Journal

Last night, in order to commemorate the passing of Ike Turner, I beat up Moulsari. (Don’t worry, she’ll be able to walk again, soon.) I hereby call upon all men, all over the world, to victimise their girlfriends, wives, mothers or just random women on the street if you have to, in order to mark the passing of such a wonderful man.

.: Fight
I had a great dinner with Eva, last night, but the start of it was a little weird for me. (Probably for her, too.) Only five minutes before we said hello, I had a fight on the middle of an intersection with a rather burly guy. How the hell did I manage to piss off someone to the point that they wanted to jump me, you ask? Well, I was cycling along (fast, as usual), and a guy came cycling along the opposite way, but on the wrong side of the street. I didn’t spot him fast enough as he didn’t have any lights on his bike and wasn’t wearing the most reflective of clothing, either. So as I came barreling down the path I overtook someone, which probably scared him, forcing him to step off his bike. He yelled something at me that I didn’t understand, perhaps because the guy was African, and without turning my head I flipped him the bird. Threehundred yards down the street I had to wait for a traffic light and out of nowhere, from behind, the guy bodychecks me off my bike. Luckily I remained standing because he kind of tripped over my bike as he pushed me off of it. I hit him a couple of times, and got him in a choke before his (much larger and fitter-looking) friend came up. I was pretty rattled to begin with, but I have never fought two guys at once before, so I let the first guy go, so I was ready for the second guy, but the second guy held his hands out in a way that made me realise he didn’t want to fight, he just came there to get his friend who was catching his breath. Before they had the chance to regroup, I hopped back on my bike and get the fuck outta dodge. I’m guessing the second guy either thought his friend was overreacting, and it had occurred to me that perhaps those guys weren’t friends, but they were both African guys, which made me jump to that conclusion. In any case, I got away without any scratches or bruises, but my bike makes a bit of a rattly sound now.

.: Dinner
Had dinner with Eva, and I started out with tequila/tonics to calm my nerves a little bit. Gave out some bad vibes to some other dude at the bar, I think, while we waited for a table, but anyway, pretty soon Eva and I were talking at top tempo and all the weirdness of fifteen minutes before was quickly forgotten. One of the highlights was the revelation that Eva had purchased the DVD box for The Kingdom, a mini-series directed by (among others) Lars von Trier. Claus told us about that series with such enthusiasm (and those of you how know Claus, he doesn’t really do enthusiasm) that it had always stayed with us. So hopefully we’ll be able to find a few evenings in which we can watch it. Looking forward.

.: Gaming
Prototype looks to be a really good action game. Dark and atmospheric, if the website and trailer is anything to go by. I got my brother Assassin’s Creed for christmas, so hopefully we’ll be able to try that out, too. Can’t wait for Gears of War to hit the PC, and I want to free up some time to play BioShock, because seeing and hearing Moulsari play that game has kind of got me in the mood for it.

Dennis is about to continue his D&D game, while I’m writing the synopsis for my last campaign for those interested (especially Edwin), but sadly we’re probably going to put that off until the new year, since I’m have some obligations the coming few weeks. Looking forward to that, too.

I got ahold of SpecialBites, a Dutch restaurant guide, the other day, and while I happened to be in Den Haag yesterday, we thought to try out the fifth best recommended restaurant in the top 100, and the best recommended restaurant in Den Haag;Oni. It was amazing. Atmosphere and food were top notch.

My D&D campaign finally came to a close with a rather climactic finish, which, sadly, left most players dead and one player sacrificed for the greater good. I got many compliments from my players for the campaign and the way it finished, and I think it’s the best and most consistently solid game I’ve ever run so far. Thinking back, it was quite a ride. :)

Next week, Dennis is going to be picking up his game again, and I’m thoroughly looking forward to it. I expect that I’ll be reading up on a bunch of useless things to add some spice and flavour to my character once the gaming starts.

Positive:

• Feel good about helping my brother yesterday.
• Have tomorrow off, which reinvigorates.
• Have candy.
• Have new headphones.

Negative:

• Hard time waking up.
• Massive building headache.
• Disappointing people.
• Deadline pressure at work.

It looks like it’s a toss up between the possitive and the negative, but it certainly doesn’t feel that way. I guess what I should really do is weigh each one in a calculation of some sort. P2 weighs pretty heavily, P3 and P4 a little less so. N1 is relatively petty, while N2 and N3 are huge! Yeah, I think I have to come to the conclusion that my morning isn’t so great.

Today my mother is getting the results from the bone-scan they did recently. After she was done with the radiology she got tremendous pains in her chest and right shoulder. She thought they were the result of the rather uncomfortable position she was required to stay in each time she had a radiological session, but the doctor thought it would be prudent to do a bonescan to make sure the cancer hadn’t spread to her blood and bones. Yesterday the pain was so bad she couldn’t sit still, trying to find relief of the pain. My mother’s hardcore and I don’t think I know anyone with a paintolerance as high as hers, and she was pacing the room crying, despite the painkillers, so I can’t even imagine how bad it must be for her. Hopefully its not cancer, but something a little more mundane and treatable through fysiotherapy.

So yeah, I shouldn’t complain about my morning. It’s just that when overall things are kind of shitty, the little things start to really nag at me.