20090108

It’s been a very long time since I posted last. For various reasons, mostly due to a lack of time, I just couldn’t get to it, even though there were many things I thought I should document.

.: Maassilo
A few weeks ago there was a Soulwax, Justice and a 2 Many DJs performance at the very industrial Maassilo in Rotterdam. I had never been there and never expected the place to look that awesome. The rough, bare concrete and rusted, corrugated metal really surprised me, since most clubs and venues in the Netherlands try to go for the sleek modern or post-modern look. One long room, divided in three parts, with different music in each section, probably wasn’t such a great idea seeing as how there were certain points in the room where the music seemed to blend together. At various points in the evening I was kind of hoping for those points to be like Lagrange points; where the collision of music would create a zero-point, where all was quiet, something which is echoed by the current ringing in my ears! The music was very loud, with a deep, vibrating bass that you could feel all the way deep in your chest-cavities. I had to get used to the stinging feeling with each beat of the bass, since it made the fracture in my shoulder vibrate and sting.

Soulwax was pretty good, I wasn’t very familiar with them, but their music sounded good. It seemed like an edgy type of dance music with a dash of industrial thrown in the mix. I can’t say that it goes for all their music since I didn’t really spend too much time listening to them as Justice came on.

Justice was awesome. I had expected for them to give a lack-lustre set of their well known songs, and was surprised to find that they had mixed and remixed their own music in such a way that it was sometimes only barely recognisable. It was fun to see the two DJs have fun on stage. One of them looked exactly like Weird Al Yankovic and he wore Michael Jackson’s red leather jacket from Beat It, I swear!

Eva and Sam were supposed to go with us to the Maassilo, but they didn’t because they’re little pussies. At first I wasn’t so happy with that, but later, when it turned out that meant there was ample space in Willem’s car and public transport could be avoided, I was very happy with it! That reminds me, I still owe Willem some money for the drinks there that night.

.: Fracture
For several weeks now, I’ve been aware that I had a broken collarbone which was giving me some trouble. It’s getting better, but it still hurts at times, and I haven’t done any real physical stuff in over a month, and I’m pretty much fed up with it. I’m keen to start my BJJ classes, but I don’t want to screw my shoulder up even further. I must be a little patient, just a little bit more, and I can go back to Kung Fu and BJJ.

.: New Years Eve
NYE was pretty tame, and the funniest part came at the very end of the night, when we were going home, and my brother and sister were hungry for junk food. I’ll save all of you from my explanation of what happened, because I’m fairly certain it was one of those moments that you just had to be there. Hilarious. I do, however, have a great picture of my brother and sister posing in front of what looks to be the burnt out remains of a car, right in the middle of the street in front of my sister’s apartment. She lives in a classy neighbourhood for sure!

.: Gaming
Shadowrun has been put to a temporary halt as the holiday season kept screwing with our schedule. We’ll most likely only get to continue at the start of the next month as everyone has shed themselves of their responsibilities. That’s fine by me, because work is pretty busy right now, which leaves me with little energy to properly prepare the sunday sessions. In the meantime, I’ve been having a tremendous amount of fun playing BioShock, which is like System Shock 2 with a worse storyline but with better graphics. System Shock 2 was so awesome I still regularly dream about walking the halls of the Von Braun and the Rickenbacker with Shodan’s distorted voice filling my aural implants.

.: Bicycle
I don’t believe in slow or leisurely cycling, which is probably because I really don’t like it. Whenever I go somewhere by bicycle, I do it as fast and efficient as possible, minimising the suffering. As a result, my bicycles usually don’t last for more than a year or two at a time before they just wither away and need replacement. Some time ago, some drunk asshole probably leaned up against my parked bicycle as they exited the pub below my apartment, and as a result, my front wheel was bent and damaged. Of course, it wasn’t damaged enough that I couldn’t use it, so I did, and over time, the bend in the wheel had been hitting the splash-guard, which in turn had become loose. When I was cycling to Eva’s place to feed Rovdyr and Arie, I was going at my usual pace and the splash-guard came loose completely, wrapped itself around my wheel several times before completely locking up the front wheel. As a result, I literally got launched off my bicycle, but miraculously landed on my feet without a scratch on me (further strengthening in my belief that I’ve got super-powers), while my bicycle completely caved in on itself behind me.

.: 2008 vs 2009
Inevitably, with the start of the new year, I look back and reflect on the previous year, while also looking forward to the new year. Last year saw me and my family go through some pretty tough times, culminating in the death of my mother. The hardest two days of my life were those leading up to her death in Italy, and even though I wouldn’t have had it any other way, I sometimes wonder if it wasn’t too optimistic of the two of us to go there while she was so ill. As I write this, I hope she had a good time, regardless of the pain and the difficulties we faced there. Dealing with the inheritance has also been less than pleasant, but it looks like we’re almost done with that, barring a few life insurances.

I hope 2009 brings me some improvement. After two rough and difficult years, I could use some. I don’t need much, but improvement on one or two elements would be greatly appreciated. I’ve already made some headway by finally doing what so many have been urging me to do for so long; going to talk to a psychologist. It’s not easy, but it might help, and if there’s a chance that it will, then I should try it. So far it’s been hard to explain things to her, but I’m trying to break old habits and trying to go for full disclosure, which isn’t easy if you’ve based your sanity on compartmentalising everything. The thing I was most afraid of – of not being believed, some things are pretty incredible – hasn’t happened yet, which is a personal victory, and it’s really interesting to have someone to talk to who is, literally, there to mostly listen. Most of the time, people are just waiting for you to stop talking so that they can start. I guess everyone is in need of a good listener.