TV

LootCrate: Fantasy Crate

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I currently have a three month subscription to Nerd Block and more than one subscription box at a time is too pricey for me. However, LootCrate was having a sale on some of their older boxes. And after going through the ones on offer I decided to buy the May LootCrate. This one had a fantasy theme and based on the image it had some good stuff in it. It came today, and I was not disappointed.

I haven’t played Dungeons & Dragons (yet), but I love this shirt! The bow tie is nice, also. I don’t know if I’ll ever really wear it, but it makes for a good addition to a geeky wardrobe.

The flashdrive looks awesome. Too bad it’s a bit on the low side (only 4GB) to be really useful. The Princess Bride playing cards have fantastic art and the luggage tag will come in handy. I’m aiming for a visit to the UK again next year 😀

Game of Thrones magnets look nice on the fridge accompanying the Monty Python magnetic poetry from my recent Nerd Block. The inflatable crown is awesome! It fits nicely and once I was done wearing it, it became the hat for the stuffed plush reindeer head on my wall.

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Nerd Block: June

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Nerd Block BoxI’ve been interested in subscription boxes lately. A subscription box is a system where you subscribe to receive a mystery box of stuff. There are many different boxes, many different themes. There are ones where you get a bag of make-up and related products every month, boxes with stuff for your dog or cat, an assortment of craft supplies and so on. There’s also a couple boxes that are geared toward geeks.

Once I decided I wanted to try out a box, I figured a geeky box would suit me best. Two of the more well-known ones in that genre are LootCrate and Nerd Block. After comparing previous boxes I went with Nerd Block. Nerd Block costs $19,99 which, with shipping, ends up to be about €30, which I think is a reasonable price for a box that always includes a t-shirt and several other pieces of merchandise.

Today, I received my first box. The theme was Britain, so I was hoping for some Doctor Who. I was not disappointed 😀 Besides a Doctor Who Vinyl figure there was also an very pretty art print.

The Mr. Bean bendable figure was okay. I used to watch Mr. Bean a lot as a kid but I’m not that interested in the show beyond that. The Bean Teddy Bear, though, is very cute.

Monty Python’s magnetic words are hilarious, they’ll be fun to play with on the fridge. And the Sherlock shirt was the icing on the cake!

Nerd Block Doctor Ten Nerd Block Art Print

Nerd Block Bean Nerd Block Bean Teddy

Nerd Block Fridge Poetry Nerd Block Shirt

Bring On The Tequila, Whoahoahoahoa

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This was a looong week. I had the Monday off, which was nice seeing as how I’d been away all weekend, but from Tuesday on I’ve had a stretch of five days in a row with work and appointments, and I have tentatively agreed to work an hour or three tomorrow as well to cover for Nienke as she’s still sick. I’ll make the final decision on that when it’s actually tomorrow and there’s daylight. It is kinda tempting though, as Sunday work is 200%. 

To celebrate the end of the official work week Kim came by tonight for chats, some Buffy watching, and the drinking of light booze (I really like red Jillz :D). 

Tomorrow I’ve also planned to finish the music swap for my pen pal club. I have the music selected, I just have to get it on the, very appropriately shaped, USB drive and write the accompanying letter detailing why I chose these songs. I received the swap for me this week, but haven’t had time to listen to it yet, so I have left it closed. I don’t want to let it influence me too much in writing my own. 

I backed an interesting  IndieGoGo campaign this week, also. It’s called Con Man, and its a comedic web series written and developed by Alan Tudyk and Nathan Fillion. The basic premise is that Alan and Nathan play two actors who used to be in a scifi tv series, Spectrum, together. The series was canceled early, but was a cult success. After, Nathan’s character became a succesful moviestar, while Alan’s character didn’t and now traverses the Con circuit doing panels and signings and of course weird shit happens because Cons. 

It is definitely based on reality somewhat, as the parallels with Firefly are obvious. Nathan and Alan’s characters even played the same parts in Spectrum as they did on Firefly (captain and pilot). 

The campaign hit its goal of $425.000 within 24 hours and now, about three days in (it runs until April 10), they are on $1.750.000. It’s going to be huge and fantastic and I can’t wait for it to be ready.    

