Human nature

Google, the all-knowing search engine, seems to be run by not so spectacularly clever people. Especially the human resources department has proven to possess at least one moronic member.

When you visit this link, you'll arrive at one of Google's job openings. If you ask me, the position of jobad-copywriter is available as well.

Incredible. You live in Belgium, Flanders to be exact. You speak Dutch, English, a good word of French and master the basics of the German language, but still it's not enough. They want you to know Belgian!

How are our southern neighbours going to pull this one off? If we can believe Mr. Yves Leterme, the Flemish minister-president, the French-speaking inhabitants of Belgium are incapable of learning Flemish. Are they ever going to be able to handle having to take in another one, an imaginary one even?

What a mess this country has become. There's Belgium, which is already no more than just a patch of land between some powerful nations like France and Germany. This tiny land we live in houses opinions that are so incompatible, that we are obligated to divide the country into not only districts (they are responsible for all topics related to land and economy), but also communities (they handle all matters concerning people and culture).

We have about six parliaments and as many governments if I'm not mistaking. Each of them holds a dozen or more members. Even with this enormous diplomatic force this little nation is still to find the first matter in which opinions are unanimous. Hence the term 'a Belgian compromise'. But even these compromises are a rare commodity.

A hidden war is being fought. Even the towns, provinces and villages participate. Lawyers chose the right carreer, because all these political entities are constantly suing each other. I'm talking about law cases that take years to resolve, eating away at the Belgian budget. Small fortunes are being spent on figuring out exactly who has to pay for some unsettled parking ticket!

When I receive my first pay check I'll shed a tear for the taxes that were deducted, because now I realize that I'm not just feeding our social security net or the funds for education, the road network, libraries and such, but also powerful white men's financial arsenal.

And don't even get me started on our royal family, or spark my sometimes feminist mind with the thought that all wars are born from the minds of men. Same goes for rigid religious dogmas and absurd social rules.

Such a strange gender, covering up and controlling women everywhere, but dribbling over half-naked and powerful females at thesame time.

Should we (read: women in general) conclude, break the rules and be admired? Yes, but don't, because breaking these rules will give them (read: evil macho men :-)- in their twisted mind - a pass to manipulate and abuse. How many times didn't we hear a rape being justified by the phrase 'she looked like a whore'?

What is this world coming to?

That is my comment, coming from my well-fed, clean and dressed self. Sitting in my desk chair, typing on my computer on my summer holiday from school. Yes, school, where I'm going again to study even beyond my bachelor diploma, because I don't quite care for the job I can have with this one. I'm a hypocrit, but then again, aren't we all? :-)

Define art

If there's one elusive subject, it's art. This abstract noun - with sometimes even abstract realizations, yuk - is one that is quite hard to define.

Let's see what 'Van Dale' has to say:
"The creative and original expression or exposition of thoughts or feelings in an often touching or shocking fashion." (fast translation, don't nag!)

I guess you could state the bottom line is that emotion drives art. This brings me to the difference between art and skill, or technique if you will. Gallons of craftmanship can't compensate a lack of emotional basis if what Van Dale says is truth. But can one really say a, for instance, architect that designs this incredible, beautiful and functional building isn't an artist? Does it depend on whether or not he attempted to put his 'creativity' (equally elusive term) or 'personality' in his oeuvre?

And what about advertising? Can this be called an art? The big difference with what most would call art is the fact that, if you play the game by the rules, advertising should be free of personal interpretation. Therefore advertising can never be art. It's designed for the receiver, not for the sender.

Obviously art has nothing to do with beauty. I think we'll all agree that there are a great deal of monstrosities in musea all over the world.

My question results from some pondering I did. It has everything to do with my future studies. Talking about school, my esthetics teacher started his lessons (6th year of high school if I'm not mistaking) with this exact question: 'what is the definition of art?'. The answer he cherished as his own was 'Whatever was made with the intention of being art'...

Well, dear reader(s), from this moment on, this blog is a work of art :-) It meets all criteria:
- I'm making an effort to express myself towards the world.
- I make it for myself in the first place, because let's be honest, I'm no Dan Brown.
- My intention is to write it in a creative manner (whether or not I succeed in doing this is not an issue right now)
- Starting from the paragraph above, it was even ment to be art.

So there you go... :-) Or not.

Let's summarize: emotion. So, no reason at all? If something is expressive, but well-thought-through at the same time, can it be art too? Or can something only be labeled art if it's a product of some instinctive, spontanious urge to create?

If art and creativity are things that come from the inside, what about 'art class'? Can one 'learn' to be creative? Can effort replace talent? Of course, all works of art required some level of effort to be made. But, imagine someone with a creativity level that approaches freezing point, if that person practises his or her ass off, can s/he be an artist as well?

