Doctor Who - 50th Anniversary Special

As you all may know, it’s 2013.


This year is the 50th birthday of the series ‘Doctor Who’. In honour of that impressive birthday all kind of projects are undertaken. I must admit, I’m hardly up to date. I do know Moffat and team have been working on an 50th anniversary special and David Tennant and Billie Piper will return in their respective roles as the Doctor and Rose. John Hurt, not a Doctor Who alumni, will also be in the special and is the Dark Doctor, or something.

The reason I know so little is, beside being distracted by Dutch royals and Star Trek, I’m trying to remain as spoiler free as possible. But I am an impatient fan. So from time to time I fall for temptation and search for news. The latest rumour is that Paul McGann is involved as well and it has something to do with the Last Time War.

Not one of the Doctor's incarnations

This post is not about those rumours. This post is about my wishes.

The Doctors
First I’d like to discuss the Doctor and his many incarnations. Just like many fans I would love to see all Doctors together interacting. That poses a few problems:
1. Some of the actors who played the Doctor are no longer with us;
2. Some of the actors who played the Doctor are still with us, but don’t look like themselves anymore;
3. Too many Doctors in one story could be a problem for that story.

I’m sure if I put my mind to it I could come up with more problems.

A solution could be a recast of those who are dead and those who changed too much. I’m against. It seems disrespectful in every way and the Doctors would not be the incarnations as we know them. That would be only distracting and I love the different incarnations the way they developed. Those actors and their performances have given their incarnations a certain ID and taking away from it seems wrong. It’s supposed to be a tribute, isn’t it? Why tribute something that never was and probably never even will be after the special. Sounds like a massive ID crisis for the Doctor.

The Companions
I’ve never really thought about who I’d like to return. Quite honestly, I could do without any of the old companions. Let Clara be the companion, that’s enough.

On the other hand, I’d love to see some companions interact, like Jamie and Leela. Any situation in which an enemy is aproaching would become instantly interestingly violent. I would love to see the Doctor try and stop them attacking.
Or to see Rose and Amy interact. They would tear each other’s hair out, wouldn’t they?

Not one of the Doctor's companions

I did once make up a conversation between Captain Jack (the guy who can’t die) and Rory (the guy who comes back to life every time). Of course I can’t remember it now. It went something like this:
Rory: I was in New York with my wife. I died and now I’m here.
Jack: You came back to life?
Rory: Yeah, and it’s not even the first time.
Jack: *extending hand* Jack Harkness *looking Rory up and down* Yeah, I know that feeling. It doesn’t affect you much.
Rory: *confused/embarressed/scared* What…?

Hmmm, it would be nice to have Captain Jack back; I’m curious of how he would interact with Matt’s Doctor. And of course I miss Rory.

Events
What I’m not sure of is, the story being about the Time War. I like the legend. I like the mystery around the Time War. I’m afraid that if we get to see something about the Time War, it’ll be disappointing and relieving some of the mystery.

That brings me to Paul McGann who played the 8th incarnation of the Doctor. It is suggested we’re going to see the regeneration. I have no clue of what the 8th Doctor is doing in this special. And that brings me to John Hurt. Some suggest John Hurt will be the Doctor inbetween the 8th and 9th incarnation. It could be so; he was wearing 9’s leather jacket.
Of course there will be focused on the question ‘Doctor Who’ and I’m sure John Hurt has a big part in that story. He is the same man as the Doctor, but did something not in the name of the Doctor. I’m sure the special will make everything clear, but right now, I have no idea how to take this.

Conclusion
I have not been thinking too much about it, cause it makes me even more impatient. I’m sure it’s going to be fantastic.

I hope. Moffat is good in screwing specials up, like 2011’s Christmas special.

Not even Star Trek's Data (but the man who plays...)

Favourite non-DW quote comes from Data and O’Brien had no clue what Data wanted to know, but me, with my Wikipedia and Monty Python knowledge knew immediately what Data wanted to know. But I couldn’t have said it better:

“I’m curious; what’s the etymology of that idiom?

Alan Partridge

Today I found out Alan got a column in the Guardian. I’m not sure why I’m surprised.


For the purpose of this post I’m going to break out of a good tradition to pretend Alan is real and not played by Steve Coogan.

I read some of the comments and love how no-one feels the need to break out of the pretence. It’s Alan getting the comments and being ridiculed, not Steve Coogan. I quite like that tradition. However, in some cases I’m not sure people are aware Alan is fiction.

Here’s the link to Alan's column 'How I Became a National Treasure'.

Encounters

Yesterday I had the strangest comment about my looks.


I was printing something, and while I was doing that I was also, quite intimately, re-adjusting my underwear. Before I started re-adjusting I had checked no-one could see me. Unfortunately, someone appeared from behind the wall to print something. A man I have seen many times before, but whom name I don’t know. I grinned embarrassed and said: “I’m re-adjusting my clothes”, to which he answered: “If you want to lose weight, that’s all right.” Eh? Did I say something about weight? Are you calling me fat? Had I complained about my weight, the comment still wouldn’t be too flattering, but I would be able to accept it. However, I did not, I was re-adjusting my clothes. From his comment I can only conclude he finds me fat. Well, that’s great. I could have told that man that if he wanted a facelift, that’s all right. I didn’t, because I’ve got decency.
I was also too stunned.


Top left is me about one year ago. My hair is much longer now. The one bottom right you might recognize as my header; My hair is much longer now.


To end this post on a positive note….

A few weeks back I went into a liquor store to buy, well, liquor. The man behind the counter asked me for my ID. That hadn’t happened for a while. I was too surprised to complain or be insulted, so I showed him my ID which says I was born in 1981 which makes me 32 years old. The man looked up in surprise and wondered: “How do you do it?” “Do what?” “Keep such a smooth skin, you look much younger.” Baffled I replied: “I wash.”

I was too stunned, once again, to give a clever response.

This reminds me of a column I read a few weeks back by a guest writer. He stated Dutch people are not used to flirting. When someone flirts with them, they’re too stunned and stumble away. I don’t know that’s true.

the Next Generation (Interest)

For about a year I managed to go to bed early-ish during work weeks. For nearly six months I managed to get up early-ish to go to work. For nearly a year, applying this routine, had me fairly fresh at work.


Something changed. I’m knackered.

Last Friday I posted a picture of Lt. Commander Data from Star Trek. That was pretty much the announcement of a Star Trek period in my stream of interest. Yes, I’ve been watching Star Trek till late in the night, or rather, early in the morning. It completely threw my routine.

What is it about this clip that fascinates me?

Brent Spiner Performing Shakespeare's 'Merchant of Venice'


Is it his loose performance? Is it Shakespeare? Is it his boyish grin throughout the performance? Or is it Data doing Shakespeare in a very un-Data way? I don’t know. In the end, I keep watching that.

You know how that happened? The link wasn’t even Doctor Who. I was watching something on YouTube, might have been “de koningsvaart” on 30 April. It might also have been the film “First Contact” which was on TV not too long ago. It might have been me being bored with watching the same two series over and over again.

I’m not quite done with Alexander yet, but there’s only so much to find and read about him. I’m not quite ready for Star Trek yet; it’s distracting. I have, however, made plans; start with Next Generation and go from there. See how long this lasts.

