VICTORIE.com

My parents imposed a curfew on me when I was a teenager. Even up until I left for college, I had to be home at 1 AM on a Saturday night. And just as any other teenager, I was not happy about it. I got into many arguments with my parents about my curfew. But despite those arguments, I respected their decision and always made sure I got home in time.

Except that one time… As usual, I left the party just in time to get home in time. But I ran into problems with my bike. I had to stop several time to fix my bike. I got home 10 minutes after my curfew: my hands all greasy and dirty, sweat dripping down my chin from pedaling has hard as I could. My parents were upset because I was late. And they were worried. I can understand and respect that. I got grounded for a couple of weeks after this little incident. I guess that is understandable. I guess I would ground my children too if they were late.

But I didn’t understand that they didn’t believe me when I explained what happened. And I still don’t understand. And to make matters worse, this story kept haunting me for many years. Every once in while, my parents told that story to friends and family. Mostly to tease me I guess. But what they didn’t see was that it hurt me every time they told it. It was and still is pretty humiliating to have to sit and listen to that story. Did they not have more respect for me?

You know, a lot of people are talking about respect these days. Many people complain about others not having enough respect for them. People ask me to show a bit of respect and do or not do stuff for them. But if, 15 minutes later, I ask that same person to do something for me, they slam the door in my face. I listen and learn when colleagues critique my photos. And yet, those same folks get very upset when I try to help them improve their photos. I have learned to shut up and let other people talk in meetings. But I still get brutally interrupted when I want to express my opinion. And of course there is that little matter of promises and appointments bein’ broken just as easy as they are made. Hey, some are even try to buy my respect and loyalty!

Where is the respect in all of that? But I guess I’m not perfect. And I could show a little more respect too. I start with that… Can all you all do the same?

I am getting very offensive text messages and phone calls from some anonymous guy. I’ve been getting them for over a year now. They come off and on. At first, it didn’t bother me too much. I thought that it was just gonna go away. But the messages kept coming. And so did the calls.

So, I filed a complaint. At first with the BIPT, which resulted in nothing. And a couple of months ago, I filed a complaint with the local police.  Fortunately, they take my complaint serious. But I don’t have high hopes. The wheels of justice grind at very slow pace.

And a couple of days ago, I got an e-mail from people I don’t know who claimed I contacted them on a community website.  I had never heard of that website. I have never heard of those people. So I wonder if it is just another way of trying to harass me. And if so, I am afraid of what’s gonna happen next.

Apparently, I am not his only victim. But the bad thing is: I should not have anything to do with all of it. These messages aren’t even about me. He’s just trying to hurt someone else.

Some of my friends describe me as sweet and patient. Well, I’ve run out of patience! I want it to stop! I have nothing to do with that shit! Leave me be! Go bug someone else! YES!!! I AM PISSED OFF!!!

I come across a lot of dead animals on the side of the road the last couple of weeks: foxes, martens, squirels, a badger too. And cats. A lot of cats. Too many cats.

Tonight as I drove home, I came across a little kitten laying in the middle of the road. Severly wounded, but still alive. I guess it was hit by a car not long before. Maybe like 10 or 15 minutes before. There was nothing I could do for the poor little animal. I only could put it out of it’s misery. And as I put my car in reverse to do so, I could feel my heart break. I hate having to do something like that so much.

So floks, please be extra careful and watch out for animals crossing the road. Especially at night.

I’m a skilled IT engineer. I’ve got a job that pays well, a nice house, a warm bed and as much food on my plate as I want. I should not have any reason to be unhappy, should I? And still, I feel unhappy at times. Here’s a reason why…

Today in the news: families leave for a trip for the Easter holidays taking their young children with them 2 days before the holidays start. And this story has been in the news with every school holiday for the last 3 years. Reporters head down to Brussels airport and interview families with children as they leave on holidays. When the parents get asked the question whether they know their children should still be in school, almost all of them answer that they know. But all of them think it is OK that their children miss a couple of days of school. “We are allowed to write a sick-leave note for our children for up to 2 days per year”, they argue, “and we use them now to leave for holidays.” Even though their children aren’t sick.

