2008 - 2009

The last minutes of 2008 are ticking away. It has been a year with ups and downs, happiness and joy but also tears and pain. People close to me went to heaven, but also new friends that came into my life.

Let me take a moment to thank people that inspired me the past year:

Mom and dad for feeding me a year long, giving me a bed to sleep in, clothes to wear and books to study. Wouldn't want to trade the two of you for any other parents.

Dear Lolu, I have no idea what I would do without you. You always prevent me from flying too high, and when I do fly high, you put my two feet back on the ground. So thank you for your cruelness and support throughout these past few years. You are much more than a friend, you are like a sister to me. May all your wishes come true sweetie pie.

Chris, it has been a while since we last had a long conversation, but I haven't forgot the good old days we used to share. I'm sure that you will win that state championship next year, or what was the thing you lost in San Fransisco?

Laye, I only recently met you but you have brought me so much laughter with your dance class! From now on when I hear 7 Seconds by Youssou N'Dour and Neneh Cherry, I will be thinking about you.

Dieter for all the jokes we shared and for the times he succeeded to pull my legs. Whenever someone mentions New York, I will always think about your funny and funky dreads you work so well. Good luck with your last year Medical School, I know you have the brains to succeed!

Tinashe for being one of my eldest friends and never shouting at me, even though I may have had some annoying moments this past year.

Tim and Henry for keeping me company during those boring classes, I am sure the professors noticed us, whether that be in a positive or negative way. Dimitri for telling me the history of Royal Antwerp Football Club. Amilla for fulling my inbox with questions about class otherwise I wouldn't have opened a book during the year. Uduak for the beautiful blog entries you shared with us, ... And basically everyone who contributed a thing to my life.

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Happy 2009 everyone

Whores, pimps, players and hustlers

This is the last time I am going to the local supermarket on a Saturday morning. From now on I am going to the large megamarket in town. What happened? Well allow me to explain! I was doing the groceries shopping and I was in the fruit department when someone, who I believe was an Italian man or at least mastering the Italian language, came up to me and offered me 5.000 euro to sleep with him. If my hands weren't full with all sorts of vegetables, I would have bitch-slapped his face. I know I shouldn't be insulted by this lame event, but yet it is seriously bugging me. I feel insulted and degraded. If I had been wearing this high heels combined with a deep décolleté and short skirt, fine I might have understood, but I was wearing this old jeans with large sweater and didn't even took the time to brush my hair decently before leaving the house! From now on I rather wait in line to check out than going to a local store filled with grannies and Italian losers. Enough nabbing, forget about it.

Did anyone of you saw The Longest Yard? Do I laugh because it is actually a funny movie or because it is so horrible that it became miserably funny? I must confess, Cornell Haynes still got the body lol!

Xmas/NY survey

I was reading this gossip magazine and found this questionnaire so I was thinking to myself “let my fill it in and post it on my blog”. So here I go:

Who is, to you, the most remarkable person of the year and why?

Barack Obama, no doubt about that. Instead of campaigning against the opponents, something McCain/Palin often did, he campaigned about his own strategies. He will not be able to fulfill all the promises he made because of the crisis and the political games, but he will surely bring much needed change.

What event, positive or negative, has touched you most in 2008?

Negative things are always very easy to find. Near and far but for once I will look at what goes wrong in my own country first. It is über-childish that politicians rather blame each other in time of economical crisis than to put aside all the beefs and work together to find a way out of this mess. Another negative event was Europe refusing to send troops to eastern Congo (because it doesn’t benefit them, just say it Sarkozy!).

What was the best book, best CD and best movie of 2008?

Book? What’s that? All jokes aside, I did not read a book this year, well besides the obligated school stuff. If you want to know what books you should read, or not read, ask my soon to be lawfully wedded husband. He is the bookworm.

Some months ago I posted a blog entry about the best CDs of this year and I haven’t changed my mind. Not a single album that kept me interested for more than 4 tracks except for Love Behind the Melody (Raheem Devaughn) and The Way I See It (Raphael Saadiq).

I’m probably the only creature on this planet that doesn’t say “Batman” was the best movie of 2008, but still I’m going to say it: I don’t like Batman! Don’t really have a favorite movie this year…

What do you wish for your fellow bloggers in 2009?

Love, peace and happiness. May all your wishes come true.

What do you wish for yourself in 2009?

He knows my wish...

Did you make any good intentions for the New Year?

Yes, not to get agitated by the train delays! And the normal stuff: study harder, complain less, drop some pounds, ...

Season's greetings

Merry Christmas to everyone.
May this day bring you blessings.
May you be able to spend this with the people you love,
Because I know how hard it is,
Not being able to be close to the person you cherish most.

Christmas mood

Imagine this dark grungy place in the open. Face to face with the opponent, your biggest enemy to defend your kingdom. You are standing there, breathing heavily underneath your iron armour. With a loud scream you start running, swaying the long and sharp sword you are torching. Chopping of the arms and legs of everyone who comes near you. Blood gushing everywhere…

Now does this sound like a sequel of Braveheart starring Mel Gibson? Change the armour into shopping bags, the grungy place into a shop and the kingdom to Christmas gift and you know how Christmas shopping looks like. The fun loving Christmas spirit everyone adores so much. I still don’t get the charm of it after all these years…

Monday I had to get to Antwerp town to get some stuff done and I spend more than 3 hours at the MoneyGram office. Seems like everyone wanted to send or receive money to/from relatives. It was bloody hot inside the tiny office that was way too crowded. I had some laughter though! First there was this too cute kid with curly hair that was constantly kicking the door, future topscorer to be no doubt about that. Then there was this guy who thought he was Snoop Doggy Dogg. For real, he was wearing this white fur jacket with a purple suit, crocodile leather shoes and his hair straightened. Ah I love this multicultural town!

Talking about being smart, I don’t understand these writers slash journalists slash professors. We need to read this article for our exam and it is 500 plus pages. Now see I don’t call this an article anymore. This is what I call a big fat m*th*rf*ck*ng book! 500 pages isn’t an article anymore man! Be reasonable.

Anyway, my chocolate pudding is waiting on me in the fridge.

Gnomes are among us

I'm suffering from amnesia I think. I was 100% certain I had 200 euro left and today I have been looking everywhere and I only found 150 euro. I counted it 3 weeks ago before paying my laptop and I am certain it was 200 or even more. I'm starting to believe the gnome stories are real or that the gnome isn't as tiny as the story goes but is around 1m70 and has short spiky hair!

I always hated to be boring and the same as anyone else. A good prove of that is my dear beloved maccie! I customized every single icon and button on the damn thing! Blinged it up because the standard ones looked kind of ... bland. For example, this is how my documents icon looks like (see picture). Cute isn't it? I know it is absolutely girly and all but it's funny to turn something standard into something unique.

Going to bed now. Eyes are getting heavy. Nite nite.

Black pudding

Just got in from the family reunion. Yes the reunion... I know I swore not to go but these were my moms exact words: "either you get your ass to the reunion or you can kiss your laptop and phone bye bye for the next one or two months". That always works on me because she knows my laptop is holy to me! My phone is could have, but my laptop? Hell no! Two months without hubby Sheriff and sweetie pie Lolu (or is it Tolu?) would be unbearable for me! The phone she could have though... I hope she would lay it beside her bed. I would secretly sneak our land line phone to my bedroom and call her all night long on a private number! Payback time!

The family seems to be growing every year. Some had given birth, other ones are pregnant... New girlfriends and fiancées, ... Next year it will be my time to introduce the newest member of the family. No need to have panic attacks just yet hubby... They may look scary but they are nice people once they ate their black pudding! Oh for those who wonder if my stomach survived the pudding, I only ate the warm cherries.

Sometimes you wonder why lawyers always strive to make their texts so non-understandable! When they can choose between two words that mean exactly the same, they choose the difficult one. It is such a torture when you want to read the text in a faster tempo because it results into you understanding nadda about what you just read. Just make the damn text easy to read, that would save me loads of time!

There was this sad Christmas movie on television last night. The tittle was This Christmas Shoes and it was about a boy wanting to buy shoes for his mother who was dying. The tittle song was sung by Newsong and was just as sad as the movie itself. Could not imagine how it must feel to loose your mother as a young child.

The year is almost over again so if any of you have best/worst questions, make sure you post them because it is list time!

Does every post need a tittle?

First we needed more than 140 days to set up a federal government, now it already resigns after the Fortis - Paribas debacle. Yesterday and today, there was secret information leaked about the then upcoming report of Court of Cassation, our highest/supreme Belgian court. One of our ministers tried actively to influence the ruling so this is a serious violation of the separation of powers. So what will happen now? Of course the King has the right to refuse the resign but what is more important is that there will be measurements to overcome the economical recession. I wonder what the foreign press will write about is this time. Most foreign people who I talked to these last year thought there was a huge civil war between the Flanders and Wallonia because that is what the press insinuated. This while most of us, whether we are Dutch, French or German speaking, don't even think in terms of languages or sub-states.

