8 march 2010
The weather today, is kind of like, if Mother Natures uncle died. Not a particularly close uncle but he's family either way so she's pretty much obliged to mourn a little. I'm hoping she gets over it quickly though cause I want the good weather back. Preferably before another member of her family dies. Me and Mother Nature have a fairly tumultuous relationship. One might even say we're fair weather friends. *canned laughter with a hint of genuine amusement* I mean one minute she's giving a great day of butterflies, pixies and unicorns, then the next she's raining down proverbial brimstone on our releationship. But then I guess that's just women. Not that men don't do their fair share of brimstone raining. You just tend to see it coming when they do. You know, menacing dark clouds hovering around for a while before eventually breaking open. With women its more Noah's arc style. No rain at all, then one day and the whole bloody world gets flooded. Maybe that means that God is a woman. It sure would explain a lot. Like the unfortunately vulnerable placement of the scrotum for example. I mean its a pretty fundamental weakness. The kind that has the tendency of rendering one completely helpless after the execution of a well aimed kick. I mean, in a sense, the male achilles heel, is really in the scrotum. Try not to think of that to anatomically. And definately don't try and put your achilles heel in your scrotum. IT HURTS.
Well now that I'm done with the weather and vulgar stuff, I can move on to more intellectual topics. Such as sugar collection. For all of you in NZ, you will probably remember that at some point or another in a restaurant, I've consumed a sachet of sugar straight from the bag. Now its not exactly the most normal thing in the weird, but nor is it the weirdest. Nevertheless, I found myself collecting these things whenever I go for coffee now. This was highly fueled by the fact that this one place gives sugar cubes with their coffee, and everyone knows sugar tastes even better in sugar cubes. Maybe the idea of consuming a regular shape just appeals to me more than I thought. The great thing is, Bert has started collecting for me as well. So if he goes for coffee somewhere, the next day he brings me some new additions to my stash. I've got a few different brands going and everything.
Mmm.. I'm hungry again... One might even say I've got the rumblies... That only hands can satisfy... If you have no idea what I'm talking about then watch this. Hell, if you know what I'm talking about watch it anyway. I would also like to point out that I just made a link in a word. I mean, I'm feeling pretty professional right now. I'd like to say that I used some fancy way of making that happen. Alas I just used a shortcut. Cool though right? Regardless, stop reading for a bit and watch what's on the other side of that link ok. Here it is again just for fun. I could definately get used to this button. If only I knew how to do it on Facebook...
My eyes are going...wonky. When I look at the computer screen my eyes just want to close. In fact, come to think of it, when I look at most things my eyes want to close... Maybe I'm allergic to everything. I'm sure there must be some logical explanation to this... Maybe I should sleep on it.
Before I left for Dutch yesterday I lent Karen my earphones, but forgot to get them back before leaving. Which meant I had a strange void this morning. A void where all the music used to be. You know, the day the music died(was temporarily lost) and all that. It made me realise how much I've come to rely on music waking me up in the morning since I've been here. Cause I was shattered when I got to work. I mean more than usual. Its ok though, I'm confusing my brain with sugar so it can't fall asleep just yet.
I feel like I'm progressively becoming more and more like a walking billboard for STAMP Media. Which is actually pretty cool I think - the merchandise that we can wear actually looks pretty good. I now have a STAMP Media shirt, badge and wrist band. Usually don't wear them together though. Just got the wrist band today, but its been put on in a fairly permanent way - I can't take it off without breaking it so looks like its here to sty for quite some time. Might be a bitch for metal detectors though - the metal is keeping it on. Should be alright... I hope.
I could really do with a shoulder massage right now. Its sore from the heavy emotional burden of... life... or something. You can all try curb your enthusiasm now. Not too much though. I mean I know too many cooks spoil the broth (Obviously why we never go to your house for broth Tracey) but at the same time it would be nice to have at least some cooks for my back. Metaphorically speaking of course. I don't want any amount of people cooking my back, young, lovely and tender as it may be.
