So, it's 2009 already..
Happy new year!
Time for an overdue update on Capsi and myself. I'm not quite sure if anyone is still reading this blog but just in case, here it goes.
First of all let me announce that I don't see myself working on Capsi a lot in the near future. Other activities have emerged as priority and to be honest it was foolish of me to think I would be able to successfully market this site to people not inside my inner friends circle. Not without a budget and not without plenty of spare time. I won't abandon Capsi though, I'll just need to come up with a better focus what I want to do with it. Your guess is as good as mine at the moment.
So, what's new with Rob?
First of all, I'm still busy with my new appartment. In a moderate pace, but as you may have seen in recent updates I've finished the basics and am now moving on to the finer details. Expect a house warming party when I return from my annual skiing trip.
Also I've been enjoying my Playstation 3 far too much. It's a serious time-waster. Mostly because of Guitar Hero, which simply rules. Even though I suck and struggle to finish the setlists at medium level on guitar and hard level on drums, I really do enjoy playing it. The neighbours probably don't agree.. well, tough luck for them.
On a sad note, I don't really have the money to see many gigs or travel as much as I want to. This should change when I'll start getting my monthly tax rebates on mortgage interest payments. Paying the gross amounts on those has seriously hurt my cash flow! Still, I shouldn't complain, so I won't. Just letting you know another explanation for the lack of involvement with Capsi, I suppose.
However do expect some renewed on-line activity from me. I've had some good ideas for a new kind of day-by-day (yeah, right) blog which should be the source of a relaunch of my personal domain www.robertjohnkaper.com and will hopefully get me writing again. It will not be a standard blog though. Think of it as an experimental flashy, browsable calendar with short blurbs and updates of things recently on my mind, mixed with actual past and future appointments as well. Yeah, I have no idea what that mean either, but it sounded good when I started typing.
Remind me to post a quick review of 2008 later this week, possibly with a quick list of things I'd like to accomplish this year. There are a few of those actually, so hopefully I'll remember to write them down.
Take care!
Laminate
For a few nights I had been struggling with my living room floor. At one point the pieces just didn't connect, no matter what I tried.
Last night I noticed why: some pieces I put in earlier on didn't align properly. Although I had to remove quite a bit, it was a good idea to redo the work. On my own I've now made it all the way to the hallway door, which is enough progress to be able to put back some furniture before Christmas. Rob is a happy lad!
Wednesday Ruud and I are going to see how far we can get towards the kitchen. After we've finished that, most of the basic work on the house has been done and I'll finally get to start on the fun parts: decoration, finishing touches and planning house parties! (Holland style, not UK, which means basically the same except that people who disbehave do not end up trashing the place.)
New haircut, new floor
I still don't really like to live amidst boxes, but at least my weekends aren't a waste with a house to work on.
Here's a picture without flash for a better colour impression, showing the master bedroom (right) and second bedroom (left) at once. This time, both with floor. Click to enlarge.
Nearly done then? Not really, now I have to move all the boxes and furniture back into these rooms to make space in the living room. For some reason I also want paint and floors there..
Talking about paint, after nearly half a year of walking around with my natural hair colour, it was time to visit Kinki again:
Same old, yet different. Hopefully more house updates this Wednesday, although I doubt I'll be able to get anything done other than clearing the living room.
My house.. in the middle of the street
Yes, Capsi has been ignored by me for quite a while now. Moving to my new flat and trying to make it livable simply had (and has!) a higher priority. The sooner I can stop camping on the concrete in between boxes, the better.
The master bedroom is nearing completion now. There's paint on the walls, laminate on the floor and Erika Sendo on the bed:
And as of this weekend, the guestroom (also: study/storage) has also been painted!
Still loads to do around the house, but it's slowly getting there!
(Camphone picture quality, alas.)
lowlands continued
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Is it a party tent? No!
Does it look like one? Hell yeah! Lowlands is still with us people!