14 years after the Rwandan Genocide, the assumed brain behind the Genocide former colonel Bagosora was sentenced to a life imprisonment by the Rwanda Tribunal, ITCR, in Arusha, Tanzania. It was remarkable that Bagosora was not held responsible for preparing the Genocide due to the lack of evidence. Together with Bagosora, two other former militarians (Ntabakuze and Nsengiyumva) have been sentenced to a lifelong imprisonment. General Kaniligi, who was held responsible for the ground operation, was found innocent. This was also remarkable and very negative because this trial was supposed to held the whole Rwandan army responsible for the slaughter that put an end to the life of more than one million Rwandan Tutsi and moderate Hutu, plus that the Genocide was well orchestrated.

Yesterday, Mark Felt died. Many of you may not know who he is, but he was Deep Throat (Watergate Scandals). It is before my time, but if I remember correctly, it leaded to Nixon resigning after the House of Representatives started the impeachment procedure. This was after key information about the speeches of Munskie were leaked which benefited both the much too radical McGovern and also unpopular president Nixon. Thanks to these leaks, McGovern got the Democrats nomination and Nixon got re-elected. Right? Correct me if I am wrong.

Enough news updates. Today I went to see soccer training with Dimitri. Lord knows what came in my mind, but he was able to convince me to go see this horrible sports! Now he is one of the very few none African people I talk to. Maybe because he clearly knows seducing me won't have any effect one me... Anyway, I had loads of fun! We cracked it up and laughed until our stomachs hurt! He was teasing me every time one of the African players jogged by, nudging me and asking whether I liked the view or not. He is so evil! I must say little Kenmogne looks better each year, but still I wasn't paying too much attention to him because Sheriff was lingering in my mind. It felt good to be outside, away from all the bad thoughts. This evening I felt a strong move in the right direction though. We shall overcome, no doubt about that.

Some pictures from the training

Emmanuel Kenmogne

Coulibaly, Gbarssin, Kenmogne and Van Trier

RAFC training

Bleeding love

I know I have been away from the blogging action a while but I have my reasons. Some of you may know why, while others can't see through this happy faced facade. Because that what it is, a facade. To the outside world I pretend to be fine, but once I am alone, I can throw off the facade and let the tears roll over my eyes and release all the pain I have inside. I've always been a strong caracter, but this is really tearing me apart. I often feel guilty for letting my feelings flow like this, but I cannot help it because the feelings are too deep and strong.

I got my exam schedule last week Friday and this one is the best schedule ever. I hope to pass all my exams without a re-sit in September because that would suck very much so. Not that I am not used to it but for once it would be nice to pass them... Lifting up the moral that is.

Some days I was really into the whole Christmas thing but now it just makes me sick! I just hope these days will be over very soon. And about this Saturday, I am not attending the family reunion and I won't make up any excuse. I don't want to attend and they better live with it. Whether they like it or not!

For those who notice some slight agitation in my tone, yes you are correct. I'm a wounded animal who is hurt and scared. Plus it is the time of the month so better not work against me.

Public transport: $@%*^

I got a new slogan for the Belgian Railways. It goes like this: "Belgian Railways - Always a great adventure and good for your physics, but not for your mood". Story goes like this, this morning I got to the station when the station speaker blasted that the train to Antwerp Central station had a 25 minute delay and that the passengers were advised to take the train to Brussels South and get off in Lier. So I was running from the front of the rails to the back, took the stairs and ran to rail 5. So far so good. Once we arrived in Lier, it became one big catastrophe. The station speakers told that the first departure to Antwerp would be at rail 1. So yet again I ran the lungs out my body. Stairs down, stairs up. 5 minutes later the speaker announced that this train would not arrive at rail 1 but at rail 3. So yet again, from the front all the way back to the stairs and up to rail 3. Finally the train arrived at rail 3. We all got in that train when the train conductor announced that this train would not leave the station because the change of guard was too late and that we had to leave the train. So now everyone got kind of mad. We all got off and heard the next train to Antwerp would be on rail 1 in 5 minutes. So we ran to rail 1 yet again and when the train arrived, we were denied access with the excuse that the train was already full. 10 minutes later, the train I normally take arrived. So basically I better waited in my home town instead of running around in Lier. At the end I arrived in Antwerp with a 45 minutes delay and missed the first 20 minutes of class.

Luckily there were no delays anymore on the way home. But I was still in a fairly bad mood and there was this one guy with his speakers on loud sitting next to me so I'm now having a terrible headache of the punk rock music he was blasting. Then there was sitting this old woman across me who was snoring like she was cutting the Amazon forest. It really got on my nerves. Last but not least was this one person who was farting like shit. It smelled disgusting! Damn you would almost start to believe it is Friday 13th instead of Friday 12th. Or is it Finagle's Law of Dynamic Negatives (Anything that can go wrong, will — at the worst possible moment)? At one moment in time, I even wanted to take the train or bus, whatever came first, back home. Luckily I didn't because class was extremely interesting.

We had this guest speaker, I believe he was from Serbia or at least from a former country of Yugoslavia. He worked for an United Nations related organization, or so I was told because I missed the introduction part and the person sitting next to me did not master English very well. Anyway, to cut a long story short, it was a great class and I had the best time ever listening to what he was telling. Afterwards there was a discussion were he defended his presentation. I kind of envied that guy for having this great profession. I would love to work for the UN too, or work for a NGO doing UN related work. It must be the best job ever!

Terroristic threat

I'm not this type of girl that is worrying for her safety all the time. Last year there have been three bomb threats in Antwerp Central station alone and I never feared it, but today I got kind of worried though. There have been 14 people arrested who are suspected of having links with the terror group al Qaeda. Oh and the good part is that these arrests are the result of last year Christmas! Let's see, that is almost one year ago and now there are caught... Finally! There were clear signs that they would do a suicide attack one of the next days. I'm feeling so releaved that our own police needs 1 year to eliminate a possible terroristic threat. Such a safe feeling. Sigh...

Ever realized how easy it is to spread a rumor and make everyone believe it? Some year spread the gossip that we would not get our exam schedule before Dec. 20th and all of the sudden many students ran to the secretary to file protest. Turns out this was one misunderstanding caused by a I-heard-it-from-this-guy-who-heard-it-from-that-guy-who-heard-it from-that-guy... You know how it goes, a story that gets to live its own life but that is mostly not accurate.

You may not believe it, but I am blogging live from the bathroom. No I am not in bath and I still have all my clothes on, but this is the only room where we have a large heatening element The ones in the living room or kitchen are only small ones that are not enough to warm up your back, but the one from the bathroom is. The warmth on my back feels lovely and relaxing.

It is so obvious that Christmas is nearing because you cannot switch on the television without seeing this advertise for woman's perfume. No wonder most men always give these classic gifts because they are almost slapping your head with it!

Jingle Be-e-e-e-e-lls

I think for the first time in my 3 year university career, I did not mind I missed my first train home after class because I had the best time ever. I was laughing, joking and having fun with some people I know from class. Well actually it started during class. No one was really paying attention, so we started chit chatting very softly so we would not bug anyone. Damn we talked about some very random stuff but yet it was funny as hell. Some subjects that passed the revue were Christmas trees, vacation plans, exams and loads of other things. I'm sure you may wonder how those subjects can possibly be funny, but believe me, we cracked it up. Then it hit me though. This little feeling coming from deep down inside that makes my mind travel through time and space to a place far away. Not really a place, but a person. I closed down a bit and sunk away in deep thoughts. Don't get me wrong, I like the direction my life is heading to. I got a great education and most of all, I have this wonderful person supporting, respecting and loving me to death. It feels so great to love someone who feels the same way for you as you feel for him. I found this song that matches my feelings right now. Does anyone know of you know the movie An Officer and A Gentleman? There is this song sung by Joe Cocker and I believe Jeniffer Warnes that is called Up Where We Belong. There has been a remake of this song by BeBe and CeCe Winans and I adore it. It goes like this:

Who knows what tomorrow brings
In a world, few hearts survive
All I know, is the way I feel
When it's real, I keep my pray alive

The road is long
There are mountains in our way
But we climb steps every day

Love lift us up where we belong
Where the eagles cry, on a mountain high
Love lift us up where we belong
Far from the world we know
Up where the clear winds blow

Sounds beautiful right? I have another one. Lean on Me, originally from Bill Withers I believe, or was it Al Green? Doesn't matter because the lyrics are great.

