http://www.makepovertyhistory.org

Wednesday, April 28, 2004

6230


I just got a new phone yesterday. Not because it's the latest fashion or something, but just because I need one. My 7650 is getting old. The battery is leaking, so it doesn't last long anymore, and the on/off button isn't working. So I went out and got the latest 6230.

Unfortunately, I couldn't transfer all the numbers from the 7650 to the 6230. I do have a back-up but it's in this weird file format. I have some on Lotus Notes and Outlook, so I will be entering them manually. What pisses me off more is the fact that I can't connect my new 6230 to my PC at home because of some Bluetooth problems. I need it to connect, so that I can upload songs to my phone and listen to them (I want to put on Snow Patrol's Crazy In Love on my phone).

Oh well, so for the time being it's manually entering phone numbers. For the moment only important people. You lot will be entered later...

Tomorrow I'm off to Amsterdam for Koninginnedag. Hooray!

"Earth will become Saturn II
With all those rings around the world"

Tuesday, April 27, 2004

Nothing much


It's been a couple of uneventful days for me. Nothing much happening. The weather seems to pick up, but that's just about it. Nothing interesting.

Anyway, I've put the answers for the pub quiz from the other day.

Football shorts: Arsenal are champions. Ajax drew against NEC. Roberto Baggio (37) called up for the Italian national team. Nigel de Jong not called up to Oranje. Robin van Persie not to PSV but Arsenal instead. Barcelona beat Real Madrid 2-1 at Bernabeu. Beckham saga still going on and on and on and on...

Friday, April 23, 2004

Tickets, Pub Quiz


David Bowie. Starsailor. Archive. Kings of Leon. Hawksley Workman. Muse. The Darkness. Faithless. Dido. Eagle-eye Cherry. Nickelback. That is a list of artists that I will be seeing this summer on the festivals. I already got tickets for Caribana, Montreux Jazz Festival, and Paleo. It's gonna be a nice summer. David Bowie will be the highlight. He is a legend and I'll never waste a chance of seeing him live. And that list might be expanded with these artists: Peter Gabriel, IAM, Black Eyed Peas, Joss Stone, Seal, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, PJ Harvey, Scissor Sisters, The Music, and Phil Collins. Ok, not Phil Collins. But for the rest I might end up buying a ticket when the concerts are coming closer.

A couple of days ago I put a quiz on my F1 forum. It's about music. At first I thought it will be an easy one, as these are just random information stored in my head. But apparantlty nobody could answer all of them (the best was 4), so I'm sure that I am officially a music geek. Here are the questions and see how much you know about music:
1. What famous band was initially called On A Friday because they used to rehearse - on a friday? Radiohead
2. What is Neil Diamond's first UK no 1 (clue: as a songwriter)? I'm A Believer - The Monkees
3. Why did Lars Ulrich (Metallica's drummer) move from Sweden Denmark to the USA? To become a pro tennis player
4. Which artist is the most covered artist (ie have his/her songs covered the most by other artists)? Bo Diddley
5. Where did Debbie Harry (Blondie) work before joining Blondie? The Playboy Club - as a waiter/bunny, hairdresser, and secretary
6. The most famous punk club is CBGB in NY. What does CBGB stand for? Country BlueGrass Blues
7. Who gave the nickname 'Sid Vicious' to Simon Ritchie and where did that nickname came from? John Lydon. 'Sid' is his hamster's name, 'Vicious' from the Lou Reed song
8. What is the link between Irish rappers House of Pain and nu-metal numbs Limp Bizkit? DJ Lethal is the DJ in both bands
9. What is Duran Duran's John Taylor real name? Nigel John Taylor
10. Who introduced drugs (weed) to The Beatles? Bob Dylan (thank God for Bob, otherwise we wouldn't have Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band, and The White Album)

I'll post the answers in a couple of days.

Have a good weekend y'all!

"Ich. Ich bin dann Konig.
Und Du. Du Konigin."

Monday, April 19, 2004

Starsky & Hutch


This movie, starring Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson, is a remake of a 70s TV series. I do remember watching reruns of Starsky & Hutch back in the 80s, but I can't remember much of the story. I'm more of a 80s TV series guy (Knightrider, The A-Team, Miami Vice, CHiPs, etc). What I do remember is the car. Starsky's red Ford Torino with a with stripe on it. That car was the soul of the series.

Fortunately, the makers of this movie realised the importance of the car. So instead of changing the time, the movie is still set in th 70s. Otherwise the Torino will look out of place between all the SUVs, Japanese mini cars and pimp rides. The story of the movie revolves around Starsky getting a new partner in Hutch. Sort of a prequel to the TV series then.

It's a fun and light entertaining movie. It certainly did better than any other 70s TV series-made-into-a-movie movie (Charlie's Angels, S.W.A.T., etc). Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson have this good chemistry and having Snoop Dogg as Huggy Bear is just perfect (although I still don't understand why Snoop is willing to stand there in his boxers). It also paid homage to the original Starsky & Hutch by having the original Starksy & Hutch in it.

In the end, it just confirms my suspicion. The star of this movie isn't Stiller, Wilson, or Snoop. It's the Ford Torino. I hope that the makers of the remake of Dukes of Hazzard and The A-Team are taking notes. The cars are the stars of the movie. Take them out and it will flop.

On a personal note: I must have some kind of curse on me...

"You have really soft lips."

Thursday, April 15, 2004

Windowless


For the past couple of days I don't have a car. Well, I do have a car, it's just that I cannot use it. The window fell down. Something snapped in the railing and voila, I cannot close the window anymore. Technically I can still drive it, no problem with that. It's just the parking that worries me a tiny bit. Would you leave your car unattended in a public parking spot with the window wide open (which I've done inadvertently twice but luckily nothing happened)? So I'm not taking any risks and have to do without a car until it gets fixed tomorrow.

