New Year's Eve

Today I have to work and after that I got to travel 1,5 hours north to my mother to celebrate new year's eve. Known that last night was short I can't stand another short night without being humorous on New Year's Day. This will be a weekend of fighting against sleep.
Have fun you all.

What a day

What a day, I tres tres tres tired. Again, I can say. Tomorrow a long, long day. But everyone has I think.
How will Times Sqare NYC be? Los Angeles, Ocean?
Anyhow, stay safe (hm, after the Tsunami I know savety is a hollow word)
Enjoy your life to the max.

Dutch winter

Worked, watched LOTR -the fellowship of the ring, did my laundry. Just a "normal" day.
Oh yeah, the snow which fell yesterday has melted away completely.

Have a nice day, evening or whatsoever.

first snow

The day after the day after. At the office we spoke a bit more about the disaster. But I think that my co-worker is most worried. His parents are from that region and he has some relatives there.
Well, you all could see the destructive power of incoming seawater. Nature can do terrible things.
Today we had the first snow of this winter. In my town it wasn't much. Further inland people enjoyed the snow. By lunchtime it was mostly melted and left a wet mess behind.

Last week of 2004

Went to work, did what I'm supposed to do, went home, watched the 5 o'clock news, made some coffee and updated my blog.

What happened on the Sunday in the Indian Ocean was beyond every imagination.
Get out of the sea, leave everything behind and run for your life.
A warning system would have helped for a large part of the region. Such a system is in use for the pacific ocean since 1948. It's cheap and easy. Better communication between the countries on the Indian Ocean would help too. Transistor radios can be used everywhere. When the countries buried their death I hope they'll lay the foundation for an early warningsystem.
Okay, financial fundraising has not started yet. When they do, I'll contribute.

Strangly at work nobody spoke about the disaster.
I was working on checking the maintenance cost of a European well known company in the field of rehabilitation: manual and electric wheelchair's.
It appeared to me that the company adds costs to our account which they should not add. Tomorrow I'll look at it again.

Superior weekend

Today I had a weird weekend. After 2 beer and a concert of the Stones from 1968 I went to bed and slept until 10 am. At 11 my mother called that within an hour she would pass by on her way home. The weather was perfect after the coffee, chocolates and cakes we decided to go out for a walk. As some snowshowers were predicted my mother and her friend went home at 4 pm. And damn they were right. My mom called me that en route they saw a lot of collided cars. Because of the fog and the freezing temperatures the landscape turned white and the road became as slippery as a scatetrack.
Allright I got my house for myself now . Tonight I want to watch O brother, Where Art Thou. But now I got to prepare a special dinner.

Saturday I cycled a little in the cooler; 4 degrees C, Sw 4 m/s, one rainshower made my feet cold to the bone.
71.56 k
24.53 k/hr
2:55:00 hr
43 k/hr (max)
26,706 k (total on Giant)

Found

Found in a drawer in the Arkansas penitentiary ....

the dude was here too

Years end

I had a busy day. Maybe because I'm at the end off the pipeline. No most likely because I'm at the end of most processes. A lot of money which has to be paid.
Remember the integrity discussions we had, I wrote about.
It doesn't help very much. Last Tuesday an announcement was made that one employee has embezzled 200,000 Euro (in US Dollar about 260,000) from the local Government.
This must be a slap in the face of our management who tries to explain the necessity of being integer.

Today I really had -an end of the year is in the air- feeling. A lot of people are off, have a short holiday, or don't come back before next year. They drop by at the end of the day to say they're off and wish all happy day's.

This weekend I've had a mail of a fellow traveler I met in Sweden on a camping site.
He was going from the Northcape Norway, to Sicily, Italy by foot.
He must have arrived and on January 3 I'm invited to come to Germany for a kind of price he'll receive.
It can be done by train, so may be I'll be there in Duisburg.

I ran into this a series of pictures of imprisoned man and women between 1915 and 1937.
No names, no backgrounds, just a number.
Number 217, photo at 8-27-36, how old was she? She could have lived through the seventies. I could have known her. The resemblance, it's funny and saddening too.

Tired

I'm tired. How fatigue? It's a mixture of bad sleep, working on high speed (actually that's not bad at all) and wondering around in town. Also keeping a log, different logs isn't as easy as I thought in the begin (June/July). It's almost having a second job like I already told.
And always trying to find a subject to write about. I try not to talk about my job. But sometimes I have to.
When I have to express about sharing my opinion with a staff employee about the synergy effects of the program a lot of municipalities and their employees work with.
All those employees could share their experiences about the system. For example on the internet. To make one isn't difficult.
Sometimes one has to face the wind.

A brand new day

Yesterday I had a day off, on this blog I didn't post anything which may be nothing or something.
Yesterday, I spend my time sleeping (yes I was fatigue), I did some shopping (on a Monday the city is not crowded, shops open at 1 pm), and had my monitor examined at the computerstore.
In the centre of the city I had a quick look at my favorite disk-jockey, stand up comedian and entertainer Claudia de Breij.

She and her colleagues are presenting a 5 day 24 hours long radio-program in which people can buy their favorite songs to be broadcasted. The price depends on the taste of the jockey, the length of the song and how much one wants to offer.
You guess why the Dutch do that? It's for the good cause, for the people in Sudan, in the Darfur region.
The money will be spend on a Red Cross hospital.
To stress the suffering of the people there the jockeys won't eat for 5 days. They only drink fruit juices and Coca Cola.

They drink Coca Cola, the brand that stresses the American, European imperialistic society.In fact we are the protectionists who bring poverty in such regions.
I don't mean that's true for the Darfur region, but in large parts of Africa the local economy is partly ruined because we dump our subsidized products there.

And we protect our borders for their products with skyhigh taxes. To open our borders might be a solution to African problems.
I don't know if there are any Afro-American readers, but I tell you we suck Africa and you too if you like it or not. America and Europe being less protectionistic will help a lot.

And I got my christmas-box, filled with delicateses and 4 plates. It was so heavy. My employer surprized me a little.

This morning I woke up with a brand new day on the 5 days 24 hours no food marathon radioshow. To start the day with a first laugh. :)

flying high

Just ask myself right now how many fly miles did I get in lifetime.
Not much actually. 1 time I flew Amsterdam-Monastir (south of Tunis), 1 time Amsterdam- Tel Aviv (Ben Goerion) and this year Rotterdam-Stockholm (Skavsta). My estimation is 10,000 fly miles (15,000 kilometers) in my life.
That's a difference with Sarah Ackerman who just flew from New York to San Fransisco for the Christmas holidays.

Tomorrow I'm off work. I got to buy some presents for 2nd Cristmasday when I mother and her friend come over. I still wanna buy a digi (Germans call a cellphone ein Handy probably they call a digital camera ein Digi too. I learned that cheaper camera's are more expensive in memorycards/sticks and that the battery loading-device is seperate.

Today I also cycled a little on my old bike. I didn't put the wheel back in right. The wheel "slips" against the brakes.

stats:
30.80 k
27.22 k/hr
1:07:55 hr
36 k/hr (max)
26,635 k (total on the Giant)

Louis Bleriot

The boeing 747 "Louis Bleriot" through Amsterdam cannels. Not just a daily picture. But it's the link with Fridays blog.
The plane arrived after 4 days at the Aviodrome in Lelystad were it will be part of the permanent exhibition.


the dude was here too

Turkey, Turkey and Louis Bleriot

What has Turkey to do with Louis Bleriot?
Nothing I assume. It's only the day of the news which links the photo above and Turkey below.

Yes, Turkey goes Europe. Today Turkey and Europe under Dutch chairmanship agreed that on the October 3 2005 talk will begin that must lead to full Turkish European membership.
Much has to be done to get a country ready to meet our standards.
But also much has to be done to get Turkish membership accepted in Europe of today.
It is said that this adjustment will take 10 years or more.

Many Turks are here in western Europe already. Turks in Kreuzberg in Berlin. Turks in Amsterdam, The Hague, Utrecht in the Netherlands. They all came one by one. When dad came over to work here his wife or fiancee was left home. When he earned more money and the respectable Governments payed for familyreunion for humanitarian reasons, many followed. Now they life in the cities in sort of getto's.
I think that Turkeys uniting with the EU and a stabilizing of Turkey will be prosperous for Europe aswell, but mainly for Turkey and their nationals who live already in the EU.
I remember saying I was not sure about the double nationality Turks might have (in comparison with the Morocans), well they mainly have 2 nationalities.
I think this should put to an end.
The Government has a point telling that they want April 30 as a national nationality day on with foreigners who choose the Dutch nationality celebrate that important moment. April 30 is our Queensmother birthday too, so it's a perfect day for a celebration.
However maybe this is not the right moment to speak about this matter. It's making a policy on the symptoms of these days of misunderstanding and even hatred. Take some more time to think out a new policy which has to do with more than one subject.
A policy should be woven into various activities in society.

However April 30 remains a perfect day for a party.

thursday, almost weekend....... All a happy X-mas

Christmas at my work....
the dude was here too

working day

This Thursday at work I didn't do much actually. Didn't have much to pay. There were some little things that I had to put straight. So I had an email contact with a contractor of us to get some money back.
Next Monday I don't work. Maybe I got some time then to buy presents (f.i. a digi for myself)and send some christmas cards. There are plenty of them I my mailbox yet(downstairs at the frontdoor).

Maybe last night I was a little too pessimistic but what I said is true.
What if I say and heard that the atmosphere is better than 2, 3 years ago.

