Did I Say That?

So Arie said you should check here...

Bad move. So I guess that I'll have to bore you now.

Besides the regular work/eat/sleep routine, I actually don't have much happening either. Okay, so I play some recreational volleyball once a week, but that's usually not much to talk about. Yeah, so this week we had to relocate the 6th set (or third half for you soccer-minded peeps), due to the bar being closed. Big freaking deal, right? And saying it was relocated to Zielhorst (of all places) isn't going to make it much more interesting. On a small additional sidenote I could mention that since last weeks session, the season is over and we're having a final 6th set to celebrate that, but I don't expect that helps the story much.

Since I've already complained about the trains not functioning on friday, I can move on to saturday. The trains did work this time, and I got home alright. What I haven't mentioned here before (and note the word here, otherwise people might object that I did, ad nauseum), is that I was playing in a basketball tournament.
There's a good reason I am playing volleyball. I have the length for it, and I'm actually not bad it it. And while I have the length for basketball, I also happen to be actually quite appallingly bad it. Which I proved yesterday. The team as a whole was quite shabby, so I fitted in quite nicely. Scored 12 points (that's 6 goals), which is a huge improvement over last years 6 points. We ended up at the 7th place, out of nine, so we could comfort us with the knowledge that there are people who are even worse.

Today I did nothing more that watch Dream Theater's Metropolis 2000: Scenes From New York DVD. Although I've heard quite a few live performances of them, I hadn't actually seen one. And now I'm really looking forward to June 11th.

That was it from me, and now go ahead and complain to Arie that I'm not that interesting either.

And on a sidebongo

And I can summarise the whole bongo thing with this one quote from some dude in Norway which shall remain nameless for his own sake:

it is true what I said... Beer is waaaay to cheap and available in Holland

What the bongo!

Packed my bag. No problem. Took the bus to the station. Still no problem. Take the train to Utrecht. Big fuckin problem. Signs and railroad-crossings are out near Utrecht. As well as the power near Gouda. And since I had to go in that direction, I gave up. Today it's just too hot to stand in an overcrowded train that has to stop at every fuckin station between Amersfoort and Utrecht. Tomorrow there's another day to try.

But it really figures, doesn't it? For once the weather is quite okayish, and the whole railroadsystem is disrupted.

Two things

1. God damn the fool who took of with my coat (and thus the keys to my house and bike). Let's hope they return it tomorrow (or at least drop it of at Marktzicht) so I don't have to depend on someone else to let me in to my own damn house.
2. Bongo!
   • Lord Of The Bongos:Fellowship Of The Bongo, The Two Bongos & Return Of The Bongo;
   • The Rocky Horror Bongo Show;
   • Bongo Out Of Hell, with the hit "Life Is A Lemon And I Want My Bongo Back;
   • Pinky : Gee, Brain what do you want to do tonight?
     Brain :"The same thing we do every night Pinky. Try to take over the Bongo!;
   • The Good, The Bad And The Bongo;
   • Star Wars episode I: The Bongo Menace, Star Wars episode II: Attack Of The Bongos, Star Wars episode III: Revenge Of The Bongos, Star Wars episode IV: A New Bongo, Star Wars episode V: The Bongo Strikes Back, Star Wars episode VI: Return Of The Bongo ;
   • Guns N' Bongos: Welcome To The Bongo;
   • All Your Bongos Are Belong To Us;
   • The Bongo Brothers;
   • Dude! Where's My Bongo?;
   • Bongo In The USA/USSR;
   • Heaven Must Be Missing A Bongo / There Must Be A Bongo, Playin' With My Heart;
   • I Got You, Bongo;
   • Somebody turned around and shouted, Play that funky bongo, white boy;
   • and many, many more

title inserted here

In quite some ways, yesterday's performances were quite a lot different from those a week earlier.