Next week promises to be fun! Wednesday I’m going to see Kingsman: The Secret Service with Gert. Since Kingsman is shown so late, we’re doing a double feature and seeing Cinderella before. And then on Thursday it’s time to see Insurgent with Kim, I’m looking forward to that very much. I am really curious how the movie’s gonna be and if it lives up to and matches the book. 

You Are Not Prepared

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Illidan: “You are not prepared!” Arthas: “WTF dude!? I’m not the enemy here!”

Woohoo! Illidan & Arthas finally arrived today, aren’t they cute?

I finished reading the second and third part of the Maze Runner trilogy. I really like the world building, how the current dystopian society was formed. The science, and sociology, behind the whole thing is fascinating. I also liked how you could never quite trust anyone. That being said, the books do feel rushed sometimes, and the ending is too easy. I am, hoever, interested enough that I will be reading the prequel sometime in the future.

I also read If I Stay. It’s a good book, well written, good characters and the story is well done. I was a wee bit disappointed, though. This because the story is really a romance and I was expecting a bit more supernatural elements besides the obvious one.

20141007_202529Started watching Resurrection on TV. It’s a show where an eight-year-old, American boy is found wandering in China. After he is returned, he is placed in the temporary case of an immigrations officer. He tries to figure out where the boy is from, and returns to his hometown with him. There, it turns out he is the son of a local couple. The catch, though? He died 30 years ago…

DNA testing and the like proves that he is in fact their son. The rest of the series deals with how the family and the town people (once they find out) deal with this, especially as more resurrected people show up. I find it really interesting, and it features Omar Epps (Dr. Foreman on House) as the immigration cop.

The first season is only 8 or 10 episodes, and they show 2 an evening, so it should only take a few weeks to finish.

Ooh, and miracle of all miracles, Nienke suggested we play a board game, the other day 😀 So we played Rummicub.

A Week in the Life [+ The Normal Heart]

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The_Normal_Heart_PosterI came home Tuesday to a new edition of Flow on the door mat as well as next season’s theater catalog. After the first run through, I was on 9 shows I wanted to see.

My Uncle’s birthday was Wednesday so went there in the afternoon.

BphOiMBIUAAKrBFThen Thursday I had planned to go see The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared after work, but it rained so much I decided against it. Instead I went to the Bruna at the train station and bought books (including The Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman). Once home, I watched The Normal Heart (I had recorded it when it premiered on HBO Sunday).

It’s a movie, after the play of the same name, about the beginning of the AIDS crisis in New York City in the early 80’s. Main character is the, gay, writer Ned Weeks. As more and more people around him get ‘gay cancer’ and die from it, he notices that mainstream medicine and the government choose to look the other way. He and his friends form Gay Men’s Health Crisis, an advocacy group to raise awareness and money and help those affected and afflicted by the disease. Ned favours a more aggressive, vocal approach which conflicts with the more diplomatic way the rest of his friends choose. Meanwhile, in his personal life, he falls in love with journalist Felix. The two start a relationship, but then Felix gets AIDS as well.

It is a difficult movie to watch. It is raw and deep and open, quite literally like a festering wound. It is beautiful, intensely fragile and strong at the same time. Watching it left me devastated and in pieces. I will be watching it again, and I will definitely be buying the blu ray when it’s released. And I only buy blu rays of movies I really, really, love.

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Saturday: Lounging on the bed with Milo 🙂

The Normal Heart stars Mark Ruffalo as Ned, Matt Bomer as Felix and has, among other, Jim Parsons, Julia Roberts, Jonathan Groff and Alfred Molina in it.

Friday I went to the cinema with Kim to see Maleficent. I liked the movie. The visuals were very pretty, and the back story they gave for Maleficent was nice. The acting was okay to good. Angelina Jolie was good, as was the guy playing her lackey. But the dude playing the king sported the most awful fake Scottish accent. And later on, in a scene at his castle, all of a sudden mid-scene half the men there acquired the same horrible accent… And the ending felt rather rushed.

Back home, I went through the the theater catalog again. Got it down to 7… But am talking with Mom about going to see War Horse in January…

Saturday I played a lot of Warcraft, and I read The Ocean at the End of the Lane. It’s a lovely, lovely book. It tells the story of a little boy who meets the people who live at the end of the lane, the Hempstocks. And there is something odd about this family. There are no men, and they have an ocean in the garden. And then an old evil manages to enter this world, and he needs the Hempstocks to survive. It has magic and supernatural stuff and all those things you find under the veneer of modern day life (well, modern day sixties life). It is definitely a recommended read.

