I should have made this a long time ago :D. There's a few more at my icon journal by the way. Which I've never posted here, but that doesn't matter since it's basically just a dumping ground because I make more icons/other crap than I use.

Yesterday my family and I went to see Madama Butterfly. It was sooo gorgeous! We had pretty bad seats again (we bought them as early as we could but the opera sells out so fast!) so I could barely see a thing but still, gorgeous! We already got tickets for Don Carlos in February :D. I'm so glad we're making the opera a more regular habit, I love going at least twice a year.

Today I watched The Cove because I decided to do Wednesday's oral presentation on whales in captivity. I did love the movie, and I'm so happy it got created and has a chance to make the marine mammal issues reach a larger audience. But sometimes it was a bit too sentimental and didn't focus enough on the facts. I understand they did that because emotions will help reach the Western audience, but I'm already emotional about whales. I don't need someone to tell me that dolphins are awesome XD.

And you know, every being eats and gets eaten and I have no problem with that. My problem is mostly that the massive scale of the dolphin slaughter will end up disrupting the ecosystem even more. And also the captivity part, which I'm totally against. I'm okay with killing animals for food, but not with torturing animals for entertainment : (.
I did love the facts they did give (plenty to build their case, it's just that I thought of a few things that I wish they'd mentioned) and the entire thriller aspect was amazing. I have more I could say but I'll stop XD. Overall I would recommend (& force) people to watch it.

But anyway, my presentation on Friday went well :D. The teacher said I come off pretty strong (she meant it in a good way but it gave me instant mental images of GG's Paris) & I need to watch not to talk too fast (obviously, people have been telling me that my whole life). Now I'm thinking that I might overdo it with the 'strong' this Wednesday when I'll be talking about something that I'm really passionate about XD.

Tomorrow I'm going to a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream by the Cambridge University Theatre Group!! :D I mean, it won't be the best production ever since they're students but it's still CAMBRIDGE and SHAKESPEARE. Non-translated Shakespeare!

So this week is a bit stressful. On Friday my group has to present our work on this 16th century satirical text and yikes, I'm running to get everything finished! I got stuck doing the essay, so even though I already finished it mostly, I still need to wait for a few people to send in some footnotes before I can truly finish it. I trust them to do this in time, but it's just that waiting is really stressful in face of a deadline D:.
And at the same time I have to prepare my oral presentation because I'm also one of the people doing that. It's okay though. I didn't do that much for the last assignment so it's okay that I get extra work now. It's really hard to give everyone an equal amount of work in a group of six people D:.

My mom has ordered me The Norton Anthology of Children's Literature for my Christmas *_*. I'm so excited! I have a few volumes of their regular anthology and I love it. I also really want the one for Women's Literature but I opted for the children one now because I'd like to write my bachelor paper (which I don't have to do until next year but so what) on children's fantasy or adventure tales or something like that :D. I'm really looking forward to writing my bachelor paper next year, and I'm already thinking of themes that'd be awesome to do.

Have to do another oral presentation next week by the way. Am trying to think of a theme that wouldn't make the other students fall to sleep. It should be something semi-actual because that's what everyone is doing. So if you see any interesting news that is art- or animal-related and that I could blather on about for 5 minutes, do tell!

Okay, I'm off to finish this essay and watch me some Taggart. I'm so grateful detective shows never seem to go out of style :D.
Exams are terrifyingly close. I'm not as behind on my work as usual so there's hope? I only have four this semester.

I totally got a 13/20 for my text on the Ralph Lauren poster that I barely put any work in *dances obnoxiously*. A 13 is pretty good compared to my average, and especially compared to the class average which is a failing grade AGAIN. Dutch Language Proficiency is a bitch, and I thought it'd be such a breeze when I started studying XD.
It's not a real grade (I was glad before but now that I've passed this annoys me) but more a test to see how well you'll do for the actual exam text. I'm still glad since it gives me hope that I might finally pass this course (third time's the charm right? D: ). I was kind of stressing about it after failing that oral presentation earlier.

