Tse Moana

I’m grateful for game nights with friends

I’m happy with my apple crumble

I’m sick of eggs

I learned telling gets easier the more you do it

I love weekends, sleeping in, late nights, doing random stuff, it’s the best.

Today I slept in, and got rudely awakened by the postman ringing the bell. He had the t-shirts I ordered from Jinx before New Year’s. Bad news? Customs decided to charge me an extra twenty in additional taxes for them. And not having any loose change in the house, and the postman being one without a mobile debit machine, we agreed he would drop it off at the post office.

Then I went back to bed.

Got up an hour or so later and spent a relaxing early afternoon hanging around on the internet. Then I went to the post office and picked up the package. All three shirts fit well and are good so that’s that. The only thing I still need to get now is the Ukelele. I mailed the store for an update on when it’ll be back in stock, but so far no answer yet.

I also played around with Excel. Using it at work a lot lately has made want to play with it at home too, especially with some of more fancy features besides just making tables. So I decided to create a spreadsheet for my financial administration so it has lots of Sum functions in it. I also used three sheets within the workbook, one for the income and expenses spreadsheet and the second for a quick overview of the totals along with a small table that the graph on the third sheet is using as source data. I love messing about like that. Figuring out the right functions for the cells that needed to do something than just adding shit up was fun to do. As was making the graph.

Nienke had to work today, and as she was on her way home she suggested we order in pizza. I thought that was an excellent idea so while she was waiting for the bus I ordered. It was delivered promptly at the requested time and, as usual, it was good stuff. I love the tiramisu that Buonissimo has :D

Watched some Supernatural during dinner and am now watching The Nine Lives of Chloe King. I hadn’t watched it before, but I was intrigued. And since it only has ten episodes it’s an easy show to just cram in. Third episode has just ended but it’s a little too late to see more. I’m gonna go sleep in a little bit, my eyes are starting to protest. More tomorrow, if I have time.

I need to sleep in first, obviously :D And at the end of the afternoon I’m going over to Eva’s to play games with her, Jarig and Ingrid.

Bed now, though. Definitely bed.

In closing, the shirts I got:

I’m grateful  for friends that know me well

I’m happy with my christmas presents :D

I’m annoyed with Milo waking me up very early in the morning on the weekend, his voice is such that its hard to ignore

I learned purring cats on your back are fun, though

Contradicting myself slightly, the only scheduled thing I’ve decided to continue (or restart, rather) is the Weekly Four. I really enjoyed this last year, and am still kicking myself for not keeping up with it. It’s also a good reflective tool.

So, here’s a look back on the first week of this new journey around the sun.

I’m grateful for cats that always cheer me up, even when I’m feeling down, sleepy and annoyed at the same time :D

I’m happy for central heating *puts feet on heater*

I’m annoyed with text messages (sometimes). Conveying tone and intention in a text message can be tricky, which can lead to wonky interpretations of messages.

I learned some things about myself this week, which led to the making of a decision I’ve been on the fence about for a while. More on that later.

So, here we are, a week into the new year. I don’t do resolutions, I know myself well enough to know that’s pointless. I have, however, decided to pick a theme. Basically an idea, or motivator of sorts, to keep in mind and use to guide my decisions this year. Theme for this year is Just Do It (to steal from Nike). This year the idea is to be more active in my pursuits, to take action to get where I want to be.

In that light, I’ve made some related decisions in what I want to do this year, both long term things that I want to start this year, as well as things I want to accomplish. Most of the stuff I can’t, or rather won’t, talk about just yet. But I hope to provide further updates soon.

I also have some stuff that I will talk about. First of that being this blog. It took way longer than expected to fix the image issue I was having. This was mostly my own problem because I let it lie for too long while it, in the end, turned out to be a relatively simple fix. After it got fixed I did one of the photo posts I said I would and then left it again. Putting pics together for the August photo post was annoying the crap out of me, so I just sorta stopped.

