Again ?!

I'm ill, again. It's sort of a throat infection / cold, and it's not TERRIBLY bad. But again, I was better off staying home instead of going to the office.
This really sucks. My throat feels shattered to shreds, and ironically, I want to smoke. I remember how cigarette smoke can really clear up the irritated feeling in my throat - I kinda want that right now.
That's about as badly as I miss smoking, still, though. I suppose I should update you all on my little experiment. I'm getting the distinct impression I'm the victim of a common misconception: that quitting smoking is an interesting experience. I'm still mostly bored with it. And people keep telling me things like that it won't get bad until two weeks after quitting first, or two months. Sounds like a pretty lame 'challenge' to me.
I've even gone as far as to make it as difficult as possible on me. I am carrying a pack of smokes, still wrapped, in my coat, so that in the evening I have no excuse NOT to smoke if I'd want to. I still go on all the smoke breaks with colleagues (I just don't smoke, that's all - the fresh air was the best part about those breaks anyway). And I can honestly say I still don't miss it - except for the throat thing then, and that's just now that I have this cold.
Blah. I need real challenges. At this rate, there's no point in having quit for me - but then again, maybe THAT's the mind trick I'm playing on myself, that as long as it seems easy enough, I won't see the point and just resume smoking. I dunno. It's weird.
The only thing I can add to this is that life's a whole lot easier without smoking, at least in a country as opposed to smoking in public as this country has become. I can travel around by train for as long and often as I want, I don't have to mind other people too much, I don't have to estimate if the next train arrives too soon for me to finish a cigarette, etc. Non-smokers really don't realise how easy they have it.

In other news there's been plenty of ruckus around Worst Case Scenario, both the comic (or rather, the cult concept of that constant punchline) and the movie that the comic gets confused with more and more. It's funny for now, but I really don't want to be remembered for that comic - it's just a joke, folks. It's a lighthearted, one-year, semi-challenging attempt at turning a funny anekdote into a cult comic, and that's ALL it is. I think I've made much more interesting comics before, and will make much more interesting comics later in life as well, so just get over it. Yes, it's a comic about sausages. Why aren't you all pestering Joep ? Officially, it's HIS comic, geez (although admittedly I've drawn the majority of them).
I can just see it now, my epitaph: Here lies René van Densen. Wil je daar ook worstjes bij ?

Hmmmmmm... could someone light a cigarette and smoke it right next to me please ?

Three days and still going strong. So far it's been very easy. At least it wás, until I sat down with some colleagues on a sunny terrace after work (tomorrow's a national holiday so for me, and by coincidence for them too, it was weekend). I really craved to light a cigarette up, right then and there. It feels unnatural to be drinking without a ciggy. Still, it's not exactly rough yet. I'm simply not smoking. That's about all there is to it. The "craving" is about as bad as, say, considering going for a fried egg in the morning.
So I made it worse for myself to up the challenge. There's a pack in my coat. Unopened. But it's there. So not having any around isn't an excuse anymore, no matter where I'll be, a pack will be within my reach (since my coat goes everywhere I go). Let's see if I go nuts. I sure hope so - what's the point of quitting if I can't get any creative experience out of this ??? Is there any truth in those wild stories that quitters always love to tell, or are they just pathetic winers ? And even if they are, why isn't it rough on me then ? *wink*

Alright, what else is there to tell.. I have to go fix my bike tomorrow. That should be fun.. I get a day off, and where do I get to spend it ? Waspik, fixing a bike. Yay...
I posted my 500th posting today on the Stripliefhebbers Forum. Jeroen Mirck now seems to prefer calling me Status500...

I was exhausted and sleepy all day. Not weird if you consider that I've stayed up very, very late every evening this week, and then the whole trip on Tuesday morning, and the fact that I didn't get home till late that evening and still had some work left to do, and going for that drink tonight also made me late.. but I'm a night owl as people closer to me know. So I just passed the point where I'm still tired and I'm starting to really wake up now. Which can't be good because I should go get some sleep.
I could use a cigarette.. *grins*

Nite everyone !

And All That, For What ?!

