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Nerd Block: November

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Time for a new Nerd Block! Theme for this month is ‘Tis the Season. I didn’t really see the theme in the items, except for the shirt and the shot glass.

The first item that I saw when opening the box was a Titan vinyl figure of Sherlock. This is from the same brand as the Tenth Doctor and Spike figures from earlier boxes. I’m becoming a fan of these vinyls as the faces are a bit more detailed and each figure comes with a prop. In Sherlock’s case, a magnifying glass. Or maybe a slide for under a microscope.

Aother fantastic item is a Serenity ornament. A metallic painted model of the ship from Firefly, which is one of my favourite scifi shows.

Continuing with scifi, the next item is a Star Wars desktop calendar. I have no use for this and since 2016 is getting nearer, I don’t know if I can find someone to give this to in time.

Then, the shot glass. This is a plastic item and comes from The National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. I’ve never seen that movie, nor do I want to. The shot glass is funny, though, so I’ll keep it for now. Maybe I can use it for laughs at my next birthday.

The shirt is a mash-up of Back to the Future and The Nightmare Before Christmas. I like the shirt, the graphic is pretty, the colour is nice. I’m not a big Back to the Future fan, but I do love The Nightmare Before Christmas.

On the bottom of the box I found an art print of Bill Murray and I love it. I’m a big fan of Murray and this is a very fine addition to my slowly growing collection of art prints.

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Jochem Myjer

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20151119_210006Showtime again 🙂 This time around it was Jochem Myjer performing his latest show at MartiniPlaza. Mom wanted to go to this so I agreed. I generally like Jochem Myjer, but sometimes it’s a bit too much for me. So I wasn’t sure what I’d think of a live show. Luckily, it turned out to be a great show. Too bad about the seats being so far away. The show sold out so fast that by the time I ordered these were one of the few still available.

The stage was empty except for this giant head. At first I was confused and thought it was former Queen Beatrix. But then the lights got better and I realised it was an oversized bust of Jochem himself. When the show started, he came out of the bust at the head.

The show itself was a mixture of his regular physical comedy but this time around interspersed with serious bits. The skeleton of the show was him reading from his hospital journal when he was being treated for a tumour in his back. From the journal he would side step to flashbacks of his youth and other bits where he could be more physical. He did imitations, sang songs, and ran around the stage.

All the while, the head was used as an almost living piece of decor. Visual effects were shown on the head and sometimes Jochem would disappear in and reappear from the head.

I really enjoyed the show. It was very nice to see him being serious occasionally, it allows a different peek into who he is.

Spectre

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20151111_123031Guess what day it was? Double feature movie day!

After work yesterday I had lunch at La Place and then took a stroll around the store before meeting up with Gert. We did some browsing in various stores.

We took a coffee and cake break at Hema before slowly heading towards the cinema. With one last stop at Zara where I found a gorgeous sweater. It wasn’t in the budget for this month. I hope it’ll still be there later.

The first movie we saw was Pan. It was a fun adventurous romp without substance. Hugh Jackman was fun, but I didn’t expect the Nirvana rendition.

20151111_143651We followed it with Spectre. Now this was good. I’m not well versed in the Bond universe. I’ve seen Bond movies, and I’ve seen the first two Daniel Craig ones. I’ve not seen Skyfall so I didn’t understand all of the bits that referred back to the events of that.

I don’t really have any judgement on if it was a good Bond story or all of that. I just know that from the moment it started with the whole Mexico City action sequence I was gonna have fun. It had all the things I expect from a Bond movie: action sequences, high speed car chase in expensive cars, many different countries, a pretty woman, and an interesting plot.

The only downside was that it got shown in the big theater and there weren’t many movie goers at that time of the evening. This results in a very, very cold room.

After Spectre was done, I had some time before my bus. We decided to warm up with a coffee at Subway. And sitting there, with the front door open, it was warmer than the movie theater…

Legion

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20151106_225052It’s BlizzCon weekend!

I hooked up the laptop to the TV and I’m spending a lot of time in my comfy chair watching the panels. With an occasional cat as decorative lap ornament.

Bring on Legion!

I also found this awesome Kickstarter: Music for Cats. It’s this dude, David Teie, who’s been spending his time figuring out what kind of music animals like. He started with dogs, but is now working on music for cats. He’s been doing research into how cats hear and what sounds they like and then composes pieces based on his findings. With the proceeds of the Kickstarter he wants to record and release the pieces.

So far, the Kickstarter is only a week and a half old and he’s blasting through his goals. I pledged to get a CD set with the music. One regular CD and three CD’s that have the music with silence in between so I can put on a CD in the morning for the cats and it will play throughout the day.

Interning for the Last Witch Hunter

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Ingrid had suggested, a while ago, that we go to the movies with the three of us. We didn’t get around to it for a long time, but yesterday we finally made it happen. Ingrid, Nienke and I went to see The Intern. I’d already seen it, but I loved the movie so I didn’t mind watching it again.

After the movie we sat at the Pathé cafe for a drink and something tasty. While there, I noticed there was a late showing of The Last Witch Hunter. I wanted to see that one also. Nienke and Ingrid declined so I texted Gert if he wanted to come, which he did.

We stayed at the cafe for a while longer until it was near bus departure time. Then Ingrid and Nienke left, and I waited for Gert to show.

20151104_142314The Last Witch Hunter is a fun but not particularly good movie. The visuals and effects are good, the action sequences are fun but the plot is meager and Vin Diesel doesn’t really impress here.

Outside of fun things I’m also studying. Through work I’m taking two LOI courses on PHP and Java. I’m doing the PHP one first, and Monkey  makes for an excellent study buddy.