After weeks of grey dull weather we now have wind and rain, actually I liked the period of dry, grey but cold weather.

Last wednesday i've been to the neurologist. After exactly 1 hour waiting he told me that there were no extra brainactivities as far he could see. We needed 5 minutes to discuss the result.
This means that my dosis pills remain the same and that I only have to make an appointment with him next year, unless something happens. I don't see why.
This means too I remark that cardriving won't be a problem. (I didn't drive a car for 10 years now). I only need a comment/notification on my driverslicence.

Eat, drink, pay

The evening with the colleagues was okay. We laughed a lot about certain things.
Also we talked about other colleagues, something I find very unpleasant. You don't do that. But on a moment I said about a colleague of mine (who wasn't with us) that I feel a certain negativity. Actually that's not the right word but I used it. I mean that she ignores me and a lot of other persons. Why I don't know, but also my boss ignores a lot of the employee's. Both pass us and don't say a word like they/we don't exist, not in the morning, nor midday or afternoon.
I think that a boss ought to pay attention too his employees, as if it were only to motivate them. I got the feeling that my motivation have to come from myself. Maybe it has, but a certain attention from others helps a lot.

This is what I don't like about these evenings, the gossip and talks about colleagues and boss. Tonight might be the last time.
But when in the spring or so we have another evening, I might join again.

Flat tyre

Cycling is my hobby, then my bike should have no secrets for me...
Well that's wrong. I never repaired or changed a flat tyre. And thats what I'm going to do this evening.
Also I found the bill for the computer so I can use the guarantee on the monitor.
(They told me the period is 2 years and that will do)

Well, I bought my food for tonight, it'll be potatoes, with grean butter-beans and a giant meatball with onions in it.
After dinner I'll have to do the laundry and repair the tyre.

I'm hungry right now. Think it's time to make dinner.

Digested the weekend

Worked, laughed, and have a Wednesday to come.
At work we had some office-humor....it's really about nothing but we could laugh.
And remember 40 laughs per day!
Today I could get that number, nobody could, maybe it's because of the weekend. I heard some people had a hard time, not me.
I took my bike for some short rides but I felt okay then, despite the cold.

Wednesday, at 11.30 I'll have an appoinment with my neurologist and after work my colleagues and I will drink in a pub close to my home. Lucky me, lets get drunk.

I have a picture of the pub, beautiful situated on a cannel which connects Utrecht with Rotterdam, but damned I didn't digitalize it.
It's time to buy a digital camera. My old analoge one doesn't work well anymore. For 160 Euro a Sony cybershot can be bought and with a memorycard of 64 kb 100 pictures can be made.
Yeah, it's time for a digi.

Comment on 3 worldreligions and an update

A stunning tragedy Happened on March 31 2004,a crowd burned and mutilated the dead, then dragged two corpses through the streets and hung them from a bridge spanning the Euphrates River.
Many people will associate this with Iraqis, the fact is that those people who did this were Saddam Hussein right hand, this is why Iraqis were living in fear under this regime.
We condemn those horrific acts by those mobs, we hope that they will be brought to justice each and everyone of them. Those people lost their foothold in ruling Iraq and they are trying to scare other Iraqis who have been saying that they are better now than before in the latest opinion pool. Now such act by those mobs is targeted on scaring all those who are helping the coalition provisional authority.
From Baghdad to New York

I like to comment on the Islam as well Christianity, Judaism as false prophesies, but I cannot find the words for so much violence in name of a god who most likely doesn't exist. People, it's only a Fata Morgana in your mind, a selfulfilling prophesy. You all are fooling yourself. This can't be life!

update:
I heard an interesting idea on radio this morning which fits very well in the comment I wrote above. It also put Christianity (catholic version) on one line with
Islam as I know it (North African version).
What was said is that in 1854 pope Pius IX cut the Gordian knot by a dogma of the Immac'ulate Concep'tion

On the internet I found the following definition:

Rom. Cath. Ch.
the dogma of the unique privilege by which the Virgin Mary was conceived in her mother's womb without the stain of original sin through the anticipated merits of Jesus Christ. Cf. virgin birth (def. 1).

Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease

It's a dogma and dogma's are created because nobody knows how to put an end to an eternal discussion. It's the outcome of centuries of thinking of people from the middleages till 1854.
This thinking is now the link with the Islam which in it's pure form is middleageous too.
Fundamentalists of all believes think they ought to live by the book (Tora, Bible, Koran)

Nowadays the Islam is the black sheep because of their middleageous thinking and their threat to worldpeace but what to think of Christianity and Judaism.
My world of capitalism (a mix of all believes) endangers worldpeace as much. It always tries to make a profit on the weakest link which connects worldsociety and will tear the world apart.

All the religions have to update to the time we live in to cope with present problems. 2 religions reinvent themselves from time to time, but Islam isn't. It didn't have to because people were living for centuries under the same conditions (countryside).
Now life has radically changed and now Islam has to throw all the old fashioned ideas overboard or take it of their camel's back.

2 Religions are renewing I said. Still they have dogma's. That's strange. It's something not to talk about? Will it undermine their believe?
In my opinion all are under fire.
And yes, I'm proud to be Kafir.

Saturday

The Fly past
the dude was here too

A basking shark

Found at the shore
the dude was here too

Funeral of Bernhard

The Royal Prince of the Netherlands, his highness Bernhard has been buried in the Nieuwe Kerk at Delft. Not really buried but locked up with his recently passed away wife, the queen of the Netherlands and ancestors of 400 year history.

The ceremony was beautiful. Though I have to say that I didn't watch the church-thing. Though I must say that a Baroc church with such an enormous volume, and the glamour inside appeals to have at least quick view on the news.

At the moment when the Prince's coffin was taken from the coach and Huzars bear away the coffin to the doorstep of the Nieuwe Kerk and further, I saw 3 F16's and the last remaining Dutch spitfire doing a fly past in missing man formation. That was an emotional thing to see. In a formation of 4 planes they came flying by and when the planes were right above the church, the spitfire went vertical up into the sky and dissapeared in low hanging clouds.
It happened in a few seconds when it was over. Compare it to life. In a few seconds it can be passee (over and out, lost in the darkness of hell or light of heaven).
Bernhard lived his life to the max. He knew he had to because he did survive so much pain. In this way he was a real Dutch calvinist Prince.
Farewell

His funeral underlines the end of an era, two World Wars, a lot of pain and laughter and brings us well into the twentyfirst century.

Today I picked up cycling again. You can find more on this on IPOT.
Testing the bike, the gear and computer.
It all works and also it felt good to be out for a while. (to leave the emotions behind)
stats:
16.22 k
28.83 k/hr
33.48 min
43 k/hr (max)
515 k (total on new bike)

Thank you Bob

Today nothing works, especially my monitor.
Today I met a most beautiful, spontanious, sympathetic girl. When we talked and we had a look on eachother my screen faded away and at last turned to black. Just when I learned that she lived in my hometown. After I fixed the screen provisionally (no, how ironically I got a dumped 17" monitor from some lawyers at my office) I said some stupid words I learned from Bob Dylan, "What does a girl like you doing in a dump like this?"

Thursday

"Ask yourself what you can do for the Government instead what the Government can do for you." That's a well spoken sentence.

Worked, wrote, ate and slept.

Ajax Amsterdam made a draw against Bayern München yesterday and will play next year again in Europe.

A teacher askes her Dutch student how to pronounce -qualified- in English.
The student pronouced the word -qualified-.
"Wrong" said the teacher and she pronouced the correct word.
"Well" said the student, "there will always be a Brit who pronouces it like me."

Citizen

Woke up, worked, went to the hairdresser, to the groceries and gonna watch Bayern München against Ajax Amsterdam tonight. Just like yesterday when PSV Eindhoven lost from Pananthinaikos, Greece (4-1).

I'm gonna cut and paste something about the Political Islam on the other page I got.
The reason is that many Islamic Dutch citizen want to start an Islamic political party.
I don't see the reason why. It's marginalization of their power. They can better vote on people who think the same in existing parties.

The writers name I got an eye on is Afshin Ellian a professor at the Amsterdam University. He was Iranian, so he knows what he talks/writes about.
Also a Dutch minister wants the dual Morroc/Dutch citizenship put to an end. She wants to talk with the Morroc King about the automatic lifetime Moroc citizenship when born in Moroc.
In her view citizen who move to the Netherlands hold on their roots and don't integrate in Dutch society because they got dual citizenship. They cannot say I'm 100% Dutch.

But not long ago when South Africa wasn't doing well, the Dutch who were there and obtained South African citizenship went back to their country of birth or CoB of their parents. They are South African too and were not really welcome here, especially the second generation. What did they do here when their country was in despair?

I agree with our Minister on the dual citizenship. You got to choose. And that's what the Morrocs can't. The Turks can however. I don't know what they do.

Tuesday

Why is the Tuesday mostly a day on which one is able to concentrate on the work?
Today was such a day of doing things with a focus, not only on the work but also on the result.
Looking around, everyone was doing one's task.
On these days time flies and you got no notion.
Tomorrow will be a day like every wednesday, like groundhogday. Yeah, it's almost weekend.

A colleague was in Chinese restaurant to compose his meal of differerent kinds of food.
He was thinking what to order and looked at the lady at the other side of the desk, when the Chinese saw him thinking, she asked "you want me now?"
On which he answered "no, no, not yet, first I like to order some food."

Smelling the odeur of bacteria

I worked and am tired. When I came home I was overwhelmed with a bad smell. It came from the bathroom, or should I say showercloset, the drain of the shower was stopped with hair balls of me, what a penetrating discusting smell. Bacteria like it very much.

