Tse Moana

  • About Tse
  • Cats
    • Monkey
    • Milo
    • Captain
  • Headers
  • Tse Elsewhere Expanded

Holidays

[PBP] E is for Eostre and other Holidays

Saturday, August 30, 2014 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

I don’t have a specific connection to Eostre above other holidays, but, well, playing with letters and such… My exposure to the pagan holidays started with the Wiccan versions of them, centered on the journey of the Goddess and the God throughout the year. As I ventured off that path and onto generalised Paganism with a center on nature, I also took the holidays for their more seasonal nature instead of the metaphorical journey. As such, I generally observe the solstices and equinoxes and refer to them as such. The other holidays in between, I know of them, and I appreciate them, but I do not generally observe them.

 

Midwinter

Also commonly known as Yule. It is the time of the shortest day of the year, a moment to acknowledge that the deep of winter is here, and from now on we move again towards the light. A festival of rest, really, as many things are in slumber and the weather is (generally) not conducive to much activity outside the house. As the world is clad in darkness, it is also a festival of light and warmth. Literal light and warmth from candles, hearth fire, but also metaphorical light and warmth from spending time with friends and family. A moment to show your appreciation of them by sharing your home, your food, and gifts.

 

Spring Equinox

Here’s the titular Eostre 🙂 A festival for the awakening of the earth. Spring is at hand and it shows in the emergence of new life. Weather is improving and as such people drift back outside. A time to appreciate the new and the young, to revel in what the earth has to offer. A time, also, to work and prepare the land, sow the seeds and help new life come into existence.

 

Midsummer

Also referred to as Litha. It is the time of the longest day of the year, the opposite of midwinter. Time to give thanks for the light as we realise it will wane as we journey towards the darkness of winter. Life is at its height, animals are full, plants are lush, there is no shortage of food, and as such it is the perfect moment for grand celebrations.

 

Autumn Equinox

Otherwise known as Mabon. Winter is getting closer and humans and animals alike prepare for it. Harvests are ready and brought in, food is stockpiled and animals that sleep through the winter eat themselves round. It is again a time to work, but this time we bring things inward, into the home, instead of outward, into the land.

Posted in: General, Pagan Blog Project Tagged: Holidays, Me, Pagan Blog Project, Paganism

Movies Galore! Also Lego! And Theater!

Sunday, June 15, 2014 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

Did a bunch of movies this week, by myself and with others. Monday after work I went to see Edge of Tomorrow. It was a much better movie than I was expecting. I really like Full Metal Bitch and I didn’t even mind Tom Cruise in the movie 🙂

I also ordered tickets to go see War Horse with Mom. We’re going January 14!

Tuesday I finally went to see The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared. The movie is hilarious! It’s been a long time since I laughed out loud at a movie that much. It’s been compared to Forest Gump, but it’s better than that. The titular character, Allan, gets put in a home when he blows up his hen house. Then on the day of his 100th birthday he decides to escape the coming party and attention and climbs out the window and walks off. As he goes to buy a bus ticket at the station, he gets asked to watch a suitcase for a minute and decides to walk off with it. It turns out the case is full of money. Criminal money. Cue an awesome road trip where he meets all kinds of people while being tracked and followed by the criminals that want their money back, interspersed with flashbacks to Allan’s long life where he experienced important events and met important people all the while being mostly oblivious to the importance of it.

Wednesday I had my shot again. Had it done in my arm because I still had some movies planned. Am never doing that again, though. My arm hurts like hell now still, and it’s Sunday. A quick Google has taught me that arm muscle is just not big enough. The way T. shots work is that the fluid bubble sits in your muscle and is slowly absorbed over the three weeks until the next shot. A leg muscle (or your ass 😀 ) is big enough to stretch around the fluid bubble, but arm just isn’t.