To prevent shit like that from making me stop blogging again, I’m not scheduling anything anymore. No more ‘I’m going to do this on a weekly basis’ or ‘every month I’m gonna…’ or even non-committal shit like ‘I plan to regularly…’ I’m not planning anything any more in regards to the blog. I still have a lot of things in my head that I wanna post, but I’m just gonna do whatever comes up, whenever I want to. There’s already enough shit in life that you have to do, I don’t want this blog to be one of those things. After all, I have this website to have fun with and to make a record of who I am and what I like. If it becomes a chore, it’ll loose all life it has.

Something else I think I haven’t mentioned here yet is Milo. Milo is my new cat, whom I got from the shelter on October 22. He’s a young boy of almost two (in March) and he’s almost the complete opposite of Monkey. He’s playful, and active and a bit of a talker. Monkey only makes a noise when he really wants to go outside and I don’t respond fast enough. Milo opens his mouth a lot more, and when he does the most adorable little shriek comes out. It’s almost like a friggin’ baby bird going meeeeep! The shelter named him Bo, which is stupid, so I renamed him. But, in keeping with tradition I kept (most of) his shelter name as part of his name.

So, without further ado, meet Milo Beauregard Gibbs:

Monkey and Milo are getting along pretty well. Milo wants to play with Monk but he’s not really into that. They do chase each other around (in mostly good fun), though. This usually starts with Milo approaching Monkey to sniff at him or invite him to play and then Monkey does this hissy fit kinda thing where he yowls a bit and waves his paw around. Milo the backs off a bit and seconds later they’ll be chasing each other around the house.

He also loves feather teasers, so much so, even, that the one I had is almost dead already. So I bought three new ones right away to get a bit of a supply. And today the laser pointer I ordered came in. Tried it on him, he went insane for it :D

In comparison, Monkey ignored it and pointedly reminded me that he knows I’m the one controlling the toys so he’s not gonna waste his energy on that, thank you very much. (related sidenote: Monkey has very expressive eyes).

Tomorrow Milo gets to go outside for the first time since I got him. I kept him inside a little longer than I normally would because of New Year’s and the fireworks and such. I hope he likes it, he tends to still be a little skittish with loud noises or big/tall objects/people although he’s progressed heaps in that since he came. The first week he would hide under the bed every time I walked through the house. He still runs when he gets spooked, but now he almost right away comes back out from wherever he runs to, to check out what happened.

In short, he’s a cool cat :D

Other stuff… eh… Work is going well I guess. I applied for a trainer/coach position within my department, got through the initial interview with flying colors and got to do an assessment. I felt pretty good about that, the tests were easy and the talk with the counselor about work and ambitions and what type of person I was went well too, at least I thought so. The role play situation went less well. Both because I hate role play situations, and because I found the set-up they had for it not relevant to what actually goes on at my job. All in all, I had a good feeling about it.

The result came in a week later, and I got a negative result. They thought I would not be suitable for the position because, in a nut shell, I ‘m not social enough, and that’s not fixable… Right. I was fuming for two days. There’s a core of truth in the report. Yes, I am an introvert, I told him so, but that does not mean I’m antisocial, it just means that interaction with people costs energy (versus giving me energy). I know this of myself so I take precautions. This is the reason I don’t work on Wednesdays so I have a day in the middle to recharge. Also, social interaction has been difficult for me in the past. I used to be more shy but this is something I’ve learned to overcome for a large part. Especially since I started working at my current job I’ve learned so much about interacting with people and have grown so much in that regard.

So, back to the report, I felt as if it were a snap shop of me three years ago, give or take. I discussed it with my supervisor and some other people later on, and they all were surprised by it. They saw the core of truth that was in there, but the extent of it…

Regardless of that, though, the assessment is final so it meant I was out of the application procedure. So I’m still doing what I did before, and that’s not a bad thing either. I love writing so the e-mail and letter thing is a good job for me to have. I’m doing a lot of letters these days, more so than e-mail, and I’m really enjoying that. However, I will be looking for opportunities to move forward or at least expand my skill set. For the moment still preferably within the same company.

I think this is more than long enough for a first blog of 2012. I hope to do a post to catch up on my booklist and 101 list. Booklist definitely because I failed my target so very much I think it might be the lowest in years. The 101 list… Meh, I think it needs revising first. I’m having second thoughts on a lot of the goals and I think the sheer amount of them, even keeping in mind the long time one has for it (1001 days) it might be too many things for a person with an attention span like mine.

