.: BJJ
This weekend was good; training on friday evening was great, even though halfway through someone pulled my arm off at the elbow. Two ice-packs later and I felt better. Throughout the class we focussed more on takedowns and throws, which is something I'm not particularly good at. I'm slowly getting better, especially at the takedowns. I guess what I'm doing now is more Greco-Roman Jiu Jitsu than anything else, but I'm getting better. I'm still a novice, have no belt worth mentioning, but I do get the drop on some of the more experienced guys, sometimes. I prefer the kimura from side-mount, and the figure four body triangle from the back, since they give me consistently the best results.
My feet are looking more and more mangled by the day. Saturday morning was so bad that I woke up as I ripped my blanket off my foot, which had become stuck to a wound on my ankle. Yeah, that was an interesting way of waking up, as if someone is yanking a big band-aid off of a hairy part of your body. My knees also no longer have hair on them, which, depending on who you ask, is a good thing if you consider the "the lesser hair, the better" philosophy that most of the women in my life seem to go for. But I can't complain, even with all the bruises and the scrapes and the twisted limbs and mangled extremities, it's still a lot of fun.
.: Laundry
I got to hang out at my sister's place again on saturday, which I haven't gotten to do in a little while. We've got this standing appointment that I come and do the laundry at her place on saturday afternoon, so we can hang out, and I don't have to deal with the chaos of the place I'm currently staying at. My brother comes along most of the time, so it's cool.
My sister is going back to work for the first time in a long while today, which is absolutely great news. It's going to do wonders for her financial situation and her self-esteem. Being stuck in a house is no fun and having nothing to do can screw with your sense of self worth. Also, hopefully, she'll be able to really quit smoking now. ;)
.: Eddie Izzard
As part of his European Stripped tour, Eddie Izzard had come to Amsterdam for two shows, one on friday and another on saturday. I had tickets to go to the one on saturday, and it was absolutely awesome. True to form, though less femininely dressed, Izzard was absolutely hilarious and all over the place. I don't think I've ever heard my brother laugh quite as loudly as he did during the show. It was awesome. Here's some quick pictures I shot during the two hour show.
.: Sunday
Sunday was quiet and easy. I went back to my sister to finish up the laundry. I had a lot of it, but I didn't have a lot of time. We watched some UFC 105, which was a bit of a disappointment. The disappointment mostly came from the fact that there weren't too many exciting fights scheduled, and the one that did appeal to me didn't go the way I wanted it to. (I'm looking at you Denis Kang.) The rest of the fights were not very interesting, though some of them were exciting. I was impressed with Pierson, Winner and Hardy, though I think Hardy is going to get obliterated by GSP when they fight. He's good, but he's not GSP good.
Richard came to pick Robin and I up at around 15:45, and we drove up to D2's. We immediately hit the local junkfood place for some fried beaks and asses and retired to D2's apartment for some movie watching. We watched The Corruptor, Shaun of the Dead and Final Destination in rapid succession, at which point my brain had turned to pulp and I had the intellectual capacity of a retarded amoeba.
.: This Morning
This morning I woke up to find that my World of Warcraft account had been hacked, all my items sold and disenchanted and all my belongings sent off to be sold by gold farming hackers. The week is shaping up quite nicely!
This is a really good presentation by Daniel Floyd on how creators video games need to stand up and defend what they create and not abandon it when the going gets tough and they face criticism. Just like any other artform.
Lately it's been kind of quiet on my website and I wanted to let you guys know that I've got tonnes of stuff to post, but no real time to put them in a proper format and post it. For instance, I've had a half written District 9 review waiting to be finished but the pace of things has picked up a little in recent weeks, especially at work, so I don't have much time. Especially my new shadowrun section has suffered from this and has been for a while now. Hopefully my time will free up a little bit soon and I can dedicate some headspace to sitting down and banging out a few things I wanted to post. In any case, thanks for your patience!
A long time ago, in the Year of Napster, I remember stumbling across some videos made my some crazy Scandinavians where they took their super-cars and drove through the early morning city of Stockholm at breakneck speeds. By the end of the 45 minutes of driving they were being pursued by several police cars, which seemed to be the point of it all. Today, I found a similar video, shot in 1976 by French filmmaker Claude Lelouch using a gyro-stabilized camera stuck to the bumper of a Ferrari 275 GTB, driven by a good friend of his, a professional F1 driver at the time. The eight and a half minute joyride completely rocked my morning. The ending is absolutely amazing.
I love Simon's (Flak) approach to Daylight Savings; we don't have an extra hour to sleep, we have an extra hour to live! Though, guess who's still snoring on my sofa?
Today is going to be good; UFC 104 with Simon and Jim (although, if you read this and want to come by to watch it with us, let me know!) and then tonight Pablo Francisco. Not a bad score this lazy Sunday. :)
An uncle that I barely knew and hardly got along with was found dead in his apartment on the 21st. By all estimates he had been dead for a week before he was found, which is tragic. After the death of my father and this uncle, there are only a few of us Steinmeijers left, an aunt who currently resides in Indonesia, working for the government who I've met only once, and an uncle I've never met. When my father passed away, my uncles (both the one I've never met and the one that just passed away) decided not to come to the ceremony. I knew from conversations with my father that when their mother passed away when they were all in their teens it was a rather traumatic experience for all of them, which made many of them decide never to attend a funeral again. This belief was reinforced when the remaining uncle decided he didn't want to have anything to do with it, claiming that he was "done with funerals." When my father passed away I also managed to get in contact with my aunt, who turned out to be working in Bangladesh at the time. This time around she was as unable to either attend to the funeral or attend the funeral. So the task falls squarely on my shoulders. It's not as hard this time around, since I hardly knew the man and my involvement can be kept to a minimum.