I don’t want to really talk about it, because I feel there’s not much to say. I can tell you this: Back in the 90’s I watched because I liked Riker. Then when I wasn’t really watching or thinking about Star Trek, for some reason it was Captain Picard who popped in my head occasionally. Now since I’m revisiting the series it’s Data I like best. Overall, the relations between characters are interesting.

I know nothing about the overall story. Back then I watched whatever was on missing most episodes. There were no links, no clues and I had no idea.

I only vaguely knew of other series than “the Nex Generation”. When I think about that, trying to recall it is like trying to lift a mist that’s hanging over something I know. Same with Doctor Who. I always knew there were different Doctors, but I can’t recall when I found out or how. Same with the existence of different Star Trek series; I knew about them, but I can’t remember since when I knew and how I found out.

Looming presence in the background of my memories.

the Whereabouts of the Oranges

A few days back I wrote about the whenabouts and whereabouts of the Oranges. I searched on the Internet for a readable and practical timeline, but nothing was exactly what I wanted; not complete or not readable. I planned to make one myself, but that might take a while.

I did find this: http://www.tinekezwijgers.nl/reisgids-capitool-in-het-voetspoor-van-de-oranjes.html. Those are reviews of the book 'In het voetspoor van de Oranjes' (Translation: 'In the footsteps of the Oranges'). I want that book. And I want to visit some of those places. Anyone care to gift it to me as a gift?

Why Sci-Fi

When I grew up nothing of sci-fi was watched, not until I had the age of about 14/15. That was also around the time Star Trek was first broadcast and I made a hobby out of zapping.


I grew up with a family very much rooted in reality, not fantasy. No, I should rephrase that (I can see several misleading and incorrect assumptions you can make from that). My parents, were not interested in watching a series about something that was not immediately recognizable to them. It shone through in our upbringing. I watched soaps or realistic drama’s, (Dutch) panel shows, evening fulling entertainment shows in which people did stupid stuff, the news and sport, lots of sports. That was what was watched back home. Star Trek did not qualify. Strangely, British series didn’t qualify either.

It was not really strange British series didn’t qualify. English was not a language that was spoken at home. My mum doesn’t really want to read during watching, my dad was more interested in sports and my borther at the time also was more interested in sports. So that left me alone slowly discovering what else was going on entertainment wise. I spent some hours watching some British or American series in my parents’ bedroom.

I remember one particular British series about fireworkers. I followed that dilligently; I can only remember one story line from it. That’s how it started for me, watching the BBC. I must have been around 15. At that point I wanted to visit London one day. My mum said I only wanted to because of that series. Truth is, I very early on knew I wanted to escape the crippling and controlling village life. Deep in my heart I always knew I was rather a city person.

Monty Python was completely not understood. Both my mum and my brother at some point said: “They’re completely mad, aren’t they?” and my mum claiming she didn’t like that kind of humour, because it was childish. I asked her which humour was grownup; she couldn’t answer. Ironically, I think Monty Pythong has the most grownup humour you can find on the planet.

Lt. Commander Data (from Star Trek)

Problem with my parents is, and through inheritance and upbringing my brother too, they don’t look deep into what it is that’s good about it. For them entertainment is just that: ‘entertainment’. They either like it, or they don’t. They’re not wondering why they like it, or why not. Greatest problem is, because of prejudice, certain art forms are simply not visited. My mum once claimed she didn’t like sci-fi, because it’s not real. As if soaps are real. She also doesn’t know the difference between a soap and a quality drama series. It doesn’t matter to her.

Since this is just about art forms, and since art is mainly for entertainment purposes and very orientated on taste, I can’t force her to watch things. Her life quality might not enhance when watching Star Trek. Though I think if there’s one TV/Film genre that can teach people something about themselves, how we live our lives and treat each other, it is sci-fi. The broad spectrum of possibilities and exploration gives people the chance to look ahead, to look back, to evaluate and to learn. Dreams and fantasies encourage people to develop, start up new things and learn from that. A good drama gives those oppertunities too, but is limited in what is (or what we think is) possible. That’s why I like sci-fi.

That’s why I think so many people like the Doctor. He’s an alien holding up a mirror and showing how and what else is possible. He shows our dreams. He shows what might be abroad (from earth). He encourages us to try it, to develop, to grow and be better than ourselves. He helps us being human, and understand more what it means to be human. That’s much more worth than an adulterer who gets divorced and crashes his car against a tree. That’s not innovative, that’s not new, and apparently, it teaches us nothing, because we keep doing it.

In this post an image of Star Trek’s Lt. Commander Data. Another interesting character with a lot of possibilities, disabilities (emotion wise) holding up a mirror while he goes his android ways exploring what it is like to be human (and have emotions).

Culture

It’s strange how quick the cold from spring is forgotten. I haven’t. I’m still happy with the warmth, even though it completely paralyses you. I’m happy with the light, though the days are already shortening again.

 

 It’s strange how quickly we got used to all the mobile/cell phones. It’s normal these days to see half of the heads turned down while fingers speed over buttons. It’s also normal that we have loud phone coversations on public transport and that we ignore the annoyed faces.

 

Yesterday we were talking about how people back in the 70’s, if you told them about the technology and the ability of technology of the 21th century, you would blow their minds. How would they react? My mum once told me about her grandmother. The train was becoming more and more used and my mum’s grandmother said: “My god, one day they’ll fly through the air.”

 

Even I remember the rise of the Internet. I remember being in highschool and peeking at the five PC’s with Internet connection. It was a big deal. That was back in the mid 90’s. I really submerged myself in the Internet when I started studying. Never left ever since.

 

Another change are the many interests I indulge myself in. I’m now adding interests in other people than artists. That leads to more interest in history, sociology and a little bit in politics. I’m also getting more into painting, as in watching paintings or photography. Yes, culture is still my main interest. Not only does that speak from my interest in music, nearly all kinds, or films, paintings and photograpy, but also from my interest in sociology in combination with politics. In all these forms we put our identity. All these forms look different in different days and ages. For me it’s trying to understand why people live the way they live and the reasons they say or do things. Soon you’ll find it’s not humanity that really changed, it was time moving on.

 Things to do:

• Visit an exhibition of reproductions of van Gogh work to see what his paintings must have looked like back when they were just painted and not weathered by time.
• Visit one of the royal Dutch palaces.
• Visit more Dutch cities, take city tours and learn more about the history.
• Study sociology a bit more.
• After I’ve done all that, look forward too.

 

Often I search google images to colour up my posts. When you google ‘culture’ you’ll find the images in this blog. I specifically like this one:

Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones

A bit whiny.


Former Queen Beatrix about the book ‘Voor de Troon Wordt men Niet Ongestraft Geboren’ (Translation: ‘One Does Not Get Born For the Throne Unpunished'). She din’t like the book. She said the authors created a prejudice and distorted image of the three Kings. Yeah well, since homely lives don’t make history and we humans have an excellent ability to spot the ugliness, almost anything that’s touched on comes out distorted, because some prejudice opinion thinks a half- or none truth about someone or something. That’s life. It’s even proved we’re terrible in retaling truth. What she was really angry about was that it was not more flattering to her family.

It’s not that I completely disagree with her. To me it seems it’s a bit coincidental that precisely our three Kings turned out to be nutters and/or evil. I don’t think they really were. I think they just were very human. King William I was and is hardly the only greedy man. King William II is not the only pushover and King William III is not exactly the only adulterer on earth. I don’t approve of that behaviour, but be honest, how would you do it with a throne under your arse? You really think you’d be much better? In some cases, sure, but in most, you’ll be just as crap as they were, only maybe just in other areas.

