the ultimate undiscovered lie

ket chup

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 11:02:45 GMT

aight, tried to work on my backlog of books... instead bought new books. Gonna have to start reading faster or I'll never make it (or stop buying books.... but that'll never happen).

#9 I am the messenger - Markus Zusak: a slacker gets ace cards in the mail with instructions in the mail. Eventually he goes out and does them. Then it turns into a sort of Paul Coelho - The alchemist. Or in other words a message to us the reader... I hate when they do that. If I wanna be a slacker why is that bad? I have better hopes for the book thief which I will read one of these days as it is on the pile 357 / 4304

#10 Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami: I always have a hard time with his prose but mostly it's worth it in the end. Nice lethargic plot, some magic realism thrown in. Does it for me! 615 / 4919

#11 Sebastian Drake Prince of Fools - Philip Caveney: Children's book about an unfunny court jester traveling with a talking bull and a dwarfish warrior. He travels, he tells jokes that nobody laughs at and also saves the princess from her evil uncle on the side. Not bad, plot kept me entertained and the writing style was very clear, no unnecessary chit chat. 377/5296

#12 Troll Fell - Katherine Langrish: Children's book about a guy forced to work for his evil uncle (lots of evil uncles around apparently). Gets in a fight with some trolls, makes some friends along the way and in the and triumphs over all evil!!! Well maybe not that dramatic. Also not bad and entertaining but the characters just didn't do it for me. Liked nmr 11 on the list better. 319/5615

#13 The Stars' Tennis Balls - Stephen Fry: Plot was ripped off from the count of monte cristo as Mr. Fry says so himself but that doesn't make it less fun. Very nicely written and funny besides, going to have to get more of his books to read. 384/5999

#14 The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas: Well what can I say, it was on the pile and after nmr 13 I thought it appropriate to read the damn thing. Ahhh revenge a dish best served with...Finesse. pretty doable prose as well. 509/6508

#15 Elven Star - Margaret Weiss & Tracy Hickman: first in the death gate cycle. Fantasy with magic and dragons but seems like they put a lot of thought into the background of the magics used. Took me a little bit to get into it, but after that the characters grabbed me and dragged me through the plot. 360/ 6868

#16 The Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfuss: Got this book for my birthday with inscription by the author. Thx A! First of the kingkiller chronicle. Had its hooks in me at page one ( ok maybe two). Easy prose that gently guides you down the river, where the plot turns it into rapids and you can't stop reading.. And then at the end it turns out the next book isn't out yet! I have to wait... crap. two thumbs up from me 722/ 7590

#17 the Highwayman - R.A. Salvatore: Never read anything by him but his name kept popping up, so bought this on the cheap. Pretty good, b-movie plot. Some nice action, a bit of romance and an underdog hero you can't help but root for. Good summer read if you are looking for some easy fun. 405/7995

#18 The amazing adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Michael Chabon: I like comics, so the story of two up and coming comic book artists was fun for me. This is background plot for the relationship between two cousins. It also had a bit of magic realism in there and maybe even an excellent comic book, which ( I read somewhere ) is actually out there. 639/ 8634

aah and last but not the least. The millennium trilogy. Saw the movie "män som hatar kvinnor" or in translated words men who hate women. Liked the movie a lot. Turns out my mom had the first book, so lent it immediately. Read it immediately too. When I finished I tried to lend nmr 2 and 3 of the series but alas, I was third in line. So I bloody well bought em! (told you so J, you can lend em if you want ;) ) And then read two and three in the next two days. In other words two thumbs up for the series, can't wait for the next two movies, curious to see what changes they made. I liked the changes of the book for the first movie. Not totally sure but I think this is the best "book made into a movie" I've seen ...so far. I never know what to do with myself when I finish a great trilogy (or larger), don't want to read and ruïn the euphoric feeling but also want to read because I dont want to feel sad that it's over. Well at least I have to movies to look forward too.

#19 Mannen die vrouwen haten - Stieg Larsson (english title: the girl with the dragon tattoo): 560/9194
#20 De vrouw die met vuur speelde - Stieg Larsson (english title: the girl who played with fire): 568/9762
#21 Gerechtigheid - Stieg Larsson (english title: the girl who kicked the hornets' nest): 651/10413

Scandinavian detectives or maybe even scandinavian writers always seem to have long winded prose. The page count is not that big though... not sure what it is. Anywho it just takes me a little while to get into the writing style. (Also thought it was strange that the full name of the characters got used so often. I mean I know who you are talking about with just the first name mentioned.) Once you get into the writing style and get down to the plot it's nothing but good. Basically I loved the characters and wanted to know how it all turned out. Excellent thriller that keeps you entertained.

