madeddieclopaedia

I’m reading..

February 2nd, 2009

A lot even. (hint: this is a non-technical, personal, probably quite boring post)

I’ve just finished A. Hitlers Mein Kampf (sic), an English translation of the Qur’an (not implying any connections ), the first 4 parts of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy trilogy (I think So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish is one of the most romantic lovestories ever. Also one of the most tragic, if you know what happens in the next book… which I do), some Discworld novels and the Origin of Species by Darwin.

Now I’m reading the Bible (King James translation, already finished it once, but have to reread because of a discussion I lost ), Blootsvoets door de Amazone (a Dutch book by a Dutch biologist who spent years and years studying spidermonkeys in the South American rain-forests), trying to finish The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins, some Discworld novels and phrasebooks Russian, Japanese and Mandarin (puthongua).

These phrasebooks are getting very modern these days, the Dutch Wat en Hoe have sentences like “I like you”, “Will you come with me tonight?” and “Not without a condom”, the English Lonely Planet phrasebooks are taking it a bit further with words like “Ecstasy (the drug)”, “Orgasm” and sentences like “I was hallucinating.” How much adventure are you planning on getting yourself into?! (obviously, a lot )

I’ve also been asking people to give me hints and tips on music I really must listen to, so far I’ve liked Rodrigo y Gabriela and Yellowcard the most. So, if you think you have something I should listen to, let me know.

Moviewise, I’ve watched Der Untergang finally (prompted by reading Mein Kampf), and the new Seven Pounds. If you’re going to see the latter, keep in mind while you’re getting bored by the middle part the ending is quite an interesting one and a tearjerker too (well, jeez, for me anyway, but I cried watching Titanic ).

Also, if anyone knows a place in Amsterdam to buy dekbedovertrekken for an adult-sized 2-person dekbed with prints of Batman, Star Wars or Spongebob, let me know, can’t find any It’s already hard enough to act adult outside of my bedroom as it is.

Posted in emo, personal | 5 Comments »

I’m so mean…

December 17th, 2008

Again, I was sitting in the subway (I guess I’m at my meanest when I’m underground, or something). A girl, I guess about my age, or slightly older was sitting in front of me, reading a book.

Accidentally I read the title of the book out loud, or, louder than I’d wanted to, “How to cope with rejection”. “Do you know it? Did you read it?”, she asks. Without pause I say: “No, it sounds like a book for sad people”. She blinks, looks at me in slight horror, then I notice she’s only on one of the first pages of the book, must not have read the part about ‘coping’ yet… She gets up, nearly forgets her bag, fumbles with it, whispers something of an apology and she’s off at the next stop. I have no idea why I do some of the things I do.

Girl with the silly book, if you read this, ignore what I said, ignore the book, just ignore everything you don’t like and focus on the things you do. It works, seriously.

Posted in emo, personal, rant | 2 Comments »

Stuff that makes me wonder, part 2

December 17th, 2008

Not sure if and when I’m going to steal one…, originally uploaded by madeddie.

Yeah yeah, I suck at blogging. And it’s not as if I’ve not been wondering about stuff, just couldn’t be arsed to blog about them.

Here is another one. Have you ever walked through Amsterdam (I have!), looking up (I always do) and noticed and wondered about the little things you can see in the picture?

Well, wonder no more! They are little mirrors (prisms they’re called) to reflect light from the theodolite to be able to determine how much a building has been sinking. I’m not kidding! In Amsterdam we need to worry about the sink-rate of our buildings, ’tis true! Ask anyone living there
(actually the bulk of prisms were put up a year before and because of the new metro-tunnel being dug under the city).

Posted in blogging, personal, pictures | No Comments »

Stuff that makes me wonder, part 1

August 27th, 2008

KFC towelettes

Originally uploaded by madeddie.

Hi,

I’m a strange animal, completely ignoring a large part of life. but focussing on totally random things.