IPOT

I made a simple running-blog (ipot.blogspot.com). Also I linked -jansblog- and -ipot- to blogexplosion.
I listened to the radio this afternoon and heard that my football club (FC Groningen) and the City club (FC Utrecht) both lost their game.

Spoken about loosing. My 17 inch flatscreen monitor lost very sudden contact. The image on the screen turn into horizontal lines and turn grey/green. Maybe it's the cable, maybe the screen itself. Another 17 inch screen worked perfectly on my computer. So I got a back in case I have to repair the screen.

update: too small blogs with less than 2 postings won't be accepted with blogexplosion.com

Turkey an EU member?

Turkey is one of the big issues in international politics concerning the European Union. Turkey wants to be EU member. But not the complete EU want Turkey to take part in the political and economical structure.
Some pro's and contra's arise talking about Turkey being a full EU memeber.

The following is a contribution from a report of a COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES:

The clear position of the European Union with regard to Turkey’s status as candidate country and the conditions for the possible opening of negotiations were reconfirmed by the Brussels European Council meeting in June 2004, which concluded that:

“The Union reaffirms its commitment that if the European Council decides in December
2004, on the basis of a report and recommendation from the Commission, that Turkey fulfils the Copenhagen political criteria, the EU will open accession negotiations with Turkey without delay.”


Summary assessment
Accession of Turkey to the Union would be challenging both for the EU and Turkey. If well managed, it would offer important opportunities for both. The necessary preparations for accession would last well into the next decade. The EU will evolve over this period, and Turkey should change even more radically. The acquis will develop further and respond to the needs of an EU of 27 or more. Its development may also anticipate the challenges and opportunities of Turkey’s accession.

Based on current EU policies and knowledge, the Commission has identified the following main issues for the coming years:

• Turkey’s accession would be different from previous enlargements because of the
combined impact of Turkey’s population, size, geographical location, economic,
security and military potential, as well as cultural and religious characteristics. These factors give Turkey the capacity to contribute to regional and international stability.
Expectations regarding EU policies towards these regions will grow as well, taking
into account Turkey’s existing political and economic links to its neighbours. Much
will depend on how the EU itself will take on the challenge to become a fully fledged
foreign policy player in the medium term in regions traditionally characterised by
instability and tensions, including the Middle East and the Caucasus.

• Turkey is at present going through a process of radical change, including a rapid
evolution of mentalities. It is in the interest of all that the current transformation
process continues. Turkey would be an important model of a country with a majority
Muslim population adhering to such fundamental principles as liberty, democracy,
respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law.

• The economic impact of Turkey’s accession on the EU would be positive but
relatively small, both due to the modest size of the Turkish economy and to the degree of economic integration already existing before accession. Much will depend on future economic developments in Turkey. The launch of accession negotiations should help the continued efforts of Turkey to ensure macroeconomic stability and promote investment, growth and social development. Under these conditions, Turkey’s GDP is expected to grow more rapidly than the EU average.

• Accession of Turkey, a lower middle income country, would increase regional
economic disparities in the enlarged EU in a way similar to the most recent
enlargement, and would represent a major challenge for cohesion policy. Turkey
would qualify for significant support from the structural and cohesion funds over a
long period of time. A number of regions in present Member States benefiting from
structural funds support could lose their eligibility on the basis of present rules.

• The integration of Turkey into the internal market would be beneficial. This depends, however, not only on the fulfilment of present obligations under the customs union but also on more horizontal reforms, such as strengthening corporate governance and regulatory frameworks, intensifying the fight against corruption, and significantly improving the functioning of the judiciary.

• With over three million, Turks constitute by far the largest group of third-country
nationals legally residing in today’s EU. Available studies give varying estimates of
expected additional migration following Turkey’s accession. Appropriate transitional
provisions and a permanent safeguard clause could be considered to avoid serious
disturbances on the EU labour market. However, the population dynamics of Turkey
could make a contribution to offsetting the ageing of EU societies. In this context, the EU also has a strong interest in that reforms and investments should be made in
education and training in Turkey over the next decade.

• Agriculture is one of the most important economic and social sectors in Turkey and
would need special attention. Continuous rural development efforts and an upgrading
of administrative capacity would be required from Turkey to create as favourable
conditions as possible to participate successfully in the common agricultural policy.
Turkey would need time to make a number of agricultural sectors more competitive.
Turkey would need considerable time in order to avoid substantial income losses for
Turkish farmers. Under present policies Turkey would be eligible for substantial
support. In the veterinary area, major efforts would have to be made to improve the
animal health situation and controls at the eastern borders in order to avoid serious
problems upon accession.

• Turkey’s accession would help to secure better energy supply routes for the EU. It
would probably necessitate a development of EU policies for the management of
water resources and the related infrastructure. Because of their sometimes
considerable trans-boundary effects, good implementation by Turkey of other EU
policies in the fields of environment, transport, energy and consumer protection would also have considerable positive effects for EU citizens elsewhere.

• The management of the EU’s long new external borders would constitute an important
policy challenge and require significant investment. Managing migration and asylum
as well as fighting organised crime, terrorism, trafficking of human beings, drugs and arms smuggling would all be facilitated through closer cooperation both before and after accession.

• The budgetary impact of Turkish membership to the EU can only be fully assessed
once the parameters for the financial negotiations with Turkey have been defined in
the context of the financial perspectives from 2014 onwards. The nature and amount
of transfers to Turkey would depend on a number of changing factors, such as the
EU’s policies and any special arrangements agreed with Turkey in the negotiations as
well as the budgetary provisions in place at that time, in particular the overall
budgetary ceiling. However, it is clear that the budgetary impact on the basis of
present policies would be substantial.

• As to the institutions, Turkey’s accession, assessed on the basis of the Constitution, would significantly affect the allocation of European Parliament seats of current Member States, in particular the medium sized and large countries. In the Council, Turkey would have an important voice in the decision making process in view of its population share which would be reflected in the Council voting system. The impact in terms of the Commission would be less important given the planned reduction of the members of the Commission from 2014 onwards.

It's surely a challenge to have Turkey within the EU. But it's a complete fiasco if the Turks don't fit in. Maybe it's purily political. For economical purposes we don't have to do it. Both sides don't benefit from it because the economical relationship is "okay" at the moment. The United States of America might benefit from it for political reasons and this isn't good for the status of Turkey in the EU.

My critisism is that Turkey doesn't really understand the ethics of Europe. Why do the Turks need so much critisism to change. Don't they understand torturing prisoners isn't toleratable? This is only one "minor" problem. What do they do with the Kurds and their imprisoned leader Ocelan?
The largest part of Turkey, east of the Bosporus, isn't Europe at all, but Eurasia.
Maybe not an argument but Alexander would have liked it.

Smile, It's Friday, Almost Weekend

Today was a quiet Friday. I slept, worked, ran, ate, watched the tele, played a wargame on the internet, filled the washingmachine and did the laundry.
Finally I'll go to sleep again.

But, I ran immediately after work.
When I put on my trainingshoes my mind was completely set on running.
After a warming up I ran 40 minutes with intervals. Followed with a cooling down. Momentarily I feel more confident than 3 runs before, however its the end of the week, the end of the first training schedule It will take some time to reach the old level of long before, when I ran 2 hours with easy on a reasonable speedlevel. Nowadays I feel a little ashamed when 2 running ladies pass me like wagging the dog. I better stop, I thought. I did some stretching when they passed me.

The dead of a prince of the Netherlands

Bernhard is dead, like Arafat is dead. I say -is dead- because he is, isn't he. He is as dead as Wendy on November 11 2004 said dead is.
Can you believe that he peacefully died? Yesterday at 18:40 he died in a hospital in the city I live.
Most likely he told the Doctors that he would have a shot of I-don't-know-what to die. He was ready to die I think. When he died his family was in Amsterdam on a party.(!!)
Bernhard, the father of our queen Beatrix died solely amongst doctors in a hospital far away from the world he lived in. The contrast is so extraordinary. Yes, he was a remarkable man. You should almost like the dead man.

Doing the right thing.

Today I went to the hospital for a medical checkup, the EEG scan. There is nothing to tell about actually. December 15 I'll hear some more about the test.
After that I worked, bought a pizza at the groceries in the shoppingmall -Kanaleneiland - instead in the shop near my house. At 6 pm I was home.

Tonight I have to do a training according to scedule. But actually I'm not in the mood for running. My legs ache. But that's no excuse.
Yesterdayevening I input the distances I cycled. I missed a distance of 64 k. The total for this year on the 2 bikes is about 3500 k right now. That should be 4000 k at December 31.

And the right thing? I don't know, for Bush it's going to church and to play a game "war on teror". But ASfM, Hnk and DfB don't think the same and you better believe them.

update:
After dinner I ran again 40 minuts I took more time after 10, 10, 10 and 10 minutes. I felt some aches before I started but when I started they disappeared. My heartbeat was high again 118 bpm decreasing to 94 bpm and now 70 bpm (at 23.00, 2 hours after training)

Very important update:
I know that I would do the right thing. At the end of the day I remember that I filled in an inquiryform on the internet and donated the revenues to the aidsfoundation on behalf of -World Aids Day-.
Normally I support Medicins Sans Frontiers aka Doctors Without Borders in English.

Tot morgen,

A hard days work

Tomorrow I try to be earlier to write, because I had something beautiful on the screen when the sytem failed posting it.