I got a nice, reinforcing and uplifting e-mail from someone, which brightened my day and mood a little bit.
Quote:
I just saw that your uncle passed away... I'm so sorry to hear that, and also that it falls on your shoulders to take care of things. I guess that's the price you pay for being the Prince of your family, no?
That's a very nice way of saying that I'm the one who shovels the shit, but it made me smile. :)
So yesterday morning, I got to be a bit of a hero while in public transport. The train was very crowded, and I was standing all the way in the back, reading a book and listening to some music when all of a sudden, the ticket collector is pushing his way past all the people until he reaches the end of the train. He's about fifty years old and not an imposing sight at all, and he's got a woman following him. She was young, probably twenty years old, about as tall as I, and probably about fifteen kilos heavier than I, and she's yelling at him. I don't realise what's going on at first until she's got him cornered and pressed up against the back of the train. I take my earphones out and I observe, like the ten or fifteen others in attendance. Apparently, the girl didn't have a ticket and the ticket collector had taken her identification so that she wouldn't run when the police would come to adjudicate at the next stop. (Normally, they just write you a ticket unless they have reason to believe you're not going to pay, can't identify yourself or if you're being a pain in the ass.) This girl went wild, demanding her identification back. She had backed the guy up in a corner and was very aggressive in the way she spoke and postured. I let it go on for a moment before the girl got physical, then I jumped in between the two of them. She had lunged for the identification and was roughly pushing him into the corner. I wormed myself in between them and shoved the girl back while trying to sound like I had some sort of authority, telling her to "stand back." She was obviously panicking and I had to push her up against the wall, cross-facing her with my forearm. Behind me the ticket collector collapsed, his legs giving out, probably due to the adrenaline dump. When I finally managed to catch the girl's attention, I told her that in order for her not to get arrested she needed to calm down, which, surprisingly, she did. The ticket collector regained his composure and gave her the identification back (!?) and they returned to her seat. I'm not sure what happened after that, but later the ticket collector came back to thank me for helping.
What was sad is that I got all these "well done" looks from people around me afterwards. While it was happening they were just trying to become one with the surroundings, not wanting anything to do with it.
Recently, I found out that I fall asleep easier when I put my head to one side. To be more specific, I fall asleep quicker when one of my ears is closed off -- easily done by rolling my head to one side. I feel better when I create this artificial corner in my mind where my consciousness retreats to, quite literally, by closing off one ear. My thoughts shift to take place closer to my closed off ear. The only entrance, it seems, to my head is the ear that's free, since it's the only part of my senses that really feeds me any input. It's interesting how that works, and how aware of it I am -- even though I don't seem to be very apt at putting it into words.
This weekend I threw out the phone book and the yellow pages, who have been combined so that you don't have to walk to the garbage bin twice. Today I heard Bill Maher say the following;
Quote:
New rule; stop bringing me the phone book! The last time anyone ever needed a phone book was 1988! And that was a cop who used it to beat a suspect!
I was just looking for a particular quote by Don Logan from Sexy Beast as I bumped into these three videos that Ben Kingsley did to benefit Live Aid. He rants, Don Logan style, about feeding starving children in Africa, and they're awesome. I think to get the full effect of how great they are you should really have seen the film. Anyway, you can watch them below. Enjoy!
The season ending episode of Entourage was awesome. Matt Damon was in there, and gave a great performance as he hounds Vince to get him to donate to onexone.org, a foundation to help children. For those who saw it, I hope you waited until after the credits, where there was an extra scene with just Damon in it, leaving hysterical messages on Vince's voicemail. It was awesome! There was also an extra clip that didn't make it into the episode, and both were released on YouTube, so check 'em out below. :)
Or rather, "PostSecret and !Me", or "Why I don't read PostSecret." While some of these little micro-confessions are lovely, endearing, heart-warming, optimistic and cute, the elation I feel when I read those are nothing compared how much it tears me up when I read one that hits too close to home.
Quote:
I recently realised that I prayed more frequently at SEC sporting events than when my father was dying. Pop, it wasn't because I didn't care. I didn't want to believe you weren't invincible. You were my hero.
And then I think; it's not worth it. I can't keeping reading this and letting it upset me, even though secretly I wish I was strong enough to let it upset me and remind me of what and who I've lost, and how much they meant to me. If you think you're strong enough, enjoy!
Anyone who knows me knows that I love the Dutch television program Tegenlicht, or Backlight, as it's translated. One of the best episodes I've seen was The Day the Dollar Fell, aired in 2005, which they finally subbed in English and put on YouTube. You can watch it here.
Onitsuka Tiger Mexiko 66 black/white
These are my new Onitsuka Tigers, which I bought this Saturday. I really like them, and I'm slowly but surely maturing towards a lighter, more delicate sneaker than the ones I had before - ones that were all just different variations and imitations of the Adidas Classic anyway, with the possible exception of Mizuno's Sala Libre. The Tigers were made popular with Bruce Lee's Game of Death and later in Tarantino's Kill Bill, and now by me!
So it is time to get my passport renewed, which means it's my quadrennial trip to the photoshop to get photos made. For my last passport it was already mandatory to get special, biometric-sensitive photos made, on which you couldn't smile, your ears had to be visible and everything had to fit in certain dimensions, all to facilitate future facial recognition software at airports and border crossings. Now they are also adding fingerprint information on the passport for more advanced identification. (If all of that doesn't unsettle or even scare you then we should talk, because I'd love to be as comfortably numb as you.) Anyway, photos made and they are aweful. Below are two photos, side-by-side, one from August 1st, 2007, and the other from today. I think I lost a bit of weight in face, gained a bit in hair, but one thing is certain, I still look awful. :)
