4 years later

And a couple of beers one evening, both single again.
Fuck.

At least we still have each other after all that time. That's nice.

Music is playing loudly, and beers and chips are on the table and floor.
Yes, it's time to get all fucked up and wasted again. Yet, again.

Let's find those mathafackin' shot slides and have things turned upside down. Consider this blog restarted.

BOOM.

Alvaro's birthday

So last weekend Alvaro had his birthday party.

I always like going to parties, you don't have to organise stuff or think about if everyone is having fun(and free drinks).

Anyway, I had to work first, which was kind of a disaster, because working means getting wet, specially when the weather is good...

So after getting soaked two times, changing my work cloths two times, having my underpants dried again, a couple a beers it was time to go partying!

There where of course a lot of old friends which I haven't seen in a while, it's one of those things that keep me going to parties, I can't always meet up with people mostly because of my ridiculous schedule, though when I sat there talking I still didn't tell Alvaro I did not have a present for him..

The present for Alvaro

The thing is, I figured I gave Alvaro a nice present, one he will remember, he will think of. One that comes with a story.

A dildo?

A Cocktail shaker(more on that later)

Okay, how about a good pencil set?

I don't know, I just forget these things I had in mind.. They aren't important anyway, and they don't really tell a story anyway.

So anyway: I HAD NOTHING! ZILCH! What was I going to do?!

It was during work that I forged my master plan. This stunt would definitely go with a story.. Sort of at least.. As for the story, it'll be at the end of this post.

But how would I get away with this awesome master plan of all time hilariousness? There was just one solution to it: Drink a lot of beer!

After a couple a beers, I think I drank about 10 in total then, I decided it was time...

The evening continued, and it was good.. Eventually Alvaro ended up putting all the (spekjes?) in his mouth(See picture), we decided to call it a night.

Okay kids, you still reading? Here's the most amazing story of all time.. (not really)

Once up on a sweaty spring evening in the springhaver cafe,

there was a young dishwasher by the name of Thijs.

He was doing really well trying to keep the dishes clean.

Then there came the evil chefs of the springhaver restaurant.

They want to hurt Thijs!

Thijs did not like that. So he sprayed a little water at them!

"Shoo!" he yelled.

But the evil chefs didn't listen. Instead, they started spraying water back!

Oh no!

"Aaaaah!" Thijs yelled! He was totally wet!

Thijs went to get some dry cloths and dry his hair.

Then the evil chefs started teasing Thijs again!

"Shoo shoo!".

But nothing helped. Thijs was wet again...

All of a sudden Thijs had a great idea for a party that he had that evening!

"Why don't I donate my wet underpants?"

That seemed like a real nice gift from Thijs.

Later that night when Thijs drank a lot of big people drinks(When big people drink it a lot they always do a little crazy)

He decided that he was going to give his friend his gift.

Thijs ran to the toilet and pulled off his still little bit of wet underpants.

But this was a little weird just to give to his friend.

So Thijs found a place where he would leave his underpants for his friend to find.

It goes with a little riddle:

"Under thy bed, with two little drawers,

In the black night of the black underpants,

You will find the underpants in the right corder of the right drawer!"

Happy birthday dude!

(Yes that's the underpants I gave you.. ;) )

Chatroulette

I felt a slight boost of inspiration to write something, and since I have an "actual" subject to write about...here it is. It may be old to you...it might be new to you... but the phenomenon I'll be writing about is called: Chatroulette.

It's this website, where you don't need to log in or anything, the only thing you have to do to enter is press 'Play'. What you will see, looks almost exactly the same as a MSN messenger chat window: a chat screen, with 2 webcams turned on: yours, and that of a total random stranger.

People told me about it and I heard the most bizar stories. There are plenty of videos over the net showing crazy people on Chatroulette. And I got curious. So, yesterday me and some friends entered it.

I don't remember the first person we saw, but that's because he/him/they probably clicked us away. Yeah, you can 'next' people. And you can also be 'nexted'. The best definition for that is: "when a random stranger clicks the 'Next' button immediatly after seeing what you look like." And just like that... they are gone forever.

We saw some funny shit, man. I mean, from Brazilian babes, to lonely girls, to macho-type guys, to a video screen featuring some action movie, to a couple fucking in the background and to....well, just wankers.

You can say anything you want in a conversation. You can be serious and ask wassup. Or just tick in 'FU'. That part can be fun when they want to click you away.

There was this blonde babe also. Wow, she was beautiful. Swedish, we guessed. Amazing: The only thing she was wearing was a black bra and her sexy white underwear. 'Hey sexies!', she typed in. The talking, Wii-playing and more at our place remotely stopped...everyone had their eyes on the babe. She then asked us if we wanted to see her dance. Ofcourse our answer was 'sure =D'. And she started dancing and shaking it and shit. She turned around and showed her ass at the cam, a nice close-up. We were like 'wow, wtf man. This is what every dude is looking for when he enters Chatroulette.'