Goodnight,
Jan

Never return

Running isn't easy when you start. It's hard to take the first step.
The American James Fix said that only the first step counts. The rest will follow.
Today I had the first training of my 12-weeks scedule which hopefully leads me to run 1 hour continiously. (last Saturday I just tried my shoes)
Today I started with 40 minutes run, divided in blocks of 20, 10 and 10 minutes. Between the blocks I walked 1 minute.
I did it, I made it and now I can hardly walk 5 meters.
This week I got at least 2 more runs. (my heartbeat was 118 bpm immediately after the run. It's a hard life in the mountains.)

Now several questions and facts raise in my mind.
- Do I have also such a heartbeat on my bike?
- Is running healthy?
- How did I run 42.195 kilometer in 1995?
- 10 Years ago I had a heartbeat just after running of 80 bpm.

My conclusion of today
- Biking isn't an extreme sport.
- My running-condition isn't very good.
- 10 years ago I used my time well.
- the last 10 years are are fysically not my best years.
- I can change direction of my life but I won't return.

Saturday

This weekend got to buy runningshoes and a "spoiler" for my bike.
I bought my runningshoes and they fit immediately, the mudspoiler is for a next time, Santa Claus or Christmas.

I didn't run for a year now and when I ran in those days it was on my old shoes from the mid nineties. I had Saucony Shadow (I believe the number was 6000). Now I bought Saucony again however a different lighter type, ic Trigon 2. I hope/think the price (120 Euro) is worth it.
At 17.00 I did some running through the city, after only 30 minutes I felt my muscles, those I never use with cycling.

Hopefully the injury in my left knee stays away for a while so the knee can grow stronger.

Something else, when I was browsing I came on the Douwe Egberts site with a typical Dutch habit, saving points when buying coffee of the Dutch brand. It still exists, spaarpunten, it's like airmiles when you travel by air. Only one has to save the points from the coffee package.

Weekend again

I have been the family weatherman and now I'm living through these weeks again, again and again. Yes it's groundhogDay.

Outside maximum temperatures were on the 23rd just below freezingpoint. It was a foggy day. Cause there was no wind, temperatures didn't rise. But the day after the sun was back though it cold wasn't gone. Today temp have rissen till 8 degrees C. I'll be cycling tomorrow.

What's happening?

What's happening where? At home? In the Oekraine? In Iraq?
I don't know. Sometimes the best thing one can do is turn off radio, television and internet, read mo papers and magazines, don't speak with people and prevent hearing conversations of others.
To prevent knowing something one could get himself locked up in a prisoncell.

This is what happens to the killer of Van Gogh and the other terrorists who were arrested. Okay, bully them guards!

Wednesday

Woke up, went to work, came home, brought my cycle to the store for a first service, cooked, watched PSV reaching the 2nd round Championsleague and went to bed.

troubles, quarrels, fights

The last 5 years are relatively quiet in my personal surroundings.
There was nothing to bother about in the last 6 months. Really nothing. (?)
Of course there was. I left my mothers birthday party 6 months ago and since then I'm not on speaking terms with my brother anymore. The relationship with my mother has weakened. This all has to do with money my father owes my mother due to their divorce 25 years ago.
After going up and down again I left my father too. He met a woman with whom he started a bed & breakfast, a kind of hotel and a cafe for some years. And in July time came to repay the dept. He had to sell all on legal santion.

To tell it the short way, my mother is a millionaire, my father a clochard.
I hate it in some ways and that's what the argument is about.

911 hours, 911 days, rufen sie neun eins eins an!!

In the Netherlands we're working too much, aren't we?.
According to the Minister of Economic Affairs the workload isn't enough. We only work an average of 911 hours a year per employee! (It's funny that figure.
Notice, there are also 911 days between the murder on Pim Fortuyn (May 6 2002) and Theo van Gogh (November 2 2004).
There are many parttimers and 460,000 unemployed people. If this is a sign of the state of our country, I say Minister do something!

But for individuals the solution can't be to work longer because there is no extra work. With my 36 hours a week I've a full time job. Every extra hour may be wasted. (In a normal year I make 1692 hours.)
The average figure (911) can be increased by creating work or reducing the number of people who live in the Netherlands.

After the assault on Theo van Gogh many people want to flee the country. This is the solution of the problem of the Minister.
I think that his public servants should do some research again. Then our Minister can make his comments on a basis of new figures.

I don't mind who is leaving but I'll be relieved if a lot will go away. Maybe 8 million people is enough. 50% Can leave this small enclave at the northsea.
I'm thinking about emigrating too, not in the near future though. When I'm 60 or so, plenty of time.

New blog and running shoes

Well, I created myself a new blog. It can be found on achternamiddag, which means late in the afternoon. The site is in Dutch and I won't write as often as on Jansblog. I still will improve my English.

This morning was very cold. the first time this autumn we had some ripe on the roofs.
A colleague of mine is 1,500 Kilometers north to visit her grandmother in Sweden. I heard it is snowy out there with temp about 0 degrees celsius.

I 'm off to buy some running shoes to try it again after years of not running. My colleague mand the site of Oliver invites me to get running again. Mind that my first marathon was 3.53 hours.

Heating?

Saturday, it's dark already, the evening has fallen. It's a cozy at home. The central heater does it's work. The flames light up every now and then when the heater is triggered. It's much more cozy than the central heating were used to. What's in my house is old fashion.
But
But it's cold outside and the hail, snow and rainshowers make it uncomfortable to transport oneself on a bike through the city. Coming home, soaked or cold to the bones makes the heater very usefull.

I wonder what you all use, coales, briquetes, gaz, oil or even wood?

Not at home

I only know by now that I can use blogger at other places to blog my thoughts. At work?

Maybe at lunchtime. I have to create one blog in Dutch so OI can write quicker and express my thoughts easier.

But it's an experience to write in English.

A quote from the blogosphere

"
Hello soldier of God,

Ain't it good to go home, instead staying alive in Iraq?
In the US and elsewhere in the world you are needed, really needed. In the Iraqi turmoil you are the sitting duck which creates the terrorists (beyond the imported terrorism).

No, you can better go home and prevent abortion, prevent killing the unborn child. Wake up and kill the useless doctors, the abortionists. Become a radical christian, instead of being a wise guy in a place where you don't belong. Use the bible as your weapon and kill ritually with your own hands.

Yeah, you want more killings of the unrighteous in the streets, unchristian people, with a different believe or no believe at all.
Pray that it won't be you who is going to die because there is so much to accomplish for your dear god. Praise the orthodoxy.
Keep on worshipping, the last days might be upon you.

Proboscis monkey
"

Surprizes?

The week is full of surprizes. Name one? Uhhh?
Well, for instance Hnk has a sister who has a blog too. Remember they are only 15 and 16 years old.
My sadness of yesterday was no real surprize if one considers this blog as a job too. But a night sleep and doing some other work also helped. Though the underlying cause is still there.

The fact that Margereth Hassan was murdered makes Iraq look like a country at war... boing!!! Yes, that's an understatement!
But I hope those murderers don't gain support from her bruteless execution.

When I looked at where my pageviews came from I noticed this - Lockheed-Martin Corporation, United States.

Lockheed and the Netherlands that can't go together. Lockheed bribeb prince Bernard of the Netherlands. With other words the now 93 years old Bernard wasn't as reliable as we thaught he was. And now she reached the final stage in life. He has cancer and won't be helped.

World, don't suffer and have a calm night.

Depressed

I felt very uncomfortable in my job the last couple of days. It weren't off-days but I felt a little depressed. I feel a lack of concentration. Did I sleep too little? I think so, according to this log the weekends were not full of sleep and to get enough sleep vitamins I got to use the weekends.
Yes I know I am boring.

Size matters

The 7.5 gigabyte photograph of TNO Delft might be the largest digital panoramic view in the world.
It might take some time to upload. Size matters.

Things you do when you're free

The weekend was good for me.
I read some newspapers, a book, cooked delicious meals, bought some pants, made a showercurtain in my small badroom, did some household tasks (I should get a wife or a housekeeper ;) ), repaired the light on my bike and cycled a short distance with beautiful weather.

And today nothing really happened.

History

In land we gained from the sea (the Flevopolder) a canon was found last week.
The canon is in a very rusty shape and old (16th century). When it'll be restorated, the canon is another example of life before creating a lake from a sea.
In those days when it was the bottom of the sea ships sailed there to go from Amsterdam to Frisia (Friesland), Kampen, Hardewich (Harderwijk).
At the shore near the findingplace of the remains of the ship there were 2 castles and maybe there was warfare too to control the seaway and the trade between the villages, cities of the Republic of the Seven Provinces of the Netherlands.

Update:
cycle stats:
about 26 k
about 1 hr
(counter didn't work)

Yassar Arafat

Wendy signals the media used the passive tense about the bad condition of Y. Arafat. In the USA it maybe came without a warning. But Arafat went to Paris Percy military hospital. And there were the rumours as if he slipped into a coma. After days the world knew Arafat was in coma and that the medics were almost planning the day he could die. That's the day of Yassar Arafats dead.
Arafat had many enemies, less true friends. The only friend he had were his brothers in arms. Arafat was a terrorist who became a dictator and in between he was best possible option to gain peace in the middle east.
From the spokesman of the French hospital I heard this:
"Mesdames et messieurs, ce matin a trois heure et demi Yassar Arafat a décédé."

A décédé, has died, Arafat dead, it's all the same but the tone is somehow different. Don't wonder why.

I gonna read my book, Hotel Honolulu.

