Challenged 18 February 2008

The ‘diary’ section is supposed to record some of the weird and wonderful people and things one has the opportunity meet in The Hague or wherever I am at the moment. Monday afternoon in the tram was certainly weird, but it wasn’t wonderful.

So I sit down and listen to my iPod for a while, after I hear a male voice (but a high male voice) shouting from couple of seats in front of me: “You’re a hooker, stupid whore.” I look at the person these words were addressed to. She just stood there chubby, giggling to herself, clearly not older than 16. The man (with a horrible green hat), shouted again: “You fucking whore, I’ll kill you” and started hitting the old lady who was sitting beside him.

Everyone in the tram looked at the man, the girl and the white-haired lady. The girl giggled and so did her friends, the old lady tried to calm her son down. The girl was getting off at the next stop, and the man shouted yet again: “You slut, I’ll never marry you”. The old lady pressed her small hand against her son’s mouth and the gang of teenagers left the tram, clearly entertained.

I thanked the Lord (even though I’m an infidel), that the object of the man’s rage was gone. Little did I know what was about to follow. Although I did expect some kind of reaction, either from him or his mother, the following certainly wasn’t it.

“You’re all liars. You’re a fucking liar mum, I don’t even have a mother. I don’t have a father. I’m gonna kill you. I’ll kill you all (to everyone in the tram). ‘Cause I’m not afraid of anything. I’m not afraid.” During this charming monologue, he hit his mother several times on her shoulder. She only smiled apologetically and said: “Enough.”

It was obvious that this man was disturbed, he acted like a small child (with adult’s vocabulary). I sympathize with his mother. It must be really difficult. Firstly, dealing with her mentally challenged son, and secondly with all the attention they receive when he becomes possessed. Although this isn’t the first time I saw weirdos on the tram. I remember another guy in Amsterdam that was shouting obscenities at this woman in the metro. I also wrote about the guy with chewing-gum in his ear.

But these two were solitary. They weren’t as disturbed need or want supervision from their mother. That’s the worst part. All three cause a slight annoyance to the travelers, but one of them actually hurts his own mother.

Why do I always seem to travel with freaks? Well, as long as they don’t kill me, I’m OK with it. I just hope they’ll get better. What can I say, I’m an optimist.

Peter

Semester 2, Week 2

The exhibition platform is progressing slowly into something that’s a bit more polished. The one thing that really gets to me is the lunatic size of the thing, at one point, the ceilings are 7m high. Also, some aesthetic details give me a hard time.

Basically, I have two very similar versions. The first one is more honest, the second one tries to be a tiny bit more aesthetically tuned. There is really only one difference, which I hope you can notice.

So here goes the first version (I also had to build a model, scale 1:100)

Here’s the 2.5 version with a different entrance.

So, that’s it for now. I hope that the design will not have to be changed too much.

Peter

The Big Valentine Special

I thought I would write a really exceptionally deep piece about Valentine’s Day, but I think that’s already been done. So what other things happened on this day of looove. As always, Wikipedia has the answer. I handpicked some of the less romantic events associated with the day.

• 1076 – Pope Gregory VII excommunicates Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor.
• 1349 – Approximately 2,000 Jews are burned to death by mobs or forcibly removed from the city of Strasbourg.
• 1779 – James Cook is killed by Native Hawaiians near Kealakekua on the Island of Hawaii.
• 1919 – The Polish-Soviet War begins.
• 1929 – St. Valentine’s Day Massacre: Seven people, six of them gangster rivals of Al Capone’s gang, are murdered in Chicago, Illinois.
• 1945 – World War II: On the second day of the bombing of Dresden , the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces begin fire-bombing Dresden, the capital of the German state of Saxony.
• 1945 – World War II: Prague is bombed probably due to a mistake in the orientation of the pilots bombing Dresden.
• 1979 – In Kabul, Muslims kidnap the American ambassador to Afghanistan, Adolph Dubs who is later killed during a gunfight between his kidnappers and police.
• 1981 – Stardust Disaster: A fire in a Dublin nightclub kills 48 people
• 1989 – Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini issues a fatwa encouraging Muslims to kill the author of The Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie.
• 1990-92 people are killed aboard Indian Airlines Flight 605 at Bangalore, India.
• 1994 – Andrei Chikatilo, a Russian serial killer is executed by shooting.
• 2002 – The Tullaghmurray Lass sinks off the coast of Kilkeel, County Down, Northern Ireland killing three members of the same family on board.
• 2004 – In a suburb of Moscow, Russia, the roof of the Transvaal water park collapses, killing more than 25 people, and wounding more than 100 others.
• 2005 – Lebanon’s former Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri, is assassinated, prompting the country to fall into chaos.
• 2005 – Seven people are killed and 151 wounded in a series of bombings by suspected Al-Qaeda-linked militants that hit the Philippines’ Makati financial district in Metro Manila, Davao City, and General Santos City.
• 2008 – Northern Illinois University shooting, gunman opened fire in a lecture hall of the DeKalb County, Illinois university resulting in 22 casualties; 6 dead(including gunman) and 21 injured

