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Uit PCM, februari 2007, waar ik van 2003 tot en met december 2006 een maandelijkse column voor schreef.

10:44

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Five things you didn't know about me

I doubt anyone is interested, but in the interests of being a good sport I'll give you five anyway. The reason for this sudden display of openness can be found here, where fellow blogger Jaap Stronks invited me coerced me into doing so by including me in his nefarious chain letter scheme. I will not burden five other bloggers with this duty, but as far as my answers go, here they come:

1. Before I die, I want to have seen the Earth from space, preferably from orbit. Hopefully, Branson et al will get their kit together soon. For my part, I'm willing to sell my assets to get there. That means all of them if necessary (except my cat Ender, whom I don't consider to be my property, other than in a legal sense). Of course, being Dutch, I'll probably end up waiting for a bargain anyway.

2. While we're on the subject of pets, I am a 'closeted' proponent of (limited) animal rights, in the Dominion sense. The main bottleneck seems to be that I like eating meat too much to fully commit to this position. This probably also makes me somewhat of a hypocrite as well as an opportunist (if carrots would taste as well as steaks, hey...), or in other words, rather human. Maybe NASA can rescue me.

3. After 9/11, I seriously considered signing up for the military, but quickly reconsidered after remembering I was turned down for the draft in 1993 on medical grounds. I have had minor hearing problems since birth, and am unable to hear much above 10 kHz. For some reason you need better ears to learn to lob grenades than to get a pilot's license, or to play classical guitar at near-conservatory level. Never mind, I've got too much of an authority problem to be a decent soldier anyway.

4. Barring that, I am still considering a stint as a war reporter, and have indeed recently met with a colonel of the Dutch defence academy to get my military knowledge up to speed. The risk of getting killed in a war zone makes the first item on this list even more of a priority, of course. Perhaps it's possible to combine the two - it seems we'll have Space Marines soon!

5. Although I'm apparently not altogether useless at it, I still don't know whether I really want to be a journalist. Sometimes it feels rather cowardly to write about stuff other people do, rather than getting your own butt on the line. However, it seems this sentiment is not unheard of amongst journalists, so perhaps I'm simply fitting in really nicely.

12:08

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Taking a bloody hint

The Dasselaars are a stubborn breed. I remember my grandfather on my mother's side regularly engaging in fierce verbal clashes on birthday parties when he was right about something. Or thought he was, though in the mind of a Dasselaar this is precisely the same thing. My father is even worse, but fortunately, this also means he'll shrug when he reads this as he'll be convinced I'm wrong.

I freely admit my character bears the strains of this double genetic burden.

This is perhaps why it sometimes takes an ax to chop off a slice of cheese in the Dasselaar Fungal Cabin. For example, Edwin sent me a Christmas card stating:

'Ik wens je een slecht jaar, in zaken tenminste, zodat je meer tijd over houdt voor jezelf.'

Or, in English for all you imperialist Yankees not conversant in Dutch: 'I wish you a bad 2007, as far as your business is concerned, so more time will remain to do personal stuff.'

Gee, where did I hear that before? Well, perhaps in May 2005, when Najia mailed me: 'Maybe streamlining your ambitions in the proper path is exactly what you need to stop exchanging too much of your valuable time for money. I'd say grant yourself some quality time and think.'

They're right, of course (see, that wasn't too hard, Arjan, was it?). 2006 was an excellent year, business wise (no, you won't get a pony). Furthermore, I completed an MA degree. Oh, and I barely slept. At all.

There's more stuff I could do than I can do. So it makes sense to prioritize and opt for those ventures that appeal to me the most. Of course, some of them will be those in which I 'exchange time for money', if only because I actually enjoy my work.

But perhaps here, too, it's time to start making choices. For example, there are a few business ideas I have wanted to test for a long time. 2007 seems like the time for it.

Then there's this one thing I really, really, really want to do. I told you so last year. Now, if someone could perhaps email me that brilliant opening sentence that popped in my head at 4AM when I was clear enough to think but too indolent to get out of bed and grab a pen?

Good intentions generally last until the 28th of January, so check back with me in four weeks or so.

Happy New Year!

(PS: Here's one good intention I've already followed up on: making frequent backups. But that's probably because the Mozy service is both free and automatic (and the referrer is in there to get me even more free storage space - hey, less money spent = more time left to finish that novel).

15:03

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