Vichyssoise Of Verbiage

IKIL4CTU

2007-04-27T21:35:00.000+02:00

Oh hello, didn't notice you there.

Time to update this bloody thing. But first.

This is blasphemy!
...This is madness!

-Madness?
...
THIS
IS
SPARTAAAA!!!

Sorry, just had to say it.

I feel like doing a big post this time, but so far I'm stuck with a thought I had this afternoon after coming home from a gig and a visit to the café. The first three sentences really happened, all the rest is just crazy talk. Crazy? THIS IS LES BOS! Oh dear Lord, not again.

I'm playing table tennis with my sister. I'm not sure why. Just killing time waiting for the barbecue to get going, I guess. Suddenly a friend calls me on my cell phone.
'Dude, [Teehee] wants to talk to you. Get your ass over here.'
'What do you mean, [Teehee]? Why she wanna talk to me?'
'Just get over here.'
'But... barbeque... put her on.'
'He wants to talk to you... She wants to see you in person'
'Oh man... Fine, be there in twenty minutes. See ya.'
'See ya.'
My heart is pounding like crazy. Maybe today's the day. Get on my bike, dad asks why the hell I'm leaving, dinner's ready, leave anyway, all can wait now.

I'll probably add some other stuff to this post, so check back later. Well, since I now sort of promised to add stuff I'll probably add nothing at all, but hey, whatcha gonna do about it. Don't make me go Jack Bauer on your ass.

The answer is Jack Bauer, the question doesn't matter.

Update

For those of you who didn't know, this blog is now available in Wordpress. Future posts will be made in WordPress. Why? Because Jack Bauer prefers WordPress, that's why. So I'm kind of signing off with this post. Or am I?

Terra Ventura Revisited

2007-04-12T18:10:00.000+02:00

Bonjour.

Me and my family went to Germany for a couple of days. Took some pictures, took some women, you know how it goes. What's more interesting is that we stayed at hotel Terra Ventura again. For those of you who don't remember, that's the hotel where I met the girl who was the inspiration for this post about a year and a half ago. As usual, I got interested in another girl this time around. No wannabe poetry this time, here are two situations that might have happened. But which one did and which one didn't? I don't know, you tell me.

Situation 1:
We had been eyeing each other for quite a few days now. Today was my last evening in the hotel, I had to make my move. It was time to get my groove back. Again. Damn you Whoopi Goldberg. After dinner, I took a napkin and a pen. I wrote 'Meet me in Montauk' on the front side. Just in case she hadn't seen the movie -kids and their silly action movies and crappy comedies these days- and because it wasn't all that clear a message, I wrote 'Montauk = the bar' on the back. I passed her table, said something -could've been 'Here you go, darling' or 'Bleurgh-uargh?', don't remember- and went to the bar for a drink. One hour and two big Erdinger Weissbiers later, I left feeling a little silly but very satisfied. What a divine brand of beer. She never showed up.

Situation 2:
We had been eyeing each other for quite a few days now. During my stay in the hotel, she and a couple of other gals had mistaken me for demigod Hercules. That's okay, they're actually not that far off. Herc is one half, I'm the other. But anyway. I was interested, so I had to talk to her. During one dinner, I went to her table and said to her father something along the lines of 'Excuse me, milord, might I have a word with your stunningly beautiful daughter?' He stood up, rather irritated, gave me a look of deep digust and howled: 'Who are you to take my daughter away? You young kids with your long hair and your music television! Away with you, away!'
'But sir, I--'
'Didn't you hear me, you ugly bastard? Piss off!'
'Oh don't make me angry pal, you wouldn't like me when I'm angry!'
My eyes turned white, I lunged myself towards his persona, jumped onto his chest and ripped his heart right out. After standing victorious upon the now dead body, I threw the remains of his heart into a bowl of chicken soup. I regained my sexiness, turned towards the dame and said 'Mademoiselle?' She stared at me, first slightly horror-stricken but then with a face that showed nothing but sheer adoration. She uttered 'Hell yeah!', took me by the hand and we went to a hotel room where I did stuff to her.

Which one of the situations is true? That's for me to know and for you to find out. Oh, and if you're the girl and you're reading this: contact me, I lost your number.

Yeah right.
But seriously, contact me.
And the rest of you: bugger off.

NOTEBOOK: Cooking Humans Since '99

2007-04-03T01:59:00.000+02:00

This next entry was written in my notebook a couple of days ago, hence the very subtle NOTEBOOK in today's title. I have to admit I was drunk when I wrote it. Well, actually not that drunk. Maybe slightly. Wait a minute, it wasn't even slightly. In fact, I was very not drunk! Oh boy, better get on with it.

I won't make any adjustments to the text, even though I feel different about some stuff now.

Cooking Humans Since '99

You know what really grinds my gears?
Porn. It doesn't make any sense. It's like they're not even trying anymore. A guy rings the door bell, some hot chick opens the door and the guy goes like 'I'm the pizza delivery guy. This pizza has a hole in it, I've put my cock through that hole.' And the chick goes like 'Okay, you can fuck me.' Man, if that'd really work in real life, I'd deliver a whole lotta pizzas each day and be damn grateful for having such a sublime job.

You know what really grinds my gears?
People I don't know telling me I don't talk very much. And even worse: drunk people I don't know and certainly don't want to get to know because they're telling me I don't talk much. Fuck 'em all. 'So why don't you talk?' I don't know, why didn't your father throw you off a cliff after you were born? Why did your mom and dad have to meet and do nasty stuff? It ain't my problem so I shut the fuck up about it, join the crew. If I don't talk to you, it's either because I'm not comfortable around you or because I plain don't like you. Ah well, fuck it. I'm too lazy to respond to the whole you don't talk thing, so yesterday night I was glad some of my friends did that for me. That bloody drunk idiot was really pissing me off, but fortunately the guys owned his dumb ass with their superior linguistic abilities. Bring me Solo and the Wookie.

You know what really grinds my gears?
My fucking mood changes. I go to some gigs in the late afternoon rather happy and excited and I comeback home at night all depressed, without something important taking place in between that could've caused the change of mood. Maybe it was all the crappy punk music. Maybe I didn't have enough beer. Maybe I had too much. Maybe it was the Tenacious D overload. It was I who fucked the dragon and so forth. Maybe it was those two girls that I couldn't stop thinking about but didn't have the balls to talk to, again. Maybe it was because I really need to take a big dump. So many reasons, and yet so little decent ones. It was a fun night, shame my mental madness fucked it up. I blame the girls for that. Maybe I should offer them a pizza. Oh dear, that was just nasty. Forget I said that. By the way: oh hi, I upgraded your ram.

You know what really grinds my gears?
The computers in our house were moved to different rooms again. That's why I can't type this out, have to write all this nonsense down first and put it into the computer later. Damn, life's hard. In fact, the more I'm writing now, the more I'll have to wirte again at the computer. So I'm gonna stop now. Or am I? Damn you Van Goylen. Shut up. No you shut up. I'm not talking. Then who is? Well, not me, that's for sure. Oh boy, this post's rubbish.

How about a taco that craps ice cream? Guys?
- I like it.

[End of rubbish]

Man, I sure felt silly writing that last paragraph. Anyway, the taco from South Park has got to be one of the most hilarious cartoon characters ever, check out the episode in which the guys get abducted by aliens again to see him. Right now I feel like starting a Tenacious D tribute band. And I know that I'm going to be sorry for writing that in a couple of hours. Forget I said anything. Go kick a poo or fuck a dragon or ride a flying goose or something. Have at you!

Stelios

2007-03-24T16:17:00.000+01:00

Bonjovi everyone.

And kick ass he did. Butler's best performance I've seen yet, Leonidas was godlike. The movie itself was nice, but I left the movie theater a little disappointed. Here's some random thoughts about the whole thing.

I liked the beginning of the movie. Things were going rather fast, showing how Spartan warriors are trained and really getting to the real story as fast as possible. However, everything slowed down way too much once we got to Sparta in the timeframe where the movie is situated. Some boring family stuff that really didn't help the story along at all, should've been cut. The Persian emissary scene kicks ass of course, with the legendary 'This is Sparta!' dialogue and all. The shots with the horses, which were also in the trailers, really made my jaw drop when I saw them on the big screen. My jaw doesn't drop very much, let me assure you of that.

The movie as a whole was stunning visually. The fights were so great that every cut to Sparta and the side story felt like a stab through the heart because they slowed the movie down in a very painful way and there were no impressive shots in those scenes. The battle scenes sort of make up for that, forget everything you know about these epic fights because 300 raises the bar a few levels. The camera zooms in, zooms out, slows down, speeds up and does all other sorts of crazy stuff that have never before been done in a movie in such a brilliant way. Visually the most revolutionary movie since Sin City, no doubt about that.

I thought the movie didn't have enough battle scenes. People will call me crazy for it, but it's true. There were way too many scenes in Sparta that could've been replaced by much more interesting scenes about Leonidas and his army of undefeatable ass-kickers. Maybe the Sparta scenes were in the movie because they were in the comic , maybe they were in because of the women in the audience. I don't care, they sucked ass. When you go to see a movie like 300, you don't want scenes with women and councilmen. You want half-naked Spartans beating the shit out of millions of Persians. All the time. For two hours, not for one hour. I hope the movie gets an extended cut on dvd with more battle scenes. Not so much because they would make 300 a better movie, but because every single battle scene in the movie blew me away. And so I want more of that.

If you're not sure whether to go see the film in a movie theater or not: do it. This is probably the first movie worth seeing in a cinema since the second Pirates of the Caribbean, which was more disappointing than 300 was. I think I'll go see it a second time this week myself, if only for the divine battle scenes and the bad ass motherf[Dear Lord!]ing Spartans. Yeah, I think I'll watch 'em fight in the shade and change cultures and dine in Hell again. Because Xerxes sort of looks like a chick, and if you look like a chick you deserve to get your ass kicked by men with beards.

Shipoopi

2007-03-18T17:37:00.000+01:00

Evening gents.

I guess the fact that I'm not posting as much as I used to do should prove that my life has somehow become more interesting. Used to post here when I was bored, confused or slightly drunk. Now I just post because I feel kind of guilty not having posted nonsense for over two weeks. So here's a new load of rubbish for you. If you don't like it, kiss my rump. What a great word that is. Like diarrhea.

Hehehe, diarrhea.
Hey Lois!
-Yes Peter?
-Diarhhea.
-Ohoho! Peter, I'm holding ice tea!

So what's new. I'm still sexy as hell, that's for sure. But my damn beard won't grow. It's got all these blond hairs which you can't see and all the black hairs refuse to grow in decent ways. Damn 'em all. Good luck I drank this ugly beard antidote. Now shave me. Didn't work.

I've amazed myself this week by starting a ten-week running program. My physical condition was so far below zero even black midgets went 'Wow, that's low bro!'. Three work-outs a week for ten weeks, wonder if I'll make it to the end in one piece. If it weren't for one of Belgium's hottest chicks talking me through the whole thing, I doubt I'd even bother. For those of you who don't speak Dutch, the line she says in the picture is 'Demigod Giel is one sexy piece of work!'

What else? Looking forward to the movie 300, which is released over here next week. Yesterday I found myself shouting 'Tonight we dine bij de Chinees!' to my brother, which he probably found a little disturbing. Ah well, Gerard Butler is a fine actor and I'm sure he'll do a great job playing whoever the bleep he's playing. For those of you who don't know him: he was in that movie with those dragons and he played the Phantom in Schumacher's Phantom of the Opera. He can sing, but can he kick Persian ass? I'll find out next week. And then I probably won't shut up about the movie for about half a year. Ah, good old V For Vendetta memories.

Now I gotta go to my bar.
At the center of the earth!
You know, we don't get many of you molten rock men down here.
-Well, at these prices I'm not surprised!
-Oh, that's it pal! You are outta here!

You know what today is?

2007-03-02T15:24:00.000+01:00

A bad day to be a sperm.

I'm too damn lazy to write, so I'm going to have other people say and sing funny stuff for me.

First up, Stewie Griffin!

I fucking love this band!

That's it. If you don't like it, allow me to quote Satan:
'MY COCK YOU WILL SUCK!'

Thank you.
And you.
I'd do you.
And you.
Wouldn't do you.
Oh God, who hasn't done you?
Lose the pigtails and we'll talk.

When God makes a movie about God

2007-01-27T14:59:00.000+01:00

This happens:

'It's some form of Dutch, I can't understand it.'
- There are few who can. The language is that of ouwe West-Vlaamse wijvekes, which I will not utter here.

Looks That Kill

2007-01-20T02:47:00.000+01:00

Once again, a completely useless yet totally 'pwning' title. Watching Carnival Of Sins by Mötley Crüe as I'm writing this, so there you go. Get the dvd, it's maximum high voltage rock 'n roll stuff. With midgets and titties, can't go wrong with either one of those.

Except maybe a midget with titties.

Which also appear on Carnival Of Sins.
Which is a little disturbing.
Almost as disturbing as bonobo porn.

Here it is: my first post of 2007. But first, something else.

The other day, it occurred to me that there is, indeed, a more hideously looking word than blog. Get ready, here it comes:

vlog

Aaaaaaargh! Iiiieeeeuw! ZOMGROFLWTFBBQZOR! Who the fuck invents those words?

Ok, back to business. First post of 2007 and all that.

Fucking bring it!
Fucking bring it!
Come on, we're getting there!
We're getting there!
That's what I'm talking about, hell yeah!

I decided to post some stuff that I wrote about half a year ago in my notebook. I guess it's a lyric to a non-existant song. Anyway, it sucks ass and it still needs some improvement, or even better: it just needs to be destroyed. Let's forget it ever existed. Anyway, here you are:

HEE! HA!

HEE! HA! (Brilliant first line, innit?)

POISONED WORDS COME OUT OF YOUR MOUTH
YOU SHOULD HAVE KEPT THEM IN
BUT YOU LET THEM OUT
WHY ARE YOU STILL TALKING, NOBODY CARES
TIME FOR YOU TO RUN
TAKE YOUR CRAP ELSEWHERE

[CHORUS]
HEE! HA! HEE! HA!
YOU SHOULD HAVE STOPPED WHEN YOU HAD THE CHANCE
HEE! HA! HEE! HA!
NOW YOUR CHANCE IS GONE
HEE! HA! HEE! HA!
(I'M) RIGHT BEHIND YOU, ALL ALONE
HEE! HA! HEE! HA! / HEE! HA! HI! (can't decide which one)
TIME (FOR YOU) TO DIE

AS YOU SEE MY BLADE'S STEEL (SHINING) UNDER THE STARS
YOU REALIZE, TOO LATE
THAT YOU'VE GONE TOO FAR
AS YOU BEGIN TO WEEP, (T)HERE COMES MY SMILE
SOON YOUR HEAD WILL ROLL
(AND) THAT WILL SUFFICE

[CHORUS]

WITH YOUR FINAL BREATH YOU BEG ME TO STOP
BUT I DID NOT START YET
SO LIFT YOUR HEAD UP
YOU TRY TO ESCAPE, BUT NOT THIS TIME
I KICK YOU TO THE GROUND
AND SWING THIS BLADE OF MINE

[CHORUS]

WHEN YOU WAKE UP, IT SEEMS I HAVE GONE
BUT THEN YOU LOOK AROUND
IT DOES NOT TAKE LONG
FOR YOU TO SEE THE BLADE WITH BLOODY STEEL
YOU KNOW THIS WILL NOT END
AS I APPROACH HA! HEE!

[CHORUS (x2)]

Some obvious Metallica and Lord of the Rings infuences there. Anyway, I have always preferred swords over guns. They're much more personal, you have to see the white in your opponent's face before you can land your blow. Swords will probably play a big role in the story I'm writing, might post an extract from it next time.

Girl
Don't go away mad
Girl
Just go away

Mötley Fucking Crüe. Buy The Dirt.

Recipe For Good Story-Telling

2006-12-10T02:45:00.000+01:00

Because he asked me so nicely.

...

...

Okay, because he was a serious pain in the arse.

So, here it is: a post about God. Or Stijn, if you will.

I've known him for quite some time now, and thus I also know that he will spread this post all over the internet. 'Look, somebody dedicated a whole blog entry to my own, divine being!' Then he'll choke on the word blog, he will die a most gruesome death and I will claim his PS2 and both Guitar Heroes. So go ahead, spread the word. Yes, excellent.

... Wait!

Heeeeeere I come to save the daaaaaaaay!

Dying no one will, if something to say about it I have!

Damn, wrong movie, innit?

So, yeah. Something with a guy on the moon. Must be Michael Jackson's Moonwalker. Kick ass game on the Sega Master System, that one. Throwing hats, killing nasty guys and saving innocent children. I always liked innocent children.

...

SAVING innocent children! SAVING THEM I SAY! FROM BAD MEN LIKE MICHAEL! I'M NOT A BAD MAN!

Wait a second there, I am. I said so in my previous post. I'm an asshole, so bugger off. Which, quite seamlessly, brings me to this post's topic: the God of assholes.

But first of all, welcome to all my new fans. You know, all the people that didn't read this pile o' crap before but are doing it now since Stijn linked this page to them. You know you're going to do it, Stijn. If you do it online, you don't have to pronounce the world blog and thus thou cannot choke! It is the only way, silly! So, welcome to the new crowd. Feel free to check out any of my previous posts (I've already got 50 of 'em!) if you ever feel miserable and want to confirm that there is indeed at least one person more pathetic alive: me. ... Hell, at least I can write fucking funny shit and you can't, so clear off if you don't like me. That's right, I don't need you. OUT OF HERE! Butler, send out the hounds.

I have a surprise for all my fans. I am proud to reveal the official Giel t-shirt! Wear it to show that you're my bitch. I wiped my arse with every single one of them, so you can even put 'em on Ebay and make lots of money. Girls can order them when they come over on the usual Naughty Fridays at Giel's Mansion, guys whill have to send my either their girlfriend or a bottle of Jack.

Daniels that is, not Sparrow. No funny business!

But! today's topic was Stijn, wasn't it? I've also made him a t-shirt, it can be found here. Which brings me to what I want to do today. Let's do a cooking lesson about Stijn. Ready, set, go Cooking Giel!

Look at that short hair. Pitiful. Still, an undeniably sexy motherfucker, that one. Who is that again? Whoops, it's me! You naughty boy. Okay, get you cooking gear ready.

First you take a funny story of your choice. The ones you tell to each other in the pub, usually about other people getting in awkward situations. Like that time when I walked into a hotel lounge butt-naked and... Oh well, let's move on.
Okay, now image the story being told. The thing about some stories is that they don't work on paper, only when being told by some drunk fucks to some other drunk fucks.
By now, you should have a pretty decent thing going on. A few funny moments throughout the stories, maybe some references to the people listening to the story, keep 'em interested, and a lot of flair to present all of it.
Now let's take it to the next level. Imagine the story being told by Joe Pesci. Things like 'You muthafucker, you lookin' at me? I'll fucking shoot you, now dance muthafucker!' really add to the whole dramatic effect of the story. Your story is now officially cool.
Okay, we're almost there. Now here's a tricky part: somehow you have to manage to fit both the words 'horse' and 'dick' in the story, preferably in one sentence. It doens't have to be related to the whole picture, but it needs to be there in order for your story to be even more succesful. Look convincing whilst saying horse and dick, no one is gonna believe you if you don't look like you could easily put three woman on there, like a sweet saté of... women.
The story is pretty much completed now, although there is a bonus to be achieved. If you manage to drink five bottles of beer during an equal amount of minutes, you have succeeded in your task of telling the perfect drunk man's story. Drink twenty bottles in one evening to take down the house and make sure nobody fucks around with you.

