Why I like writing

By:  May 20, 2014 Categories: 

Whether spoken out or written down, I love words to a great deal. Put in form like the 1843’s tale The Ugly Duckling, the video-game Heavy Rain or the movie Zodiac, words tell us so much. And stories entice me. I love reading about the Black Dahlia murder, the life of Vasily Zaytsev or the inventions of Nikola Tesla. It seems a bit haphazardous, but I read Wikipedia articles for fun.

And it’s not some form of schizophrenia, but when I speak, I mumble, stumble and stutter. Say the wrong words. But when I’m writing, I can calmly select the right words in the right order and say what I want to say.

Now, I don’t have the pretention that I happen to be a great writer, but writing is something I enjoy and that’s enough for me. I love to analyze snippets of thoughts and unravel my itching curiosity. I try to put that down in words as best as I can and a small percentage of that finds place here. That’s why this website is my own archive in the first place, self-made, especially for me. Nonetheless, I’m really glad you’re reading and I hope you’ll find my articles as interesting as I thought writing them was.

Latest

Travel plugs

Travel plugs

In our new house, many appliances still get their power through a travel adapter. Eight years in China was long enough to not only put down roots and settle in, but also for everything we owned to end in a Chinese plug: my MacBook, the coffee machine, the rice cooker, the baby monitor. The appliances […]
September 21, 2026
Twenty-three years

Twenty-three years

In June we moved back to the Netherlands, six suitcases across 8000 kilometres, and after a brief spell at my parents’ place, we moved into our own home. This second move also involved putting down carpet, curtains, buying appliances and furniture — so that our new garage quickly filled with cardboard boxes and other packaging […]
August 29, 2026
Searching for meadows

Searching for meadows

Our new home in the Netherlands sits in a mundane residential area full of young families like ours. The street name comes from made (‘meadow’), still referring to a field that once lay here and now survives only in the name (just how the name Shanghai refers to a river that no longer exists). And […]
August 5, 2026
How to get a job in China (Update 2026)
find_a_job_in_china

How to get a job in China (Update 2026)

There are a ton of application sites out there, but I think they’re all horrible. I searched for jobs three times: 2014 (before graduation), 2016 (desire to change jobs in the Netherlands), and 2018 (desire to move to China) — and from those three runs I do not doubt that I’ve sent well over 100 […]
July 20, 2026