The One with the Thoughts of Frans

Today I will introduce you to possibly one of the coolest toys ever. Melantrys took it with her from this mythical place where she lives. She passed it on to me before we went to Brussels.

If you ask why she lives in a mythical place, I just ask you, can a place which is abbreviated to the sound a barking dog makes be real?

But enough of the chit-chat. On to the toy itself. It is blue. It is flexible. In a strange way it feels alive.

If you hold it in your hand you can caress it. Or you can throw it around like a ball. Do whatever you like.

You can squeeze it and then it will emit different psychedelic colours of light.

In short, it rocks. Thanks babe!

Last Thursday, I set off on a trip which would eventually take me to Brussels. I spotted a rare fish in the sea.

1. 
   I had never seen a submarine in the wild before. Only in harbors.

Much later, in a bus, only a few away minutes from my place, I got a phonecall. Instead of the expected four people joining dinner, I would have to cook for eight. My phone was scared to death after hearing that, but luckily giving it an electricity boost when I arrived made its heart beat again.

Our olive oil was all gone, so I did what I’d always do: use butter. However, my dear visitor happened to be a vegan. Mel only managed to stop me from throwing the rest of the vegan stuff in butter just in time, and the neighbors gently lent us some olive oil. Loes (my housemate) just told me that she discovered we also had some vegetable cooking butter. That night we watched Artificial Intelligence, which is not a movie I can recommend. Especially the ending was bad.

1. 
   The next day we had to leave early. Too early. Three and a half hours later, when we arrived at Julien’s place (our host for the night), someone didn’t react very friendly to me taking a picture as you can see.
2. 
   An interesting table-decoration at Julien’s place was this evil moon thing.
3. 
   We arrived at the venue a little while later. The Claws were just arriving around the same time. In the garden of the Botanique there were these guys preparing some kind of tent, probably for an event the next day or week. I found them amusing for some reason.
4. 
   This cigarette represents one of my main impressions of Brussels. A damn lot of smokers.
5. 
   When we were walking back from the park we ran across a few weird guys looking for Manneken Pis. We didn’t actually encounter the little guy, but we did manage to take a few pictures of the weird guys checking out interesting accessoires.
6. 
   A front view should make clear that the weird guys were part of this band which goes by the name of Clawfinger. 😉 One minute later I made a movie of him saying tandenborstel, Dutch for toothbrush. Later on he also got us on the guestlist. Thumbs up.
   
7. 
   Later that night, after the first band finished playing (featuring the man where we’d spend the night), I decided to take a picture of this sign. It’s funny because it says there’s some kind of non-smoking law since ‘91, but like 90% of the people were smoking inside (remember my earlier impression).
8. 
   I also took this picture to prove that I had “BASE” as a mobile phone provider in Belgium, which I thought sounded much more awesome than the Proteus (or something like that)Proximus which Mel had.
9. 
   And then some sound reached our ears.
10. 
    Check the crazy guy in the background of the picture. 😛
11. 
    My camera kicks the ass of yours mate. 😛
12. 
    André doing his thing.
13. 
    “I’ve got a personal trainer” (from Nothing Going On). Mel made a video of this, although it’s actually of the event right before it, Bård doing the duck walk.
    
14. 
    And some more guitar action.
15. 
    I thought I’d take a shot of the guys in the background, but the ones I made of Henka managed to fail.
16. Now just for some pictures.
17. 
18. 
19. 

And that’s it for today.

Go to the music player of your choice and put it on shuffle. Say the following questions aloud and press play. Use the song titles as your answers. Don’t cheat. 😉

1 – How does the world see me?
Song: David Bowie – (Segue) “Ramona A. Stone / I am with Name
Comment: I am with Name? Too bad I don’t know whom I’m with then.

2 – Will I have a happy life?
Song: Korn – Here to Stay
Comments: I’m here to stay? That’s nice to know, but it seems to answer the question “will I have a long life?” 🙁

3 – What do my friends really think of me?
Song: Eminem – R.A.K.I.M – Rakim
Comments: They think I’m some ancient rapper? Hmm… interesting, I thought they saw me more as a somewhat metallish person. 😛

4 – Do people secretly lust after me?
Song: The Dandy Warhols – The Coffee And Ten Wrecks
Comments: I guess not then.

5 – How can I make myself happy?
Song: Korn – Justin
Comments: I guess this means I’ll have to take off in space as the lyrics suggest.

6 – What should I do with my life?
Song: No Doubt – End it on this
Comments: That doesn’t sound too good.

7 – Why should life be full of so much pain?
Song: Radiohead – Creep
Comments: I’m a creep. Oh crap. Ah well, too bad. *headbangs on heavy guitar part*

8 – How can I maximize my pleasure during sex?
Song: Tenacious D – Friendship Test
Comments: Do a friendship test during sex? Hmm… kinky… NOT. 😛

9 – Will I ever have children?
Song: Rage Against the Machine – Freedom
Comments: I will have freedom. So I might just leave my kids behind and be an asshole or choose not to have them at all. That sucks in a way. 😛

10 – Will I die happy?
Song: Dr. Dre – Nuthin’ but a “G” thang
Comments: Doesn’t sound like it.

11 – What is some good advice for me?
Song: Samael – Telepathic
Comments: Yeah, reading other people’s thoughts would always be a good idea I guess.

12 – What is happiness?
Song: Anouk – Who Cares
Comment: Indeed, who cares what happiness is?

13 – What is my favorite fetish?
Song: Robbie Williams – Tripping
Comments: Oh yeah baby… tripping is shaggadelic!

14 – How will I be remembered?
Song: Die Fantatischen Vier – Bring it Back
Comment: Hell yeah, they’ll want me back. 😀

Well, that was that… sadly the answers weren’t very funny for the most of it.

I decided to download Paint.NET today and early in the installation I got the following screen:

The inherent flaw? Selecting an installation directory is not advanced. The Paint.NET installation comes out on the positive side however, because it warns you beforehand that choosing quick will not allow you directory selection.

There are many more things an installer can do wrong, but with the standardised Windows installer, nowadays that’s usually not much of an issue, except this one.

To all who don’t get this right: your installer sucks.

This morning I decided I needed a few pictures of myself in Matrix-style, for usage on MSN and such. So here’s the result of the photoshoot.

What’s also important is how it looks as a finished picture, photoshopped and all. I will also do one with a gun, of course.