, I heard that they were doing so because of the fact that it resembled the Lord of the Rings too much, that the movie (with vampires and werewolves) didn't have any LOGIC to it, blah blah. Please, be my guest and don't go see it then. Nobody is interested in you, nor your opinion. Go have sex with Frodo, and shut up.

10 - Monday - 01:36
First of all, thank you Aya! What would I do without you? I got a couple of goodies from Aya, which Takuro was kind enough to bring today. Before that though, I spent a couple of hours with Chantal, lounging away. Just as I was thinking the day was turning out quite well, I got a call from Ruud. Dinner at his place? Don't mind if I do. Satisfied on my way home, I heard some sweet sounds from Jazzcafe The Duke. Bob Rigter was playing with his quartet. Thanks Bob, it was all good.

11 - Tuesday - 00:56
Rest assured, today there are no external links. It's completely safe to keep your hand on the backspace key. Some interesting scenes today where I live. Other than that, things are changing at an unnoticeably slow pace. Which, of course, is a fancy way of saying that I have absolutely nothing to talk about. I did practice a couple of piano pieces though. For the afficionados, it'll be interesting to know that 'Bisaido Tou' and 'Suteki da ne' are not so much difficult, as hard to memorize.

12 - Wednesday - 02:18
Dinner at de Grote Beer with Wouter, Marije and Jet. Work at Hakata Senpachi. Checking the internet at home. Now we all knew E3 would be good. I clicked on an obscure link (new window) from the Nintendo media page. Green fields, moody sunsets. What's this? The drums kick in, followed by music. Beautiful forests. No, it couldn't be!? Yet, it is! Look, it's Link! Wha-, how? As a gamer, the prospect of this new Zelda on GC was very much to bear.

13 - Thursday - 12:00
I thought it was kind of strange. If you look at this chart, you'll notice that the amount of visitors has more than tripled during the course of one day. Normally, that happens for a reason, and indeed, it appears that everyone was looking for pictures of Nicholas Berg. Well, you won't find them on my site. Everyone's welcome here, of course, but don't expect pictures of brutally murdered people. For actualities on this matter, visit CNN here (outside link).

15 - Saturday - 01:40
Some strange, strange things can happen. Take the case of the Scots. The drinking, singing, laughing, dancing and bagpipe-playing Scots I met in a Dutch train. They had a rugby match against Dutch students, so I went there and checked it out. They lost. I also received a box of Japanese goodies. Great stuff was in there. Let's see, we also had the Tanuki party, with a 'Wild West' theme. On the hang-overy day after, I watched Zatoichi at Ad's place, on a beamer.

15 - Saturday - 23:50
How to have a good day. Take a backpack, a bike, a city, a goal, and great weather. Yeah, I went from Leiden to Amsterdam by bike, which isn't actually too far, but usually you just go by train. Even though my pedal broke off, I enjoyed the scenery, watched a couple of planes, and slowly but surely (video) I got to Amsterdam (video). There were a lot of people in the Vondel Park, and wouldn't you know it? I ran into Robert and Jasper, who happened to be in Amsterdam, too. Dinner at Jet's place with Rogier, and back home by train.

21 - Friday - 02:48
There's been a lot going on lately, and I was sure to capture it all on video and pictures for posterity. Today though, I was in Den Helder for the first time. Ad was my guide. Travelling by car, we passed the beautiful dunes in the northern part of Holland, and I got a grand tour of this wonderful little city. I also had the honor of meeting Maroef, the feline family member. We went back to Leiden when dusk kicked in, and watched a movie at Nad's place. Or, how to have a good day.

22 - Saturday - 03:12
Tonight was the Bofferding evening, at last. Ad was in Luxembourg not too long ago, and he brought back 2 small kegs of the local Bofferding lager beer. Reason a plenty for us to gather and drink it all up. Well, that turned out well. Ronald, Micky, Domi and Frouke, Wouter and Marije, Ad and Nad, you name them, they were all there. The beamer was still present, and we put it to good use, watching the great Zatoichi and playing that little game called Soul Calibur 2. Great evening, thanks everyone.

24 - Monday - 01:30
About two days ago, I guess, I went to Amsterdam, our beautiful capital, and bought two piano books, with solo pieces by Dave Brubeck. I'm especially happy with the Christmas book, featuring piano solos of well known Christmas songs as played by Brubeck on one album. You'll have never heard Greensleeves quite like this before. My students' Japanese skills are ever becoming greater, while my fellow students' soccer skills seem to get worse. They ended up at 10th place. Out of the, well, ten teams.

25 - Tuesday - 14:03
A while ago, we got this in our mailbox. It seems that Skubie is a service which brings soft-drugs to your house. And you can order from the convenience of your sofa! Well, that got me wondering, and thinking about the overall relaxed atmosphere we enjoy in Holland. If you're into that kind of stuff that is. On a different note, yesterday we were surprised by housemate Mirjam, who told us that she will be living together with her boyfriend in a new house, so I'll have a new housemate and neighbour soon.

26 - Wednesday - 12:03
On the inside of the bathroom door of his house, Wouter has put a collection of strange and funny newspaper- articles. Too bad I don't have a printer, because this CNN article would've fit right on there, especially the great picture of Spanky, the rapist clown. Here's the outside link. Now child pornography is terrible, but some credit should go to Spanky for being twisted enough to dress up badly like a clown to reach his goals. They got him though. Clowns suck anyway. They do.

27 - Thursday - 14:03
I'm sick. Call it a flu, call it what you want, I'm just not well. It's not too bad, ie. not too bad to sit behind my pc and make an update to the site. I browsed around the Nintendo website today, and they have a clever member system, which I joined, because I had a couple of codes that came with some games. One of the things I got was this pretty cool Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles web browser. I could put the ad banner on my site, which would be good for me, but I don't like banners. Bummer.

30 - Sunday - 00:47
It's always good to be in the company of Bart, my good, good friend I've known since highschool. We went to the beach in Scheveningen yesterday, relaxing, enjoying the views, a couple of Lion King themed sand sculptures, even playing a couple of games at the local game center. He left today for Amsterdam, as did I. Crazy me though, I decided to go there by bike again. Well that certainly was refreshing. I managed to shave a lot off my time last time I went there. Robert was my host over there.

31 - Monday - 17:46
There was a rainbow yesterday. Today though, I went to the local home improvement center Gamma, to buy some earth for my cute little plants. I'm the kind of guy that usually buys more than he needs, and today was no different. What I bought though, was pretty ccol. To liven up my dull balcony, I bought a French looking table and matching chairs. Combine that with a couple of pots to put some flowers in, and the otherwise boring Balcony Rocks. Summer, we're waiting for you.

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