This question popped up while I was thinking about a very particular type of expression: music. I personally admire people that can play a musical instrument wonderfully more than for instance amazing singers. The reason I came up with, is that a voice is something you are blessed or cursed with by mother nature. It takes practice to work it, but still. With instruments, everyone starts at zero!

Talent will of course facilitate the learning process and cause you to take it all in a lot quicker. Nevertheless I believe that it takes more work to play e.g. the piano very well, than learning to control your fabulous voice...

The thing is, if you don't have a great voice by nature, most won't keep working it anyway because they're not stimulated. Learning to play an instrument usually comes from an internal yearning that has nothing to do with your degree of talent. I think therefore people are inclined to put more effort into mastering brass, wood or other aids than their own vocal chords.

Can someone with no talent at all be taught to make music? Or art? Or does every form of it require at least a certain minimum of giftedness (is that a word?)

So many questions, so little answers... Next time on this blog, the meaning of life :-p

Hairdo's and don'ts

Redheads (the article only discusses women) supposedly have sex more often and switch partners more frequently than women of different hair colour...

Good thing I didn't know yet yesterday (had my hair cut and dyed in lovely copper and dark brown), cause I don't know in which way this little 'fact' would have influenced my choice of colour. Botch choosing for or avoiding the 'evil colour' (The Village) could prove to be advantageous, depending on your mood... or absence of mood ;-)

Many elements are to be considered: red hair potentially attracts more... but for the wrong reason.. and which type of person? It might cause a nuisance and nobody likes that. Coming over too strong might scare the interesting ones away. Conclusion: don't get your hair dyed red and if you have red hair, maybe it's time to consider a different shade :-)

An important factor is the absence or presence of a boy- or girlfriend (let's be open-minded!). Do we wish to add to the attraction we have on him or her? Is our plan to have a magnetic effect on new candidates?

Whatever causes your attractiveness (or lack of it), the tricky thing remains the selection process. Everyone who's been single for a while has a mental list of qualities (intelligence, humour, sociability, empathy, looks, an open mind... not necesserly in that order) that could make or break a person's chances of a romantic connection to you. But to what extent should we keep to this list? I suppose, when it feels right, the list doesn't matter anymore.

But watch out! Don't make the mistake I think many a woman might have already made in the past: starting a thing with a trustworthy and loyal friend. This can't go well. Because what is the difference between friends and 'partners'? Right, physical attraction. Lack of this vital element will usually lead to future troubles.

We might not all want children (smart idea when you look at the world population), even though we're biologically ment to have them. Our natural drive is to identify and win over a compatible partner. One with genes that mix well with our own. This depends on blood type, kind of immune system and so on. Every human being instinctively sences wether the other one holds the necessary building stones. We subconciously smell it. Pheromones, baby.

Judging others' potential for partnerhood is ever so tiring. The simplest option remains staying single :-) No hassle, no struggle, no doubt. Just a little lonely once in a while. That's where friends come in.

Let out the dog in you

News that satisfies multiple fields of interest is the best kind.
The release of the new Eidos game 'Reservoir dogs', one of Tarantino's most inginuous works and according to most guys his best (i've noticed that girls, including yours truly, prefer pulp fiction) sure stirred up some emotion. The kind depending on the receiving end.

Gamers are probably overjoyed, movie lovers are intrigued, most others are outraged by the nature of the game and the advertising campaign that anounces it. I am thoroughly amused by the commercials.

Check out the article on advalvas and click through to see the spots on youtube.

Have a nice f*cking day!

AI and hopes for the future

Oh my. Fiction just became reality.
Of course, on some tucked-away subconscious level, we all realize that scientists are already capable of achieving what we think looks cool in movies, but for some reason this novelty sends chills down my spine.

What makes it scary for me is, for example, that the summer job I just did is one a robot might be able to do just as well or even better than me :-o And how well would robots do at coming up with advertising concepts and translating them to image? I hope not too well, or I'll be out of a job before I even begin.

Which reminds me of the countdown to school: two weeks... Still have a lot of things I wanna do. I'll have to hurry, which kinda contests one of them: relaxing. Damn.

A short list: pass my theoretical driver's licence test (soooo don't feel like studying right now), go to festivals, practise drawing, read my 'artistic' (easier than the 'medical' kind) anatomy books, brighten up holiday pics, clean up, see some movies, go out with friends...

So hope the next school year will allow me to keep seeing the newest (and existing) members of my - equally recent - social life on a regular basis. Hope I'll learn lots of new things, but won't take them in slowly or barely. Hope I chose the right direction (the creative one, meaning concepts and ideas AND their realization), hope my - mainly younger, like 18 or 19 - fellow students will be of the bearable, grown-up - yet fun and playful at the same time - and social kind.

I have lots of hopes, but little expectations. I'm a born pessimist. I believe expectations lead to disappointment too often. Therefore I hope and am happily surprised when fun things pop up.