I just organised my sugar collection into brands and types (cubes or sachets). Thought you ought to know. Where's that last line from again? I think Keira Knightley said it. Or it was at least in one of her movies. So I'm guessing Pirates of the Carribean or Atonement. But can't set the scene just yet. More on that if I remember. Wait. Someone said it as they were dying I think.. So probably wasn't her... grrr.
Ah. Got it. (Admittedly after a bit of frustrated googling). The reason I couldn't remember it is because its from harry potter and the sorcerers stone. By professor Quirril.
The fact that it was from harry potter is rather unsatisfying I think. I mean the movies... bit of a let down, even with my low expectations. I mean I try hard to like it, I really do, but they're destroyed by all these cringe moments where the script writer obviously felt he needed to embarrass one of the actors. I think Rupert Grint in particular must have pissed them off because he gets these awful lines. I mean how anyone pull off "who are you and what have you done with Hermione?" with any kind of dignity??????? The worst thing is that I know he can actually act, but these lines are designed to seriously undermine that. Daniel Radcliffe is okish I think but he also gets the really bad lines - loads of rubbish about how friendship rules and defeats all evil and rainbows blossom every time you smile and some such. I mean, how do you not die a little inside when saying those lines, knowing full well that its supposed to be taken seriously. When watching those scenes being shot, with all the camera men, director, producers, various relatives milling about, surely someone would have had the balls to say "hey guys, don't you think that line is... well... just a little bit crap?" They could kind of get away with it for the first 3 films - they were more child orientated and so cheesiness with bad lines are sort of a given. What they failed to realise was that the rest are more serious and dark, for slightly older readers than the series initial fanbase. Thus they didn't adapt the movies accordingly. AND they violated a pretty big rule about making movies of books: DON'T MAKE THE MOVIES UNTIL ALL THE BOOKS ARE FINISHED BECAUSE OTHERWISE YOU COULD MISS THINGS THAT ARE IMPORTANT LATER WITHOUT REALISING IT!
Okay I did some breathing exercises and I'm mostly calm now. My spontaneous rant is done for now. I even went for a walk to make sure it was out of my system.
Thats me signing off for today.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Birthday weekend, Ghent, Tuesday and the monster that never was.
7 april 2010
The rest of the day/night on fri was awesome. Lots of cool people, live band at the pub, elaborate air drum solos from me (drinking may have been involved) and just generally an awesome night. Had to get to Ghent later on though so I left Berts couch relatively early, all things considered, and made my way home to make preparations. Arrived in Ghent early evening and met Monica, Valerie and Aayran there. That night we stayed at Aayran's counselors house which was cool. He took us to this Latina dancing place. Which to be fair had a good atmostphere etc, and I really enjoyed it. Needless to say, my hips didn't feel like partially dislocating themselves every two seconds so I refrained from dancing. (Yeah thats the reason, I was worried about the health of my body...). I mean, my normal dancing is bad enough without bringing actual dance moves into the equation. But I did take lots of pictures of creepy old guys dancing with the girls... hehe.
Later on that night me and Monica went to forage for food. Which proved to be very fruitful. It was a little Kebab place near the dance place. The fact that I used a capitol k for the Kebab should tell you a lot about my feelings for it. It was love at first site. For the first and second Kebab. And the chips. *gazes off into the distance in a reminiscing kind of way* Seriously it was awesome. If you're ever in Ghent centre, find a place called "Thats Kebab" and eat there. Admittedly, it was also the most expensive Kebab I've come across here - €5 for a normal Kebab. Still. Totally worth it. The remainder of the night mostly pales in comparison to the Kebab, although there was an interesting incident of Aaryan jumping inside some guys egg suite that he had made for Easter. While the guy was still in it. Crazy woman. But then hey, is there any other kind????? I can feel the look you females are giving me right now. Its the kind of fear that goes along with knowing that no matter how hard you try, you'll never quite be able to effectively return that look (or even have a manly equivalent other than laughing mischieveously/nervously)
The next day we all had Turkish pizzas. Wow. Very impressed. Unfortunately I can't remember the name of the place we got them from so as much as I would like to there'll be no free advertising (to my pulsing hordes of readers) for them. Just go to Ghent and try a bunch of Turkish places and if you like it then you just give me the credit. If you don't like it... then you've obviously just gone to the wrong place and it's entirely your fault.
