Movember!

What made me happy today? Movember!
I finally got around to taking my Movember picture. And for those of you wondering, yes I am a woman and no, I did not grow a moustache. Blame upper management at the company I work for :-)
At the start of November, an email was sent out by them stating that men and women could participate in Movember. They also asked to submit pictures at the end of the month. Now, I'm unable to grow a moustache and I don't own a fake one. But I do own eyeliner!
For those of you wondering what Movember is, I suggest you check this out. Basically, Movember's goal is to raise awareness for men's health.
And here's the picture!

What do you think of my moustache?

Webcomic Wednesday 4

What made me happy today? Webcomic Wednesday 4!
This time, it's lunarbaboon. Lunarbaboon is a cute comic, usually about the struggles of raising a child, married life and everything involved. The description says 'A half man/half moon monkey trying to make sense of it all.'
Lunarbaboon is the type of comic that will make you react differently to each new one. Some are touching, others make you laugh, others provide you with new insights or make you go 'huh'. There doesn't seem to be a fixed updating schedule for this one, but Facebook and Twitter will alert you to a new comic.
It's also one of those comics I love to check out when I'm feeling sad or down. It never fails to make me happy!

Up in the sky

What made me happy today? Up in the sky.
When I was driving home, the weather wasn't all that great. And I passed three, luckily all minor, accidents on my way home.
But the bad weather also had some advantages. It's just beautiful! The clouds chasing by in all their shades of grey. The leaves whirling around on the wind. But best of all was what was happening up in the sky.
About half-way home, the sun briefly broke through the clouds. That produced a wonderful full rainbow! Too bad I was driving and I couldn't take a picture.
And I made it home safe :-)

Milestones

What made me happy today? Milestones.
We all have milestones in our lives. You see most of them coming, like your birthday, the birth of a child, marriage, buying a house or a car, a vacation etc. But occasionally a milestone will sneak up on you.
That's what happened to me today. Last week, I was doing a site visit. Little did I know that it was a special one. Not because I got to stay at a fancy bed & breakfast.
As it turns out, it was my last visit of that type for the foreseeable future (hey, an alliteration, you can blame this for that!) . One of my managers sent me a mail pointing out that it was the last visit I did for that study. If you remember, I'm changing teams at work. So I'll still be visiting sites, but the type of visit is different. I hadn't even realized it until it snuck up on me.
Funny how life sneaks up on you sometimes. It feels strange, but I'm happy about it!

Kill la Kill

What made me happy today? Kill la Kill!
Kill la Kill is a new anime directed by Hiroyuki Imaishi and written by Kazuki Nakashima, both of whom had previously worked together on Gurren Lagann. The drawing and story-telling style of Kill la Kill really remind me of Gurren Lagann. And that's a great thing, because I love that one!
Ryuko Matoi is a 17 year old girl, arriving at a new school. As it turns out, this school is dominated by the student council. Ryuko Matoi decides to fight the student council's oppression with her half scissor sword, while trying to find the person who owns the other half.
In the first episode, Ryuko finds Senketsu. Senketsu looks like a sailor's uniform, but is a Godrobe which grants Ryuko amazing abilities in exchange for some of her blood. Hilarity, epic fighting and some fan service ensue.
Currently, 7 episodes have been aired of a total of 25. So there's still time to catch up :-)

300 + 9!

What made me happy today? 300 + 9!
No, not the movie. This is my 300th blog post! Wow, I can't believe how fast this is all going.
Also, I had quite a laugh today. I went to the Metalzone, and saw a CD that I wanted to buy. Sadly, it was sitting on a top shelf and I was too short to reach it. So I had to ask Wim, the owner of the store if he could please get the CD for me. Which, nice as he is, he did. So I jokingly suggested that he should add a little step to his store, after which he points to the one in the corner. Whoops. I didn't see that one. Oh well, better luck next time?
And now for the '9' part. There's a game going on FB. People are posting a certain number of facts about themselves. If you like this you will be given a number and then you can reveal that many facts about yourself. I got the number 9. So here goes:

1) I have a huge list of completely useless talents. For example: I can read a text that is upside down almost as fast as a text that isn't. Or I can slice a bread perfectly with just a knife.

2) I love books. Nothing will ever beat the smell of a new or old book. Yet I do possess a e-book reader, as I never could store the +1000 books I have on there in my apartment.

3) I cry really easily when watching a movie or reading a book. In real life, I've learned to contain my tears a bit more :-)

4) I am a huge Star Wars fan, but I also like Star Trek. And Star Gate. And Battlestar Galactica. And the list goes on. Yes, I am obsessed with space. I was a member of a youth astronomer's society for 7 years.

5) My hair has never been the same color for longer than 6 months since I was 15.