Walking @ Lauwersoog with Eva, Gregorius, Nienke and Tessa. From left to right: the tree that Nienke threw Gregorius’ toy into, Eva & Nienke trying to get it out, and continuing the walk.

Fabric Day at Verhildersum. Bags of coloured wool, an awesome! quilt, and a display of tin figurines in historical clothing. The guy who ran this table made these all himself, from photographing people in historical outfit to sculpting a mold, casting it in tin and painting it to match the photo.

Going out to eat @ Pappa Joe’s with Eva, Mellien, Nienke & Ingrid, with ice cream from Toscana across the street after.

Random stuff

Monkey in the sun, the day my parents had to get a new car… since dad put the coolant fluid in the oil tank…

Marshmallows indoor style, Monkey & Murphy sharing the window sill and Tessa taking it easy on my sofa.

Monkey and his weird ways of getting to water, and sitting behind plants. Plus awesome! thunderstorm.

Bored at work during lunch :D an angry egg, and an ‘eiphone’. Also, summer is very pretty. I miss it.

Tomorrow! W00t!

So… I fell down the stairs at the train station last Monday. I was on my way home after work and had to make the transfer from the train to the bus. To do that, one has to go down some stairs, walk a few yards and then go up some stairs again. It was raining pretty hard so I ran down the stairs, as I usually do.

At the bottom of the stairs the ground is a bit uneven, and with rain it forms a big puddle. To keep from getting wet feet, I usually jump from the last tread over the puddle. However, this time, that didn’t quite work out as it’s supposed to…

Somehow I landed wrong, I’m not sure what happened, but I sort of fell and rolled and landed against the little wall that separates the foot path from the bicycle path. With my ribs.

This was apparently a scary sight as someone who saw me fall screamed. I got up pretty fast, but had all wind knocked out of me so I leaned on the wall to regain my breath. I was shaken, but felt okayish, nothing broken and such, so I answered affirmative when asked if I was okay.

After a couple breaths I went on, I had to catch the bus, after all. I got on the bus, sat down and felt exhausted. I managed to show my ticket and just leaned backwards to settle down. As the bus went on the move, my vision started to get blurry. Like when in a movie or something it starts raining and the drops hit the lens. I got cold and felt myself starting to sweat. My mind was all clear though so I realised that I was this close to fainting.

A lady sitting across got a bit worried and asked if I was okay. She hadn’t actually seen me fall but heard the commotion. I told her I was okayish, just needed to not faint. She kept an eye on my while I waited for the faint to pass. This took about 5-8 minutes, and then my vision cleared up and the cold went away and stuff.

When I got to my stop, I got off and crossed the street to the supermarket. I’d promised Nienke I’d buy ice cream for dessert. I was still a bit woozy, and it was still raining so I stood under the store canopy and called Nienke asking her to pick me up at the store, which she did. She laughed at me after I told her what had happened :D

Later that evening, and definitely the next day I realised that not only where my knees pretty bruised up, my ribs where too. Yay for that, bruised ribs tend to take a while to heal :S

So here I am, near a week later, my ribs hurt, my friends and colleagues are sympatethic, and making fun of me (as I expect them to :D) for body checking a wall…

1. Sitting at the edge of a body of water, with the sun on my shoulders and my feet dangling in the water.
2. The smell of freshly mowed grass.
3. My cat.
4. Lying comfortably outside, in the grass, with my eyes closed, in the spring sun, with just a touch of lukewarm wind.
5. Books.
6. Waking up and realising you don’t have to go anywhere or do anything, you can just lie there and BE.
7. Floating in water.
8. The smell of spiced meat cooking.
9. Cake.
10. Being taken care of by my mom when I’m sick.
11. A breeze.
12. Colourful things.
13. Silence.
14. My dog.
15. Taking that perfect photo.
16. Scrapbooks/Phototbooks.
17. Ladybugs crawling on my hand.
18. Butterflies around my head.
19. Playing with wet squishy stuff (clay, that kiddy slime).
20. Fuzzy things.
21. Strawberries.
22. The sounds of nature without disturbance caused by human sounds.
23. Sticking my hand in a bowl of rice or gravel or likewise small stuff and just letting my fingers run through it.
24. My dad’s chuckles.
25. Freshly showered getting into a freshly changed bed.