Pulling an all-nighter

How badly can one screw up his or her personal computer?
I'd say the answer is: pretty damned badly :-)

Seeing as my old mut was getting slower and slower in every single thing it did, I decided to call in the help of a professional.
Luckily he happens to be a friend of mine. Which means more fun during the process and less of a financial bleeding for yours truly. Don't worry, I'm not a cold-blooded leech. The plan is that I help him decorate his new pad. Also a potentially quite time-consuming favour, but soooo much fun!

So, at about 18:30 he arrived. My mom and I stuffed him full of Chinese food and other gooddies. Wouldn't want our 'savior' to suffer from fatigue or dissatisfaction. After dinner & talk we - well, he, with me watching :-) - started tackling the problem.
It took about seven hours, a load of patience, coke (the liquid bubbly kind) and security software to get my dad's laptop issues out of the way and clean up my cyber-mess.

Well, it would have been spick 'n span by now if my dear old desktop hadn't decided to spontaniously reboot in the middle of the scan. This ment that we - still meaning him with me watching and nodding guiltily - could merrily start all over again.

At least now the hardest part is over... I think. My pc is now out of the intensive care unit and in the survey room.
So wish I understood the whole bits and bytes story more than I do. All I have is a very basic tiny glimpse of an idea of how it all functions. And that's always fun when your newest friend group contains mostly engineers and such. Never felt so ignorant in my life :-) Am so happy that they're the kind of people that realizes others can have capacities in different fields even though they're completely oblivious in their field of expertise.

At about three this morning, having already stolen as many hours of his day off and feeling pretty guilty and kinda sleepy at the same time, I waved him goodbye as he departed into the night, guided by his handy guide, 'Tom Tom'. And now here I am, 'fresh as a daisy' (haha) - at a quarter to eleven, having slept only six hours... We're making progress, yesterday it was five and a half! And about to leave for a visit to my family at the Belgian sea shore.

It's strange what we put our bodies up to in the holidays. Isn't sleeping enough part of the whole 'relaxing' thing? We assume that it's normal to stay up late and that we'll have plenty of time to catch up on our snore-time. I once heard that it isn't actually possible to 'catch up' on sleep. You can sleep longer later on, but it's not really making up for anything.

New resolution: returning to the path I have long walked, meaning sleeping enough, on reasonable hours and so on. I mean, hey, the first of September school's starting again for me. I better make sure I'm back in the rythm by then.

New and improved

Hiya everyone!

Instead of giving you a long introduction into my daily life and previous blogging actions through lesser channels, I'm just going to tell you about last night.

Ever had a dream that predicted the future? I did yesterday night. It sure freaked me out.
Short explenation so you'll understand: my boyfriend broke up with me like a year and a half ago for his new sweetheart in Austria. The relative disctance between here and there would make a girl consider herself to be safe from coincidental encounters... Guess again.

It so happens that I met one of his friends last fall. I had always liked the guy and he wondered how I was doing too. He got my e-mailaddress from a friend of his I knew back then as well. We granted each other a position on our MSN-list.

It was only much later on that we acted on our intention to meet again: the beginning of this summer. So I went to the movies with him and some others of my ex's friend group, which I now like to call my own as well (the group, not the guy).

They're really open, friendly and considerate people. Yesterday was like the fourth time I saw them... And then happened what I guess is obvious to you by now... And what, funnily enough, I once thought might happen some day but didn't really take seriously... He was there, visiting his homeland and keen to see his old friends.

Apparantly they all knew, except for him and me. And in some whim of sadism or whatever is was, they decided it would be fun not to tell us in advance. Luckily they told me like a minute before we actually saw each other and thus prevented me from fainting or something similar.

So, the freaky thing is, I dremt of him that night. It wasn't exactly a pleasant dream. That's all I remember. But nevertheless, he was in it. Our eyes met, we talked like civilized persons and I didn't feel an ounce of regret or sorrow. Victory!
Things got really weird when he shared that he had dremt of me too that night. Was it like some kind of predictive or warning telepathy? I guess if your friends aren't going to do it, your dreams might as well. Just to keep you from having a heart attack.

Anyway, we had lots of fun, all of us. We danced and sung at this thing the city of Antwerp organizes annually, called 'Antwerp squeels' Oh, I mean 'sings'. Does this mean I'm completely over him? Must be.

I often think about what it must be like to have someone new. But I can say for now I'm happy just being on my own. Noone telling me what to wear or how to act and the ability to do pretty much whatever I wanna do whenever I want to. Of course maybe a 'good' relationship would be one where you didn't feel controlled or limited. It sure sounds good and is worth waiting for. But all that really matters - to me - is that right now I'm having fun. My social life is finally picking up and I love it. I just hope that what has been built up now won't vanish again.