Movies

All Over the Place

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It wasn’t very  busy at work on Friday, so when I got there a wee bit before twelve to start my shift at noon, I figured I’d ask for leave. I had some reporting stuff to do later on, so I just asked for leave until 16:00, which I got.

Then Nienke suggested we go to the movies. So she asked for leave, and then Thomas was game for movie as well. We harassed traffic for quick answers, which we got, and off we went to the cinema. We decided on Need for Speed which was actually a pretty good movie. There was a decent plot, nice actors and very pretty (and fast) cars.
Afterward we went back to work until the end of our shifts, it was hilarious seeing everyone’s faces when we showed up again after leaving earlier 😀

hemnesSaturday we went to Ikea, really early in the morning. I got the big Hemnes cabinet along with some fabric baskets to put inside it. When we got to the kitchen part, I fell for the dishes there. I’d been bored with my regular whites anyway so I got new plates and bowls in dark purple and faded green. Also two picture frames to display some of the Paul Kidby prints I got as a Kickstarter reward. After getting home I spent the rest of the day building the bloody cabinet. By nightfall it was ready so I could put stuff in it. It will probably take a little bit of getting used too, as it’s a wee bit deeper than I anticipated/remembered. But it does already look much better than before. It’s real nice to have a proper place to spread out the altar.

This morning in Pilates class we got a new series of excercises, ouch! After lunch I removed all the winter decorations still in place and put up the spring stuff. It looks nice 🙂

Lord Erik and the Spartans in the Midwest

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march20-1Movie day with Gert yesterday. I had the whole day off, so I went to the city early in the morning to meet up with him. Did some shopping first at Xenos where I bought me two awesome tea boxes.

Afterwards we went to see 300: Rise of an Empire. It is exactly what you expect of it: lots of slaughter, lots of blood, lots of gore, lots of slow motion bits to emphasise the killing and blood, very little plot. There’s nothing in this movie that sticks with you, the characters are one dimensional made of cardboard, not even a flicker of personality to make you care even in the slightest if they might die or not.

The second movie of the day was August: Osage County. Now this is a movie I really loved. It’s a family drama themed movie where, after their father disappears and then dies, the three children come home to their family home in the midwest. This leads to secrets being unearthed, arguing and awkward moments.

march20-2Today I had a late shift so I went to the store in the morning. After getting to the register with my basket I realised I forgot my wallet at home :S Fortunately I could place my basket near the register while I biked back home to get it. So my quick shopping trip took a bit longer than expected 😀

Afterward I cleaned the litter boxes and put the dishes in the dishwasher to make room on the counter for me to cook. Then, on to work I went. Work itself was uneventful, but late in the afternoon one of my coworkers approached me with a picture. “Look!” he said. And when I did I spied a picture of him on the Iron Throne from Game of Thrones! As it turned out, HBO NL was visiting us again with the Throne (I think this was the third time total since I’ve worked there). The previous times I missed the opportunity.

This time around, I dropped everything and almost ran for it. I got lucky as the dude manning it was about to start cleaning up the shoot but he agreed to take my picture. So I grabbed the sword that was also present and sat on the Throne. For a prop used solely for this kind of photo shoot it’s remarkably solid and lifelike 😀 I was giddy with excitement, but managed to pull a serious face for the photo. The dude shot, the dude printed and I left with my shiny, shiny photo. After I left, a couple of my teammates showed up and also got lucky, but then he really left.

And of course I have to show you the picture 😀

Behold! Lord Erik of Westeros!

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Everything is Awesome!

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1896772_10151991815823155_1701450211_n1897667_10151991838918155_1913042448_nWe have a new kitchen cabinet! It is awesome and glorious! Nienke’s parents had it in their hallway, where it stood in the way for years. So they offered it to us since we were looking for a better cabinet. We went to pick it up Tuesday. So thanks to Nienke’s Parents for parting with it, and Dad for driving us there to pick it up. We ended up putting it against the side wall (left of where it is in the picture) because that fit better, and also allowed us to rearrange some other cabinetry. Bottom is for large(r) tools and random crap, top for plates. And on top of it…

Wednesday Gert and I went to the movies, double feature time 😀 We started with an early afternoon Vampire Academy, which is a very uneven movie. Disjointed story, jumpy cuts, and it doesn’t know whether it wants to be a high school dramedy or a supernatural vampire movie. I did like the girl playing Rose and the dude playing Dimitri, though. In between we walked around the city and ate at La Place before going back to see The Lego Movie. I had low expectations of it, but it was definitely awesome!