Sometimes in our lives we all have pain
We all have sorrow
But if we are wise
We know that there's always tomorrow

Lean on me, when you're not strong
And I'll be your friend
I'll help you carry on
For it won't be long
'Til I'm gonna need
Somebody to lean on

If there is a load you have to bear
That you can't carry
I'm right up the road
I'll share your load
If you just call me

When I was on the train home, I was staring outside and, because it was already dark, most people had lighted their Christmas decoration. Can't help it but when my car got stuck in traffic, I put on the good old "Jingle bells" song. Christmas is in the air and I adore it. When I got home, I took a quick shower and afterwards I jumped into the sofa with a cup of hot chocolate and my lappie, overlooking our mighty decorated tree with the hundreds of twinkling lights. I confess, it is a fake tree but you don't notice it that much because it is fully loaded. Only it smells like plastic instead of nature. On the other hand, it doesn't drop its needles so that means less cleaning! So looking at the pro and contra indications, plastic is perfectly fine!

I still have one week left to fake this mysterious illness so I can skip Christmas at my grandma. Black pudding ewwww! Flu would be too obvious and would also mean I can't eat muffins for some days otherwise they will notice I faked. Migraine ain't possible neither because I barely have head aches unless I have not slept for days. What else can I fake? I so need to find something otherwise the delicious, cough, black pudding will put an end to my young life before it even started! Whoever invented that food, if it can be categorized as food, must have had the most horrible taste ever. No disrespect to anyone who likes black pudding, but it tastes really pukey (invented a new word just now).

Should be going to bed soon because again, our professor has a meeting at 11h and he is going to start earlier tomorrow. It is really unfair! HE has a meeting during his college hours and WE have to get our asses up earlier. Un-un-unfair!

Nite nite Lolu, you know you are my gurl! Nite nite all my other readers, you guys are great. Happy 60th anniversary UN Declaration of Human Rights! May your next anniversary bring improvement so your words won't only remain words but also hard actions to fight injustice.

iBiatch

A long mouth stretched wide open yawn followed by nudge to keep myself awake. It's winter again and my body is struggling to recharge its batteries. In summer I only need a 5-6 hours sleep a night because the sun keeps my energy level high enough, but during winter, I'm almost sleeping all the time. Struggling to keep yourself warm takes up a lot of energy y'all! But back to yesterday evening. Everyone who knows me knows I am a night owl who hates going to bed early. Well yesterday I went to bed at 9h15! So I slept almost 11 hours last night and still I had to drag myself out of bed this morning. When I got back home, I even postponed decorating the Christmas tree, my favorite part of the whole holidays, just to catch some extra sleep. Stupid cold, stupid lack of sun, stupid snow,... Climate change, right???

So today I bumped into an old classmate from back in high school. Great to see she is still this small minded trashy whore she always used to be. Yeah I never been really best buddies with her and other classmates for various reasons. Reason one was because she was this crazy Hitler fan. Can you imagine those people still exist? Sigh! Reason two goes way back until the 5th grade, one year before graduating... This was my first year at that school because I studied in another school the past 4 years. I don't know why, but from day one they have been hating on me for standing up for a black girl, who barely spoke one word of Dutch, when she being threatened my her gang of racists. So this was the start of the whole beef. It got even worse. I'm this type of student who does what she is supposed to do, nothing more, nothing less. So this means that when we have to write a paper, will hand it in on time. But it seems that there was some secret ode among the other students not to obey the deadline. It seemed to be an obligation to hand in the paper one week later than you were supposed to hand it in. I broke this ode and always handed it in on time, while they refused to do so. Every time, they got a zero and who was to blame? Right, I was. It was all my fault that they had a zero. If I did not hand in my paper on time, they would never received that zero. I never payed much attention to what they said until one day I ended up having chewing gum in my hair. Now this was the turning point. I was so angry that I just told them, straight in the face, that if they wanted to act like a "grown up" (read: rebellious teenager) and disobey the deadline on the paper, they should just go ahead but they had to face the consequences like a grown up and not blame someone else. It probably not may be a surprise, but I was also blamed for the fact that more than the class failed that year and that I graduated first of the whole school that next year. But heck now it's my fault that students who lived weekend to weekend failed their exams. You would be surprised how many of them had to skip Monday classes because they still had a hangover from Saturdays.

Tomorrow it's the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 60 years have passed, many good things have happened since, but yet there is still a very long way to go.

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

It sounds so nice when you read it. One peaceful world were everyone can live life to the fullest. But words are only words. Examples of violations are very easy to find, even over here in Belgium.

I'm in a fairly bad mood right now. Today I had this discussion with a guy I know superficially and he was like "women need to know there place in society". Now this pisses me off! Women work hard to earn there place in society and men like that tell us that our place is at the bottom? Cleaning and cooking, nursing the kids and being uneducated? To hell with that. Women are equal to men and damn miss judge is present!

The holy day

December 6th, the magical day. At least magical if you are this little kid, anxiously waiting for the sun to arise so you could run to the living room and play with all the toys Saint Nicholas left you the past night. For those who are now frowning the eyebrows, Saint Nicholas is the European variant of Santa Claus. He comes every year on December 6th and brings gifts to the children who have been good the past year. And for those who have not been so good, there is always Black Pete and his huge bag... Damn it is such a bad story once you are all grown up, but as a kid we all believed in it. I remember I was even mad at my mom when I found out it was just a tale because she has been lying all these years, saying Saint Nicholas did exist. Thinking back about this, I should have known though! One example: it is common to leave a carrot at the chimney for the horse of Saint Nicholas, but every year on December 7th, we ate carrot mixed with mushed potatoes! Guess I now know who the horse was... Hehe! Luckily it was not a tradition to leave grass or straw because that wouldn't have tasted as good as carrots.

The tale of Saint Nicholas is already old and goes around for generations already, but yet it is very stereotypic and maybe even somewhat discriminating. Let me explain myself better. The story is about this old man that is surrounded by helpers, Black Pete's. This is already one of the stereotypes. The white man is the good old man while the black person is the helper. The higher rank becomes even more clear when Black Pete has to help Saint Nicholas on his horse. Sitting on a horse means you have a higher rank, just compare it with the Middle Ages when the officers and lords were sitting on their horses and the normal people had to fight by foot. Another example is that the white man gives the toys, while the black man carries the bag to put in the bad children. It's probably not meant this way, but the story needs a serious upgrade!

Am I a chatterbox who can't keep her mouth shut? I know I can talk quite much from time to time, but can I really chit chat so much that I can make someone fall asleep?

Do you remember when I told you some weeks ago about the blister I had from my new Guess shoes? It is still not healed and from time to time the wound even starts bleeding or loosing fluids. So whenever I wear shoes, I put on a bandage. Some days ago I started to show allergic reactions from those bandages. My skin was all swollen and itchy underneath the area where the sticky glue is. Now I'm really screwed. Either I have to wear a bandage and protect the wound, but then the reaction will even gets worse, or I will have to remove the bandage so the allergy can heal, but then the wound wont heal... It ain't fun to suffer for looking banging. Heck sneakers can look cute too and if there is someone who doesn't agree, I invite that person to try my blister and swollen/itchy skin!

Oh I went shopping today with my cousin. Mom ordered to find me some shoes for inside the house. You know, some slippers made of soft tissue. Not that I will often wear them because we have underfloor heating, so the floors are always warm and that means there is no need to wear the slippers. But I always listen to mommie so I bought these funny, yet soft slippers looking like bears. Dad seemed to find them kind of amusing because he tried them on himself. Some funny anecdote, does anyone have an idea of how old the underfloor heating is? No? Well they already had in the Roman Empire when slaves had to throw coal in large ovens under the house to keep the floor warm.

It's only 22h18 but yet I am already exhausted. I really need to catch some lost sleep because if I am completely honest, I have barely slept the last few days. All I could do was cry and stare in front of me. Even speaking was very hard. I was really in some kind of shock. My body was uncontrollably shaking, I could barely keep fluids inside and food made me run to the bathroom. I was really making myself ill with all the worrying and miserable feelings I had. But I am fine now. I'm still not fully done worrying, but I know that everything will get better soon. We will overcome.

I don't know how I got to think about this, but I just remember something one of our professors told us last year. He once was joking about what he does in his free time. It went like this: "What do you think us professors do after our working hours? Study and read publications? Not really... Some days ago I was on YouTube searching if I could find something about our University of Antwerp and guess what I found! One of my colleagues. Now I won't tell who it was so you will have to look for yourself." That is really tempting someone. I had my notebook with me so of course I logged on to YouTube to see who it was! This are the answers: prof. Velaers and prof. Vansweevelt. Ah good old cellphones with camera! Not even professors are safe in their own classrooms. Let them be warned when they try to fail us during oral exams!