Congratulations, you now have a perfect Stijn story! Applause!

[herd of naked chicks dash into the room and give three cheers for Stijn]

So that's the most important thing about the bastard: he's a helluvva story teller. I guess God had a few good stories up his sleeve (remember when I told Abraham to offer his own bloody son? That was HILARIOUS! Heh? Heh? Can I see some hands here?), so it's still safe to say Stijn is God.

So what else? He listens to evil music. Like really evil. Like so evil even Satan has to stick his own dick up his ass and kneel in front of Stijn when he plays some music. I know God listens to evil music ('And what's the deal with airline food, I mean, hallelujahs? I know I'm God, people don't need to remind me all the fucking time. GET ON WITH IT!'), so there's some more evidence for you.

Hmm, so now what. Oh yeah, I remember. Trying to say this in a subtle way here... Hmm, yes.

HE FUCKS LIKE A BEAST!

Oh dear, such nasty language in this otherwise very decent blog. Shame, shame, shame.

Here's a painful one to admit: he's actually better than me in Guitar Hero. That's a reason for being declared God, if ever there was any. Honestly, playing guitar for about ten years and he wipes the floor with my arse in about two months time. IT'S NOT FAIR! ... I hate you, Kenny. - Mwmmghmwwmbh! - Shut up, Kenny.

Ah, another important one: he gave me The Dirt! The Dirt is like the bible when it comes to importance and relevance to one's lifestyle. Too bad for the bible, but The Dirt is better. It's the most decadent, nasty, rock 'n roll, motley, brilliantly sexy and undeniably godlike peace of proza ever conceived. Any one who spreads the words of the Dirt around must have devilish thoughts in mind, and since the devil is an asshole and all Gods are assholes, the only logical thing to say is: Stijn is both The Devil and God. And one heck of an asshole. And a bit of a horse, but I won't let this blog get any nastier than it is already.

I could probably go on a bit longer, but it's getting late. Or early, any way you want it.

AAANY WAY YOU WANT IT - THAT'S THE WAY YOU NEED IT! ANY WAY YOU WANT IT!

To those who are here for the first time: feel free to explore the other rubbish about more interesting people - me, myself and God (that would be, woops, me!) - and to comment to Stijn's divine status. For those of you who think all of the above doesn't make the least bit of sense: hell, try writing this sort of bollocks. And to everyone else: open up a beer and let's have a toast for Stijn.

De blog-lezers: 'Santé!'
Giel: 'Tetn!'
Zestig tetn in koor: 'Giel!'
Volgers van het ware geloof: 'Stijn!'
Bierkenners en liefhebbers van sterke verhalen: ''t Stationneke!'
Panoramix op het einde van Asterix & Cleopatra: 'Een neus, mijn beste, EEN NEUS!'
Een paard: 'Hinnik.'

Why The Dirt by Mötley Crüe is the best book ever written

2006-11-21T02:27:00.000+01:00

Because I fucking say so.

And now for something... else.

It's hysterical. I say it's time for something else and I give you the exact same thing: The Dirt! Well, you could go all 'Ceci n'est pas une pipe' on me by saying it's an image of The Dirt rather then The Dirt itself, but I'm afraid I won't allow that. So there. Read The Dirt and be amazed at how pathetic your life really is.

Hoo fucking rah! Someone used the moving An Inconvenient Truth thing! At least two sane people reading this shite, now the rest of you clear off and go see the movie. Be amazed at how horribly wrong our lifestyle has become.

Now for some bollocks. I know some people are tired of me saying I have a bad memory, because they think it's a joke. Well, yesterday evening I was preparing some task for school and I lay a sheet of paper somewhere in my room and then I looked for some dictionnary I needed. Twenty seconds later, after I found the dictionnary, I couldn't remember where I had put the sheet of paper. I shook my head, closed and opened my eyes a couple of times, went WTF? and then started looking for the bloody thing for five minutes. Not even twenty seconds, that's how long I remember stuff that's not important to me. And I don't consider a whole lot of things important. I know people don't believe me when I tell them I have a pretty fucked up memory. I wish I was kidding, but I'm not. The only way I can remember stuff is by constantly repeating them in my head like a madman: you put it in the top drawer, you put it in the top drawer, you put it in the top drawer, you put it in the top drawer, man I really want to fuck Lindsay Lohan right now, you put it in the top drawer.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
I like the Dutch version better, it goes something like:
Alleen werk en geen vermaak maakt van Jaak een rare snaak.

I didn't have memory problems when I was younger. Of course I would forget where I put the house keys now and then, but that's a problem everyone faces now and then. Lately things have gone from bad to worse. If someone asked me how I passed my day yesterday, I don't think I could give a decent answer. My mind is just filtering way too much information out of my head these days, as if memories are of no importance to survival. Interesting theme for a story right there eh? The man who couldn't remember a damn thing. Sounds like a crappy 30s movie and sounds a little bit like The Bourne Identity. Maybe that's why I'm so good at killing people! No, wait, that was A History Of Violence. A rather boring movie, if you ask me. Because the bad guy doens't wear a mask, obviously.

So, it seems Playstage is down for good. The server is corrupted or something, I'd have to check the MSN message log to remember what BM said to me exactly. Corrupt servers, what's wrong with society these days. Before you know it, we'll have extremist servers blowing up national monuments using binary code and leet speak. I don't feel particularly sad about the fact that the site seems to be dead, probably because I change moods three times as much as I change underpants. I could be devastated about it tomorrow, who knows. I don't know if I'll try to find another gaming website with a similar community and flood some new forums with my gaming nonsense. I kind of accepted to be a freelancer for BeNintendo.Be - for a moment I thought that URL had a nice mirror effect going, until I found out that Nintendo spelled backwards wasn't Nintendo but Odnetnin; that's almost as unpronouncable as blog- but I don't know if I'll actually write some reviews for the site. I planned on writing some in this blog before and they still haven't materialized, so I guess I'm not motivated.

Motivation has always been a disaster. While reading The Dirt, I was constantly thinking stuff like: 'Hell yeah, I'm gonna pick up my guitar again and play some kick ass rock 'n roll! Let's rock some balls!'. Then I would pick up my guitar, play for five minutes and go meh. I never understood how people could be motivated to do stuff for years at a time, studying something so they can get one particular job, for example. When I'm motivated, the 'Let's take on the world!' feeling lasts for about three days, then I go back to 'Meh, the world is boring'. For example, over the last week I was excited about playing guitar again, going on a snowboard trip with some friends, starting writing a story, getting some studying done and preparing something special for the 50th-post-in-this-blog-combined-with-the-first-year-anniversary-of-this-blog post. I played guitar for five minutes, decided that I'd rather spend the snowboarding money on rock concerts and festivals, didn't type one letter for a new story, didn't study one page for school and fucked up the long-awaited 50th post by writing this rubbish. Motivation sucks.

Speaking of festivals, somehow I managed to save up 120 Euros for Wacken Open Air 2007. If I can't find transportation for the Amon Amarth concert next Friday, it'll be 20 more Euros added to the pile. I amazed myself by collecting that amount of money, it made me realise that if I really wanted something, I could eventually manage to get it. Even if it's just money for some German festival. Most people would consider that rather unimportant, but they are oblivious to the truth: your life sucks if you haven't been to Wacken. So I'll keep saving money for Wacken, and Graspop too. I should have tons of money by the beginning of the summer, so I'll buy some Jack Daniels (gotta start learning to drink that shit), some Mötley Crüe records for the stereo and some other stuff.

I'll have to pass my exams first, which I will drastically fail at if I continue to live the way I live. Too bad I'm the only one that doesn't care. My dad obviously makes a big thing out of it since he's the one paying my studies and most of my friends don't understand why I'm not hammered on getting through all the exams the first time. Going to a festival like Wacken, to me, is a thousand times more important than bloody school. It's a life changing experience, after all I'll have to start saving money for Wacken every year after this year's edition, in a way that school could never be. I don't want to have some boring job, I want to be a fucking rock star. Even if I don't play in a band right now, make no efforts to find one and can't be bothered to play on my guitar for more than five minutes. I'm not worthy of being a rock star and I'm definitely not worthy of a college degree with this attitude.

You only know what your life could have been if you've read The Dirt, so I'll do my usual useless promotional talk and say once more: read The Dirt. Of course I won't convince any people to do so, but I don't care. At least now I know that my life is pathetic. Mötley Crüe are Gods. And assholes. Every God is an asshole. So, we can conclude that I am God.

Read The Dirt.
You fuck.

And a huge thanks to Stijn for lending me the book, I'll know what I'll be getting myself for Christmas. Cheers.

Class personified

2006-11-08T02:53:00.000+01:00

Good day to you. Or good night, if you're reading this at night. Obviously. Good whatever-bloody-time-you're-reading-this to you, then. Right now, it's almost 3 o' clock in the morning, or the evening if you prefer it that way, so I'll say good night to myself. Good night, Giel! Why, thank you, Tom! Jolly good weather, isn't it? Yes, yes! So, how's the missus? Ah, you know, same old same old. She begged me to stop. Oh dear, you are a machine! Indeed, I am!

Enough of this rubbish.

Some time has passed since my last post. I've been to Holland for a week, jolly good pancakes they got over there. Some pretty ladies too, but we won't get into that. Or into them? Oh dear, I'm just nasty. Not much to do in Holland, except eating pancakes, getting your arse blown off your bike by the sea winds and hitting grown-ups on the heads with hammers. And watching late night poker tournaments. It's fun to see other people lose at that game for a change.

I guess the reason for this post would be Indy's latest blog entry. Indy's the guy who had one blog, then had two blogs, then had one blog again and now seems to have no blog. Well, the blog's still there but apparently it won't get updated again. Oh dear! My links on the right side of the page are dying faster than that hamster I forgot to take out of the washing machine. The only surviving beings out there now are Al Gore and Squall, or Wouter, if you consider him to be human. Don't Now, back to business.

Indy's decided to quit blogging because, well, you know, because. Read his post. Other stuff in his life is more important and I can understand his choice completely. I like the 'the medium is the message' thing, although I don't quite get the connection between it and the whole blog quiting thing. But then again, I never was much good at making connections. Speaking of cool quotes like the medium-message one, here's one for ya:

Don't you talk to me about clothing. I am the embodiment of style; I am fucking class personified.

It's from one of my stories. I'm not quite sure why I have a fashion-sensitive character in my story, but I guess it's just my nature to do and write stuff that doesn't make sense to most people. Which brings me back to Indy's post, I guess. With his master summarizing skills, undoubtedly sprung forth from his PCPG career, he described what the Playstage crew is doing with their lives right now. Well, almost the whole crew, he actually forgot younglink. So I'll comfort you by saying that younglink spends his days going all Austin Powers with hot chicks, going Homer Simpson, or Duffman, with his friends and playing the shite out of his Xbox 360. My knowledge of humans has let me down in the past, so don't send some Chinese guy to me to cut my balls off if I'm mistaken.

He's right, I don't know what I'm going to do with my life at this moment. No use fo the world struggling though, the only time I'm struggling is when I'm in the little room after many days of food entering and not leaving the body. But that's another story! I don't have a determined path, I don't know what I want to do in my spare time and I certainly don't know what job I want to be doing in ten years time. I'm bloody 19 years old, I shouldn't care about that stuff! I should be enjoying life at the fullest, going out with friends, watching some entertaining movies, listening to my favourite kind of music, acting silly like there's no tomorrow. Which is exactly what I'm doing. I hate a predetermined life. "Let's choose these studies so I can get that job, make that amount of money and buy that kind of house and have so many children." Hoo f-cking rah!

If there's one thing I've learned over the last two years, it's that life is unpredictable. One day you're watching you're favourite television show with your mother, the next day the doctors let you know she has an extremelt rare infection and that she only has so many days to live. Fuck that shit. But that's life. One day you're pissed at everyone and everything, the very same evening you're having the night of your life when you're just out in the café with your friends, chatting about all sorts of rubbish. I like life this way, at least it's exciting. We get over the downsides eventally, so let's just have some fun while we can. Tomorrow we get hit by an ice cream car, they drive at devilish speed these days, and we're all deaed. At least we lived today.

I like nonsense, I like rubbish, I like unpredictability. I've never liked people who would say: 'You're studying languages? What the fuck for? You can't get a decent job if you study that!' I don't f-cking study to get that specific job. About 90% of the people who graduate in our school end up in normal jobs, doing their little thing to make the economy roll on. The rest get one of them fancy language jobs, translating stuff and making subtitles for movies and that kind of thing. Which I would like to do, making subtitles. I find them pretty fascinating, commbining a lot of spoken language in short written sentences. So study languages! But I would also like to make movies. Write scripts, help friends directing their movies. Then go to the movie school! But I also want to improve my guitar skills. Improve my play a few levels, maybe even teach younger guitarists. Then study music! I would like to teach. Then study to become a teacher! I want to do something about our climate and I want others to join in. Join Greenpeace! If I had to study for every cking thing I would like to do, I could wipe my arse with my bear before I'm through with all of the studies. Besides, numerous famous examples have made it clear that you don't need a specific degree to get a specific job. They may be exceptions, but that doesn't change the fact that they are.

Anyway, no offense to anyone who prefers his life that way. I guess it's a safe bet if you keep out of the way of ice cream cars. Nothing wrong with knowing what you want to do in the future. But it's not my cup of tea. Call me crazy, come to think of it, they already call me that, never really knew why, but I like chaos and unpredictability. I find no fun in knowing what's about to happen. Life's a great story, I hate to see it spoiled by reading the later pages today when everything is just getting started. Ah, some lame metaphoric, philisophic crap to end this post, what more could we ask for.

'I'm fucking class personified.'

Ah yes, that. Good one.

And sorry for the typo's, but I don't read loads of rubbish twice.

Modals

2006-10-18T22:04:00.000+02:00

You may have noticed...
You could have noticed...
You should have noticed...
You might have noticed...
You will have noticed...

Ugh, modals.

Anyway, you'll probably see that there is a new moving thingie on the right side of this blog. Or maybe not, maybe your browser crashed. In which case I am obliged to say: A ha ha ha! Ha! Oooh. Ho! Ho! ... Ooh, that was hysterical!

Since you're reading this, I'll assume the webpage didn't crash or one of my faithful followers have printed out the page and sent it to you by homing pigeon. Bloody handy fellows, aren't they? The pigeons, not my fans. They smell funny and they always want to touch me. It's dreadful, that unholy cocktail of beer, piss, barf and sweat. Seriously, if you're going to get within ten feet of your master, at least have the decency to put on some eau de f[There he goes again! Youth these days!]ing cologne!

Added a new link, too. ClimateCrisis.net! Sounds dramatic, doesn't it? Sounds like, any minute now, all our countries could be flooded because some fat American guy farted near the Atlantic Ocean and caused a hurricane by doing so. How else do you think those things are created? Come to think of it, they always have women's names. My god! Farting women at sea! Ieuw!

I've been following the news concerning global warming since I read an impressive article about it in TIME. So I decided to watch Al Gore's documentary on the subject. A pretty boring movie, but rather terrifying none the less. I won't talk about it, I'll just tell you what Al Gore tells the movie going people: recommend it to your friends. So there. Now beat it. Not you Michael Jackson, you're not worthy anymore.

In other news, I seriously need to take a crap. Something is pushing rather heavily down there and it could burst out at any minute! But maybe you didn't want to know that.

So. Ehm. In other news?

I have to admit that it's been some time since I continued writing my Yougri story. But! Yesterday, a new opening line suddenly popped into my head. I don't know if I'll use it for Yougri or for some other load of rubbish, but it's bound to get interesting:

Turds. Dog turds. I'm standing in a pile of dog turds.

Genious, isn't it?

Expect a more serious update next time. Probably not. Heck, you don't care and I don't so f[Aaah! Vuile Sos! Homo- en negervriend! Mag wel eens naar de kapper gaan!] it. Smell you later. Things aren't smelling too good around here, so I'll take that crap now. Thank you. Yes. Quite so.

Be afraid

2006-09-24T23:18:00.000+02:00

BOREDOM! No more babes! They all went out to get some more energy drinks, I'm beyond unstoppable, baby.

So I guess we could talk about games, yeah? No? Screw you. Games it is, then. Allow me to give my impression on the three new consoles that are or will soon be available for purchase.

First up is the Xbox 360. It's been available for quite some time now, should be blowing out its first birthday candle soon. Just before launch, I played some games on the machine and I was pretty impressed by the likes of Kameo. An with 'by the likes of' I actually mean 'just'. Unfortunately, the 360 has no interesting games for me. OMG DUDE CHECK TEH LINE UP YOU MOTHER[Now now, no swearing around here! Take yer business elsewhere!]ER! Yeah, pretty solid line-up. Some shooters like Gears of War, some RPGs like, well, whatever their names are, some more shooters, some soccer games, a few action games involving a lotta shooting and Viva Piñata. A game that doesn't seem to make any sense at all, so obviously I like that one. The rest of the games make my balls cry with dissapointment. Now there, there. The girls will be back soon, don't worry.

[high-pitched voice] HOORAY!

... Did my balls just shout at me?... Anyway, I have no interest whatsoever in the 360. I bought the Xbox back in the day when Ninja Gaiden came out and I have pretty much regretted that decision every day since. Should have bought a PS2, I would have been playing Guitar Hero right now! PS2 still has a solid line-up going, even well into 2007. A little too much RPGs for my taste, but hey, it's got Guitar Hero. It's hard to complain about a console that has Guitar Hero. So in the near future, I will stop complaining about the 360. But not yet, I don't like the damn thing. Now, on to TEH COMPETITION!!!!

Sony's PS3 - Expensive machine with loads of features I don't intend to use anytime soon. HD-support obviously, with the legendary 1080p resolution which will apparently rock our underpants straight from our balls and make us feel like Angelina Jolie is eating anything between your legs if you play games on one of their € this-number-is-so-high-I-won't-even-bother! telly sets. And Blu-Ray obviously, the next-gen disc format. Just like the Minidisc and Betamax? Let's hope not. Couldn't care less which format makes it, although it seems HD-DVD is getting a pretty nice headstart these days. Anyway, I won't throw away my dvd collection and I, with my 'OLOLOL, NO HD - THAT IS TEH LAST GENZ0R!!!!!- standard television, have no need of a new disc just yet.

But anyway, the PS3 as a gaming machine. Some cool games. Assassin's Creed, the Naughty Dog Project, Afrika, maybe Lair and Metal Gear Solid 4. Not quite enough to get me excited enough to spend €600 on the bloody thing, so I won't expect to get one until after a few price drops. The PS3 may be cheap compared to stand-alone Blu-Ray players, which cost up to €1000 (that's a lotta ho'z!), but as a gaming device is is way too expensive for my taste. To be honest, I would advise everyone who is willing to pay €600 for a bloody gaming console to rethink your f[Haaaaaaaaaaaay Dee Hay Doooo Hay Da!]ing lifestyle! It's not bloody healthy. Spend it on stuff to buy for your friends and family, go hang out with 'em or something. GIVE IT TO ME FFS! Don't. Spend. All. That. Precious. Money. On. Video. Games. At least spend it on beer, so you look cool. Jesus. Anyway. Might consider a PS3 after it's reached a reasonable price (don't give me this '600 is a reasonable price' crap, you're out of your goddamn minds), 'cause my bet is it will have the best line-up amongst the three new consoles. Next-gen Kingdom Hearts and Guitar Hero for the win!

