Exam fright

Here’s some advice when you’ve got exam fright:

• Never say never
• Use tension to keep you alert
• Know when to relieve tension
• Focus on one task
• Plan ahead
• Separate emotion from the questions
• Put effort in
• Be reasonable
• Share support

Raceday

With both the Monaco Formula One Grand Prix and the Indy 500 this Sunday, once again it is RaceDay. Some thoughts about the events leading up to this day:

• so Schumacher got caught with a schwalbe. He didn't have to do it that obvious, but I guess no real harm was done. The officials put him back, give it a rest already.
• so what if Danica may be the next Anna Kournikova (as in good-looking, but few - if any - sports victories). Let her do all those photo shoots and interviews, and leave her up there with the other guys. She's still way faster than most other drivers out there.
• Rubens Barrichello - Formula One driver - wears Tony Kanaan's - Indycar driver - helmet, and vice versa. Hehe... funny. Especially considering they're thousands of miles apart.
  

How do you know you don't like it...

Here's something I would like to call "let's try not to say this anymore, okay?"

It's a funny thing you advise someone "how do you know you don't like it, when you haven't tried it", if you want to convince him to do something or experience something, which they wouldn't do otherwise. The thing you want someone else to do, is either:

• something you already did (once) before
• an experience you'd (secretly) like to have yourself (and you want a guinea pig)
  
• an experience you'd like someone else to have (regardless if you had or not)

In my experience, people may or may not have a good reason not to want to do this thing in the first place, and they may or may not be aware of this. Often it's just a reflex, a feeling. Depending on the situation, people may have to be convinced to do something that could ultimately be of benefit to them. A good example is overcoming a fear of flying.

But arguing that previous experience is the only way to determine your preference, and using this argument to convince someone to do something - no matter how well meant - is an extremely evil thing to do. It's the same as claiming that experience gives you the right to stick your nose in other people's business.

It is simply not true that experience breeds preference. People have got this thing called fear, and it's real handy in prolinging life on this blue little planet. It prevents people from doing stupid stuff, like jumping off tall buildings without having a parachute (I'm sure it's extremely exhilarating, but I'm pretty sure I don't like it, and I won't do it). Of course, sometimes fear is so strong it also prevents people from achieving above and beyond, but that's beside the fact.

Previous experience does not suddenly give you the ability to influence people better. Previous experience is a bad predictor for liking something or not.

In other words, you need to come up with more valid argument if you want a non-smoker to smoke a joint.

A scary observation

• I drive my current lease car since the summer of 2003
• During that time, I've driven nearly 40.000 km per year
• I visit the gas station for a full tank of gas on average 44 times per year
• My car has a 50 liter tank, which I roughly fill up each time
• Since 2004 prices for a liter of diesel fuel have risen nearly 20 percent, from under 0.90 EUR/l to 1.07 EUR/l today.
• A full tank of gas costs on average EUR 41 back in 2004. Now it's EUR 49.
• On a yearly basis fuel prices for the car have risen EUR 350.
  

Conclusion: I am very happy my fuel costs are paid for by my employer.

Clothes make the man

I'm pretty sure nobody at the Eurovision Song contest saw it coming. The past years some showy Eastern European chick usually wins, with either an up-tempo dance song, or a music track that highlights the vocal range of the singer.

And now these guys win. I'm pretty sure everybody thought "hey, which song did we remember best this evening... oh yes, those scary looking guys from Finland. Let's give them 12 points. I wanna see those suits again."

Sick and tired

I usually associate hospitals with old people. They've been around longer, so they would have a higher risk that something medical happens to them.

But in the oncology department it's baffling that you see people from all walks of life, in all stages of life. Young people, tweens who are supposed to be enjoying the best years of their lives are just as present here as retirees and grand parents. I'm sure I've seen some semi-famous politician in there as well.

Some are under obvious chemo, others you would not notice or suspect they are. And when I'm sitting there in the waiting room, my mind can't help but wonder how they ended up here. How long ago? How serious? Were they shocked when they found out?

And yet I never get to know completely. Some of them might surrender some information, but it's rather circumstantial. Of course, you can't just ask bluntly.

