I hate mosquitos!

Argh! I haven't slept more than 3 hours last night. Yesterday was an unpleasantly warm and humid day: cloudy skies, the air so humid the wet streets didn't dry all day and 27ºC (81ºF). Because of the dense clouds it didn't cool down at night; I have been staring at the ceiling for two hours last night until I finally fell asleep in a very warm bedroom. Woke up bathing in sweat at 4 AM, after that some mosquitos kept me awake until 7:30. I've been bitten 17 times.

I have no idea how I'm going to get through this day.

Stressed. (And why Groningen?)

You might have guessed it by the lack of new posts in the past days: I'm very busy. I'm trying to graduate in August and that means a lot of work in very little time. As a result I’m pretty stressed out. At the moment I’m reading boring scientific papers all day, so my mind tends to be a bit soggy in the evening... until the end of this week I won’t have lot of inspiration for writing here I think.

In my lunch break today, I stumbled upon the new MSN Virtual Earth. Looking at the map of Europe, something caught my eye: The choice of cities displayed on the low-resolution map of Europe is somewhat strange. London doesn't exist and Amsterdam is not denoted either... but my home town Groningen (with 180,000 inhabitants the 7th city of the Netherlands) is:

Makes me wonder: What did our city council and mayor do to put Groningen on the map (literally)? It turns out this isn't the only oddity in Virtual Earth. Apparently they're having fun at Microsoft recreating the planet as they'd like it to be: Apple's corporate headquarters in Cupertino, CA has been wiped off the map and satellite photos. ;)

Lesbians, astrology, neighbors and a hangover

Phew... it has taken me some time to recover from last weekend, but I’m back. I had a fun barbecue party with a bunch of lesbians on Saturday. It was a great evening; hadn't laughed that much in a long time and I very wisely did not drink too much like I tend to do on Saturdays. And I had my horoscope drawn; after 29 years I finally know my ascendant is Virgo. But... can anybody tell me why so many lesbians are into astrology?

On Sunday, I overcompensated for not drinking that much on Saturday. I walked out my door to rent a DVD at 5 PM and I found my two fabulously bouncy neighbors sitting on the bench in front of one of their homes, drinking rosé wine and giggling. They’re two divorced thirty-something women and they are really great fun. When it comes to men and sex, I suddenly feel like a saint hearing their stories. They invited me over to join them; we didn’t stop drinking, chatting and laughing until we ran out of wine at about 12 AM. To finish off the evening we went to a local gay bar for an hour or so, where I think I gave my phone number to a Russian boy, but I’m not sure...

I really had a terrible hangover on Monday, like I haven’t had in a very long time. I wasn’t able to perform even the simplest tasks and I’ve sworn never to drink again...

I've got Harry

I decided not to stand in the long line in front of 'Scholtens Wristers' - something like the Barnes & Noble of Groningen - after all. Instead I checked my local book store, and it had a sign on the door saying "open at 1:10 AM, Harry Potter for just € 15.99"!! I went home and got back to the store at 1:15, bought the book without waiting and cycled to the 'Scholtens Wristers'. What I saw there:

People were still standing in line and it turned out they had to pay €18.95 for the same book. Boy, am I in a good mood right now... :)

In line for Harry

People are actually standing in line in the middle of the night (right now, at this very moment, 12 AM, July 16th) to obtain the sixth Harry Potter. Sales start at 1 AM local time (so that's in an hour).

I'm a big fan, but I had planned to buy the book tomorrow. But... maybe I'll join them. The line of people actually looked like a lot of fun when I cycled by ten minutes ago on my way home. Hmm, I have to confess I'm very curious. Yeah, I'll go and join the freaks fans!

South Africa may legalize gay marriage (& more)

I just typed a post about the good news: South Africa may be the 5th country to give marriage rights to same-sex couples. And then Firefox hanged and everything was gone. (#@&%!) I'm not re-typing everything, I have to go to the gym. Just want to share this happy news... the summer of 2005 might prove to be a very good one for gay rights!

Gotta run now... I just found out new episodes of The O.C. are starting this evening on Dutch TV. :) (Or shouldn't I make public that I'm a big fan...? It's rather uncool and might be considered 'non-appropriate TV' for a highly educated 29-year-old... Ah fuck it, I don't care.)

My cheesy-music-fetish

I’m so thrilled about the music I’ve discovered yesterday, it’s almost orgasmic. I have this strange thing with some sorts of very cheesy music... I totally love it. I came across some strange version of Barbie Girl on the very entertaining blog “Bryanboy: Le Superstar Fabuleux” yesterday. Some searching led me to the “La Musique de Paris Dernière” compilations. I started downloading and… wow… the most fabulous cover collection ever!

All the songs are cool; some are musical masterpieces, some are VERY cheesy and I absolutely love them all. They are so cool I wanna buy all four CD’s. I’m going to check if they’re available in stores in the Netherlands immediately. Here are some preview clips from the French Amazon site (RealAudio): The links to individual songs below don't work anymore at the moment; referrals to music streams from this blog's address have been blocked by Amazon. However, you can still copy the link and paste it in a new, blank browser window to listen. Or use these working links to the entire CD's Amazon.fr, so you can easily click there and listen to all songs: CD1 CD2 CD3 CD4.