Another question: How many of you are true revolutionairies? My point is, beside the Kings’ obvious flaws, they were also very much products of their time. Colonial belongings were very normal and not frowned upon. Adultery was very normal in upper class families too. It works the same now. And greed and no strong behaviour are timeless.

I’m not telling anyone to get off their backs, I’m just trying to point out that maybe before passing judgement, we should look at ourselves and then judge.

So, anyone care to throw the first stone at target of choice?

Alexander

Two separate pieces, one in English and one in Dutch, both about and dedicated to Alexander. I can't help myself.

Not quite yet.


I’m still counting the months, like I always do. I’m still dreaming away, as usual. My head’s still full with thoughts and my mind is still reeling. I can be distracted. I will be distracted. It’s not work. Work is from 9.30 am to 12.00 pm. Then I empty my mind again. The next block of work is from 1.00 pm to 6.00 pm. Usually I start pouring my thoughts earlier. I get distracted. Gladly.

He’s still in my head. I feel sorry for those who attempt to break into my head and heart. They’re only occasionally in my head and even less in my heart. He’s still in my heart.

He’s a fairy tale, a bad story, a prince. He’s still pulling at my heart strings. He’s even playing me. An impressive deed for a dead guy. My prince on the white horse? I don’t think so. Rather my white prince who used to talk to horses.

Business like, I direct my thoughts onto other paths. I think up mission statements and I try to define our views and our ambitions. Nothing personal, nothing private, nothing to do with him. Work is from 9.30 am till 6.00 pm. When I walk away I poor my head and my heart. He’s still there waiting for me.

Empty hands. A still heart. Haunted eyes. A long time ago.
Empty hands. A pounding heart. Dreaming eyes. Every evening.
I’m still counting the months. I’m not done yet.
Not quite yet.


Het is een vuur dat in alle hevigheid doorwoedt. Ongecontrolleerd raast het door het landschap van mijn hart en snijdt het alle strategieen de pas af. Ik heb geen uitleg voor wat ik voel, noch voor de redenen, het waarom. Ik heb geen woorden voor het stomme toeval dat hem in mijn zichtveld plaatste, of voor de tekenen aan de wand die wij nu zo hardnekkig negeren. Het alles dat wij nooit zullen hebben. Er is niets dat wij ooit zullen delen.

Vooral de eerste week was heftig. Zo heftig zelfs dat ik me zorgen ging maken. Ik die sowieso in slaap valt met denkbeeldige vrienden en dan, na langzaam wakker te zijn geworden, diezelfde vrienden weer naar voren haalt. Zelfs ik was niet voorbereid op de overweldigendheid waarmee Alexander zich op mijn netvlies vestigde en zich voortdurend aan me opdrong.

Onze Vader

Nog eentje voor de Nederlanders:

Onze Koning, die in ‘s Gravenhage zijt!

Uw naam worde geeerbiedigd!
Uw Koningkrijk moge blijven bestaan!
Uw wil geschiede, zoowel aan het Hof als bij de burgerij!
Geef ons heden door wijze wetten,
dat wij tenminste ons dagelijks brood mogen verdienen.
En vergeef ons onze achterstallige belasting, gelijk ook wij wel moeten doen
met hen, die het ons toekomende niet kunnen betalen!
Leid ons niet in verzoeking om U te haten,
maar verlos ons van eenige ministers…
Amen!

Jan de Vos, 1845

bron: http://dekluizenaar.mimesis.nl/index.php?m=201003

De Zwijgertjes

Even eentje in het Nederlands.

Deze blog en zeker deze post is zeer gekleurd, maar niet oranje. In sommige gevallen ben ik het wel met de schrijver eens (de Zwijger mag wat minder hoog op het voetstuk staan), maar de schrijver vergeet ook gemakshalve de tijdsgeest van toen.

http://www.zwijgertjes.nl/?page_id=168

En een stamboom van de Nassau's: http://www.dutchroyaljewels.nl/Princes_Orange_Nassau.htm


Over het boek ‘De Drie Oranje Koningen’

“De drie hoofdstukken die ieder een Willem behandelen, heten respectievelijk: “Dit verfoeylijk wezen”, “Laten we niet teveel van hem verwachten” en “Koning Gorilla”.

Mijn eerste gedachten na het lezen van deze zin: “Yup, that sounds about right to me.”. Al moet ik toegeven dat dit nog altijd mijn favo titel voor Wim II is: "Koning Windhaan der Nederlanden", uit de mond van de fictieve prinses Marianne in de TV-serie 'De Troon'.

Bron: http://dekluizenaar.mimesis.nl/index.php?p=2562

Oranges - Whenabouts & Whereabouts

Should I post a timeline for every time I post about the Oranges? Quite a few of them had at least a mention and some whole posts dedicated to them. You might be mystified about their whenabouts, probably as well about their whereabouts.

Oranges: Most of the time inside the bowl,
sometimes outside.

About their whereabouts. The story of the Nassau dynasty started in the 12th century in Germany. The Orange came into play when René of Chalon, William the Silent’s cousin, died and left the title to his cousin. This happened in the 16th century. After having inherited the title William of Nassau became William, Prince of Orange. He soon was sent to what is now Belgium for a more appropriate education. Then, and now I’m guessing, it was the 18th century when a cousin of William III grabbed the title ‘Prince of Orange’ and added it to his own name ‘Nassau’. That’s how Orange-Nassau came into existence somewhere in Friesland. Ever since the Oranges where mainly located in the Netherlands (or what was called the Netherlands). Only twice since have the Oranges fled to greener pastures; once from 1795 to 1813 when they fled from the Patriots and the second time in the Second World War from the Nazi’s.

So far for their whereabouts.

I could work out a whole Orange timeline. I’m not going to. It’s helluva work; I don’t have time for that now. Maybe I’ll find one on the Internet.

Not So Sharp

Not so sharp.


These days I seem to start every post with just one little sentence. It was just the first thing that gravitated in my head and from which other ideas and a need to explain sprouted. Blah blah blah….

Anyway…

Not so sharp.

When I was younger I didn’t have much trouble getting by in primary school. I wasn’t the smartest person in the class, definitely not, but I wasn’t the dumbest either. My school career was far from smooth; I didn’t go to the next year twice. That was down to me being too shy and too lazy. I was incredibly lonely and bored at school.

Several tests pointed out I’ve got a very average intelligence. Usually I score around 106. That sounds about right to me.

Over time I noticed an interesting development on the workfloor. I gravitate towards the best performing and/or the most intelligent person on the floor. I even manage to build up a very close bond with them.

It started in collega where I met Tessa. She was very intelligent, way more than me, and a bit of an alien. Then there is Thomas with whom I did a project at the Ministry of Justice. Together we executed the rest of the project, did the designs, did the communication with all departments, did some maintenance and started up new little projects. In my current job I met Saskia. Also very intelligent, way more than me and still maintaining the relationship. And I recently started dating the guy who literally got an applause when he returned to our department after having worked hard to get some software working. Some people have been sweating profusely over the weekend about the now solved issue (might have been the summer heat, but also very much the issue that badly needed solving).

The last one inspired me to write this. He might read this. Strangely embarrassing.

Anyway, not so sharp.

