erikpleyte.comerikpleyte.comThe world as I see it recorded in State of the World Columns and Short Stories.
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The Collapse of the Dollar
2008-01-15 00:00:00 The following fictitious scenario is based on current developments in the global economy as well as comparable situations in modern history. It should be pointed out that although the scenario is distinctly realistic, it relies heavily on Murphy's Law that everything that can go wrong, will go wrong. FEBRUARY 23, 2009 0000 ... More About: Collapse , Dollar
A belated realization
2008-01-13 00:00:00 I used to believe in and, more importantly, practice a complicated but thoroughly tested and brilliantly designed system of moral integrity and justice. It was part of my upbringing as a child of Northwestern European origin where people really believed that we should defend freedom and justice in the face ... More About: Realization
Re: The List
2007-12-29 00:00:00 As you might remember, I made a list of new year's resolutions this time last year. The way I see it, that's just fancy terminology for a to-do list with the added incentive of additional emotional torture on New Year's Eve which is a completely unavoidable tradition of the icky ... More About: List , The List
Beowulf: stop shouting
2007-12-06 00:00:00 So Beowulf is a dumb movie. The first thing you notice when the movie starts is the picture. I thought it was animated, then I thought it wasn't, then I thought it was again. I spent so much time trying to figure it out I completely missed the first couple of ... More About: Stop
Friendship: perfect timing?
2007-11-28 00:00:00 I had a random thought today. People change, right? I know I've changed, and I know you've changed as well. It's an inevitable aspect of life. As you change, so does every aspect of your life. Your character changes through different experiences good and bad, so does your interest in things ... More About: Friendship , Perfect , Timing
Happiness part two
2007-11-11 00:00:00 So I'm in a vacuum again. If you don't follow, that's okay, I'm not done yet. I don't know how I do it, but I've consistently lived in vacuums for over fifteen years now. The way I get through unsatisfying times is by focusing on the end. I wasn't really ... More About: Happiness , Part
Meaningful vs. happy
2007-10-23 00:00:00 I realised today that my previous entry dates exactly one month back which is fairly shameless. In my defense, a lot has happened this past month and I've been very busy (yawn, a blogger's cliché excuse #1). I found a job, which is good, and it's part-time, which is bad because ... More About: Happy , Meaningful
House?
2007-09-23 00:00:00 Why is it called House music? This is music you jump or otherwise rhythmically move around to. It's club music, it's gym music, but it's not house music unless someone, criminally neglecting to inform me, drastically changed the social protocol concerning the main appropriate activities that are supposed to take ...
Absolute truth
2007-09-12 00:00:00 I'm a little tired of people claiming their religion is the one and only truth. Allow me to educate you on the concept of truth, I won't take much of your time. An absolute truth, is an undeniable fact. Such as the fact that time passes. It cannot be denied time ... More About: Truth , Absolute , Ruth
Consistent Mondays and a hot tip
2007-09-12 00:00:00 Mondays are good because they're consistent. They always suck, which is bad, but since they always suck (consistency), you're never hopeful for a better Monday. You're prepared, bring it on. This morning I cycled to the gym (which is about 4 kilometers through open farmland and another 2 through an ... More About: Consistent , Onda , Mondays , Tent
Cell phones and busy tones
2007-09-05 00:00:00 For the first time in my life, this afternoon, I rang a friend on his cell phone and got the busy tone. I wasn't sure that was possible. To all of you readers over the age of 18: remember the busy tone? It's the tone your phone had been steadily ... More About: Cell Phones , Phones , Cell , Tones , Busy
Surgery
2007-07-18 00:00:00 I've been cursed with wisdom teeth positioned sideways, meaning they're growing horizontally. Needless to say they needed to be removed. It's a job the dentist won't do, it's too complicated, too dangerous. Instead they send you to a surgeon in the hospital to make sure there are specialists nearby in ... More About: Surgery , Urge
Graduation ceremony
2007-07-17 00:00:00 After having graduated a few weeks ago, I attended the accompanying ceremony today after a lot of hesitation and some encouragement by my parents. It was a very mixed-feelings sort of occasion. First of all, I didn't know a lot of people there since I'm one year late. For the ... More About: Graduation , Ceremony , Adua
Whatever the hell else comes to you
2007-07-11 00:00:00 "Oh excuse me, sorry, I didn't mean to bump into you but this is the only available seat, you see. Sorry to disrupt your reading... That's... Moby Dick? Aahh dolphins... You know we owned a dolphin once, kept it in the pool. It's a hassle with the salt water and ... More About: Hell , Else
Today?s catalyst of deep disgust?