As Samawa

Also at the playground, but most important is that children have enough food. The pity of the UN embargo achieved that Saddam Hussein didn't feed the Iraqi children.
the dude was here too

repairing childrens playground

Happy children in As Samawa.
the dude was here too

Pulling out our troops

In Iraq the Dutch have a contingent of about 1450 soldiers.
The Dutch were ambivalent about staying or leaving when we've done our term.
Well, the ministers have decided to withdraw the Dutch military in the second half of March. All according to plan.

It might be sad for the people of the provinde of Al Muthanna. Anyway we are occupiers and got to go as soon as possible.

A disgusting and sick chairman.

The Dutch political party LPF has a chairman in Rotterdam who tells real f*cking lies. He told the police of threatenings of himself, his party and its members by an Islamic group.
Police investigated the statement and concluded that the chairman himself made the threatenings under the name of an Islamic group.

Well, it's -Sint Maarten- here. A kind of Halloween. Trick or treat.
It's tricky nowadays.

What is going on?

Tonight there was a shooting in The Hague. 3 Persons barricaded a house when the police wanted to arrest them. They threw a grenade at the cops. Followed by gunfire.
3 Policemen were injured. After another shooting police negogiated with the men. Where they come from isn't clear. But the media says they are North Africans. In the late afternoon police overwhelmed the unknown gunners. At least one was wounded.
The Dutch National Criminal Investigation possibly had interest in the people in the house. They were linked with the murderer of Van Gogh.
In the evening 2 arrests were made.

Yesterday an Islamic school was attacked and set on fire. It burned down . This has a link to the Van Gogh murder and the White Power-thing. So this is racism too. And what do we do? We only worry because we can express ourself. In fact we don't say what we want to say to the Dutch authorities. Only on October 2 there were 300,000 people screaming when our rights were at stake. But now the right to feel secure is in danger and we just do nothing.... Whose schools are set on fire? Don't we have to support them?

In my province there has been one arrest related to the The Hague incident.
There are networks in The Netherlands relating fundamental Islamic groups, at least police think there are. Shown the things happened, one must bear that in mind. The Islamic people are afraid too, as many confessional and non-confessional Dutch are. An assault of a certain brigarde doesn't discriminate.
These cells are the sick minds, filled with hate and anger.

At work there was a discussion between our chef and the oldest employee. They had different opinions. That was a funny thing to see. A boss who has to admit she can't agree, but also I agreed with my boss.

Work was a piece of cake again.
I'm also working on the reinvestment. (bankingstuff)

So I'm off duty now at 23.15 pm.
Goodnight, have a nice day.

Commuting and more

In a newspaper I read today was an article about unemployment, finding a job and being prepared to remove for a job.

In The Netherlands people aren't prepared to move 200 kilometers West to accept a new job for which they're overqualified. Of course there are exceptions. My downstairs neighbor is from the east and came to Utrecht some 30 years ago. (certainly not common in the mid seventies)

My family went south cause my father followed the employer. (early seventies) But later on we went north again.
My brother accepted a job via a jobagency at the westcoast of the country in the late nineties. And I found a job after being unemployed for a year in the mid of The Netherlands. (August 2002)
To stay in this job of me I had to travel 400 k, 5 hours a day. There aren't many people who do that voluntary. But in the USA there are lots of them, aren't there?

I just heard that the Italian mr. Buttiglioni, one of the possible European Union commissioners, was the right hand man of pope John Paul II.
If the Commission was put forward and being chosen by the EU parliament then the possibility existed that catholic influences would slip into the decisionmaking process of the European Union.
That means the end of a secular society.

One has to be so cautious by electing final decisionmakers. The various cultures in the EU are a big problem if they all wanna have a big slice of the pizza. Small nations living in a subculture which doesn't fit in anywhere have to take or leave the EU. It depends on if the EU is valuable for them or not.

Pogrom?
What means the Russian word pogrom?
It happened to the jews in Nazi Germany.
Now it happens in The Netherlands on the Muslim community.
One school burned down to the ground, other attempts are made.
Hopefully police can dam this flow of agression. (I must say I was also a little fucked up in the beginning) It's wrong.
On the other side there might be a Muslim brigade called Al Tawheed brigade who says that they will revenge the attacks on people and authorities.

Wooooh I'm trilled ;-)
Fuck Christian and Islam fundamentalism!!!

last 10 visits
1. 9 November 09:42 Department of Veterans Affairs, United States
2. 9 November 15:52 Qwest Communications Int., United States
3. 9 November 18:14 Wanadoo Nederland B.V., Netherlands, The
4. 9 November 18:17 United States (nfor.com)
5. 9 November 18:32 America Online, United States
6. 9 November 18:34 Allegiance Telecom Inc., United States
7. 9 November 18:35 AT&T, United States
8. 9 November 18:46 State of Tennessee, United States
9. 9 November 20:59 Wanadoo Nederland B.V., Netherlands, The
10. 9 November 21:05 State of Tennessee, United States

I wonder who they are. Anyway thanks passing by.

The weekend was worth it

Monday... A workingday.... It's done.... I didn't feel well... Didn't sleep enough. Fridaynight 5 hours, Saturday 7 hours and Sunday 6.5 hours.
This weekend was worth it, though I cycled too little.

The news was hot this weekend. There were many opinionmakers to talk about the Van Gogh slaughter.
Personally I'm afraid that the neighborhood won't be safe at night anymore. We must be aware of pogroms on possessions of Moroc-Dutch citizens.
I appreciate the fact that the Moroc people have absolutely rejected and disapproved the murder. They disgust it as much as the Dutch do.

To quote Wendy..

"So, for now at least, I am going to give up blogging. Maybe this will be temporary, maybe it will be permanent, I don't know yet. ...." according to Wendy. Wonder how long she enjoys life without blogging.

Today at noon I watched a political programm, after that I cycled an hour (beautiful autumn-like weather).
In the next months I hope to start reading again. For a start I bought a novel of Paul Theroux.

Stats
26.29 k
28.96 k/hr
54:30 min
40 k/hr (max)
483 k (total on new bike)

first pictures -exploring the track-

The cycling team Ledig Erf.
The third rider with the red helmet is me.
You can find more on http://www.ledigerf.nl/fietsclub/ choose foto's 2004 and scroll to the bottom of the page.

from hnk's blog of November 6 I learned this
"tuesday:
Here I am, write to you again, in spite of the bad situation around me...yesterday when I heard that boush won and the American soldiers will began to attack al_faluja, I began to cry and I couldn't stop, and my head ache me, So I went to bed without finishing my homework as should I do,in the morning when we went to school there was check point, That give me a little moment to look to the book and check my information, When we were in the road to school, One of the girls who is with us in this taxi shout" oooh look at our school, it is not there"We look to her and wonder" what she is talking about?" that is not our school, That is one of many building that Americans destroyed it in the war.some times you feel that you are not in the same area that you lived all yor life."

I think this is an alarmous symptom of the war on terrorism.
Remind Hnk is a 15/16 year old girl.

the dude was here too

Do you Care?

It was a wonderful day. After work I went to the city center to buy clothes and as I am a typical male I don't do that often and I actually don't like it. But tonight the city center was crowded because of the weekly Thursday shoppingevenings. Also much police was on the street. Maybe it had to do with the international football game between FC Utrecht and Djnepropetrovk from Russia.

In town I had a short talk with a fundraiser of Care Netherlands a branch of Care international. They don't advertise, maybe the reason why I didn't know the name as a humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. However the are known globally because Margareth Hassan is taken hostage in Iraq.
As I do have many visitors from all over the world (especially USA at the moment), visit Care too.

update: October 16 2004 Margareth Hassan is shot by her hostagetakers.

At the moment the police arrested 8 people in the assault on Van Gogh.
They seem to be very radical Islamic according to the notes on Van Goghs body. The sheepsuckers (Van Gogh called them sheepfuckers) from the Rif area in Morocco against the free western world. (the Madrid and Casablanca assault was the work of Moroc attackers)
It tends to be a fight between religions.
Maybe this is a war of the gods. The Islamic God hurt the Christian world on Tuesday and now the Islamic God is almost down one with Yassar Arafat's dead.
Let me just watch the ballgame between the gods. The war on both worlds.
You can find me on a hill with the most spectacular view.

Speak English lads,

......Jan is coming, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
When I pass by my colleagues they often say these words. It must be because of my blog. I have to smile about that.
Yes, the future is less bright, democratic America lost. Kerry accepted his defeat.
It's a pity for the world, it's a pity for America.
But let's keep our heads up. Be proud to defend your values and morals as a democrate. I'm proud to be European-Dutch.
(Oops, I becoming more and more a nationalist)

It must be the murder of Theo Van Gogh which my changed my attitude to the world, Muslim fundamentalism and the need of freedom of speech.
Van Gogh was our opinionmaker, he spit out what wasn't allowed to be said. He was a revolutionary, but nobody dare to follow. He was the fool in the village, everyone knew him and no one would harm.
He did his work to come up for our rights of freedom of speech by the art work Submission part-1.

This day was not a day of laughter. Sadness came over me.
Yeah, but I won a trophy for rider with most bad luck.

Don't grieve too long over there...
We don't too.

Theo van Gogh murdered on November 2

This is important very bad news. I heard at work there was a shooting in Amsterdam. One person died, a policeman was wounded.

