Sharp as a Tooth.

Download, turn off the lights and enjoy Music from the Candyman
password: golfo

A new job and tickets for Jean-Michel Jarre in one day. Ha!

I've been reading so much about body language and non-verbal communication during job
interviews that it's starting to become an obstacle for success. While I'm no nervous person, the constant awareness of the movements and positions of my arms and legs, the firmness of my handshake, my posture and facial expressions and their associated implications are making it almost impossible for me to relax. I'm so self-conscious about my body language that it distracts me from what I'm actually saying or want to say.

There seems to be this new trend in photographing and presenting meat in publicity folders. For example:

from rabbit anno 2006:

Nicely chopped up, pretty flower. Quite appetizing.

( to rabbit anno 2008: )

Popularity of snakes and other reptiles as pets are up by 40 percent here in Belgium.

I wonder if you could use these numbers and people's choice for non-traditional (furry/cuddly) pets as a reliable indicator for the increase in extreme right-wing sympathies/political activity in society. Or is this just intolerant thinking of me.

Smelled so much like garlic today that I feared people would spontaneously faint from the sudden drop in their blood pressure when passing me by.

Damn you, stir-fry pan.

I plan to drink just enough to be able to shamelessly sing along with Michel Sardou's "Les Lacs du Connemara" while waving a white napkin above my head.
May your plans for the evening be just as ambitious and exciting.

Happy 2008 y'all. Make it a good one.

Het blijft toch goed. Beregoed zelfs.

Sometimes in the short moments between sunset and dusk you get these clear pinkish skies above clouds that seem to hang really low - as if they're not floating but just leaning on the earth in straight, thick layers. It's difficult to describe, but this kind of setting often triggers some sort of optical illusion in me. Something like the Magic Eye images that were all the rage a couple of years ago, but with the difference that in my case I'm inside the illusion, not just looking at it.

I like to call the phenomenon imaginary mountains. The clouds just seem to transform into mountains when you pass them by at a certain speed, they kind of pop forward like the dinosaur or whatever would pop out of one of these 3D things.
One moment you're driving on the N44 5 minutes from home, the next moment you're far away - in a picturesque valley surrounded by snowy Alps. It's a fantastic trick of the eye, but start to think and it's gone.
I think I have a good idea of the combination of factors causing the effect, but for fear of losing the magic I don't want to overanalyze it. I just watch with wonder.
When you're living on a flat piece of the earth like I do, even short moments with imaginary mountains are better than no mountains at all.