There is a solution to any problem

Maccie - External Hard Drive: 1-1! I don't know who said it, but it seems to be true that there is a solution to any problem. Yesterday I wanted to back-up my notes from class and I had this not so pleasant experience. I could only read the drive but not write to it. After some googling, I came to understand that this was due to the fact that my External Hard Drive was coded NTFS. But as I pointed, there is a solution to almost any problem. There is this program called Paragon NTFS for Mac OS X that allows you to both read from and write to a disk without having to reformat it to FAT32 (which has a 4GB copy limit). So now I am able to tranfer files from Maccie to the HD, be it with a slow speed. That is least of my worries though. So are there any other problems that I need to be aware of?

I'm in a not so good mood right now. When I and a classmate left university around 12h45 were on our way to respectively the station and the bus stop, we were held by two older women, preaching us that we needed to be in class instead of skipping it. Saying we are wasting our future and that we will end up in jail or being junkies. We were both astonished that someone we don't know dares to say something like that. After her preaching, I served her this answer: "First, we are already 20 so don't treat us like children. Second, we are already in university so no one could care less if we attend class or not. Last but not least, class is already done for today and even if we had class later during the day, it wouldn't be before 14h00 so this means we would be enjoying our break and not skipping class". At that point we both turned our backs to the two noisy women, who obviously don't have anything better to do, and continued our voyage. I know I should just have nodded to their allegations and continued to the train station, but I felt completely insulted! Sometimes you wonder why people can't mind their own business...

So while I was having this problem with the HD, I started browsing through it and bumped on this documentary I thought I had lost years ago. But it wasn't lost, it was just greatly hidden in one of my 100 "new folders". I should really spend some time arranging and renaming the folders. Back to the documentary... The tittle of this documentary was Ghosts of Rwanda. It is about the 1994 Rwandan Genocide and the actions, or rather the lack of actions from the international community. It is really heartbreaking to see people testify and see the pain in their eyes. And then the lame excuses from the international community. The worst thing is that this is now going on in Congo. Deny it as much as you want, but the same thing is happening there. People are being slaughtered while the international community "negotiates". The word alone is giving me the creeps. It is strange that wars in Europe are always considered "great" wars or even "world" wars, while huge wars in Africa are "just" wars. I do recognize the differences between the Rwanda and Congo situations. While Rwanda 1994 was more a ideological war, this is all about the money. Is there anyone who still believes this is about ideals? Well it is not! It is all about the wealthy soil. Money. That is what this is about. The soil was also the reason why Belgium wanted to keep, I believe, the Katanga region. Soil was also the only reason why China was investing in Eastern Congo. It ain't about ideals, it is about profit. Last Saturday I found this interview with Nkunda in the newspaper. The tittle was something like "I am general De Gaulle of Congo". I have not yet read the whole article, but the tittle alone makes me feel nauseas. It is truly unbelievable what is happening over there and Belgium is prepared to send some military convoys to the region to do... humanitarian work! Can you f*cking believe that? The MONUC can't even handle the situation and we are only prepared the do some nursing and feeding because "we are suitable for it". Let's just forget the past, the slavery and the robbing we once did over there and go to bed with a reassured conscience because we are doing humanitarian work (mind the sarcasm).

Some posts ago I talked about the new exam schedule system they wanted to try out. Seems like I was not the only one who had some thoughts and remarks on it because we were asked to sign a petition and now we received the announcement that the try-out will be postponed and the old method will be used. Hopefully I have a good one this year and not a crappy one like the last 2 years.

My back hurts and I don't know how that could happen. It's right on spine, somewhere in the middle under my shoulder blades. Probably a wrong way of sleeping, walking or air conditioning. Or a combination of all the above. Mom advised me to use this Chinese Tiger Balsam she has for sore muscles. I used it once when I twisted my ankle and it makes your skin burn. That's how warm it gets. Plus it has this really heavy and intriguing smell you can't get rid off... What could help is a warm bubble bath followed by a long massage. S, would you like to volunteer?

There is this one girl from class that is really bugging me. She thinks she knows everything and only her way is the correct way. When I was discussing something with a girl we both know, I think it was about French constitutional law, she made this really stupid remark that showed how stupid she was, but at the same time she was offending me in public. This one girl asked if I noticed that the prof skipped a part in the time line. I responded that I did not yet study the subject so I had to check my notes first to give an accurate answer to her question. All of the sudden this other girl was like "Oh but you always claim to have this great notes so even if he didn't see it this year, you could always pass the notes from last year". I tried to explain her that last year, we had a different professor for that subject and that he had a different angle on the constitution. You know what her answer was? "Oh so now you are claiming that the history has changed?" in a loud voice so half the town could hear it. How ignorant can you be? I mean the history remains the same, but two people can give a totally different angle on the same event. It's not a French example but lets go back to Congo during the colonization. What did they teach is back in school: Belgium was this messiahs who brought civilization into the country. This is one point of view and the second one can be considered the total opposite: slavery, torture, ... But now back to the French constitution, as politician and lawyer you know you can read the same text in many different ways according to the time, event or the most favorable reading. This professor has a different point of view than the one from last year and if that is so hard to understand, maybe there is something wrong with her and not with me?

Going to install this AirPort update and afterwards having dinner. Tagliatelle with mushrooms and a soft creamy sauce. Peace.

First day of the last month of 2008

I love Maccie! Today I got PhotoShop, Illustrator and InDesign up and running! I'm now doing this little Indian type of dance around the table. Ha! Charlotte - Maccie: 1-0! Bite that bitches! Only still a bit annoyed about Windows Live Messenger for Mac, who refuses to broadcast webcam nor does it send nudges. Luckily Skype still works!

Update: Maccie - External Hard Disk 1-0

Another day full of riots in Jos, Nigeria. For some days now, Christians and Muslims are fighting each other. I'm not religious at all so correct me if I am wrong, but isn't religion ment to be peaceful? Respecting people, no matter what believe they have? Treating him just as you want to be treated? Forgive my ignorence if I just insulted someone! If it may be a comfort to you, I will probably end up in hell anyway...

From I Refuse to be Conventional

Today marks another milestone in the search for a cure against HIV/AIDS. It's the world Aids Day. We cannot pray enough or cry enough. Tears can no longer wash away the anguish we face from this disease. In the name of God; In the name of all that's good and just;

PLEASE FIND THE CURE!

Rêver

« Une enfant aime rêver, une adolescente rêve d'aimer. » C'est vrai non? Comme enfant on vit dans un monde imaginaire, mais quand on grandisse, on réalise que ce monde est irréel et on a besoin d’une autre personne pour aimer, pour supporter.

Looking at the images of the Mumbay attacks, I get this unaccustomed feeling. How can someone have this little, or better, no respect at all for human life? They attacked two luxurious hotels, an hospital, train station and police station. At this moment there have already lost 174 people their life in this tragedy.

May I proudly introduce to you: Maccie!

Height: 0.95 inch (2.41 cm)
Width: 12.78 inches (32.5 cm)
Depth: 8.94 inches (22.7 cm)
Weight: 4.5 pounds (2.04 kg)

Now Maccie and I are somewhat cool, except on the MSN and PhotoShop issue. As you all know, or may not know, I adore PhotoShop. The thing is that Maccie refuses to run the key patch, so in other words, it refuses to generate the codes I need to register my copy of PhotoShop. So this means a beef between me and my 'boy'. So far Maccie is winning and I do not like it at all! Maybe it is not a bad thing though, exams are coming so this way I can't get distracted.

Talking about exams, the university wanted to start a new exam system. They wanted us to register our own exams through Blackboard. This is a new way that they have never tried before so they wanted to use us just like they use mises in a laboratory. Peep peep! But this ain't really the time to start experimenting! It is commonly known that Blackboard cannot handle the huge amount of logins (we all noticed that when we wanted to check our exam results the past years) at the same time. And that is what you will have to do: login at the same time (at 12 when the lists are released and open for registration), because if you wait any longer, the best spots are taken! First come, first serve: my ass! If you are unlucky, you can have 6 exams in one week because all the other spots were already taken. You can use this kind of system when registering for practicums, because it is not that big of a deal if you need to be in class at moment a or moment b, but now we are talking about exams. Heck we should go on a strike!

Tomorrow, it is already December. The year is almost over again but yet it feels like January 1st, 2008 was only yesterday! Lots of things happened the past year: some good ones, some bad ones. In general is a pretty good year. I met new people who I came to cherish and love, I saw the true face of people who I thought were my friends and I finished my academic year successfully. I came to realize that things are not always what they seem to be, but when you are 100% sure that what you have is right, you have to hold on to him and never let him go. Don't take him for granted and be prepared to work on it. And prepared I am!

