Friday, August 25, 2006

For all you bed bug lovers

Shamelessly copied from www.craigslist.com

"Listen up, you heinous little motherfuckers. I am not playing. Before I deliver the grim news of your collective fates, let me give you a brief synopsis of how you have driven me to the brink of insanity over the last three months. Here it is.

Unfortunately, because I am paying over $400 a month in student loans and am therefore very cheap, I made the mistake of accepting a used mattress from a coworker to put on top of my new bed frame and box springs. So. You and I have, by my calculations, been residing together since May. MAY. That's when I unwittingly brought you and your home into my bedroom. That's when I became your new food source. Your "host."

You guys are pretty tricky, I have to tell you. I mean, when I started seeing little purple dots on my toes in the morning, I did what you wanted me to do, which was to blame them on anything and everything under the sun except you. This is because I was wholly unaware that such hideous creatures as yourselves existed. I figured it was a spider, so I vacuumed profusely. Then I thought it was mosquitos, so I busted out the Off. Nothing seemed to be working. But you know this already, don't you? Yes, you snacked on me all through the month of June, getting your fill of my blood while I snored on, retreating back to the crevices of my mattress just before dawn, leaving no sign or trail.
Ahhh, June. What a peaceful, sane month. Ignorance, in this case, was truly bliss.

But then came July and with July came some strange occurances. You multiplied, didn't you? Got a little more hungry, huh? You must have because that's when my body started to revolt against whatever it is you injected me with when you were gnawing on my flesh. See, I started having these weird allergic reactions. Getting hives for no reason at all. So I changed my laundry detergent to something dye-free, fragrance-free. That didn't work. Then I changed my soap to something hypoallergenic. No, that didn't work either. And the hives kept getting worse, until one morning, I woke up with not only hives all over my chest and back, but about twenty purple dots on my feet, which I (ignorance, remember) attributed to the allergies. Remember that morning, my little roommates? Do you? That's the morning my throat swelled shut and I had to be rushed to the emergency room.

You had us all stumped, from the ER doc to the allergist. They ran tests, researched, poked, prodded, scraped... All to no avail. The diagnosis? I was allergic to myself, because they could find nothing that I was allergic to otherwise. I was ALLERGIC TO MYSELF?? Yes, that was the diagnosis. But they were so very wrong, weren't they? You guys are so slick as to leave bites that disappear pretty quickly and could be ANYTHING, right? So I took my Allegra and went to sleep every night and you fed on, didn't you?

Then came August. I was dealing with being hivey all the time and rashy some of the time and generally very uncomfortable, but I was dealing, you know? And then you showed your faces. Literally. See, I have it figured out now. The grandaddy of all bedbugs came to play, didn't he? He must have been starving because he gave me three bites I just couldn't ignore. I mean, these were nasty, bright red and the size of a penny and really fucking itchy. That's when the lightbulb went on, bitches. There was something FUNKY going on in my bedroom and I was on to you, I just didn't have a clue that you were so stealthy. Really, you are. But I looked you up. God bless the internet. Yep, I Googled your asses and when I typed in "bites while sleeping," there you were. You are some ugly motherfuckers, too. I'm not just saying that because you've been stealing my blood without my knowledge or consent, either. You are really ugly.

This is where the insanity begins, because in order to prove that you really were cohabitating with me, I had to willingly and knowingly be your food and catch you eating me. This, as you know, meant sleeping (and I use the word "sleeping" very loosely at this point) with a flashlight beside me and waking up intermittently throughout the night for five nights straight to examine my body and catch you in the middle of snacktime. Thing is, you instinctively knew I wasn't sleeping, didn't you? So you held out for as long as you could. But one of you was weaker than the rest. He couldn't last, he couldn't hang and he gave you up, huh?

So there I was, reading my book, completely not expecting you guys for several more hours when he ran out from under my sheet, straight past my nose, towards the edge of the bed. Now I told you before and I'll tell you again: I am not playing. I smashed that motherfucker so fast he had no clue what hit him. And what came flying out of his crushed body? Come on, you know. YES! MY BLOOD!!

Alright, bitches. I have you now. I saved his corpse. I bought a magnifying glass. I called Terminix and I slept on the living room floor for two nights. And when Drew, the friendly Terminix employee, showed up at my door last night, I told him straight out what I have already told you twice: I am not playing. Drew and I threw out the evil devil spawn mattress. We threw out the box springs. We threw out the fan, the bookcase, the books, everything in the back closet. All of it, gone. GONE, I tell you. And then Drew, my new best friend, sprayed the FUCK out of the entire house. I was not playing. He said it probably would be okay to just get the bedroom. Fuck that. You bitches have been giving me hives for three fucking months now. You're dead, it's over. We left no crack unsprayed, no piece of funiture unbombed. That's right, assholes, I BOMBED YOUR ASSES. TWICE. And tomorrow, I'm coming for the couch and chairs. They're history. As I said, you're pretty slick, so I can see you thinking you can make a new home in my living room. Go fuck yourselves. And if any of you survived the initial attacks, be warned. Drew and I have a little deal and it's called HE'S COMING BACK in two weeks to bomb you again. And then he will come back once every 90 days for the next YEAR. So be prepared. YOU WILL DIE. I am not playing."