I think I'm doing alright for uni, but I'm worried since I randomly (and stupidly!) decided to get back into PC gaming. But I missed playing those good aggression games, I don't have any on my consoles XD. It's a bit problematic though, as I haven't bought a PC game since 2000, so for now I'm stuck replaying Diablo II. A friend told me about Dragon Age: Origins and he promised me I could try it out but I got all obsessive and impatient and ordered it already ^^;. I'll probably love it though. I'm so excited about it, which worries my mom XD.

Today I went to get my watch and it's sooo perfect and I love it. I wanted to take a picture for my blog but my brother hijacked my CF card so I have to wait until he wakes up.

I spend too much money D:. I already figured out how I'm gonna spend all the money I get for the next three months. Why do I always obsessively want stuff?!

So Dollhouse got cancelled and I'm so disappointed D:. I know everyone (who keeps up with this show) saw this coming but Fox promised they wouldn't cancel and I believed them because I'm a gullible optimistic idiot that way (not that I mind). I'M SO SAD. The last two episodes were awesome and I was looking forward to a really good second season and having the show realize its potential : (.
And Summer Glau! AARGH They promised they wouldn't cancel! *fit*

Also, I went to check on the cellphone I wanted today and it was UGLY irl. I wanted this new Samsung that exists on orange but it's like... fluo orange rather than the pretty kind (I don't like fluo). So hm. Anyone know any other pretty cheap cellphones? I keep looking but I think they're all ugly D:. I'll probably just end up getting the cheapest one again.

I did find a watch I want though! And tonight I'll drown my tv&cellphone-related sorrows. So I'll be fine tomorrow, have some Green Wing in the meantime!



EDIT: Oh, I just read another article and they're still going to make the entire second season? 'Cause as long as Joss can finish that I'm happy :D.
YAY

Urgh, my hair has been impossible lately! Do any of the long-haired girls on my friendlist have like... conditioners or products or whatever to recommend against knots? Usually I just cut my hair off when it gets to this point, but I don't feel like it yet D:. I'm not really into beauty products, I barely even know anything beyond shampoo, soap and conditioner XD.

I ended up writing my short Dutch essay on the creepy Ralph Lauren poster and Karl Lagerfeld's bitching that all women complaining about the anorexic fashion industry are 'fat and jealous'. OH SURE KARL. Thanks for showing me what I really look like!
It's not that good, I wrote it very quickly since it's not for actual grades XD.

Oh, I should be in bed already D:.

For my Dutch literature class I'm doing this group work on Anna Bijns. She was a 17th-century author and one of our first well-known female writers. I'm doing the part on feminism, about how people call her a proto-feminist even though she totally wasn't (she was a conservative catholic). But she was still a very assertive, independent and succesful woman for her time so it's pretty interesting.
I just can't find any sources. I find all these people saying 'some people call her a feminist but they are WRONG', but I don't find anyone on the pro-feminist side and I'm pretty sure I need at least one name/source to make my point.
I was going to talk about it with the rest of my group today but one of the girls' boyfriend got in a heavy motorcycle accident (D: but there's probably no permanent damage) so... yeah. We couldn't really work. I hope he's alright.

Aside from that, I am TOTALLY obsessed with Glee. I already mentioned it in my last post but I've already watched all the episodes twice and my favourite songs a billion times XD. Damn my love for anything musical! :D

I'm not working for school as much as I should. As always. *sigh* I have to write a short 'essay' for next week but I still haven't thought of a subject. It can't be too complicated since I'm only allowed about 800 words and it needs to be something I have an opinion on. Something ~serious~ I have an opinion on. Blargh!
Maybe I could have a serious opinion about something silly? I might try that. Ideas are welcome!

I'm actually getting to know a few people at university this year. Usually I just have a few people I talk to occasionally when I feel like it, but now there's a few girls (the ones in my Anna Bijns group) that I actually like and am slowly getting to know. Not like an actual friendship, but still :D.