You are the first, the last, my everything

Been listening to Barry White all evening/night long. Hot tub, candle lights and soulful music; all boxes checked. My loved one; not checked yet, but December is close! Back to Mr. White. He has such a deep and strong voice that gives a completely different dimension to his songs. None of them would be so heart catching and breathe taking if they were sung by another artist who doesn't have such a powerful voice like Mr. White. "You are the first, the last, my everything".

Yesterday, I switched on the alarm on my phone and went to bed. I didn't notice that the battery was almost low so when I woke up this morning, the phone was off and I was already one hour too late! I succeeded to take a shower, brush my teeth and get dressed in less than 10 minutes. How I managed? No idea to be honest. I missed the train I normally take, but I managed to catch the later train and still arrive at university before the prof started his lecture. It required a lot of running and some luck with traffic lights though. I'm still not happy with the fact that no one cared to wake me up, even though they knew I always get up at 7 am on a Friday.

So I and my now 'boy', Maccie as I am calling him, are cool now. He earned his marks when he saved me today in class. Normally I always sit at the back so I can use my charger and the net power, because Winnie's battery (the old 'boy') only lasts for two hours. But since I was one of the last people entering the classroom today, the backseats with power supply were already taken. This meant I had to sit in the front, so I was worried I had to take notes by hand the last hour when the battery was low. But none of that! I still had 1 and a half hour battery supply left after the 3 hours lecture was over. It would have been a torture to take notes with pen and paper! It would be like this: I can note down the first part of the sentence, but somewhere halfway, I will get lost, and start a new line otherwise I would miss the next sentence. That is how slow I write.

Oh boy, it is already 4 am but I don't want to go to bed yet.

I should be going to bed but I don't feel like sleeping yet. Normally I have class from 9h30 until 12h30, but because he has a meeting tomorrow he decided to start teaching from 8h30! Boohoo, this means I have to wake up at 6 am. Well I could be complaining now, but in the end, the university days are the best days of a person's life! A normal job is more exhausting and demanding than the life of a student. I really admire those people that work from 9 to 5 (often even longer) and afterwards need to do the household! As for me, I have 3 or 4 hours of courses a day so I can easily do many things afterwards and still have a lovely evening.

I'm playing with my Macbook. Yes we made it up again! lol. It's so funny: when someone puts the light on my screen gets bright, when the room gets dark, my screen gets softer. Plus my webcam and mic work pretty fine, only not on Windows Live Messenger. Office for Mac works très bien and no problems opening my Windows typed Word files. Have not yet tried visa versa, but I don't expect too many issues.

And now I am going to take a shower and go to bed!

It's just those snowy days

As you would read in my previous post, it snowed a lot last weekend. This morning, the snow was still there and it was extremely slippery! In the 3 years I have my drivers license, I've never driven through the snow so I was very nervous and even scared. Just to make me feel better, mom drove with me to the station and dad followed me with his car. Arrived at the station, dad picked up mom, put her off as home and continued to his work. All this because I was too scared to drive through the snow! Parents ain't that bad after all... More so, they are actually quite great!

I was looking for this new versions of Adobe PhotoShop and Illustrator to install on my MacBook when I bumped into the Adobe Masters Collection. Want to know the price? First make sure you are sitting stable on your seat or guaranteed you will fall off! US$2,499! Boo! I will just install my old PhotoShop through Windows once I got this Boot Camp to work!

This evening our Flemish TV stations received a DVD with a terroristic threat for Belgium saying we will suffer for sending F-16s to Afghanistan. Though there is a serious doubt whether the threat is real or not. There is no resemblance between the song heard on the DVD and the subtitles portrayed under the video. Plus the subtitles were written in excellent Dutch.

Going to bed now. Eyes are getting heavy. See you in my dreams hubby!

First snow

I'm sitting on my bed end, warm woolen sweater over my pajamas, fleece plaid wrapped around me, staring outside with those big eyes and thinking "heck no, snow". Yes that is right, it snowed last night. It's November and it snowed. I do not like snow at all! It's freezing cold, white and dangerous.

Snowed railway station at 7 am Monday morning

Bleh I was so hoping we would not have a family reunion this Christmas because we already had one last summer, but grandma insists in doing one. As food she chooses black pudding. I'm going to fake an illness that day because if I don't fake it, I will get sick from the food. Black pudding is so ewww!

Luckily we are going to have our own party on December, 24th! Veggies and fondue! There is no way I will look watch my diet that day! Heck no! I'll eat as much as my stomach allows me to eat because this is the only day a year I can eat it! I'm already drooling lol. Unfortunately there will be one family member missing, but he will be joining us next year.

I found this cute ass dress from House of Déreon. I so need to go to the US after my exams, even if it was only for one weekend! It would look great on a straight legged jeans and my blue Guess shoes who gave my those huge open wounds (which are still not recovered by the way). I'm prepared to suffer a little bit to look stunning, but this wound is way over the top. Someone, I don't remember who, made a stupid joke saying it was perfect cause it has the same shape as the African continent. He/she is right, it does look like Africa but it was still a lame thing to say cause it really hurts whenever I have to walk!

Yadi yadi yadi!

Putain de merde. Sorry for the cursing but it is absolutely not funny. I got my new MacBook at home, yes finally. So I was installing this Windows Live Messenger for Mac and I came to the conclusion that my MacBook webcam and mic are not supported through this program. So conclusion, I have a MacBook with integrated webcam but I can't do anything with it! Boo! But to every problem there is a solution! Solution one, I keep using my old laptop (something I am doing now) until it gives its spirit for once and for all. Solution two, from now on I will have to use Skype and pray it supports it. Possibility three, I use Boot Camp, install Windows and use my old messenger, praying it is supported through that system. Whatever option I choose, it sucks!!!

TGIF (Thank God it's Friday!) because I am tired. It's the weather though. I went to bed earlier than I normally do, but it is the lack of sun that messes up my energy level. Tomorrow I could slap my own head. When I closed the door and went outside, my scarf almost flew away and I was like "nice weather" on a sarcastic tone. My dad replied with "too windy". Can I be even more sarcastic than this?

Wednesday!

Dilemma! Should I buy the Macbook with the small 160GB HD or should I go for the large 250GB? It's just that I want to use Booth Camp and install Windows XP too in case I ever get a program that only works on Windows. But I'm kind of scared that the 160 will be too small for both OS and all my files (got over 60GB of music, I confess, I haven't listened to half of it and probably never will...). But if I buy the Macbook with the larger memory, I can better buy the MacBook Pro which has a bigger screen. Horrible right? Too much choice! Normally I'm pretty good at making choices because I am determined and know what I want. But not this time. I saw this nice protection cover... Delivery time: 3-4 months! How long does it take to make a cover? Do they need to breed the sheep and shave it before they can fabricate cotton or something?

Today I was at the parking lot next to the station and I was waiting inside my car cause I arrived too early. I confess, my music was on a somewhat high volume but everyone was looking at me like I was deaf or something. There was this rastafari guy and he was laughing really hard when he walked by! What's so wrong with P-Square blasting through my speakers? I dey wonder! Anyway, sun was shining so I didn't bother too much. It's always good to see some sun in this cold and wet time of the year. But oh boy I was mad today! Normally I could sleep till 8 a.m. because I only had classes from 10h30 until 12h30 and 14h00 until 16h00, but the government decided different! At 7 a.m. I heard this noise outside and when I looked downstairs, I saw some government employers cutting off trees, just like they did yesterday afternoon. I got up, all grumpy because I was looking forward to catch up some sleep. Booo!

Gotta bounce to class now but I'll be back lata.

Just another manic Monday

Fuck fuck fuck! My feet are killing me. Got 8 cm big open wounds on my heels from those new Guess shoes I wore today. Forgot a band aid at home so I had to use my (proper) handkerchief to stop the bleeding. Never knew the station was this far from my university. And mom was laughing with me. Remind my again why I love my good 6 years old silver Bikkembergs sneakers! I could wear those with no socks and still run the marathon without any blisters. My poor feet! I'll have to stay home tomorrow because I really can't walk on them. Taking advantage of the situation now. Probably even a bit of drama and exaggeration... lol

Today a lot of commotion in class. Some students left the room earlier because they needed to catch their bus. I do that too from time to time, but this professor didn't seem to like it. He started yelling at them "Pigs, really bad-mannered pigs. How do you dare to leave?! Get your ass out and don't dare to come back. If I see you in my class again, you will be expelled!". The girl next to me was laughing "now those students made a fool of themselves", but to me it was more like the professor made a fool of himself. You don't just start yelling at people, especially not when you are in his position. I could imagine it is not funny when people are living, but they were really quiet so his reaction was out of proportion.