Monday, August 21, 2006

But sometimes you just have to agree

As a child I was blessed with a fully automated bullshit sensor. I mean I was one of the first who said the the lyrics from Micheal Jacksons album “bad” where autobiographically.
Just read it:

“Your Butt Is Mine
Gonna Take You Right
Just Show Your Face
In Broad DaylightI’m Telling You
On How I Feel
Gonna Hurt Your Mind
Don’t Shoot To Kill
Come On, Come On,
Lay It On Me All Right...
I’m Giving You
On Count Of Three
To Show Your Stuff
Or Let It Be . . .
I’m Telling You
Just Watch Your Mouth
I Know Your Game
What You’re About
Well They Say The Sky’s
The Limit
And To Me That’s Really True
But My Friend You Have
Seen Nothing
Just Wait ‘Til I Get Through . . .
Because I’m Bad, I’m Bad-Come On
(Bad Bad-Really, Really Bad)
You Know I’m Bad, I’m Bad-You Know It
(Bad Bad-Really, Really Bad)
You Know I’m Bad, I’m Bad-Come On, You Know
(Bad Bad-Really, Really Bad)
And The Whole World Has To
Answer Right Now
Just To Tell You Once Again,Who’s Bad . . .”

Ok this post isn’t about Micheal “heal the world, start with the children” Jacksons its about “Frans Bauer” Frans is a Dutch celebrity, he was brought up in a trailer park… (for real) Frans Bauer knew he wanted to sing from the age of 5 and has brought an a self financed album every year between the age of 15 and 20. (on a funny note he started to take singing lessons two years AFTER his first album came out).

Frans has front lined many famous artist including Koos Alberts, a Dutch singer who sits in a wheel chair. Bauer had its own reality show and is massive. Frans is especially know for the way he treats his fans. Fans are his number 1 concern, fans are invited to go up to his house and drink a cup of coffee with him, any day, any time. This clip give you an idea of his audience.
A guy doing Frans on the Dutch idols. I always thought that Frans Bauer was full of crap and that his secret fantasies included midgets and ropes, but alas.

Couple of weeks ago we were asked by Campina to help on the development of an new commercial with Frans Bauer. Of course it had to included fans drinking coffee (I will post the commercial as soon as we fixed the post production). When I came to the set a car stopped and three fans rolled out of the car. That morning they had a brilliant idea lets buy two sponge bob cakes and go over to Frans his house and eat it…. (their car is called the “Frans Bauer” mobile, and its is a billboard) I can savely write it down here because I don’t think that there is a Frans Bauer fan that can read English.

But my biggest surprise was that Frans was glad to see them and the 50 or so other fans, took pictures with them like he didn’t had anything else to do and –yess- invited them for a cup of coffee. All fans that were there that day appear in the upcoming commercial ;-).



I also had the change to see his house from the inside, he wanted our opinion on his new album. Being a metal fan I couldn’t help but laugh when I heard the songs, but Frans smilled and said “is this the bomb or what?” Since then I know for a fact that Frans Bauer is the nicest guy on this planet. (or has one brain cell).

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Seven dwarfs more famous than US judges

Three quarters of Americans can correctly identify two of Show White's seven dwarfs while only a quarter can name two Supreme Court Justices, according to a poll on pop culture released on Monday.

According to the poll by Zogby International, 57 percent of Americans could identify J.K. Rowling's fictional boy wizard as Harry Potter, while only 50 percent could name the British prime minister, Tony Blair. The pollsters spoke to 1,213 people across the United States. The results had a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points.

Just over 60 percent of respondents were able to name Bart as Homer's son on the television show "The Simpsons," while only 20.5 percent were able to name one of the ancient Greek poet Homer's epic poems, "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey."

Asked what planet Superman was from, 60 percent named the fictional planet Krypton, while only 37 percent knew that Mercury is the planet closest to the sun. Respondents were far more familiar with the Three Stooges -- Larry, Curly and Moe -- than the three branches of the U.S. government -- judicial, executive and legislative. Seventy-four percent identified the former, 42 percent the latter.

Twice as many people (23 percent) were able to identify the most recent winner of the television talent show "American Idol," Taylor Hicks, as were able to name the Supreme Court Justice confirmed in January 2006, Samuel Alito (11 percent).

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Spare time

This weekend we decided to take the day off spend some time with the kids, visit some friends and go out to diner. We have a thing called childsday. On childsdays our kids get to deside what is happening that day, starting at breakfast and ending with the bedtime ritual. This quarter their stuck with an childsday afternoon, but their still young and can't tell the time to save their lives. The pleasure of choice was the zoo this time. Animals in the zoo don't need Souki. They pretty much now all the animals they encounter and food is served in the same place at the same time.


The second stop was the canals in Utrecht, a really lovely place as you could see.



The last stop was a party at Lars & Karlijns place. Reason for the party was: New house, both new jobs, one year older and almost a new baby although they need some practice first.


Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Ehh come again?


About two weeks ago I was involved in a traffic accident. (the whole thing started when I thought to get my children early out of daycare, wouldn't do that one anytime soon). I use to brag about my 12 year track record without accidents and I probably tick off to many people because some nutcase drove his BMW @ 30 mph into my Saab.. Making our car look like an accordion.

“Hee dude, I’m late for a party is it alright that I give you 500 euros and drive off again?” was his question. I replayed that waiting for the cops to come was a better idea especially since there where two other cars involved. (the oldest driver was 92 deaf and presumably blind as well. When the cops asked her at what speed she was driving she said 80 mph. but I’m quit sure that it wasn’t faster then 20.)

After the cops convinced me what to say. Comment from cop “If you hit an other car de facto the distance between the two cars was to small.” –Where is the part that the guy behind you gives you a turbo boost??-. it was time for the insurance company.
Tuesday at nine pm we where called by the insurance guy. He had some great news, a friend of his would buy the wreck, his company would pay the amount that the cars was worth –less what his friend would gave us- but the best part was that he had found a similar car for us….. The total amount that we would get was less then 2400 dollar (or 30 percent) then what the car was worth.

Needless to say we contacted the insurance company about this conduct and they where quick to ante up. Next up was finding a new car. It became a skoda combi (yes we are cheap..) and it was delivered to our door this morning, complementary cake and all.