Thursday I got the day off, which gives me a glorious four day weekend! Played lots of Warcraft these last few days. Also stopped at Bruna yesterday and picked up some comics. Today I got fresh bread stuff from the bakery for breakfast, made a giant pan of soup, stopped at the Blokker and got a lantern for the window sill and read my comics 😀

Also ordered tickets to two shows that are coming up at the Stadschouwburg. On April 8 there’s a play/music theater version of Gone With the Wind which seemed interesting so I got two tickets for that, we’ll see who wants to go with 😀 On June 2, Daniel Lohues is performing so I got two tickets for that as well to go there with Mom.

Grand Adventures

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Had a check-up at the hopsital this morning to test hormone levels and such. Check up was a breeze. Bit of small talk with the doctor about how I was (splendid!) and did I have any questions (nope). Then it was on to the Needle Folk to take a couple vials of blood. Results in two weeks.

Then went to the mall with mom. Bought a book about Groningen between 1780 and 1850. Then we picked up Nienke after her exam and headed for the Hema for breakfast. Then we went to Ikea to look for new sofas.

We sat on many and finally decided to go for Ektorp after all. I decided we should get two three-seaters, since our living room is so huge, as well as the comfy chair that goes with it. I also bought a night stand and a chest of drawers for my socks and stuff like that.

With that being done, we headed for the check out and made an appointment for delivery of all the stuff. We got lucky, they could come and deliver the next morning! Afterwards we headed back home. I took a little nap and then got ready for the team outing. We went for dinner at Pappa Joe, then bowling. I had a great time, and even managed a couple strikes and spares. After our time was up, we headed out to go drink some more. I tagged along, but since that is really not my thing, I left pretty soon after together with two other colleagues. Halfway to the station I realised… I had no key. Nienke had a key. I contemplated going back, but figured I could stop by the Parent’s place and get their key, it wasn’t that late. So I went on towards home, and stopped at the Parents. Where I spent 40 minutes ringing the bell and calling them before mom woke up… She hadn’t heard anything. It turned out Dad had, but thought it was the phone and doorbell of the neighbours……….

After all that time I was rather pissed and freezing so I took the key and went along home to go to bed. Only to get up fairly early the next day because…

Sofa delivery day!

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That is indeed ten packages. The  two big ones are the sofas, the smaller big one is the chair. The three on top are the sofa and chair covers. The long one on the floor is Nienke’s new Billy and the two flat ones below that, the doors for said Billy. Finally, the bigger flat one below the doors is my chest with drawers. Of course I know that Ikea is king of modular furniture and that this would also apply to sofas. But somehow I hadn’t actually thought of the fact that I would be getting lots of boxes instead of ready furniture 😀

Nienke hadn’t come home until the early morning and was still very hung over when the sofas came. So I just left her be and started building, while occasionally sending her a photo. I started with the chair, on the premise that it’s the smallest piece so probably the easiest. And that it was, indeed. The back and the seating are attached so they just folded open. Then it was only a matter of putting some screws in to attach the arms to the frame and the feet to the bottom. Then all it needed was its cover, and done. Monkey approved 😀

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The sofas had the same process, but it took a little longer because of size. Monkey approved of this, also.

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We stuffed the old sofas in the garage and then I spent the rest of the evening building the chest of drawers while re-watching Star Trek: Into Darkness. Then today I skipped Pilates, and built the night stand after which I hit relax mode for the rest of the day to finish Last of the Guardians.

The Cold Never Bothered Me Anyway

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Tuesday I went to the movies with Gert. We saw Frozen. It is one of the awesomest movies I’ve seen in a long time. I’m already a fan of Disney movies (particularly animated) but I love this one so much. I watched it again yesterday and am waiting for it to be released on bluray 😀

Yesterday, my bed also came. I bought it late december, but with the holidays and all my room wasn’t ready for it. So they stored it for a while longer until I made an appointment to have it delivered yesterday. It didn’t go quite as I expected. Turns out that, it being a boxspring, the bottom is one giant piece. The only separate things about it are the mattress and the headboard…

So now it stands in the hallway, shuffled in a corner fenced in by a cabinet and the coat rack 😀 I first need to finish upstairs, and then get some help to move it up the stairs.

Hnnnnngh…

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I am so completely dead. Went to the gym for the first time on Monday, and O. M. G… I was going for the half hour of Vario Sport, wherein you do something else every week. This first week of the new season it was mainly twenty thousand forms of hopping about. After doing that, I felt fairly good. And so I was easily convinced to stick around for the half hour of Tabata that follows on it directly. Tabata turned out to be a high intensity interval training where we did all kinds of exercises rapidly for about thirty seconds and then another and then another and another and a 30 second break and again a series of the same exercises. Combined this killed me sooooo dead.

I made it home afterward, fell down on the sofas and refused to get up until it was time for bed. Which was a bad idea in itself because…
The next day I could barely walk, my calves hurt sooooo bad 😀

After work I made a cheesecake for the team, from scratch, just like with Christmas dinner. Started a bit too late though, it was after midnight when I took the cake out of the oven… So late, that I didn’t get around to putting up the raspberry topping until the next morning before work.