I'm not that clever. I often wish I was sharper. Sometimes in my private life, increasingly more since I date him, and often in my work. Other people say I'm sharp enough, I think I can be sharper. I don't except less than as perfect as I can, and I know when I can give more. I also definitely know when I'm slacking. At all times, I try to make the documentations I write as perfect as possible. The art is knowing when to give up and hand it over.

I'm not perfect. I'm not supper intelligent. I don't think I'm very sharp. The heads up's are nice.

Now, what labels to apply? I think I'll go for none.

Je Maintiendrai!

That text been right above the space where I wrote most of my blogs. It’s also the Oranges standard saying for quite a few ages now. It means “I maintain”.


Monday: I started writing this last Friday, but the team was so out of their heads (probably the heat) it was very distracting. Here comes another try.

Prince William III of Orange, or King William III

This saying is not only maintained, but also executed and ironic. The Oranges managed to maintain their bonds with the Netherlands and kept us out of foreign hands. They didn’t maintain the Republic; they made a kingdom of us. They hardly maintained themselves; the current “Oranges” came on the throne illegally. Queen Wilhelmina, our first ruling queen, took the throne illegally. I hear you gasping and wondering: “How so!?” Well, she was a woman. At the time only male decendants of the Oranges could inherit the throne. However, all of her brothers were dead by the time the old King died and only Wilhelmina survived her father.

It wasn’t the first time either the family took certain rights as their own. Back in the 17th/18th century the male Oranges weren’t very fruitful in their reproduction. It was the time were the title “Prince of Orange” was passed from father to son. When it was Prince William III’s turn the Orange dynasty came to and end in that line; Prince William (or King to the English) had no children. Eventually a cousin grabbed the title and we moved on.

Still the Oranges are still neatly and closely tied to the Netherlands. They made a promise: “Je Maintiendrai”. They did just that, with a bit of fumbling. Who cares, at least they keep their promises. Ssssort of…that’s a story for another post.

To Be Different, or Not To Be Different - That's Also Not the Question

Another of my allergies.


When I was traveling to work this morning, I saw a poster telling us not to look for the differences, but build bridges. Sounds like a lovely suggestion, doesn’t it. However, as usual, the world is not quite as simple and black & white like this.

Here is what I would say:

“Look for the differences. Don’t judge, but use the differences to each other’s advantage. Build bridges with those differences. Believe me, it will create fanciful, fascinating and innovative new bridges.”

That’s a crap, really too long mission. Let me try again:

“Build new innovative bridges with the differences to each other’s advantage.”

What I’m doing here, right now, is practizing my mission statements skills. When I was still a student there was one course dedicated to formulating missions. It was a warm summer day like today, and it was dark and cool in the classroom.

I made that last one up. Seemed dramatically appropriate.

Yesterday, my colleague and I kicked off our department’s new era. We already secretly started, but yesterday we officially started. The first assignment is thinking up a good mission statement which we can put on a flyer and spread throughout the whole company. The next step will be rewriting the “Product Diensten Catalogus” (Translation: “Product Services Catalogue”). That’s quite fun to do; it adds some variety to my work diet.

The start of this post was also partly inspired by the post about the gay question.

YouTube link: Jake's Changing Looks

Just like with the “gay” issue, it’s not being gay that is the issue, it’s the way people treat gays, that’s the issue. It’s not people being different that’s the issue, it’s people judging each other based on those differences. Of course everybody is always right and their differences is what should be the mould for all other life. In some cases, yes, the other is wrong, or maybe you are wrong. In a lot of cases however, nobody is completely right or wrong. Sometimes you just have to agree to disagree.


The last time I said that online, someone told me I was the biggest loser. I replied with a *shrug*. Worst thing (for that person, cause his/her comments don’t colour nicely on him/her), it was about something trivial; Jake’s looks. Oh, no, wait, That Is important.

Here's a game for you: Spot the difference!


Jake (twice) in the new film "An Enemy"



Follow Your Dreams

I like this image for "Follow your dreams".

Happiness 2.0

A few years back I had a discussion with someone about happiness, right on this blog. I never managed to put my opinion and thoughts across to my own satisfaction. It still haunts me.


I’m revisiting this subject, because happiness never seemed an ingredient in the lifes of Queen Sophie and her sons, and not even in her husband’s, the King’s, life. I’ve been wondering about how things were living in those palaces where the King and Queen fought their little wars. There was this one particular scene playing in my head.

“The Queen was talking about happiness, and about how she wasn’t. Eventually she turned to a maid and asked: “What do you think, miss?” The maid looks up briefly at the Queen while handing out tea. She only mutters: “Hmmm,” not wanting to answer. The Queen tries again: “Miss, are you happy?” Having finished putting the tea and cups on the table the maid stands up straight and answers the Queen: “I don’t have time to be happy.”.”

This is what my life looked like the last couple of weeks (only 2)

Looking back at the past months at work, it’s been so busy, I forgot being miserable about my work. It has to do with the more variety and the fact that I now consciencely seek the variety. My chore task still doesn’t excite me. I was blisfully and ignorantly happy for a couple of weeks till it hit me again this morning in the metro; “I don’t want to this job.”

Here I have to admit to what was said: “When you’re busy doing stuff, you don’t have time to think about being happy. Conclusion: thinking about happiness is a luxury.”

Yeah, I can see that. However, I still don’t agree with the statement that if you’re too busy to think about happiness, you’re probably not happy.

The last couple of weeks I was pretty happy. At work I forgot being miserable eventhough I was doing a job I don’t like much. Looking back, that was blissful.

Oh well, so many skies, so many people. Every difference in situation and person might provoke the opposite result.

To Be Gay or Not To Be Gay - That's Not the Question

Here’s another of allergies.


Yesterday I was watching some Ellen’s. You know, the talkshow of Ellen Degeneres. There was this musician woman not only plugging her album, but also talking about her coming out. That was all interesting, sad and marvelous. However, I noticed one that annoyed me; people pro gay making a point of being gay. In my opinion that is not what the point should be. What the point should be is that they are, in many cases, treated differently compared to straight people. They’re treated like a circus act, or an anomoly. That is what’s wrong about the whole gay question, not if someone is gay or not.

Let’s take Ellen. It is wonderful what she’s done; it took courage and she came out glorious. I do appreciate her for that. That’s not the main reason I watch Ellen though. I watch Ellen, because I think she’s funny. I watch Ellen, because she has interesting guests. I watch Ellen, because she seems nice and skillful in her job. I don’t watch Ellen, because she’s gay. Frankly, I don’t care she’s gay. To me, it’s totally not interesting what sexual preference she has.

Ellen (left) and her wife Portia. BTW, Portia is shorter than
Ellen, she's just wearing high heels.

This brings me to another point. No matter where you go, beit online or in real life, people always seem to land on the question: “Is he/she gay?” I don’t understand that. Why is that always the most interesting question? If you want to date someone, sure, I can see why you would want to know. However, in a lot of cases, they just ask to know, not for practical reasons. Why?

Often I remarked I wasn’t interested, because I don’t care. Usually, I get the answer: “Neither do I.” Then why are you asking? The question even never surfaces in my head, only if I’m thinking of asking someone out.

The fact that seems to be the basic question points out we’re not ready for the lifestyle with gays. That’s not the gays’ fault, it’s just a fact. As long knowing if someone is gay is the most interesting thing, we keep treating them differently. I think the whole point is, they are like us, human. So can we just please stop asking and start treating them as such, as people. Thank you.