It's so cold at the moment. You should see me right now. I'm wearing this woolen sweater which is two sizes too big, but very warm and cosy. Plus I got this 100% real feather blanket plus 2 fleece plaids wrapped around me. The best (read: worst) part is that it isn't even freezing outside. Maybe I should take a hibernation, just like bears do! But there are some things I like about winter though! For starters, the Christmas tree! I'm not religious or anything, but I adore watching the lights in the tree and their reflection on the balls in the tree. I can stare at them for hours, plus the tree smells so good. I also love the songs they play on the radio! And the Coca Cola add on television. Jingle bells, Jingle bells, jingle all the way. O what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh. Haha! Too early I know but the weather allows me to get in the Christmas mood.

Now my laptop is really defying me! The connectors between the screen and the rest of the stuff is completely burnt-out and often the screen goes blank or it shows white horizontal lines. I just hopes it keeps it up until December when I get my brand new MacBook as a Christmas gift to myself. Well not really to myself. I'm going to use the money I get from grandmother and grandfather, mom and dad and some other people and complete it with some I have left until I saved the full amount needed. Don't call me spoiled! I'm a student! We can't take notes with pen and paper, now can we?

When dreams go bad

Miss You by Aaliyah is blasting through the speakers of my laptop. I'm trying to get rid of this scary and strange feeling I'm feeling right now. It all started yesterday evening after Sheriff left to bed. I was still devastated about the conversation we had and I couldn't sleep. Around 3 am I finally stumbled asleep. Soon the nightmare started. I saw myself sitting at my desk, books all over the table. I saw my phone rang and I picked up. I heard my babies voice but it was different than the other times. I could hear the tears through his voice. When he said goodbye, it wasn't just a goodbye. It was like he was saying goodbye forever. I felt this cold feeling going through my body. When I called his phone some time later to check on him, one of his friends picked up. I could hear something was wrong. He told me Sheriff was in the hospital. The doctors said he took an overdose, accidentally, of sleeping pills and was now sleeping forever. At this moment I woke up, tears rolling down and I was bathing in sweat. I logged on to see if I could find him online. Up till now I am still trying to get rid of these feelings I'm having. I know it is just a dream, but it felt so real. I think periods and painkillers got a bad influence on my unconsciousness... Luckily it is all just one bad dream and soon I'll have him in my arms till death do us part.

Quote of the day
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
Martin Luther King, Jr

A toast on love

Saturday night and I am studying. Or at least an attempt to study. Struggling to keep myself focused and the only thing that keeps me awake are the heavy old school hip hop beats blasting through the speakers of my laptop. All of the sudden I hear my phone going off. Wondering who is calling me at this hour of the day (or should I say night). When I finally found my phone under all the heavy books and bed sheets, I saw a picture of Sheriff on my screen. I was all smiles! This is the second day in a row that he surprised me with a phone call. Yesterday I was kind of dizzy cause I was already in a deep sleep and today I was groggy from the studying and pain medication. My apologies!

Car is fixed, finally. I haven't seen the result yet because my parents picked it up from the garage. The police still hasn't found the truck driver. I wonder if they even started the search... Most likely not! So we put on a paper asking eye witnesses to report to the police. Eye witnesses. Yeah right, welcome to the 21st century! "Oh look that truck crashes three cars. I'll just look the other way and act like I haven't seen anything because the car ain't mines anyway". That is how people are nowadays. If you put a € 1.000 reward, then you might be lucky someone remembers maybe the color of the truck or the firm logo...

Did you know that it has been more than 2 months since I last made something in PhotoShop? It is open, but I don't seem to have inspiration. I'm staring at the screen, pushing some buttons and draw some lines but that's it. I lost my "touch" and I want it back!

Oh geeh the sad songs are showing up again! Against All Odds (by Montell Jordan), End of the Road (by Boyz II Men), Endless Love (by Lionel Richie), Back to Black (by Amy Winehouse), Like You'll Never See Me Again (by Alicia Keys).

Cookies for the DRC

1 ton cookies have arrived in East Congo. This after the debacle of last week when they've sent... soap! Hygiene is important for sure, but we are talking about refugee camps with no water supply. People have to use rain water to bathe. From non official sources I heard that Angola has landed in Congo. If this is true, then it could get really nasty. Angola has a real strong army and if they indeed arrived, the intention is to get rid of Nkunda for once and for all. About Nkunda, I saw an interview of him and damn he fancied himself being Livingstone! He was sitting there surrounded by bodyguards and all. They got a name for this kind of behavior: megalomania, better known as delusions of grandeur!

Remember I had this bad dream about a train crash some days ago? Well today I turned on the radio on my way to the station and I heard that two trains ran into each other at the cross section. That's a bit different from my dream, but a collusion is a collusion! I can look into the future! Maybe I should use that gift to win the € 15.000.000 with the lottery! Haha! Would be super duper though! First I would buy myself a loft in downtown Antwerp, donate a large part to charity and help succeeding some dreams of family and friends. I would make sure mom and dad could retire earlier, that Sheriff could set up is own business, I would give grandma a car with driver so she can finally stop calling us day and night to drive her around, ...

What would be the perfect song for a first dance? So far my first choice would be Every Time I Close My Eyes by Babyface, second choice would be All My Life by K-Ci and JoJo and third choice could be Back At One by Brian McKnight. Today he asked why I changed my mind about marriage and stuff. I always said I found marriage a stupid tradition and that I did not believe in the use of the institution. Well I still don't believe in the institution of marriage because it was created as "social security" for the woman who gave birth the a child. It had the intention to bind the man to the wife and baby and make sure he had to feed and take care of them. That's totally irrelevant at current times because women make their own money and can also raise a child without the support of a husband.

Let me take this opportunity to congratulate Lolu for starting her own business called Panther Technologies! I'm sure you will succeed.

Writer's block

Gus, the world uglies dog died. How sad! It was suffering from skin cancer for a while now and has last the final battle. The price money it won with the election was spend on chemotherapy, but unfortunately, it had no effect. I'm sure it's now running around freely in dog's heaven.

Today I read an article tittled "the future is brown". It states that in the near future, the population will be mixed. People are starting to date "out of their race" and it will result in a "chocolate color". I'm not complaining. People should open their eyes and explore new cultures. Plus mixing "races" might also be a good thing because it makes the genes stronger. When someone breads inside their own race, they might pass wrong genes from generation to generation, but when it is mixed with another type of genes, it might prevent the bad genes from continuing. Or something like that... I remember my biology teacher telling us something like this back in high school. Way back... Ages ago... Like in the middle ages!

I started writing my paper today. I'm having a serious writers block. After 5 pages, I had absolutely no idea what else I could write about. It was more like "type one character, delete two characters". Never used backspace and delete more than today. My subject is "hidden and visible shortcomings in sales". Anyone willing to help me out? Think I am going to change all Dutch expressions with the Latin variant, just to make it longer and act "smarter". Some more white lines in between, bigger font, more subdivisions... Lol creativity needs to save my ass!

We shall overcome...

Today it is also Armistice Day. 90 years ago World War I ended. Over 20 million people found death in those horrifying 4 years. The end of this War was also the beginning of the new World War, mainly do to the "Diktat of Versailles". After the end of WWI, the winning side forced Germany into a heavy regime to pay back the damages. This weakened the whole country and allowed the NSDAP to grow stronger until Hitler got legally elected. So far my history lesson of the day! Time to wake up now.

President-elect Obama wants to over rule some of Bush's his decisions. It is a good thing because some of them are very important, for example drilling in nature reservoirs or stem cell research. Can't wait for it to turn January so Bush can get the hell out of the Oval Office!

Found this funny riddle online and I thought I should share it

Dear January,

how are February and March? April is not bad. Tell May, June and July that August, September and October got an accident in November.

Yours December

R.I.P Miriam Makeba

Yesterday, November 9th, Miriam Makeba (also known as Mama Afrika) died after performing on a protest concert against the Italian Mafia. She was only 76 years old. Many may not know her, but she is known for her hit single Pata Pata. She always resisted to the Apartheid regime and moved to the United States because she could not sing freely in her home country South-Africa. After she married Black Power-activist Stokely Carmichael, she was no longer welcome in the States and was forced to move to Guinea. Nelson Mandela persuaded her to return to South Africa in 1990.

R.I.P
Miriam Makeba
March 4, 1932 - November 9, 2008

Did anyone of you see the latest South Park episode called About Last Night... It features Obama and McCain. They used the presidential elections as a cover up for a diamond robbery. South Park is so sarcastic and I adore it! Talking about sarcasm, they broadcast House MD again. Whoot whoot! Finally! I was all smiles when I bumped into an episode yesterday evening. It's such a cruel yet funny series.

I got some pictures of my great purchases yesterday. I'm sure Lolu will turn green of envy when she sees them... lol... But for now I continue humming: "My Guess boots are made for walking, and that's just what they'll do. One of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you!"