Iiiee, I just watched the first episode of the new BBC adaptation of Emma and I LOVE IT. Emma is my favourite Jane Austen novel and I love her character to death, she's such a wonderful little brat :D. Not to mention one of my favourite teen movies is based on it!


Project! That's my first movie gif ever, btw XD.

The actress who plays her is perfect (in my opinion), plus it has Dumbledore and Fran (from Black Books)! I get so excited about Austen adaptations :D.

I'm also in love with Glee and the newest episode of Dollhouse! Glee is awesome because it has singing and dancing and an evil cheerleader coach, and Dollhouse was awesome because of Victor's dancing :D!

University has been alright. My classes are pretty interesting and I passed for my first oral presentation (YES!).

A few weeks ago I started taking swimming classes XD. I decided to this because you all know how much I love WATER, yet a few near-drownings when I was a kid resulted in me getting all panicky as soon as my head went under. This is a fear I really need to get over if I want to learn how to dive and sail and maybe something spent a lot of my life on the sea *___*.
So far it's been going great! I'm pretty crap at all of the exercises, but I'm improving and on my last class I could actually swim with my head under for a while without panicking. A short while, but still :D.
So, yay to conquering fears! Speaking of which, I have three oral presentations this semester *sigh*.

My first one is this Wednesday (help lack of time!) and I'm doing it on Jewish miracle stories :D. My partner picked 'religious miracle stories' and I decided to do Judaism because: yay Old Testament! I'm probably going to do the Golem, Jonah in the Whale and Mozes splitting the sea. But if anyone has suggestions they're still welcome :D.
I'm just not sure about Mozes, because I dunno, I don't want everyone to already know the story. I have no idea how much of this non-catholic school people know D:. Can anyone enlighten me?

That's about all I have to say. I hope I get to see my friends this weekend but I'm kinda stressing about school (already!) and then stressing more because I'm wasting all my time playing Final Fantasy VII (again) instead of doing actual work D:. But it's so much fun!

My first week of classes was pretty good :D. I have a few new interesting courses yay. Also, my Dutch literature class is FINALLY not about the Middle Ages anymore. I do have this Language Theory course that looks superdifficult though XD. Gonna need to work a lot for that one.

And oh yeah guys, I finally got a Facebook. Parts of it still scare me (certain people mostly) but the games are kind of awesome XD.

( spoilers for PR and ANTM )

London was awesome (of course!). I was apparently still sick from my trip to Cologne and there was also an unexpected rain shower which pretty much drowned us in Camden XD. But it was fun and I spent all my money and got gorgeous stuff instead! :D
We also went to the Victoria & Albert and the Science museum! I'll post some pictures in a few days, when I have some free time.

Though I'm not sure I'll have any, since school is starting on Monday and it's all very confusing. My curriculum hasn't been approved yet and my schedule is so nonsensical! D:

I'm really tired now. Even though I overslept because I forgot to put my cellphone back on local time rather than London's GMT so I actually got more sleep than I was supposed to. And a lot of stress to get to a friend's house on time XD.

Okay, off to bed!

It's been a while :D. I've been enjoying my short holiday rather thoroughly and have hardly been home. Yesterday we went to Cologne for a video game music concert! The Cologne Philharmonic Orchestra played music from Kingdom Hearts, Legend of Mana, Chrono Cross/Trigger and Final Fantasy.
This is pretty epic since they're all classics of the Japanese RPG world :D. Y'know, the gaming genre that I'm kind of obsessed with.

( report! )

I'm twenty-one years old! Or twelve, depending on who you ask. Anyway, I guess that should feel special but it doesn't. Not that it matters. I only care about birthdays because of parties and presents :D.

I think my party went alright. I hope everyone enjoyed themselves, I certainly did. And I got so many awesome presents this year! There's not one thing that I don't like XD (though the bobbleheads were a bit creepy :p. But in a fun way. And actually, the Darth Vader is kinda cute. But the Terminator is horrifying!).