Book one is a stand alone story that introduces us to the two main characters.
Book two and three should be read back to back (or at least you can't read three without having read two), you could quit after two (but you will not want too). It has murders, romance, big conspiracies, engaging characters, evil governments, spies and best of all revenge! God I love me some good revenge plots. What more do you need? (can you tell i really liked this series, gonna have to look into reading some more of stuff like this).

Alright off on holiday on tuesday too budapest, looking forward to it, haven't been out of the country since... december of 2007. It's about time I see some more of the world.

*goes off to see about booking some opera tickets*

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 10:53:24 GMT

just found this, thought it was cool!

new one

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 15:16:15 GMT

8# breaking dawn - stephenie meyer: thank god that's over but I liked it, very satisfying ending. In the beginning there I was a bit disappointed what with the 'plot twist' and everything but eventually it made a good build up for a confrontational ending. At least, good enough for me p. 754/t.3947

what am I supposed to read now...? I guess I'll go see what treasures my pile holds for me.

forgot

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 16:11:23 GMT

I forgot one!

#7 William Goldman - The princess bride: I think I actually like the movie better, but that might be nostalgia. I liked the way he set up the book, I had to look up stuff about Morgenstern and can't wait for the sequel :) He once said it would be out at the 35th anniversary, which is this year. One can hope! p.399/t.3193

backlog

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 11:33:10 GMT

right finally got around to reading some stuff!

1# Artemis Fowl and the time paradox - Eoin Colfer: good one! still like 4th book the best and was hoping this would be kinda a sequel with some of the characters introduced at the end of the 4th. Maybe we'll get to read more on that in the next one. The time travel gimmick was well worked out though. Wonder if it is accurate with information given before, don't remember the specifics of the previous books. p369/t369

2# the short victorious war - David Weber: number 3 in the Honor Harrington series. good ol' fashioned space battle soap opera. yum! p.402/t.771

3#field of dishonor - David Weber: number 4 in the Honor Harrington series. I think better than 3, they went for character depth in this one and it worked out well. I love it when the characters go for personal vengeance! payback! p. 398/t.1169

4# twilight - Stephenie Meyer: first in the sparkly vampire series. Oh god, I know! I shouldn't but I couldn't help myself. It's like 'morbid curiosity'. Ah well, it wasn't that bad I guess. Reads easily enough. p.434/t.1603

5# new moon - Stephenie Meyer: 2nd in the sparkly vampire series. Well I always want to finish a series when i start one so, you know... p.563/t.2166

6# eclipse - Stephenie Meyer: 3rd in the sparkly vampire series. I'm rooting for Jacob, Kick Edwards ass! come on! GAH, you see that I am actually getting into it...why!!! the agony! the horror! p. 628/t.2794

what to read next....hmm maybe I'll wait to start something till I can lend number 4... *shudder*

Book meme stolen from lots of people.

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 17:44:42 GMT

but mostly from sacred_dark

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicise those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them.

1. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien (gave up after 250 pages)
3. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series – JK Rowling (maybe not love but still very good)
5. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell (maybe not love but still very good)
9. His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman (maybe not love but still very good)
10. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11. Little Women – Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare (just read macbeth)
15. Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit – JRR
17. Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller's Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch – George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky (just the first couple of pages)
28. Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
34. Emma – Jane Austen
35. Persuasion – Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – C.S. Lewis
37. The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
41. Animal Farm – George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez (maybe not love but still very good)
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
45. The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale – Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies – William Golding (maybe not love but still very good)
50. Atonement – Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi – Yann Martel
52. Dune – Frank Herbert (maybe not love but still very good, well the first one at least)
53. Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62. Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road – Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones' Diary – Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children – Salman
70. Moby Dick – Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
72. Dracula – Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses – James Joyce (just the first 50 pages, after that I gave up)
76. The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal – Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession – AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web – EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince) – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks (maybe not love but still very good)
94. Watership Down – Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet – William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

round about

Sun, 08 Feb 2009 15:23:35 GMT

came across this video and really liked it:

haven't read a book yet this year... don't like it at all.

new year

Sat, 03 Jan 2009 16:27:40 GMT

Well had a nice new years bash. Didn't even have time to plug in the nintendo wii (which I lugged all the way there). It was kind of fancy dress. So bought a hideous shirt and some accessories and ended up like this:

It has finally gotten cold enough to get some ice on some of the lakes and small water ways. Before it thaws again I met up with some friends and got to skate on "natural ice" (so to speak). My friends live near a nature reserve which normally isn't accessible. When there is enough ice to skate on they make an exception. It was a beautiful setting to skate in. I was dead tired after about 1 and a 1/2 hours. Really have to work on that so I can hold out a bit longer. We did one scary bit, not a lot of people had skated there and with all the crackling sounds the ice did when we skated over it we understood why. Brrrrr. It kind of looks like it's dusk in the picture but it was about 12 in the afternoon, it was like that the whole day. Fantastic! Hopefully the weather will allow me to go again this winter.

just...

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 17:45:31 GMT

on the finish line:

28. J.K. Rowling - the tales of beedle the bard: The tales did remind me of fairy tales but didn't think they were that entertaining but the 'notes by prof. Dumbledore' were very nice since they tie into the potterverse. (p. 105 / t. 11887)

trying to get the comic pile down... its not going very well.

the end

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 18:30:29 GMT

last post of the year, books! surprise surprise...

24. Kurt Vonnegut Jr - Slaughterhouse Five: don't know, it was very good but somehow I thought it was going to be about something completely different. I think I kind of mixed it up with Iain Banks' the wasp factory, or at least though it would be a bit more like that. Weirder. (p.215/t.10448)

25. Charlaine Harris - Dead until Dark: After finishing true blood I thought I'd read the book to compare (having bought it couple of weeks earlier for 2 euro's at a big book sale). And must say, book is WAY better then the series. I understand there has to be some extra plot in the tv show otherwise you'd be bored real soon but I just like the main character in the book better then in the show. Less of the whiny and the slutty more of the sexy but shy. Also the side characters were better and better explanation of 'vampirehierarchie' though maybe they want to get rid of that in the series as well... could be. Haven't read the rest so don't know if later plot point were introduced earlier on tv. Will probably pick up the rest if I can find em dirt cheap :) and watch the show anyway. (p. 292 / t. 10740)

26. Neal Asher - The Skinner: I was wanting a bit of Ian Cormac so picked up one of the Asher books I had in my to read pile... No Ian in this one! Should have judged the cover better :) Story was set in the verse that was introduced to me via Cormac, so a bit of a sidestory. Pretty good and liked the characters. Especially liked the sniper - warden dynamic and how that came to conclusion, very satisfying. (p. 474 / t. 11214).

27. Neal Asher - Brass Man: As I said before, I was looking for a bit of Ian Cormac, had another one in the pile and better luck this time. Strangely I am reading the Cormac saga in order ( i think) while I don't especially look to buy them in order when I buy one. Lucky! Anyway Ian is back, the old enemies are back, the sidekicks are back. Lots of techno babble, which got the better of me in this one, don't remember that from the earlier books. Mostly you can distill it from the context but was slightly harder this time. (do not know if that is a good or a bad thing yet). Liked how Ian Cormac is ... evolving and curious about how that will end up in the future. Will have to wait to find out, the Asher pile is depleted and promised myself not to buy myself more books until I've thinned out the pile considerably. (right, like that will last..har) (p. 568 / t. 11782)

argh! seeing the figures from last year I am 646 pages short, thats like two books, same number of books though 27 again...I'll try to do better next year (uhm, maybe). *maybe I should start counting comics, I'd be well over :P*

on the agenda: x-mas cooking, little new years shindig, some work in between that. hopefully some reading in there as well...and a movie maybe? We'll see. For the two of you out there reading this Happy Holidays.

nice!

Sun, 02 Nov 2008 13:06:54 GMT

My interest got peeked...

well..

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:09:20 GMT

hmmm

http://denofgeek.com/television/138128/the_next_doctor_who_bookies_reveal_odds.html

stephen fry, anthony head! ... hahaha! Jason Statham.

NOOOOOOOOOOooooo

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:05:31 GMT

WHY????

http://www.denofgeek.com/television/137920/confirmed_david_tennant_quitting_doctor_who_in_2009.html

happy go lucky

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 13:03:54 GMT

So went to a beer festival yesterday and drank "bokbier" which was good, after we went to get some chinese food, there was this cute 4 (?) year old at the table next to us. He did not want to give me a high five... did stick his tongue out at me though, was it something I said?

