a Wii bit of fun...

Wii fun

And no, Yves, I doubt that my lack of sleep last night will work in your favour tomorrow when it comes to tennis. Still, curse that Sun SAN :-)

French...

Vicky can do the funniest French accent, and the way she can say "Caterpillar" in her French accent is the sexiest thing ever.
She also tells me that the French speaking service reps informed the customer that they 'defied them to visit the website'... :-)

Truth....

[17:08] Bomb Long: yeah, it's tough, that.
[17:08] Jet (Anat): yes
[17:08] Jet (Anat): the truth is an ugly thing
[17:08] Bomb Long: see, it's not
[17:08] Bomb Long: we just think it is
[17:09] Bomb Long: 99.9% of the time, the truth is liberating
[17:09] Bomb Long: and then we smack ourselves for thinking it wouldn't be
[17:09] Bomb Long: and yet most of us never learn
[17:10] Bomb Long: again, truth hurts :D
[17:10] Jet (Anat): so why would it be liberating?
[17:10] Bomb Long: because we always worry about how bad the truth is going to be
[17:10] Bomb Long: and wring our hands and agonize over dealing with it
[17:10] Bomb Long: and when it comes along, it may be painful for a period of time
[17:11] Bomb Long: but it's never as bad as what we put ourselves through trying to avoid it
[17:11] Jet (Anat): I agree
[17:11] Jet (Anat): and the thing is
[17:11] Jet (Anat): we know the truth all along
[17:11] Jet (Anat): we just don't want to believe it

Sunrise

Tulip
Originally uploaded by siebe.

Driving into work at 7am this morning with a beautiful sunrise greeting me on my left, and gorgeous outline of the dark peaks of Vancouver Island as far as the eagle flies over the waves on my right.

"What's with the nostalgia?" asks Wobbe "about Groningen?"

When you look back, you realize you didn't really see things clearly. When you walk the streets, you're on your way somewhere, and you don't look up.
The pictures of the various Flickr photographers that I now have linked that seem to live in Groningen and post pictures of it remind me of that.

Did you see the snowdrops, so delicate yet determined?

VD2

OMG! The sugary obsession with double chocolate coating (no strawberries please) got to me! I've gone Disney! It finally happened to me!

I blame Disney. I blame Hollywood. I blame Bush, just because, well, I think we can blame him for a lot. And I blame Mr Valentine, who-ever he is.

For the record. I believe in companionship, in friendship, in honesty, respect, and support for the other person as a basis for a lifelong committed relationship. I disagree with Jeanne that the magic disappears - for me it never does. But - magic alone is not enough.

I still like chocolate though :-)

Love for all of you out there.

The heart is a bloom
Shoots up through the stony ground
There's no room
No space to rent in this town

You're out of luck
And the reason that you had to care
The traffic is stuck
And you're not moving anywhere

You thought you'd found a friend
To take you out of this place
Someone you could lend a hand
In return for grace

It's a beautiful day
Sky falls, you feel like
It's a beautiful day
Don't let it get away

You're on the road
But you've got no destination
You're in the mud
In the maze of her imagination

You love this town
Even if that doesn't ring true
You've been all over
And it's been all over you

It's a beautiful day
Don't let it get away
It's a beautiful day

Touch me
Take me to that other place
Teach me
I know I'm not a hopeless case
-- U2, Beautiful Day

Vorever V-Day

I have been writing the Valentine's cards with Saskia. In elementary school there is one rule, that is that *everybody* gets a card. No favourites. 25 cards for each child to write, to have a Hershey Kiss to be taped on and clean up the wrappers of those kisses that didn't actually make it onto the card. I like this approach, it means that there are no kids left out. You know that otherwise there will be someone left out. As children we would also all know who it is, the one child in the class that doesn't quite fit in, who laughs awkwardly, who can't quite run fast enough and has to bully his little brother and eat both lunches to feel better.

Grown-ups, however.... grownups....... grownups don't write 25 cards. They may not write any. They may not receive any. They may not write the card they should write. Or they may write the card they shouldn't.

I hate being single on Valentines day. No eyes to melt away in. No arms wrapped around you, feeling the warm security of enfolding love. No card from someone where you read every word so many times because you can hear his voice and see his smile. When times are dark, it is so wonderful to know you are loved. When times are good, feeling loved makes the sun shine so much warmer and the air so much fresher. And to love someone...
Am I repeating myself??? :-)

I love being single on Valentines day. There's a great big world out there. I am getting to be whole again. I know there's love out there waiting for me once I'm open to seeing it again. Thank you all my friends for the love. Thank you for sharing the movie with me. Thank you for feeding me. Thank you for laughing with me. Thank you for crying with me. Thank you for holding me.

Happy Valentines Day.

Groningen in the evening

Groningen in the evening
Originally uploaded by grunn.

Saw this picture posted by "Grunn" ... walked these streets so many times in the dark, cobble stones slippery from spilled beer and half-eaten bags of Patat Frites.

I am not the same person as that student you don't see in the picture. I am barely the same person as last week.
I will be a better person next week. I will. I will. I hope.