Dreams

I had this horrible dream yesterday. I was in the train and it got hit by another train. I was in the first wagon that got hit and it got off the rails. After the collusion, it fell down the hill, full speed ahead. I saw the end nearing and then ... I woke up bathing in sweat! I don't know why I dreamed it, but hell it was a creepy one.

Today I swore I would study. I did! A little bit... I wrote this document about Congo vs Uganda. It was about the right on self-defense exercised on another country's territory. 30 pages in this annoying font so I just roughly scanned my eyes over it. If the professor asks me a question, I will just Google the answer.

What else did I do today? Oh yes I found me old yellow Gameboy today! Do you still remember those? It were the first Gameboy's produced. They had this green screen and no color at all. Oh god, good old memories! I think mines about 12-13 years old. First game I got was Super Mario. So I popped it in and it still worked! So I started playing and playing... Before I realized it, hours had passed and I was still striving the reach a higher level! I forgot how addictive things like this could be!

Proposition 8

I've always been complaining about our prime minister because of all the stupid things he said, but he is not alone. Berlusconi is a genius too when it comes to misplaced quotes. Today he congratulated Obama with his victory and called him "young, handsome, and tanned". Puhlease! Did he really have to say that? We all know he wanted McCain to win, but how can someone lower himself and make such a racist comment. He claimed it to be a joke, well mister Berlusconi, you are the joke!

Yesterday I had this conversation about proposition 8 with someone I know. Now this person is very religious and all so I knew his opinion about the subject. The only reason he could come up with is that the bible doesn't approve it. What the fuck?! Isn't religion supposed to be about accepting persons the way they are and not making exceptions? It's just a fucking book, written by and for people. How on earth can you deny people the pleasure and happiness to marry someone they love just because they have the same sex? That's not treating people equally, that is being narrow minded. I'm sure many of you may not agree, but we are in the 21st century and there is nothing wrong with same-sex love. Love is love so get over it!

I'm so glad this week is over because I am death tired. This morning I was only sleeping while brushing my teeth. But still I wanted to go to class because it is a really interesting subject. It's about international law and international organizations and I absolutely love it. It would be a perfect job for me, working for the United Nations. I would love to travel through Africa and go to all the conflict zones to intermediate.

Was at the library today and some guys where staring at my screen. I just hate when people do so. Never seen a laptop before? Well they kind of looked like Neanderthals so I could understand if they haven't... One of my msn contacts said I should put on a porn movie so they have something to look at! lol I would be expelled from school if I did! But it was a funny suggestion though.

"YES WE CAN"

Only 50 years after segregation, there will be a black president in the United States. On November 4th, history was written. Some people compare him to J.F. Kennedy or M.L. King. Hopefully he doesn't end up as tragically as them. Maybe he won because he was black, but it is mostly a sign that they did not agree with the 8 year Republican hegemony under President Bush.

What I noticed was that McCain's Concession Speech was the best speech I heard from him this campaign. It sounded even more democratic than Obama's Acceptance Speech. Even though the Americans (including California) voted for a democrat, California still voted conservative on proposition 8. Proposition 8 was an amendment to the California Constitution that eliminated the newly-declared right of same-sex couples to marry. 52,5% voted in favor for proposition 8. So bad. How can you say to people who love each other that they cannot marry just because they have the same sex? Love is love...

Today mom and I went to this flower shop to get a flower for my neighbor who is being operated tomorrow. It was the yearly open door day and they offered all kind of treats and wine. I had this nice white wine. Feeling a bit dizzy.

Elections and democracy

Who will become the 44th President of the United States of America. That's the question the whole world is asking. Everyone is sure Obama will get more votes, but so did Al Gore back in 2000 and yet Bush became President because he had more electors in the Electoral College. How does the system work? It is actually more like a race inside a race. Every state has a certain amount of electors. There are 538 electors, so whoever wins, that person has to score at least 270 electors. Most states have the "winner takes it all" principle. For example: California has 55 electors and it is almost certain Obama will win in that state. It doesn't matter if he wins with 1 vote more or 1.000.000 votes because the winner will take all the 55 votes. So this is something tricky. Most states have their own way of voting, only the "swing states" are very close. So whoever wins those states will most likely be the next president of the USA.

Over here in the West, we take democratic elections for normal. But for other parts of the world, it is an utopia. Some African examples of dictators who appropriated control after a coup or fake democratic elections. Examples are very easy to find. Campaoré from Burkina Faso, Biya from Cameroon, dos Santos from Angola, ...But what do most of those have in common? For starters, most claim to be a democracy, but in fact it is not. When you look at the Constitution (yes most have one, but as a future lawyer I know that it can be abused and read in a way no one would ever interpret it), you could conclude it is a free election. But what is the meaning of fear when people are openly brutalized? How can someone exercise their democratic rights to vote when they have to fear for bad consequences when the current leader will not be re-elected? Any election that is not free from fear, is not fair (dixit Sheriff).

Surprising news today. It was announced that Allen Iverson will play for the Detroit Pistons. I wanted him to play for the Miami Heat! Talking about the Heat, I feel another crappy season coming up. Right now they have a .333 score, almost as bad as last year when they ended last... Wade and teammates, it's time to wake up get your game together. We need the tittle back.

War in eastern Congo

The language of the weapons

The east of the Congo is, roughly speaking, corroded for 12 years by a cruel war for its ground and fertile soil. The conflict has many facets, but finds its actual origin in the people assassination in neighboring country Rwanda, back in 1994.

After that and the following power seizure by the troops of the current Rwandan strong man Paul Kagame, there was a massive refugee flow to Congo.

The pictures of the enormous refugee camps in the district of Goma, where many people died of the impact of infection diseases such as cholera, have been burned on many people’s retina.

But among those Rwandan refugees were also many radical Hutu's, who have made themselves guilty to people assassination in their home country. The new regime in Kigali started in 1996 a cleaning operation in the refugee camps.

At the same time the regime of former Zairian dictator Mobutu Sese Seko appeared awfully weak. A year later rebel leader Laurent Désiré Kabila would march, in some months time, from eastern Congo to Kinshasa in the west of the country.

As for Mobutu, the only possibility he had was to take off as soon as possible. Kabila became the new strong man in Kinshasa, with the support of its Rwandan allies. In the east of the Congo the peace returned, unfortunately not for too long.

The “Rwandans” stir themselves

In 1998, Kabila gave the Tutsi in his government the outside guard. As from then, “Rwandan” became a curse word in the Congolese capital. Later, this would turn its back on Kinshasa, because promptly two new rebel movements arose in the east of the country, supported by respectively Rwanda and Uganda.

War violence burst again. The rebels, but also Uganda and Rwanda, could finance their war with the turnovers of the Congolese soil.

The Congolese government could hardly offer capacitance and had call for the support of Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia.

During the period 2002-2003 peace agreements were signed which led to a true peace process, democratic elections in the Congo and a regime under the guidance of Joseph Kabila. The weapons seemed to be silent once and for all. Democracy yes, peace no.

The democratization process in Congo can be called a positive tale, but in the east the restlessness returned.

This time Laurent Nkunda and his rebel movement “Congrès National Pour la Défense du Peuple” (CNDP) raised their voices. Nkunda claims to represent the interests of the Congolese Tutsi population, but he also gets the support from Rwanda.

For its fueling, the CNCP can count on the regime of Paul Kagame in Kigali that it is also dominated by the Tutsi. According to some sources, there are also Rwandan troops on Congolese territory, but that is not confirmed by independent sources.

It is certain, however, that the over-populated Rwanda has the need for more agriculture ground and for that it looks in western direction. The presence of former Hutu-rebels form seems to be the ideal alibi for Kigali to fasten on the fight by means of Nkunda. The presence of minerals in the eastern Congolese soil have been nicely taken along.

How wealth can also mean poverty

The violence in eastern Congo has already made an estimated 5.5 million deadly victims: such as 250,000 Rwandan victims, 10 to 15,000 Congolese citizen deaths and such a 5.4 million indirect victims.

In other words, the major majority has not succumbed in under the war violence itself, but became the victim of infant mortality, epidemics, banal infections or malaria.

The region can perhaps be immensely rich under its soil, the Congolese population of North-Kivu undergoes only the negative impact of this wealth.

They came from the east

The Tutsi or Watutsi initially descend from eastern Africa, supposedly Ethiopia, and descended to Central-Africa in the 11th century. Today they live mainly in the area of the Great Lakes.

In the 16th century, the area Tutsi monarchies arose. The Tutsi were stock breeders and became the aristocratic class in current Rwanda and Burundi. Their king - the mwami - governed as an absolute monarch.

