03/05/31 current events, links, novel progress report #5
03/05/24 current events, links, novel progress report #4
03/05/20 current events, links, novel progress report #3
03/05/10 current events, novel progress report #2
03/05/03 current events, novel progress report #1
Not a lot going on, right now. We've got a government again, which is nice. And I'm in the last weeks of the post-doctoral course on IT auditing, and finally preparing to write my thesis.
Up to 3,000 Iraqis - some of them civilians - believed to be gagged, bound, hooded and beaten at US camps close to Baghdad airport.
Guardian: Red Cross denied access to PoWs
Heavy metal music and popular American children's songs are being used by US interrogators to break the will of their captives in Iraq.
BBC news: Sesame Street breaks Iraqi PoWs
Salam Pax lives and writes for the Guardian.
Metafilter: Salam's story
Blogroots post with additional links
High school and college students run Iraq's only independent newspaper.
Al-MuaJaha: the newspaper's website
Salon article
Excellent Metafilter discussion about supposedly great books that people hated. My personal #1 contender: Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Baigent, Lee and Lincoln. Excuse me while I go and throw it around the room for a bit.
Metafilter: if I had to do it again, I wouldn't read Beowulf
And, to keep things in balance, good summer reads selected by the Slashdot membership.
Slashdot: a good summer read?
Over the past week I've added one episode to the first draft of my novel.
Introduction and start of the story
After the war (39)
Lessons learned while writing a novel.
03/05/31 Telling the truth
We've got a "regeerakkoord" (Cabinet policy statement) now, though its stubborn adherence to paying off the national debt within a few years in spite of the consequences for the current economy is strongly criticised. We've also got a Cabinet ready to be sworn in.
Expatica: new Cabinet record - 5 female Ministers
More Dutch politics and current events:
Dutch politics in 2003
Brittania rules the waves but the US rule the skies, apparently.
EE Times: US 'negation' policy in space raises concerns abroad
Making corporations take responsibility for their actions.
Kuro5hin: UK to enact law on corporate killing
Magical realism and modern fairy tales.
Metafilter: modern fairytales, American magical realism, a trend?
And, while we're at it, science fiction.
Kuro5hin: a review of contemporary science fiction
Alternatives to copyright, and the risks thereof.
Metafilter: creative common headache?
Over the past week I've added one episode to the first draft of my novel.
Introduction and start of the story
After the war (38)
The economy's officially in a recession, and we should have a government Real Soon Now.
On a more personal note: I've had a new job since February this year. The job is with a government organisation that is in the process of downsizing, and for the past months I've felt the threat of unemployment hanging over my head again. It's a weird way to start a new job. It turned out that apparently I do have some level of job security, and over the past week I found that for the first time at this new job I was actually enjoying myself.
Pointless and wonderful.
Escher's "Ascending and Descending" in LEGO
An old conversation on Metafilter that I happened to come across. Interesting discussion about fantasy and religion.
LOTR and Christianity
More fantasy. After reading this site I went out and bought all three volumes of His Dark Materials.
Philip Pullman on how to write a book
Prostitution FAQ by a former pro. I liked both the writing and the honesty.
Javina's prostitution FAQ
In Dutch, "pinkster" means Pentecost. This seems to be something else entirely.
June 8: the forgotten holiday of Pinkster
Over the past week I've added two episodes to the first draft of my novel.
Introduction and start of the story
After the war (36)
After the war (37)
Lessons learned while writing a novel.
03/05/18 Where do I go from here?
Still no government.
On May 6th it was a year ago that Pim Fortuyn was murdered. Public interest was less than expected but there was a lot of media attention with programs about the murder on about every Dutch TV channel. It turned out that the meeting where the Leefbaar Nederland party leadership broke up with Fortuyn had been filmed, and in the course of the evening we got to see that at least five times in different programs.
It's strange how distant it all seems, and seeing the TV coverage brought back how weird and ugly the weeks after the murder were. There was one fragment filmed shortly after the murder that I didn't remember seeing last year. In it a middle-aged woman is speaking into the journalist's microphone urging everyone to be reasonable and to stay calm, her voice almost drowned out by the chorus of "Whore! Whore! Whore!" from the mob of mostly young men gathered around her. Ugh. Can we all just go back to being bland and boring, please?
More Dutch politics and current events:
Dutch politics in 2003
Over the past week I've added three episodes to the first draft of my novel.
Introduction and start of the story
After the war (33)
After the war (34)
After the war (35)
Lessons learned while writing a novel.
03/05/10 The power of myth
I'm still busy writing a novel (and writing about writing a novel) and everything else is pretty much on the back burner. After re-reading all 32 episodes my appreciation for my own work is at an all-time low, but I am going to persist. After all, persistence builds character.
We still don't have a government. Currently negotiations are going on between the Christian Democrats (CDA), the Liberal Conservatives (VVD) and the D66 political reform party. CDA and VVD need a third party to acquire a Parliament majority. Before, there had been negotiations with the SGP and the Christian Union, two fundamentalist Christian parties with 2 and 3 Parliament seats respectively. Especially the possible government participation of the SGP met with criticism since they're against the separation of church and state and don't admit women as full members.
More Dutch politics and current events:
Dutch politics in 2003
Over the past week I've added three episodes to the first draft of my novel.
Introduction and start of the story
After the war (30)
After the war (31)
After the war (32)
Lessons learned while writing a novel.
03/04/30 Art and craft
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