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Sense. Common Sense.

From The Gray Monk

Common Sense Has Died

To Whom It May Concern,

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Mr. Common Sense.

Mr. Sense had been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape.

He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as knowing when to come in out of the rain, why the early bird gets the worm and that life isn't always fair.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you earn) and reliable parenting strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).

His health began to rapidly deteriorate when well intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place: reports of a six-year boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, these only worsened his condition.

Mr. Sense declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer aspirin to a student; but, could not inform the parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

Finally, Common Sense lost his will to live as the Ten Commandants became contraband; churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims. Common Sense finally gave up the ghost after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot, she spilled a bit in her lap and was awarded a huge settlement.

Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust; his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son Reason. He is survived by two stepbrothers; My Rights and Ima Whiner. Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone. If you still remember him, pass this on; if not, join the majority and do nothing.

Dour Festival 2005

With many friends I underwent the Dour experience once more. With many types of food, bad conditions, hot weather, smelly toilets and 200+ acts spread over four 18-hour days of festival. Herman wrote a report of day one on his blog and there will probably be even more as this week progresses.


The bands that have left lasting impressions during the festival were Isis, Cult of Luna, Anthony B., Israel Vibration, Sayag Jazz Machine, Fantomas and Resistence.

As in hermans case, more will follow here. Here are some pictures

North Sea Jazz

For the last time The Hague hosted the North Sea Jazz festival. It was the 30th edition of this get-together and once again people from all ages, colours and genders ventured into the concrete maze that is called the National Congress Centre.
I was fortunate enough to work for ISS during the entire weekend as cleaning service, which ment I could walk around freely as long as my terrain, which I shared with my girlfriend, was clean. Our terrain was near the "Spiegeltent" and the "Carel Willink"-hall. Most of the work was cleaning food off the tables and replacing full trashcans with empty ones.

Unfortunatly I could see much of the music, but the atmosphere was excellent. Jazz seems to relax everybody, as there were no real incidents in our terrain. Some of the acts I did see were "Steps Ahead", which sounded really progressive and modern with a very good live sound.
I hope that the move to Rotterdam, where the Festival is held next year, will be a good one. It was alot of fun working on the festival with my girlfriend and other friends.

Strange discussions

Some discussions I just don't get. How can people discuss whether the God of Abraham is the same as the God of Moses. Whether Allah is God or not? If there is one term in human history that has been defined and redefined it God, but at the end of the story God is just all about the stuff we cannot understand. Even after modern science is able to rationalise the world, there remains the emotion within people to have something like a God. So what does it matter if there are differences??

At first I had the impression that most people think as I do about this, but once you get to talk to people the fundamentalism and absolutism they have for "their" God is really a strange phenomenon.

Another strange discussion is the one on evolution and creation. Central in this discussion is the question: "who are we and where do we come from?" Are we created by a God or did we evolve out of apes? Why not scrap this contradiction and ask the following question:

"How is evolution created?" or "How did creation evolve?". Answer on these question are found either in Quantum-physics or Mystic religion. In the end All is One, yet in the end critical humans don't like oneness, because it doesn't explain, it doesn't operate and you cannot build a machine with it.

Yet, the strangest discussion of all is about the brains. Our main tool and our consciousness. We are and we know we are. Do animals know they are? If not, are they? Neuro-science is constantly redefining it's philosophical parameters in order to explain new foundings, and new rarities, while Indian medicine has just accepted the paranormal several centuries ago. So modernity has gotton itself cornered into using more and more difficult words, while denying spirituality.

Oh well, things could be worse.