Heleentje

heleentje @ 2009-12-02T01:10:00

2009-12-02T00:10:50Z

THE FANFICTION LOVE MEME

On the new European president

2009-11-19T20:13:28Z

So guess who's gonna be the first European president? Guess?

Yep! Our very own Belgian Prime Minister, Herman Van Rompuy! With apologies to the UK people on my flist: HAH!

(Now don't get me wrong, I love the UK, I love my friends there, but articles like this have been annoying me to death these last few weeks. I know it's The Sun, I know I shouldn't take it seriously, but damn.)

Now: why is Van Rompuy good for the job? Because he managed to get Belgium out of a governmental crisis last year where everyone else failed. Becasue he's created a somewhat stable Belgium in these last few months. Belgium is... Let's be fair here, Belgium is one of the most confusing countries in the world. Seriously, most native Belgians don't understand it. We don't even try. To have someone who can keep everything under control... Well, I'm glad the guy became EU President, but I think we're gonna miss him here.

Still... Go Herman!

On the new logo of Mechelen (Mechlin)

2009-11-10T18:46:43Z

So my hometown, Mechelen, got a new logo this weekend. This little joke will cost us at least 50 000 EUR, in a time of crisis no less, and the worst part is: it is ridiculously stupid.

Let's review, shall we?

This is the historical shield:

This is the logo that was introduced in 2002:

Not brilliant, but okay. For the record, the city colors are yellow and red.

Aaand here we've got the new one:

Right.

According to the mayor, it's good because a child can draw it. That, dear Bart Somers, is the FRIGGIN' PROBLEM! If I can make that in MS Paint in five minutes, and you spent 20 000 EUR to have it designed by a professional studio, WE HAVE A PROBLEM. It doesn't mean a thing (seriously, what's that supposed to represent?) and it's not even red and yellow...

The new slogan is: 'Het lef van Mechelen' which loosely translates to 'Mechelen's got guts' . And I agree: You have to have guts to come up with something like this.

A Facebook group against the logo has been created. At the moment it has a little more than 3200 members (Mechelen as a city has 20 000 inhabitants). There's also a Pro-group, which has *drum roll please* 83 members, among which at least one member of the city council.

Dear city, please stop this nonsense asap.

Sincerely,

A not-so-proud-anymore inhabitant of Mechelen

Meme

2009-11-06T18:24:17Z

I HAVE TO TELL YOU THAT...

Be nice?

Pimping orz

2009-10-27T15:16:31Z

YU-GI-OH!★FRIENDING MEME

So Far, So Good

2009-10-24T21:41:24Z

(Here there be shameless self-promotion)

New GX fic yay!

Title is So Far, So Good, and I'm really liking the writing process and the ideas I have for it. Third chapter is currently giving me some trouble, but fourth and especially fifth and sixth are gonna be great to write.

Also, expect pics next chapter.

ETA: And all YGO fans, go read this, it's awesome (and no, I'm not just saying that because I helped)

is angry

2009-10-20T18:21:18Z

So, my computer just gave up on me today.

I'm using my old computer now, as a temporary solution (gotta say though: XP, oh how I have missed thee!), but I'm hoping to get a new one next Saturday. The one I'm using now is a bit dodgy, so if I disappear, that's the reason.

The worst part of it all? I haven't saved any of my most recent stories or music. And as it stands now, I will not be able to recover them. *hits something*

I need a Gwen icon

2009-09-26T18:59:29Z

asfksdqjksf GWEN I LOVE YOU!!!

In bullet points, probably not chronological because I suck at chronological:

Aww wee little Artie has an inferiority complex
Assassin guy is kinda cool, in a 'I don't say much' way.
How can Merlin be late when Arthur's barely gotten off his horse?
Hi Gwen! You have a nice house!
Hi William! You have a nice... Um, oh well, you don't look half bad cleaned up.
"This is my bed?" Buddy, you're not very perceptive, are you?
Poor Gwennie...
Tournament. Hi Morgana!
Arthur is a prat.
Leeches? Yuck.
Arthur wins but is still a prat.
OMG GO GWEN!!! Tell him girl! You tell him!
Arthur's Epic Fight with the Chicken(TM)
Arthur snores, I giggle.
Kiss: D'awwwwwwwww...www...ww..w.... Okay you guys can stop now
Merlin! You tell them sweetheart! Too right you are! (Okay, this episode is now and forever called 'Gwen and Merlin are awesome while Arthur is still a prat')
Oh, and Arthur, the being more careful with people you care about doesn't just pertain to Gwen.
More dead guys. Assassin guy has weird gadgets.
Arthur, did I ever tell you that you're an idiot? Yes? Well, it needs saying twice: you're an idiot.
Merlin saves the day, as expected.
Arthur is noble! Yay!
ETA: I just remembered, but Uther asking Merlin if 'he'd heard anything from Arthur' surprised me. Because it implies that Arthur would send a message to Merlin but not to Uther, who ,by all means should be informed of anything first, being Arthur's father and king. Which in turn implies that Uther believes that Arthur communicates more with Merlin, a mere servant, than with him. Thoughts? Or am I just overanalysing things?