• Barbie Girl - Axel Boys Quartet
• I’m Not in Love - Fun Lovin’ Criminals
• Happy Together - Leningrad Cowboys & Alexandrov Red Army Ensemble
• Sex Bomb - Das Palast Orchester mit seinen Max Raabe
• Like a Virgin - Big Daddy
• Proud Mary - Prozak for Lovers
• Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You - Muse
• Baby One More Time - Ahmet & Dweezil Zappa
• Survivor - Tim Keegan
• Can’t Get You Out Of My Head - Helena
• Staying Alive - Eldissa

PS. Indeed dear Kylie fans, there's another cover of Can't Get You Out Of My Head! Look here for previously featured versions by Coldplay and Tori Amos)

Go Londoners

The Londoners I've just seen on the news are just fabulous. They go on with their daily lives as if nothing has changed. And in fact, nothing has changed; lightning never strikes twice at the same place. I think it's the only right way to deal with terrible acts like yesterday's bombings in London. It has happened, but life goes on. If life would stop, the bombers would have reached their goal. Go Londoners! Keep going, my thoughts are with you.

Grossed out

I ran into this picture on QueerClick. It's brilliant, but sooo disturbing. I’m so gay, this grosses me out completely and takes away my sex drive for at least a week. I hope it doesn’t do the same for you. (Picture not suitable for work!)

Batman Begins

I went to see Batman Begins last night. And I actually liked it... a lot! This is by far the best Batman movie ever. Christian Bale is great as Batman (and visually pleasing). They manage to make the strange story of someone starting dressing up in a bat outfit credible; Batman's character has depth... I'm pleasantly surprised!

I even didn't dislike slant-mouthed-Katie in this film. Her voice is not as annoyingly high pitched anymore like in Dawson’s days. It has lowered considerably; maybe to make Tom feel more at ease or maybe she’s taken up the habit of drinking whiskey. Anyhow, if she continues developing like this I might start liking her.

Smoothies

I ran across this article on the 'new breed' of men in the US: smoothies. They're not gay, they're no metrosexuals, they often live in the more conservative parts of the States... and they pay a lot of attention to their bodies. They're buffed and waxed totally smooth, including a Brazilian wax of sack and crack.

I'd like to express my gratitude towards Abercrombie & Fitch. I think they are (at least in part) responsible for creating this trend. They've been depicting the smoothie in their ads and catalogues for years now. I’m not necessarily a fan of total absence of pubic hair, but there have been worse trends. Now let's hope the average European man too will start paying more attention to their bodies and grooming.

Why didn't I know...

Why didn't I know it was 'Day of Architecture' in the Netherlands yesterday? I keep missing out on things like this. I wanted to take a look inside John Hejduk's Wallhouse in Groningen for years... next time it's open to the public I won't live in Groningen anymore I think. Grrr.

Working out @ weekends

Damn, I missed my workout again today! Went to a party yesterday, had some too many beers, got to bed late and now I've missed opening hours at the gym! Again! My gym is conveniently located at just a 2 minute walk from my home. This really works for me; I’m working out more often than I used to do at my previous gym. The new gym has one disadvantage though: on weekends it closes at 2 PM! I'm working out at this gym since early May and haven't managed to go there on weekends yet.

I simply can't train within two hours after waking up. It leads to accidents, like me being launched off the treadmill or getting crushed under the barbell while attempting to bench press. My strength and stamina simply aren't there yet the first two hours after waking up. I really don't understand how people can workout at 7 AM before going to work.

I woke up this morning at 11:15... too late for a full workout (90 - 100 minutes including cadio). I'm going to another party tonight... I shouldn't drink and go home early not too late so I can work out tomorrow... And I’ll go running in the park now instead of today's workout...

A laugh-your-ass-off reading tip

I'm still wiping my tears away after reading this very funny blog entry about KY Warming Liquid on "Meredith's Everyday Angst". Absolutely brilliant writing!

Gay TV

Yesterday Logo kicked off; the first all gay TV station for the US. At first I thought gay TV was something ridiculous. An occasional gay themed program on regular TV is enough for me and is far more useful for acceptation; straight people might come across it and learn something.

But now, looking at the Logo site, I have to confess I’d probably want a subscription if I lived in the US. The programming sounds great! They broadcast many movies I liked and movies I want to see but can’t find at my DVD rental store. They even broadcast "Antonia’s Line" (Original title: "Antonia"), an Academy Award winning Dutch film... I’m shocked! I think that’s a high quality, for American understanding somewhat strange art house film.

I’m curious what the impact of the channel will be and if they’ll be available nationwide in the US anytime soon. And I’m curious if they’ll produce quality original programming that will be broadcasted on Dutch TV. That would be nice...