I was still counting down the hours and days until the new Nine Inch Nails album "With Teeth" would be in the stores on 05/05/05 (Trent has a thing with numbers - previous album appeared on 09/09/99) until I walked into one of the best alternative recordstores in the city. The new album lay there ... shining it's blue case and the big black NIN logo ... 0.02 seconds later I had one in my hand, clasping it firmly, looking for the "halo 19" serialnumber (all NIN records and singles are numbered as of halo 1) which would confirm it all. I really had to refrain myself from running home immediately and play the disc full blast. Had to pay for it first.
So about 15 minutes later I was home and played it twice - back to back - before leaving for Kira's birthday-party. By sheer luck Elischka wasn't home so I really played it full blast - no kidding, ask the neighbours. Oh wait, wouldn't help, the guy is half deaf already.
And you know what was fun too ? In a geeky way, I admit ... I was the first in the world to stick the disc in a computer and so I got to add the titles to the worldwide CD-database. Little tingly shiver down my spine while thinking about it.

Editorial - 25 April 2005

As the sun made a big effort on sunday, I decided to get out and walk a few hours with the camera in hand. Took a 2 hour trip through the outskirts of the city and then dove into the center to end up home again. I enjoyed the walking more than expected and for a while forgot to take pictures. Kept like 20 or so after deleting the rubbish.

Editorial - 20 April 2005

		Thanks to Hillie, I now have my own Masterchief at home. One of the not-for-sale statues that are meant to be placed in toyshops and computerstores to lure people into buying the game in question. As a big "Halo 2" nut, this statue was given to me.
And I not only have to thank Hillie (the gracious donor), but also Gizmoo who mailed her while I was stuck in Disneyland and got me on top of the "I want it !" list. Thanks to both, feel free to come and visit him in his new home.

Editorial - 19 April 2005

And we have a new pope. Apparently he named himself Benedictus XVI. Trying to drop his "sturm und drang" image and adopt a more worldly view and attitude. Binding all christians, you know ? Strangely enough a lot of people on the net immediately started shouting "Habemus Palpatine". Which isn't that weird if you take a look at this picture.

Editorial - 18 April 2005

Took as much Zen-time as possible this weekend. Slept in until noon on saturday and went shopping for groceries. Which can be stressfull if you're running out of time, but I had all afternoon, so I could stop and look at the people running around frantically like they tend to do on weekends. Back home I popped in the "Halo 2" disc and starting killing some "master chief" lookalikes in a few "team slayer" matches. Nothing more relaxing than shooting a rocket into a Warthog filled with people and a bomb. Or hit someone over the head when sneaking up behind him. Hell, even getting sniped by a guy in the first second after emerging from a previous death - don't you hate it when that happens ? - was amusing.
In the evening we had some friends over for a quick dinner before going to the movies, followed by a visit to a new pub I'm really starting to like due to their long and ecclectic whisky-list.
Sunday meant more time for more relaxing - I watched 4 episodes of "The Shield" before noon, and caught the last part of a basketball game of my girlfriend's brother's team. They won with 134-40. A complete walk-over.
And the weekend ended with around 4 hours of online racing in "Project Gotham Racing 2" with my fellow RBBS homie FRaNKy.
Song of the week : -----
Oldie of the week : -----
Last seen movie : "Dead Reckoning" : Very old black and white Humphrey Bogart movie where Bogey investigates the death of his fellow armyman who's somehow been framed (or not ?) for murder. Delving into his typical hardass wisecracking detective image, quickly shacking up with the ladies while molesting hoods and getting molested by a gang of thugs, this is classic Bogey stuff. Fans will love it, others will not understand what I'm talking about.
"Kinsey" : Biopic about Kinsey : an american biologist from the fifties who - after categorizing tiny little insects - develops the urge to do the same with human sexual behavior - just because there's nothing known on the subject at that time. Obviously he turns the world upside down with his findings on the male species and after a period of success, he's completely ridiculed when he and his team start to delve into female behavior.
Much better both actingwise and storytelling than "A Beautiful Mind" from a few years back. But it wouldn't be America when this movie would be ridiculed and snubbed by the Oscars, unlike his predecessor. At least it got made ...
Doing this week : My calendar's pretty blank right now. I like it.

Editorial - 15 April 2005

Nine. Those who know, will understand.

Editorial - 13 April 2005

This week will not be a good one. Don't ask why, it's just a feeling I have right now. UK has been sending mails and the main tone of it is that I'm dragging my feet. Look, I don't mind anymore that some of the tools don't always work, or work like they should. I know I can mail the supportguys and have it fixed. Even if it takes some time (between an hour and a month). But when I have a shitload of mails with questions to get things fixed, resolved and amended and nothing gets done, I REALLY DON'T LIKE IT if all the crap comes back, blaming me for not doing my job quick enough. Especially coming from people who aren't in the loop and who are quoting incorrect figures. Ah whatever, just needed to rant here. Cool off.
Song of the week : -----
Oldie of the week : "Monkey Wrench" Foo Fighters
Last seen movie : "How To Loose A Guy In Ten Days" : very good and funny romantic comedy about a guy trying to keep a relationship for at least ten days while the girl tries to dump him in the same period of time. Each having bet on being able to do this, their friends watch in amusement. Not sappy, not ridiculous, just plain and simply funny.
"The Butterfly Effect" : The DVD with the director's cut has been released a few days ago and I could borrow it for a day. As this movie intrigued me from the day I saw the trailer, I decided to give it a go. I didn't at first as reviews weren't that good, but now I hear that some of the problems are solved with this director's cut. Surprised me a lot. Good, entertaining, suspensefull and quite good actingwise : something you wouldn't expect from leading man Ashton Kutchner.
Ashton has experienced blackouts as a child and only learned to control them by writing down everything he does in books. Years later he discovers he can relive some of those events by reading his stories. Unfortunately this starts affecting the world in which he lives. Relationships alter, people change, situations are transformed into something else with him being the only constant centerpiece. The more he tries to rectify things for good, the more things become different than expected and at some point it seems there's no turning back ...
Doing this week : Probably going nuts from all the accusations from the guys in the UK.

