The Infamous McStomachache

After an appointment with the TU Eindhoven I had the pleasure to drive back to Rotterdam at5.15pm. Aka; the worst possible time to drive home. But hey, bite the bullet. It was a successful meeting. The TU Eindhoven will be another StudentCar campus as of January!
So, finally got out of Eindje, onto the freeway… the term ‘free’way is not a term that can be used in The Netherlands. Our roads are never-ever free… they are busy, cluttered and clogged up with shitty drivers. So I got on to the busyway, and then my stomach realized I haven't eaten properly that day. (a bowl of cereal in the morning, two coffee and a Snickers in the afternoon…)
I wasn’t gong to make it without fainting to Rotterdam. I need food fast! I need fast-food, I need a McDrive!

Now the funny thing about MickeyD’s is that you’re (almost) always in the mood for a McDonalds meal.Which is strange because it’s never-ever satisfying after you have thrown the last bite of your hamburger back in its package... Your still hungry, but now you can't eat anymore because you have that Infamous McStomachache…

MCD is like a drug. You know it’s bad for you. You know you will regret it, but it’s irresistible at times..
Thus, this hamburger-craving-fastfood-junkie was anxiously trying to spot those 'Golden Arches'… When you don’t need a McD., there everywhere, when you do need them... you have to drive for about 46km tot finally spot a sign of the burger giant!! A big-ass billboard with a delicious looking hamburger! (Not that the real deal ever remotely looks like the image, but this one looks amazing! In all fairness… At this point even road kill looks eatable.)

Anyways. Normally Billboards always say which exit there is a Mac. But I’ve almost past the board and couldn't find an indication of an exit anywhere on the board. I guess this was just billboard advertising the new burger… crap..
Then disaster struck… a yellow M in the sky!.. But at the other side of the highway.. and I’ve just passed the exit while focussing on the billboard on my left side!!! Come on Ronald M.!! Start you billboard with huge letters saying “THIS EXIT!” and then your stupid burger!!

Morale in the StudentCar was low at this point.. I was grumpy… all songs on the radio where stupid, the jokes of the DJ were lame, other people were terrible drivers…

Anyways, no yellow ‘M’ for at least 45 more kilometres! FINALLY, at Dordrecht a McDonalds. I could hear my stomach cheer with excitement!
Time to order!
-- Side note: Now my friends know I’m the kind of guy, who likes to try new stuff. I always fall for 'the new tasty burger in town'. Unfortunately 90% of the time they suck and I’m eating a filthy burger with a soggy chiabata bun or whatever and a weird sauce, while my friends are enjoying their safe ‘Quarter Pounder’… But that evening I couldn’t afford a mistake like that... I’m going for a classic. Haven’t had a Big Mac for a while but they have always treated me well.--

“A supersize Big Mac menu with sauce and an Ice tea please!”,  “That will be a million euros, please pay at window #1” "Thanks!"

Yes! Victory! A Big Mac menu.. at 6:30 pm
at 6:35pm, ideal set up of fast food in car (see picture for instructions)
at 6:45pm, all gone. Except the last bite of the burger of course... Actually it was a big mess. BigMac’s can’t be eaten with just one hand. It’s even a challenge with two hands. They should call it a BigMess…
at 6:55pm, I was hungry again and was starting to get some stomach cramps.

They got me again… and there’s nothing I can do to prevent it… those bastards…

The perfect McDrive set-up (instructions below)

Turns out the Toyota Aygo is the perfect McDrive car!
The perfect set up conducted with the empirical method:

• Cup holder 1. The fries. Medium or large fries, not the small one with the paper package 
• Cup Holder 2. Your soda 
• The clutch: Place your first napkin on the clutch to keep the grease off (mandatory in a StudentCar!) 
• The little compartment in front of the clutch is excellent for the sauce! 
• The burger goes on your lap, obviously. 
• The second napkin on your steering wheel for those greasy reasons. 

Enjoy! For about 25minutes…

Beware of this truck! IT ABDUCTED MAARTEN!

He didn't have the cash present to pay for a package, and the guy didn't take no for an answer... He dragged Maarten into his van and drove off! In blind panic I managed to make this picture to be spread on the 6 o'clock news...
 Luckily a few minutes later Maarten retuned safely to StudentCar office (by foot) with the package! Did he ovepower this huge mailman? Nobody f*cks with Maarten! He'll run you down with a StudentCar!

But he actually just paid €50 for it...Turned out the van took him to an ATM...
Instead of kidnapping it was actually good service...phew..  It was an exciting day at the office...

Last time excitement like this happened, it was the day our Senseo broke down... I still remember the chills that ran through my body... Eye-twitchings, uncontrolled movements. WHAT DO WE DO NOW!!? I need my caffeine fix! Send out a signal fire!! Quick!
Wish a Douwe Egberts truck abducted my to a coffee corner that day..

The dictators of Wikipedia. One of them is a cat… CONTINUED

Okay, maybe the StudentCar Wikipedia article was still really too much of an advertisement? No to me, but some people have different perceptions. Let’s benchmark the article: Let’s see what for example our friends from Greenwheels wrote about their company. The Greenwheels page first writes about the history and philosophy, and then continues with the reservation procedure, discount on weekend rental prices etc. It also proudly shows a picture of one of their cars… this leads to WTF, mate numero trios! It’s pretty much the same!!

