Speeding and thinking

I wouldn't know if this is a natural reaction or not, but if you're driving a car and you get caught speeding with a big flashy speed camera:

• either you sit completely still, keeping your head straight (thinking that if you don't see them, you don't get a ticket), and you slow down to WAAAY below the speed limit (thinking if you compensate enough, the average speed is going down)
  
• or you get pissed, flipping the cops off (thinking you can scare the police from giving you a ticket)
  
• or you floor the pedal, thinking, "hell, I'm caught anyway, can't get any worse, can it?"

And all the while, none of these points is going to prevent a nice ticket arriving in your mailbox. Even better, you just might get to see a motor riding police officer moving up beside you, and waving you down. Arrr....

Guilty Pleasures

Considering it is a movie that's already been out for quite a while in other parts of the globe, and is not one of very high quality either, I may have been a little bit too anxious to see DOA: Dead Or Alive. But I did, and I'm actually glad I did.

Again this is one of those movies, where some Hollywood mogul apparently took notice of the revenue numbers video games generate nowadays, and decides it is a good idea to perhaps make a feature length motion picture out of a popular game. Usually this turns out crap (Super Mario Bros, Double Dragon, Street Fighter), or disappointing (Doom, Mortal Kombat, Wing Commander). Rarely does it turn out even remotely satisfying, let alone good. I'm afraid that purely on the criterion of quality, Dead or Alive is a movie in the brownish category.

But why am I not vilifying this movie then? Well... the video game Dead Or Alive is a fighting game pitting two characters against each other in a tournament. The big gimmick in this game however is that the characters are usually HOT women, even for a video game, with features that would fit nicely in a Playboy, FHM or Maxim pictorial.

Now the great idea here was to make this game into a movie. Forget that they tried to copy the game's plot into the movie, completely exposing the lameness of the story; Forget that they made Kevin Nash into a Hulk Hogan-lookalike (oooh the irony); Forget that they opened up every cliche in the book (nerd secretly in love with hot young broad with heart of gold; selfish thief turns noble (well... actually he doesn't); freaky businessman turns into freaky evil overlord); just enjoy the fine shapely bodies of Holly Valance, Sarah Carter, Jamie Pressly, Devon Aoki and Natassia Malthe (no, I don't know them either, but who cares?); enjoy them throwing punches and roundhouse kicks, in tasteful slow motion and Dolby Surround...

Okay, okay... in all seriousness... bad movie, but NICE visuals. Get the DVD and burn out the pause button.

N.B. Dare I mention? NOT a good date movie.

Riddle me this

It is white, and it carries a warning:

"it is legal to sell, but not legal to use."

No, it's not snow.

Apparently the Netherlands finally approved the sale of small FM transmitters for our iPods, so you can listen to your own music in the car, without fiddling with all kinds of wires and stuff.

Except that in the Netherlands one is not allowed to broadcast something, even if intended for personal use, across the FM band.

I haven't heard of any legislation that would soon end this ban, but apparently selling these nifty little gadgets is already going on. (in fact isn't Holland a little bit behind the times?)

Now, what I want to know is:

• the average iPod FM transmitter has a range of about three to five meters. Can someone actually pick this up if not in the immediate vicinity?
• if this kind of FM broadcasting remains banned, are you then left with a useless gadget? would you not use it anymore?

Deathly lack of inspiration

I've always found it pretty hard to write something in letters, or cards, for birthdays, for moves, for weddings. I'm not a poet, and although I'm sometimes able to get something nice on paper, it's rarely something that's more than three or four lines. It's also quite inconsistent.

Now imagine having to write something for a serious occasion (say, condolences) for someone you don't really know that well. Do you...

1. jot down a short formal sentence or even a word
   
2. scribble down a personal story and a wish, possibly taking more space than you actually have on the card
   
3. write a cliche down from the list as described here

On the one hand I've never been one to write down something that's already been written, and I'm at least trying to stand out a little. But maybe in this case, that's not the goal here. On the other hand I'm also trying to capture the core of the message in as little words as possible.

So... ehm... it's probably best for the future, don't mind my condolences much alright. Just know, I support you, I feel for you, and I hope you get back up if you're down. Just don't expect any wonderful eulogies from me.

An even more inconvenient truth

If you haven't heard about Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, you've been avoiding important news for too long guys. Hell, he even got people fired up for a Live Aid-like series of concerts this year, so you know it's gonna be big.

Basically Gore has been giving seminars all over the world to spread the word that the world climate is changing for the worse, and that we all must act now to prevent it from getting really, really bad. The seminar (dated 2005) is formatted into a documentary, interspersed with some brief personal notes from Gore, and released on DVD this past week. Of course, the DVD is very U.S.-centric, but still his argument, his evidence is compelling and an absolute must-see. In fact, this DVD may be the most important to come out in the past year, and comes highly recommended.