Luka Bloom

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20151101_225733One of the shows for this year’s theater season was a performance by Irish folk singer-songwriter Luka Bloom. I’d mostly heard of him, instead of music by him but when I saw he was doing a show here, I was interested. So was Mom, so we went together last night.

The support act was this Belgian group, or duo really, called Byron Bay. They played a short twenty minute or so set. I liked the songs, but the music was rather loud. I couldn’t really hear the lyrics very well, which was a shame.

20151102_202841After that, Luka came on stage. He played a full show with some older songs and some songs of his new album interspersed with anecdotes. I really enjoyed the whole thing. He’s of the same make as Boudewijn de Groot. His songs are melodious and the lyrics generally meaningful. The evening was a great success.

Tonight, Nienke and I built a fancy dinner with toast, meats, cheeses, pizza, deviled eggs and cola 😀

Treasures

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20151030_131423I hit the treasure trove yesterday and today! It’s been a while since I’d been to the thrift store in town so I decided to pay them a visit yesterday. I came home with seventeen books for just € 3,95.

The pile of red books on the bottom is a series of fairy tale books. They were published when I was a kid. I had two back then. Each book had a main fairy tale and some smaller stories and came with a cassette to listen to the stories and read along. I got a couple more of those a while ago at the thrift store, but now I hit the mother lode.

Snow White, Aladdin, Rumpelstiltskin, Cinderella, Heidi, Sleeping Beauty and Thumbelina. I can’t wait to read them while playing the matching audio from this playlist. Ready to be a kid again 🙂

I also found two picture books, two books on calligraphy, a beautifully bound copy of the Pickwick Papers, a dictionary of Saints, three Nancy Drew books and the Tales of Beedle the Bard. Be still my heart 🙂

20151031_121418Then today I went over to my Parent’s building. They put together a small autumn fair where local crafters could sell their wares. This was the second time they did something like this. I missed the first time, but I wanted to support them. It’s nice when there’s things like this in town. Plus, it places them more into the community at large.

My Aunt turned out to be there as well with a big grab bag stand for her local cat charity. I grabbed for myself a few times and got lucky. Then Mom made me grab for her a few times, I got lucky. Then Mom’s neighbour made me grab for her, and I got less lucky.

I aso bought two hand made christmas cards, a crochet pumpkin, candle holder, two stoneware bowls and cookies. The cookies were very, very tasty.

Movie Music

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20151028_212437Yesterday was my Parent’s 44th anniversary. Yesterday was also the day Nienke and I had tickets to see the North Netherlands Orchestra perform movie music. To be able to celebrate the occasion and still go out with Nienke, we decided to order in food. We went with spare ribs and to make it easier on the delivery guy, I had it delivered at my place. When it came, Nienke and I went over to my Parent’s place to eat together. Then after dinner, Nienke and I went back home to get our things and head for the train.

The show was beautiful. They started with a medley of music from Frozen and I love that movie so much. I could see each scene in my head when they played the music and it gave me chills. The various pieces were introduced by Eric Corton, a radio DJ. He would tell us a bit about the movie, the music, the composer.

20151028_212424After Frozen, and before the break, they played some classical pieces from Beethoven and Chopin that were used in movies.

Then after the break they focused on well known composers Hans Zimmer and John Williams. I generally like Zimmer and Williams, and these pieces were no exception.

When the show ended and the orchestra had left the stage for the first time they came back for an encore. They played, in honour of the release of Spectre, the James Bond theme.

Red

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I love The Martian. I went to see it with Gert yesterday and it’s a great movie. I found it to be very realistic, in so far that is possible. Matt Damon portrays a very ingenious and likable main character. It’s intriguing to see him struggle in trying to survive on a hostile planet like Mars. I definitely want to see this again, and I can’t wait to read the book.

Today I went to pick up my new folding bike. I’d been thinking about getting one for a while now to help me when I travel to people or places that are far from public transport points. I can’t always walk those ends and I also don’t always want to rely on others to pick me up or drive me. With a folding bike I can take, for example, a bus or train and then bike the rest to go see Eva instead of hoping she can pick me up.

I started looking at Marktplaats last week for a cheap, but good, folding bike. I bid on one on offer a town over but got outbid. That turned out to be my luck as I came across a beautiful bike. One of those tiny models, in red and grey. And even better, it was in perfect condition. The previous owner used it for her commute and had it serviced every year. Because of a job change she didn’t need it any longer so she was looking to sell. I bid, and it got accepted.

It was a bit further out of the way than the first one, so Mom drove me there to pick it up. We made a first stop in the town before to go to the Action. I’m in need of cake plates for birthdays and such. I’d checked at Blokker and online but couldn’t find some that were both pretty and affordable. I need about twelve so no way I’m buying sets of four or six for € 15,00 – € 20,00.

The Action came through as it usually does. I found gorgeous glass plates with a design in them that made them almost look like crystal. And, even better, they also had serving plates in the same design. So I got me twelve cake plates and two different sizes of the serving plates. I love pretty things 🙂

20151024_153458Then we went on the pick up the bike. It was just as cute in real life as on its picture, and it fit in the back of the car perfectly.

Once home, I took it for a little practice round around the block. It’s felt a bit odd at first. It’s so small and the front wheel and handle react very fast. Especially compared to the heavy front end on my regular bike (I have a crate on it). It’s low enough so I can put my feet on the ground, though, so if I need to pull an emergency stop, I can.

Later, I made a new centerpiece for the coffee table to celebrate the fall. A good end to a good day!