For your information: Yes, I have wondered if someone was gay. It concerned a girl I really liked. I never asked her out, because 1) I was too cowardly and 2) she turned out to have a boyfriend. Doesn’t matter, I have a boyfriend now.

Run of the Mill

I’m sure I wrote about my blog goals for this year. However I’m going to write about it again.


At the start of the year I set myself a goal to make more posts than I have in any other year. I achieved this goal last month. I could stop blogging now, but we’re only half way through the year. My new goal is to post more in one month than I ever have. Most posts in one month was in 2011 in February. In the shortest month of the year I managed to post 30 blogs, all mainly about the “10 O’Clock Live” show. Most blog posts in a month in this year was in June, 23 posts. I’m sure I can beat that this month.

So, there’s the reason I’m posting a lot of rubbish small tidbits about nothing at all.

Over the past months I have been rather pleased with my blog posts. Not only did I release a shitload of posts, the subjects could be classified as (moderately) interesting (for certain people) and in some cases, even researched. Wow! The main subject(s) did help. For a change it was not just babbling about fandom and how badly treated we fans are. It was not just useless muttering about artists, about what they did, didn’t, do, don’t, will and won’t. I had some actual subjects at my fingertips. Meaty chunks of information, theories and guessing (from my side).

Not sure all of you, whoever you are, thought it was interesting (hardly anybody ever leaves a comment. Still not.) But my blog is read more often these days, though still pathetically underread.

It is surprising in some way, and it isn’t in another at all. It is surprising since they’re all dead and no/not much news will be added to the pile of news or rather olds. It isn’t surprising since subjects like sociology, culture, history, politics, etc rear their ugly heads as well. I’m not claiming I’m done with it now. I’m still reading a book about the relationship between the Netherlands and the Orange dynasty. Since that book counts about 500 pages, I’m guessing it’ll be a while till I say something about it. That really is a meaty chunck of theory and history.

Well…

I could blabber on about nothing, but I’m guessing the few readers I had still left have left now….

Summer Time

It’s finally summer. I’ve been looking forward to warmer weather. I live near a sizeable lake. I have a friend with a boat. So when the weather’s right, we sail to the other side of the lake, warm up, smoke a joint and then stumble in. We usually swim from the boat to the nearest buoy. We tend to do that at least twice.


I like swimming. It’s pretty much the only sport I enjoy doing. Having to travel to busy swimming pools in the winter stops me from swimming in the winter.

Anyway, this is me enjoying my wine in the water. This one was taken nearly one and a half week ago.

Yup, that's me.

Book Review - Ook Dit Gaat Voorbij

The book “Ook dit gaat voorbij” (Translation: “This Will Pass Too”) tells about the alleged teenage love between prince Alexander and Jettie, the daughter of a baron. In the summer of 1863 (when Alexander was 14) the family Schimmelpenninck have the young prince as a guest. Jettie, who is one year older than the prince, lives in the house Nijenhuis in Diepenheim with her family. Jettie and the prince get quite close, so close even, when the prince has grown up he returns to Jettie’s parents to ask for her hand. Of course that marriage never happens.


The book starts out with listing all the main characters. The old duke, Jettie’s grandfather, died in 1863. According to the book it was in the summer Alexander was with the family. Also according to the book, the prince was 14 years old. Me knowing the prince was born in 1851 and me being able to do a quick sum, made me come to the conclusion that or the named year is wrong or the named age of the prince is wrong. The prince couldn’t have been 14 in 1863, more like 11 going on 12. It is sort of important, because Jettie is one year older, 12 or 13. At that age, playing with dolls, maybe just. However at age 15 I would say she was too old, but she did, and it offended the prince somewhat. After he left the house he supposedely said he wanted to make Jettie grown up and not talk to dolls anymore.

Anyway, this is a very convoluted way of saying that the book came across to me as a very 60’s book. My mum, who doesn’t read books, has quite a few of these kind of books. It has the same sweet language, the same sweet structure of story telling and characters. In my opinion, the story is not told very well. A good story introduces the characters within the story. It also has one passage that seems to have nothing to do with the story, except that it apparently happened to prince Alexander. Maybe I missed something.

I will hold this book dear for a few passages. For instance when prince Alexander and Jettie go out riding the prince constantly keeps talking to the horse warning it for holes in the road and too deep mud tracks. Not only that, he also points out very big trees and other tourist attractions to the horse. The horse nods sideways letting him know he heard and understood.

I will also hold it dear for what to me looks like a very truthful, yet confronting, characterisation of the prince. He’s as sweet and brilliant as is always described. He’s also in such way socially awkward it makes me cringe sometimes. And he’s stubborn, and puts his opinions forward no matter what others say. That reminds me of what minister Weitzel once wrote in his diary: “The prince seems susceptible for a change of conviction, though his actions don’t always proof that.” Yeah, even I noticed that. Even in the book that comes across.

What I don’t like about the book is the alleged teenage love between the prince and Jettie. In most reviews I read it was noted the story was based on very thin evidence. So thin, only this book tells about it. Maybe it’s greed from my side; I want him for myself. Or maybe my dislike is based on something reasonable. I can see they liked each other. I don’t know what it was though. Could you call that a teenage love affair?

Another problem with the book is Jettie. Jettie is a sweet girl. Jettie behaves like a six year old while she’s supposed to be fifteen. Jettie’s character is described through the eyes of her grandfather who adores her, more than his other grandchildren. Jettie’s character is so minimal, in the end, I know nothing about her. Maybe I should read the book propperly.

I haven’t read this back before posting, but I’m quite sure this is more a ramble about a book than a proper review.

This Also Will Pass

Last Saturday the little book from the antique shop arrived: "Ook dit gaat voorbij". (Translation: "This Also Will Pass.")


It was a strange read. The book was written as a novel with the characters once having been real people.
It felt a little weird to me. Especially the words put in prince Alexander’s mouth made me feel a little uncomfortable, even though the author was very respectful and truthful. Yes, truthful, because he came across as a sweet, socially awkward, but intelligent young man with his own set of opinions and his own way of putting those opinions across. He felt every bit the prince I saw described in many descriptions. He came across as every bit the prince I love to hate.

Side step: that was the best use of “love to hate” I can think of, even though it came from my brains through my fingers.

He was every bit adorable. He was every bit fascinating. He was every bit stubborn. He was every bit socially inapt. He pursued with the passion I’ve come to known of him. He failed in every way he always seemed to. He was every bit the prince I came to know since that fatal day back at the start of May.

I’m not quite sure what to do now. Beside the fact that all of this lies in the past, he’s also an unreachable person. There’s no way I’ll ever meet him. Chances of news about him are very little, nearly even absent. There’s no development, no more life, nothing. There’s nothing there for me. It’s all distant, untouchable. Nothing of that history is mine, nor will I ever manage to attach only a little bit of me in there, because it is all done. How much longer? This also will pass.

Alexander.

Thoughts about him live on between sighs. *sigh* Alexander *sigh*. It’s as if recalling his life is as much a tragedy as his life was. Everybody who showed an interest in him seems to remember him with a sigh. Yes, it is strange how one gets more attention after death than during his whole life. Though technically, that’s not true. When he was still alive he got more attention. When he was alive people knew who he was, or they thought they know. The point is, people had an opinion about him, something people in general don’t anymore. Not about the late prince Alexander, youngest son of King William III.

Yes, he is a forgotten prince. But of all forgotten princes, he’s the one least forgotten.