It just goes to show:

• cancer comes in all shapes and sizes
  
• it makes no distinctions
• and for each his/her own

Arsenal - Barcelona final score

Some observations about the Champions League final:

• I've heard referee Terje Hauge was not selected to go to the World Cup. Now we know why.
• Almost like WWE, the crowd's heat in Paris was amazing. They really teed off on anything they didn't like (as in the referee and his assistants)
  
• If you are going to be an asshole and beg the referee for a card (just like the Barca players did just before Lehmann was sent off), you actually deserved to lose, you bunch of ungrateful, short-sighted cry babies...
  
• ...that's something the NFL does so much better: penalties can be declined if the alternative outcome works out better (such as 11-on-11 and a goal up, versus no score and an opposing player sent off).
• That was a nice touch to have the Barcelona club anthem play after the match.
• Ronaldinho always smiles. Always. Except for last night after the final whistle, strangely enough.

Arsenal - Barcelona Prediction

Well, just a quick one for this time, since I haven't really followed Champions League this season, up until the last few rounds. Thankfully the teams both sort of appeal to me, so that led me to make a prediction about the match:

• Barcelona wins
• Bergkamp stays on the bench in his final game
  

Get Ready To Discriminate

Racial differences have also been a source of some of our biggest battles. Always, from ancient times to present day; at every possible scale, from nations to households. It can be relatively harmless (jokes, segregated parties, and prejudices); or it can turn to riots, violence, and full-scale battlefields.

And it is so easy to assign all kinds of bad things to the others. Easy and lazy. It is much harder to look inward and see where you go wrong. It’s easy to hide behind arbitrary and abstract excuses like lack of respect or freedom of speech. It’s also much easier to just blame the one big group, rather than (fairly) singling out those who should be singled out. And to top it off, we have never made ourselves inferior to others: We have a survival instinct. We gladly step on each others toes. We’re not going to give in or give up.

Racism is relative I say. It used to be a tribal thing to not like the neighbours. Now we’ve gone to group tribes as races. I’m still waiting for the moment when some guys from outer space start thinking Earth is a great place to own, and thus decide to wipe us out, just like in Independence Day. Maybe then we might upgrade from intercontinental to interplanetary racism.

We have to be strong. We must strive to be stronger than we are now. Look inwards and be fair to ourselves. Don’t look for excuses. Assign credit and blame where it’s due, not just blindly pitch it in a general direction. Look strong AND show humility at the same time.

We have to make divisions between people we like and can relate to, and those with whom we can’t. Our world is too large to understand otherwise for our feeble minds. That does not mean this division is based on race. It is also not based on culture, or religion, family ties, football team allegiance, sex, interests, or character. It is based on all these things and none of these at the same time.

Feverish

You know the World Cup is coming, when:

• when you make dates or plan meetings, you have to pay attention to when your team plays
• when you actually know the dates from top of mind when your team is actually playing
• people start planning their daily tasks in such a way that they can leave early to watch the game
• people start wearing their national team colours more often
• people save up their cash to spend in match pools
  

(For Holland, the dates are 11 June, 16 June, and 21 June.)

Animal Pragmatism

What does it mean being ‘pragmatic’? I hear it being banded about so many times, it’s ridiculous. “Ooh, that guy is very pragmatic.” Or: “c’mon you have to take a more pragmatic approach to this issue.” In some industries (i.e. mine supposedly) being pragmatic is great. It's high praise to be called a pragmatic person, and these people are respected, revered and well-liked. Not to mention that projects actually get finished, and you have the sweet, sweet illusion of expertise... The way the term pragmatic has been used in my business, it emphasizes kicking ass, taking names and getting things done.

The dictionary says about pragmatism the following: the compromising of one's ideals to better deal with the specifics of a situation. That doesn't sound too positive (especially if you're an idealist). A pragmatist doesn't necessarily do things by the book, or follow procedures properly, if it gets in the way of the goals they want to reach. That might get him in hot water with people who value order, formalization, protocol and so on.

Indeed the respect, the reverence only comes when a pragmatist reaches a certain standing in his career. If he's still below that, he's just a hacker, a loose-cannon, an unreliable and blunt nobody. In fact at that point a pragmatist is more an opportunist, whose success is not known to be useful to anyone but himself.