Editorial - 8 April 2005

I don't listen to his music on a daily basis anymore, but Kurt Cobain still paved a big part of the way for guitarbands to be good, hard, honest and famous again. And a few of his simple chorded songs got me into playing guitar as well. Guess I can at least mention that he was found dead in his garage, 11 years ago today. Died 3 days earlier.

Editorial - 7 April 2005

Euro Disney is well ... Disney. Like the movies it's sugary-sweet, a bit fake (you see shops everywhere), just like any other themepark, but still different and very expensive. Sorry, but I'm not used to paying between 2,60 and 3,20 euro for a Coke. Even if it's only available in 50 cl (for europeans a mega-gulp, for americans probably a small).
Trainride over there with the Thalys is speedy. An hour and a half and you can get out right in front of the entrygate. Walk 5 minutes or take the bus and you're in your hotel. We stayed in the Sequoia Lodge : some sort of wooden (not really of course) building looking like the hotels in ski-resorts in the movies of the fifties. Needless to say I like it. I like everything with a fifties feel.
The park itself consists of three parts : the free (as in no ticket needed) part with shops, restaurants and walk and sit areas, the Disney Movie Park and the Disney Park itself. The Movie Park has an Aerosmith ride (big rollercoaster in the dark with "dude looks like a lady" on full blast in the speakers), an Armageddon thing (you're part of the exploding spacestation - fireworks guaranteed), an overview of Disney drawing and drawing in general, a collection of famous movieclips combined together into a new short film with Martin Short and Julie Delpy (audience interaction included) ... you can get through it in a day, including the long waiting lines. We were lucky to be going during the most calm period of the year : april.
The Disney Park consists of 4 parts : Adventure Land with an Indiana Jones rollercoaster and a Pirates Of The Caribbean boatride, Frontier Land with a nifty Thunder Mountain ride through the mines, the fairytales part for the kids, less amusement for adults and Discovery Land : the hightech stuff like Star Tours (based on Star Wars - look for the giant lifesize X-Wing and my droolmarks on the concrete right in front of it) and the renewed "Space Mountain : Mission 2" : the meanest rollercoaster in the park. As number one was highly regarded by fanatics and this one is a little more extreme and features a much better display of lighting and special effects, it's probably worth the trip. Too bad I really don't like all kinds of rollercoasters since I almost fell out one years ago in another big amusementpark. Scared the hell outta me. Imagine yourself flying around with the seatlockingmechanism unlocking itself during the first turn while frantically grabbing hold of the seat and your girlfriend who's sitting in the seat next to you, unlocked as well. Our whole cart wasn't locked. As of then it's all barf-inducing to me.
Anyway, we did some groupthings as well - dinner every night and the party monday-evening. But enough about that weirdness.

Editorial - 6 April 2005

Never thought things like this would happen to me, but I had some serious trouble monday-evening with a bunch of drunk and horny dutch girls. I heard rumours about dutch girls mainly getting horny when they're drunk, but dismissed them as just that, a rumour. I'm not sure if I'm going to post this (but if you're reading it, I guess I did anyway) because I don't want to upset drunk dutch girls in general, but let me say that when they've had a lot of alcohol, are partying hard to the music of an ordinary DJ (no turntablistic skills whatsoever) and you're part of just 5 or 6 young guys for an audience of around a hundred women ... well, they have the tendency to get really physical. I didn't dance (as I don't like it), I didn't speak until spoken to and I never got close to anyone of them and suddenly two of them were all over me, trying to kiss me. Saying I wasn't interested, had a girlfriend (nearing 9 years) and wasn't planning on cheating on her gave me this funny response from one of the girls : "That's okay, I have a boyfriend too, but he's not here, so he can't see it. And I think you're cute." It must be true that everything looks better when you're drunk. Anyway, I ducked and made an honourful exit towards my hotelroom. My roommate was a single guy from our callcenter, he came home late with a smile on his face. Guess he got lucky in my place.

Editorial - 3 April 2005

Getting ready to drive to the station and board the Thalys to France and Eurodisney. We're supposed to call it Disneyland Paris Resort, but that's too long for my taste. And as there's only one Disneyland in Europe, Eurodisney is good enough.
Song of the week : -----
Oldie of the week : "Feel The Pain" Dinosaur Jr.
Last seen movie : "The Incredibles" : Newest computeranimation setting the bar yet again. In a sudden rage of litigation, superheroes are being sued for their actions and are ordered to stop being "super". They all dive under and become ordinary citizens. Until Mr. Incredible is asked to do "one little favor once more". Like we all know that just means that something is about to happen and that the heroes in question are walking into a trap. Same here ... Much laughter, funny gadgets, nice voices. As usual. Good for the whole family.
"Miss Congeniality 2" : For me it's enough that this movie has Sandra Bullock in the leading role, but I'll write some more comments for the rest of you. After rescueing the miss america's to be girls in part one, Sandra's character is bombarded by the top into being the FBI spokesperson. Quickly rising to her head, she starts becoming unwanted by any department and thus gets no help whatsoever when the former miss america girl gets kidnapped. The rest is just some funny moments and silly lines as in most other comedies, but for some reason Sandra has a way of pulling them off and still look cute and adorable. Never smuck. Oh well, maybe it's just me ...
Doing this week : Disney. Duhu.

darkman says sleep tight

Next month
Editorials