*sigh* Alexander *sigh*

the New Amsterdam Metro Plan

A few weeks back I blogged about the new Amsterdam metro. My colleague who travels the same route every day pointed something out to me.


First some back story.

Ever since I started working where I work now, there were four metro lines, the 50, 51, 53 and 54. From Central Station, from now on called CS, three lines leave to different destinations. 51 goes to Amstelveen, 53 to Gaasperplas, where I live and 54 to Gein, where I don’t live. The 50 traveled between Gein and Isolatorweg. One stop before Isolatorweg I have to get off. It also meant, if I had to travel to work I’d get on at Gaasperplas in the 53, then change metro and take the 50 towards Isolatorweg to continue my travel. Only one change which especially in winter could cause some irritation.

A few weeks back the new summer metro regulation started. Suddenly, the 50 runs from Gaasperplas to Isolatorweg and back. This means I don’t have to change metro anymore.

Now back to the now and the subject at hand. As you could have read on my blog, but probably didn’t, a new model metro is being introduced to the Amsterdam metro network. A lovely, overlong metro in which you can walk from back to fronts and back to the uh…back without leaving the thing. That’s not important, but a nice addition to this little post.

What my colleague pointed out was, looking at the metro network as showed in the metro, it looked like the 53 is not going to return to Gaasperplas, but the 50 shall remain running between Gaasperplas and Isolatorweg, which means I will never have to wait on a cold Van der Madeweg again. Huray!

The metro lines as outlined according to the new metro:
50. Running between Gaasperplas and Isolatorweg.
51. Running between Spaklerweg and Westwijk (in Amstelveen).
54. Running between Central Station and Gein.

How to Get Women to the Top

A few months ago I attended the “Hoge Hakken, Echte Banen” intern conference of my company. (Translation: “High Heels, Real Jobs”). It’s a yearly conference in which mainly women talk about women at work and specifically about women in management functions. Every year, there’s also a section in which three nominees present their idea to help more women to the top. That same day one of the nominees is selected as the winner.


Right after last year’s conference I started toying with the idea of sending in an idea. Now, a few months later, together with a female colleague, I started collecting and brainstorming about ideas. It’s not easy. A lot of the ideas have been suggested before. A lot of the ideas are just that, “ideas”. We have no idea of how to execute them, or the actual work is so thin, it’s not really interesting to pick up.

Anyway, if anyone has any ideas about how to get more women in management positions, please let me know. Who knows we’ll use them.

Finding Your Passion In Work: 20 Awesome Quotes

I quite liked this post and therefore copy/pasted it into/onto my blog. You can find the original here: LinkedIn - a few days back

Ask yourself: If you could do anything for 8 hours a day for the rest of your life, and money were no object, what would you do?

Holidays like Independence Day give me the excuse (and reminder) to reflect on what I'm doing with my life and what I've done since the last milestone, such as New Year. Am I excited to do what I'm doing every day? And if not, is it me, or something else?

One of the big blessings of living in a democracy is the ability to pursue one's own path, and the idea that anyone can pick him or herself up by the bootstraps and achieve great things. Of course, survival and success are inescapably connected to work, but we have the luxury of deciding how fun our day-to-day work is going to be. Sometimes that comes as a tradeoff for pay, but spending 1/2 your waking hours doing something you love is often well worth it. And I'm convinced that the people who are best at what they do tend to be the ones that love it the most.

The most important thing for me as a startup founder is knowing that every person I work with is excited to show up to work every day, that each is doing what he or she loves. The most amazing words I could ever hear one of our team member say (and I'm humbled to overhear it occasionally!), is, "This is the best job I've ever had." And if it's not, I'd rather help him or her find that job than help us do what we love at his or her own expense.

I'm not saying anything loads of great thinkers haven't already said. But sometimes it's important to remind ourselves why we're doing what we're doing, and to take inventory of our dreams.

As such, below are some of my favorite mushy, inspirational quotes about the intersection of passion and work:

“Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt

“Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”
Theodore Roosevelt

“Hard work is painful when life is devoid of purpose. But when you live for something greater than yourself and the gratification of your own ego, then hard work becomes a labor of love.”
Steve Pavlina

“Never work just for money or for power. They won't save your soul or help you sleep at night.”
Marian Wright Edelman

“Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming.”
John R. Wooden

“Dream big and dare to fail."
Norman Vaughan

“Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs."
Farrah Gray

“It is never too late to be what you might have been."
George Eliot

“Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears."
Les Brown

And in case you're a procrastinator like me, a bonus quote:

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now."

Found the Roundabout

It was not the restarting of the PC that did the trick, but tabbing into this text field.

Still nothing worthwhile to post though.

Another Book About Alexander

About one month ago I ordered a book about a supposed early relationship/love interest of Alexander. I ordered it at a Dutch antique bookshop. Very quickly, about two days later, I got the message didn't couldn't find the book, it was probably misplaced, but they were searching for me. Then there was one month of silence. Last Friday I inquired after the status of the research. The reply came Monday and started with an apology: "The book was probably sold right after it was registered online." They were sorry for not informing me. I asked if they could help me find the book somewhere else. Yesterday I had another reply from them telling me: "It's strange, but true, we found the book. It wasn't sold after all, only misplaced." And the request if I still wanted to buy the book. Peculiar string of events. I like to think Alexander himself had something to do with that.

blah blah charcoal blah blah BACON.

I thought the conclusion alone is worth mentioning this post: Charcoal grilling is objectively scientifically better than gas

Absence of More Posts

Besides the fact that it's actually busy, the normal "Compose"-window isn't working at work anymore. Unfortunately I don't have the time to figure out how to make a proper lay-out right now. I'll do a restart this afternoon, since I'll actually go have lunch today. Who knows that's the solution. Not that I'll post anything today, restarting the PC doesn't really help in shifting workload.

It's Quite Pleasing

Pleasing Thing 1

A few weeks back I told you I was doing a training Professional Advice Skills. It was a very useful training to which I should go back more often than I do at the moment. For one, I could bring all the material to office and sort all the useable models out.

Anyway, one piece of homework we had to do and which I hadn’t done, was doing a test to figure out what kind of person I was. You could fall into the following categories: 1) Action 2) Tactic 3) People 4) Ideas. The test was chosing between two statements. There were about 50 couples of statements. This was my score 1) Action: 7, 2) Tactic: 9, 3) People: 7, and 4) Ideas: 17. Total should be 40. It did shed some light on why I don’t feel very happy in the work I do right now. Everything I have to do is collecting information, steering people and filling in a template. That’s it. I don’t need to come up with any ideas in my daily work.

That sounds like a negative thing, which it is. The positive is; I now know why I don’t feel happy at work now. That’s pleasing.

Pleasing Thing 2
Not too long ago I posted a fun fact on one of the Dutch Royals websites. The fun fact was that Alexander once danced with a male friend of his on a gala. I also added I didn’t know what his intentions were.

Someone responded he did it to shock the people in attendance. It was very effective; people were shocked and spoke their disapproval and rumors assued.

Pleasing Thing 3
Finally the weather behaves like it’s summer, which it is. Last Saturday I went sailing with Owen on the Gaasperplas. The weather was fantastic. We had some nice food; my pasta salad was very pleasing. We had some joints, alcoholic and a few swims and we didn’t drown.

Even though my arms were killing me later in bed, I was really happy the weather was finally such I could go have a swim in the Gaasperplas. The water was cool, but not too cold. Refreshing and lovely. Also, my sun cream/block is very pleasing. It smells nice and protects.