I've got a mini-holiday, took a week off from work. yippee for me! I planned on reading lots and watching lots of tv (to catch up on some shows) but somehow I've got loads to do. I don't know how this happened... argh!

books:
20. Marie Phillips - Gods behaving badly: greek gods in a current setting, with a strangely familiar plot-twist straight out of a Terry Pratchett book. So the means to resurrect the gods was not very interesting and since the book was building up to this.... Overall though nicely written, liked the greek gods in a family dynamic, fighting and plotting. (p.277/8463)

21. K.J. Parker - Devices and Desires: good, a sort of fantasy book where the protagonist is a engineer who escapes from being executed for improving on a machine. He takes his knowledge to a neighbouring state, an act of war. Everything to the protagonist is a machine, he engineers a plot to get his own back and does not care that some components get lost along the way. The writer makes these components really like-able, so when these people get caught up in the plot it is hard not to dislike the protagonist. Will definitely read the rest of the trilogy. (p.706/9169)

22. Terry Goodkind - Confessor: Last in the sword of truth series. Good ending. Not as grand as I would have hoped for but still ties up all the lose ends, so very satisfying ending. (757/9962)

23. Neil Gaiman - The graveyard book: Very nice. Loved the story and the art. Will have to read it again for some of the nuances because I was more interested in knowing how it ended then what happened along the way. I would love a sequel though... or maybe that's better left up to my imagination, not sure. (307/10233)

Wohoo passed the 10.000 mark! Started reading The slaughterhouse five by Kurt Vonnegut and also started on the pile of comics, can look forward to some queen and country, gantz, vikings and batman. Sigh.. So much reading material so little time.

This week will consist of brother coming over for dinner, dentist, shopping with parents, japanese class, dinner with friends, visiting opening day for a shop from a friend, concert with brother (the subways). Which will neatly flow over in a concert (blood red shoes) with friends next monday.

Hopefully I can fit in some odd jobs I need to do around the house, but I highly doubt it. Since I will probably filling the rest of the time with SG-A, BG, Weeds, Deadwood and other series.

books

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 20:29:54 GMT

lots and lots of books... had a good run:

14. Yann Martel - Life of Pi: Pretty good I guess, quick read. Started with a brief introduction to the major religions out there, veered off to a survival story of a boy in a lifeboat with a man eating tiger and ended with a question of faith. When there is no proof, who is to say which story is real? The plausible one or the better told one? To be honest I like my stories fantastical and unrealistic and my reality plausible but somewhere else if possible. Does that make sense? (meh *shrug*) (p.428/5669)

15. Scarlett Thomas - The end of Mr. Y: Liked it, wasn't a masterpiece though. Our main character is writing a thesis about thought-experiments (like schrödinger's cat and the turing machine - at least those are the ones I know of). She stumbles on a recipe to get to another "dimension", this dimension is based purely on thought. There is men who want to use it for bad and other such plots afoot. Keeps the pace going. I guess the story is (or tries to be) a thought-experiment in itself. The book got me kind of interested in philosophy again though. Probably won't last though :) (p.502/6171)

16. Chris Bunch - Knighthood of the Dragon: Book two of the dragonmaster trilogy, good military fantasy with dragons in it. Rough soldiers, idiot commanders and warfare. The usual really but I really like the way he tells the story. (p.408/6579)

17. Chris Bunch - The Last Battle: Book three and the last of the dragonmaster trilogy. The war is over but our hero doesn't know what to do with himself. Al he knows is soldiering, he gets himself into a bit of trouble and ultimately decides to see why dragons came to his part of the world in the first place. Back to the motherland so to speak. Fighting ensues and all ends relatively well. (p.326/6905)

18. Chris Bunch - The last Legion: The first in a series, can you tell I went to a book fair and scored a bunch of books (ahem). Anywho, good introduction to some science fiction warfare. We see our two main anti-heroes being molded into formidable soldiers. I like that. I will probably enjoy the rest of the series. (p. 344/ 7249)

19. David Farland - The sum of all men: Book 1 of "the runelord": standard fantasy fair. anti-hero prince forced to grow up fast when thrust into a war. Armies magically enhanced by runes fight the evil hordes coming from the south. Though the evil hordes might not be THAT evil after all, I expect to find out in the rest of the series. *just checked the internetz to see its length: Well crap! it is on book 7 and I thought it was a trilogy....if this ends up like that evil wheel of time thing I'm going to be pissed* (p.661/7910)

