As some may have noticed, I’ve been fiddling with minor details such as text-spacing, font-type, etc. I will continue to do so over the next.. well.. probably forever.. I like making improvements. In my travel section you’ll find a small collection of Paris photos which I hope will be enjoyable. I’ve given up on renaming my blog, the more I cruise the blogosphere.. the more clever titles I find, and the more annoying clever titles become. I’ll stick with my unclever title, which has served me well for more than three years.
This weekend was, symbolically, a graduation-celebration weekend. Lots of parties, although I think I only attended two. Still, it is a very uplifting thing to attend a graduation; the kind words exchanged, the meeting of the families, the praise, the hugs, the flowers, the skies-the-limit future plans… I recommend it to anyone. Just show up to a graduation, be it high school, university, or perhaps even kindergarden (though you might not be allowed to watch other people’s children). I suspect any of these will inspire, garunteed spirit picker-upper. That’s what it has been this weekend. Saying goodbye to the remaining few friends who graduated, making promises to keep in touch, meeting new students at the parties.
Ohhh the parties. Last night’s Greek Fest was another memorable one. Who else can cram a five-piece live band with DJ into their Center-of-Amsterdam apartment. I thought it quite funny to see the following written on the to-do list for the party: Tell neighbors about the party today HA! Classic. I can’t imagine their horror. But as of 7am this morning…. it was just barely dying down. Nonetheless, it was really nice to spend time with old friends, as well as making one or two crazy new ones. Even got to test a colleagues theory that you meet the most new people while waiting on the toilet line. It’s fairly true.
On one of the (3 or 4 over here!)public television stations today I noticed a program about the Dutch soldiers in Iraq. As much of an opponent I am of the war, I was very curious to see it. (i mean, whats done is done, they’re are there so…gotta deal with it) So this program, I thought it was super-interesting. It showed what the Dutch military is doing: training police, helping build infrastructure, and helping organize local government. I was particularly curious to hear the Dutch administrator explaining to people on the street how if they have a civic concern, they should speak to the city council or run for city counsel. Most of them were uninterested. The best response was one man complaining about water, he said “I went to the city council many times, they don’t listen to anyone.” This is a very telling statement, not only for Iraq… how often do we hear this same thing in “democractic” countries. In the end.. same problem… you might have some sort of democracy, but it doesn’t mean things work correctly. Anyway, a very compelling program.. especially for a sunday evening.
Today’s Music: Plastic Bertrand-Stop au Encore (Three Kings tune when they’re cruisin with the refugees)