Coining it

Malice tempered by incompetence

(36/365)

Left Right

I’m definitely a walker. I live in the bike capital of Belgium, and due to the enormous ratio of students to population it’s the bike theft capital of Europe. Every single one of my friends commutes by bicycle, be it dropping kids off in the morning, going to the train station, or the entire commute. The train I take every morning and evening is full of people with collapsible bicycles.

I walk. About 5 kilometers every day. So does my father. He used to walk about the same to his lab, and that’s a route everyone bikes. My brother doesn’t own a bike. My sister doesn’t own a bike. It’s weirdly genetic. If we had a placard we’d be a weird movement. I’d claim the two wheeler was the devil’s machination. That man was not meant to balance. That we should weld them all together in a big, climable pyramid. Install all the bells in such a way that offenders can be punished by a cacophony of rings.

Not that I don’t like bicycles, I sometimes wonder what it would be like to be an inquisitive Luddite. Because I’m suspecting that perhaps they were right.

(35/365)

Tastebuds.fm

Totally out of character, but I’m member of a dating site called Tastebuds.fm. Nobody uses it for dating. It’s mostly a place to shout into the void. But it does have one amazing, unique feature, and you should join just for that.

Tastebuds.fm allows you to find the the one user that matches you the best. Which is huge. This is the person, out of tens of thousands of others, matches your music taste the best. If you’re like me, your musical taste aligns a lot with your soul.

Turns out my musical soulmate is a wonderful 22 year old Columbian. Huh. As sappy as it sounds, we’ve established a common level of sappiness. Especially around Tindersticks, Nick Cave, and Mississippi Delta blues. We’ve really dialed in a very specific frequency of melancholy, a kind of music that’s hard to appreciate without being empathic about it.

It’s actually really nice to see the Internet connecting people this well, considering how terrible it can be in the day to day.

(34/365)

Will totally work

Sorry for the rant. Something constructive this time. Every day, half of the wealth of the richest person in the world will get redistributed. Surely, if you’re the richest, you can afford it?

(33/365)

Why is Trumpcare

Seriously though
1000 dollars is the minimum to own to have slightly less stress
10000 is enough to weather some unemployment / other misfortune
100000 is usually enough to send your kids to college
1000000 is definately enough to comfortably retire and not have to worry for a long time
but
10000000 is enough to screw over the disabled, poor, disadvantaged. Reduce fire coverage. Open national parks for exploitation. Do business with Mexican cartels. Etc, etc… all in the name of an extra zero. Who the fuck are you people???? What’s wrong with you?

(32/365)

The great heat of '17

It’s been consistently peaking over 30° the last week or two. Good. Everyone has turned into a more beautiful version of themselves. Not only better dressed, somehow opener, more confident. A camaraderie of of sharing the same burden. A burden, untempered by everyone’s amnesia about the terrible shit we usually have around here. Nobody packs umbrella’s, jackets,… nobody even checks anymore. Eating outside is default. Flip-flops at work. Walking instead of riding. An outwardness. And, of course, complaining.

So here’s my contribution towards that: screw that guy who was literally dripping sweat on my feet in the train this eve.

(31/365)

Dilemma

Being bad at something you like

Not liking something, but getting satisfaction because you’re good at it

Dear reader, where y’at?

(30/365)

Landan

I said London in my previous post
My appologies
That’s a long ting

Landan

Shudders

(29/365)

Sidetracked

When learning English, just as in other languages, there is a point where you have to commit to a specific accent/dialect. None of them are intrinsically more “correct” then the other, even though CNN/BBC English are often considered the gold standard.

Fools. Never fall for the obvious option. It’s a trap!

I’ve been listening to a lot of grime music lately, which is, inaccurately, aggressive hiphop from North/East London. And I absolutely love it for it’s language. Not only is the foundation British, there’s a lot of particulars around, often (or off’en?) exaggerated for effect. I’m currently listening a lot to Roll Deep (and before Kano, Dizzee Rascal,..). And I absolutely their love of vernacular. There’s absolutely no doubt it’s all highly intentional. Wu Tang does it the other way around: relishing in quite complicated rap with an extremely rich vocabulary.

I guess there’s two paths you can take. You could specialize in one very specif subset of a language, and try to become an expert at it. This will usually mean whatever is spoken on national TV. Or you could cast your net as wide as possible, picking up bits and bobs from everywhere, and never being able to use most of it actively. Because using a specific vernacular out of context is usually a long ting.

Long ting: London slang for a boring, uninteresting thing.

(28/365)

Here we go again

This evening, my train was late
In the late evening, there was an “incident” in the train station
Tomorrow, my train will be late, just like most other days….

(27/365)