So, on to Wii then. I used to be very excited about the whole new controller thing, but lately my enthusiasm hasn't been going anywhere but downhill. The E3 conference was pretty good, but I couldn't help thinking: is this it? Especially the graphics were rather dissapointing. Which one might find ironic, since I don't fancy the whole HD next-gen graphics from PS3 and 360 very much. But that's probably 'cause I don't have one of those fancy televisions. Anyway, wandering off. Yeah, the graphics of all the Wii games were way worse than I had expected. 'But Wii isn't about graphics, it's about TEH GAMEPLAY!' So far I haven't really seen much proof for that statement. The legendary Red Steel controls like a pile of dung it we can believe some hands-on impressions, 'next-gen FPS controls ftw!' indeed. However, it seems that Metroid Prime: Corruption, which sadly hardly looks better than the GameCube games visually, has gotten a new control method which is ace and feels very intuitive. There is hope still, but don't expect the first really decent FPS until way down in 2007, perhaps even 2008 considering how Nintendo loves to sting our balls with release delays.

Of course there are some fun games on the Wii. Wario Ware beats all when it comes to complete and utter craziness and pointlesness, so I adore that game already. Rayman Raving Rabbits seems to involve shootin rabbits and doing other dangerous stuff with them, so that might be fun. But honestly, where are the real games? It's fine with me if you want to go all 'fun for everyone, easy accesible' Nintendo, but at least give the old crowd something they like. On launch we have very little decent, let's call them full, games like the ones we've been playing this generation. In fact, the only one I can think of is The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Which is, let's not argue about it, a GameCube game with new controls. Most of the launch line-up consists of stuff like Wii Sports or those dodgy Spongebob games. Nothing that will keep you hooked to your screen for hours at a time. Guess we'll have to wait until 2007 for those kind of games. Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3, Super Smash Bros Brawl. And... that's pretty much it. An trust me, you can expect at least two of those to be late 2007 releases. Come on, it's Nintendo, we know it's going to happen.

Perhaps I'm being pessimistic. I mean, there is a huge hype for the Wii. Newspapers and magazines such as TIME are reporting about the innovative stuff the new Nintendo console will bring and a lot of people seem to be prepared to join the fun. Let's hope all of them stick to their word, because if they don't, we'll have the GameCube all over again. A pretty mediocre launch, some months of almost no new game releases, and people giving up hope because Nintendo only releases four or five big titles a year. A dead console within a year of existence. Let's hope that does not happen, I want to play Guitar Hero on my Wii and I want the console to blow my babes' bikinis right off. Now wouldn't that be nice.

There is hope. Hmm, I said that somewhere before. If Nintendo does the same thing they did with the DS, their chances of getting back in the game are huge. Let me make myself clear. The DS didn't have a very good launch, the best game being a N64 port and all of that. But in the next half year, we got masterpieces such as Meteos, Sonic Rush, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Advance Wars: Dual Strike etc. Now let's look at this year's Q4 line-up for the DS:

Megaman ZX, Contact, Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2, Children Of Mana, Elite Beat Agents, Yoshi's Island 2, Final Fantasy III, Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, Kirby: Squeek Squad, Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime, Lunar Knights, ...

That's the best end-of-the-year line-up for any of the gaming platforms out there, hands down. The DS is my favourite gaming platform ever, I love it to bits. If Nintendo can make the Wii anything like the DS, I will be happy again. But they'll have to get RedOctane to bring Guitar Hero to their console, so I have no more reason for doubt. If they release the controller that is, the world would implode if it turned out they decided to play the Wii version on the bloody remote. It's not even possible, so let's keep them fingers crossed. Come on RedOctane, I'll buy whoever composes those tracklists a beer if you bring Guitar Hero to Wii! Make me happy, or suffer the consequences.

[Enter Stewie Griffin]

Yeah, be afraid, bitch.

[Exit Stewie Griffin]

I didn't quite make the point I was trying to make when starting this post but hey, at least I started writing for a reason this time. Be happy, you tits.

Aah girls, come in!

This little space

2006-09-19T02:34:00.000+02:00

Squall, that's the guy from the sexy - or so he wishes, LOL! - blog, has made a post about the great movies Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. So it would be rather stupid, lame and copycatish to do the same... Let's do it.

Hey, my post is in English and it emphasizes other stuff from the movies, so I guess I can get away with it. I can get away with a lot of stuff actually, since this is my territory. It is mine! My own! My... preciousss... Oh no wait, that wasn't the movie I was supposed to talk about, what it? Darn. Ehm. Why don't you go off to Youtube and check some Guitar Hero movies while I have a drink, take a crap, move upstairs, wonder what I'm doing there, go back downstairs, drink some more, have a piss and try to think of the movie I was going to talk about. Off you go, then!

[Two drinks, one crap, one piss, some noisy stairs and two irritated-about-getting-woken (or is it waked? whatever)-up-by-the-dramatic-sound-of-me-walking-up-and-down-the-stairs family members later...]

Ah, there you are! Jolly good! I remember now, isn't that great! So let's talk about an American guy and a French girl sitting on a train across Europe. They get off together in Vienna. Off the train, obviously. It doesn't make much sense telling the movie set-up lik this, which is probably one of the reasons why I like the movie. Non sense making stuff for teh win!

The main reason for me liking Before Sunrise is Jesse, played by Ethan Hawke. Some trivia about Ethan Hawke: he plays in some other movies too. Jesse is an American guy who, for reasons no one really cares about in this kind of movie, has been sitting on a train across Europe for over three weeks. When a girl asks him why he does that, he says he has wonderful ideas on the train. Ideas that he doesn't get anywhere else. The girl asks him to give an example. He tells her he has come up with a unique idea for a television show. He describes a lame version of Big Brother. The girl laughs at the silly American. I'm starting to like the movie.

So the basic idea is that two strangers meet on a train and start talking. The stuff they talk about is just mental. They'd rather talk about relationship therapies, the meaning of life and love and a whooole bunch of other philosophical stuff before they even bother to know what the other one's bloody name is. Celine, that would be the girl - played by Julie Delpy and talking in a horrible English accent, actually gets off a train in a town she shouldn't be in with a guy she knows for about two hours. Because 'I feel there is some kind of connection', she says. Sounds totally lame and it probably is. I'm afraid I'm one lame mother[angry mob is busy having drinks which I paid for as to keep them silent]er, because I love the whole idea.

Jesse has to leave Vienna some time in the morning, and so they stroll across town all night. You know, they walk and talk just until before sunrise. There, I spoiled the title. Big deal. They have a lot of weird conversations that you normally wouldn't have with a total stranger, which is just the thing that I absolutely love about this movie. The way these two persons talk is just beyond human understanding. They talk like they are living encyclopedias, occasionally (I hope I spelt that right) spitting out random knowledge. Most of Celine's talk starts of with something like: 'When I was nine years old,' 'This one time in junior high school', 'When I visited my grandmother as a child'. She just loves talking about herself and how she hates just about everything in the world. To tell you a little secret, I don't like her very much. Now and then she says something interesting, but overall she just talks waaaay to much.

As always, the girl is more interesting to look at; but it's the guy you want to turn to if you really want to hear something intelligent. Therefore my personal favourite amongst the two characters is Jesse. May the swift hand of Death find you quickly if you even think about making gay jokes about that. I particularly liked one of his quotes, it goes something like this:

"When I was a child - I guess he had been with Christine for quite som time by then, so he had already taken over her habit of starting a monologue with that horrible beginning - I heard my parents fighting in the kitchen. My father shouted that I wasn't meant to exist, that I was an accident. I guess that, ever since that moment, I look at life as if I don't really belong here. As if I'm just an observer, trashing the big world party."

I love the notion of being detached from the world. Just looking at all the wonderful things that happen down here, without actually being too big a part of it. I guess we all feel like that sometimes. I would hope so, it would be rather awkward to be the only one to feel that way. If you don't ever feel that way, you have no soul! I've always had major problems with managing responsibilities in life, which must be why I can find so much of myself in that quote. I just feel like letting go and just enjoying the show without doing anything myself. Let others lead their life, and I will find my peace at watching them be happy. For, however lame this may sound, the times in my life when I am just completely happy and at peace are the times when I am amongst other happy people. It doesn't really matter if it was me who made them happy or not, it just feels so magnificent to have smiling people around you in a world like this.

Now, there were some more thoughts that I liked, but I seem to have forgotten about them. Let's have a drink and try to remember some, shall we?

[Musical interlude - Squall enters the room and proudly states: 'Let me play you a waltz!' The drunk crowd cheers, I flee to another room in horror]

Ah yes, Jesse's grandmother vision. Absolutely loved that one. Just after his great-grandmother died, Jesse (back then only nine years old) was playing with the garden hose. He had learned a trick to make the water sprinkle in such a way that it would make some kind of curtain in which you could see a small rainbow. And then he sees his grandmother through the water, and she just smiles. Of course, young Jesse can't take his eyes off of her and so they just stare at each other. When he told his parents about it, they told him that it was only natural to see these things in times of grief. Jesse thinks 'Screw you, I know what I saw and I believe it'. It's the same with me, really. Although my mother passed away physically over a year ago, I can still feel here presence each and every day. If I watch a television show whe used to watch together, with small tears in the eyes during those moments that made her laugh the hardest, if I'm riding on my bike and see a mother with her happy son. Tons of moments each day in which I see my mother, and I don't give a camel's ass about what other people think about it. Those moments are entirely ours, no one else's.

Another great theme in the first movie, by the way. I think it's Celine that says: 'Time is so weird. It feels like this night together is just ours. Nobody else's, just yours and mine.' Which is true, during their magical night together, they are all that matters. Everyone else is just some kind of puppet in a play in which they are the leading stars. That is the main reason why the first rays of sunshine the next day feel so... can't really find the right word here. You just get the feeling that they were sucked into reality an time that belongs to everyone again, and it hurts. They didn't want the night to ever end, but in the end you can't change time. So make the best of the time you have.

Jesse talks about that kind of stuff in the second movie. How, as he grew up, he learned to appreciate the small things in life more. He used to play in a rock band who, at the end of their short career, were constantly looking for bigger events to play at, buying more expensive equipment and the like. But only now does he realise that the important thing abou all that was just the time together with friends; laughing, playing music and just enjoying life. It's actually pretty hard to realise you didn't enjoy previous important moments in your lifetime to their maximum extent, once you get older. Friends and lovers are all that really matters in life. Celine put it this way:

'God is not in you, or in me. Nor in anyone in this world. He is right here, in this little space between us.'

So much more stuff to say about these movies, but I'm too tired right now and to be honest, I'm starting to smell a bit weird, too. Must be Squall's eau de cologne still hanging in the air. Now let's find some pictures to make this stuff more interesting and then it's off to bed. Smell ya later. Oh me and my clever word jokes.

Erik

2006-09-17T19:22:00.000+02:00

"You alone can make my song take flight

Help me make the Music of the Night"

No real reason for a new post, just wanted to share this lovely picture from The Phantom of the Opera. I really love the music in that movie and of course I adore the Phantom himself. He wears a mask after all. Masks are ace, especially when worn by good bad guys like the Phantom or V from V For Vendetta. And people could fall in love with Christine when watching this movie, she is just magic.

Hey, I just recall that I promised a game review in this post. So much for all your anticipation eh? That'll teach you not to show up on my fan meetings. Maybe next time. In the meantime, check out the Phantom movie or soundtrack. Or check out the games themselves. Buy Phoenix Wright and buy Guitar Hero. Come on, get on with it!

Also finished watching the last episode of the first season of Deadwood. Magnificent series with superb characters. Can't wait for season two, cock[thundering sound of approaching carrot-throwing angry mob]ers! Better get outta here!

Montana

2006-09-14T20:25:00.000+02:00

GUITAR HERO IS TEH PWN!!eleven!!

Now it's official: Guitar Hero is one of the best games ever made. Because I say so. And the Ray soundtrack is ace. Because I say so.

Unchain my heeeeeart!

Guitar Hero is the most intuitive, most addicting and most roxorz-your-boxorz game I have played since I started gaming a long time ago. It features a lot of great rock songs and some nice characters (Iggy & Grim for teh uberwin!), the backgrounds are great and the audience is hilarious. And of course you just feel like a bad ass mother[Oh dear Lord!]er when you play this game. Especially when you beat highscores all over the place, lol! Just kidding.

Wait a minute, I wasn't kidding. I beat a whole bunch of scores and I'm proud of it! Eat my dirt, Stevie Ray Vaughan! No no no, please don't make me play on Expert! No! Bad Stevie! Turn that off! No, I said--

[Song failed]

Damn you, Stevie! Guitar Hero is great at making you feel like God for one tiny moment and then making you look like a complete pile of turd seconds later. It's genius, really. I like the 'feeling like God' moments, especially when playing a bad ass mother[He's at it again! Hide the children!]ing song like Sharp Dressed Men or Ace Of Spades. Or even better, Texas Flood. Playing the blues and Sylvester StallOwning at the same time. See what I did there? Made myself a little word joke! I'm so clever, it's not funny anymore. I so totally rock.

So, not much to add here. Might write a review of Guitar Hero soon, you'd like that eh? Sure you would, you dirty cock[Enough is enough! I've had it with those mf'ing snakes on this mf'ing plane! ~ What the hell is that quote doing here?]er. Some people like my reviews as much as I like Guitar Hero, I call them smart people. Some people don't like 'em, I call them tits.

Anyway.

See you next time, expect either a Phoenix Wright or Guitar Hero review. Probably neither of those, but just some more bollocks with guitars, snakes, cock[Let's throw beer bottles at him for using nasty words!]ers and...

Incomiiiing! Gotta go!
And some Phoenix Wright sprite conversation to end this post. Click on the characters to watch 'em move. Technology these days, it is teh amazing! As am I. Amazing, not technology. Although you could consider me a raving sex machine. Anyway, Phoenix Wright conversation:

Phoenix: So, whaddaya think of this post?

Edgeworth: What a load of bollocks!

Phoenix: omglolwtfbbq, you serious!

Edgeworth: Of course, Guitar Hero is a crap game!

Phoenix: OBJECTION! You're not wearing underpants! Ergo, you cannot possibly be right about this!

Edgeworth: ... But how?! How could you tell?!

Notebook: WINDOW

2006-09-03T19:12:00.000+02:00

This is the first text from my other blog. The original post was a bit longer (some more Dutch nonsense), I cut some stuff to try and make the lay-out look decent enough. Let's hope this works, then.

AS GOLDEN RAYS OF SUNSHINE

NOW PEEK THROUGH THIS WINDOW OF MINE

I WONDER: 'IS IT WORTH THE FIGHT?'

WITHOUT YOU HERE AT MY SIDE?

IT'S HARD TO SUDDENLY SEE

WHAT OTHERS HAVE SEEN BEFORE ME

FOR NOW IT IS CLEAR IN MY EYE

THE TRUE PALENESS OF GRASS AND SKY

WINDOW'S LIGHT BREAKS INTO MY ROOM

I GAZE THROUGH THIS MYSTERIOUS GLOOM

I SEE WHAT IS NO LONGER THERE

AN IMAGE OF YOU STANDING THERE

WHAT YOU EXPECT HAS TO BE DONE

SOME BATTLES THAT NEED TO BE WON

IT'S TIME FOR ME TO FIGHT ALONE

AND ONCE KNEEL IN FRONT OF YOUR THRONE

Zoals ik reeds in mijn eerste bericht zei, is de oorsprong van deze tekst vrij banaal en dus makkelijk uit de tekst te halen. Ik zat door het raam te kijken omdat er constant een zonnestraal dwars over mijn cursus Spaanse zinsontleding liep. Enige ergernis en vijf glazen Ice Tea (de god der frisdranken) later, besloot ik om de zon zijn/haar ding te laten doen en heb ik die ene straal maar aanvaard. En mijn cursus een beetje opgeschoven zodat die in de schaduw lag. Plots zag ik mijn nieuwe notitieboek in mijn rugzak zitten en besloot ik dat het tijd werd om dat prullarium te dopen met mijn eerste zelfgeschreven tekst. Een tekst over die zonnestraal, over de dood van mijn moeder en over mijn problemen om een alledaags leven te leiden, al komen die enkel expliciet tot uiting in de middelste regels van de laatste strofe.

Cheeeese Gromit!

2006-08-27T19:51:00.000+02:00

I hate funerals. Everyone is staring at a wooden box and crying like waterfalls. People get emotional during the ceremony and pretty much everyone is very happy when they're out of the building. Someone like me, who is also looking happy inside church, is frowned upon. Although I didn't feel sad in any way during the funeral, I did have trouble playing Nothing Else Matters. Forgot about half of the intro, never happened before in the two or three years that I play that song. I suppose there's some symbolism behind that, go figure it out for yourself. Rest in peace and stop talking about the bloody war in the afterlife!

Some good news too, since I finally got a job (during the holidays that is, still need to find one for the weekends). Moneh! Not loads of it, but enough to buy some stuff. I ordered some Uruk-Hai helmets from Sideshow Weta, since they are by far the most kick arse army Tolkien has conceived. Furthermore I plan to buy a new console, probably a Wii. I'm still in doubt, might get a PS2 with Guitar Hero as well. We'll see, Nintendo should say some important stuff halfway through September, let's see if it'll be enough to convince me. It will take an effort after the dissapointing New Super Mario Bros., but here's hoping that they will give me an atomic wedgie and spank my shining ass in the process.

In other news, I hereby announce that my second blog...

Hit the road Jack, and don't you come back
No more
No more
No more
No more!

... that my second blog will soon be deleted. For those of you who didn't know I had a second blog; not to worry. I will merge its content with this blog from now on. Meaning that now and then, posts in Dutch and posts with random texts (meant as song lyrics) will pop up right here, in the Vichyssoise of Verbiage. Penny for the guy who can pronounce that without making his tongue look like a hamster on crack. Vichyssswalalala, yikes, that hurt!

Cheeeese Gromit!

Check out Wallace & Gromit & The Curse of the Were-Rabbit if you like animation movies, because it rocks. It's got hyperactive bunnies, queer dogs, women who look like carrots and loads of other stuff that makes you laugh your bottom off. Seriously, the movie is hilarious. Remind me to get it on dvd sometime soon.

Get it on dvd, you lazy tit!

Why, thank you, I will!

Now I'm off to watch Magnolia, listen to children songs, play with babes in bikinis (oi, gerrof Hanne, not-yet!), eat things that look a bit like poopoo, drink some stuff that looks coffee, tastes like coffee but is bloody cold (punch the idiot that came up with Guinness to death with a kitten on a stick!) and munch some giant underwear whilst sitting on a dinousaur and being a squirrel. Rest assured, it's not supposed to make sense.

Bonjour mademoiselle!

