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# "we apologize for the inconvenience..."    01'10'31 10:59    link

This is too awful, my god.
From The Independent quoting US radio broadcast to the Afghani: "In areas away from where food has been dropped, cluster bombs will also be dropped. The colour of these bombs is also yellow."
Apparently the 'dud-rate' of cluster bomblets is 5%. That's a lot of yellow bombs. Dropped in the same area as the food.

From the usenet post I found this in:
"How ironic now, to remember the utter outrage in the US back in the 1980s, when the Soviet butterfly mines were mistaken for toys by Afghan children, with horrible results.

One word. Ouch.

# the cat (1)    01'10'31 10:17

Moving around from place to place, I'm currently staying in the house of a friend who's gone off to Guatamala. Though she's gone, I'm not alone: I share the apartment with her cat Sam, and it's an uneasy balancing act for the two of us.

She'd warned me: he's a bit crazy. She got him from an asylum where he was dropped off by his previous owners, who came back for him six weeks later - but the people from the asylum refused that, they suspected he'd been treated bad. So, my friend said, he can go a bit barmy at night, running up and down the rooms, crashing into walls and just going berserk. Just lock him in the hall, she said, otherwise you won't get any sleep.

Much to my amazement, I haven't needed to do that yet, but the moment might come soon. That cat is playing power games. At first, he was scared of me, and very disappointed when he'd be standing at the door, hearing the key in the lock, and then I would come in. It got better, I could play a bit with him, throwing his toy mice around the room, and he let me stroke him occasionally. By the way, reason why my friend let me take care of him (apart from me desperately looking for a place to stay of course) was that when I visited her, Sam always liked me and seemed to feel very comfortable around me, sitting on my lap, which he apparently never does with strangers. But without her, it's been a different ballgame.

So it got better, to the point where he'd come up to me frequently for a caress (and retreat immediately if I'd so much as stick my hand out towards him). ... to be continued ...

# I've got a cunning .plan    01'10'25 01:25

back in the good old days of DDS, "The Digital City", the first freenet in the Netherlands (is it still here ?), the documentation commented dryly on the use of .plan, "some people maintain their dairy in there". So that's what a blog is actually. Just a .plan. Nothing's changed since 1992. Ha! Oow, this I like, this I like.

# Just purse your lips...    01'10'22 23:35

Moved into my new room the other day, large, spacious and hollow til my soon-to-be-hired new colleagues arrive. I've been reading resumes tonight which I find frightening - it's the first time i find myself on the wrong side of the table, so to speak, and it's unsettling knowing that I'll have to judge the people behind the letters.

Anyway, 'til they arrive, the room's a ballroom or bathroom - great to drive around in chairs in, Three Mile Island controlroom-style - or to sing, to finally come round to the subject of this ramble.
Now, you need to know that I love to sing. Love to sing. Really. I have an old school report where the teacher commented that 'if Driek would pause the singing sometimes, other kids might have chance to learn something, too', and I tell you, I'm fond of that one. If I'm in a good mood, I hum, whistle it I can't help it.
So today was the first day both my boss and I were in our new rooms at the same time. He could hear me straight through the wall. Even with closed doors. Radio's find, but apparently my bass-baritone carries too far. I've got a good boss, he's sorry - but still, this hurts...

# not so soft    01'10'21 02:11    link

Credit where it's due. Meg's blog tipped me over into starting a blog. I came across it about a month ago, and I liked her writing enough to bookmark it. The bookmark (I browse with explorer but bookmark with netscape - a story for another time) started in the mixed 'check...' bag, moved to the 'English weblogs', to end up in 'Essentials' in a mere week.
So what is it? Not the rants, amusing sometimes but a bit tiresome. Not the links. There's a thoughtfulness and humour that make some of her observations satisfying to read. There are short stories as well, especially the travelogues are interesting. But it's the blog entries that make me check the page at least daily. So Meg, thanks for the inspiration and keep writing. Just... why the name?
(oh, and highly amusing: Meg's shameless plugging of her sister's blog, and her careful reading of her referer log. You'll find out.)

# Why english?    01'10'21 02:03

I've wondered about that. My english is pretty good, having been with an englishwoman for seven years (not to mention britpop and bbc sitcoms) but it's not my native language. I'll see. Dutch may pop up occasionally...

# A little blogthing    01'10'21 01:49

So this is it - first entry in my spanking new blog. I feel like making a little opening speech... a manifest for my little blogthing.
I called this a little blogthing and that's what I'll have to remind me that it should stay. Nothing fancy: an oldfashioned ~url instead of a domain, no dynamic page generation, no neat graphics. All that may change later, but right now, this is it and it should be enough. So I can no longer postpone the actual writing - since that's what this blog is for.
So, up and running it is, and the first words are on. A toast!