I couldn't imagine it was Theo van Gogh. Right, he has his own opinion about fascism, left democrats, islam and movies.
Shot by a Muslim Moroc guy of 26, religious slaughtered with a knife, 2 knives in his brest and belly with a written pamphlet, another shots.
This is intolerable revenge likely because Van Gogh said trivial things about the Islam.
He was writer, producer, moviemaker, opninionleader/maker, the Dutch Michael Moore.
One of his latest protest, a movies of 15 minutes called submission-part 1 was really an anti-Islamic pamphlet. It's a movie in which the negative consequences of Islam for many women are visible in the with sentences from the Koran calligraphed body of a female. Submission is a protest.
Maybe that is the reason he's killed, murdered, slaughtered by an anonym islamofascist.

What can we do?
We don't alter our moral because of the islamofascist. Anyway we don't change. We shall not give in because of terror.
Our enfant terrible is our enfant terrible, what the murderer did is unforgivable.
In what kind of world are we living? In one tolerance is dying?
I don't wanna be a right wing adept, but I don't tolerate much right now.

Stupid people got no reason......to live?

a reaction on someone's weblog

Jesus Christ have you ever been abroad? Europe is not very happy with your Dumbya..Okay that's not your opinion. Your attitude is "Of course we know the Last Days are upon us,....". That's the worst I ever heard.

A doomsday scenario...what will you do to prevent it? Praying to God as hard as you can? You think to simplistic.
What you should do is paying respect to the world. To those Iraqi and Afgan people.
Respect people who think different and don't believe in any God.
Last days scenario, I think that you fogs in America who have this thought don't know history (America has no history like Europe has).

In Europe we got to go back to the middle ages when there where terrible diseases, bad harvests, cold winters, wars, thieves, criminals and people like you believing in the end of the days.Well Europe came out of it and how. It discovered the world and indeed America.
Europe had golden era, ages and The Netherlands ruled the seas.
And now you're talking about a last days scenario. Yeah sure, Dumbya is one of your saints.

Stupid! Sign the Kyoto protocol. Do whatever you can to save the world and leave it a little better for future generations.

Back to normal!

* It is said that America will gain respect of the world again when Kerry wins;
* It is said that prime minister Balkenende of The Netherlands owes his position to the worldpolici of Bush;
* It is said that there will be a massive chance in attitude to the world if Bush remains in power;
* It is said that Bush will appologize for the things he said to the European people;
* It is said that these election will be mean when voting and counting the votes;
* It is said that losing elections Bush will drink again.....

Americans Bon Chance in voting your president!

I've got a photograph of a drive-in movie theatre. Chevrolets, Cadillacs, Buicks, etcetera are parked in front of a screenplay; An airplane and beneath the plaines of waving grass. Maybe a testflight, you know the cold war, at the end of the 50's.
On the background, limiting the area of the drive-in cinema, a huge locomotive (nr 1242) with wagons, all of Norfolk and Western.

What did I do today.... uhhh checking invoices, checking maintenance cost of yet another creditor. They got a lot of wrong posts in their invoice.
Many of the clients who have a wheelchair are dead and buried a long time ago. Why do they still invoice the cost of maintenance? Because we don't do our work correctly? Partly, these checks should have been implemented long ago. But also the creditor didn't take the right action when the reveiced a letter to pick up the wheelchair from the clients address and termininate the contract. That includes terminating the maintenance cost.

It's getting dark at 5.30 pm. Summertime is over. Back to normal!

big black flies

When I spoke the neurologist the other day I told the reason of my visit was the strange feelings in my head. Like a black fly caged against the window making a lot of noise with it's wings. It must be a big black fly warning for another attack? I don't know, the medical literature writes about smell sensations, not about big black flies.

Maybe I should laugh more because laughing means relaxing and that's what one's scarfed mind needs.

weekend

I don't go to the North. Yesterday I cancelled it. I am too tired.
So much to do and so many things on my mind.

well the weekend will be an easy one. A little bit cycling on my own. The temp. is good and the sun shines. It's autumn.

But now to the groceries.

Neurologist

This afternoon I went to the neurologist. The hospital were he works is only a few blocks from my work. Actually it is as close to my home.
When I was there I waited 10 minutes or so when the co-assistant asked to follow her. She told that because I was a new patient for the doctor-neurologist she had to examine me. Well, all she did was okay. The only remark I can make is that it took her much time to write her conclusions down. Oh yes, she was a keen, beautiful girl.

After 2 hours I visited the neurologist. With the symptoms I had lately and the fact that my medications haven't been adjusted ever he thought that a EEG-scan should be a proper continuation.(December 7). The result of the scan (higher brain activity) may result in a higher doses depakine. Right now the doses is low (1000 mg/day).
After the scan we got to test the level that should do (December 16). This will take at least 14 days.

I learned also one thing about epilepsy; 10% of the people with epilepsy may have a status epilepticus. An epileptic attack that repeats itself. It's harmful for ones brains. I don't know why he told that. It only makes a desicion more difficult because there is a huge threat.
After asking questions it appears to be not harmful to change the doses. And a status epilepticus could happen to anyone as anything could happen. Certainly in these days when nothing seems to be certain.

When I came back at the office it was almost 15.30; after talking what happened at the hospital, doing a little work and clean my desk I went home at almost 16:45. I get so tired of these days. It's time for weekend.
I'll be in the North part of the country. Gonna see my mum and her lover on occasion of his birthday.

Enjoy your weekend.

autumn

I'm tired of this day. I worked like a dog but time passed by slowly. Maybe that's good, so one can spend more time on one's job. But is annoying when the board have decided to implement a new version of the programm I use which cannot perform on my screen. The resolution can be adjusted but the size is real small then. Get a headache out of it.

This afternoon we were informed that the board already knew it when they were working on the new version. As there is a substitution of computer workstations and screens in March-June 2005 earlier replacements weren't necessary. We could work with unappropriate computers. We were a little pissed about that, but happy that 19 inch flatscreens will be put on our desks.

More happened at my work but later about that.
Got to make my daily trip to the groceries. Don't know what to eat.
It got to be fresh, full of vitamins. Maybe let's eat a real Dutch winter meal wich consists of potatoes, unions, cabbage and a German sausage.

Dallas

In 1978 the legendary TV-series Dallas started. J.R., miss Elly, Bobby, Jock, Sue Ellen, Pamela Barnes Ewing, Cliff Barnes are some of the characters.
Next month a DVD with the first episodes will be released.
On my work we had at lunch a sort of trivia. It's amazing how many trivial question one can get out of such a series. Also how people still know after 20 years what went on in Dallas. And now people work on Dallas-the movie. Arghhh, don't do that, you ruin -nostalgia-

Today I worked, had a break, worked, had a coffee break, worked, looked out of the window and noticed it was time to go.

In the late afternoon I cycled for an hour. It was about 12 degrees C, the wind was east, a dry cold wind, and it was largely cloudy.

stats:
31.52 k
31.44 k/hr
1.00.12 hr
42 k/hr (max)
456 k (total new bike)

27,060 k (total)

After cycling and going to the groceries I made dinner, delicious again (Argentinian beef with pasta and a salad of cumcumber, tomatoes and iceberg-lettuce. As a dessert I had a tee with chocolate.)

To spend the rest of your life in prison

A weird story to be framed. She looks to be a freaky woman in an unknown horror movie.

It could be worse though. Almost a year ago 2 bodies were discovered in a stall of a childrens farm in Baarn, a small place near Utrecht. The police investigated the case and found the manager of the farm as the main suspect of a murdercase. But the police couldn't tell who the victims were. Nobody was missing. With the suspect the police found out that he lived in the house of people who were gone to a monastery in Belgium according to locals and the man in question. They were not seen for 4 years.

The suspect said that he was asked to take care of the house as long as they were gone. Police didn't have any evidence that the statement wasn't true. Examination learned that the bodies were indeed of the man and woman who owned the house. They were murdered. Further investigation learned that there were no traces of direct evidence.

But in the seventies the suspect was put in jail because of the disappearance of a woman. He also lived in the house of the missing person. After a while he was set free because there was no evidence.

This time the court of Justice found him guilty of murder. Now he spends the rest of his life in prison.

Broadcast, disagreement, integrity

There are several subjects to discuss.

• The latest broadcasting of VPRO's - tegenlicht- which nobody of my American readers watched. But it is all about you Americans, about the way Fox News is cheating, collaborating, indoctrinating and not bringing news in a free objective way. Americans should know better....;
• Also I can discuss the way my colleague and I have had a disagreement this afternoon about the way I put away some work I had to do when I got back from a meeting;
• Finally I can discuss the integrity meeting which had to do a lot about nothing. We discussed the way how we should look at integrity at work an off work. At the end 60 percednt signed a integrity agreement. Hurrah, I belong to a minority.

I'm not exhausted of this working day but it should not last any longer. Now I'm going to cook my dinner (meatballs, salad, potatos and desert after). I have to do my laundry (wasmachine and clear away finished laundry)

I wonder how many people visit the site this time. It should be nice to leave a message behind.

Hé fogs, there is a lot of snow on mount St. Helens

Some people say

• that I'm a quite good rider;
• that I'll soon gonna quit this blog;
• that Bush is doing a good job for Europe;
• that I should visit Denmark, France and Belgium more often;
• that Fox news doesn't bring the news but their own right wing opinion.

I say Fox news should shut up. (Luckily I don't pay for that fair and balanced news)

Fair and balanced news, that's an understatement.!!!

Hunterbyrd is probably watching Fox news. What does he think of sex before marriage, gay's, rifles, Kyoto treaty?

