The One with the Thoughts of Frans

I really like how my most important work for today turned out.

Don’t be ridiculous. Opera 9 has been out for a while and Firefox 2 should be officially released tomorrow.

That’s hopefully the last I’ll say on the IE subject for now.

I’m not being sarcastic here. I like Internet Explorer 7 because it has some kind of built-in protection from installing itself. If it would include a third button to directly install Opera, I’d love it.

Last Friday. I’m on the ferry. Time is Running Out blaring from my earphones, long lines of cars are driving on the ferry. A green light flashes and it’s finally getting dark.

The flashing green light gives a nice feel in combination with the orange and white streetlights. Everything looks new. It was recently painted. That makes a remarkable difference between comfortable and uncomfortable, like on certain train stations in Amsterdam.

As the ferry takes takes off, the lights disappear in the distance. The green light keeps flashing. The espresso created by the machine is decent. Nothing special. The speakers announce that you are not allowed to smoke.

The strong wind creates waves. Waves, which make the ferry rock gently from the left to the right. A child, clearly inexperienced with this phenomenon is surprised by an unexpectedly strong one and falls over. I catch her. She smiles at me and runs back to her parents. Cute.

I cannot spot the flashing green light anymore. The greater view of all the lights in the city and the harbour presents itself. Or perhaps the hugging couple in front of me – enjoying the view – blocked the specific light. It doesn’t matter. After looking forward during a long trip in a train, looking back is a nice change of pace.

It’s 18:30 when I walk through the desolate streets of Den Helder. Wind blows the leaves around me in peculiar patterns, while the dusk of the evening is setting in. It’s then that I realise – I love this season.

Just before leaving the train, I put Absolution by Muse in my diskman again. I think I love this album even more than three years ago when it just came out.

While I continue walking, I leave the shopping area. There’s more space here. Parking spots, trees, channel and such. The trees bounce around under the influence of the wind. Rain starts to fall. It hits me in the face, given extra power by the wind. Autumn is great.

Temperatures dropping? Not a problem. It was cozy yesterday. First we watched The Breakup. Then Pulp Fiction. The atmosphere is candles, yellowish soft light and rain softly ticking against the windows cannot easily be rivaled.

Sometimes I get the impression that I’m the only person who loves this weather – who would not rather be someplace warmer. It’s incredible how much (sea)wind gets lost if you live a bit further inland. I’ll certainly try to move closer to the sea again in a couple of years.

I’m in the train. There’s something in my eye. My right eye. I squeeze my eye shut. Open it. Squeeze it shut again. Thank God, no need to walk around with a sucky feeling in my eye, or to endanger it with the bacteria which probably got on my hands after touching stuff in the bus and the train. I smile at that thought.

A guy looks at me, with an uneasy look on his face. He shifts a seat and seems to specifically look away from me. He must have thought that I winked at him, twice, and then smiled, at him. I was looking at his direction when I squinted my eye, I just didn’t see anything.

I enjoy the little pleasures in life. This is certainly one of them. He peeks in my direction again just while I’m enjoying this and I smile at that thought. I think he caught the smile. He seems to have hidden behind a seat now.

The train arrives at a station. I was studying the landscape passing by, but when the train isn’t moving, that’s not very interesting. My attentions swifts towards the people leaving the train. I see that guy, standing up from his seat. He seems to start walking in my direction, to leave the train.

I wink at him, once, and smile. He flees the train in the opposite direction. I grab pen and paper out of my bag and write down what just happened, while listening to Stockholm Syndrome by Muse. Hysteria just begins to play while I write down these last sentences. Typing would have been so much faster.

I skip back a few tracks. Stockholm Syndrome. I love that song. More volume. More bass. Now the only thing missing is wireless internet in the train.

Yeah, I had forgotten how fun it is to talk to complete strangers for a bit there. Or well, I hadn’t, since you do so automatically, but like at a birthday party where you know almost nobody.

In the meantime I’ve been trying to think of the perfect (wooden) toy-tank to draw. I’ve been looking at real tanks to get an idea, but I still haven’t quite thought of my third drawing (I’ve made two so far).

I should write more. Chat less. Or something like that.

Perhaps I’ll create a new design for my weblog, that would probably also give me an incentive to write more. 😛