2007-07-10 00:00:00 ...blogs with reversed chronological order for comments, showing the last posted comment on top. Stop it. More About: Today , Deep , Catalyst , Disgust
Glory glory hallelujah
2007-06-30 00:00:00 Ladies and gentlemen, this morning at 10:15h CET I graduated after a super smooth final paper presentation. Specifics: the language professor gave me the mark of 100% for my English language skills (which she admitted to never having given to anyone before, HAH) and my paper itself was judged with ... More About: Hallelujah , Glory , Halle
Man would be very hard to save
2007-06-23 00:00:00 Of course he fantasised about it, occasionally. How people would admire him and follow him. But it never lasted long enough for him to actually act on it. Usually the fantasies were triggered by some major event on the news or in the papers which happened quite often because he ... More About: Hard , Save , Would
Doonk, the sequel
2007-06-14 00:00:00 I took the new car out for a spin today, that is to say I drove it to the gym and back. Contrary to my expectations I didn't find myself fuming at the FIAT at all, I kinda like it. It's luxurious. My euphoria over the car not sucking lasted ... More About: Sequel
The Warsaw Missile Crisis and its consequences
2007-06-08 00:00:00 After the end of the Second World War, Europe ceased to be a significant power in global politics and instead turned into a strategic battlefield for larger powers, a position similar to the Middle East. European leaders failed to capitalise on the brief window of opportunity during the 1990s to ... More About: Consequence , Crisis , Sequences , Consequences , Isis
Parallel parking and pirates
2007-06-02 00:00:00 If you've been wondering what that steadily ticking sound on the background is: it's the clock measuring the days until my graduation which, as it is currently going, has started counting down from thirty this morning. Yes you've assumed right: my final paper was approved this past Wednesday. That leaves ... More About: Pirates , Parking , Aral , Rates , Rate
The year 2007 marks a historic crosspoint for European integration
2007-05-19 00:00:00 The European Union has always been a daring project without a final goal. It is not an international organisation because it is more than that but it is not a nation state either, it is less than that. The current generation of political leaders is the first generation that has ... More About: Integration , Historic , Point , Mark
Movie theatre etiquette
2007-05-02 00:00:00 Humanism teaches us every individual is different and although I wouldn't want to argue with that (not at the moment, anyway), people can be piled together in random generalisations depending on the situation the masses find themselves in at that point in time. For instance: long lines at the cash ... More About: Movie , Etiquette , Theatre , Ique , Thea
The right versus the left, or is it?
2007-04-26 00:00:00 The first round of the French presidential elections produced a result few people saw coming as a record voter turnout of nearly 85% pushed Nicholas Sarkozy and Ségolène Royal into the second round with nearly equal support. France now faces a traditional second round with a choice between right and left, ... More About: Left , Versus , Right
The naive European approach to the American gun laws
2007-04-19 00:00:00 The Virginia Tech Massacre revealed another major rift in the Atlantic as Europea n s fail to understand why a lasting sequence of increasingly tragic and terrifying events has not yet lead to a federal ban on firearms. By urging their American counterparts to consider such a ban, the Europeans are making ... More About: Laws , The N
The perfect illusion
2007-04-16 00:00:00 In this, the cradle of modern Western society, the ground had split open in an earthquake unlike what anyone except the very oldest of villagers had ever experienced. The Greek islands lay silent in the Aegean Sea, awaiting aftershocks and powerful waves. Smoke rose from some of the larger islands ... More About: Illusion , Perfect , Sion
Liberté, égalité, fraternité pour l?Europe
2007-04-12 00:00:00 Just a few decades ago, the French presidential elections might very well have been Euro pe an presidential elections. Whatever happened in Paris would dictate the developments in Brussels as the European integration project was inspired by a powerful partnership between West-Germany and a superior France. As the Berlin Wall came down ... More About: Lite , Rate , Rope
Candles started to fly around regardless
2007-04-04 00:00:00 Some discussion topics really spread like wildfire, or are brought to your attention by random outbursts of communal gossip which, if you look that up in the dictionary, might feature a picture of Martin right next to it. If you got the joke, kudos. If not, you should be deeply ... More About: Arte , Start , Star , Tart , Less
He can laugh, only his limited physical dimensions forbid him from doing so
2007-03-31 00:00:00 Say you notice two people, one man, one woman, walking down the street and they're getting tired. The conversation turns to their physical shape, and they say things like 'I'm in an awful shape' to which the female member of the couple replies something along the lines of 'I used ... More About: Men , Physical , Only , Sion , Dimension
Speeding down the California State Route 99
2007-03-30 00:00:00 Fresno, Cali fornia , was a fine place to live. It had a lot to offer, but when the summer holidays came around, everyone left. Fine places to live are rarely fine places to spend your holidays and vice versa. The car continued its journey along the California State Route 99 headed ... More About: Down , Speed
You choke, and then you move on
More articles from this author:2007-03-20 00:00:00 I handed in the draft version of my final paper a few days ago and I'm meeting my supervisor at DHU (that is the Hague University) tomorrow at 13:30h. The man must read at the speed of light, I am impressed. I am also nervous. I've read through it an ... More About: Move , Choke , Then 1, 2 |
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