And then there were three....
That is, Monica, Valerie and myself. The others went off to give the fairies a good talking to. We went and checked into out hotel, which was pretty cool. The usual knobs and goblins etc. We went out and searched for food, possibly traversing every side road in all of bloody Ghent. However, we did eventually find a really nice place that wasn't too pricey. The name of the place, wait for it.... was... Twilight. But to the credit of the staff they didn't try and drink my blood, they were actually good, and most importantly they didn't act like a bunch of stupid hysterical school girls with the intellectual capacity of a limp banana. Which I felt was nice. I had an awesome 300g steak. Easily the best meal I've had at a restaurant here. Nice and bloody...hmmm... (insert twilight reference here). Pancakes for dessert. Need I say more? Probably not. Will that stop me? Unlikely. They gave us these bowls of different sugars to distribute as we saw fit, which is nice because so often people skimp on the sugar and don't give you any extra to lather your pancake in. And boy do I like a good lathering.
The next day we did some touristy meandering (Easter Monday). Things were open; which was good. We went to a castle near the centre. It was like a dream come true. They had a room full of really old weaponary with descriptions of their origins, how they were used etc. Plus suits of armour. I want that stuff so badly. Honestly, if I suddenly had massive amounts of money that armoury would be one of the first things on my agenda. They had some of the old torture devices in another room. It made me strangely happy. They had the thumbscrews and all that kind of stuff (read, James can't remember the names).
Eventually we went home.
Yesterday it was back to work. The day was fairly uneventful - there's a media camp here at the moment so me and most of the interns had to shift over to Stefans room to escape the masses. After work we grabbed some drinks and went down to the river Schelde. Was a really good day - clear skies and 17 degrees C. I was in my T- shirt most of the time. Crazy stuff eh. Anyway so, Stefan invited a few of us to stay the night at his so the night could continue. Which it duly did. We all went and got dinner - also a Turkish place, really good. Most of us made our way to the couch when we got to his place and we watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Liked it even more the second time as I vaguely knew what was happening this time. Most people went to bed or fell asleep on the couch. Gladiator was eventually put on, and it was hard to sleep when a pat of me wanted to rewatch it so much. Made it fairly far into the movie though.
This morning we all staggered into work. The camp is still on today and tomorrow so we are still displaced. So tired. I mean there's a good reason I shower in the mornings. That waking up thing people keep talking about. Even with a shower I'm not sure I ever really accomplish being entirely wakeful. But feeeling particularly dead now. Don't know how I'm going to make it through the 3 hours of Dutch today. Have to leave in 20 mins actually.
No random wonderings today, for better or for worse. My brain simply cannot function well enough. Off to Dutch. See you
The rest of the day/night on fri was awesome. Lots of cool people, live band at the pub, elaborate air drum solos from me (drinking may have been involved) and just generally an awesome night. Had to get to Ghent later on though so I left Berts couch relatively early, all things considered, and made my way home to make preparations. Arrived in Ghent early evening and met Monica, Valerie and Aayran there. That night we stayed at Aayran's counselors house which was cool. He took us to this Latina dancing place. Which to be fair had a good atmostphere etc, and I really enjoyed it. Needless to say, my hips didn't feel like partially dislocating themselves every two seconds so I refrained from dancing. (Yeah thats the reason, I was worried about the health of my body...). I mean, my normal dancing is bad enough without bringing actual dance moves into the equation. But I did take lots of pictures of creepy old guys dancing with the girls... hehe.
