110 bijzondere televisiemomenten - een Flickr photoset

Voordat ik het besefte was ik door mijn middelbare schooltijd. Examens gingen naar verwachting en niet snel daarna zat ik met negen vrienden in een vliegtuig richting Kreta. Tien dagen vlogen om en de naam van een lokale club typeerde het geheel achteraf vrij aardig: Amnesia.

Wat me nog lang bij zal blijven is de vlucht terug naar Amsterdam. In een rustige periode na een hevige turbulentie nam mijn fantasie de vrije loop. Ik stelde mij voor dat het vliegtuig niet uit zijn onrustige vlucht zou komen, sterker nog, voor mijn ogen speelde zich een drama af: ons vliegtuig stortte neer. Mijn morbide gedachten dwaalden verder. Een blinde paniek ontstond, mensen vielen elkaar en de armen, mensen scholden, er werd gevochten. De ware aard van iedereen kwam boven.

Een vreemde combinatie van gelatenheid en onrust maakte zich meester van me, echt angstig was ik niet. Ik dacht aan de mensen die ik nog had willen ontmoeten en wat er na de crash met me zou gebeuren…

Afin, een paar uur later landden we veilig op Schiphol, enigszins opgelucht liep ik door de gate, vastbesloten om in ieder geval een paar onbekende vrienden op te zoeken.

Ik geloof dat ik in deze gedachte een van de wonderen van onze tijd redelijk heb weten te vangen. Het internet stelt ons in staat mensen te ontmoeten en talloze gedachten uit te wisselen. In de loop der jaren ben ik verschillende mensen tegengekomen waar ik meer mee heb dan menigeen in de ‘werkelijke’ wereld. Ik heb het gevoel dat ik ze vrij goed ken en dat ze mij vrij goed kennen. Gesprekken tot soms diep in de nacht hebben mijn kijk op de wereld veranderd.

Hoe dan ook, het lijkt me geweldig om een paar van deze mensen binnenkort eens te ontmoeten in de analoge wereld. Sterker nog, het lijkt er op dat dat gaat gebeuren. De zomer is nog lang.

Waarom schrijf ik eigenlijk in het engels? Mogelijke antwoorden:

• Een grotere potentieële lezersgroep. Meer mensen die de verhalen kunnen volgen en eventueel hun bijdrage kunnen leveren.
• Alles in het engels klinkt grootser, mooier en bombastischer…

Helaas houdt het daar ook ongeveer op. Het lijkt me daarom ook beter om vanaf nu over te gaan in het nederlands. Het overgrote deel van de paar mensen die dit blog af en toe lezen komt toch uit Nederland of België. Wie weet is het hierdoor wat makkelijker gedachten om te zetten in woorden.

A view from Starbeach at 7:30 AM.

New articles will come soon.

Okay, so I was thinking about writing something mind-boggling. Something só cool you would think of it every day. Read about it. Talk about it. Tell it to everyone you know. And totally enrich the universe with my awesome lines I had written down for you to read. But it kinda hit me this week and the week before. That I am not that person. I am not somebody who could say something to someone, and change them for the rest of their lives.

So I am human. You might as guessed it. And I am pretty proud of what I have accomplished the years I have been here. I mean: school is good, private life is great, my work has never been more inspiring. What more could I wish for?

There was no irony in that last message if you wondered. I am actually really happy with my life right now and I just wanted to share that much to the world. In my opinion there are too many people that sit around and nag about everything and everyone.

So then my question to you – reader – is: are you happy with your life? It is about time that people start being positive in stead of being negative all the time. And doesn’t everything seem a lot better when you are thinking positive? A lot of good comes from negative things. For example: I was studying Industrial Product Design and I hated it. Well not hated it, but it was difficult for me and I didn’t really liked the way it was going. So I quit. And now you might think: “oh man, he through away half a year of his life!” Oh contraire! I’m now studying something completely different and loving every bit of it.

I guess the message of this is: don’t get down when some things didn’t work out as you had planned it. Not that I’m a big believer of faith, but you never know.

“Of course I listen”, you might think immediately. But this is not always the case. For example: a young human brain can decipher up to 450 words per minute. A normal speaking human can speak 150 words a minute. That leaves a lot of words for other thoughts. So then I ask you, when was the last time you really listened to someone? For example, let’s say you are meeting someone. You get together, go to your favourite sandwich store and stroll down town looking for a bench to consume your lunch. On finding one, you sit down and admire the view and scenery around you. And then you…talk. Talk for hours. About the weather. About your school. About the coolest thing you have ever done. And you listen to the other while they tell you, with absolute ecstasy, how their life unfolded in front of them.

If this sounds familiar to you, you can almost stop reading. Because this should be something you have experienced at least once in your life. Now here is a sight you might recognise easier: On waiting for the bus to come you stumble across a long lost friend. “How are you?” you ask him, waiting for the usual answer in the lines of: “Good, and you?” “Oh, I’m wonderful” you reply and you spur into a monologue that probably contains very interesting subjects like school, work and your fascinating private life.

After fifteen minutes of talking to air, your friend turns to his watch and says: “Oh dear boy, I have to run. Well it was great to talk to you again, take care!”

Now I actually come to the conclusion and explain why there is a sleeping cat on top of this post. The reason is that most of us are like cats. We sleep most of the day, eat whenever we want, cry for attention and try to impress people that are close to us, even though it usually does not work.

So what I want to give you today is, get out there and communicate! Listen to people and show genuine interest. You will be rewarded, I am sure of that.

So there was a need for a fresh author. You guys might know him, in fact, oiab absorbed just another subscriber and bombarded him to contributor. It’s kinda sad, I mean, one sixth of all our readers is a contributor too! But hey, we still enjoy this so the show goes on…

A warm welcome for Henk van der Velden!

Henk’s links:

• diviantart - his (3d) artwork
  
• tnhteam.com - his home base (dutch)

link love for the photo.

When clicked, slide over the right part of the photo to see the next-button.

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When traveling, take loads of pictures. This is probably one of the most valuable advices I can give to people planning a trip. In my last post “Why do we travel”, I told you that I traveled with a good friend. He is depicted in the picture above.

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