I also went to Bedum and Uithuizen with Mom to check for World of Warcraft Lego (Megabloks technically) at the Action10173768_10152193319638155_281758145161566397_n. Nico had seen it there, they had a big Stormwind Demolisher Set, a smaller Goblin Shredder (which I already have), about six or seven mounts+riders and eight single character figures with a small piece of scenery. They didn’t have all of them anymore, but I got a fair bunch

At the end of the afternoon I headed for the city to meet Gert. First we saw Grace of Monaco. It took me a while to get into but that’s mostly because I had the wrong idea and expectation beforehand. I’d seen trailers of the movie before, and that gave me the idea it was more a biopic of her life from marriage on and further. Until her death basically. But instead, it focuses on a specific period (early sixties) and shows how it was difficult for her to get used to life as Princess, torn between acting (Hitchcock offers her the lead in Marnie) and her family and duties, and how she could influence people, both behind the scenes, as well as the general populace. Once I figured that, the movie fell into place and things like pacing made sense.

Afterwards I had planned to go home, but we sat and talked for a while and decided on a whim to also see A Million Ways to Die in the West. I won’t dignify that movie with too many words. Suffice it to say that it is a stereotypical American comedy that runs on sex and poop jokes. The basic plot is fun, and there are occasional good, clever, jokes. So if it had been more of that, it would not have been so bad.

Thursday I also had the day off since I had to work yesterday. Nico was off early, so we decided to go see X-Men: Days of Future Past. It’s a good movie, I really liked that we got to see the merging of the old trilogy and these new films. Even though the timeline of the old trilogy is fairly effectively wiped by the events of this film, I like that they didn’t just go fingers-in-your-ears-it-doesn’t-exist-la-la-la-I-can’t-hear-you 😀

Back home, I finally ordered my theater tickets. As I said on Facebook, it cost me three organs and some change. But I have seven shows (in addition to the earlier mentioned War Horse) to go see in the new season two of which Mom will join me for.

  •  Chamber Choir of St. Petersburg: Vespers of Rachmaninoff ( 25-09-2014)
  • Toneelgroep Amsterdam & Toneelhuis: Maria Stuart (10-12-2014)
  • Musictheater Transparant & Claron McFadden: Lilith (05-02-2015)
  • Sara Kroos: Van Jewelste (25-03-2014) with Mom
  • Toneelgroep Amsterdam: Koningin Lear (03-04-2015)
  • Various Comedians: Onceuponatimethegodfatherflewoverthecuckoosnest (29-05-2015) with Mom
  • Marrugeku: Gudirr Gudirr (dance performance) (06-06-2015)

Friday, after work, I spent the evening reading and avoiding football. Not very lucky with that as I sat in my bedroom with the window open so I could hear the whole street erupting every time we scored. And we scored a lot.

Then, yesterday. I had a late shift, which I can normally do at home. But I realised this too late and since Kim was also working, I came to Groningen. Got a message from Gert half way through, he was at the Action, did I need any more Lego? I was indeed missing some, so I had him take a picture and saw they had ones I didn’t have yet. He was so kind as to buy them and bring them to work for me. I took my break and met him at Starbucks. I had just enough time to get a drink and chat briefly, before having to head back.

Today I slept in, and just as I was gonna go to the Parents for Father’s Day, Mom rang the bell. Dad was out cycling, so she came to ask if I wanted to take a walk with her. I joined her, and then after went back to their place for coffee and merriment 🙂

Posted in: General, Photos Tagged: Cabaret, Dad, Dance, Friends, Gert, Holidays, Mom, Movies, Music, Musical, Parents, Pathé, Photos, Review, Theater, Toys, World of Warcraft

Ascension Day Market + Choppers

Thursday, May 29, 2014 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

As per our tradition, Ingrid came today to go to the annual Ascension Day Market in Eenrum with me and Nienke. And this year, we added Kim to the mix. We had tea first, and then drove  to Eenrum. And since my aunt and uncle still live there, we had the luxury of parking the car in their driveway which saved us walking all the way from the designated parking area.

I succeeded in my goal, which was to find a mat for the downstairs toilet. It is a lovely dark purple and goes well with the colour scheme I have going on in there 🙂

Other than that, we saw Mellien and Bas, bought candy and I indulged in buying sausages.