2006-08-10T22:26:00.000+02:00

Sorry, I recently saw V For Vendetta again and I needed a title for this post. Couldn't think of anything better. What are you gonna do, shoot me? Behind this page there is an idea, mister Creedy, and ideas are bulletproof! Allright, enough of this bollocks.

Back to English then, it seems. People on the streets were running to me, kissing my heels and asking me to write in English again because not everyone in my loyal fanbase speaks Dutch. Learn to do so, you tits. What a nice name to call someone: a tit. I guess it's flattering in a way. Anyway, who cares. As usual I don't know what I'll write about and as usual I start off by saying that I don't know what I'll write about. Something like that. Yeah. No really.

I went to the hospital today to see my grandfather again. It seems he won't be getting out of there again, so the family is taking some precautions. Some made some small intimate speeches they wanted to share with him before he passes away, others recollected some old photographs to relive some memories together, stuff like that. I felt like I had to do something to, then there was this moment where you slap your hands to your cheeks, act like you're the little guy from Home Alone and run around the house screaming 'What am I gonna dooooooo?' Sure, we all have those moments, don't we? Come oooon! You know you have 'em, you filthy liar! Anyway.

After I found out that all of my interesting stories and photographs were about excessive drinking, I figured I had to do something different. Last time I went to see him, I had seen a dvd player there, so the next obvious thing was to watch a movie together. It's lame, I know, but who cares. It's not what you do that's important, it's the fact that you do it. I felt I had to show some kind of movie that we could relate to in some way and that would somehow tell him how I feel about all this.

There was only one choice really: Big Fish.

We all know Tim Burton is God, so I figured this was an appropriate movie for this particular event. Now my grandfather is in this state where he really can't move anything but his eyes, so he couldn't object to me putting on this crazy movie. I'm sure he would have done so if he had the chance, he's the serious type of guy. So I didn't get my butt spanked and put on the movie. My father and grandmother, who are there most of the time, left the two of us alone in the room and all was silent for about two hours. Apart from the television set. Obviously! We didn't say a word all the while, but then the grand finale of the movies brought tears to our eyes. I just sat there and wept. I wept because the movie just nailed everything right again and I wept for the more obvious reason that one I had loved for many years would soon pass away. My grandfather also had tears rolling down his cheeks, which made me smile. It was one of those moments you only have once in a lifetime. Saying goodbye can be difficult, but it can be wonderful at the same time if there are no words needed to say everything that needs to be said. That sound like some lame tagline for some romantic movie, I should put a copyright on it.

And oh yeah, you might want to check out Over The Hedge. It's a pretty good movie with lovely characters and a lot of farting and burping and naked buttocks. Go see it, it's got Bruce Willis and William Shatner in it, for Pete's sake!

Disco dans l'arrière

2006-07-21T15:58:00.000+02:00

Les Truttes dans ton arrière!

Dat was vorig jaar te lezen in mijn MSN-nickname na het optreden van de discocoverband op de Gentse Feesten. Of het perfect Frans is weet ik niet en zoals gewoonlijk kan het mij toch o zo weinig schelen, maar de subtiele verwijzing naar Metallica's Metal up your ass! was voor mensen die mij kennen wel duidelijk genoeg. Het feit dat ik Les Truttes op een of andere manier met Metallica in verband breng, zegt ook al genoeg over de kwaliteit van eerstgenoemde band. Het blijft de beste coverband die ik al gezien heb, ook dit jaar was hun optreden weer van de bovenste plank. Ik miste Relax van Frankie Goes To Hollywood als opener maar verder speelden de trutjes weer een setlist om u tegen te zeggen en brachten ze een show tentoon waar elke andere groep op de Gentse Feesten een puntje aan kan zuigen.

Over de Gentse Feesten gesproken, ik was aangenaam verrast ginderen. Het lag waarschijnlijk aan het feit dat we de echt drukke zones grotendeels wisten te vermijden dankzij het GPS-werk van TomTom, ehm, SquallSquall. Haha, de humor! Jongens toch. Spijtig dat we zo lang op ons bier moesten wachten en dat die kotsende puber op de bus huiswaarts nu niet bepaald een mooie afsluiter van de avond genoemd kon worden. Maar mij zien ze zondag terug op de Korenmarkt, dan spelen de Vipers. Die kunnen in zekere zin wel vergeleken worden met Les Truttes, al leggen zij meer de nadruk op de classic rock dan op de swingende disco. Daar heb ik uiteraard geen problemen mee.

Met een beetje goede wil laat Wouter nog een paar geestige foto's zien van Les Truttes in zijn blog, zodat de minkukels (heerlijk woord) die er niet bij waren zichzelf tegen het hoofd kunnen slaan met een bezwete teelbal van Jean-Luc Dehaene. Voor dit bericht verder die richting uitgaat: tot de volgende! Wie weet, op de Korenmarkt zondag? Mijn fanclub moet maar verzamelen onder de witte Denysbol aan de Duveltent, ik neem daar wel eens een kijkje. Die bol staat tenslotte vlak naast de enige echte Klokke Roeland!

Home Sweet Home

2006-07-16T19:28:00.000+02:00

And now for something completely different.

Het heeft langer geduurd dan ik zelf had gedacht vooraleer deze blog (zelfs met Nederlandse uitspraak nog een woord om te verafschuwen) nog eens werd voorzien van een nieuw bericht, blijkbaar is het nu dan toch zover. Tenzij ik halverwege besluit om dit in een draft om te zetten of het überhaupt volledig te verwijderen. In dat geval zou ge dit echter niet aan het lezen zijn, dus laat ik het maar snel over iets anders hebben. Straffe verhalen over Graspop, mijn reis naar Turkije en de reis naar Duitsland? Misschien, het is niet omdat ik nu plots (en ik weet zelf nog niet of het bij deze ene keer zal blijven of niet) in het Nederlands schrijf, dat ik op voorhand al weet wat voor zever er hier zal worden uitgekraamd. Laten we om het gemakkelijk te houden toch maar in eerste instanties bij heel het reisgedoe houden.

Graspop was zoals elk jaar een schitterende ervaring op de weide en zoals elk jaar een niet zo schitterende ervaring op de kamping. Dit jaar was dat te wijten aan een nog steeds onverklaarde koppijn de eerste ochtend (en een kater was het niet, zelfs na een geheelonthouding van een kleine maand kom ik die ondingen niet tegen na acht blikken Jupiler. Na Stella ok, maar niet na Jupiler!), willekeurige diarreeaanvallen, veel te veel vrouwelijk gezelschap (en maar kibbelen over onderwerpen die zelfs de bruine drek die zich aan het uiteinde van mijn darmen gereed houdt om de leap of faith naar de buitenwereld te maken, geen moer interesseerde), mannelijk gezelschap dat zich teveel met dat vrouwelijk gezelschap bezig hield (en in soortgelijke praktijken had ik geen goesting aangezien ik met nog een vent in mijn tent sliep. Durf geen vreemde gedachten krijgen! En dan nog een drie dagen durend liefdesdrama dat resulteerde in een schitterend koppel en een terecht achtergelaten zatlap wiens hoofd er nog lelijker uitzag dan mijn behaarde kont na een korte spurt naar het meest dichtbijzijnde toilet. Al bij al viel Graspop goed mee en ik heb er mij geregeld geamuseerd, maar zoals dat altijd en overal (en zeker in deze barre, vol vliegend schijt overladen tijden) geldt: alles kan beter.

Alles kan beter, maar beter was het in Turkije niet. In tegendeel. Alle gratis drank en de schaars geklede deernes waren mooi meegenomen, de resolute weigering van mijn medereisgenoten om ook maar enige activiteit te ondernemen voor middernacht (dan werd het feest ingeluid met een middernachtsoepke, walgelijke kost was dat meestal) viel wat tegen. Een hele week platte rust aan het zwembad en de kust is niks voor mij en mij zien ze dus in dat hotel zeker niet terug met dezelfde reisgenoten. Wel aangenaam waren de andere Belgen om mee te lachen, de andere hotelgasten om mee te lachen, voetbal op groot scherm om rustig nog wat meer te drinken, de heerlijke vodka-sprite-and-that-other-lemon-thing drankjes, de losbandige monitrices en het warme eten à volonté de hele dag door. Maar volgende keer ook overdag wat activiteit gewenst.

Op naar Duitsland dan maar. Zeven dagen in de heuvels (bergen kan je het niet echt noemen) wandelen met zere benen (als oorzaak van een, volgens mij niet geheel onbewuste, aanval op de scheenbenen met een Hollandse bejaardenkruk) en, wederom, het vliegend schijt, is nu niet bepaald wat ik in gedachten had en daarom viel ook deze uitstap nogal tegen. Gelukkig zorgden de Hollanders elke ochtend en avond voor vertier door in nuchtere toestand luider te praten dan zatte Belgen op café. Enkel Klokke Roeland (de Überbejaardehollandse, zij zal op Judgement Day de legers van de Hollandse bejaarden aanvoeren) kan haar gesprekspartner zonder verpinken recht in de ogen kijken en dan met haar bombastische stem en dat heerlijk ik-weet-niet-van-waar-het-komt accent de boodschap 'Jij mag dan misschien dertig jaar in de bouw gezeten hebben, maar je kent er helemaal niks van!' ten gehore brengen. Subliem gesprek was dat die ochtend, toen ze een uur lang ononderbroken over een scheve muur in een rijhuis hebben gepraat. Verder alles wat we gewoon zijn van een trip naar Duitsland: vreemd verkeer op de autostrades, doorgaans verschrikkelijk bier, eten dat meeviel maar nooit echt lekker was, een mooie heuvelachtige omgeving met talrijke pistoletreske (iets in die aard) paadjes die na zeven dagen allemaal op elkaar lijken en vooral veel Hollanders.

Toen we dan eindelijk terug in de buurt van ons huis kwamen met de auto, was daar eerst nog de volgens mijn vader noodzakelijke uitstap naar het kerkhof. Wat een geleuter zeg, alsof ik naar een steen in de grond moet staan turen om aan mijn overleden moeder te denken, dat doe ik sowieso welk tientallen keren per dag. Dan ben ik maar de nieuwe Badpakkenspecial gaan halen. 'Een P-Magazinneke? Dat is dan twee Eurootjes alstublieft, meneer! Dankuwel en saluutjes!' Sebiet es wat irritante verkleinwoordjes op uw irritant smoeleke, krantenverkoperke van mijn voetjes! Eenmaal thuisgekomen rustig wat valiezen uitpakken, een volledige fles Ice Tea (kennen ze in Duitsland ook bijna niet) leegzuipen en dan Monty Python's Flying Circus opzetten. Life was good again.

Naar goede gewoonte zullen vanaf morge talrijke uitnodigingen voor de Gentse Feesten mijn richting uitkomen, ik zal vriendelijk bedanken tenzij er een deftige groep optreedt of tenzij ik in een extreem goede bui ben. Ik ben er niet zo voor, die volgepropte straten waar een slak met overgewicht sneller vooruit gaat dan de menigte 'gezellige mensen'. Het hele gezelligheids- en iedereen-is-lief-voor-elkaar-gebeuren staat mij niet echt aan, ik hoop elke keer tevergeefs dat er eens een goeie rel uitbreekt tussen twee zatlappen. Ik denk dat ik dit jaar eens in de vroege namiddag afzak, dan zou er minder volk moeten zijn dan al die 'feesters' (lees: in de weg lopende, zatte oelewappers die ervoor zorgen dat ik niet rapper op mijn bestemming, de eerstvolgende biertent, geraak) 's avonds. Ach, we zien wel. Bij deze sluit ik af met de woorden selderij, vogelenpiktoernooi en scheet in een fles.

Beast

2006-05-24T21:33:00.000+02:00

You may have noticed two things in this blog over the last few weeks or even months. The first one is the fact that I don't update very much and the second one is that all my latest updates were immensely boring speculations, expectations and "get ready to be wow'ed"-ations about the Wii and other non-interesting stuff. The good old posts where I just write down paragraph after paragraph about nothing in particular seem to have disappeared completely and that is a bad thing. This blog used to be interesting and fun to read, according to the massive feedback which my mailbox had to withstand, yet now it isn't so anymore. So let's change that, let's get back to the old way of writing. After all, the old way is pretty much always better. If only for the magnificent feeling of nostalgia.

If you're expecting an old skool post right now, think again. I'm just here to tell you that it will take some more time for me to get this thing going again. Let's say, one month's time, something like that? You know that novel you've been working on for three years now? Hmm? Got a nice compelling protagonist? Got an obstacle for him to overcome? Hmm? Some nice little love romance, hmm? Some friends become enemies, some enemies become friends? Hmm, yes?

Yes, that's it. I'm onto something here. As for now, don't expect any interesting updates soon. Just go and watch X-Men: The Last Stand while you're waiting for 'em. It's a pretty decent movie. So watch the movie and drop me a line about how freakin' mean Beast is in the movie. Let's describe his role in his own words to conclude this post:

Lincoln once said: "There will be a time to --" PUNCH KICK THUG ROAR PUNCH SWIPE THUMP "Aah, you get the point!"

Brawl and Hunt

2006-05-12T18:37:00.000+02:00

You may expect me to write about E3 and stuff like Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which looks hawt, but I won't. The whole point of Wii is that you discover all there is to it for yourself, so just head to Gamespot and check out some videos and hands-on impressions. I don't know if I'll be getting the Wii at launch. I'd like to do so, but since I probably won't have a job this holiday there won't be any money to pay with. Anyway, I'm looking forward to Super Mario Galaxy, Zelda Twilight Princess, Wario Smooth Moves, Metroid Prime 3, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Disaster and Project H.A.M.M.E.R.

In other gaming news: Metroid Prime Hunters is the best multiplayer game for the DS now. The only downside to it is that you can only do deathmatches if you search for random players and that you can't create your own maps. The rest of it is just amazing. Just add some friends or rivals to your list and you can play all of the game modes, including stuff like Capture The Flag/Octolith and King Of The Hill/Defender, against people you know. You can even send text or voice messages between games, to either humiliate your opponents or begging for mercy in the next match. The thirty or so levels are pretty nice and each hunter has its own pros and cons. For the moment, I prefer Trace since he can snipe while being cloaked (not entirely invisible) and has a great altform. When he stands still, he becomes cloaked, so playing with the radar switched off is crucial if you want to use him effectively.

That's all for now, I'd like to conclude by saying this:
Fart plus cardboard box equals genius

Mission: Impossible III

2006-05-04T01:27:00.000+02:00

After sitting in the sun with my friend, having some beers and talking about our journey this summer, I decided it was too hot for school. Logically, I decided to go to the movie theater instead, at least they have airconditioning there so the whole place is nice and chilly. I planned on seeing The Merchant of Venice, a new movie based on a Shakespearian story starring Al Pacino and some other famous bloke, but apparently the cinema to which I go didn't find the movie important enough and I was left with my second choice: Mission: Impossible III. Being quite a fan of the first movie and having liked the last twenty minutes of M:I-2 very much, I was very enthusiastic when entering the theater. I came out depressed.

How that J.J. Abrams managed to totally fuck up the Mission: Impossible concept is beyond me. It's not that hard really; all you have to do is let Ethan infiltrate a high-security building, make him do some cool moves in the process and throw in some guards here and there to increase the tension. As a bonus, you could add a mind-blowing action sequence in the last twenty minutes. Imagine the infiltration from M:I followed by the whole motorbike sequence frome M:I 2, now something like that would have been one hell of a kickass M:I 3.

Alas! Abrams totally screws up by turning M:I 3 into a two-hour episode of Alias. A two-hour episode of Alias without Jennifer Garner! The storyline is constantly ignored as the action sequences, none of them anywhere near as good as the ones in M:I 2, follow up in a pace that just makes you lose interest. 'Oh look, it's another action sequence. I wonder if they'll show how he gets inside the building, rather than start showing the heist when Hunt is already inside. Too bad, they did it again! Not to worry, I'm sure he will go for a more stealthy approach this time, instead of mowing down every moving obstacle in his part. Aw, I hate to dissapoint myself. I'm sure they won't let him jump out of a building from the forty-second floor this time, we've already had a miraculous escape like that!' And then comes another sigh as Ethan jumps and pulls open his parachute once more, landing in the middle of a highway in Shanghai and managing to escape all possible vehicles while at the same time running after some bottle that all the cars magicly seem to avoid. Sorry for those small spoilers, but by the end of this entry I seriously hope you won't waste your money on this movie like I did.

Not only are the action sequences predictable and unoriginal, they are also filmed in terrible, terrible ways. The camera seems to follow his own will during the sequences, flying hithero and making random movements all the time. So we have no memorable action and poorly filmed action sequences. Did anybody shout 'Oh for crying out loud, give us back Woo, at least he knew how to make an action sequence!'? I'm sure somebody did.

Furthermore the actors aren't really putting an effort into in, the love story between Ethan and his wife is absolutely ridiculous (all the people in the audience today were laughing during Cruise's death sequence, in which his wife tries to reanimate him and, my god!, she succeeds), Ving Rhames isn't half as cool as he was in the first movie, the story is just ridiculous (moving from one heist to another instead of building one big con up, the way it used to be done in the first two movies). The movie is too long for its own good, the ending is not satisfying and even Cruise isn't funny this time.

This was the first time ever that I almost fell asleep during a movie in the theater (usually the sound is just too loud for you to sleep but for some reason, that didn't bother me in M:I 3) and that I actually thought of leaving the theater altogether. If I hadn't payed good money to see this movie, I probably would have. I used to be a Mission: Impossible fan, but Abrams has put the franchise to shame by making part three. I still like part one and two, but I don't consider three to be something that has any connection to those two movies.

Don't see it, please. You'll thank me later.

La vérité

2006-05-01T21:15:00.000+02:00

Those of you following this blog's goings-on closely will have noticed that things were a little hectic over the last few days. I changed the URL for this blog about two days ago so I could manage some things behind-the-scenes, if you like. Unfortunately, my loyal fanbase, desperately craving for more of my writings, discovered the new and almost unwritable URL, so I changed it again to another URL that made no more sense at all. By that time, I had realised that I would have to change my profile so that people couldn't track down where my blog had gone anymore. Some of you also noticed that I started a second blog in Dutch, but since that blog is meant for certain eyes only, I had to change the URL once again and remove the second blog from my profile. Now only the people who should read it know where it is currently located, that's all there is to it. I might make it a public blog some time in the future, so keep your eyes on the blogroll to the right.

As you can see, I have a new title for this blog. Described by some as 'unpronouncable' (Hugo Weaving should smack your cheeck with a glove made of silk), Vichyssoise Of Verbiage will now stand proudly at the top of this nonsense. If you want to know what it means, consult a bloody dictionnary or watch V For Vendetta again.

That's all for now, cheers and one minute of silence for PlayStage.be and one of Rose Tattoo's guitar players. May you rest in peace.

Dominoes

2006-04-30T00:13:00.000+02:00

Wii.

Without any doubt Nintendo's single greatest marketing move I have ever seen since I got interested in gaming. This is why I love them, this is why others hate them. It's just perfect.

Verwirrung

2006-04-23T00:36:00.000+02:00

None of you dared to give me some decent title suggestions for this blog, so screw you all. I hope you die alone, in the corner of a dark street, with my silhouette vaguely visible through your eyes and these words in your ears as the last sounds you will hear.

