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I Want a Rolling Robot

Sunday, December 20, 2015 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

20151216_092751Wednesday I had another check-up after my surgery earlier this year. I took the bus there, and as such got there early. I had breakfast at the cafe in the hospital. Bread with ham, pineapple, grilled cheesse and apple chutney. Very tasty 🙂 Then I headed for the clinic for the appointment. The scars look really nice, the nipple grafts look good. The left one is even responsive. The only thing that bugs me is that the end of the scar, under my arm, is pointing outwards. The doctor agreed and we decided to get that fixed. Luckily that’s a small job that can be done at the clinic with just some local anesthetic. Just have to wait a while for it to be scheduled.

I then went to work for a few hours after which I met up with Gert to go see Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I really enjoyed the movie. I’ve seen the other Star Wars movies once, years ago. I can’t remember everything anymore but I know enough to be aware of the general story. Plus, with Star Wars being so ingrained in pop culture, it’s hard to miss.

The new movie introduces new main characters while leaving some room for golden oldies to return. I like Rey and Finn and I love the new robot. I’m definitely keeping the BB-8 plushie from last year’s Nerd Block 🙂 The sequences with the golden oldies, Leia, Hand, Chewie, were charming and I hope we do see more of them in the next movies. I’m less impressed with Kylo, he seems too wimpy. But maybe he’ll grow into his boots. Other than that it was a fairly straight forward story with fun action sequences and good visuals.

Then yesterday Ingrid and I went to the Oosterpoort for a concert show by The Kik. We’d been talking about going to this, and then Ingrid gave me the ticket for my birthday. I’d not heard of them before, but the description of what they do sounded fun. They’re a band that plays music from and inspired by the fifties, sixties and seventies. They write their own stuff, but also cover existing songs from that time. The show wasn’t just a concert but a way of walking through their inspirations.

The stage was dressed with a handful of doors in the back, and a cabinet with vinyls at the front. They would pick a record from the cabinet and tell something about the artist or the song and then play a song by that artist, or something of themselves inspired by. Occasionally a doorbell would ring and there’d be a cutout of an artist behind one of the doors as an introduction to another song or bit of talking. It was an energetic and fun show, and I got to hear a new side of Dutch music.

Posted in: General, Photos Tagged: Food, Friends, Gert, Ingrid, Me, Medical, Movies, Music, Nerd Block, Oosterpoort, Photos, Review, Transgender, Transitioning

’tis The Season

Sunday, December 13, 2015 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

…for decorating and other things related to the end-of-year holidays. I put up the winter trees. One on the small metal table and one in the corner. And, as is customary, I put an angel at the top 😀 The tree on the small table also houses the prezzies and the coffee table has its own little winter forest.

Today, Mom and I also wrote the holiday cards.
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Posted in: General, Photos Tagged: Decoration, Holidays, Interior, Mom, Photos, Style, Supernatural, TV, Writing

Caligula

Tuesday, December 8, 2015 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

_vde5391Caligula is a play written by Albert Camus just before World War two. It tells the story of the cruel Roman Emperor Caligula. He loses his sister and lover Drusilla and cannot deal with this. After wandering in the fields for three days he returns with an absolutist world view. Unable to deal with the relativitiy of everything, and most notably, happiness, he enters a reign of terror.

Everything becomes literal, freedom absolute. If a man desires his neighbour’s wife, he takes her. And if the neighbour stands in the way, everything is valid to remove the neighbour as an obstacle. Caligula’s word becomes literal law, marked by randomness and terror. In between these scenes, there’s moments where Caligula speaks with his mistress or one of his advisers and we get philosophical musings about the nature of existence.

I saw it yesterday, in the Schouwburg, performed by the Toneelhuis.

Because the play was originally performed for the first time after the World War, it has generally been interpreted as indictment against abuse of power and dictatorship. With the current international climate of extremism it’s gained a new poignancy.

I enjoyed the modern touches in appearance and set-dressing. The use of movable video panels as a sort of ceiling/back panel was very effective in framing the stage. The actors were really good, in particular Kevin Janssens as Caligula.

 

Posted in: General, Photos Tagged: Culture, Photos, Review, Schouwburg, Theater, Videos

Nerd Block: November

Saturday, November 21, 2015 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

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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Posted in: General, Photos Tagged: Art, Geeky Stuff, Movies, Nerd Block, Photos, Review, Scifi, Subscription Boxes, TV

The Triad

Sunday, November 15, 2015 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment
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I run this place, make no mistake

 

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My rug, pretty please?

 

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My piece of paper went away 🙁

 

Posted in: General, Photos Tagged: Animals, Captain Blackbeard, Cats, Milo, Monkey, Photos

Spectre

Thursday, November 12, 2015 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

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…

Posted in: General, Photos Tagged: Eating Out, Food, Friends, Gert, Hema, La Place, Movies, Photos, Review, Subway

Legion

Sunday, November 8, 2015 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

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.

Posted in: General, Photos Tagged: Captain Blackbeard, Cats, Kickstarter, Music, Photos, World of Warcraft

Interning for the Last Witch Hunter

Thursday, November 5, 2015 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

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.

Posted in: General, Photos Tagged: Cats, Friends, Gert, Ingrid, Learning, Monkey, Movies, Nienke, Pathé, Photos

Luka Bloom

Monday, November 2, 2015 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

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 😀

Posted in: General, Photos Tagged: Food, Friends, Mom, Music, Nienke, Oosterpoort, Photos

Treasures

Saturday, October 31, 2015 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

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.

Posted in: General, Photos Tagged: Books, Crafts, Family, Mom, Photos, Shopping, Thrift Store
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