Later on that night me and Monica went to forage for food. Which proved to be very fruitful. It was a little Kebab place near the dance place. The fact that I used a capitol k for the Kebab should tell you a lot about my feelings for it. It was love at first site. For the first and second Kebab. And the chips. *gazes off into the distance in a reminiscing kind of way* Seriously it was awesome. If you're ever in Ghent centre, find a place called "Thats Kebab" and eat there. Admittedly, it was also the most expensive Kebab I've come across here - €5 for a normal Kebab. Still. Totally worth it. The remainder of the night mostly pales in comparison to the Kebab, although there was an interesting incident of Aaryan jumping inside some guys egg suite that he had made for Easter. While the guy was still in it. Crazy woman. But then hey, is there any other kind????? I can feel the look you females are giving me right now. Its the kind of fear that goes along with knowing that no matter how hard you try, you'll never quite be able to effectively return that look (or even have a manly equivalent other than laughing mischieveously/nervously)
The next day we all had Turkish pizzas. Wow. Very impressed. Unfortunately I can't remember the name of the place we got them from so as much as I would like to there'll be no free advertising (to my pulsing hordes of readers) for them. Just go to Ghent and try a bunch of Turkish places and if you like it then you just give me the credit. If you don't like it... then you've obviously just gone to the wrong place and it's entirely your fault.
And then there were three....
That is, Monica, Valerie and myself. The others went off to give the fairies a good talking to. We went and checked into out hotel, which was pretty cool. The usual knobs and goblins etc. We went out and searched for food, possibly traversing every side road in all of bloody Ghent. However, we did eventually find a really nice place that wasn't too pricey. The name of the place, wait for it.... was... Twilight. But to the credit of the staff they didn't try and drink my blood, they were actually good, and most importantly they didn't act like a bunch of stupid hysterical school girls with the intellectual capacity of a limp banana. Which I felt was nice. I had an awesome 300g steak. Easily the best meal I've had at a restaurant here. Nice and bloody...hmmm... (insert twilight reference here). Pancakes for dessert. Need I say more? Probably not. Will that stop me? Unlikely. They gave us these bowls of different sugars to distribute as we saw fit, which is nice because so often people skimp on the sugar and don't give you any extra to lather your pancake in. And boy do I like a good lathering.
The next day we did some touristy meandering (Easter Monday). Things were open; which was good. We went to a castle near the centre. It was like a dream come true. They had a room full of really old weaponary with descriptions of their origins, how they were used etc. Plus suits of armour. I want that stuff so badly. Honestly, if I suddenly had massive amounts of money that armoury would be one of the first things on my agenda. They had some of the old torture devices in another room. It made me strangely happy. They had the thumbscrews and all that kind of stuff (read, James can't remember the names).
Eventually we went home.
Yesterday it was back to work. The day was fairly uneventful - there's a media camp here at the moment so me and most of the interns had to shift over to Stefans room to escape the masses. After work we grabbed some drinks and went down to the river Schelde. Was a really good day - clear skies and 17 degrees C. I was in my T- shirt most of the time. Crazy stuff eh. Anyway so, Stefan invited a few of us to stay the night at his so the night could continue. Which it duly did. We all went and got dinner - also a Turkish place, really good. Most of us made our way to the couch when we got to his place and we watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Liked it even more the second time as I vaguely knew what was happening this time. Most people went to bed or fell asleep on the couch. Gladiator was eventually put on, and it was hard to sleep when a pat of me wanted to rewatch it so much. Made it fairly far into the movie though.
This morning we all staggered into work. The camp is still on today and tomorrow so we are still displaced. So tired. I mean there's a good reason I shower in the mornings. That waking up thing people keep talking about. Even with a shower I'm not sure I ever really accomplish being entirely wakeful. But feeeling particularly dead now. Don't know how I'm going to make it through the 3 hours of Dutch today. Have to leave in 20 mins actually.
No random wonderings today, for better or for worse. My brain simply cannot function well enough. Off to Dutch. See you
Friday, April 2, 2010
19 years ago, on a dark and stormy day, a screaming ape was born...
2 april 2010
Hello there.
So my dads birthday is on April Fools Day. Mine, is on world autism day. Not really sure what to make of that. Got to speak to the family this morning which was really good. Would've been good to talk longer though. And maybe in a warm home instead of an alleyway. I mean after the initial excitement, frostbite gets a little (c)old. See what I did there? Very witty indeed... In any case, I'm going out tonight which should be good, looking forward to that. Just got to make it through the day now...
I swear sleeping more doesn't make me less tired. The last 2 nights I've gotten like 2 hours extra per night than I usually do and I'm feeling completely dead. Like in a bad way.