"The multiplying villanies of nature do swarm upon him. And fortune, on his damned quarrel, smiling, showed like a rebel's whore. But all's too weak, for brave MacBeth... Well he deserves that name. Disdaining fortune, with his brandished steel, which smoked with bloody execution."

I don't want it anymore. I didn't want it back in January, yet I gave in shortly after. The vicissitudes of Fate. As always, regret comes a little late. Actually it has come very much too late, for my future seems ruined now. Why? Why must I always agree? I shouldn't have and I wouldn't have been in this amount of trouble. I will put an end to it and I'll do it pretty soon. Tomorrow, next week, after the conference. But I won't return this time. I know now the consequences of return and they are disastrous. But not again. I ceased caring about it. I don't want it anymore, I won't do it anymore.

Valhalla.

For those of you

2006-04-14T22:06:00.000+02:00

It's Friday night and I'm not at the bar, I wonder why. Perhaps because I ran out of money for the third time this week, which makes buying beers quite difficult.

For those interested in movies: I saw Ice Age 2 today. If you plan on seeing it: don't. It's hyped way too much. Because Scrat was so popular in Ice Age, he is now back with a lot more of his predictable nutty sequences. The only funny character in the movie is Sid, who also doesn't feel as convincing as he did in the first Ice Age. The love story between Manny and the other mammoth is pretty poor, the possums are not funny at all and Diego isn't as tough as he used to be. Pretty poor movie, it's a huge step back if you compare it to the sequel to Shrek, which kicked arse beyond recognition. If you're going to the theatre, watch V For Vendetta but not this one. Rent it once on DVD and thank me later.

For those interested in games: BFME 2 is now mine. The game's pretty cool, I still have to dig into all of the available factions to know how well the game is balanced, though. However, I will stick to Isengard as I did in the first game. I already made my own hero Giel, who looks to much like Lurtz at the moment so Lurtz will have to cut his hair or something. Some of the new maps are really nice, it feels great spreading chaos in the Shire and trying to assault or defend Isengard and Orthanc tower. The new War of the Ring mode is cool for five minutes, but I felt it got tedious pretty quickly. Could be fun online versus other players. I'm waiting for someone to recreate the movie map for BFME2, this time with custom heroes. You could have some pretty awkward scenarios, having my Uruk-Hai Giel defending Helm's Deep from the Uruk-Hai and stuff like that. Some of my friends will be getting the game this summer, their asses will be framed without mercy. This time there aren't any doors to be left open, so that's one problem less for them. Pity there aren't any walls around either when the game starts, they will curse the game for that. There will be no dawn for whoever of the Playstage crew dares challenge me in this game.

For those interested in V For Vendetta: I can hereby confirm that the comic is indeed better than the movie. I'll finish reading the graphic novel tonight, I still have one book (around 50 pages) to go. I like the way the movie and the comic complete each other in a way, I hear Hugo Weaving's voice in my head when V has some lines in the comic and I can see V making all kinds of crazy moves in my head when I read them. Both the comic and the movie emphasize on different aspects of the whole story, so if you're interested in the whole V experience you should probably get the comic too, it's not all too pricy. And no, I will not lend my copy to anyone. It's mine. Mine, I tell you! Away with you, heathen, before I send my flock of sea-gulls to your home! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine!

For those interested in random stuff: I am still looking for a decent title for this blog. The Nameless is only temporary, in case you didn't know. In case you should have any good suggestions, which I seriously doubt considering how not one of you managed to find my inspiration in the Himalayas, you can post them in the comments. I will read them, laugh at how ridiculous they are and have a beer while I laugh at your pitiful suggestions some more. So bring 'em on if you feel like it.

For those of you who speak Dutch: check Stijn's blog. There's a link to it at wherever all of the other links are, so check it out. If you don't speak Dutch, you can still try to read it. Maybe it contains a hidden message if you combine the first letter of every sentence. Let's try that then, shall we? Let's see... Oh, 'Giel has hereby smacked my ass and called me a bitch.' Well, ain't that the goddamn truth.

For those about to rock, I salute you! Wait a second, I'm schizophrenic so I might as well say 'we'. In that case:
For those about to rock, we salute you!

You did

2006-04-12T04:52:00.000+02:00

The apocalypse is imminent! I have seen V For Vendetta for the third time yesterday and I still managed to discover a whole bunch of stuff that I missed during my first two views. I predict I will finally manage to fully understand all of the themes in the movie when I have seen it twenty-seven times, by which time I will be ready to overthrow the government and have people wear funny masks without anyone being able to stop me! Malevolence!

You know what I discovered this time? I discovered V is actually the bad guy!

Did you take that seriously?
...
Yes, you did! My god!

I'm going to give the movie VFV some rest now and spend my next few days reading the comic which I received today. I just read the first three chapters and I don't think I'll be getting much sleep if the rest of the comic is as addicting as those first pages. It'll probably get a lot better, considering how the movie also keeps getting better and better. And the movie was obviously based on the comic.

What? You mean you didn't know that? You did not know that the movie was based on the comic? As a punishment, you must watch the movie Doom! Malevolence! That's the film with The -can't act- Rock and Karl -Eomer, brother of the hot biatch who falls in love with Aragorn but then ends up marrying Faramir- Urban. I just saw the movie because I had won the DVD and my god, it's really, really bad. The movie, not the DVD. The extra's are in fact quite nice if you like to see how a really bad movie gets made!

The only good thing about the movie were the five minutes in first-person perspective, which actually felt like a Doom game, very much unlike the rest of the movie. They should do more of this FPS thing in movies, it was quite nice. Too bad I had to withstand an hour and a half of boredom before and another twenty minutes of yawning after the sequence. The five minutes did not make sitting this bloody thing out worthwile, but they were five great minutes.

Another thing about the FPS sequence is that it made me realise just how wonderful the Revolution controller will work for, what did you think, FPS games. Until now, you actually had to change your view to hit something because the crosshair stays in the middle of the screen in most FPS games, except in lightgun games of course. The great thing about aiming with the FHC is that you fire bullets, rockets, rotten tomatoes, whatever to the point where you want them to be fired at and your view doesn't need to change. I think it will feel more natural for people who are not comfortable with the current way those games are played. If you want to shoot something in the upright corner of the screen, just aim there and whatever you shoot at will be shot without having the camera following your view. You can see the object, why should you change the camera and get distracted? I don't want to wait until the object is in the centre of my screen, I want to shoot it when I see it. With the Revolution controller, you are no longer stuck to the gun being in the downright corner of the screen all the time and the gun being kind of stationary and very much connected to the camera. Now you can hold out the controller any way you want and the gun will be held likewise in the game. The camera could be used like it has been used in FPS games up 'til now, but I for one would like to try out this new way where the camera is independant from the gun with which you're aiming.

I'm not sure if my aiming idea came across quite well, perhaps I should illustrate it with a drawing of some kind next time. Or you can wait until April 20th, a day on which we will probably see some new third-party titles for the Revolution. So how about a knife throwing game starring V? Could be quite nice if you have two controllers. And yes, that's gimmicky. I wasn't being serious, you know.

What, you mean you didn't know?
Oh boy.

Ten Days To -Ton

2006-04-10T17:03:00.000+02:00

If you're interested in the Revolution, read this.

The Ubisoft IGN Insider has confirmed this. Look forward to April 20th. NDA's end for a lot of third-party Revolution (launch) titles, so expect some serious bombing.

If you're an IGN Insider, follow the conversation here.

Red Steel

2006-04-08T17:54:00.000+02:00

So it begins. The first scans of the magazine can be found here. Game Informer unveils Ubisoft's Revolution-exclusive first-person action game Red Steel and it looks pretty awesome. If the final graphics in the game will be as good as the target renders in the magazine, I will be mostly pleased. If you want state-of-the-art graphics, you should buy a PS3 of Xbox 360. The codenamed Revolution will have very good graphics but after a while, the difference with the other two platforms will become increasingly visible. Not that I care, I care about gameplay and that's exactly what the Revolution will offer. A new way of experiencing games, apart from the classic way games are played on PS3 and 360. The latter isn't bad at all, it's just different. Not better, not worse, just different.

Some people think the whole Revolution controller isn't such a big thing. 'Instead of pushing a button to reload, you just move the controller away from the screen, I can't see how that would improve my game experience?' To me, that's the whole point. No more pushing buttons. You move like the character in the game moves, you aim the gun/controller in your hand instead of moving a joystick around, you slash your controller around and the character in the game mimicks your exact movement with his blade. You don't just play games anymore, this time you really become a part of them. Some people think this control method will become exhausting after a while. Work on your condition, lazy ones! The Revolution is all about immersion in the game and that obviously will require some fysical effort.

Of course, you can still play the games like we have been playing them for a long time now, with the controller lying in your lap. Fine by me, I will probably play my games that way when I first play on the Revolution. But Game Informer tells us that the game feels so much more immersive when you actually stand up to play. The character in the game isn't sitting in a couch while blasting other people's heads off, why should you? 'Because games aren't meant to be fysically challenging, they are meant as recreation for the lazy ones'. For a long time, yes, they have been. But why would a change in that habit be a bad thing? Why would you reject total immersion in the game? Standing up while moving joysticks around and pushing all kinds of buttons isn't special, it doesn't improve your experience. Stand up and aim with your controller at your enemies, duck to take cover, pull your controller away to reload, swing the controller over your head to throw a grenade, reach behind your back to grab your sword, fix your view on an enemy with your right hand whilst moving around with your left, now that's an intense experience I am not afraid of experiencing myself. Even if it means getting tired after a few hours, it will have been worth the effort in the end.

Nintendo will drop some serious bombs at E3. Forums worldwide are ablaze by this Red Steel announcement, imagine what will happen if Nintendo itself shows possibilities beyond imagination with that controller. Nintendo will show multiple Revolution games, Ubisoft will have some other amazing projects, then we still have other developers, the third major feature -which some have described as even more impressive than the controller- and more information about the virtual console and possibilities to link up with the Nintendo DS. E3 is one month away, but I already know which next-gen console I'm getting first.

Vivacious

2006-04-05T03:15:00.000+02:00

To the left you can see the temporary cover for my Yougri story. If you think I drew that painting you're out of your freakin' mind. It's a painting I found on the site I mentioned in this entry. I should look up who made it because it's one of my favourite ones on that website. Anyway, I'm using it as a cover for the moment, but I plan on having one of my friends draw a more personalised cover when the story has evolved a bit more.

I started writing the story yesterday. It took me almost an hour to write three small pages. I'm not suggesting anything by saying that, it's just a message to those obsessive fans of my earlier writings, they might think it's horny or something. Anyway, since it is my first story I ever write in English I feel the first chapter is pretty decent. It's certainly visible that the story was written by a teenager who isn't a native English speaker and there is a total lack of any structure, but I like the way how the story evolved within those three pages. I have no idea what the plot of the story will be, I'm just making stuff up as I go, like I do in these entries.

The lack of structure is what bothers me most at the moment, I think I'm going to read the first chapter again tomorrow and if I still feel that it doesn't make much sense, I will probably rewrite some parts of it. At the same time, I alread have some small ideas for the next chapters but for now, I'm going to focus on getting the first one right.

In other news, I've been studying psychology and English vocabulary today, which is quite a feat for me. Two hours of studying in one afternoon has become quite rare in my room, let's hope I can pour my enthusiasm about continuing the Yougri story into getting my school work up and running. When I finally manage to get out of bed before noon, I will know things are finally heading the right way.

Finally, I'm still very positive about V For Vendetta. I have seen the movie twice now and chances are I'll see it again next week. Furthermore, I have memorised V's speech when he introduces himself to Evey and I have bought the comic on which the movie was based. Hell, I even made a new family in The Sims 2. The family Vendetta consists of the pretty-looking babe Evey and V, who is of course wearing a black hat, grinning all the time and wearing white make-up and a cool moustache to resemble the Guy Fawkes mask. If you think that's 'ZOMG, that is so teh nerdz !!111!11', wait until you here my speech.

Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and --'

... Hey, where did everybody go?

V For Very Good

2006-03-29T22:37:00.000+02:00

Man, that has got to be the lamest entry title ever in this blog, but then I don't care much for titles since it's the text itself that matters.

As you can guess from the terrific title, I saw V for Vendetta today. That's the movie with Nathalie Portman getting shaved and Hugo Weaving wearing the coolest mask in movie history. And some actor who plays a dictator who looks like Hitler, but then again, most dictators in films seem to look like him.

Yesterday I decided that I was going to see one of three new movies that were released today: Ice Age 2, Casanova or V For Vendetta. Since I received my first magazine of TIME Magazine yesterday and I found a positive review of V in there, I decided to go and watch that one then. I must say that I'm glad I did because the movie was, and now here's a surprise, very good.

Just look at that mask. Look at it, I say! Absolutely brilliant, I want one of those. If I ever, for reasons one can not fully understand, should marry a mask, it would definitely be this one. Hugo Weaving does a superb job bringing the mask alive in V for Vendetta. Apart from his cool looks, V, that's the name of the man in the mask, also has quite a few interesting things to say. And of course he is the protagonist in this movie, but the great thing is that he actually is the bad guy. He's a bit badder than most movie heroes, who tend to suddenly see the light halfway through the movie and then decide to turn to the good side. But not V, he remains evil throughout the movie. Of course he builds up a relationship with Natalie Portman (who wouldn't?) but in the end he didn't feel as 'the bad guy gone good' as most movie villains do. That makes him a very interesting character. TIME accurately put it this way: 'Give poor, tortured V back his goodness, and you take away his greatness.'

Apart from the small love story between V and Evey, the main theme of the movie obviously is terrorism. The movie focuses around the question 'Can a terrorist have justified reasons to blow up buildings and kill people?' The obvious question to this answer is 'No' and I think it's at least as obvious that V for Vendetta would like you to think otherwise, because V does in fact have good reasons for what he does. I'm not going to spoil anything here but it's obvious that V is one of the few persons who actually sees the whole picture of the country and the dictatorial regime in which he and millions of other people live. Now and then, these lines like 'Blowing up a building can change the world' come out of the mask and they make you think about V and about terrorism today. Some people watching this movie will only see the cool moves V shows off with his daggers (and my god, are they cool), but most of the viewers will see the underlying themes in the film and those themes are at least as strong as the performance by Hugo Weaving, bringing one of the greatest comic book characters ever to life on the big screen in his own, unique way.

I was planning to post a quote from the movie here in which V introduces himself to Evey. But when I read the quote on IMDB.com it didn't feel quite as strong as it felt when being articulated by Hugo Weaving in the movie. So I will just say that it's my favourite movie character introduction up to date and that you should see it too because it will roxxors your boxxors. Or something like that. Cheers to V, cheers to the Wachowski brothers and cheers to TIME Magazine for making me watch this great movie.

"Remember, remember, the fifth of November, The gunpowder treason and plot. I know of no reason why the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot." - V

Hommage

2006-03-27T03:13:00.000+02:00

What to write about? Life? Music? Beer and boobies? Movies? Nothing at all? If you prefer the latter, then why the hell are you still reading this? Shoo! Away with you!

Let's start with movies and go on from there, we'll see what comes along. I just watched Life of Brian, officially chosen as funniest movie ever by some English magazine or newspaper. I have to agree with them. Although animation movies are getting funnier these days (normal comedies just keep getting worse) I still have to watch a movie that comes anywhere close to being as funny as Life of Brian. The humour in the film is just so stupid that it's brilliant really. Those conversations throughout the movie, you couldn't make that stuff up.

Brian: Excuse me, are you the Judean People's Front?
Reg: Fuck off!
[silence]
... We're the People's Front of Judea. Judean People's Front, tch!

Another magnificent movie I watched was Adaptation.. There's a dot in the movie title, so that's two dots in that sentence. The movie is about screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, performed by Nicolas Cage. The script of that movie is just awesome, one of the best I have ever seen. Once again, you couldn't make that stuff up. I'm not going to spoil any of the story because I recommend this movie if you liked the thoughts in this blog so far. The serious thoughts though, not the Stoopid ones. The Stoopid ones are cool but they're not as present in the movie. You do get to see boobies though.

So the main reason why I liked Adaption. so much was the recognizability. Not so much the characters themselves and what they did, but the thoughts they had. Most of the interesting thoughts in the film were told with voice-overs, although now and then the characters exchange interesting thoughts in real life too. I didn't really like the ending of the movie since Kaufman seems to contradict everything he has said before by turning the end into a small action movie. Some great moments come forth from that decision but I feel like it could have been just a wee bit better. But then, I'm not a screenwriter and Kaufman is, so I'm sure he made the right choice considering how absolutely great the rest of the movie was. So if you like my blog, watch this movie and chances are you'll find some connections between the two. Connections that obviously impressed me since it sort of felt like some of my posts had come to life on the screen. Great stuff.

Hmm. I planned on writing a lot more on Adaptation.. You know, like those old posts where I try to sound intelligent by saying stuff that makes you think about things. Now that was one vague sentence. But I just don't feel like writing that sort of stuff now. Perhaps I just feel that everything I want to say is portrayed in the movie or perhaps I have just passed the stage in this blog where I think about things too much for my own good. Ironically, right now I'm thinking too much about why I'm not thinking too much anymore, so maybe not much has changed after all. Just like in the movie script, Kaufman didn't want things to change either, he just wanted to show how beautiful orchid flowers are. But I musn't spoil anything, watch the movie to know what I mean.

The most important theme, for me, in the movie was a thought that stood central in the magnificent movie Crash. It's the thought that you have to meet someone that thinks like you to make you feel better. Not only do you have to meet that one very special person, you also need to meet him or her under extreme circumstances. You really have to crash into each other to really feel like you want to feel. Again, this sounds very vague but the theme is very well portrayed in the movie Crash and it's done in a number of ways since that movie follows about seven different people and the way there lives collide. And when the collision takes place, very emotional things happen and people's visions on life change drastically.

The theme that one small moment in time can define the rest of your life in one way or the other is one that I feel very strongly about and I will probably try to implement it in the story about Yougri. Which I still haven't started on unfortunately, I should sit down and try to come up with an interesting plot and interesting characters instead of just hoping that inspiration will dawn on me on a random moment and that I'll just be able to write whole chapters from the start. I certainly don't want to rush the Yougri story, but I have been feeling kind of guilty for not starting with it already. I've been looking up some fantasy paintings over the last few weeks and some work really inspires me to try and create characters or environments that are as inspiring as the paintings themselves. Obviously, it's hard to come up with such great personalities yourself so perhaps I'll take some of the paintings as initial concepts for my own characters and environments and then evolve and adapt from there.

The great thing about posts like this is that I'm just making stuff up as I go. I don't have any idea of what I'm going to write about when I click that 'New Post' button, as I mentioned in my first sentence, and still I manage to write about all sorts of things with growing enthusiasm. Once I'm writing, these random thoughts just pop into my mind and I put them down. There is not really a central theme to start from. The beginning is the hardest part. So I just stare at my ceiling and think 'What was the last thing I did?'. In this case, it was watching a movie and so a train of thoughts is born. Thoughts that I didn't have, or at least not consciously, until they just appeared in my mind while writing this post. In that aspect, it's much easier to write a post like this than it is to write a text where you are stuck to certain structures and limits concerning content, like papers for school or previews for Playstage. Here you're free to do what you want and there is no one to judge to work. It's your own and you're the only one that can determine if it's a good text or not.

