dutch marginal

ben ik gehandicapt door een flinke dosis non-conformisme bij traditionele rituelen en opvattingen, zoals iemand feliciteren of condoleren? inmiddels probeer ik mij wel aan te passen, maar als kind vond ik dat heel naar. en dat gaat ook niet weg, ook al ben ik inmiddels al heel wat jaar volwassen. het gekke is dat dit non-conformisme niet in alle situaties de overhand heeft. ik heb bijvoorbeeld nooit de neiging gehad om lessen te verstoren omdat ik daarvoor teveel sympathie voelde voor de mens in de docent en omdat ik graag leerde. ik kwam dit project tegen van de kunstenaar Pilvi Takala tegen op het IFFR van 2012. en ineens voel ik mij een stuk minder gehandicapt, want wat ben ik ontzettend conform vergeleken met haar experimenten. een gezonde dosis non-conformisme kan geen kwaad en ik ben oud genoeg om op te letten dat ik er andere mensen niet teveel mee voor het hoofd stoot.

voor mij worden boekenlijsten voor de middelbare school weer actueel. je vraagt je af waarom het grootste deel dat daarop staat zo ontzettend serieus en somber is. natuurlijk, het is een weerspiegeling van de maatschappij en van de vogelgriep en alle dode kippen, de ebola-epidemie en de acties van is en boko haram wordt je niet blij. maar zou je met je boeken niet invloed kunnen uitoefenen met een humoristische visie op de wereld. voor kinderen doen schrijvers dit namelijk wel. kinderboeken maken je vaak blij. en blije mensen zijn het halve werk voor een betere wereld. dus schrijvers, zie de uitdaging, maak jezelf en anderen blij. zoek de humor in het leven en schrijf erover. nu ik erover nadenk zou er toch eigenlijk zeker een prijs moeten zijn voor het beste boek met humor elk jaar. misschien ga ik daar eens sponsors voor zoeken, want je wilt pubers toch niet meer somber maken dan ze toch al zijn soms. gelukkig zijn er, als je je erin verdiept, al vele boeken die humoristische literat...

i was reading a calvin and hobbes book yesterday and recognized a lot now, while before, i just enjoyed it. so beware, before you have children, read calvin and hobbes and remember to enjoy it, realizing that you will recognize it later. do not loose your sense of humor and keep your patience. and if again, your house is a mess remember this funny quote from phyllis diller on children: 'cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the sidewalk before it stops snowing.'

as my aunt is finishing her live this evening because of cancer, i am reasoning about death. without death, the world would be overpopulated or birth should neither occur. death is nature but a very sad part. at such moments you search for wisdom on life in religion, books or philosophy. i found this comforting quote by George Elliot

whenever you feel down, you feel like never getting up again. i can be jealous about the religious people who always have their religion at such periods. but recently, i read an interview with eric kaplan and read his philosophy. a quite comforting philosophy for the atheists in a dip. his theory says that we, humans, need a purpose in our days and in our lives. you have to know why you want things or not, often being just experiences you have. being a atheist does not mean you do not believe in something, mayby in santaclaus or just the flower fairies, a story, a myth, something your make up yourself. why not even though you know rationally it is not a proven fact. what is truth for a philosopher; only read sophie's world by jostein gaarder and you realize how surreal the world could be and is. philosophy in this world can be a survival skill with which you can find your intellectual and moral balance. it gives you tools.

did you ever read any book of jules verne, or do you just know the stories from childhood? anyway, i decided to read the two books on captain nemo, travelling 20,000 miles under sea. i had difficulties finding the motivation to read through the first half of the first book, but then i got caught by the verne fever. the books are filled with future, considering they have been written in the 19th century. they remind me of the drawings and sketchings of leonardo da vinci. and, what a coincidence. i just read an article in the newspaper on plagues of jellyfish, while verne already predicts that plagues will occur in the future due to the overfishing of other fishes and whales for example. the balance will become disturbed and so it is. how can we ever say now, that we did not realize the consequences of our fishing and hunting, if even more than 100 years ago it was already predicted.

when live is a burden and you are not religious, how to survive? politeness and love, i just read, are important. and do not force your philosophy on others. ok. let us try.

ever wondered what to do with all those old books, you once read, or got through heritage maybe? i just saw this idea at the etsy website: vintage books as an interior art decoration a fantastic idea. and you know, recently i took such an old book, and loved the old-fashioned way it has been written in. how time changes.

ever heard of it? fairchain, radically good coffee. moyee. it is delicious, absolutely worth the extra price only by taste already. and than knowing that you support the fairchain of coffee, it gives you a good feeling. try it too. and probably you will want more. click the logo if you are curious.

if you are super sensitive for motion, you probably already tried a lot of cures. as i do not like to take medicines and would like to enjoy travelling more, i renewed my search for a cure. last week i made candied ginger, as ginger still seems to be the best way to feel as less sick as possible. my son tried out. it is delicious and really diminished the sickness a lot. the only disadvantage was the ginger being really hot. now, after a week, it has become somewhat softer in taste. so try it out yourself. use a more healthy sugar like raw cane sugar or another sweetener if you prefer. the recipe i used: 1 ginger root, peeled and sliced add water (1 cup per 100 mg of ginger) cover and cook for 35 minutes or until tender drain the ginger, keeping the water weigh the ginger and add as much sweetener reheat the ginger, water and sweetener and keep stirring until the sugar (re)crystallizes (20 minutes) transfer to a cooling rack with backing sheet underneath and let dry the res...

did you ever hear of regrowing new vegetables from the scraps? i just came by regrowing carrot tops into new plants and discovered that you can regrow so much. of course we tried out seeds from vegetables and fruits before, even grew our own date palm but from scraps is something new to us. check out the internet if you are interested in doing so too.

at the canals in my home town you can find a lot of lime trees (tilia). beautiful trees with healthy fruits to use for tea and flowers that bees make delicious honey from. but as i was biking under the trees this week, my tires got stuck to the street a bit. i remembered the car being parked under it would turn into an dirty old car, as if parked there for a long time, in a few days. so i decided to exactly find out if the sticky street and dirty cars came from insects in the trees or from the trees itself. it seems that in particular, aphids are attracted by the rich supply of sap of the leaves. in turn, they are "farmed" by ants for the production of the sap which the ants collect for their own use. the result, a dripping of excess sap (honeydew) onto the lower branches and leaves, streets and cars. and as this honeydew is often covered with a black mould, a black sticky layer is the result. happily enough this sticky layer is only annoying to us while the trees do not ...

even red wine seems to be bad for your health. all the stories on red wine being good for the heart, seem to have been made from misinterpreted research. alcohol is poison. and that just now, when after years of not drinking a drop, i recently started with drinking a small glass once a month or so. i stopped years ago when i became ill for three days after drinking bubbles after a hard days work when i was very tired and short of breath. the first advice for those with any physical defect is to quit with alcohol, coffee and black tea. so i stopped with alcohol, coffee and black tea. the coffee came back when i was just permanently too tired but mixed with caffeine-free coffee. now red wine came back. but with the news article i just read, it seems to be as stupid as smoking. so i will just drink raisin juice instead of wine again. it is delicious though and relaxing, but i can think of other relaxing things.