So much for the day we celebrate romantic love. By the way, did you also know that the reason we celebrate Valentines day on 14th of January is because two priests called Valentine were supposed to die a martyr’s death on this day (one in the year 197, the other in the year 269). And knowing how Romans punished and executed their prisoners, it probably wasn’t all that romantic and pretty either. So with this knowledge, that horrible things happen every day, shouldn’t we celebrate love on every occasion, because the next Valentine (or any other day) could be one’s last.

BSJ

Missing The Hype

God, I love the media. I love the instant celebrity and above all, I like every new hype, fad and every ‘best thing since sliced’. If I could, I’d probably want to be on the front page of some nasty British tabloid (since British tabloids are the nastiest in the world), with some shocking headline (with three exclamation marks and the letters bold and red) proclaiming the evils of my latest escapade.

Well, that’s probably exaggerating, but I love to read about all that media hype and all the latest fads, although I rarely buy any of that rubbish. Anyways, what I learn recently (well, over the last year or so), is to overcome all the hype, trendiness and negative publicity that surrounds everything from celebrities, films or even shoes.

I really like how these things come and go, it reminds one of the flow of time and how everything fades against it. But what is really much more interesting is too look at an object surrounded by controversy, negative publicity and was talked about many years go. Take the South Park movie.

I was about 10 at the time of its release and it really had no impact on my life whatsoever. Even if it did have generally good reviews, I supposed some people (especially parents) found it controversial due to its, how shall we put it, unique sense of humour. I first saw it about a month ago. It is really very, I don’t know how to say it…, to see something for the first time, without any prejudice, without being exposed to the opinion of the general public, an opinion which is usually biased and small-minded.

It is a great and refreshing feeling. My favourite recording artist made this record in ‘92, which was released alongside a rather (in)famous book. A media backlash followed. All things by this person were considered evil, lewd, shallow and insignificant. All this really obscured the album itself, something that certainly did not help its sales and reputation.

If you sit back and ignore this, you’ll see that the album has a very unique, chilly quality and is quite well done. The fact that you miss out on all the hype really makes you much more of an objective observer than otherwise. You won’t be affected by what the society tells you. You can make up your own mind. Surely, the reason why someone should NOT go see a film or buy an album is because the product is bad. Not because of obscenities or sex. I mean, If someone doesn’t want their children to watch, then don’t take them with.

Missing the hype is really the thing to do. So do explore stuff that was controversial in its time, things that people rejected as too inappropriate (ie too bold). And if you insist on exploring the contemporary stuff, ignore the headlines, forget the media buzz, don’t let the society thrust its opinion onto you and be an individual, make up your own mind, because after all, yours is the only opinion that matters.

Peter

Not So Bad After All

I always thought that Hollywood was getting a bit lame over the last couple of years. Especially when it comes to children’s and animated movies. It might have something to do with the fact that I have grown up from a kid to an adolescent lately, but I do not think so. I really enjoyed Shrek, Shrek 2, the Incredibles and other animated movies.

What really got to me was ‘Happy Feet’. I thought that the plot ideas were getting lamer and lamer (OK: Lion King 3, Cinderella 2), but tap dancing penguins just seemed… well, really stupid. Not that children’s stories are meant to be rational or realistic, but it was always about princesses, dragons, wicked witches and poisoned apples.

So when ‘Happy Feet’ actually won an Academy Award, I assumed it was because it was a really weak year and that ‘Happy Feet’ was about the only animated movie worth anything in that year. Well, yesterday night, that changed.

Not that I fell in love with the movie, or that I would trade the classic tale of poison apples for a penguin dancing extravaganza. I just think it was really good how such a silly idea could be developed into a decent movie actually worth my time.

The moral of the story: having good ideas is not enough. The way things are done can also be a large part of success. If you work hard and do not settle for second best, a finished product can still be good, even if the idea behind it wasn’t.

BSJ

Upon The Relevance Of The Irrelevant

I read this very interesting editorial lately, which, although it was really concentrating on one person, could be applied to anyone.