For those about to rock...
[Fire!]
We salute you!

There you go, one random quote to prove my point. Did that quote feel out of place? No, because I didn't know what to write anymore and so I thought 'Why not pay hommage to the greatest hard rock band of all time?'. So there you have it, cheers to Bon Scott, Angus Young and the other AC/DC members, either alive or dead.

Relax
Don't do it
When you wanna go do it
Relax
Don't do it
When you wanna come

I like this song ever since I saw Les Truttes on the Gentse Feesten. They're probably one of the greatest cover bands in Belgium, playing both disco music and rock classics. After their show I wanted to buy a t-shirt from the band but unfortunately my money was running out and I still had to manage to pay for another night of beer drinking, so that shirt is still on my wishlist.

By now, I feel that this post is heading the wrong way again so I will end here. Well, not precisely there of course, this post is only finished when this parapraph ends. Which should be anytime soon. Maybe now?... Orrr now? Oh boy. Let's just quit the crap. See you next time.

Stoopid Party

2006-03-19T23:13:00.000+01:00

I'm bored and I'm not tired so I thought it might be a good idea to give this thing an update again. Let's see if it'll be worth the effort.

You may have noticed that Rikimaru has a blog too, you can find a link to it on the right side of this page. Riki is the only PlayStage crew member that doesn't drink alcohol of any kind. We still have to bring the poor guy to the light side of life and show him the wonderful advantages of beer drinking. You spend lots of money on booze that will only keep you happy for a few hours, only to become extremely tired or extremely aggressive afterwards. And those great hangovers the next day, what's not to love about it!

Talking about hangovers, I had a decent one yesterday. The day before the day before yesterday (oink?) Stijn invited me to a party with the Stoopid crew. I was like 'But man, I have to travel all the way to Brussels!'. Then Stijn said 'There will be ten crates (not sure that's the right word, I'm referring to 24 bottles of beer put together in a thing you can carry around because it has a handle in the middle. Thaaat's right, that's what I'm talking about) of beer.' Of course, I couldn't refuse the offer of free beer with Stoopid guys and I was like 'When, where and will there be boobies?' Unfortunately only Stijn's girlfriend showed up but she was hot enough to make up for the lack of other boobies. I'll probably get spanked for saying that out loud, but it's true.

The party was great, everything a real man needs was there. Lots of beer, metal music, other drunk guys, an air guitar and a water pipe filled with port. I think it was Sven's idea to fill the pipe with port, one day I'll try filling one of those with beer. Smoking beer, how freakin' cool would that be? Smoking port was good enough, although the after taste made me reach for more beer. The rest of the evening involved emptying a few of the crates, wondering where all the port had gone (how about in your lungs dumbass), puking some spaghetti out to make room for more beer (Man, how sick was that. But it rocked in a way - the Stoopid way!) and headbanging to some great music to increase the feeling of dizziness in my head. I didn't sleep much that night (probably because I lay on the hard, cold floor without actually really realising it) and the morning after was a pain in the ass, head and stomach but again, in a sick way it was all worth it. We should do this again sometime! But without the spaghetti (the view inside the toilet was gross) and with a decent bed to sleep on. But then, there was a decent bed for me to sleep on, I was just to lazy to get my fat arse all the way up to it. It was like a metre away, that's a two-hour trip in the condition I was in.

I'd like to end this brilliant report with two words that don't make sense: Pee Klak!

It's a really good cloak

2006-03-13T02:58:00.000+01:00

Today has got to be one of the single greatest days in my life. Maybe even defining for the rest of my life, because I found out something very important about myself. I discovered that I still have the ability to cry and that has made me happier than I have been in a long time.

My memory may contain more holes than the average golf gourse, but that doesn't mean I don't remember important events in my life. I just don't remember the ones that aren't worth remembering, that isn't so bad. Although it would prove useful to remember more useless stuff, especially while studying.

But anyway, the point is that my brain does contain a very vivid
memory of the last time I cried. It was twelve years ago and I'm not quite proud of the circumstances in which it happened, but that's not the point. The point is that that point in time, twelve years ago, was one of the rare moments in my life when I was emotionally moved by something and had to cry because of it. Now over the past twelve years I have taken some emotional hits, I wouldn't be telling the truth if I suggested otherwise. But those hits didn't affect me to the extent where I had to cry, be it tears from joy, sorrow or something else. In some cases, I strongly felt that I should have cried, just to let it all out on that particular moment and cleanse myself by doing so, but I didn't. So I started to fear that my ability to cry, or even to get emotional in intense moments, had vanished completely.

The movie Crash proved me wrong. I thank Paul Haggis on my bare knees for writing the little story about Daniel and his daughter Lara and the way Farhad was involved in their lives. That defining moment in front of Daniel's house was the moment that just hit me. I was already charmed by their first scene together when Lara was hiding under her bed, but it was this particular scene that just made the whole movie work for me. I can't really describe how I felt during the scene, but the feeling within myself was marvellous. Sort of like a volcano that's been sleeping for over a decade and now decided that it's time to wake (me) up. Or sleeping beauty who finally receives the kiss she's secretly been longing for for all there long years. Or some other metaphore involving sleep, I like sleeping after all. But today I found out that waking up from that sleep isn't as bad as I used to think.

No, not bad at all.

Luis Royo

2006-03-07T02:31:00.000+01:00

I don't know anything about art, but like every person who has seen some paintings I have personal favourites. Reading the art topic on the Graspop forums today, I discovered a new artist whose work really inspires me to start my story about Yougri. One of the most inspiring paintings is shown below. If you click on it, it should appear in a new window in a bigger size, so check it out if you feel like it. Other work of Royo can be found on this page.

I don't know what way I'll go with the Yougri story but I'm really impressed by the works on page two so perhaps they will have some influence on the characters I will try to create in my first story.

The old way

2006-03-05T00:30:00.000+01:00

I don't know why I don't write here anymore. For a while, this blog was quite a big thing for me as I could put all kinds of nonsense and random thoughts in here, but it would seem that I haven't had the urge to do so lately. Maybe it has something to do with not writing anymore for Playstage.

I have to admit that my lifestyle hasn't changed in the way I wanted it to change by leaving Playstage temporarily. A week without lessons has passed and the only thing I did for school was reading The Great Gatsby, instead of trying to catch up some stuff that I missed earlier this year. Perhaps Playstage wasn't as bad for me as I thought it was after all. Time consuming without a doubt, but at least I had fun chatting with the crew about games, beer and other things that most of the 'cool' people find tremendously boring. Screw them.

In one of my previous posts, I said Playstage was the main reason why I spent way too much time on the internet. Although that is true to a certain extent, the last few weeks 'without' Playstage (I don't write articles anymore and I can't visit the forums since I asked to be banned to focus on my studies) have only led to the conlusion that I spend as much time online as when I still worked for Playstage. Now I just visit the other Belgian gamesites and I post some more on their forums. But it ain't the same. The Playstage forums were fun to visit, because you knew most of the people there. After all, I had kicked their arses without mercy on our previous crew meetings and I had amazed everybody with my Donkey Konga skills and my interest in the toy crane from BM's sister. Someone (say: me!) would post something like 'Look, Nintendo announced the Nintendo DS Lite' on Playstage and inevitably, Indy would go 'ZOMFGWTFBBQ, that thing is ugly!' and so another pointless discussion started, every post in it reduceable to 'No, I think otherwise.' But they were fun because I realised it was completely ridiculous to discuss a matter like the newest redesign for a Nintendo handheld with such compassion. Or anything game related for that matter, video games just shouldn't be important in anybody's life. Yet it's still quite fun to talk about them, share experiences and defend your own view on things, even if you know the other person in the discussion isn't going to back down.

Of course, other forums also have people whose opinions about certain games are different from yours and I guess in a way it makes sense to discuss with them about it, but it's just so boring. I don't know about other gamers, but when I talk about a game to a person I don't know and that person doesn't share my opinions and isn't afraid to tell me so, I start hating them immediately. 'If you don't think like me, you have a bad taste for games', that's how I think in that kind of situation. 'It's useless to argue with you since I'm really the only one who makes sense here!' and other stuff like that. Ain't that some piece of pure egoism. I'm very complicated about matters like this. Sometimes I say stuff like 'You can't argue about tastes, it's a personal thing and nothing you say will change my opinion' and then there's times when I completely forget about that and just keep going on and on, saying the same thing over and over again. Well, forums would be quite boring if people didn't have different opinions, so I guess it's natural to start discussing about things that need not be discussed. In the end, everybody just ends up being right since objectivity doesn't exist and everything we say is just personal.

I don't know where I'm going with this post since it seems to lack a decent structure. But then again, none of my previous posts really had a decent structure to them so I guess this isn't really a problem. Or is it? Let's discuss. I will be right in the end, so please do your worst.

Yesterday evening, the movie Dogville (witch Nicole Kidman, yummeh) was on and I decided to watch it. Like everybody who has seen the movie, I was seriously WTH-ed the first ten minutes but then nothing seemed to matter anymore and I just decided to enjoy the movie, even though it looked ridiculous. And my god, did I enjoy it. It has become one of my new favourite movies, the previous one being Walk The Line. Man, I'm a huge fan of Johnny Cash since I saw that movie, but that doesn't matter right now.

I hear the train a comin´
it´s rolling round the bend
and I ain´t seen the sunshine
since I don´t know when

Ok, that was the last of it.

Now back to Dogville. I absolutely loved the movie, the characters Tom and Grace in particular. I can't say that I could identify myself with them completely, but they sure had a lot of interesting thoughts. I should probably watch the movie again to figure out what thoughts I'm talking about, so I'm not going to talk anymore about that. During the movie (or afterwards, the boundaries of time are confusing) I suddenly thought 'Why not start writing for Playstage again?'. Before I had the chance to react myself, the second voice was up and about and was screaming 'Get yourself together man! You quit Playstage to concentrate on your studies because they are way more important. You haven't changed your lifestyle, you haven't even tried to work more for school. You promised to yourself and to the others you wouldn't come back until you had figured out a way to organise your time and let me tell you one thing: you certainly haven't done so yet.'

... Well, that certainly shut the first voice down.
I guess he went to get some beers and get drunk.

I have to agree with voice two, although voice one sounds more tempting. Indy told me this evening that the old Belgian gamesite BeGN would be started up again under the name TEN and that the guy who manages things over there has asked the Playstage crew to join up with them on this new project. TEN has to be one of the most suckiest website names ever, but I have to admit I was tempted by the offer. I'm not sure I like the whole 'not just games' thing (TEN stands for The Entertainment Network, so they will probably cover movies and the like too) and things would probably be a lot more severe (and boring?) compared to Playstage. But I liked the website BeGN and back in those days, I thought about how great it must have been to actually work at a site like that. Now it seems I have that opportunity. If TEN can get their old community back in business (I guess most of them stay at Bloh.org now) I think it could become of one the better, most visited Belgian gaming websites. I like writing articles for Playstage, but at the same time I feel that only few people are ever going to read them, considering the number of replies and our statistiscs about daily visits to the site. At TEN, more people would read my work (if it ever becomes as big as it was in the BeGN days) and that's something I've always wanted.

At the moment, I'm confused about what I'm going to do. Will I decline the offer and try to focus on my studies (and maybe join the TEN crew later this year or just stick with the kick ass Playstage guys) or should I go after one of my smaller dreams and actually become a member of a big gaming site with quality articles right away? I have to sort things out over the next few days. Maybe Wednesday will bring some answers.

In-depth analysis

2006-02-23T20:20:00.000+01:00

Still waiting for the first bands to be officially announced for the Graspop festvial. Some names have leaked (and I like 'em) but I'd rather they were confirmed on the Graspop site itself. Anyway, some bands have added Graspop on their official site or told the Belgian crowd that they would be playing at GMM on their previous concerts in this country. Opeth, Saxon, Edguy and Helloween are very likely to come to GMM, I like them. Still no word on Metallica though, someone on the Graspop forums has suggested that the organisation is waiting to announce names until Metallica puts Graspop on their tour list. Now the last date Metallica has added is June 15th and Graspop is June 23-25th so it could still take some time. Let's hope not, I want my Sunday ticket asap if Metallica plays. I probably won't go to the entire festival because I have exams, so there better be some heavy bands playing on Sunday!

Now, what's new? My current pair of socks maybe, I've never seen them before in my life. Lying in my bed the day before yesterday I thought something like 'Why not introduce yourself in your blog?' I shivered while thinking 'blog' and I continued thinking. 'Why not tell [insert random person] about things that interest you in life? You know, talk about music, games, beer, whatever you like!' Then some other voice in my head (there are quite a lot of them, must be crowded up there) disagreed. 'Why should I do that? It will be tedious, dull, and some other words to say boring!' 'What? You are boring!' said the first voice. 'All what you say are you self!' said the second voice, whose knowledge of the English language isn't quite how it should be. 'My name is Reggie, I'm about kicking ass and taking names!' said a third voice. 'Buzz off, I am the law.' hissed the Xbox 360 fanboy voice (how did he get up there?). 'Heavy metal is the law!' the Helloween voice announced. 'STOP! GET OUT! You're the strong arm of the law!' the Saxon voice screamed. 'Haaaaai dee hai dooo hai da!' the Accept voice chanted. 'Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?' the Queen voices sang, thinking a huge musical symphony was going on in my head.

By then I had decided that thinking was a bad thing and I decided to watch a movie instead. During Spirited Away all the voices in my head dozed off (except the one miserably sighing 'Why oh why do all those Japanese people have high, squeaky voices?') and after the movie I went to bed and was able to fall asleep rather fast. Last night the same thought from voice one crossed my mind again. Luckily the Mister T voice was able to prevent other voices from saying anything by constantly shouting 'I pity you, fool!' to whoever opened his mouth and thing were quite quiet in my head. So who knows, maybe my next posts here will contain some more information about stuff I like. Maybe they won't. Probably they'll just contain some other schizophrenic conversation like the one above. They're quite fun to write, although it's irritating that while I'm writing, all the voices in my head are screaming stuff like 'I want to be in the discussion too! What?! The Saxon voice wasn't there that day, he was out drinking with Twisted Sister! Damn you Van Goylen and damn the broccoli!' Cheers to the guys that made the cut, to the other ones I just say: better luck next time. 'Screw this, I'm hitting the road. So long suckers!'

Escape From The Studio '06

2006-02-19T00:03:00.000+01:00

Let's try writing something again.

I've had one of the most boring weeks in my life, which has got to be the reason why I didn't update until now. I didn't spent much time thinking about anything in particular lately, not even when I went to the library the day before yesterday. I tried writing some song lyrics there, but the sheet of paper remained blank. Ah well, those things just pop up when you don't expect it and there's no use in rushing things, so I don't feel bad about it.

The most exciting news this past week was the fact that Metallica announced they will be touring Europe this summer.

FUCK YEAH!

Chances are they'll come to Belgium too, probably Werchter festival. I certainly hope so, can't wait to see those guys again. It's the only band in the world that I can headbang to without being drunk, and headbang twice as fast as anyone within a five meter radius for two hours straight at that. I actually headbanged a fat Dutch guy away from me last time Metallica was in Belgium (Werchter 2004). If you wonder how someone can headbang someone else away, I suggest you join me when Metallica comes to Belgium this year, if they come at all. I hope they won't be headlining the Graspop festival, because that festivals takes place during my exams. I doubt I'll have an exam on Sunday (they are rumoured to close the festival) but I have exams till June 30th and the last day of Graspop is June 25th so the chances are I still have another exam on Monday and the result may not be very satisfying if I spent the previous day hurting my neck in several ways.

I watched their Some Kind Of Monster documentary again today. It's about how their latest album, St. Anger, was created. After watching the documentary I still don't think it's a great album but at least the lyrics make so much more sense now and they make me respect the guys more and more, especially James. The documentary itself is not very good though, so if you're a film fan you should probably avoid it. If you're interested in how the new Metallica (as in post Jason and post James rehab) came to be, you might want to check it out.

Just imagine how Metallica would have been if they would have kept Dave Mustaine and if Cliff Burton was still alive. Kirk Hammett isn't that bad, but he cut down on the guitar solo's since Load and Dave is as good as ever in his own band Megadeth. As for Cliff, he kicks Jason's and Roberto's ass anytime. Anyway, Metallica as they are today are still one of the better heavy metal bands, but they just don't have the same craziness they had in the old days. But then, there are many things today that don't have the same craziness they had in the old days, so I forgive Metallica. After all, they are my favourite band of all time and I can't be mad at them for long. That sounded gay, but if you call me gay during a Metallica concert I will knock you down dead.

Library

2006-02-10T19:45:00.000+01:00

And God said: 'Let there be an update in this blog!'
And then Indy shouted: 'There is no God!'
And then God owned his ass.
Then Indy giggled.

Anyway.

It's been a week since my last post, so I guess it's time for a new one. I spent some time at the school library today and after two hours of Regeneration by Pat Barker and another hour of studying Spanish my mind turned to other things. There were three things that popped into my mind.

The first one is a sentence that just came out of nowhere when I thought about the girl mentioned in the previous two or three posts. I haven't seen her in quite a while, pity since I've been working on my yawning skills.

Gods wegen zijn ondoorgrondelijk, de jouwe onbewandelbaar

I don't know what it means, perhaps I'll figure it out some time soon. The second thought is a bit longer and it's in English. Since I had to leave the library at closing time, I didn't have time to make up a decent title for it, for now I'll call it:

Mama 01

NOTHING WILL
EVER BE
AS IT USED TO BE
AS IT SHOULD BE
COME BACK TO ME

WHY YOU
WHY NOT HIM, HER, ANYBODY
BUT YOU
FROM US YOU WERE TAKEN
NEVER TO RETURN

ENDLESS LANDS OF EMPTYNESS
FILL MY MIND WITH THE NOTHINGNESS
THAT REALITY HAS BECOME
WITHOUT YOU ON MY WAY

GOING ON 'S NOT EASY
AND NAUGHT WILL EVER BE
NEVER YOUR STRONG HEART IN THIS
NOT COMPLETELY ME

GODS IN HEAVENS THERE ARE NOT
NOT ONE THAT BINDS US ALL
A MOTHER'S LOVE ALWAYS THE STRONGEST
WITH THAT GONE ALL SHALL FALL

BIRDS STILL FLY AND GRASS GROWS GREEN
EARTH REVOLVES ONCE MORE
INSPIRING NATURE EVER BLOOMS
AND, ONE DAY, SO WILL WE

On the back of the sheet of paper on which I wrote the above, I wrote one last sentence before I left the library:

This is Yougri and this is my story.

Copyright

2006-02-03T21:00:00.000+01:00

I don't feel like writing, so this post won't be as good as the previous one (hell, even I liked it). The previous one was so good that Indy copied a joke from it into his own blog. I can see him sitting on his chair, giggling at his own cunningness: "Damn the copyright, damn you and damn the broccoli!" And then he walks to his mailbox and he finds Torino 2006, a complete rubbish game that I sent him. And then he actually has to play the damn thing, now who got "up yours!"'d eh? That's for not respecting the copyright. Don't. Do it. Again. I'm always a step ahead anyway, so don't waste your efforts.

Dat is Michel eh, altijd ne stap verder dan de rest...