I'm really keen for an early lunch. So about now would be good. So hungry. But then whats new right? I mean I'm hungry and tired, so basically I've just said the same things I've mentioned in almost every post. My god. Shut up about it already. I'm driving myself crazy here. I mean man-up already.
Ok good, glad I got that out. I feel somewhat refreshed. Its one of the feelings I don't usually openly despise - unless it's found in abundance inside others very early in the morning.
In any case I'm off, if thanks for all the birthday wishes everyone, was really good to log-in to my hotmail and have pages of facebook notifications. Cheers people, enjoy the rest of your day, and have a drink (or two) for me ;)
Hello there.
So my dads birthday is on April Fools Day. Mine, is on world autism day. Not really sure what to make of that. Got to speak to the family this morning which was really good. Would've been good to talk longer though. And maybe in a warm home instead of an alleyway. I mean after the initial excitement, frostbite gets a little (c)old. See what I did there? Very witty indeed... In any case, I'm going out tonight which should be good, looking forward to that. Just got to make it through the day now...
I swear sleeping more doesn't make me less tired. The last 2 nights I've gotten like 2 hours extra per night than I usually do and I'm feeling completely dead. Like in a bad way.
I'm really keen for an early lunch. So about now would be good. So hungry. But then whats new right? I mean I'm hungry and tired, so basically I've just said the same things I've mentioned in almost every post. My god. Shut up about it already. I'm driving myself crazy here. I mean man-up already.
Ok good, glad I got that out. I feel somewhat refreshed. Its one of the feelings I don't usually openly despise - unless it's found in abundance inside others very early in the morning.
In any case I'm off, if thanks for all the birthday wishes everyone, was really good to log-in to my hotmail and have pages of facebook notifications. Cheers people, enjoy the rest of your day, and have a drink (or two) for me ;)
Thursday, April 1, 2010
The tale of a vengeful fly
o1 april 2010
Ok, here I am.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!
Last night when I got home after Dutch and some drinks, I decided to have a (relatively) early night and in the same breathe decided to tell my mom that I got a tattoo - nz is 12 hours ahead so it was April Fools day there already. I sent her this txt pleading with her not to freak out about the small dragon tattoo I got on my shoulder... hehe. Apparently it worked. Her reply was "What? Are you serious?" The best part was that she didn't reply until I fell asleep so she had all day to consider my antics. I'm told she fell for it pretty badly (talked to the family this morning, all too briefly). Which lightened my day. God, me getting a tattoo. Such a bad idea. I would just look like some pasty white boy trying to look hardcore and failing miserably. Might be funny for the 5 mins before I realise that its not going to come off in the shower, even after considerable scrubbing.
So its my birthday tomorrow, and my plans as of now involve going out for some drinks with Bert and anyone else who wants to come. Which should take me well into the night/morning. Then it gets a bit tricky. I'm supposed to be meeting some of the other volunteers in Ghent at about middayish, but getting back from Antwerpen takes about an hour, then I've got to wash up etc, then take an hour trip back before setting off for Ghent. So when you consider that I don't really want to get up at the crack of dawn, it could be a tad tight. We shall see. At worst I'll just end up meeting them a little later than anticipated I guess.
I need to try get another book today. Finished the first trilogy by David Eddings so now I'll just move onto his next trilogy. Will try make it last longer this time.
Actually, I do have some fairly exciting news. Vincent invited me to go along with him and Laura to Paris for a few days if I got the leave from work. During that week there's a STAMP Media camp going on in our office so Stefan basically said I should just go to Paris. Which is awesome. Got the leave approved by AFS as well, and in fact our hostel is now booked, which is cool. So I'm pretty excited about that. I think I leave here on the 11th of April so really not long to go.
I need to go eat soon.
*time passes*
I have now eaten.
Most of the people at work smoke so I've decided I need an addiction as well. So during their smoking breaks I'm going to do my best to get addicted to Tic Tacs. In fact I just went for a Tic Tac break. A mouth of minty freshness at affordable prices. If I start selling off my Lord of the Rings model to pay for my Tic Tac habit then I know its time to stop.