20. Warren Ellis - Crooked Little Vein: I've followed this guy from comics onto the internet, so why not to the book as well. Fun little story that takes you to the underbelly of America. The main character (a private detective) gets a job based on the fact he is a "shit-magnet". Where he goes the sexually weird - I think it's weird anyway - crawl out of the woodwork. It seemed a bit contrived at first, thought up to shock those with poor sensibilities but in the back of the book he says he didn't make them up but found out about them on the internet. I don't know if it's true or not but I am too scared to look them up for fear of ruining the little sensibility I have left. (p.276/ 8186)

Let's see if I can keep running along, next up: Gods behaving badly by Marie Phillips.

ghost towns

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 18:23:51 GMT

top ten ghost towns, lovely....

olympics

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 13:21:35 GMT

well I think it is cool

cool stuff

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 17:23:49 GMT

battle of the batmans

If I had a car I'd want this!

mio knight rider gps from knight rider online on Vimeo.

book:
13. Michael Chabon - the yiddish policemen's union: noir detective thriller set in a alternative history setting. Where there is a big jewish settlement on alaska. Chess, murder, drugs & booze, and cold grey weather. What more could I ask for? I enjoyed it but I think I missed a bit because I was too lazy to look up the jewish/yiddish terms and/or slang used. (p.411/5241)

Joined postcrossing and really enjoy getting postcards in the mail! Have 6 now I think and strangely most of the ones I've sent went to Finland.

dawn

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 13:16:31 GMT

Right so, went to indiana jones this weekend and thought it was great. What the skull ultimately stood for was a bit too far out there for me but it was fun with old school indiana moments. What more can you ask for?

More importantly went to the closing day of the pinkpop festival. And damn it was fantastic! Rage against the machine was GREAT!

in this video you can see the opening track. The guy (or girl) filming this is standing against the fence of the second ring and films a bit of the crowd in the pit in front of him. That is where I was standing! It took a little bit of doing. We went there right after the previous act was over. Which was Queens of the stone age and they were fabulous as well (by the way). Anyway, they let people out and we were standing in one big ugly crowd who wanted to push their way in. Once the guy manning the fence said we could go in, we had to stick our hands up (so there was less pushing). Then the fun of pulling and pushing began. But we got in eventually. After about an hour this is the opening we got:

They security is being a bit aggressive at the end there, looks like.
They closed with "killing in the name", the sound is a bit harsh in this vid but you can almost feel the crowd. It went ballistic. Fucking fantastic!

here is an overview of the whole crowd going crazy:

Bought myself a ratm t-shirt to remember by :D With the help of a friend, cause I'd already run out of money. (thx C.)

Here is a Queens song, someone taped it from the tv I think. We are to the left of the camera in the middle of the crowd. We tried to get in the pit then, but we were too late.

dusk

Fri, 30 May 2008 23:54:47 GMT

Got my bicycle yesterday. Went back to the store ten minutes later. I'd broken it already!!! no not really, apparently they hadn't put the correct length of ehm metal rod thingie in the gearshift thingie. (excellent technical description there). I've picked it up again today and it seems fine now. Will try a proper ride on it on monday.

Why monday? Why not sooner?? Well, I've actually got a busy weekend ahead of me. I've no idea how this happened all of a sudden.

Tomorrow I will have a indiana jones marathon. We start watching the first three movies at about 12 o'clock and go to the 4th one later that night.

Then sunday I am going to "pinkpop", actually going to a popfestival again. It has been a while. It was totally random, decided to go yesterday, got a friend crazy enough today and ran out to buy tickets immediately (before she could change her mind). Great line up, with RATM and QOTSA. Maybe I can score some new shirts from those bands because my old ones are a bit ragged. Worn em too many times.
The train travel is gonna be bad though. I think the festival is over at like half past ten but before we get home it will be about 3am. Oh well, good thing I took monday off work XD

James, sorry about that, I kind of dropped of the world there for a bit. Sometimes life gets in the way (not that much happens but *shrug*). I was planning on seeing if you were on tonight but there was this program on tv about haruki murakami. It was great, really liked how they set it up. I really should watch that tv program more often. (I'll probably forget about this come morning).