Back to business.
What business? I'm running a business now? Why isn't anyone telling me these things?
I went to school this morning and I even managed to make the first lesson. The girl was there again. And she did it again! Total genius, waiting twenty minutes for the teacher to arrive and then leave when he does. Absolutely brilliant. I'll have to disappoint those people who thought that I would do the same, because the first lesson today was one of my favourite subjects and I didn't want to miss it. So, instead, I did the next obvious thing: I made a fool of myself. It was not my intent, but right before she passes me I open my mouth to its maximum extent and I just yawn my ass of. And then she passes me. I'm like 'Ow sh--!' and she looks at me in her own, special way. It was a great moment, me yawning and her looking at me yawning. It really made my day, although it probably could have been better. Ah well, another chance on Monday.

See you next time, have a drink on me.

Hey babareeba

2006-02-01T20:48:00.000+01:00

It's been a while since I posted here.
As a matter of fact, it hasn't. I made a new post here yesterday but it was only online for a couple of hours before I deleted it. It was full of zever, gezever!, not interesting at all and also quite scary in a lot of ways. I wouldn't want you to crap your pants, the stench might interfere with this great deodorant I'm wearing.
...
That was gay, you didn't hear that from me.

A few days back (can't even remember exactly when, my memory is just pathetic) I decided to quit my job at Playstage to make some more time for my studies and some other things that need more time, like playing my guitar. I want to pick up my guitar skills again, since I haven't touched my Stratocaster (yes, I have one of those, now bow) for about half a year, that's a real waste of... well, of something. I'll try to master picking first, I suck at that. Get my speed up using the metronome (where is that bloody thing anyway?) and finally try to improvise some solo's.

Going away from Playstage was really necessary since I spent way too much time there. Instead of studying, I was updating the database and other stuff like that, which has resulted into the fact that I failed at least one of my four tests. I found out today that I failed at the test that I thought went best. Well, that's promising for the other three, isn't it! Anyway, for the moments, things are going quite nicely at school, I've been attending lessons more often and I even studied some Spanish today, I'll do some more of it once this text is finished. Me gusta viajar con mi amigos! Quiero visitar Barcelona! I love to travel with my friends! I want to visit Barcelona! Random Spanish sentences! Cerveza de barril!

Well, that didn't make any sense. Maybe it's this weird music. Be gone, evil Counting Crows and take your damn yellow cab with you! Enter: Focus with Hocus Pocus! What the -- There we go, Jimi and his Red House. That man is ingenuity personified. That means he kicks ass, for those who are only familiar with that kind of English. To be or not to be, that's the English you should be reading, not this blog (I don't use weblog since my mouth is open after pronouncing that one too, so adding a few letters is useless and tiring work, as was writing this thought between brackets)!

There's a girl in my class group. As a matter of fact, there are a lot of girls in my class group. Not all too special, since about ninety percent of languages students is female. But there's one girl that I find intriguing (Is that how you spell intriguing? Let's look it up. There, it should be something like that). I had a dream about her once (oh crap, here he goes again, somebody bring me a new keyboard so I can smash my current one on my head). I don't remember it too well, it probably involved a rock concert and a lot of beer. However, I do remember (holy crap, he remembers something, HE REMEMBERS ZEG IK U)...

Note: Kom van dat dak af! 'k Waarschuw nie meer! Neeneeneeneeneenee van dat dak af! 'k Waarschuw nie meer! Kom van dat dak af! Dat was de laatste keer! Peter Koelewijn live for the swing!

However, I do remember that I've been watching her more since (not in that kind of way, pervs) and like I said before: she really intrigues me. She is acting a little weird though. She sits with the rest of the class group in the hallway, waiting for the teacher to arrive. When the teacher arrives, we all enter and she stays in the hallway.

Hey babareeba! Hey babareeba! Hey babareeba!

I don't know why she does it, it's funny yet awkward at the same time. Maybe she just doesn't like to be around me, there are quite some people who think I'm scary and strange, maybe she's one of them. An evil conspiracy, who will tell. Perhaps I'll do a little test soon. This time I will wait in the hallway when the class group enters and see what she does. Not to stalk her or anything (ban those evil thoughts from your mind!), just out of curiosity. At last I found someone interesting in my class group, I'm one happy fuck.

Did I just say the F-word? Before this goes down the Stoopid way some more, I shall call it a day. A la vez próxima!

"A la tercera ronda!"
Shut up, Frank Galan. Katja owns your ass.

Playtime is over

2006-01-23T04:08:00.000+01:00

So I guess this is the post which I referred to last time. You know, the sequel to the Vincent post. Apparently, people think I will become a hitman or a cab driver since the quote came from Collateral. Hell, I may even dye my hair gray or something, as long as it's crazy enough eh? No really, I'll try to make this post as serious as possible since it contains quite a big announcement for the guys at PlayStage. If you're not a fellow crewmember at PS, don't bother reading this post. My next post about the many aspects of life and love will have to wait until next time. So au revoir to you and to the crew: please, do continue.

I'm not going to become a hitman and I'm not going to dye my hair, let's make that clear. Nor am I likely to become a cab driver and transport hitmen across town. However, I plan to change my lifestyle in a few ways and I've decided that in order to do so, I have to quit with PlayStage.

Perhaps some of you saw it coming (have I really become so predictable?), perhaps you didn't. I don't want to sound selfish here, but I guess you thought I would be the last person to quit PlayStage. Unfortunately that's not the case. I will quit for now and I'm not changing my mind. I have thought this over for a few weeks now, and it always occured to me that this was the right thing to do.

I should try to explain why I quit. Don't expect to read much stuff that makes sense, there's a massive amount of thoughts raging through my mind at this moment and I find it really hard to write them down. Anyway, since I've been with PlayStage for quite some time now, I found the excuse of "I have too much work at school" a wee bit unsatisfying. The true reason is that PlayStage has become a too big part of my life. When I get home from school, the first thing I do is visit PlayStage to read the news and the posts on our forums. Well, that ain't really bad. But I stick around this damn computer for way too long from that moment on, just visiting random forums (besides Playstage) and reading posts that really don't interest me. I don't know why, it has become such an addiction that I experienced it as normal the last few years. But now I really feel like getting away from it. I don't have any use from it, I just sit here in front of this screen, getting lazy, learning nothing and most of the time not having fun at all.

Playstage was and is until today the main reason why I spend so much time online. As editor in chief, I found it my responsibility to post as much news and screenshots as possible and to keep our database up to date regularly. This behind-the-scenes work (filling the database and looking everywhere to find some interesting news) was quite satisfying most of the time, but lately I became just so bored of it that I started to think about why I was still doing this. I was thinking about my friends who spent their time with making movies or studying, you know, something that is useful. I just sit here in front of this screen, just clicking away without any particular reason.

A few weeks back, not so long after our stay in Terra Ventura, I spent most of the night awake thinkingthe whole Playstage thing over and I decided to just quit with Playstage and the whole online gaming news community and do something else with my life. I don't know what exactly, but now I am just totally sick of wasting all my time in front of this screen. I have to pick up my guitar again, learn to study, meet some people in real life rather than chatting on MSN and God knows what else. I know some of you are thinking 'But why can't you combine all of those, it works fine for me?' That's the problem, it's me. I don't know how to use my time effectively and I just want to quit PlayStage, adding huge amounts of spare time, to figure out how to do that. Maybe I'll learn how to use my time effectively one day and perhaps I'll return to Playstage then, but for now I just want to put it away and get started with a new life.

I'm going to save this piece of text for now and see if I have anything to add to it some other time, I don't feel like I explained my problem well enough. So I'm off to bed for now, probably lying awake thinking about things to write and about a damn title for this post.

Part 2

It's one day later now and it's daytime. This time I'm writing around 4.20PM, which is about 12 hours later than part one. I'm not going to adapt or delete anything from part one since I remember writing something about original texts being most truthful and all of that.

So yeah, I'm quitting. Ever since my mother died I've been thinking a lot more about life and what I'm doing with it and I've come to the decision that this is not what I want to do with my life at the time. I should pay attention to stuff that's more important, like maintaining my guitar skills, seeing my friends more often and studying a whole lot more. I want to play video games again instead of reading about them, I want to watch more movies since I discovered the 'alternative' genre and I just want to discover some new stuff to do in my spare time. Who knows, I might even start doing some kind of sport to get rid of this laziness, although the chances of that happening are quite slim. I'm not the kind of guy that can do a whole bunch of things at once and so the time consuming habit of looking for game news has prevented me from doing other stuff.

You may be wondering why I didn't announce this earlier (you know, since it first occured to me that I should quit). Well, obviously because I want to quit and if I had told about it earlier, some of the crew would have tried to change my mind, I'm dead sure of that. I don't want that, I want to quit. The only way of succesfully (or at least I hope it will be succesfull) stopping is just saying: 'And now I quit' instead of announcing you will quit and then still writing some stuff that makes you wonder if this is indeed the right choice. It's useless wasting time discussing with other people why I should or should not quit, it's my choice and no one is going to change my opinion anymore.

Sorry if I sound aggressive or anything, that's really not my intent. Anyway, I think I should be closing off around now, it's really not much use writing any more about this. I just want to say that I may return to Playstage one day, when I have learned how to go on with my time. For now, I'm going to use the spare time that went into Playstage and the online game news community to do other stuff. What stuff, I don't know. But I've said that numerous times, so that's it. Please read the Vincent post again and think about it in this context, that's why I put it here in the first place.

Thanks for the wonderful time at Playstage, I hope to return there soon since it's really the best Belgian gamesite. Keep it up, frame some ass for me.

Why?

2006-01-21T21:16:00.000+01:00

Why am I writing? That's what I was thinking writing 'Why am I writing?'. Of course, I was also thinking: 'BOOBIES!!!' but if I said that I would sound like a perv. Crap.

It's all Stoopid's fault, damn you all!

Yesterday I finished with my exams (they were the "How were your exams? - Well, you know... Not really good, but well... they weren't exactly... bad either, you know. -So, did you pass all of them? - I guess... I don't know man, maybe I failed on none of them, maybe I failed on all of them, you know..." kinda good, which is not bad) and I went to the café with one of my friends and some guys from his group (since I don't know anyone from my group, shame really). I hadn't eaten anything that day and so I was tipsy (what a gay word) quite fast and I decided to go home instead of joining my friend to the next café. When I got home around 6.30PM I had breakfast (you don't want to know what and even if you did want to know, I'm not gonna tell, it's-not-interesting) and I started feeling better. Just when I was back to normal again, Stijn called to meet me at the station and have some beers with the usual metal crew from Deinze. I was like the Pablo Francisco 'fuck ya!' kind of 'sure, why not?' and so I was on my bike for the bloody sixth time that day.

I really don't know what to write anymore. I should probably delete all of this, since it has no interesting value at all. But then, apparently some people think that what I have written so far is extremely interesting. I don't get them, I really don't. Ah well, whatever. Though most of the conversations yesterday were about boobies (duh) and metal (fuck ya), Stijn suggested that I started writing Screenshots Updates on Playstage again, which probably is a good idea. For those infamiliar with SU's: learn to understand freakin' Dutch and get your lazy ass (oh yes it's lazy, otherwise you wouldn't be reading a bloody blog in the first place) to PlayStage.be.

As Jeffrey, after several hours of mathematical analysis, ingeniously pointed out: "You're just writing about your life...' Well, you must have really spent ages figuring that out. '... and it's funny' No, it isn't. I thought I had a strange sense of humour (I laugh at the most awkward moments, you know, when everybody is like dead serious I have the uncontrollable urge to laugh and then I get all these angry faces looking at me, love it) but I am surpassed massively by those who think my life (or at least what I write about it in the SU's) is funny. Ah well, it's my job to entertain people writing that crap and I seem to succeed at it, even if the audience who actually likes it, is a wee bit strange. Fuck it, they rule. Those who don't like the SU's should bind their balls to a horse and smack the horse on its ass, causing it to start running and... Ooh yeah, you'd like that, don't you?

That was gross. Damn you Stoopid!

You know, the Vincent post is actually the introduction to a post that I will make soon and that will contain a big announcement for some of the readers of this blog. But more on that soon. In the post that I just mentioned, you dumbass. Don't get excited, I'm not going to write it until I feel like writing it. Which is definitely not now. As you can read in the piece of horribly boring text above. To all of those who like this text: 'Proficiat!' To all of those who don't like this text: 'Ook proficiat!'.

Dreams

2006-01-18T14:52:00.000+01:00

I should be studying right now. Ah well, guess I'll start after I've written this post. My first two exams earlier this week went pretty well, but I expect the two upcoming ones to be more difficult. Which probably explains why I haven't studied for them yet. I have lost the skill of studying, I can't concentrate for more than an hour. I'll try to learn as much Spanish verbs as I can in the next few hours but I don't expect to pass the exam since the previous tests on the verbs were quite hard. I did, however, manage to pass the first one, so hopefully that's a good omen.

Since the day before yesterday I am having what I call my 'Metal Renaissance'. Sounds cool as hell, doesn't it? It basically involves downloading metal music pretty much all the time, I just feel like getting to know some new groups since I found my current metal library quite limited. In the last three days I've downloaded about 1,2GB of metal music and I plan on downloading a whole bunch more, which will probably result in getting cut of broadband internet for the rest of the month. But at least I'll have metal to listen to for the rest of the month, fuck yeah. From the new bands I've discovered so far, I like Testament and Twisted Sister most. Testament is trash, which I find the best metal genre, and Twisted Sister is just nice and hard rock 'n roll. Apparently they're coming to Graspop this year, I am looking forward to it. I also got some new music from Dragonforce, gotta love that band.

This morning my grandmother (she comes to our house every Wednesday, cleaning the house and owning my ass at card playing) woke me up before my alarm clock went off. Apparently she thought I had an exam today since my dad had marked my exam period (from Monday 'til Friday) on the calendar and she was freaking out because I was still in bed. Still half asleep, I managed to convince her that my next exam was tomorrow and so she left me alone. At first I was pretty pissed about her waking me up since I don't like waking up when I'm not supposed to, but that changed soon.

When she left, I fell asleep immediately (that happens all the time, when I wake up during the night I look around my room, I make an angry sound and I fall asleep again five seconds later) and I had a great dream about the Terra Ventura girl (yes, it's that kind of blogpost again) which I probably wouldn't have had if my grandmother hadn't woken me up. I'm not going to talk about the details of the dream, none o' your goddamn business, but I will tell that it was the most wonderful dream that I've had in a long time, probably since I last dreamed of her in the hotel itself.

Anyway, to the point. When my alarm clock finally went off I stayed in bed for a couple of minutes, reliving the dream in my memory, and then I got downstairs. I got to the kitchen to have lunch (yeah, I sleep 'til noon) and my grandmother was crying in there. She also had a dream, but she dreamt about her daughter, my mother. Of course it made her and me sad since my mother passed away this summer, I was lost in thoughts and memories during lunch. I realised that my dream and her dream weren't a coincidence, I felt they were connected in a strange way. In my opinion, the world tries to balance itself by having a positive... something when something terrible happens. The painful memory of my mother was accompanied by a new love for the Terra Ventura girl. The latter possibly couldn't replace the memory of my mother in any way, nothing can. But the point is that there was something today, or this night, that helped in the process of accepting the loss of my mother.

It's actually the second time this happens. This summer we were walking back from my mother's room in the hospital and we already knew she wasn't going to be alive for much longer so we were thunderstruck. But on our way out, we passed a young couple that were just the happiest people in the world because they had just had their first baby. That really was a moment that will stay in my memory for the rest of my life, since I realised that for every life, love or relation that fades away, another one is born. This has got to be the reason why I cope with my mother's death rather easily, I don't want to sound rude or anything (I loved her more than any other woman in my life and everyone should do so with their moms), but on that moment with the baby I just realise that life goes on and not all is lost. New relationships will become reality, it's that belief that kept me going since then.

It's getting quite dark in here (damn you rain clouds), so I'm going to turn on the light and turn off the metal music and the computer so that I finally get to study these Spanish verbs that are ominously lying here on my desk. See you later. I'd like to say that in Spanish to sound cool, but I guess studying Spanish is needed to do so, so I'm off.

Vincent

2006-01-17T02:06:00.000+01:00

Vincent: "Someday my dream will come. One night you'll wake up and you'll discover it never happened. It's all turned around on you. It never will. Suddenly you are old. Didn't happen. And it never will, because you were never going to do it anyway."

"You'll push it into memory, then zone out in your Barcalounger, being hypnotized by daytime TV for the rest of your life. Don't you talk to me about murder."

"All it ever took was a down payment on a Lincoln Town Car. Or that girl. You can't even call that girl. What the fuck are you still doing driving a cab?"

More on this soon.

Meet me in Montauk

2006-01-11T00:58:00.000+01:00

Sometimes movies just have a huge impact on you. Not so much because of what you see, but because of what you feel watching the story unfold. It's a strange feeling when you can connect to a character that is portrayed on screen, I find the feeling very reassuring. Like it's telling me what I should do, instead of what I have done or am doing, with my life at the time. On one hand, there is the rational decision you can make after having watched the film, saying: 'That was a very immersive story and it blew me away, but you have to know that such things never happen in real life.' When you say such thing, I think you have either found a girl or guy with whom you've fallen in love, or you have ended the search for your true soul mate in life before it has even begun. Not that there is much to searching going on though, watching films like Finding Neverland, Before Sunrise and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind makes it seem as though the person with whom you should share your life just meets you on the most normal of days. It seems to me as from the moment you see each other for the first time a connection is formed that both of you are very well aware of. A connection you cannot explain, yet wish to delve into deeper. And when you do it, when you delve deep into each other's very existence, the most wonderful relationship one could possibly dream of, has become reality.

When you think of it rationally, which most people do, it's just a bunch of romantic bullshit. Very well, feel free to believe so. If you feel that all of that is just a reason to explain why this shy guy (no Nintendo pun intended here) can't get a girlfriend, then go ahead. I care not. I believe that it could happen, that not so special moment in which you meet that so very special person. In fact, I might have even met that person, back in Terra Ventura. However, I'll never know if she was indeed special. We'll never fall in love, then have a fight, then decide to forget about each other and then realise that we can't live without each other. No Montauk for me then, but what is not, can always come.

Clementine: Joely? What if you stay this time?
Joel: I walked out the door. There's no memory left.
Clementine: Come back and make up a goodbye at least, let's pretend we had one... Goodbye, Joel.
Clementine: ...I love you...
Clementine:...Meet me in Montauk...

Back to usual business then: utter boredom. I don't do much lately apart from studying for the upcoming exams. Lying in bed awake one night, I had the idea of finally start writing one or multiple stories. I don't know if I'll write them in Dutch or English and I don't have the slightest idea of what they will be about. I'll probably just write them the way everybody should write: just write without stopping to think about what you're writing. The first text you write down is the most personal, spontaneous and truthful text you write, so changing it only makes it worse in my eyes. I think I'll have Yougri as the protagonist, that name jumped in my mind for no apparent reason a few years back when I was watching the clouds from in my dad's car. I looked for shapes in the clouds and imagined some fantasy world with the creatures I saw. Perhaps I should try and write the cloud story, or maybe I should write the story with the young lad and the old mysterious man he meets in the park and that tells him of this fantastic world where only the old man has ever been to. Yes, that idea came after watching Finding Neverland, yet it intrigues me for now.

