Helvensteijn.com

Alright, as of today, The Netherlands is the next country where it is no longer allowed to smoke in hotels, bars, restaurants and other places like that. Fine, so we won’t smoke there anymore.

But leave it to these anti-smoke dickheads to find their next thing to wage war on. Now, they want us smokers to stop smoking on sidewalk cafe’s. People, we’re talking about open air here! Where then do we have to go? Where can we finally smoke our damn cigarettes without you fuckers constantly driving us away? It’s not like we’re criminals or something, though we are more and more being treated as such.

Idiots who decide to go driving while totally drunk, those are criminals. Go bug them. But please, let us in peace. You anti-smoke fetishes now have plenty of room to go where there is not a molecule of smoke in the air. And don’t come complaining to us if the air still smells bad. Instead, take the bicycle instead of your car for a change…

I’ll repeat that again: STOP YOUR FUCKING COMPLAINING!!! Don’t you think you’ve won by now?

So, what have I been up to lately?

Well, there’s a thing called real life that’s been keeping me busy. Obligations here, weekend trip there, you know how it goes…
Then there’s the MetaD IRC network that I’ve set up with some other people. And I’ve been busy (well, sort of) with a new sort of web publishing software, called UniTextus. It’s still in the conceptual stage, no actual code has been written yet.

So, in all the fuzz, this web site has gotten little attention over the last few weeks. And I’m not sure how much time I’ll be able to put into it for the time to come. There’s one thing I have decided about this site: I want to get rid of WordPress. By now, this site hangs together by plugins and tweaks, which is not how I like to see it. I have yet to decide whether to wait for a reasonably stable version of UniTextus or to build something myself in the mean time. One thing is sure though: one of these days I’m going to drop support for my WordPress plugins. I do have an issue with one of them that I want to resolve before then, but don’t expect any more updates.

I’ll make an official announcement when the time comes. In the mean time, if you’re interested in taking over development for my plugins, go ahead and do so. They were released under a BSD license, so you may do with them as you please.

I wish everyone a happy new year. A few days early, but I won’t be at home for the occasion so it will have to do.
Try not to harm yourselves or others with fireworks!

I’m not really in the habit of celebrating it myself (heck, this is the first time in years that I’m actually at home for the occasion ) but I do wish everyone who reads this a merry Christmas.

I’m taking this opportunity to make a proposal. It seems tradition to kill each other all year long, save with Christmas. I suggest we stop killing each other alltogether from now on. How difficult could it be to accept people who think a little different? Is it really so much to ask to look beyond our own ideals and respect someone else’s?

Also a note to those who apparently live for the sole purpose of being offended by everything that others do or say. I think we all know whom I’m referring to. Someone once said: “The prophet is beyond any insult.” If the prophet himself cannot be insulted anyway, why bother to be insulted in his name? If you ever encounter a cartoon you think is offensive, just remember that.

This is surreal. Recently, the Dutch IT company Compello was sued by T-Mobile, subsidiary of Deutche Telekom, for the use of the color magenta in their marketing. They also urge the Dutch radio stations Slam FM and 100% NL to stop using the color. Deutche Telekom claims to own the exclusive right to use magenta for their own marketing throughout Europe.

Well, sue me, dickheads!

How far have we sunken that we allow a company to claim something as fundamental as a part of the color spectrum for their own? What’s next, the letter T?This thing has to stop. Lots of people agree with me.

Almost 2 weeks ago, the smiley celebrated its 25th anniversary. Today, the celebration is for Sputnik 1. Exactly 50 years ago, on October 4th, 1957, it became the first man-made object in outer space. Technically it did little more than sendig radio beeps back to Earth, but more importantly, it set off the Space Race between the United Stated and the Soviet Union, lasting well into the 1970’s.

In my opinion, this event is still one of the most significant technological breakthroughs in history. After all, if the Soviets hadn’t launched their “football with antennae” into space, the entire Space Race might never have took place, and countless innovations that space exploration has lead to, might never have been made.

Today, the Russians still play a major role in manned space exploration. If it wasn’t for their Soyuz Program, the International Space Station would have probably been abandoned after the 2003 Columbia disaster. In fact, while the United States are struggling to design and build a replacement for their Space Shuttle, the Russians are still sucessfully deploying their 41 years old Soyuz rockets — though somewhat modernized along the way — and are not planning on retiring them any time soon.

I’m looking forward to the next 50 years of space exploration. There are some interesting missions underway right now. But despite all the probes and manned missions we’ve sent into space since 1957, our own Solar System still remains largely unexplorered. Let alone what lies beyond. I predict that the age of space exploration — whether it be with probes or manned space craft — has only just began.

I’m going away to the camping site in the German Eifel for a while. Don’t know when I’ll be back yet. When I get bored, I guess.

Maybe I’ll leave a post or two, if I happen to find an Internet cafe or so. Otherwise, I’ll see you all when I get back.

Please try not to mutilate this site. I’d like to find it as I left it when I get back.

It’s been raining on and off all day already, but suddenly I noticed it getting dark. Darker than usual. Really dark. Kinda spooky actually.

Here’s a photo:

Dark cloud coverage

Up untill now, it looks worse than it is. But I’ve learned never to say never…

Update 18:43: Well, it still looks worse than it actually was. At least here, that is. Somewhere in the east of The Netherlands, a few old ladies were hit by lightning while hiking. Fortunately there were no deadly casualties, though two of them were hospitalized with burns.

As of 17.00 hours today (CEST), I’m unemployed. I’m no longer a taxi driver, which was my job for the past five years or so. So now what?

Well, some well earned vacation, that’s what! It’ll be a non-payed vacation, that’s a minor downside. On the other hand, I’ve got some money saved up sitting at the bank. And since I’m kind of an anti-materialistic person, I don’t actually bother living on it until it runs out.

When it does, I’ll probably apply for a job as truck driver. I don’t have a trucker’s license yet, but the demand for truckers is currently so high, that companies are happy to pay for my training and the license itself. I’ll probably even be able to negotiate some salary during the training.