Many's the time I ran with you down
The rainy roads of our old town
Many's the lives we lived in each day
And buried altogether

Don't laugh at me
Don't look away
You'll follow me back
With the sun in your eyes
And on your own
Bedshaped and legs of stone
You'll knock on my door and up we'll go
In white light
I don't think so
But what do I know?

I know you think I'm holding you down
And I've fallen by the wayside now
And I don't understand the same things as you
But I do
-- Keane, Bedshaped

Here's to living each day, my friend. Here's to every day being the start of the rest of your life.

Fietser

Fietser
Originally uploaded by siebe.

My parents told me yesterday they had snow, and look, another one of Siebe's great pictures. I remembering biking through the fields to visit friends, my bags full of stuff from school (I remember my school bag being so heavy but never having the right stuff for class with me... some things don't change :-) )

Wish a guinea pig could be put on a leash and walked, taken for a run. My guinea pigs, however, seem to be floor potatoes. They just sit. I take them out of the cage, put them on the floor and say "explore to your heart's content' and .... nothing.

9-year old humour.... :-)

"You're so dumb you sat on the TV and watched the couch!"
"You're so ugly, you don't need a mask for Hallow'een!"
"You're so ugly, you turn Medusa to stone!"
"You're so dumb, you brought a spoon to the Superbowl!"
"You're so old, you write in Roman numerals!"

Thank you my friends...

For all the kind gestures. Here's Tracie and me.

"Remember the Lessons of the Past"

I have been hearing but not hearing the Draenei say "Remember, the Lessons of the Past". And tonight - I hear. I remember. I remember the roses, and the thorns. Thing is - the roses were so pretty, and are so much easier to remember for someone like me. I see roses where there are only buds, and I see roses where none are left between the thorns. It is a blessing and a curse.


So little time
Try to understand that I'm
Trying to make a move just to stay in the game
I try to stay awake and remember my name
But everybody's changing and I don't feel the same
-- Keane

What does it say about me though... What does my refusal to see the thorns do to my life?

What am I supposed to do
When it's all a lie
Where am I supposed to go
When it's dark outside
What am I supposed to do
When it's all a lie
Lie to me [6X]
One last time
-- George, Lie to Me

OMG 94.5 The Beat is taking over, OMG! I'm turning all sentimental! :-) That song has been stuck in my head for weeks now, and it is *such* a soppy song!

Everybody knows the deal fell through.
I was hoping I could just blame you.
When was it that I became so soft?
This sentimentality doesn't look good on me.
-- Barenaked Ladies, Thanks, that was Fun

Eros and Agape

Hey All Of You! Get your minds out of the gutter! :-) (Never mind that I helped to put them there....) :-)

When I say Love I'm not necessarily talking about romantic love. I use Love in the sense of the Greek word Agape (αγάπη) - from Wikipedia "The term was used by the early Christians to refer to the special love for God and God's love for humanity, as well as the self-sacrificing love they believed all should have for each other."

So there. Stop asking who he is :-)

Tree & Reflection

Tree & Reflection
Originally uploaded by siebe.

“The language of love is the only language that we can be sure is spoken and understood by God.”
– Northrop Frye

We are nothing, if not in love. I've come to realize that without the humbleness of loving, of wanting to give because it fills your heart to see loved ones happy, of seeing the whole world in that image, everything tinted because all is a reflection of love, without that... the world is a cold place. When we have only ourselves to live for, we cannot find ourselves in the dark hours of the night.

These [alcoholism and drug addiction] aren't just physical allergies, they're obsessions of the mind and maladies of the spirit. It's a threefold disease. And if it's partly a spiritual malady, then there's a spiritual cure.
When I say spiritual, I'm not talking about chanting or reading Eastern philosophy. I'm talking about setting up the chairs at a meeting, picking up another alcoholic, and driving him across town to a meeting. That's a spiritual lifestyle, being willing to admit that you don't know everything and that you were wrong about some things. It's about making a list of all the people you've harmed, either emotionally or physically or financially, and going back and making amends. That's a spiritual lifestyle. It's not a fluffy ethereal concept.
My friend Bob is a spiritual person. He doesn't go to church and he doesn't talk about God and he doesn't go do charity events on weekends, but he'll sit and talk for hours to a guy in jail who can't stop smoking crack. That's curing Bob of his spiritual malady, because he's willing to do something that's not really for him, it's for this other guy. He's not doing it with the expectation of getting anything out of it, but as a by-product, he is.
-- Anthony Kiedis (Red Hot Chilli Peppers), Scar Tissue, final pages....

And when we've gone through rough times... it is easy to say 'now I need to live for me, now it is my turn'. Recklessly and blindly pursue pleasure to fill the emptiness inside. And empty it stays. I know. Going from one to the next, not even stopping to look around, so hungry...

No matter how much nutella... the bread will never taste sweet enough, until I can share it with you.

Frozen Wasteland

Frozen Wasteland
Originally uploaded by Wobbe F. Koning.

Father, forgive me for hurting those that love me. I did not know what I was doing.

In my dreams Im dying all the time
As I wake its kaleidoscopic mind
I never meant to hurt you
-- Moby, Porcelain

Valentine's Day Ball

Support my friends Andi and Peter, partake in a chocolate fountain, learn to walz, listen to great love music... how much better can Valentines Day get?