And then, everything changes and stops. We didn't get nexted, but all of the sudden there are 3 dudes with enormous smiles on their faces and holding what appears to be a video camera. We just got our asses powned. The whole goddamn thing was fake. We starting laughing out loud, 'cause you have to admit...that was funny. We applaud and gave them our thumbs up... And we nexted.

So if you and your friends are a bit bored, or just want to have plain fun...Enter Chatroulette and see what you get to see. You might get a serious conversation, have crazy fun with crazy people...or see the most disturbing things you've seen in a long time.

Check out these links for some cool vids of Chatroulette:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwnCJbf7SD8

http://www.dumpert.nl/mediabase/839131/54690422/banterdude_vs._chatroulette.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Gxbv2G9Ctc [this one got me lauging out loud]

...and maybe I'll see YOU at Chatroulette. (sorry, couldn't let it go unsaid)

The art of blogging

This blog kinda died within a few months.
Weird, if you look at it like two at first, then three, people started blogging full enthousiasm, sarcasm, motivated, and all full of stories. So how did this blog end up in the endless void of the internets?

It always crosses my mind when something happens like: "Oh, gee, I could really make a good, funny story about what just happend.". But you don't because there's no computer nearby, or there's no time to actually refine the idea you just had, and so on.
So what is it then that people can blog all the time? How comes these people have those amazing blogs with sometimes over a thousand entries. Or an everyday story. Where do they find the time and energy to write every day, but most of all: How do they always come with cool stories?

That brings me to the next set of questions: Blog readers.

I sometimes have days passing by where nothing intresting happens. Sometimes I have days where one good story after another comes by.
For me I find it really hard to keep interest in a blog which nobody reads. How do you get people to read your blog? To read your boring life in this boring world where everything seems normal, and where people twitter about whiping their ass in the toilet.

Where do blog readers come from, and how do they get intrested in my useless meaningless life. Ok, I got to admit, I'm a nerd, and I can almost every day write some story about something technical, though that would also get boring and would probably result in me posting about my life more than about computers. Not that I can't write more about computers, but that I find my life more important than my computer(I'm not saying all nerds are caring more about their computers). So okay, you can tell your friends like: Hey dude, I got a blog. You really should read it.
Then, if you're lucky that friend is like: "Oh, really?" and you go: "Yea, really.", he goes: "What's it about", so then you explain him what it's about, and then you might get him intrested.
But 9 out of 10 people will just say: "Ok, I'll read it sometime", which basicly means: "STOP BEING SO GEEKY AND DRINK MORE BEER, DROP THE SUBJECT AND SAY SOMETHING FUNNY INSTEAD".

Now you can get all geeky and do some google seo stuff on your blog so you will actually get found if someone searched for 'i want to read a boring story', but I figure there's not much people that will google it(There isn't even a blog or blogpost like that!).

So I decided to call this post the art of blogging because of all these unanswered questions. There's something about this art I might just not/never get. So for the sake of I want to have a famous and cool blog as well: The art of blogging is the authors with their infinite sarcasm, endless stories, and of course the cool layout that we don't have here because I'm 1: too lazy to make one, 2: don't have time for it, 3: isn't necessary because nobody ever reads this shit anyway.

Period.

Architecture

As you may have read, I've finished the whole first year of Architectural Engineering. I want to become an architect for quite a while now and after the summer my first traineeship will begin.

But, let's talk about architecture for a minute...: What IS architecture?

When one thinks of architecture, the word 'architect' quickly comes to mind.

An architect is (to put it very simple) a person who designs buildings. Here's one of my favorite architects: Frank Lloyd Wright (American). Look up some of his works, I guarantee you'll be amazed.

He wrote the following:

"My definition of Architect:

arch = chief or highest (i.e. archbishop, archetype = Master)

+

tect = technique, technology (i.e. the Know-How)

=

Architect: Master of the Know-How!

Sincerely,

Frank Lloyd Wright"

It made me giggle too, and it's partly true: along with all the creativity an architect must have, you must know a lot about technology too. Think about all the measures and details you must prepare for the construction workers, the materials you should choose, the physical aspects of a building and so on.

But I wasn't aiming at the definition of architect, just the definition of ARCHITECTURE.

'A building is architecture, because it is designed by an architect', one could say. Good point, only: is it safe to call something architecture, when the meaning is so incredibly broad, but at the same time very specific.

Let's put it simple, like I did with the definition of architect: a building is something that is BUILT, whereas architecture defines something that's been influenced by AESTHETICS.

I'm not done there just yet, for it's very tempting to picture a building in your head every time architecture is mentioned. It goes just a bit beyond that.

Let's take something, as simple as a plate... no, no, a chair. You've got a standard chair in front of you, which is being mass-produced. When you take a closer look at the chair itself, you understand its design. You make a list of principles, a list of properties the chair contains. What makes a chair what it is? This list is your foundation for the beginning of a new chair-design.