The day after I had to get up at nine to go to the dentist, which was majorly painful D:. But we went from there to the camera store, and picked up my new camera!



I'm so in love with it, omg XD. It's an Olympus E-420 in case that means anything to anyone. I've been playing around with it constantly. I'm still getting used to all the settings though. And dear me, I love you, RAW images!

Aside from that, I've been getting used to the new Poupée system. Mostly I'm alright with it. Though I do wish they'd at least kept two resets. I got some jewels from when I bought ribbons for the raingear event, so luckily I can buy a few must-have jewel items :D.

I'm reading Dawn Powell's A Time To Be Born inbetween studying, and it's really smart and well-written. She has these amazing lines like:
"This sort of familiarity irritated Amanda, always, not for snobbish reasons but because it obliged her to give priceless time to the trivial uses of worthless people."

Friday was my last day on the job and it was fun :D. We had this drink with our bosses and afterwards I went swimming with two of my co-workers. I'm definitely gonna try to return there next year, it's the perfect job for me *_*.
A few of my co-workers were scared of wasps. It's a bit of an inconvience when you have to empty garbage bags with hundreds of them flying around. I've really grown to like wasps in this past month though XD.

Saturday I went to Brussels with Daphné. We visited the Magritte museum and I wore a bowler hat. Afterwards we ate too much at the Chinese restaurant and went bookshopping. I bought over 100 euros in books again D:. I just couldn't resist! I love Brussels and its English bookshops *__*.

Today I started studying. It went really well. I hope I can keep up this level of self-discipline and concentration (but I probably won't XD).

My birthday is coming up! I'm turning 21 and having a small birthday party at my grandfather's place. I'm gonna send out the invite mails tomorrow (probably). I always get giddy over birthdays :D. I just like getting spoiled, I guess XD.

I watched Firefly recently and liked it. I wish there was more though. Damn you, shows that get cancelled!
I wonder if I should try Battlestar Galactica. Is it fun?

I had the early shift yesterday and today which basically means MY DEATH. Getting up at 5h30 is not my idea of a good summer time D:. When we were cleaning up the trash we found a full, unopened bottle of white wine though. Jacob's Creek even! You would expect people to leave behind trashy, tasteless Nightshop wine but Jacob's Creek... doesn't taste like piss :D.

So Eline (my co-worker Eline) and I were all excited about that and then we had to clean these small windows that were BEHIND BUSHES. We couldn't even reach them since we're both short so we had to balance a chair on the bushes while cleaning. We spent two hours climbing in and out of THORNFUL bushes until our legs saw entirely red with scratches and we were finished.

Early shift means we're already done at 13h30 so then we went to the beach (of the park that I work at) and we spent two hours lazing about, drinking our newfound wine and swimming.
So all in all, my legs being forever ruined aside, I had a pretty good day :D.

And tomorrow I can get up at a godly hour again. Yay!

I would talk more about books and movies but I haven't been seeing that much lately. I am currently reading The Waves though. It's gorgeous!

So my holiday job started and it's... pretty awesome XDD. I work at this local swimming lake/recreational park and mostly pick up trash. It's a laid-back job that pays well because it's funded by the city :D.
Of course, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who hates the heat, sun, trash, smelly things, bugs, ... XD But for me it's fine. I get along with my coworkers too so yay.
I get a walkie-talkie and everything. It's loads of fun because I hear all the gossip. Like today there was this 15-year old boy so drunk he couldn't even remember his own name.

My grades were worse than I expected and I'm kind of disappointed, but it's really my own fault so whatever. I'm gonna try to do all my preparation for the resits while I'm still working. Then all I have to do in August is revise :D.
I really want to be well-prepared so that I can still do something fun on my birthday. I will go insane if I have to study on my birthday!

So that's basically my life at the moment. My cousin's birthday party was a few days ago and I danced a lot (which led to a lot pain at work the next day XD).