What it basically came down to was this. The popular media (mainly the tabloids) often dismiss a given person as irrelevant and list all the reasons for their irrelevance. I am lucky enough to know a couple of people who grew up in a universe parallel to the MTV influenced generation, and therefore, they might not even have heard or cared for Lindsay, Britney, Paris or Nicole.

The rest of us, swamped in shamelessly mainstream information, will start discussing nose jobs, boob jobs, alcohol and drug-induced escapades of our favorite celebrities. Then we’ll conclude how irrelevant they are and theat they are really just skanks.

And while the writer of the editorial was satisfied enough to conclude that the given person is relevant, and anyone claiming otherwise is really just reinforcing his point, I will go a little bit further.

Agreeing with the latter, but not the former accusation, I should explain myself using my newly found insight. The fact that we give a… damn and that we actually make the effort to read our tabloids is the one thing which makes these people relevant. Of course, relevant is always in a certain context. In other words, we need to know why. In order to give a proper answer, we do not need to go very far, We need to ask ourselves: What do these people stand for? What do they do? and Why do they do it?

The answer lies at hand. These people are the ones who in a certain way, reflect on our modern society? They really stand out as model examples of substance abuse, irresponsibility, obsession about body image, and quite often, stupidity. These are the people which should be an example of what NOT to do. However, as they do earn millions of dollars, they must be doing something right, right?. In the end, it is the typical ‘ends justify the means’ situation, where ends is millions of dollars, and the means is the negative publicity from doing what they do.

There are countless promiscuous, substance abusing people we don’t read about. They just aren’t famous, but they do the same thing as the people we just labeled ‘irrelevant’. What we need to see is that many people, especially adolescents lead similar lifestyles. So these few famous examples are relevant in the context of the state of our society, a state which many see as undesirable. So relevant people mustn’t always be seen as role models for the children, or selfless individuals trying to help the poor, but someone who reflects an important aspect of a society, and since no society is perfect, there will always be someone who might not fall within people’s moral standards.

Looking at history, we will find that many people who shaped history and live in our collective memory were the ones who committed the biggest acts of evil (seriously, do I even need to name them). And we do not consider them role models, we do not want to be like them (well, we shouldn’t), and yet, they are very relevant.

To conclude this piece, never dismiss someone as irrelevant just because you don’t approve. They might be more relevant than you or me.

Peter

Second Semester 1

I made it to the second semester. Even though I’m not sure if I passed the first, but that is besides the point. I feel a little closer to the school (emotionally) and feel more confident (What, a new school can be a pretty scary thought!).

And provided that the WordPress team (God bless them) enlarged the amount of memory we can use, I decided to post some pictures of my new design. We’ve only had a week, but already they wanted us to have a more or less solid idea about what we want. Basically, we need to design an pavilion/exhibition hall on the Ijsseloog, a huge storage facility for polluted sediment carried from Germany in the middle of Ketelmeer (a lake in Flevoland).

I could explain what my concept was, but why do that. Mostly, when you see something, you don’t get the designer telling you about his analysis, motives and reasons for doing something. If something is good, everyone should see that. If something is bad, no amount of bullshit should be able to cover up that fact

This is the first mass study.

The more refined version is this one:

Don’t worry, it will change to look decent (I already have ideas), but that’s something for the next entry.

Peter

Doing Your OWN Thing

We always assume that people can change easily, that they can do anything if they really try, and that as lonng as you have enough commitment, you can make it anywhere.

The sad truth is, of course, that people seem to be only good at a few things, and this will not change dramatically during a course of a lifetime. Naturally, we must first look at exceptions. People like Leonardo da Vinci, Rene Descartes and few others managed to be considered geniuses in more than one field. Sadly, such individuals are very few indeed, especially in our age of specialization.

On the other hand, this might actually be a good thing. We all know that celebrities design their clothing lines and perfumes, but very few people in the actual business take this seriously. It’s just a name that sells, the actual originality is found rarely and the whole thing is just one huge fad. Where is Chanel after Coco died? It’s still up there, it has made a name for itself and the designers know damn well that if they slip up, Coco is not there to rescue them. What about Sean John (P Diddy’s clothing brand)? What will happen after the great rapper is no longer living? I will be as bold as to predict that the business will be sold off, and slowly decline, because they did not make a name for themselves, someone else with a name (and fame) just happened to start it. I may be wrong, but the reliance on one single mortal’s name to support a multi million dollar firm? Sound rather brave(=stupid).