I however wasn't planing on making this post a DVD review, but I do want to make a couple of statements about Gore's message in general.

Gore's biggest challenge in all this has not been fighting climate change. It has been getting his point across to (the right) people, and to make them take further action. This is not a new thing. People have to spend a lot of time to put new priorities on other people's agendas, and this is hard. Our time, our energy, our money even is fully spent and fully committed on things that we find important (house, car, work, projects, love, children, mortgage, hobbies, fetishes, vacations etc.), and now someone else is telling us we should make room in our busy schedules for something else. Not to mention that it's about a subject (climate change) that most people know nothing about, want to know very little about, and is so off-the-scale distant and massive, that we don't see the added value fo us. Of course, what Gore aims for is that his argument can convince us that we should make this our problem. That we should re-prioritize and put climate change high on our agendas, because WE feel it is important.

And this is probably where Gore's approach has met resistance. I'm sure most people (orthodox religious excepted) can understand the scientific rationale, and see where Gore is going. What I don't think he has been able to do so far, is - despite all this - to make this more important than all the other points on even a single person's agenda. All our time and energy is already spent, and to put this in, is to take something else out. Maybe something that's actually the livelihood of a person (farmer in the Amazon; gas driller in the North Sea; car manufacturer in Detroit), who doesn't have no alternatives, and is not presented with any. His argument is strong, but much too general, and too final as well (Stop doing this now).

Gore's argument goes another way, and he makes it a moral issue. 'We should act now, because it is the right thing to do. Because it is what we must do to give our children a future.' He is absolutely right about internalizing the issue in people, tie it into things that are important for them, like progeny. Again however, this only appeals to certain groups of people. Plus, the argument appeals to making expectations about the future, and we all bloody well know how bad we are at doing that. Most people will just leave it at that.

The message is diluted with me in a couple of ways. I could use public transport to go to work, and leave the car. I could drive more responsibly, drive right lanes always, 90 km/h on the freeway. But I like driving my car. I feel inconvenienced when I have to wait on a train to arrive. I feel frustrated when I lose half an hour each way because I have to ride along longer tracks. I hate the look of the hybrid cars (I'm looking at you Toyota). And I worked hard to get in a position where I can actually drive a good car, not necessarily environmentally sound, and I can use it to get in the fastest way I can imagine. I have invested time and energy to get a car, and I was not about to let it go. The car is an internal value for me.

I could sign up for green energy, instead of the standard brown stuff. But why should I pay more for what's essentially something that I don't notice at all? My house is not gonna smell nicer, my lights are not gonna be brighter, my oven won't go any faster, hell my TV won't suddenly last twice as long.

You want to make sure I take part? Fine, but let me keep all the stuff I find important and don't bother me with extra costs. It's expensive enough as it is.

See? A very individual view on what this guy feels is important to him. And I doubt other people feel differently (not about cars and energy per se, but definitely about something).

Society consists of individuals now, because it can. There's no real big issue floating above us (hostile aliens, meteorites, war or natural disaster if you look at the local Dutch scale), that can make us re-prioritize. Things can change quickly though. It only takes one flood, one drought, one serious loss of life, to put global warming top on everyone's agenda. Only this time, it is forced upon us.

Al Gore hopes we individually see the light and take action before it gets that far. That we can actually do something about it, in our own time. Not when the tide is up to our nose. I sincerely hope he succeeds.

So true, So true

Can't say it any better.

Results from the Superhero Compatibility Contest

What Women Want 2007

Some observations about the Women's Fair.

• the knock against women that they can't park... It's true. For some reason the very concept of lines, wheels, and other visitors to the fair are foreign to them. Often they just park them across two parking spaces. The fair's parking garage had to be expanded with an additional wing, just to accommodate all the cars. Thing is, the same amount of cars, but driven by men, fit comfortably next week at the AutoRAI.
• know this scene from What Women Want? Where Mel Gibson finds out for the first time he can hear women's thoughts? Where he gets run over by jogging women? I've had that for real.
  
• single guys: you can see very quickly if the girl you're dating is worth the time: just look at her mother. And guess what... they're both here at the fair! If the mother's fine, you're set. But if the mother is dead ugly, RUN AWAY.
• are Call TV presenters failed fair promotion girls/guys, or are fair promotion girls/guys failed Call TV presenters?
• best t-shirt I found: "Your daughter is safe with me."
  

Road test: Cat-II Leasecars

If during the coming year you need an affordable, attractive, well-driving car to lease, you are not exactly spoiled for choice. It's pretty hard to find one that satisfies even two of the above-mentioned characteristics, let alone all three. Personally I like cars with a little more speed and explosiveness under the hood, but not at the cost of me having to sleep in the car, or driving a cardboard box.