Ok, let's start at the beginning of this lil' story. That would be the end of the working day, yesterday. My boss was looking for the cell phone number of a colleague of ours. I figured I might have it somewhere, and things were slow, so I tried all the resources I could think off. Ended with pulling all business cards from my address book. As I did so, I suddenly noticed the 'dentist appointment reminder' I always keep at the front of those in the inline cover of the booklet. It said 'May 18, 8:00'.
So I was like, oops - apparently I have a dentist appointment first thing tomorrow morning ! It was too late by then, to call it off. So I knew I'd be away most of the first half of the day today, because my dentist resides in the tiny, nearly impossible to reach by public transportation, village called Waspik which is where I grew up. Now, obviously I do this twice a year, so by now I should have a well-thought through approach to this problem, right ? Well, I have a few, actually.
One is to head over to my parents the evening before, then crash there, then go to the dentist in the morning and catch the early bus right after the appointment (very very tiny time window there).
The other is to bike over from my place (about 50 minutes worth of biking as today proved once again) and bike back again after the appointment, at which time I'll take the usual bus etc. to work from my place, just later. Either approach gets me at work late, but today.. well..
I got up at 6. Ouch. 6 30 I was on my bike, heading over to Waspik. I was there around 7 20 !!!
Now, I've gotten kinda spoiled from commuting, staying and living in larger cities for the past years, so I decided to bike around town to find a place to get some hot coffee and some breakfast. Yeah... no such thing, not in that town, dude. So I bike over to the major super market just to be sure, and just as I turn back disappointed in front of it, PANG ! My back tire pops like fire cracker.
So I drag it over to my parents' house, but they turned out not to be home. Since they keep telling me whenever they go on holiday but I always forget, I have no idea if they are right now or not. Either way, I left the bike parked next to their house, with the key and a little note asking politely if it can sleep over for a few days attached to it, thrown in the mailbox.
After the dentist appointment, naturally, I miss the bus. And of course the next one's an hour and a half from now. And that would have probably made me too late for an appointment. Going back home first wasn't an option anymore without a bike, and my parents weren't home to give me a head-start-ride, so I decided to put the best next idea into action. I walked.
That's right, I had to walk some 6 KM to get to a bus stop with more options than the bus line that wouldn't arrive till an hour and a half later. By then I'd been walking for 50 minutes or so already, so I'm not sure how much difference it made, but I caught a little neighbourhood bus that took me the remaining 3 KM to Waalwijk. There I caught the bus to 's Hertogenbosch where I hopped on the train. Of course the train connecting to the bus left three seconds too soon, and the next one decided against travelling further than Utrecht, so it took some more fun transfers and adventures, not to mention cut down on time I could have spent napping to make up for all the sleep I lost this morning so far, before I got to work.
And all that effort.. for what ? To get to a meeting on time that would end up just being cancelled, after going to a dentist who merely scratched my teeth for a few seconds and then said 'alright, see you in half a year again'.
Just thought I'd share this little story with all of you. And I really should write that coworker's cell phone number down.

Amazing !!

Amazing fact about smokers: In our department, since we're a minority, us smokers take breaks together. So I still take the breaks with the rest (even though I just quit and therefore do not smoke). Now here's the amazing fact: it doesn't clue in to smokers that you're NOT SMOKING. They talk straight to your face, watch you drink your hot cup of tea, seem to pay good attention to you, and yet NOT notice the absence of a cigarette in your fingers. Until theirs is almost gone, at which point they will surprisedly conclude you've smoked yours already ???
Wow. Truly amazing.

One left after this one.

I'm about to end one experiment and start a new one. I'm currently smoking the last cigarette BEFORE the last one in this pack. This pack is the last pack I'm going to smoke.
That's right, I'm quitting. It's quitting time. I decided this two packs ago. I originally started smoking for various reasons, one was to finally experience what it was like. I can now at least pass whatever judgement I want about smokers and smoking because I know what it's like. The only experience I lack now is quitting. All the wild stories people tell about it made me curious, so I'm gonna go ahead and try it. 'Just for laughs', in a way, because it doesn't matter to me if I quit or not. I want to know what it's like, and if it's truly an interesting experience, I want to put it into my art.
So. That's starting tomorrow.