When we got back we played some games. Ingrid and I played a couple games of Fluxx, and then we did Therapy with the four of us.

In between, I cast my vote for the Horde bike in the Azeroth Choppers bike build. I am a dedicated Alliance player ( I have a few Horde characters, but no higher level than 20), but the Alliance bike is just too low in the back for me. The winning bike will be put in the game for free, but I have no doubt the other one will be made available in some way as well. There will be too much of a shitstorm if they don’t.

Azeroth Choppers

Horde Bike

Horde Bike

 

Alliance Bike

Alliance Bike

 

Posted in: General, Photos Tagged: Board Games, Friends, Games, Holidays, Ingrid, Kim, Nienke, PC Games, Shopping, World of Warcraft

Gathering of the Tribe

Sunday, April 20, 2014 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

Yesterday was Mom’s birthday. I brought her presents in the morning and then left again to go to Singing Class. I told my teacher I’m quitting singing for now. It frustrates too much, and I was never truly happy with the every two weeks frequency of the lessons (both time and money-wise).

In the afternoon I went back to the Parents for the birthday party. In a surprise move, I found there all my relatives from the other side of the country. I knew they were around since they were spreading my recently departed great-aunt Veri’s ashes. But they never confirmed if they were gonna come by for Mom’s birthday, so I wasn’t really expecting them. I only had a few minutes to catch up as they were leaving again (it’s a long drive back home for them). As usual, the party was great, it’s always good to see family again, especially on birthday gatherings. I went back home early in the evening as I have a cold and wanted to get an early night.

Ooh, I almost forgot! I bought a new TV Friday. Nienke’s TV in the living room is of good size, but our living room is bigger and it is sometimes troublesome to see small things well from the sofa’s. I settled on a nice 40″ Samsung Smart TV which will be delivered next Thursday.

Today was a nice relaxing day. Got up late, had an Easter brunch, then played games, and worked on my ticketstump scrapbook (a very basic one). While doing that, I listened to a Doctor Who audio book, which was fun. But it did reinforce that audio books really aren’t my thing. It doesn’t feel like a book, it takes more concentration just to stick with the story (as opposed to reading where it sort of happens automatically). I can’t just sit and listen so my hands always have to do something, which then distracts from the story. When reading, since I’m holding the book then, I don’t have that problem. I will however subject myself to it again, as there’s also an audio play of Romeo & Juliet with David Tennant I haven’t listened to yet.

I did a quick trip to the Parents to retrieve birthday leftovers, as we do each year, and once back home I had cake and finished Sorcery and Cecilia, which is a fun book.

Posted in: General Tagged: Birthday, Bol.com, Books, Food, Holidays, Mom, Parents, Shopping, Singing, Tech

Passion

Thursday, April 17, 2014 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

So… Tuesday my new manager, who I’ve had all of two weeks at the most, announced they’re stepping down. No word yet on successor, but that might take a while. Interesting to see what happens with a power vacuum like that.

Yesterday I went to the movies with Gert. We watched Divergent first. He hadn’t seen it yet, and I didn’t mind watching it again. After we had a little break and then went in to see Yves Saint Laurent. That was a very good film. Insofar I’m familiar with the fifties and sixties it seemed to me a fairly realistic film that gave a good picture of who YSL was and how he was shaped by his life and experiences.

We had dinner at Pappa Joe’s and then went for ice cream at Toscana, they have the best selection of flavours ever.

Tonight, The Passion was in Groningen.  A huge musical show and parade to play out the passion of Christ. Various singers played the key biblical figures singing contemporary songs to symbolise the emotions and events of each sequence. Meanwhile a huge group of people carry and follow this huge shining cross to the center of the celebrations. This is the third time or so they did this, and since I’m not a Christian, Easter has little meaning to me in this sense. Since, however, it was Groningen, I did watch it on TV. I tweeted some comments during (and really, they had the stupidest hashtag: tp14…) but in short: the guy playing Jesus had the right vibe going, especially beard-wise. The guy playing Judas is a musical star here and it showed. His voice was by far the best for an event like this and he had this brooding vampire vibe going which worked well.