I saw The Passion of the Christ the other day. Yes it's a bit gore, but it's exactly what was written in the bible. At least the bible I know. Maybe it has changed, who knows? And how do I know what's in the bible? Well, I used to have a religious girlfriend.

Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block. Writer's block.

"I wanna be forgotten. And I don't wanna be reminded."

Tuesday, April 13, 2004

Record Collection


After a couple of days entering everything manually, my record collection is now available on the net. Just click here to see my record collection. It's all my CDs (singles included). I didn't put my LPs yet, cause technically they're not mine. Remember that all these 400+ CDs, I mostly bought them after 1999 when I first came to Geneva. So at a rate of around 100 CDs per year, I'm doing fine.

You probably won't belive some of the CDs I have. I can't believe I bought them either.

Oh, the link will be on the right menu bar as well.

Monday, April 12, 2004

Cote d'Azur


Friday until Monday is Easter weekend. Staying in town is useless as everything is closed and everybody is gone. So I have to be away as well, obviously. I didn't got the phone call I was waiting for but on Thursday night I bumped into my friend in Shakers and we decided to go away on Friday morning.

Friday 10am, we're off to South of France, or better known as Cote d'Azur. First stop is Nice. We drove through rain (and a bit of snow), Italy, and a huge traffic jam at Mont Blanc. We made it to Monaco where I had to do one lap of the circuit. They're already preparing for the GP over there. Had dinner there and set off to Nice.

Got there, still raining, it took us a while (and a few tries) to get a hotel room. We're soaking wet hopping in from one hotel to another. Luckily we found one. Afterwards we looked for something to do at night. We had no clue where the pubs were so we walked and walked, following people and sound. We finally found the old town, but apparantly at 12.30 all pubs are full. Oh well, I'm fucken tired anyway...

Next day was dedicated to sitting on the beach enjoying the sun and scenery. And a bit of shopping as well. I finally got the Asics I wanted. Dinner and then went out. Found the pubs on time and I was drinking like crazy as usual.

Saturday was driving day. From Nice we drove along the coast to Cannes. Had lunch over there, enjoyed the scenery and the Harley's that was parked in front of the main building. Then to St. Maxime where we met up with some friends. Pretty nice. Then our last stop: St. Tropez. This is the place where all the rich and famous go. We're not rich, nor famous, so we just wanted to see (and feel) what it's like to be rich and famous. The conclusion: definitely not my style, although if I do have tons more money I probably be interested.

At 21.45 we left St. Tropez. At 03.00 we hit Geneva.

"So let me hold you, girl caress my body, you got it going crazy"

Thursday, April 08, 2004

Easter weekend


Woohoo, a long weekend. Friday and monday off. I love weekends like this. But only for the fact that I don't have to go to work. The rest usually stays the same. Even worse actually, cause the shops will be closed on friday, sunday, and monday. Damn! Well, if all goes well I might leave the town for a couple of days. Where, I don't know yet. It all depends on a phone call saying "yes" or "no". If "yes", I'll hop in my car, pick up my mate, and we'll drive off to a nice sunny place. If "no", I'll hop in my car, meet my mate in the usual cafe, and drink tons of alcohol but stay in this town. Simple, innit?

I'm listing my record collection on the web. Once I've entered all 400+ cds and 150+ lps I'll give the link. Actually when my cds are in. LPs can come later.

One of my mates decided to put up a blog. Too bad it's in Indonesian (not for me, but for you who can't read Indonesian). This guy has amazing writing skills, and tons of knowledge to back it up. I definitely learned a lot from him, especially how to write.

A friend of me, who reads this blog regularly, said to me that I need to update it more. My reply: "I don't know what to write." I might be having what they call writer's block. I'm thinking of putting stories of my life, but I should just go back to my roots and write about popculture. I just haven't encountered any pop culture experience worth writing about.

Friendster update: 121 friends and counting...

"Shake it like a polaroid picture"

Monday, April 05, 2004

I'm Feeling This


I had an uneventful weekend. Friday went straight from work for drinks, dinner, drinks, friend's place, birthday party, and ended up at antidote. It was raining as well. Saturday I was sitting in antidote waiting for an SMS. When I got it, I started to move, only to get another SMS saying that it won't happen tonight. So called up a friend, ended up doing a pub crawl in Plainpalais with 6 other guys.

The first F1 GP in Bahrain was pretty entertaining. That is if you follow the cars in the middle. Up front there was no entertainment at all. Schumi didn't have to do much to bag this one.

I bought Blink 182's latest album. I got hooked on I'm Feeling This. Mark and Tom are just average musicians, they both even had to take singing lessons to be able to sing well (no shame in that, Chris Martin did the same). The songs are loud, a bit darker than usual. What (still) amazes me is Travis Barker's drumming. That guy is really good. He's quick, likes to move around, and keep doing weird - although consistent in timing - patterns. Lucky Blink 182 have Travis there, otherwise they would just be an ordinary punk band.

Michel Gondry is a genius. I got hold of his DVD. Gondry is a dreamer who can make his dream vivid. He uses film/video to show his dreams. And if it's not a dream, he comes up with something equally magnificent. Did you know that Kylie's clip (Come Into My World) has exactly one minute between choruses? Did you know that in Daft Punk's Around The World, each puppet is following a different instrument? Amazing stuff. Now I need to check out Chris Cunningham's.

"We fell short this time, smile fades in the summer. Raise your hand in mine I'll leave when I want to."