I'll write you a proper e-mail one of these days :)

activities

Sun, 25 May 2008 21:13:19 GMT

so, what is up with you guys, ha? the two people actually reading this journal? doing alright? I hope so. What have I been up too? well...

the usual really.
Reading:

9. Stan Nicholls - Orcs: It is basically the usual quest fantasy but this time the orcs have the leading role and the humans are the idiotic evil race. (sounds more realistic actually, ha!). Anyway it wasn't horrible but nothing special really, he might well have switched the races and I'd not have noticed. Too bad really, the idea was fun. (p. 711/3878)

10. Jon Courtenay Grimwood - redRobe: I love his stuff. Easy to read noir story set in a cyberpunk style future. Great characters and lovely plot twists. I think I might like Pashazade slightly better but this one comes a close second. I should read pashazade again... (p. 360/4238)

11. Adam Roberts - Polystom: It started out kind of steampunk style and then the story turned sort of 'the matrix' really. Is the universe of the protagonist real or is it the universe that is inside the computational device? (the universe in the computational device looks deceptively like ours, surprise , surprise). And at the height of this epic philosophical debate the only thing the protagonist wants to know: "and then he would know whether his wife truly loved him or not". In other words total let down for me. (p.343/4581)

12. Iain Banks - Espedair street: rock and roll love story in the aftermath of fame . The star is out of grace with friends and family but is there still something to life for? Good solidly written story, always like Iain Banks. He keeps the story going pretty good. (p. 249/4830)

movies:

Iron Man - pretty good, though I don't know I was expecting something...more. argh don't know what. Basically I loved Robert Downey Jr. doing his thing. I kept waiting for Jeff Bridges to say: "hey, careful, man, there's a beverage here!" I guess I'd wished they stretched it out a bit more in the beginning and cut out a bit of the middle and had less girl-in-high-heals at the end.

My Sassy girl - excellent korean romantic comedy. funny, cute and it never gets too sappy! Best I've seen (so far) in this genre. I read there is going to be an american remake, but reading the synopsis made me cringe. Stick to the original.

also:
I bought a bicycle for driving around in the city. It's red and I think maybe too expensive but oh well. Other than that I've had the following little side project:

It isn't completely finished yet (needs a bit more paint here and there), but I think it looks pretty good for a first go, ever!

fun

Sat, 24 May 2008 09:31:06 GMT

argh

Tue, 13 May 2008 20:08:20 GMT

this is not good news...

s. darko?

Queensday

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 20:31:00 GMT

I like Queensday. Standing around, with trademark orange clothing or accessories, trying to make a buck while we drink beer. Everybody is in a good mood. It looked like the weather was going to ruin a lot of the fun but all in all it kept pretty dry. Here is me standing at the local monument clock tower at the end of the day while we were looking for something to eat and maybe see a band play:

What a lot of people do is sell whatever they can find around the house at the market. In certain designated places you are allowed to sell your crap from morning till night on Queensday. So me and a couple of friends scrounged around the house for stuff to sell. We started selling our merchandise on Queensnight ( the night before Queensday you are allowed to sell your crap from 18.00 till you get too cold to stand around outside.) On the pic below you can see our stand but by this time a lot of it was sold already.

We stopped selling our crap at about 22.30 but stood outside for a while longer drinking beers and talking. I think I went home at about 23.30 after we walked around the market one more time. By then most people were packing it in.

Next day I was at our spot at about 10.45 (friends of mine live in a street where the market is allowed, we were in front of their place, so the beer is always cold and the snacks are at hand, as well as a most important bathroom). We stuck it out till the end of the day (18.00 the market closes and the cleaning crew comes around to clear out all the crap people left behind ~ mostly people leave whatever they don't sell, next to all the regular mess these kind of feasts bring about ~ ). We did pretty good! We got about 170 euro's in total, we are going to go out to dinner with all the contributors. Here is a pic of a street at the end of the day (and this street isn't that bad):

Best part of the day in the street we are in is at the end of Queensday. They have the "Predrikheren beren werpen", the street we were standing in is the "Predrikherenkerkhof" and the rest of it translates in bear tossing. For a good cause you can buy stuffed animals and the name of the game is to toss it in a tree as high as you can, the highest bear tosser gets a price. Here is a picture of the tree with some of its new inhabitants:

All in all a fun day. And tomorrow is ascension day, so another day off! National holidays rule! (even the Christian ones, where I have no idea what we are supposed to be "celebrating", though in this case I actually know what it's about)

concert madness

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 21:35:06 GMT

So went to Portishead this monday, definitely the highlight of my week! They were excellent!

i've never seen anybody play a guitar with a violin bow but check it out for yourself (he played a bit using pliers as well)

and here is another one, I was a bit more to the right and back from this guy but pretty much at the front. Thankfully the friends I was with went there, because I normally just hang a bit further back. This was a lot better though.

Today I went to a local ethiopian restaurant. It was pretty cool, your eating utensils are some kind of pancakes. You had a big plate of food in the middle where you grabbed the spicy meat with your pancake. Pretty good eating.