These towelettes for instance. Justine_ brought them with her after eating at KFC (obviously) and although her talking about her day was interesting enough, I couldn’t help but wonder, why the numbers in the lower right corner? What is their significance? Is it a game? Are these collectables?
I wonder about a lot of these things and I might just blog about it more often (of course, I might just not).

Posted in blogging, personal, pictures | 3 Comments »

Libelle Pr0n

May 12th, 2008

Dragonfly Pr0n

Originally uploaded by madeddie.

(or, dragon fly pr0n)

Posted in fun, pictures | No Comments »

Shoot ‘em up

October 21st, 2007

Why I like movies with gratuitous violence and lots of blood and guns is beyond me.

But, once again, I liked this movie which is quite aptly named.
Don’t expect anything more than cool moves and lots of bullets flying, excellent entertainment. And, mark my words, this time next year they’ll have at least started with a sequel/prequel/remake.

Go see!

Posted in movies | No Comments »

Fancy Gnome “Open With” customization.

October 15th, 2007

This is all quite simple, but I couldn’t easily find it by searching.

If you right click on a file in Gnome’s Nautilus you can choose the app that opens it. You can also add an “Other Application” in which you can choose a program or “Use a custom command”. You can’t really edit the default options and when you add a custom command, it looks ugly in the list.

What to do?

Apparently Nautilus also uses the “MimeType” line in the /usr/share/applications/$appname.desktop file.
So if you want your movie player to automatically start fullscreen when playing a movie, you can change the totem.desktop file and add “–fullscreen” to the “Exec” line. Or, in my case I wanted movies to start fullscreen on another display with mplayer, I edited the “Exec” line and added “-fs -display :0.1″.

Like I said, simple really.

Posted in debian, techie, ubuntu | No Comments »

Happy 4th of october!

October 5th, 2007

Happy 4th of october!

Originally uploaded by madeddie.

just one day late

i at least thought it was funny, so shut up.

(ow and ignore the flash-glare thank you)

Posted in fun, pictures | No Comments »

How much can _you_ take, before you snap?

August 31st, 2007

This morning in the subway, I felt weird, agitated. Next to me a woman, muslim, reading her kuran, while her children, asking for attention, are ignored. I stick my tongue out at them.
2 bro’s listening to their mp3 playing phones, like me, but without headphones. A girl whispering on the phone, tears in her eyes.
Some guy moaning and chanting to himself, looks dirty, a drifter.

I stand up, take out my earphones and recite a text I just heard in a yonderboi song out loud (and when I want to, I can be LOUD):

well, clean up the dirt,
there’s just more dirt to clean up tomorrow
make the beds,
you just have to make them tomorrow
wash the dishes,
more to wash tomorrow
make dinner,
just gets eaten, doesn’t it?
the world keeps growing, you feed it
doesn’t feed you, does it?

but eh, how much can you take?
how much can you take… before you snap?

it’s a text cut’n'pasted from The Witches of Eastwick, by Jack Nicholson. I think he sounds way more impressive then I did, but the little kids started laughing, their mother crying, the dirty old man couldn’t stop watching, the bro’s turned off their music and the girl crying on the phone hung up without saying another word, looked at me in panic and got out at the next stop.

Not quite sure why I feel so much better now.

Posted in emo, people, personal, rant | 7 Comments »

You’re a poet and you didn’t even know it….

August 30th, 2007

13:54 <madeddie> neuken is een klein feest, het is een stukje hemel voor 2, het orgasme is het toetje, en daarna is ‘t wel
weer leuk geweest
13:54 <madeddie> hoe vinden jullie die?
13:54 <madeddie> misschien moet ik onzindichter worden
13:54 <madeddie> ipv kleuterleidster
13:54 <madeddie> hmm
13:54 <madeddie> ik ga ‘m bloggen

en dus…

(eigenlijk stond er “feestje”, maar dit rijmt beter, history is in the mind of the historian…)

Posted in blogging, emo, personal | No Comments »