Greg Discovered Quizilla.

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Which PC Game are you?

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Time To Talk Movies Again.

So I had a bit of waiting time on one of the train stations on my way home yesterday again, so I hit the cd/dvd-store and found a charming little dvd that I bought, took home, and watched later that evening. It's the movie The Man Who Sued God and I'm gonna damn well discuss it now. Because I find a few things very amusing about the whole thing.

First of all, the concept is great. No, this isn't as stupid as the title sounds (although part of the movie *IS* about how stupid the concept sounds when formulated like that), this movie makes several really good points and is rather well-filmed, well-acted, etc., too. The movie stars Billy Connolly as a former attourney who decided on a fisherman lifestyle instead. Where this usually is the concept of a standard-formula, sappy Hollywood movie about coming to terms with what you want instead of abiding the career pressure society puts on us, that is actually WHERE THE MOVIE STARTS. The sappy Hollywood movie would end there, but we've all seen it before, so TMWSG starts off with Billy leaving his boat to go eat dinner with his ex-wife, with whom he still has a friendly relationship. A storm turns up as he does so, and a lightning bolt blows his boat into smithereens. He's not too bothered at first, because he's sure the insurance company will pay up. After all, why else do you have insurance if not to help you out financially in unforseen situations ?
Wrong. The company claims this falls in the category 'acts of God' which aren't covered. Needless to say, Billy's character, Steve Myers, doesn't leave it at that and tries to sue. Having been a lawyer before, he already knows it's kind of hopeless, until he sees another way - he could sue God. Rather, His representatives on this planet, so, the Church. After all, if God is responsible, as the insurance companies claim, He should pay up for his boat, which was still being paid off and was simultaneously his only means for making a living AND his home.
As with any good character piece in our Western culture, he's battling a major force, because the lawyers, the insurance companies, and the Church are all in bed with one another on this and happily take on this fool who tries to sue the Big Man. Myers then proceeds to play the media (aided by a reporter he initially, drunk as a lord, accidentally harassed in a restaurant before, but who's intrigued with what Myers is trying to do) and becomes a whole lot less of a fool in the public's eyes. So the case goes to court, and Myers kicks some ass with several very good points (and the case gradually becomes a class action sue) until the opponents start to fight dirty. They get the reporter fired, the ex-wife and her husband are suddenly denied the loan they're depending on, things are looking like Myers will be seperated from his daughter, the media are spinning the story the other way around again, displaying him and the reporter no longer as heroic noble people fighting the good cause but as con artists looking for a quick buck. The only way out to get some justice without losing face is a moral victory, which they end up getting. The cinematic tricks used in the movie were great, the story's written in a very mature and intelligent way, the humour - for this IS a comedy, although you can't tell too well most of the time - is witty and surprisingly well-dosed, with the exception of Connolly hardly any of the cast are top performers but the acting is so well that you quickly forget you've never seen these people before and you just get sucked into the story, the 'noble hero trick' card (as semi-explained in the movie The Majestic) is well-played, with an unexpected - though (undeservedly) online heavily criticised as flawed, poorly constructed, weak etc. - ending that put you back into reality, where big fights like these ARE faught but often settled, or they indeed (as proposed as an outcome in the story) will drag on for decades, and barely ever any good comes from it. The moral victory is convincing (I thought) and a great, realistic way out of a major dillemma - quit the fight and no justice is archieved, or win and come off as a greedy con artist.
I recommend watching this movie, if you're into actually GOOD STORIES which are well-filmed without too many standard Hollywood tricks to them. What's even more amusing to me - on top of all the good legal and theosophical and theological points that are being made, as well as the great main concept to begin with - is that Connolly, who in this movie plays a reasonably average downtrodden man from the streets fighting corrupt insurance companies to get one of their most profitable tricks out of their greedy hands, represents the major international banking/insurance company I work for in the commercials in Australia, the country where this movie was filmed and released. That's right - Connolly represents ING, in a set of advertisements stressing how easy and straightforward ING is to bank or insure with in those parts, and I could never see the point of it, since I only know Connolly as the hilarious but foulmouthed stand-up comedian he is in his shows as broadcasted by BBC. NOW it makes a lot more sense that he was recruited for that very marketing purpose - he's, in a way, still Steve Myers, and the marketing concept is that ING is nothing like those companies.
Well, I won't get into wether they are or aren't like that. All I know is that the ING's money I've wasted while writing this during office hours must've come from somewhere. Sorry, Billy. Or Steve. I can't tell if ING pulls any nasty legal tricks in insurance since I'm only a web designer and I know jack shit about the ING's *actual* services. But I'm pretty sure all bankers and insurers are about equally corrupt. Let's just leave it at that.