The ethnic tensions between the Tutsi and the local Hutu population are secular and are exploited during the colonial administration of the Belgians.

Even after the independence of Rwanda, Burundi and Congo, there have been regular conflicts. They frequently degenerated into true massacres where ten thousands or even hundred thousands of victims fell. The Rwandan people assassination of 1994 was the sad peak.

Believe

Friday I took another way to class and I passed the school's library. There was this flyer that caught my attention. It was about summer courses at the University of California (UC Berkeley, UCLA or San Diego). Damn that would be something for me! It would be über pleasant to follow some summer classes for 6 weeks and really see what the campus life is like. Over here you don't have those big campus's with dorms, sport stadia, big university competitions in American football or basketball... Maybe I can inform myself about it after my first semester's exam results came in. It would just be this great opportunity to study something outside the classic law field plus it would look great on my curriculum vitea.

What is so cool and funky about using English? I mean, yes I often English myself too on pages like Blogger or Facebook, but mostly because my friends don't understand my native language, being Dutch. But I have some people on it that don't have one single native English speaking friend on their page and still they only write English because it is supposed to look "cool". To be honest, it doesn't look cool and especially when it's no English at all. Mostly it is just literally translated from Dutch to English so it doesn't make any sense. I'm not saying my English is perfect, far from, but if you want to act cool, clean up your act first. If not, it looks just foolish.

I was shocked when I listened to the news today. Last Friday, someone murdered the mother and brother of Jeniffer Hudson and kidnapped her nephew. So sad. May their souls rest in peace.

Also Friday Barack Obama quiet his campaign to visit his ill grandmother. Some people say it is a bad thing for him to do because this will give McCain the opportunity to close the gab a little bit more. I don't understand how people can think in terms of percentages when this might be the last chance he ever sees his ill grandmother?! What do they want? Do they want a gladiator as president? One that chooses the elections above the woman who raised him? Is that country still human?! Oh and anyone heard the amount of money the republicans spend on dressing Sarah "pit bull with lipstick" Palin? $150.000! Scandalous!

There is this song called Believe by Voyce Alexander that I have been listening to for some days now. Every time I listen to the lyrics, I have to close my eyes and think about my hubby. I can't imagine how empty I must feel inside if I didn't have him anymore. The world would still be spinning, but something inside me would be missing.

Sunday morning, getting up early
Putting on something casual
I'm not in a hurry
Walking around the streets
Catching a movie
Then back to the real world
Trying to do something
Still life can be lonely

The world is still spinning
Everything seems the same
But there is something inside
So hard to explain
The sun is still shining
And the birds are singing
But I can't deny there is something missing

Still I believe in a thing called love
Forever I believe that someday someone
Will show up and end the war
But I cannot believe that I am not yours anymore
I believe in a thing called faith
And miracles I believe that someday
I will forget what I was crying for
But I cannot believe that I am not yours anymore

Monday evening, sitting at the bar drinking
Getting to the bottom of my glass
Reflecting on the past, I'm thinking

The world is still spinning
Everything seems the same
But there is something inside
So hard to explain
The sun is still shining
And the birds are singing
But I can't deny there is something missing

Still I believe in a thing called love
Forever I believe that someday someone
Will show up and end the war
But I cannot believe that I am not yours anymore
I believe in a thing called faith
And miracles I believe that someday
I will forget what I was crying for
But I cannot believe that I am not yours anymore

My time to tease

Co-incidence does exist! Yesterday Sheriff was asking things about Antwerp (and assuming it was this small town full of pensioned people). Little did he know that we have the 2nd most important harbor of Europe and 4th most important harbor of the world! So the answer on your question if we have water is yes we have. Today when I visited the news site, I saw that Antwerp was in the ‘Lonely Planet' top ten! This is the article accompanying the headline:

The international travel guide publisher Lonely Planet has added Antwerp to its prestigious list of the world’s ten most interesting cities. Each year Lonely Planet publishes a top ten of cities that are worth a visit during the coming twelve months.

Lonely Planet writes that Antwerp has a rich history and the port is city is the most underrated tourist destination in Belgium.

"Few places offer such an appealing mix of classic and modern features."

"Eclectic art nouveau houses right next to neo-classic villas and medieval castles provide a fantastic backdrop to the many bars and pavement cafés.”

Antwerp is in good company with cities such as Beirut, Chicago, Glasgow, Lissabon, Mexico City and Sao Paolo also featuring in the top ten.

Antwerpen in top tien beste steden

Het heeft even geduurd, maar Lonely Planet, de Britse bijbel voor de eigentijdse, onafhankelijke reiziger, heeft Antwerpen ontdekt. De stad wordt in de nieuwe gids, "Best in travel 2009", warm aanbevolen. Evenals landen als Sierra Leone en Kirgizië overigens. Met Glasgow, Chicago, Mexico Stad en Lissabon is Antwerpen "een van 's werelds tien beste steden" om volgend jaar te bezoeken.

Na vastgesteld te hebben dat België synoniem is met inwendige consumptie, doet de gids een ten dele succesvolle poging verder te kijken dan de clichés van bier, mosselen, friet en chocola.

Vooral van dat eerste kan het slecht afstand doen. Een van de beste ervaringen in Antwerpen is een "bedevaart" naar Bierhuis Kulminator en de zevenhonderd variaties in bier.

Of Antwerpen zit te wachten op een invasie van "only here for the beer"-Britten die van huis uit slechts twee soorten kennen, veel en teveel, is nog maar de vraag.

Steden als Praag en Dublin bewenen, als je tenminste de plaatselijke taxichauffeurs geloven moet, de goedkope vluchten die hun stad binnen het bereik hebben geplaatst van Engelse jongeren op zoek naar een bestemming voor vrijgezellenweekends.

Maar Antwerpens "mengeling van eeuwenoude steegjes en moderne gebouwen barstensvol clubs en winkels, de gelambrizeerde bars en cafés" kan niet langer genegeerd worden. "Antwerpen heeft, op het gebied van vertier, de juiste prioriteiten."

Bieren en mode

Naast de 200 "chips shops" die gezamenlijk "de Rubens van de frituurwereld" zijn en het "stunning" Antwerpen Centraal, raakt de gids niet uitgekeken op de zondagse markt in de Hoogstraat en haar cafés.

Maar behalve "'s werelds beste keuze aan bieren" (Lonely Planet kan het echt niet laten) is het de "explosie van modeontwerpers" die de stad van haar "ooit duffe imago" afgeholpen heeft.

De salons en winkels van de Zes van Antwerpen worden geroemd, evenals ModeNatie, het Vlaamse Modeinstituut en de Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten "die plaatselijke ontwerpers vanaf de jaren tachtig hebben voortgebracht".

Nietsontziende commentaar

Lonely Planet, altijd op de uitkijk naar nieuwe trends en ontwikkelingen, mag steden en regio’s met een traditonele, koekjestrommelachtige schoonheid graag overlaten aan de meer traditonele toeristenboekjes.

Het nietsontziende commentaar van de gids leidde eind vorige eeuw tot klachten in eigen land, toen het in kleurrijke termen over de talloze tekortkomingen schreef van Engelands horeca, weer en burgers.

Engeland was als vakantiebestemming alleen goed voor masochisten, concludeerden de schrijvers meer dan eens met zoveel woorden.

Metamorfose

Sindsdien heeft de gids een metamorfose ondergaan, hoewel het volgens Lonely Planet de Engelse steden zijn die onherkenbaar veranderden.

Zo werden in recente gidsen de postindustriële, Noord-Engelse steden even "onmisbaar" genoemd als Rome, Venetië en Florence, was Newcastle upon Tyne een toonvoorbeeld van de "wonderbaarlijke kracht van stadsvernieuwing", werd Leeds "Engelands Barcelona" en was Manchester "een van ’s lands spannendste en interessantste steden".

Geen van die Engelse steden wist de duizelingwekkende hoogte van de nieuwe editie te halen.

Antwerpen niet nieuw voor Britten

Dat de gids Antwerpen in haar top tien van steden van 2009 stopt zou voor de Britten, doorgaans ongeinteresseerd en onwetend als het gaat om Vlaanderen, niet nieuw moeten zijn.

Eerder repte de Sunday Times al over de stad als "een plaats van kunst en mode, gekke bars, cuisine van klasse en adembenemende gotische en barokke gebouwen".

Source: www. deredactie.be

Oh and Sheriff, Antwerp has a population of more than 500.000 inhabitants, that's 1/3 of Gambia's total population... in 1 town! So who's the little dwarf now? lOl! Yes, I know I'll get punished for saying this... Bring it on!!! Oh and since you check my blog 3 times a day, I can just say it this way: don't forget to upload my movie! And another thing, the picture you've sent me yesterday contained a virus (my virus scan deleted the file).