6) I have a brain-twin. Which is beyond cool! We tend to drive other people a little bit crazy, especially when we randomly start singing 'just keep swimming' at the same time. My brain-twin's BF exclaimed (in a slightly exasperated way) "There's two of you!" the first time I met him. Nuff said.

7) English is not my first language. It's also not my second language. It's my third. I learned French before English. Dutch is my mother tongue. I also speak German. I know a decent amount of Spanish, Italian and Swedish; and I'm trying to learn conversational Japanese.

8) I can curse in a lot more languages than the ones listed above. I'm usually a very mild-mannered person, but I can spew profanities at a rate that would make a sailor blush.

9) I make up stories about the people I see sitting around me when I'm eating somewhere or waiting for something. I do write short-stories but I never dare to put them out there, because I don't think they're any good. The same goes for my drawings.

Happy Saturday!

Collective Cadenza

What made me happy today? Collective Cadenza!
Never heard of them? Well, now you have! Collective Cadenza makes musical video experiments. Or videos that are entertaining and educational. Don't believe me? Check out their Youtube channel or their website.
I first came across them a few months, when my boyfriend sent me this video to cheer me up during a very hard day at work (yes, it's not all fancy cars and hotels ;-p).
In the mood for a party? It's Friday after all, so you might want to check out this video. Or are you in need of a laugh? Check out their collaboration with the Key of Awesome! Make sure to put all liquids down, or they may come out of your nose.
Happy Friday!

Happy! Or not?

What made me happy today? Being happy! Or not?
So, I could go on and gush about the bed and breakfast I'm staying at. I mean, look at the place!

And yes, I've tried out the jacuzzi :-)

Now, it's not something I usually do, but in this case I will interrupt the regular scheduled programming.
There's been a disaster. People in the Philippines are dead, dying or in desperate need of help. It's on the way, but it needs to get there fast. And you can help too. Donate to your local charities if you can. The links are in Dutch, but you can always check out how to donate to your local Red Cross, Medicines without Borders or other charities. If you can't donate, please help and spread the word. These people need our help, and they need it now. So please share this message and help spread the word.

More bubbles!

What made me happy today? More bubbles!
On Monday, I talked about how much I love taking long bubble baths. Well, I'm currently staying at a bed & breakfast for work, and my room has a jacuzzi! It's filling up as I write this. So you know what I'll be doing this evening :-)

Girl on fire!

What made me happy today? Girl on fire!
Yes, I was on fire today. Not literally, otherwise I wouldn't be writing this ;-)
I don't know how or why, but I was in an awesomely productive state. By the time it was 11 in the morning I had read 115 emails, responded to the ones that I needed to respond to, performed a training, written a report and two letters, gotten my flu shot and registered my car for GPS updates.
And this continued throughout the day. In the end, I wrote four letters and three reports, did a bunch of trainings and cleared my entire to-do list. For those of you wondering how much coffee I had: one cup. That was it.
I don't know how I'd gotten so productive today, but I'm pretty darn happy about it!
How was your day? I hope it was as great as mine!

Bubbles!

What made me happy today? Bubbles!
We're having a bank holiday today, it's Armistice day. It's cold outside, and I didn't want to go outside. So I figured this was the ideal day to get some chores done.
And to pamper myself! Time for a long bath with bubbles and a book, a scrub, face mask and all that pampering beauty stuff you can do at home. This is one of my favorite ways to recharge my batteries!
What's your favorite way to pamper yourself or spend a day off?

Stasis!

What made me happy today? Stasis!
Yesterday, my boyfriend and I went to visit some friends we hadn't seen in quite a while. Afterwards, when we were home, he turned on the computer, because there was something he wanted to show me.
That something turned out the be the 'Stasis' game's alpha demo. This is a playable demo for a new 2D isometric, point-and-click sci-fi horror adventure game.
The set-up? It's the distant future. Your character, John Maracheck, wakes up on the outside of a stasis pod. Breathing heavily (and creepy), dazed, confused, uncertain of where you are, you soon discover that you've been injured. Looking for help, all you see is malfunctioning equipment, smears of something on the walls and floors, dust and a lot of nothing. That's where the fun begins.
The game is played from an isometric fixed point of view. This gives you a great oversight of each level, but also obscures certain parts from view. And that adds to the anticipation. In horror games like this, where you can't always precisely see what's going on and can't swing the camera around to get a better view, it's the anticipation that'll get to you. Did something just move in that dark corner of the room? Did I just see something run by that open door? Throw in a creepy, dilapidated environment with static and eerie background noises (like a slightly cracking, slowed down tune from a music box) and green lights, you've got the right atmosphere.
The gameplay itself is pretty straight-forward, the graphics are nice and clean. I must add that the images sometimes appeared to be a bit halting, but the boyfriend didn't notice, so it might have been just me.
Fair warning, if you get scared easily, this is a demo you don't want to play alone in the dark right before you go to sleep. Leave some time for a Disney movie :-)
I do have to add that it turns out the boyfriend and I make a rather good adventure game team! *spoiler alert* He wasn't sure of how to proceed, so I put in my advice of having to cut of one dead guy's arm and put that on the scanner. Le viola.
Stasis is now on Kickstarter, so if you like the demo, back them! You've got 27 days :-)