Why do you choose these measures, why these colours, why this material, why this weight, why no arm rest, why wheels underneath it? What you get, is a MILLION possibilities to make a new chair design, all emerged from the list of principles.

Every single chair-design must oblige to the list of principles that make a chair.

That set of principles, THAT is architecture.

So, is a building architecture?

Gain.

For me, it's almost frustrating to think how unbelievably fast this past school year went. It went so fast... I think about how much I've learned, grown and worked. A lot has happened, either good or bad. Now it's summer vacation, and a new year of experiences will arrive soon.

My counsellor asked me on our last talk: 'What was your biggest gain this year?' I needed a moment to come to a good answer.

Well, I knew for sure now that this IS my path, but that just gives me a relief and a good feeling about myself...not my biggest GAIN. I've gained a lot of wisdom on buildings, houses and art. But is that my biggest gain? It would seem a bit dull and standard if it would, no?

One should pay closely attention to his/her own actions when one wants to know him/herself. I'm thrown in a new surrounding, with many different kinds of people. How do I act in the beginning, and how is my attitude towards others now? How much did this differ from (for example) high school? Can I see the real me now?

What are my roles I fulfilled in group works? And what kinds of emotions come to surface, whether it is dealing with success of failure? Can I control them better than before? Do others respect me, or do they talk about me behind my back?

I'm someone that works very hard, and I can see myself becoming a workaholic (maybe I already am...). When looking at my products, are they products of quality when working under stress? What are my limits and do I know when I have surpassed them? What are my weaknesses then?

Call out a name of one of my friends and automatically a kind of film roll launches with photo's (mostly actually...just 1 photo), quotes of the person, a scene I've shared with him/her etc. All that in a blink of an eye. The materials of memories rushing through my head DEFINE the person. And I can't help but wonder... what kind of material would that person have of me? And...how much do I care about that? Must I always show people my good qualities?

Choices; everyone's got priorities in any kind of situation, it's part of life. Do I come first or do I tend to think of others too? Is my 'plan' of life always that important? Where do I get my motivations, have I got discipline when I do not need it, am I thinking ahead, why the easy way out, how will I choose, why am I doing this?

Do you ask yourself these questions too? I wouldn't be surprised if you would.

I'm not saying I'm there yet. I haven't "found" myself completely. But one thing I've noticed, is that the more you get real with yourself...the more unrealistic the world will seem.

Every so often it's good to take a good look at yourself. An excellent way of accomplishing that is to look at yourself, through someone else's eyes. You can learn from it.

You might like what you see... or not. In that case, all you can do is hope you haven't burned down too many bridges.

But that's up to you.

(Man, I've missed the blog...It's been awhile since I've done this shit.)

Speeddating

Yesterday evening there was a sort of festival-like thing going on in town. There was small bands performing everywhere and it was big fun.
However, with big fun comes resposibility:
Peeing.

Going to the toilet was quite the joy.
I went in to a cafe called 'de Zaak'. I was shocked how empty the cafe was, but then again, when I thought about it it seemed much more logical that everyone was outside... Anyway
After passing about 10 woman, I saw 2 guys standing, I figured that was the queue for the mans room. Just to be sure I asked the guy next to me if he was waiting as well.
He turned his drunk head(he looked like a queer) and told me I was right.
Then he started to talk to the girls who where of course waiting a bit longer. He started one bad joke after another and it couldn't get worse. I tried to save myself by joining the discussion and correct his pickeld way of speech(See this page if you didn't quite get that sentence). He was making lame jokes to two girls about peeing and what not. Very romantic and all, don't you think?

Anyway, all of a sudden he went in a different direction, he was like: Hey! You and her are quite the match! How about that?! We both looked at eachother, I have to say it was quite an attractive woman. I guess we differed about 4~6 years, so I wasn't interesting for her. Of course we both replied the question with a big: "What?! No, no! Of course not".
Then he tried to guess what the woman in question would do for a living(Don't forget this guy was barely understandable because he was too drunk to speak). "You do something creative! Yes, yes... Some painting, a little bit of piano... YOU PLAY FLUTE! THATS IT! YOU PLAY FLUTE!" he said... The girl really didn't knew how to respond so instead she started to whisper with her friend next to her.

Anyhow, I found this looking like speeddating, as in. There's a whole queue full of woman, and then when they come by you make a funny joke, or a sarcastic statement about the queue, and then you leave.

Oh, and the drunk guy who went to the toilet before me made one last joke when he got out, and he said to me:
(I'll do it in dutch because it's a word joke)
"Weet je wat het beste is van plassen? Dat je naar je eigen gezeik kan luisteren!"
"You know whats the best about peeing?! It's listening to your own 'gezeik'(aka gossip, but in this sentence it would mean something like listening to your own pee fall down in the toilet)". I told him that if that was all he could think of the last few minutes, he'd better get himself another beer.
And so he did I guess.

Bye ladies in the queue!