The Boys In Room 519.

Alright, that's over again. I am back in the Lands Which Are Nether, and Stockholm will slowly turn into an idealized memory again instead of the city I wake up in.
We had an awful time ! The weather was horrible, we got stuck in the poorest damn part of town, we were mugged countless times, there were barely any women anywhere and the ones that were there were hideous and really nasty to us, I hated the city itself, the hotel was crap, -- I don't even know where to begin.
Or, none of the above happened. We in fact stayed at a rather luxurious hotel in the posh side of town (three blocks from a Lamborghini dealership should be a sufficient clue), the weather was - as seems to be the trend whenever I go on vacation anymore - unseasonably hot and in fact very pleasant, people were nothing but friendly and helpful to us, we had a great time, the city is an awesome place, the women.. well.. wow :) If you like women at al, you won't be disappointed in Stockholm, view-wise at least, let's just say that much and leave it there. My calves hurt like hell because the gravity there seems to have been turned up a notch compared to the Netherlands, and we walked a LOT, so I'm sure my legs are back in great shape now. The city is gorgeous, the ports are amazing places to stroll around, the museums I didn't get round to visiting inside had some great sculptures outside of international acclaim, I got a lot of really good rest and sleep, we had good times, good food, what can I say ? I had a VACATION.
The downsides ? Let's see. Liptonice is something they don't seem to have discovered yet (only the no-bubbles peach etc. variants), which was a major bummer, especially when going out. I had to settle for whiskey-cokes and usually we got Jack Daniels which is my all times least favourite poison. Comics are almost non-existant there, there's no comics scene worth mentioning that I found (admittedly I was only there for three days, and on the last night someone DID tip me off that there's a big comics store there, but I haven't had the opportunity to check it out). Vik had a bit of a nasty experience that last night with the drunk boyfriend of a girl he was chatting with.
But that's about it. The most negative experience there was having to leave, really.
The language is intriguing, I might try to learn more of it (I picked up a few words in the short time we spent there, but it still didn't even barely allow me to follow any conversations) and the currency is just INSANE. The Dollar and Euro are sort of alike, so imagine that everything 'costs' about 11 times more. That's how it goes there - you feel like a millionaire with thousands in your wallet, but it's just a few hundreds and a good night out means it's spent. Still, I didn't hold back on the spending and only ended up spending some 400 Euros worth.
There's lots more to tell, and I shot some great pictures (if they come out well) but I'm really tired and Satan's glad I'm home again (despite an excellent job from our cat sitter, the cats look in good shape !) so he's on my lap trying to get my attention. I should probably get offline. Talk with you later folks !

Things Have A Way Of Making Sense.. In A Bad Way.

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Thanks, Greg :)
It makes sense, too - if it had been MY vacation (as in, nobody else would be tagging along) I wouldn't have worried at all about the damn train crap. I'd just have dived in adventurously and simply be sure of myself that I'll make it there, one way or another. But now my friend Viktor is tagging along, I've been running all over the place trying to get everything taken care of. Also, a general idea of what has kept me busy: I worked my ass off at work to make sure things are taken care of for my clients and the coworkers who take care of stuff the next couple of days won't encounter too much work or trouble; I made as sure as possible someone would look after the cats; I made sure to instruct the Probeersel.com staff to keep an eye on things for our audience (so that if the site would go down, it wouldn't be down until I return) and also keep an eye out for the artists' stuff n things; I'm even currently working my ass off to try and get something finished for someone else that isn't even due until the end of this month.
Yes. I am Schindler's List. Appropriately so, too, when all of Holland is remembering WWII today and tomorrow.
Anyway, just wanted to let you all know that things sorta turned out - with a lot of extra effort - and the only thing stopping my vacation is, well, basically the train company.
We'll see, tomorrow. Later folks.