General remarks:

Needs less sappy background music
NEEDS MORE MORGANA!!!
i can has my OT4 nao y/n?

Merlin 2.1: the one aunt and kitty Merlijn watched as well

2009-09-19T20:46:39Z

asfkjdqk MERLIN'S BACK! AND IT WAS AWESOME!

Okay, so gratuitious fanservice right from the start? Fanservice involving Bradley James? Me like. Me REALLY like. And Merlin just appearing right away when Arthur called him? I hereby conclude that he sleeps in Arthur's chamber, no other possibility.

For all his graverobbing evilness, Cedric was kinda awesome. I only feel a bit disappointed about one thing. Arthur, you should know better than trusting the first guy who comes along. Especially if the guy who, oh, I don't know, DRANK POISON FOR YOU, is telling you that he's evil. And there wasn't enough Morgana and Gwen (the Gwen/Arthur moments were really kinda sweet IMO)

Sorcerer guy going 'You could have Arthur trembling at your feet' made me think 'Wrong thing to say buddy, you've lost now.'

... Well, that's what I thought after the inevitable detour to the gutter.

Also, my aunt watched this episode with me. It was her first Merlin episode. Here are a few sample conversations.

Aunt: (about Gwen) But she's obviously head over heels for him!
Me: Well yeah, now. In first season, they had, like, five minutes of interaction.
Aunt: But it's cute!
Me: Well yeah. Not the fan-preffered couple though.
Aunt: What is?
Me: MerlinxArthur
Aunt: WHAT?!
Me: One day I'm gonna make you watch season one.

And

Aunt: They could've cast a better-looking actor for Merlin.
Me: Blasphemy! He's adorable!
Aunt: His ears are weird.
Me (whining): But... But... he's adorable! And awesome!
Aunt: The blond guy's good-looking.
Me: Duh, it's Bradley James. But Colin's cute! HOW CAN YOU NOT THINK SO?!

Also, this was the weirdest moment of the evening:

Me: Merlijn, be quiet, I can't hear what Merlin's saying.

o_O

2009-09-16T00:42:35Z

Last night I dreamed that our turtle was a character in my favorite tv show from when I was a kid.
And the night before that I dreamed I was Elisabeth from Pride and Prejudice.

I don't know what's wrong with my brain, but it's acting pretty weird.

Because everyone's doing it...

2009-08-31T16:55:31Z

You Are a Humanitarian

You're so intuitive, it's like you have a sixth, seventh, and eighth sense.
You connect with others freely and easily - and you tend to have many best friends.
Warm and caring, it's hard for you to close your heart to anyone.
Affection is like air for you - you need to give and receive it to survive.

Your strength: Your universal compassion

Your weakness: Your unpredictable mood swings

Your power color: Mauve

Your power symbol: Butterfly

Your power month: February

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Um, well, I'm not really intuitive and I don't make friends easily... The affection part is spot-on though.

What's that even supposed to mean?

2009-08-29T20:40:21Z

This article deconstructs the general paradigm of a romanticised hegemony/resistance dichotomy in the general literature on Chinese popular music scene.

Really? Well, good to know.

Weekend <333

2009-08-26T13:02:01Z

Yes yes I know it's Wednesday but I really wanna talk about my weekend because it was the most awesome thing ever!!!

Saturday first: Maanrock (Moonrock, a festival in my hometown)

... Actually, that was kinda boring.

Went with a friend, and we did have fun, but the guests weren't all that great, atmosphere wasn't great either and food and drinks were way overpriced. They'd opted for Belgian groups this year, only most Belgian groups just suck, and the one person I think they really should've invited didn't come. Blegh.

Soooo we just left town and went to see a movie ^^ Bag of chips, coke, nearly no one in the theater except for us and The Hangover. Awesome.

Getting back home was something else altogether, of course :/ There were buses, but there wasn't any indication about when or where they'd stop, when we finally figured out where we had to be, we had to pay €2 to make a 4km trip and there weren't enough buses to let everyone on. Dear transport: YOU SUCK

But hey, friends, movie, still cool xD

Now Sunday! Sunday was brilliant. Had a bit of a hectic noon, because we had to get friend back to the station first, but well, MIA CAME FROM BOLIVIA TO BELGIUM!!!

