Mumbo jumbo

What made me happy today? A bunch of mumbo jumbo!
I had an off day today. Hey, they can't all be good ones. I had a terrible nightmare which woke me up, and after that I could not sleep any more. Work was hard as well, I spent most of my day alone in a room surrounded by binders and binders full of papers I had to check for inconsistencies.
But the great thing is that when I posted that I was having an off day on my FB and Twitter, people immediatly started to cheer me up. With a multitude of things!
- a video of nice Russians
- funny Pintrest pics
- genius ideas: the geek edition
- Good guy Greg
- sandwich art
- Space oddity
Of course the last one could not be left from this list! Those of you who know me well know what a space freak I am :-) I will admit that I'm going to miss Chris Hadfield's videos, photos and FaceBook / Twitter updates from space. They usually made my day every day. It's thanks to him I now know how to wash my hands and cut my nails in space, how to make a PB&H sandwich there and what happens when I wring out a wet washcloth. But I'll admit: I'm happy he made it back to Earth safely :-)

Cure

What made me happy today? Cure!
Not the band 'the Cure', although I like them a lot. No, I didn't find a cure for anything either. I'm talking about the 2010 book 'Cure' by Robin Cook.
I love to read. A lot. And this weekend I finally got around to finishing it!
Robin Cook, for those of you who never heard of him, writes what can best be described as medical thrillers. Although I have to say that in recent years, he's been moving away from the pure medical thriller. Which I can understand, as the medical field evolves quite rapidly, and that gives his books a rather big chance of becoming outdated. Especially when being read by someone working in the medical field. But that does not mean his boks are bad in any way! Even the old ones are great to read.
Cure is a very good book. It takes a while for the story to get going, but the end is well worth it. A real page-turner too! No spoilers, grab a copy at your local bookstore or library and see (read) for yourself!

Mom

What made me happy today? Mom!
It's mother's day today!
Moms. Is there anything they can't do? Mine seems to do it all. She's always been there for me and my sister, good times or bad. Yes, we have our differences but everyone does. Otherwise life would be pretty boring. I know I'm very lucky to have the mom I have :-)
So to all the moms out there: this is your day. You've earned it, so enjoy it!
And the rest of you I wish a nice Sunday! Don't forget to call your mom ;-)

This is water

What made me happy today? This is water.
No, this is in no way related to the earlier FB / twitter update about it raining. 'This is water' is actually David Foster Wallace's 2005 Kenyon commencement speech.
Just listen to it, you'll see why this is my happy for today :-)
Short post today, I know, but I have social obligations the rest of the day :-)

Amoras 2047

<b>What made me happy today? </b>Amoras 2047!
A while ago I came across a mysterious image on my Facebook newsfeed. Upon closer investigation I found out that this was the site for the new 'Suske and Wiske' comic, or 'Spike and Suzy' as they're called in English.
Bits and pieces of information came, along with some intriguing YouTube clips.
I grew up with Suske and Wiske, so I was very exited to find out there'd be a grown-up version coming soon.
And yesterday the moment finally arrived, Amoras 2047 hit the stores. Today I went and got my paper copy (it's also available for iPod and iPad) and almost immediately started reading it.
Wow. Suske and Wiske grew up. A lot. For those of you expecting the same old comics you grew up with: nope. It's nothing like the old ones. Yes, the characters are all there, but that's it. The tone is much grittier, there's violence and curse-words. The drawing style is completely different.
The downside of comics like this is that there's so few pages. A fast reader, like me, finishes this one in no time.
But I love this new style, and the comic! Too bad the damn thing ends with a major cliffhanger. Now I have to wait for the next part... And there'll be a total of 6 comics in this series. Can't wait!

Bank holiday

What made me happy today? Having a perfect day off!
Today's a Bank holiday in Belgium, which means no work! Having a day off during the week is always nice, but it's even nicer when you can have fun :-)
Last night I went to the BF, who cooked dinner for me. Nothing fancy, but still very tasty pasta with cheese sauce. After that we watched Laputa: castle in the sky, another must-see anime movie from Studio Ghibli. This 1986 movie is directed by Hayao Miyazaki, who made a ton of amazing anime and manga.
I woke up pretty early this morning, I'm not always a great sleeper and decided to finally start reading Philip K. Dick's 'the man in the high castle'. It's a shame I never got around to reading this sooner, as this 1962 book is a classic. It portrays a world in which Germany defeated Russia and Japan defeated the USA in the second World War. I got half-way through before it was time to get some chores done. Ah, the joys of adult life ;-)
And to finish off this day I'm going to have my new favorite food for dinner, followed by some episodes of Castle.
Hope your day was as great as mine!

Lunch-time!

What made me happy today? Lunch!
I usually never take a lunch-break. A bad habit, I know, but I usually like to finish my work in one go. Which means that I'm eating my soup / salad / sandwich / whatever I'm having for lunch at my desk.
Remember when I told you all about making a new friend? Well, as it turns out he doesn't work that far from my office, so today we decided to get some lunch together.
Wow, that was fun! A nice change of pace, no work bugging me between the bites of my vegetarian penne and just some asy flowing conversation with a lot of laughs!
I should do this more often :-)