But it’s not just superstars trying to explore different areas of entrepreneurship. We could go on and give examples of singers with no acting talent, actresses who can’t sing and media personalities who can’t do anything but step out of a car without panties. This of course, is only of any consequence to the fans, who will swear that their idol is the greatest in whatever they do. The only good thing that ever comes out of this (because the clothes, perfumes, music and movies are usually BAD) is the employment of thousands cleaners who work for the at the music/movie studio.

But then, some people have real power and real authoritah. I am certain that anyone can come up with examples that will suit them. We have great public speakers that are terrible politicians, lawyers that think they have the knowledge of economics, and lastly, the stupid people who think they know all (honestly this is not be about George Bush). We have old virgins (?) and men in Vatican lecturing about sex and pregnancy, the world’s richest people talking about poverty, oil companies talking about being environment-friendly. Hell, I even had a smoker telling me not to smoke (but wait, that’s a good advice). These are the people who usually make the CNN news (not now, everyone’s really wound up about the presidential elections, but most of the time anyways). What does it matter if some pop star completely ruins a whole movie by her lousy acting. The people who matter can ruin us, because they are not doing their own thing.

If we all stuck to doing what we do good, and not think ourselves so awesome, if we were a little bit more modest, and after seeing that if we do other things, and not do them well, withdrew for the sake of humanity, we’d all be better off. Beware of know it alls, demand proof and be critical. If we gave reason and professionalism a chance…

So, why aren’t I doing my own thing? Well first of all, blogging is an activity where low profile figures like me hardly matter. And secondly, I’m not so bad, am I?

BSJ

Existential Epithany

This concludes the very loose “Christmas Trilogy”. It was written at the same time as “Truly Universal Christmas” and “Why I Love Team Rocket”. Enjoy

Being a shameless non-believer can be quite awkward sometimes. Especially when attending a mass on Christmas Day. But I suppose I owe it to the Christian community, since we secular folk use their holiday as an excuse for shameless materialism.

Anyways, it wasn’t bad or anything, but while the people around you pray and chant, you just sit (or stand there) and think. And I for once like thinking. I mean the abstract kind of thinking where you don’t come up with revolutionary physical formulas, but when you just think about stuff in general.

So while kind of being there I started thinking about existentialists. Even if I don’t know everything about them, but the basic idea behind their philosophy is that the humans existence is in vain. We exist to exist. There is no meaning; our actions are, in the cosmic sense, futile, because we’ll all die anyway.

I really don’t know how this has anything to do with Christianity, but it seems quite the opposite. Christianity gives you moral guidelines and strives to find meaning. Existentialists basically tell you that life has no meaning and that the human condition is quite miserable.

Even if the existentialist ideas seem quite dark and lacking guidelines, I believe that this is not so; in fact existentialism doesn’t need to be all that bad.

Firstly, as an individual, you are respected and you are not pushed to do things that you would rather not do. You don’t need to go on a diet; there is no point in going to war, since it really doesn’t matter. However, incentives to do good are lacking. There is no point of helping the needy, etc, no point of being friendly to one another, since it serves no higher purpose. Then again, helping the needy just because you don’t want to end up in hell is just as selfish, even if there are actual benefits to the society.

Our two options seem to be to either create a sincere, but indifferent society, or hypocritical, but caring society. I wonder what society we live in. I suppose a mixture of the two. But is it the hypocritical/selfish or sincere/caring combination? You figure that out for yourself. I know which society I would like to live in.

Peter

A Regular Dracula 1/2/2008

Man, I sure do love antibiotics. I know they have millions of side effects, but they do work most of the time, and I must say, I’ve never suffered any really serious side effects. After a couple of months off the magical medicines, my acne got back, so I decided to go to the doctor and ask for a cure. He prescribed a different kind that’s supposed to be better.

For those of you who don’t know me that well, I’ve never been much of an outside person, but what really surprised me was when they told me that I should avoid direct sunlight.

Great. Finally, I have joined the incredible club of people who cannot be in the sun, such as Micheal Jackson, Cher, Dracula and Nicole Kidman (we all know the reasons for that). But that doesn’t get me down, I’m not a great fan of sun, and a winter in the Netherlands isn’t likely to be that sunny either. So, just like Dracula, I must avoid the sun (and pregnancy, at least that’s what the little leaflet in the box tells me).

Knowing me, I’m not going sunbathing or getting myself knocked up anytime soon (the first is highly unlikely, the second biologically impossible, that is, if you’re not Arnold Schwarzenegger).

Cheers, and look out, next time you see me (if you ever will), I might wear a cape and grow fangs.

Peter