Screw this, I ‘m uploading it again.. minutes went by… could it be?... nope. 5.15 seconds later it was gone again. Excellent… 

What’s the matter Kittycat? Got hit by a StudentCar or something? What’s up with this censorship? After a second and a third opinion and some wiki tutorials I decided to ask him myself.  Looking at his profile I have to say I was a bit bummed out… This volunteer has a profile page with a profile movie of a cat playing with the water coming from a fosset. That sure is a legitimacy booster.. The rest of the page is filled with discussions between Kattenkruid and other users asking him why their texts were removed. Here comes anotherone, ball of fur… While typing the question I noticed a button, saying: “Kattenkruid doen’t like to be addressed with “u”. Okay Kattenkruid, as you like… 

Within minutes I received an answer saying that “the text was an advertisement, and that a similar post would probably be removed again.” Not very helpful, dude! Or should I say, Not very helpful, Pookie! 

I learned something that day: The wiki volunteer job description is basically like this: You really don’t want people to know your identity so come up with a name like “Catherb”, add a ‘funny’ movie of a cat playing with water to your profile, and not to forget, you specify how you like to be addressed in case of questions. Then you are all set  to go to start bothering honest people who just try to inform everybody about whatever topic. 

And he wasn’t kidding, all new attempts posting the text had the same result over and over again and now I even received a message saying that my IP address was used for VANDALISM on Wikipedia. (WTF! Still counting? Number four is a fact.)

They don’t pay me that much at StudentCar but now I felt like a waste of money.. trying to negitiote with a cat to get my stuff published… and lose!

At the end of the day I had one little victory we are (for now) listed in the carsharing operator article in Wikipedia.. My article is still banned.. PLEASE HELP OR I LOSE MY JOB! You’re killing me here, Sylvester! You might have 9! I have one ad it sucks right now!

Anybody have an idea how to stop the game of cat and mouse?

The dictators of Wikipedia. One of them is a cat…

Since some weeks now I am working at the StudentCar office and I decided to put a StudentCar article on Wikipedia. Of course this encyclopedia should have an article about this initiative for  students. I found that Wikipedia already has a page called “autodelen”(car-sharing), which explains the concept and history of car-sharing, and shows the picture of a car of our friends from Greenwheels. The page also lists some companies which are said to be carsharing organizations (some aren’t even, but who am I to judge).  What is weird however: The great company StudentCar was missing. WTF! How could they forget us! 

Fortunately, the great concept of wikipedia allows everybody to adjust and add content so I quickly added StudentCar to the list. To make it complete, I added the new page StudentCar, and linked the two.
Nice that was easy…. Within minutes however, the page was REMOVED. (WTF! no. 2), and I received a message that the content of my article was considered an advertisement. The name of StudentCar in the list of carsharing companies was also removed! Of course I was aware that advertising on WP is not allowed, and therefore the text was really informative mainly explaining the general concept, some history and some developments in transportation behavior our company notices. 

Somehow, this was still not good enough for……for who actually? Who decides what is good content and what’s not? The users of course! And I think that’s a good concept. However, some people (the so called wiki volunteers) however take their hobby a bit too serious and turn it into a full time (non-paid) job correcting people.

In our case with hardly valid arguments, listen to this; The StudentCar article was removed by somebody calling him/herself “Kattenkruid” which means something like “catherb”. Kattenkruid considered the text as an advertisement and there was a copyright issue, with an article about the introduction of the first electric car in Rotterdam on the website of Efleetsolutions (http://www.efleetsolutions.nl/nieuws-pers.html)… That’s funny, this website is owned by StudentCar , It was StudentCar who was one of the initiators of this introduction, the car is operated by StudentCar, and I can guarantee you: nobody within the company complained about the StudentCar article on Wikipedia… 

Okay, publishing an article on Wikipedia is clearly not as easy as I expected. Check next week's blog for more Wikipedia frustrations including WTF 3 and 4

Car-sharing vs. Car ownership

A large and luxurious car is a status symbol in many cultures. Looking at the Dutch culture this is definitely not the case (for a select group of people it is, but we elaborate on this in a future blog) most cars in our small country do correspond to the size of our country. One argument for this relationship can be the fact that we have limited (parking) space in our larger cities. Another argument can be the fact that we have a pretty reliable public transportation system (although sometimes it doesn’t feel like that when there’s another ‘power cable damaged or a ‘collision with a person’) but these trains do have pretty comfortable first class seats to relax in. Another thing is that we also don’t have to cover very large distances by car, so why would you then need a luxurious car?

Perhaps a reason for not owning a large car or not owning a car at all can be found in the fact that an average car is used only 1 hour a day. Why is it that for a period of more than 100 years we stick to the concept of owning a car? An own car creates the most flexibility a human being can wish for and the model of owning a car was encouraged by governments because the car industry was an important factor for economic development. The last decade we’re experiencing a trend towards sustainability. This affects the awareness that car ownership might not be the best solution for our society in terms of spatial planning and sustainability. For each individual who drives less than 6,000 kilometers on a yearly basis the choice for an own car is also in financial terms not the optimal solution.

Car ownership is an old-fashioned model, for many people there is a better solution: share a car with your neighbours or flat mates. Car-sharing vehicles are in general small and fuel-efficient cars, various studies indicate a shared car replaces up to 10-15 private vehicles which is also beneficial for the public space available in your neighbourhood. The cars are 24/7 available so flexibility is high, although you have to reserve a car if you want to be sure about the availability. StudentCar offers this car-sharing service mainly to students, so they can get used to the model of sharing cars instead of owning a car. Are you the next student who will experience the advantages of car-sharing?