Should Have Taken The Week Off And Slept.

Good gawd.
I knew it. I KNEW IT. As soon as I woke up. It was gonna be one of those mornings, if not days, that EVERYTHING would go wrong. And I accepted it, got up against better judgement, barged right into one hellishly messy public transportation disaster trip where I had to transfer as often as you can on that trip, arrived very late at the office, tried my best to avoid impending disasters that would take more than the two days I work this week, failed at that, of course, then had to hurry to my train at six to make it home by eight, encountered the very same disaster trip, except that the train I transferred into in Utrecht split up and of course MY part went straight back the same way I came, costing me a total of an hour.
I couldn't reach our cat sitter during that time, who was supposed to come over at eight, so I called Vik to make sure he'd be home, arrived home a little after nine, no cat sitter. OF COURSE NOT. He may have tried to call, but of course, for the first time in the two+ years that we've lived here, the cats had knocked the phone off the hook in the attic, so there's no way he could have reached me. So I leave a dozen messages on his voice mail, try to reach him through any other phone number I have handy where he might be at, only end up leaving more messages, waiting, waiting, waiting. It's past midnight now, and I decided to dial in to at least check my mail n stuff. I'm drop dead exhausted, I'm facing another disaster trip tomorrow morning, and I can't really go to sleep because we NEED A CAT SITTER !!!
*breaks down, sobbing*
Why does life always have to be so fucking hard ?! WHY CAN'T ANYTHING EVER GO AS PLANNED ?!!!!

Worst part is, this train disaster stuff will continue all week, and we have to be at Schiphol rather early on Wednesday. I can just SEE this going wrong.
Ahwell.
Worst comes to worst, we won't get to see Stockholm. It would suck, but I'll still have a five day weekend. And it would probably save me money. But it would SUCK. A free trip and I just know something will happen to prevent me from actually TAKING it.
It's raining there today, I happened to see on the broadcast. If I do miss my trip, I hope the damn city is FLOODED with rain. I'll sit home on the couch and watch the weather broadcast, drinking a nice cool drink. And there'd be no need for a cat sitter, either.
Fuck, I'm pissed off. I hate this shit. I need a vacation. *SIGH*

Countdown

Just a few more days and I'm - technically - out of Europe once again. At least to my recollection, Sweden wasn't part of the whole union thing yet - I could be wrong. But I'm pretty sure I won't be paying with Euros and WILL have to show my passport.
Should be fun - my first 'own' trip WITHIN this continent. I've been overseas plenty of times, and technically I've gone to Britain a few years back on a short weekend, but the only border-crossing I did on the mainland here were on trips with my parents when I was younger. I'm excited !
I haven't been working on comics much this weekend - not at all, in fact. Been too busy trying to get this house in an acceptable state for someone else to stay in. A friend of ours, Juriaan, will be catsitting during those four days that Viktor and I will be out of the country.

Just found out (by reading Greg's blog) that Greg celebrates his bday on the very same day I return. However, I have no clue what time I'll be home - it is reasonably bound to be late in the evening, to be honest. So, Greg, I congratulate you now, and try to turn it into a good day. The 18th birthday isn't all that special - speaking from own experience - but it comes with nice perks. You're a 'real' adult in this country now.
Now, the NINTEENTH birthday, on the other hand... doesn't come with too many perks (If I remember correctly, you're allowed to work with wild bulls) but that one was a lot more impressive if I recall. Can't quite remember how I celebrated it anymore but it was good.

Probeersel.com will be in hands of the quite capable staff while I'm gone. And my comics will continue to run. I'm sure I mentioned that before but just to be safe, I'll repeat myself. Everything seems to be taken care of, except for two more days of work coming up. I will try to work on The Grim DotCom at least a bit in those two days, but I'll also have some other stuff to do, so I kind of doubt I'll be posting anything else before I leave on Wednesday. And, well, I'm going to a country with a reputation for being full of beautiful, willing women. So expect not to hear from me again until next weekend ;)
Seeya folks !