This computers slowness is eating my inner soul at an excruciatingly slow pace. My outer soul is a little cold right now. Cold but beautiful...
I've been wondering about something lately. (Just the one thing) I've been wondering how many random photo's I've been in. I mean, not taken by people I know, photo's taken by people with me randomly walking in the background looking staunch and manly. That kind of thing. It saddens me greatly that I will never know the answer to this pertinent question. For once, there's a useless statistic which I wouldn't mind knowing, and there's almost no way to get it. Unless maybe everyone who's ever taken a photo during my lifetime puts them all up on the internet and some super computer can cross reference them all to find the answer to my question. Yeah, thats me, asking all the hardhitting stuff.
This is James Anderson, specialist reporter of...miscellaneous stuff.
Elise is sitting on my desk popping bubble wrap. This amuses me. That dirty woman and her antics.
She just deleted that last line but I had save. Thank god for auto save eh. Alright I'm off. bye
Ok, here I am.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!
Last night when I got home after Dutch and some drinks, I decided to have a (relatively) early night and in the same breathe decided to tell my mom that I got a tattoo - nz is 12 hours ahead so it was April Fools day there already. I sent her this txt pleading with her not to freak out about the small dragon tattoo I got on my shoulder... hehe. Apparently it worked. Her reply was "What? Are you serious?" The best part was that she didn't reply until I fell asleep so she had all day to consider my antics. I'm told she fell for it pretty badly (talked to the family this morning, all too briefly). Which lightened my day. God, me getting a tattoo. Such a bad idea. I would just look like some pasty white boy trying to look hardcore and failing miserably. Might be funny for the 5 mins before I realise that its not going to come off in the shower, even after considerable scrubbing.
So its my birthday tomorrow, and my plans as of now involve going out for some drinks with Bert and anyone else who wants to come. Which should take me well into the night/morning. Then it gets a bit tricky. I'm supposed to be meeting some of the other volunteers in Ghent at about middayish, but getting back from Antwerpen takes about an hour, then I've got to wash up etc, then take an hour trip back before setting off for Ghent. So when you consider that I don't really want to get up at the crack of dawn, it could be a tad tight. We shall see. At worst I'll just end up meeting them a little later than anticipated I guess.
I need to try get another book today. Finished the first trilogy by David Eddings so now I'll just move onto his next trilogy. Will try make it last longer this time.
Actually, I do have some fairly exciting news. Vincent invited me to go along with him and Laura to Paris for a few days if I got the leave from work. During that week there's a STAMP Media camp going on in our office so Stefan basically said I should just go to Paris. Which is awesome. Got the leave approved by AFS as well, and in fact our hostel is now booked, which is cool. So I'm pretty excited about that. I think I leave here on the 11th of April so really not long to go.
I need to go eat soon.
*time passes*
I have now eaten.
Most of the people at work smoke so I've decided I need an addiction as well. So during their smoking breaks I'm going to do my best to get addicted to Tic Tacs. In fact I just went for a Tic Tac break. A mouth of minty freshness at affordable prices. If I start selling off my Lord of the Rings model to pay for my Tic Tac habit then I know its time to stop.
This computers slowness is eating my inner soul at an excruciatingly slow pace. My outer soul is a little cold right now. Cold but beautiful...
I've been wondering about something lately. (Just the one thing) I've been wondering how many random photo's I've been in. I mean, not taken by people I know, photo's taken by people with me randomly walking in the background looking staunch and manly. That kind of thing. It saddens me greatly that I will never know the answer to this pertinent question. For once, there's a useless statistic which I wouldn't mind knowing, and there's almost no way to get it. Unless maybe everyone who's ever taken a photo during my lifetime puts them all up on the internet and some super computer can cross reference them all to find the answer to my question. Yeah, thats me, asking all the hardhitting stuff.
This is James Anderson, specialist reporter of...miscellaneous stuff.
Elise is sitting on my desk popping bubble wrap. This amuses me. That dirty woman and her antics.
She just deleted that last line but I had save. Thank god for auto save eh. Alright I'm off. bye
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