Month: July 2012

Today I had such a terrible round on the course that I've decided once and for all to give up golf. What a completely insane game. My decision is final, and my clubs are on sale for a pretty good discount.

I wouldn't mind an occasional down period, but this has been going on for too long. Frustrating those double and triple bogies, and so few pars. Topped the ball three times and spent a good portion of my time wandering in the trees looking for my ball.

One thing positive is that I didn't get as angry as I would expect, and I took this disastrous day all in stride. Smiling the painful smile of politeness, although inside I was feeling really embarassed at such a terrible score.

It's all relative though, and compared with the rest of the world events it's an insignificant and unimportant speck of nothingness.

Maybe I won't sell my clubs afterall. Will clean them extra well and polish the woods to a shine for the next round of fun and relaxation.

The exodus has begun. Droves of people are heading towards the horizon, in search of better things. They say that the further you travel the better it will become. No one is completely sure that this is true, but it's worth taking the risk.

The truth of the matter is that without knowing it they are all travelling in the wrong direction. It doesn't really matter though, because at least it's better going there than staying here, where it doesn't matter any more.

Some people have chosen to take the quickest route which is a straight line perpendicular to the setting sun. Others seem to be satisfied with going the significantly longer yet safer route, avoiding the many natural obstacles in the way. The risks are less but they may not get there in time.

They say that at night you can follow the stars. But the positions of the stars have become indefinite, changing from one night to the next. The nebulous night is not making it easier either. No one had expected that this would also happen, making the journey a more hazardous one.

This is history in the making and we are all a small part of it. This territory has been occupied for thousands of years, but it is time to go. The last person is about to leave and then it'll be all over with. The place that we started will soon disappear

Not getting there in time is the biggest risk of all. Disappearing is alright as long as we have reached that place before it happens.

It's not very often in one's life to get on a long par five in two, let alone having the ball end up just ten feet away from the flag.

I powered my drive slightly to the left and my ball was cushioned nicely in the rough.

With an amazing low five wood shot which had a slight draw at the end, the ball flew at the flag, bounced in front of the green and rolled just past it and a little to the left.

My eagle putt slid just past the left side of the hole and then I missed my putt coming back : a three putt for par.

It's not very often in one's life to three putt for a par. Oh well, better luck next time.

The road is flat and straight. Along the right side there is an endless row of trees extending to the horizon and beyond, as far as I can see. The tree trunks form parallel cylinders equally spaced in time. Nearly so that is. Every ten seconds or thereabouts there is a slight glitch in the perfect harmony of the universe. If I could predict this moment in time, I could veer my car to the right at the exact second. Just squeeze through like an arrow. Unless I started to skid sideways, I'd have to take that into consideration as well. Now that I think of it, I'd have to jerk the steering wheel sideways not at the exact second but a millisecond or two or maybe three before that exact second. According to the laws of nature, the car would contine travelling a finite extra distance before it reacted to my hands, gripped so firmly. A single drop of sweat would be sliding down my forehead and I would be able to feel it. Like an elastic cord connecting my mind to the steering wheel and then to the two trees between which I was meant to travel. That's when it would happen, in my mind, in the parallel world which never was, of which I'm not meant to be a part. Maybe next time, and then I will have to explain it slightly differently.

During my university days back in the late seventies, I would often take a short break from my student life and visit my aunt Jeanine who lived just across the bay. It was only about a forty minute drive.

These were evenings of long conversations, philosophical discussions and general chatting about nothing in particular. My worries and insecurities would become soothed by her soft voice and kind face.

One occasion in particular has stuck clearly in my mind for some reason, and when I think of Jeanine I am always reminded of that fleeting moment.

Evening had set in and we were relaxing in the dark living room in front of the fireplace, sitting directly across from each other. Jeanine was discussing something esoteric having to do with Eastern philosophy, I do not remember exactly about what, and I was almost entranced by her words.

Jeanine was sitting with her back to the fireplace and as she spoke the flames danced behind her, mimicking her words and gestures.

To make her point clear, she ended her sentence with a snap of her fingers. Just like that. At the exact same instant she did that, snap, the topmost log in the fireplace burst open with a muffled explosion and a spark shot up into the air.

I flinched slightly and blinked my eyes. Jeanine reacted to her sudden feat of coordinated magic but seemed unimpressed. With a smile and a nod of her head she acknowledged her spiritual powers, as if this was nothing exceptional and happened to her all of the time.

Someday in the not so distant future we will meet up again. I wonder if she will still remember that moment in time and how impressed I was.

Exactly eleven years ago to this day I sat down and created this future famous blog by penning my first entry.

The clock ticks, the days and years pass by, and 1911 blog entries later here I am today.

Eleven is my favorite number so this must be a symbolic as well as historic event.

Most everything comes and goes randomly although it may at first appear otherwise, it's nothing more than an illusion.

Depends on where you are, what you perceive and what you think. Three orthogonal realms each of which contains three or more dimensions.

At any given time the mixture may vary significantly, one moment mostly in the first realm, and then the following moment in the next or even the next after that.

In total at least ten dimensions, but this could be many more. It could even be (much) less for all we know.

Only when we die do these variegated realms of reality fuse into a single element and then it disappears altogether, like a wisp of a smile.

This is the ultimate purpose of everything including you and me. Life is wonderful because it is long and complex, but it is short and simple at the same time.

And love lies bleeding in my hand
Oh, it kills me to think of you with another man
I was playing rock and roll and you were just a fan
But my guitar couldn't hold you, so I split the band
Love lies bleeding in my hands

Funeral For a Friend - Love Lies Bleeding, Elton John
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)

One year ago and a day was my last day at Navteq Frankfurt, I remember the long drive back home very well. At that time my future seemed bleak at best, and I was very worried where I was headed, what life had in store for me.

I never gave up. In the end I got pretty lucky and found yet another new and interesting challenge in life. Another page is turned in the history book of our souls.

The music keeps blaring from the radio and I can hear it as the car passes by in the rain.

Way over there near to the horizon I could see a long sliver of blue, and it was coming my way slowly but surely.

If I timed things perfectly I could just catch this chance dryness with the forty minute window I had for my daily run through the countryside.

That is exactly what I did. I had my jogging outfit on in no time and waited under the overhang in front of the garage door for the sliver to intersect the sky above me.

The minute it became dry, the second the last measly raindrop hit the ground in front of my feet, that's when I took off speedily and steadily, I had a goal to achieve.

I figured that if I cranked up my tempo slightly above average, I would just make it around the eight kilometer loop back in time before the sliver of blue had passed by. If I was not careful nature would punish me.

As I made the turn at the half way mark to head back home, a gust of wind arose and tried to fool me into slowing down. I made it back home before realizing it.

Sweating and puffing, I entered the code with four beeps and the electric garage door opened to let me inside.

The sky darkened suddenly and it rained down like nothing I had seem before.

The sliver of blue had completely dissipated and there was no signs at all remaining that indeed this fleeting figment of my imagination had ever existed before.

Probably hadn't.