(More about Bolivia here and here)

Now Mia is... Well, there isn't a word yet that can describe how UTTERLY BRILLIANT Mia is. She's the strongest person I've ever met in my life and if anyone deserves sainthood it's Mia! She's 79, has been in Bolivia for over 50 years and she leads projects in a good twenty villages, all the while running an education center for women in the surrounding area! She has two shops in two 'nearby' towns: Potosí and Uyuni.

She runs this center in El Molino. Here's a pretty picture:

And this is Mia:

So Mia was in Belgium and oh my god I'm glad she was! It's not like I have the money to go back to Bolivia whenever I want, but I so wanted to see her again, and my aunt wanted to meet her! (I'm just really sad because my grandma had wanted to meet her too, so yeah...) Had a great afternoon with everyone who'd gone to Bolivia, spent some time catching up, and I was actually proud of myself, because I've changed a lot since (and partly because) Bolivia, and I'm so glad I could show Mia. She's my role model and one of the two people I strive to be like (the other being my grandma) If I'll ever be even half as strong and compassionate as Mia...

<3 Mia
<3 Bolivia
<3 THIS WEEKEND

GO HERE NOW

2009-08-19T18:22:24Z

The Yu-Gi-Oh Love Meme

spazzes

2009-08-07T18:35:52Z

London next week!!!

Swine flu aside, I'm really looking forward to it. (People who know London, where should I go to?). I'm also thinking about taking the train to either Cardiff or Bournemouth, but the train tickets are a bit too expensive for my liking, so I'm not yet sure about that.

But still: LONDON!

RL friends, or: How people get my family mixed up

2009-08-03T10:43:40Z

So yesterday I was discussing going to a movie with two of my friends. We live in different parts of the country, and for me and one of the other two, our university town was closest. The third, however, lives a lot farther away. So because there wouldn't be any trains for her to go back home after the movie, I propose she stays with us. Next there's mix-up of gigantic proportions.

H (me): Well, you can stay with us if you want to?
K (friend): Won't your grandma mind?
H: Sheeeeee's... Kinda dead.
K: How so? Her health's bad?
H: Grandma? You know? Died a month ago? June 30th?
K: OH! I meant your aunt.

On the one hand, well, it was funny. On the other hand, we've been friends for over two years, she's met both my aunt and my grandma, and she's been supporting me throughout the whole process, so I'm kinda miffed.

But it's a stupid thing to be annoyed about. And it's not like she's the first to mix them up. A lot of people even used to think they're the same person, mostly because I always spoke of grandmaandaunt (seemingly pronounced as one word. I didn't even know until someone called me out on it.)

On the other hand: This (Torchwood fans: spoilers for CoE) is just bad journalism.

Writer's Block: Birthday Shout-out

2009-07-31T21:45:43Z

Happy birthday, J.K. Rowling! Which of her seven Harry Potter novels do you think is the most satisfying read?

View 510 Answers

Prisoner of Azkaban has always been my favorite, since I first read it, and I still stand by it. Why? The lack of Voldemort, for one. As villains go, he's pretty great, but I did like the break. Also Sirius and Remus, and their connection to Harry's parents. They were both great parental figures, and it was nice to see a competent DADA teacher for once.

The Dementors were another factor. PoA makes it clear that things are getting worse, it's not mere child's play anymore (arguably it never was, but the danger always seemed limited to Harry & co. Dementors affect everyone). Harry's really starting to grow up here. There's the symbolism of his Nimbus 2000 being destroyed. I remember being quite shocked by that when I first read it.

Now if I had to pick the most satisfying moment in the books...

Neville. Snake. Fuck yes.

There used to be pictures... Only they messed up my coding big time

2009-07-19T23:05:33Z

I don't know if I mentioned it before, but there was a Torchwood Meet-up in Utrecht yesterday, and I figured: hey, why not?

So off I went. Took the train in Mechelen at 8:40 (the one we call 'den Amsterdammer', the train from Brussels to Amsterdam) and stayed on it till Rotterdam. In Rotterdam I had 10 minutes to change trains, seven of which I spent running around the station, because apparently drinking a liter of water on the train really makes you want to use a toilet. Got onto the next train with two minutes to spare and spent that trainride listening in on some Chinese people gossiping about foreign people. (I think they caught on I could understand them when they went 'Foreign people are ugly' and I went 'Hey!').

I arrived at Utrecht station around 11:30 and met up with the rest of the group almost immediately, thanks to the sign and the infamous 'Ianto Lives' T-shirt. All in all, we ended up with eight people. I was, as I'd expected, the only person from Belgium, but there were also people from Finland and Australia, so we were a pretty international bunch. We decided on English as Lingua Franca, which actually made it a lot easier to talk about all Torchwood-related stuff. It just doesn't work in Dutch.