Amoras 2047: Jerusalem

What made me happy today? Amoras 2047: Jerusalem.
On May 10th of this year, I wrote this blog about the new Suske and Wiske album Amoras 2047. Four days ago, Amoras 2047: Jerusalem (part two of the Amoras 2047 series) hit the shelves.
I was in the city today, so I decided to pick up a copy. I re-read the first part, and excitedly started reading the second part.
Wow. What can I say. I love it. If you remember, the first part ended with a major cliffhanger. Well, let's say that you find out pretty fast what happened there.
The comic takes place in the same dystopian future. The drawing style is the same, and the story is great. Sometimes it gets a bit confusing due to the time-travel element. But just stick with it, as the confusion usually resolves itself pretty fast.
Even though the comic had a grim, and gritty story, there's humor in there too. And I feel that it's kind of necessary to prevent the story from becoming too heavy. Yet it never feels like comic relief. It's just the way the characters are.
So stop by your local comic book store today, and grab a copy! It's worth it!

Fry-day glomps!

What made me happy today? Fry-day glomps!
It's Fry-day today, so I had fries for supper. Yes, I'm severely sleep deprived, so spelling Friday as Fry-day cracks me up. This is how my brain gets when I'm not getting enough sleep. It goes off to the odd side, and starts laughing at silly stuff, or stops being coherent. Any way, on with the actual happy part!
I was being a bit of a sad panda today, what with the not sleeping well and gloomy weather. So a friend of mine decided to glomp me.
She made me learn a new word! I had to go to duckduckgo to find out what 'glomp' means. The Urban Dictionary defines 'glomps' as: Not sexual, it is the action of one person lovingly (and dramatically) attacking another with a hug. A glomp is often predatory and lies somewhere in the grey area between a caring embrace, and a flying leap to tackle someone. The term is used extensively in anime culture, as well as online in text form (anime because many anime characters do this often, and online because it is short and descriptive).
I don't get how I'd never come across this word before, I watch a ton of anime. Although, maybe I don't watch the 'glomps' kind of anime. Who knows.
And who cares, because I had fries! Belgian fries are so good! And I learned a new word! Yaaaaay!


Okay, I obviously need to get more sleep. Stat.




Or coffee. Starbucks or koffie Onan sounds nice right about now.


EDIT: BF agrees, I'm sleep-deprived. Just because I sent him the 'what does the fox say' video.

Smoothie!

What made me happy today? Smoothie!
I made the best autumn-style smoothie ever today! It's very easy to make and super yummy!

What you need:

2 ripe bananas
2 cups vanilla kefir, or yoghurt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
12 ice cubes

How to make it:

Combine the kefir or yoghurt, bananas, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and ice cubes in a blender; blend until smooth. Serve immediately and enjoy!

When awesome strikes!

What made me happy today? When awesome strikes!
Today was a great day. So many awesome things happened! Here's the list:

- work was fun, I had a lot of laughs. The study nurse was bossing the professor around, while I was trying to keep a straight face.
- a friend of mine became a father of a healthy baby boy!
- today's Questionable Content manages to capture how I usually feel about wearing heels.
- a family member got great news about her beloved pet!
- today's Star Power is impossibly precise!
- awesome person is awesome
- you might not want to tick this one off
- and last but not least: remember the fault in our stars? I came across this awesome review today :-)
I hope your day was as awesome as mine!

K-On!

What made me happy today? K-On!
K-On! is an anime about 4 high-school girls who join their schools's light music club to save it from being disbanded. K-On is derived from keiongaku (軽音楽), which means light music in Japanese.
Yui, one of the four girls, can't even play an instrument or read sheet music. She joined the club because she liked playing castanets and eventually learns to play the guitar. The bassist is Mio, who's very shy and has stage-fright. The drummer is the energetic, scatter-brained Ritsu. Last but not least we have keyboardist Tsumugi (aka Mugi) who's sweet and kind, but who can also be very strict.
The show basically revolves around these four girls, Yui's sister Ui, club adviser and teacher Sawako. Later on in the first season the girls are joined by a 5th band-member, guitarist Azusa (Azu-nyan).
It's a fun, light-hearted show. The girls play songs like 'my love is a stapler', 'light and fluffy time' and 'calligraphy pen: ballpoint pen'. But if you think that these are airy poppy songs, you're wrong. They play rather rock-like music, and metal is featured rather prominently in several episodes. As it turns out (warning: spoiler!), the club adviser, Sawako, used to be a member of the light music club when she was going to high-school. She also used to be the lead guitar and singer of a speed metal band called 'Death Devil'.
K-On! is the type of show I like to watch on a dark, rainy day like today. Preferably in the company of a cupcake :-)















Or two ;-)

Cupcakes for charity!