After that it was quite the adventure to get the cake in the bike crate, it only just fit. It survived the bumps on the way to the train station as well as the ride to the city. Left the cake with the team leader for handing out during the daily meeting. At that point I was gone, though.

I had to grab the train back home right after finishing at one, to make it in time for the appointment for my second T shot. It went well, I tried to keep the leg even more relaxed than I did with the other for the first shot in the hope that this would be less painful and for a shorter time. I think it worked, as I only felt it for a day or two. The calves, though… Man, they’re still driving me nuts.

Also on Wednesday, my shiny, shiny iPad Air arrived. I went to check on my old iTunes account and all my old apps are still there. And, joy of all joys, all my progress in Magic Piano is still there as well as my more than 160 songs. I did spend some money on that back when I still had an iPhone, so nice to know it’s all still here.

During singing on Saturday I noticed some first subtle changes in my voice. It’s starting to get a bit scratchy a bit sooner. And then it didn’t help I was doing How You Remind Me 😀 Am very curious to see how this develops.

The rest of the day I dumped shit in the attic and I worked on the carpeting for the front hallway. Also had a nice evening with some friends coming over.

Today I did go to Pilates (I skipped body pump on Thursday) and that was great fun. I always liked Pilates back in Leicester, so I’m glad I went here, too. Spent the afternoon in relaxation watching Sherlock again as well as my new blu ray of Les Misérables. I love that movie <3

Pacific Rim

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WPacific Rim: Gipsy Dancerent to see Pacific Rim with Gert last night. I didn’t really know anything about the movie. Hadn’t even heard about it until a day or three ago. Didn’t know what to expect except “Godzilla-like monsters” and “giant robots”. I’m always up for sci-fi (related) things, and I’d seen a few gifsets on tumblr about the movie that made me think I’d like it.  So when Gert, rather urgently, suggested we do a movie, I suggested Pacific Rim. He (obviously) said yes.

After a quick stop at the Burger King we headed to see the movie, and I must say, I was pleasantly surprised. The plot was more sci-fi, and less ridiculous, than I had expected. I liked the characters, and their interactions. And I loved Mako. A female character that gets to walk around in a normal uniform instead of a sexy outfit that doesn’t give any protection at all, a woman who can fight just as well as the guys, is just as damaged as the guys and can generally hold her own among the guys without the movie constantly getting in our face that OMG it’s a guuuuurl.

Pacific Rim: Mako MoriI liked the idea of the pilots needing to be brain-connected to be able to control the Jaegers, but I would have liked to see a bit more about how it works and what its effects are. Besides the giant flashback to Mako’s childhood, we don’t much get to see that, and I would have liked to know more about the effects of the neural handshake outside of the actual piloting. Does it linger, do you always keep basic access to each others memories? Bits and pieces with the other pairs would seem to suggest this, but I always like more of the sciencey stuff.

In that regard, I looooved the Doctors. Doctor German (I forgot his name), is more well known to me as Owen from Torchwood, and I could not stop myself from just calling him Owen in my mind. Pacific Rim: KaijuI loved how he played his character. Newton was fun, too, but a bit too naive at points. The interplay between was awesome thought. Even though they bicker a lot, they come through for each other in the end.

And Ron Perlman. Not much to say about him, he was really just the same sort of guy as he often is in movies. Gruff, rough and very in your face. But I love him for it 😀

Idris Elba was brilliant. I haven’t seen him (consciously) in a lot of stuff, but I loved his character, and I can see why many people would like him to be an incarnation of The Doctor.

Pacific Rim: Stacker PentecostRaleigh, I kept thinking “I know this actor, I know this actor”, but I couldn’t place him and that distracted me some. But he was nice to look at, a decent guy and I really enjoyed his relationship with Mako.

Other, major high point? No love story. None of that crap of the rugged and damaged pilot falling in love with the fragile and damaged new copilot leading to danger in the middle and an eventual triumph. They became friends, and obviously really close because of the Drift but no romance. Yay! Give me more non–romance!

Ooh, and I just spy on the Internets that there will be a Pacific Rim 2 😀

Pacific Rim Gifset 1 Pacific Rim Gifset 2

Pacific Rim Gifset 3 Pacific Rim Gifset 4

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The Hunger Games

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I first learned about The Hunger Games early this year. I read about it somewhere, got a brief idea of what it was about and filed it away in my head as a ‘I should read that sometime’. A short while later, I started seeing images across the web of a movie that intrigued me called The Hunger Games. I put one and one together, did a little bit of research to confirm my math and promptly forgot about it again; the movie wasn’t even out yet.

