The One with the Thoughts of Frans

2 ounces vodka
3 ounces ginger beer
1 ounce lime juice

Build in an ice filled highball glass (or copper mug). Garnish with a lime wedge.

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.

So most of my time in the past few weeks has been in learning to draw like an industrial designer. For the rest I haven’t been doing very much, but that will change in a week.

Yesterday one of my new housemates held his birthday party here. I didn’t really know any of his friends and just talking to a bunch of strangers is always fun. I also met a girl who was really small, only 1,50m.

Perhaps I’ll finally watch V for Vendetta this evening. I know that I enjoyed the comic books.

Remember the fish I drew which I wrote about earlier today? Well, when Joey saw it he created a nice image blend based on it.

Not much later, when I linked someone else who had seen both of those images to a painting by Rembrandt van Rijn of Europa, she said she was looking for my fishy in it. So I decided to take the initiative and I made a quick manipulation of the picture.

Then I suddenly realised it could work quite well as a meme. In case you’re interested, I saved what I used in the painting as a transparent PNG. So if you’re interested in making my fishy into a meme, I doubt it could get any easier.

Yesterday we drank eight different kinds of Grolsch beer and gave it marks in various areas. I don’t particularly remember the details at the moment, but it was fun to be extremely critical and give really low marks to everything.

The Grolsch Weizen got my highest mark, a 7,5 overall.

We almost made a video to put on YouTube of a mate peeing in his glass and then drinking it, but he decided to get out of the drinking part the last minute. We do have some nice shouting videos though.

In other news, I realised that if I create stuff I should just throw it on my dA account for for future reference and such. So check out the fish I drew for Lin. It should be on its way to Portugal right now…

It seems so real. So harsh. It forces me to do things. I must get up early tomorrow? What are you talking about? I have a cold and a tad of a fever? Why now? I must make extra effort to get enlisted in the sketching and concept drawing class? Damn you, life. Life is great, life sucks, life is temporary.

Oh that’s right, did you notice? I implemented my sidenotes here basically when I created this layout, more than half a year ago. But guess what, I never used them until now! Why not? I don’t know. Sidenotes are exciting! Contrary to what the text might tell you, sidenotes are geeky and boring.

What’s that? The washing machine stopped spinning. I will put my wet laundry on the lines now. They shall dry. Be smoke-free. That’s right, the past two weeks there was the introduction for the freshmen. The introduction mainly consists of lots of drinking, general partying, dancing and such in, sadly, smokey environments. Of course I had to catch a cold just near the end of it. Great combination with a lack of sleep. So I slept, or at least stayed in bed, for 10 hours today.

I have to be at something at 10:00 in the morning tomorrow. Consequently I’ll start going to bed at around 22:45 today. My early record of the past week was 2:30, which was last night because I didn’t feel very well. Luckily that way I only have to get up between 8:30 and 9:30, depending on how much I want to hurry.

But my wash is done. I must put it up to dry, I want clothes to wear, don’t I? I have to clean my desk. I need to be able to study. Solve mathematical equations, think of solutions to statical problems. Sketch and draw. My desk is covered with papers. It’s a mess. Dust all over. I need to fold my old laundry.

My vacation is technically not even over yet and I already kind of long for more? How lazy does that sound?

Bye, I’m off to do the laundry.

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Kevin: ?
Frenzie: the fucking frog sneaked in
Frenzie: it’s on my bed now
Frenzie: look
Kevin: Ewww maaaan
Kevin: XD
Frenzie: the green dot thing on the cam
Kevin: I see him
Kevin: and he’s gone
Kevin: XD
Frenzie: OH SHIT
Frenzie: WHERE DID HE JUMP TO
Frenzie: fuck
Kevin: Go get him!
Kevin: To the left I think
Frenzie: THERE ARE TWOWOOWOOWOWOWOW
Frenzie: fuck we have 4 frogs in total x.x
Kevin: lol
Kevin: someone leave a door open?
Frenzie: yeah, me
Frenzie: for like fresh cool air
Frenzie: how could I know they’d hop in my room x.x
Kevin: That might explain that then
Frenzie: ONE OUT
Frenzie: one to go
Kevin: xd
Frenzie: crap
Frenzie: I lost it
Frenzie: it might have jumped outside
Kevin: orrr it might be snuggling down under your sheets XD
Kevin: </cruel>
Kevin: Sorry
Kevin:
Frenzie: Frogs are hermaphrodite right?
Kevin: umm… no, I think not
Kevin: some might be
Frenzie: I dunno
Frenzie: one was bigger and jumped higher
Frenzie: and appeared more male
Frenzie: the other smaller and… cuter XD
Kevin: I think the males are smaller
Frenzie: really?
Frenzie: hmm
Frenzie: well whatever
Kevin:
Frenzie: either way
Frenzie: one was a real bitch
Frenzie: the huge one
Frenzie: the more normal sized one was reasonably easy to get out
Frenzie: god I must’ve looked like a fucking idiot
Kevin: probably
Kevin: ^_^
Frenzie: luckily NO ONE WAS WATCHING
Frenzie: MWAHAHAHAHA
Frenzie: except the frogs x.x
Kevin: Pity that, would have made an awesome anecdote to annoy you with
Frenzie: haha
Kevin:
Frenzie: I’m thinking they might actually have gone into my room to HAVE SEX
Kevin: I tihnk they don;t have sex…
Kevin: The male ejaculates onto the eggs after the female lays them in water
Frenzie: so you think that if I’d have the door to the toilet open it’d be filled with frog eggs and sperm now? x.x
Kevin: unliekly
Kevin: They wouldn;t be able to jump out probably
Frenzie: I just attempted to catch the big one and it FUCKING JUMPED ON MY DESK
Frenzie: the toilet is like so much easier to get out of
Frenzie: I now have…
Frenzie: frog fingerprints
Frenzie: on my printer
Frenzie: cuz it’s dusty
Kevin: Nah, there’s no purchase onm the bottom, all the water… well maybe
Frenzie: I dunno, if they dive first and jump through the water perhaps?
Frenzie: and they could also just be stupid and jump in there
Frenzie: and then there’d be eggs, sperm and two frogs in there
Frenzie:
Kevin: yush
Kevin: time for a flush methinks