Pleasing Thing 4
I’m pulling myself together and it’s getting rather busy at work. I could be sharper, but I think I didn’t let anything slip too much. Still, I could be much sharper. Amount of work done per day is pleasing.

Uncle Frederik

Uncle Frederik was around for a long time and especially in family crisises it was usually his name which popped up as the reconciler.


Uncle Frederik is not my uncle Frederik, he’s III’s uncle Frederik and Wiwill and Alexander also knew him as uncle Frederik. I just call him uncle Frederik because everybody else seems to as well.

I’ve watched the Dutch TV-series “the Throne” a few times now. Uncle Frederik was then mainly known as William II’s younger brother. After William II had become King and then very quickly died, Frederik disappeared out of the story. He didn’t even turn up when Sophie fled the Netherlands to her homeland while in reality, he had played a big part in the return of Sophie to the Netherlands to continue the tragedy that was her marriage.

Don’t judge uncle Frederik based on the above. He was simply a man of his time and his situation. A divorce would have been a drama, or so people thought at the time. Not really for the people closely involved, but for the Orange dynasty and the Netherlands. Uncle Frederik just desperately tried to keep things together and relations bearable. He was a great support to Sophie and also to Wiwill and Alexander.

Only recently I missed him while watching "the Throne". We had some good looks at the young Frederik, who is one of the very few actors who actually looks a little like the young prince, but I would have loved to see a bit more of him. Except, the piece of history during the III era has been skipped completely. It was literally: Alexander was born and oh look, he's now 25 or something. For my own enjoyment, that kind of mistakes, according to the series we skipped 20 years while in reality Alexander was 25/26 when his mother died, I ignore those mistakes. In this case however, one more glimpse of uncle Frederik would have been nice.

So who was he? Willem Frederik Karel was the younger brother of King William II. He was born in Berlin 28 February 1797 when his parents had fled from the Dutch patriots. As a child he grew up in his grandfather’s kingdom in Prussia and he felt very much at home there. When he first came to the Netherlands he felt uncomfortable in a country he didn’t speak the language of and didn’t know the culture of. The prins went to study in Leiden to get educated more broadly.

Crownprince Frederik of Denmark

In the army he first served as commissioner-general of the ministry of war under his father King William I. Later he became inspector-general in the forces requested by his nephew the then King III. Later, when he didn’t get any support from the ministers and improvements didn’t happen, he quit.
He was also candidate to become King of Greece, but he refused due to not wanting to rule over a country of which he didn’t speak its language.

Frederik married his cousin princess Louise of Prussia and they had four children. His oldest daughter Louise married King Karel XV of Sweden. This means his was grandfather of Queen Louise of Denmark and great grandfather of King Christian X of Denmark and King Haakon of Norway. He’s also a great-, great-, great-, great-, great grandfather of the current crownprince Frederik of Denmark.

Like I wrote before, prince Frederik became known as the reconciler of the family. He was the only person keeping contact with his father after abdication and after the old King moved to Berlin with his new bride Henriette d’Oultremont (there’s another story). And he made sure, after the death of his father, Henriette was taken care of.
He also took care of his younger sister princess Marianne who divorced her husband; something uncalled for in those times. And after the death of both Sophie and Wiwill, he helped Alexander arrange the funeral.

He also tried to encourage Alexander to change his ways. Frederik was worried about Alexander’s lifestyle and he wanted to help him in preparing for taking the throne. Alexander didn’t accept that however and contact got lost. Frederik died shortly after. According to the book about Alexander he regretted his behaviour towards his uncle Frederik, but it didn’t seem to take him long to get over it.

Prince Frederik was also the prince who encouraged Alexander to become a member of the freemasons. He himself had been Grand-Master National since 1816. His plans first had been to hand his grand-master ship over to Alexander, but he wasn’t sure his nephew was up for the task, so he remained in that position till his death.

Prince Frederik died in September 1881, age 84. For a long time he was the longest living member of the Orange family. This record was only broken by Queen Juliana who reached age 95.

The Minister of Chance

Here's a message from the Minister of Chance team. Go download, it's a good story and the people involved do deserve the credits and interest.

Starring Julian Wadham, Lauren Crace, Jenny Agutter, Jed Brophy, Paul Darrow, Beth Goddard, Philip Glenister, Tamsin Greig, Peter Guinness, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann

The full season of five episodes and the Prologue of this innovative series remain available as a Free download to anyone wanting to cheer up their commute, gym session, airport lounge or to enjoy on a sunlounger with a holiday cocktail! http://www.ministerofchance.com/ will take you to download options with or without iTunes.

Meanwhile their campaign has just begun for the Sonic Movie to take its steps towards Feature Movie! Their crowd-funding campaign is now underway (also via http://www.ministerofchance.com/) - and includes a raft of Limited Edition Collectors Items, along with Tees, Signed posters and script packs, as well as a chance to join 'The Ministry', a members only club giving a blow by blow insight into the production process as they go along... Have a listen to the series, and if you like it, why not take the opportunity to become part of movie-making history yourself?

Trouble in Kingdom - Analysis of the Fates of the Last 19th Century Princes

To tell people apart I’ll call King William III “III” and Prince William I shall call “Wiwill”.


Let’s just first note something: Both Wiwill (Wiwill) and Alexander let their health slip. Wiwill partied hard in Paris with much alcohol and girls. Alexander locked himself up in his palace not even opening a window and keeping the shutters closed not letting in any fresh air nor light. Was it stubborness or inability?

I think it’s fair to say they were both very stubborn.

Wiwill refused to give up his love, but when Mattie’s parents also refused it left him all alone. Still mad with his father he decided to stay away from him as far as possible and he relocated himself to Paris and refused to return to the Netherlands. He only returned to visit his mother and brother.

Alexander on his part locked himself up. His stubborness became apparent when the King, after the death of the Queen, found himself a new woman and married her shortly after. Alexander let all the curtains in his palace down on the wedding day. Neither did he ever meet his half-sister Wilhelmina, and the new Queen Emma only once incidentally. The contact with his father got worse and worse, even after the King reaching out to him; Alexander refused.

That stubborness was also in their parents. The King pledged to fight the new constitution from the moment his father, the then King William II, signed and commited to the constitution (1848). He kept his pledge, but never managed to turn things around back to absolute power for the King.
Queen Sophie was a very independent woman with strong ideas of how things should go. In everything she did, she tried to do it her way and in some cases even manipulate people into doing things to her advances or views. She certainly never gave in to her husband and she fed her ideas and opinions to her children.

Part of their (King, Queen and Princes) behaviour came from stubborness, but I also believe in all these lives the tragedy of their fates had a great and cripling influence on them.

The King was stuck in a role he didn’t want to be in. He could have refused the throne, which at first sight he was about to do. In the end he did accept the throne and became the longest running King in the 19th century in the Netherlands. Why he accepted in the end is not clear. What is clear is that he was not happy within that role. The combination of his unhappiness and his natural difficult character, made him an unbearable, violent and unreasonable man.

The Queen was stuck in a marriage she didn’t want to be in. She accepted III’s hand, because of her own father who had, together with the then crown prince William II, arranged the marriage. When she ventilated her worries and disapprovement, she was told that princesses didn’t have a right to be happy.
Later in the marriage, after Maurits death, Sophie returned to Wurttemberg with the intention of divorcing III and staying in Stuttgart (where Wurttemberg was). Prince Frederic, III’s uncle, intervened and convinced Sophie not to push for divorce. Also her own father didn’t want her to divorce, so Sophie returned reluctantly.