Yesterday I went to [het] Patronaat in Haarlem, where I saw Lisa Loeb in concert. Before she went on, we got half an hour's worth of some completely unknown singer/songwriter guy from California, USA. His voice didn't really do it for me, and after three songs they all started to sound the same.
About ten to ten, Ms. Loeb went on, with her musical sidekick Mr. Gibbs. Two, people, two guitars. And for an hour and a half, that was it. Okay, I added some beer to the mix, but that was it. Two guitars, one of which acoustic, and out of the other came two solos, three the most. Ms. Loeb singing, Mr. Gibbs doing occasional backups. Nothing fancy at all.
The set started with one of my favorite songs, "Do You Sleep" and went through (although most definitely not necessarily in this order) "Window Shopping", "Stay (I Missed You)", "Falling In Love", "Fools Like Me", "Sandalwood", "Probably", "Alone", "Waiting For Wednesday", "Jake", "Underdog", "You Don't Know Me", "Everyday", "Someone You Should Know", "I Control The Sun", "Hand-Me-Downs", "Kickstart" (in a seriously funny, not rehearsed at all version), "Diamonds", "I Do" and finally "Butterfly" as the very last song. Most of my favorites were played, so I was quite happy with that.
In between the songs there was some chit-chat about the songs, food, a discussion about whether she played in Haarlem before or not, and some background on some of the songs. What I liked was the story about why her album "Cake and Pie" was called "Cake and Pie". Paraphrasing (badly), it went something like this: When you're at a party, they often come up to you with the question would you like cake or pie?. And I'd go like, well, I'd like both actually. […] 'Cause that is also a life philosophy of mine, take all you can get.
Or the one where she tells why she decided to call her latest album "The Way It Really Is": The original title was quite bad. I wanted to call it "Half and Half", because it is like half me playing guitar and singing, and half these produced tracks, with the instruments, and drummachines and choreography and stuff. Well not so much choreography actually. […] Sometimes, most of the time, we see the things in life the way we want them to be, instead of the way it really is. But you should try to see it the way it really is. And if you like what you see, you have to appreciate that. And when you look at your life the way it really is, and don't like what you see, you should complain and moan about it to your friends, and then go and try to change it. Or something like that. She would like to have an album title which meant something to her.
All in all it was quite an enjoyable evening. After the last song I dashed to the station, so I could take an earlier train than I had planned. Back in Amersfoort I went to Marktzicht, and had some more beers.

But I said that in quite some ways it was different from the concerts I saw last week. To summarize, the sound was much, much better (but then again, an indoors venue, three guitars and two microphones should be easier to control than three loud bands in a big tent), the lines at the bar were non-existent, there were more women in the crowd (and some nice specimens too) and on top of that, I got to say "hi" to the performer too (she walked out as I walked in, we said "hi", and walked on). Sweet.

…ehm…

So what's been up the last couple of weeks? Nothin' much. Let's summarise:

• Taxes may be a lemon, but at least I got my money back.
• Last friday I saw Intwine (well, the only song I wanted to see anyway), Krezip and Within Temptation. Live. And while WT wasn't bad, their sound was, and their show was polished until it shone. I did enjoy it, but I think I must say that Krezip was better.
• Cooking for 14 people is possible. Like, eh, d'uh. But it might be a lot easier if you have enough room on the stove to put on five pans at once.
• All work and little play makes William a dull boy.

Imagine…

Imagine a wasteland.

Imagine a vast, barren wasteland. It doens't matter where you look, 'cause all around you you can't see anything but the vast and barren emptyness of the wasteland. For miles and miles there's nothing to see. Except that tree standing there. But even that tree isn't much too look at. It died years after the last rain fell in this doomed and forsaken nothingness. This desolate, empty, lifeless wasteland. It died aeons ago. Got the image?

Now look down. At your feet, lying there in the dust, there's a sponge. It's all dried up and shrivelled in. It must have been left there by the last person who travelled through this place. And that must have been so long ago that even the stones can't remember when that was.

Now imagine how that sponge would suck up a single drop of water if one would fall on it.

That, sir, is how much I sucked at volleybay today.

Wie…

…is toch die man die op zaterdag avond spontaan lege bierblikjes en -flesjes opruimt?
…is toch die man die zonder slag of stoot weggaat als tegen hem gezegd wordt, ga naar huis?

Finally...

I got this thing working