Capture

Posted in: General, Photos Tagged: Eating Out, Food, Friends, Gert, Holidays, Movies, Pappa Joe, TV, Twitter, Work

Father’s Day, Very Late

Friday, July 6, 2012 by Tse Moana 1 Comment

I realised I never posted a Dad picture for Father’s Day, while I have posted Mom (and not just this year). Shame on me. So here he is, picture taken last summer while we were on a bicycle ride. <3

(Frame is from  my stash of scrapbook supplies and was made by Raspberry Road Designs)

Posted in: General, Photos Tagged: Dad, Holidays, Nature, Photos

Mother’s Day Late

Monday, May 14, 2012 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

<3

Posted in: General, Photos Tagged: Holidays, Mom, Nature, Photos, Tessa

The Week in Review: 2012-02

Sunday, January 15, 2012 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

I’m grateful  for friends that know me well

I’m happy with my christmas presents 😀

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

Posted in: General, The Week in Review Tagged: Animals, Cats, Friends, Holidays, Milo

Another Beginning

Sunday, January 8, 2012 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

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:

My cat

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 😀

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 😀

 

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.

Posted in: General Tagged: 101 in 1001, Animals, Books, Cats, Holidays, Introvert, Me, Milo, Monkey, New Year's, Random, Reflection, Site, Work

Queen’s Day 2011

Saturday, April 30, 2011 by Tse Moana 1 Comment

For my home town, Parentville, Queen’s Day is not only that, but also the day that the town playgrounds are officially opened again after the yearly maintenance. Since this is a prime opportunity to hang out with my family, I usually spend this day in Parentville. This year was a bit of a disappointment. There’s always a small parade trough town before the opening takes place. The parade consists of a wagon carrying the smaller kids while the older kids ride bikes after it and often followed by a contingent of adolescents and adults as well. Now, Parentville is quite a small town, but there were so very few kids this year (especially on the wagon) it was kinda sad to see. Partly this may have been the weather (even though there was sunshine, the wind was cold) but it seems participation in this town ritual is going down every year anyway. I didn’t even bother taking my proper camera with me, electing instead to just go with my phone. I video’d the arrival of the parade, the playing of the anthem and the opening so didn’t get a lot of pictures. I took some of my parents, and had my aunt shoot me and my parents together. Later in the afternoon Mom and I took a quick stroll around the flea market that followed the opening. This was well populated, both in kids selling their stuff as well as adults and other kids walking/running around and talking and occasionally buying stuff. I bought a couple books from the Famous Five series for 50 cents apiece, so good bargain.

 

Posted in: General, Photos Tagged: Books, Dad, Family, Holidays, Mom, Parents, Photos, Tessa
« Previous 1 2 3 4 Next »

Tse Elsewhere

Find me on InstagramFind me on PinterestFind me on GoodreadsFind me on TumblrFind me on TwitterFind me on FacebookFind me on Last.fmFind me on Steam

2017 Reading Challenge

2017 Reading Challenge
Erik has read 24 books toward his goal of 75 books.
hide
24 of 75 (32%)
view books

Random Quote

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is hardly a waste of time.

— John Lubbock

Tags

Animals Art Birthday Books Cats Creativity Dad Eating Out Eva & Jarig Family Food Friends Games Garden Gender Gert Health Holidays Home Ingrid Leicester List Made by Me Me Milo Mom Monkey Movies Music Nature Nienke Parents Pathé Photos Review School Shopping Site Tessa Theater Transitioning TV Videos Work World of Warcraft

Categories

Archives

My latest Instagram

Instagram has returned invalid data.

Check it out

Twitter Ramblings

Error: Invalid or expired token.

My Latest Pinterest Pins

Visit Pinterest's profile on Pinterest.
Crayfish Creative