Despite the forecasts, the weather actually behaved itself most of the time (meaning I didn't have to expose my trusty umbrella to the wind). We went to an Irish pub, where we spent most of the afternoon gossiping and fangirling about Torchwood (obviously), Doctor Who, Harry Potter (Yes, Remus died), Merlin and pretty much everything else there was to talk about. Had an absolutely brilliant time, though I suspect the pub people wanted us to get out after an hour or two ^^

Afterwards we went to a bookstore (which had quite a bit of English stuff but sadly no Torchwood books), a few CD stores and generally just spent some time wandering around, before heading back to the station, where we spent some more time gossiping in a pub. After a while some people had to catch their train. I stayed for a bit longer and went to find something to eat, but finally also went to catch the train because otherwise I'd only be home after ten and there wouldn't be any buses anymore. Passed by Schiphol, had some guy look at me really strangely and decided I liked Zaventem better than Schiphol after all, and spent another two hours on the train to Mechelen.

All in all, absolutely BRILLIANT, I had a great time and next time I'm definitely going to go again!

Also went to see the new HP movie today. I liked it overall, definitely much better build-up for the Harry/Ginny thing than in the books, and Luna was awesome, but I'm sad that they left out the final battle with the Death Eaters in Hogwarts. Now it was just: 'Kill Dumbledore and run!'

And judging by the final scene, someone on the writing staff REALLY hates Ron. Geez...

Writer's Block: Le Quatorze Juillet

2009-07-14T17:27:09Z

Happy Bastille Day! Today the French celebrate the event that sparked the French revolution. In honor of our Francophone friends, what is your favorite French thing? Bonus points for answers en français.

View 503 Answers

En français... D'accord! Ca fait quelque temps mais...

Ma chose favorite, ce sont les Francofolies. C'est un festival à Spa, une petite ville en Belgique. Chaque année, environ 21 juillet (la fête nationale de la Belgique), on a ce festival. On a des artistes, des petits shops où on peut acheter des bijoux, de la musique... (des chevaux). Bien sûr, les Francofolies ne sont pas Français, mais la Wallonie compte aussi, n'est-ce pas?

Sooo... More Merlijn pictures

2009-07-13T23:19:16Z

Torchwood: Children of Earth (spoilers, esp. for episodes 5 and 4)

2009-07-10T21:40:10Z

Um, wow... Just, wow. Writing was utterly brilliant, I think (except for Ianto, that was just Deus Angst Machina), but still... Jack, you utter bastard. Killing your own grandson, running away again... I know there's the Greater Good justification, but still...

I will write up a more coherent review when I'm not this shocked anymore, but for me, Torchwood ends here. With only Gwen, there's no Torchwood anymore.
That are just a few short thoughts of mine after watching.

Yup...

2009-07-09T17:03:20Z

BBC News: Cell phone scandal shows how far news world will go for a scoop.

... Am I the only one thinking this is a little bit ironic?

Oh hell

2009-07-03T15:49:38Z

So I passed my exams. Yay. Second year for me, apparently.

... I'm just sad that my grandma didn't get to hear it, she was so concerned about me failing again and now I can't even tell her that I passed.

Oh, and I also got a haircut. My hair's a lot shorter now.

Well...

2009-07-02T16:55:40Z

Okay, I'm returning. You guys have been absolutely awesome. (I'm too tired to thank everyone personally, but thanks to everyone who replied to my previous entry!). Things are still incredibly hectic here. Funeral is on Monday, and we still have so much stuff to do it isn't even funny (Not that it ever was, but hey.)

I think I'm coping. My aunt has it worse than me, she's exhausted but she wakes up at the slightest noise. My uncle's been brilliant, my mother... as always, better not to say too much about her. I'm planning to write something soon. It might show up here, depending on whether my brain decides on Dutch or English and if I deem it suitable to post. Anyway, expect philosophical ramblings on death.

You, guys, once again thanks for all the support, now and during the previous weeks. You've been absolutely awesome and I can't thank you enough <3

RIP
Maria Jacobs
1937-2009

For you know
Once even I was a little child
And I was afraid
But a gentle someone always came
To dry all my tears
Trade sweet sleep for fears
And to give a kiss goodnight

Well now I am grown
And these years have shown
The rain's a part of how life goes
But it's dark and it's late
So I'll hold you and wait
'Till your frightened eyes do close

Hiatus

2009-06-30T11:19:15Z

Grandma died. Will be on indefinite hiatus everywhere. Thanks to everyone for their support these last few days.