Right, in July I bought a pool :D A 276×169 cm blow-up pool (with electric pump ’cause I’m not insane enough to blow it up myself or with a handpump).

Also, per July I got a regular contract at work (versus via a temp agency), so that’s a nice change.

I bought a new collage photo frame, ordered prints of a bunch of 2010 photos and used them to fill said frame, as well as the photo curtainy-thing I have on my loo door.

Picked the Sims 3 back up after almost two years. Brought on by Nienke and I building an imaginary mansion where we would live I decided to try and build it in the Sims. It’s 2/3 finished and looking pretty good. I’ve identified some problem areas so will probably rebuild in a while.

I Went out for pizza with Eva at Napoli. As per usual, the pizza was great, the seating rather cramped. We sat next to each other for most of the meal since there was no space to sit on the other side of the table. On itself not a problem, but it’s nice to be able to look at the person you’re talking to. After we had mostly finished our pizza the people on the table next to ours left, so I could switch places and we hung around for a while longer chatting eye-to-eye.

When we left, Eva suggested we go for ice cream, so went across the street to get a McFlurry at the McDonalds there. They still had their outside seating there, so we lounged on that while enjoying the icey-chocolatey-caramely goodness of McFlurry-with-mixed-in-candybar.

Talked some more about life, the universe and everything from small talk to future plans. When eventually the McD’s personnel started putting the tables and such back inside we stuck around until we were the only table left :D

We then slowly made our way back to the train station, walking along the water and the pretty trees that look the best in evening light. Once back at the train station we were thirsty and hit the Burger King for a coke to finish in that last half hour before my train would leave. Some fifteen minutes later, mid-sentence, Eva spotted Mellien, so we called her over to wait for the train with us. After some more chatting, we parted ways: Eva returning home, and Mellien and I headed for the train to our respective homes.

On the 19th I went to the hair dresser. I walked in with the remnants of my Spike-blond hair, and came out with a purple mohawk.

The 24th saw me and Nienke go to a Derek Ogilvie show. Both of us have been wanting to for while now. We’re intrigued but sceptical, so going to a show gave us a chance to see beyond what he shows on camera. Fortunately, he’s quite like on TV during his shows. He’s quite hyper while he’s communicating, making jokes with the audience and such to bridge the moments where the spirits are talking to him and he has no message to give yet. There’s a very energetic and relaxed vibe coming from him. It’s obvious from watching him that he believes fully. I remain sceptic. I’d love to believe this is real, but there were just a tad too many things that can be attributed to cold reading techniques*. In the end, though, the five or so people that got a reading, I think it did help them. And I’d go again if he comes back to Groningen.

*I know it’s the primary cause of death, but it’s funny to notice how many spirits die of heart disease. And how many women have had miscarriages, even one the woman in question didn’t know about… And when he starts to call out the confirmation things it’s a lot of pains here, pains there. Most of these are pretty generic, back pain, pain in leg, stomach/bowelpain. The things he mentions, though, after he found the person the spirit wants to talk to… there’s really specific stuff in there.

Starbucks on Groningen Central Station is opening August 5th and they we’re doing a trial run last week to train the staff. You could go in and order whatever you wanted for free. I had a lovely White Mocha. I’ll be ordering from them more in the future (although not too often, that shit’s expensive).

I also got my first batch of GetGlue stickers. GetGlue is a website where you can check in to various things that you’re doing/watching/listening to/reading etc.. While mostly focused on Media, it also has topics so you can conceivably check in on anything.

By checking in, and liking things, you earn virtual stickers. Once you have enough stickers (minimum of 20), you can have them sent to you, via mail, for free. My first batch took about 5 or 6 weeks to arrive I think. So far I’m enjoying it a lot. I check in to what I actually watch (I check in to TV or movies mostly) and have that posted on Twitter and Facebook. And besides that I actively hunt stickers, checking into and liking things for the sake of getting a sticker, even if I’m not actually watching that at the moment. I think I’ve collected close to 300 stickers now. Too bad they only send 20 at a time, and you can only request a new batch once a month…