Most teachers put a lot of hard work into educating our children. I know all of my friends who teach do. But the system–i.e. we, the people–and our children’s parents seem to put much more effort in teaching our children to cheat, take shortcuts and cut corners.

Our school system is very good and relatively cheap. We all pay taxes to help our children through school. And teachers spread more than just knowledge. They try to give our children a sense of justice, moral values, respect as well as social skills. If our sons our daughters punch someone else in the nose, they get punished by their teachers. We hold that to be self-evident. But when it comes to showing respect for our school system, the law and our teachers, it becomes a totally different story.

I guess it is hard to teach our children those all important moral values, if we are loosing them ourselves. But maybe I’m just overreacting…

As I was flipping through the channels tonight, I stumbled on a scene from a police series: a whole classroom was pickin’ on 1 person until he was just desperate enough to do horrible stuff. In an instant, my mind blanked, I completely froze and had flashbacks of a school trip to Italy in my last year of high school. I got reminded of that horrible feeling I had every time I got on the bus and the whole bus started calling me names and chanting the same song over and over again. And everyone joined: people who didn’t know me, some hadn’t even ever engaged in a conversation with me, but even some of my friends. And I guess no one ever cared that bullying really hurts.

I wonder why people do this. Even today, I wonder why some people called me their friend back then, but never bothered to defend me. But I guess that in this dog-eat-dog world, it is safer to join the masses. What is everyone so afraid off? That someone might actually like for all that you are if you show yourself just the way you are?

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… a day which will live in infamy. Today marks the 68th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The US Navy and the US National Park Services host a memorial service on this day to remember the attack.

(photo courtesy of the the Arizona Memorial Museum Association)

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the 1st man walking on the moon. Although I wasn’t born in 1969, it still is a defining moment for me: I remember bein’ mesmerized by  photos from the Apollo missions. Those images triggered my interest in space exploration and eventually helped trigger my interest in science and technology, I guess.

It is amazing how much we’ve accomplished in those 40 years, and yet we still have a long way to go…

Tomorrow is Belgium’s National Holiday. Every year, on July 21, we celebrate our independence from the Dutch in 1830. I thought I’d start the festivities by posting the lyrics to the Brabançonne, our National Anthem.

The Dutch lyrics:

O dierbaar België
O heilig land der vaad’ren
Onze ziel en ons hart zijn u gewijd.
Aanvaard ons kracht en het bloed van onze adren,
Wees ons doel in arbeid en in strijd.
Bloei, o land, in eendracht niet te breken;
Wees immer u zelf en ongeknecht,
Het woord getrouw, dat ge onbevreesd moogt spreken:
Voor Vorst, voor Vrijheid en voor Recht. (x3)

In French:

Ô Belgique, ô mère chérie,
À toi nos cœurs, à toi nos bras,
À toi notre sang, ô Patrie !
Nous le jurons tous, tu vivras !
Tu vivras toujours grande et belle
Et ton invincible unité
Aura pour devise immortelle :
Le Roi, la Loi, la Liberté !
Aura pour devise immortelle :
Le Roi, la Loi, la Liberté ! (x3)

And in German:

O liebes Land, o Belgiens Erde,
Dir unser Herz, Dir unsere Hand,
Dir unser Blut, dem Heimatherde,
wir schworen’s Dir, o Vaterland!
So blühe froh in voller Schöne,
zu der die Freiheit Dich erzog,
und fortan singen Deine Söhne:
“Gesetz und König und die Freiheit hoch!”
und fortan singen Deine Söhne:
“Gesetz und König und die Freiheit hoch!” (x3)

Time for a little rant: a rainy Thursday afternoon, a single accident causes total gridlock around Antwerp. All traffic comes to a grinding halt and I will be spending almost 2.5 hours to get home.

And right there in the middle of that mess, someone’s car breaks down. As the driver struggles to push the car to the side of the road at least 25 other cars pass by. Not one of them pulls over to give the unfortunate driver a hand and help to clear the road as soon as possible.

Pffff…. Have we all become so self-centered that we’ld rather run over someone than get him a hand?