Vacation

Hello world,

After a very nice vacation on Crete, I had to some catching up to do. Between accumulated mails and chores, I need three days to get things back on schedule. But now my house is clear, the fridge is stocked and I have time to write my blog again.

While on Crete, I have actually made an interesting discovery about my blog. I've been mispronouncing the name for ages. Xanthi Rising is named after the Battlestar Xanthi. And said Battlestar is named after the town of Xanthi in Greece. I picked the name because Xanthi is located in an area known as Thrace, which was a nice tie-in back to Kara Thrace (aka Starbuck).

The thing is...in Greek (both the current version and the ancient), the X stands for CH. And that is pronounced as a soft G. So while you write Xanthi, it is pronounced Ganthi (or maybe Chanthi ?) The things you discover on while on vacation. 😉

Books

Another thing I did in my vacation was make some progress in my book case. For...well, way to long, I have had a shelf of books I still have to read. But now I am slowly making progress. And speaking of books....

Martijn

On 14 May 2014, my cousin Martijn passed away. And now, there is a book about him. Alas - sorry for my English readers - this book only comes in Dutch. I picked up my copy today and have already skimmed through it. And I can tell you...it is a true work of art. For those of you who wish further information, there is more behind these links...

• https://www.trouw.nl/cultuur/schetsboeken-bieden-kijkje-in-de-wereld-van-iemand-met-asperger~a5c797ae/
• http://aldomanuzio.nl/boeken/9789082545395/martijn-kroniek-van-een-asperger.html

Scrapbook

Finally, today I got around to updating my scrapbook. When I was in my pre-teens, I would often ask my grandparents about how things were they were young. And some times, they could not remember the answers to the questions I asked them. This inspired me to 'secure' some things for nephews and nieces for when they were older.

So I brought a photo album and started gluing in little things, creating a personal (family) history books of sort. Amongst the things found in this scrap book are a couple of movie stubs, pieces of airlines tickets (including one from my recent vacation to Crete), a article on the moon landing, some old stamps....

And plenty of other things. This left me with one last thing to do. Update my blog. Which is now done as well.  😊

Edmond Dantes

Mister David's Answer to my Letter

After writing my letter on my blog, I used the comment system on Mister David's blog to deliver it. This is what he wrote in reply...

(Edmond Dantes)

I don’t know if we have a class society in the same way that, say, the UK does, so much as a determination of where you are on the financial side of things that is determined by where you start out. But there are plenty of examples of people being born with nothing (including our previous president) who was able to build himself up. Trump may indeed be a part of the one percent of people who have tons of money, but that doesn’t put him in another class that is exempt from following rules. That is a fact that he is currently discovering, and it’s clearly pissing him off. Thus far throughout his life his money and position have exempted him from having to deal with the same laws that everyone else does. But he’s discovering that the founding fathers indeed saw that someone like him might come along and built safeguards–checks and balances–into the governing process. He wants to do something unconstitutional and the courts are saying, “Nope,” just as Sally Yates knew they would.

PAD

An open letter to Peter David

Regarded Mister D,

I hope you do not mind me using you as a crutch, but I feel that this entry would work better as a letter. One with lots of questions, but no answers. (I do not do answers. You can blame Anton Chekhov for that. It's a long story.) So, anyway....

Looking at the world today, I feel the question must be asked....does freedom exist ? Not long ago - from a historical point of few - humanity lived in a class society. (As anybody who has seen Titanic will attest, this was still visible as late as 1912.) Have these days truly passed ? Or have we simply become better at hiding the lines ?

Do we not all follow the expectations of society ? (A good example of this question might be Another Brick in The Wall by Pink Floyd, Part 2. Is it ? Decide for yourself.) We go to school, we get a job and pay the rent. Is this freedom ? After all, how many people actually chase their dreams ? And how many of us put these 'on hold' ? For practical reason, we tell ourselves. And we do not have to worry to about our dreams.

After all, as soon as life allows it, we will resume chasing them. Won't we ? And how many of us are lying to ourselves ? I do not know. I will not say. Instead, I will - as I often do - let people decide for themselves. (Despite not having meant it that way, I seem to have to developed that as a catchphrase. But I digress...*wink*)

To conclude this letter, I would like to speak about why I picked you as the receiving end of this letter. It is The-President-whose-name-shall-not be spoken. Is he not a symptom of the class society attempting to dig its claws into the US of A ? Or am I - as an outsider living the Low Lands - seeing this wrong ? Is this not the true threat to the Land of the Free ?

Should America not demonstrate its principles now ? Which - as I understand them - are that anybody can become anything, as long as they would hard and - this is where it becomes sticky for President Donald Voldemort - play by the rules. (In this case meaning the law and the US Constitution.) And should not demonstrate them by showing that nobody is above said rules ? (No matter how much idiocy they catapult at judges and media.) And is the best way to do this not to remove anybody - regardless of money, rank or status - from office ?

Regards,

Edmond Dantes

P.S. I know the chance of me getting a reply is 0.0 percent. But no pain, no gain. Also - for anybody reading my blog (if there is anybody) - up next in this series....Why did I pick Edmond Dantes as an alias. (Or...why the Netherlands is not perfect either.)