What made me happy today? Cupcakes for charity!
We had a charity bake-sale at work today. Everyone who wanted could make a dessert and bring it to the office, where portions would be sold for charity. So I baked some cupcakes.
Okay, some is an understatement. I baked 5 different kinds.

Plain vanilla cupcakes:

Plain vanilla cupcakes with royal vanilla icing:

Cupcakes with chocolate:

Double chocolate cupcakes:

Double chocolate cupcakes with triple chocolate frosting:

Needless to say, I had a few treats today. The things I do for charity ;-)

The Stanley parable

What made me happy today? The Stanley parable.
Yesterday evening, my BF and I went out for dinner with his parents. Afterwards, we were talking about games. Suddenly, the BF takes my chair, drags me in front of his PC, put my hands on the mouse and keyboard and said 'Here, play this'.
This turned out to be a demo of a game called 'the Stanley parable'. Originally a Half Life mod, it's now a full game. The demo is the introduction to the game. But it's not your average demo. This one, as well as the full game, is different from anything I had ever played before. Different in a frustrating, but good and amusing way though!
Be warned, it's a very addictive game. Trust me. I got home last night, got the game on Steam and played for an hour. I've been playing it for the better part of today as well. I even asked my BF why he introduced me to this game.
There's a reason this game gets high review scores. The Stanley parable has a Metascore of 90, and I really recommend it!
However, it's hard to explain what the Stanley parable is about without spoiling it all. So I suggest you head on over to Steam and get the game. Add me while you're there! I'm Elentariel on Steam. You can thank me later for the awesome game.



Or yell at me because you're completely addicted ;-)

Games and beer!

What made me happy today? Games and beer!
I am one happy girl today! Yesterday evening, I met up with a friend to have a few beers. I usually don't drink beer, but the bar we went to has a nice selection of yummy fruit beers. So I decided to try a few of those. They were great! No worries, I didn't drive the battlestar home. I have a strict 'no drinking if I'm driving' policy. Good thing I live about a 20 minute walk away from the bar. I had a great time catching up with my friend!
Today is a very busy day. At the supermarket, I ran in to another friend, we had a nice chat while waiting in line at the cash register. Now, I'm dyeing my hair, while checking some game sales! Steam, Indie Royal and GOG are having Halloween sales :-D
Tonight will be fun as well, I'm going out for dinner with my BF and his parents! Have a great Saturday!

Hello battlestar!

What made me happy today? Hello battlestar!
About 2.5 months ago, I blogged about how I would be saying goodbye to my battlecruiser. Yesterday, the day had finally arrived! I took the battlecruiser (the Ford) for it's last drive to work. It felt kind of weird, because even though the car had it's flaws, it served me well.
But a little before 11 o'clock, I got a call from the reception. My new car had arrived! Eagerly, I dashed towards it. The first thing I noticed was that choosing a red one was a great idea! Good thing the man delivering my car took me through the basics of this car, because otherwise I would have been lost. So many buttons, thingamagicks and dudemabobs! No complaints about the service either, they delivered it right to the door of the office. And if I ever need to have maintenance or repairs done, I just have to call the garage. They'll pick it up at 10, and deliver it back at 4. Service much?
So I turned the keys to the battlecruiser over to the rental company. No teary goodbyes, but I'll always remember the battlecruiser fondly.
Time to get in to the battlestar, and put her in the parking lot. That's where I encountered a small issue. I couldn't figure out how to get the car in reverse for the life of me. After about 5 minutes of fiddling and messing with the clutch, I decided to call the garage. Turns out, you have to push the clutch down in order to get it in reverse. Boy, did I feel silly. Any way, embarrassment aside, off we were to the parking lot. Too bad it was only a 150m drive :-)
But driving home, I got to put the battlestar to the test a bit more. And let me tell you, that car is a smooth drive! She pulls up really well (one of my main complaints about the Ford). She handles the turns smoothly, and is very comfortable! The engine purrs like a little kitten :-)
The battlestar has little nooks and crannies for storing items, which is very convenient. Most certainly if you spend a lot of time in your car, like me. The trunk space is generous, I could easily fit in there. Of course, the battlecruiser had more trunk space, but I didn't need that. The pedals of the batllestar are arranged much better, the gears on the clutch are closely together, which makes for easy gear shifting. The placement of the hand brake is a bit odd, but in no way cumbersome.
I could go on and on about all the options and features, but I don't want to bore you to death ;-) Suffice it to say: I love my brand new red batllestar! I'm going to have a lot of (safe) fun driving her around! The Volvo V40 is an awesome car :-D