It's getting late, I have some studying to do tomorrow. See you later. On secound thought, I'm not really seeing anyone here, it's just my own words staring back at me. Amazing words, never get tired. You should get some rest guys. I'll turn off the computer, maybe that'll help. Why am I talking to words?

Clementine: I wish you'd stayed.
Joel: I wish I'd stayed, too. NOW I wish I'd stayed. I wish I'd done a lot of things. I wish I'd... I wish I'd stayed... I do.

The Azerty Complot

2006-01-08T15:45:00.000+01:00

The title makes no sense at all in English, since it refers to a Dutch blog by a friend of mine. You can read it over here. If you can read Dutch, that is. It's a blog (God, I still hate that word) with some book and movie reviews, some bits of poetry from... books and movies and some random thoughts which are really interesting in my opinion. What are you still doing here? Check it out now, before I have to become the one throwing faeces. Stoopid.be has a bad influence on me.

So, as usual no real reason to start a new post, this time I just wanted to test a few thing like the link to Wouter's blog and the image on the right. Why this image? Because Christina Ricci looks a lot (a little bit too lot if you ask me (yes, 'lot' is wrong, lame sense of humour and all)) like the girl I mentioned in the She-post. Although the girl didn't have a glas of champagne (bless her for that, I prefer Duvel over champagne anytime, not that she had a glas of Duvel in her hand but anyway, this isn't going anywhere) and the water around here wasn't bubbling like in this picture (Christina must have farted, just look at her face trying to look sexy and thinking 'You like farts? I bet you do'). Stoopid.be has a really bad influence on me.

I'm off. Apparently the family is eating something and I want to know what. Hopefully it's pancakes, not faeces. "Tom, moe gij pannekoekn ebn?" Remember today, little brother. Today, life is good.

A New Year

2006-01-02T22:01:00.000+01:00

Whaddayaknow, it's 2006. That makes 2005 officially outdated from henceforth, isn't that cool? Everything I wrote last year has become completely irrelevant (has become? it always was in the first place) since that is 'like so 2005!' In other news, tomorrow is Tuesday and a happy new year to all of you. May you be blessed with good health, good luck, lots of sex and some other things that you want for the new year (not the dirty thoughts, i don't like 'em).

It has become a habit, as usual I have nothing interesting to say. It is probably wise to end this post here, before it gets inevitably boring. Which it probably has become by now. In that's case it's no use stopping, because that which should not have happened has happened. Yet it shouldn't have. My god, even I think this is dreadfully bad, so I'm quitting for now. Meanwhile, my epic and heroic (yet extremely foolish) quest for the girl continues, wish me luck and stop throwing your faeces at me, for Pete's sake!

She

2005-12-30T12:59:00.000+01:00

Terra Ventura.
The first glimpse of her hit me in a way I can't describe.
Her eyes were the fairest I had ever looked upon.
All which is beautiful in the world could not describe how she looked at me, for an insult to her it would be.

Lyrics passed unceasingly through my head these past days, yet the next sight of her confirmed they were not worthy.
Being in her presence was awkward yet utmost soothing at the same time.
The distance between us I should have crossed, yet I did not dare it.
Lack of self-confidence shattered it all for me.
Together we should have been, yet we were not.
It was my fault, my flaw, my failure.

Too early did she leave, unannounced, unexpected.
If I had known those moments in which we looked in each other's eyes were our last together, I would have made them last longer, made it more obvious that I longed for her with every fibre of my being.
Suddenly she was there no more.
Only a memory in this fool's mind it would seem, but to me she was so much more.
Alas that we were parted too soon, never to meet again.

If you (that would be the girl with black hair, beatiful eyes, shirt with green and white stripes and a lot of brothers and sisters) read this, please reply.
Thank you.

Holidays

2005-12-23T20:12:00.000+01:00

So, merry Christmas and a happy new year to you. Personally, I hate all this 'you're such a nice person, I wish you a fine new year!' crap. People rarely mean that, it has become a sort of ritual that we have to endure once a year. So if that's true, you know that my first sentence holds no truth since I don't know who reads this blog and I see no reason why I should wish you a happy new year. "But what about peace for everyone?" My mailbox is freakin' swarming with mails from that damn ONE campaign (unsubscribing four times didn't seem to help), I've seen quite enough global peace crap now. Here in Belgium there's a campaign going on for the people in Pakistan who don't have a home for the winter. The campaign is based on 'kippesoep', which would be translated into chicken soup, I guess. I hate this kippesoepcrap, I absolutely do. It must be one of the things I've hated most in my life, I can't stand that word no longer. And they made this dreadful happy Christmas song out of if. You know, the kind of song where artists long forgotten have another moment of glory. It's a good thing that people want to help other people, but PLEASE don't use kippesoep to do it. I mean it. I'll kick you in the nuts if you do. Then we'll see how you like that.

In other news, tomorrow is Saturday. And my neck hurts. Like hell. I can move my head to the right a few centimeters and up and down a little bit, but turning to the left is just not doable. I don't know how it happened, but this morning I woke up with this pain in my neck. This afternoon my brother, enjoying himself very much at the pain I was having, decided to squeeze in my neck just for the fun of it. I nearly fainted. If only I could have, I would have kicked him in the nuts. My neck has been hurting even more since that, and it's irritating me obviously. But why should you care, you're not having neck problems after all. You're probably bitching about the amount of money you have spent on Christmas presents. Here's a word of advice for you: Buy. Cheap. Presents. They. Don't. Cost. Much. Or maybe not, maybe you're just happy with your life as it is and you want all the world to enjoy these Christmas times as much as you do. Well guess what, I don't enjoy them very much right now. And I would very much like to kick you. A lot. Yes, in there.

It would seem that I'm verry pissed off right now, but I'm actually not. It's not that I'm in some sort of weird happy-and-nothing-can-go-wrong-and-I-love-my-life-and-everybody-loves-eachother mood, but I feel good all the same. Except for the fact that my neck is hurting like a bitch. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to do something else that is utterly useless. As is your life, disposeable human. Merry Christmas and a happy new year.

King Kong indeed

2005-12-18T02:31:00.000+01:00

'Ellow. It's been a while, hasn't it? Yes, it has. It's 2.31AM again, perfect time to start writing!

So, what happened in the meantime? I'd like to tell you, if only my memory would allow it. I tend to forget things real quickly if I don't find them important and most of my life I don't find very important, at least not important to write about. I guess the highlight of the past week was a discussion with Indy about my previous post here. You know, the one where I said some crazy, weird shite about him. I explained that the post was written in a moment of personal inner rage, and that everything is like forgive-and-forget now that my anger has been written down. There seemed to be a few misunderstandings between the two of us, but we managed to solve the problems. We are two incredibly smart motherfuckers after all.

The second highlight, which actually took place before the discussion with Indy, was the fact that I've seen Peter Jackson's King Kong in the cinema. The movie made a huge impression on me with its stunning special effects (Kong looks amazing) and a lot of suspenseful action sequences. But as Squall on PlayStage pointed out: there simply are too much action sequences, making the 3-hour movie just a bit too long for a normal audience. I had no problems with it, since I like heavy action scenes (Kong vs. five V-rexes was quite cool, as was the scene with all the giant bugish creatures). I hope to see Chronicles of Narnia: Lion, Witch & Wardrobe this week (if it is released this week that is, have to check on the website of the cinema) and I'm planning to see Kong a second time too. On Monday, they're showing the original movie from 1933 on BBC, I have to remember to watch that one too (although I don't like old black-and-white movies at all).

Today I went to the Book Festival in Ghent, bought a lot of novels there for a total price of only 28 Euros. Some of the new books are the complete works of Shakespeare, the Odyssey by Homer and a lot of Wordsworth Classics such as Moby-Dick or David Copperfield. I also bought the Bored of the Rings parody, I'm curious about how good it actually is, the book sold quite well after all.

Think I'm getting in too bed now. If I stay up, I keep rubbing in my hair and everytime I do that, something like six hairs fall out everytime. So good night to you, before I get bald and before you get Bored of the Incredibly Pointless Giely Things (how's that for a novel title, eh?).

Pretty pissed off

2005-12-09T00:30:00.000+01:00

Remember the last part of my previous post where I promised to attend more classes this week? Well, I failed. I don't exactly know why I'm not attending them (probably laziness), but I feel guilty about it afterwards. Who knows, maybe better luck next week?

Now, the title of this post is actually based on the Guns 'N Roses song Pretty Tied Up, to which I'm listening right now. What I'm about to say is, however, not about one of the greatest rockbands in history, but about my fellow crewmember Indy. The guy has pissed me off even more than he usually does over the last few days, but I doubt he has noticed. Perhaps I should have told him about it to avoid another explosion of anger later on (either from me or from him), but at the moment I just don't feel like it.

I wonder why I'm so pissed off. After all, the reason why is nothing important. It's just the fact that he never agrees with my standpoint on gaming (well, there is that 0,01% in which he does agree) and I really hate him for it. Like I said, no big deal. That's why I'm wasting my time writing about it in this blog, so that I wouldn't have to waste my time talking to him about it. Personally, I think it's not much use trying to convince him of anything, since we both are very stubborn and a discussion would only lead to more frustration.

So what don't we not agree on? Just about everything, I guess. But that's Indy and that's a problem every single one from the crew is facing, as far as I can tell. If everyone agrees to do something, he will tell us that our idea is completely wrong. He would rather do things the other way 'round, which aggravates the other crewmembers from time to time. In my case, I'm getting pissed because he is hyping the Xbox 360 beyond reason. I mean wth, you've told us nothing but "Xbox sucks"-like comments during the last three years and now suddenly you're trying to convince me that I absolutely, positively have to get a 360 in my living room? Sorry, ain't gonna happen.

Maybe that's the reason why he says he doesn't like the Revolution, because I've told him that I would be buying the Revo, no matter how much it costs. Now Indy is spreading rumours about the Revolution price that make no sense at all. At the moment, I believe the guy wants the Revolution to be expensive, so that a) he'll have a good laugh because I will pay that much money for the console and b) he wants the Revolution to fail (the console will need a low price to be successful, that's a fact) to prove his point that the Revolution controller will not work. Anyway, he's also saying some other stuff that's awfully 'what the--' in my opinion, like the fact that he is hugely dissapointed by the GameCube. I don't know what games the guys plays on his PS2 or PC to make him reject the great fun times we had with the crew while playing a whole bunch of Nintendogames in multiplayer, but that's just him, I guess. I must admit there aren't that many huge singleplayer games available for GameCube (not the type he likes anyway, didn't probably even bother to play the Metroid Prime games), but you can't ignore the fact that GameCube is a hella lot better for fun multiplayer evenings with friends than the PS2.

Aah, this felt good. I still don't like the word 'blog', but I'm starting to like what it stands for. It feels great letting off steam with written words, talking to yourself and stuff. Now, I'm off to watch the second episode from the second season of Lost, see you around.

Tomorrow

2005-12-04T18:58:00.000+01:00

It's been a while since I last posted here, about four days I guess. Since then, the Xbox 360 has finally arrived in Europe. The launch was insane. Two of my fellow crewmembers at PlayStage got up around 6-7 AM to be ready in front of the game shops when they opened. They ran faster than they ever did in their entire lives (I mean wth, it's only a console) and yet didn't get their hands on one of those 360s. The next shop only had 360s for those (very smart) people who had preordered the damn thing and so Indy and BM returned home with a lot of anger and disappointment and without an Xbox 360. They decided to accept a special offer for game journalists from Microsoft, which I suggested in the first place since you save 200 Euros with it, which mean's they'll have to wait until February 2006 for their 360. I can't say that I didn't have a good laugh when the guys returned home 360-less, but at the same time I felt (a little bit) sorry for them. Ah well, now they have the special offer including two free games and a free year of Xbox Live Gold. Can't complain eh?

In the chaotic hype surrounding the launch, I decided to do things my own way and so I started my saving plan for the Revolution. Each month, a certain amount of money is put on one of my bank accounts (I don't exactly know why I have multiple bank accounts) and by the end of 2006 I should have more than enough to buy the Revo and some games with it, too. I'm really looking forward to games like Super Smash Bros. Revolution and I'm curious about the surprise in the controller that Miyamoto mentioned in an interview.

Tomorrow my new life at school will begin, hopefully. I'll try to attend all classes again (been skipping morning lessons for the last weeks) and study on a more regular basis. Wish me good luck and see you next time.

PlayStage goes 360

2005-12-01T02:14:00.000+01:00

Hello again to everybody reading this blog, so let's just say: hello myself! Hi, how are you? You know, the usual stuff, so how about you? I'm doing great myself, thanks. Writing to myself becomes dull after two sentences, so I'll just start writing to the nothingness that is the white page beyond these words.

BM and I have just published our Xbox 360 special at PlayStage.be, he did all the lay-out and wicked effects and I wrote all the articles (except for the specs, which I stole from another site with their permission, so it was the friendly type of stealing). We are very proud of what we've done, pity those damn pop-up blockers prevent some visitors from actually seeing the special at all.

Tomorrow (it's 2.20 AM now, so tomorrow is Friday) the 360 finally arrives in Europe. I hope there will be enough 360's available for those who didn't preorder them, because some of my fellow crewmembers at PlayStage only decided to buy one about two weeks ago and they haven't stopped talking about whether or not they will have one on Friday. I hope they can find one, since I'm curious about how the games look on normal televisions. HD seems to be the big leap forward in gaming, but I know for sure that it will take some more years and some more money before any of those televisions gets into my house.

I want to know how 360-games look on a normal television. Who knows, I may even get convinced to buy one myself? Nah, who am I kidding. I have way too much games to play on my GameCube and Nintendo DS too care for the next generation of gaming anytime soon. I just hope I can find a well-paid job this summer to pay my Revolution at the end of 2006, that next-gen will be the next platform to join my growing Nintendo collection. A collection that I think is not nearly as complete as it should be. Which is why I will be buying some I-still-had-to-play-that-game-before-I-die games on Nintendo DS and GameCube.

Think I'm getting into bed now. I wish good luck to all of those gamers who will be out in the freezing cold on Friday morning to get their hands on one of those tempting Xbox 360's. I hope those people, and the other ones who were smart enough to preorder the 360 soon enough, will have a great time experiencing the next generation of gaming in their own living room. Have fun and good luck to some of you!

Out of bed

2005-11-29T22:40:00.000+01:00

My biorhythm is wasted. I can't sleep if I go to bed before 3 am and so I can't get out of bed in the morning. I've been skipping morning lessons in school for two weeks now because of this 'problem'. Today was a personal record. I decided to switch off the alarm clock and see when I would wake up. I went to bed yesterday around 4 AM and I woke up when my brother got home from school at 4.30PM. That's more than twelve hours of sleep, something is terribly wrong here. I've always liked sleeping longer than most people, but lately the situation is getting out of hand. I hate myself for missing the morning lessons and I will certainly try to get in bed way earlier (around 11 PM) than I do now. One of the reasons why I chose the branch of studies I do now, is to honour and remember my mother. I'm not doing a great job at that sleeping all day long, so I feel very guilty. I know I must change my current lifestyle if I want to pass this year and I'm planning to do so asap.

Now, not much happened today since I wasted half of it sleeping. I played some Call of Cthulhu on Xbox because I have to review the game soon (as a matter of fact, the review should have been ready a week ago). I really like the game because it's my first horror game and it sometimes really does a great job scaring the crap out of me. However, I find the game to be rather difficult and I had to use a walkthrough several times. Maybe that's because I normally only play way-too-easy Mario sportgames.

Although you couldn't really call Mario Kart DS way-too-easy, certainly not if you're playing online. Those Japanese guys are crazy and I've met some pretty good Germans too. Pity the Battle Mode doesn't work online, I feel that races online are based too much on winning rather than just having some fun. You can clearly see that because a lot of people disconnect when you're winning the third race in a row. This is really how you separate the decent gamers (those who accept their loss and try to learn from it) from the lame ones (who disconnect during the race and get a loss for that anyway).

I played some other Nintygames today. Finished some singleplayer campaigns in Super Smash Bros Melee with Marth, I was truly amazed that I could still finish the game on a normal difficulty. It's been a while since I last played the game, almost about a year, I guess. I did play SSBM against some friends last weekend, but they really weren't much of a match so I don't see that game time as actual practice. I'm just gonna do some more Melee matches in the next few days, slowly increasing the level of the opponents to 9. Which will be the time when my ass gets thoroughly kicked.

The Challenge mode in Donkey Konga sucks. I'm busy buying all the Gorilla music lately and so I thought I could get lots of money doing all 31 songs in a row in Challenge. One hour later, my hands completely wasted by the bongoing and clapping, I found out that you don't get nothing in Challenge except a lousy high score. So I found myself being 'the best drummer in DK Town', but not getting any reward for it. Damn you, Donkey Kong!

So finally, Nintendo announced it will fully reveal the Revolution in a press conference prior to E3 2006. I'm really excited about what they'll have in stock for us, I really liked the way they chose a new way of handheld gaming with the Nintendo DS. I certainly hope Nintendo gets some more recognition in the next generation of gaming, they deserve it because of all their new ideas to finally find new ways of playing games. Some people will be disappointed whatever Nintendo shows off at E3, because they've come to expect way too much from the Revolution. I'm lucky to be satisfied real quickly, so I rest assured that N will once again stimulate me to keep on gaming. The company, unlike its competitors, is the only one who can, because Nintendo defines my way of having fun.

I guess that's all for today. I don't see much reason why this blog should be interesting to anyone, but it somehow feels good having written it. Remember what I wrote about my imagination, the one who finds it will be rewarded with the astonishing rank of 'Finder of His imagination'. Love each other and have some beer.

Congratulations, it's a ... blog?

2005-11-29T02:40:00.000+01:00

So, I too became a victim of the blogging hype that is spreading with ominous speed across the internet. To be honest, I don't know what "blog" stands for (and I don't really give a hoot) and I think it's a dreadful word. Speaking the word "blog" out loud in public makes you feel as if all those pronunciation lessons in high school weren't worth their money. Not that I had to pay for those lessons, but I did expect to learn better words than "blog" there. The wrong thing about the damn word is that your mouth is still open when the word is over. When you're finished pronouncing the "g", it feels like you're ready to choke or puke. I think "blog" is a disgrace to the English language, if the bloody word is at all English. I honestly believe that the word was not made by any organism on this planet. It was conceived before our time and it holds the very meaning of our lives. It just has to, those four letters have no other purpose.

So why start a blog? Who knows? Who cares? Sometimes I just feel the need to write stuff down, like all intelligent people do. Why am I not writing in my native language (Dutch)? Who knows? Who cares? "Well, I bloody care, start talking Dutch already!" some of you might be thinking, but why should I care that you care? I care about everyone around me (hey, just making myself popular here) but I really don't give a hoot about their language preference. If you should feel the need to comment in ancient Arabic or Hebrew, feel free to do so. It would probably make the world a better place, some weird and completely incomprehensible human actions tend to do that.

I guess that's all for now, my inspiration has gone missing and I haven't found it yet. However, I do know that it's located in a small black suitcase somewhere in the mid-lower areas of the Himalayas. Should you be so unlucky to stumble over it and break your legs in the process, please let me know. I could use a good laugh and the inspiration would be welcome too. Goodbye for know, love each other and have some beer.