No price and no prize

At 11 am all riders of cycleteam Ledig Erf joined at the café. From there we cycled to the track were the time trial should take place. First we rode the track all together. Only 4 turns and 2 crossings.
When the startlist was made up we could start.
I was 15 th in line and after 15 minutes it was my turn to go.
I missed the third turn and when I noticed it was about 800 meters later. So I cycled at least 1500 meters too much. When I told it the referee said it was possible to cycle again. No way, I told him. But when the last riders of the doubles (2 riders in a team) were started 40 minutes later I could have another chance. I took that chance and instead the 21.38 I did the track (10.1 kilometer) in 18.21.
This means an average of 33.02 kilometer an hour. That's satisfactory.
I thanked for the honour of the nomination for the prize for most bad luck.

After the statistics of today I can only guess;
65 k
26 k/hr
2.5 hours
47 k/hr
425

buenos diaz,
Jan

Mr. Bush 4 more years? Referendum, Dutch Disease

Mr. Bush stay in office for another 4 years for the sake of Europe. You unite Europe to decide on global issues.
The strength of the Euro, the weakness of the dollar, the results on international political stage, Europe got to thank you mr G. W. Bush. Go to -the globalist- and read the full story by Richard Phillips. In his own way he's quite right.

On the site of the political party PvdA I wrote some comments on the party referendum and the cuts on social spending. Sorry it's all in Dutch (need a translation program?)

"Politieke raadpleging een farce

geplaatst door 15-10-2004
Gedacht dat PvdA leden politiek bewust zijn. Valt dat tegen! 19000 mensen slechts, 30 % heeft de moeite genomen om in 2 minuten telefonisch te stemmen voor de 1e ledenraadpleging, valt dat tegen!

Wat ook tegen valt is het percentage van 15 om
de uitslag als uitspraak van de leden te zien. Ik had gedacht dat de PvdA zijn doelen wel hoger mag stellen. Zo win je geen verkiezingen. Met zo'n doel bereik je te weinig. Misschien was dat lage percentage om je politiek in te dekken
tegen een falende raadpleging? Ik denk het. "


"Dutch Disease

geplaatst op 23-10-2004
Toen in de jaren 70 de Slochteren aardgasbel
volop werd geëxploiteerd waanden wij ons de Arabieren van het Westen, onze sociale voorzieningen werden uitgebreid en werden steeds rianter. Dit kon niet goed gaan en nu bereiken wij een omslagpunt, de hoge kosten van de sociale voorzieningen kunnen we niet handhaven. Dit is de Dutch Disease.

Er moet bezuinigd worden en dat doet pijn. De gasprijs is gekoppeld aan de olieprijs.
Dat is leuk als je, zoals we doen, veel exporteert, maar ontkoppel als het de binnenlandse vraag betreft. De extra bate uit de hoge prijs kan m.i. wel gebruikt worden om een gedeeltelijke gasprijstijging in de gezinsconsumptie op te vangen,
energie is duur dat moeten we accepteren.Als Nederland moeten we beseffen dat we duur zijn. Ons sociaal beleid is daar mede de oorzaak van.

Want hoezo is de belasting hoog, onze sociale premies zijn pas hoog! Dutch Disease: we need a doctor! "

Jan

De Grote Markt

In the city where I studied is a webcam overseeing the square just before the Martini Churchtower (>100 meter) in the city of Groningen, the Netherlands. If you watch it you see the different architectural styles. The uppereast side and left northside were completely destroyed in april 1945 when Canadians freed Groningen and Germans heavily restisted.
The southside is the only side (right on the frames) what left of the beautiful Grote Markt (main square).

It's raining and cold outside. Wonder how many people will do the time trial tomorrow if the same weather continuous.

And now I'll have a cup of coffee.

Party

A picture of the after work party on October 7, but most of my colleages didn't want to go public. (from left to the right partly visible Els, Jan, Martijn, Gert Jan, Hanneke, Bas, partly Marco and Michael)

the dude was there too

just cycling

As there is a time trial next Sunday I cycle short distances. Not real fast but actually to get feeling with my new bike.

October 19
12.33 k
28.22 k/hr
26.16 hr (minutes and seconds)
43 k/hr (max. speed)
344 k (total distance new bike)
3,238 k (total distance 2004)
26,948 k (total distance since July 1998)

October 21
16.29 k
30.86 k/hr
31.42 hr
45 k/hr
360 k
3,254 k
26,964 k

ING New York City Marathon

ING New York City Marathon

Okay here is the link to the NY marathon. I heard from people who ran this race that it's an overwhelming experience. I think that every marathon where ever one runs it is an experience in it's own way. No marathon can be compared with another.
I ran the Rotterdam Marathon (1995) and did an enormous amount of half marathons. None can be compared.

But okay, New York is also James Fix's marathon and he is the founding father of my running carreer. So NY will mean something.

working day

A dull but wonderful day this time. Yes, in my opinion it can match together.
It was a busy day starting at 8.20. I worked with almost no break till 4 pm and after that I had a meeting of 2 hours with my accountmanager. It was about my investment policy. There will be a reallocation of assets.
That's not a normal everyday action. It will take some time to do so.

I'm tired right now. I wrote this in different words just before but is was lost in transport. But when I viewed my blog it was all there allready.

Time trial

Next Sunday, October 24 the cyclists of Ledig Erf do have a time trial as closure of the season. I 'd like to be there, so I be there. But I won't be at the afterparty. Don't like that to much and the 25th I have to be fresh. Then we have at work a presentation about integrity at work. Maybe it's very conservative to think that integrity has to come from within. It has to do with your own attitude, maybe even your upbringing, the way you behave yourself.

A week later I'll visit my mother and her friend on occasion of his birthday next Sunday. Yesterday when I called my mother I heard that my brother has a burn out.
He is completely not interested in his work at ING. He had a wonderful job at ING (Sponsor of the ING New York Marathon) but now he has to do to much. He just can't stand the pressure.
6 Months before he spoke about a job with ING Australia. Yeah that should be something. My brother is into surfing, you have to know. Well it's a Mecca there (except the sharks).

Today I had a dull day. Had to make a list of post which we are wrongly accounted for. Also made some others lists. My -to do- list is a little shorter. Tomorrow I gonna pay some accounts.
What a job.

This afternoon till the evening I had a meeting with my accountmanager.
I make a change in my investments. So we discussed what funds they are gonna be.
I'll withdraw some money out of individual stocks into investmentfunds, like high fidelity or/and other funds.
My basis is wide area of securities. On top of this pyramid there gonna be some stock with a secure cashflow.

Tonight is footballnight. Rosenborg AK-PSV Eindhoven 1-1 (1st half)
Trivianight is somewhere else: look for: http://www.sarahackerman.blogspot.com/

action and reaction

- Americans are spoiled?

Yes certainly, Spoiled in my point of view, materialistically spoiled. How much do you care about the well being of the world? Kyoto? Never heard of? There is a huge gap between Europe and the USA. You can call it an ocean. But that's to easy. It's the attitude to life. In Europe we're living more on a basis of personal growth. Not material growth. We aren't lived bij economic figures.

- Who is it that gets 4-6 weeks of state-mandated paid vacation per year, not to mention, in some European countries, a 35 hour work week? Wouldn't they actually be more accurately referred to as "spoiled?"

4-6 weeks vacation, oh yes I know what you mean. I get 24 days. But my salary is much lower than in a compared profession in the USA. We pay an enormous part of our wages to social benefits.Something that differs from the USA.

- Europeans have hated us for many decades and its not hard to find lots of examples.

You have to learn the difference between hate and dislike. Why do you name none of those examples?

- Their only hope is to follow the lead of the "new" european countries like Poland (who, by the way, likes us because they know we saved them from the Soviets) and embrace capitalism enthusiastically.

I beg you pardon, East Germany had elections some weeks ago, do you know the results? Who is it you think who tries to get the people of former Eastern Europe involved in the EU. Don't you think capitalism has also bad results? Here capitalism isn't holy.

- The Euros and their economy are, to put it bluntly, screwed.They have cheerfully handed out more and more generous social program benefits over the past 50 years, largely due to the fact that American taxpayers were providing their military defense needs free of charge, permitting their governments to afford those handouts,

I know that you wanted to keep the Russians out. But you should better fight in the pacific if there should be any war. Okay the Marshall help after the 2nd World War was needed very much. The economy was down and needed an impuls. My grandparants were thankfull but the next generations don't owe you thank you's. No way! In staed of that you should come to Europe and experience the European and/or Dutch way of living. So completely different.

- and the citizenry is now going collectively nuts over the prospect that these benefits (that's "entitlements" for you folks reading this stateside) MUST be cut back in order to confront undeniable economic realities such as those discussed in this article.

To keep our economy sound we surely have to cut our public spending, that's true, but you are not aware of the Dutch situation. That has nothing to do with the fact America paid for defense. Did you ever hear of the Dutch Disease.It seems that the social epenses explode when one nation hits a natural gas reserve. That expansion has to be cut.Also the debt of the whole EU is nothing compared with US debt. Mainly you live on deficits, for a conservative that should be a crime because even your great grand-children will feel the pain of paying back that deficit. How do you deal with that problem?

- Schroder is about to pay the political price for facing this very reality. A lot of European politicians are about the pay a similar price in the next few years.

You know what happenend in 1989 when the Berlin Wall fell? The East German people were enthusiastic about the Wiedervereinigung. They had certain expectations.After 15 years Kohl and Gerhard Schröder can't make that expectations come true. Instead there are a deficits on certain areas. Unemployment makes it worse for people in east Germany. that is the political price G.S. pays.