But as a pragmatist rises through the ranks, and he has enjoyed success more than most, respect and trust are gained. His bluntness is seen as honesty. What people found unreliable in him in the early stages of his career, are seen as evidence to his reluctance to play politics. His unstructured way of working seems to prove his skill to separate important from insignificant issues. Ad infinitum...

All this serves to prove one thing: once people reach a position of power, their undesirable traits are suddenly forgotten or argued away. Ugly becomes a unique presence. Nervous tics become eccentricities. Curses and swears are now deemed colourful language. A person who just mucks about on the job, becomes a pragmatist.

Quantity over Quality

I do think there's merit to Darwinistic theories. It seems natural to me that strong genes survive and weaker ones eventually find their demise. For example a gene that gives you just one thumb and one finger is not very useful if you operate heavy machinery. So that's why you see so little people in construction with those.

But I see that evolution in the human race apparently is a game of chance. It doesn't actually work to have people with strong genes exclusively mate with other people with strong genes. The percentage risk that the children of said parents have very good genes is high, but it is by no means a guarantee. Parents' good genes may even work against these children, as their inherent weaknesses are expanded as well.

This article illustrates that in fact, highly desirable mates often make the worst parents, and the quality of life for the children suffers accordingly. It also explains why even the ugliest and undesirable people can mate supremely attractive people; and why even complete homebodies and other people who are not active in the hunt can make a families and procreate.

So I've got nothing to worry about.

My Favorite Euphemisms

You want to say something, but you cannot say it out loud, because it might generate arguments, force undesired behaviour, or actually hurt people and the like. Ah, the power of the euphemism is great, and if used correctly can be of use to you, little grasshopper. Here's a couple of examples:

• Girl replies to good (male) friend's request to go out once: Let's stay friends (as in: you're never going to get in my pants, buddy)
• Managers who end e-mails with: Thank you in advance (as in: do it, and do it now)
• Company taglines: People are our most important asset (as in: we're going to make some very unpopular decisions soon)

Also check here for more euphemisms, albeit in a business setting.

Rush Before the Summer

Lots of social calls have been planned up for the coming two months. In fact, as soon as the calendar turned May, appointments were made, promises were cashed in, and in some cases long-running requests were finally answered. It's the rush before the summer: visit everyone, get everything done, get the latest updates before we all run off into the summer.

Why is this? I have several explanations:

• we can't be sure of everyone's vacation planning, but we're pretty sure you're not gone yet; now's a good time to get together (with little risk that we're going to get jibbed)
  
• in my case at least, vacation money has rolled in, allowing me to finally pay off that debt; unfortunately nowadays even the simplest social gathering requires cash to spend, if only for the gas to put in the car.
• we've made it through the rough winter period, and now spring comes around. It makes us happy and it makes us wanting to show it to everyone. The weather is nice, let's go do something.
• I guess it's a rule of fours also. Every four months we have gathered enough new stories to share with our friends and family. We will get another one of these periods after the summer vacation, and again around the end of the year.

So. It's been busy, and it's going to get busier still.

I told you that wasn't a good idea

I'm starting to understand why people don't think voting makes a difference. For instance, I vote for one party, but the other party wins the election, and they get to form a government. They put people that I didn't vote for in ministries and legislative institutions, and they make decisions that make no sense. Specifically the ministry of traffic: last year they decided to lower the maximum speed on bits of freeway around certain cities in the Netherlands to 80 km/h (from 120 km/h).

They throw away a lot of tax money working on a traffic control system that's always broken; instead of shortening the traffic jams the lower maximum speed extends them; instead of improving the quality of air around the freeways the lower speed makes it even worse.

And here's the kicker... they finally own up to their mistakes and pull everything down again, putting everything back to the way it used to be. All I know is lots of tax euros down the drain for zero result.

Now, I'm not that naive to think that my favorite political party would do a lot better (because, hey, it's still politics at the end of the day). But I'm confident the risk of them doing so is far lower.

However, I'm even making a stronger point of NOT voting for the other guys. How much clearer can I be? I told you guys that wasn't a good idea, I voted against you, and you still went out and did it.

In this sense, voting does seem like a waste. You can't stop people from making stupid mistakes. That in itself is human. However, you can't stop stupid mistakes that others make, drag you down either. And this is frustrating.

There's only one way out. I you want something, you got to get it yourself. You have to be behind the steering wheel. You must be in control.