My Sims 3 family just had triplets XD. They're so much work! Oh, and I've been listening to Prince. And indeed, he is awesome and danceable. Thanks Eline XD.

I hope everyone's enjoying their summer! :D

It just really hit me and I started crying. Like many of you, I was basically obsessed with him for my entire childhood D:.
So many people have died this week. It's creepy how full the newspapers are of death announcements. He's the only one I idolized though. I'm pretty sure he started my obsession with danceable music XD.

Aside from the sadness, my holiday is going lovely! Daphné and I made sushi last night. We watched Léon (because of Gary Oldman), Planet Terror and some Hana Kimi. The Sims 3 arrived today and I'm still amazed at the possibilities of Create-A-Style :D.

So I think my last exam went well :D. I'm happy about that. But mostly I'm happy that they're OVER. OVER!!!
I went shopping with Daphné that afternoon and celebrated by buying bright yellow short shorts! I went out with friends that night and celebrated by getting really, really drunk. Of course :D.
Now that I have embarrassed myself enough for the rest of the summer and have mutilated my legs by falling down in the middle of a street, I think I can pass the rest of the summer in quiet, calm and lovely way.

Or not XD. The coming week is gonna be busy since I start my holiday job next Wednesday. So I'm trying to cram in all the stuff I wanna do now. Going swimming tonight, movie night with Daphné tomorrow, shopping + seeing an opera on Friday, Annelien's party on Saturday, and so on :D.

That's about it really. GIANT YAY :D IT'S SUMMER!!!

On Saturday I spent most of the day in the garden. Making grammar exercises in my bikini :D. It's too cold now though.

I took some pictures of my garden. Oh, and I'm not finished with my booksorting yet, so probably no pictures of that until after my exams XD.


This is the view from my balcony :D.

( gaaarden )

Anyway, what is this I hear about Kristen Stewart playing Joan Jett in the upcoming Runaways film? I don't know much about her but... Bella Swan? Seriously?
Is she at least a good actress? I haven't the heart to watch Twilight.
Oh, and Tom Felton might get a part in a Twilight film. THIS HORRIFIES ME. If he does I have to stop loving him.

My exam went... awesomely well XD. I can't be 100% sure until I get my grades but I felt like I knew basically everything she asked. Haha, it made me feel so good about myself that I had this huge smile on my face when I handed it in and I could feel all the other students look at me like I was the biggest freak on earth.

My next one is Dutch grammar. The study matter doesn't seem that hard but the exam is made up out of multiple choice and exercises D:. I hate multiple choice! She's also gonna give negative points if you guess incorrectly, which is just mean XD.

My great-uncle is this somewhat wellknown 'artist' in our city. He's having an exhibition soon and the poster basically consists of his bushy beard. I don't really like his work (what I've seen anyway) and I don't think I've ever even talked to him but I just found out that he's also gonna exhibit some work of the other artists in our family to 'place himself as an artist' or whatever. Aaanyway I think I might like to see that, I know their work pretty well but only the paintings that reside with us or at my grandfather's. I'd love to see more.
XD I have so many exhibitions I want to see this summer! There's this, Alfred Stevens, René Magritte and Goran Djurovic. Is there anything else in the neighbourhood that I should see?

Ah~ precious summer. I'm looking forward to you so much!

The train to Cologne for Shonen Knife is like 40 euros, I can't afford that D:. I mean, I can, but I don't want to pay that much just to go to a concert, you know?
I would do it if I could make a nice citytrip of it but I don't have that money. Even if I did nobody would be able to go with me so blah.
I'm SAD NOW.

Aside from that I have the feeling that I am totally gonna kick ass on my exam Wednesday :D. The feeling might be wrong, in which case I shall forcefully kick myself. But yay!

Saturday was my grandfather's birthday celebration and it was nice. As always XD. But my uncle has this cancerthingy so it was nice to see him, especially since he looked pretty good :D. I think the bad part of treatment hasn't started yet but still.

Also the new series of Mitchell & Webb is starting soon *___*. Are we the baddies?