A week or two ago I started seeing more and more about it and realised the movie would be released soon. I read some more about the plot and stuff and realised I really liked it. And I’m a bit of a book-snob occasionally when it comes to movies after books, so I decided I wanted to read the books first.

Cue my regular online bookstore having a 3-for-2 sale last week which included all three books in The Hunger Games trilogy. I ordered, they were delivered, and I started reading book one last Saturday.

I finished it Sunday. I loved it. I was hooked instantly.

I started book two on my way to work Monday. At work, there was so little to do, me and Nienke asked for leave and decided we’d like to go to the movies. I immediately exclaimed we should see The Hunger Games. Fortunately, Nienke agreed 😀 I wanted to finish all three books before seeing the movie, at first, but with this opportunity I didn’t mind.

So we left work, had brunch at Starbucks and then went to a noon-showing, nice and quiet with only five people or so present. I was completely engrossed in the movie from the start. Normally about two-thirds through I tend to go ‘are we there yet’ and checking the time to see how long it’s been. Not this time. The movie follows the book very well. Of course some changes were made, but I think they were all smart changes. And necessary changes for a medium like film.

I continued with book two that night, finishing it shortly after midnight. I started book three Tuesday evening and finished it Wednesdag afternoon. While I’m happy with the ending Katniss’ story, I remain very curious about how Panem did after the ending of Mockingjay and before the epilogue some fifteen years later. I hope there will be more about this at some point in the future, but I’m not getting my hopes up too much, I can’t find indications of more books, either featuring Katniss or the expanded universe.

Around the Internets III

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Yale has created an online repository of digital images of their cultural collections. These images are freely available and can be used without license. For more info see the press release. Browse the collection here.

At bechdeltest.com you can find a (user contributed) list of movies and if they pass the Bechdel test. The Bechdel test consists of three criteria to determine if a movie (or any kind of story, really) is inclusive of women. The story is judged on whether there are at least two women present, who talk to each other, about something other than a man. The website specifies this a bit further by requiring two named women (so ‘woman in background during fight scene’ doesn’t count). Interesting to see that even movies that have strong female characters can still fail this because, for example, these women never talk to each other (case in point: LOTR).

Josh MC draws awesome Disney Princesses that are more than capable of kicking anyone’s butt. See his version of Pocahontas above. For more, click through to his deviantArt gallery.

How to sew a terrarium from vinyl. It looks awesome, I might have to cannibalize some of the pillow bags I still have. Especially with some tiny (fake) animals like in the picture it becomes a little world.

Wicked Witch of the West bookmark. I must make this!

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen Let Nothing You Dismay

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I’ve got a song stuck in my head since yesterday. Not that I care much for the lyrics, but the melody is quite catching. It started last night while Nienke and I were watching A Christmas Carol (1999 version with Patrick Stewart as Scrooge). Near the end of the movie, after Scrooge has had his change of heart, he goes to church, and they sing this hymn. I have this song in the version sung by the Glee Cast on my iPhone, so the moment I heard it in the movie it became an earworm, and I’ve not been able to get rid of it. Not that I mind terribly, but it gets tedious after a couple times, especially if you don’t know much more than half or two-thirds of a verse 😀

Other than that, Christmas was quite enjoyable yesterday. Slept in late, then finished the book I was reading. After that I decided it might be good to get out of bed. The rest of the afternoon I hung on the sofa, enjoying the winter sun peeking through the trees, brightening the snowy field in front of my house. Sent out my thanks to the Gods for the past year, looking forward to the next.

In the evening Nienke and I went fondueing at her place. The idea was some cheese fondue at first, and some chocolate to finish it off, however the cheese was rather mighty, and we didn’t like it the taste of it all that much. Different kind of cheese next time. We decided to forgo the chocolate, we were stuffed.

We watched A Christmas Carol during this, followed by other mushy Christmas time movies like Enchanted, and parts of  Ever After, Ella Enchanted and How the Grinch Stole Christmas (I really dislike that last one). We also exchanged a few fun gifts. I got two duck key chains, which I added to the duck key chain already attached to my WoW authenticator, and a cute pair of scissors. For Nienke I got her a new box for her tea and scented stuff to burn. The cats got a present as well, Murphy a toy, and Monkey cat candy.

Went home around 23:30 and ended up playing Warcraft in bed for an hour and a half or so. Had Asra drop by Greatfather Winter in Ironforge to open his presents. Mostly food stuffs, but also a Minizep Remote, and a Snowman Kit. Put that one up for auction since he already has all the Winter Veil pets, and at the moment I’d rather have the gold than give it to one of my alts; I’m stockpiling my gold.

It’s the second day of Christmas now, and I’m spending this day in Parentville. Don’t know yet what I’ll do, but there’s definitely some more WoW involved 😀

In the meantime:

Happy Yule!