Solving the mystery

Why do people hate bowling shoes?

And if they do, why do people bemoan the lay out of the shoe rather than the fact a hundred sweaty socks have been in there before?

The Grand Newly-Discovered-Songs List (I should have listened to way sooner as they have been on my playlist for ages)(2)

1. Foo Fighters – Overdrive

2. The Postal Service – We Become Stillhouettes

3. The Shins – Kissing The Lipless

4. Sufjan Stevens – It Was The Worst Christmas Ever

5. The Pipettes – Dirty Mind

Guilty Pleasure

One of my guilty pleasures, apart from tiramisu, is playing WoW. WoW is an abbreviation of World of Warcraft for all you noobs out there.

I have been sucked into the game by my good friend Gijs, who by the way, will tell you he had nothing to do with it. I started playing a good few months back, and I must say I’m liking it a lot. Secretly, I’m really proud of my redheaded level 80 mage, and, even more secretly, I get a little kick out of throwing around arcane blasts and arcane missiles and killing funny creatures. I am embracing my inner nerd, for it needs attention and nurturing as well.

Now I know what you’re going to say. Isn’t that the game where 90% of the gamers never saw a girl? Isn’t that the thing more people are addicted on than Scotch and cocaine combined? But hang on there, my active online presence serves a greater purpose as well.

You see, a vast majority of the students I teach irl (which is in real life) play the game too (which isn’t that surprising since I teach at an IT department). I often see students of mine flashing by online at hours they should be in school and for some reason, whenever I whisper to them in-game, they always seem to go offline pretty quickly.

The whole package

I am expecting a visit from my Swedish friend Jens next week, which is both fun and exciting. I’ve never met a Swede. The image I have of a Swede is that of a roaring viking, sporting the helm with horns and screaming plunderar! all the time. I know this may sound a bit denigrating, I’m sure the Swedish are all greatly civilized and all, but then again, when even IKEA sells me a Swedish jersey viking hat there must be some truth to it anyway.

I have been cooking up ideas of what I’m going to show him while he’s here, and of course, one of the first things that come up are: redlightdistrict.

“I hate to burst your bubble” I said to one of his friends, who by the way looks a bit like a viking, “but the the Red Light District is not a all you can smoke and bang buffet. The same goes for the mystique of coffeeshops. I am not suprised if every coffeeshop and brothel have been installed by the Dutch Board of Tourism anyways.”

But it did not seem too matter. To Jens’s viking friend, he was on a good way to Sin City.

Apparently there seems to be a term for the ‘Complete Amsterdam Experience*’ which in foreigners words is ironically called ‘the whole package’. It seems odd we never use that term here in Holland, although I guess this must be part of the Board of Tourism conspiracy as well.

When I’m in Sweden I’ll put on my jersey viking-hat and scream plunderar! all the time,  as a fitting payback.

 

* Pot, brothels and tulips.

I love knäckebröt

It feels like a bit of a whimsical descision, but I’ve decided to follow a Swedish language course.

It seems like a kind of ridiculous thing because apart from going on holidays in Sweden and occasionally talking to Swedish pals there will be no use for the language whatsoever. I am not a man or gay so I don’t need to hook up with a Swedish model either. I don’t know why I am not interested in a more useful language like, say, Chinese or French or something.

I also had the idea once to learn Irish (You know, the language fluently spoken by a small number of people in Ireland, and no it’s not an English dialect…) and I also recall I once felt the urge to learn Australian though that was before I discovered they speak English there. It does look good on my CV I guess, all those languages, though I am not sure what an English teacher to-be needs Swedish for.

Stop me when I decide to learn Swahili, please.

 

The Grand Newly-Discovered-Songs List (I should have listened to way sooner as they have been on my playlist for ages)

1. Three or Four – The New Pornographers

2. All my life- Foo Fighters

3. Greasy Goose – This Is The Kit

4. Unguided – The New Pornographers

 

PS: I’m sorry, I know I am breaking the magical rule of never featuring the same band twice in a list…