Wiwill, who became heir apparent to his father in 1849, had great trouble accepting his fate, just like his father. On top of that he wasn’t allowed to marry the girl he loved. All the royal strains put on him left him bitter and angry.
Alexander, who became heir apparent to his father after the death of Wiwill in 1879, wasn’t interested in becoming a King either. Also Alexander had trouble with the strains of being a Prince.
Both had grown up constantly being put down by their father and a mother with a tendency for dramatizing in an invironment that in any case puts strains on ones behaviour in a time those strains were tightend even tighter.

This was made for the celebrations of III's 25th aniversary of being King. They never posed like that, because no-one involved was prepared to pose for a family portrait

We’re talking here about two unhappy people, in an unhappy bond, in a situation that doesn’t give air, raising two children with amplified bad habits, unhappy and unhealthy (for mentality) behaviour, influencing those children and damaging them for life. We know the end results.

What puzzles me is the inaction of the two sons. Not the kind of inaction on a work related basis. III kept them from business as far as possible, just like he’d done with his wife. He gave them only small tasks. No, what puzzles me is the inaction on the own health front. I think their minds were so poisoned, they weren’t even able anymore to take at least care of their fysical health. I think they both landed in a vicous circle and they couldn’t break out anymore.

This might be the fatal combination: 1) Their father’s habit to throw themselves into the situation they don’t want to be in, because they don’t see a way out and 2) Their mother’s habit of dramatizing the situation even further.

1) King William III didn’t want to become King with the freshly rewritten constitution that had taken the last grains of absolute power from the King. When he found everybody badly wanted him to become King anyway, he relented and threw himself at the task screaming and kicking in an attempt to turn things around for his own benefit. In the 40 years he was King, he failed at that one thing and the Netherlands has a constitutional democry ever since his father, William II, signed the constitution.

2) Queen Sophie had the habit of dramatizing every situation. According to some people she did it to attract even more pity, or to submerge herself into it. It has been said she tried to create an image of a Queen people had to feel sorry for and think she was a poor social soul caught in a bad situation. I don’t know how much is true of that, but I do know she did write down certain situations more dramatic than they really were. Possibly, in the end she herself believed in the level of drama she had conjured up and therefore saw things even darker and therefore made it appear darker. It is true she was not a very happy person.

The result:
If both Wiwill and Alexander owned these two habits, it would have thrown them into situations that seemed unsolvable so they threw themselves at the situation, because they didn’t see a way out. Then the habit of dramatizing it even more would make the situation seem even graver and the boys would completely go with it striding towards their fate. In their opinion, there was no way out of a situation that was unsolvable and unbearable so they ran with it instead of finding the right means to fight it.

This seems a bit unfair, because both Wiwill and Alexander both fought for what they thought were their rights. Wiwill took a very strong and unmovable stand when it came to his marriage to Mattie (Anna Mathilda van Limburg-Stirum). King, Queen and country had to allow him to marry Mattie or he stayed away from the Netherlands forever. In the end it was Wiwill who lost.

Alexander fought three times in public by one open letter to a paper and by two brochures written by himself defending his decision to not appear at the opening of the States General. Then there was the whole case of his candidature to become Grand-Master National of the Freemasons. Alexander did manage, in the first case, two quieten his opponents and in the second case to win the position of Grand-Master National. All that for what it was worth.

So this turns out to be some musings rather than a proper analysis. I hope I have given some stuff for thought.

Only the Lonely - I'm Not the Sporting Type

The question why Wiwill nor Alexander did anything to improve their health is equal to why I don't. To neither I know the answer. It probably has to do with breaking out of habits.

Today I did something I've never done before. I went to dragon boat training with the intention of climbing in that boat. I went home even before the training started. I hardly saw the boat.

I can't remember a training where I went reluctantly and returned feeling good about myself. What remember from the end of trainings of me being glad it was the end and I could go home. I never felt energetic. I never felt pleased. I only ever felt hungry and/or thirsty and an incredible rush to get out of the company of those people.

No, I'm not the sporting type. I never have been, I probably never will be. I am aware of my body, but it never really landed in the combination of my mind and my character with my body. To me, my looks only exist when I look in the mirror. Other than that, I have no idea of my body. I even vaguely forget what I look like when there's no mirror there.

I Find This Blog Funny

This is it. One of the funniest blogs I've ever read: http://www.freedutch.nl

This is one of the posts/interviews about and in Dunglish
Sometimes bad translations are hilarious. The first time my mother met my American girlfriend, she asked her if she wanted some 'crispy mice' for dinner. Although my girlfriend was shocked, all the Dutch people in the room understood that 'mice' was just Dunglish (Dutch English) for corn (Dutch: maïs).


A fast growing facebook group and website called 'Make that the cat wise' posts the most hilarious Dunglish sentences on their website. Time for us to interview those amazing language artists...in Dunglish!
Read more here: Free Dutch Blog
There's also an interview with King William III of the Netherlands
Een van de opmerkelijkste vorsten die het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden ooit gekend heeft, is ongetwijfeld koning Willem III (Brussel, 1817).


Tussen 1849 en 1890 was hij Koning der Nederlanden, Groothertog van Luxemburg en Hertog van Limburg. Wij vroegen ons af of het beeld dat men van hem schetst in geschiedenisboeken correct is. Gelukkig zijn veel leden van het koningshuis tegenwoordig actief op Twitter, waaronder ook @KoningWIII. Wij zochten hem op voor een gesprek.
Read more here: Interview with King William III of the Netherlands

Only the Lonely - Musings Inspired by Stephen Fry

I'm still working on the analysis. It's not quite right to go online yet. Here's something else for you to read: Stephen Fry's Blog

The reason why is, I completely understand the lose-lose situation. Well, I understand how it feels, but I can't say either why. I don't like visiting people or people in my house, but I do like company, except that when they're there, I want them to fuck off again. Telling you this reminds me of the blissfull relief after I closed the door and I'm home alone again. Big difference between him and me, I don't feel lonely at home, but I am very good at feeling lonely in crowds.

I don't write often about it. It's a sentiment I see as normal to my human being. I don't feel the need to talk or write about it. Normally. I don't know why not.

Suicide. Sure, I do think about it sometimes. I often think of jumping out of my window; I live on the 9th floor.
I once watched a documentary about suicidal thoughts. Apparently everybody has them from time to time, but most won't act on them. Apparently, it's a sort of fail safe. Don't do it. I'm not even sure why not, except that when death isn't pleasing, you can't go back. Other than that, and other than the people you leave behind, I don't really see a good reason why not. Is that weird?

I see death as non-existence, just like you did't exist before your birth. It didn't hurt, or at least I don't remember it hurting. I'm not sure of course. I don't remember getting born and apparently, that's traumatic as well.

What does annoy me is the thought of most people it's bad to be alone, or more specifically, it's bad to be single. Sure, it's nice to have a relationship, but I don't see why being single is that big a problem. I hated my family asking me about love interests. I hated the reaction of excitement when I told I had a boyfriend. I was basically all right being alone; it's something I'm really good at. I'm dreadful in relationships and I pity the person who has to put up with me.

Yeah, just some thoughts. I wish I was back home, on my own.