Stream of Consciousness is a process of composing a written equivalent of the thought process. I use this to scribble down inconsistent or incomplete thoughts so as to move on. I’ve done this before.

I’m supposed to be working on my September installment, but I’m either too tired or not quite motivated enough to proceed with it. As long as I have a new header ready for tomorrow, things won’t bork. That’s good.

This last week, or these last two actually, have been rather confusing and busy. Now there’s a drivers license I need to worry about getting. Did you know that most scooters (those that go up to 45 km/h) actually have to drive on the main road and not the part of the sidewalk reserved for bicycles? Most scooters don’t know it either.

I turned on the news tonight. Katrina caused some serious pain and misery. 80% of New Orleans is under water. Hundreds—maybe soon more than a thousand dead. Zap to next news item: panic in a pilgrimage of hundreds of thousands Shia-Muslims causes more than a thousand people trampled to death. Turns out somebody yelled “suicide bomber”. These kinds of news items cause a certain numbness… after all, the pain and misery is far away, and I have a drivers license to worry about.

The day before this I read that the global increase in amount of tropical storms is a direct consequence of global warming. Ironic that I’m now getting a drivers license.

Israel pulled out of their Gaza strip settlements last week. A historic moment for the peace process, although the withdrawal is not quite extensive enough should one read the EU stance on the matter. Let’s hope it brings some peace to both the Palestinians and the Israelis, although I fear it will make only little difference. There’s an inherent problem in the fact that both peoples believe that Jerusalem is their promised land. How do you settle such an argument?

I often find myself wondering if the world would be a better place if the concept of religion did not exist.

I was listening to the Blade Runner soundtrack the other day and was reminded just how great a soundtrack it really is. Then I came to the “End Titles“, and noticed a striking similarity to something I had listened to shortly before. Unusually, I immediately remembered that it was Kraftwerk’s “Metropolis“. Upon quick re-inspection there was indeed an uncanny resemblance. Oh, and Allmusic needs login, so get the BugMeNot Firefox extension and save yourself the registration hassle.

Siouxie and the Banshees is also something I’m listening to (as of today). My good friend Tommy introduced me to them, and it’s nothing less than fantastic. I haven’t been this excited about a band since I discovered The Cure. Check out “Cities in the Dust” from Tinderbox.

On the topic of Firefox Extensions, also go grab a copy of Session Saver. It saves your open tabs and textarea contents. It even saved what you’re now reading from a crash.

Today also marks the completion of my Valerian collection. I purchased, expensively I might add, the two remaining comic albums. The collection now spans 19 beautiful pieces. Damn they were hard to track down in Copenhagen, but now I can finally understand the whole story arc. Perfect timing for the animated TV Series which is rumored to air on French channel 3 in September 2006!