It means I end up driving cars that fit these criteria:

• maximum car value of around EUR 26.000, which keeps the tax hit a bit manageable
  
• top speed around 200 km/h, acceleration 0-100 km/h around 10 s
  
• diesel engined-cars
• I have to like the look of the car inside, outside; and the drive has to be good, taking corners has to be brisk and sharp

At the moment two cars satisfy these criteria, the Seat Leon 1.9 TDI, and the Alfa Romeo 147:

The Leon by itself is a beautiful car, since the upgrade last year made it look more zesty. The streamlined look, the bubble-shaped back of the car all contribute to a great look. Inside the Leon is solid, if just a little bit uneventful. And the same goes for the ride: uneventful. The Seat drives solidly, but is very much like a Polo, a 206, a Clio i.e. unsurprising. It does exactly what you think it should do, it behaves completely according to your steering, and generally doesn't leave you hanging.

And that's a bad thing, because in that case I need to justify why I should pay EUR 26k for a car that drives pretty much like a car that's worth EUR 17k.

The Alfa drives a lot less predictable than the Seat. A 147 is a strange car that has a certain temperamente, and a mind of its own. For example it cannot make up its mind what temperature it is outside (5 degrees Celsius... no 3... now it's 4... oh now it's 0... err... 2, no wait 3... etc.). The exterior is beautiful, but in a more classic and chic way, rather than the brash and bold shape of the Leon. The interior is gorgeous at the first impression. However a closer look reveals that the gear shift stick is about as thick as a pencil, and the glove compartment is held together with two pieces of string.

Which one would I choose? I think I enjoyed the drive more in the Alfa than the Seat, and I think the extra nine thousand or so euros I can easily justify. Of course, I got suspicious about the over-reactive thermometer, the flimsy interior design, but in the end you have to know just one thing... which car pulls more women? Exactly...

Truly, to quote the guys from Top Gear, you cannot be a true petrol head unless you've driven - for any length of time - an Alfa Romeo. To experience the joy of driving it, the agony and frustration when you go back to the garage to have something or other fixed... this is what true motoring is all about...

...and besides I'm only gonna be driving it for a year or so.

Going Mental

So this is what a breakdown feels like...

Frustration sets in quickly. The feeling of irritation is far greater than before. Control over emotions is gone. Everything is full-on, head-first, attack-always.

Nobody's safe. Everyone's a victim.

Now I see the appeal for booze, drugs and rock and roll. Takes the edge off things.

Colts win Superbowl XLI

Seriously, I couldn't understand how many turnovers you could get in a single half of football. If you were even only slightly more of a fan of either the Colts or the Bears, you must have had a rollercoaster of emotions. We've seen fumbles, botched snaps, botched kicks, even more fumbles, and giveaways. It's just that the Bears were slightly worse at it than the Colts.

But let's talk about the non-football things: Billy Joel is a mean drunk with a coarse voice from the Jack Daniels; Prince's Purple Rain looked a little more suspicious and a lot less innocent than was intended behind the curtain; half-time shows were a lot more fun when MTV hosted them.

(Lifetime sports prediction record: 5-1)

P9UA: SonyE P990 Users Anonymous

We may need a P990 users association very soon. Here's what I found of this phone in the past month I've been using it:

• battery life is a mess when you turn all the features on (Wifi, camera, radio/mp3, screen light), so I end up turning everything off until I need it. Otherwise one phone-call will drain the P990. Luckily the phone can be powered up with the usb-cable, which I always carry around with my laptop, in a 15 kg laptop bag...
  
• turning the phone on takes longer than switching on my computer, which is damn long; luckily I don't need to turn off the phone that often...
• the battery cover is stuck to the phone with nails and staplers and superglue, and you have to call the green berets just to remove it. Pretty strange, since the cover itself is a flimsy sheet of plastic. Luckily the cover doesn't need to come off a lot. Unluckily upgrading the phone's firmware REQUIRES you to take your sim-card out, which REQUIRES you to remove the cover...
• the camera still is not too good in the dark, despite the flash light; also it locks up if it is too dark and you need to make adjustments. And if the phone locks up, you need to remove the cover...
• all the features you would ever need (RDS radio, business card reader, organizer, birthday calendar etc.) are in the P990, but to find them, you need a flashlight, climbing tools, a sherpa, a signed warrant, ropes and a GPS tracking system...
• the phone is highly intelligent: so much so, it knows when it is tired and turns itself off...

I've gotta hand it to SonyEricsson: the phone is quite good in what it does and offers. It also has some handy features (the slide lock for example is a brilliant idea), and some of the criticisms were unfounded (the reduced screen height isn't detrimental to the usability, and the keyboard is even quite good for my fingers). It is still however not as good-looking as the P900 (without keypad), and it is definitely not as user-friendly as a Nokia.