# posted by Jan : 3:16 PM

China in my head

Like China? They all wanna learn how to parachute. They also wanna have 1 or more cars, 2 or more babies (1 child policy isn't right I agree)
the dude was here too

To counter Sarah

An answer on Sarah's posting; I like the Loc's . This is one at the Lulea Locomotive museum

Today I certainly had a day after feeling. I couldn't concentrated on the dull subject of checking posts. The adjusted system didn't fit in the screen so I adjusted the screenresolution. Everything fitted but was miniaturized. Got almost a headache and I did get dizzy and sleepy. Got to go to bed early to repair that damage.

The day after yesterdays exertion.
I was in very good shape during the 88 kilometers we cycled. Half way I was first at the cafe where we usually stop to have a drink. There we also waited for people who can't do the hilly stretch. When there where enough of us we parked our bikes and entered the cafe. Not knowing what the other who waited outside were going to do. They waited outside and took their bikes for the final stretch home. After a couple of minutes when we got out they were gone. They were far away. As I already said we decided to go after them. Finally before Utrecht, at Werkhoven, we catched up with the first group.

But there is always something to do. Wednesday I'll speak again with some people of my bank about my investment stratergy. Haha, Bush would say stratergy, not me. This is a organized typing error. I don't know if Bush organizes his errors.

the dude was here too

Child's Labour

A quote from Studentconcepts

Poor Kids at Restuarants
"I was at a leading restaurant in the city. It has been around for ages and its know for its authentic south indian food combined with the fact that you get your food super quick. They also serve the incredibly strong "filter coffee". I remember taking a malayasian friend of mine, Amir to that restaurant some 4 years back when he dropped into see me. And he said" Wow! Thats the best coffee i have ever had!!"This is also the place a lot of people frequent because the price is also low. Extremely affordable. It makes more money than any other restaurants in the city.

But over the years i have been extremely uncomfortable in eating in such joints. Why? Because i cant bear to see the way the kids work there. These kids must be ranging from 9 to 12 from extremely poor families. In some cases, they must have been sold to an agent or something. They work from early mornings to late nights.

I asked one of the kids and he said "I get 4 hrs of sleep every night". WHAT?? And they make these kids work like donkeys. Even those animals are better off. These kids are hit violently for just dropping a spoon. When they should be playing and studying, these poor kids have to wait tables and clean dirty dishes 7 days a week for the rest of their young lives.

How much do they get paid?
He told me that he gets paid Rs.300/month... !

Its not just one restaurant. But there are many around. Infact it happens at almost all hotels, restaurants, railway stations,bus stops etc.

Would it not be great if one day they were allowed to be free? To play, to paint and draw, watch TV, read, go to the zoo, study ...things they should actually be doing. You wont believe this but we had a handful of StudentConcepts members who came forward and said that they would volunteer to work in these hotels/restaurants so that the child could go and have fun for that one day !!!"

Child's labour is a sign of these days meaning how poor a country is.
But mind the fact that rich countries of today where child's labour today no longer exist and products with even the slightest link to child's labour are banned were a century ago in the same position. In the big cities there were begging children who didn't attend schools, even today homeless children are back. They got no education and end up in for example prostitution. That's happening in Europe, in America too. What to think of children in Russia? Moskou has children living in sewers with rats and mice and steal for living. Or the main cities in South America? All the same poverty among the streetchildren.

No, you shouln't eat cheaply in that hotel or drink a cheap cup of coffee. Get an expensive cup in a hotel or other establishment where children are not misused.
Helping the child one day is not a structural help. And that's what it needs.
Helping one day means that you dump the child. Probably it never hears from you again. Blame you!
For such a child working isn't bad, but it has to be changed; work in the morning, and school in the afternoon and learn to write and read.
Why also working? The parents need the money of the child.

This afternoon I'm cycling again with the team. I wonder how many members there'll be. It's cold outside, no sun and the wind blows. That makes it bad weather.
I'll take it easy.

update: I didn't. I really tried to get the group moving. Together with 5 other riders we made speed in the hilly area. After the last climb near Amerongen (Near the Rhine). I waited for the others at the cafe. When they arrived some others and I already had a drink in the cafe. The newly arrivers decided to go on. We sat there and discussed what to do. Okay I said we try to catch then in the last 30 kilometers. Unanimously we did that. The strong did make it difficult but on the way to the group the could make speed on some stretces with the wind in our back. In Werkhoven,the last village before Utrecht, we catched our prey. We felt good, again.

stats:
88.80 k
30.21 k/hr
2.56.22 hour
52 k/hr
331 k (on the new bike)
3226 k (total in 2004)

Some writing

Flu shot

Yep, here too. But why get a shot if you're healthy?
# posted by Jan : 1:27 PM

Flu and elections... is there a causal connection with the results.... older people are often more conservative and get a flu shot. Will that be decisive?
# posted by Jan : 1:32 PM

--------------------------------
Why get a flu shot if you're healthy? To stay healthy, and avoid the most severe complications from the flu. Of course, here that is not an option this year.

I wouldn't be able to venture a guess on what[if any] impact the flu season will have on the election.
# posted by WriteWingBlogger : 8:17 PM



Voting

I wonder why in the US voters have to registrate themselves before the day of the elections. Maybe you can give me the answer?

Here in The Nethertlands all Dutch get a votingcard, sent to their registrated adress.
# posted by Jan : 11:31 AM



Jan,
Here in the US, you have to register to vote -- and if you ever move -- you register again. The deadline to do so before an election varies from State to State.
# posted by WriteWingBlogger : 12:45 PM

1 Comments:
Jan said as reaction on the quote

"Another interesting or disgusting thing she was saying was that there are lots of gay and lesbian in Iran these days"

This maybe means that people are more open that they can express their feelings than in the past.

"Where is society going? To the deepest level of hell?"

In America and the whole world the same is going on. In the USA the Bush regime doesn't tolerate gay's and lesbians... that's unpleasant.
Hell is there where you can't express yourself.

# posted by Jan : 10:52 AM

Windstopper

I can't use the name Windstopper cause that's a licensed brandname of Gore Tex, but I bought a windstopper although of the Italian brand Nalini.
I bought one cause it makes cycling in bad, windy and cold wetter much more comfortable.

After work I cycled some kilometers with the new clothing.
Fabelhaft how the Windstopper feels when you're riding.

stats
21.71 k
33.00 k/hr
39.31 hr
39 k/hr (max)
243 k
3137 k (total 2004)

I feel great 33.00 k as an average is real fast. It is a pity I didn't ride it 21 minutes longer. That should be a record for me. This I don't recognize as a record.

Cycling in the rain?

Yeah, I'm gonna cycle a few kilometers It depends on how late it starts raining.

update:

at 5.30pm I was ready. I decided to cycle along the canal. All flat (besides 2 bridges) In Houten, a commuter village for the workforce in Utrecht, in had 31 minutes on the clock and it started to rain. That was the signal to turn back. The same route back with an extra bonus of 2 k along the Amsterdam-Rhine canal. Then a short climb cross the canal. At 6.40 pm I was back home.
Showering, cooking, watching part of a movie and updating my blog. Reminds me to do some laundry.

stats:
32.25 kilometers
29.34 k/hr
1.06.11 hr
46 k/hr (max)
221 k on bike 2
3115 k (total cycled in 2004)

Headache

After a long day I am finally off duty. However it almost feels that this blog is a duty too.
But what for. I almost have no readers. So I write for myself and anybody who flies by.

My day started at 7.20 am and I started work at 8.30 am. I heard something about my colleague who is very much injured. After going to first aid he went home with his left knee in a brachelet. 5 day he has to wait for his knee to be examined. Nothing seems to be broken but he feels an enormous pain. The pain has to eb away.
After the tournament, three players went home on their bike, one of them hit a peg on the cycle-path. (placed there to prevent cars to cross)
So in total 4 of our player were injured just before or just after the tourament.

And the frame of my glasses is just bent in the right position, lucky me.

Today I did some testing on a new version of an (computer) application we work with.
There was a lot to do but after the bad luck and the 2 quick beers of yesterday I didn't have a sharp mind.
At the end of the working day there was some hillarity about a pigeon which flew against one of our office windows. We all heard a loud and clear -pof- and then it fell 4 meters down on the ground. The bird was still alive but with a severe headache I think. Those pigeons are very tough I learned.


A headache is what I get when I see the menslaughter in Sudan, Darfur. Knowing it's an European issue and that we are doing about nothing. If your French is excellent then look on google-Darfour for example.
The French are writing a lot about the cruelties in Sudan. This is not something the USA should interfere.

Doing nothing is a criminal European act. Sending 18 or 19 year old highschool kids to a war is criminal too. So the EU has to send troops to resque people and the US have to save their own soldiers. (More than 1,000 right now.)
Of course US soldiers have to know that they aren't in Iraq to find terrorist who attacked them. The terror which is in Iraq is there because the US army is there and because they uncorked the bottle with the evil spirit.

So I'm gonna have a macaroni dish and watch an important football match: The Netherlands-Finland

You'll hear from me,
Jan

Update: The Netherlands won 3-1 I didn't watch it all. After the Finns scored 0-1 I saw a Dutch team who was waiting for the counter. I don't like that kind of play. The old Dutch teams of 1974, 1978 and 1988 played the right kind of football, -total play-

just a poem of a nobody

John Lennon

If he would live
He should be the working class hero
If he would live
He should have dumped Yoko Ono
Long ago
If he would live
He should still sing
and protest Bush's war
If John Lennon would do all that
He would be my friend