(even though i turned down an after party tonight.. Lame i know, but i REALLY have to show up for work in a few hours!)
closed
the lowlands challenge 2008/2009
If you plan to in the lowlands (again) next year, i hereby challenge you: keep the llow lluv alive! Every time you see your lowlands wristband(s) while in public, act as if you were at lowlands again. Cut yours off? Decorate your watch, set a phone wallpaper, use any reminder you can carry with you. Be happy, greet and pict up to random people, make life just that little bit more endurable.
You can stop when it's obvious no one else is in the mood or can even appreciate it (that's proper lowlands behaviour as well) but make clear you're not going to stop being a lowlander just because it happens to be december or you happen to be in a mall.
Have fun!
Lowlands 2008 Review Preview
Review preview? That's right - this is the preview of my Lowlands 2008 review. Or mostly a review of what went wrong and how to improve matters next year.
- More action pics, fewer band pics.
A whole year long I've been saying "it's the atmosphere, not the bands" about Lowlands. And yet I return with more than half of my pictures being fuzzy shots of bands. Well, that's not going to happen next year. More (in)action pictures please! If only because even though I am as ugly as you moma's butt, I look a helluva lot better than Johnny Rotten.
- Bring all equipment.
As nice as the "3 voor 12" ladies were, queuing three times to recharge my phone was a waste of time. Next year I'll bring not just my solar charger but also the right cables for my phone. Loser!
- Tent sharing.
Next year I will not invite anyone into my tent until Lowlands (or Lowlands Thursday at least) has kicked off.
- Consume less alcohol and drugs.
Haha, just kidding. I'm just trying to come up with an excuse why the actual review tonight will be full of gaps. Long live paradise.
lowlands 2008, some missing pics
Never sent there apparently. Then again, i can't even remember taking them.. So that explains why!
I'll be sorting out all posts from this llow weekend tonight by removing duplicates and making a summary post. (the ultimate lowlands 2008 review or something like that)
lowlands 2008, lowlands 2009
By the way, we are on our way home. Didnt sleep last night as usual on the last night.
Anyway it was great! Especially saying doei (bye) to EVERYONE on the way out. So.. DOEI and cya next year at lowlands 2009!
lowlands monday
Yeah party hard, happy birthday michelle, bye bye lowlands!
Damn nearly time to pack and go..
lowlands!
lowlands 2008, asakusa jinta
lowlands 2008, hives and rain
Hello! The hives arent my thing but they played a good show which seemed popular.
And now the sad news: we just had the first serious lowlands rain. Its a bit of a mess (as if it wasnt before) but its dry again and the tents are warm enough to be able to chill again.
Waiting for a japanese hoompa thingey in the india, should be fun!
lowlands 2008, textures and gogol bordello
Textures were bril, even if i was half dead and half asleep during most of it. Gogol bordello is on and certainly swings but they could pick up the pace a bit especially now that it is closer to rain than ever before this lowlands. Nothing worse than a light drizzle so far though!
lowlands 2008, fucked up
Erom canada and definitely the best of lowlands so far. Louder than loud, punk to the core, massive circle pit including singer who went and buggered off dns the last song.. Fucked up in0the charlie was better than coffee and on a sunday morning that says a lot. Next: india, textures.
lowlands 2008, sunday morning
lowlands 2008, sex pistols
Wait a minute, wasnt that last night? Sure, but followed by 90s now and those classics got me dancing and drunk enough to not bother with updates!
Anyway, the sex pistols were suprisingly good dns their age, even when it became clear our generation doesnt really know them too well save for a few songs. Johnny rotten appeared drunk (but no more than us) and the rest of the band sadly didnt enter any spotlights. To be honest, i expected more than a 1 man show.
Slowly waking up now, without coffee even. Yet to decide whats nxt.
lowlands 2008, sex..
The sex pistols are up at 9! Iron and wine were nice but simply not my thing..
Let's hope johnny rotten still knows how to make punk rock at age 52. Can't wait!=20
lowlands 2008, saturday so far
After getting up and being in a longish queue for the arena, sat kicked off with dancing on korpiklaani's folk metal. Followed by a nice sunshine filled volbeat in the alpha.
Although not their best performance i've seen, mindless self indulgence were loads of fun as well. And damn, the food is jum here - again!
Chilling with anne a bit now, sex pistols later!