Also,  the new birthday calendar I ordered to hang in the downstairs toilet came. Unfortunately packed, but very, very, pretty 🙂

 

Out, Out With His Head

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After going to bed waaaayyy too late after rewatching the Eurovision Semi-Final, Friday was a bitch. I managed to get through work, but after work I had the last team outing with the emailteam. We ate, which was delicious, and it was nice to spend some time with the people I’ve been in a team with for years. After dinner we had a pub quiz scheduled. But I was so tired by then, and since the pub quiz wasn’t until pretty late, I left after dinner and skipped the quiz.

Consequently, I slept in gloriously the next morning 😀 In the afternoon more good times at my uncle’s birthday. We made it pretty late, but I was home nicely in time for the Eurovision final, wheee!

My favourites were Azerbaijan (lovely dress, too), Norway (although he needs to enunciate more), Montenegro (the intro sounds like 2007’s Lane Moje from Serbia), Austria, Sweden, Switzerland, Malta, and of course Netherlands. I’m ecstatic that we managed to get to second place, that’s the best we’ve done in decades. And I’m glad that, if we had to loose, we lost to Austria.

Today it’s Mothers Day, so this morning I headed over to the Parents for fun times, and food 😀

More Songs

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And that was the second Semi-Final.  It was fun to see. I had to work till 22:00 so when it started I streamed it on my second monitor and managed to watch most of them like that. I liked Austria, Macedonia and Finland’s song was fun, too. I had to miss the last couple songs while I got home. Luckily we’d set the DVR for it, so after watching the results (aw, Macedonia isn’t through) I rewound and ended up rewatching all the songs including the four or so I’d missed.

 

Songs

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‘t Was so crowded at work on Tuesday that, after I got there and found no places left, I just turned around and took the first train back home to work from there. Watched some movies in the background during that, including Wrath of Khan. It had been a while since I watched any Star Trek movies so it was nice to catch.

In the evening I watched the first round of the Eurovision Song Contest. I liked the songs from Azerbaijan, Latvia, Sweden, Moldavia, and of course the Netherlands. Glad to see four of those also making it to the final.

Today, since it was a half day, I worked from home as well. Then did a bunch of chores and finally watched the series finale of 7th Heaven. I am now completely done. I don’t think I will ever rewatch the later seasons, they’re just not as fun. But I will probably watch more from the first couple of seasons in a few years. It is a nostalgia thing 🙂

Remembrance

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Friday I worked from home again. This time I tried out the bedroom so I could watch more 7th Heaven in the background. I’ve made it to the seasons where I care less about the show because of all the added characters and less of the originals. And more repeats of themes. Not too weird considering many milestones are the same one kid after the other, but it does get old. Especially as the twins are kind of wooden and uninteresting. Ruthie and Simon were much more fun and alive at that age. Anyway, while that was fun for the background, the bedroom itself is not a handy work space, so that was once but never again 😀

When Nienke came home, she had brought Kim with her. So we had dinner together and then watched Frozen. I love Frozen <3

Yesterday was a busy, but good, day. Got a lot done while still feeling relaxed. Slept in, did some cleaning up, unpacked the dish washer. Then went for coffee at the Parents. I suggested we go to the cemetery to bring some flowers to grandma and grandpa. We’d been to the cemetery for my grandparents on Mom’s side recently, but it had been a while for the other side. And that grave gets a lot less visitors to begin with. They thought it was  good idea, so we decided to go later that day.

First, however, I went with Mom to the store to assist her in buying an Actifry and getting a mini vac for myself. Then I went home for lunch after which I repacked the dish washer and then went grocery shopping with Mom. After getting the groceries home, we went to the florist for a nice little bouquet to place at the grave.

Then the three of us went to Mensingeweer where we cleaned the head stone and placed the flowers. We walked around for a bit, where, as usual, my parents point out the various relatives and tell anecdotes about all these people I never met but am connected to, through time. I dig cemeteries.

The rest of the day I spent downloading, filing and archiving. Sorting out computer stuff can be so relaxing 🙂

Today was mainly more of the same. Slept in, watched a movie (Now You See Me, good film), downloaded and filed and archived some more, watched more 7th Heaven, did the administration and played iPad games. Good day 😀